Some 20 years ago, it was suggested to the relatively newly established Royal College that it might be advisable to develop a regular report on the health of children of Great Britain. At the time, a Working party was set up, chaired by Aidan Macfarlane, and a wide membership of stakeholders was gathered together and a Delphi carried out as to which topics should be covered. The driving principles of that report were stated as giving added value to existing reports and should emphasise evidence-based interventions which might improve child health outcomes. A draft was produced but the Council rejected it on the basis that it was not a priority or core business for the new College at the time and there were insufficient resources to support its appropriate development (RCPCH Council Minutes and personal correspondence Blair 1999).

However, this current report is very well produced and clearly lays out the state of child health in the four countries of the UK highlighting a life course approach with key conditions and services emphasised. The report has come at an opportune time with the spotlight clearly on children from a number of key reports including those of the Chief Medical Officers.1 Some of the drivers have included the lack of progress the UK is making compared with other countries, particularly in mortality statistics, and the pernicious effects of social inequalities on children's lives and well-being. If we were to select a number of themes which run through the report, they are as follows:

### Better integrated data collection is required

Data are missing where it matters and data help to make matters visible. This includes recommendations to: have a UK-wide system for the analysis and interpretation of child mortality data which can be used for accurate international comparison, collect regular mental health survey data, improve the recording of smoking …


As one of the major glutathione conjugation enzymes, GSTM1 detoxifies a number of drugs and xenobiotics. Its expression and activity have been shown to correlate both with cancer risks and drug resistance. Through a genome-wide association study, we identified a significant association between HapMap SNP rs366631 and GSTM1 expression. In this study, utilizing lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from International HapMap Consortium CEU and YRI populations, we designed and performed site-specific genotyping assays for both rs366631 and a highly homologous GSTM1 upstream site. Copy number variation (CNV) assays were performed for three different regions of the GSTM1 gene. We demonstrated that HapMap SNP rs366631 is a non-polymorphic site. The false genotyping call arises from sequence homology, a common GSTM1 region deletion and a non-specific genotyping platform used to identify the SNP. However, the HapMap call for rs366631 genotype is an indicator of GSTM1 upstream region deletion. Furthermore, this upstream deletion can be used as a marker of GSTM1 gene deletion. Using a novel GSTM1 CNV assay, we showed a population-specific CNV in this region upstream of the gene. More than 75% of the Caucasian (CEU) samples exhibit GSTM1 deletion and none contain two copies of GSTM1. In contrast, up to 25% of African (YRI) samples were found to have two copies of GSTM1. In conclusion, HapMap rs366631 is a pseudo-SNP that can be used as a GSTM1 deletion marker. Both the pseudo-SNP allele frequency and GSTM1 upstream region CNV show population-specific patterns between CEU and YRI samples.


MUSE is a framework for developing cost-affordable interactive environments. It allows for rapid development of interactive systems based on tabletops and interactive tiled-display walls. It serves as a testing environment for a development of new interaction approaches for large-scale interactive systems. The framework provides different interaction possibilities of multimodal user interfaces which are made of multiple low-cost commodity devices (e.g., single- and multi-touch overlay panels and foils, web cameras, depth sensors). Main features of the framework: a) coupling of multiple low-cost commodity multi-touch sensors which are represented as a single seamless interface; b) functions for distinguishing and continuous association of users and touch operations they performed; c) hand-tracking for identification and distinguishing users' body parts (e.g., hands) used in association with touch input events; d) integration of gesture recognition algorithms Protractor, $1 and $N to provide experimental gesture recognition of touch events (libreco library) e) extended semantic description of input events enabling their personalisation (e.g., personalized gesture recognition); (libdtuio library) f) highly configurable toolkit and application base. Supported HW: majority of existing resistive and capacitive single- and multi-touch sensor overlay panels and devices, MS Kinect depth tracker.


Introduction Permanent central venous catheter use is associated with significant complications that often require their timely removal. An uncommon complication is resistant removal of the catheter due to adherence of the catheter to the vessel wall. This occasionally mandates invasive interventions for removal. The aim of this study is to describe the occurrence of this "stuck catheter" phenomenon and its consequences. Methods A retrospective review of all the removed tunneled hemodialysis catheters from July 2005 to December 2014 at a single academic-based hemodialysis center to determine the incidence of stuck catheters. Data were retrieved from a prospectively maintained computerized vascular access database and verified manually against patient charts. Results In our retrospective review of tunneled hemodialysis catheters spanning close to a decade, we found that 19 (0.92%) of catheters were retained, requiring endovascular intervention or open sternotomy. Of these, three could not be removed, with one patient succumbing to catheter-related infection. Longer catheter vintage appeared to be associated with 'stuck catheter'. Conclusions Retention of tunneled central venous catheters is a rare but important complication of prolonged tunneled catheter use that nephrologists should be aware of. Endoluminal balloon dilatation procedures are the initial approach, but surgical intervention may be necessary.


Abstract Uranium-series isotopes can be used to determine constraints on the timescale of slab dehydration and melt production at subduction zones. However, interpretations of U–Th–Ra data suggest very different timescales of slab dehydration. Here, we present new U–Th–Ra data from Kamchatka along with a number of alternative models for production of radioactive disequilibrium. Variations in (226Ra/230Th) and (231Pa/235U) activity ratios are best explained by crystal fractionation with host rock assimilation for a duration of less than c. 6000 years. The association of the largest 226Ra excesses with high Sr/Th in the most primitive lavas suggests that Ra–Th fractionation is controlled by slab dehydration less than 10 ka ago. We show that U–Th data can be explained by dynamic melting of a recently (<10 ka) metasomatized mantle wedge. Dynamic melting of an oxidized source metasomatized several hundreds of thousands of years ago cannot produce significant 231Pa excess. Because 238U–230Th disequilibrium is inferred to be controlled by partial melting, there is no requirement for multi-stage slab dehydration commencing ∼150 ka. We suggest that Ra–Th disequilibria constrain the timing of slab dehydration, whilst U–Th fractionation is dominated by partial melting, at least at the Kamchatka arc.


Oxford Take Off in Japanese makes learning or brushing up on your Japanese quick, easy, and fun. Follow an integrated course including activities and dialogues with native speakers so you can feel confident in day-to-day conversation. Advance from beginner to intermediate level in one integrated book and audio course. This complete language-learning kit contains everything you need to speak and understand Japanese, and gives you flexibility when learning. The pack includes a clear, easy-to-use coursebook, full mp3 audio to download, and 4 CDs to support you in learning a new language. Flexible and structured course units allow you to work at your own pace and check your progress with regular self-testing exercises. New, market-tested packaging provides a portable and compact complete language-learning course.


Discourse on the Move is the first book-length exploration of how corpus-based methods can be used for discourse analysis, applied to the description of discourse organization. The primary goal is to bring these two analytical perspectives together: undertaking a detailed discourse analysis of each individual text, but doing so in terms that can be generalized across all texts of a corpus. The book explores two major approaches to this task: 'top-down' and 'bottom-up'. In the 'top-down' approach, the functional components of a genre are determined first, and then all texts in a corpus are analyzed in terms of those components. In contrast, textual components emerge from the corpus analysis in the bottom-up approach, and the discourse organization of individual texts is then analyzed in terms of linguistically-defined textual categories. Both approaches are illustrated through case studies of discourse structure in particular genres: fund-raising letters, biology/biochemistry research articles, and university classroom teaching.


A single-pan step-heating differential scanning calorimeter (SPSH DSQ for the measurement of specific heat is described. It has three advantages over the two-pan DSC: larger sample, hence higher sensitivity, simplicity of construction, and ease of use. The proposed step-heating mode of operation is investigated numerically and experimentally. The results of specific heat measurement on metals (iron, stainless steel, and molybdenum) are within 2%- 5% of literature data Those of low-density materials, such as PTFE and FR4, are within 2%-7% of literature data. A comparison of the measured specific heat of PVC with literature data is questionable, since this material exhibits a large increase in C p due to a glass transition and the available data are not consistent. Measurements on extremely-low-density insulation materials, like silicone and polyurethane foams exhibit large errors, compared with specific heats derived indirectly via measurements of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity.


We consider the transfer of an arbitrary qubit state through a linear spin chain for N=4, 5, and 6 spins, each with a spin-S channel. We calculate the average fidelity between the arbitrary initial state of the qubit at one end and the time evolved qubit state at the opposite end of the chain. We show that increasing the quantum number S of the channel spins allows attaining near perfect state transfer at an earlier time for the isotropic exchange case. We also show that an opposite effect is observed in the anisotropic case.


