ABSTRACT Dark, pelagic sediments of the uppermost Cenomanian Bonarelli Level (OAE2 event) interval, in two classical sections Contessa and Bottaccione in the Central Apennines, contain unbioturbated and bioturbated beds suggesting fluctuations in pore water oxygenation from anoxic to oxic or dysoxic conditions. The oxic and dysoxic improvement events prior to, during, and after the event are marked by biogenic structures showing an increase in the diversity of the trace fossils (Chondrites, Planolites, Thalassinoides, Trichichnus, and Zoophycos) from none to five ichnotaxa in individual beds. The number of anoxic events differs in the Contessa and Bottaccione sections, even though they are only 2.5 km apart. Comparison with sections from the Carpathians (Poland) and the Betic Cordillera (Spain), reveals that minor anoxic events below and above the Bonarelli Level are absent in the studied Apennine sections. Moreover, the diversity and density of trace fossils in the Apennine sections are lower than those from other studied sections in the Tethys, most likely indicating a comparatively lower availability of food in the Gubbio area as a result of its paleogeographic location. The preservation of trace fossils, controlled by the consistency of sediments and diagenetic processes, can mask diversity and density in some beds.


Abstract The health consequences of typhoid, including increasing prevalence of drug-resistant strains, can stress healthcare systems. While vaccination is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions, vaccine introduction can take years and require considerable effort. The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC) employs an integrated, proactive approach to accelerate the introduction of a new typhoid conjugate vaccine to reduce the burden of typhoid in countries eligible for support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. TyVAC and its partners are executing a plan, informed by prior successful vaccine introductions, and tailored to the nuances of typhoid disease and the typhoid conjugate vaccine. The iterative process detailed herein summarizes the strategy and experience gained from the first 2 years of the project.


In metagenome analysis, computational methods for assembly, taxonomic profiling and binning are key components facilitating downstream biological data interpretation. However, a lack of consensus about benchmarking datasets and evaluation metrics complicates proper performance assessment. The Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation (CAMI) challenge has engaged the global developer community to benchmark their programs on datasets of unprecedented complexity and realism. Benchmark metagenomes were generated from ~700 newly sequenced microorganisms and ~600 novel viruses and plasmids, including genomes with varying degrees of relatedness to each other and to publicly available ones and representing common experimental setups. Across all datasets, assembly and genome binning programs performed well for species represented by individual genomes, while performance was substantially affected by the presence of related strains. Taxonomic profiling and binning programs were proficient at high taxonomic ranks, with a notable performance decrease below the family level. Parameter settings substantially impacted performances, underscoring the importance of program reproducibility. While highlighting current challenges in computational metagenomics, the CAMI results provide a roadmap for software selection to answer specific research questions.


The paper presents a complete value chain for the use of green hydrogen in a port facility. The main objective was to propose the sizing of the main components that make up green hydrogen to ensure the supply of 1 MWe in replacing the diesel generator. The energy demand required for the port was determined by establishing the leading small and large-scale conventional energy-consuming equipment. Hence, 60 kgH2 was required to ensure the power supply. The total electrical energy to produce all the hydrogen was generated from photovoltaic solar energy, considering three-generation scenarios (minimum, maximum and the annual average). In all cases, the energy supply in the electrolyzer was 3.08 MWe. In addition, the effect of generating in the port facility using a diesel generator and a fuel cell was compared. The cost of 1 kgH2 could be 4.09 times higher than the cost of 1 L of diesel, meaning that the output kWh of each system is economically similar. In addition, the value of electrical energy through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was a maximum of 79.79 times the value of a liter of diesel. Finally, the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) was calculated for two conditions in which the MWe was obtained from the fuel cell without and with the photovoltaic solar plant.


With a unique, witty, and conversational voice historian Robert O'Connell breaks down the often paradoxical, easily caricatured character of General William T. Sherman for the most well-rounded portrait of the man yet written. There were many Shermans, according to O'Connell. Most prominently was Sherman the military strategist, who gained an appreciation of geography from early campaigns out west and applied it to his famed Civil War march. Then there was "Uncle Billy," Sherman's popular persona, the charismatic and beloved leader of the Army of the West, who was instrumental in the achievement of the transcontinental railroad in his post-war years. This Sherman, as O'Connell writes, was "the human embodiment of manifest destiny." From north to south and east to west, Sherman dedicated his life to keeping the United States united. Finally, there was Sherman the family man, whose tempestuous relationship with his wife (and stepsister!) Ellen is out of a Dickens novel. Throughout, O'Connell breaks down the misperceptions about Sherman. O'Connell makes a compelling case that Sherman's march through the south was not a campaign of unmitigated destruction, but a necessary piece of strategy and the perceived chaos has been overblown. O'Connell's Sherman is ultimately a complicated and quintessential nineteenth-century American.


Previous studies have reported adverse effects of glyphosate on crop-beneficial soil bacterial species, including several soil Pseudomonas species. Of particular interest is the elucidation of the metabolic consequences of glyphosate toxicity in these species. Here we investigated the growth and metabolic responses of soil Pseudomonas species grown on succinate, a common root exudate, and glyphosate at different concentrations. We conducted our experiments with one agricultural soil isolate, P. fluorescens RA12, and three model species, P. putida KT2440, P. putida S12, and P. protegens Pf-5. Our results demonstrated both species- and strain-dependent growth responses to glyphosate. Following exposure to a range of glyphosate concentrations (up to 5 mM), the growth rate of both P. protegens Pf-5 and P. fluorescens RA12 remained unchanged whereas the two P. putida strains exhibited from 0 to 100% growth inhibition. We employed a 13C-assisted metabolomics approach using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to monitor disruptions in metabolic homeostasis and fluxes. Profiling of the whole-cell metabolome captured deviations in metabolite levels involved in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, ribonucleotide biosynthesis, and protein biosynthesis. Altered metabolite levels specifically in the biosynthetic pathway of aromatic amino acids (AAs), the target of toxicity for glyphosate in plants, implied the same toxicity target in the soil bacterium. Kinetic flux experiments with 13C-labeled succinate revealed that biosynthetic fluxes of the aromatic AAs were not inhibited in P. fluorescens Pf-5 in the presence of low and high glyphosate doses but these fluxes were inhibited by up to 60% in P. putida KT2440, even at sub-lethal glyphosate exposure. Notably, the greatest inhibition was found for the aromatic AA tryptophan, an important precursor to secondary metabolites. When the growth medium was supplemented with aromatic AAs, P. putida S12 exposed to a lethal dose of glyphosate completely recovered in terms of both growth rate and selected metabolite levels. Collectively, our findings led us to conclude that the glyphosate-induced specific disruption of de novo biosynthesis of aromatic AAs accompanied by widespread metabolic disruptions was responsible for dose-dependent adverse effects of glyphosate on sensitive soil Pseudomonas species.


During the past decade, much new research has combined elements of finance, monetary economics and macroeconomics in order to study the relationship between the term structure of interest rates and the economy. In this survey, I describe three different strands of such interdisciplinary macro-finance term structure research. The first adds macroeconomic variables and structure to a canonical arbitrage-free finance representation of the yield curve. The second examines bond pricing and bond risk premiums in a canonical macroeconomic dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. The third develops a new class of arbitrage-free term structure models that are empirically tractable and well suited to macro-finance investigations.


Clicks on search results are the most widely used behavioral signals for predicting search satisfaction. Even though clicks are correlated with satisfaction, they can also be noisy. Previous work has shown that clicks are affected by position bias, caption bias, and other factors. A popular heuristic for reducing this noise is to only consider clicks with long dwell time, usually equaling or exceeding 30 seconds. The rationale is that the more time a searcher spends on a page, the more likely they are to be satisfied with its contents. However, having a single threshold value assumes that users need a fixed amount of time to be satisfied with any result click, irrespective of the page chosen. In reality, clicked pages can differ significantly. Pages have different topics, readability levels, content lengths, etc. All of these factors may affect the amount of time spent by the user on the page. In this paper, we study the effect of different page characteristics on the time needed to achieve search satisfaction. We show that the topic of the page, its length and its readability level are critical in determining the amount of dwell time needed to predict whether any click is associated with satisfaction. We propose a method to model and provide a better understanding of click dwell time. We estimate click dwell time distributions for SAT (satisfied) or DSAT (dissatisfied) clicks for different click segments and use them to derive features to train a click-level satisfaction model. We compare the proposed model to baseline methods that use dwell time and other search performance predictors as features, and demonstrate that the proposed model achieves significant improvements.


It is well established that there are collective economic gains that can be realised from local industrial agglomerations. These gains arise from labour market pooling, knowledge and information flows, collective learning and shared business services. Realising the potential gains requires collective action, often facilitated by government and other public institutions. Recent economic policy in South Africa has recognised this potential and has placed great responsibility on local government structures to design and implement integrated development plans. This paper examines what this means in the context of the nature and performance of South Africa's largest industrial concentration, in Ekurhuleni, and the legacy of apartheid industrial policies.


Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics 46th Annual Conference of Australian Agricultural and Resource Economic Society Canberra, 13–15 February 2002 The dairy and meat processing industries are significant contributors to the Australian economy. Both industries underpin a large primary producer base and generate substantial domestic and export earnings. The growth of the processing industries and ongoing improvements to their productivity are important issues for the economy. The sources of growth of the dairy and meat processing industries over the period 1980–98 and some factors influencing future growth are examined in this paper.


