Abstract Polyamines are small cationic molecules necessary for growth and differentiation in all cells. Although mammalian cells have been studied extensively, particularly as targets of polyamine antagonists, i.e. antitumor agents, polyamine metabolism has also been studied as a potential drug target in microorganisms. Since little is known concerning polyamine metabolism in the microsporidia, we investigated it in Encephalitozoon cuniculi, a microspordian associated with disseminated infections in humans. Organisms were grown in RK-13 cells and harvested using Percoll gradients. Electron microscopy indicated that the fractions banding at 1.051–1.059/g/ml in a microgradient procedure, and 1.102–1.119/g/ml in a scaled-up procedure were nearly homogenous, consisting of pre-emergent (immature) spores which showed large arrays of ribosomes near polar filament coils. Intact purified pre-emergent spores incubated with [3H] ornithine and methionine synthesized putrescine, spermidine, and spermine, while [14C]spermine was converted to spermidine and putrescine. Polyamine production from ornithine was inhibitable by DL-α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) but not by DL-α-difluoromethylarginine (DFMA). Cell-free extracts from mature spores released into the growth media had ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMetdc), and spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT) activities. ODC activity was inhibited by DFMO, but not by DFMA. AdoMetdc was putrescine-stimulated and inhibited by methylglyoxal-bis(guanylhydrazone); arginine decarboxylase activity could not be detected. It is apparent from these studies that Encephalitozoon cuniculi pre-emergent spores have a eukaryotic-type polyamine biosynthetic pathway and can interconvert exogenous polyamines. Pre-emergent spores were metabolically active with respect to polyamine synthesis and interconversion, while intact mature spores harvested from culture supernatants had little metabolic activity.


This paper presents longevity records for all southern African weavers, based on the SAFRING database, as in August 2016. The greatest elapsed time for a southern Africa weaver is 15 years 4 months 15 days for a Southern Masked Weaver Ploceus velatus. Twelve southern African weaver species have longevity records over 10 years. The rest of the weaver species can be expected to achieve recorded longevities of more than 10 years with sufficient ringing effort.


The debate about the Tobin Tax, and other financial transaction taxes (FTT), gives rise to strong views both for and against. Unfortunately, little of this debate is based on the now considerable body of evidence about the impact of such taxes. This review attempts to synthesise what we know from the available theoretical and empirical literature about the impact of FTTs on volatility in financial markets. We also review the literature on how a Tobin Tax might be implemented, the amount of revenue that it might realistically produce, and the likely incidence of the tax. We conclude that, contrary to what is often assumed, a Tobin Tax is feasible and, if appropriately designed, could make a significant contribution to revenue without causing major distortions. However, it would be unlikely to reduce market volatility and could even increase it.


AIMS
The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence of impacted mandibular canines, the associated pathology of these teeth, and to classify them.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
This is a retrospective cohort study of 5022 panoramic radiographs taken of patients who presented to the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Service of the Faculty of Dentistry at Ataturk University in Erzurum, Turkey between January, 1998 and March, 2006. The panoramic radiographs and clinical data were reviewed. Observations were made on the status of missing permanent mandibular canines; retained deciduous canines; side and number of mandibular canines; sex and age of patients; and any other associated pathology or symptoms as well as treatment methods employed.

RESULTS
The incidence of mandibular canine impaction is 1.29% in the 5022 individuals of this Turkish subpopulation. A total of 65 patients had impacted mandibular canines with 33 being females and 32 males. In this study 41 impacted mandibular canines were extracted. Twenty-three canines were attached to bonded buttons for orthodontic eruption purposes. After surgical exposure, one impacted canine was transplanted and the others were left in place for observation.

CONCLUSIONS
Maxillary canine impaction is more frequent than mandibular canine impaction. Mandibular canine impaction incidence in this study was found higher than in the published literature to date. This result may be evidence of an actual increase of the number of impacted mandibular canine teeth among patients.


1. DNA contents of the individual parenchymal nuclei of rat livers during postnatal growth were estimated by microspectrophotometric apparatus, and different ploidy classes of nuclei were classified by their DNA contents. With the same material the total number of parenchymal nuclei in the liver was counted microscopically. 2. If the DNA content of nuclei encountered most frequently in several tissues represents the diploid class, the ploidy classes of the rat liver cell nuclei correspond to di-, tri-, tetra-, and octoploid, with the di- and tetraploid ones predominating considerably. 3. In suckling rats (below 25 gm. of body weight) the liver parenchyma is composed almost exclusively of cells with diploid nuclei, whereas in young rats (above 80 gm.), of tetraploid nuclei. In the growth stage between 25 and 80 gm., there is a remarkable replacement of the diploid nuclei by the tetraploid ones. However, in the liver of adult rats weighing more than 150 gm., any increase or decrease in the frequency of diploid and tetraploid nuclei is hardly observable. In such rats, the nuclear population of the liver parenchyma seems to reach a cell-ecological equilibrium which is considered to be a stable one. 4. It is shown that such nuclear populations and the total number of nuclei in a liver are controlled by the growth state, and not by the age. 5. The decrease in the total number of diploid nuclei and the increase in tetraploid nuclei in the growing livers of rats weighing from 40 up to 130 gm. can both be explained by the hypothesis that the tetraploid nuclei originate from the interphase diploid nuclei without involving mitosis. This hypothesis implies that mitosis is confined to the reproduction of diploid cells alone. 6. It is suggested that, in general, the synthesis of DNA does not necessarily result in the formation of visible mitotic chromosomes. 7. Mitotic time and generation time of diploid nuclei and the percentage of the tetraploidization from diploid nuclei are calculated and discussed.


A new algebraic method is developed to reduce the size of the transfer matrix of Ising and three-state Potts ferromagnets, on strips of width r sites of square and triangular lattices. This size reduction has been set up in such a way that the maximum eigenvalues of both the reduced and original transfer matrices became exactly the same. In this method we write the original transfer matrix in a special blocked form in such a way that the sums of row elements of a block of the original transfer matrix be the same. The reduced matrix is obtained by replacing each block of the original transfer matrix with the sum of the elements of one of its rows. Our method results in significant matrix size reduction which is a crucial factor in determining the maximum eigenvalue.


In this study, the statuses of teachers' burnout are discussed in terms of size emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. And tried to determine what are the factors affecting the burnout. In the study "Maslach Burnout Inventory" as measuring tools to determine the status of teachers' burnout was used. Analysis of data was used t test and one-way ANOVA. The sample of research is consist of 192 teachers who 114 women and 78 men that working in different training positions. The findings revealed that gender, education level, profession, seniority, number of students taught in classrooms, teachers' levels of academic work (primary 1st stage, 2nd stage, and secondary education) and whether teachers have a child or not had an influence on burnout. © 2012 IOJES. All rights reserved


This thesis aims at analyzing the impact of water on economic growth and economic development. We explore different topics that are directly linked to the availability of water, which directly influence economic growth and development. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study models the effect of water utilization and water pollution on economic growth. The second study is based upon reflections on the fixed effects model and makes the distinction between the impact of the mean of a variable X and deviations from that mean on another variable Y. To date it has tended to be assumed that these impacts are the same; we argue that this is not always the case that countries can to an extent adjust to a specific water environment. However having adjusted they face problems when the water environment deviates from the mean. In the third study we explore the effect of different socio economic factors such as labour productivity, agricultural inputs, population density, water resources per land, and variables such as the trade regime, on water withdrawal for the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. A specific focus is on the interactions between these two sectors. This study is new in its content and its theme of the work. We argue that many global trends will put increasing pressures on agricultural and non-agricultural water use. But there is also potential for increased efficiency in this use. The fourth study tries to fill the gap in the literature that deals with development aid for water and sanitation. We explore the impact of aid and aid volatility on safe access to water and sanitation, using a newly available OECD/DAC data base. Specifically, we analyse both the recipient countries and the donors to determine the role of aid in affecting safe access to water and sanitation.


