Due to their rapid evolution, mobile devices demand for more dynamic and flexible networking services. A major challenges of future mobile networks is the increased mobile traffic. With the recent upcoming technologies of network programmability like Software-Defined Network (SDN), it may be integrated to create a new communication platform for Internet of Things (IoT). In this work, we present how to determine the effectiveness of an approach to build a new secured network architecture based on SDN and clusters. Our proposed scheme is a starting point for some experiments providing perspective over SDN deployment in a cluster environment. With this aim in mind, we suggest a routing protocol that manages routing tasks over Cluster-SDN. By using network virtualization and OpenFlow technologies to generate virtual nodes, we simulate a prototype system controlled by SDN. With our testbed, we are able to manage 500 things. We can analyze every OpenFlow messages and we have discovered that with a particular flow, the things can exchange information unlike the routing principle.


Objective. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that is characterized by diffuse musculoskeletal pain and sensitivity to mechanical stimulation. In this pilot clinical trial, we tested the effectiveness of low-dose naltrexone in treating the symptoms of fibromyalgia. Design. Participants completed a single-blind, crossover trial with the following time line: baseline (2 weeks), placebo (2 weeks), drug (8 weeks), and washout (2 weeks). Patients. Ten women meeting criteria for fibromyalgia and not taking an opioid medication. Interventions. Naltrexone, in addition to antagonizing opioid receptors on neurons, also inhibits microglia activity in the central nervous system. At low doses (4.5 mg), naltrexone may inhibit the activity of microglia and reverse central and peripheral inflammation. Outcome Measures. Participants completed reports of symptom severity everyday, using a handheld computer. In addition, participants visited the lab every 2 weeks for tests of mechanical, heat, and cold pain sensitivity. Results. Low-dose naltrexone reduced fibromyalgia symptoms in the entire cohort, with a greater than 30% reduction of symptoms over placebo. In addition, laboratory visits showed that mechanical and heat pain thresholds were improved by the drug. Side effects (including insomnia and vivid dreams) were rare, and described as minor and transient. Baseline erythrocyte sedimentation rate predicted over 80% of the variance in drug response. Individuals with higher sedimentation rates (indicating general inflammatory processes) had the greatest reduction of symptoms in response to low-dose naltrexone. Conclusions. We conclude that low-dose naltrexone may be an effective, highly tolerable, and inexpensive treatment for fibromyalgia.


This beautifully written new book explores the work of 175 of the most important American modernist artist jewelers through a comprehensive text and over 540 color and 35 black and white photos. Beginning with the streamlining of Art Moderne, modernist jewelers mirrored the consciousness of their age. They were free thinkersartists who broke away from the mainstream of jewelry design and looked to the fine arts for inspiration; they were Surrealists, Cubists, and Abstract Expressionists functioning as sculptors in small scale, painters in enamels, and architects in miniature. The modernist metalsmiths of the 1930s through 1960s laid the groundwork for the enormous expansion of metalsmithing in the 1970s and '80s. These creative jewelers produced personal designs as they absorbed the changes happening in the world around them. The artists' stories and jewelry are arranged chronologically and linked to four pivotal exhibitions held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in 1946; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, in 1948 and 1955; and an exhibition on paper in 1959. Together, the artists at these important events comprise the modernist movement of wearable art directly and through their influence on the subsequent generations. This important book will stand as the primary reference to art jewelry of the mid-20th century and be consulted by all who want to understand the innovations it embraces.


This paper reviews the science and management of old-growth forests and summarizes discussions among 30 participants at a workshop in Portal, Arizona, March 9-13, 1992. Concepts of old-growth forests -- the perceptions, values, definitions, characteristic features, ecological functions, and landscape importance -- vary widely. Because concepts are complex, scientists, resource managers, and the public will continue to bring old growth into clearer focus as knowledge is gained. Regardless of the concepts chosen for viewing old growth, on an ecological basis old-growth forests represent a stage in forest development characterized by certain structural, functional, and compositional features. Managers are concerned with how much old growth exists, where it is, and what condition it is in. Improved inventory procedures are needed, including both remote-sensing technology and conventional on-the-ground procedures. Where will tomorrows old growth be found, and how soon will younger stands attain old-growth conditions? Pathways of forest succession into old growth are poorly known for most forest types. We need better knowledge about how disturbances such as fire, insects, forest diseases, exotic organisms, pollution, and changing climate affect old growth and forest succession. Allocation is another problem for planners. How much old growth is enough? How many stands should be old growth at any given time, what are the sizes and shapes of the stands, and how should they be distributed over various forest habitat types? How should old-growth stands be connected by forest corridors, and how are their functions modified by their setting? These are difficult but researchable questions. Lacking clear answers to these questions, should managers find clues from pre-European settlement forests? Is it reasonable to attempt to restore forests to their natural conditions? Or have changes since settlement precluded returning to earlier conditions? In this paper, we review our knowledge of the influence old-growth stands on biogeochemical cycles and the roles of wildlife, decomposer organisms, cryptozoans of logs and snags, and other kinds of hidden diversity. To what extent are the legacy of old trees and other genetic reserves in old-growth forests carried into the future? We know little about how present old-growth influences the development of future forest generations. We conclude by looking at some tools for old-growth management. How can managers use fire or silviculture to assure future old-growth supplies, while at the same time meeting present and future extractive demands? Can younger stands be treated to hasten their development into old growth, or can existing old growth be altered without seriously compromising old-growth value?


Numerous methods have been used to measure time to maturity in spring wheat, L. In this study, the time to complete loss of green color from the spike was used as the basis for evaluating effectiveness of selection for time to maturity and for identifying alternative selection criteria. Time to maturity and 11 other traits were measured on 50 F-derived F, lines in each of six crosses tested in replicated dryland and irrigated field trials. High heritabilities and high genotypic correlations with time to maturity indicated that time to full flag-leaf emergence, times to beginning or completion of spike emergence, time to anthesis, spike moisture, and number of leaves could be used as selection criteria for time to maturity. Bidirectional selection for time to maturity (10% selection intensity) showed that selection was more effective in some crosses than in others, and under irrigated rather than dryland conditions. Realized heritability for time to maturity varied from −8 ± 21% to 186 ± 50% depending on cross and environment. Bidirectional selection for number of leaves (6% selection intensity) confirmed that this characteristic is a reliable criterion for altering time to maturity. With selection differentials of 0.95 to 2.64 leaves, correlated response for time to maturity varied from 40 to 119 growing degree-days. Number of leaves and spike moisture concentration are useful methods for evaluating maturity when developmental stages cannot be measured at frequent intervals.


T his paper describes a preliminary study of research transparency, which draws on the findings from four focus group sessions with faculty in chemistry, law, urban and social studies, and civil and environmental engineering. The multi-faceted nature of transparency is highlighted by the broad ways in which the faculty conceptualised the concept (data sharing, ethics, replicability) and the vocabulary they used with common core terms identified (data, methods, full disclosure). The associated concepts of reproducibility and trust are noted. The research lifecycle stages are used as a foundation to identify the action verbs and software tools associated with transparency. A range of transparency drivers and motivations are listed. The role of libraries and data scientists is discussed in the context of the provision of transparency services for researchers .


Ecologists have long been interested in competition because of its potential role in population and community regulation. A large body of competition theory has accumulated, much of which remains to be empirically tested. To date, the occurrence of competition in natural communities and the mechanisms by which competing species coexist are not fully understood. The close relationship between coral-dwelling fishes and a limiting resource (coral colonies) makes them ideal models for testing hypotheses and questions about competition in natural communities. In this thesis I examine the mechanisms of competition and their influence on resource use in two ecologically similar coral-dwelling gobies (Gobiodon histrio and Gobiodon erythrospilus) that are known to compete for access to preferred coral habitat. The chapters in this thesis address four fundamental questions: 1) the mechanisms of competitive coexistence between the two species, 2) the role of resource availability in shaping the outcome of competitive interactions, 3) the fitness-associated traits of coral colonies that drive habitat preferences and competitive interactions, and 4) the influence of benthic substratum around preferred coral colonies on habitat use and competitive interactions.

Niche and lottery mechanisms of competitive coexistence have traditionally been viewed as mutually exclusive alternatives. However, recent theory suggests that a mix of these processes can facilitate coexistence between competing species. In Chapter 2 I tested the hypothesis that the mechanism of competition between G. histrio and G. erythrospilus changes with ontogeny, from a lottery for space at settlement to niche partitioning in adults. Field observations and experiments showed that juveniles of the two species settled at the same size, had similar patterns of habitat use, and similar competitive abilities, supporting the lottery mechanism at settlement. In contrast, habitat use differed in adults suggesting that resource partitioning occurs in larger individuals. In laboratory experiments, adults of each species preferred colonies of Acropora nasuta, however G. histrio was a superior competitor and prevented G. erythrospilus for using A. nasuta in more than 70% of the trials. In a fieldbased transplant experiment, G. erythrospilus (inferior competitor) suffered less of a fitness loss when occupying the non-preferred coral (A. spathulata) compared with G. histrio, which could explain its ability to persist when displaced by the superior competitor. These results suggest that the competitive mechanism operating between the two Gobiodon species shifts from a lottery for space to niche-partitioning through ontogeny and that these two mechanisms of competitive coexistence are not mutually exclusive.

