Sclerosing cholangitis is a rare but dreadful complication of liver hydatid surgery. Almost all scolicidal agents were shown to be potentially associated with this complication clinically or experimentally. This experimental study was designed to examine the effects of 0.04% chlorhexidine gluconate and 95% ethanol on the hepatobiliary system and pancreas and also to compare their effects with 10% povidone iodine and hypertonic 20% saline. Materials and Methods: 50 Wistar rats were divided into equal five groups identified as: 0.9% NaCl (control group), 0.04% chlorhexidine gluconate, hypertonic 20% saline, 10% povidone iodine, and 95% ethanol. Scolicidal agents were injected into the biliary tract through a duodenal puncture. The animals were kept for 3 months. The animals were sacrificed, and histopathological examinations of the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas were performed. Results: The most severe histopathological changes of the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas were found in the ethanol group, and the least changes were detected in the chlorhexidine gluconate group. Conclusion: This experimental study confirms the deleterious effect of 95% ethanol on hepatopancreatic biliary system when used for the percutaneous drainage of hydatid diseases. For treatment of hydatid cysts in the hepatobiliary system, 0.04% chlorhexidine gluconate should be used as scolicidal agent.


The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of c.6,000 European species (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, butterflies, dragonflies, and selected groups of beetles, molluscs, and vascular plants) according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level – in order that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This comprehensive assessment of all European butterflies provides an overview of the conservation status of this important insect group. This study shows us that nearly 9% of butterflies are Threatened and a further 10% are Near Threatened.


Precisely simultaneous radar and satellite measurements at the altitude of reflection of a strong HF heating wave above the Arecibo Observatory were made on June 7, 1977. Parametric instabilities produce strong enhancements in the plasma line and ion line incoherent scatter radar echoes. These echoes also exhibit periodic deep fading that is attributed to a self-focusing instability. This explanation was confirmed by the in situ observation of electron density fluctuations with peak-to-peak amplitudes reaching at least 3% and a spatial dependence that corresponded closely to the radar fading pattern, at least for irregularity wavelengths ranging from a few hundred meters to a few kilometers. The correspondence implies that the radar fading is associated with the convection of the density irregularities through the radar beam. The radar and satellite observations also provided values for the important parameters of the ambient ionosphere, making possible a quantitative comparison of the data with existing theories of the self-focusing instability. In particular, the agreement with the theory of Cragin et al. (1977) is fairly good.


Abstract The concept of South America and Africa as rigid continents during the formation, growth and motion of their respective plates has frustrated reconstruction of a tight, geologically economic fit between these two fragments in their Gondwana framework. We recognize that (1) internal strains released during and following Gondwana break-up have distorted their actual shapes within Gondwana and (2) these two continents comprise mosaics of smaller microblocks, or platelets, of relatively undistorted Precambrian terrains that experienced modest, episodic relative motions along rift zones that separate them. This permits a fresh approach to quantitative reconstructions of palaeo-continents. Former geological ties forged at the time of Gondwana amalgamation, now exposed at the continental margins of the South Atlantic as piercing points, provide robust anchors for new paleo-cartographic experiments. We present two new tectonic maps of the Brasiliano and Pan-African structures of West Gondwana on which we identify ten piercing points that, if re-joined simultaneously, could facilitate quantification of a well-substantiated Gondwana fit and help retrace the evolution of its continental margins with greater accuracy than has been achieved until now. This has significant bearing on understanding the origin and evolution of passive continental margins, and the geodynamics of Gondwana break-up.


The fourth estate is undergoing dramatic changes. Many newspaper reporters, already surrounded by a growing number of empty desks, are shifting their focus away from costly investigative reporting and towards amassing Twitter followers and writing the perfect "share line." Newspapers' budgets can no longer robustly support accountability journalism and pitching fights against the government. And so, while this busier and noisier media environment may have a desirable democratizing effect — more of us are able to participate in analyzing, debating, and perhaps even making the news — it has not succeeded in filling a role that print journalists have traditionally played well — keeping watch on the government. In order to perpetuate its historical role as watchdog, the fourth estate needs fortification. This fortification should come in the form of legal preferences for the press. Providing such preferences is not new, but it arguably has not been done in a significant way since postal subsidies were granted to newspapers in the colonial era. Today, with few exceptions, the law generally treats journalists just like any other citizens and news organizations like any other business. This article proposes a new way to preference the press — one that would not involve direct subsidies or discriminating between old media and new. Instead, it would give journalists a commodity that is fundamental to their work: information. To preference the press, this article looks to the Freedom of Information Act, the law governing when and how the executive branch discloses information to the public. While in theory the law facilitates the press's access to vast amounts of information in the hands of the executive branch, implementation of FOIA has, since it was passed in 1966, been fraught with problems. Agencies routinely take months and even years to respond to journalists' requests, making the process incompatible with a news cycle that is spinning ever faster. This article proposes focusing on FOIA's expedited processing provisions to prioritize journalists' requests over those of other requesters, expedite agency fulfillment of them, and ease the press's ability to challenge late, incomplete, or otherwise unsatisfactory disclosures. It argues that any journalist filing a FOIA request seeking expedited processing should presumptively go to the front of the queue. At that point, there would be firm deadlines (where none exist now) for providing the journalist with the information requested. These small but significant changes to an already established provision of FOIA could help the media better serve as a watchdog at a time when that role needs protecting.


Americans living in the first decades of the twentieth century felt they inhabited a modern age. A spirit of excitement and experimentation transformed the world around them, in particular the consumer goods that filled their homes and offices. A Modern World draws upon the renowned collection of American decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery to explore the appearance and dissemination of modern design in the United States. This catalogue organizes roughly 300 examples of silver, glass, industrial design, furniture, medals, jewelry, and printed textiles into thematic groups that chart the aesthetic and social trends that defined American design from the Jazz Age to the Space Age. The authors consider modernism broadly-from handmade luxury goods to mass-produced housewares-establishing a context for the objects within larger international developments in architecture, avant-garde art, and scientific innovation. New research and compelling juxtapositions offer an expanded understanding of the era, and designer biographies and corporate chronologies help make this catalogue a valuable resource.


Although fatigue limit diagram is defined in principle for constant stress amplitude condition, it is often considered that fatigue failure would not occur even in varying loading if applied stresses were kept within the fatigue limit diagram. However, it was shown in the case of small-notched specimen and fretting fatigue that fatigue failure occurred in some special case of variable amplitude loading condition even when all stress amplitudes were kept within the fatigue limit diagram. The cause of this phenomenon was examined using two-step and repeated two-step stress patterns in which the first step stress was with zero mean stress and the second step stress had a high mean stress. A non-propagating crack was formed by the first step stress. This crack functioned as a pre-crack for the second step stress with high mean stress. Consequently, fatigue failure occurred even when all stress amplitudes were kept within the fatigue limit diagram. It was an unexpected fracture caused by the interference effect of non-propagating crack and mean stress change.


ABSTRACT
The NHS Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a Payment for Performance (P4P) scheme that was launched on 1 April 2004, as a key feature of the new General Medical Service (GMS) contract. Previous research has revealed that GP practices made several organisational changes after the introduction of QOF. However, there is no clear evidence on how the change process was undergone in practices and what factors contributed to this process. Thus, this thesis is interested in exploring the change process from the perspective of organisational memory. The primary aim is to explore how and why QOF served as a trigger for change in influencing the direction of GP practices and the extent of change that was made in GP practices because of QOF.

An in-depth qualitative case study was conducted in four large GP practices in the north of England. Semi-structured interviews with thirty nine informants, including 15 GP partners, 2 salaried GPs, 4 practice managers, 9 nurses, 2 healthcare assistants (HCAs) and 7 administration staff were considered as the main source of data.

The study was able to provide evidence that the GP practices developed their strategy to respond to QOF, based on their organisational memory and competence. It was also found that organisational structure contributed strongly to the enhancement of organisational memory, which in turn led to better organisational competence. These findings provide insight into practices engaging in an emergent type of change. This was evident through their strategic decision making and the idea of contextualism, which underlay their unique responses during the changes. The study revealed that the practices were engaged in predominantly strategic level change. The significant contribution of this thesis is how organisational memory and competence could be used to understand the phenomenon of change in health care settings.


Cryptographic solutions to privacy-preserving multiparty linear programming are slow. This makes them unsuitable for many economically important applications, such as supply chain optimization, whose size exceeds their practically feasible input range. In this paper we present a privacy-preserving transformation that allows secure outsourcing of the linear program computation in an efficient manner. We evaluate security by quantifying the leakage about the input after the transformation and present implementation results. Using this transformation, we can mostly replace the costly cryptographic operations and securely solve problems several orders of magnitude larger.


