Abstract Objective: To identify the behaviour change techniques and intervention components associated with the promotion of physical activity (PA) for children and young people living with and beyond cancer. Design and main outcome measures: A systematic review and narrative synthesis was conducted on the evidence on PA interventions for children and young people (up to 30 years of age) living with and beyond cancer using a social ecological framework. Results: Out of 12 studies, 8 were shown to change PA. Intervention components included (1) behavioural (Instruction on how to perform the behaviour, credible source, behavioural demonstration and rehearsal), (2) cognitive-emotional (targeting attitude, perceived behavioural control, intentions, resilience and achievement) (3) socio-cultural (family and peer support for PA), (4) environmental (providing access to resources, environmental restructuring, safety), (5) demographic (child, adolescent, young adult or mixed) and (6) medical (tailored exercise depending on age and cancer stage). Conclusions: Interventions designed to increase physical activity participation and adherence during and beyond cancer treatment for young people should integrate psychosocial (behavioural, cognitive-emotional, social), environmental and medical intervention components. Our conceptual model can be used to inform the development of interventions and guides future research objectives and priorities.


Goals Determine the feasibility of using power spectrum of the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) as a more sensitive tool than sleep architecture to evaluate the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and sleep. Background GERD has been shown to adversely affect subjective sleep reports but not necessarily objective sleep parameters. Study Data were prospectively collected from symptomatic patients with heartburn. All symptomatic patients underwent upper endoscopy. Patients without erosive esophagitis underwent pH testing. Sleep was polygraphically recorded in the laboratory. Spectral analysis was performed to determine the power spectrum in 4 bandwidths: δ (0.8 to 4.0 Hz), &thgr; (4.1 to 8.0 Hz), α (8.1 to 13.0 Hz), and β (13.1 to 20.0 Hz). Results Eleven heartburn patients were included in the GERD group (erosive esophagitis) and 6 heartburn patients in the functional heartburn group (negative endoscopy, pH test, response to proton pump inhibitors). The GERD patients had evidence of lower average δ-power than functional heartburn patients. Patients with GERD had greater overall α-power in the latter half of the night (3 hours after sleep onset) than functional heartburn patients. No significant differences were noted in conventional sleep stage summaries between the 2 groups. Conclusions Among heartburn patients with GERD, EEG spectral power during sleep is shifted towards higher frequencies compared with heartburn patients without GERD despite similar sleep architecture. This feasibility study demonstrated that EEG spectral power during sleep might be the preferred tool to provide an objective analysis about the effect of GERD on sleep.


ABSTRACT In this study, three deadwood-dependent liverwort species (Calypogeia suecica (Arnell & J.Perss.) Müll. Frib., Crossocalyx hellerianus (Nees ex Lindenb.) Meyl. and Scapania apiculata Spruce) are reported upon from forests of North-western Anatolia for the first time for Turkey and Southwest Asia. The results concluded an increasing number of Scapania species to 17, Calypogeia species to six for these areas. Also, Crossocalyx is a new genus record for Turkey and Southwest Asia. All three new records are approximately at the southernmost limit of these species' distribution of Western Asia; also records of C. hellerianus and S. apiculata are at the southern limit of their Mediterranean distribution. Morphological descriptions, microphotographs, ecological aspects, distinctive taxonomical features, and Turkish conservation suggestions of the new records are presented. In addition, some remarkable deadwood-dependent bryophyte species (Buxbaumia viridis (Moug. ex Lam. & DC.) Brid. ex Moug. & Nestl., Fuscocephaloziopsis lunulifolia (Dumort.) Váňa & L.Söderstr. and Lophozia guttulata (Lindb. & Arnell) A.Evans.) in Turkey are discussed.


Overview: The Internet of Things (IoT) allows for remote management and monitoring of many aspects of everyday life at the individual and industrial levels. However, designing these systems within constraints of cost and operational context can be a real challenge. The sensor network must be strategically designed, which means selecting the most appropriate sensors to collect a specific measurement in a specific environment and then optimizing their deployment and utilization. To facilitate sensor selection, we propose a straightforward, color-coded, three-sieve selection tool and demonstrate the efficacy of this method through real-life exemplars. The selection tool could be applied to other kinds of technologies as well.


As criminal justice reform has attracted greater public support, a new brand of district attorney candidate has arrived: the "progressive prosecutors." Commentators increasingly have keyed on "progressive prosecutors" as offering a promising avenue for structural change, deserving of significant political capital and academic attention. This Essay asks an unanswered threshold question: what exactly is a "progressive prosecutor"? Is that a meaningful category at all, and if so, who is entitled to claim the mantle? In this Essay, I argue that "progressive prosecutor" means many different things to many different people. These differences in turn reveal important fault lines in academic and public perceptions of the criminal system and its flaws.

This disagreement or definitional slippage matters, not just for semantic clarity. Some commentators hail the progressive prosecutor as a new champion of fixing the criminal legal system, while others express skepticism about the transformative potential of even the most progressive DAs. To the extent that there are fundamental disagreements, then it is critically important to surface them. If resources are being devoted to advancing a progressive prosecutor movement, how unified is that movement? And, do all the voices pushing for a new approach to prosecution actually agree on what that approach should entail?

In an effort to answer these questions and clarify the terms of debate on progressive prosecutors, this Essay offers a typology of progressive prosecutors. Rather than mapping all of the candidates and elected officials who have sought or received the mantle, I offer four ideal types:

(1) the progressive who prosecutes;

(2) the proceduralist prosecutor;

(3) the prosecutorical progressive; and

(4) the anti-carceral prosecutor.

Each ideal type reflects a different vision of what's wrong with the criminal system and whether (or to what extent) prosecutors might help in righting those wrongs.


Teaching for creativity in writing requires not only knowledge, skills and understanding, but the emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, take risks and engage artistically. This paper reflects upon one strand of a research project which is examining the relationship between teachers' development as writers at their own level and their efficacy as creative teachers of writing. It draws on the compositional experiences of sixteen English primary teachers, who wrote regularly in project sessions, in school and at home and documented the process. The multiple data sources include: questionnaires, writing histories, composing logs, interviews, observations and analyses of the writing produced. The teachers' lived experience of composing clustered around a number of themes, these included: constraints and intuitive insights, a sense of the personal and deep feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. This paper focuses on only one of these themes; it explores three teachers' uncomfortable encounters with ambiguity and risk and considers the diverse ways in which they responded to the emotional discomfort evoked. Pedagogical implications are also examined. It is argued that in order to support children's creative development as writers, teachers need extended opportunities to engage artistically and creatively as writers themselves.


An important molecular mechanism involved in cognition has been unraveled. Release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from the basal forebrain cholinergic system is essential for sensory processing and cognition. Guillem et al. now describe a key role for β2-subunit–containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in visual attention. Mice lacking the β2 subunit exhibited impaired attentional performance. The deficit was recovered, however, by the reexpression of a β2-nAChR in the medial prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, in brain slices, the response of medial prefrontal cortical cells was abolished with a β2-nAChR antagonist and reinstated after washout. Attention is thus controlled by acetylcholine acting on the expression of β2-nAChR in the neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex. K. Guillem, B. Bloem, R. B. Poorthuis, M. Loos, A. B. Smit, U. Maskos, S. Spijker, H. D. Mansvelder, Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor β2 subunits in the medial prefrontal cortex control attention. Science 333, 888–891 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The magnification exponents occurring in adaptive map formation algorithms like Kohonen's self-organizing feature map deviate for the information theoretically optimal value = 1 as well as from the values that optimize, e.g., the mean square distortion error ( = 1/3 for one-dimensional maps). At the same time, models for categorical perception such as the "perceptual magnet" effect, which are based on topographic maps, require negative magnification exponents < 0. We present an extension of the self-organizing feature map algorithm, which utilizes adaptive local learning step sizes to actually control the magnification properties of the map. By change of a single parameter, maps with optimal information transfer, with various minimal reconstruction errors, or with an inverted magnification can be generated. Analytic results on this new algorithm are complemented by numerical simulations.


Strain energy driven deployable structures have recently become of high interest to the deployable space structures community. Made out of thin composite sections, these structures possess increased stiffness and stabilization while reducing payload masses significantly. The added capability of self-deploying provides additional benefit in reducing structural complexity. One challenge to using such a structure is the high deployment kinetic energy resulting from conservation of strain energy during stowage. At the end of deployment, excessive kinetic energy can damage the onboard payload through high shock loads. The research presented herein suggests that viscoelastic laminates can effectively dissipate energy during deployment and greatly reduce shock loads. One method to achieve this is tailoring the matrix constituent of the composite materials. An optimal laminate for such members is described to include discrete elastic and viscoelastic plies. It has been identified that a pure shear stress state is induced in the viscoelastic plies of typical cylindrical members (tape springs, slit tubes, etc.) when subjected to high shear strains. The intention is to key on this respective viscoelastic lamina and tailor it in a way that provides a sufficient amount of energy dissipation while still preserving the deployment torque and energy required for successful deployment. A custom combined loading Picture Frame Shear (PFS) fixture was designed to test plain weave composite lamina in high shear strain load cases similar to operational conditions. Before viscoelastic characterization can occur, the PFS fixture was tested using plain weave materials of interest. Material selection consisted of an IM10/PMTF7 carbon/epoxy plain weave lamina. Shear strain rate dependency was investigated in the form of variable load head displacement rate testing. Varying content levels of rubberized toughener matrix additive were examined.


