Retributive theorists have claimed that restorative and other justice models are inadequate because they do not sufficiently consider proportionality either between crimes and punishments or between different types of penalties themselves. The retributive model, however, has been unable to adequately relate the severity of criminal harms to the gravity of criminal punishments, i.e., to establish cardinal proportionality. As a result, judges and other key criminal justice decision makers have had no means by which to assess the relative punitiveness of incarcerative and nonincarcerative sanctions, either to one another or to the seriousness of the harm that was inflicted on the victim. This article suggests that comparing the severity of disparate penalties on a single, multidimensional scale is both possible and desirable. It assumes that virtually any sentencing system, irrespective of its underlying philosophy and the degree to which severity is important, requires some means by which to characterize penalty severity to ensure the imposition of just sanctions. The article first lays a conceptual foundation for gauging penalty severity and then translates these concepts into a practical scale that can be applied at sentencing. The model is then applied to a variety of punishment options in New York City, and finally the policy implications and limitations of the model are discussed.


A new three-phase Multi-type Interior Permanent Magnet Motor (MT-IPM) is proposed in this research. The type of motor is designed for high torque performance with diameter of 200mm and thickness of 30mm. The main advantage of this motor is to act as two types of motor as a Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor (PMST) and as a Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor (BLDC). BLDC operates in bi-directional variable speed operation in full torque mode. In BLDC, the speed is simply controlled by DC supply voltage. However the BLDC motor requires essentially an input feedback from rotor position sensor unlike PMST that controls commutation sequences by using a frequency controller technique. PMST is usually run at high torque at low speed. Unfortunately, PMST is suitable only for large step angles applications as it is stepped by pulse frequency technique. Also missing or over stepping in the sequence of commutation occurs during the rotor rotation in a PMST for smaller step angles.With this aim, the development of a three-phase multifunctional motor that act as brushless and stepper motor is proposed. This research also proposes new pitch arrangement of three-phase motor. The coils were arranged in a group according to their respective phases. Analyzing torque characteristic and motor performance of MT-IPM on various sizes of magnet and rotor are essential. The optimum model is derived and fabricated for various experimental testing to validate the performance of the proposed motor. At the early stage, simulation analysis using finite element method (FEM) is performed to analyze the magnetic circuit on various sizes of rotor and magnet. The analysis parameters include the magnetic field flux, the cogging force and the developed torque. Further study on the research is then done to analyze the performance of the MT-IPM by using related mathematical model. The parameters considered are no load speed, no load current, stall torque and efficiency of the motor. Heat increment in coil is also taken into account during the observations. Overall analyses are done based on volume of magnet. Thus, the MT-IPM proposed is based on optimum result for testing in a laboratory environment. As the result, optimized model are identified for the motors with volume of magnet between 2000mm3 to 4000mm3. The permanent magnet volume chosen for this MT-IPM is 3600mm3 with the selected size of rotor as 50mm. Based on the measurement results, the optimum output torque with low cogging force of 6.5 Nm is achieved at phase current of 5A. Also the coil current when run as PMST motor is higher than BLDC motor.


SureMap is a versatile, error tolerant and high sensitive read mapper which is able to map "difficult" reads, those requiring many edit operations to be mapped to the reference genome, with acceptable time complexity. Mapping real datasets reveal that many variants unidentifiable by other mappers can be called using Suremap. Moreover SureMap has a very good running time and accuracy in aligning very long and noisy reads like PacBio and Nanopore against reference genome.


Microfluidic devices have long been considered an ideal tool for rapid and inexpensive chemical analysis and reactions in areas ranging from point-of-care health to national security applications. However, fabricating microfluidic devices is time consuming, difficult and above all expensive. In commercial applications many thousand units need to be sold before the development costs are recovered. The problem is compounded since most microfluidic devices do not have generalized architectures which means that each end use requires a specialized design. The microfluidics marketplace can therefore be seen as being composed of 1000's of niche markets. To address development costs, there is clearly a need for a versatile technology that can be used for many different applications and that enables rapid testing and optimization of new designs. This work describes such a technology: Contact Liquid Photolithographic Polymerization (CLiPP). The thesis consists of two parts: polymerization kinetics and the fabrication of polymeric microfluidic devices via CLiPP. The photopolymerization kinetics is evaluated for a number of monomer types, and the results are used to assess their suitability in the CLiPP process. Vinyl ether/maleate photoinitiated copolymerization is examined in detail. It is shown that the polymerization kinetics is dramatically influenced by the availability of easily abstractable hydrogens The presence of α-hydrogens adjacent to the vinyl ether functional group reduces the polymerization rate and the dependence of the polymerization rate as a function of initiation rate. Also, photoinitiated acrylate and methacrylate polymerization kinetics are presented. The kinetics results in these three monomer types are used to explain the different patterning properties of the monomer functionalities used in the CLiPP process, in which acrylates show enhanced patterning properties compared to methacrylates. The polymerization kinetics is studied with traditional tools and methods: photo Differential Scanning Calorimetry (photo-DSC), photo Fourier Transform Real Time Infrared Spectroscopy (photo-RTIR), and photo Real Time Electron Paramagnetic Spectroscopy (ESR). The microfluidic fabrication is performed via both in-house fabricated and commercially available CLiPP-specific hardware. The patterning qualities of the structures are evaluated via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Optical Microscopy. The finished devices are used in their intended environment and evaluated in suitable manners to assess their utility. In this thesis, the development and design of specialized CLiPP fabrication machines, fabrication techniques and resulting microfluidic device features are presented anddiscussed. It is shown that the CLiPP scheme enables features such as 3 dimensional (3D) capabilities for minimized device footprints, a very large number of polymeric materials for optimized device components as well as facile integration of prefabricated components. Also, covalent layer adhesion and permanent surface modifications via living radical processes are demonstrated. These capabilities are exemplified in a number of examples that range from a 3D fluidic channel maze with separated fluidic streams and a device with independently moveable parts to a device constructed from multiple polymeric materials and devices with permanently modified surfaces, Also, batch processing capabilities are shown through fabrication of 400 identical undercut microstructures. Rapid and inexpensive design evaluations, multiple materials capabilities and the ability to seamlessly incorporate prefabricated microstructures of the CLiPP process strongly encourages continued method development. The future work that remains to be addressed is divided into two parts. First, to enable novel research devices, new polymer materials with enhanced mechanical and surface properties must be developed. Also, integration of prefabricated microstructures such as sensors and actuators has to be incorporated in a reproducible and rational manner. Secondly, to enable device mass fabrication, new automated equipment is to be developed in order to utilize the full batch processing potential of CLiPP.


One of the fastest growing areas in empirical finance, and also one of the least rigorously analyzed, especially from a financial econometrics perspective, is the econometric analysis of financial derivatives, which are typically complicated and difficult to analyze. The purpose of this special issue of the journal on "Econometric Analysis of Financial Derivatives" is to highlight several areas of research by leading academics in which novel econometric, financial econometric, mathematical finance and empirical finance methods have contributed significantly to the econometric analysis of financial derivatives, including market-based estimation of stochastic volatility models, the fine structure of equity-index option dynamics, leverage and feedback effects in multifactor Wishart stochastic volatility for option pricing, option pricing with non-Gaussian scaling and infinite-state switching volatility, stock return and cash flow predictability: the role of volatility risk, the long and the short of the risk-return trade-off, What's beneath the surface? option pricing with multifrequency latent states, bootstrap score tests for fractional integration in heteroskedastic ARFIMA models, with an application to price dynamics in commodity spot and futures markets, a stochastic dominance approach to financial risk management strategies, empirical evidence on the importance of aggregation, asymmetry, and jumps for volatility prediction, non-linear dynamic model of the variance risk premium, pricing with finite dimensional dependence, quanto option pricing in the presence of fat tails and asymmetric dependence, smile from the past: a general option pricing framework with multiple volatility and leverage components, COMFORT: A common market factor non-Gaussian returns model, divided governments and futures prices, and model-based pricing for financial derivatives.


In late-modern societies, knowledge constitutes a major component of any human activity. Knowledge politics—a field of political activities concerned with the production, application, monitoring and control of new knowledge and knowledge-based technoscientific innovations—has gained importance over the last 30 years. A central term in recent knowledge politics is "interdisciplinarity". The vagueness of this term, however, appears to be a disadvantage for any public discourse on goals and objectives of any specific knowledge politics. In addition to what has been achieved in the field of reflection on interdisciplinarity (ID), the aim of this paper is to provide a philosophical foundation for a classification and criticism of the innumerable usages of interdisciplinarity in present knowledge politics. With regard to established positions in the philosophy of science, different types of ID can be distinguished: the object type ("ontology"), the theory type (epistemology), the method type (methodology), and the problem / purpose type. Based on this classification I will show which specific type of ID is involved in the NSF's scenario on converging technologies—one of the most prominent kinds of knowledge politics. This type of interdisciplinarity will be contrasted with the research program of the European Commission on converging technologies.


We often speak of consent in binary terms, boiling it down to 'yes' or 'no.' In truth, however, consent varies by degrees. We tend to afford expressly consensual transactions more respect than transactions backed by only implied consent, for instance, which we in turn regard as more meaningful than transactions justified by merely hypothetical consent. A mirror of that ordinal ranking appears in our judgments about unconsensual transactions, too. Those gradations of consent mark a deep structure of our social world, one especially evident in the contours of contract and tort law. This article draws on those and other sources to outline a theory of graduated consent, one that establishes a standard for measuring the justification of a wide variety of human relationships. Though its basic tenets comfortably agree with everyday common sense, graduated-consent theory offers surprising answers to such old problems as enforcing standardized agreements, justifying political coercion, and discerning the meaning of a constitution. In those and other applications, graduated-consent theory promises to enrich our understanding of contract and tort law, as well as other areas of legal, moral, and economic reasoning.


