This work presents a non-equilibrium kinetic model to characterize foamy oil and gas/oil two-phase flow in heavy oil and propane system from pressure depletion tests. Good agreement between experiments data and simulation results are obtained in terms of production data as well as pressure distribution. The following parameters are tuned in the history match process, including k values, gas-liquid relative permeability curves, and reaction frequency factors. The simulation results suggest that bubbles pass through pore throat smoothly and have low dissolve rate in oil phase at low pressure drop rate, which results in high gas recovery factor and low oil recovery factor. Gas bubbles expand to a larger size and block the pore throat when increasing pressure drop rate to intermediate pressure depletion rate. At this range of pressure drop rate, foamy oil and gas/oil flow characterization is influenced by both gas bubbles evolve and dissolve process, which results in low gas recovery and high oil recovery. Continue to increase the pressure drop rate could cause gas bubbles to evolve faster than dissolve back and shorten production period, which results in a relatively low gas recovery as well as low oil recovery. The simulation work presented in this paper successfully characterized foamy oil behavior in the porous media for heavy oil/propane system. The innovative methodology presented in this work could be used as a general method to characterize foamy oil flow in heavy oil/propane system. Keywords—heavy oil, propane, two-phase flow, nonequilibrium kinetic model, foam oil


In the past few decades, the economy has moved from an industrial to a knowledge economy. Consequently, basic factors of production now no longer comprise only natural resources, capital and labour, but also intellectual capital. Despite the shift from an industrial to a knowledge economy, the accounting framework and financial reporting have not changed sufficiently to include intellectual capital. The research problem attempts to explore whether the theory of accounting should be modified for a standardised and comparable approach when accounting and reporting on intellectual capital. To solve the research problem, a literature review and content analysis on corporate annual reports were used. The results of this study indicate that the theory of accounting should be modified to ensure a standardised and comparable approach when accounting and reporting on intellectual capital in corporate annual reports.


Corporate law does not conform to ordinary democratic norms: unlike human citizens, corporations may decide which law will govern their most fundamental acts of self-governance. The corporate law corporations choose in turn influences the corporate goals and decision-making processes that determine what the corporation looks for in corporate law in a reflexive system independent of ordinary political processes. This system seems on its face to violate the most fundamental principle of popular sovereignty - all non-Delaware citizens of the United States are excluded from even formal participation in the process of determining American corporate law, and even Delaware citizens are reduced to a largely formalistic ratification role of results coerced, to a large extent, by the market for corporate control and the internal norms of a self-replicating system of law that has escaped from political control. Corporate law scholars have devoted many pages to debating whether the surrender of corporate law to a market for corporate reincorporation generates substantively good or bad results, but there has been virtually no discussion of whether this process can be squared with the American commitment to self-governance. This Article aims to address that latter issue - with its obvious implications for other areas in which we, consciously or unconsciously, decide to subordinate politics to markets or vice versa.


The built environment consists of various land uses and activities connected by a road network. The efficiency and effectiveness of the road network directly impacts economic growth and societal  movement. This study involved the functional classification of the Gauteng provincial road network using the South African Road Classification and Access Management Manual (TRH26) as a guideline. In combination with high resolution up-to-date satellite reference imagery, dwelling and building inventories, road centrelines and other base layers, it was found that the TRH26 provided a well-structured approach to classifying the provincial road network according to the functional properties of each road link. It resulted in an accurate spatial  representation of the current Gauteng provincial road network when using an appropriate geographic  information system - providing a wealth of formal and technical information regarding each road and street via the comprehensive attribute database. At link level it was possible to synchronise the upgraded network with the financial asset registry in order to gauge the current state of the provincial roads within Gauteng, and to identify those that are in need of attention and/or rehabilitation to optimise efficiency and safety. This approach can be standardised throughout the country to make inferences to road safety, speed regulation, driver behaviour, traffic studies and accessibility to services.


We study a prototype Crossing Minimization problem, defined as follows. Let F be an infinite family of (possibly vertex-labeled) graphs. Then, given a set P of (possibly labeled) n points in the Euclidean plane, a collection L ⊆ Lines(P ) = {` : ` is a line segment with both endpoints in P}, and a non-negative integer k, decide if there is a subcollection L′ ⊆ L such that the graph G = (P, L′) is isomorphic to a graph in F and L′ has at most k crossings. By G = (P, L′), we refer to the graph on vertex set P , where two vertices are adjacent if and only if there is a line segment that connects them in L′. Intuitively, in Crossing Minimization, we have a set of locations of interest, and we want to build/draw/exhibit connections between them (where L indicates where it is feasible to have these connections) so that we obtain a structure in F . Natural choices for F are the collections of perfect matchings, Hamiltonian paths, and graphs that contain an (s, t)-path (a path whose endpoints are labeled). While the objective of seeking a solution with few crossings is of interest from a theoretical point of view, it is also well motivated by a wide range of practical considerations. For example, links/roads (such as highways) may be cheaper to build and faster to traverse, and signals/moving objects would collide/interrupt each other less often. Further, graphs with fewer crossings are preferred for graphic user interfaces. As a starting point for a systematic study, we consider a special case of Crossing Minimization. Already for this case, we obtain NP-hardness and W[1]-hardness results, and ETH-based lower bounds. Specifically, suppose that the input also contains a collection D of d non-crossing line segments such that each point in P belongs to exactly one line in D, and L does not contain line segments between points on the same line in D. Clearly, Crossing Minimization is the case where d = n – then, P is in general position. The case of d = 2 is of interest not only because it is the most restricted non-trivial case, but also since it corresponds to a class of graphs that has been well studied – specifically, it is Crossing Minimization where G = (P, L) is a (bipartite) graph with a so called two-layer drawing. For d = 2, we consider three basic choices of F . For perfect matchings, we show (i) NP-hardness with an ETH-based lower bound, (ii) solvability in subexponential parameterized time, and (iii) existence of an O(k2)-vertex kernel. Second, for Hamiltonian paths, we show (i) solvability in subexponential parameterized time, and (ii) existence of an O(k2)-vertex kernel. Lastly, for graphs that contain an (s, t)-path, we show (i) NP-hardness and W[1]-hardness, and (ii) membership in XP. © Akanksha Agrawal, Grzegorz Guśpiel, Jayakrishnan Madathil, Saket Saurabh, and Meirav Zehavi; licensed under Creative Commons License CC-BY 35th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2019). Editors: Gill Barequet and Yusu Wang; Article No. 7; pp. 7:1–7:17 Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik, Dagstuhl Publishing, Germany 7:2 Connecting the Dots (with Minimum Crossings) 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Fixed parameter tractability


Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are implantable mechanical blood pumps providing circulatory assistance for patients in heart failure, and are currently being investigated as a long‐term alternative to cardiac transplantation. While effective in short term use as a bridge to transplantation, the durability of the device for extended use has yet to be demonstrated. To prospectively follow the mechanical status of the devices, biweekly transabdominal acoustic readings from a standard microphone and accelerometer are obtained. Time‐domain analysis of the recordings allows the timing of ejection (device systole) and passive filling (device diastole) to be measured. Ejection duration was measured at 240 ms in 11 new devices and exceeded 300 ms in two aging devices which subsequently failed within 3 weeks of measurement. Frequency‐domain analysis showed the presence of a 230‐Hz signal in both failing devices, possibly indicative of bearing wear within the motor. In addition, a 50‐Hz signal present in all...


Previous studies have shown the importance of ethanol and sulfur dioxide production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the growth of Oenococcus oeni. Our goal was to examine other interactions between these organisms, including competition for nutrients and production of microbial inhibitors, and their relative importance in winemaking. Fourteen strains of S. cerevisiae commonly used in vinification and 16 strains of O. oeni were studied. To better replicate conditions of winemaking in the laboratory, natural grape juices were fermented with the different yeasts, followed by inoculation of the bacterial strains into the wines. Bacterial growth and malate depletion were monitored in the wines. Results from these fermentations were compared to industry trials and to interactions observed on agar plates. The relationship between growth and malolactic activity in O. oeni is important to the discovery of a simple method for identification of positive and negative interactions between yeast and bacteria. Many strains performed malolactic fermentation without growing in the wine. Most plating methods rely on growth of the bacteria and will not be successful predictors of compatible pairs when the bacteria do not require growth for malolactic activity. The plating method described here is useful for differentiating between effects of yeast on O. oeni due to nutrient competition and effects due to production of inhibitory compounds. Eighty-eighty percent of the wines showing negative growth effects on plates also resulted in unsuccessful malolactic fermentation in the laboratory-scale wines.


Although millions of Americans live in 55-plus age-restricted housing, little research has been done to determine whether these communities benefit their residents, or the nation as a whole. This is particularly ironic because these communities exist in contravention to anti-discrimination laws by virtue of a specific exemption granted to real estate developers by an Act of Congress. Ordinarily age discrimination is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Successful lobbying by special interest groups carved out an exemption for 55-plus housing.The original exemption required developers to offer elders special services and facilities in these communities in return for the exemption. Over time, those requirements were eliminated and now the only requirement is that these communities exclude families and children. While lifestyles focused on golf and tennis may be attractive to younger retirees, older Americans often find themselves in communities bereft of the services and facilities they need for basic life activities and safety. The very nature of these communities result in elders left with depreciating homes, and many are without the financial means to retrofit their 55-plus home or to move into a community better adapted for their needs. This Article explores a popular form of "senior housing" that is unsuitable for most older Americans.


