BACKGROUND
Vaginal examinations have become a routine intervention in labour as a means of assessing labour progress. Used at regular intervals, either alone or as a component of the partogram (a pre-printed form providing a pictorial overview of the progress of labour), the aim is to assess if labour is progressing physiologically, and to provide an early warning of slow progress. Abnormally slow progress can be a sign of labour dystocia, which is associated with maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality, particularly in low-income countries where appropriate interventions cannot easily be accessed. However, over-diagnosis of dystocia can lead to iatrogenic morbidity from unnecessary intervention (e.g. operative vaginal birth or caesarean section). It is, therefore, important to establish whether or not the routine use of vaginal examinations is an effective intervention, both as a diagnostic tool for true labour dystocia, and as an accurate measure of physiological labour progress.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the effectiveness, acceptability and consequences of digital vaginal examination(s) (alone or within the context of the partogram) with other strategies, or different timings, to assess progress during labour at term.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (28 February 2013) and reference lists of identified studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of vaginal examinations (including digital assessment of the consistency of the cervix, and the degree of dilation and position of the opening of the uterus (cervical os); and position and station of the fetal presenting part, with or without abdominal palpation) compared with other ways of assessing progress of labour. We also included studies assessing different timings of vaginal examinations. We excluded quasi-RCTs and cross-over trials. We also excluded trials with a primary focus on assessing progress of labour using the partogram (of which vaginal examinations is one component) as this is covered by another Cochrane review. However, studies where vaginal examinations were used within the context of the partogram were included if the studies were randomised according to the vaginal examination component.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Three review authors assessed the studies for inclusion in the review. Two authors undertook independent data extraction and assessed the risk of bias of each included study. A third review author also checked data extraction and risk of bias. Data entry was checked.

MAIN RESULTS
We found two studies that met our inclusion criteria but they were of unclear quality. One study, involving 307 women, compared vaginal examinations with rectal examinations, and the other study, involving 150 women, compared two-hourly with four-hourly vaginal examinations. Both studies were of unclear quality in terms of risk of selection bias, and the study comparing the timing of the vaginal examinations excluded 27% (two hourly) to 28% (four hourly) of women after randomisation because they no longer met the inclusion criteria.When comparing routine vaginal examinations with routine rectal examinations to assess the progress of labour, we identified no difference in neonatal infections requiring antibiotics (risk ratio (RR) 0.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01 to 8.07, one study, 307 infants). There were no data on the other primary outcomes of length of labour, maternal infections requiring antibiotics and women's overall views of labour. The study did show that significantly fewer women reported that vaginal examination was very uncomfortable compared with rectal examinations (RR 0.42, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.70, one study, 303 women). We identified no difference in the secondary outcomes of augmentation, caesarean section, spontaneous vaginal birth, operative vaginal birth, perinatal mortality and admission to neonatal intensive care.Comparing two-hourly vaginal examinations with four-hourly vaginal examinations in labour, we found no difference in length of labour (mean difference in minutes (MD) -6.00, 95% CI -88.70 to 76.70, one study, 109 women). There were no data on the other primary outcomes of maternal or neonatal infections requiring antibiotics, and women's overall views of labour. We identified no difference in the secondary outcomes of augmentation, epidural for pain relief, caesarean section, spontaneous vaginal birth and operative vaginal birth.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of women's preferences, vaginal examination seems to be preferred to rectal examination. For all other outcomes, we found no evidence to support or reject the use of routine vaginal examinations in labour to improve outcomes for women and babies. The two studies included in the review were both small, and carried out in high-income countries in the 1990s.  It is surprising that there is such a widespread use of this intervention without good evidence of effectiveness, particularly considering the sensitivity of the procedure for the women receiving it, and the potential for adverse consequences in some settings.The effectiveness of the use and timing of routine vaginal examinations in labour, and other ways of assessing progress in labour, including maternal behavioural cues, should be the focus of new research as a matter of urgency. Women's views of ways of assessing labour progress should be given high priority in any future research in this area.


Message from the Programme Committee Chair
The 3rd Annual Conference of the Portuguese Association of Energy Economics – APEEN and the International Meeting on Energy and Environmental Economics – ME3 took place on the 18-19 October 2018 in Braga, Portugal. The event was hosted by the Universidade do Minho and gathered the contributions of specialists in Energy and Environmental Economics to enrich the debate about the many issues raised by the management of resources and waste. The main topic was Managing Resources and Waste: challenges for Energy and Environmental Economics beyond 2030.
Natural resources are the keystone in environmental and energy economics. Nowadays, resource management cannot ignore waste, traditionally seen as a by-product of consumption and production decisions, but increasingly recognized as a source of energy or as new type of resource
The APEEN & ME3 joint conference had over 50 presentations from researchers from all over the world and lively discussions. Some of these presentations are summarized in the short papers compiled in this Book of Proceedings.
We are grateful to have had the presence and contribution of the keynote speakers: Maria L. Loureiro (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela) and Martin Brocklehurst (Kempley Green Consultants). Their speeches challenged us now to think of new research and business opportunities beyond 2030.
On behalf of the organizing committee, I thank our sponsor, LIPOR, and all presenters for their academic excellence and lively participation.
Ligia Pinto, Universidade do Minho
Conference website: http://apeen-me3.eeg.uminho.pt


We present a high-efficiency reflective lamellar grating geometry, based on a two-dimensional photonic bandgap structure, that we predict will provide significantly improved resistance to laser-induced damage. Two independent numerical methods are used to compare the performance of this geometry with that of a conventional multilayer dielectric stack.


Dactylanthus taylorii is thought to be the only ground-flowering plant to be pollinated by a bat; the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata). This unique mutualistic relationship is poorly understood despite both species being threatened. We placed dataloggers around distinct clumps of D. taylorii inflorescences to monitor bats with implanted passive integrated transponders (PIT-tags) and quantify visitation rates and demography during the late-summer flowering season. Adult males and juveniles visited flowers more frequently than adult females. Adult males may have visited flowers to feed on nectar and offset the energy demands of advertising, lek defence and mating, and/or reduced foraging time during summer. Juvenile bats may be under increased energetic burdens due to naïve foraging behaviour and use nectar to augment low energy reserves. The frequency of visits correlated positively with mean night ambient temperature, likely because of increased prey, and therefore, bat activity. Our study is the first to examine the demographics of M. tuberculata visiting D. taylorii and serves as a baseline for future studies considering these unique and vulnerable New Zealand species.


Abstract. The Amazon Basin provides an excellent environment for studying the sources, transformations, and properties of natural aerosol particles and the resulting links between biological processes and climate. With this framework in mind, the Amazonian Aerosol Characterization Experiment (AMAZE-08), carried out from 7 February to 14 March 2008 during the wet season in the central Amazon Basin, sought to understand the formation, transformations, and cloud-forming properties of fine- and coarse-mode biogenic aerosol particles, especially as related to their effects on cloud activation and regional climate. Special foci included (1) the production mechanisms of secondary organic components at a pristine continental site, including the factors regulating their temporal variability, and (2) predicting and understanding the cloud-forming properties of biogenic particles at such a site. In this overview paper, the field site and the instrumentation employed during the campaign are introduced. Observations and findings are reported, including the large-scale context for the campaign, especially as provided by satellite observations. New findings presented include: (i) a particle number-diameter distribution from 10 nm to 10 μm that is representative of the pristine tropical rain forest and recommended for model use; (ii) the absence of substantial quantities of primary biological particles in the submicron mode as evidenced by mass spectral characterization; (iii) the large-scale production of secondary organic material; (iv) insights into the chemical and physical properties of the particles as revealed by thermodenuder-induced changes in the particle number-diameter distributions and mass spectra; and (v) comparisons of ground-based predictions and satellite-based observations of hydrometeor phase in clouds. A main finding of AMAZE-08 is the dominance of secondary organic material as particle components. The results presented here provide mechanistic insight and quantitative parameters that can serve to increase the accuracy of models of the formation, transformations, and cloud-forming properties of biogenic natural aerosol particles, especially as related to their effects on cloud activation and regional climate.


Abstract. China is experiencing intense air pollution caused in large part by anthropogenic emissions of reactive nitrogen (Nr). Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are the most important precursors for Nr compounds (including N2O5, HNO3, HONO and particulate NO3− and NH4+) in the atmosphere. Understanding the changes in NH3 and NO2 has important implications for the regulation of anthropogenic Nr emissions and is a requirement for assessing the consequence of environmental impacts. We conducted the temporal trend analysis of atmospheric NH3 and NO2 on a national scale since 1980 based on emission data (during 1980–2010), satellite observation (for NH3 since 2008 and for NO2 since 2005) and atmospheric chemistry transport modeling (during 2008–2015). Based on the emission data, during 1980–2010, significant continuous increasing trends in both NH3 and NOx were observed in REAS (Regional Emission inventory in Asia, for NH3 0.17 and for NOx 0.16 kg N ha−1 yr−2) and EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research, for NH3 0.24 and for NOx 0.17 kg N ha−1 yr−2) over China. Based on the satellite data and atmospheric chemistry transport model (CTM) MOZART-4 (Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers, version 4), the NO2 columns over China increased significantly from 2005 to 2011 and then decreased significantly from 2011 to 2015; the satellite-retrieved NH3 columns from 2008 to 2014 increased at a rate of 2.37 % yr−1. The decrease in NO2 columns since 2011 may result from more stringent strategies taken to control NOx emissions during the 12th Five Year Plan, while no control policy has focused on NH3 emissions. Our findings provided an overall insight into the temporal trends of both NO2 and NH3 since 1980 based on emission data, satellite observations and atmospheric transport modeling. These findings can provide a scientific background for policy makers that are attempting to control atmospheric pollution in China. Moreover, the multiple datasets used in this study have implications for estimating long-term Nr deposition datasets to assess its impact on soil, forest, water and greenhouse balance.


Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 is the first comprehensive study of the lives and artistic production of artists of Asian ancestry active in the United States before 1970. The publication features original essays by ten leading scholars, biographies of more than 150 artists, and over 400 reproductions of artwork, ephemera, and images of the artists. Aside from a few artists such as Dong Kingman, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Isamu Noguchi, and Yun Gee, artists of Asian ancestry have received inadequate historical attention, even though many of them received wide critical acclaim during their productive years. This pioneering work recovers the extraordinarily impressive artistic production of numerous Asian Americans, and offers richly informed interpretations of a long-neglected art history. To unravel the complexity of Asian American art expression and its vital place in American art, the texts consider aesthetics, the social structures of art production and criticism, and national and international historical contexts. Without a doubt, Asian American Art will profoundly influence our understanding of the history of art in America and the Asian American experience for years to come.


A synchronization method for a high speed scalable SIMD (Single instruction stream Multiple Data stream) processor array is presented. The method is developed for an architecture using distributed clocking and hierarchical SIMD control. In such an architecture, scalability is radically enhanced by an array-size independent (local) clock skew. This paper focuses on the instruction start synchronization problem inherent in a processor array when using the SIMD node of control and distributed clocking. It is shown how this can be solved in hardware, and bounds on the tolerable skew using this method are presented.


This study was conducted to compare betweenthe effects of intra-uterine infusion of diluted iodine compounds (1%Lugol's iodine and 2%Povidone iodine)on the postpartum (PP) reproductive efficiency in dairy cowshaving uterine bacterial infection. The reproductive effeiciency during PP was evaluated by studing six reproductive traits. These traits were uterine involution (UI), appearance of the first dominant folicle(DF), recrodescence of the first oestrous(FO), length of days open(DO), number of service per conception (NSC) and calving interval(CI). Sixty cross-bred dairy cows (4 - 6 years) diagnosed having uterine bacterial infection during early PP wasrecruiteded for this study. The cows divided randomly into three equal groups (A), (B) and (C) 20 cows each. Group A and B were intra-uterine infused with 1% Lugol's iodine and 2% PovidoneIdine respectively on day 5 PP. Group C was left untreated to serve as a control. The above mentioned parameterswere evaluated. The result of the current study showed that intra uterine infusion of 1% Lugol's Iodine or 2% Povidone Iodine during early PP significantly improved (P<0.0001) all reproductive traits compared to the control. It is concluded that, the reduced reproductive efficiency of cross-bred dairy cows is most likely to be due to early PP uterine bacterialinfection that decreases reproductive efficiency. Intra-uterine infusion of either 1% Lugol's Iodine or2% Povidone Iodine could be applied successfully for improvement of the PP reproductive performance of cross-bred dairy cows.


Resources for Commercial law, including Competition and consumer law, Corporations and business law, Contract law, Industrial law, Intellectual property law, and Taxation law.


Mycoplasma strain Y grew well when elaidate was the only fatty acid added to the medium, and this acid then comprised over 97 percent of the lipid fatty acids. It also grew well when elaidate was supplied together with any one of a series of straight-chain saturated fatty acids, and the lipids then contained both in approximately equimolar proportions. The ratio of cholesterol to phospholipid remained constant.


Summary
The ability of the immune system to discriminate between pathogenic and self or food antigens is essential not only for the generation of a productive immune response against invasive pathogens, but also for a state of antigen-specific tolerance to be elicited against harmless antigens. A breakdown in such tolerance can result in the development of a variety of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and coeliac disease. Despite a wealth of studies in this field, however, the mechanisms by which the immune system can distinguish harmless and pathogenic antigens remain to be fully elucidated. If these mechanisms were better understood, such information could be exploited to help develop better therapies for autoimmune diseases, improve the rate of successful transplantations and increase the efficacy of vaccines.
The primary means of maintaining tolerance to self antigens is to prevent self-reactive T cells from exiting the thymus following their development therein (central tolerance). However, some self-reactive T cells escape thymic deletion and as such, central tolerance is incomplete. Indeed, peripheral tolerance is required for an individual to elicit tolerance to all self-antigens, developmental antigens and some food and environmental antigens which are not present in early life. Peripheral tolerance is defined as a state of antigen-specific hyporesponsiveness, which is induced by exposure of T cells to antigen under sub-optimal activating conditions. For a T cell to become fully activated, and therefore productively primed, it must recognise its cognate antigen in the context of MHC and receive co-stimulation via the interaction of its CD28 receptor with CD80/86 on an antigen-presenting cell (APC). Clonal anergy, one of the proposed mechanisms of peripheral tolerance, describes a state of long lasting unresponsiveness to antigen in the T cell. Such anergy is induced when the TcR is ligated in the absence of co-stimulation and can be evidenced, upon re-stimulation with antigen, by reduced IL-2 production, cell cycle progression and proliferation, relative to that observed in primed cells.
It has been widely proposed that both qualitative and quantitative differences in T cell signalling may underlie the differential functional outcomes of priming and tolerance. However, the majority of these studies have relied upon biochemical assessment of signalling in T cell lines or clones, at the population level following polyclonal stimulation in vitro, and thus has led to the generation of conflicting data. Moreover, and most importantly, these data do not necessarily reflect the responses of individual antigen-specific T cells within their environmental niche within primary or secondary lymphoid tissue. In addition, as such data represents the responses of all cell types in the sample population at any one time, they do not provide any information pertaining to the differential kinetics, amplitude or subcellular localisation of signals generated by functionally distinct subgroups within the population.
A relatively new technology, laser scanning cytometry (LSC), offers an attractive means of investigating such responses, as it essentially marries the quantitative capabilities of flow cytometric analysis of cells in suspension with the ability to analyse spatially the fluorescence of large numbers of individual cells, either in suspension or in tissue in a slide-based format. Moreover, the adoptive transfer system, in which limited numbers of TcR transgenic (Tg) T cells are distributed evenly throughout the thymus-dependent area of the lymph node, provides an attractive means of studying antigen-specific responses occurring at near physiological frequencies in situ. Such antigen-specific T cells can be readily distinguished from endogenous T cells by LSC, following fluorescent staining of their TcR, as they are sparsely situated amongst the endogenous T cell population within the lymph node. Use of the adoptive transfer system, in combination with LSC analysis, has therefore enabled the development, in this thesis, of a quantitative imaging technology with which to study T cell signalling in individual antigen-specific T cells in vitro and in situ.
In T cells, the maintenance phase of anergy has been reported to reflect defective activation of transcription factors, such as c-Jun/c-Fos, that are involved in formation of the AP-1 complex, which is required for inducing transcription of the IL-2 gene and optimal activation and effector function of T cells. In turn, this appears to be determined by the lack of recruitment of the ERK, JNK and p38 MAPK signalling cascades. The small GTPase, Rap1, has long been implicated in such desensitisation of ERK, and the consequent reduced IL-2 production, observed in tolerised T cells. However, as noted above, the majority of these findings were obtained from in vitro studies of T cell lines or clones and as such are not necessarily representative of physiological responses of primary antigen-specific T cells in situ.
This study therefore describes, for the first time, an inverse relationship between ERK activation (pERK) and Rap1 expression in individual primary antigen-specific T cells during the maintenance phases of tolerance and priming, both in vitro and in vivo. Analysis at the single cell level further revealed that the proportion of antigen-stimulated cells expressing pERK was lower in the anergic relative to primed groups in vitro and in vivo, and the few anergised T cells expressing pERK did so at a lower level than the primed cells in vitro. By contrast, Rap1 was found to be expressed in a greater proportion of anergic antigen-specific T cells, and at considerably higher levels, compared with primed T cells following re-stimulation with antigen both in vitro and in vivo. An additional inverse relationship was observed between pERK and Rap1, concerning their subcellular localisation, with pERK appearing to co-localise with lipid raft structures in primed but not anergic cells and Rap1 appearing to be targeted to lipid rafts in anergic but not primed cells. These data suggests that Rap1 may be up-regulated and recruited to the immunological synapse upon re-stimulation with Ag in anergic T cells and that such Rap1 localisation and expression may contribute to the downregulation of ERK recruitment and activation in these cells. It is important to note that this inverse relationship between the accumulation of Rap1 and antagonism of ERK activation was only observed during the maintenance, and not induction, phases of both systemic and oral tolerance in vivo.
Furthermore, assessment of the activation status of downstream cell cycle modulators in priming and tolerance, revealed that downregulation of ERK activation and upregulation of p27kip1 might not be sufficient for maintenance of the anergic state, as indicated by G1 arrest, and hence, one or more additional negative signals may be required. Indeed, this study suggests that perhaps such a negative signal could be provided by the downregulation of p-Rb and/or increased expression of inactive cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs).
In summary, defective ERK signalling correlates with the up-regulation of Rap1 expression in tolerised relative to primed antigen-specific CD4+ T cells during the maintenance phases of tolerance in vitro and in vivo. As this association occurs after the induction of both systemic and oral routes of tolerance, these data suggest that Rap1 antagonism of pERK signalling may play an important and general role in the maintenance of antigen-specific CD4+ T cell tolerance. Moreover, as oral tolerance induction has been proposed as a potential therapy for autoimmune disorders and, oral administration of compounds offers a more attractive route for drug delivery in humans, these findings may have potential clinical applications. By advancing our knowledge of these key signals in regulating tolerance and priming at the single cell level in vitro and in vivo, we will therefore increase our understanding of an important physiological process at the molecular level, ultimately leading to identification of potential targets for enhancing or inhibiting immunity and tolerance.


