The poorly constrained nature of the physical transfer of sulfides along magmatic conduits
has implications for the genesis and localization of mineral deposits as well as for understanding the
large-scale mobility of volatiles and metals across different geochemical reservoirs. Our natural
laboratory to address this topic is a sulfide-bearing ultramafic pipe emplaced in the deep crust of the
Ivrea-Verbano Zone, northwest Italy. The pipe comprises a volatile-rich peridotite, that contains
disseminated, blebby and semi-massive sulfides enriched in nickel, copper and platinum-group
elements. The integration of electron backscatter diffraction orientation data and 3D X-ray computed
tomography analyses from this study indicate that 1) most of olivine crystallized upon emplacement
of the magma; and 2) the shape and texture of the intra-granular sulfide blebs principally hosted
within the central portions of the pipe reflect early sulfide saturation and 3) that marginal areas
1recorded higher strain compare to the cores of the pipes. The differences in the size distribution of
the sulfide grains between the central and marginal areas of the pipe are due to magma emplacement
dynamics. The larger sulfide aggregates forming the bulk of the Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide mineralization
along the margins of the pipe are interpreted to form by coalescence of a large number of smaller
sulfide droplets. The observed sulfide size distribution between the central and marginal areas of the
Valmaggia pipe is principally due to the dynamics of the magma upon emplacement, and locally
record the role of water- and carbon dioxide-bearing volatiles in the physical entrainment of dense
sulfide liquids. These processes provide a viable mechanism to transport sulfides enriched in
chalcophile and siderophile metals from the upper mantle into the lower continental crust, where
they may be available for later remobilization into ore systems that may form subsequently in the
middle and upper crust.


Background: Successful pregnancy in in vitro fertilization (IVF) program depends on multiple factors. This study aimed to determine whether age, body mass index (BMI), basal follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol, and leptin on the day of trigger ovulation with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) might be used as predictor for successful oocyte fertilization in in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. Methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted in Yasmin Fertility Clinic, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia. Forty participating patients underwent IVF program, excluding smokers, patients with diabetic, morbid obesity, and severe oligospermia or azoospermia. Age, BMI, basal FSH, estradiol, leptin on the day of hCG administration, oocyte count on oocyte retrieval, the number of mature oocyte, and fertility rate were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analysis to determine which eligible factors play role in predicting the successful of fertilization. Results: Significant correlation was found between basal FSH level and serum leptin/oocyte ratio on the day of hCG administration with successful fertilization. We found probability formula as follows: 1/(1+exp –(6.2 - 0.4(leptin serum/oocyte ratio) - 0.8(basal FSH) ), with 77.8% sensitivity, 77.8% specificity, and AUC levels of 85.6% indicating strong predictability. Probability of successful fertilization related to basal FSH level of 5.90 mIU/mL and leptin serum/oocyte ratio of 3.98. Conclusion: The formula consisting of basal FSH and leptin serum/oocyte ratio on the day of trigger ovulation was capable in predicting the probability of successful fertilization in IVF procedure.


The dual simplex method is frequently the most efficient technique for solving linear programming (LP) problems. This thesis describes an efficient implementation of the sequential dual simplex method and the design and development of two parallel dual simplex solvers. In serial, many advanced techniques for the (dual) simplex method are implemented, including sparse LU factorization, hyper-sparse linear system solution technique, efficient approaches to updating LU factors and sophisticated dual simplex pivoting rules. These techniques, some of which are novel, lead to serial performance which is comparable with the best public domain dual simplex solver, providing a solid foundation for the simplex parallelization. During the implementation of the sequential dual simplex solver, the study of classic LU factor update techniques leads to the development of three novel update variants. One of them is comparable to the most efficient established approach but is much simpler in terms of implementation, and the other two are specially useful for one of the parallel simplex solvers. In addition, the study of the dual simplex pivoting rules identifies and motivates further investigation of how hyper-sparsity maybe promoted. In parallel, two high performance simplex solvers are designed and developed. One approach, based on a less-known dual pivoting rule called suboptimization, exploits parallelism across multiple iterations (PAMI). The other, based on the regular dual pivoting rule, exploits purely single iteration parallelism (SIP). The performance of PAMI is comparable to a world-leading commercial simplex solver. SIP is frequently complementary to PAMI in achieving speedup when PAMI results in slowdown.


The environmental impact of interior architecture and design practice is immense. This book highlights the need for designers to adapt the way they work and relearn lessons that have been lost. Contrary to many preconceptions, sustainable design can be sophisticated and stylish. And by its nature, a sustainable approach means considering the whole life cycle of a project and therefore improving the functionality, quality, human enjoyment and, in the long term, bringing real social and economic benefits. This book has examples, techniques, and historical and contemporary case studies, all supported by useful resources and links. A comprehensive reference book for anyone wanting to work in this area, Sian Moxon aims to introduce these ideas to design students while they are formulating their understanding of the industry, encouraging and inspiring them with positive, creative and practical alternatives.


There is empirical evidence concerning the effectiveness and benefits of game-based learning (GBL). Our mainly interest is to present a tool that can be used to complement teaching software engineering in a motivating and didactic way. . This paper studies the use of a GBL tool called SimulES-W (Simulation in Software Engineering) to teach Software Engineering in an undergraduate engineering program. SimulES-W has three characteristics: it is based on real software cases, it can be customized during the learning process, and it is a collaborative game. These characteristics are important because they help us understand and propose a new learning scenario, and to research with this the learning processes in their environments According to it, the first characteristic of SimulES-W makes it a motivating and engaging game which brings up cases which usually are only present in real software projects. Thanks to the second characteristic, the educators can use SimuelES-W to customize the education material, and tune the game for specific software engineering courses. The third characteristic is related to the proposed game as activity that involves group discussions and decision making. This paper presents SimulES-W a digital version of SimulES and reports the results of an evaluation from a pedagogical perspective, where game adequacy for teaching a subject and positive potential impact in student's academic performance are investigated.


Not so many years ago, the international community approached the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as an issue exclusively connected with the activities of states. Non-state actors seemed to have little interest in acquiring or using nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Their capacities to acquire such weapons also appeared to be lacking, if not nonexistent. However, the appearance of well-organized, well-financed, and well-equipped terrorist groups, especially hybrid networks like Al Qaeda, began challenging that perception in the mid-1990s. The troubling revelation of Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear black market in 2004 was one event that put an end to such innocent outlooks. These revelations demonstrate that non-state actors, including terrorist organizations, have easy access to even the most sensitive WMD expertise and hardware. The likely expansion of civilian nuclear programs also provides an opportunity for criminals and terrorists to access fissile and radioactive materials, which they may use to create nuclear weapons or dirty bombs. The threat of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction is real and growing. The terrorist attacks of the past decade--ranging from massive embassy bombings in East Africa, the indiscriminate bombings of commuter systems in Europe and Asia, the massive terrorist attacks of 9/11, and most recently the use of chlorine gas in attacks in Iraq--all clearly indicate that terrorists will not hesitate to use even the deadliest weapons if they acquire them. Considering the unprecedented growth of terrorist movements, the international community of nations should be aware that it currently finds itself in a race against time. Without further action, the current threat of nuclear proliferation among non-state actors might become a much crueler reality. Under these circumstances, it is crucial to recognize the importance of the UN Security Council's adoption of Resolution 1540 in 2004, which affirms that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery--as well as illicit trafficking of related materials--constitute a threat to international peace and security. Nations must work toward conquering the many challenges that currently impede full implementation of this resolution through regional, national, and global cooperation. The adoption of Resolution 1540 was a necessary step toward building a comprehensive global system of prevention and protection against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The resolution establishes binding obligations for all states regarding non-proliferation and creates a subsidiary body of the Security Council--the 1540 Committee--to review relevant measures taken by states to meet these obligations. Since the adoption of Resolution 1540, there has been significant progress in the implementation of its provisions in various regions. At the same time, there is no room for complacency. More needs to be done, including the development of tools that states may create for themselves, in order to successfully implement all aspects of the resolution. In April 2007, the 1540 Committee submitted a comprehensive report to the Security Council on the work of its first biennium. Among other observations and conclusions, the report identified several important gaps in the implementation of Resolution 1540 in the areas of accountability, physical protection, border controls, law enforcement efforts, and national export and trans-shipment controls. Given these gaps, the report also notes that the internal administrative and technical capacities of many states must be strengthened in order to effectively address the threat of proliferation. Even those states that have made significant progress in the implementation of Resolution 1540 need to regularly enhance national systems to license export items and control relevant activities, including transit, trans-shipment, or re-export. …


Food security is defined as a situation in which all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary need for a productive and healthy life. Food security problem is a crucial issue for national development, poverty alleviation and becomes a global issue due to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target by 2015. Food security problem occurs when there is a sudden drop in the ability to produce or have access enough food to maintain a good nutritional status and it is known as transitory food deficit. The transitory food deficit is caused by two important reasons, where first is caused by the fluctuation in food production which is caused by lack of irrigation, fertilizers consumption and climatic problem that are faced by dry-land irrigation areas. Secondly, it is caused by the world food crisis that gives a huge impact for dry-land developing countries. In order to overcome food security problem in dry-land developing countries, United States Agency International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have introduce several plans necessary for achieving food security and it is known as availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. Moreover, food security is very important to enhance economic growth. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of food input resources on food production in dry-land developing countries. Besides that, this research also investigates the role of food security dimension for food security achievement and the impact of food security on economic growth in dry-land developing countries. This research employs static panel data by using random and fixed effects analysis for the first and second objectives. Besides that, the estimation for the impact of food security and economic growth has used dynamic panel data analysis, which adopts Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for the third objective of the analysis. The finding of this research shows that land irrigation has a positively significant impact on the food production in dry-land developing countries. However, fertilizer consumption and climate change do not give significant impact on food production. Besides that, the finding for the dimension of food security has found that the policy that has been built by USAID is more appropriate which involves food availability, accessibility and utilization compared to FAO policy where this organization has added food stability in the policy and the result does not give significant impact on food security in dry-land developing countries. Finally, food security positively gives an impact to economic growth in dry-land developing countries. Besides that, reduction in poverty with better food security will increase economic growth. Additionally, life expectancy and total employment rate with better food security positively enhance economic growth in dry-land developing countries.


Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper explores the reasons why and the processes through which the Greeks from the former Soviet Union altered their self-identification after migration to their ethnic homeland. Responding to their labelling by the native Greeks and the doubts expressed about their Greekness, most introduce themselves as Pontians, even though the area of Pontos was not a marker of identification for them in the Soviet Union. They do so to express their felt experience of otherness in Greece and to claim their belongingness in the Greek nation. Exploring this case of ethnic return migration, the paper shows how migrants select among available ethnic options and redefine them, to assert their desired identities and strive for inclusion. In so doing it highlights the situational and processual character of ethnic identification, which should not be treated as a direct function of one's descent and culture. At the same time, it shows the constraining role of available ethnic options delimiting this process. Ethnic labels are not empty vessels. They carry particular significations that make them appealing or foreign to different migrant categories and also define the discursive and performative limitations in their ability to claim them and gain national acceptance.


Mud volcanism was initiated when overpressured muds rose through the Mediterranean Ridge accretionary prism. Early mud volcanism was marked by eruption of coarse clastic sediments forming small cones of debris flow deposits and turbidites, followed by eruption of large volumes of clast-rich matrix-supported debris flows. Eruption was accompanied by progressive subsidence to form moat-like features. Later, clast-poor mud flows spread laterally and built up a flat-topped cone (Napoli mud volcano). Clasts in the mud volcano sediments are mainly angular and up to 0.5 m in size. These clasts are dominated by claystone, sandstone, and limestone of early‐middle Miocene age that were previously accreted. Matrix material of the mud breccias probably originated from Messinian evaporite-rich sediments located within the decollement zone beneath the accretionary wedge, at an estimated depth of 5-7 km. Pressure release triggered hydrofracturing of poorly consolidated mud near the seafloor. Eruption was accompanied by release of large volumes of hydrocarbon gas. Conditions were suitable for gas hydrate genesis at shallow depths beneath the seafloor at the Milano mud volcano. The mud volcanism is probably related to backthrusting concentrated along the rear of the accretionary wedge near a backstop of continental crust to the north. Clasts within the mud breccias were mainly derived from the North African passive margin, but subordinate lithoclastic ophiolite-related material was also derived from the north, probably from now largely obliterated higher thrust sheets of Crete. Comparisons show that in contrast to other mud volcanoes both on the seafloor (Barbados) and on land (Trinidad), which are usually relatively transient fea tures, mud volcanism on the Mediterranean Ridge has persisted for >1 m.y. A revised hypothesis of mud volcanism at the Ocean Drilling Program sites is proposed, in relation to progressive tectonic evolution of the Mediterranean Ridge accretionary complex.


Publicly funded pre-K is often touted as a means to narrow achievement gaps, but this goal is less likely to be achieved if poor and/or minority children do not, at a minimum, attend equal quality pre-K as their non-poor, non-minority peers. In this paper, I find large "quality gaps" in public pre-K between poor, minority students and non-poor, non-minority students, ranging from 0.3 to 0.7 SD on a range of classroom observational measures. I also find that even after adjusting for several classroom characteristics, significant and sizable quality gaps remain. Finally, I find much between-state variation in gap magnitudes and that state-level quality gaps are related to state-level residential segregation. These findings are particularly troubling if a goal of public pre-K is to minimize inequality.


Lansoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor, increases plasma levels of substance P. Substance P is known to play a role in anxiety. The objective of the study was to evaluate whether lansoprazole can cause anxiety in rats. Elevated plus maze and Open field test were used to assess anxiogenic activity. Four groups of rats were treated orally with gum acacia 10 ml/kg, lansoprazole 1 mg/kg, 2 mg/kg and 3 mg/kg doses respectively. The drugs were administered once daily for ten days. The time spent, number of entries, rears in the arms of the elevated plus maze and central and peripheral squares in the open field test were observed. In the elevated plus maze, the time spent by rats treated with lansoprazole (1, 2 and 3 mg/kg) was reduced in the open arm but increased in the closed arm as compared to control. The number of rearings in the closed arm in the lansoprazole treated rats was decreased as compared to control. In the open field, the time spent by rats treated with lansoprazole (2 mg/kg) was decreased in the centre but increased in the periphery as compared to control. The number of rearings in the periphery in rats treated with lansoprazole (2 mg/kg) was decreased as compared to control. Lansoprazole was found to induce anxiety in rats.


A simple mass balance has been used to estimate soil calcium depletion during the growth of a 50 year old Sitka spruce crop on acid, base-poor peaty podzol soils in upland Wales. Growth of the crop will deplete the soil calcium reserve by an amount (205 kg Ca ha -1 ) approximately equivalent to the exchangeable calcium pool to the bottom of the profile and equal to 14% of the total soil calcium reserve to the bottom of the B horizon. Despite these predictions, measurements of exchangeable calcium show no differences beneath mature forest and acid grassland, implying that i) weathering rates in forest soils are greater than long-term estimates and predictions by the PROFILE soil chemistry model ii) the trees can access other sources of calcium or iii) there are significant errors in the mass balance. Following stem-only harvesting, growth of a 50 year old second rotation crop will lead to further depletion of soil calcium, but this amount (79 kg Ca ha -1 ), is less than for a second rotation crop following whole-tree harvesting (197 kg Ca ha -1 ). After the first crop, stem-only harvesting would allow a further 18 rotations before depletion of the total calcium reserve to the bottom of the B horizon. Whole-tree harvesting would allow for seven rotations after the first crop. These calculations assume that all sources of calcium are equally available to the crop. This can only be resolved by dynamic modelling of the calcium cycle at the ecosystem scale based on appropriate field measurements. The potential for significant soil acidification is therefore greater following whole-tree harvesting and, in line with current recommendations (Nisbet et al. , 1997), this technique should probably be avoided on acidic, nutrient-poor soils unless remedial measures are included to enhance the soil base cation status.


Elevated insulin levels have been associated with an increased cancer risk as well as with aggressive and metastatic cancer phenotypes characterized by a poor prognosis. Insulin stimulates the proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of cancer cells through diverse transduction pathways, including estrogen signaling. As G protein estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1) mediates rapid cell responses to estrogens, we evaluated the potential of insulin to regulate GPER1 expression and function in leiomyosarcoma cancer cells (SKUT-1) and breast cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), which were used as a model system. We found that insulin transactivates the GPER1 promoter sequence and increases the mRNA and protein expression of GPER1 through the activation of the PRKCD/MAPK1/c-Fos/AP1 transduction pathway, as ascertained by means of specific pharmacological inhibitors and gene-silencing experiments. Moreover, cell migration triggered by insulin occurred through GPER1 and its main target gene CTGF, whereas the insulin-induced expression of GPER1 boosted cell-cycle progression and the glucose uptake stimulated by estrogens. Notably, a positive correlation between insulin serum levels and GPER1 expression was found in cancer fibroblasts obtained from breast cancer patients. Altogether, our data indicate that GPER1 may be included among the complex network of transduction signaling triggered by insulin that drives cells toward cancer progression.


This study describes a patient with an autograft-derived spinal cord mass following transplantation of olfactory mucosa for treatment of cervical spine injury. The authors report the case of a 35-year-old man who suffered a complete spinal cord injury (SCI) at C5-6 in 2001. The patient underwent an olfactory mucosal cell implantation at the location of injury 4 years following initial trauma. Twelve years later, the patient presented with rapidly progressive decline in upper-extremity function as well as neuropathic pain. Imaging revealed a heterogeneously enhancing intramedullary mass from C3 to C7. At surgery, the patient was found to have a posttransplant mucinous mass. Each mucinous cyst was drained and a portion of the cyst wall was removed. Histological examination demonstrated ciliated epithelium-lined fibrous tissue, submucosal glands, and mucoid material, consistent with a transplant-derived tumor. This case report both documents a rare long-term complication of olfactory mucosal cell transplantation and serves as a cautionary tale encouraging prudent use of novel treatments in a vulnerable population of patients with severe SCI.