While employing a qualitative, critical discourse analysis approach this thesis examined the discourses of official bilingualism and French as a second language (FSL) education in Canada as they appeared in stakeholder promotion efforts. The aim of the research was to gain insight into the underlying sources of tension contributing to the disconnect between the vision for official bilingualism and FSL education and the reality of it within Canadian society. Through a critical discourse analysis approach, it was found that there are two conflicting sets of discourses which paint very different pictures of the actual state of official bilingualism and FSL education in Canada. Based on these findings, the researcher calls for a renewed effort on behalf of stakeholders to bring the real issues facing official bilingualism and FSL education out from the shadows and into national dialogue so that the objectives for official bilingualism can be realized within Canadian society.


This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks for Developing Countries, WSN4DC 2013, held in Jamshoro, Pakistan, in April 2013. The 10 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on WSN applications/services for developing countries; mobile WSN; underwater WSN; VANETS; body area networks; energy harvesting in WSN; WSN and cloud integration; WSN and IoT; QoS and Qot; WSN MAC, network and transport protocols; cross layer approaches; security aspects in WSN; WSN applications in smart grid and energy management; WSN in structural health monitoring.


Abstract Aims To examine the association between nurse skill mix (the proportion of total hours provided by Registered Nurses) and patient outcomes in acute care hospitals. Design A quantitative systematic review included studies published in English between January 2000 – September 2018. Data sources Cochrane Library, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Joanna Briggs Institute were searched. Observational and experimental study designs were included. Mix‐methods designs were included if the quantitative component met the criteria. Review methods The Systematic Review guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute and its critical appraisal instrument were used. An inverse association was determined when seventy‐five percent or more of studies with significant results found this association. Results Sixty‐three articles were included. Twelve patient outcomes were inversely associated with nursing skill mix (i.e., higher nursing skill mix was significantly associated with improved patient outcomes). These were length of stay; ulcer, gastritis and upper gastrointestinal bleeds; acute myocardial infarction; restraint use; failure‐to‐rescue; pneumonia; sepsis; urinary tract infection; mortality/30‐day mortality; pressure injury; infections and shock/cardiac arrest/heart failure. Conclusion Nursing skill mix affected 12 patient outcomes. However, further investigation using experimental or longitudinal study designs are required to establish causal relationships. Consensus on the definition of skill mix is required to enable more robust evaluation of the impact of changes in skill mix on patient outcomes. Impact Skill mix is perhaps more important than the number of nurses in reducing adverse patient outcomes such as mortality and failure to rescue, albeit the optimal staffing profile remains elusive in workforce planning.


The transmission of HIV infection from an HIV-positive mother to her child during labor, pregnancy, breastfeeding or delivery is termed as mother-to-child HIV transmission (WHO, 2013 report on HIV). A range of 15-45% infection transmissions are possible when no intervention strategies are put into place. Globally, goals and initiatives have been set to combat this issue as well as speeding up the interventions and achieve possible transmission rates of levels less than 5% and total elimination of new infant HIV infections by 2015 (WHO, 2013 report on HIV). In 2011, 57% of pregnant women living with HIV in low and middle-income countries received effective antiretroviral drugs for prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), a substantial increase from 48% in 2010 (UNAIDS, 2011 data). Despite the availability of many interventions and massive investments to prevent MTCT, this pandemic situation still lingers in Africa. An estimated 390,000 children globally acquired HIV from their mothers in 2010 with over 90% of these new infections occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF, 2011 Global HIV/AIDS Response report). This paper summarizes the current observation made after internship with the Office for Policy in Clinical Research Operations that falls under the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) with the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. The paper highlights the importance of the current recommendations used for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Africa is the main focus of this report. The report also reflects on the core competencies of the masters in public health program learnt with the University of San Francisco and its association with the project. Different learning objectives of the project were also Mother-To-Child HIV Transmission 3 addressed in this report. Lastly, the overall quality of the project and the need of such projects for public health were addressed in the report.


In this paper, we introduce the incremental temporally weighted principal component analysis (ITWPCA) algorithm, based on singular value decomposition update, and the incremental temporally weighted visual tracking with spatial penalty (ITWVTSP) algorithm for robust visual tracking. ITWVTSP uses ITWPCA for computing incrementally a robust low dimensional subspace representation (model) of the tracked object. The robustness is based on the capacity of weighting the contribution of each single sample to the subspace generation to reduce the impact of bad quality samples, reducing the risk of model drift. Furthermore, ITWVTSP can exploit the a priori knowledge about important regions of a tracked object. This is done by penalizing the tracking error on some predefined regions of the tracked object, which increases the accuracy of tracking. Several tests are performed on several challenging video sequences, showing the robustness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm, as well as its superiority with respect to state-of-the-art techniques.


With the impending water crisis in Iraq as a backdrop, this article examines the implications of Iraq's constitutional mandate to ensure the "just distribution" of water. In 2005, Iraq adopted a new Constitution with a federal structure that was intended to balance power between its Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities. Water is a unique case study for understanding Iraq's federal structure because under the Constitution, power over water is shared between Iraq's federal and regional governments, but not with governorates not incorporated into regions. Because water is not equally distributed across Iraq, jurisdictional disputes over this increasingly scarce resource could exacerbate the fragile ethnic-sectarian tensions that had led Iraq to adopt a federal system of government in the first place. This article suggests that such conflicts could be mitigated by Iraq's constitutional mandate to ensure the "just distribution" of water. Islamic law and international law, both of which are referenced in Iraq's constitution, offer guidance on how the "just distribution" obligation should be interpreted. This article concludes that Iraq should develop a domestic policy that embraces the principles of "equitable and reasonable utilization" in international transboundary water law. Drawing on Islamic and human rights law, Iraq should also should interpret its "just distribution" requirement as incorporating a human right to water.


We study the problem of selecting a subset of big data to train a classifier while incurring minimal performance loss. We show the connection of submodularity to the data likelihood functions for Naive Bayes (NB) and Nearest Neighbor (NN) classifiers, and formulate the data subset selection problems for these classifiers as constrained submodular maximization. Furthermore, we apply this framework to active learning and propose a novel scheme called filtered active submodular selection (FASS), where we combine the uncertainty sampling method with a submodular data subset selection framework. We extensively evaluate the proposed framework on text categorization and handwritten digit recognition tasks with four different classifiers, including deep neural network (DNN) based classifiers. Empirical results indicate that the proposed framework yields significant improvement over the state-of-the-art algorithms on all classifiers.


A statistical method is presented for detecting quantitative trait loci (QTLs), based on the linear model. Unlike methods able to detect a few well separated QTLs and to estimate their effects and positions, this method considers the genome as a whole and enables the detection of chromosomal segments involved in the differences between two homozygous lines, and their backcross, doubled haploid, or F2 progenies, for a quantitative trait. Genetic markers must be codominant, but missing markers are accepted, provided they are missing independently from the experiment. Asymptotic properties, which are of practical use, are developed. This method does not rely on strong genetic hypotheses, and thus does not permit any precise genetic analysis of the trait under study, but it does assess which regions of the genome are involved, whatever the complexity of the genetic determinism (number, effects and interactions among QTLs). Simultaneous use of several methods, including this one, should lead to better efficiency in QTL detection.


The research reported in this paper aims to get a better
understanding of how the implementation process of
enterprise systems (ES) can be managed, by studying the
process from an organisational perspective. A review of
the literature on previous research in ES implementation
has been carried out and the state of the art of ES
implementation research is defined. Using several body of
literature, an organisational view on ES implementation is
described, explaining that ES implementation involves
challenges from triple domain, namely technological
challenge, business process related challenge, and
organisational challenge. Based on the defined state of the
art and the organisational view on ES implementation
developed in this research, a research framework is
presented, addressing the project as well as the postproject
stage, and a number of essential issues within the
stages. System alignment, knowledge acquisition, change
mobilisation are the essntial issues to be studied in the
project stage while institutionalisation effort and
continuous improvement facilitation are to be studied in
the post-project stage. Case studies in Indonesian
companies are used to explain the framework


Wooden blocks are a common toy for infants, allowing them to develop motor skills and gain intuition about the physical behavior of the world. In this paper, we explore the ability of deep feedforward models to learn such intuitive physics. Using a 3D game engine, we create small towers of wooden blocks whose stability is randomized and render them collapsing (or remaining upright). This data allows us to train large convolutional network models which can accurately predict the outcome, as well as estimating the block trajectories. The models are also able to generalize in two important ways: (i) to new physical scenarios, e.g. towers with an additional block and (ii) to images of real wooden blocks, where it obtains a performance comparable to human subjects.


