Objective: To investigate the response to different strength training techniques of growth and myogenic factors in human skeletal muscle, with particular emphasis on satellite cell (SC) activation. Methods: 24 volunteers were divided into two groups and performed a 6-week strength training (group A trained with maximum contraction and group B had training combined with maximum contractions, ballistic movement and stretching–shortening cycles). Muscle biopsies were obtained from triceps brachii 3 days before and 7 days after training. For estimating gene expression of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), mechano growth factor (MGF), MyoD and myogenin, real-time RT-PCR was performed. Results: In group A, there was an increase in the 1 repeat maximum (1RM), but no change in Vmax (maximum movement velocity) and an increase in MHC (myosin heavy chain) IIa and a decrease in MHC IIx; in group B both 1RM and Vmax increased significantly along with an increase in MHC IIa and a decrease in MHC I. The MGF gene expression increased significantly in both groups (by 1160% and 59%, respectively), and IGF-1 increased only in group A (by 335%). MyoD and myogenin gene expression increased in group A (by 107% and 94%, respectively) but did not change in group B. Conclusions: Response of growth and myogenic factors occurs during muscular adaptation to a prolonged training, and strength training with different strategies caused different responses with respect to gene expression of these factors. These results suggest that SC activation is involved in the muscular adaptation process to training and might be attributed to MHC isoform transition.


This article contributes to the debate on human rights education in diverse societies. It is concerned with the relationship between participation and the co-construction of national belonging. Our data consists of 289 pupil texts and 33 focus group discussions in 6 upper secondary schools in Norway. The role of the school in nation-building is well-known, often emphasizing policy documents or curricula. However, it is in the interaction between pupils and their teachers that the production and re-production of the nation occurs. Participatory exercises in our focus groups functioned as pedagogical interventions, helping pupils to reflect on how they understand, discuss and co-construct national belonging. We find that the potential for co-construction of national belonging, through pedagogical interventions, depends on who is acknowledged as a legitimate participant. Notwithstanding power hierarchies, it can be argued that group discussions are concrete ways to help young people in diverse classrooms co-construct national belonging.


Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in many countries today. As the number of subscribers and geographical coverage continues to increase worldwide, mobile users can now be reached at nearly any place and at any time. Though the technology supports near perpetual connectivity, users are not available for mobile phone communication in such a straightforward way. As a result, users are often interrupted by mobile phones in the middle of activities. One reason that has been attributed to this problem is the callers lack of awareness about the callee's current activity. Some context aware mobile technologies have been developed with an aim to help users coordinate mobile phone interruptions. However, these studies are mostly technology oriented and we are yet to understand the effectiveness of these designs. This is because there are few studies on interruption and availability in relation to mobile phone use. To examine the role of technology in coordinating mobile phone interruptions, we have conducted a diary study to investigate the factors that affect the disruptiveness of a mobile phone call, and the practices by which mobile users currently manage their availability. The results from our study show that the availability of a user is highly subjective, and that the interruption rating of a call is affected by factors such as location, activity, relationship with the caller as well as the history of interactions between them. We have also found that mobile phone users appropriate features of the device by way of silencing calls, dismissing calls or placing a 'missed call', in order to manage their availability. The implications of our results for the design of technologies such as context aware telephony, that aim to coordinate mobile phone calls is discussed.


In social environments the human brain evolves systems to make sense of others' actions and behaviours, allowing the development of social interactions and reactions. Influential theories posit that the understanding of others' actions is realised through the activation of one's motor system that internally simulates the kinematics of the ongoing action and predicts its sensorial outcome. This process engages an action observation network (AON) that encompasses temporal-occipital visual and parietal-frontal motor regions. The flowing visual information is coupled with motor representations through recursive bidirectional fronto-temporal interactions that are modelled by sensorimotor experience allegedly via Hebbian plastic mechanisms. However, to date there is no direct evidence on the role that connectivity plays in carrying crucial information for the AON functioning. Recent studies demonstrated the efficacy of a TMS protocol, named cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (ccPAS), able to induce transient Hebbian-like plastic potentiation in motor neural circuits. For a mechanistic understanding of AON connections relevance for simulative processes and action prediction, we used ccPAS with the aim of empowering the synaptic efficacy of the connections between the nodes of the system. ccPAS impact on behaviour and neurophysiological responses was evaluated. On motor behaviour, a ccPAS to empower premotor-motor connectivity led to improved dexterity (Study I) revealing the circuit's functional malleability. On low-level perception, ccPAS, boosting the re-entrant connectivity of visual cortices revealed changes in motion perception and in specific features of it (Studies II-III). We then demonstrated that premotor-motor circuit conveys crucial information for the motor simulation of observed movements (Study IV), and finally, that empowering feedback connectivity in the AON enhances action prediction accuracy (Study V). We therefore provided evidence on the functional relevance of AON connectivity that supports theoretical models, and we developed an innovative tool able to promote AON functionality by inducing plastic changes in its connections.


Objective : New nurses may be vulnerable to bullying as they often lack confidence or do not have the skills or maturity to communicate their needs or those of their patients. Increasing emotional intelligence particularly in at-risk nursing students may be one way to foster resiliency. This exploratory cross sectional study aimed to exam the overall level and specific components of emotional intelligence as well as associations with age, ethnicity, gender, or academic standing in baccalaureate nursing students. Methods : A cross sectional analytical study was conducted using a paper demographic survey and an online emotional intelligence (EI) instrument, the MSCEIT V2.0. A convenience sample of lower division nursing students attending a professional nursing course was recruited. Statistical analyses include demographic descriptives, EI total and sub score means and standard deviations,  paired t-tests to compare within group differences, and simple and linear regression on seven different EI scores to examine predictive qualities of demographic variables. Results : Overall total and many component EI scores were high average with variations noted within groups. Multiple linear regressions demonstrated that after controlling for all variables, a higher GPA and being Asian compared to White were associated with higher scores in mostly all components of EI. Four-year students scored higher than transfer students in understanding emotions. Being male was predictive of the branch, facilitating thought, and Latinos were associated with a higher score in perceiving emotions. Conclusions : This study provides an in-depth exploration of not only total EI in a lower division nursing student sample, but a comprehensive examination of the components of emotional intelligence. EI measurements can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses in abilities that can be either gleaned, or developed as needed to faciliate creative problem solving, effective patient interactions, and to develop resiliency to incivility in the workplace.


The 3D rRNA modification maps database is the first general resource of information about the locations of modified nucleotides within the 3D structure of the full ribosome, with mRNA and tRNAs in the A-, P- and E-sites. The database supports analyses for several model organisms, including higher eukaryotes, and enables users to construct 3D maps for other organisms. Data are provided for human and plant (Arabidopsis) ribosomes, and for other representative organisms from eubacteria, archaea and eukarya. Additionally, the database integrates information about positions of modifications within rRNA sequences and secondary structures, as well as links to other databases and resources about modifications and their biosynthesis. Displaying positions of modified nucleotides is fully manageable. Views of each modified nucleotide are controlled by individual buttons and buttons also control the visibility of different ribosomal molecular components. A section called 'Paint Your Own' enables the user to create a 3D modification map for rRNA from any organism where sites of modification are known. This section also provides capabilities for visualizing nucleotides of interest in rRNA or tRNA, as well as particular amino acids in ribosomal proteins. The database can be accessed at http://people.biochem.umass.edu/fournierlab/3dmodmap/


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva is an accelerator designed to collide protons at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 14 TeV. It is operational since November 2009 and has delivered collisions up to an energy of √s = 7 TeV in 2010. The LHCb experiment is one of the four major LHC experiments, together with ATLAS, CMS and ALICE. It is a single-arm forward spectrometer designed to study CP-violation and rare decays in the b-quark sector. The tracking system of the LHCb experiment is composed of the silicon Vertex Locator (VELO), the silicon Tracker Turicensis (TT), the dipole magnet, the silicon Inner Tracker (IT) and the straw-tube Outer Tracker (OT). The IT is covering the innermost acceptance region close to the beam-pipe, where the track multiplicity is highest (20% of the tracks for 1.5% of the acceptance). Two topics have been addressed in this doctoral thesis. The first part is dedicated to the IT commissioning phase. In particular the first version of the data-quality online monitoring is described. Several histograms and cluster maps have been developed, in order to watch the detector operation and ensure fast problem identification. The online monitoring allowed the identification of cosmic ray tracks which where used for a first spatial alignment. In September 2008 and June 2009, LHC injection tests from the SPS to the LHC ring were performed. Bunches of 2–5×109 protons were dumped onto a beam stopper (TED), producing a shower of secondary particles heading towards LHCb. These events were recorded by the LHCb detector and allowed a time-alignment of the IT up to a precision of 1 ns. The second part describes an analysis of a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.8 ± 1.0 μb-1 and recorded in 2009 from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 0.9 TeV. The double-differential V0 (KS, Λ and Λ) production cross-sections as a function of transverse momentum pT and rapidity y have been measured using only the tracking system of the experiment. A simple selection using an ad hoc geometrical variable based on the impact parameters of the daughters and mother particles has been developed. The results are compared with a few Monte Carlo (MC) generator tunings. They indicate that the KS production cross-section is mostly overestimated for pT 1 GeV/c for all considered models. For Λ and Λ, the production cross-section is mostly underestimated by all models for pT > 0.8 GeV/c. In addition, the data seem to indicate that the Λ/Λ ratio is smaller than predicted by the considered models.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the biomechanical properties of a 5-hole 4.5 mm narrow locking compression plate (LCP) and 5-hole 4.5 mm narrow dynamic compression plate (DCP) for equine proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint arthrodesis.

