© 2016 Deputy of Research and Technology of Baqiyatallah Hospital Abstract Introduction: Tissue engineering approach using the combination of stem cells and nanofibrous scaffolds has attracted the interest of research community for regeneration applications. Materials and Methods: In this study, PANi/PCL/Gel composite nanofibrous scaffold was fabricated by electrospinning. Plasma treatment technique was used for the surface modification of nanofibers. Contact angle technique and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for characterization of electrospun nanofibers. Growth and proliferation of the cells as well as the biocompatibility of nanoscaffolds were evaluated by MTT assay. Results: The results of the contact angle technique showed the surface modification of electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds. The MTT results showed that the synthesized nanofibers did not have any toxic effect and promoted the growth and proliferation of fibroblast cells. SEM images confirmed the adhesion and biocompatibility of nanofibers. Conclusions: Our results suggested PANi/PCL/Gel electrospun nanofibers as a biocompatible composite for the regenerative medicine.


While recent reforms are welcome in many ways, there are still significant reasons to doubt that the post-crisis tightening of international financial regulation guarantees future financial and economic stability. The most important reason is that the reforms have focused too narrowly on ensuring that an unstable financial sector will not aggravate downturns by restricting the supply of credit. More attention needs to be paid to ensuring that an overly exuberant financial system does not weaken other parts of the economy by encouraging a rapid buildup of debt during upturns. Some combination of time-varying monetary and regulatory policies (a macrofinancial stability framework) will be required to do this. In addition, many of the individual regulatory measures taken to date, both macroprudential and microprudential, have shortcomings. Their coherence as a package has also been questioned.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To identify growth patterns and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in pediatric patients during the first four months after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and to assess whether an association exists between acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and growth pattern changes or GI symptoms.

DESIGN
A prospective, longitudinal cohort design.

SETTING
A tertiary children's hospital in a metropolitan area in the southern United States.

SAMPLE
A convenience sample of 35 pediatric patients receiving allogeneic HSCT.

METHODS
Anthropometric measurements were obtained and GI symptoms were surveyed in pediatric patients before HSCT and two and four months after HSCT.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
GI symptoms, anthropometric measurements, and presence or absence of acute GVHD.

FINDINGS
All anthropometric measurements showed a significant change over time; height showed an increase, and weight, skinfold triceps, and mid-arm circumference showed a decrease over the fourmonth measurement period. Eight GI symptoms were prevalent over the four months, and the mean severity and distress scores fluctuated minimally during that time. No statistically significant differences were noted in any of the anthropometric measurements or GI symptoms between pediatric patients with and without GVHD.

CONCLUSIONS
Pediatric patients in the study exhibited poor growth patterns during the four months after HSCT and experienced multiple GI symptoms before and after HSCT.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Nurses should be aware of the importance of evaluating growth and symptom experience in all pediatric patients during HSCT recovery and assist in defining treatment plans that will optimize patient health.


This article presents a study of how the writing, composing, and production of the feminist musical Land of Smiles productively exposed and troubled the normative discourses of Thailand's antitrafficking movement. Engaging three sets of focus group participants—Western nongovernmental organization employees, female migrants from Burma, and Western and Thai artistic production staff members—I sought to understand how discourses around victimhood, rescue, and morality were transformed following a production of the musical in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I argue that the musical performance served as a site of intervention in these discourses, allowing participants to critically evaluate the roles they play in the antitrafficking movement. This intervention represents a new approach to feminist international research, which I call "dramatization as research."


The northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone is a major northwest-trending fault system in the Death Valley region, but the magnitude of offset and its significance to extensional tectonism in the region are controversial. Stratigraphic data have provided first-order constraints on offset across the fault zone but offer limited resolution. Previous correlations of Mesozoic thrust faults across the fault zone have relied on regional stratigraphic trends to fingerprint structurally similar thrust plates. We show that a northeast-trending Mesozoic backfold within the predominantly east-directed fold and thrust belt was probably continuous from the southern Panamint Range, California, to the Belted Range, Nevada. The relative position of this antithetic structure allows uniquely compatible correlations of three Mesozoic structures between two range blocks across the northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone independent of stratigraphic arguments. The offset structures have geometric properties of size, vergence, order, and spacing that indicate a probability less than 10 -4 of the Mesozoic orogen identically repeating this structural suite in two unrelated places. Reconstruction of these correlative structures indicates 68 ± 4 km N48°W ± 6°W of apparent dextral offset between the Cottonwood and Funeral Mountains, in general agreement with previous estimates based on stratigraphic observations but of substantially higher precision. This reconstruction, and the restoration of a 30-km separation between the Funeral and Grapevine Mountains indicated by offset segments of the backfold, suggest a simple pre-extensional geometry for the Mesozoic orogen in the Death Valley region consistent with observations from unextended blocks and analogous to that of the Cordilleran orogen at the latitude of Calgary, Alberta.


Computers and ICT have changed the way we live and work. The latest Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 provides a snapshot of how using ICT has revolutionized the workplace. Various studies have suggested that the use of a computer at work boosted earnings by as much as 20 per cent. Others suggest this reported impact is due to unobserved heterogeneity. Using excellent data from the WERS employer–employee matched sample, we compare ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates with those from alternative estimation methods and those which include controls for workplace and occupation interactions. We show that OLS estimates overstate the return to computer use but that including occupation and workplace controls, reduces the return to around 3 per cent. We explore the return on different IT skills and find a small return to the use of the 'office IT function' and the intensity of computer use as measured by the number of tasks a computer is used for.


Our cities, from megalopolis to rural commune, are systems of an extraordinary technological and human complexity. Their balance is threatened by the growing population and rarefaction of resources. Massive urbanization endanges the environment, while global climate change, through natural hazards generated (climatic, hydrological and geological), threats people and goods. Connect the city, that is to say, design and spread systems able to route, between multiple actors, a very large amount of heterogeneous information natures and analyzed for various purposes, is at the heart of the hopes to make our cities more sustainable: climate-resilient, energy efficient and actresses of the energy transition, attractive to individuals and companies, health and environment friendly. If multiple players are already aware of this need, progress is slow because, beyond the only connectivity, it is the urban intelligence that will create the sustainable city, through coordinated capabilities of Perception, Decision and Action: to measure phenomena; to analyze their impact on urban sustainability in order to define strategies for improvement; to effectively act on the cause of the phenomenon. In this very active context with a strong societal impact, the Sense-City project aims to accelerate research and innovation in the field of sustainable city, particularly in the field of micro and nanosensors. The project is centered around a "mini climatic City", a unique mobile environmental chamber in Europe of 400m 2 that can accommodate realistic models of city main components, namely buildings, infrastructures, distribution networks or basements. This R&D test place, available in draft form from January 2015 and in finalized version in 2016, will allow to validate, in realistic conditions, innovative technologies performances for the sustainable city, especially micro-and nano-sensors, at the end of their development laboratory and upstream of industrialization. R & D platform located in the heart of the Cite Descartes in Paris Est and open to both academic as industrial and communities, Sense-City participates in the positioning of the Cite Descartes as a flagship tertiary center for the city of the future. The areas of interest cover the energy performance of buildings and neighborhoods, the sanitary quality of the frame (indoor air pollution), the quality and sustainability of urban networks (transport, fluid), the quality of outdoor air, soil and water, control of waste storage areas, sustainability and infrastructure security. In the framework of this project, a first outdoor test bed was designed and built in 2014. Various sensing capacity have been implemented and first experimentations started in 2015. The project partners, IFSTTAR, ESIEE-CCIP LPICM (UMR CNRS Ecole Polytechnique), CSTB, INRIA and UPEM, controls the entire value chain for the development of innovative products for the sustainable city, nano or prototyping microsensors up to validation in real conditions, not to mention the steps of integration , packaging and deployment of the sensors or the processing steps, modeling and representation of information.


Contrary to the common approach of stress-testing under which banks are evaluated whether they are distressed, this empirical study chooses to move from the micro stress test approach to a wider new macro stress test category. By being able to stress testing the entire economy of the Eurozone, it will permit big banks to fail and, at the same time, will open room for new banking players to enter the sector, promoting the essence of a healthy destruction. The analysis performs a battery of stress tests, by implementing VaR, Cornish-Fisher VaR, Monte Carlo VaR, Expected Shortfall, Cornish-Fisher Expected Shortfall, and Monte Carlo Expected Shortfall. At the same time, it explicitly considers the new regulatory approach of IFRS9 to incorporate extreme values from forecasted series in the distributions. The analysis also performs two versions of stress tests, one including TARGET2 and one without it. The results document that future stress tests should include TARGET2 values in order to capture a better picture of the stressed economy. The findings from these stress tests clearly illustrate that although there has been a trough after the dis- tress call of 2008, this trough ended. These are results derived without including the TARGET2 transfers. By including the TARGET2 transfers we receive a different picture that possibly acts as a protective mechanism against any future crisis. Caution is still advised, possibly due to some lingering imbalances within the Eurozone. (cid:1) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


This research looks at the Irish temperance movement in Ulster between 1858-1914. It focuses on the organisation, the Irish Temperance League that was formed in Belfast in 1858. The League's fundamental aim was to provide a platform upon which all total abstinence reformers in Ireland could unite. This research considers how successful the organisation was in its aspiration. It argues that while the League was successful in unifying the temperance movement in Ireland, there were limitations and issues within this agenda. The League successfully incorporated a dual methodology, encompassing both moral suasion and legislative prohibition, which had not been seen before in the Irish temperance movement. This enabled a range of different temperance reformers to work together under the auspice of the ITL. In particular the League was successful in uniting both religious and secular temperance reformers. The breadth of the League's work also meant that it united individuals from all classes in society under its organisation. That being said, despite the League's rhetoric contemporary social structures were maintained. For the members of the ITL, total abstinence was their political and religious dogma which superseded contemporary political and religious concerns. However this ultimately caused tension within denominational and political peers. The League aimed to function as a national organisation and it attempted to become an all-Ireland body, providing an inclusive teetotal culture for its members where they were safe from the temptations of the intemperate society around them. This research shows that while the League could claim an all-Ireland status by 1912 it continued to struggle to overcome its Protestant and Ulster roots and become an inclusive organisation in terms of religious affiliations. However against a backdrop of political tension in Ireland this was not the League's fault but a consequence of the religious divide.