It has been shown that model predictive control (MPC) is a promising solution for energy-efficient building operations. However, the deployment of MPC in a large portion of the building stock has not been possible partially because of high installation costs. Every building is unique and requires a tailored MPC solution. The best performing solutions are often based on physics-based modeling, which is, however, computationally expensive and requires dedicated software. A promising direction that tackles this problem is to train a neural network-based optimal control policy to imitate the behavior of physics-based MPC from the simulation data generated offline. The neural networks give control actions that closely approximate those produced by physics-based MPC, but with a fraction of the computational and memory requirements and without the need for licensed software. The main advantage of the proposed approach stems from simple evaluation at execution time, leading to low computational foot-prints and easy deployment on embedded HW platforms. In the case study, we present the energy savings potential of physics-based MPC applied to an office building in Belgium. We demonstrate how neural network approximators can be used to cut the implementation and maintenance costs of MPC deployment without compromising performance. We also critically assess the presented approach by pointing out the remaining challenges and open research questions.


The entrainment, transport and deposition of æolian dust are important processes affecting soil development at the margins of deserts. To assess accurately the impact of deposited æolian dust on soil development, it is important not only to measure total dust deposition rates, but to distinguish additions of remotely and regionally sourced dust from locally derived material as well (which should not be viewed as new soil material as it is derived from æolian re‐mobilization of an existing soil). Because of the well‐established relationship between dust particle‐size and distance travelled from source, the particle‐size distribution of deposited dusts can be used to identify the distance to probable source regions, in addition to identifying matching topsoil particle populations. Three dust traps were located along a transect of semi‐arid south‐eastern Australia, to measure æolian dust deposition rates between late 2000 and late 2001. The particle‐size distributions of selected dust deposits were measured and, with the aid of meteorological data, probable dust source regions determined. Particle‐size distributions of the topsoils at each dust trap location were also measured to determine if any dust and soil particle populations matched. Although the sampling period was relatively short, and there was relatively little dust storm activity in this part of Australia during this time, a clear pattern of diminishing total dust deposition was measured downwind along the south‐east dust path. Dust deposition rates were also moderate to low by global standards. Source regions of deposited dust were interpreted as being: (i) a combination of south‐western and local sources; (ii) a combination of north‐western and local sources; and (iii) a mixed source where dust was rained‐out. The relative importance of these sources was correlated strongly with seasonal weather conditions, although the proportion of local dust in each deposit was greater at the arid (western) end of the transect. The effects of deposited dust on soil profile development are greatest at the western and central transect locations. At the western location, a fine‐grained particle population distinctive of the south‐western and north‐western regional dusts and a coarse silt‐sized particle population characteristic of local dusts, are also present in the topsoil, altering the texture of this Arenosol derived from dune sand. At the central location, where a Calcisol has formed in lacustrine lunette sediment, local dust of the same size as the dominant silt population of the topsoil continues to be deposited, while minor topsoil populations of very fine‐grained silt match regional and long‐distance dusts deposited at the site. Deposited dust appears to have been a less important soil development factor at the more humid eastern site because of the much smaller rates of dust deposition there. Nevertheless, a minor population of very fine silt particles in the Vertisol topsoil matches long‐distance dusts deposited at the site, suggesting a small input of dust to this alluvial soil. The particle‐size methodology used here has applications in other studies of dust contributions to peri‐desert soils. In particular, particle‐size distribution 'smoothness' may provide an indication of whether soils have simple or complex origins.


An analytical solution given by Bessel series to the transient and one-dimensional (1D) bioheat equation in a multilayer region with spatial dependent heat sources is derived. Multilayer regions with 1D Cartesian, cylindrical or spherical geometries and composed of different types of biological tissues characterised by temperature-invariant physiological parameters are considered. Boundary conditions of first, second and third kinds to the temperature at the inner and outer surfaces are also assumed. In this work, the bioheat transfer model is applied to obtain the temperature profiles in a tumor bed and a surrounding healthy tissue using two spatial dependent heat source terms to simulate a magnetic fluid hyperthermia technique in the cancer treatment. The influence of these two heat sources, described by polynomial and exponential functions, on temperature is investigated.


This article takes up the intersection of AIDS testimony, lyric poetry, and gay male sexuality in Frank Bidart's poetry. Using Douglas Crimp's discussion of the politics of AIDS aesthetics as a starting point, I focus on Bidart's 1997 collection of poems, Desire, to consider how lyric voice engages the complexities of queer sexuality in the context of AIDS. I argue that Bidart's lyric dramatizes the relationship between apostrophe and the queer body, drawing attention both to the rhetorical dimensions of embodiment and to the material dimensions of rhetoric. Read in relation to Leo Bersani's analysis of gay male desire and subjectivity, Bidart's work illuminates that the self-present human voice on which testimony seems to rely is itself a rhetorical figure whose grounding in the body can never be fully located or made distinct from its own figural status. Through this simultaneous reliance on and challenge to lyric voice, Bidart engages the specific demands that the AIDS crisis places on testimony while reminding us that desire undermines even as it sustains testimony's imperatives. His poetry thus complicates both the centrality of voice in lyric studies and the seemingly necessary association between voice and transparent subjectivity that has emerged as a subject of contention in American poetry studies.


The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) constitutes a key hormonal system in the physiological regulation of blood pressure via peripheral and central mechanisms. Dysregulation of the RAS is considered a major factor in the development of cardiovascular pathologies, and pharmacologic blockades of this system by the inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) or antagonism of the angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) are effective therapeutic regimens. The RAS is now defined as a system composed of different angiotensin peptides with diverse biological actions mediated by distinct receptor subtypes. The classic RAS comprises the ACE-Ang IIAT1R axis that promotes vasoconstriction, water intake, sodium retention and increased oxidative stress, fibrosis, cellular growth, and inflammation. The nonclassical or alternative RAS is composed primarily of the ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-AT7R pathway that opposes the Ang II-AT1R axis. In lieu of the complex aspects of this system, the current review assesses the enzymatic cascade of the alternative Ang-(1-7) axis of the RAS.


According to Heidegger, naturalistic thinking is naive and unable to deal with its own essence and limitations. It can only serve the veiled interests of modern Western technology in its inherent inclination to attain global dominance. But these eight thematically intertwined essays face Heidegger's critique of naturalistic thinking habits. The author develops a holistic and antirealistic version of naturalism. This 'holistic naturalism' does not approach nature as a set of entities or things which can be used for technological purposes. Instead, nature is approached as human experience which originally lacks conceptual structure and which can therefore not be fully controlled by a rational subject. (Series A)


To construct and test certain hypotheses of earthquake occurrence, we've compiled a new catalog covering the whole of California, which lists all known earthquakes at magnitude 4.7 and above and provides focal mechanism information for each earthquake. Accounting for magnitude errors, the catalog should be complete at magnitude 5.0 and above for most of California after 1940 and at specified higher thresholds otherwise.

Earthquake magnitudes play an important role in earthquake forecasting and prediction, but their use is complicated by the fact that there are many magnitude types, measured in different ways with different uncertainties. Even a single catalog may include moment magnitude, local magnitude, surface wave magnitude, and so on. Here we adopt moment magnitude as the standard and convert other types into moment magnitude using regression relationships.

Catalog data have errors in location, magnitude, and focal mechanism that can influence the results of earthquake studies. Neglecting these errors, or estimating them poorly, could cause valid hypotheses to be rejected or invalid ones to be accepted. The uncertainties decrease with time, except that they increase temporarily after large earthquakes. Therefore we've conducted an extensive uncertainty study.

Many studies assume a distinction between mainshocks, aftershocks, and foreshocks, and some catalogs are "declustered" using somewhat arbitrary definitions ( e.g. , Gardner and Knopoff 1974; Reasenberg and Oppenheimer 1985). Here we take a somewhat different approach. Using a stochastic epidemic-type aftershock (ETAS) model (Zhuang et al. 2002, 2004; Zhuang et al. 2005), we assigned to each event a probability that it occurred independently. The independence probability for each earthquake can then be employed by any user to decluster the catalog to fit his or her needs. Our method is still arbitrary, but we feel it is more transparent and flexible than other methods.

Kagan, Jackson, and Rong (2006) compiled an …


This paper describes a system for semi-automatic population of ontologies with instances from unstructured text. The system is based on supervised learning and therefore learns extraction rules from annotated text and then applies those rules on newly documents for ontology population. It is based on three componentes: Marmot, a natural language processor; Crystal, a dictionary induction tool; and Badger, an information extraction tool. The important part of the entire cycle is a user who accepts, rejects or modifies newly extracted and suggested instances to be populated. A description of experiments performed with text corpus consisting of 91 documents is given in turn. The results cover the paper and support a presented hypothesis of assigning a rule confidence value to each extraction rule to improve the performance.


The anti-metabolite - 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) - is the most widely used chemotherapeutic drug. It exerts its anti cancer effect through incorporation into DNA and RNA. Characterisation of this drugs mode of action is crucial in the development of future therapies. There have been many DNA microarray experiments performed in order to gain such information. However, only two proteomic experiments have been performed to date that look at the effect of 5-FU treatment. Here the proteomic alterations induced by IC8o 5-FU treatment of normal and cancer cells of epithelial origin of the lung and breast are investigated. These cell lines include a lung adenocarcinoma (A549), a non small cell lung carcinoma cell line (DLKP), normal bronchial epithelial cell line (NHBE), a breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). Phenotypes were characterised and 5-FU was found to induce and reduce invasion in various cell lines. Adherence was altered in one of the three cancer cell lines to the extracellular matrix proteins collagen type IV and fibronectin. Differential regulated proteins were quantified using 2 dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and differentially regulated proteins were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF MS). Data shows the NHBE showed a dose dependent response to 5-FU treatment. Proteins that were found regulated are discussed in terms of microtubule dynamics and future drug combinations, translation control and stress, cytosketetal dynamics and invasion, and inhibition of apoptosis.

