Recent advances in biotechnology have enabled the development and large scale production of protein therapeutics, thereby providing new treatments for numerous diseases. However, oral delivery of biologics remains a challenge as macromolecules are poorly absorbed and rapidly degraded in the gastrointestinal tract. Several strategies have been studied to improve bioavailability, but to date, no safe, efficient and clinically relevant delivery system has been discovered. Here, the reprogramming of bacterial toxins for therapeutic purposes was investigated. Following cellular uptake, Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (PE) and Vibrio cholerae cholix toxin (Cho) escape lysosomal degradation and are capable of both trafficking to the cytosol of non-polarised (NP) cells and undergoing transcytosis across polarised cells. This project aimed to investigate the trafficking routes exploited by these toxins to determine how they avoid degradation, and define their potential as vehicles for oral protein delivery. The nature of the conformational change experienced by PE in acidic conditions was first investigated. It was shown that this transition consists of a subtle alteration in the protein's structure which does not affect its overall size, but results in the exposure of additional trypsin cleavage sites and hydrophobic residues. It was concluded that the transition is involved in the protein's escape from lysosomal degradation and was most likely caused by the protonation of two histidine residues when the pH was lowered, resulting in the formation of additional salt bridges and thus different structural constraints. The interaction between PE and monosialoganglioside GM1 was also examined to determine whether it could act as a secondary receptor for PE. High-affinity binding was established in both acidic and physiological conditions, and interaction with GM1 was shown to be required for efficient protein internalisation by NP cells. These findings were concluded to be in agreement with GM1 acting as a secondary receptor for PE, leading the toxin away from lysosomal degradation following conformational change. The potential of PE as a vehicle for delivery of biologics was studied using several versions of the toxin connected to a cargo protein. Results showed that a truncated version of PE is capable of carrying a cargo protein (green fluorescent protein, human growth hormone) inside NP cells in vitro and across polarised epithelium in vivo. These data strongly support the idea that PE has the potential to be used as a vehicle for oral delivery of biologics. Similarly, these studies were also carried out on cholix to assess its ability to act as a drug carrier. Cholix was shown to undergo a conformational change similar to that experienced by PE. It was also demonstrated that an interaction with GM1 occurred, although in this case, increased binding appeared to result in decreased internalisation by NP cells. Finally, full-length and truncated cholix could transport a payload inside NP cells in vitro and across polarised epithelial cells in vivo. These results confirm that cholix could also represent a powerful tool for oral administration of macromolecular drugs.


Background: To our knowledge, there are no previous reports that assessed the association between dietary patterns and risk of dementia in Asian populations. Objective: We investigated dietary patterns and their potential association with risk of incident dementia in a general Japanese population. Design: A total of 1006 community-dwelling Japanese subjects without dementia, aged 60–79 y, were followed up for a median of 15 y. The reduced rank regression procedure was used to efficiently determine their dietary patterns. Estimated risk conferred by a particular dietary pattern on the development of dementia was computed by using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Seven dietary patterns were extracted; of these, dietary pattern 1 was correlated with high intakes of soybeans and soybean products, vegetables, algae, and milk and dairy products and a low intake of rice. During the follow-up, 271 subjects developed allcause dementia. Of these individuals, 144 subjects had Alzheimer disease (AD), and 88 subjects had vascular dementia (VaD). After adjustment for potential confounders, risks of development of allcause dementia, AD, and VaD were reduced by 0.66 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.95), 0.65 (95% CI: 0.40, 1.06), and 0.45 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.91), respectively, in subjects in the highest quartile of score for dietary pattern 1 compared with subjects in the lowest quartile. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a higher adherence to a dietary pattern characterized by a high intake of soybeans and soybean products, vegetables, algae, and milk and dairy products and a low intake of rice is associated with reduced risk of dementia in the general Japanese population. Am J Clin Nutr 2013;97:1076–82.


Faecal sludge management is recognized globally as an essential component of city-wide inclusive sanitation. However, a major gap in developing appropriate and adequate management and monitoring for faecal sludge is the ability to understand and predict the characteristics and volumes of accumulated faecal sludge, and correlations to source populations. Since standard methods for sampling and analysing faecal sludge do not currently exist, results are not comparable, the actual variability is not yet fully understood, and the transfer of knowledge and data between different regions and institutions can be challenging and often arbitrary. Due to this lack of standard analytical methods for faecal sludge, methods from other fields, such as wastewater management, and soil and food science are frequently applied. However, these methods are not necessarily the most suitable for faecal sludge analysis, and have not been specifically adapted for this purpose. Characteristics of faecal sludge can be different than these other matrices by orders of magnitude. There is also a lack of standard methods for sampling, which is complicated by the difficult nature of in situ sampling, the wide range of onsite sanitation technologies and potential sampling locations, and the diverse heterogeneity of faecal sludge within onsite containments and within cities. This illustrates the urgent need to establish common methods and procedures for faecal sludge characterisation, quantification, sampling, and modelling. The aim of this book is to provide a basis for standardised methods for the analysis of faecal sludge from onsite sanitation technologies, for improved communication between sanitation practitioners, and for greater confidence in the generated data. The book presents background information on types of faecal sludge, methods for sample collection, health and safety procedures for handling, case studies of experimental design, an approach for estimating faecal sludge at community to city-wide scales, modelling containment and treatment processes, recipes for simulants, and laboratory methods for faecal sludge analysis currently in use by faecal sludge laboratories. This book will be beneficial for researchers, laboratory technicians, academics, students and sanitation practitioners.
 ISBN13: 9781780409115
 eISBN: 9781780409122


This thesis analyzes the current transport situation of Arlanda Airport and the two main cities that Arlanda is located between, Stockholm and Uppsala. The purpose of the thesis is to study the efficiency of the different transport alternatives and also to relate it with their current market shares.Besides, in order to do a deeper analysis of Arlanda Airport connectivity some of the busiest airports transport links have been analyzed in terms of availability of different transport alternatives, distance to the city centers and market shares.Because of the high number of cars that currently go to Arlanda, there is a need to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. To this end, a prediction of the demand in ten years has been carried out to see what improvements have to be done to make Arlanda a more environmentally friendly airport. The methodology used in order to forecast the demand has been based on a survey conducted at a single point to regular users of the public transportation system.The improvement of the connectivity of Arlanda Airport via public transport alternatives will not only affect the distribution of the current market shares, but also represents a key strategy for pursuing Arlanda's leadership in achieving environmental goals.


The report provides an update on the role of the tick vectors in the epidemiology of African swine fever (ASF) and Crimean and Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Eurasia, specifically to review of the geographical distribution of the relevant ticks with presentation of maps of their occurrence in Europe and Mediterranean basin; a description of the factors that define the relevant tick population dynamics and identify possible high risk areas in the EU; an update on the role of tick vectors associated with CCHF and ASF in Eurasia; and reviews available methods for the control of the relevant tick vectors. Data were collected through systematic literature review in a database from which maps of geographic distribution of ticks, CCHF virus and ASF virus were issued. The main vectors for CCHF are Hyalomma spp, Increase in the number of fragmented areas and the degradation of agricultural lands to bush lands are the two main factors in the creation of new foci of CCHF in endemic areas. Movement of livestock and wildlife species, which may carry infected ticks, contributes to the spread of the infection. The Middle East and Balkan countries are the most likely sources of introduction of CCHFV into other European countries. All the Ornithodoros species investigated so far can become infective with ASF virus and are perhaps biological vectors. These ticks are important in maintaining the local foci of the ASFV, but do not play an active role in the geographical spread of the virus. Wild boars have never been found infested by Ornithodoros spp. because wild boars normally do not rest inside protected burrows, but above the ground. There is no single ideal solution to the control of ticks relevant for CCHF or ASF. The integrated control approach is probably the most effective.


Open educational resources (OER) are increasingly regarded as an important part of the global educational landscape. Asian countries are very much involved in the OER movement, with India, China and Pakistan standing out for the quantity of OER each country has published (Dhanarajan & Porter, 2013). Arguably, OER offer particular benefits for the learners of Asia - a continent which has ?the largest number of ultra-poor people in the world? (Dhanarajan & Porter, 2013, p. vii). One area in which OER have the potential to make a dramatic and extensive impact in Asia is within the field of teacher education, where the insufficient supply of teachers, a limited capacity for teacher training, disparities in pupil-teacher ratios, the large numbers of unqualified teachers, and inadequate continuing professional development (Commonwealth of Learning, 2013) are resulting in inadequate access to education and poor standards of learning for those already in the education system.

The challenges above are all present in India, where there is an estimated 1.33 million shortfall in teachers and many existing teachers are unqualified. Indeed, India?s Annual Status of Education (ASER) 2012 report identified ?an alarming degeneration? (ASER 2012, p. 1) in educational standards in Indian primary schools and a ?national crisis in learning? (p. 2). This paper presents research by the UK Open University?s OER Research Hub (www.oerresearchhub.org) (OERRH) on the impact of OER on teacher education and learning standards achieved by two India-based projects: TESS-India and Karnataka OER. TESS-India (Teacher Education in School Sector India) is informed by its sister project TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) (Wolfenden, 2008) and like that project TESS-India aims to use OER to reduce pressure on teacher education institutions, enabling them to deliver quality teacher training, at scale and speed. The TESS-India project will eventually work in partnership with education institutions across seven Indian states to create the biggest network of freely available, high quality, teacher education resources in India. Karnataka OER is more advanced in its development than TESS-India and comprises a wiki-based repository of OER intended to support the professional development and improved practice of practising teachers. The Karnataka OER wiki is built by a community of educators who are engaged in the continuous creation, review, curation and publishing of digital curricular resources.