We improve and extend our study of the complex in-medium heavy-quark potential and its Debye mass m(D) in a gluonic medium with a finer scan around the deconfinement transition and newly generated ensembles closer to the thermodynamic limit. On the lattices with larger physical volume, Re [V] shows signs of screening, i.e. a finite m(D), only in the deconfined phase, reminiscent of a genuine phase transition. Consistently Im[V] exhibits nonzero values also only above T-C. We compare the behavior of Re [V] with the color singlet free energies that have been used historically to extract the Debye mass. An effective coupling constant is computed to assess the residual influence of the confining part of the potential at T > 0. Our previous finding of a gradual screening of Re [V] around T-C on finer lattices is critically reassessed and interpreted to originate from finite volume artifacts. We discuss that deficiency of the beta = 7, xi(b) = 3.5 parameter set at N-s = 32, which has been in deployed in the literature before.


The manufacturing industry constantly strive to develop the competencies of their expert production engineers in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Research shows that the absorptive capacity of a firm is central in order to reach such a goal. The absorptive capacity of a firm is their ability to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends, and thereby exploit the conditions for innovation. In this paper we explore the rationales of organizations in the manufacturing industry for taking part in technology-enhanced competence development projects in collaboration with universities. Through interviews with key informants in 15 manufacturing industries we study the capabilities that organizations' need for participation in e-learning initiatives. We present a framework for technology enhanced learning readiness comprised of awareness, e- learning maturity, dynamic capability and co-creativity.


This paper introduces an environmental policy variable, i.e. the provincial pollution levy paid by an average firm, and measure its impact on the foreign investors' location decisions over the 1987 to 1998 period. We argue that less developed regions in China are more inclined to sacrifice environmental policies as an instrument to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). National level results show that stringent environmental policies have insignificant effect on foreign investors' location decision, and that transportation, economic growth, and regional location matters more. At the provincial level, stringent environmental policies reduce FDI in the less developed regions.


This paper presents the main conclusions of the modelling of the scattering of solar and terrestrial radiations by the moon's surface. The results of solving the geometrical problem are presented, making it possible to compute the distribution over the moon's surface of the brightness of the scattered radiation in the 300-2500-nm spectral region for arbitrary observation conditions. A qualitative comparison is carried out of the theoretical and observational distributions of the radiance of scattered solar radiation over the moon's disk when observed from the earth's surface for various phases of the moon. The results of calculations of the radiance distribution of earthshine over the moon's disk are presented in the form of images. Data are given that make it possible to determine the most favorable conditions for quantitative measurements. © 2004 Optical Society of America


The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) event at ~55.5 Ma, is characterized by globally elevated temperatures, a negative δ13C excursion and major biotic changes on land and in the oceans, including the major extinction of deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Increased acidity of the oceans and associated shallowing of the calcite compensation depth led to dissolution of deep-sea carbonates In various ocean basins during the PETM. As a result, the post-extinction benthic foraminiferal assemblages, which were locally dominated by agglutinated taxa such as Glomospira spp IRepmanina charoides , have been traditionally Interpreted as a result of dissolution of calcareous-shelled species.

We carried out a thorough bibliographic revision of the post-extinction assemblages In widely distributed land-based sections and marine cores to: 1) document the paleogeographical extent on the so-called " Glomospira acme," 2) compare the characteristics among sites where the acme is present, and 3) assess the paleoenvironmental conditions that could have potentially controlled the occurrence of the Glomospira acme. We recognized the early Eocene (calcareous plankton biozones NP9 and P5) Glomospira acme in the Tethys and along the eastern margin of the North Atlantic Ocean. The comparison of the sedimentological and paleoenvironmental evolution across the PETM in these areas led us to conclude that the proliferation of Glomospira spp. IR. charoides may have been related not only to CaCO3 dissolution, but also to the pulsed input of siliciclastic material resulting from continental erosion or gravitational fluxes. Increased terrestrial runoff in nearshore-marine sediments is consistent with an enhanced hydrological regime or higher seasonality or episodicity, as previously proposed for the PETM, and with the paleogeographical distribution of the continental margins and slopes In the Tethys and northeast Atlantic region, where the Glomospira acme has been recorded. As a result of the increased siliciclastic Input, low-quality refractory organic matter would be transported to the seafloor, allowing the rapid proliferation of Glomospira spp. IR charoides .


We describe the XenoSearch system for performing expressive resource discovery searches in a distributed environment. We represent server meta-data, such as their locations and facilities, as points in a multi-dimensional space and then express queries as predicates over these points. Each XenoSearch node holds a portion of this space and the key goal of XenoSearch is to direct queries to those nodes containing the meta-data of matching XenoServers. Communication between these XenoSearch nodes is based on the self-organizing Pastry peer-to-peer routing substrate. Our initial performance evaluation on a wide-area prototype shows that queries are only a factor of 3 to 5 times longer than basic Pastry routing, while supporting multi-dimensional searches of arbitrary shapes.


Caveolae are lipid raft-enriched flask-shaped, expose in the plasma membrane of various cell types. It has become clear now that caveolae and their caveolin "marker proteins" are associated in a several cellular procedures including endocytosis, lipid homeostasis, signal transduction, and tumorigenesis. Caveolin has been shown to have high binding affinity for cholesterol and sphingolipids. Caveolin oligomers construct filamentous networks that are believed to stabilize the membrane. Liposomes are the well-known drug delivery systems with spherical shape that can be produced from natural non-toxic phospholipids and cholesterol. Liposomes have been used as a considerable tool in biology, biochemistry, medicine, and drug delivery. The utilization of liposomes as a drug-delivery system has become more attractive in carrying systemically administered drugs with narrow therapeutic windows. The similarity between plasma membrane and liposomes from several points of view gives hope that the incorporation of caveolin in the phospholipid bilayer structures of liposomes can result in tightening and therefore stabilizing and long circulation of these structures.


This book provides interesting and critical insights into a common university practice, the academic office hour. Office hours are a discursive site for a variety of different issues, ranging from administrative matters to course-related and study-related concerns. The study offers both an ethnographic account of this speech event within the socio-cultural context of a German university as well as a more detailed analysis of the interactional organization of academic consultations. It draws on natural recordings of entire office hour interactions in order to show how participants' actions at different stages of the talk organize and accomplish the consultation. The analytical focus is set on the sequential activities teachers and students engage in as they conduct a consultation. This includes, for instance, how participants open an office hour talk, how they establish an agenda, how they manage advice-giving, and how they close the consultation. As such, this book will be of practical use to students and faculty members as well as scholars from different disciplines who work in the areas of institutional talk and talk-in-interaction.


The principal aim of this study was to develop a classification model in
disability sports. Using disability swimming as an example, methods of participant
observation, interview, survey and document analysis were undertaken in three
empirical studies to develop and clarify the classification model and three elements in
swimming classification- (a) the classification process, (b) classifiers and (c) the
classification system.
First, the swimming classification process was identified as a social process.
Members in the classification process socially interacted. The detailed classification
process was described, interpreted and discussed. Several features in the classification
process were identified. They included interaction among social actors, routinization,
rules in the process, resources used by classifiers, power relations among social actors,
allocation of rewards and sanctions in the classification process, and conflicts among
social actors.
Second, the role of classifiers as an agent of social control in disability
swimming was examined. Resources used by medical and technical classifiers in the
classification process to maintain their role and social order, and the socialization of
classifiers in swimming were specifically explored. In addition, the important
characteristics of swimming classifiers were identified in the study.
Third, classification outcomes in disability swimming were monitored to
evaluate the effectiveness of the classification system. Performance and impairment
approaches were used in the study. Data of performances and types of impairment of
Paralympic swimmers were analysed. The results revealed that the swimming
classification system was generally fair but some classes needed to be fine-tuned.
In this study elements of the classification model were clarified by integration of
the results of the three empirical studies and the classification literature. It is suggested
that researchers may use the concepts of the classification model for further investigationin disability sportc lassificationa nd disability sport committees may apply the model to systematicallye valuatet heir own classification systems, processes and
classifiers.


