The aim of this study was to compare growth, gonadal structure and red blood cell sizes of triploid and diploid brown trout (Salmo trutta fario). Triploidy was induced by providing a heat shock treatment to the fertilized eggs. From the 18th month post-fertilization triploid (TBT) and control diploid (CBT) brown trout groups were investigated up to 32nd month. Survival, specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, condition factor, relative growth rate, absolute growth rate, gonadosomatic index, hepatosomatic index and carcass yield were determined in both groups. It has been determined that the triploid fish showed greater live weight than diploid fish despite the difference was not significant (P>0.05). In triploid group triploidisation success was obtained as 95% and male/female ratio was found as 44.4-55.6%. The red blood cells were significantly larger in triploids than diploid ones (P<0.05). Regarding histological section of gonads, triploidy resulted in reduced gonadal development in female, while triploid males seem to exhibit normal gonadal development. Our results suggest that since triploid females could grow more than males, the growth performance studies on triploid brown trout should be performed with all-female stocks under fish farming practices especially for the production of large size trout.


Robots are becoming an ever bigger part of our day to day life. They take up simple tasks in households, like vacuum cleaning and lawn mowing. They ensure a steady and reliable process at many work places in large scale manufacturing, like the automotive and electronics industry. Furthermore, robots are becoming more and more socially accepted, for instance as autonomous drivers. They even start to engage in special and elderly care, aiming to fill a void created by a rapidly aging population.
Additionally, the increasing complexity and capability of robotic systems allows to solve ever more complicated tasks in increasingly difficult scenarios and environments.
Soon, encountering and interacting with robots will be considered as natural as interacting with other humans.

However, when it comes to defining and understanding the behavior of robots, experts are still necessary.
Robots usually follow predefined routines which are programmed and tuned by people with years of experience.
Unintended behavior is traced back to a certain part of the source code which can be modified using a specific programming language.
Most of the people that will interact with robotic servants or coworkers in the future, will not have the necessary skill set to instruct robots in such detail.
This need for an expert represents a significant bottleneck to the deployment of robots as our everyday companion in households and at work.
This thesis presents several novel approaches aiming at facilitating the interaction between non-expert humans and robots in terms of intuitive instruction and simple understanding of the robot capabilities with respect to a given task.

Chapter 3 introduces a novel method that segments unlabeled demonstrations into sequence of movement primitives while simultaneously learning a movement primitive library. This method allows the non-expert to teach an entire task rather than every single primitive.
Movement primitives represent a simple, atomic and commonly parameterized motion.
The presented method segments each demonstration by identifying similar patterns across all demonstrations and treating them as samples drawn from a learned probabilistic representation of a movement primitive.
The method is formulated as an expectation-maximization approach and was evaluated in several tasks,including a chair assembly and segmenting table tennis demonstrations.

In Chapter 4 the previously segmented demonstrations and the learned primitive library are used to induce a formal grammar for movements. Formal grammars are a well established concept in formal language theory and have been applied in several fields, reaching from
linguistics, over compiler architecture to robotics.
The simplest class of grammars, regular grammars, correspond in their probabilistic form to Hidden Markov Models.
However, the intuitive, hierarchical representation of transitions as a set of rules makes it easier for non-experts to comprehend the possible behaviors the grammar implies.
A sequence of movements can now be considered a sentence produced by the learned grammar.
The production of each sentence can be illustrated by a tree structure, allowing an easy understanding of the involved rules.
Probabilistic context-free grammars are a superset of regular grammars and, hence, are more expressive and exceed the capabilities of Hidden Markov Models.
While the induction of probabilistic context-free grammars is considered a difficult, unsolved problem for natural languages, the observed sequences of movement primitives show much simpler structures, making the induction more feasible.
The method was successfully evaluated on several tasks, such as a pick-and-place task in a tic-tac-toe setting or a handover task in a collaborative tool box assembly.

Chapter 5 introduces the concept of reinforcement learning into the domain of formal grammars. Given an objective, we apply a natural policy gradient approach in order to learn the grammar parameters that produces sequences of primitives that solve that objective.
This allows the autonomous improvement of robot behavior. For instance, a cleaning up task can be optimized for efficiency while avoiding self collisions.
The parameters of the grammar are the probabilities of each production. Therefore, probability constraints have to be maintained while learning the parameters. The applied natural policy gradient method ensures reasonably small parameter updates, such that the grammar probabilities change gradually. We derive the natural policy gradient method for formal grammars and evaluate the method on several tasks.

Together, the individual contributions presented in this thesis form an imitation learning pipeline that facilitates the instruction, interaction and collaboration with robots. Starting from unlabeled demonstrations, an underlying movement primitive library is learned while simultaneously segmenting the given demonstrations into sequences of primitives. These sequences are than used to induce a formal grammar. The structure of the grammar and the produced parse trees form a comprehensible representation of the robot capabilities with respect to the demonstrated task. Finally, a reinforcement learning approach allows the autonomous optimization of the grammar given an objective.


Tailor-made edge site-enriched inorganics coupled graphene hybrids hold a promising platform material for high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, we report a simple strategy for fabricating edge site-enriched nickel–cobalt sulfide (Ni–Co–S) nanoparticles decorated on graphene frameworks to form integrated hybrid architectures (Ni–Co–S/G) via an in situ chemically converted method. The Kirkendall effect-involved anion exchange reaction, e.g. the etching-like effort of the S2− ions, plays a crucial role for the formation of the edge site-enriched nanostructure. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the Ni–Co–S edge sites have a high electrochemical activity and strong affinity for OH− in the electrolyte, which are responsible for the enhanced electrochemical performance. Benefiting from the integrated structures of Ni–Co–S nanoparticles and conductive graphene substrates, the resultant Ni–Co–S/G hybrid electrodes exhibit a high specific capacitance of 1492 F g−1 at the current density of 1 A g−1, a superior rate capability of 96% when the current density is increased to 50 A g−1, and excellent electrochemical stabilities. An asymmetric supercapacitor fabricated using the edge site-enriched Ni–Co–S/G hybrids as the positive electrode and porous carbon nanosheets (PCNS) as negative electrodes shows a high energy density of 43.3 W h kg−1 at a power density of 0.8 kW kg−1, and an energy density of 28.4 W h kg−1 can be retained even at a high power density of 22.1 kW kg−1.


This article explores the possibility of testing hypotheses about art production in the past by collecting data in the present. We call this enterprise "experimental art history". Why did medieval artists prefer to paint Christ with his face directed towards the beholder, while profane faces were noticeably more often painted in different degrees of profile? Is a preference for frontal faces motivated by deeper evolutionary and biological considerations? Head and gaze direction is a significant factor for detecting the intentions of others, and accurate detection of gaze direction depends on strong contrast between a dark iris and a bright sclera, a combination that is only found in humans among the primates. One uniquely human capacity is language acquisition, where the detection of shared or joint attention, for example through detection of gaze direction, contributes significantly to the ease of acquisition. The perceived face and gaze direction is also related to fundamental emotional reactions such as fear, aggression, empathy and sympathy. The fast-track modulator model presents a related fast and unconscious subcortical route that involves many central brain areas. Activity in this pathway mediates the affective valence of the stimulus. In particular, different sub-regions of the amygdala show specific activation as response to gaze direction, head orientation and the valence of facial expression. We present three experiments on the effects of face orientation and gaze direction on the judgments of social attributes. We observed that frontal faces with direct gaze were more highly associated with positive adjectives. Does this help to associate positive values to the Holy Face in a Western context? The formal result indicates that the Holy Face is perceived more positively than profiles with both direct and averted gaze. Two control studies, using a Brazilian and a Dutch database of photographs, showed a similar but weaker effect with a larger contrast between the gaze directions for profiles. Our findings indicate that many factors affect the impression of a face, and that eye contact in combination with face direction reinforce the general impression of portraits, rather than determine it.


We have developed and experimentally studied a coherent population trapping (CPT) state preparation scheme for atomic clock application with co-propagating left and right circularly polarized lasers. With realization of constructive interference and spin-polarized dark state free in CPT state preparation, we have obtained CPT resonance signal 3 times larger than that of the conventional scheme used in atomic clock. Polarization fluctuations and CPT signal sensitivity to laser power behaviors are both improved with the scheme. Our study reveals that it is a promising candidate for both normal-size and chip-scale CPT atomic clocks.


This paper considers a real business cycle model with labor search frictions where two types of incentive pay are explicitly introduced following the insights from the micro literature on performance pay (e.g. Lazear, 1986). While in both schemes workers and firms negotiate ahead of time-t information, the object of the negotiation is different. The first scheme is called an "efficiency wage," since it follows closely the intuition of the shirking model by Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984), while the second is called a "performancepay" wage, since the negotiation occurs over a wage schedule that links the worker's wage to the worker's output. The key feature here is that the worker can then adjust the level of effort (i.e. performance) provided in any period. I simulate a shift toward performance-pay contracts as experienced by the U.S. labor market to assess whether it can account simultaneously for two documented business cycle phenomena: the increase in relative wage volatility and the Great Moderation. While the model yields higher wage volatility when performance pay is more pervasive in the economy, it produces higher volatility of output and higher procyclicality of wages, two results counterfactual to what the U.S. economy has experienced during the Great Moderation. These results pose a challenge to the idea that higher wage flexibility through an increase in performance-pay schemes can account for business cycle statistics observed over the past 30 years.


