Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder that results from triplication of human chromosome 21 (Hsa21) and occurs in around 1 in 1000 live births. All individuals with DS present with skeletal abnormalities typified by craniofacial features, short stature and low bone mineral density (BMD). Differences between males and females with DS suggest a sexual dimorphism in how trisomy affects skeletal deficits associated with trisomy 21 (Ts21). Previous investigations of skeletal abnormalities in DS have varied methodology, sample sizes and ages making the underlying causes of deficits uncertain. Mouse models of DS were used to characterize skeletal abnormalities, but the genetic and developmental origin remain unidentified. Over-expression Dyrk1a, found on Hsa21 and mouse chromosome 16 (Mmu16) has been linked to cognitive deficits and skeletal deficiencies. Dp1Tyb mice contain three copies of all of the genes on Mmu16 that are homologous to Hsa21, males and females are fertile, and therefore are an excellent model to test the hypothesis that gene dosage influences the sexual dimorphism of bone abnormalities in DS. Dp1Tyb at 6 weeks 16 weeks showed distinctive abnormalities in BMD, trabecular architecture, and reduced bone strength over time that occur generally through an interaction between sex and genotype. Increased gene dosage and sexual dimorphism in Dp1Tyb mice revealed distinct phenotypes in bone formation and resorption. To assess how Dyrk1a influences the activity and function of osteoblasts Ts65Dn female trisomic mice, female mice with a floxed Dyrk1a gene (Ts65Dn, Dyrk1afl/+) were be bred to Osx1-GFP::Cre+ mice to generate Ts65Dn animals with a reduced copy of Dyrk1a in mature osteoblast cells. Female Ts65Dn,Dyrk1a+/+/+ and Ts65Dn,Dyrk1a+/+/-displayed significant defects in both trabecular architecture and cortical geometry. Ultimate force was reduced in trisomic animals, suggesting whole bone and tissue level properties are not adversely affected by trisomy. Reduction of Dyrk1a functional copy number in female mice did not improve skeletal deficits in an otherwise trisomic animal. Dyrk1a may not alter osteoblast cellular activity in an autonomous manner in trisomic female mice. These data establish sex, gene dosage, skeletal site and age as important factors in skeletal development of the skeleton in DS mice, potentially paving the way for identification of the causal dosage-sensitive genes in both male and female animals.


The conservation and management of tropical deer populations need both knowledge of the ecology and natural history of deer and an understanding of the utilization of deer populations by humans. The south-eastern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is the region with the largest ungulate diversity in Mesoamerica, including three of the five species of deer found in Mexico. For centuries, human populations have been harvesting deer for subsistence in this region. Little is know on the ecology and conservation of ungulate populations undergoing subsistence harvesting in Mesamerica. This thesis is the result of a long-term study (1996-2001) on the population, community ecology and sustainable management of the Yucatan Peninsula brown brocket deer (Mazama pandora), red brocket deer (Mazama americana) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Greater Calakmul Region՝ (GCR), south eastern Mexico. Chapter two addresses the estimation of deer abundance, densities, population structure and habitat use of sympatric populations of these three species of deer. Chapter three outlines the relationships of the deer diet with aspects of habitat ecology such as fruit phenology, availability and seasonality. Chapter four describes the spatial and temporal patterns of subsistence hunting of tropical deer populations with the use of a novel technique incorporating both GIS/GPS technologies and participatory research. The abundance of deer in the GCR remained stable during a continuous monitoring period of five years and no effects of hunting were detected in the populations of the two Mazama species. A steady decline was detected in the populations of white-tailed deer that might be attributed to over-harvesting by subsistence hunters. Densities of the three species of deer are similar or higher that those reported elsewhere in the Neotropics. Mazama americana presented strong preferences in habitat use for the Tall Perennial Forest, while M pandora and o. virginianus used habitats in relation with availability. The population structure of the three species of deer resembles a stable population with the majority of individuals found in younger age classes but older individuals still found in ages above 12 years old (the cementum annuli technique for age determination was used for the first time in a tropical deer population). Mazama americana is a frugivore deer with its diet composed of up to 80% fruits year-round, while M. pandora and o.virginianus are both frugivores and browsers. Fruit availability for deer was strongly linked with fruit phonological patterns of the major planit species composing the deer diet year-round. A critical period with low fruit availability and potential dietary stress for deer was found during the dry season (April-May). The Zapote tree {Manilkara zapota) might be a keystone plant resource in the region. Subsistence hunting of deer is widespread in the GCR region, but deer hunting seems to be sustainable in part due to the dynamic patterns in spatial and temporal location of hunters in the landscape. The spatial and temporal patterns of deer hunting might be responsible for the creation of natural refuges and source/sink areas for deer populations. The conservation and management of tropical deer populations in the GCR and Meso-America are discussed in the light of these findings.


The improvement in awareness, the recent radiological techniques advancement, and the accumulating experience on diagnosis of small, peripheral pulmonary nodules (especially through the lung cancer screening programs, which was dramatically increased worldwide), along with the tremendous diffusion of immunohistochemistry in the pathological diagnosis of lung neoplasms, made a sensible growing of thoracic neuroendocrine tumor (TNT) diagnosis possible, in the last decades. The interest to TNTs management has never been so strong as in the last few years. Several articles concerning biology, associated paraneoplastic syndromes, surgery, imaging, follow-up schedule, new drugs available both in induction and/or in adjuvant setting, have been recently published.


Ten years ago today in Australia and Indonesia the scientific world was turned on its head. By a very small head, as it happens. We were part of the original joint Australian-Indonesian research team involved in the discovery of human remains, unlike anything seen before, that was announced in the pages of the journal Nature and broadcast around the world by a frenzied media. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Roberts, R. 'Bert'. & Sutikna, T. (2014). A decade on and the Hobbit still holds secrets. The Conversation, 30 October 1-4. This journal article is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers/2339 Richard 'Bert' Roberts Thomas Sutikna 30 October 2014, 6.08am AEDT AUT HO RS ARC Australian Laureate Fellow at University of Wollongong PhD candidate in archaeology at University of Wollongong Ten years ago today in Australia and Indonesia the scientific world was turned on its head. By a very small head, as it happens. We were part of the original joint Australian-Indonesian research team involved in the discovery of human remains, unlike anything seen before, that was announced in the pages of the journal Nature – and broadcast around the world by a frenzied media. The newly reported species of human – Homo floresiensis – seemed to have survived until just 18,000 years ago on Flores, a far-flung island in eastern Indonesia. At only a metre tall, with the brain the size of a chimp's and a host of anatomical features that harked back to a much earlier period in human evolution, it made no sense whatsoever. Some thought the new find – dubbed "Hobbit" by the indefatigable leader of the Australian team, Mike Morwood – might be a hoax, the Asian equivalent of Piltdown Man. Others thought the unusual mix of features was the unfortunate consequence of one of our species (Homo sapiens) suffering from a severe medical condition called microcephaly, in which the head and brain are massively reduced in size. Fast forward to 2014. What lessons have we learned after ten more years of research at Liang Bua, the limestone cave in which the Hobbit was discovered? And what don't we yet know about this diminutive species of human? Thomas Sutikna holds the skull of LB1, the type specimen of the 'Hobbit', Homo floresiensis. Indonesian National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS)/University of Wollongong, Author provided A decade on and the Hobbit still holds secrets http://theconversation.com/a-decade-on-and-the-hobbit-still-holds-secr... 1 of 4 21/11/2014 8:15 AM As part of the ongoing Australian-Indonesian research team at Liang Bua, we offer a personal reflection on the past decade of Hobbit adventures and sneak a peek at the next chapter of exploration. Building a body of evidence We got lucky in September 2003. Bones are rarely preserved as fossils, so we hit pay dirt when the partial skeleton of LB1 – the abbreviation for Liang Bua 1, the type specimen of Homo floresiensis – was uncovered at the bottom of a six-metre pit dug by archaeologists from the National Centre for Archaeology in Jakarta. We'd been searching for the remains of the ancestors of the first Australians: early Homo sapiens dispersing through the Indonesian archipelago to Australia. But it soon became clear that this was a different creature entirely. The skull was that of an adult human but far too small to be one of our species, and many other features of the skull, teeth and mandible (lower jaw) didn't fit the modern human mould. The same was also true of the rest of the body, with the Hobbit having very different limb proportions to us. Some other researchers begged to differ and have continued to do over the past decade, proposing a variety of different pathologies, such as Down syndrome, to explain the curious anatomy of the Hobbit. But as more bones have been excavated and described, the "sick Hobbit hypothesis" – a term coined by American palaeoanthropologist Bill Jungers – has proved inadequate to explain the full package of Hobbit features. The wrist bones, for example, have a primitive morphology akin to those of African apes and unlike those of modern humans, with or without a growth disorder. Expert opinion currently supports overwhelmingly the original diagnosis of the Hobbit as a new species, with the remains of at least six individuals now known from Liang Bua. A window into the past Where are the biggest gaps in our knowledge of the Hobbit, and what are the burning questions? There are many of both. Two gaping holes are the early years of the Hobbit – including its evolutionary backstory and route of passage to Flores – and its final days. When did the ancestors of the Hobbit first In a hole in the ground excavating Liang Bua, using wooden shoring for safety. Indonesian National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS)/University of Wollongong, Author provided Click to enlarge A decade on and the Hobbit still holds secrets http://theconversation.com/a-decade-on-and-the-hobbit-still-holds-secr... 2 of 4 21/11/2014 8:15 AM arrive on the island, and when and why did the last survivors perish? Their extinction might be connected with the migration of early modern humans through Indonesia, but we have no evidence of any contact between the two species at the present time. It's even possible that Hobbits bumped into, and bred with, the enigmatic Denisovans – a sister group to Neanderthals – who may have inhabited parts of Southeast Asia at the same time as Hobbits and Homo sapiens. The stark reality is that Liang Bua – pictured above – will not contain the entire record of evolution and extinction of Hobbits. The cave deposits represent a snapshot in time, a glimpse of human activities over the past 100,000 years. But we remain ignorant of the early evolutionary development of the Hobbit. Did the Hobbit evolve from a small-bodied emigrant from Africa, perhaps an australopithecine or an early member of our genus, such as Homo habilis, possessed with wanderlust? Or did it derive from a larger-bodied form, possibly a group of Homo erectus island-hopping across from the nearby island of Java, which then dwarfed to Hobbit-size after reaching Flores? We need more Hobbit bones from more sites, spread over a wider geographic and time range, to answer such questions. Happy anniversary, Hobbit! The past ten years have been exhilarating for us, but how can we best solve these prehistoric puzzles? To commemorate the Hobbit anniversary, the University of Wollongong has this week announced the Michael J Morwood Fellowship, named in memory of Mike Morwood, who died last year. A rear-seat view of Liang Bua. LB1 was found close to the right-hand wall of the cave. Indonesian National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS)/University of Wollongong., Author provided Click to enlarge A decade on and the Hobbit still holds secrets http://theconversation.com/a-decade-on-and-the-hobbit-still-holds-secr... 3 of 4 21/11/2014 8:15 AM With the award of the inaugural postdoctoral fellowship to one of us (Thomas Sutikna), we intend to build on Mike's vision of archaeological exploration in Indonesia. Excavations at Liang Bua will be enlarged in the quest for additional Hobbit fossils for new scientific analyses, and clues to their evolutionary history and former range will be sought elsewhere on Flores and other Indonesian islands. An enduring lesson from ten years ago is that we should expect the unexpected when excavating the "Lost Worlds" of Indonesia. It is not beyond reason to think that another new species of human might be discovered in the years ahead, and a new companion welcomed into the palaeoanthropological Fellowship of the Ring. Richard Roberts and Thomas Sutikna with LB1 skull and jawbone. Paul Jones, University of Wollongong. Click to enlarge A decade on and the Hobbit still holds secrets http://theconversation.com/a-decade-on-and-the-hobbit-still-holds-secr... 4 of 4 21/11/2014 8:15 AM


