The aims of this study were first, to optimise the comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) technique and test its reliability as a diagnostic tool in a clinical genetics laboratory, second, to investigate whether any of the current limitations could be overcome, and third, to improve the resolution of the technique beyond the current limits by targeting DNA molecules instead of metaphase chromosomes. During the course of this study, a modified approach to CGH was developed and tested on samples with known and unknown abnormalities in various fields of clinical cytogenetics. The technique was used to detect unbalanced abnormalities in patients with common constitutional abnormalities, marker chromosomes, mosaicism, haematological malignancies and solid tumours. In all fields CGH detected some abnormalities which had remained undetected using conventional cytogenetics or molecular cytogenetic techniques. During the optimisation 94 samples were used. Samples with known karyotypes were the subject of CGH using different conditions of slide preparation, slide treatment, DNA isolation (from different samples including fixed cells) DNA labelling, hybridisation, detection and washing approaches. Some modifications in the standard procedures were adopted and then the modified approach was applied to 56 cases with different abnormalities. Overnight CGH was successfully developed and applied during this study. Nineteen experiments using 10 test DNAs all correctly detected the abnormalities in the cases. 10 samples were the subject of CGH using samples amplified by degenerate oligonucletides primers PCR (DOP-PCR). CGH reliably detected unbalanced abnormalities in the affected cases using as little as 1 ng of DNA. CGH was applied on 14 samples from patients with haematological malignancies. In 2 cases CGH did not detect the abnormality found by conventional cytogenetics because of the balanced nature of the rearrangements. Both CGH and conventional cytogenetics found no abnormality in 5 samples. In 3 abnormal cases CGH and G-banding results were compatible. In 3 patients, CGH detected abnormalities missed by routine cytogenetic analysis. These abnormalities were detected in mosaicism of as low as 30% of abnormal cells. CGH detected new abnormalities that were not detected by conventional cytogenetics in a case of follicular lymphoma. A new site of DNA amplification at chromosome 3p26 was also detected. A new method for defining the copy number differences in cases with ploidy changes was suggested and was successfully applied in a case with hypotriploidy. 13 mentally handicapped patients with normal karyotypes without any clinical clue to a specific syndrome were the subjects of CGH at the next stage of this study. Using a new approach CGH detected telomeric gains and losses in 5 patients from 3 families. Those abnormalities were then confirmed using targeted FISH. Balanced carriers of the translocations in three generations were then detected using targeted FISH. Comparative genomic hybridisation revealed the origin of a mosaic supernumerary ring chromosome 19 in a 72 year-old woman with mental retardation. That abnormality could not be identified by conventional banding methods over many years and, more recently, fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) studies which systematically employed different chromosome probes. In a female with mental retardation and a putative iXp, CGH ruled out that diagnosis by detecting the presence of Xq in the DNA material from the patient. CGH then reliably defined the abnormality as an Xp;Xq translocation. To improve the resolution of the CGH technique combed DNA fibres instead of metaphase chromosomes were used as the target DNA for the hybridisation of specific probes. CGH was then successfully performed on high-density DNA fibres of 35 kb nucleotides. At the final stage of this study CGH was performed on spots of single stranded DNA arrays of ~300-500 bp corresponding to chromosomes X, Y, and chromosome 2 on glass slides. Preliminary results showed that this approach could differentiate the copy number differences using a statistical analysis. This study shows that CGH is a powerful adjunct to the current techniques in clinical cytogenetics for detection of unbalanced abnormalities in the various fields of clinical genetics. This study also presents several modifications in CGH technique and image analysis which improve the resolution and the reliability of the technique and make it faster and less complex. It also provides an opportunity for future studies for CGH on DNA microarray targets that would be a very important step towards the complete automation of the cytogenetics.


In this technical note, a new model predictive controller for tracking arbitrary periodic references is presented. The proposed controller is based on a single layer that unites dynamic trajectory planning and control. A design procedure to guarantee that the closed loop system converges asymptotically to the optimal admissible periodic trajectory while guaranteeing constraint satisfaction is provided. In addition, the constraints of the optimization problem solved by the controller do not depend on the reference, allowing for sudden changes in the reference without loosing feasibility. The properties of the proposed controller are demonstrated with a simulation example of a ball and plate system.


The regulation of cytosolic-free calcium concentration of smooth-muscle and endothelial cells was mainly studied on cultured cells where the cross talk between these two coupled cell types is lost. In the present study, the cytosolic-free calcium concentration in the endothelial and the smooth-muscle cells was examined in an intact arterial wall in vitro. Strips of the main branch of rat mesenteric artery were used. Cytosolic-free calcium concentration [Ca2+]i was estimated by determining the fluorescence ratio of the two calcium probes, Fluo-4 and Fura red. The emitted fluorescence of both probes was measured with a confocal microscope. We showed that potassium and phenylephrine, which increase the cytosolic -free calcium concentration of the smooth-muscle cells, also indirectly influence the calcium concentration in the endothelial cells. By simultaneously determining [Ca2+]i in the endothelial and the smooth-muscle cells of an arterial strip, we observed that when calcium increases in the endothelial cells in response to acetylcholine, it slightly decreases in the smooth-muscle cells. We conclude that the regulation of [Ca2+]i in the arterial endothelial cell, depends according to the stimuli either upon the endothelial cells themselves, or upon the coupled smooth-muscle cells.


We used a process-based hydrological model SUSI to improve guidelines for ditch network maintenance (DNM) operations on drained peatland forests. SUSI takes daily weather data, ditch depth, strip width, peat properties, and forest stand characteristics as input and calculates daily water table depth (WTD) at different distances from ditch. The study focuses on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) dominated stands which are the most common subjects of DNM. Based on a literature survey, and consideration of the tradeoffs between forest growth and detrimental environmental impacts, long term median July–August WTD of 0.35 m was chosen as a target WTD. The results showed that ditch depths required to reach such WTD depends strongly on climatic locations, stand volume, ditch spacing, and peat thickness and type. In typical ditch cleaning areas in Finland with parallel ditches placed about 40 m apart and tree stand volumes exceeding 45 m3 ha–1, 0.3–0.8 m deep ditches were generally sufficient to lower WTD to the targeted depth of 0.35 m. These are significantly shallower ditch depths than generally recommended in operational forestry. The main collector ditch should be naturally somewhat deeper to permit water outflow. Our study brings a firmer basis on environmentally sound forestry on drained peatlands.


Well-test interpretation in gas condensate system is particularly challenging when condensation happens within the reservoir. This is not only due to the natural reduction of near wellbore mobilities, but also the existence of the velocity effects (i.e. positive coupling and inertia), which compete to revamp the relative permeabilities. In this study, a set of realistic build-up tests are generated using a compositional reservoir simulator, where measured (velocity dependent) relative permeabilities and a real gas condensate fluid model are used. The transient build-up tests are analysed using the real-gas and steady-state two-phase pseudo-pressures, and the (velocity dependent) reservoir integral transforms. The results show that the application of steady-state two-phase pseudo-pressure transform can result in a remarkable over-prediction of the reservoir permeability, when the velocity dependent relative permeabilities are in effect. Moreover, the traditional real-gas pseudo-pressure transform fails to estimate the reservoir properties particularly when the reservoir is initially below the dew point pressure. However, in either of situations (i.e. with and without velocity effects), using the reservoir integral transform leads to an excellent liquid analogy solution, where the reservoir properties can be accurately estimated.


A thermal hydraulic model for the HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor) has been developed using the RELAP5-3D code. The HTTR is a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) developed, designed, constructed, and operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). It is a helium-cooled and graphite-moderated with a thermal power of 30 MW. In this work, a HTTR core inlet and outlet coolant temperatures, mass flow rate, pressure drop and heat structures (fuel and graphite block) temperatures have been reproduced using a RELAP5 model. The simulation was done in the high temperature operation mode (950°C) and in the rated operation mode (850 °C). The results have been compared with the available data. The calculations were performed using the point kinetic model. It is demonstrated that the developed model in the RELAP5-3D is capable of reproduce the thermal behavior of the reactor in steady state operation.


As part of the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) the French vessel Le Noroit completed a series of 18 sections from 5°S to 5°N on 156.5°E, using a towed undulating CTD (SeaSoar) and a hull-mounted acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP). Here we present results from the cruise. We describe both the mean structures and the response of the upper ocean to changing meteorological conditions in terms of changes in the dynamic and thermodynamic structure over a 10° latitude band and over a period of approximately 70 days. The mean thermal and haline structures were consistent with the ongoing El Nino conditions of 1992–1993. Only between 1°N and 3°N did salinity play a greater role than that of temperature in the mean stratification of the upper 80 m. The zonal currents were weak in the mean but highly variable, correlating significantly in the 0–60 m depth range with the zonal winds. We show that a cyclonic, cold core structure, identified at 2°S around January 9, will heavily influence any heat budget performed there. Meteorological conditions varied dramatically during the experiment, with strong westerlies, strong easterlies, and periods of little wind observed. Throughout these conditions and at all latitudes a diurnal thermal cycle was seen. The maximum depth of the diurnal thermocline varied from 30 to 35 m, being shallower at more southerly latitudes. The near-surface temperature showed a mean diurnal signal of approximately 0.4°C. The halocline depth also exhibited a diurnal signal of around 17 m, suggesting that salinity stratification plays a role in limiting vertical mixing at all latitudes, and more so in northern latitudes. Thicker barrier layers were found north of the equator; we show that barrier layers thicker than approximately 25 m correspond to significantly reduced entrainment cooling of the mixed layer (0(0.1°C)). The observed spatial and temporal variability is discussed in the context of the analyses made by others within the intensive flux array near 2°S.


