The influence of the culture medium and its supplements on IVM and steroid secretion by bovine COCs was examined. Immature COCs were matured for 24 h in a-MEM supplemented with IGF-1 (10 ng mL-1), insulin (100 ng mL-1) and 0.1% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA) or 0.1% polyvinylpyrrolidone-40 (PVP; molecular weight of 40 000; Sigma). Neither FSH nor LH was used in either treatment. The control group consisted of COCs matured in TCM supplemented with FSH (20 μg mL-1) and 10% estrous cow serum. After fertilization, presumptive zygotes were co-cultured with cumulus cells until 224 h post-insemination. Steroid production was measured in culture medium after IVM and cumulus cells (CC) aromatase activity was estimated by estradiol (E2) production and by the determination of the ratio of E2 to testosterone (T). Cleavage, blastocyst, and hatching rates were evaluated 168-224 h post-insemination. Hormone determination data were analyzed using the GraphPad 5.0 for Windows software (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA). The means and standard deviations were first calculated for all variables, followed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test. Since the values were not normally distributed, the treatments were compared by the Kruskal-Wallis test. Blastocyst formation, cleavage, and hatching rates were analyzed by the chi-square test. The level of significance was set at P 1.0) was detected in the culture medium of both chemically defined IVM systems. E2 concentrations were 22.86 ng mL-1 and 22.46 ng mL-1 for PVA and PVP-40, respectively, and 0.27 ng mL-1 (P 0.05) in blastocyst (48.92%, 49.56%, and 44.21%) or hatching (38.46%, 41.96%, and 40.78%) rates between the PVA, PVP, and control groups, respectively. Our results show that CC of COCs cultured in serum-supplemented medium show decreased aromatase activity. Also, the addition of IGF-I/insulin and PVA or PVP-40 to IVM medium had no significant effect on the rates of oocyte maturation and embryonic development when compared with results obtained in medium supplemented with estrous cow serum and FSH. Supported by FAPESP/FAEPA-HCFMRP/USP.


The Graduate Institute organized an academic workshop and roundtable on the occasion of EFTA's 50th Anniversary in Geneva under the chairmanship of H.E. Doris Leuthard, President of the Swiss Confederation. Pierre Sauve, Deputy Managing Director and Director of Studies, WTI and Co-leader, NCCR-Trade work programme on preferentialism and Anirudh Shingal, Senior Research Fellow, WTI and Co-leader, NCCR-Trade work programme on impact assessment of trade, co-authored a paper on the nature of preferentialism in services trade, which Anirudh presented at the workshop.

The event was extremely well-attended by high profile dignitaries and academics including President Leuthard; Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy; trade ministers of Brazil and Finland; Jan Kubis, Executive Secretary of the UNECE and several current and former ambassadors. The academic workshop, moderated by Theresa Carpenter (Graduate Institute, Geneva), began in the morning with Prof. Victor Norman's (Norwegian School of Economics & Business Administration) presentation on the future of EFTA. Other presentations included those by Prof. Peter Egger (ETH Zurich) on the structural estimation of gravity models with market entry dynamics and by Prof. Richard Baldwin (Graduate Institute, Geneva) on 21st century regionalism. The high-profile Panel in the afternoon, moderated by Prof. Richard Baldwin, was led by President Leuthard who spoke on free trade agreements and the multilateral trading system in 2020. The keynote address at the Panel was delivered by Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati (Coulmbia University), who spoke on strengthening defences against protectionism and liberalizing trade.


Purpose - The need for a universal rural pension system has been heightened by demographic changes in rural China, including the rapid aging of the nation's rural population and a dramatic decline in fertility. In response to these changes, China's Government introduced the New Rural Social Pension Program (NRSPP) in 2009, a voluntary and highly subsidized pension scheme. The purpose of this paper is to assess the participation of rural farmers in the NRSPP. Furthermore, the authors examine whether the NRSPP affects the labor supply of the elderly population in China. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses household-level data from a sample of 2,020 households originating from a survey conducted by the authors in five provinces, 25 counties, and 101 villages in rural China. Using a probit model and conducting correlation analysis, the authors demonstrate the factors affecting the participation and the impact of NRSPP on labor supply of the rural elderly. Findings - The results show there are several factors that are correlated with participation, such as specific policy variant in force in the respective household's province, the size of the pension payout from government, the age of sample individuals, and the value of household durable assets. Specifically, different characteristics of NRSPP policy implementation increase participation in China's social pension program. The results suggest that the introduction of the NRSPP has not affected the labor supply of the rural elderly, in general, although it has reduced participation for the elderly who were in poor health. Originality/value - Several previous studies have covered the NRSPP. However, all previous studies were based on case studies or just focused on a small region, and for this reason the results cannot reflect the populations and heterogeneity of rural areas. Therefore, a data set with a large sample size is used in this paper to provide a new perspective to fully understand the participation of NRSPP and its impacts on rural households. This paper will make an update contribution to the literature in the area of pension programs in China.


Deep Freeze Geologists usually consider glaciers and ice sheets to be gigantic abrasives, scouring the ground beneath them and carving out relief on the underlying landscapes. Bierman et al. (p. 402, published online 17 April) show that this is not always the case. They found that the silt at the very bottom of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 core contained significant amounts of beryllium-10, an isotope produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays and which adheres to soils when it is deposited on them. Hence, the dust at the bottom of the ice sheet indicates the persistence of a landscape under 3000 meters of glacial ice that is millions of years old. Soil has been frozen to the central part of the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet for at least 2.7 million years. Continental ice sheets typically sculpt landscapes via erosion; under certain conditions, ancient landscapes can be preserved beneath ice and can survive extensive and repeated glaciation. We used concentrations of atmospherically produced cosmogenic beryllium-10, carbon, and nitrogen to show that ancient soil has been preserved in basal ice for millions of years at the center of the ice sheet at Summit, Greenland. This finding suggests ice sheet stability through the Pleistocene (i.e., the past 2.7 million years). The preservation of this soil implies that the ice has been nonerosive and frozen to the bed for much of that time, that there was no substantial exposure of central Greenland once the ice sheet became fully established, and that preglacial landscapes can remain preserved for long periods under continental ice sheets.


The shadow economy (also known as the black or underground economy) covers a vast array of trade, goods and services that are not part of the official economy of a country. This original and comprehensive Handbook presents the latest research on the size and development of the shadow economy, which remains an integral component of the economies of most developing and many developed countries.


The model of the innovation scene, treated like a theatre stage, with three main actors (science, industry and government) is analysed in the conditions of an economy in transition. An interesting pattern can be observed in the period of analysis (1989–2000): the country's innovation performance reacted in the same manner, but with a one-year delay, to macro-economic changes. This outcome leads to the conclusion that the innovation activities of firms were not affected by S&T policy, which was often delayed. On this basis, policy recommendations are formulated.


Evolutionary approaches to cognitive design in the air traffic management (ATM) system can be attributed with a history of delayed developments. This issue is well illustrated in the case of the flight progress strip where attempts to design a computer-based system to replace the paper strip have consistently been met with rejection. An alternative approach to cognitive design of air traffic management is needed and this paper proposes an approach centred on the formulation of cognitive design problems. The paper gives an account of how a cognitive design problem was formulated for a simulated ATM task performed by controller subjects in the laboratory. The problem is formulated in terms of two complimentary models. First, a model of the ATM domain describes the cognitive task environment of managing the simulated air traffic. Second, a model of the ATM worksystem describes the abstracted cognitive behaviours of the controllers and their tools in performing the traffic management task. Taken together, the models provide a statement of worksystem performance, and express the cognitive design problem for the simulated system. The use of the problem formulation in supporting cognitive design, including the design of computer-based flight strips, is discussed.


We study the problem of parametric model-fitting in a finite alphabet setting. We characterize the weak convergence of the goodness-of-fit statistic with respect to an exponential family when the observations are drawn from some alternate distribution. We then study the effects of outliers on the model-fitting procedure by specializing our results to ∈-contaminated versions of distributions from the exponential family. We characterize the sensitivity of various distributions from the exponential family to outliers, and provide guidelines for choosing thresholds for a goodness-of-fit test that is robust to outliers in the data.


Developing a complex new product requires the firm both to deconstruct that product into subsystems and to create an organizational structure aligned with the product architecture. However, empirical evidence indicates that misalignments do occur and are usually one of two general forms: a "hidden dependency", which is a missing link between teams responsible for two interacting subsystems; or "spurious communications" between two teams that interact even though their respective subsystems are not linked. We model the product development process as a search on a rugged landscape and study how misalignments affect the performance of the process in both design quality and convergence time. We find that the effects are mediated by the organizational decision-making structure, and also by the interaction pattern among product subsystems. For instance, with a modular design, a project with hidden dependencies yields higher quality design solutions than a project with spurious communications or an aligned project. However, hidden dependencies cause a longer convergence time. Further, in modular designs spurious communications do not impact quality or convergence time when compared with aligned projects. The effect in non-modular product designs depends on the organizational decision-making structure and managerial capability. When decisions are made in a centralized organization that employs a capable manager, spurious communications improve the design quality but could delay the convergence time. We trace the cause of these effects to errors committed by teams in rejecting superior designs which make the search process more exploratory and covering a wider area of the search landscape.