Self- incompatibility in Brassica is controlled by a single "S"-locus. Different self- incompatible genotypes of Brassica are correlated with the occurrence of S-locus-specific glycoproteins (SLSGs), cDNA sequences for certain of which have been determined. In this thesis two cDNAs are presented, derived from a single homozygous line of Brassica oleracea, which are both partially homologous to known SLSG genes. One of these S-like sequences is possibly a novel form of the SLSG gene (corresponding to the S allele), whilst the other appears5invarient between Brassica lines containing different S-alleles (by comparison with published sequence date). The organisation of genomic sequences homologous to both classes of S-like cDNAs was investigated by Southern blotting using genomic DNA extracts from Brassica lines containing a range of S-alleles. The expression of genes homologous to the two cDNAs has been investigated by Northern hybridization and found to be specific to stigma tissue; no transcripts of S-like sequences are detectable in anther tissue over the developmental period during which expression of male S-gene sequences might be expected. The existence of S-like sequences, homologous to those from Brassica oleracea, has been investigated by Southern hybridization using genomic DNA extracts from a range of Brassica species and other related species. Inferences are drawn from this as to the timing of the gene duplication event which led to multiple S-like sequences, in relation to the timing of the evolutionary divergence of related taxa. The divergence of S-like sequences between different lines of B. oleracea has been analysed by comparison of DNA sequence data presented in this thesis with published sequence data. The relative rates of evolution of two domains within S-like gene sequences was estimated. A further three unrelated classes of tissue - specifically expressed sequences have been selected from a Brassica stigma cDNA library. One of these encodes a glycine-rich cell wall protein; another represents an unidentified gene showing stigma specific expression; the third represents an unidentified gene showing expression in stigma, style and anther tissue, though not in leaf tissue. cDNA sequence data, genomic Southern hybridizations and Northern hybridizations are presented for all three of these classes of cDNAs.


During the past 20 years, study of the fatty liver induced by carbon tetrachloride has passed through 2 periods of revolutionary change, and at the present time a third revolutionary change is taking place. The dominant notion guiding most of the thinking before 1948 was that toxic and nutritional fatty liver disease could be understood in terms of failure in transport of fatty acids as phospholipids. As quantitative analyses of whole body phospholipid and neutral lipid metabolism became available through application of radioisotope technology, it became possible by 1953 to conclude that fatty acids were not transported in the plasma as phospholipids.

For the next 6 years work in this field was dominated by the mitochondrial hypothesis. Carbon tetrachloride was thought to damage the liver cell mitochondria. It was suggested that lipid accumulation was due to a failure of normal pathways of lipid oxidation, and that death of the liver cells resulted from interruption in energy-transducing mechanisms. By 1959 this hypothesis also proved untenable since accumulation of triglycerides and degeneration of the hepatocellular endoplasmic reticulum preceeded mitochondrial degeneration by many hours. The major contribution of the work of this period was the introduction into the study of experimental hepatic toxicology of methods of biochemical cytology.

A second revolutionary change took place in 1960. It became evident that carbon tetrachloride poisoning leads rapidly to cessation of movement of large quantities of triglycerides from the liver to the plasma. The blockade of hepatic triglyceride secretion by carbon tetrachloride accounts for the characteristic fatty liver. Earlier studies of rates of replacement of the different moieties of the plasma lipoproteins had demonstrated that low-density lipoprotein triglycerides were replaced much faster than the protein moiety. This work, as well as more recent studies combining use of the isolated, perfused liver with methods for separation of plasma protein and lipoprotein fractions, has made possible a most important new insight into the nature of hepatic triglyceride secretion. The latter can best be understood as a dual mechanism. One part of the mechanism involves hepatic biosynthesis of the various moieties of plasma low-density lipoproteins, coupling of these to form definitive lipoprotein molecules, and their extrusion to the plasma compartment. An auxiliary mechanism provides for re-entry into the system of triglyceride-free lipoprotein apoprotein. Movement of triglycerides from liver to plasma depends largely on the continuous functioning of the second, or auxiliary arm of the cycle. The knowledge that hepatic triglyceride secretion involves a dual mechanism has provided a powerful new guide for the analysis of mechanisms underlying fatty liver disease. In the case of carbon tetrachloride poisoning, the rapid onset of liver triglyceride accumulation most probably results mainly from cessation in function of the auxiliary coupling phase of hepatic triglyceride secretion, and less significantly from a breakdown in hepatic protein synthesis.

During this period, ca . 1960 to 1965, highly provocative experimental findings led to an attempt to rationalize the hepatocellular necrosis and the triglyceride accumulation of carbon tetrachloride poisoning in terms of massive discharge of the sympathetic nervous system. The main evidence regarding the pathogenesis of hepatocellular necrosis was based on the observation that rats whose spinal cord had been divided were remarkably immune to the toxic agent. A review of the evidence does not support the contention that hepatocellular necrosis is a consequence of catecholamine discharge.

The catecholamine hypothesis suggested that hepatic lipid accumulation is due to an oversupply of fatty acids mobilized from peripheral adipose tissue depots. Activation of the hypophyseal-adrenocortical axis has also been invoked in support of the peripheral oversupply hypothesis. A central requirement of this hypothesis must be that if oversupply of fatty acids is to be invoked as a significant factor in the pathogenesis of fatty liver, then the oversupply must be of sufficient magnitude and duration to account for the time course of the hepatic lipid accumulation. From this point of view the evidence offered in support of the peripheral oversupply hypothesis is not convincing. In particular, for carbon tetrachloride poisoning, at a time when liver triglycerides are increasing rapidly, there is no increase in flux of fatty acids through the plasma compartment.

The most recent work in this field has inaugurated a third revolution in the study of carbon tetrachloride hepatotoxicity. Its essential feature is the recognition that carbon tetrachloride toxicity depends on cleavage of the carbon-tochlorine bond. At the same time, the long-held view that the toxic action of carbon tetrachloride resided in its effectiveness as a lipid solvent has finally been discarded. An important link has been established between the metabolism of carbon tetrachloride and the peroxidative decomposition of cytoplasmic membrane structural lipids. Sufficient data are not yet available to decide whether the latter effect is a major or minor consequence of the metabolism of carbon tetrachloride. The important point is that study of this problem has reached the organic chemical level of organization. This augurs well for the immediate future, which should witness further interesting new developments in the study of haloalkane toxicity.


The use of mobile devices, including mobile phones and tablets, is a growing trend in education. The practice has been widely technology driven and often justified simply by the importance of using new technology in a classroom and by claiming such devices to be important in reaching something referred to, although not that well defined, as 21st century skills. This thesis is one answer to the challenge represented by this development. It brings together theoretical ideas of scaffolding learning with collaborative scripts and the use of mobile devices as cognitive tools in a real life educational settings. This thesis has constructivist grounds and aims at exploring how to support collaborative learning when students have ill-structured problems and their activities are supported with mobile technologies. The study consists of three case studies, which together form an example of how important it is to design, develop and deliver lightweight digital tools and activities for learners to construct knowledge. Overall, the results of three case studies in this thesis confirms that it is a dubious assumption that learners will automatically take appropriate and measured advantage of the affordances of mobile devices and other emergent technologies involved in cognitive activities: rather, these cognitive tools require deliberate attention and effort from learners to make use of the affordances of the tools. Furthermore, results from the case studies reveal that personal factors such as students' prior knowledge and their metacognitive and collaborative skills, as well as contextual cues such as cultural compatibility and instructional methods, influence student engagement.


ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) exhibits a highly restricted host range. In this study, we sought to examine the relative significance of host and viral factors in activating early gene expression of the HCMV UL54 (DNA polymerase) promoter in murine cells. Appropriate activation of the UL54 promoter at early times is essential for viral DNA replication. To study how the HCMV UL54 promoter is activated in murine cells, a transgenesis system based on yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) was established for HCMV. A 178-kb YAC, containing a subgenomic fragment of HCMV encompassing the majority of the unique long (UL) region, was constructed by homologous recombination in yeast. This HCMV YAC backbone is defective for viral growth and lacks the major immediate-early (IE) gene region, thus permitting the analysis of essential cis-acting sequences when complemented intrans. To quantitatively measure the level of gene expression, we generated HCMV YACs containing a luciferase reporter gene inserted downstream of either the UL54 promoter or, as a control for late gene expression, the UL86 promoter, which directs expression of the major capsid protein. To determine the early gene activation pathway, point mutations were introduced into the inverted repeat 1 (IR1) element of the UL54 promoter of the HCMV YAC. In the transgenesis experiments, HCMV YACs and derivatives generated in yeast were introduced into NIH 3T3 murine cells by polyethylene glycol-mediated fusion. We found that infection of YAC, but not plasmid, transgenic lines with HCMV was sufficient to fully recapitulate the UL54 expression program at early times of infection, indicating the importance of remote regulatory elements in influencing regulation of the UL54 promoter. Moreover, YACs containing a mutant IR1 in the UL54 promoter led to reduced (∼30-fold) reporter gene expression levels, indicating that HCMV major IE gene activation of the UL54 promoter is fully permissive in murine cells. In comparison with HCMV, infection of YAC transgenic NIH 3T3 lines with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) resulted in lower (more than one order of magnitude) efficiency in activating UL54 early gene expression. MCMV is therefore not able to fully activate HCMV early gene expression, indicating the significance of virus over host determinants in the cross-species activation of key early gene promoters. Finally, these studies show that YAC transgenesis can be a useful tool in functional analysis of viral proteins and control of gene expression for large viral genomes.


