Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 500 mg bid and 1500 mg bid levetiracetam as adjunctive therapy for refractory partial seizures in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicenter trial. Methods: The authors studied patients with uncontrolled partial seizures (minimum 12 per 12 weeks), regardless of whether they became secondarily generalized, for 38 weeks. A 12-week baseline was followed by random assignment to adjunctive therapy with placebo (n = 95), levetiracetam 1000 mg/day (n = 98), or levetiracetam 3000 mg/day (n = 101). Upward titration over 4 weeks was followed by 14 weeks of fixed dose treatment, and concluded with an 8-week medication withdrawal period or entering a follow-up study. Results: Of 294 patients randomized, 268 completed the study. Partial seizure frequency during the entire evaluation period (primary efficacy variable) was lower with levetiracetam compared to placebo (p ≤ 0.001 for both groups). More patients responded (defined as minimum 50% reduction in partial seizure frequency) to levetiracetam than placebo, with rates of 33.0% in the 1000 mg/day and 39.8% in the 3000 mg/day group, compared to 10.8% in the placebo group (p < 0.001). Of 199 patients receiving levetiracetam, 11 became seizure free; no patient became seizure free in the placebo group. Treatment-emergent adverse events (≥10%), mostly mild to moderate in severity, with incidences higher than placebo were asthenia, dizziness, flu syndrome, headache, infection, rhinitis, and somnolence. Conclusion: Adjunctive therapy with levetiracetam was effective and well tolerated in controlling partial seizures.


T his week's coordinated special issues of Science and Science 's Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) ( ) feature additions to the signaling pathway database at STKE: the Connections Maps.[*][1] This database organizes information on the signaling circuitry that regulates cellular function. The Viewpoints in this issue summarize current understanding of how these pathways regulate diverse functions in health and disease. Biochemical signaling pathways interact to form a complicated network that becomes evident when viewing the Connections Maps pathways. "Pathway" units are used for convenience, but new navigational tools allow users to "walk" from one component to another, exploring how the same component works in multiple pathways. "Interpathway connections" show branch points where one pathway influences another [see the Editorial Guide at STKE ([www.stke.org/cgi/content/full/sigtrans;2003/186/eg8][2])].

Viewpoints from Barton and Medzhitov (p. 1524) and Kelly-Welch et al. (p. [1527][3]) discuss signaling by Toll-like receptors and interleukins (ILs). The Toll-like receptors enable the body to detect the presence of microbial invaders and initiate processes that defend against such an attack. Signals mediated by IL-4 and IL-13 present potential therapeutic targets for treatment of asthma and allergies. Xiang and Kobilka (p. 1530) describe signaling by adrenoceptors, which control normal heart function and can contribute to heart failure. Vaudry et al. (p. [1532][4]) address multiple pathways that contribute to life-or-death decisions in cerebellar neurons. Important early in life for proper developmental patterning, these pathways may later malfunction in neurodegenerative diseases.

Similar circuits can be constructed from different components, as Van Gelder (p. [1534][5]) describes for pathways that make up biological clocks. Some surprises come from the huge family of receptors that couple to heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins). Kimmel and Parent (p. 1525) describe a receptor in the social ameoba Dictyostelium that signals through a G protein but also triggers G protein-independent signals. This model organism provides a system for understanding how cells orient themselves in very shallow gradients of chemoattractants. Wang and Malbon (p. 1529) describe a receptor that has structural characteristics of a G protein-coupled receptor but is best understood to signal by a different mechanism. The authors summarize evidence that these receptors ("Frizzleds") may also use a traditional G protein activation mechanism.

We hope the Viewpoints lead you to explore the Connections Maps at Science's STKE. We anticipate that a comprehensive signaling database will enable analysis not previously possible with information stored in the text of traditional research publications.

 [1]: #fn-1
 [2]: http://www.stke.org/cgi/content/full/sigtrans;2003/186/eg8
 [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1085458
 [4]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1085260
 [5]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1085446


Nearly five million Muslims call France home, the vast majority from former French colonies in North Africa. While France has successfully integrated waves of immigrants in the past, this new influx poses a new variety of challenges --much as it does in neighboring European countries. Alarmists view the growing role of Muslims in French society as a form of "reverse colonization"; they believe Muslim political and religious networks seek to undermine European rule of law or that fundamentalists are creating a society entirely separate from the mainstream. Integrating Islam portrays the more complex reality of integration's successes and failures in French politics and society. From intermarriage rates to economic indicators, the authors paint a comprehensive portrait of Muslims in France. Using original research, they devote special attention to the policies developed by successive French governments to encourage integration and discourage extremism. Because of the size of its Muslim population and its universalistic definition of citizenship, France is an especially good test case for the encounter of Islam and the West. Despite serious and sometimes spectacular problems, the authors see a "French Islam" slowly replacing "Islam in France"-in other words, the emergence of a religion and a culture that feels at home in, and is largely at peace with, its host society. Integrating Islam provides readers with a comprehensive view of the state of Muslim integration into French society that cannot be found anywhere else. It is essential reading for students of French politics and those studying the interaction of Islam and the West, as well as the general public.


Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. The main cause of death because of colorectal cancer is hepatic metastases, which can be treated using isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP), allowing treatment of colorectal metastasis with various methods. In this study, we present a novel potent multimodality strategy comprising humanized death receptor 4 (DR4) antibody mapatumumab in combination with oxaliplatin and hyperthermia to treat human colon cancer cells. Oxaliplatin and hyperthermia sensitized colon cancer cells to mapatumumab in the mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathway and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, leading to Bcl-xL phosphorylation at serine 62 in a c-jun-NH2-kinase (JNK)-dependent manner. Overexpression of Bcl-xL reduced the efficacy of the multimodality treatment, whereas phosphorylation of Bcl-xL decreased its antiapoptotic activity. The multimodality treatment dissociated Bcl-xL from Bax, allowing Bax oligomerization to induce cytochrome c release from mitochondria. In addition, the multimodality treatment significantly inhibited colorectal cancer xenografts' tumor growth. The successful outcome of this study will support the application of multimodality strategy to colorectal hepatic metastases. Mol Cancer Res; 10(12); 1567–79. ©2012 AACR.


A major gap in our understanding of the medieval economy concerns interest rates, especially relating to commercial credit. Although direct evidence about interest rates is scattered and anecdotal, there is much more surviving information about exchange rates. Since both contemporaries and historians have suggested that exchange and rechange transactions could be used to disguise the charging of interest in order to circumvent the usury prohibition, it should be possible to back out implied interest rates from exchange rates. The analysis presented in this article is based on a new dataset of medieval exchange rates collected from commercial correspondence in the archive of Francesco di Marco Datini of Prato, c. 1383–1411. It demonstrates that the time value of money was consistently incorporated into market exchange rates. Moreover, these implicit interest rates are broadly comparable to those received from other types of commercial loan and investment. Although on average profitable, the return on any individual exchange and rechange transaction did involve a degree of uncertainty that may have justified their non-usurious nature. However, there were also practical reasons why medieval merchants may have used foreign exchange transactions as a means of extending credit.


The article critically examines the project of the Hong Kong philosopher Yuk Hui to create organological and cosmotechnical epistemology. To open up the prospect of a "new epistemology" of this kind, Hui carries out a historical and rational reconstruction of the 250-year movement of European thought – from German idealism to second-order cybernetics. In all these theories and approaches, he reveals the key role of the recursive-contingent ligament. But what has happened in recent decades that prompted the author to reassemble Wiener's non-trivial cybernetic machines and propose a cosmotechnical strategy for moving towards a "new epistemology"? How justified is it that, in constructing his axiocosmotechnics, he turns to the philosophy of the East, ancient and modern? The author of the article attempts to provide answers to these and other questions.


Problem statement: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes serious health complications and it is now one of the most common non-communicable diseases globally. It is the fourth or fifth leading cause of death in most high-income countries and there is substantial evidence that it is epidemic in many economically developing and newly industrialized nations. Recently, there has been a growing interest in antidiabetic agents from natural products especially those derived from plants. The antidiabetic agents have been focused on plants used in traditional medicine because that may be a better treatment than currently used synthetic drugs. Approach: The influence of Acalypha wilkesiana leaves extract on the levels of serum glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, sodium (Na), potassium (K) and Calcium (Ca) was investigated using Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Diabetes was induced in male albino mice by single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg kg?1 body weight). The experimental animals were divided into four groups. The first group was untreated and served as normal control. The mice of second group were used as diabetic control group. The diabetic mice of third group were treated orally with A. wilkesiana leaves extract for 30 days. The normal mice of fourth group were treated orally with A. wilkesiana leaves extract at the same dose given to third group. Results: The diabetic mice showed significant increases in the levels of serum glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol and Na after 10, 20 and 30 days. Also, the level of K was statistically increased after 20 and 30 days, while the level of Ca was significantly elevated after 30 days. The diabetic mice given A. wilkesiana leaves extract showed significant decreases in the levels of serum glucose, cholesterol and K. Insignificant alterations in the values of serum triglycerides, Na and Ca were noted in diabetic mice treated with leaves extract at all periods of experiment. Conclusion/Recommendations: These new data indicate that A. wilkesiana represents an effective antihyperglycemic, antihyperlipidemic adjunct and ameliorative role on electrolytes disturbances for the treatment of diabetes and a potential source of discovery of new therapeutic agent.