A mixed methods strategy is being employed to explore the impact of OER on teacher education within these two projects. To date, an initial scoping study focused on teacher education practices in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has gathered evidence of existing resource use through interviews with teacher-educators and with Principals of the District Institutes for Education and Training (DIETs), and evidence of existing teacher-education practice via lesson observations. It is planned that the research will be extended over the coming months to include surveys, interviews and lesson observations with OER-using teachers and teacher educators across India. At Open Ed we will report the findings from the Karnataka OER and TESS-India studies and discuss the implications for Commonwealth countries across the globe


With the devastation wrought by the 2008 'property market bubble' still fresh in the mind on one hand, and a spate of recent enthusiasm manifested in the 'rush to the property ladder' on the other, the newly enacted Directive 2014/17 seeks to strike a middle ground of reasonableness in the delicate and sensitive matter of the security granted by the buyer of a residential property.Against this background, the present contribution analyses, first and foremost, the norms of a regulatory nature introduced by the new EU piece of legislation and the attempt to shape a new category of consumer. Among these precepts, attention is particularly afforded to the principle, of a public nature, prescribing that the bank's assessment to grant a mortgage shall be prevailingly based on the ability of the mortgagor to repay the debt, rather than on the expected (but undemonstrated) burgeoning future value of the property.Furthermore, the discussion focuses on the private law principles introduced by the Directive. Among these is the onus lying on the bank to provide adequate information about the terms and conditions of the mortgage. More interestingly, the directive at stake derogates from, and goes beyond, the notion of prohibition of 'agreement of forfeiture' existing in some civil law jurisdictions. This novelty, the ancillary legal provisions of art 28 of Directive 2014/17 as well as their impact on the system of civil proceedings and foreclosure existing in each country, provide fertile ground for a legal and comparative analysis.Finally, the European Business Law Review is a law journal which is published by Kluwer. The prestige of the journal is confirmed by the fact that its publications and its authors appear in the most important legal data base in the Commonwealth, WestLaw.


Background Sedentary behaviour (sitting) is a highly prevalent negative health behaviour, with individuals of all ages exposed to environments that promote prolonged sitting. The school classroom represents an ideal setting for environmental change through the provision of sit–stand desks. Objectives The aim of this study was to undertake a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial of the introduction of sit–stand desks in primary school classrooms, to inform a definitive trial. Objectives included providing information on school and participant recruitment and retention, acceptability of the intervention, and outcome measures. A preliminary estimate of the intervention's effectiveness on the proposed primary outcome (change in weekday sitting time) for inclusion in a definitive trial was calculated, along with a preliminary assessment of potential cost-effectiveness. A full process evaluation was also undertaken. Design A two-armed pilot cluster randomised controlled trial with economic and qualitative evaluations. Schools were randomised on a 1 : 1 basis to the intervention (n = 4) or control (n = 4) trial arms. Setting Primary schools in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. Participants Children in Year 5 (i.e. aged 9–10 years). Intervention Six sit–stand desks replaced three standard desks (sitting six children) in the intervention classrooms for 4.5 months. Teachers were encouraged to ensure that all pupils were exposed to the sit–stand desks for at least 1 hour per day, on average, using a rotation system. Schools assigned to the control arm continued with their usual practice. Main outcome measures Trial feasibility outcomes included school and participant recruitment and attrition, acceptability of the intervention, and acceptability of and compliance with the proposed outcome measures [including weekday sitting measured using activPAL™ (PAL Technologies Ltd, Glasgow, UK) accelerometers, physical activity, adiposity, blood pressure, cognitive function, musculoskeletal comfort, academic progress, engagement and behaviour]. Results Thirty-three per cent of schools approached and 75% (n = 176) of eligible children took part. At the 7-month follow-up, retention rates were 100% for schools and 97% for children. Outcome measure completion rates ranged from 63% to 97%. A preliminary estimate of intervention effectiveness, from a weighted linear regression model (adjusting for baseline sitting time and wear time) revealed a mean difference in change in sitting of –30.6 minutes per day (95% confidence interval –56.42 to –4.84 minutes per day) between the intervention and control trial arms. The process evaluation revealed that the intervention, recruitment and evaluation procedures were acceptable to teachers and children, with the exception of minor issues around activPAL attachment. A preliminary within-trial economic analysis revealed no difference between intervention and control trial arms in health and education resource use or outcomes. Long-term modelling estimated an unadjusted incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of Stand Out in Class of £78,986 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. Conclusion This study has provided evidence of the acceptability and feasibility of the Stand Out in Class intervention and evaluation methods. Preliminary evidence suggests that the intervention may have a positive direction of effect on weekday sitting time, which warrants testing in a full cluster randomised controlled trial. Lessons learnt from this trial will inform the planning of a definitive trial. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN12915848. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 8, No. 8. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.


We use a sample of 37 of the densest clusters and protoclusters across 1.3 ≤ z ≤ 3.2 from the Clusters Around Radio-Loud AGN (CARLA) survey to study the formation of massive cluster galaxies. We use optical i′-band and infrared 3.6 and 4.5 μm images to statistically select sources within these protoclusters and measure their median observed colours; 〈i′ − [3.6]〉. We find the abundance of massive galaxies within the protoclusters increases with decreasing redshift, suggesting these objects may form an evolutionary sequence, with the lower redshift clusters in the sample having similar properties to the descendants of the high-redshift protoclusters. We find that the protocluster galaxies have an approximately unevolving observed-frame i′ − [3.6] colour across the examined redshift range. We compare the evolution of the 〈i′ − [3.6]〉 colour of massive cluster galaxies with simplistic galaxy formation models. Taking the full cluster population into account, we show that the formation of stars within the majority of massive cluster galaxies occurs over at least 2 Gyr, and peaks at z ∼ 2–3. From the median i′ − [3.6] colours, we cannot determine the star formation histories of individual galaxies, but their star formation must have been rapidly terminated to produce the observed red colours. Finally, we show that massive galaxies at z > 2 must have assembled within 0.5 Gyr of them forming a significant fraction of their stars. This means that few massive galaxies in z > 2 protoclusters could have formed via dry mergers.


This paper analyzes six waves of responses from the World Values Survey to understand the determinants of beliefs about women's roles in society and their relationship with the legal system and outcomes. Using survey data for 300,000 individuals, we find that characteristics of an individual's home country only explain about a fifth of the variation in values, and a single individual can report strongly different norms about women's equality across different domains. There is a strong correlation between norms, laws and female labor force participation and between norms and the proportion of legislators who are women—but not between norms and relative female tertiary education. There is some suggestive evidence that laws may be more significant than norms in determining female employment outcomes, but the available evidence does not allow for strong causal statements at the cross-country level.


In-memory databases rely on pointer-intensive data structures to quickly locate data in memory. A single lookup operation in such data structures often exhibits long-latency memory stalls due to dependent pointer dereferences. Hiding the memory latency by launching additional memory accesses for other lookups is an effective way of improving performance of pointer-chasing codes (e.g., hash table probes, tree traversals). The ability to exploit such inter-lookup parallelism is beyond the reach of modern out-of-order cores due to the limited size of their instruction window. Instead, recent work has proposed software prefetching techniques that exploit inter-lookup parallelism by arranging a set of independent lookups into a group or a pipeline, and navigate their respective pointer chains in a synchronized fashion. While these techniques work well for highly regular access patterns, they break down in the face of irregularity across lookups. Such irregularity includes variable-length pointer chains, early exit, and read/write dependencies.

This work introduces Asynchronous Memory Access Chaining (AMAC), a new approach for exploiting inter-lookup parallelism to hide the memory access latency. AMAC achieves high dynamism in dealing with irregularity across lookups by maintaining the state of each lookup separately from that of other lookups. This feature enables AMAC to initiate a new lookup as soon as any of the in-flight lookups complete. In contrast, the static arrangement of lookups into a group or pipeline in existing techniques precludes such adaptivity. Our results show that AMAC matches or outperforms state-of-the-art prefetching techniques on regular access patterns, while delivering up to 2.3x higher performance under irregular data structure lookups. AMAC fully utilizes the available microarchitectural resources, generating the maximum number of memory accesses allowed by hardware in both single- and multi-threaded execution modes.


DNA polymerase delta from calf thymus was purified under conditions that minimized proteolysis to a specific activity of 27,000 units/mg. The four step isolation procedure included phosphocellulose, hydroxyapatite, heparin-Sepharose and FPLC-MonoS. This enzyme consists of four polypeptides with Mr of 140, 125, 48 and 40 kilodaltons. Velocity gradient sedimentation in glycerol removed the 48 kDa polypeptide while the other three sedimented with the DNA polymerase activity. The biochemical properties of the three subunit enzyme and the copurification of 3'----5' exonuclease activity were typical for a bona fide DNA polymerase delta. Tryptic peptide analysis showed that the 140 kDa polypeptide was different from the catalytic 180 kDa polypeptide of calf thymus DNA polymerase alpha. Both high Mr polypeptides (140 and 125 kDa) were catalytically active as analysed in an activity gel. Four templates were used by DNA polymerase delta with different preferences, namely poly(dA)/oligo(dT)12-18 much much greater than activated DNA greater than poly(dA-dT) greater than primed single-stranded M13DNA. Calf thymus proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) could not stimulated this DNA polymerase delta in any step of the isolation procedure. If tested on poly(dA)/oligo(dT)12-18 (base ratio 10:1), PCNA had no stimulatory effect on DNA polymerase delta when tested with low enzyme DNA ratio nor did it change the kinetic behaviour of the enzyme. DNA polymerase delta itself did not contain PCNA. The enzyme had an intrinsic processivity of several thousand bases, when tested either on the homopolymer poly(dA)/oligo(dT)12-18 (base ratio 64:1) or on primed single-stranded M13DNA. Contrary to DNA polymerase alpha, no pausing sites were seen with DNA polymerase delta. Under optimal in vitro replication conditions the enzyme could convert primed single-stranded circular M13 DNA of 7,200 bases to its double-stranded form in less than 10 min. This supports that a PCNA independent DNA polymerase delta exists in calf thymus in addition to a PCNA dependent enzyme (Lee, M.Y.W.T. et al. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 1906-1913).


