Fractured rock causes diffractions, which are often discarded as noise in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and seismic data. Most fractures are too thin, too steep, and their displacement is too small to be imaged by reflections, and diffractions are the only detectable signal. To decipher the information about fracture geometry and distribution contained in diffractions, we compare 3D synthetic ray-Born modeling with high-density 3D GPR data and outcrop observations from the Cassis Quarry in Southern France. Our results reveal how the intersection between two fractures is the basic geologic element producing a recordable diffraction. In this new model, two intersecting fractures are represented by one finite-length line diffractor. The intersection of three fractures is a 3D cross composed of three line diffractors. Fractures extending over several meters in the outcrop display linear clusters of diffraction circles in unmigrated GPR time slices. Such large-scale fracture intersections are composed of many aligned short subwavelength line diffractors due to fracture roughness and variations of fracture opening. The shape irregularities and amplitude variations of composite diffraction signatures are a consequence of the geometry and spacing of the intersecting fractures generating them. With three simple base-type intersecting fracture models (horizontal dip, gentle dip, and steep dip), the fracture network geometry can be directly deciphered from the composite diffraction signatures visible on unmigrated time slices. The nonrandom distribution of diffractions is caused by fracture trends and patterns providing information about fracture dip, spacing, and continuity of fractured domains. With the similarity law, the diffraction phenomena observed in GPR data are very similar in character to those seen on the seismic scale with the wavelength as the scaling link. GPR data serve as a proxy to decipher seismic diffractions.


Objective: This study aims at determining factors related to the intention to participate and actual participation in social support groups for prostate cancer patients, using the framework of the theory of planned behavior. The factors studied are background variables, medical variables, psychosocial variables and attitude, social norms and perceived control.


How do we understand and engage with the purposeful, emotional and mental activities of other people and how does this knowledge develop? What can recent work on mirror neurons in monkeys and human beings teach us about how the brain supports social understanding? According to Intentional Relations Theory (Barresi and Moore 1996), the understanding of the self-other equivalence requires concurrent knowledge of mind from both a first- and a third-person point of view and that any mental concept must directly match and link these two ways of knowing it. In this chapter we will argue that Intentional Relations Theory is consistent with and can help interpret recent neurophysiological findings on "mirror neurons" that fire equivalently for intentional relations (i.e., object-directed actions, emotions, and mental activities) of self and other.


Online product buzz refers to an online expression of interest in a product, such as online product reviews, blog posts and search trends. We study how well online buzz predicts actual sales across different phases in the product lifecycle. Using data from smartphone sales of a Dutch online retailer, we demonstrate a 28% overall increase in forecasting accuracy when measures of online product buzz variables are take into account. The value of online product buzz shows especially in early sales forecasting, an area in which traditional forecasting models have substantial difficulties. In early sales, local search trends, subscriptions for stock notifications and pageviews were important predictors and forecasts were on average improved by 44%. For mature sales, accuracy improved by 10%, with the most important predictors being on- and offsite reviews and, again, pageviews. These results also suggest different drivers of sales across phases in the product lifecycle.


Bruce Beutler is director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. He shared one half of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jules Hoffmann for their work on the activation of innate immunity; the other half of the prize was awarded to Ralph Steinman. Here, Beutler talks to Christoph Thaiss about biological puzzles and intuition.


The Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC) has pioneered vaccine approaches against Cancer Testis antigens (CTAg), most notably NY-ESO-1. Some clear insights have emerged from both the clinic and the laboratory: (i) NY-ESO-1 is spontaneously immunogenic particularly in patients with bulky disease, (ii) A broad integrated CD4, CD8 T cell and antibody response is induced in the majority of patients vaccinated with full length NY-ESO-1 and an appropriate adjuvant; the depth and breath of this response is complex and can involve many epitopes in an individual vaccine recipient, (iii) Despite only being early phase trials, some strong indications of clinical activity have emerged. NY-ESO-1 distribution has been studied in detailed immunohistochemical studies of primary and metastatic melanomas. Unlike the widely-expressed differentiation antigens, CTAg are often only seen in a minority of cells within individual tumors. This raises the critical question of how can a vaccine approach that targets such an antigen affect clinical outcomes. Although their biological function is still poorly understood, there is emerging evidence that some CTAg may play a role in the transcriptional regulation of germ cells. This putative role in germ cell biology, linked with the observation that they are frequently re-expressed in cancer provided the rationale to investigate CTAg expression in cancer stem cells. There is increasing recognition that cancers are populated from a clonogenic subset of cells which have the property of stem cells. Many clinical and biological properties of cancer are consistent with this, such as clonality, the capacity of cancer to 'repopulate' after apparently effective therapy and the ability to migrate and invade. Cancer stem cells are critical targets for cancer therapy since cure can only be possible if they are eradicated. It has been proposed that melanoma is propagated by an intrinsic stem-cell-like population since only a fraction of cells are clonogenic in in vitro soft agar culture. Markers for these cells have included CD20, Hoechst 33342 dye exclusion, which can define a 'side-population' with stem cell-like properties and CD133 which is a stem cell marker in other systems including neuroepithelium, haemopoietic, renal, prostate and endothelial progenitors. Our preliminary studies have confirmed the presence of a subpopulation of cells in melanoma cell lines that are defined by the presence of CD133. These have the capacity for clonogenicity and self-renewal. In a number of lines these represent a small subset (1-3%) of total cells. We have characterized highly enriched populations derived from these lines. Although they lack the capacity to differentiate into multiple lineages, all clonogenic potential appears to reside in this population. This is not the case for CD133lo cells derived from the same cell lines. Using a series of melanoma cell lines which were sorted into highly enriched CD133hi and CD133lo cell fractions, clonogenic cells were characterized biologically and evaluated for patterns of CTAg expression. The clonogenic cells were found to be highly enriched for several CTAg, particularly NY-ESO-1. Furthermore they could be selectively killed using NY-ESO-1-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes. This raises the possibility that vaccines against NY-ESO-1 may be able to eradicate melanoma stem cells. We are currently performing a randomized international trial in patients with resected melanoma under the aegis of the CVC in Australia and UK. If improved clinical outcomes are observed, it may be through such a mechanism.


This article presents an in-depth evaluation of a specialized reintegration initiative within the Dutch Probation Service focused on individuals convicted or suspected of involvement in terrorism. Using 72 interviews with program staff as well as several of their clients, the authors assess the initiative's program theory, its day-to-day implementation and provide a qualified assessment of its overall effectiveness in the 2016 to 2018 period. The results suggest that the initiative is based on a sound understanding of how and why individuals may deradicalize or disengage from terrorism behaviorally, but that it continues to face serious challenges in terms of accurately defining success and systematically gathering objective indicators of its attainment. As terrorism remains a key challenge for societies across the globe, the relevance of these findings extends beyond the Netherlands to all academics, policymakers and practitioners working to design, implement and assess terrorist reintegration programs.


Periodontal disease has been recently linked to a variety of systemic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, preterm delivery, and oral cancer. The most common bacteria associated with periodontal disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) has not yet been studied in the malignant gingival tissues. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis in specimens from squamous cell carcinoma patients. We have performed immunohistochemical staining to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis and Streptococcus gordonii (S. gordonii), a non invasive oral bacteria, in paraffin embedded samples of gingival squamous cell carcinoma (n=10) and normal gingiva (n=5). Staining for P. gingivalis revealed the presence of the bacteria in normal gingival tissues and gingival carcinoma, with higher levels (more than 33%, P<0.05) detected in the carcinoma samples. The staining intensity was also significantly enhanced in the malignant tissue by 2 folds (P<0.023) compared to specimens stained for the non‐invasive S. gordonii. P. gingivalis is abundantly present in malignant oral epithelium suggesting a potential association of the bacteria with gingival squamous cell carcinoma.


Current UK lease accounting regulation does not require operating leases to be capitalised in the accounts of lessees, although this is likely to change with the publication of FRS 5. This study conducts a prospective analysis of the effects of such a change. The potential magnitude of the impact of lease capitalisation upon individual users' decisions, market valuations, company cash flows, and managers' behaviour can be indicated by the effect on key accounting ratios, which are employed in decision-making and in financial contracts. The capitalised value of operating leases is estimated using a method similar to that suggested by Imhoff, Lipe and Wright (1991), adapted for the UK accounting and tax environment, and developed to incorporate company-specific assumptions. Results for 1994 for a random sample of 300 listed UK companies show that, on average, the unrecorded long-term liability represented 39% of reported long-term debt, while the unrecorded asset represented 6% of total assets. Capitalisation had a significant impact (at the 1% level) on six of the nine selected ratios (profit margin, return on assets, asset turnover, and three measures of gearing). Moreover, the Spearman rank correlation between each ratio before and after capitalisation revealed that the ranking of companies changed markedly for gearing measures in particular. There were significant inter-industry variations, with the services sector experiencing the greatest impact. An analysis of the impact of capitalisation over the five-year period from 1990 to 1994 showed that capitalisation had the greatest impact during the trough of the recession. Results were shown to be robust with respect to key assumptions of the capitalisation method. These findings contribute to the assessment of the economic consequences of a policy change requiring operating lease capitalisation. Significant changes in the magnitude of key accounting ratios and a major shift in company performance rankings suggest that interested parties' decisions and company cash flows are likely to be affected.