With the rapid development of a network multimedia environment, digital data can now be distributed much faster and easier. To maintain privacy and security cryptographic alone is not enough. In recent years, steganography has become attractive vicinity for network communications. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop a methodology which calculate the variance of secret message (which the sender wishes to send) and accordingly create a carrier file. This carrier file can be sent in any network (secure & unsecure) without giving any doubt in the attackers mind. The practical implementation of this has been done on Microsoft platform. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed techniques.


Objective This study examined athletic trainer (AT) services for sports-related concussion among high school (HS) student-athletes during the 2011/12–2013/14 academic years. Design Descriptive epidemiology. Setting Concussion data originated from the National Athletic Trainers Injury and Outcomes Network (NATION), a US-wide surveillance program comprised of a convenience sample of 127 HS. All concussions were diagnosed and reported by ATs.
Participants
 Our sample included 1662 concussions with service data among HS student-athletes from 22 sports; 48.0% were in football; 8.2% were recurrent. Of 607 concussions in sex-comparable sports, 52.7% were among females.
Assessment of risk factors
 We examined outcome measures by sport (American football vs. non-football), sex, and whether the concussion was reported as recurrent.
Outcome measures
 ATs reported the number and types of AT room visits and services. We compared the means of these measures by sport, sex, and recurrence using independent samples t-tests.
Main results
 There were 15,698 AT room visits reported (mean=9.5 per concussion; Standard Deviation [SD]=7.4). ATs provided an average 1.2 (SD=0.3) services per visit. No differences existed by sport or recurrence. In sex-comparable sports, females had a mean 12.2 (SD=10.5) visits compared to 9.5 (SD=7.0) among males (p<0.001). No sex differences existed in services per visit.
Conclusions
 There are more AT room visits per concussion among females than males in sex-comparable sports. This is likely related to previous research finding symptom resolution time is longer in females than males. Identifying concussions that will require more AT services may help with resource allocation and planning for ATs. Competing interests This project was funded by the National Athletic Trainers' Association Research and Education Foundation (NATAREF), and the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) Foundation in cooperation with BioCrossroads. The content of this report is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the NATAREF, CICP Foundation or BioCrossroads.


In greater Augusta of central Maine, 53 out of 1093 (4.8%) private bedrock well water samples from 1534 km2 contained [U] >30 μg/L, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for drinking water; and 226 out of 786 (29%) samples from 1135 km2 showed [Rn] >4,000 pCi/L (148 Bq/L), the U.S. EPA's Alternative MCL. Groundwater pH, calcite dissolution and redox condition are factors controlling the distribution of groundwater U but not Rn due to their divergent chemical and hydrological properties. Groundwater U is associated with incompatible elements (S, As, Mo, F, and Cs) in water samples within granitic intrusions. Elevated [U] and [Rn] are located within 5–10 km distance of granitic intrusions but do not show correlations with metamorphism at intermediate scales (100−101 km). This spatial association is confirmed by a high-density sampling (n = 331, 5–40 samples per km2) at local scales (≤10–1 km) and the statewide sampling (n = 5857, 1 sample per 16 km2) at regional scales (102–103 km). Wells located within 5 km of granitic intrusions are at risk of containing high levels of [U] and [Rn]. Approximately 48 800–63 900 and 324 000 people in Maine are estimated at risk of exposure to U (>30 μg/L) and Rn (>4000 pCi/L) in well water, respectively.


Thermo-mechanical and -optical properties of Y3Al5O12 (YAG), YVO4, and GdVO4 were evaluated with less than 2% of evaluation error. Measured thermal expansion coefficient for YAG, [100]-YVO4, [001]-YVO4, [001]-GdVO4, and [001]-GdVO4 were 6.13, 1.76, 8.24, 1.19, and 7.26 × 10−6/K at room temperature. Temperature coefficients of refractive index for YAG, YVO4 in ordinary and extraordinary polarization, and GdVO4 in ordinary and extraordinary polarization at room temperature for the wavelength of 1.06 μm were 12.1, 15.5, 8.41, 15.2, and 9.92 × 10−6/K, respectively.


Metadata updates, such as file creation and block allocation, have consistently been identified as a source of performance, integrity, security, and availability problems for file systems. Soft updates is an implementation technique for low-cost sequencing of fine-grained updates to write-back cache blocks. Using soft updates to track and enforce metadata update dependencies, a file system can safely use delayed writes for almost all file operations. This article describes soft updates, their incorporation into the 4.4BSD fast file system, and the resulting effects on the sytem. We show that a disk-based file system using soft updates achieves memory-based file system performance while providing stronger integrity and security guarantees than most disk-based file systems. For workloads that frequently perform updates on metadata (such as creating and deleting files), this improves performance by more than a factor of two and up to a factor of 20 when compared to the conventional synchronous write approach and by 4-19% when compared to an aggressive write-ahead logging approach. In addition, soft updates can improve file system availablity by relegating crash-recovery assistance (e.g., the fsck utility) to an optional and background role, reducing file system recovery time to less than one second.


The history of mathematics is filled with major breakthroughs resulting from solutions to recreational problems. Problems of interest to gamblers led to the modern theory of probability, for example, and surreal numbers were inspired by the game of Go. Yet even with such groundbreaking findings and a wealth of popular-level books exploring puzzles and brainteasers, research in recreational mathematics has often been neglected. The Mathematics of Various Entertaining Subjects brings together authors from a variety of specialties to present fascinating problems and solutions in recreational mathematics. Contributors to the book show how sophisticated mathematics can help construct mazes that look like famous people, how the analysis of crossword puzzles has much in common with understanding epidemics, and how the theory of electrical circuits is useful in understanding the classic Towers of Hanoi puzzle. The card game SET is related to the theory of error-correcting codes, and simple tic-tac-toe takes on a new life when played on an affine plane. Inspirations for the book's wealth of problems include board games, card tricks, fake coins, flexagons, pencil puzzles, poker, and so much more. Looking at a plethora of eclectic games and puzzles, The Mathematics of Various Entertaining Subjects is sure to entertain, challenge, and inspire academic mathematicians and avid math enthusiasts alike.


SUMMARY   This article deals with directors' duties in the company crisis (representing the period of vicinity of insolvency as well as material insolvency) and compares the UK and Austria as countries with mostly divergent approaches and different legal mentality. In the course of the analysis, the article shows that – especially in the light of the upcoming EU restructuring directive – the question should not be 'what is the better approach' but rather 'how can existing approaches be made fit to reach desired results' (mainly preserving value and at the same time protecting legitimate interests of creditors and other stakeholders). The hybrid approach proposed at the end of this article should help in pursuing such efforts.


Anatomically preserved plants are described from marine goniatite bullions of Marsdenian age (Namurian B, Upper Carboniferous) from Star Wood, Oakamoor, Staffordshire, England. They comprise stems and petioles, up to 15 cm long, predominantly of cordaites (Mesoxylon) and pteridosperms (Sutcliffia), with rare calamites, ferns and lycopsids, and are preserved as calcareous permineralizations. Rare fusainized plant fragments are also found. The flora is similar, although comprising fewer species, to the roof nodule floras of Langsettian (Westphalian A) age from Lancashire which occur above coal seams yielding calcareous coal balls. The plants preserved in these roof nodules probably grew in well-drained, slightly elevated lowlands, not inundated during marine transgression, and contrast in botanical composition to the floras of lowland peat-forming mires represented in typical coal ball floras. The Oakamoor assemblage likewise probably represents an assemblage living in well-drained elevated areas which drifted into the sea and was preserved in sediment-starved carbonates during the height of the marine transgression. These species of plants appear not to have become part of lowland mire ecosystems until later in the Carboniferous. The occurrence of this flora pre-dates that previously described from the Westphalian Coal Measures, and extends the range of several important Upper Carboniferous plant taxa.


The pre-election polls for the 2015 UK General Election missed the final result by a considerable margin: underestimating the Conservative Party and overestimating Labour. We analyse evidence for five theories of why the polls missed using British Election Study data. We find limited evidence for systematic vote intention misreporting, late swing, systematically different preferences among "don't knows�? or differential turnout of parties' supporters. By comparing the BES face-to-face probability sample and online panel, we show that the online survey's polling error is primarily caused by under-sampling non-voters, then weighting respondents to represent the general population. Consequently, demographic groups with a low probability of voting are over-weighted within the voter subsample. Finally, we show that this mechanism is likely partially responsible for the over-estimate of the Liberal Democrats in 2010, showing that this is a longstanding problem with British polls.


Clinics in Developmental Medicine No. 178 For most children with cerebral palsy, the extent to which they can use their hands is critical to their overall development. Over the last two decades there have been major advances in the understanding of hand function. Particularly in children with cerebral palsy, assessment of hand function has become more exact and the range of possible interventions has expanded. Changes in treatment approaches can be seen in neurorehabilitation, orthopaedic management, developmental pediatrics and rehabilitation including occupational and physical therapy practices. In this book, selected experts from around the world in the fields of neuroimaging, neurology, orthopaedics, anatomy, motor control and motor learning provide fundamental theoretical information for the development of hand function in children with cerebral palsy. The book also shows how theory can be translated into practice by clinicians who provide assessment and intervention services to improve hand use in this population in sections written by researchers in occupational and physical therapy. Linking different fields of knowledge, this book highlights new perspectives and provides the best evidence for different types of intervention. By focusing only on hand function this essential book highlights new concepts for clinicians and others working towards the overall well-being of children with cerebral palsy.