The article explores Canadian and Ontarian perspectives on citizenship education and shows how citizenship education contributes to student awareness of the various dimensions of citizenship and the rights of individuals. First, we trace the origin of citizenship education and its importance to a healthy Canadian society. Second, we review the literature on citizenship education in the context of Manitoban, Quebec, and Ontarian ministry guidelines for secondary citizenship education curricula. The article ends with recommendations for future research in the area.


This study provides experimental evidence for the analytic model of oscillatory transport in soils, in which a vapor or solute in an oscillating mobile gas or liquid undergoes rate‐limited equilibration with an immobile phase. During a field test of passive soil vapor extraction, the concentrations of volatile organic compounds in the produced gas were monitored at 90‐min intervals. The data were compared with the results of numerical simulations based on the mobile–immobile model of oscillatory transport. A dual‐porosity simulation matched the data when the simulated time for equilibration between the mobile vapor and the immobile phases was one‐third day and the flow was restricted to only 5% of the air‐filled porosity. A purely diffusion calculation without flow, utilizing the exchange diffusivity derived from the mobile–immobile model, predicted total production of extracted vapor during a 1‐yr interval in agreement with the simulation. This illustrates the utility of the exchange diffusivity as an evaluation tool for passive soil vapor extraction.


Echinops ritrodes Bunge, E. gaillardotii Boiss., E. adenocaulos Boiss., E. chardinii Boiss. & Buhse, and E. tenuisectus Rech.f. were recorded for the first time in Turkey. The taxa are described and illustrated. Geographical distributions of the taxa are also mapped, and IUCN threat categories of the populations are discussed.


This paper composes an image of modern mental and neurological health issues and looks to draw links to the current epidemic based on research and studies found online the internet and off-line. The goal is to examine what may be the underlying problem for a lot of these increases in mental health issues and neurodegenerative diseases and what are some promising clinical and sociocultural advances that may help. It explores problems such as the negative impact of the pharmaceutical giants, the increase in apathy in the work place and the general stigma towards mental disease. Through current research, the use of Deep-Brain Stimulation (DBS) continues to look more and more promising as a technique to combat both mental and neurological illnesses. This paper examines how it works and what role it could play in the fight against these problems.


The main objective of this study was to compare the heating patterns of chicken fingers deep-fried conventionally and using a microwave. Two dimensional internal temperature maps of fried chicken fingers with rectangular geometry were measured post frying using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Frying was performed in a microwave oven at 365 W power level for 0.5 and 1.5 min after bringing the oil temperature to 180 +/- 1 degrees C. Samples were also fried in a conventional fryer at 180 degrees C for 2 and 5 min for comparison. Variations in internal temperature distribution increased proportionally to frying time in both microwave and conventional frying. Internal thermal equilibrium is reached in all samples after 13 min of holding time. Internal structural changes, void formation, were also visualized in the images. Void formation did not significantly impact cooling rates.


Big Data offer potential benefits for statistical modelling, but confront problems including an excess of false positives, mistaking correlations for causes, ignoring sampling biases and selecting by inappropriate methods. We consider the many important requirements when searching for a data-based relationship using Big Data, and the possible role of Autometrics in that context. Paramount considerations include embedding relationships in general initial models, possibly restricting the number of variables to be selected over by non-statistical criteria (the formulation problem), using good quality data on all variables, analyzed with tight significance levels by a powerful selection procedure, retaining available theory insights (the selection problem) while testing for relationships being well specified and invariant to shifts in explanatory variables (the evaluation problem), using a viable approach that resolves the computational problem of immense numbers of possible models.


As the writers in this symposium illustrate, dealing with Iran's nuclear program is one of the most important foreign policy issues of the day. Years of stalled talks, diplomatic dead-ends, and sanctions have made it difficult to see exactly where progress has been made and what efforts are worth pursuing. In this Global Forum, leading foreign policy experts weigh in from around the world on the options for how to move forward with Iran—from diplomacy to fuel swaps to military strikes. Whatever their proposed solutions, the writers express one common theme: We ignore Iran at our own peril. From the US, Thomas R. Pickering (2010), Lawrence J. Korb (2010), and Bennett Ramberg (2010); from Turkey, Mustafa Kibaroglu; from Iran, Kayhan Barzegar (2010); and from Israel, Emily B. Landau (2010). Over the months of November and December, this forum will continue at www.thebulletin.org.


In modern hyper-mediated urban environments, public art becomes an inseparable part of the multiplicity of meanings generated by citizens with regards to their city, their country and each other. What meanings can public art convey after a protest in a mediated city? And how do social media users capture and reflect on these visual artefacts? This article focuses on the urban murals that appeared in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital in the post-Euromaidan period (spring 2014 – present day). The creation of murals began as a spontaneous urban practice, but post-protest, morphed into a concerted effort to populate blank walls of decaying apartment blocks around cities with meaningful art, reflecting on the turbulent political, social and cultural changes in the country. The article considers how this mediated public art form resonates with the networked post-protest publics through the affordances of Instagram and explores the different kinds of meanings networked publics in and around the post-protest city can produce. It focuses on how the mediation of the murals on Instagram might reflect or frame the meanings embedded in the murals themselves and how these themes might fit into the broader metaphorical narrative of rebirth and regeneration in the post-Euromaidan city of Kyiv.


This is the first-time flexi-cover edition of this classic field guide, which is the definitive volume on the region's birdlife. This award-winning book, which was first published in 2000, was fully updated in 2009 to include 76 new species for the region that were recent new discoveries for science, taxonomic 'splits' or had been recorded there for the first time. This comprehensive field guide to the birds of South-East Asia covers all of the 1,327 species recorded in the region and each has been fully illustrated. This edition has many new artworks and 16 more colour plates than the original guide, and the text has been meticulously updated to take in all the most recent information. The vast diversity of South-East Asian birdlife attracts increasing numbers of birdwatchers each year. Covering Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, this unique and indispensable guide covers in detail the identification, voice, breeding, status, habitat and distribution of all the species and distinctive subspecies of the region.


Objectives: In this present in vivo study, it is intended to examine the effects of fluoride on metabolic functions of four discrete regions of rat brain associated with thyroidal insufficiency. Background: Fluoride contamination in drinking water is a major health issue. Adverse health effects of fluoride include dental and muscle fluorosis, lowering mental proficiency, neurological disorders and oxidative stress in soft tissues including brain. Thyroid is mainly concerned with regulation of metabolic homeostasis and thus supposed to be altered by fluoride toxicity. Rationale: Earlier observations indicate that fluoride toxicity imposes certain adverse effects on brain metabolic activities. Alteration in metabolic profile in brain may be affected by the thyroid gland as because this gland takes care of the overall metabolic integration of the body. Significance: The present study explores the detail mechanism of metabolic alteration of different parts of rat brain namely cerebrum, cerebellum, pons and medulla by fluoride, and also evaluates through a comparative analysis that which region is mostly affected by it. Furthermore, this study also suggests a link between brain metabolic profile and thyroid function. Methods: Male rats of Wistar strain (N=6) were orally fed with 20 mg/kg/day fluoride for 30 days. Results: Following fluoride exposure, total protein content depleted more significantly in cerebrum and medulla as compared with other brain regions. The proleolytic enzyme activity was severely affected by fluoride, especially in medulla. Changes in acidic, basic and neutral protein contents reveal that fluoride altered those parameters in a tissue specific manner. Nucleic acid contents were markedly reduced in medulla and pons by fluoride, whereas RNase activity increased in the respective brain regions. Protein carbonylation is pronounced in cerebral tissue. The neurotransmitter level was markedly reduced in cerebellum in comparison with others. Additionally, fluoride also altered thyroid metabolism as specified by depletion of nucleic acid contents and inhibition of the activities of thyroidal enzymes along with significant decrease in serum T3 and T4. Conclusion: It is suggested that fluoride altered metabolic homeostasis in cerebrum, cerebellum, pons, medulla in a tissue specific manner that might be correlated with thyroidal insufficiency.


With the financial crisis, citizens suddenly realized that different levels and forms of depositor protection co-existed in the EU, whereas they had been told for almost 20 years that a single market was in place. Current deposit insurance arrangements in Europe need to be changed, as they match neither market integration nor consumer expectations. But deposit insurance cannot be considered in isolation; it is part of the broader financial safety net and the crisis resolution tools for banks. Confronted with the question of what action should be taken to draw the right lessons from the crisis, practically the only option is an EU-wide fund, but policy-makers are still hesitant. Any intermediate solution will maintain too many distortions and imperfections and will not provide a coherent response to current challenges.

This policy brief reviews current policy discussions on deposit insurance in the EU. It looks at the role of deposit insurance as part of the (European) financial safety net and examines the Commission's recent proposal to amend the EU Directive on deposit guarantee schemes (DGS). The three options for a European DGS are assessed, followed by conclusions and recommendations.