INTRODUCTION

Empirical analysis of the behavioural impact of a wide range of travel variables has been conducted extensively in Britain over the past forty years or so. With the likely exception of the value of travel time (Wardman, 2001), the most widely estimated parameters have been price elasticities of demand and in particular public transport fare elasticities. The wealth of available evidence provides an excellent opportunity to obtain greater insights into fare elasticities and their determinants.

There have been numerous notable reviews of price elasticities (Ely, 1976; TRF&, 1980; Goodwin and Williams, 1985; Goodwin, 1992; Oum et al, 1992; Halcrow Fox et al., 1993; Wardman, 1997; Nijkamp et al., 1998; Pratt, 2000; De Jong and Gunn, 2001; Graham and Glaister, 2002; VTPI, 2003). The unique features of this study are that it covers a much larger amount of public transport evidence and a broader range of issues than previous reviews and, more significantly, it has developed a model to explain variations in fare elasticities across studies.

This review covers 902 public transport fare elasticities obtained from 104 studies conducted in Britain between 1951 and 2002. The markets covered are inter-urban rail travel, suburban rail travel, urban bus travel and London underground.


This paper discusses the policy lessons learned from the two waves of pension reforms in Eastern European EU member states. It focuses, in particular, on the changing approach to the fiscal implications of pension privatization. In the next section, we provide an overview of the two waves of pension reforms as well as the political and economic factors that conditioned the outcomes. Then, we focus on the problem of financing the funding gap related to the diversion of contributions from the public pension system to private schemes, a key issue that was sidestepped in the first wave of reforms, largely because of a lack of understanding of the problem. The funding gap was underestimated, mainly because of a mistaken argument that explicit debt can be ignored as it replaces implicit debt. The third section addresses the actual solutions to this problem, showing that it remained largely unresolved in the first wave of reform, despite the learning process that accompanied the implementation of pension privatization. The final section then discusses the new rationale that informs the second wave of reforms: the 'diversification argument'. Its growing importance in the policy debate indicates a learning process in which many of the myths that influenced the policy debates in the first wave of reforms were dispelled. However, the diversification argument itself can be seen as old wine in new bottles because its underlying rationale is largely based on one of the myths of the first wave of reforms — that is, the assumption that pre-funding can hedge against the macroeconomic shock induced by demographic ageing. Once this and other misunderstandings are put aside, what remains as a rationale for pension privatization in the second wave is not so much a positive-economics argument, but a mistrust of the state and collective provisions of social insurance. The comparison of the costs and benefits of diversification thus suggests that the second proverbial basket comes at a rather steep price.


Abstract The city of Iaşi with a population of over 300,000 people is the biggest European Union city at the border with the former-Soviet space. The article, part of an extended study on territorial development of Iaşi and its peri-urban area, focuses on the role of the city to trigger regional growth and to enhance cross border cooperation. Recent processes at work generating economic cohesion and integration are explored drawing on the catalytic factors of development and the specialization of local economies. The paper discusses also the externalities of urban growth such as the urban sprawl that causes land use conflicts at the rural-urban fringe. It argues that human capital and higher birth rates than the national average are the strengths, and low connectivity and accessibility are the weaknesses for regional growth. The regional polarization of the city is based on the supply of high level services over the entire North-East Region and opportunities to cross border cooperation through the expansion of an agro-alimentary supply-chain are highlighted. Building on the main capabilities and assets of the agglomeration economies of Iaşi, the paper finally identifies some of the mechanisms and structures that foster urban and regional growth. THE ECONOMY OF A REGIONAL METROPOLIS. CASE-STUDY: IAŞI, ROMANIA*1


An updated review by Philippe Grandjean, published in Environmental Health on December 19, 2019, of developmental fluoride neurotoxicity concluded that recent epidemiological results support the notion that elevated fluoride intake during early development can result in IQ deficits that may be considerable. He noted that the recognition of neurotoxic risks is necessary when determining the safety of fluoridecontaminated drinking water and fluoride uses for preventive dentistry purposes. In contrast, another review by Guth et al., published online in Archives of Toxicology on May 8, 2020, concluded that fluoride was not a human developmental neurotoxicant at the current exposure levels in Europe where there is a mean fluoride intake in adults of 5–14 μg/kg bw/day in areas with a low drinking water fluoride level and of 30–40 μg/kg bw/day in areas with a high drinking water fluoride level. This editorial explores the reasons for the different conclusions being reached and finds that Guth et al. reached their conclusion by not considering the well-designed 2017 prospective cohort study by Basash et al. in sufficient detail to recognize that intrauterine exposure to fluoride is more important than exposure at 6–12 years in causing developmental fluoride neurotoxicity and by not considering the calculations made of the threshold for the drinking water fluoride level for the development of fluoride-induced neurotoxicity of approximately 0.2 mg/L, calculated by Hirzy et al. in 2016 and Grandjean in 2019. A drinking water fluoride level of 0.2 mg/L would result in a fluoride intake of 0.248 mg day or 3.5 μg/kg bw/day in a 70 kg adult with a water intake of 1.24 L/day which is less than the mean adult European intakes of 5–14 and 30–40 μg/kg bw/day in areas with low and high drinking water fluoride levels, respectively. The conclusions that can be drawn from the studies by Basash et al, Hirzy et al., and Grandjean, together with the prospective studies by Valdez Jiménez et al. and Green et al., are that intrauterine exposure to fluoride is more important than exposure during childhood at age 6–12 years in causing developmental fluoride neurotoxicity and that the threshold level for drinking water fluoride for the development of this effect is approximately 0.2 mg/L. A further 2019 study by Till et al. indicates that the developing brain may also be adversely affected by exposure to drinking water with approximately 0.6 mg/L of fluoride during infancy. Accordingly, exposure of pregnant women and infants to community water fluoridation, with water with 0.7 mg/L of fluoride, the level recommended in the USA for community water fluoridation, or with 0.6–0.8 mg/L the level recommended in the Republic of Ireland, or to the current exposure levels in Europe, where there is a mean fluoride intake in adults of 5–14 μg/kg bw/day in areas with a low drinking water fluoride level and of 30–40 μg/kg bw/day in areas with a high drinking water fluoride level, is unsafe, will lead to a fluoride intake that exceeds the threshold for developmental fluoride neurotoxicity of 0.2 mg/L or 3.5 μg/kg bw/day, and will result in the occurrence of developmental fluoride neurotoxicity. For these reasons, rather than accepting the reassurance of Guth et al., the editorial concurs with Grandjean's conclusion.


When electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) are employed as summative assessments for degree granting programs, it is imperative that students demonstrate their knowledge in the field to showcase learning growth and achievement of the program learning outcomes. This study examined the extent graduate students in the field of educational technology demonstrated their technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) related elements in their e-portfolio reflection, when they were guided by the TPACK framework grounded instruction. Using content analysis technique and open-ended survey responses, the findings showed that students were able to demonstrate their interconnected technological pedagogical knowledge in their reflection to justify their competencies. In addition, students had positive reactions to the opportunity to reflect through writing the reflection paper. This study contributes to the e-portfolio literature by signifying the importance of providing a discipline-specific framework to guide students' reflection of learning. The TPACK grounded instruction helped students stay focused on their reflection. This study also contributes to the teacher education and the TPACK literature by exploring the extent to which students present their integrated knowledge of TPACK at the end of a program driven to developing students' technology integration expertise.


We investigated the presence of K-ras gene mutation in plasma DNA and assessed its clinical value in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Mutations in codon 12 of the K-ras gene were examined by mutant allele-specific amplification method using DNA extracted from surgical specimens and plasma samples of 21 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. K-ras gene mutation was detected in 15 of 21 (71%) primary tumors. In 9 of 15 (60%) patients with K-ras gene mutation-positive tumors, an identical mutation was detected in the plasma DNA. None of four patients with chronic pancreatitis or five healthy subjects had such mutations in plasma DNA. Tumors positive for K-ras gene mutation in plasma DNA were significantly larger (P = 0.04) and less likely to result in a curative cure after surgical resection (P = 0.09) than those negative for the mutation. Other clinicopathological features, including age, sex, histological type, mode of invasion, and metastasis, did not correlate with K-ras gene mutations in plasma DNA. Treatment resulted in disappearance of K-ras gene mutations in plasma DNA in six of nine (67%) patients. Three patients with a persistently positive K-ras gene mutation in pre- and post-treatment plasma samples were likely to show early recurrence or have a progressive disease. Our findings suggest that K-ras gene mutation can be detected in plasma DNA of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Detection of K-ras mutations in plasma may be clinically useful for evaluating tumor burden and efficacy of treatment.


