"Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways" - Plato Laws IV (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/plato 400530.html (20-05-2013)).
The above quotation is understood to mean that man is not in control of his own destiny, but its inclusion here is merely to introduce the co-incidence of the words "accident" and "legislation", which in South Africa equates to the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996 and more recently the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act 19 of 2005 (the new act). In terms of the latter legislation the Road Accident Fund ("the Fund") has indeed aimed to control its own destiny by curbing the drain on its coffers and placing itself on the road to recovery. Transformative, far-reaching changes introduced to this end include the capping of loss of income and dependence claims and the limitation of the Fund's liability for non-pecuniary loss to instances where a "serious injury" has been proven. Section 17(1) of the Road Accident Fund Amendment Act 2005 includes a proviso that the obligation of the Fund for non-pecuniary loss shall be limited to compensation for a serious injury, and section 17(1A) provides that assessment of a serious injury shall be based on a prescribed method after consultation with medical service providers. A further significant amendment is the abolition of the road accident victim's common law right to claim from the wrongdoer for damages not compensated by the Road Accident Fund. The Law Society of South Africa challenged the constitutional validity of a number of provisions of the new act and regulations and the dismissal of this action by the North Gauteng high court, Pretoria, has become part of our legal heritage (Law Society of South Africa v Minister of Transport 2010 11 BCLR 1140 (GNP)). The foundations of third-party legislation have yet to settle from these ramifications and the timing of Klopper's latest edition of The Law of Third-Party Compensation in the midst of this tumult is therefore apposite.


In the last years several mobile learning courses have been experimented. The increasing popularity and additional features of mobile devices is one of the key reasons for mobile learning courses development. The superior portability and accessibility of those equipments makes them suitable for remote and interactive learning courses. In this context, this paper focuses on the implementation of a mobile learning framework for an analog electronics course. This course was designed as a complement to the classic analog electronics courses. This course consists of several interactive multimedia modules, at the end of which students have to answer several oriented questions. These give feedback about the learning process to the teacher, which receives SMS messages with the results. A specific module is responsible for storing and managing the answers in a server, where all the results from students are processed in a competitive learning based methodology application.


Abstract Four distinct fossil turtle assemblages (Chelonia) are recognized from the Panama Canal Basin. The oldest, from the late Eocene–early Oligocene Gatuncillo Formation, is dominated by podocnemidid pleurodires. The early Miocene Culebra Formation includes both podocnemidids and trionychids. The early to middle Miocene Cucaracha Formation includes taxa classified in Geoemydidae (including Rhinoclemmys panamaensis n. sp.), Kinosternidae (represented by Staurotypus moschus n. sp.), large testudinids, trionychids, and podocnemidids, and finally, the late Miocene Gatun Formation records cheloniid sea turtles. These fossils include the oldest known representatives of Rhinoclemmys, the oldest record of kinosternids in Central America with a more extensive southern paleodistribution for Staurotypus and staurotypines in general, early occurrences of giant tortoises in the Neotropics, the oldest occurrence of soft-shell turtles in the tropics, the oldest late Eocene–early Oligocene Neotropical occurrences of podocnemidids. The Panamanian fossil turtles represent clades that are primarily endemic to North America, showing their very early arrival into the Neotropics prior to the complete emergence of the Isthmus of Panama, as well as their first contact with Caribbean-South American pleurodires by the early Miocene.


We demonstrate an optical filter that utilizes acousto-optic coupling between the spatial modes that propagate in a two-mode elliptical-core fiber. The optical bandwidth at 1090 nm is 0.85 nm, which is in agreement with predictions based on measurement of differential group delay between the modes. The filter is slightly polarization dependent, with a 0.28-nm wavelength difference between the passband peaks for the two polarization eigenstates. The optical insertion loss is dominated by 2-4-dB bending loss in nonoptimized mode strippers, and the coupling loss is negligible. Full acousto-optic mode conversion was achieved at an 8-mW electrical input power to the acoustic transducer.


Abstract A secure long-distance monitoring scheme is proposed for nuclear engineering applications using chaos synchronization and nonlinear observers for online transmittal of operational data, distance monitoring, fault detection, and other related processes. The proposed system consists of three components: (a) chaotic transmitter to encrypt and send signals coming from a message originating system, (b) chaotic receiver to decrypt information signals, and (c) reconstruction of the message originating system using the decrypted signals. The Lorenz chaotic system whose parameters are defined as nonlinear functions of the state variables to improve the security level of the chaos-based communication is considered as the chaotic encrypter. In the receiver section, a nonlinear observer is used to provide synchronization and to decrypt the message signal. A similar nonlinear observer is employed to reconstruct the message originating system state variables from the recovered message signal. Numerical results and case studies against certain passive eavesdropping attacks are provided to demonstrate the resilience of the proposed method. A reduced-order boiling water reactor model is used as the message originating system in the illustrations.


Abstract Phosphorus is extremely limited in the environment, often being 10–20 times lower in plants than what invertebrate herbivores require. This mismatch between resource availability and resource need can profoundly influence herbivore life history traits and fitness. This study investigated how dietary phosphorus availability influenced invertebrate growth, development time, consumption, condition, and lifespan using juvenile European house crickets, Acheta domesticus L. (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Crickets reared on high phosphorus diets ate more food, gained more weight, were in better condition at maturity, and contained more phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon in their bodies at death than crickets reared on low phosphorus diets. There was also a trend for crickets reared on high phosphorus diets to become larger adults (interaction with weight prior to the start of the experiment). These findings can be added to the small but growing number of studies that reveal the importance of phosphorus to insect life history traits. Future research should explore the importance of dietary phosphorus availability relative to protein, lipid, and carbohydrate availability.


Background: Intrapulmonary vascular abnormalities associated with liver cirrhosis may result in intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt and hypoxemia. The aim of this study was to use contrast enhanced echocardiography to detect intrapulmonary vascular abnormalities in patients with liver cirrhosis candidates for liver transplantation. Methods: One hundred and two adult patients underwent contrast enhanced echocardiography to determine the prevalence of intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt and its relationship to the severity of hepatic disease, arterial oxygenation, and spider angioma. Results: The rate of patients with positive and negative contrast enhanced echocardiography was 44% and 56%, respectively. There was no significant difference in age, sex, or etiology of liver cirrhosis in patients with and without intrapulmonary shunt. Patients with intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt had more severe hepatic disease compared with those without shunt (Child-Pugh score 12±2 vs 8±2). There was significant difference in the partial arterial oxygen pressure (PaO 2 ) values in patients with grade 3 + to 4 + left ventricular opacification by microbubbles compared with those without evidence of intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt (64±6 vs 82±10 mmHg). Twenty eight of the patients with intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt had cutaneous spider angioma. Conclusion: The findings suggest that there was a significant relation between severity of liver cirrhosis and presence of intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt or severity of hypoxemia. The data also indicate that cirrhotic patients with cutaneous spider angioma most likely have the shunt.


This study is comprised of seven chapters including a final part of conclusions. The First Chapter attempts to bring this topic into the current debate on the main aspects discussed by the thesis, vis-a-vis urban intermediation in border situations within the present stage of capitalist globalization. Besides proposing a functional conceptualization of globalization as a systemic phenomenon, the chapter addresses the less-known issue of the transborder spatial re-articulation (corridors, regions, and urban complexes). In general, it views the relativization and re-functionalization of the borders. A key aspect of this chapter is the critical discussion of the existing models in specialized studies in the United States and Europe, regarding the evolution of the borders. Also, the contraposition of an explanation to this development as fragmented and discontinued. Finally, the chapter discusses two key concepts for the rest of the study, which have been at the center of the theoretical conceptions of the NCCR/North-South and the LaSur/EPFL team, such as urban intermediation and social practices. Chapter II and III try to explain the historical/sociological context of the Haitian/Dominican border region, emphasizing the binational relationships marked by their asymmetry, uneven exchange, and subordination. Chapter II is crucial to understanding that many of the border's ideological traumas are rooted in the historical truth that it has always been a very uneven border, but whose balance of forces has reverted over time. At the same time, the border has been the axis of an ideological construction that reinforces both countries' roles in the division of the regional capitalist economy, as well as Haiti's role in terms of accumulation and political legitimation in the Dominican Republic. In particular, Chapter III discusses basic information on the socioeconomic and political actuality of the Dominican borderland, essential for analyzing the status of these cities. It also addresses the problems of the judicial-political regime, the economic changes, and the socio-demographic impact of the present transition. Chapter IV deals with the spatial reconfiguration of the border and the place border cities occupy in it. Although reconfiguration is initially explained in a general fashion that implies the creation of hierarchic urban networks, in analytical terms it is presented in three dimensions: the articulation of transborder corridors, the formation within them of transborder urban complexes, and the divorce of the factory cities from their internal hinterlands. Here the first process dominates the other two. Hence, Dominican factory cities turn out to be subordinate pieces in the corridors where they are located, dominant with respect to their Haitian counterparts, and incapable of exerting a consistent centrality with regards to their provincial spheres. Notwithstanding that the three of them are formally capital cities at this level. The following Chapter V focuses particularly on how the three cities implement the intermediation process of the flows originating in their own border condition. First, it analyzes the impact of commercial fairs on each city –identified as primary economic activities– as well as in economic (jobs, income) and socio-demographic terms. Then the analysis addresses the spatial consequences –spatial restructuring and hierarchization of cities that have always been homogenous– and the stress on the created environment and on the service infrastructure. Chapter VI discusses the nature of the actions presented by the civil society and their organized social practices. And in particular it attempts to analyze their level of viable alternative proposals. To that effect, the chapter focuses on two types of practices. The first correspond to the market's protectionist actions carried out by some corporate groups or cooperation societies (transportation, trade, etc.), and their impact on income distribution or on the validation of local spaces for the construction of transborder economic relations. The second relates to the practices in defense of the Haitian's human rights and to what extent they have been able to raise awareness in the Dominican population. Although every chapter has a theoretical introduction to the topic it addresses as well as a closing argument, this thesis also includes some final pages highlighting the main findings of this work. It also emphasizes those that may be considered more relevant at the present level of border urban studies. Four of thementioned chapters are accompanied with nearly two dozen maps that were drawn (or adapted) especially for this thesis, and which are, therefore, originals.