We conducted laboratory experiments to assess the bioelemental plasticity of cultures of Trichodesmium IMS101 under phosphorus (P)‐replete, P‐restricted, and light‐limited conditions. The results reveal a high degree of stoichiometric flexibility. Specifically, Trichodesmium IMS101 is capable of growth with carbon (C) : nitrogen (N) : P ratios of C585±56 : N90±10 : P1, approximately six times higher than would be predicted by the Redfield reference ratio (C106 : N16 : P1), thus signifying low cellular P quotas relative to C and N. Luxury consumption of P occurs rapidly after periods of prolonged P restriction, under both light and dark conditions, resulting in substantial increases in P quotas and reductions of C : N : P ratios (C96±8 : N16±1 : P1). Comparisons of laboratory culture data to our field observations from the Northwest Atlantic and the North Pacific indicate that, while natural populations of Trichodesmium exhibit persistently low P content relative to C and N (C290±15 : N53±3 : P1), the highest and lowest C : P and N : P ratios recorded in the laboratory are rarely observed in nature. We have also performed laboratory experiments intended to simulate the energetic and nutritional extremes that would occur as naturally migrating populations of Trichodesmium sink out of the euphotic zone into P‐rich regions of the upper disphotic zone. The duration of dark survival for this isolate is on the order of 3‐6 d, after which time cells are unable to recover from light deprivation. This finding provides a constraint on the temporal scale of vertical migration.


Phosphate Rocks (PR) from various geographical locations are being
imported into the Malaysian market mainly from Algeria, North Carolina
(USA), Tunisia, China etc. PR vary widely in their physical, chemical and
mineralogical properties. Consequently, the solubility and agronomic
effectiveness of PR sources also vary widely. In addition, the agronomic
effectiveness of PR depends on interactions between several factors, particularly
PR material characteristics, soil properties, crop characteristics, and environmental conditions. Hence, There is a need to evaluate the efficacy of
various sources of PR as phosphate source for plant growth. In \tiew of this, a
glasshouse experiment using oil palm seedlings and a laboratory incubation
experiment were used to evaluate the efficacies of these sources of PR The
study was undertaken with the following objectives :
1. to assess the solubility of PR in soil by various solubility tests.
2. to evaluate the dissolution of PR sources in an acid Malaysian soil, using
an incubation experiment
3. to determine the relative agronomic effectiveness of PRs to oil palm
seedlings in glasshouse experiment.
4. to characterize the immediate and residual availability of PR using the E-value
approach.


Activity seems to fulfill important functions for the work of masculinity that takes place during adolescence. What happens when this work is hampered by somatic illness? In light of a clinical vignette, these functions of differentiation/delimitation, of containing and support, but also of experimentation and virile potency will be explored.


We study the proximity-induced superconducting state in a general bilayer-conventional s-wave superconductor hybrid structure. For the bilayer we include a general parabolic dispersion, Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and finite-layer tunneling as well as the possibility to apply a bias potential and a magnetic Zeeman field, in order to address experimentally relevant bilayer systems, ranging from topological insulator thin films to generic double quantum well systems. By extracting the proximity-induced anomalous Green's function in the bilayer, we show a very rich structure for the superconducting pairing, including different spin states and odd-frequency pairing. Equal-spin spin-triplet (p(x) +/- ip(y))-wave pairing is induced in both layers in the presence of a finite spin-orbit coupling and opposite-spin spin-triplet s-wave pairing with odd-frequency dependence appears for an applied magnetic Zeeman field. Finite interlayer pairing is also generally present in the bilayer. The interlayer pairing can be either even or odd in the layer index, with a complete reciprocity between parity in frequency and in layer index. We also find that a bilayer offers the possibility of sign reversal of the superconducting order parameters, both between the two layers and between multiple Fermi surfaces.


The firm response to regulation is seldom as controversial as in the context of fuel economy standards, a dominant policy to reduce emissions from vehicles worldwide. It has long been argued that such standards lead to vehicle weight changes that increase accident fatalities. Using unconditional quantile regression, we are the first to document the effect of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on the vehicle weight distribution. We find that on net CAFE reduced fatalities, with lowered mean weight dominating increased dispersion. When monetized, this effect suggests positive net benefits from CAFE even with no undervaluation of fuel economy.


Consumer's product has become daily needed. But m ost of the consumer's product like educational toys has contaminated by heavy metals Pb. Pb in educational toys commonly from paints and the raw materials. Toys that contaminated by heavy metals Pb could be asorb by the body of kids by putting the toys to in their mouths. Parents and teachers take a big role to choose toys and monitoring children while they are playing around. The aim of this study is to identity a number of heavy metal Pb and the parents and teacher's knowladge about heavy metal Pb in educational toys for children under five years old. This research will be held in kindergarten at Kecamatan Medan Denai. This study is a descriptive which the parents population and sample is about 30 people taken by total sampling technique. Population of teachers is about 37 people with total samples is 30 people got by the simple random sampling technique. Data will be analyzed descriptively in tables and narration. The study found that (7 5% ) of educational toys for children under five years old consisting 1,48-8,05 ppm of Pb. It means Pb is still under value limit. Parent's knowladge about Pb in educational toys for chldren under five years old is in intermediate level about ( 33,3% ) and in good level about ( 66,7% ) . Teacher's knowladge about Pb in educational toys is inintermediate level of knowladge, that is about ( 6,7% ) and in good level about ( 93,3% ) . The conclusion of this study is found a lot of educational toys for children under five years consisting Pb and the parent's knowladge is in good level. Suggested to recognize the characteristic of educational toys that consisting Pb. So the kindergarten  teacher and parents must be look after the children when they are playing. Keywords : Pb, Educational toys, Children under five years old, Parent and teacher's knowladge


This is a qualitative case study of how selected middle and high school students at two international schools, one in Thailand and another in Myanmar, took literary texts and transformed them into dramatic performances. From 2010-2015, I directed my students in three stage plays and three films. Ten student performers from those plays and films became participants in this study.  I interviewed these students about their experiences. My objective was to explore how each participant had reflected on their own personalities, characteristics, and experiences while developing their performance, whether the students, in retrospect, viewed their ultimate portrayal as being the character or themselves, and what benefits were accrued to each student through engaging in the dramatic performance.  The resulting data confirmed that developing the dramatic performances had been a meaningful experience for the students. Indeed they had explored their own personalities and emotions. The participants reported powerful vicarious experiences, emotional catharsis, inward contemplation, self-analysis, and self-realization. Many of the participants had overcome shyness, increased their level of self-confidence, developed close social relationships with their fellow actors, and achieved a deeper understanding of literature.  The study includes the background of the research, including an anecdote from the filming of 2012's Romeo and Juliet which served as the impetus for the study, a review of related literature, an explanation of the study's methodology, a narrative description of the data along with conclusions drawn from that data, and a discussion and recommendations for further research.


An algorithm for dynamic trajectory generation employing numerical multi-objective optimisation is presented. The crucial innovations are the description of the trajectory through velocity and curvature on the one hand and the restriction of the otherwise infinite function space to a set of basis functions on the other hand. A number of boundary conditions and inequality constraints ensuring the feasibility of the planned trajectory for real vehicles are adhered to. This algorithm is embedded in a rudimentary map-building scheme and an efficient path-planning concept working with incomplete environment information. The performance of the system is demonstrated by application to randomly generated environments.


Objective: To explore and understand the Family Agro-Industry Clusters from the social innovation perspective. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: Social innovation allows us to understand how global issues can be resolved based on local elements. The originality of this study is in the analysis of the cluster as a social innovation, highlighting its formation impacts decisively in the economic and social development of the region in which they operate. Main methodological aspects: This study had emphasis on semi-structured interviews with governance members from the investigated cluster, as well as on the analysis of the governance meeting minutes since the emergence of the clusters. The analysis of the collected content was performed with NVivo 11 software. Summary of key findings: Social innovation was analyzed based on the viewpoint of the process, network formation, planning, governance, and results. These categories from the theoretical framework enabled the Family Agro-Industry cluster from social innovation to be explained. Key considerations/conclusions: Results indicate that the clusters of Family Agro-Industry analyzed can be considered a social innovation because they have the necessary elements for its characterization, emphasizing the governance as a central construct and culture of coalition with actors from the public, private and third sectors in finding solutions for social needs.


We present a real-time method for detecting deformable surfaces, with no need whatsoever for a priori pose knowledge. Our method starts from a set of wide baseline point matches between an undeformed image of the object and the image in which it is to be detected. The matches are used not only to detect but also to compute a precise mapping from one to the other. The algorithm is robust to large deformations, lighting changes, motion blur, and occlusions. It runs at 10 frames per second on a 2.8 GHz PC and we are not aware of any other published technique that produces similar results. Combining deformable meshes with a well designed robust estimator is key to dealing with the large number of parameters involved in modeling deformable surfaces and rejecting erroneous matches for error rates of up to 95%, which is considerably more than what is required in practice.


