Cardiomyopathy is a category of disorders that affect the cardiac muscle and can cause extensive disability in a large and ethnically diverse population. It has been classified by the World Health Organization into three main types, based on anatomical and physiological features: dilated (DCM), hypertrophic (HCM), and restrictive (RCM). While DCM and RCM are associated with a progressive disease phenotype, heart failure, and sudden death, HCM is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young athletes and is one of the most common forms of heart diseases affecting children. One review article in this issue by C. McCartan et al. discusses how the traditional classification of cardiomyopathies based on morphology has evolved due to rapid advances in our understanding of the genetic and molecular bases for many of these clinical entities. The implications of genetic testing have been discussed as being extremely valuable in the prognosis and treatment of cardiomyopathies. The authors emphasize that such testing may allow clinicians to move beyond unexplained ventricular abnormalities, identify positive patients and their genetic cause, and predict likely outcomes. A similar need for genetic testing has been voiced in another review article in this issue, by R. Parvari and A. Levitas, which addresses the pathogenesis of hereditary DCM. The authors strongly argue that the idea of early identification of the disease-causing mutations as presymptomatic interventions in DCM has proven valuable in preventing morbidity and mortality. DCM may be either sporadic or familial. A diagnosis of familial DCM is assigned when it occurs in at least two closely related family members or there was an occurrence of SCD at a young age. The genetic factor contributing to the manifestation of the disease can be classified either as a disease-causing gene mutation, as the etiology of monogenic disease, or as a disease-associated gene polymorphism that is involved in the pathogenesis of a multifactorial disease.

To date, hundreds of mutations in genes encoding all major sarcomeric proteins have been identified to cause HCM, DCM, or RCM. These include proteins essential for force production (β-cardiac myosin and actin), regulation of cardiac muscle contraction (tropomyosin and troponin), and proteins responsible for maintaining stability of the sarcomere (myosin-binding protein C, titin). The vast majority of cardiomyopathy mutations have been found in MYH7 gene encoding the β-myosin heavy chain (MHC). Mutations in myosin light chains MYL2 and MYL3 encoding the regulatory and essential light chains, respectively, are relatively rare, but they are also associated with malignant outcomes in young individuals. In fact, most of myosin essential light chain (ELC) mutations have been associated with SCD. In one of the articles of this issue, P. S. Andersen et al. identified a novel MYL3 mutation, V79I (Valine→Isoleucine), in a 38-year-old HCM patient with no visible cardiac symptoms. Mutation-positive family members were also asymptomatic, and no information was available on previous occurrences of SCD in two prior generations. At the molecular level, the mutation was predicted to disrupt the interaction of ELC with the MHC, but future biochemical studies are necessary to reveal the possible mechanism of this V79I-induced HCM. In another paper by S. K. Gollapudi and M. Chandra, two cardiac troponin C (TnC) mutations were studied: an HCM-related, L29Q (Leucine→Glutamine), and a DCM-related, G159D (Glycine→Aspartic acid) mutation. Using mutant reconstituted skinned rat cardiac papillary muscle fibers, the authors provided new evidence for the mechanism by which these two TnC mutations bring about global change in myofilament mechanodynamics. The L29Q mutation caused a small decrease in myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, which was linked to an increase in the tropomyosin-troponin regulatory unit "off" rate. The G159D mutation resulted in an increase in the cross-bridge cycling rates, "f" and "g", with no effects on maximal tension and Ca2+ sensitivity. These different molecular effects were predicted to result in two different disease phenotypes in humans. The L29Q-induced HCM phenotype was proposed to evolve due to a compensatory response of the myocardium to decreased tension caused by an attenuation of myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity. The G159D-mediated DCM phenotype was hypothesized to be a result of increased cost of tension maintenance, subjecting the heart to a chronic stress that ultimately could lead to ventricular dilatation.

Heart failure is the common end-stage condition of various cardiovascular disorders including cardiomyopathies and is characterized by a progressive decrease in cardiac output combined with insufficient or absent compensatory mechanisms. The interplay between heart development and disease has been the subject of intense research with the characterization of the gene regulatory networks involved in the development of cardiac dysfunction. Another paper in this issue, by A. T. Mikhailov and M. Torrado, focuses on the role of myocardin and myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTF) in heart failure and cardiac hypertrophy. From the combined knowledge of the molecular and functional domains of the molecules as well as the phenotypes of several knockout models, it was concluded that myocardin and MRTF play a central role in cardiac formation, function, and disease and present themselves as potential candidates as therapeutic targets for the treatment of heart failure. Gene-manipulated mouse models that closely recapitulate the clinical phenotypes of human inherited cardiomyopathies are invaluable in demonstrating the true cause of the disease and exploring pathogenic mechanism and effective drugs. Ultrasound imaging has been increasingly applied to identify and characterize structural and functional features of different cardiac phenotypes in mouse models of cardiac disease. The laboratory of Dr. X. P. Huang from Florida Atlantic University is among the first to assess cardiac function using a high-resolution echocardiography on transgenic mice with various cardiomyopathies. In their review article, G. Chen et al. discuss several important technical developments in the conventional echocardiography, pulsed Doppler, and tissue Doppler imaging for assessment of cardiac morphology and function in mouse models of human inherited cardiomyopathies.

In summary, this special issue discusses several aspects of cardiomyopathies related to mutations in myofilament proteins. These papers and reviews as well as our own research using animal models of human heart disease suggest that finding the mutation-specific molecular causes of HCM, DCM, or RCM is absolutely necessary in the development of target-specific rescue strategies to ameliorate or reverse the effects of inherited cardiomyopathies. The classification and clinical characterization of cardiomyopathies will continue to evolve as we unravel these molecular mechanisms by which HCM, DCM, or RCM-associated mutations lead to heart disease and SCD.

Danuta Szczesna-Cordary

Sachio Morimoto

Aldrin V. Gomes

Jeffrey R. Moore


In 2010 in Cadder v HM Advocate the Supreme Court held that Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entitles all suspects to consult a solicitor before and during police questioning, as well as to be informed of this right. It immediately caused ripples in the Scottish criminal justice pond which may grow to tidal wave proportions, with some worrying that the decision may even leave criminal suspects worse off than before. Thus the legislation responding to Cadder doubled the existing six hour period of detention allowed for police questioning and empowered the police to apply for a further twelve hours. Potentially more significant are the recommendations of the Carloway Review, commissioned to "review key elements of Scottish criminal law and practice in the light of [Cadder]." A year later it reported on a wide variety of issues, including the law on arrest and detention, custody periods, the giving of legal advice, police questioning, child suspects and other vulnerable witnesses, the general test of evidential sufficiency, "mixed" statements, drawing adverse inferences from reliance on the right to silence, as well as issues relating to appeals. Many of the Report's recommendations have been received positively, notably those to limit detention to 12 hours, and to retain a robust right to silence. By contrast, a veritable storm of controversy has met its recommendation to abolish the requirement of corroboration on the basis that it is "an archaic rule that has no place in a modern legal system where judges and juries should be free to consider all relevant evidence and to answer the single question of whether they are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person committed the offence libelled". Fairly predictably, this was welcomed by Government lawyers and some police organisations who were joined by women's groups and more tentatively by some academics. But, as Gordon predicted almost twenty years ago, and Lord Carloway expected, the requirement has been "defend[ed] religiously [as] one of the most notable and precious features of Scots criminal law" by lawyers, judges, academic and human rights campaigners, who have questioned whether abolition will in fact save costs and have the predicted positive impact on conviction rates in sexual and domestic violence offences. Instead, they warn that removing such a "cornerstone" of the law will lead to many unintended problems, take years to bed in and, most crucially, threaten civil liberties. Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming view that such a momentous step requires greater consultation and consideration, and a far more convincing case than that provided by Lord Carloway, the Scottish Government declared itself persuaded and, although setting up a consultation process, later announced its intention to introduce a bill to give effect to the Carloway Review including its recommendation to abolish the corroboration requirement. This article seeks to evaluate whether it should have been so easily persuaded by Lord Carloway, and, if not, whether a convincing alternative case for abolition could have been made. We will also consider whether, as the Scottish Government seems now to have accepted, that Lord Carloway was wrong to dismiss the need to replace the requirement with safeguards compensating for the loss of the protection against miscarriages of justice that it supposedly provided. In doing so, we will aim to go beyond the often highly rhetorical and sometimes misleading, unfounded and even illogical arguments seen on both sides of the debate, and, by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, ground the debate in a more theoretically and empirically informed understanding of the criminal justice process.


A Plan to address current and forthcoming issues impacting on the Penicuik and District Community Council area, reflecting the views and needs of local residents.


After tooth extraction, the alveolar bone undergoes a remodeling process, which leads to horizontal and vertical bone loss. These resorption processes complicate dental rehabilitation, particularly in connection with implants. Various methods of guided bone regeneration (GBR) have been described to retain the original dimension of the bone after extraction. Most procedures use filler materials and membranes to support the buccal plate and soft tissue, to stabilize the coagulum and to prevent epithelial ingrowth. It has also been suggested that resorption of the buccal bundle bone can be avoided by leaving a buccal root segment (socket shield technique) in place, because the biological integrity of the buccal periodontium (bundle bone) remains untouched. This method has also been described in connection with immediate implant placement. The present case report describes three consecutive cases in which a modified method was applied as part of a delayed implantation. The latter was carried out after six months, and during re-entry the new bone formation in the alveolar bone and the residual ridge was clinically evaluated as proof of principle. It was demonstrated that the bone was clinically preserved with this method. Possibilities and limitations are discussed and directions for future research are disclosed.