Pressed by market globalization and concomitant competition, more and more manufacturers are relying on their suppliers to provide raw materials and component parts so as to focus on their core competence. As a result, the coordination of activities across a network of suppliers becomes critical to quickly respond to dynamic market conditions. In this paper, a novel framework combining mathematical optimization and the contract net protocol is presented for make-to-order supply network coordination. Interactions among organizations are modeled by a set of interorganizational precedence constraints and the objective is to achieve the organizations' individual and shared goals of fast product delivery and low inventory. These interorganizational constraints are relaxed by using a set of interorganizational prices that represent marginal costs per unit time for the violation of such constraints. The overall problem is thus decomposed into organizational subproblems, where individual organizations schedule their activities based on their internal situations and interorganizational prices. Coordination is achieved through an iterative price-updating process carried out in a distributed and asynchronous manner. With prices dynamically updated and schedules adjusted, this approach coordinates activities to fulfill existing commitments while maintaining agility to take on new orders. Numerical testing results show that interorganizational prices converge and prices may change as new orders arrive to reflect the new pressure on deliveries.


The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse research about inclusive education. Prior reviews and the outcome of a recent search of databases are analysed with regard to (a) how inclusion is defined and (b) what empirical knowledge there is regarding factors that make schools and classrooms more inclusive. Our point of departure is that we regard inclusion as an idea about what school systems, schools and classrooms should accomplish, and as such, an expression of an educational philosophy. Four different understandings of inclusive education were found: (a) inclusion as the placement of pupils with disabilities in mainstream classrooms, (b) inclusion as meeting the social/academic needs of pupils with disabilities, (c) inclusion as meeting the social/academic needs of all pupils and (d) inclusion as creation of communities. Under a strict definition of inclusive education, hardly any research was found which reliably identified factors that give rise to inclusive processes. The outcome of our analyses are discussed from the perspective that different understandings of inclusion should be seen, to a large extent, as expressions of different views of what schools should accomplish. We also propose that some of the adherents to inclusion as creation of communities can be placed in the grand educational tradition reaching back to Dewey that tries to establish new ideals for school systems in a society in which individualism is perhaps the main ideology. The main conclusions are that the operative meaning of inclusion in reviews and empirical research should be much more clearly defined and that new types of studies are needed.


Abstract Nursing is a complicated and multifaceted profession that sets high demands in preparing nursing students for the profession. In today's education, the emphasis is often on knowledge and skills, that is, epistemology. In caring science another approach is sought, an approach based on human sciences in which knowledge will serve a more profound understanding, that is, the ontology. Consequently, the question of what this 'understanding' in clinical education is and how it is promoted in clinical nursing education becomes important to clarify. Therefore, the aim here is to explicate the phenomenon of understanding in clinical education as experienced by third‐year undergraduate nursing students ready for graduation. This study, with a hermeneutic approach, is based on a secondary analysis of focus group interviews with undergraduate nursing students. The analytical expansion of the original material suggests three interrelated themes that illuminate the phenomenon of understanding in clinical education. These findings are deepened and enriched through philosophical abstraction. In the process of understanding, episteme, techne and phronesis can be viewed as inherent parts of the structure of thought in nursing. The perspective advanced in this study adds new aspects to the phenomenon of understanding and its meaning and significance in the dynamic process of formation and becoming in clinical education. The focus in clinical nursing education should be on learning reflective, critical thinking and the ways of being a nurse, rather than drilling students on particular skills. In the rapidly changing world of the 21st century, an understanding‐based education is needed as a more meaningful and authentic approach. Therefore, an ontological turn in nursing education, through which the main focus shifts from a traditional epistemology to an epistemology in the service of ontology, is suggested. Further studies are needed in the development and implementation of an understanding‐based, interpretative education in nursing.


Sumitomo Heavy Industries has been continuously improving the efficiency of our 4K pulse tube cryocooler in order to make it exchangeable with our 4K GM cryocooler. In order to improve the performance, three development model pulse tube cryocoolers have been built and tested. On the latest unit, the cooling capacity of the 4K pulse tube cryocooler has been improved to be equivalent to that of the 4K GM cryocooler. A typical cooling capacity of the latest pulse tube cryocooler is 40 W at 37.0 K on the first stage and 1.0 W at 3.86 K on the second stage when the compressor is operated at 50 Hz, and 40 W at 36.8 K on the first stage and 1.0 W at 3.82 K at 60 Hz. The input power is about 6.4 kW at 50 Hz and 7.7 kW at 60 Hz at steady state with 40 W heat load on the first stage and 1.0 W on the second stage. In addition, performance in a helium atmosphere has been measured and has been improved significantly by reducing the temperature difference between regenerator and pulse tube. The experimental results are described.


Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) is highly focused radiation therapy that targets well-demarcated, limited-volume malignant or benign tumors with high accuracy and precision using image guidance. Stereotactic arrhythmia radioablation (STAR) applies SABR to treat cardiac arrhythmias, including ventricular tachycardia (VT) and atrial fibrillation (AF), and has recently been a focus in research. Clinical studies have demonstrated electrophysiologic conduction blockade and histologic fibrosis after STAR, which provides a proof of principle for its potential for treating arrhythmias. This review will present the basic STAR principles, available clinical study outcomes, and how the technique has evolved since the first pre-clinical study. In addition to the clinical workflow, focus will be given on the process for stereotactic radiotherapy Quality Assurance (QA) tests, as well as the need for establishing a standardized QA protocol. Future implications and potential courses of research will also be discussed.


This dissertation looks at the ways that Native Americans appropriated alphabetic literacy for their own purposes in the colonial period. Studies of Native writing tend to begin with the Mohegan preacher Samson Occom whose A Sermon Preached by Samson Occom (1772) is the first known publication by a Native author on the North American continent. This work, however, locates Occom near the end of a series of earlier Native contacts with the written word, the fragments of which are scattered throughout the archive of the colonizer. While scholars have become largely familiarized with the representational modes in American literature that force the Native figure into patterns of either assimilation or extinction, I complicate this paradigm by exploring the interventions of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Natives whose writings reflect active attempts at community building within traditional Native frameworks. I argue that once Native writings are removed from their colonized contexts and recentered in Native space, we begin to see how such notes, letters, fragments, written testimonies, and eventually, publications were composed in the service of survivance and continuance rather than as capitulations to the dominant culture. Too often the Native acquisition of literacy has been equated with being fitting into a cultural straight jacket, as though once the rhetorics of print discourse have been adopted, one can speak only through the colonizer's voice. Not until recently have some critics, articularly Native American scholars, come to question the interpretive utility of such convictions, and begun to think instead upon the contiguous line of Native tradition that runs from the era prior to colonization into the present day. I draw from the archival resources of both American and Native American Literature in an attempt to review the phenomena of colonization as a series of negotiations and survival strategies that can be more fully comprehended through a focused recognition of indigenous rhetorical and intellectual traditions. Rather than regarding the moment (or moments) of cultural contact as one in which European culture violently and tragically dismantles Native culture, I suggest how an understanding of this period must be complicated by a deeper recognition of the communitarian responses Native Americans were forging to European presence on indigenous soil.


A new method of predicting the solar heat gain through complex fenestration systems involving nonspecular layers such as shades or blinds has been examined in a project jointly sponsored by ASHRAE and DOE. In this method, a scanning radiometer is used to measure the bidirectional radiative transmittance and reflectance of each layer of a fenestration system. The properties of systems containing these layers are then built up computationally from the measured layer properties using a transmission/multiple-reflection calculation. The calculation produces the total directional-hemispherical transmittance of the fenestration system and the layer-by-layer absorptances. These properties are in turn combined with layer-specific measurements of the inward-flowing fractions of absorbed solar energy to produce the overall solar heat gain coefficient. A preceding paper outlined the method and provided the physical derivation of the calculation. In this second of a series of related papers the detailed development of the matrix layer calculation is presented.


