Summary and Conclusions
1.
Forty % of 1,000 persons in 100 representative families of an underprivileged population group in ward Siloe, Cali, Colombia harbor strains of Entamoeba histolytica, 80% of which belong to the large race; yet clinical manifestations of this infection are rare. The principal food of these persons consists of starches, derived mostly from cooked green plantains and yucca tubers, less commonly macaroni, unfortified bread, Irish potatoes, corn grits, rice and, rarely, white sweet potatoes. Protein and fat supplements, mostly from plant products, are consumed in meager supply and, except for vitamin A in plantains and yucca, vitamins are very inadequate in the diet, while essential minerals are deficient.
2.
Because undigested starch grains, identified as those of plantain and at times yucca, are frequently evacuated in the stools of these individuals, it seemed desirable to investigate the capacity of E. histolytica to ingest and utilize the starches consumed by the population to serve the metabolic needs of the parasite.
3.
A large race E. histolytica, isolated from human feces for pathogenic studies in guinea pigs, was first cultured in vitro with rice starch in Balamuth's monophasic medium. Following a number of subcultures, starches obtained from plantain, yucca, maize, Irish potato, white sweet potato and wheat were substituted for the rice starch, which served as control in parallel tubes. Evidence of satisfactory utilization of these substituted starches was obtained for plantain, Irish potato and white sweet potato (22 subcultures), yucca (28 subcultures) and wheat (29 subcultures), each continued until the experiments were terminated; in contrast, trophozoites in the maize starch died out after the 16th subculture. In addition, two non-Colombian strains of large-race E. histolytica ("200" and "H") were later tested in New Orleans, employing the same Colombian yucca and Irish potato starches in modified LES medium. Both strains started to grow vigorously with the substituted starches; "200" continued through 16 subcultures but "H" died after a few transfers.
4.
The experiments demonstrated the ability of a Colombian strain of E. histolytica to propagate satisfactorily in vitro when plantain, yucca, Irish protato, white sweet potato and wheat starches were substituted for rice starch in the culture medium, partial success with corn starch, and for yucca and Irish potato starches to serve the metabolic needs of one non-Colombian strain ("200") through numerous transfers.
5.
In considering the culture tests with respect to the infected population, controlled nutritional studies in many parts of the world indicate that inadequate protein intake such as exists in our population provokes deficient pancreatic and intestinal enzyme production (e.g., amylase and maltase), thus probably explaining the presence of plantain and yucca starch grains in the stools of these persons.
6.
Biochemical studies have demonstrated that E. histolytica elaborates amylase and maltase, capable of splitting ingested starch grains and converting them into sugars. The degree of utilization depends on whether the starches contain large amounts of amylopectin (branched-chain component, most easily hydrolyzed by the ameba) or principally amylose (straight-chain component, more resistant to hydrolysis by the ameba). Rice and Irish potato starches consist mostly of the former component, maize, wheat and sweet potato starches of the latter, while the other two starches tested are intermediate in their molecular configuration.
7.
Relating the tests carried out in this study with nutritional investigations and the biochemical analyses, it seems permissible to consider the sequence of events as follows: (a) protein malnutrition produces pancreatic and intestinal enzyme deficiency so that ingested starches are inadequately hydrolyzed, with consequent passage of intact starch grains through the intestine and their evacuation in the stools; (b) E. histolytica trophozoites colonizing in the large intestine utilize certain of these starches for their metabolic needs and thus are usually able to maintain their colonies in the intestinal crypts without deep invasion of the intestinal wall; (c) this last link in the chain may explain why the infected population harbors E. histolytica as an essentially asymptomatic infection, even though collateral studies have demonstrated that large race strains of this ameba in this geographic area are highly pathogenic.
8.
Although biochemical tests and our studies indicate that size of the starch grains is not the only factor concerned with the ameba's ability to utilize intact starch grains present in its immediate environment, if trophozoites belonging to a small race are physically incapable of ingesting the starch grains, a plausible explanation is provided for the difficulty frequently experienced in getting small races into culture, even when the starch is of a demonstrably utilizable type.


After the Estonian census 2011 the census team found that there was some under-coverage of the census data. To determine the amount of non-enumerated people the following procedure was used. The set of people belonging to Estonian population register as residents, but not enumerated in census 2011 were regarded as potential residents. All existing administrative registers were used to define the signs of life for these people: activity in a register during 2011 gave to a person a sign of life. The signs of life were used as binary variables to discriminant the residents and non-residents. The following task was to use the methodology for following years and to cover the whole population. Hence we decided to define for each person from the population a residency index between 0 and 1 that will be recalculated yearly using the signs of life.


Phishing websites, fraudulent sites that impersonate a trusted third party to gain access to private data, continue to cost Internet users over a billion dollars each year. In this paper, we describe the design and performance characteristics of a scalable machine learning classifier we developed to detect phishing websites. We use this classifier to maintain Google's phishing blacklist automatically. Our classifier analyzes millions of pages a day, examining the URL and the contents of a page to determine whether or not a page is phishing. Unlike previous work in this field, we train the classifier on a noisy dataset consisting of millions of samples from previously collected live classification data. Despite the noise in the training data, our classifier learns a robust model for identifying phishing pages which correctly classifies more than 90% of phishing pages several weeks after training concludes.


South Africa has produced many sporting greats; men and women who have achieved phenomenal successes. Penny Heyns is one such icon. Her medal record includes not only 14 individual world records in breaststroke, but also being the only woman in the history of the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996) to have won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. She is South Africa's first post-apartheid Olympic gold medallist following the re-admission in 1992 - the first in 44 years.


WiMAX is the first standard technology to deliver true broadband mobility at speeds that enable powerful multimedia applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), online gaming, mobile TV, and personalized infotainment. WiMAX Security and Quality of Service, focuses on the interdisciplinary subject of advanced Security and Quality of Service (QoS) in WiMAX wireless telecommunication systems including its models, standards, implementations, and applications. Split into 4 parts, Part A of the book is an end-to-end overview of the WiMAX architecture, protocol, and system requirements. Security is an essential element in the wireless world and Part B is fully dedicated to this topic. Part C provides an in depth analysis of QoS, including mobility management in WiMAX. Finally, Part D introduces the reader to advanced and future topics. One of the first texts to cover security, QoS and deployments of WiMAX in the same book. Introduces the primary concepts of the interdisciplinary nature of WiMAX security and QoS, and also includes discussion of hot topics in the field. Written for engineers and researchers, answering practical questions from industry and the experimental field in academia. Explains how WiMAX applications security and QoS are interconnected and interworked among the cross layers.


The authors present a practical extension to typestate checking, which is capable of proving programs free of uninitialized variable errors even when these programs contain conditionally initialized variables where the initialization of a variable depends upon the equality of one or more tag variables to a constant. The user need not predeclare the relationship between a conditionally initialized variable and its tags, and this relationship may change from one point in the program to another. The technique generalizes liveness analysis to conditional liveness analysis. Like typestate checking, this technique incorporates a dataflow analysis algorithm in which each point in a program is labeled with a lattice point describing statically tracked information, including the initialization of variables. The labeling is then used to check for programming errors such as referencing a variable which may be uninitialized. >


This paper compares internationally-tradeable permits with a uniform carbon price, as seen through the lens of an individual country. To ensure a level playing field, these two approaches are initially calibrated to be welfare-equivalent for the country in a deterministic setting. While both price and quantity instruments have identical consequences under perfect certainty, outcomes differ substantially when uncertainty is introduced. The uncertainty analyzed here takes the reduced form of idiosyncratic country-specific abatement-cost shocks. Then, because of cross-border revenue flows, internationally-tradable permits can expose a country to greater risk than the imposition of a uniform carbon price (whose revenue proceeds are domestically retained). This result is formalized in a very simple model that highlights the core essence of the argument. Some implications are discussed. I suggest that this relative-riskiness result may be a pertinent consideration in choosing between negotiated price-based approaches and negotiated quantity-based approaches for controlling worldwide carbon emissions.


Though best-known for his epic masterpiece Moby-Dick, Herman Melville also left a body of short stories arguably unmatched in American fiction. In the sorrowful tragedy of Billy Budd,Sailor; the controlled rage of Benito Cereno; and the tantalizing enigma of Bartleby, the Scrivener; Melville reveals himself as a singular storyteller of tremendous range and compelling power. In these stories, Melville cuts to the heart of race, class, capitalism, and globalism in America, deftly navigating political and social issues that resonate as clearly in our time as they did in Melville's. Also including The Piazza Tales in full, this collection demonstrates why Melville stands not only among the greatest writers of the nineteenth century, but also as one of our greatest contemporaries. This Penguin Classics edition features the Reading Text of Billy Budd, Sailor, as edited from a genetic study of the manuscript by Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts, Jr., and the authoritative Northwestern-Newberry text of The Piazza Tales.