Abstract The research aim was to determine the long-term impact of the mine waste stored at the coal waste dump Hałda Ruda on the content of heavy metals in the bottom sediments of the Bytomka River. It is a watercourse flowing along this coal waste dump and has been under its influence for over fifty years. The research also attempted to determine the seasonality of changes (2 years) and mobility of selected elements. The article presents total contents of Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb in the bottom sediments collected from the Bytomka River. It also focuses on the distribution of these elements in particular geochemical fractions determined with the Tessier's sequential chemical extraction procedure. Total element contents were determined with an EDPXRF (Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence) technique. The extractants of particular Tessier's fractions were determined quantitatively with an ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) spectrometer. The research results show that the stored waste significantly influences the contents of heavy metals in the Bytomka River bottom sediments. The lowest concentration of heavy metals was observed at the B1 spot (above the dump), while the highest one was measured at the B3 spot (below the dump). Sequential chemical extraction of the bottom sediments indicates that the Zn content in the ion-exchange and carbonate fractions diminished within a year. Nevertheless, Zn bound to Fe and Mn oxides acted in the opposite way. Mn, Zn and Pb are the most dangerous elements from the viewpoint of environmental hazards, as their total concentrations were high. Moreover, their high contents were observed in the most mobile (ion-exchange and carbonate) fractions. Extremely toxic Cd was bound to the oxide fraction to the largest extent. Cu was mainly bound to the organic fraction while environmentally hazardous Cr was bound to the residual fraction.


Indoor tracking scenarios still face challenges in providing continuous tracking support in wide-area workplaces. This is especially the case in Augmented Reality since such augmentations generally require exact full 6DOF pose measurements in order to continuously display 3D graphics from user-related view points. Many single sensor systems have been explored but only few of them have the capability to track reliably in wide-area environments. We introduce a mobile multi-sensor platform to overcome the shortcomings of single sensor systems. The platform is equipped with a detachable optical camera and a rigidly mounted odometric measurement system providing relative positions and orientations with respect to the ground plane. The camera is used for marker-based as well as for marker-less (feature-based) inside-out tracking as part of a hybrid approach. We explain the principle tracking technologies in our competitive/cooperative fusion approach and show possible enhancements to further developments. This inside-out approach scales well with increasing tracking range, as opposed to stationary outside-in tracking.


Human dendrites are special A special developmental program in the human brain drives the disproportionate thickening of cortical layer 2/3. This suggests that the expansion of layer 2/3, along with its numerous neurons and their large dendrites, may contribute to what makes us human. Gidon et al. thus investigated the dendritic physiology of layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in slices taken from surgically resected brain tissue in epilepsy patients. Dual somatodendritic recordings revealed previously unknown classes of action potentials in the dendrites of these neurons, which make their activity far more complex than has been previously thought. These action potentials allow single neurons to solve two long-standing computational problems in neuroscience that were considered to require multilayer neural networks. Science, this issue p. 83 Dendritic action potentials extend the repertoire of computations available to human neurons. The active electrical properties of dendrites shape neuronal input and output and are fundamental to brain function. However, our knowledge of active dendrites has been almost entirely acquired from studies of rodents. In this work, we investigated the dendrites of layer 2 and 3 (L2/3) pyramidal neurons of the human cerebral cortex ex vivo. In these neurons, we discovered a class of calcium-mediated dendritic action potentials (dCaAPs) whose waveform and effects on neuronal output have not been previously described. In contrast to typical all-or-none action potentials, dCaAPs were graded; their amplitudes were maximal for threshold-level stimuli but dampened for stronger stimuli. These dCaAPs enabled the dendrites of individual human neocortical pyramidal neurons to classify linearly nonseparable inputs—a computation conventionally thought to require multilayered networks.


Creation and transformation of visual specifications is driven by modeler's design decisions. After a design decision has been made, the modeler needs to adjust the specification to maintain its correctness. The number of adjustments might make the design process tedious for large specifications. We are interested in techniques that will reduce the modeler's obligation to control specification correctness. Every single transformation of the visual specification can be captured by the notion of refinement used in formal methods. In this work we present the technique that supports a stepwise refinement of visual specifications based on calculations. We use refinement calculus as a logic for reasoning about refinement correctness. When a design decision is made by the modeler, the necessary adjustments are calculated based on rules of refinement propagation. Refinement propagation can automate the specification adjustment and enforce its correctness.


To the Editor:—I read the study by Fellahi JL et al. titled "Perioperative use of dobutamine in cardiac surgery and adverse cardiac outcome" with great interest. This study showed that the use of dobutamine was associated with adverse outcomes in adult cardiac surgery, and the authors concluded that these results suggest that dobutamine should only be administered when the benefit is judged to outweigh the risks. Although the study is interesting and the results are provocative, we need to be careful how to examine these results before we conclude that these results suggest that dobutamine may be harmful. First, we can be sure from the data of this observational study that the group of patients who received dobutamine was sicker in both left ventricular function and EURO score. Therefore, it is vital to know whether the propensity score (probability of using dobutamine) was a significant variable in the second method of logistic regression analysis when the propensity score was used as a separate covariate. If propensity score was a significant variable in determining adverse outcome after cardiac surgery in the logistic regression analysis, it would suggest that residual confounding due to "selection bias" caused by using dobutamine in a sicker group of patients was still present, despite the propensity score was used in the multivariate analysis. We definitely need this data to be sure whether any residual confounding was present, and if residual confounding is present, it may at least, in part, explain the results why the use of dobutamine was associated with a poorer outcome. Furthermore, the authors should also discuss the possibility of residual confounding from omitting confounders as a limitation of an observational study. Second, the conclusion of only using dobutamine when benefit is judged to outweigh the risks is not helpful to both practicing anesthesiologists and researchers. The data presented in this study showed that dobutamine was used predominantly in patients with a lower ejection fraction or those with left ventricular dysfunction in their cohort. This practice will remain unchanged in many cardiothoracic centers after knowing the results of this study because this is the group of cardiac patients most likely to have benefits from the use of dobutamine. I believe a more appropriate, balanced, and constructive conclusion from the data of this study is that an adequately powered randomized controlled trial is needed to clarify the risks and benefits of dobutamine in patients with different degrees of left ventricular function in adult cardiac surgery.


By international standards, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Latin America is low: around one fourth of that of the United States. Moreover, in the last five decades, Latin America has failed to catch-up in wealth to the level of the United States while other countries at similar or even lower stages of development have been successful. The failure to attain higher levels of relative income represents what I call the development problem in Latin America. Using a development accounting framework, I find that the bulk of the difference in GDP per capita between Latin America and the United States is accounted for by low GDP per hour and, in particular, low total factor productivity (TFP) in Latin America. I calculate that to explain the difference in GDP per hour, TFP in Latin America must be around 60 percent of that in the United States. I then consider a model with heterogeneous production units where institutions and policy distortions lead to a 60 percent productivity ratio between Latin America and the United States. Removing the barriers to productivity can increase long-run GDP per hour in Latin America by a factor of 4 relative to that of the United States. This increase is equivalent to 70-years worth of U.S. post WW-II development.


The Bushmen/San of South Africa are one of the most researched communities in the world. They hold valuable traditional knowledge and their genetic traits are of great interest to researchers. To protect themselves from exploitation, they took the initiative and developed a media contract and a research contract in 2003. When film makers or researchers engage with the community, they are meant to go through the community structures (e.g. the San Council) to get approval for their activities. To protect themselves further, the San are currently in the process of developing a Code of Ethics for Researchers, supported by the TRUST project. This film by Amy Dean captures the views of some leading San representatives on their efforts to protect the community from exploitation.


Marrying topic models and language models exposes language understanding to a broader source of document-level context beyond sentences via topics. While introducing topical semantics in language models, existing approaches incorporate latent document topic proportions and ignore topical discourse in sentences of the document. This work extends the line of research by additionally introducing an explainable topic representation in language understanding, obtained from a set of key terms correspondingly for each latent topic of the proportion. Moreover, we retain sentence-topic associations along with document-topic association by modeling topical discourse for every sentence in the document. We present a novel neural composite language model that exploits both the latent and explainable topics along with topical discourse at sentence-level in a joint learning framework of topic and language models. Experiments over a range of tasks such as language modeling, word sense disambiguation, document classification, retrieval and text generation demonstrate ability of the proposed model in improving language understanding.


This paper presents an approach to address the idea of self-directed context-aware e-learning environments that tightly integrate into the electronic workplace of a knowledge worker. While developing the paradigm of informal, in-time e-learning on the workplace, the question appears where and how to acquire suitable learning material for the current learning need of the knowledge worker (KW). In contrast to traditional e-learning systems where didactically engineered courses address the user's learning interest, we provide learning snippets that directly relate to potential short-term informational learning goals. We show ways of acquiring concepts from the work context the user potentially wants to learn about. For these concepts we determine different types of learning material from different sources that answer the current learning need about the concept.


The case study in this paper illustrates the value of integrating front-end scheduling with a batch control system. Recipe changes, and addition of recipes, occur frequently in the target process. However, since both scheduler and batch packages were designed with the ISA-S88.01 model in mind, these packages could be tightly coupled (well integrated) – and, as a result, it is easy to add or change recipes. The frontend scheduler is not limited to performing scheduling; it also provides an easy-to-grasp real-time production status display which can help enhance efficiency and productivity.


Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also an accomplished scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself. Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. New research shows that these marvelous creatures display remarkable gifts, with each of their tentacles even capable of thinking for itself. What does it mean that higher intelligence on earth has evolved not once but twice? And that the mind of the octopus is nonetheless so different from our own? Combining science and philosophy with first hand accounts of his cephalopod encounters, Godfrey-Smith shows how primitive organisms bobbing in the ocean began sending signals to each other and how these early forms of communication gave rise to the advanced nervous systems that permit cephalopods to change colours and human beings to speak. By tracing the problem of consciousness back to its roots and comparing the human brain to its most alien and perhaps most remarkable animal relative, Godfrey- Smith's Other Minds sheds new light on one of our most abiding mysteries.


From the Publisher:
JDBC is the key Java technology for relational database access. Oracle is arguably the most widely used relational database platform in the world. In this book, Donald Bales brings these two technologies together, and shows you how to leverage the full power of Oracle's implementation of JDBC.
You begin by learning the all-important mysteries of establishing database connections. This can be one of the most frustrating areas for programmers new to JDBC, and Donald covers it well with detailed information and examples showing how to make database connections from applications, applets, Servlets, and even from Java programs running within the database itself.
Next comes thorough coverage of JDBC's relational SQL features. You'll learn how to issue SQL statements and get results back from the database, how to read and write data from large, streaming data types such as BLOBs, CLOBs, and BFILEs, and you'll learn how to interface with Oracle's other built-in programming language, PL/SQL.
If you're taking advantage of the Oracle's relatively new ability to create object tables and column objects based on user-defined datatypes, you'll be pleased with Don's thorough treatment of this subject. Don shows you how to use JPublisher and JDBC to work seamlessly with Oracle database objects from within Java programs. You'll also learn how to access nested tables and arrays using JDBC.
Donald concludes the book with a discussion of transaction management, locking, concurrency, and performance—topics that every professional JDBC programmer must be familiar with. If you write Java programs to run against an Oracle database, this book is a must-have.


In this paper we present a new method for kinodynamic motion planning in environments that contain both static and moving obstacles. We present an efficient two-stage approach: in the preprocessing phase, it constructs a roadmap that is collision-free with respect to the static obstacles and encodes the kinematic constraints on the robot. In the query phase, it plans a time-optimal path on the roadmap that obeys the dynamic constraints (bounded acceleration, curvature derivative) on the robot and avoids collisions with any of the moving obstacles. We do not put any constraints on the motions of the moving obstacles, but we assume that they are completely known when a query is performed. We implemented our method, and experiments confirm its good performance.


Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease that affects approximately 1% of the adult population. Some 30 to 40% of patients experience work disability within five years of onset of the disease, but early aggressive medical treatment has vastly improved the long-term outcome of RA. The combination of simple clinical tools to measure disease activity, the use of traditional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) early in the course of the disease and the introduction of targeted biologic agents for DMARD-resistant disease has greatly reduced the risk of joint deformities, physical disability and premature death. The family practitioner, by suspecting RA early in its course and jointly monitoring efficacy and toxicity of DMARDs with the rheumatologist, plays a pivotal role in improving the care and outcome of the RA patient.


The Three Sonatas for Two Cellos, Op. 43 by Bernhard Heinrich Romberg were composed as a progressive performance work. The most widely used copy of the work is a C. F. Peters, Leipzig Edition edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Grutzmacher. In this edition, the Sonatas are exhaustively marked with fingerings, alternate fingering, dynamics, dynamic changes, glissandi, bowings, bowstrokes and bow placement, accents, tempo changes, moods, and articulations. The combination of Romberg's melodic and pedagogically thought-through compositions and Grutzmacher's expert editorial work results in invaluable pedagogical and performance work. Each subsequent sonata presents bigger challenge for a player while each preceding one also serves as a training tool for successful mastering of the following one. The Opus 43 is a set of individually viable sonatas that can stand independently and still serve as useful learning material. Grutzmacher's respect for Romberg's style and his clear vision of pedagogical benefits are reflected in logical sequence of fingering and bowing challenges presented in each Sonata. Precise and complete performance markings serve as an essential guiding tool navigating a player towards a successful performance. If learned and performed as a set, the Three Sonatas for Two Cellos, Op. 43 by Bernard Heinrich Romberg are an excellent progressive performance work of the advanced level. The purpose of this analysis is to revive and highlight the importance of Romberg's compositions and Grutzmacher's editorial effort and the pedagogical value of a direct teacher-student interaction the Three Sonatas for Two Cellos, Opus 43 represent.


Unlike in Anglophone sociology, the sociological analysis of gender inequalities in East-Central Europe has not yet reached the status of a prominent subfield in stratification research. To address the key societal challenges of this century in East-Central Europe, we argue that the region is in need of a strong development in gender stratification research and a greater use of quantitative methodologies. Such advancement would strengthen not only stratification research but also feminist sociology in East-Central Europe. It would also facilitate the transfer of professional knowledge in stratification and feminist studies to the public. Drawing on the classical concept of Weber's ideal types, we further argue that gender stratification research, with its participation in academic and public debates, has the potential to not only reveal the differences in opportunities between males and females but also reduce such inequalities.


Background: Eruptive hypomelanosis is a newly described entity from India characterized by sudden onset of symmetrical hypopigmented macules over the extremities. Only a few cases have been reported till date and the etiology is unknown. Aim: To study the epidemiological and clinical profile of eruptive hypomelanosis. Materials and Methods: A total of 19 cases were seen over a period of 5 months (March–July) and subjected to detailed history and clinical examination. Routine investigations including hemogram, liver and kidney function tests, urinalysis, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, HIV, hepatitis B surface antigen, anti-hepatitis C virus antibody, and potassium hydroxide (KOH) examination were carried out in all the cases. Skin biopsy was performed in three patients. Results: All patients were of pediatric age group ranging from 3 to 7 years (average 4.42 years) and had multiple discrete to confluent well-defined, hypopigmented nonscaly macules of size ranging from 2 to 20 mm, mainly distributed symmetrically over extensor aspect of extremities. Majority of the cases (12, 63%) presented in April. Six cases (37.5%) had prodrome symptoms 3 days to 2 weeks preceding the onset of lesions and four (25%) had positive family history. The routine investigations including KOH preparation and wood's lamp examination were normal in all cases. Histopathology of the skin was essentially normal. Lesions began to fade spontaneously after a period of 3–4 weeks resulting in complete/near-complete resolution, making total duration of the illness as 4–9 weeks. Conclusion: Considering the eruptive nature of lesions presenting in pediatric population, clustering of cases in a particular season, spontaneous resolution without active intervention, history of prodrome, and positive family history in some patients, eruptive hypomelanosis can be considered as a viral exanthem. As it can be easily confused with pityriasis versicolor, it is important for the clinicians to be aware of this entity so as to avoid unnecessary treatment.


On 24 November 1992, Australia overturned its longstanding ban on gay and lesbian service in the Australian Defence Force. The ban was on the political agenda throughout 1992, though it was never a government priority or subject to mass protest. The debates over gay and lesbian military service have subsequently received scant attention from historians. The arguments against gay and lesbian service centred on troop morale, security concerns, fears of predatory homosexuals and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The arguments to permit gay and lesbian service hinged to an extent on principles of non-discrimination, but even more so on international law. This article examines the debates in 1992 leading up to the repeal of the ban, focusing in particular on the Labor Party divisions and the ways international law influenced the decision-making process.


Despite the widely spread acceptance that the enthalpy of DNA duplex unfolding does not depend on temperature and is greater for the CG base pair held by three hydrogen bonds than for the AT base pair held by only two hydrogen bonds, direct calorimetric measurement has shown that the enthalpic and entropic contributions of both base pairs are temperature dependent and at all temperatures they are greater for the AT base pair.  The larger enthalpic and entropic contributions of the AT base pair result from water that is fixed by this pair in the minor groove of DNA and is released at duplex dissociation, while their dependence on temperature results from hydration of the apolar surfaces of bases that become exposed upon duplex dissociation.  Analysis of the obtained thermodynamic characteristics of unfolding/refolding of the DNA duplexes of various compositions shows that the enthalpic contribution of base pairing is negligibly small, while the entropic is considerable.  Thus, the DNA base pairing is the entropy driven process but it is conjugate with the bases stacking that is the enthalpy driven. The last is responsible for about 50% of duplex stabilizing Gibbs energy and for almost 100% of its enthalpy, that is for the total heat of DNA melting.

 Key words:  DNA, stability, hydrogen bonding, base stacking, hydration.