The article provides an overview of ten diploma theses written under the supervision of Professor of Zoology Juhan Aul at the University of Tartu from 1958–1970. The theses deal with physical development of Estonian school students in two Estonian towns (Tartu and Parnu) and nine districts (Tartu, Elva, Polva, Rapina, Rapla, Keila, Parnu, Voru, Harju) according to the then existing administrative division. The theses are based on the anthropological material collected from 1956–1966. The first part of the article briefly describes the period of nearly 202 years during which the scholars related to the University of Tartu have conducted various physical anthropological studies on Estonians. These years can conditionally be divided as follows: the first period, 1814–1927 – the period from Baer to Aul, the second period, 1927–1993 – the Aul period, the third period, from 1993 to the present – the period of the Centre for Physical Anthropology. The article describes some of the options the students had for participating in anthropological research. An overview is given of the beginning of anthropological research of children and school students in Estonia and in the world. The article acquaints the reader with the whole of the so-called Aul period and the diploma theses on Estonian school students' physical development supervised by him. The second part gives an overview of the diploma theses.


The impact of e-resources and the accompanying infrastructural development has not been fully realized in most developing countries necessitating some interventionist programmes. This study was undertaken to assess the impact of donor agencies in interventionist programmes with regards to the availability and accessibility of e-resources in Nigerian Federal University of Ibadan (UI) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). A structured questionnaire was adopted for data collection. A total of 480 lecturers were involved in the study with 240 per institution, 80 from each of the three Faculties per institution and 20 lecturers from each of the four departments per faculty. Frequency counts on availability of e-resources were subjected to Analysis of Variance and Duncan's Multiple Range Test while frequency counts on accessibility of e-resources were subjected to percentages. Results indicated that AGORA, HINARI and JSTOR were popular and also that the percentage of accessibility of these e-resources was 98.2, 98.2 and 96.4 for the Faculties of Agriculture, Science and Social Sciences, respectively in UI and 100% in each of the three Faculties in OAU. AGORA, HINARI, and JSTOR are members of the interventionist group and being significantly more available than the other resources is a strong indication that the interventionist programmes have had a positive impact on the e-resources users in Nigeria.


This paper investigates the optimal placement and design of a Power Oscillation Damping (POD) controller within an embedded VSC-MTDC network. As VSC-MTDC networks are expected to play an eminent role in interconnecting AC grids, there is a growing need to optimize the placement and design of supplementary controllers in the MTDC converters, in order to maximize their benefit to the connected AC systems. Based on small signal stability analysis of the system, the location of damping controller within the MTDC network is selected according to the eigenvalue sensitivity of poorly damped oscillatory modes. On the other hand, the design of the damping controller is based on Modal Linear Quadratic Gaussian (MLQG) control that uses Wide Area Measurement Signals (WAMS). The results show the ability of the controller to enhance the damping in the system in case of disturbances, as well as to improve the small signal stability by boosting the damping of inter-area modes.


Context. EECep is an unusual long-period (5.6 yr) eclipsing binary discovered during the mid-twentieth century. It undergoes almost-grey eclipses that vary in terms of both depth and duration at different epochs. The system consists of a Be type star and a dark dusty disk around an invisible companion. EECep together with the widely studied epsilon Aur are the only two known cases of long-period eclipsing binaries with a dark, dusty disk component responsible for periodic obscurations.Aims. Two observational campaigns were carried out during the eclipses of EECep in 2003 and 2008/9 to verify whether the eclipsing body in the system is indeed a dark disk and to understand the observed changes in the depths and durations of the eclipses.Methods. Multicolour photometric data and spectroscopic observations performed at both low and high resolutions were collected with several dozen instruments located in Europe and North America. We numerically modelled the variations in brightness and colour during the eclipses. We tested models with different disk structure, taking into consideration the inhomogeneous surface brightness of the Be star. We considered the possibility of disk precession.Results. The complete set of observational data collected during the last three eclipses are made available to the astronomical community. The 2003 and 2008/9 eclipses of EECep were very shallow. The latter is the shallowest among all observed. The very high quality photometric data illustrate in detail the colour evolution during the eclipses for the first time. Two blue maxima in the colour indices were detected during these two eclipses, one before and one after the photometric minimum. The first (stronger) blue maximum is simultaneous with a "bump" that is very clear in all the UBV(RI)(C) light curves. A temporary increase in the I-band brightness at the orbital phase similar to 0.2 was observed after each of the last three eclipses. Variations in the spectral line profiles seem to be recurrent during each cycle. The Na I lines always show at least three absorption components during the eclipse minimum and strong absorption is superimposed on the H alpha emission.Conclusions. These observations confirm that the eclipsing object in EECep system is indeed a dark, dusty disk around a low luminosity object. The primary appears to be a rapidly rotating Be star that is strongly darkened at the equator and brightened at the poles. Some of the conclusions of this work require verification in future studies: (i) a complex, possibly multi-ring structure of the disk in EECep; (ii) our explanation of the "bump" observed during the last two eclipses in terms of the different times of obscuration of the hot polar regions of the Be star by the disk; and (iii) our suggested period of the disk precession (similar to 11-12 P-orb) and predicted depth of about 2(m) for the forthcoming eclipse in 2014.


An etch method based on surface tension driven flows of hydrofluoric acid microdroplets for the fabrication of low-loss, subwavelength-diameter biconical fiber tapers is presented. Tapers with losses less than 0.1 dB/mm are demonstrated, corresponding to an order of magnitude increase in the optical transmission over previous acid-etch techniques. The etch method produces adiabatic taper transitions with minimal surface corrugations. A biconical fiber taper fabricated using this method is used to demonstrate an erbium doped silica microsphere laser.


It has been a little more than 25 years since the Apple II computer was mass-marketed to the world of education. The familiar "buzz-buzz, clack-clack, and beep-beep" opened a new paradigm in teaching and learning that would not be realized for a number of years. Today, with local area networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web (WWW), we are beginning to realize some of the opportunities and dimensions of that new paradigm. Historically, teaching and learning took place in traditional classrooms and laboratories with a variety of instructional strategies. These strategies include lectures, discussions, field trips, films, and videos as well as other techniques to engage students in the learning process. But Still, the domain of the classroom was basically confined to the walls of the school building. The decade of the 1990s brought about a communication and information revolution in the way that we view a classroom or laboratory and the resources for teaching and learning. The Internet and World Wide Web literally opened the doors of the classroom to the world around us. Not only has it opened the doors of the classroom, it has changed the meaning of time--classroom and laboratory time! It is in this context that we are beginning to realize the dimensions of the paradigm that began some time ago--distance learning and the virtual classroom. There are many definitions of distance learning and virtual classrooms. However, distance learning can be simply defined as learning in which either distance or time separates the instructor and the student. Distance learning can be synchronous in a one-to-many or one-to-one environment where learning takes place in real time. Conversely, the learning environment may be asynchronous and separated by time and distance, where learning takes place at a time selected by the learner and the learner progresses at his or her own pace, independent of others. Virtual classrooms may be thought of as a subset in distance learning. The term virtual classroom originated in 1973 when Murray Turoff created the Electronic Exchange Information System (EIES), an online Group Ware application that implemented the Virtual Classroom at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Hiltz). The virtual classroom is a teaching and learning environment located within a computer-mediated communication system. The objectives of a virtual classroom are to improve access to advanced educational experiences by allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities. This is accomplished using personal computers at home or at work and improving the quality and effectiveness of education by using the computer to support a collaborative learning process (Turoff). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Benefits of Distance Learning There are a number of benefits in using distance learning as a means of providing education and training. The most significant benefit is that distance learning provides an environment for learning that is time- and place-independent. This provides opportunities for individuals who would otherwise not have opportunities for learning. In this context, the distance learning environment is the sole medium in the delivery of instruction. Typically, in this mode, the instruction is web-based and includes almost all of the resources necessary to create an online classroom. Content and instruction may be provided by a sponsoring organization via the Internet in the form of a website that contains the course lessons, support material, and resources. Distance learning also provides: [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Flexibility--Students may access learning materials at convenient times. They can read and respond to email at home in the evening or at other times. Assignments may be completed around work schedules and submitted via email, FTP server, or an assignment center on a class website. Effectiveness--This is one of the most frequently asked questions. …


Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have drafted financial reform legislation prompted by the financial market failings the country experienced in 2008. Both versions provide for comprehensive regulation of the OTC derivatives products, which were used extensively by those financial institutions that lost millions of dollars from investments in mortgage securities to insure against subprime mortgage defaults. This paper discusses the efficiency of proposed Congressional legislation to regulate the Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives market in light of the provision in the legislation that effectively exempts customized OTC derivatives contracts from clearing requirements and exchange trading. The exemption allows OTC derivatives dealers trading customized contracts to continue trading in the same opaque markets in which they engaged in rent seeking behavior that almost led to the collapse of the financial markets. The manuscript discusses why Congress has proposed these exemptions, why the exemption creates economic inefficiencies, and calls for Congress to devise a definition for customized OTC derivatives contracts to narrow the definition of what constitutes a customized trade to ensure that OTC derivatives dealers are not allowed to intentionally craft their OTC derivatives contract to avoid clearing and exchange trading requirements.