"Thus, the way of the South, as the way of culture, has also been the way of history and the way of America."--Howard W. Odum (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A vast network of reform spread across the South in the first decades of the twentieth century as an army of progressive southerners, white and black, struggled to bring social justice, public health programs, improved diet, Prohibition, scientific agriculture, and education to the South. Private and public battles were waged between the "southern way of life" and a vision of a more ordered, cohesive, and humanitarian South. New domestic science departments, agriculture experiment stations, home and farm extension programs, industrial colleges, settlement schools, and university departments symbolized a cautiously changing South, but one still struggling under the chokehold that race and class had on the region. High rates of tenancy and sharecropping, unhealthy work environments in textile mills, and relentless poverty made the South a virtual laboratory to examine illiteracy, public health issues, and substandard living conditions in rural America. Food provides a window on to this transitional time as southerners struggled to embrace modernity. The following essay explores one "moment" in this historical sweep: the 1920s to 1940s New South era of social science research and New Deal programs that identified "southern diet" and "southern cookery"--two distinctly different views of the region's food--as both the South's greatest problem and most beloved treasure. (2) SOUTHERN SOCIOLOGISTS AND THE "GEOGRAPHY OF NUTRITION" In late February 1920, Columbia-trained sociologist Howard Odum, a native of Georgia, arrived at the University of North Carolina, where he founded the university's and the South's first Department of Sociology and School of Public Welfare. As North Carolina's extension service and home demonstration agents traveled county to county to preach the gospel of vegetable gardens and diversified, small-scale agriculture in the 1920s and '30s, Odum and his colleagues introduced the discipline of "regional sociology," which brought the tools of social science to address contemporary problems. He joined documentarians, government officials, public health physicians, revenuers, reformers, scholars, and statisticians, who turned their attention to the Depression-era South and responded to President Franklin Roosevelt's infamous designation of the region as the "Nation's No. 1 economic problem." (3) Odum's new Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS), founded in 1924, assembled a diverse group of scholars, including UNC-trained sociologists Rupert Vance and Arthur Raper, and Guy B. Johnson, who studied black folk culture in the South. In his massive ethnography of the South, Southern Regions of the United States (1936), Odum identified diet and folkways as important aspects of regional culture. He described "two contrasting pictures" of the culinary South, a world of plenty and a world of deprivation: "One portrays the excellence of southern cooking with its contributions to the art of living; the other the subsistence diet of the masses of marginal folk, commonly ascribed as a major factor in deficiencies of vitality and health." Odum connected the substandard diet of the "masses" to the South's problems in health, politics, race relations, and leadership and argued that knowledge of regional folk culture was essential to charting a progressive future for the South. These issues, and more, were at the center of Odum's commitment to regional planning, and his dream to end the South's insularity and successfully integrate the region into the nation. (4) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Two divergent schools of regionalist thought emerged in southern universities at this time: a regionalism based in research, analysis, and planning, promoted by Howard Odum and Rupert Vance at Chapel Hill, and the pastoral vision of a southern utopia in harmony with nature and "rural virtues" touted by the Agrarians, a group of twelve scholars at Vanderbilt University. …


Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite in the phylum Apicomplexa, is the etiological agent of cryptosporidiosis, an intestinal infection characterized by profuse watery diarrhea. Over 30 species of Cryptosporidium are recognized, some host specific whereas others infect a broader host range. Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum are the species most commonly associated with human infection; C. hominis is largely associated only with human infections, but C. parvum is also associated with infection in animals, especially young ruminants. In some regions, cryptosporidiosis is a serious veterinary problem, particularly for calves, and lambs. Many outbreaks of human cryptosporidiosis have been associated with zoonotic transmission following contact with infected animals. In Africa, where cryptosporidiosis is a major contributor to pediatric morbidity and mortality, evidence suggests transmission is principally anthroponotic. Given the frequent close contact between humans and animals in Africa, the apparent predominance of human-to-human transmission is both interesting and puzzling. In this article, after a brief "text book" introduction to the parasite, we consider in separate sections the different aspects of relevance to Cryptosporidium transmission in African countries, describing different aspects of the various species and subtypes in human and animal infections, considering livestock management practices in different African countries, and looking for any characteristic "hot spots" where zoonotic transmission has apparently occurred. Studies where transmission networks have been investigated are particularly relevant. Finally, in a separate section, we try to gather these different strands of evidence together in order to assess the reasons behind the apparent predominance of anthroponotic transmission in Africa. Reviewing the available evidence provides an opportunity to re-think transmission pathways, not only in Africa but also elsewhere, and also to pose questions. Does the predominance of human-to-human transmission in Africa reflect a relative absence of zoonotic C. parvum in African livestock? Are Africans less susceptible to zoonotic Cryptosporidium infection, perhaps resulting from early immunostimulation by C. hominis or due to inherent genetic traits? Is the African environment—in all its variety—simply more detrimental to oocyst survival? Will the so-called hypertransmissible subtypes, currently relatively rare in Africa, be introduced from Europe or elsewhere, and, if so, will they fade out or establish and spread? Our intention with this manuscript is not only to summarize and consolidate diverse data, thereby providing an overview of data gaps, but also to provide food for thought regarding transmission of a parasite that continues to have a considerable impact on both human and animal health.


The avian digestive system, like other aspects of avian biology, is highly modified relative to other reptiles. Together these modifications have imparted the great success of Neornithes, the most diverse clade of amniotes alive today. It is important to understand when and how aspects of the modern avian digestive system evolved among neornithine ancestors in order to elucidate the evolutionary success of this important clade and to understand the biology of stem birds and their closest dinosaurian relatives: Mesozoic Paraves. Although direct preservation of the soft tissue of the digestive system has not yet been reported, ingested remains and their anatomical location preserved in articulated fossils hint at the structure of the digestive system and its abilities. Almost all data concerning direct evidence of diet in Paraves comes from either the Upper Jurassic Yanliao Biota or the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Biota, both of which are known from deposits in north‐eastern China. Here, the sum of the data gleaned from the thousands of exceptionally well‐preserved fossils of paravians is interpreted with regards to the structure and evolution of the highly modified avian digestive system and feeding apparatus. This information suggests intrinsic differences between closely related stem lineages implying either strong homoplasy or that diet in each lineage of non‐ornithuromorph birds was highly specialized. Regardless, modern digestive capabilities appear to be limited to the Ornithuromorpha, although the complete set of derived feeding related characters is restricted to the Neornithes.


Mashups can be seen as the result of software composition applied to the Web. One of the characteristics of mashup development is the heterogeneity of its building components in terms of logical layering (e.g., user interface, application logic, and data), access method (e.g., REST, SOAP), and composition technique (e.g., scraping vs. clipping, synchronous vs. asynchronous interaction, discrete vs. streaming). This poses a challenge towards the design of mashup tools aiming at lowering the barriers of mashup development, as this heterogeneity needs to be abstracted. In this paper, we address this challenge by proposing a new JSON-based domain-specific language for describing heterogeneous mashup components, called the Mashup Component Description Language (MCDL). MCDL lies at the core of a meta-model for mashup component modeling, and can be used for component discovery and classification but also for user-centric mashup development as it decouples the interface of a mashup component from its underlying implementation technologies.


Solitons are explicit solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations exhibiting particle-like behavior. This is quite surprising, both mathematically and physically. Waves with these properties were once believed to be impossible by leading mathematical physicists, yet they are now not only accepted as a theoretical possibility but are regularly observed in nature and form the basis of modern fiber-optic communication networks. 'Glimpses of Soliton Theory' addresses some of the hidden mathematical connections in soliton theory which have been revealed over the last half-century. It aims to convince the reader that, like the mirrors and hidden pockets used by magicians, the underlying algebro-geometric structure of soliton equations provides an elegant and surprisingly simple explanation of something seemingly miraculous. Assuming only multivariable calculus and linear algebra as prerequisites, this book introduces the reader to the KdV Equation and its multisoliton solutions, elliptic curves and Weierstrass $\wp$-functions, the algebra of differential operators, Lax Pairs and their use in discovering other soliton equations, wedge products and decomposability, the KP Equation and Sato's theory relating the Bilinear KP Equation to the geometry of Grassmannians. Notable features of the book include: careful selection of topics and detailed explanations to make this advanced subject accessible to any undergraduate math major, numerous worked examples and thought-provoking but not overly-difficult exercises, footnotes and lists of suggested readings to guide the interested reader to more information, and use of the software package 'Mathematica' to facilitate computation and to animate the solutions under study. This book provides the reader with a unique glimpse of the unity of mathematics and could form the basis for a self-study, one-semester special topics, or ""capstone"" course.|Solitons are explicit solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations exhibiting particle-like behavior. This is quite surprising, both mathematically and physically. Waves with these properties were once believed to be impossible by leading mathematical physicists, yet they are now not only accepted as a theoretical possibility but are regularly observed in nature and form the basis of modern fiber-optic communication networks. 'Glimpses of Soliton Theory' addresses some of the hidden mathematical connections in soliton theory which have been revealed over the last half-century. It aims to convince the reader that, like the mirrors and hidden pockets used by magicians, the underlying algebro-geometric structure of soliton equations provides an elegant and surprisingly simple explanation of something seemingly miraculous. Assuming only multivariable calculus and linear algebra as prerequisites, this book introduces the reader to the KdV Equation and its multisoliton solutions, elliptic curves and Weierstrass $\wp$-functions, the algebra of differential operators, Lax Pairs and their use in discovering other soliton equations, wedge products and decomposability, the KP Equation and Sato's theory relating the Bilinear KP Equation to the geometry of Grassmannians. Notable features of the book include: careful selection of topics and detailed explanations to make this advanced subject accessible to any undergraduate math major, numerous worked examples and thought-provoking but not overly-difficult exercises, footnotes and lists of suggested readings to guide the interested reader to more information, and use of the software package 'Mathematica' to facilitate computation and to animate the solutions under study. This book provides the reader with a unique glimpse of the unity of mathematics and could form the basis for a self-study, one-semester special topics, or ""capstone"" course.