The addition of salts into protein aqueous solutions causes changes in protein solubility and stability, whose ability is known to be ordered in the Hofmeister series. We investigated the effects of Hofmeister salts on the picosecond dynamics of water around a lysozyme molecule using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The change in the absorption coefficient for 200 mg mL(-1) lysozyme aqueous solution by the addition of salts was found to depend on the salts used, whereas that for pure water was almost independent of salts. From the difference in the salt concentration dependence for various salts, it has been found that chaotropic anions make the dynamics of water around the lysozyme molecule slower, whereas kosmotropic anions make the dynamics faster. The ability of an anion to slow down the water dynamics was found to have the following order: SCN(-) > Cl(-) > H2PO4(-) > NO3(-) ≈ SO4(2-). This result indicates that the effects of anions on the dynamics of water around the lysozyme molecule are the opposite of those for bulk water. This finding agrees with a prediction from a molecular model proposed by Collins [K. D. Collins, Methods, 2004, 34, 300]. The results presented here are compared with the results from preferential interaction studies and the results from sum frequency generation spectroscopy. These discussions have led to the conclusion that the picosecond dynamics of protein hydration water strongly contributes to protein stability, whereas electrostatic interactions between protein molecules contribute to protein solubility.


Were presidential campaigns always as bitter as they have been in recent years? Or is the current style of campaigning a new political development? In this revised and updated edition of Presidential Campaigns the answers to these questions are clear: the race for the presidency, although at times mean and nasty, has always been an endlessly entertaining and highly charged spectacle. This book unveils the whole history of American presidential elections, from the seamless ascent of General George Washington to the bitterly contested election of George W. Bush, bringing these boisterous contests to life in all their richness and complexity. Back in the nineteenth century, the invective at election time was exuberant and the mudslinging unrestrained; a candidate might be called everything from a carbuncle-faced old drunkard to a howling atheist. But there was plenty of fun and games, too, with songs and slogans, speeches and parades, all livening up the scene in order to get people to the polls. Presidential Campaigns takes note of the serious side of elections even as it documents the frenzy, frolic and the sleaze. Each chapter contains a brief essay describing an election and presenting "campaign highlights" that bring to life the quadrennial confrontation in all its Shame and glory. With a postscript analysing the major changes in the ways Americans have chosen their Presidents from Washington's time to the present, Presidential Campaigns gives the reader a full picture of this somewhat flawed procedure.


Space is a limiting resource in coral reef communities causing actively growing coral colonies to come in proximity and interact with each other. Although most contact interactions among corals have been studied extensively, very few non-contact and non-aggressive interactions have been documented so far. We present results from a 3 yr field study of coral communities showing that, under unperturbed conditions, the reef-building coral Porites cylindrica exhibits significantly higher growth when transplanted together with 2 other species (P. rus and Pavona frondifera) than when grown in monoculture. However, the introduction of a chronic disturbance (nutrient enrichment) adversely affected its growth rates and survival, thus overturning the earlier trend. Furthermore, the 3 species used in the experiment exhibited different responses to the perturbation (negative, no effect, positive). Our results show that the presence of other species can enhance performance at the colony level, while differential species responses potentially provide buffering effects at the community level that may contribute to the maintenance of community structure and function during periods of disturbance.


Background Many guidelines recommend adherence counseling prior to initiating antiretrovirals (ARVs), however the additional benefit of pre-therapy counseling visits on early adherence is not known. We sought to assess for a benefit of adherence counseling visits prior to ARV initiation versus adherence counseling during the early treatment period. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort of HIV-infected patients in Mbarara, Uganda. Adults were enrolled upon initiation of ARVs. Our primary exposure of interest was ARV adherence counseling prior to initiating therapy (versus concurrent with initiation of therapy). Our outcomes of interest were: 1) average adherence >90% in first three months; 2) absence of treatment interruptions >72 hours in first three months; and 3) Viral load >400 copies/ml at the three month visit. We fit univariable and multivariable regression models, adjusted for predictors of ARV adherence, to estimate the association between additional pre-therapy counseling visits and our outcomes. Results 300 participants had records of counseling, of whom 231 (77%) completed visits prior to initiation of ARVs and 69 (23%) on or shortly after initiation. Median age was 33, 71% were female, and median CD4 was 133 cell/ml. Median 90-day adherence was 95%. Participants who completed pre-therapy counseling visits had longer delays from ARV eligibility to initiation (median 49 vs 14 days, p<0.01). In multivariable analyses, completing adherence counseling prior to ARV initiation was not associated with average adherence >90% (AOR 0.8, 95%CI 0.4–1.5), absence of treatment gaps (AOR 0.7, 95%CI 0.2–1.9), or HIV viremia (AOR 1.1, 95%CI 0.4–3.1). Conclusions Completion of adherence counseling visits prior to ARV therapy was not associated with higher adherence in this cohort of HIV-infected patients in Uganda. Because mortality and loss-to-follow-up remain high in the pre-ARV period, policy makers should reconsider whether counseling can be delivered with ARV initiation, especially in patients with advanced disease.


Digital Preservation has become such a pressing issue for libraries world-wide that it is easy to forget what an unknown quantity it was when the Cedars project began in 1998. The Final Report from the RLG/CPA Task Force on Digital Archiving was released in 1996 and this provided a catalyst for further action within the U.K. The Cedars Project was initially funded for three years as part of the final phase of the UK eLib project. An additional year was subsequently funded to enable consolidation and wider dissemination of its findings. The Cedars project made a significant contribution to digital preservation and was able to forge good working relationships with colleagues working in related areas. It delivered both heightened awareness of digital preservation as a critical strategic issue at the broad level, as well as some specific deliverables designed to provide practical support at the operational level. Now that the Cedars project has ended, the primary responsibility within the UK for ensuring the momentum is not lost will rest with the recently formed Digital Preservation Coalition. Significant developments overseas will also feed into the global digital preservation agenda.


Aside from recognizing and distinguishing sound patterns, the ability to localize sounds in the horizontal plane is an essential component of the mammalian auditory system. It facilitates approaching potential mating partners and allows avoiding predators.
The superior olivary complex (SOC) within the auditory brainstem is the first site of binaural interaction and its major projections and inputs are well investigated. The adult input pattern, however, is not set from the beginning but changes over the period of development.
Mammals including humans experience different stages and conditions of hearing during auditory development. The human brain for instance has to perform a transition after birth from the perception of sound waves transmitted in amniotic fluid to the perception of airborne sounds. Furthermore, small mammals like rodents, which are common model organisms for auditory research, perceive airborne sounds for the first time some days after birth, when
their ear canals open. The basic neuronal projections and the intrinsic properties of neurons, such as the expression of specific ion channels, are already established and adjusted in the SOC during the perinatal period of partial deafness. An additional refinement of inputs and further adaptations of intrinsic characteristics occur with the onset of hearing in response to the new acoustic environment. It is likely that with ongoing maturation well-established inputs within the sound localization network need these adaptations to balance anatomical changes
such as an increasing head size. In addition, short-term adjustments of synaptic inputs in the adult auditory system are equally necessary for a faithful representation of auditory space. A recent study suggests that these short-term adaptations are partially represented at the
auditory brainstem level.
The question of how intrinsic properties change during auditory development, to what extent auditory experience is involved in these changes and the functional implications of these changes on the sound localization circuitry is only partially answered. I used the hyperpolarization-activated and cyclic nucleotide-gated cation channels (HCN channels), which are a key determinant of the intrinsic properties of auditory brainstem neurons, as a target to study the influence of auditory experience on the intrinsic properties of neurons in the auditory brainstem.
Another important question still under discussion is how neurons in the auditory brainstem might fine-tune their firing behavior to cope optimally with an altered acoustic environment.
Recent data suggest that auditory processing is also affected by modulatory mechanisms at the brainstem level, which for instance change the input strength and thus alter the spike output of these neurons. One possible candidate is the metabotropic GABAB receptor (GABABR) which has been shown to be abundant in the adult auditory brainstem, although GABAergic projections are scarce in the mature auditory brainstem.
These questions were investigated by performing whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of SOC neurons from Mongolian gerbils at different developmental stages in the acute brain slice preparation. Specific currents and receptors were isolated using pharmacological means.
Immmunohistochemical results additionally supported physiological findings.
In the first study, I investigated the developmental regulation of HCN channels in the SOC
and their underlying depolarizing current Ih, which has been shown to regulate the excitability of neurons and to enhance the temporally precise analysis of binaural acoustic cues. I characterized the developmental changes of Ih in neurons of the lateral superior olive (LSO) and the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), which in the adult animals show different HCN subunit composition. I showed that right after hearing onset there was a strong
increase of Ih in the LSO and just a minor increase in the MNTB. In addition, the open probability of HCN channels was shifted towards more positive voltages in both nuclei and
the activation time constants accelerated during the first days of auditory experience. These results implicate that Ih is actively regulated by sensory input activity. I tested this hypothesis by inducing auditory deprivation which was achieved by surgically removing the cochlea in
gerbils before hearing onset. The effect was opposite in neurons of the MNTB and the LSO.
Whereas in LSO neurons auditory deprivation resulted in increased Ih amplitude, MNTB neurons displayed a moderate decrease in Ih. These results suggest that auditory experience differentially changes the amount of HCN channels dependent on the subunit composition or
possibly alters intracellular cAMP levels, thereby shifting the voltage dependence of Ih. This regulatory mechanism might thus maintain adequate excitability levels within the SOC.
A second study was carried out to investigate the role of GABABRs in the medial superior olive (MSO). Upon activation, these metabotropic receptors are known to decrease the release probability of neurotransmitters at the presynapse thereby altering excitatory and inhibitory currents at the postsynaptic site. Neurons in the MSO analyze interaural time differences (ITDs) by comparing the relative timing of the excitatory inputs from the two ears
using a coincidence mechanism. In addition, these neurons receive a precisely timed inhibitory input from each ear which shifts ITDs in the physiological relevant range. Since the major inhibitory input changes its transmitter type from mixed GABA/glycinergic to only glycinergic after hearing onset it was now interesting to examine the mediated effects of GABABRs, which have been shown to be abundant in the prehearing and adult MSO of gerbils. Furthermore, revealing the precise expression pattern of GABABRs and their influence on excitatory and inhibitory currents in the MSO during auditory development should provide further evidence of their functional relevance. Performing pharmacological experiments I could now demonstrate that the activation of GABABRs before hearing onset decreases the current of excitatory inputs stronger than that of inhibitory inputs whereas a switch is performed after hearing onset and inhibitory currents are stronger decreasedcompared to excitatory currents. In a similar way, also the expression pattern of GABABRs
changes before and after hearing onset as revealed by immunohistochemistry. Since the main inhibitory inputs to the adult MSO are purely glycinergic, it was commonly assumed that GABABRs occupy only a minor role in the mature auditory brainstem. Contradictory to this, it was possible to activate presynaptic GABABRs by synaptic stimulation even in adult animals and to observe a profound decrease of inhibitory current in MSO neurons. These results suggest GABAergic projections of yet unknown origin targeting the MSO. It is therefore quite likely that GABABRs modulate and possibly improve the localization of low frequency sounds
even in adult mammals.
Summarized, the outcome of this thesis contributes to a better understanding of the developmental adaptation in the auditory system and demonstrates that the orderly
specification of intrinsic properties within the SOC is dependent on auditory experience. Moreover, I show that even in mature animals the synaptic strength of MSO inputs can be modulated by synaptic GABA release. This should emphasize the importance of modulatory mechanisms and could be the basis for future studies concerning the field of sound localization.