Electrothermal vaporization (ETV)-inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) is proposed for multielement determination in powdered medicinal plants. Simultaneous determination of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn was performed in 10 herbs consumed in Brazil. Heating of the ETV system and the influence of carrier gas flow rate, modifier gas (Freon R12, CCl2F2) flow rate and sample mass were evaluated and adjusted to obtain the best signal/noise ratio. Temperatures of 300 °C and 1800 °C were used for pyrolysis and vaporization, respectively. Freon has a strong influence on the pyrolysis and vaporization temperatures and the sensitivity. Although the partial elimination of the sample matrix and Freon can act to minimize matrix effects, standard addition calibration was necessary for direct element determination in solid samples. The accuracy of ETV-ICP OES measurements was evaluated by analysing two certified reference materials (NIST 1515 – Apple Leaves and NIST 1574 – Peach Leaves), and the comparison of results obtained by solution nebulization ICP OES (NEB-ICP OES) for acid decomposed samples. The results were in good agreement (t-test at the 95% confidence level) with certified values and those obtained by NEB-ICP OES. Precision was better than 20%, considering the standard deviation of five replicates, and limits of detection and quantification varied from 0.01 to 0.48 and 0.03 to 1.60 μg g−1, respectively. The proposed method allows the simultaneous determination of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in medicinal plants in less than 5 min, including the sample preparation step.


For the ancient Egyptians, the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1700 BC) was a classical period of art, history and literature. The Twelfth Dynasty was one of the strongest ever to rule on the banks of the Nile: some of its kings were later worshipped as local gods, and were made famous by classical Greek authors. Yet Egyptologists tend not to look beyond the extraordinary royal sculpture and literary masterpieces of the time. Although the picture is fragmentary, as with any archaeological record, the last two hundred years of exploration and excavation have revealed much of the splendour of the period. This book examines the evidence for the culture, history and society of both central and provincial Egypt at the time, revealing the wealth of the entire country. Too often overshadowed by the better-preserved architecture of other periods, "Middle Kingdom Egypt" emerges for the reader as a fascinating age in its own right.


As the demand for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatments has increased exponentially in recent years, the limited supply of human and equine rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG and ERIG) has failed to provide the required passive immune component in PEP in countries where canine rabies is endemic. Replacement of HRIG and ERIG with a potentially cheaper and efficacious alternative biological for treatment of rabies in humans, therefore, remains a high priority. In this study, we set out to assess a mouse monoclonal antibody (MoMAb) cocktail with the ultimate goal to develop a product at the lowest possible cost that can be used in developing countries as a replacement for RIG in PEP. Five MoMAbs, E559.9.14, 1112-1, 62-71-3, M727-5-1, and M777-16-3, were selected from available panels based on stringent criteria, such as biological activity, neutralizing potency, binding specificity, spectrum of neutralization of lyssaviruses, and history of each hybridoma. Four of these MoMAbs recognize epitopes in antigenic site II and one recognizes an epitope in antigenic site III on the rabies virus (RABV) glycoprotein, as determined by nucleotide sequence analysis of the glycoprotein gene of unique MoMAb neutralization-escape mutants. The MoMAbs were produced under Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) conditions. Unique combinations (cocktails) were prepared, using different concentrations of the MoMAbs that were capable of targeting non-overlapping epitopes of antigenic sites II and III. Blind in vitro efficacy studies showed the MoMab cocktails neutralized a broad spectrum of lyssaviruses except for lyssaviruses belonging to phylogroups II and III. In vivo, MoMAb cocktails resulted in protection as a component of PEP that was comparable to HRIG. In conclusion, all three novel combinations of MoMAbs were shown to have equal efficacy to HRIG and therefore could be considered a potentially less expensive alternative biological agent for use in PEP and prevention of rabies in humans.


Spreadsheets are used daily by millions of people for tasks that range from organizing a list of addresses to carrying out complex economic simulations. Spreadsheet programs are easy to learn and convenient to use because they have a clear visual model and a simple efficient underlying computational model. Yet although the basic spreadsheet model could be extended, improved, or otherwise experimented with in many ways, there is no coherently designed, reasonably efficient open source spreadsheet implementation that is a suitable platform for such experiments. This book fills the gap, teaching users how to experiment with and implement innovative spreadsheet functionality and introducing two software platforms for doing so. Along the way, it draws on and illustrates software technologies and computer science topics that range from object-oriented programming to compiler technology. Spreadsheet Implementation Technology surveys a wide range of information about spreadsheets drawn from user experience, the scientific literature, and patents. After summarizing the spreadsheet computation model and the most important challenges for efficient recalculation, the book describes Corecalc, a core implementation of essential spreadsheet functionality suitable for practical experiments, and Funcalc, an extension of Corecalc that allows users to define their own functions without extraneous programming languages or loss of efficiency. It also shows the advantages of automatic function specialization and offers a user's manual for Funcalc. The Corecalc and Funcalc software is downloadable free of charge.


Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as concussion, has emerged as a major public health concern in the United States and worldwide. Of the estimated 1.7 million head injuries that occur nationally each year, about 75% are mTBI. Despite the "mild" label, a significant percentage of these individuals continue to experience a wide array of life-altering physical, emotional, and cognitive post-concussion symptoms for months and years following injury. The central auditory nervous system is vulnerable to several injury mechanisms in TBI and, as a result, auditory problems can be among these long term problems. Although evidence of auditory processing problems following traumatic brain injury has been reported across a growing number of published case reports and group studies, few studies have investigated the prevalence of such problems due specifically to mTBI. The purpose of this study was to determine whether symptoms consistent with central auditory processing problems were among the persistent post-concussive symptoms seen in those individuals who experience long-term problems. Symptoms of auditory processing dysfunction in a group of mTBI subjects (n = 32) were compared to those reported by un-injured control subjects (n = 27). Participants completed self-reported symptom questionnaires in both auditory and other post-concussion symptom domains. Twelve of the 32 mTBI subjects also completed a mailed follow up including a repeat of the auditory processing questionnaire several months later to evaluate changes in symptoms over time. This same subset also completed an additional hearing disability scale, and results were compared to published data from 1) normal hearing younger and older adults and 2) hearing impaired older adults to investigate how much concussion influenced such symptoms. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals with mTBI reported significantly more symptoms of auditory processing difficulty than the ageand gender-matched controls. Some of the highest reported difficulties for mTBI subjects included difficulty listening in background noise, sensitivity to loud sounds, and difficulty understanding rapid speech. Scores from the auditory processing questionnaire were highly correlated with post-concussion symptoms in all the other domains, including depression, fatigue, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and general concussion symptoms. For the subset of mTBI subjects who completed the auditory processing questionnaire a second time, all of the subjects continued to experience auditory processing symptoms several months to more than two years post-injury. Overall, the mTBI subjects who completed the hearing disability scale had mean scores that indicated more difficulty with speech understanding, spatial location, and perceived quality of speech than did groups of both younger and older normal-hearing adults (without head injury) from published normative studies. Compared to adults with peripheral hearing loss, however, the mTBI group in the current study had slightly better mean scores, consistent with fewer auditory problems. These results suggest that auditory processing difficulties do pose a problem for individuals with mTBI who continue to experience long-term problems after concussion. Further research is needed to determine whether these self-reported symptoms of auditory processing difficulty


We use simple economic insights to develop a framework for distinguishing between prejudice and statistical discrimination using observational data. We focus our inquiry on the enormous literature in healthcare where treatment disparities by race and gender are not explained by access, preferences, or severity. But treatment disparities, by themselves, cannot distinguish between two competing views of provider behavior. Physicians may consciously or unconsciously withhold treatment from minority groups despite similar benefits (prejudice) or because race and gender are associated with lower benefit from treatment (statistical discrimination). We demonstrate that these two views can only be distinguished using data on patient outcomes: for patients with the same propensity to be treated, prejudice implies a higher return from treatment for treated minorities, while statistical discrimination implies that returns are equalized. Using data on heart attack treatments, we do not find empirical support for prejudice-based explanations. Despite receiving less treatment, women and blacks receive slightly lower benefits from treatment, perhaps due to higher stroke risk, delays in seeking care, and providers over-treating minorities due to equity and liability concerns.