Medical tourism – patients travelling specifically to access health services abroad – is a growing phenomenon, but one that is under-researched. This chapter presents findings of the first ever study examining medical tourism based on individual patient data, and the most comprehensive analysis to date of the size, shape and impact of medical tourism on the health system and economy. It focuses on Thailand, one of the world's foremost destinations for medical tourism. A cross-sectional survey of medical tourists in five private Thai hospitals was conducted, comprising 911 913 patient records, as well as a patient survey of 293 medical tourists. In addition, 15 hospital executives and 28 service providers in four private hospitals were interviewed. Findings show previous estimates suggesting over 1 million tourists per year were inflated. Medical tourists in Thailand are non-homogenous. The majority of them are likely to be opportunistic tourists who travel to Thailand with other purposes combining medical services. Most patients travel from within the region. They and their companions contribute to the Thai economy in terms of medical and tourism spending. This research identified no negative consequences for the health system.


This paper employs an asymmetric component generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (AC-GARCH) model to test the relation between securities transaction tax (STT) and market volatility. Proponents of an STT argue that such a tax will reduce market volatility by discouraging the trading activity of destabilizing short-term traders. In contrast, Song and Zhang (2005) hypothesize that in the markets with relatively higher volatility and larger noise trader participation, an increase in STT will lead to an increase in market volatility. This paper uses daily data on TAIEX futures to test the Song and Zhang (2005) hypothesis. The results reveal that the volatility in high tax periods is larger than that in low tax periods, especially for the part of short-term volatility.


Equitable and inclusive quality education is a human right. It is crucial to provide for the learning needs of every child, especially those with learning disabilities. Traditional approaches to learning propose education paths performed with speech therapists. One of the most efficient strategies to help children with reading comprehension difficulties is the creation of a ``concept map'', a structured summary of the written text in a graph structure. Online tools that offer students the possibility to manually create or automatically extract concept maps from text have been created over the years. However, there is still a shortage of software that are specifically designed for children at risk and which produce a concept map that is tailored to the clinical profiles of individuals. In this Project Collaboration, we want to tackle this gap by implementing a multi-modal, online and open-access Artificial-Intelligence powered tool that could help these children to make sense of written text by enabling them to interactively create concept maps. The expected output is threefold. We will implement a new model for concept-map-based document summarization and a clinically appropriate web interface. We will evaluate them in real-world settings through user studies performed by speech therapists.


The Washington State DOT (WSDOT) was an early pioneer in the implementation of pavement management, starting with pavement condition data collection in 1969, and the establishment of a computerized pavement management system in the late 1970s. WSDOT performs a Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for all new pavement structures, and existing pavements requiring reconstruction. A 50-year analysis period is used to consider all maintenance and/or rehabilitation activities anticipated over the life cycle analysis period. The LCCA performed when selecting a pavement type for a new pavement structure is a long-term analysis, based upon the best available information at the time the decision is made. But, it is not an operating plan that lays out the pavement treatment decisions for the next 50 years. The focus of this paper is the economic evaluation of pavement management decisions made in year-to-year operations, which are based on analyses at the performance period level. The use of economic evaluation techniques such as Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Replacement Analysis, and Break-Even Analysis is essential in making pavement management decisions, and can result in substantial cost savings. Even a one-year extension in pavement life through the use of cost-effective pavement treatments can have significant benefits. The information provided by the economic performance measures are shown to be critical for the efficient planning, prioritizing, and programming of pavement asset management activities.


Wind power development is increasing dramatically because of New York's Renewable Portfolio Standard. This standard will make it necessary for New York's utilities to increase their use of renewable energy by more than 50%. As a result, wind power developers are seeking new sites for wind power generation in New York. This bulletin is intended to be used as a resource by private landowners in New York State who are concerned about wind development's implications. It guides the landowner step- by- step through the process of wind development on private property. It starts with suggestions for the preliminary stages of development where the landowner interacts with the community and begins contemplating the effects of wind power on a local level. It then outlines the early development phases when wind development firms begin testing sites on private land. It discusses the issues in the lease negotiations that take place when a development firm wishes to obtain the right to access and build on private property. The landowner deserves a contract that is equitable and profitable, and mitigates unnecessary risks. The appendices summarize the entire wind development process in the form of a table, provide resources for further information, present a glossary of terms, and supply sample compensation provisions in a lease agreement. Readers should consult with their own legal or financial advisors to ensure that the choices they make best fit their individual needs. Incidentally, we would like to offer special thanks to those who contributed to this work by sharing their experiences pertaining to wind energy development.


The UK local government market has experienced a significant surge of partnership approaches to public service delivery since the start of the new millennium. As a result, a new generation of long-term partnerships has emerged which are of an unprecedented size and complexity, typically bundling a broad range of council services and transferring staff from the council to the private partner.

These white-collar PPPs deliver corporate and central support services that have been, until recently, the sole domain of local government. Because of the novelty of white-collar partnerships and the sensitivity of the services (e.g. tax collection) delivered, almost no researcher has yet accessed and explored this new phenomenon.

In general, public-private partnerships are difficult to maintain because they are large-scale complex contractual arrangements involving organisations from different sectoral backgrounds. White-collar PPPs are even more complex due to the kind and quantity of services delivered. This gives rise to the question how the ability of local authorities and private companies to maintain their partnerships
can be enhanced. This thesis develops a conceptual framework for the partnering capacity of public and private organisations in white-collar PPPs.

Based on extant literature on public-private partnerships, inter-organisational collaboration and capacity development, working propositions were derived to guide the empirical stage of the research process. An interpretive case study approach scrutinised the white-collar public-private partnership between the East
Riding of Yorkshire Council and the private company arvato. The study identified eight elements that affected the partnering capacity of public and private organisations: strategy, culture, power, communication, relationships, the contractual framework, the client-management system and the performance management system. Recommendations for practitioners are suggested by identifying 28 partnering capacity strategies in the following three phases: the
procurement phase, the settling-in phase, and the stabilisation and development phase.


Notwithstanding notable exceptions, historical investigation is far from central in deliberative scholarship and even recent work on participatory research stresses the need for more historical work. The aim of our introduction to this collective volume is to assess and to draw attention to the contribution of historical analysis in the current scholarly debate on democracy, in particular regarding the ways in which participation and deliberation emerge and develop in New England's famous town meetings. Town meetings have traditionally been cited as one of the fullest and earliest realizations of the idea of democratic government and of deliberation at work. Nowadays the great debate on deliberative and participatory democracy has contributed to restoring the town meetings as a symbol of democratic deliberation. The critical study of how one of the oldest and most inspiring forms of democratic participation has evolved is not only a fascinating endeavor in itself, it is also a unique opportunity to better understand how and to what extent these institutional practices, inspired by ideals of deliberation and participation, can support – or impede – the democratization of today's societies.


INTRODUCTION
The lower abdominal obesity is more resistant to absorption as compared to that of upper abdomen. Differences in the physicochemical properties of the subcutaneous fat of the upper and lower abdomen may be responsible for this variation. There is paucity of the scientific literature on the physicochemical properties of the subcutaneous fat of abdomen.

AIM
The present study was undertaken to create a database of physicochemical properties of abdominal subcutaneous fat.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The samples of subcutaneous fat from upper and lower abdomen were collected from 40 fresh autopsied bodies (males 33, females 7). The samples were prepared for physicochemical analysis using organic and inorganic solvents. Various physicochemical properties of the fat samples analysed were surface tension, viscosity, specific gravity, specific conductivity, iodine value and thermal properties. Data was analysed by paired and independent sample t-tests.

RESULTS
There was a statistically significant difference in all the physicochemical parameters between males and females except surface tension (organic) and surface tension (inorganic) of upper abdominal fat, and surface tension (organic) of lower abdominal fat. In males, viscosity of upper abdominal fat was more compared to that of lower abdomen (both organic and inorganic) unlike the specific conductivity that was higher for the lower abdominal fat as compared to that of the upper abdomen. In females there were statistically significant higher values of surface tension (inorganic) and specific gravity (organic) of the upper abdomen fat as compared to that of lower abdomen. The initial and final weight loss of the lower abdominal fat as indicated by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis was significantly more in males than in female.