This manuscript is a result of discussions prior to and during the workshops "Impacts of Change In Climate and Atmospheric Chemistry on Northern Forest Ecosystems and Their Boundaries" (August 1987) and "Global Vegetation Change" (April 1988) and is an initial step in the development of a synthesis between realistic (e.g. biological-detail-rich) computer oriented models of forest and more mathematically, tractable, but simpler forest models. The work is focused on the boreal forests of the world (an important carbon reservoir and an important reserve of softwood timber). The boreal forests are also potentially strong impact systems under current scenarios of CO2-induced climate warming.

One purpose of building a model is to get an understanding of what may happen to the climate if, for example, all of the boreal belt were to disappear, or if its functional efficiency were to double. Could such a disappearance occur simultaneously with changes in the tropical forests? How would this change the exchange between atmosphere and the earth surface? The authors try to describe a forest (or vegetation as a whole) as a boundary layer between fast atmospheric processes and slow processes in soil and underground water systems, and consider the geometry of canopies and roots as a function of extremes corresponding to a stable equilibrium of soil and underground water systems.

The authors hope to consider these and similar problems during their continuing cooperation.


This paper presents an energy-efficient multi-plane optical interconnection network to interconnect servers in a data center. The novel architecture uses the time domain to individually address each port within a card and the space domain to address each card. Optical enabling technologies passively time-compress serial packets by exploiting the wavelength domain and perform a broadcast-and-select to a destination card with minimum power dissipation. Scalability of both the physical layer and the overall power dissipation of the architecture is shown to be enhanced with respect to the existing interconnection network architectures based on space and wavelength domains. The space-time network architecture is scalable up to 216 ports with space-switches exhibiting energy efficiency of the order of picojoules per bit, thanks to the self-enabled semiconductor-optical-amplifier-based space-switches.


Who or what counts as a feminist subject? This article considers the place of the child, in particular, within the framework of feminist theories of the subject. Locating these theories in a framework of 'oppositional' theory, the article asks how and when the child appears in this field of theory. Although children's oppression and representations of the child in culture have been continuously addressed in contemporary feminism at least since the 1970s, it is simultaneously the case that the child appears in feminism as well as other theories of the subject as the other to the presumed adult subject, even – and sometimes especially – when that subject is being retheorized in oppositional terms, that is, against a hegemonic order of things. The article focuses on instances of the child's appearance as a resource in feminist theories of the subject, and particularly in feminist uses of psychoanalysis. After considering male poststructuralist or postmodern uses of the child, this article contrasts their generic use of the child with feminist uses of psychoanalysis in the work of Valerie Walkerdine, Judith Butler and Teresa de Lauretis. Psychoanalysis, even in its feminist guises, emerges as a technology of childhood that figures the child as the adult's ontological origin, and as such an origin that the adult theorist can claim to know by way of psychoanalysis itself. Frequently constituted as a not-yet subject, the child stands in for this ontological origin, from which theorists of the subject, both feminist and not, refashion theories of subjective resistance to the very forms of power that make us subjects in the first place. Working both with and against feminist and other appropriations of the child by way of its ontological positioning, this article attempts to offer an alternative theorization of subjects that accounts for the differences between children and adults. While undercutting the claims to knowledge of the child as the site of human ontology, this alternative theorization also makes a claim to the transformative possibilities that have been located in ontology itself. In addressing feminist uses of the child together with theories of the feminist subject, this article speaks not only to questions of the child, but to the possibility of a feminist politics that begins from a position of privilege – that is, one that does not require subordination as a condition of its own possibility.


Phelps-Roper v. Koster, 734 F. Supp. 2d 870 (W.D. Mo. 2010). I. introduction The self-proclaimed "most hated family in America," the Phelpses of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), have caused great pain across the country. (1) Their highly publicized protests have sparked wide-ranging debate about what the First Amendment protects and where such protection ends. Members of the WBC believe that Americans ignore God's commandments by committing sins, particularly by supporting homosexuality, and that God exercises his rage and fury at this disobedience by causing catastrophic events and death. (2) WBC members picket near funerals to "warn society of God's wrath." (3) After the WBC held a picket near the funeral of a soldier in St. Joseph, Missouri, the state legislature enacted Missouri Revised Statutes sections 578.501 and 578.502. (4) These statutes prohibited protesting within a certain space and time at funerals. (5) On August 16, 2010, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri struck down the funeralprotest laws in Phelps-Roper v. Koster, holding that they were unconstitutional restrictions on free speech. (6) The case is now on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. (7) This Note will analyze the constitutionality of Missouri's funeral-protest statutes under the First Amendment. (8) This Note argues that, with certain changes, Missouri's funeral-protest statutes should pass constitutional muster. In Part II, this Note analyzes the facts and holding of Phelps-Roper v. Koster. Next, in Part III, this Note explores the legal background of the First Amendment, time, place, and manner restrictions, and how other courts have decided cases involving funeral-protest laws. Part IV examines the court's rationale in Phelps-Roper v. Koster. Lastly, Part V explains where the district court erred and how Missouri's funeral-protest statutes can be changed to become constitutional time, place, and manner restrictions. This Note concludes with a challenge to the Missouri legislature to draft and enact a constitutional funeral-protest statute and a hope that discussion by the Supreme Court of the United States will allow Missouri to do so. II. Facts And Holding Fred Phelps founded the WBC in Topeka, Kansas, in 1955. (9) Members of the WBC believe, among other things, that God punishes America for tolerating the "sin" of homosexuality by killing Americans. (10) The congregation engages in picketing and protesting to express its religious beliefs. (11) The WBC has participated in more than 47,000 anti-gay protests. (12) Many of these protests have taken place near the funerals of American soldiers. (13) The purpose is to warn mourners that unless they ask for forgiveness, they will suffer and die. (14) WBC members carry large, colorful signs that express messages such as "God Hates Fags," "Divorce Plus Remarriage Equals Adultery; God Hates Adultery," "God Hates the USA," "America is Doomed," "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "God is America's Terror," "Priests Rape Boys," "Fags Doom Nations," and "9-11: Gift from God." (15) only sixteen days after Missouri enacted its funeral-protest statutes, WBC member Shirley Phelps-Roper filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. (16) She sought entry of a declaratory judgment finding that the statutes were unconstitutional under the First Amendment as well as a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of the statutes. (17) Missouri Revised Statutes section 578.501.2 provided, inter alia: It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in picketing or other protest activities in front of or about any location at which a funeral is held, within one hour prior to the commencement of any funeral, and until one hour following the cessation of any funeral. Each day on which a violation occurs shall constitute a separate offense. …


It's Our Research provides a strategic framework for people who practice UX research who wish to be heard by their stakeholders.It gives you the techniques needed to involve stakeholders throughout the process of planning, execution, analysis, and reporting UX research. Dramatically increase the chances that product managers, engineers, and management agree to do research and act upon its results; follow Tomer Sharon's techniques and methods detailed inside.*Features a series of video interviews with UX practitioners and researchers *Provides dozens of case studies and visuals from international research practitioners *Provides a toolset that will help you justify your work to stakeholders, deal with office politics, and hone your client skills *Presents tried and tested techniques for working to reach positive, useful, and fruitful outcomes


The results achieved in a highly non-steady-state regime of stimulated Brillouin scattering with an iodine laser beam are presented. The input energy dependencies of beam divergence and reflected energy were obtained in one-lens and two-lens systems of beam insertion. In both cases the correction of the optical distortion of a launched beam wave front is attainable only for input energies lower than twice that of the threshold.


ABSTRACT The World Health Organization's Active Ageing policy framework highlights the need for economic and social engagement in communities to maintain and promote healthy ageing and quality of life. This framework does not address the needs of those living with long-term health conditions such as dementia. Although continued employment is not appropriate for all, it is possible for many living with dementia. Despite the numerous contributions that career counselling could make to support people living with dementia we found no consideration of the specific career development needs of people living with dementia in the literature. In this paper we outline the key role that career development professionals could play in the multi-disciplinary teams of professionals supporting persons living with dementia.


NOTE: Before purchasing, check with your instructor to ensure you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, and registrations are not transferable. To register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products, you may also need a Course ID, which your instructor will provide. Used books, rentals, and purchases made outside of Pearson If purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson, the access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included, may be incorrect, or may be previously redeemed. Check with the seller before completing your purchase. For courses in C++ Programming. Fundamentals of C++ for Novices and Experienced Programmers Alike Intended for use in a two-term, three-term, or accelerated one-term C++ programming sequence, this Ninth Edition of Starting Out with C++: Early Objects introduces the fundamentals of C++ to novices and experienced programmers alike. In clear, easy-to-understand terms, the text introduces all of the necessary topics for beginning C++ programmers. Real-world examples allow readers to apply their knowledge in understanding how, why, and when to implement the features of C++. The text is organized in a progressive, step-by-step fashion that allows for flexibility. Building on the popularity of previous editions, the Ninth Edition has been updated and enhanced with new material, including C++11 topics and recent changes in technology. 0134520521 / 9780134520520 Starting Out with C++: Early Objects Plus MyProgrammingLab with Pearson eText -- Access Card Package, 9/e Package consists of: 0134379543 / 9780134379548 MyProgrammingLab with Pearson eText -- Standalone Access Card -- for Starting Out With C++: Early Objects 0134400240 / 9780134400242 Starting Out with C++: Early Objects


Among the noise parameters expressed in the reflection coefficient form ( Fo, IFOI,
/Fo and rn ), the noise resistance rn is of critical importance lo the design of low-noise
receivers. Very low values of rn allow for optimizing the performance of broad band
amplifiers in receiver front-ends.
We here present an analysis performed on typical circuit models of FET's which was aimed at
assessing the key elements influencing the behavior of rn at microwave frequencies.
We found that the noise performance can be improved by tuning the value of the input (gate,
source) inductances which are responsible of the U shaped curves typically observed for rn in
MESFET's and HEMT's.