Despite the high clinical impact of established and emerging respiratory viruses, some critical aspects of the host response to these pathogens still need to be defined. In that context, we aimed at two major issues: first, what are the innate immune mechanisms that control common respiratory viral infections; and second, whether these mechanisms also cause long-term airway disease. Using a mouse model of viral bronchiolitis, we found that antiviral defense depends at least in part on a network of mucosal epithelial cells and macrophages specially programmed for immune-response gene expression. When this network is compromised, the host is highly susceptible to infection, but network components can be engineered to provide increased resistance to infection. Similar alterations appear in asthma and chronic bronchitis/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, suggesting that evolving attempts to improve antiviral defense may also lead to inflammatory airway disease. Indeed, in genetically susceptible mice, respiratory paramyxoviruses cause a "hit and run" phenomenon that is manifested by the development of a permanent airway disease phenotype long after the infection has cleared. The phenotype can be segregated into individual traits to achieve more precise definition of just how viruses reprogram host behavior. Identifying specific components of the mucosal immune system that manifest an aberrant antiviral response may thereby allow for adjusting this response to improve acute and chronic outcomes after viral infection.


To analyze and evaluate perioperative characteristics in gynecological patients complicated with rheumatic diseases, 34 gynecological patients complicated with rheumatic diseases who received surgical treatment in the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from January 2002 to October 2012 were selected as study group, and 34 patients with similar- gynecological diseases served as control group. Preoperative erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), average operation time, average amount of intraoperative bleeding and postoperative complications in all patients were analyzed retrospectively. There were significant changes in the preoperative ESR in the study and control group(19.97±11.97 mm/H vs. 9.91±2.02 mm/H). There were no significant differences in the average operation time or average amount of intraoperative bleeding (P>0.05), but the incidence of postoperative complications was significantly higher in the study group (29.41%) than the control group (5.88%) (P < 0.05). Gynecological patients complicated with rheumatoid disease can tolerate gynecological surgery, but patients with increased preoperative ESR have a greater risk for postoperative infections.


Wanderer zwischen den politischen Machten: Pater Nikolaus von Lutterotti O.S.B. (1892-1955) und die Abtei Grussau in Niederschlesien. By Inge Steinstraser. [Forschungen und Quellen zur Kirchen- und Kulturgeschichte Ostdeutschlands, Band 4L] (Cologne: Bohlau Verlag. 2009- Pp. xvi, 685. euro64,90. ISBN 978-3-412-20429-7.) In this revised dissertation, Inge Steinstraser illustrates the tension between Christian universalism and nationalism. During the tumultuous history of twentieth-century Central Europe, the Church, for Nikolaus von Lutterotti, O.S.B. , constituted the one constant identity in a world in which national identities proved unstable. The von Lutterotti family hailed from Kaltem, one of Tyrol's southernmost German-speaking towns, but identified itself as Austrian, even after Italy gained South Tyrol. Nonetheless, the Lutterottis opted to accept Italian citizenship. By this time, Nikolaus had already joined the Benedictine Emmaus Abbey in Prague. Because of the strident pan-Germanism of Abbot Alban Schachleiter- who later became an ardent Nazi supporter- the monks were forced to leave Prague.The war's end transformed Lutterotti's identity, both as a Tyrolean and as a member of the Emaus community. Monks from Emmaus established a new abbey at Grussau in Silesia. With few resources and great personal engagement, the monks restored the facilities, which had housed Cistercian monks until the secularization of the nineteenth century. In addition to Lutterotti's pastoral and conventual responsibilities, he pursued archival studies, and published both popular and scholarly art history articles relating to the abbey. Additionally, Lutterotti supervised the restoration of the abbey. The Nazi years proved difficult for the abbey, not only because of the increasing antireligious repression. As Brigitte Lob already discussed in her Albert Schmitt OSB-sein kirchenpolitisches Handeln in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich (Koln, 2000), Schmitt, the abbot of Grussau, initially shared the enthusiasm of his brother abbots Ildefons Herwegen at Maria Laach and Schachleiter for the new regime. Although never as ardent or prominent as Schachleiter, Schmitt also did not share Herwegen's eventual realization of the regime's nature. While Steinstraser could have developed Lutterotti's views further, she judiciously analyzes the sparse evidence to show that Lutterotti rejected the abbot's political views. Lutterotti's rejection of the Nazis led him to withdraw an application for German citizenship. In postwar homilies, Lutterotti placed blame for his flock's suffering squarely on the Nazi regime and its supporters. …


The euro has arisen as a credible eventual competitor to the dollar as leading international currency, much as the dollar rose to challenge the pound 70 years ago. This paper uses econometrically-estimated determinants of the shares of major currencies in the reserve holdings of the world's central banks. Significant factors include: size of the home country, rate of return, and liquidity in the relevant home financial center (as measured by the turnover in its foreign exchange market). There is a tipping phenomenon, but changes are felt only with a long lag (we estimate a weight on the preceding year's currency share around .9). The equation correctly predicts out-of-sample a (small) narrowing in the gap between the dollar and euro over the period 1999-2007. This paper updates calculations regarding possible scenarios for the future. We exclude the scenario where the United Kingdom joins euroland. But we do take into account of the fact that London has nonetheless become the de facto financial center of the euro, more so than Frankfurt. We also assume that the dollar continues in the future to depreciate at the trend rate that it has shown on average over the last 20 years. The conclusion is that the euro may surpass the dollar as leading international reserve currency as early as 2015.


The structure and quality of EU democracy is greatly determined by the status that the European Union accords both to the European Parliament and to national parliaments. The potential that national parliaments carry for providing political accountability and democratic legitimacy to the EU decision-making processes in various fields of action has long been neglected. This study explores the role of national parliaments not only as actors of their own Member States but of the European Union as a larger constitutional compound. The study focuses on the parliaments of France, the United Kingdom and Portugal, which provide a representative sample as regards the system of government, the structure of parliament, the date of accession and so on. The analysis is divided into three parts. Part I deals with the conditions under which national parliaments consent to the transfer of sovereignty to the Union. As the powers that they formerly enjoyed are to some extent taken over by the European Parliament, it was important to inquire whether national parliaments perceive the European Parliament as a partner or rival in effecting the accountability of EU executive institutions. The examples of the Coal and Steel Community Treaty, Maastricht Treaty and Lisbon Treaty show that a sense of partnership tends to prevail. Part II delves into the Europeanisation of national parliaments and the correspondent reform of their competences of scrutiny over draft EU initiatives. While the constitutional contexts within which the selected parliaments operate differ, they have successfully adapted their scrutiny systems to the requirements of the post-Lisbon era. In formal terms, this enables them to participate in the scrutiny of EU policies satisfactorily. Part III adds a qualitative empirical element to the analysis and tests whether and, if so, how national parliaments use their scrutiny powers in practice. We ask what claims they make as a result of their scrutiny. In the in-depth case studies of the Services Directive, the EU-US SWIFT Agreements and the European External Action Service Decision, we examine the attitudes of national parliaments towards different EU policy fields and different types of EU decisions, regarding which the European Parliament possessed different powers of intervention. Applying the method of parliamentary interdependence, we seek to find out whether the actorship of national parliaments is correlative to that of other parliamentary actors existing within the Union. The insight gained is that where an EU dossier is highly politically salient and gives rise to widespread contestation, national parliaments are likely to respond, often with quite specific demands. What is remarkable is that their response is not always addressed at the national government but sometimes also at EU institutions directly. Part IV is interpretational. It argues that national parliaments occupy an important place on the map of EU democracy and that they at times act as EU organs. Their proximity to the electorate makes them an essential link between the citizens and the Union.


Stuttering is a developmental, involuntary, and intermittent fluency disorder. During moments of stuttering, people who stutter demonstrate sudden onsets and offsets of the aberrant struggling behaviors, with primary behaviors affecting mainly speech organs and secondary, ancillary behaviors affecting more distal body parts. Listeners generally respond to stuttering behaviors with negative emotional arousal that is manifested at behavioral, physiological, and emotional levels, and tend to attribute negative, stereotypical personality traits to people who stutter. These listener responses can be an important factor in the development and maintenance of stuttering. Therefore, the nature and properties of listener responses, e.g., the role of culture in shaping listener responses to stuttering, merit further examination.  Culture refers to the characteristics of various groups of people relative to their material traits, social norms, beliefs, attitudes, and values. The value system is believed by many researchers to be the core of most cultural variations. Along with individual biological disposition, culture regulates how people perceive, explain, and respond to various phenomena. Numerous studies have converged to indicate significant contrasts between Easterners and Westerners in cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. In the United States, European-American and African-Americans also show differences in their value systems and many other aspects.   The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate listener responses to stuttering in ethno-racially different groups. Specifically, the investigation focused on listeners' eye gaze responses and physiological responses when witnessing stuttering, and their perceptions toward people who stutter before and after observing stuttering. Participants were recruited from three groups: African-Americans, Chinese, and European-Americans. Results indicated that generally, listeners responded to stuttering in a similar manner at physiological, behavioral, and attitudinal levels. That is, listeners showed increased skin conductance and decreased heart rate in response to stuttering rather than fluent speech; listeners focused more on the speaker's mouth, and reduced their gaze fixation duration on the eyes, when the speaker stuttered. Furthermore, listeners had generally negative perceptions toward people who stutter, and these perceptions did not change significantly with exposure to stuttering. Cultural differences were found mainly between Chinese and American listeners in gaze behaviors and perceptions. Chinese tended to explore the background information while Americans tended to focus on the speaker's eyes and mouth, and Chinese participants considered the people who stutter duller than the normally fluent speaker while Americans did not show such a perception. The interaction of culture by fluency indicated that, when Americans focused more of their gaze on the speaker's mouth when the speaker stuttered, Chinese participants reduced their gaze on the mouth; also, whereas African-Americans considered the stuttering speaker to be more self-derogatory demeanor after observing the stuttering speech, Chinese participants judged the speaker as carrying the same degree of self-derogatory compared to normally fluent speakers, and European-Americans considered the personality trait weakened after witnessing stuttering.  These results indicated that generally, stuttering is able to evoke negative emotional arousal in listeners, regardless of the listener's cultural background. These negative arousals can be manifested at behavioral, physiological, and attitudinal levels. Culture plays a role in regulating some aspects of these negative responses, suggesting that people who stutter in Chinese or African-American societies may undergo more severe social penalties for their stuttering, compared to those in European-American culture. Results from this study have implications in the treatment of people who stutter, and provide quantitative data for stuttering help groups to develop culture-specific strategies to raise social awareness of stuttering.