While Dressmann is a large Norwegian-owned men's wears chain store, highly visible in Swedish malls, Undressmann only exists in the imagination of the creators of the Hunks of Hisingen Island– a calender of male pin-ups published in Sweden for 2006. Three women recruited the men, took the photographs, designed the calendar discussed in our article, they arranged its printing and distribution, including a catwalk event, where the men were put on live display. Hunks of Hisingen is an example of women designing a commodity and marketing the product, which is the spectacle of young attractive men posing for a female gaze. The study of this calendar is part of a larger project dealing with consumer products that could have a potential for challenging conventional understandings of gender, thus offering both progressive politics and a marketable product. Cars, DIY-tools, furniture and ads are included in the study. We use an ethnographic approach that combines interviews and visual studies. As part of a project on gender troubling consumer goods in the sense of Judith Butler´s famous idea of "gender trouble" (1989,1993), disturbing taken for granted notions of masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality, we selected this calender for study. "Calendar girl" is the stereotype of a passive glamorous woman for consumption within a heterosexual gender order. It is one of many symbols of a gender order that is challenged in the name of gender equality. No longer monolithically male, the gaze has been transformed, reversed or extended, that has been differing positions argued in new consumer research (Schroeder and Zwick 2004) that we will elaborate on in this case study. In section 1. we review some of the work on the gaze and gender, how visual culture help constituting individuals in terms of gender and sexuality by assigning proper positions for the desire and display of bodies. We agree with Schroeder and Zweck among others, that the gaze has become extended, more ways of looking has become acceptable. Masculinity is adapting to consumer society and in some ways is becoming less differentiated from femininity. However this move is highly fraught with contradictions. Turning to the early writings of Walters and Dyer some of the safety measures of male nude display are spelled out, exemples of this are attributes denying passivity or humour deflecting sexuality. Finally we turn to Smith and Greer who tries to take our topic seriously, that women are denied appearing as subjects in visual sexual discourse. Section 2. offers a descriptive iconography of our objects of study, a male pin-up calendar. In section 3 a group interview with the designers/photographers allows for a better understanding of the intentions of the creators. Their discourse is a mix of pride taken in the achievment of manufacturing the product and bringing out the men on the pages – and the voicing of some serious doubts about the limits of their venture. Power differences where men dominate tend to seep through. Themselves policing the borders of heterosexuality, the creators avoid posing the men in overt feminine positions. Caring for the market means keeping gender ambivalence under control. Finally in section 4, we draw our conclusions.


Prisoner labor is a booming American industry. The 2.3 million people in the United States of America ("U.S.") behind bars serve as human resources sustaining the Prison Industrial Complex. In a less economically depressed market, perhaps there would be national prison reform campaigns geared toward decreasing the prison population. But in today's economic climate, the increase of U.S. inhabitants sentenced to prison has helped to quench the thirst for cheap, and in many instances, free laborers. Proponents of the use of inmate labor in the U.S. have argued that inmates should not be paid minimum wages because working for free is a part of the punishment for their crime. However, critics maintain that forcing inmates to work for free is the rebirth of chattel slavery.In order to protect the rights of workers, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") in 1938, which in part, established the national minimum wage requirement. Prison laborers were not specifically addressed in the FLSA because the Act was designed to protect the working blue-collar class and prevent unfair competition towards the end of the Great Depression. Yet recently, U.S. courts have been faced with the challenge of deciding whether inmate workers are covered under the FLSA. In determining whether working prisoners should be paid wages under the FLSA, courts decide whether prisoners are considered employees as contemplated by the Act; as an employee, wages are guaranteed. Some circuits categorically deny coverage to working inmates by saying they are not employees, whereas other circuits make their determination based on an economic realities test. Under this test, courts ascertain the economic reality of the situation by determining whether the prisoner stood in an employer-employee relationship with the entity for which he worked. This application of the economic realities test is not only a rigid formulation, but also undermines the basic purpose of the FLSA. Consequently, this Article argues that the economic realities test should not be utilized to determine whether working inmates are employees. The FLSA should categorically apply to all inmate laborers.The Article first, traces the use of cheap labor from the early economic reliance on indentured servants and slaves, to prison laborers. Second, it discusses modern state and private prison labor system. Third, it explores the creation of the FLSA and the ambiguities with regard to prisoners. Fourth, it dissects the economic realities test and establishes its ineffectiveness as applied to prisoners. Finally, the Article calls for the application of the FLSA to all working inmates, leading to judicial uniformity, and the redistribution of wealth from the prisons to the working inmates thereby reducing recidivism.


This paper looks at how culture affects the reform process and how cultural factors play an important role in clarifying administration models. Culture is considered as an important variable that interacts differently from one situation to another and from one place to another, therefore, Anglo-Saxon administrations have experienced several phases and many transformations (public administration, new public administration). Due to many obstacles (economics squeeze, the poor performance), both PA and the NPM have failed to capture the delivery and management of public services in the twenty-first century, which has created momentum for actors to look for efficient public services delivery by creating a more integrated public sector. New public governance (NPG) appeared in the literature as a new model looking towards a more integrated public service, combining several players (private sectors, civil society) working on delivering service in the best possible manner. As a result, Anglo-Saxons countries have proceeded many reforms. The joining-up-government strategy is considered as the latest manifestation of NPG after the negative effects of NPM. Research on Joining up Government (JUG) has a long tradition. It has been used for many years in the field of public administration and was widely welcomed in the mid-1990s in numerous Anglo-Saxon countries as a response to the failure of new public management in the public sector, which was at that time far from being well-coordinated. Consequently, the JUG strategies have been proposed to redress this failure, and to that end, several actors play significant roles in the success of these strategies. But, in return, there is a necessity for a number of cultural arrangements between these players. However, these arrangements are dependent on the dialectic of cultural values that are adopted by those society nations. Geert Hofstede, like many researchers in the cross-culture field, tried to adopt cultural dimensions to explain the differences between the many nations that carry diff erent cultural values. From this standpoint, this paper triesto explain JUG in Anglo-Saxon countries by using Hofstedes cultural dimensions.


In Western society we encounter contrasting prescriptions for how to live a happy life. Some argue the key to life satisfaction is living in the moment (e.g., seize the day), while others herald the importance of focusing on the future (e.g., pursuing goals, following one's dreams). We suspect, however, that these prescriptions do not work the same for everyone. The goal of the present research is to examine whether the relation between temporal focus (focusing on a present versus future goal) and life satisfaction (LS) might be moderated by participants' implicit theories of change and stability (Dweck, 1999). Incremental theorists believe that they can change with time and effort, whereas entity theorists believe their core attributes are relatively stable over time. We hypothesized that, because incremental theorists may feel more control over personal change and future outcomes, they may derive more immediate satisfaction from prioritizing future goals over present ones. In contrast, entity theorists may feel less certain about 'what may be' in the future and are likely to feel more satisfied with life when pursuing more assured present rewards instead of striving for the unknown proceeds of the future. In Study 1, we examined these concepts correlationally. We measured willingness to sacrifice the present for the future, implicit theories and life satisfaction. We found that, as predicted, incremental theorists felt more LS when they endorsed a willingness to sacrifice the present for the future, whereas entity theorists felt more LS when they were less willing to sacrifice present goals for future ones. In Studies 2 and 3 we experimentally manipulated the tension between present and future focus. We asked participants to describe a recent decision where they either chose to pursue a future goal (over a present one) or they chose a present goal (over a future one) and then they indicated their overall satisfaction with life (e.g., Diener et al., 1984). Study 3 used a more controlled set of goals (spending and saving goals) and demonstrates that incremental theorists Cindy Ward – Temporal Focus, Implicit Theories and Life Satisfaction 3 were more satisfied when they chose to pursue the future goal over the present one whereas entity theorists showed the reverse pattern; but this effect only occurred among those with lower initial life satisfaction. In Study 4, we directly examined the relationship between implicit theories and feelings of personal control over future goals, a likely process variable. We found a significant relation between implicit theories and feelings of certainty of future goal attainment: incremental theorists were more certain about future goal attainment. Moreover, certainty about future goal attainment mediated the relationship between implicit theories and life satisfaction. In Study 5 we sought to manipulate this process variable (goal certainty) as part of establishing a causal link between feelings of future goal controllability and life satisfaction. We elicited feelings of perceived control (or lack of control) of a future goal outcome and found that participants were generally more satisfied when the future was made to feel controllable than when it was made to feel uncontrollable. Additional exploration of the data suggested that lowLS entity theorists might still have difficulty deriving satisfaction even from controllable future goals. Overall, the findings suggest that implicit theories of change and stability importantly moderate the satisfaction in life that people may feel when deciding whether to live for today or sacrifice immediate gains to pursue their future.


