Many games touch upon issues that are related to the postcolonial culture we live in. Be it in the shape of referring to how it has generated ethnic differences, subscribing to (post) capitalist values of winning and gaining, or by employing militarist strategies that have been partly shaped our colonial histories, cultural notions that are related to our colonial past are often resonant in games. However, one particular strand of strategy games takes the notions of colonialism as its most central focus. Games like Age Of Empires (AOE), Civilization and Rise of Nations, may differ greatly in certain ludological aspects, but all share a strong fascination with colonial history. Through employing colonial techniques of domination like exploring, trading, map-making and military manoeuvring, players create their personal colonial pasts and futures. Even though it is evident that such games share an explicit fascination with colonial history, it remains less clear in what way they may be called postcolonial. In this article I will shed light on why and how such games can be called postcolonial and should even be conceived as one of the most significant arenas to express the tensions and frictions that are part of the postcolonial culture we live in. As postcolonial playgrounds they offer the perfect means to play with and make sense of how colonial spatial practices have shaped contemporary culture. I will argue that the very character of digital games as well as the specific game mechanisms of historical strategy games makes them postcolonial playgrounds par excellence.


Objective To determine the pooled effect of exposure to one of 11 specialist palliative care teams providing services in patients' homes. Design Pooled analysis of a retrospective cohort study. Setting Ontario, Canada. Participants 3109 patients who received care from specialist palliative care teams in 2009-11 (exposed) matched by propensity score to 3109 patients who received usual care (unexposed). Intervention The palliative care teams studied served different geographies and varied in team composition and size but had the same core team members and role: a core group of palliative care physicians, nurses, and family physicians who provide integrated palliative care to patients in their homes. The teams' role was to manage symptoms, provide education and care, coordinate services, and be available without interruption regardless of time or day. Main outcome measures Patients (a) being in hospital in the last two weeks of life; (b) having an emergency department visit in the last two weeks of life; or (c) dying in hospital. Results In both exposed and unexposed groups, about 80% had cancer and 78% received end of life homecare services for the same average duration. Across all palliative care teams, 970 (31.2%) of the exposed group were in hospital and 896 (28.9%) had an emergency department visit in the last two weeks of life respectively, compared with 1219 (39.3%) and 1070 (34.5%) of the unexposed group (P<0.001). The pooled relative risks of being in hospital and having an emergency department visit in late life comparing exposed versus unexposed were 0.68 (95% confidence interval 0.61 to 0.76) and 0.77 (0.69 to 0.86) respectively. Fewer exposed than unexposed patients died in hospital (503 (16.2%) v 887 (28.6%), P<0.001), and the pooled relative risk of dying in hospital was 0.46 (0.40 to 0.52). Conclusions Community based specialist palliative care teams, despite variation in team composition and geographies, were effective at reducing acute care use and hospital deaths at the end of life.


OBJECTIVE
Hispanic women who reside in low-resource settings are especially at risk for nonparticipation in cancer screening programs. The purpose of this study was to assess characteristics that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among older Hispanic women living along the United States-Mexico border.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study of women aged ≥50 years (n = 504) residing in Yuma County, Arizona, were randomly selected for interviews. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify determinants of compliance with mammography and Pap smear use.

RESULTS
Women who received a recommendation from a clinician to get both mammography and Pap smears were more likely to receive a mammogram within the past year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 5.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0-8.9) compared to women who received no recommendation. Likewise, women who received both recommendations were more likely to receive a Pap smear within the past 3 years (AOR 9.7, 95% CI 4.6-20.7) compared to women who received no recommendation. Other factors, such as current health insurance and a visit with their healthcare provider in the past year, were also associated with getting a mammogram within 1 year or Pap smear within 3 years.

CONCLUSIONS
Enabling characteristics were significantly associated with breast and cervical cancer screening use compared to predisposing and need characteristics among older Hispanic women residing near the U.S.-Mexico border. Clinician recommendation of both mammograms and Pap smears and opportunistic clinic visits to medical providers may increase breast and cervical cancer screening coverage and reduce the burden of these two cancers in this high-risk population.


Schmallenberg disease (SBD) is an emerging vector-borne disease that affects domestic and wild ruminants. A long-term serosurvey was conducted to assess exposure to Schmallenberg virus (SBV) in all the wild ruminant species present in mainland Spain. Between 2010 and 2016, sera from 1,216 animals were tested for antibodies against SBV using a commercial blocking ELISA. The overall prevalence of antibodies was 27.1% (95%CI: 24.7-29.7). Statistically significant differences among species were observed, with significantly higher seropositivity found in fallow deer (Dama dama) (45.6%; 99/217), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (31.6%; 97/307) and mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) (28.0%; 33/118) compared to Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) (22.2%; 8/36), Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica) (19.9%; 49/246), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (17.5%; 34/194) and Southern chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) (10.2%; 10/98). Seropositive animals were detected in 81.4% (57/70; 95%CI: 70.8-88.8) of the sampled populations. SBV seroprevalence ranged from 18.8% (48/256) in bioregion (BR)2 (north-central, Mediterranean) to 32.3% (31/96) in BR1 (northeastern or Atlantic, Eurosiberian). Anti-SBV antibodies were not found before 2012, when the first outbreak of SBD was reported in Spain. In contrast, seropositivity was detected uninterruptedly during the period 2012-2016 and anti-SBV antibodies were found in yearling animals in each of these years. Our results provide evidence of widespread endemic circulation of SBV among wild ruminant populations in mainland Spain in recent years. Surveillance in these species could be a useful tool for monitoring SBV in Europe, particularly in areas where wild ruminants share habitats with livestock.


Transforming growth factor-β causes apoptosis in certain cell types, including lymphocytes and hepatocytes, but it has not been known how TGF-β receptors are coupled to the process of cell death. Searching for proteins that might do the job, Perlman et al. isolated the adapter protein Daxx in a yeast two-hybrid screen for human proteins that interacted with the type II TGF-β receptor. Daxx functions to link a different receptor--Fas (a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family)--to activation of the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and subsequent programmed cell death. The authors found that endogenous Daxx associated with endogenous TGF-β receptor type II in a murine hepatocyte cell line. Antisense oligonucleotides to Daxx mRNA protected these cells from TGF-β-induced apoptosis. In a murine B-cell lymphoma cell line, a dominant-negative deletion mutant of Daxx inhibited apoptosis induced by TGF-β or Fas. Although many actions of TGF-β result from coupling of the receptor to the Smad proteins, which control transcription of target genes, or to other signaling proteins, the findings of Perlmann et al. indicate that the growth factor's apoptotic effects are mediated primarily by Daxx. R Perlman, W. P. Schiemann, M. W. Brooks, H. F. Lodish, R. A. Weinberg, TGF-β-induced apoptosis is mediated by the adapter protein Daxx that facilitates JNK activation. Nature Cell Biol. 3, 708-714 (2001). [Online Journal]


"The fact remains that, until quite recently, scientific research on sexuality has been taboo and therefore to be avoided or at best marginalized" (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994, p. 36). Two early landmark studies looking at sexual behavior in the United States were Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Kinsey, 1953); together they are known as the Kinsey Reports. No major follow-up studies were done to the Kinsey Reports for over thirty-five years. It was not until the 1980's that additional sexual behavior studies began to appear and this was largely due to the role of sexual behavior in HIV transmission. By the 1990's two major studies appeared, the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), which provided information concerning the sexual behavior of adults in the United States, and the National College Health Risk Behavior Study (NCHRBS), which examined a wide range of risk behaviors among college students, including sexual behavior (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1997; Laumann, et. al, 1994). While sexual decisions may be based on personal choices, these choices are affected by a multitude of surrounding social influences. Religious conviction is one of these influences which play a major role in an individual's sexual behavior (Penhollow, Young, & Denny, 2005). For example, after a review of a large number of studies, Koenig, McCullough, and Larson (2001) concluded that religious practice and beliefs were associated with lower rates of premarital sexual activity and less permissive attitudes. This finding may also have cross-cultural implications. Schmitt (2002) found that across 52 cultures there was a positive correlation between self-reported religiosity and self-described sexual restraint for both males and females. Pluhar, Frongillo, Stycos and Dempster-McCain's (1998) research supports previous findings that religiosity is an important factor in influencing the sexual attitudes and behavior of college students. Regardless of their religious affiliation, those who consider themselves more religious have more conservative views of premarital sexual intercourse and are less likely to have experienced sexual intercourse. However, unlike a number of previous studies, they have found that religious affiliation is significantly related to whether or not the student had engaged in sexual intercourse. Two studies which evaluated young people's sexual behavior over given time periods (one from 1974-1985, the other from 1943-1999) concluded that there have been rises in their sexual activity (Spees, 1987; Wells & Twenge, 2005), as well as their willingness to discuss sexual issues (Spees, 1987). However, for many risk behaviors there is a tendency for individuals to perceive a greater extent of that risk behavior than actually occurs (Felt, McBride, & Helm, 2008; Perkins, 2002). For example, Scholly, Katz, Gascoigne, and Holch (2005) found that within the previous year over 80% of their college subjects reported from 0 to 1 sexual partner, while they believed that only 22% of their peers had limited themselves to the same number. The issue of perception is especially important, if the concept of social norms intervention is correct. The theory of social norms suggests that group norms, or the reference groups of an individual, become a powerful agent in the choices that individuals make concerning their behavior, in that these behaviors become framed by those norms (Perkins, 2002). Most researchers who have tested social norms intervention have done it with alcohol use, leaving open the question of whether it works with sexual behaviors (Matthew, Page, Mowry, Damann, Taylor, & Cimini, 2006). The question is important because if perception of the social norm leads to actual sexual behavior it could result in an increase of high risk sexual behavior and an increase in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. …


Concerns about equitable provision and financing of health care have characterised the NHS since its foundation. Evidence of persisting and, in some cases, widening health inequalities, gathered since the publication of the Black report,1 has progressively raised equity to a high rank among health policy objectives.2 Though the general aim of reducing health inequalities appears uncontroversial, the practical notions of equity that should inform policy and the ways in which these should be implemented are far from clear. Even more importantly, there is no consensus on how to deal with policies that may cause a conflict between the goals of equity and efficiency—that is, those that may improve efficiency while increasing health inequalities or improve fairness while decreasing efficiency. The equity versus efficiency dilemma3 has been virtually ignored in the political debate, often leading to inconsistent judgments in the development of health policies.