In Mobile networks the user's location, passwords might be used as authentication factor to provide security services for remote client authentication. In addition there are many typical authentication factors. In Location based Remote client Authentication Protocol for mobile environment (LRAP), combines several authentication factors to securely authenticate a mobile user. In LRAP, the user's location can be determined by a third party used by user's mobile for secure payment operations. This paper is to investigate a systematic approach to generate an encrypted data to real user mobile number along with decrypting key as SMS only when the location of credit card matches with the location of user's mobile in order to avoid unauthorized access of credit card.


Boundary objects are artifacts that reside in the interface between communities and are capable of bridging assumed and experienced differences. Bridging is not, however, necessarily a neutral or a consensual activity. With an emphasis on documents, the present article discusses the politics of boundary objects by analyzing the role of archaeological reports at boundaries between communities with conflicting interests. The analysis demonstrates and discusses the political and purposeful nature of boundary objects—how they are devices for creating and maintaining hegemonies within communities and achieving authority over other intersecting groups of people. The study uses the notion of hegemony and the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe (2001) to conceptualize the role of boundary objects as articulations of power and to explicate the dynamics of how the power is exercised. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The Patlak graphical method is widely used in parametric imaging for modeling irreversible radiotracer kinetics in dynamic PET. The net influx rate of radiotracer can be determined from the slope of the Patlak plot. The implementation of the standard Patlak method requires the knowledge of full-time input function from the injection time until the scan end time, which presents a challenge for use in the clinic. This paper proposes a new relative Patlak plot method that does not require early-time input function and therefore can be more efficient for parametric imaging. Theoretical analysis proves that the effect of early-time input function is a constant scaling factor on the Patlak slope estimation. Thus, the parametric image of the slope of the relative Patlak plot is related to the parametric image of standard Patlak slope by a global scaling factor. This theoretical finding has been further demonstrated by computer simulation and real patient data. The study indicates that parametric imaging of the relative Patlak slope can be used as a substitute of parametric imaging of standard Patlak slope for tasks that do not require absolute quantification, such as lesion detection and tumor volume segmentation.


Digital information technology always needs more information about object and its relations. Thus, three-dimensional (3D) models of historical structures are created for visualize and documentation of them. Laser scanner performs collecting spatial data with fast and high density. 3D modeling is extensively performed by terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) with high accuracy. At the same time, point cloud registration of large scale objects must be performed precisely for high accuracy 3D modeling. In this study, 3D model was created by measuring the historical Mevlana Museum in Konya with terrestrial laser scanner. Outside and inside point clouds were registered relation one of the point clouds selected from the measurements. In addition accuracy evaluation was performed for created point cloud model. In addition, important details were specifically imaged by mapping photographs onto the point cloud and detail measurements were given.


While private actions for damages by customers against price-cartels receive much attention, the treatment of other groups affected by such conspiracies is largely unresolved. This article narrows the research gap with respect to suppliers to a downstream price cartel. First, we show that such suppliers incur losses driven by a direct quantity, a price and a cost effect. We then analyze whether suppliers are entitled to claim these losses as damages in the two leading competition law regimes. We find that, while the majority view in the US denies standing, the emerging position in the EU and important member states is to grant supplier standing. We argue that this can indeed be justified in view of the different institutional context and the goals assigned to the right to damages in the EU. We finally present an econometric approach based on residual demand estimation that allows to quantify all determinants of cartel suppliers' damages, thereby showing that supplier damage claims are a viable option in practice that can contribute to full compensation and greater cartel deterrence.


We investigated a hypersaline, seasonally isolated marine basin (SIMB) in the Canadian High Arctic to elucidate the role of brine rejection, tidal forcing, and groundwater input over the formation of hypersalinity. Analyses of physical parameters and seasonal sampling of ionic and isotopic composition were carried out on a coastal basin near Shellabear Point, Melville Island, Northwest Territories (75°N, 113°W). Observations reveal daily and seasonal variability in the water column due to a seasonal tidal connection during the ice‐free season, which lasts substantially longer than the period of freshwater inflow from the catchment. An ice formation model of the volume of brine rejected from surface ice formed from marine water indicates that rapid saline enrichment of the basin due to ice formation is possible from tidally replenished marine water, and that the current hypersalinity may have formed in less than a decade. Modeled isotopic composition of brines are consistent with observations and provide an alternative to freshwater isotopic dilution suggested by other workers. A tidal connection is a critical consideration in lake evolution, and many hypersaline polar lakes could have developed their current chemical composition before full marine isolation. By contrast, in some coastal lakes, marine stratification caused by ice shelves before isolation provides a setting for minimal brine formation and subsequent meromictic conditions to develop. Hence, the marine setting at the time of isolation represents a key factor in explaining divergent lake chemical evolution in the High Arctic.


Abstract Research on the impact of professional development and mentoring in the activities of K‐12 classroom teachers and their positive effects has been widely documented (Borko, Davinroy, Bliem, & Cumbo, 2000; Broaddus & Bloodgood, 1999; Lyons, 1991; Richardson, 1999). However, comparatively little is known about the effect of professional development and mentoring on the lives of teacher educators. This study examines the impact of professional networks that include mentoring activities in higher education. Since the late 1990's, teacher educators from institutions across a southeastern state have participated in a state‐funded reading consortium designed to improve the literacy performance of P‐12 students. In an effort to better understand the impact of this network, this qualitative inquiry explored the development of this consortium and the impact of involvement in this state‐wide reading consortium on literacy teacher educators. Primary data sources focused on indepth interviews with members involved in the reading consortium for two or more years. Secondary data sources included (a) interviews with informants from various state agencies who had worked directly with the consortium, (b) course syllabi, and (c) consortium minutes, accountability documents and publicity documents. Constant comparative analysis of the data and follow up member checks revealed the nature of the collaborative network which emerged within this consortium and the ways in which this collaboration intensified over time and impacted both state initiatives and teacher educators. Specific positive impacts were apparent with respect to teacher education and professional development and with regard to the reshaping of literacy teacher‐educators professional lives as educators and researchers. Finally, the findings underscore the importance of support, through collegial and mentoring relationships as well as through state funding on professional development of the research and teaching lives of literacy teacher educators.


The value of the skills in an economy depends in part on the quality and quantity of the supply and in part on the demand for skills. In Ghana the pattern of job creation over the last decade has been one where non-farm self-employment and jobs in small firms have exploded in importance relative to jobs in the formal sector. While there has been extensive research on the returns to education, there has been much less on the returns to skills training. In Ghana there is a highly developed apprenticeship system where young men and women undertake sector specific training which is paid for usually by those responsible for the apprentice and which yields skills used primarily in the informal sector. In this paper we use a recent urban based household survey with detailed questions on the background, training and earnings of workers in both wage and selfemployment to ask how apprenticeship compares with other forms of training in terms of pay and employment outcomes. We show that apprenticeship is by far the most important institution providing training and is undertaken primarily by those with junior secondary school or lower levels of education. In comparing those with some form of training to those with none, training to be a nurse or teacher gives by far the highest return, a three fold increase in earnings. In contrast those who have done an apprenticeship earn significantly less than those with no training. Once an allowance is made for the level at which the apprentice enters the system there is evidence that for those with the lowest level of education apprenticeship does lead to a substantial increase in earnings, some 41 per cent. For those with higher levels of education it does not lead to any increase at all. In fact the point estimates imply a decrease. We argue that the reasons for undertaking an apprenticeship can be found, in part, in the powerful effect undertaking an apprenticeship has in increasing the probability of informal employment relative to having no job. In contrast to these outcomes for apprentices we show that training to be a nurse or teacher not only pays off in earnings but substantially shifts the probability of being in formal relative to informal employment. In summary these forms of training, one undertaken in the private sector and the other in the public sector, are associated with radically different outcomes for those receiving the training. The data used in this paper were collected by the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford, in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Office (GSO) in 2006. The survey was funded in part by the Department for International Development (DfID) of the UK as part of its work on assessing the outcomes of education and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the Global Poverty Research Group. We have been assisted by numerous collaborators in enabling us to collect this data. We are also greatly indebted to Moses Awoonor-Williams, Geeta Kingdon and Andrew Zeitlin for their assistance in the design and implementation of the survey.