Objective: The clinical impact of central line bundle programs for central line–associated bloodstream infections has been well demonstrated in intensive care units. However, the experience of central line bundle programs in totally implantable venous access devices (ports) in pediatric-hematology patients was limited. Methods: A retrospective study was designed to compare and evaluate the clinical impact of implementing a central line bundle for a 2-year 5-month period, including 10 months of prebundle period, 11 months of central line bundle (that includes needleless split-septum devices), and finally 8 months of central line bundle period in which single-use prefilled flushing devices were added to the previous central line bundle. Results: During the prebundle period, the rate of 14.5 central line–associated bloodstream infections per 1000 CL-days had decreased to 5.49 CLABSIs per 1000 CL-days in the first bundle period. The incidence rate ratio with these two groups was 0.379, indicating a relative risk reduction of 62% (p = 0.005). By the addition of single-use prefilled flushing devices to the first bundle program, the central line–associated bloodstream infection rate decreased to 2.63 per 1000 CL-days. Port removal rate due to central line–associated bloodstream infections was 0.46 per 1000 catheter days in the bundle period, which was significantly lower than in the prebundle period in which port removal rate was 4.5 per 1000 catheter days (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Central line bundle programs were found to be effective in decreasing central line–associated bloodstream infection rates, improving patients' quality of life by preventing ports removal due in pediatric cancer patients.


The association of B7-1/CD28 between antigen presenting cells (APCs) and T-cells provides a second signal to proliferate and activate T-cell immunity at the induction phase. Many reports indicate that tumor cells transfected with B7-1 induced augmented antitumor immunity at the induction phase by mimicking APC function; however, the function of B7-1 on antitumor immunity at the effector phase is unknown. Here, we report direct evidence of enhanced T-cell antitumor immunity at the effector phase by the B7-1 molecule. Our experiments in vivo and in vitro indicated that reactivity of antigen-specific monoclonal and polyclonal T-cell effectors against a Lass5 epitope presented by RMA-S cells is increased when the cells expressed B7-1. Use of either anti-B7-1 or anti-CD28 antibodies to block the B7-1/CD28 association reduced reactivity of the T effectors against B7-1 positive RMA-S cells. Transfection of Lass5 cDNA into or pulse of Lass5 peptide onto B7-1 positive RMA-S cells overcomes the requirement of the B7-1/CD28 signal for T effector response. To our knowledge, the data offers, for the first time, strong evidence that supports the requirement of B7-1/CD28 secondary signal at the effector phase of antitumor T-cell immunity being dependent on the density of an antigenic peptide.


The Object Pascal Handbook is the complete guide to the programming language of Delphi and AppMethod, by Embarcadero Technologies. The book covers Object Pascal from the foundations to the latest extensions and the author, Marco Cantu, is a well known Delphi guru, the author of dozens of Delphi books, and the current product manager for the programming tool at Embarcadero Technologies.


Milk is the only food mammals produce naturally to feed their offspring. The human species is the only one that takes milk from other animals and consumes it beyond weaning age. Cultures of Milk" contrasts the practices of the world's two leading milk producers, India and the United States. In both countries, milk is considered to have special qualities. Drawing on ethnographic and scientific studies, popular media, and government reports, Andrea Wiley reveals that the cultural significance of milk goes well beyond its nutritive value.Shifting socioeconomic and political factors influence how people perceive the importance of milk and how much they consume. In India, where milk is out of reach for many, consumption is rising rapidly among the urban middle class. But milk drinking is declining in America, despite the strength of the dairy industry. Milk is bound up in discussions of food scarcity in India and food abundance in the United States. Promotion of milk as a means to enhance child growth boosted consumption in twentieth-century America and is currently doing the same in India, where average height is low. Wiley considers how variation among populations in the ability to digest lactose and ideas about how milk affects digestion influence the type of milk and milk products consumed. In India, most milk comes from buffalo, but cows have sacred status for Hindus. In the United States, cow's milk has long been a privileged food, but is now facing competition from plant-based milk.


Supply chain is a network involving multiple parties such as suppliers, transporters, storage facilities, distributors, and retailers that participate in the production, delivery, and sale of a product. It is difficult to monitor a supply chain since the involving parties are distributed at multiple locations or even across countries. RFID technology, when combined with networking technology, enables product information to be collected, integrated, shared, and queried in supply chains at various levels (e.g., item, pallet, case, and container) in real time manner. While RFID technology has greatly facilitated the supply chain management, it is still challenging to design a secure, privacy-preserving, and efficient RFIDenabled supply chain system. The wireless communications between RFID readers and tags are subject to a variety of attacks. An adversary may eavesdrop, replay, and manipulate RFID communications to obtain tag identifier, track tag location, impersonate tag and reader, and trigger denial of service. This dissertation focuses on secure and privacy-preserving tag authentication in various supply chain application scenarios. Our first work is on attacks and improvements of an existing mutual authentication protocol and a tag secret update protocol for RFID-enabled supply chains. Our second work improves the efficiency of an RFID-enabled supply chain system by designing the system in two security modes. In the weak security mode, the tagged products can be processed in a highly efficient way. In the strong security mode, our system guarantees a high level of security, while its efficiency is lower than that in the weak security mode. Our third work addresses the tag authentication problem in the scenario of third-party logistics(3PL). We firstly formalize the security and privacy requirements of RFID systems for 3PL supply chains considering the existence of the internal adversaries as well as the external adversaries. We propose two different protocols, one is based on aggregate message authentication codes, the other is based on aggregate signature scheme. Our solutions enable a third-party to check tag existence without knowing tag secrets. Our fourth work focuses on path authentication in RFID-enabled supply chains. We propose a single-game-based privacy notion for RFID-enabled path authentication which has been proven to be stronger than existing privacy notions for path authentication. We also propose two new path authentication schemes, one for closed supply chains, and another for dynamic supply chains.


Data were collected and analysed from seven field sites in Australia, Brazil and Colombia on weather conditions and the severity of anthracnose disease of the tropical pasture legume Stylosanthes scabra caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. Disease severity and weather data were analysed using artificial neural network (ANN) models developed using data from some or all field sites in Australia and/or South America to predict severity at other sites. Three series of models were developed using different weather summaries. Of these, ANN models with weather for the day of disease assessment and the previous 24 h period had the highest prediction success, and models trained on data from all sites within one continent correctly predicted disease severity in the other continent on more than 75% of days; the overall prediction error was 21.9% for the Australian and 22.1% for the South American model. Of the six cross-continent ANN models trained on pooled data for five sites from two continents to predict severity for the remaining sixth site, the model developed without data from Planaltina in Brazil was the most accurate, with >85% prediction success, and the model without Carimagua in Colombia was the least accurate, with only 54% success. In common with multiple regression models, moisture-related variables such as rain, leaf surface wetness and variables that influence moisture availability such as radiation and wind on the day of disease severity assessment or the day before assessment were the most important weather variables in all ANN models. A set of weights from the ANN models was used to calculate the overall risk of anthracnose for the various sites. Sites with high and low anthracnose risk are present in both continents, and weather conditions at centres of diversity in Brazil and Colombia do not appear to be more conducive than conditions in Australia to serious anthracnose development.


Objectives. To study the validity of both rheumatological and orthodontic examinations and ultrasound (US) as screening methods for early diagnosis of TMJ arthritis against the gold standard MRI. Methods. Thirty consecutive juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients were included in this pilot study. Rheumatological and orthodontic examinations as well as US were performed within 1 month of the MRI in a blinded fashion. Joint effusion and/or increased contrast enhancement of synovium or bone were considered signs of active arthritis on MRI. Results. A total of 19/30 (63%) patients and 33/60 (55%) joints had signs of TMJ involvement on MRI. This was associated with condylar deformity in 9/19 (47%) patients and 15/33 (45%) joints. Rheumatological, orthodontic and US examinations correctly diagnosed 11 (58%), 9 (47%) and 6 (33%) patients, respectively, with active TMJ arthritis, but misdiagnosed 8 (42%), 10 (53%) and 12 (67%) patients, respectively, as having no signs of inflammation. The best predictor for active arthritis on MRI was a reduced maximum mouth opening. Conclusion. None of the methods tested was able to reliably predict the presence or absence of MRI-proven inflammation in the TMJ in our cohort of JIA patients. US was the least useful of all methods tested to exclude active TMJ arthritis.


