State-of-the-art infrastructure management systems use Markov decision processes (MDPs) as a methodology for maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) decision making. The underlying assumptions in this methodology are that an inspection is performed at the beginning of every year and that inspections reveal the true condition state of the facility, with no error. As a result, after an inspection, the decision maker can apply the activity prescribed by the optimal policy for that condition state of the facility. Previous research has developed a methodology for M&R activity selection that accounts for the presence of both forecasting and measurement uncertainty. This methodology is the latent Markov decision process (LMDP), an extension of the traditional MDP that does not necessarily assume the measurement of facility condition to be free of error. Both a transient and a steady-state formulation of the facility-level LMDP are presented. The methodology is extended to include network-level constraints. This can be achieved by extending the LMDP model to the network-level problem through the use of randomized policies. In addition, both a transient and a steady-state formulation of the network-level LMDP are presented. A case study application demonstrates the expected savings in life-cycle costs that result from increasing the measurement accuracy used in facility inspections and from scheduling inspection decisions optimally.


The Object Modeling Technique (OMT), a commonly used object-oriented development technique, comprises the object, dynamic, and functional models to provide three complementary views that graphically describe different aspects of systems. The lack of a well-defined semantics for the integration of the three models hinders the overall development process, particularly during the design phase. Previously, we formalized the object model in terms of algebraic specifications. However, the algebraic specifications only capture the static, structural aspects of a system. They do not explicitly describe the behavior, which is critical for system development especially for the design phase. It is necessary to formalize the dynamic model in terms of the structural descriptions in order to specify and verify the system behavior using rigorous techniques. This paper presents a well-defined formal model for both the object and dynamic models and their integration. The formal model is described in terms of a well-known specification language, LOTOS. Formalization of the graphical notation enables numerous automated processing and analysis tasks, such as behavior simulation and consistency checks between levels of specifications.


Previous theories have suggested that consumers will be happier if they spend their money on experiences such as travel as opposed to material possessions such as automobiles. We test this experience recommendation and show that it may be misleading in its general form. Valence of the outcome significantly moderates differences in respondents' reported retrospective happiness with material versus experiential purchases. For purchases that turned out positively, experiential purchases lead to more happiness than do material purchases, as the experience recommendation suggests. However, for purchases that turned out negatively, experiences have no benefit over (and, for some types of consumers, induce significantly less happiness than) material possessions. We provide evidence that this purchase type by valence interaction is driven by the fact that consumers adapt more slowly to experiential purchases than to material purchases, leading to both greater happiness and greater unhappiness for experiential purchases.


Why do some Republican Supreme Court Justices evolve over time, becoming more liberal than they were - or at least more liberal than they were generally thought likely to be - when they were appointed, while others prove to be every bit as conservative as expected? Although idiosyncratic factors undoubtedly play some role, for every Republican nominee since President Nixon took office, federal executive branch service has been a reliable predictor. Nominees without it have proved moderate or liberal, while those with it have been steadfastly conservative. This Essay demonstrates the correlation for all twelve Republican appointees during this period and hypothesizes a selection effect: important legal positions in Republican Administrations during this period went to, and were sought by, committed conservatives. By contrast, during this same period Republican Presidents named Washington outsiders when, for a variety of reasons, ideological purity was subordinated to other concerns, such as avoiding a confirmation fight. These observations suggest that Senators should pay attention to what Presidents apparently already know: federal executive branch experience strongly predicts a potential Justice's future voting pattern.


This paper seeks to build on theory, to develop new methods for understanding the nature and basis of sectoral and national competitive advantage, and to do so with a temporal perspective. Neo-Schumpeterian and evolutionary economics perspectives (which place innovation at the forefront of accumulation) highlight the importance of economic rents, barriers to entry and core competencies. There is no one measure that adequately reflects these barriers to entry, and much of the research has been concerned to generate proxies, each of which is in itself partial, but which together provide a comprehensive picture. During the late 1970s, preliminary work was undertaken on the unit price of UK trade as an indicator of relative technological competence. However, this approach has largely been neglected since then, receiving only sporadic attention in US literature, and at high levels of product aggregation. This paper utilizes this approach to try and reflect the dynamic process of shifting competitive advantage in the global economy. Its distinctive feature is the level of detail—six-digit trade classifications—and its breadth of coverage, being applied to seven sets of sectoral classifications involving more than 12 000 product groups. The data set relates to EU imports of manufactured goods between 1988 and 2001. It concludes that there is a strong correlation between unit price performance and innovation intensity, and provides data to show that low-income economies tend to be located in low-innovation niches in sectoral groupings. This has important implications for the conventional wisdom that high incomes will result from a specialization in manufactures.


Asphalt binder is typically modified with poly type (styrene-butadiene-styrene or SBS) polymers to improve its rheological properties and performance grade. The elastic and principal component of SBS polymers is butadiene. For the last decade, butadiene prices have fluctuated and significantly increased, leading state highway agencies to search for economically viable alternatives to butadiene based materials. This project reports the recent advances in polymerization techniques that have enabled the synthesis of elastomeric, thermoplastic, block-copolymers (BCPs) comprised of styrene and soybean oil, where the "B" block in SBS polymers is replaced with polymerized triglycerides derived from soybean oil. These new breeds of biopolymers have elastomeric properties comparable to well-established butadiene-based styrenic BCPs. In this report, two types of biopolymer formulations are evaluated for their ability to modify asphalt binder. Laboratory blends of asphalt modified with the biopolymers are tested for their rheological properties and performance grade. Blends of asphalt modified with the biopolymers are compared to blends of asphalt modified with two commonly used commercial polymers. The viscoelastic properties of the blends show that biopolymers improve the performance grade of the asphalt to a similar and even greater extent as the commercial SBS polymers. Results shown in this report indicate there is an excellent potential for the future of these biopolymers as economically and environmentally favorable alternatives to their petrochemicallyderived analogs.


We present a theory of ethnic conflict in which coalitions formed along ethnic lines compete for the economy's resources. The role of ethnicity is to enforce coalition membership: in ethnically homogeneous societies members of the losing coalition can defect to the winners at low cost, and this rules out conflict as an equilibrium outcome. We derive a number of implications of the model relating social, political, and economic indicators such as the incidence of conflict, the distance among ethnic groups, group sizes, income inequality, and expropriable resources.


Taking as its starting point a collection of (auto)biographical narratives on the academic careers of Dutch prehistorians Van Stein Callenfels, Van Heekeren and Van der Hoop, this paper discusses the phenomenon of the 'colonial archaeologist as hero' from both a historical and a theoretical (post-colonial) perspective. We thus reconsider those colonial archaeologists who, according to traditional histories of archaeology, 'discovered' the prehistoric past of Indonesia during the 1920s and 1930s. We do this in order to gain a better understanding of the colonial dimension of research into the prehistory of the Dutch East Indies and the way it continues to affect the archaeology of post-colonial Indonesia. We focus on the dynamic social and cultural contexts within which the archaeological research was developed and conclude that the creation of knowledge of the prehistoric past included various forms of indigenous involvement.


This essay argues that the material culture of the Renaissance garden played an important role in the development of Cartesian mathematical and mechanical philosophy. Garden machinery such as Salomon and Isaac de Caus's automata and grottoes provided a model from which Descartes drew his clockwork conceptions of nature and the human body. This machinery was also crucial in the Cartesian explanation of the rainbow. Not simply an exercise in intellectual curiosity, Descartes's geometrical description of the rainbow in Discourse Eight of the Météores was a direct response to the engineers of artificial rainbow fountains which populated European princely gardens for much of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Rejecting distinctions between 'natural' and 'artificial' rainbows, Descartes used these fountains and his own constructions of artificial water drops to discern the causes of the rainbow by refraction and reflection and, by analogy, to suppose this the explanation of rainbows in the sky. This knowledge was then utilized to propose an alternative to the rainbow fountain, using refracting liquids to cast images in the sky. Descartes presented a 'science of miracles' destined not to eradicate wonder but to make transparent the wonders of traditional garden engineers and replace them with wonders derived from knowledge of mathematical and mechanical philosophy. As such, the 'science of miracles' gave a new emphasis to the mind of the natural philosopher as the essential component in the creation of wonders, rather than the traditional skills and experience of the artisan or engineer.


This paper argues that the policy of quantitative easing and maintaining close-to-zero interest rates in advanced economies, notably the US, has been generating a surge in speculative capital flows to developing countries in search of yield and creating bubbles in foreign exchange, asset, credit and commodity markets. This latest generalized surge constitutes the fourth postwar boom in capital flows to developing countries. All previous ones ended with busts, causing serious damage to recipient countries. The conditions driving the recent boom in capital flows and commodity prices are not sustainable, and they are likely to be followed by a sharp downturn. Various scenarios that can bring them to an abrupt end are discussed. Examining the policy responses and financial and macroeconomic developments in major emerging economies, the paper concludes that deficit commodity-rich economies that have been enjoying the dual benefits of global liquidity expansion –that is, the boom in capital flows and commodity markets – are most vulnerable to a possible reversal and urges them to manage capital flows more effectively.