In a report recently published by the NHS Health Technology Assessment programme4 we examined examples of the equity-efficiency dilemma that the NHS …


Bacteriophages have long served as model systems through which the nature of life may be explored. From a physical or mechanical point of view, phages are excellent examples of natural nanotechnology: they are nanometer-scale systems which depend critically on forces, pressures, velocities, and other fundamentally physical quantities for their biological functions. The study of the physical properties of phages has therefore provided an arena for application of physics to biology. In particular, recent studies of the motor responsible for packaging a phage gnome into a capsid showed a buildup of pressure within the capsid of tens of atmospheres. This thesis reports a combined theoretical and experimental study on various aspects of the genome ejection process, so that a comparison may be drawn with the packaging experiments. In particular, we examine various theoretical models of the forces within a phage capsid, deriving formulas both for the force driving genome ejection and for the velocity at which the genome is translocated into a host cell. We describe an experiment in which the force was measured as a function of the amount of genome within the phage capsid, and another where the genome ejection velocity was measured for single phages under the microscope. We make direct quantitative comparisons between the theory and experiments, stringently testing the extent to which we are able to model the genome ejection process.


The Internet has become part of almost every organizational culture where security threats increase with the increase use of the Internet. Therefore, security practice has become increasingly important for almost every organization where is the same case of the Qatar Meteorology Department (QMD) in the state of Qatar. The aim of this research is to evaluate the current security level of the QMD by examining the current security practices that present in the organization and the security awareness level among the organization employees. After that, provide the organization with security policy and awareness program recommendations to enhance the organization security practice. Furthermore, the importance of this research is its contribution to enhance the organization security level. In order to achieve the research objectives, a mixture of different methodologies has been used to collect the fundamental data includes: survey questionnaires, interviews, and field observation. For the data collection process to success, a number of strategies have been used in each method to ensure achieving the most benefits of each the used method. These methods satisfied in collecting the essential primary data. Furthermore, a number of literatures were reviewed in order to understand the research subject further. Based on the collected data, a number of analysis methods have been used to draw a conclusion of the organizational security level where the findings illustrate the needs for security policies and awareness programs in order to enhance the organization security level. Thus, a number of security policies and awareness program recommendations have been established. The research findings and the provided recommendations can support the organization to enhance its security level as much as possible since no system is completely secure. Furthermore, this research presents valuable information about the organization current security level and provides recommendations to enhance this security level.


Patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) experience impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor for the treatment of PsA, which has been associated with improvements in dermatologic endpoints in patients with PsA. To assess the extent to which tofacitinib affects patient HRQoL via improvements in dermatologic symptoms, including itch, data were pooled from patients with PsA who received tofacitinib in phase III studies (NCT01866668 and NCT01882439). Mediation modeling assessed the indirect effects (via Itch Severity Item [ISI] and Physician's Global Assessment of Psoriasis [PGA-PsO]) and direct effects (via all other factors) of tofacitinib treatment on dermatology-specific HRQoL (measured by Dermatology Life Quality Index [DLQI]). In the initial model, the treatment effect on DLQI was largely mediated by itch (ISI; p < 0.0001) and PGA-PsO (p < 0.01). The model was re-specified to assess the indirect effects only of itch and PGA-PsO on DLQI. Here, 17.7% of the treatment effect on DLQI was attributable to PGA-PsO (p = 0.0006), and 82.3% to itch (p < 0.0001). Tofacitinib-dependent improvements in DLQI were primarily mediated by itch relief, in addition to improvements in PGA-PsO.


The near term objective of the Electric Power Research Institutes (EPRI) Hydro Program is to provide practical and easily used research results and industry guides in the areas of dam safety and hydro relicensing. Efforts in both areas are on a fast track with several key products already completed and available: Downstream Migrant Fish Protection for Hydro Plants; Instream Flow Methodologies; Guide for Developing a Hydro Plant Relicensing Strategy, Vol. 1, Major Issues and RD Guidelines for Drilling and Testing Core Samples; Hydro Plant Modernization Guides; Dissolved Oxygen Control Assessment. The elements of the Hydro Program at EPRI are modular and self-standing, providing focused results with very specific targets. The results of these efforts are expected to have a very positive impact in these areas: dam safety, probable maximum precipitation (PMP), relicensing strategy, balancing of power versus non-power aspects, dissolved oxygen control assessment, and downstream migrant fish protection.


This study investigated the effect of various antibiotics and the raw extract of plant Curcuma longa (Haldi) against microorganisms responsible for bovine mastitisinflammation in the mammary gland. Milk was collected from the affected cows from Anand district in Gujarat. Microorganisms from the milk were isolated and characterized using various biochemical tests. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of all the isolates was checked against 16 different antibiotics using the agar disc diffusion method. Of the 12 isolates selected in the study, most showed total resistance to Gentamicin and Erythromycin antibiotics. It was also observed that the patterns of bacterial resistance have not changed in India over the years. C. longa raw extracts from its roots were prepared in ethanol and tested against the mastitis causing organisms by adding its different concentrations in wells prepared in the agar plates. The result shows significant antibacterial activity against the tested mastitis causing bacteria. However the effect was checked on a few elite organisms. Promising effect of C. longa in combating mastitis pathogens incites further research in the area.


In this paper we study the semantics of so-called verum focus from the point of view of a multi-dimensional semantic model. As coined by Hohle (1992), verum focus is non-contrastive focus on the verb or a complementizer located in C in German, and it is a way of realizing the corresponding operator VERUM. In the small amount of previous literature, VERUM has been treated as a pure semantic operator. In contrast, we show that those one-dimensional treatments make the wrong predictions about the truth-conditions of an utterance involving verum focus as well as about its discourse contribution. Equipped with a multidimensional semantic framework, we treat VERUM as an expressive function that operates in the use-conditional dimension. It takes as argument a proposition p and expresses the interpretational instruction to downdate the corresponding question ?p from the question under discussion. We show that this approach to VERUM can account for the distribution of verum focus, and its discourse contribution.


In this paper, we introduce a new set of reinforcement learning (RL) tasks in Minecraft (a flexible 3D world). We then use these tasks to systematically compare and contrast existing deep reinforcement learning (DRL) architectures with our new memory-based DRL architectures. These tasks are designed to emphasize, in a controllable manner, issues that pose challenges for RL methods including partial observability (due to first-person visual observations), delayed rewards, high-dimensional visual observations, and the need to use active perception in a correct manner so as to perform well in the tasks. While these tasks are conceptually simple to describe, by virtue of having all of these challenges simultaneously they are difficult for current DRL architectures. Additionally, we evaluate the generalization performance of the architectures on environments not used during training. The experimental results show that our new architectures generalize to unseen environments better than existing DRL architectures.


Alternaria alternata (A. alternata) is one of the most common airborne fungi in outdoor and indoor environment. A. alternata has also considered as an aeroallergen. So, it could be responsible for an allergen release and may be responsible for allergic reactions in sensitive patients. The aim of this study was the analyzing of specific IgE against A. alternata in atopic dermatitis (AD) and asthma patients. A total of 50 AD patients (male 17 and female 33) and 50 asthma patients (male 20 and female 30) were entered in study. The range age vary from 4 months to 60 years. To analyzing of specific IgE, A. alternata was cultured in Sabouraud's dextrose agar. The grown fungi were harvested and ruptured by liquid nitrogen and glass beads. Samples were centrifuged at 3000rpm in 15 minutes and then at 15,500 rpm (4 degrees C) in 2 hours and then supernatant were collected as crude extract. The crude extract was separated by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacryl Amide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The separated proteins transferred to nitrocellulose filter and then socked with atopic dermatitis and asthma patient's sera. The responsive bands to IgE were revealed by antihuman IgE antibodies conjugated with enzyme in chromogenic substrate. 16 (32%) and 19 (38%) of AD and asthma patients had specific IgE against A. alternata, respectively. Among the AD and asthma patients who were positive for specific IgE to A. alternata, 14 (87.5%) and 9 (47.4%) were women, respectively. Of the 16 AD patients for specific IgE positive, 9 (56.3%) were >12 years old. Of the 19 asthma patients for specific IgE positive, 10 (52.6%) were 20-39 years old. This study suggests that A. alternata is a major aeroallergen. Our previous studies as well as different studies from other countries have shown that A. alternata is one of the most common indoor and outdoor airborne fungi, so it could permanently present some allergens to susceptible individuals. Therefore, control of A. alternata growth in indoor areas and avoidance with A. alternata propagules could play an important role in reducing allergic reaction in susceptible individuals.