With the onset of globalisation and deregulation, the influence of national governments is diminishing and transnational corporations are becoming increasingly open to public scrutiny. Hardly any other large corporation has been more scrutinised than Royal Dutch/Shell, the transnational oil company, which came under intense public pressure in the mid 1990s. Two events galvanised public opinion in 1995: the company's controversial decision to dump the Brent Spar platform in the North Sea and the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a leader of the Ogoni people who campaigned against the company's Nigerian operations. These events highlighted the fact that Royal Dutch/Shell is a major player in the international political economy and, as such, a worthy object of in-depth study with reference to global governance. This report aims to shed some light as to how a major transnational corporation operates in the new world of globalisation and deregulation.


Background: Previous investigations have revealed, cimetidine, a histamine H2-receptor antagonist, show radioprotective effects against gamma- and neutron-induced micronuclei in bone marrow erythrocytes. In this study, the anticlastogenic effects of famotidine and ranitidine, which act similar to cimetidin e as histamine H2-receptor antagonists, was investigated. Materials and Methods: Balb/c male mice were injected i.p. with various doses of famotidine and ranitidine two hours before 2 Gy gamma irradiation. Frequency of micronuclei was determined in bone marrow erythrocytes following each treatment. Results: The results indicated that gamma irradiat ion alone can cause a high frequency of micronuclei formation and decrease cell prolif eration ratio. Pre-irradiation injection of famotidine and ranitidine, of various doses, effectively reduced the number of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MnPCEs), yet has no effect on cell proliferation ratio (PCEs/PCEs+NCEs). In fact, these two drugs reduce the clastogenic effects of gamma rays, while they are ineffective against the cytotoxic properties of gamma rays. Conclusion: The dose reduction factor (DRF) calculat ed, shows a DRF=2 for famotidine and a DRF=1.8 for ranitidine which is indicative of a hi gh radioprotective property of these drugs. The mechanism in which these drugs reduce clastogenic effect of gamma radiation is not fully understood. It might be due to their antiox idant and free radical-scavenging properties. Iran. J. Radiat. Res.; 2003; 1(1): 29 - 35.


Why are contemporary laws and techniques that state authorities use to crack down on political dissent so similar across countries? This Article argues that at least part of the answer may be found by turning to colonial history. The Article has two Parts. In the first Part, the Article explores the manner in which, over the course of the nineteenth century, the British deployed various different legal and institutional approaches in response to an Irish polity that consistently refused to submit to British authority. In the second Part, the Article examines the manner in which the approaches developed in Ireland were exported to other parts of the empire, in particular to India, South Africa, and Nigeria, over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Along the way, the Article considers the big picture significance of such developments relative to the nature of the rule of law. While, over time, the deployment of increasingly legalized and formalized approaches may have played a positive role insofar as they served to soften and displace the potential for more direct violence, enabled by declarations of martial law, such developments came at the cost of the incorporation of much of the repressive approach employed in contexts of emergency rule into everyday legality. Far from conflicting with the rule of law, this development represented the form in which the expansion of the rule of law primarily occurred — serving to entrench and legitimize the repressive practices in question.


co_LAB projects typically involve working with interdisciplinary groups of students, using discovery-based learning methods to explore questions, concerns and issues within digital culture and the incorporation of digital media into aspects of everyday life. Most recently the group participated in the 'Web We Want Festival' at the Southbank Arts Centre in London, which was part of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's campaign to develop a 'Magna Carta for the digital age'. In the week leading up to the festival, co_LAB invited students from Computer Science, Psychology, and Film & Media to participate in a workshop that addressed the themes of surveillance, civic participation, and the potential uses and abuses of big data. The students were tasked with producing two installations that would be exhibited at Southbank, with the brief of 'engaging the public in a critical debate about digital surveillance and the future of the Web'.

Blind_Data - This interactive workshop challenges the public to take on the role of data analyst. Can you decide who represents a potential 'national security' risk based on their digital footprint alone? When our data is tracked by governments and corporations alike, what does our personal data and online identity reveal about us in different contexts?

Caught in the Web - Plunge into a 3D browser and explore the history of the World Wide Web. See the developments that have changed the face of the digital world and learn about the restrictions that increasingly limit online experiences. This Oculus Rift 'Virtual Reality' game challenges public apathy towards mass surveillance of our digital lives.


Vehicles can be considered as a specialized form of Cyber Physical Systems with sensors, ECU''s and actuators working together to produce a coherent behavior. With the advent of external connectivity, a larger attack surface has opened up which not only affects the passengers inside vehicles, but also people around them. One of the main causes of this increased attack surface is because of the advanced systems built on top of old and less secure common bus frameworks which lacks basic authentication mechanisms. To make such systems more secure, we approach this issue as a data analytic problem that can detect anomalous states. To accomplish that we collected data flowing between different components from real vehicles and using a Hidden Markov Model, we detect malicious behaviors and issue alerts, while a vehicle is in operation. Our evaluations using single parameter and two parameters together provide enough evidence that such techniques could be successfully used to detect anomalies in vehicles. Moreover our method could be used in new vehicles as well as older ones.


A high protein, groundnut-based powder reconstitutable into a milk-like beverage was packed in polyethylene bags and in lacquered tin cans, and stored at both room temperature (25 ± 2°C) and in a domestic refrigerator (5 ± 2°C) for 60 days. Storage stability was evaluated by analysing periodically for changes in physical characteristics, proximate composition, and development of browning and rancidity, and assessing moisture sorption characteristics. Protein, lipid, total soluble sugars, peroxide value, total carbonyls and extinction values of the ethanolic extract remained practically constant during storage. The isotherm curves exhibited the characteristic sigmoidal shape typical of high protein foods. There was a greater increase in density, hygroscopicity and wettability in polyethylene-packed samples at both temperatures suggesting that the lacquered tin can leads to better keeping quality for this product.


The early continental crust is composed dominantly of Archean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) gneisses and is generally explained as the product of melting of metabasalts in the subducted crust. However, whether the melting occurs in shallow-level amphibolite facies or in relatively deep eclogite facies is debated. Here I present experimental partition coefficients (Ds) for 27 trace elements between garnet/amphibole and tonalitic melts. They are used together with published mineral/melt trace element Ds to model the melting of metabasalt in order to delimit the conditions for TTG production. The results clearly show that model melts with trace element characteristics that completely mimic the TTG are in equilibrium with rutile-bearing anhydrous and hydrous (amphibole bearing) eclogitic residues, but not rutile-free, amphibole-dominated residues. Rutile appears to be a necessary residual phase to account for the characteristic negative Nb-Ta anomaly in the TTG. These results thus suggest that the early continental material was produced under eclogite facies conditions. Based on the modeling results obtained using appropriate partition coefficients and the Archean geotherm, the preferred process for the TTG production is the melting of rutile-bearing hydrous eclogite, triggered by the release of H2O from the progressive breakdown of amphibole. The pressure-temperature ( P - T ) conditions for TTG production via this process are constrained to 1.5–2.5 GPa (∼50– 80 km) and 850–1050 °C by the P - T stability boundaries of amphibole and rutile in the basalt system.


This paper contributes to an ongoing effort on standardizing open hypermedia system architectures and communication interfaces. Open hypermedia systems share the property of being able to provide non-hypermedia applications with hypermedia structuring and navigation capabilities. This support is currently provided in many different ways. To be able to standardize communication interfaces, it is necessary to develop common understanding of the different architectures of existing systems and to develop a common reference architecture for open hypermedia systems. A reference architecture should provide a common language for the design of open hypermedia systems in terms of architectural elements and interfaces. The paper identifies a number of important requirements and characteristics for open hypermedia systems and examines some of the most well known open hypermedia architectures and reference models. The analysis illuminates the commonalties and differences in terminology and architectural elements. The analytical results are used to propose common terminology and a common reference architecture for open hypermedia systems (CoReArc). CoReArc identifies several different architectural elements and communication interfaces for potential interface standardization. Interface standardization may be achieved through a single physical protocol with several suites or topics or through several independent protocols. CoReArc can be used to identify and discuss the different communication interfaces of an open hypermedia system.


Introduction: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a prevalent condition characterized by poor motor proficiency that interferes with a child"s activities of daily living. Children with DCD often experience compromised health-related fitness components such as cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF).
Purpose: To better understand the physical activity and fitness characteristics of children with probable DCD (pDCD), with a particular focus on CRF. Specifically: (1) to present a synopsis of current literature; (2) to determine the longitudinal trajectories of CRF; (3) to compare the submaximal CRF of children with and without pDCD.
Methods: A comprehensive, systematic literature review was conducted of the recent available data on fitness and physical activity and pDCD (Chapter 2). This review provided the background for the other two studies included in this thesis. In Chapter 3, a prospective cohort design was used to assess how CRF in children with pDCD changes over time (56 months) relative to a group of typically developing controls. Using a nested-case control design, 63 subjects with pDCD and 63 matched controls from the larger sample were recruited to participate in the lab-based component of the study (Chapter 4). In this investigation CRF was examined using the oxygen cost of work (VO2) during an incremental test on a cycle ergometer.
Results: The literature review showed that fitness parameters, including CRF and physical activity levels, were consistently reduced in children with pDCD. Chapter 3 demonstrated that the difference in CRF between children with pDCD and typically developing children is substantial, and that it tends to increase over time. Results from VO2 assessments showed that children with pDCD utilized more oxygen to sustain the same submaximal workloads compared to typically developing children.
Conclusions: Findings from this thesis have made several important contributions to our understanding of children with pDCD. Since differences in CRF between children with and without pDCD tend to worsen over time, this adds to the argument that interventions intended to improve CRF may be appropriate for children with motor difficulties. This thesis also presented the first evidence suggesting that DCD involves higher energy expenditure, and could help explain why children with pDCD perform poorly on tasks requiring CRF.