We report on nonlinear frequency conversion from the telecom range via second harmonic generation (SHG) and third harmonic generation (THG) in suspended gallium nitride slab photonic crystal (PhC) cavities on silicon, under continuous-wave resonant excitation. Optimized two-dimensional PhC cavities with augmented far-field coupling have been characterized with quality factors as high as 4.4 × 104, approaching the computed theoretical values. The strong enhancement in light confinement has enabled efficient SHG, achieving a normalized conversion efficiency of 2.4 × 10−3 W−1, as well as simultaneous THG. SHG emission power of up to 0.74 nW has been detected without saturation. The results herein validate the suitability of gallium nitride for integrated nonlinear optical processing.


Many Diesel engine development programs concentrate almost exclusively on steady state investigations to benchmark an engines performance. In reality, the interaction of an engine's sub-systems under transient evaluation is very different from that evident during steady state evaluation. The transient operation of a complete engine system is complex, and collecting test data is very demanding, requiring sophisticated facilities for both control and measurement. This paper highlights the essential characteristics of a Diesel engine when undertaking testbed transient manouevres. Results from simple transient sequences typical of on-road operation are presented. The tests demonstrate how transient behaviour of the engine deviates greatly from the steady state optimum settings used to control the engine. The operation of the EGR system and its interaction with other sub-systems, in particular VGT, has a significant effect on emissions, fuel consumption and driveability, highlighting the need for dynamic optimisation as an integrated system.


Working from an encyclopedic knowledge of primates throughout human history, Colin Groves provides a quick-reading narrative that serves equally well as an introduction for new students or an illuminating refresher for experienced researchers. Supporting its easy flow are decades of research; a lifetime of scholarship has been expertly condensed into a survey of primates in Western science, and by extension their treatment in European art, society and philosophy. Colin Groves is as familiar with ancient Mediterranean texts and the foibles of Linnaeus as he is with the intricacies of modern-day systematics. He is best-known for his taxonomic surveys, but he has observed primates across Africa and tropical Asia, and his unique amalgam of perspectives - the behavioral, the historical, the morphological - informs every page. At the very least, "Extended Family" should be included in every introductory course to primatology and physical anthropology, for its deft summary of the evolution of those entwined disciplines - and experienced primatologists will find this book a valuable resource as well, for its straightforward assessments of competing theories and their proponents. Best of all, the book is written in an easy, conversational tone, often threaded with wry humor and accessible to a broadly varied audience. It is a glittering kaleidoscope of a book - bright, colorful, always in motion - and, like Michael Jordan at his best, only Colin Groves could make it look so easy.


The hosting of sports events - whether large international events, or smaller niche interest events - has huge and long-lasting impacts on the local environment, economy and industry. Strategic Sports Event Management: Olympic edition provides students and event managers with an insight into the strategic management of sports events of all scales and nature. The framework offers a planning process that can be used to understand the importance of a strategic approach, and shows how to implement strategies that can achieve successful sports events over the short and long-term.

 The text uses new international case studies throughout to offer real-world insight in both larger and smaller events. Plus, in this new Olympic edition, we see the introduction of a Beijing Olympiad case study in each chapter. Through this topical and timely addition to the text, we can understand the lessons to be learned by events mangers of events of all sizes. Written by an experienced author and using first-hand research the text looks at:

 The organisations involved such as the IOC, FIFA and IAAF, and their interactions with charities, the media and promoters.

 The short-term and long-term benefits of the planning process

 Evaluating the event, its impacts and legacies

 Operational strategies including finance, ticketing, transport, venues, IT, communications, equipment and personnel

 The bidding process and what is required for a successful bid Strategic Sports Event Management: Olympic edition builds on the substantial success of the first edition and is vital reading for students and practitioners alike.


The properties of the femoral counterface are recognised as very significant in the study of the tribological design of artificial joints and the wear of ultra-high molecular polyethylene (UHMWPE). Research has shown that morphological features of femoral counterfaces heavily interfere with the wear of UHMWPE. It has been reported that if 1–2 μm defects or deep scratches are presented in a diamond like carbon (DLC) coated head, the third-body damage can cause a 7–15-fold increase in a UHMWPE wear rate, and in a metallic surface. The typical third-body damage can be up to a 30–70-fold compared with smooth roughness surface. Therefore, the identification of morphology of counterface surfaces has become an important requirement in the field of wear and tribology of the hip joint system. This paper proposes a methodology for a multiscalar wavelet for addressing morphological surfaces in order to extract the significant elements of 3D bearing surfaces of orthopaedic implants. The multiscalar wavelet is used to decompose a surface signal into the scalar domain. In wavelet analysis, the Cartesian space-based information is transferred into scale-based information, which provides not only the frequency events of the original signal but also keeps their location properties; as a result, morphological features can be identified. A series of ceramic, metallic and DLC femoral heads in vivo wear have been used to demonstrate the applicability of using the multiscalar wavelet model in the assessment of the morphology of these surfaces.


The early history of the terrestrial planets was punctuated by a period of heavy bombardment. Frequent large impacts condensed in a short, 0.02–0.5-Ga-long time period resulted in heavily cratered planetary surfaces. In volatile-bearing planetary crusts, each of these large impacts created a volume of hot rock and melt that drove vast subsurface hydrothermal systems. In Mars' basaltic crust, these systems produced a variety of alteration phases, the nature of which we explored with thermochemical modeling. Using the computer code CHILLER, we found a variety of oxides, hydroxides, and hydrous and water-free silicates resulting from the hydrothermal alteration. The main hydrous silicates are serpentine, chlorite, nontronite, and other clay minerals. Some of the resulting assemblages contain up to 15 wt% bound water. Our results constrain the temperature and water rock ratio at the time of alteration and compare well to the mineral assemblages found on Mars by OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces, et l'Activite) and CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) and, therefore, provide an interpretative framework for analyzing Martian mineralogy from orbital data. Our results also provide a geological template needed to select landing locations for future missions that search for water and energy sources associated with potential habitats on early Mars.


It is well known that seismic activity is much higher along inter-plate boundaries, decreasing perceptibly in intra-plate regions. Although a few locations in so-called Stable Continental Regions (SCRs) around the globe, like the New Madrid area in the USA, have been subjected to earthquakes with magnitudes above M w = 8, the largest events in most SCRs do not exceed about 7, and their prediction for engineering purposes presents great difficulties on account of the scarce available evidence on seismic activity in intra-plate regions. The situation led in the last two decades to the extensive studies promoted by EPRI. In view of the difficulty to identify seismogenic sources in most SCR areas, the assumption of diffuse seismicity is often accepted in Seismic Risk Analysis of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in SCRs, like the South American Plate, used in this paper as an illustrative example. There are few objective criteria known to the authors to accept or reject the hypothesis that the currently used uniform seismicity model is acceptable in any given location, which led to the generalized adoption of the view that an active fault does not exist until its existence can be confirmed by other means. In the paper the authors examine available seismic data for two 500 km radius circular areas in the South American SCR, subjecting the hypothesis of a uniform (diffuse) seismicity to a critical assessment. In addition to an evaluation of parameters applicable to both areas and to preliminary estimates of the differences, a proposal is advanced to define, on the statistical evidence provided by recorded sesimic events, specific seismogenic sources. The possible influence of the approach on the final outcome of risk assessments is finally discussed.


This study examined correlations between moral value judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), and participant scores on the Short-D3 "Dark Triad" Personality Inventory—a measure of three related "dark and socially destructive" personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Five hundred sixty-seven participants (302 male, 257 female, 2 transgendered; median age 28) were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk and Yale Experiment Month web advertisements. Different responses to MIS items were initially hypothesized to be "conservative" or "liberal" in line with traditional public divides. Our demographic data confirmed all of these hypothesized categorizations. We then tested two broad, exploratory hypotheses: (H1) the hypothesis that there would be "many" significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad, and (H2) the hypothesis that there would be no significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Machiavellianism or Psychopathy, but "some" significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Narcissism. Because our hypotheses were exploratory and we ran a large number of statistical tests (62 total), we utilized a Bonferroni Correction to set a very high threshold for significance (p = .0008). Our results broadly supported our two hypotheses. We found eleven significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad—all at significance level of p < .00001—but no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and liberal MIS judgments. We believe that these results raise provocative moral questions about the personality bases of moral judgments. In particular, we propose that because the Short-D3 measures three "dark and antisocial" personality traits, our results raise some prima facie worries about the moral justification of some conservative moral judgments.


The objective of this study was to examine the impact of conventional tillage (CT) and two different reduced tillage methods (RT1 and RT2) on some soil properties, grain yield and post-harvest grain quality during paddy rice production in the semi-arid Mediterranean conditions for two years. According to the results, soil bulk density was higher in CT with 1.46 and 1.47 g/cm3, respectively for both years. Ntot in RT1 was determined to be higher at a significant level with an average of 0.135%. The lowest soil organic carbon was found in the CT yearly as 2.91% and 2.50%. Penetration resistance did not exceed the limit value of 2–3 MPa in any method that may have impact on plant root growth. RT1 yielded higher results with regard to rice grain yield and provided the highest milling yield for both cultivars and years. There was no statistical difference among dry matter, thousand kernel mass and protein content values of rice grains in terms of cultivars, years and tillage factors. It can be observed in the light of short-term results that the RT1 is a good alternative for CT due to its positive impact on soil characteristics, grain yield and quality.