5-Fluorouracil is being increasing replaced in clinical trials with 3rd generation 5-FU drugs such as capecitabine. Capecitabine is converted in the liver to 5-fluoro-5'- deoxyuridine (55FdU) and this is converted to 5-FU by thymidine phosphorylase whose over expression is induced by radiotherapy. 5-FU is converted to 5-fluoro-2'- deoxyuridine in the cytoplasm. A comparison using 2D-DIGE between DLKP treated 5-FU and the fluoropyrimidines - 52FdU and 55FdU at ICgo cocentrations to determine similar proteomic alterations. Results demonstrated that the down regulation of Stathmin as a common fluoropyrimidine response. Furthermore this data may indicate a role for the use of vinca alkoloids or taxanes in combination with 5-FU.

Resistance to 5-FU is a major clinical problem as mediated predominantly by over expression of Thymidylate Synthetase. A variant of DLKP was generated by pulse selection with 55FdU and showed a ~4 fold resistance to 5-FU. Proteomic analysis using 2D-DIGE identified several proteins involved in uracil metabolism and oxidative metabolism differentially regulated between DLKP and DLKP-55.

DLKP is a heterogeneous cell line composed of at least three subpopulations. These subpopulations were isolated and were assigned the names DLKP-SQ, DLKP-I and DLKP-M. In this thesis data is presented demonstrating highly significant differences in motility and invasion between the clonal subpopulation. Analysis of proteomic alteration was carried out using 2D-DIGE on both the total cell lysate and the hydrophobic proteomes. Proteins were identified in the total cell lysates that suggest that DLKP-M is mesenchymal-like in nature as originally described and that the interconversion process observed between the clones is regulated at least by key proteins involved in protein metabolism. Analysis of the hydrophobic proteome found at least 300 proteins that correlated with motility/invasion and collagen synthesis. Identification of these proteins demonstrated increased association of microfilaments to the cellular membranes a process important in cellular motility. Furthermore 3 poorly described proteins were identified that correlated with motility/invasion and collagen synthesis. In addition data generated by these experiments indicates that fluoropyrimidine treatment of DLKP does not result in the selection of one of the subpopulations of DLKP and that DLKP-55 is not a subpopulation of DLKP. Data also shows the presence of protein in the heterogeneous population that are not present or are over expressed in the clonal populations indicating cell-cell communication.


OBJECTIVE: To check if signs of rectangularisation of the survival curve appeared during recent decades in Switzerland--that is, if life expectancy is approaching a maximum with a clustering of age at death around an average value (the so called "compression of mortality"). METHODS: Descriptive analysis of age of death and its trends over 26 years, as characterised by the modal value, median, and various percentiles beyond the median. POPULATION: All deaths occurring after the 50th birthday in Switzerland between 1969 and 1994 (n = 1,390,362). MAIN RESULTS: Age at death is increasing at a sustained rate at all percentiles equal or greater than 50, without any slow down in the trend during this period. The increase is more marked among women. Rates of increase are diminishing as the percentiles of age at death are higher, suggesting some clustering of deaths beyond the median value. However, the maximum age at death, if any, seems to be far from the current median values, even for women who enjoy a relatively high median age at death.


The derivation of the point spread function in general uses the mathematical theory of diffraction in detail. This derivation uses geometric relations of the incoming and diffracted wave front to establish the diffraction integral, which is equal to the Hankel integral for the Bessel function of the first kind of order one.


The research was conducted to determine the effect of acetic acid concentration on the level of toxicity and growth of some young weeds sedges, grass and broadleaf. Experiments conducted in Way Halim, Sukarame, Bandar Lampung. The timing of the trial starting from June to July 2011. The design used was a complete Randomized Design (CRD) with one factor, namely the concentration of vinegar that is: 0, 5%, 10%, and 20%. Each treatment was repeated three times. Each unit of experiment 2 pots for each weed so there is 144 pots. Weed seeds used are still young or vegetative phase. The results showed: (1) acetic acid with a concentration of 5% - 20% are able to control the growth of broad-leaf weeds Cleome rutidospermae DC and Agerotum conyzoides, while other broad leaf weeds is Asystasia gangetica and Synedrella nudiflora able to be controlled by asam asetat on concentration of 10% - 20% up to 4 MSA with the level of intoxication about 30 -100%, (2) Weeds type sedges and grass that is Cyperus rotundus, Axonopus compressus and Imperata cylindrica can be controlled by the acetic acid concentration of 20% to 4 MSA, with a toxicity level of about 30-90%. (3) Toxicity caused by acetic acid is the contact. Key word : Acetic acid, early growth, toxicity, concentration


This report serves as an installation and introductory user guide to
BGS·SIGMAmobile, which is an application for digital geoscience field data
collection developed within the British Geological Survey's SIGMA (System for
Integrated Geoscience Mapping) programme within the Earth & Planetary
Observation & Monitoring Team. This document provides installation instructions,
followed by a brief guide to using the application. In BGS we provide our field staff
with a two-day training course, and while this guide does not replace that, it is hoped
that these instructions will provide a basis for successful use of BGS·SIGMAmobile
in your organisation.
BGS·SIGMAmobile is designed to run in the field on rugged Tablet PCs, but can also
be used on a laptop or a desktop PC. The system is a heavily customised ArcGIS 9.3.1
(service pack 1) and MSAccess application. The user must have a licensed copy of
ArcView ArcGIS and MSAccess 2003, BGS does not supply these. The system will
run with MSAccess2007 but the database must be stored as a 2002-2003 .mdb file
otherwise it will not be compatible with ArcGIS. It is fully tested on the Windows XP
operating system; BGS does not currently use the Windows 7 operating system and
therefore no testing of the system on Windows 7 has taken place.
The BGS uses the application on several models of Tablet PC including Itronix
GoBooks, Xplore iX104s and GETAC V100's. This guide does not provide
instructions to its use on specific hardware platforms.
BGS staff have used the system for mapping in locations including the UK, Ghana,
Madagascar, Tajikistan, the Antarctic and the U.S.A. We use it as part of a workflow
of other customised BGS-developed systems that enables us to:
1. automatically collate spatial information from our databases,
2. interpret new data from satellite imagery and digital photogrammetry,
3. take our baseline and interpreted data to the field,
4. populate corporate databases with our field data,
5. build 3D digital models and visualisations,
6. output our data in formats such as maps.
Further information on these steps is available from the BGS website at
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/technologies_epo.html. Only the field system has been
supplied in this Open Source agreement so you will need to build/define your own
methods for integrating BGS·SIGMAmobile into your mapping workflow.


This paper presents coupled transient thermal and electromagnetic finite element analysis of quench in the Q2, Q3, and dipole superconducting magnets using Vector Fields Quench code. Detailed temperature distribution within coils and aluminum force collars were computed at each time step. Both normal (quench with dump resistor) and worst-case (quench without dump resistor) scenarios were simulated to investigate the maximum temperatures. Two simulation methods were utilized, and their algorithms, implementation, advantages, and disadvantages are discussed. The first method simulated the coil using nonlinear transient thermal analysis directly linked with the transient circuit analysis. It was faster because only the coil was meshed and no eddy current was modeled. The second method simulated the whole magnet including the coil, the force collar, and the iron yoke. It coupled thermal analysis with transient electromagnetic field analysis which modeled electromagnetic fields including eddy currents within the force collar. Since eddy currents and temperature in the force collars were calculated in various configurations, segmentation of the force collars was optimized under the condition of fast discharge.


Pneumonia causes a significant public health burden in the UK in terms of morbidity and mortality. Historically, the annual incidence of community acquired pneumonia has been reported to be between 5 and 11 per 1000 adult population,1–3 estimated more recently to be between 207 and 233 per 100 000 in England.4 In 2010, influenza and pneumonia were responsible for 4.5% of all male deaths, and 5.8% of all female deaths ranking them 5th and 4th in terms of causes of mortality in men and women respectively in England and Wales.5 With such a huge mortality burden, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors to help decrease the incidence of the disease. The commonest cause of community acquired pneumonia, accounting for over a third of cases, is Streptococcus pneumoniae .6 ,7 S pneumoniae is also an important cause of septicaemia, meningitis, infective exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiectasis. Vaccination against S pneumoniae is recommended in many countries for high risk groups. In the UK, these groups include all children, all those over 65 years, as well as subjects with chronic medical conditions that are associated with a higher risk of pneumococcal disease including COPD, renal impairment and cardiovascular disease.8

Several factors that are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia and pneumococcal disease, including being underweight, excessive alcohol intake and smoking,8–10 are also commoner in patients with mental illnesses such as psychosis and depression. So, is mental illness also a modifiable and important risk factor for pneumonia and pneumococcal disease? In this issue of the journal, two papers are published suggesting it is. Seminog and Goldacre11 investigated the risk of pneumococcal disease in people with severe mental illness. Using two electronic databases, the English national dataset of linked Hospital Episode Statistics and …


Who gets what in bargaining between states and international organizations (IOs)? Although distributional conflict is unavoidable in international cooperation, previous research provides few empirical insights into the determinants of bargaining outcomes. We test a simple bargaining model of cooperation between states and IOs. We expect that nonegalitarian international organizations, such as the World Bank, secure more gains from bargaining with economically weak than with economically powerful states. For egalitarian international organizations, such as most United Nations (UN) agencies, the state's economic power should be less important. We test these hypotheses against a novel data set on funding shares for 2,255 projects implemented under the auspices of the Global Environment Facility, from1991 to 2011. The data allow us to directly measure bargaining outcomes. The results highlight the importance of accounting for the interactive effects of international organization and state characteristics.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of the Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) model on psychiatric inpatient service use in a population of non-emergency psychiatric patients with severe chronic mental illness, and to test for variations in this effect with program staffing levels and patient characteristics such as race and age.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING
Data are taken from a randomized trial of PACT in Charleston, South Carolina for 144 patients recruited from August 1989 through July 1991.

