This thesis examines tumour development from two separate
perspectives.
Firstly, with regard to basement membrane changes in tumour
development, this study confirms the prior observation that tumour
cells, both in the primary focus and in metastatic deposits, are
capable of producing an intact and continuous basement membrane.
Assessment as to whether or not a given tumour is invasive, then,
requires correlation between the integrity of the basement membrane
and the tissue architecture. The mere presence of an intact basement
membrane does not mean that a tumour is in an "in—situ" phase if the
tissue architecture is that of an invasive carcinoma. In metastatic
deposits of epithelial tumours the development of a new basement
membrane appears to be dependent upon interaction with mesenchymally
derived connective tissue suggesting that the normal formation of
epithelial basement membrane requires interaction with stromal
connective tissue. In metastatic carcinoma, as in primary tumours
(Albrechtsen et al., 1986) the redevelopment of extracellular basement
membrane is related to the degree of tumour, cell differentiation.
The abrupt loss of basement membrane associated with a focus
of invasive tumour growth , seen particularly in nodular basal cell
carcinoma, supports the concept that the basement membrane, though
flexible, is continuous, insoluble and impermeable to cell movement.
Expansion of an intact basement membrane may be seen in superficial
spreading basal cell carcinoma and early nodular basal cell carcinoma
which therefore, by definition, may be regarded as in—situ tumours.
The advent of the immunoperoxidase method, which can be used
on paraffin—processed tissue, by allowing the detection of subtle
histologic changes, has clarified observations previously noted in the
literature on early tumour development. The variation in thickness of
the basal lamina in epidermal tumours, previously noted by Frappart et
al. (1982), we now believe to be an artefact due to tangential
sectioning of the basement membrane. Globular fragments staining
positively for laminin and type IV collagen noted by Weber et al.
(1982) and van Cauwenberge et al. (1983), in basal cell carcinoma
prove to be incorporated stroma and accompanying basal lamina and are
not due to defective basement membrane formation by the tumour cells.
Secondly, with regard to Langerhans cell changes in in—situ
and invasive neoplasia, this study has shown that the Langerhans cell
density is significantly increased in intraepidermal carcinoma—in—situ
(Bowen's disease), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and invasive
neoplasms, including squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and
keratoacanthoma, when compared to normal epidermis. In addition the
Langerhans cell density increases in cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia correlating with the severity of the intraepithelial lesion.
This increase in Langerhans cell density suggests activation of a
local immune mechanism and is supportive evidence for the concept that
Langerhans cells play a role in tumour surveillance.
In addition to being increased within neoplastic lesions,
the Langerhans cell density was also found to be increased in
epithelium adjacent to the neoplasm in both skin and cervix,
suggesting either that the neoplastic lesion is producing a
chemotactic factor which diffuses into the adjacent epithelium or that
the adjacent morphologically normal epithelium is functionally
abnormal.
Langerhans cell density is decreased in cervical wart virus
infection and in koilocytic dysplasia and this depletion appears to be
related to viral expression rather than to the presence of viral DNA.
This finding supports the recent suggestion that human papilloma virus
(HPV), the causative agent in cervical wart virus infection, is
involved in cervical carcinogenesis as a tumour promoter. Tumour
promotion by the human papilloma virus may act both through
stimulation of epithelial cell proliferation and through a reduction
in Langerhans cell immunosurveillance.
Two indirect results of the study include:- 1) the
development of a double-staining technique to facilitate
differentiation between Langerhans cells and melanocytes in fresh
human skin; this procedure is based on the ability of anti-S100
antibody to stain both epidermal Langerhans cells and melanocytes,
while L-Dopa stains only melanocytes; and 2) the conclusion that under
conditions of varying epithelial thickness Langerhans cell density
should be estimated per unit length of surface epithelium in order to
determine whether or not there has been a change in Langerhans cell
density in abnormal epithelium.
Although this study has answered some questions, many more
have arisen, ttie solution of which should add greatly to our
understanding of early tumour development both in its in-situ and
invasive phases.


Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus looks more deeply into the concept of social business, an alternative to unfettered capitalism that channels the best energies of capitalism while addressing pressing human needs, by showing how the theory and practice of this idea is growing in the business, academic and philanthropic worlds. Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his world-changing efforts, here develops his bold new concept that promises to revolutionize the free-enterprise system: social business. Designed to fill the gap between profit-making and human needs, social business applies entrepreneurial thinking to problems like poverty, hunger, pollution, and disease, creating self-supporting, self-replicating enterprises that create jobs and generate economic growth even as they provide goods and services that make the world a better place. Partnering with some of the world's greatest corporations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have already launched several social businesses that are addressing challenges like malnutrition, lack of potable water, and endemic illness in Yunus' homeland of Bangladesh, and other organizations around the world are developing their own experiments in social business. In this book, Yunus traces the development of the social business idea; explains its lessons for entrepreneurs, social activists, and policy makers; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; and, shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free enterprise.


