IPTV is increasingly being deployed and offered as a commercial service to residential broadband customers. Compared with traditional ISP networks, an IPTV distribution network (i) typically adopts a hierarchical instead of mesh-like structure, (ii) imposes more stringent requirements on both reliability and performance, (iii) has different distribution protocols (which make heavy use of IP multicast) and traffic patterns, and (iv) faces more serious scalability challenges in managing millions of network elements. These unique characteristics impose tremendous challenges in the effective management of IPTV network and service.
 In this paper, we focus on characterizing and troubleshooting performance issues in one of the largest IPTV networks in North America. We collect a large amount of measurement data from a wide range of sources, including device usage and error logs, user activity logs, video quality alarms, and customer trouble tickets. We develop a novel diagnosis tool called Giza that is specifically tailored to the enormous scale and hierarchical structure of the IPTV network. Giza applies multi-resolution data analysis to quickly detect and localize regions in the IPTV distribution hierarchy that are experiencing serious performance problems. Giza then uses several statistical data mining techniques to troubleshoot the identified problems and diagnose their root causes. Validation against operational experiences demonstrates the effectiveness of Giza in detecting important performance issues and identifying interesting dependencies. The methodology and algorithms in Giza promise to be of great use in IPTV network operations.


This paper analyses how four Australian state parliaments debate the rights implications of anti-bikie bills that restrict various individual rights. It focuses on three state parliaments–those of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales–which have committees that scrutinise all bills for their rights implications and it compares the debate in these parliaments with that of South Australia where such systematic rights-scrutiny of all bills is absent. The paper considers whether the existence of a formal parliamentary committee for rights-scrutiny strengthens or diminishes the process of parliamentary scrutiny of bills for their rights implications. Overall the paper argues that, regardless of the system in place, parliamentary rights-scrutiny remains weak in the four surveyed Australian states when parliaments debate law and order bills. However, this weakness is manifested in different ways, with full and frank rights-deliberation deficient in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales and systematic and well-informed rights-scrutiny absent in South Australia.


Background Furred pets in the household are known reservoirs for pathogenic bacteria, but it is not known if transmission of bacteria between pet and owner leads to significantly increased rate of infections. We studied whether cats and dogs living in the household of pregnant women affect the commensal vaginal flora, and furthermore the need for oral antibiotics and rate of urinary tract infections during pregnancy. Methods The novel unselected Copenhagen Prospective Study on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC2010) pregnancy cohort of 709 women participated in this analysis. Detailed information on pet exposure, oral antibiotic prescriptions filled at pharmacy and urinary tract infection during pregnancy was obtained and verified prospectively during clinic visits. Vaginal cultures were obtained at pregnancy week 36. Results Women, who had cat or dog in the home during pregnancy, had a different vaginal flora, in particular with increased Escherichia coli (E. coli) colonization; odds ratio after adjustment for lifestyle confounders and antibiotics 2.20, 95% CI, [1.27–3.80], p = 0.005. 43% of women living with cat and/or dog in the home used oral antibiotics compared to 33% of women with no cat or dog; adjusted odds ratio 1.51, 95% CI, [1.08–2.12], p = 0.016. Women living with cat had increased frequency of self-reported urinary tract infection; adjusted odds ratio 1.57, 95% CI, [1.02–2.43], p = 0.042. Conclusions The increased vaginal E. coli colonization in women living with cat or dog suggests a clinically important transmission of pathogenic bacteria from pet to owner substantiated by increased rate of antibiotic use and urinary tract infections which, which is of particular concern during pregnancy.


Scholars have traditionally analyzed judicial impartiality piecemeal, in disconnected debates on discrete topics. As a consequence, current understandings of judicial impartiality are balkanized and muddled. This article seeks to reconceptualize judicial impartiality comprehensively, across contexts. In an era when "we are all legal realists now," perfect impartiality — the complete absence of bias or prejudice — is at most an ideal, with "impartial enough" becoming, of necessity, the realistic goal. Understanding when imperfectly impartial is nonetheless impartial enough is aided by conceptualizing judicial impartiality in three distinct dimensions: A procedural dimension in which impartiality affords parties a fair hearing; a political dimension in which impartiality promotes public confidence in the courts; and an ethical dimension in which impartiality is a standard of good conduct core to a judge's self-definition. The seeming contradictions that cut across contexts in which judicial impartiality problems arise, can for the most part be explained with reference to the dimensions those problems inhabit and the constraints under which regulation in those dimensions are subject. Thus, being impartial enough to assure parties a fair hearing in the procedural dimension may or may not be impartial enough to satisfy the public in the political dimension, which may or may not be impartial enough to ensure that judges are behaving honorably in the ethical dimension. Analyzing partiality problems through the lens of the dimensions they occupy not only resolves many of the imponderables that have long plagued the subject, but also reveals a distinct trend, in which impartiality is being transformed from a value traditionally regulated largely by judges and the legal establishment in the procedural and ethical dimensions, to one that is increasingly the province of the political dimension, where it is regulated by the public and its elected representatives. By situating impartiality at the crossroads of judicial procedure, ethics and politics, this article offers a new perspective, not just on judicial impartiality, but also on the role of the American judiciary in the administration of justice and the political process.


Although learning is generally perceived as a way to improve employees' current job performance, so far, no research has been conducted to explore the possible relationships between formal and informal learning, on the one hand, and employability, on the other. Though contemporary views stress the importance of the job as a powerful learning site, considerable research evidence underpinning these views is lacking. This paper goes into the impact of formal and informal learning upon employability. The influence of employee characteristics and organizational factors is also taken into account. An e-questionnaire was used to collect data among 215 Dutch non-academic university staff members. Our findings emphasize the necessity of Human Resource Development strategies that encompass a mix of formal and informal learning opportunities. In particular, participation in networks appears to be an important predictor for employability. With the outcomes of this study, we aim to contribute to the further development of theoretical insights regarding employability enhancement through learning possibilities embedded in the workplace. It seems that strategies that focus exclusively on enhancing informal on-the-job learning should not be encouraged. Our study is limited to one context and further research is required to investigate the generalizability of the findings to other occupations and/or countries.


Ten final-year interpreting students, all native speakers of Italian, were asked to perform three tasks using two 'non-standard' English speeches, one by an Indian speaking English as a second language (speaker A), and one by an American speaking English as a native language with a strong accent (speaker B). The duration of each speech was about 11 minutes, of which a different section was used for each task. First, subjects listened to the initial part of each speech (about 3 minutes) and were tested for listening comprehension. They then shadowed part of the speeches (about 2 minutes), after which they simultaneously interpreted the remainder from English into Italian. The working hypotheses were that: (i) the three tasks involve an increasing level of complexity: listening comprehension being the simplest and simultaneous interpretation the most difficult; (ii) 'non-standard' language in the source speech is a potential problem trigger for the interpreter. Performance in the three tasks was evaluated by examining the subjects' answers to questions in the listening comprehension task (the highest score possible being 12), and by transcribing the shadowing and the simultaneous interpretation (both scored on a 12 point scale). In addition, subjects' handling of previously identified problem areas in each simultaneous interpreting task was evaluated, again on a 12 point scale. Scores for each task were divided into bands, to distinguish between 'very high', 'high', 'low', and 'very low'. Performance in the three exercises partly reflected their growing complexity, listening comprehension being the simplest and simultaneous interpretation the most difficult. The non standard characteristics of the two speeches were indeed difficult for some of the subjects to interpret. Taking Gile's Effort Model as a theoretical basis, the study also provides some insight as to which phase of simultaneous interpretation caused most difficulties.


In this paper, we investigate the dynamical quantum phase transitions appearing in the Loschmidt echo and the time-dependent order parameter of a quantum system of harmonically coupled degenerate bosons as a function of the power-law decay $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ of long-range interactions. Following a sudden quench, the nonequilibrium dynamics of this system are governed by a set of nonlinear coupled Ermakov equations. To solve them, we develop an analytical approximation valid at late times. Based on this approximation, we show that the emergence of a dynamical quantum phase transition hinges on the generation of a finite mass gap following the quench, starting from a massless initial state. In general, we can define two distinct dynamical phases characterized by the finiteness of the post-quench mass gap. The Loschmidt echo exhibits periodical nonanalytic cusps whenever the initial state has a vanishing mass gap and the final state has a finite mass gap. These cusps are shown to coincide with the maxima of the time-dependent long-range correlations.