We synthesize organization learning theory and organizational ecology to predict systematic patterns in the founding and growth of organizations over time. Our central argument is that competition triggers organizational learning, which in turn intensifies competition that again triggers an adaptive response. We model this self-exciting dynamic--sometimes referred to as the 'Red Queen' in general evolutionary theory--to explain organizational founding and growth rates among the thousands of retail banks that have operated in Illinois at any time from 1900--1993. We find strong evidence that Red Queen evolution led some organizations to grow quickly and to place strong competitive pressure on rivals. Red Queen evolution also helped establish barriers to entry. However, this same evolutionary process appears to make organizations more susceptible to 'competency traps', ultimately slowing their growth rates and inviting new market entry. Organizations confronted by a widely varying distribution of competitors grow more slowly and are more likely to face new entrants. Overall, the results suggest that processes of organizational creation and growth emerge from ecologies of learning organizations. More generally, we discuss the use of ecological theory and models to study the empirical consequences of organizational learning. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.


Magnesium alloys show promise to be materials for lightweighting of automotive and aerospace vehicles improving fuel efficiencies and vehicle performance. A majority of magnesium alloy components are produced using casting where susceptibility to forming inclusions and coarse grain sizes could result. Development of effective inclusion removal techniques and better understanding of grain refinement of magnesium alloys could help in improving their mechanical properties to advance them to more structurally demanding applications. This research aimed to develop an environmentally friendly alternative to the grain refinement and inclusion removal capabilities of carbon based hexachloroethane as it releases dioxins, chlorine gas and corrodes foundry equipment. A secondary aim was to pioneer in-situ neutron diffraction to examine the solidification of magnesium alloys.

The research involved preparing tensile samples of AZ91E magnesium alloy using permanent mould casting. Inclusion removal was conducted by using filtration and argon gas bubbling. Castings grain refined using hexachloroethane (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 wt.%) were compared against ex-situ aluminum-silicon carbide and in-situ aluminum-carbon based grain refiners combined with filtration and argon gas bubbling. Further, in-situ neutron diffraction was utilized for phase analysis and fraction solid determination of magnesium-zinc and magnesium-aluminum alloys.

There was a significant improvement in yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation with filtration plus argon bubbling, carbon inoculation or both filtration plus argon bubbling and carbon inoculation. The results indicated that the mechanism of the observed ~20% reduction in grain sizes with carbon inoculation (hexachloroethane, ex-situ aluminum-silicon carbide and in-situ aluminum-carbon) was explained through duplex nucleation of Mn-Al and Al-Mg-C-O (likely Al2MgC2) phases. Finally, in-situ neutron diffraction was used to follow the formation of Mg17Al12 eutectic phase in a magnesium-9 wt.% aluminum alloy. For the magnesium-zinc alloys, in-situ neutron diffraction enabled characterization of the effects of zirconium to the fraction solid growth of (1010), (0002) and (1011) α-Mg planes.

The societal and environmental impact of this research is significant. There is a clear demonstration of alternatives to the universally used hexachloroethane grain refiner promoting harmful emissions. Improved mechanical properties resulting from new grain refinement and iv inclusion filtration are a major advancement in promoting weight reduction, improved castability and decreased environmental impact for automotive and aerospace industries.


This volume assembles interviews with over thirty major artists to form a unique document of American art of the '60s and '70s. Between 1966 and 1973, Jeanne Siegel conducted interviews and panel discussions with most of the major art figures of the period. Here is Marcel Duchamp on his role as the major progenitor of the period; Ad Reinhardt on the importance of art as art; Don Judd, Andy Warhol, Robert Murray, Saul Steinberg, and others on Barnett Newman and his influence; Louise Nevelson on "feminine sculpture"; Romare Bearden on the role of African-American art in the civil rights movement; Leon Golub on the importance of social protest in art; Carl Andre on the Art Workers Coalition; Robert Rauschenberg and Larry Rivers on the possibilities of multi-media; Allen Kaprow and George Segal on environments and happenings; Claes Oldenburg on fragments of ordinary objects; Roy Lichtenstein on the influence of Art Deco:;Hans Haacke on systems aesthetics; and Joseph Kosuth on language art. Through these dialogues and others, Artwords exposes the foundations of the art of the '80s and '90s, illuminating the ideas which originated during this seminal period, and which are still very much alive today.


We report a novel method called ADAN (Applicability Domain ANalysis) for assessing the reliability of drug property predictions obtained by in silico methods. The assessment provided by ADAN is based on the comparison of the query compound with the training set, using six diverse similarity criteria. For every criterion, the query compound is considered out of range when the similarity value obtained is larger than the 95th percentile of the values obtained for the training set. The final outcome is a number in the range of 0-6 that expresses the number of unmet similarity criteria and allows classifying the query compound within seven reliability categories. Such categories can be further exploited to assign simpler reliability classes using a traffic light schema, to assign approximate confidence intervals or to mark the predictions as unreliable. The entire methodology has been validated simulating realistic conditions, where query compounds are structurally diverse from those in the training set. The validation exercise involved the construction of more than 1000 models. These models were built using a combination of training set, molecular descriptors, and modeling methods representative of the real predictive tasks performed in the eTOX project (a project whose objective is to predict in vivo toxicological end points in drug development). Validation results confirm the robustness of the proposed assessment methodology, which compares favorably with other classical methods based solely on the structural similarity of the compounds. ADAN characteristics make the method well-suited for estimate the quality of drug predictions obtained in extremely unfavorable conditions, like the prediction of drug toxicity end points.


This paper considers the increasing prominence of bioterror as a national security threat in the United States. It highlights the powerful discursive strategies surrounding bioterror — resident in academic and policymaking circles — and relates them to corresponding US practices across the domestic-foreign policy continuum. In this regard, both US multilateral action concerning biological weapons and national public `preparedness' programmes are premised on a powerful threat discourse which is at once highly problematic and conducive to a narrow band of US social interests. Not only does the current quest for `protection' from bioterror form part of a general discursive strategy that demarcates a civilised American way of life from a foreign and deadly intersection of `envy' and `pathology', but it also supplies a material foil with which the state furthers its now well developed social role in bolstering innovation-driven US economic clout.


We describe the demand for interns in the U.S. using ads from an internship-specific website. We find that internships are more likely to be paid when more closely associated with a specific occupation, when the local labor market has lower unemployment, and when the local and federal minimum wage are the same. A resume audit study with more than 11,500 applications reveals that employers are more likely to respond positively when internship applicants have previous internship experience. Employers are also less likely to respond to applicants with black-sounding names and when the applicant is more distant from the firm.


Precise time synchronization is expected to play a key role in emerging distributed and real-time applications such as the smart grid and Internet of Things (IoT) based applications. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is currently viewed as one of the main synchronization solutions over a packet-switched network, which supports microsecond synchronization accuracy. In this paper, we present a PTP simulation model for OMNeT++ INET, which allows to investigate the synchronization accuracy under different network configurations and conditions. To show some illustrative simulation results using the developed module, we investigate on the network load fluctuations and their impacts on the PTP performance by considering a network with class- based quality-of-service (QoS) support. The simulation results show that the network load significantly affects the network delay symmetry, and investigate a new technique called class probing to improve the PTP accuracy and mitigate the load fluctuation effects. I. INTRODUCTION


Objective Various cardiovascular prediction models have been developed for patients with type 2 diabetes. Their predictive performance in new patients is mostly not investigated. This study aims to quantify the predictive performance of all cardiovascular prediction models developed specifically for diabetes patients. Design and methods Follow-up data of 453, 1174 and 584 type 2 diabetes patients without pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the EPIC-NL, EPIC-Potsdam and Secondary Manifestations of ARTerial disease cohorts, respectively, were used to validate 10 prediction models to estimate risk of CVD or coronary heart disease (CHD). Discrimination was assessed by the c-statistic for time-to-event data. Calibration was assessed by calibration plots, the Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistic and expected to observed ratios. Results There was a large variation in performance of CVD and CHD scores between different cohorts. Discrimination was moderate for all 10 prediction models, with c-statistics ranging from 0.54 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.63) to 0.76 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.84). Calibration of the original models was poor. After simple recalibration to the disease incidence of the target populations, predicted and observed risks were close. Expected to observed ratios of the recalibrated models ranged from 1.06 (95% CI 0.81 to 1.40) to 1.55 (95% CI 0.95 to 2.54), mainly driven by an overestimation of risk in high-risk patients. Conclusions All 10 evaluated models had a comparable and moderate discriminative ability. The recalibrated, but not the original, prediction models provided accurate risk estimates. These models can assist clinicians in identifying type 2 diabetes patients who are at low or high risk of developing CVD.


Due to their quantitative nature, robotic systems are useful tools for systematically augmenting human behavior and performance in dynamic environments, such as therapeutic rehabilitation settings. The efficacy of human-robot interaction (HRI) in these settings will depend on the robot's coaching style. Our goal was to investigate the influence of robot coaching styles designed to enhance motivation and encouragement on post-stroke individuals during motor task practice. We hypothesized that coaching styles incorporating user performance and preference would be preferred in a therapeutic HRI setting. We designed an evaluation study with seven individuals post stroke. A socially assistive robotics (SAR) system using three different coaching styles guided participants during performance of an upper extremity practice task. User preference was not significantly affected by the different robot coaching styles in our participant sample (H(2) = 2.638, p = 0.267). However, trends indicated differences in preference for the coaching styles. Our results provide insights into the design and use of SAR systems in therapeutic interactions aiming to influence user behavior.