An analytical model for streaming multiple heterogeneous multimedia services over home networks is established,in which the quality of service (QoS) provisioning problems are investigated. The goal is to simultaneously support as many service streams as possible, and to optimally guarantee all users' QoS within residential environments. A novel admission control algorithm, in conjunction with a quality adaptation scheme is proposed, which is capable of effectively guaranteeing and improving the service quality. Upon examination of the simulation results, we conclude that the proposed model and schemes provide valuable guidelines for the planning of future home networks and multimedia systems


In this paper we address the problem of decision making within a Markov decision process (MDP) framework where risk and modeling errors are taken into account. Our approach is to minimize a risk-sensitive conditional-value-at-risk (CVaR) objective, as opposed to a standard risk-neutral expectation. We refer to such problem as CVaR MDP. Our first contribution is to show that a CVaR objective, besides capturing risk sensitivity, has an alternative interpretation as expected cost under worst-case modeling errors, for a given error budget. This result, which is of independent interest, motivates CVaR MDPs as a unifying framework for risk-sensitive and robust decision making. Our second contribution is to present an approximate value-iteration algorithm for CVaR MDPs and analyze its convergence rate. To our knowledge, this is the first solution algorithm for CVaR MDPs that enjoys error guarantees. Finally, we present results from numerical experiments that corroborate our theoretical findings and show the practicality of our approach.


Few planning practices in the South seem to be equipped with key concepts and technical, empirical and administrative capacities required to comprehend and visualize the phenomenon of poverty at inter- and intra-urban levels, which compromises their ability to inform decision-makers on the effects on poverty reduction of the land-based actions they design, implement and monitor.
 This challenge was addressed from conceptual, technical, empirical, and administrative angles, which correspond to the research objectives. As a result, the study developed a Tool for Strategic Territorial Planning, TSTP™, which – using evidence-based poverty maps – helps urban planners comprehend and visualize the effects of land-based actions on poverty reduction in order to be better equipped to inform decision-makers. A Pro-poor Planning Conceptual Framework was also developed based on the applications of the TSTP™. Particularly, the study used a spiral methodology in which experiences of planning practice were used to reflect on, conceptualise, experiment with and suggest modifications to specific aspects of planning theory, which in turns nourished the same planning practice, as follows. First, the TSTP™ was developed on the bases of observations, literature review and in-depth interviews; then, the proposed technique was tested in two case studies, in which data was collected from surveys, questionnaires and census microdata, and analysed using geographic information systems; and lastly, the reflection on, and conceptualisation of, findings was used to develop the Pro-poor Planning Conceptual Framework using structured discussions, working papers and research workshops.
 The study showed that the use of an evidence-based poverty map technique is of significant importance to promote pro-poor planning practice, not only as a method to visualise the geographical distribution of poverty, but also as a tool to facilitate dialogue amongst different planning stakeholders when defining indicators of poverty, when analysing and discussing the results, and when defining and prioritizing actions. On the other hand, it showed that decentralization in Latin America has been a top-down process initiated in response to systemic economic or political crisis and accompanied by external pressures (as opposed to its motor being the deepening of democracy), and that management of public resources has not improved, participation of civil society is poor, and inter-regional inequalities still persist. Hence, it argued that the causal link between decentralization and democratic development in Latin America appears to be tenuous, which helps to understand why the impact of local planning practice on poverty reduction still looks weak. Six specific findings emerged:
• the combination of poverty and inequality maps help in the identification of deprived urban areas with a clearly defined territory in which to implement pro-poor land-based actions that are in line with scarce resources
• social and physical public interventions need to be combined and articulated in a plan of actions in order to reduce poverty, instead of just displacing the poor
• more attention is required to targeting strategies and to long-term impacts of public programmes and projects in order to effectively and efficiently combat poverty
• the proposed technique is flexible enough to be used in at least four functions of urban planning: diagnostic, simulation, decision-making and monitoring
• the proposed technique alone cannot cope with structural limitations of urban planning, which is why a pro-poor planning conceptual framework was developed
• greater efforts are required in relation to the collection and management of statistical and cartographic data in the South.


We have recently demonstrated the coherent transfer of an optical signal over a 251 km link of optical fiber by use of the standard Doppler-cancellation approach to remove the effects of the fiber-link noise. The fundamental limit to the frequency instability on the transmitted optical frequency is set by residual phase noise on the optical frequency resulting from the unavoidably imperfect Doppler cancellation of the fiber-link noise. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to quantitatively predict the phase noise and instability of the Doppler-cancelled transmitted optical frequency directly from the measured fiber-link noise. The ability to predict the frequency instability from the measured fiber noise can be a useful tool in evaluating whether a coherent fiber optic link is operating at its fundamental limit, or whether there is additional excess noise from the measurement system present in the link.


A main driver of Future Internet applications and services is Quality of Service (QoS). Current Internet technologies provide no suitable QoS support for end-to-end connections due to several drawbacks of IntServ and DiffServ. In this article, we propose the "Forwarding on Gates" (FoG) architecture, which answers the QoS questions by the help of a new inter-network architecture. It applies its own new network protocol, which was designed to handle IntServ and DiffServ in an integrated way. FoG supports resource reservations for QoS guarantees in IntServ scenarios and prioritized traffic in DiffServ scenarios as well as a combination of both. As core advantage, the QoS support of FoG works in a scalable way by allowing a network to move QoS states and delegate decisions about the QoS usage to the entities demanding for QoS. This article describes the architecture, its network protocol, and solutions for interoperability with current networks. The evaluation includes theoretical descriptions of network configurations for a use case not supported by IP. Moreover, simulations show that the protocol overhead is comparable to IPv6, although packets can select QoS explicitly. Measured routing graph sizes for various setups show the flexibility of the FoG architecture.


Pathways to the Future: Nga Huarahi Arataki, the ten year strategic plan for early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand, identified reviewing the delivery of professional development as one strategy for 'promoting the effective delivery of Te Whariki' (Ministry of Education, 2002, p. 15) within the overall goal of improving quality within ECE services. This paper reports on aspects of a national evaluation of ECE professional development undertaken for the Ministry of Education in 2005-06. The paper describes the multi-method approach taken, and highlights findings in two key areas: issues around access to professional development and barriers to practitioners engaging in PD, and the effectiveness of professional development programmes in supporting and sustaining shifts in pedagogical practices underpinned by Te Whariki.International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 29-41


Preservative capacity is measured for seventeen currently accessible Iranian made shampoo products. Upon purchase, bacterial counts show no trace of any microbial contamination. The shampoo bottles are distributed to seventeen female graduate students, residing at the time in different dormitories of Tarbiat Modares University (TMU). After 40 days, the allocated bottles are returned and their bacterial counts repeated, under the same conditions. To our surprise, no trace of any microbial contamination is observed. Three possibilities are considered. 1) The factory employed preservative(s) act very efficiently. 2) The shampoo component(s) are themselves bactericidal. 3) Existence of sanitary conditions and the absence of any microbial contaminants at TMU! Evidently, the third possibility is ruled out. The second choice is also discarded, because practically no significant antimicrobial activity is demonstrated by any of the four main ingredients of the shampoos including sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), betaine, coconut fatty acid, and glycerin. Hence, the most likely possibility is the first one, since upon deliberate contamination of the seventeen brands; the factory employed preservatives [5-chloro-2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one and 2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one (KATHON CG)] prove highly bactericidal against four major contaminants: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).


Methods to synthesize and assess scientific information for use in policy-making range from large models to expert committees, from scenario-driven free-form gaming sessions to fast and simple model-building workshops. In Part 1 of the "Practicing the Future" series, a new approach called the Policy Exercise was introduced. A Policy Exercise is a flexibly structured workshop environment designed as an interface between scientists and policy-makers. Its function is to synthesize and assess knowledge accumulated in several relevant fields of science for policy purposes in light of a complex practical management problem.

The first experiments to test and refine various structural elements and procedures of the Policy-Exercise approach were conducted in Summer of 1986 involving approximately 15 graduate students from various countries of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and North America. This paper is an overview of the lessons learned from these experiments. Section 1 provides a summary of the experiments including the subject matter, participants, and the various activities. Section 2 contains general lessons on the Policy-Exercise approach. More specific lessons about the preparation and workshop phases of the exercise follow in Sections 3 and 4 respectively.


The reaction of reduction solution of Ag (I) by Fe (II) citrate complex was studied herein. This allows you to receive silver nanoparticles with high stability with a concentration above 60 g/l. It was determined that the nanoparticles size depends on the injection rate, mixing rate, reagent concentration, pH and some post-synthetic operations on the average size of nanoparticles. It was shown that decreasing the concentration of Ag (I) and increasing the concentration of stabilizer also bringing pH to 7 lead to small and uniform particles. Optimal conditions were found that made it possible to reduce particle size and reduce the concentration of reagents by 33 % in the results. According to XPS, TEM, DLS and FTIR datas, nanoparticles of metallic silver with a size of 6.5±1.8 nm were obtained, which stabilized by the product of partial decay of the citrate ion


One important feature in programming language design is an appropriate data definitional facility. Criteria now recognized as important are the concepts of information hiding and data abstraction. The problem, however, is to embed these ideas into languages. Although including these ideas has often led to the design of a new language, that is not always necessary. Such facilities may be added to languages like PL/1 or Pascal. This report discusses the inclusion of such facilities within one such PL/1 compiler. While the resulting system does not have the optimal set of protection features, it does have several advantages: the base language is known to a large class of programmers, there are many such compilers already written, and the system achieves almost as much protection as is needed.