Competition arises from the shared use of limited resources. Consequently, spatial and temporal variation in resource availability could influence competition among coral reef fishes. In Chapter 3 I investigated how variation in the abundance of A. nasuta coral colonies, the preferred habitat of G. histrio and G. erythrospilus, influences the outcome of competitive interactions between these two species. First, the relative abundance and patterns of habitat use of the two goby species was compared among sites that varied in the absolute and relative abundance of their preferred habitat. Then a recolonization experiment was used to test the prediction that the effects of competition are greatest where preferred habitat is relatively less abundant. The proportional occupancy of A. nasuta by the superior competitor, G. histrio, increased as the relative abundance of A. nasuta declined. In the recolonization experiment the effects of preferred coral availability differed between juveniles and adults. For juveniles, where a competitive lottery operates, the proportional use of preferred coral was the same for the two species, regardless of the relative abundance of A. nasuta. In contrast, for adults niche-partitioning was greater at locations that had a lower relative abundance of A. nasuta. These results show that changes in the relative abundance of preferred resources can influence competitive interactions between reef fishes, but the effects differ depending on the mechanism of competitive coexistence.

Competition for space affects patterns of habitat use and individual performance of coral-dwelling fishes; however, the physical attributes of corals that influence habitat preferences are uncertain. Chapter 4 investigated the influence of coral colony size and branching structure on habitat use and growth rate of the two coral gobies, G. histrio and G. erythrospilus. The preferred coral species, A. nasuta had smaller interbranch width compared with an alternative coral habitat, A. spathulata. A binary-choice laboratory experiment demonstrated that both gobies preferred coral colonies with smaller interbranch width, except when they had the opportunity to occupy A. nasuta over A. spathulata. A field transplant experiment showed that both goby species grew faster on larger coral colonies and in colonies with smaller interbranch width. G. erythrospilus grew faster than G. histrio on A. spathulata, indicating that it suffers less of a fitness loss occupying this alternative habitat. The results of this chapter show that coral physical attributes are important factors driving habitat preference of coral-dwelling gobies; however, there must also be additional factors related to coral species identity that influence their habitat preferences.

The distribution and abundance of habitat specialists is often associated with the availability of preferred habitat; however, other environmental features can also influence habitat selection. Coral-dwelling gobies depend on the availability of a few key species of coral for their survival and also possess skin toxins that reduce predation risk. In Chapter 5 I analysed the influence of benthic substratum around preferred coral colonies on patterns of habitat use and toxicity of G. erythrospilus and G. histrio. Field surveys demonstrated that juveniles, single adults and breeding pairs of G. erythrospilus mostly inhabited A. nasuta colonies surrounded by branching corals. In contrast, G. histrio juveniles and single adults associated with A. nasuta coral colonies with adjacent epilithic algal matrix and G. histrio breeding pairs inhabited colonies surrounded by sand/rubble. Habitat-choice experiments showed that both gobies species prefer A. nasuta coral colonies with benthic substratum mainly composed by epilithic algal matrix and sand. Lastly, the substratum around preferred coral colonies also influenced the toxicity levels of the associated fishes. Gobies inhabiting A. nasuta coral colonies with more epilithic algal matrix and sand were more toxic than fishes collected from colonies surrounded by branching corals. Given the potential for toxicity level to reduce the risk of predation, this could explain why gobies compete for access to preferred coral species surrounded by epilithic algal matrix and sand.

This thesis empirically demonstrated that different mechanisms of competitive coexistence (such as a lotteries and niche partitioning) are not mutually exclusive and may operate at different stages in an organism's life history. Furthermore, it has shown that changes in the relative abundance of preferred resources can influence competitive interactions, but the population level effects depend on the mechanisms of competitive coexistence that operate. Additionally, this research highlights that both coral species identity and colony structural features influence the growth of coral-dwelling fishes and thus play a key role in shaping habitat preferences and competition for space in coral-dwelling fishes. Finally, the benthic composition around preferred coral species influences the toxicity of coral-dwelling gobies, and this further influences their habitat preferences and competitive interactions. This thesis answered some fundamental questions about the mechanisms of competition in animal communities with broader implications for predicting the effects of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on reef fish communities. Coral cover, benthic community composition and reef structural complexity are declining due to the combined effects of storms, crown of thorns starfish outbreaks, coral bleaching and diseases. This degradation will affect habitat use and fitness of coral associated fishes and ultimately influences the outcome of ecological process such as recruitment and competition within reef fish communities.


A low molecular weight serine protease inhibitor (TAP) was purified from extracts of the soft tick, Ornithodoros moubata. The peptide is a slow, tight-binding inhibitor, specific for factor Xa (Ki = 0.588 +/- 0.054 nM). The inhibitor also acts as an anticoagulant in several human plasma clotting assays in vitro. Its amino acid sequence (60 residues) has limited homology to the Kunitz-type inhibitors. However, unlike other inhibitors of this class, TAP inhibits only factor Xa. It had no effect at a 300-fold molar excess on factor VIIa, kallikrein, trypsin, chymotrypsin, thrombin, urokinase, plasmin, tissue plasminogen activator, elastase, or Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease. TAP's specificity and size suggest that it may have therapeutic value as an anticoagulant.


We study the realizability of finite abelian groups as Mislin genera of finitely generated nilpotent groups with finite commutator subgroup. In particular, we give criteria to decide whether a finite abelian group is realizable as the Mislin genus of a direct product of nilpotent groups of a certain specified type. In the case of a positive answer, we also give an effective way of realizing that abelian group as a genus. Further, we obtain some non-realizability results.


Current work on the mechanism of hypermutation of somatically rearranged antibody variable (V) genes shows that the most likely mechanism involves both direct DNA modification (deamination of cytosines to uracils by AID deaminase) and strand nicking plus mRNA editing (deamination of adenosine to inosine via the ADAR1 deaminase) coupled to a reverse transcription process to fix RNA sequence modifications in V gene DNA - most likely involving the repair enzyme DNA polymerase eta (rt) known to be an efficient reverse transcriptase in vitro. The DNA sequence patterns of families of similar germline V genes reveals that many features of somatically mutated and antigen-selected variable genes appear written into the germline V gene arrays of the immune system. Lamarckian gene feedback and cellular reverse transcription, coupled to Darwinian antigen binding selection of somatically mutated V genes, are concepts which appear necessary for a more complete understanding how the V gene complex has evolved. Antibody variable (V) genes of the immune system have therefore been used to test ideas on reverse transcriptase-coupled soma-to-germline feedback in a complex multicellular system. Such feedback constitutes a violation of Weismann's Barrier and thus support for some type of Lamarckian gene feedback operative during the evolution of the vertebrate immune system.


A New Historical Grammar of the East Slavic Languages marks a new approach to the study of this subject, in a number of ways. It is compact, does not repeat the history of East Slavic (in this case, the phonology) as it has been presented before, and is aimed at an audience already familiar with the basics. The study addresses the phonemic inventories of the East Slavic systems, and introduces the question of functional load in East Slavic in a systematic fashion. Another approach taken is an areal one: how and where do various key vocalic and consonantal features occur across the geo-linguistic continuum? The study of East Slavic is also not undertaken in isolation, but includes Polish in reference to some crucial phonological features – a language that is connected to the western reaches of East Slavic geographically as well as linguistically. Finally, the study is broadened to include what many are now accepting as a fourth East Slavic language: Rusyn. Stefan M. Pugh is Reader in Russian at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). He has published widely on East Slavic languages and linguistics, including Testament to Ruthenian: a Linguistic Analysis of the Smotryc'kyj Variant (1996), Ukrainian: A Comprehensive Grammar, with J. Ian Press (1999), and Systems in Contact, System in Motion: the Assimilation of Russian Verbs in the Baltic Finnic Languages of Russia.


Three genes (Gabrg3, Gabra5, and Gabrb3) encoding the gamma 3, alpha 5, and beta 3 subunits of the type A gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor, respectively, are known to map near the pink-eyed dilution (p) locus in mouse chromosome 7. This region shares homology with a segment of human chromosome 15 that is implicated in Angelman syndrome, an inherited neurobehavioral disorder. By mapping Gabrg3 on a panel of p-locus deletions, we have determined that the order of genes within this cluster is centromere-p(D15S12h)-Gabrg3-Gabra5-Gabrb3-telom ere. Like Gabrb3, neither the Gabra5 nor Gabrg3 gene is functionally imprinted in adult mouse brain. Mice deleted for all three subunits die at birth with a cleft palate, although there are rare survivors (approximately 5%) that do not have a cleft palate but do exhibit a neurological abnormality characterized by tremor, jerky gait, and runtiness. We have previously suggested that deficiency of the beta 3 subunit may be responsible for the clefting defect. Most notably, however, in this report we describe mice carrying two overlapping, complementing p deletions that fail to express the gamma 3 transcript, as well as mice from another line that express neither the gamma 3 nor alpha 5 transcripts. Surprisingly, mice from both of these lines are phenotypically normal and do not exhibit any of the neurological symptoms characteristic of the rare survivors that are deleted for all three (gamma 3, alpha 5, and beta 3) subunits. These mice therefore provide a whole-organism type A gamma-aminobutyric-acid receptor background that is devoid of any receptor subtypes that normally contain the gamma 3 and/or alpha 5 subunits. The absence of an overt neurological phenotype in mice lacking the gamma 3 and/or alpha 5 subunits also suggests that mutations in these genes are unlikely to provide useful animal models for Angelman syndrome in humans.