PURPOSE
The healthcare system in the United States is unique. From payor to provider, patients have many choices but they lack in the ability to manage or share their health information. This complicated care paradigm places patients at a distinct disadvantage. Legislation clearly defines government expectations of data availability but not how to achieve exchange. Because methods of sharing are left to the discretion of care providers and software vendors, non-interoperability is the standard.
METHODS
The OpenPharma Blockchain on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) (OBF) solution is interoperable by design. OBF empowers patients with data access through biometric identity authentication, blockchain, and machine-–to-machine secure data access. OBF provides authenticated users read-only, real-time access to patient records using the healthcare interoperability standard HL7 FHIR. OBF is built around a modern, browser-based user interface, blockchain technologies (leveraging either Ethereum or the Hedera protocols) and modular, modern software exposed as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This allows OBF to meet the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information (ONC) metrics, which include sending, receiving, and finding information from outside sources and using that information to make informed clinical decisions without additional burden on clinicians or patients.
RESULTS
Building on the HL7 FHIR application community practices, OBF is a SMART-on-FHIR plug-in for Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. Using OBF, patients can identify themselves and gain access to their medical records using their voice. This unique feature is accomplished through the Saavha voice print biometrics technology. Saavha returns a unique member ID that is passed directly to the OBF blockchain smart contract for storage and interoperable patient record access (the ID does not contain public health information [PHI]).
To ensure complete privacy, all information is passed through multiple layers of encryption where no keys are stored locally. Additionally, no PHI is shared to the blockchain. To ensure privacy, OBF creates a new encrypted address for the FHIR patient record object, using the Saavha generated member ID as the unique identifier. This encrypted address is then published on chain, making it available to participating providers. Providers must register their relationships to patients before OBF will permit online viewing of patient records. Patient record access is accomplished through voice verification and real-time surfacing of encrypted patient data through the OBF FHIR Viewer.
CONCLUSIONS
OBF is a lightweight, flexible, secure, and stable interoperable solution that places data stewardship with patients. Using industry-wide data standards, biometrics, Smart contracts, Ethereum, and OpenPharma's data viewer for the first-time patients can authorize read-only record exchange using their voice.


The current consensus view of causation in physics, as commonly held by scientists and philosophers, has several serious problems. It fails to provide an epistemology for the causal knowledge that it claims physics to possess; it is inapplicable in a prominent area of physics (classical thermodynamics); and it is difficult to reconcile with our everyday use of causal concepts and claims.

In this dissertation, I use historical examples and philosophical arguments to show that the interventionist account of causation constitutes a promising alternative for a "physically respectable" account of causation. The interventionist account explicates important parts of the experimental practice of physics and important aspects of the ways in which physical theory is used and applied. Moreover, the interventionist account succeeds where the consensus view of causation in physics fails.

I argue that the interventionist account provides an epistemology of causal knowledge in physics that is rooted in experiment. On the interventionist view, there is a close link between experiment and the testing of causal claims. I give several examples of experiments from the early history of thermodynamics that scientists used in interventionist-type arguments. I also argue that interventionist claims made in the context of a physical theory can be epistemically justified by reference to the experimental interventions and observations that serve as evidence for the theory.

I then show that the interventionist account of causation is well-suited to the patterns of reasoning that are intrinsic to thermodynamic theory. I argue that interventionist reasoning constitutes the structural foundation of thermodynamic theory, and that thermodynamic theory can provide clear answers to meaningful questions about whether or not a certain variable is a cause of another in a given context.

Finally, I argue that the interventionist account offers the prospect of a unification of "physically respectable" causation and our everyday notion of causation. I conclude the dissertation by sketching an anti-foundationalist unification of causation, according to which causal reasoning occurs in the same manner in physics as it does in other branches of life and scientific research.


We experimentally study decentralized one-to-one matching markets with transfers. We vary the information available to participants, complete or incomplete, and the surplus structure, supermodular or submodular. Several insights emerge. First, while markets often culminate in efficient matchings, stability is more elusive, reflecting the difficulty of arranging attendant transfers. Second, incomplete information and submodularity present hurdles to efficiency and especially stability; their combination drastically diminishes stability's likelihood. Third, matchings form "from the top down" in complete-information supermodular markets, but exhibit many more and less- obviously ordered offers otherwise. Last, participants' market positions matter far more than their dynamic bargaining styles for outcomes.


In some Engineering fields, we need that conductive materials have a mechanic performance and specific electrical for that they maintain conditions or corrosive attack if they are in the environment or if they are closed structure. The stainless steels have an inert film on their surface and it has the function to act in contrast to external agents who generates the corrosion, especially for stings, spoiling the film until to fail. We found a solution taking into account the electrical performance and the anticorrosive; into the process we put recovering of specific oxides on, stainless steel using the method of sputtering with Unbalanced Magnetron, (UBM) varying the oxygen in the reactive environment. The coating obtained had a thickness one micron approximately and we saw on serious structural uniformity [1]. The corrosion resistance was evaluated through the potentiodynamics polarization and electrochemical spectroscopy impedance in NACL according to the standard. The cathode protection is the most important method employed for the corrosion prevention of metallic structures in the soil or immersed on the water. The electrical resistivity was evaluated with the four points methods and it showed a behaviour of diode type in some substrates with a threshold potential in several volts. We noticed a simple resistance solution when it was analysed in the Nyquist graphics whit the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy technique. With on equivalent circuit, for this reason we determinate a variation in the corrosion speed in almost two orders of magnitude when we analysed the potentiodynamics curve by Tafel approximation. The data obtained and analysed show that this type of surface modification maintains the conductivity condition at the interface, improving the resistance in relation whit the corrosion of these elements where the recovering allowed the ionic flow wished for overcoming threshold voltage, acting as an insulator in different cases.


Two Dimensional Locality Preserving Projection (2D-LPP) is a recent extension of LPP, a popular face recognition algorithm. It has been shown that 2D-LPP performs better than PCA, 2D-PCA and LPP. However, the computational cost of 2D-LPP is high. This paper proposes a novel algorithm called Ridge Regression for Two Dimensional Locality Preserving Projection (RR-2DLPP), which is an extension of 2D-LPP with the use of ridge regression. RR-2DLPP is comparable to 2D-LPP in performance whilst having a lower computational cost. The experimental results on three benchmark face data sets - the ORL, Yale and FERET databases - demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of RR-2DLPP compared with other face recognition algorithms such as PCA, LPP, SR, 2D-PCA and 2D-LPP.


Background: Multiple research articles were continuously emphasizing that constructive effects of empathy improve patient care. Medical professional bodies often talk that medical doctors need to be competent in clinical skills and empathetic. There was enormous demand from patients that doctors should be empathetic and motivate listeners. Therefore, medical educators became highly concern about the issue whether their students possess empathetic qualities. The Aim of the Study: To measure the empathy level among the medical students and to perform validation and reliability study of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among medical students of the Defence University of Malaysia to measure empathy level. The TEQ was utilized to collect data. The data were collected in early second half of 2017. The universal sampling method was adopted, and data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Software. Results: The current study population holds an average level of empathy. Female medical students had statistically significantly (P = 0.001) higher scores than their male friends. There no statistically significant differences observed in the TEQ score between the year of study (P = 0.948) and type of admission (P = 0.065). Conclusion: The current study respondents possess an average level of empathy. Educational intervention can be incorporated to enhance empathy level which sequentially promotes patient care.


We present an overview of various learning techniques used in automated theorem provers. We characterize the main problems arising in this context and classify the solutions to these problems from published approaches. We analyze the suitability of several combinations of solutions for different approaches to theorem proving and place these combinations in a spectrum ranging from provers using very specialized learning approaches to optimally adapt to a small class of proof problems, to provers that learn more general kinds of knowledge, resulting in systems that are less efficient in special cases but show improved performance for a wide range of problems. Finally, we suggest combinations of solutions for various proof philosophies.


This is a work summarizing in one volume the pioneering approach of the author to public-interest decision-taking in the field of urban & regional planning. This book is aimed at students, researchers and professionals in planning. Nathaniel Lichfield first introduced in his "Economics of Planned Development" the concept that, in any use and development of land, the traditional "development balance sheet" of the developers needed to be accompanied by a "planning balance sheet" prepared by the planning officer or planning authority. Over the forty years since this work was published, the author has brought to the operational level the "planning balance sheet", with many case studies, primarily for consultancy purposes. The present title reflects the incorporation during the 1970s of the then emerging field of environmental impact assessment.