Optimal takeover regulation aims to promote efficient changes of corporate control while curbing inefficient takeovers. Viewed from a comparative perspective, the Anglo-American prototypes spearhead not only the discourse but also the dissemination of takeover regulation globally. At the one end of the spectrum, the law in the United States (U.S.) follows the "market rule," whereby transfers of corporate control benefit from a regulatory freehand. At the other end of the spectrum lies the "mandatory bid rule" (MBR), epitomized by takeover regulation in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Under the U.K.'s version of the MBR, an acquirer who acquires de facto control over a target must make a general offer to the remaining shareholders to acquire all of their shares at the same price it paid to acquire the controlling block.

In this article, we aim to analyze how and why six significant Asian jurisdictions adopted the MBR and its variants. This is puzzling given that the jurisdictions display considerable divergence in terms of structural, legal, and institutional foundations, not only with their Anglo-American counterparts but also even among themselves. In this article, we challenge the prevailing notion that the binary Anglo-American approach constitutes the framework for the dissemination of takeover regulation worldwide.

We claim that because of the political economy of takeover regulation in the Asian jurisdictions, the choice to adopt various intermediate positions is by design and not by default. Considering the market rule provides suboptimal protection to minority shareholders and the MBR curbs the market for corporate control, the intermediate positions aim to balance these somewhat conflicting objectives. Our study contributes to the wider debate surrounding the appropriate takeover regulation and, more specifically, the claims made by the proponents of the market rule on the one hand and the MBR on the other.


The goals of situated agents generally do not specify particular objects: they require only that some suitable object should be chosen and manipulated (e.g. any red block). Situated agents engaged in deictic reference grounding, however, may well track a chosen referent object with such fixity of purpose that an unchosen object may be regarded as an obstacle even though it satisfies the agent's goals. In earlier work this problem was bridged by hand-coding. This paper lifts the problem to the symbol level, endowing agents with perceptual referent selection actions and performing those actions as required to allow or disallow opportunistic re-selection of referents. Our work preserves the ability of situated agents to find and track specific objects, adds an ability to automatically exploit the opportunities allowed by nonspecific references, and provides a starting point for studying how much opportunistic perception is appropriate.


The renegotiations of public–private partnership (PPP) contracts are commonly considered to be one of the pitfalls of PPPs, as they tend to undermine their (ex ante) efficiency. A renegotiation occurs when specific events change the conditions of a concession, frequently leading to a financial claim from the private sector on the public sector. This paper examines the Portuguese experience with PPP renegotiations by means of a unique panel data of 254 renegotiation events from 1995 to 2012. We find evidence of opportunistic bidding for PPP contracts, which is ex post – after the contract is won and the competition eliminated - leading to renegotiations to increase revenues. Renegotiations last on average 1.8 years. Majority governments are more prone to renegotiate and have more political clout to limit the renegotiation duration. There is no evidence of more renegotiations in election years or when there is a change in government. A better institutional framework, defined as a low country risk, a strong rule of law, and lower corruption, tends to reduce the probability of renegotiations. There is also evidence that at times of higher corruption, more renegotiations occur. The project's leverage decreases the renegotiation duration. Strong initial bidder competition for a PPP contract leads to long subsequent renegotiations between the winning private party and the government.


The rationalist approach to strategizing emphasizes analytical and convergent thinking. Without denying the importance of this approach, this book argues that strategists must learn to complement it with a more creative approach to strategizing that emphasizes synthetic and divergent ways of thinking. The theoretical underpinnings of this approach include embodied realism, interpretivism, practice theory, theory of play, design thinking, as well as discursive approaches such as metaphorical analysis, narrative analysis, dialogical analysis and hermeneutics. The book includes in-depth discussions of these theories and shows how they can be put into practice by presenting detailed analyses of embodied metaphors built by groups of agents with step-by-step explanations of how this process can be implemented and facilitated. The link between theory and practice is further supported by the inclusion of several vignettes that describe how this approach has been successfully employed in a number of organizations, including BASF and UNICEF


The energetic requirements for biological nitrogen fixation necessitate stringent regulation of this process in response to diverse environmental constraints. To ensure that the nitrogen fixation machinery is expressed only under appropriate physiological conditions, the dedicated NifL-NifA regulatory system, prevalent in Proteobacteria, plays a crucial role in integrating signals of the oxygen, carbon and nitrogen status to control transcription of nitrogen fixation (nif) genes. Greater understanding of the intricate molecular mechanisms driving transcriptional control of nif genes may provide a blueprint for engineering diazotrophs that associate with cereals. In this study, we investigated the properties of a single amino acid substitution in NifA, (NifA-E356K) which disrupts the hierarchy of nif regulation in response to carbon and nitrogen status in Azotobacter vinelandii. The NifA-E356K substitution enabled overexpression of nitrogenase in the presence of excess fixed nitrogen and release of ammonia outside the cell. However, both of these properties were conditional upon the nature of the carbon source. Our studies reveal that the uncoupling of nitrogen fixation from its assimilation is likely to result from feedback regulation of glutamine synthetase, allowing surplus fixed nitrogen to be excreted. Reciprocal substitutions in NifA from other Proteobacteria yielded similar properties to the A. vinelandii counterpart, suggesting that this variant protein may facilitate engineering of carbon source-dependent ammonia excretion amongst diverse members of this family. Significance The NifL-NifA regulatory system provides dedicated signal transduction machinery to regulate nitrogen fixation in diverse Proteobacteria. Understanding how the balance of nitrogen and carbon resources is signalled via NifL-NifA for precise control of nitrogen fixation may lead to broadly applicable translational outputs. Here, we characterize a NifA variant that bypasses nitrogen regulation but is still dependent on the carbon status to enable ammonia excretion in soil diazotrophs. Disruption of the regulatory hierarchy in response to nitrogen and carbon suggests how the integration of environmental stimuli could be harnessed to engineer conditional release of fixed nitrogen for the benefit of cereal crops.


A refractive index sensor based on bimodal waveguide interferometer is demonstrated on the low-cost polymer platform for the first time. Different from conventional interferometers which make use of the interference between the light from two arms, bimodal waveguide interferometers utilize the interference between the two different internal modes in the waveguide. Since the utilized first higher mode has a wide evanescent tail which interacts with the external environment, the interferometer can reach a high sensitivity. Instead of vertical bimodal structure which is normally employed, the lateral bimodal waveguide is adopted in order to simplify the fabrication process. A unique offset between the centers of single mode waveguide and bimodal waveguide is designed to excite the two different modes with equal power which contributes to the maximum fringe visibility. The bimodal waveguide interferometer is finally fabricated on optical polymer (Ormocore) which is transparent at both infrared and visible wavelengths. It is fabricated using the UV-based soft imprint technique which is simple and reproductive. The bulk sensitivity of fabricated interferometer sensor with a 5 mm sensing length is characterized using different mass concentration sodium chloride solutions. The sensitivity is obtained as 316π rad/RIU and the extinction ratio can reach 18 dB.


The second edition of Historical Dictionary of the United States Navy covers U.S. Naval developments, personnel, and engagements from the colonial times to the present day. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on people, places, events and other terminology of the Navy. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the United States Navy.


Extracted from text ... BULLETIN 2
editorial
The honeymoon is over
The local government elections have
come and gone and several new
councillors, mayors and officials
have taken up their posts in
municipalities countrywide. Amid
much controversy in some municipalities,
the status quo has largely
been maintained, with the exception of the Cape Town Metropolitan Council where the
DA-led coalition ousted the ANC. Of course, many of the new councils are talking a good
game and showing plenty of enthusiasm for their mandate. However, the sooner this muchhyped
'honeymoon period' is over and the new councils get down to the nitty-gritty
challenges, the ..


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of counseling patients to become more physically active.

DATA SOURCES
PubMed was searched for articles during the past 30 years on physicians promoting physical activity. Identified studies were cross-referenced, and experts were consulted for additional articles.

STUDY SELECTION
Thirteen articles described primary care counseling on exercise. Six studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs); seven were quasi-experimental designs. Three of the four RCTs and three of the five quasi-experimental studies were short term (4 weeks to 2 months); the remaining three trials lasted longer than 6 months. Most studies used strategies to address stage of change.