Birthing a Nation is about national identity and the American West. If it is a truism that facing west was the American male version of invoking the Muse, what happened if you were female? Most past interpretations of western American literature have echoed Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier hypothesis, emphasizing the conflict of wilderness and civilization, the hero of rugged individualism, the act of returning to origins and reemerging as the reborn American Adam. In this reading of western American women writers who responded to the challenge to give birth to a nation, Susan J. Rosowski proposes an alternative, more hopeful affirmation of our cultural history and perhaps our cultural destiny. Rosowski begins by tracing the birth metaphor through three and a half centuries of American letters. She reexamines the premises underlying the telling of the literary West and posits a female model of creativity at the genesis of American literature. She follows four authors on a multigenerational journey, beginning with Margaret Fuller in 1843, moving on a generation later to Willa Cather, advancing to Jean Stafford, and ending with Marilynne Robinson. In her reading of these writers who most directly and deeply believed in literature as a serious and noble form of art and who wrote to influence how the country perceived itself, Rosowski contributes to the ongoing process of remapping the literary landscape


BACKGROUND
To prevent dystocia, it is important to have criteria for labour onset and policies for diagnosing and treating uterine inertia. Uterine inertia is often followed by complications such as prolonged labour, caesarean section, instrumental labour and a negative birth experience, and prevention and proper treatment are therefore important. The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has stipulated that labour wards should have policies for labour management. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which labour wards in Sweden have such policies. For those wards with policies for labour management, a further aim was to study the content of the policies.

METHODS
A descriptive survey presenting information from 48 of 49 labour wards in Sweden. Descriptive statistics were used.

RESULTS
Three of the 48 labour wards had written policies concerning all four main issues of interest. Written policies existed regarding criteria for labour onset at 11 wards, diagnosis of uterine inertia at 13 wards and treatment of uterine inertia at 21 wards. Seventeen wards had written policies for when during the progress of labour neuraxial analgesia was recommended.

CONCLUSIONS
The majority of labour wards in Sweden did not have written policies, and there was no consensus among the wards regarding criteria for diagnosing labour onset and uterine inertia, policies for treatment of uterine inertia, or about recommendations for when to use neuraxial analgesia. It is possible that the lack of policies could imply a risk for nonevidence-based labour management.


Thermal properties of blends of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN) prepared by solution casting were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. In the study of PHBV-SAN blends by differential scanning calorimetry, glass transition temperature and melting point of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends were almost unchanged compared with those of the pure PHBV. This result indicates that the blends of PHBV and SAN are immiscible. However, crystallization temperature of the PHBV in the blends decreased approximately 9–15°. From the results of the Avrami analysis of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends, crystallization rate constant of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends decreased compared with that of the pure PHBV. From the above results, it is suggested that the nucleation of PHBV in the blends is suppressed by the addition of SAN. From the measured crystallization half time and degree of supercooling, interfacial free energy for the formation of heterogeneous nuclei of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends was calculated and found to be 2360 (mN/m)3 for the pure PHBV and 2920–3120 (mN/m)3 for the blends. The values of interfacial free energy indicate that heterogeneity of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends is deactivated by the SAN. This result is consistent with the results of crystallization temperature and crystallization rate constant of PHBV in the PHBV-SAN blends. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 77: 673–679, 2000


The traditional model of synapses as fixed structures has been replaced by a dynamic one in which synapses are constantly being deleted and replaced. This book, written by a leading researcher on the neurochemistry of schizophrenia, integrates material from neuroscience and cell biology to provide a comprehensive account of our current knowledge of the neurochemical basis of synaptic plasticity. The book presents the evidence for synaptic plasticity, an account of the dendritic spine and the glutamate synapse with a focus on redox mechanisms, and the biochemical basis of the Hebbian synapse. It discusses the role of endocytosis, special proteins, and local protein synthesis. Additional topics include volume transmission, arachidonic acid signaling, hormonal modulation, and psychological stress. Finally, the book considers pharmacological and clinical implications of current research, particularly with reference to schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.


"The problem of interoperability among XML data sources is one studied by Laks V. S. Lakshmanan and Fereidoon Sadri, and expression their research findings and ideas appear in the paper [7]. Their research presents a lightweight framework that enriches local sources with semantic declarations to enable interoperability. In their framework, there are issues which reduce the scalability of the architecture, and this thesis identifies those issues and present techniques to overcome boundaries currently placed on their work. The research included in this thesis focuses, first on a methods of obtaining optimal data transmission schemes. Those efforts are followed by developing a new technique to eliminate the costly approach involving inter-source subqueries in [7]."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


The use of online word of mouth (WOM) seems a promising strategy to motivate young people to visit Internet-delivered interventions. An Internet-delivered intervention aimed at changing implicit attitudes related to alcohol was used in two experiments to test effectiveness of e-mail invitations on a first visit to the intervention. The results of the first experiment (N = 196) showed that an invitation by e-mail from a friend was more effective to attract young adults (aged 18–24 years) to the intervention website than an invitation from an institution. A 2 × 2 design was used in the second experiment (N = 236) to test manipulations of argument strength and the use of peripheral cues in invitations. Results showed that weak arguments were more effective to attract young adults to the intervention website when an incentive was withheld. These results need to be taken into account when using online WOM as a strategy to improve exposure to Internet-delivered interventions.


1. Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus develops within a group of individuals who carry specific diabetes susceptibility traits. Because all of the potential diabetes "susceptibility genes" are not known, currently it is not possible to identify all individuals at risk. It appears, however, that a small percentage of such individuals will ever develop clinical diabetes mellitus.
 2. The autoimmune destructive process may be triggered by a number of environmental events.
 3. Early exposure of infants to cow's milk protein may be an important factor in the initiation of the β cell destructive process in some individuals. It is not known whether the cow's milk protein in commercially available infant formulas is associated with this process.
 4. The avoidance of cow's milk protein for the first several months of life may reduce the later development of IDDM or delay its onset in susceptible individuals.
 5. Research directed toward further defining the possible relationship between infant feeding practices and the development of IDDM is needed.


Dykes of Tertiary age have been identified by modelling offshore marine and aeromagnetic data and onshore aeromagnetic data. Dykes have been found in the North Sea off NE England, and in the Irish Sea. Published aeromagnetic maps have also been used to locate non-outcropping Tertiary dykes in the Scottish Borders. Many of the offshore anomalies are caused by multiple dykes that cannot be separately resolved. All dykes retain the dominant NW-SE trend of the known Tertiary dykes although this trend approaches E-W near the east coast of England. Under the North Sea the trend swings back and becomes increasingly southerly trending. The dykes may be the result of NW-SE compressional or NE-SW tensional stress with deep crustal weaknesses causing changes in trend.