Regolithic howardites are analogs for the surface materials of asteroid 4 Vesta, recently mapped by the Dawn spacecraft. Rigorously evaluating pairing of howardites recovered in 1995 in the Grosvenor Mountains (GRO 95), Antarctica, enables an examination of a larger, more representative regolith sample. Previous work on two of the howardites studied here concluded that GRO 95602 and GRO 95535 are solar windrich surface regolith samples and that they are not paired with each other, leading to uncertainty regarding pairing relationships between the other GRO 95 howardites. Based on petrology, cosmic-ray exposure history, and terrestrial age, four GRO 95 howardites are paired. The paired howardites (GRO 95534, 95535, 95574, 95581) were from a meteoroid with radius of 10-15 cm, a pre-atmospheric size comparable to that of Kapoeta, the largest known regolithic howardite. The paired GRO 95 howardites contain clasts of at least 18 separate HED lithologies, providing evidence they were assembled from diverse source materials. The total eucrite:diogenite mixing ratio (ratio of all eucrite lithologies to all diogenite lithologies) in the paired GRO 95 howardites is ~2:1. Petrographically determined basaltic eucrite:cumulate eucrite ratios in regolithic howardites, studied here and previously, vary more widely than total eucrite:diogenite ratios. Relative to eucritic pyroxene, plagioclase is depleted in these howardites, which provides evidence that plagioclase is preferentially comminuted in the vestan regolith. The extent of plagioclase depletion could be an indicator of regolith maturity.


In the following experimental study, a multiple-probe, single subject design (SSD) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible 5-Point Scale (Buron & Curtis, 2012) as an intervention tool for a preschool aged child with developmental delays (DD). The scale, originally designed for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) but found through noted experiences to have positive effects for individuals with other disabilities as well, is a teaching tool that aids teachers, therapists, and families in encouraging positive social and behavioral development in individuals (Buron & Curtis, 2012). While not an identified evidence-based practice (EBP) itself, the Incredible 5Point Scale does utilize many EBP in its implementation and development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the scale in modifying the target behavior of a four-year-old male with DD by using visual analysis, percentage of nonoverlapping data points (PND), and percentage of data exceeding the median (PEM) to indicate whether or not the scale was effective. After the implementation of the intervention, the participant's target behavior (inappropriate play with peers) decreased between baseline and intervention phases across all three activities. Practice and research implications as well as study limitations are discussed.


A major role in the realm of health care is played by wireless monitoring systems. Body-area networks (BANs), which use the human body to support communication using low-power wireless sensor network technology, of late have been attracting a considerable interest. Now, the design of a transmission system for reliable communication through a BAN is a challenging problem. First, communication takes place on different types of links, depending on the body parts to which transmit and receive antennas are attached, e.g., trunk-to-trunk, trunk-to-head, trunk-to-hand, on where the hardware is located (body-to-body, offbody, on-body, and in-body links), and on antenna type and orientation, body size, location, and posture. In addition, propagation in on-body links may combine surface wave, creeping wave, diffracted waves, scattered waves, and free space propagation, depending on the antenna positions and the body postures. The use of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems in BANs has also been advocated, and MIMO BAN channel models discussed. Even if adaptive techniques are used to adjust modulation and coding to the changing environment, reliable mathematical models for the transmission channel are called for, but they are difficult to obtain because of the variations of the environment in which the transmission is taking place. We argue that the design of modulation and coding schemes in BANs should be based on their robustness to uncertainties of channel model. To avoid catastrophic performance degradations due to model uncertainties, system performance must be examined by evaluating the effects of a discrepancy between the nominal distribution of channel statistics and the actual distribution. Based on this concept, the robustness of system design to channel modeling can be assessed. In this paper, we examine mathematical tools allowing designers to assess a BAN system performance under modeling uncertainty: moment-bound techniques and optimization techniques are applied to obtain performance bounds with and without error-control coding. Based on these bounds, we propose robust coding/modulation techniques making that performance less sensitive to modeling errors. Finally, we examine the design of an architecture to operate BANs in a cloud environment. Our architecture facilitates smooth convergence and operation of BANs in cloud computing, and helps the users to rely upon an efficient, reliable, and fault-tolerant cloud infrastructure for communication.


Theory shows that the gain bandwidth of a one-pump fiber optical parametric amplifier (OPA) using highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) could be more than 200 nm. Under these circumstances, the OPA gain would overlap the pump-induced Raman gain. We have studied the combined effects of OPA and Raman gain theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results demonstrate a 200-nm bandwidth from a single fiber-optical amplifier and also verify that the influence of the Raman effect is relatively small, as predicted by the theory.


Open classes are frequently used in programming languages such as Ruby and Smalltalk to add or change methods of a class that is defined in the same component or in a different one. They are typically used for bug fixing, multi-dimensional separation of concerns, or to modularly add new operations to an existing class. However, they suffer from modularity issues if globally visible: Other components using the same classes are then affected by their modifications. This work presents Extension Classes, a hierarchical approach for dynamically scoping such modifications in Ruby, built on top of ideas from Context-oriented Programming (COP). Our mechanism organizes modifications in classes and allows programmers to define their scope according to a class nesting hierarchy and based on whether programmers regard an affected class as a black box or not. Moreover, Extension Classes support modularizing modifications as mixins, such that they can be reused in other components.


Separation of the elements of classical mechanics into kinematics and dynamics is an uncommon tutorial approach, but the author uses it to advantage in this two-volume set. Students gain a mastery of kinematics first - a solid foundation for the later study of the free-body formulation of the dynamics problem. A key objective of these volumes, which present a vector treatment of the principles of mechanics, is to help the student gain confidence in transforming problems into appropriate mathematical language that may be manipulated to give useful physical conclusions or specific numerical results. In the first volume, the elements of vector calculus and the matrix algebra are reviewed in appendices. Unusual mathematical topics, such as singularity functions and some elements of tensor analysis, are introduced within the text. A logical and systematic building of well-known kinematic concepts, theorems, and formulas, illustrated by examples and problems, is presented offering insights into both fundamentals and applications. Problems amplify the material and pave the way for advanced study of topics in mechanical design analysis, advanced kinematics of mechanisms and analytical dynamics, mechanical vibrations and controls, and continuum mechanics of solids and fluids. Volume I of "Principles of Engineering Mechanics" provides the basis for a stimulating and rewarding one-term course for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students specializing in mechanics, engineering science, engineering physics, applied mathematics, materials science, and mechanical, aerospace, and civil engineering. Professionals working in related fields of applied mathematics will find it a practical review and a quick reference for questions involving basic kinematics.


1. We have investigated the electrophysiological properties of ependymal cells in the isolated dorsal cortex of the turtle, Pseudemys scripta. The cell bodies of these radial glia form an epithelium at the ventricular surface, and each cell sends one or more branching processes through the cortex to the pial surface. Very few non‐ependymal glia exist in the dorsal cortex. 2. Ependymal cells had high resting membrane potentials (‐90 mV), very fast time constants and a lack of intrinsic excitability or synaptic potentials. 3. Changes in the K+ concentration ([K+]) of the bathing solution caused near‐Nernstian changes of ependymal membrane potentials. When local neuronal pathways were activated, ependymal cells slowly depolarized while extracellular voltage shifted negatively. Simultaneous measurements of extracellular [K+] ([K+]o) near the impaled ependymal cell body showed that these slow depolarizations were fully accounted for by activity‐dependent increases in [K+]o. Similar measurements during focal pressure applications of solutions with high [K+] suggested that intrasomatic recordings reflect predominantly the [K+]o adjacent to the cell body, and not the intracortical process. 4. Intracellular injections of the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow CH, and simultaneous recordings from neighbouring cells, indicated that ependymal cells are chemically and electrically coupled to one another. Increasing the ambient CO2 level from 5 to 40% depolarized cells, increased their input resistance, and abolished interglial dye coupling. 5. The physiological properties of ependymal cells are very similar to those of a variety of glial cell types in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species. In the absence of other types of glia, radial glia may function as the sole cellular mediators of K+ redistribution (i.e. K+ spatial buffering) following neural activity, as well as the generators of slow extracellular potentials.


The Bureau of Labor Statistics rounds the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to a single decimal place before releasing it, and the published CPI inflation series is calculated from those rounded index values. While rounding has only a relatively small effect on the level of the CPI series at present, it can have a significant effct on CPI inflation, the monthly percent changes in the CPI. This paper estimates the impact of rounding error on the published CPI inflation for both contemporaneous and historical data. Using an unrounded CPI series from January 1986 to July 2005 as a benchmark, I find that published CPI inflation differs from its full-precision counterpart approximately 25% of the time, and that reporting the CPI levels to three decimal places would reduce these discrepancies to under 0.5%. Further, the variance introduced by rounding error is large when compared to the sampling variation in CPI inflation. I find that the BLS could reduce total CPI inflation error variance by 42% by simply reporting more digits in the CPI index, resulting in a significantly more accurate reflection of monthly inflation. In order to extend these results to the CPI historical series, I derive the distribution of the rounding error component of inflation. From this analysis, it is possible to estimate the probability of large rounding errors for a given CPI level and rounding precision. Three regimes emerge. Before the 1970's inflation, discrepancies due to rounding were both frequent and frequently large relative to the underlying inflation rate. During the inflationary period of the mid-1970's to mid-1980's, both the probability and relative magnitude of discrepancies decrease dramatically. Finally, the last twenty years are characterized by a slowly falling probability of any rounding-induced error, but a roughly constant probability of an error of a given size.