In 1984, a postal survey of landowners and managers was conducted in North Carolina concerning the presence of beavers (Castor canadensis) on their property. Major objectives of the survey were to determine: (1) current distribution and relative abundance of beavers in North Carolina, (2) the economic and environmental impacts from an apparently increasing beaver population, and (3) landowner attitudes toward these increasing populations. Of the 1,069 questionnaires returned, data was compiled from 456 landowners (43 percent) who confirmed the presence of beaver activity on their property during 1983. A significant increase in beaver numbers and distribution has occurred throughout much of North Carolina during the past thirty years and currently the species inhabits 80 of 100 counties. Beavers affect a minimum of 35,858 hectares of bottomland in North Carolina. Total estimated damage loss to forestry and agricultural interests in 1983 exceeded benefits by $275,000. Cooperative efforts in administering a beaver management program between the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and other state agencies centers on landowner education and technical assistance in the form of inspection and demonstration, with referral to professional trappers for aid in controlling nuisance animals. Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-7617


This is a critical work that focused on the songs produced by Christopher Monyoncho. Christopher Monyoncho is a Kisii popular musician who has produces songs in Ekegusii language from early 1070s to the time of his demise in September, 2013. The study begins by raising the theoretical issues that I employed in my critical assessment of the songs. Such issues include the place of music in literature and the theoretical approaches available in the study of such texts. I also carried out a study of works by scholars who addressed the same and related issues in on order to establish the gaps in the area. This helped in the formation of the arguments that I advanced in the entire work. More information was collected through interviews and observation during live performances. The study examines the aesthetics used by the artist in rendering his music. The literary aspects in the songs are singled out in different songs and the effectiveness in influencing the society discussed. The paper further argues that dye to the aesthetics employed by the artist, his music was able to address the socio-cultural and political aspects of the Kisii people for the decades he was actively involved in music. The work was guided by the sociological literary theory, stylistics theory, and performance theory. The theories helped in defining the angle of analysis that I used in ascertaining meaning to the performances and lyrics of the artist. I also used an analytical table in aligning my arguments. The research found out that literary aspects used in music help the artist to effectively convey the message. It also established that artists create and sustain fundamental ideals in the society. Furthermore, the study found out that art has power to transform


Our analysis explores the performance of three superimposed signature generation schemes as they are applied to a dynamic sigrtature file organization based on linear hashing: Linear Hashing with Superinzposed Signatures (LHSS). First scheme (SM) allows all terms set the same number of bits whereas the second and third methods (MMS and MMM) emphasize the terms with hlgh discriminatory power. In addition, M M considers the probaOiZity distribution of the number of query terms. The main contribution of the study is the combination of signature generation and signature file organization concepts together with the relaxation of the single term query and uniform frequency assumptions. The derivation of the performance evaluation formulas are provided as well as the analysis of various experimental settings. Results indicate that MMM outperforms the others as terms become more distinctive in their discriminatory power. MMM accomplishes the highest savings in retrieval eficiency for the high query weight case. We also discuss the applicability of the derivations to other partitioned signature organizations providing a detailed analysis of Fixed Prefix Partitioning (FPP) as an example. Finally, an appro.ximate perfortnance evaluation formula that works for both FPP and LHSS is modijied to account for the multiterm case.


"Very small but cumulated decreases in food intake may be sufficient to have significant effects, even erasing obesity over a period of years" (Rozin et al., 2011). In two studies, one a lab study and the other a real-world study, we examine the effect of manipulating the position of different foods on a restaurant menu. Items placed at the beginning or the end of the list of their category options were up to twice as popular as when they were placed in the center of the list. Given this effect, placing healthier menu items at the top or bottom of item lists and less healthy ones in their center (e.g., sugared drinks vs. calorie-free drinks) should result in some increase in favor of healthier food choices.


It has been shown that acoustic waves with helical wavefronts can carry angular momentum, which can be transmitted towards a propagating medium. Such a wave field can be achieved by using a planar array of electroacoustic transducers, forming a given spatial distribution of phased sound sources which produce the desired helical wavefronts. Here, we introduce a technique to generate acoustic vortices, based on the passive acoustic metasurface concept. The proposed metasurface is composed of space-coiled cylindrical unit cells transmitting sound pressure with a controllable phase shift, which are arranged in a discretized circular configuration, and thus passively transforming an incident plane wavefront into the desired helical wavefront. This method presents the advantage of overcoming the restrictions on using many acoustic sources, and it is implemented with a transmitting metasurface which can be easily three-dimensionally printed. The proposed straightforward design principle can be adopted for easy production of acoustic angular momentum with minimum complexity and using a single source.


The principal phosphate mineral in sedimentary phosphorites is carbonate fluorapatite of the variety francolite. Francolites exhibit several systematic isomorphous substitutions including sodium and magnesium for calcium, carbonate for phosphate, fluorine for oxygen, and hydroxyl for fluorine. These substitutions result in measurable variations of the crystallographic properties including unit-cell parameters and optical indices. Statistical models have been developed to relate compositional and crystallographic variations in the various francolites. Previous work has shown that francolite compositions are metastable with respect to fluorapatite. The effects of weathering, metamorphism and geological time causing systematic changes in francolite compositions are used as examples of these relationships.


Quality of Service (QoS) for inter-networks requires a two-tier approach to separate the end-to-end communication from the QoS provisioning within each autonomous system. However, the interaction between both is not standardized. Furthermore, the solutions for both tiers lack either scalability, flexibility, or QoS guarantees. Our paper presents a combination of "Forwarding on Gates" (FoG) as inter-network and "Traffic Engineering Middleware for Ethernet" (TEME) as intra-network techniques. This combination incorporating a recursive layer model separates the layers based on their scope and not on their functionality. This paper proposes a single interface used by all layers. Furthermore, the same interface is used by applications in order to signal their QoS requirements. This design allows supporting QoS in a more consistent way as compared to the ISO/OSI layer model. The paper outlines the proposal theoretically and demonstrates the advantages with an example.


Strong competition between cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for different epitopes in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection would have important implications for the design of an HIV vaccine. To investigate evidence for this type of competition, we analysed CTL response data from 97 patients with chronic HIV infection who were frequently sampled for up to 96 weeks. For each sample, CTL responses directed against a range of known epitopes in gag, pol and nef were measured using an enzyme-linked immunospot assay. The Lotka–Volterra model of competition was used to predict patterns that would be expected from these data if competitive interactions materially affect CTL numbers. In this application, the model predicts that when hosts make responses to a larger number of epitopes, they would have diminished responses to each epitope and that if one epitope-specific response becomes dramatically smaller, others would increase in size to compensate; conversely if one response grows, others would shrink. Analysis of the experimental data reveals results that are wholly inconsistent with these predictions. In hosts who respond to more epitopes, the average epitope-specific response tends to be larger, not smaller. Furthermore, responses to different epitopes almost always increase in unison or decrease in unison. Our findings are therefore inconsistent with the hypothesis that there is competition between CTL responses directed against different epitopes in HIV infection. This suggests that vaccines that elicit broad responses would be favourable because they would direct a larger total response against the virus, in addition to being more robust to the effects of CTL escape.


This paper was initially written for an oral presentation at a seminar organised by the Legal Intersections Research Centre at the University of Wollongong. Translating it into a text form for a wider readership has not proved easy, given the lively, loud and gendered court-room dialogue upon which it draws is unable to be reproduced. The article commences with a brief sketch of some of the defining characteristics of research in feminist crimino-legal studies. This part of the paper assumes some familiarity with the epistemological debates that have hovered over social science research since the challenges of post-enlightenment philosophies to modernist knowledge claims. Then, reflecting on my own experiences as a witness subpoenaed before the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), the paper illustrates how the alignment between legal method with scientific positivism discredits feminist research in crimino-legal studies in much the same way as the legal process systematically disqualifies rape victims. I aim to demonstrate how this process of disqualification entails the asymmetrical arrangement of gendered bodies and spatiality in the hearing room, as well as the coercive exercise of a masculinist invalidation which operates through a micro-physics of power incompatible with the espoused judicial rhetoric of 'objectivity and neutrality'. The paper concludes with a salutary note about the future of feminist research in crimino-legal studies. This journal article is available in Law Text Culture: http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol6/iss1/8 Feminist Research in Crimino-Legal Studies: Reflections on 'Absolute Rubbish'


PURPOSE
The purpose of this paper is to explore in a specific hospital care process the applicability in practice of the theories of quality costing and value chains.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
In a retrospective case study an in-depth evaluation of the use of a quality cost model (QCM) and the applicability of Porter's care delivery value chain (CDVC) was performed in a specific care process: glaucoma care over the period 2001 to 2006 in the Rotterdam Eye Hospital in The Netherlands.