Successful modern manufacturing organizations require support from both effective
and efficient maintenance works. One of the approaches for improving the
performance of both production and maintenance is by developing and
implementing a Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) strategy. The main objectives
for this study is to develop a production planning and control (PPC) software in a
TPM environment for a manufacturing company and improve the overall
production planning and control system from manual recording to computer aided
recording which includes some planning features such as Master Production
Scheduling (MPS), monthly capacity planning, operation scheduling and other
requirements.
A TPM based software program has been developed to ease the process of
production planning and control in TPM environment by executing sequential
methodology such as problem identification, literature review, problem formulation, data coliection, company operation review, flow chart system and
program algorithm before test run in the company. This program has been created
in Window format and encoded using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. This software
was tailored design based on the present operation at Earntrade Industries which
practise Earliest Due Date (EDD) and Short Processing Time (SPT) performance
measures.
This software has been evaluated at Earntrade Industries for a period of two months
to test the overall performance of the application software relevant to the project
goal. The system which change from manual to computer aided recording manage
to decrease the handling time from manual to computer aided recording by 89.22 %
and avoid 100% unwanted human error.


ABSTRACT Interest in the relationships between soil microbial communities and ecosystem functions is growing with increasing recognition of the key roles microorganisms play in a variety of ecosystems. With a wealth of microbial methods now available, selecting the most appropriate method can be daunting, especially to those new to the field of microbial ecology. In this review, we highlight those methods currently used and most applicable to ecological studies, including assays to study various aspects of the carbon and nitrogen cycles (e.g., pool dilution, acetylene reduction, enzyme analyses, among others), methods to assess microbial community composition (e.g., phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA), denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (TRFLP), quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)) and methods to directly link community structure to function (e.g., stable isotope probing (SIP)). In our discussion of these methods, we describe the information each method provides, as well as some of their strengths and weaknesses. Using a case study, we illustrate how these methods can be applied to investigate relationships between microbial communities and the processes they perform in wetland ecosystems. We end our discussion with a series of questions to consider prior to designing experiments, in the hope that these questions will help guide ecologists in selecting the most appropriate method(s) for their research.


The explanation of the generally low standard test achievements which African individuals get, urge the study of cognitive functioning in psychometric tasks, taking into account the inevitable cultural inflexion of that cognitive functioning. The use of the expression 'cultural inflexion of cognitive functioning"" instead of ""cultural bias"" is first accounted for and then the study itself which deals with an inductive reasoning test, the KR26, is introduced. Two samples of Congolese subjects, contrasted by means of instruction level are compared in that study. The method is based on item behaviour analysis in examining the kinds of errors. This analysis completes the one which is applied to total achievements (by means of the study of correlations and the variance analysis). The results actually show that the most obvious sources of variation of the performances to the KR26 test are culturally interpretable. Other aspects of item behaviour stress on the effect of familiarity to the test material such as the dominoes, and some critical aspects which seem to characterize the cognitive functioning of individuals from Congolese culture: the adaptation to evolutive situations and the use of mental rotation processes.


The Internet-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia has grown to become one of the most visited Web sites on the Internet, but critics have questioned the quality of entries. An empirical study of Wikipedia found errors in a 2005 sample of science entries. Biased coverage and lack of sources are among the "Wikipedia risks." This paper describes a simple assessment of these aspects by examining the outbound links from Wikipedia articles to articles in scientific journals with a comparison against journal statistics from Journal Citation Reports such as impact factors. The results show an increasing use of structured citation markup and good agreement with citation patterns seen in the scientific literature though with a slight tendency to cite articles in high-impact journals such as Nature and Science. These results increase confidence in Wikipedia as a reliable information resource for science in general.


Intracavity measurements of degenerate four-wave mixing have been performed with femtosecond laser pulses to determine the phase relaxation time of the absorbing dye, diethyloxadicarbocyanine iodide (DODCI), in ethylene glycol. The influence of various broadening mechanisms (homogeneous, inhomogeneous, cross relaxation) and pulse parameters (frequency, pulse shape, phase modulation, and energy) is investigated. The dependence of the signal energy on probe delay is found to be strongly affected by the phase modulation of the pulse; hence determination of the phase relaxation time requires accurate diagnostics of the laser source. The rise of the signal provides an upper limit of 10 fsec for the phase relaxation time of the main absorption band of the dye DODCI. The decay of the signal is found to be related to the phase relaxation time of a two-photon absorption in the same dye. Accurate fitting of the data with the theory yields 50 ± 10 fsec for the dephasing time of the two-photon excitation in DODCI.


This paper is a corrected version of that printed in IEEE Trans. Broadcast., vol.52, no3, p.325-35, 2006 September. Space-frequency coded (SFC) and channel coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (COFDM) are considered under narrow-band interference (NBI). Analytical expressions for the bit error probability (BEP) are derived for OFDM with SFC in a frequency-selective fading environment. It is shown that SFC increases the resistance of COFDM against the NBI and reduces the BEP considerably. Specific attention is paid to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB), and the associated coding gains are discussed


Background: The microscopic composition and properties of infinite hadronic matter at a wide range of densities and temperatures have been subjects of intense investigation for decades. The equation of state (EoS) relating pressure, energy density, and temperature at a given particle number density is essential for modeling compact astrophysical objects such as neutron stars, core-collapse supernovae, and related phenomena, including the creation of chemical elements in the universe. The EoS depends not only on the particles present in the matter, but, more importantly, also on the forces acting among them. Because a realistic and quantitative description of infinite hadronic matter and nuclei from first principles in not available at present, a large variety of phenomenological models has been developed in the past several decades, but the scarcity of experimental and observational data does not allow a unique determination of the adjustable parameters.Purpose: It is essential for further development of the field to determine the most realistic parameter sets and to use them consistently. Recently, a set of constraints on properties of nuclear matter was formed and the performance of 240 nonrelativistic Skyrme parametrizations was assessed [M. Dutra et al., Phys. Rev. C 85, 035201 (2012)] in describing nuclear matter up to about three times nuclear saturation density. In the present work we examine 263 relativistic-mean-field (RMF) models in a comparable approach. These models have been widely used because of several important aspects not always present in nonrelativistic models, such as intrinsic Lorentz covariance, automatic inclusion of spin, appropriate saturation mechanism for nuclear matter, causality, and, therefore, no problems related to superluminal speed of sound in medium.Method: Three different sets of constraints related to symmetric nuclear matter, pure neutron matter, symmetry energy, and its derivatives were used. The first set (SET1) was the same as used in assessing the Skyrme parametrizations. The second and third sets (SET2a and SET2b) were more suitable for analysis of RMF and included, up-to-date theoretical, experimental and empirical information.Results: The sets of updated constraints (SET2a and SET2b) differed somewhat in the level of restriction but still yielded only 4 and 3 approved RMF models, respectively. A similarly small number of approved Skyrme parametrizations were found in the previous study with Skyrme models. An interesting feature of our analysis has been that the results change dramatically if the constraint on the volume part of the isospin incompressibility $({K}_{\ensuremath{\tau},\mathrm{v}})$ is eliminated. In this case, we have 35 approved models in SET2a and 30 in SET2b.Conclusions: Our work provides a new insight into application of RMF models to properties of nuclear matter and brings into focus their problematic proliferation. The assessment performed in this work should be used in future applications of RMF models. Moreover, the most extensive set of refined constraints (including nuclear matter and finite-nuclei-related properties) should be used in future determinations of new parameter sets to provide models that can be used with more confidence in a wide range of applications. Pointing to reasons for the many failures, even of the frequently used models, should lead to their improvement and to the identification of possible missing physics not included in present energy density functionals.


CCIE Routing and Switching v4.0 Configuration Practice Labs presents you with three full configuration lab scenarios in exam style format to echo the real CCIE Routing and Switching v4.0 lab exam. This publication gives you the opportunity to put into practice your own extensive theoretical knowledge of subjects to find out how they interact with each other on a larger complex scale. An "Ask the Proctor" section list of questions for each section helps provide clarity and maintain direction to ensure that you do not give up and check the answers directly if you find a task too challenging. After each lab, this eBook lets you compare configurations and routing tables with the required answers. You also can run through a lab de-brief, view configurations, and cut and paste configs into your own lab equipment for testing and verification. The point scoring for each question lets you know whether you passed or failed each lab. This extensive set of practice labs that sell for hundreds of dollars elsewhere helps you make sure you are fully prepared for the grueling CCIE lab exam experience.