Recent studies in communities in greater Cairo, Egypt have identified trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) at levels that exceed regulatory limits depending upon the season. The objective of this study was to better understand the formation of DBPs in Nile River source water with a view toward optimizing conventional treatment, focusing on enhanced coagulation, to achieve reduction in DBP formation potential (FP) in a cost-effective scheme. To this end, characterisation of natural organic matter (NOM) in Nile raw water and after treatment by fractionating according to hydrophobic-hydrophilic properties was included in the analysis. Seasonal variations in raw water quality were found to be important for achieving optimum reduction of turbidity and DBP formation. In summer, alkalinity is lower; therefore, enhanced coagulation with 30 mg/L alum can be done at pH 6 without excessive additions of acid, and satisfactory reductions in turbidity and DBPs attained. During the remainder of the year, high alkalinity results in enhanced coagulation at about pH 6.5 and notably lower reduction of NOM, THMFP, and HAAs versus summer conditions. Supplementing enhanced coagulation with 10 mg/L PAC is highly recommended for these conditions as it improves removal of all DBP indicators. The transphilic fraction was the main contributor to DBP formation and the primary fraction removed by enhanced coagulation for achieving gains in THMFP reduction.


Abstract This paper reports the results of a novel approach using nano X-ray computed tomography (CT) for the non-invasive determination of the weld-line density profile of welded wood joints. As a case study, wood samples with a dimension of 2 mm × 2 mm × 20 mm were cut from a board of welded beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). The spatial resolution of the X-ray scan was 500 nm. Densitometry results showed that welding was accompanied by a considerable increase in the bulk density and a decrease in the cell-wall density at the weld-line. The cell-wall density in the weld-line was almost 33% less than that of the unaffected wood. As an additional application of nano computed tomography, the 3D imaging also revealed details of the internal structure of the welded sample. This study showed that nano-CT is a powerful tool for the descriptive and quantitative study of welded wood.


Motivation plays an essential role in every part of a teacher's life, from choosing to join the profession to delivering their best in the classroom. Development opportunities, recognition, social status and remuneration are some of the aspects often cited by teachers themselves as elements affecting their motivation. Yet, indications that the profession has become less attractive over recent decades signal that these elements may have been neglected.


Accurate entrainment rates are important in fluidized bed reactors for several reasons, including determination of cyclone loadings and efficiencies, sizing of diplegs, and inputs to population balance models. Entrainment correlations exist in the literature and from other sources to predict entrainment rates from fluidized beds, but they can vary by orders of magnitude. In addition, many correlations do not take into account effects of internals which are present in many types of industrial reactors. A study was undertaken to better understand entrainment rates from Sohiotype acrylonitrile fluidized bed reactors containing catalyst classified as a Geldart type A powder. As part of this study, full scale CFD models were developed using the Barracuda computational particle fluid dynamics (CPFD) software and validated with the help of data collected from multiple plant reactors. These models compared two different sizes of industrial-scale reactors and included all major internals including cooling coils, cyclones, cyclone diplegs and gas spargers. Data on the pressure profile and actual entrainment rate to the cyclones generated by the Barracuda models were compared to the measured pressure data and derived entrainment rate in the plant reactors. The results showed good agreement. Additionally, evaluation of using the slip factor in the model to compare the particle volume fraction in the freeboard to the actual entrainment rate was done to determine if this technique could be used in the plant setting. The slip factor as calculated by Barracuda was between 1.55-1.95 which is similar to other values in the literature.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the progressive death of brain cells over time. It represents the most frequent cause of dementia in the western world, and affects an individual's cognitive ability and psychological capacity. While clinical diagnoses of AD are made primarily on the basis of clinical evaluation and mental health tests, diagnostic certainty is only possible through necropsy. One non-invasive approach to investigating AD is to use electroencephalograms (eEGs), which reflect brain electrical activity and so can be used to detect electrical abnormalities in brain signals with non-invasive cranial surface electrodes. Generally EEGs in AD patients show a shift to lower frequencies in spectral analysis and display less complexity and contain more regular patterns compared to those of control subjects. Here we present a method for differentiating AD patients from healthy ones based on their EEG signals using Benford's law and support vector machines (SVMs) with a radial basis function (RBF) kernel. EEG signals from eleven AD and eleven age-matched controls were divided into artefact-free 5-sec epochs and used to train an SVM. 10 fold cross validation was performed at both the epoch- and subject-level to evaluate the importance of each electrode in discriminating between AD and healthy subjects. Substantive variability was seen across the different electrodes, with electrodes O1, O2 and C4 particularly being important. Performance across the electrodes was reduced when subject-level cross validation was performed, but relative performance across the electrodes was consistent with that found using epoch-level cross validation.


We examine whether those paid for performance fared better in terms of wage growth and job tenure than their fixed pay counterparts through the most recent recession. In theory we might anticipate that, since performance pay workers share the income risks of economic shocks with their employers, their earnings may have declined more than those of fixed pay employees. However, for this very reason, they may experience more stable employment patterns than fixed pay workers whose 'stickier' wages may make them susceptible to job loss. Using data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2002-2012, we find changes in bonus payments accounted for 16 per cent of the decline in aggregate wages between 2009 and 2012. Bonus payments fell more precipitately than fixed wages of both performance pay and fixed pay workers. We confirm that performance pay employees were more likely to experience nominal wage cuts than fixed pay employees during the recession. This 'wage gap' was apparent for hourly wages and was not driven by differential hours flexibility. We also find performance pay employees had longer job tenure than fixed pay employees.


Ambient inclusion trails (AIT) are enigmatic microtubular structures created by the migration of mineral crystals through a lithified substrate. The decomposition of organic material has been suggested as the driving force for the crystal migration, but has yet to be rigorously tested. AIT may hold potential as a biosignature for investigating early life on Earth if the associated organic material can be shown to be biological. This paper attempts to test the formation mechanism and biogenicity of AIT from the c. 3400 Ma Strelley Pool sandstone of Western Australia using NanoSIMS technology. In doing so, we demonstrate the unique ability of the NanoSIMS to combine sub-micron scale imaging with in situ chemical and isotopic data, thereby enhancing our ability to evaluate the biogenicity criteria for Archaean microstructures. Enrichments of a suite of major elements (C, N, P, S) and trace elements (Co, Fe, Ni, Zn), often associated with biological processes, are found within several AIT in this sandstone. C and N enrichments are most common along AIT margins, and correlate with depletions of Si, O, Ca and Mg, indicating that this material is indeed organic in nature. δ13C values of this carbonaceous material average −26‰. Petrographic observations show that some of the AIT occur in the centre of detrital sandstone grains where they were sealed from later fluid flow and therefore preserve primary Archaean (bio)geochemistry. In contrast, AIT found around the outer edges of sandstone grains may contain more recent organic material introduced by later fluid migration and are an unreliable biosignature. Using the petrographic and geochemical data a multi-stage model for AIT formation and subsequent diagenetic modification is proposed. The possible sources of the primary organic material are discussed and we conclude that the data are consistent with a biological origin for these AIT. An abiogenic origin is more difficult to sustain but cannot yet be completely excluded for AIT in general.


It is not clear what the future course of the Sandinista Popular Revolution will be. What is evident is the openness and the ability of the Sandinista leadership to admit mistakes and pragmatically redirect their economic policies based on their commitment in general terms to the principles of national unity and a mixed economy within the framework of a democratic, popular and anti-imperialist system. Imperialist aggresion, backwardness, and dependency, characteristics faced by all national liberation movements, dictate that for a periodm, which may be quite long, these economies in the process of restructuring and transition may not be viable on their own. International solidarity from friendly nations has been vital for the defense of the revolution. A hegemonic position of the popular classes within the framework of a mixed economy based on national unity, may not, in the short-run, be a viable project, but it preserves the revolutionary agenda for the posible transition.


College Teaching: Developing Perspective Through Dialogue, by Michael W. Galbraith. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing, 2008, vi + 138 pp. $27.50. Reviewed by Jon E. Travis Into an ever-expanding collection of resources focusing on the role of faculty in higher education is Michael Galbraith' s contribution, College Teaching. Galbraith approached the subject with an innovative technique: using a question and answer dialogue format to present topics related to the classroom as well as other faculty responsibilities on the college campus. The text has nine parts, which function basically as chapters: self-assessment, preparation for the classroom, the first class, classroom issues, methods of teaching, use of technology, grading, advising, and nonteaching responsibilities. Although the author suggested that the text is designed to offer substance to future, new, and experienced faculty; the organization and substance of the book appears to speak primarily to new and future faculty. Besides the dialogue format that carries through all nine parts of the book, the most redeeming feature is the text's brevity, comprising less than 140 pages total. However, this conciseness can also be seen as a disadvantage. Faculty in higher education lead very busy professional lives, spreading their work hours among the three primary responsibilities of teaching, research and publication, and service. And based upon my years of work in faculty development, most full-time faculty do not have the luxury of devoting a substantial amount of time to career development. Hence, a short reference of this type is more likely to be scanned by the faculty member who is routinely pressed for time. Aspiring faculty, on the other hand, need much more substance to prepare them for this multifaceted career. Nonetheless, the author's use of a dialectic approach to covering his content does add interest to the topics covered in the book. For veteran faculty, the dialogue format may be a disadvantage as well. Although intended to make the text more interesting to readers, Galbraith' s question and answer technique comes across as prescriptive, as though he were speaking only to prospective and new faculty. Even though the author has included extensive references to other resources, the writing style is dominated by a directive voice, as though Galbraith were talking to students in a class. Hence, veteran faculty could be offended by this approach. Given the author's inclination to offering advice to new faculty, based upon his years of experience, another difficulty arises. At times, this advice is not entirely accurate for most institutions, and some serious gaps, based upon the brief length of the text, appear in some of the topics. For example, in his discussion of accommodations for students with special needs in Part Four: Issues in the Classroom, Galbraith mentioned "the university office that deals with these issues," but he persisted in suggesting that the faculty member make all of the determinations of the appropriate accommodations (p. …


In this paper, a tubular 3D microenvironment created in a calcium alginate hydrogel microtube with respect to the effect of scaffold dimensions on the differentiation of mouse neuronal stem cells (mNSCs) is evaluated. Five types of hydrogel microtubes with different core diameters (≈65–200 μm) and shell thicknesses (≈30–110 μm) are fabricated by using a double coaxial microfluidic device, and differentiation of encapsulated mNSCs is induced by changing the growth medium to the differentiation medium. The influence of the microtube geometries is examined by using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and fluorescent immunocytochemistry. The analyses reveal that differences in microtube thickness within 30–110 μm affected the relative Tuj1 expression but do not affect the morphology of encapsulated mNSCs. The diameters of cores influence both the relative Tuj1 expression and morphology of the differentiated neurons. It is found that the tubular microenvironment with a core diameter of less than ≈100 μm contributes to forming highly viable and aligned neural tissue. The tubular microenvironment can provide an effective method for constructing microfiber‐shaped neural tissues with geometrically controlled differentiation induction.