Introduction: Invasive Breast Cancer (IBC) has a great epidemiological impact in our society; it is the first most frequent cancer among women and the first cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) represents the largest group of malignant tumours of the breast, comprising up to 75% of the cases. It is a heterogeneous entity with no clear definition and its diagnosis is made by the exclusion of other special types of Breast Cancer. Women presenting with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma have a wide range of prognostic outcomes, thus, there is a need to reassess tumours classified as Invasive Ductal Carcinomas in an effort to elaborate more accurate subclassifications of this heterogeneous entity. It is in this context that, in the pathology unit of Josep Trueta Hospital of Girona, a possible morphological variant of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma has been recognized. It could be described as an Invasive Ductal Carcinoma exhibiting a growth pattern in linear cords, typically seen in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, yet not fulfilling the criteria to be classified as mixed tumours. To our knowledge, these tumours have not been assessed in past studies. Objective: To assess the clinicopathological characteristics of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma with Lobular Pattern (IDCLp) regarding, age of presentation, nationality, menopausal status, family history, primary tumour size, histological tumour type, histological grade, lymph node status, bilateralism, oestrogen and progesterone receptors, HER2 overexpression, staging and treatment procedures, disease-free survival and survival time, and to determine whether these characteristics significantly differ from the classic types of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC). Methods: This is a retrospective, observational and analytical study. Information will be reviewed and collected from the Cancer Registry of Girona database which contains epidemiologic information of all Breast Cancer cases of the province of Girona since 1994. Three cohorts will be analysed retrospectively, between 1994 and 2016, regarding their clinicopathological characteristics: Invasive Ductal Carcinoma with Lobular Pattern cases, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma


This paper addresses the problem of extracting an alpha matte from a single photograph given a user-defined trimap. A crucial part of this task is the color modeling step where for each pixel the optimal alpha value, together with its confidence, is estimated individually. This forms the data term of the objective function. It comprises of three steps: (i) Collecting a candidate set of potential foreand background colors; (ii) Selecting high confidence samples from the candidate set; (iii) Estimating a sparsity prior to remove blurry artifacts. We introduce novel ideas for each of these steps and show that our approach considerably improves over state-of-the-art techniques by evaluating it on a large database of 54 images with known high-quality ground truth.


Abstract Background: Accredited exercise physiologists (AEPs) are emerging as essential members of allied health in the management of non-communicable chronic diseases. People diagnosed with severe mental illness (SMI) are at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases. Secure extended care units (SECUs) provide treatment, supervision and support for people with SMI whose needs cannot be met adequately in the community. However, the role of AEPs in SECUs has not been described. Aim: Describe the processes and outcomes of adding an AEP to a new model of care at a SECU. Methods: An exploratory study with emphasis on qualitative data. Interviews with a purposive sample of SECU staff. Results: Participants articulated concern about poor physical health of which two themes emerged (1) the development of the AEP role; a calculated gamble and (2) the practical application of the role. Conclusions: An AEP was identified as the role to best implement the organisations vision to improve physical health of people with SMI. Implementation and practical application of the role relied on an informed calculated gamble. Yet, once embedded in the service, the AEP role was able to capacity build among clinical staff, develop a treatment pathway, and implement consumer specific physical health interventions.


Much has been written about the significance of patients' literacy and language skills in the healthcare process, but there has been little critical analysis of the theories of language that underpin research and policy in this field. Discussions of the research methods and approaches that inform studies on patients' reading and writing in healthcare settings are scarce. This paper presents a framework for studying the role of written language provided by healthcare institutions. It suggests an alternative to the narrow notions of health literacy that currently dominate the field. In order to illustrate this framework, the paper offers a detailed analysis of one particular case – the role of a patient information leaflet in the diagnostic process. The approach that is suggested draws on a combination of critical discourse analysis with ethnography.


The Middleback Ranges consist of tightly folded Precambrian iron-formations flanked by granite-gneisses and feldspathic metasediments. Hematite orebodies occur within the iron-formations and are confined to pitching synforms and steeply dipping fold limbs. At Iron Duke, a large hematite orebody extends down the pitch of a synform into a hidden body of magnetite-hematite-carbonate rock which is surrounded by talcose zones. Various theories including granitisation, primary sedimentation, and supergene leaching have been proposed previously to account for the origin of the hematite orebodies. The magnetite-hematite-carbonate and talcose rocks of Iron Duke have been attributed to carbonate metasomatism affecting the iron-formation. The mineralogy and microtextures of the iron-formation units are described. Mineral assemblages indicate that regional metamorphism reached lower amphibolite fades grade at temperatures and pressures in the order of 450oC to 550oC and 2kb to 6kb. Micro-textures suggest that mineral layers within the iron-formations remained as essentially closed systems during metamorphism and there was negligible movement of components other than water and carbon dioxide. The geology of Iron Duke is described in detail, with emphasis on the mineralogy and geochemistry of the magnetite-hematite-carbonate and associated rocks. The ores occur in a tight, pitching synform terminated on the east side by a high angle reverse fault. There is considerable evidence to show that hydrothermal activity has played an important role in the formation of the magnetite-hematite-carbonate ore. Fluid inclusion studies suggest that the hydrothermal solutions were brines at temperatures in the order of 120oC to 250oC and a maximum possible pressure of 2-3 kb. The origin of the magnetite-hematite-carbonate ore is discussed. It is proposed that the ore formed by hydrothermal fluid action on an iron-formation unit near the base of the iron-formation sequence, which contained interlayered iron oxides, carbonates, tremolite and quartz. The silicate minerals were replaced by carbonates in a complex process of carbonate meta somatism and silica removal. Ore controls include the pre existing rock mineralogy, the tight synformal structure, and the coincidence of a thick basal carbonate unit with the major reverse fault. Theories of hematite ore genesis in the Middleback Ranges are discussed. It is concluded that the ores formed by supergene leaching and enrichment, and that ore controls include favourable structures, pre-existing rock mineralogy, and the presence of underlying impermeable layers.


In recent years, the category of evidentiality has also come into use for the description of Romance languages and of German. This has been contingent on a change in its interpretation from a typological category to a semantic-pragmatic category, which allows an application to languages lacking specialised morphemes for the expression of evidentiality. We consider evidentiality to be a structural dimension of grammar, the values of which are expressed by types of constructions that code the source of information which a speaker imparts. If we look at the situation in Romance languages and in German, drawing a boundary between epistemic modality and evidentiality presents problems that are difficult to solve. Adding markers of the source of the speaker's knowledge often limits the degree of responsibility of the speaker for the content of the utterance. Evidential adverbs are a frequently used means of marking the source of the speaker's knowledge. The evidential meaning is generalised to marking any source of knowledge, what can be regarded as a result of a process of pragmaticalisation. The use of certain means which also carry out evidential markings can even contribute to the blurring of the different kinds of evidentiality. German also has modal verbs which in conjunction with the perfect tense of the verb have a predominantly evidential use (sollen and wollen). But even here the evidential marking is not without influence on the modality of the utterance. The Romance languages, however, do not have such specialised verbs for expressing evidentiality in certain contexts. To do this, they mark evidentiality – often context bound – by verb forms such as the conditional and the imperfect tense. This article shall contrast the different architectures used in expressing evidentiality in German and in the Romance languages.