Objective: To evaluate the auxiliary efficacy and safety of Nasaleze nasal spray applied to Chinese population with allergic rhinitis.
Methods: 120 patients were selected who were diagnosed with allergic rhinitis, and were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group and control group (the patients in experimental group use Mometasone Furoate Aqueous nasal spray for one spray and Nasaleze nasal spray in the morning and only Nasaleze nasal spray in the evening; the patients in control group respectively Mometasone Furoate Aqueous nasal spray for one spray. The research circle for the two groups is both 2 weeks), and respectively compare the changes in symptoms and sign score of the two groups before and after treatment and the differences between the two groups.
Results: Symptom score and sign score of the two groups are both obviously improved after treatment (P 0.05); there is no obviously adverse reactions between the two groups.
Conclusion: When hormonal nasal spray and Nasaleze nasal spray are combined, the efficacy is equivalent to the single hormone. When hormonal nasal spray and Nasaleze nasal spray were simultaneously applied to the patients with allergic rhinitis, they can effectively reduce the use of nasal spray hormone and be with good safety.


This article attempts a survey of a common trend in contemporary Scottish fiction (1994 –2003): a unifying concern with issues of 'voice' in narrative. The survey proceeds from an assumption that many Scottish writers mak e use of so-called demotic voices within their work (i.e. sociolects and dialects from e veryday situations, or 'street language'). Very often, this concern with the demotic arises out of ideological standpoints peculiar (arguably) to Scotland: attempts to create a distance from Standard English, a nationalist position, or the ambition to reassert the primacy (or, at least, the equivalency) of oral over written forms of language. The conclusion must be that choices made with regard to narrative technique are ideological choices, and that the demotic method is not without its pitfalls. This assertion is demonstrated through an exploration of three writers: James Kelman, Alan Warner and Anne Donovan. All of these demotic techniques are aided and abetted by the writer's intense identification with place, with Glasgow (for Kelman and Donovan) or with Scotland as a whole, and the intrinsically 'polyphonic' conditions which exist there, i.e. a range of dialects and voices standing as 'other' to Standard (colonial?) English. The writers' goal is to exploit the particular cultural and linguistic conditions peculiar to the country in order to produce a narrative art form which could adequately aspire to represent them; in other words, to create a distinctive literar y v oice the better to r epresent a par ticular regional or national constituency. The pitfalls need to be addressed too: a tendency towards the mundane and repetitive in demotic narratives, a certain belligerence which can alienate readers and the essential question of who this writing is written for. Can it be read with true engagement outside of its target constituency? If not, is such writing open to the charge of parochialism?


Traditional techniques in astronomical speckle imaging require simultaneous measurements on a reference star to estimate the object Fourier modulus. Although the phase recovery problem has been successfully solved with the use of the bispectrum, the unwanted requirement of measurements on a reference is still present. Two minimization approaches to recover the desired diffraction-limited object from the bispectral phase alone are suggested.


This paper reports the design plan of a social rehabilitation robot for optimizing social self-management of health. Managing health with physically and stigmatizing disabling conditions involves managing both physical and social daily functioning. The robot will use artificial moral emotions that trigger actions that mirror health care ethical behavior to preserve therapeutic relationships and empower social participation in people with Parkinson's disease.


The memorials of Gallipoli have not lost their power to move, confront and often even inspire their visitors. Their meanings are re-visited, even re-invented by each successive generation of Anzac pilgrim and, contrary to the simplistic mono-dimensional readings of some historians, the Peninsula's commemorative landscape remains a site of fierce contestation. Pacifist and patriot, back packer and bereaved all interpret it differently. Moreover, the memorials of Gallipoli continue to alert us to different cultures of commemoration; Christian, secular and Islamic, Turkish, British, French and Australian.


In society, different testsof educational performance have been given importance in policy initiatives, curriculum change, as well as in media. Throughout the last 15 years, the educational assessment programs PISA and TIMSS have been reference points for general economic and social policies and influential for national educational policy (Pettersson 2014). Research using PISA-and TIMSS-data and results are recurrently referred to in media debates (Forsberg & Roman 2014) and in arguments for policy reforms and curriculum development. Given the importance of this discourse as a social practice it is crucial to take into account how International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA) research is institutionalized.The main objective of this study is to enlarge our understanding about key actors and the legitimation and dissemination of different kinds of knowledge within the ILSA-research field. We analyse research articles reporting and discussing PISA and TIMSS data, respectively. Our corpus consists of articles published in international peer-reviewed journals and represents a selection of "high-impact" articles present in Web of Sciences. We focus on the disciplinary belonging of the journals and the affiliation of the authors of the articles as well as the publications referred in the articles. In addition, we pay attention to other articles referencing the PISA and TIMSS articles in our corpus.Our specific research questions are: what is the difference between actors and knowledge legitimized by the selected PISA and TIMSS articles? This is investigated by exploring which authors, fields and countries that are connected to the corpus through the method of scientometrics, which has demonstrated a potential in using research-databases for studying patterns of research activity.Our findings illuminate that there is a substantial difference in actors defining the discourse within PISA and TIMSS. TIMSS research is more internationally spread. In PISA research there was a large bias towards English speaking westernized nations in dissemination. For TIMSS research, USA and Germany are the most evident countries for author affiliation, and Egypt is the third most common country, followed by countries like People's Republic of China and Turkey. Additionally within PISA research it was possible to observe two substantial key nodes of research environments. Notes of research are also evident in TIMSS research, but in comparison to PISA they are not that dominant. This also holds true concerning journals for publishing -TIMSS articles are more spreadin terms of different journals. Finally, connected to the PISA articles there is a connection between the research fields of education and psychology in framing the context of the phenomenon in focus as a new mode of global educational governance as well as reformulation of the relationship between curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation. This is not identified in the TIMSS articles, where education research is dominant. Based on our findings the PISA research field seems more aligned with an external political discourse while the TIMSS research field appears to be constituted primarily by an internal research discourse.


The studies of performance measurement in firms have been conducted for a long period of
time. However, the performance models and methods used in previous studies were limited.
The purpose of this study is to test a performance based model that uses a modified approach
in firms' performance measurement. The new performance model used in this study is based on
expectations in terms of performance measurement and evaluation of the firms with multiple
dimensions. Different from the conventional gap models, the method used in this study is
"Performance Measurement Method Based on Gap Percentages" developed by Eleren (2009).
This method allows the researcher to use quantitative and qualitative data together. The model
was tested with data collected from 42 firms engaged in business activities in marble industry
in the Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar.


Purpose: To determine the feasibility and reliability of using the 9-point Beighton Hypermobility Score (9-BHS) with youth with intellectual disabilities using a least to most prompting technique. Method: One hundred one youth (5-18 years old) enrolled in the study. Two separate evaluations, separated by 3 to 4 weeks, were performed on 25 participants. Results: Ninety assented to the test, and 85 performed all 9-BHS maneuvers. Scores were not significantly different for age and gender, but participants with Down syndrome had significantly higher scores. Test-retest scores showed 80% to 90% agreement (n = 25). Cohen kappa ranged from moderate (0.41-0.60) to perfect (1.0) for the 9 maneuvers, and an ICC of 0.88 was found for total scores. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the use of the 9-BHS in youth with intellectual disabilities in the manner described is feasible and reliable.


Post-glacial dispersal strategies of Orthoptera and Lepidoptera in Europe and in the Carpathian basin Ecologically transitional regions are characterised by high species diversity due to the overlap of species with different geographical origins caused by dispersal processes along gradients, e.g. the overlap of species belonging to different zonobiomes. The overlap of azonal communities along shortdistance gradients results in the organisation of community-complexes and landscape mosaics connected by habitat ecotones characterised by overlap of several faunal types, like Mediterranean, Balkanic, Siberian, Ponto-Caspian, Ponto-Pannonian, Turano-Eremic and Xeromontane elements in the Pannonian forest-steppe complexes. For some invertebrate groups, such as the land gastropods or some soil arthropods, the Carpathian basin contains a considerable proportion of endemic species. The eastern and southern Carpathians, together with the mountains of western Transsylvania, can be considered as core areas of survival and autochtonous evolution in some invertebrate groups with limited mobility. In mobile insect groups only peripherically isolated sibling (sub)species have evolved, which display manifold biogeographic connections, for instance to the Balkan peninsula, Asia minor or southern Russia. The distribution of Mediterranean-Manchurian bicentric faunal elements, connected to the Ponto-Caspian waterwaysystem, shows long-distance disjunctions from the eastern Asiatic taxa. Gallery forests of the Illyrian and Pannonian types and wetlands accompanying the large rivers of the Pannonian lowland have served as corridors of the northward expansion of these species. The post-glacial repopulation of the Carpathian basin from different directions has been supported by Illyrian versus Dacian vicarious pairs of sister (sub)species. Cases of vicarious 'Siberian'- Mediterranean sibling taxa have also been established. Recent results confirm that the montane part of the range of several 'Siberian' boreo-montane species does not have its origin in post-glacial 'Siberian' invasion. Populations of some butterfly species have been studied in different geographical scales. Patterns of metapopulation structure and of genetic differentiation have been established.


Software projects involve diverse roles and artifacts that have dependencies to requirements. Project team members in different roles need to coordinate but their coordination is affected by the availability of domain knowledge, which is distributed among different project members, and organizational structures that control cross-functional communication. Our study examines how information flowed between different roles in two software projects that had contrasting distributions of domain knowledge and different communication structures. Using observations, interviews, and surveys, we examined how diverse roles working on requirements and their related artifacts coordinated along task dependencies. We found that communication only partially matched task dependencies and that team members that are boundary spanners have extensive domain knowledge and hold key positions in the control structure. These findings have implications on how organizational structures interfere with task assignments and influence communication in the project, suggesting how practitioners can adjust team configuration and communication structures.