STUDY DESIGN
Experimental mechanical study.

ANIMALS
Cadaveric adult equine forelimbs (n = 6 pair).

METHODS
For each forelimb pair, 1 PIP joint was stabilized with LCP and the contralateral PIP joint with DCP. The 6 construct pairs were tested using a single-cycle, 3-point dorsopalmar bending system. PIP joints were evaluated with pre- and post-test radiography.

RESULTS
The LCP technique had significantly greater yield load, failure load, and stiffness under single-cycle, 3-point dorsopalmar bending to failure than the DCP technique. There was no significant difference between the 2 constructs for displacement at yield and failure point.

CONCLUSIONS
Biomechanically, the LCP technique provided significantly greater stability than the DCP technique under the test condition.


Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth: this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert-himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt—the Divine Reason.


It is widely known that fossil fuels are limited; consequently, the generation of new sources of energy in a clean and environmentally friendly manner is a research priority. Bioethanol appears to be one potential solution, especially second-generation production from renewable biomass. In order to use lignocellulosic feedstock to produce bioethanol, its polysaccharide components, cellulose and hemicellulose, must be hydrolysed into soluble sugars, which can then be converted into ethanol by fermentative microorganisms such as Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius TM242 used by the company ReBio Technologies Ltd. To date, the cost of commercial enzymes used during the hydrolysis process remains a major economic consideration in the production of second-generation bioethanol as an alternative fuel. The research project presented in this thesis aims to improve this rate-limiting step of microbial bioethanol production through an investigation of the different enzymes associated with hemicellulose hydrolysis. Firstly, the TM242 genome sequence revealed a number of genes encoding glycoside-hydrolases. Six of these genes were cloned and expressed in E. coli and the recombinant enzymes characterised; three of them, two β-xylosidases and an α arabinofuranosidase, are relevant to xylan hydrolysis, and were found to be highly active and thermostable. Crystallisation of one of the β-xylosidases permitted the determination of a high-resolution (1.7 A) structure of the apo-enzyme along with a lower resolution (2.6 A) structure of the enzyme-substrate complex, resulting in the first reported structure of a GH52 family member (Espina et al., 2014). Secondly, as the TM242 microorganism lacks xylanase enzymes, four genes encoding xylanases from closely-related Geobacillus strains were cloned and expressed in E. coli, with one of them being also successfully cloned and expressed in G. thermoglucosidasius TM242. This heterologous xylanase was secreted in active form representing an enhanced biomass utilisation by TM242. In conclusion, it is felt that the findings presented here have the potential to make a valuable contribution towards second-generation bioethanol production.


Hearing loss that disturbs normal communication is a common sensory disorder worldwide. Half of the cases with congenital impaired hearing are hereditary, which may occur as part of a multi system disease (syndromic hearing impairment) or as a disorder restricted to the ear and vestibular system (non-syndromic hearing impairment). Among the many disorders classified as syndromic hearing loss, the pathology varies widely, but non-syndromic hearing loss is almost exclusively caused by cochlear defect, affected patients suffer from sensorineural hearing loss. Non-syndromic deafness displays extensive genetic heterogeneity. More than 100 loci have been mapped, and 40 of the nuclear genes responsible for non-syndromic deafness have been identified. To date 68 loci for autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing impairment (ARNSHI) have been mapped and 23 genes have been isolated. A large number of genes with different functions are involved in the etiology of hearing impairment because of the complexity of the inner ear, and various processes and pathways that can lead to the HI phenotype. Identification of genes causing deafness is a crucial first step in understanding the normal function of these genes in the auditory system.

In the present study, thirteen families (A-M) from different regions of Pakistan, segregating non-syndromic recessive hearing loss have been described.

For deafness segregating in family A, evidence of linkage was detected on chromosome 4q, following a genome wide scan. Two-point analysis generated a maximum lod score of 2.75 for marker 04S1645 at recombination fraction 0. Multipoint linkage analysis for the family derived a maximum LOD score of 3.4 with range of markers from D4S2638 to D4S 1600. Examination of haplotype defined a critical region of about 8.2 cM flanked by markers D4S2978 and D4S2367 at cytogenetic band 4q 12-q13.2. This novel hearing impairment region corresponds to a physical map distance of 11.4 Mb and designated as DFNB55. Several of the known genes in DFNB55 region are expressed in the inner ear. All exons and splice junction sites of EPHA5 and REST, located in the critical region of DFNB55, were sequenced in one hearing and two hearing-impaired members of family A and were found to be negative for functional sequence variants.

Family B showed linkage with DFNB8/10 locus on chromosome 21q22.3. The maximum two-point lod score> 1.0 was obtained with several markers. Multipoint linkage analysis resulted in lod score >3 with markers D2lS1246 and D21S266. The region identified in the family B harbors TMPRSS3 gene. All 13 exons of TPMRSS3 gene were sequenced in the DNA samples of the two affected individuals of family B but no functional sequence variant was identified. A non-synonymous sequence variant 157G-A was however observed in exon 3 of TMPRSS3 gene.

Family C linked to DFNB7/11 locus at chromosome 9q13-21. Maximum two point lod score of 2.51 was obtained with marker D9S301 at recombination fraction zero. Multipoint linkage analysis for the family derived a maximum lod score of 3 with two markers D9S301 and D9S976. TMCl, hearing impairment gene at DFNB7/11 locus, was sequenced in two affected individuals of family C but no disease causing mutation was identified.

In family D linkage was observed with marker D7S 1824 linked to DFNB 13 locus, located close to telomere at 149.9 cM on chromosome 7q34. This region was saturated with the additional markers from proximal and distal region of D7S 1824. Multipoint analysis supported linkage to this region with maximum lod score exceeding 3.00 in the interval D7S2450 -D7S2513.

In two of the thirteen families presented in the current study, linkage was established with the DFNB 1 locus harboring GJB2 gene. In family E sequencing of the coding exon of GJB2 gene revealed a G to A transition at nucleotide position 71, resulting in the conversion of tryptophan to premature termination codon (W24X). In family F sequence analysis of the coding exon of the GJB2 gene revealed a deletion of T at nucleotide position 167 (167deIT).

In family G sequencing of all the 24 coding exons and splice junctions of TMCl gene at DFNB7/11 locus, revealed a homozygous A to G transition in exon 13 of all the affected individuals, which was present in heterozygous state in obligate carriers within the family. The A to G transition occurred at nucleotide position 830 (A830G), converting tyrosine to cysteine at amino acid position 277. This novel missense mutation was designated as Y277C.

In family H, linkage was detected on chromosome 18pll at DFNB1910cus. In family I, linkage was established at DFNB43 locus located on chromosome 15q23-25.1. In family J, linkage was detected on chromosome 9q34.3 at DFNB33 locus. In family K, genotyping with microsatellite markers detect linkage to DFNB2 locus on chromosome llq13.5.

In family L, linkage was established with DFNB33 locus harboring MY015 gene. Nine exons of MYO15 gene, reported to contain mutations, were sequenced in affected individuals of the family. Analysis of sequence data revealed the absence of known mutations in family L.

In family M, linkage was established with DFNB37 locus harboring MY06 gene. Five exons of MY06 gene, reported to contain mutations, were sequenced. Analysis of sequence data indicated the absence of known mutations in family M.

In the present study, a novel hearing impaired locus DFNB55 and a novel sequence variant of the TMC1 gene were identified. The identification of a novel non-syndromic recessive deafness locus DFNB55 demonstrates the high degree of locus heterogeneity for hearing impairment, particularly in the Pakistani population. Novel sequence variant, found in TMC1 region, might be critical for function of K + channels in the hair cells.

The work presented in the thesis has been published in the following articles.

1. Saba Irshad, Regie Lyn P. Santos. Dost Muhammad, Kwanghyuk Lee, Nathan McArthur, Sayedul Haque, Wasim Ahmad, Suzanne M. Leal. Localization of a novel autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing impairment locus (DFNB55) to chromosome 4q 12-4q 13.2. Clinical Genetics (2005) 68, 262 - 267.

2. Regie Lyn P. Santos, Mohammad Wajid, Mohammad Nasim Khan, Nathan McArthur, Thanh L. Pham, Attya Bhani, Kwanghyuk Lee, Saba Irshad, Asif Mir, Kai Yan, Maria H. Chahrour, Muhammad Ansar, Wasim Ahmad, Suzanne M. Leal. Novel Sequence Variants in the TMCl Gene in Pakistani Families with Autosomal Recessive Hearing Impairment. Human Mutation (2005) 26, 396 -404.