This work by James Redwood briefly introduces the maturation of the "Law and Literature" movement, and the novelty of written works designed as "profitable tales" for the edification of lawyers and legal thinking. Redwood explores the plot of Anatole France's "Crainquebille" as one such profitable article, making note of four elements worthy of note for legal analysis. First Redwood identifies and discusses a similar historical account, upon which the plot of "Crainquebille" is loosely based. Following next is discussion of the apparent "legal conspiracy" among accused, advocate and judge (which appears designed to culminate in the "inevitable conviction" of the accused for purposes of affirming state legitimacy and power). This in turn leads to discussion of France's perception of the justice system as an infernal machine designed to "literally manufacture and churn out convictions of carefully selected victims in order to maintain social order and established injustice." Finally, the piece approaches France's suggestion, that a judge – capable and willing to inject humanity and compassion into the bar – who "lives and breathes the 'true spirit of the law' rather than blindly follow its letter, may be the solution to such a vexatious problem.


Despite modern advances in automation and managed services, many end users of cloud services remain concerned about the lack of visibility into their operational environments. The underlying principles of existing approaches employed to aid users gain visibility into their runtimes do not apply to today's dynamic cloud environment where virtual machines and containers operate as processes of the cloud operating system. We present near field monitoring (NFM), a cloud-native framework for monitoring cloud systems and providing operational analytics services. With NFM, we employ cloud, virtualization, and containerization abstractions to provide extensive visibility into running entities in the cloud, in a touchless manner, i.e., without modifying, instrumenting, or accessing within the end-user context. Operating outside the context of the target systems enables always-on monitoring independent of their health. Using an NFM implementation on OpenStack, we demonstrate the capabilities of NFM, as well as its monitoring accuracy and efficiency. NFM is practical and general, supporting more than 1,000 different system distributions, allowing instantaneous monitoring as soon as a guest system becomes hosted on the cloud, without any setup prerequisites or enforced cooperation.


This thesis examines sediment redox processes associated with organic matter degradation and their impact on the cycling of nutrients (N, P) and trace metals (Cd, Co, Ni, Pb, Zn). Our study site, Haringvliet Lake, is located in the Rhine-Meuse River Delta in the southwest of The Netherlands. This waterbody was formerly a tidal and brackish estuary but was separated from the North Sea in 1970 by a dam, as part of the Delta Works program. Currently, a partial restoration of estuarine conditions in the lake is planned, which can be achieved by altering the management of the sluice gates within the dam. A multi-component reactive transport model (RTM) is used to infer the rates of organic carbon mineralization pathways. The model is calibrated using field measurements of solid phases and dissolved concentrations, and experimental determinations of reaction rates. We find that the most important terminal electron acceptors for organic carbon oxidation are O2 (55%), NO3- (21%), and SO42- (17%). Model simulations conducted to approximate estuarine restoration show that the increased relative importance of sulfate reduction leads to a long-term conversion of sediment Fe(III) minerals to pyrite. The sediment nitrogen cycle was examined with both experimental techniques and reactive transport modeling. Potential nitrate reduction and denitrification rates were determined using flow through reactors. Experiments suggest that denitrification accounts for only half of the total potential nitrate reduction rate in Haringvliet sediment. Extraction results provide evidence that a reducible iron-phosphate mineral is a major pool for phosphorus in the sediment. Phosphorus diagenesis is added to the RTM which showed that the dissolution of the iron-phosphate phase and organic-P mineralization are important pathways for the release of PO4 in the sediment. Sediment trace metal concentrations are elevated, due to anthropogenic influences in the Rhine and Meuse Rivers. Results suggest that metals, which enter the sediment associated with oxides, become associated with sulfides. Extraction results show that Ni and Co ultimately associate with pyrite. Pore waters are generally saturated for trace metal mono-sulfides of Zn, Pb, Co, and Cd. Processes controlling the dissolved trace metal concentrations in the upper millimeters of sediment, such as trace metal scavenging by newly formed oxides, and sulfide oxidation, are important in controlling the diffusive release to the overlying water. The relative importance of sulfides in trace metal speciation is expected to increase following restoration, allowing for trace metal retention in the reduced sediment. The estimated change in sediment efflux is combined with the proposed restoration area and water flow rates to derive simple estimates of the changes in concentrations in the overlying water. The high flow rates at the site mean that under most conditions increased sediment effluxes will have minimal impact. Lower flow through the Haringvliet would decrease this dilution effect and also increase the chances of salinity stratification and bottom water anoxia.


An e-learning model consisting of a course website and multimedia learning modules was developed and implemented initially on a traditional computing platform at a higher learning institution. With the emerging concept of cloud computing, the possibility of using cloud computing resources such as Google Apps, YouTube and SkyDrive to redesign and deploy the elearning model in the cloud was explored. It was found that the cloud computing resources offered unprecedented opportunity and flexibility to migrate the course website to the cloud and to expand the outreach of the multimedia modules. This paper discusses the migration of the elearning portal from a traditional hosting platform to a cloud computing platform. In particular, the design of the course website using Google Apps and the hosting of multimedia modules using SkyDrive and YouTube are discussed.


As the title indicates, this contribution explores a semiotic notion of transcendence. It is argued that experiences of transcendence are quite common and that notions of transcendence are highly significant since they provide a frame of reference that enables us to comprehend that which is immanent. The possibility of referring to that which transcends reality as such is contested, but all notions of a referent are elusive. On the basis of such observations various models of transcendence are identified before a semiotic notion is explored in more depth. It is suggested that the signified transcends the signifier by far and that some form of referent is necessary unless language is to become solipsistic. If so, there may be a need for clues to that which transcends reality as such.


This article presents a new joint Nordic study module consisting of a theoretical framework, the kindergarten teacher students' case study and a reflection talk, in natural science for the kindergarten teacher education. The module is developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration in the Nordplus network: Learning of science concepts by kindergarten children: Nordic study module for the kindergarten teacher education (NATGREP), with science and quality in the kindergarten teacher education in focus. The introduction describes the Nordic kindergartens shortly, and concepts as quality and competence are shortly discussed. It is followed by the module's theoretical framework. Then the study module's development process is described accompanied by reflections of the student's case studies in relation to the theoretical framework. At the end, the work with the study module is summarised, and the main conclusion is that the study module contributes positively to the students' skills development, both in science and quality.


Networking and machine virtualization play critical roles in the success of modern cloud computing. The energy consumption of physical machines has been carefully examined in the past, including the impact from network traffic. When it comes to virtual machines (VMs) in cloud data centers, it remains unexplored how the highly dynamic traffic affects the energy consumption in virtualized environments. In this thesis, we first present an empirical study on the interplay between energy consumption and network transactions in virtualized environments. Through the real-world measurement on both Xenand KVMbased platforms, we show that these state-of-the-art designs bring significant overhead on virtualizing network devices and noticeably increase the demand of CPU resources when handling network traffic. Furthermore, the energy consumption varies significantly with traffic allocation strategies and virtual CPU affinity conditions, which was not seen in conventional physical machines. Next, we study the performance and energy efficiency issues when CPU intensive tasks and I/O intensive tasks are co-located inside a VM. A combined effect from device virtualization overhead and VM scheduling latency can cause severe interference in the presence of such hybrid workloads. To this end, we propose Hylics, a novel solution that enables an efficient data traverse path for both I/O and computation operations, and decouples the costly interference. Several important design issues are pinpointed and addressed during our implementation, including efficient intermediate data sharing, network service offloading, and QoS-aware memory usage management. Based on our realworld deployment in KVM, Hylics can improve computation and networking performance with a moderate amount of memory usage. Moreover, this design also sheds new light on optimizing the energy efficiency for virtualized systems.


ABSTRACT Canada is one of the world's largest petrostates, owing to large shale oil deposits, also known as tar sands, which can be found within its borders. In recent decades, as the price of crude oil has increased dramatically, corporations and the Canadian state have worked together to open the oil deposits in Northern Canada for extraction and transportation. Despite a stated commitment to environmental sustainability by the United States and Canadian governments, both have endorsed tar sands extraction and transport. Government and corporate entities have tried to reframe tar sands as "ethical oil," yet all steps in the process involved pose tremendous ecological, social, economic, and cultural threats to First Nations communities in Canada, landowners in the Midwest and Texas, local ecosystems, and the global climate. This practice is part of a long-standing pattern of appropriating and using public and First Nations land for economic development. We argue that tar sands production on First Nations land is a practice of resource colonialism: the theft and appropriation of land belonging to indigenous people in order to access natural resources. By branding tar sands as "ethical oil" and labeling production companies as "sustainable," the public and private sectors bound up in the extractive economy claim to provide an essential public service while misdirecting attention away from acts of colonialism that make these resources available. In this article, we examine the ways in which corporate and state entities use the discourse of sustainability as a cover for continued resource colonialism.