Background: Health promoting lifestyle (HPL) focuses on life promotion through lifestyle which consists of six aspects of "physical activity", "nutrition", "health responsibility", "spiritual growth", "interpersonal relations" and "stress management". This lifestyle promotes health and welfare and induces satisfaction, self-persuasion and self-improvement. Considering the importance of the way a new behavior affects "life quality" as a motivational factor for starting and continuing that behavior, this study aimed to determine the relationship between health-promoting lifestyle and its aspects. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on undergraduate students at School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, using a census method. Health promoting lifestyle was measured by Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile two and life quality was assessed by the Persian version of QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive and inferential statistical tests in SPSS. Results: Mean age of the participants was 21.12 years old. From among six aspects of health promoting behaviors, spiritual growth and responsibility with the means of 22.01 ± 2.224 and 20 ± 2.31 had the highest and physical activity with the mean of 17.58 ± 2.9 had the lowest scores, respectively. General life quality of 40.7% students was good and only 19.8% of them had an average global life quality. The highest and lowest frequencies of health-related life quality belonged to very good (58.6%) and excellent (9%) health, respectively. Except for stress management (P = 0.05) and gender of the students, there were no significant relationships between other HPL aspects and gender. There was no statistically significant relationship between global life quality of students and nutrition, physical activity, self-health responsibility and stress management while there was a significant relationship between global life quality and spiritual growth of the students. Health-related life quality and stress management were significantly related to each other; however, no statistically significant relationship was observed between health-related life quality and nutrition, physical activity, interpersonal relations and spiritual growth. Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between adopting health promoting lifestyle and aspects of spiritual growth and stress management on the one hand and general quality of life on the other, at least among students.


In this study, a non-probabilistic robust counterpart (RC) approach is demonstrated and applied to the least-cost design/rehabilitation problem of water distribution systems (WDSs). The uncertainty of the information is described by a deterministic user-defined ellipsoidal uncertainty set that implies the level of risk. The advantages of the RC approach on previous modelling attempts to include uncertainty are in making no assumptions about the probability density functions of the uncertain parameters and their interdependencies, having no requirements on the construction of a representative sample of scenarios, and the deterministic equivalent problem preserves the same size (i.e. computational complexity) as the original problem. The RC is coupled with the cross-entropy heuristic optimization technique for seeking robust solutions. The methodology is demonstrated on an illustrative example and on the Hanoi network. The results show considerable promise of the proposed approach to incorporate uncertainty in the least-cost design problem of WDSs. Further research is warranted to extend the model for more complex WDSs, incorporate extended period simulations, and develop RC schemes for other WDSs related management problems.


Marketers, advertisers and media planners often turn to reliable data on target markets to make decisions regarding the selection and use of media, allowing practitioners to communicate the message optimally and cost-effectively to the target audience. Decisions in media planning and media selection are only possible if information on media use patterns is up-to-date. Hence, understanding media consumers allows marketers to tailor specifically to a target market. This article presents an initial inquiry into preferences between traditional media and digital (online) media. With a better understanding of consumer preference between traditional and digital media platforms, practitioners could significantly improve media allocation. By applying a uses and gratifications approach to the concept of media use, the author conducted a crosssectional questionnaire survey (n=558). A t-test analysis of the findings indicated a significant difference in time spent on traditional media (m=3.60) over time spent on digital media (m=2.63) (t(555) = 20.73, p < .05). The results revealed differential patterns across different media (traditional and digital); differences are most often based on the demographic variables. The data indicated that statistically significant differences in media consumed are more a function of whether or not people are employed and have completed their studies than age group per se. Accurate audience measurement remains complex due to media consumers' mobility and wide variety in the media environment. However, the findings can be used as a guideline for media planners and advertising agencies when planning to target an exact audience at the right time on the right platform.


Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant cause of both health care- and community- associated infections worldwide and do present therapeutic challenges to beta-lactam antibiotics and other antibiotics due to the development of multidrug resistance. Aim: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility profile of MRSA among patients at National Hospital Abuja with a view to providing information that will guide rational choice of antimicrobial agents in the empirical therapy of its infections. Materials and Methods: Between April 2014 and August 2015, clinical samples of patients submitted to Medical Microbiology laboratory of the hospital were processed and all Staphylococcus aureus isolates recovered, using standard laboratory methods. They were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using the modified Kirby Bauer disc diffusion technique with zones of inhibition interpreted according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Methicillin resistance was determined using cefoxitin disc diffusion. Other clinical data of the patients were gathered along for analysis. Results: Of the 360 S. aureus isolates recovered, 97 (26.9%) were MRSA. All (100%) the MRSA isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, 88 (90.7%) to imipenem and 71 (73.2%) to clindamycin. All (100%) the MRSA isolates were resistant to penicillin, 85(88.0%) to tetracycline, 61 (62.9%) to ciprofloxacin, 58 (60.0%) to erythromycin and 52 (53.6%) to gentamycin. The MRSA strains showed higher resistance rate than MSSA strains to all tested antibiotics. Multidrug resistance was found in 68.0% of the MRSA strains. Conclusion: There was high prevalence of MRSA with high rates of resistance to commonly used anti-staphylococcal antimicrobials, and a significant proportion of these MRSA isolates were multi-drug resistant. Vancomycin is the best choice for empiric treatment of suspected MRSA infections. Routine screening of clinical S. aureus isolates for methicillin resistance, regular surveillance studies as well as institution of infection control measures and antibiotic stewardship programme are recommended.


Weedy rice or 'padi angin' is a serious threat to the rice industry of Malaysia. Its easy grain shattering characteristics has been reported to reduce rice yield up to 74%. The shift from transplanting techniques to direct seeding of planting rice has increased the weedy rice infestation. Preliminary study had shown that pre- treated rice seeds used in anaerobic seeding technique were able to out compete the growth of weedy rice and simultaneously increase the rice establishment. The objectives of this study were; a) to evaluate different rice seed germination enhancers in anaerobic (water) seeding, b) to evaluate seedling emergence in different water temperatures in anaerobic seeding and c) to evaluate rice

establishment using pre-treated seeds and herbicide in controlling weedy rice in anaerobic seeding. Three rice seed varieties (MRQ 50, MR 167 and MR 219) were given treatments. The treatments tested were rice seeds soaked in water (control, T1); rice seeds coated with calcium peroxide (sodium silicate binding agent), [T2]; seeds treated with 1% peroxide base material [T3], seeds treated with 0.2% dilute acid [T4] and seeds treated with seaweeds [T5]. The seedling emergence was evaluated at three days after sowing (DAS) and the rice seedling growth was evaluated fourteen days after sowing (DAS) in glasshouse trials. The number of emerged seedlings for T3 was significantly higher for MR167 and MR219 compared to control at three DAS. However, there were no significant differences for MRQ 50 for emerged seedlings compared to control. Generally, there were no interaction effects between varieties and treatments tested for seedling height, root length and root surface area. T3 showed a significant increase of 7% for seedling height compared to control. However, the performance of T2 was inferior to the other seed treatments as well as control for all varieties tested. The seedling height, root length and root surface area of rice seedlings of T2 were reduced significantly to 27%, 38% and 90%, respectively compared to control at fourteen DAS. T4 and T5 performed the same as control for seedling height, root length and root surface area.

In a laboratory study, pre-treated rice seeds were sown in soil –filled petri dishes and placed in water bath. Water level was maintained at 5 cm and temperatures were adjusted according to treatments (T1: 30°C, T2: 35°C, T3: 40°C and T4: 45°C). Seedling height increased significantly by 11% at 35°C compared to control (30°C). Water temperature of more than 40oC significantly inhibited the rice seedling emergence and growth.

In a glasshouse trial, the effect of pre-treated cultivated rice seeds and herbicide application on the tiller establishment of cultivated rice and weedy rice in aerobic (wet) and anaerobic (water) seeding were evaluated. There were no significant differences for herbicide effects on weedy rice tillers. However, seedling emergence of weedy rice at 14 DAS and tiller establishment at 45 DAS was significantly reduced in water seeding compared to wet seeding.

In a field trial, pre-treated seeds were sown into divided plots, T1: wet seeding (control) and T2: water seeding and the weedy rice population and rice yield were evaluated at harvest. Water seeding technique significantly reduced weedy rice population almost 52% compared to control at 90 DAS. In this trial, farmer's received a surplus in yield using water seeding technique compared to wet seeding technique as water seeding increased net rice yield by 15% (almost one ton/ha).

The use of pre-treated seeds for the anaerobic direct seeding technique had an advantage on seedling vigor that out competed the weedy rice growth, and increased the rice seeds viability.