We document a new fact: in U.S., European and Japanese surveys, households do not expect deflation, even in environments where persistent deflation is a strong possibility. This fact stands in contrast to the standard macroeconomic models with rational expectations. We extend a standard New Keynesian model with a zero-lower bound on inflation expectations. Unconventional monetary policies, such as forward guidance, are weaker. In liquidity traps, the government spending output multiplier is finite, and adverse aggregate supply shocks are not expansionary. The possibility of confidence-driven liquidity traps is attenuated.


Many applications require low-latency key-value storage, a requirement that is typically satisfied using key-value stores backed by DRAM. Recently, however, storage devices built on novel NVM technologies offer unprecedented performance compared to conventional SSDs. A key-value store that could deliver the performance of these devices would offer many opportunities to accelerate applications and reduce costs. Nevertheless, existing key-value stores, built for slower SSDs or HDDs, cannot fully exploit such devices. In this paper, we present uDepot, a key-value store built bottom-up to deliver the performance of fast NVM blockbased devices. uDepot is carefully crafted to avoid inefficiencies, uses a two-level indexing structure that dynamically adjusts its DRAM footprint to match the inserted items, and employs a novel task-based IO run-time system to maximize performance, enabling applications to use fast NVM devices at their full potential. As an embedded store, uDepot's performance nearly matches the raw performance of fast NVM devices both in terms of throughput and latency, while being scalable across multiple devices and cores. As a server, uDepot significantly outperforms state-of-the-art stores that target SSDs under the YCSB benchmark. Finally, using a Memcache service on top of uDepot we demonstrate that data services built on NVM storage devices can offer equivalent performance to their DRAM-based counterparts at a much lower cost. Indeed, using uDepot we have built a cloud Memcache service that is currently available as an experimental offering in the public cloud.


Industrialised countries are often required to make unpopular policy choices in order to efficiently tackle climate change. On the one hand, domestic industries might consider national climate measures as an excessive burden that may damage their competitiveness. On the other hand, the public may not be willing to pay a higher price for climate friendly products. Furthermore, an obstacle may arise from other international legal regimes whose goals may be undermined by climate domestic measures. In the paper I will examine this last possibility. In particular, I will assess whether the international trade regime may constitute an obstacle for future domestic climate measures. An affirmative or negative conclusion will be drawn after having answered three crucial questions throughout the paper. First, have domestic climate measures already clashed with trade regimes? In 2001 the problematic relationship between a taxation scheme adopted by Finland to improve energy efficiency and EC rules on the free movement goods highlighted this possibility. Second, are taxation schemes still being used in order to tackle climate change? Current climate policies show that not only taxes are being established, but that in the future measures based on border tax adjustments are also taken into consideration. Third, are climate taxes WTO compatible? The analysis of those WTO rules with whom the climate domestic measures may enter into conflict, and the study of the environmental exceptions that could be applied to the climate taxation schemes, will guide our analysis on this point. In conclusion, trade regimes should not constitute an obstacle for domestic climate measures. However, as the EU example demonstrates, this is not always true. Therefore, proposals able to bridge the goals of the two regimes must be made in order to prevent the WTO from being considered another obstacle for efficient domestic climate policies.


Player metrics are an invaluable resource for game designers and QA analysts who wish to understand players, monitor and improve game play, and test design hypotheses. Usually such metrics are collected in a straightforward manner by passively recording players; however, such an approach has several potential drawbacks. First, passive recording might fail to record metrics which correspond to an infrequent player behavior. Secondly, passive recording can be a costly, laborious, and memory intensive process, even with the aid of tools. In this paper, we explore the potential for an active approach to player metric collection which strives to collect data more efficiently, and thus with less cost. We use an online, iterative approach which models the relationship between player metrics and in-game situations probabilistically using a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and solves it for the best game configurations to run. To analyze the benefits and limitations of this approach, we implemented a system, called GAMELAB, for recording player metrics in Second Life.


Above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) is indicative of an ecosystem's ability to capture solar energy and convert it to organic carbon (or biomass), which may be used by consumers or decomposers, or stored in the form of living and nonliving organic matter. Annual and interannual variation in ANPP is often linked to climate dynamics and anthropogenic influences, such as fertilization, irrigation, above-ground biomass harvest, and so on. The Central Great Plains grasslands occupy over 1.5 million km2 and are a primary resource for livestock production in North America. The tallgrass prairies are the most productive grasslands in this region, and the Flint Hills of North America represent the largest contiguous area of unploughed tallgrass prairie (1.6 million ha). Measurements of ANPP are of critical importance to the proper management and understanding of climatic and anthropogenic influences on tallgrass prairie. Yet, accurate, detailed, and systematic measurements of ANPP over large geographic regions do not exist for this ecosystem. For these reasons, this study was conducted to investigate the use of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to model ANPP of the tallgrass prairie. Many studies have established a positive relationship between the NDVI and ANPP, but the strength of this relationship is influenced by vegetation types and can vary significantly from year to year depending on land use and climatic conditions. The goal of this study was to develop a robust model using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) biweekly NDVI values to predict tallgrass ANPP. This study was conducted using ANPP measurements from a watershed within the Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) as the primary study area, with additional measurements from the Rannells Flint Hills Prairie Preserve (RFHPP) and biennial ANPP measurements by Kansas State University (KSU) students from tallgrass areas near Manhattan, Kansas. Data from the primary study site covered the period of 1989–2005. The optimal period for estimating ANPP using AVHRR NDVI composite data sets was found to be late July. The Tallgrass ANPP Model (TAM) explained 54% (coefficient of determination, R 2 = 0.54, p < 0.001) of the year-to-year variation in ANPP. The creation of 1.0 km × 1.0 km resolution ANPP maps for a four-county (∼7000 ha) area for years 1989–2007 showed considerable variation in annual and interannual ANPP spatial patterns, suggesting complex interactions among factors influencing ANPP spatially and temporally.


One of the most basic properties of rational option pricing is that a rise in the price of the underlying increases the value of a call and decreases the value of a put. But results reported in the literature have found that for options on the S&P 500 Index this principle is violated in practice on the order of 10 percent of the time. Should we interpret this as evidence that the options market often ignores a fundamental principle of option valuation? Or that new option models are needed that would allow such seemingly anomalous behavior? In this article, Pérignon helps to resolve this issue using transactions-level data from five major index-options markets. He finds that wrong-way option price changes do occur in all of them a substantial fraction of the time. But looking for the explanation behind the numbers, he shows that market microstructure effects, like bid-ask bounce and rational tactics for trading in a market with a wide bid-ask spread, appear to account for much of the phenomenon.


Two pumiceous tephra layers, widespread in meadow topsoils of the southern Sierra Nevada, are correlated on the basis of radiocarbon dates and trace-element analyses with two eruptive centers at the northern and southern ends of the Mono Craters—Inyo craters volcanic chain in eastern California. Pumice and obsidian that were erupted in the northern part of the chain are uniform in trace-element content, whereas those erupted from the southern part are nonuniform and distinctly different, particularly in Sr content. Similar differences are recognized in the two most recent and widespread tephra layers originating from these sites. These tephra layers are the deposits of the most recent explosive eruptions of magma from the Mono Craters and the Inyo craters. Tephra 1, characterized by sanidine microphenocrysts and a Sr content of about 215 ppm, was erupted 720 ± 60 yr B.P. Its distribution defines a south-trending lobe extending over the Sierra Nevada from the upper San Joaquin drainage area to the Little Kern drainage area. Sr, Rb, and Zr contents of the ash are similar to those of a tephra-ringed obsidian dome at the south end of the Inyo craters. Tephra 2, characterized by a lack of microphenocrysts and a Sr content of less than 20 ppm, was erupted 1190 ± 80 yr B.P. It is encountered as a fine ash layer in the Sierra Nevada from northernmost Yosemite to Kings Canyon. Its low Sr content indicates geochemical affinity with the Mono Craters. Panum Crater, a tephra-ringed dome at the north end of the chain, appears to be its most likely source vent.


Many syntactic phenomena have received competing accounts, either in terms of formal grammatical mechanisms, or in terms of independently motivated properties of language processing mechanisms ("reductionist" accounts). A variety of different types of argument have been put forward in efforts to distinguish these competing accounts. This article critically examines a number of arguments that have been offered as evidence in favour of formal or reductionist analyses, and concludes that some types of argument are more decisive than others. It argues that evidence from graded acceptability effects and from isomorphism between acceptability judgements and on-line comprehension profiles are less decisive. In contrast, clearer conclusions can be drawn from cases of overgeneration, where there is a discrepancy between acceptability judgements and the representations that are briefly constructed on-line, and from tests involving individual differences in cognitive capacity. Based on these arguments, the article concludes that a formal grammatical account is better supported in some domains, and that a reductionist account fares better in other domains. Phenomena discussed include island constraints, agreement attraction, constraints on anaphora, and comparatives.