SYNTHESIS
Outcome measures included adoption of physical activity, stage of change, and change in physical activity level. Most studies found positive relationships between counseling and these outcomes. No reliable evaluation instruments were found, nor was the long-term effect of interventions established.

CONCLUSION
Interventions that included written materials for patients, considered behaviour change strategies, and provided training and materials for physicians were effective at increasing levels of physical activity. New strategies that involve measuring and prescribing specific amounts of exercise might also improve fitness levels and hence improve outcomes of chronic disease. Shortcomings of these studies include lack of long-term data, lack of sustaining activities for family physicians, and scant cost-efficacy analysis.


The reconstruction process in multiple coil MRI scanners makes the noise features in the final magnitude image become non-stationary, i.e. the variance of noise becomes position-dependent. Therefore, most noise estimators proposed in the literature cannot be used in multiple-coil acquisitions. This effect is augmented when parallel imaging methods, such as GRAPPA, are used to increase the acquisition rate. In this work we propose a new technique that allows the estimation of the spatially variant maps of noise from the GRAPPA reconstructed signal when only one single image is available and no additional information is provided. Other estimators in the literature need extra information that is not always available, which has supposed an important limitation in the usage of noise models for GRAPPA. The proposed approach uses a homomorphic separation of the spatially variant noise in two terms: a stationary noise term and one low frequency signal that correspond to the x-dependent variance of noise. The non-stationary variance of noise is estimated by a low pass filtering. The noise term is obtained via prior wavelet decomposition. Results in real and synthetic experiments evidence the suitability of the simplification used and the good performance of the proposed methodology.


An engaging look at how we have learned to live with innovation and new technologies through history.People have had trouble adapting to new technology ever since (perhaps) the inventor of the wheel had to explain that a wheelbarrow could carry more than a person. This little book by a celebrated MIT professor?the fiftieth anniversary edition of a classic?describes how we learn to live and work with innovation. Elting Morison considers, among other things, the three stages of users' resistance to change: ignoring it; rational rebuttal; and name-calling. He recounts the illustrative anecdote of the World War II artillerymen who stood still to hold the horses despite the fact that the guns were now hitched to trucks?reassuring those of us who have trouble with a new interface or a software upgrade that we are not the first to encounter such problems.Morison offers an entertaining series of historical accounts to highlight his major theme: the nature of technological change and society's reaction to that change. He begins with resistance to innovation in the U.S. Navy following an officer's discovery of a more accurate way to fire a gun at sea; continues with thoughts about bureaucracy, paperwork, and card files; touches on rumble seats, the ghost in Hamlet, and computers; tells the strange history of a new model steamship in the 1860s; and describes the development of the Bessemer steel process. Each instance teaches a lesson about the more profound and current problem of how to organize and manage systems of ideas, energies, and machinery so that it will conform to the human dimension.


As graph models are applied to more widely varying fields, researchers struggle with tools for exploring and analyzing these structures. We describe GUESS, a novel system for graph exploration that combines an interpreted language with a graphical front end that allows researchers to rapidly prototype and deploy new visualizations. GUESS also contains a novel, interactive interpreter that connects the language and interface in a way that facilities exploratory visualization tasks. Our language, Gython, is a domain-specific embedded language which provides all the advantages of Python with new, graph specific operators, primitives, and shortcuts. We highlight key aspects of the system in the context of a large user survey and specific, real-world, case studies ranging from social and knowledge networks to distributed computer network analysis.


Provides the necessary skills to solve problems in mathematical statistics through theory, concrete examples, and exercises
With a clear and detailed approach to the fundamentals of statistical theory, Examples and Problems in Mathematical Statistics uniquely bridges the gap between theory andapplication and presents numerous problem-solving examples that illustrate the relatednotations and proven results.
Written by an established authority in probability and mathematical statistics, each chapter begins with a theoretical presentation to introduce both the topic and the important results in an effort to aid in overall comprehension. Examples are then provided, followed by problems, and finally, solutions to some of the earlier problems. In addition, Examples and Problems in Mathematical Statistics features:

Over 160 practical and interesting real-world examples from a variety of fields including engineering, mathematics, and statistics to help readers become proficient in theoretical problem solving
More than 430 unique exercises with select solutions
Key statistical inference topics, such as probability theory, statistical distributions, sufficient statistics, information in samples, testing statistical hypotheses, statistical estimation, confidence and tolerance intervals, large sample theory, and Bayesian analysis

Recommended for graduate-level courses in probability and statistical inference, Examples and Problems in Mathematical Statistics is also an ideal reference for applied statisticians and researchers.


In the present paper the simulation of the explosion of condensed explosives in the air. The method used simulation by specifying the scope of compressed gas as the point source of the explosion. Describes the behavior of the blast wave on the middle and far distances from the source of the explosion, in which a pressure profile does not depend on the geometry of the source. The paper proposed to develop a method scope of the compressed gas provides the account properties of the products of the explosion for any explosive composition. Numerical investigation of the explosion of an explosive charge in the open countryside, in the presence of walls and rigidly fixed in the model of the urban environment. Shown good agreement with the experimental results and the peak pulse pressure both direct and reflected waves in each of the above cases.


Sediment dispersal and accumulation in an insular sea: deltas of Puget Sound Kristen L. Webster Co-Chairs of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Andrea Ogston Professor Charles Nittrouer Oceanography Small rivers carry several million tons of sediment annually into Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Once delivered to the marine environment, processes in the water column and on the seabed dictate dispersal, deposition and accumulation of these particles. To investigate these mechanisms, water-column measurements, including long-term bottom-boundary-layer time-series, water-column profiles and shipboard velocity, and seabed sampling, such as sediment cores, multibeam bathymetry and seismic reflection profiling, were collected from 2007-2009 on the Elwha and Skagit River deltas. Tidal currents at both study sites were strong and capable of dispersing muds to more distal portions of the delta. At the Skagit delta the intertidal topset had strong ebb tidal currents that exported most of the Skagit River mud rapidly beyond the topset. The mud found on the flat was limited spatially, near channels and at the outer flat edge and temporally, following high discharge. Physical processes drive shear stresses that act on the seabed to mobilize sands and muds and rework the seabed at various frequencies and depths: on a semi-diurnal tidal timescale, both channel and flat seabeds are reworked to 1-2 cm; and over a decadal timescale, lateral channel migration acts to rework the seabed to 1-2 m, making the limited mud deposits available for export. The Skagit muds were rapidly transported > 10 km into two distinct distal basins; southward within the deep quiescent basin of Saratoga Passage mud accumulates up to 10 mm y for a total of ~0.5 MT annually, and northward within the high-energy unconstrained basin of Rosario Strait some mud accumulates in small local deposits, but much is likely broadly dispersed. Throughout Puget Sound deltas typically form bay head (muddy progradation) or sidewall (broad mud dispersal), and the Skagit River dispersal system has both characteristics. The Elwha River delta is a coarse-grained sidewall delta and tidal currents act to broadly disperse muds. Over the past 10,000 years the dominant sediment sinks have shifted from foreset beds to alongshore spits. This was likely related to variations in sea level as a result of deglaciation and sediment supply. As sea-level rise slowed slightly, wave-driven longshore transport began to actively shape delta morphology and created paleospits, which formed successively one at a time, stepwise as sea-level rose. These sediment sinks were formed under similar processes as the modern spit, Ediz Hook. It is shown that deltas in insular seas can form complex deposits, and this has implications for interpreting the geologic record in areas of constrained basins. In the modern environment, basin morphology and tidal currents determine accumulation patterns. Over longer timescales, the effects of previous glaciations have a major role in delta evolution.


An accurate prediction of scheduling and execution of instruction streams is a necessary prerequisite for predicting the in-core performance behavior of throughput-bound loop kernels on out-of-order processor architectures. Such predictions are an indispensable component of analytical performance models, such as the Roofline and the Execution-Cache-Memory (ECM) model, and allow a deep understanding of the performance-relevant interactions between hardware architecture and loop code. We present the Open Source Architecture Code Analyzer (OSACA), a static analysis tool for predicting the execution time of sequential loops comprising x86 instructions under the assumption of an infinite first-level cache and perfect out-of-order scheduling. We show the process of building a machine model from available documentation and semi-automatic benchmarking, and carry it out for the latest Intel Skylake and AMD Zen micro-architectures. To validate the constructed models, we apply them to several assembly kernels and compare runtime predictions with actual measurements. Finally we give an outlook on how the method may be generalized to new architectures.


Fluctuations in firms' revenues reduce firms' viability and are costly from a social welfare point of view even when agents are risk neutral if (i) the decision to continue operating a firm is not efficient at the margin so that fluctuations shorten firms' life expectancy (because they increase the chance revenue levels are such that discontinuation is unavoidable) and (ii) the shortening of the life expectancy reduces entry. Welfare consequences are large, even for moderate fluctuations: Implied estimates for the per period costs of business cycles can easily be equal to several percentage points of GDP. These estimates are based on a direct measurement of cyclical changes in the value added generated by workers that recently were not employed. This extensive margin measure of the cyclical change in output is of independent interest.