Title of dissertation: A PERFORMANCE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER MUSIC FOR TRUMPET AND STRINGS Harold E. Yager, Jr., Doctor of Musical Arts, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Chris Gekker School of Music The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have had a rekindling of the trumpet/strings chamber relationship that was once common in the baroque era. Not only is new music being composed, performers sometimes present works in a chamber environment that were originally intended for trumpet and string orchestra or works that did not originally include trumpet. This provides new life to the music, gives audiences the chance to hear something different in a trumpet recital, and allows the trumpet player firsthand experience with music he or she may have never had otherwise. Between new music and the reshaping of older works, now is an excellent time for trumpet players to expand their horizons. First Recital: January 30, 2012 Gildenhorn Recital Hall Gillingham: Tourbillon Cooman: Sun Songs Bartok: Selections from 44 Duos for Two Violins Ewazen: Trio Second Recital: February 20, 2012 Ulrich Recital Hall Presser: Three Duets Cooman: Chorale and Courante Koetsier: Duo giocoso Cooman: Lyric Trio Third Recital: December 9, 2013 Gildenhorn Recital Hall Hovhaness: Haroutian Ewazen: Quintet Taggart: Song at Sunset Bartholomew: Summer Suite This performance study has had tremendous positive effects. Most importantly, it has given me knowledge and recital suggestions that I will be able to offer my students. The ability to broaden their experiences as I have done is something I look forward to and believe to be extremely important. Students must learn to always be exploring different ways to reach their audiences, and they must be comfortable in all types of settings. Trumpet players too often do not expand their performances out of the realm of brass, robbing themselves of great experiences. A PERFORMANCE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER MUSIC FOR TRUMPET AND STRINGS by Harold E. Yager, Jr. Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts 2014 Advisory Committee: Professor Chris Gekker, Chair Dr. Sheryl Ehrman, Dean's Representative Artist in Residence Matthew Guilford Professor Katherine Murdock Dr. Michael Votta ©Copyright by Harold E. Yager, Jr. 2014


CKD and CKD-related mineral and bone disorders (CKD-MBDs) are associated with high cardiovascular and mortality risks. In randomized clinical trials (RCTs), no single drug intervention has been shown to reduce the high mortality risk in dialysis patients, but several robust secondary analyses point toward important potential beneficial effects of controlling CKD-MBD–related factors and secondary hyperparathyroidism. The advent of cinacalcet, which has a unique mode of action at the calcium-sensing receptor, represented an important step forward in controlling CKD-MBD. In addition, new RCTs have conclusively shown that cinacalcet improves achievement of target levels for all of the metabolic abnormalities associated with CKD-MBD and may also attenuate the progression of vascular and valvular calcifications in dialysis patients. However, a final conclusion on the effect of cinacalcet on hard outcomes remains elusive. Tolerance of cinacalcet is limited by frequent secondary side effects such as nausea, vomiting, hypocalcemia and oversuppression of parathyroid hormone, which may cause some management difficulties, especially for those lacking experience with the drug. Against this background, this review aims to summarize the results of studies on cinacalcet, up to and including the publication of the recent ADVANCE and EVOLVE RCTs, as well as recent post hoc analyses, and to offer practical guidance on how to improve the clinical management of the most frequent adverse events associated with cinacalcet, based on both currently available information and personal experience. In addition, attention is drawn to less common secondary effects of cinacalcet treatment and advisable precautions.


Abstract. Defining ecological boundary as an outer envelope of an ecological entity such as an individual, colony, population, community, an ecosystem, or any other discernible unit provides methodological benefits and should thus enhance existing perspectives and research protocols. I argue that, because boundaries are features of entities, the first step in investigation of boundary structure and properties should involve identification of the entity the presumed boundary of interest belongs to. I use a general perspective where ecological systems are parts of a larger system and themselves are made of subsystems (or entities). Such a general hierarchy of ecological objects offers guidance as to how boundaries can be found for specific systems, and how their investigations might lead to reliable and generalizable insights. In particular, it may help in (a) categorizing types of boundaries based on mechanisms leading to formation of entities; (b) deciding what is and what is not a boundary by clarifying the nature of discontinuities seen in nature (e.g., sharp habitat transitions or weak separation of entities); (c) assisting in selecting fruitful resolution at which boundaries are examined; (d) approaching boundaries in complex, nested systems; and (e) deciding what criteria to use in answering questions about a particular boundary type. To facilitate the above I provide general criteria one may use for identifying ecological entities. Such criteria should assist in focusing on boundaries appropriate for a given research question. Finally, where advancing the theoretical framework for ecological boundaries is concerned, the diversity of boundary types will be better served when reorganized in relation to the concept of entity as discussed below.


Converting Vertical Vibration of a Texture Ratchet into Horizontal Drop Motion Yan Dong Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor: Karl F. Böhringer Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering A texture ratchet is an anisotropic, periodic, microstructured surface that propels drops when vibrated with a sinusoidal signal at certain frequencies and amplitudes. For each input frequency near the resonant frequency of a drop, there is a threshold amplitude beyond which the drop starts to move. In this thesis, we study the parameters that initiate drop motion and reveal a general relationship between the input frequency and threshold amplitude among drops with different volumes, densities, viscosities and surface tensions. We propose a compact model that captures the essential features of the system to describe how a pure vertical vibration results in horizontal drop motion. This model provides an intuitive understanding of the underlying physics and explains how the surface asymmetry is the key for lateral drop motion.


The immunosuppressive microenvironment is associated with poor prognosis in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC); however, the molecular mechanisms involved are unknown. Among triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cell (TREM) family, we found that TREM1 expression in PTC was significantly higher than that in normal tissues. TREM1 overexpression was associated with BRAFV600E profiles and advanced tumor stages. Furthermore, TREM1 mRNA expression was negatively correlated with promoter methylation status. Specifically, hypomethylation of CpG site cg06196379 in the TREM1 promoter was related with poor patient disease free survival (DFS) and a high PTC recurrence rate. Mechanistically, TREM1 was mainly expressed in malignant epithelial cells but not macrophages in PTC by single-cell analysis. PTC tissues with high TREM1 levels had enhanced infiltration of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and decreased infiltration of CD8+ T cells. Our study confirms that hypomethylation-mediated overexpression of TREM1 in PTC cells promotes an immunosuppressive microenvironment by enhancing Treg infiltration. We recommend the future use of therapeutic strategy targeting TREM1 for the treatment of PTC.


OBJECTIVE
The impact of natural disasters on medical utilization is largely unknown and often overlooked how it affects bereaving and non-bereaving survivors. The aim of this study is to determine the medical utilization between both survivor groups and long-term effects.

STUDY DESIGN
A 10-year 1999-2009 population-based retrospective study by using the National Health Insurance claim database and the Household Registration database from the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan.

SETTINGS
Taiwan 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake-affected areas.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 49 834 individuals which included 1183 bereaving survivors and 48 651 non-bereaving earthquake survivors.

INTERVENTION(S)
None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Medical utilization of bereaving and non-bereaving survivors.

RESULTS
The results showed that bereaving survivors had significantly more outpatient visits before the earthquake, within 3-month period and 1 year after earthquake (odds ratio (OR) = 1.11, 1.16 and 1.08). However, after 1 year after earthquake their outpatient visits were not significantly different from non-bereaving, and even significantly less in some years. Inpatient visits of bereaving survivors had similar trend to outpatient visits, i.e. visits were more both before earthquake and within 3-month period after earthquake (OR = 1.59 and 1.89), however, they were not significantly higher than non-bereaving survivors for the following years of the study.

CONCLUSION
Our study reveals that compared to non-bereaving survivors, bereaving survivors slightly had higher medical utilization in the beginning stage of earthquake, i.e. for the first 3-month period or 1 year after earthquake. However, there were no differences between these two groups in medical utilization including outpatient and inpatient visits in long run.


This research study explores the impact of acculturation among Hmong caregivers within the Twin Cities region, who the Hmong caregivers are today, and what caregiving in the Hmong community looks like today. A sample of four respondents were recruited in the Twin Cities region who are Hmong and are providing care for an older adult in the home. Two surveys were used to analyze the demographics and acculturation of the Hmong Caregivers. A qualitative survey explored how acculturation has impacted the respondents in terms of caregiving. The outcomes of the study indicated that majority of the caregivers were women who married into their husband's family. It also indicated that economically, most were doing well, however could still use financial support and additional resources. More than half the respondents have acculturated successfully in the mainstream culture. However, even with this finding, it is important to note that within these respondents and their families, the preferred method of caregiving is to keep the care recipient in the home. A continuum of conflict and utilization of supports of resources varied among the respondents in terms of acculturation. Recommendations for future research include targeting families, couples, and older adults, and other communities to focus on concerns and the needs of the caregivers. Further research should be conducted on how to find and effectively reach out to support and meet their needs; and how to work crossculturally with Hmong caregivers. Implications for social work practice efforts should include having an understanding of caregiving within the Hmong culture, providing support for Hmong caregiver living in dual cultures, and continuing to reach out to this population so that Hmong caregivers are aware of the benefits that come from receiving additional supports and resources. THE IMPACT OF ACCULTURATION 3


Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is a welfare benefit which helps low-income private tenants to pay their rent. The maximum financial help that a tenant may receive is set by reference to the range of local market rents. In June 2010, the new UK government proposed a suite of changes to the way LHA will be calculated. These changes mean reductions in payments to almost all present claimants, and make the maximum rates paid lower relative to market rents.

It is common knowledge that rents and prices of residential property are determined by location as well as by dwelling characteristics. In this paper we evaluate what the government's changes to LHA rates imply about the kind of neighbourhoods that claimants will be able to afford to rent in London in the future. London is of particular interest for several reasons. It has high average housing costs with wide variation around those averages, extremes of income poverty and wealth, and a buoyant rental market which meets demand from diverse groups aside from LHA claimants.