Background Cancer diagnosis may cause deep emotional and affective problems in patients and their families. Nowadays, however, despite its rising prevalence, cancer is no longer synonymous with death. Given the significance of emotional well-being in cancer patients, we decided to assess the frequency of psychological problems in seven to seventeen year-olds with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Materials and Methods Our sample included 42 children and adolescents with ALL referred to pediatric hematology department of Dr. Sheikh hospital, who were put under maintenance course of the treatment. Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and behavioral disturbances were examined by using RCMAS, CDI and SDQ questionnaires respectively. Results The entire population showed depressive symptoms.59.5% of patients (25 person) suffered from anxiety and 26.2% (11 person) had behavioral problems. No significant relation was found between depressive symptoms, and age (p=0.77), sex (p=0.97), length of disease (p=0.50), and type of treatment (p=0.064). Anxiety did not show any significant relation with age (p= 0.63), sex (p= 0.32), length of disease (p= 0.16) and treatment type (p= 0.064).Similarly behavioral disturbances did not indicate any suggestive relation with age (p= 0.20), sex (p= 0.56), length of disease (p= 0.81) and type of treatment (p= 0.19). Conclusion Our findings suggest a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents with ALL. It is strongly recommended, therefore, that besides somatic symptoms, careful attention be paid to psychological disorders. This can prevent rapid development of the disease reduce treatment costs, and improve the quality of life for both patients and their families.


As a society composed ofmultiple ethnic groups, the United States is a place where the processes of acculturation and assimilation are never-ending. Today, large numbers of Mexicans, in particular, are immigrating to the U.S. According to Gordon's assimilation model (1964), Anglo American and Mexican-American ethnic groups will one day be indistinguishable. At the individual level, Gordon believes this process begins with acculturation as members of each group adjusrto the differing customs ofthe other. Park (1928) and Stonequist (1935, 1937) agree that finding a compromise can be especially difficult for "marginal" individuals who have identities in both cultures. From standardized acculturation scales based on variables such as language ability, self-identity, and generational status, research shows that embracing bicultural heritage is a realistic way for immigrants to adjust to life in a new society. This study explores the nature ofthe acculturation experience in three generations of ethnic Mexican women in Bloomington/Normal, Illinois. Based on a questionnaire adapted from the ARSMA-II (Cuellar et aI., 1995) and semi-structured conversations with twenty-one women, the researcher has seen that the above theorists' ideas do apply to the experiences ofwomen in the sample. Ofthe variables investigated, generational status seems to be the most important factor affecting these women's acculturation. This is illustrated in three case studies, which show that marginal characteristics are most applicable to the woman of the midgeneration. Clearly, staying connected to Mexican heritage while living in the U.S. has helped all three women stay secure in their own identities and happy in the country they call home.


Load balancing is a very important and complex problem in computational grids. A computational grid differs from traditional high-performance computing systems in the heterogeneity of the computing nodes, as well as the communication links that connect the different nodes together. There is a need to develop algorithms that can capture this complexity yet can be easily implemented and used to solve a wide range of load-balancing scenarios. In this paper, we propose a game-theoretic solution to the grid load-balancing problem. The algorithm developed combines the inherent efficiency of the centralized approach and the fault-tolerant nature of the distributed, decentralized approach. We model the grid load-balancing problem as a noncooperative game, whereby the objective is to reach the Nash equilibrium. Experiments were conducted to show the applicability of the proposed approaches. One advantage of our scheme is the relatively low overhead and robust performance against inaccuracies in performance prediction information.


Ireland is on the cusp of what has become known as the 'Decade of Centenaries'. In this unique book, we gain an insight into three of these centenaries - the signing of the Ulster Covenant, the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme - from across the spectrum of political allegiances and perspectives. Including interviews with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Fr Brian D'Arcy, Niall O'Dowd and Roddy Doyle amongst many others, this collection of discussions touches upon the ethereal nature of our history, and the constantly shifting sands upon which we build our shared past. But what emerges as a consistent theme throughout these conversations is the degree of understanding that can be offered for our future in reflecting on how these events continue to shape our reality.


The visibility of inverted domain structures using the second harmonic generation (SHG) microscope is discussed based upon the three-wave coupling equations. Without reference second harmonic (SH) waves (non-interference case), the SHG intensity at a domain boundary decreases steeply along the perpendicular direction to the domain wall, which is observed as a dark line. Thus the non-interference SHG microscope reveals the location of domain boundaries but not the domain polarity which the SHG interference microscope can do. In the case of periodically poled domain structures, the clear observation criterion is expressed with the wave-number offset between the fundamental and SH waves.


Housing supply plays an important role in the volatility of macroeconomic cycles and in the response speed of house prices to changes in demand. However, it is understudied relative to many other aspects of market behavior. To date, few works have been done on the China housing marketopotentially the biggest housing market in the future. This paper aims to explore the cross-city housing supply conditions of China's main cities. The determinants of housing supply such as housing price, material cost, financial cost and labor cost will be examined under the institutional set-up of China's mixed economy. In addition, this study will focus on identifying government regulations which may impede supply-side response. It will test for how these supply restrictions such as the degree of regulatory stringency of the local planning authority decreases the response of producers to demand.


If the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs reduces foreign trade barriers against U.S. farm exports, special interest groups in affected nations will seek other forms of protection. It would not be surprising if some of our trading partners used general macroeconomic policies to promote domestic production. This paper develops a model to demonstrate how the government of an importing nation might reasonably undertake macroeconomic policies designed to thwart imports. Using a two-country, overlapping generations model, the paper analyzes some of the tensions between developed and developing nations regarding intertemporal trade and capital movements. The model is designed so the optimizing agents in the South have a high rate of time preference. Otherwise, the North and the South are alike in all respects. The differential rate of time preference means that the South is likely to have a relatively low capital-to-labor ratio, wage rate, and level of per capita income but a relatively high interest rate in autarkic equilibrium. The introduction of international capital flows (intertemporal trade) will be welfare reducing for the current generation in the South, even though it may increase the next generation's (and steady-state) utility. The international conflicts that arise from international capital movements and the intergenerational conflicts that arise within each nation are discussed.


Describing images with text is a fundamental problem in vision-language research. Current studies in this domain mostly focus on single image captioning. However, in various real applications (e.g., image editing, difference interpretation, and retrieval), generating relational captions for two images, can also be very useful. This important problem has not been explored mostly due to lack of datasets and effective models. To push forward the research in this direction, we first introduce a new language-guided image editing dataset that contains a large number of real image pairs with corresponding editing instructions. We then propose a new relational speaker model based on an encoder-decoder architecture with static relational attention and sequential multi-head attention. We also extend the model with dynamic relational attention, which calculates visual alignment while decoding. Our models are evaluated on our newly collected and two public datasets consisting of image pairs annotated with relationship sentences. Experimental results, based on both automatic and human evaluation, demonstrate that our model outperforms all baselines and existing methods on all the datasets.


In this paper we compare two non-stationary time series using non-parametric procedures. Evolutionary spectra are estimated for the two series. Randomization tests are performed on groups of spectral estimates for both related and independent time series. Simulation studies show that in certain cases the tests perform reasonably well. The tests are applied to observed geological and financial time series.


Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) mediates myocardium protective signaling through phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol (Ptdins) to produce Ptdins(3,4,5)P(3). Lipid phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10 (PTEN) antagonizes PI3K activity by dephosphorylating Ptdins(3,4,5)P(3); therefore, the inhibition of PTEN enhances PI3K/Akt signaling and could prevent myocardium from ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Here we studied 1) whether the pharmacological inhibition of PTEN by bisperoxovanadium molecules [BpV(HOpic)] attenuates simulated I/R (SIR) injury in vitro and 2) whether the administration of BpV(HOpic) either before or after ischemia limits myocardial infarct size (IS) and ameliorates cardiodysfunction caused by infarction. First, adult rat cardiomyocytes were treated with or without BpV(HOpic) and then exposure to SIR. Second, anesthetized rats received BpV(HOpic) either before or after ischemia. IS was assessed at 4 h reperfusion, and left ventricular function was evaluated by echocardiography at 28 days postreperfusion. As a result, BpV(HOpic) decreased cell death, improved 3-[4,5-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) viability, and reduced apoptosis in cells exposed to SIR. These protective effects of BpV(HOpic) are associated with increased phospho-Akt and the repression of caspase-3 activity. Second, the administration of BpV(HOpic) significantly reduced IS and suppressed caspase-3 activity following I/R injury and consequentially improved cardiac function at 28 day postinfarction. These beneficial effects of BpV(HOpic) are attributed to increases in myocardial levels of phosphorylation of Akt/endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), ERK-1/2, and calcium-dependent nitric oxide synthase activity. In conclusion, the pharmacological inhibition of PTEN protects against I/R injury through the upregulation of the PI3K/Akt/eNOS/ERK prosurvival pathway, suggesting a new therapeutic strategy to combat I/R injury.


This article reports the findings of a study designed to examine the influence of multimodal writing on the communication of mathematical ideas. Elementary school students (ages 8-13) were required to write mathematics notes using two digital writing technologies, a personal digital notepad and a social mathematics blog, in the context of a formal intervention. Fortytwo students participated, across three schools. The study showed that when students wrote notes that could be assessed for correctness, their answers were predominately right, indicating that mathematical sense-making was taking place. It also showed that the digital notepad and blog were used differently and that the type of technology influences the writing content. Moreover, students' mathematical writing were understandable by their peers and students collaboratively explored solutions. Younger students were more likely to draw pictures to represent their ideas than older students. These findings show that writing can help students acquire mathematical understanding, and suggest that multimodal writing may help them surmount difficulties often associated with learning math. Although this research demonstrated that writing can help teachers gain an awareness of their students' mathematical understanding, it also revealed that writing environments need to be monitored and students require close guidance to bring about systematic improvement.