Despite record global economic growth in past decade malnutrition remains a serious problem in many parts of the world. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 800 million people (17% of the worlds population) remain malnourished. For these households at a subsistence level of income, changes in commodity market conditions, as may arise from changes in global economic growth and/or trade policy can have serious consequences for nutritional intake. Even a small decline in diet quality can have substantial adverse impacts on health status. On the other hand, a modest income boost, or lower food prices, could have extremely positive impacts. Previously, the links between changes in the global economy and nutritional outcomes have been explored by a relatively wide range of authors (e.g., Fang et al., 2006; Rosegrant et al., 2005). The goal of this paper is to offer modest extensions of this previous work in three directions. First of all, unlike many of the papers in the nutrition area, we seek to account for the behavioral response of low income households in the face of changing prices and incomes. Clearly when households are faced with a rise in the price of food products, they cannot afford to consume as much, ceteris paribus so consumption much adjust. The extent of this adjustment will depend on the change in real income and the Engel elasticities for each good. In addition, consumers are likely to substitute away from higher cost food items. All of these factors could have an adverse impact on nutritional attainment. By estimating and incorporating a demand system into our analysis, we are able to take these factors into account. In so doing, we draw on the work of Rimmer and Powell (1996) and Cranfield et al. (2003a; 2003b) in order to characterize consumer demands across the income spectrum. A second important extension embodied in this work relates to the impact of changes in factor earnings on household nutritional attainment in the wake of globalization. Most economic analyses of this issue have tended to focus on the commodity price impacts of globalization. If they have taken into account the earnings-side impacts, they have typically done so in a simplistic way. In this paper, we seek to capture the earnings-heterogeneity of poor households and thereby shed light on the differential impact of global economic growth on different household groups. We do so using the framework developed in Hertel et al. (2004), and further refined in Hertel et al. (2007a). The final contribution of this paper is to imbed this framework for analysis of nutritional issues into a widely used, global general equilibrium model (GTAP: Hertel, 1997) in order to permit nutritional outcomes to be routinely reported as part of standard economic analyses of global economic growth and trade liberalization. We illustrate this approach to the analysis of nutritional impacts of global economic growth through a series of globalization shocks, focusing on the impacts in Bangldesh. We begin by considering solely the impact of an exogenous rise in the consumer price rise for food products. This permits us to illustrate the mechanisms through which low income consumers respond to changing economic conditions in our framework. We then turn to an analysis of the impact of economic growth in India and China, respectively, on the poor in Bangladesh, and in particular on their nutritional attainment. Our findings indicate that the nutritional impacts of globalization depend importantly on the source of the globalization shock, and the resultant earnings effects on the poor.


Credit rating agencies have drawn criticism for failing to anticipate and deter root causes of the 2008-2009 financial crisis in the United States. However, this paper presents evidence that credit rating agencies regularly anticipate and deter governments in emerging democracies from opportunistic borrowing and potential financial crises related to elections and the political budget cycle behavior they encourage. The paper considers a sample of 18 such countries holding 32 presidential elections from 1989 to 2004. The analysis shows that credit rating agencies induced greater fiscal discipline during election periods when governments had incentives to borrow opportunistically for short-term electoral gain. Countries with higher credit rating agency sovereign ratings borrowed less than lower-rated countries in election periods, but borrowed more in non-election periods. Credit rating agencies promoted fiscal discipline during increasingly frequent election periods in emerging democracies.


Birth weight (BW) is an important indicator for newborn health. Both high and low BW is associated with increased risks for adult metabolic diseases. AMPK (Adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase), mTOR (Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin), and Insulin/IGF1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor 1) pathways may function as placental sensors of maternal hormonal and nutritional status. However, the physiological role of these pathways in placenta has not been completely elucidated. To evaluate expression and activation of AMPK, mTOR, and insulin/IGF1 pathways, and its association with placental weight (PW), BW, and maternal hormonal and metabolic status, we performed a cross-sectional study in placentas from non-obese mothers with SGA (n=17), AGA (n=19) and LGA (n=10) newborns. We analyzed placental expression of total and phosphorylated key proteins from the AMPK, mTOR and Insulin/IGF1 pathways. Maternal and cord blood hormones were determined by ELISA. AMPK and LKB1 activation correlated negatively with PW and BW, cord leptin, and pregestational BMI. Placental SIRT1 inversely correlated with BW, cord leptin, neonatal HOMA-IR, and maternal IGF1. PGC1 correlated negatively with PW and BW. Phosphorylated mTOR positively correlated with maternal glucose, PW and BW. IGF1R was lower in SGA. No changes in pIGF1R, INSRb, total Akt or pAkt were found, pPDK1 was lower in SGA and LGA. These results suggest that placental AMPK, insulin/IGF1, and mTOR pathways may influence fetal growth, perhaps regulating placental physiology, even in metabolically healthy pregnancies. Our study highlights these nutrient sensing pathways as potential molecular mechanisms modulating placental adaptations and thus, long-term metabolic health.


Bioinformatic applications usually need a high amount of computational resources. For this reason, parallelization is an interesting alternative in order to decrease the execution time and to provide accurate results. In this sense, recently there has been a growing interest in developing parallel algorithms using graphic processing units (GPU) also refered as GPU computation. Advances in the video gaming industry have led to the production of low-cost, high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) that possess more memory bandwidth and computational capability than central processing units (CPUs). As GPUs are available in personal computers, and they are easy to use and manage through several GPU programming languages (CUDA, OpenCL, etc.), graphics engines are being adopted widely in scientific computing applications, particularly in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. This paper reviews the use of GPUs to solve scientific problems, given an overview of current software systems.


Democratic Audit's new report, Engaging young voters with enhanced election information, highlights flaws in pre-election information aimed at voters, as well as the fragmented, old-fashioned methods of providing feedback on election results.

The report shows that online resources provided by the Electoral Commission, BBC, local authorities and others fail to provide integrated, user-friendly information. For instance, public authorities fail to publicise the dates of upcoming elections more than four weeks in advance, while results for different types of election are reported in different ways, at a variety of different sources with no obvious explanation for why this is the case.

 The report also includes:

 New analysis of the cost of elections in the UK. This shows that in the five years 2009-2013, taxpayers spent around £760 million, equating to over £150 million per year, administering elections and referendums.
 New analysis of the life circumstances of young voters, including high levels of population mobility, that suggests online sources of information – as well as a reduction in the voting age – are required.


Time domain reflectometry (TDR) and the heat pulse method are both used to measure soil water content. Changes in ambient temperature have been shown to affect TDR measurements, but less is known about the behavior of heat pulse sensors in response to changes in temperature. This study directly measured and compared the temperature sensitivity of the TDR and heat pulse methods. Both methods were used to estimate water content in silt loam and sand at two fixed water contents across a wide temperature range. An increase in temperature led to an increase in measured water content in most cases. Across the 40°C temperature range, changes in measured water content were generally 0.04 m3 m−3 or less for both methods. Weighted linear regression showed that in these soils the heat pulse method exhibited greater temperature sensitivity than the TDR method, although the differences were not statistically significant. A previously proposed correction for the temperature sensitivity of the TDR method produced mixed results. The temperature sensitivity of the heat pulse method was attributed to the changes in the density and specific heat of water and specific heat of soil with respect to temperature. When the changes in these parameters were accounted for, the temperature sensitivity was eliminated in three out of four cases.


In this study, we use a multilateral total factor productivity (TFP) panel data, spanning 1985-2013 period, to test hypotheses of convergence to a single TFP level (σ convergence) and to a region-specific steady state TFP growth rate (β convergence) for China's farm sector. Results show that there is no evidence of an overall σ convergence across all provinces. However, we find robust evidences of β convergence. Estimated rates of β convergence are conditional on how we capture the heterogeneity across regions. Overall, the rate of β convergence ranges from 0.016 to 0.039. Estimates also show that higher growth rate of education, R&D, capital/labor ratio, or intermediate goods/labor ratio can boost the rate of TFP growth.


The University Teaching and Learning project 'Engaging the digital native: Developing a high fidelity product visualisation archive to support teaching & learning' is supported by two short films 'Ryedale' and 'Exploring interactive possibilities: the journey so far'. Due to the nature of the project informal recordings took place at key stages throughout the project, during meetings, interviews and projects in order to visualise the research conducted, its methods and findings.

The following papers related to this project can be found in the repository:

Allen, C., & Evans, C. (2011). Going beyond the obvious: Engaging fashion design and reflection and self motivated investigation.

Evans, C., & Allen, C. (2012). Undergraduate student research skills for the 21st century: Pedagogical investigation for engaging the millennials beyond surface learning.


This paper highlights the use of a coordinated suit e of Modelica libraries for vehicle thermal management applications. The models are implemented using the Vehicle Dynamics Library, Liquid Cooling Library, and Heat Exchanger Library from Modelon. An integrated vehicle thermal management model is implemented, including the key physical and controls models. The model is used to highlight complex, multi-domain interactions between the physica l and control systems over drive cycles for combined thermal and fuel efficiency studies. The model is also used to support controller development and optimization as an FMU integrated into Simulink. The flexibility of FMI-based workflows is also illustra ted via batch and Monte Carlo simulations in Excel. A heat exchanger application coupling inputs from CFD illustrates the use of higher fidelity models from Heat Exchanger Library for calculation of performance degradation due to non-uniformity.


Our previous studies demonstrated that huperzine A, a reversible and selective acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, exerts beneficial effects on memory deficits in various rodent models of amnesia. To extend the antiamnesic action of huperzine A to nonhuman primates, huperzine A was evaluated for its ability to reverse the deficits in spatial memory produced by scopolamine in young adult monkeys or those that are naturally occurring in aged monkeys using a delayed-response task. Scopolamine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist, dose dependently impaired performance with the highest dose (0.03 mg/kg, i.m.) producing a significant reduction in choice accuracy in young adult monkeys. The delayed performance changed from an average of 26.8/30 trials correct on saline control to an average of 20.2/30 trials correct after scopolamine administration. Huperzine A (0.01-0. 1 mg/kg, i.m.) significantly reversed deficits induced by scopolamine in young adult monkeys on a delayed-response task; performance after an optimal dose (0.1 mg/kg) averaged 25.0/30 correct. In four aged monkeys, huperzine A (0.001-0.01 mg/kg, i.m.) significantly increased choice accuracy from 20.5/30 on saline control to 25.2/30 at the optimal dose (0.001 mg/kg for two monkeys and 0.01 mg/kg for the other two monkeys). The beneficial effects of huperzine A on delayed-response performance were long lasting; monkeys remained improved for about 24 h after a single injection of huperzine A. This study extended the findings that huperzine A improves the mnemonic performance requiring working memory in monkeys, and suggests that huperzine A may be a promising agent for clinical therapy of cognitive impairments in patients with Alzheimer's disease.