BACKGROUND The reported association between asthma and obesity and the documented rise in each over time have led to suggestions that rising obesity might explain the increase in the prevalence of asthma. Trends in both in British children participating in the National Study of Health and Growth were marked from 1982 to 1994. METHODS Odd ratios for trends in asthma and symptoms in 8 and 9 year old children were calculated with and without adjustment for body mass index (BMI). RESULTS In a representative sample of white children the odds ratio per year for asthma was 1.09 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.11) before and after adjustment for BMI for boys and 1.09 (95% CI 1.07 to 1.12) and 1.09 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.12), respectively, for girls. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios were also virtually identical for wheeze and "asthma or bronchitis". The lack of effect of adjustment was due to a change in the association between BMI and symptoms with time. CONCLUSIONS Trends in overweight and obesity do not explain the increase in asthma. The evidence points towards the association between asthma and obesity being of recent origin. This may be explained by obesity being a marker of recent lifestyle differences now associated with both asthma and overweight.


Preliminary clinical observations were carried out following intravenous blood transfusions in some eighteen (18) Sokoto Gudali cattle. Six (6) cattle as control, six (6) cattle designated as donors and six (6) as recipients. Blood was collected via venepuncture using commercial blood bags used for humans. The collected blood was immediately transfused to the recipients; observations for clinical signs, reactions and vital parameters were recorded. Repeat intravenous transfusions were also conducted and similar clinical observations were conducted. Reactions observed in recipient include; Hyperthermia tachycardia, hyperpnoea and anorexia. A mean increase of 7.83 cycle/min and 3.83 was observed for respiratory rate, heart beat rate and packed cell volume respectively. A mean decrease in temperature of 3.6 0 C was observed in the recipients. No mortality was recorded aside from those clinical observations.


This study evaluated the disclosing ability, removal facility and antimicrobial effect of biofilm disclosing agents applied on complete dentures. Disclosing ability was evaluated by means of the visual method. The solutions were applied on the internal surface of dentures. After being photographed, the dentures were brushed with denture-specific brush and dentifrice and photographed again. The obtained slides were projected on paper (10 X amplification) and the total and stained surfaces were outlined with graphite, cut off and weighed, in order to assess removal facility. The evaluation of antimicrobial effects was carried out by means of the method of diffusion in agar, and the results were obtained by measuring the length of the halos and rings. In terms of disclosing ability, the best solutions were 0.05% methylene blue, 5% erythrosin, 1% sodic fluorescein, Replak and 1% neutral red. One percent eosin, 1% sodic fluorescein and 5% erythrosin were the most easily removed solutions. One percent eosin, 5% erythrosin, 1% sodic fluorescein, 0.3% proflavine, Replak and 1% neutral red presented no antimicrobial effect. The solutions which presented the greatest disclosing ability and removal facility as well as absence of antimicrobial effect - which are essential requirements in the assessment of hygiene methods and guidance on oral health - were 1% eosin, 1% neutral red and 5% erythrosin.


The earliest developmental origins of dysmorphologies are poorly understood in many congenital diseases. They often remain elusive because the first signs of genetic misregulation may initiate as subtle changes in gene expression, which can be obscured later in development due to secondary phenotypic effects. We here develop a method to trace back the origins of phenotypic abnormalities by accurately quantifying the 3D spatial distribution of gene expression domains in developing organs. By applying geometric morphometrics to 3D gene expression data obtained by Optical Projection Tomography, our approach is sensitive enough to find regulatory abnormalities never previously detected. We identified subtle but significant differences in gene expression of a downstream target of the Fgfr2 mutation associated with Apert syndrome. Challenging previous reports, we demonstrate that Apert syndrome mouse models can further our understanding of limb defects in the human condition. Our method can be applied to other organ systems and models to investigate the etiology of malformations.


A hundred years ago on 9 February 2020, the Svalbard Treaty was adopted in Paris, granting Norway her long-standing ambition: full and absolute sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago. After a brief review of the negotiations that preceded the Paris decision, this article examines the main elements of the Treaty: Norwegian sovereignty, the principle of non-discrimination and the terra nullius rights of other states, peaceful utilization, scientific research and environmental protection. Focus then shifts to Norway's policy towards Svalbard and the implementation of the Treaty's provisions: what have been the main lines of Norwegian Svalbard politics; what administrative structures have evolved; to what extent has Norwegian legislation been made applicable to Svalbard? Importantly, the article also addresses how widespread changes in international law that have taken place since 1920, particularly developments concerning the law of the sea, have brought to the forefront controversial issues concerning the geographic scope of the Treaty's application.


The North American buffalo (Bison bison) has sur vived near extinction to become a commodity (meat, hides, and hair) in a consumer-driven market. Since this is a growth industry, primarily young bulls are slaughtered for meat, while most females are used to build the herd. Bison meat is highly palatable, and previous research showed that grain-finished bison meat is low in fat and high in protein. However, bison may be grain- or grass-finished. In this study we found few differences in nutrient content of the meat between grain- or grass finished bison. Grass-finished animals had a little more moisture (75.9 vs. 74.6 %) and less fat (1.7 vs. 2.2%). The largest difference was in fatty acid profiles (expressed as percentages of total fat), with grass-finished bison containing on average 5% more saturated fatty acids, 6% more polyunsaturated fatty acids, and 11% less monosaturated fatty acids than meat from grain-finished bison. Bison meat is low in sodium. It is also an excellent source of phosphorus, zinc, selenium, and vitamin Bn, as well as, iron, niacin, vitamin B6, and other minerals and vitamins. In sum mary, bison meat is a low-fat, low-sodium, nutrient-dense food, making it a nutritious food, whether it is grain- or grass-finished.


Abstract The results of identification of Eimeria spp. oocysts based on fecal examination of cattle of the first year of life from 7 farms of Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions of Ukraine are presented in article. Nine species of Eimeria, namely, Eimeria zuernii (Rivolta, 1878) Martin, 1909; E. bovis (Zublin, 1908) Fiebiger, 1912; E. ellipsoidalis Becker and Frye, 1929; E. bukidnonensis Tubangui, 1931; E. cylindrica Wilson, 1931; E. canadensis Bruce, 1921; E. auburnensis Christensen and Porter, 1939; E. brasiliensis Torres and Ramos, 1939; E. wyomingensis Huizinga and Winger, 1942 were identified. Species of E. canadensis, E. auburnensis, E. brasiliensis and E. wyomingensis were found in calves for the first time in Ukraine.


The purpose of this article is to offer a rationale for bringing art and artists into the planning process. Although there appears to exist a nascent interest in planner–artist collaborations in contemporary planning practice and research, accounts of such collaborations in planning literature are generally patchy and often under-theorized. In this article I argue that art and artist-led activities can function as a powerful vehicle of communication in the planning process. The unique potential of planner–artist collaborations is based on the artistic licence that grants the artist a mandate to set the stage for an estrangement of that which is familiar and taken-for-granted, thus shifting frames of references and creating a radical potential for planning in a way that can be very difficult for planners to achieve on their own.


The need for an efficient, modern telecommunication sector is now regarded as crucial to economic growth in transition countries. Various studies have given conflicting findings on the relationship between economic growth and telecommunication. In addition, studies of different regions of the world have had different findings, with Africa recording least of these studies. Sub-Saharan Africa had registered the lowest levels of GDP growth across the world despite having registered the fastest growth rate in terms of telecommunication growth. This calls for a thorough investigation on the role, relationship and, direction of causality between telecommunication growth and economic growth. The objectives of the study were to; determine the relationship between mobile teledensity and economic growth; investigate the relationship between landline teledensity and economic growth and; analyze the effects of interaction between mobile teledensity and landline teledensity and how teledensity affect on economic growth. To achieve the objectives, the study adopted the neoclassical growth model developed by Solow and Swan (1956).Using relevant diagnostic tests, Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) method of estimation was used on the panel data from 44 of Sub-Saharan Africa countries (1988 to 2010), the study found out a two-way causality for mobile teledensity and economic growth. On the other hand landline teledensity growth was found to influence economic growth and not vice versa. In addition telecommunication investment was found to be subject to diminishing returns, suggesting that countries at an early stage of development are likely to benefit most by investing in telecommunications infrastructure. Other factors found to influence growth included; population growth, investment, and trade openness. The study proposes that the respective governments of sub-Saharan countries should implement policies that enhance the development of the telecommunications sectors in their respective countries, increase attention to measures that would increase mobile telephone penetration. The respective government should focus on measures that would attract more foreign direct investment, allow more reforms in the telecommunication sector to allow more investment and eliminate or reduce barriers to trade. This is because the result shows that removal of trade barriers increases trade amongst countries. In addition increased trade will see further usage of mobile telephone to transact business.


The bestselling author of Sexual Personae and Sex, Art, and American Culture is back with a fiery new collection of essays on everything from art and celebrity to gay activism, Lorena Bobbitt to Bill and Hillary. These essays have never appeared in book form, and many will be appearing in print for the first time.


The practicality and effectiveness of using a TerraRanger Duo—a parallel sonar and infrared time-offlight distance sensor—payload for obstacle detection is investigated for use with Physical Science Inc.'s InstantEye drone. A Python program was developed to interface with the serial data output before comparing the sensor's empirical performance against its data sheet. The two signals from the distinct sensor modules, each with their characterized strengths and weaknesses, were then fused with a Kalman filter. This was further refined by imposing conditional weighting based on the known sensor characteristics. The filter output, with conditional corrections, was able to accurately track a single object's position and velocity within a maximum range of 14 meters.