Background: Phenol, as a pure substance, is used in many fields because of its disinfectant, germicidal, local anesthetic, and peptizing properties. Aqueous solutions of phenol are produced as waste in industries and discharged into the environment. Therefore, elevated concentrations of phenol may be found in air or water because of industrial discharge or the use of phenolic products.Method: The strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae used in this project were natural strains previously purchased from Razavy company. They were grown at 30°C on Petri plates containing yeast extract glucose (YGC) and then purified by being spread onto new plates, and isolated colonies were obtained. These colonies provided the basis of selection. Prepared strains were applied in anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBRs) as first seed. The experiment conditions were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). After the determined runs were performed using Design-Expert software, data were analyzed using mentioned software as well.Results: This study evaluated the capability of baker's yeast to remove phenol in high concentrations. The tested strains showed excellent tolerance to phenol toxicity at concentrations up to 6100 mg/L. Study of the batch degradation process showed that the phenol removal rate could exceed 99.9% in 24 hours at a concentration of 1000 mg/L. The results showed catechol is the first intermediate product of phenol degradation. In survey results of the Design-Expert software, R2 and Adeq precision were 0.97 and 25.65, respectively.Conclusion: The results demonstrated that ASBR performs robustly under variable influent concentrations of inhibitory compounds. The high removal performance despite the high phenol concentration may be a result of reactor operating strategies. Based on the progressive increase of inlet phenol concentration, allowing for an enhanced biomass acclimation in a short time, results at the microbiological levels showed that the increase of phenol concentration was accompanied by a decrease in the microbial community and a progressive selection of the most adapted phenotypes.


This essay explores problems inherent to Butler's concept of intelligibility as it is presented in her book Undoing Gender. By relegating gender minorities collectively to the unintelligible, Butler unintentionally diminishes the agency of gender minorities and their ability to produce themselves as subjects through oversights Butler makes with regard to the importance of embodiment. Accounts by transgender individuals and theorists, including objections to Butler's work itself, emphasize different ways that trans individuals legitimate their own approach to norms of intelligibility. In order to salvage Butler's notion of intelligibility, it is necessary to emphasize certain aspects and de-emphasize others. Through the work of various transgender thinkers, it is possible to emphasize the changing norms of intelligibility. Both discursively and through embodied experience, challenges are issued to the norm which undermine the terms of the norm itself. What results is recognition of how tenuous the norms of intelligibility are in and of themselves, and the necessity for a new ethic. This new ethic requires a position of deferral on the part of observers, which does not impose norms. Instead, each subject is allowed to determine through their discourse and the presentation of their embodiment how they will relate to the available norms.


Home care of a patient with a tracheostomy after surgery for head and neck cancer requires caregivers to be comfortable with handling medical equipment and to be competent and proficient with completing many new and complex tasks. However, the responsibility of managing an artificial airway may increase caregiver anxiety, which may subsequently lead to improper care of the patient with head and neck cancer and increase the risk for complications and rate of readmission to oncology units. This article describes the development and outcomes of the Tracheostomy Care Anxiety Relief Through Education and Support (T-CARES) program, developed in response to high readmission rates for patients with head and neck cancer discharged with a tracheostomy. T-CARES consists of an 18-minute video demonstration, group discussion, return demonstration, and skills assessment. The course also incorporates hands-on practice on a low-cost anatomical task trainer created by the authors. A significant reduction in caregiver anxiety was noted after participation in the T-CARES program. T-CARES and similar programs can be developed to teach self-care for a variety of conditions that patients and caregivers are expected to manage at home.


The omission of articles where British or American English require either a definite or indefinite article is a typical feature of Indian English (IndE). Sharma (2005b) found that substrate influence played a role for the use of indefinite one in IndE, whereas pragmatic functions (givenness and modification) played a role in the use of zero articles (see also Sedlatschek 2009, 227). Definite the and indefinte a are also omitted by Fiji Indians in Fiji (Mugler & Tent 2008) and those who have moved to a secondary diaspora in places like New Zealand or Australia. Sharma (2005a) investigated the use of articles by first-generation immigrants from India in the US. Her study shows that zero articles are a feature that is retained in the diaspora context, even by speakers who are otherwise close to using standard, native-like English. The data for this paper come from fieldwork in Fiji (spontaneous conversations) and sociolinguistic interviews conducted in the Fiji Indian Diaspora in Wellington, New Zealand. Recordings from the secondary diaspora include both first- and second-generation migrants, and the study thus investigates whether zero articles are retained in the speech even of people who acquired their English in a predominantly English-speaking environment. The study also aims to link the use of zero articles to informants' construction of identity in the secondary diaspora.


Abstract The potential distribution around a charged dust grain in an electronegative plasma is obtained by using the appropriate dielectric susceptibilities for the Boltzmann distributed electrons and negative ions, and for the inertial positive ions that are streaming from the bulk plasma into the electronegative plasma sheath. The existence of oscillatory ion wakefields is shown. Positive ions are trapped/focused in the ion wakefields, and subsequently the negative dust particles are attracted to each other, forming ordered dust structures.


Sustainability assessment is a recent framing of impact assessment that places emphasis on delivering positive net sustainability gains now and into the future. It can be directed to any type of decision-making, can take many forms and is fundamentally pluralistic. Drawing mainly on theoretical papers along with the few case study examples published to date (from England, Western Australia, South Africa and Canada), this paper outlines what might be considered state-of-the-art sustainability assessment. Such processes must: (i) address sustainability imperatives with positive progress towards sustainability; (ii) establish a workable concept of sustainability in the context of individual decisions/assessments; (iii) adopt formal mechanisms for managing unavoidable trade-offs in an open, participative and accountable manner; (iv) embrace the pluralistic inevitabilities of sustainability assessment; and (v) engender learning throughout. We postulate that sustainability assessment may be at the beginning of a phase of expansion not seen since environmental impact assessment was adopted worldwide.


This article presents qualitative research examining adaptation to global asymmetric threats and a modern media environment of US Government propaganda systems by planners following 9-11, which proceeded largely unhindered by public debate. It draws on interviews with US elite sources including foreign policy, defense and intelligence personnel and documentary sources to explore how dissent was contained. A 'merging' of Psychological Operations and Public Affairs has been identified as a point of concern elsewhere and is argued to have facilitated the extension of US hegemony. It will present an account of the struggles between 2005 and 2009 when planners sought to alter 'foreign' and 'domestic' audience targeting norms that emerged in an old-media system of sovereign states with more stable populations. It focuses on a key example of transformation: the pressing through of internet policy changes for military Psychological Operations and Public Affairs, against resistance. Policies were brought in to coordinate and overcome discordance in foreign-domestic messaging by Psychological Operations and Information Operations personnel. Viewed as operational necessity for Psychological Operations, these resulted in a 'terf war' with Public Affairs who constructed a defense using discourses of legitimacy and credibility with domestic audiences. This article will show how concerns raised by Public Affairs were met by the reduction of their planning role, until a culture change and new orthodoxy emerged. Challenges raised by evolving media demand a reappraisal of propaganda governance and governments must allow greater transparency for public debate, legal judgement and independent academic enquiry to occur.


The use of supported catalysts to essentially combine the positive traits offered by both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis has become a competitive field of research. In particular, hydrotalcite-like catalysts (HTIc) has proven to be valuable for this purpose. Various osmium containing catalysts were synthesized according to the co-precipitation method viz. Os-Cu-HTIc, Os-Ni-HTlc and the Os-Co-HTlc. Techniques such as SEM, IR, EDS, XRD, ICP, BET and XPS were exploited during catalyst characterisation and these essentially confirm that the hydrotalcite (HT) structure has been obtained. Various olefin substrates, ranging from simple straight-chained alkenes to cyclic, allylic and halogenated olefins, were tested. The results are promising and suggest that the diols are produced both with high selectivity and in good yield. Further experiments suggest: 1) Of the various co-oxidants tested, N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide is most suitable 2) The reaction proceeds faster at 60 °C than at room temperature 3) The addition of water to the reaction mixture increases the rate of the reaction for most substrates and 4) The catalyst is thermally stable and produces better results when calcined at 200 0 C prior to use This thesis reports that a new heterogeneous catalytic system for the efficient and selective cisdihydroxylation of olefins has been developed one which suggests no leaching of metal into the reaction solution and no over-oxidation products.


This thesis describes the successful biological production and secretion of thioether-stabilized therapeutic peptides. The lantibiotic modification- and transport enzymes NisBTC and LtnM2T involved in the synthesis of the lantibiotics nisin and lacticin 3147, respectively, were exploited for the introduction of thioether bridges in nonlantibiotic peptides. Importantly, thioether peptides produced via lantibiotic enzymes contain only one isomer (DL), whereas chemically induced thioether formation can lead to several stereo isomers (i.e. DL, LL, LD and DD). Exploiting the nisin modification enzymes NisB and NisC, we were able to demonstrate for the first time the posttranslational introduction of a thioether bridge in a therapeutic peptide, an analog of angiotensin-(1-7). This therapeutic peptide variant has a significantly improved stability and the effectivity of its interaction with the angiotensin-(1-7) receptor is even enhanced. This cyclized analog of angiotensin-(1-7) is therefore a promising therapeutic peptide candidate for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, other therapeutic peptides may be thioether-stabilized, using lantibiotic synthesis enzymes. By stabilization, these therapeutic peptides are less sensitive to proteolytic breakdown and accordingly need less frequent administration and/or in a lower dose. In addition, stabilization may allow oral and pulmonary delivery. These delivery ways are more patient-friendly than injection. While there are hundreds of medically highly important therapeutic peptides, the pharmaceutical market of already a single therapeutic peptide can have a size of over a billion dollar. Consequently, stabilization of already FDA-approved therapeutic peptide hormones and development of new effective stabilized peptides has a tremendous potential.