Firm turnover has recently attracted increased interest in economic research. The entry of new firms increases competition and promises efficiency gains. Moreover, changes in the market structure influence productivity growth, because firm entry usually leads to increased innovation. The health care market exhibits important differences as compared to other markets, including various forms of market failure and, as a consequence, extensive market regulation. Thus, the economic effects of entries and exits in health care markets are less obvious. The following paper studies the determinants of entry and exit decisions of physicians in the private sector of the outpatient part of the Austrian health care system. We apply a Poisson panel estimation to a data set of 2,379 local communities and 121 districts in Austria in the time period 2002 - 2008. We are particularly interested in the question how public physicians (GPs/specialists) and their private counterparts influence the entrance and exit of private physicians. We find a significantly negative effect of existing capacities, measured by both private and public physician density of the same specialty, on the entry of new private physicians. On the contrary, we find a significantly positive effect of private GPs on the entry of private specialists. Interestingly, this cooperation/network effect also works in the other direction, as a higher density of private specialists increases the probability of the market entry of private GPs. Based on the results of previous literature, we thus conclude that private physicians establish networks to cooperate in terms of mutual referrals etc. Our estimations for market exits basically confirm the entry results, as higher competitive forces positively influence the market exit of private physicians.


This study analyzed the interdependencies between employment and accounting measures, in order to evaluate the merger effects during the period of the economic crisis in Greece. More specifically, the study analyses five accounting measures in comparison to the total number of employees, as financial ratios, from a sample of all Greek listed firms in the Athens Exchange that executed one merger in the period from 2009 to 2013 as acquirers. From the analysis of the results, it is clear that the mergers had no effect on employment and labor productivity for the whole sample firms merged from 2009 to 2013 and the productivity of workers have not improved significantly after the mergers. Lastly, the study examined the industry differentiation of labor productivity after mergers. The results reveal, in general, a better performance for the commerce and services (CMS) firms from the sample in contrast to the three other basic industry categories: Primary sector (PRI), industrial sector (IND), and constructions and building materials (CNΒ).

 Key words: Mergers, employment, labor productivity, ratios.


The concentrations of some heavy metals (Cu, Co, and Pb) were investigated in muscle, liver and gills of three fish species (Mullus surmuletus, Seriola dumerili, and Sparus aurata) collected from frozen fish markets in Benghazi city, Libya, during winter 2016, using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The mean concentrations (μg/g) of the heavy metals in fish tissues ranged as follows: Cu (44.80 – 79.33), Co (198.66 – 238.26), Pb (56 – 192). The highest mean concentration, 238.26μg/g was recorded for Co in the muscle of Mullus surmuletus, on the other, the lowest mean concentration, 44.80 μg/g, was recorded for Cu in gills of Mullus surmuletus. The concentrations for Cu and Pb in all fish samples were over the Effect Range-Low (ERL) but were under the Effect Range-Median (ERM) in metal pollution index (MPI). The concentrations of (Cu, Co and Pb) were higher than the maximum permissible limits specified by some food regulatory bodies like WHO. The results indicate that heavy consumption of frozen fishes in Benghazi city markets may pose a health risk to the consumers.


Loans are illiquid when a lender needs relationship‐specific skills to collect them. Consequently, if the relationship lender needs funds before the loan matures, she may demand to liquidate early, or require a return premium, when she lends directly. Borrowers also risk losing funding. The costs of illiquidity are avoided if the relationship lender is a bank with a fragile capital structure, subject to runs. Fragility commits banks to creating liquidity, enabling depositors to withdraw when needed, while buffering borrowers from depositors' liquidity needs. Stabilization policies, such as capital requirements, narrow banking, and suspension of convertibility, may reduce liquidity creation.


Help is on the way! That's the Supreme Court's most readily obvious message for those Americans living in the small handful of states that don't respect the right to keep and bear arms. It should not have been a surprise. Two years ago, in striking down the District of Columbia's handgun and functional firearms bans, the high court provided a none-too-subtle message to recalcitrant politicians unwilling to obey national civil rights standards. Ancient cases refusing to apply the right to arms against the states, said the Court, had also failed to apply the First Amendment, and were based on obsolete thinking. This term, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Heller's wink-and-nudge became a shove, finally dragging anti-gun politicians into the late 19th century.But at exactly what part of the late-19th century have we arrived? The heady days of the Fourteenth Amendment's first five years, when it was understood that states were actually bound to respect Americans' basic rights? Or the century's last three years, with the Fourteenth Amendment's central guarantee of freedom having been parodied into a dead letter, the Supreme Court setting about to pick and choose which rights are worth securing, and to what extent? It is this answer to this question, more than the result applying the right to arms, which promises to make McDonald an enduring landmark of American liberty for years to come.


The paper aims at presenting the conditions determining the current social situation of the communities of former employees of State-owned Farms. The situation of the vast majority of former employees and their families indicates that as a social group they are the losers of the systemic transformation processes that occurred in Poland. Their current situation is not just a consequence of liquidation of the State-owned sector in agriculture. It is also a derivative of the external conditions, the overall situation of the economy, the situation in agriculture, particular individual characteristics and mentality of people formerly employed in the sector of socialized agriculture. In the past they enjoyed a very limited scope of "freedom" and individual initiative. As a consequence their readiness to assume vocational responsibility is poorly marked and their motivation for work is limited. Low, narrow and frequently obsolete qualifications of former State-owned Farms employees are conducive to their exclusion from the labor market, which contributes to inherited unemployment and, as a further consequence, poverty that might lead to permanent marginalization and development of social sub-class. It is necessary to formulate systemic solutions for problems of those communities ass the people living in the areas of former State-owned Farms are unable to solve the situation they are in on their own.


The derivation of moment equations for the theoretical description of electrons is of interest for modelling of gas discharge plasmas and semiconductor devices. Usually, certain artificial closure assumptions are applied in order to derive a closed system of moment equations from the electron Boltzmann equation. Here, a novel four-moment model for the description of electrons in nonthermal plasmas is derived by an expansion of the electron velocity distribution function in Legendre polynomials. The proposed system of partial differential equations is consistently closed by definition of transport coefficients that are determined by solving the electron Boltzmann equation and are then used in the fluid calculations as function of the mean electron energy. It is shown that the four-moment model can be simplified to a new drift-diffusion approximation for electrons without loss of accuracy, if the characteristic frequency of the electric field alteration in the discharge is small in comparison with the momentum dissipation frequency of the electrons. Results obtained by the proposed fluid models are compared to those of a conventional drift-diffusion approximation as well as to kinetic results using the example of low pressure argon plasmas. It is shown that the results provided by the new approaches are in good agreement with kinetic results and strongly improve the accuracy of fluid descriptions of gas discharges.


Southern root-knot nematode [RKI; Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood] is an important soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] pest. When RKI resistance was introgressed from the highly resistant, gray pubescent breeding line G93-9009 into moderately resistant, tawny pubescent cultivars BoggsRR and BenningRR, higher than expected proportions of two advanced backcross populations had gray pubescence. Introgressing genes from unadapted breeding lines into cultivars may reduce seed yield or quality of the resulting lines. This study's objectives were to determine if (i) an RKI resistance quantitative trait locus (QTL) is linked to the T-locus conditioning pubescence color in G93-9009, and (ii) a yield or seed quality loss is associated with introgressing G93-9009 RKI resistance QTL into BenningRR and BoggsRR. Tawny and gray pubescent F 2:4 lines of BoggsRR(6) x G93-9009 and BenningRR(5) x G93-9009 were evaluated in greenhouse experiments for RKI resistance and in field experiments grown in four environments for seed yield and quality. Gray lines of both populations averaged 75% fewer RKI eggs per plant than tawny lines. There were no significant differences in seed yield. Differences in agronomic traits such as plant height, seed size, and oil and protein content were observed. These results suggest an RKI resistance QTL exists near the T-locus and the potential to introgress resistance from G93-9009 into other genetic backgrounds without a loss in yield or major impact on other agronomic traits.


Abstract To cope with the environmental effects of 9 million tonnes of vehicles that reach the end of their useful lives each year in Europe, the EC have created the End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) Directive. Two of the most radical measures included in the Directive are to provide free takeback to last owners and to achieve targeted levels for the recycling and recovery of material by set dates. This paper aims to provide a basis for future research by evaluating the potential direction of the recovery industry. This is achieved firstly by assessing the origins of the directive and previous research surrounding the subject. The paper then describes the current recovery infrastructure and practices in the UK, highlighting all the stakeholders involved in the recovery industry. This paper also highlights the issues related to the provision of takeback and the attainment of targets through two stages, namely the implementation and management of takeback, and the use of new technology to achieve the recovery targets. The paper concludes by identifying key aims for future research to support the objectives of the implemented legislation and the financial stability of all stakeholders.