The crucial role that networking plays in Cloud computing calls for a holistic vision that allows combined control, management, and optimization of both networking and computing resources in a Cloud environment, which leads to a convergence of networking and Cloud computing. Network virtualization is being adopted in both telecommunications and the Internet as a key attribute for the next generation networking. Virtualization, as a potential enabler of profound changes in both communications and computing domains, is expected to bridge the gap between these two fields. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), when applied in network virtualization, enables a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) paradigm that may greatly facilitate the convergence of networking and Cloud computing. Recently the application of SOA in network virtualization has attracted extensive interest from both academia and industry. Although numerous relevant research works have been published, they are currently scattered across multiple fields in the literature, including telecommunications, computer networking, Web services, and Cloud computing. In this article we present a comprehensive survey on the latest developments in service-oriented network virtualization for supporting Cloud computing, particularly from a perspective of network and Cloud convergence through NaaS. Specifically, we first introduce the SOA principle and review recent research progress on applying SOA to support network virtualization in both telecommunications and the Internet. Then we present a framework of network-Cloud convergence based on service-oriented network virtualization and give a survey on key technologies for realizing NaaS, mainly focusing on state of the art of network service description, discovery, and composition. We also discuss the challenges brought in by network-Cloud convergence to these technologies and research opportunities available in these areas, with a hope to arouse the research community's interest in this emerging interdisciplinary field.


Is the right to take collective action as enshrined in a Member State?s national law restricted in any way by the rules on right of establishment under Article 43 EC or on freedom to provide services under Article 49 EC and the Posted Workers Directive? These were the main questions referred to the ECJ in the Viking and Laval cases decided by the Court in December 2007. In this article, the authors take stock of the EC rules brought to the fore in the cases. According to the judgments, the trade unions concerned are caught by the direct horizontal effect of the Treaty articles. Collective actions, with cross–border implications, may constitute a restriction on the economic freedoms under the Treaty. Such a restriction may, however, be justified under specific conditions. Even if the Court recognized the right to take collective actions as a fundamental right in Community law, the exercise of that right must be reconciled with the requirements of other rights protected under the Treaty. The judgments imply that the right to different kinds of collective actions depends on the aim of the action in question. In Laval, the secondary actions taken did not aim to directly regulate the employment conditions of the attacking union's own members but rather at establishing a uniform level of wages and employment conditions applied by all undertakings in the branch, and the outcome was not confirmed in formal legislation, according to the Swedish social model. Since this demand went beyond protecting the "hard nucleus" of the Posted Workers Directive, the restriction caused by the collective actions was not justified.


Time-of-flight diffraction method (ToFD) is an amplitude-independent sizing method which is based on the measurement of time-of-flight of defect tip diffracted waves. Although ToFD can measure through-wall length of defect accurately, this method is not capable of measuring horizontal defect size. In this paper, a new ToFD method for evaluating horizontal planar defects is presented. The finite element method (FEM), using the ABAQUS software package, is employed to simulate the ultrasonic wave behavior in the test blocks and its interaction with the embedded planar defects. The phased array technology is also used to model the ultrasonic inspection system parameters. FEM simulation of the new ToFD method for different crack sizes shows that, compared to the conventional ToFD method, the accuracy of results is within an acceptable range to use the novel technique for measuring the horizontal planar defects.


Solid-state laser mode locking by semiconductor quantum-well absorbers (QWA's) is investigated, with the coherent polarization response of the absorbers taken into account. It is shown that femtosecond pulses with durations below the response time and the dephasing time can be generated that are stabilized by Rabi flopping of the absorber population. The shortest pulses are found when the effects of self-phase modulation (SPM) and group-velocity dispersion (GVD) are not present, whereby highly stable 2π pulses are formed inside the absorber. In the presence of SPM and GVD the pulse area deviates from 2π; nevertheless, the absorber's coherent response results in incomplete Rabi flopping of the population. In agreement with experimental observations, we found limited femtosecond pulse operation regions for the pump rate and the GVD. These parameter regions are bounded by Q-switching instabilities and multiple-pulse operation. Further, the influence of inhomogeneous broadening of the carriers, dynamic bandgap renormalization owing to Coulomb exchange, and excitation-dependent dephasing of highly excited semiconductors is studied. The key absorber parameters are predicted that should permit a reduction of the shortest possible pulse durations.