STUDY DESIGN
Subjects were randomly assigned either to one of two PACT programs or to usual care at a local mental health center. Effects on hospital use were measured over an 18-month follow-up period via multiple regression analysis.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS
Data were obtained from Medicaid claims, chart reviews, subject, case manager, and family interviews; searches of the computerized patient and financial databases of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and relevant hospitals; and searches of the hard copy and computerized financial databases of the two major local hospitals providing inpatient psychiatric care.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
PACT participants were about 40 percent less likely to be hospitalized during the follow-up period. The effect was stronger for older patients. Lower PACT client/staff ratios also reduced the risk of hospitalization. No evidence of differential race effects was found. Given some hospital use, PACT did not influence the number of days of use.

CONCLUSIONS
Controlling for other covariates, PACT significantly reduces hospitalizations but the size of this effect varies with patient and program characteristics. This study shows that previous results on PACT can be applied to non-emergency patients even when the control condition is an up-to-date CMHC office-based case management program.


To estimate the prevalence of sexual abuse among married female healthcare (nurses and doctors) providers in tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan perpetrated by family members. A descriptive cross-sectional study was done for 350 married female nurses and doctors by using a random sample technique. One public and two private tertiary healthcare hospitals from Karachi, Pakistan were selected. Descriptive and unvaried statistical methods used to analyze data. The study revealed that of the total sample of 350 married female nurses and doctors, 97.7% (n= 342) were reported one or more types of DV at some point in their life. Whereby, 59.6% (n= 204) reported sexual abuse by their family members at some point in their married life. Out of which mainly the husband 94.6% (n=193) created sexual abuse, followed by brother in- law 17.6% (n=36). Participants living in extended families [72.2% (n=26)], those who were undergraduate [50% (n=18)] and nurses [61.1% (n=22)] experienced sexual abuse by in-laws. In conclusion, nurses and doctors are victims of sexual abuse, because of socio-demographic factors such as extended family, educated and professional. The study participants were confronting to sexual abuse as the same level as those who were uneducated and poor.


Researchers have used the pressure of light—also called optical forces or sometimes "tractor beams"—to create a new type of rewritable, dynamic 3D holographic material. Unlike other 3D holographic materials, the new material can be rapidly written and erased many times, and can also store information without using any external energy. The new material has potential applications in 3D holographic displays, large-scale volumetric data storage devices, biosensors, tunable lasers, optical lenses, and metamaterials. [21]


Many communication systems, e.g., internet, can be modeled as complex networks. For such networks, immunization strategies are necessary for preventing malicious attacks or viruses being percolated from a node to its neighboring nodes following their connectivities. In recent years, various immunization strategies have been proposed and demonstrated, most of which rest on the assumptions that the strategies can be executed in a centralized manner and/or that the complex network at hand is reasonably stable (its topology will not change overtime). In other words, it would be difficult to apply them in a decentralized network environment, as often found in the real world. In this paper, we propose a decentralized and scalable immunization strategy based on a self-organized computing approach called autonomy-oriented computing (AOC) [1], [2]. In this strategy, autonomous behavior-based entities are deployed in a decentralized network, and are capable of collectively finding those nodes with high degrees of conductivities (i.e., those that can readily spread viruses). Through experiments involving both synthetic and real-world networks, we demonstrate that this strategy can effectively and efficiently locate highly-connected nodes in decentralized complex network environments of various topologies, and it is also scalable in handling large-scale decentralized networks. We have compared our strategy with some of the well-known strategies, including acquaintance and covering strategies on both synthetic and real-world networks.


The construction industry is a fundamental, integral part of economic
development. It is organised around individual projects. The effectiveness of
the industry is largely determined by the collective performance of projects
and the effectiveness of the project manager.
This thesis investigates the following issues: the major characteristics of construction projects and the variables
affecting the construction industry; the education, training and experience of construction project
managers; major skills and knowledge required for the construction project
managers; comparisons of the general education policies in other countries; performance in construction and the factors affecting the successful completion of construction projects. The investigation of the education, training and experience of project
managers, plus the major skills and knowledge required for the project
managers was carried out by mailed questionnaires, followed by face to face
interviews. This was organised with the co-operation of the European
Construction Institute, which represents major international contractors. The
number of completed questionnaires received was 120 out of 170 mailed
questionnaires. This is a response rate of 70.5%.
The responding project managers were clearly successful and working for
successful companies. The majority of these project managers are engineering graduates. They are
of very strong technical background, but of shallow or very shallow
managerial background. The top priority of the required knowledge and
skills was given to management related subjects. The importance of technical
knowledge is not diminished by the attendant need for management, legal and
other personal skills. projects in order to identify the factors affecting the successful completion of
construction projects and achieving a clearer picture of the required skills and
knowledge for effective project managers. This thesis identifies the following:
the education background of project managers;
the effectiveness of the major sources of knowledge in contributing to
skills and knowledge of the project managers;
the top 20 skills required for the job of the project manager; the required actions by all the parties concerned to enhance the
effectiveness of construction project managers; the link between the required skills and the factors affecting the
successful completion of projects.
In general this thesis contributes to the policies for developing effective
construction project managers.


Context. Spectro-photometry of debris disks in total intensity and polarimetry can provide new insight into the properties of the dust grains therein (size distribution and optical properties).
Aims. We aim to constrain the morphology of the highly inclined debris disk HD 32297. We also intend to obtain spectroscopic and polarimetric measurements to retrieve information on the particle size distribution within the disk for certain grain compositions.
Methods. We observed HD 32297 with SPHERE in Y, J, and H bands in total intensity and in J band in polarimetry. The observations are compared to synthetic models of debris disks and we developed methods to extract the photometry in total intensity overcoming the data-reduction artifacts, namely the self-subtraction. The spectro-photometric measurements averaged along the disk mid-plane are then compared to model spectra of various grain compositions.
Results. These new images reveal the very inner part of the system as close as 0.15″. The disk image is mostly dominated by the forward scattering making one side (half-ellipse) of the disk more visible, but observations in total intensity are deep enough to also detect the back side for the very first time. The images as well as the surface brightness profiles of the disk rule out the presence of a gap as previously proposed. We do not detect any significant asymmetry between the northeast and southwest sides of the disk. The spectral reflectance features a "gray to blue" color which is interpreted as the presence of grains far below the blowout size.
Conclusions. The presence of sub-micron grains in the disk is suspected to be the result of gas drag and/or "avalanche mechanisms". The blue color of the disk could be further investigated with additional total intensity and polarimetric observations in K and H bands respectively to confirm the spectral slope and the fraction of polarization.


People sometimes disagree about who owns which objects, and these ownership dilemmas can lead to costly disputes. We investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying people's judgments about finder versus landowner cases, in which a person finds an object on someone else's land. We test psychological hypotheses motivated directly by three major principles that govern these cases in the law. The results show that people are more likely to favor the finder when the object is in a public space compared to a private space. We find mixed support for the hypothesis that people are less likely to favor a finder who is employed by the landowner. Last, we find no support for the hypothesis that people are more likely to favor finders for objects located above ground compared to below ground. We discuss implications for psychological theories of ownership and potential applications to property law.


Is advertising more effective when the advertised brand name is revealed at the onset of an advertising message or when it is withheld until the end of the message? Given the propensity of advertising to withhold the brand name, advertisers apparently presume the latter, perhaps because they believe that the practice sustains attention to the advertisement. The network model of memory and related theories of associative learning imply superior advertising effectiveness when the brand name is presented at the beginning of an advertisement. An experiment was conducted to test this proposition. Several award-winning television advertisements were remastered to reveal the brand name either at the beginning or at the end of the spot. The results support the prediction that advertising is more effective when the brand name appears at the beginning of the advertisement. Evidence is consistent with the conclusion that the effect was caused by strengthening the memory association between the brand name and the evaluative implications of advertising content, not by any effect of brand-name placement on advertising liking, memory for the brand name, or accessibility to advertisement content.