In highlighting the apparatus as the keystone for the magic circle of video gaming, we displace players—the subject of ludology—and "text"—the subject of narratology. This is not to deny the importance of players' agency or the meanings of texts in video gaming; rather it is to reconsider these with regard to the screening of player from played inherent in the gaming apparatus. To better understand the situation of homo ludens in these more mediated play spaces, we turn to Jacques Lacan's account of "split" subjectivity and retread it by explaining how it may well explain the operation of a magic circle spanning three dimensions of screen-play: rules (Symbolic dimension), representations (Imaginary dimension), and wares (Real dimension). In the end, we come around to the other space of Huizinga's theory—the connections with the non-game world—to show that the value of video game play is also found beyond the apparatus, that the experience and enjoyment of video games are affected in part by social reality and, in turn, social reality is being affected by the experience and enjoyment of video games. Arriving at this point by first theorizing the video game apparatus, however, highlights matters of video game design more so than issues of audience or textual analysis. To illustrate this perspective, we conclude by defining three ways to analyze video games in terms of "realism," proposing three types of video game realism: representational, simulative, and inverse.


A document discusses solutions to the problem of submarines having to rise above water to detect airplanes in the general vicinity. Two solutions are provided, in which a sensor is located just under the water surface, and at a few to tens of meter depth under the water surface. The first option is a Fish Eye Lens (FEL) digital-camera combination, situated just under the water surface that will have near-full- hemisphere (360 azimuth and 90 elevation) field of view for detecting objects on the water surface. This sensor can provide a three-dimensional picture of the airspace both in the marine and in the land environment. The FEL is coupled to a camera and can continuously look at the entire sky above it. The camera can have an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) focal plane array that allows logic circuitry to be built directly in the sensor. The logic circuitry allows data processing to occur on the sensor head without the need for any other external electronics. In the second option, a single-photon sensitive (photon counting) detector-array is used at depth, without the need for any optics in front of it, since at this location, optical signals are scattered and arrive at a wide (tens of degrees) range of angles. Beam scattering through clouds and seawater effectively negates optical imaging at depths below a few meters under cloudy or turbulent conditions. Under those conditions, maximum collection efficiency can be achieved by using a non-imaging photon-counting detector behind narrowband filters. In either case, signals from these sensors may be fused and correlated or decorrelated with other sensor data to get an accurate picture of the object(s) above the submarine. These devices can complement traditional submarine periscopes that have a limited field of view in the elevation direction. Also, these techniques circumvent the need for exposing the entire submarine or its periscopes to the outside environment.


The main aim of this study was to assess if there was a relationship between early menarche and chronic non-specific pain in adolescents aged 13-18. We used data from the Young-HUNT3 (2006-2008) study where all adolescents aged 13 to 18 years in Nord-Trondelag County, Norway, were invited to participate. A total of 4129 of the invited girls (81%)answered the questionnaire, and of these 3748 answered the pain questions and constituted the study population. The median age at menarche was 13,2 years. Early menarche (<12 years) was associated with higher prevalence of chronic non-specific pain compared to girls with normal or late menarche. The association persisted after adjusting for age, BMI, socioeconomic factors and anxiety and depression. A similar association was also found between girls that perceive themselves as earlier physically matured than their peers and chronic non-specific pain.


Light is History is a collective energy consumption display artifact that was installed in a public square in Helsinki in November 2012. The lamps of the installation, made from old recycled electricity meters were designed to function as bright therapy lights. Sixteen participating families from in and around the Kallio neighbourhood published their daily energy use on a web portal. The difference in their daily energy reading was used to determine the brightness of individual lights that was assigned to each family on the light installation. Each of the lamps brightened if the corresponding family's energy use was lesser than the previous day and otherwise inverted. The participants also provided images and textual narratives of their own electrical artifacts from their homes and this was displayed with their corresponding lamp on the installation, providing a glimpse of contemporary domestic life with electricity. A shared and collaborative energy art space was generated as a place for urban dialogue of private energy use and public well-being.


Folate is a water-soluble B-vitamin necessary for the proper biosynthesis of the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin, epinephrine, and dopamine. Epidemiological and biological evidence suggests that low folate appears to be most closely linked to depressive disorders among individuals with epilepsy, people suffering from neurological and psychiatric problems, as well as the elderly. Folic acid influences the rate of synthesis of the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin and acts as a cofactor in the hydroxylation of phenylalanine and tryptophan. A disturbance of biogenic amine metabolism may lead to various psychiatric disorders. Folic acid deficiency may contribute to pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders such as mental confusion, memory changes, cognitive slowing, and mood disorder. However, since almost all published studies have been conducted with the elderly or with persons with dementia disease, the effects of folate on the mental health of people of reproductive age are not yet known. Findings from this review suggest that low folate status can be a key factor in the expression of depressive symptoms. However, it is difficult to evaluate whether folate deficiency is a substantial contributor to depressive symptoms in reproductive-age women in scan data compared to the numerous data for older women. A critical goal is for women to make behavior changes for good nutritional status before, during, and beyond pregnancy, as this may lead to improved mental and physical health in later life for both themselves and their family members.


Amplitude modulation is a well-known cause of voltage fluctuations resulting in luminous lamp flicker. Amplitude modulation can be more generally quantified in terms of interharmonics. The theoretical correlation between interharmonics and lamp flicker has been firmly established analytically. Many have also demonstrated a correlation between measured interharmonics and measured lamp flicker. The feasibility of the attempts to generally correlate the measured values have been explored in this work. This is accomplished by calculating normalized correlation coefficients for measured interharmonics and measured short-term flicker severity for several industrial loads, each for multiple hours. Measurements are made consistent with the International Electrotechnical Commission's standards. It is concluded that measured lamp flicker and measured interharmonics are strongly correlated in general provided particular measured interharmonic phasor pairs are properly combined, weighted and grouped.


We investigate orphan screening, the search for small molecule ligands of proteins for which no binding ligands are known in advance. Predicting interactions between biologically active molecules is an important step towards effective drug discovery. We propose novel classification and ranking algorithms for orphan screening which are based on counting feature combinations in molecular fingerprints. For the training process we only use positive examples and additional knowledge about the considered proteins and ligands. This knowledge is available in form of protein similarity values a database of molecule compounds. Our algorithms have runtime linear in the number of unlabelled examples.


Abstract This paper aims at providing a new systemic contribution to research about perceptions of antisemitism/Judeophobia by contemporary Jews in 12 European Union countries. The perspective – the viewpoint of the offended side – has been less prominent relatively in research literature on antisemitism. The data analysis demonstrates the potential power of Similarity Structure Analysis (SSA) as a better theoretical and empirical tool to describe and conceptualize the contents of chosen research issues. After a brief review of some methodological problems in the study of antisemitism, this paper will re-elaborate data first published in the report of the 2018 FRA study Experiences and Perceptions of Antisemitism – Second survey on Discrimination and Hate Crimes against Jews in the EU (FRA 2018a). Topics include the perceived importance of antisemitism as a societal issue, the contents of anti-Jewish prejudice and discrimination, channels of transmission, perpetrators of offenses, regional differences within Europe, and the role of antisemitism perceptions as a component of Jewish identification. Special attention is paid to the distinction between cognitive and experiential perceptions of antisemitism, and to the typology of practical, populist, political, and narrative antisemitism.


Fluorine, an active element which is widely distributed in the environment, has been demonstrated to have adverse effects on male reproductive systems at a high dose. The objective of the present study was to explore the key role of cysteine-rich secretory protein (CRISP)2 in fluoride-induced male reproductive toxicity by investigating, in rats, the effect of the administration of fluoride on the expression of CRISP2 in the testes, in the immature sperm in the initial segment of the epididymis, and in the mature sperm in the tail of the epididymis. In this study, after mating, female pregnant rats were randomly divided into four groups: control (distilled water) and NaF (25, 50, and 100 mg L-1) groups. After weaning, the dosage was continued for 8 weeks for 36 puppies. After exposure, the histological structure of the testis was assessed using HE, and the localization and protein expression of CRISP2 in the rat testis and epididymal sperm were evaluated by indirect immunofluorescence. In addition, sperm survival and mitochondrial transmembrane potential were evaluated. The results showed that fluoride impaired the histological structure of the testis, decreased the level of CRISP2, and reduced sperm survival and mitochondrial transmembrane potential. Together, our present data suggest that the decreased fertility in rats affected by fluorosis might be, in part, through the low expression of CRISP2 in testis and epididymal sperm.


Polyglucosan bodies (PBs) are deposits of amylopectin-like polysaccharides, detected in muscles of patients affected with glycogenoses-like branching enzyme (GBE) and phosphofructokinase deficiencies.1

Recently, mutations in RBCK1 have been associated with a skeletal PBs myopathy,2 as well as mutations in GYG1 , encoding for glycogenyn-1.3 All these conditions have autosomal recessive inheritance. Only seven unrelated cases with mutations in GYG1 have been reported, characterised by variable age at onset (from childhood to 7th decade), mainly proximal weakness, normal creatine kinases (CKs) levels and myopathic electromyography (EMG).3

We have been, for the past 35 years, following two affected sisters now aged 71 and 64 years (P.IV-5 and P.IV-10) (see online supplementary figure S1A). Their parents were both healthy first cousins from a little village in the Italian Alps. Both sisters had normal motor development.