Herein, we report the synthesis of quartz supported TiO2 photocatalysts codoped with carbon and silver through the hydrolysis of titanium tetrachloride followed by calcination at 500°C. The prepared samples were characterized by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Codoping of TiO2 with Ag and carbon resulted in an increase in the surface area of the photocatalyst and altered the ratio of the anatase to rutile phase. The absorption edge of all the doped TiO2 photocatalysts redshifted and the band gap was reduced. The lowest band gap of 1.95 eV was achieved by doping with 0.5% Ag. Doping TiO2 using carbon as the only dopant resulted in a quartz supported photocatalyst that showed greater photocatalytic activity towards methyl orange than undoped TiO2 and also all codoped TiO2 photocatalysts under visible light irradiation.


This article provides a historical perspective on a rather unique chapter in the era of economic reforms in India—the case of the state of West Bengal. In 1991, the Government of India began to pursue a policy of economic liberalization, causing serious political challenges for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM)-led Left Front coalition in West Bengal. Historically, the CPIM had strongly opposed economic reforms, but was compelled to undertake a policy 'transition' owing to the stagnating economy of the state. The transition, and the motivations behind it, was a topic debated often—especially once the party started courting private investment, pushed for large-scale industrialization, and eventually suffered a historic defeat in 2011 after 33 years in power—but rarely has a coherent historical narrative of what caused the transition been brought to the forefront. This article attempts to address that gap by examining the following question: what were the local political conditions that compelled the CPIM/Left Front take upon itself the task of engineering such a transition? While acknowledging the larger forces of globalization and Indian federalism, the analysis focuses on the rarely discussed local socio-economic priorities in West Bengal, and constructs a dual narrative of instrumental and political–ideological arguments.


The ultimate aim of most scientific research is the creation of therapies that will cure or extend the life of patients. In recent years, though, the flow of new drugs in the development pipeline seems to have slowed, despite increased R&D budgets and the concerted efforts of researchers. The reasons for this are hotly debated, including the suggestion that the "easy" targets have already been found, or that increasing regulatory demands are stifling progress. Another possibility is that, as a result of the proliferation of technologies intended to enable drug discovery, the basic biological questions are being overlooked or ignored. Technological development in high throughput target identification, screening, library synthesis, and validation have their place, but they are essentially just tools, and a clear understanding of the underlying biology is paramount. This webinar will take a critical look at what role technology plays in helping researchers understand molecular pathways and characterize signaling cascades, to better predict the efficacy, and potential toxicity, of new drugs. View the Webinar


Medical and dental students are predisposed to developing psychiatric disorders owing to heavy physical, intellectual, and emotional activities. This study was conducted to evaluate the mental health status of medical and dental students.This cross-sectional study was conducted on the first- and final-year medical and dental students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2016. The mental health status was measured by the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) involving somatic, social, anxiety, and depression domains. Scores > 6 (out of 28) and > 2 (out of 7) were considered to show psychiatric disorder for each domain, respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS-18 using Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square tests (P< 0.05).The participants consisted of 246 students (39.4% first- and 37.8% last-year medical students; 8.1% first- and 14.6% last-year dental students) aged 18-37 years (22.6 ± 3.3). Psychiatric disorder, somatic symptoms, social dysfunction, anxiety, and depression were experienced by 44.7, 42.7, 46.3, 49.6, and 28.5% of the students, respectively. The prevalence of psychiatric disorder was comparable between the first- and final-year medical students (40.2% and 48.4%, respectively;P= 0.258). The final-year dental students significantly underwent more psychiatric disorder than the first-year dental students (61.1% and 20%, respectively;P= 0.003). There were no significant differences between the medical and dental students in the first (P= 0.089) and final (P= 0.196) years. There was also no significant association between the occurrence of psychiatric disorder and gender and age group (P> 0.05).Psychiatric disorder was common among dental and medical students. Hence, preventive and control measures are suggested to improve their mental health.


This thesis studies, how eight SMEs with little or no design experience absorb new design management knowledge, how they build design management capabilities during innovation processes, and how able or unable they are to turn potential into realised absorptive capacity. Furthermore, this thesis investigates, why some SMEs absorb design knowledge more easily than others. – To answer these questions the literature review explores several building blocks from strategic management, innovation, and organisational studies, and connects them to design and design management studies to understand this fundamentally interdisciplinary topic. The empirical foundation of this thesis is an action research project conducted with eight SMEs in Switzerland from different trades. During cooperation with the author of this thesis and through collaboration with external designers, different design and design management approaches and tools were introduced to support the absorption of new knowledge. Individual company projects were facilitated from the formulation of an innovation hypothesis to the launch of new offerings. The data from over 80 workshops was analysed using a critical framework, the Design Management Absorption Model to evaluate the progression of absorption of new design management knowledge. The model suggests that absorption processes unfold in steps of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of design management knowledge – and if successful – yield internal as well as external outcomes. It was concluded that there are three different types of companies with respect to design management knowledge absorption, some that reject design after initial attempts due to limited resources or differences in culture and value systems, some that make a basic use of design to improve their offerings but do not fully integrate the knowledge design management knowledge, and some that adopt design and design management to an extent that it starts to act as a dynamic capability enhancing a company's strategic flexibility. The three types have different perceptions of how far they have progressed with respect to their knowledge absorption causing an absorption gap.


IntroductionThe Clock has been travelling to different museums and galleries around the world since it opened in London in 2010, challenging many conventions of film practice and spectatorship. Christian Marclay's impressive, entertaining, and philosophical work engages tropes of found-footage film and video in a gallery installation to create a monumental form of digital cinema. It exists in the form of a hard drive and a tandem computer program that synchronizes the projection to the real time of the audience, such that the work itself literally tells time over a twenty-four hour period using close to a hundred thousand extracts from feature films. The installation also includes a specific seating arrangement of white sofas placed in a darkened room, evoking a home theater in a public space. The Clock has generated a great deal of discussion in the art world, the film world, and in the popular press. The articles presented here aim to situate the piece and the buzz it has generated in a critical perspective, contextualizing it within museum culture, moving image history, and theoretical paradigms of spectatorship, temporality, and the archive.A common theme in the critical discourse around The Clock is the lament, even among those who are critical, that they didn't think of it first. It seems so easy and so obvious; and in fact, as Eli Horwatt points out, it's possible that another filmmaker-Christophe Girardet-did think of it first.1 As digital tools have made found-footage filmmaking into a practice accessible and available to all computer-users, the mash-up and the video essay have become popular forms of experimental media. From the YouTube fan tributes to favorite stars, to Oscar night homages, to sophisticated video essays in web journals such as Frames and Vectors, ripping clips from films for reassembly is now standard practice, even if it often remains legally circumspect. That Marclay was able to borrow fragments from thousands of films under fair use guidelines within the rarified auspices of the art world tends to ruffle feathers, even while it contributes to the awesome statement that the work has made.Although one critic has suggested that "this whole assembly could have been made by a computer program,"2 in fact it was a huge expenditure of manual labour. Marclay's six assistants collected the material over a course of three years, while Marclay edited the segments together. The soundtrack, for which Marclay collaborated with Quentin Chiappetta, is a tour de force of mixing, remastering, and counterpoint. Whatever one may think of its blockbuster appeal, The Clock is a technically and formally accomplished work of picture and sound editing.3 The montage is at many points highly expressive, while at others subtly invisible, and Marclay fully exploits devices of suspense, comedy, and contrast. On these levels, the piece sustains a rhythmic pace that varies, constantly, with irregular timings and shifts in mood and tempo. There is no question that it has a seductive appeal, due in part to the extensive use of suspense effects and the proliferation of movie stars.Many descriptions of The Clock suggest that a clock face is seen in every shot, but in fact Marclay has used a variety of techniques for telling time. The time of day may be mentioned verbally, along with periods of time that may or may not be accurately measured by the compilation, as in: "I'll wait for just five minutes!" He also includes scenes in which characters discuss time more abstractly, as in multiple clips from The Time Machine (George Pal, US, 1960), and people asking "what time is it?" or people looking at their watch with no specific time mentioned, or clocks on which the time is slightly illegible. Marclay weaves series of scenes from a given film into the collage, not all of which feature timepieces. The Clock, in fact, includes many shots with no mention of time whatsoever, and no clock or watch-face either. These sequences are important means by which the work incorporates another sense of time besides clock time, which we might nevertheless say is produced by clock time by being outside it: the time of boredom and inactivity. …


We seek to identify the impacts Digital Natives (DN) – as the first generation that has grown up with new digital technologies such as the Internet from their childhood – have on technology acceptance (TA) by investigating the effect of DN' specific traits, abilities, and experiences on TA factors and variables. We conduct two literature reviews: the first about TA factors and variables and the second about DN and generational differences. We find that some TA factors and variables that prior research has pointed out as significant are likely to change in importance: DN do not question the use of technology itself and may be at least partially familiar with it but simultaneously have higher demands for the quality and usefulness of technology. Researchers can draw on our findings to validate them empirically in the future or problematize the current state of TA research. Practitioners can apply our findings to develop information systems that DN find attractive to use.