Preface to the Sixth Edition. Part 1: The Basic Principles of Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis. 1 Why Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis are Important. 1.1 The early development of genetics. 1.2 The advent of gene cloning and the polymerase chain reaction. 1.3 What is gene cloning? 1.4 What is PCR? 1.5 Why gene cloning and PCR are so important. 1.6 How to find your way through this book. 2 Vectors for Gene Cloning: Plasmids and Bacteriophages. 2.1 Plasmids. 2.2 Bacteriophages. 3 Purification of DNA from Living Cells. 3.1 Preparation of total cell DNA. 3.2 Preparation of plasmid DNA. 3.3 Preparation of bacteriophage DNA. 4 Manipulation of Purified DNA. 4.1 The range of DNA manipulative enzymes. 4.2 Enzymes for cutting DNA - restriction endonucleases. 4.3 Ligation - joining DNA molecules together. 5 Introduction of DNA into Living Cells. 5.1 Transformation - the uptake of DNA by bacterial cells. 5.2 Identification of recombinants. 5.3 Introduction of phage DNA into bacterial cells. 5.4 Identification of recombinant phages. 5.5 Introduction of DNA into non-bacterial cells. 6 Cloning Vectors for E. coli. 6.1 Cloning vectors based on E. coli plasmids. 6.2 Cloning vectors based on M13 bacteriophage. 6.3 Cloning vectors based on l bacteriophage. 6.4 lambda and other high capacity vectors enable genomic libraries to be constructed. 6.5 Vectors for other bacteria. 7 Cloning Vectors for Eukaryotes. 7.1 Vectors for yeast and other fungi. 7.2 Cloning vectors for higher plants. 7.3 Cloning vectors for animals. 8 How to Obtain a Clone of a Specific Gene. 8.1 The problem of selection. 8.2 Direct selection. 8.3 Identification of a clone from a gene library. 8.4 Methods for clone identification. 9 The Polymerase Chain Reaction. 9.1 The polymerase chain reaction in outline. 9.2 PCR in more detail. 9.3 After the PCR: studying PCR products. 9.4 Real time PCR enables the amount of starting material to be quantified. Part 2: The Applications of Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis in Research. 10 Sequencing Genes and Genomes. 10.1 The methodology for DNA sequencing. 10.2 How to sequence a genome. 11 Studying Gene Expression and Function. 11.1 Studying the RNA transcript of a gene. 11.2 Studying the regulation of gene expression. 11.3 Identifying and studying the translation product of a cloned gene. 12 Studying Genomes. 12.1 Genome annotation. 12.2 Studies of the transcriptome and proteome. Part 3: The Applications of Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis in Biotechnology. 13 Production of Protein from Cloned Genes. 13.1 Special vectors for expression of foreign genes in E. coli. 13.2 General problems with the production of recombinant protein in E. coli. 13.3 Production of recombinant protein by eukaryotic cells. 14 Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis in Medicine. 14.1 Production of recombinant pharmaceuticals. 14.2 Identification of genes responsible for human diseases. 14.3 Gene therapy. 15 Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis in Agriculture. 15.1 The gene addition approach to plant genetic engineering. 15.2 Gene subtraction. 15.3 Problems with genetically modified plants. 16 Gene Cloning and DNA Analysis in Forensic Science and Archaeology. 16.1 DNA analysis in the identification of crime suspects. 16.2 Studying kinship by DNA profiling. 16.3 Sex identification by DNA analysis. 16.4 Archaeogenetics - using DNA to study human prehistory. Glossary. Index.


A procedure is described for calculating interior daylight illumination using an inexpensive programmable hand calculator. The proposed procedure calculates illumination at any point within a room utilizing sky luminance distribution functions that are consistent with the CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) Overcast and Clear Sky functions. This procedure separates the light reaching the point being considered into three components, these being (a) light directly from the sky, (b) light after being reflected from external, and (c) internal surfaces. Finally, two examples are presented in order to demonstrate the proposed procedure and indicate the speed with which the calculations may be performed.


In remote Indigenous Australia the typical mainstream youth transition from school to employment does not match the reality of community life, where traditional cultural schemas underpin the practice of everyday life and the construction of social identity. Although the developmental trajectory of the current generation of Indigenous youth has diverged from cultural norms, the introduced western trajectory of institutional learning leading to labour market employment does not yet offer a substitute paradigm. I argue that if young people are to become competent, mature adults able to shape their own futures and the economic and social viability of their communities, then attention will need to be paid, not only to institutional education and training pathways, but also to other approaches to learning. Such alternate pathways can contribute to the formation of a positive sense of self, strong cultural identities and the learning and literacy skills needed to shape Indigenous futures. This paper uses research from remote central and northern Australia to explore community-based approaches to youth learning and cultural production.


This paper examines two periods of renewal in Washington, DC, USA's southwest quadrant and their relationship with displacement. The paper situates this discussion within both the local historical continuum and globally-recognized paradigms, such as "the right to the city". This article primarily serves as an overview of urban planning consequences in Southwest Washington DC based on extant academic literature and policy briefs. Compared with the abrupt physical displacement in the 1950s and 1960s precipitated by a large-scale federally funded urban raze and rebuild project, urban planning in present-day DC includes mechanisms for public engagement and provisions for housing security. However, countervailing economic incentives and rapid demographic changes have introduced anxieties about involuntary mobility that the literature suggests may be born out of forced or responsive displacement. Two potential case studies in the area warrant future study to understand present-day mobilities in the context of the economic and socio-cultural factors shaping the actions of present and prospective residents and decision-makers.


Entrepreneurship is a popular research topic over the last several decades. Various authors study the characteristics that best define future entrepreneur profiles. In this paper, we apply a framework to screen school populations in the Azores Islands, Portugal, for the prospects of entrepreneurship and to study the profiles of those who show noticeably entrepreneurial orientations. In this paper, we apply the ordinal probit regression model, often referred to as the ordered probit model, in order to explain the entrepreneurial prospects of students in high school in the Azores Islands. The findings revealed that the factor "Entrepreneurial orientation" only explains, in part, prospects for entrepreneurship. In this context, the results emphasize the importance of some entrepreneurial skills and personality characteristics in the development of entrepreneurial spirit. The findings also highlight the role of entrepreneurship education in the entrepreneurial attitudes and the role of entrepreneurial learning in the development of entrepreneurial skills Research paper Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial prospects; Personality traits; Ordinal regression Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Couto, G., Sousa, A., & Pimentel, P. (2017). Exploring the characteristics of the potential entrepreneurs: An empirical study, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics , 5(2), 1–18.


Non-indigenous ungulate species pose a problem for conservation. They can be socially and economically valuable, but are also potentially harmful to biodiversity. Therefore, their introduction requires an explicit assessment of risk relative to benefit. To conduct such risk assessments, information regarding the impacts of non-indigenous ungulates on biodiversity is required. Here, we review the available evidence for the biodiversity impacts of non-indigenous ungulates. Hybridization, exploitation and apparent competition, vegetation impacts, predation, facilitation, trophic cascades and soil system functioning were assessed using a hierarchical set of criteria for the strength of the evidence. Strong evidence was lacking for risks posed by competition. Numerous reports exist of hybridization in captivity between ungulate species that normally do not co-occur, but conclusive evidence for introgression in the wild was restricted to one case. Strong evidence (using exclosure experiments) for the impacts of introduced ungulates on vegetation structure and composition was found and in some cases introduced ungulates caused the extirpation of plant species. Predation by Sus scrofa is a substantial threat to island faunas and systems, and impacts on soil system functioning elsewhere have also been found. Facilitation by ungulates has been shown to be substantial in promoting invasive plant species. By contrast, little evidence exists for apparent competition. The largest impacts from introduced ungulates are likely to be in cases where they perform novel functions in the new environment. However, to determine which types of impacts are likely to be most problematic, further evidence is required, ideally from well-designed field experiments.


Information diffusion is where a message or data is passed from vertex to vertex in a network via edges. Information diffusion is often used for simulations in network research because it estimates how information propagates through a network. A set of vertices that in initial state contains the data is known as the seed nodes. The diffusion starts at the seed nodes and propagates over the network. Finding the optimal seed nodes is a crucial part of information diffusion. The seed nodes are the optimal targets to start passing messages during a disaster scenario, vaccinate to prevent the spreading of a disease or even targets for viral marketing. Finding these seed nodes is an NP-hard problem and require a significant amount of computation. One common used model in information diffusion is the independent cascade model (ICM). ICM can be performed as a sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SPMV). By using a application specific hardware accelerator, we can accelerate the diffusion process and consequently, the seed selection. Recently, high-level synthesis (HLS) have been getting more attention. HLS transform high-level implementation and algorithms to low-level designs. With HLS we designed a application specific intellectual property core (IP-core) which we then implemented on the FPGA and perform seed selection.


This article is based on a four-month placement with the Colombian peace-building organisation Rodeemos el Diálogo (Embrace Dialogue, ReD) in London, as well as three years of working with the organisation in Bogotá, Colombia. It discusses the causes of violence in Colombia, the conceptualisation of dialogue, and ReD's notion of a 'culture of dialogue'. First, by explaining the coloniality of knowledge, power, and being in the Colombian context, I argue that the contemporary armed conflict is a legacy of colonial logics that are still being reproduced. Then, through a literature review on the concept of dialogue, I describe its origins, its potential to be a useful method to peacebuilding and the danger of it reproducing coloniality and control. Finally, I explain how ReD understands the 'culture of dialogue' and why it has the potential to resolve conflict in a non-violent way and take action against colonial-inherited inequalities and oppressions. I argue that to resolve Colombia's violence it is necessary to address the coloniality of power, knowledge and being taking place. However, to address these it is of utmost importance to be able to acknowledge the existence of violence and to recognise the multiplicity of epistemologies that coexist in today's world. Within these processes of recognition, culture of dialogue plays an important role.