Abstract Ambient levels of electromagnetic fields (EMF) have risen sharply in the last 80 years, creating a novel energetic exposure that previously did not exist. Most recent decades have seen exponential increases in nearly all environments, including rural/remote areas and lower atmospheric regions. Because of unique physiologies, some species of flora and fauna are sensitive to exogenous EMF in ways that may surpass human reactivity. There is limited, but comprehensive, baseline data in the U.S. from the 1980s against which to compare significant new surveys from different countries. This now provides broader and more precise data on potential transient and chronic exposures to wildlife and habitats. Biological effects have been seen broadly across all taxa and frequencies at vanishingly low intensities comparable to today's ambient exposures. Broad wildlife effects have been seen on orientation and migration, food finding, reproduction, mating, nest and den building, territorial maintenance and defense, and longevity and survivorship. Cyto- and geno-toxic effects have been observed. The above issues are explored in three consecutive parts: Part 1 questions today's ambient EMF capabilities to adversely affect wildlife, with more urgency regarding 5G technologies. Part 2 explores natural and man-made fields, animal magnetoreception mechanisms, and pertinent studies to all wildlife kingdoms. Part 3 examines current exposure standards, applicable laws, and future directions. It is time to recognize ambient EMF as a novel form of pollution and develop rules at regulatory agencies that designate air as 'habitat' so EMF can be regulated like other pollutants. Wildlife loss is often unseen and undocumented until tipping points are reached. Long-term chronic low-level EMF exposure standards, which do not now exist, should be set accordingly for wildlife, and environmental laws should be strictly enforced.


abstract:The Nayi Kahani (New Story) movement was a new trend in the post- Independence Hindi short fiction that flourished between 1954 and 1963, with writers like Mohan Rakesh, Bhisham Sahni, Nirmal Verma, Rajendra Yadav, Kamleshwar, and Amarkant among its established practitioners. These writers believed that art could not be alienated from the material world and hence thought and emotion were equally important in the context of Nayi Kahani. Disintegration in middle class families, erosion of values, insecurity, melancholy, loneliness, and anxiety became the major concerns in Hindi short fiction. It was felt that Hindi fiction was experiencing literary modernism with a new shift in the writer's sensibility grown out of the changed social and cultural contexts. However, "New Story" did not share a common ideology, trends, or concerns, but represented and grappled with multiple realities and tendencies. Although critics often linked Sahni and Verma as practitioners of this "new" genre, I argue that as writers of urban sensibilities they apprehended and rendered life experiences differently. Therefore, it is problematic to identify common denominators and fit them in a single mold. As part of my project, I examine select stories to understand how the two writers navigate through time and place to express reality. Finally, I explore how Verma's stories stand at the confluence of "native" and "Western" sensibilities.


In this paper I draw upon theory within critical and postconventional futures studies to develop a vision for some potential applications of advanced cognitive capacities in an idealised society of the future-the integrated city. Specifically I refer to the theory of integrated intelligence (Anthony, 2008). This theory posits that the human mind is embedded within a sea of consciousness, and that contemporary human beings can consciously utilise this consciousness. In this paper I focus upon the future of life and especially work in the modern city in developed Western and Asian localities.


This paper introduces a bottleneck game with finite sets of commuters and departing time slots as an extension of congestion games by Milchtaich (1996). After characterizing Nash equilibrium of the game, we provide sufficient conditions for which the equivalence between Nash and strong equilibria holds. Somewhat surprisingly, unlike in congestion games, a Nash equilibrium in pure strategies may often fail to exist, even when players are homogeneous. In contrast, when there is a continuum of atomless players, the existence of a Nash equilibrium and the equivalence between the set of Nash and strong equilibria hold as in congestion games (Konishi, Le Breton, and Weber, 1997a).


This paper deals with the reflective properties of inhomogeneous thin films that
 in addition may or may not be absorbing. Reflection coefficients have been
 computed using two different techniques and are plotted as functions of
 wavelengths. The practical uses of nonabsorbing inhomogeneous thin films include
 antireflection coatings for broad spectral ranges; absorbing inhomogeneous thin
 films are useful for making black coatings, rulings, field stops, and
 sunglasses.


This is the final report detailing findings from the evaluation of Rape Crisis Scotland's National Advocacy Project (NAP). It draws upon data gathered since the launch of the NAP in February 2016 to the end of August 2017. Findings are presented in three main sections: key national stakeholder perspectives; survivor data and perspectives; and practitioner perspectives. Key themes and learning points from the evaluation findings and recommendations for future policy and practice are then identified. A shorter executive summary of this report has also been made available for use as a policy and practice briefing.


We explore a novel first order dominance (FOD) approach to poverty mapping and compare its properties to small area estimation. The FOD approach uses census data directly; is straightforward to implement; is multidimensional allowing for a broad conception of welfare; and accounts rigorously for welfare distributions in both levels and trends. An application to Mozambique highlights the value of the approach, including its advantages in the monitoring and evaluation of public expenditures. We conclude that the FOD approach to poverty mapping constitutes a useful addition to the toolkit of policy analysts.


We propose a novel, design-driven, approach to quadrangulation of closed 3D curves created by sketch-based or other curve modeling systems. Unlike the multitude of approaches for quad-remeshing of existing surfaces, we rely solely on the input curves to both conceive and construct the quad-mesh of an artist imagined surface bounded by them. We observe that viewers complete the intended shape by envisioning a dense network of smooth, gradually changing, flow-lines that interpolates the input curves. Components of the network bridge pairs of input curve segments with similar orientation and shape. Our algorithm mimics this behavior. It first segments the input closed curves into pairs of matching segments, defining dominant flow line sequences across the surface. It then interpolates the input curves by a network of quadrilateral cycles whose iso-lines define the desired flow line network. We proceed to interpolate these networks with all-quad meshes that convey designer intent. We evaluate our results by showing convincing quadrangulations of complex and diverse curve networks with concave, non-planar cycles, and validate our approach by comparing our results to artist generated interpolating meshes.


This thesis is about a forest hunter-gatherer people, the Mbendjele Yaka Pygmies of northern Congo-Brazzaville. The thesis is based on field research carried out between 1994 and 2001.
I begin by examining certain key terms used in the thesis and by situating my research within the existing literature. Research methodologies are presented and the fieldwork experience described. I provide an overview of the historical, political and economic context of the research including an outline assessment of the main historical reconstructions of regional history.
Conservationist and loggers' models of the forest are juxtaposed with Mbendjele ways of representing landscape and the forest environment. I discuss the significance of the forest in Mbendjele social experience and its role as the ideal environment for social life. I examine the way the Mbendjele classify animals and the cosmological significance of hunting and killing. This theme is continued with a presentation of ekila, a complex set of practices and beliefs that regulate the interactions of people with animals and express a complex relationship between human fertility and the correct handling of prey animals.
I continue the analysis of Mbendjele collective representations with a presentation of the activity of massana. The link between children's play and adult rituals implicit in the use of this term is analysed. I then build on this understanding to present an analysis of aspects of two ritual associations, Ejengi and Ngoku, central to men's and women's power in society.
The thesis is brought to a close by moving beyond the forest to examine Mbendjele relations with and conceptualisations of outsiders and property rights. New technological developments and financial incentives are increasingly transforming the Mbendjele forest into faunal and floral assets for distribution to international organizations.


Empirical evaluations of how overexploited marine fishes respond to capture stress (physiologically and behaviourally) have become increasingly important for informed fisheries management. These types of studies are, however, lacking for many protected species. Here, we conducted a novel study on the physiology of juvenile white sharks Carcharodon carcharias (139−325 cm fork length), a globally protected and ecologically important predator, in response to a standard fishery interaction using shark-management-alert-in-real-time (SMART) drumlines as part of a bather protection program. Specifically, we assessed the influence of short-term capture duration (average: ~30 min; range: 10−75 min) and other biological (size) and environmental (temperature) variables on blood plasma amino acids and fatty acids, which play essential roles as energy substrates as well as in maintaining physiological functions. None of the assessed amino acids or fatty acids were affected by capture duration, but some were influenced by shark size and water temperature. Our results support the notion that white shark physiology is robust to capture at short capture durations, which has important implications for the fate of released individuals.


BACKGROUND
The provision of sufficient basal insulin to normalize fasting plasma glucose levels may reduce cardiovascular events, but such a possibility has not been formally tested.

METHODS
We randomly assigned 12,537 people (mean age, 63.5 years) with cardiovascular risk factors plus impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or type 2 diabetes to receive insulin glargine (with a target fasting blood glucose level of ≤95 mg per deciliter [5.3 mmol per liter]) or standard care and to receive n-3 fatty acids or placebo with the use of a 2-by-2 factorial design. The results of the comparison between insulin glargine and standard care are reported here. The coprimary outcomes were nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes and these events plus revascularization or hospitalization for heart failure. Microvascular outcomes, incident diabetes, hypoglycemia, weight, and cancers were also compared between groups.

RESULTS
The median follow-up was 6.2 years (interquartile range, 5.8 to 6.7). Rates of incident cardiovascular outcomes were similar in the insulin-glargine and standard-care groups: 2.94 and 2.85 per 100 person-years, respectively, for the first coprimary outcome (hazard ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94 to 1.11; P=0.63) and 5.52 and 5.28 per 100 person-years, respectively, for the second coprimary outcome (hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.11; P=0.27). New diabetes was diagnosed approximately 3 months after therapy was stopped among 30% versus 35% of 1456 participants without baseline diabetes (odds ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.00; P=0.05). Rates of severe hypoglycemia were 1.00 versus 0.31 per 100 person-years. Median weight increased by 1.6 kg in the insulin-glargine group and fell by 0.5 kg in the standard-care group. There was no significant difference in cancers (hazard ratio, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.88 to 1.13; P=0.97).

CONCLUSIONS
When used to target normal fasting plasma glucose levels for more than 6 years, insulin glargine had a neutral effect on cardiovascular outcomes and cancers. Although it reduced new-onset diabetes, insulin glargine also increased hypoglycemia and modestly increased weight. (Funded by Sanofi; ORIGIN ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00069784.).


Introduction: Spiritual well being is one of the fundamental concepts in chronic diseases in which create meaning and purpose in life and considered as an important approach in promoting general health and quality of life. This study was aimed to explore the relationship between spiritual well being and the quality of life among the patients with type 2 diabetes referred to diabetes clinic of Aboureihan specific diseases centre in Bandar Abbas. Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 330 patients between 40-74 years referred to diabetes clinic in year 2012. Information through spiritual health and quality of life questionnaires were collected. Data analysis by describtive statistics and Pearson Correlation was performed. P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was a significant relationship between spiritual well being, religious and existential aspect of spiritual well being and aspects of quality of life. Conclusion: The results may intensify the necessity of strengthening of the spiritual health as a factor affecting quality of life in those patients. The key point in a country like Iran with intellectual, cultural and religious beliefs could be useful and necessary in designing care-therapies programs for such patients.