At the age of 30 years, P.IV-5 showed weakness in arm abduction, more prominent on the right side. The disease course was slowly progressive over the decades, with early involvement of proximal limb muscles. Waddling gait with hyperlordosis was first observed when she was in her late 40s. She started to use a wheelchair outdoors at the age of 59 years. In the following years she became completely a wheelchair user and dependent for her daily activities. Her last examination, at the age of 71 years, showed facial weakness, which was initially absent, with muscle atrophy and hypotonia, absent deep tendon reflexes (DTR) and severely compromised muscle power (Medical Research Council (MRC) score: neck flexors 3, neck extensors 2, shoulder abductors 0, forearm extensors/flexors 0, wrist extensors 0, wrist flexors and hand grip 2, hip flexors/extensors 0, thigh extensors/flexors 2, foot plantar flexors and …


By changing solvent systems, five new Anderson-type polyoxometalates (POMs)-based metal–organic complexes, namely, {(H2PCAP′)2[CrMo6(OH)5O19]}·H2O (1), {Cu3(PCAP)2[CrMo6(OH)5O19](H2O)3(DMF)2}·4H2O·2HCHO (2), {Cu3(PCAP)2[CrMo6(OH)6O18]Cl(H2O)5}·10H2O (3), {Co3(PCAP)2[CrMo6(OH)5O19](H2O)6}·9H2O·HCHO (4) and {Co3(HPCAP)2[CrMo6(OH)6O18]2(H2O)10}·7H2O·2CH3CH2OH (5) (HPCAP = 3-(2-pyridinecarboxylic acid amido)pyridine, PCAP′ = 3-(pyridinecarboxylic acid)amido pyridine), were successfully synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR spectra, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). Complex 1 was obtained with H2O as the solvent and exhibited a 3D supramolecular network based on CrMo6 anions and protonated H2PCAP′ molecules via hydrogen bonds. It should be noted that the PCAP′ was in situ transformed from HPCAP. Complexes 2–5 were synthesized with different mixed solvents. In complex 2, the CrMo6 anions acted as an inorganic bridging ligand to link the 1D [Cu3(PCAP)2]n4n+ chains to construct a 2D layer. Complexes 3 and 4 showed similar 3D frameworks. Two orientations of metal–organic loops [M2(PCAP)2] (M = Cu for 3, Co for 4) could be observed, which directly extended the 1D M–CrMo6 chains into 3D networks with a 3,3,4,4-connected {42·123·14}{42·6}2 topology. In 5, the 1D Co–CrMo6 inorganic chain, [Co2(PCAP)2] binuclear loop unit and discrete CrMo6 polyanion were connected with each other by hydrogen-bonding interactions to form a 1D ladder-like supramolecular dual chain. The structural diversities showed that the solvents play key roles in the construction of various architectures and in the in situ transformation of HPCAP. The adsorption behaviours of the title complexes for organic dyes were investigated in detail. All of the title complexes showed an efficient adsorption capacity for the cationic dyes gentian violet (GV) and methylene blue (MB). In particular, complex 4 could selectively separate GV from the mixture of GV&RhB and GV&MO within 5–10 min, which can be used as a chromatography column for dye removal. In addition, the electrochemical properties of the title complexes were also studied.


Recent evidence in multiple sclerosis (MS) suggests that active CMV infection may result in more benign clinical disease. The goal of this pilot study was to determine whether underlying murine CMV (MCMV) infection affects the course of the Theiler's murine encephalitis virus (TMEV) induced murine model of MS. A group of eight TMEV-infected mice were co-infected with MCMV at 2 weeks prior to TMEV infection while a second group of TMEV-infected mice received MCMV two weeks post TMEV. We also used 2 control groups, where at the above time points MCMV was replaced with PBS. Outcome measures included (1) monthly monitoring of disability via rotarod for 8 months; (2) in vivo MRI for brain atrophy studies and (3) FACS analysis of brain infiltrating lymphocytes at 8 months post TMEV infection. Co-infection with MCMV influenced the disease course in mice infected prior to TMEV infection. In this group, rotarod detectable motor performance was significantly improved starting 3 months post-infection and beyond (p≤0.024). In addition, their brain atrophy was close to 30% reduced at 8 months, but this was only present as a trend due to low power (p = 0.19). A significant reduction in the proportion of brain infiltrating CD3+ cells was detected in this group (p = 0.026), while the proportion of CD45+ Mac1+ cells significantly increased (p = 0.003). There was also a strong trend for a reduced proportion of CD4+ cells (p = 0.17) while CD8 and B220+ cell proportion did not change. These findings support an immunomodulatory effect of MCMV infection in this MS model. Future studies in this co-infection model will provide insight into mechanisms which modulate the development of demyelination and may be utilized for the development of novel therapeutic strategies.


Zr and Y co-doped perovskite BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3−δ (BCFZY0.1) was recently developed as a promising new cathode for protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs). Here, it is applied for the first time as a cathode for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs). It exhibits large lattice parameters, high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, exceptional low-temperature performance, long-term stability, and excellent chemical compatability with ceria-based SOFC electrolytes. When BCFZY0.1 is used as the cathode in Ce0.8Gd0.2O2−δ (GDC20)-based SOFCs, it enables a peak power density of 0.97 W cm−2 at 500 °C with 2500 hours stable performance and complete recoverability without any degradation after more than 80 fast thermal ramping cycles. Even at 350 °C, peak power density reaches 0.13 W cm−2. It also shows good H2O and CO2 tolerance.


Cloud computing has been widely adopted to support various computation services. A fundamental problem faced by cloud providers is how to efficiently allocate resources upon user requests and price the resource usage, in order to maximize resource efficiency and hence provider profit. Existing studies establish detailed performance models of cloud resource usage, and propose offline or online algorithms to decide allocation and pricing. Differently, we adopt a blackbox approach, and leverage model-free Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to capture dynamics of cloud users and better characterize inherent connections between an optimal allocation/pricing policy and the states of the dynamic cloud system. The goal is to learn a policy that maximizes net profit of the cloud provider through trial and error, which is better than decisions made on explicit performance models. We combine long short-term memory (LSTM) units with fully-connected neural networks in our DRL to deal with online user arrivals, and adjust the output and update methods of basic DRL algorithms to address both resource allocation and pricing. Evaluation based on real-world datasets shows that our DRL approach outperforms basic DRL algorithms and state-of-theart white-box online cloud resource allocation/pricing algorithms significantly, in terms of both profit and the number of accepted users.


Student interest in plants and botany generally declines around the fifth grade and continues to decrease throughout the middle and high school years. New lectures and lab exercises for a mixed-majors general biology course that focused on plant-people relationships were developed. These activities were hypothesized to improve student attitude and awareness of plants and to increase their motivation to learn more about them. Students were surveyed regarding their interest in plants and regarding their knowledge of local woody plant species both pretreatment and post-treatment. During the non-treatment unit, students were instructed using the traditional lecture method and participated in lab exercises on plant structure. At the end of the unit, a standard exam was used to assess their knowledge. Topics examined during the treatment unit were medicinal plants and teas and relationships amongst plants, soil, water and people. For an introduction to ecology, plant examples were used to illustrate ecological principles wherever possible. The lecture method combined with two short assessments and two out-of-class assignments focusing on these topics. In lab, students completed a drawing exercise, created a woody plant portfolio, and participated in exercises on medicinal properties of plants, and tea brewing and tasting. There was no change in student interest in plant-related topics over the course of this project. Student ability to identify common woody plants and vines significantly improved after developing a plant portfolio. Grades for post-treatment assessment were higher than non-treatment assessment. Instructor motivation to teach botanical topics was low-to-medium at the beginning but was high at the end of this project. A new botany course intended for non-science majors has been proposed using many of the materials and tools from this project.


The last decade has seen the refinement of a technique for reconstructing palaeo-ice thicknesses based on using the retained H2O and CO2 content in glassy eruptive deposits to infer quenching pressures and therefore ice thicknesses. The method is here applied to Bláhnúkur, a subglacially erupted rhyolitic edifice in Iceland. A decrease in water content from ∼0.7 wt.% at the base to ∼0.3 wt.% at the top of the edifice suggests that the ice was 400 m thick at the time of the eruption. As Bláhnúkur rises 350 m above the surrounding terrain, this implies that the eruption occurred entirely within ice, which corroborates evidence obtained from earlier lithofacies studies. This paper presents the largest data set (40 samples) so far obtained for the retained volatile contents of deposits from a subglacial eruption. An important consequence is that it enables subtle but significant variations in water content to become evident. In particular, there are anomalous samples which are either water-rich (up to 1 wt.%) or water-poor (∼0.2 wt.%), with the former being interpreted as forming intrusively within hyaloclastite and the latter representing batches of magma that were volatile-poor prior to eruption. The large data set also provides further insights into the strengths and weaknesses of using volatiles to infer palaeo-ice thicknesses and highlights many of the uncertainties involved. By using examples from Bláhnúkur, the quantitative use of this technique is evaluated. However, the relative pressure conditions which have shed light on Bláhnúkur's eruption mechanisms and syn-eruptive glacier response show that, despite uncertainties in absolute values, the volatile approach can provide useful insight into the mechanisms of subglacial rhyolitic eruptions, which have never been observed.