Tetherin is an interferon-induced, intrinsic cellular response factor that blocks release of numerous viruses, including Ebola virus, from infected cells. As with many viruses targeted by host factors, Ebola virus employs a tetherin antagonist, the viral glycoprotein (EboGP), to counteract restriction and promote virus release. Unlike other tetherin antagonists such as HIV-1 Vpu or KSHV K5, the features within EboGP needed to overcome tetherin are not well characterized. Here, we describe sequences within the EboGP ectodomain and membrane spanning domain (msd) as necessary to relieve tetherin restriction of viral particle budding. Fusing the EboGP msd to a normally secreted form of the glycoprotein effectively promotes Ebola virus particle release. Cellular protein or lipid anchors could not substitute for the EboGP msd. The requirement for the EboGP msd was not specific for filovirus budding, as similar results were seen with HIV particles. Furthermore trafficking of chimeric proteins to budding sites did not correlate with an ability to counter tetherin. Additionally, we find that a glycoprotein construct, which mimics the cathepsin-activated species by proteolytic removal of the EboGP glycan cap and mucin domains, is unable to counteract tetherin. Combining these results suggests an important role for the EboGP glycan cap and msd in tetherin antagonism.


Abstract Microstructural (fabric, forces and composition) changes due to hydrocarbon contamination in a clayey soil (glacial till) were studied using scanning electron microscopy (microfabric analysis), atomic force microscopy (force measurement) and a sedimentation bench test (particle size measurements). Non-polluted and polluted glacial till from NE Poland (in the area of a fuel terminal) were used for the study. Electrostatic repulsive forces in the polluted samples were much lower than in non-polluted samples. In comparison with non-polluted samples, the polluted samples exhibited lower electric charge, attractive forces on approach and strong Adhesion on withdrawal. The results of the sedimentation tests indicate that clay particles form larger aggregates and settle out of the suspension rapidly in diesel oil. In non-polluted soil, the fabric is strongly aggregated - dense packing, dominating face-to-face and edge-to-edge types of contacts, clay film tightly adhering to the surface of larger grains and interparticle pores are more common. In polluted soil the clay matrix is less aggregated - loose packing, dominating edge-to-face types of contacts and inter-micro-aggregate pores are more frequent. Substantial differences were observed in the morphometric and geometrical parameters of the pore space. The polluted soil micro-fabric proved to be more isotropic and less oriented than in non-polluted soil. The polluted soil, in which electrostatic forces were suppressed by hydrocarbon interaction, displays more open porosity and larger voids than non-polluted soil, which is characterized by the occurrence of strong electrostatic interaction between the clay particles.


We consider log-supermodular models on binary variables, which are probabilistic models with negative log-densities which are submodular. These models provide probabilistic interpretations of common combinatorial optimization tasks such as image segmentation. In this paper, we focus primarily on parameter estimation in the models from known upper-bounds on the intractable log-partition function. We show that the bound based on separable optimization on the base polytope of the submodular function is always inferior to a bound based on ``perturb-and-MAP'' ideas. Then, to learn parameters, given that our approximation of the log-partition function is an expectation (over our own randomization), we use a stochastic subgradient technique to maximize a lower-bound on the log-likelihood. This can also be extended to conditional maximum likelihood. We illustrate our new results in a set of experiments in binary image denoising, where we highlight the flexibility of a probabilistic model to learn with missing data.


Monte-Carlo simulations of SPECT images are notoriously slow to converge due to the large ratio between the number of photons emitted and detected in the collimator. This work proposes a method to accelerate the simulations based on fixed forced detection (FFD) combined with an analytical response of the detector. FFD is based on a Monte-Carlo simulation but forces the detection of a photon in each detector pixel weighted by the probability of emission (or scattering) and transmission to this pixel. The method was evaluated with numerical phantoms and on patient images. We obtained differences with analog Monte Carlo lower than the statistical uncertainty. The overall computing time gain can reach up to five orders of magnitude. Source code and examples are available in the Gate V8.0 release.


This paper uses the Swedish Level of Living Survey to study how satisfaction with living conditions and daily life covary with economic resources, in the cross-section and in a decade-long panel. We find that self-reported lack of economic margins is a powerful determinant of satisfaction, its magnitude being comparable even to that of marriage or cohabitation. In contrast, although income is positively associated with satisfaction, the relationship is less robust than for economic margins, and the estimated gradients vary substantially depending on the choice of satisfaction measure, income measure and model specification.


Background. Several mechanisms have been advanced to explain Mobitz type II atrioventricular block in the ischemically damaged His‐Purkinje system. Only recently, however, has an animal model been developed to study this form of conduction defect in vivo and in vitro. Methods and Results. Conduction defects were induced in anesthetized dogs by ischemic damage to the proximal His‐Purkinje system after anterior septal artery ligation. Stable 2:1 atrioventricular block, localized within the His bundle or in the proximal bundle branches, was obtained in each dog by atrial pacing at an average rate of 239±20 beats per minute (n = 12). In vitro studies were then performed from the same hearts. Action potentials and electrograms were simultaneously recorded from the His bundle and the proximal right bundle branch at the site of damage. At slow rates of pacing (40‐60 beats per minute), the action potential amplitude was 85±4 mV, and some cells (10±3%) showed dissociation from the electrical activity in the bundle. At fast rates (149±11 beats per minute), during 1:1 conduction, the frequency of cellular dissociation increased to 57±6% (p<0.001), and the action potential amplitude decreased (‐31±4%, p<0.001). The frequency of dissociation closely correlated with the reduction in action potential amplitude (r=0.87, p<0.001). These changes were markedly attenuated once 2:1 block developed. The site of block was not constant but rather showed a dynamic behavior with spatial shifting in response to changes in pacing rate or the introduction of extrastimuli. Conclusions. These results indicate that in the ischemically damaged proximal His‐Purkinje system, an increase in rate leads to reduced and asynchronous cellular activation before 2:1 block. The latter provides a more stable activation pattern, because the frequency of dissociation is markedly reduced. (Circulation 1993;87:1389‐1398)


We set out to assess the feasibility of exploiting expression of the mCherry gene, after lentiviral infection, in order visualise bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) by optical imaging, and to provide proof of principle of this approach as a method for cell tracking and quantification in pre-clinical models. Commercial hMSCs were infected with a lentiviral vector carrying the mCherry gene under the control of the phosphoglycerate kinase promoter. After extensive in vitro culture, infected hMSCs were analysed for viability, morphology, differentiation capability, and maintenance of fluorescence. Thereafter, mCherry-positive cells were transplanted into unilaterally 6-hydroxy-dopamine lesioned rats (an experimental model of Parkinson's disease). Our analysis showed that hMSCs can be efficiently transduced with the lentiviral vector, retaining their biological features even in the long term. Intrastriatally transplanted mCherry-positive hMSCs can be detected ex vivo by a sensitive cooled CCD camera, both in the whole brain and in serial slices, and relatively quantified. Our protocol was found to be a reliable means of studying the viability of implanted hMSCs. mCherry labelling appears to be readily applicable in the post-transplantation tracking of stem cells and could favour the rapid development of new therapeutic targets for clinical treatments.


This paper presents the results of laboratory investigation carried out on Ahmedabad sand on the liquefaction and pore water pressure generation during strain controled cyclic loading. Laboratory experiments were carried out on representative natural sand samples (base sand) collected from earthquake-affected area of Ahmedabad City of Gujarat State in India. A series of strain controled cyclic triaxial tests were carried out on isotropically compressed samples to study the influence of different parameters such as shear strain amplitude, initial effective confining pressure, relative density and percentage of non-plastic fines on the behavior of liquefaction and pore water pressure generation. It has been observed from the laboratory investigation that the potential for liquefaction of the sandy soils depends on the shear strain amplitude, initial relative density, initial effective confining pressure and non-plastic fines. In addition, an empirical relationship between pore pressure ratio and cycle ratio independent of the number of cycles of loading, relative density, confining pressure, amplitude of shear strain and non-plastic fines has been proposed.


Figure 1 A 56-year-old patient admitted due to cardiogenic shock following an acute myocardial infarction. Peripheral venoarterial extracorporeal oxygenation membrane (VA ECMO) was implanted as a bridge to decision. Five days later, patient developed differential hypoxemia between upper (SO2 77%) and lower body (SO2 100%). An echocardiogram showed left ventricular ejection fraction improvement from 10% to 30% and pulmonary ultrasound revealed a mild pleural effusion and a bilateral image of pulmonary consolidation with dynamic air bronchogram. Inside the bronchus, vermiform mobile hyperechoic images (black arrows, figure 1A) appeared synchronized with breathing (video 1). Simultaneous bronchoscopy showed purulent secretions (white arrow, figure 1B) going in and out of the bronchial tree (video 2). In patients with VA ECMO, beyond the echocardiogram, pulmonary ultrasound is essential to see lung patterns that could explain hypoxic and even to guide therapeutic attitudes.