We demonstrate scalable, low-cost and low-temperature (<100 °C) aqueous chemical growth of bismuth–zinc vanadate (BiZn2VO6) nanocompounds by BiVO4 growth on ZnO nanobelts (NBs). The nanocompounds were further doped with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to tune the electronic structure of the materials, as a means to lower the charge carrier recombination rate. The chemical composition, morphology, and detailed nanostructure of the BiZn2VO6 nanocompounds were characterized. They exhibit rice-like morphology, are highly dense on the substrate and possess a good crystalline quality. Photoelectrochemical characterization in 0.1 M lithium perchlorate in carbonate propylene shows that BiZn2VO6 nanocompounds are highly suitable as anodes for solar-driven photoelectrochemical applications, providing significantly better performance than with only ZnO NBs. This performance could be attributed to the heterogeneous catalysis effect at nanocompound and ZnO NB interfaces, which have enhanced the electron transfer process on the electrode surface. Furthermore, the charge collection efficiency could be significantly improved through PEG doping of nanocompounds. The photocurrent density of PEG-doped BiZn2VO6 nanocompounds reached values of 2 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), over 60% larger than that of undoped BiZn2VO6 nanocompounds. Photoluminescence emission experiments confirmed that PEG plays a crucial role in lowering the charge carrier recombination rate. The presented BiZn2VO6 nanocompounds are shown to provide highly competitive performance compared with other state-of-the art photoelectrodes.


Dextral strike-slip movement on the Sticklepath-Lustleigh fault zone (SLFZ) is indicated by displacements of ?Permian and older rocks. Previous authors have inferred that the main dextral movement which caused these displacements was post- Permian and, noting the presence of small Tertiary pull-apart basins along the fault zone, probably of Tertiary age. However, the geometry of these early Tertiary pull-apart basins indicates sinistral rather than dextral strike-slip movement. We present an alternative model for the history of the Sticklepath-Lustleigh fault zone, summarized below: 1 Late Variscan strike-slip movement, with a total displacement of up to 10 km, produced the SLFZ and offset dextrally an earlier Variscan thrust. 2. Extensional reactivation of this thrust led to rapid Permo-Triassic subsidence in the Crediton Trough and a dextrally offset neighbour, the Hatherleigh outlier. 3. Approximately 6 km of early Tertiary sinistral movement on the SLFZ produced small pull-apart sedimentary basins, and reduced the net dextral offset across the fault. 4. In mid-Tertiary times, minor dextral movements on the SLFZ may have produced reverse faulting on the margins of the Tertiary basins.


Submarine turbidity currents create some of the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, yet there are few direct measurements of these flows. Instead, most of our understanding of turbidity currents results from analyzing their deposits in the sedimentary record. However, the lack of direct flow measurements means that there is considerable debate regarding how to interpret flow properties from ancient deposits. This novel study combines detailed flow monitoring with unusually precisely located cores at different heights, and multiple locations, within the Monterey submarine canyon, offshore California, USA. Dating demonstrates that the cores include the time interval that flows were monitored in the canyon, albeit individual layers cannot be tied to specific flows. There is good correlation between grain sizes collected by traps within the flow and grain sizes measured in cores from similar heights on the canyon walls. Synthesis of flow and deposit data suggests that turbidity currents sourced from the upper reaches of Monterey Canyon comprise three flow phases. Initially, a thin (38–50 m) powerful flow in the upper canyon can transport, tilt, and break the most proximal moorings and deposit chaotic sands and gravel on the canyon floor. The initially thin flow front then thickens and deposits interbedded sands and silty muds on the canyon walls as much as 62 m above the canyon floor. Finally, the flow thickens along its length, thus lofting silty mud and depositing it at greater altitudes than the previous deposits and in excess of 70 m altitude.


It's a game you're already playing, whether you like it or not. You can choose to ignore it and remain at the mercy of what others say about you, or you can take the time to learn how it works. For those who do the potential benefits are unlimited.

Through pioneering research and interviews with a host of major figures ranging from Jay-Z and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman to Bernie Madoff and Man Booker prize-winning Hilary Mantel, Waller and Younger reveal the key mechanisms that make and remake our reputations, providing the essential guide to the most important game in business and in life.


Abstract A tension-saturated water slug descends through a homogenous soil after a rainfall (irrigation) event and shrinks due to transpiration by a distributed root-sink and evaporation. The upper (drainage) and lower (imbibition) sharp fronts of the slug separate it from the superjacent and subjacent vadose zones, where water is immobile. In the slug, the hydraulic conductivity is constant according to the Green-Ampt model. The capillary pressures as well as effective porosities on the fronts are given (generally, different) constants that can be viewed as a kind of hysteresis. A volumetric sink models mild (no desaturation of the slug) soil water withdrawal by the plant roots. The sink intensity varies with the depth from the soil surface and with time. Mathematically, the hydraulic head is immediately expressed by double integration of a governing 1-D flow equation. The pressure and kinematic conditions on the fronts result in a Cauchy problem for a system of two ODEs, which is solved by computer algebra routines. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Kacimov, A. and Obnosov, U., 2013. Pseudo-hysteretic double-front hiatus-stage soil water parcels supplying a plant–root continuum: the Green-Ampt-Youngs model revisited. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (1), 1–12.


The oxidative desulphurization followed by catalytic adsorption method was used for desulfurization of diesel oil. The diesel fuel was oxidized at temperature range of 70-80°C with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of formic acid. The effectiveness of the process mainly depends on (1) Efficient decomposition of (H2O2) in the diesel to oxidize various Organic sulfur compounds (sulfones, sulfoxides) and to extract them via polar solvent (2). Developing and analyze the catalytic adsorbent for the adsorption of unextracted aromatic sulphur compound (DBT). A porous Zeolite catalytic support mainly composed of Alumina and Silica was synthesized, and the said catalytic support loaded with Single walled carbon Nanotubes (SWNT's) to enhance the catalyst adsorption capability. FTIR spectral images of diesel and SEM "Scanning electron microscopic images"/EDX "Energy-dispersive X-ray" studies of catalyst provided a better qualitative approach as visual assessment of porosity and surface behavior. The proposed method can remove complex sulfur compounds from diesel fuel of high sulphur contents up to 80% in total.


Thailandiol ( 1), gardenolic acid A ( 2), quadrangularic acid E ( 3) and 3beta-hydroxy-5alpha-cycloart-24(31)-en-28-oic acid ( 4) have been isolated from the leaves and twigs of Gardenia thailandica Tirveng (order: Rubiales; family: Rubiaceae). In addition, 5-hydroxy-7,2',3',4',5',6'-hexamethoxyflavone ( 5), 5,7-dihydroxy-2',3', 4',5',6'-pentamethoxyflavone ( 6), 5-hydroxy-7,2',3',4',5'-pentamethoxyflavone ( 7) and 5,7-dihydroxy-2',3',4',5'-tetramethoxyflavone ( 8) were also isolated from the same source. The structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Crude extracts and compounds 1 - 4 displayed anti-HIV-1 activities as determined by using the (Delta)(Tat/Rev)MC99 virus and 1A2 cell line system. The EC (50) values determined by the syncytium assay ranged from < 7.8 to 110 microg/mL. They also exhibited moderate to high activities in reverse transcriptase (RT) assay; the IC (50) values of compounds 1 - 4, ranged from < 22.5 to 156.8 microg/mL.


Theory and research suggest that the transition to parenthood is a major life transition, and that adaptation to the parenting role is influenced by a complex set of factors, including the relationship with the child's mother, family of origin, and how the father is situated within sociocultural contexts. The father–]mother relationship is particularly important for men making the transition to fatherhood. This study examined patterns of fathering among young fathers (15–24 years) and investigated how fathers' relationships with the mothers of their young children (infants and toddlers) were related to fathering. In general, higher quality father–mother relationships were related to greater father involvement with children; when mothers were perceived as barriers to involved fathering fathers also had less accurate and adaptive parenting knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Person-centered analyses revealed quite complex relations between father–mother relationships and father–child interaction. One pattern showed strong positive father–mother relationships associated with a disengaged pattern of father–child interaction, while another pattern showed sensitive and positive father–child engagement in the context of negative or distant father–mother relationships. Four patterns of association between fathering and mother–father relationships were demonstrated. Results highlight the complexity of understanding fathering and family relationships among young fathers.


Policymakers and scholars — both lawyers and economists — have long been pondering the optimal design of default rules. From the classic works on "mimicking" defaults for contracts and corporations to the modern rush to set "sticky" default rules to promote policies as diverse as organ donations, retirement savings, consumer protection, and data privacy, the optimal design of default rules has featured as a central regulatory challenge. The key element driving the design is opt-out costs — how to minimize them, or alternatively how to raise them to make the default sticky. Much of the literature has focused on "mechanical" opt-out costs — the effort people incur to select a non-default alternative. This focus is too narrow. A more important factor affecting opt-out is information — the knowledge people must acquire to make informed opt-out decisions. But, unlike high mechanical costs, high information costs need not make defaults stickier; they may instead make the defaults "slippery." This counterintuitive claim is due to the phenomenon of uninformed opt-out, which we identify and characterize. Indeed, the importance of uninformed opt-out requires a reassessment of the conventional wisdom about Nudge and asymmetric or libertarian paternalism. We also show that different defaults provide different incentives to acquire the information necessary for informed opt-out. With the ballooning use of default rules as a policy tool, our information-costs theory provides valuable guidance to policymakers.