This article solves the planar navigation problem by recourse to an online reactive scheme that exploits recent advances in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and visual object recognition to recast prior geometric knowledge in terms of an offline catalog of familiar objects. The resulting vector field planner guarantees convergence to an arbitrarily specified goal, avoiding collisions along the way with fixed but arbitrarily placed instances from the catalog as well as completely unknown fixed obstacles so long as they are strongly convex and well separated. We illustrate the generic robustness properties of such deterministic reactive planners as well as the relatively modest computational cost of this algorithm by supplementing an extensive numerical study with physical implementation on both a wheeled and legged platform in different settings.


Abstract. In this work we look at 3D acquisition of semi-submerged structures with a triangulation based underwater laser scanning system. The motivation is that we want to simultaneously capture data above and below water to create a consistent model without any gaps. The employed structured light scanner consist of a machine vision camera and a green line laser. In order to reconstruct precise surface models of the object it is necessary to model and correct for the refraction of the laser line and camera rays at the water-air boundary. We derive a geometric model for the refraction at the air-water interface and propose a method for correcting the scans. Furthermore, we show how the water surface is directly estimated from sensor data. The approach is verified using scans captured with an industrial manipulator to achieve reproducible scanner trajectories with different incident angles. We show that the proposed method is effective for refractive correction and that it can be applied directly to the raw sensor data without requiring any external markers or targets.


Road safety is often described as comprising three areas: the vehicle, the road environment, and the road user. In recent years the Australian emphasis has been on improving the road environment, and the safety of the vehicle. Improvements to the road user contribution to the toll are usually expressed either as enforcement programmes, or education programmes. This paper reviews the road safety philosophies, and specific practices used to achieve mature driver behaviour change in four countries: the USA; Sweden; Denmark and the Netherlands. In order to make the next quantum leap in road safety improvements for our communities, road safety professionals must re-engage with the behavioural side of the road safety triangle. Local Government is best placed to implement such programmes through its powerful, and direct connections to communities. The approaches to road safety varied greatly across the countries visited. An inspirational approach is considered to be the next level of improving road safety outcomes. This type of communication is not the engineering profession's usual technique, and requires the development of links to other professions. Notwithstanding this significant change in approach, a number of local scale programmes are proposed which can be tailored using social research techniques to suit individual communities' concerns and needs. Six recommendations are detailed to achieve these outcomes.


The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that differential diagnostics of intra-medullary spinal lesions can sometimes be very difficult, even when the latest complement examinations are used, including magnetic resonance imaging. The particular case dealt with here was complicated by the presence of two different pathological processes. We present the case report, where the case history, clinical course and results of the paraclinical examinations, including the magnetic resonance imaging, suggested an intra-medullary inflammatory/demyelinating process. The post-mortem histological finding was a surprise, because besides signs of non-specific encephalomyelitis, it also displayed signs of a spinal tumor (histological character of diffuse astrocytoma grade II-III). We would like to emphasize some important facts in our discussion, especially from the perspective of the magnetic resonance imaging. Finally, we would like to ask if the presence of both pathologies (astrocytoma and nonspecific myelitis) was coincidental, or if the myelitis had an iatrogenic etiology (by therapy, by infection during the lumbar punctions).


Multi-homed, mobile wireless computing and communication devices can spontaneously form communities to logically combine and share the bandwidth of each other's wide-area communication links using inverse multiplexing. But membership in such a community can be highly dynamic, as devices and their associated WAN links randomly join and leave the community. We identify the issues and tradeoffs faced in designing a decentralized inverse multiplexing system in this challenging setting, and determine precisely how heterogeneous WAN links should be characterized, and when they should be added to, or deleted from, the shared pool. We then propose methods of choosing the appropriate channels on which to assign newly-arriving application flows. Using video traffic as a motivating example, we demonstrate how significant performance gains can be realized by adapting allocation of the shared WAN channels to specific application requirements. Our simulation and experimentation results show that collaborative bandwidth aggregation systems are, indeed, a practical and compelling means of achieving high-speed Internet access for groups of wireless computing devices beyond the reach of public or private access points.


This book helps readers to become better, more confident teachers of mathematics by enabling them to focus critically on what they know and what they do in the classroom. Building on their close observation of primary mathematics classrooms, the authors provide those starting out in the teaching profession with a four-stage framework which acts as a tool of support for developing their teaching: -Making sense of foundation knowledge – focusing on what teachers know about mathematics -Transforming knowledge – representing mathematics to learners through examples, analogies, illustrations, and demonstrations -Connection – helping learners to make sense of mathematics through understanding how ideas and concepts are linked to each other -Contingency – what to do when the unexpected happens Each chapter includes practical activities, lesson descriptions, and extracts of classroom transcripts to help teachers reflect on effective practice. Video versions of these lessons are also available on a companion website.


Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2000 "Mark Twain endures. Readers sense his humanity, enjoy his humor, and appreciate his insights into human nature, even into such painful experiences as embarrassment and humiliation. No matter how remarkable the life of Samuel Clemens was, what matters most is the relationship of Mark Twain the writer and his writings. That is the subject of this book."-from the Preface In Mark Twain, A Literary Life, Everett Emerson revisits one of America's greatest and most popular writers to explore the relationship between the life of the writer and his writings. The assumption throughout is that to see Mark Twain's writings in focus, one must give proper attention to their biographical context. Mark Twain's literary career is fascinating in its strangeness. How could this genius have had so little sense of what he should next do? As a young man, Samuel Clemens's first vocation, that of journeyman printer, took him far from home to the sights of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, while his next vocation would give him the identity by which we most frequently know him. His choice of "Mark Twain" as a pen name cemented his bond with the river, as did such books as Life on the Mississippi and Huckleberry Finn. Then following an unsuccessful try at silver mining, Clemens worked as a newspaperman, humorist, lecturer, but also cultivated an interest in playwriting, politics, and philosophizing. In reporting the author's life, Emerson has endeavored to permit Mark Twain to tell his own story as much as possible, through the use of letters and autobiographical writings, some unpublished. These fascinating glimpses into the life of the writer will be of interest to all who have an abiding affection for Samuel Clemens and his extraordinary legacy.


Nanonetworks consist of nanomachines that perform simple tasks (sensing, data processing and communication) at molecular scale. Nanonetworks promise novel solutions in various fields, such as biomedical, industrial and military. Reliable nanocommunications require error control. ARQ and complex Forward Error Correction (FEC) are not appropriate in nano-devices due to the peculiarities of Terahertz band, limited computation complexity and energy capacity. In this paper we propose Simple Block Nanocode (SBN) to provide reliable data transmission in electromagnetic nanocommunications. We compare it with the two reliable transmission codes in nanonetworks in the literature, minimum energy channel (MEC) and Low Weight Channel (LWC) codes. The results show that SBN outperforms MEC and LWC in terms of reliability and image quality at receiver. The results also show that a nano-device (with nano-camera) with harvesting module has enough energy to support perpetual image transmission.


Sensitivity analysis is used to design an open-loop control for separated flows. The length of the recirculation region $l_c$ is expressed as a cost functional, and its sensitivity to actuation is derived analytically. This analysis allows to identify regions where steady actuation in the volume and at the wall are most efficient to decrease/increase the recirculation length. It holds both for separation behind bluff bodies and for wall-bounded separation. The method is illustrated with two configurations: the flow past a circular cylinder, and the boundary layer flow over a wall-mounted bump. In the cylinder flow, a decrease of $l_c$ is obtained with normal blowing in the downstream region of the cylinder wall, or using small cylinders as control devices close to the shear layer. Global linear stability analysis reveals that these controls restabilize the flow in a range of supercritical Reynolds numbers. In the bump flow, wall suction at the bump summit has a strong reducing effect on $l_c$. It also proves very efficient in dampening noise amplification, as shown by the calculation of linear optimal harmonic response for Reynolds numbers below the onset of 2D instability. These results show that the recirculation length may be used as a single macroscopic surrogate for eigenvalues (in oscillator flows) and optimal gain (in amplifier flows) when designing open-loop control.