CONCLUSION
The difference in the physicochemical properties of subcutaneous fat between upper and lower abdomen and between males and females could be responsible for the variant behaviour of subcutaneous abdominal fat towards resorption.


Adversarial training has proved to be competitive against supervised learning methods on computer vision tasks. However, studies have mainly been confined to generative tasks such as image synthesis. In this paper, we apply adversarial training techniques to the discriminative task of learning a steganographic algorithm. Steganography is a collection of techniques for concealing the existence of information by embedding it within a non-secret medium, such as cover texts or images. We show that adversarial training can produce robust steganographic techniques: our unsupervised training scheme produces a steganographic algorithm that competes with state-of-the-art steganographic techniques. We also show that supervised training of our adversarial model produces a robust steganalyzer, which performs the discriminative task of deciding if an image contains secret information. We define a game between three parties, Alice, Bob and Eve, in order to simultaneously train both a steganographic algorithm and a steganalyzer. Alice and Bob attempt to communicate a secret message contained within an image, while Eve eavesdrops on their conversation and attempts to determine if secret information is embedded within the image. We represent Alice, Bob and Eve by neural networks, and validate our scheme on two independent image datasets, showing our novel method of studying steganographic problems is surprisingly competitive against established steganographic techniques.


Extracted from text ... D
Moral leadership:
caring for and believing in people
Dick Harrington is CEO of The Thomson
Corporation, a global electronic information
company that sells the financial information
systems that help power the
New York Stock Exchange.
On 11 September 2001, Dick was in
London for a meeting of his board. He was
talking on the phone with his Connecticut
headquarters when he got word of the
attack on the World Trade Centre.
Harrington, along with the other members
of his executive team in London, was
thunderstruck. Over 2 200 Thomson employees
worked in the neighborhood of the
World Trade ..


This article proposes the repeal of current Subchapters K and S, as well as the removal from the ambit of Subchapter C of all privately held corporations and the replacement of the current tax regime for privately held business with a new regime under which all privately held businesses (including wholly owned corporations and limited liability companies, and unorganized sole proprietorships) would be taxed at the entity level under a uniform rate schedule, regardless of the form of organization. All publicly traded companies, and their controlled corporate subsidiaries, would continue to be governed by all of the structural rules of Subchapter C (and any other relevant Code sections outside of Subchapter C.) Nevertheless, the profits of privately held companies subject to the entity-level tax would not be double taxed upon distribution. Rather, a single-level tax, at the owners' tax rates would be achieved by applying the imputation-credit model for corporate tax integration to all distributions (including profits of a sole proprietorship that have not been reinvested) to the equity owners of the entity. As a consequence of the abolition of pass-through taxation and the imposition of an entity-level tax, entity losses no longer could be passed through to the entity's owners to offset positive income from other sources. This proposal emanates from decades-long problems with the administration of Subchapter K, governing the taxation of partnerships, and the incoherence of having three separate regimes — Subchapter C, Subchapter K, and Subchapter S — apply to privately held businesses depending of the form of organization and available elections. While it does not originate as a refinement of recent proposals to reduce the corporate tax rate and to clean up the base, its adoption would facilitate such a move. Because such a high percentage of U.S. business income is now earned by unincorporated business, it would avoid increased distortions in the choice of business entity due solely to tax planning.


This paper proposes a novel stochastic process that represents the arbitrary rectangular partitioning of an infinite-dimensional matrix as the conditional projective limit. Rectangular partitioning is used in relational data analysis, and is classified into three types: regular grid, hierarchical, and arbitrary. Conventionally, a variety of probabilistic models have been advanced for the first two, including the product of Chinese restaurant processes and the Mondrian process. However, existing models for arbitrary partitioning are too complicated to permit the analysis of the statistical behaviors of models, which places very severe capability limits on relational data analysis. In this paper, we propose a new probabilistic model of arbitrary partitioning called the rectangular tiling process (RTP). Our model has a sound mathematical base in projective systems and infinite extension of conditional probabilities, and is capable of representing partitions of infinite elements as found in ordinary Bayesian nonparametric models.


Purpose. Reports on findings of work concerning the use of the JISC information environment by students, considering how information environments are related to the working environments of their users. Design/methodology/approach. CERLIM at Manchester Metropolitan University, partnered by CSALT (the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technologies) at Lancaster University, has brought to bear perspectives from both information management and educational research. During 2003 to 2004 the scope of the evaluation was broadened to include all of the JISC development activity in the information environment area and has been extended to the further education sector: this is known as EDNER+. Findings. The use of quality attributes approaches can provide clues as to what it is about a service which is creating dissatisfaction among the users. Research limitations/implications. Coupled with other findings about "satisficing" behaviours, the findings are suggestive of some of the key areas which need to be given attention. They also support a finding from this and other work in EDNER/EDNER+, namely that to students internet search engines in general and Google in particular represent a benchmark of "good". Practical implications. Given that use of bibliographic services is uniformly low among undergraduate students, and that the use of OPACs is variable, IE service developers will have to work very hard to produce services which gain acceptance among this group of users. Since IE includes further education students among its target user groups, it will be critical to address the full range of attributes against the needs of this group, as well as the higher education group, in future service design. Originality/value. Using a wide range of methodologies the team has explored the outcomes of a large number of projects funded by the JISC, as well as examining the architecture and rollout of the information environment itself.


Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a process of crucial importance for maintaining a homeostatic balance between cell proliferation and death. In the present study a new mathematical model is presented that draws attention to the possible occurrence of bistability in mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathways, as well as a transition from bistable to monostable behavior -either apoptotic or cytoprotective, under well-defined conditions. Bistability is proposed to be conferred by positive feedback loops that enhance caspase-3 activation pathways through mitochondria and by kinetic cooperativity in the formation of an apoptosome complex. It essentially ensures that cells will not die in the presence of relatively small pro-apoptotic effects, but will undergo apoptosis when perturbing conditions or levels of pro-apoptotic agents exceed certain threshold values. The passage from bistable to monostable cytoprotective behavior i.e., resistance to apoptosis, may be induced by decreasing the levels of Bax, a pro-apoptotic enzyme, in agreement with experimental observations; while the opposite passage to a pro-apoptotic monostable state may be triggered by a change in the levels of mitochondrial permeability transition pore complexes (PTPCs). Further computations shed light on the origins of the experimentally observed dichotomous effects of nitric oxide (NO), demonstrating that the relative concentrations of anti- and pro-apoptotic reactive NO species, and the interplay of glutathione, dominate the cell fate at long times (of the order of hours). Transient apoptotic effects may be observed in the presence of high levels of intracellular non-heme iron, the duration of which may reach up to hours, despite the eventual convergence to an anti-apoptotic state. The computational results thus point to the importance of the precise timing of NO production and external stimulation in determining the eventual pro- or anti-apoptotic role of NO. The same mathematical model (network of interactions) applied with different model parameters to different cell types demonstrates that cells with high levels of intracellular non-heme iron are resistant to apoptosis while those subjected to high levels of superoxide undergo pathological death, consistent with experimental observations.


Abstract Borders are places where, in everyday interaction, collective identities are shaped by comparison and contrast. Slight differences in practice are often used to construct huge differences in identity, especially if they can be linked to the legitimacy of political domination. Today's border between Namibia and Angola has been the frontier of Portuguese and British/ South African colonialism since 1915. The South African colonial administration has always constructed Portuguese rule in Angola as the contrast which let South African rule appear as benign, just and ordered, thus justifying South African colonial domination. After Angolan independence and the advent of MPLA rule, the border turned from a border to sloppy colonialism into a fortification against communism and terrorism – a Barbary fence against wild hordes trying to undermine the empire. After Namibian independence and the end of the Angolan wars, the contrast between the two realms has been transformed into a difference between two economic and political regimes – safe, democratic and ordered Namibia on the one hand and wild, patrimonial, chaotic Angola on the other. The article will embed three concrete case studies from the colonial period, the war situation and the postcolonial economy into a history of South African/ Namibian identity construction on the border. It will show how it has been linked to domination and legitimacy, highlighting the role of the border as preconceived boundary of practices and spheres of domination.