Objective: To compare the clinical approach and outcomes of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) patients in the last two decades (1996-2005 vs 2006-2015) in a neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: Out of 1,196 admissions of very low birth weight and/or less than 32 weeks of gestational age infants, 96 had BPD and were dichotomized into two groups according to the year of birth (1996-2005 and 2006-2015). Their clinical data were studied and conclusions were drawn about their morbidity and mortality. Results: There was a decrease in mortality (23.3% vs. 14.4%, p < 0.001) and in BPD prevalence (9.7% vs 6.1%, p = 0.023); in the delivery room, early nasal continuous positive airways pressure (nCPAP) was used in 41.2% vs 1.6%, p < 0.001 and tracheal intubation in 70.6% vs 96.8%, p < 0.001. We observed an increase on the duration of non-invasive ventilation (nCPAP, 22.5 vs 45.5 days, p < 0.001) and a decrease of invasive ventilation (39.5 vs 20 days, p = 0.013) from the first to the second period. Conclusions: Improvement in perinatal and neonatal intensive care practices, namely the use of non-invasive methods of mechanical ventilation implemented in the last years, probably contributed to the better evolution of preterm infants with BPD.


Soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins are essential for membrane fusion in transport between the yeast ER and Golgi compartments. Subcellular fractionation experiments demonstrate that the ER/Golgi SNAREs Bos1p, Sec22p, Bet1p, Sed5p, and the Rab protein, Ypt1p, are distributed similarly but localize primarily with Golgi membranes. All of these SNARE proteins are efficiently packaged into COPII vesicles and suggest a dynamic cycling of SNARE machinery between ER and Golgi compartments. Ypt1p is not efficiently packaged into vesicles under these conditions. To determine in which membranes protein function is required, temperature-sensitive alleles of BOS1, BET1, SED5, SLY1, and YPT1 that prevent ER/Golgi transport in vitro at restrictive temperatures were used to selectively inactivate these gene products on vesicles or on Golgi membranes. Vesicles bearing mutations in Bet1p or Bos1p inhibit fusion with wild-type acceptor membranes, but acceptor membranes containing these mutations are fully functional. In contrast, vesicles bearing mutations in Sed5p, Sly1p, or Ypt1p are functional, whereas acceptor membranes containing these mutations block fusion. Thus, this set of SNARE proteins is symmetrically distributed between vesicle and acceptor compartments, but they function asymmetrically such that Bet1p and Bos1p are required on vesicles and Sed5p activity is required on acceptor membranes. We propose the asymmetry in SNARE protein function is maintained by an asymmetric distribution and requirement for the Ypt1p GTPase in this fusion event. When a transmembrane-anchored form of Ypt1p is used to restrict this GTPase to the acceptor compartment, vesicles depleted of Ypt1p remain competent for fusion.


Due to the latest research the subject of Computational Intelligence has been divided into five main regions, namely, neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, immunological systems and fuzzy systems. Our attention has been attracted by the possibilities of medical applications provided by immunological computation algorithms. Immunological computation systems are based on immune reactions of the living organisms in order to defend the bodies from pathological substances. Especially, the mechanisms of the T-cell reactions to detect strangers have been converted into artificial numerical algorithms. Immunological systems have been developed in scientific books and reports appearing during the two last decades. The basic negative selection algorithm NS was invented by Stefanie Forrest to give rise to some technical applications. We can note such applications of NS as computer virus detection, reduction of noise effect, communication of autonomous agents or identification of time varying systems. Even a trial of connection between a computer and biological systems has been proved by means of immunological computation. Hybrids made between different fields can provide researchers with richer results; therefore associations between immunological systems and neural networks have been developed as well. In the current chapter we propose another hybrid between the NS algorithm and chosen solutions coming from fuzzy systems. This hybrid constitutes the own model of adapting the NS algorithm to the operation decisions "operate" contra "do not operate" in gastric cancer surgery. The choice between two possibilities to treat patients is identified with the partition of a decision region in self and non-self, which is similar to the action of the NS algorithm. The partition is accomplished on the basis of patient data strings/vectors that contain codes of states concerning some essential biological markers. To be able to identify the strings that characterize the "operate" decision we add the own method of computing the patients' characteristics as real values. The evaluation of the patients' characteristics is supported by inserting importance weights assigned to powerful biological indices taking place in the operation decision process. To compute the weights of importance the Saaty algorithm is adopted.


A reflective flexible display was fabricated by placing a thermochromic pigment on a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate coated with an indium tin oxide (ITO) film, and its thermo-optical characteristics were investigated. The reflective thermochromic display showed good image quality with a reflectance of approximately 65%. As a flexible display, the display showed reliability without damage to the image even after the display was bent strongly. The reflective display cell exhibits continuously the gray level according to the temperature controlled by applied voltage. This low cost display is expected be used in outdoor poster applications where information needs to be presented clearly.


In the second paper, spectral decomposition is used to explain the origin of the asymmetry of the anti-phase structure (APS) and its temperature dependence in dynamic spin correlated radical pairs (SCRPs) created via the photoreduction of benzophenone (BP) in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles. It is shown that the main parameters defining the spectral shape of the TREPR spectra are the effectiveness of the electron spin exchange in contact pairs, and the ratio of the frequency of enforced encounters ( Z ) to the frequency of singlet–triplet mixing ( q ) in the separated radical pairs. The Z / q ratio is particularly important for the creation of the APS asymmetry. The existence of different q values in the same TREPR spectrum in this system affords the observation of SCRPs in both regimes: exchange broadening (large | q |/ Z ) and exchange narrowing (small | q |/ Z ). An important observation, supported by the successful simulation of the TREPR spectra, is that the S-component of the APS can be shifted in a direction opposite to that predicted by the earlier Closs–Forbes–Norris (CFN) model. This result is naturally explained in terms of a spectral exchange approach. Dispersion-like components in the spectra further amplify the asymmetry of the APS.


Determining the cause of stroke does influence choices for management. categorization of subtypes of ischemic stroke has had considerable study, but definitions are hard to formulate and their application for diagnosis in an individual patient is often problematic. Cerebral ischemia initiates a complex cascade of events at genomic, molecular, and cellular levels, and inflammation is important in this cascade. In 1993 for For the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST), Adams et al] conducted a placebo-controlled, randomized, blinded study of the low-molecular-weight heparinoid given to patients within 24 hours after stroke and developed a system for diagnosis of subtype of ischemic stroke that uses components of existing diagnostic schemes. The type of acute ischemic stroke was classified according to the TOAST classification: 1) Large Artery AtheroSclerosis (LAAS); 2) CardioEmbolic Infarct (CEI); 3) LACunar infarct (LAC); 4) stroke of Other Determined Etiology (ODE); 5) stroke of UnDetermined Etiology (UDE) (see Fig. (1)). On the basis of pathophysiologic differences of each stroke subtype it's possible to hypothesize a different pattern of immuno-inflammatory activation in relation of ischemic stroke subtype. A nonspecific systemic inflammatory response occurs after both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, either as part of the process of brain damage or in response to complications such as deep venous thrombosis. Several studies have reported that higher levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are associated with worse outcome after ischemic stroke. Our group reported that patients with cardioembolic subtype showed significantly higher median plasma levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β whereas the lacunar subtype showed significantly lower median plasma levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β. Our findings underlined the significant association was noted between the severity of neurological deficit at admission, the diagnostic subtype and some inflammatory variables.


Through the lens of China in Africa, this paper explores the transformations in the relationship between the Internet and the state. China's economic success, impressive growth of Internet users and relative stability have quietly promoted an example of how the Internet can be deployed within the larger political and economic strategies of developing states, moving beyond the democratization paradigm promoted in the West. New evidence suggests that this model is becoming increasingly popular, but it is not clear why and how it is spreading. Through a case study comparison of an emerging democracy, Kenya, and a semiauthoritarian country, Ethiopia, where China has recently increased its involvement in the communications sector, this paper investigates whether and how the ideas of state stability, development and community that characterize the strategies pursued by the Chinese government are influencing and legitimizing the development of a less open model of the Internet. It analyses how new ideas, technologies and norms integrate with existing ones and which factors influence their adoption or rejection. It is based on fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia and in Kenya between 2011 and 2013, where data was collected through mapping Internet related projects involving Chinese companies and authorities, analysing Internet policies and regulations, and interviewing officials in Ministries of Communication, media lawyers, Internet activists, and Chinese employed in the media and telecommunication sector in Kenya and Ethiopia.


In this study, the possibility to produce creamed honey from liquid clover and cotton honey using glucose powder and temperature of 5°C was investigated. Various glucose powder amounts were added to the liquid honey as 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4% (w/w). Then, some parameters as well as the potential use of creamed honey as natural feeding to honey bee colonies were studied. The results showed that creamed honey can be produced after 2 weeks at 5°C using glucose powder with % of 1.2, 1.8 or 2.4. A negative correlation (r = -0.84) was found between glucose powder (%) and time needed till full crystallization. The increase in glucose (%) caused a reduction in % of fructose, sucrose and moisture. Honey bee colonies consumed creamed honey either of clover or cotton within 24 hours. Creamed cotton honey can be used to feed honey bee colonies when necessary. Especially because cotton honey has very low marketable value due to its undesirable color, scent and taste. Using creamed honey can be considered as a solution to overcome problems of using liquid honey as feeding to honey bees (e.g. the death of bee workers inside the liquid honey). The study presents a simple technology to produce creamed honey using glucose powder and a refrigerator. Also, using creamed honey as natural feeding to honey bee colonies was highlighted.