To assess the measures, we estimate current and future local rents for a large number of small neighbourhoods in the city. These rents are compared to the LHA rates that apply now in 2010 under the current system, and those that will apply in 2011 and 2016 after the government's changes have been enacted. Where the local LHA rate is below the lower quartile (bottom 25%) of rents, the neighbourhood is considered to be 'largely unaffordable' to LHA claimants. This means that someone seeking accommodation will find it hard to find a property that is available, affordable, in adequate condition and offered by a landlord who is willing to let to LHA claimants.

We find that the changes to be introduced in 2011 will immediately reduce the proportion of London neighbourhoods affordable to LHA claimants from 75% to 51%. This falls further to 36% by 2016 as a result of the measures' longer-term effects. Our estimates of current neighbourhood affordability are strongly correlated with current observed concentrations of LHA claimants, giving credence to the predictive value of the approach. The estimates for 2016 are highly sensitive to the future relationship between CPI inflation and nominal rent inflation, emphasising that this is a key uncertainty about the long-term effects of the proposed reforms.

Most inner London boroughs are likely to become almost entirely unaffordable to low-income tenants on LHA by 2016. The large clusters of neighbourhoods in outer East, South and West London which our model finds to remain affordable in 2016 are likely to house increasing numbers of low-income tenants as a result of the reforms. The areas which remain affordable are characterised by high rates of multiple deprivation and unemployment among the existing population. We conclude that the reforms will intensify the spatial concentration of disadvantage in the city, and increase the segregation of poor and better-off households within London.


Very large-scale Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have achieved remarkable successes in a large variety of computer vision tasks. However, the high computation intensity of DNNs makes it challenging to deploy these models on resource-limited systems. Some studies used low-rank approaches that approximate the filters by low-rank basis to accelerate the testing. Those works directly decomposed the pre-trained DNNs by Low-Rank Approximations (LRA). How to train DNNs toward lower-rank space for more efficient DNNs, however, remains as an open area. To solve the issue, in this work, we propose Force Regularization, which uses attractive forces to enforce filters so as to coordinate more weight information into lower-rank space1. We mathematically and empirically verify that after applying our technique, standard LRA methods can reconstruct filters using much lower basis and thus result in faster DNNs. The effectiveness of our approach is comprehensively evaluated in ResNets, AlexNet, and GoogLeNet. In AlexNet, for example, Force Regularization gains 2× speedup on modern GPU without accuracy loss and 4:05× speedup on CPU by paying small accuracy degradation. Moreover, Force Regularization better initializes the low-rank DNNs such that the fine-tuning can converge faster toward higher accuracy. The obtained lower-rank DNNs can be further sparsified, proving that Force Regularization can be integrated with state-of-the-art sparsity-based acceleration methods.


Purpose: Sorafenib is the current standard therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, but validated biomarkers predicting clinical outcomes are lacking. This study aimed to identify biomarkers predicting prognosis and/or response to sorafenib, with or without erlotinib, in hepatocellular carcinoma patients from the phase III SEARCH trial. Experimental Design: A total of 720 patients were randomized to receive oral sorafenib 400 mg twice daily plus erlotinib 150 mg once daily or placebo. Fifteen growth factors relevant to the treatment regimen and/or to hepatocellular carcinoma were measured in baseline plasma samples. Results: Baseline plasma biomarkers were measured in 494 (69%) patients (sorafenib plus erlotinib, n = 243; sorafenib plus placebo, n = 251). Treatment arm–independent analyses showed that elevated hepatocyte growth factor [HGF; HR, 1.687 (high vs. low expression); endpoint multiplicity adjusted (e-adj) P = 0.0001] and elevated plasma VEGFA (HR, 1.386; e-adj P = 0.0377) were significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) in multivariate analyses, and low plasma KIT [HR, 0.75 (high vs. low); P = 0.0233; e-adj P = 0.2793] tended to correlate with poorer OS. High plasma VEGFC independently correlated with longer TTP (HR, 0.633; e-adj P = 0.0010) and trended toward associating with improved disease control rate (univariate: OR, 2.047; P = 0.030; e-adj P = 0.420). In 67% of evaluable patients (339/494), a multimarker signature of HGF, VEGFA, KIT, EPGN, and VEGFC correlated with improved median OS in multivariate analysis (HR, 0.150; P < 0.00001). No biomarker predicted efficacy from erlotinib. Conclusions: Baseline plasma HGF, VEGFA, KIT, and VEGFC correlated with clinical outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with sorafenib with or without erlotinib. These biomarkers plus EPGN constituted a multimarker signature for improved OS. Clin Cancer Res; 22(19); 4870–9. ©2016 AACR.


This concise and accessible introduction to European economic history focusses on the interplay between the development of institutions and the generation and diffusion of knowledge-based technologies. The author challenges the view that European economic history before the Industrial Revolution was constrained by population growth outstripping available resources. He argues instead that the limiting factor was the knowledge needed for technological progress, but also that Europe was unique in developing a scientific culture and institutions which were the basis for the unprecedented technological progress and economic growth of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Simple explanatory concepts are used to explain growth and stagnation as well as the convergence of income over time whilst text boxes, figures, an extensive glossary and online exercises enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject. This is the only textbook students will need to understand Europe's unique economic development and its global context.


U-Pb and Hf isotope analyses of zircons from felsic granulite xenoliths in Mesozoic volcanics reveal Early Archean (≥3.6 Ga) lower crust beneath the younger (<2.85 Ga) southern margin of the North China craton, and suggest that the eastern part of the craton formed a coherent block by 3.6 Ga. Hf model ages indicate extraction of protoliths from the mantle ca. 4 Ga or earlier, followed by remelting at 3.6–3.7 Ga. Hf isotope data require both recrystallization of magmatic zircons, and growth of new zircon, up to ca. 1.9 Ga. One sample records 2.1–1.9 Ga remelting of a 2.5 Ga protolith. If large parts of the exposed upper continental crust elsewhere also are underlain by older lower crust, estimates of crustal growth rates through time will require revision.


BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the novel betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have mild disease with unspecific symptoms, but about 5% become critically ill with respiratory failure, septic shock and multiple organ failure. An unknown proportion of infected individuals never experience COVID-19 symptoms although they are infectious, that is, they remain asymptomatic. Those who develop the disease, go through a presymptomatic period during which they are infectious. Universal screening for SARS-CoV-2 infections to detect individuals who are infected before they present clinically, could therefore be an important measure to contain the spread of the disease.

OBJECTIVES
We conducted a rapid review to assess (1) the effectiveness of universal screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no screening and (2) the accuracy of universal screening in people who have not presented to clinical care for symptoms of COVID-19.