Killer whales, Orcinus orca, are top predators occupying key ecological roles in a variety of ecosystems and are one of the most widely distributed mammals on the planet. In consequence, there has been significant interest in understanding their basic biology and ecology. Long‐term studies of Northern Hemisphere killer whales, particularly in the eastern North Pacific (ENP), have identified three ecologically distinct communities or ecotypes in that region. The success of these prominent ENP studies has led to similar efforts at clarifying the role of killer whale ecology in other regions, including Antarctica. In the Southern Hemisphere, killer whales present a range of behavioural, social and morphological characteristics to biologists, who often interpret this as evidence to categorize individuals or groups, and draw general ecological conclusions about these super‐predators. Morphologically distinct forms (Type A, B, C, and D) occur in the Southern Ocean and studies of these different forms are often presented in conjunction with evidence for specialised ecology and behaviours. Here we review current knowledge of killer whale ecology and ecotyping globally and present a synthesis of existing knowledge. In particular, we highlight the complexity of killer whale ecology in the Southern Hemisphere and examine this in the context of comparatively well‐studied Northern Hemisphere populations. We suggest that assigning erroneous or prefatory ecotypic status in the Southern Hemisphere could be detrimental to subsequent killer whale studies, because unsubstantiated characteristics may be assumed as a result of such classification. On this basis, we also recommend that ecotypic status classification for Southern Ocean killer whale morphotypes be reserved until more evidence‐based ecological and taxonomic data are obtained.


Results of experimental measurements and theoretical calculations concerning the scattering of plane wave radiation by a system of two interacting spheres are presented. In particular, the complex scattering amplitude of such a system and the phenomena of specular resonances are addressed. Preliminary calculations of the two-sphere Muller matrix are also considered.


BACKGROUND
 A "concerning post" is a display of a user's emotional crisis on a social media platform. A better understanding of concerning posts is relevant to suicide prevention, but little is known about social media users' attitudes and responses to concerning posts. Military veterans in the United States are disproportionately affected by suicide, often use social media, and may have exposure to individuals with elevated suicide risk via concerning posts.

 OBJECTIVE
 The objective of the study was (1) to obtain insight into whether and how US military veterans respond to members of their social network on social media (ie, "friends") who are experiencing substantial emotional distress, and (2) to identify potential interventions that could assist in users' response to concerning posts.

 METHODS
 We recruited veterans through Facebook and conducted semistructured interviews with 30 participants between June and December 2017. We used a summary template for rapid analysis of each interview, followed by double-coding using a codebook based on topic domains from the interview guide. Members of the research team met regularly to discuss emerging patterns in the data, generate themes, and select representative quotes for inclusion in the manuscript.

 RESULTS
 Veterans were reluctant to disclose emotional and health issues on Facebook, but they were open to reaching out to others' concerning posts. There was a complex calculus underlying whether and how veterans responded to a concerning post, which involved considering (1) physical proximity to the person posting, (2) relationship closeness, (3) existing responses to the post, and (4) ability to maintain contact with the person. Veterans desired additional training, backed by community-based veteran organizations, in how to respond to concerning posts from peers.

 CONCLUSIONS
 There is a need to incorporate features that will help veterans effectively respond to concerning posts from peers into suicide prevention training and to expand access for veterans to such training.


A novel Schiff-base derivative containing polydentate ligands, N-2′-hydroxyl-1′-naphthyl methylene-3-hydroxyl-2-amino pyridine (NNAP), was identified and developed. After its structure was characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, mass spectra and element analyses, it was noted that NNAP displayed multi-wavelength colorimetric responses to Fe2+ and Fe3+, accompanied by differentiable color changes, i.e., from yellow to brown in the presence of Fe2+ but to colorless upon addition of Fe3+. Importantly, the multi-wavelength colorimetric responses to trace Fe2+ and Fe3+, i.e., at 522 nm, 448 nm and 389 nm for Fe2+ detection, and at 448 nm and 389 nm for Fe3+ detection, could efficiently eliminate system error. Their different action mechanisms, a 1 : 1 complex mode for NNAP–Fe2+ and 1 : 2 for NNAP–Fe3+, were proposed and confirmed by means of a Job's plot and theoretical calculation. NNAP would be a practical probe for multi-wavelength colorimetric differentiation of trace Fe2+ from Fe3+.