Whereas overexpression studies can yield results that may not ultimately be borne out in vivo, "knocked out" genetic mutants of animals can often be directly used to address the physiological function of a particular protein. However, in some model organisms, the engineering of specific gene-deficient animals is problematic. RNA interference (RNAi) is gaining popularity as a method in developmental biology and in cell culture for "technically knocking out" specific gene expression. Oates et al. however, caution that injection of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), for RNAi experiments in zebrafish, leads to nonspecific effects. The authors first observed that injection of dsRNA corresponding to the T-box transcription factor tbx16/spt abrogated not only the expression of genes known to be affected by tbx16/spt, but also blocked expression of genes known to be independent of tbx16/spt influence. Injection of bacterial lacZ dsRNA in zebrafish also blocked the expression of tbx16/spt -dependent and -independent genes. In blind experiments, the effects of tbx16/spt or lacZ dsRNA were indistinguishable, suggesting that RNAi methodology may not be suitable for studying zebrafish development. Oates, A.C., Bruce, A.E.E., and Ho, R.K. (2000) Too much interference: Injection of double-stranded RNA has nonspecific effects in the zebrafish embryo. Dev. Biol. 224: 20-28. [Online Journal]


The impact of the pre-treatment of landfill leachate on the co-treatment of landfill leachate and municipal wastewater was investigated through a short-term and a long-term study. The short-term study aimed to mimic the shock load of leachate on the wastewater treatment process. The leachate pre-treatment was achieved by coagulation and air stripping to remove partial chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia. The long-term study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of leachate pre-treatment on nutrient removal of the wastewater treatment process in a long-term operational condition when air stripping was used as a means of pretreatment. From the short-term study, it was found that at low mixing ratios (0.5% and 1%), pre-treatment did not produce any significant difference from the one without pre-treatment. When the untreated leachate mixing rate was increased (5% and 10%), the system was not able to achieve full nitrification during one cycle. However, the pre-treatment of leachate lowered the ammonia in the influent, therefore allowing for full nitrification. The long-term study demonstrated that even at a 10% mixing ratio, the high ammonia concentration in the leachate did not have a negative impact on the nitrification process. Due to the high non-readily biodegradable portion of COD in the leachate, the majority of the COD from the leachate ended up in the effluent thereby decreasing the effluent quality. It was found that at a 2.5% mixing ratio of leachate with wastewater, the overall biological nutrient removal process of the system was improved without


Recent literature on postmarxism has neglected a direct and strong engagement with Gramsci's theory of hegemony. What has happened through this disengagement is that postmarxism has been imbued with the poststructuralism of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. That has rendered it incapable of becoming a theory that can engage the social as well as the political. This paper attempts to reengage with Gramsci's theory of hegemony and to bring back both the political and the social by focusing on a key aspect of the concept of hegemony—that is, the ethico-political. It argues that, far from being "just theory," postmarxism's engagement with Gramsci moves it toward a practical politico-social ontology. In this paper, the nexus between hegemony, the ethico-political, and postmarxism is developed by focusing on two of postmarxism's key concepts: antagonism and equivalence.


An XML search engine XSearch that addresses an open drawback in XML keyword search: given relevant matches to keywords, the way to compose question results properly in order that they will be effectively ranked and simply digested by users. The approaches adopted within the literature generate either overwhelmingly giant results or fragmentary results, each of which can cause the ranking schemes to be ineffective. Intuitively, every question features a search target and every result ought to contain precisely one instance of the search target together with its proof. We have a tendency to developed XSearch that composes atomic and intact question results driven by users' search targets.


Digestive strategies have been recognized to be a key factor for healthy growth in juvenile Galapagos giant tortoises (Geochelone nigra). The aim of present study was to investigate digestive coefficients with special regard to fiber fractions. Four captive bred Galapagos giant tortoises 4–5 years of age were fed a controlled diet for 32 days. The diet consisted of 77% hay, 15% tortoise pellets, and 8% apples on a dry matter basis. On a dry matter basis diet analysis showed: 95.7% organic matter, 11.3% crude protein, 20.5% crude fiber, 22.6% acid detergent fiber, 5.0% acid detergent lignin, and 17.6% cellulose. Based on total fecal collection during 7 days average dry matter digestibilities were calculated: 65% for dry matter, 67% for organic matter, 63% for crude protein, 55% for crude fiber, 49% for acid detergent fiber, 41% for acid detergent lignin, 54% for cellulose. An increase in crude fiber content resulted in a reduced digestibility in comparative evaluations of data for different tortoise species, and in a comparison of tortoises and mammalian hindgut fermenters. Compared to some mammalian hindgut-fermenting herbivore species (domestic horses, Asian elephants, Indian rhinoceroses) on a diet of hay and concentrates, the juvenile Galapagos giant tortoises showed a digestion of similar efficiency. If a reduction in dietary digestibility is warranted in juvenile Galapagos giant tortoises, it is concluded that dietary fiber levels should be increased and it is proposed that crude fiber levels of 30–40% on a dry matter basis should be achieved. Zoo Biol 24:185–191, 2005. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Abstract. Radiative forcing provides an important basis for understanding
and predicting global climate changes, but its quantification has
historically been done independently for different forcing agents, has involved
observations to varying degrees, and studies have not always included a
detailed analysis of uncertainties. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring
Service reanalysis is an optimal combination of modelling and observations
of atmospheric composition. It provides a unique opportunity to rely on
observations to quantify the monthly and spatially resolved global
distributions of radiative forcing consistently for six of the largest
forcing agents: carbon dioxide, methane, tropospheric ozone, stratospheric
ozone, aerosol–radiation interactions, and aerosol–cloud interactions. These
radiative-forcing estimates account for adjustments in stratospheric
temperatures but do not account for rapid adjustments in the troposphere.
On a global average and over the period 2003–2017, stratospherically
adjusted radiative forcing of carbon dioxide has averaged +1.89 W m−2
(5 %–95 % confidence interval: 1.50 to 2.29 W m−2) relative to 1750 and
increased at a rate of 18 % per decade. The corresponding values for
methane are +0.46 (0.36 to 0.56) W m−2 and 4 % per decade but with
a clear acceleration since 2007. Ozone radiative-forcing averages +0.32 (0
to 0.64) W m−2, almost entirely contributed by tropospheric ozone since
stratospheric ozone radiative forcing is only +0.003 W m−2. Aerosol
radiative-forcing averages −1.25 (−1.98 to −0.52) W m−2,
with aerosol–radiation interactions contributing −0.56 W m−2 and
aerosol–cloud interactions contributing −0.69 W m−2 to the global
average. Both have been relatively stable since 2003. Taking the six forcing
agents together, there is no indication of a sustained slowdown or acceleration
in the rate of increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing over the period.
These ongoing radiative-forcing estimates will monitor the impact on the
Earth's energy budget of the dramatic emission reductions towards net-zero
that are needed to limit surface temperature warming to the Paris Agreement
temperature targets. Indeed, such impacts should be clearly manifested in
radiative forcing before being clear in the temperature record. In addition,
this radiative-forcing dataset can provide the input distributions needed by
researchers involved in monitoring of climate change, detection and
attribution, interannual to decadal prediction, and integrated assessment
modelling. The data generated by this work are available at https://doi.org/10.24380/ads.1hj3y896 (Bellouin et al., 2020b).


The aerodynamic mechanisms of bat flight have been studied using a numerical approach. Kinematic data acquired using a high resolution motion capture system was employed to simulate the unsteady air flow around a bat's wings. A flapping bat wing contains many degrees of freedom, which make 3D motion tracking challenging. In order to overcome this challenge, an optical motion capture system of 21 cameras was used to reduce wing self-occlusion. Over the course of a meter-long flight, 108 discrete marker points on the bat's wings (Pratt's roundleaf bat, Hipposideros pratti) were tracked. The time evolution of the surface of each wing was computationally reconstructed in 3D space. The resulting kinematic model was interfaced with an unsteady incompressible flow solver using the immersed boundary method (IBM) and large eddy simulation (LES). Verification and validation of the flow simulation were conducted to establish accuracy. The aerodynamic forces calculated from the simulation compared well to the forces theoretically needed to sustain the observed flight trajectory. The transient flow field generated by the simulation allowed for the direct calculation of lift, drag, and power output of the bat during flight. The mean lift coefficient was found to be 3.21, and the flap cycle averaged aerodynamic power output was 1.05 W. Throughout the flap cycle, the planform area of the wings varied up to 46% between the largest and smallest values. During the upstroke, wing rotation was found to mitigate negative lift thereby improving overall flight efficiency. The high resolution motion capture and flow simulation framework presented here has the potential to facilitate the understanding of complex bat flight aerodynamics for both straight and maneuvering flight modes.


The availability of enhanced climate forecasts offers the potential for farmers to improve responses to climate variability. However, few studies have demonstrated actual effective uses of cli- mate forecasts. Through interaction with regional agricultural experts, we evaluated the opportuni- ties and constraints involved in the use of climate information in decision making regarding soybean farming in the Argentinean pampas. Our results showed that opportunities exist for the successful application of climate information, but consistent with previous research, there is a need to consider the broad and complex context influencing decisions, since climate is just one of the many factors affecting farmers' decisions. More importantly, we showed that adaptive management strategies pro- posed by experts in response to hypothetical climate scenarios produced diverging economic out- comes (both positive and negative). We hypothesized that inconsistency of the observed results could be due to a poor understanding by the agricultural experts of the impacts on regional climate of global climate signals (e.g. a given ENSO phase). An alternative hypothesis was that crop consultants had difficulties in anticipating the agronomic outcomes of management decisions made in response to a given climate forecast. Further research is needed to elucidate to what extent these hypotheses are valid. However, our results suggest that the mere availability of climate forecasts will not neces- sarily benefit growers. In order for there to be an improvement in the use of seasonal forecasts, appro- priate interventions are necessary to enhance decision makers' understanding of the sources and impacts of climate variability, and of the consequences of different responses to a range of climate scenarios.