In this paper we develop and test hypotheses based on agency theory and managerial capitalism to address the question of whether firms' compensation strategies are designed to motivate actions in the interests of equity holders or those of management. We examined differences in the organizational incentive structure of lowerlevel executives in management-controlled, owner controlled, and owner-managed firms. We found that when managers controlled the firm, there was pervasively weak incentive alignment for managers within the hierarchy and that, beyond base pay, they were able to extract compensation premiums through bonuses and long-term incentives, in spite of the fact that their firms did not demonstrate better economic performance than other types of firms. We were also able to demonstrate that equity holders pay substantial agency costs in management-controlled firms compared with owner-controlled firms. We end with a discussion of the organizational context for rationalizing executive compensation and the role of compensation consultants.


Between 1980 and 2001, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded over 8,000 patents on genes and genetic material, including at least 1,500 claiming sequences of human genetic material. Controversy over gene patents has arisen due to a variety of issues, including their relatively recent arrival into the patent realm, their grant of exclusivity over specific sequences of human genes, and their effect on research and diagnosis. These issues ultimately reflect both legal factors, dealing directly with the application of patent laws, and policy factors, implicating problems of access, cost, and quality in both the patient realm and the research setting. Because many gene patents either directly claim or include genes and/or the corresponding proteins that are essential to genetic diagnosis, a grant of exclusivity may hinder both healthcare and the advancement of scientific technology. There is currently an unparalleled legal challenge underway in the European Union regarding a number of human gene patents held by a United States corporation for sequences of two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, mutations in which indicate a predisposition to breast cancer. Specifically, the most recent opposition challenges the patent as not fulfilling relevant provisions in the European patent law, as well as impeding heath care and scientific discovery. This Article addresses the European controversy over the BRCA1 gene patent and offers potential mechanisms to resolve similar legal and policy concerns in the United States.


The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed and is still imposing major and felt implications on Mozambican society. It is precisely for this reason that, with this article we offer a reflective and pragmatic contribution, with theoretical developments, but with recommendations to face this calamitous scenario. As a methodology, we selected the literature review, with a qualitative approach, supported by some empirical knowledge. The research shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has implications for the population resulting both from the spread of the virus and from measures that seek to minimize its damage. These implications are:  the fear of being infected or not receiving medical attention if necessary; the stress caused by decreased income; the stress of shelter in place; and the uncertainty caused by the absence of a solid exit strategy.  In order to minimize the occurrence of riots caused by the dissatisfaction of Mozambican society, we recommend the following:  maintaining part of the income of formal and informal workers, combining assistance and job preservation policies and subsidies for the at-risk population; a guaranteed reduction of  the rates of electricity and water supply; expanding activities geared to the mental health of the population; disseminating clear, coherent, timely and transparent information about the pandemic and how to tackle it. Keywords: assistance polices; covid-19; implications.


In this paper, wireless video transmissions are studied under total bandwidth and energy efficiency (EE) constraints. In order to provide the desired performance levels to the end-users in real-time video transmissions, quality of service requirements such as statistical delay constraints are also considered. Effective capacity is used as the throughput metric in the presence of such statistical delay constraints since deterministic delay bounds are difficult to guarantee due to the time-varying nature of wireless fading channels. A multiuser setup where different users have different delay guarantees is addressed. Following characterizations from the rate-distortion theory, a logarithmic model of the quality-rate relation is used for predicting the quality of the reconstructed video in terms of the peak signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver side. The optimal bandwidth allocation and the optimal power allocation/power control policies that maximize the sum video quality subject to total bandwidth and minimum EE constraints are derived. Five different resource allocation strategies are investigated, and simulation results show that the joint optimization of the bandwidth allocation and power control provides the best performance. The tradeoff between EE and video quality is also demonstrated since higher EE results in lower quality of received video sequence.


The ecological examination of members of the family Rhizobiaceae has been hampered by the lack of a selective medium for isolation of root nodule bacteria from soil. A novel non-antibiotic-containing medium has been developed which allows selective isolation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum and B. elkanii strains from soil and inoculants. The medium, BJSM, is based on the resistance of B.japonicum and B. elkanii strains to more than 40 μg of the metals ions Zn2+ and Co2+ per ml. BJSM does not allow growth of Rhizobium sp. strains. We used BJSM to isolate bacteria from a Hubbard soil and from several commercially prepared soybean inoculants. Ninety-eight percent of the isolates obtained from Hubbard soil nodulated Glycine max cv. Kasota, and between 55 and 95% of the isolates from the commercial inoculants had the ability to nodulate soybeans. Numbers of bradyrhizobia obtained by using BJSM, strain-specific fluorescent antibodies, and the most-probable-number plant infection assay indicated that the three techniques were comparable in quantifying B. japonicum strains in soils and inoculants, although most-probable-number counts were generally 0.5 order of magnitude greater than those obtained by using BJSM. Results of our studies indicate that BJSM is useful for direct isolation and quantification of B. japonicum and B. elkanii from natural soils and inoculants. This medium may prove to be an important tool for autecological and enumeration studies of diverse populations of bradyrhizobia and as a quality control method for soybean inoculants.


Traditional clustering algorithms, such as k-means, output a clustering that is disjoint and exhaustive, that is, every single data point is assigned to exactly one cluster. However, in real datasets, clusters can overlap and there are often outliers that do not belong to any cluster. This is a well recognized problem that has received much attention in the past, and several algorithms, such as fuzzy kmeans have been proposed for overlapping clustering. However, most existing algorithms address either overlap or outlier detection and do not tackle the problem in a unified way. In this paper, we propose a simple and intuitive objective function that captures the issues of overlap and nonexhaustiveness in a unified manner. Our objective function can be viewed as a reformulation of the traditional k-means objective, with easy-to-understand parameters that capture the degrees of overlap and non-exhaustiveness. By studying the objective, we are able to obtain a simple iterative algorithm which we call NEO-K-Means (Non-Exhaustive Overlapping K-Means). Furthermore, by considering an extension to weighted kernel k-means, we can tackle the case of non-exhaustive and overlapping graph clustering. This extension allows us to apply our NEO-K-Means algorithm to the community detection problem, which is an important task in network analysis. Our experimental results show that the new objective and algorithm are effective in finding ground-truth clusterings that have varied overlap and non-exhaustiveness; for the case of graphs, we show that our algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art overlapping community detection methods.


Based on the theory of spatial econometrics, we test and process the urban and rural construction land data during the base period of planning and late period of planning in Bijie City. And we conduct comparative analysis of the spatial pattern and evolution characteristics of urban and rural construction land in 41 towns of Bijie City before and after the planning. According to Getis-Ord Gi coefficient test results, the cold spot area of urban and rural construction land in northeast of Bijie City will gradually disappear, and the key point of hot spot area will be gradually transferred from the central region to the central and eastern regions. The results show that under the guidance of the overall land use planning in Bijie City, the urban and rural construction land will show strong spatial autocorrelation; agglomeration benefits and scale merit will appear clearly, in line with the actual situation of current development of Bijie City.


Drawing on their own skills, making the best use of limited resources and forming their own community organisations, the poor account for most new city housing in the Third World. However, the city rejects them, denying their right to water, education and health care. The first chapter provides the context for analysis, describing the development of Third World cities in the colonial and post-colonial periods, and the gap that continues to grow between the "legal' and the "illegal' city. Other chapters examine government intervention policies, environmental problems, the process of finding housing, and trends in urbanisation. Finally, developments and problems in smaller urban areas and surrounding rural areas are outlined, and the question of urban bias is addressed. -after Authors


We must all accept that science is data and that data are science, and thus provide for, and justify the need for the support of, much-improved data curation. (Hanson, Sugden, & Alberts)

Researchers are producing an unprecedented deluge of data by using new methods and instrumentation. Others may wish to mine these data for new discoveries and innovations. However, research data are not readily available as sharing is common in only a few fields such as astronomy and genomics. Data sharing practices in other fields vary widely. Moreover, research data take many forms, are handled in many ways, using many approaches, and often are difficult to interpret once removed from their initial context. Data sharing is thus a conundrum. Four rationales for sharing data are examined, drawing examples from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities: (1) to reproduce or to verify research, (2) to make results of publicly funded research available to the public, (3) to enable others to ask new questions of extant data, and (4) to advance the state of research and innovation. These rationales differ by the arguments for sharing, by beneficiaries, and by the motivations and incentives of the many stakeholders involved. The challenges are to understand which data might be shared, by whom, with whom, under what conditions, why, and to what effects. Answers will inform data policy and practice. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The study had been planned to evaluate some antioxidant ingredients in honey and propolis. Also, a study on ionizing gamma irradiated rats was done to assess these antioxidants as radioprotectors. Bioactive ingredients, such as phenols, flavonoids and trace elements, were explored using FTIR, UV-Vis and AAS spectroscopic techniques. Animals were exposed to fractionated gamma radiation doses. Honey, propolis and their combination were administrated before and during the irradiation period. Serum levels of total protein, albumin and uric acid were estimated. Also, the osmotic fragility of Red Blood Corpuscles (RBCs) membranes and a microscopic examination of blood films were investigated. The analysis demonstrated that the level of phenolic, flavonoid and trace elements are higher in propolis than honey. The levels of total protein and albumin decreased post irradiation while the level of uric acid increased. Likewise, osmotic fragility of RBCs membranes was increased with a sticking forming RBCs aggregation. It had been found that administration of the natural antioxidants induced amelioration in most of the studied parameters. It can be concluded that natural antioxidants produced a modulation against oxidative stress induced by ionizing radiation. Summary Statement Assessment of some antioxidant ingredients in honey and propolis. Also, a study on ionizing gamma irradiated rats was done to assess these antioxidants as radioprotectors.