Although living long has been a dream of mankind, people are worried about ageing, as individuals and society, because old age is historically associated with being sick, dependent and face many psychological concerns due to the emotional responses that follow the normal ageing process. As well as, changes in their sociodemographic status, social relationships and the burden of the associated chronic diseases, they experienced. Only few studies have explored the psychological implications of living geriatric homes and psychological distress that most frequently experienced by them, with health perception, life-satisfaction and self-esteem that are correlated with abandoned self-care behaviours and dealt with negative aspects of the late life. The poor self-images of the selfesteem symptoms of excessive self-consciousness, social phobia, nervosa and depression among elderly population enforce the study of these issues, when studying any elderly concerns. This study aimed to assess and compare selfesteem images and associated socio-demographic factors, social effective relationships and the comorbidity status among geriatric home residents and non-institutionalized elderly people.Methods & Subject: A cross-sectional study was conducted to study the self-esteem status among a sample of 100 elderly people aged 65 years and more, fifty of them were geriatric home residents and the other half from outpatient clinics attenders. All participants accepted to participate and were cognitively alert. They were selected randomly from non-governmental care homes and outpatients clinics in National Medical Institute of Damanhour at El-Behaira Governorate. Tools: specially designed interview questionnaires were developed and used to collect data for socio-demographic and medical data. Self-esteem scale, according to the Arabic version was utilized to measure individual self-esteem variables. Data were collected in period of a month. The results of the study presented that the mean ± SD age of the studied subjects was 70.0±7.1. More than half (59%) of the respondents were males and nearly half (46%) were widowed. Illiterate and only read & write subjects accounted 64% and those with monetary inadequacy contributed 60% having less than 600 Egyptian pounds monthly. The self-esteem scores of the studied subjects by their sociodemographic factors did not detect any significant difference between socio-demographic studied factors except income source (P=0.03). No significant differences between self-esteem scores and socio-demographic factors among geriatric home residents. For the non-institutionalized participants, both age group and educational level showed significant differences, (P= 0.022 and P= 0.040, respectively). The mean ± SD and median of the selfesteem scores according to pattern of social visits for geriatric home residents were higher for daughters' visits, (20.0±3.2 and median 20.5), while no coming visits were reported. No significant difference for outpatient respondents for self-esteem scores and different patterns of effective social relationships, (P=0.449). There was no significant difference between institutionalized and non-institutionalized studied subject according to the level of self-esteem mean ± SD scores, (P=0.315). The effective support relationships of the geriatric home residents, were from some family members and some non-family members. No one was socially supporting the outpatient clinics participants. Brothers & sisters, children and some neighbours were the stressors, (62%, 40% and 40%, respectively) for the geriatric residents. The dominant associated chronic diseases among the two studied groups were common, namely diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, hepatic diseases and diabetes & hypertension. No significant differences were detected among the two studied groups or even within each group, between self-esteem score and the associated chronic diseases.The findings of this study will be useful for planning interventions to improve selfesteem and life-satisfaction among the elderly population in Egypt. As further studies about self-esteem on a larger number of elderly from different geographical areas are recommended. [Samia Kattab Abd El-Rahman and Nagia Ibrahim Hassan. The Effect of Self-Estem Images on the Well-Being of the Elderly People in Geriatric Homes and a Community Living Elderly. J Am Sci 2013;9(3):339-354]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 58


Aim: The study aimed to determine the bacterial etiology of upper tract respiratory infection in Abu-Sitta Hospital, Tripoli, Libya. Subjects and Methods: A total of 470 sputum specimens and 60 throat swabs were collected over a period of 1 year (From January 2014 to December 2014) from patients presented with clinical signs of upper respiratory tract infection at Abu-Sitta Hospital. Enrolled patients were sorted as inpatients or outpatients and by gender. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Variables were expressed as percentages. Differences in age and gender were analyzed using Chi-square test. Results: Of the total 530 screened samples, 80.5% were culture positive, where bacterial pathogens were detected in 83.7% of sputum specimens and in 56.5% of throat swabs. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most prevalent (48%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (23%), Staphylococcus aureus (13%), Enterobacter (8%), Citrobacter freundil (5%), and latest with Klebsiella (3%). Conclusions: The spectrum of pathogenic bacterium causing upper respiratory infection in Abu-Sitta Hospital is considerably wide, with S. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa being the major causative bacteria.


Abstract. It is analytically shown how competing nonlinearities yield multiscaled structures for internal solitary waves in stratified shallow fluids. These solitary waves only exist for large amplitudes beyond the limit of applicability of the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation or its usual extensions. The multiscaling phenomenon exists or does not exist for almost identical density profiles. The trapped core inside the wave prevents the appearance of such multiple scales within the core area. The structural stability of waves of large amplitudes is briefly discussed. Waves of large amplitudes displaying quadratic, cubic and higher-order nonlinear terms have stable and unstable branches. Multiscaled waves without a vortex core are shown to be structurally unstable. It is anticipated that multiscaling phenomena will exist for solitary waves in various physical contexts.


Bacteria with motility directed by the local geomagnetic field have been observed in marine sediments. These magnetotactic microorganisms possess flagella and contain novel structured particles, rich in iron, within intracytoplasmic membrane vesicles. Conceivably these particles impart to cells a magnetic moment. This could explain the observed migration of these organisms in fields as weak as 0.5 gauss.


The International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR) held its 15th annual conference near Rome, Italy in June 2011. The theme of the conference was sustainability, and this topic was addressed through numerous presentations from academia, government, and industry. Numerous presentations from developing countries highlighted the adoption benefits of the biotechnologies in these countries


Paul Wittgenstein's one-handedness has typically been framed as a physical limitation at odds with an able-bodied ideology driving musical performance. Contemporary reviews, for instance, frame the pianist's disability as a tragedy heroically transcended during the course of virtuosic performance; others suggest that Wittgenstein successfully "passed" as two-handed. A study of Wittgenstein's numerous one-hand arrangements reveals similar narratives: the pianist often attempted to imitate the sound of two-handed piano music, and many of his own keyboard exercises train his one hand to assume the load of two. The "deficiency" model can be seen most dramatically in three attempts to arrange Witt-genstein's commissions for left-hand piano into a more "normal" performance medium: Sergei Prokofiev's expressed (but abandoned) interest in arranging his left-hand piano concerto for piano two-hands, Alfred Cortot's completed draft of a two-hand arrangement of Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche , and, most significantly, Friedrich Wuhrer's highly successful two-hand arrangements of Franz Schmidt's left-hand pieces for Wittgenstein, which explicitly adopt a program of "strengthening" and "filling in" the supposed weaknesses of a disabled performance medium. Yet, despite the stigma it may have accrued, one-handed pianism is but a more prominent, more public example of the "bodily limits" all performers must confront; similar discourse surrounds the deficiencies of small hands or stiff fingers, for example. For the performer's body must negotiate its corporeal finitude with the complex demands of the musical score. As seen here in the career of Wittgenstein, an aesthetics of disabled performance presents this dialectic in heightened microcosm.


The first photoswitchable bimetallic gold catalysts based on an azobenzene backbone have been synthesized and their catalytic properties have been investigated. In the intramolecular hydroamination reaction, the reaction rate proved to be dependent on the E- or Z-configuration of the catalyst used, with the Z-isomer being significantly more active. These results suggest that a possible cooperative effect between the two metals operates in this reaction.


Based on the findings of epidemiological studies in Japan that occupational exposure to 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2-DCP) was associated with increased cholangiocarcinomas, 1,2-DCP has recently been classified as being carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). However, the cholangiocarcinogenicity of 1,2-DCP has not been demonstrated experimentally, and it was negative for cholangiocarcinogenicity in rats and mice. The present study determined the effects of 1,2-DCP on N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP)-induced cholangiocarcinogenesis in male hamsters. We found that 1,2-DCP did not enhance the development of BOP-induced atypical biliary hyperplasia and did not induce any lesions in liver bile duct when administered alone. Notably, 1,2-DCP had no effect on the proliferative activity of bile duct epithelial cells regardless of BOP-initiation. These results demonstrate that 1,2-DCP lacks promoting effects on BOP-induced cholangiocarcinogenesis and suggest the possibility that 1,2-DCP is not cholangiocarcinogenic to the hamster in the present model. In addition, 1,2-DCP also lacks promoting effects on pancreatic, lung, and renal carcinogenesis. As the occurrence of occupational cholangiocarcinomas in Japan might be attributed to exposure to multiple chemicals, the results of the present study indicate that it will be necessary to determine the cholangiocarcinogenic effects of concurrent exposure of 1,2-DCP and the other halogen solvents to which workers with cholangiocarcinomas were exposed.


Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors are a new second-line medication in the management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes. These drugs can be associated with the development of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) with normal or moderately increased blood glucose levels. This is a life-threatening clinical condition termed euglycemic DKA (euDKA), of which the diagnosis can be delayed due to the relative euglycemia. We report on two patients with type 2 diabetes who presented to the Emergency Department with malaise, nausea and vomiting. Both patients had been taking dapagliflozin for at least six months. A risk factor for the development of ketoacidosis, namely heavy alcohol consumption, was found in one of the patients. Arterial blood gas analysis showed severe metabolic acidosis with increased anion gap, positive serum and urine ketones and normal arterial lactate. The patients were treated in Internal Medicine with intravenous fluids, insulin, sodium bicarbonate and potassium. Dapagliflozin was stopped. Both patients recovered uneventfully. Even in the absence of significant hyperglycemia, accurate interpretation of arterial blood gas analysis and serum ketones should lead to correct diagnosis of euDKA.


This masters thesis proposes that multimodal behaviour generation frameworks are an appropriate way to increase the believability of animated characters in virtual heritage applications. To investigate this proposal, an existing virtual museum guide application developed by the author is extended by integrating the Behavioural Markup Language (BML), and the open-source BML realiser SmartBody. The architectural and implementation decisions involved in this process are catalogued and discussed. The integration of BML and SmartBody results in a dramatic improvement in the quality of character animation in the application, as well as greater flexibility and extensibility, including the ability to create scripted sequences of behaviour for multiple characters in the virtual museum. The successful integration confirms that multimodal behaviour generation frameworks have a place in virtual heritage applications.