A description is given of the high-resolution vacuum-grating spectrometer that is in use at the University of Tennessee. The mechanical details and the modified Pfund-type optics are described. The calibration system, method of source stabilization, gas-handling system, absorption cells, and methods of recording data used in the investigation of the infrared spectrum of HF are also described. The results of the investigation are given in Part II.


Quality grades are used to determine beef value. The U.S. Department of Agriculture grading system categorizes beef into levels of eating satisfaction with the highest being Prime and decreases until reaching the Canner quality grade. Currently the premium of Prime graded carcasses over Select is $16.73 (USDA, 2015). Traditionally, USDA Select cuts are known to have lower palatability ratings for juiciness, tenderness, and overall liking. Select steaks also fail to meet consumer eating expectations more than 33% of the time (Corbin, 2015). This failure rate represents a large cost for the industry. Product enhancement utilizing a water, salt, and phosphate solution is commonly used in the pork and poultry industries to increase product eating satisfaction. This technology offers an opportunity for the beef industry to improve palatability as well. Previous research has shown enhancing beef results in a higher juiciness, tenderness, and overall liking ratings by consumers and trained panelists (Pietrasik and Janz, 2009). Previous research has shown enhancing Select cuts results in products that rate similar to Prime (Woolley, 2015). To date, it is unknown if enhancement of higher quality beef (Choice and Prime) results in the same increase in palatability observed in lower quality cuts. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of enhancement on trained panel beef palatability scores of strip loins of three quality grades when cooked to three degrees of doneness.


This Article examines general principles of international law through the innovative means of comparing their use in four different, novel areas of international law — international environmental law, international investment law, international criminal law, and international indigenous rights. By doing so, the Article is able to make the distinctive claim that there is no one, single methodology for analysis of general principles of international law. Rather, each area of international law tends to use a methodology suited to its policy objectives and overall characteristics as a specific area of law. The Article characterizes two predominant academic approaches to general principles: a purely "domestic approach" and a "hybrid approach". The Article argues that international environmental law has tended to use a hybrid approach, whereas international investment law has limited itself to a domestic approach, manifesting immediately the differentiated analysis in different areas. International criminal law and international law on indigenous rights manifest more mixed approaches to analysis, again based on the needs of these different areas. These areas, however, also manifest some criticisms of the use of general principles that have led sometimes to restraints on them in the service of policy needs of different areas of international law. The Article ultimately puts the novel argument that this contextual analysis is not simply descriptively accurate but is a manifestation of an appropriate contextually-differentiated development of international law in light of concerns for its legitimacy in regulating actors other than state entities.


We are living in the dawn of what has been termed as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution", which is marked through the emergence of "cyber-physical systems" where software interfaces seamlessly over networks with physical systems, such as sensors, smartphones, vehicles, power grids or buildings, to create a new world of Internet of Things (IoT). Data and information are fuel of this new age where powerful analytics algorithms burn this fuel to generate decisions that are expected to create a smarter and more efficient world for all of us to live in. This new area of technology has been defined as Big Data Science and Analytics, and the industrial and academic communities are realizing this as a competitive technology that can generate significant new wealth and opportunity. Big data is defined as collections of datasets whose volume, velocity or variety is so large that it is difficult to store, manage, process and analyze the data using traditional databases and data processing tools. Big data science and analytics deals with collection, storage, processing and analysis of massive-scale data. Industry surveys, by Gartner and e-Skills, for instance, predict that there will be over 2 million job openings for engineers and scientists trained in the area of data science and analytics alone, and that the job market is in this area is growing at a 150 percent year-over-year growth rate. We have written this textbook, as part of our expanding "A Hands-On Approach"(TM) series, to meet this need at colleges and universities, and also for big data service providers who may be interested in offering a broader perspective of this emerging field to accompany their customer and developer training programs. The typical reader is expected to have completed a couple of courses in programming using traditional high-level languages at the college-level, and is either a senior or a beginning graduate student in one of the science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields. An accompanying website for this book contains additional support for instruction and learning (www.big-data-analytics-book.com) The book is organized into three main parts, comprising a total of twelve chapters. Part I provides an introduction to big data, applications of big data, and big data science and analytics patterns and architectures. A novel data science and analytics application system design methodology is proposed and its realization through use of open-source big data frameworks is described. This methodology describes big data analytics applications as realization of the proposed Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta models, that comprise tools and frameworks for collecting and ingesting data from various sources into the big data analytics infrastructure, distributed filesystems and non-relational (NoSQL) databases for data storage, and processing frameworks for batch and real-time analytics. This new methodology forms the pedagogical foundation of this book. Part II introduces the reader to various tools and frameworks for big data analytics, and the architectural and programming aspects of these frameworks, with examples in Python. We describe Publish-Subscribe messaging frameworks (Kafka & Kinesis), Source-Sink connectors (Flume), Database Connectors (Sqoop), Messaging Queues (RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ, RestMQ, Amazon SQS) and custom REST, WebSocket and MQTT-based connectors. The reader is introduced to data storage, batch and real-time analysis, and interactive querying frameworks including HDFS, Hadoop, MapReduce, YARN, Pig, Oozie, Spark, Solr, HBase, Storm, Spark Streaming, Spark SQL, Hive, Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery. Also described are serving databases (MySQL, Amazon DynamoDB, Cassandra, MongoDB) and the Django Python web framework. Part III introduces the reader to various machine learning algorithms with examples using the Spark MLlib and H2O frameworks, and visualizations using frameworks such as Lightning, Pygal and Seaborn.


BACKGROUND
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) can be diagnosed in pregnant women by increased fasting plasma glucose alone, which eliminates the need for performing a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). If whole blood glucose meters are used to triage fasting samples in order to decide whether to give the glucose drink, a cutpoint with appropriate sensitivity and specificity for elevated fasting plasma glucose is needed.

METHODS
The number of GDM diagnoses by increased fasting plasma glucose alone was determined from specimens collected and tested at core laboratories in urban hospitals, rural health centers, and from specimens collected at patient phlebotomy service centers (PSCs) for plasma testing at a central laboratory. The number of glucose drinks avoided was counted after implementing the diagnostic cutoff of ≥95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L) at urban hospitals and rural health centers, which have on-site plasma testing, and after selecting a PSC meter fasting venous whole blood glucose cutpoint after calculating sensitivity and specificity for plasma glucose ≥95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L) using logistic regression.

RESULTS
Among 4850 OGTTs, there were 1315 GDM diagnoses annually, of which 409 were from increased fasting plasma glucose. Ninety-one percent of OGTTs were performed at PSCs. If a fasting plasma glucose cutpoint of ≥95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L) was implemented at urban hospitals and rural health centers and a meter fasting venous whole blood glucose cutpoint of ≥108 mg/dL (6.0 mmol/L) (25% sensitivity, 99.9% specificity) was implemented at PSCs, the drink would be appropriately avoided by 145 patients/year, and inappropriately avoided by 3 patients/year. After implementing these cutpoints, the drink was appropriately avoided in 91 patients during a 36-week period, with none inappropriately avoiding it.

CONCLUSION
Modifying fasting glucose cutpoints reduced unnecessary diagnostic OGTTs in pregnant women.


By the end of 2011, Astrium GEO-Information Services launched Pleiades 1, the first of two identical optical imaging satellites that will be operated on a phased orbit. This satellite system, designed by the French Space Agency, CNES, based upon French Defense specifications, will provide 50-cm products in record time. The overall aim of this paper is to describe the benefits of the innovative features of Pleiades 1 and its operations, so as to assess their combined potential in emergency situations, crisis recovery, regular monitoring or large area mapping. Specific care will be brought to describe the reactivity enabled by the system. Based on real-life examples, the paper will lead the analysis on the two main components of the system. On the one hand, the space segment will be presented through the following characteristics: revisit capacity, agility, acquisition capacity and acquisition scenarios (target, single-pass mosaics, stereo, tristereo, linear monitoring, persistent surveillance). On the other hand, the flexibility of the ground segment will be assessed. The benefits of multiple tasking plans per day, direct tasking capacity, automated processing and on-line ordering and delivering will be illustrated, tested and qualified for applications requiring a high level of responsiveness and reactivity. The presentation will end with a summary of the benefits of the space segment features and the flexibility of the ground segment, fine-tuned to answer both military and civilian / commercial needs. The analysis will be extended in the perspective of the second Pleiades' launch, highlighting the advantages of having two satellites operating on a phased orbit, affording a daily revisit anywhere on Earth, with very high resolution.


Obesity has flooded America in the past two or three decades; so much it is presently called a national epidemic. Obesity along with being overweight has not been limited to just the American adult population either; childhood obesity is becoming an apparent problem sadly. With increased attention given to this health issue, it is important to not reduce it to an issue of appearance; this health condition is far more severe than fitting into a certain pant size. Obesity is a chronic disease which increases a person's risk for development of other chronic diseases or premature death. As mentioned before, children are becoming susceptible to this national epidemic and the concern of their health has taken a backseat in the school domain. Due to this and my partiality to Pembroke's children, I decided to pursue a research project at the Pembroke Elementary School (PES). A needs assessment was conducted as a part of my evaluation on the healthiness of the school, as well as personal interviews with the teachers, including the physical education teacher. Results showed an alarming trend; the students at PES reported extremely low levels of activity, high amounts of television watching and poor nutritional habits. From there, a healthy teacher task force was formed and we decided our focus would be on physical activity component. Today, a health awareness campaign as well as a school-wide and community-wide fundraiser is underway. Students and teachers are walking daily and recording miles paced. A Walk-a-Thon will take place to culminate the efforts of those who helped, bring further awareness to childhood obesity and the importance of regular exercise and also raise money for a track or walkway that will be built for the students, teachers and parents to use.