FINDINGS
The case study shows a reduction of costs per product by increasing the number of outpatient visits and surgery combined with a higher patient satisfaction. Reduction of costs of non-compliance by using the QCM is small, due to the absence of (external) financial incentives for both the hospital and individual physicians. For CDVC to be supportive to an integrated quality and cost management the notion "patient value" needs far more specification as mutually agreed on by the stakeholders involved and related reimbursement needs to depend on realised outcomes.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The case study just focused on one specific care process in one hospital. To determine effects in other areas of health care, it is important to study the use and applicability of the QCM and the CDVC in other care processes and settings.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
QCM and a CDVC can be useful tools for hospital management to manage the outcomes on both quality and costs, but impact is dependent on the incentives in the context of the existing organisational and reimbursement system and asks for an agreed on operationalisation among the various stakeholders of the notion of patient value.


This richly illustrated, authoritative and accessible book presents a fresh way of looking at ancient Greek art and archaeology, combining a clear chronological narrative with a lively account of art and material culture and emphasizing the cosmopolitan character of the entire Greek world over two thousand years. Through up-to-date and balanced coverage that integrates the archaeological evidence into its broader historical, cultural and social context, Richard Neer suggests new ways of thinking about fundamental subjects, such as the relationship between art and politics and the evolution of style. Recent discoveries are included, such as an astonishing Minoan-style bull-leaping fresco from Egypt; a spectacular marble sarcophagus from northwest Anatolia; and, a bronze statue of an athlete found in the sea off Croatia; and tomb paintings from ancient Macedonia. Quotations from ancient texts provide first-hand testimonials, and numerous photographs, maps, plans and chronological charts enliven and support the text. Boxes address illuminating topics and controversial issues, including looting: the connections between Homers poems and the archaeological record; manufacturing techniques; and new discoveries.


Production and hedging in both forward and options markets are analyzed for forward-looking firms that maximize expected utility. In the presence of unbiased forward and options prices, it is shown that such firms will use options as hedging instruments. This result contrasts with the conclusions from studies that assume myopic behavior, and occurs because forward looking agents care about the effect of future output prices on profits from future production cycles. Simulations support the theoretical results and show how the introduction of an options market influences the optimal forward position.


We present the first efficient and provably consistent estimator for the robust regression problem. The area of robust learning and optimization has generated a significant amount of interest in the learning and statistics communities in recent years owing to its applicability in scenarios with corrupted data, as well as in handling model mis-specifications. In particular, special interest has been devoted to the fundamental problem of robust linear regression where estimators that can tolerate corruption in up to a constant fraction of the response variables are widely studied. Surprisingly however, to this date, we are not aware of a polynomial time estimator that offers a consistent estimate in the presence of dense, unbounded corruptions. In this work we present such an estimator, called CRR. This solves an open problem put forward in the work of (Bhatia et al, 2015). Our consistency analysis requires a novel two-stage proof technique involving a careful analysis of the stability of ordered lists which may be of independent interest. We show that CRR not only offers consistent estimates, but is empirically far superior to several other recently proposed algorithms for the robust regression problem, including extended Lasso and the TORRENT algorithm. In comparison, CRR offers comparable or better model recovery but with runtimes that are faster by an order of magnitude.


We present growth scenarios for 128 countries to 2050, based on a three-factor production function that includes capital, labour and energy. We improve on the literature by accounting for the energy constraint through dynamic modelling of energy productivity, and departing from the assumptions of either a closed economy or full capital mobility by applying a Feldstein-Horioka-type relationship between savings and investment rates. Our results suggest that, accounting for relative price variations, China could account for 28% of the world economy in 2050, which would be much more than the United States (14%), India (12%), the European Union (11%) and Japan (3%). They suggest also that China would overtake the United States around 2025 (2035 at constant relative prices). However, in terms of standards of living, measured through GDP per capita in purchasing power parity, only China would be close to achieving convergence to the US level, and only at the end of the simulation period.


Background The recently described Designed Ankyrin Repeat Protein (DARPin) technology can produce highly selective ligands to a variety of biological targets at a low production cost. Methodology/Principal Findings To investigate the in vivo use of DARPins for future application to novel anti-HIV strategies, we identified potent CD4-specific DARPins that recognize rhesus CD4 and followed the fate of intravenously injected CD4-specific DARPin 57.2 in rhesus macaques. The human CD4-specific DARPin 57.2 bound macaque CD4+ cells and exhibited potent inhibitory activity against SIV infection in vitro. DARPin 57.2 or the control E3_5 DARPin was injected into rhesus macaques and the fate of cell-free and cell-bound CD4-specific DARPin was evaluated. DARPin-bound CD4+ cells were detected in the peripheral blood as early as 30 minutes after the injection, decreasing within 6 hours and being almost undetectable within 24 hours. The amount of DARPin bound was dependent on the amount of DARPin injected. CD4-specific DARPin was also detected on CD4+ cells in the lymph nodes within 30 minutes, which persisted with similar kinetics to blood. More extensive analysis using blood revealed that DARPin 57.2 bound to all CD4+ cell types (T cells, monocytes, dendritic cells) in vivo and in vitro with the amount of binding directly proportional to the amount of CD4 on the cell surface. Cell-free DARPins were also detected in the plasma, but were rapidly cleared from circulation. Conclusions/Significance We demonstrated that the CD4-specific DARPin can rapidly and selectively bind its target cells in vivo, warranting further studies on possible clinical use of the DARPin technology.


An algorithm for convex parametric QPs is studied. The algorithm explores the parameter space by stepping a sufficiently small distance over the facets of each critical region and thereby identifying the neighboring regions. Some conjectures concerning this algorithm and the structure of the solution of a parametric QP are presented.


This article shows that the Constitution contemplates that judges are to exercise a duty of clarity before declining to follow legislation because it violates the Constitution. That is, they were to exercise the power of judicial review only if the legislation at issue proved to be in manifest contradiction of a constitutional provision. But judges were also expected to use the ample legal methods of clarification available to pin down the Constitution's precise meaning.The best categorization of this duty of clarity and clarification is that it was an aspect of the judicial power granted under Article III of the Constitution. Thus, the article rejects James Bradley Thayer's form of judicial deference - that legislation should be uphold on the basis of any interpretation that could be embraced by "a rational person" - as extreme and unwarranted. Thayer followed a jurisprudential tradition that developed subsequent to the Framing in which judicial review was fundamentally a political rather than a legal exercise and in which judges necessarily made law in the interstices of a written text's unclear commands without any clear framework of discipline provided by legal rules. As a result, Thayer's concept of constitutional deference has a larger scope and effect than it did at the jurisprudence of the Founding where judges were not seen as lawmakers in that sense and where the judicial duty of clarity has jurisprudential roots in natural law rather than positivism. But the article also rejects the notion that judicial review permits judges to overturn legislation based on their own view of the Constitution, even if their interpretation is not clearly the best one. The duty of clarity casts doubt on the legality of constitutional construction as opposed to constitutional interpretation in the course of judicial review, because constitutional construction can occur only when the meaning of the Constitution is unclear.


This research has attempted to determine the distribution of precipitation in the complex terrain of Washington State. The first part of this report examines the precipitation distribution for various large scale wind directions. It is found that there are meaningful shifts in the precipitation pattern as the large scale wind changes direction and that knowledge of this behavior can be useful for operational applications. The second section presents a simple numerical model of precipitation in complex terrain. Although the results are not perfect by any means, they can usefully indicate the variation of precipitation in the mountains. However, such a model requires at least a minicomuter to run it.


The creation of the debt crisis in Southeast Asian countries involves the less developed countries (LDCs), the central and international commercial banks in the First World, the transnational corporation (TNC), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). The First World banks, the TNCs and the IMF-WB created and provided the LDCs with terms to make borrowing capital and consequently to incur debt inevitable. The contribution of capital, either by loan or aid, has served to build up a kind of economy in the LDCs that will service the Centers of Capital. LDC economies were restructured to export orientation. With that, LDCs now operate in an international monetary system and follow rules of the free market. Developed countries, on the other hand, have the power to erect impenetrable barriers to its export products. Although unacceptable to those controlling the Centers of Capital, LDCs should delink their trades with the capitalist system.