In recent months, concerns have been raised about the profitability prospects for hedge funds. This article argues that market participants' pessimistic view of the hedge fund industry's capacity to generate long-term returns is a direct result of their continued focus on alpha. It illustrates the importance of considering not only the exposure to the market (the traditional beta), but also other exposures (the alternative betas) to characterize alternative sources of hedge fund returns. It also revisits the capacity issue by distinguishing between market capacity and manager capacity. The results show that alternative betas are an important source of hedge fund returns that reduce the importance of alpha. The authors conclude that capacity issues do not significantly impact alpha by illustrating that alpha is generated by successful bets on numerous exposures rather than by exploiting market opportunities.


The chemical findings of Schmid & Schwartz (1952) in experimental porphyria of rabbits induced by sedormid have been confirmed. Since sedormid is hypnotic, a group of related drugs has been tested to find one which might produce the chemical picture in animals without hypnosis. Such a drug is allyl- isopropyl-acetamide (A.I.A.). In this investigation, the constant chemical structure affecting porphyrin metabolism was found to be CH2=CH—CH2—CHR—CO—NH—. Some rabbits excrete large amounts of porphobilinogen and uroporphyrin when given either sedormid or A.I.A., others produce little. It is suggested that the cause of this difference is related to a variability of the individual rabbit liver to deal effectively with those drugs. Rabbits, intoxicated with either drug, became constipated, had poor appetite and lost weight. They did not become paralyzed, nor show any change in systolic blood pressure or in their haematological values. Two fowls, one also given a barbiturate, and nine rats wore intoxicated with allyl-isopropyl-acetamide. Although these animals excreted relatively high levels of porphobilinogen and porphyrins, they did not develop paralysis. The experimentally induced porphyria in animals is compared with hum an acute porphyria. The effects are described of reticulo-endothelial blockade, splenectomy and barbiturate administration on porphyria induced experimentally in rabbits. Experimental porphyria appears to be due to an overproduction of porphyrins, rather than to an under-utilization of porphyrin pigments. An atypical porphobilinogen reaction is described. It is present in the early stage of drug intoxication in rabbits and has also been noted in human acute porphyria at low levels of porphobilinogen excretion.


The expression of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) in the thymus and bone marrow of irradiated mice has been examined. Mice given the leukemogenic regimen of irradiation of four weekly doses of 175 rads starting at 1 mo of age show a long-term elimination of TdT activity in the bone marrow and a reduction of TdT activity in thymocytes. In such mice, the reappearance of normal levels of TdT in the thymus appears to only be associated with the onset of overt leukemia. This effect on TdT expression was shown to be uniquely associated with the leukemogenic regimen of irradiation in that nonleukemogenic irradiation or variations such as bone marrow reconstitution or age which reduce leukemias did not show the same phenotypic effects on TdT expression. The basis for the loss of TdT- positive cells was shown not to be due to the lack of the requisite factors involved in differentiation, but rather to the ability of leukemogenic doses of irradiation to reduce or eliminate an inducible bone marrow stem cell. These results are discussed with respect to the possible mechanisms involved in radiation-induced leukemias in mice.


Epitopes for a panel of anti-αVβ3 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were investigated to explore the activation mechanism of αVβ3 integrin. Experiments utilizing αV/αIIb domain-swapping chimeras revealed that among the nine mAbs tested, five recognized the ligand-binding β-propeller domain and four recognized the thigh domain, which is the upper leg of the αV chain. Interestingly, the four mAbs included function-blocking as well as non-functional mAbs, although they bound at a distance from the ligand-binding site. The epitopes for these four mAbs were further determined using human-to-mouse αV chimeras. Among the four, P3G8 recognized an amino acid residue, Ser-528, located on the side of the thigh domain, while AMF-7, M9, and P2W7 all recognized a common epitope, Ser-462, that was located close to the α-genu, where integrin makes a sharp bend in the crystal structure. Fibrinogen binding studies for cells expressing wild-type αVβ3 confirmed that AMF-7, M9, and P2W7 were inhibitory, while P3G8 was non-functional. However, these mAbs were all unable to block binding when αVβ3 was constrained in its extended conformation. These results suggest that AMF-7, M9, and P2W7 block ligand binding allosterically by stabilizing the angle of the bend in the bent conformation. Thus, a switchblade-like movement of the integrin leg is indispensable for the affinity regulation of αVβ3 integrin.


Cameras and inertial sensors are each good candidates for autonomous vehicle navigation, modeling from video, and other applications that require six-degrees-of-freedom motion estimation. However, these sensors are also good candidates to be deployed together, since each can be used to resolve the ambiguities in estimated motion that result from using the other modality alone. In this paper, we consider the specific problem of estimating sensor motion and other unknowns from image, gyro, and accelerometer measurements, in environments without known fiducials. This paper targets applications where external positions references such as global positioning are not available, and focuses on the use of small and inexpensive inertial sensors, for applications where weight and cost requirements preclude the use of precision inertial navigation systems. We present two algorithms for estimating sensor motion from image and inertial measurements. The first algorithm is a batch method, which produces estimates of the sensor motion, scene structure, and other unknowns using measurements from the entire observation sequence simultaneously. The second algorithm recovers sensor motion, scene structure, and other parameters recursively, and is suitable for use with long or "infinite" sequences, in which no feature is always visible. We evaluate the accuracy of the algorithms and their sensitivity to their estimation parameters using a sequence of four experiments. These experiments focus on cases where estimates from image or inertial measurements alone are poor, on the relative advantage of using inertial measurements and omni directional images, and on long sequences in which the percentage of the image sequence in which individual features are visible is low.


Aziridine-containing compounds have been of interest as anticancer agents since late 1970s. The design, synthesis and study of triaziquone (TZQ) analogues with the aim of obtaining compounds with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity are an ongoing research effort in our group. A series of bis-type TZQ derivatives has been prepared and their cytotoxic activities were investigated. The cytotoxicity of these bis-type TZQ derivatives were tested on three cancer lines, including breast cancer (BC-M1), oral cancer (OEC-M1), larynx epidermal cancer (Hep2) and one normal skin fibroblast (SF). Most of these synthetic derivatives displayed significant cytotoxic activities against human carcinoma cell lines, but weak activities against SF. Among tested analogues the bis-type TZQ derivative 1a showed lethal effects on larynx epidermal carcinoma cells (Hep2), with an LC50 value of 2.02 mM, and also weak cytotoxic activity against SF cells with an LC50 value over 10 mM for 24 hr treatment. Comparing the viability of normal fibroblast cells treated with compound 1a and TZQ, the LC50 value of the latter was 2.52 mM, indicating more toxicity than compound 1a. This significantly decreased cytotoxicity of compound 1a towards normal SF cells, while still maintaining the anticancer activity towards Hep2 cells is an interesting feature. Among the seven compounds synthesized, compound 1c has similar toxicity effects on the three cancer cell lines and SF normal cells as the TZQ monomer.


For the past century in Germany, writers and others from the middle or upper classes have entered the world of manual labor by becoming workers. They produced fictional and non-fictional texts that convey their travel to the unfamiliar world of the working class. Although scholars have devoted attention to the image of work and workers and the role of the intellectual in working-class movements, these journeys to the working world have not been thoroughly investigated. The Bonds of Labor focuses on how specific autobiographies, reportages, essays, films, and novels represent the unfamiliar experience of becoming a manual laborer. It also examines the intersections between class, race, and ethnicity, as well as the writings that provoked public debate.Carol Poore analyzes nineteenth-century social movements, post-World War I conservative movements that culminated in the Nazi Labor Service, social reportage in the late Weimar Republic, alliances with workers in the German Democratic Republic, and the re-emergence of the question of class inequality in the Federal Republic of Germany. Poore illuminates the concepts and fantasies of work and workers held by those who left their more privileged positions for a brief time. Their sojourns in the world of labor were as much about strengthening the intricate "bonds" of domination over manual workers as about creating "bonds" of fraternity.The Bonds of Labor is a rich, yet well-defined book that augments both historical studies of class relations and the labor movement as well as literary studies of German themes and images by exploring the cultural history of responses to social inequities. This literary exploration of the industrial worldwill be important reading for scholars and students of German cultural and social history, German literature, and labor studies.


Wound healing remains a global issue of disability, cost, and health. Addition of cells from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue has been shown to increase the rate of full thickness wound closure. This study aimed to investigate the angiogenic mechanisms of CD248+ SVF cells in the context of full thickness excisional wounds. Single cell transcriptional analysis was used to identify and cluster angiogenic gene‐expressing cells, which was then correlated with surface marker expression. SVF cells isolated from human lipoaspirate were FACS sorted based on the presence of CD248. Cells were analyzed for angiogenic gene expression and ability to promote microvascular tubule formation in vitro. Following this, 6mm full thickness dermal wounds were created on the dorsa of immunocompromised mice and then treated with CD248+, CD248–, or unsorted SVF cells delivered in a pullalan‐collagen hydrogel or the hydrogel alone. Wounds were measured every other day photometrically until closure. Wounds were also evaluated histologically at 7 and 14 days post‐wounding and when fully healed to assess for reepithelialization and development of neovasculature. Wounds treated with CD248+ cells healed significantly faster than other treatment groups, and at 7 days, had quantitatively more reepithelialization. Concurrently, immunohistochemistry of CD31 revealed a much higher presence of vascularity in the CD248+ SVF cells treated group at the time of healing and at 14 days post‐op, consistent with a pro‐angiogenic effect of CD248+ cells in vivo. Therefore, using CD248+ pro‐angiogenic cells obtained from SVF presents a viable strategy in wound healing by promoting increased vessel growth in the wound.