This essay is the introductory chapter to Intellectual Property and Property Rights (Edward Elgar, 2013), which contains some of the leading articles published in recent years on the nature of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets as property rights. But this essay does not merely review the articles. For the first time in a single essay, it presents the three basic analytical frameworks in which intellectual property rights are defined or justified as property rights – historical, conceptual, and normative. Drawing upon the substantive content of the articles in the volume and beyond, the essay first reviews the two descriptive framings of intellectual property rights, explaining that intellectual property rights historically have been defined and justified as property rights since the eighteenth century and that there are serious analytical reasons why intellectual property is defined conceptually in this way. The essay then explains how these two descriptive bases – the historical account and conceptual definition – provide a foundation for the two normative justifications for intellectual property as property – the utilitarian and labor-desert theories. Ultimately, the essay summarizes the substantive theoretical case for intellectual property as property, and it also briefly summarizes the critique of intellectual property from the perspective of property rights advocates.


In the past few years noninvasive automatic blood pressure (BP) recorders have been increasingly used to estimate patients' 24-hour BP more accurately than by one or few isolated measurements. However, these recorders only allow BP to be intermittently measured at intervals between 5 to 30 minutes, which means that the number of values collected over 24 hours (10 to 100) remains a tiny fraction of the thousands of values that occur during the same period. To determine whether this represents a limitation to this approach, BP was recorded intraarterially for 24 hours (Oxford method) in 20 ambulant hypertensive patients. A beat-to-beat analysis of the BP recording was provided by a computer, and the average 24-hour systolic, diastolic, and mean BP values were compared with those obtained by analyzing single BP waves of the same recording at intervals of 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 minutes. In each subject the average 24-hour BP values obtained by the beat-to-beat analysis closely corresponded to those obtained by the analysis performed at 5-, 10-, 15-, or 30-minute intervals. In most subjects, this was the case also when the analysis was performed at 60-minute intervals. These findings demonstrate that intermittency of measurements does not limit the accurate assessment of true average BP. Indeed, accurate assessment can be achieved at intervals as much as 30 or 60 minutes apart.


One view of art-making is that it is fundamentally a research process. Each art object, performance or realized concept is sometimes seen as an experiment from which the artist learns and from which new ideas and goals emerge. In some ways, then, it is possible to see a compatibility among art, science and technology practices. Obviously, much of the content of this journal has always consisted of reports on active collaborations across these areas. However, it is also clear that the kind of evaluation or proof used in these three areas can be quite different. In fact, there is much that each can still learn from the others. In technological research, particularly in the area of interaction design, there has been an increasing interest in experience, a concern in fact not unlike some of the research questions of artists. In interactive art, the artwork exists only in the context of audience behavior. We need to understand the experiences of the audience in considering both their reflection on the artwork and the interaction design that must be a key component of such work. An important development in research methods relevant to our field has been the emergence of practice-based research. The first U.K. polytechnic was formed in London in 1880. When the concept was employed in the significant expansion of such institutions in the U.K. in 1968, the goal was to add a service element to the mainstream of higher education. The polytechnics were expected to teach and develop knowledge with an emphasis on value in practice. Higher education was no longer to be seen as the center of new understanding, of knowledge that described the world, but as the center of new ways of doing things, of knowledge that improved our ability to act in the world. That emphasis encouraged a new look at research around making—for example, the making of an artwork—with less concern for traditional subject boundaries. When the U.K.'s Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) drew up its regulations for the higher degrees to be awarded from the new polytechnics, they included a critical clause: "The written thesis may be supplemented by material in other than written form." This enabled students to include artifacts, or the records of artifacts, as integral parts of their Ph.D. submissions. Practice-based Ph.D.s today are most simply identified by the inclusion of such artifacts within the submission. The crucial point is that in certain disciplines, knowledge can be advanced by means of practice. The idea has developed that research students, for example, could take as the subject of research the practice of their own disciplines. The research program would consist of a continual reflection upon that practice and on the resulting informing of practice. The examination would be based upon both the results of the practice and on a thesis presenting reflections upon the process undertaken. Thus, artifacts would form part of the candidate's submission for the degree. The practice-based Ph.D. can be understood within the traditional context of the purely written Ph.D. without any major revolution in education being required. We need more universities to ensure that their rules include statements such as the CNAA's. These developments have created a rich and exciting space in which more and more artists and collaborative teams are conducting practice-based research, particularly in the areas of interest to Leonardo. In our new initiative, the Transactions section of the journal, we are publishing refereed papers on a fast track to dissemination of key new results, ideas and developments in practice. Of very special interest are research reports that draw upon or develop these newer research approaches. The first set of Transactions papers arose in the context of a symposium held in Sydney in 2006: "Engage: Interaction, Art and Audience Experience." These papers come from a context in which collaborative practice-based studies are the norm. Art, science and technology are informing one another through this work in a way that matches the very first aspirations of Leonardo, successfully employing methods from one discipline to enlighten another.


SUMMARY Community-based conservation efforts are designed to foster local stewardship of important ecological resources. However, inequitable distribution of costs and benefits in communities surrounding protected areas can negatively impact livelihoods, increase wealth disparities and create conflict. To examine the potential for conflict between host communities involved in a community-based conservation program and neighbouring (non-host) communities, we explored local residents' attitudes towards conservation at Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary (TIWS) in Sierra Leone. Intercept surveys (n = 368) were conducted in 18 villages (eight host, ten non-host) within 8 km of TIWS during 2010. Results revealed significant differences between residents of the host and non-host villages with respect to attitudes towards resource use and overall support for site protection. The most substantial discrepancies centred on perceived benefits associated with TIWS, and these drastically different perspectives generated a high potential for conflict. To minimize conflict and foster broader community support for conservation, managers must carefully consider how benefits associated with protected areas are communicated and distributed across protected area-proximate landscapes.


RC4 is the most widely used stream cipher around. So, it is important that it runs cost effectively, with minimum encryption time. In other words, it should give higher throughput. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed to improve the throughput of RC4 algorithm in multicore processors using multithreading. The proposed mechanism does not parallelize RC4, instead it introduces a way that multithreading can be used in encryption when the plaintext is in the form of a text file. In this particular research, the source codes were written in Java (JDK version: 1.6.0_21) in Windows environments. Experiments to analyze the throughput were done separately in an Intel® P4 machine (O/S: Windows XP), Core 2 Duo machine (O/S: Windows XP) and Core i3 machine (O/S: Windows 7). Outcome of the research: Higher throughput of RC4 algorithm can be achieved in multicores when using the proposed mechanism in this research. Effective use of multithreading in encryption can be achieved in multicores using this technique.


Most studies on the career development of learners in South Africa have focused on either white adolescent learners or black learners in comparison with their white counterparts. There exists a lack of within-group studies on the career development process among black adolescent learners. This paper reports the findings of two studies aimed at addressing this gap in the literature. The first study was conducted in the Eastern Cape and focused on 91 Grade 11 black learners from a single-race 'township' school and 81 black Grade 11 learners from a multiracial suburban school setting. The second study focused on black Grade 12 learners from a single-race 'township' school (n - 100) and black Grade 12 learners from a multiracial suburban school (n - 74) in Mpumalanga Province. In both studies, the learners from different school settings were compared across key career development variables, namely, career maturity, career self-efficacy, and career aspirations. For both studies, significant differences were found in the career maturity and career self-efficacy scores of learners from different school settings with learners from the multiracial schools scoring higher than their counterparts from the single race 'township' schools. Similarly, a number of differences were found in the career aspirations of learners from the different school contexts. The findings of these studies highlight the importance of developing and introducing needs-based career development programs for learners in different school settings.


Pneumococcal infections have a substantial burden in Turkey, particularly in the elderly (>60 years) and at-risk adults (18–59 years). VCR are low at approximately 2%. The first aim of this study was the evaluation of the burden of pneumococcal infections (pneumonia and bacteremia) from a public payer perspective in elderly and at-risk adults. The second aim was the evaluation of cost effectiveness of implementing a large PPV program in these populations. A decision tree model was employed using demographic and epidemiological input obtained from Turkish official sources and international literature. Vaccination was assumed to protect for 5 years with 60% and 50% effectiveness against BPP in elderly and at-risk adults respectively. Vaccination effectiveness of 21% against NBPP was assumed for both populations. Costs input were obtained from a previous study conducted between 2002 and 2008 in a public university hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Univariate sensitivity analyses and Monte-Carlo simulations were performed. The vaccination program was cost effective and cost saving compared to no vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination with 60% coverage led to a mean of 4,695 LYG in the elderly and 2,134 LYG in at-risk adults with 40% coverage. Mean incremental savings reached 45.4 million YTL in the elderly and 21.8 million YTL in at-risk adults. This analysis suggests that pneumococcal vaccination of elderly and at-risk adults is associated with a positive return on investment from a public payer perspective and supports the continued recommendation of pneumococcal vaccines, as well as their full funding in Turkey.