Label-free optical bionsensors are known to be accurate and reliable tools for measuring and monitoring certain biomolecular interactions. In recent years, new techniques and technologies have emerged that enable high-throughput biosensing at lower system size, cost, and complexity. In particular, the LED-based Interferometric Reflectance Imaging Sensor (IRIS) has been demonstrated as a viable alternative to previously established high-end biosensors and its effectiveness can be augmented by the calibrated fluorescence enhancement (CaFE) technique. While IRIS enables highthroughput detection, its movement towards low-cost and field portability has introduced new processing challenges. Since the nature of the processing lends itself well to data level parallelism, it is natural to explore single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) architectures to improve processing performance. NVIDIA's CUDA technology enables parallel computing on compatible graphics processing units (GPUs) and is an ideal platform for exploiting data level parallelization. A CUDA implementation of the CaFE/IRIS model has been developed, yielding significant performance improvements over the current MATLAB implementation.


This paper studies how private information is incorporated into prices, using a unique setting from the eighteenth century that is closer to stylized models of price discovery than modern-day markets. Specifically, the paper looks at English securities traded in both London and Amsterdam. Private information reached Amsterdam through sailing boats that sailed only twice a week and in adverse weather could not sail at all. Results are consistent with a Kyle model in which informed agents trade strategically. Most importantly, the speed of information revelation in Amsterdam depended on the expected time until the private signal would become public.


Since the end of the Cold War, European regional organizations have been engaged in promoting the core norms of the emerging pan-European liberal international community in Eastern Europe: democracy and human rights (including minority rights) and the peaceful and integrative settlement of international and interethnic conflicts. When were these efforts effective? Starting from the two most prominent models in the literature on international norm promotion–the social learning model and the external incentives model–the paper uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine the conditions under which governments in eastern Europe have complied with the political demands of European regional organizations. It shows that a credible perspective of EU and/or NATO accession combined with low political adaptation costs for the target governments was a sufficient condition for compliance; it thus corroborates the external incentives model. However, in the final phase of accession negotiations, a positive identification with the West proved sufficient as well–even when compliance threatened the survival of the government. By contrast, the other conditions of the social learning model (legitimacy and resonance) were irrelevant to the effectiveness of international norm promotion.


The iron oxidation state in silicate melts is important for understanding their physical properties, although it is most often used to estimate the oxygen fugacity of magmatic systems. Often high spatial resolution analyses are required, yet the available techniques, such as μXANES and μMössbauer, require synchrotron access. The flank method is an electron probe technique with the potential to measure Fe oxidation state at high spatial resolution but requires careful method development to reduce errors related to sample damage, especially for hydrous glasses. The intensity ratios derived from measurements on the flanks of FeLα and FeLβ X‐rays (FeLβf/FeLαf) over a time interval (time‐dependent ratio flank method) can be extrapolated to their initial values at the onset of analysis. We have developed and calibrated this new method using silicate glasses with a wide range of compositions (43–78 wt% SiO2, 0–10 wt% H2O, and 2–18 wt% FeOT, which is all Fe reported as FeO), including 68 glasses with known Fe oxidation state. The Fe oxidation state (Fe/FeT) of hydrous (0–4 wt% H2O) basaltic (43–56 wt% SiO2) and peralkaline (70–76 wt% SiO2) glasses with FeOT > 5 wt% can be quantified with a precision of ±0.03 (10 wt% FeOT and 0.5 Fe/FeT) and accuracy of ±0.1. We find basaltic and peralkaline glasses each require a different calibration curve and analysis at different spatial resolutions (~20 and ~60 μm diameter regions, respectively). A further 49 synthetic glasses were used to investigate the compositional controls on redox changes during electron beam irradiation, where we found that the direction of redox change is sensitive to glass composition. Anhydrous alkali‐poor glasses become reduced during analysis, while hydrous and/or alkali-rich glasses become oxidized by the formation of magnetite nanolites identified using Raman spectroscopy. The rate of reduction is controlled by the initial oxidation state, whereas the rate of oxidation is controlled by SiO2, Fe, and H2O content.


The main focus of this research is to estimate the ability of a liquid desiccant (LD) system operation to remove microorganism particles. The dehumidification performance of the LD systems generated by using a lithium chloride (LiCl) solution as the liquid desiccant material. To verify the removal performance of microorganism particles, the experimental method was divided into cases where the process air passed or bypassed the LD unit. Two types of microorganism particles, bacteria and mold, were considered for the measurement of the microorganism particles, with a minimum fan flow rate (800 m 3 /h). To verify the accuracy of the experiment, a duct system and an LD system were sealed with duct tape to prevent air leakage. Experimental results were obtained with a bio-contaminant sampler using a tryptic soy agar (TSA) and a potato dextrose agar (PDA). The measuring points were situated at a same distance from the liquid desiccant system inlet and outlet duct. The results show that the LD system has the ability to remove microorganism contaminants. The bacteria removal efficiencies were 77.5% and 81.3% for the sampling process air of 200 and 500 L, respectively, while the fungi removal efficiencies were 38.8% and 44.4% for 200 and 500 L, respectively, of sampling process air. In addition, experiment results show that the LD system significantly affected the removal of microorganism contaminants. When the process air passed through the LD unit, microorganism contaminants contained in the process air were inactivated by the sanitizing effect of the desiccant solution or by filtering of the LD unit.


The wrong application of laterite is one of the major causes of road failure in Nigeria, some road infrastructures in Nigeria are not sustainable and durable owing to the fact that the lateritic materials used as backfill material were not adequate enough to sustain the road over a considerable period of time, this, therefore, affects the durability of the road. In this study, the author has analyzed lateritic soil obtained from Awgu local government area in Enugu state, South East Nigeria, using basic prominent geotechnical laboratory tests. According to the results obtained, the sample in consideration had less than 35% by weight of sample passing through sieve 85,120,150,170 and 240. The sample had a liquid limit of 60%, plastic limit of 44.15%, plasticity index of 15.85%, a specific gravity of 2.49 and average moisture content of 12%. The California bearing ratio ranged from 29% to 77%. All the results above were analyzed according to the Federal Ministry of works specifications. This study has shown that the soil in consideration here is a good backfill material for sub-base and base material for highway construction, however, it is recommended that little improvement should be made on the soil in other to upgrade its ability to remain sustainable and durable over a considerable period of time.


8013 Background: Inhibition of PARP and thus Base Excision Repair has been shown to potentiate the cytotoxicity of DNA damaging agents preclinically. A Phase I study of AG014699 + TMZ reported at ASCO 2005 showed that a full dose of TMZ could be given in the presence of profound PARP inhibition. We report the results of a Phase II study of AG014699 12 mg/m2 and TMZ 200 mg/m2 5x daily q 4 weekly in patients with advanced MM. This Phase II study commenced in March 2005 and completed recruitment in December 2005.

METHODS
Patients with measurable MM who were chemotherapy naïve, performance status ≤ 2, and had standard blood indices for early trials were recruited. Patients with ocular melanoma or brain metastases were excluded. Treatment was given until progression, with repeat imaging every 2 cycles. A two stage phase II design was used, with the hypothesis to be tested that the response rate to TMZ would be increased to 25%. α and β error rates were set at 0.10. 27 patients were recruited into the first stage with continuation to 40 patients if ≥3 partial responses were observed. Results 40 patients who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were recruited and treated. The required 3 responses were seen at an early stage. More enhancement of TMZ associated myelosuppression by the addition of AG014699 has been observed compared to the phase I study (Grade 4 thrombocytopenia 12% cycles, grade 4 neutropenia 15% to date). There has been one toxic death in cycle 1 (febrile neutropenia), 3 further patients hospitalised with myelosuppression and 12 patients in total requiring dose reduction of TMZ to 150 mg/m2 (1 to 100 mg/m2). All of these patients continued treatment at the reduced dose. Other toxicities have been fatigue and mild nausea. Currently there are 4 confirmed partial responses, 4 prolonged disease stabilisations and 20 patients are too early to evaluate. Conclusions The combination of TMZ and AG014666 shows encouraging activity in MM. Myelosuppression is greater than would be expected with single agent TMZ. PARP expression and activity in blood cells and tumour will be correlated with the mature outcome data from the trial. [Table: see text].


Machines that are used in industry often require dedicated technicians to fix them in case of defects. This involves travel expenses and certain amount of time, both of which may be significantly reduced by installing small extensions on a machine as we describe in this paper. The goal is that an authorized local worker, guided by a remote expert, can fix the problem on the real machine himself. Our approach is to equip a machine with multiple inexpensive LEDs (light-emitting diodes) and a simple micro controller, which is connected to the internet, to remotely light up certain LEDs, that are close to machine parts of interest. The blinking of an LED can be induced on a virtual 3D model (digital twin) of the machine by a remote expert using a virtual reality application to draw the local worker's attention to certain areas. We conducted an initial user study on this concept with 36 participants and found significantly shorter completion times and less errors for our approach compared to only voice guidance with no visual LED feedback.


Laura Levine Frader's synthesis of labor history and gender history brings to the fore failures in realizing the French social model of equality for all citizens. Challenging previous scholarship, she argues that the male breadwinner ideal was stronger in France in the interwar years than scholars have typically recognized, and that it had negative consequences for women's claims to the full benefits of citizenship. She describes how ideas about masculinity, femininity, family, and work affected post–World War I reconstruction, policies designed to address France's postwar population deficit, and efforts to redefine citizenship in the 1920s and 1930s. She demonstrates that gender divisions and the male breadwinner ideal were reaffirmed through the policies and practices of labor, management, and government. The social model that France implemented in the 1920s and 1930s incorporated fundamental social inequalities.