SEARCH METHODS
An information specialist searched Ovid MEDLINE and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable Database up to 26 May 2020. We searched Embase.com, the CENTRAL, and the Cochrane Covid-19 Study Register on 14 April 2020. We searched LitCovid to 4 April 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) provided records from daily searches in Chinese databases and in PubMed up to 15 April 2020. We also searched three model repositories (Covid-Analytics, Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study [MIDAS], and Society for Medical Decision Making) on 8 April 2020.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Trials, observational studies, or mathematical modelling studies assessing screening effectiveness or screening accuracy among general populations in which the prevalence of SARS-CoV2 is unknown.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
After pilot testing review forms, one review author screened titles and abstracts. Two review authors independently screened the full text of studies and resolved any disagreements by discussion with a third review author. Abstracts excluded by a first review author were dually reviewed by a second review author prior to exclusion. One review author independently extracted data, which was checked by a second review author for completeness and accuracy. Two review authors independently rated the quality of included studies using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool for diagnostic accuracy studies and a modified form designed originally for economic evaluations for modelling studies. We resolved differences by consensus. We synthesized the evidence in narrative and tabular formats. We rated the certainty of evidence for days to outbreak, transmission, cases missed and detected, diagnostic accuracy (i.e. true positives, false positives, true negatives, false negatives) using the GRADE approach.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 22 publications. Two modelling studies reported on effectiveness of universal screening. Twenty studies (17 cohort studies and 3 modelling studies) reported on screening test accuracy. Effectiveness of screening We included two modelling studies. One study suggests that symptom screening at travel hubs, such as airports, may slightly slow but not stop the importation of infected cases (assuming 10 or 100 infected travellers per week reduced the delay in a local outbreak to 8 days or 1 day, respectively). We assessed risk of bias as minor or no concerns, and certainty of evidence was low, downgraded for very serious indirectness. The second modelling study provides very low-certainty evidence that screening of healthcare workers in emergency departments using laboratory tests may reduce transmission to patients and other healthcare workers (assuming a transmission constant of 1.2 new infections per 10,000 people, weekly screening reduced infections by 5.1% within 30 days). The certainty of evidence was very low, downgraded for high risk of bias (major concerns) and indirectness. No modelling studies reported on harms of screening. Screening test accuracy All 17 cohort studies compared an index screening strategy to a reference reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. All but one study reported on the accuracy of single point-in-time screening and varied widely in prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, settings, and methods of measurement. We assessed the overall risk of bias as unclear in 16 out of 17 studies, mainly due to limited information on the index test and reference standard. We rated one study as being at high risk of bias due to the inclusion of two separate populations with likely different prevalences. For several screening strategies, the estimates of sensitivity came from small samples. For single point-in-time strategies, for symptom assessment, the sensitivity from 12 cohorts (524 people) ranged from 0.00 to 0.60 (very low-certainty evidence) and the specificity from 12 cohorts (16,165 people) ranged from 0.66 to 1.00 (low-certainty evidence). For screening using direct temperature measurement (3 cohorts, 822 people), international travel history (2 cohorts, 13,080 people), or exposure to known infected people (3 cohorts, 13,205 people) or suspected infected people (2 cohorts, 954 people), sensitivity ranged from 0.00 to 0.23 (very low- to low-certainty evidence) and specificity ranged from 0.90 to 1.00 (low- to moderate-certainty evidence). For symptom assessment plus direct temperature measurement (2 cohorts, 779 people), sensitivity ranged from 0.12 to 0.69 (very low-certainty evidence) and specificity from 0.90 to 1.00 (low-certainty evidence). For rapid PCR test (1 cohort, 21 people), sensitivity was 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44 to 0.96; very low-certainty evidence) and specificity was 0.73 (95% CI 0.39 to 0.94; very low-certainty evidence). One cohort (76 people) reported on repeated screening with symptom assessment and demonstrates a sensitivity of 0.44 (95% CI 0.29 to 0.59; very low-certainty evidence) and specificity of 0.62 (95% CI 0.42 to 0.79; low-certainty evidence). Three modelling studies evaluated the accuracy of screening at airports. The main outcomes measured were cases missed or detected by entry or exit screening, or both, at airports. One study suggests very low sensitivity at 0.30 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.53), missing 70% of infected travellers. Another study described an unrealistic scenario to achieve a 90% detection rate, requiring 0% asymptomatic infections. The final study provides very uncertain evidence due to low methodological quality.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The evidence base for the effectiveness of screening comes from two mathematical modelling studies and is limited by their assumptions. Low-certainty evidence suggests that screening at travel hubs may slightly slow the importation of infected cases. This review highlights the uncertainty and variation in accuracy of screening strategies. A high proportion of infected individuals may be missed and go on to infect others, and some healthy individuals may be falsely identified as positive, requiring confirmatory testing and potentially leading to the unnecessary isolation of these individuals. Further studies need to evaluate the utility of rapid laboratory tests, combined screening, and repeated screening. More research is also needed on reference standards with greater accuracy than RT-PCR. Given the poor sensitivity of existing approaches, our findings point to the need for greater emphasis on other ways that may prevent transmission such as face coverings, physical distancing, quarantine, and adequate personal protective equipment for frontline workers.


We describe a simple method for the production of hollow, porous and template-free thick-walled platinum nanotubes. The external surface of a tobamovirus was mineralized via a wet chemical process to generate a uniform and dense platinum nanoparticle layer. The virus template was subsequently removed using a controlled annealing process in air. The morphology of the platinum nanotubes was studied using a range of characterization techniques that show it to be free of biological template and consisting of domains of crystalline platinum metal. High-resolution 3D-TEM tomography revealed that the platinum nanotubes contained a central hollow channel of diameter ∼13 nm running along their lengths and showed the metallic layer to be porous with voids of sizes up to 10 nm. This method for production of hollow tubular nanostructures could be useful for production of bespoke platinum catalysts and may be adaptable to different metals and metal oxides for use in conductive, catalytic and sensor applications.


This paper examines the US gun-related murder (GM) rate and places it in an international context. The US GM rate is 27 times the average rate for 22 other developed countries (ODC). Its gun ownership rate is 5.4 times that of ODC and the murder rate per gun is 5 times that of ODC. Thus, as is done in the paper, an effective reduction of the US GM rate requires an analysis of both the high gun ownership rate and the high murder rate per gun. The paper examines about fifteen gun-related policy reforms – their impact, cost and structure for maximum benefit – and other policies affecting the GM rate. Among the latter is immigration policy and its impact on violent crime where the claims of the pro- and anti-immigration groups are examined. The paper also looks at the GM impact of programs that provide alternative life pursuits for young men at risk. It further presents a number of policy implications and some new proposals designed to reduce the GM rate. Four appendices provide i) results from two recent opinion polls on gun-policy reforms, ii) a detailed analysis of the relationship between gun ownership and the GM rate, iii) calculations of gun buyback costs, and iv) a correction of results in the literature on the Brady Bill's impact on gun ownership.


The technique of diffusive equilibration in thin films (DET) was used to measure sediment pore-water concentrations of dissolved iron and manganese at high-spatial resolution (1 mm). Measurements in a laboratory microcosm of homogeneously mixed sediment gave reproducible concentration-depth profiles with no fine scale features. By contrast, measurements in undisturbed surface sediments showed fine structure that was only occasionally reproduced in profiles from several replicate field deployments. Although redox-related features in the profiles, indicative of processes traditionally considered to occur with lateral uniformity, were generally present, the details observed in the replicate deployments were different. DET was modified to allow horizontal as well as vertical measurement of pore-water solutes. The resulting 2D images of the distribution of iron and manganese concentrations in pore-waters showed systematic vertical and horizontal structure. The individual component vertical profiles of the 2D measurement were only 3 mm apart and yet they were sometimes quite different from one another. These findings suggest that (i) microniches play a major role in metal remobilization, (ii) results from single vertical profiles may not be representative, and (iii) caution should be exercised when estimating exchange fluxes from vertical concentration gradients.


The Crash and Its Aftermath is an excellent work of reference on the Great Contraction. It will be useful both to people with only a passing curiosity about the Crash and to those for whom the Great Depression is a major scholarly concern. Business History From now on any serious student of the Depression will be obliged to consult this work for a sense of securities price movements, investor attitudes, and relevant contemporary sources. Journal of Economic History This is the first book to focus on the broader structural changes which took place in the financial industry over the full period of decline from the Stock Market Crash in 1929 to the end of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's One Hundred Days in 1933. The basis for many of Wigmore's comments is an analysis of 142 leading companies whose stocks constituted approximately 77 percent of the market value of all New York Stock Exchange stocks. Wigmore also examines the various bond markets and relates the money market to the bond market, monetary policy, business conditions, and the problems of the banking system. Treating each year from 1929 to 1933 separately, Wigmore shows the interrelation between the stock, bond, and money markets and events in politics, the economy, international trade and finance, and monetary policy. The Statistical Appendix of 41 tables consolidates financial statistics which have hitherto been widely dispersed, permitting in-depth study.


In 2017 the International Law Commission adopted 15 Draft Articles, a Draft Preamble, and a Draft Annex on Mutual Legal Assistance, comprising the nucleus of what might someday become a new global treaty on crimes against humanity. This essay examines the history of the ILC Draft and analyzes several of its major provisions in light of the existing corpus of international criminal law as well as the work of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative that preceded it. The essay concludes that the ILC Draft provides an excellent point of departure for the negotiation of a new treaty on crimes against humanity. It incorporates many elements of the Rome Statute, such as the definition of crimes against humanity, and solidifies the obligations of States to prevent and punish crimes against humanity. It also builds upon modern UN conventions on corruption and transnational organized crime to construct a robust model for interstate cooperation, and has other progressive and positive elements. At the same time, the Commission's work could be enhanced and the new treaty made more robust by addressing certain deficiencies in the draft, many of which would either reinforce the jus cogens nature of the crime or enhance the preventive regime the Draft seeks to bring into existence.


BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES In this study, the apoptogenic activity and mechanisms of cell death induced by hexane extract of aged black garlic (HEABG) were investigated in human leukemic U937 cells. MATERIALS/METHODS Cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazoliumbromide) assay. Apoptosis was detected using 4,6-diamidino-2-phenyllindile (DAPI) staining, agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry. The protein levels were determined by Western blot analysis. Caspase activity was measured using a colorimetric assay. RESULTS Exposure to HEABG was found to result in a concentration- and time-dependent growth inhibition by induction of apoptosis, which was associated with an up-regulation of death receptor 4 and Fas legend, and an increase in the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 protein expression. Apoptosis-inducing concentrations of HEABG induced the activation of caspase-9, an initiator caspase of the mitochodrial mediated intrinsic pathway, and caspase-3, accompanied by proteolytic degradation of poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase. HEABG also induced apoptosis via a death receptor mediated extrinsic pathway by caspase-8 activation, resulting in the truncation of Bid, and suggesting the existence of cross-talk between the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. However, pre-treatment of U937 cells with the caspase-3 inhibitor, z-DEVD-fmk, significantly blocked the HEABG-induced apoptosis of these cells, and increased the survival rate of HEABG-treated cells, confirming that HEABG-induced apoptosis is mediated through activation of caspase cascade. CONCLUSIONS Based on the overall results, we suggest that HEABG reduces leukemic cell growth by inducing caspase-dependent apoptosis through both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, implying its potential therapeutic value in the treatment of leukemia.