The ACM DEBS 2013 Grand Challenge is the third in a series of challenges which seek to provide a common ground and evaluation criteria for a competition aimed at both research and industrial event-based systems. The goal of the Grand Challenge competition is to implement a solution to a real-world problem provided by the Grand Challenge organizers. The 2013 edition of the Grand Challenge focuses on real-time, event-based sports analytics. The 2013 Grand Challenge data set was collected during a football match carried out at a Nuremberg Stadium in Germany and is complemented with a set of continuous analytical queries which provide detailed insight into the match statistics for both team managers and spectators.


Recently, the combination of cooperative communication, Space-Time-Frequency Codes (STFCs) and Multiband OFDM Ultra-Wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) has been proposed to improve the data rate, system capacity and reliability. This paper provides insightful performance evaluation for our previous proposed cooperative communication schemes for MB-OFDM UWB systems. In particular, this paper shows that the usefulness of cooperative communication schemes is decided by the mutual relation between the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the inter-node links, referred to as inter-node SNR, and that of the uplinks, which is referred to as uplink SNR. For a certain uplink SNR value, cooperative communication becomes useful when the inter-node SNR is above a certain threshold, the so-called cooperative SNR value, and vice versa. The cooperative SNR values corresponding to different uplink conditions have been derived from the simulation results for the UWB channel models CM1 and CM2 for illustration. Two important observations drawn from this paper are that, in some cases, cooperative communication for MB-OFDM UWB might be still beneficial even when the inter-node links are relatively noisy, and/or when the source nodes are located further apart from each other than from the destination node; and this benefit over a non-cooperative counterpart is more significant when the uplink channels are more dispersive.


Over the past 15years social movements for community food security, food sovereignty, and food justice have organized to address the failures of the multinational, industrial food system to fairly and equitably distribute healthy, affordable, culturally ap- propriate real food. At the same time, these social movements, and research about them, re-inscribe white, patriarchal systems of power and privilege. We argue that in order to correct this pattern we must relocate our social movement goals and practices within a decolonizing and feminist leadership framework. This framework challenges movement leadership and scholarship by white people who uncritically assume a natural order of leadership based on academic achievement. We analyze critical points in our collabora- tion over the last four years using these frameworks. Doing so highlights the challenges and possibilities for a more inclusive food justice movement and more just scholarship.


Electronic components within a projectile are subjected to severe loads over extremely short duration. Failure of these components is likely to have negative implications to the projectile or mission. While experimental data can be helpful in understanding the failure phenomena, collecting such data is usually difficult. There are also limitations on the reliability of sensors under these circumstances. Finite element modeling (FEM) can offer a means to better understand the behavior of these components. It can also be used to design better techniques to mitigate the shocks these components are subjected to. A model of a typical projectile and the gun barrel is presented. The projectile is modified to include a payload of a one-pound mass that represents a typical electronic package, which is supported by a plate. The model, which is subjected to a realistic launch pressure-time history, includes the effects of friction between the gun barrel inner surface and the projectile. The effect of the flexibility of the gun barrel on the vibrations of the electronic package is also considered. This paper proposes using a composite plate, with carbon fibers embedded in an epoxy matrix, to reduce the shocks transmitted to the payload. A parametric study of the effects of varying the thickness of the supporting plate and the fiber volume fraction on accelerations and stresses is included.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