Abstract. Watersheds buffer the temporal pattern of river flow relative to the temporal pattern of rainfall. This ecosystem service is inherent to geology and climate, but buffering also responds to human use and misuse of the landscape. Buffering can be part of management feedback loops if salient, credible and legitimate indicators are used. The flow persistence parameter Fp in a parsimonious recursive model of river flow (Part 1, van Noordwijk et al., 2017) couples the transmission of extreme rainfall events (1 − Fp), to the annual base-flow fraction of a watershed (Fp). Here we compare Fp estimates from four meso-scale watersheds in Indonesia (Cidanau, Way Besai and Bialo) and Thailand (Mae Chaem), with varying climate, geology and land cover history, at a decadal timescale. The likely response in each of these four to variation in rainfall properties (including the maximum hourly rainfall intensity) and land cover (comparing scenarios with either more or less forest and tree cover than the current situation) was explored through a basic daily water-balance model, GenRiver. This model was calibrated for each site on existing data, before being used for alternative land cover and rainfall parameter settings. In both data and model runs, the wet-season (3-monthly) Fp values were consistently lower than dry-season values for all four sites. Across the four catchments Fp values decreased with increasing annual rainfall, but specific aspects of watersheds, such as the riparian swamp (peat soils) in Cidanau reduced effects of land use change in the upper watershed. Increasing the mean rainfall intensity (at constant monthly totals for rainfall) around the values considered typical for each landscape was predicted to cause a decrease in Fp values by between 0.047 (Bialo) and 0.261 (Mae Chaem). Sensitivity of Fp to changes in land use change plus changes in rainfall intensity depends on other characteristics of the watersheds, and generalisations made on the basis of one or two case studies may not hold, even within the same climatic zone. A wet-season Fp value above 0.7 was achievable in forest–agroforestry mosaic case studies. Inter-annual variability in Fp is large relative to effects of land cover change. Multiple (5–10) years of paired-plot data would generally be needed to reject no-change null hypotheses on the effects of land use change (degradation and restoration). Fp trends over time serve as a holistic scale-dependent performance indicator of degrading/recovering watershed health and can be tested for acceptability and acceptance in a wider social-ecological context.


This document defines a mechanism for the backhauling of V5.2 messages
over IP using the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). This
protocol may be used between a Signaling Gateway (SG) and a Media
Gateway controller (MGC). It is assumed that the SG receives V5.2
signaling over a standard V5.2 interface. This document builds on the
ISDN User Adaptation Layer Protocol (RFC 3057). It defines all
necessary extensions to the IUA Protocol needed for the V5UA protocol
implementation. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Background: Dried blood filter cards, collected for newborn screening, are often stored for long periods of time. They may be suitable for the retrospective diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism, but no data are currently available on the long-term stability of amino acids and acylcarnitine species. Methods: We analyzed amino acids and acylcarnitines by tandem mass spectrometry in 660 anonymous, ran-domly selected filter cards from 1989 through 2004. We assessed long-term stability of metabolites by linear regression and estimated annual decrease of concentration for each metabolite. Results: Concentrations of free carnitine increased by 7.6% per year during the first 5 years of storage and decreased by 1.4% per year thereafter. Alanine, arginine, leucine, methionine, and phenylalanine decreased by 6.5%, 3.3%, 3.1%, 7.3%, and 5.7% per year, respectively. Acetylcarnitine, propionylcarnitine, citrulline, glycine, and ornithine decreased by 18.5%, 27.4%, 8.1%, 14.7%, and 16.3% per year during the first 5 years, respectively; thereafter the decline was more gradual. Tyrosine decreased by 1.7% per year during the first 5 years and 7.9% per year thereafter. We could not analyze medium-and long-chain acylcarnitine species because of low physiological concentrations. Conclusions: Estimation of the annual decrease of metabolites may allow for the retrospective diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism in filter cards that have been stored for long


Image segmentation is an important area in the general field of image processing and computer vision. It is a fundamental part of the `low level' aspects of computer vision and has many practical applications such as in medical imaging, industrial automation and satellite imagery. Traditional methods for image segmentation have approached the problem either from localisation in class space using region information, or from localisation in position, using edge or boundary information. More recently, however, attempts have been made to combine both region and boundary information in order to overcome the inherent limitations of using either approach alone.

In this thesis, a new approach to image segmentation is presented that integrates region and boundary information within a multiresolution framework. The role of uncertainty is described, which imposes a limit on the simultaneous localisation in both class and position space. It is shown how a multiresolution approach allows the trade-off between position and class resolution and ensures both robustness in noise and efficiency of computation.

The segmentation is based on an image model derived from a general class of multiresolution signal models, which incorporates both region and boundary features. A four stage algorithm is described consisting of: generation of a low-pass pyramid, separate region and boundary estimation processes and an integration strategy. Both the region and boundary processes consist of scale-selection, creation of adjacency graphs, and iterative estimation within a general framework of maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation and decision theory. Parameter estimation is performed in situ, and the decision processes are both flexible and spatially local, thus avoiding assumptions about global homogeneity or size and number of regions which characterise some of the earlier algorithms. A method for robust estimation of edge orientation and position is described which addresses the problem in the form of a multiresolution minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation. The method effectively uses the spatial consistency of output of small kernel gradient operators from different scales to produce more reliable edge position and orientation and is effective at extracting boundary orientations from data with low signal-to-noise ratios.

Segmentation results are presented for a number of synthetic and natural images which show the cooperative method to give accurate segmentations at low signal-to-noise ratios (0 dB) and to be more effective than previous methods at capturing complex region shapes.


Following through on pledges made during his election campaign, President Bush proposed and Congress passed a substantial tax cut in 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA). Much has been written about the size of the tax cut, its impact on the federal budget, its distributional consequences, and its short-run macroeconomic impact. There has been less focus on EGTRRA's incentive effects; one of the most important potential behavioral effects is on saving. To analyze the behavioral effects of the Bush tax cut on saving and other macroeconomic variables, I use the Auerbach-Kotlikoff (1987) model in conjunction with the NBER's TAXSIM model. An interesting by-product of this analysis is the "dynamic scoring" of the tax cut—the estimated feedback effects of behavior on revenue. By comparing the revenue losses generated by the model with those that would occur without any behavioral response, one can estimate how much of the static revenue loss would be recouped by expanded economic activity. The simulations suggest that dynamic scoring has a significant impact on estimated revenue losses, but that the tax cut's impact on national saving is still negative in the long run.


The article deals with J. M. Coetzee's Boyhood, focusing on the author's experiments with the autobiography in the context of traditional genre conventions. Boyhood, the first part of Coetzee's autobiographical trilogy, is analyzed as a deconstruction of the childhood autobiography (the absence of autobiographical agreement, third-person present tense narrative, a combination of multiple points of view: those of a child-protagonist and an adult author).


Aims: To summarize findings from the STORK-Groruddalen Study regarding ethnic differences in the prevalence of gestational diabetes (GDM) by the WHO and modified International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria (no one hour value), insulin resistance, β-cell function and physical activity (PA) level. Methods: Population-based cohort study of 823 healthy pregnant women (59% ethnic minorities). Data from questionnaires, fasting blood samples, anthropometrics and objectively recorded PA level (SenseWear Armband), were collected at <20 (Visit 1) and 28±2 (Visit 2) weeks of gestation. The 75-g OGTT was performed at Visit 2. Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and β-cell function (HOMA-β) were estimated from venous fasting plasma glucose and C-peptide. Results: The GDM prevalence was 13.0% with the WHO and 31.5% with the IADPSG criteria. The ethnic minority women, especially South Asians, had highest figures. South and East Asian women had highest HOMA-IR at Visit 1 after adjustment for BMI. HOMA-IR increased from Visit 1 to Visit 2 irrespective of ethnic origin. Compared with Western European women, the absolute and percentage increase in HOMA-β from Visit 1 to Visit 2 was poorest for the South and East Asian women. All ethnic groups walked less and spent less time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during weekend days compared with weekdays. South Asian women were least active, measured by steps and by time spent in MVPA. Conclusion: Alarmingly high rates of GDM were found, highest among South Asians. South Asian women were less physically active, more insulin resistant and showed poorer β-cell compensation compared with Western Europeans.


This paper offers four contributions to the empirical literature on global value chains (GVCs). First, we provide a succinct overview of several measures developed to capture the upstreamness or downstreamness of industries and countries in GVCs. Second, we employ data from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) to document the empirical evolution of these measures over the period 1995-2011; in doing so, we highlight salient patterns related to countries' GVC positioning – as well as some puzzling correlations – that emerge from the data. Third, we develop a theoretical framework – which builds on Caliendo and Parro's (2015) variant of the Eaton and Kortum (2002) model – that provides a structural interpretation of all the entries of the WIOD in a given year. Fourth, we resort to a calibrated version of the model to perform counterfactual exercises that: (i) sharpen our understanding of the independent effect of several factors in explaining the observed empirical patterns in the period 1995-2011; and (ii) provide guidance for how future changes in the world economy are likely to shape the positioning of countries in GVCs.