This paper reports the probability distribution of negative streamers initiated in mineral oil with and without a solid interface. In addition, the charge injected by conduction currents prior to the streamer inception is presented. Impregnated paper and polymeric films made of PET, PTFE and PVDF are tested as solid materials. Comparison of the conduction charge for the different oil-solid interfaces is presented. It is found that the permittivity of the material used at the solid interface does not influence significantly the condition for streamer initiation in mineral oil. A nonlinear increasing of the charge readings for the impregnated paper, PET and PVDF cases are observed.


It is a challenging task for machines to follow a textual instruction. Properly understanding and using the meaning of the textual instruction in some application areas, such as robotics, animation, etc. is very difficult for machines. The interpretation of textual instructions for the automatic generation of the corresponding motions (e.g. exercises) and the validation of these movements are difficult tasks. To achieve our initial goal of having machines properly understand textual instructions and generate some motions accordingly, we recorded five different exercises in random order with the help of seven amateur performers using a Microsoft Kinect device. During the recording, we found that the same exercise was interpreted differently by each human performer even though they were given identical textual instructions. We performed a quality assessment study based on the derived data using a crowdsourcing approach. Later, we tested the inter-rater agreement for different types of visualization, and found the RGB-based visualization showed the best agreement among the annotators' animation with a virtual character standing in second position. In the next phase we worked with physical exercise instructions. Physical exercise is an everyday activity domain in which textual exercise descriptions are usually focused on body movements. Body movements are considered to be a common element across a broad range of activities that are of interest for robotic automation. Our main goal is to develop a text-to-animation system which we can use in different application areas and which we can also use to develop multiple-purpose robots whose operations are based on textual instructions. This system could be also used in different text to scene and text to animation systems. To generate a text-based animation system for physical exercises the process requires the robot to have natural language understanding (NLU) including understanding non-declarative sentences. It also requires the extraction of semantic information from complex syntactic structures with a large number of potential interpretations. Despite a comparatively high density of semantic references to body movements, exercise instructions still contain large amounts of underspecified information. Detecting, and bridging and/or filling such underspecified elements is extremely challenging when relying on methods from NLU alone. However, humans can often add such implicit information with ease due to its embodied nature. We present a process that contains the combination of a semantic parser and a Bayesian network. In the semantic parser, the system extracts all the information present in the instruction to generate the animation. The Bayesian network adds some brain to the system to extract the information that is implicit in the instruction. This information is very important for correctly generating the animation and is very easy for a human to extract but very difficult for machines. Using crowdsourcing, with the help of human brains, we updated the Bayesian network. The combination of the semantic parser and the Bayesian network explicates the information that is contained in textual movement instructions so that an animation execution of the motion sequences performed by a virtual humanoid character can be rendered. To generate the animation from the information we basically used two different types of Markup languages. Behaviour Markup Language is used for 2D animation. Humanoid Animation uses Virtual Reality Markup Language for 3D animation.


The social history of the Central Valley has been poked, prodded, dissected by generations of journalists, photographers, historians, storytellers of all stripes looking to puzzle out once and for all the poverty-choked enigma that is California's farm belt. From The Grapes of Wrath to Cesar Chavez, the bleak warm tales of William Saroyan to the harsh reality of Japanese internment, the Central Valley grows stories so tragic, deep, and humanly rich that in just 100 years or so it's claimed far more than seems its fair share in the broader American tale. Every year brings another crop of stories, but sitting in the pew that Sunday morning, the one I was hearing and seeing had somehow slipped from the net. Even I, who had grown up close by, had missed this one. Glimpsed it, but not seen it for what it really was.


Fabrication of multifunctional surfaces with complexity approaching that found in nature requires the application of a modular approach to surface engineering. We describe a versatile post-polymerization modification strategy to synthesize multifunctional polymer brush surfaces via combination of surface-initiated photopolymerization (SIP) and orthogonal thiol-click reactions. Specifically, we demonstrate two routes to multifunctional brush surfaces: in the first approach, alkyne-functionalized homopolymer brushes are modified with multiple thiolsvia a statistical, radical-mediated thiol-yne co-click reaction; and in the second approach, statistical copolymer brushes carrying two distinctly-addressable reactive moieties are sequentially modified via orthogonal base-catalyzed thiol-X (where X represents an isocyanate, epoxy, or α-bromoester) and radical-mediated thiol-yne reactions. In both cases, we show that surface properties, in the form of wettability, can be easily tuned over a wide range by judicious choice of brush composition and thiol functionality.


Public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) is a well-known cryptographic primitive for secure searchable data encryption in cloud storage. Unfortunately, it is inherently subject to the (inside) offline keyword guessing attack (KGA), which is against the data privacy of users. Existing countermeasures for dealing with this security issue mainly suffer from low efficiency and are impractical for real applications. In this paper, we provide a practical and applicable treatment on this security vulnerability by formalizing a new PEKS system named server-aided public key encryption with keyword search (SA-PEKS). In SA-PEKS, to generate the keyword ciphertext/trapdoor, the user needs to query a semitrusted third-party called keyword server (KS) by running an authentication protocol, and hence, security against the offline KGA can be obtained. We then introduce a universal transformation from any PEKS scheme to a secure SA-PEKS scheme using the deterministic blind signature. To illustrate its feasibility, we present the first instantiation of SA-PEKS scheme by utilizing the Full Domain Hash RSA signature and the PEKS scheme proposed by Boneh et al. in Eurocrypt 2004. Finally, we describe how to securely implement the client-KS protocol with a rate-limiting mechanism against online KGA and evaluate the performance of our solutions in experiments.


High band gap thin film silicon solar cells are of high interest for the use as top cell in triple junctions solar cells. Protocrystalline silicon, in the transition phase between amorphous and microcrystalline silicon, is such a high band gap material. During this project, protocrystalline intrinsic layers have been developed and optimized in p-i-n single junction solar cells by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) in a new multi-chamber deposition system. In the first series, cells and layers were deposited with different dilutions going from silane to hydrogen flux ratios of 1:1 to 1:64. At the dilutions 1:16 and 1:32, protocrystalline ma-terial was obtained which showed amorphous characteristics only up to a certain thickness, where crystallites started to evolve. With dilution 1:16, a second cell series has been deposited with variation of the intrinsic layer thick-ness. The best cells in terms of open-circuit voltage and fill factor product were obtained with an i-layer thickness of 100 nm. These cells have open-circuit voltages and fill factors up to 0.975 V and 75.8 % (0.932 V and 69.9 %) for the initial (degraded) state. These are promising values for the use of this material in top cells. However, the low current density means that the optimum i-layer thickness is probably higher for triple cell application. Further cells have been deposited at different temperatures. These results imply that there is still room for further optimization, when current limitations of the heating system will be overcome.


To aim at reducing aircraft turnaround time and improving airport operation efficiency,
this paper considers the optimization of aircraft ground manoeuvres such as a high-speed runway exit. The aircraft on the ground is a highly nonlinear dynamical system described by a fully parameterized mathematical model. The full aircraft model used in this paper has been further developed to include combined slip tire model. An iterative simulation-based optimization algorithm known as Generalized Optimal Control is employed to investigate the optimal solution for the control input such as nose-gear steering, main-gear brakes and
engine thrust. To achieve different control objectives, the cost function is defined
accordingly and then minimized by GOC. The optimization results of GOC will help to
explore the safety boundary of ground handling and guide the design of a real-time
controller.


Fresnel zone plates use interference from alternating concentric opaque and transparent regions to focus light. In this study, we tailored Fresnel zone plates (FZP) to focus a beam with a wavelength of 633 nm at distances of 10, 15, and 20 cm from the zone plate. To allow for fast, on-demand focusing, the plates were uploaded to a digital micromirror device (DMD). With the FZPs, the light was observed to focus at 10, 16.5, and 23.5 cm, varying by 10% - 18% from prediction. The beam waists at the focus were measured and differed by four times from the theoretical. Nevertheless, FZPs allow for ``"lenses" with easily modifiable focal lengths.


In the transition from an industrial society to a service society, particularly changes on the labour market are likely to occur. A number of authors assert that these changes will result in an increasing external-numerical flexibility, which is assumed to affect labour market processes in terms of generally higher labour market mobility and decreasing employment stabil-ity ("Speeding-up-Thesis"). The consequence of this process is said to be a levelling out of employment opportunities and risks; uncertainties that in industrial societies were unevenly distributed along clearly defined socio-economic demarcation lines are said to be becoming increasingly generalised. The old division between "core" and "peripheral" workforces is said to be dissolving into general employment instability ("De-Structuring-Thesis"). Therefore, the dissertation investigates into the individual and firm specific determinants of job stability and how these determinants maybe have changed over time by estimating transition rate models to test both hypotheses. For this reason the event history data of the IAB Employment Subsample (IABS) is used. The results are very different from those one would expect from the 'de-stabilisation hypothesis' and the 'de-structuring hypothesis'. There is no evidence for socio-economic de-structuring, but rather for a socio-economic re-structuring process. This restructuring process has simultaneously led to an increasing polarisation and to an increasing levelling out of employment chances and risks.