We report a meta‐analysis of data from 34 field studies into the effects of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation on Arctic and Antarctic bryophytes and angiosperms. The studies measured plant responses to decreases in UVB radiation under screens, natural fluctuations in UVB irradiance or increases in UVB radiation applied from fluorescent UV lamps. Exposure to UVB radiation was found to increase the concentrations of UVB absorbing compounds in leaves or thalli by 7% and 25% (expressed on a mass or area basis, respectively). UVB exposure also reduced aboveground biomass and plant height by 15% and 10%, respectively, and increased DNA damage by 90%. No effects of UVB exposure were found on carotenoid or chlorophyll concentrations, net photosynthesis, Fv/Fm or ΦPSII, belowground or total biomass, leaf mass, leaf area or specific leaf area (SLA). The methodology adopted influenced the concentration of UVB absorbing compounds, with screens and natural fluctuations promoting significant changes in the concentrations of these pigments, but lamps failing to elicit a response. Greater reductions in leaf area and SLA, and greater increases in concentrations of carotenoids, were found in experiments based in Antarctica than in those in the Arctic. Bryophytes typically responded in the same way as angiosperms to UVB exposure. Regression analyses indicated that the percentage difference in UVB dose between treatment and control plots was positively associated with concentrations of UVB absorbing compounds and carotenoids, and negatively so with aboveground biomass and leaf area. We conclude that, despite being dominated by bryophytes, the vegetation of polar regions responds to UVB exposure in a similar way to higher plant‐dominated vegetation at lower latitudes. In broad terms, the exposure of plants in these regions to UVB radiation elicits the synthesis of UVB absorbing compounds, reduces aboveground biomass and height, and increases DNA damage.


Conducting a public consultation is a popular way to draw on wider expertise in framing legislation in the UK. In Wales, low scrutinising capacity of a relatively small legislative chamber and limited civil service resources to prepare legislation may contribute to the popularity of consultations. Public consultations may also resonate with themes of inclusion and participation in Welsh governance. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill was the first large legislative project of the Welsh Government since gaining primary law making powers in 2011. This case study investigated the public consultation (conducted at Stage 1) for this bill in 2013. It used a coding matrix to analyse the submissions to the consultation. The findings reveal that individuals and organisations may struggle to effectively influence legislation. Using van Damme and Brans' interpretative framework, the article locates the findings within the context of citizen participation, consultation techniques and discusses the usefulness of analysing submissions as part of consultation evaluations. In addition, the article makes a case for triangulating a documentary analysis of submissions with conventional qualitative evidence in future consultation research.


Background Genome sequencing studies of chronic lympoid leukemia (CLL) have provided a comprehensive overview of recurrent somatic mutations in coding genes. One of the most intriguing discoveries has been the prevalence of mutations in the HEAT-repeat domain of the splicing factor SF3B1. A frequently observed variant is predicted to cause the substitution of a lysine with a glutamic acid at position 700 of the protein (K700E). However, the molecular consequences of the mutations are largely unknown. Results To start exploring this question, we sequenced the transcriptomes of six samples: four samples of CLL tumour cells, of which two contained the K700E mutation in SF3B1, and CD19 positive cells from two healthy donors. We identified 41 genes that showed differential usage of exons statistically associated with the mutated status of SF3B1 (false discovery rate of 10%). These genes were enriched in pathways related to interferon signaling and mRNA splicing. Among these genes, we found UQCC and RPL31; notably, a similar effect on these genes was described in a previously published study of uveal melanoma. In addition, while this manuscript was under revision, another study independently reported the common splicing signature of the gene UQCC in different tumour types with mutations in SF3B1. Conclusions Our results suggest common effects of isoform deregulation in the genes UQCC and RPL31 upon mutations in SF3B1. Additionally, our data provide a candidate list of potential isoform consequences of the SF3B1 (K700E) mutation in CLL, some of which might contribute to the tumourigenesis. Validation studies on larger cohorts and model systems are required to extend these findings.


1. Repeatability is important in determining how traits are affected by selection, but it is largely unstudied for most physiological characters other than locomotory performance. We examined the repeatability of aerobic capacity, measured as maximum O 2 consumption (Vo 2max ), in Red Junglefowl, Gallus gallus. Vo 2max is an integrated index of metabolic performance that can be intuitively linked to fitness because it sets the upper limit to sustainable power output. 2. We used mass residuals to determine Vo 2max repeatability in adult birds, and across growth from 28-day-old chicks to reproductively mature adults. We measured Vo 2max during brief episodes of intense exercise in motorized running wheels. Minimal resting metabolism (Vo 2mr ) was measured in adults to provide an estimate of factorial aerobic scope (Vo 2maX /Vo 2mr ). We also examined the influences of sex and infection by a common intestinal nematode, Ascaridia galli, on Vo 2max . 3. There were no gender differences in adult Vo 2mr or in the Vo 2max of chicks. However, the Vo 2max of adult males was considerably greater than that of adult females. Factorial aerobic scopes were 9.6 and 5.6 for adult males and females, respectively. Higher scope in males may be an adaptation to support intense, prolonged intermale aggression. Infection with A. galli significantly depressed the mass and Vo 2max of chicks but had no effect on adults. 4. The Vo 2max of adult junglefowl was highly repeatable over periods up to 180 days. In contrast, we found no repeatability of Vo 2max across ontogeny for birds tested initially as chicks and again as adults. The lack of repeatability was not influenced by sex or infection status.


Analysis of RNA expression using techniques like real-time PCR has traditionally used reference or housekeeping genes to control for error between samples. This practice is being questioned as it becomes increasingly clear that some housekeeping genes may vary considerably in certain biological samples. We used real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) to assess the levels of 13 housekeeping genes expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture and whole blood from healthy individuals and those with tuberculosis. Housekeeping genes were selected from conventionally used ones and from genes reported to be invariant in human T cell culture. None of the commonly used housekeeping genes [e.g., glyceraldehyde-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GAPDH)] were found to be suitable as internal references, as they were highly variable (>30-fold maximal variability). Furthermore, genes previously found to be invariant in human T cell culture also showed large variation in RNA expression (>34-fold maximal variability). Genes that were invariant in blood were highly variable in peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture. Our data show that RNA specifying human acidic ribosomal protein was the most suitable housekeeping gene for normalizing mRNA levels in human pulmonary tuberculosis. Validations of housekeeping genes are highly specific for a particular experimental model and are a crucial component in assessing any new model.


Understanding demographic and disease processes in wildlife populations tends to be hampered by incomplete observations which can include significant errors. Models provide useful insights into the potential impacts of key processes and the value of such models greatly improves through integration with available data in a way that includes all sources of stochasticity and error. To date, the impact on disease of spatial and social structures observed in wildlife populations has not been widely addressed in modelling. I model the joint effects of differential fecundity and spatial heterogeneity on demography and disease dynamics, using a stochastic description of births, deaths, social-geographic migration, and disease transmission. A small set of rules governs the rates of births and movements in an environment where individuals compete for improved fecundity. This results in realistic population structures which, depending on the mode of disease transmission can have a profound effect on disease persistence and therefore has an impact on disease control strategies in wildlife populations. I also apply a simple model with births, deaths and disease events to the long-term observations of TB (Mycobacterium bovis) in badgers in Woodchester Park. The model is a continuous time, discrete state space Markov chain and is fitted to the data using an implementation of Bayesian parameter inference with an event-based likelihood. This provides a flexible framework to combine data with expert knowledge (in terms of model structure and prior distributions of parameters) and allows us to quantify the model parameters and their uncertainties. Ecological observations tend to be restricted in terms of scope and spatial temporal coverage and estimates are also affected by trapping efficiency and disease test sensitivity. My method accounts for such limitations as well as the stochastic nature of the processes. I extend the likelihood function by including an error term that depends on the difference between observed and inferred state space variables. I also demonstrate that the estimates improve by increasing observation frequency, combining the likelihood of more than one group and including variation of parameter values through the application of hierarchical priors.


The ambitious instrument suite for the future European Spallation Source whose civil construction started recently in Lund, Sweden, demands a set of diverse and challenging requirements for the neutron detectors. For instance, the unprecedented high flux expected on the samples to be investigated in neutron diffraction or reflectometry experiments requires detectors that can handle high counting rates, while the investigation of sub-millimeter protein crystals will only be possible with large-area detectors that can achieve a position resolution as low as 200 μm. This has motivated an extensive research and development campaign to advance the state-of-the-art detector and to find new technologies that can reach maturity by the time the ESS will operate at full potential. This paper presents the key detector requirements for three of the Time-of-Flight (TOF) diffraction instrument concepts selected by the Scientific Advisory Committee to advance into the phase of preliminary engineering design. We discuss the detector technologies commonly employed at the existing similar instruments and their major challenges for ESS. The detector technologies selected by the instrument teams to collect the diffraction patterns are also presented. Analytical calculations, Monte-Carlo simulations, and real experimental data are used to develop a generic method to estimate the event rate in the diffraction detectors. We apply this method to make predictions for the future diffraction instruments, and thus provide additional information that can help the instrument teams with the optimisation of the detector designs.