Economics was front and centre during the run-up to the June 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union and economists were almost unanimous that leaving would make the UK economically worse off than otherwise. Still, in the 6 months since the referendum, there has been little discernible impact on macroeconomic variables beyond a fall in the value of the pound, and the economics profession has been criticized for being overly gloomy in its predictions. This article offers some immediate reflections on the state of the economy in the run-up to the vote, on the forecasts of economists during the campaign, and on the changes to policy since. The lack of an immediate recession has been taken as evidence that the economics was wrong, but it is not evidence that leaving the EU will be economically harmless. Despite fiscal and monetary loosening most forecasters still expect growth to be slower than otherwise over the medium term. The vote and debate around it does offer some challenges for economics and we conclude with five lessons for the profession.


BACKGROUND
Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are commonly inserted during hospitalization for a variety of clinical indications.

OBJECTIVE
To understand hospitalist experience, practice, knowledge, and opinions as they relate to PICCs.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Web-based survey of hospitalists in 5 healthcare systems (representing a total of 10 hospitals) across Michigan.

RESULTS
The overall response rate was 63% (227 hospitalists received invitations; 144 responded). Compared with central venous catheters, hospitalists felt that PICCs were safer to insert (81%) and preferred by patients (74%). Although 84% of respondents reported that placing a PICC solely to obtain venous access was appropriate, 47% also indicated that 10%-25% of PICCs inserted in their hospitals might represent inappropriate placement. Hospitalist knowledge regarding PICC-related venous thromboembolism was poor, with only 4% recognizing that PICC-tip verification was performed principally to prevent thrombosis. Furthermore, several potential practice-related concerns were identified: one-third of hospitalists indicated that they never examine PICCs for externally evident problems, such as exit-site infection; 48% responded that once inserted, they did not remove PICCs until a patient was ready for discharge; and 51% admitted that, at least once, they had "forgotten" that their patient had a PICC.

CONCLUSIONS
Hospitalist experiences, practice, opinions, and knowledge related to PICCs appear to be variable. Because PICC use is growing and is often associated with complications, examining the impact of such variation is necessary. Hospitals and health systems should consider developing and implementing mechanisms to monitor PICC use and adverse events.


Welcome to A Rights in Crisis Guide to Influencing . This guide is an essential resource for all those wanting to understand how the humanitarian system works, who to influence and what issues to campaign on in order to ensure respect for the rights of women, men, girls and boys at risk or affected by conflicts and disasters. This guide has been produced by Oxfam's Rights in Crisis Campaign as an essential resource to guide Oxfam staff, partners, allies and anyone involved in humanitarian influencing work – whether you are working at country, regional or global level. It draws on Oxfam's more than 60 years of humanitarian programming, campaigning and advocacy work.


This document extends Directory-Based Information Services (DBIS)
described in [draft-bannister-dbis-mapping-00] to support the shadow
databases. The shadow database schema SHALL be backwards compatible
with the Network Information Service [NIS] but stored within [X.500]
entries so that it may be resolved with the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol [RFC4510]. A shadow database extends user login
accounts with credential policy data. This document represents shadow
database entries as an extended set of attributes that may be applied
to both passwd and group database entries for the management of
consistent password policies. This document describes configuration
maps [draft-bannister-dbis- mapping-00] for shadow databases, and
database entries referenced by those maps.


In the area of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an extensive range of non-linear reconstruction algorithms has been proposed which can be used with general Fourier subsampling patterns. However, the design of these subsampling patterns has typically been considered in isolation from the reconstruction rule and the anatomy under consideration. In this paper, we propose a learning-based framework for optimizing MRI subsampling patterns for a specific reconstruction rule and anatomy, considering both the noiseless and noisy settings. Our learning algorithm has access to a representative set of training signals, and searches for a sampling pattern that performs well on average for the signals in this set. We present a novel parameter-free greedy mask selection method and show it to be effective for a variety of reconstruction rules and performance metrics. Moreover, we also support our numerical findings by providing a rigorous justification of our framework via statistical learning theory.


Due to the flexibility and adaptivity of elastic optical networks (EONs), IP-over-EON would be a promising infrastructure for next-generation backbone networks. As a backbone network usually carries massive traffic, one always needs to properly address its network survivability issue. The network survivability of an IP-over-EON can be affected not only by the fiber cuts in the EON layer but also by the router outages in the IP layer. In this work, we study how to realize the cross-layer orchestration to address IP router outages with cost-efficient multilayer restoration (MLR) in IP-over-EONs. Specifically, we consider the situation in which a single router outage happens in an IP-over-EON and propose MLR algorithms to minimize the additional operational expense (OPEX) due to MLR. We first design three MLR strategies to fully explore the flexibility and adaptivity of IP-over-EONs. Then, with the strategies, we formulate an integer linear programming (ILP) model to find the MLR scheme in which the additional OPEX due to incremental usages of sliceable bandwidth-variable transponders (SBV-Ts) and frequency slots (FSs) and lightpath reconfigurations is minimized. We also propose an auxiliary graph (AG) based heuristic algorithm to reduce the time complexity. The proposed algorithms are evaluated with extensive simulations, and the results indicate that, compared with an existing benchmark, they can effectively reduce the additional OPEX of MLR.


Pathogenic mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are known to cause numerous inherited diseases. However, the lack of methods to transgenically manipulate the mtDNA limits the possibilities to learn about mtDNA sequence and function. The mtDNA mutator mouse is used as a saturation mutagenesis model to generate high variant load into mtDNA. With this model, it has been previously shown that, for instance OriL is essential for mtDNA replication or that strong purifying selection of potentially deleterious mtDNA mutations takes place in the germ line. Traditionally, mtDNA mutations have been detected by Sanger sequencing or post-PCR cloning and sequencing, which are unable to represent the entire mtDNA genome, and are laborious, expensive, or of low sensitivity. More recently, high-throughput sequencing methods have been utilized as cheaper approaches to detect mtDNA variants over the entire genome. However, the high error-rate of these technologies is considered as a limiting factor regarding variant detection sensitivity. On the other hand, high-sensitivity high-throughput sequencing methods, such as Duplex Sequencing, are often laborious requiring extensive optimization and high sequencing depth, ultimately raising the costs to a prohibitive level.
In this thesis, various mitochondria enrichment and amplification methods are explored in order to enrich mtDNA free from nuclear DNA contamination. Standard Illumina HiSeq sequencing is utilized and data analysis steps are carefully optimized to be suitable for mtDNA genome, which has characteristics very different from the nuclear genome. Finally, the optimized mtDNA enrichment and sequencing protocol, mtDNA-seq, is validated utilizing a titration of spike-in samples harboring known mtDNA variants. With mtDNA-seq it is possible to detect mtDNA variants reliably even below allele frequency of 0.05 %, which is approximately ten times lower variant detection threshold than what has been generally applied in other studies.
The optimized mtDNA-seq is applied to address open mitochondrial biology research questions. The variant profile of the entire mtDNA genome is generated, and several complete mutational coldspots are discovered at the control region of the mtDNA. These novel coldspots are hypothesized to be potential regulation sites for mtDNA replication and replication-associated transcription by as-yet-unknown molecular mechanisms. To clarify the developmental stage and mechanism of purifying selection, hemizygote mtDNA mutator mouse is utilized to isolate mtDNA variants into female lineages. As it is possible to detect extremely rare mtDNA variants by mtDNA‑seq, these new results expand the previous study showing strong purifying selection by N2 generation of mice. The results suggest that by chance any mtDNA variant may be transmitted to the offspring, however, the most deleterious mutations do not seem to clonally expand even in N1 generation mice. To understand the mtRNA processing, amplicon sequencing approach is utilized in a preliminary study. The aim in this study is to detect allelic mismatches between mtDNA and mtRNA variants, which potentially indicate mtRNA processing defects.


Multielectron redox chemistry, which is essential in metal catalysed chemical transformations, is not easily accessible in lanthanide complexes. Here we explored the reductive chemistry of lanthanide complexes with tetradentate Schiff bases acting as redox-active ligands with the objective of identifying new pathways to lanthanide multielectron redox transfer. The chemical reduction with alkali metals of heteroleptic [Nd(salophen)X] (salophen = N,N′-bis(salicylidene)phenylenediamine, X = I, OTf) and of a series of homoleptic K[Ln(Rsalophen)2] complexes of trivalent lanthanides has resulted respectively in the synthesis of the new dinuclear Nd(III) complex K2[Nd2(cyclo-salophen)(THF)2] and in the synthesis of a series of mononuclear lanthanide(III) complexes of general formula K3[Ln(bis-Rsalophen)] (R = H, Me, tBu). Ligand reduction and C–C bond formation are supported by X-ray crystal structures. Proton NMR studies demonstrate that the K2[Nd2(cyclo-salophen)(py)2] complex can transfer four electrons in the reaction with oxidizing agents such as AgOTf through the breaking of the two C–C bonds. Moreover the electrochemistry and reactivity of the mononuclear complexes K3[Ln(bis-Rsalophen)] show that they can act as formal two electron reductants and that their oxidation potential can be tuned by changing the substituents on the ligand. These results illustrate that Schiff bases provide a new way to introduce multielectron redox events at lanthanide centers and a new route to highly reactive mono- and polynuclear complexes of lanthanides.