Linking neurodegeneration and immune cells The expansion of a repetitive DNA sequence in the C9orf72 gene is the major genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Although the expansion decreases C9orf72 expression, most research has focused on the toxic RNA and protein products it creates in neurons. O'Rourke et al. found that C9orf72 unexpectedly plays a key role in innate immune cells. Loss of C9orf72 in mice led to macrophage and microglial dysfunction and age-related neuroinflammation. This raises the possibility of a "dual-effect" disease mechanism, in which toxic byproducts in neurons are combined with microglial dysfunction from decreased C9orf72 expression, together promoting neurodegeneration. Science, this issue p. 1324 Loss of C9orf72 disrupts microglial function and may contribute to neurodegeneration in C9orf72 expansion patients. Expansions of a hexanucleotide repeat (GGGGCC) in the noncoding region of the C9orf72 gene are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. Decreased expression of C9orf72 is seen in expansion carriers, suggesting that loss of function may play a role in disease. We found that two independent mouse lines lacking the C9orf72 ortholog (3110043O21Rik) in all tissues developed normally and aged without motor neuron disease. Instead, C9orf72 null mice developed progressive splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy with accumulation of engorged macrophage-like cells. C9orf72 expression was highest in myeloid cells, and the loss of C9orf72 led to lysosomal accumulation and altered immune responses in macrophages and microglia, with age-related neuroinflammation similar to C9orf72 ALS but not sporadic ALS human patient tissue. Thus, C9orf72 is required for the normal function of myeloid cells, and altered microglial function may contribute to neurodegeneration in C9orf72 expansion carriers.


Here, we demonstrate that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an effective antibiofilm treatment when applied as catheter lock solutions (CLSs) against S. aureus biofilm infections. The activity of synthetic AMPs (Bac8c, HB43, P18, Omiganan, WMR, Ranalexin, and Polyphemusin) was measured against early and mature biofilms produced by methicillin-resistant S. aureus and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus isolates from patients with device-related infections grown under in vivo-relevant biofilm conditions. The cytotoxic and hemolytic activities of the AMPs against human cells and their immunomodulatory potential in human blood were also characterized. The D-Bac8c2,5Leu variant emerged as the most effective AMP during in vitro studies and was also highly effective in eradicating S. aureus biofilm infection when used in a CLS rat central venous catheter infection model. These data support the potential use of D-Bac8c2,5Leu, alone or in combination with other AMPs, in the treatment of S. aureus intravenous catheter infections.


National studies concerned with the assurance of students' language communication within higher education courses have identified several principles for leveraging change, which include an institutional wide strategy, the articulation of clear language communication outcomes at the course and subject level, the identification of subjects within courses from first year to the capstone that have a particular focus on teaching and assessing communication skills, the incorporation of English language and literacy into assessment criteria, and collaboration between discipline staff and academic language and learning staff (Arkoudis, 2012, 2014). These principles have been incorporated into an English Language Policy at one university; they require significant change in the way language education is perceived and practiced as a mainstream part of the higher education curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. This presentation showcases how a diagnostic process drawing on practice theory, and in particular Kemmis, et al's (2014) notion of practice architectures, can assist in making sense of how this kind of long-term sustainable change may be facilitated. To explain, Kemmis, et al (2014) remind us that changing practice is not merely a matter of communicating policy and offering professional development to individuals. Sustainable change to practice can only occur as a result of attending to the practice architectures the cultural-discursive, socio-political and material-economic conditions in which practice is enacted (Kemmis et al., 2014). As such, preliminary approaches for implementing the English Language Policy at our university have involved an initial diagnostic process at the course level to determine the aspects of the practice architectures that enable and constrain implementation. To illustrate the process and findings from this kind of diagnostic analysis, this paper reports on one study of a professional Masters by coursework degree that targets students from diverse cultural, linguistic and disciplinary backgrounds. The presentation will begin by describing the principles of the English Language Policy and the context of the Masters course. It will then outline the methods, which include interviews with course and subject coordinators and the analysis of course and subject material. It concludes by presenting the initial findings of existing practice as compared with the principles of good practice to accompany the English Language Policy. We argue that this data can inform teaching and learning leaders to take an evidencebased approach to changing the practice architectures for long-term sustainable change. We also suggest that practice theory offers a productive way forward for operationalising policy in a complex environment.


Camera trapping allows scientists to study activity patterns of animals under natural conditions. However, comparisons of activity patterns across seasons or latitudes can be biased, because activity is often attuned to sunrise and sunset, the timing of which varies with latitude and season. Existing transformation methods to solve this problem have limitations. Here, we explore whether and how activity patterns can be transformed more accurately using two alternative 'double anchoring' transformations – equinoctial and average anchoring – that anchor activity time to two chosen anchor points during the study period. Using simulated noisy datasets mimicking species with either crepuscular, diurnal or cathemeral activity patterns, we compared the ability of different transformation methods to extract the latent pattern and activity levels under different study conditions. We found that average anchoring best retrieved the original diel activity pattern and yielded accurate estimates of activity level. Two alternative transformation methods – single anchoring and equinoctial anchoring – performed less well. Bias in estimates from using untransformed clock times was most marked (up to 2.5‐fold overestimation) for longer studies covering 4–5 months either side of an equinox at high latitude, and focusing on crepuscular species. We applied the average anchoring method to 9 months of data on Red deer Cervus elaphus, Wild boar Sus scrofa and Mouflon Ovis amon musimon activity as captured by camera traps in National Park Hoge Veluwe, the Netherlands. Average anchoring revealed more pronounced peaks of activity after sunset than was apparent from untransformed data in red deer and wild boar, but not for mouflon, a cathemeral species. Similarly, activity level was lower when calculated using average anchored time for red deer and wild boar, but no difference was observed for mouflon. We conclude that transformation of time might not be necessary at latitudes below 20°, or in studies with a duration of less than a month (below 40° latitude). For longer study periods and/or higher latitudes, average anchoring resolves the problem of variable day length. Code is provided. The transformation functions are incorporated in the r‐package 'activity'.


Effects of alkali treatment of rice straw flour on the mechanical properties of rice straw flour-polypropylene composites were investigated. Rice straw flour (40 mesh) was first treated with sodium hydroxide using two concentrations of sodium hydroxide, 5 and 10% (W/W), and two treatment times (45 and 90 min) for a total of four treatments. The composites were then made with the rice straw flour as a filler (30%), polypropylene (65%) as a matrix, and maleic anhydride (5%) as a coupling agent. The polypropylene/rice straw flour mixtures were blended in an internal Haake mixer and made into molds that were later used for mechanical testing. The results showed that the treatment of rice straw flour with 5% alkali (W/W) increased the tensile modulus and impact strength. Longer treatment time also resulted in a higher tensile modulus and impact strength. The fiber/matrix interaction was analyzed from the mechanical data and morphological (SEM) studies. Treatment of rice straw flour with 10% alkali (W/W), however, decreased these properties even under a longer treatment time. Increasing the alkali concentration and treatment time increased the flexural modulus, flexural strength, and tensile strength of the composites. The SEM results showed greater adhesion between the rice straw flour and the polypropylene matrix at higher alkali concentrations and longer treatment times.


This thesis examines participation in local decision making for public services in the context of changing modes of governance in Britain. The impact of resident participation on local public services through a regeneration partnership is explored through a focus on how participation processes operate in a governance network context. Governance reforms in Britain have provided new opportunities for citizens to participate in public policy decision making. In particular, urban regeneration partnerships such as New Deal for Communities have been designed to promote local resident participation and also to reorient local services to be more closely aligned with resident needs, and thereby to reduce social exclusion. This has presented opportunities for residents to influence local public services; this type of participation outcome has received little attention however. This thesis argues that urban regeneration partnerships can be understood as a type of governance network which create opportunities for resident participation, and that a more detailed understanding of 'network' aspects of governing can explain some of the processes and outcomes of resident participation in this context. The research was carried out through an ethnographic case study of a New Deal for Communities programme, in East Manchester. A 'theory of change' framework was used to explore participation processes and outcomes in detail. The research found that certain individuals acted as 'brokers' through whom processes of influence operated. The more personal aspects of the relationships, or 'strong ties', between them were also significant. Resident influence through network governing was largely restricted to the local level however, and was unstable. This thesis makes a contribution to understanding how participation processes operate in an urban regeneration context and how they may lead to changes in public services. The thesis also makes a theoretical contribution by exploring how governance network processes may operate through brokers and network ties.


A guide to unit testing Java applications (including J2EE applications) using the JUnit framework and its extensions, this book provides techniques for solving real-world problems such as unit testing legacy applications, writing real tests for real objects, automating tests, testing in isolation, and unit testing J2EE and database applications. Using a sample-driven approach, various unit testing strategies are covered, such as how to unit test EJBs, database applications, JSPs, and Taglibs. Also addressed are testing strategies using freely available open source frameworks and tools, and how to unit test in isolation with Mock Objects. Testing J2EE applications by running tests from inside the container for performing integration unit tests is discussed, as is how to automate unit testing in automated builds (such as Ant and Maven) for performing continuous integration.


Head and neck cancer and its treatment frequently cause changes in both speech and swallowing, which affect the patient's quality of life and ability to function in society. The exact nature and severity of the post-treatment changes depend on the location of the tumor, the choice of treatment, and the availability and use of speech and swallowing therapy during the first 3 months after treatment. This paper reviews the literature on speech and swallowing problems in various types of treated head and neck cancer patients. Effective swallowing rehabilitation depends on the inclusion of a video-fluorographic assessment of the patient's oropharyngeal swallow in the post-treatment evaluation. Pilot data support the use of range of motion (ROM) exercises for the jaw, tongue, lips, and larynx in the first 3 months after oral or oropharyngeal ablative surgical procedures, as patients who perform ROM exercises on a regular basis exhibit significantly greater improvement in global measures of both speech and swallowing, as compared with patients who do not do these exercises.