The hepatic glucose fasting response is gaining traction as a therapeutic pathway to enhance hepatic and whole-host metabolism. However, the mechanisms underlying these metabolic effects remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate the lipoxygenase, ALOXE3, is a novel effector of the thepatic fasting response. We show that ALOXE3 is activated during fasting, glucose withdrawal, and trehalose/trehalose analogue treatment. Hepatocyte-specific ALOXE3 expression reduced weight gain and hepatic steatosis in dietaryand genetically obese (db/db) models. ALOXE3 expression moreover enhanced basal thermogenesis and abrogated insulin resistance in db/db diabetic mice. Targeted metabolomics demonstrated accumulation of the PPARγ ligand, 12-KETE in hepatocytes overexpressing ALOXE3. Strikingly, PPARγ inhibition reversed hepatic ALOXE3-mediated insulin sensitization, suppression of hepatocellular ATP production and oxygen consumption, and gene induction of PPARγ coactivator-1a (PGC1α) expression. Moreover, hepatocyte-specific PPARγ deletion reversed the therapeutic effect of hepatic ALOXE3 expression on diet-induced insulin intolerance. ALOXE3 is therefore a novel effector of the hepatocellular fasting response that leverages both PPARγ-mediated and pleiotropic effects to augment hepatic and whole-host metabolism, and is thus a promising target to ameliorate metabolic disease.


This thesis examines Rievaulx abbey's relationship with its social environment from the foundation in 1132 to 1300. In particular it analyses social networks around this institution and the types of relationships with individuals, families and tenurial groups developed over the course of the first two hundred years of Rievaulx abbey's existence. Although the work focus primarily on Rievaulx abbey, comparative material from other Yorkshire houses as well as continental Cistercian houses is discussed.

The core source is the cartulary of Rievaulx abbey. By a careful analysis of the distribution of information, its hierarchy according to certain inferable rules, and the
relations between individual entries in the cartulary, this thesis shows how Rievaulx abbey understood the social networks of which this monastic house became a part, and
how the monastic community saw its own place among the diverse social strata of twelfth-century Yorkshire.

In the first chapter, issues of religious foundations, the motivations of patrons and their interpretations currently present in scholarship are discussed before the
analysis of the troubled relationship between Rievaulx abbey and its patrons. The second chapter contains an examination of the interaction of the Cistercian monasteries
with lay people in the respect of fraternities, burial requests and prayers as well as the implications of the abbey's landholding for its benefactors and their heirs. The central part of the thesis, in the second chapter examines the relationship of Rievaulx abbey with its lay neighbours and benefactors. The closing parts of this chapter are devoted to the complexities of land holding and the abbey's perception of its relationship with
benefactors. Chapter three presents issues of monastic co-operation, conflict and the monopolist tendencies of religious houses before examining the place of Rievaulx
abbey in relation to other monasteries in Yorkshire. The next chapter discusses Rievaulx abbey's contacts with archbishops, bishops, deans, chapters and canons in the wider context of the internal Church politics. The fifth, final chapter examines Rievaulx abbey's involvement in the wool trade and the consequences of its business with the
Italian merchants on the background of historiographical interpretations of Cistercian economy and its involvement in the commercial world.


The optimization of an optical system is generally carried out by minimizing the wave-front aberrations, the x and y transverse aberrations, or a combination of both. In the last-named, most general case, the optimization implies the treatment of a large number of functions of quite a different nature. We propose to use, together with the Zernike polynomials that orthogonalize the wave-front aberrations, a new set of wave-front polynomials that orthogonalize the transverse aberrations. These polynomials turn out to be a simple linear combination of Zernike polynomials. The combination of these two sets of wave-front polynomials with proper weighting yields the possibility of optimizing the frequency response of both slightly and severely aberrated systems in a formally identical way. The advantage of the method is that one does not have to leave the domain of the wave-front aberration to characterize an optical system, even when severe aberrations are present. The polynomials that minimize the transverse aberrations yield optimum response at very low frequencies; other linear combinations of Zernike polynomials are shown to maximize the frequency response at relatively high spatial frequencies.


This contribution gives only an idea of the kind of information which can be gained by analysing existing but virtually forgotten material on research in customary law in colonial Tanganyika. It is, of course, necessary to inquire about the questions and the respective answers and to consult additional literature on African customary law. An isolated analysis restricted to the results of the two research projects as a source for the explanation of the changes and continuities of African customary law makes little sense. Nevertheless, the answers given to the questionnaires in 1910 and 1961 about customary rules represent a rare resource of information for certain aspects of African family and succession laws. The collected material, therefore, can be an important source for research into legal anthropology in colonial Tanganyika if considered together with additional literature on African customary laws.


Ever since its establishment as a conscript army in 1935 and long after its destruction ten years later, the Wehrmacht has been the source of an array of myths concerning its military capacities, its political role within the Third Reich, its involvement in the criminal policies of the Nazi regime and, not least, its ideological make-up. But how many of these stand up on examination? And what motivated the ordinary soldier in Hitler's armies in the Second World War?


The cultural phenomenon that Minecraft (Mojang 2009) has become over the past decade demonstrates, amongst many other things, a powerful appetite for games where the player is thrown in a virtual playground to do as they please. Aerospace-themed survival-crafting game Astroneer (2019) by System Era Softworks is one of many such video games released since that capitalizes on this trend. The appeal of such games lies in that they can be enjoyed by players with various interests, abilities and backgrounds: the average player can mine, build, and fight whatever and whomever they please, or even create entire games within the game. The design of such games is, in many ways, less constricted than that of other avatar-based genres, such as action-adventures or first-person shooters. Freedom, playfulness, and creative play are often associated with such design, which evoke questions about agency. This article connects these notions and asks: can agency help us better understand how playfulness can be designed? By interrogating the paratexts surrounding the game's development to see how developers discussed design decisions that facilitate playfulness, this article illustrates how thinking of agency as something afforded by game design can be a productive analytical tool to identify design decisions that facilitate player freedom and creative thinking. This, in turn, sheds light on whether, and if so how, playfulness can be designed.


Learning overcomplete representations finds many applications in machine learning and data analytics. In the past decade, despite the empirical success of heuristic methods, theoretical understandings and explanations of these algorithms are still far from satisfactory. In this work, we provide new theoretical insights for several important representation learning problems: learning \emph{(i)} sparsely used overcomplete dictionaries and \emph{(ii)} convolutional dictionaries. We formulate these problems as $\ell^4$-norm optimization problems over the sphere, and study the geometric properties of their nonconvex optimization landscapes. For both problems, we show the nonconvex objective has benign (global) geometric structures, which enable development of efficient optimization methods finding the target solutions. Finally, our theoretical results are justified by numerical simulations.


ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated the Kuriki Mound Area using direct current resistivity and magnetometry. The investigation site is considered the first settlement area and is dated to four thousand years. The purpose of the geophysical study was to direct the excavation and to rescue the historical heritage, which will be flooded due to a dam to be constructed in the region. The resistivity data that were measured in the field along parallel lines were interpreted using 2D and 3D inversion algorithms and we investigated the deficiencies of 2D inversion compared to the 3D inversion. Moreover, we identified anomalous zones very clearly by applying a tangent hyperbolic filter to the magnetic gradiometer data. Regions with anomalies identified with both geophysical methods were excavated, and remains from 4th to 1st millennium BC were found. Furthermore, we discovered that there were no connecting structures between the two mounds, therefore preventing an unnecessary and large-scale excavation.