Introduction Toyin Falola and Jessica Achberger Part One: Historical Roots of African Underdevelopment 1. Africa and the Making of the Global Environmental Narrative: Challenges and Opportunities for the Continent's Development Initiatives Martin S. Shanguhyia 2. Indigenization Versus Domiciliation: A Historical Approach to National Content in Nigeria's Oil and Gas Industry Jesse Salah Ovadia 3. Globalization and Rural Land Conflict in North-West Cameroon: A Historical Perspective Emmanuel M. Mbah 4. Evolving Political Accountability in Kenya Jacob Butler Part Two: Africa in the New Global Economy 5. Towards a Contextualized Appraisal of Securities Regulation in East Africa June McLaughlin 6. The Impact of Changing Global Power Relations on African Governance of Foreign Direct Investment Roshen Hendrickson 7. Globalization and Regional Impulses from the Global South: A Comparative Study of ECOWAS and ASEAN Okpeh Ochayi Okpeh, Jr. 8. The Political Implication of Past and Present Nigerian Financial Crises Muhammed Tanko 9. Transcending an Elitist Approach and Making a Paradigm Shift from Growth Without Development to a "Populist" Development Hauwa'u Evelyn Yusuf and Adefarakan Adedayo Yusuf Part Three: Forging New International Connections 10. The Political Economy of Rising Asian Interests in Africa: Problems, Prospects, and Challenges Olusegun M. Osinibi 11. The Impact of the BRICS Countries on Africa's Socio-Economic Development in the Post-Cold War Era Alexius Amtaika 12. How Ready is Nigeria for Chinese Investments? John E. Anegbode and Cletus E. Onakalu 13. The New Scramble for Africa? Indo-Kenyan Economic Relations, 1980-2010 Felix Kiruthu, Mary Kinyanjui and Francis Muchoki Part Four: The Way Forward for Twenty-First-Century Development 14. French Foreign Policy in Rwanda: Language, Personal Networks, and Changing Contexts Celine A. Jacquemin 15. The Question of Development in Africa Ebunoluwa O. Oduwole 16. A Critique of the Notion of Africa as the "Third World": Towards a New Perspective Mike O. Odey 17. American Pharmaceutical Influence on Uganda's HIV/AIDS Relief System Ben Weiss and Jessica Achberger 18. Copenhagen: An African's Reading on the aftermath of the Copenhagen's Climate Change Conference (2009) Olivier J. Tchouaffe 19. Globalization and Developing Economies: Eco-Tourism and Sustainable Development in Cross River State, Nigeria Donald Omagu


Pending agreement between the Scottish and UK Governments, and the completion of the relevant Parliamentary processes, Scotland is set to gain significant new powers over aspects of the social security system. In order to help Poverty Alliance members better understand what these changes are and how they may be used Paul Spicker, Emeritus Professor at Robert Gordon University, has produced this short briefing. This briefing paper is part of the process to allow Poverty Alliance members determine the priorities for our network in relation to new social security powers in the years to come.


A survey was conducted to assess the awareness of the tropical hardwoods campaign and its impact on
exports of timber products from Peninsular Malaysia. Information was obtained from the questionnaire
answers of thirty-two exporters, from one hundred contacted. There is a high degree of awareness of the
tropical hardwoods campaign among the exporters. The same level of awareness is not shown for boycott and
certification of tropical timber products. There is no difference in awareness of certification of tropical timber
products among the exporters. However, exporters to Europe and in particular to the Netherlands are more
aware of the campaign to boycott tropical timber products than exporters to other destinations. Exporters to
the Netherlands are more likely to report that their exports are adversely affected by the tropical hardwoods
campaign. A majority of exporters feel that the tropical hardwoods campaign is less serious than the problem
of diminishing log supply that they are currently facing.


The Mexican state of Baja California Sur has a high rate of population growth. It is also one of the states that are most vulnerable to climate change. Due to its location on the southern side of a roughly 900-mile long peninsula, and its natural separation from mainland Mexico, its power transmission networks are completely independent of the rest of the country. Thus, nearly all the energy used to generate electricity must be shipped to the state in the form of fossil fuels. The importation of energy supplies from the mainland results in higher costs for the state than in other areas of the country, causes greater environmental damage, and prevents a steady supply of energy to the state. This study's objective is to propose a sustainable management model and to provide a reference to feasible sites available that could serve the Loreto region. An analytical model has been developed with multiple criteria and geographic information systems. This will allow for a wide range of spatial analysis of information covering the calculation of slopes, orientation, irradiation, infrastructure, etc. The municipal region of Loreto has roughly 288 square kilometres of land deemed suitable for the installation of solar plants. This area comprises 1.62% of the municipality. In 2016, the maximum electrical power demand for the entire state of Baja California Sur was 628 Megawatts per hour according to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). Loreto's electrical capacity is currently 17 MWh. Based on calculations that one photovoltaic plant located on two acres of land can produce one MWh, solar plants in the region could, theoretically, produce up to 14,403.35 MWh. Clearly, this potential capacity would be well above the demands of the municipality, which encompasses 3.8% of the state territory.


The audiovisual contribution "Internationality in Gender Studies – Reflections from India and Turkey" presents a number of highly personal and individual perspectives and experiences, thereby illustrating the range of possible positions toward the subject. Theoretical reflections are not necessarily being supported but are not being negated either. Within the anthology, this contribution calls to mind the people beyond the theoretical debates who strive to communicate and interact with each other. Multidirectional transfers are desired as is a critical examination of how they may be achieved. Duygu Aloglu from Ankara, Turkey and Lavinia Mawlong from Shillong and Mumbai, India are doctoral candidates at the Institute of Geographical Sciences at the Freie Universitat Berlin. Drawing from their own personal backgrounds, they discuss their personal perspectives on the subject of an internationalization of Gender Studies with a particular focus on Turkey and India. The interviews were held separately and in English. They were conflated for the video.


INTRODUCTIONThe use of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase allows identification of phosphopeptides in a mixture of predominantly nonphosphopeptides. Using a MALDI-MS instrument, the masses of peptides are acquired both before and after alkaline phosphatase treatment, which removes phospho-moieties from serine, threonine, and/or tyrosine. (Any peptide whose mass decreases by 80 Da, or a multiple thereof, is a phosphopeptide.) An advantage of using MALDI-MS for these experiments is that the peptide ions produced tend to be singly charged rather than multiply charged (as with ESI), thus making the interpretation easier. This protocol describes a method for in-solution dephosphorylation after MALDI-MS analysis.


Perinatal depression, which includes major and minor depressive episodes that occur during pregnancy or in the first 12 months after delivery, is one of the most common medical complications during pregnancy and the postpartum period, affecting one in seven women. It is important to identify pregnant and postpartum women with depression because untreated perinatal depression and other mood disorders can have devastating effects. Several screening instruments have been validated for use during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that obstetrician-gynecologists and other obstetric care providers screen patients at least once during the perinatal period for depression and anxiety symptoms using a standardized, validated tool. It is recommended that all obstetrician-gynecologists and other obstetric care providers complete a full assessment of mood and emotional well-being (including screening for postpartum depression and anxiety with a validated instrument) during the comprehensive postpartum visit for each patient. If a patient is screened for depression and anxiety during pregnancy, additional screening should then occur during the comprehensive postpartum visit. There is evidence that screening alone can have clinical benefits, although initiation of treatment or referral to mental health care providers offers maximum benefit. Therefore, clinical staff in obstetrics and gynecology practices should be prepared to initiate medical therapy, refer patients to appropriate behavioral health resources when indicated, or both.


Background: Alcohol use and pain are frequent problems among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Therefore, increasing the understanding of the interaction between these medical conditions is critical to improve health care and quality of life forthis population. While gender differencesin alcohol use andmood disorders are widely recognized, little is known about gender disparities in prescription of painkillers and correlates. Equally important is the lack of information regarding the role of neurotrophic factors although animal models have demonstrated BDNF pronociceptive effects.
Methods: Using a clinic-based sample of people living with H.I.V/AIDS (PLWHA), we investigated the prevalence and correlates associations of recent pain killer use. We also assessed the effects of gender, mood and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor levels (BDNF). Participants were 400 people living with HIV (PLWHA) who participated in the PADS cohort study.
Results: Approximately, a quarter (24%) of the sample reported regularly taking painkillers, and a correlation was evident with both CD4s and viral loads. Painkiller users were typically over 40. Ifthey weremales, painkiller users weremore likely to be Caucasian; however, painkiller female users were more likely to be minorities. Factors related to painkiller use also differed between men and women. Analyses demonstrated that the weekly consumption of alcohol was significantly higher in the painkiller group compared to controls (19.4 ± 3.9 vs. 15.9 ± 1.34 drinks/week; p=0.03). Compared to non-hazardous alcohol users (non-HAU), female-hazardous alcohol users (HAU's) were more likely to be using prescription opioids (Odds Ratio: 4.6 95% Confidence Interval: 1-22.9, p=0.04). No such trend was observed among males. Noteworthy, higher scores of both depression and stress were observed among painkiller users. Gender differences were notable; women using painkillers exhibited significantly higher scores on both depression (19.6 ± 12.4 vs. 13.6 ± 11.7 total score; p=0.01), and stress (19.4 ± 8.3 vs. 14.9 ± 8.1 total score; p=0.004) while men did not. In our analyses, BDNF levels were significantly higher among subjects taking painkillers than those not taking them. In Longitudinal analyses, confirmed that hazardous alcohol use, BDNF levels, and gender were associated with greater odds of using painkillers at 6 months.
Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of designing gender-sensitive surveillance, prevention, and treatment. Our findings extend earlier research by revealing that BDNF may account for important aspects of pain and alcohol abuse. The apparent implication of these findings is that interventions targeting BDNF may have considerable therapeutic potential in this population


Abstract Cryptochromes (CRYs) and UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 (UVR8) photoreceptors perceive UV-A/blue (315–500 nm) and UV-B (280–315 nm) radiation in plants, respectively. While the roles of CRYs and UVR8 have been studied in separate controlled-environment experiments, little is known about the interaction between these photoreceptors. Here, Arabidopsis wild-type Ler, CRYs and UVR8 photoreceptor mutants (uvr8-2, cry1cry2 and cry1cry2uvr8-2), and a flavonoid biosynthesis-defective mutant (tt4) were grown in a sun simulator. Plants were exposed to filtered radiation for 17 d or for 6 h, to study the effects of blue, UV-A, and UV-B radiation. Both CRYs and UVR8 independently enabled growth and survival of plants under solar levels of UV, while their joint absence was lethal under UV-B. CRYs mediated gene expression under blue light. UVR8 mediated gene expression under UV-B radiation, and in the absence of CRYs, also under UV-A. This negative regulation of UVR8-mediated gene expression by CRYs was also observed for UV-B. The accumulation of flavonoids was also consistent with this interaction between CRYs and UVR8. In conclusion, we provide evidence for an antagonistic interaction between CRYs and UVR8 and a role of UVR8 in UV-A perception.