The p(O2)-T- diagrams of La2Ni1-xMxO4+ (M=Co and Cu, x= 0-0.20), determined by the coulometric titration technique at 923-1223 K in the oxygen partial pressure range 10-4 to 0.6 atm, can be adequately described by equilibrium processes of oxygen intercalation into the rock-salt type layers and hole localization on B-site cations forming 3+ oxidation states. For the hole activity, a non-ideal solution model taking into account the repulsion of p-type electronic charge carriers can be used. The electrostatic repulsion excludes occupation of nearest neighboring sites and leads to splitting of the energy levels for more distant sites. The affinity of Ni and Cu cations with respect to the hole localization is similar and cannot be statistically separated analyzing the oxygen nonstoichiometry data only. On the contrary, cobalt cations tend to remain in the trivalent state and Co3+ should be treated as a separate type of charged point defect. Oxygen vacancies formed in the perovskite-like layers due to intrinsic Frenkel disorder have no essential effect on the oxygen thermodynamics. As expected, the thermodynamic functions governing the intercalation-related processes are independent of defect concentrations.


This issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, on the theme "Migrating Identities and Perspectives: Latin America and the Caribbean in Local and Global Contexts," is published with the co-editorial initiative and assistance of Terry-Anne Jones and Eric Mielants of Fairfield University, CT. The co-editors, in their introductory essay that follows this editor's note, helpfully summarize the basic themes of various contributions of authors--and, additionally, the abstract to each contribution provides further opening insight into the respective study--so I will try below to present a brief personal note that may provide an additional or different window for appreciating the explorations and findings of the studies that comprise this volume. Whenever the topic of migration and its studies come up, somehow, as far as I am concerned, the term does not personally ring an identity bell in me immediately. For some reason, the status of being an immigrant to the U.S. does not strike the core of my identity formation and sensibility. I have always wondered why, given that obviously I am, for all practical purposes, an immigrant from another region of the world (Middle East, Iran in particular), having arrived in the U.S. to pursue higher education at the age of eighteen, in 1978, basically on my own, though with financial support from my parents at the time. The term for "migrant" in Persian is "mohajer," and somehow I have very rarely, if at all, referred to or considered myself as a mohajer. This seems quite puzzling to me, especially in light of the very theme of this issue of Human Architecture focusing on the interplay of migration and identify formation, albeit focusing on a different region of the world, i.e., Latin America and the Caribbean, than the one I come from. I think a part of what may explain this lack of internalization of an overt immigrant identity in me has to do with a denial of what the notion of migration is supposed to designate figuratively. A migrant moves from one place to another, not belonging to the original place, and being (or, trying to be) integrated and assimilated into another place. The notion that I am any less of an Iranian, or belonging to Iran, after coming to the U.S.--being a foreign student for a while, then a permanent resident, and finally a U.S. citizen--has not penetrated my personal or broader social identity. I became, in fact, more involved in Iranian affairs, political or not, and began more than before seeing myself as an Iranian of Persian descent--and to some extent Azeri, as far as my parents' "domestic" migration from the Azerbaijan provincial city of Tabriz to Tehran in their youth is concerned--when I moved to the U.S. and became involved in the Iranian student movement at U.C. Berkeley at the time of the revolution and immediately afterwards. And I didn't feel any less Iranian during my graduate studies in Upstate New York, and later as a faculty at UMass Boston. Physically, yes, I have spent more years of my life in the U.S. by now; subjectively, however, it is as if I never left Iran, to which I must add that I have also not felt entirely assimilated into the U.S. culture and social and political self-identity. This is not to say that I do not appreciate living in the U.S., and having benefited one way or another from the personal, collegial, and professional associations I have made throughout the years living in the U.S., but somehow the notion of being "no longer" an Iranian simply because I have lived for more than thirty years in the U.S. simply does not exist in my subjective experience. In fact, I feel one can be in one place and not be of it at all, and not be somewhere else, and strongly feel a sense of belonging to this somewhere else. To make matters a bit more complicated, though, I must say that my identity as one coming from a more or less Shi'ite Muslim family went through a drastic transformation, subsequent to my involvement in leftist oriented Iranian and non-Iranian student movements during my undergraduate and later graduate years in the U. …


This note lays out the basic Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological model of contagion, with a target audience of economists who want a framework for understanding the effects of social distancing and containment policies on the evolution of contagion and interactions with the economy. A key parameter, the asymptomatic rate (the fraction of the infected that are not tested under current guidelines), is not well estimated in the literature because tests for the coronavirus have been targeted at the sick and vulnerable, however it could be estimated by random sampling of the population. In this simple model, different policies that yield the same transmission rate β have the same health outcomes but can have very different economic costs. Thus, one way to frame the economics of shutdown policy is as finding the most efficient policies to achieve a given β, then determining the path of β that trades off the economic cost against the cost of excess lives lost by overwhelming the health care system.


Tildipirosin is a 16-membered ring, tribasic and semi-synthetic macrolide antibiotic. The aim of this study was to determine the safety of tildipirosin following a single treatment at doses of 4 mg/kg and 8 mg/kg via subcutaneous injection. In the current research, tildipirosin (SC, single treatment) was applied at the doses of 4 and 8 mg/kg to the Normal Dose (ND) and High Dose (HD) group, respectively. Blood samples were gained before (0th d) and after treatments on 0.25, 0.5, 1, 3 and 21 d's. Hemogram, biochemical and oxidative stress parameters were determined from blood samples. High dose tildipirosin increased cardiac damage parameters including creatine kinase-MB mass and partially troponin I within the first day, and high dose tildipirosin decreased statistically significant the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances levels on 1 and 3 d compared with ND group. Statistically significance fluctuations within reference ranges were observed in the biochemical and hemogram values. In conclusion, high dose tildipirosin may cause cardiotoxicity in sheep. However, cardiography, monitorization and histopathological evaluations should be done to determination of adverse effects of different doses of tildipirosin in sheep.


Global climate change is a natural process that currently appears to be strongly influenced by human activities, which increase atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG). Agriculture contributes about 20% of the world's global radiation forcing from carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and produces 50% of the methane and 70% of the nitrous oxide of the human-induced emission. Managing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases synthesizes the wealth of information generated from the GRACEnet (Greenhouse gas Reduction through Agricultural Carbon Enhancement network) effort with contributors from a variety of backgrounds, and reports findings with important international applications. * Frames responses to challenges associated with climate change within the geographical domain of the U.S., while providing a useful model for researchers in the many parts of the world that possess similar ecoregions * Covers not only soil C dynamics but also nitrous oxide and methane flux, filling a void in the existing literature * Educates scientists and technical service providers conducting greenhouse gas research, industry, and regulators in their agricultural research by addressing the issues of GHG emissions and ways to reduce these emissions* Synthesizes the data from top experts in the world into clear recommendations and expectations for improvements in the agricultural management of global warming potential as an aggregate of GHG emissions


This guide is intended to introduce you to the many ways that the Law Library can assist you in getting published.


Apoptosis, differentiation and proliferation have to be tightly balanced and thus regulated to maintain tissue homeostasis. Stress, metabolic cues, genetic variability, infections and physiological host-commensal interactions influence this balance and thus need to be integrated. Therefore, beyond the discrimination between self and non-self (i.e., foreign) also damage inflicted on tissues under sterile conditions is perceived by the immune system due to altered tissue integrity. Growing knowledge of the interaction between the immune system and wounded or more generally altered tissues allows inferring on anti-tumorous immune responses, too. Despite the lack of adaptive immunity, Drosophila mounts solid and versatile innate immune responses that functionally and molecularly share many properties with their vertebrate counterparts. In fact, tissue overgrowth, tissue dysplasia or endogenous danger signaling activate systemic Toll-signaling in the fat body indicating a role for the Drosophila immune system in maintaining tissue homeostasis.Here we characterize systemic and local immune responses towards altered or transformed tissues by using a Drosophila hypertrophy model, which is based on the overexpression of a dominant-active variant of the small GTPase Ras (Ras85DG12V) in salivary glands and wing discs. We characterized the strong induction of hemocyte recruitment to the glands as a consequence of JNK-dependent MMP1-expression and basal membrane degradation. Apart from this cellular immune reaction, transcriptome profiling revealed comprehensive humoral immune responses mounted by the fat body that involved signatures of Toll- and imd-activation. Moreover, a novel tissue-autonomous response that was spatially restricted to the anterior end of the RasV12-expressing salivary gland itself was identified. While multiple immune genes were found to be upregulated in the anterior compartment as detected by RNA sequencing, particular focus was given to the effector peptide Drosomycin (Drs). Overexpression of Drs with RasV12 in the entire gland similar to the inhibition of the JNK-pathway was able to selectively rescue a characteristic set of RasV12-induced phenotypes, which ultimately blocks the recruitment of hemocytes. Thereby, local immune-related responses in RasV12-expressing salivary glands are able to restrict the tissue damage induced by hypertrophic growth.