Large earthquakes sometimes trigger local seismicity that is distal to their rupture zones. Various mechanisms for this triggered seismicity have been proposed, based on either the static stress change or ground shaking from seismic waves, but local geological structure is rarely studied to discern why this seismicity is remotely induced. We present the results of a joint three-dimensional resistivity and isotopic analysis of the groundwater system surrounding Mount Fuji, Japan, where increased seismicity was observed following the A.D. 2011 Tohoku-Oki megathrust earthquake. An electrically conductive zone and high concentrations of magmatic gases (He and CO2) correspond to the zone of triggered seismicity. In contrast, a contribution of magmatic water is not suggested from 2H (deuterium, D) and 18O isotope ratios. These results suggest that the earthquakes were triggered within a fractured zone through which magmatic gases preferentially migrated. We hypothesize that the upwelling of gas-rich hydrous fluids and/or gas bubbles occurred along this fracture pathway, causing an increase in the pore pressure and triggering the resultant earthquake sequence.


Seismogenic plate‐boundary faults at accretionary margins (e.g., the Nankai margin, southwest Japan) may occur where the uppermost part of subducting oceanic crust, composed of basaltic rocks, is in contact with the overriding plate of a lithified accretionary prism. The plate‐boundary faults in ancient accretionary complexes typically record high‐velocity slip under fluid‐rich conditions. Although previous studies have emphasized the mechanical significance of fluids in terms of dynamic slip‐weakening, the source of fluid in seismogenic subduction zones remains poorly constrained. In this work, we focus on the hydrous smectite in the uppermost oceanic crust, an alteration product of intact basalt before arrival at the trench axis. A comparison between (1) new mineralogical data on basalt drillcore recovered by Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 322 at site C0012, a reference site for subduction input to the Nankai Trough, and (2) mineralogical data on basalt within ancient oceanic crust embedded in a fossil accretionary complex of the Shimanto Belt, southwest Japan, suggests that progressive smectite–chlorite conversion would liberate bound fluids at a rate of 0.34 to 0.65 × 10−14 s−1 along the plate interface. This rate of fluid production appears to be more than an order of magnitude greater than that from other possible sources, including from overlying sediments via smectite–illite conversion and the expulsion of pore fluids, and may facilitate seismic slip along plate‐boundary faults.


This paper explores the dynamics underlying integration of the international grain markets of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates that 'deep' integration implied changes to market structures, firm strategies and the commodity being marketed. Coordination within grain markets occurred at multiple levels (markets, firms, committees, etc.) and involved various firm strategies (integration, co-specialisation, voluntary consensus, etc.). There was a greater degree of standardisation as centralised grading systems were developed by commodity exchanges in the US and UK. Greater standardization made the commodity fungible and tradable through an institutional rather than a technical process. The global value chain that emerged during this period developed governance structures and institutions to coordinate the enormous expansion in scope as well as scale of trade. Many of these structures and institutions continue to coordinate the international markets in the twenty-first century. The paper uses the global commodity value chain (GCC) approach to develop these arguments and focuses on the international wheat trade of the nineteenth century - centred on UK as the major importer. This research stresses that governance and institutions that enable global disintegration (of the value chain) crucially drives and informs our understanding of market integration – they are two sides of the same historical coin.


In this paper I test whether asymmetric information is present in the home insurance market. To detect the existence of asymmetric information I apply the so-called positive correlation test to a dataset containing approximately 500,000 home insurance contracts gathered from a Norwegian insurer. In addition to the standard formulations of the positive correlation test I propose a method that encompasses joint modeling of frequency and severity. The results from these formulations show that frequency of claims increases in cover while claim costs are independent of cover. Asymmetric information may be driven by adverse selection or moral hazard and the empirical insurance contract literature has suggested different ways to disentangle these. I suggest two methods that can distinguish between these two possible explanations. The first method utilizes detailed claim information that allows me to separate out claims that most likely are driven by moral hazard. Second, I also conduct an instrumental variable regression that utilizes an exogenous reform that had an effect on the insurance price in this market. Both approaches indicate that adverse selection is the prime driver of the information problem. In a final step, I test whether risk aversion affects the results from the positive correlation test. Through detailed socio-economic information (SES) I construct proxies for risk aversion. These proxies turn out to be very important for understanding deductible choice but only marginally important for claim probability. The information problem increases when I control for risk aversion – indicating a small omitted variable bias in the positive correlation test.


The accuracy and the resolution of water-vapor measurements by use of the ground-based differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system of the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) are determined. A theoretical analysis, intercomparisons with radiosondes, and measurements in high-altitude clouds allow the conclusion that, with the MPI DIAL system, water-vapor measurements with a systematic error of <5% in the whole troposphere can be performed. Special emphasis is laid on the outstanding daytime and nighttime performance of the DIAL system in the lower troposphere. With a time resolution of 1 min the statistical error varies between 0.05 g/m(3) in the near range using 75 m and-depending on the meteorological conditions-approximately 0.25 g/m(3) at 2 km using 150-m vertical resolution. When the eddy correlation method is applied, this accuracy and resolution are sufficient to determine water-vapor flux profiles in the convective boundary layer with a statistical error of <10% in each data point to approximately 1700 m. The results have contributed to the fact that the DIAL method has finally won recognition as an excellent tool for tropospheric research, in particular for boundary layer research and as a calibration standard for radiosondes and satellites.


Mary McAuley is not quite justified, in my opinion, in calling my review hostile. My attitude toward her work does have an emotional component, but it may be more accurately described as one of apprehension. Her reply only strengthened that feeling by revealing further contradictions in her position.


This paper explores the subtle notion of unplugging to critically analyze thetechnological determinism of the Smart City. This exploration suggests that being digitally connected should not be perceived as gaining social capital. This article critiques the assumptions of the Smart City and proposes a 10-dimension conceptual framework. The first section of this article explores hyper-connected societies and how unplugging could be beneficial. The main subjects, Digital Natives, are discussed in the second section of this article. The third section is a decalogue on deconstructing the Smart City, and the final section presents key ideas and questions for future analysis.


Background Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is experienced by 50% to 90% of cancer patients and can severely affect their quality of life and functional capacity. Several randomized trials have recommended various ways to alleviate the symptoms of CRF with or without recourse to medications. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of processed honey and royal jelly on the symptoms of CRF in cancer patients who are undergoing hormone therapy, chemotherapy, chemo-radiation, or radiotherapy. Methods Fifty-two participants from the patients who visited the oncology clinic of Shohada-e-Tajrish hospital in Tehran (Iran) between May 2013 and August 2014 were selected and divided into two groups. The study group (26 patients) received processed honey and royal jelly, while the control group received pure honey. Both groups were instructed to consume their 5mL supplement twice daily for 4 weeks. Both groups were assessed at the beginning of the study, after 2 weeks, and then at the end of 4 weeks of treatment. Fatigue was measured using a visual analogue fatigue scale (VAFS) and fatigue severity scale (FSS). The results were compared between the two arms of study, and equality of probability distributions was assessed using a Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. Results The mean age of the 52 patients was 54.84. After two and four weeks of treatment with processed honey and royal jelly, VAFS and FSS due to treatment was better in the study group than in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively). Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, our study provided support for the use of processed honey and royal jelly to ameliorate CRF. The positive results of this study warrant further studies in this field. Clinical Trial Registration The study was registered in the Iranian Clinical Trial Registry Center (http://www.irct.ir) with the registration code: IRCT2015081423426N1. Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.


ABSTRACT People judge that an individual who attempts to harm someone but fails should be blamed and punished more when they imagine how things could have turned out worse, compared to when they imagine how things could have turned out the same, or when they think only about what happened. This moral counterfactual amplification effect occurs when people believe the protagonist had no reason for the attempt to harm, and not when the protagonist had a reason, as Experiment 1 shows. It occurs for intentional failed attempts to harm and also for accidental near-misses, as Experiment 2 shows, but not for failed attempts in which the harm occurs anyway by another cause, for both general judgments about the event and specific judgments about the individual's actions, as Experiments 3 and 4 show. The implications for understanding the role of counterfactual thoughts in moral judgement are discussed.


Purpose: To analyze community pharmacy based research in Arab countries. Methods: Comprehensive review of the literature indexed by Scopus was conducted. Data from Jan 01, 2003 till December 31, 2013 was searched for documents with specific words pertaining to "community pharmacy" in any one of the 13 Middle Eastern Arab countries. The quality of publication was assessed using h-index obtained from Scopus and Impact Factor (IF) obtained from Journal Citation Report (JCR) Results: A total of 93 documents were retrieved with an h-index of 9. Thirty eight documents (40.9 %) were published in journals not listed in JCR and therefore had no IF. The sum of the IF of the 93 documents was 64.9 with a mean of 1.3 ± 2.01. The total number of citations was 338 with a mean of 3.6 ± 6.4 citations per document. The highest community pharmacy-based research was from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) (32.3 %) followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) (17.2 %), Jordan (16.1 %), Kuwait (11.8 %) and Qatar (10.8 %). International cooperation was highest with Malaysia (9.7 %) followed by Pakistan (7.5 %), United Kingdom (UK) (8.6 %), and Australia (6.5 %). Conclusion: The quantity and quality of community pharmacy-based research originating from Middle Eastern Arab countries was low. More effort is needed to bridge the gap in community pharmacy-based research and to promote better community pharmacy services in Middle Eastern Arab countries.