Abrupt shifts from single widespread coal swamps to coarse siliciclastic alluvial channel deposits occur in at least five coal beds and zones within the Pennsylvania Allegheny Formation. One of these, the Upper Freeport coal zone, was deposited over and area at least 200 {times} 200 km with a spacing of alluvial channels one-half to possibly one-fifth that of the immediately overlying coarse clastics. All these shifts occured next to the rising Appalachian orogen, far from the eustatic effects of a marine shoreline. Recent models relating coal-swamp formation to isostatic warping of orogenic forelands by tectonic loads surely apply to this environment, but they seem to need an additional, more delicate mechanism to produce such abrupt but widespread switches in grain size and drainage spacing. The authors propose that irregularities in the advancing front folds and blind thrusts caused temporary geomorphic diversions into the recessed areas and allowed a widespread coal swamp to form in the sedimentary shadow of the salients, a shadowing process that is occurring today in the central Zagros Mountains of Iraq and Iran.


We explore the relationship between training and innovation using key insights from the resource‐based approach, organizational learning and labour studies. By using data from 304 large enterprises in Italy, the study highlights a twofold role of training in favouring technological and organizational changes. First, training plays a role in allowing the acquisition and the assimilation of new knowledge. Consequently, firms in which the provision of training is part of a bundle of high‐performance management practices are more likely to undertake technological and organizational changes and to develop new competencies internally. Second, training supports firms in the assimilation of technological and organizational changes. Consequently, firms that undertake these changes exhibit a superior participation rate for employees and greater time intensity of their training programmes. Firms' inclination to develop new competencies internally does not affect, however, the intensity of training, thereby suggesting that organizational learning processes do not start by a broad involvement of employees in formalized training programmes.


This thesis is a critical evaluation of the junior secondary science curriculum reform
in Hong Kong. The new curriculum replaces the previous Integrated Science curriculum
based on Scottish Integrated Science developed in the 1970s. This study focuses on the
context of the reform, the distinctive features of the curriculum, how teachers put it into
practice, and evidence of improvement in students' learning outcomes in terms of process
skills, attitude toward science, and science self-concept in comparison with the old
curriculum.
The new curriculum is evaluated at three levels: the intended, implemented, and
achieved curriculum. A multi-method design incorporating documentary analysis, planner
interviews, teacher survey and interviews, quasi-experimental study and student interviews is
used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The consistency of the findings at
individual levels is critically examined, and opportunities and problems identified, leading
finally to suggestions for improvement.
The findings indicate that the present reform was driven by concerns to meet personal,
social and educational needs in contemporary society. The new curriculum departs from the
previous one by emphasizing investigation as a unifying theme which characterizes the nature
of science, and by focusing on the relevance of science to our everyday lives. As claimed
by the planners, a distinctive feature is the inclusion of investigations to bring together
students' understanding of concepts and skills, and to further extend them in fairly open
situations. The investigative approach was implemented to a limited extent and with great
variations among individual teachers. Student outcomes suggest improvement was restricted
to less complex process skills, and that student attitudes toward science and science
curriculum deteriorated. These outcomes may be attributed to inconsistencies between
planners' intentions, the curriculum design, and classroom practices. This study strongly
implies that improvement should focus on bringing open investigation to a more central
position in the curriculum design, and adopting a more realistic approach in teacher training,
aiming to promote role shifting in teachers from a knowledge provider to a facilitator for
empowering students to inquire.


Bubbles are among the most puzzling and controversial phenomena of financial mar- kets. Although rare, their cumulative impact on both investor returns and the broader economy can be great. One particular question that has motivated research is why shrewd short sellers don't prevent excessive price increases.

The "limits to arbitrage" idea argues that correcting inefficient market prices is neither easy, cheap nor riskless. The "rational bubble" literature identifies situations in which being long the bubble is a better trade than being short, even if investors know for certain the bubble will pop. And there is a theory that bubbles only inflate after the shorts have suffered significant losses.

We examine the "short subprime" trade from 2005 to 2008 to evaluate these and other explanations. We argue that the short subprime trades had more risk than is commonly appreciated. We discuss how the opaque and illiquid nature of subprime mortgages deterred some investors from purchasing CDS contracts and note that other investors assessed the risk of counterparty failure, government intervention and unknown time horizon to be sufficient enough not to purchase CDS contracts.

In addition, we describe how factors such as performance convexity and credit convexity made the subprime short more profitable than most ex-ante calculations suggested. We also outline why the subprime short trade was ineffective at reining in the subprime bubble and how buying subprime after the crises was an equally, if not more attractive trade that potentially did more to mitigate the harm of the bubble. Looking back at the last major bubble with a decade of hindsight yields insights that might be helpful to market participants and policy makers thinking about future bubbles.


This paper is the first major report of a project that is investigating the theoretic foundations of decision support systems (DSS). The project was principally motivated by a concern for the direction and relevance of DSS research. The main areas of research focus are the decision and judgement theoretic base of the discipline, the research strategies used in published articles, and the professional relevance of DSS research. The project has analysed 926 DSS articles published in 14 major journals from 1990 to 2003. The findings indicate that DSS research is more dominated by positivist research than general information systems (in particular experiments, surveys, and descriptions of specific applications and systems), is heavily influenced by the work of Herbert Simon, is poorly grounded in contemporary judgement and decision-making research, and falls down in the identification of the nature of clients and users. Of great concern is the finding that DSS research has relatively low professional relevance. An overview of the direction of further analysis is presented.


Price stickiness is often taken for granted in modern macroeconomic models, without adequate knowledge of the underlying microeconomic foundations. We want to assess whether the assumptions of price stickiness are consistent with actual pricing patterns. There is a broad consensus in the literature that prices exhibit a pattern of inaction followed by large price changes, so called "zeros and lumps". A key topic, however, is how to explain the observance of small price changes. This thesis proposes a model specification which sets out to explain small price adjustments, as well as inaction and large price changes. We search for evidence of thresholds and inertia in producer price data. Parameters are estimated using a Simulated Method of Moments (SMM) approach, based on yearly product specific price observations from the Norwegian manufacturing industry. In the simulation model, the adjustment towards the frictionless price is conditional on thresholds and partial adjustments. Price frictions seem to play a major role in explaining how producers change prices, as modeling with friction parameters gives a much better fit than frictionless modeling. Overall, the evidence in this thesis supports assumptions of nominal stickiness. We find evidence of both thresholds and inertia in the price setting, which indicates that prices are affected by different forms of rigidities. Even when we control for inflation, our findings suggest that there are more frictions downwards than upwards. Thus, we can cannot exclude the possibility that it is easier to increase than to decrease prices. An assessment of the literature shows that, in general, macroeconomic models fail to include all the evidence presented in this thesis. While some models assume that firms have pricing thresholds, others assume inertia in the price setting. However, none of the models considered incorporates the combination of both features. Our findings therefore suggest new ways in which macroeconomic models can be improved.


The migration towards all-IP networks fundamentally changes the equation for IP interconnection. A wide spectrum of different application services requires heterogeneous levels of quality of service (QoS). Although the relevance of end-to-end inter-provider QoS has been recognized for a long time and technical means for implementing such strategies were developed more than a decade ago, there is no widespread implementation of differentiated IP interconnection. Taking into account the evolution in the Internet ecosystem and the transition towards all-IP, the aim of this paper is to describe the evolution and future challenges in the markets for "all-IP interconnection". The role of content delivery networks (CDNs) for the provision of end-to-end QoS is discussed and implications for QoS-based interconnection agreements are derived. We compare a scenario based on fully integrated all-IP service provision to a scenario based on a regulatory market split between two types of traffic services as proposed by the recent FCC regulation in the U.S. and what is similarly envisaged in Europe. Based on a network economic analysis, we derive implications for an economically desirable all-IP interconnection regime. Economically optimal capacity allocation requires market driven price and QoS differentiations based on the opportunity costs of network usage. Moreover, the integrated optimization of capacity allocation should be based on an unrestricted evolutionary search for bilateral and multilateral interconnection agreements. A fully integrated solution results in an all-IP ecosystem relying on a continuum of interconnection agreements capable of reflecting heterogeneity in demand for QoS.


Adoptive transfer therapy of T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) against tumor-associated antigens has been shown to be clinically successful in a limited set of leukemia. However, novel antigen targets for both hematological and solid malignancies are required. Most CARs described thus far are targeted against external antigens on particular cell types. We have designed and engineered the first CAR T cell against a human intracellular protein, WT1. WT1 is overexpressed in many cancers, including acute and chronic leukemias and numerous solid tumors. Our TCRm CAR, derived from the ESK1 TCRm mAb, termed WT1 28z, is reactive with the RMFPNAPYL peptide of the WT1 protein that is processed and presented on the surface of cells in the context of HLA-A*02:01. WT1 28z expressing T cells have high expression of the CAR on their surface. They are cytotoxic in standard 51 Cr assays against a range of cancer cell lines, including the megakaryoblastic cell line SET2, the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell line AML14, the multiple myeloma cell line KARPAS, and the ovarian cancer line, OVCAR3, as compared to CAR T cells against an irrelevant antigen. The WT1 28z CAR T cells are also cytotoxic against primary AML bone marrow blasts in this assay. When co-cultured with these primary cells or cancer cell lines, the WT1 28z CAR T cells have enhanced production of proinflammatory cytokines such as IFN-g, IL-2, and GM-CSF, as compared to irrelevant CAR T cells. Importantly, WT1 28z T cells are specific for the WT1-HLA-A*02:01 complex. The cells do not show cytotoxicity against cell lines or primary cells that are not both HLA-A*02:01- positive and WT1 positive. WT1 28z T cells are currently being tested alongside irrelevant antigen CAR T cells in AML and ovarian cancer murine models in vivo to assess efficacy, with the ultimate goal of translating this novel approach into the clinical setting for both hematological and solid cancers. The data provide the proof-of-concept that CAR T cells also may be directed at intracellular antigens. Disclosures Dao: Novartis: Patents & Royalties. Liu: Eureka: Employment, Inventor Other. Scheinberg: Novartis: Patents & Royalties. Brentjens: Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy, Scientific co-founder and Stock holder Other.