Abstract The growing interest in innovative reactors and advanced fuel cycle designs requires more accurate prediction of various transuranic actinide concentrations during irradiation or following discharge because of their effect on reactivity or spent-fuel emissions, such as gamma and neutron activity and decay heat. In this respect, many of the important actinides originate from the 241Am(n, γ) reaction, which leads to either the ground or the metastable state of 242Am. The branching ratio for this reaction depends on the incident neutron energy and has very large uncertainty in the current evaluated nuclear data files. This study examines the effect of accounting for the energy dependence of the 241Am(n, γ) reaction branching ratio calculated from different evaluated data files for different reactor and fuel types on the reactivity and concentrations of some important actinides. The results of the study confirm that the uncertainty in knowing the 241Am(n, γ) reaction branching ratio has a negligible effect on the characteristics of conventional light water reactor fuel. However, in advanced reactors with large loadings of actinides in general, and 241Am in particular, the branching ratio data calculated from the different data files may lead to significant differences in the prediction of the fuel criticality and isotopic composition. Moreover, it was found that neutron energy spectrum weighting of the branching ratio in each analyzed case is particularly important and may result in up to a factor of 2 difference in the branching ratio value. Currently, most of the neutronic codes have a single branching ratio value in their data libraries, which is sometimes difficult or impossible to update in accordance with the neutron spectrum shape for the analyzed system.


Streaming applications process possibly infinite streams of data and often have both high throughput and low latency requirements. They are comprised of operator graphs that produce and consume data tuples. General streaming applications use stateful, selective, and user-defined operators. The stream programming model naturally exposes task and pipeline parallelism, enabling it to exploit parallel systems of all kinds, including large clusters. However, data parallelism must either be manually introduced by programmers, or extracted as an optimization by compilers. Previous data parallel optimizations did not apply to selective, stateful and user-defined operators. This article presents a compiler and runtime system that automatically extracts data parallelism for general stream processing. Data-parallelization is safe if the transformed program has the same semantics as the original sequential version. The compiler forms parallel regions while considering operator selectivity, state, partitioning, and graph dependencies. The distributed runtime system ensures that tuples always exit parallel regions in the same order they would without data parallelism, using the most efficient strategy as identified by the compiler. Our experiments using 100 cores across 14 machines show linear scalability for parallel regions that are computation-bound, and near linear scalability when tuples are shuffled across parallel regions.


Following recent phylogenetic work, Rockhopper Penguins were suggested to consist of two or three species. For the Southern Rockhopper Penguin Eudyptes c. chrysocome, sexual dimorphism has not been studied in detail, and only a few previous studies on penguins have investigated sexual dimorphism in immatures and chicks. Using data in the literature, we examined whether the sexual dimorphism of adults varies among the three taxa of Rockhopper Penguins and then we investigated the most reliable measurements to sex adult Rockhopper Penguins. We observed that bill length is the most useful measurement to separate males from females. To allow for sex discrimination in the field, we also examined a large dataset of Southern Rockhopper Penguins from New Island, Falkland Islands, including adults sexed via observation of behaviour, and immatures and chicks sexed genetically. We found that male adults and immatures were larger than females in bill length and bill depth and, to a lesser degree, in flipper lengths. We thus derived discriminant functions from bill length and bill depth and correctly sexed 96.2% of adults and 91.8% of immatures. In newly hatched chicks, males had a longer bill than females, but sexing was only successful for 63.5% of hatchlings. Just before the crèche age (18 and 19 days) and after the pre-fledging moult (55 days and older), all morphological measurements of chicks were significantly different between sexes, and sex determination was successful for 68.2% and 84.3% of chicks in these age groups, respectively. Consistently among age groups, bill length was the most dimorphic character in this population.


This paper proposes a new way of designing and fabricating conformal flexible electronics on free-form surfaces, which can generate woven flexible electronics designs conforming to free-form 3D shapes with 2D printed electronic circuits. Utilizing our recently proposed foliation-based 3D weaving techniques, we can reap unprecedented advantages in conventional 2D electronic printing. The method is based on the foliation theory in differential geometry, which divides a surface into parallel leaves. Given a surface with circuit design, we first calculate a graph-value harmonic map and then create two sets of harmonic foliations perpendicular to each other. As the circuits are processed as the texture on the surface, they are separated and attached to each leaf. The warp and weft threads are then created and manually woven to reconstruct the surface and reconnect the circuits. Notably, The circuits are printed in 2D, which uniquely differentiates the proposed method from others. Compared with costly conformal 3D electronic printing methods requiring 5-axis CNC machines, our method is more reliable, more efficient, and economical. Moreover, the Harmonic foliation theory assures smoothness and orthogonality between every pair of woven yarns, which guarantees the precision of the flexible electronics woven on the surface. The proposed method provides an alternative solution to the design and physical realization of surface electronic textiles for various applications, including wearable electronics, sheet metal craft, architectural designs, and smart woven-composite parts with conformal sensors in the automotive and aerospace industry. The performance of the proposed method is depicted using two examples.


VMware ESX Server is a software platform that efficiently multiplexes the hardware resources of a server among virtual machines. This paper studies the performance of a key component of the ESX Server architecture: its storage subsystem. We characterize the performance of native systems and virtual machines using a series of disk microbenchmarks on several different storage systems. We show that the virtual machines perform well compared to native, and that the I/O behavior of virtual machines closely matches that of the native server. We then discuss how the microbenchmarks can be used to estimate virtual machine performance for disk-intensive applications by studying two workloads: a simple file server and a commercial mail server.


After years of relative neglect, the past few decades have witnessed a dramatic renewal of interest in the natural law tradition within philosophical circles. This natural law renaissance, however, has yet to bear much fruit within American constitutional discourse, especially among commentators on the left. In light of its low profile within contemporary constitutional debates, an effort to formulate a natural law constitutionalism is almost by definition an event worthy of sustained attention. In "Restoring the Lost Constitution," Randy Barnett draws heavily upon a natural law theory of constitutional legitimacy to argue in favor of a radically libertarian reading of the Constitution. Barnett's important book, and the substantial commentary it has generated, may well help to generate interest in natural law constitutionalism. Unfortunately, his libertarian emphasis on unfettered rights of property and contract is likely to reinforce the notion that natural law theorizing is an activity best left to those on the rightmost end of the political spectrum. It would be a mistake, however, to understand Barnett's libertarian version of natural law constitutional theory as exhausting the possibilities of the tradition. Although Barnett's theory of constitutional legitimacy is infused with language drawn from the broader natural law framework, his natural rights theory, as he calls it, actually departs in significant ways from the classical natural law tradition. Moreover, there are substantial reasons to favor a version of natural law with implications for state power that are far more progressive than Barnett's. Nor does Barnett establish, as he attempts to do, that the Constitution itself somehow locks us into a commitment to his libertarian, natural rights version of natural law theory. Indeed, without changing much in Barnett's account, it is possible to convert his theory from one that supports the conservative goal of limiting the power of government, restricting it to the narrow task of facilitating or preserving property and contract rights, into one that justifies a far more progressive view.


This project is a study of the family Strophariaceae utilizing comparative morphology,
electrophoresis of extracellular enzymes and mating compatibility approaches. The
study has found macromorphology to be effective in the delineation of taxa in the
majority of cases.
Isozyme profiles of extracellular laccase, pectinesterase and polygalacturonase are found
to be species distinctive in most species across the genera of this family. The one
exception found is Hypholoma whose species show a certain degree of
conservativeness in the enzymes examined in the study. This approach is found to be
useful in establishing putative species groups which can then be further investigated
through mating studies.
The multifaceted approach employed in the study has successfully resolved the
relationships between Psi locybe subaeruginosa and P. australiana, P. eucalypta and
P. tasmaniana, identified sibling species in both Stropharia and Pholiota, and
established Pholiota. squarrosipes Clel. and P. multicingulata Horak as species
showing a wide range of morphological variations. It is suggested from this study that
P. multicingulata sensu lato may encompass P. multicingulata Horak and P.
austrospumosa Hongo forming the southern hemisphere equivalent of Pholiota
spumosa complex. In addition, a multifaceted approach such as that adopted in the
study also lends support to the applicability of the common species concept proposed for
Hymenomycetes in the family Strophariaceae.
Results gained have enabled a confident approach to the separation and enumeration of
species within the family. Results from electrophoresis show that delineation of taxa can
be achieved through distinctions in zymogram patterns. For example, the recently described species Psilocybe australiana Guzman & Wading, P. eucalypta Guzman &
Watling and P. tasrnaniana Guzman & Wading are shown to be synonymous with P.
subaeruginosa Clel. In this particular case, the considerable degree of similarity in
zymogram patterns is highly indicative of a single species and this conclusion is
supported by mating studies. Diagnostic morphological characters used in previous
studies to differentiate these taxa are shown to be invalid.
The phenomenon of sibling species is not uncommon in fungi. Electrophoretic analyses
showed that within the genera of Stropharia and Pholiota sibling species were
concealed within common morphological entities. This is exemplified in the
semiglobata-like forms in Stropharia. Within this single morphological entity, two
distinct species were identified by comparison of isozyrne profiles and UPGMA cluster
analysis using band frequencies, later the segregation was confirmed by mating
compatibility studies.
The study has confirmed the use of enzyme electrophoresis as a useful technique when
applied to a wide range of species across a family from the Agaricales. When this
technique is used in conjunction with mating compatibility study, findings from
electrophoresis have been complimented and confirmed by those from mating. Thus,
the study has avoided some of the problems associated with a purely morphological
approach, and as illustrated by the case of Psilocybe subaeruginosa the multifaceted
approach employed here allows much more confidence to be placed on the described
boundaries of the species studied.
31 taxa are delineated from the study, and of these, eight are previously undescribed
species and one being a new variety.