This dissertation describes various aspects of improvements made in the representation of
clouds in the global forecast model of the European Centre of Medium-Range Weather Fore-
casts (ECMWF). Cloud parametrization has long been identified as one of the most crucial
and uncertain aspects in General Circulation Models (GCMs) of the atmosphere, which are
used for both Numerical Weather Prediction and the simulation of climate. It is therefore
important to constantly monitor and improve the performance of cloud parametrizations in
those models.
The first part of the work describes the implementation of an existing cloud parametrization
into ECMWF's forecasting system with special attention to a new treatment of the prognos-
tic cloud variables in data assimilation. This is followed by an analysis of the performance
of the parametrization during a 15-year long data assimilation experiment carried out in the
context of the ECMWF reanalysis project. It is shown that despite an overall good perfor-
mance, several weaknesses in the simulation of clouds exist. Subtropical stratocumulus and
extratropical cloudiness are underestimated, while the cloud fraction in the trade cumulus
areas and in the Intertropical Convergence Zone is overestimated.
In the second part of the study detailed revisions of the parametrization of cloud generation
by convective and non-convective processes are described. A consistent new description of
cloud generation by convection is derived using the mass-
ux approach. Furthermore an
improved description of the generation of clouds by non-convective processes is introduced.
The superiority of the new formulation compared to the existing one is demonstrated and
links to other approaches to cloud parametrization are established.
The third part of the work studies the role of vertically varying cloud fraction for the descrip-
tion of microphysical processes. It is shown that the commonly used approach of representing
precipitation in GCMs by means of grid-averaged quantities leads to serious errors in the
parametrization of various physical processes such as the evaporation of precipitation, with
severe consequences for the model's hydrological cycle. A new parametrization of the eects
of vertically-varying cloud fraction based on a separation of cloudy and clear-sky precipita-
tion
uxes is developed and its performance assessed. It is shown that this parametrization
alleviates most of the identied problems and thereby more realistically describes the pre-
cipitation physics in the presence of cloud fraction variations.
The final part of the dissertation takes a critical look at the way the results of cloud
parametrizations are evaluated today. A number of studies using a variety of data sources
and modelling approaches are described and the need for a coordinated use of the various
existing validation techniques is highlighted. A strategy to achieve such coordination is
proposed.
This work provides contributions to virtually all facets of the development of cloud parame-
trizations. It combines theoretical aspects with the use of a variety of modelling approaches
and data sources for the assessment of the performance of the parametrization. All model
improvements described here are now part of the operational version of the ECMWF forecast
model.


Multiple-choice questions have an undeserved reputation for only being able to test student recall of basic facts. In fact, well-crafted mechanically gradable questions can measure very sophisticated cognitive skills, including those engaged at the highest level of Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of outcomes. In this article, I argue that multiple-choice questions should be a part of the diversified assessment portfolio for most philosophy courses. I present three arguments broadly related to fairness. First, multiple-choice questions allow one to consolidate subjective decision making in a way that makes it easier to manage. Second, multiple-choice questions contribute to the diversity of an evaluation portfolio by balancing out problems with writing-based assessments. Third, by increasing the diversity of evaluations, multiple-choice questions increase the inclusiveness of the course. In the course of this argument, I provide examples of multiple-choice questions that measure sophisticated learning and advice for how to write good multiple-choice questions.


In the last decades the development of bone substitutes characterized by a superior biomimetism has become of particular interest, owing to the increasing economic and societal impact of the bone diseases.
In the present work of research the development of bone substitutes characterized by improved biomimetism, has been faced in a chemical, structural and morphological perspective.
From a chemical point of view, it has been developed the synthesis of hydroxyapatite powders, exhibiting multiple ionic substitutions in both cationic and anionic sites, so to simulate the chemical composition of the natural bone. Particular emphasis has been given to the effect of silicon on the chemical-physical and solubility properties of the obtained hydroxyapatites.
From a structural point of view, it has been developed the synthesis of ceramic composite materials, based on hydroxyapatite and calcium silicates, employed both as a reinforcing phase, to raise the mechanical strength of the composite compared to hydroxyapatite, and as a bioactive phase, able to increase the bioactivity properties of the whole ceramic.
Finally the unique morphological features of the bone were mimicked by taking inspiration by Nature, so that native wood structures were treated in chemical and thermal way to obtain hydroxyapatite porous materials characterized by the same morphology as the native wood.
The results obtained in the present work were positive in all the three different areas of investigation, so to cover the three different aspects of biomimetism, chemical, structural and morphological. Anyway, only at the convergence of the three different fields it is possible to find out the best solutions to develop the ideal bone-like scaffold. Thus, the future activity should be devoted to solve the problems at the borderline between the different research lines, which hamper this convergence and in consequence, the achievement of a bone scaffold able to mimic the various aspects exhibited by the bone tissue


Providing quality of service (QoS) for Internet-based video streaming applications requires the server and/or client to be network-aware and adaptive. We present a dynamic rate and quality adaptation algorithm where the server varies its sending rate (without varying the quality level) to adapt to the network and client conditions and only as a last resort, does quality adaptation. We place the adaptation logic at the client since it has better knowledge about both the demand (buffer conditions, variable bit-rate requirements) and supply (network conditions). Our approach is unique because the server's sending rate is calculated based on the client's varying demand (consumption rate) and the network status. Also, we do not model the network as a black-box but instead augment endpoint observations with a feedback from the network to represent its status more precisely. To make an informed adaptation decision, the client requires sizes of all frames in the variable bit rate video. But the overhead involved in sending this metadata is significant. So we propose a lossy compression technique to reduce the amount of control information and consequently the overhead. We also present a scheduling algorithm, dynamic scheduling algorithm for reduced trace delivery (DART), to deliver the compressed control information to the client. This algorithm can be used to deliver any form of metadata (like subtitles, alerts, etc.), especially in applications like IP-TV. Simulations show that the proposed techniques can significantly improve user perceived QoS when compared to other popular adaptation methods.


Physical inactivity is a major contributor to non-communicable diseases and many adults and children are insufficiently active to maintain good health. The proportion of children who meet the United Kingdom recommendations for physical activity (at least 60 minutes of moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity each day) has been reported to be as low as 3% for boys and 2% for girls. Systematic reviews on interventions to promote physical activity in childhood have shown that although physical activity is modifiable to some degree most interventions have had only modest and short-term impacts on physical activity. Therefore, novel approaches to physical activity promotion in childhood are required. Dog ownership is a significant societal factor that may be used to encourage and sustain health behaviour change at individual and population levels. A number of observational studies have reported that dog ownership and/or dog walking are associated with increased levels of physical activity. However, evidence is lacking as to whether and how interventions with families and their dogs can be used to promote physical activity. Therefore, the major aim of this thesis was to assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential efficacy of a theory-driven, family-based, dog walking intervention for 9–11 year old children and their families.
However, prior to this it was essential to develop ActiGraph cut-points for measuring physical activity intensity in dogs. The ability to measure the intensity of dog physical activity accurately was important as it allows for the effectiveness of dog walking interventions to be tested, therefore another aim of this thesis was to calibrate and cross-validate ActiGraph cut points that can be used to describe physical activity in dogs by intensity. Similarly, no studies have been published previously that assess which factors are related to dog physical activity when measured using ActiGraph accelerometry. It was therefore desirable to explore whether body condition score, breed, age, and neutered status are associated with ActiGraph measured dog physical activity. Furthermore, no published studies have described the spontaneous changes in dog physical activity during substantial weight loss; therefore, another aim of this thesis was to explore changes in physical activity in dogs during a 6 month calorie controlled weight loss programme.
Using Receiver Operating Curve analyses Chapter 2 showed that the ActiGraph GT3X can accurately measure the amount of time a dog spends sedentary, in light-moderate intensity physical activity and in vigorous intensity physical activity. The sensitivity and specificity of the cut-points developed when using both the integrated axes and vertical axis accelerometry data were high. Agreement between the accelerometer data and direct observation in the cross-validation subset was also 'very good' (as measured by Cohen's Kappa). This indicates that the ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer is accurate when measuring the intensity of physical activity in dogs, facilitating the use of the ActiGraph GT3X to describe the frequency, intensity and duration of dog physical activity in Chapters 3-6 of this thesis.
Chapter 3 shows that, in a sample of dogs of varying breed and body condition scores, obese dogs spend significantly less time in ActiGraph measured vigorous intensity physical activity than ideal weight dogs (6 ± 3minutes/day versus 20 ± 14 minutes/day). Chapter 4 focussed on the factors related with physical activity in the two most commonly registered dog breeds in the United Kingdom, Labrador Retrievers and Cocker Spaniels. Five potential correlates (age, sex, breed, neuter status, body condition score) were tested with associations with ActiGraph measured physical activity. Age and breed were associated with total volume of physical activity, light-moderate intensity physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the final models and age was also associated with vigorous intensity physical activity. Unlike Chapter 3 body condition score was not related with any physical activity variables. Chapter 5 explored the changes in physical activity and sedentary time during weight loss in dogs enrolled in a 6 month calorie controlled weight loss programme. Despite an average weight loss of 15% body weight from baseline there was no marked increase in any ActiGraph measured physical activity variable.
Chapter 6 describes the results of the Children Parents and Pets Exercising Together (CPET) Study. CPET was the first exploratory randomised controlled trial to develop and evaluate an intervention aimed at dog-based physical activity promotion in children, their parents and pet dogs. The results show that the CPET intervention was both feasible and acceptable to study participants. Eighty-nine percent of families enrolled in CPET were retained at follow up. Ninety-five percent of intervention sessions were delivered and ActiGraph measured physical activity data were collected for 100% of children, 96% of parents and 96% of dogs at baseline, and 100% of children, 96% of parents and 96% of dogs available at follow up. Despite the apparent feasibility and acceptability of CPET there was no significant change in the primary outcome measure (child physical activity) or the majority of the secondary measures.
This thesis shows that the ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer is capable of accurately measuring the intensity of dog physical activity. It also shows that obesity may be related to lower levels of objectively measured vigorous intensity physical activity and the physical activity levels in dogs decline with age and vary by breed. However, it appears that physical activity levels do not increase spontaneously as dogs lose substantial amounts of body weight. Using pet dogs as the agent of lifestyle change in physical activity interventions in children and their parents is both feasible and acceptable; however, the lack of any apparent increase in child physical activity suggests that the intervention may need to be modified in a future, more definitive trial.
In summary, the findings of this thesis have important implications for the measurement of physical activity intensity in dogs, the understanding of factors associated with dog physical activity and for the development of dog-walking interventions in children and their parents.