The Supreme Court decision in Scott v. Harris holds that a Georgia police officer did not violate a fleeing suspect's Fourth Amendment rights when he caused the suspect's car to crash. The court's decision relies almost entirely on the filmed version of the high-speed police chase taken from a "dash-cam," a video camera mounted on the dashboard of the pursuing police cruiser. The Supreme Court said that in light of the contrary stories told by the opposing parties to the lawsuit, the only story to be believed was that told by the video. In Scott v. Harris, the court fell into a dangerous and common trap of believing - to the point of enshrining in our law - that film captures reality. As Justice Breyer said in oral argument of the case seemingly flabbergasted by contrary findings below: "I see with my eyes ... what happened, what am I supposed to do?"The Supreme Court is not the first court to fall prey to the persuasive power of film. It is typical for courts and advocates to naively treat filmic evidence as a transparent window revealing the whole truth, as a presentation of unambiguous reality. But film has a history in art as a constructed medium. As filmmakers and critics have known since the beginning of cinema, film's appearance of reality is an illusion, an illusion based on conventions of representation.How could Mr. Scott have countered the weight of the film and its persuasive power? When faced with prejudicial filmic evidence, how does an advocate undermine the assertive nature of film and its overwhelming appearance of exposure? The advocate must cross-examine the film the way she cross-examines witnesses. Because films are assertive in nature, an advocate faced with filmic evidence must treat it the way she treats other testimonial evidence, critically and with careful scrutiny. She must cross-examine the film. This article will set forth certain examination techniques using a piece of filmic evidence (linked to the article) from a recent case as an example. By doing so, it aspires to be a teaching tool for other courts and advocates in their treatment and consideration of filmic evidence.


The prevalence of AIDS in prisons is believed to be higher than in the broader community. While the courts have used their powers to enforce prisoners' rights in terms of the Constitution, specifically their right to medical treatment, the state needs to adopt a holistic approach when providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) for prisoners. Failing to provide support for ART, beyond its mere provision, would offend the values of the Constitution. This support includes comprehensive HIV and AIDS care and prevention, treatment of opportunistic infections, access to nutritional supplements, access to palliative care and compassionate release. Counteracting challenges to the implementation of effective treatment, care and support strategies will require committed endeavours by the Department of Correctional Services.


In broad terms, productivity is defined as the ratio of all outputs to all inputs. In this paper, productivity is distinctly used as an engineering tool and from practical viewpoint. With such engineering look, productivity is an adequate tool for evaluation of the advancement in competitive market, work assessment, profit/loss analysis, decision and even developing or changing the activity. Productivity measurement seems to be an easy task but this is a misconception. In fact the concept remains to be one of the most complex and unknown criteria. It is for this reason that attempts have been made here to accurately define productivity and hence simplify its measurement. A case study has been adopted and the productivity of Eastern Alborz Coal Mines in Iran has been calculated for years 2001-2008. The resulting values and the component models are then subject to analysis. These results are examined in terms of practicability and it is shown that the method prescribed is a pragmatic approach in all similar system situations.


Climate change is one of the most pressing concerns facing the twenty-first century. As natural
environments change, their ability to support productive and sustainable natural-resource dependent
livelihoods is affected. More specifically climate stresses create continuous
pressures on rural households and shocks may create dangerous living conditions. As such,
migration to areas that can support human survival and aspirations for a stable existence
emerges as a possible consequence. In a rapidly urbanising world, a more stable existence may
be found outside of the countryside and in a town. If rural dwellers choose to settle
permanently in urban centres then urbanisation will occur.
This study examines how the stresses and shocks associated with climate change affect rural urban
migration in Malawi. More specifically, the study develops a theoretical framework that
examines Malawi's migration system through a 'capabilities' and 'aspirations' lens. Using an
aspirations and capabilities framework can help explain some key questions of migration
system theory including how patterns of movements are determined; what situations may
encourage or discourage the rate of movement between the rural area and the city, including
stresses and shocks; and, how a rural individual becomes a permanent city dweller.
The findings suggest that rural-urban migration aspirations may increase as rural life gets
harder and, at the same time, young rural dwellers are exposed to alternative urban lifestyles.
However, stresses reduce the migration capabilities that are needed to move to town. This has
repercussions across the migration system, which results in fewer people who are able to
leave the village. Following shocks, migration aspirations are at their lowest. This is because
those who would have once migrated to town now feel an obligation to remain in the village
where they are able to help their rural family overcome the shock. At the same time, regional
level shocks affect the ability of urban migrants to maintain their urban livelihoods with
implications for return migration.
The research was approved though the University of Leeds Ethical Review Team and was
conducted under the ethical guidelines agreed during the review.


This study examined the relationships of forgiveness, desire for revenge, adherence to Islam, depression, and psychological wellbeing among 220 Muslim Kuwaiti civilians who experienced the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and subsequent seven-month occupation. Participants completed the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI), the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-18 (TRIM), the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire (DAQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and two sub-scales of Psychological Wellbeing (PSWB). An instrument of 13 items was designed to measure adherence of Islam and the degree to which Islam informs forgiveness attitudes. RESULTS found support for the benefits of forgiveness in that interpersonal forgiveness (EFI) was negatively correlated with depression and revenge. Revenge was negatively correlated with depression and psychological wellbeing. RESULTS also indicated that Islamic forgiveness attitudes moderated the relationship between Islamic devotional practices with forgiveness of Iraqis and revenge. Increases in Islamic forgiveness attitudes led to increased forgiveness of Iraqis and decreased revenge. These findings appear to suggest that Muslim, Middle Eastern war survivors' forgiveness may be related to some beneficial psychological outcomes. Moreover, a belief that Islam is a forgiving religion appears to help facilitate the forgiveness process. Implications for research and future practice are also discussed. Keywords: Psychology, Forgiveness, Revenge, Islam, Kuwait Language: en


The Griffith University Virtual Learning Environment was created using the Second Life application in 2007. Now in its third year of development and implementation, the effectiveness of the Second Life environment to support postgraduate online course discussions is compared to the online text chat tool available to the Blackboard Learning Management System. In a study involving two postgraduate courses, each of 14 students, the group using the Second Life environment was found to more effectively support small group online text based discussions through three effects generated by the use of avatars to represent physical presence within the environment. Firstly, participants could automatically telegraph their intention to contribute to discussions through animated typing simulated by their avatar while preparing a contribution. This provided pauses in discussions as participants waited for contributors to present their textual contribution before conversations progressed. This process was not evident in traditional text based chat systems where participant contributions would frequently be included after the discussion had moved on and this limitation was found to be an inhibiting factor to the participation of slower contributors. Secondly, participants were strongly encouraged by the Second Life environment not to multitask during discussions. When the Second Life environment was not the focus of their activity or they left their computer inactive for any significant time, their avatar would animate as asleep. This indicated to all participants that the owner was absenting him or herself from the conversation and provided strong social pressure to remain active or at least attentive to conversations. Finally, the Second Life environment encouraged ancillary conversations between participants to a greater extent than the Blackboard chat system. The Second Life environment enabled participant avatars the ability to cluster and physically move apart from the main group to conduct private or smaller group discussions. The physical separation of avatars within the environment, beyond the distance they send and receive typed messages, provided an effective sense of privacy while retaining the perception of remaining part of a larger group through the retained ability to observe clusters of avatars without receiving or contributing to their conversations. Second Life presents an innovative online course discussion environment but as an emerging technology is subject to significant technical disruption and system requirements. However, the Second Life environment was found to support intuitive processes afforded by the Second Life environment that could not be replicated in a purely text based system. Keyword: innovation, education, virtual environments, second life


Mantle olivine xenocrysts from the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe (Yakutiya, Siberia) were investigated by optical microscopic and TEM methods. From optical observations two types of olivine xenocrysts are discriminated. Crystals exhibiting an optically visible cross-hatched microstructure, caused by linear features oriented parallel to [100], [001], [101] and [−101] directions in the olivine host are assigned to type 1, and the optically clear ones are assigned to type 2. TEM investigation showed that both type 1 and type 2 samples contain OH-bearing nano-inclusions with a grain size between several tens and several hundreds of nanometres, composed of hydrous magnesium silicates such as "hydrous olivine" (occasionally), the 10-A phase, serpentine and talc. In the investigated samples, the 10-A phase is to a large extent replaced by the low-pressure assemblage serpentine + talc. On TEM scale, the difference between type 1 and type 2 olivine samples is that the inclusions in type 1 are grouped in arrays (high density of precipitation), while in type 2 they are randomly arranged (low density of precipitation). The cross-hatched linear features in type 1 correspond to arrays of the OH-bearing nano-inclusions precipitated in (001), (100), (101) and (−101) planes of olivine. The presented data confirm that nano-inclusions filled by hydrous magnesium silicates, both high-pressure ("hydrous olivine" and 10-A phase) and low-pressure ones (serpentine and talc), are much more frequent and typical for olivine nodules in kimberlites than it would have been expected earlier. The amount of water in the investigated olivine samples ranges from 37 to 300 ppm (Koch-Muller et al. , 2006) and does not vary significantly depending on whether the samples exhibit an optically visible microstructure or not. We conclude that the xenocrysts crystallized as "wet" olivine in a mantle environment, whereas the OH-bearing nano-inclusions formed later during eruption and transport of olivine fragments from depths to the surface. The origin of nano-inclusions is discussed in terms of subsolidus aggregation of intrinsic OH-bearing point defects in olivine; this event has been initiated by deformation processes in the kimberlite pipe during eruption.