Root resorption is one of the most relevant problems in orthodontics that does not have a clear-cut method of resolution or prevention. We can use lighter forces and create an environment that would minimise the chances of developing root resorption, but nonetheless, there is no fool-proof method or mechanics to completely avoid the development of this malady. Moreover, the multifactorial etiology and other such considerations make it difficult to arrive at a conclusion whether this phenomenon can be effectively controlled at all. What we have now are a set of guidelines that were the result of intense research studies performed by pioneers in the orthodontic field. Utmost care and regular follow up are the only way to reduce the adverse effects and achieve stable and consistent treatment results.


Cells in vitro behave differently if cultured in a 2D or 3D environment. In spite of the continuous progress over the recent years, methods available for realizing 3D cultures of primary neurons are still fairly complex, limited in throughput and especially limited in compatibility with other techniques like multielectrode arrays (MEAs) for recording and stimulating the network activity with high temporal precision. In this manuscript, a paper-based approach is presented using cellulose filter paper as a mobile substrate for 3D cultures of primary rat hippocampal and cortical neurons. Acting as 3D scaffolds for network development, filter membranes with different surface treatments were prepared to control network homogeneity and laser cut to change the network topology through spatial confinement. The viability of the prepared cultures was comparable to that of reference 2D cultures for over 4 weeks, and the mechanical stability of the paper substrates made it possible to transfer the cultures to MEA chips in an on-demand manner. Once the cultures were successfully transduced with a gene-encoded calcium indicator and transferred to a MEA chip, the optical and electrical signals of neuronal activity were simultaneously recorded and combined to study the different activity patterns with high spatiotemporal resolution. The highthroughput nature of the presented approach makes it a valuable tool for investigating the intimate relationship between topology and function, by studying the intrinsic parameters influencing network synchronization and signal propagation through the different activity patterns of 3D neural cultures with arbitrary topology. The developed platform provides a robust and simple alternative to existing 3D culturing technologies for neurons.


In 1982, Congress enacted the Foreign Antitrust Trade Improvements Act (FTAIA) to resolve uncertainties about the international reach and effect of U.S. antitrust laws. Unfortunately, the FTAIA has provided more questions than answers. It has been ten years since the Supreme Court most recently interpreted the FTAIA, and crucial questions and circuit splits abound. One of these questions is how to understand the convergence of the direct purchaser rule (frequently referred to as the Illinois Brick doctrine) and the FTAIA. Under the direct purchaser rule, only those who purchase directly from antitrust violators are typically permitted to sue under section 4 of the Clayton Act for treble damages. There are several court-created exceptions to this rule that allow indirect purchasers to sue under section 4. This Note addresses the open question of whether courts should apply these exceptions in the FTAIA context. The Seventh Circuit recently discussed this question in Motorola Mobility LLC v. AU Optronics Corp., implying that courts should not recognize Illinois Brick's exceptions in the FTAIA context. This Note argues for a different interpretation of the case — one that supports the effective deterrence of antitrust violations while vindicating the need to compensate American consumers who are foreseeably, substantially, and directly damaged by foreign anticompetitive conduct. Based on an analysis of the purpose of the Illinois Brick doctrine and the text of the FTAIA, this Note concludes that when an exception to Illinois Brick would permit indirect purchasers to sue in the domestic context, U.S. courts should also allow indirect purchasers to sue under the FTAIA.


Twenty-four renal allografts functioning up to six years from the date of transplantation were retained in situ from four days to five years following return of the patient to hemodialysis. Fifteen of the 24 kidneys were removed for specific indications within four days to ten months. The reasons for allograft nephrectomy included fever, hematuria, graft pain and tenderness, and severe hypertension. Nine patients remained asymptomatic with grafts retained three months to five years (median, two years) following return to hemodialysis. It appears safe to retain nonfunctioning grafts in asymptomatic patients, thereby avoiding an unnecessary operation when failure is due to chronic rejection or recurrent glomerulonephritis. Nevertheless, in many patients complications eventually develop for which the allograft will be removed.


Anaphors constitute a well-known problem in automatic text generation and natural language understanding. Using corpora to deal with such phenomena could help to develop robust processing techniques. Building such resources is, though, a tedious and time-consuming task and could more easily be accomplished by partial automation. In this paper, we show how the intex system can be used for this task. We show that in a newspaper corpus (in this case, le Monde Diplomatique), discursive grammatical anaphors can easily be located via associated linguistic features. A series of transducers generating tags for categories and functions can thus be built, and constitutes an efficient pre-processing stage (though manual checking remains necessary). The heuristics, quickly and easily developed, are specific to the task. The study goes on to show, however, that discarding non-anaphoric pronouns is not straightforward in the case of non-referential personal pronouns or indefinite pronouns, and that the tagging of the grammatical function seems limited in the absence of real syntactic processing.


HIV/AIDS continues to be a menace to the global community, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa is not an exception. The infection rate is continues to grow, in particular, among the young adults. Cell phones have been identified as one of the tools that can be used to overcome the challenge of information dissemination regarding HIV/AIDS among young adults because of its acceptability within this age group. Access to appropriate information can be a powerful for prevention and management of many chronic illnesses, including hypertension, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Within the young adults age group information access by use of Short Messaging Services (SMS) becomes particularly appealing. In this regard, it is proposed to provide access to carefully screened information on HIV/AIDS within the context of frequently asked questions (FAQ) system. However, automating SMS-based information search and retrieval poses significant challenges because of the inherent noise in SMS communications. In the paper, a special corpus of SMS messages was collected based on a standardised question-answer collection. The SMS messages were then analysed, transcribed and classified, with the aim of building a dictionary of SMS-speak to English translations, with reference to HIV/AIDS.


We present a non-parametric method for compressing multichannel audio data for reproduction through Wave Field Synthesis. The method consists of applying a two-dimensional filterbank to the input mul- tichannel signal, in both time and channel dimensions, and coding the two-dimensional spectra using a spatio-temporal frequency masking model. The coded spectral data is organized into a bitstream together with side information containing scale factors and Huffman codebook information. We demonstrate how this coding method can be applied to any smooth distribution of loudspeakers in space, while obtaining a stable bitrate that is 15% lower compared to coding each channel independently.


Many enterobacteria can cause agglutination of erythrocytes, but previous investigations have not proven which components of the bacteria are responsible. We used a strain of Escherichia coli K12 which causes mannose-sensitive hemagglutination (HA) of guinea pig cells. Common pili were purified from these bacteria by shearing them from the bacteria followed by selective precipitation in acid and ammonium sulfate. Isopycnic centrifugation in cesium chloride removed the remaining outer membrane protein contaminants. These pili are pure by electron microscopy and gel electrophoresis. By amino acid analysis, they have a mol wt of 17,099 and consist of 45% nonpolar residues. These purified pili agglutinate guinea pig erythrocytes, a reaction that is inhibited by anti-pili antibodies and by saccharides related in structure to D-mannose. Proteolytic treatment of erythrocytes does not diminish HA but rather increases the pili-induced HA of human cells. Neuraminidase enhances HA and mannosidase slightly diminishes it. It is concluded that purified pili alone cause HA of erythrocytes by binding to mannose-like molecules on the erythrocyte surface. Thus HA by bacterial pili serves as a useful model system for the mechanism of bacterial pili attachment ot cell membranes.


This study added to the limited research on positive aspects of the human condition. It highlighted the perspective that women in western society recognise that there are wider health benefits to be taken from exercise than science suggests. Whilst this study acknowledged the customary fragmentary view, it took a holistic approach to exploring the nature and meaning of regular participation in exercise from the perspective of 41 women aged 30 to 50 years. This qualitative study included the views of regular participants in facility based and non-facility based exercise, along with the views of exercise instructors and the researcher.

The study was contextualised within the traditional theories of related disciplines, namely health, women's studies, and exercise science. Also it was founded on the fitness industry's perspective on its service provision and its instructor training. Theory was compared with the experiences of a sector of the female population who, despite all the accepted calls on their time and energy, consistently maintained regular involvement in exercise. The study provided a holistic perspective on the nature, meaning and benefits of regular participation in exercise.

Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were utilised in the data gathering process. In each case, the process consisted of a series of questions designed to explore a subjective perception of experience in accordance with the Neuro-Logical Levels process, a model from within the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Dilts, 1990; Dilts, Hallbom and Smith, 1990; O'Connor and Seymour, 1995). This model acknowledges that behaviours and actions, witnessed on a surface level, are driven by internal systems, including personal beliefs and identity structures. It was utilised as an exploratory technique to identify unconscious triggers for behaviour. The use of this process in the interviews facilitated individual exploration of the research topic at increasingly deep levels of awareness. Focus groups demonstrated a consensus on, as well as further individual differences in, the beliefs, attitudes, experiences and feelings of the participants as they arose from the interactive context.