Traditional international law and its instruments are stagnating both in terms of quantity and quality. New, alternative forms of cross-border cooperation, in particular processes of informal international lawmaking, have emerged and gained prominence since the 2000s in response to an increasingly diverse, networked, and knowledge-based society. This transformation impacts on the three axes of actors, processes and outputs in the international legal order. We challenge the assumption that traditional international law is, by definition, legitimate and that this would not be the case for new forms of informal lawmaking: whereas traditional international law is often based on "thin state consent", a "thick stakeholder consensus" underlies many of the new forms of cooperation. It is submitted that the evolution in the international legal order demands an adjustment of models to keep both new forms of cooperation and traditional international law in check. This paper thereto assesses the legitimacy of international legal processes, tackling also the question whether new forms benefit powerful actors and how to keep activity accountable, both domestically and internationally, towards internal and external stakeholders, through ex ante, ongoing and ex post control mechanisms, involving not only managerial or administrative checks and balances but also political and judicial oversight. The paper furthermore examines whether some of the new outputs of international cooperation could already be seen as part of traditional international law and how traditional and new forms are (or could be) interacting before international courts and tribunals. To conclude, a redefinition of the academic discipline of international law to keep both the field and its students sociologically relevant is proposed.


It is examined, which action relevance metaphors have - a well-known, but unresolved problem in the psychological and interdisciplinary metaphor research. Modern metaphor theories define metaphors not as primary language phenomenon ("language decoration"), but as fundamentally cognitive structures, which determine thinking and acting. From the view of Cognitive Psychology it is postulated that metaphors are to be understood as schemas or mental models.

In the theoretical part are represented and analyzed the most important theories of metaphor: from the traditional linguistic substitution and comparison theories to the modern cognitive metaphor theories. These theories are examined whether, why and how they define metaphors as a central construct in the sense of Cognitive Psychology and which conceptions they develop about the connections between metaphors and action regulation. These theories are also examined for the first time to what extent the formulated predictions of the gestalting or determining power of conceptual metaphors concerning cognitions and actions were empirically validated. This comprehensive analysis is necessary in view of growing importance of metaphors in all sciences.

Since there are some qualitative studies, but no experimental examinations over the action relevance of metaphorical cognitions, the influence of conceptual metaphors on cognition and action is examined in an on-line experiment in a virtual leadership situation. Metaphorical priming is used for the first time.

The findings show: Metaphorical priming determines the different cognitive representations of the situation and actions. Thus a complete experimental proof could be led of the detailed cognition-structuring effect of metaphors and their action relevance.


*Due to the inherent difficulties associated with gene delivery into regenerable explants and recovery of plantlets with the introduced transgene, wheat was the last among cereals to be genetically transformed. This review attempts to summarize different efforts in the direction of achieving genetic transformation of wheat by various methods. Particle bombardment is the most widely employed procedure for the introduction of marker genes and also for the generation of transformed wheat with introduction of agronomically important genes for quality improvement, engineering of nuclear male sterility, transposon tagging, resistance to drought stress, resistance against fungal pathogens and insect resistance. The other methods of choice of gene delivery into wheat tissues include electroporation and co-cultivation with Agrobacterium. Several alternative approaches including microinjection, direct imbibition, permeabilization, silicon carbide fibermediated and pollen tube pathway have also been attempted for introduction of foreign DNA with varied degrees of success. In future, use of marker assisted selection and genomics approaches will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of wheat breeding programs, and will also provide insights into genetic control of key traits to be used for genetic manipulation.


Abstract Professional literature and practice started to focus intensively on the field of talent management. A lack of talented individuals occurred in all sectors worldwide. The war for talents has not faded out, on the contrary, it has been intensifying. The aim of the paper is therefore to analyse the perception of opportunities for development and management of talents in forestry and to specify characteristics of employee/ talent support perception in surveyed companies. The analysis is based on a primary survey conducted in 101 forestry companies. The data were obtained through surveys in which one manager and one employee represented a single company. One-dimensional and multidimensional statistics were used to evaluate the data. The results showed that employees perceived developmental conditions in companies more positively than what was stated by managers and company representatives. The average difference in the perception was 8.5%; employees perceived the conditions better than company representatives. When negative phenomena were analysed, the perception was quite opposite. The average difference was 9.5%. The limit of the paper is the narrow focus on primary sector companies. The results may help surveyed companies in the primary sector to encourage managers and employees to participate in developmental programmes as their own initiative and willingness to take part in education and developmental activities was found.


Abstract. We have updated the Regional Emission inventory in ASia (REAS) as version 2.1. REAS 2.1 includes most major air pollutants and greenhouse gases from each year during 2000 and 2008 and following areas of Asia: East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia and the Asian part of Russia. Emissions are estimated for each country and region using updated activity data and parameters. Monthly gridded data with a 0.25° × 0.25° resolution are also provided. Asian emissions for each species in 2008 are as follows (with their growth rate from 2000 to 2008): 56.9 Tg (+34%) for SO2, 53.9 Tg (+54%) for NOx, 359.5 Tg (+34%) for CO, 68.5 Tg (+46%) for non-methane volatile organic compounds, 32.8 Tg (+17%) for NH3, 36.4 Tg (+45%) for PM10, 24.7 Tg (+42%) for PM2.5, 3.03 Tg (+35%) for black carbon, 7.72 Tg (+21%) for organic carbon, 182.2 Tg (+32%) for CH4, 5.80 Tg (+18%) for N2O, and 16.0 Pg (+57%) for CO2. By country, China and India were respectively the largest and second largest contributors to Asian emissions. Both countries also had higher growth rates in emissions than others because of their continuous increases in energy consumption, industrial activities, and infrastructure development. In China, emission mitigation measures have been implemented gradually. Emissions of SO2 in China increased from 2000 to 2006 and then began to decrease as flue-gas desulphurization was installed to large power plants. On the other hand, emissions of air pollutants in total East Asia except for China decreased from 2000 to 2008 owing to lower economic growth rates and more effective emission regulations in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Emissions from other regions generally increased from 2000 to 2008, although their relative shares of total Asian emissions are smaller than those of China and India. Tables of annual emissions by country and region broken down by sub-sector and fuel type, and monthly gridded emission data with a resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° for the major sectors are available from the following URL: http://www.nies.go.jp/REAS/ .


As the world continues to become more globalized, so does education. The internationalization of higher education is inevitable with globalization and institutions continue to recruit students from around the globe to diversify their institution. The question is how institutions do this and why it matters. This paper answers these questions by uncovering the best practices of recruiting and supporting international students at post-secondary institutions in the
City of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. In order to determine the best practices and support services interviews have been conducted with employees in the international student recruitment (ISR) industry and surveys have been provided to international students. Interviews have been analyzed to identify the ISR strategies currently in place at post-secondary institutions in Toronto, and surveys have been analyzed to identify the student perspective of these methods and the support provided to them. Both sets of responses have also been compared to identify ways to improve ISR and international student support services. This paper will uncover the ways in which ISR is conducted, the ways students perceive these methods, and how best meet student needs in the future. Based on the research conducted it has been determined that the most effective strategies for ISR are relationship development, transparency of institutional expectations, and the use of effective cross-cultural communication practices. Students have assisted in determining that institutions in the GTA do have support services in place and most do provide adequate services to students. Many recommendations have been made to improve ISR including obtaining feedback from students to incorporate student needs into ISR practices and ensuring that a clear outline of the Canadian education system is provided to students.


This paper explores the federal Race to the Top (RTT) and the New York State (NYS) Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) educational policies and the ways in which unions are relevant to education in light of these policies. Teacher unions fight for better working conditions, whether it is for smaller classes, instructional teaming, or adequate time for lesson planning, etc., which has the goal of improved student learning. Teacher unions affect the future of both the institution of organized labor and the foundation of public education. This paper is an in-depth look at how a union works and what union representatives' experiences are in today's era of high teacher-accountability. Six union presidents were interviewed to help understand this phenomenon. From coding there were fifteen themes that emerged from the interviews. The themes suggest that union presidents: elevate the profession; make schools better places for teaching and learning; confront people in a professional way; make the union transparent; calm people down; understand the dynamics of teaching; make decisions that benefit the majority of the members; recognize the long-term implications of decisions made; protect the collectively bargained agreement; defend teacher rights; realize that it is the priority of management to dismiss ineffective teachers and not the unions; and hold teachers accountable. Furthermore, the generalization of a few bad teachers hurts the profession. Also, there are many issues that arose with the newly implemented APPR.


Background: Food allergy affects quality of life in patients and parents and mothers report high levels of anxiety and stress. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) may be helpful in reducing the psychological impact of food allergy. The aim of this study was to examine the appropriateness and effectiveness of CBT to improve psychological outcomes in parents of children with food allergy. Methods: Five parents (all mothers) from a local allergy clinic requested to have CBT; six mothers acted as controls and completed questionnaires only. CBT was individual and face-to face and lasted 12 weeks. All participants completed measures of anxiety and depression, worry, stress, general mental health, generic and food allergy specific quality of life at baseline and at 12 weeks. Results: Anxiety, depression and worry in the CBT group significantly reduced and overall mental health and QoL significantly improved from baseline to 12 weeks (all p < 0.05) in mothers in the CBT group; control group scores remained stable. Conclusions: CBT appears to be appropriate and effective in mothers of children with food allergy and a larger randomised control trial now needs to be conducted. Ways in which aspects of CBT can be incorporated into allergy clinic visits need investigation.