Frader's analysis moves between the everyday lives of ordinary working women and men and the actions of national policymakers, political parties, and political movements, including feminists, pro-natalists, and trade unionists. In the years following World War I, the many women and an increasing number of immigrant men in the labor force competed for employment and pay. Family policy was used not only to encourage reproduction but also to regulate wages and the size of the workforce. Policies to promote married women's and immigrants' departure from the labor force were more common when jobs were scarce, as they were during the Depression. Frader contends that gender and ethnicity exerted a powerful and unacknowledged influence on French social policy during the Depression era and for decades afterward.


Human observers can learn to recognize new categories of images from a handful of examples, yet doing so with artificial ones remains an open challenge. We hypothesize that data-efficient recognition is enabled by representations which make the variability in natural signals more predictable. We therefore revisit and improve Contrastive Predictive Coding, an unsupervised objective for learning such representations. This new implementation produces features which support state-of-the-art linear classification accuracy on the ImageNet dataset. When used as input for non-linear classification with deep neural networks, this representation allows us to use 2-5x less labels than classifiers trained directly on image pixels. Finally, this unsupervised representation substantially improves transfer learning to object detection on the PASCAL VOC dataset, surpassing fully supervised pre-trained ImageNet classifiers.


A mechanism-free ornithopter, also referred to as a "solid-state" ornithopter, works based on utilizing piezocomposite actuators to achieve heaving and pitching motions for producing lift and thrust. A set of piezocomposite actuators are attached to a composite substrate, and as the piezocomposite devices are excited, a flapping motion is generated due to the induced strain. Previously, parametric studies were conducted on a rectangular wing model as well as a wing-like planform using the finite element method. In this article, a new parameterized model for the wing planform is introduced. This model makes it possible to analyze the response of a parametric wing to variations of critical shape parameters. A preliminary analysis is conducted based on the model to explore the effects of each parameter on flight performance metrics. Furthermore, an optimization framework is developed to search for the optimal set of parameters that achieve best performance. The framework utilizes a single objective genetic algorithm optimizer, and the response is predicted using a parameterized finite element model. The convergence of the genetic algorithm is checked using well-known test functions with similar input space and specifications as the wing models considered. Parameters of the genetic algorithm are tuned to achieve convergence to global optima. The framework is used to optimize the geometry of the wing planform for a variety of performance metrics.


The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines hold great promise for preventing several cancers caused by HPV infections. Yet little attention has been given to whether HPV could respond evolutionarily to the new selection pressures imposed on it by the novel immunity response created by the vaccine. Here, we present and theoretically validate a mechanism by which the vaccine alters the transmission–recovery trade-off that constrains HPV's virulence such that higher oncogene expression is favoured. With a high oncogene expression strategy, the virus is able to increase its viral load and infected cell population before clearance by the vaccine, thus improving its chances of transmission. This new rapid cell-proliferation strategy is able to circulate between hosts with medium to high turnover rates of sexual partners. We also discuss the importance of better quantifying the duration of challenge infections and the degree to which a vaccinated host can shed virus. The generality of the models presented here suggests a wider applicability of this mechanism, and thus highlights the need to investigate viral oncogenicity from an evolutionary perspective.


Creativity is commonly recognized as a complex phenomenon; one which entails a range of debates around definition, process and product, domain specificity, cross-discipline generalisability, and appropriate testing measures. The psychology of creativity appears to find a fitting home in dance science, a field concerned with understanding and enhancing dancers' health and performance. Yet dance psychology has been predominated by research which focuses on the mental processes underpinning optimal skill execution and technical performance. This paper outlines an argument for a greater focus on the creative demands of dance within dance science, highlighting some the challenges of, and barriers to, research in the psychology of creativity in dance, before making a number of recommendations to encourage the growth of this important research area.


Fault-vein architecture and scaling properties from the Cracow epithermal Au-Ag deposit, Australia, are compared with observations from active geothermal areas. Typical fault system features are revealed, such as segmentation, increased fracturing in step-over zones, and bifurcation at fault-vein tips. The ratio of maximum fault displacement (D) versus fault length (L) matches the ratio for global fault datasets. However, mineralisation occurs in a variety of fault locations (segments, stepovers, tip-zones etc) and this indicates geometry is not a predictor of where epithermal deposits may be found. Fault kinematics are also complex, with slickenfibres, stratigraphic offsets and wall rock vein orientations indicating the system was dominated by normal dip-slip, with transient oblique and strike-slip increments. Such complexity is to be expected because fault behaviour in active geothermal fields is remarkably varied, due to interaction with intrusions and fluctuating pore fluid pressures. In contrast, the correspondence with global D-L ratios suggests across-strike spacing of mineralised lodes may be predictable, even in kinematically complex systems. Furthermore, geophysical and borehole observations of active geothermal fields indicate there is potential for epithermal-type fault-vein systems to form at depths greater than 1 km.


Abstract Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells which tend to invade surrounding tissue and spread to organs of the body. One treatment in cancer patients is to use chemotherapy. The side effects of chemotherapy are diverse, including nausea vomiting, anorexia which led to weight loss. The purpose of this research was to know body mass index in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The methods used in this research was descriptive. This research was conducted at the RSUD Arifin Achmad Pekanbaru involving 51 respondents with sampling method was purposive sampling. Univariate analysis was used. The research results obtained here the respondents on IMT status normal was 25 respondents (49%), fat obese I8 respondents (15.7%), skinny light level as much as 7 respondents (13.7), skinny weight levels as much as 6 respondents (11.8), obese II obese 4 respondents (7.8), fat level lightweight as much as 1 respondents (2%). The results of this research are expected to give an overview to the medical personnel associated with the status of the IMT in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, so that it can monitor and minimize the disruption to the nutrition in patients undergoing chemotherapy . Keywords : BMI, cancer, chemotherapy.


How should an emerging democracy cope with the legacy of an ousted repressive regime? How can a new society redress past abuses without creating new injustices, while peacefully integrating the victims and the perpetrators?By bringing together the collective experience of numerous countries and cultures over the past fifty years, this three-volume compilation of readings provides an invaluable resource for government officials, private organizations, scholars, and others involved in the transitions of today and tomorrow.


We consider a model for a serial supply chain in which production, inventory, and transportation decisions are integrated in the presence of production capacities and concave cost functions. The model we study generalizes the uncapacitated serial single-item multilevel economic lot-sizing model by adding stationary production capacities at the manufacturer level. We present algorithms with a running time that is polynomial in the planning horizon when all cost functions are concave. In addition, we consider different transportation and inventory holding cost structures that yield improved running times: inventory holding cost functions that are linear and transportation cost functions that are either linear, or are concave with a fixed-charge structure. In the latter case, we make the additional common and reasonable assumption that the variable transportation and inventory costs are such that holding inventories at higher levels in the supply chain is more attractive from a variable cost perspective. While the running times of the algorithms are exponential in the number of levels in the supply chain in the general concave cost case, the running times are remarkably insensitive to the number of levels for the other two cost structures.


Wind power is the most mature green energy source in electric power systems and is now a booming worldwide industry. The use of wind power is growing rapidly throughout the world to reduce environmental degradation. Due to global environmental concerns and public awareness, many power utilities around the world are considering wind energy as a substitute for conventional generation. Many governments already have energy plans and policies in place to ensure significant increase in power generation using wind energy within designated time periods. The wind is variable, site specific and is an intermittent source of energy. It is therefore a complex task to analyze generating system capacity adequacy considering wind energy. The growing application of wind power dictates the need to develop methods to evaluate the system reliability and the capacity value of wind power. Wind is generally considered to be a source of energy, rather than a power source. It is equally important however, to consider the capacity credit of wind power as its penetration increases in electric power systems. It is very important for both electric power utilities and wind power developers to accurately assess wind capacity credit and therefore it is necessary to study and develop different methodologies for performing this task. The research presented in this thesis examines a range of methods used for the evaluation of wind capacity credit using data from four wind sites in Saskatchewan. The techniques, methods and results presented in this thesis should prove to be valuable for system planners assessing generating capacity adequacy evaluation incorporating wind energy.


Through the application of the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, this study investigates the key factors affecting the adoption of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in Egypt. This study has adopted a quantitative methodology to answer the research questions and test the proposed sixteen hypotheses. The research sample of this study included 600 Egyptian respondents. Regression Analysis has been conducted as a major evaluation of the research model and associated hypotheses.
The constructs that have been empirically tested in the extended UTAUT2 model are: Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Hedonic Motivation (HM), Habit (HI) and Facilitating Conditions (FC). Age, gender and experience moderate the relationship for the six independent variables and the dependent variable except for Performance Expectancy (PE) construct that was only moderated by age and gender. The proposed additional constructs for this model are on-line satisfaction (OS), on-line interactivity (OI), on-line trust (OT) and on-line security (OSY).
The major findings of this study show that there is an effect of the established factors: Effort Expectancy, Hedonic Motivation and Facilitating Conditions, Social Influence, on-line Trust, on-line Satisfaction and on-line Interactivity on Egyptian consumers' intention to adopt B2C e-commerce. In addition, the effect of moderator's factors: age, gender, and experience have been absent in this study. Accordingly, seven hypotheses have been proven, while nine have been rejected.
The study further discusses significant implications for marketers, on-line vendors and the Egyptian Government. In addition to presenting the important theoretical and practical contributions, this study also recommends directions for future related research. By specifically examining the Egyptian consumer, this study is the first of its kind to empirically examine B2C adoption in Egypt. Thus, it expands the body of knowledge in the field of B2C adoption and usage, which the existing literature has failed to provide an extensive understanding of B2C in the Arab World's most populous country. This study is also the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting B2C by Egyptian consumers and to develop the (UTAUT3) model.