This conference was an unusual and interesting event. Celebrating 25 years of Construction Management and Economics provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the research that has been reported over the years, to consider where we are now, and to think about the future of academic research in this area. Hence the sub-title of this conference: "past, present and future". Looking through these papers, some things are clear. First, the range of topics considered interesting has expanded hugely since the journal was first published. Second, the research methods are also more diverse. Third, the involvement of wider groups of stakeholder is evident. There is a danger that this might lead to dilution of the field. But my instinct has always been to argue against the notion that Construction Management and Economics represents a discipline, as such. Granted, there are plenty of university departments around the world that would justify the idea of a discipline. But the vast majority of academic departments who contribute to the life of this journal carry different names to this. Indeed, the range and breadth of methodological approaches to the research reported in Construction Management and Economics indicates that there are several different academic disciplines being brought to bear on the construction sector. Some papers are based on economics, some on psychology and others on operational research, sociology, law, statistics, information technology, and so on. This is why I maintain that construction management is not an academic discipline, but a field of study to which a range of academic disciplines are applied.
This may be why it is so interesting to be involved in this journal. The problems to which the papers are applied develop and grow. But the broad topics of the earliest papers in the journal are still relevant today. What has changed a lot is our interpretation of the problems that confront the construction sector all over the world, and the methodological approaches to resolving them. There is a constant difficulty in dealing with topics as inherently practical as these. While the demands of the academic world are driven by the need for the rigorous application of sound methods, the demands of the practical world are quite different. It can be difficult to meet the needs of both sets of stakeholders at the same time. However, increasing numbers of postgraduate courses in our area result in larger numbers of practitioners with a deeper appreciation of what research is all about, and how to interpret and apply the lessons from research. It also seems that there are contributions coming not just from construction-related university departments, but also from departments with identifiable methodological traditions of their own. I like to think that our authors can publish in journals beyond the construction-related areas, to disseminate their theoretical insights into other disciplines, and to contribute to the strength of this journal by citing our articles in more mono-disciplinary journals. This would contribute to the future of the journal in a very strong and developmental way. The greatest danger we face is in excessive self-citation, i.e. referring only to sources within the CM&E literature or, worse, referring only to other articles in the same journal. The only way to ensure a strong and influential position for journals and university departments like ours is to be sure that our work is informing other academic disciplines. This is what I would see as the future, our logical next step. If, as a community of researchers, we are not producing papers that challenge and inform the fundamentals of research methods and analytical processes, then no matter how practically relevant our output is to the industry, it will remain derivative and secondary, based on the methodological insights of others. The balancing act between methodological rigour and practical relevance is a difficult one, but not, of course, a balance that has to be struck in every single paper.


This report maps the ways in which trauma-informed, gender-responsive, and culturally competent yoga and mindfulness programs can address the short- and long-term impacts of trauma on girls in the juvenile justice system. The first of its kind, this report is based on two pilot programs conducted by the Center on Poverty and Inequality in residential programs for girls in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, as well as an extensive literature review and comprehensive interviews with experts in trauma-informed yoga programs across the country. Drawing from these resources, it seeks to inform policymakers, judges, juvenile justice facility administrators and staff, and others working with system-involved girls about the importance of viewing girls' trauma through a gendered and an intersectional lens. In addition, this report introduces trauma-informed, gender-responsive yoga as a somatic intervention that can significantly support the diverse mental and physical health needs of system-involved girls. Finally, it highlights key policy considerations and recommendations for those working with girls in the juvenile justice system to develop and scale-up somatic interventions.


1. Erythrocytes from patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (E.P.P.) were incubated with radioactive iron, washed and centrifuged. Serial layers were removed from the packed cell columns. The radioactivity and protoporphyrin content of each layer was measured. Blood and marrow aspirates were examined by fluorescence microscopy. 2. The youngest erythrocytes were most fluorescent and contained most protoporphyrin. The amounts present in the cells of different layers progressively decreased from top to bottom of the packed cell column. It is concluded that the protoporphyrin content decreases during the life of the erythrocytes, probably by a process of elution. 3. Although little 59Fe entering the erythrocytes is incorporated into haem, a relationship was observed between iron uptake and protoporphyrin content, which may not be entirely due to aging. This may reflect a mutual dependence of both variables on haem feed-back control. 4. Fluorescence of normoblasts was not detected, indicating that the chief accumulation of porphyrin occurs soon after loss of the nucleus. A hypothesis is suggested to explain these findings.


The development of the Internet has provided an opportunity for offering e-learning as a new addition to modern education. Substantial evidence indicates that many universities across the world are offering study programmes through a variety of e-learning methods. Although e-learning environments are becoming popular, there is limited research on learners' attitudes toward online learning environments. Past research has identified a variety of factors affecting user attitude in relation to e-learning. It is against this background that this article seeks to determine the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward e-learning at the University of the Western Cape. A survey was conducted among 213 undergraduate nursing students to assess their attitudes toward e-learning. The study employed a survey methodology based on the questionnaire that was distributed randomly to students to assess their attitudes towards e-learning, and to establish whether any existing demographical factors impacted on the students' use of e-learning. From a valid response rate of 86%, the statistical analysis revealed that learner satisfaction was influenced by perceived ease of use, gender, and study-year level of respondents. The findings demonstrate a favourable attitude towards e-learning among nursing students at the University of the Western Cape.


With 9 million people in the UK alone suffering from deafness or hearing impairment, there is a concerted effort to develop effective treatments. To address this, one strategy is to recruit mechanisms naturally occurring during inner ear development, but this first requires a clear picture of the normal molecular mechanisms underlying this developmental process.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are short-range extracellular signalling molecules, with Fgf3 and Fgf10 already shown to be critical for the earliest event of inner ear induction. Interestingly these ligands are also expressed in the inner ear itself, and mutations in both Fgf3 and Fgf10 have independently been linked to sensorineural deafness in humans. This project is focussed on unravelling the molecular mechanisms controlling their expression in the inner ear.

Bioinformatic analysis of the Fgf3 and Fgf10 enhancer regions revealed the presences of putative binding sites for retinoic acid (RA). RA is a key signalling molecule in inner ear development with both excess and deficit leading to inner ear abnormalities. First, a novel, non-invasive method of RA administration via sugar pellet was tested and proved to be efficient and reliable alternative to gavage. Using an Fgf3-lacZ reporter mouse, the effects of RA excess on Fgf3 expression were investigated in detail. In addition, preliminary studies of the effects of RA on Fgf10 were also carried out. Both Fgf3 and Fgf10 were downregulated with high doses of RA, confirming previous in vitro studies. In addition, detailed analysis of Fgf3-lacZ embryos exposed to RA revealed that downregulation critically depends on the dose and time of administration.

To further explore other direct regulators of Fgf10 expression, additional reporter constructs were also generated for functional analysis in mouse and in chick. To date, analysis of electroporated chick embryos shows that ear specific Fgf10 regulation may not be conserved between two species.


SBIR ProgramA coalition of U.S. scientific societies and university organizations is urging Congress not to expand a $2 billion research program for small businesses. To succeed, however, the coalition must overcome one of the most influential interest groups in Washington and mend fences with legislators still smarting from a recent tweak to the program. Science lobbyists argue that increasing the set-aside for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program would take too big a bite out of the government's overall research budget. They are especially concerned about its impact on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which runs the second-largest SBIR program after the Department of Defense. NIH has seen a sharp drop in the number of SBIR applications, and its officials are worried that expanding the program could force it to fund low-quality projects.


An optical waveguide interconnect mesh network scheme for parallel multiprocessor systems based on an electro-optical printed circuit board (EOPCB) with multimode polymer waveguide is proposed. The system consists of 22 processor element chips interconnected in a mesh network configuration. An additional layer with optical waveguide structure is embedded in a conventional printed circuit board to construct the EOPCB. Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)/positive intrinsic-negative (PIN) arrays are applied as the optical transmitters/receivers. Three 112 VCSEL/PIN parallel optical transmitting/receiving modules are used to provide 32 input/output optical channels required by the 22 chip-to-chip optical mesh interconnect system. The data rate in each optical channel is 3.125 Gbps and thus 10 Gbps parallel optical interconnect link for each direction of a chip is obtained. The optical signals from a processor element chip can be transmitted to another chip through optical waveguide interconnect embedded in the board. Thus the optical interconnect mesh network for parallel multiprocessor system can be implemented.


This chapter aims to present the current state of the art in the field of meat product refor - mulation with respect to issues concerning the nutritional improvement and overall health benefits of such products. Our research team has recently finalised a national research project concerning this topic, and we feel that other food scientists could benefit from the theoretical and practical knowledge gathered during this time. The chapter will be divided into four subchapters. The first subsection will present the main targets of meat refor mulation, such as lipid or protein profile modification, the use of bioactive compounds as additives, etc. The second subsection will discuss the bioavailability and bioaccessibil ity of carotenoids, phenolic compounds and other bioactive compounds, presenting these parameters from a nutraceutical perspective. The last subsections will include reported consumer attitudes. In this work, we will present data that could aid scientists in the field of food science to better grasp notions concerning consumer benefit, such as bioavailabil ity, not only of a specific bioactive compound but also as part of a complex food matrix.