Nir Rosen's Aftermath, an extraordinary feat of reporting, follows the contagious spread of radicalism and sectarian violence that the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the ensuing civil war have unleashed in the Muslim world. Rosen-who the Weekly Standard once bitterly complained has "great access to the Baathists and jihadists who make up the Iraqi insurgency"- has spent nearly a decade among warriors and militants who have been challenging American power in the Muslim world. In Aftermath, he tells their story, showing the other side of the U.S. war on terror, traveling from the battle-scarred streets of Baghdad to the alleys, villages, refugee camps, mosques, and killing grounds of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and finally Afghanistan, where Rosen has a terrifying encounter with the Taliban as their "guest," and witnesses the new Obama surge fizzling in southern Afghanistan. Rosen was one of the few Westerners to venture inside the mosques of Baghdad to witness the first stirrings of sectarian hatred in the months after the U.S. invasion. He shows how weapons, tactics, and sectarian ideas from the civil war in Iraq penetrated neighboring countries and threatened their stability, especially Lebanon and Jordan, where new jihadist groups mushroomed. Moreover, he shows that the spread of violence at the street level is often the consequence of specific policies hatched in Washington, D.C. Rosen offers a seminal and provocative account of the surge, told from the perspective of U.S. troops on the ground, the Iraqi security forces, Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents that were both allies and adversaries. He also tells the story of what happened to these militias once they outlived their usefulness to the Americans. Aftermath is both a unique personal history and an unsparing account of what America has wrought in Iraq and the region. The result is a hair- raising, 360-degree view of the modern battlefield its consequent humanitarian catastrophe, and the reality of counterinsurgency.


Non-canonical degrees of freedom provide one of the most promising routes towards characterising a range of important phenomena in condensed matter physics. Potential candidates include the pseudogap regime of the cuprates, heavy-fermion behaviour, and also indeed magnetically ordered systems. Nevertheless it remains an open question whether non-canonical algebras can in fact provide legitimate quantum degrees of freedom. In this manuscript we survey progress made on this topic, complementing distinct approaches so as to obtain a unified description. In particular we obtain a novel closed-form expression for a self-energy-like object for non-canonical degrees of freedom. We further make a resummation of density correlations to obtain analogues of the RPA and GW approximations commonly employed for canonical degrees of freedom. We discuss difficulties related to generating higher-order approximations which are consistent with conservation laws, which represents an outstanding issue. We also discuss how the interplay between canonical and non-canonical degrees of freedom offers a useful paradigm for organising the phase diagram of correlated electronic behaviour.


There is currently a widespread view that the EU is in crisis. This crisis is not only financial, but, most importantly, it touches upon the founding principles of the Union as set out in Article 2 TEU. Among them, a principle that has served as the cornerstone of European integration already from its early stages seems particularly threatened: the rule of law. Due to endemic corruption, weak institutional capacities, or insufficient resources at the administrative or judicial levels, some EU Member States present so grave deficiencies in guaranteeing the rule of law that their conformity with basic EU standards is seriously questioned. Although it is obvious that the EU cannot stay inactive in the face of such grave deficiencies, it remains unclear how potential responses fit with the overall EU constitutional framework. This article aims at contributing to this discussion by developing the concept of systemic deficiency in the rule of law.


During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Selanik became one of most modernised and dynamic regions of the Ottoman Empire. With its tightly knit marketing networks and extensive railway systems, relatively well-developed financial markets, fluid land market, modem factories, burgeoning urban areas and port-cities, Selanik had clearly become one of the leading commercial regions of the entire eastern Mediterranean basin by the turn of the twentieth century. Two primary forces underlay the process of economic modernisation in the region, namely the capitalist world economy and the reform efforts of the Ottoman government. Enhanced integration with the world economy brought new opportunities and helped bolster economic modernisation in the region. The reform efforts and infrastructure investments of the Ottoman state also contributed to the moment of commercialisation and modernisation. Notwithstanding the impressive dynamism and apparent modernisation of the regional economy, serious processes of retardation and backwardness also surfaced rather strongly during the same period. Ironically, the very same forces that generated much dynamism in the regional economy also prepared the structural ground for retardation and backwardness. More specifically, the growing moment of commercialisation and enhanced integration with the world capitalist economy created serious dislocations in the agrarian economy and prepared ground for economic retardation. Likewise, the organisational, fiscal and diplomatic weakness of the Ottoman government undermined the existing potential for economic development and growth. Thus, a dual economic structure emerged whereby facets of "modernity" and growth meshed with those of economic retardation and backwardness. The socioeconomic tensions and contradictions building up in this process prepared the structural background to the dissolution and eventual collapse of the Ottoman rule in the Balkans. In other words, the sporadic fits of modernity and growth could not be sustained, given the overwhelming dominance of European economic interests and the apparent weakness of the Ottoman state. The conflict ridden transformation process simply erupted in uprising, revolution and war.


Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, the United States pledged to give increased economic and military aid to receptive Middle Eastern countries and to protect - with US armed forces if necessary - the territorial integrity and political independence of these nations from the threat of "international communism". Salim Yaqub demonstrates that although the United States officially aimed to protect the Middle East from Soviet encroachment, the Eisenhower Doctrine had the unspoken mission of containing the radical Arab nationalism of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, whom Eisenhower regarded as an unwitting agent of Soviet expansionism. By offering aid and protection, the Eisenhower administration hoped to convince a majority of Arab governments to side openly with the West in the Cold War, thus isolating Nasser and decreasing the likelihood that the Middle East would fall under Soviet domination. Employing a wide range of declassified Egyptian, British and American archival sources, Yaqub offers a comprehensive account of Eisenhower's efforts to counter Nasserism's appeal throughout the Arab Middle East. Challenging interpretations of US-Arab relations that emphasize cultural antipathies and clashing values, Yaqub instead argues that the political dispute between the United States and the Nasserist movement occurred within a shared moral framework - a pattern that continues to characterize US-Arab controversies in the 21st century.


Comparisons were made between the sensitivities of unique 'wild' isolates and domestic isolates of the dry rot fungus, Serpula lacrymans, to temperature, water potential and pH. Comparisons were also made between their capacities of timber decay. The 'w ild' Himalayan isolates displayed slightly less marked sensitivities to high and low temperature and lowered water potential, yet the isolates were equally tolerant of pH. In general, the linear growth rates of the domestic isolates proved to be twice those of the 'w ild' Himalayan set, whereas little variation occurred between their rates of timber decay. This study also resulted in the first isolation and reliable identification of 'wild-growing' S. lacrymans collected in Europe. The main part of the project involved the construction of novel chambers in order to examine the effects of lowered humidity and moving air flow on the activity of S. lacrymans. In the smallest and simplest of these, its growth and timberdecaying activities could be stopped by incubation at 86% relative humidity or by the application of a pumped air flow rate of 2.5 litres per minute; however, S. lacrymans was not inactivated until more-stressful conditions were applied. In addition, an intermediate rate of air flow provoked marked directional growth away from the stress. Furthermore, the introduction of stone, brick and plaster into these models encouraged the capacities of timber decay and mycelial growth. The use of a larger and more representative model incorporating simulated flooring and plaster walling within glass tanks revealed differences in the appearances and patterns of colonisation by S. lacrymans depending upon whether aged or new materials were used. Treatments involving air drying by fans caused both a shrivelling and a loss of viability of the fungus only when there was no 'reservoir' of water available; when there was water present, latent activity remained. An elaboration of this experimental design tested the effects of a combined biological and environmental treatment. Subsequently, the application of Trichoderma harzianum, a known antagonist of S. lacrymans, proved not to be an effective remedial treatment on its own, but appeared to impart a mildly protective effect when combined with a drying regime. Importantly, in the latter situation T. harzianum caused a severe degradation of the part of the colony responsible for the uptake of water in S. lacrymans. Another workshop-scale model simulating more authentically a damp sub-floor space and a cavity behind aged plaster walling was developed. When respective treatments by fan drying and passive ventilation were compared, the former were more effective, but its efficacy could be augmented by incorporating low-level passive ventilation via discreet vents. In this manner, a successful remedial treatment of S. lacrymans could be effected, though the prevalence of mould could prove to be undesirable in practice. However, some samples o f this displayed antagonistic effects against S. lacrymans. A further experiment was designed to test the effects of air drying on the production of the stress-protective carbohydrate trehalose and of some associated solutes by S. lacrymans. In contrast to reports of some other organisms, no definite stockpiling of any of the compounds occurred. A final series of experiments revealed that S. lacrymans removed calcium, silicon and iron from sandstone and calcium, sulphur and iron from aged plaster; these elements were sequestered on its hyphae, especially in the form of calcium oxalate. Degradation of the sandstone was implicit but not obvious microscopically. Furthermore, S. lacrymans transported iron from these building materials through its mycelial system. An attempt to determine the effects of separate minerals in sandstone and plaster on timber decay revealed few variations.