This book investigates two elliptical coordinations in German, Right Node Raising and Gapping. Ellipsis in both constructions is claimed to be the result of a phonological process which is conditioned by prosodic and focus semantic constraints. It is convincingly argued that Right Node Raising cannot involve raising to the right periphery: The alleged movement freely violates any of the well-known restrictions on syntactic movement and it does not alter the scope relations within the coordination. Gapping in contrast is more sensitive to syntactic conditions in that its remnants must be major syntactic constituents. The author carefully examines the close connection between focus and ellipsis in the two constructions. A considered discussion of focus structure demonstrates that the conjuncts are informationally dependent on each other. This co-dependence is also reflected in their particular intonational contour which is argued to be responsible for ellipsis in coordination.


Most studies of spring bloom succession in Norwegian waters have employed light microscopy and accounted for species composition of phyto‐ and zooplankton. Flow cytometry and molecular tools enable us to extend such investigations to include smaller organisms like bacterio‐ and virioplankton. Here, we describe succession and diversity of algae, bacteria, and viruses in relation to environmental changes from 15 February to 27 April. The spring succession started with an increase in autotrophic picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus sp. The diatoms bloomed around the middle of March and caused nutrient depletion in the upper part of the water column. Upwelling in the beginning of April gave rise to a second bloom, consisting of diatoms and Phaeocystis pouchetii. Numerically, autotrophic picoeukaryotes and Synechococcus sp. dominated the periods between and after these two major blooms. Heterotrophic bacterial abundance increased throughout the experimental period and reached peak values during and after phytoplankton blooms. These bacteria were succeeded by viruses having low DNA fluorescence, whereas viruses with medium DNA fluorescence bloomed during or after blooms of autotrophic picoeukaryotes. High—DNA fluorescence viruses reached maximum concentrations during and after the diatom and Phaeocystis blooms. The diversity of the bacterial community remained relatively stable, whereas viral diversity varied more and increased after major phytoplankton blooms. Our investigation thus demonstrates how virioplankton are important elements of the total microbial diversity and how they are intimately linked to the rest of the microbial community and possibly act as an internal driving force in spring bloom successions.


Very few principles have been unraveled that explain the relationship between soil properties and soil biota across large spatial scales and different land-use types. Here, we seek these general relationships using data from 52 differently managed grassland and forest soils in three study regions spanning a latitudinal gradient in Germany. We hypothesize that, after extraction of variation that is explained by location and land-use type, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in the abundance and diversity of soil biota. If the relationships between predictors and soil organisms were analyzed individually for each predictor group, soil properties explained the highest amount of variation in soil biota abundance and diversity, followed by land-use type and sampling location. After extraction of variation that originated from location or land-use, abiotic soil properties explained significant amounts of variation in fungal, meso- and macrofauna, but not in yeast or bacterial biomass or diversity. Nitrate or nitrogen concentration and fungal biomass were positively related, but nitrate concentration was negatively related to the abundances of Collembola and mites and to the myriapod species richness across a range of forest and grassland soils. The species richness of earthworms was positively correlated with clay content of soils independent of sample location and land-use type. Our study indicates that after accounting for heterogeneity resulting from large scale differences among sampling locations and land-use types, soil properties still explain significant proportions of variation in fungal and soil fauna abundance or diversity. However, soil biota was also related to processes that act at larger spatial scales and bacteria or soil yeasts only showed weak relationships to soil properties. We therefore argue that more general relationships between soil properties and soil biota can only be derived from future studies that consider larger spatial scales and different land-use types.


Managing communication and tracking therapy sessions or data has been a challenging aspect for many SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) special needs centres. We believe there is a possibility for web technology to simplify this process. This research sought to discover how such digital technology could assist and improve interactions between parents and professionals within an institution involved in the improvement and development of special needs children. Through research interviews, the study investigated how engaging stakeholders digitally can enhance multidisciplinary evaluation, diagnosis, learning intervention, archiving data and tracking therapy sessions. It also addressed factors to enable an online platform to be used as an environment to communicate and hold digital data across different touch points. Through discovery interviews and feature consultation with participants, including clinicians, educators, and parents, our study suggests that using web based technologies as a mode of communication could enhance and assist in the upbringing of a special needs child and increase productivity among professionals.


An 8 year volcanic SO2 emission inventory for 2005–2012 is obtained based on satellite measurements of SO2 from OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and ancillary information from the Global Volcanism Program. It includes contributions from global volcanic eruptions and from eight persistently degassing volcanoes in the tropics. It shows significant differences in the estimate of SO2 amount and injection height for medium to large volcanic eruptions as compared to the counterparts in the existing volcanic SO2 database. Emissions from Nyamuragira (DR Congo) in November 2006 and Grímsvötn (Iceland) in May 2011 that were not included in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5 (IPCC) inventory are included here. Using the updated emissions, the volcanic sulfate (SO42−) distribution is simulated with the global transport model Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)‐Chem. The simulated time series of sulfate aerosol optical depth (AOD) above 10 km captures every eruptive volcanic sulfate perturbation with a similar magnitude to that measured by Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). The 8 year average contribution of eruptive SO42− to total SO42− loading above 10 km is ~10% over most areas of the Northern Hemisphere, with a maxima of 30% in the tropics where the anthropogenic emissions are relatively smaller. The persistently degassing volcanic SO42− in the tropics barely reaches above 10 km, but in the lower atmosphere it is regionally dominant (60%+ in terms of mass) over Hawaii and other oceanic areas northeast of Australia. Although the 7 year average (2005–2011) of eruptive volcanic sulfate forcing of −0.10 W m−2 in this study is comparable to that in the 2013 IPCC report (−0.09 W m−2), significant discrepancies exist for each year. Our simulations also imply that the radiative forcing per unit AOD for volcanic eruptions can vary from −40 to −80 W m−2, much higher than the −25 W m−2 implied in the IPCC calculations. In terms of sulfate forcing efficiency with respect to SO2 emission, eruptive volcanic sulfate is 5 times larger than anthropogenic sulfate. The sulfate forcing efficiency from degassing volcanic sources is close to that of anthropogenic sources. This study highlights the importance of characterizing both volcanic emission amount and injection altitude as well as the key role of satellite observations in maintaining accurate volcanic emissions inventories.


The Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization held that there is no right to abortion healthcare under the United States Constitution. This Essay details how states prosecuted pregnant people for pregnancy behaviors and speculative fetal harms prior to the Dobbs decision. In this connection, it also identifies two, related post-Dobbs concerns: (1) that states will ramp up their policing of pregnancy behaviors and (2) that prosecutors will attempt to substantiate these charges by relying on invalid scientific evidence. This Essay examines the faulty forensic science that states have used to support fetal harm allegations and reminds defense attorneys of their obligation to challenge junk science in the courtroom.


We consider a hierarchical approach for traffic grooming in large multiwavelength networks of a general topology. Inspired by similar concepts in the airline industry, we decompose the network into clusters, and select a hub node in each cluster to groom traffic originating and terminating locally. At the second level of the hierarchy, the hub nodes form a virtual cluster for the purpose of grooming intra-cluster traffic. Clustering and hierarchical grooming enables us to cope with large network sizes and facilitates the control and management of traffic and network resources. Yet, determining the size and composition of clusters so as to yield good grooming solutions is a challenging task. We identify the grooming-specific factors affecting the selection of clusters, and we develop a parameterized clustering algorithm that can achieve a desired trade-off among various goals. We also obtain lower bounds on two important objectives in traffic grooming: the number of lightpaths and wavelengths needed to carry the subwavelength traffic. We demonstrate the effectiveness of clustering and hierarchical grooming by presenting the results of experiments on two network topologies that are substantially larger than those considered in previous traffic grooming studies.


The purpose of the current research was to examine the interaction of teammate and coach support on athlete burnout and engagement, and determine how type of teammate and coach support links with athlete burnout and engagement. Adolescent athletes (N = 176) completed measures of support, burnout, and engagement. Total teammate and coach support accounted for 14.9%–26.0% and 22.4%–36.7% explained variance across dimensions of burnout and engagement, respectively. No meaningful significant interaction was found. Teammate esteem support predicted reduced accomplishment, devaluation, confidence, and vigor (β = −0.31, −0.36, 0.28, and 0.28), while emotional and tangible support predicted dedication (β = 0.29 and 0.20) and enthusiasm (β = 0.30 and 0.22). Coach esteem support predicted reduced accomplishment (β = −0.59) and devaluation (β = −0.27). Findings suggest that support from one key agent can enhance youth athlete well-being, but types of support provided by agents differ in salience.


Two compounds ISD-1 and ISD-2 were synthesized by N-Alkylation method. Synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, UV, Mass and PPH NMR and PPC NMR. The biological activities of both the compounds were evaluated. ISD-2 shows good antibacterial and antifungal activity as well as very little antioxidant property where as ISD-1 shows activity only towards negative strains of bacteria.