Dr Max Aue is a family man and owner of a lace factory in post-war France. He is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a former SS intelligence officer and cold-blooded assassin. He was an observer and then a participant in Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, he was present at the siege of Stalingrad, at the death camps, and finally caught up in the overthrow of the Nazis and the nightmarish fall of Berlin. His world was peopled by Eichmann, Himmler, Goring, Speer and, of course, Hitler himself. Max is looking back at his life with cool-eyed precision; he is speaking out now to set the record straight.


New student orientation programs are designed to ease the transition of new students into their collegiate environments. As diverse enrollments have increased throughout higher education, new student orientation programs have been identified as a key tool for establishing levels of expectation and performance, including the promotion of diversity issues. The current national study of orientation directors explored how these student orientation programs can best facilitate promoting diversity. Findings revealed a host of strategies, particularly noting methods that integrate rather than isolate diversity issues as well as using institutional leaders to stress the importance of tolerance and diversity. Introduction Higher education institutions have assumed some responsibility for assuring a level of social justice. It can take the form of an equality of access and affordability, but is also manifest in breaking down stereotypes and bias, by allowing for the teaching, tolerance, and advocacy of diversity of thinking, ethnicity, and cultures. Often, the task has become reduced to general terms about teaching students to live a civic life in a democratic society. In more practical terms, the responsibility for social justice means that colleges and universities have a responsibility to teach diversity. Diversity as a conceptual problem is handled in numerous ways by different institutions. Some build multiculturalism into the curriculum, some offer specific programs on multi-ethnicity, and other institutions rely on high minority student enrollments to present themselves in a meaningful way in courses and student life. Community colleges have advocated for diversity through a number of programs, outreach efforts, and curricular additions. Although these colleges enroll the majority of minority students in American higher education, they are often the venue where students with the least exposure to diversity come together (Williams, 2004). Although many urban campuses are truly melting pots of multi-ethnicity, others are highly segregated along racial lines. The first opportunity community colleges have to begin breaking down what racism may exist and to develop an appreciation for diverse cultures comes when students first arrive on campus. The first few weeks can establish not only a level of trust, acceptance, and appreciation for diversity, but also have the potential to establish the future success of students in the classroom and at the campus (Cook, Cully, & Huftalin, 2003). The purpose for conducting the current study was to identify positive steps that community colleges can use in their new student orientation (NSO) programs to foster more positive feelings among students toward diversity. Related literature New student orientation Over 70% of all undergraduate students participate in some form of new student orientation or firstyear seminar (Barefoot & Gardner, 1993). Although there is limited research on community college orientation programs, they have been reported to exist in some format in the majority of community colleges (Stephenson, 1997). Such programs ease the transition of new students into the college environment (Brown, 1997) and, perhaps more importantly, are seen as the institution's tool for conveying institutional expectations and messages (Twale &. Schaller, 2003). Specifically, the programs can enhance new student self-esteem, which is in turn a significant positive predictor of personal, social, and academic achievement (Hickman, Bartholomae, &. McKenry, 2000). Additionally, new student programs provide opportunities for involvement that can aide in retention and provide a tool to build social support networks that can help students cope in college (Gardner, 2001). As Hu, Shouping, and Kuh (2003a; 2003b) noted, racial identity is often a factor for new students, and college administrators must find ways to help students learn to appreciate racial and cultural diversity. …


Non-aqueous fractionation was used to characterize subcellular and tissue Mn compartmentation of mature and immature leaves of two common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars contrasting in their response to Mn toxicity. Excess Mn decreases leaf CO2 assimilation through a reduction of chlorophyll content in immature leaves with no effect detected on mature leaves. We hypothesized that differential accumulation of Mn in chloroplasts occurs at different leaf developmental stages. Chloroplasts of immature leaves accumulated at least three times as much Mn as those of mature leaves at equivalent total foliar Mn. Chlorosis was positively correlated with Mn concentration in chloroplasts from high-Mn plants (r2 = 0.96; P = 0.003) but was not correlated with Mn in unfractionated tissue (r2 = 0.026; P = 0.793) nor with Mn in the epidermis-enriched fraction (r2 = 0.33; P = 0.314). Both cultivars showed high accumulation of Mn in the vacuoles as determined by the co-localization of α-mannosidase and Mn content on a continuous density gradient. Cultivars differed significantly in Mn concentration in an epidermis-enriched fraction, with the tolerant cultivar Calima accumulating more Mn in this fraction than the sensitive cultivar ZPV-292. In both cultivars, Mn was accumulated up to 2400 µg g–1 dry weight in crystal-type structures whereas the unfractionated leaf tissue contained about 500 µg g–1 dry weight. The results demonstrate that Mn compartmentation occurs at both the tissue and the organelle level and that Mn accumulation in the epidermis-enriched fraction could contribute to Mn tolerance in common bean. The role of Mn accumulation in structures resembling oxalate crystals is discussed.


The number of amphibian reintroductions and other conservation translocations has increased in recent decades. Amphibian reintroductions are challenging and may not always work, but amphibian reintroductions may be the best or only option for conserving some species. Clearer guidance to plan, implement, and obtain resources for amphibian reintroductions is needed to improve conservation outcomes. These Guidelines outline the most important considerations for each stage of an amphibian reintroduction. They provide guidance, best practices, case studies, and links to helpful resources that will be useful for a wide variety of practitioners involved in amphibian reintroductions.


Oxidative damage and redox metal homeostasis loss are
two contributing factors in brain aging and widely distributed
neurodegenerative diseases. Oxidative species in company with excessive amounts
of intracellular free iron result in Fenton-type reaction with subsequent
production of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals which initiate peroxidation of
biomolecules and further formation of non-degradable toxic pigments called lipofuscin
that amasses in long-lived postmitotic cells such as neurons. Dietary
flavonoid baicalein can counteract the detrimental consequences through exertion
of a multiplicity of protective actions within the brain including direct ROS
scavenging activity and iron chelation. In this study, we evaluated the
neuroprotective effects of baicalein in menadione (superoxide radical generator)-treated
SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cell line. Our results showed that treatment of cells
with menadione led to lipofuscin formation due to elevated intracellular iron
contents and accumulation of oxidative products such as MDA and PCO. Also,
menadione caused apoptotic cell death in SK-N-MC cells. However, pretreatment
with baicalein (40 μM) reversed the harmful effects by chelating free iron and
preventing biomolecules peroxidations. Moreover, baicalein prevented cell death
through modulation of key molecules in apoptotic pathways including suppression
of Bax and caspase-9 activities and induction of bcl2 expression. Key structural
features such as presence of hydroxyl groups and iron-binding motifs in
baicalein make it the appropriate candidate in antioxidant-based therapy in
age-related neurodegenerative diseases.


This paper provides a case study on how an established, mature engineering faculty, with a large population of students can make the successful, high risk, step change transition towards the delivery of CDIO objectives 'Graduating engineers who can conceive-designimplement-operate complex value-added engineering systems in a modern team-based environment' [1]. The successful results of the project demonstrated the effectiveness of the Systems Thinking and CDIO approach and endorsed this as the basis for a major change strategy. Not only did it demonstrate the quality of all the students on the course, their potential and commitment to engineering, but it also demonstrated willingness of the faculty to take a risk and to embrace change. The project scenario opened up an otherwise overlooked teaching resource – that of practitioner lecturers with many years of experience of implementation and operation of major projects. These skills were essential to the scoping, design, planning and implementation of the project as well as giving the backdrop of best practice from industry. Auckland's experience of introducing a major step change may be used as a Template for other universities who may wish to follow Auckland's example. This project shows the value of a hearts and minds approach to change as it brought together students, staff and best practice under a multidisciplinary Systems Thinking and CDIO approach all united in the interests of reconstructing Christchurch.


Abstract A population of waterhemp was identified in Adams County, Illinois, that survived treatment of several acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors and a postemergence (POST) application of lactofen, a protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO)–inhibiting herbicide. Greenhouse studies were conducted to quantify the responses of this waterhemp population, designated ACR, to multiple PPO inhibitors and various other herbicides with different sites of action. Resistance ratios were obtained by comparing herbicide dose–response curves between the ACR population and a herbicide-susceptible waterhemp population. The ACR population was resistant to lactofen (23-fold) and to five other PPO-inhibiting herbicides (ranging from 2.2- to 6.2-fold). Furthermore, the ACR waterhemp population was 17,000-fold and 18,000-fold resistant to imazamox and thifensulfuron, respectively, two ALS-inhibiting herbicides. In response to atrazine, a Photosystem II inhibitor, the ACR population was 38-fold resistant. Plants within the ACR waterhemp population survived treatment of a herbicide mixture containing lactofen at 175 g ai ha−1, imazamox at 44 g ae ha−1, and atrazine at 1,000 g ai ha−1. Thus, individual plants—not just the population as a whole—displayed multiple herbicide resistance. The ACR population was not resistant to glyphosate or paraquat. This is the first reported weed population from the United States with resistances to herbicides inhibiting three unique sites of action. Furthermore, this research identifies a significant reduction in the number of POST herbicide options available for waterhemp control in soybean production. Nomenclature: Atrazine; glyphosate; imazamox; lactofen; paraquat; thifensulfuron; common waterhemp, Amaranthus rudis Sauer AMATA; tall waterhemp, Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer AMATU; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr.