Denias " Senandung di Atas Awan" Movie is a form where media we used to socialize and construct expression through message in the movie. In this movie, education is the main issue discussed. It has no means to teach. It expressed reality about Indonesia?s education world which is still developed though many children full of passion eager to reach a better life through self construction. The limitation faced by Indonesia related with education is revealed in ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie. It made the writer interested to reveal representation of Indonesia?s education world in ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie. In this research, the writer used mass communication theory. Mass communication defined as communication process where the message sent by institutional source to the people in mass method through mechanical tools like radio, television, newspaper and movie (Cangara, 2003:35). The message in the movie is about Indonesia?s educatio world. Method used in this research was contain analysis. Analysis unit in this research was scenes from ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie. Here,the writer focused on scene which contained representation of Indonesia?s world education just as revealed in categorization. To test the reliability, the research supported by two coder (people who did coding) in data coding. From 76 scenes in ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie there did a coding action into existing categories. According to the calculation of reliability test between the writer and coder I and coder II there found reliability co-efficient 0.93 or 93% and represented into Scott formula 0.91 or 91 %. According to the existing frequency, there could be seen that the movie dominantly presented the representation of education facility, showed by school building, and many other facilities like blackboard, chair, and uniform to teach and learn in school. This categorization existed dominantly with 20 times frequency from the whole 76 scenes. So that could be said that ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie showed dominantly the representation of Indonesia?s education world through the description of education facility showed in the movie. Here, the writer suggested that by the ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie as message sender media related to the phenomena, it should be paid attention by related parties to increase the education facility in Indonesia. From the education world representation in movie, there could be seen so many deficiency inhibited the educational activity. The writer also suggested for another writer to analyzed movie with interesting theme as ?Denias ? Senandung di Atas Awan? Movie. Keyword : representasi; dunia pendidikan; film; Analisis Isi Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/276/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-dellyresyb-13763-1_Pendah-n.pdf


Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNS), the isoelectric analog to graphene, have received much attention over the past decade due to their high thermal oxidative resistance, high bandgap, catalytic activity and low cost. The molecular functional groups that terminate boron and nitrogen zigzag and/or armchair edges directly affect their chemical, physical and electronic properties. However, an understanding of the exact molecular edge termination present in h-BNNS is lacking. Here, high-resolution magic-angle spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy and plane-wave density-functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to determine the exact molecular edge termination in exfoliated h-BNNS. 1H→11B cross-polarization MAS (CPMAS) SSNMR spectra of h-BNNS revealed multiple hydroxyl/oxygen coordinate boron edge sites that were not detectable in direct excitation experiments. A dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced 1H→15N CPMAS spectrum of h-BNNS displayed four distinct 15N resonances while a 2D 1H{14N} dipolar-HMQC spectrum revealed three distinct 14N environments. Plane-wave DFT calculations were used to construct model edge structures and predict the corresponding 11B, 14N and 15N SSNMR spectra. Comparison of the experimental and predicted SSNMR spectra confirms that zigzag and armchair edges with both amine and boron hydroxide/oxide termination are present. The detailed characterization of h-BNNS molecular edge termination will provide usefulness for many material science applications and the techniques outlined here should be applicable to comprehensively understand the molecular edge terminations in other 2D materials.


Although behavioural weight loss treatments can be effective, long-term maintenance of this weight loss remains a critical challenge because the vast majority of people will regain their lost weight over time. The period after initial weight loss is the time when people are at the highest risk of weight regain.The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention delivered by non-specialist call centre staff to promote regular self-weighing to prevent weight regain after intentional weight loss.Randomised controlled trial.West Midlands, UK.Adults were recruited if they had attended a local authority-funded weight management programme and had lost ≥ 5% of their starting weight by the end of their weight loss programme.The intervention group received three brief support telephone calls, delivered by non-specialist call centre staff (from a third-sector community organisation), that encouraged setting a weight maintenance target of ≤ 1 kg of weight gain from current weight, which was to be assessed by daily self-weighing and recording weight on a record card, together with regular text messages. Participants were asked to return to their weight loss plan if they gained > 1 kg above their target weight. The usual-care group received a standard weight maintenance leaflet, the infographic EatWell Plate and a list of useful websites pertaining to weight management.The primary outcome was the difference between the groups in mean weight change (kg) from baseline to 12 months. The secondary outcomes included the proportion of participants in each group who had regained < 1 kg in weight at the 3- and 12-month follow-up points.A total of 813 potential participants were screened, 583 of whom were eligible and randomised (usual care,n = 292; intervention,n = 291). A total of 94% and 89% of participants completed follow-up at 3 and 12 months, respectively. At 12 months, the mean unadjusted weight change was +0.39 kg for the intervention group and –0.17 kg for the usual-care group, an adjusted difference of 0.53 kg [95% confidence interval (CI) –0.64 to 1.71 kg]. At 12 months, 134 (45.9%) and 130 (44.7%) participants regained ≤ 1 kg of their baseline weight in the usual-care and intervention groups, respectively (odds ratio 0.96, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.33). As the intervention was ineffective, we did not pursue a cost-effectiveness analysis.Brief behavioural telephone support delivered by non-specialist workers to promote target-setting and daily self-weighing and recording of weight does not prevent weight regain after intentional weight loss. Specifically, as target-setting and daily self-weighing did not increase conscious cognitive restraint, people may need more intensive interventions to promote the use of behavioural techniques that help people maintain lost weight.Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN52341938.This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full inPublic Health Research; Vol. 7, No. 7. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.


Since the 1980s, state governments have been using private debt collection agencies as facilitators and expediters in the delinquent tax collection process. The use of private collection agencies incorporates administrative effectiveness, efficiency, and procedural fairness, which can lead to an increase in revenues without affecting either the tax base or rate while protecting taxpayers. Using state-level panel data for the years 2000 to 2011, the administrative effectiveness outcome is that private collectors do not reduce the aggregate delinquent tax inventory, but the administrative efficiency outcome is that private collectors reduce collection cost. For procedural fairness, private collectors have a positive effect on the number of tax appeals filed in a state tax department with a Republican governor; however, they decrease the number of tax appeals filed with an outside-independent tax appeal agency.


of our futures and dives deeper into our community's concerns with inclusion and respect for the diversity of all human beings. In Community Square, Masitah Ghazali et al. introduce us to myHCI-UX, the Kuala Lumpur ACM SIGCHI chapter, and its growth strategies through collaboration with different communities both inside and outside Malaysia. Katta Spiel et al. explore how to deal with the complexity of our research participants' genders when designing surveys. Demo Hour project TypeCase illustrates how we can make a smartphone more inclusive. Nia Easley's project-turned-installation takes a look at a forgotten AfricanAmerican enclave of Chicago and asks a poignant question: How can design be used to elucidate some of the more painful injustices of our time? Max Birk et al. discuss the opportunities and challenges of designing video games for mental health and well-being, while Susanne Lindberg uncovers the complexity of designing for and with people diagnosed with schizophrenia, including reducing stigma and risk of harm. Dag Svanæs's reading list explores designing for the body and with the body in mind, and also reminds us that we may benefit from getting lost sometimes. Uday Gajendar discusses the challenges of meta-design, going beyond checklists and individual talent toward designing the sustained conditions for good design. As education is key, Miriam Ferreira et al. report on an experience of bringing UI design and development to middle schools in Brazil, in a project where students learn how to design and develop mobile apps. In the cover story, Verena Fuchsberger asks us to adopt a synergic view of digital-physical hybridity when envisioning the future, which we explore through our Demo Hour projects: The Carolan Guitar can tell us its own history; the VR Playground amplifies our swing-riding experience; and BRIAN brings a game-like feel to barbell exercises. In How Was It Made, Joran van der Sluis and colleagues reveal how the Penpal device was made to blend the digital and physical in sending and receiving letters, evoking good nostalgia. Zooming out from the user and the artifact to the spaces we inhabit, Hamed S. Alavi et al. propose a research program on human-building interaction, integrating HCI, urban design, and policymaking. Jean Hardy et al. shed light on the various technological needs of rural areas, which are often overlooked by the HCI community. Jonathan Lazar et al. work toward a set of guidelines for kiosk accessibility and consider their various uses, such as public transit, government offices, healthcare, and voting. Juan Pablo Hourcade also urges us to consider large-scale societal needs, pondering the potential sinister repercussions of surveillance tools and prompting us to safeguard our individual freedoms and civil rights, while avoiding paternalism and dubious ethics. Simon Robinson et al. describe the opening day of a new lab, Swansea's Computational Foundry, where they embrace the current technological and ethical challenges of our society, exploring the continua of past and future, local and global. Rebekah Rousi waves her magic wand to propose a shift in human-robot interaction design—away from the robots' characteristics to the potential social effects they can have on us and our responsibility in designing them for harmony over functionality. And Antti Oulasvirta reminds us that HCI models have an important role to play in HCI design, particularly now that we have learned how to use models to drive the algorithmic generation and adaptation of UIs. In EXIT, David A. Shamma provokes us with a smartwatch's warning to (mis)trust other devices. As artificial intelligence makes its way into everyday technologies, Wei Xu proposes to integrate ethically aligned design, technology, and human factors into a framework for human-centered, useful, and usable AI, and Allison Woodruff discusses 10 points about algorithmic fairness that we should all know when embarking in research and practice on HCI for AI. This issue marks Susan Dray and David Siegel's last contribution as editors of the UX forum, after being part of the Interactions team for two dozen years. We wholeheartedly thank them for their dedication and excellent contributions to the magazine.