The acquisition of diminutives in Spanish, facilitated by phonoprosodical, morphological and pragmatic means, becomes more than a simple morphopragmatic device to be acquired. We propose that it provides the child with essential cues for grammatical segmentation, which proves very useful in later stages of language development.
To test this hypothesis, an analysis of two longitudinal corpora of Spanish L1 has been carried out. Quantitative considerations included type/token ratio in children and cds across ages and word classes; qualitative considerations included a search for the emergence of the first contrast (mini-paradigms). Both perspectives confirm a pattern of a very rapid development and mastery of diminutive formation.
Some other aspects, such as morphophonology, suffix selection and spontaneity versus imitation, are also considered. We round up with some considerations regarding the semantics and pragmatics of diminutives in Spanish.


The continued expansion of mobile network coverage in rural Africa provides an opportunity for simple and low-cost hydroinformatic innovations to measure and transmit data on handpump use for policy and management improvements. We design, build and test a Waterpoint Data Transmitter to determine its robustness, functionality and scalability. Results demonstrate that this novel application using simple microprocessor, accelerometer and global system for mobile communications (GSM) components has significant potential in recording graduated time-step information flows of lever pumps which can be modelled into a reasonable water volume use approximation. Given the systemic informational deficit for rural waterpoints in Africa, where one in three handpumps is likely to be non-functioning, this innovation has the potential to provide universal, low-cost and immediate data to guide timely maintenance responses and planning decisions, as well as drive greater accountability and transparency in donor and government behaviour.


This chapter examines the advantages and disadvantages of various reagents to complement as applied to the diagnosis of different types of rejection in transplants. Activation of the complement cascade produces many split products that do not bind to tissues or that are released from tissues. These fluid-phase products can be detected in plasma, serum, urine, and bronchoalveolar lavage samples. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits are available to quantitate soluble split products in fluids. Hyperacute rejection is the most unambiguous example of complement-mediated injury to transplants. In hyperacute rejection, complement activation is initiated by large amounts of antibody binding to antigens on the endothelial cells of the transplanted organ. The most characteristic features of hyperacute rejection can be predicted from our knowledge of complement. Complement can be a useful adjunct in diagnosing and directing treatment of transplant rejection. Currently, the tissue-associated final split products of C4b and C3b, namely, C4d and C3d, are the most useful markers of antibody-mediated rejection. Both C4d and C3d offer the advantages of being produced in large amounts and binding covalently to tissues. Monoclonal antibodies to neoantigens on C4d and C3d that are not accessible in the unactivated precursors are available. Although these markers have provided significant diagnostic advances for organ transplantation, appropriate interpretation requires additional information, including testing for circulating antibodies to donor antigens and correlation with clinical evidence of graft dysfunction.


Introduction Dr. Alan Steele is Canada's Chief Metrologist and General Manager of NRC Measurement Science and Standards. In his previous role, he served as Director, Metrology, at the NRC Institute for National Measurement Standards, where he oversaw research and measurement science activities for the Institute's physical and chemical metrology programs. Dr. Steele holds a BSc in physics from the University of Toronto (1984) and a PhD in solidstate physics from Simon Fraser University (1988). He joined NRC in 1991, following a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship at King's College, London, UK. Dr. Steele is well known on the international scene for his work within the Sistema Interamericano de Metrologia (SIM); in the Joint Committee of the Regional Metrology Organizations; and as NRC representative to the Board of NCSLI International. In 2008, he served as a Co-Director of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) Summer School, and he was Chair of the BIPM Workshop on Metrology at the Nanoscale in 2011. Dr. Alan Steele General Manager, Measurement Science and Standards National Research Council Canada


The theoretical and experimental aspects concerning the typical bubble shape at the flow line of a standard domestic central heating system are investigated. This is done in support of the on-going research on two-phase flows in domestic central heating systems. Bubble nucleation and detachment at the primary heat exchanger wall of a domestic central heating boiler results in a bubbly two-phase flow in the system pipe work. Bubbly flow results in undesired cold spots at higher points in the system, consequently diminishing system performance. An experimental analysis was done on the bubble shape at the exit of the boiler through the application of photographic techniques. The results are presented in terms of the measured bubble aspect ratios at some principal system operating conditions. The dimensionless Eotvos and bubble Reynolds number were calculated and tabulated with the measured mean diameters. The data was subsequently correlated to the bubble shape regime diagram. Results suggest that most bubbles are quasi-spherical in shape with a noticeable elongation at lower bulk fluid Reynolds numbers.


We present a novel model architecture which leverages deep learning tools to perform exact Bayesian inference on sets of high dimensional, complex observations. Our model is provably exchangeable, meaning that the joint distribution over observations is invariant under permutation: this property lies at the heart of Bayesian inference. The model does not require variational approximations to train, and new samples can be generated conditional on previous samples, with cost linear in the size of the conditioning set. The advantages of our architecture are demonstrated on learning tasks requiring generalisation from short observed sequences while modelling sequence variability, such as conditional image generation, few-shot learning, set completion, and anomaly detection.


Background: While urinary incontinence (UI) is a common and worrying issue among older people, promoting the use of evidence to prevent UI onset has rarely been studied. An earlier study that was conducted in nursing homes suggests that UI can be better assessed and managed, but the prevention of UI onset requires attention to the issue by staff within acute care settings. Aim: To report on the internal facilitators' (IF) transition, identifying the 'know-do gap' between evidence and practice in UI prevention in orthopaedic care.Methods: The Onset PrevenTion of Incontinence in Orthopaedic Nursing and rehabilitation (OPTION) pilot was carried out in two Swedish orthopaedic units of different size and location. The pilot project included a programme to support nursing and rehab staff to facilitate knowledge translation (KT). Five IFs were interviewed at baseline, and one and three months after the intervention was completed, and non-participant observations were performed during the KT-intervention. Interviews and observations were triangulated, depicting when and how the IFs identified the present, local UI practice, the evidence on UI, and the know-do gap in preventing UI onset in older patients undergoing hip surgery.Results: Preliminary results indicate that before the study, neither the IFs nor their fellows at the units were aware that they could prevent UI onset. Rather, through mapping their context and matching the evidence provided by the dialogue with the experts in the KTintervention, the IFs became aware of which practice was evidence based and which evidence to implement, and how to facilitate KT and promote evidence use.Conclusion: The OPTION pilot indicates that KT can be promoted by tailored implementation strategies and tailoring evidence, supported by IFs awareness and understanding of the local know-do gap, and strategies to overcome barriers and promote use of evidence.


This article looks at the controversial music genre Oi! in relation to youth cultural identity in late 1970s and early 1980s Britain. By examining the six compilation albums released to promote Oi! as a distinct strand of punk, it seeks to challenge prevailing dismissals of the genre as inherently racist or bound to the politics of the far right. Rather, Oi! – like punk more generally – was a contested cultural form. It was, moreover, centred primarily on questions of class and locality. To this end, Oi! sought to realise the working-class rebellion of punk's early aesthetic; to give substance to its street-level pretentions and offer a genuine 'song from the streets'.


This paper explores non-use and technology resistance among musicians and enthusiasts devoted to analog synthesizers (particularly vintage synthesizers from the 1970s), and the recent influx of software simulations that often elicit critical and negative reactions among this group of devotees. Drawing on a combination of assemblage theory and affect theory this paper presents a case study of a prominent online music community and asks: What does this particular instance of technological resistance reveal about the social construction of technology and the on-going emotional and material negotiations that constitute digital and analog experiences? Results show that the possession or appreciation of analog synthesizers and the rejection of their digital counterparts is less about composing music or playing with others and more about a solitary activity that is deeply emotional, experiential and carefully untainted by the impurity of digital processing and equipment.


The EU right to be forgotten is a new privacy right that has sparked great controversy around the world. As more countries consider adopting such a right, the controversy will only intensify. This Essay is intended to map the various alternatives countries and search engines have in reconciling the potential conflict between the RTBF and the free speech interest in access to information. The solutions are far more varied than the all-or-nothing assumption implicit in the media's portrayal of the issue. In the conflict between privacy and free speech, there doesn't necessarily have to be a loser.


Independent studies have shown that candidate genes for dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI) impact upon reading/language-specific traits in the general population. To further explore the effect of disorder-associated genes on cognitive functions, we investigated whether they play a role in broader cognitive traits. We tested a panel of dyslexia and SLI genetic risk factors for association with two measures of general cognitive abilities, or IQ, (verbal and non-verbal) in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort (N>5,000). Only the MRPL19/C2ORF3 locus showed statistically significant association (minimum P = 0.00009) which was further supported by independent replications following analysis in four other cohorts. In addition, a fifth independent sample showed association between the MRPL19/C2ORF3 locus and white matter structure in the posterior part of the corpus callosum and cingulum, connecting large parts of the cortex in the parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. These findings suggest that this locus, originally identified as being associated with dyslexia, is likely to harbour genetic variants associated with general cognitive abilities by influencing white matter structure in localised neuronal regions.