Focusing on Iran in 2009 and Egypt in 2011, this paper examines the role of the coercive apparatus in responding to crises triggered by mass anti-regime protest. We argue that the divergent outcomes of the two crises – authoritarian resilience in Iran and regime breakdown in Egypt – can be traced to the regimes' distinct origins. On the one hand, the Iranian Islamic regime's founding in sustained, violent, and ideologically driven struggle (1978-1983) created a regime elite and coercive apparatus with the stomach and capacity for high intensity coercion necessary to defend the regime against mass-based threats. Revolution, counter-insurgency, and war during the regime's early years led to the growth of an ideologically motivated and highly partisan security services. In Egypt, by contrast, the absence of origins in violent, revolutionary struggle led to the creation of a coercive apparatus with weaker, more situational cohesion. The regime's overall coercive capacity was high, but in the absence of a revolutionary heritage, the willingness of the repressive apparatus to suppress large-scale, mass protest was more open to question than in Iran.


The labyrinth in literature : from Baroque to Postmodernism
The labyrinth has proved to be an essential symbol of postmodernist literature and the philosophy of our time. This symbol has apparently had the power to bridge the centuries between Ancient Greece and the year 2000. In reality the labyrinth as a geometrical figure has acquired various meanings in the course of time. The history of the labyrinth as symbol shows that the constant elements are as essential as the changes in meaning from the Middle Ages until the present day. Two of the new symbolic elements that accompany the labyrinth on its way through various cultural periods are the garden and the path of life. During the Baroque the labyrinth, for example, represented the synthesis of garden, path and maze. At the end of the twentieth century the labyrinth once more becomes a dominant and significant structure. The labyrinth reflects the inability and perhaps impossibility to find the key to the centre of the world and to discover the truth behind the words we use. On the other hand, the labyrinth suggests that the search for meaning and truth is an aim in itself or even that this search can lead to new forms of wisdom. The labyrinth therefore is an ambivalent and fascinating symbol of our time. Dedalus and Ariadne, however, have not yet brought the salvation we are waiting for.


We deployed a temporary seismic station at a low-noise site in the Nikko district, Japan, in November 1993, and analyzed velocity waveforms of 17 microearthquakes (0.3 ≤ M ≤ 2.1) with small focal distances (<11 km). We compared the initial parts of the P wave velocity seismograms on the same absolute scale, after correcting for the effects of geometrical spreading and radiation pattern. We find that the P wave radiated from an earthquake of a larger final magnitude has a greater amplitude than that from a smaller earthquake, even at a very early stage when the P wave from the smallest event is still rising with an increasing slope. This observation does not necessarily mean that the initiation of the rupture is dependent on the eventual size because anelastically attenuated waveforms of earthquakes with short time duration could show such an apparent trend. Hence we computed synthetic seismograms to test a group of source scaling models in which source time function grows independently of its eventual size, taking into account anelastic attenuation and instrument response. We find that such scaling models do not easily reproduce simultaneously the size dependence of the initial rise and the pulse duration of the observed waveforms, though poor data coverage above M1.5 prevents us from deriving a firm conclusion. A model with size-dependent growth rate is able to match our observations.


Purpose To compare predictability of postoperative refractive astigmatism (RA) using the Emmetropic Verifying Optical (EVO) Toric Formula v2.0 to one that accounts only for anterior corneal astigmatism. Methods This is a secondary analysis of de-identified data from a clinical trial including 9 sites across the United States. Preoperative biometry was used to predict postoperative RA with the implanted toric IOL using legacy enVista and EVO online calculators. The RA prediction error was computed between back-calculated postoperative RA and predicted residual RA. Outcome measures included vector (centroid) and arithmetic mean RA prediction error. Results Comparison of calculators was based on 109 eyes, 97 (89%) of which were implanted with a toric IOL with an effective astigmatism power of 1.4 D or less. Centroid of the RA prediction errors was 0.37 D @ 178 and 0.17 D @ 090 for the legacy and EVO calculators, respectively (p < 0.0001). The proportion of eyes with an absolute RA prediction error ≤0.5 was 47.3% and 49.1% (p = 0.78), while the proportion of eyes ≤1.0 D was 82.7% and 89.1% (p = 0.03). Differences in the proportions ≤0.5 D existed for WTR (p = 0.015) but not ATR (p = 0.75) eyes. The proportion in which orientation of the predicted RA (ATR, WTR, or oblique) matched the actual RA was 62% and 78% for legacy and EVO calculators, respectively (p = 0.0029). Conclusion The EVO Toric Formula v2.0 out-performed the legacy calculator with regards to predictions in eyes with low astigmatism.


This study is aimed at investigating lung diseases described by common pathomechanisms based on evaluation of gene expression profiles in molecular pathways. 16 datasets containing 428 samples for 22 health conditions were taken from Gene Expression Omnibus. Self organizing maps (Wirth, H. et al.BMC Bioinformatics 2011;12:306) and cluster analysis with dynamic tree cut were used for gene expression based disease clustering. In-house pathway signal flow algorithm and phylogenetic analysis were applied to find common pathway deregulation patterns in clusters. Analysis resulted in grouping the 22 conditions into 5 clusters (fig.1). PSF and phylogenetic analysis identified unique pathway deregulation patterns for each cluster (fig.2). Figure 1. Clustering of the 22 health conditions based on gene expression patterns. Figure 2. Venn diagram of cluster-specific pathways deregulation. Our results allowed defining lung disease clusters characterized by common profiles of molecular pathway deregulation, as well as identifying pathways deregulation patterns exclusive to each cluster. These findings may shed light on commonalities and specificities of pathomechanisms of those diseases.


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an infectious pathogen rapidly spreading throughout the world The disease has become a global pandemic having approximately thirty four million disease cases with one million reported deaths, worldwide The immuno compromised and/or old age people are most susceptible to severe form of the disease The pathogenic virus enters the human body causing numerous changes in the immune system regulation Several studies report that coronavirus causes 'cytokine storm' leading to adverse effects of host immune response Thus, it becomes necessary to prevent the pathogen from hijacking the host's immune system The present study elaborately describes the scope of immunomodulation in COVID-19 along with ayurvedic herbs as potential immunomodulating drugs to curtail the effects of the pathogenic virus Briefly, the study provides dual strategy of immunomodulation and antiviral herbal compounds as a measure to control the pandemic at current stage © 2020 Ubiquity Press All rights reserved


Abstract. Free-drifting sediment net traps were deployed 14 times at depths between 80 and 500 m for 1–3 days each during the late monsoon–intermonsoon transition in the central Arabian Sea. Two locations (19.5 and 15.5° N) were within the permanently oxygen-deficient zone (ODZ), and a third (11° N) had a shallow and thin oxygen minimum. The secondary nitrite maximum, which serves as a tracer of the ODZ, thinned from ∼ 250 m thick at stations 19.5 and 15.5° N to ∼ 50 m thick at station 11° N. Overall, organic carbon fluxes ranged from 13.2 g m2 yr−1 at 80 m to a minimum of 1.1 g m2 yr−1 at 500 m. Fluxes at the more oxygenated 11° N station attenuate faster than within the permanent ODZ. Martin curve attenuation coefficients for 19.5 and 15.5° N are respectively 0.59 and 0.63 and for 11° N it is 0.98. At least six potential mechanisms might explain why particles sinking through the ODZ are more effectively transferred to depth: (M1) oxygen effects, (M2) microbial loop efficiencies and chemoautotrophy, (M3) changes in zooplankton dynamics, (M4) additions of ballast that might sorb and protect organic matter from decay (M4a) or change sinking speeds (M4b), (M5) inputs of refractory organic matter and (M6) temperature effects. These mechanisms are intertwined, and they were explored using a combination of mineral (XPS) and organic matter characterizations of the sinking material, shipboard incubation experiments, and evaluations of existing literature. Direct evidence was found supporting an oxygen effect and/or changes in the efficiency of the microbial loop including the addition of chemoautotrophic carbon to the sinking flux in the upper 500 m. Less direct evidence was found for the other potential mechanisms. A simple conceptual model consistent with our and other recent data suggests that the upper ODZ microbial community determines the initial flux attenuation, and that zooplankton and sinking speed become more important deeper in the water column. The exact interplay between the various mechanisms remains to be further evaluated.