In credit portfolio modelling the normal copula approach and multi-factor models have become an industry-wide standard to describe the asset correlation structure. To calculate the portfolio loss distribution for these models, due to its analytical intractability, in general Monte Carlo methods, non-trivial numerical integrations, or structural simplifications have to be applied. Still, for more than 3-4 factors especially determination of risk contributions and optimisation routines become a very time-consuming endeavour. Aim of this paper is to present a new factor reduction approach using a single underlying factor to calculate the portfolio loss distribution. Focusing on risk contributions rather than asset correlations it is shown that the portfolio correlation structure could be captured in just one factor to an astonishing degree of accuracy. The paper outlines the basic idea and calibration of this factor reduction approach, and for illustrative as well as realistic, heterogeneous portfolios the new model is applied in the calculation of loss distributions and risk contributions. The capabilities of this approach are further demonstrated when used in an optimisation setting.


Home Truths About Child Sexual Abuse brings together the findings of research and clinical work by leading figures in the UK and USA. It makes visible the prevalence of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by normal, ordinary, heterosexual family men, both within and outside the family. Comprehensive and multidisciplinary in approach, it covers the many different aspects of child sexual abuse including: *phenomenology *definitions and terminology *epidemiology *explanatory frameworks *concepts and theory *the contribution of radical feminism *constructs, classifications and typologies *policy *treatments *multi-disciplinary and multi-agency work *medical advice *gender issues *criminal justice. The book provides the evidence and knowledge base necessary to begin to achieve effective prevention. It offers professionals, researchers and policy makers an invaluable source of reference and an informed basis for action.


The increasing urbanization generally is brought about by many eco-environmental problems, such as the drastic change of land use and development of urban heat island. This study identified the pattern of land cover changes in Onitsha, South East Nigeria, and assessed the trend in temperature over the area from 1986 to 2016, simulated the land cover changes for 2030 and 2044, and estimated their impacts on land surface temperature (LST). These were with the view to determining the effects of changes in land use/cover on the LST in the area. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. The primary data were coordinates of geographic features within the study area, collected through the use of global positioning system. The secondary data were minimum and maximum temperature data from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), high-resolution Quick-bird imagery, Landsat TM/ETM imageries for four epochs (1986, 2002, and 2016) with path and row of 189 and 56. Individual components (bare surface, built-up, vegetation and surface water bodies) in the study area were extracted from the images. Radiometric correction was first performed (for 2016 landsat imagery) to fill the line scan corrector (LSC) gaps using Focal Analysis tool in ERDAS Imagine 14.0. This was followed with clipping of the satellite imagery to extract only those portions that are within the boundary of the study area. Supervised image classification was done for the three series of remotely sensed imageries to extract the spatial pattern of land cover change. The results revealed that the study area has been growing to a relatively compact urban agglomeration. The concentration of built-up area at the western and the central part of the study area has been getting larger and more aggregated. Built-up area increased by 11.49% from 1986 to 2002 and 5.68% from 2002 to 2016 while vegetation decreased by 6.03% from 50.26% in 1986 to 44.23% in 2002. The decrease further continued from 44.23% in 2002 to 29.79% in 2016 (change of 14.44%). Expansion to spread into the sub-urban and rural communities bounding the metropolis, converting agricultural and green area to built-up areas. The land cover trend of the study area from the period of 1986-2016 shows dramatic changes for the dominant land cover types. The analyzed trend in temperature change shows that the central parts of the city have a temperature higher than the outlying parts. The results indicated that the average temperature of the study area increased from 24°C in 1986 to 28°C in 2016. The simulated land cover also showed a decreasing trend in vegetal cover. The study concluded that the increase in built-up area caused an annual increase in land surface temperature (0.31°C) over the study period.


This Article focuses on the proper balance for the tort system to strike between its role as a means for resolving disputes and its potential role as a means for obtaining information about the conduct of the parties, especially as that conduct affects public health. The Author states that most protective orders in mass torts have been appropriate, and most documents presently designated as confidential have been properly designated, at least under the policies that have been established to date. The Author starts with the notion that protective orders have value and that there are reasons to try to prevent their regular and notorious violation. At the same time, he recognizea that the orders have been abused occasionally and perhaps even regularly. On that foundation, the Author explores trends in protective order practice, focusing on the changes affected by the rise of electronic communications. This Article proceeds in three Parts. Part I provides an overview of the development of protective orders, particularly in mass torts. The Author describes the overall state of scholarship and litigation relating to protective orders, in particular the balance various writers have proposed between the parties' legitimate privacy and confidentiality interests versus the public interest in information-spreading. He also describes some leaks in past cases. Part II explores a recent case, the Zyprexa litigation, that exemplifies most of the document disclosure issues through a modem lens. This case may suggest the future of protective order violations, and should therefore be considered carefully. The Author adresses the potential overdesignation of documents by the defendant as well as the process through which those documents became readily available, even as the judge sought their return. The use of anonymizing technologies and the fundamental ease of distributing documents electronically made that effort fruitless. Finally, in Part III the Author provides some suggestions for how litigants and courts should change the way they act to deal with the new world in which they are acting. To date, most protective orders still look in the main as they did twenty or thirty years ago, and efforts to enforce them are similarly static. The Author suggests that today's world mandates a shift in approach, and that business as usual is no longer a reasonable option for a number of reasons. He urges greater penalties for violations of protective orders on any side, including the possibility of holding attorneys directly responsible in limited circumstances for the actions of their clients or retained experts. He also suggests that protective orders should be more readily subject to challenge by third parties. Finally, the Author argues that protective orders should be more comprehensive and specific.


ABSTRACT The co-occurring prevalence of disordered eating (DE) with substance use disorders is estimated to be high among college students. Collegiate recovery programs (CRPs), primarily used for the support of students with mental health disorders and substance use disorders, are well positioned to potentially provide support for students with DE behaviors. The current study identifies the prevalence of subclinical DE behaviors among college students currently participating in a collegiate recovery program at a U.S. institution. 61 recovering students (Age: M = 29 years, SD = 8.35, 59% male) completed a digital survey inquiring about subclinical DE behaviors using 9 Likert-type scaled questions. Composite subclinical DE scores were significantly different between student genders, as well as full-time and part-time students. Female and full-time students were more likely to experience subclinical DE behaviors than male and part-time students. As subclinical DE behaviors are present among students engaged in CRPs at a high rate, and though behaviors are most pronounced among female students, they are also are present in males. A majority of students engaged in the CRP feel that the CRP can support mental health and DE recovery in addition to serving those in recovery from substance use disorders.


Circuits for Emerging Technologies Beyond CMOS New exciting opportunities are abounding in the field of body area networks, wireless communications, data networking, and optical imaging. In response to these developments, top-notch international experts in industry and academia present Circuits at the Nanoscale: Communications, Imaging, and Sensing. This volume, unique in both its scope and its focus, addresses the state-of-the-art in integrated circuit design in the context of emerging systems. A must for anyone serious about circuit design for future technologies, this book discusses emerging materials that can take system performance beyond standard CMOS. These include Silicon on Insulator (SOI), Silicon Germanium (SiGe), and Indium Phosphide (InP). Three-dimensional CMOS integration and co-integration with Microelectromechanical (MEMS) technology and radiation sensors are described as well. Topics in the book are divided into comprehensive sections on emerging design techniques, mixed-signal CMOS circuits, circuits for communications, and circuits for imaging and sensing. Dr. Krzysztof Iniewski is a director at CMOS Emerging Technologies, Inc., a consulting company in Vancouver, British Columbia. His current research interests are in VLSI ciruits for medical applications. He has published over 100 research papers in international journals and conferences, and he holds 18 international patents granted in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. In this volume, he has assembled the contributions of over 60 world-reknown experts who are at the top of their field in the world of circuit design, advancing the bank of knowledge for all who work in this exciting and burgeoning area.


The cells populating the intestinal crypts are part of a dynamic tissue system which involves the self-renewal of stem cells, a commitment to proliferation, lineage-specific differentiation, movement and cell death. Our knowledge of these processes is limited, but even now there are important clues to the nature of the regulatory systems, and these clues are leading to a better understanding of intestinal cancers. Few intestinal-specific markers have been described; however, homeobox genes such as cdx-2 appear to be important for morphogenic events in the intestine. There are several intestinal cell surface proteins such as the A33 antigen which have been used as targets for immunotherapy. Many regulatory cytokines (lymphokines or growth factors) influence intestinal development: enteroglucagon, IL-2, FGF, EGF family members. In conjunction with cell-cell contact and/or ECM, these cytokines lead to specific differentiation signals. Although the tissue distribution of mitogens such as EGF, TGF alpha, amphiregulin, betacellulin, HB-EGF and cripto have been studied in detail, the physiological roles of these proteins have been difficult to determine. Clearly, these mitogens and the corresponding receptors are involved in the maintenance and progression of the tumorigenic state. The interactions between mitogenic, tumour suppressor and oncogenic systems are complex, but the tumorigenic effects of multiple lesions in intestinal carcinomas involve synergistic actions from lesions in these different systems. Together, the truncation of apc and activation of the ras oncogene are sufficient to induce colon tumorigenesis. If we are to improve cancer therapy, it is imperative that we discover the biological significance of these interactions, in particular the effects on cell division, movement and survival.