The effect of various factors on the infectivity of the
cercariae of S. mansoni and S. haematobium
were
studied.
It
has
clearly been shown that the infectivity
of cercariae of
both
species is directly influenced by those factors.
Almost equal proportions of
cercariae of both
species
died
or were severely damaged during penetration
of
mammalian
host.
skin: 24-48% died in mouse skin
compared
with
only
11-19% in
hamster skin. These differential losses in the
skin
of
different
hosts account for the fact that
hamsters
yield
higher
adult
worm.
recoveries than mice. However, adult
worm recoveries
from
animals infected with S. haematobium cercariae
were
much
less,
almost one third, than those from
S.
mansoni infections.
Young
mice were more susceptible
to
S. mansoni
than
old
mice
and
this
was mainly due to the low level of
mortality
of
cercariae
during
penetration of young mouse skin.
More
cercariae
of
S. mansoni
died, at lest during the early stages
of
penetration, in the
skin of infected animals than in the
skin of normal
previously
non-infected animals. It is very
difficult to
explain this
observation; it could be related
to the immune
state
of
the
host
or to local reaction, provoked by
previous
exposure to
cercariae,
at the site of penetration. No
difference
was found in the
susceptibility of male or female mice to
S. mansoni
but
male
hamsters were more susceptible to
S. haematobium than female
hamsters.
The percentages of S. mansoni and
S.
haematobium
cercariae
which die, during penetration of
host
skin,
steadily
increased
with increase in the post-emergence age
of
the
cercariae
and
this accounted for the observed decline in infectivity
which
accompanied ageing of the cercariae.
It
has
been demonstrated
that death of S. mansoni cercariae
during
penetration
of
host
skin is probably due to the exhaustion
of
their
stored
energy
reserves.
Ultra-violet irradiation affected
the infectivity
of
cercariae of S. mansoni and
S. haematobium
by increasing the level
of mortality of cercariae in the
skin
and
delaying their
migration in the lungs beyond days
3-4
postinfection.
Gamma
irradiation also inhibited the development
of
S. mansoni
cercariae
to the adult stage : cercariae were mainly
destroyed in the liver
although some form of damage occurred
in the lungs
as
well.
Maintenance of cercariae of
S.
mansoni
and
S. haematobium
at
low
or high temperatures increased their
mortality
in the
skin and
consequently resulted in a
marked reduction
in the
worm
burdens
of animals infected with these cercariae.
Treatment
of
S.
mansoni
cercariae with sublethal concentrations of niclosamide
(Bayluscide)
had the same effect as temperature.
The in vivo development of
S. haeratobium
was
also studied.
It followed the same general pattern as
for S. mansoni
and
S. japonicum: six stages of development,
characterized
by
morphological and histochemical criteria,
were
distinguished.
However, the development of
S. haematobium
was
slower
(61-63
days)
than S. mansoni (34-35 days) or
S. japonicum (23-29
days).


The majority of species boundaries are based on morphology, under the assumption that morphological discontinuities equate with reproductive incompatibility. In scleractinian corals, morphological boundaries between some species are indistinct, particularly where skeletal characters overlap to form a morphologic continuum between species. It has recently been discovered that at least some morphological species of coral are capable of interbreeding in vitro and it may be that events such as hybridisation could explain the high degrees of morphological variation recorded in many coral species and genera. In order to better understand the nature of species relationships and evolutionary processes within the Scleractinia, a detailed analysis of species boundaries within a single, representative genus - Platygyra - was carried out.

A multivariate morphometric analysis based on nine skeletal characters indicated seven morphologically distinct species (including two undescribed species) were present within the genus Platygyra on the Great Barrier Reef. However, no diagnostic species characters were found. The range of skeletal variation within a morphological species was also examined and was found to be high, with discrete morphotypes occurring within the species Platygyra daedalea. Intra-specific morphological variation in corals is often attributed to environmental influences whereby colonies of the same species will display different morphologies in different environments. A transect survey of all species and morphs of Platygyra on Davies Reef, central Great Barrier Reef, indicated that all morphs and species occurred sympatrically in six different reef habitats. Similarly, a broad scale survey of Platygyra colonies on reefs around Australia showed all species and morphs were widespread and common across their range. The sympatric distribution of Platygyra species suggest morphological variation in these corals is not a result of environmental influences at either a between-reef or within-reef scale.

Fertilisation trials between morphological species of Platygyra showed all seven species are capable of hybridisation in vitro. Hybridisation rates were equivalent to rates of within-species fertilisation (50-60%) and hybrid corals developed normally, surviving at least 31/2 years. Fertilisation data suggest that morphological species of Platygyra are not reproductively isolated. This is further supported by the absence of temporal barriers to hybridisation between species and preliminary evidence which suggests there is no species-specific sperm attraction acting to reproductively isolate species.

Studies using allozyme electrophoresis at nine polymorphic loci confirmed the findings from fertilisation trials and suggested hybridisation occurs naturally between species of Platygyra on the reef. There were no fixed gene differences between morphological species and values of Nei's D between species were low (< 0.2), which is within the range usually associated with intra-specific variation. Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibria show there is some degree of non-random mating within species of Platygyra, however this is most likely to be associated with aspects of their reproductive biology rather than species-specific differences. Histocompatibility tests between morphological species of Platygyra suggested there was no relationship between morphology and interaction outcome, nor was there any association between genetic difference between colonies and interactive response.

By combining results from morphometric, ecological, reproductive and genetic studies of Platygyra, I conclude that hybridisation occurs naturally between the seven morphological species of Platygyra. Natural hybridisation will be an important consideration when defining species boundaries and evolutionary processes in corals. By drawing analogies between corals and plants, I propose that processes such as reticulate evolution and introgression, as have been described in plants, will also be taking place in the Scleractinia. In light of these findings, traditional species concepts which assume reproductive isolation between species will not be appropriate to define coral species. In the future it will be important to realise that coral taxonomy, which defines morphologically distinct species, may not necessarily reflect breeding relationships or have any bearing on evolutionary processes.


In this work, we review the progress in recent studies on glass patterning including technologies and applications. Four technologies for glass micromachining including wet etching, sandblasting, reactive ion etching, and glass reflow process are analyzed. Advantages as well as disadvantages of each method are presented and discussed in light of the experiments. Various microsystem applications using the above glass patterning technologies like thermal sensors, hermetically packaged capacitive silicon resonators, optical modulator devices, glass microfluidics, micro-heaters, and vacuum-sealed capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays are reported.


ABSTRACT Background: Diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscles (DMRA) is frequent and may be associated with abdominal wall hernias. For patients with redudant skin, dermolipectomy and plication of the diastasis is the most commonly used procedure. However, there is a significant group of patients who do not require skin resection or do not want large incisions. Aim: To describe a "new" technique (subcutaneous onlay laparoscopic approach - SCOLA) for the correction of ventral hernias combined with the DMRA plication and to report the initial results of a case series. Method: SCOLA was applied in 48 patients to correct ventral hernia concomitant to plication of DMRA by pre-aponeurotic endoscopic technique. Results: The mean operative time was 93.5 min. There were no intra-operative complications and no conversion. Seroma was the most frequent complication (n=13, 27%). Only one (2%) had surgical wound infection. After a median follow-up of eight months (2-19), only one (2%) patient presented recurrence of DMRA and one (2%) subcutaneous tissue retraction/fibrosis. Forty-five (93.7%) patients reported being satisfied with outcome. Conclusion: The SCOLA technique is a safe, reproducible and effective alternative for patients with abdominal wall hernia associated with DMRA.