. It is known that the adhesive to the concrete mix in general use cement types of PPC (pozollan portland cement) and PCC (portland cement composite) of various cement brands marketed in bali. The same was done by ready mix concrete pabric, they are also substituting cement with fly ash in the concrete mix a certain percentage of the sale. Material pozolan as a cement substitute material include: fly ash, coverslag, spent catalis, stone powder, and portland cement pozolan. From previous studies it is known that in ages early (before 28 days) concrete using pozolan as a substitute for cement produces the compressive strength is lower than the concrete of the adhesive cement type I (Ordinary Portland Cement), an increase in compressive strength occurred after 28 days , Research conducted at the Laboratory of Materials Engineering Department of Civil Bali State Polytechnic using the test piece cylindrical with a size of 15x30 cm quantity of 20 pieces for each age concrete with compressive strength Designed 25 MPa, tested at the age of 3, 7, 14, 21 , 28, 56, and 90 days following the PBI'71. Material agregate from Karangasem district, ppc cement production of gresik and pcc production of Tonasa. Value slump concrete mix according to the interval of 30mm-60mm. Concrete compressive strength designed is reached at the age of 56 days, with a value of 25.990 MPa for PCC and 25.961 MPa for PPC. res Conversion Age and Compressive Strength Characteristics for cement adhesive PCC is 0.60, 0.67, 0.80, 0.88, 0.96, 1.00, and 1.33, and for PPC cement adhesive was 0.56 , 0.65, 0.81, 0.86, 0.92, 1.00, and 1.23 according to the concrete in a row 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 56, and 90 days.


Abstract Lord Howe Island is a volcanic island, rising to over 800 m, draped with Late Quaternary submarine and subaerial carbonate sediments. The island and neighbouring islets lie within a chain of seamounts and is presently at or close to the latitudinal limit to coral reef growth. Lord Howe Island and adjacent Balls Pyramid, composed of the basalts erupted around 6 million years ago, sit near the middle of broad shelves on separate peaks of one major volcanic edifice. The central part of the Lord Howe Island is covered by calcarenite that was deposited primarily as dunes (eolianite), but with isolated beach units. Uranium-series, amino acid racemisation, and thermoluminescence dating indicate that many of these were deposited during marine oxygen isotope stage 5. Eolianite units stratigraphically below the beach deposits are of penultimate interglacial, or in places perhaps older, age. Different suites of erosional landforms are associated with different lithologies. Towering plunging cliffs characterise the resistant Mount Lidgbird Basalt, in some cases fringed with large talus slopes. On less resistant lithologies or where nearshore topography means greater wave force as a result of waves breaking, there are shore platforms. Slumping cliffs abut broad erosional platforms on the poorly lithified calcarenite. A fringing reef on the western side of Lord Howe Island, the southernmost coral reef in the Pacific, is dominated by coral and coralline algae. Carbonate sediments veneering the shelf around the islands contain a more temperate biota. Located at the southern limit of reef-forming seas, but apparently having undergone erosion for much of its history outside of reef seas, Lord Howe Island provides insights into marine planation of volcanic islands close to what has been termed the Darwin Point. It represents the initial stages of fringing reef development on a volcanic island. Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, north of Lord Howe Island, have the morphology of coral atolls and appear to be gradually subsiding. The Darwinian sequence, fringing reef to atoll, appears particularly compressed in this chain of islands. However, a fossil reef in water depths of around 30 m on the shelf around Lord Howe Island, of unknown age, implies a more complex history.


Annotation The 2009 ASHRAE Handbook"Fundamentals covers basic principles and data used in the HVAC & R industry. Updated with research sponsored by ASHRAE and others, this volume includes 1,000 pages and 39 chapters covering general engineering information, basic materials, climate data, load and energy calculations, duct and pipe design, and sustainability, plus reference tables for abbreviations and symbols, I-P to SI conversions, and physical properties of materials. An accompanying CD-ROM (free with the book"also sold separately) contains all the volume's chapters in both I-P and SI units.


A fundamental task in kernel methods is to pick nodes and weights, so as to approximate a given function from an RKHS by the weighted sum of kernel translates located at the nodes. This is the crux of kernel density estimation, kernel quadrature, or interpolation from discrete samples. Furthermore, RKHSs offer a convenient mathematical and computational framework. We introduce and analyse continuous volume sampling (VS), the continuous counterpart -- for choosing node locations -- of a discrete distribution introduced in (Deshpande & Vempala, 2006). Our contribution is theoretical: we prove almost optimal bounds for interpolation and quadrature under VS. While similar bounds already exist for some specific RKHSs using ad-hoc node constructions, VS offers bounds that apply to any Mercer kernel and depend on the spectrum of the associated integration operator. We emphasize that, unlike previous randomized approaches that rely on regularized leverage scores or determinantal point processes, evaluating the pdf of VS only requires pointwise evaluations of the kernel. VS is thus naturally amenable to MCMC samplers.


Interview with Robert D. Haines, an American prisoner of war during World War II. He discusses the attack on Clark Field in the Philippines on December 8, 1941, as well as his experiences on the Bataan Death March. He also tells of his time spent as a prisoner of war under the Japanese at Camp O'Donnell, Cabanatuan and Bilibid prison in Manila. He encountered his brother, who was a civilian internee, at Bilibid. From there, he rode on a hell ship for 39 days to a POW camp in Formosa (Taiwan). When the Americans began bombing Formosa, Haines was moved via another hell ship to Tokyo, Japan. Not long after, he was liberated and returned to San Francisco, then Denver.


This thesis provides a detailed account and analysis of
Anglo-French relations in the Levant and their impact on the
more general relationship between the British and the Free
French during the important year of 1943. It aims to examine
and explain how the Levant, traditionally an area of mutual
suspicion and rivalry, created and accentuated discord and
dissension between wartime Allies and , on occasion , even
came perilously close to rupturing their relations.

The introduction provides a survey of Anglo-French
relations in the region as a backdrop against which the
period covered by the thesis must be viewed. Chapters I-IV
examine two policies pursued by Britain in the interests of
the war effort, the persuasion of the Free French to honour
their independence pledge to Syria and Lebanon and the
encouragement of the formation of a unified French movement
in North Africa. Arising from these policies, the mounting
tensions between the Foreign Office and its principal
representative in the Levant and between Churchill and de
Gaulle are explored. The influence of deteriorating AngloFrench relations in the Levant on the Churchill-de Gaulle relationship is considered as are the high-level AngloFrench discussions in the summer of 1943 which acknowledged the need for better co-operation in the Levant. Chapters V and VI investigate the increasing Bri tish involvement in Levant politics, which resulted in the establishment of strongly nationalist and anti-French governments in both Syria and Lebanon.

Chapters VII-XII are concerned exclusively with events
in the Lebanon during late October and November 1943 which
provoked a major crisis in Anglo-French relations. Attention
is focused on the efforts of the Foreign Office and their
French counterparts to defuse the crisis and to lessen its
overall impact, and is contrasted with the intransigence
displayed by Churchill and de Gaulle and with the
belligerence of both French and British authorities on the
spot. The final chapters deal with the efforts made to heal
the breach in the Anglo-French relationship by both sides
and the attempt by both to re-evaluate and reform their
policies in the Levant. The troubled course of the AngloFrench alliance in the Levant throughout the remainder of the war, including the crisis in Syria in May and June 1945, is examined in a brief epilogue.


People make use of quantitative information on a daily basis. Professional education organizations for mathematics, science, social studies, and geography recommend that students, as early as middle school, have experience collecting, organizing, representing, and interpreting data. However, research on middle school students' statistical thinking is sparse. A cohesive picture of middle school students' statistical thinking is needed to better inform curriculum developers and classroom teachers. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a framework for characterizing middle school students' thinking across 4 processes: describing data, organizing and reducing data, representing data, and analyzing and interpreting data. The validation process involved interviewing, individually, 12 students across Grades 6 through 8. Results of the study indicate that students progress through 4 levels of thinking within each statistical process. These levels of thinking were consistent with the cognitive levels postulated in a general developmental model by Biggs and Collis (1991).


The interest about the mechanisms of generation and adaptation of oxygen free radicals (OFR) to exercise has increased significantly from the demonstration of its relation with the oxygen intake. The OFR are formed through the incomplete reduction of oxygen, generating species presenting high reactivity to other biomolecules, especially lipids and proteins of the cell membranes and even DNA. The injuries caused by the oxidative stress present accumulative effects, being related to several diseases such as cancer, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. The acute physical exercise furthers the increase on the formation of OFR in function of the increment on the oxygen intake. However, the physical training generates adaptations able to soften the harmful effects caused by OFR. These adaptations are related to several systems, among which the most important are the enzymatic system, composed by the superoxide dysmutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase; and the non-enzymatic system, composed by the ceruloplasmine, the sexual hormones, co-enzyme Q, uric acid, thermal shock proteins, among others. Such adaptations, despite the controversies about the mechanisms involved, further a higher tissue resistance and oxidative challenges such as those provided by long-duration high intensity exercises. The evaluations techniques of the oxidative stress, most times are not able to detect injuries in short-duration exercises. Thus, studies of physical efforts performed for long periods or until exhaustion have been conducted. New lesion markers by OFR action have been discovered and new techniques for its determination have been created. The objective of this work is discuss the formation mechanisms of OFR and the adaptations to the chronic oxidative stress caused by physical training.