While executive coaching is a key means by which organisations and individuals build executives' capabilities, very little research has investigated how effective or beneficial this development tool is to the individuals or the organisations in which they work. The purpose of this study was to examine executive coaching effectiveness by investigating whether executive coaching has an impact on coachee performance outcomes as well as individual outcomes as manifested by self awareness, career satisfaction, job affective commitment, and job performance. Coaching outcomes were examined through a quasi-experimental field pre-post design with an untreated control group. The study participants (n=197) were drawn from the client bases of four Israeli-based firms whose primary professional services focused on executive coaching. The primary conclusion is that executive coaching may be a mechanism by which executives could be helped in improving and maintaining a high level of career satisfaction. The results should assist organizations in designing more effective executive coaching programs, and in making informed decisions about implementing and measuring executive coaching.


BACKGROUND
South Africa has a high burden of tuberculosis (TB), with high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-TB co-infection rates and the emergence of multidrugresistant TB.

OBJECTIVES
To describe treatment outcomes and factors influencing outcomes amongst pulmonary TB (PTB) patients in the Limpopo Province.

METHOD
A retrospective review was conducted of data on the provincial electronic TB register (ETR.net) for the years 2006 to 2010 (inclusive), and a random sample of 1200 records was selected for further analysis. The Chi square test was used to examine the influence of age, gender, health facility level, diagnostic category and treatment regimen on treatment outcomes.

RESULTS
Overall 90 617 (54.6% male) PTB patients were registered between 2006 and 2010. Of the sampled 1200 TB cases, 72.6% were in persons aged 22 to 55 years and 86.2% were new cases. The TB mortality rate was 13.6% (much higher than the World Health Organization target of 3%), whilst the default rate was 9.8%. There was a strong association between age (P < 0.001), diagnostic category (P < 0.001), treatment regimen (P < 0.001), and health facility level (P < 0.001) and treatment outcome. Those aged 22-55, and 56-74 years were more likely to die (P < 0.05). Poor treatment outcomes were also associated with initial treatment failure, receiving treatment at hospital and treatment regimen II.

CONCLUSION
The poor TB treatment outcomes in Limpopo, characterised by a high mortality and default rates, call for strengthening of the TB control programme, which should include integration of HIV and/or AIDS and TB services.


The attainable capacity and integrity of a state-of-the-art broadband multi-carrier communication system is highly sensitive to the accuracy of the information available concerning the channel conditions encountered. The majority of existing advanced channel estimation schemes assume knowledge of the channel's power delay profile (PDP) in order to estimate the corresponding instantaneous channel impulse response (CIR). It is evident however that in realistic mobile channels, where at least one of the communicating terminals is in motion, the power delay profile will also be time-variant and thus may not be known a priori at the receiver. In this paper we propose a decision directed channel estimation scheme employing the so-called projection approximation subspace tracking (PAST) algorithm. The PAST algorithm is utilised for the sake of achieving low-complexity recursive tracking of the channel's PDP. The achievable performance of the proposed method is documented in the context of an OFDM system communicating in realistic channel conditions characterized by a time-variant fractionally-spaced PDP.


Gasoline partially premixed combustion (PPC) has the potential of high efficiency and simultaneous low soot and NOx emissions. Running the engine in PPC mode with high octane number fuels has the advantage of a longer premix period of fuel and air which reduces soot emissions. The problem is the ignitability at low load and idle operating conditions. In a previous study it was shown that it is possible to use NVO to improve combustion stability and combustion efficiency at operating conditions where available boosted air is assumed to be limited. NVO has the disadvantage of low net indicated efficiency due to heat losses from recompressions of the hot residual gases. An alternative to NVO is the rebreathing valve strategy where the exhaust valves are reopened during the intake stroke. The net indicated efficiency is expected to be higher with the rebreathing strategy but the question is if similar improvements in combustion stability can be achieved with rebreathing as with NVO. The results show that the rebreathing valve strategy has similar improvements on combustion stability as NVO when the same fuel injection strategy is used. This work also includes results with the NVO valve strategy where a fuel injection is added during the NVO. When a fuel injection is added during the NVO, an additional improvement on combustion stability can be seen which is unmatched by the rebreathing valve strategy. (Less)


A fourth specimen of Archaeopteryx (cf. lithographica), the oldest known fossil bird, was recently found in the collections of the Teyler Museum in the Netherlands. Unique preservation of the horny sheaths of the manus claws provides new evidence that may be relevant to the question of the origins of avian flight. Tentative interpretation suggests a cursorial rather than arboreal origin.


In modern technology era, the endeavor of MANET is to provide proficient wireless communication by adopting adhoc routing functionality in mobile nodes. The MANET nodes result in frequent network topology changes, making routing a challenging task. In past, Reactive routing approaches are used as a popular technique that provides scalable solution to relatively large MANET networks, where Hybrid MANET routing algorithms are introduced comprises of both reactive and proactive routing properties. This work is an attempt towards a comprehensive performance evaluation of commonly used reactive AODV protocol with hybrid GRP routing algorithm under varying node density conditions in terms of QoS using OPNET Modeler 17.5 Academic.


We estimate the interrelationships among economic institutions, political institutions, openness, and income levels, using identification through heteroskedasticity (IH). We split our cross-national dataset into two sub-samples: (i) colonies versus non-colonies; and (ii) continents aligned on an East-West versus those aligned on a North-South axis. We exploit the difference in the structural variances in these two sub-samples to gain identification. We find that democracy and the rule of law are both good for economic performance, but the latter has a much stronger impact on incomes. Openness (trade/GDP) has a negative impact on income levels and democracy, but a positive effect on rule of law. Higher income produces greater openness and better institutions, but these effects are not very strong. Rule of law and democracy tend to be mutually reinforcing.


From secret stingray devices that can pinpoint a suspect's location to source code secrecy surrounding alcohol breath test machines, advanced forensic DNA analysis tools, and recidivism risk statistic software, the use of privately developed criminal justice technologies is growing. So too is a concomitant pattern of trade secret assertion surrounding those technologies. This Article charts the role of private law secrecy in shielding criminal justice activities, demonstrating that such secrecy is pervasive, problematic, and yet ultimately unnecessary for the production of well-designed criminal justice tools.
In so doing, this Article makes three contributions to the existing literature. First, the Article establishes that private secrecy tools — trade secrets foremost among them — now permeate American criminal justice, shielding privately developed criminal justice technologies from vigorous cross-examination and review. Second, the Article argues that private law secrecy surrounding the inner workings or even the existence of these criminal justice technologies imposes significant practical and potentially constitutional costs on individual defendants, the criminal justice system, and the development of well-designed criminal justice technology more broadly. Third, the Article brings the extensive literature on innovation policy to bear on the production of privately developed criminal justice technologies, demonstrating that trade secrecy is not essential to either the existence or operation of those technologies. The Article proposes alternative innovation policies that the government, as both a funder of research and the primary purchaser of criminal justice technologies, is uniquely well positioned to implement.


Creating film content for broadcast is a high pressure and complex activity involving multiple experts and highly specialized equipment. Production teams are under continuous pressure to produce ever more creative and groundbreaking content while reducing the budgets and human resources required. While technologies are being developed for digitizing and streamlining sections of the production workflow, a gap remains between creative decisions made on location, and those made during digital editing and post-production. We describe a prototype tangible, tabletop interface to be deployed on a film shoot, which uses a storyboard as a shared data representation to drive team creativity. We define creativity in terms of team production, discuss our implementation and describe a deployment in which the prototype was used by a professional production team during a film shoot. Finally we describe a number of interesting interactions that were observed and consider the implications of our design decisions on the creative process of film making and the benefits of tangible, tabletop collaborative interactive displays in live film production.


Many pictures are approximately piecewise uniform quilts. The patches meet in transitional areas that have a vague, ribbon-like geometry. These borders may occasionally get lost and sometimes pick up again, creating a ' passage ' that partly blends adjacent patches. This type of structure is widely discussed in treatises on painting technique. Similar effects (lost outlines, passages ) occur in drawing. The border regions are characterized by width, or sharpness and amplitude – which is the contrast between the patches on each side. Moreover, border regions have various textural structures. We propose a formal theory of such transitions. Images can be understood as superpositions of border areas. Stylistic changes can be implemented through the selective treatment of borders. The theory is formally similar to, though crucially different in meaning from, the theory of 'edges' (a technical term) in image processing. We propose it as a formal framework that enables principled discussion of 'edge qualities' (a term used by painters in a way unrelated to the use of 'edge' in image processing) in a well-structured manner.


Abstract The operational phase of public private partnership (PPP) projects in Nigeria has consistently witnessed serious challenges. Researches by various authors suggest that the major factors militating against the successful growth and development of PPP projects in Nigeria and other developing countries of the world is the marginalization of end-user stakeholder in PPP projects. As such, this study set out to reveal factors affecting the successful management of the diverse interests of end-user stakeholders of the PPP road projects in Nigeria. Using factors from related literature, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to users of two major PPP road in operation in Nigeria: Lekki/Epe Toll and Apakun Murtala Mohammed PPP toll road. A total of 282 questionnaires were returned representing 70.5% response rate. Cronbach's alpha test was used to check reliability levels of the questionnaire variables (i.e., Likert scale questions) while factor analysis was used to establish the underlying factors affecting the successful participation of end-users stakeholders in PPP road in Nigeria. These underlying factors were fully discussed. It was concluded that active involvement of end-users stakeholders in decision-making from inception to conclusion will solve the problem of marginalization of end-user stakeholder's in Nigeria PPP road projects.