David Colander's update/reworking of his 1987 volume draws conclusions about graduate study in economics from interviews with students in selected leading U.S. programs. Although not formally statistical, the interviews support the conclusion that most of the core of graduate instruction (except macro) is handled very well. Colander's concern about the lack of attention to training teachers is well founded. His conclusion that fewer idiots savants are being trained than in the 1980s is overly optimistic, and his worry about stresses that graduate students express is misplaced.


In this paper, we investigate aspects of interaction design related to the appearance and context of dual-natured design objects, meaning artefacts with physical form and digital behaviour. In interaction design of today there is a focus on isolated artefacts/objects, but does not involve the context in the sense that it is a vital part of its design and expression. We argue for interaction designers to take respect to the dependency of computational design objects to their context in greater extent. We would like to ask interaction designers to look at their work as part of a whole, where their creations will influence / be influenced by the rest. A workshop method named 'Missing Link' used in teaching is proposed here. The workshop confronts questions on how to give up control of your design and at the same time in a creative way exploit the available rules of the bigger system.


[From the introduction]. The European Union is the world's largest exporter of goods and services and the world's largest market. It is also a key player in multilateral trade negotiations. It is, however, an unusual 'trade power' in that it is an international organisation, as well as an international actor. This means that its negotiating positions reflect the aggregation of the preferences of the governments of its member states. In the EU trade policy literature this situation is usually captured by the metaphor of the 'three level game:' domestic, European and international. In practice, however, the tendency has been to treat the member states' positions as given, effectively collapsing the three-level game into a two-level game with the European level as the 'domestic' level. Moreover, the member states' preferences regarding liberalisation or protectionism are taken to be fairly stable. This paper argues that while there is some merit in such assumptions they are becoming increasingly unsustainable. This paper argues that the member states' trade policy preferences are shifting and becoming more complex for four reasons, most of which are common to all developed states. First, particularly since the mid-1990s the benefits of free trade have come to be widely accepted within the EU for reasons both of interests and ideas. Second, trade policy is no longer just about tariffs and quotas. The increasing attention to the trade effects of regulatory measures both engages many more actors in trade policy and alters the cost-benefit assessment of liberalisation. Third, in part in response to the changing nature of trade, a 'deep trade agenda' – focusing on developing common rules, rather than just disciplining national ones – has emerged. Fourth, trade policy is no longer about just trade. Particularly since the failed World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial in Seattle in December 1999, trade policy has become framed as an instrument to foster development. Given these changes more attention needs to be paid to the trade politics within the member states, implying a more thorough application of the three-level game, if we are to understand the EU's trade policy preferences. The paper begins by drawing a distinction between positions and preferences and states and governments, before examining the analysis of trade policy making and the assumptions about member state positions. It then explores a number of factors contributing to the member governments' preferences with regard to traditional, at-the-border trade policy, before describing the changes to trade policy and politics and exploring their implications for the trade policy preferences of the governments of the member states. It illustrates these changes with examples from the formation and development of the EU's negotiating position in the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks. It concludes by drawing out the implications for EU trade policy and its analysis and for international political economy more generally.


Dietary Supplement Intake in Greek Team Sports Athletes
The scope of this study was to research the use of dietary supplements by athletes in team sports. More specifically, it was to compare the frequency, type and reasons for consumption, as well as the nutritional influences, sources of information and the purchase outlets between men and women among levels of performance and among training volumes. A total of 1,811 athletes from team sports (handball, basketball, volleyball, soccer and water polo) participated in the study. All participants responded to a questionnaire and were asked to record each supplement they currently were taking or had been taking over the last six months. The results showed that 36.7% of the sample used dietary supplements. Dietary supplements were significantly lower for those in volleyball than those in other sports (F=5.2, p<0.001). Female athletes consumed significantly fewer dietary supplements than their male counterparts (χ2=12.00, p<0.001). The higher the level of achievement (χ2=196.6, P<0.001) or training volume (χ2=48.25, p<0.001), the higher the percentage of athletes who consumed supplements. They preferred to consume mainly proteins (43.8%) with an aim to primarily increase endurance (34.8%). The coach (34.0%) was the major dietary counselor for the majority of athletes, while pharmaceutical outlets were the main providers. It is worth noting that 16.1% of athletes were unaware of the names of the products they were using.


Despite the fact that the retail manager's role is determinant for a store's performance, and there is abundant wisdom about how to be an outstanding manager or what are the characteristics of a successful retail manager, there is no detailed description about the store managers' role or their actual work. Furthermore, the continuous developments in the retail sector have established different roles and created higher levels of responsibility for store managers. The aim of the present paper is to empirically investigate the role of retail store managers in Greece and identify any potential differences in terms of personal characteristics, tasks and various job-related factors. For the purposes of this research a survey was conducted focusing on the sectors of apparel/footwear and food, in an attempt to explore any potential differences within the two divisions. The results revealed the profile of the Greek store managers (male, over the age of 40, with a secondary level of education and more than five years of work experience) and their multi-factor role. The three major roles that they perform were labeled as: sales oriented, supervisor, and customer experience oriented. The research also indicated that the two most popular sub-sectors in the Greek retail industry employ different profile managers. The issues of work experience, job satisfaction and security were also analysed.


This paper uses Demographic and Health Surveys data from about 30 sub-Saharan African countries to investigate the link between the birth of an ?unintended child? and schooling decisions of children (dropout and entry). After controlling for local unobserved heterogeneity, we show that, the birth of an ?unintended child? hinders child schooling. It reduces the probability of current school enrolment. As for school dynamics, it increases the probability that a child aged 6 to 18 years drops out of school and it decreases the probability that a child aged 6 to 9 years starts schooling. This result suggests that, the unexpected birth of a child strengthens household?s resources constraints and reduces human capital investments. The results also highlight the importance of the timing of the unexpected birth and the heterogeneity of the effect according to child characteristics.


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis affects primarily postmenopausal middle-aged and older women. Total joint replacement is one of the surgical treatment options for symptomatic advanced degenerative changes of the carpometacarpal joint. This study aims to evaluate the short-term functional and radiological results of the Ivory® prosthesis with the minimum followup period of three years after the surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS Presented are the results of 48 total trapeziometacarpal joint replacements in the group of 40 patients composed of 36 women and 4 men. The age of patients ranges from 41 to 75 years (median 56 years), with the ratio between the dominant and non-dominant upper extremity 23:25. The follow-up period ranged from 36 to 63 months (median 52 months). The surgery was indicated in patients with symptomatic trapeziometacarpal arthrosis of stage II, III and early stage IV according to Eaton-Glickel once the conservative therapy had failed. In all the patients, the evaluation of the function and pain of the operated joint by DASH score, the range of motion –thumb opposition by Kapandji score were carried out at regular intervals preand postoperatively, the radiological evaluation of the stage of degenerative joint condition was done preoperatively, whereas the position of the implant and the lengthening of the first column of the finger were assessed postoperatively. RESULTS Subjectively, the patients were satisfied with the result of the surgery. After the joint replacement, in 65% of cases the patients reported full satisfaction with no difficulties present, in 31% of cases the patients suffered from pain during loading, in 4% of cases the patients reported also occasional pain at rest. Postoperatively, the total DASH score values decreased from the mean preoperative value of 52.79 to 10.4 points at a three-year follow-up. The average value of pain dropped from 3.46 to 1.44 points 3 years after the surgery. The average range of motion – thumb opposition by Kapandji score increased from 8.57/10 to 9.85/10 one year after the surgery. The difference between the values of average increase in length of the first column of the finger was 0.14 mm in favour of the sub-group of symptomatic cases. In the evaluated group, the need for revision was determined in 4 implants. In 1case for aseptic loosening of the cup and three times for dislocation. After 36 months, 47 of 48 implants were in situ, the overall three-year survival was achieved in 97.9%. The most frequent postoperative complication was the occurrence of De Quervain s tenosynovitis (10%). DISCUSSION Currently, most of the newer types of modular uncemented hydroxyapatite-coated total "ball and socket" joint replacements present acceptable medium-term, and in some cases even long-term, results regarding the survival. The most pressing issue continues to be the survival of implants, particularly the failure of the trapezial component and the associated risk of revision surgery. Good postoperative results can be achieved by accurate indication, carefully applied cup implant and good postoperative cooperation of patients. The complementary study did not confirm that the lengthening of the thumb causes the postoperative development of De Quervain s tenosynovitis. CONCLUSIONS The uncemented first carpometacarpal joint total replacement using the Ivory® prosthesis brings about very good shortterm functional and radiological results, with no occurrence of early aseptic loosening of the implant.