Immunohistology was performed with six commercially available antibodies directed against myosins, actins and collagens. The corresponding antigens, appearing on the surface of cryo-sections from meat and meat products heat treated to different end temperatures, were visualized using these antibodies. The meat and meat products were heated from 20 °C to 80 °C. At 80 °C the meat systems were devoid of thermal transitions as judged from differ-· ential scanning calorimetric measurements. Our results showed that although reduced binding was the case for systems heated above 60 °C, the signals from the antibody labelling was still sufficiently strong to provide information about specific antigens in meat systems heated to 70-80 °C. Antibodies with a high initial affinity bound to the their respective antigens after the latter had been heated to a few degrees above their denaturation temperature as detected in a scanning calorimeter. This investigation points to the possibility of fmding sufficiently good commercial antibodies to perform immunohistology on meat products heated to temperatures between 70-80 °C. This is important as many commercial meat products are heated to end temperatures in this range. Several examples of the labelling intensity obtained on heated meat and meat products are given. In addition, an example using double labelling with antibodies to collagen III and an antibody to slow myosin in a food product heated to 75 °C is given. Problems related to non-specific staining and to non-specific effects of heat treatment are also briefly discussed.


The R&D of Autonomous Transportation Systems (ATS) is hindered by the lack of industrial feedback and client's knowledge about technological possibilities. In addition, because of intellectual properties (IP) issues, technology consulting companies can't directly reuse developed functionalities with different clients. In this context, requirements reuse technics presents a good way to capitalize on their knowledge while avoiding IP issues. However, the literature review on requirements reuse processes doesn't propose methods to the application of reuse processes with little information about the system's operational context. In this paper, we present a semi-automated requirement reuse and recycle process for ATS R&D. The process helps designers' copes with the lack of inputs from the clients. Requirements candidates are retrieved from a database using Natural Language Processing and traceability propagation. It is applied to 3 use cases with inputs less than 5 concepts from the client's needs. The results validate its efficiency through number requirements retrieved and the analysis time consumption


This paper conceptually examines one specific case of international terrorism, including the emergence and maintenance of membership-allegiance in its militant extremist group. This is the case of the Islamic Resistance Movement (or Hamas) and the manifestation of its corresponding Palestinian identity. Although the social person is constituted by symbols and objects, acts and social acts, meanings, and role-taking and role-making, questions persist about how best to promote peaceful coexistence, advance the interests of non-violence and ensure the protection of basic human rights. These practices constitute an ethic grounded in Aristotelian virtue. The delineation of key principles emanating from critical restorative justice helps to specify this brand of moral reasoning. The integration of these principles with the proposed symbolic interactionist framework demonstrates how extremist violence can be mediated. Suggestive examples of the same involving Hamas and those with whom it struggles (Palestine, Israel and the United States) are used to guide the analysis. The proposed conceptual framework is then briefly assessed for its overall explanatory capabilities, especially in relation to furthering terrorism studies.


Cyanobacteria are morphologically diverse group of pioneer oxygenic phototrophic prokaryotes with characteristics in common to both bacteria and algae that originated 3.5 billion years ago and distributed in all possible biotopes of the world. They are ubiquitous found in clean and polluted waters of lakes, ponds and reservoirs, in fresh or salt waters and in stagnant or flowing waters. Whereas some cyanobacteria are unicellular, others grow as chains of cells termed trichome's or filaments. Bidhannagar subdivision is a high density of population around 6,500/km2, situated in the district of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal with a vast area of about 33.10 km2 and giving rises many freshwater ponds, drains and canals which are the main reservoirs of different types of microalgae and cyanobacteria. An attempt has been made to study the diversity of nonheterocystous filamentous cyanobacteria from freshwater bodies of Bidhannagar subdivision in the district of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal (Figure 1 AC). During this investigation around 140 samples were collected randomly from free floating and stagnant freshwater ponds, drains and canals of different municipalities (Figure 1C-G) during the year 2019. In this study altogether 32 non-heterocystous filamentous cyanobacterial forms belonging to 4 genera were characterized and enumerated (Figure 2-3 and Table 1). Most of them occur in free floating, submerged and attached forms (Figure 1D-G). The most common and dominant cyanobacterial genera were Oscillatoria representing 28 species followed by Spirulina 2 and Phormidium, Lyngbya each with 1 species.


The problem of hydrogen embrittlement in ultra-high-strength steels is well known. In this study, slow strain rate, four-point bending, and permeation tests were performed with the aim of characterizing innovative materials with an ultimate tensile strength higher than 1000 MPa. Hydrogen uptake, in the case of automotive components, can take place in many phases of the manufacturing process: during hot stamping, due to the presence of moisture in the furnace atmosphere, high-temperature dissociation giving rise to atomic hydrogen, or also during electrochemical treatments such as cataphoresis. Moreover, possible corrosive phenomena could be a source of hydrogen during an automobile's life. This series of tests was performed here in order to characterize two press-hardened steels (PHS)—USIBOR 1500® and USIBOR 2000®—to establish a correlation between ultimate mechanical properties and critical hydrogen concentration.


Background The human gut microbiome comprise a huge number of microorganisms with co-evolutionary associations with humans. It has been repeatedly revealed that bidirectional communication exists between the brain and the gut and involves neural, hormonal, and immunological pathways. Evidences from neuroscience researches over the past few years suggest that microbiota is essential for the development and maturation of brain systems that are associated to stress responses. Method This review provides that the summarization of the communication among microbiota, gut and brain and the results of preclinical and clinical studies on gut microbiota used in treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. Result Recent studies have reported that diverse forms of neuropsychiatric disorders (such as autism, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia) are associated with or modulated by variations in the microbiome, by microbial substrates, and by exogenous prebiotics, antibiotics, and probiotics. Conclusion The microbiota–gut–brain axis might provide novel targets for prevention and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, further studies are required to substantiate the clinical use of probiotics, prebiotics and FMT.


While the availability of "big data" about building energy performance is increasing in response to market demands and public policies, the lack of standard data formats is a significant ongoing barrier to its full utilization. To overcome this barrier, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed the Building Energy Data Exchange Specification (BEDES). BEDES is designed to enable the exchange, comparison, and combination of empirical information by providing common terms and definitions for data about commercial and residential building's physical and operational characteristics, energy use, and efficiency measures. This paper describes the BEDES development process, scope, structure, and plans for implementation and ongoing updates. BEDES was developed based on a review of over 40 common data formats and an intensive working group process, which engaged stakeholders from State and local governments, energy-efficiency programs, and private sector products and service providers. The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is committed to using BEDES for all relevant programs, grants, and tools, etc., in order to make its tools interoperable, reduce reporting burdens, and to make it possible to combine resulting datasets. Broader, voluntary adoption of BEDES will facilitate data sharing and exchanging among subsectors of the industry, and open a pathway for innovative analysis and technologies at relatively lower transaction costs, by reducing the time spent on data formatting and cleansing. This in turn will increase available information for decision-makers, and ultimately facilitate growth of the energy efficiency market.


The first example of an asymmetric organocatalyzed decarboxylative aldol reaction of β-ketoacids (aroylacetic acids) with α-ketophosphonates that produces a quaternary chiral centre has been developed. A quinidine based bifunctional urea derivative was identified as the preferred catalyst affording γ-aroyl tertiary α-hydroxyphosphonates in good yield and enantioselectivity. The 31P NMR spectroscopic study was performed to shed light on the reaction mechanism.


Rapid advances in data analysis techniques, particularly predictive algorithms, have opened radically new perspectives for legal practice and access to justice. Several firms in North America, Asia and Europe have set out to use machine-learning techniques to create automated legal predictions, raising concerns regarding ethics, reliability and limits on prediction accuracy, and potential impact on case law development. To explore these opportunities and challenges, we consider in depth one of the most litigated issues in Canada: wrongful termination disputes, more specifically the question of reasonable notice calculation. Beyond the thorough analysis of this question, this paper is also intended as a road map for non-technicians, and especially lawyers, on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods, illustrating both its potential benefits and its limitations in other areas of dispute resolution. To achieve these results, we created a large data set by annotating all historic cases related to wrongful employment termination. This data set has proven useful to assess the predictability of reasonable notice, that is, the accuracy and precision of AI predictions. In particular, it helped to identify the degree of inconsistency and fluctuation in notice period cases, incidentally exposing the limitations of legal predictions. We then developed predictive algorithms to estimate notice periods given details of the employment period, and investigated their accuracy and performance. Moreover, we thoroughly analyzed these algorithms to better understand the judicial process, and in particular to quantify the weight and influence of case-specific features in the determination of reasonable notice. Finally, we closely analyzed cases that were poorly predicted by the AI algorithms in order to better understand the judicial decision process and identify inconsistencies, a strategy that will ultimately yield a deeper practical understanding of case law. This project will open the door to the development of a larger- scale access-to-justice project, and will provide users with an open-access platform for notice calculation. In particular, the tool will help self-represented litigants to appreciate possible outcomes of litigation – in this case, reasonable notice – that is, the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).


What is the proper role of the instructor in student-professor interactions? What challenges should new teachers expect and what pitfalls should be avoided? New faculty must meet a variety of concurrent demands when they enter an academic career, several for which they have never received any formal training. Various activities broaden the educational scope of the teacher beyond the classroom and increase interaction with the student body. Many academic communities are located in small towns, where students and faculty share the community life; this factor can add another complicating layer. Establishing a strong relationship with a faculty mentor may be among the most important factors determining the success one achieves as a graduate student. So how is balance achieved in managing the multiple roles faculty members play in students' lives? This case reveals the impact of a teacher's personal relationship with students outside the classroom and the challenges of being involved with student development beyond the curriculum.