Vaginal cytology was conducted in 4 females for 121 to 204 days, and 328 vaginal smears were examined. Vaginal flushing and aspiration were done to obtain vaginal cells, and then stained according to Modified Shorr's staining method. Blood samples were also collected for hormonal analysis, so as to be used as a guide in the determination of the different stages of oestrous cycle. Cellular morphology and staining properties were similar to those reported previously in bitches and cows. The percentage of cornified cells was found to be significantly different from other cell types on the day of oestrus. A total of 12 eosinophilic index (EI) peaks were recorded, averaged at 57.42±12.96%; with the highest at 88.17%, and the lowest at 49.10%. Twenty five percent of EI peaks observed were of second peaks, ranged between 49.06% and 65.00%, and occurred 13.33±2.08 days after the first peak. Length of
oestrous cycle was 22±6.36 days based on vaginal cytology. From the serum progesterone (P4) profile, the recorded length of oestrous cycle was 2S±7.64 days. It was also noted that oestrous cycles were irregular and inconsistent during this study period, lag periods between two oestruses ranged between 21 and >100 days. The range of serum P4 concentration differed between individuals. The highest
concentration recorded was 3.47 ng/mL in one individual; whereas the lowest peak recorded was only 1.34 ng/mL. However, the effect of such differences on the reproductive functions of these animals is yet to be determined. Correlation of EI with serum P4 profile was weak, with correlation coefficient, r, valued at -0.254. Nevertheless, correlation coefficient in one individual (R2) was higher, with r=-0.40S. This may be due to variations in the level of EI and progesterone concentrations among the animals and between oestrous cycles of an animal. Serum oestradiol-1713 (E2) profile was erratic and did not correlate significantly with either vaginal cytology or serum P4 profile. Wide range of serum E2 between individuals was also documented, with the highest and lowest values being 2S.00 pg/mL and 6.49 pg/mL respectively. Peaks of E2 occurred throughout the length of oestrous cycle indicated by serum P4 profile. This may be due to the low specificity and sensitivity of the commercial kit used towards oestradiol-1713 detection in the Sumatran rhinoceros. This study showed that there are reservations in the use of vaginal cytology for detection of oestrus in this species of animal.


The violence and neglect suffered by children today is a common subject of media attention and much political hand-wringing, not just in Britain but in other parts of the western world. As yet, however, there has been no attempt to explore this concern historically and look at how the boundary between good and bad parenting may have changed across time. This book attempts to fill the gap by examining the role of violence and neglect in the relations between parents/carers and children from the Bronze Age to the present. By demonstrating how the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable forms of childrearing has shifted through the ages, and not necessarily in a linear direction, it will emphasise how relatively recent our contemporary understanding of good and bad parenting is, and hence the high likelihood that that understanding has not been completely digested.

The book is divided into six, multi-authored chapters. The first four deal with different manifestations through the centuries of what would be today considered violence and neglect: 1) child sacrifice; 2) infanticide and abandonment; 3) physical and mental cruelty; and 4) exploitation. The fifth and sixth chapters look at the various violent and non-violent strategies used by children as coping mechanisms in what to us seems a very harsh world. Each chapter consists of a number of short chronologically or thematically specific extracts, written by nearly 40 historians, sociologists, anthropologists, literary scholars and theologians, and knitted together into a coherent narrative by the editors.


Purpose To evaluate the clinical features and prognosis of a delayed-onset consecutive esotropia (ET) after surgical correction of intermittent exotropia. Methods Thirty-four patients who developed consecutive ET after primary bilateral lateral rectus recession for the surgical correction of intermittent exotropia were evaluated retrospectively and were divided into two groups: delayed-onset consecutive ET group and the continuous consecutive ET group. Patients who developed esodeviation after once recovering to orthotropia within 1 month after the operation were included in the delayed-onset consecutive ET group, and patients with continuous esodeviation after the operation were included in the continuous consecutive ET group. We evaluated preoperative and postoperative angle of deviation, suppression, stereopsis, and follow up periods between the two groups and compared re-operation and success following non-surgical treatment between the continuous consecutive ET group and the delayed-onset consecutive ET group. Results Among 34 patients with consecutive ET, 27 patients (79.4%) were included in the delayed-onset consecutive ET group, and seven patients (23.3%) were included in the continuous group. Success rate of non-surgical treatment was not statistically significant between two groups (p = 0.55), but it was higher in the delayed-onset group with 37.5%, and 25% of patients in continuous group were successfully recovered to straight alignment. Duration of orthotropia in delayed-onset group was 7.4 ± 6.0 months (range, 2–29 months). Age, sex, preoperative refractive error, preoperative exodeviation, suppression, and near steroacuity were not statistically significant between two groups (p > 0.05, all). In the delayed-onset group, three patients (11.1%) underwent re-operation, while three patients (42.9%) in continuous consecutive ET group underwent re-operation (p = 0.048). Conclusions Re-operation rate of delayed-onset consecutive ET after surgical correction of intermittent exotropia was lower than that of continuous consecutive ET.