Corporate disclosure of environmental information has played an important role in the avoidance of dangerous climate change. How firms choose to disclose environmental information about the business opportunities and risks associated with climate change is important to policy makers and investors. In the literature, there are two dominant theories of corporate disclosure: legitimacy theory and voluntary dis-closure theory. Under legitimacy theory, firms are more likely to disclose information in response to their risks; under voluntary disclosure theory, firms are more likely to disclose information in response to their opportunities. In certain industries, if firms disclose environmental information according to legitimacy theory (voluntary disclosure theory), society may be unaware of the true risks (opportunities) of climate change, and society, in these cases, we will need policies that mandate disclosure. Therefore, this study examines the power of legitimacy theory and voluntary disclosure theory to explain corporate disclosure in three industry groupings: manufacturing, non-manufacturing, and energy & utilities. We use Bloomberg' s Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) dataset of 3,861 firm level observations from 2008-2012, and regress the corporate social disclosure score evaluated by Bloomberg on variables that indicate regulatory and physical risks and opportunities. We find that legitimacy theory does not explain corporate disclosure of regulatory risks in any of the industries and that of physical risk in the energy and utilities industry. In addition, vol-untary disclosure theory does not explain disclosure of regulatory opportunities in the energy & utilities industries. However, voluntary disclosure theory explains disclosure of opportunities in all of the industries.


The standard assumption in economic theory is that preferences are stable. In particular, they are not changed as a result of experience with the good/service/event. Behavioral scientists have challenged this assumption and claimed (providing evidence) that preferences are constantly changing when experience is accumulated. This paper tests the effect of experience on preferences for attributes of health-care events. We are using two very different samples and a methodology that facilitates the estimation of marginal utilities of various attributes of a composite non-traded health-care service. Discrete Choice Experimental design is employed for the analysis of samples of (1) women who gave birth, and (2) women who were diagnosed with breast cancer. For each group we had information on experience. In the case of women who gave birth, the sample was decomposed into 3 sub-samples: pregnant women with their first child (no experience); women after one delivery (single experience); and mothers after more than one delivery (multiple experience). Preferences of the 3 sub-groups have then been compared. The breast cancer patients reported the number of chemotherapy/radiation treatments they have already received, thus enabling the construction of an experience variable and testing for the effect of experience on preferences. The basic finding is that preferences for health-care attributes are significantly changed as a result of experience with the health event. However, the amount of experience is irrelevant.


Li et al. performed an analysis on peer-reviewed literature, spanning 30 years, that linked genes to addiction in an attempt to uncover new molecular pathways that contribute to addiction. The authors acknowledged that pathways are subjective concepts; however, their analysis did identify pathways previously implicated in addiction and also suggested that gonadotropin-releasing hormone signaling and gap junction signaling may contribute as well. Their analysis of pathways associated with four different addictive classes of drugs led to the development of a hypothetical molecular network based on these pathways and additional protein interaction data. Systems analysis of the "addiction" network suggested that calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) may be a central regulator with two "fast" positive-feedback loops (based on second messenger and downstream effector signaling) and two "slow" positive-feedback loops (based on gene transcription and translation) interlinking through CaMKII. Although the predictions were not confirmed experimentally, the analysis points toward experimentally testable hypotheses, and the associated database provides a tool for addiction researchers. C.-Y. Li, X. Mao, L. Wei, Genes and (common) pathways underlying drug addiction. PLoS Comput. Biol. 4, e2 (2008). [PubMed]


Modularization and standardization of MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) systems in design is a method to improve predictability and efficiency on the construction site. However, managing information is a challenge to achieve modularization and standardization in alignment with customer values. The aim of this paper is to describe the design development process when applying modularization and standardization, to analyze the workflow, and to identify critical processes to be managed. A process map when applying modularization and standardization of MEP systems is explained, highlighting the challenges that should affect the implementation during design process. Analyzing the design process shows that the challenges to be met through the implementation of the design methodology are 1) aligning the external variety of the building structure to modularized and standardized systems (internal variety), and 2) aligning modularization and standardization to customer values. We propose analyzing work structuring principles to improve the implementation of modularization and standardization. We hypothesize that involving the end customer and construction teams and managing their knowledge will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of modularization and standardization in MEP systems' design beyond the current implementation. The Paper presents a theoretical model that is the basis for further research.


Using the Basic Survey on Overseas Business Activities and the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activities from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) covering 1996-2014, we document how headquarter-foreign subsidiary network in service (hereafter offshore service network) has been expanded relative to the network of manufacturing. The main question is whether service network (inputs and outputs) co-move with the manufacturing network of Japanese multinational firms. This analysis intends to clarify the "trade co-movement puzzle," or the missing propagation mechanism between trade and economy in macroeconomic research. We break down the affiliates' purchasing modes into local sellers and imports and, in the same manner, their supplying modes into local buyers and exports. Then we aggregate these flows for each country. In contrast to Johnson (2014) which found "near-zero correlations" between goods and services on the country level, we suggest evidence for co-movement of manufacturing and service, transmitting international shocks through bilateral trades.


Yield gap analysis, which evaluates magnitude and variability of difference between crop yield potential (Yp) or water limited yield potential (Yw) and actual farm yields, provides a measure of untapped food production capacity. Reliable location-specific estimates of yield gaps, either derived from research plots or simulation models, are available only for a limited number of locations and crops due to cost and time required for field studies or for obtaining data on long-term weather, crop rotations and management practices, and soil properties. Given these constraints, we compare global agro-climatic zonation schemes for suitability to up-scale location-specific estimates of Yp and Yw, which are the basis for estimating yield gaps at regional, national, and global scales. Six global climate zonation schemes were evaluated for climatic homogeneity within delineated climate zones (CZs) and coverage of crop area. An efficient CZ scheme should strike an effective balance between zone size and number of zones required to cover a large portion of harvested area of major food crops. Climate heterogeneity was very large in CZ schemes with less than 100 zones. Of the other four schemes, the Global Yield Gap Atlas Extrapolation Domain (GYGA-ED) approach, based on a matrix of three categorical variables (growing degree days, aridity index, temperature seasonality) to delineate CZs for harvested area of all major food crops, achieved reasonable balance between number of CZs to cover 80% of global crop area and climate homogeneity within zones. While CZ schemes derived from two climate-related categorical variables require a similar number of zones to cover 80% of crop area, within-zone heterogeneity is substantially greater than for the GYGA-ED for most weather variables that are sensitive drivers of crop production. Some CZ schemes are crop-specific, which limits utility for up-scaling location-specific evaluation of yield gaps in regions with crop rotations rather than single crop species.


Abstract
 It is generally accepted in public policy debate that expert knowledge tends to contribute to more effective formulation and implementation of policy. Most of the literature, however, has tended to be exclusively focused on the science–policy interface, ignoring the necessary pre-conditions of the broader national and institutional context for the effective use of scientific evidence. This shortcoming becomes particularly pronounced in analysis of developing in less pluralist countries. This article analyses two cases of Brazilian environmental policy-making and discusses the institutional pre-conditions for learning from science. By textually coding instances of direct and indirect participation of scientists in congressional debates and assessing the extent of their influence in final decisions, this article shows that despite being largely consensual to the scientific community, clearly communicated, and relevant, scientific information had no influence on the policy-decisions taken in two highly-technical areas of environmental policy in Brazil: forestry and pesticides. This article engages with the literature on the necessary institutional structures for learning from science and provides support for the hypothesis that countries with lower levels of political openness, and medium-to-low consensus requirements for decision-making, will tend to have considerable barriers to effectively producing evidence-based policy-making.


Abstract China has the largest number of managed honey bee colonies globally, but there is currently no data on viral infection in diseased A. mellifera L. colonies in China. In particular, there is a lack of data on chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) in Chinese honey bee colonies. Consequently, the present study investigated the occurrence and frequency of several widespread honey bee viruses in diseased Chinese apiaries, and we used the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Described was the relationship between the presence of CBPV and diseased colonies (with at least one of the following symptoms: depopulation, paralysis, dark body colorings and hairless, or a mass of dead bees on the ground surrounding the beehives). Phylogenetic analyses of CBPV were employed. The prevalence of multiple infections of honey bee viruses in diseased Chinese apiaries was 100%, and the prevalence of infections with even five and six viruses were higher than expected. The incidence of CBPV in diseased colonies was significantly higher than that in apparently healthy colonies in Chinese A. mellifera aparies, and CBPV isolates from China can be separated into Chinese-Japanese clade 1 and 2. The results indicate that beekeeping in China may be threatened by colony decline due to the high prevalence of multiple viruses with CBPV.


MOTIVATION
Teenage pregnancy is an important health and social problem in South Africa. So far research on adolescent sexual activity has been almost exclusively descriptive; as a result there is considerable knowledge about practices of adolescents in general and outcomes of their pregnancies, but very limited understanding of factors that place particular adolescents at increased risk of teenage pregnancy. Without this understanding, our ability to intervene effectively to reduce teenage pregnancy rates is limited.

OBJECTIVE
To undertake an exploratory study to investigate risk factors for teenage pregnancy among sexually active adolescents in an urban and peri-urban context.

METHODS
The study used a matched case-control design, with 191 cases and 353 age-matched controls from the same school or neighbourhood. Subjects were under 19 years of age and were recruited from township areas of Cape Town. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-economic factors, contraceptive knowledge and use, and sexual behaviour. Conditional logistical regression was used to analyse the relationship between teenage pregnancy and the factors investigated.