Purpose: Kinesio Taping (KT) is a technique that has been used in the clinical management of people with chronic back pain. This study investigated the efficacy of KT on patient with chronic non-specific low back pain using electromyography (EMG) and three-dimensional motion analysis (3DMA). Subjects: 50 patients with chronic low back pain aging from 25 – 40 years, with mean age (36.62±2.9) years. Patients were divided randomly into two equal groups, placebo group (A) received sham KT, and group B received real KT. Methods: The outcome measurements were electrical activity of lumbar Para spinal muscle using EMG pre and post KT, lumbar curvature using 3DMA and pain Pre and post KT using visual analogue scale (VAS) EMG and 3DMA were carried out at baseline and 2 weeks later while pain was recorded after 1 month. Results: Paired analysis for comparison between pre and post treatment measurements in each group showed significant decrease of lumbar curvature as well as medium frequency of Para spinal muscles in group B than group A. also there is significant decrease of pain in group B than on group A. Despite the equal baseline of all groups before treatment, there were significant decrease of lumbar curvature, medium frequency of Para spinal muscles and pain measurements in real KT group than placebo group. The results suggested that kinsiotaping have beneficial effects on pain, range of motion, and trunk muscle endurance in people with chronic non-specific low back pain of mechanical etiology.


To summarise skewed (asymmetric) distributions, such as reaction times, typically the mean or the median are used as measures of central tendency. Using the mean might seem surprising, given that it provides a poor measure of central tendency for skewed distributions, whereas the median provides a better indication of the location of the bulk of the observations. However, the sample median is biased: with small sample sizes, it tends to overestimate the population median. This is not the case for the mean. Based on this observation, Miller (1988) concluded that "sample medians must not be used to compare reaction times across experimental conditions when there are unequal numbers of trials in the conditions". Here we replicate and extend Miller (1988), and demonstrate that his conclusion was ill-advised for several reasons. First, the median's bias can be corrected using a percentile bootstrap bias correction. Second, a careful examination of the sampling distributions reveals that the sample median is median unbiased, whereas the mean is median biased when dealing with skewed distributions. That is, on average the sample mean estimates the population mean, but typically this is not the case. In addition, simulations of false and true positives in various situations show that no method dominates. Crucially, neither the mean nor the median are sufficient or even necessary to compare skewed distributions. Different questions require different methods and it would be unwise to use the mean or the median in all situations. Better tools are available to get a deeper understanding of how distributions differ: we illustrate the hierarchical shift function, a powerful alternative that relies on quantile estimation. All the code and data to reproduce the figures and analyses in the article are available online.


Timber joints have always been the weak link in timber construction.
Although the load carrying capacity of the timber structure is greater than the
applied load, the structural system can fail if the joints are weak. Finger jointing
of short off-cut timbers for structural purposes like lightweight roof trusses is an
economical method to minimise wastage and to increase recovery rate. The
objective of this research was to evaluate the strength and failure
characteristics of truss joints made from solid and finger jointed kempas
(Koompassia malaccensis) with metal plate connectors.
This research assessed the strength properties of truss joints comprising
solid and finger-jointed kempas which were jointed with nail plate connectors.
The influence of the location of finger joints in the joint system on both the
strength and failure characteristics were also studied. Eight joint types, each having ten replications were tested for joint strengths and failure modes. The
type of jOint were solid butt-joint (S8), solid T -joint (ST), finger jointed butt-joint
type 1 (FB1), finger jointed butt-joint type 2 (FB2) and finger jOinted butt-joint
type 3 (FB3), finger jointed T -joint type 1 (FT1), finger jointed T -joint type 2
(FT2) and finger jointed T-joint type 3 (FT3).


In reference to Yves-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss in Formless: A User's
Guide, 1997, which maps out a third area between the traditional dichotomy of
form and content in the visual arts as originally suggested by Georges Bataille,
this thesis looks at the notion of the Space of Nothing as a third space between
form and content through the case study of Yves Klein's gallery-emptying Le
Vide - The Specialisation of Sensibility in the Raw Material of Stabilised Pictorial
Sensibility 1958.
This thesis is based on the realisation that artists since the birth of the
conceptual art movement in the late 1950s, with specific later reference to the
dematerialisation of the art object as defined by Lucy R. Lippard in 1967, have
continued to explore spatial definition by directly adopting themes and forms of
representation taken from architectural practice to describe concept-based and
often immaterial, artworks. This is exemplified by the title of Roberta Smith's
review of Michael Asher's project for the Santa Monica Museum of Art for The
New York Times, March 2008 titled How Art is Framed: Exhibition floor plans as
a conceptual medium.
"The gray volumes of conceptualism are filled with somber ciphers which
express primarily the inexpressibility of socially critical thought in the form of art.
They embody a terrible contradiction. These artists attempted to break out of the
prison house of the art business, its bureaucracy and architecture, and to turn
toward social life. But in that process they reassumed the very emptiness they
wished to put behind them," Jeff Wall, 1988 [i]
The core interest of this thesis lies in a theoretical reading of the spatial within conceptual art, the art of the immaterial. Can the experience of an artwork that
is immaterial become corporealized? The titular reference to the verb to house
in A Space to House Nothing is to be understood directly as; to accommodate
nothing; to store nothing; to shelter nothing. It does not reference notions of the
domestic or the home, nor do gender politics or such readings of the home as
a site of gender rules play any role. Can the Space of Nothing be defined as an
architectural site?
The adoption of architectural themes and forms of representation are evident in
the career of Dan Graham, yet his work is overtly concerned with multiplicity
and the multi-layering of psychosis and the interweaving of viewer and
participant. Although there is a natural overlap with regard to the architectural
form of his work, the motivation is oblique to the focus of this thesis, which is
centred on the use of the Space of Nothing as an architectural device. Lines of
enquiry are considered in reference to Yves Klein's Le Vide - The Specialisation
of Sensibility in the Raw Material of Stabilised Pictorial Sensibility, 1958 as the
genesis on which the research is sited.
Theoretical analysis is examined through four key terms - nothingness,
emptiness, zero and void. These terms are surveyed through mathematics,
philosophy and language to create a theoretical model; the Space of Nothing
(Chapter I). The new term is further explored through a series of specific
classifications that catalogue artistic approaches to the Space of Nothing: doing nothing, mapping nothing, framing nothing, occupying nothing and listening to
nothing (Chapter II: Strategies Toward Nothing).
Artworks of this nature are often misunderstood as an extreme form of pure
abstraction based on reductivist and formalist tenets or simply considered
nihilistic. However, through spatial theory and the contexts of experience,
memory and occupation (Chapter III: Nothing within Spatial Theory), the thesis
establishes that the Space of Nothing can be read as complex, emotive and
multi-faceted.
As a practicing curator of contemporary art, it became important to understand
curating as a spatial practice (Chapter IV: The Practice of Nothing). The major
project NOTHINGNESS, a touring European exhibition of work by 25 major
international artists, examined the premise of this thesis and acted as a visual
record of enquiry of selected art projects. The exhibition opened at Galerie
Eugen Lendl in Graz, Austria (8 Oct - 27 Nov, 2004) and later toured to Galerija
Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia (25 Feb - 2 Apr, 2005) and was
accompanied by a hardback illustrated catalogue (English/German) and
published and distributed by Revolver Books, Frankfurt.
The design research is further supported by additional curated projects including
DAN GRAHAM: PERFORMANCE at Lisson New Space (12 July - 28 Aug,
2004), and site-specific installations and theoretical models as contributions to
academic conferences and symposia, that explore the temporal nature of
materiality, interior, void, boundary and frame.
Endnotes
[i] Graham, 1991 p. 19.


The English has the definite article "the", indefinite article "a/n" and a zero article "O". This paper examines the acquisition of the English definite article ' the ' by L1 Arabic speakers. The Arabic language makes use of a definite article al which corresponds to the English definite article superficially. However, the Arabic language has different ways of encoding both the notions of definiteness and indefiniteness. Using Huebner's (1983) classification system, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which L1 Arabic speakers of L2 English of varying proficiency levels have acquired the definite article the . One hundred and fifty L1 Arabic respondents, drawn from three proficiency levels (advanced, upper-intermediate, and lower intermediate) were selected for the study. The respondents attempted a set of study tasks, a fill-in-article test task and a forced-choice elicitation task respectively. The data was analysed quantitatively. The results of the study showed that L1 Arabic respondents generally are non native-like in using the English definite article. Respondents showed low levels of accuracy with regard to the use of the definite article the . The findings also show that L1 transfer was involved in the acquisition of the English articles. In addition, the different assignments of the articles in both languages seemed to have contributed to the difficulty of the definite article use in English evident in the study. The study highlights the importance of investigating the acquisition of English definite article by L2 learners and provides some pedagogical perspectives for the L2 English instructors and highlights the importance of the context in which articles are used.


This paper presents the results of investigations into the problems associated with modeling the atmospheric aerosol backscattering function βCO2 at CO2 laser wavelengths in the lowest 20 km of the atmosphere. It contains a summary of the relevant aerosol characteristics and their variability together with a discussion of the measurement techniques and the errors involved. The different methods of calculating βCO2 both from measured aerosol characteristics and from optical measurements made at other wavelengths are discussed in detail, and limits are placed on the accuracy of these methods. The most significant factor in determining βCO2 has been found to be the aerosol size distribution and concentration, which should be known accurately for particle radii up to at least 1 μm for stratospheric particles and 5 μm for tropospheric particles.