Primula allionii is endemic to a tiny area of the Maritime Alps and has one of the narrowest distribution ranges in this hotspot of biodiversity. Phylogeographical patterns in P. allionii were studied using plastid DNA markers and dominantly inherited markers (AFLP and ISSR) to verify any admixture between P. allionii and the sympatric P. marginata and to detect the phylogeographical history of the species. Morphometric measurements of flowers and admixture analysis support the hypothesis that hybridization occurs in nature. Species distribution models using two climate models (CCSM and MIROC) suggested a reduction in habitat suitability during cold periods. Phylogeographical analysis suggested an old allopatric divergence during the mid-Pleistocene transition (about 0.8 Mya) without recolonization/contraction cycles. The Alps watershed does not act as a strong barrier between the two main areas of the distribution range, and moderate gene flow by pollen seems to create the admixture recorded among the stands. According to our results, the persistence of P. allionii throughout the Ice Age appears to be linked to the capacity of the Maritime Alps to provide a wide diversity of microhabitats consistent with the recent biogeographical pattern proposed for the Mediterranean Basin. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 173, 637–653.


We survey a selection of inconsistency measures from the literature and investigate their computational complexity wrt. decision problems related to bounds on the inconsistency value and the functional problem of determining the actual value. Our findings show that those inconsistency measures can be partitioned into three classes related to their complexity. The first class contains measures whose complexity are located on the first level of the polynomial hierarchy, the second class contains measures on the second level of the polynomial hierarchy, and the third class is located beyond the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. We provide membership results for all the investigated problems and completeness results for most of them.


A common objective in learning a model from data is to recover its network structure, while the model parameters are of minor interest. For example, we may wish to recover regulatory networks from high-throughput data sources. In this paper we examine how Bayesian regularization using a product of independent Dirichlet priors over the model parameters affects the learned model structure in a domain with discrete variables. We show that a small scale parameter - often interpreted as "equivalent sample size" or "prior strength" - leads to a strong regularization of the model structure (sparse graph) given a sufficiently large data set. In particular, the empty graph is obtained in the limit of a vanishing scale parameter. This is diametrically opposite to what one may expect in this limit, namely the complete graph from an (unregularized) maximum likelihood estimate. Since the prior affects the parameters as expected, the scale parameter balances a trade-off between regularizing the parameters vs. the structure of the model. We demonstrate the benefits of optimizing this trade-off in the sense of predictive accuracy.


Interim Reports on work of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis receive only limited review. Views or opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Institute, its National Member Organizations, or other organizations supporting the work. Abstract This report is the second part of an investigation of the potential of dynamic microsimulation for modeling and projection of health care demand, health care finance and the economic impact of health behavior. While the first part (Spielauer, 2002) provided a theoretical and methodological background of dynamic microsimulation in this research area and compared the microsimulation approach with the cell-based macro-approach, this paper contains a survey of existing microsimulation projects and draws some conclusions with regard to health care modeling. The purpose of this survey is to capitalize on the expertise acquired by what is now more than 40 years of dynamic microsimulation model development with regard to modeling health care demand, health care finance and the economic impact of health behavior. Based on literature research, 33 dynamic microsimulation projects were identified for which documentation is available. While a short description and classification of these projects is given in the appendix of this report, 9 projects are reviewed in more detail. All of these 9 models include health-related variables, however, the range of health-related issues that can be studied using these models varies widely, as health is not the central focus of the majority of the models. Consequently, this review does not exclusively concentrate on the treatment of health issues in microsimulation models, but the selection of models was also made with the intention to cover most approaches towards dynamic data-based microsimulation with regard to the general structure and modeling options. The review focuses on the modeling of demographic and health behaviors and on the way these models are integrated into the whole model structure, including policy and accounting issues. After giving a brief description of each of the selected models, the modeling approaches are summarized and commented by means of five distinguished criteria. These are the use of alignment techniques, the model's complexity and range of variables used, the theoretical foundation of the model, the type of starting population used, and the extent and detail of financial issues covered. The conclusions are then summarized in a series of " lessons " that can be learned from existing projects.


Considering the acceleration of social time encouraged by the ever increasing speed in the circulation of goods and products in the current phase of capitalist development, it becomes essential to reflect on the configuration of social sensibilities. Particularly, the logic is embodied in the way city dwellers are, in their feelings and in their modes of possessing (physical things/property). Based on observations from Argentine life that illustrate the unequal access to basic urban services and goods, this article assesses the concept of "waiting mechanism" and its articulation with social sensibilities in peripheral urban contexts. The main assumptions of this analysis are that "waiting" affects bodies and that the experience of the city results from the class inter-play of social and bodily distance and proximity, which opens certain paths and closes others. From this standpoint, it is demonstrated that this "logic of waiting" yields feelings of helplessness socially reproduced through the assertion that "things will always be this way" and structured from the repetition of the experience of lacking (lack of access to basic sanitation, lack of possibilities of transportation, and so on). Thus, the emergence of "waiting" as an ability becomes problematic since it is one of the mechanisms manifesting the living conditions of people (and their historically constructed sensibilities) from the outskirts of cities in the twenty-first century.


Knowledge of protein function is necessary for understanding biological systems, but the discovery of new sequences from high-throughput sequencing technologies far outpaces their functional characterization. Beyond the problem of assigning newly sequenced proteins to known functions, a more challenging issue is discovering novel protein functions. The space of possible functions becomes unlimited when considering designed proteins. Protein function prediction, as it is framed in the case of Gene Ontology term prediction, is a multilabel classification problem with a hierarchical label space. However, this framing does not provide guiding principles for discovering completely novel functions. Here we propose a neural machine translation model in order to generate descriptions of protein functions in natural language. In this way, instead of making predictions in a limited label space, our model generates descriptions in the language space, and thus is capable of composing novel functions. Given the novelty of our approach, we design metrics to evaluate the performance of our model: correctness, specificity and robustness. We provide results of our model in the zero-shot classification setting, scoring functional descriptions that the model has not seen before for proteins that have limited homology to those in the training set. Finally, we show generated function descriptions compared to ground truth descriptions for qualitative evaluation.


Using the case of a low cost airline company's website we analyze some special research questions of information technology valuation. The distinctive characteristics of this research are the ex post valuation perspective; the parallel and comparative use of accounting and business valuation approaches; and the integrated application of discounted cash flow and real option valuation. As the examined international company is a strategic user of e-technology and wants to manage and account intangible IT-assets explicitly, these specific valuation perspectives are gaining practical significance.


A wide range of pectolytic bacteria inflict damages in ornamental plants. Accurate identification and determination phenotypic and genotypic variation in populations of these bacteria are necessary to implement effective control methods. Thirty-eight isolates of leaf and fleshy parts of ornamental plants from different greenhouses in Guilan, Golestan, East of Mazandaran and Mashhad were collected. The phenotypic features, electrophoretic pattern of cell proteins and DNA fingerprints of the isolates were studied. According to the differential phenotypic characteristics, the isolates were assigned to Pectobacterium, Dickeya and Intermediate species. In numerical analysis of biochemical and physiological features, the isolates were divided to 12 groups. The cell protein pattern of the isolates was diverse and was only useful for preliminary grouping of the isolates. Genomic DNA fragments of representative isolates and eleven references strains were amplified with ERIC, BOX and REP primers. According to the combined dendrogram of the rep-PCR electrophorograms, the isolates were clustered to several groups at a low level of similarity to the reference strains. It seems that rep-PCR is not a useful approach for differentiation of pectolytic erwinias at species or subspecies levels.


Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-limiting single gene disorder in Caucasian populations. CF results from mutations in the gene encoding the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, which leads to accumulation of thick and sticky mucus in the airways of people with CF, ultimately dampening immune clearance of potential respiratory pathogens. In fact, chronic airway infection by the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the major cause of mortality and morbidity in individuals with CF. The ability of P. aeruginosa to chronically infect the airways of people with CF stems, in part at least, from its remarkable capacity to grow as complex multi-cellular communities called biofilms, which offer protection from host immune responses and eradication by conventional antibiotics. Biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa is co-ordinated by a cell density-dependent signalling system called quorum sensing (QS). While P.aeruginosa has multiple QS systems, the major system involves the diffusible signallingmolecule N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (C12HSL). C12HSL not only acts an important biofilm signalling molecule but also regulates bacterial virulence factor production. In addition, C12HSL has gene modulatory and cytotoxic effects in host cells. Collectively, these properties have stimulated much research interest in developing novel antimicrobial therapies that specifically target QS.
The present study investigated the potential of using the human enzyme, Paraoxonase-2 (PON2), to target and inhibit biofilm formation by, and virulence of, P. aeruginosa. Human PON2 is usually produced intracellularly and has previously been demonstrated to have highly specific hydrolytic activity towards C12HSL, and thereby seems to represent an innate mechanism by which host cells might attempt to counter P. aeruginosa QS, and hence infection by this organism. Here, it was hypothesized that the virulence of, and biofilm-formation by, P. aeruginosa could be diminished by manipulating human PON2 (hPON2) levels, either by augmenting native PON2 expression, or by supplementing lactonase activity using a recombinant form of human PON2 (rhPON2) exogenously. Thus, the aim of the first part of this thesis was to determine the gene modulatory and cytotoxic effects of C12HSL on airway epithelia, and investigate the regulation of PON2 expression in mammalian cells. The second part of this thesis was aimed at producing rhPON2 and investigating whether exogenously supplied rhPON2 could disrupt P. aeruginosa QS, and thereby increase its susceptibility to the clinically relevant antibiotic tobramycin.
C12HSL was found to alter gene expression in cultured airway epithelial cells, even at low concentrations. This included the down-regulation of genes involved in immune signalling and the unfolded protein response. C12HSL also induced apoptosis and affected epithelial cell viability and metabolic activity in a concentration dependent manner. The results also show that while C12HSL itself did not significantly alter the expression of native PON2 in airway epithelial cells, PON2 gene expression and PON2 protein levels rapidly increased in response to agonism of the major mammalian C12HSL receptor PPARγ; in turn, these results would seem to link the regulation of human PON2 to a known major regulator of the inflammatory response.
Recombinant hPON2 was able to hydrolyse almost all detectable C12HSL produced in P. aeruginosa cultures with no effect on bacterial growth. Treatment of P. aeruginosa cultures with rhPON2 tended to decrease expression of all three P. aeruginosa QS systems and associated virulence genes. Importantly, rhPON2-dependent hydrolysis of C12HSL during bacterial growth, significantly increased the susceptibility of P. aeruginosa cells to the bactericidal effects of the antibiotic tobramycin. In contrast, treatment of P. aeruginosa with rhPON2 combined with a high concentration of tobramycin, whilst hydrolysing the C12HSL and increasing bacterial killing by over an order of magnitude, significantly up-regulated the expression levels of a number of important QS and QS-dependent virulence genes of P. aeruginosa including, lasI, lasB and algD. One interpretation of this result is that bacterial cells treated with this combination up-regulate lasI, the gene that catalyses C12HSL synthesis, and other virulence encoding genes, presumably due to antibiotic-induced stress, via a C12HSL-independent mechanism.
Taken together, the results of this thesis demonstrate that low-level C12HSL can influence gene expression in human airway cells, and reveal for the first time that native human PON2 expression is regulated via a major mammalian C12HSL receptor. In addition, rhPON2-treatment of P. aeruginosa leads to reduction of C12HSL levels and the reduction of bacterial virulence gene expression. The efficacy of rhPON2 in conjunction with antibiotics however, requires further investigation, using lower-concentrations (clinically achievable levels) of antibiotic and antibiotics with alternative mechanisms of action. The results of this thesis strongly support rhON2 being a novel and useful anti-Pseudomonal therapy.


As the primary programming language of the Microsoft .NET platform, C# will play a significant role in software development for the foreseeable future. As the language rapidly gains popularity in industry, tools made for C# development focus on the professional programmer, while leaving the beginning computer science student behind. To address this problem, we introduce Dr. C#, a simple lightweight development environment with an integrated, interactive Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL). Dr. C# helps flatten the learning curve of both the environment and the language, enabling students to quickly learn key elements of the language and focus more easily on concepts. Dr. C# thus serves not only as a learning tool for beginner students but also as a teaching tool for instructors. The editor is based on an open source IDE called SharpDevelop. This thesis describes the implementation of Dr. C# focusing primarily on building the REPL and integrating with SharpDevelop.


X-band marine radar systems are flexible and low-cost tools for monitoring multiple targets in a surveillance area. Although they may suffer from several sources of interference, e.g., sea clutter, they can provide high-resolution measurements in both space and time. Such features offer the opportunity to get accurate information not only about the target kinematics, i.e., positions and velocities, as other conventional radars, but also about the targets' extents. This research area is named extended target tracking (ETT). In this paper, we propose a signal processing chain composed by a detector and a joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) tracker to handle the problem of multiple ETT and to jointly estimate both the targets' kinematics and their sizes, i.e., length and width. The performance assessment is conducted on real data acquired by an X-band marine radar located in the Gulf of La Spezia, Italy. The experimental results demonstrate the ability of the processing chain to reach high performance with a limited computational burden.


A process flow is developed for releasing and transfer printing silicon-on-insulator devices. High alignment accuracy (better than ±1um) transfer printing of silicon coupons is demonstrated. Transfer printing alignment markers on source coupons and target wafers were used in a center-to-center alignment method. Notches on the sides of the devices and on the target were implemented for measuring misalignment using scanning electron microscopy. This work proves that transfer-printing technology can be used for the scalable heterogeneous integration of silicon photonic devices with optical interfaces allowing for a +/1μm misalignment.


Passive optical networks are the most promising networks for the future. In 1998, the first standard of PONs was developed. Since that time, quality of optical transmissions and technologies has been massively improved and today's standards are capable of transferring an enormous amount of data. For example, NG-PON2 networks are able to transfer up to 40 Gbit/s, which means these networks provide subscribers with a symmetric bandwidth up to 10 Gbit/s using 4 different wavelengths. The higher transmission speeds are required, the more sophisticated bandwidth allocation reflecting requirements of each ONU in real-time is necessary. This article deals with implementation of NG-PON2 networks using OPNET Modeler and simulations of static and dynamic grants allocations. We also present a modification of dynamic bandwidth allocation for increasing the free bandwidth of idle ONU to heavily loaded ONU(s). We propose a simplified NG-PON2 network, for example, activation machine for ONUs is not implemented.


What creative methods of research communication can help scholars get their message 'out there' effectively? In Creative Research Communication: Theory and Practice, Clare Wilkinson and Emma Weitkamp offer a new guide accessible to researchers working across the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences. Wilkinson and Weitkamp successfully blend the theoretical and the practical in an approachable manner in an excellent book full of interesting and relevant content for academics and non-academics alike, writes Paul Webb.


The fame, talent, and success of the Beatles need no introduction. Nor does the world need another book exploring the band's skill and its influence on music and society in the United States, Britain, and the rest of the world. Andre Millard instead studies the Beatlemania phenomenon from an original perspective - the relationship among the music business, recording technologies, and teens and young adult culture of the era. Millard argues that, despite the Beatles' indisputable skill, they would not have attained the global recognition and been as influential without the convergence of significant developments in the way music was produced, recorded, sold, and consumed. As the Second Industrial Revolution hit full swing and baby boomers came of age, the reel-to-reel recorder and other technological advances sped the evolution of the music business. Musicians, recording studios and record labels, and music fans used and interacted with music-making and -playing technology in new ways. Higher quality machines made listening to records and the radio an experience that one could easily share with others, even if they weren't in the same physical space. At the same time, an increase in cross-Atlantic commerce - especially of entertainment products - led to a freer exchange of ideas and styles of expression, notably among the middle and lower classes in the U.S. and the UK. At that point, Millard argues, the Beatles rode their remarkable musicianship and cultural savvy to an unprecedented bond with their fans-and spawned Beatlemania. Refreshing and insightful, "Beatlemania" offers a deeper understanding the days of the Fab Four and the band's long-term effects on the business and culture of pop music.


Abstract Globular clusters (GCs) are rich of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and might also host single or binary intermediate–mass black holes (IMBHs). We simulate 3- and 4-body encounters in order to test the possibility that an IMBH captures a MSP. The newly formed system could be revealed from the timing signal of the MSP, providing an unambiguous measure of the BH mass. In current surveys, the number of expected [IMBH,MSP] binaries in the Milky Way is ~0.1. If next-generation radio telescopes (e.g. SKA) will detect ~10 times more MSPs in GCs, we expect to observe at least one [IMBH,MSP] binary.


We depart this year from our usual practice for MR's July–August double issue. Instead of a collection of articles on a common theme, we are devoting the issue to a single manuscript—a study of China and economic development theory by Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett that will be published in book form by Monthly Review Press early next year. Although there are numerous books on China, this one is especially worthy. It is a careful, clear, well-grounded Marxist study of how a major post-revolutionary society turned away from socialism. In addition, the current transformation in China throws light on why capitalism, by its very nature, creates poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction in the process of economic growth. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


This is a prevalence study with the first specific description of drowning cases in a non-coastal area of Brazil, in the locality of Ribeirao Preto, State of Sao Paulo region with standards of living comparable to those in developed countries regarding the establishment of preventative measures for this specific kind of injury.