This study tests the ability of five Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs), forced with observed climatology and atmospheric CO2, to model the contemporary global carbon cycle. The DGVMs are also coupled to a fast 'climate analogue model', based on the Hadley Centre General Circulation Model (GCM), and run into the future for four Special Report Emission Scenarios (SRES): A1FI, A2, B1, B2. Results show that all DGVMs are consistent with the contemporary global land carbon budget. Under the more extreme projections of future environmental change, the responses of the DGVMs diverge markedly. In particular, large uncertainties are associated with the response of tropical vegetation to drought and boreal ecosystems to elevated temperatures and changing soil moisture status. The DGVMs show more divergence in their response to regional changes in climate than to increases in atmospheric CO2 content. All models simulate a release of land carbon in response to climate, when physiological effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on plant production are not considered, implying a positive terrestrial climate-carbon cycle feedback. All DGVMs simulate a reduction in global net primary production (NPP) and a decrease in soil residence time in the tropics and extratropics in response to future climate. When both counteracting effects of climate and atmospheric CO2 on ecosystem function are considered, all the DGVMs simulate cumulative net land carbon uptake over the 21st century for the four SRES emission scenarios. However, for the most extreme A1FI emissions scenario, three out of five DGVMs simulate an annual net source of CO2 from the land to the atmosphere in the final decades of the 21st century. For this scenario, cumulative land uptake differs by 494PgC among DGVMs over the 21st century. This uncertainty is equivalent to over 50 years of anthropogenic emissions at current levels.


A diode-pumped $Nd:YVO_4$ laser is developed. The laser has a closely folded resonator. The laser beam in two arms of the folded resonator passes the same acousto-optic modulator. The laser output power and pulsewidth dependence on a Q-switching frequency were measured. It is found that the newly proposed geometry provides an effective means for reducing the pulsewidth while maintaining almost the same output power compared with the usual folded resonator, where the beam in one arm of the resonator passes the acousto-optic modulator.


Users know what they see before where they are: it is more natural to talk about high level visibility information ("I see such object") than about one's location or orientation. In this paper we introduce a method to find in 3D worlds a density of viewpoints of camera locations from high level visibility constraints on objects in this world. Our method is based on Rao-Blackwellized importance sampling. For efficiency purposes, the proposal distribution used for sampling is extracted from a visibility preprocessing technique adapted from computer graphics. We apply the method for finding in a 3D city model of Atlanta the virtual locations of real-world cameras and viewpoints.


This article argues that state action that discriminates on the basis of religion is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Doctrine even if it does not violate the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment. State action that discriminates on the basis of religion should be subject to strict scrutiny and should almost always be held unconstitutional. We thus challenge the Supreme Court's recent decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in which a 5 to 4 majority of the Court wrongly allowed a California state school to discriminate against a Christian Legal Society chapter on the basis of religion. We defend our argument that the Fourteenth Amendment bans discrimination on the basis of religion as being: 1) consistent with and mandated by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment; 2) as following logically from the seminal logic in United States v. Caroline Products Footnote Four which specifically mentions religion as a suspect classification; 3) as not being precluded by any prior Supreme Court caselaw; 4) as reflecting the fact that religious affiliation is in some faiths hereditary and immutable; and 5) as being consistent with the ban on discrimination on the basis of religion in almost every equal protection clause in every foreign constitution or international human rights document that we have surveyed. We analyze the impact our equal protection argument might have on Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause caselaw, and we explain why in our view State constitutional Blaine amendments forbidding government money from going to religious entities violate the Fourteenth Amendment. We conclude, perhaps most strikingly, by arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment's ban on discrimination on the basis of religion renders the current system of funding the public schools unconstitutional. In our view, the Fourteenth Amendment obligates the states to provide students with education vouchers that they can redeem either at a secular or at a religious school depending on parental choice. Forcing religious students to attend a state funded school that is permeated with an atmosphere that is hostile to religion violates the Fourteenth Amendment.


It is well-known that socioeconomic outcomes and (dis)advantage over the life course can be transmitted from parent to child. It is increasingly suggested that these intergenerational effects also have a spatial dimension, although empirical research into this topic remains scarce. Previous research from Sweden and the United States shows that children who grow up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods experience long-term exposure to such neighbourhoods in their adult lives. This study contributes to the literature by examining to what extent educational attainment can break the link between parental neighbourhood disadvantage and the neighbourhood experiences of children as adults up to 12 years after leaving the parental home. We use longitudinal register data from the Netherlands to study a complete cohort of parental home leavers, covering 119,167 individuals who were followed from 1999 to 2012. Using sequence analyses as a visualisation method, and multilevel logit models, we demonstrate that children who lived in deprived neighbourhoods with their parents are more likely to live in similar neighbourhoods later in life than children who grew up in more affluent neighbourhoods. We find that intergenerational neighbourhood patterns of disadvantage can be discontinued when individuals attain higher education over time. Discontinuation is however less prevalent among individuals from ethnic minority groups.


Introduction: The increasing rate of road traffic injuries have turned into a noticeable and critical danger threatening lives of people in different countries around the world. This study is done to determine epidemiological pattern and mortality rate trend of road traffic injuries. Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the epidemiological pattern of mortality related to road traffic injury was determined in a 6-year-period data gathering by Kermanshah Forensic Medicine Center's census. The external cause of death was classified using ICD-10 codes. The population of Kermanshah was provided by the Governor General's Office. Data were then analyzed using Stata 11 software. To examine the mortality trend and its significance, the negative binomial regression was utilized. Result: The average age of 3231 death cases of road traffic injuries was 39.83±21.27and 78.4% of the subjects were males. The most important cause of death was head concussion (71.6%). The highest number of external causes was related to cars/van crashes. The mean mortality rate of road traffic injuries in Kermanshah province in this 6-year period was 27.81 deaths per hundred thousand people. The rate of mortality due to road traffic in Kermanshah has decreased from 33.13 to 22.58 cases per hundred thousand people and mortality rate decreases by 6% on average in proportion to every unit of increase in year (β= -0.06; CI: -0.11, -0.002). Conclusion: According to the results and despite the decrease in traffic injuries' mortality in recent years, this rate is still higher than that of other countries; therefore, this area of interest should be reviewed, changed, and even revolutionized.


This book expounds the idea of a disenchanted world composed of nation states and global functional systems. The nation state is losing some of its regulatory prerogatives and, at the same time, extending its legitimacy base in 'chains of legitimacy' to transnational institutions. There is neither a global democracy nor a global government. Therefore, establishing alternative forms of legitimacy, accountability and participation in a secular world seem mandatory. Helmut Willke examines the resurgence of moral reasoning in global affairs, pushed by various fundamentalisms, that indicates a real danger of a regression of democracy. The separation of private morals and public policies, the book argues, remains the basis of global aspirations of democracy.


Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is a common condition induced by unwarranted reflux of gastric and duodenal contents into the oesophagus, and insufficient clearance of refluxate from it. Pharmaceutical formulations possessing raft-forming capability offer an excellent alternative to conventional treatment options to treat uncomplicated GORD. These formulations typically contain a polymer, which performs distinctively upon contact with gastric acid and develops a foam-like structure that can float on gastric contents. This review aims to feature research articles and patents that cover this topic. After undergoing a standardised literature search following PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines, we have included 38 research articles and 18 patents describing the role of raft-forming polymers in the treatment of GORD. This is a comprehensive review of formulation/testing of raft-forming polymers. As expected, the majority of the studies focused on alginate; however, fewer studies have reported the use of pectin, xanthan gum and raw psyllium fibres (husk). Moreover, it can be concluded from this comprehensive systematic review that a detailed characterisation of raft forming formulations, type and concentration of used active and inactive materials and different formulations factors are essential for the development of successful anti-reflux raft forming formulations.


It has been shown that the 3D shape of a deformable surface in an image can be recovered by establishing correspondences between that image and a reference one in which the shape is known. These matches can then be used to set-up a convex optimization problem in terms of the shape parameters, which is easily solved. However, in many cases, the correspondences are hard to establish reliably. In this paper, we show that we can solve simultaneously for both 3D shape and correspondences, thereby using 3D shape constraints to guide the image matching and increasing robustness, for example when the textures are repetitive. This involves solving a mixed integer quadratic problem. While optimizing this problem is NP-hard in general, we show that its solution can nevertheless be approximated effectively by a branch-and-bound algorithm.


: Digital protection has several advantages over conventional protection scheme. For protecting costliest and vital equipment such as transformer, digital schemes have been proposed by several authors in recent past. This paper throws light on all such efforts and it will help researchers to focus on integrated efforts to protect transformer in a better and efficient way. Artificial intelligence along with signature and pattern recognition techniques give much more useful information about happenings in and outside of transformer. Efforts are put by all concerned with fast, accurate, flexible, reliable and easy to understand scheme of protection. With the advent of soft computing methods condition monitoring with protection has become on line objective. Keeping all these state of art techniques of protection, this paper will be a useful resource. Discrimination of several faults external and internal needs digital signal processing and feature extraction as well. Many algorithms are proposed as summarized in paper.


The field of architecture in the digital world uses a plethora of terms to refer to different kinds of architects, and recognises a confusing variety of competences that these architects are required to have. Different service providers use different terms for similar architects and even if they use the same term, they may mean something different. This makes it hard for customers to know what competences an architect can be expected to have.

This book combines competence profiles of the NGI Platform for IT Professionals, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), as well as a number of Dutch IT service providers in a comprehensive framework. Using this framework, the book shows that notwithstanding a large variety in terminology, there is convergence towards a common set of competence profiles. In other words, when looking beyond terminological differences by using the framework, one sees that organizations recognize similar types of architects, and that similar architects in different organisations have similar competence profiles. The framework presented in this book thus provides an instrument to position architecture services as offered by IT service providers and as used by their customers.