PowerPoint is nearly ubiquitous in today's world--in business settings, of course, but in schools and universities, clubs and organizations--almost everywhere you turn. It's not a difficult tool to use, but the presentations people create in PowerPoint range widely in quality--dazzling or dull, enlivening or enervating. Now, to help users deliver high-quality presentations, even when they're short on time, is this smart, concise guide designed to take them from standing start to stellar finish on their first presentations. Rather than cover every last option PowerPoint offers, author Tom Negrino steps readers through on a single, basic presentation, showing them the quickest, easiest, most effective way to communicate their ideas. Each short lesson builds a component of a basic presentation, from creating slides, formatting charts and tables, incorporating sound and video, creating transitions, and adding a bit of polish to their debut presentations. Friendly, step-by-step instructions and large, full-color screen shots make the information instantly accessible.


The Chicxulub impact ~66 million years ago and subsequent geological processes have created different hydrogeological regimes in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. These regimes have affected settlement patterns on local and regional scales. This study focuses on the intersection between three of these regimes; the Buried Ejecta within Saline Intrusion Zone, the Albion Formation, and the Ticul Fault Zone. Lake Chichancanab is located in the intersection between these zones. The Prehispanic settlement east of Chichancanab, in the Cochuah region, is distributed evenly whereas the Colonial period settlement of the same area largely stays within the Buried Ejecta within Saline Intrusion Zone. Colonial socioeconomic conditions and the Church limited the Spanish control of the Cochuah region, partially because groundwater access became increasingly more important during the Colonial period. WIREs Water 2016, 3:871–884. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1170


This article explores New Zealand current affairs programmes from a critical political economy perspective. Many critics believe the current affairs television genre is in terminal decline in most Western countries. They argue that current affairs programmes have changed to focus on entertainment and news values with combative, personality-focused programmes, rather than political and serious subject matter. Previous research carried out in New Zealand demonstrated that the news media significantly changed after the election of the fourth Labour government in 1984, which instituted a neo-liberal policy agenda. The result was a more commercially-oriented media environment, which many critics argue, reduced the quality of news and current affairs programmes. This reflects the fact that the public sphere has been seriously diminished and television current affairs no longer functions as it should. In this article, I discuss both the historic and contemporary state of television current affairs programmes in New Zealand. On the basis of previous research into such programmes in New Zealand content analysis examines the extent to which the current affairs television genre continues to be shaped by the commercial pressures of New Zealand broadcasting.


This paper shows how an elite cadre of public sector officials played a key role in the success of administrative reforms in Brazil's state tax administration bureaus in the 1990s. The success of the reforms strengthened public sector bureaucracies and institutions at all government levels, predominantly in the tax departments. At the state level, the tax administrative reforms comprised complex changes in organizational structure, technology, and institutional arrangements. These reforms resulted in increased tax revenues, tax compliance, and successful restructuring. For the public officials who took part in the process, the reforms meant finding a new identity, and a new mission. As such, this paper explores an alternative mode of getting public sectors officials to commit and own public sector changes.


The abuse of alcohol can engender serious public health problems in certain people, particularly due to its link to violence involving both men and women. This article has the aim to discuss the impact of alcohol in men and women regarding neurobiological mechanisms, emphasizing its psychoactive effects as well as its implication for violent behavior. An analysis was conduct based on reviews and articles in electronic databases, selected from 1996 to 2008 at Scielo, Lilacs, MEDLINE, Pub Med and Web of Science. From a total of 420 selected articles 90 were considered relevant for this analysis. It was evident that the abuse of alcohol causes changes in neurochemistry and in cognitive functions, and some of those changes lead to violent behavior in men and women. However, there are important differences between both genders and the type of aggressive behavior expressed. Studies on this topic are still rare and more research is necessary in order to develop better diagnostic tools and favor relevant neurobiological mechanisms for more effective treatments.


We develop a one-dimensional energy balance climate model with heat transportation across locations. We introduce the concept of potential world GDP at time t, and we introduce, through the temperature function, spatial characteristics into the damage function which make damages latitude dependent. We solve the social planner's problem and characterize the competitive equilibrium. We define optimal taxes on fossil fuels and profit taxes on firms that extract fossil fuels. Our results suggest that if the implementation of international transfers across latitudes is not possible, then optimal taxes are spatially non homogeneous and tend to be lower at the poor latitudes. The degree of spatial differentiation of optimal taxes depend on heat transportation. We also locate sufficient conditions for optimal mitigation policies to have rapid ramp-up initially and then decrease over time. By employing the properties of the spatial model and approximating solutions, we show how to study the impact of thermal transport across latitudes on welfare inequality.


The process of mediation is of critical importance to the social and behavioral sciences and to evolutionary social psychology in particular. As with the concept of evolutionary adaptation, however, one can argue that causal mediation is in need of explicit theoretical justification and empirical support. Mainstream evolutionary social psychology proposes, for example, that organisms are "adaptation executers", and not "fitness maximizers". The execution of adaptations is triggered by fitness-relevant ecological contingencies at both ultimate and proximate levels of analysis. This logic is essentially equivalent to what methodologists refer to as the process of mediation; the adaptations to be executed (or not, depending upon the prevailing environmental circumstances) causally mediate the effects of the ecological contingencies upon the fitness outcomes. Thus, the process of mediation can be generally conceptualized as a causal chain of events leading to a given outcome or set of outcomes. If a predictor variable operates through an intervening variable to affect a criterion variable, then mediation is said to exist. Nevertheless, it does not appear that some psychologists (particularly evolutionary-social psychologists) are sufficiently well-versed in the fundamental logic and quantitative methodology of establishing causal mediation to support such claims. In the current paper, we set out to review the ways researchers support their use of mediation statements and also propose critical considerations on this front. We start with more conventional methods for testing mediation, discuss variants of the conventional approach, discuss the limitations of such methods as we see them, and end with our preferred mediation approach. DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v04i1_figueredo3


The fall out from the Quincentennial anniversary of the "discovery" of the
Americas has yet to settle. One of the key issues still in need of address concerns
the nature of the social and environmental change wrought by colonialism. Until
recently, research in this field has been determined by a series of antiquated myths,
largely creations of Eurocentric Renaissance and Romantic philosophies. This
study aims to provide a more objective insight into the degree of regional Colonial
impact by focusing on an archival reconstruction of post-Conquest social and
environmental change in the highlands ofMichoacan, west central Mexico.
Archival evidence suggests that the Spanish encountered an already
degraded landscape in this region, reflective of several centuries of pre-Hispanic
settlement and exploitation. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, little
evidence emerges to suggest that there was an immediate and deleterious
environmental impact following European contact, despite the introduction of
livestock and plough technology to an area where they had hitherto been absent.
Indeed, tangible evidence of ecological disturbance in the area does not emerge
until the 18th century - a period recognised to have been one of population
recovery and resource monopolisation. A detailed survey of litigation documents
suggests that this period witnessed an acceleration in the number of indigenous
claims for land reinstatement, concomitant with a marked increase in the number
of references to infertile and degraded territory and apparent heightened concern
over water sources.
It is here argued that de-intensification of land use in the wake of
indigenous depopulation and the imposition of conservative land use practices
accounts for the negligible environmental impact in the early post-Conquest
period. By the later 17th and 18th centuries, progressive climatic drying,
population expansion, resource monopolisation and social inequality had
combined to create a period of acute resource stress and landscape instability and
consequent civil unrest. It was this untenable situation that was to play itself out in
the Wars of Independence that characterised the first two decades of the 19th
century.


Observations have been made on medium- and large-sized platelets in a natural type Ia diamond. Attempts have been made to detect any regularity in the structure of the platelets by means of electron diffraction, but none was found. The displacement associated with the platelets has been determined to be extrinsic, normal to the plane of the platelet and of magnitude 0.4 ‹010›. This value has led to the proposal of a model for the platelet structure in which the platelet consists of an interstitial layer of carbon atoms pentagonally bonded to the surrounding diamond matrix. The way in which the detailed bonding may be varied, while complete tetrahedral bonding is maintained, can lead to irregular structures consistent with the diffraction evidence. Possible mechanisms for producing interstitial carbon atoms are considered and the role of nitrogen in this context and in providing possible nuclei for platelet growth is discussed.


Microscale and nanoscale HZSM-5 zeolites, MZ5 and NZ5, have been successfully synthesized by using a template-free and an in situ seed-induced method, respectively; the synthesized zeolites were then modified by Zn impregnation to obtain Zn-modified catalysts, Zn/MZ5 and Zn/NZ5. Various techniques, including XRD, SEM, 27Al MAS NMR, N2 adsorption, H2-TPR, XPS, NH3-TPD, Py-IR and TG/DTA, were used in the characterization of the catalysts, and their catalytic performance in the aromatization of 1-hexene was investigated to correlate the particle size, acidity and catalytic behavior. Compared to MZ5, the NZ5 sample exhibited better catalytic stability due to its smaller particle size and weaker acid strength. Both Zn-modified catalysts showed increased BTX yield because of the smaller B/L ratio and newly formed stronger Lewis acid sites provided by the [ZnOZn]2+ species, which effectively facilitated the dehydrogenation process in the aromatization. The highest BTX yield of 57.93 wt% was obtained for the Zn/NZ5 sample.