Objective: This study was undertaken to understand what affects the integration of men in family planning (FP) in Rwanda mainly in villages of Southern Province and Kigali City Province. A secondary objective of the study was to identify the factors that facilitate the integration of men in FP services through other services at healthcare facilities such as voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) antiretroviral therapy (ART) prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and antenatal care (ANC); and the public's awareness on this issue. Methods: This qualitative community-based participatory research was conducted in 24 healthcare facilities in Kigali City Province and Southern Province of Rwanda. Focus group interviews were conducted with 24 healthcare providers 96 community health workers (CHWs) and 366 women and men. Conclusion: The factors that facilitated the integration of men in FP include radio talks Rwanda Ministry of Health (MOH) trainings at healthcare facilities and the community level CHW teachings and visits to families and FP counseling in health centers integrated with different services namely FP VCT and ANC though the lack of a defined calendar for FP services to men in these services impended service delivery. Other factors that facilitated the integration of men in FP through other services included: 1) the selection of counselors and their training level in FP methods 2) the decentralization of the healthcare system through CHWs and 3) basic trainings offered to healthcare providers and CHWs. The main factor encouraging men to take a role in FP issues is concern over the financial status of their families; however they face barriers to use such as misconception about side effects of FP methods religious beliefs wives willing to continue having children and few methods available for them. The MOH's interest in integrating men into FP services is an attempt to make services more accessible and efficient. Through discussions with healthcare providers in the two regions the research team identified several suggestions for improving the process of integration in the future. Those suggestions generally fall into two main groups: 1) improving the content and follow-up of trainings in FP at different levels including healthcare providers CHWs and couples; and 2) taking into account the local context of service delivery to improve FP services especially for men and setting up permanent FP services involving men from the healthcare facility to the village. If FP services are to be offered in a more effective and sustainable manner awareness programs need to be strengthened to prevent and address rumors about FP that are circulating in communities. Local leaders need to be the first examples; more trainings need to be offered to healthcare providers and CHWs taking into consideration cultural and religious values; more FP methods especially pills need to be found for men; and FP services should be offered with other reproductive health services at facilities such as VCT ANC PMTCT and ART.


We demonstrate that business groups use financial intermediaries to boost the stock prices of affiliated firms in initial public offerings (IPO). Using a complete sample of all IPOs and all mutual funds in Israel during a four-year period, we find that the participation of mutual funds affiliated with the business group leads to economically significant overpricing for those IPOs. We show an increased likelihood of participation of mutual funds in the offerings of related firms and a rapid disposal of those stocks in subsequent trade. Our findings expand on the tunneling hypothesis by demonstrating that the transfer of resources can come from sources external to the group, such as assets managed by mutual funds, in a phenomenon we call "channeling."


Background Upper limb arthroplasty is an increasingly used treatment modality for end-stage joint disease of the shoulder, elbow and wrist. Whilst complications have been reported, the risk of venous thromboembolism has received less attention when compared to the lower limb. Guidance to aid clinical decision-making remains limited. This review aims to ascertain whether venous thromboembolism prophylaxis is beneficial after upper limb major joint replacement surgery. Methods A systematic review was performed in April 2019, utilising EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane and Google Scholar. All clinical studies reporting venous thromboembolism incidence and risk reduction (after prophylaxis) in upper limb joint replacement were included. Results Twenty-four observational studies were identified. The reported incidence of venous thromboembolism ranged from 0.2% to 16% (weighted mean 0.68%) and 0.2% to 0.8% (weighted mean 0.49%) in shoulder and elbow arthroplasty, respectively. No records for wrist arthroplasty were found. In the literature, baseline venous thromboembolism risk of patients without an operation is reported as 0.5%. Discussion There is a lack of good quality evidence regarding the risks and benefits of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in upper limb major joint replacement surgery. We recommend further research, ideally formal randomised controlled trials to guide recommendations. Although venous thromboembolism is rare in upper limb surgery, surgeons should remain vigilant to this possibility.


Introduction Prolonged ECG monitoring is an increasingly advocated method to detect silent AF and other arrhythmias. Inevitably, the wider use of prolonged ECG monitoring will yield unexpected and serious findings requiring swift action. Here, we report the diagnostic yield of 7 day Holter ECG monitoring requested through primary and secondary care. We also highlight the clinical and Holter ECG parameters associated with new AF. Methods We analysed all 7 day Holter ECG tests in Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust from 1st April 2014 to 30th April 2016, using Spacelabs Sentinel server running Pathfinder V 1.7.1. Tests were bookable by primary care and hospital physicians. Holter recordings from 364 patients, previously reported by cardiac physiologists were reviewed by physicians trained in Holter analysis. 46 patients had previously diagnosed AF and were excluded from the analysis. Here we present the results from a final cohort of 318 patients. Results Mean age of the patients was 59.2 years (median 56 years, IQR 43–72) and 55% were male. Average time of monitoring was 162.2 hours. Palpitations (56%), dizziness (16%), ischaemic stroke or TIA (15%), syncope (10%), and chest pain (3%) were reasons for referral. New AF was diagnosed in 25/318 patients. The pick-up rate of incidental AF was 7.86%. 9/48 (18.7%) of patients with CVA and 16/178 (8.9%) with palpitations had new AF. For 7 day Holters performed with intention to look for AF (stroke and palpitations) the combined diagnostic yield to pick up new AF was 11%. There was no AF detected for indications of dizziness, syncope or chest pain. Patients with newly diagnosed AF were older with mean age 71 years (CI 66–78, SD 17.3) vs. 57 years (CI 55–59, SD 17.6) for non-AF group (p=0.001), more often suffered from coronary artery disease (43% vs 18%, p=0.001), prior stroke or TIA (64% vs 23%, p=0.04), moderate to severe valvular heart disease (20% vs 6%, p=0.01), had higher occurrence of >250 supra ventricular ectopics/day (73% vs 60%, p=0.05) and atrial runs of more than 3 beats (55% vs 25%, 0=0.002 respectively). Heart rate parameters for patients with and without AF were not different in our cohort. Other medically relevant findings were 2nd degree AV block (9/318, 2.8%), 3rd degree AV block (2/318, 0.6%) and non-sustained VT (11/318, 3.4%). Conclusions Prolonged ECG monitoring in a real life cohort, especially in patients with high risk of AF, leads to higher diagnostic yield, with significant therapeutic consequences. It appears reasonable to provide open access to prolonged ECG monitoring to at-risk populations in primary and secondary care. Further analysis of risk factors for paroxysmal AF and systematic evaluations of treatment and outcomes after AF screening are warranted to define populations for screening for silent AF.Abstract 44 Table 1Abstract 44 Figure 1


We study the action of Singer groups of projective geometries (and their subgroups) on $(d-1)$-flats for arbitrary $d$. The possibilities which can occur are determined, and a formula for the number of orbits of each possible size is given. Motivated by an old problem of J.R. Isbell on the existence of certain permutation groups we pose the problem of determining, for given $q$ and $h$, the maximum co-dimension $f_q(n, h)$ of a flat of $PG(n-1, q)$ whose orbit under a subgroup of index $h$ of some Singer group covers all points of $PG(n-1, q)$. It is clear that $f_q (n, h) < n - \log_q (h)$; on the other hand we show that $f_q(n, h) \geq n - 1 - 2 \log _q (h)$.


The study explored how Leaner's' support services stimulate and sustain Self-directed Learning among students at Open University of Tanzania. The study analyzed the meaning students and lecturers attach to the concept on Learners' support and Self-directed learning; and contribution of learners' support to students' learning experience.
The study was conducted at Korogwe town and Tanga municipality in Tanga region. The sample composed of 50 respondents including 40 Open University of Tanzania students; 5 academic staff, 3 tutors and 2 non-academic staff at the Open University of Tanzania Tanga regional centre. The study employed simple random sampling techniques. Data were collected through interviews, observation and documentary review.
Findings revealed that: Learners' support services played a greater role in enhancing students' Self-directed Learning. Lecturers and students had a notion of dependency in learning that dissolves self-directed learning behavior. Students had a correct description of self-directed learning such that learning is the learner's responsibility. It was revealed further that learners' support provided by the Open University of Tanzania did not satisfy students' needs. Most learners did not have appropriate self-directed learning skills.
The study recommends the following: The Open University of Tanzania should provide adequate and appropriate Learning support that should enhance SDL. Students and lecturers should be trained on SDL skills; increase number of lecturers and tutors at the Director of Regional Centres' offices; and there should be display of proper organization of student support.


Theology and context: a Dutch discussion In this article an analysis is made of the lectures presented to a conference on theology between church, university and society, organised by the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion in the Dutch town Hoeven from 5 to 7 June of this year. The analysis is preceded by a brief overview of the present state of affairs regarding the provision of tertiary theological education in the Netherlands. The basic tenor of this wide ranging conference was that theology could and should develop a harmonious relationship to all the contexts in which it operates.


Abstract. With light detection and ranging (LiDAR) now being a crucial tool for engineering products and on the fly spatial analysis, it is necessary for the user community to have standardized calibration methods. The three methods in this study were developed and proven by the Digital Photogrammetry Research Group (DPRG) for airborne LiDAR systems and are as follows; Simplified, Quasi-Rigorous, and Rigorous. In lieu of using expensive control surfaces for calibration, these methods compare overlapping LiDAR strips to estimate the systematic errors. These systematic errors are quantified by these methods and include the lever arm biases, boresight biases, range bias and scan angle scale bias. These three methods comprehensively represent all of the possible flight configurations and data availability and this paper will test the limits of the method with the most assumptions, the simplified calibration, by using data that violates the assumptions it's math model is based on and compares the results to the quasi-rigorous and rigorous techniques. The overarching goal is to provide a LiDAR system calibration that does not require raw measurements which can be carried out with minimal control and flight lines to reduce costs. This testing is unique because the terrain used for calibration does not contain gable roofs, all other LiDAR system calibration testing and development has been done with terrain containing features with high geometric integrity such as gable roofs.