Fran (Functional Reactive Animation) is a collection of data types and functions for composing richly interactive, multimedia animations. The key ideas in Fran are its notions of behaviors and events. Behaviors are time-varying, reactive values, while events are sets of arbitrarily complex conditions, carrying possibly rich information. Most traditional values can be treated as behaviors, and when images are thus treated, they become animations. Although these notions are captured as data types rather than a programming language, we provide them with a denotational semantics, including a proper treatment of real time, to guide reasoning and implementation. A method to effectively and efficiently perform event detection using interval analysis is also described, which relies on the partial information structure on the domain of event times. Fran has been implemented in Hugs, yielding surprisingly good performance for an interpreter-based system. Several examples are given, including the ability to describe physical phenomena involving gravity, springs, velocity, acceleration, etc. using ordinary differential equations.


Abstract Objective To compare dosing guidance in the paediatric formularies of high- and middle-income countries for 32 commonly prescribed antibiotics on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) 2017 Model list of essential medicines for children. Methods We identified paediatric antibiotic guidelines that were either widely used internationally or originated from countries in which antibiotic use has increased markedly in recent years (i.e. Brazil, China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa). Findings The study analysis considered five leading antibiotic guidelines: (i) the Manual of childhood infections: the blue book; (ii) the BNF (British national formulary) for children; (iii) the Red book®: 2018–2021 report of the committee on infectious diseases; (iv) WHO's Pocket book of hospital care for children; and (v) Indian National treatment guidelines for antimicrobial use in infectious diseases. There was marked heterogeneity in the recommended dosing (i.e. daily dose, age dosing bands and dose frequency) for most commonly used antibiotics. The rationale for dosing recommendations was generally unclear. Conclusion The pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and clinical evidence supporting paediatric antibiotic dosing, particularly on total doses and on age or weight dosing bands, needs to be improved. Future research should consider whether the variations in guidance identified stem from different clinical disease patterns, varying levels of antibiotic resistance or drug availability rather than historical preferences. Interested global parties could collaborate with WHO's Model list of essential medicines antibiotic working group to develop an evidence-based consensus and identify research priorities.


Struvite crystallization (MgNH(4)PO(4)·6H(2)O, MAP) could be an alternative for the sustainable and economical recovery of phosphorus from concentrated wastewater streams. Struvite precipitation is recommended for those wastewaters which have high orthophosphate concentration. However the presence of a cheap magnesium source is required in order to make the process feasible. For those wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) located near the seashore magnesium could be economically obtained using seawater. However seawater contains calcium ions that could interfere in the process, by promoting the precipitation of amorphous magnesium and calcium phosphates. Precipitates composition was affected by the NH(4)(+)/PO(4)(3-) molar ratio used. Struvite or magnesium and calcium phosphates were obtained when NH(4)(+)/PO(4)(3-) was fixed at 4.7 or 1.0, respectively. This study demonstrates that by manipulating the NH(4)(+)/PO(4)(3-) it is possible to obtain pure struvite crystals, instead of precipitates of amorphous magnesium and calcium phosphates. This was easily performed by using either raw or secondary treated wastewater with different ammonium concentrations.


ABSTRACT In a longitudinal design, we measured 50 low-achieving adolescents' reading comprehension development from Grades 7 to 9. There were 24 native Dutch and 26 language minority students. In addition, we assessed the roles of (a) linguistic knowledge, (b) metacognitive knowledge, and (c) reading fluency in predicting both the level and growth of reading comprehension. Students improved in reading comprehension, the language minority students more so than the native Dutch students. We can explain the level of reading comprehension by linguistic and metacognitive knowledge, whereas most fluency-related predictors appeared to be of minor importance. We can hardly explain the growth in reading comprehension by the predictors. Nevertheless, we found a significant interaction indicating that growth in vocabulary explained growth in reading comprehension for the language minority students. This finding seems to suggest that language minority students profit from gains in vocabulary, more so than native students.


Non-contrast CT and diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) are widely used for assessing patients with acute ischemic stroke including candidates for thrombolytic therapy. Early CT signs, still a gold standard as the diagnostic measure for thrombolysis, are quite subtle and strongly depend on image quality. We evaluated 76 patients (47 male, mean age 71.0 yrs) with ischemic stroke of the anterior cerebral circulation who underwent CT and DWI within 6 hours of onset. The scans were examined separately by two neurologists in a blinded fashion with knowledge of the affected hemisphere. Detection of acute ischemic changes were significantly higher on DWI (72/76, 95%) compared with that on CT (50/76, 66%)(P<0.0001), especially in cases with subcortical lesions (P<0.001). Detection of the lesion with more than 33% of MCA involvement, which should exclude from the thrombolitic therapy, was somewhat higher for DWI (26/26, 100%) compared with CT (22/ 26.85%).DWI is more sensitive than CT in the identification of acute ischemic stroke and can visualize major ischemia more easily than CT. Additional studies are required to determine whether these advantages of DWI are clinically relevant in the management of patients with acute stroke.


Recently, there has been extensive experimental evaluation of reforms of the unemployment insurance (UI) system. The UI experiments can be divided into two main areas: reemployment bonuses and job search programs. The four reemployment bonus experiments offered payments to UI recipients who found jobs quickly and kept them for a specified period of time. The six job search experiments evaluated combinations of services including additional information on job openings, more job placements, and more extensive checks of UI eligibility. The bonus experiments show that economic incentives do affect the speed with which people leave the unemployment insurance rolls. They also show that speeding claimants' return to work appears to increase total earnings following the claim, but the evidence is less strong. They also suggest that the rate of pay on the new job is not adversely affected by an earlier return to work. Despite these encouraging results, I argue that the experiments do not show that permanent adoption of a reemployment bonus would be beneficial as they cannot account for the effect of a reemployment bonus on the size of the claimant population. The job search experiments test several reforms that appear more promising. Nearly all of the combinations of services and increased enforcement reduce UI receipt, and have benefits that exceed costs. The treatments which mainly increase enforcement of work search rules have small but often statistically significant effects. The experiments which focus more on providing services induce much larger reductions in UI receipt, but at a higher cost of services per claimant. Nevertheless, these experiments have very favorable ratios of benefits to costs.


Available evidence does allow an interpretation of periodontitis as being a risk factor for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. There is now a convincing body of evidence that mechanism of atherosclerosis has a major inflammatory component and it is much more than the simple accumulation of lipids on the vascular walls. Studies have shown that certain other mild bacterial infections consist a major risk factor for stroke in young and middle aged patients. Several possible mechanisms could explain the observed association between infection and infraction. The evidence supports the premise that periodontitis leads to systemic exposure to oral bacteria and that the resulting production of inflammatory mediators is capable of initiating or supporting mechanisms associated to development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Studies in patients with pathologic concentrations of anti-cardiolipin and anti-phosphorylcholine antibodies demonstrated increased pocket depth and attachment loss, compared to patients with normal levels of the above antibodies. These antibodies could be associated to increased risk for stroke and atherosclerosis in patients with periodontitis. As we become more familiar to the association between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease it is likely that in the future periodontal disease may be added to the list of the factors which are used to assess patients' risk profile for coronary heart disease and stroke.


Background and Aims: Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) causes an acute, highly contagious respiratory and kidney disease of chickens which results in significant economic losses in commercial broilers, layers and breeders. Rapid identification of IBV serotypes involved in respiratory complex is a problem in the differential diagnosis. Materials and Methods: In this study, a single and multiplex RT-PCR was used to detect group III, Massachusetts and 793/B serotypes of IBV that have been circulating in Iranian poultry industry since 1999. Results: Only seven out of 49 allantoic fluid samples showed positive results in single RTPCR using group specific primers. Two of these samples belonged to IBV positive group in VN test. Whereas; four samples belonged to H9N2 positive group and one sample belonged to IBV/AIV negative groups. The high sensitivity of single RT-PCR led to detect some of the missed IBV infections as compared with other virological tests. Three out of 7, IBV isolates identified with single RT-PCR, classified as 793/B serotype and four of them categorized as Massachusetts serotype in multiplex RT-PCR. Conclusion: The results indicated that multiplex RT-PCR method, can be a valuable test for rapid identification of Massachusetts and 793/B serotypes in complex respiratory complex infection of chickens