This article argues that scholars must understand mass digitized texts as assemblages of new editions, subsidiary editions, and impressions of their historical sources, and that these various parts require sustained bibliographic analysis and description. To adequately theorize any research conducted in large-scale text archives—including research that includes primary or secondary sources discovered through keyword search—we must avoid the myth of surrogacy proffered by page images and instead consider directly the text files they overlay. Focusing on the OCR (optical character recognition) from which most large-scale historical text data derives, this article argues that the results of this "automatic" process are in fact new editions of their source texts that offer unique insights into both the historical texts they remediate and the more recent era of their remediation. The constitution and provenance of digitized archives are, to some extent at least, knowable and describable. Just as details of type, ink, or paper, or paratext such as printer's records can help us establish the histories under which a printed book was created, details of format, interface, and even grant proposals can help us establish the histories of corpora created under conditions of mass digitization.


The open economic system adopted by Indonesia disrupts the current account balance. This study aims to analyze and explained the causality of the current account balance with macroeconomic variables using the VAR (Vector Autoregression) approach. The data in this study used time series from 2005 quarter 1 to 2015 quarter 4. The results showed that macroeconomic variables have no causality relationship with current account balance in Indonesia. The research recommended to the financial policy authority relates to fluctuation macroeconomic variables for a policy-making basis on the current account balance in Indonesia, because the current account balance is one of the parameters for the performance of a country's economy.


The priority control for specified communication was difficult because the design concept of the Internet was best effort, but QoS technology such as Diffserv has realized the priority control. In this paper, we propose a new priority control mechanism. that the policy of the behavior of the packets is described using metadata. The metadata is structured data about data and is able to describe policy. We use the emergency communications as an implementation of the proposed mechanism. In an emergency, the Internet is important as a communication infrastructure for getting information about victim and disaster areas. Metadata is able to describe that this information is emergency. Diffserv is able to transport information managed by a priority control mechanism. This mechanism is going to be included in ITU-T F.706 recommendation.


First, a hybrid cloud microphysical model was developed that incorporates both Lagrangian and Eulerian frameworks to study quantitatively the effect of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) on the precipitation of warm clouds. A parcel model and a grid model comprise the cloud model. The condensation growth of CCN in each parcel is estimated in a Lagrangian framework. Changes in cloud droplet size distribution arising from condensation and coalescence are calculated on grid points using a two-moment bin method in a semi-Lagrangian framework. Sedimentation and advection are estimated in the Eulerian framework between grid points. Results from the cloud model show that an increase in the number of CCN affects both the amount and the area of precipitation. Additionally, results from the hybrid microphysical model and Kessler's parameterization were compared. Second, new parameterizations were developed that estimate the number and size distribution of cloud droplets given the updraft velocity and the number of CCN. The parameterizations were derived from the results of numerous numerical experiments that used the cloud microphysical parcel model. The input information of CCN for these parameterizations is only several values of CCN spectrum (they are given by CCN counter for example). It is more convenient than conventional parameterizations those need values concerned with CCN spectrum, C and k in the equation of N=CS k , or, breadth, total number and median radius, for example. The new parameterizations' predictions of initial cloud droplet size distribution for the bin method were verified by using the aforesaid hybrid microphysical model. The newly developed parameterizations will save computing time, and can effectively approximate components of cloud microphysics in a non-hydrostatic cloud model. The parameterizations are useful not only in the bin method in the regional cloud-resolving model but also both for a two-moment bulk microphysical model and for a global model. The effects of sea salt, sulfate, and organic carbon particles were also studied with these parameterizations and global model.


To clarify the response of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) to static stimulation of otolith organs in a craniocaudal direction (+Gz) in humans, we examined the effect of otolith stimulation on MSNA without changing the effect of cardiopulmonary baroreceptors using a 6-8.5 degrees head-down tilt (HDT) and lower body negative pressure (LBNP) device. Before the study, we established that 6-8.5 degrees HDT with 10 mmHg LBNP caused a fluid shift to the degree that the thoracic impedance was the same as the supine position without LBNP. Subjects were young male volunteers aged 22.1 +/- 3.8 years who gave informed consent. MSNA was recorded from the tibial nerve by microneurography simultaneously with heart rate (ECG), thoracic fluid volume (impedance method), and blood pressure (tonometric method). During 6-8.5 degrees HDT with 10 mmHg LBNP, MSNA was suppressed slightly without significantly changing heart rate, thoracic impedance, or mean arterial blood pressure. The results suggest that the sympathosuppression was related not to the result of cardiopulmonary [correction of cardioplumonary] loading but to the -Gz change (caudocranial direction [correction of dirction]) of 0.1 G. It is estimated that the vestibulo-sympathetic reflex may suppress sympathetic outflow to muscles in humans.


I. INTRODUCTION Current scholarship focuses on the prohibition of torture1 and the inadmissibility of confessions or statements obtained through torture.2 The scholarship correctly concludes that involuntary confessions or statements should not be admissible in criminal proceedings. However, little attention has been given to the procedural law governing the standards that judges sitting on international tribunals do or should apply to determine whether a statement or confession was obtained improperly. For example, if a defendant claims that officials obtained his statement through coercive or improper means, what procedures do international tribunals require before deciding whether the statement is admissible into evidence? International and human rights treaties uniformly prohibit the admission of evidence obtained through a violation of human rights. These treaties are ambiguous, however, regarding the standards judges should use to evaluate the credibility of an allegation of impropriety in acquiring a statement or confession. In light of these ambiguities, it is informative and necessary to examine national practices of judicial evaluation of challenged testimonial evidence. At least in theory, all countries agree that "involuntary confessions must be excluded. Beyond that . . . the rationales and the rigor of exclusionary practices vary greatly."3 Some countries establish mandatory rules that govern judicial assessment of the admissibility of statements. The common law in England requires that a statement or confession be voluntarily given in order to be admissible in court; the common law's insistence on the exclusion of involuntarily confessions is based in part on the refusal to accept oppression or inducement. In the US, a party challenging the legality of a statement or confession may file a motion to suppress; the judge will then hold an evidentiary hearing to assess witness credibility and to determine whether the statement was given knowingly and voluntarily, as is legally required.5 When a defendant alleges that his confession was coerced, however, an automatic rule of exclusion applies and the statement does not come into the trial as evidence.6 Other countries apply more discretionary standards. France applies a relaxed and much less stringent standard that results in the admissibility of most statements if the judge finds that the statement did not substantially violate the rules of criminal procedure.7 The German Code of Criminal Procedure tracks the general trend toward a more discretionary standard, although it does require the mandatory exclusion of statements elicited by certain forbidden means.8 Although these and other states vary in their evaluative standards of such statements, the practice of excluding involuntary or coerced statements qualifies as customary international law. There is broad and established state practice of this specific behavior of excluding certain types of statements. While some states may exclude these statements out of a moral obligation - the desire not to reward coercion or inhuman interrogation practices, for example - such exclusion has also developed into opinio juris. That is, even if a state feels no moral compulsion to exclude involuntary testimonial evidence, it will still do so out of a sense of legal obligation.9 In addition to constituting customary international law, the prohibition against admitting involuntary statements is also rooted in international treaties. Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice offers a quasihierarchy of the sources of international law; while it does not elevate treaties explicitly, it does give them priority in its list of sources.10 Treaties are also widely recognized by scholars as a valid source of international law that may in some circumstances be superior to custom, when treaties can more clearly reflect the parties' specific intentions.11 In this instance, treaties establish the international law that governs the procedural rules of the various international tribunals. …


In Citizens United, the Court reminded Congress that it could further regulate corporate political spending through enhanced disclaimer and disclosure requirements. Eight of the nine justices signed on to Part IV of the opinion, which made clear that mandating disclosure of spending would be permissible under the Constitution. Arguably, a second door was left open to regulate which individuals within the corporate governance structure may hold the power to decide how to spend corporate funds on political matters. Given that the procedures of corporate democracy include the federal securities laws and regulations, the Court thereby invited Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to cure disclosure shortages and otherwise regulate through federal legislation and rulemaking in the area of corporate governance.Spotting these two openings, legal scholars, policy makers, and activists have put forward a variety of suggestions to regulate corporate political spending. These tend to fall into two broad categories: disclosure and consent. While providing shareholders the right to pre-approve spending through a binding management-proposed proxy resolution may seem like a promising idea, it has some limitations as a practical matter. In particular, the emphasis on shareholders depends on an outdated view of the corporation as an association of owners who are real people. By granting shareholders voting rights over political spending, power would not shift to the real individual investors who have their capital at risk. Nor would other stakeholders have a say. Instead, such a requirement would move authority from corporate managers to giant institutional investors. This is because more than 70% of the shares in the largest US public companies are held by institutional investors. This article focuses on the role shareholders are currently playing and the role they might play in the future if a "sanctioning" law such as the Shareholder Protection Act is enacted, as well as what the implications of such a law would be. In doing so, this article distinguishes between institutional shareholders and real human beings who directly own shares or own them indirectly via money manager intermediaries. After examining the past behavior of shareholders in the context of proxy voting on shareholder-initiated "show-me" resolutions, three conclusions are drawn. First, whether a shareholder "sanctioning" resolution regime, requiring a majority of outstanding shares pre-approve political spending, will result in the approval of managerial spending proposals depends upon the "votes" of a very small number of powerful money managers who have historically sided with corporate management. Second, if Congress gives effect to the premise that political speech rights attach most strongly to real people and not to non-human intermediaries, and if a majority of real people (or shares held by them) are required to affirmatively consent or opt-out, a considerable check on managerial political spending might result. And, third, even if a majority of individual people who own corporate shares are required to consent, ultimate investors, such as mutual fund owners or 401k plan participants will have no power to approve or opt out of political spending that conflicts with their viewpoints. As such, given that money is speech, these individuals whose money is being used without their notice or consent would continue to compelled to speak. To remedy this result, disclosure and consent should travel down the full intermediation chain where ultimate investors can see and sanction or oppose corporate political spending.