This dissertation is a holistic study taken of cafes and restaurants in the Dublin city centre area. The study aims to provide an insight into the challenges that organisations in the food industry are faced with in terms of staff turnover. The study is inspired by personal experience in this industry and the challenges that business owners and managers face in regards to staff turnover. As staff turnover appears to hinder business growth and performance further investigation into how businesses manage this phenomenon can provide solutions for the industry as a whole.

Most research done about staff turnover focuses on the knowledge industry, and although a few studies have been done in hospitality the studies tend to focus on employees who have attended some form of schooling in hospitality. Very little research, especially post-boom studies have been done on this sector, and even less so in Ireland. The demographic of workers in this sector in Ireland is quite different from the knowledge industry. Additionally while most studies have used surveys, this study will contribute to new knowledge using interviews and inductive reasoning to find new knowledge.

Interviews were used to find out how employers managed staff turnover. Two solutions were found; organisations can provide rewards and promotional opportunities that overcome the prejudices of and preconceptions of the industry or they can adapt to the nature of the industry and find the silver lining in staff turnover. The silver lining for one organisation is that new employees bring new passions and ideas to the business. Providing a platform for employees to share those ideas means that the business can constantly improve and develop. As these organisations are still quite new further case studies would truly demonstrate the potential success of each model.


There has been a remarkable progress in the development of organic electronic materials since the discovery of conducting polymers more than three decades ago. Many of these materials can be processed from solution, in the form as inks. This allows for using traditional high-volume printing techniques for manufacturing of organic electronic devices on various flexible surfaces at low cost. Many of the envisioned applications will use printed batteries, organic solar cells or electromagnetic coupling for powering. This requires that the included devices are power efficient and can operate at low voltages. This thesis is focused on organic thin-film transistors that employ electrolytes as gate insulators. The high capacitance of the electrolyte layers allows the transistors to operate at very low voltages, at only 1 V. Polyanion-gated p-channel transistors and polycation-gated n-channel transistors are demonstrated. The mobile ions in the respective polyelectrolyte are attracted towards the gate electrode during transistor operation, while the polymer ions create a stable interface with the charged semiconductor channel. This suppresses electrochemical doping of the semiconductor bulk, which enables the transistors to fully operate in the field-effect mode. As a result, the transistors display relatively fast switching (≤ 100 µs). Interestingly, the switching speed of the transistors saturates as the channel length is reduced. This deviation from the downscaling rule is explained by that the ionic relaxation in the electrolyte limits the channel formation rather than the electronic transport in the semiconductor. Moreover, both unipolar and complementary integrated circuits based on polyelectrolyte-gated transistors are demonstrated. The complementary circuits operate at supply voltages down to 0.2 V, have a static power consumption of less than 2.5 nW per gate and display signal propagation delays down to 0.26 ms per stage. Hence, polyelectrolyte-gated circuits hold great promise for printed electronics applications driven by low-voltage and low-capacity power sources.


In the coming decades in the process of globalization the position of the USA and Europe will weaken, while the role of developing countries will increase. The role of the two largest emerging economies – China and India – will be of special significance. What future will these fast-growing giants face? The demographers agree that pretty soon India will lead the world in population and thus surpass China, while China will encounter serious ageing population problems. But economic and political scenarios of the future are quite different: from resounding success and world leadership to collapse caused by demographic and socio-political troubles. Which of them is more feasible? In the present article I analyze the Chinese and Indian development models separately and comparatively and make a forecast of their perspectives in the 21 century. Such an analysis could be helpful for understanding Russia's ways of development.


Background: Trichomonas vaginalis is a common pathogen that is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes and may serve as a cofactor in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. Goal: To define the epidemiology of trichomoniasis in a population of newly incarcerated pregnant women in New York City. Study Design: Prospective study of 213 pregnant prisoners attending prenatal clinic. Patients participated in an interview regarding sexual and drug‐related behaviors, and underwent direct culture for T. vaginalis in addition to routine testing for syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. Results: The prevalence of trichomoniasis was 46.9%. On univariate analysis, there was a significant association between trichomoniasis and older age, crack use, prostitution, known HIV infection, and positive serological test for syphilis. Multivariate analysis showed a significant association of trichomoniasis with crack use and positive serological test for syphilis. Conclusions: Trichomoniasis is highly prevalent in pregnant prisoners in New York City. The extent of disease observed may justify a formal program of testing and treatment and emphasizes the urgent need for harm reduction education and expanded HIV counseling and testing services in this high‐risk population.


The law routinely differentiates between minors and adults, and modifies the rights and responsibilities of minors to account for their incomplete development. It is the clear expectation of the law that children are different from adults in important ways and that, between minority and majority, individuals will acquire what they previously lacked in the experience, wisdom, and capacities required for full autonomy and culpability. But while the law is thick with expectations that children will be transformed into fully competent and culpable adults, it is thin in its account of how this transformation will occur. It fails to assign responsibility for assisting children with their transformation or to make anything hinge on whether needed assistance is provided. This inattention creates a legal regime that predictably underprepares individuals for the rights and responsibilities of adult citizenship. And when the clock runs out at the stroke of legal adulthood, the erstwhile child is left bearing the costs of any educational failings. The aim of this Article is to explore the gap between developmental expectations and educational obligations reflected in our law. I use the term "education" broadly to describe all actions taken to shape minors' development toward ends society expects its citizens to achieve. To be sure, some portion of this development occurs without assistance as a product of genetically determined biological processes. But much development, particularly the development that matters to individuals' exercise of rights and responsibilities under law, depends on outside influences— environmental, experiential, and instructional—which minors cannot be expected to engender or control. Children have educational needs whenever they are expected to develop skills, experience, wisdom, or capacities that they cannot be expected to develop without help. It is


Background: Few studies focused on the study of blood groups in Gabon. This study aimed to determine the phenotypic frequency of ABO and Rhesus antigens in blood donors of Libreville and to assess the association between ABO blood groups and transfusion-transmitted infections. Materials and Methods: The study of ABO and Rhesus blood groups concerned 4,744 blood donors. ABO and Rhesus phenotyping were obtained using monoclonal monospecific antisera: anti-A, anti-B, anti-AB, anti-D, anti-E, anti-C, anti-c, and anti-e with an automate (QWALYS ® 3, DIAGAST, France) or a card gel (ID Card, BIO-RAD) according to manufacturer's instructions. Results: The phenotypic frequency of blood group antigens A, B, AB and O were respectively 21.0%; 17.6%; 2.6% and 58.9%. Those of Rhesus antigens D, d, C, c, E and e were 97.7%; 2.3%; 15.9%; 99.9%; 17.6%; 99.3%, respectively. The prevalence of ABO and Rh antigens in Gabonese donors reported here are significantly different from those of neighboring countries. No association was found between the prevalence of HIV, HCV and syphilis and ABO blood groups. Instead, HBV seroprevalence was twice as high among non-O blood groups donors compared with blood group O donors [OR = 2 (CI 1.26 to 3.2), p = 0.003]. Conclusions: This study provides new data on phenotypic frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups in a representative sample of the Gabonese blood donor population. It suggests a significant association between ABO blood group and HBV infection. Keywords: ABO, Rhesus, blood donors, HBV, Gabon


Despite the renewed discussion on mail-in voting, there has been little evolution on ballot and protocol design for this specific set of protocol constraints. This paper describes multiple designs pertaining to ballots, envelopes and chain of custody, that seek to improve the usability, accuracy and security of mail-in ballots. Our proposals include stickers to show voters how many selections can be made and where, and foldable envelopes that allows a user to slide their ballot through a viewing area in an organised way. These proposals also address ways of reducing voting errors for people with reading disabilities, short term memory problems, or motor difficulties.


Key for every course in soil science, earth science, and environmental disciplines, this textbook engages students to critically look at soil as the central link in the function and creation of the terrestrial environment. For the first time, Dr. Hillel brilliantly discusses soils as a natural body that is engaged in dynamic interaction with the atmosphere above and the strata below that influences the planet's climate and hydrological cycle, and serves as the primary habitat for a versatile community of living organisms. "Soil in the Environment" offers a larger perspective of soil's impact on the environment by organizing chapters among three main processes: Physical, Chemical and Biology. It provides students of geology, physical science, and environmental studies with fundamental information and tools for meeting the natural resource challenges of the 21st Century, while providing students of soil science and ecology with the understanding of physical and biological interactions necessary for sustainability. This is the first textbook to unite soil science and the environment beyond what is traditionally taught. It incorporates current knowledge of such hot topics as climate change, pollution control, human expropriation of natural resources, and the prospects for harmonious and sustainable development. It is organized in a student-friendly format with examples, discussion boxes, and key definitions in every chapter. Full color throughout Companion Website includes: suggested field trips; exercises and figures per chapter; and, cross references to articles with links from "Hillel's Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment" 4-vol set.