The heuristic methodology utilised in the analysis and presentation of the data offered a holistic, person-centred and reflective perspective on the nature, meaning and benefits of exercise (Moustakas, 1990). Individual and exemplary portraits depicted the experience and personal meaning of exercise as it emerged from the data. Composite depictions conveyed the nature of exercise participation from the perspectives of participants and instructors. The researcher's involvement in the complete study facilitated the emergence of a creative synthesis of the essence of exercise.

Exercise provided emotional and spiritual gains that extended beyond the traditional lifestyle benefits. Individuals indicated a range of 'special' qualities in exercise, along with benefits to the mind. They noted unique personal benefits and enhanced interpersonal relationships in all spheres of life. Regular participation in exercise greatly enhanced the lives of those involved and contributed to an individual and collective evolutionary process. Effective exercise delivery consisted of interactional and motivational elements beyond the scientific and mechanistic topics traditionally recognised in instructor training programmes and was founded on empathy, facilitation, passion, love and positive energy.


As breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam's conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America's efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam's striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation's very culture--the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal's outstanding--and enduring--symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik's hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California's great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam's renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.


Geometric models are used to simplify the complex, three-dimensional geometry of metal foams for calculations of effective thermal conductivity. The first is based on a conventional three-dimensional cubic lattice and the second is a tetrakaidecahedronal model. The models consist of interconnecting ligaments with a spherical node at their intersections. The geometry of the foam is determined based on two dimensionless parameters: 1) the porosity and 2) the product of the specific surface area of the foam and the length of the interconnecting ligaments. A free parameter represents the size of the lumps at the ligament interconnections. It is shown that the remaining unknown geometric parameters of the models can be obtained as a solution of a cubic equation that has only one acceptable solution. From the cubic lattice model, a one-dimensional heat conduction analytical model is used to find the effective thermal conductivity of fully saturated metal foam. A three-dimensional finite element calculation of the effective thermal conductivity for the cubic lattice is then compared to the one-dimensional model. In the case of the tetrakaidecahedronal model, a similar three-dimensional finite element calculation is performed to find the effective thermal conductivity. Anisotropy of the models is explored. The results of the models are compared with experimental results from this study and the literature to substantiate their accuracy. The experimental results are reported for fully saturated aluminum metal foam in air, water, and oil. Results show that both the cubic lattice model, which is less complex, and the tetrakaidecahedronal model can both be used to represent one-dimensional effective thermal conductivity. Finally, the dimensionless surface areas for each geometric model are compared. The models produce significantly different surface areas, and therefore do not both represent the density and specific surface area of foam accurately.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


One important goal during the reconfiguration of a medium-voltage power distribution network is to minimize the active-power losses of the system. Therefore, the objective function of an optimization problem would represent the total power losses of the distribution system, by considering only the active component of power losses while ignoring the reactive part. Constraints would be load flow, voltage drop, and the network configuration. In this paper, losses problem during the reconfiguration of a medium-voltage power distribution system have been minimized using a single-loop optimization method, whereas the load-flow analysis has been performed by utilizing the Newton-Raphson method. The optimization method was aimed to minimize the active-power losses of the system by formulating the problem as a matter of network reconfiguration. The solution scheme has been begun with a mesh distribution-network which had been obtained previously by assuming all the switches to be closed and then opened sequentially to eliminate loops. The optimization results showed that in a 21-bus distribution system there had been 10800 combinations, in which the lowest power losses occurred under the combination of NO 23, NO 21, NO 22, NO 24, NO 25, whereas the combination of NO 7, NO 10, NO 20, NO 15, NO 20, resulted in the power losses of 0.1676 per unit, being equal to 16.76 kVA at the base power of 100 kVA.


Over the past 40 years, hard disks, the traditional building block of storage systems, have become increasingly slower when compared to the other system components such as the main memory and the CPU. Hard disks face mechanical constraints that cause their I/O bandwidth to lag behind capacity growth, while the access latency has remained virtually unchanged for the past 20 years. The growing gap between the main memory and the persistent storage brought us to a point where I/O accesses are the main bottleneck that limits the performance of database management systems. Several new solid-state storage technologies have been under development and are now commercially successful, with NAND flash memory being the most mature. Such technologies store data durably, have no mechanical constraints to limit their I/O performance, and can bridge the growing gap between the main memory and the persistent storage. Solid-state drives, however, have very different characteristics compared to hard disks, making it challenging to integrate such technology. For decades, database management systems have been implicitly developed and optimized around the model of a slow rotating hard disk. In this thesis, we focus on transactional database workloads composed of large numbers of small concurrent queries. Transactional workloads generate large numbers of scattered I/O requests at the level of the storage system that are traditionally challenging for hard disks to service. Solid-state drives, on the other hand, are a much better suited technology as they service natively I/O requests in parallel and their performance is not constrained by access locality. The approach we take in this thesis is to traverse the I/O stack of a database management system, i.e. the major software layers that define how data is stored and accessed, and show how these components can, with careful consideration of flash behavior and through novel algorithms, make efficient use of flash-based storage devices. The methodology we use is to observe the data access patterns and the data access frequencies at each level of the I/O stack and design new algorithms and data structures that match the characteristics of the workload with the constraints of flash memory. We use a bottom up approach to revisit the Storage Device, the Storage Manager, and the Caching layers of a data management system and show how each component can better exploit flash technology. At the level of the Storage Device, we show how a solid-state drive can minimize the overhead of storing data on the raw flash chips by exploiting the write skew present in real-life transactional workloads. We then introduce a log-structured data placement policy for the Storage Manager of a database system that can transparently adapt the data access pattern to eliminate all random I/O writes that are problematic for flash solid-state drives. Finally, we propose an architecture for the Caching layer that allows database systems to efficiently move data between main memory and a fast solid-state drive without having to incur the large overhead and limitations of the traditional buffer pool design.


Introduction After extensive observation of mother-infant dyads in two diverse contexts, Ainsworth developed the construct of maternal sensitivity to explain the nature of mother-infant interactions that lead to infant attachment security. She believed this construct to be universally applicable. Since Ainsworth's publications, her theory has been adapted and extended, particularly by theorists working in North American and Western European countries. These developments have been largely uninterrogated in relation to their universal cultural relevance, despite the fact that parenting practices differ greatly across cultural groups. Those who have begun to interrogate the cultural universality of current conceptualisation of maternal sensitivity highlight important areas of cultural disagreement. Method This article provides a critical theoretical argument regarding the cultural universality of maternal sensitivity, extending comment to the cultural and contextual relevance of developments in its operationalisation. Results Particular aspects of current theoretical and operational use of the construct of maternal sensitivity that are potentially culturally specific (as opposed to culturally universal) are noted, namely the inclusion of positive affect, the centrality of parent-infant play, verbal responsiveness, the inclusion of learning in parent-infant interactions and the shift towards a more proactive (rather than reactive) role for the parent in parent-infant interactions. Conclusion This article suggests that the evolution of the concept of maternal sensitivity has failed to account for cultural differences.


Objective: This case series examines the practicality of using a standardized method of training children in self-hypnosis (SH) methods to explore its efficiency and short-term efficacy in treating tics in patients with Tourette syndrome. Methods: The files of 37 children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome referred for SH training were reviewed, yielding 33 patients for analysis. As part of a protocol for SH training, all viewed a videotape series of a boy undergoing SH training for tic control. Improvement in tic control was abstracted from subjective patient report. Results: Seventy-nine percent of the patients trained in this technique experienced short-term clinical response, defined as control over the average 6-week follow-up period. Of the responders, 46% achieved tic control with SH after only 2 sessions and 96% after 3 visits. One patient required 4 visits. Conclusions: Instruction in SH, aided by the use of videotape training, augments a protocol and probably shortens the time of training in this technique. If SH is made more accessible in this way, it will be a valuable addition to multi-disciplinary management of tic disorders in Tourette syndrome.


Due to the ease of development and inexpensiveness, indoor localization systems are getting a significant attention but, with recent advancement in context and location aware technologies, the solutions for indoor tracking and localization had become more critical. Ranging methods play a basic role in the localization system, in which received signal strength indicator- (RSSI-) based ranging technique gets the most attraction. To predict the position of an unknown node, RSSI measurement is an easy and reliable method for distance estimation. In indoor environments, the accuracy of the RSSI-based localization method is affected by strong variation, specially often containing substantial amounts of metal and other such reflective materials that affect the propagation of radio-frequency signals in nontrivial ways, causing multipath effects, dead spots, noise, and interference. This paper proposes an adaptive smoother based location and tracking algorithm for indoor positioning by making fusion of RSSI and link quality indicator (LQI), which is particularly well suited to support context aware computing. The experimental results showed that the proposed mathematical method can reduce the average error around 25%, and it is always better than the other existing interference avoidance algorithms.