This article studies the impact of increasing trading frequency in financial markets on allocative efficiency. We build and solve a dynamic model of sequential double auctions in which traders trade strategically with demand schedules. Trading needs are generated by time-varying private information about the asset value and private values for owning the asset, as well as quadratic inventory costs. We characterize a linear equilibrium with stationary strategies and its efficiency properties in closed form. Frequent trading (more double auctions per unit of time) allows more immediate asset reallocation after new information arrives, at the cost of a lower volume of beneficial trades in each double auction. Under stated conditions, the trading frequency that maximizes allocative efficiency coincides with the information arrival frequency for scheduled information releases, but can far exceed the information arrival frequency if new information arrives stochastically. A simple calibration of the model suggests that a moderate market slowdown to the level of seconds or minutes per double auction can improve allocative efficiency for assets with relatively narrow investor participation and relatively infrequent news, such as small- and micro-cap stocks.


Target brightness temperature maps can be used in geostationary interferometric microwave sounder (GIMS) system simulation. System simulation with accurate target brightness temperature maps can evaluate system performance in near real case and thus help adjust design parameters for the sensor before it is finally put into use. In this paper, method of simulating target brightness temperature using Weather Research and Forecasting Model and Radiative Transfer for TOVS (RTTOV) has been discussed. Target brightness temperature simulation results at oxygen absorption band and water-vapor absorption band have been presented. Some preliminary analyses of simulated brightness temperature for GIMS' observation have also been given.


Isolating first principles of housing policy helps identify what is intrinsic to that field. Once done, we can clearly analyze potential policy choices for housing specifically, as opposed to how they may contribute to some larger goal of social policy. Imposing some analytic structure here is of key importance because federal housing policy is a morass of programs and policies. This exercise should help to ensure that monies spent to increase the supply and quality of housing are used efficiently.I argue that the three first principles that inform federal housing policy are (i) allowing all Americans to live in safe, well-maintained and affordable housing units; (ii) providing a specialized form of income redistribution that ensures that the income transferred is consumed in increased housing; and (iii) incentivizing Americans to take on the key attributes of Jefferson's yeoman farmer: economic and social self-sufficiency as well as a jealous regard for one's liberty.


Colistin is a last resort antibiotic commonly used against multidrug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To investigate the potential for in-situ evolution of resistance against colistin and map the molecular targets of colistin resistance, we exposed two P. aeruginosa isolates to colistin using a continuous culture device known as morbidostat. Colistin resistance emerged within two weeks along with highly stereotypic yet strain specific mutation patterns. The majority of mutations hit the prmAB two component signaling system and genes involved in lipopolysaccharide synthesis, including lpxC, pmrE, and migA. In seven out of 18 cultures, we observed mutations in mutS along with a mutator phenotype that seemed to facilitate resistance evolution.


This thesis studies mechanisms to improve human-robot-interaction through a spoken dialogue for household
robots. Therefore, a full dialogue system, in which the semantics of the words play an important
role, is implemented.
Nowadays, robots are found to be helpful in a lot of applications. One important eld during the
last decades is to design household robots capable of helping people with disabilities. For this purpose,
the robot has to be able to communicate with humans so it knows what it has to do. A natural way
to do so is by speech, which still needs further research. With the controller implemented, the robot is
expected to grasp objects, navigate, learn and follow people, clean up a room, etc. So the rst goal of
this thesis is to give the robot the ability to understand these tasks through a spoken dialogue system.
Furthermore, the robot has to be able to understand complex tasks where the information to achieve the
task is incomplete. The second goal of this thesis is that the robot has the ability to learn new words, for
example, names of people, because it is impossible to have all the names stored in a database in advance.
In addition, learning people not only implies learning the physical body, e.g., the face, but also their
names.
The dialogue system implemented has an accuracy of 80.45% for isolate words, 90.56% for simple
commands and 96.66% for complex commands that provide incomplete information for the robot to
achieve the task. Finally, the accuracy of recognizing words learnt on-line is 33.33%.


The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in early January 2010 adds to the string of misfortunes in a country used to fighting adversity. Political instability and repeated natural disasters have compounded a failure to invest in its human resources and its environment and have prevented the country from achieving a sustainable development path. Haitis demographic profile most notably its very young age structure affects all aspects of reconstruction efforts from economic opportunities to security issues political stability gender equality and climate change adaptation. Haiti has the youngest age structure in the Caribbean; almost 70 percent of Haitis people are under age 30. While young people represent an important asset for any country they need opportunities in order to prosper. Haitis demographic reality has and will have a profound impact on development in the country. Population Action Internationals report The Shape of Things to Come found that population age structure can influence a countrys stability governance and the well-being of its people. Countries with very young and youthful age structures -- those in which 60 percent or more of the population is younger than age 30 --are the most likely to face outbreaks of civil conflict and autocratic governance. While the relationship between age structure and instability is not one of simple cause and effect demographics do play an important role in mitigating or exacerbating a countrys prospects for development.


In this paper, we propose a methodology that bears close resemblance to the Fourier analysis of the first harmonic to study networks subjected to pendular behavior. In this context, pendular behavior is characterized by the phenomenon of people's dislocation from their homes to work in the morning and people's dislocation in the opposite direction in the afternoon. Pendular behavior is a relevant phenomenon that takes place in public transport networks because it may reduce the overall efficiency of the system as a result of the asymmetric utilization of the system in different directions. We apply this methodology to the bus transport system of Brasília, which is a city that has commercial and residential activities in distinct boroughs. We show that this methodology can be used to characterize the pendular behavior of this system, identifying the most critical nodes and times of the day when this system is in more severe demanded.


We examined differences in male and female caregivers' behavioral styles, and their use of negative or positive touch in noncompliance episodes with preschool-aged children that occurred in public settings. Coders reliably coded adult caregiver behavioral style (authoritarian-type, authoritative-type, and permissive-type), positive and negative touch, and children's latency to comply, as well as the child's demeanor at the end of the noncompliance event. Surprisingly, almost a quarter of all children were touched negatively by adults during these public episodes. Contrary to expectations based on self-report and laboratory studies, male caregivers were more likely to use touch in noncompliance episodes with children, and more likely to use positive touch, than female caregivers. Adult caregiver behavioral style, and positive versus negative touch were each related to children's responses in the noncompliance episodes. This work extends the findings of earlier studies about adult caregiver behavioral styles and highlights the use of positive versus negative touch as an important behavioral context for compliance requests of young children. Further, child demeanor is a crucial measure of the success of parenting behavior in noncompliance episodes because it indexes behavior occurring after compliance occurs, but which has the potential to be a significant influence on family harmony. The use of naturalistic observational methodology is suggested as a critical step in validating findings on harsh discipline and corporal punishment that rely on methods in which social desirability may be a confound.


How much should ethicists know about the topics they comment on? Is it enough to have a vague idea? Should they be required to demonstrate an understanding of the subject matter? Are they required to pay attention to available evidence?

In response to Schuklenk's and Vathorst's proposal that individuals with treatment-resistant depression should have access to assisted dying,1 Christopher Cowley has presented a contrary argument based on comparison with the situation faced by patients with motor neurone disease (MND).2 In Cowley's view, MND is a "non-terminal but untreatable debilitating disease(s)" which "… does not affect the brain". The basis for using MND for comparison is, presumably, that patients with MND have access to assisted dying despite its 'non-terminal' nature.

This argument raises a number of points. Probably the most important of these is that while MND is incurable some treatment with admittedly modest disease-modifying effect is available. It is, however, quite incorrect to say that MND is "non-terminal" and "… does not affect the brain", as will be demonstrated below.3 This then begs the question of whether or not Cowley's argument is damaged by this invalid comparison, and if so, to what extent. Additionally, there is the problem of discourse outside one's primary area of expertise. To what extent is somebody in Cowley's position required to verify the matters of fact regarding their assertions? What is the duty of the reviewer or editor in this …


An artificial neural network (ANN) has been used in various clinical research for the prediction and classification of data in cancer disease. Previous research in this direction focused on the correlation between various input parameters such as age, antigen, and size of tumor growth. Recently, laser-induced autofluorescence (LIAF) techniques have been shown to be a useful noninvasive early diagnostic tool for various cancer diseases. We report on a successful application of ANN to in vitro LIAF spectra. We show that classification of tumor samples with ANN can be done with high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Thus a combination of LIAF techniques and ANN can provide a robust method for clinical diagnosis.


GPS telemetry is improving our understanding of the way animals interact with their environment. Recent research has used this technology to assess the impact of offshore wind farms (OWFs) on seabirds, but few studies have collected fine-scale data from birds flying within OWFs. We use GPS telemetry to investigate movements of lesser black-backed gulls Larus fuscus in relation to OWFs from a protected site with an active breeding colony. Individual birds varied considerably in their use of OWFs; 15 out of 24 birds visited them, and time spent in these areas was 1.3% of time budgets across all birds. Two birds, for which the most data was collected, frequently entered OWFs and flew at turbine blade height; however, their overlap with the spherical 3-dimensional rotor swept volume was significantly lower than a random distribution. Although preliminary, these tracking data suggest a lack of a macro-scale (wind farm-scale) avoidance for L. fuscus but a potential meso-scale (within wind farm-scale) avoidance of turbines. Such data are therefore important in improving our understanding of the implications of OWFs for seabirds.


Undercapitalization of nonprofit organizations and years of seemingly stagnant results in addressing certain social problems have led many to hope that ?pay for success (PFS) financing? will bring solutions in the form of new capital to support program delivery, improved accountability, and increased rigor in performance measurement. PFS financing, sometimes termed ?social impact bonds (SIBs),? shifts the risk of a preventive social service?s success from taxpayers to investors who finance programs and receive government repayments if, and only if, an agreed-upon performance metric is achieved. Through the use of a third-party evaluator tasked with measuring a program?s success, this new financing strategy encourages research-informed practice that can deliver measurable results. This article explores the structure and potential benefits of PFS financing, as well as assesses challenges and opportunities.


Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the metabolic pathways of S-adenosylmethionine have been related to global hypomethylation and a lower number of hypermethylated CpG islands of tumor suppressor genes. Hypermethylation of checkpoint and DNA repair genes has been shown to be indicative of chemosensitivity. In the present study, we have examined the SNP of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, which affects DNA methylation patterns and is linked to elevated plasma homocysteine levels in 208 patients with gemcitabine/cisplatin-treated stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). No differences in response rate were observed according to the MTHFR genotype. However, time to progression was 7.4 months for 68 patients with CC genotype, 5.5 months for 108 patients with heterozygous CT genotype, and 5.2 months for 28 patients with TT genotype. These findings can lead us to distinguish different outcome patterns among patients with stage IV NSCLC whose similar clinical prognostic factors would otherwise indicate similar outcomes. Carriers of the MTHFR 677T allele could benefit from supplementation with folic acid and vitamin B12. The Spanish Lung Cancer Group has undertaken a phase III randomized trial to elucidate this concept.


We present a novel conceptual framework and methodology for studying virtual water trade. We utilize complex network theory to analyze the structure of the global virtual water trade associated with the international food trade. In the global virtual water trade network, the nations that participate in the international food trade correspond to the nodes, and the links represent the flows of virtual water associated with the trade of food from the country of export to the country of import. We find that the number of trade connections follows an exponential distribution, except for the case of import trade relationships, while the volume of water that each nation trades compares well with a stretched exponential distribution, indicating high heterogeneity of flows between nations. There is a power law relationship between the volume of virtual water traded and the number of trade connections of each nation. Highly connected nations are preferentially linked to poorly connected nations and exhibit low levels of clustering. However, when the volume of virtual water traded is taken into account, this structure breaks down. This indicates a global hierarchy, in which nations that trade large volumes of water are more likely to link to and cluster with other nations that trade large volumes of water, particularly when the direction of trade is considered. Nations that play a critical role in maintaining the global network architecture are highlighted. Our analysis provides the necessary framework for the development of a model of global virtual water trade aimed at applications ranging from network optimization to climate change impact evaluations.


THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPERIENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: O'NEILL SEA ODYSSEY PROGRAM CASE STUDY By Lauren E. Hanneman Environmental education programs aim to develop participant awareness, sensitivity, and understanding of their affective relationship to the natural environment through conceptual knowledge and personal experiences. Previous findings have suggested that participation in environmental education programs leads to short-term positive increases in environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitudes, and intentions to act in environmentally responsible behaviors; however, few studies have included long-term, follow-up assessment. This research provided an analysis of the effectiveness of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey (OSO) education program in fostering a longterm awareness of personal responsibility about ocean pollution among student participants. A survey administered to 261 students from the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California was used to explore 7 through 10 grade students' conceptions about the connection between ocean pollution and stewardship behaviors. The study revealed that 75% of 86 former OSO participants retained a high level of awareness of the connection between non-point source pollution and personal behaviors two to five years after the program, regardless of differences in sex, language, grade level, and community setting. These results indicate that OSO participants retained a long-term conceptual awareness about environmental stewardship behaviors taught during the OSO program.


The excellence of human singing is an important aspect of subjective, aesthetic perception of music. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to tackle Automatic Singing Assessment (ASA) task through deep metric learning. With the goal of retrieving the commonalities of good singing without explicitly engineering them, we force a triplet model to map perceptually pleasant-sounding singing performance closer to the reference track compared to others, and thus learning a joint embedding space with performance characteristics. Incorporating mid-level representations like spectrogram and chroma, this approach takes advantage of the feature learning ability of neural networks, while using the reference track as an important anchor. On our designed testing set that spans across various styles and techniques, our model outperforms traditional rule-based ASA systems.


Purpose: To generate and characterize a murine GITR ligand fusion protein (mGITRL-FP) designed to maximize valency and the potential to agonize the GITR receptor for cancer immunotherapy. Experimental Design: The EC50 value of the mGITRL-FP was compared with an anti-GITR antibody in an in vitro agonistic cell–based reporter assay. We assessed the impact of dose, schedule, and Fc isotype on antitumor activity and T-cell modulation in the CT26 tumor model. The activity of the mGITRL-FP was compared with an agonistic murine OX40L-FP targeting OX40, in CT26 and B16F10-Luc2 tumor models. Combination of the mGITRL-FP with antibodies targeting PD-L1, PD-1, or CTLA-4 was analyzed in mice bearing CT26 tumors. Results: The mGITRL-FP had an almost 50-fold higher EC50 value compared with an anti-murine GITR antibody. Treatment of CT26 tumor-bearing mice with mGITRL-FP–mediated significant antitumor activity that was dependent on isotype, dose, and duration of exposure. The antitumor activity could be correlated with the increased proliferation of peripheral CD8+ and CD4+ T cells and a significant decrease in the frequency of intratumoral Tregs. The combination of mGITRL-FP with mOX40L-FP or checkpoint inhibitor antagonists enhanced antitumor immunity above that of monotherapy treatment. Conclusions: These results suggest that therapeutically targeting GITR represents a unique approach to cancer immunotherapy and suggests that a multimeric fusion protein may provide increased agonistic potential versus an antibody. In addition, these data provide, for the first time, early proof of concept for the potential combination of GITR targeting agents with OX40 agonists and PD-L1 antagonists. Clin Cancer Res; 23(13); 3416–27. ©2017 AACR.


The impact that remittances – the monies that migrants send home – have on the development on migrant-sending economies is a matter of considerable debate. This essay presents the case of Morocco and its state-controlled bank, La Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), to argue that the major determinant of remittance impact on development is the quality and breadth of financial intermediation to which migrants have access. By providing a set of financial tools that allowed migrants to deposit, save, and invest with the institution, the BCP, since 1969, simultaneously made remittances funds available the migrants for their personal expenditures and to the Moroccan government for large-scale industrial investment. However, to create financial services for migrants with an appeal broad enough to bring significant amounts of remittance liquidity into the banking sector, BCP had to engage migrants in an open and collaborative process of product design. Ultimately, this paper argues, migrants' involvement in the design of financial products enabled them to use the banking system to redirect remittances resources to rural and semi-rural areas most migrants were from, and to amend the industrial development priorities of the Moroccan government.


IMPORTANCE
Myasthenia gravis is a chronic, autoimmune, neuromuscular disease characterized by fluctuating weakness of voluntary muscle groups. Although genetic factors are known to play a role in this neuroimmunological condition, the genetic etiology underlying myasthenia gravis is not well understood.

OBJECTIVE
To identify genetic variants that alter susceptibility to myasthenia gravis, we performed a genome-wide association study.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
DNA was obtained from 1032 white individuals from North America diagnosed as having acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive myasthenia gravis and 1998 race/ethnicity-matched control individuals from January 2010 to January 2011. These samples were genotyped on Illumina OmniExpress single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays. An independent cohort of 423 Italian cases and 467 Italian control individuals were used for replication.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
We calculated P values for association between 8,114,394 genotyped and imputed variants across the genome and risk for developing myasthenia gravis using logistic regression modeling. A threshold P value of 5.0×10(-8) was set for genome-wide significance after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing.

RESULTS
In the overall case-control cohort, we identified association signals at CTLA4 (rs231770; P=3.98×10(-8); odds ratio, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.25-1.49), HLA-DQA1 (rs9271871; P=1.08×10(-8); odds ratio, 2.31; 95% CI, 2.02-2.60), and TNFRSF11A (rs4263037; P=1.60×10(-9); odds ratio, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.29-1.53). These findings replicated for CTLA4 and HLA-DQA1 in an independent cohort of Italian cases and control individuals. Further analysis revealed distinct, but overlapping, disease-associated loci for early- and late-onset forms of myasthenia gravis. In the late-onset cases, we identified 2 association peaks: one was located in TNFRSF11A (rs4263037; P=1.32×10(-12); odds ratio, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.44-1.68) and the other was detected in the major histocompatibility complex on chromosome 6p21 (HLA-DQA1; rs9271871; P=7.02×10(-18); odds ratio, 4.27; 95% CI, 3.92-4.62). Association within the major histocompatibility complex region was also observed in early-onset cases (HLA-DQA1; rs601006; P=2.52×10(-11); odds ratio, 4.0; 95% CI, 3.57-4.43), although the set of single-nucleotide polymorphisms was different from that implicated among late-onset cases.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Our genetic data provide insights into aberrant cellular mechanisms responsible for this prototypical autoimmune disorder. They also suggest that clinical trials of immunomodulatory drugs related to CTLA4 and that are already Food and Drug Administration approved as therapies for other autoimmune diseases could be considered for patients with refractory disease.