The framework and the competence profiles presented in this book are the main results of the special interest group "Professionalisation" of the Netherlands Architecture Forum for the Digital World (NAF). Members of this group, as well as students of the universities of Twente and Nijmegen have contributed to the research on which this book is based.


Fresh  sh product is one food that is offered in Giant Hypermarket. Supply system and quality control of products is important to ful l consumer's need and satisfaction. The study was aimed to examine the supply system and quality control of fresh  sh products at Giant. The analysis method used were the ABC analysis, single exponential smoothing method, p control charts, and diagrams of causation. The results of this study indicate that fresh  sh products must be controlled properly by the Giant, these include banana prawn and shrimp small pancet which were categorized as product A. The budget available for product A reached is Rp1,158,979,112 or 73.7% of the total inventory cost and reached 2,394.24 kg or 8% of the total supply of seafood per year. The single exponential smoothing method with parameter smoothing (α) 0.9; was considered as the best parameter to be used for estimate supply of banana prawn, in the year 2010. The proportion of banana prawn that is not ful lled quality standard is still under control. Such condition is expected can be maintained and improved fresh  sh quality by the Division of Seafood Giant by considering the factors in uencing the product quality control system which include human, technology, materials, and handling methods aspects. Keywords: fresh  sh products, Giant Hypermarket, quality control, supply system, single exponential smoothing,


As the late repayment of the 2007 US subprime mortgage has gradually became worse, real estate investors started with short-sale and detonated a mobile crisis. Using global VAR model , we founded that the changes of U.S. GDP growth rates are helpful to predict the volatility of GDP growth rates of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The changes of China stock indexes could significantly predict the changes of Hong Kong stock indexes. And, all regional stock price indexes have significant effects to house price indexes. The interest rates of Taiwan and China are helpful to predict the interest rate of Hong Kong. The impacts of the changes of interest rates to the house price indexes showed a negative signal for each area. For the housing market index, the housing price index of Hong Kong could be used to predict the house price fluctuations of the United States and China. There is a significantly mutual predictable function among Hong Kong, Taiwan and China for the volatility effects of house price indexes.


Global economic environment based on globalization processes caused a severe competition between the nations, and these nations launched various strategic approaches to increase their market shares in the global markets. The economic globalization process stimulates changes of technology environment that is not favor for the technology advanced nations to transfer their strategic technology areas toward developing and newly industrialized nations. Moreover, due to the change of external economic and technological environment national development strategies in all nations are also changing. In order to generate economic growth and gain a better position in severe competition between nations, the advanced nations have already established strong national and regional innovation systems The nations participating in the globalization processes actively tend to close free trade agreements (FTA) in order to intensify the movement of their production factors across the national borders as quick as possible. This new trend has cognized the importance of regions and regional competitiveness that are based on regional industries. In line with the new trend of global economies, building innovative local clusters has become one of the core strategies to develop the nations further. This frame shift has affected South Korea to a high extent because the nation cannot develop further without inventing its own core technology that costs a vast capital as well as takes a long time. This paper examines an attempt to restructure existing industrial complexes, turning them into innovative clusters at regional and local level. This contribution also tries to identify the tasks and strategies necessary to build locally embedded innovative clusters and how to best analyze these.


There are no facts, only interpretations. Friedrich Nietzsche In this issue, Baron and Johnson (1) describe the history of and rationale for the creation of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and recent changes in maintenance of certification (MOC). They focus on setting standards and identifying good doctors who meet those standards. By implication, those who do not participate or are unsuccessful in achieving recertification are substandard. Although the ABIM is clearly proud of the MOC process that it has developed, many internists find it a source of great distress. We suggest considering a basic observation in cognitive psychology, the affect heuristic, as a construct to help understand the disconnect between the ABIM's and internists' views of MOC (2, 3). According to this heuristic, when we like a thing or an idea, we overestimate the benefits and underestimate the risks or unintended consequences. If we dislike something, we underestimate the benefits and overestimate the risks. Those invested in developing the MOC process seem to highlight potential benefits and minimize possible unintended consequences. We have deep concerns that this well-intended policy will, indeed, cause negative consequences for physicians and society. Over the past several months, we have heard from many internists about the MOC process. These physicians have a wide variety of training and experience and include well-trained, insightful, and skilled internists who share a commitment to maintaining high standards of professional performance. Yet, their concerns over the new demands that the MOC process entails are palpable. Their focus is on the potential unintended consequences, and they are struggling to acknowledge the potential benefits. When these physicians talk with us about MOC, frustration and dismay about the process dominate the conversations. Internists feel increasing pressure from many directions. Time is an entity that none of us can recoup, and internists appropriately raise concerns about growing time pressures on all fronts (4). They are experiencing increasing administrative burdens that limit their ability to provide the type of patient care that they want to deliver. These burdens include issues related to usability and interoperability of electronic health records, complex documentation requirements, growing requirements for prior authorization of the tests and treatments that they prescribe, and a payment system that does not recognize the time and effort that they spend on telephone or e-mail communication. The new MOC requirements add to this burden by being time-consuming and costly and having unclear benefits on patient care. Added to these concerns is a high-stakes, secure recertification examination whose first-time failure rate has increased from 10% to 22% over the past 5 years. Although most first-time recertifying examinees who fail eventually pass the examination, they suffer distress and additional cost to retake it. Internists, like all physicians, want to bring their best, evidence-based practice to every patient every day. They want to test their knowledge and better their practices in a formative way to improve patient care and outcomes. We worry that the ABIM may focus too much on metrics, administrative processes, and finding the substandard doctors who theoretically place the public at risk and too little on the design and implementation of a process that encourages ongoing education and professional development. The implication is that MOC will allow for better policing of bad internists rather than helping us all be better internists. We believe that the ABIM's stated accountability to the profession, which accompanies its accountability to the public, should lead to better recognition of dissatisfaction among its diplomates and a more collaborative approach with internal medicine specialty and subspecialty societies to address this dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, the new MOC process has become the straw that broke the camel's back in many internists' minds. They dislike each part of the process but seem most angry about the practice improvement modules and secure examination. They see the first as busy work and the second as lacking relevance to their personal practice and to how medicine is currently practiced. The present structure of the summative secure examination of the ABIM does not provide specific feedback to facilitate this process let alone reflect the current state of practice, namely, collaboration in patient care and real-time engagement of evidence-based resources. Any physician evaluation process should consider the practical wisdom, knowledge, and skill necessary to be a good practicing physician and test how those attributes are actually used in patient care. Fostering the development of phronesis (practical wisdom) in physicians through the effective and safe use of knowledge and skill in the clinical moment allows us to fulfill the covenant we have with patients and the contract we have with society. Our internist colleagues tell us that they embrace the importance of remaining current, but they do not believe that the current MOC process helps them achieve that goal. As currently implemented, MOC involves substantial time, and internists believe that time supersedes more educationally sound activities. Current learning theory supports the use of testing to guide further learning and the provision of educational tools to address knowledge weaknesses. Testing for knowledge alone does not determine how skilled and effective an internist is at the bedside, in history-taking, and in performing a targeted physical examination. Would it not be better and more practical to have a testing process that assesses the ability to gather and interpret information and that encompasses the entire clinical encounter? Can the MOC process as it stands truly evaluate our ability to deliver patient-centered care? Too many internists view professional self-regulation as currently conceived by the ABIM to be a nonproductive and often punitive experience. All too often, they see regulatory bodies as depleting money, time, and joy from their professional lives. Further, many do not believe that burdensome processes being forced on them will benefit their patients or their professional lives. Thus, it should be no surprise that internists focus on the direct and indirect costs of MOC rather than on the potential benefits that are the focus of the current commentary of the ABIM leaders. We recognize the ABIM's good intent and the substantive challenges of developing an effective assessment process that ensures a corps of good internists. Unfortunately, too many internists find some aspects of the current process lacking at a time when concerns about the ramifications of this high-stakes professional endeavor are increasing.


In recent years there has been rising interest in the use of programming-by-example techniques to assist users in data manipulation tasks. Such techniques rely on an explicit input-output examples specification from the user to automatically synthesize programs. However, in a wide range of data extraction tasks it is easy for a human observer to predict the desired extraction by just observing the input data itself. Such predictive intelligence has not yet been explored in program synthesis research, and is what we address in this work. We describe a predictive program synthesis algorithm that infers programs in a general form of extraction DSLs (domain specific languages) given input-only examples. We describe concrete instantiations of such DSLs and the synthesis algorithm in the two practical application domains of text extraction and web extraction, and present an evaluation of our technique on a range of extraction tasks encountered in practice.


A comprehensive study of changing political thought during the Tokugawa period, the book traces the philosophical roots of Japanese modernization. Professor Maruyama describes the role of Sorai Confucianism and Norinaga Shintoism in breaking the stagnant confines of Chu Hsi Confucianism, the underlying political philosophy of the Tokugawa feudal state. He shows how the new schools of thought created an intellectual climate in which the ideas and practices of modernization could thrive. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.