We present a method to experimentally identify the inverse dynamics of a human arm. We drive a person's hand with a robot along smooth reaching trajectories while measuring the motion of the shoulder and elbow joints and the force required to move the hand. We fit a model that predicts the shoulder and elbow joint torques required to achieve a desired arm motion. This torque can be supplied by functional electrical stimulation of muscles to control the arm of a person paralyzed by spinal cord injury. Errors in predictions of the joint torques for a subject without spinal cord injury were less than 20% of the maximum torques observed in the identification experiments. In most cases a semiparametric Gaussian process model predicted joint torques with equal or less error than a nonparametric Gaussian process model or a parametric model.


Abstract Purpose: Modulated electro-hyperthermia (mEHT), known as oncothermia, is an anticancer therapy that induces radiofrequency thermal damage to the cancer tissues. This study aimed to evaluate the potential effectiveness of mEHT as a therapeutic tool in ovarian and cervical cancer. Materials and methods: We used both tumor-bearing mice and ovarian and cervical OVCAR-3, SK-OV-3, HeLa and SNU-17 cancer cell lines to investigate the effects of mEHT in vivo and in vitro, respectively, and determine whether it was enhanced by cotreatment with an autophagy inhibitor. Results: We discovered that phosphorylation of p38, a stress-dependent kinase, was induced at the Thr180/Tyr182 residue in cancer cells exposed to mEHT. Apoptotic markers such as cleaved caspase-3 and poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) were increased in OVCAR-3 and SNU-17 cells. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis showed a significant increase in the population of sub-G1 mEHT-exposed cells, which are dying and apoptotic cells. mEHT also reduced both weight and volume of xenograft tumors in mice transplanted with ovarian and cervical cancer cells and patient-derived cancer tissues. We determined that mEHT-induced cellular damage recovery was mediated by autophagy and, therefore, expectedly, cotreatment with mEHT and 3-methyladenine (3-MA), an autophagy inhibitor, more effectively inhibited cancer cell growth than individual treatment did. Conclusions: mEHT treatment alone was sufficient to inhibit cancer growth, while a combined treatment with mEHT and an autophagy inhibitor amplified this inhibition effect.


This paper discusses integration of two existing automated analysis applications, DFR data analysis and digital relay data analysis, to achieve comprehensive fault analysis. As inputs to the integrated application, digital relay files and reports are introduced. The proposed strategy and implementation of integration are outlined. An example is used to demonstrate features of the integrated application developed so far.


Extracted from text ... IMFO Spring 05 16
During discussions held with Local
Government practitioners it was found
that drafting Policies for a Municipality
has become a cumbersome exercise
and not every practitioner knows what
the content and processes should be. It
was therefore decided to draft this
article and to deliver a paper at the
IMFO Limpopo Branch seminar on this
issue.
This article mainly deals with two
aspects namely the elements of policy
and the process that should be
followed.
1) ELEMENTS OF POLICY
A policy should be seen as a document,
which gives direction to the
administration on the implementation ..


This manuscript presents the results of a review of the effects of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) on milk production, milk composition, dry matter intake, and body condition score that was carried out by an expert panel established by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). The panel was established by the CVMA in response to a request from Health Canada in 1998 and their report was made public in 1999. A series of meta-analyses was used to combine data on production and nutrition related parameters that were extracted from all randomized clinical trials, which had been published in peer-reviewed journals or which were provided by Health Canada, from the submission by Monsanto for registration of rBST in Canada. A companion paper will present the results of the effects of the drug on measures of health, reproductive performance, and culling parameters. Recombinant bovine somatotropin was found to increase milk production by 11.3% in primiparous cows and 15.6% in multiparous cows; although there was considerable variation from study to study. While some statistically significant effects on milk composition (% butterfat, protein, and lactose) were found, they were all very small. Treatment increased dry matter intake by an average 1.5 kg/day during the treatment period and dry matter intake remained elevated on into the first 60 days of the subsequent lactation. Despite the increase in dry matter intake, treated animals had lower body condition scores at the end of the treatment period, and the reduced scores persisted through until the start of the subsequent lactation.


The first in a series of guides to the natural environments of St. Eustatius (Statia), Saba and St. Maarten, this book describes the reptiles and amphibians of these islands. It also gives the reader an overview of the geological and geographical natural history of the islands, an introduction to the herpetofauna of the region and a survey of relevant conservation issues. The intent of the guides is to foster an appreciation of the islands' fragile natural resources and to enhance awareness of conservation issues that continue to be affected by development.


With the growth of the internet, data from text sources has become increasingly available to researchers in the form of online newspapers, journals, and blogs. This data presents a unique opportunity to analyze human opinions and behaviors without soliciting the public explicitly. In this research, I utilize newspaper articles and the social media service Twitter to infer self-reported public opinions and awareness of climate change. Climate change is one of the most important and heavily debated issues of our time, and analyzing large-scale text surrounding this issue reveals insights surrounding self-reported public opinion. First, I inquire about public discourse on both climate change and energy system vulnerability following two large hurricanes. I apply topic modeling techniques to a corpus of articles about each hurricane in order to determine how these topics were reported on in the post event news media. Next, I perform sentiment analysis on a large collection of data from Twitter using a previously developed tool called the "hedonometer". I use this sentiment scoring technique to investigate how the Twitter community reports feeling about climate change. Finally, I generalize the sentiment analysis technique to many other topics of global importance, and compare to more traditional public opinion polling methods. I determine that since traditional public opinion polls have limited reach and high associated costs, text data from Twitter may be the future of public opinion polling.


A trial was conducted to find a possible relationship between the canopy/root ratio and the incidence and severity of premature berry shrinkage, and to propose an alternative to avoid this phenomenon in 'Merlot' grapevines. The ratio was changed by cutting foliage at a certain height 15 days before veraison, and by delaying the removal of trunk shoots. Treatments were the control (T1), 50% foliage area of control (T2), 75% foliage area of control (T3), and delayed trunk shoot removal (T4). Foliage area and the canopy/root ratio were lower in the T2 and T3 treatments. T4 was ineffective in changing the parameters. The incidence of berry shrinkage was lower for the T2 and T3 treatments, with the percentage of affected plants dropping from the 52% of the control to 22.9% and 31.3% for T2 and T3 respectively, and from 52.4% of the affected bunches to 16.6% and 21.2% for the same treatments respectively. The percentage of affected bunches falling into the range of moderate to severe damage fell from the 24% of the control to 5.2% and 3.9% for T2 and T3 respectively. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the incidence and severity of berry shrinkage by decreasing the canopy/root ratio in 'Merlot' grapevines.


We exploit a series of natural experiments that use real crime data to investigate the effect of a violation of expectancies on violent crime. We study two types of violation of expectancies that generate the emotions of frustration and euphoria. Our empirical designs exploit differential expectations (as measured by the odds of soccer games in the betting market) while maintaining the outcome unchanged (a loss in a soccer game for frustration, a win in a soccer game for euphoria). We find that frustration is followed by a spike in violent crime whereas euphoria is followed by a reduction in violent crime. The two effects are concentrated in a narrow time window after the end of the game: 1 h. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Background: The whole-genome sequences of nine Rhizobium species were evaluated using different in silico molecular techniques such as AFLP-PCR, restriction digest, and AMPylating enzymes. The entire genome sequences were aligned with progressiveMauve and visualized by reconstructing phylogenetic tree using NTSYS pc 2.11X. The "insilico.ehu.es" was used to carry out in silico AFLP-PCR and in silico restriction digest of the selected genomes. Post-translational modification (PTM) and AMPylating enzyme diversity between the proteome of Rhizobium species were determined by novPTMenzy. Results: Slight variations were observed in the phylogeny based on AFLP-PCR and PFGE and the tree based on whole genome. Results clearly demonstrated the presence of PTMs, i.e., AMPylation with the GS-ATasE (GlnE), Hydroxylation, Sulfation with their domain, and Deamidation with their specific domains (AMPylating enzymes) GS-ATasE (GlnE), Fic, and Doc (Phosphorylation); Asparagine_hydroxylase and Collagen_prolyl_lysyl_hydroxylase; Sulfotransferase; and CNF (Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors), respectively. The results pertaining to PTMs are discussed with regard to functional diversities reported in these species. Conclusions: The phylogenetic tree based on AFLP-PCR was slightly different from restriction endonuclease- and PFGE-based trees. Different PTMs were observed in the Rhizobium species, and the most prevailing type of PTM was AMPylation with the domain GS-ATasE (GlnE). Another type of PTM was also observed, i.e., Hydroxylation and Sulfation, with the domains Asparagine_hydroxylase and Collagen_prolyl_lysyl_hydroxylase and Sulfotransferase, respectively. The deamidation type of PTM was present only in Rhizobium sp. NGR234.


The bash shell is a complete programming language, not merely a glue to combine external Linux commands. By taking full advantage of shell internals, shell programs can perform as snappily as utilities written in C or other compiled languages. And you will see how, without assuming Unix lore, you can write professional bash 4.0 programs through standard programming techniques. Complete bash coverage Teaches bash as a programming language Helps you master bash 4.0 features What youll learn Use the shell to write new utilities and accomplish most programming tasks. Use shell parameter expansion to replace many external commands, making scripts very fast. Learn to avoid many common mistakes that cause scripts to fail. Learn how bashs readline and history libraries can save typing when getting user input. Learn to use the new bash 4.0 features. Build shell scripts that get information from the Web. About the Apress Pro Series The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder. You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hardwon solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.