Helping students to construct robust understanding of physics concepts and develop good problem solving skills is a central goal in many physics classrooms. This thesis examines students' problem solving abilities from different perspectives and explores strategies to scaffold students' learning. In studies involving analogical problem solving between isomorphic problems, we evaluate introductory physics students' abilities to learn from the solved problems provided and transfer their learning to solve the corresponding quiz problems which involve the same physics principles but different surface features. Findings suggest that postponing the providing of the solved problems until students have attempted to solve the quiz problems first without help is a good way to scaffold students' analogical problem solving. Categorization of problems based upon similarity of solution provides another angle to evaluate and scaffold students' ability to reflect on the deep features of the problems. A study on categorization of quantum mechanics problems reveals that the faculty overall perform better categorization than the students. However, unlike the categorization of introductory mechanics problems, in which the categories created by the faculty are uniform and based on the fundamental physics principles, the categorization in quantum mechanics is based on the concepts and procedures, and is more diverse. In addition to investigating strategies that may guide students to develop a better knowledge structure in physics, from the learners' perspective, we also explore possible strategies to help instructors improve their teaching of problem solving and to assess student difficulties more efficiently. Investigating how teaching assistants (TAs) design problem solutions in view of the recommendations from research literature, we find that the TAs don't necessarily notice all components in a problem solution that are valued by the educational researchers. There is much room for improvement when it comes to actual practice. Another study involving comparison between different assessment tools reveals that carefully designed multiple-choice questions can reflect the relative performance on the free-response problems while maintaining the benefit of ease of grading, especially if the different choices in the multiple-choice questions are weighted to reflect the different levels of understanding that students display.


This book argues that catastrophe is a particular way of governing future events – such as terrorism, climate change or pandemics – which we cannot predict but which may strike suddenly, without warning, and cause irreversible damage.
At a time where catastrophe increasingly functions as a signifier of our future, imaginaries of pending doom have fostered new modes of anticipatory knowledge and redeployed existing ones. Although it shares many similarities with crises, disasters, risks and other disruptive incidents, this book claims that catastrophes also bring out the very limits of knowledge and management. The politics of catastrophe is turned towards an unknown future, which must be imagined and inhabited in order to be made palpable, knowable and actionable. Politics of Catastrophe critically assesses the effects of these new practices of knowing and governing catastrophes to come and challenges the reader to think about the possibility of an alternative politics of catastrophe.
This book will be of interest to students of critical security studies, risk theory, political theory and International Relations in general.


We disagree with the conclusion of Le Quéré et al. (Reports, 22 June 2007, p. 1735) that poleward intensifying winds could continue to weaken the Southern Ocean sink in the future. We argue that altered winds, along with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, will likely increase the efficiency of this sink in the 21st century.


An artificial neural network (ANN) is a powerful data-driven modeling tool. The selection of the input variable is an important task in the development of an ANN model. However, at present in ANN modeling, the input variables are usually determined by trial and error methods. Further, the ANN modeler usually selects a single 'good' result, and accepts it as the final result without detailed explanation of the initial weight parameter. In this way, the ANN model cannot guarantee that the model will produce the optimal result for later predictions. In this study, the ANN ensemble model with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was developed and applied to three stations in the Nakdong River, Korea for the 1-day ahead streamflow forecasting. EFA was used to select the input variables of the ANN model, and then the ensemble modeling was applied to estimate the performance of the ANN to remove the influence of initial weight parameters on the model results. In the result, the ANN ensemble model with the input variables proposed by EFA produced more accurate and reliable forecasts than other models with several combinations of input variables. Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) results in the validation were 0.92, 0.95, and 0.97, respectively.


This article discusses a change in the positioning strategies by countries as tourism destinations from cognitive components to affective ones. The tourism literature recognizes destination personality as an affective evaluation. While previous literature has established that place personality traits are important for Destination Marketing Organizations to consider, little empirical work assessing the personality metaphor in destination branding has been undertaken. This study uses a multistage methodology using a combination of content analysis and correspondence analysis to analyze the use of the personality metaphor in the official English tourism websites of South American countries. Results reveal that South American countries can be classified in four main clusters of different personality profiles: Ecuador is somehow associated with agreeableness; Brazil and Paraguay with openness to experience and conscientiousness; Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay as strong in extraversion and emotional stability; and Bolivia, Venezuela, and Colombia do not display any dominant personality characteristics. Overall the results indicate that South American countries are not yet using in a substantial way the affective cues of personality traits to create a clear positioning among international tourists.


Managing the interference effects from thin (multi‐)layers allows for the control of the optical transmittance/reflectance of widely used and technologically significant structures such as antireflection coatings (ARCs) and distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). These rely on the destructive/constructive interference between incident, reflected, and transmitted radiation. While known for over a century and having been extremely well investigated, the emergence of printable and large‐area electronics brings a new emphasis: the development of materials capable of transferring well‐established ideas to a solution‐based production. Here, demonstrated is the solution‐fabrication of ARCs and DBRs utilizing alternating layers of commodity plastics and recently developed organic/inorganic hybrid materials comprised of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAl), cross‐linked with titanium oxide hydrates. Dip‐coated ARCs exhibit an 88% reduction in reflectance across the visible compared to uncoated glass, and fully solution‐coated DBRs provide a reflection of >99% across a 100 nm spectral band in the visible region. Detailed comparisons with transfermatrix methods (TMM) highlight their excellent optical quality including extremely low optical losses. Beneficially, when exposed to elevated temperatures, the hybrid material can display a notable, reproducible, and irreversible change in refractive index and film thickness while maintaining excellent optical performance allowing postdeposition tuning, e.g., for thermo‐responsive applications, including security features and product‐storage environment monitoring.


Abstract: The commercialization of ornamental pepper plants has been growing in the national and international floriculture markets. In spite of this growth, there are still few available cultivars for ornamental purposes, suggesting a need for improvement programs in this segment. Given the exposed, this work aimed to select genotypes with ornamental pepper potential using multivariate analysis. The work was performed in a plant nursery at the Campus of Agricultural Sciences of the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB). One segregating F4 (17.15) population was used, analyzing 16 qualitative and quantitative morphological descriptors. The experimental design was completely randomized. 45 plants belonging to an F4 segregating population were evaluated. Singh's criterion was adopted to quantify the relative contribution of the characteristics. Afterward, Tocher's clustering method based on the generalized distance of Mahalanobis was used for the quantitative variables. Gower's distance was employed for the qualitative variables, and afterward, a joint analysis with qualitative and quantitative data was performed, using the sum of distances of both types of variables. Furthermore, a non-metric multidimensional scaling was applied.  Based on qualitative traits 14 clusters were formed. Multidimensional scaling based on quantitative traits the most divergent genotypes were 17, 12, 36, 23, and 19. According to the analysis performed the genotypes 12, 16, 19, 15, 29, 41 and 44 are indicated to open line in F5 generation.
Keywords: diversity, gower, Mahalanobis, ornamental plants


This thesis charts the growth and demise of the two largest shipbuilding firms on the
Lower Clyde in Scotland, Scotts' Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Limited of
Greenock, [established 1711 ] and Lithgows Limited of Port Glasgow [established as
Russell & Company in 1874 and as Lithgows Limited in 1918]. The history of each
firm is considered separately, with more emphasis on Lithgows, in order to give the
reader a fuller perspective of their respective growth and internal and external
dynamics. The bulk of the thesis, however, is concentrated in the post-1945 period
with emphasis on the protracted merger of the shipbuilding interests of Scotts' and
Lithgows to form Scott Lithgow Limited in 1970. Thereafter, the history of the
merged firm is considered in detail, including its disastrous entry into the giant
tanker market up to the nationalisation of the British shipbuilding industry in July
1977 when the firm was transferred to the control of the State Corporation, British
Shipbuilders. From there, including an even more disastrous entry into the large
offshore structures market, the period of nationalisation is then analysed up to March
1984 when Scott Lithgow became the first British Shipbuilders constituent shipyard
to be privatised when it was controversially sold to the industrial conglomerate
Trafalgar House plc. Trafalgar House, with no previous experience of building
complex semi submersibles was unable to resurrect Scott Lithgow's tarnished
reputation in the offshore market. Accordingly. the yard was put on a care and
maintenance basis in 1988 from which it never recovered. In considering the
complex history of Scotts' and Lithgows through what is in effect a micro study, it is
hoped that this thesis will identify certain parallels in the demise of Scott Lithgow
that will enhance our knowledge of cause and effect in the overall decline of the
British shipbuilding industry.