MEDICAL EQUIPMENT PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION OF A INTERVENTIONAL NEURORADIOLOGY SUITE by Furqaii Elahi New York-Presbyterian Hospital is one of the most comprehensive university hospitals in the world, with leading specialists in every field of medicine. It is composed of two renowned medical centers, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The hospital's strategic planning group identified the need to expand the Interventional Neuroradiology service that the hospital provides. This brought upon the need to form a committee to plan the construction of an Interventional Neuroradiology. The problem statement of this thesis is to prepare a best practices guideline from a clinical engineering perspective on constructing the three Interventional Neuroradiology suites to meet the project deadline. The clinical engineer's role is to apply all sorts of engineering, business, financial, and entrepreneurship knowledge to meet the demands of its customers, the healthcare providers. The three main stages of deployment in a large institute include Planning, Acquiring and Deploying. In these three stages, the clinical engineer plays a key role and is typically the critical path towards planning the suite around the equipment selection. The equipment selection process requires a thorough assessment of the current condition of equipment as well as a replacement proposal. The replacement proposal would include a technology assessment of the currently available technologies, conducting a needs assessment in the hospital, selecting appropriate vendors based on market share and product evaluations, preparing bid specifications and analyzing vendor responses. Finally, the clinical engineer is responsible for scheduling equipment delivery and installation and training for all the clinicians and support staff as well as biomedical technicians who are responsible of maintaining the equipment. MEDICAL EQUIPMENT PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION OF A INTERVENTIONAL NEURORADIOLOGY SUITE


Medlar is the fruit of Mespilus germanica L. in the family of Rosaceae. The present study outlines that the native medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) fruits an extremely rich source of antioxidants. In this study, antioxidant and antiradical property of medlar fruits were evaluated. Total phenolics and flavonoids amounts in lyophilized extract of medlar (LEM) fruits were calculated as gallic acid and quercetin equivalents, respectively. Antioxidant and radical scavenging activity of LEM were investigated using different in vitro assays including 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH·∙), N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DMPD), and superoxide anion radicals (O2 ) scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), ferric ions (Fe ) and cupric ions (Cu) reducing ability, Fe-TPTZ reducing ability, ferrous ions (Fe) chelating activity as trolox equivalent. In addition, quantitative amounts of caffeic acid, ferulic acid, syringic acid, ellagic acid, quercetin, α-tocopherol, pyrogallol, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillin, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid and ascorbic acid in LEM were detected by high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The presence of these antioxidant compounds can be considered as a quality parameter for edible medlar fruits.


ABSTRACT A positive carbon-isotope excursion is recorded within the Upper Cambrian sedimentary succession in the southern Appalachians that consists of the Nolichucky Shale, the Maynardville Formation, and the Copper Ridge Dolomite. The lower part of the succession contains Aphelaspis zone fauna (Early Steptoean). The extensively dolomitized and poorly fossiliferous nature of the upper part of the succession precludes any detailed biostratigraphic determinations. Correlation with similar positive carbon-isotope excursions in coeval successions elsewhere suggests that this excursion represents a perturbation in the global cycling of carbon. Comparison of excursions at different localities in North America provides a means for the application of carbon-isotope stratigraphy. In the southern Appalachians the excursion started during deposition of the upper Nolichucky Shale. Maximum 13C values (4 to 5o/oo PDB) are associated with the conformable interval at the Maynardville/Copper Ridge Dolomite transition, which has been interpreted as a correlative conformity in sequence-stratigraphic terms. The excursion ended during deposition of the lower Copper Ridge Dolomite. In western North America the excursion started at the base of the Pterocephaliid Biomere (near the base of the Aphelaspis Zone). This well-documented excursion ended prior to the end of the Pterocephaliid Biomere, with the maximum excursion at the Sauk II/Sauk III unconformity. This supports the correlation between Late Steptoean (Dresbachian/Franconian) sea-level fall and the sequence boundary at the end of Cambrian Grand Cycle deposition in the southern Appalachians. The cause of this carbon-isotope excursion remains unclear. The excursion most likely reflects the enhanced burial of organic carbon promoted by ocean stratification, a warm nonglacial climate, and a sea-level maximum during the early Late Cambrian. The onset of regression may have contributed to the maximum carbon-isotope excursion by enhancing sedimentation rates, and by increasing organic productivity because of increased nutrient availability. The removal of carbon from the ocean surface may have caused a decrease in pCO2 of the atmosphere. The resulting cooling episode could have triggered an oceanic overturn bringing 12C-enriched bottom waters to the surface, which in conjunction with oxidation of organic matter during the sea-level fall, ended the carbon-isotope excursion. Comparison of 13C and 18O values of matrix samples to the associated cement phases provides insights into the relationship between isotope variations and depositional and diagenetic environments. 13C values of peritidal dolomicrite define a rather smooth stratigraphic variation curve, whereas the values for subtidal micrite have significant scatter resulting from involvement of organic matter in diagenesis. Fibrous to bladed calcite cement from the subtidal deposits has 13C and 18O values comparable to the associated micrite, suggesting precipitation from marine water and similar diagenetic modifications. Meteoric diagenesis may be responsible for the depletion of 13C and 18O in equant calcite cement relative to the micrite. For saddle dolomite cement, the depletion of 18O and 13C values similar to those for the peritidal dolomicrite, are consistent with formation during burial at elevated temperatures in a rock-dominated system. This study demonstrates the potential of applying carbon-isotope stratigraphy, developed in highly fossiliferous successions, to stratigraphic intervals with poorly constrained biostratigraphy. Such studies require evaluation of the effects of depositional environments and diagenesis upon the preservation of marine isotope signatures.


Restoring endocannabinoid production in the brain may alleviate chronic stress–induced anxiety. Chronic stress can lead to psychosocial disorders such as anxiety. The anxiolytic effects of cannabis are mediated by cannabinoid (CB) receptors in the brain. The production of endogenous CB receptor ligands (collectively called endocannabinoids) is promoted by metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), which are G protein–coupled receptors that can signal through G proteins or following phosphorylation through arrestins. Qin et al. identified a mechanism by which stress triggered anxiety by impairing endocannabinoid signaling in the brain. Mice that lacked LMO4 (LIM domain only 4), an inhibitor of the protein phosphatase PTP1B, in glutamatergic neurons exhibited anxiety-associated behaviors and decreased electrophysiological measures of endocannabinoid signaling in the amygdala. In these mice, the CB receptor was functionally intact, but the abundance of 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) was reduced and mGluR5 signaling measured by synaptic activity was impaired. Lysates from LMO4-deficient amygdala tissue had increased PTP1B activity, whereas the phosphorylation of mGluR5 was decreased. Knocking down LMO4 or expressing PTP1B decreased the abundance of phosphorylated mGluR5 in cultured F11 neuronal cells, and both wild-type and a substrate-trapping mutant of PTP1B bound mGluR5 in cell lysates. Application of trodusquemine, a small-molecule inhibitor of PTP1B, restored the phosphorylation of mGluR5 in F11 cells. Intraperitoneal injection of trodusquemine in LMO4-deficient mice increased the content of 2-AG in the amygdala, and either intra-amygdalar injection of trodusquemine or knocking down PTP1B in the amygdala alleviated anxiety in mice as measured by behavioral tests. Repeatedly subjecting wild-type mice to restraint stress increased the concentration of the stress hormone corticosterone in the serum and increased the proportion of active PTP1B and decreased endocannabinoid content in the amygdala. Chronically stressed mice had decreased palmitoylation of LMO4, which is necessary for inhibition of PTP1B, in the amygdala. Treating mice with trodusquemine or a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist prevented the stress-induced decrease in endocannabinoid content and the increase in PTP1B activity, respectively, and either treatment alleviated anxiety-associated behavior. The findings explain both how chronic stress can lead to anxiety and the anxiolytic effects of cannabis and provide additional targets for treating anxiety. Z. Qin, X. Zhou, N. R. Pandey, H. A. Vecchiarelli, C. A. Stewart, X. Zhang, D. C. Lagace, J. M. Brunel, J. -C. Béïque, A. F. R. Stewart, M. N. Hill, H. -H. Chen, Chronic stress induces anxiety via an amygdalar intracellular cascade that impairs endocannabinoid signaling. Neuron 85, 1319–1331 (2015). [PubMed]


We introduce RealSelfie, a smartphone camera application providing interactive guidance to help people take better self-portrait photos (commonly called "selfies"). The application uses empirical models to estimate aesthetic quality built from data gathered by 2,700 Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) aesthetic quality assessments of synthetic photographs. The synthetic photographs are generated from 3D models of realistic human models by manipulating a virtual camera and virtual lighting to precisely explore the space of three photographic principle parameters: face size, face position, and light direction. The RealSelfie application calculates the current value for each parameter using computer vision techniques and then compares those values with each model's aesthetic estimates to display directional hints overlaid on the live camera preview. As part of this system, we contribute an algorithm to estimate lighting direction using the pattern of light and shade near the nose. We conduct a study to evaluate the RealSelfie application with 20 participants in a controlled environment to eliminate background and lighting confounds. AMT ratings of the photos show that RealSelfie provides a 26% increase in aesthetics over providing no guidance.