Basic Notions Sample Space and Events Probabilities Counting Techniques Independence and Conditional Probability Independence Conditioning The Borel-Cantelli Theorem Discrete Random Variables Random Variables and Vectors Expected Value Variance and Other Moments. Inequalities for Deviations Some Basic Distributions Convergence of Random Variables. The Law of Large Numbers Conditional Expectation Generating Functions. Branching Processes. Random Walk Revisited Branching Processes Generating Functions Branching Processes Revisited More on Random Walk Markov Chains Definitions and Examples. Probability Distributions of Markov Chains The First Step Analysis. Passage Times Variables Defined on a Markov Chain Ergodicity and Stationary Distributions A Classification of States and Ergodicity Continuous Random Variables Continuous Distributions Some Basic Distributions Continuous Multivariate Distributions Sums of Independent Random Variables Conditional Distributions and Expectations Distributions in the General Case. Simulation Distribution Functions Expected Values On Convergence in Distribution and Probability Simulation Histograms Moment Generating Functions Definitions and Properties Some Examples of Applications Exponential or Bernstein-Chernoff's Bounds The Central Limit Theorem for Independent Random Variables The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) for Independent and Identically Distributed Random Variables The CLT for Independent Variables in the General Case Covariance Analysis. The Multivariate Normal Distribution. The Multivariate Central Limit Theorem Covariance and Correlation Covariance Matrices and Some Applications The Multivariate Normal Distribution Maxima and Minima of Random Variables. Elements of Reliability Theory. Hazard Rate and Survival Probabilities Maxima and Minima of Random Variables. Reliability Characteristics Limit Theorems for Maxima and Minima Hazard Rate. Survival Probabilities Stochastic Processes: Preliminaries A General Definition Processes with Independent Increments Brownian Motion Markov Processes A Representation and Simulation of Markov Processes in Discrete Time Counting and Queuing Processes. Birth and Death Processes: A General Scheme Poisson Processes Birth and Death Processes Elements of Renewal Theory Preliminaries Limit Theorems Some Proofs Martingales in Discrete Time Definitions and Properties Optional Time and Some Applications Martingales and a Financial Market Model Limit Theorems for Martingales Brownian Motion and Martingales in Continuous Time Brownian Motion and Its Generalizations Martingales in Continuous Time More on Dependency Structures Arrangement Structures and the Corresponding Dependencies Measures of Dependency Limit Theorems for Dependent Random Variables Symmetric Distributions. De Finetti's Theorem Comparison of Random Variables. Risk Evaluation Some Particular Criteria Expected Utility Generalizations of the EUM Criterion Appendix References Answers to Exercises Index Exercises appear at the end of each chapter.


Digital technology is changing our politics. The World Wide Web is already a powerful influence on the public's access to government documents, the tactics and content of political campaigns, the behavior of voters, the efforts of activists to circulate their messages, and the ways in which topics enter the public discourse. The essays collected here capture the richness of current discourse about democracy and cyberspace. Some contributors offer front-line perspectives on the impact of emerging technologies on politics, journalism, and civic experience. What happens, for example, when we increase access to information or expand the arena of free speech? Other contributors place our shifting understanding of citizenship in historical context, suggesting that notions of cyber-democracy and online community must grow out of older models of civic life. Still others consider the global flow of information and test our American conceptions of cyber-democracy against developments in other parts of the world. How, for example, do new media operate in Castro's Cuba, in post-apartheid South Africa, and in the context of multicultural debates on the Pacific Rim? For some contributors, the new technologies endanger our political culture; for others, they promise civic renewal.


This study explores how fallout from the changing public health policy around COVID-19 has changed how researchers access and process their science experiments. Using a combination of techniques from statistical analysis and machine learning, we conduct a retrospective analysis of historical network data for a period around the stay-at-home orders that took place in March 2020. Our analysis takes data from the entire ESnet infrastructure to explore DOE high-performance computing (HPC) resources at OLCF, ALCF, and NERSC, as well as User sites such as PNNL and JLAB. We look at detecting and quantifying changes in site activity using a combination of t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) and decision tree analysis. Our findings bring insights into the working patterns and impact on data volume movements, particularly during late-night hours and weekends.


The new Australian law against misuse of market power (as amended in 2017) shares a number of similarities with the Canadian law against abuse of dominance. This article makes a comparative analysis of these laws against unilateral anti-competitive conduct, highlighting their similarities, including their focus on whether the impugned conduct has the effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition. It also identifies important differences, including the Australian requirement to prove "purpose or effect" in contrast to the Canadian requirement to prove "purpose and effect" and the respective methods of addressing "legitimate business purpose" claims. It illustrates some of these differences with reference to a recent digital economy case in which the Canadian Commissioner of Competition succeeded in proving that a firm abused its dominance by imposing restrictions on access to data it controlled, notwithstanding the firm's attempted justifications on privacy grounds.


This paper discusses a tax-transfer scheme that aims to address the under-provision problem associated with the private supply of international public goods and to bring about Pareto optimal allocations internationally. In particular, we consider the example of the global public good 'climate stabilization', both in an analytical and a numerical simulation model. The proposed scheme levies Pigouvian taxes globally, while international side-payments are employed in order to provide incentives to individual countries for not taking a free-ride from the international Pigouvian tax scheme. The side-payments, in turn, are financed via environmental taxes. As a distinctive feature, we take into account ancillary benefits that may be associated with local public characteristics of climate policy. We determine the positive impact that ancillary effects may exert on the scope for financing side-payments via environmental taxation. A particular attractive feature of ancillary benefits is that they arise shortly after the implementation of climate policies and therefore yield an almost immediate payback of investments in abatement efforts. Especially in times of high public debt levels, long periods of amortization would tend to reduce political support for investments in climate policy.


Summary Background: Frail older inpatients are at risk of unintended adverse events while in hospital, particularly falls, functional decline, delirium and incontinence. Objective: The aim of this pragmatic trial was to pilot and evaluate a multi-component knowledge translation intervention that incorporated a nurse-initiated computerized clinical decision support tool to reduce harms in the care of older medical inpatients. Methods: A stepped wedge trial design was conducted on six medical units at two hospitals in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The primary quantitative outcome was the rate of order set use. Secondary outcomes included the number of falls, the average number of days in hospital, and the total number of consults ordered for each of orthopedics, geriatrics, psychiatry and physiotherapy. Qualitative analysis included interviews with nurses to explore barriers and facilitators around the implementation of the electronic decision support tool. Results: The estimated mean rate of order set use over a 2 week period was 3.1 (95% CI 1.9–5.3) sets higher after the intervention than before. The estimated odds of a fall happening on a unit over a 2-week period was 9.3 (p = 0.065) times higher before than after the intervention. There was no significant effect of the intervention on length of hospital stay (p = 0.67) or consults to related clinical services (all p <0.2). Interviews with front-line nurses and nurse managers/educators revealed that the order set is not being regularly ordered because its content is perceived as part of good nursing care and due to the high workload on these busy medical units. Conclusions: Although not statistically significant, a reduction in the number of falls as a result of the intervention was noted. Frontline users' engagement is crucial for the successful implementation of any decision support tool. New strategies of implementation will be evaluated before broad dissemination of this knowledge translation intervention.


Warrior-prince Rama is about to be crowned Young King, when he hears the devastating news that his father, King of Ayodhya, has been tricked into banishing him to the forest. His devoted wife Sita insists on accompanying him in exile, but the evil ten-headed lord Ravana has fallen deeply in love with the beautiful princess and steals her away. Aided by Hanuman, mighty captain of the monkeys, Rama sets out across the world to find her and destroy Ravana in a deadly battle. Rama the Steadfast was composed in the oral tradition in about the fifth century BC and has been retold over the generations ever since. With its fantastical characters ranging from monsters to apes, a very human hero and its profound moral purpose, it is one of the greatest of all Indian tales.


Erudite and timely, this book is a key contribution to the renewal of radical theory and politics. Addressing the paradox of a contemporary humanitarianism that has abandoned politics in favour of combating evil, Douzinas, a leading scholar and author in the field of human rights and legal theory, considers the most pressing international questions.

Asking whether there 'is an intrinsic relationship between human rights and the recent wars carried out in their name?' and whether 'human rights are a barrier against domination and oppression or the ideological gloss of an emerging empire?' this book examines a range of topics, including:

 * the normative characteristics, political philosophy and metaphysical foundations of our age
 * the subjective and institutional aspects of human rights and their involvement in the creation of identity and definition of the meaning and powers of humanity
 * the use of human rights as a justification for a new configuration of political, economic and military power.

Exploring the legacy and the contemporary role of human rights, this topical and incisive book is a must for all those interested in human rights law, jurisprudence and philosophy of law, political philosophy and political theory.


The United States has a long and ongoing history of racial inequality. This paper surveys the literature on one aspect of that history: long-run trends in racial differences in health. We focus on standard measures such as infant mortality and life expectancy but also consider the available data on specific diseases and chronic conditions. Our basic conclusion is that large improvements have occurred in the average health of African Americans over the twentieth century, both in absolute terms and relative to Whites. These health advancements occurred steadily throughout the twentieth century, with the peak period of improvement between 1920 and 1945 (for infant mortality) and 1940 and 1960 (for overall life expectancy). We attribute the improvements to successful efforts to fight specific diseases, improvements in public health, and narrowing racial gaps in education and income. Although racial inequality in health outcomes has fallen in the long term, significant disparities remain today.