RESULTS
Teenage pregnancy was found to be most strongly associated with having frequent sex (risk ratio (RR) 30.81) without reliable contraceptive protection (RR 24.35), forced sexual initiation (RR 14.42), not owning a television set (RR 10.33), larger household size (RR 2.44), not living in a brick house (RR 5.09), not living with the biological father (RR 3.26), talking openly about sex with a boyfriend (RR 4.72), and perceiving most friends to be pregnant (RR 4.38).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest associations between the promotion of sexual health among adolescents and broader social development and promotion of gender equality. Although further research is needed, it is likely that important foci for short-term strategies should include developing assertiveness, enhancing decision-making competence, and promoting contraception and condoms as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health educational interventions.


In credit scoring and classification, feature selection is used to reduce the number of variables input to a classifier. This can be done with a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) model, which attempts to select features that are both independent and influential. Quadratic optimization scales exponentially with the number of features, but a QUBO implementation on a quantum annealer has the potential to be faster than classical solvers. Tests were done using the German Credit Data from UC Irvine, and the results compared with those reported in the literature. In comparison with recursive feature elimination (RFE), a technique found in many software packages, QUBO Feature Selection yielded a smaller feature subset with no loss of accuracy. This opens up the possibility of using quantum annealers to programatically reduce the size of very large feature sets, especially as the size and availability of these devices increases.


Summary 1. In insects, cuticular melanization and immune function are strongly dependent on the quantity of dietary protein ingested. However, relatively little is known about the role played by the quality of nitrogenous resources in determining phenotypic variation in the degree of melanization and correlated immunological functions. We explored this issue in a generalist-feeding caterpillar, Spodoptera littoralis , by providing larvae with one of two semi-artificial diets differing in their quality of protein supplement (high-quality casein vs. low-quality zein). 2. Larvae given a high-quality protein diet had higher survival and faster growth rates than larvae on the low-quality protein diet; they also had more heavily melanized cuticles. Two components of constitutive immunity were assayed: lysozyme-like antibacterial activity and phenoloxidase (PO) activity. PO activity was not affected by diet quality, but antibacterial activity was higher for insects on the high-quality diet, providing a potential physiological mechanism for observed survival differences between the two dietary treatments. 3. Analysis of nitrogen conversion efficiency using chemically defined diets indicated that proteinquality had little effect on ingestion rates (i.e. nitrogen acquisition), but that post-ingestive utilization of nitrogen was reduced for larvae on the low-quality protein diet. This result implies that proteinquality had a significant influence on the nitrogen pool potentially available for investment in melanin production and immune function. 4. A split-plot, full-sib family breeding experiment was used to dissect the genetic control of cuticular melanization from the effects induced by dietary treatment. Estimates of broad-sense heritability indicated that the expression of melanization had a significant genetic basis, but there was little evidence for a genotype × environment interaction. 5. These results suggest that nutrition is a key factor that influences insect melanization and mediates its coupling with important physiological functions linked to survival.


In July 1981, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, conducted an archaeological survey of power line right-ofways in Schleicher and Crockett Counties. The survey was performed for the Southwest Electric Cooperative, Inc. Eight archaeological sites were located during this project. Three sites (41 SL 5, 41 SL 8, and 41 SL 9) are recommended for additional documentation if they are to be additionally disturbed. The other sites found need no further work.


Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is generally a slowly progressive disease that may lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. However, patients with PBC often suffer from a variety of symptoms long before the development of cirrhosis that include issues of daily living that have an impact on their work environment and their individual quality of life. We therefore examined multiple parameters by taking advantage of the database of our cohort of 1032 patients with PBC and 1041 matched controls. The data were obtained from patients from 23 tertiary referral centers throughout the United States and from rigorously matched controls by age, sex, ethnicity, and random‐digit dialing. The data showed that patients with PBC were more likely than controls to have significant articular symptoms, a reduced ability to perform household chores, and the need for help with routine activities. Patients with PBC rated their overall activity similar or superior to that of controls; however, more of them reported limitations in their ability to carry out activities at work or at home and difficulties in everyday activities. PBC cases also more frequently reported limitations in participating in certain sports or exercises and pursuing various hobbies; however, they did not report significant limitations in social activities. In a multivariable analysis, household income, a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus, limitations in work activities, a reduction in work secondary to disability, and church attendance were independently increased in PBC cases with respect to controls. Conclusion: Our data indicate that the quality of life of patients with PBC in the United States is generally well preserved. Nevertheless, patients with PBC suffer significantly more than controls from a variety of symptoms that are beyond the immediate impact of liver failure and affect their lifestyle, personal relationships, and work activities. (HEPATOLOGY 2008.)


Education reform and promotion of adolescent positive health (both physical and psychological) are two major public policy issues that can be impacted by direct intervention. The fields of positive psychology and positive youth development offer a theoretical foundation for scientific research as well as pragmatic, evidence-based methods of positive interventions (PIs). Mentoring is a unique intervention method geared towards both promotion and prevention. The Youth Mentoring Partnership's Friend Fitness Program represents a new PI method with the goal of strengthening character traits in young people through a unique form of physical fitness-based mentoring in which adolescents must persevere through intense " moments of choice. " This paper will present the theoretical foundations of and initial empirical support for the Friend Fitness Program's efficacy based on a longitudinal assessment. First, the theoretical framework will be presented through a comprehensive literature review on positive youth development, positive interventions, and most notably, an important character trait to foster in youth: grit. Defined as passion and perseverance for the achievement of long-term goals, (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007), grit has been identified by the United States Department of Education as a critical factor for success in the 21 st century (Shechtman, DeBarger, Dornsife, Rosier, & Yarnall, 2013) as it is found to be directly related to students' GPA and inversely related to hours spent watching television (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Measures for positive youth development (Bowers et al., 2010) and grit (Duckworth et al., 2007) will be explained. Second, this paper will present an ongoing study collecting prospective, longitudinal data on positive youth development and grit for Friend Fitness participants. Preliminary findings from this research indicate that participants experienced an overall increase in grit, and that this character trait was related to positive youth development. These are groundbreaking findings that necessitate continued investigation due to their implications on physical, cognitive, social, and behavioral development in adolescence. It is hoped that this study will garner interest for future research on grit interventions and school-based positive psychology initiatives with the goal of supporting students to have higher well-being, school engagement, positive relationships, achievement, and fewer physical health problems such as obesity. Abstract Education reform and promotion of adolescent positive health (both physical and psychological) are two major public policy issues that can be impacted by direct intervention. The fields of positive psychology and positive youth development offer a theoretical foundation for scientific research as well …


ABSTRACT Since rural Canada contributes about one-third of the national economy and significantly to culture, we argue it deserves greater attention in public policy, beginning with policy education. A scan of 22 Canadian Masters of Public Policy (MPP) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs reveals a marked absence of policy training focused on rural issues and communities. By comparing the subject areas offered in these programs and the learning outcomes presented at the 2015 International Comparative Rural Policy Studies (ICRPS) summer institute, we identify subject areas essential for training in rural policy. The comparison establishes an important congruence in the learning offered in the MPP/MPA programs and the summer institute, and yet critical differences. The analysis recognizes that training in analytical tools and socio-political contexts is foundational for policy design and implementation. However, acquiring competency in rural policy reinforces the need for graduate coursework centred on rural policy sectors.


The main objective of this case study is to analyze the effect that a significant technological innovation in quinoa processing has had on the productivity of companies devoted to this activity and the impact of such an innovation on the growth and organization of the quinoa cluster in Bolivia, and its possible effects on the future. The study will explain how the boost engendered by technological innovation in quinoa processing has triggered a series of events that have allowed the establishment of an ambitious development program. The sector's main companies and producer associations are part of this program, which is called the "Quinoa Alliance." The program has become a unique opportunity for agro-industrial development in the Bolivian Altiplano, so far characterized by subsistence agriculture.


The dissemination of knowledge in audit firms is a critical process that has gone relatively unexamined by researchers. Using social network analysis to quantify the knowledge-seeking networks in a Big 4 audit firm in the U.S., we examine the association between the types and patterns of knowledge-seeking ties and individual auditor performance. Our initial finding is that auditor job performance is negatively associated with the number of knowledge-seeking ties. Further, our analyses demonstrate that this negative association is being driven by explicit knowledge-seeking rather than tacit knowledge-seeking activities and is stronger for higher-ranked auditors. Thus, knowledge-seeking by auditors may come at a cost, particularly when that knowledge is codifiable and when the seeking is done by those at higher levels of the firm. We also find that tacit knowledge-seeking ties to managers can be beneficial for auditor performance, and tacit knowledge-seeking ties to senior managers and partners is sometimes detrimental (particularly when sought by lower-ranked auditors). In sum, this suggests that who is seeking knowledge and who is being sought for knowledge are both important for performance. Our findings may assist researchers to better understand how auditors leverage their social connections to learn, which in turn may affect audit efficiency and effectiveness. Further, audit firms might benefit from better understanding the consequences of knowledge-seeking from different sources and use this understanding to make decisions that maximize desirable information flows.