Abstract Despite technologic improvements in home video systems, minimal research has been carried out on the potential to enhance the audience's reflective state and content appreciation. We explored the value of video systems that leave digital traces to support the movie-watching experience. By developing video-watching systems involving the application of a digital trace, we investigate how the movie-watching experience changed. We conducted semi-structured interviews with participants after they had experienced the systems. Our findings revealed that the digital trace became a source of deeper reflection on the storyline. Active trace logging was useful for revisiting impressive scenes and for encouraging audiences to express their thoughts. The passively generated digital trace acted as a catalyst for interpreting the storyline from a self-oriented viewpoint. We found that the digital trace might support content appreciation as a developmental process. We then discussed issues related to designing video systems with a digital trace mechanism included.


A brief overview of the design of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial and observational study is provided along with a summary of results from the postmenopausal hormone therapy clinical trial components. Since its inception in 1992, the WHI has encountered a number of statistical issues where further methodology developments are needed. These include measurement error modeling and analysis procedures for dietary and physical activity assessment; clinical trial monitoring methods when treatments may affect multiple clinical outcomes, either beneficially or adversely; study design and analysis procedures for high-dimensional genomic and proteomic data; and failure time data analysis procedures when treatment group hazard ratios are time dependent. This final topic seems important in resolving the discrepancy between WHI clinical trial and observational study results on postmenopausal hormone therapy and cardiovascular disease.


BOWLING ALONE warns Americans that their stock of "social capital", the very fabric of their connections with each other, has been accelerating down. Putnam describes the resulting impoverishment of their lives and communities. Drawing on evidence that includes nearly half a million interviews conducted over a quarter of a century in America, Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society. We sign 30 percent fewer petitions than we did ten years ago. Membership in organisations- from the Boy Scouts to political parties and the Church is falling. Ties with friends and relatives are fraying: we're 35 percent less likely to visit our neighbours or have dinner with our families than we were thirty years ago. We watch sport alone instead of with our friends. A century ago, American citizens' means of connecting were at a low point after decades of urbanisation, industrialisation and immigration uprooted them from families and friends. That generation demonstrated a capacity for renewal by creating the organisations that pulled Americans together. Putnam shows how we can learn from them and reinvent common enterprises that will make us secure, productive, happy and hopeful.


Over the past decade, issues of accountability and reconciliation in the aftermath of mass atrocities have increasingly dominated the field of international human rights. Much of the discussion among scholars and policy-makers has focused on the relative merits of international tribunals - such as the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the newly created International Criminal Court (ICC) - and domestic approaches, such as local trials or truth commissions. Comparatively little attention has been paid, however, to a newly emerging form of accountability and reconciliation: hybrid domestic-international courts. Such courts are "hybrid" because both the institutional apparatus and the applicable law consist of a blend of the international and the domestic. Foreign judges sit alongside their domestic counterparts to try cases prosecuted and defended by teams of local lawyers working with those from other countries. The judges apply domestic law that has been reformed to accord with international standards. This hybrid model has developed in a range of settings, generally post-conflict situations where no politically viable full-fledged international tribunal exists, as in East Timor or Sierra Leone, or where an international tribunal exists but cannot cope with the sheer number of cases, as in Kosovo. Most recently, an agreement to create a hybrid court in Cambodia has been reached, and there is discussion about creating a such a court in post-war Iraq. Hybrid courts have not yet been the subject of sustained analysis, even among scholars and policy-makers who focus on transitional justice issues. This article seeks to fill that gap by identifying hybrid courts as an important area of future study and making a preliminary assessment of their potential strengths and weaknesses. I look at the Kosovo, East Timor, and Sierra Leone courts, and I suggest that such courts, while not perfect, hold considerable promise as a model, particularly with regard to their perceived legitimacy (among both international and domestic constituencies), their ability to catalyze local efforts to establish rule of law institutions, and their potential to foster the development of human rights norms within emerging legal systems. Finally, I discuss ways in which hybrid courts might fit into the ICC's complementarity regime. I argue that such courts are best seen not as alternative to international or local justice, but rather as an important complement to both.


The objective of this course is to provide newcomers to Automotive User Interfaces with an introduction and overview of the field. The course will introduce the specifics and challenges of In-Vehicle User Interfaces that set this field apart from others. We will provide an overview of the specific requirements of AutomotiveUI, discuss the design of such interfaces, also with regard to standards and guidelines. We further outline how to evaluate interfaces in the car, discuss the challenges with upcoming automated driving and present trends and challenges in this domain.


While there are sophisticated resources available for displaying NGS data, including the Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV) and the UCSC genome browser, exporting regions and assembling figures for publication remains challenging. In particular, customizing track appearance and overlaying track replicates is a manual and time-consuming process. Here, we present SparK, a tool which auto-generates publication-ready, high-resolution, true vector graphic figures from any NGS-based tracks, including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and ATAC-seq. Novel functions of SparK include averaging of replicates, plotting standard deviation tracks, and highlighting significantly changed areas. SparK is written in Python 3, making it executable on any major OS platform. Using command line prompts to generate figures allows later changes to be made very easy. For instance, if the genomic region of the plot needs to be changed, or tracks need to be added or removed, the figure can easily be re-generated within seconds without the manual process of re-exporting and re-assembling everything. After plotting with SparK, changes to the output SVG vector graphic files are simple to make, including text, lines, and colors. SparK is publicly available on GitHub: https://github.com/harbourlab/SparK.


Activity of bats at an old wind park four km off the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea was monitored during 50 nights from August to October 2013, using an automatic bat detector (Pettersson D500-X) mounted on one of the turbines. Single individuals or pairs of common noctules Nyctalus noctula were recorded on five occasions only (26 and 27 August), all in calm weather and when little or no rotor movement occurred. Since such conditions were unusual (five of 50 nights of observation) the visits by the bats were unlikely to be chance events (migrating bats passing the turbine), but more likely involved bats attracted to the turbines. However, no feeding buzzes were recorded and the bats never stayed near the turbine more than one minute. The turbines studied are lit by 250 W white lights and this could have been the reason why bats visited the turbines, because such lights potentially attract insects. The bats could not have been attracted to the turbines by any factor related of the movement of the rotor or the generator, such as Doppler-effects, noise, heat or electric fields.


As the 'baby boomer' generation approaches retirement and begins to leave the workforce, birth and death trends have alerted researchers of an impending labour shortage in the near future. Despite these trends, the climate toward older workers in organisations can be negati ve. Negative attitudes toward older workers and age discrimination can be manifested in policies that encourage early retirement, and send messages to older workers that they are not valued. As a strategy to combat projected labour shortages, older workers who are phys ically able could be encouraged to stay in the workforce. The present study explored how older workers' (55 years and over) perceptions of organisational attitudes and behaviours influenced their retirement decision. A new variable , Retirement Climate (RC) operational ised employee's perceptions of o rganisational attitudes and behaviours directed to o lder workers. The re lationships of RC and other independent variables (organ isationa l policies and pressure to retire) to intended retirement age (IRA), and the moderating effects of job satisfaction, organi sationa l commitment and job involvement on the relationship between RC and fRA, were explored. Results indicated that RC was not re lated to IRA, but was related to perceptions of pressure to retire. Pressure to retire was also in turn significantly re lated to IRA, suggesting that pressure to retire may act as a mediati ng variable. Organisational policies showed no significant relationships with dependent variables, and none of the predicted moderator variables showed any moderating effect on the relationship between RC and IRA. Possible explanations for the results are discussed, and avenues for future research are suggested. Practical implications of the findings for organisations to encourage longer workforce participation of older workers are also presented.


Two cores from the southern South China Sea contain discrete ash layers that mainly consist of rhyolithic glass shards. On the basis of the SPECMAP time scale, the ash layers were dated to ca. 74 ka, the age of the youngest Toba eruption in northern Sumatra. This link is supported by the chemical composition of the glass, which is distinct from volcanic glass supplied from the Philippines and the northern South China Sea, but is almost identical with the chemistry of the Toba ash. The youngest Toba ash layers in the South China Sea expand the previously known ash-fall zone over more than 1800 km to the east. The dispersal of ashes from Sumatra in both western and eastern directions indicates two contrasting wind directions and suggests that (1) the Toba eruption probably happened during the Southeast Asian summer monsoon season, and (2) the volume of erupted magma was larger than previously interpreted.


Large, high-resolution displays offer new opportunities for visualizing and interacting with data. However, interaction techniques for such displays mostly support window manipulation and pointing, ignoring many activities involved in data analysis. We report on 11 workshops with data analysts from various fields, including artistic photography, phone log analysis, astrophysics, and health care policy. Analysts were asked to walk through recent tasks using actual data on a large whiteboard, imagining it to be a large display. From the resulting comments and a video analysis of behavior in the workshops, we generate ideas for new interaction techniques for large displays. These ideas include supporting sequences of visualizations with backtracking and fluid exploration of alternatives; using distance to the display to change visualizations; and fixing variables and data sets on the display or relative to the user.