This article explores three moral conflicts that lie at the heart of the history of the Christian worker movement in the second half of the nineteenth century. First, the tension between an immaterial and a material orientation dominated the question of whether to form only associations directed toward spiritual well-being or trade unions as well. Second, the relationship between workers and their employers and the relationship between socialist and Christian groups was strained by the tension between harmony and struggle as two opposite possible directions for worker organizations. Third, the choice between pragmatic unity and undistorted conviction has been relevant to the issue of cooperation between Christian and socialist workers but became even more pressing within the debate on the desirability of denominational trade unions instead of a shared nondenominational Christian organization. Underlying these three moral conflicts is the pressure exerted by the activities of worker organizations on local, national, and transnational levels. Rephrasing the history of the early Dutch Christian worker movement along the lines of these three moral debates, it becomes clear that conflict is a driving force and an inescapable ingredient of civil society. Peter van Dam, "Marching for Morals: Early Struggles in the Dutch Christian Worker Movement," Journal of Markets & Morality 14, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 373-391


Delay-accelerating factor (DAF) protects host cells from complement- mediated damage by regulating the activation of C3 convertases on host cell surfaces. Using a panel of hamster-human somatic cell hybrids, the DAF gene was mapped to human chromosome 1. In situ hybridization studies using human metaphase cells further localized the gene to bands 1q31-41, with the largest cluster of grains at 1q32. This establishes the close linkage of the DAF gene to genes for four other proteins (C3b/C4b receptor or complement receptor 1, C3d receptor or complement receptor 2, factor H, and C4-binding protein) that share 60-amino-acid homologous repeats as well as complement-regulatory or -receptor activity, thereby enlarging the complement-regulatory gene family on the long arm of human chromosome 1.


Anthocyanins were extracted from jambolan skins using neutral solvents e.i water, ethanol, sopropanol, water ; ethanol (1:1), water : isopropanol (1:1), ethanol : isopropanol (1:1), and water, ethanol, isoppropanol (1:1:1) at 5 and 270>C. the stability of the anthocyanins was as effected by pH, heat, oxidator, and light was investigated. The extraction using combination of water and isopropanol at 27 0 C showed the highest total yield, i.e 71.54% (db). Furthermore, the highest anthocyanin concentration and yield were obtained in the extracts using combination of water and ethanol at 27 0>C i.e. 10 007.03 mg/L (db) and 2.78% (db), respectively. At low pH, the pigment extracts sowed high stability; and gradually decreased and lost color when the pH was increased. The greatest color intensity (red) was obtained at pHs values less than 3.5. The anthocyanins were relatively stable during heating temperature of 40 and 60 0 C in which more than 80% of pigment could be maintained for 4 hour of heating. Heating at high temperatures (80 and 100 0 C) decreased the color stability more than 80%. Presence of oxidator H 2 O 2 reduced the stability up to 73.52%. The UV and flouresecent light exposure for 7 days also reduced the stability by 11.47% and 10.62%, respectively. Key words: Anthocyanins, Jambolan skin, Extraction, pigment stability


Deep-learning vision models have shown intriguing similarities and differences with respect to human vision. We investigate how to bring machine visual representations into better alignment with human representations. Human representations are often inferred from behavioral evidence such as the selection of an image most similar to a query image. We find that with appropriate linear transformations of deep embeddings, we can improve prediction of human binary choice on a data set of bird images from 72% at baseline to 89%. We hypothesized that deep embeddings have redundant, high (4096) dimensional representations; however, reducing the rank of these representations results in a loss of explanatory power. We hypothesized that the dilation transformation of representations explored in past research is too restrictive, and indeed we found that model explanatory power can be significantly improved with a more expressive linear transform. Most surprising and exciting, we found that, consistent with classic psychological literature, human similarity judgments are asymmetric: the similarity of X to Y is not necessarily equal to the similarity of Y to X, and allowing models to express this asymmetry improves explanatory power.


The operations of the large mining company Yanacocha in Cajamarca (Peru) provoke and require a fundamental reshuffling of how rights to water are allocated, resulting in changes in the distribution of the benefits and burdens of accessing water. We use this paper to argue that these changes in water use and tenure can be understood as a form of water grabbing, since they result in a transfer of water control from farmers' collectives and government agencies to the mining company, with the company also assuming de facto responsibility over executing water allocation and safeguarding certain water-quality levels. We illustrate – by using two cases: La Ramada canal and the San Jose reservoir – the company's overt and covert strategies to achieve control over water, showing how these are often backed up by neo-liberal government policies and by permissive local water authorities. Next to active attempts to obtain water rights, these strategies also include skilfully bending and breaking the resistance of (some) farmers through negotiation and offering compensation. The de facto handing over of water governance powers to a multinational mining company raises troubling questions about longer-term water management, such as who controls the mining company, to whom are they accountable, and what will happen after mining operations stop.


Human being can easily acquire information by showing the object than reading the description of it. Our brain stores images that the eyes are seeing and by the brain mapping, people can analyze information by imagination in the brain. This is the reason why visualization is important and powerful. It helps people remember the scene later. Visualization transforms the symbolic into the geometric, enabling researchers to observe their simulations and computations (Flurchick, 2001). As a consequence, many computer scientists and programmers take their time to build better visualization of the data for users. For the flight data from an aircraft, it is better to understand data in 3D computer graphics rather than to look at mere numbers.
The flight data consists of several fields such as elapsed time, latitude, longitude, altitude, ground speed, roll angle, pitch angle, heading, wind speed, and so on. With these data variables, filtering is the first process for visualization in order to gather important information. The collection of processed data is transformed to 3D graphics form to be rendered by generating Keyhole Mark-up Language (KML) files in the system. KML is an XML grammar and file format for modeling and storing geographic features such as points, lines, images, polygons, and models for display in Google Earth or Google Maps. Like HTML, KML has a tag-based structure with names and attributes used for specific display purposes.
In the present work, new approaches to visualize flight using Google Earth are developed. Because of the limitation of the Google Earth API, the Great Circle Distance calculation and trigonometric functions are implemented to handle the position, angles of roll and pitch, and a range of the camera positions to generate several points of view. Currently, visual representation of flight data depends on 2D graphics although an aircraft flies in a 3D space. The graphical interface allows flight analysts to create ground traces in 2D, and flight "ribbons" and flight "paths with altitude" in 3D. Additionally, by incorporating weather information, fog and clouds can also be generated as part of the animation effects. With 3D stereoscopic technique, a realistic visual representation of the flights is realized.


Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prototypic autoimmune disease characterized by a prominent humoral autoimmunity. Of particular relevance is the local production of autoantibodies such as rheumatoid factor and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in the inflamed synovial tissue. The mechanisms underlying break of B cell tolerance and local autoantibody production remains poorly understood. Objectives To identify cellular and molecular pathways implicated in RA-specific humoral autoimmunity. Methods Synovial tissue samples were obtained by arthroscopy from untreated individuals with RA (n=33) and inflammation matched SpA controls (n=58). Gene expression profiling was performed on tissue samples of patients with established arthritis using 44K Whole Genome Human microarrays (Agilent). Top differentially expressed genes were validated on three independent cohorts by Taqman based RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry. Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) experiments were conducted using Bob1 knockout mice and their littermate controls. Results Microarray screening for genes differentially expressed in the inflamed synovium, the key target of the disease process in RA, revealed a prominent and disease-specific B cell/plasma cell signature with the B cell-specific transcriptional co-activator Bob1 and its transcriptional target BCMA among the most upregulated genes. Validation by RT-qPCR on two independent cohorts representing early and established arthritis confirmed microarray data and demonstrated elevated expression of Bob1 and BCMA not only in established RA, but also at the early phase of the disease. Quantitative evaluation of immunohistochemical stainings of synovial tissue with monoclonal antibody for Bob1 revealed significant increase in Bob1 positive cells in RA synovium (p<0.01). Next we determined whether lack of functional Bob1 modifies disease onset or severity in CIA. Interestingly, the results showed that Bob1-/- mice were fully resistant to CIA induction compared to their wild-type littermates. This remarkable protection from CIA is explained by failure to produce pathogenic anti-collagen autoantibodies in the absence of Bob1. In contrast, Bob1-/- mice were susceptible to MOG protein induced EAE and incidence and severity of clinical disease were not altered in these mice comparing to wild-type littermates, suggesting that absence of Bob1 does not impact on antigen-presentation/costimulatory capacity of B cells. Conclusions The specific increase in Bob1 expressing cells in RA synovitis and the resistance of Bob1-defecient mice to development of CIA indicate that Bob1/BCMA axis may contribute to humoral autoimmunity in RA. The relationship between an aberrant Bob1 expression and the break of peripheral tolerance in RA is currently under investigation. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The objective of this symposium at the First International Congress of Respiratory Biology (ICRB) was to enhance communication between comparative biologists and cancer researchers working on O(2) sensing via the HIF pathway. Representatives from both camps came together on August 13-16, 2006, in Bonn, Germany, to discuss molecular adaptations that occur after cells have been challenged by a reduced (hypoxia) or completely absent (anoxia) supply of oxygen. This brief "critters-to-cancer" survey discusses current projects and new directions aimed at improving understanding of hypoxic signaling and developing therapeutic interventions.


There is a growing interest in polymers with special properties , e.g. flame retardancy, biocompatibility, applicability in ceramic precursors, etc. In order to obtain materials possessing these merits, polymels and/or their monomers must be easy to modify. In the past few years, therefore, considerable attention has been paid to phosphazene polymers, an unusually diverse class of compounds. In this thesis the application of two novel routes for the synthesis of organo-substituted cyclophosphazenes in the preparation of polymers bearing pendant cyclophosphazene side-groups is described. ... Zie: Summary