The provision of housing for low-income population
has been a key issue in Malaysia. With the rapid rate
of urbanisation in recent years, housing problems
especially for the urban poor have become even more
acute. To understand some underlying factors, the
present work is an attempt to study the determinants
which affect home ownership rate by low-income
households and the affordability level of such
households in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.
Ordinary least squares and logit analysis are
employed in the analysis of home ownership while the functional form of a Cj/Yi is used in evaluating
affordability where 'a' is the proportion a household
is willing to spend on housing; Cj is the housing cost
associated with a given level of housing service, j;
and Yi is the monthly income of a household at the ith
percentile income distribution.
Home ownership rate of the Federal Territory's
low-income households is largely explained by income
and the household head being Chinese. There is no
difference between male and female-headed households
towards home ownership; so is between public and
private sector employees. Household size also does not
exert much impact.
On affordability issues, the low-income households
of the Federal Territory on the average are able to
spend about 18 percent of their income on housing cost.
The present bank ruling of having one-third of one's
monthly income as monthly housing installment has in
fact induced many poor households to spend beyond their
means. The market price of a low-cost house at M $25,000
is still unaffordable to a majority of the poor
households. For a housing programme to be successful ,
the project design should be one that reflects the true
willingness to pay by house seekers.


Accuracy is a key issue in cold forging process. Component defect is one of the major problems in cold forging because the process depends on many factors including complexity of the component. Defect not only affects the performance of the component but may also harm the assembly. The problem of defect becomes more critical as the complexity of the component increases, but the size and complexity of the part limit the effective assessment of the defect.
 This project aims to investigate the geometrical and dimensional defects that occur in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle propeller blades produced using the cold forging process. Typically the manufacturing of the blade can be divided into five stages namely, blanking,forming, trimming, heading and twisting. The defect was evaluated based on the three main criteria of the blade. First, the overall geometrical and dimensional accuracy of the blade was measured. In this study, the profile of the forged blade was considered as the final part, whereas the profile obtained from the punch was considered as the targeted profile. The profile was captured using a commercial focus variation based 3D surface measurement system, the Infinite
Alicona System. The constructed 3D profile was then compared to a nominal model. Next, the filling ability of the pin head during the cold embossing or heading process was investigated,because an imperfect or defective pin head may affect the final assembly of the blade. In this
work, the effects of design and process parameters, including punch diameter and distance to edge on the formation of defect, were studied using the commercial 2D finite element analysis software DEFORM-2D. The defect can be estimated based on the incomplete filling of the
region and the amount of bulging based on the captured images of the simulation result. In addition, the defect was predicted by investigating the design parameters and its effect on the material flow pattern. Comparison between the simulation result and the fabricated pin head
show a geometrically similar pattern. Finally, the twist springback was measured. In this study,defect was considered based on profile deviation, which was obtained from the 3D surface measurement technique. An algorithm was developed to measure the deviation. The result showed that the thickness error depended on the deformation ratio whereas the twist angle accuracy relied on the amount of twist and thickness of the blade. In the other case, the
simulation results indicated that the most significant parameter for the filling ability and amount of bulging was the distance to edge, whereas the punch taper was not relevant for cases of edge embossing. In the case of twist springback, the results implied that the twist springback increased as the twist angle increased. The highest springback was found to be at 16.11% for section E,
while the lowest is 2.58% for section A. Similarly, the twist springback increased with the increase in deformation ratio. The coordinate measurement machine was used to validate the result. This study will contribute to the development of effective evaluation method in the noncontact measurement of geometrical and dimensional defect of component with complex profile such as the propeller blade.


"Aristotle versus Plato. For a long time that is the angle from which the tale has been told, in textbooks on the history of philosophy and to university students. Aristotle's philosophy, so the story goes, was au fond in opposition to Plato's. But it was not always thus."-from the Introduction In a wide-ranging book likely to cause controversy, Lloyd P. Gerson sets out the case for the "harmony" of Platonism and Aristotelianism, the standard view in late antiquity. He aims to show that the twentieth-century view that Aristotle started out as a Platonist and ended up as an anti-Platonist is seriously flawed. Gerson examines the Neoplatonic commentators on Aristotle based on their principle of harmony. In considering ancient studies of Aristotle's Categories, Physics, De Anima, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics, the author shows how the principle of harmony allows us to understand numerous texts that otherwise appear intractable. Gerson also explains how these "esoteric" treatises can be seen not to conflict with the early "exoteric" and admittedly Platonic dialogues of Aristotle. Aristotle and Other Platonists concludes with an assessment of some of the philosophical results of acknowledging harmony.


Greek colonisation in the archaic period encompassed an enormous geographical area. But for all its prevalence, the textual evidence is limited in both quantity and quality and the archaeological evidence goes only some way towards helping decipher social change and ethnicity. These issues become even more apparent when considering the position of women in the new city foundations. Did Greek colonists take their own wives with them to their new homes? Were Greek women sent out at a later date once the colony had become established? Did Greek colonists intermarry with indigenous women on arrival? Or did something else happen, including a mix of these options? The weight of scholarly opinion currently falls in favour of intermarriage, though frequently little evidence is proffered to support this view. This thesis focuses on this hypothesis and examines the evidence (or lack thereof) to support this conclusion.  Chapter One examines the problems associated with archaic Greek colonisation generally, particularly those issues connected with the 'language of colonisation'. The study of Greek colonisation has been complicated by imprecise and ambiguous terminology, which frequently draws comparison with more modern (although altogether different) instances of the phenomenon. A major repercussion of this is the tendency to overlook both women and any indigenous peoples. The opening chapter also examines the various reasons behind the foundation of colonies, as well as the different types of settlements, so that an assessment can be made as to whether Greek women might have been more likely to accompany colonising expeditions in some instances over others. Chapter Two looks at the concept of intermarriage more closely and assesses Greek attitudes towards foreign women. It also evaluates the evidence typically called upon by scholars to argue for and against intermarriage in Greek colonisation. Chapter Three assesses the evidence for the presence of women in ten different colonies. Presented roughly in chronological order, these colonies were selected for their geographical scope, covering different regions from the Western Mediterranean, Magna Graecia, North Africa, and the Black Sea. This discussion explores both the literary and archaeological evidence (where possible) for each of these colonies and assesses the potential for intermarriage. This thesis demonstrates that broad conclusions about intermarriage as a widespread practice are unsustainable and concludes that colonisation in the archaic period cannot be considered a uniform phenomenon.


The first banknotes in Scotland were issued in 1695 following the incorporation of the Bank of Scotland. In a country critically short of coin and vulnerable to changes in its value, they were an almost immediate success. A century later no fewer than 21 banks, mainly private, issued notes, and Scotland was awash with paper money. This proliferation of paper would hardly have been possible without a stable legal framework. In 1749 the case of Crawfurd v The Royal Bank considered, and settled, one of the key legal issues: whether the holder of a banknote took free from infirmities of title which affected those from whom it had been acquired. In the litigation Mr Crawfurd sought to vindicate a £20 Bank of Scotland note which had gone missing in the post and turned up some time later in the hands of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The printed arguments of counsel which have survived provide a fascinating glimpse into a collision between orthodox property law on the one hand and the needs of commerce and the future of the banking system on the other. According to the former, Mr Crawfurd's victory was assured because no one can acquire title through a thief; according to the latter, the Royal Bank must prevail, for any other result 'would be to render the Notes absolutely useless, and consequently would in a great Measure deprive the Nation of the Benefit of the Banks, which could hardly subsist without the Circulation of their Notes'. In this battle of doctrine against policy, Roman law was used as a proxy, with both sides calling on Digest texts and on the account of vindication in Voet's Commentarius ad Pandectas. Victory for the Royal Bank was obtained only by re-characterising a rule of bona fide consumption, by spending, as one of bona fide acquisition; and so with this flimsiest of doctrinal veneers, the free circulation of banknotes was assured.


No living scholar has shaped the study of American religious history more profoundly than George M. Marsden. His work spans U.S intellectual, cultural, and religious history from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries. This collection of essays uses the career of George M. Marsden and the remarkable breadth of his scholarship to measure current trends in the historical study of American evangelical Protestantism and to encourage fresh scholarly investigation of this faith tradition as it has developed between the eighteenth century and the present. Moving through five sections, each cantered around one of Marsden's major books and the time period it represents, the volume explores different methodologies and approaches to the history of evangelicalism and American religion. Besides assessing Marsden's illustrious works on their own terms, this collection's contributors isolate several key themes as deserving of fresh, rigorous, and extensive examination. Through their close investigation of these particular themes, they expand the range of characters and communities, issues and ideas, and contingencies that can and should be accounted for in our historical texts. Marsden's timeless scholarship thus serves as a Launchpad for new directions in our rendering of the American religious past.