Background: Sperm cryopreservation-thawing process has damaging effects on the structure and function of sperm, namely cryoinjury. Calcium overload has been reported as a postulated mechanism for sperm damage during the first steps after thawing. This study was designed to assess the intracellular calcium (Ca2+i) after cryopreservation and to clarify the role of a calcium chelator ethylene glycol-bis (2-aminoethyl ether)-N, N, N′, N′-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) on human sperm quality. Methods: Forty semen samples were obtained from fertile men (March 2017 to 2018). The samples were randomly divided into fresh (F) and cryopreserved-thawed (CT) groups. The F and CT samples were divided into control and 1 mM EGTA-treated groups. Sperm kinematics and membrane integrity were assessed. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were measured by luminescent methods. Ca2+i, apoptotic rate, and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were evaluated using flow cytometric methods. Data were compared using SPSS software, version 16.0 by ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test. P<0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Cryopreservation decreased sperm motility, viability, membrane integrity, Ca2+i, MMP, and induced cell apoptosis and ROS production. EGTA could not protect the cryopreserved sperm from cryoinjury. It was found to have destructive effects on fresh sperm motility and viability (P=0.009) relative to cryopreserved sperm. ATP was reduced (P=0.02) and ROS production (P=0.0001) was increased in the EGTA-treated F and CT sperms. Conclusion: Despite Ca2+i reduction by EGTA, it had no protective effects on fresh or cryopreserved sperm. We concluded that sperm cryoinjury was not dependent on calcium overload, and it was suggested that cryoinjury was mainly related to cell membranes damage.


Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), a method for finding parts-based representation of non-negative data, has shown remarkable competitiveness in data analysis. Given that real-world datasets are often comprised of multiple features or views which describe data from various perspectives, it is important to exploit diversity from multiple views for comprehensive and accurate data representations. Moreover, real-world datasets often come with high-dimensional features, which demands the efficiency of low-dimensional representation learning approaches. To address these needs, we propose a diverse NMF (DiNMF) approach. It enhances the diversity, reduces the redundancy among multiview representations with a novel defined diversity term and enables the learning process in linear execution time. We further propose a locality preserved DiNMF (LP-DiNMF) for more accurate learning, which ensures diversity from multiple views while preserving the local geometry structure of data in each view. Efficient iterative updating algorithms are derived for both DiNMF and LP-DiNMF, along with proofs of convergence. Experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets have demonstrated the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed methods against the state-of-the-art approaches, proving the advantages of incorporating the proposed diversity term into NMF.


Forced convection cooling systems utilize fans which can be axial or radial, small or large in many different configurations. Efficiency of a fan depends on its electrical and mechanical designs as well as the environmental conditions that the fan is exposed to. Typically, the overall efficiency of an axial fan varies between 15 to 40 percent. Power losses may be due to electrical, aerodynamic or mechanical design components. Losses occurring in an axial fan motor have become a critical issue in which high inertial effects, low power, low cost and high efficiency are desired. In order to design an efficient motor, it is important to accurately predict the power losses which are normally dissipated in the form of heat. The present study starts with an investigation of the power losses of an axial fan experimentally and computationally. Moreover, it deals with modeling of mechanical, electrical, thermal and electromagnetic losses which focus especially on an outer rotor brushless DC motor. Reduction of these losses leads to a decrease in the motor temperature and, therefore, has a positive effect on the fan reliability. Expressions for calculating the inverter losses, motor losses and mechanical losses are derived. The power losses obtained are then used as heat sources when evaluating the thermal performance of the motor. By using a two-dimensional model, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to determine the iron losses across the motor. These results are utilized to determine evaluate the overall efficiency of the system.


In industrial workplaces, such as factories, noise pollution is a prominent danger to the health of workers, and could cause physical and psychological harm to them. The purpose of this thesis is to formulate and implement a device that can help locate the origin of these noise sources. This paper deals with the design and implementation of a spatial acoustic measurement device that can locate the origin of dominant acoustical sources in an environment. The device is made up of an array of microphones in a filter-and-sum array. The filters are designed using the Least Squares filter design method. The end device was able to identify the location of an acoustical noise source. The amount of attenuation for non pass band angles achieved depended on the number of filter taps used, main lobe width, and the number of microphones selected.


Pseudomonas strains, capable of utilizing as carbon sources one or more isomers of tartaric acid, were isolated from soil by specific elective culture methods. Most strains were markedly stereospecific, utilizing only the isomer or isomers upon which they had developed during the elective cultivation. Enzymic study showed that the commonest mechanism for the dissimilation of the tartaric acids by this group of strains is dehydration to oxaloacetic acid, through the action of stereospecific dehydrases. The attack on the tartaric acids is strictly inducible, and in many strains the induced state is rapidly lost in the absence of the substrateinducer. Enzymic assay showed that such loss of induction cannot be accounted for by loss of the specific dehydrase, which is often present in large quantities in organisms which have become incapable of attacking the substrate. This indicates that the metabolism of the tartaric acids requires specific inducible transport systems for bringing the tartaric acids into the cell, in addition to the specific, inducible dehydrases. The existence of such transport systems is further indicated by the fact that the inhibitory interactions between the isomers of tartaric acid, demonstrable with the cell-free dehydrase preparation, do not exist in vivo.


Abstract. In the Amazonian atmosphere, the aerosol coarse mode comprises a complex, diverse, and variable mixture of bioaerosols emitted from the rain forest ecosystem, long-range transported Saharan dust (we use Sahara as shorthand for the dust source regions in Africa north of the Equator), marine aerosols from the Atlantic Ocean, and coarse smoke particles from deforestation fires. For the rain forest, the coarse mode particles are of significance with respect to biogeochemical and hydrological cycling, as well as ecology and biogeography. However, knowledge on the physicochemical and biological properties as well as the ecological role of the Amazonian coarse mode is still sparse. This study presents results from multi-year coarse mode measurements at the remote Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) site. It combines online aerosol observations, selected remote sensing and modeling results, as well as dedicated coarse mode sampling and analysis. The focal points of this study are a systematic characterization of aerosol coarse mode abundance and properties in the Amazonian atmosphere as well as a detailed analysis of the frequent, pulse-wise intrusion of African long-range transport (LRT) aerosols (comprising Saharan dust and African biomass burning smoke) into the Amazon Basin.We find that, on a multi-year time scale, the Amazonian coarse mode maintains remarkably constant concentration levels (with 0.4 cm−3 and 4.0 µg m−3 in the wet vs. 1.2 cm−3 and 6.5 µg m−3 in the dry season) with rather weak seasonality (in terms of abundance and size spectrum), which is in stark contrast to the pronounced biomass burning-driven seasonality of the submicron aerosol population and related parameters. For most of the time, bioaerosol particles from the forest biome account for a major fraction of the coarse mode background population. However, from December to April there are episodic intrusions of African LRT aerosols, comprising Saharan dust, sea salt particles from the transatlantic passage, and African biomass burning smoke. Remarkably, during the core period of this LRT season (i.e., February–March), the presence of LRT influence, occurring as a sequence of pulse-like plumes, appears to be the norm rather than an exception. The LRT pulses increase the coarse mode concentrations drastically (up to 100 µg m−3) and alter the coarse mode composition as well as its size spectrum. Efficient transport of the LRT plumes into the Amazon Basin takes place in response to specific mesoscale circulation patterns in combination with the episodic absence of rain-related aerosol scavenging en route. Based on a modeling study, we estimated a dust deposition flux of 5–10 kg ha−1 a−1 in the region of the ATTO site. Furthermore, a chemical analysis quantified the substantial increase of crustal and sea salt elements under LRT conditions in comparison to the background coarse mode composition. With these results, we estimated the deposition fluxes of various elements that are considered as nutrients for the rain forest ecosystem. These estimates range from few g ha−1 a−1 up to several hundreds of g ha−1 a−1 in the ATTO region.The long-term data presented here provide a statistically solid basis for future studies of the manifold aspects of the dynamic coarse mode aerosol cycling in the Amazon. Thus, it may help to understand its biogeochemical relevance in this ecosystem as well as to evaluate to what extent anthropogenic influences have altered the coarse mode cycling already.


Multi-view capture systems are complex systems to engineer. They require technical knowledge to install and intricate processes to setup related mainly to the sensors' spatial alignment (i.e. external calibration). However, with the ongoing developments in new production methods, we are now at a position where the production of high quality realistic 3D assets is possible even with commodity sensors. Nonetheless, the capturing systems developed with these methods are heavily intertwined with the methods themselves, relying on custom solutions and seldom - if not at all - publicly available. In light of this, we design, develop and publicly offer a multi-view capture system based on the latest RGB-D sensor technology. For our system, we develop a portable and easy-to-use external calibration method that greatly reduces the effort and knowledge required, as well as simplify the overall process.


A study on the mycoremediation effect of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) mycelia on petroleum-hydrocarbon-contaminated substrate was carried out in the mushroom unit of the Faculty of Agriculture Demonstration Farm, located in the University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The study aimed at determining the degree of reduction or breakdown of chains of hydrocarbon in a petroleum-hydrocarbon-contaminated substrate over time. Mushroom substrate comprised sawdust enriched with nutrients to allow for microbial proliferation was obtained from the demonstration farm, while crude oil obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was used as contaminant. 230g of fully ramified mushroom substrate was weighed out in triplicates and subjected to three treatment regimes (A, B and C). Treatments A, B and C were contaminated with 20ml, 40ml and 60ml of crude oil respectively, while their corresponding controls similarly contaminated with crude oil had no mushroom mycelia and were further sterilized to eliminate any microbial life. The experiment was monitored for four weeks within which total hydrocarbon concentrations in treatments A, B and C were reduced by 90%, 87% and 85% respectively over time while no change occurred in their corresponding control groups. It is recommended that the application of mushroom mycelium is a new and effective tool in the rapid remediation of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons over a short period of time as opposed to the usual conventional, time-consuming, and inefficient methods of waste management in the environment.