The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of PM1 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter 0.02-2 μm) inhalation on exercise performance in healthy subjects. Inhalation of internal combustion-derived PM is associated with adverse effects to the pulmonary and muscle microcirculation. No data are available concerning air pollution and exercise performance. Fifteen healthy college-aged males performed 4 maximal effort 6-min cycle ergometer trials while breathing low or high PM1 to achieve maximal work accumulation (kJ). Low PM1 inhalation trials 1 and 2 were separated by 3 days; then after a 7 day washout, trials 3 and 4 (separated by 3 days) were done while breathing high PM1 generated from a gasoline engine; CO was kept below 10 ppm. Lung function was done after trial 1 to verify nonasthmatic status. Lung function was normal before and after low PM1 exercise. PM1 number counts were not different between high PM1 trials (336,730 ± 149,206 and 396,200 ± 82,564 for trial 3 and 4, respectively) and were different from low PM1 trial number counts (2,260 ± 500) (P < 0.0001). Mean heart rate was not different between trials (189 ± 6.0, 188 ± 7.6, 188 ± 7.6, 187 ± 7.4, for low and high PM1 trials; respectively). Work accumulated was not different between low PM1 trials (96.1 ± 9.38 versus 96.6 ± 10.83 kJ) and the first high PM1 trial (trial 3, 96.8 ± 10.65 kJ). Work accumulated in the second high PM1 trial 4, 91.3 ± 10.04 kJ) was less than in low PM1 trials 1 and 2, and high PM1 trial 3 (P = 0.004, P = 0.003, P = 0.0008; respectively). Acute inhalation of high (PM1) typical of many urban environments could impair exercise performance.


The last novel by one of the best-known Japanese writers, Junichiro Tanizaki who died in 1965 at the age of 79. Tanizaki studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University and in his youth he was strongly influenced by Poe, Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde, but after the earthquake of 1923 he moved to the gentler, more cultured Kyoto region and there became absorbed in the Japanese past and abandoned his superficial Westernization. By 1930 he had gained such recognition that his "Complete works" were published. In spite of illness in the last years of his life, his mind remained as alert as ever, and during this period he wrote of unusual sexual and psychological problems in "The key" (published in this country in 1961) and "Diary of a mad old man". This book has been accepted in the Japanese Translations Series of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Tanizaki was awarded the Imperial Award for Cultural Merit in 1949 and was elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964.


This personal reflection describes how the nongovernmental organisation, TPO Uganda, tried to expand an existing programme providing psychosocial support to survivors of sexual gender based violence in refugee camps in Adjumani District to Bidibidi in Yumbe District, Uganda with an enormous group of new refugees from South Sudan. It describes the kind of (sexual) gender based violence the refugee girls and women experience, how staff try to find these women and provide support through using cognitive behavioural treatment therapy for trauma intervention. The author gives voice to the women who went through this intervention and shows the challenges staff experience in supporting new resettlements of more than 200,000 people since opening in August 2016.


Because of the shift towards competence based qualifications, professional development of teachers is a major subject in vocational education. This study addresses the question how and to what extent self-directed professional development of teachers will contribute to the fulfillment of the organizational goals of Regio College, a small Dutch vocational education and training center, in the domain of educational reform and team development. The research is based on an elaborated model of workplace learning proposed by Billett, Ehrich and Hernon-Tinning (2003). According to this model, learning of teachers is embedded in workplace practices, and will be influenced by the agency of learners as well as by the affordances of the workplace. Three consecutive studies have been conducted in order to answer the research question. Using a multiple case study design, fifteen cases of teachers which participated in a self-directed learning trajectory were analyzed. It was hypothesized that high self-efficacy (agency ) combined with job resources that outweigh job demands (affordances) would result in sophisticated, collaborative activities and innovative learning outcomes. Pattern matching was used to compare the cases with the model. No specific pattern was identified. However some interesting conclusions could be drawn. Teachers who are involved in learning by doing only (6 cases) do not realize innovative learning outcomes and teachers who do realize innovative learning outcomes (4 cases) all worked on assignments directly related to educational design and student guidance. Two participants of the self-directed learning trajectory participated with their teams in the second study. For each team a learning history (Roth & Kleiner, 1996) was conducted in order to examine in what way team learning was influenced by the individual professional development of these two teachers. It was expected that teams would play an intermediating role in converting learning from the individual level to the organizational level. In fact, different learning conversions were found from individual to team and from organization to team. However, a direct learning conversion between the organizational level and the individual level was found as well. The self-directed learning trajectory was a key factor in this learning conversion. The third study was conducted as a survey among all teachers of Regio College to compare the self-directed learning trajectory with other professional development activities. This study shows that participants in completely self-directed professional development report more learning outcomes compared to participants in partially self-directed professional development. Furthermore, organizational commitment (agency) and the learning climate in teams (affordances) are related to participation in professional development activities. The model of workplace learning of teachers has been useful to analyze learning on the individual and team level. However, more research has to be done to establish patterns of learning. Nevertheless, this study shows that self-directed professional development is an effective way to promote individual learning of teachers and teacher team development


Mobile social media used on the mobile devices, such as smart phones or Ipad is regarded as the indispensable vehicle for this generation, especially young college students because they can share their sadness, happiness, opinions and experience. At the present the impact contributed to this situation soon raise the colleges' concern. The paper discusses this issue and manages to suggest how to confront the mobile social media to help colleges apply to new situation of psychological education. This paper analyzes the impact of mobile social media on college students by questionnaire and comparative law, and on the basis of the investigation puts forward the effects of psychological education to university. The analysis's purpose is to prompt colleges under the new situation how to deal with the impact of mobile social media on the psychological education.


The paper presents a novel method for the
measurement of lubricant film thickness in the
piston-liner contact. Direct measurement of the film
in this conjunction has always posed a problem,
particularly under fired conditions. The principle is
based on capturing and analysing the reflection of
an ultrasonic pulse at the oil film. The proportion of
the wave amplitude reflected can be related to the
thickness of the oil film. A single cylinder 4-stroke
engine on a dyno test platform was used for
evaluation of the method. A piezo-electric
transducer was bonded to the outside of the
cylinder liner and used to emit high frequency short
duration ultrasonic pulses. These pulses were used
to determine the oil film thickness as the piston
skirt passed over the sensor location. Oil films in the
range 2 to 21 μm were recorded varying with
engine speeds. The results have been shown to be
in agreement with detailed numerical predictions.


The potential provided by survey data for studying simultaneous changes in earnings disparities, inequality of household income, and the connections between them has thus far been underexploited. This paper presents various data on four Central and East European (CEE) countries, as well as some data on Austria and Germany for the sake of comparison. First, it compares the changes in both distributions over time since the communist period as reported in various sources to see how much disparities and inequality increased during the transition. Second, it presents the attempts that have been made so far to analyze the connections between the two distributions and examines how the relationship between personal and household earnings should be analyzed and what we know about its development. Third, it presents the changing links between earned and disposable income in CEE countries, using Luxembourg Income Study data as a historical baseline and the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for the present time to determine how strong the association was and currently is, and how the countries differ in packaging family income. Various sources confirm that earnings disparities and income inequality rose at least to some degree in all four CEE countries after 1989. This is apparent in the individual countries in various phases of their transitions. In contrast, no increase occurred from 2004 to 2007, according to the EU-SILC surveys.


Purpose: To investigate the effect of single and multiple optoype charts affecting pre-school and also monocular and binocular eyes association with visual acuity score among preschool age 4-6 years old via screening.
Materials and methods: Forty eight subjects among preschooler aged from 4 to 6years old recruited from Tadika Bandar Puncak Alam. The subject was asked to read the Snellen chart letter that being projected in front of them. They were asked to read the chart in two conditions that were with single eye and binocular eyes both with single and multiple optotype been displayed. The best visual acuity (VA) or line that they can read been recorded and convert to logMAR unit. Same method repeated with binocular eyes and patient asked to read both single and multiple optotype chart. Then the Snellen chart was changed to project multiple optotype as the target. Results:
There are significant difference (p<0.05) was found between single optotype chart and multiple optotype chart using monocular eye and binocular eye. The mean logMAR using single optotype using binocular eye was rank higher
compare to others. Therefore, mean logMAR VA score using single optotype and binocular vision which are using both eyes had high level of agreement with previous study that been done. In binocular vision, signals from both
eyes are combined into a single percept and visual performance maybe superior to monocular performance. Viewing binocularly can help a little bit in giving better visual acuity and vision for them especially the children had
problem with any one of the eyes. Conclusion: The visual acuity score by preschool is better using both eyes with single optotype chart compare to other conditions.


The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) Invited Review service was launched in 2012 to drive quality improvement for individuals, teams, services and networks. Its premise was that the performance of child health services in the UK depends on healthcare professionals, professional bodies and regulators working in unison to achieve the best possible outcomes; where this is not working, a review can provide an external, impartial perspective from paediatricians from within a similar service but with an understanding of the national perspective.

The recommendations made by review teams draw on the RCPCH's knowledge of paediatric services in the UK, together with practical evidence from previous reviews where departments facing similar problems have taken effective actions. Equally, reviews provide a means by which the RCPCH can better understand the current state of services in the UK and the challenges facing our members. The findings from over 61 reviews to August 2016 were analysed in January 2017 and detailed in a report 'Invited Reviews; the First Four Years1'. Since then nine further reviews have taken place and a breakdown of the topics covered is set out in table 1.

View this table:

Table 1
Topics covered by sector

While regulatory inspection, clinical audit, datasets and local peer review visit programmes enable clinicians and managers to compare compliance with measurable standards and learn from others, such approaches are not always designed to identify and address underlying problems constraining specific services, and they struggle to address issues arising in clinical networks. Issues could include inappropriate leadership, poor team dynamics, outdated practices, chronic under-resourcing, governance or individual practice concerns, and the RCPCH's review service is designed to address exactly these problems.