Methodology
An analysis of the forensic documentation of 89 drowning cases occurred between 2001 and 2004. The pattern of drowning fatalities was studied in relation to parameters like age, sex, socio-economic background and evaluation of alcohol consumption.

Results
Rate of 2.69 cases per 100,000 habitants per year was observed. The predominant profile among drowning victims was that of the Caucasian male of economically productive age (15 to 59 years), accidentally drowned in rivers and dams in rural areas during the summer and autumn, being impossible the evaluation of alcohol consumption.

Conclusion and Relevance
The observation of the victim profile through the analysis of forensic reports allowed the development of a successful pilot program of drowning prevention that can be expanded to other non-coastal areas in Brazil, regarding the reduction of the number of victims by prevention. The difficulties in alcohol consumption analysis are discussed


We derive the contribution to relativistic galaxy number count fluctuations from vector and tensor perturbations within linear perturbation theory. Our result is consistent with the the relativistic corrections to number counts due to scalar perturbation, where the Bardeen potentials are replaced with line-of-sight projection of vector and tensor quantities. Since vector and tensor perturbations do not lead to density fluctuations the standard density term in the number counts is absent. We apply our results to vector perturbations which are induced from scalar perturbations at second order and give numerical estimates of their contributions to the power spectrum of relativistic galaxy number counts.


This fantastic new collection picks up where Dorothy L. Sayers left off, bringing together monumental, important,and entertaining works of short crime fiction published over eight decades from the era of the Great Depression to the first uears of the twenty-first century. In lively introductory essays, celebrated crime writer Tony Hillerman and critic Rosemary Herbert place each story in the context of the author's work and the genre's literary history. Their extraordinary collection is international in scope and emphasizes the most exciting styles and voices, rather than taking a typical decade-by-decade approach. As a result A New Omnibus of Crime is packed with page-turning, engaging, and spine-tingling selections. Stories include Patricia Highsmith's "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie," Sue Grafton's "A Poison That Leaves No Trace," and many more, including never-before-published works from Jefferey Deaver, Catherine Aird, and Alexander McCall Smith.


To intervene efficiently in protecting the archaeological heritage it requires precise information, as well as the exact location, the limits of the site or the geomorphological features of the area. As such, an interdisciplinary research based on non-destructive, complementary methods of investigation, which can provide precious information on the underground archaeological remains, is required. The most convenient (affordable) prospection methods employed by archaeologists are, on the one hand, surface research (fieldwalking), which provides the data necessary for a chronological setting, and, on the other, air photography, which offers the possibility to identify the buried structures. The present paper focuses on the use of oblique air photography in the study of prehistoric sites and a case for generalising such practices in archaeological research, with reference to preliminary results obtained for a number of sites from north-eastern Romania.


A b s t r a c t Background There is little information on the factors that influence epidural uptake in the Middle East. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the uptake is low, overall, but rising due to socio-economic change and increased awareness of analgesia options in labour. The low prevalence of epidural in labour is influenced by many factors; however, there is a general lack of information about epidurals, both risks and benefits. Methods This study was a questionnaire -based study eliciting women's knowledge of epidural analgesia immediately post-delivery. It was based on a survey using a questionnaire with, largely, closed questions, with one final section inviting open-ended comments. Findings Almost half of the women stated that they did not want an epidural in labour (49.2%, n=125). About a fifth of the respondents (18.1%, n=46) stated that they planned to have an epidural. However, 44 women were undecided (17.3%) and 39 women (15.4%) stated that they did not know about epidurals. The main reason given for considering an epidural was for pain relief (37.7%, n=95), although the same percentage of women (37.8%, n=96) were clear that they did not want an epidural. Other reasons attracted few responses. Discussion This study demonstrated the lack of knowledge and understanding of epidurals by women in this region. However, some of the reasons for reluctance in accepting epidural analgesia may have cultural roots and this warrants further investigation. Pain relief options available to women should be discussed early in pregnancy by doctors and midwives, who understand the cultural societal norms and who are able to give evidence-based information about the choices available.


: The study purports to unveil performance of every organisation determining either the success or failure of the organisation. This refers to how well the organisation is doing in terms of production. However, several factors contribute to the growth of small businesses. As a result, the study intends to determine whether the identified different education levels, notably; below matric, matric and diploma/degree, impacts the identified different organisational growth aspects; financial, strategic, structural, and organisational growth which make up overall business growth. Therefore, the researcher considered using a research method which allows for detail-oriented data to be collected and incorporates human-experience and is always open-ended. As a result, the study adopted a quantitative method in which questionnaires were distributed amongst a sample of 167 respondents of entrepreneurs trained at a Centre for Entrepreneurship of a South African University. The results of the study indicate that the levels of education have an insufficient correlation with the different organisational growth aspects under this study. The study recommended that small business owners should familiarise themselves with different factors which have influence on different growth dimensions and the overall business growth due to the results indicating educational levels' none influence, posing a great argument against large parts of the literature addressed in the study. This will enable business owners to know what is important for business and what is not.


Abstract Although it is widely acknowledged that an understanding of mass attitudes about trade is crucial to the political economy of foreign commerce, only a handful of studies have addressed this topic. These studies have focused largely on testing two models, both of which emphasize that trade preferences are shaped by how trade affects an individual's income. The factor endowments or Heckscher-Ohlin model posits that these preferences are affected primarily by a person's skills. The specific factors or Ricardo-Viner model posits that trade preferences depend on the industry in which a person works. We find little support for either of these models using two representative national surveys of Americans. The only potential exception involves the effects of education. Initial tests indicate that educational attainment and support for open trade are directly related, which is often interpreted as support for the Heckscher-Ohlin model. However, further analysis reveals that education's effects are less representative of skill than of individuals' anxieties about involvement with out-groups in their own country and beyond. Furthermore, we find strong evidence that trade attitudes are guided less by material self-interest than by perceptions of how the U.S. economy as a whole is affected by trade.


This paper explores empirically the link between stocks returns Value-at-Risk (VaR) and the state of financial markets cycle. The econometric analysis is based on a simple vector autoregression setup. Using quarterly data from 1970Q4 to 2008Q4 for France, Germany and the United-Kingdom, it turns out that the k-year VaR of equities is actually dependent on the cycle phase: the expected losses as measured by the VaR are smaller in recession times than expansion periods, whatever the country and the horizon. These results strongly suggest that the European rules regarding the solvency capital requirements for insurance companies should adapt to the state of the financial market's cycle.


A cheque is a paper document that orders the transfer of money between bank accounts. Whilst an eighty-year-old in the UK is predicted on average to live at least another ten years, cheques may not. Despite many older peoples extensive use of cheques, UK banks are eager to abolish them and design electronic alternatives that are less costly to process and less vulnerable to fraud. This paper reports on two qualitative studies that explored the banking experiences of 23 people over eighty years old. Cheques support financial collaboration with others in ways that digital payment systems do not. We argue that whilst it might be possible to improve the design of digital payment systems to better support financial collaboration, the case for retaining and enhancing cheques is stronger. Rather than replace cheques, we must design ways of making them less costly to process and better linked to electronic payment methods.


Deficiency in a Mg2+ transporter is associated with defective antigen receptor–dependent activation of phospholipase C γ1 and Ca2+ flux in T cells. The study of patients with rare primary immunodeficiencies, inherited defects in the immune system that render the affected individuals more susceptible to infections, often leads to the discovery of previously uncharacterized aspects of immune regulation (see commentary by Wu and Veillette). Li et al. studied two brothers with a primary immunodeficiency characterized by decreased numbers of CD4+ T cells, chronic infection by Epstein-Barr virus, and defects in T cell receptor (TCR) signaling, including Ca2+ influx. Genetic analysis revealed that the brothers harbored an X-linked defect, namely, a deletion of part of MAGT1, a gene that encodes a magnesium transporter protein (MagT1) found at the plasma membrane. Whereas TCR stimulation resulted in Mg2+ and Ca2+ influxes in T cells from normal donors, the immunodeficient T cells did not show TCR-dependent Mg2+ influx, and their Ca2+ influx was impaired. TCR stimulation of normal T cells in the absence of extracellular Mg2+ resulted in decreased Ca2+ influx; however, TCR stimulation in the absence of extracellular Ca2+ had no effect on Mg2+ influx, which, in combination with the previous data, suggested that Ca2+ influx was secondary to that of Mg2+. Knockdown of MagT1 in normal T cells by short interfering RNA (siRNA) recapitulated the TCR-stimulated Mg2+ and Ca2+ influx defects observed in T cells from the immunodeficient patients. Conversely, expression of full-length MagT1 in T cells from the immunodeficient patients restored Mg2+ influx and increased Ca2+ influx in response to TCR stimulation. Of the TCR-proximal signaling events examined in T cells from normal and immunodeficient individuals, only the activation of phospholipase C γ1 (PLC-γ1), which is required for TCR-stimulated Ca2+ influx, was defective in the immunodeficient T cells. Furthermore, events downstream of TCR activation that were independent of PLC-γ1 were unaffected by MagT1 deficiency. Although the mechanisms by which TCR stimulation activates MagT1 and Mg2+ influx leads to PLC-γ1 activation are unclear, these data suggest that Mg2+ may act as a second messenger in the activation of T cells. F.-Y. Li, B. Chaigne-Delalande, C. Kanellopoulou, J. C. Davis, H. F. Matthews, D. C. Douek, J. I. Cohen, G. Uzel, H. C. Su, M. J. Lenardo, Second messenger role for Mg2+ revealed by human T-cell immunodeficiency. Nature 475, 471–476 (2011). [PubMed] N. Wu, A. Veillette, Magnesium in a signalling role. Nature 475, 462–463 (2011). [PubMed]


Recent research efforts on study of silicon photonics utilizing stimulated Raman scattering have largely overlooked temperature effects. In this paper, we incorporated the temperature dependences into the key parameters governing wave propagation in silicon waveguides with Raman gain and investigated how the temperature affects the solution of the coupled-mode equations. We then carried out, as one particular application example, a numerical analysis of the performance of wavelength converters based on stimulated Raman scattering at temperatures ranging from 298 K to 500 K. The analysis predicted, among other things, that the wavelength conversion efficiency could decrease by as much as 12 dB at 500 K in comparison to that at the room temperature. These results indicate that it is necessary to take a careful account of temperature effects in designing, fabricating, and operating Raman silicon photonic devices.