Today many countries either fail to provide protection or the protection that they provide falls below the levels required by Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Data exclusivity is one of the most interesting issues in the current discussion on pharmaceutical intellectual property policy making on the global pitch. Data exclusivity, also known as marketing exclusivity, refers to a practice whereby, for a fixed period of time, drug regulatory authorities do not allow the registration files of a pioneer company to be used to register a therapeutically equivalent generic version of that medicine. Only with a clear understanding of the data exclusivity issue and a concerted effort by governments and industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, that are required to provide registration data to governments have the assurances that their extensive efforts to research, develop, and bring new, innovative products to market will not be subject to unfair business use. Data exclusivity also plays a key role in the development and marketing of new biologics.


This article will review the development of microstrip antennas and arrays. Early design and analysis work will be discussed, along with the advantages and limitations of microstrip antennas. Characteristics such as bandwidth, mutual coupling, and polarization will be addressed, and some of the recent work related to these characteristics will be noted. The current state of analytical techniques will be discussed, as will the concepts of a monolithic phased array. Finally, some new ways of feeding microstrip antennas will be presented.


Abstract Subglacial lakes beneath Antarctica's fast-moving ice streams are known to undergo ∼1 km3 volume changes on annual timescales. Focusing on the MacAyeal Ice Stream (MacIS) lake system, we create a simple model for the response of subglacial water distribution to lake discharge events through assimilation of lake volume changes estimated from Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry. We construct a steady-state water transport model in which known subglacial lakes are treated as either sinks or sources depending on the ICESat-derived filling or draining rates. The modeled volume change rates of five large subglacial lakes in the downstream portion of MacIS are shown to be consistent with observed filling rates if the dynamics of all upstream lakes are considered. However, the variable filling rate of the northernmost lake suggests the presence of an undetected lake of similar size upstream. Overall, we show that, for this fast-flowing ice stream, most subglacial lakes receive >90% of their water from distant distributed sources throughout the catchment, and we confirm that water is transported from regions of net basal melt to regions of net basal freezing. Our study provides a geophysically based means of validating subglacial water models in Antarctica and is a potential way to parameterize subglacial lake discharge events in large-scale ice-sheet models where adequate data are available.


The engineering correlations for assessment of hazard distance defined by a size of fireball after either liquid hydrogen spill combustion or high-pressure hydrogen tank rupture in a fire in the open atmosphere (both for stand-alone and under-vehicle tanks) are presented. The term "fireball size" is used for the maximum horizontal size of a fireball that is different from the term "fireball diameter" applied to spherical or semi-spherical shape fireballs. There are different reasons for a fireball to deviate from a spherical shape, e.g., in case of tank rupture under a vehicle, the non-instantaneous opening of tank walls, etc. Two conservative correlations are built using theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, and experimental data available in the literature. The theoretical model for hydrogen fireball size assumes complete isobaric combustion of hydrogen in air and presumes its hemispherical shape as observed in the experiments and the simulations for tank rupturing at the ground level. The dependence of the fireball size on hydrogen mass and fireball's diameter-to-height ratio is discussed. The correlation for liquid hydrogen release fireball is based on the experiments by Zabetakis (1964). The correlations can be applied as engineering tools to access hazard distances for scenarios of liquid or gaseous hydrogen storage tank rupture in a fire in the open atmosphere.


The structural and mechanical properties of an epitaxial graphene (EG) monolayer thermally grown on top of a 6H–SiC(0001) surface were studied by combined dynamic scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM). Experimental STM, dynamic STM and AFM images of EG on 6H–SiC(0001) show a lattice with a 1.9 nm period corresponding to the (6 × 6) quasi-cell of the SiC surface. The corrugation amplitude of this (6 × 6) quasi-cell, measured from AFM topographies, increases with the setpoint value of the frequency shift Δf (15–20 Hz, repulsive interaction). Excitation variations map obtained simultaneously with the AFM topography shows that larger dissipation values are measured in between the topographical bumps of the (6 × 6) quasi-cell. These results demonstrate that the AFM tip deforms the graphene monolayer. During recording in dynamic STM mode, a frequency shift (Δf) map is obtained in which Δf values range from 41 to 47 Hz (repulsive interaction). As a result, we deduced that the STM tip, also, provokes local mechanical distortions of the graphene monolayer. The origin of these tip-induced distortions is discussed in terms of electronic and mechanical properties of EG on 6H–SiC(0001).


Dandruff, a clinical condition caused by Malassezia (Pityrosporum) species is of great cosmetic concern all over the world. Dandruff is known to be controlled by fungistatic ingredients in Anti-dandruff shampoos. A comparative study on the efficacy of chemical and herbal anti-dandruff ingredients on 'as is' basis and their performance in market shampoos was done in vitro against Pityrosporum ovale (MTCC 1374). Zinc pyrithione (ZnPTO), ketoconazole and other azole compounds recorded good anti-Pityrosporum activity among the chemical ingredients. Herbal ingredients like tea tree oil, rosemary oil, coleus oil, clove oil, pepper extract, neem extract, and basil extract also recorded anti-pityrosporum activity, but their MIC values are much higher than the synthetic ingredients. Shampoos containing ZnPTO and ketoconazole recorded higher in vitro activities than the shampoos containing herbal AD ingredients.


The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) introduces significant changes to the federal income tax code for individuals and businesses. Several provisions of the new tax law are particularly significant for the owner?occupied housing market. In this blog post, we compare the federal tax liability and the marginal after-tax cost of mortgage interest and property taxes under the old and new tax codes for a wide range of hypothetical recent home buyers in a high tax state. We find that impacts vary substantially along the income/home price distribution.


Abstract The synthesis and retention of methotrexate polyglutamate derivatives were evaluated in the Ehrlich ascites tumor cell and the intestinal mucosa in vivo . When tumor-bearing mice received injections of methotrexate (12 mg/kg), polyglutamate derivatives accumulated within the tumor cells as long as intracellular methotrexate was above the dihydrofolate reductase-binding capacity, the metabolites themselves reaching concentrations in excess of this level. Methotrexate attained maximum intracellular concentration in tumor cells within 1 hr but rapidly declined to below the enzyme-binding capacity in less than 5 hr. Methotrexate polyglutamates, however, remained above the binding capacity even after 24 hr. One hr after administration, the majority of tumor cell dihydrofolate reductase was associated with methotrexate; however, as polyglutamate levels increased and free methotrexate declined, these derivatives replaced bound methotrexate on the enzyme so that, within 24 hr, over 80% of the enzyme was associated with methotrexate polyglutamates. Although intestinal mucosa cells attained intracellular levels of methotrexate comparable to that of the tumor, relatively little accumulation of polyglutamates was detected; in contrast to the tumor, total antifolate levels within these cells were minimal 8 hr after injection. Thus, the large difference in the rate of decline of total cell antifolate between these tissues was due to the accumulation and retention of methotrexate polyglutamates in the tumor. The rate of decline of the monoglutamate was identical in intestinal and tumor cells, which also paralleled the decline in the plasma methotrexate level. The data suggest that the toxic effects of methotrexate on intestinal cells may be related primarily to the action of the monoglutamate, while toxic effects on tumor cells are related to the buildup and persistence of the polyglutamate forms. A computer model used to simulate in vivo pharmacokinetics, transport, and metabolism of methotrexate predicted that the rates of decline of free intracellular methotrexate within cells having different membrane transport parameters for this agent would be identical with one another and would indeed parallel the decline in plasma methotrexate. Hence, shortly after administration of drug, intracellular and extracellular free methotrexate is always at steady state, because the rates of transport across the cell membrane are far greater than the rates of decline of plasma methotrexate. The simulations further showed that, although the membrane transport parameters do not affect the rate of decline of intracellular monoglutamate or polyglutamates in vivo , they do govern the absolute levels of intracellular drug achieved which, in turn, influences the extent of synthesis of methotrexate polyglutamates and the duration over which critical levels are sustained within the cell. Hence, differences in the decline of total cell antifolate observed among different tumor lines with different transport properties for methotrexate must be due to differences in the net rate of decline of the polyglutamate derivatives.


This research proposes novel fault adaptive workload allocation (FAWA) strategies for the health management of complex manufacturing systems. The primary goal of these strategies is to minimize maintenance costs and maximize production by strategically controlling when and where failures occur through condition-based workload allocation. For complex systems that are capable of performing tasks a variety of different ways, such as an industrial robot arm that can move between locations using different joint angle configurations and path trajectories, each option, i.e. mission plan, will result in different degradation rates and life-expectancies. Consequently, this can make it difficult to predict when a machine will require maintenance, as it will depend not only on the type and quality of the machine, but the actual tasks and mission plans it is performing. Furthermore, effective maintenance planning becomes increasingly challenging when dealing with complex systems, such as manufacturing production lines, that have multiple machines all performing different tasks, as the different degradation rates of each task will likely cause sporadic failures, leading to excessive work stoppages and lost production. In response, this work proposes novel strategies for optimizing maintenance schedules through fault adaptive workload allocation (FAWA). This work will show how we can alternate between multiple mission plans and task assignments to control degradation across multiple components, guiding failures to occur at optimal times and locations. We will present two unique strategies for degradation control. The first strategy attempts to synchronize maintenance by utilizing multiple mission plans and task assignments, such that the healthiest components do the most work, whenever possible, in order to compensate for the more degraded components. This promotes balanced degradation and synchronized failures across all components, allowing the number of work stoppages to be minimized. The second strategy involves desynchronizing maintenance by alternating between mission plans and task assignments where the healthiest components do either the most work or the least work in order to maintain an optimal difference between component degradation rates, such that overlapping failures are minimized. In this work, FAWA is applied to several case studies involving two types of manufacturing systems: industrial robot arms and 3D printers.