One of the most important periods of Greek history lies between the Persian king Xerxes' defeat at Greek hands in 479 B.C.E. and the destruction of the power of Athens in 404 B.C.E. A major problem in this era is how and when Athens managed to transform the free alliance against Persia into an empire of Athenian subjects: "The Athenian Empire Restored" presents a sustained challenge to the dating and interpretation of this process. This volume collects Harold B. Mattingly's most important essays on the question, and offers them in updated form together with a new introduction and notes, and a concordance of inscriptions. A preface by Mortimer Chambers helps place the volume amid the decades- long controversy about events in and around Athens, and describes the scientific technique that has proven Mattingly's argument. Drawing on meticulous study of ancient coins, civic or religious inscriptions, and political decrees, Mattingly contends that the historical record has been badly muddled by over-reliance on "letter forms," or the "handwriting" on inscriptions made by stone-cutters, as a criterion for dating fifth-century inscriptions from the district of Attica. In the process of establishing a sounder methodology for investigating this crucial period of Greek--and Western--history, Mattingly in these groundbreaking essays turns a beacon of light on many aspects of Greek and Athenian society and history. "The Athenian Empire Restored" will be eagerly received by historians, students and scholars of Greek culture and literature, and archaeologists in many fields."


Before the Aftermath: A Pedagogy for Disaster Responsiveness examines how teachers of writing at the college level can respond to social, natural, or political disasters that interrupt their classes. As disaster becomes an increasingly prominent feature of contemporary life, teachers are encountering it in their work, and being forced to address these circumstances pedagogically. This project extends from that premise to explore what teachers who experience disaster do to address these disruptions, and to offer strategies of preparedness that can be deployed in teacher training efforts to better equip them to respond. From cases including the classroom responses of teachers to Hurricane Sandy in New York City in 2012, and the online circulation of strategies for response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, I demonstrate the complexities of choosing to address disruption, a task that requires teachers to attend to classroom emotions, to the stories of marginalized groups affected by the events, and to embrace the necessary failure of any pedagogical response to disaster. For scholars in rhetoric, composition, and writing studies, this project offers a critical vocabulary for understanding and engaging with unpredictable and often tragic circumstances of teaching by (1) theorizing disaster as a rhetorical situation of teaching and learning, and (2) offering concrete pedagogical strategies and orientations they can use in response. Ultimately, this project asks us to view teachers as a kind of "first responder" in their classrooms, and to view teaching in the wake of disaster as an ethical responsibility in an adversity-laden age.


During the second half of the twentieth century, Scandinavian potters and glassmakers drew on elements present in China and Japan during the period of the Sung Dynasty to produce pieces of beauty and elegance that combined subtle glazes and classical shapes. The qualities came to characterize Scandinavian design in combining the fundamentals of craftsmanship, quality, subtlety, and a relationship to the natural surroundings. With 380 color photographs to illustrate the work, this book is a must for the ceramics and glass collector as well as those who appreciate the results of a collaboration between artist and nature. Concentrating on designs produced in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland following World War II, the book presents the works of ceramics companies such as RA**rstrand, Gustavsberg, Arabia, Saxbo, and Palshus, as well as the glass of Orrefors, Kosta, and Iittala. Designs by some of the greatest names in contemporary Scandinavian ceramic and glass design, including Berndt Friberg, Stig Lindberg, Gunnar Nylund, Wilhelm KAY**ge, Edward Hald, Sven Palmqvist, Tapio Wirkkala, Timo Sarpaneva, and Vicke Lindstrand, will be appreciated by all students of twentieth century design. The guide to current prices will please the collector.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is receiving an increasing amount of popularity, therefore it is important to know how communication technologies, used in wireless sensor networks, are being affected by devices that are already commonly used, to prevent errors or in the worst case a denial of service. This particular case studies Bluetooth based wireless sensor networks and the interference Wi-Fi has on the operation of Bluetooth in these networks. To examine the influence of Wi-Fi on the operation of Bluetooth, a demonstration model was made with a Bluetooth sensor and a Raspberry Pi with a Bluetooth adapter. This demonstration model was used together with three Wi-Fi routers used to cause interference and a spectrum analyser. The measurements showed that Bluetooth uses unused channels outside the frequency band used by active Wi-Fi channels. In the end it proved to be impossible to disable the Bluetooth connection with the used setup and there are much more routers needed to cause interference to all available Bluetooth channels.


Numerous applications of cyber-physical systems in safetycritical spheres of human activity are the main reason for the fact that the development of methods intended for on-line faults diagnoses in these systems is one of the actual problems. One of the essential sub-problems for this problem is elaboration of models and methods intended for online checking of faults in cyber-physical systems. In the given paper this sub-problem is investigated under the supposition that these systems can be modeled by the 1-dimensional hybrid automata defined in the given paper. On the base of this model-based approach, some completely distributed system intended for on-line monitoring and fault components isolation in cyber-physical systems is proposed. This system consists of controllers of two types. Controllers of the first type are intended for checking the dynamics of physical processes, while controllers of the second type are intended for checking switching between dynamics. The structure of both types of proposed controllers is considered in detail. Necessary and sufficient conditions that guarantee for both types of proposed controllers that they carry out correct on-line checking are established and proved.


Access to realistic, complex graph datasets is critical to research on social networking systems and applications. Simulations on graph data provide critical evaluation of new systems and applications ranging from community detection to spam filtering and social web search. Due to the high time and resource costs of gathering real graph datasets through direct measurements, researchers are anonymizing and sharing a small number of valuable datasets with the community. However, performing experiments using shared real datasets faces three key disadvantages: concerns that graphs can be de-anonymized to reveal private information, increasing costs of distributing large datasets, and that a small number of available social graphs limits the statistical confidence in the results.
 The use of measurement-calibrated graph models is an attractive alternative to sharing datasets. Researchers can "fit" a graph model to a real social graph, extract a set of model parameters, and use them to generate multiple synthetic graphs statistically similar to the original graph. While numerous graph models have been proposed, it is unclear if they can produce synthetic graphs that accurately match the properties of the original graphs. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of measurement-calibrated synthetic graphs using six popular graph models and a variety of real social graphs gathered from the Facebook social network ranging from 30,000 to 3 million edges. We find that two models consistently produce synthetic graphs with common graph metric values similar to those of the original graphs. However, only one produces high fidelity results in our application-level benchmarks. While this shows that graph models can produce realistic synthetic graphs, it also highlights the fact that current graph metrics remain incomplete, and some applications expose graph properties that do not map to existing metrics.


Introduction: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic factor. Intense angiogenesis has been found in active pulmonary tuberculosis. VEGF role in tuberculosis (TB) has not been fully elucidated. Aim: This study aimed to measure serum VEGF levels in active pulmonary tuberculosis and changes following chemotherapy. Subjects and Methods: Twenty five consecutive patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and 15 healthy control subjects were enrolled in this prospective randomized controlled study. Complete medical history, full clinical examination, complete blood examination, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, liver function tests, kidney function tests, fasting blood sugar, radiological examination by plain X ray chest, tuberculin skin test by Mantoux method, sputum for acidfast bacilli by Zeil Neilsen stain and estimation of serum VEGF before treatment, 3 months and 6 months after treatment. Results: There was no statistical significant difference (p value >0.05) between patients and control group regarding age in years (with a mean of 36.75 8.95 for patients and 26.24.4 for control group) and smoking index in packs/year (with a mean of 239.65 215.40 for patients and 190.6 115.2 for control group). There was a highly statistical significant difference(p value<0.001) between patients pretreatment and control group as regarding serum VEGF (pg/ml)(with a mean of 596.02  298.15 for patients and 336.61 70.45 for control group). There was statistical significant difference(p value<0.05) between patients, 3 months after treatment and control group as regarding serum VEGF(pg/ml) (with a mean of 490.01 290.14 for patients and 336.60 70.45 for control group).There was a statistical significant difference(p value<0.05) between patients,6 months after treatment and control group as regarding serum VEGF( pg/m) (with a mean of 380.01 280.13 for patients and 336.6  70.45 for control group). There was a statistical significant difference (p value<0.05) for serum VEGF levels(pg/ml) in patients pretreatment, 3 and 6 months after treatment( with a mean of 596.02  218.15 pretreatment, 490.01240.11 three months after treatment, 380.01217.12 six months after treatment). In conclusion: our observations revealed that increased serum VEGF may be an indicator of active pulmonary tuberculosis, since levels were higher in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and were lower after successfull treatment. The role of VEGF medicated angiogenesis in pathogenesis and progression of pulmonary tuberculosis lesions should be further elucidated. [Magdy Omar, Tawfik ElAdl, Samir Abdullah, Hossam Hamza, Tawfik ElAdl and Mostafa Neamatallah. Clinical Implications for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Levels among Egyptians with Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Life Sci J 2013;10(1):2978-2983]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 364


The book offers technologies and a system, in which seismic-acoustic information from deep strata of the earth is received by means of acoustic sensors (hydrophones) installed at heads of suspended oil wells. The information on the state of seismic stability of construction objects is sent from sensors installed in vulnerable units of buildings to local systems. Robust noise analysis of both seismic-acoustic data and the data received from all local systems carried out on the system server is used to perform monitoring of the beginning of origin of anomalous seismic processes and change in seismic stability of most vulnerable construction objects. The book is published under the general leadership and editorship of Professor Telman Aliev and is a collaboration effort. Names of authors are given in the beginning of each part.