In light of a large body of literature highlighting its limitations, this thesis examines how Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) is discursively constructed within and for a secondary school context (i.e. at the level of policy, educator and pupil) to reveal how the nature of SRE, and indeed, young people's SRE needs are conceptualised. A number of changes related to the provision of SRE, mainly at a policy level, served as a rationale for this research. Firstly, a textual analysis of draft SRE guidance was utilised to examine how SRE is formulated and negotiated at a socio-political level, through SRE policy making (chapter 4). This highlights a number of problems that curtail the development of SRE and its ability to meet young people's needs, which are evident in the way it is driven by political and social concerns and serves key interest groups (religious groups, school governors and parents). This chapter provides the socio-political backdrop through which subsequent analyses of how SRE is constructed within the school context could be examined. Chapter 5 moved on to examine the way SRE is constructed at the level of the individual SRE teacher. This analysis documents the considerable variability in the nature of provision accounted for by SRE teachers.Their accounts reflect different concerns around what SRE should include, which were in turn based on their understanding of young people's SRE needs and was driven by political discourse. As such, provision is predominantly problem focused (as characterised by a discourse of danger), heteronormative and gendered. Chapter 6 extends the focus on teachers' accounts of their provision; with particular emphasis on the way they negotiated SRE as a 'controversial' subject. Despite strong (positive) rhetoric around provision, their accounts inadvertently highlight SRE as a site of struggle, where issues inherent to SRE are considered problematic. The level of struggle was also evident when accounting for decisions at a policy making level and when negotiating with dominant stakeholders. The final analysis chapter examines how young people experience their SRE, along with the messages they receive within their individual programmes. It highlights differences between the types of evaluations pupils made according to the specific programmes in which they are located, and more specifically, according to the type of discourses mobilised within that provision. The accounts of pupils located with problem-focused approaches revealed a disjunction between the types of discourses they mobilise around sex and relationships and those presented within SRE provision. This also appeared to affect and limit their conceptualisations of SRE. Implications of these discrepancies are discussed in chapter 8, with particular focus on the discursive barriers that exist in teachers' accounts, which work to curtail the development of a more comprehensive and inclusive provision.


In the present study contact between elastic-plastic dissimilar spherical particles are investigated. The investigation is based on analytical and numerical methods and in the latter case in particular the finite element method. The results presented are pertinent to force-displacement relations at contact when elastic and plastic deformations are of equal magnitude. Especially, hard metal particles are considered with a typical application area being analysis of powder compaction.


Abstract. We use a genetic algorithm to construct optimal observing networks of atmospheric concentration for inverse determination of net sources. Optimal networks are those that produce a minimum in average posterior uncertainty plus a term representing the divergence among source estimates for different transport models. The addition of this last term modifies the choice of observing sites, leading to larger networks than would be chosen under the traditional estimated variance metric. Model-model differences behave like sub-grid heterogeneity and optimal networks try to average over some of this. The optimization does not, however, necessarily reject apparently difficult sites to model. Although the results are so conditioned on the experimental set-up that the specific networks chosen are unlikely to be the best choices in the real world, the counter-intuitive behaviour of the optimization suggests the model error contribution should be taken into account when designing observing networks. Finally we compare the flux and total uncertainty estimates from the optimal network with those from the 3 control case. The  3 control case performs well under the chosen uncertainty metric and the flux estimates are close to those from the optimal case. Thus the 3 findings would have been similar if minimizing the total uncertainty guided their network choice.


Stream surfaces are an intuitive approach to represent 3D vector fields. In many cases, however, they are challenging objects to visualize and to understand, due to a high degree of self-occlusion. Despite the need for adequate rendering methods, little work has been done so far in this important research area. In this paper, we present an illustrative rendering strategy for stream surfaces. In our approach, we apply various rendering techniques, which are inspired by the traditional flow illustrations drawn by Dallmann and Abraham & Shaw in the early 1980s. Among these techniques are contour lines and halftoning to show the overall surface shape. Flow direction as well as singularities on the stream surface are depicted by illustrative surface streamlines. ;To go beyond reproducing static text book images, we provide several interaction features, such as movable cuts and slabs allowing an interactive exploration of the flow and insights into subjacent structures, e.g., the inner windings of vortex breakdown bubbles. These methods take only the parameterized stream surface as input, require no further preprocessing, and can be freely combined by the user. We explain the design, GPU-implementation, and combination of the different illustrative rendering and interaction methods and demonstrate the potential of our approach by applying it to stream surfaces from various flow simulations.


Stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors of the society can be associated with avoidance of treatment-seeking behaviors and reduced quality of life for the individual with mental illness. Among these problems, individuals with mental impairment are exposed to unfair behavior in the criminal justice system, restrictions on social facilities, and most importantly, reduced their roles in their life and community participation. Although researches have gone far to understand the impact of the disease, it has only recently begun to explain stigma in mental illness. Much yet needs to be done to fully understand the breadth and scope of prejudice against people with mental illness. Therefore, this chapter presents the stigmatization and its historical development and types and stigma in mental health and obsessive-compulsive disorders to provide a brief overview of issues in the area. Moreover, this chapter presents the occupational therapy interventions in stigma both in adults and children with obsessive compulsive disorder.


The combinatorial theory of species developed by Joyal provides a foundation for enumerative combinatorics of objects constructed from finite sets. In this paper we develop an analogous theory for the enumerative combinatorics of objects constructed from vector spaces over finite fields. Examples of these objects include subspaces, flags of subspaces, direct sum decompositions, and linear maps or matrices of various types. The unifying concept is that of a "$q$-species", defined to be a functor from the category of finite dimensional vector spaces over a finite field to the category of finite sets.


Gas turbine combustors have at industrial scale a thermal power released by combustion of 1 to 400 MW. As the flames in these combustors are very turbulent, the combustion generates high levels of thermo acoustic noise. Of crucial importance for the operation of the engine is not the noise emitted, but its structural integrity. This may be at hazard when the combustor liner starts to vibrate in a mode linked to the thermo acoustic noise. This is even more likely when the combustion noise changes to an unstable closed loop feed back system. Another dangerous situation may arise when there is a two way interaction between the combustion oscillations and the liner vibration. For these reasons the understanding of transient combustion and its coupling with wall vibration in a typical gas turbine combustion chamber is of prime interest. This phenomenon is investigated in the project FLUISTCOM in both experimental and numerical work.
In the project a liner was designed with a thin, flexible section with a significant amplitude response on changes in the pressure field caused by the combustion oscillations. Numerical calculations of eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes were performed, followed by transient numerical calculations of the transient combusting flow within the combustion chamber with the use of CFX-ANSYS. The flame investigated was a 1.5 bar, 150 kW premixed natural gas flame.
Solutions for the pressure field obtained during numerical computations of the combustor flow were collected and implemented in the structural code (Ansys) as surface loads on the liner side. Results show the one way response of the liner structure as a result of the transient pressure generated by the combustion of the gas flow.
The paper will present the predicted results on the combustion field, the accompanying oscillating pressure field, and the induced structural vibration of the combustor liner as predicted by the finite element structural code.


Background: In agriculture, it is essential to follow the ripening of fruits and vegetables which is a subject of interest economically. The use of optical non-destructive method is the most suitable technique for evaluating the ripening stage of fruits when they ripen off-tree and eventually to predict the optimum storage life. Many methods are recently developed in optical image processing. The texture correlation function and the fractal box counting (FBC) of biospeckle pattern have been described. Materials and Methods: The dynamic speckle patterns known as boiling speckle are produced by a coherent light illumination incident on the active material of biological tissue. A high coherent laser source He-Ne with 632 nm with neutral density filter and charge-coupled device camera are the major components of the experimental setup. The same experiment may be done by a green laser of wavelength 541 nm (green color). The same procedure continues to take the speckle images in periodically. Results and Discussion: With the help of FBC method in image processing technique, we can assess optically rough surface fruits such as grapes in this work. According to the FBC theory, the speckle images (R1) give a binary counting value D = 1.7640 at the initial stage. Gray image converted into binary image which gives the fractal counting value D = 1.7554 at later on phase. It means that the specimen (grapes) becomes dry periodically and its value is affected by the surrounding environmental condition. Conclusion: Using the dynamic speckle phenomenon or biospeckle method, we demonstrated the assessment of shelf life activity of grapes. The visual phase of the autocorrelation function gives reliable results showing the variation in activity because of the internal changes caused by decreasing water content and then becomes dry grape stage. The correlation function of speckle patternand the Fractal Box Counting (FBC) technique has been proposed as a tool to estimate the postharvest stage of grapes. The bioactivities of fruits and vegetable materials are based on Brownian motion, due to subcellular organs. This indicates the senescence or biological aging characteristics. The quantification of the biospeckle phenomena is associated with the moment of inertia, time history of speckle pattern and grey level co-occurrence matrix. We proposed a new FBC technique to assess the shelf life of grapes.


Objectives. Aboriginal people form one of the populations most in need of mental health and substance abuse services within Australia, although many services are not adequately sensitive to, or inclusive of, relevant aspects of Aboriginal culture in their programmes. The Aboriginal Cultural Engagement Survey (ACES) was developed with the objective of assessing the level of cultural engagement of Aboriginal clients. A measure of cultural engagement is an important step in establishing an association between culture and health benefits, so that future interventions may be designed which better meet the cultural needs of Aboriginal Australians within health services. Design. The process of development of the ACES involved four stages of scale development utilising a series of group discussions and reviews with Aboriginal consultants. Assessment of content validity is conducted using the Content Validity Index (CVI). Results. The ACES was found to have excellent content validity with CVIs over 0.80 for all items in the final version. Conclusion. The ACES shows promise for being a useful tool in assessing the cultural engagement of Australian Aboriginal clients. There is a need for further psychometric assessment and field trials to assess its utility.