House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) are distributed throughout North and South Amel1ca. As has been observed in many avian species, populations of House Wrens in the tropics have longer egg incubation periods than populations in temperate regions. The purpose of this study was to characterize incubation periods of a temperate population of House Wrens and to conduct a preliminary chemical analysis of the yellow and white yolk layers of House Wren eggs. The eggs were collected from a breeding population in Central Illinois from June-August 2000. Avian yolk is composed of yellow and white components, which are laid down in alternating layers around a core of white yolk called the latebra. White yolk is produced at night, while yellow yolk is produced during the day. Along with the temporal differences in formation, yellow and white yolk differ in their biochemical make-up in that yellow yolk is richer in high-energy lipids. The proportions of yellow and white yolk may differ in eggs from tropical and temperate populations of House Wrens, which may influence the rate of embryonic development and thus incubation periods. There was a 90.0% hatching success from the artificial incubation of temperate House Wren eggs (n=30), which had a mean incubation period of 13.6 days ± 0.2SD, which is significantly different than the literature value, 12.2 days ± 0.2SD, of a natural population of House Wrens in a temperate region. The lipid components (triacylglycerol, phospholipid, free cholesterol, cholesterol ester and free fatty acid) of commercially sold unincubated chicken eggs were analyzed. Extraction of the lipids from the yolks was conducted using a modification of the Folch method, followed by the separation oflipid components using preparatory TLC. This method produced a 93.4-96.0% lipid recovery rate with little vmiability «6.0%) in replicate portions of the same yolk. Future work will involve incubating eggs from tropical House Wrens and conducting a chemical analysis of their yolks. Yolk lipid analysis of temperate House Wren eggs will also be done.


Purpose – This purpose of this study is to investigate the spillover effects of trade on East Asian productivity. Design/methodology/approach – This study attempts to fill the gaps of previous studies by developing applications of extensive growth theory that show the trade spillover effects on productivity growth of the ASEAN-5 plus-3, namely China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It further provides a meaningful statistical analysis in which the first step of the estimation to get the coefficients of the explanatory variables has been used via the econometric approach. In addition, a second step plugs the parameters of the variables into the model in order to compute the contribution rates of productivity indicators including the calculation of the residual of the model (TFP) and GDP contributions used by the growth accounting approach. The TFP is considered a trade spillover effects indicator, which shows the technology transfer to domestic firms and the upgrading of human capital skills. Findings – The study found that there was a small contribution of exports and imports to TFP growth in these countries during the study period. It confirms that high physical capital input growth resulted in high gross domestic product (GDP) contribution and low TFP contribution with insignificant technological progress experienced by most of these countries, with the exception of Japan and to some extent, South Korea. Originality/value – The study contributes to gaps left by previous studies in determining that trade spillover effects transferred technology and developed human capital skills to a greater extent in the cases of Japan and the Republic of Korea, and their economies are considered to be productivity-driven.


Although recovering from errors is straightforward on most interfaces, public display systems pose very unique design challenges. Namely, public display users interact for very short amounts of times and are believed to abandon the display when interrupted or forced to deviate from the main task. To date, it is not well understood whether public display designers should enable users to correct errors (e.g. by asking users to confirm or giving them a chance correct their input), or aim for faster interaction and rely on other types of feedback to estimate errors. To close this gap, we conducted a field study where we investigated the users willingness to correct their input on public displays. We report on our findings from an in-the-wild deployment of a public gaze-based voting system where we intentionally evoked system errors to see if users correct them. We found that public display users are willing to correct system errors provided that the correction is fast and straightforward. We discuss how our findings influence the choice of interaction methods for public displays; interaction methods that are highly usable but suffer from low accuracy can still be effective if users can "undo" their interactions.


Myanmar, which is one of the 13 least developed countries (LDCs) in Asia and the Pacific, is relatively rich in natural resources, has young workforce, and is close to the world's most dynamic trading economies, including China and India. With an appropriate policy mix, improved business environment and a stable, but reformed political system, the country is expected to fulfill its considerable potential and move ahead with delivering on economic development. As Myanmar starts to rebuild its trade and investment links with the region and the global economy, policymakers and business leaders will need various data, information and advice from analysts and researchers to be able to make proper decisions. Unfortunately this will not be a straightforward process as macroeconomic, trade and investment data for the country are incomplete, and available data are not always reliable. Furthermore, because of the years of isolation imposed on Myanmar, the trade and investment flows recorded during those years do not necessarily reflect the flows that actually occurred, or the patterns of specialization and competitiveness that would have occurred without such isolation. This paper presents a picture of the country's trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns in the past two decades and an introductory survey of selected policies that affect Myanmar's trade and FDI potential within its new political and macroeconomic framework. To provide more complete guidance on the integration of Myanmar's producers into the regional and world economies, a traditional trade competitiveness diagnostics study is necessary. Such an analysis will only be possible once more complete datasets have been compiled after some time of normal trade and investment relations.


Background & Aim: Adolescents experience a kind of entrapment with anxiety during maturity period and disregard to the problems associated with adolescence would have negative effects on their health, orientation and self-esteem. Girls have more problems than boys in health aspects, and psychological and social domain due to physiological differences, social roles, and traditions governing the community. This study was performed to determine the relationship between anxiety and self-concept among female adolescents . Material & Methods: It was a correlational, cross -sectional study that was conducted during 2011-2012 in Tehran. Through cluster sampling, 159 female high schools students were recruited from the 4 th educational district. Data was gathered by demographic sheet, Coppersmith's Self Esteem scale and Spielbergerr Scale and analyzed by descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficient and regression analysis using SPSS-PC (v.16). Results: The findings showed that %53.5 of the students had moderate anxiety and %63/5 of them had moderate self-concept. In the mean while, %18.3 of the students had severe anxiety or low self-concept. Spearman correlation test determined a negative significant association between the students' anxiety and their self-concept (p<0.001). No significant relationship was found between the students' demographics and the intensity of their anxiety by regression analysis. Conclusion: Regarding the relationship between anxiety and self-concept and their effect on mental health, designing and performing appropriate educational interventions to promote students' mental health is recommended.


This article proposes a framework to address a central conundrum in strategic management: How can firms transcend the trade-off between the momentum that results from the strong strategic commitments needed to gain industry leadership with the need for strategic agility in the face of strategic discontinuities? The article develops an analysis of the meta-capabilities underlying strategic agility, which is clustered around strategic sensitivity (both the sharpness of perception and the intensity of awareness and attention), resource fluidity (the internal capability to reconfigure business systems and redeploy resources rapidly), and leadership unity (the ability of the top team to make bold decisions fast, without getting bogged down in "win-lose" politics at the top). Based on an in-depth study of Nokia9s evolution over the past twenty years, this article shows how these three meta-capabilities interact over time and proposes a framework to enable a firm to maintain and regain strategic agility as it matures.


The biologically active (native) state of most proteins is characterised by a tightly folded and highly ordered conformation. Denaturants are chemical or physical agents that can induce unfolding of the polypeptide chain. Examples include urea, heat, extremes of pH, as well as some detergents. Unfolded proteins adopt a largely disordered structure. Denaturants can interact directly with the protein, or they can alter the properties of the surrounding aqueous environment. Despite the routine use of denaturants in the biochemical laboratory, the mechanisms whereby these agents destabilise the native state remain poorly understood. Folded protein structures are only marginally stable. As a result, relatively subtle alterations in the physical and chemical properties of the solvent can cause major changes in position of the unfolding equilibrium. This review briefly discusses the most commonly used denaturants, their likely mechanisms of action, as well as some thermodynamic aspects.

Key Concepts:

The biologically active (native) state N of proteins represents a highly ordered and tightly folded structure.

N is in equilibrium with an extensively disordered (unfolded) state U.

Denaturing agents (e.g. urea, extremes of pH and temperature) shift the unfolding equilibrium from N to U.

The exact mechanism of action remains unclear for most denaturants.

The position of the unfolding equilibrium is governed by an interplay of enthalpic and entropic contributions that affect the free energy of unfolding according to ΔG0=ΔH0–TΔS0.

The sign and magnitude of ΔG0 represents the thermodynamic stability of N; N is stable when ΔG0>0.

Unfolding can be triggered by increasing the temperature T, because U has a higher entropy than N (ΔS0>0).

Protein stability measurements are commonly carried out by employing urea or guanidinium chloride-induced unfolding in conjunction with optical detection.

Some proteins adopt semiunfolded structures (intermediates) under mildly denaturing conditions.

Protein (un)folding can be studied under equilibrium conditions and in kinetic experiments.

Keywords:

protein folding;
protein denaturation;
protein conformation;
folding intermediate;
thermodynamics


To analyze the frequency and distribution of coronary artery risk factors in the city of Rize and its surrounding areas. Materials and methods: This observational study included 452 patients (333 men, 119 women). In addition to demographic characteristics of the patients, conventional risk factors were also recorded. The patients were grouped according to their ages, gender, and electrocardiographic characteristics. Results: The mean age of participants was 63 ± 13 years and 74% were male. Smoking and hypertension (HT) were seen more often (71%) in younger male patients. No difference among age groups was detected with regard to the occurrence of diabetes mellitus. The levels of HDL-cholesterol (P < 0.001) and the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol (P < 0.05) were found to be relatively higher in female patients. The prevalence of smoking and familial risk factors both decreased with age. Conclusion: At least one of these risk factors was detected in 97% of patients. Therefore, our study continues to emphasize the crucial role of modification of risk factors in patients with coronary artery disease, the most important etiologic factor for morbidity and mortality.