The Hutterite Brethren are a religious communal society found in rural areas of Western Canada and in several American states. Although there is considerable published research on Hutterites, little new research has been published since 1987. Few scholars have questioned the effects of either the patriarchal organization of Hutterite colonies or the isolation of Hutterite women within the communal domestic sphere of the colony. The focus of this research is on the contemporary situation ofHutterite colonies in Canada with specific focus on the effects of the introduction of technology on the lives of Hutterite women in the context of colony patriarchal structure. In order to carry out this research, the author drew on her Hutterite heritage to gain access to a Hutterite colony in the province of Manitoba. The author lived on a Schmiedeleut colony for nine weeks during which she observed the lives of Hutterite women in the context of contemporary Hutterite colony organization. She was treated as a dien (single young woman) and participated in the daily activities and conversations of the dienan (young women). Given their location both in the life cycle and Hutterite stages of life, the dienan are the most sensitive to tensions and conflicts within Hutterite colony life. Participation observation provided the researcher a window -the vantage point of the dienan -on the lives of Hutterite women as effected by technological change within the colony patriarchal structure. Habermas' distinction between pre-modern society and modern society as types, along with his notion of the colonization of the lifeworld, provided the framework for locating and analyzing the effects of technology on the lives of Hutterite women. Drawing on field data from the nine weeks of participant observation at the colony, the researcher was able to document and identify elements in the colonizing effect of technology on the communal domestic lifeworld of Hutterite women. This thesis concludes that Hutterite male leaders have introduced advanced technology applications into nearly every aspect of colony production, including the communal domestic sphere of Hutterite women. The colonizing effect of the patriarchal intrusion of technology into the communal domestic sphere of Hutterite women has resulted in loss of traditional work roles for Hutterite women, in loss of the religious meaning of their work, and in resentment toward the patriarchal decision-making structure of colony life. Hutterite women display anger and depression, and, in number of instances, defect either temporarily or permanently from the colony. This colonization of the lifeworld of Hutterite women presents significant challenges to the communal patriarchal structure of the Hutterite Brethren in terms of providing new, meaningful work roles in a more diversified and egalitarian productive sphere and of providing some decision making opportunities for Hutterite women in areas that directly effect their lives. Since participant observation was central to this research, the author also discusses issues related to the relationship between emotion and knowing.


Conventional thermochemical liquefaction of lignocellulosic biomass produces an unpredictable complex mixture of oxygenated products, which creates techno-economic barriers during subsequent upgrading processes. The improvement of the quality of liquefied products is a critical step before the valorization of liquefied lignocellulosic biomass. We are introducing a novel "directional liquefaction" process which harnesses stepwise precipitation of hydrophobic compounds from the liquefied products to form two groups of chemicals: monosaccharides (sugar derivatives) and aromatic platforms. As evidenced in the results of the GC-MS analysis, the sugar platform chemicals, which were generated from carbohydrates, contained five-carbon and six-carbon sugar derivatives, with a total purity higher than 93%. The aromatic platform chemicals with different molecular distributions, mainly from the cleavage of the dominant β-O-4, 4-O-5 linkages in lignin, were fractionated stepwise by gradual removal of the solvent. The platform chemicals make it possible to design the final products due to their similar physiochemical properties within each fraction, and have great potential for commercial production of value added liquid fuels and fine chemicals using mild processing conditions. Additionally, we propose the mechanisms based on our investigation on the decomposition pathways during "directional liquefaction" using GC-MS and 2-dimensional NMR analyses. Overall, the potential of a catalytic refining process for integrated valorization of both carbohydrates and lignin parts in lignocellulosic biomass is the basis of our report.


We present a system that allows OpenMP programs to execute on a network of workstations with a variable number of nodes. The ability to adapt to a variable number of nodes allows a program to take advantage of additional nodes that become available after it starts execution, or to gracefully scale down when the number of available nodes is reduced. We demonstrate that the cost of adaptation is modest; the system allows a program to adapt at a moderate rate without much performance loss.Two ideas underlie the efficiency of our design. First, we recognize that OpenMP programs exhibit convenient adaptation points during their execution, points at which the cost of adaptation can be much reduced. Second, by allowing a process a certain grace period before it must leave a node, we insure that most adaptations can occur at these adaptation points, and thus at low cost. Migration of a process, a much more expensive method for providing adaptivity, is used only as a back-up solution, when the process cannot reach an adaptation point within the grace period.Our implementation consists of an OpenMP pre-processor that generates TreadMarks distributed shared memory (DSM) programs, and a version of TreadMarks modified to adapt to a variable number of nodes. Using a DSM as the underlying substrate facilitates the data (re-)distribution necessary after an adaptation.


The last fifteen years have witnessed an explosion in the popularity, creativity, and productiveness of economic sociology, an approach that traces its roots back to Max Weber. This important new text offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of economic sociology. It also advances the field theoretically by highlighting, in one analysis, the crucial economic roles of both interests and social relations. Richard Swedberg describes the field's critical insights into economic life, giving particular attention to the effects of culture on economic phenomena and the ways that economic actions are embedded in social structures. He examines the full range of economic institutions and explicates the relationship of the economy to politics, law, culture, and gender. Swedberg notes that sociologists too often fail to properly emphasize the role that self-interested behavior plays in economic decisions, while economists frequently underestimate the importance of social relations. Thus, he argues that the next major task for economic sociology is to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of how interests and social relations work in combination to affect economic action. Written by an author whose name is synonymous with economic sociology, this text constitutes a sorely needed advanced synthesis--and a blueprint for the future of this burgeoning field.


Although a significant amount of research has been carried out in the scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), it has generally been focused on developing intelligent scheduling systems. Most of these systems use simple scheduling rules as a part of their decision process. While these scheduling rules have been investigated extensively for a job shop environment, there is little guidance in the literature as to their performance in an FMS environment. This paper attempts to investigate the performances of machine and AGV scheduling rules against the mean flow-time criterion. The scheduling rules are tested under a variety of experimental conditions by using an FMS simulation model.


Two configurations for a unicycle, a class of nonholonomic systems, is looked into. The first configuration is the case where the generalized coordinates consists of four parameters, while the other configurations consists of five. For both systems the equations of motion are calculated. Then a method for parameterizing a desired path for the systems using a synchronization function among all degrees of freedom is shown. A set of equations to find feasible trajectories keeping the desired path virtually constrained is calculated. It is then shown for the four degree of freedom system how to compute the transverse linearization, which can be used for orbital stabilization of a desired motion consisting of circular orbits or straight paths. A way to compute a periodic controller for a linear time varying system is derived, and a set of controllers are tried out on the four degree of freedom unicycle with negative result.


Background
There are currently no specific guidelines for developmental surveillance of children with special needs undergoing intervention programmes. Studies have looked at shortfalls of current methods and have recommended the need for a more psychometrically sound and standardized method of assessment.

Aims and Methods
In order to determine the validity, specificity and sensitivity of a new developmental assessment method for children with special needs attending early intervention
programmes, a cross-sectional study was conducted using a modified Schedule of Growing Skills (MSGS) developmental assessment tool which was compared with Denver Developmental Assessment (DDA). The Schedule of Growing Skills was modified to suit the local setting and is chosen because of its ability to score detailed
milestone of the child.

Results
A total of 32 children enrolled in this study. The mean developmental age assessed by DDA was 31.33 (SD ±28.77) and mean developmental age achieved by MSGS was 22.63 (SD ±17.56). The association between MSGS and DDA showed an
excellent correlation between the two measurements (Spearman's rho = 0.87, p<0.001). Reliability statistical analysis (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.856-0.984) verified MSGS as an appropriate tool to be used for the developmental assessment. The sensitivity and specificity of MSGS in this study was observed to be 83.33% and 33.33% respectively, which was comparable with other developmental assessment tools.

Conclusion
This study provides preliminary data that implicates the usefulness of MSGS as a tool for assessment of developmental milestone for children with special needs. It also has the potential to be used as a tool for monitoring developmental milestone of children with special needs undergoing early intervention programme.


BACKGROUND
Balsalazide is well tolerated and effective in treating acute ulcerative colitis. VSL#3 is a probiotic cocktail proven to be effective in preventing flare-ups of chronic pouchitis. We compared the efficacy and safety of low-dose balsalazide (2.25 g/day) plus 3 g/day VLS#3 (group A) with medium-dose balsalazide alone (group B) and with mesalazine (group C) in the treatment of mild-to-moderate active ulcerative colitis.

MATERIAL/METHODS
Ninety patients (30 per group) were randomly enrolled, with a treatment duration of 8 weeks. Efficacy was assessed by symptoms assessment, endoscopic appearance, and histological evaluation.