Paraganglioma affecting the cauda equina region is very rare and can be misinterpreted as an ependymoma which is more common at this site. A 38-year-old woman with a paraganglioma in the cauda equina is presented. MRI revealed a well-circumscribed, intradural, extramedullary tumor nodule with the dimensions of 2.5x1x1 cm. The patient underwent L3 laminectomy and total excision of the tumor. The tumor was diagnosed as ependymoma and the patient was decided to undergo adjuvant radiotherapy. The patient applied to our medical center for a second opinion. Histopathologically, her tumor was found to be a paraganglioma with ependymal features. Therefore no adjuvant therapy was applied. There is no evidence of recurrence or metastases for 15 months after her operation. Paraganglioma in the cauda equina/ filum terminale is very rare and can be misdiagnosed as ependymoma especially when it exhibits ependymoma-like histology. This rare form of paraganglioma behaves like a WHO grade I tumor of CNS like classic paraganglioma. No recurrence or metastasis is expected when it is totally resected. Morphology can be misleading hence immunohistochemistry and/or ultrastructural study is necessary for correct diagnosis.


Rice leaf sheaths inoculated with Rhizoctonia solani (pathogen) and Pestalotia palmarum (non-pathogen) were analyzed for the induction of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), peroxidase (PO), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), accumulation of phenolics and lignin. PO and PAL activities were significantly increased in rice leaf sheaths after inoculation with R. solani and P. palmarum. However, the increases in these enzyme activities were significantly higher in response to inoculation with non-pathogen compared to inoculation with pathogen. A 3-fold increase in PO and PAL activities was observed 2 days after inoculation with P. palmarum PO isoenzyme analysis indicated that PO-1, PO-3 and PO-4 were induced 2 days after inoculation with P. palmarum. In contrast, in the compatible interaction these isoenzymes did not accumulate until 3 days after inoculation. PPO isozyme analysis indicated that PPO-2 increased dramatically in rice 1 day after inoculation in the incompatible interaction. The same level of activity corresponding to this isoenzyme was seen 3-4 days after inoculation in compatible interactions. PPO activity also rapidly increased in rice leaf sheaths after inoculation with the non-pathogen. About a 3-fold increase in PPO activity was recorded 2 days after inoculation with P. palmarum compared to control. Non-pathogen inoculated rice leaf sheaths exhibited rapid accumulation of phenolics and the maximum phenolic content was recorded 4 days after inoculation. Inoculation of P. palmarum increased the lignin content of rice by 91 % above control levels by 1 day while R. solani caused only 37 % increase. The present study provides evidence for the important role of phenolics and lignin in the resistance of rice against non-pathogen.


We present Composable Diffusion (CoDi), a novel generative model capable of generating any combination of output modalities, such as language, image, video, or audio, from any combination of input modalities. Unlike existing generative AI systems, CoDi can generate multiple modalities in parallel and its input is not limited to a subset of modalities like text or image. Despite the absence of training datasets for many combinations of modalities, we propose to align modalities in both the input and output space. This allows CoDi to freely condition on any input combination and generate any group of modalities, even if they are not present in the training data. CoDi employs a novel composable generation strategy which involves building a shared multimodal space by bridging alignment in the diffusion process, enabling the synchronized generation of intertwined modalities, such as temporally aligned video and audio. Highly customizable and flexible, CoDi achieves strong joint-modality generation quality, and outperforms or is on par with the unimodal state-of-the-art for single-modality synthesis. The project page with demonstrations and code is at https://codi-gen.github.io


Based on the escape cone concepts, high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been analyzed. In AlGaAs or InGaAlP LEDs, photon absorption in the ohmic region under the electrode is known to be significant. Thus, ins general, a thick window layer (WL) and a transparent substrate (TS) would minimize photon shielding by the electrodes and considerably improve photon output coupling efficiency. However, the schemes do not seem to be necessary in InGaN system. Photon absorption in ohmic contact to a wide bandgap semiconductor such as GaN may be negligible and, as a result, the significant photon shielding by the electrodes will not degrade the photon output coupling efficiency so much. The photon output coupling efficiency estimated in InGaN LEDs is about 2.5 - 2.8 times that of the conventional high-brightness LED structures based on both WL and TS schemes. As a result, the extenal quantum efficiency in InGaN LEDs is as high as 9% despite the presumably very low internal quantum efficiency.


On 22 June 2002 a large earthquake struck near the town of Avaj in northwestern Iran (figure 1). The earthquake completely destroyed seven villages and severely damaged more than 80 villages; it was felt to distances of 100 km. According to official reports, more than 260 people were killed and 1,300 were wounded. The magnitude of the earthquake was determined to be mb = 6.0 by the Geophysical Institute of Tehran University (GITU), Ms = 6.0 by the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), and Mw = 6.5 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; http://www.usgs.gov). The focal depth of the event, according to the USGS report, was approximately 10 km. The mainshock was recorded by 50 accelerograph stations. At a station in Avaj, 28 km from the epicenter, the maximum horizontal and vertical accelerations were recorded at approximately 0.5 g and 0.26 g, respectively.

Avaj is a small town, 107 km southwest of Qazvin city. Avaj and the surrounding regions are agricultural areas; most of the people living in this area are farmers. Most of the houses in the epicentral region were single-story masonry buildings, many of them old and very weak. Virtually all of the buildings of this type collapsed completely during the earthquake. Buildings that had been built according to the Iranian code of practice for seismic-resistant design performed much better.

 Figure 1.
Map showing location of Avaj earthquake.

 Figure 2.
Seismotectonic map of the Avaj region (Ramazi 1995a).

From a seismotectonic point of view, Avaj is located in the central part of an active zone that includes several major faults: the Soltanieh fault, the North Zanjan fault, the Ipak fault, the Kushk-e-Nosrat fault, etc. (figure 2). The general direction of fault trends in the region is N40°–50°W. These faults have been active in the past, especially during the …


This report documents the evaluation efforts undertaken by the Minnesota Team. To complement the work undertaken by the independent government evaluator, Battelle, the Minnesota evaluation team focused on two specific areas of the evaluation: human factors and benefit-cost analyses. Human factors issues include driver acceptance, reduction in driver fatigue, the effectiveness of the driver interface, and the measurable changes in driver performance. The Driver Assistive System (DAS), which is under evaluation for the US DOT Specialty Vehicle Generation Zero Field Operational Test, is designed to provide a driver a means to maintain desired lane position and avoid collisions with obstacles during periods of very low visibility. This program is motivated by the fact that specialty vehicles often must operate under inclement weather conditions and associated low visibility situations. The DAS improves safety for the specialty vehicle operator by providing the necessary cues for lane keeping and collision avoidance normally unavailable during poor visibility conditions. The DAS may also improve safety conditions for the general public by facilitating all-weather emergency services, and in the case of snowplows, opening roads and keeping them passable in heavy weather for other emergency vehicles and the general motoring public.


Bamboo is used in different scenarios of application, its physical and mechanical characteristics guarantee a high flexibility of use especially in the buildings constructions. The experience gained in civil constructions demonstrates that bamboo can be considered a sustainable material able to replace wood in many constructive elements with structural functions. The applications of bamboo aimed at carrying out structural functions are thoroughly studied. For this reason the present research focuses on the thermal insulation performance. To ensure an approach focused on the sustainability of potential exploitation, the research examined only local material coming from three bamboo fields located in the Tuscany region (Italy). The material harvested and suitably treated was utilized for the realization of two different kind of wall, undergone later to experimental tests in compliance with the ISO 9869 standard for the calculation of the transmittance values. The measure of transmittance enabled to know the characteristics of thermal conduction of bamboo walls. The first wall was made of cut throw longitudinal axis bamboo culms; the second one was made of cut throw longitudinal axis bamboo culms coated in internal face with a sustainable mortar. The test was carried out using insulating thermal box with internal temperature under control. The calculation of the transmittance in place was compared with the images captured by thermal camera. Thermal imagine allowed to highlight the behaviour of the material subjected to a thermal stress induced by the experimental test.


Financial health is of great concern for a business firm. For measuring the financial health of a business firm, there are lots of techniques available. But Altman's Z-score has been proven to be a reliable tool. This model envisages to predict the possibilities of bankruptcy of manufacturing organization. Multiple discriminate analyses (MDA) are useful tools in such situations. The use of MDA helps to consolidate the effect of all ratios. Keeping the above view in mind, the "Z score" analysis has been adopted to monitor the financial health of the company. The current study has been conducted to assess the financial health of a firm namely Raysut Cement Company SAOG and its subsidiaries in Oman. This study was based on the secondary data which was obtained from the published sources i.e. Annual report for the period of 8 years (2007 to 2014). The study revealed that the Company Raysut Cement Company SAOG and its subsidiaries are financially sound as they have higher Z score than the benchmark (2.99) except in some years of study. The findings of the study may be useful for the managers to take financial decision, the stockholders to choose investment options and others to look after their interest in the concerned cement manufacturers of the country.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In the metastatic setting, the majority of patients respond to initial therapies but eventually develop resistance and progress. In this study, we test the hypothesis that priming with epigenetic therapy sensitizes CRC cell lines, which were previously resistant to subsequent chemotherapeutic agents. When multiple CRC cell lines are first exposed to 500 nM of the DNA demethylating agent, 5-aza-cytidine (AZA) in-vitro, and the cells then established as in-vivo xenografts in untreated NOD-SCID mice; there is an enhanced response to cytotoxic chemotherapy with agents commonly used in CRC treatment. For irinotecan (IRI), growth diminished by 16–62 fold as assessed, by both proliferation (IC50) and anchorage independent cell growth soft agar assays. Treatment of resistant HCT116 cell line along with in-vivo, for CRC line xenografts, AZA plus IRI again exhibits this synergistic response with significant improvement in survival and tumor regression in the mice. Genome-wide expression correlates changes in pathways for cell adhesion and DNA repair with the above responses. A Phase 1/2 clinical trial testing this concept is already underway testing the clinical efficacy of this concept in IRI resistant, metastatic CRC (NCT01896856).