Environmental pollution caused by the release of a wide range of xenobiotic compounds has assumed serious proportions. Bioremediation techniques, utilizing microorganisms to reduce the concentration and toxicity of various chemical pollutants such as petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial solvents and pesticides, are the most promising strategies for the restoration of polluted environments.
Several bacterial strains with promising degradative abilities have already been isolated and characterized. However, the full exploitation of the potential of bioremediation strategies requires not only the isolation of a large number of strains with wide degradative abilities but also an accurate characterization of these strains both at the microbiological and biochemical/genetic level. This knowledge is necessary to perform a rational planning of bioremediation interventions.
The present work describes isolation of new strains able to degrade aromatic hydrocarbons directly from polluted environments by means of appropriate selection procedures.
Novosphingobium sp. PP1Y, isolated from a surface seawater sample collected from a closed bay in the harbor of Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy), uses fuels as its sole carbon and energy source. Like some other Sphingomonads, this strain can grow as either planktonic free cells or sessile-aggregated flocks. In addition, this strain was found to grow as biofilm on several types of solid and liquid hydrophobic surfaces including polystyrene, polypropylene and diesel oil. Strain PP1Y is not able to grow on pure alkanes or alkane mixtures but is able to grow on a surprisingly wide range of aromatic compounds including mono, bi, tri and tetracyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic compounds.
During growth on diesel oil, the organic layer is emulsified resulting in the formation of small biofilm-coated drops, whereas during growth on aromatic hydrocarbons dissolved in paraffin the oil layer is emulsified but the drops are coated only if the mixtures contain selected aromatic compounds, like pyrene, propylbenzene, tetrahydronaphthalene and heterocyclic compounds.
These peculiar characteristics suggest strain PP1Y has adapted to efficiently grow at the water/fuel interface using the aromatic fraction of fuels as the sole carbon and energy source.
The whole PP1Y genome sequence could provide clues about the metabolism of this species and about the possibility of manipulating it for bioremediation purposes.
The PP1Y genome is comprised of a single 3.9 Mbp circular chromosome and of 3 plasmids, one megaplasmid (Mpl; 1.16 Mbp), one large plasmid (Lpl; 0.19 Mbp), and one small plasmid (Spl; 0.05 Mbp). Notably, this is the first time that a megaplasmid of such size has been identified in a sphingomonad. Our results will help to clarify the molecular basis of the unusual features of this strain and to engineer strains with enhanced cultural and bioremediation abilities.


Chemical systems with standard reaction enthalpies (ΔH0r) and an activation energies (Ea) of a few tens of kcal/mol are generally well described by the unimolecular reaction rate theory. The goal of this work is to determine the limits of this model by studying the kinetics of various chemical reactions with a small ΔH0r and Ea respectively. The theoretical model for the evaluation of the experimental data has been developped by Troe to determine reaction rate constants in the different pressure regimes. Based on a relaxation method an experimental technique has been specially developped to investigate chemical reactions with small ΔH0r and for Ea. A fast temperature jump, induced by a pulsed CO2 laser, disturbes instantaneously the chemical system, and the subsequent relaxation of the system is observed spectrospically. First, this experimental technique has been proved with a chemical system of known chemical kinetics, i.e. the gas phase dimerization of nitrogen dioxide to dinitrogen tetroxid. The rate constants of this system have been determined by other methods, such as flash photolysis, laser photolysis or in shock wave tubes. T-jump experiments have been carried out in the presence of helium, from 0.3 to 200 bar total pressure, corresponding to the so called reaction fall-off. This wide range of pressures, extending over 4 decades, allows the extrapolation of the reaction rate constant in the low and high pressure limits with good confidence. Additionally, mesurements in the temperature range from 255 to 273 K lead to the following reaction rate constant : Experimental limits of the technique rise from non-thermalisation effects prior to the reaction, when direct V-V energy transfer occurs between the IR-sensitizer and dinitrogen tetroxid. This transfer is particularly observed with a small sensitizer dinitrogen tetroxid ratio. The next system studied is the N2O3 NO2 + NO reaction, which has a never smaller ΔH0r. In this case, non-thermalisation effects are not observed, leading to the conclusion of direct V-V energy transfer between the sensitizer and N2O4, and not NO2. Experiments between 225 and 260 K, and 0.5 to 200 bar of total argon pressure, allow the rate constant to be determined as: Like the N2O4/NO2 system, the N2O3 NO2 + NO reaction is also fairly well described by the kinetic theory of unimolecular reactions. Differences between the calculation according to Troe's model and experimental values are indeed below 30%. Finally, reactions with much smaller ΔH0r and Ea, like the cis/trans isomerisation of acrolein and 1,3-butadiene, have been studied. Experimental results are in good accordance with the theory for the low pressure limit reaction rate constant. However, there is a large discrepancy for the high pressure limit reaction rate constant, where the theory predicts rate constant about 100 times higher than the experimentals results. Further more, the reaction rate constant also depends on the concentration of the isomer present in the mixture. This surprising result can be explained by the formation of dimers or even polymers which decrease the reaction rates. These results are however in accordance with those obtained by Bauer and al. for the syn anti isomerisation of methylnitrite and aziridine, as well as those obtained by Quack in the HF dimer. These authors have also observed discrespancis between the theoretical prediction and experimental results in the high pressure regime.


Many believe that the deep question of "why is there something rather than nothing?" is unanswerable. The universe just is and no further explanation for its existence is possible. In this paper I explain why this question must have an answer, and why that answer must establish that physical existence is inescapable and necessary. Based on the conclusion that if the universe is eternal rather than having a beginning some finite time in the past, the universe has to exist rather than not because its possible non-existence is never an option, such an explanation is put forward. As a logical extension of only an eternal universe being capable of providing an answer to the question of why there is something rather than nothing, the argument necessitates that the universe must be eternal. The consequences of this conclusion for cosmology are then briefly discussed.


Empirical studies have indicated that listeners value music primarily for its ability to arouse emotions. Yet little is known about which emotions listeners normally experience when listening to music, or about the causes of these emotions. The goal of this study was therefore to explore the prevalence of emotional reactions to music in everyday life and how this is influenced by various factors in the listener, the music, and the situation. A self-administered mail questionnaire was sent to a random and nationally representative sample of 1,500 Swedish citizens between the ages of 18 and 65, and 762 participants (51%) responded to the questionnaire. Thirty-two items explored both musical emotions in general (semantic estimates) and the most recent emotion episode featuring music for each participant (episodic estimates). The results revealed several variables (e.g., personality, age, gender, listener activity) that were correlated with particular emotions. A multiple discriminant analysis indicated that three of the most common emotion categories in a set of musical episodes (i.e., happiness, sadness, nostalgia) could be predicted with a mean accuracy of 70% correct based on data obtained from the questionnaire. The results may inform theorizing about musical emotions and guide the selection of causal variables for manipulation in future experiments.


As youth in South African are affected by HIV/AIDS, risk reduction research has higWighted the needs of young people for information about sex, sexuality and risk. South African research has looked at young people's sources of sex information and their preferred sources. This thesis examines communication about sex with young people in their families as a protective factor in risk resilience and general problem-solving skills. The study explores how young Zulu women between the ages of 14-15 years understand communication about sex in their families, how and with whom sex is talked about, and how the young women understand the cultural 'taboo' on talking about sex in their families. This study employs an interpretive thematic analysis in analysing semi-structured interviews with eight rural district Zulu-speaking young women. The interview schedule drew on themes related to mother-daughter communication about sex from an American study by Brock and Jennings. The girls felt that there was minimal communication about sex within their families, and this reflected negative verbal and non-verbal messages. The girls wished that their biological parents could communicate with them about sexual issues freely and comfortably, as they would like to do with their own children when they grow up.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the effect of Pakistani and American almonds on serum concentration of liver enzymes in coronary artery disease patients.

Methods
The randomised controlled trial was conducted at the Cardiology Clinics of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from February to July, 2012, and comprised patients who were randomised into intervention PA and AA groups and the control NI groups. Subjects in the intervention groups were provided Pakistani and American varieties of almonds 10g/day respectively with instructions to soak them overnight, remove the skin and eat them before breakfast for 12 weeks. The control group underwent no intervention. Serum concentrations of aspartate transaminase, Alanine transaminase and gamma-glutamyl transferase were analysed and compared.

RESULTS
Of the 150 subjects, 110(73.3%) completed the study. Of them, there were 38(34.5%) in PA group, 41(37.3%) in AA, and 31(28.2%) in the NI group. Dietary almonds significantly reduced serum concentrations of aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase and gamma-glutamyl transferase in the two intervention groups compared to the controls group (p<0.05) at 12-week follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
A low dose of almonds was found to be an effective strategy to protect the liver.


Upstate New York, with a growing senior population, is seeing an increase in the number of frail and disabled elderly who rely on local services and infrastructure and are concentrated in the inner cities and older suburbs. While local governments and institutions will face greater pressure to provide services and infrastructure to this expanding segment, the challenge may prove especially difficult for many upstate communities, given their environment of slow economic growth and fiscal stress.


In 1988 EPA designated Puget Sound as an estuary of national significance under section 320 of the Clean Water Act. Due to its natural beauty, favorable climate, and economic health, the Puget Sound Basin continues to grow in population. Indicators of pollution, however, began to emerge in the Sound, particularly in urban embayments. These indicators included contaminated sediments, tumors in fish livers, closed shellfish beds; loss of habitat, and high levels of some toxics in certain marine mammals. In response to growing public concern, in 1985 the Washington State Legislature created the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority to develop a comprehensive management plan to reduce and eventually eliminate harm to Puget Sound from pollution. The Authority was also charged to oversee implementation of the plan. The comprehensive management plan has been completed and it includes a wide range of pollution control strategies which address point source discharges, stormwater runoff and other nonpoint sources, contaminated sediments, wetlands and habitat protection, shellfish bed restoration, spill prevention and response, monitoring and research, public involvement and education, as well as funding mechanisms and other supporting programs. This paper briefly outlines the pollution control strategies in each program and identifies some of the successes and challenges resulting from implementation.