Purpose: Existing studies show that some bacteria or fungi can cause thrombocytopenia by infecting the human blood. However, it remains unclear which kind of bacteria is more inclined to give rise to thrombocytopenia after infection in human blood. Through a retrospective cohort controlled trial, based on a large sample, this study analyzed the results of the patient's blood culture and routine blood tests, so as to determine which kind of microbial infection in human blood is more likely to cause thrombocytopenia.
Study design: A retrospective cohort control trial was carried out to analyze the platelet (PLT) level and infectious bacteria strains, in 2,308 blood culture-positive and 3,786 blood culture-negative patients from 2014 to 2016.
Results: The thrombocytopenia (PLT<100) incidences of blood culture-positive patients and blood culture-negative ones were 26.0% and 14.4%, respectively (p<0.001); the thrombocytopenia incidences of patients infected with Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria were 29.9% and 20.4%, respectively (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Bloodstream infection can cause thrombocytopenia, and Gram-negative bacteria are more oriented to cause thrombocytopenia than Gram-positive ones.


Extract
In this concluding chapter we offer some of our reflections on the state of the art of sustainability assessment based upon the contributions to this Handbook. We do not claim that this is a definitive summary of global sustainability assessment theory and practice, as this is not possible based solely on the 17 preceding chapters, varied and interesting though they are. The focus of this Handbook is sustainability assessment research, and the chapters reflect both applied research and more conceptual contributions. While many of the chapters have been written by members of the impact assessment community, some come from researchers on the edges of or even outside this community and as such offer some fresh perspectives on the conceptual foundations of sustainability assessment. We hope that this research focus means that this Handbook complements other recent and not so recent books on sustainability assessment that have more practical orientations, particularly: Sustainability Assessment: Criteria and Processes (Gibson et al., 2005); Sustainability Assessment: Pluralism, Practice and Progress (Bond et al., 2013b); and Sustainability Appraisal: A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience (Dalal-Clayton and Sadler, 2014).


Ecological interventions hold promise for meeting the needs of post-disaster communities, yet little systematic quantitative evidence is available about such programs. This study evaluated the short-term outcomes of participants in the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program, a novel and exemplar ecological intervention for helpers working in post-disaster settings. It is a one week training and support program for helpers working in disaster-affected communities. Changes in the psychological distress of 42 STAR participants, across four STAR sessions, were assessed and identified as primary outcome variables. Knowledge, attitude, and intended practice changes were also assessed, along with perceived support, using a pre (T1)/post (T2) design. These indicators were then tested as possible predictors of participants' changes in distress. An integrity check was conducted on a sample of the seminar modules to assess fidelity to the program manual. Qualitative data were also gathered from follow up visits conducted with two participants. These data were used to help interpret quantitative findings, as well as to plan for future studies of how STAR effects might extend out from helpers into their home communities. Results showed that participants exhibited significant changes in knowledge, attitudes, and intended practices from the beginning of the seminar to the end. Results also showed significant decreases in psychological distress over the STAR week. Regression analyses showed that changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practice, as well as perceived social support during the seminar, explained significant amounts of variance in self reported trauma symptoms at T2. Variance in T2 burnout and compassion fatigue explained by these predictors was notable but not statistically significant due to lack of power. Results suggest that STAR can change knowledge and attitudes of helpers from disaster communities and that participants in this program experience decreases in distress during their stay. The lack of a valid comparison group makes causal interpretations of these findings premature. Findings also suggest that changes in distress are not caused by, or even significantly related to, learning that takes place during the STAR week. The mechanism for distress reduction during the STAR week is an unresolved question. Other significant unresolved questions remain regarding the STAR intervention and ways the present findings can be generalized to ecological interventions more broadly. For example, while the current study suggests important changes occur in helpers during the STAR week, it is of central importance to explore how these changes translate into the disaster-affected home communities. Discussion also focuses on the difficulties involved in conducting systematic research with organizations and helpers whose primary goals are practical or clinical, not scientific. Despite the questions that remain, taken together, results point to the promise of STAR to address the mental health needs of helpers and perhaps eventually disaster communities.


Quartz veins located northwest of Naboomspruit in the Northern Province of South Africa contain native platinum, Pt-Pd alloys, and at least two Pt-O species. Platinum shows a series of close textural associations with monazite [Ce(La,Y,Th)PO 4 ]. The field relations, gangue mineralogy, and fluid inclusions trapped inside quartz in contact with platinum indicate probable fluid temperatures of 200-300 degrees C and a low-pressure environment. This suggests that the Naboomspruit veins represent a new class of platinum deposit which is broadly comparable with some epithermal gold deposits. The ore fluid was highly oxidized with a low salinity and generated extensive replacement of feldspar in the wall rocks. Increase in pH generated by wall-rock reactions is seen as an important mechanism in Pt precipitation, and the presence of reniform mixtures of platinum, Pt-Pd alloy, and Pt-O species are believed to reflect annealing of metal and alloy from an originally amorphous, hydrated Pt-O precursor (possibly resembling PtO.nH 2 O). The close association between monazite and platinum is obvious but enigmatic. An electronic interaction between Ce and Pt producing a lowering of surface energy on Pt during the early stages of nucleation is suggested as having a role in this association.


A set of 24 isolated, 46 compound, and 36 multinight substorm events from the years 2008–2013 have been analysed in this study. Isolated substorm events are defined as single expansion–recovery phase pairs, compound substorms consist of multiple phase pairs, and multi-night substorm events refer to recurring substorm activity on consecutive nights. Approximately 200 nights of substorm activity observed over Fennoscandian Lapland have been analysed for their magnetic disturbance magnitude and the level of cosmic radio noise absorption. Substorm events were automatically detected from the local electrojet index data and visually categorized. We show that isolated substorms have limited lifetimes and spatial extents as compared to the other substorm types. The average intensity (both in absorption and groundmagnetic deflection) of compound and multi-night substorm events is similar. For multi-night substorm events, the first night is rarely associated with the strongest absorption. Instead, the high-energy electron population needed to cause the strongest absorption builds up over 1–2 additional nights of substorm activity. The non-linear relationship between the absorption and the magnetic deflection at highand lowactivity conditions is also discussed. We further collect in situ particle spectra for expansion and recovery phases to construct median precipitation fluxes at energies from 30 eV up to about 800 keV. In the expansion phases the bulk of the spectra show a local maximum flux in the range of a few keV to 10 keV, while in the recovery phases higher fluxes are seen in the range of tens of keV to hundreds of keV. These findings are discussed in the light of earlier observations of substorm precipitation and their atmospheric effects.


Magnetization reversal in arrays of magnetic nanoparticles with perpendicular anisotropy is investigated. Aside from domain-wall propagation effects, the reversal involves two main aspects: the nucleation behavior of individual particles and interparticle interactions. Due to magnetostatic self-interaction effects, the interparticle interaction cannot be reduced to a stray-field correction to the external field. Exact nucleation fields and explicit stray-field and self-interaction contributions are obtained for rings of equidistant dots. An exact treatment of self-interactions in various structurally inhomogeneous but rotationally symmetric wire, sphere, and thin-film nanostructures leads to renormalization of the uniaxial anisotropy. Finally, an approximate method to calculate nucleation fields is discussed.


We study the interplay of conductive and radiative heat transfer (RHT) in planar geometries and predict that temperature gradients induced by radiation can play a significant role on the behavior of RHT with respect to gap sizes, depending largely on geometric and material parameters and not so crucially on operating temperatures. Our findings exploit rigorous calculations based on a closed-form expression for the heat flux between two plates separated by vacuum gaps $d$ and subject to arbitrary temperature profiles, along with an approximate but accurate analytical treatment of coupled conduction-radiation in this geometry. We find that these effects can be prominent in typical materials (e.g., silica and sapphire) at separations of tens of nanometers, and can play an even larger role in metal oxides, which exhibit moderate conductivities and enhanced radiative properties. Broadly speaking, these predictions suggest that the impact of RHT on thermal conduction, and vice versa, could manifest itself as a limit on the possible magnitude of RHT at the nanoscale, which asymptotes to a constant (the conductive transfer rate when the gap is closed) instead of diverging at short separations.


As sensor networks move towards general-purpose low-power wireless networks, there is a need to support both traditional low-data rate traffic and high-throughput transfer. To attain high throughput, existing protocols monopolize the network resources and keep the radio on for all nodes involved in the transfer, leading to poor energy efficiency. This becomes progressively problematic in networks with packet loss, which inevitably occur in any real-world deployment. We present burst forwarding, a generic packet forwarding technique that combines low power consumption with high throughput for multi-purpose wireless networks. Burst forwarding uses radio duty cycling to maintain a low power consumption, recovers efficiently from interference, and inherently supports both single streams and cross-traffic. We experimentally evaluate our mechanism under heavy interference and compare it to PIP, a state-of-the-art sensornet bulk transfer protocol. Burst forwarding gracefully adapts radio duty cycle both to the level of interference and to traffic load, keeping a low and nearly constant energy cost per byte when carrying TCP traffic.