This paper presents a method to estimate volume from three-dimensional characteristics of symmetrical objects by computer vision system using laser light sectioning. The camera captures the image of laser line projected on the object moving on a conveyor. The captured images can be estimated the widths and heights at various locations along the object. The area of cross section can be integrated to be volume of the object. The image data is extracted from the structured laser light projecting on the surface. After image pre-processing, the laser profile is calculated the center of gravity in order to extract the image coordinate. The homography transformation is used to transform the extracted coordinate to the real world distance (in metric system). A metric vision based on light sectioning for estimating the volume of symmetrical shapes (rectangular shape and circular shape) of the object were tested. The accuracy of estimation can apply in the automatic size grading on the conveyer as well.


Sonidegib (Odomzo) is an orally available Smoothened inhibitor for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma. Sonidegib was found to be metabolized primarily by cytochrome P450 (CYP)3A in vitro. The effect of multiple doses of the strong CYP3A perpetrators, ketoconazole (KTZ) and rifampin (RIF), on sonidegib pharmacokinetics (PK) after a single 800 mg dose in healthy subjects was therefore assessed. These data were used to verify a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model developed to 1) bridge the clinical drug–drug interaction (DDI) study of sonidegib with KTZ and RIF in healthy subjects to the marketed dose (200 mg) in patients 2) predict acute (14 days) versus long-term dosing of the perpetrators with sonidegib at steady state and 3) predict the effect of moderate CYP3A perpetrators on sonidegib exposure in patients. Treatment of healthy subjects with KTZ resulted in an increased sonidegib exposure of 2.25- and 1.49-fold (area under the curve0–240h and maximal concentration respectively), and RIF decreased exposure by 72% and 54%, respectively. The model simulated the single- and/or multiple-dose PK of sonidegib (healthy subjects and patients) within ∼50% of observed values. The effect of KTZ and RIF on sonidegib in healthy subjects was also simulated well, and the predicted DDI in patients was slightly less and independent of sonidegib dose. At steady state, sonidegib was predicted to have a higher DDI magnitude with strong or moderate CYP3A perpetrators compared with a single dose. Different dosing regimens of sondigeb with the perpetrators were also simulated and provided guidance to the current dosing recommendations incorporated in the product label.


The principal mission of multi-source multicast (MSM) is to disseminate all messages from all sources in a network to all destinations. MSM is utilized in numerous applications. In many of them, securing the messages disseminated is critical. A common secure model is to consider a network where there is an eavesdropper which is able to observe a subset of the network links, and seeks a code which keeps the eavesdropper ignorant regarding all the messages. While this is solved when all messages are located at a single source, secure MSM (SMSM) is an open problem, and the rates required are hard to characterize in general. In this paper, we consider individual security, which promises that the eavesdropper has zero mutual information with each message individually, or, more generally, with sub sets of messages. We completely characterize the rate region for SMSM under individual security, and show that such a security level is achievable at the full capacity of the network, that is, the cut-set bound is the matching converse, similar to non-secure MSM. Moreover, we show that the field size is similar to non-secure MSM and does not have to be larger due to the security constraint.


This project was commissioned in response to concerns raised in the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee about the prevalence of sexualised goods and products marketed to children. In the past few years, this issue has become a key area of public concern, although it is one that often invokes much broader emotions and anxieties, and has been the subject of some sensationalised coverage in the media. The project set out to provide concrete empirical evidence on the marketing of such goods, and to provide some in-depth analysis of the perspectives of children and parents, in the interest of promoting a more informed debate.

The study had three main aims. Firstly, it sought to provide a clear framework for understanding the nature and characteristics of 'sexualised' goods (the definition of which is by no means obvious) and supplying some reliable empirical evidence of their prevalence and distribution. Secondly, it attempted to assess the views of children on these issues. This is particularly important as debates in this area rarely include the perspectives of children themselves, or take account of their understanding of the potential sexual connotations of the goods they consume.

Finally, it aimed to explore parents' views. Here again, there is a need to move beyond immediate responses, and to gain a more in-depth understanding of how parents negotiate the demands of consumer culture with their children in practice.

The project began with a review of the literature, exploring the nature of the debate on this issue and the available evidence from previous research. This was followed by a survey of the range of products available in high street shops, starting with a broad overview and then analysing particular 'sexualised' goods more closely. We then undertook a range of qualitative research activities designed to access the views of children and parents. In the case of the children in particular, we used innovative methods chosen specifically because of the sensitive nature of the topic and the difficulties of accessing feelings, experiences and understandings on the issue. The study followed published ethical guidelines, specifically those of the British Educational Research Association (2004).


Dust is a common weather phenomenon in the Arabian Gulf, which has severely affected economy and health. Sand and dust storms (SDS) trajectories in the Arabian Gulf were temporally and spatially monitored from March 2000 to March 2017. Eight major SDS trajectories were detected from satellite images. The dust storms trajectories were categorized according to shape and size into three main types with 12 subtypes in the region. The annual transported dust amount into the Arabian Gulf was estimated by 89.1 million metric tons, which is about 10,330 metric tons per cubic kilometer of water volume. In comparison to other seas and oceans, the amount of dust deposited into the Arabian Gulf water body volume is the highest. Dust deposited in the coastal regions within the Arabian Gulf are originated from Mesopotamian Flood Plain (MFP), Ahwaz (HZ), Ahwar (HR) and Baluchistan Desert (BSH) and characterized by physical parameters and composition. Such physical characterization of the trajectories of SDS, and of the properties of particles transported in the Arabian Gulf can be helpful to assess and mitigate the environmental impact of future similar events.


The objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of public infrastructure on economic growth in the eight regions of Oaxaca for the period 2003-2013. Given that regional statistics are lacking, the methodology proposed by Gerber (2003) is used to calculate the economic growth of the regions. And to measure the impact of infrastructure on growth, based on Hoechle (2007) a fixed-effects model with standard errors of Driscoll and Kraay (DKSE) is applied. The results indicate that investment in infrastructure has been insufficient and misallocated; however, the social infrastructure shows the greatest impact on growth. Finally, the results suggest that the most dynamic regions require greater investment in economic infrastructure, while the backward regions need social infrastructure.


Soybean oil (SBO), menhaden fish oil (FO), chicken fat (CF) or hydrogenated soybean oil (HSBO) were incorporated at 5% of the total diet to study changes in the immunological status of both Japanese quail (JAP) and Bobwhite quail (BOB). The SBO diet, in which 66% of the total dietary fatty acids were polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), was rich in linoleic acid (LA 18:2 n-6), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA 18:3 n-3) and low in saturated fatty acids (SFA). The FO diet which contained about 50% PUFA, had only 40% n-6 fatty acids and 8% n-3 PUFA. The trans fatty acid isomers and other monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were high in the HSBO diet. The diet containing CF provided a relatively balanced fatty acid composition with 18% SFA, 31% MUFA and 50% PUFA. Plasma fatty acid and hepatic fatty acid profiles consistently reflected their respective dietary lipid treatments. There were no differences in the fatty acid profile between blood and liver within respective dietary treatments in the two species. Dietary fatty acids had no effect on antibody titers against sheep red blood cells (SRBC) at 1, 2 and 8 months following the start of dietary lipid treatment in JAP. However, female JAP fed FO had a significantly (p< 0.05) higher antibody production compared to the other dietary lipid treatments at 4 months following the start of fatty acids supplementation. BOB fed either FO or SBO diets had a higher immunoglobulin G production compared to birds fed the CF diet. The total antibody titer was significantly higher in BOB fed SBO compared to CF. Dietary fatty acids had a significant effect on cell-mediated immunity (CMI) as accessed by toe web thickness 24 hours post intradermal injection of phytohemagglutinin-P (PHA) in both JAP and BOB. In general, birds fed a FO diet had a significantly higher CMI response than those fed HSBO. A diet high in n-3 PUFA increased the index of cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity (CBH), while the high trans fatty acid isomers suppressed the CBH response. By observing a CBH response over a 72-hour period in JAP, it was concluded that quail fed CF or SBO had a different peak response time (12 hours post PHA challenge) and amplitude compared with those fed FO or HSBO (24 hours post PHA challenge). Phagocytic ability was not affected by dietary lipid treatments in BOB while the quail fed FO diet had a faster carbon clearance rate. The FO fed JAP had a significantly higher response (p< 0.05) to concanavalin A ensiformis (CONA) compared to HSBO fed birds. There was no difference in B lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by lipopolysacchride (LPS) in female JAP, whereas it was significantly higher in male JAP fed SBO compared to those fed FO and HSBO. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate/ionomycin calcium salt (PMA/ION) was used to nonspecifically stimulate cell proliferation by increasing chromosome mitosis. Dietary FO or HSBO suppressed cell proliferation stimulated by PMA/ION. However, JAP fed SBO or CF had a significantly higher PMA/ION stimulated lymphocyte proliferation compared those fed FO or HSBO. In male BOB, the FO fed birds had the highest response to all mitogens. In contrast, female BOB did not show any dietary effects by lymphocyte proliferation. Consistent with JAP, BOB fed HSBO had depressed lymphocytes proliferation in response to various mitogens stimulation. In general, female birds had a higher plasma total protein (PTP) and lower pack cell volume (PCV) compared to their males counterparts in both BOB and JAP. In summary, in in vivo experiments, feeding a diet high in menhaden fish oil that is rich in n-3 PUFA enhanced the CMI. There was a minimal effect on antibody production caused by feeding n-3 PUFA in JAP since a significant treatment effect was only found at one sampling period, while BOB were more sensitive to dietary lipid manipulation and had a higher antibody production with SBO or FO treatments. Dietary lipids exerted different effects in the two species in in vitro experiments. While both BOB and JAP fed FO had higher lymphocyte proliferation to CON A mitogen compared to those fed HSBO, only male BOB showed a higher proliferation to LPS. Feeding HSBO that contained a higher content of trans fatty acid isomers, MUFA, but lower PUFA content resulted in the lowest lymphocyte proliferation to various mitogens in both BOB and JAP. (