The three-dimensional structure of a protein, formed as a result of amino-acid sequences folding into compact domains, is regarded as a key factor in its biological function. How and why proteins fold into specific topologies, remain the key focus of scientific research in the field of biophysics. By stripping down complex reactions down to the most basic elements, biophysicists aim to develop simplified models for biological phenomena such as antibody discrimination, viral fusion or self-assembly. Focusing on small model peptide systems, rather than the full proteins from which they were derived, was hoped to result in accurate structural measurements and provide a more transparent comparison between simulation and experiment. The aim of this research was therefore to investigate how accurate these models were when compared against experiment. Furthermore, while breaking down the complex biological phenomena into simple models, there was also a conscious effort to ensure that the models were representative of real biological systems, and a major focus was therefore aimed at determining whether any meaningful biomedical insight may be extrapolated from such models. Peptides found in hormones (human chorionic gonadotropin, luteinizing hormone), viruses (HIV) and amyloid diseases (transthyretin) were selected in order to probe a variety of questions in relation to the aforementioned biological phenomena. Namely, how the primary sequence influenced the three-dimensional structure (and thus its biological function), how its environment could influence such a confirmation, and how these systems aggregated. This doctoral study has made use of a combination of computer simulations and experimental techniques to investigate a selection of biologically relevant peptides; utilising classical atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to characterise the free-energy landscapes of the chosen peptides, and compare these findings with the secondary structure content predicted by spectroscopic methods such as circular dichroism and infrared spectroscopy. The peptide systems studied within, were found to be characterised by rugged free-energy landscapes unlike their protein counterparts (defined by singular, deep minima). Furthermore, these landscapes were found to be highly plastic and sensitive to changes in the local environment.


This paper presents a new corpus and annotation guideline for a novel coreference resolution task on fictional texts, and analyzes its unique characteristics. FantasyCoref contains 211 stories of Grimms' Fairy Tales and 3 other fantasy literature annotated in the omniscient writer's point of view (OWV) to handle distinctive aspects in this genre. This task is more challenging than general coreference resolution in two ways. First, documents in our corpus are 2.5 times longer than the ones in OntoNotes, raising a new layer of difficulty in resolving long-distant referents. Second, annotation of literary styles and concepts raise several issues which are not sufficiently addressed in the existing annotation guidelines. Hence, considerations on such issues and the concept of OWV are necessary to achieve high inter-annotator agreement (IAA) in coreference resolution of fictional texts. We carefully conduct annotation tasks in four stages to ensure the quality of our annotation. As a result, a high IAA score of 87% is achieved using the standard coreference evaluation metric. Finally, state-of-the-art coreference resolution approaches are evaluated on our corpus. After training with our annotated dataset, there was a 2.59% and 3.06% improvement over the model trained on the OntoNotes dataset. Also, we observe that the portion of errors specific to fictional texts declines after the training.


Layouts are important for graphic design and scene generation. We propose a novel generative adversarial network, named as LayoutGAN, that synthesizes graphic layouts by modeling semantic and geometric relations of 2D elements. The generator of LayoutGAN takes as input a set of randomly placed 2D graphic elements and uses self-attention modules to refine their semantic and geometric parameters jointly to produce a meaningful layout. Accurate alignment is critical for good layouts. We thus propose a novel differentiable wireframe rendering layer that maps the generated layout to a wireframe image, upon which a CNNbased discriminator is used to optimize the layouts in visual domain. We validate the effectiveness of LayoutGAN in various experiments including MNIST digit generation, document layout generation, clipart abstract scene generation and tangram graphic design.


The frontal sinuses play a highly relevant role in comparative human identification processes. Since forensic radiology is a branch in the forensic sciences, adequate radiological analysis of the frontal sinuses is essential for comparative human identifications. The current study investigates radiographic morphological changes in the frontal sinuses according to vertical angle distortions in posteroanterior (PA) radiographs. A standard PA radiograph of the skull of an adult was obtained. Eight addition PA radiographs were taken at different vertical angles. Frontal sinuses were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively according to Ribeiros (2000) technique. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses revealed significant image distortions. Further, overlapping anatomical structures were reported when PA radiographs were analyzed in negative angulation distortions (from -10° to -40°). Positive and negative angular distortions up to 20o slightly affected the qualitative morphological analysis. However, 10° positive and negative distortions provided a significant interference in quantitative analysis and impaired the measuring process. Most forensic techniques for the analysis of frontal sinuses comprise measurements of morphological distances. Distortions of approximately 10° or over in vertical angulation of cranial PA radiographs should be avoided so that more accurate comparative human identifications could be achieved.


John Adams never ceased defending his work as "Constitution monger." As author of the Massachusetts constitution of 1780, he had successfully devised a governmental structure of separated powers and fixed, express limitations that became an enduring model for modern American constitutionalism. Even so, he continued to believe this structure – resting on a bicameral legislature, a strong executive, and an independent judiciary – to be in constant danger. The threat, he feared, began with human nature itself, which he viewed as prone to irrationality and disorder. Men in the abstract might be trusted and their sovereignty acknowledged, but in reality it was necessary to create a "government of laws, and not of men." This essay examines his experience in the tumultuous world of Massachusetts politics and his efforts to embody the will of the people and simultaneously to protect it from itself


The integration of information technology in education has, in the last thirty years,
changed from being non-existent to being a fundamental part of a developed
education system. A successful School Library Media Centre (SLMC) is central to
education. A typical SLMC aims to provide a broad range of printed and nonprinted
resources. The technology phenomenon has a new, dynamic role in
supporting the learning environment in the SLMC. Schools and school library
media centres in developed countries have evolved widely and have an advanced
level of ICT integration. On the other hand, educational organisations in Kuwait
have, to date, failed to realise their ICT potential. The purpose of this thesis is to
explore the provision and use of information and communication technology (ICT)
applications and services in secondary schools, and especially in SLMCs, in
Kuwait. The study focuses on the school community (teachers and pupils) and their
skill with, and knowledge of, ICT. There has been no previous research that has
investigated the availability and use of ICT in secondary schools in Kuwait, so this
study aims to fill this gap. In order to thoroughly understand the phenomenon, an
interpretive case study approach has been adopted and, therefore, multiple data
gathering techniques have been utilised. In order to research the subject within its
proper context, two bodies of pertinent literature were reviewed, from both
developed and developing countries.
The data gathering instruments showed remarkable findings. The research argues
that the SLMCs were maintained as mere storehouses with meagre ICT integration.
Overall, the results indicated there was a significant lack of ICT related services in
Kuwaiti schools. Most of the teachers and pupils showed a reasonable knowledge of
ICT. The results also showed that integration of ICT services into SLMCs was
strongly advocated by headmasters, teachers and pupils alike. To conclude, the
results highlight the need to better understand the importance of new environments
in education. The research argues the need for Kuwaiti policymakers to provide a
groundbreaking policy to improve the current situation. Although the research is
limited to Kuwaiti secondary education, the study may be equally applicable to
other educational organisations in many analogous developing countries.


The paper explores the possible contributions of deliberative procedures of political will formation to solving the problems encountered by liberal democracies today. To begin with, four functions of liberal democracy are distinguished: securing international peace, guaranteeing legal as well as political peace domestically, and producing good active citizens. The following part of the argument distinguishes four structural features characteristic of democratic regimes: stateness, rule of law, political competition, and accountability of the rulers. Thirdly, a brief summary of critical accounts concerning democracy's actual failures and symptoms of malfunctioning is presented. In the fi nal section, two families of institutional innovations that are currently being proposed as remedies for the observed defi ciencies of democracy are explored: those leading to a better aggregation of given preferences of the citizens and those aimed at improving the process of preference formation itself. It is the latter, which constitutes the fi eld of deliberative politics that is investigated at some length. Benefi cial effects of deliberative procedures and essential features of deliberative structures are discussed with reference to latest developments in the theory and empirical research on deliberative democracy.


Abstract: Epiphytes represent keystone resources for many arthropod and vertebrate species, however their ecology remains poorly explored, especially within the palaeotropics. Several recent studies have examined relationships between epiphyte richness and characteristics of local habitats, although these have all focused on neotropical forests. Here, we aim to determine whether predictors of neotropical epiphyte richness are consistent at a palaeotropical site. A total of 44 host trees (dbh range 25–288 cm) were sampled at two study sites on Buton Island, Indonesia. For each tree, epiphyte richness and seven variables relating to characteristics of the host tree and surrounding habitats were recorded: site (a proxy value for disturbance level and water availability), host above-ground biomass (agb), altitude, bark texture, exposure, emergence and crown area. Gaussian GLM analyses indicated that the percentage deviance explained in epiphyte richness per host was greatest for agb (20.9%), crown area (19.6%) and site (15.5%); similar to previous findings from the neotropics. Results therefore suggest that high epiphyte diversity within palaeotropical forests is most likely to be found in large tracts of undisturbed forest, supporting large, broad-crowned trees.


We explore gender biases towards delegation in a modified (delegation) dictator game. Under compulsory delegation and no (gender) revelation no significant gender differences are observed for choices made by principals. Male agents share little with the recipients, meanwhile, female (agents) are not responsive to the incentive scheme and return less to the dictator. However, a clear dichotomy in female behavior is observed under gender revelation. As principals, females behave similar to their male counterparts and appoint as agents those who return more to them. On the other hand, as agents' females show greater redistributive concerns relative to their male counterparts in the early periods even though it is detrimental to them over time. This results in both male and female principals delegating more to male agents over time.