The reliable measurement of growth and condition is vital for effective fisheries assessments. Biologists have long attempted to estimate condition for their assessments, but a reliable method to nonlethally estimate body composition is lacking. Proximate analysis is the most dependable and accurate method for estimating internal composition, but it is lethal, time consuming, and expensive. Recent research has shown bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to be an effective method for estimating proximate composition in some fishes. The technique is quick, inexpensive, and, most importantly, nonlethal, which is vital when examining endangered species or cultured fish. My research focused on developing BIA indices for several new species of fish, using those indices to evaluate the body composition of fish in the field, and determining whether water temperature influenced resistance and reactance measurements. I found that BIA accurately estimated the body composition of bluegill Lepomis macrochirus, redear sunfish Lepomis microlophus, brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis, and northern logperch Percina caprodes (r 2 ≥ 0.71, p < 0.0001). I also determined that bluegill and redear regressions were not significantly different (P ≥ 0.10) suggesting they can be used interchangeably during future studies. Laboratory studies revealed that water temperature did not significantly influence resistance and reactance measurements of bluegill, redear, and largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (P ≥ 0.18). These results, along with previous literature, indicate that BIA may be an accurate and reliable assessment tool for fisheries biologists.


The creation of eleven directly elected mayors in England between 2002 and 2005, as part of the Labour Government's wider local government reform, altered local governance in those localities. The 1998 White Paper Modern Local Government identified three key weaknesses in the previous local government system: a lack of leadership, legitimacy and accountability. The main question the thesis sought to answer was: what was the political difference made by the introduction of executive mayors in England.? The key issue in this study was to assess if executive mayors have improved the efficiency, the transparency or the accountability of local government. The investigation of the executive mayoral option employed an analytical framework to measure change on three dimensions of efficiency, transparency and accountability. To aid the investigation seven hypotheses were constructed from the government's White Papers to explore various aspects of executive mayors and assist in providing generalisable conclusions about the introduction of directly elected mayors. Leadership and representation theories were used to operationalise the concepts of leadership, legitimacy and accountability. Models were developed which mapped the locus of power in the council's political space. Given the population of executive mayors was eleven local authorities for the period of the field research, a qualitative approach was adopted relying primarily on interviews augmented with documentary sources and observations. Election results were also analysed using conventional quantitative methods. With regard to elections, the study demonstrates that voters differentiate the office of executive mayor from other political posts. Other findings in this study indicate that one of the main political differences made by the introduction of executive mayors is the creation of a new balance between politicians and officials with the former being more dominant when determining policy matters while the senior officials taking the lead in administration and management. In addition, executive mayors have developed a better capability to challenge professional officers. The strength of executive mayors as leaders within their local authorities over the policy making process demonstrates a change from the operation of the previous system in England. The key person driving policy is now is the directly, clearly identifiable and more accountable executive mayor. This research has shown that directly elected mayors have made positive political differences which can be measured against the core goals of effective, transparent and accountable local government. Executive mayors demonstrate a continuity of governance in local government and have made a difference in the way local councils are run.


This chapter addresses the variety of motion expressions in an intra-linguistic and diachronic perspective, focusing on the lexicalisation patterns of Path in Italian and on the problematic notion 'satellite'. Some of the constructions observed in Italian are explained as a continuation from Latin, in which the combination of vital and transparent verbal prefixes, prepositions, and inflectional cases gives rise to at least three different but apparently equivalent constructions. Italian has undergone a process of loss of the case system, and prepositions are the instrument by which this damage has been repaired. This produced a dissociation between the semantic-functional and the syntactic role of prepositions, which makes it difficult to distinguish prepositions expressing Path (satellites) from semantically weaker ones, fulfilling the role of prepositional case markers (PCM). A set of semantic and grammatical discrimination criteria are proposed. The category of satellite appears to be fuzzy and scalable in its nature, rather than an all-or-nothing one.


Abstract Purple-leaf button weed and Indian heliotrope are widespread and common weed species of rain-fed rice in many tropical countries. The influence of various environmental factors on seed germination of these species was studied. Seeds of both species germinated at a range of alternating temperatures (25/15, 30/20, and 35/25 C day/night). Germination of purple-leaf button weed was similar among light conditions after an after-ripening period of 3 mo, whereas germination of Indian heliotrope was always greater in light. Seed germination of both species was not affected by a high level of salt and a range of pH between 5 and 9, but was sensitive to high degrees of water stress. Seed burial strongly inhibited germination and emergence of these species. Seedling emergence of purple-leaf button weed (82 to 86%) and Indian heliotrope (70%) was optimal when seeds were sown in the top 0.2-cm soil layer. A burial depth of 2 cm completely inhibited emergence of Indian heliotrope, whereas, for purple-leaf button weed, this depth was 5 cm. Most of these seeds germinated, however, when brought to the soil surface. The information gained from this study would help in predicting the potential of these species for spreading into new areas, and could contribute to their control. Nomenclature: Purple-leaf button weed, Borreria ocymoides (Burm. f.) Dc.; Indian heliotrope, Heliotropium indicum L. HEIN; rice, Oryza sativa L.


Background: Ghrelin and obestatin are an effective peptides for regulating energy balance, which investigating them change caused by physical activity are important. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of eight weeks of aerobic exercise on plasma ghrelin and obestatin of obese and overweight women. Material and Methods: This quasi-experimental research was conducted in Rasht in 2018. In this research, 24 obese and overweight subjects were selected and randomly divided into two groups of aerobic exercise (N = 12) and control (N = 12). The aerobic exercise group performed an aerobic exercise program for 8 weeks in three sessions of 60 to 70 minutes. Acylated  ghrelin, obestatin and body composition of the subjects were measured before and after 8 weeks. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software and T test. Independent t-test revealed no significant difference between the levels of plasma ghrelin, Results: The results showed that after an aerobic training period there was no significant difference between the two groups in the levels of ghrelin and obstatin (p > 0.05), However, BMI showed a significant decrease in aerobic training group (p < 0. 05). Conclusion: In conclusion, this exercise regimen had a positive effect on reducing BMI which is related to Slight changed ghrelin and obstatin responses over time. This finding lends support for a role of exercise in Nervous systems that stimulated some anabolic hormones such as ghrelin and abstatin and it can change relationship between ghrelin, obestatin and some body composition indexes.


The truth about the origins of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be evasive. While hope is growing that the world might one day conquer this deadly virus, as evidence points to a declining trend in new infections, the question that still eludes researchers is where this virus originated, and how it was introduced to the human species. For Africa, which is very much affected by the virus and the associated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), indications are that it initially occurred in Central Africa, with green monkeys being blamed as the source. While Africa can live with this claim, the second question which emerges is: if AIDS initially occurred in Central Africa, how did it subsequently spread to other parts of the continent and end up being so much embedded in Southern Africa? This brief attempts to provide some clues that call for another look at South Africa's biological warfare as a potential mode through which HIV and Aids could have been distributed in the region.


Education is often considered a means for enhancing adaptive capacity, based on the consideration that formal education is likely to improve the ability of individuals to evaluate risks and respond to warning information. We explore the relation between the level and nature of education and enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk. We make a distinction between formal school-based education and nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge of environmental precursors and conditions that may be associated with tropical cyclone occurrence. We evaluate two possible routes through which education could lead to enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk; first, education, both formal and nonformal, may lead to a better ability to access, understand, and interpret warning information and hence lead to an appropriate response to the warning; and second, formal education may be associated with greater income levels and socioeconomic status and thus with greater resources for evacuating in response to cyclone warning. We find that the hypotheses regarding the link between formal education and adaptive capacity are actually not well supported by empirical data. On the other hand nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge of predicting cyclones based on environmental precursors emerged as a significant determinant of the ability to understand and interpret warning information and provides a strong case for preserving and promoting a hazard-specific traditional knowledge base along with formal education.


Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) is a cost-effective approach to achieving diesel-like efficiencies with low emissions. Traditional challenges with GCI arise at low-load conditions due to low charge temperatures causing combustion instability and at high-load conditions due to peak cylinder pressure and noise limitations. The fundamental architecture of the two-stroke Achates Power Opposed-Piston Engine (OP Engine) enables GCI by decoupling piston motion from cylinder scavenging, allowing for flexible and independent control of cylinder residual fraction and temperature leading to improved low load combustion. In addition, the high peak cylinder pressure and noise challenges at high-load operation are mitigated by the lower BMEP operation and faster heat release for the same pressure rise rate of the OP Engine. These advantages further solidify the performance benefits of the OP Engine and demonstrate the near-term feasibility of advanced combustion technologies, enabled by the opposed-piston architecture.
 This paper presents initial results from a steady state testing on a brand new 2.7L OP GCI multi-cylinder engine. A part of the recipe for successful GCI operation calls for high compression ratio, leading to higher combustion stability at low-loads, higher efficiencies, and lower cycle HC+NOx emissions. In addition, initial results on catalyst light-off mode with GCI are also presented. The OP Engine's architectural advantages enable faster and earlier catalyst light-off while producing low emissions, which further improves cycle emissions and fuel consumption over conventional engines.