Without the adaptor protein p62, macrophages produce tissue-damaging amounts of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β. Autophagy is a process by which cells eliminate damaged or aggregated proteins and organelles that bind to adapter proteins such as p62. Zhong et al. found that the transcription factor NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) not only initiates inflammation but also initiated a process involving p62 to promote the resolution of inflammation. The proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β (interleukin-1β) is produced by the NLRP3 inflammasome in response to various stimuli, including the bacterial product lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS increased p62 abundance in macrophages in an NF-κB–dependent manner and was more lethal to mice with a myeloid cell–specific deficiency of p62 than to control mice. Macrophages deficient in p62 secreted more IL-1β in response to various activators of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome triggered the recruitment of p62 to mitochondria in a manner dependent on Parkin, a ubiquitin E3 ligase that enables the elimination of damaged mitochondria through the autophagic process of mitophagy. Elimination of damaged mitochondria from macrophages exposed to NLRP3 activators involved p62, Parkin, and the autophagy protein ATG7. Scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) or inhibiting mitochondrial protein synthesis decreased IL-1β release in p62-deficient macrophages. Mice with myeloid cell–deficiency of p62 or ATG7 produced more IL-1β in response to sterile inflammation and showed increased activation of the protein that processes the precursor form of IL-1β into its active form after chemically induced liver injury. Sergin et al. also showed that p62 limited the secretion of IL-1β by macrophages in the context of atherosclerosis. Sequestration of polyubiquitinated, aggregated proteins into cytoplasmic inclusion bodies in macrophages involved p62. Mice deficient in p62 developed more severe atherosclerosis and showed greater macrophage infiltration of atherosclerotic plaques, a sign of increased inflammation. Thus, enhancing the function of p62 in macrophages could limit IL-1β production in various inflammatory responses. Z. Zhong, A. Umemura, E. Sanchez-Lopez, S. Liang, S. Shalapour, J. Wong, F. He, D. Boassa, G. Perkins, S. R. Ali, M. D. McGeough, M. H. Ellisman, E. Seki, A. B. Gustafsson, H. M. Hoffman, M. T. Diaz-Meco, J. Moscat, M. Karin, NF-κB restricts inflammasome activation via elimination of damaged mitochondria. Cell 164, 896–910 (2016). [PubMed] I. Sergin, S. Bhattacharya, R. Emanuel, E. Esen, C. J. Stokes, T. D. Evans, B. Arif, J. A. Curci, B. Razani, Inclusion bodies enriched for p62 and polyubiquitinated proteins in macrophages protect against atherosclerosis. Sci. Signal. 9, ra2 (2016). [Abstract]


The perception of Turkish and Moroccan mothers of their children's leisure time activities Today, the importance of social participation is reflected in an accessibility discourse that is based on the assumption that as many social groups as possible should have access to mainstream youth work. The non-participation, or restricted participation, of certain social groups and the role of parents in this, is often viewed as a problem. However, all this is done without sufficient regard to the perspective of parents themselves. This article reports on the findings of a study which examined the perception of Turkish and Moroccan mothers of their children's structured and unstructured leisure activities. It will include an examination of the significance of ethnic-religious factors, gender attitudes and living conditions. This interpretative study is based on thirteen qualitative interviews with Turkish and Moroccan mothers living in Lokeren, Sint-Niklaas and Ghent. The findings suggest that the mothers interviewed play an important role in their children's leisure time activity and consciously reflect on how their children should spend their free time. The study found that the perceptions and actions of mothers are influenced by ethnic-religious factors. The importance of religion was illustrated by the fact that many of the mothers interviewed consider it important that children pray during their spare time. In addition, it was found that the mothers enrolled their children in Islamic and Arabic or Turkish lessons, and we observed that the children follow certain codes with regard to language, clothing, diet and alcohol consumption. Even though most of the mothers expressed a preference for their children to adhere to certain requirements and traditions, the study revealed the spontaneity with which children did so in their spare time, as well as the non-binding nature of these codes. The mothers' preferences were rooted not only in their creeds, but also in the expectations of the community. Comments by both the Flemish and Turkish or Moroccan community seemed to influence the perceptions and choices of the mothers interviewed in relation to their children's free time. However, the study also demonstrates that not all mothers seemed to interpret ethnic-religious rules in the same way. One important finding was that ethnicreligious factors also affect the attitude of others and this in turn can have an impact on mothers' perception of their children's leisure activities. The mothers referred to racism and discrimination which is, to a certain extent, evident in some youth associations and can cause children to drop out. This study also shows that gender-based attitudes have an impact on the preferences of the mothers interviewed in some respects. It reveals that mothers restrict their children's interaction with the opposite sex to some extent and activities such as dating and sports can be a source of conflict. In general, however, the mothers allow their sons and daughters to undertake the same activities. Where a distinction is made, this is caused mainly by genuine concern about the well-being of the child. Not only religion, but also troubling current events related to sexual violence, were a reason for this. Finally, this study shows the need to take the broader social context into account in order to understand how parents view their children's leisure activities. In this study, we describe how the actions and strategies of mothers are influenced by their living conditions. Both the family and socio-economic context shape the parenting practices of the mothers interviewed. Even though the approaches of the parents interviewed are diverse in some respects, the overall objective was to protect children against the negative influence of peers and unknown adults. In addition, these parents have also developed strategies to protect younger children from the dangers of busy streets with a lot of traffic. Fears of unsafe neighborhoods is another reason for mothers to limit the access of their children to some types of leisure activities. The fact that leisure opportunities in the neighborhood are considered costly, also affects how parents perceive their children's free time. The article ends with several recommendations for those who make youth and social policy. The findings challenge the role of Turkish and Moroccan parents which is widely cited as a cause of their children's lower rates of participation. The results show that policymakers need to face several challenges when it comes to organizing leisure activities for Turkish and Moroccan children. On the one hand, there are parents who think that greater effort is required to recognize ethnic and religious traditions in the children's leisure time activities and on the other hand, there are parents who would prefer religion to play a less prominent role in children's free time. A second challenge is that policymakers need to focus on the gender-specific requirements of parents on the one hand, but they also need to open up a dialogue with parents, because the study shows that parents are willing to abandon gender-specific requirements if they believe this would benefit their children's integration. Another area of tension was wanting to offer developmental opportunities for children in their free time on the one hand, and searching for a protective environment on the other hand. The importance of a differentiated approach is highlighted by these paradoxes. Better support for leisure time activities among (ethnic minority) young people requires an open dialogue that allows an exploration of the perspectives of parents and children and an examination of how (and which) interventions in free time are considered meaningful. Finally, the study shows that the goal of more suitable leisure activities for children and young people cannot be achieved without structural interventions. Because parental perceptions cannot be separated from the wider social context, policymakers cannot rely solely on individual approaches. De visie van Turkse en Marokkaanse moeders op de vrijetijdsbesteding van hun kinderen In dit artikel presenteren we de bevindingen uit een studie naar de visie van Turkse en Marokkaanse moeders met betrekking tot de vrijetijdsbesteding van hun kinderen en wat de betekenis is van etnisch-religieuze factoren, genderopvattingen en de leefomstandigheden hierbij. De studie is gebaseerd op dertien interviews met Turkse en Marokkaanse moeders afkomstig uit drie steden in Vlaanderen, namelijk Lokeren, Sint-Niklaas en Gent. De resultaten tonen aan dat de visie van ouders het resultaat is van een wisselwerking tussen verschillende factoren, waaronder etnisch-religieuze aspecten, genderopvattingen en de leefomstandigheden van ouders. Aan de hand van onze bevindingen reiken we enkele spanningsvelden aan waarover nagedacht kan worden bij het uitbouwen van een (jeugd-)beleid.


This paper deals with the dynamical analysis of a crane model. Truss finite elements are used to discretize the suspending chains with the so called updated Lagrangian description. This nonlinear model is regarded to be the best approximation to which linear models are compared. The inertia and independent degrees of freedom are also taken into consideration by linear models. The goal is to find a linear model, which can be used as an observer in antisway control of a crane.


We study the problem of training an accurate linear regression model by procuring labels from multiple noisy crowd annotators, under a budget constraint. We propose a Bayesian model for linear regression in crowdsourcing and use variational inference for parameter estimation. To minimize the number of labels crowdsourced from the annotators, we adopt an active learning approach. In this specific context, we prove the equivalence of well-studied criteria of active learning like entropy minimization and expected error reduction. Interestingly, we observe that we can decouple the problems of identifying an optimal unlabeled instance and identifying an annotator to label it. We observe a useful connection between the multi-armed bandit framework and the annotator selection in active learning. Due to the nature of the distribution of the rewards on the arms, we use the Robust Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) scheme with truncated empirical mean estimator to solve the annotator selection problem. This yields provable guarantees on the regret. We further apply our model to the scenario where annotators are strategic and design suitable incentives to induce them to put in their best efforts.