Objective Glucocorticoid (GC) sensitivity is highly variable among individuals and has been associated with susceptibility to develop (auto-)inflammatory disorders. The purpose of the study was to assess GC sensitivity in Behçet's disease (BD) by studying the distribution of four GC receptor (GR) gene polymorphisms and by measuring in vitro cellular GC sensitivity. Methods Healthy controls and patients with BD in three independent cohorts were genotyped for four functional GR gene polymorphisms. To gain insight into functional differences in in vitro GC sensitivity, 19 patients with BD were studied using two bioassays and a whole-cell dexamethasone-binding assay. Finally, mRNA expression levels of GR splice variants (GR-α and GR-β) were measured. Results Healthy controls and BD patients in the three separate cohorts had similar distributions of the four GR polymorphisms. The Bcll and 9β minor alleles frequency differed significantly between Caucasians and Mideast and Turkish individuals. At the functional level, a decreased in vitro cellular GC sensitivity was observed. GR number in peripheral blood mononuclear cells was higher in BD compared with controls. The ratio of GR-α/GR-β mRNA expression levels was significantly lower in BD. Conclusions Polymorphisms in the GR gene are not associated with susceptibility to BD. However, in vitro cellular GC sensitivity is decreased in BD, possibly mediated by a relative higher expression of the dominant negative GR-β splice variant. This decreased in vitro GC sensitivity might play an as yet unidentified role in the pathophysiology of BD.


This report describes a patient who had exaggerated responses to different inflammatory stimuli represented by laser and incisional surgery, respectively. These separate episodes should have a common link represented by a genetic predisposition to abnormal release of proinflammatory mediators within the eye. This 51-year old Hispanic woman showed a narrow iridocorneal angle with plateau iris configuration. Nd-YAG laser peripheral iridotomy was successfully performed to both eyes. No substantial changes in the iridotrabecular angle occurred despite patent iridotomies, thus confirming the diagnosis of plateau iris configuration. Argon laser iridoplasty was then performed to the right eye, while the left eye was scheduled for a later session. A severe inflammatory reaction within the anterior chamber developed after tapering of a one-week course of steroid therapy. Phacoemulsification of the lens was performed some months later when no signs of inflammation were detectable; no intraoperative complications occurred during surgery and an intraocular lens was placed. Cystoid macular edema developed four weeks after surgery despite no apparent risk factors, and resolved completely after anti-inflammatory medical therapy. Based on this case report, the unusual occurrence of severe iritis after laser treatment should be regarded as a risk factor for any other incisional or nonincisional procedures because it might indicate that the patient's ocular tissues are prone to release of abnormally elevated proinflammatory mediators. Although further studies are needed to confirm this predisposition, prophylactic adjunctive topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug administration after cataract surgery should be considered in such cases in order to prevent potentially sight-threatening conditions.


Purpose To investigate the influence of various technical factors on the variation of cone packing density estimates in adaptive optics flood illuminated retinal images. Methods Adaptive optics images of the photoreceptor mosaic were obtained in fifteen healthy subjects. The cone density and Voronoi diagrams were assessed in sampling windows of 320×320 µm, 160×160 µm and 64×64 µm at 1.5 degree temporal and superior eccentricity from the preferred locus of fixation (PRL). The technical factors that have been analyzed included the sampling window size, the corrected retinal magnification factor (RMFcorr), the conversion from radial to linear distance from the PRL, the displacement between the PRL and foveal center and the manual checking of cone identification algorithm. Bland-Altman analysis was used to assess the agreement between cone density estimated within the different sampling window conditions. Results The cone density declined with decreasing sampling area and data between areas of different size showed low agreement. A high agreement was found between sampling areas of the same size when comparing density calculated with or without using individual RMFcorr. The agreement between cone density measured at radial and linear distances from the PRL and between data referred to the PRL or the foveal center was moderate. The percentage of Voronoi tiles with hexagonal packing arrangement was comparable between sampling areas of different size. The boundary effect, presence of any retinal vessels, and the manual selection of cones missed by the automated identification algorithm were identified as the factors influencing variation of cone packing arrangements in Voronoi diagrams. Conclusions The sampling window size is the main technical factor that influences variation of cone density. Clear identification of each cone in the image and the use of a large buffer zone are necessary to minimize factors influencing variation of Voronoi diagrams of the cone mosaic.


: For more than a decade, Oracle has developed and enhanced its ZFS Storage Appliance, giving its users a formidable unified and enterprise-grade storage offering. The latest release, ZS7-2, boasts upgraded hardware and software and is a timely reminder that more users might do well to evaluate this offering. It has a trifecta of advantages: (1) its notable performance, price-performance, and flexibility are all improved in this new release; (2) there is a surprisingly inclusive set of functionalities, including excellent storage analytics that were developed even before analytics became a contemporary "must-have"; and (3) there's a compelling group of "better together" elements that make ZFS Storage Appliance a particularly attractive choice for both Oracle Database environments and users that want to seamlessly integrate a cloud component into their IT infrastructure. Given the proven abilities of Oracle's prior models, it's also safe to assume that the new ZS7-2 will outperform other major offerings across multiple workloads, including high-performance NAS, Oracle Database, applications, and backup and restore.


. Based on National energy policy, Blueprint National energy management 2005-2025 and Bali clean energy forum recommendation that building should be doing save energy efforts and apply renewable energy. Strategy and efforts to decrease energy consumption in building significantly can be done if the energy demand profile is known. Furthermore, depend on the audit energy result (energy demand) so it can be designed and analysis a photovoltaic model with good accuracy. As we known that in tropical countries such as Indonesia, the solar energy will be very beneficial because the peak energy load of the building occurs during the day where the use of the dominant energy of air conditioning system (AC) and at the same intensity of sunlight radiation is high. While at night most of the commercial building, such as laboratory are not used so that no operational use of energy and solar cell energy will not contribute because there is no sunlight. More specifically, Bali State Polytechnic as a leading institution in green building concept research should be more aggressive to conduct research in this field. This research will be carried out in two stages: energy building utility assessment /audit and photovoltaic application design. Detailed data retrieval will be conducted and the assessment is done by zoning and statistical analysis method, where the building is divided into several zones based on the difference of cooling load. Measurements will be conducted on room and environment temperature and humidity, power consumption of each building utilities, the intensity of radiation and sunlight temperature to get a detailed profile every hour of the day. Thus, it can be mapped profile of building energy usage so that it can be formulated efforts to get energy saving from the building and then can be planned the use of photovoltaic (PV) with Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system. The output energy calculation method adopts the calculation model developed by RET Screen, the analysis is done by Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, so that it will be get the right model from solar energy


Unregulated secretion of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) or their endogenous protein inhibitors (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases, TIMPs) has been implicated in tumor invasion and metastasis. Species of MMPs and TIMPs secreted by epithelial cultures of normal, benign, and malignant prostate were identified and their levels were compared. Fragments of fresh tissue were cultured in a serum-free medium that supported the outgrowth of prostatic epithelial cells. Biochemical analysis of the conditioned media by gelatin zymography and enzyme assays showed that both normal and neoplastic tissues secreted latent and active forms of both Mr 72,000 type IV collagenase (MMP-2) and Mr 92,000 gelatinase (MMP9). However, conditioned media from malignant prostate explants contained a higher proportion of the active form of MMP-2. Significant amounts of free TIMPs were secreted by normal juvenile and adult prostates, but they were either markedly reduced or not detectable in conditioned media from neoplastic tissues. These findings suggest that there is an imbalance of secretion between MMPs and TIMPs in prostatic carci. noma.


Aims: To evaluate total phenols content (TPC), antioxidant capacity (TAC) and antibacterial activityof Manuka honey extract (MHE) and to compare such properties with those for unfractionatedManuka honey.Study Design: In vitro study.Place and Duration of Study: School of Biomedical Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, UK.Between September 2016 and September 2017.Methodology: MHE was prepared by solvent extraction using ethyl acetate. TPC was determinedby Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The iron (III) reducing antioxidant capacity (IRAC) method was used todetermine TAC. Antibacterial activity was evaluated using disc diffusion assay and 96-well microtiter plate methods with absorbance measured at 600 nm.Results: The TPC for MHE was 30-fold higher than the value for Manuka honey (33420 ± 1685 mgvs. 1018 ± 78 mg GAE/kg) while TAC values were ~100-times greater (83,198 ± 7064 vs. 793 ± 104 TEAC, respectively). Antibacterial activity assessed by disc diffusion for Manuka honey (18.5mm on S. aureus and 20 mm on E. coli) was two times greater than for MHE (9mm for both S. aureus and E. coli). The 96-well microtiter plate assay confirmed the greater antibacterial activity for Manuka honey compared to equal concentrations MHE.Conclusion: A polyphenol-rich Manuka honey extract with a high total antioxidant capacity, showedlittle or no antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus in contrast with unfractionated Manukahoney.