RESULTS
Balsalazide/VSL#3 was significantly superior to balsalazide alone and to mesalazine in obtaining remission: 24 patients of group A were in remission [per-protocol: 85.71% (C.I.95%: 62-96), on intention-to-treat: 80% (C.I.95%: 59-91)], while 21 group B [per-protocol: 80.77% (C.I. 95%: 51-82), on intention-to-treat: 77% (C.I.95%: 43-81)] and 16 group C patients [per-protocol: 72.73% (C.I. 95%: 30-75), on intention-to-treat: 53.33% (C.I.95%: 42-62)] were in remission (p<0.02). Balsalazide with or without VSL#3 was better tolerated than mesalazine: two group C patients were withdrawn from the study because of severe side-effects; 1 group A (3.33%), 3 group B (10%) and 4 group C (13.33%) patients experienced slight side-effects. The balsalazide/VSL#3 combination was faster in obtaining remission than balsalazide alone or mesalazine (4, 7.5, and 13 days in groups A, B and C, respectively) and also better in improving all parameters evaluated.

CONCLUSIONS
Balsalazide/VSL#3 may be a very good choice in the treatment of active mild-to-moderate active ulcerative colitis instead of balsalazide alone or mesalazine.


Sport history has been neglected, even ignored, in South African classroom and pedagogy debates. Despite, a large reservoir of South African sport history literature of a formal and informal nature being available for teachers, other historical areas of concern are usually focussed on. This study attempts to break this mould and offer history teachers an opportunity for creating pedagogical opportunities outside the formal history curriculum. In order to achieve this, a history of athletics at the Zonnebloem College during the 19th and early 20th centuries was researched. A brief literature overview of previous research on Zonnebloem history is presented as background material. The study is then introduced with a historical oversight of school athletics in 19th century England. Next, the historical development of sport during the 19th century at Zonnebloem is explored. The crux of the historical account hones in on the history of athletics at Zonnebloem during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, the article is concluded by presenting teachers with pedagogical opportunities outside the classroom through the interrogation of historical sources, all of which are taken from the Zonnebloem historical narrative.


Abstract Aerial infrared videography was used to map spatial distributions of nocturnal sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) flocks and determine crane densities within roosts as an alternative to the currently used diurnal photo-corrected ocular transect method to estimate the size of the mid-continental population. The densities determined from samples taken over the course of a night show variability. Densities measured early in the night (2100 to 2300 hrs) were generally lower than those measured in the time period after midnight and up until cranes prepared to depart their roosts before sunrise. This suggests that cranes may be more active early in the night and possibly still settling into their roosts at this time. For this reason, densities and areas measured later at night and into the early morning were used to estimate population size. Our methods estimated that the annual crane populations along the central Platte River in Nebraska were higher than estimates from the ocular transect method; however both methods showed a similar trend with time. Our population size estimates likely were higher because our methodology provided synoptic imagery of crane roosts along the entire study reach when all cranes had returned to the river, and the nocturnal densities were higher than previous estimates using observations from late evening or early morning. In addition to providing a tool for estimating annual population size, infrared videography can be utilized over time to identify spatial changes in the roosting patterns that may occur as a result of riverine management activities.


This paper uses the 1995 and 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances to examine 401(k) asset allocation behavior by individual and household characteristics, including spousal asset allocation behavior. The results provide evidence that, among married households in which each spouse has a 401(k) plan, spouses tend to invest their 401(k)s similarly rather than diversifying their holdings across spouses to share risks. The findings also point to the lack of diversification between 401(k) asset allocations and other household holdings. However, the results suggest that households can diversify in other ways, such as through a spouse's earnings or through having an underlying defined benefit plan.


Diabetes-associated visual cycle impairment has been implicated in diabetic retinopathy, and chronic hyperglycemia causes detrimental effects on visual function. Chrysin, a naturally occurring flavonoid found in various herbs, has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. The goal of the current study was to identify the retinoprotective role of chrysin in maintaining robust retinoid visual cycle-related components. The in vitro study employed human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells exposed to 33 mM of glucose or advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the presence of 1–20 μM chrysin for three days. In the in vivo study, 10 mg/kg of chrysin was orally administrated to db/db mice. Treating chrysin reversed the glucose-induced production of vascular endothelial growth factor, insulin-like growth factor-1, and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) in RPE cells. The outer nuclear layer thickness of chrysin-exposed retina was enhanced. The oral gavage of chrysin augmented the levels of the visual cycle enzymes of RPE65, lecithin retinol acyltransferase (LRAT), retinol dehydrogenase 5 (RDH5), and rhodopsin diminished in db/db mouse retina. The diabetic tissue levels of the retinoid binding proteins and the receptor of the cellular retinol-binding protein, cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein-1, interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein and stimulated by retinoic acid 6 were restored to those of normal mouse retina. The presence of chrysin demoted AGE secretion and AGE receptor (RAGE) induction in glucose-exposed RPE cells and diabetic eyes. Chrysin inhibited the reduction of PEDF, RPE 65, LRAT, and RDH5 in 100 μg/mL of AGE-bovine serum albumin-exposed RPE cells. The treatment of RPE cells with chrysin reduced the activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Chrysin inhibited the impairment of the retinoid visual cycle through blocking ER stress via the AGE-RAGE activation in glucose-stimulated RPE cells and diabetic eyes. This is the first study demonstrating the protective effects of chrysin on the diabetes-associated malfunctioned visual cycle.


In the mid-nineteenth century movement towards Christianity in Chotanagpur in central India, the missionary Constant Lievens (1856–1893) played a pioneering role in the establishment of the Catholic Mission among the Adivasis (indigenous peoples). Through Lievens' legal advocacy, Adivasis not only adopted a faith, but also began to reclaim their lands and their indigeneity. Drawing on ethnographic research around the intercessory prayer for the beatification of Lievens, this paper analyses the present-day lived contestations of Adivasi Catholic identity-making. The paper argues that Adivasi Catholic identities are lived in contestation and continuous negotiation with their present realities, while also borrowing from the legacies of their own past struggles and their intermediaries.


Objective: Acute myocardial infarction (MI) has significant and detrimental effects on the lifestyles of the patients. It has been shown that quality of life (QoL) in patients with MI is impaired in every aspect. This study aims to evaluate the impact of depression and physical comorbidity on QoL in Turkish patients with acute first MI. Method: This multi-center cross-sectional study was carried out in 15 centers with 998 patients hospitalized for acute first MI. For detection of depression, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used. For evaluation of QoL, World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL) was applied. Results: The mean age of the patients was 57.5 ± 10.1 years and 79.2 % (n = 792) of the patients were men. Patients with comorbid depression (BDI ≤ 10) and comorbid medical conditions, and female patients had significantly lower scores in every domain of WHOQOL. In the regression analysis model, female gender, low education, comorbid medical conditions, especially comorbid hypertension, and BDI score were found to have a significant effect on the domains of WHOQOL. Conclusions: Female patients are more prone to impairment in quality of life after myocardial infarction. Both comorbid medical conditions and depression have a significant impact on the impairment of QoL in Turkish patients with acute MI. In order to improve the subjective wellbeing of post MI patients, both psychiatric and physical comorbidities must be detected and managed even in the short term.


Oil-based mud additives are used frequently during drilling for various purposes. The chemical compositions of these may interfere/overprint the chemical composition of hydrocarbon shows in the well and thereby complicate geochemical interpretations. This is likely to be an increasing problem as hydrocarbon findings become more subtle. It is important that the geochemist compiles a list of all additives used during drilling and obtains a sample of the pre-drill oil-based mud additives used. In the case of detailed geochemical analyses to be carried out post-drilling, it is then possible to check the influence/contamination of the additives on the hydrocarbons found. The chemical composition of a frequently used oil-based mud additive is demonstrated to have overprinted the hopane signature of an oil-slick sample in well 35/1-1, northern North Sea. This could easily have resulted in erroneous interpretations regarding age and depositional environment of the source rock of the oil. However, the steranes used for interpretation of facies are shown to be unaffected by the mud additive. A study of shows from well 35/1-1 suggested the source of these to be an atypical developed Upper Jurassic source rock, despite the hopane signature suggesting a carbonaceous Permian source. The main argument was that a Permian source would imply higher maturities than observed. The present study reveals that the hopanes in the shows are contaminated completely by the mud additive used during drilling and, hence, a Permian source is ruled out successfully. This paper demonstrates that if one biomarker group from the mud additive overprints that of the indigenous oil show this does not preclude other biomarker groups from truly representing the oil show.


The translation of a short-term into longer term memory (consolidation) requires protein synthesis, presumed to be necessary for the resculpting of synapses. Inhibitors of protein synthesis, administered around the time of training or 4-6 hours later produce lasting amnesia for the task. Beyond this time, the memory is insensitive to the inhibitors of protein synthesis, and has been regarded as permanent. However, as older observations, recently reconfirmed, show, reminding the animal of the previously learned experience renders the memory labile once more. Administration of protein synthesis inhibitors in association with the reminder for an aversive experience produces amnesia for the task, in some cases apparently permanent, in others more transient. Thus, the pharmacological lability of memory following a reminder is far from universal. This has prompted an ongoing debate: is the amnesia due to a blockade of the same biochemical cascade as is involved in the initial consolidation (hence permanently preventing 'reconsolidation') or does it represents a temporary failure to access the memory (retrieval). This distinction is in some cases artificial, as any reminder inevitably constitutes a new experience, and will involve some learning, which may be part of a process leading to extinction of the earlier memory. A further complexity is added by the fact that even without reminder, putative memory traces are not entirely stable, migrating from one brain region to others over a period that may vary from hours to weeks.