There is an increasing worldwide demand for high energy density batteries. In recent years, rechargeable Li-ion batteries have become important power sources, and their performance gains are driving the adoption of electrical vehicles (EV) as viable alternatives to combustion engines. The exploration of new Li-ion battery materials is an important focus of materials scientists and computational physicists and chemists throughout the world. The practical applications of Li-ion batteries and emerging alternatives may not be limited to portable electronic devices and circumventing hurdles that include range anxiety and safety among others, to their widespread adoption in EV applications in the future requires new electrode materials and a fuller understanding of how the materials and the electrolyte chemistries behave. Since this field is advancing rapidly and attracting an increasing number of researchers, it is crucial to summarise the current progress and the key scientific challenges related to Li-ion batteries from theoretical point of view. Computational prediction of ideal compounds is the focus of several large consortia, and a leading methodology in designing materials and electrolytes optimized for function, including those for Li-ion batteries. In this Perspective, we review the key aspects of Li-ion batteries from theoretical perspectives: the working principles of Li-ion batteries, the cathodes, anodes, and electrolyte solutions that are the current state of the art, and future research directions for advanced Li-ion batteries based on computational materials and electrolyte design.


Abstract Whether critically ill neonates needing a surgical intervention should be transferred to an operating room (OR) or receive the intervention in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is controversial. In this study, we report our experience in performing surgical procedures in a NICU including air cleanliness. This was a retrospective study performed at a metropolitan hospital. The charts of all neonates undergoing surgical procedures in the NICU and OR were retrospectively reviewed from January 2007 to June 2017. Data on baseline characteristics, procedure and duration of surgery, ventilator use, hypothermia, instrument dislocations, surgery-related infections and complications, and outcomes were analyzed. Ninety-two neonates were enrolled in this study, including 44 in the NICU group and 48 in the OR group. The air cleanliness was International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14644-1 class 7 in the NICU and class 5-6 in the OR. The NICU group had a younger gestational age and lower birth body weight than the OR group. The OR group had a higher incidence of hypothermia than in the NICU group (56.3% vs 9.1%, P < .001). However, there were no significant differences in surgical site related infections or mortality between the 2 groups. This study suggests that performing surgical procedures in a NICU with air cleanliness class 7 is as safe as in an OR, as least in part, when performing patent ductus arteriosus ligation and exploratory laparotomy.


Science Reference Sources is a selected, up-to-date compilation of about 1600 representative bibliographical and reference tools in the physical, biological, and applied sciences. Entries are arranged in sections by subject. Presentation of general science reference works is followed by lists of general aids in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth sciences, biological sciences, medical sciences, agricultural sciences, and engineering sciences. Within each section the titles are listed according to type of reference source: guides to the literature, bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, reviews, histories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, special tools, selection aids, etc. Each entry has been given an item number to facilitate discussion and use.A reference is provided to the discussion of each title listed in Winchell's Guide to Reference Books, Walford's Guide to Reference Materials, and other sources. In addition, an index provides an alphabetical arrangement of the titles.This compilation serves as a textbook in library schools and college courses or orientation programs in science bibliography, as a checklist of current reference sources by librarians, and as a manual for users of library resources.


Multithreading is today a very common technology to achieve concurrency within software. Today there exists three commonly used threading strategies for multithreaded application servers. These are thread per client, thread per request and thread pool. Earlier studies has shown that the choice of threading strategy is not that important. Our measurements show that the choice of threading architecture becomes more important when the application comes under high load. We will in this study present a throttling concept which can give thread per client almost as good qualities as the thread pool strategy when it comes to performance. No architecture change is required. This concept has been evaluated on three types of hardware, ranging from 1 to 64 CPUs, using 6 alternatives loads and both in C and Java. We have also identified that there is a high correlation between average response times and the length of the run time queue. This can be used to construct a self tuning throttling algorithm that makes the introduction of the throttle concept even simpler, since it does require any configuring.


This note considers the legal approaches adopted by the authorities in Hong Kong ('HK') and the People's Republic of China ('PRC') to protect intellectual property rights. It is not intended to detail legislation exhaustively since readers can always refer to the statutes themselves. Rather, the note examines the rationales of the two approaches and the possible directions the law might take in the future. Accordingly, the discussion will be confined conveniently to the three traditional areas of intellectual property law: copyright, trademark and patent.


\ Abstract _Vast human and financial resources have been spent in efforts to understand and address street homelessness. Yet, the problem persists. This think piece summarises the findings of a major review exploring the international evidence base on what works to end street homelessness (Mackie et al., 2017). It also reflects on the question: 'if we know what works, why don't we do it?' Informed by more than 500 literature sources and interviews with 11 international experts, it identifies the key principles which appear to improve the likelihood of interventions ending street homelessness. These include: be housing-led, offer person-centred support and choice, take swift action, employ assertive outreach leading to a suitable accommodation offer, ensure services address wider support needs, and collaborate effectively between agencies and across sectors. The article also identifies seven reasons why those responding don't always do what is known to work. If street homeless-ness is to be ended then we must address: the lack of settled accommodation, funding challenges, ineffective collaboration and commissioning, the needs of different subgroups, ineligibility of some people for publicly funded support, overly bureaucratic processes, and the need for stronger political will.


To examine the influence of river‐borne organic material on estuarine communities, we conducted a dual stable isotope study in an estuary heavily influenced by alluvial runoff. Despite significant alluvial influence, secondary production in Apalachicola Bay depends more upon estuarine primary production than upon a detrital food web supported by floodplain primary production. Two simple mixing models, floodplain‐marine and floodplain‐estuarine, indicated that the upper limits for the contribution of terrestrial organic matter to estuarine consumer diets averaged 37, 25, and 27% and 20, 19, and 25% for East Bay, Cat Point, and Dry Bar, respectively. Systematic δ13C variation of consumer organisms was found for differing locations and attributed to increasing influence of terrestrial organic matter and 13C‐depleted dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) closer to the river mouth. The δ34S data exhibited significant variation with river flow that was attributed to an admixture of terrestrial floodplain detritus with estuarine and marine organic matter. Both δ13C and δ34S isotope data demonstrated clear distinctions between benthic and water column feeding types. Our results suggest that the estuary is dependent on riverine inflows to provide floodplain detritus during the high‐flow period and dissolved nutrients for estuarine primary productivity during the low‐flow season. Any alteration of river hydrology may adversely affect estuarine secondary production, especially during the low‐flow period when the estuary is dependent on input of dissolved nutrients to maintain a high level of primary productivity.


Phthalate esters are ubiquitous environmental and food pollutants well known as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). These developmental and reproductive toxicants pose a grave risk to the human health due to their unlimited use in consumer plastic industry. Detection of phthalates is strictly laboratory based time consuming and expensive process and requires expertise of highly qualified and skilled professionals. We present a real time, non-invasive, label free rapid detection technique to quantify phthalates' presence in deionized water and fruit juices. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique applied to a novel planar inter-digital (ID) capacitive sensor plays a vital role to explore the presence of phthalate esters in bulk fluid media. The ID sensor with multiple sensing gold electrodes was fabricated on silicon substrate using micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device fabrication technology. A thin film of parylene C polymer was coated as a passivation layer to enhance the capacitive sensing capabilities of the sensor and to reduce the magnitude of Faradic current flowing through the sensor. Various concentrations, 0.002ppm through to 2ppm of di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in deionized water, were exposed to the sensing system by dip testing method. Impedance spectra obtained was analysed to determine sample conductance which led to consequent evaluation of its dielectric properties. Electro-chemical impedance spectrum analyser algorithm was employed to model the experimentally obtained impedance spectra. Curve fitting technique was applied to deduce constant phase element (CPE) equivalent circuit based on Randle's equivalent circuit model. The sensing system was tested to detect different concentrations of DEHP in orange juice as a real world application. The result analysis indicated that our rapid testing technique is able to detect the presence of DEHP in all test samples distinctively.


Caffeic acid in waste comes from a variety of industries, and its disposal is likely to increase due to emerging processes such as graphene production and use in healthcare products. The current sustainable option to treat waste caffeic acid and prevent its natural transformation in soil to greenhouse gases, is anaerobic digestion. However, little is known about the toxic and inhibitory effects of caffeic acid on biogas production as well as its ultimate anaerobic biodegradability; or about the reactiveadsorptive processes taking place with caffeic acid in sludge, metabolic intermediates, thermodynamic limitations and the effects on extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Standard methods revealed that 80% of biogas production (EC 80 ) from a readily digestible biomass was inhibited at 389 mg caffeic acid·g -1 VSS. Up to 52% of caffeic acid was biodegraded. β-oxidation and reductive dehydroxylation were the initial activation reactions transforming caffeic acid into typical polyphenol structural units (protocatechuic acid and 4HBA). Adsorption of caffeic acid (53.3% and 28.6%) to the sludge occurred even at inhibitory concentrations. The EPS structure remained unchanged regardless of the increase in concentration of caffeic acid. Reasonable concentrations of caffeic acid could be co-digested with a similar readily digestible biomass with an expected reduction in biogas production. It is feasible to treat waste caffeic acid by anaerobic digestion and adsorption of its derivates, in order to reduce the contribution to global warming and to protect the environment. Keywords: anaerobes, anaerobic digestion, biogas, biomass, caffeic acid, graphene, inhibition, polyphenols, renewable energy, toxicity, wastewater


Rapid acquisition of volumetric data is a mandatory prerequisite for small animal in vivo imaging. Due to its high sensitivity and capacity to extract the sample depth profile in parallel Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FDOCT) complies with this requirement. The absence of labeling further simplifies its use for in vivo application. In order to provide the high spatial resolution necessary to gain biologically relevant insights focusing optics from microscopy are usually employed. The resulting focal spot however has a limited depth of field and compromises with imaging speed and parallel depth extraction. Using a Bessel‐like illumination beam, obtained by use of a conical lens, and detection optics with a low numerical aperture, we achieve a compromise between high lateral resolution and extended depth of field and obtain near isotropic resolution. Together with a scanning system deflecting the beam rapidly in the lateral directions and a fast signal acquisition and processing routine this extended focus Optical Coherence Microscope (xfOCM) was used to measure murine islets of Langerhans. These endocrine islets are assemblies of insulin secreting beta cells contained within the exocrine tissue of the pancreas. Assessing the structure and function of individual islets is important to further the understanding of diabetes' mechanisms. In this work we used xfOCM to measure islets, pancreatic lobules, ducts and blood vessels, first in excised tissue, and then we demonstrate the potential of this method with volumetric measurements of the pancreatic islets in vivo and in situ.