The staphylococcal alpha-toxin and bipartite leucotoxins belong to a single family of pore-forming toxins that are rich in beta-strands, although the stoichiometry and electrophysiological characteristics of their pores are different. The different known structures show a common beta-sandwich domain that plays a key role in subunit-subunit interactions, which could be targeted to inhibit oligomerization of these toxins. We used several cysteine mutants of both HlgA (gamma-haemolysin A) and HlgB (gamma-haemolysin B) to challenge 20 heterodimers linked by disulphide bridges. A new strategy was developed in order to obtain a good yield for S-S bond formation and dimer stabilization. Functions of the pores formed by 14 purified dimers were investigated on model membranes, i.e. planar lipid bilayers and large unilamellar vesicles, and on target cells, i.e. rabbit and human red blood cells and polymorphonuclear neutrophils. We observed that dimers HlgA T28C-HlgB N156C and HlgA T21C-HlgB T157C form pores with similar characteristics as the wild-type toxin, thus suggesting that the mutated residues are facing one another, allowing pore formation. Our results also confirm the octameric stoichiometry of the leucotoxin pores, as well as the parity of the two monomers in the pore. Correctly assembled heterodimers thus constitute the minimal functional unit of leucotoxins. We propose amino acids involved in interactions at one of the two interfaces for an assembled leucotoxin.


Although M&As activity has been increasing in late years, the failure rate of M&As is still very high. Due to the high stakes involved, international business negotiations in this context become vital for a firm's successful performance. The literature has paid little consideration to the negotiation process involved in these transactions. In general, the literature on negotiations is focussed on a few categories of interest and has been considered fragmented and a-theoretical. A well conducted negotiation process could influence the underperformance of a number of M&As, reducing the associated failure rate. This study focuses on how international business negotiations take place in cross-border M&As and how they contribute to the positive outcome of the deal. In particular, the case-study of the Unicredito Italiano's acquisition of Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank (HVB), one of the largest deals in Europe to date, is examined. Based on the case under study, five main areas that should be considered during negotiations in order to ensure a successful outcome have been identified, namely: (1) condition of the negotiation, (2) cultural influences, (3) negotiators 'characteristics, (4) the negotiation situation itself, that is the pre-negotiation and the face-to-face negotiation stages, and (5) the outcome of the negotiation or post-negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Economics & Management is the property of Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Economics & Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)


Quantum sources and single photon detectors have improved, allowing quantum algorithms for communication, encryption, computing, and sensing to transition from theory and small-scale laboratory experiments to field experiments. One such quantum algorithm, Quantum Key Distribution, uses optical pulses to generate shared random bit strings between two locations. These shared bit strings can be turned into encryption keys to be used as a one-time-pad or integrated with symmetric encryption techniques such as the Advanced Encryption Standard. This method of key generation and encryption is resistant to future advances in quantum computing which significantly degrade the effectiveness of current asymmetric key sharing techniques. This research first reviews previous and current efforts in free-space Quantum Key Distribution. Next, a derivation of the propagation and atmospheric simulation techniques used to model the propagation of an optical pulse from a LEO satellite to ground through turbulence is provided. An Adaptive Optics system, including both lower order tracking as well as higher order corrections using a Self-Referencing Interferometer, is modeled to correct for the aberrations caused by the atmosphere. The propagation, atmospheric, and adaptive optics models are then organized into a general optical propagation toolkit. Satellite positions are calculated using the Simplified General Perturbations model and are used with the optical propagation models to show the effects of using an adaptive optics system during a realistic satellite pass. Finally, the results from the models are compared to experimental data taken from a recent Japanese satellite experiment. .


Developing a single analytical method for determination of individual drug from a multidrug composition is a very difficult task. The present work describes a simple, rapid, precise reverse phase chromatographic method that has been developed and validated for simultaneous estimation of multicomponent cream formulation containing Lignocaine HCl, Beclomethasone dipropionate and Phenylepherine HCl. The estimation was carried out on Hypersil BDS C18 (5 µm × 25 cm × 4.6 mm i.d.) column using a mixture of ammonium acetate buffer pH 5.0 and methanol in the ratio 60:40(v/v) as a mobile phase, at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min and detection was performed at 222 nm. Three drugs Lignocaine HCl, Beclomethasone dipropionate and Phenylepherine HCl were eluted at the retention times of 3.3 min, 4.1 min and 11.49 min, respectively. The method was validated for accuracy, precision, linearity, specificity and sensitivity as per ICH guideline. The validated method is a rapid and cost effective and successfully applied to the commercially available pharmaceutical dosage form, yielding very good and reproducible result.


What process determines the quality of website interactivity on congressional webpages? While long-entrenched incumbents are perhaps unlikely to robustly embrace new technology wholesale, one might expect freshmen members to be able to reflect on technical best practice standards when designing a website from scratch. We test these expectations using two waves of data coded from the official websites of the U.S. House of Representatives, for the years 2006 and 2007. We observe that incumbents show considerable path dependence in their website technology adoptions, while the websites of the freshmen who won election in 2006 are largely independent of the web designs of their corresponding predecessors. This independence does not mean, however, that freshmen are using technical best practice standards as their benchmark. Instead, the web design practices of freshmen appear to be governed by the distribution of existing practices among incumbents, a process we label "distributional path dependence."


No issue in higher education is as salient, or as controversial, as finance. As demand for higher education around the world grows, so do the costs associated with it, especially as governments shoulder less of the burden. Tuition fees rise and student loan debt grows. Who pays for these surging costs? Who should pay? D. Bruce Johnstone and Pamela N. Marcucci examine the universal phenomenon of cost-sharing in higher education-where financial responsibility shifts from governments and taxpayers to students and families. They find that growing costs for education far outpace public revenue streams that once supported it. Even with financial aid and scholarships defraying some of these costs, students are responsible for a greater share of the cost of higher education. Featuring comprehensive economic and policy data, the authors' international comparative approach shows how economically diverse countries all face similar cost-sharing challenges. So, who should pay for higher education? While cost-sharing is both politically and ideologically debated, Johnstone and Marcucci contend that, for almost all countries, it is imperative for the financial health of colleges and universities, bringing better efficiency, equity, and responsiveness. Financing Higher Education Worldwide combines sophisticated economic explanations with sensitive political and cultural analyses of the financial pressures facing higher education throughout the world.


We investigated whether chloroquine- or mefloquine-resistant Plasmodium berghei could be selected through drug pressure applied during continuous cyclical transmission in Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were infected by feeding them on mice previously inoculated with a drug-sensitive clone of P. berghei ANKA. Mosquitoes ingested mefloquine or chloroquine with the infectious blood-meal, or by feeding on a drug-treated (uninfected) mouse 4 or 10 days after the infectious blood-meal. Twenty-two days after being infected, mosquitoes transmitted sporozoites to uninfected mice. Blood from these animals was used to infect naive mice that were then used to reinitiate the mouse/mosquito/mouse cycle. A total of 20 passages through mosquitoes were completed while under drug pressure. Drug-resistance levels were assessed in the initial clone and after 20 passages through mosquitoes. None of 18 "sub-clones" of parasites showed significant increases in chloroquine or mefloquine resistance, suggesting that exposure of sporogonic stage Plasmodium to chloroquine or mefloquine will not result in the development of drug resistance.


We present results for nu(mu) oscillation in the KEK to Kamioka (K2K) long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. K2K uses an accelerator-produced nu(mu) beam with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV directed at the Super-Kamiokande detector. We observed the energy-dependent disappearance of nu(mu), which we presume have oscillated to nu(tau). The probability that we would observe these results if there is no neutrino oscillation is 0.0050% (4.0 sigma).


Collecting three lesser-known works by one of the nineteenth century's greatest authors, Jane Austen's "Lady Susan", "The Watsons" and "Sanditon" is edited with an introduction by Margaret Drabble in "Penguin Classics". These three short works show Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings. The early epistolary novel "Lady Susan" depicts an unscrupulous coquette, toying with the affections of several men. In contrast, "The Watsons" is a delightful fragment, whose spirited heroine Emma Watson finds her marriage opportunities limited by poverty and pride. Written in the last months of Austen's life, the uncompleted novel "Sanditon", set in a newly established seaside resort, offers a glorious cast of hypochondriacs and speculators, and shows an author contemplating a the great social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution with a mixture of scepticism and amusement. Margaret Drabble's introduction examines these three works in the context of Jane Austen's major novels and her life, and discusses the social background of her fiction. This edition features a new chronology. Jane Austen (1775-1817) was extremely modest about her own genius but has become one of English literature's most famous women writers. Austen began writing at a young age, embarking on what is possibly her best-known work, "Pride and Prejudice", at the age of 22. She was also the author of "Sense and Sensibility", "Persuasion", "Northanger Abbey" and "Mansfield Park". If you enjoyed "Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon", you may like Charlotte Bronte's "Tales of Angria", also available in "Penguin Classics". "In ["Sanditon"] she exploits her greatest gifts, her management of dialogue and her skill with monologue. The book feels open and modern ...as vigorous and inventive as her earlier work". (Carol Shields).