Because of their tiny size (0.2 to 2 microns), oceanic picophytoplanktonic cells (either cultured strains or natural communities) are difficult to identify, and some basic questions concerning their taxonomy, physiology, and ecology are still largely unanswered. The present study was designed to test the suitability of in situ hybridization with rRNA fluorescent probes detected by flow cytometry for the identification of small photosynthetic eukaryotes. Oligonucleotide probes targeted against regions of the 18S rRNAs of Chlorophyta lineage (CHLO probe) and of non-Chlorophyta (NCHLO probe) algal species were designed. The CHLO and NCHLO probes, which differed by a single nucleotide, allowed discrimination of chlorophyte from nonchlorophyte cultured strains. The sensitivity of each probe was dependent upon the size of the cells and upon their growth stage. The mean fluorescence was 8 to 80 times higher for specifically labeled than for nonspecifically labeled cells in exponential growth phase, but it decreased sharply in stationary phase. Such taxon-specific probes should increase the applicability of flow cytometry for the rapid identification of cultured pico- and nanoplanktonic strains, especially those that lack taxonomically useful morphological features.


Ectopic dendrite growth and new synapse formation are known to occur on select kinds of neurons in a wide variety of neuronal storage diseases. As these changes in connectivity occur just proximal to the axonal initial segment, it has been hypothesized that they underlie the generation of abnormal neuronal function in these diseases. We have studied certain aspects of this phenomenon through the use of a plant- derived indolizadine alkaloid, swainsonine, which specifically inhibits the lysosomal hydrolase, alpha-mannosidase. These studies fully document the close morphological similarity between swainsonine-induced and inherited feline alpha-mannosidosis. This includes the presence of clear and floccule-filled storage vacuoles, as seen with routine EM, and axon hillock neurite growth on select cell types, as seen with Golgi staining. The latter was found only on cortical pyramidal neurons and multipolar cells of amygdala, and these same cell types are known to be involved in ectopic neuritogenesis in other storage diseases. Combined Golgi-electron-microscopic studies demonstrated the presence of normal-appearing synapses on these aberrant neuritic processes and also unusual, membranous inclusions specifically within the neurite- bearing pyramidal cells. The latter may be indicative of unique metabolic changes in these neurons and is consistent with the hypothesis that storage of gangliosides or other glycolipids underlies the recapitulation of dendritic growth features in these diseases. Experimental manipulation of the disease process using the swainsonine model indicated that induction of cortical pyramidal neuron neurite growth could be influenced by both age of onset and intensity of intraneuronal storage. Although Golgi studies clearly demonstrated neuritic sprouting in animals with disease onset as late as at 1 year, cortical pyramidal cells of older, adult animals appeared to undergo significant storage without a similar induction of neurite growth. These studies support the view that induced neuritogenesis in neuronal storage disease is associated with changes in metabolism, specifically within the neurite-bearing cells, that this change possibly involves gangliosides, and that the neuritogenic response may be limited to pre- adult stages of brain maturation.


This classic publication exposes the efforts of the environmental movement to undermine individual freedom by promoting the growth of authoritarian and unaccountable global institutions. Over the course of the past fifteen years, environmental organisations have become increasingly obsessed with 'global' environmental issues, such as climate change, ozone depletion and biodiversity loss. They claim that these issues affect everyone on the planet and necessitate global agreements. In response to lobbying by these environmental organisations, governments around the world have signed up to many international treaties, committing their respective countries to limiting emissions of substances such as CFCs and carbon dioxide. Like other political agreements, the global treaties involved considerable 'horse-trading', with governments of developing countries only agreeing to sign up if the governments of developed countries would commit to transferring funds to them. Even so, developing country governments have resisted subsequent attempts of make them sign up to specific limits on emissions of carbon dioxide, and production of CFCs continues apace in China, India, Russia, and other developing countries. As pressure grows for the development of binding restrictions on the production and emission of certain chemicals, nations are likely gradually to cede sovereignty to supranational organisations such as the United Nations, with policies ever more dominated by the few organisations (environmental, labour and others) who are accredited as Non Governmental Organisations with the UN. The evidence strongly suggests that the resultant global governance will be undemocratic and policies will be based on dogma not sound science.


We introduce GRay, a massively parallel integrator designed to trace the trajectories of billions of photons in a curved spacetime. This graphics-processing-unit (GPU)-based integrator employs the stream processing paradigm, is implemented in CUDA C/C++, and runs on nVidia graphics cards. The peak performance of GRay using single-precision floating-point arithmetic on a single GPU exceeds 300 GFLOP (or 1 ns per photon per time step). For a realistic problem, where the peak performance cannot be reached, GRay is two orders of magnitude faster than existing central-processing-unit-based ray-tracing codes. This performance enhancement allows more effective searches of large parameter spaces when comparing theoretical predictions of images, spectra, and light curves from the vicinities of compact objects to observations. GRay can also perform on-the-fly ray tracing within general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic algorithms that simulate accretion flows around compact objects. Making use of this algorithm, we calculate the properties of the shadows of Kerr black holes and the photon rings that surround them. We also provide accurate fitting formulae of their dependencies on black hole spin and observer inclination, which can be used to interpret upcoming observations of the black holes at the center of the Milky Way, as well as M87, with the Event Horizon Telescope.


In many hydraulic and hydrological problems as well as in the design criteria for certain engineering structures, for example, dams, culverts and storm drainage systems, the prediction of maximum precipitation amounts occurring over short periods of time in a given number of years is of fundamental importance. With certain structures a very high safety factor is necessary and predictions of the maximum precipitation or maximum flood of short duration are based on the physical upper limits of precipitation producing agents, which vary from region to region. Studies based on the maximum limits of concentrated storm rainfall estimate ""Probable Maximum Precipitation"" (PMP) by storm maximization techniques. Such studies have been undertaken for East Africa by Sansom (1953) and Lumb (1970).


This paper reports the results and stratigraphic implications of amino acid racemization studies of fresh- and/or inter-tidal molluscs from: (i) the important Pleistocene sequences of Kenn Church, New Blind Yeo Drain, Yew Tree Farm and Kenn Pier (Avon County); (ii) the previously undescribed Pleistocene beach deposits beneath the Llanwern steel mill, South Wales; and (iii) re-prepared and re-analysed shells from the Th/U-series dated beach deposits in Belle Houge Cave, Jersey, Channel Islands. These studies indicate the complexity of sea level change in the area. In amino acid Group II (Oxygen isotope stage 5e; 120,000–130,000 years BP) sea level reached 4–5 m OD and possibly 12 m OD. This episode is correlated with similar Group II beach deposits on the Gower coast, and freshwater deposits in SW and SE Britain. The data suggest these Group II deposits are different in age from the Ipswichian interglacial, inter-tidal deposits at Selsey. A Group IV age is attributed to freshwater deposits at Yew Tree Farm and Kenn Pier which collected just above a contemporary sea level or included re-worked earlier inter-tidal rocky shore faunas. These are provisionally correlated with the Group IV deposits in the Thames Estuary at Purfleet (c. 400,000–600,000 years BP). Since these deposits are thought at post-date glacial deposits previously identified at Kenn and Court Hill, Avon, this glacial episode is now regarded as being much older than the Wolstonian glacial stage with which it had been correlated previously.


How does finance affect employment and inter-industry job reallocation? We present a model that predicts that financial development (i) increases employment and/or labor productivity and wages, with a smaller impact at high levels of the equilibrium wage and financial development; (ii) may induce either more or less reallocation of jobs depending on whether shocks to profit opportunities or to cash flow predominate; (iii) amplifies the output and employment losses in crises, firms that rely most on banks for liquidity being hit the hardest. Testing these predictions on international industry-level data for 1970-2003, we find that standard measures of financial development are indeed associated with greater employment growth, although only in non-OECD countries, and are not correlated with labor productivity or real wage growth. Moreover, they correlate negatively with inter-industry dispersion of employment growth. Finally, there is some evidence of a "dark side" of financial development, in that during banking crises employment grows less in the industries that are more dependent on external finance and those located in the more financially developed countries.


Caspase-9 plays a critical role in the initiation of apoptosis by the mitochondrial pathway. Activation of caspase-9 is inhibited by phosphorylation at Thr125 by ERK1/2 MAPKs in response to growth factors. Here, we show that phosphorylation of this site is specific for these classical MAPKs and is not strongly induced when JNK and p38α/β MAPKs are activated by anisomycin. By deletion and mutagenic analysis, we identify domains in caspase-9 and ERK2 that mediate their interaction. Binding of ERK2 to caspase-9 and subsequent phosphorylation of caspase-9 requires a basic docking domain (D domain) in the N-terminal prodomain of the caspase. Mutational analysis of ERK2 reveals a 157TTCD160 motif required for recognition of caspase-9 that acts independently of the putative common docking domain. Molecular modeling supports the conclusion that Arg10 in the D domain of caspase-9 interacts with Asp160 in the TTCD motif of ERK2. Differences in the TTCD motif in other MAPK family members could account for the selective recognition of caspase-9 by ERK1/2. This selectivity may be important for the antiapoptotic role of classical MAPKs in contrast to the proapoptotic roles of stress-activated MAPKs.