Increasing freight transportation volumes continue to increase problems related to human health, congestion on the transport infrastructure, noise, climate changes, etc. Governments often want to minimize these negative effects, and this wish is expressed in societal goals, e.g., to reach environmental targets. An important instrument for reaching societal goals is governmental control policies, e.g., regulations, taxes and fees, which can influence the behaviour of the actors in a transport chain. Before implementing such control policies, it is crucial to predict their effects in order to make probable that it is a good measure. A review of models that consider the effects of governmental control policies on transportation has been performed which shows that macro-level models are mainly used for this purpose. However, the behaviour of the individual transport chain actors can hardly be captured in such models since the decision making actors are not modelled explicitly. Consequently, the negative effects caused by the decisions taken by the individual transport chain actors are not fully captured in these models. We believe that micro-level models have the potential to bridge the gap between governmental policy-making and the behaviour of transport chain actors. A micro-level model based on agent-technology has been developed which captures the environmental, quality and economical performance in transport chains, given different governmental control policies. The transport chain actors are represented by decision-making agents in the model. Logistical factors for characterizing transport chains have been identified and described according to degree of influence. To illustrate the usage of the micro-level model, simulation experiments based on a real world case have been performed where different levels of governmental control policies are introduced. The simulation results so far have showed that the model seems to simulate the behaviour of the transport chain actors correctly in the studied scenarios. The simulation tool can then be used as a decision support for policy-makers and serve as a complement to existing tools based on macro-level models.


This essay explores the place of Fortune in PPl as both allegorical figure and lowercase synonym for 'chance' as well as the fifteenth-century future of this combination of religious poetics and vernacular philosophy, biblical moralism and secular Fortuna. I examine two poems whose debts to L have never before been recognized, found in a manuscript traditionally associated with an aristocratic, country house milieu, Cambridge Ff.1.6 or the Findern Manuscript. These poems open a new window into PPl, showing us how a fifteenth-century reader might have interpreted the poem's small but significant engagement with Fortune, beginning early on in passus 6 and concluding in the very final passus of both the B and C texts. The Findern poems, 'How Myschaunce Regnythe in Ingeland' and 'A Complaint to Dame Fortune' testify to the importance of reading intertextually, not only laterally or backward in time, but forward as well; as I will show, the anonymous composers of these poems are astute readers of L's work -- s...


For many of the state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms, image segmentation is an important preprocessing step. As such, several image segmentation algorithms have been proposed, however, with certain reservation due to high computational load and many hand-tuning parameters. Correlation clustering, a graph-partitioning algorithm often used in natural language processing and document clustering, has the potential to perform better than previously proposed image segmentation algorithms. We improve the basic correlation clustering formulation by taking into account higher-order cluster relationships. This improves clustering in the presence of local boundary ambiguities. We first apply the pairwise correlation clustering to image segmentation over a pairwise superpixel graph and then develop higher-order correlation clustering over a hypergraph that considers higher-order relations among superpixels. Fast inference is possible by linear programming relaxation, and also effective parameter learning framework by structured support vector machine is possible. Experimental results on various datasets show that the proposed higher-order correlation clustering outperforms other state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithms.


This paper deals with the interpretation of Kant's Critique of Judgment from
 the perspective of aesthetics. Our aim here is to show the immanent
 relationship between the two main motifs of this work: the analysis of
 traditional aesthetic problems, such as beauty and taste, on the one hand,
 and the systematical thinking, philosophy, and Kant's critical project, on
 the other. This interpretation is developed in consideration of the problem
 of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline, within which, for each of the
 motifs of Kant's third critique it is shown how it redefines aesthetic into
 philosophical thought. Finally, the character of critical positioning of
 aesthetic problems in Kant is shown in light of the opening of the
 perspective of subjective universality as a theme that connects the two
 motifs of third critique, but also allows a different view in the domain of
 intersubjectivity.


Identification of sex from the skeleton is an important demographic assessment in medicolegal investigations. Studies have demonstrated that populations differ from each other in size and proportions and that these differences can affect the metric assessment of sex. It is therefore vital to determine if population differences are great enough to necessitate group-specific standards. To date, there have been no attempts to create standards of assessment for modern Thais. Therefore the purpose of this research is to establish standards from which to determine sex from the femur using a new skeletal collection housed at the Chiang Mai University Department of Anatomy. The sample is composed of 104 individuals (70 males, 34 females). Six standard osteometric dimensions including maximum length, maximum head diameter, midshaft circumference, midshaft anterior-posterior and transverse diameters, and bicondylar breadth were measured and analyzed by stepwise discriminant function statistics. To understand population differences, formulas derived from Chinese, South African whites and American whites and blacks using the same method and variables were tested on the Thai sample. Results indicated that maximum head diameter and bicondylar breadth are the optimal combination for sex diagnosis and yielded 94.2% accuracy. Direct analysis using predetermined single or multiple variables also revealed bicondylar breadth as the best single dimension (93.3%). In cross-tests on the Thais, the Chinese formula gave the most favorable outcome with unsatisfactory results for all other groups. The present research confirms that sexual dimorphism is better reflected in breadth dimensions than in bone length. Comparisons showed that Thais are very different metrically from whites and blacks, and although they most resemble the Chinese, these two groups are not identical. These findings underscore the need for population-specific formulas for identification of sex from the skeleton.


In this paper we present a general scheme to create mechanisms that approximate the social welfare in the presence of selfish (but rational) behavior of agents. The usual approach is to design truthful mechanisms in which an agent can only lose by impersonating as another agent. In contrast, our approach is to allow an agent to impersonate several different agents. We design the mechanisms such that only a limited set of impersonations are reasonable to rational agents. Our mechanisms make sure that for any choice of such impersonations by the agents, an approximation to the social welfare is achieved. We demonstrate our results on the well studied domain of Combinatorial Auctions (CA). Our mechanisms are algorithmic implementations, a notion recently suggested in (Babaioff, Lavi, & Pavlov 2006).


This study was conducted to explore teachers' skills, perceptions, and practices about ICT in second-cycle institutions in Ghana. Questionnaires were distributed to 273 teachers in different departments, 241 were returned, and 231 were valid for data analysis, representing a response rate of 85%. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts in the field. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was 0.91. Descriptive statistics and correlation were used to analyze data. Of the 231 teachers, 66% were males and 34% were females. Majority of the respondents were between the ages 30-39. The correlation analysis revealed positive correlation between ICT use and teachers' competences. Further, teachers' perceptions in terms of using ICT were found to be positive but not statistically significant. Finally, the study revealed inverse correlations among ICT use, age, and teaching experience. The descriptive results indicated that teachers' knowledge in basic ICT applications as well as integrating ICT into teaching and learning processes was low. These results provide evidence that the introduction of ICT in teaching and learning has not brought any change in the delivery of education in second-cycle schools in Ghana. This also implies that teachers have not shifted from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning. From the findings of the study, it is recommended that courses such as computer supported learning, ICTs and designing instructional materials should be introduced in initial teacher training programs to improve teachers' level of confidence and perceptions towards the use of ICT.


Abstract Background: Amongst state hospitals in the eThekwini municipality, obtaining informed consent for anaesthesia is often an informal interaction between the patient and anaesthetist, lacking structure and standardisation. Objectives: To evaluate the informed consent process from the patients' perspective in an attempt to modify current practice. Methods: Competent adult patients presenting for elective surgery were presented pre- and postoperatively with structured questionnaires addressing various aspects of the consent process. Results: Of 143 included patients, only 57% of patients were given information about their anaesthetic preoperatively. With regard to complications experienced during anaesthesia, 36% of patients preferred not to be informed of any possible sequelae, while 17% wanted to be informed of all possible complications. In total, 83% of patients who had signed the surgical consent form with the surgeon thought that they had signed an anaesthetic form with the anaesthetist. Some 56% of patients felt that written consent on a specific standardised anaesthetic consent form should be introduced. Conclusion: Even though the majority of patients are being seen preoperatively by the anaesthetist, the quality of this assessment is concerning, in terms of the amount and depth of information imparted and the lack of standardisation of information given.


Numerical weather and climate prediction systems necessitate accurate land surface‐atmosphere fluxes, whose determination typically replies on a suite of parameterization schemes. The authors present a field investigation over tall grass in a Beijing suburb, where the aerodynamic roughness length (z0) and zero-plane displacement height (d) are found to be 0.02 and 0.44m, respectively (the value of d is close to two-thirds the average grass height during this field experiment). Both z0 and d values are then used as input parameters of an analytic model of flux footprint; the footprint model reveals that eddy-covariance flux measurements are mainly representative of the tall grass surface concerned herein, potential influences from anthropogenic sourcesin this suburban areanotwithstanding. Basedon the ''fairweather''data (withan energybalanceratio of 0.89), the authors evaluate four parameterizations of turbulent surface fluxes, namely, a total of three traditional ''iterative'' schemes and one ''noniterative'' scheme developed recently to reduce computational time. Their performances are intercompared in terms of the estimations of the sensible heat flux and two turbulence components (the friction velocity and temperature scale). In weakly stable to unstable conditions, two schemes are recommended here for their good performance overall; the first scheme stems jointly from the work of H€€ and Beljaars and Holtslag,and the second stems from that of Li et al.. For this tall grass surface, the choice of z0/z0h 5 100 (z0h is the thermal roughness length) is more appropriate than another choice of 10, because the former produces comparatively accurate sensible heat flux estimations.