Our laboratory been studying these phenomena using a one trial passive avoidance task in young chicks, and the effects of the anisomycin and colchicine on recall following both training and reminder. Results obtained require us to reconsider the nature of the biochemical processes initiated by the reminder, suggesting as they do that reminder engage local synaptic and dendritic processes, not necessarily in the same cells or brain regions as those involved in initial consolidation. This distinction may account for the transient nature of the amnesia produced by protein synthesis inhibitors following a reminder.


Narrow-range endemic species are thought to have naturally small distributions, limited by size, mobility, dispersal capabilities, specific habitat requirements and biogeographical boundaries. Many narrow range taxa are poorly reserved and most threatened freshwater invertebrate taxa in Tasmania, including the majority of Beddomeia species, fall into this category. Management of such taxa is reliant on informed ecological data which is not currently available for many freshwater invertebrates. To address the need for more detailed information on one such group of aquatic invertebrates, this study obtained spatial and ecological data for a number of Beddomeia species and identified habitat variables that together explained the snail distributions. A combination of geology, catchment size, forest type, flow and disturbance were identified as significant explanatory variables of Beddomeia presence within a river catchment. The distribution of some Beddomeia species is greater than previously predicted (at the catchment level), the Beddomeia spp. investigated were shown to occupy a wider number of streams than previously thought, suggesting that this is likely to be observed in other Beddomeia species. Detailed population structure data supported the previously held belief that Beddomeia spp. are long-lived and have low fecundity.
Anthropogenic disturbance to streams, resulting from agricultural and forestry operations has previously been identified as a potential risk to aquatic invertebrates, particularly narrow-range endemics, but this has not, until now, been tested for Beddomeia species. The effects of cable-harvesting forestry disturbance on a high density Beddomeia sp. population were investigated. Population data indicated a recovery of population structure, if not abundance, within five years post-harvest, suggesting a higher level of tolerance to disturbance than had been previously anticipated.
Sympatric associations between Hydrobiidae are not uncommon and were observed for Beddomeia spp. in many of the streams investigated. Several morphotypes from each of the two major study catchments, initially determined by shell measurements, were taxonomically described using a combination of external and internal characters that indicate a high level of intraspecific shell variation occurs, and failed to support the number of morphotypes identified using shell characters alone. The molecular taxonomic resolution within the genus Beddomeia was also explored, but the monophyly of the genus remains unresolved owing to the disparity of topologies recovered.Results obtained from these studies are used to review the management of Beddomeia and indicate that current measures are likely to be sufficient for headwater streams supporting the Beddomeia populations investigated, but a precautionary approach is required for other species for which there is limited information, and extra conservation measures may be necessary for those species proven to be restricted to a low number of locations.


The work of improving nuclear security is not done, though leaders are no longer meeting at the summit level. The threats of nuclear theft and terrorism remain very real. States, nuclear operating organizations, and institutions and initiatives supporting nuclear security must strive for continuous improvement in nuclear security. The alternative is dangerous decline. Achieving genuinely effective implementation of existing recommendations and commitments in five key areas could dramatically strengthen nuclear security around the world. First, states and operators must protect nuclear weapons, weapons-usable nuclear materials, and major nuclear facilities against the full range of plausible adversary capabilities and tactics. The focus must be on continuous improvement in the face of ever-evolving adversary threats. Second, all operators managing nuclear weapons, weapons-usable nuclear materials, and high-consequence nuclear facilities should put in place comprehensive programs to protect against insider threats – the most important and challenging nuclear security threats. Insider protection programs are particularly important at facilities that handle weapons-usable nuclear material in bulk. Third, states should ensure that each relevant nuclear operator has a targeted program in place to assess and strengthen security culture, and all nuclear managers and security-relevant staff receive regular information, appropriate to their role, on evolving threats. At the same time, interested countries should launch a number of initiatives designed to build understanding of the threat and combat complacency. Fourth, states should ensure that all nuclear operators establish in-depth vulnerability assessment and performance testing programs to ensure that nuclear security systems really are able to protect against intelligent adversaries. These should include regular, realistic force-on-force exercises. Fifth, interested countries should take a broader approach to consolidating nuclear material at fewer locations, encompassing more categories of material and additional policy tools. These five areas are largely already included in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear security recommendations, and are therefore covered in the commitment to meet the "intent" of such initiatives incorporated in the Strengthening Nuclear Security Implementation Initiative (INFCIRC/869). But achieving genuinely effective implementation will remain a challenge, particularly with national leaders no longer meeting at the summit level. As nuclear security must continue to evolve in the face of changing threats, it is essential to continue an effective ongoing international dialogue on nuclear security, both about implementation of existing recommendations and commitments and about new steps. This should include the IAEA, the "contact group" established at the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, and other groupings. States should revitalize bilateral nuclear security cooperation efforts, including between the United States and Russia. Both industry and civil society also have essential roles to play. With champions from all these sectors around the world working together, and a focus on genuinely effective implementation, nuclear security can be dramatically strengthened, reducing risks to all countries.


Published reports examining the efficacy of fish oil for preserving renal function in immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy have yielded conflicting results. This investigation was a meta-analysis conducted to determine whether the medical literature supports this therapy. In addition, the sources of variability among published findings were examined. Studies were combined using a random effects model. Five controlled studies were identified, two with positive results and three with negative results. Forty-four percent of the between-study variance could be attributed to differences in follow-up times and, less significantly, the number of renal function measurements; a weighting procedure was developed, eliminating this variance from the combined result. When all studies were combined, the mean effect, +0.25 +/- 0.23 SD (positive effects indicate that treatment was superior to control), was not statistically significant; however, the probability of at least a minor beneficial effect was 75%. Mixed-effects regression suggested that this therapy may be more effective among individuals with more proteinuria. The medical literature, therefore, does not prove the efficacy of fish oil therapy in IgA nephropathy, but suggests that an additional placebo-controlled trial is warranted. A sample-size calculation indicated that such a trial should be larger than those to date or should attempt to increase the treatment effect, perhaps by treating for more than 2 yr or enrolling more severely proteinuric individuals.


Background: Coach education has been identified as a key vehicle for raising the standard of coaching practice. However, the existing body of literature suggests that coach education has had a limited impact on the learning and development of coaching practitioners. In this respect, it has been contended that coach educations ills might be partially attributed to the 'top-down' approach of its design and delivery. While numerous theoretically informed pedagogies have been suggested as a means of overcoming some of the coach educations problems, there has been limited exploration of how coach learners feel that the provision of coach education might be enhanced. Purpose: To build on a limited body of research that has attempted to source coaches' views about how the provision of coach education might better facilitate their learning and development of practice. In doing so, it was hoped that the findings of this study would provide empirically based insights that would invoke critical reflection and discussion in relation to how the field prepares and develops coaching practitioners. Participants: Ninety (82 male and 8 female) coaches from eight sports participated in this study. The participant coaches practiced across a range of levels and averaged 23 years of coaching experience. Research design: A combination of qualitative methods were utilised to gather both breadth and depth of data. Data collection: A total of 16 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and 74 open-ended questionnaires were completed and returned. Data analysis: The interview and questionnaire data were collectively subjected to inductive content analysis. Findings: It was discovered that the coaches desire to become better practitioners shaped their evaluation of, and recommendations for, the provision of coach education. The participants suggested that relevant and usable course content should be delivered through pedagogical approaches that actively involve the course learners. The coaches urged coach educators to provide a range of learning resources and mentoring opportunities. It was also suggested that further thought should be given to the appropriateness of course venues and costs associated with the attendance of continuing professional development. The findings of this study were considered in relation to relevant explanatory theory.


For many decades, Spain has been a country of emigration. Its transformation to a country of immigration (e.g. from Latin America and Africa) is a quite recent phenomenon, which only started in the 1970s due to the economic upturn of the country. From 1991 onwards (signing of the Schengen Agreement) the 'illegal' immigration across the Strait of Gibraltar has increasingly been perceived as a problem. Spanish popular music is a fine seismograph of social changes, such as the increase of immigration. The first musical productions reflecting on ('illegal') immigration date from the early 1990s, such as Barricada's "Oveja negra", El Chojin's "Ponte en mi piel" and "Si, Buana", or Nach's "Tierra prometida". Based on a corpus of 50 songs of different musical styles (rock, rap, world music), this article aims at investigating the key thematic lines in songs about 'illegal' immigration: the subalternity of the migratory subject; the fraught relations between the migrant subject ('I') and the Spanish 'you', relations characterized by prejudice, racism, and exclusion; finally, the perspective of a 'we' in a transcultural Spanish society.


We examined bacterioplankton community composition (BCC) in 27 oligotrophic freshwater lakes with similar environments, located in the mountainous regions of eastern Japan. We determined BCC by the relative sequence abundance of each taxon using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) targeting the 16S rRNA gene region. Using multiple regression analyses, we investigated the relative importance of environmental and geospatial processes on community assembly of the general bacterioplankton, as well as of the taxonomic groups Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Both processes had significant relationships with community assembly. In particular, environmental processes were relevant, however small the variations among study sites. Community composition of Betaproteobacteria was mainly correlated with environmental factors, whereas that of Bacteroidetes was primarily associated with geospatial variables, such as the presence of Tsugaru Strait as a geographic barrier. Thus, inter-taxonomic differences are significant in assessing relationships of environmental and geospatial processes with freshwater BCC. Finally, our study provides evidence that biogeographic events are potentially significant for the distribution and diversity of microorganisms, as is the case with macroorganisms. These perspectives should be taken into consideration in order to fully understand bacterial community assembly.