The evolution of dislocation structures in individual bulk grains in copper during strain path changes is studied with a new in situ synchrotron technique which combines high angular resolution with fast three-dimensional reciprocal space mapping. Deformed copper contains regions with vanishing dislocation density called subgrains bounded by dislocation rich walls. With the new technique reciprocal space maps, consisting of sharp peaks arising from the subgrains superimposed on a cloud of lower intensity arising from the dislocation walls, are obtained, which allows properties such as subgrain volume fraction to be quantified. The studied strain path changes are tension-tension sequences. Polycrystalline copper sheets are pre-deformed in tension to 5% strain, and tensile samples are cut with varying angles between the first and second loading axis. The second tensile deformation up to additional 5% strain is performed in situ while mapping a selected X-ray reflection from one particular bulk grain with high angular resolution. The reciprocal space maps are analyzed with a recently developed fitting method, and a correlation is found between the evolution of the subgrain volume fraction and the degree of strain path change the sample is subjected to.


The TiO2/CdS semiconductor composites were prepared on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates in di®erent mass proportions via wet-chemical techniques using bi-distilled water, acetyl-acetone, poly-propylene-glycol and Triton X-100 as additives. The composite layers were annealed in normal conditions at the temperature of 450±C, 120 min. with a rate of temperature increasing of 5±C/min. The structural and optical properties of all the TiO2/CdS ayers were characterized by X-ray di®raction, UV-VIS spectroscopy, spectrofluorimetry and FT/IR microscopy. The microstructural properties of the deposited TiO2/CdS layers can be modi¯ed by varying the mass proportions of TiO2:CdS. The good crystallinity level and the high optical adsorption of the TiO2/CdS layers make them attractive for photoelectrochemical cell applications.


The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how emotional exhaustion (EE) impacts a boundary spanning employee's usage of service sabotage behaviors (SSB). This dissertation also investigates how perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived supervisory support (PSS) alleviate a boundary spanning employee's EE and SSB. Furthermore, this dissertation examines how extraversion (EXT) and imagination (IMAG) moderates the relationship between POS and SSB and between PSS and SSB. A boundary spanning employee is any organizational employee who "engages in job-related interactions with a person who is considered part of the environment, who is not a member of the organization" (Robertson 1995, p. 75). These employees are important as research has shown that consumers use the attitudes and behaviors of these employees to positively or negatively impact their perceptions of the service encounter (e.g. Bitner 1990; Bowen and Schneider 1985; Pugh 2001).
SSB are overt or covert behaviors which negatively affect the relationship between the organization and the customer (Harris and Ogbonna 2006, 2002). Rather than the boundary spanning employee engaging in negative behaviors towards other employees or the organization as a whole, SSB are acted upon the customer. EE occurs when an employee believes they are overextended by their work (Maslach and Jackson 1981). Boundary spanning employees are forced to display organizationally desired emotions even when encountering negative customers (Cordes and Dougherty 1993; Mulki, Jaramillo and Locander 2006). This interaction between the customer and employee may result in discontent and the employee may engage in SSB as a way to show this discontent. A boundary spanner's EE is hypothesized to positively impact SSB; therefore, it is important to investigate what will reduce or mitigate a boundary spanner's EE.
Two constructs that are hypothesized to reduce both EE and SSB are POS and PSS. In order to test the hypotheses developed in this dissertation, 490 non-management retail sales and customer service employees across a variety of organizations were sampled. Results found that EE positively impacts SSB. EE also partially mediates the relationship between POS and SSB. The hypotheses associated with PSS, EXT and IMAG were not supported.


The recently developed technique for determining the water stress of a plant by measuring the pressure necessary to force water back to the cut surface of a severed twig is adaptable to both field and laboratory experiments. We have designed and operated an efficient portable system weighing less than 18 kilograms. Sampling variation within and among Douglas fir trees varies from less than � I atmosphere under low stress conditions to � 10 atmospheres under high stress conditions. In the measurement of plants of comparable height and similar exposure, the variation is reduced to a minimum. Values in internal water stress of Douglas fir vary from 3 to more than 40 atmospheres. Both duration and magnitude of stress are important ecologically. Pressure-bomb measurements are used to demonstrate a relation between plant distribution and internal water stress.


Our goal was to develop a computer system trained to sense a user's emotional state via the recognition of physiological signals. In the course of developing an exploratory pilot study toward this end, we encountered and addressed unique and context-dependent interface design and synchronization challenges. We used social science methods to induce a state of frustration in users, collected the physiological data, and developed an effective strategy for coupling these data with real-world events.


Finally ... a quick, easy reference to using your Kindle Paperwhite -- to the max! Amazon's Paperwhite is the handiest, best value e-reader, and is your portal to an infinite universe of education and entertainment -- and this handy book helps you get the maximum bang for your Kindle bucks About the author:Steve Weber is founding publisher ofKindleBuffet.com, which showcases five-star Kindle books currently available free (you may never have to pay for books again!) You'll see how to quickly set up your Paperwhite, navigate the touch-screen and buy, borrow, and browse the world's largest library of digital books. This reference guide from Amazon guru Steve Weber demystifies the Paperwhite and explains in plain English how to master the Kindle basics, and covers much more, including secret tips, tricks and shortcuts you won't find elsewhere. Each section includes clearly written step-by-step instructions, illustrated with screenshots and menus just like you'll see on your own Kindle's screen. You'll see how to: Change your Paperwhite's setting just the way you want. Charge your Kindle's battery properly and prolong its life. Enjoy an infinite supply of the best books. Use personal and office documents, including PDFs. Chuck your laptop, and do all your reading on the Kindle! The easy way to harvest your own content and get it onto your Paperwhite, including gems you didn't buy at Amazon. How to download, organize and read your favorite books, magazines and newspapers on the Paperwhite. How to get current and archived editions of the world's most popular newspapers, magazines and websites streamed to your Kindle--updated constantly, with no fees whatsoever! Use Amazon's free "Cloud" service for unlimited storage of your digital content. Find the best free content in the world, downloadable to your Kindle. (You might never have to pay for books, movies or music again--ever!) About the author: Steve Weber has been writing about Amazon for nearly a decade. He is the founding publisher of KindleBuffet.com, a daily website featuring outstanding Kindle books offered free that day.


Abstract We aimed to assess whether rural residence is associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in the south-east of England using a population based register. Previous studies in different populations have produced contradictory findings. Residence defined by London borough or non-metropolitan district at time of diagnosis was recorded for each incident case in the South-East England ALS Register between 1995 and 2005. Each of the 26 boroughs or districts of the catchment area of the register was classified according to population density. Age- and sex-adjusted incidence of ALS was calculated for each region and the relationship with population density tested by linear regression, thereby controlling for the underlying population structure. We found that population density in region of residence at diagnosis explained 25% of the variance in ALS rates (r = 0.5, p < 0.01). Thus, in this cohort in the south-east of England, people with ALS were more likely to be resident in areas of high population density at diagnosis.


When instructional designers develop content-targeted pedagogical situations, their practice can be theorized as engineering students' development of conceptual schemes. To account for the contributions of students' prior schemes and situated experiences towards their development of conceptual schemes, I suggest a distinction between the evocation of schemes and enactment of situations. The former suggests that the design of an instructional situation can activate students' prior schemes. The latter suggests that the structure of students' activity in an instructional situation determines the nature of newly constructed schemes. I contextualize my views using empirical data from a case study of early fraction instruction.


In this study, a total of 14 agronomic traits, five AFLP primer combinations and ten SSR loci were used to describe and to classify a group of Tunisian olive genotypes into groups based on molecular profiles and agronomic traits. The analysis of variance of the agronomical data revealed significant differences among accessions for all measured traits. The mean phenotypic dissimilarity (0.34 with a range of 0.08-0.6) was low in comparison to dissimilarity calculated using AFLP (0.50 with a range of 0.16-0.70) and SSR markers (0.76 with a range 0.35-0.94). The correlation between the agronomical dissimilarity matrix and the matrices of genetic dissimilarity based on SSR and AFLP markers was very weak: 0.156 (p = 0.05) and 0.185 (p = 0.05), respectively. The SSR-AFLP dendrogram based on unweighted pair-group cluster analysis using Jaccard's index revealed that the genetic diversity was predominantly structured according to fruit size. A trend of clustering together of accessions originating from the same or adjacent regions was also observed. The data obtained can be used for the varietal survey and construction of a database of all olive varieties grown in Tunisia and providing also additional information that could form the basis for the rational design of breeding programs.