Hypoxia is a common underlying condition of many disease states. Hypoxia can occur with ischemia, a lack of blood flow to tissues, or independent of ischemia as in acute lung injury, anemia, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Hypoxia may be observed in patients with diseases such as obstructive sleep apnea, cerebrovascular diseases, systemic hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary hypertension and congestive heart failure (CHF), inflammatory disease states, and acute and chronic renal diseases. In the past decade, research has shown hypoxic signaling to be involved in a range of responses from adaptation of the body to reduced oxygen to pathogenesis of disease. Hypoxic signaling intermediates orchestrate a whole host of responses from angiogenesis, glycolysis, and erythropoiesis to inflammation and remodeling, which could be beneficial or harmful to the hosting organ. The length of exposure to low oxygen pressure as well as the existing signaling pathways within different cells dictates their benefit or disadvantage from hypoxic signaling. Therefore, activation or inhibition of hypoxic intermediates could serve as novel therapeutic strategies. In this chapter, we review the role of hypoxic signaling in neurodegenerative, inflammatory, and renal disease states and the emerging therapeu‐ tic approaches involving hypoxic signaling.


As a multifunctional protein, KRAB domain-associated protein 1 (KAP1) is reportedly subjected to multiple protein posttranslational modifications, including phosphorylation and sumoylation. However, gaps exist in our knowledge of how KAP1 phosphorylation cross-talks with KAP1 sumoylation and what the biological consequence is. Here, we show that doxorubicin (Dox) treatment induces KAP1 phosphorylation at Ser-824 via an ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent manner, correlating with the transcriptional de-repression of p21WAF1/CIP1 and Gadd45α. A S824A substitution of KAP1, which ablates the ATM-induced phosphorylation, results in an increase of KAP1 sumoylation and repression of p21 transcription in Dox-treated cells. By contrast, a S824D mutation of KAP1, which mimics constitutive phosphorylation of KAP1, leads to a decrease of KAP1 sumoylation and stimulation of p21 transcription before the exposure of Dox. We further provide evidence that SENP1 deSUMOylase is involved in activating basal, but not Dox-induced, KAP1 Ser-824 phosphorylation, rendering a stimulation of p21 and Gadd45α transcription. Moreover, KAP1 and differential sumoylation of KAP1 were also demonstrated to fine-tune the transcription of three additional KAP1-targeted genes, including Bax, Puma, and Noxa. Taken together, our results suggest a novel role for ATM that selectively stimulates KAP1 Ser-824 phosphorylation to repress its sumoylation, leading to the de-repression of expression of a subset of genes involved in promoting cell cycle control and apoptosis in response to genotoxic stresses.


Louis Kelso's Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) became a feature of US employment law in 1974, and since then it has enabled millions of people to benefit from an ownership stake in their workplaces. But Kelso, together with his collaborator Patricia Hetter Kelso, envisioned much more than the ESOP. They proposed a series of similarly structured plans that involved leveraged financing for broad-based ownership among stakeholders beyond just the employment relationship, situated in a distinct theory of political economy.This essay argues that Kelso and Kelso's proposals deserve reconsideration in an age of the increasingly dominant online economy. Although first envisioned in another time, they anticipate frequent anxieties and ambitions surrounding digital networks, from gig work and big data to universal basic income. The proposals also come with financing mechanisms and policy tools that, as with the ESOP, could make them scalable and self-perpetuating. The essay reconsiders several Kelsoist strategies in light of the digital economy and addresses concerns from critical research on the ESOP legacy.


Background: Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) targeting physical inactivity have increased in popularity yet are usually limited by low engagement. This study examined the impact of adding team-based incentives (Step Together Challenges, STCs) to an existing mHealth app (Carrot Rewards) that rewarded individual physical activity achievements. Methods: A 24-week quasi-experimental study (retrospective matched pairs design) was conducted in three Canadian provinces (pre-intervention: weeks 1-12; intervention: weeks 13-24). Participants who used Carrot Rewards and STCs (experimental group) were matched with those who used Carrot Rewards only (controls) on age, gender, province and baseline mean daily step count (±500 steps/d). Carrot Rewards users earned individual-level incentives (worth $0.04 CAD) each day they reached a personalized daily step goal. With a single partner, STC users could earn team incentives ($0.40 CAD) for collaboratively reaching individual daily step goals 10 times in seven days (e.g., Partner A completes four goals and Partner B completes six goals in a week). Results: The main analysis included 61,170 users (mean age=32yrs; % female=64). Controlling for pre-intervention mean daily step count, a signi�cant difference in intervention mean daily step count favoured the experimental group (p<0.0001; η p2 =0.024). The estimated marginal mean group difference was 537 steps per day, or 3759 steps per week (about 40 walking min/wk). Linear regression suggested a dose-response relationship between the number of STCs completed (app engagement) and intervention mean daily step count (adjusted R 2 =0.699) with each new STC corresponding to approximately 200 more steps per day. Conclusion: Despite an explosion of physical activity app interest, low engagement leading to small or no effects remains an industry hallmark. In this paper, we found that adding modest team-based incentives to the Carrot Rewards app increased mean daily step count, and importantly, app engagement moderated this effect. Others should novel small-teams based approaches to boost engagement and effects.


The effect of the methoxy substituent on the structure, crystal packing, and electrostatic properties of hexafluorocyclobutene (C(4)F(6)) was investigated in the solid-state with DFT-B3LYP calculations. Full geometry optimizations were done for the parent compound and its two vinyl methoxy derivatives C(4)F(5)OCH(3) and C(4)F(4)(OCH(3))(2), starting from the structures obtained by single-crystal X-ray diffraction at low temperature. A full topological analysis, followed by the calculation of several electrostatic properties, was performed on the periodic electron density using the quantum theory of atoms in molecules. Eventually, the cohesive energies of the three crystals were estimated. In the cyclobutene plane, the methoxy substitution yields a significant electronic rearrangement involving the pi-electrons. The solid-state (periodic) results agree with those obtained by gas-phase calculations on C(4)F(6) and its derivatives at a comparable level of theory. It was found that the substitution of one or two vinylic fluorine atoms with the OCH(3) group considerably influences the molecular dipole moment, which undergoes an enhancement in both the solid and the gas phase as large as 200% and 235% for C(4)F(5)OCH(3) and C(4)F(4)(OCH(3))(2), respectively, with respect to that calculated for C(4)F(6). The charge rearrangement due to the substituents provides a significant electrostatic contribution to the lattice energy, and in turn it can be related to the change in the observed crystal packing on going from C(4)F(6) (space group P2(1)/c) to both of its derivatives (space group P1). It is also shown that the dispersion energy significantly contributes to the lattice stability in all three compounds. Since the DFT calculations, in the limit of large separations, entirely miss the dispersion term, this was estimated by applying a recently proposed dampening function to the semiempirical atom-atom C(6) R(-6) potentials in the mainframe of Spackman's energy decomposition scheme for Mulliken multipoles.


Video drones not only offer new perspectives but also an extension of the ways in which stories can be told in sports and event communication can be operated. On the one hand perceptual psychological mechanisms, which are already well-known from the production of films (such as, for example, the power and overview suggestive from the top to bottom view), have an effect. On the other hand, the view from the top of a sports event also provides new information that cannot be generated otherwise and whose use significantly changes the staging of sports, sports reporting and sports training. On selected examples from different sports we show that the exploitation of surplus values in the sense mentioned above does not only depend on the increased camera position. Rather it is crucial to capture and understand the domain-specific peculiarities of a sport in order to profitably exploit the freedom degrees of a drone deployment, taking into account the respective profile of requirements and the intended communication target. It is a question of whether a sporting event should unfold below a drone hovering on a fixed position or the drone should follow an athlete or an overall situation. It depends on the extent and distance of the drone deployment, whether and in which angle a movement path is crossed or an event is encircled, etc. An up-to-date education in media management as well as in sports journalism must not only enable students to tap and understand the profile of requirements in sports and their concretization in the competition but also to take into account the possibilities of communication extended with the use of video drones as well as for spectators, for a live audience and for media-mediated communication. In doing so, aesthetic, journalistic and economic aspects must be taken into account as well as dataand security-legal concerns and psychological effects.


Purpose of the article: Due to globalization processes and technological development, companies are having more influence on global society than ever. Therefore, business misconduct causes enormous harm to stakeholders, whereas ethical behavior is becoming an important issue. The goal of the following study is to verify and measure a positive effect from investments in social activities on financial attractiveness of companies in the form of its stock portfolio value growth.
Methodology/methods: In order to achieve the goal of the research, quantitative analysis is used by comparing performance of stock portfolio of companies having long-term investments in social activities with market index increment. The quantitative results are accompanied with the review of corporate social responsibility definition and some practical issues on governmental and corporation level.
Scientific aim: The conducted research contributes both to the scientific discussion about development of appropriate investment strategy in companies applying CSR principles as well as to the discussion of related terminology used in the field.
Findings: The research has shown that engagement in the CSR activities tends to have strong positive effect on companies' financial results and investors' financial performance. The research proves this fact by comparing value increment of CSR-portfolio (+35.99% gained from January 2015 to March 2017) with market index (+22.37% in the same period).
Conclusions: Regardless the positive result achieved in the study the authors have determined several gaps in the research, which will be discussed in the further studies on the field.