German employment discrimination law is in considerable flux. German law does not protect private-sector employees from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation, and it provides only limited protection from sexual harassment and discrimination on the basis of sex, disability, and age. The European Union, however, has issued two Anti-Discrimination Directives requiring E.U. Member States to offer protection from employment discrimination far greater than the protection currently afforded by German law. Germany, however, has failed to implement the Anti-Discrimination Directives. E.U. directives normally do not apply directly to E.U. citizens. However, because the deadline for German implementation has passed, German judges must interpret German laws consistently with the Directives, thus giving the Directives indirect horizontal effect. The legal indeterminacy thus created is exacerbated by considerable political uncertainty emanating from the fall 2005 German Parliamentary elections. The clear losers amidst all the confusion are German workers, who have no effective protection from workplace discrimination. This article urges the new German Parliament to quickly rectify this unfortunate situation by passing a workplace Anti-Discrimination law complying with the E.U. Anti-Discrimination Directives.


Background. We aimed to calculate the frequency and features of the development of a prostate-specifi c antigen (PSA) bounce after prostate brachytherapy alone, to correlate the bounce with clinical and dosimetric factors and to identify factors that predict PSA bounce. Methods. PSA bounce was evaluated in 86 patients with T1-T2 prostate cancer who underwent radioactive seed implantation using iodine-125 (I-125) without hormonal therapy or external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) from September 2004 to December 2007. A PSA bounce was defi ned as a rise of at least 0.4 ng/ml greater than a previous PSA level with a subsequent decline equal to, or less than, the initial nadir. Results. Calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, the incidence of PSA bounce at a 2-year follow-up was 26%. Median time to the PSA bounce was 15 months. Univariate analysis demonstrated that age, dose received by 90% of the prostate gland (D90), volume of gland receiving 100% of the prescribed dose (V100), and V150 were signifi cantly associated with the PSA bounce, while pretreatment PSA level, Gleason score, pretreatment prostate volume, clinical T stage, and V200 were not. In multivariate analysis, age 67 years or less and D90 more than 180 Gy were identifi ed as independent factors for predicting the PSA bounce (P < 0.05). Conclusion. PSA bounce is not a rare phenomenon after prostate brachytherapy. It is more common in younger patients and patients receiving higher doses of radiation.


The main purpose in this paper is to investigate the determinants of the inflationary process in the Turkish economy. For this purpose, based on a some potential consequential reasons, a vast literature is tried to be investigated on the Turkish inflation, and a model attempt on inflation phenomenon is estimated. The results obtained support the view of cost-push inflation. Also the factors resulting from public sector pricing behavior and also the price inertia phenomenon are estimated as the other main sources of inflationary process under the estimation period 1988-2004, rather than the demand-pull monetary factors.


With a growing global population, much of the current discourse on food security is focused on expanding agricultural production. Much of this expansion is thought to be at the expense of natural systems and related biodiversity. However, some suggest that we already grow enough food and food scarcity is primarily caused by inadequate distribution, a lack of purchasing power and other nonproductive causes. The emphasis on production is not sufficient to guarantee future global food security.


This paper argues that while a long-term solution to climate change may require the global market-based solution envisioned in the Kyoto Protocol, a more flexible near-term approach is necessary. First, a broad range of domestic policies need to be embraced and encouraged by an international agreement, not constrained or discouraged by it. Second, developing countries need to be an increased focus of engagement, with expansion and reform of project-based crediting. Finally, a global agreement needs to recognize both technology and mitigation policies and to develop ways to evaluate efforts along each of these dimensions. Over the longer term, such an agreement should evolve toward greater reliance on global market-based solutions, and therefore near-term steps should be viewed both in terms of their immediate practicality and their potential to be refined over time.


Developing strategy and policy requires some understanding of both the present and the future, but operational environmental change can makes these two vastly different. Defining that which is predetermined and that which is not about the future can provide clarity and decrease the space along which the present system might evolve into its future state. Scenario planning is an approach for exploring these different possible futures. The development of scenarios is about surfacing mental models, testing them, and learning. However, the literature on scenario planning offers little in the way of guidance about how this can be done. System dynamics offers a formal process for surfacing, testing and informing mental models. This paper presents and investigates the use of system dynamics to inform scenario planning. It did this by applying the two approaches to a not-forprofit organisation. While scenarios and a dynamic model were developed, the effectiveness of this application of the approaches is questionable. The dynamic model did address issues that remained unanswered by the scenario planning approach. However, it only addressed one small part of the system explored by the scenarios. System dynamics has the ability to explore systems on a range of different scales, suggesting that this particular application may not have reaped the full benefit from integrating these approaches. Word count: 4,959 (excluding references)


Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) can be found in most organs, as well as in the urinary bladder. Some of the clinical and pathologic features of these tumors may be characteristic of the organ of origin, but most of the properties are shared by neuroendocrine neoplasms regardless of their anatomic site. In the bladder, NETs comprise less than 1% of all bladder tumors and can be found in a pure form or intermixed with urothelial carcinoma and its variants. Bladder NETs are classified into 2 subtypes: carcinoid tumor and neuroendocrine carcinoma, which is further subdivided into small cell and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. Characteristics of bladder NETs and its differential diagnosis are discussed herein.


Scholarly research on women and leadership within the Arab Middle East (AME) region is still in its infancy, despite significant developments in the regional socio-economic context. This conceptual paper presents a review of the Western and Arab Middle East literature, focusing on key aspects such as gender role expectations, gender stereotypes, and leadership evaluation prejudice as they relate to women and leadership. We also highlight the influence of contextual variables identified in the AME literature, such as traditional and contemporary socio-cultural norms. While this literature provides rich information on the issues of women's leadership in the region, it falls behind the Western literature in terms of established theoretical foundations. We suggest that the context-based application of relevant theoretical perspectives to research on women's leadership in the AME region, can generate potential adaptations of existing theory, or highlight the influences of new variables.


Structural analysis of deformed rocks in the Franklin Mountains, northeastern Alaska, indicates that (1) pre-Carboniferous rocks were transported southeastward during mid-Devonian (Ellesmerian.) thrusting, (2) Cretaceous and older rocks were transported northward during Mesozoic-Cenozoic Brookian thrusting, and (3) the pre-Carboniferous rocks were strongly involved in the Brookian deformation. The strong involvement of these rocks in Brookian structures suggests that the magnitude of northward thrusting during Brookian tectonism is virtually uniform from west to east along the axis of the Brooks Range fold and thrust belt. In addition, the newly recognized southern vergence of pre-Carboniferous structures is comparable with that of coeval structures exposed in Arctic Canada to the east. These data are not easily reconciled with the orocline model for the origin of the Canada Basin but are consistent with left-lateral transport on a north-south-striking transform fault along the Canadian Arctic islands. 19 references.


Around the world, chaplains provide specialist spiritual care for people with complex healthcare needs. If the nature of chaplain interventions was better understood then multidisciplinary colleagues could both improve their own skills in spiritual care and better understand when to refer people to chaplains. A survey was constructed to establish what aspects of the chaplain/ patient relationship were most important for patients in Scotland and Australia. Outcomes were measured with the Scottish Patient Reported Outcome Measure (Scottish PROM). Results from 610 respondents showed the strongest correlation was between 'being able to talk about what is on my mind' and the Scottish PROM (rs(452) = .451, p < .0005). 'Being able to talk about what is on my mind' proved more important than being listened to, having faith/ beliefs valued, or being understood. Given the importance placed on listening and understanding by clinicians, this original and counterintuitive finding goes some way to explaining the unique role and function of healthcare chaplaincy.


Other-race faces are generally recognized more poorly than own-race faces. There has been a long-standing interest in the extent to which differences in contact contribute to this other-race effect (ORE). Here, we examined the effect of contact on two distinct aspects of face memory, memory for configuration and for components, both of which are better for own-race than other-race faces. Configural and component memory were measured using recognition memory tests with intact study faces and blurred (isolates memory for configuration) and scrambled (isolates memory for components) test faces, respectively. Our participants were a large group of ethnically Chinese individuals who had resided in Australia for varying lengths of time, from a few weeks to 26 years. We found that time in a Western country significantly (negatively) predicted the size of the ORE for configural, but not component, memory. There was also a trend for earlier age of arrival to predict smaller OREs in configural, but not component, memory. These results suggest that memory for configural information in other-race faces improves with experience with such faces. However, as found for recognition memory generally, the contact effects were small, indicating that other factors must play a substantial role in cross-race differences in face memory.


By lowering the costs of communication, the web promises to enable distributed collectives to act around shared issues. However, many collective action efforts never succeed: while the web's affordances make it easy to gather, these same decentralizing characteristics impede any focus towards action. In this paper, we study challenges to collective action efforts through the lens of online labor by engaging with Amazon Mechanical Turk workers. Through a year of ethnographic fieldwork, we sought to understand online workers' unique barriers to collective action. We then created Dynamo, a platform to support the Mechanical Turk community in forming publics around issues and then mobilizing. We found that collective action publics tread a precariously narrow path between the twin perils of stalling and friction, balancing with each step between losing momentum and flaring into acrimony. However, specially structured labor to maintain efforts' forward motion can help such publics take action.