This article discusses the birthing of the Department of Women and Development Studies in parallel with the herstory of the Field Instruction Program or fieldwork to many students. This article is a synthesis of the DWDS 20th experience in doing fieldwork practice that were drawn out from the fieldwork assessments and sharing sessions, interviews with fieldwork students and partner agencies, and other DWDS documents and reports. As a synthesis paper it highlights the strengths and issues confronting the FIP, in particular, its impact to students, FIP administration and management, fieldwork placements, the partner agencies and students' contributions to these agencies. The article ends up by posing some questions and challenges to the DWDS as it embarks on a new phase of its journey in promoting women's studies.


FT-IR microspectroscopy is used to compare the polymer and liquid crystal droplet regions within polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films. Thermoplastic polymer matrix PDLCs contain a higher amount of liquid crystal within the polymer regions than do thermoset polymer matrix films. IR functional group images of a droplet show characteristic textures corresponding to the visual images of the same droplet. The textures in the IR images change with IR polarization and with an applied electric field. Analysis by conventional IR spectroscopy shows that the C=N and the pentyl CH2 groups require an equivalent voltage to switch in the IR region. However, the phenyl C=C group does not exhibit changes under the same voltage conditions. Hysteresis also is seen in the infrared region as a function of voltage and temperature.


We introduce OmniPrint, a synthetic data generator of isolated printed characters, geared toward machine learning research. It draws inspiration from famous datasets such as MNIST, SVHN and Omniglot, but offers the capability of generating a wide variety of printed characters from various languages, fonts and styles, with customized distortions. We include 935 fonts from 27 scripts and many types of distortions. As a proof of concept, we show various use cases, including an example of meta-learning dataset designed for the upcoming MetaDL NeurIPS 2021 competition. OmniPrint is available at https://github.com/SunHaozhe/OmniPrint.


Title of Document: PACIFIC SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: VARIABILITY, TREND, AND CONNECTIONS TO LONG-TERM HYDROCLIMATE VARIATIONS OVER THE GREAT PLAINS Bin Guan, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Directed By: Professor Sumant Nigam Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) exhibit variability on interannual to centennial time scales. This dissertation addresses the challenge to separate SST natural variability from the nonstationary (largely anthropogenic) warming trend; and, based on the clarified variability/trend patterns, evaluate SST forcing of long-term hydroclimate variations over the Great Plains. First, a consistent analysis of natural variability and secular trend in the twentieth century Pacific SSTs is presented. By focusing on spatial and temporal recurrence, but without imposition of periodicity constraints, this single analysis discriminates between biennial, ENSO and decadal variabilities, leading to refined evolutionary descriptions; and between these natural variability modes and secular trend. Specifically, canonical ENSO variability is encapsulated in two modes that depict the growth and decay phases. Another interannual mode, energetic in recent decades, is shown linked to the west-to-east SST development seen in post–climate shift ENSOs: the non-canonical ESNO mode. Pacific decadal variability (PDV) is characterized by two modes: the Pan-Pacific mode has a horse-shoe structure with the closed end skirting the North American coast, and a quiescent eastern equatorial Pacific. The second decadal mode—the North Pacific mode—captures the 1976/77 climate shift and is closer to Mantua's Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Implicit accommodation of natural variability leads to a nonstationary SST trend, including midcentury cooling. These Pacific—and residual Atlantic—SST modes are then investigated for their connections to long-term hydroclimate variations over the Great Plains. During the Dust Bowl, dry anomalies in summer are found primarily linked to cool SSTs in the central tropical Pacific associated with non-canonical ENSO, as well as warm SSTs in the eastern tropical Atlantic associated with Atlantic Niño; in spring, however, dry anomalies are overwhelmed by connections to extratropical basins, when the cool phase of the SST trend coincided with a warm phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Dry (wet) anomalies during the 1950s (1980s) are shown linked to the warm (cool) phase of the North Pacific decadal mode, as well as a warm (cool) AMO. The analysis suggests comparable importance of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in drought forcing, and highlights the role of the extratropical basins. PACIFIC SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: VARIABILITY, TREND, AND CONNECTIONS TO LONG-TERM HYDROCLIMATE VARIATIONS OVER THE GREAT PLAINS


Knowledge of carbon dioxide concentration in desert soils is required in theoretical models of the development of pedogenic and ground-water calcium carbonate. Most studies have concentrated on medium- to fine-textured soils in temperate to humid environments. Very little data exist for CO2 concentrations in stony, coarse-textured deposits such as those making up alluvial fans and fluvial terraces. The purpose of this study was to obtain CO2 concentration data in stony, coarse-textured, uncultivated soils in a desert environment. Soil gas samples were collected from two sites—Yucca Wash and Rock Valley—at the Nevada Test Site in southern Nevada between June 1985 and June 1986 to determine soil CO2 concentrations and their seasonal and depth variations in the soil profile. Soil CO2 concentrations ranged from 0.03 volume percent in winter and summer to 0.25 volume percent in spring. During the summer, fall, and winter, CO2 concentrations were close to atmospheric levels and varied randomly with depth. In spring, CO2 varied with root density, highest concentrations occurring between 40 and 80 cm of depth. Maximum CO2 values decrease and occur at progressively deeper levels toward the end of spring. Biological activity appears to be limited throughout the year because of the arid climate. During the winter and spring, soil CO2 appears to be more dependent on temperature than moisture, whereas in the summer and fall it appears to be dependent on moisture. Soil gas samples were also collected during the spring from three sites in the Kyle Canyon area in southern Nevada to determine the variation of soil CO2 levels with changes in elevation and vegetation. Soil CO2 values increased from 0.04 to 0.24 volume percent with increasing elevation.


In recent years, the extensive use of organophosphorus pesticides, especially the unreasonable use, has brought great safety risks to the environment. Organic phosphorus pollution has become a hotspot, and there are a large number of microorganisms in the soil and water body that can degrade organophosphorus pesticides. The extensive degradation performance of pesticides is applied to a variety of pollution remediation practices. This paper summarizes the current situation of organophosphorus pesticide use and pesticide residues, the species of organophosphorus pesticide degrading bacteria and its separation and screening and degradation of pesticide characteristics of the research progress.


Abstract Polar regions are attracting more public, political, economic and scientific attention than ever before, with the role of tourism becoming increasingly recognised. Tourism activities are still relatively new in polar settings with the role of tourism primarily seen as highly beneficial with a capacity to contribute to socio‐economic development, especially in the Arctic. However, the growth in tourism is also regarded by some commentators as potentially damaging to the polar environments, especially when combined with the effects of climate change. Yet in order to understand future change it is important that past and present tourism numbers can be benchmarked. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the definitions and dimensions of tourism in polar regions and how the term polar tourism can be understood. The paper aims to define polar tourism in a manner that is consistent with that of international tourism statistics in order to identify gaps in our knowledge base. Based on the existing statistics and overview of current levels of tourism in polar regions it is indicated that the number of visitors to high latitudes is already substantial, especially in the Arctic, and is continuing to grow.


Graphene foam holds promise for tissue engineering applications. In this study, graphene foam was used as a three-dimension scaffold to evaluate cell attachment, cell morphology, and molecular markers of early differentiation. The aim of this study was to determine if cell attachment and elaboration of an extracellular matrix would be modulated by functionalization of graphene foam with fibronectin, an extracellular matrix protein that cells adhere well to, prior to the establishment of three-dimensional cell culture. The molecular dynamic simulation demonstrated that the fibronectin–graphene interaction was stabilized predominantly through interaction between the graphene and arginine side chains of the protein. Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical testing indicated that fibronectin functionalization of graphene altered the mechanical properties of graphene foam. The elastic strength of the scaffold increased due to fibronectin, but the viscoelastic mechanical behavior remained unchanged. An additive effect was observed in the mechanical stiffness when the graphene foam was both coated with fibronectin and cultured with cells for 28 days. Cytoskeletal organization assessed by fluorescence microscopy demonstrated a fibronectin-dependent reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and an increase in actin stress fibers. Gene expression assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction of 9 genes encoding cell attachment proteins (Cd44, Ctnna1, Ctnnb1, Itga3, Itga5, Itgav, Itgb1, Ncam1, Sgce), 16 genes encoding extracellular matrix proteins (Col1a1, Col2a1, Col3a1, Col5a1, Col6a1, Ecm1, Emilin1, Fn1, Hapln1, Lamb3, Postn, Sparc, Spp1, Thbs1, Thbs2, Tnc), and 9 genes encoding modulators of remodeling (Adamts1, Adamts2, Ctgf, Mmp14, Mmp2, Tgfbi, Timp1, Timp2, Timp3) indicated that graphene foam provided a microenvironment conducive to expression of genes that are important in early chondrogenesis. Functionalization of graphene foam with fibronectin modified the cellular response to graphene foam, demonstrated by decreases in relative gene expression levels. These findings illustrate the combinatorial factors of microscale materials properties and nanoscale molecular features to consider in the design of three-dimensional graphene scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.


Module integrated converters (MICs) have been under rapid developement for single-phase grid-tied photovoltaic applications. The capacitive energy storage implementation for the double-line-frequency power variation represents a differentiating factor among existing designs. This paper introduces a new topology that places the energy storage block in a series-connected path with the line interface block. This design provides independent control over the capacitor voltage, soft-switching for all semiconductor devices, and full four-quadrant operation with the grid. The proposed approach is analyzed and experimentally demonstrated.