Archaeological and palaeontological investigations occurred in 2003 at the Pindai Caves in New Caledonia, where remains of prehistoric settlement exist in conjunction with the richest fossil deposits found to date on Grand Terre. Among more than 45 bird taxa in our excavations at least 20 that are locally or globally extinct are represented at levels immediately below or within the era of human occupation. These include the giant megapode, Sylviornis sp., the flightless swamphen, Porphyrio kukuwiede i, and other rails, a kagu, pigeons, a large snipe, Coenocorypha sp., several taxa of owls, a nightjar, and an owlet-nightjar. Unresolved problems in dating and taphonomy, however, make it difficult to specify the strength of cultural associations and thus the extent to which human activities were responsible for extinctions or extirpations. We present the first radiocarbon dates upon Sylviornis bone, showing that, at least, the species survived into the late Holocene. Relatively frequent occurrence of Sylviornis bone in the cultural levels, coupled witha radiocarbon date on a bone sample of about 3000 calBP make a case for human contact.


Head Movement in Syntax argues that verb movement is a narrow syntactic phenomenon that can affect locality constraints. The altered locality domains are detectable from the way certain phrasal elements such as a phrase containing a Wh are forced to undergo movement. The basic idea explored in the book dates back to Chomsky (1986) where the movement of a verb is proposed to be able to affect and alter a barrier. This idea is translated into contemporary minimalist apparatus to capture locality conditions, with Wh movement in Malayalam, a Dravidian language spoken in Southern India, providing the necessary data. The book also points out that analysing Wh movement in Malayalam as a sub-case of Focus movement is untenable and offers a fresh perspective on Wh-in-situ versus Wh-movement. In addition, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the pronominal system in Malayalam, a language that violates the canonical binding conditions.


Title of Document: MODELING OF A SINGLE-PHASE LIQUID COOLING SYSTEM FOR POWER ELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS Douglas John DeVoto, Master of Science, 2010 Directed By: Associate Professor F. Patrick McCluskey Department of Mechanical Engineering This work investigates the reliability of a single-phase, liquid cooling system used for the thermal management of a medium power level converter system. The system utilizes a plastic insert cold plate design to provide even cooling over the backside of a power electronics device by directing coolant through parallel serpentine channels. Material selection and compression set testing evaluated suitable elastomers for seals and polymers for the plastic insert. Computational fluid dynamics software was used to evaluate the thermal performance of the cooling system under ideal conditions as well as various wear out conditions (e.g. channel blockage, erosion of channel walls). Properties of used 50/50 ethylene glycol water coolant were evaluated to discover additional causes of reduced thermal performance. After completing the cooling system evaluation under initial and degraded conditions, the impact on a power module's operating temperature was correlated to an estimation of the device's reliability. MODELING OF A SINGLE-PHASE LIQUID COOLING SYSTEM FOR POWER ELECTRONICS APPLICATIONS


Purpose: The virtual learning community plays an important role in the distance education. In the modern distance education, student's learning process is a student's interacting process with other network teaching components, including human-computer interaction, interaction of contents and interpersonal interaction.
Design/Methodology/approach: This paper is to explain the adoption behavior of virtual learning community users, through the questionnaire data collection, and usage the structural equation model to verify the perceived risk of virtual learning community user adoption behavior effect, thus put forward the strategy to reduce the user perceived risk.
Findings: In this paper, it uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to measure the scale reliability and validity of the model. In order to test whether scale is suitable for exploratory factor analysis, it needs to calculate KMO and Bartlett sphere test in advance. The results show KMO value is 0.804, and the test results show that it is suitable for factor analysis. Based on TAM theory, the article analyses user adoption behavior of virtual learning community for real-time interaction and completes the learning task in the distance education from the user perceived risk perspective.
Originality/Value: This paper puts forward the relationship between perceived risk model of user in virtual learning community utilizing structural equation modelling and regression testing of hypotheses.


OBJECTIVES
Dexamethasone is associated with adrenal insufficiency in adults and children with chronic disease. This association has not been studied after single-dose oral dexamethasone, the standard of care for children with croup. We hypothesized that single-dose oral dexamethasone in children with croup is associated with a transient decrease in endogenous glucocorticoids.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective, 2-arm, pharmacodynamic study of single-dose oral dexamethasone 0.6 mg/kg (maximum, 12 mg) in children older than 2 years with croup compared with controls (children with febrile upper respiratory tract infections who did not receive dexamethasone). Primary outcome was urinary 6β-hydroxycortisol-cortisol ratio.

RESULTS
Twenty-seven children were analyzed (22 with croup and 5 with upper respiratory tract infections). Median 6β-hydroxycortisol-cortisol ratios before dexamethasone, the following morning, and on days 1, 3, and 7 were 2.8, 2.2, 2.0, 2.8, and 2.6, respectively. Among controls, the median 6β-hydroxycortisol-cortisol ratios at the same time intervals was 1.9, 1.5, 1.8, 2.5, and 1.7, respectively. There were no significant differences in the change from time 0 between groups at any time point. There were no serious adverse events or infectious complications.

CONCLUSIONS
Single-dose oral dexamethasone is not associated with decreased endogenous corticosteroid levels in children with croup. Future studies should use criterion standard tests to rule out suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and be powered sufficiently to identify adverse clinical outcomes.


BACKGROUND
Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot, or thrombus, inside of a blood vessel. Pediatric patients with cancer are at a higher risk of developing a thrombus because of their underlying disease, as well as their treatment and supportive care. Thrombosis can lead to significant morbidity, such as pulmonary embolism, in pediatric patients with cancer.

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors for developing a thrombus among pediatric patients with cancer, along with treatment and prevention protocols. This study also examines the clinical nurse's role in preventing thrombosis and caring for pediatric patients who present with thrombosis.

METHODS
The thrombosis literature was reviewed to identify risk factors, treatment regimens, and strategies for prevention.

FINDINGS
Thrombosis in pediatric patients with cancer requires management of potential complications so that cancer treatment may continue.


It has been speculated that monogamy exists on a continuum as opposed to the traditional view of a discrete class. This research, using a convenience sample of 509 individuals who self-identified as either polyamorous, ambiamorous, or monoamorous, examines the potential validity of a scale to experimentally measure degrees of sexual and romantic exclusivity, ranging quantitatively along a spectrum. The scale was designed to measure the attitudes of participants towards the ideas of their partner and/or themselves being sexually and/or romantically involved with other individuals. Participants exhibited a range of scores signifying various degrees of acceptance towards the idea of multiple sexual or romantic relationships, supporting the hypothesis of monogamy and polyamory as members of a spectrum. The evidence is discussed and future developments based on these findings are suggested.


Extracted from text ... Jan/Feb 2006; 20(1)
SA Fam Pract 2006;48(1) 60
u ABSTRACT
The first edition of Medifile for 2006 provides information on
two new drug classes, Atomoxetine and Ezetimibe. Strattera(r)
(Atomoxetine) is the first non-stimulant drug registered for the
management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Ezetrol(r) (Ezetimibe) is an anti-hyperlipidaemic and selective
cholesterol absorption inhibitor. The selective cholesterol
absorption inhibitors are the first new class of cholesterol
lowering drugs in 15 years. Both products were launched in
South Africa in 2005.
u NEW TREATMENT AVAILABLE FOR ADHD:
ATOMOXETINE
INTRODUCTION
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) occurs in 3-
10% of children.1 ..


The study uses panel data to investigate agency costs, both principal-agent (PA) and principal-principal (PP), in 240 small businesses not listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. Results show that both forms of agency cost vary according to industry, the life of the business and size. The results indicate that the degree of owner involvement in the business influences firm PA and PP agency costs. Moreover, this study finds non-linear relationship between agency costs and ownership structure align with convergence of interest hypothesis and managerial entrenchment hypothesis. It is noted that the distortion between equity returns and debt returns gives rise to a preference for quasi-equity and distorts the productive base and effective pricing of risk. The analysis indicates there is considerable variability in the burden of agency cost and that this raises the potential for regulatory and policy reforms that may enhance the productivity and growth in the sector.


Gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma are uncommon before age of 40 years. While certain clinical, pathological and molecular features of GEJ adenocarcinoma in older patients have been extensively studied, these characteristics in the younger population remain to be determined. In the recent literature, a high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma was demonstrated by using multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) DNA probe set specific for the locus specific regions 9p21 (p16), 20q13.2 and Y chromosome. We evaluated 663 patients with GEJ adenocarcinoma and further divided them into 2 age-groups of or= 50 years, rispectively. FISH with selected DNA probe for Y chromosome, locus 9p21 (p16), and locus 20q13.2 was investigated with formalin fixed and parassin embedded tissue from surgical resections of 17 younger and 11 older patients. Signals were counted in > 100 cells with each given histopathological category. The chromosomal aberrations were then compared in the 2 age-groups with the focus on uninvolved squamous and columnar epithelium, intestinal metaplasia (Barrett's mucosa), glandular dysplasia, and adenocarcinoma. Comparisons were performed by the X2 test, Fisher's exact test, Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test as appropriate. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method with univariate analysis by the log-rank. Significance was taken at the 5% level. There was no difference in the surgical technique applied in both age groups and most patients underwent Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. Among clinical variables there was a higher incidence of smocking history in older patient group. We identified a progressive loss of Y chromosome from benign squamos epithelium to Barrett's mucosa and glandular dysplasia, and, ultimately, to a near complete loss in adenocarcinoma in both age groups. The young group revealed significantly more losses of 9p21 in both benign and neoplastic cells when compared to the older patients group. In addition, we demonstrated an increase in the percentage of cells showing gain of locus 20q13.2 with progression from benign epithelium through dysplasia to adenocarcinoma with almost the same trend in both the young and the older patients. When compared with the older age-group, younger patients with GEJ adenocarcinoma possess similar known demographics, environmental factors, clinical, and pathologic characteristics. The most commonly detected genetic aberrations of progressive Y chromosomal loss, 9p21 locus loss, and 20q13 gains were similar in the younger and older patients. However the rate of loss of 9p21 is significantly higher in young patients, in both the benign and the neoplastic cells. The loss of 9p21, and possibly, the subsequent inactivation of p16 gene may be one of the molecular mechanisms responsible for the accelerated neoplastic process in young patients.