Organizational processes today are markedly different than they were several years ago. Processes are what organizations do. When processes become old and inefficient and can"t deliver results that they were originally designed to, they can"t cope up the business dynamics in the environment in which they operate, they must be replaced. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a process-based management tool that can deliver, redesign or replace inefficient processes, as required, with a breakthrough results. As such it can be applied to a single process, a group of processes, or the entire processes comprising the organization. The Purpose of this study is to assess the effect of BPR on organizational performance of Water works construction enterprise (WWCE). In the study, both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were employed. The data for current study were obtained from primary and secondary sources. The instrument used to gather data for quantitative study was questionnaire whereas for that of qualitative it was key informant interview. Documentary analysis was used to augment the primary data collection tools. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The findings have revealed that after BPR implementation there were increased employees" satisfaction which may increase customer satisfaction and organizational performance. Finding related to major changes after implementation of BPR in the view of Employees and the data obtained from the interview and document review, one can conclude that there were major changes regarding behavior, team work and management system; but regarding radical change in the study area it was seen only an incremental improvement. And also employees have given benefits regarding salary increment, compensation, and empowerment. However, in the enterprise, there is no implementation of strong performance evaluation system. Based on the finding of the study it has been concluded that business process reengineering has become a useful weapon for any organization that is seeking for improvement in its current organizational performance and intends to achieve organizational objective. It is recommended that reengineering process remains effective tool for WWCE to achieve its objective and also organizations striving to operate effectively and efficiently.


Human beings have most often had thoughtful and rational interactions with their living environment throughout the history of life. But, nowadays, the continuous observations in the world in different forms reflect the idea that people do not have a favorable relationship with the nature and their living environment. Hence it can be stated that they have become indifferent, negligent, and easygoing towards their life environment and the nature in their periphery. But generally the apathy towards the environment and the necessities of its protection can have a common reason and root, the same way that the human beings' attention and protection of the nature come from the same root. So the point of this study is that despite the vast and profound environmental knowledge attained from scientific findings, where does the indifference towards complications created by neglecting the environment that effect the environment, humanity, and the future come from and what could be the reason? The present researchers of this study believe that the prior research in regard to this issue that have been raised in scientific circles so far to explain and justify this negligence for the environment cannot respond to this important and complex problem. Thus, the current research paper aims at exploring the various aspects of such a problem, thereby to figure out the primary reason for such an indifference and gap. The research method in this article is based on the qualitative method paradigm and can be enumerated amongst analytical-heuristic research. In this method while investigating the cognitive dimensions of the subject and beyond analyzing the scientific sources and existent evidence, the main cause of this phenomenon is discovered and judged by taking advantage of scientific experiences. In the conclusion section, the authors come to the belief that the reduction or omission of the sufficient and necessary attention towards the environment can be defined and elucidated within the format of a hypothesis related to Environmental Intelligence.


Following is a list of microscopy related meetings and courses. The editors would greatly appreciate input to this list via the electronic submission form under "events/other microscopy events" at the MSA webpage: www.microscopy.org. We will gladly add hypertext links to the notice on the web and insert a listing of the meeting in the next issue.


Learning in higher education demands the assimilation of a wide range of complex information. One way in which learners are able to represent complex information in a meaningful way is through concept mapping. This multiple case study aims to provide an in-depth picture of how six Saudi women students, who use concept mapping to support their learning, view concept maps; and what factors that constrain or enhance their use of this strategy within university study in New Zealand .Through think alouds, one-to-one interviews and a focus group discussion, these students revealed their use and understanding of concept maps. The findings of this study indicate that concept mapping is a useful tool for learning and can be used effectively by international students to support their learning. However while concept mapping was found to support the development of critical and creative thinking skills, this study suggests that concept mapping by itself does not teach these skills. This research concludes that Saudi women at university in New Zealand need support to develop their own academic voice and to become confident in their ability to study independently and think critically and creatively. One of the ways in which this support can be provided is through participating in the collaborative development of concept maps.


INTRODUCTION: Readmission in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a significant morbidity index, which has been related to poor patient outcomes AIM: To identify the preoperative and intraoperative risk factors for readmission in the cardiac surgery ICU. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 595 consecutive patients who were admitted to the cardiac surgery ICU of a tertiary hospital of Athens — Greece during the one-year period (September 2011-September 2012). Data collection was carried out, retrospectively, by the use of a short questionnaire and based on the review of medical and nursing patient records at December 2012. RESULTS: The incidence of ICU readmission was 3.7% (22/595). Respiratory disorders were the main reason for readmission (45.4%). Readmitted patients had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality compared to those requiring no readmission (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that female gender [for males odds ratio (OR) 0.37, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.15-0.89], high logistic EuroSCORE (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.04), prolonged cardiopulmonary (CPB) duration (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02) and preoperative renal failure (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.05) were the independent risk factors for readmission to the cardiac surgery ICU. CONCLUSIONS: One intraoperative and three preoperative variables are associated strongly with higher probability for ICU readmission. Shorter CPB duration could contribute to lower ICU readmission incidence. In addition, the early identification of high risk patients for readmission in the cardiac surgery ICU could encourage both the more efficient healthcare planning and resources allocation.


This dissertation addresses the problem of estimating the means of multiple distributions. I begin with a brief history of the mean, leading to a discussion and literature review of Stein estimation and multi-task learning. Using a multi-task regularized empirical risk formulation, an algorithm called multi-task averaging (MTA) is derived and analyzed. Two main results are discussed. First, I prove that the MTA solution matrix is right-stochastic, that is, the multi-task mean estimates are always convex combinations of single-task mean estimates. Second, in the two-task case, analysis shows that the MTA estimates have smaller risk than single-task estimates for a range of task similarity values. I use this analysis to derive a theoretically optimal similarity, which has an intuitive form. I then proceed to derive two practical and efficient MTA estimators for real data of any number of tasks: constant MTA and minimax MTA. Extensive simulations and four applications demonstrate that MTA often outperforms the battle-tested James-Stein estimator, as well as single-task estimation.


In this paper we present an ontology based approach for dynamic integration of business partners on demand. ODAMY, an ontology-based methodology, is proposed allowing flexible partner integration on demand into existing or evolving dynamic business networks. The approach chosen takes focus on the "softer" but important strategic aspects to measure the strategic fit to discover and select business partners. It provides required mechanisms and methods to support trust building by supporting communication and increases transparency within the network. Network companies are represented by a kind of "fingerprint" describing their co-operation ability and requirements. First, the paper Introduces into the scenario of dynamic business ecosystems. Then developments, trends and requirements of existing b2b integration concepts are discussed. ODAMY is described and the implementation is depicted to demonstrate how the methodology is put into practice.


The causes, consequences and control of land use change have become topics of enormous importance in contemporary society. Not only is urban land use and sprawl a hot-button issue, but issues of rural land use have also been in the headlines. Policy makers and citizens are starting to realize that many environmental and economic issues have the question of land use at their very core. Comprising papers from a conference sponsored by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, Land Use Problems and Conflicts draws together some of the most up-to-date research in this area. Sections are devoted to problems in the United States and Europe, the consequences of such problems, land use-related data and alternative solutions to conflict. With a lineup including some of the best scholarship on this subject to date, this volume will be of use to those studying environmental and land use issues in addition to policy makers and economists.


Imaging techniques employed to measure the structure of granular, particulate and porous materials are limited by scale, temporal resolution and, for biological samples, radiation exposure. This paper describes a technique for determining the distribution of particle sizes in opaque samples, for particle volume fractions less than ten percent, using a single projection radiograph. The method is based on the derived property of the additivity of the particles' spatial autocorrelation function in projection images. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the ability to use this property to determine the distribution of particle sizes in a material.