We present HapTable; a multi–modal interactive tabletop that allows users to interact with digital images and objects through natural touch gestures, and receive visual and haptic feedback accordingly. In our system, hand pose is registered by an infrared camera and hand gestures are classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. To display a rich set of haptic effects for both static and dynamic gestures, we integrated electromechanical and electrostatic actuation techniques effectively on tabletop surface of HapTable, which is a surface capacitive touch screen. We attached four piezo patches to the edges of tabletop to display vibrotactile feedback for static gestures. For this purpose, the vibration response of the tabletop, in the form of frequency response functions (FRFs), was obtained by a laser Doppler vibrometer for 84 grid points on its surface. Using these FRFs, it is possible to display localized vibrotactile feedback on the surface for static gestures. For dynamic gestures, we utilize the electrostatic actuation technique to modulate the frictional forces between finger skin and tabletop surface by applying voltage to its conductive layer. To our knowledge, this hybrid haptic technology is one of a kind and has not been implemented or tested on a tabletop. It opens up new avenues for gesture–based haptic interaction not only on tabletop surfaces but also on touch surfaces used in mobile devices with potential applications in data visualization, user interfaces, games, entertainment, and education. Here, we present two examples of such applications, one for static and one for dynamic gestures, along with detailed user studies. In the first one, user detects the direction of a virtual flow, such as that of wind or water, by putting their hand on the tabletop surface and feeling a vibrotactile stimulus traveling underneath it. In the second example, user rotates a virtual knob on the tabletop surface to select an item from a menu while feeling the knob's detents and resistance to rotation in the form of frictional haptic feedback.


The exchange of diverse points of view in elite deliberation is considered a cornerstone of democracy. This study presents evidence that variations in political motivation for media use predict the tendency of politicians to present deliberative rhetoric that considers multiple points of view regarding issues and sees those views as related to one another. We surveyed 111 incumbent Members of Parliament in Belgium, Canada, and Israel and analyzed a large sample of their parliamentary speeches. The findings demonstrate that motivation to attain media coverage and act upon information from the news media leads politicians to strategically display simple and unidimensional rhetoric due to newsworthiness considerations, but only in countries where the media constitute important resources for reelection. The results contribute to extant literature by demonstrating a media effect on elite deliberation and by emphasizing the moderating role of political systems on the nature of elite rhetoric.


Background: The repetitive seizure attacks lead to widespread neuronal damage and cognitive deficit, e.g. memory and learning impairment. The single or repeated administration of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) can induce seizure in rat. This study evaluates the neuroprotective effect of lithium chloride (LiCl) on PTZ-induced working and spatial memory deficit. Materials and Methods: To induce the PTZ-kindling model, repeated doses of PTZ (40mg/kg/BW/ip) were injected for 5 consecutive days. After observing five stages of seizure, the PTZ+Li20, PTZ+Li40 and PTZ+Li80 groups received 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg/BW of LiCl, respectively and the PTZ+Saline group, received Saline for 14 days. The Morris water maze (MWM) and Y maze tests were conducted in order to investigate the spatial and working memory. Results: Compared to Control group, the PTZ+Saline group showed a decrease in alteration behavior in Y maze and an increase in latency time and distance to hidden platform in MWM. LiCl-treated rats, especially in the lowest dose, showed a significant higher alteration behavior in Y maze and the lower latency time and distance to hidden platform in MWM than the PTZ+Saline group. Conclusion: The neuroprotective effects of LiCl can ameliorate the spatial and working memory impairment in a PTZ-kindling model.


Impacts defects have on customer satisfaction are hard to quantify, but they should not be ignored because of poor understanding of the intangible costs related to quality may lead to poor decision-making. However, data about building defects and customer satisfaction surveys are not usually analyzed together. This study used a database of the technical assistance department in a Brazilian construction company and results from their customer satisfaction surveys. The study seeks to address the lack of in-depth analysis of issues concerning customer satisfaction and defects, and how they are related. By cross-analyzing data from the defects database and the customer satisfaction surveys, on a unit-by-unit basis, relationships between the occurrence of defects, the customer perception of these defects, and the impact they have in customer satisfaction were found. Results revealed that some customers can be dissatisfied with the building quality and are still satisfied with the project, which indicates that the overall satisfaction is a complex variable that is related to a number of features. Moreover, the occurrence of defects did not seem to impact the customer satisfaction negatively if defects were fixed under the warranty period, and the non-occurrence of defects had a positive impact on the customer satisfaction.


We present a framework for sparse Gaussian process (GP) methods which uses forward selection with criteria based on information-theoretic principles, previously suggested for active learning. Our goal is not only to learn d-sparse predictors (which can be evaluated in O(d) rather than O(n), d ≪ n, n the number of training points), but also to perform training under strong restrictions on time and memory requirements. The scaling of our method is at most O(n · d2), and in large real-world classification experiments we show that it can match prediction performance of the popular support vector machine (SVM), yet can be significantly faster in training. In contrast to the SVM, our approximation produces estimates of predictive probabilities ('error bars'), allows for Bayesian model selection and is less complex in implementation.


Philosophy of history is not a subject which has hitherto attracted much attention in this country. Preoccupation with the methods and achievements of the natural sciences, and distaste for the sort of rationale of history as a whole which Hegel and others offered under the title in the early nineteenth century, have served to make most British philosophers accord its problems only the most casual recognition. It is therefore all the more interesting to find an English writer of unusual powers both of argument and expression, who was himself an historian of distinction in his special field, devoting a large part of his philosophical thinking to the problems of historical knowledge and their wider implications. Unfortunately, R. G. Collingwood was not able to begin the major work on philosophy of history, to writing which, as we are told in the introduction to the present book, he had looked forward for twenty-five years, until his powers were seriously affected by bad health, and he did not live to complete it. But though the full results of his thinking on the subject are lost, we are now able, thanks to the skilful work of his friend Professor T. M. Knox, to study what is in effect an extensive interim report on it. Professor Knox has produced The Idea of History largely on the basis of lectures which Collingwood prepared in 1936, supplemented by two essays already published which date from the same period and a certain amount of material from the unfinished Principles of History written in 1939.


This accessible satellite textbook in the Routledge Intertext series is unique in offering students hands-on practical experience of textual analysis focused on speech and writing. Written in a clear, user-friendly style, it combines practical activities with texts, accompanied by commentaries and suggestions for further study. It can be used individually or in conjunction with the series core textbook Working With Texts: A core introduction to language analysis. Aimed at A and AS Level and beginning undergraduate students, the Language of Speech and Writing: * Analyses the processes involved in writing and speaking * Highlights the differences between these two modes of communication * Explores written texts from recipes to legal language, spoken texts from telephone conversations to interviews and mixed-mode texts from email to adverts * Compares and contrasts spoken and written texts on the same theme


Placing bounds on gravitational wave detection Gravitational waves are expected to be generated by the interaction of the massive bodies in black-hole binary systems. As gravitational waves distort spacetime, it should be possible to verify their existence as they interfere with the pulses emitted by millisecond pulsars. However, after monitoring 24 pulsars with the Parkes radio telescope for 12 years, Shannon et al. found no detectable variation in pulsar records. This nondetection result indicates that a new detection strategy for gravitational waves is needed. Science, this issue p. 1522 A lack of observed variations in the timing of pulsars places constraints on the detection of gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are expected to be radiated by supermassive black hole binaries formed during galaxy mergers. A stochastic superposition of gravitational waves from all such binary systems would modulate the arrival times of pulses from radio pulsars. Using observations of millisecond pulsars obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, we constrained the characteristic amplitude of this background, Ac,yr, to be <1.0 × 10−15 with 95% confidence. This limit excludes predicted ranges for Ac,yr from current models with 91 to 99.7% probability. We conclude that binary evolution is either stalled or dramatically accelerated by galactic-center environments and that higher-cadence and shorter-wavelength observations would be more sensitive to gravitational waves.