The United States Secret Service (USSS) teamed with MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) in the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's 2010 Speaker Recognition Evaluation of Human Assisted Speaker Recognition (HASR). We describe our qualitative and automatic speaker comparison processes and our fusion of these processes, which are adapted from USSS casework. The USSS-MIT/LL 2010 HASR results are presented. We also present post-evaluation results. The results are encouraging within the resolving power of the evaluation, which was limited to enable reasonable levels of human effort. Future ideas and efforts are discussed, including new features and capitalizing on naïve listeners.


The pipe organ offers the opportunity to conduct psychoacoustic experiments in which the sound of a natural instrument can be perfectly steady and reproducible. This study takes advantage of the pipe organ to concentrate on that aspect of musical dynamics determined by the physical parameters of steady sounds, leaving aside the admittedly important effects of other variables such as context and articulation. Juries of musicians and music students provided judgments of musical dynamic levels produced by steady sounding of various stops and combinations on two pipe organs. The physical strength of each of these sounds was measured, and they were analyzed in \( \frac{1}{3} \) octave band spectra. Correlations between the physical parameters and the musical judgments were examined. Results of this study provide some support for the hypothesis that loudness calculated by a procedure such as Zwicker9s will be a good predictor of the steady aspect of musical dynamic strength, whereas a simple unweighted sound level in decibels is rather poor.


Klebsiella pneumoniae is considered an urgent health concern due to the emergence of multi-drug-resistant strains for which vaccination offers a potential remedy. Vaccines based on surface polysaccharides are highly promising but need to address the high diversity of surface-exposed polysaccharides, synthesized as O-antigens (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) and K-antigens (capsule polysaccharide, CPS), present in K. pneumoniae. We present a comprehensive and clinically relevant study of the diversity of O- and K-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters across a global collection of over 500 K. pneumoniae whole-genome sequences and the seroepidemiology of human isolates from different infection types. Our study defines the genetic diversity of O- and K-antigen biosynthesis cluster sequences across this collection, identifying sequences for known serotypes as well as identifying novel LPS and CPS gene clusters found in circulating contemporary isolates. Serotypes O1, O2 and O3 were most prevalent in our sample set, accounting for approximately 80 % of all infections. In contrast, K serotypes showed an order of magnitude higher diversity and differ among infection types. In addition we investigated a potential association of O or K serotypes with phylogenetic lineage, infection type and the presence of known virulence genes. K1 and K2 serotypes, which are associated with hypervirulent K. pneumoniae, were associated with a higher abundance of virulence genes and more diverse O serotypes compared to other common K serotypes.


The 23rd Annual Report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) indicates that African American students continue to be overrepresented across all thirteen legally sanctioned disability categories with significant disproportionality occurring within the categories of mental retardation (MR) and emotional disturbance (ED). (1) These are two of the three most prevalent disability categories that also include learning disabilities (LD) and together account for the largest number of children served in special education. (2) When one examines the overrepresentation data among these three most prevalent high-incidence disability categories--MR, ED, and LD--it becomes clear that African American students are not only overrepresented in special education, but are clearly being assigned the most stigmatizing disability labels. (3) Recent research, commissioned through the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, described the extent to which African American and other minority children are identified as disabled and educated in restrictive special education environments. Many of these research studies, compiled and presented in the book Racial Inequity in Special Education, provide a troubling picture of ongoing overrepresentation and segregation of African American children within special education classrooms in U.S. schools. For example, an analysis of information pertaining to enrollment and disability categories reveals that African American students nationwide are nearly three times more likely than whites to be labeled MR, almost two times more likely to be labeled ED, and almost one and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with LD and not included in general education classrooms. (4) Where individual states are identified, the likelihood of African American overrepresentation in the category of MR or ED may range anywhere from two-to-six times that of whites. (5) For example, African American students in Nebraska were six times more likely to be identified as ED and over four times more likely to be labeled as MR in Connecticut. (6) The risk of identification of African Americans within the MR category increases in states where African Americans are most heavily concentrated, with the highest levels of overrepresentation occurring in several of those states with a history of racial apartheid, for example, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Alabama. (7) African American males especially are disproportionately represented within these categories, and are more often segregated in special classrooms. (8) In another research study, Edward Fieros and James W. Conroy sought to determine the extent to which African American students designated as MR, ED, and LD are educated in restrictive placements. (9) An examination of district level data from ten urban school districts revealed not only that disproportionate numbers of African American students are represented within the categories of MR, ED, and LD across most of the ten districts, but also that these students constitute significant percentages of those populations of students so labeled who spent more than 21 percent of the school day outside the general education classroom. In Atlanta, for example, 99.21 percent of students designated with MR are excluded from general education more than 21 percent of the time, and African Americans make up 96.98 percent of this MR population. These research findings indicate that the disproportionate identification of African American youth within high-incidence disability categories and segregated class placements go hand-in-hand, raising serious issues about educational inequity. This troubling picture of overrepresentation and exclusion therefore warrants consideration of how African American youth are positioned and constructed as disabled within the organizational and disciplinary discourses of school. The purpose of this essay is to examine the discourses that undergird social constructions of difference among adolescent African American students, especially males. …


The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and other state departments of transportation need quantitative information about the percentages of different land cover categories above any given stream crossing in the state to assess and address roadway contributions to water-quality impairments and resulting total maximum daily loads. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with ODOT and the FHWA, added roadway and land cover information to the online StreamStats application to facilitate analysis of stormwater runoff contributions from different land covers. Analysis of 25 delineated basins with drainage areas of about 100 mi2 indicates the diversity of land covers in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. On average, agricultural, developed, and undeveloped land covers comprise 15%, 2.3%, and 82% of these basin areas. On average, these basins contained about 10 mi of state highways and 222 mi of non-state roads. The Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model was used with available water-quality data to simulate long-term yields of total phosphorus from highways, non-highway roadways, and agricultural, developed, and undeveloped areas. These yields were applied to land cover areas obtained from StreamStats for the Willamette River above Wilsonville, Oregon. This analysis indicated that highway yields were larger than yields from other land covers because highway runoff concentrations were higher than other land covers and the highway is fully impervious. However, the total highway area was a fraction of the other land covers. Accordingly, highway runoff mitigation measures can be effective for managing water quality locally, they may have limited effect on achieving basin-wide stormwater reduction goals.


Patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) have an obsessive preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance or, if a slight physical abnormality exists, a grossly excessive concern with it. This preoccupation causes significant distress or impairment of social, occupational, or other functioning. Social anxiety is a prominent component of BDD, and social avoidance resulting from BDD symptoms may markedly impair social functioning. In severe cases, avoidance of social situations in combination with occupational and academic impairment may result in patients becoming housebound. The prevalence of BDD is 1% to 2% in the U.S. population and 11% to 12% in patients with social anxiety disorder. Behaviors associated with BDD include mirror checking, physician visits, hair grooming, use of cosmetics, and social avoidance. Distress over BDD may lead patients to undergo repeated cosmetic surgeries in futile attempts to conceal or correct perceived defects. Additionally, depression and suicide are frequent complications of BDD. Pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments for the management of BDD with coexisting social anxiety are presented in this article.


High-throughput sequencing (HTS) is increasingly being used for broad applications of microbial char-acterization, such as microbial ecology, clinical diagnosis, and outbreak epidemiology. However, the analytical task of comparing short sequence reads against the known diversity of microbial life has proved to be computationally challenging. The One Codex data platform was created with the dual goals of analyzing microbial data against the largest possible collection of microbial reference genomes, as well as presenting those results in a format that is consumable by applied end-users. One Codex identifies microbial sequences using a "k-mer based" taxonomic classification algorithm through a web-based data platform, using a reference database that currently includes approximately 40,000 bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoan genomes. In order to evaluate whether this classification method and associated database provided quantitatively different performance for microbial identification, we created a large and diverse evaluation dataset containing 50 million reads from 10,639 genomes, as well as sequences from six organisms novel species not be included in the reference databases of any of the tested classifiers. Quantitative evaluation of several published microbial detection methods shows that One Codex has the highest degree of sensitivity and specificity (AUC = 0.97, compared to 0.82-0.88 for other methods), both when detecting well-characterized species as well as newly sequenced, "taxonomically novel" organisms.


Objective: Allergic diseases and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect millions of children worldwide and the frequencies of these diseases are increasing. Although some genetic and environmental factors have been implicated, the exact reasons of this increase have not been determined yet. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequencies of allergic diseases among children with ASD. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire containing 23 questions related to asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis and food allergy adapted from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) was used and the questionnaires were filled out by the parents of children with ASD and controls. Results: The study and control groups comprised 59 and 50 children respectively. Allergic rhinitis was diagnosed in 12%, atopic dermatitis in 10.1%, food allergy in 8.4% and asthma in 6.8% of the children with ASD; and 16%, 6%, 8% and 10.0% respectively in the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that frequency of allergic diseases among children with ASD are not different than controls.