The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of sports-related injuries and associated factors in street runners through a referred morbidity survey. Participants were selected by invitation and by volunteering among the runners from the Curitiba City Street Running Circuit during the months of September to November. 295 runners were interviewed (77.3% men). Prevalence rates were described accordingly to the study variables and Poisson regression was employed to test associations (p/ </ 0.05). The prevalence of sport injures occurred in the last six months was 28.5% (29.8% for men and 23.9% for women). Higher prevalence rates were observed among those aged from 30.1 - 45yr (32.8%); overweight/obese (35.2%); women training more than 30min/day (31.3%); and men training more than 60 min/day (34.2%). None of the variables analyzed were associated with self-reported sport injuries. The majority of injured subjects (60.5%) remained less than three months away from training and those with training volume between 31 and 60 min/day were more likely to show this condition (prevalence ratio/ =/ 2.44; CI95% = 0.99-6.06; p = 0.05). It is concluded that sports injuries prevalence is observed in 1/3 of men and 1/4 of women. The variables investigated were not associated with prevalence of sport injuries in street runners and the injuries severity is associated with training volume.


Data mining is a computer based process which analyzes huge set of data for extracting useful patterns or information. Data mining tools provide trends which can occur in future so that knowledge driven decisions can be made by different business organizations. Data mining tools can be used by different business organizations for analyzing the real world problems which take huge time to resolve. During prediction of heart disease huge amount of data is generated which is complex to analyzed using traditional methods. The data mining provide a methodology to transfer huge set of data into useful information so that knowledge driven decisions can be formed. By using data mining techniques for prediction of heart disease more accurate results can be generated in less time. In this paper a genetic algorithm is proposed for the prediction of heart disease using rule based classifier. As rule based classifier take dataset that contain only important attributes which are fetched by using genetic algorithm. So rule based classifier provide results in the form of Decision Table which provide reliable performance in diagnosing heart


In the present study I investigated the mechanisms of modulation of neuronal network activity in rat primary motor cortex using pharmacological manipulations employing the in vitro brain slice technique. Preparation of the brain slice in sucrose-based aCSF produced slices with low viability. Introducing the neuroprotectants N-acetyl-cysteine, taurine and aminoguanidine to the preparatory method saw viability of slices increase significantly. Co-application of low dose kainic acid and carbachol consistently generated beta oscillatory activity in M1. Analyses indicated that network activity in M1 relied on the involvement of GABAA receptors. Dose-response experiments performed in M1 showed that beta activity can be modulated by benzodiazepine site ligands. Low doses of positive allosteric modulators consistently desynchronised beta oscillatory activity, a mechanism that may be driven by a1-subunit containing GABAA receptors. Higher doses increased the power of beta oscillatory activity. Whole-cell recordings in M1 uncovered three interneuronal subtypes regularly encountered in M1; Fast-spiking, regular-spiking non-Pyramidal and low threshold spiking. With the paradoxical effects of positive allosteric modulators in mind, subsequent voltage-clamp recordings in FS cells revealed a constitutively active tonic inhibitory current that could be modulated by zolpidem in two different ways. Low dose zolpidem increased the tonic inhibitory current in FS cells, consistent with the desynchronisation of network oscillatory activity seen at this concentration. High dose zolpidem decreased the inhibitory tonic current seen in FS cells, coinciding with an increase in oscillatory power. These studies indicate a fundamental role for a tonic inhibitory current in the modulation of network activity. Furthermore, desynchronisation of beta activity in M1 decreased as viability of the in vitro brain slice increased, suggesting that the extent of desynchronisation is dependent upon the pathophysiological state of the network. This indicates that low dose zolpidem could be used as a therapeutic agent specifically for the desynchronisation of pathological oscillations in oscillopathies such as Parkinson's disease.


This short essay proceeds in two parts. The first part examines the controversy surrounding the use of the term intellectual property. It discusses the common criticisms of the term's usage, including those articulated by Richard Stallman. It also challenges the myth that intellectual property did not acquire any property attributes until the establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The essay suggests that the term may remain in common usage despite its uneasy analogy to real property, and a more nuanced understanding of property law may alleviate some of the problems caused by using the term. The second part focuses on the need for a new conceptual framework to reframe the intellectual property debate. This part articulates three reasons why the information ecosystem would provide such a framework. First, it reminds policymakers and commentators of the problems of the current bipolar intellectual property debate. Second, it highlights the different components of the intellectual property system and the interactions among these components. Third, it underscores the need to take a holistic perspective and consider intellectual property laws and policies as one of the many components of a larger information ecosystem.


This article sets up a dialogue between postcolonal theory and Latin American studies. Although some forms of intentional hybridization are contestatory, others, such as the aesthetic statism that developed in postrevolutionary Mexico after the 1920s, are authoritative. Moving from the works of foundational thinkers such as Jose Vasconcelos and Manuel Gamio, to the centrality of art in the policies they engendered, and to subsequent manifestations of aesthetic statism in the exemplary centers of urban space and in anthropology museums, the article traces some of the links in the genealogy of mestizo nationalism in postrevolutionary 20th-century Mexico.


We consider unconstrained randomized optimization of convex objective functions. We analyze the Random Pursuit algorithm, which iteratively computes an approximate solution to the optimization problem by repeated optimization over a randomly chosen one-dimensional subspace. This randomized method only uses zeroth-order information about the objective function and does not need any problem-specific parametrization. We prove convergence and give convergence rates for smooth objectives assuming that the one-dimensional optimization can be solved exactly or approximately by an oracle. A convenient property of Random Pursuit is its invariance under strictly monotone transformations of the objective function. It thus enjoys identical convergence behavior on a wider function class. To support the theoretical results we present extensive numerical performance results of Random Pursuit, two gradient-free algorithms recently proposed by Nesterov, and a classical adaptive step-size random search scheme. We also present an accelerated heuristic version of the Random Pursuit algorithm which significantly improves standard Random Pursuit on all numerical benchmark problems. A general comparison of the experimental results reveals that (i) standard Random Pursuit is effective on strongly convex functions with moderate condition number, and (ii) the accelerated scheme is comparable to Nesterov's fast gradient method and outperforms adaptive step-size strategies.
The appendix contains additional supporting online material.


Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels. This publication reports on overviews of research and findings on the impact of technology. It furnishes a rich context in which to observe teachers in prekindergarten through grade 12 and teacher educators using technology to help their students better understand mathematics, and gives us all a glimpse of what the future might hold in store for us. The accompanying CD includes electronic features that enhance an understanding of the articles presented in the printed yearbook.


Abstract Mineralogical, bulk and field leachate compositions are used to identify important processes governing the evolution of discharges from a coal spoil heap in County Durham. These processes are incorporated into a numerical one-dimensional advective-kinetic reactive transport model which reproduces field results, including gas compositions, to within an order of magnitude. Variation of input parameters allows the effects of incorrect initial assumptions on elemental profiles and discharge chemistry to be assessed. Analytical expressions for widths and speeds of kinetic reaction fronts are developed and used to predict long-term development of mineralogical distribution within the heap. Results are consistent with observations from the field site. Pyrite oxidation is expected to dominate O2 consumption in spoil heaps on the decadal timescale, although C oxidation may stabilize contaminants in effluents on the centennial scale.


In the context of shape segmentation and retrieval object-wide distributions of measures are needed to accurately evaluate and compare local regions of shapes. Lien et al. [16] proposed two point-wise concavity measures in the context of Approximate Convex Decompositions of polygons measuring the distance from a point to the polygon's convex hull: an accurate Shortest Path-Concavity (SPC) measure and a Straight Line-Concavity (SLC) approximation of the same. While both are practicable on 2D shapes, the exponential costs of SPC in 3D makes it inhibitively expensive for a generalization to meshes [14]. In this paper we propose an efficient and straight forward approximation of the Shortest Path-Concavity measure to 3D meshes. Our approximation is based on discretizing the space between mesh and convex hull, thereby reducing the continuous Shortest Path search to an efficiently solvable graph problem. Our approach works out-of-the-box on complex mesh topologies and requires no complicated handling of genus. Besides presenting a rigorous evaluation of our method on a variety of input meshes, we also define an SPC-based Shape Descriptor and show its superior retrieval and runtime performance compared with the recently presented results on the Convexity Distribution by Lian et al. [12].


Purpose
The study compared how parents of children with cochlear implants (CIs) and parents of children with normal hearing perceive their children's health-related quality of life (HR-QOL).

Method
The sample consisted of 186 Norwegian-speaking children in the age span of 5;0-12;11 (years;months): 106 children with CIs (53% boys, 47% girls) and 80 children with normal hearing (44% boys, 56% girls). No children had known additional disabilities affecting language, cognitive development, or HR-QOL. Parents completed the generic questionnaire Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (Varni, Seid, & Kurtin, 2001), whereas children completed a test battery measuring different aspects of language and hearing.

Results
Parents of children with CIs reported statistically significantly poorer HR-QOL in their children, on Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory total score and the subdomains social functioning and school functioning. Roughly 50% of parents of children with CIs reported HR-QOL levels (total score) within normal limits. No significant differences between groups emerged on the physical health and emotional functioning subscales. For the children in the group with CIs, better speech perception in everyday situations was associated with higher proxy-ratings of HR-QOL. Better spoken language skills were weakly to moderately associated with higher HR-QOL.