This paper discusses "Exploring Our Information Diets," a yearlong project that gave female high school students an opportunity to use creative engagement as a research platform to explore their information diets and media consumption. The project was created in partnership with an urban high school and a theatre for families and young audiences in Orlando, Florida. The author explores the methodology behind the project, examines the process undertaken, investigates the opportunities the project offered students, and studies how this creative engagement shaped the presentation and dissemination of the students' research. During the course of the project, students constructed live and digital performance pieces that organized their findings related to patterns and expectations of gender construction. The author worked with students to identify the images and messages they encountered in the media they frequently used. The author employed methodologies of participatory action research, live performance, and digital storytelling in order to ensure the students were engaged research collaborators, ensuring their participation in collecting data and formulating conclusions. Using this methodology, the author asked students to interrogate their media intake and use their observations to reach a larger audience in two storytelling mediums: live performance and digital video.


Time series are difficult to monitor, summarize and predict. Segmentation organizes time series into few intervals having uniform characteristics (flatness, linearity, modality, monotonicity and so on). For scalability, we require fast linear time algorithms. The popular piecewise linear model can determine where the data goes up or down and at what rate. Unfortunately, when the data does not follow a linear model, the computation of the local slope creates overfitting. We propose an adaptive time series model where the polynomial degree of each interval vary (constant, linear and so on). Given a number of regressors, the cost of each interval is its polynomial degree: constant intervals cost 1 regressor, linear intervals cost 2 regressors, and so on. Our goal is to minimize the Euclidean (l_2) error for a given model complexity. Experimentally, we investigate the model where intervals can be either constant or linear. Over synthetic random walks, historical stock market prices, and electrocardiograms, the adaptive model provides a more accurate segmentation than the piecewise linear model without increasing the cross-validation error or the running time, while providing a richer vocabulary to applications. Implementation issues, such as numerical stability and real-world performance, are discussed.


The transforming function of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) E7 has been shown to depend on activities additional to the ability to bind RB. In this paper we describe two further properties of E7 which may also contribute to transformation, an association with a histone H1 kinase at the G2/M phase of the cell cycle and an ability to bind the RB-related protein p107. The region of E7 identified previously as important for RB binding was found to be involved in the association with the kinase and complex formation with p107, although analysis of E7 point mutants within this region revealed a difference in the precise sequence requirement for RB and p107 binding. Association with the kinase activity correlated with the ability to bind RB, but the restriction of the kinase association to the G2/M phase of the cell cycle implies that this activity might not be directly mediated by RB binding. Since kinase-binding-deficient E7 mutants are also transformation defective, this may represent an independent function of E7 which plays a role in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle.


In machine learning we often encounter structured output prediction problems (SOPPs), i.e. problems where the output space admits a rich internal structure. Application domains where SOPPs naturally occur include natural language processing, speech recognition, and computer vision. Typical SOPPs have an extremely large label set, which grows exponentially as a function of the size of the output. Existing generalization analysis implies generalization bounds with at least a square-root dependency on the cardinality d of the label set, which can be vacuous in practice. In this paper, we significantly improve the state of the art by developing novel high-probability bounds with a logarithmic dependency on d. Furthermore, we leverage the lens of algorithmic stability to develop generalization bounds in expectation without any dependency on d. Our results therefore build a solid theoretical foundation for learning in large-scale SOPPs. Furthermore, we extend our results to learning with weakly dependent data.


The study derived its data from semi-structured interviews with 100 relatives of patients with a primary diagnosis of dementia. At the time of the interview, the dementia sufferer lived with the carer in 61 cases, in their own home in 16 cases, and in long-term institutional care in 23 cases. The interviews were based on a `Carers' Questionnaire' which has evolved via preliminary unstructured exploratory interviews with carers, followed by a pilot study employing an initial draft of the questionnaire. The study demonstrated that caregiving relatives generally acknowledged dementia to be an illness which would result in continued deterioration and death in the sufferer; that is, as a terminal illness, bringing both current and future losses. The emotional and behavioural reactions which previous studies have labelled `anticipatory grief' were experienced - to varying degrees - by the caregiving relatives of dementia sufferers. While partly simply a response to the burdens of the caregiving situation, they could also be attributed in part as the response to the loss of the person of the dementia sufferer. The majority of carers believed they had experienced grief, and the underlying structure of their reactions was similar to that of conventional grief. The results of the study showed that taken as whole, there was considerable stability in the emotional and behavioural reactions of the caregiving relatives of dementia sufferers over time. Against this background, there was a sub-group of approximately one-third of the sample of carers whose shock, or disbelief, or hope was greater earlier on in the process of their relatives' dementia, and whose acceptance of the illness and the future had increased over time. There was, however, no evidence of a phasic emergence of a variety of discrete stages in the carers' reactions, nor of an end-point of resolution or acceptance. The different components of the emotional and behavioural reactions of caregiving relatives were associated with different caregiver and sufferer characteristics. Initial shock was associated with learning the diagnosis and prognosis suddenly. Current carer shock, denial or hope were associated with sufferers who were younger, were spouses or siblings, and were demanding, with carers who were older, with less time since onset of the dementia. Protest, questioning and guilt were more likely in younger carers, those who perceived dementia as a horrible/worst illness, and those reporting a poor relationship with the sufferer. Reactions of yearning or preoccupation were more likely in carers who perceived dementia as a horrible/worst illness, and who were not helped by a religious or other belief. Carer depression was associated with demanding sufferer behaviour, perceiving dementia as a horrible/worst illness, and reporting a poor relationship with the sufferer. Finally, carer acceptance was more likely when they perceived dementia as the consequence of aging or just an illness, and when they had greater general knowledge regarding dementia. Whilst not labelling it as such, some carers did perceive their dementing relative in terms which could be regarded as `socially dead'. Three factors comprised the underlying structure of social death. Factor one, `Anticipate Death', relating to thinking in a variety of ways about the sufferer's death, had occurred for between half and three-quarters of the sample. `Anticipate Death' was associated with variables suggesting that the dementia sufferer had lived too long, and that the carer was fed up (angry or depressed) with the situation. Factor Two, `Life Pointless', relating to elements of social death such as believing that the sufferer's death would be a blessing, had occurred - to varying degrees - for at least half the sample. This was the only social death factor to be associated with a carer's belief that they had experienced grief. It was also related to a lack of carer hope or bargaining behaviours (perhaps representing the acceptance of the inevitability of the sufferer's decline), with increased sufferer dependency, with the carer's perception of dementia as a horrible/worst illness, and their reporting a poor relationship with the sufferer. Social Death Factor Three, `Sufferer Unaware', relating to sufferer lack of awareness of, and response to, their environment, was endorsed by the vast majority of the caregiver sample. It was associated with increased impairment in the sufferer (perhaps representing `loss of the person'). Those carer emotional and behavioural reactions most clearly representing distress were associated with increased subjective burden. Belief that they had experienced grief was associated with a reduction in a carer's perceived coping ability. None of the social death factors was linked to carer subjective burden or coping. Finally, with regard to institutionalisation, there was no evidence that placement in long-term care triggered either the social death of dementia sufferers or anticipatory grief in their relatives. Among community carers, preference for institutional care was not directly related to any of the anticipatory grief reactions. It was, however, associated with social death factor `Life Pointless'. This suggests that if a carer perceives the continuation of their dementing relative's life as meaningless, then the removal of the physical presence of the sufferer to institutional care may be more acceptable, or even welcomed.


This paper presents a new self-routing packet network called the plane interconnected parallel network (PIPN). In the proposed design, the traffic arriving at the network is shaped and routed through two banyan network based interconnected planes. The interconnections between the planes distribute the incoming load more homogeneously over the network. The throughput of the network under uniform and heterogeneous traffic requirements is studied analytically and by simulation. The results are compared with the results of the baseline network and another banyan network based parallel interconnection network. It is shown that, for the proposed design, a higher degree of heterogeneity results in better performance.


Tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO) is characterised by a variable clinical phenotype primarily affecting the hair, teeth, and bone. Different clinical features are observed between and within TDO families. It is not known whether the variable clinical features are the result of genetic heterogeneity or clinical variability. A gene for TDO was localised recently to chromosome 17q21 in four North Carolina families, and a 4 bp deletion in the human distal-less 3 gene (DLX3) was identified in all affected members. A previous genetic linkage study in a large Virginia kindred with TDO indicated possible linkage to the ABO, Gc, and Kell blood group loci. To examine whether TDO exhibits genetic heterogeneity, we have performed molecular genetic analysis to determine whether affected members of this Virginia kindred have the DLX3 gene deletion identified in North Carolina families. Results show that affected subjects (n=3) from the Virginia family have the same four nucleotide deletion previously identified in the North Carolina families. A common haplotype for three genetic markers surrounding the DLX3 gene was identified in all affected subjects in the North Carolina and Virginia families. These findings suggest that all people with TDO who have been evaluated have inherited the same DLX3 gene deletion mutation from a common ancestor. The variable clinical phenotype observed in these North Carolina and Virginia families, which share a common gene mutation, suggests that clinical variability is not the result of genetic heterogeneity at the major locus, but may reflect genetic heterogeneity at other epigenetic loci or contributing environmental factors or both.