Many scientists, engineers and ecologists are raising profound concerns about changes in the world's standard climate. There is continuous use of fossil fuels as a source of energy. When combusted, gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides are emitted that cause global warming. Deforestation also contributes to hotter temperatures. The threat of global warming is always causing the Earth's climate the greatest harm. Nonetheless, most people do not know about climate change and do not remember that it will be a major trouble in coming years. What the majority do not recognize is that worldwide warming is presently occurring, and we're already experiencing some of its Withering effects. It is and could critically affect ecosystems and disturb ecological balance. Because of the treacherous results of worldwide warming, a few solutions ought to be devised. The paper introduces global warming, elaborates its causes and dangers and provides a few answers to clear up this hot problem. The majority do not know that global warming is taking place now, but some of its weeding results already are happening. Ecosystems are and could be influenced critically and ecological equilibrium could be disrupted. A few solutions should be created because of the dangerous effects of global warming. The article presents global warming, details its causes and hazards, and gives some answers to the hot issue. Chance strength assets (sun, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass) in particular, would like to be followed significantly. One strategy for mitigating the increasing global warming progress is the location and use of renewable energy sources.


In this paper, we consider multiple-input single-output multi-eavesdropper cognitive radio networks (MISOME-CRNs), where a secondary user (SU) aims to transmit confidential information to a legitimate SU receiver in the presence of a primary user (PU) and a multi-antenna passive eavesdropper in fast fading environments. For this system setting, we study beamforming with artificial noise (AN) for the SU to achieve confidential communications. We consider designing an AN-assisted optimal beamforming scheme, denoted cognitive beamforming (CB), which maximizes the ergodic secrecy rate. Moreover, we propose two suboptimal beamforming schemes, namely, scaled beamforming (SB) and projected beamforming (PB). We develop an analytical framework to assess the performance of the proposed schemes in a unified manner. First, we analyze the achievable ergodic secrecy rate of the three schemes. Second, we derive the optimal power allocation for the information and AN signals that maximizes the achievable ergodic secrecy rate in the large-antenna regime. Third, we study the performance of the three schemes in terms of the secrecy outage probability. Using numerical simulations, we validate our analytical results and show that CB achieves the best performance among the three proposed schemes. In addition, we provide insights into the effect of various system parameters on the secrecy performance. In particular, we show that the interference threshold at the PU plays an important role in the beamforming design.


Nonparametric approaches such as the k‐nearest neighbor (k‐NN) approach are considered attractive for pedotransfer modeling in hydrology; however, they have not been applied to predict water retention of highly weathered soils in the humid tropics. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: to apply the k‐NN approach to predict soil water retention in a humid tropical region; to test its ability to predict soil water content at eight different matric potentials; to test the benefit of using more input attributes than most previous studies and their combinations; to discuss the importance of particular input attributes in the prediction of soil water retention at low, intermediate, and high matric potentials; and to compare this approach with two published tropical pedotransfer functions (PTFs) based on multiple linear regression (MLR). The overall estimation error ranges generated by the k‐NN approach were statistically different but comparable to the two examined MLR PTFs. When the best combination of input variables (sand + silt + clay + bulk density + cation exchange capacity) was used, the overall error was remarkably low: 0.0360 to 0.0390 m3 m−3 in the dry and very wet ranges and 0.0490 to 0.0510 m3 m−3 in the intermediate range (i.e., −3 to −50 kPa) of the soil water retention curve. This k‐NN variant can be considered as a competitive alternative to more classical, equation‐based PTFs due to the accuracy of the water retention estimation and, as an added benefit, its flexibility to incorporate new data without the need to redevelop new equations. This is highly beneficial in developing countries where soil databases for agricultural planning are at present sparse, though slowly developing.


Minocycline is the tetracycline antibiotic used in the therapy of different forms of acne vulgaris. It was shown previously that S. aureus may play a role of causative agent in inflammatory acne. This study was performed aiming to estimate sensitivity of staphylococcal strains from acne patients towards minocycline. Group of acne 29 patients 17-31 years old with different severity grades was compared with control group of 22 volunteers of the same age. Staphylococcal microflora was obtained from face skin use the stamp method and identified by standard scheme. Sensitivity of strains to minocycline was estimated by microdilution method in DMEM medium. In both groups 5 species of staphylococci were found: S. aureus, S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. intermedius, S. saprophyticus. At that we established that S. aureus was the main species in acne group I (62%) as well as in control group (38%). From all species studied the S. epidermidis was found to be most sensitive to minocycline with median of the minimal inhibiting concentration equaling 4 µg/ml, and most resistant was S. saprophyticus – with MIC of 16 µg/ml. Sensitivity of strains of S. aureus to minocycline was higher in acne group than in controls: 39% of acne group isolates had MIC of 4 µg/ml, although 63% of control group isolates had MIC of 8 µg/ml.


Objective Multiunit housing (MUH) residents are susceptible to secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, which can transfer between living units. This review summarises existing scientific literature relevant to smoke-free MUH, discusses knowledge gaps and provides recommendations for future research to inform public health action. Data sources We conducted a systematic search of peer-reviewed articles using three databases: EBSCOhost CINAHL, PubMed and Web of Science. Study selection Article titles, abstracts and text were reviewed to ascertain three inclusion criteria: (1) English language; (2) conducted in the USA; (3) reported on baseline data, development, implementation or evaluation of smoke-free MUH. Data extraction We used a multistep process to identify eligible articles: (1) two reviewers separately evaluated article titles; (2) two reviewers separately evaluated abstracts and (3) one reviewer read each article and determined inclusion eligibility. Data synthesis We identified and included 35 articles published during 2001–2014, grouped based on broad themes: MUH resident (n=16); MUH operator (n=6); environmental monitoring and biomarkers (n=9); economic (n=2); legal (n=3); and implementation process and policy impact (n=8). Studies with multiple themes were included in all relevant groups. Conclusions Existing literature has focused on self-reported, cross-sectional studies of MUH residents and operators; some studies of environmental markers, biomarkers and economic indicators have also been conducted. Future research on smoke-free MUH policy compliance and enforcement, and on the impact of these policies on smoking behaviours and health outcomes, could further inform public health planning, policy and practice. Despite these gaps, the current literature provides sufficient evidence for action to eliminate SHS exposure in MUH.


Genetic algorithms (GAs) are biologically motivated adaptive systems which have been used, with varying degrees of success, for function optimization. In this study, an abstraction of the basic genetic algorithm, the Equilibrium Genetic Algorithm (EGA), and the GA in turn, are reconsidered within the framework of competitive learning. This new perspective reveals a number of different possibilities for performance improvements. This paper explores population-based incremental learning (PBIL), a method of combining the mechanisms of a generational genetic algorithm with simple competitive learning. The combination of these two methods reveals a tool which is far simpler than a GA, and which out-performs a GA on large set of optimization problems in terms of both speed and accuracy. This paper presents an empirical analysis of where the proposed technique will outperform genetic algorithms, and describes a class of problems in which a genetic algorithm may be able to perform better. Extensions to this algorithm are discussed and analyzed. PBIL and extensions are compared with a standard GA on twelve problems, including standard numerical optimization functions, traditional GA test suite problems, and NP-Complete problems.


Food fortification has proven to be an important strategy for addressing micronutrient deficiency that includes vitamin A, iron and zinc deficiency in most developing countries. Development efforts have thus focused on breeding for crops that have natural ability to produce through a process widely known as bio-fortification. However, efforts to promote mass fortification of foods (both bio and industrial) have yielded little success due to existence of weak information on factors affecting consumption of these nutritionally-enhanced foods. This study therefore, assessed factors affecting consumption of fortified foods using Vitamin A fortified sugar as a case study. Data collected from rural and urban areas of Kenya was analyzed through a probit model to examine consumption drivers. The results showed that point of purchase, trust for stakeholders' involved in fortification, consumer' awareness and knowledge of the importance of vitamin A have significant effects on consumption of fortified foods. These findings offer useful insights for the development of nutrition policies in Kenya, and Africa at large.


- Identifies the forces now making good corporate behavior mandatory
 - Ranks the Fortune 100 on a Good Company Index™ that proves genuine corporate citizenship has a huge impact on the bottom line
 - Explains how companies can prove themselves worthy sellers, employers, and stewards We're losing patience with bad companies
 - Winner of 212 Gold Nautilus Award in Business/Leadership

 We're fed up with the greed of Goldman Sachs, sickened by BP's pollution, tired of tainted food, tightfisted employers, and phony "corporate social responsibility." And Laurie Bassi and her coauthors have news: the "bad boy" days are over. We're at the dawn of the Worthiness Era, when doing the right thing is no longer optional—it's the key to success. And they've got the data to prove it.

 Good Company lays out the convergence of social, economic, and political forces— ranging from the explosion of online information sharing to the emergence of the ethical consumer and the rapid expansion of the green market—that are ushering in this new era. Moreover, the authors prove the connection between good corporate behavior and the bottom line with their Good Company Index.

 Using publicly available information as well as original research, the Good Company Index evaluates each of the Fortune 100 companies as an employer, seller, and steward and then gives it a final grade. Among the surprising findings: only two Fortune 100 companies get an A, while a number of highly respected companies get a C or worse. Overall, companies in the same industry with higher rankings on the index consistently outperform their competitors. And this is not some academic exercise: the authors have used the principles of the index at their own investment firm to deliver market-beating results.

 Using a host of real-world examples Bassi and company carefully explain each aspect of corporate worthiness, offering companies a guide to what it now takes to win customer loyalty. Good Company moves the debate about corporate citizenship from the realm of faith to the realm of facts, showing it's no longer a question of ethics or virtue: it's a matter of survival.