As the load of the turbine components of aircraft engines continuously increases, shock loss becomes the dominant factor of turbine stage loss and has become a hot topic. The Schlieren technique is one of the few effective experimental methods to observe and study shock wave and, thus, has been widely used. Nevertheless, limited by camera accuracy and computer image processing technology, quantitative schlieren analysis methods were difficult to achieve in engineering applications. Fortunately, several quantitative schlieren methods have been developed with the help of new digital technology. Applying the schlieren technique to the highly loaded turbine cascade test is of great significance to the study of shock wave in highly loaded turbine cascades. In this paper, the results of the quantitative density field and shock intensity and loss in the cascade are obtained by using a double-reflection-type monochrome schlieren device. The boundary condition of the density field is obtained by pressure test, and matlab software is used as image processing calculation tool. The quantitative results of this paper prove the feasibility of applying quantitative schlieren method to highly loaded turbine cascade tests. Also, the implemented image processing method and density boundary condition acquisition method are suitable and convenient for cascade flow and shock measurement tests.


This study explored the ways in which students become self-regulated learners. High school students (N = 297) were self-administered ACT practice examinations and Bandura's self-regulated learning subscale (from his Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy) with specific reference to English and mathematics. Path analytic results suggested that these students depended primarily on external comparisons rather than on internal comparisons in determining their self-regulated learning perceptions, a pattern consistent for both female and male students. The strong association between the English and mathematics self-regulated learning components may also provide some insight into the structure of self-regulation among college-bound students in academic settings. Self-regulated learning capabilities have been linked to motivation and achievement in school settings (Bandura, 1997). Educators have therefore questioned how they might advance perceived self-regulation in the classroom. Research on this issue has traditionally sought to identify the personal attributes and strategies used by effective self-regulated learners (Zimmerman, 1994). For example, Pintrich and De Groot (1990) examined individual differences in a variety of self-regulated learning strategies among students (e.g., rehearsal, persistence, comprehension monitoring). Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1988) contrasted strategy use among high- and low-achieving students. Little information, however, is available on how self-regulated learning capability perceptions are formed. Furthermore, due to differences in self-regulated learning across disciplines (VanderStoep, Pintrich, & Fagerlin, 1996), the formation of self-regulated learning capability beliefs may be domain-specific. The current study determined the ways in which students cultivated self-regulated learning capability perceptions in two content domains (English and mathematics) in an effort to increase our understanding of self-regulation. Theoretically, self-comparison and referential comparison with others are believed to provide standards of contrast or frames of reference in educational environments (Bandura, 1991). Both personal standards and performance knowledge contribute to self or internal comparison. Internal comparison occurs in the classroom when a student infers their ability in one area by comparing their performance in that area (e.g., English) with performance in another area (e.g., mathematics). Referential or external comparison is obtained through the social comparison process. External comparison occurs when students evaluate their own capabilities with respect to the attainments of peer groups in similar academic settings. Although researchers have established that both frames of reference come into play as students determine their academic self-concept (Marsh, 1990), self-concept judgments are not assessments of capability (Bandura, 1991; Pajares & Miller, 1994). In other words, asking students "Can you do math?" differs conceptually from asking them "How well can you do math?" Alternate frames of reference may come into play as students form capability perceptions of self-regulated learning (SRL). One theoretical model developed to assess the reference comparison process (Marsh , 1986) posits that use of external comparison should produce a substantial positive correlation between English and mathematics achievement (I am smart relative to others), as well as strong positive direct effects for both English achievement on English SRL and mathematics achievement on math SRL. A weak negative direct effect of English achievement on math SRL and mathematics achievement on English SRL would result from an internal comparison process (I am better in English than I am in math). Theoretically, if students use both internal and external comparisons, the positive and negative processes should cancel each other out thereby producing a near-zero correlation between English and math SRL components. …


The Ottoman invasion of the Balkans that began in the 14th century led to an imbalance in the process of self-identification among the Bosnian people, having crucial influence on the process of establishing their sense of belonging, identification and national awareness. It particularly influenced the process of conceptualizing the cultural identity of Boshnjaks, whose ancestors converted to Islam and changed the ethnic and religious landscape of Balkans to a large extent. The author focuses on the political and social factors determining the shape of Bosnian identity, its origin and historical circumstances which influenced not only identification processes but also the course of the conflict in the Balkans between 1992 and 1995. This paper also provides data on many controversial facts regarding influences of Islamic radicals on Bosnian society before and after the fall of Yugoslavia. On the basis of social and historical analysis the author indicates that contemporary theories on cultural origin of conflicts, reduced to the dichotomy Jihad vs. McWorld are not applicable in the case of the unique, multicultural identity of Bosnian Muslims.


Prepare for CompTIA's newly updated Project+ certification exam CompTIA is offering the first major update to its Project+ certification in six years, and this in-depth study guide from project management industry experts Kim and William Heldman is the perfect preparation for the new exam. You'll find complete coverage of all exam objectives, including key topics such as project planning, execution, delivery, closure, and others. CompTIA's Project+ is the foundation-level professional exam in the complex world of project management; certified project managers often choose to go on and obtain their Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications as well Provides complete coverage of all exam objectives for CompTIA's first update to the Project+ exam in six years Covers project planning, execution, delivery, change, control, communication, and closure Demonstrates and reinforces exam preparation with practical examples and real-word scenarios Includes a CD with Sybex test engine, practice exams, electronic flashcards, and a PDF of the book Approach the new Project+ exam with confidence with this in-depth study guide! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Performance evaluations of facilities are widely practiced within facilities organisations and it is generally accepted by Facilities Management practitioners that failure to obtain feedback on the building performance can expose facilities to serious consequences. The success of the evaluation is largely dependent on the breadth of issues being covered. These include financial matters, the physical condition of the building or the environment. As performance evaluation is a continuous process in the facilities management cycle, the factors that contribute to its success need to be identified. Issues such as accuracy, standardisation of practice, skill and knowledge remain open to debate among practitioners and academia in facilities management. There is also a view that facility users and owners are still in doubt as to how the performance evaluation will benefit them. On the knowledge management side, previous studies in various fields have identified numbers of knowledge mapping tools and techniques that are widely used. Knowledge mapping tools and techniques assist with information and knowledge flow throughout an organisation. However, for a knowledge map to be useful it must serve the purpose for which it is intended. This imposes some constraints upon which map forms are suitable and for what purpose. In the same vein, facilities performance practices are developing and evolving with changes in technology, business needs and users' expectation. The present research identifies and explores the potential knowledge mapping tools and techniques that might be of benefit to facilities management organisations. In addition, a conceptual framework for the exploitation of benefits of knowledge mapping at various stages of performance evaluation is presented and discussed. The research methodology of the study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Twenty-one (21) facilities managers from different facilities management organisation were interviewed using semi structured interview techniques in order to obtain in-depth information on the implementation of knowledge mapping in the organisations. The data obtained was analysed using content analysis techniques. To obtain a broader perspective of the key issues investigated in the research, one hundred and eighty-eight (188) usable questionnaires were obtained from facilities managers in Malaysia via e-mail survey. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 16.0) was used to analyse the quantitative data and various statistical methods. The present research concludes that majority of facilities management organisations are of the view that knowledge mapping is important and some have initiated and implemented tools and techniques of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance. The study also revealed that the main benefits of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance are: improvements in the decision making process, problems identification and problem solving by providing quick access to critical information, identifying knowledge gaps and islands of expertise. The guidance produced will be beneficial to facilities management organisations in implementing knowledge mapping and exploit the benefits in facilities management organisation.


This paper focuses on the future of economic policies with regard to inflation. The dominant approach to inflation over the past two decades or so has been inflation targeting. The global environment of the decade circa 1995 to 2005 with the "China effect†pushing down prices of manufactured goods and with primary commodity prices being subdued was conducive to low inflation. It is argued that inflation targeting has not been a great success story and is unable to address inflation arising from global forces or from struggles over the distribution of income. It is argued that a more sophisticated analysis than that contained in the Phillips curve is required. Further, and from our analysis, counter inflation policies should include the achievement of an inflation barrier consistent with full employment without inflationary pressures. This can be addressed by ensuring that there is sufficient productive capacity to underpin full employment, where sufficient is to be interpreted in terms of quantity, quality and geographical distribution. Further, we argue that this should be complemented by some form of incomes policy, to enable inflation to be contained without resorting to demand deflation.


This paper presents an industrial case study on logic diagnosis targeting System-on-Chip (SoC). We first show the complexity and the issues related to the diagnosis of SoC. Then we propose a diagnosis approach based on the Effect-Cause paradigm. This approach consists of two phases: (i) a fault localization phase resorting to the critical path tracing to determine a set of suspects, (ii) a fault model allocation phase associating a set of fault models to each suspect identified during the first phase. To deal with SoC we define a new algebra for the critical path tracing process during fault localization. Experimental results show the diagnosis accuracy, in terms of absolute number of suspects, of the proposed approach. Moreover, a comparison with an industrial reference tool highlights the reliability of our approach.