ABSTRACT The long-chain alkyl amines and petroleum sulfonates are mostly used to remove unwanted minerals from feldspar ores in acidic pHs. In this study, their adsorption characteristics on pure albite and quartz were investigated by electrokinetic potential measurements, microflotation tests, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy studies. According to the results, amine had strong influence on zeta potentials of both albite and quartz turning them positive and resulting over 90% flotation recovery at certain pH values. Petroleum sulfonate, on the other hand, was less effective in terms of both zeta potential values and flotation recovery responses of albite. Although albite and quartz had different zeta potentials and flotation recovery responses with each collector, they displayed similar adsorption bands of CH2 group over fingerprint region and adsorption layers with different intensities after being treated with the collectors. However, the adsorption of each collector on the minerals was altered by rinsing with acetone indicating that the interaction of the collectors with albite and quartz surfaces were mostly by Coulombic forces and hydrogen bonding.


Boreal toads (Bufo b. boreas) are widely distributed over much of the mountainous western United States. Populations in the Southern Rocky Mountains suffered extensive declines in the late 1970s through early 1980s (Carey, 1993). At the time, these mass mortalities were thought to be associated with a bacterial infection (Carey, 1993). Although the few populations that survived the mass die-offs were not systematically monitored until at least 1993, no mass mortalities had been observed until 1996 when die-offs were observed. A mycotic skin infection associated with a chytrid fungus is now causing mortality of toads in at least two of the populations (M.S. Jones and D.E. Green, unpublished data; Muths et al., 2003). Boreal toads are now absent throughout large areas of their former distribution in Colorado and southern Wyoming and may be extinct in New Mexico (Corn et al., 1989; Carey, 1993; Stuart and Painter, 1994). These toads are classified as "endangered" by Colorado and New Mexico and are designated as a protected non-game species in Wyoming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has categorized the Southern Rocky Mountain populations for federal listing and is currently reviewing their designation as a "warranted but precluded" species for possible listing in the next few years. For the management of boreal toads and their habitats, a Boreal Toad Recovery Team was formed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife in 1995 as part of a collaborative effort with federal agencies within the United States' departments of the Interior and Agriculture and with agencies in two adjoining states. To date, conservation agreements have been signed by eight state and federal agencies and by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. Although boreal toads were considered common throughout their range in Colorado, no comprehensive surveys of the numbers and sizes of their populations were conducted prior to mass die-offs in the 1970s. Surveys completed in the late 1980s to early 1990s, however, indicated that the toads were still present in only one of 377 historical sites in parts of western Colorado (Hammerson, 1992) and in about 17% of previously known sites in the Colorado Front Range (Corn et al., 1989). Once common in Rocky Mountain National Park, boreal toads are now found at only seven localities, with just two or three of these populations likely to be reproducing successfully each year (Corn et al., 1997). Intensive surveys by the Boreal Toad Recovery Team since 1995 have found about 50 breeding sites comprising 25 distinct populations within Colorado (Loeffler, unpublished data). Of these populations, most are small (fewer than five egg clutches laid per year) and may not survive over the long term. Efforts to restore population sizes and expand the geographical distribution of boreal toads in the southern Rocky Mountains have involved considerable person-hours and financial commitments. Special care has been taken to protect habitats and, when feasible, to improve sites where breeding populations currently exist. However, initial attempts to repatriate these toads in historic habitats in which boreal toads were present before 1975 have generally proven unsuccessful (Carey, unpublished data; Muths et al., 2003). It is too early to determine if recent repatriations will establish breeding populations (Scherff-Norris, 1999), but these efforts will likely continue. Despite the best human intentions and efforts, the recovery of former population sizes and the historical distribution of boreal toads will greatly depend on its own life history characteristics. However, as we will review in this paper, environmental factors affect many life history attributes in a manner that poses serious obstacles for recovery.


On 28 October 2018 Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate, won the presidential elections in Brazil with 55% of the vote. His election marks, not the beginning of a democratic crisis for Brazil, but the punctuation and intensification of a process of decay that has affected the country's democratic system for some time. How do we characterise democratic decay in Brazil from a global perspective? In recent years numerous states have fallen to a form of authoritarian populism, which has led public lawyers to analyse how public law is 'weaponised' to incrementally hollow out democratic rule, as well as how public law can act as a bulwark against creeping authoritarianism. In states such as Hungary and Poland anti-democratic governments have used law as part of a multi-step 'masterplan' to subvert democracy, while in others, such as the USA the picture is more scattered and diffuse, although abuse of law – in the form of extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression, for instance – is also present. Brazil presents an even more complex picture which highlights how democratic decay can arise not simply as an executive-led problem, but as a result of multiple forms of populism, different strains of anti-democratic elitism, a constitutional system suffering significant design and implementation flaws, and the lingering legacy – and re-assertion – of military power in politics. More fundamentally, the Brazilian context underscores the highly contested nature of liberal democracy itself, and how the Constitution can become the battleground for competing – if not irreconcilable – visions of state and society.


There is an increasing evidence of people from Bangladesh travelling to neighboring countries of Asia, such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for medical treatment due to poor quality of healthcare services, high cost, and non-availability of speciality medical treatment and facilities. Medical travel is a practise where patients travel to other countries for diagnostic, pathological and complex invasive surgeries due to various push factors in their home country which prevents them for getting affordable, accessible and accredited quality of medical treatment in a timely manner, due to high cost of surgery, uninsured, long waiting period, non-availability of treatment, lack of medical facilities and proper care, lack of trained doctors and nurses, ethical and regulatory reasons, corruption and inadequate public or private medical facilities. This study is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine why people are travelling from Bangladesh to India for medical treatment. Quantitative data were randomly collected from six divisional cities of Bangladesh: Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshai, Barisal and Khulna and two districts Comilla and Bogra. A total of 1282 participants, out of 1450 returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using regression analysis. The results concluded that the pull factors that motivated Bangladeshis to travel to India for medical treatment were: low cost of surgery, qualified experienced doctors, quality of nursing care, non-availability of treatment in Bangladesh, and state of the art medical facilities and treatment in India, which concurs with the literature.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between work-life conflict (WLB) and organizational voice in the higher education sector. We surveyed a population of academicians and administrative staff of two private universities in Istanbul, Turkey. We found that there is a positive relationship between life-work conflict and work-life conflict. The work-life conflict also affects organizational voice negatively. Results reveal that when employees have conflict in their work and life affairs, they prefer to be silent rather than speak up openly about organizational policies. This paper explores the importance of the work-life conflict in regards to remaining silent as a means of creating productive workplaces. This study is an attempt to contribute to the arguments on the situation about how people can remain silent or speak up in the workplace when they are not able to achieve balance work and living domains. This paper investigates the relationship between work-life conflict and organizational voice as perceived by the employees from the higher education sector.


Bringing security aspects in earlier phases of development is one of the major shifts in software development trend. Model-driven development which helps with raising the abstraction level and facilitating earlier analysis and verification is a promising approach in this regard and there have been several efforts on modeling security aspects. However, the issue is that when it comes to embedded systems, non-functional requirements such as security are so interconnected that in order to satisfy one, trade-off analysis with other ones are necessary. Energy consumption is one of these requirements which is of great importance in embedded systems domain due to resource limitations that these systems have. In this paper, focusing on security and energy consumptions we propose a new methodology for model-driven design of embedded systems to bring energy measurements and estimations earlier in development phases and thus identify security design decisions that cause violations of specified energy requirements.


In this work, mineral sacrificial pastes (MSP) previously developed for standard thick-film technology (alumina substrates) are extended to LTCC in order to make a capacitive anemometer. Application of MSP materials on free-sintering (unconstrained and not zero-shrinkage) LTCC is challenging: shrinkage must be matched to that of the LTCC in order to avoid excessive deformation, or sufficiently compliant materials must be used. Here, different MSP materials / materials systems are described, evaluated and compared to their (standard) thick-film counterparts, with respect to their ability to form deformation-free intricate micromechanical structures and their release (by oxidation and chemical dissolution) characteristics. Finally, by using the more successful MSP materials, an application is proposed with a capacitive micro-force sensor serving as anemometer for an indoor slow flyer. Key words: LTCC, Sacrificial layers, Free-standing Structures, Mineral Paste, Capacitive Force Sensor