A review can benchmark …


Fretting corrosion induced by vibration is a topic of major concern for automotive applications, often leading to increased contact resistance and connector failure. Presently, modeling of the behavior of connectors during fretting corrosion is a difficult matter, requiring many parameters, and is generally highly nonlinear in nature. Experimental testing of sample connectors is currently the only practical method of evaluating connector performance; however, testing can be a time-consuming and inexact task. Prior work by the authors studied the fretting behavior of connectors subjected to single frequency vibration. Correlation of experimental results with simulated behavior showed that, for the primary mode of connector interface motion observed (rocking-type motion), the relative moment at the interface was a good indicator of the observed fretting rate. It was also shown that the moment applied as the result of a given excitation level and frequency could reasonably be predicted via simulation. The current work extends this approach to random vibration profiles, which are a more realistic representation of the connector application environment. A simple model is developed which relates the early stage fretting corrosion rate to the threshold vibration levels for the connector, the dynamic characteristics of the connector/wiring configuration, and the vibration profile. A high degree of consistency between this model and the experimental data was demonstrated. Interestingly, regardless of the excitation profile applied to the overall system, the existence of a characteristic vibration threshold at the connector interface was observed.


Enhance the quality of your web applications by efficiently implementing design patterns in Laravel Overview Create fully functional web applications using design patterns in Laravel Explore various techniques to adapt different software patterns that suit your needs Get to know the best practices to utilize when making a web application Concise and practical guide to master the MVC approach of Laravel and its benefits In Detail This book covers how to develop different applications and solve recurring problems using Laravel 4 design patterns. It will walk you through the widely used design patterns - the Builder (Manager) pattern, Factory pattern, Repository pattern, and Strategy pattern - and will empower you to use these patterns while developing various applications with Laravel. This book will help you find stable and acceptable solutions, thereby improving the quality of your applications. Throughout the course of the book, you will be introduced to a number of clear, practical examples about PHP design patterns and their usage in various projects. You will also get acquainted with the best practices for Laravel that will greatly reduce the probability of introducing errors into your web applications. By the end of the book, you will be accustomed to the best practices and the important design patterns used in Laravel to make a great website. What you will learn from this book Learn about the design pattern fundamentals in OOP programming Get acquainted with the structure of MVC architecture and use objects in your applications Discover Laravel's approach to MVC and its benefits Work with various design patterns used in Laravel such as the Builder (Manager) pattern, Factory pattern, Repository pattern, and Strategy pattern Create and maintain web applications using Laravel best practices Implement PHP design patterns to solve commonly occurring problems Approach This book is a practical guide packed with clear examples that will help you get to grips with the best practices in Laravel design patterns to create advanced web applications. Who this book is written for This book is intended for web application developers working with Laravel who want to increase the efficiency of their web applications. It assumes that you have some experience with the Laravel PHP framework and are familiar with coding OOP methods.


Introduction Refractory chronic cough has a significant negative impact on HRQoL. There are currently limited effective antitussive therapies. Few studies have explored the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions for refractory chronic cough. This study investigated the efficacy of PSALTI on HRQoL for people with refractory chronic cough in a multi-centred RCT. Methods Participants were recruited across five NHS hospitals trusts. 76 participants were randomised to PSALTI or placebo (equal attention) intervention. PSALTI consisted of education, laryngeal hygiene and hydration advice, cough control techniques and psycho-educational counselling. Placebo consisted of general education on exercise, diet, stress and relaxation. Both groups attended 4 weekly sessions of 1:1 therapy. HRQoL was measured at baseline, four weeks (end of treatment) and 3 month follow up by Leicester cough questionnaire (LCQ). Cough reflex sensitivity was assessed at baseline and four weeks by capsaicin cough challenge (C2, C5, concentration that caused first urge to cough (Cu)) and was analysed by geometric means (GM). Outcomes between groups were analysed using ANCOVA. Results The PSALTI (n = 35) and Placebo groups (n = 41) were well matched (p > 0.05) for age [mean (SD)] 58(15) vs. 56(11) years; gender 71% vs 63% females; cough duration [median (IQR)] 60(30 to 126) vs 48(24 to 126) months and baseline LCQ [mean (SD)] 10.4(3.6) vs 11.9(3.5). At four weeks HRQoL improved in both groups, mean LCQ increase in PSALTI was 3.4 (95% CI 2.26 to 4.55) vs placebo 1.7 (95% CI 0.78 to 2.54); difference in LCQ change between groups was 1.5 (95% CI 0.27 to 7.31, p = 0.02) points more on average in the PSALTI group. This effect is greater than the MCID for LCQ and was sustained at 3 months (mean difference change between groups after 4 weeks to 3 months was -0.28 (95% CI -1.83 to 1.38). There was a significant increase in Cu in the PSALTI group compared to placebo (GM(SD) change 2 µm (5.07) vs 0.612 µm (3.26), p = 0.02). There was no significant difference in cough reflex sensitivity between the groups (C2, p = 0.46; C5, p = 0.74). Conclusions PSALTI significantly improved HRQoL compared with equal attention placebo intervention and this improvement was sustained at three months. PSALTI also significantly increased Cu compared to placebo.


Three species of fungi Sporotrichum thermophile, Botrytis cinerea and Trichoderma viride were assessed for their ability to utilize a variety of plant cell substrates (methanol extracted), Catharanthus roseus, Daucus carota, re-autoclaved C. roseus, re-autoclaved D. carota) which preliminary studies had indicated contained the necessary nutrients for fungal growth. Incubated in a suitable manner all three fungal species were able to grow on C. roseus and D. carota plant cell biomass in addition to material which had undergone methanol extraction or a re-autoclaving process to remove soluble components. Fungal biomass yields were markedly influenced by substrate, with each fungal species demonstrating a preference for particular plant cell material. Incubation conditions i.e. static or shaken and temperature also proved important. Release of glucose (i.e. values higher than Day 0) promoted by fungal breakdown of plant cell biomass was only noted with methanol extracted, re-autoclaved C. roseus and re-autoclaved D. carota material. A re-autoclaved substrate was also generally associated with high fungal C1, Cx, B-glucosidase and endo-polygalacturonase activity. In addition for each enzyme highest values were usually obtained from a particular fungal species. Buffering cultures at pH 3 or 5 further influenced enzyme activity, however in a majority of cases when flasks were unbuffered and the pH rose naturally to alkaline values higher enzyme activity was recorded. Likewise Tween 80 addition had only a limited beneficial effect. Finally filtrates containing glucose produced both from the re-autoclaving process and through fungal activity on plant cell biomass were utilized for Fusarium oxysporum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and C. roseus plant cell culture. Although reasonable fungal biomass was obtained the use of such filtrates proved unsuitable for plant cell growth.


The rise of scientific or 'biomedicine' as a major aspect of the enlightenment process has bestowed enormous benefit such as increased life expectancy and protection from infectious disease, at least in the so-called 'developed' world. By the 21st century, diagnostic categories have expanded greatly, not least with the patterning of health and illness associated with longevity and emotional/mental health, demanding multifactorial aetiologies which require traditional categories, formulations and management strategies to be re-evaluated. Critiques of biomedicine and the process of medicalisation have emphasised the limitations of conventional scientific medicine in the separation of mind and body, hence the turn to more holistic or integrated models of health and illness, which are now permeating many areas of medical education and healthcare practice. Conditions with 'medically unexplained symptoms' such as chronic idiopathic pain syndromes; eating, sleeping and anxiety disorders, emphasise the limitations of the divisions between mental and physical health in the intertwining of emotion and embodiment. Although those who suffer such conditions may experience severe and distressing symptoms, traditional biomedicine may be unable to provide appropriate 'care' to alleviate them. Using the example of chronic pain, this chapter considers whether developments in the conceptualisation and treatment of pain have resulted in a paradigm shift which in turn address the mind-body dilemma in healthcare.


Abstract Foodborne illness continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality both nationally and internationally. Protecting the human host from exposure to foodborne pathogens and reducing the incidence of foodborne illness are the central goals of established national food safety intervention program. Foodborne illness is a reportable disease in the State of Qatar. Protecting the food supply from the microbial risk of known foodborne pathogens is critical to national food security; particularly in the State of Qatar where the population has a high level of dependence on imported food. There are many surveillance activities utilized by local public health officials targeted at mitigating the risk associated with foodborne illness and improving food security. A risk based method of sampling high risk ready to eat foods in the State of Qatar is one such activity to monitor the distribution and incidence of hygiene indicators and pathogens in our food supply. Three common retail hypermarkets were chosen with high risk ready to eat foods items identified for inclusion in the study The aims of this paper are ;-To perform baseline surveillance of Ready to Eat Foods at the retail level in the State of Qatar. To identify ready to eat foods (RTE) which may pose a greater risk to the population in acquiring foodborne illness. To determine if gaps exist in the food safety surveillance system related to public health and hygiene. Sample collection was conducted at three retail hypermarkets in the State of Qatar over a one year period. The laboratory will utilize a variety of wet laboratory procedures - pre-enrichment, enrichment, selective isolation and confirmatory microbiological procedures according to the National Health Authority Central Laboratories-Microbiological Analytical Manual-1st Ed., 2008 on all food samples analyzed. All samples analyzed by the Central Food Laboratory were done in duplicate. There are no significant common foodborne pathogens infecting High Risk Ready to Eat foods from identified retail hypermarkets in the State of Qatar(E. coli 0157:H7, B. cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus). There is a statistical difference in levels of hygiene indicators (Enterobacteriaceae, SPC) by retail store location.