A feed forward Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inferences System (ANFIS) reservoir inflow models were developed to investigate their potential in forecasting reservoir inflows. The site for the study is the Sembrong dam catchment which is located about 10km from Air Hitam town on the Air Hitam-Kluang road in the state of Johor, with an area of 130 square kilometers. The models consists of 9 inputs (previous last five-day reservoir inflow and last four-day average rainfall across the catchment) and are able to forecast the next day inflow into the reservoir. Average rainfall across the catchment was calculated by Theissen polygons. The 6 years daily data from 1995-1997 and 2002-2004 were used for training and validation of the models. Cross validation of training and validation data sets was also considered to obtain the best data set. Daily reservoir inflow was computed using a water balance equation. The reservoir inflow and rainfall data sets were examined for normal distribution and the best data transformation was used. Autocorrelation, partial autocorrelation and cross correlation functions were used to find the best model inputs. The ANN models were trained and simulated using a written program in MATLAB environment (M-file) with raw and transformed data. The ANFIS models were built using the Fuzzy Toolbox of MATLAB. The Subtractive Clustering (SC) technique was employed to find the optimal number of rules. Different ANFIS structures were constructed by changing the SC parameters. All models were trained by the ANFIS editor of MATLAB with hybrid method. An M-file was written for calculating the different performance criteria of ANFIS models after simulating models during training, validation and testing. After selecting the best ANFIS structure, the response of the model to different types of membership functions was investigated.
The models were tested with the 10 months daily data of 2005. The best architecture of the ANN model was a 9-13-1 model which means a model with 9 inputs, 1 hidden layer with 13 neurons and 1 output. The model was trained based on the Leven-berg Marquardt algorithm with sigmoid activation functions. Simulation results for the independent testing data series showed that the model can perform well in simulating peak flows as well as base flows. The ANN model has been constructed for a strong non-linear input/output data. Comparisons of different ANN models for different data sets revealed that cross validation of data was effective in improving models performances. Data pre-processing to transform data to normal distribution before the training, results in better generalization and persistency of ANN models during testing. The ANFIS models were built using the best data subset resulting from ANN
modeling. The models were trained with normalized and non-normalized data. The selected ANFIS model was trained with normalized data with 6 Gaussian membership functions for each of 9 inputs and 6 rules. Comparisons of different performances of ANFIS models showed that data normalization can improve the model performances during training and testing. Simulation results for the independent test data series by the ANFIS model showed the ability of this model to forecast daily reservoir inflow in a tropical ungauged catchment. Sensitivity of the ANFIS model using different types of membership functions indicated that the best one is the Gaussian membership function.
The simulation results from the selected ANFIS and ANN models during training, validation and testing revealed the superiority of the ANN model. The selected ANFIS model gives lower values in most of the performance indices during training. For validation and testing, all performance indices of selected ANFIS model were inferior to those of the ANN model. The weakness of ANFIS model is shown in its inability to forecast individual peak flows. The sudden flow changes in these small tropical catchments resulting in these peak flows are common due to their small areal extent and to the intense localized phenomenon of tropical showers.


Background The interactions between transposable elements (TEs) and their hosts constitute one of the most profound co-evolutionary processes found in nature. The population dynamics of TEs depends on factors specific to each TE families, such as the rate of transposition and insertional preference, the demographic history of the host and the genomic landscape. How these factors interact has yet to be investigated holistically. Here we are addressing this question in the green anole (Anolis carolinensis) whose genome contains an extraordinary diversity of TEs (including non-LTR retrotransposons, SINEs, LTR-retrotransposons and DNA transposons). Results We observe a positive correlation between recombination rate and TEs frequencies and densities for LINEs, SINEs and DNA transposons. For these elements, there was a clear impact of demography on TE frequency and abundance, with a loss of polymorphic elements and skewed frequency spectra in recently expanded populations. On the other hand, some LTR-retrotransposons displayed patterns consistent with a very recent phase of intense amplification. To determine how demography, genomic features and intrinsic properties of TEs interact we ran simulations using SLiM3. We determined that i) short TE insertions are not strongly counter-selected, but long ones are, ii) neutral demographic processes, linked selection and preferential insertion may explain positive correlations between average TE frequency and recombination, iii) TE insertions are unlikely to have been massively recruited in recent adaptation.. Conclusions We demonstrate that deterministic and stochastic processes have different effects on categories of TEs and that a combination of empirical analyses and simulations can disentangle the effects of these processes.


Aim/Purpose: The study examined how the developed mobile courseware can be used as instructional material to improve senior high school statistics and probability learning, particularly during distance learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also aims to assess the gamified mobile courseware's engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information quality using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) and a researcher-made Gamified Mobile Courseware Assessment Tool (GMCET).

Background: The need to investigate the effectiveness of incorporating game-based elements into mathematics courses through innovative instructional materials inspired the study. The COVID-19 pandemic has made distance learning a necessity, and gamified mobile courseware is a potential solution to improve learning outcomes and engagement in mathematics courses.

Methodology: The study employed a descriptive-evaluative method with quantitative and qualitative data to achieve its objectives. Five IT practitioners assessed the developed courseware using the MARS regarding engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information. A researcher-made GMCET was also used to evaluate the app's content quality, learning objectives, content presentation, learning assessment, and usability. Five math experts and 12 math teachers rated the app using the GMCET. The study used weighted mean to analyze the quantitative data and content analysis for the qualitative data.

Contribution: The study provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of gamified mobile courseware from the perspective of IT practitioners, math experts, and math teachers. The study's findings can inform improvements in future iterations of courseware, and the study provides a valuable guide for practitioners looking to develop gamified mobile courseware for mathematics courses.

Findings: The quantitative results based on the weighted mean indicate that the IT practitioners had a moderately positive perception of the developed courseware across all categories. At the same time, the math teachers and math experts showed highly positive perceptions of the gamified mobile courseware in Statistics and Probability, rating it highly across all categories. The qualitative data analysis through content analysis highlights the need for improving the user interface, usability, user experience design, user control, flexibility in interaction, data quality, reliability, and user privacy of the developed app.

Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can use the study's findings to improve the design of gamified mobile courseware for mathematics courses and other content areas. The study recommends that practitioners focus on improving the user interface, usability, user experience design, user control, flexibility in interaction, data quality, reliability, and user privacy of gamified mobile courseware.

Recommendation for Researchers: Future research can build on this study's findings by exploring the use of gamified mobile courseware in other mathematical courses and other subject areas. Further research can also examine how gamified mobile courseware can improve learning outcomes for students with different learning needs.

Impact on Society: The study's findings could improve the effectiveness of gamified mobile courseware in enhancing student learning outcomes in mathematics courses. This can lead to better student performance, improved engagement, and increased interest in mathematics courses, positively impacting society.

Future Research: Future research can explore using gamified mobile courseware in other mathematics courses and other subject areas. Additionally, future studies can examine how gamified mobile courseware can improve learning outcomes for students with different learning needs. Further research can also investigate the impact of gamified mobile courseware on student motivation, interest, and performance in mathematics courses.


The longer patients remain in a methadone treatment program, the longer they stay away from drug abuse, and the more counseling and support services they are given, which means that the treatment is more likely to be effective. We analyzed the factors associated with retention in a methadone maintenance treatment in order to predict and improve the retention rate and compliance in heroin-dependent patients. We recruited 356 patients in a methadone maintenance program at a psychiatric hospital in northern Taiwan l. Most participants were male (n=295, 82.86%), had a troubled marriage (n=287, 80.62%), had attended only elementary or junior high school (n=225, 63.20%), and had to pay their own expenses (n=255, 71.62%). Cox's proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the association of retention rates (up to 700 days) and to analyze the potential risk factors of gender, marital status, education level, payment method, and age.


Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent chronic diseases of modern society. The initial stages of dental caries are characterized by demineralization of enamel, resulting in subclinical lesions, which are difficult to diagnose. If detected early enough, such demineralization can be arrested and reversed by noninvasive means through well-established preventive measures, such as fluoride therapy, anti-bacterial therapy, or low intensity laser irradiation. Near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging is a promising new technique for early detection of dental caries based on distinct spectral features of healthy and diseased dental tissues. In this study, we apply NIR hyperspectral imaging to classify and visualize healthy and diseased dental tissues including enamel, dentin, calculus, enamel caries, and dentin caries. For this purpose, a standardized teeth database was constructed consisting of 12 extracted human teeth with different degrees of caries lesions imaged by an NIR hyperspectral system, X-ray, and digital color camera. The color and X-ray images of teeth were presented to a clinician expert for localization of the dental tissues and classification of pathological changes, thereby obtaining the gold standard. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for multivariate local modeling of healthy and diseased dental tissues. Finally, the dental tissues were classified by employing multiple discriminant analysis. Good agreement was observed between the resulting cross-validated classification and the gold standard with the classification sensitivity and specificity exceeding 79.8% and 93.8%, respectively. This study clearly shows that the proposed automated classification and visualization method based on NIR hyperspectral imaging has considerable diagnostic potential.


This article examines the governmental apparatus organised around Singapore's Blood Transfusion Service (SBTS) and the knowledge, experts and techniques associated with transfusion medicine. I term this apparatus, which was in place in the Singapore from its first steps towards political independence in 1959 until 1990, 'Singapore's haemato-logic assemblage'. Drawing on the work of Foucault, the article explores how this assemblage overflowed into and reconfigured understandings of biological sociality and citizenship in post-colonial Singapore. More specifically, it argues that, in the 30 years following independence, this assemblage brought into being a new figure of the biological citizen by creating a sphere of possibilities for Singaporeans to think and act accordingly. This new figure of the citizen is 'the blood donor'. Articulated around the SBTS and the knowledge and techniques of transfusion medicine, this donor is a Singaporean who gives blood to save the lives of fellow citizens and participates, thereby, in the development and modernisation of the newly independent nation. To substantiate this argument, the article shows how the haemato-logic assemblage helped to realise this new figure of the citizen by creating – through narratives, statistics, spaces and rewarding schemes – a sphere of possibilities in which Singaporeans could think and act as blood donors.