Average compressive stress-strain relationship of reinforcement is sensitive to buckling length. The aim of this study is to propose an analytical method to predict the buckling length of longitudinal bars restrained by lateral ties inside RC structures. Stability analysis is conducted giving due consideration to both geometrical and mechanical properties of the longitudinal and lateral reinforcements. The required tie stiffness is derived from energy principle and compared with actual stiffness to determine the stable buckling mode.


Five microorganisms--Escherichia coli, Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, Serratia marcescens, and Bacillus subtilis--were placed into the canine, first premolar, first molar, and second molar of sterilized quadrant addition-reaction silicone impressions. Four disinfectant solutions--iodophor, neutral glutaraldehyde, phenol, and sodium hypochlorite--were spatulated with sterilized Type IV stone and vibrated into the intentionally contaminated impressions. The casts were removed at 1 and 24 hours, and the surfaces were swabbed, plated on BHI agar, and incubated at 37 degrees C for 3 days. Colony forming units were counted. At 1 hour, only sodium hypochlorite and glutaraldehyde effectively reduced the number of bacteria to the negative control. Incorporation of sodium hypochlorite, glutaraldehyde, and iodophor into gypsum casts reduced viable bacteria to a level equal to the negative controls at 24 hours.


BACKGROUND
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive genetic disease in Caucasian people, traditionally conceptualized as a condition whereby sufferers died in childhood. However, the current median survival age of 30 and a predicted median survival age of 40 for those born with the disease over the last decade ensure that families members will assist hospital staff with treatment and care well into most patients' adulthood.

AIMS
This study explores the perceptions and experiences of lay care-giving amongst parents and partners of adults with CF who were being treated at a specialist CF centre in England.

METHODS
Thirty-one relatives of adults with CF were interviewed in their own homes using an interview topic guide. All interviews were audiotape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analysis of data was assisted by ATLAS-ti, a software package for qualitative research.

FINDINGS
Two main themes surrounding lay carers' role in treatment and care were identified. Firstly, the notion of lay carers giving 'expert' care, both in hospital and at home was recognized. Parents' expertise was greater than that of partners until the patient required intensive hospital interventions, when partner expertise increased. Secondly, the degree of lay carers' felt inclusion in the hospital consultation appeared to depend on the nature of their relationship with the patient and the patients' health state.

CONCLUSION
Lay carers are routinely performing tasks for adults with CF that were once the remit of trained nurses. Families need higher levels of nursing and social support when certain treatments are used at home. Attention needs to be directed to how lay carers of adult patients can be included in hospital consultations.


Horndeski gravity is a promising alternative gravity candidate because the size of its parameter space is sufficiently large to allow fine tuning of the cosmological constant and screening of the scalar field at solar system scales. The advantage of having a large parameter space, however, comes with the difficulty of searching for solutions and no-hair and no-go theorems become very helpful tools in overcoming this obstacle. Restricting our attention to the static and spherically-symmetric scalar and tensor fields, we prove no-go theorems in the cubic sector of shift-symmetric Horndeski gravity, G2 = X + L and G3 = P/XQ, where L, P, Q are constants and X is the kinetic term. We show that a nontrivial scalar field cannot live in a flat background with no vacuum energy and a Schwarzschild-de Sitter-like background.


Cu-rich and As-rich growth zones in pyrite provide new insights into the composition of late-stage magmatic fluids and their host hydrothermal ore deposits. The pyrite is from the Pueblo Viejo (Dominican Republic) and Yanacocha (Peru) high-sulfidation gold-silver deposits, which are thought to form from hydrothermal systems that interacted with magmatic vapor plumes. Electron microprobe analysis, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and elemental maps show that pyrite, the most common sulfide mineral in both deposits, contains three different types of growth zones: (1) As-rich zones that are enriched in Au, Ag, Sb, Te, and Pb, (2) Cu-rich zones with significantly lower concentrations of these elements, and (3) barren pyrite zones with no other elements. These zones are interpreted to result from mixing between the pyrite-forming fluid and vapors that invaded the main hydrothermal system episodically. Comparison to experimental studies of elemental partitioning and analyses of fumaroles and fluid inclusions from magmatic-hydrothermal systems suggests that the As-rich vapor formed at high and possibly magmatic temperatures, whereas the Cu-rich vapor formed at lower temperatures, possibly during migration of the original magmatic vapor. The presence of finely spaced multiple growth zones in pyrite suggests that the composition of at least high-sulfidation hydrothermal systems can be affected intermittently and repetitively by vapors, probably from underlying magmas.


In this thesis, I give a theory of the nature of self-trust and an explanation of its role in autonomous decision-making. We tend to think of trust as essentially interpersonal, which casts doubt on the coherence of the concept of self-trust. Drawing on patients' experiences in reproductive medicine, I argue that self-trust is a meaningful as well as a useful concept. I provide autobiographical sketches of a number of women's experiences, supplemented by my own observations made while doing a clinical practicum in reproductive medicine, to illustrate that what many women feel toward themselves in a variety of reproductive health care contexts is analogous to what we feel toward others when we trust and distrust them. I ground my theory of self-trust in an account of interpersonal trust, in which I draw on a number of theories of trust in ethics, especially those of Annette Baier and Karen Jones. The paradigm of trust in those theories is interpersonal, and I describe how self-trust and that paradigm are both alike and unlike one another in the following areas: what it is that we trust about ourselves/others when we are trusting, what kind of mental attitude trust is, and what constitute legitimate grounds for trusting. I use my theory of the nature of self-trust to understand the relation between autonomy and self-trust. I give a feminist analysis of that relation by showing how oppression can be a barrier to self-trust and hence, to autonomy. Lastly, I discuss the practical implications of the value of self-trust for the duty of health care providers to respect women's reproductive autonomy.


The simulation of nonlinear wave propagation in the ray regime, i.e., in the limit of geometrical optics, is discussed. The medium involved is nonlinear, which means that the field amplitudes affect the constitutive parameters (e.g., dielectric constant) involved in the propagation formalism. Conventionally, linear ray propagation is computed by the use of Hamilton's ray equations whose terms are derived from the appropriate dispersion equation. The formalism used to solve such a set of equations is the Runge–Kutta algorithm in one of its variants. In the present case of nonlinear propagation, a proper dispersion equation must first be established from which the rays can be computed. Linear ray tracing with Hamilton's ray theory allows for the computation of ray trajectories and wave fronts. The convergence or divergence of rays suggests heuristic methods for computing the variation of amplitudes. Here, terms appearing in the Hamiltonian ray equations involve field amplitudes, which themselves are determined by the convergence (or divergence) of the rays. This dictates the simultaneous computation of a beam comprising many rays, so it is necessary to modify the original Runge–Kutta scheme by building into it some iteration mechanism such that the process converges to the values that take into account the amplitude effect. This research attempts to modify the existing propagation formalism and apply the new algorithm to simple problems of nonlinear ray propagation. The results display self-focusing effects characteristic of nonlinear optics problems. The influence of weak losses on the beam propagation and its self focusing is also discussed. Some displayed results obtained by simulating the modified formalism seem to be physically plausible and are in excellent agreement with experimental results reported in the literature.


A common challenge in metabolic engineering is rapidly identifying rate‐controlling enzymes in heterologous pathways for subsequent production improvement. We demonstrate a workflow to address this challenge and apply it to improving xylose utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For eight reactions required for conversion of xylose to ethanol, we screened enzymes for functional expression in S. cerevisiae, followed by a combinatorial expression analysis to achieve pathway flux balancing and identification of limiting enzymatic activities. In the next round of strain engineering, we increased the copy number of these limiting enzymes and again tested the eight‐enzyme combinatorial expression library in this new background. This workflow yielded a strain that has a ∼70% increase in biomass yield and ∼240% increase in xylose utilization. Finally, we chromosomally integrated the expression library. This library enriched for strains with multiple integrations of the pathway, which likely were the result of tandem integrations mediated by promoter homology. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1301–1309. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We consider the problem of constructing a portfolio of finitely many assets whose returns are described by a discrete joint distribution. We propose a new portfolio optimization model involving stochastic dominance constraints on the portfolio return. We develop optimality and duality theory for these models. We construct equivalent optimization models with utility functions. Numerical illustration is provided.


Abstract Introduction: The current climatic conditions and ongoing changes in the farming sector constitute stressful circumstances that impact on the well-being of many Australian rural communities. In these circumstances, small towns and communities are at particular risk due to their relative isolation from services and resources. However, rural communities are noted for being resilient, or able to successfully adapt to stressful circumstances, with well-being both a determinant and outcome of this resilience. This study operationalised a model of resilience, risk and well-being that examined community assets important for resilience of small, inland rural communities. Methods: 102 participants from eight outer regional or remote towns and communities in the northern Riverina region of New South Wales (Australia) completed survey items developed from the community resilience model and the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI). Results: Social assets including parents and citizens associations (P&C), sporting clubs and groups, and service agency assets including schools were rated as the assets of most benefit to the community and the PWI results were similar to Australian norms, suggesting these communities were resilient. Conclusions: Identifying schools, sporting and other clubs as prominent social assets highlights the role these rural agencies play to maintain and sustain relationships and connectedness of community members. When developing interventions or support services, program and policy makers should recognise these social assets for their contribution to the resilience and well-being of rural environments. The model of community resilience provides a framework that is useful for future policy development, planning, interventions and research.