We review the properties of algorithms that characterize the solution of the Bellman equation of a stochastic dynamic program, as the solution to a linear program. The variables in this problem are the ordinates of the value function; hence, the number of variables grows with the state space. For situations in which this size becomes computationally burdensome, we suggest the use of low-dimensional cubic-spline approximations to the value function. We show that fitting this approximation through linear programming provides upper and lower bounds on the solution to the original large problem. The information contained in these bounds leads to inexpensive improvements in the accuracy of approximate solutions.


A typical ground-based air defence (GBAD) environment comprises defended assets on the ground which require protection from enemy aircraft entering the defended airspace. Protection against these aircraft is afforded by means of pre-deployed ground-based weapon systems that are assigned to engage these enemy aircraft according to some pre-specified criterion or set of criteria. The conditions under which human operators have to propose assignments of weapon systems to engage these aircraft are severely stressful since time is a critical factor and there is no room for error. Some progress has already been made with respect to the design of computerised threat evaluation and weapon assignment (TEWA) decision support systems (DSSs) within the context of a GBAD system. However, the weapon assignment (WA) component within such a TEWA DSS is typically based on a single criterion (objective). The aim in this paper is to model the WA problem as a multiobjective decision problem. A list of relevant factors (related to objectives) is identified by means of feedback received from a WA questionnaire which was completed by a number of military experts. For illustrative purposes, two objectives, namely the cost of assigning weapon systems for engagement and the accumulated survival probabilities of observed threats as a result of these engagements, were isolated from these factors in order to derive a bi-objective WA model. This model is solved in the context of a simulated, but realistic, GBAD environment by means of an existing multiobjective solution technique called the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II.


In this essay we compare and contrast the methods used by courts and other institutions in the United States and in the European Union to resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise between competition law and other laws, policies, and values. In the U.S., because its generally-worded antitrust statutes give judges great interpretive freedom, the courts, in the course of deciding concrete disputes, play a large role in defining the boundary between antitrust and other bodies of law. In the E.U., competition law is effectively "constitutional" by virtue of its being part of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as a result of which the courts are more constrained in what they can do. At the same time, the Treaty permits the E.U.'s enforcement agency, the Directorate-General for Competition, to issue ex ante exemptions that serve to mediate between competition law and other laws and values. Flexibility is among the chief virtues of the U.S. approach to the reconciliation of conflicting concerns. The E.U. approach is less flexible but may provide greater predictability for private actors.


The legacy of human-Neandertal interbreeding Non-African humans are estimated to have inherited on average 1.5 to 4% of their genomes from Neandertals. However, how this genetic legacy affects human traits is unknown. Simonti et al. combined genotyping data with electronic health records. Individual Neandertal alleles were correlated with clinically relevant phenotypes in individuals of European descent. These archaic genetic variants were associated with medical conditions affecting the skin, the blood, and the risk of depression. Science, this issue p. 737 Genotype-phenotype association analysis of Neandertal alleles in modern humans identifies clinical effects. Many modern human genomes retain DNA inherited from interbreeding with archaic hominins, such as Neandertals, yet the influence of this admixture on human traits is largely unknown. We analyzed the contribution of common Neandertal variants to over 1000 electronic health record (EHR)–derived phenotypes in ~28,000 adults of European ancestry. We discovered and replicated associations of Neandertal alleles with neurological, psychiatric, immunological, and dermatological phenotypes. Neandertal alleles together explained a significant fraction of the variation in risk for depression and skin lesions resulting from sun exposure (actinic keratosis), and individual Neandertal alleles were significantly associated with specific human phenotypes, including hypercoagulation and tobacco use. Our results establish that archaic admixture influences disease risk in modern humans, provide hypotheses about the effects of hundreds of Neandertal haplotypes, and demonstrate the utility of EHR data in evolutionary analyses.


Molecular approaches offer a means of testing archived samples stored as dried blood spots in settings where standard blood cultures are not possible. Peripheral blood films are one suggested source of material, although the sensitivity of this approach has not been well defined. Thin blood smears and dried blood spots from a severe pediatric malaria study were assessed using specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers to detect non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS; MisL gene), Streptococcus pneumoniae (lytA), and Plasmodium falciparum (18S rRNA). Of 16 cases of NTS and S. pneumoniae confirmed on blood culture, none were positive by PCR using DNA extracts from blood films or dried blood spots. In contrast, four of 36 dried blood spots and two of 178 plasma samples were PCR positive for S. pneumoniae, despite negative bacterial blood cultures, suggesting false positives. Quantitative assessment revealed that the effective concentration of P. falciparum DNA in blood films was three log orders of magnitude lower than for dried blood spots. The P. falciparum kelch13 gene could not be amplified from blood films. These findings question the value of blood PCR-based approaches for detection of NTS and S. pneumoniae, and show that stored blood films are an inefficient method of studying P. falciparum.


Over the past decade a culture of user participation has developed on a global scale contributing to the development of software as well as changing, commenting, creating and distributing media content. With the personal computer, the internet and software, users have powerful production means at their hands and are able to connect to social worlds of like minded individuals around the world. Users have the necessary skills, tools and networks to develop modified products which are originally invented by corporate companies. Reverse companies will exploit the ideas of competent users. The results are products which are developed by both, users and companies. This phenomenon has been labeled as participatory culture. Participation has become a key concept to frame the emerging media practice. It considers the transformation of former audiences into active participants and agents of cultural production on the Internet. The understanding of participation is very much informed by a popular discourse, that emphasizes user activities without questioning the actual capacity of actions user have gained, and without taking the specific quality of technology into account. This research maps the discourses shaping the public understanding of participation and shows to what extent it affects the perception and development of technology. Analyzing the role of technology shows to what extent discursive elements are inscribed into technical design and how it can either avert or stimulate certain media practices. Participation is approached as a dispositif, in which discourses, technologies, users, corporations and legal administrations are interconnected. The heterogeneous quality of user activities and the blurring of user-producer relations is analyzed in case examples of design appropriation and its formalization in new design steps. It reveals complex configurations (actor networks) consisting of hackers, lay users, companies, market interests, technological design and its appropriation by users. Those case examples demonstrate the appropriation and further development of technological knowledge and show that the production channels of the culture industry extend into the realm of the users. The case examples point out, that a software-based product introduced to the market is actually entering a second stage of development where users explicitly participate by appropriation. However, the emergence of Web 2.0 applications shows a different quality of participation, and a different extension of the culture industry. Instead of creating content media companies provide platforms for user-created content. Their software design channels user actions and implements their activities into new businesses models. User participate implicitly through their actions channeled by software design. A reconfiguration of power structures in cultural production is taking place and users will have a significant role in it, but industries also achieve the implementation of users into new business models and raise old questions about cultural freedom, control, privacy and the right to question technological design. Different dynamics are unfolding in consequence to the emerging media practices. They are either aimed at confronting user activities and prevent them form challenging established business models, attempt to implement them into new revenue models, or to integrate the new practices in socio-political responsible ways to technological design and its various uses.


The present article offers an account of Swedish integration policies in the post-war period. The theoretical purpose is to assess Christian Joppke's hypothesis that recent trends of integration policy convergence have rendered the national model approach analytically useless. The analysis shows that Sweden deviates, in some important respects, from the European trend by not formulating demands that link integration achievements to immigrants' access to fundamental rights. The conclusion is that the Swedish case does not support Joppke's hypothesis, but rather indicates that path dependency of national models is a valid explanation to ongoing developments. It is argued that the Swedish exception should be understood as an expression of the persistent impact of a policy logic according to which integration requires that all citizens have equal and universal access to certain fundamental rights. The article builds on general comparisons with European policy developments and uses Denmark as a more specific reference point.


To examine the effect of wave‐induced light fluctuations on the appearance of objects to fish, we recorded the spatial and temporal fluctuations of light reflected from a diffusely reflecting target that served as a simplified proxy for the body of a fish, and of light from the water background that a fish might be viewed against. Measurements were repeated at diverse depths, viewing azimuths, distances to the substrate, and sun conditions. Two conditions that are necessary for wave‐induced light fluctuations to make objects more apparent to fish were satisfied. The contrast of light fluctuations reflected from either the object or water background was higher than the minimum contrast value that is detected by fish, or, alternatively, the contrast of light fluctuations reflected from both the object and water background was higher than the minimum contrast value detected by fish, but differed from one another. Furthermore, the frequency range where most of the power of wave‐induced radiance fluctuations matched the frequency range of maximum contrast sensitivity in fish. Thus, light stimuli having spatial and temporal characteristics similar to those of wave‐induced light fluctuations may make objects more apparent to fish. We suggest that the frequency characteristics of the visual systems of fish were likely shaped by wave‐induced light fluctuations in aquatic ecosystems.