We present, the measurements of the $\phi$-meson production and elliptic flow ($v_{2}$) at mid-rapidity in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7 - 200 GeV using the STAR detector in the years 2010 and 2011. The energy dependence of nuclear modification factors ($R_{\rm{CP}}$) is presented. At the intermediate transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) the $\Omega/\phi$ ratio shows a different trend for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 11.5 GeV compared to higher beam energies. This may suggest change of particle production mechanism at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 11.5 GeV. The number-of-constituent quark (NCQ) scaling of $v_{2}$ has been studied at various beam energies. The NCQ scaling holds for all identified particles for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ $\geq$ 19.6 GeV, which can be considered as an evidence of partonic collectivity. We observe at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7 and 11.5 GeV, the $\phi$-meson $v_{2}$ falls off the trend from the other hadrons at highest measured $p_{T}$ values by 1.8$\sigma$ and 2.3$\sigma$, respectively. This may indicate that the hadronic interaction plays an important role at lower beam energies.


The cardiovascular effects of an intravenous infusion of adrenaline (10 μg./min.) and isoprenaline (0·75 μg./min.) have been compared in two groups of six patients in the early post-operative period following aortic valvar homograft replacement. These doses were chosen to produce obvious haemodynamic effects without precipitating dysrhythmias. Though both drugs have been shown to improve the circulatory state, adrenaline caused a greater change in stroke volume and in arterial pulse pressure, and for any given rise in heart rate a greater increase in the cardiac index. In addition, adrenaline caused a greater improvement in the relation between oxygen demand and oxygen supply of the body. Isoprenaline did not cause an increase in systolic and pulse pressure and always aggravated hypoxaemia. It is concluded from this study that adrenaline is the more satisfactory drug to use in the early post-operative phase following aortic valvar homograft replacement.


Using needs analysis as a research methodology, this study attempted to design a 20 hour academic writing (AW) course for Level 2 Foundation Year Saudi EFL students. Needs analysis was based on a diagnostic test, structured questionnaires, and researcher's observation to obtain information on students' language and skills needs, profile, levels of motivation, and learning styles and preferences. The results showed that the students did not have the writing proficiency for producing longer compositions and, therefore, the course should focus on appropriate language systems and skills to help learners with writing paragraphs based on two rhetorical strategies: cause and effect; and exemplification. The course content provides for the appropriate language systems and skills as voiced by the students and needed for writing these two types of paragraphs. The study also points to a course evaluation strategy that can be used for validation and future use of the proposed course.


Algorithm animations and high level data structure visualizations are not widely used, in part because producing them is difficult and time consuming. Algorithm animation and data structure visualization systems attempt to minimize this effort, but none has made the process as simple as it could be. The purpose of the system described in this work, the jGRASP Visualization System, is to allow the creation and use of dynamic data structure visualizations from working source code with minimal effort. Ideally, the only work required to create an animated visualization should be selecting values from a program running in debug mode in an IDE, selecting the way each value will be displayed from a list of available choices, and physically arranging the display elements. This has been achieved for arbitrary implementations of common data structures in Java. This dissertation begins by discussing existing work on the usefulness of algorithm animation and data structure visualization for algorithm and code understanding, and existing work on systems with similar organization, features, and construction to the one described here. The jGRASP Visualization System is described in detail from the user's perspective. Implementation details are discussed. Previously published results on the effectiveness of these visualizations when applied to arbitrary data structure code, and on code understanding experiments performed with the visualizations are presented. Finally, visualization feature usage data collected from users of the system is analyzed and discussed.


This master thesis presents the development and implementation of two digital systems based on Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA): a Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT) system for an Optical Communication (OCOM) application, and a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) system for a Spin-Dependent Tunneling Magnetometer (SDTM). Both applications are intended for space and currently under development at the Angstrom Space Technology Center (ASTC). The DSP system samples analog signals and applies a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for to provide frequency spectrum analysis. The report covers detailed system designs, state machine designs, and accounts for system verifications and measurements. As the live OCOM system and SDTM were unavailable by the time of testing, a series of emulated testing cases was set up to evaluate the digital systems developed. The BERT system was evaluated by checking the bit error rate of a stranded wire connection and a coaxial cable. Analog square and sine wave signals were used to evaluate the performance and accuracy of the FFT in the DSP system. Both systems were functionally verified using the Altera SignalTap II Logic Analyzer. Analysis of the measurement results for the testing cases indicates that the BERT works well at clock frequencies of 50 and 125 MHz, and that the coaxial cable is more suitable for data transmission as it gives a lower bit error rate than the stranded wire. The DSP system was verified to work well at a clock frequency of 62.5 MHz, and is able to sample any waveform at a sampling frequency of 62.5 MHz and continuously gets, at maximum, 14-bit wide digital signals. The sample point lengths for FFT are 64, 512 and 1024, and the data transfer rate between the FPGA and the computer reaches 115200 baud. In conclusion, the developed BERT and DSP system can be used to support the OCOM and the SDTM hardware, respectively.


This chapter examines the effects of Study Abroad (SA), following Formal Instruction (FI), on a group of Catalan/Spanish English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners ( n = 28) regarding changes in their intercultural awareness. Data from this group were compared with data from a group of native speakers of English ( n = 26) enrolled in a SA program in Spain. Following one of the main objectives in the SALA Project, we seek to understand to what extent learners' cultural beliefs may change after a three-month SA program. Results showed that intercultural awareness increased immediately following SA but not FI, and it decreased 15 months upon the EFL learners' return from the SA period. No statistically significant differences were found between the Catalan/Spanish undergraduates and the English group.


This article examines the moderating role of regional social capital in the intention–behaviour link in entrepreneurship. We investigate to what extent the regional social capital context in which aspiring entrepreneurs are embedded strengthens or weakens the translation of individual entrepreneurial intentions into new venture creation activities. Our results suggest that the intention–behaviour link is weakened by cognitive regional social capital in the form of regional hierarchy values and strengthened by structural regional capital in the form of regional cultural diversity and regional breadth of associational activity, as well as by relational regional social capital in the form of high levels of regional generalised trust. Our findings suggest that to support new venture creation activity, there is a need to grow regional social capital via the enhancement of social trust, associational activities and regional cultural diversity – and at the same time decrease hierarchical social structures within regions.


Originally published in 1968 and here reprinted with corrections, this complete introduction to spoken and written Cambodian can also be used as a comprehensive guide to grammar and usage. It includes a phonetic description of the language's sounds, for those with phonetic training, and for others, a series of comparisons with English and French. Gathered chiefly in Cambodia, the material can be followed entirely in transcription, or worked through in the orthography, and includes exercises and a full vocabulary.


Over the years, microfinance has been purported to have experienced enormous progress and is seen to contribute towards poverty reduction by extending finance to people previously excluded from formal financial markets. However, the question on how microfinance social performance is assessed remains unresolved. The paper develops an original social performance rating for 878 microfinance institutions (MFIs), across all geographic regions in the world for a period of 11 years (2000-2010). Furthermore, the paper investigates whether or not the age, assets, regulation status, loans per loan officers, as well as the profit status of MFIs affect MFIs' ability to perform socially.


One of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other polluting gases caused by ships is to improve their maintenance operations through their life cycle. The maintenance manager usually does not modify the preventive intervals that the equipment manufacturer has designed to reduce the failure. Conditions of use and maintenance often change from design conditions. In these cases, continuing using the manufacturer's preventive intervals can lead to non-optimal management situations. This article proposes a new method to calculate the preventive interval when the hours of failure of the assets are unavailable. Two scenarios were created to test the effectiveness and usefulness of this new method, one without the failure hours and the other with the failure hours corresponding to a bypass valve installed in the engine of a maritime transport surveillance vessel. In an easy and fast way, the proposed method allows the maintenance manager to calculate the preventive interval of equipment that does not have installed an instrument for measuring operating hours installed.


Single crystal X-ray diffraction data were collected at T = 570, 770, 1070 K on a sample of a P4/n vesuvianite from Val d9Ala (Piedmont, Italy). Structure refinements yielded R values of 6.7, 6.8 and 8.5% for the three temperatures, respectively; the P4/n symmetry was retained throughout. The volume thermal expansion coefficient was 33.7(7) . 10 (super -6) K (super -1) ; different expansion rates were observed along the a and c directions [10.4(3) . 10 (super -6) K (super -1) and 12.9(3) . 10 (super -6) K (super -1) respectively]. The volume expansion is larger than that observed in the structurally similar garnet, due to a higher expansion rate along the c axis. An analysis of the atomic displacement parameters (ADP9s) with temperature performed on Ca(2) and Ca(3) atoms did not indicate significant positional disorder. As well no evidence of changes in the cation distribution was found in the Ca(4)a and b and M(2)a and b sites even after prolonged heating at 1070 K.