In this book, the first edition of which was published in 1971 by Oxford University Press, Ihab Hassan takes Orphic dismemberment and regeneration as his metaphor for a radical crisis in art and language, culture and consciousness, which prefigures postmodern literature. The modern Orpheus, he writes, sings on a lyre without strings. Thus, his sensitive critique traces a hypothetical line from Sade through four modern authors Hemingway, Kafka, Genet, and Beckett to a literature still to come. But the line also breaks into two Interludes, one concerning Pataphysics, Dada, and Surrealism, and the other concerning Existentialism and Aliterature. Combining literary history, brief biography, and critical analysis, Hassan surrounds these authors with a complement of avant-garde writers whose works also foreshadow the postmodern temper. These include Jarry, Apollinaire, Tzara, Breton, Sartre, Camus, Nathalie Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet, and in America, Cage, Salinger, Ginsberg, Barth, and Burroughs. Hassan takes account also of related contemporary developments in art, music, and philosophy, and of many works of literary theory and criticism. For this new edition, Hassan has added a new preface and postface on the developing character of postmodernism, a concept which has gained currency since the first edition of this work, and which he himself has done much to theorize."


Zoning is designed to delineate land uses in order to prevent urban development from incurring negative externalities. Morphologically speaking, zoning should result in spatial patterns that are closer to Euclidean (or regular) geometry than fractal (or irregular, self-similar) geometry. Previous computer simulations showed that zoning did not affect the fractal geometry of the urban spatial patterns of the Taipei metropolitan area. In this paper, we explore into the reasons why zoning fails in most Asian cities in general, and in Taipei in particular, through theoretical expositions. We argue that the preference for mixed uses is the main reason why zoning fails to achieve its goals. Furthermore, even a limited extent of mixed uses would result in spatial patterns characterised by fractal geometry rather than Euclidean geometry. We argue for a hybrid land regulation through the zoning and permit systems that take advantage of both the artificial and natural aspects of cities.


The pH dependence of the B-lactamase enzymes I and 2 catalysed hydrolysis of
penicillin and cephalosporin derivatives has been investigated. It was shown that the Blactamase
I catalysed hydrolysis of n-alkyl penicillins of increasing chain length produced
an increase inkcaVKm up to the octyl derivative. Despite this it is believed that the activesite
of the B-lactamase I enzyme does not display a strong recognition for B-lactams
containing a hydrophobic C6 side-chain.

It was found that the pH dependence for the enzyme catalysed hydrolysis of
benzyl penicillin and benzyl cephalosporin did not decline as expected at low pH, but
instead the rate levels off.

The incorporation of a negatively charged group into the phenyl C7 side chain of
cephalosporins resulted in lower activity at pH7 compared to that for benzyl cephalosporin,
but at low pH much higher activity is seen: 2-carboxyphenyl cephalosporin was 10 fold more
reactive at pH3 than at pH7. The B-lactamase I catalysed hydrolysis of phenyl substituted
penicillins containing a negatively charged functional group in the phenyl side chain was
more complex. 2-Carboxyphenyl penicillin shows higher activity at low pH, while the 3,4-
carboxyphenyl penicillin derivatives show a typical 'bell-shaped' profile, but with the pKa I
value shifted up-field. This was further investigated by preparing the cis/trans isomers of 2-
carboxycyclohexyl penicillin and cephalosporin.

It was found that the cis 2-
carboxycyclohexyl penicillin compound displayed high activity at low pH, while the trans
compound did not. Neither of the corresponding cepbalosporin derivatives showed evidence
of higher activity at low pH.

The C3 ester and C3 alcohol of penicillins and the C4 cephalosporin lactone were
synthesised. The penicillin alcohol and the cephalosporin lactone were found to be 'good'
substrates for the B-lactamase I enzyme and produced 'normal' pH-rate profiles.

It was found that with the B-lactamase 2 enzyme hydrolysis of n-alkyl penicillins
proceeded at comparable rates irrespective of the length of the C6 side chain alkyl group,
and that the enzyme hydrolysis rate at pH 7 was minimally affected by substituent changes
in the C6/C7 side chains of penicillin and cephalosporin but the behaviour was more
complex when the negatively charged carboxyphenyl B-lactams were investigated. The
enzyme catalysed hydrolysis was greatly reduced when the C3/4 carboxylate group of the
substrate was converted into an alcohol, ester or lactone, suggesting the importance of this
group in the 13-lactamase2 hydrolysis mechanism.

These results raise important questions about the the existing hypotheses which
attempt to explain the mechanism of action of the B-lactamase I and 2 enzymes.


This landmark anthology, the first of its kind, takes its impulse from the words of Bertolt Brecth: "In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times." Bearing witness to extremity - whether of war, torture, exile or repression - the volume encompasses more than 140 poems from five continents, over the span of this century from the Armenian genocide to Tiananmen Square.


We have investigated whether restoration of the balance between neutrophil elastase and its inhibitor, alpha(1)-antitrypsin, can prevent the progression of pulmonary emphysema in patients with alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency. Twenty-six Danish and 30 Dutch ex-smokers with alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency of PI*ZZ phenotype and moderate emphysema (FEV(1) between 30% and 80% of predicted) participated in a double-blind trial of alpha(1)-antitrypsin augmentation therapy. The patients were randomized to either alpha(1)-antitrypsin (250 mg/kg) or albumin (625 mg/kg) infusions at 4-wk intervals for at least 3 yr. Self-administered spirometry performed every morning and evening at home showed no significant difference in decline of FEV(1) between treatment and placebo. Each year, the degree of emphysema was quantified by the 15th percentile point of the lung density histogram derived from computed tomography (CT). The loss of lung tissue measured by CT (mean +/- SEM) was 2.6 +/- 0.41 g/L/yr for placebo as compared with 1.5 +/- 0.41 g/L/yr for alpha(1)-antitrypsin infusion (p = 0.07). Power analysis showed that this protective effect would be significant in a similar trial with 130 patients. This is in contrast to calculations based on annual decline of FEV(1) showing that 550 patients would be needed to show a 50% reduction of annual decline. We conclude that lung density measurements by CT may facilitate future randomized clinical trials of investigational drugs for a disease in which little progress in therapy has been made in the past 30 yr.


Undernutrition among children under five remains widespread culminating predominantly in linear growth deficits (? -2SD Units) with its attendant setbacks. Food-based interventions aimed at completely reversing this phenomenon have not had significant impact. Exploring novel dietary interventions has therefore become necessary. A standard centrally processed food (soyflour + cocoa + corn starch) was subjected to efficacy trial. Using a pretest-posttest controlled experimental design, the impact of the diet was determined on 30 (randomly selected) undernourished children (aged 6-24 months) at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Clinic, Oni Memorial children's Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Anthropometric, Biochemical and haematological measurements were conducted over a two month duration including follow-up observations according to standard methods. Results of mean values (cm/month) of linear growth velocity observed for intervention (2.59 ± 2.2) was higher and significantly different from control (0.94 ± 0.08) (p ? 0.05). Elimination of linear growth deficits (? - 2SD units) was successful in 75% and 30% of test subjects aged 6-12 months and 12-24 months respectively using WHO (2006) child growth standard as reference. These outcomes were at variance from the control (p ? 0.05) where deficits persisted. Serum Albumin normalized, having risen by 21.8% in the intervention from 35.5 g/L but contrasted sharply with control's 4.4% rise from 33.9g/L. Haemoglobin values attained 6.96 mmol/L (Intervention) and 6.14 mmol/L (control) following a similar trend. The impact of an extruded soy-cocoa based complementary diet has been evaluated and found to be effective in reducing linear growth deficits in children under age two especially those between 6-12 months. Its use for Nutrition rehabilitation is recommended.


The use of clickers (also referred to as Audience Paced Feedback, Classroom Communication Systems, Personal Response Systems, Electronic Voting Systems, Student Response Systems, Audience Response Systems, voting-machines, and zappers) has grown in college chemistry classrooms within the last decade. This review summarizes the pedagogic applications of research on clickers as well as insights from their practical use. Fifty-six publications reporting on the use of clickers in college-level science classrooms are categorized as practical application or research studies, and reviewed. Publications on the practical use of clickers suggest that students have a positive attitude towards the technology and that many benefits and few drawbacks are associated with its use. Research studies show that the use of clickers results in measurable increases in student learning in some cases and inconclusive results in other cases. In every published report of student improvement with the use of clickers, the course included student collaboration of some form.


Quantified environmental impacts associated with clay brick production are not very well researched for the South African context. This paper, based on a study undertaken for the Clay Brick Association of South Africa, where clay bricks are still the predominant wall construction material, identifies processes within the various clay brick firing techniques, where environmental impacts are the most severe, with the intention to make producers aware of where they may improve production processes and reduce adverse environmental impacts. The paper will focus on the research results of the cradle-to-gate phase of the life cycle of clay bricks. The data collected from the full population survey were used to identify and model the environmental impacts using SimaPro software and the EcoInvent database. The results for the full industry (averaged across firing technologies) per kg of fired clay brick for the impact categories assessed are: carcinogens 0.007315 kg C2H3Cl eq, non-carcinogens 0.031052 kg C2H3Cl eq, respiratory inorganics 0.000426 kg PM2.5 eq, ionizing radiation 1.070064 Bq C-14 eq, ozone layer depletion <0.0000 kg CFC-11 eq, respiratory organics 0.000076 kg C2H4 eq, aquatic ecotoxicity 77.239 kg TEG water, terrestrial ecotoxicity 21.27 kg TEG soil, terrestrial acidification/nitrification 0.0088 kg SO2 eq, land occupation 0.001759 m 2 org.arable, aquatic acidification 0.004045 kg SO2 eq, aquatic eutrophication 0.000150 kg PO4 P-lim, global warming 0.853033kg CO2 eq, nonrenewable energy 8.99914 MJ primary and mineral extraction 0.000558 MJ surplus. Overall, the findings suggest that there is great potential to improve the clay brick manufacturing industry in terms of its environmental impacts.