EZ is a system that integrates the facilities provided separately by traditional programming languages and operating systems. This integration is accomplished by casting services provided by traditional operating services as EZ language features. EZ is a high-level string processing language with a persistent memory. Traditional file and directory services are provided by EZ's strings and associative tables, and tables are also used for procedure activations. A description is given of processes in EZ, which are procedure activations that execute concurrently and share the same, persistent virtual address space. They are semantically similar to threads or lightweight processes in some operating systems. Processes are values. They are just associative tables and have all of the characteristics of other EZ values, including persistence. Examples of their use and a brief overview of their implementation are included.<<ETX>>


Localizing a query image against a 3D model at large scale is a hard problem, since 2D-3D matches become more and more ambiguous as the model size increases. This creates a need for pose estimation strategies that can handle very low inlier ratios. In this paper, we draw new insights on the geometric information available from the 2D-3D matching process. As modern descriptors are not invariant against large variations in viewpoint, we are able to find the rays in space used to triangulate a given point that are closest to a query descriptor. It is well known that two correspondences constrain the camera to lie on the surface of a torus. Adding the knowledge of direction of triangulation, we are able to approximate the position of the camera from two matches alone. We derive a geometric solver that can compute this position in under 1 microsecond. Using this solver, we propose a simple yet powerful outlier filter which scales quadratically in the number of matches. We validate the accuracy of our solver and demonstrate the usefulness of our method in real world settings.


1.The development of ecological networks could enhance the ability of species to disperse across fragmented landscapes and could mitigate against the negative impacts of climate change. The development of such networks will require widespread ecological restoration at the landscape scale, which is likely to be costly. However, little information is available regarding the cost-effectiveness of restoration approaches. 2.We address this knowledge gap by examining the potential impact of landscape-scale habitat restoration on the value of multiple ecosystem services across the catchment of the River Frome in Dorset, England. This was achieved by mapping the market value of four ecosystem services (carbon storage, crops, livestock and timber) under three different restoration scenarios, estimating restoration costs, and calculating net benefits. 3.The non-market value of additional services (cultural, aesthetic and recreational value) was elicited from local stakeholders using an online survey tool. Flood risk was assessed using a scoring approach. Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was conducted, incorporating both market and non-market values, to evaluate the relative benefits of restoration scenarios. These were compared with impacts of restoration on biodiversity value. 4.Multi-Criteria Analysis results consistently ranked restoration scenarios above a non-restoration comparator, reflecting the increased provision of multiple ecosystem services. Restoration scenarios also provided benefits to biodiversity, in terms of increased species richness and habitat connectivity. However, restoration costs consistently exceeded the market value of ecosystem services. 5.Synthesis and applications. Establishment of ecological networks through ecological restoration is unlikely to deliver net economic benefits in landscapes dominated by agricultural land use. This reflects the high costs of ecological restoration in such landscapes. The cost-effectiveness of ecological networks will depend on how the benefits provided to people are valued, and on how the value of non-market benefits are weighted against the costs of reduced agricultural and timber production. Future plans for ecological restoration should incorporate local stakeholder values, to ensure that benefits to people are maximised. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2012 British Ecological Society.


Introduction:
 Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a chronic, progressive disease without cure. Treatment can improve outcome, but informed predictions with clinical and genomic measurements can guide treatment and therapy choices. Previous research has focused on identifying clinical variables that could predict future outcomes. The current research aims to find genomic variants that can predict survival time.

 Hypothesis:

 Methods:
 Whole genome sequencing was performed on stored samples from 221 PAH patients. Samples were included with Long survival greater than 7 years and Short survival with mortality less than 5. Variants were filtered for quality, assigned to genes, and filtered for function and population frequency. Genes are grouped based on Canonical Pathways defined in Ingenuity Pathway Analysis

 Results:
 Patient were 50% IPAH, 81% female, 97% european decent with a mean age of 54 at sample acquisition. Mean Follow-up post sample acquisition was 5 years. Mean long and short survival was 8.3 and 2.1 years, respectively. Of pathways containing more than one gene mutated in 3 or more samples, 29 pathways were associated with survival length. Biologically relevant pathways include Pentose Phosphate (p=0.005), IL-22 (p=0.006), Phospholipase C signaling (p=0.007), Endocannabinoid related pathways (p=0.01), and Thioredoxin pathway (p=0.015). A Neural network model based on the top pathways was constructed (figure) that predicted Long/Short survival.

 Conclusions:
 We identified biologically relevant pathways associated with a Long/Short survival time in PAH patients. Our neural network model for predicting Long/Short survival using the 29 ident ified pathways and has achieved excellent performance.


Abstract

Objective – To test whether routinely-generated library usage data could be linked with information about students to understand patterns of library use among students from different disciplines at the University of Huddersfield. This information is important for librarians seeking to demonstrate the value of the library, and to ensure that they are providing services which meet user needs. The study seeks to join two strands of library user research which until now have been kept rather separate – an interest in disciplinary differences in usage, and a methodology which involves large-scale routinely-generated data.

Methods – The study uses anonymized data about individual students derived from two sources: routinely-generated data on various dimensions of physical and electronic library resource usage, and information from the student registry on the course studied by each student. Courses were aggregated at a subject and then disciplinary level. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were used to identify statistically significant differences between the high-level disciplinary groups, and within each disciplinary group at the subject level.
Results – The study identifies a number of statistically significant differences on various dimensions of usage between both high-level disciplinary groupings and lower subject-level groupings. In some cases, differences are not the same as those observed in earlier studies, reflecting distinctive usage patterns and differences in the way that disciplines or subjects are defined and organised. While music students at Huddersfield are heavy library users within the arts subject-level grouping arts students use library resources less than those in social science disciplines, contradicting findings from studies at other institutions, Computing and engineering students were relatively similar, although computing students were more likely to download PDFs, and engineering students were more likely to use the physical library.

Conclusion – The technique introduced in this study represents an effective way of understanding distinctive usage patterns at an individual institution. There may be potential to aggregate findings across several institutions to help universities benchmark their own performance and usage; this would require a degree of collaboration and standardisation. This study found that students in certain disciplines at Huddersfield use the library in different ways to students in those same disciplines at other institutions. Further investigation is needed to understand exactly why these differences exist, but some hypotheses are offered.


PTEN plays an important role not only in tumorigenesis but also in the normal development of central nervous system. PTEN loss in neural progenitor cells during embryogenesis disrupts migration and proper formation of the brain laminar structure. We generated a conditional PTEN knockout mouse by crossing mice that express Cre recombinase driven by the human GFAP promoter to a floxed PTEN gene to investigate the role of astroglial PTEN signaling pathway in neuronal patterning and lamination. We found PTEN loss not only in astroglial cells, but also in radial glia-derived neurons in hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp) transgenic mice. Homozygous hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp) transgenic mice showed progressive brain enlargement with cellular disorganization that occurred predominantly in hippocampus and cerebellum and died by postnatal day 20. Confocal images show that nestin-positive radial glial cells were observed in the hippocampus, cortex, and cerebellum at postnatal day 0 in homozygous hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp), but not in heterozygous hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/-) and hGFAP-Cre(-/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp) mice. Homozygous hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp) transgenic mouse eyes, which lack radial glial lineage, were able to develop normal architectonics after birth. In addition, we also found that neuronal progenitor migration was defected at postnatal day 0 in homozygous hGFAP-Cre(+/-)/PTEN(loxp/loxp) mice. These results suggest that PTEN has a critical role in regulating radial glial differentiation, proliferation, maturation, and eventually neuronal patterning in central nervous system in a spatio-temporal dependent manner.


The H8 loop-shaping controllers have proven their efficiency to solve problems based on complex industrial specifications. However, the design is based on the tuning of weighting filters to reformulate all the specifications, which is a time consuming task requiring know-how and expertise. This paper deals with the use of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for tuning the weighting filters. Whereas this topic has already been investigated in lots of works especially using evolutionary algorithms, we propose here to enhance the optimization process by working on the definition of a generic fitness function from a general high-level specification, and by relaxing constraints on weights structure. The developed methodology is tested using a real industrial example and leads to satisfactory results.


In comparison to the policy for other field, the policy for medicine and public health is to consider the value of life or the value of the quality of life. Quality of life is very well known as a concept of QOL. Also, Quality Adjusted Life of Years (QALY) which integrates QOL over life of years is widely used as a measure of the value of life. Cost-effectiveness analysis for medicine and public health adopts two approaches to incorporate value of QOL or QALY. We summarize those advantage and disadvantage briefly at first. Unfortunately, cost-effectiveness analysis has not been committed and operated as an official rule for the method of policy evaluation for medicine or public health in Japan, yet. Thus we show some researches about it which examines ex post or ex ante policy evaluation using cost-effectiveness analysis. In other countries, some political decision making in medicine or public health is based on cost-effectiveness analysis. However, the pressure of the financial deficit will require more accountability about evidence. Therefore, cost-effectiveness analysis must be more important even in political decision making in medicine or public health in Japan.