The Disability Discrimination Act, passed by Parliament in 1995, is an important piece of legislation with the potential to protect the employment rights of people with disabilities. It covers people with physical or mental impairments that have a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act has sections regarding protection from discrimination in employment, in the provision of goods, services and facilities, and in education. These parts of the Act have implications for people working in mental health services when they are considering employment and educational opportunities for service users.


Abstract Fossil gastropod egg capsules have rarely been reported from the fossil record. This paper describes gastropod egg capsules preserved exclusively on cardiniid bivalves from Lower Jurassic (Hettangian) deltaic deposits of the Holy Cross Mountains area, central Poland. In most instances, only the bases of the egg capsules are preserved as dark outer rings with hollow cavities inside. Some specimens, however, are preserved as dark circular spots or even shallow depressions on the bivalve molds. The general occurrence, morphology, size and composition of the egg capsules as revealed by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analyses and elemental mapping point to neritimorphs as the most probable producers. The egg capsules are composed primarily of organic matter with some calcium. Recent neritid gastropods possess aragonitic spherules within the egg capsule walls composed of conchiolin or chitin, which strengthen them and increase their chance of fossilization compared to egg capsules of other gastropods. Recent neritids lay their egg capsules on mollusk shells as well. The occurrence of Early Jurassic egg capsules only on redeposited cardiniid bivalve shells may suggest that the shells were the best medium for egg-capsule deposition. The occurrence of egg capsule bases together with dark circular spots, interpreted as compressed unhatched capsules, suggests that these egg capsules either hatched or were deposited at different times in the same place. The Early Jurassic egg capsules were preserved due to the strengthening role of the carbonate phase within the wall and rapid burial coupled with limited bioturbation in deltaic settings. The prodelta-delta front depositional environment, with high rates of sedimentation by rivers and sediment redistribution by wave and current action, was favorable for preserving these fossils.


A sweeping data broker industry sells information about millions of people to corporate and governmental actors on both sides of the Atlantic. Data brokers, and the profiling techniques often at their core, are giving large institutions more visibility than ever before into people's lives. While some data broker products are beneficial or harmless, others threaten fundamental rights. Data brokers—and the information and inferences they supply—are playing central roles in key life decisions across a growing range of areas. Police in both the United States and Europe purchase corporate assistance to profile residents based on personal data. Political parties target their digital outreach based on details of individual behavior. In the United States, prospective employers routinely turn to data brokers to purchase criminal history reports regarding job candidates (reports that are notoriously error-prone). This report explores the need for a clear regulatory agenda for data brokers, and looks at the broader issues of automated, data-driven decision making by large institutions, when it comes to the key decisions that shape people's lives and impact their rights.


Can any test taken by four-year-olds provide an accurate baseline to a completely different test seven years later? Since 2013 – despite embarrassing set backs – the DfE has doggedly pushed for Baseline Assessment. With the latest trials complete, a new framework is out and pilots are on the horizon


As the demand for natural gas as a prime global energy source continues to grow, the search for new sources of the fuel spreads into geographical areas that are more remote from the marketplace. Along with this comes the need for longer and ever more efficient pipelines. This requirement for higher value in natural gas transportation is satisfied to a large extent through the application of high strength pipeline steel technology and innovative design approaches that support increased design and operating pressures. This paper reviews the latest accomplishments and successes in these technologies for use in gas transmission. The paper will focus on the application of Gr. 555 (X80) and Gr. 690 (X100) steel technology, the application of stress-based and strain-based designs and the implications of these technologies in terms of the approach with respect to construction welding technologies. It also explores some of the technologies which are targeted for the future to allow the industry to achieve even higher benchmarks in reliability and cost-effectiveness.


This study documented the development of the two libraries of the University of Natal from 1910 to 2003. The historical research method was chosen as the optimal method for the collection and analysis of data, the broad approach to the study being interpretative. Understanding the present and anticipating and managing change depends to some extent on our appreciation and understanding of history. This study, by investigating the historical record of the University of Natal Libraries, is not only a revelation of the past but also assisted in identifying possible future trends in academic librarianship in South Africa, particularly as far as the management of multi-centred libraries is concerned. In addition, the value of the study lies in the consolidation and interpretation of information in numerous unpublished records and scattered, ephemeral sources.


A shell script has been written as a means of automatically making HDF-EOS-formatted data sets available via the World Wide Web. ("HDF-EOS" and variants thereof are defined in the first of the two immediately preceding articles.) The shell script chains together some software tools developed by the Data Usability Group at Goddard Space Flight Center to perform the following actions: Extract metadata in Object Definition Language (ODL) from an HDF-EOS file, Convert the metadata from ODL to Extensible Markup Language (XML), Reformat the XML metadata into human-readable Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Publish the HTML metadata and the original HDF-EOS file to a Web server and an Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeN-DAP) server computer, and Reformat the XML metadata and submit the resulting file to the EOS Clearinghouse, which is a Web-based metadata clearinghouse that facilitates searching for, and exchange of, Earth-Science data.


The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act increased the powers of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System along almost all dimensions pertaining to the supervision and operation of systemically important financial institutions. The authors argue that in light of these changes, the process of considering and choosing governors should also be changed. In nominating and confirming new governors, the president and Congress should make greater efforts to appoint only highly qualified people familiar with both regulatory and monetary matters. They should ensure that governors can work effectively with staff and engage on an equal basis with the chair. This is a pressing matter given that within the next 12 months there may be as many as four appointments to the Board, reflecting an unusually high degree of turnover at a critical moment for the development of regulatory policy, including rules on equity capital funding for banks, the ratio of debt-to-equity (leverage) they are permitted, the funding structure of bank holding companies, and whether and how much banks should be allowed to engage in commodity-related activities.


ABSTRACT This study used Narvaez's (2010) Triune Ethics Theory to examine the victim-to-perpetrator hypothesis. The study surveyed 68 sex offenders from the New York State Sex Offender Registry to investigate correlates of physical and sexual abuse, and to analyse associations between victimisation, limbic system irritability, and sociomoral reasoning. Surveys were mailed to sex offenders and analysed using correlation and multivariate analysis of variance. Post hoc analysis of Sexual and Physical Abuse Questionnaire and Limbic System Check List-33 scores showed a significant relationship between physical and sexual abuse and limbic system irritability. Using the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form, sex offenders were found on average to reason at the Transitional stage 2(3). Predicting self-report abuse history resulted in a 35% correct classification rate based on within-group correlations between predictors and discriminate functions as well as standardised weights.


Karsh has outlined in one volume the contemporary dilemmas of Israeli security in the widest sense. Indeed, he has produced a work that constitutes a comprehensive survey of those dilemmas and does much to elucidate them. Between War and Peace is a timely and useful work which this reviewer strongly recommends. F H Toase, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst "The 14 chapters, all admirably short and succinct, form a well-documented rebuttal to the arguments of an influential school of revisionist historians and social scientists who have dominated Israeli intellectual life of late. This book deepens and amplifies the concept of national security and will prove a welcome addition to any reading list for students of international relations." David Capitanchik, University of Aberdeen, International Affairs


This thesis examines the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in holding individuals accountable for grave breaches of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. I argue that if we measure effectiveness in terms of the ability to set agenda and to publicize, the ICC accomplishes much. My thesis to shows that, as a key part of the international agenda on human rights compliance, the ICC derives its effectiveness from the various naming and shaming campaigns by national governments and non-governmental actors (NGOs). I draw on the cases of Darfur, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to show that the ICC is effectively realizing its purpose: it gives voice to non-state actors like NGOs, regional actors, and international governmental organizations; it regularizes ways for international actors to be part of the process; it provides information to other stakeholders; and it names and shames the perpetrators of human rights violations. Hence, the ICC gives meaning to the cautious optimism that inspires liberal claims. This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council.


This article explores how macroeconomic and environmental policies instituted since the 1990s have altered meanings, imaginaries, and the human relationship to nature in Colombia. The Colombian nation-state is pluri-ethnic, multilingual, and megabiodiverse. In this context, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, and some peasant communities survive hybridization of their cultures. They have developed their own ways of seeing, understanding, and empowering the world over centuries of European rule. However, threats to relatively discrete cultural meanings have increased since major changes in the 1990s, when Colombia experienced the emergence of new and modern interpretations of nature, such as "biodiversity," and a deepening of globalized neoliberal economic and political management. These policies involve a modern logic of being in the world, the establishment of particular regulatory functions for economies, societies, and the environment, and their spread has been facilitated by webs of political and economic power. We trace their local effects with reference to three indigenous groups.


Extracted from text ... Editorial Editorial
Completion of the sequence determination
of the human genome in April 2003
has significantly advanced our understanding
of health and disease. An immediate
application of this knowledge
base involves the development of costeffective
molecular genetic tests for more
accurate diagnosis, risk assessment and
prediction of response to medication.
This editorial aims to introduce the family
doctor to current applications of molecular
genetic testing and the support
systems that have been put in place in
South Africa to ensure that genetic testing
is applied appropriately for improved
healthcare delivery and disease prevention.
Practical applications of genetic
research findings ..