BACKGROUND
How coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) impacts on the trajectory of kidney function in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients is unclear. This study examined the effect of HCV infection on kidney function over time in women infected with HIV.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective observational cohort.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
Study sample included participants from the Women's Interagency HIV Study who were HIV infected and had undergone HCV antibody testing and serum creatinine measurement at baseline.

PREDICTOR
HCV seropositivity.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENT
Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) calculated from semi-annual serum creatinine measurements using the 4-variable Modification of Diet in Renal Diseases (MDRD) Study equation. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate the independent effect of HCV seropositivity on eGFR over time, adjusting for demographic factors, comorbid conditions, illicit drug use, measures of HIV disease status, use of medications, and interactions with baseline low eGFR (<60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)).

RESULTS
Of 2,684 HIV-infected women, 952 (35%) were found to be HCV seropositive. In 180 women with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at baseline (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), HCV seropositivity was independently associated with a fully adjusted net decrease in eGFR of approximately 5% per year (95% confidence interval, 3.2 to 7.2) relative to women who were seronegative. In contrast, HCV infection was not independently associated with a decrease in eGFR in women without low eGFR at baseline (P < 0.001 for interaction).

LIMITATIONS
The MDRD Study equation has not been validated as a measure of GFR in persons with HIV or HCV infection. Proteinuria was not included in the study analysis. Because the study is observational, effects of residual confounding cannot be excluded.

CONCLUSIONS
In HIV-infected women with CKD, coinfection with HCV is associated with a modest, but statistically significant, decrease in eGFR over time. More careful monitoring of kidney function may be warranted for HIV-infected patients with CKD who are also coinfected with HCV.


AIM: To improve the psychometric properties of the St Georges Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) to enhance its reliability and sensitivity. METHOD: Examine the properties of each of the 50 questions using a combination of classical test theory and item-response theory (Rasch analysis) on a large population of COPD patients. Baseline data were taken from 5 studies giving a total of 3414 patients from 26 countries with a mean age of 65 years (range 39-89), 2455 were male, 1602 were smokers and the mean FEV1was 46% predicted (range 10-94%). Mean SGRQ Total score 49 (range 2-94). Sensitivity and internal consistency were measured in all 5 studies and questions that failed the psychometric criteria in at least 4 studies were defined as failures. Responsiveness (poor = unchanged response over 1 year in more than 90% of patients) was measured in 2 studies and items meeting the criteria in both studies were defined as unresponsive. Criterion validity was measured against SF36 scores in 1 study. Results [Table] Thirteen questions did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the revised version of the SGRQ. Tests using Rasch analysis showed that item responses were unrelated to gender, age or country. Rasch analysis also showed that response categories in the Symptoms component should be collapsed to improve their performance. Conclusions The SGRQ has demonstrated sensitivity to change within and between populations. Removal of unreliable items with poor psychometric properties should improve its sensitivity through an improved signal to noise ratio. Monday, May 24, 2004 8:15 AM


This thesis is concerned with the study of the crashworthiness of thin-walled composite structures. Composites are being used more and more in different fields of engineering, particularly, in aerospace and automotive industries because of their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, quality and cost advantages. More and more metal parts in cars for instance become or are already replaced by new advanced materials. Composite materials are included in these new advanced materials with the following advantages: weight reduction, corrosion resistance, aesthetics and style, isolation and the ability to integrate several parts into one single structural component. The introduction of new composite structural components (body panels, bumpers, crash absorbers, etc.) requires the development and implementation of new approaches to structural analysis and design. Crashworthiness is one of the foremost goals of aircraft and automotive design. It depends very much on the response ofvarious components which absorb the energy of the crash. In order to design components for crashworthy structures, it is necessary to understand the effects of loading conditions, material behaviour, and structural response. Due to the complexity of the material structure (matrix reinforced with fibres) and specific mechanical properties the nature of transforming the collision kinetic energy into material deformation energy differs from that of conventional metal alloys. The energy absorption mechanics are different for the advanced composites and depend on the material structure (type of reinforcement) and structural design. The primary function of the energy absorption for the composites belongs to the progressive crushing of the materials themselves and structural components (beams, tubes, etc.) made of such materials. Since the mechanics of composite materials and structural components differs substantially from the conventional applications there is a need to develop an appropriate way of modelling and analysis relevant to this problem. Currently there are a large variety of design approaches, test results, and research investigations into the problem under consideration depending on the type of composite material and design geometry of the parts. It has been found that in general an application of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) to vehicle compartments can satisfy the structural requirements of the passenger compartment including high strength and light weight. Implementation of new advanced composite materials provides the opportunity to develop designs of reliable structural composite parts in high volume for improved automotive fuel economy. Structural optimisation and crashworthiness of composite components should be incorporated into design calculations to control the mechanical performance. The introduction which follows describes the aims of the present study of the crashworthiness modelling and simulation of the structural response of thin-walled composite components which are subjected to various loading conditions relevant to vehicle design. The research programme undertaken within the framework of this project includes development and validation of the modelling and simulation methodology applicable to the crashworthiness analysis of thin-walled composite structures. Development of computerised dynamic modelling of structural components offers the capability of investigating the design parameters without building the actual physical prototypes. In this approach, the dynamic behaviour of the structure is simulated for specified external inputs, and from the corresponding response data the designer is able to determine its dynamic response characteristics, and estimate the crashworthiness of the structure in vehicle engineering applications.


The concept for categorization of eating episodes in dietary surveys was originally developed in studies of shift workers to compare "meal patterns" between night and day work shifts. The concept has been further improved through experience from applications in dietary surveys in other populations. In this paper, results from categorization of eating episodes in shift workers, elderly women and men during life transition periods, elderly female leg ulcer patients and obese men and their lean controls are shown and discussed. The categorization concept is based on seven food categories with food items of similar nutrient characteristics within each category. Each eating event is categorized as any of four types of "meals" or four types of "snacks" due to its combination of food categories. Thus, categorization is based on visible properties (food types) but at the same time reflecting invisible properties (nutrients). Criteria is also established to sub-categorize the "meal" types as being either "prepared" or "quick-prepared" from a behavioural perspective. Use of a defined and reliable concept for categorization is necessary to study eating episodes in dietary surveys, their determinants and also consequences on health and performance. Nocturnal eating during the circadian nadir might affect nutritional status. Since increasingly western populations appear to be moving from regular and planned meals to more episodic eating "around the clock", such analyses are of increasing interest in a bio-social perspective.


Designer's toolkit is rapidly changing and design practices need a shared vision of what the short, me-dium and long term might be. With this in mind we interviewed twenty-four thought leaders in the design community worldwide. Four big ideas emerged from the interviews: transferring technologies from other industries has provided great bene-fits, but it has also generated the need to transfer processes; changes in the way we build drives changes in the de-signer's desktop, including the representations that designers use to communicate; greater gains are achieved by focus-sing on the interplay of specialised algorithms; "just on time" design data improves design. Four possible contexts for the designer's toolkit are described: the proprietor aimed at increasing productivity, the open-source aimed at increasing IT driven creativity, either more or less engaged with fabrication. Finally, the paper concludes by proposing what designers ought to be doing today. Actions include educating specialist toolmakers, custodian and math modellers; integrating computer controlled machine workshops into designers' project spaces; the automation of repetitive design tasks; supporting communities around software tools and store project data according to geospatial co-ordinates.


The Anglo-Saxons, like the other Germanic peoples, adopted Latin literacy with their conversion to Christianity. When they started to write their vernacular language they used the Latin alphabet rather then the indigenous runic script for the scripting of Old English. This caused some problems because the Latin alphabet lacked symbols for the specifically Old English sounds. An analysis of the spelling variants for w and þ in some of the earliest Old English sources shows that at first the scribes just used the Roman letter representing the sound which was most like the Old English one in question. Later on, they improved the spelling by the use of digraphs like 〈uu〉 and 〈th〉 or the help of diacritics (e. g. the dash of 〈ð〉 ʽeth'). Only towards the end of the 8th century are the runic symbols 〈ƿ〉 ʽwyn' and 〈þ〉 ʽthorn' included into the Anglo-Saxon alphabet.


This paper investigates the application of domain-specific languages in product line engineering (PLE). We start by analyzing the limits of expressivity of feature models. Feature models correspond to context-free grammars without recursion, which prevents the expression of multiple instances and references. We then show how domain-specific languages (DSLs) can serve as a middle ground between feature modeling and programming. They can be used in cases where feature models are too limited, while keeping the separation between problem space and solution space provided by feature models. We then categorize useful combinations between configuration with feature model and construction with DSLs and provide an integration of DSLs into the conceptual framework of PLE. Finally we show how use of a consistent, unified formalism for models, code, and configuration can yield important benefits for managing variability and trace ability. We illustrate the concepts with several examples from industrial case studies.


What does postmodernism mean for the future of history? Can one still write history in postmodernity? To answer questions such as these, Ernst Breisach provides the first comprehensive overview of postmodernism and its complex relationship to history and historiography. Placing postmodern theories in their intellectual and historical contexts, he shows how they are part of broad developments in Western culture. Breisach sees postmodernism as neither just a fad nor a universal remedy. In clear and concise language, he presents and critically evaluates the major views on history held by influential postmodernists, such as Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and the new narrativists. Along the way, he introduces to the reader major debates among historians over postmodern theories of evidence, objectivity, meaning and order, truth, and the usefulness of history. He also discusses new types of history that have emerged as a consequence of postmodernism, including cultural history, microhistory, and new historicism. For anyone concerned with the postmodern challenge to history, both advocates and critics alike, "On the Future of History" will be a welcome guide.