Conclusions
The findings suggest that the social and school situation is not yet resolved satisfactorily for children with CIs. Habilitation focusing on spoken language skills and better sound environment may improve social interactions with peers and overall school functioning.


This Article proposes and applies a "conscious disregard" test for resolving the upcoming appellate litigation that involves the conflict between federal authority over the electric grid and state laws providing subsidies to nuclear power plants in the form of "zero emissions credits" (ZECs). This test draws upon principles of conflict preemption, as elaborated in three recent Supreme Court decisions on the intersection of state and federal jurisdiction over the electric grid under the Federal Power Act. It provides that if a state law explicitly aims to directly affect wholesale electricity market prices, terms or conditions, its subsidy program is impermissible as conflicting with the regulatory jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Applying this "conscious disregard" test, the Article concludes that federal law preempts the state laws and that lower courts' decisions to the contrary were in error.
The Article explains that the Court has ushered in a new era of jurisprudence under the Federal Power Act in which the states and FERC have significant and concurrent responsibilities for regulating the electric grid. It then contends that this dynamic, concurrent federalism environment of policy innovation is an essential backdrop to decision-making in the nuclear subsidies cases, as there is considerable unease about the interaction between state energy policies and the wholesale electricity markets overseen by FERC. Many commentators have called into question how the two can coexist going forward, and as a result, the Article explains how states' "around-market" policies such as the nuclear subsidies involve overlaps between state and federal laws.
The Article's conscious disregard test for addressing these overlaps brings together three distinct concepts. A state cannot "aim" its subsidy law at the wholesale markets, as the Court held in ONEOK v. Learjet. FERC, not the states, has authority over the terms, conditions, and results on wholesale markets, under FERC v. EPSA's "directness" standard. Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing found unlawful state programs that disregard wholesale rates or are closely linked (or "tethered") to the wholesale markets. The Article contends that the ZEC programs violated this test. Finally, the Article contends that only a test that is based on conscious disregard for wholesale market results can harmonize the three recent Supreme Court decisions, preserve valuable state policy experimentation, and set a narrowly defined preemption standard that avoids unintended consequences in future litigation.


Ownership structures of multinational enterprises are commonly assumed to remain constant over time, both due to a lack of easily accessible panel data and to facilitate empirical analyses. This paper discusses the validity of this assumption and assesses its relevance in the context of profit shifting. A new method of reconstructing historical ownership information in Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database reveals a highly dynamic environment. The validity of the assumption collapses with increasing panel length; ownership structures are rarely constant over time. Moreover, about 9 percent of firms with observed ownership data change owners in each year. The relevance of the assumption is tested by re-estimating indirect measures of profit shifting for selected benchmark samples. Assuming ownership structures as constant has a strong impact on sample composition, adding almost 29 percent of additional observations compared to historical ownership data. In the context of profit shifting, estimates based on constant ownership data are found to be larger in absolute magnitude compared to estimates based on historical ownership data.


This paper examines truth and reconciliation commissions that have made reference to a longer-term role for education in coming to terms with the past and contributing towards future reconciliation. The countries reviewed are Guatemala, Liberia, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Timor-Leste. Some have developed strategies for children"s participation and made recommendations for inclusion in the formal school curriculum. However, recommendations regarding a role for education have usually been very general in nature, with little specification of what is expected of educators in practical terms and little follow-through by education authorities. The paper therefore identifies a number of challenges if education is to have a role in truth and reconciliation. It also identifies potential areas for educational development and recommendations for future actions.


Anything we can conceive that computers may do, it seems that they end up doing and that they end up doing it better than us and much sooner than we expected. They have gone from calculating mathematics for us to creating and maintaining our social networks to serving as our personal assistants. We are told they may soon become our friends and make life and death decisions driving our cars. Perhaps they will also take over interpreting our laws. It is not that hard to conceive of computers doing so to the extent legal interpretation involves mere description or prediction. It is much harder to conceive of computers making substantive moral judgments. So the ultimate bulwark against ceding legal interpretation to computers—from having computers usurp the responsibility and authority of attorneys, citizens, and even judges—may be to recognize the role of moral judgment in saying what the law is. That possibility connects the cutting edge with the traditional. The central dispute in jurisprudence for the past half century or more has been about the role of morality in legal interpretation. Suddenly, that dispute has great currency and urgency. Jurisprudence may help us to clarify and circumscribe the role of computers in our legal system. And contemplating AI may help us to resolve jurisprudential debates that have vexed us for decades.


Recent text generation models are easy to generate relevant and fluent text for the given text, while lack of causal reasoning ability when we change some parts of the given text.
Counterfactual story rewriting is a recently proposed task to test the causal reasoning ability for text generation models, which requires a model to predict the corresponding story ending when the condition is modified to a counterfactual one. Previous works have shown that the traditional sequence-to-sequence model cannot well handle this problem, as it often captures some spurious correlations between the original and counterfactual endings, instead of the causal relations between conditions and endings.
To address this issue, we propose a sketch-and-customize generation model guided by the causality implicated in the conditions and endings. In the sketch stage, a skeleton is extracted by removing words which are conflict to the counterfactual condition, from the original ending. In the customize stage, a generation model is used to fill proper words in the skeleton under the guidance of the counterfactual condition. In this way, the obtained counterfactual ending is both relevant to the original ending and consistent with the counterfactual condition. Experimental results show that the proposed model generates much better endings, as compared with the traditional sequence-to-sequence model.


The purpose of the present study is to provide a critical review of the relation between organizational culture and the levels of job satisfaction experienced by employees. Organizational culture refers to a series of attitudes and behaviors adopted by employees of a certain organization, which affect its function and total well-being. Job satisfaction refers to the employees' perceptions of their working environment, relations among colleagues, earnings and promotion opportunities. The review shows that contemporary job-related phenomena like job satisfaction are related to their perceptions of their working environment, relations with colleagues, institution aims and strategies and success criteria. In addition, the employees' preference of organizational culture is likely to be affected by demographic characteristics, especially gender. It can be supported, therefore, that measuring and analyzing an institution's organizational culture in combination with its employees' demographic and individual characteristics may lead to valuable conclusions, so that job satisfaction is promoted.


This paper addresses the factors that distinguish very advanced learners from native speakers, investigating the difficulties which arise in overcoming the final thresholds in the learning process. Firstly, it compares different linguistic systems with respect to specific grammaticised categories, showing how these categories relate to patterns of information organisation at text level, with the assumption that the principles underlying these patterns form part of the learner's linguistic knowledge. Secondly, it demonstrates that L2-learners who master the formal system of the target language to a near-perfect degree still have problems in applying forms in context in accordance with the principles of information organisation which grammaticised forms entail in the target language. The domains investigated are event-time structures. The languages investigated in the empirical study are Algerian Arabic, English, German, Spanish, and Norwegian, and advanced learner languages (English and German).


Sensory Triptych is a set of exploratory, interactive sensors designed for children that invite "new ways of seeing" our world from the perspective of the here (the earth, air, and water around us), near (things just out of sight), and out there (orbiting satellites and space junk) using familiar and novel interfaces, affordances, and narratives. We present a series of novel physical design prototypes that reframe sensing technologies for children that foster an early adoption of technology usage for exploring, understanding, communicating, sharing, and changing our world. Finally, we discuss how such designs expand the potential opportunities and landscapes for our future interactive systems and experiences within the UIST community.


The offshore shelf and canyon habitats of the OCNMS are areas of high primary productivity and biodiversity that support extensive groundfish fisheries. Recent acoustic surveys conducted in these waters have indicated the presence of hard-bottom substrates believed to harbor unique deep-sea coral and sponge assemblages. Such fauna are often associated with shallow tropical waters, however an increasing number of studies around the world have recorded them in deeper, cold-water habitats in both northern and southern latitudes. These habitats are of tremendous value as sites of recruitment for commercially important fishes. Yet, ironically, studies have shown how the gear used in offshore demersal fishing, as well as other commercial operations on the seafloor, can cause severe physical disturbances to resident benthic fauna. Due to their exposed structure, slow growth and recruitment rates, and long life spans, deep-sea corals and sponges may be especially vulnerable to such disturbances, requiring very long periods to recover. Potential effects of fishing and other commercial operations in such critical habitats, and the need to define appropriate strategies for the protection of these resources, have been identified as a high-priority management issue for the sanctuary.


If the thought of one election campaign is your worst nightmare, then pity the West Australians. When Julia Gillard announced a September federal election it meant two campaigns being run simultaneously in the country's largest state.

It's Labor versus the Liberals and Nationals, of course, so the names remain the same. But that may be the problem. It's never been that easy to separate state and federal election issues and it's going to get a lot harder for West Australians.

There are some clear "state" issues like whether Colin Barnett's Liberal government will be tougher on crime than Mark McGowan's Labor claims it will be. Law and order is "bread and butter" in a state election campaign.

And states' rights isn't something that will play out at a federal level, though Tony Abbott may express some level of support for a devolution of power from Canberra, a move that would aid his state Liberal colleague in Barnett given the level of dissatisfaction in WA with how GST revenue is distributed by Canberra.