Abstract This article reviews research on the Transcendental Meditation (TM)1 program relevant to the treatment and prevention of criminal behavior and substance abuse. Over the past 30 years, 39 studies have been conducted on the rehabilitative effects of the TM program. These studies have involved various populations, including at-risk youths, participants in treatment programs, and incarcerated offenders. A few studies examined the effects of the TM program in the general population on use of alcohol, cigarettes, and non-prescribed drugs. Longitudinal, random-assignment studies with objective measures confirm the results of retrospective studies and other earlier research. Incarcerated offenders show rapid positive changes in risk factors associated with criminal behavior, including anxiety, aggression, hostility, moral judgment, in-prison rule infractions, and substance abuse. The substance abuse studies, taken together, indicate that the TM program reduces substance use as well as a number of the risk factors that underlie substance dependence, particularly anxiety, depression, neuroticism, and other forms of psychological distress. The TM program also produces a wide range of improvements in psychophysiological well-being, as indicated by better psychological health, enhanced auto-nomic functioning, and improved neuroendocrine balance. The changes in psychological health appear significant for long-term outcomes, as indicated by the lower recidivism rates for parolee practitioners of the TM technique and lower relapse rates for addicts. As a whole, these studies indicate that practice of the TM technique is an effective approach to rehabilitation for individuals prone to criminal behaviors and addictions.


Academic legal writing is known for extensive citation. Generally, scholars who study citation practices are increasingly likely to link citation with authors' attempts to manage their impression. This Note offers an explanation of why authors of law review articles use citation as a means of managing impression. It combines a historical analysis that shows why excessive citation became conventional with a literary analysis that shows why excessive citation was unique in its ability to aid academics in substantively contributing to the bench and bar. It further shows how, because of the historic and literary significance of citation, a norm compelling excessive citation pervades the legal community. Finally, this Note questions this norm's continued value given that excessive citation exacts a collateral price on the legal community and that law review readers are increasingly diverse.


Even though vanadium-modified hydroxyapatite (V-HAp) samples are very promising systems for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane, the incorporation of vanadium into the hydroxyapatite framework was reported to be limited and to lead to over-stoichiometric compounds. Here, the synthesis of a Ca10(PO4)6-x(VO4)x(OH)2 stoichiometric solid solution using a co-precipitation method is monitored in the whole composition range (0 ≤ x ≤ 6) by controlling the pH of the precipitation medium, with continuous (the first series of samples) or periodic (the second series of samples) addition of NH4OH during the precipitation step or during the maturation step, respectively. It is demonstrated that the changes in pH conditions result in materials of a substantial difference in terms of the final composition. From XRD patterns and Rietveld refinements, a solid solution V-HAp phase was found to be exclusively obtained for the first series of samples for x varying from 0 to 6. This also occurred in the second series of samples but only for x lower than 4. For 4 ≤ x ≤ 5.22, the materials were composed of a mixture of V-HAp and Ca2V2O7, whereas for a x value of 6 only Ca2V2O7 was formed. The predominance of polymeric V species in solution at a high vanadium concentration deduced from the diagram of speciation of vanadium accounts for the preferential formation of Ca2V2O7 under these particular conditions. However, provided that a higher pH value was maintained, isolated VO3(OH)2- species are predominant, which accounts for the incorporation of isolated vanadates into the hydroxyapatite framework and for the well-controlled stoichiometry with Ca/(P + V) ratios found to be close to 1.67. Such a very good accommodation of vanadium in the hydroxyapatite framework is illustrated by the characterization of the local surrounding of phosphorus and vanadium species using 31P and 51V NMR, Raman and UV-vis spectroscopies.


Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, showed high efficacy against symptomatic illness caused by the ancestral strain. Yet recent variants such as Omicron and its sublineages substantially escape vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies. In response, bivalent mRNA booster vaccines updated to better match the BA.4-5 lineages have been made available. Yet the reactogenicity of these vaccines might negatively impact willingness to receive the booster immunization. While serious side effects following vaccination are rare, mRNA vaccines frequently lead to mild adverse events such as injection site pain, lymphadenopathy, myalgia, and fever. Over-the-counter analgesics might mitigate some of these mild adverse events, but animal models of SARS-CoV-2 infection have shown that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) substantially reduce antiviral antibody responses, which are the best correlates of protection against COVID-19. It remains unknown whether these same inhibitory effects are seen in humans after mRNA vaccination. We surveyed 6,010 individuals who received COVID-19 vaccines regarding analgesic use and correlated these results with Spike-specific antibody levels. We found no negative impact of analgesic use on antibody levels, and in fact observed slightly elevated concentrations of anti-Spike antibodies in individuals who used painkillers. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated a higher proportion of those experiencing fatigue and muscle aches between NSAID users and those not taking pain medication, suggesting that the elevated antibody levels were likely associated with inflammation and mild adverse events rather than analgesic use per se. Together, our results suggest no detriment to painkiller use to alleviate symptoms after vaccination against COVID-19.


In order for Aboriginal rights and interests to be recognised under the Native Title Act (1993), such rights and interests must arise from laws and customs that can be shown to have continuity with the particular set of laws and customs that existed at the time of sovereignty, or, at least, at the time of first European contact. This interpretation of continuity has been applied in Australian native title cases since the High Court's Yorta Yorta decision (Yorta Yorta v the State of Victoria [2002] HCA 58). Yet today's Aboriginal native title claim groups are also required to participate in other statutory ventures outside of the native title domain. For example, 'tribal' representatives in north Queensland are obliged to represent their interests on the Wet Tropics Management Authority, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. In native title terms, however, the activity and time spent participating in these ventures do not 'count' as instantiations of traditionally based rights and interests. Furthermore, the powers and rights granted to Aboriginal groups under these statutory ventures are often in conflict with the strictures of current native title interpretations of 'traditional law and custom and rights and interests'. The effect is to elicit versions of Aboriginal action that may contradict each other legally. In this paper, I discuss some examples of these institutional conflicts engendered by the statutory actions of state and federal government, and comment on the implications for the contemporary Aboriginal articulations of identity and tradition.


Control of the thickness of the arterial wall is critical, as excessive overgrowth of constituent smooth muscle cells (SMCs) may interfere with blood flow. Effects on SMCs in vitro of several growth factors that are present in blood and/or that are produced endogenously in the arterial wall under certain conditions suggest that influences of endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine nature from stimulating and inhibiting factors may control the smooth muscle tissue mass in the artery. This possibility was explored further by investigating the degree of myodifferentiation in terms of the presence of differentiation-specific filamentous alpha-smooth muscle actin and growth, as measured by the synthesis of DNA and cell number, of SMCs as influenced by their exposure to the mitogens, platelet-derived growth factor and epidermal growth factor, and the bifunctional growth factor, transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1). Exposure to TGF-beta 1 markedly enhanced differentiation-specific filamentous alpha-smooth muscle actin. This effect did not require arrest of growth, which speaks against a direct causal relation between loss of myodifferentiation (modulation) and multiplication. When quiescent cultures were exposed to TGF-beta 1, alpha-smooth muscle actin was further increased, indicating a more specific differentiation-promoting effect by TGF-beta 1 than mere inhibition of growth. Exposure to TGF-beta 1 also increased spreading, which occurred in parallel with increased filamentous alpha-smooth muscle actin and appearance of stress fibers. Exposure to platelet-derived growth factor under serum-free conditions and to epidermal growth factor in cultures exposed to serum markedly decreased the number of alpha-actin-positive SMCs, indicating a dedifferentiating effect by these mitogens. Exposure of SMCs to TGF-beta 1 under serum-free conditions had pronounced effects on growth, with a concentration-dependent inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor-induced DNA synthesis and cell multiplication. The basal synthesis of DNA in the absence of added growth factors was also greatly inhibited. With serum-free cultures, some loss of cells occurred even with very low concentrations of TGF-beta 1 (5 pg/ml), against which platelet-derived growth factor or a dense cultural state had a protective effect. Enhancement of cell multiplication was not detected for cultivated human SMCs exposed to TGF-beta 1, irrespective of culture density, in contrast to that reported for dense cultures of rat SMCs. TGF-beta 1 is present in and may be released from platelets in situations that promote platelet adherence such as endothelial injury; TGF-beta 1 may also be released from activated macrophages and T lymphocytes either during an immune reaction or inflammation or from the endothelium.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Pravastatin sodium (PV) is a potent cholesterol-lowering agent that acts by inhibiting 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Biotransformation profiles of PV in pooled human urine, plasma, and feces from healthy male volunteers given single 19.2-mg oral or 9.9-mg iv doses of [14C]PV were determined by HPLC. The predominant drug-related component in urine, plasma, and feces corresponded to intact PV; in the pooled urine samples, PV constituted 29 and 69% of the radioactivity after the po and iv doses, respectively. The delta 4.5-3 alpha-hydroxy isomer of PV constituted 10% (po) and 2% (iv), and 6-epi-PV constituted 3% (po) and 1% (iv) of the urinary radioactivity. Negligible amounts of the lactones of PV or its isomers were detected in urine, plasma, or feces. At least 15 other metabolites were also present; none of these accounted for more than 6% of the total urinary radioactivity. For metabolite isolation, an aliquot of pooled urine samples, obtained after administration of the radioactive dose, was added as a tracer to urine samples obtained from healthy subjects after administration of single nonradiolabeled 40-mg oral doses of PV. Urinary metabolites were concentrated on an XAD-2 column, extracted with ethyl acetate, and purified by extensive preparative HPLC. In addition to isolation and identification of unchanged drug and the two isomeric metabolites described above, eight other metabolites were isolated and structural assignments were made based on HPLC, UV spectra, mass spectral analysis, and proton NMR.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)