Abstract Over the past 10 years, merger activities in the private for-profit nursing home industry have been increasing in Europe. In this paper, we investigate chain affiliation's influence on the performance of lucrative nursing homes. We measure performance using a cost frontier estimated by stochastic analysis on a sample of 370 French for-profit nursing homes. We find that cost efficiency decreases with the number of facilities in a chain. We also identify different external actor types in nursing homes' institutional environment and test their influence. We show that nursing home chains' cost efficiency improves when local governments and shareholders exert pressure. Our results are robust to alternative model specifications and another definition of costs. Overall, our findings inform researchers, as well as standards setters, of the relevance of chain affiliation and of the role of institutional pressures regarding cost containment at the nursing home level.


The OX26 mouse monoclonal antibody to the rat transferrin receptor undergoes transcytosis through the brain capillary endothelial wall, which makes up the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vivo, owing to high concentrations of transferrin receptor on the BBB. This property allows the OX26 antibody to serve as a brain drug transport vector. To simplify coupling of therapeutics to the OX26 antibody, the present studies examine the use of the avidin/biotin system to promote coupling of biotin and biotinylated drugs to brain transport vectors. The OX26 antibody was affinity purified from ascites fluid and was covalently coupled via a thioether linkage to avidin, and the conjugate was purified to homogeneity by gel filtration fast protein liquid chromatography. The biotin binding capacity of the avidin-OX26 conjugate was measured, and 2.3 biotin binding sites per avidin-OX26 (1:1) conjugate were detected. Transcytosis through the BBB of [3H]biotin bound to either unconjugated avidin or to the avidin-OX26 conjugate was measured with an internal carotid artery perfusion/capillary depletion technique. [3H]Biotin bound to the avidin-OX26 conjugate was transported through the BBB at rates that equaled the rate of transcytosis of the unconjugated OX26 antibody. The clearance from plasma of [3H]biotin bound to the avidin-OX26 conjugate approximated the rate of clearance of the unconjugated OX26 antibody, and not the rate of clearance of [3H]biotin bound to avidin, which was cleared from plasma at much faster rates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Three independent high precision solutions for precession were published in 2003 that provide expressions consistent with the IAU 2000A precession-nutation model (Mathews et al. 2002) and offer a possible replacement for the precession component of IAU 2000A, with improved dynamical consistency and a better basis for future improvement. Each is based upon an improved model for the precession of the ecliptic and, with respect to the IAU 1976 precession, they all provide higher- degree terms in the polynomials for the precession angles of the equator. This paper compares the expressions for the basic parameters of the above solutions for precession both of the ecliptic and the equator and investigates the possible physical and computational reasons for their differences. This leads to a realistic evaluation of the accuracy of the solutions and provides estimated deficiencies in them. These studies have identified expressions for the ecliptic precession quantities that are accurate to about 0.05 mas/cy over a two-millennium interval centered on J2000 instead of the few mas/cy accuracy of the current IAU model. They have also provided the theoretical and experimental basis for future improvements in the precession of the equator.


Internet based call control Web services enable telecommunications network operators to offer Web developers a simplified method of controlling telecommunication resources. Web Services that expose telecommunication networks to third parties are highly abstracted. This abstraction allows Web developers to create applications that provide call control functionality without detailed knowledge of the underlying network. Functionality offered by network operators is usually of a simple nature, and does not provide developers with advanced call control functionality, similar to that found in operator services. Advanced call control requires the Web application to have detailed knowledge of the state of the telecommunication resources. In this research an Extended Call Control call model and Extended Call Control Web service are developed and demonstrated to provide Web applications with this knowledge. To develop the Extended Call Control call model existing telecommunication call models were analysed for components suitable for Web control. The Extended Call Control Web service was developed using advanced call control use cases. The proof of concept successfully demonstrates the use of the Extended Call Control Web service and the value of the Extended Call Control call model in proving asynchronous Web based advanced call control of telecommunications resources. This research has developed a novel call model for Web based call control of telecommunications networks. The Extended Call Control call model and API fulfils a fundamental requirement for Web based advanced call control, namely knowledge of the state of the underlying network and asynchronous control of those resources. This research facilitates the development of advanced Web applications controlling telecommunications calls within the network which previously was limited by the knowledge of the network state. Telecommunication service applications can be moved from tightly coupled systems within the operators network to Web based applications within third party domains such as a Internet based virtual private branch exchange or call centre.


© 2007, Cambridge University Press. Democracy and democratization in time and space: In 1989, a series of popular protests in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) forced the resignation of Erich Honecker and the fall of the wall separating the East German capital from West Berlin. The speed of the organization of the opposition and the fall of the regime surprised many Western observers. Although dissatisfaction with economic and political conditions was assumed to be widespread in the GDR, the repressive character of the state made opposition very costly. Yet, it grew. The dramatic increase in the open opposition to the regime stemmed in part from changes in external conditions, as liberalization in other Eastern European states facilitated organizing protest in the GDR. The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had begun to let the countries in the Soviet bloc deal more independently with their own internal and foreign politics. The declining Soviet commitment to the Honecker regime lowered the perceived costs of protest, as a military response and invasion became less likely. Neighboring countries such as Hungary had initiated moves toward open, competitive elections. Since Hungary was a popular travel destination for East Germans, the opportunities for emigration to the German Federal Republic through neighboring states presented a huge problem to the regime in East Berlin. By the middle of 1989, many East Germans were heading to Hungary on "vacation" with all their worldly possessions, having locked one last time their East German apartments.


When growing on urea as a nitrogen source, diatoms must accumulate nickel (Ni), a cofactor in the urease enzyme, which hydrolyzes urea. The uptake of Ni at low ambient concentrations is particularly challenging in view of the slow rate of reaction of the Ni2+ ion with uptake ligands. As expected, cultures of the model diatoms Thalassiosira weissflogii and Thalassiosira pseudonana become limited at very low Ni concentrations when growing on urea but not on nitrate or ammonium as a nitrogen source. At high Ni concentrations, urea‐grown cultures of T. weissflogii exhibit similar accumulation of various other metals to nitrate‐grown cultures and the same sensitivity to zinc and copper (Zn and Cu) concentrations. But at low Ni concentrations, T. weissflogii cells growing on urea accumulate excess Zn and exhibit extreme sensitivity to Zn toxicity. It appears that Zn accumulates in cells growing at low Ni concentrations by uptake through the up‐regulated Ni transport system. The resulting sensitivity of Ni‐limited cells to Zn (or to other metals that may be taken up via the Ni transport system) may limit the use of urea as a source of nitrogen in the oceans by some phytoplankton species.


Background: Family carers, as a "shadow workforce", are foundational to the day-to-day integration of health service delivery for older family members living with complex health needs. This paper utilises Haggerty's model of continuity of care to explore the contribution of family carers' to the provision of care and support for an older family member's chronic condition within the context of health service delivery. Methods: We analysed data from interviews of 13 family carers in a case study of primary health care in New Zealand – a Maori Provider Organisation – to determine the alignment of family caregiving with the three levels of continuity of care (relational continuity, informational continuity, and management continuity). Results: We found alignment of family caregiving tasks, responsibilities, and relationships with the three levels of continuity of care. Family carers 1) partnered with providers to extend chronic care to the home; 2) transferred and contributed information from one provider/service to another; 3) supported consistent and flexible management of care. Discussion: The Maori Provider Organisation supported family carer-provider partnership enabled by shared Maori cultural values and social mandate of building family-centred wellbeing. Relational continuity was the most important level of continuity of care; it sets precedence for family carers and providers to establish the other levels – informational and management – continuity of care for their family member cared for. Family carers need to be considered as active partners working alongside responsive primary health care providers and organisation in the implementation of chronic care.


The irresistible Paddington Bear, who was found on Paddington station, returns in this reissued novel, with a brand new cover design. Paddington has a knack for 'smelling out things', and his sharp nose, supported by marmalade sandwiches, leads him into many adventures. Whether it's lending a paw to a famous Russian ballet dancer, or serving baked elastic instead of 'Baked Alaska' this unforgettable bear is as trouble-prone and funny as ever! Stories of Paddington Bear have delighted children all over the world for fifty years.


Federating repositories by harvesting heterogeneous collections with varying degrees of metadata richness poses a number of challenging issues: (1) how to address the lack of uniform control for various metadata fields in terms of building a rich unified search interface, and (2) how easily new collections and freshly harvested data in existing repositories can be incorporated into the federation supporting a unified interface? This paper focuses on the approaches taken to address these issues in Arc, an Open Archives Initiative-compliant federated digital library. At present Arc contains over 1M metadata records from 75 data providers from various subject domains. Analysis of these heterogeneous collections indicates that controlled vocabularies and values are widely used in most repositories. Usage is extremely variable, however. In Arc we solve the problem by implementing an advanced searching interface that allows users to search and select in specific fields with data we construct from the harvested metadata, and also by an interactive search for the subject field. As the metadata records are incrementally harvested we address how to build these services over frequently-added new collections and harvested data. The initial result is promising, showing the benefits of immediate feedback to the user in enhancing the search experience as well as in increasing the precision of the user's search.