Among the complex ecosystems and habitats that form the deep sea, submarine canyons and open slope systems are regarded as potential hotspots of biodiversity. We assessed the spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity in sediment communities of a NW Mediterranean Canyon and its adjacent open slope (Blanes Canyon) with DNA metabarcoding. We sampled three layers of sediment and four different depths (900–1750 m) at two seasons, and used a fragment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) as a metabarcoding marker. The final dataset contained a total of 15,318 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). Metazoa, Stramenopiles and Archaeplastida were the dominant taxa and, within metazoans, Arthropoda, Nematoda and Cnidaria were the most diverse. There was a trend towards decreasing MOTU richness and diversity in the first few cm (1 to 5) of the sediment, with only 26.3% of the MOTUs shared across sediment layers. Our results show the presence of heterogeneous communities in the studied area, which was significantly different between zones, depths and seasons. We compared our results with the ones presented in a previous study, obtained using the v7 region of the 18S rRNA gene in the same samples. There were remarkable differences in the total number of MOTUs and in the most diverse taxa. COI recovered a higher number of MOTUs, but more remained unassigned taxonomically. However, the broad spatio-temporal patterns elucidated from both datasets coincided, with both markers retrieving the same ecological information. Our results showed that COI can be used to accurately characterize the studied communities and constitute a high-resolution method to detect ecological shifts. We also highlight that COI reference databases for deep-sea organisms have important gaps, and their completeness is essential in order to successfully apply metabarcoding techniques.


Jonathan Swift famously said, "Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." Swift was no doubt referring to the propensity of the law to shrink from prosecuting the lords of the realm, while going vigorously after smaller fry. But his aphorism applies equally to issues: the more portentous the issue, the less likely it is to yield to legal restraints. This is evidenced by such lawless pronouncements as "international law is not a suicide pact" or, more recently, "I believe that all nations-strong and weak alike-must adhere to standards that govern the use of force. I-like any head of state-reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation." It follows that a compilation of a large volume of laws, treaties, regulations, and resolutions, no matter how thorough and exhaustive, from which the illegality of the threat and use of nuclear weapons can be deduced, will not necessarily bring about a nuclear-weapons-free world. Indeed, the main article recognizes this dilemma by describing the negative position of the United States, which may be characterized as "desperately seeking Lotus." What is needed, therefore, is a clear, absolute, and enforceable mandate, akin to the biological and chemical weapons conventions. It is this logic that has led to movement for a nuclear weapons convention. This Essay will briefly describe the movement for a model nuclear-weapons convention ("MNWC" or "Convention") in Part I and outline its contents and discuss some issues that it raises in Part II. TAKING THE LAW SERIOUSLY: THE IMPERATIVE NEED FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION


The ocean fishing port of Belawan is the development center of the fish processing industry and fishing center in the North Sumatra Province. There were 25 fish processing industries in the Ocean fishing port of Belawan. The need for raw material of the fish processing industry increase per year, but the need is not fulfilled by the continuity supply. The objectives of this study were to estimate the needs of raw materials for the fish processing industry, to identify the origin of raw materials for fish processing industry and estimate the availability of raw materials, to formulize strategies for the fulfillment of raw materials of the fish processing industry. The collecting data method used were observation and interview method. Then, the data analysis used was descriptive and SWOT analysis. The result showed that the needs of raw materials for fish processing industry was 85.714 ton/year. While, the fish origin in the ocean fishing port of Belawan were from fish landed inside the fishing port and outside fishing port (Aceh, Bengkulu, Padang, Batubara, and Tanjung Balai). Then, the supply estimation (operational capacity) was 54.429 tons/year. The level of need supplying of fish processing industry was 63%. Based on the SWOT analysis, the strategies to supply the need of fish processing industry were developing the port facilities (cold storage) and utilization of human resources, making collaboration with related stakeholder to support the supply and price of raw material in stable condition, conducting law enforcement through individual that obstruct the raw material to industry.


This article considers how trends in financing are changing governance at intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). Over the course of the twentieth century IGO funding rules changed in two important ways. First, they were altered to allow states greater control over the financial contributions they provide, allowing states to 'earmark' contributions. Second, funding rules made private actors eligible contributors, providing an important entry point for private actor influence. I focus on three primary effects of these changes on IGO governance: (1) how the increased reliance on earmarked contributions undermines traditional conceptions of multilateral governance; (2) how private actors are empowered by their ability to earmark resources as they emerge as major funders; and (3) on the surge in 'minilateral' governance associated with the rise of pooled funding mechanisms. I draw on delegation theory to illustrate these changes conceptually and provide examples from a wide variety of institutions within and outside the UN system. I conclude by outlining fruitful avenues for research on financing IGOs.


This article will discuss how epilepsy has been perceived throughout history and across different cultures. The chapter will highlight how historical conceptions of epilepsy and misrepresentation in the media have perpetuated current stereotypical perceptions of the disorder. Consequently, misconceptions about epilepsy serve to propagate discrimination and stigma toward people with the condition. The myths that surround epilepsy will be explored emphasising how misconception, discrimination and stigma affect the quality of life of people with the condition. Myths, stigma and stereotypes can result in multiple interrelated psychosocial outcomes which can impede the cohesive integration of people with epilepsy in society. The impact of these factors on important psychosocial outcomes such as self esteem, depression, anxiety, employability, opportunities for social interaction and interpersonal relationships will be discussed. The chapter will explore these outcomes highlighting how society can be effective in engendering positive attitudes towards people with epilepsy. To conclude, educational interventions aimed at people with epilepsy, their families, employers, teachers and society at large will be considered along with future research suggestions with a view to reduce the impact of stigma and improve the social functioning of people with epilepsy.


Legally mandated nurse-to-patient ratios are one of the most controversial topics in health care today. Ratio advocates believe that minimum staffing levels are essential for quality care, better working conditions, and higher rates of RN recruitment and retention that would alleviate the current global nursing shortage. Opponents claim that ratios will unfairly burden hospital budgets, while reducing management flexibility in addressing patient needs. Safety in Numbers is the first book to examine the arguments for and against ratios. Utilizing survey data, interviews, and other original research, Suzanne Gordon, John Buchanan, and Tanya Bretherton weigh the cost, benefits, and effectiveness of ratios in California and the state of Victoria in Australia, the two places where RN staffing levels have been mandated the longest. They show how hospital cost cutting and layoffs in the 1990s created larger workloads and deteriorating conditions for both nurses and their patients-leading nursing organizations to embrace staffing level regulation. The authors provide an in-depth account of the difficult but ultimately successful campaigns waged by nurses and their allies to win mandated ratios. Safety in Numbers then reports on how nurses, hospital administrators, and health care policymakers handled ratio implementation. With at least fourteen states in the United States and several other countries now considering staffing level regulation, this balanced assessment of the impact of ratios on patient outcomes and RN job performance and satisfaction could not be timelier. The authors' history and analysis of the nurse-to-patient ratios debate will be welcomed as an invaluable guide for patient advocates, nurses, health care managers, public officials, and anyone else concerned about the quality of patient care in the United States and the world.


We present an algorithm for extracting and vectorizing objects in images with polygons. Departing from a polygonal partition that oversegments an image into convex cells, the algorithm refines the geometry of the partition while labeling its cells by a semantic class. The result is a set of polygons, each capturing an object in the image. The quality of a configuration is measured by an energy that accounts for both the fidelity to input data and the complexity of the output polygons. To efficiently explore the configuration space, we perform splitting and merging operations in tandem on the cells of the polygonal partition. The exploration mechanism is controlled by a priority queue that sorts the operations most likely to decrease the energy. We show the potential of our algorithm on different types of scenes, from organic shapes to man-made objects through floor maps, and demonstrate its efficiency compared to existing vectorization methods.


Objective To assess the utility of erythrocyte methotrexate-polyglutamate (MTX-PG) concentrations in determining the safety and efficacy of MTX in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods 79 MTX-naïve patients with RA were enrolled in this prospective 76-week cohort study. MTX was initiated, and a predefined dose-escalation protocol was followed. Erythrocyte MTX-PG concentrations were measured using liquid chromatography. The associations of MTX-PG concentrations with disease activity and adverse events were analysed. Results Dose escalation of MTX resulted in increased MTX-PG concentrations and a decrease in the mean Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28). A significant association was observed between total MTX-PG concentrations and ΔDAS28 at week 12 (β=−0.013, p=0.003) and at week 24 (β=−0.014, p=0.003). The maximum MTX-PG levels were significantly higher in patients presenting with elevated transaminases (≥100 IU/L) than in those without (146 vs 106 nmol/L, p=0.009). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that a total MTX-PG concentrations of 83 nmol/L at week 12 was the threshold for a DAS28 improvement of ≥1.2 at week 24, and 105 nmol/L was the threshold for transaminases of ≥50 IU/L and 131 nmol/L for transaminases of ≥100 IU/L. MTX-PG concentrations were strongly influenced by body mass index and a serum albumin level. Conclusions MTX-PG concentrations are a useful biomarker in MTX therapy, in terms of efficacy and safety.