The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the views of learners regarding certain aspects of bullying.
The sample consisted of 207 learners from six primary and secondary schools in District 4, Tshwane South. Most of the respondents were female learners (53.1%) while males constituted 46.9 percent of the sample. Of the respondents, 30.9 percent were from primary schools (Grade 6 : 15.0% and Grade 7 : 15.9%), and 69.1 percent from secondary schools (23.7% in Grade 11). Most of the respondents were black (59.9%), followed by whites (34.4%), coloureds (3.4%) and Indian (2.43%). The survey was conducted during August / September 2002.
Results indicated that learners generally perceived their schools to be safe places. Bullying appeared to be a reality in the daily life of the participants. Most of the scholars observed milder forms of bullying and the most common location reported for peer victimisation was the playground, followed by the classroom and while walking to and from school.
Approximately half of the respondents had been bullied either once or twice a month or once or twice a year. Direct physical assault among the male learners empasised the view that boys are likely to be more violent and destructive in bullying. There were no significant differences regarding how victims felt about the bullying incident; more or less equal numbers of the learners felt mostly angry, or mostly sad and miserable. Most of the victims had not told anyone about their experiences.
The two reasons most commonly endorsed by learners for peer victimisation were to get even (retaliation) and because bullies want to show how tough they are (showing off). It reflects on an important aspect of peer victimisation, namely that bullying is not always the result of provocation by the victim. Although the current study provides a foundation for understanding the bullying problem, the issue merits more intensive research.


In recent years, medieval climate history has become the subject of interdisciplinary research by scholars and scientists throughout Europe. This research is an opportunity for historians of the Middle Ages to contribute insights gleaned from their work with the written historical record and offer the unique perspective of their own discipline. Moreover, the contribution of Italian historiography can both highlight regional differences compared to the rest of Europe and explain some epistemological aspects of the relationships between environment and history, such as different forms of adaptation in the face of rationing crisis. The case study of Florence in the first half of the fourteenth century focuses on these historical aspects and presents the opportunity for an interesting and relevant case of political-economic argumentation. Although documented natural events between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (excessive rain, cold, flood) confirm the strong climate variability of this era, the famines before the Black Death struck were rationing crises triggered mainly by trade mechanisms. Faced with famine and shortages, the city of Florence managed to curb hunger by adopting rationing policies, creating special magistracies, and using communal purchases to control prices. This study outlines the accounts of these events in the chronicles of Domenico Lenzi and Giovanni Villani before discussing the causes and describing the material remedies that were introduced. These remedies were indicative of a growing civic consciousness, new forms of solidarity, and strengthened political communication.


Volume I: Rules is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and noninternational armed conflicts. In the absence of ratifications of important treaties in this area, this is clearly a publication of major importance, carried out at the express request of the international community. The study identifies the common core of international humanitarian law binding on all parties to all armed conflicts.


Introduction: It is estimated that between 5-15% of normal individuals harbor group A s-hemolytic Streptococcus (GABHS) usually in the respiratory tract, without signs of disease. GABHS disorders and its side effects are the major concern especially in pediatric populations. The prevalence of GABHS and delayed immunologic side effects and also antibiotic susceptibility among young population in different parts of Iran is so important. Materials and methods: Twenty five 25 indexed studies (laboratory or medical reports) about GAS in Iranian population (English or Persian with English abstract) between 2000- 2015 reviewed. Conclusion: The carrier state for GABHS in Iranian children is much lower (3-6%) than its rate in children living in developed countries but recently a high rate of Group G streptococci were reported in Iran. Frequent antibiotic treatment in Iran; exposure at different ages and different seasonality could be the reasons for this wide differences. Rapid immunological GABHS antigen test in comparison with conventional throat cultures, showed higher advantage for diagnosis especially in the cases with previous antibiotic usage.


Background and Objectives: Tobacco usage is one of the most common problems in human societies that, In addition of getting several social, economic and health effects, it can cause respiratory, digestive and bladder cancer, also chromosomal and blood factors changes. Little study has been done about hookah effects on human. The aim of this study was to evaluate pulmonary function tests in hookah users in Ardabil city. Materials & Methods: In this case – control study, 133 male subjects which have used hookah 3 times a day for at least 3 years or more, were selected from Coffee house of ARDABIL city and then pulmonary function tests were carried out at least triplicate. For comparison of pulmonary parameters, the same number of healthy subjects without hookah consumption in the same age and socioeconomic status were used and spirometery was done. The data were analyzed with SPSS 11 software program and presented as mean ± SD. Statistical significance was assayed by student's t-test for unpaired data and the differences were considered to be significant at the p<0.05 level. Results: Age range of hookah smokers and normal subjects was 17-78 and 20-82 years old, respectively. Age average of hookah smokers and normal subjects was 44.37 ± 14.9 and 41.54 ± 14.46 years old, respectively .Mean differences of age was not statistically significant. The average of PEF, FEV1%, FEV1, FEF25-75 and FEF 25 in hookah smokers were: 7.73, 83.11%, 3.56, 3.81, 6.32, respectively and in normal subjects was: 8.51, 85.69%, 3.78, 4.35, 7.29 respectively. The mean differences between two groups were statistically significant in each parameter (p < 0.05). In this study, there were 27 (20%) COPD patients in hookah smokers. Ten percent of hookah smokers had FEV1% less than 70. Conclusion: The results showed that using hookah disrupts pulmonary function parameters. So as cigarette, using hookah may have devastating effects on respiratory system. Knowing about effects of hookah to people, especially to young is necessary.


The global significance of intellectual property laws is familiar to most of those interested in this area of law. What might be less familiar is the impact of intellectual property on the issue of food security in developing countries. This paper considers the consequences of factors such as TRIPS plus compliance imposed on recent entrants to the World Trade Organisation, the role of UPOV and impact of protecting plant breeders' rights on food security in developing countries. In particular the paper focusses on examples drawn from the Pacific where island countries are not only considering WTO membership or have recently signed up to this and incurred consequent IP obligations, but where food security is increasingly under pressure due to climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity shifts in agricultural practice and knowledge transfer, changing socio-economic patterns and the consequences of the global economic crisis. This is also a region where Western models of IP, although prevalent as introduced and imposed concepts, fit uneasily with forms and practices of indigenous traditional knowledge and practice which may be better suited to ensuring sustainability of food crops than the present thrust of IP laws.


Many applications in recommender systems or experimental design need to make decisions online. Each decision leads to a stochastic reward with initially unknown distribution, while new decisions are made based on the observations of previous rewards. To maximize the total reward, one needs to balance between exploring different strategies and exploiting currently optimal strategies within a given set of strategies. This is the underlying trade-off of a number of clinical neural engineering problems, including brain-computer interface, deep brain stimulation, and spinal cord injury therapy. In these systems, complex electronic and computational systems interact with the human central nervous system. A critical issue is how to control the agents to produce results which are optimal under some measure, for example, efficiently decoding the user's intention in a brain-computer interface or performs temporal and spatial specific stimulation in deep brain stimulation. This dissertation is motivated by electrical sipnal cord stimulation with high dimensional inputs(multi-electrode arrays). The stimulation is applied to promote the function and rehabilitation of the remaining neural circuitry below the spinal cord injury, and enable complex motor behaviors such as stepping and standing. To enable the careful tuning of these stimuli for each patient, the electrode arrays which deliver these stimuli have become increasingly more sophisticated, with a corresponding increase in the number of free parameters over which the stimuli need to be optimized. Since the number of stimuli is growing exponentially with the number of electrodes, algorithmic methods of selecting stimuli is necessary, particularly when the feedback is expensive to get. In many online learning settings, particularly those that involve human feedback, reliable feedback is often limited to pairwise preferences instead of real valued feedback. Examples include implicit or subjective feedback for information retrieval and recommender systems, such as clicks on search results, and subjective feedback on the quality of recommended care. Sometimes with real valued feedback, we require that the sampled function values exceed some prespecified ``safety'' threshold, a requirement that existing algorithms fail to meet. Examples include medical applications where the patients' comfort must be guaranteed; recommender systems aiming to avoid user dissatisfaction; and robotic control, where one seeks to avoid controls that cause physical harm to the platform. This dissertation provides online learning algorithms for several specific online decision-making problems. \selfsparring optimizes the cumulative reward with relative feedback. RankComparison deals with ranking feedback. \safeopt considers the optimization with real valued feedback and safety constraints. \cduel is designed for specific spinal cord injury therapy. A variant of \cduel was implemented in closed-loop human experiments, controlling which epidural stimulating electrodes are used in the spinal cord of SCI patients. The results obtained are compared with concurrent stimulus tuning carried out by human experimenter. These experiments show that this algorithm is at least as effective as the human experimenter, suggesting that this algorithm can be applied to the more challenging problems of enabling and optimizing complex, sensory-dependent behaviors, such as stepping and standing in SCI patients. In order to get reliable quantitative measurements besides comparisons, the standing behaviors of paralyzed patients under spinal cord stimulation are evaluated. The potential of quantifying the quality of bipedal standing in an automatic approach is also shown in this work.