This paper investigates the effect of climate variables (precipitation and temperature) on food security indicators from 1961-2011 for 10 Eastern and Southern African countries by estimating fixed effects models. Food security is approximated by three indicators: food production index, mortality rate of people under five years of age, and life expectancy at birth. The results show that GDP per capita, inflation, population growth, and land under cereal production are significant in explaining the indicators of food security.


Abstract: As in adults and older children, pulmonary function testing in infants may help detect certain obstructive or restrictive diseases. However, different techniques and equipment must be used. The most commonly performed noninvasive tidal breathing test involves use of a face mask with a pneumotachograph; an alternative method is respiratory inductive plethysmography. Ratios derived from volume-time and flow-time tracings can help identify patients with obstructive lung disease, who have a shorter time to peak expiratory flow:expiratory time ratio than do healthy persons. Instead of spirometry, the rapid thoracic compression technique can be used to measure expiratory flow and construct a flow-volume curve. This method, which is performed with the patient under sedation, increases flow rates over tidal flow values and enhances the ability to detect abnormal airway function. (J Respir Dis. 2006;27(4):158-166)


Many protected natural areas are chronically exposed to noise. Noise exposure grows faster than the human populations whose activities generate noise. Data accumulate regarding masked hearing performance in animals, which can be coupled with models of sound propagation to predict reductions in the spatial extent of auditory awareness with elevated background sound levels. The emergence of predictive models of noise masking effects recommends a reassessment of field studies of wildlife responses to noise to identify the potential scope of this problem. A review of this literature reveals a substantial and diverse collection of scientific papers whose findings are plausibly related to masking effects and an increasing number of more decisive results from studies that were designed to control for other confounding factors.


High dimensional sparse learning has imposed a great computational challenge to large scale data analysis. In this paper, we investiage a broad class of sparse learning approaches formulated as linear programs parametrized by a {\em regularization factor}, and solve them by the parametric simplex method (PSM). PSM offers significant advantages over other competing methods: (1) PSM naturally obtains the complete solution path for all values of the regularization parameter; (2) PSM provides a high precision dual certificate stopping criterion; (3) PSM yields sparse solutions through very few iterations, and the solution sparsity significantly reduces the computational cost per iteration. Particularly, we demonstrate the superiority of PSM over various sparse learning approaches, including Dantzig selector for sparse linear regression, sparse support vector machine for sparse linear classification, and sparse differential network estimation. We then provide sufficient conditions under which PSM always outputs sparse solutions such that its computational performance can be significantly boosted. Thorough numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the PSM method.


This paper provides an overview of previous work that has explored the processes and mechanisms by which communication constitutes organizing (as ongoing efforts at coordination and control of activity and knowledge) and organizations (as collective actors that are 'talked' into existence). We highlight differences between existing theories and analyses grounded in communication-as-constitutive (CCO) perspectives and describe six overarching premises for such perspectives; in so doing, we sharpen and bound the explanatory power of CCO perspectives for organization studies more generally. Building on these premises, we develop an agenda for further research, call for greater cross-fertilization between the communication and organization literatures, and illustrate ways in which communication-informed analyses have complemented and strengthened theories of the firm, organizational identity, sensemaking, and strategy as practice.


After more than 20 years and substantial investments of time and money, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of tropical forest management is due for a stringent impact evaluation. For any social, ecological, and economic outcomes to be attributed to FSC certification, rival explanations need to be ruled out. We recognize that different types of knowledge about FSC impacts derived from information gathered through a range of methods can satisfy the evidence-needs of different stakeholders. But this paper describes a roadmap based on rigorous methods to assess whether FSC certification delivers on its expected outcomes and the underlying mechanisms through which changes can be attributable to FSC. To this end, background studies that provide contextual knowledge related to implementation of FSC certification are proposed to account for any positive self-selection biases and to capture the temporal dynamics of certification including changes in the sociopolitical and economic contexts that influence certification decisions.


Abstract. Hyperspectral imaging is an established method for material mapping, which has been conventionally applied from airborne and spaceborne platforms for a range of applications, including mineral and vegetation mapping, change detection and environmental studies. The main advantage of lightweight hyperspectral imagers lies in the flexibility to deploy them from various platforms (terrestrial imaging and from unmanned aerial vehicles; UAVs), as well as the high spectral resolution to cover an expanding wavelength range. In addition, spatial resolution allows object sampling distances from micrometres to tens of centimetres – complementary to conventional nadir-looking systems. When this new type of imaging device was initially released, few instruments were available and the applicability and potential of the method was restricted. Today, a wider range of instruments, with a range of specifications, is available, with significant improvements over the first generation of technology. In this contribution, the state-of-the-art of hyperspectral imaging will be reviewed from a close range measurement perspective, highlighting how the method supplements geometric modelling techniques. An overview of the processing workflow, adjusted to the more complex close range imaging scenario will be given. This includes the integration with 3D laser scanning and photogrammetric models to provide a geometric framework and real world coordinate system for the hyperspectral imagery.


21 Abstract Objectives : This research was conducted to compare the reaction of married people to marital conflict among three generations of women and two generations of men. Method : The study was a qualitative research and the target population was all married people belonging to last three generations living in Tehran in 2014. Sampling was conducted in two stages using convenience and purposive methods. Data were collected through in-depth interview with a total of 45 people, with 9 people in each generation group (the first, second and third generation of women and the second and third generation of men). The interviews with women were conducted at their residences and with men were done over the telephone. The collected data were coded using content analysis method. Results : In this research, information was gathered through interviews with 9 daughters, 9 mothers and 9 grandmothers with an average (±SD) age of 27±2.5, 49±4.7 and 71±6.1, respectively. Also, interviews were conducted with 9 sons and 9 fathers with an average (±SD) age of 28±1.2 and 45±6.3, respectively. Data analysis showed that conflict avoidance in the second generation was more than the third generation. Compared with the women, men reported less conflict avoidance in bringing up the conflicting issues. Conclusion : It seems that some factors such as people's age differences, life cycle and differences in standards influence their behavior during marital conflict.


This paper explores how asymmetric information between parents and children and direct parental controls can influence children's internet use in Chile. We designed and implemented a set of randomized interventions whereby approximately 7700 parents were sent weekly SMSs messages with (i) specific information about their children's internet use, and/or (ii) encouragement and assistance with the installation of parental control software. We separate the informational content from the cue associated with SMS messages and vary the strength of the cues by randomly assigning whether parents received messages in a predictable or unpredictable fashion. Our analysis yields three main findings. First, we find that messages providing parents with specific information reduce children's internet use by 6?10 percent and help parents mitigate the problem of asymmetric information in the household. Second, we do not find significant impacts from helping parents directly control their children's Internet access with parental control software. Third, the strength or salience of the cue associated with receiving a message has an independent impact on internet use.


Understanding the Local Solvent Environment of Biologically Relevant Iron-Nitrosyl Systems through Two-Dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy Jennifer Faith Brookes Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Munira Khalil Department of Chemistry Iron-nitrosyl systems, particularly in the form of heme proteins, with their iron metal active sites play an important role in biological systems. Heme proteins act as storage, transporters, and receptors for nitric oxide (NO), a signaling molecule that is important in immune, nervous, and cardiovascular systems of mammals. By better understanding the local environment of the active site of NO binding heme proteins we can gain insight into disease in which the NO pathways have been implicated. This is an important step to being able to develop pharmaceuticals targeting NO pathways in humans. Sodium nitroprusside ((SNP, Na2[Fe(CN)5NO]2H2O) is investigated as a model system for the active site of nitric oxide binding heme proteins. Using two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy (2D IR) to obtain dephasing dynamics of the nitrosyl stretch (NO) in a series of solvents we are able to better understand the local environment of the more complicated metalloproteins. Rigorous line shape analysis is performed by using nonlinear response theory to simulate 2D IR spectra which are then fit to experimental data in an iterative process to extract frequency-frequency correlation functions (FFCFs). The time scales obtained are then correlated to empirical solvent polarity parameters. The analysis of the 2D IR lineshapes reveal that the spectral diffusion timescale of the NO in SNP varies from 0.8 – 4 ps and is negatively correlated with the empirical solvent polarity scales. We continue to investigate NO binding of metalloproteins through 2D IR experiments on nitrophorin 4 (NP4). NP4 is a pH-sensitive NO transporter protein present in the salivary gland of the blood sucking insect Rhodius prolixus which undergoes a pH sensitive structural change between a closed and open conformation allowing for the storage and delivery of NO. The two structures are observed spectroscopically as two distinct pH-dependent NO frequencies at ~1904 and ~1917 cm -1 . We obtain FFCFs by globally fitting experimental 2D IR spectra to signals calculated using a third-order nonlinear response formalism. The open conformation has frequency-frequency correlation timescales of ~1 ps and ~100 ps under both acidic and basic conditions. The closed conformer has pH dependence with fast time scales of 3.0 ps (pH 5.1) and 1.4 ps (pH 7.9) with a static component present under both conditions. The dephasing dynamics of NP4 can be correlated to the local solvent environment within the distal pocket providing quantitative confirmation to the presence and absence of water molecules in two conformers under both pH conditions.