ABSTRACT In the past decade, so-called hybrid regimes—authoritarian regimes in the guise of democracy—have emerged in Europe. Similar to the authoritarian or totalitarian regimes of 20th-century Europe, the association between urban design and politics is evident in the capital cities of hybrid regimes. This article recounts the stories of the recently proposed and/or completed redevelopment projects in the centers of Istanbul (Turkey), Skopje (Macedonia), and Tirana (Albania). In all 3 capitals, the interventions have been rather contentious, and have produced violent protests in the case of Turkey and Macedonia. The author has collected and presented the stories of the users of these three city centers and their reactions to these spaces before and after redevelopment. Users' narratives bring to light elements of the situations and the characters involved that have so far been implicit. Conceptualizing urban planning through storytelling is meant to bring an element of Balkan magic realism into this field, which historically has been dominated by theories produced in the Anglosphere.


Data augmentation has been widely used to improve generalizability of machine learning models. However, comparatively little work studies data augmentation for graphs. This is largely due to the complex, non-Euclidean structure of graphs, which limits possible manipulation operations. Augmentation operations commonly used in vision and language have no analogs for graphs. Our work studies graph data augmentation for graph neural networks (GNNs) in the context of improving semi-supervised node-classification. We discuss practical and theoretical motivations, considerations and strategies for graph data augmentation. Our work shows that neural edge predictors can effectively encode class-homophilic structure to promote intra-class edges and demote inter-class edges in given graph structure, and our main contribution introduces the GAug graph data augmentation framework, which leverages these insights to improve performance in GNN-based node classification via edge prediction. Extensive experiments on multiple benchmarks show that augmentation via GAug improves performance across GNN architectures and datasets.


In accordance with the international and EU aims to reduce emissions of ammonia and other air pollution substances farm manure management, including its storage, especially for the animal breeding sector, is one of the most essential stages. One of the preventing steps is covering of the slurry lagoons. The most effective – hard covering can be provided only after the lagoon is constructed. The aim of the research: to develop methodology for calculations of emission reducing lagoon design volume and surface area. In the result of the theoretical research the possibilities of reducing the reflection surfaces at the same capacity of the lagoon have been discovered, as well as the changes of the reflection surface area, if instead of one lagoon several lagoons with less volume are installed and sequential filling of these lagoons is ensured. The article presents the calculation algorithms obtained during the research and recommendations for construction of low emission lagoons.


Expressions for the physical tangential and bending strains of nonlinear thin elastic shell theory in nonorthogonal coordinates are derived in a new, relatively compact form. The geometric and physical significance of the results is interpreted, where possible. In addition, the quantities describing the differential geometry of a deformed surface are also given. All results obtained are exact in the sense that no restrictions are imposed on the magnitude of strains in the derivations. The expressions for the nonlinear case are compared with the corresponding formulas of the linear theory. The results obtained together with further results to be published on the strains of the parallel surface, the statics of shells, and constitutive relations find direct application in the analysis of the nonlinear behavior of thin shells.


Interleukin-1 (IL-1) is a central mediator of innate immunity and inflammation. IL-37 (IL-37), a newly described member of the IL-1 family, functions as a fundamental inhibitor of innate inflammation and immunity. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of interleukin-37 on neuron cells and on brain inflammation induced by brain ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). A transgenic mouse strain was generated to express human IL-37 (hIL-37Tg) and WT mice were subjected to (60 min) brain ischemia and followed by reperfusion (24 h), by using a mice model of transient focal cerebral ischemia induced by advancing a nylon mono-filament to occlude the middle cerebral artery (MCA). Infarct size was determined by triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The morphology of neurons in brain sections were examined by Nissl staining and cytokines/chemokines measured by ELIZA. IL-37Tg significantly reduced infarct size by 65.4% (P<0.05) compared with WT after I/R. Reduced inflammation was associated with decreased leukocyte recruitment, and reduced release of IL-1β and TNFα, macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2), MCP-1 and keratinocyte chemokine (KC) compared with WT (P<0.05), whereas IL-10 was increased eight fold (P<0.05). IL-37 significantly reduced cell death and increased Bcl-2 expression in neurons. Thus, IL-37 emerges as a key modulator of brain inflammation and has important translational implications for both the prevention and treatment of patients suffering from brain ischemia.


Eutrophication is one of the greatest threats for the Baltic Sea, and one of its more critical consequences is bottom water hypoxia. Nutrient enrichment and oxygen-depletion affect both the deep central basins and a number of coastal areas, even though strategies for nutrient reduction have lately been implemented. In order to better understand why those threats are expanding and formulate more effective remediation strategies two main achievements are needed: (1) new data on benthic nutrient dynamics should be available in order to develop updated budgets for sensitive Baltic areas; (2) the main transformation processes and their regulation mechanisms (i.e. oxygen availability, presence of macrofauna, different organic loading scenarios) should be better constrained.Paper I was able to demonstrate that re-oxygenation of previously anoxic sediment has a positive effect on the ecosystem because of better retention of nutrients and efficient conversion of fixed nitrogen to nitrogen gas. Sediment colonization by the invasive genus Marenzelleria counteracts some of the positive aspects provided by benthic oxygenation (in particular, nutrient retention, N2 loss). A possible explanation for this reversal can be that Marenzelleria does stimulate anaerobic more that aerobic metabolism.Results from Paper II suggest that at the outermost stations of Himmerfjarden denitrification follows a pronounced seasonal pattern, primarily regulated by bottom water temperatures. At the innermost and impacted site oxygen level in the bottom water varies considerably during the year and causes denitrification/DNRA predominance to be the main nitrate reduction pathway. On an annual scale, the net amount of lost N2 is comparable at the four sampling sites and accounts for 96% of the total DIN discharged from the sewage treatment plant, suggesting that denitrification in the estuarine sediment acts as a major nitrogen sink for external N inputs.


Background Exercise Referral Schemes (ERS) are aimed at local residents to encourage them to become physically active. General practitioners use ERS when they feel their patients can benefit from organised physical activity. Subjective psychological states that occur during and after exercise are likely predictors of whether individuals are willing to adopt and maintain lifestyles that include physical activity. Therefore if Tai Chi (TC) class improves psychological affect it could be included in the range of physical activities offered to the scheme participants. Objective This study examines short term effects of TC class on subjective well being of patients referred to ERS. Design Within subject comparison of changes in a pre-test post-test design. Interventions Subjective Exercise Experiences (SEES) were measured by validated questionnaire before and after the TC class. TC class consisted of warm up (10 min), learning TC techniques (25 min), performing Yang style eight steps form (7 min), and cool down (3 min). Brief Physical Activity and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were also recorded by validated questionnaires. Setting Community Sports centre. Participants 13 TC-naive volunteers (mean age 47) were recruited via ERS. Results Mean RPE after TC class was 12.31 with 95% CI 10.7 to 13.8. Mean score for Positive well being improved from 15.1 to 20.5 (P-value 0.004), Mean score for Psychological distress decreased from to 12.7 to 9.4 (P-value 0.080), scores for Fatigue also decreased from 14.4 to 12.2 (P-value 0.21). Even though mean SEES scores showed improvements in all three categories, only improvements in Positive well being was very statistically significant. Conclusion This is the first study in the UK exploring psychological effects of TC on people taking part in ERS. The results demonstrate psychological benefits after participating in a single TC class. TC can be included in the range of physical activities offered by ERS.


Findings of neuroimaging and brain stimulation research suggest that the motor system takes part in phonological processing at least to some extent in healthy speakers. Phonological processing involves a core network of brain regions, the dorsal pathway, where motoric aspects of speech sounds are analysed by the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and auditory aspects by the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG). The extent to which each node of the dorsal pathway takes part in phonological processing has been shown to depend on the nature of the task and on the functional integrity of the network. Tasks of speech production rely more on the LIFG, and tasks of speech perception rely more on the LSTG. Persons with dyslexia (PWD) are known to present a deficit in phonological processing. Neuroimaging research has shown that dyslexia typically affects the LSTG, with hypoactivation, and the LIFG, with hyperactivation. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been widely used for cognitive research in humans. It has been recently suggested in the literature that perturbations induced by brain stimulation can cause the weights of nodes in cognitive networks to transiently rearrange. In this study we used tDCS and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the functioning of the dorsal pathway for phonological processing in PWD with tasks of speech production and speech perception. We targeted the LIFG with anodal, cathodal and sham tDCS. For healthy speakers, cathodal tDCS should downregulate performance when the target had high relevance for the task, such as the LIFG for speech production. For targets of smaller relevance, improved performance should be observed due to compensation by the most relevant node(s). Anodal tDCS should improve performance as a function of the relevance of the target for the task. PWD were expected to deviate from this pattern to some extent, especially when compensation by the LSTG was needed during cathodal tDCS of the LIFG for a task of speech perception. Results corroborated the theoretical claim that codes for articulation take part in the processing of speech sounds. However, our findings showed that the PWD pattern of response to tDCS for phonological processing in tasks of speech production and speech perception differed from that expected for healthy speakers. Anodal tDCS of the LIFG induced larger facilitation for the speech perception than for the speech production task, as well as larger compensation for the latter under cathodal tDCS. Findings indicate that tDCS is a promising diagnosis tool for the investigation of alterations in phonological processing caused by dyslexia.