Video transcoding is a generic name for a video gateway structure whereby the tandeming process does not involve any high complexity cascaded decoding and re-encoding operations in contrast to the existing conventional solutions. Diverse multimedia communication network characteristics, such as bandwidth limitations and varying congestion conditions, incur quality degradation in video transmissions. The matching of input and output network constraints and characteristics is possible with video transcoding at a centralised unit within the network. Moreover, video transcoding also provides a suitable translation mechanism for different video compression standards achieving a transparent interconnection between diverse network topologies. In addition, video transcoding offers a method for providing robustness against transmission error effects which occur during the transmission of compressed video streams over highly bandwidth- restricted communication media, such as popular mobile-wireless networks. Due to the severe bandwidth restrictions of such networks, the video signals require low bit rate coding which in turn renders video streams highly susceptible to radio channel errors. Therefore, error-resilient operations also need to be provided together with the syntax and transmission rate translation features of video transcoders. The unique features of video transcoding provide flexible and efficient ways to alleviate the previously addressed three major issues for various requirements. These requirements can be imposed by the diversity of networks on which numerous applications are running or by different standards themselves as well as by a wide range of users. This is strictly related to a universal interoperability issue of heterogeneous characteristics and requirements which demand effective end-to-end solutions. Thus, the aim of this research presented in this thesis is to develop algorithms for the provision of such remedial solutions to the interoperability problem. In the light of these facts, the research work focuses on the design of various video transcoding algorithms. The objectives of these algorithms are to ease network congestion and/or user bandwidth limitation conditions, support essential standard conversions between different compression schemes and provide necessary error robustness over highly error-prone transmission media, such as mobile radio networks. The ultimate target is to establish a common platform where all the above three aims are successfully satisfied. Extensive computer simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed and designed systems, throughout the course of the research work. These simulations are assessed with the use of objective and subjective performance measures.


The employment experience of current and former welfare recipients is improving rapidly enough that their eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) will be significantly greater than many had earlier thought. Nonetheless, we can expect the welfare rolls to rise significantly with increases in the national unemployment rate. Only about 40% of all unemployed workers collected UI during the most recent economic downturn. It's unlikely that this percentage will be higher among unemployed welfare recipients in the next recession. The paper proposes several state and federal changes in UI and cash assistance that would raise eligibility among low-wage workers.


Natural killer (NK) cells have important functions in cancer immunosurveillance, BM allograft rejection, fighting infections, tissue homeostasis, and reproduction. NK cell-based therapies are promising treatments for blood cancers. Overcoming their currently limited efficacy requires a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling NK cell development and dampening their effector functions. NK cells recognize the loss of self-antigens or up-regulation of stress-induced ligands on pathogen-infected or tumor cells through invariant NK cell receptors (NKRs), and then kill such stressed cells. Two second-messenger pathways downstream of NKRs are required for NK cell maturation and effector responses: PIP(3) generation by PI3K and generation of diacylglycerol and IP(3) by phospholipase-Cγ (PLCγ). In the present study, we identify a novel role for the phosphorylated IP(3) metabolite inositol (1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate (IP(4)) in NK cells. IP(4) promotes NK cell terminal differentiation and acquisition of a mature NKR repertoire. However, in mature NK cells, IP(4) limits NKR-induced IFNγ secretion, granule exocytosis, and target-cell killing, in part by inhibiting the PIP(3) effector-kinase Akt. This identifies IP(4) as an important novel regulator of NK cell development and function and expands our understanding of the therapeutically important mechanisms dampening NK cell responses. Our results further suggest that PI3K regulation by soluble IP(4) is a broadly important signaling paradigm.


Irrespective of his field of study, the strategist, who is today's somewhat more scientific counterpart of the sorcerer and soothsayer of yesteryear, should in time be able to recognize at what point and to what extent the dynamics of a system shifts from a familiar earlier world to a relatively unknown new world.-Albert Legault and Michel Fortmann(1)CANADIAN PROBLEMS WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY are unlikely to fade, even in the improbable event that the Democrats unseat the president in November 2004. Global political-strategic relationships are in the midst of a profound transformation that will end in either an essentially democratic, environmentally sustainable global community by the middle of this century, or a hell on earth, as a beleaguered, affluent, mostly white minority fight to protect their privileged, apartheid-like existence. George W. Bush's "imperial," "hegemonic," and "primacy"-seeking America is currently attempting to take charge of the core security issues of this process by demanding that the United States be given the primary legitimate authority to deal with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the continuing threat of international terrorism. It is far from clear that Bush's foreign policy will be politically sustainable in the US. His administration's conduct of the Iraq war is not popular at home and deeply distrusted abroad. Bush has defined his task to include the democratization of Iraq, which is almost certainly beyond his army's abilities, given their too small numbers, lack of cultural familiarity with Iraq and inexperience in "peacebuilding."(2) A few thousand more war dead and the transparent failure of "Iraqi-ization" might damage Bush so badly that reelection will be impossible. A precipitate American withdrawal from Iraq coupled, perhaps, with another major terrorist attack against the US--one far worse than 9/11 involving a WMD--could pave the way for an era of neo-isolationism in American foreign policy.A neo-isolationist America would be just as, if not even more, consequential to the outcome of the global transformation process. A critical debate has been occurring within the American national security policy community involving the most fundamental choices about US "grand strategy" for over a decade. Canadians will be powerfully affected by the outcome, and have more than a little interest in promoting a moderate, multilaterally inclined result--the selection of an American geopolitical strategy that does not entail a quest for permanent military superiority over all potential "peer competitors."(3) It is one thing to end up after an evolutionary historical process with military dominance, but it is quite another to set about as a matter of declared national policy to perpetuate that dominance indefinitely. Such hubris has already inspired fear among allies and rivals, and if continued will lead to "balancing" behaviour from other major powers and future crisis instability.(4)Largely because of Canada's 15-year-long extraction of a deficit-fighting "peace dividend" from the Canadian Forces, Ottawa's ability to influence American grand strategy choices is minimal to nil. Canadian international security policy challenges, at their most basic, derive from the severe fiscal myopia of the national political elite, as well as Canadians' wilful ignorance of global geostrategic relationships. In effect, Canada's self-imposed disarmament has said "no" to the Bush team's appeal for help in Iraq far more effectively than "dino" Chretien's skeptical insistence on a legitimating UN framework as the sine qua non for Ottawa's direct involvement. Chretien's careful underreaction and studied avoidance of the language of crisis was part of a broader foreign policy approach that eschewed military involvement--and by implication rejected the American call for an international policy on counterproliferation. If Canadians were to fight for reasons of "alliance solidarity" (i. …


BACKGROUND
Efforts to prevent surgical site infection (SSI) employ methods that are valid scientifically, but each institution and each surgeon also incorporates methods believed to be useful although this has not been proved by clinical trials.

METHODS
The surgical literature was reviewed, as were practices at the University of Virginia that the authors believe are of value for the prevention of SSI.

RESULTS
Preventive antibiotics are established measures. A case can be made for increasing the dose in patients with a large body mass, and antibiotics probably should be re-administered during procedures lasting longer than 3 h. Chlorhexidine showers for the patient are not proven; however, they are inexpensive and of potential benefit. Hair removal is always done with clippers and in the operating room at the time of the procedure. No scientific case can be made specifically for using antiseptic at the surgical site before the incision. Keeping the blood glucose concentration and the core body temperature near normal probably are important, but how close to normal is unclear. Transfusion enhances SSI, but leukocyte reduction of transfused blood may be of benefit. Some evidence supports the value of antibacterial suture in preventing SSI.

CONCLUSIONS
Many proven and potentially valid methods are employed to prevent SSI. Coordinated and standardized protocols with good data collection can assist the multi-disciplinary efforts to reduce SSI within the unique practices of a given institution.


Smallholder dairy development in coastal lowland Kenya is mainly constrained by inadequate nutrition. Since early 1960s high quality forages have been introduced to improve feeding of dairy cattle in the region. A study was conducted to assess the contribution made by these forages to dairy cattle feeding and factors that influence their adoption. The study revealed that introduced forages contributed less than 40 and 25 % of dairy cattle feeding during the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. Natural pasture grasses and broad leaved weeds were the main feeds. However, farmers indicated that the natural forages were of poorer quality than the introduced ones. A major factor affecting adoption of the planted forages was the allocation of farm resources. Farmers gave preference to growing maize because it is the staple food crop in the region. Other factors farmers considered were, seasonal availability of natural forages, access to extension advice, availability of planting materials, profitability of farm enterprises and availability and affordability of supplementary feeds