Background The nonmedical use of pharmaceutical products has become a significant public health concern. Traditionally, the evaluation of nonmedical use has focused on controlled substances with addiction risk. Currently, there is no effective means of evaluating the nonmedical use of noncontrolled antidepressants. Objective Social listening, in the context of public health sometimes called infodemiology or infoveillance, is the process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a company, product, brand, or individual, within forms of electronic interactive media. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine whether content analysis of social listening data could be utilized to identify posts discussing potential misuse or nonmedical use of bupropion and two comparators, amitriptyline and venlafaxine, and (2) to describe and characterize these posts. Methods Social listening was performed on all publicly available posts cumulative through July 29, 2015, from two harm-reduction Web forums, Bluelight and Opiophile, which mentioned the study drugs. The acquired data were stripped of personally identifiable identification (PII). A set of generic, brand, and vernacular product names was used to identify product references in posts. Posts were obtained using natural language processing tools to identify vernacular references to drug misuse-related Preferred Terms from the English Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) version 18 terminology. Posts were reviewed manually by coders, who extracted relevant details. Results A total of 7756 references to at least one of the study antidepressants were identified within posts gathered for this study. Of these posts, 668 (8.61%, 668/7756) referenced misuse or nonmedical use of the drug, with bupropion accounting for 438 (65.6%, 438/668). Of the 668 posts, nonmedical use was discouraged by 40.6% (178/438), 22% (22/100), and 18.5% (24/130) and encouraged by 12.3% (54/438), 10% (10/100), and 10.8% (14/130) for bupropion, amitriptyline, and venlafaxine, respectively. The most commonly reported desired effects were similar to stimulants with bupropion, sedatives with amitriptyline, and dissociatives with venlafaxine. The nasal route of administration was most frequently reported for bupropion, whereas the oral route was most frequently reported for amitriptyline and venlafaxine. Bupropion and venlafaxine were most commonly procured from health care providers, whereas amitriptyline was most commonly obtained or stolen from a third party. The Fleiss kappa for interrater agreement among 20 items with 7 categorical response options evaluated by all 11 raters was 0.448 (95% CI 0.421-0.457). Conclusions Social listening, conducted in collaboration with harm-reduction Web forums, offers a valuable new data source that can be used for monitoring nonmedical use of antidepressants. Additional work on the capabilities of social listening will help further delineate the benefits and limitations of this rapidly evolving data source.


A microfluidic flow injection (microFIA) system was employed for handling and monitoring of cell-released products from living cells immobilised on silicon microchips. The dynamic release of glucose and ethanol produced from sucrose by immobilised Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells was determined using microchip biosensors (micro-biosensors) with either co-immobilised glucose oxidase-horseradish peroxidase (GOX-HRP), or alcohol oxidase-horseradish peroxidase (AOX-HRP), catalysing a series of reactions ending up with chemiluminescence (CL) generated from HRP-catalysed oxidation of luminol in presence of p-iodophenol (PIP). The yeast cells were attached by first treating them with polyethylenimine (PEI) followed by adsorption to the microchip surface. The cell loss during assaying was evaluated qualitatively using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showing that no cells were lost after 35 min liquid handling of the cell chip at 10 microl min(-1). The enzymes were immobilised on microchips via PEI-treatment followed by glutaraldehyde (GA) activation. The GOX-HRP micro-biosensors could be used during five days without any noticeable decrease in response, while the AOX-HRP micro-biosensors showed continuously decreasing activity, but could still be used employing calibration correction. The glucose and ethanol released from the immobilised yeast chips were quantitatively monitored, by varying the incubation time with sucrose, showing the possibilities and advantages of using a microfluidic system set-up for cell-based assays.


The proposed Folsom Dam auxiliary spillway will be built near the left abutment of Folsom Dam. Folsom Dam is on the American River about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, California. The dam was designed and built by the Corps of Engineers (Corps) and transferred to the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for operation and maintenance in 1956. The dam is a 340 foot high concrete gravity structure and impounds a reservoir of a little more than one million acre-ft. The current flood release capacity of the main spillway is approximately 518,000 ft 3 /s. The proposed auxiliary spillway control structure houses six 23 feet wide by 34 feet high submerged tainter gates with an additional release capacity of 312,000 ft 3 /s. The control structure discharges into a 2,100-foot-long chute, which conveys flows to a stepped chute, stilling basin, and exit channel. Velocities entering the stilling basin are about 83 feet per second (fps) and 109 fps, for the design and maximum flow respectively. These are very high velocities for a stilling basin with baffle blocks and cavitation problems would normally be expected if a traditional shaped baffle block were installed. As part of Corps' overall modeling for the Folsom Dam Joint Federal Project (JFP), several baffle block shapes combined with different schemes for ramps were analyzed in Reclamations Low Ambient Pressure Chamber (LAPC) to come up with acceptable super-cavitating baffle block and ramp combinations. The optimum baffle block shape and ramp combination was then tested in a 1:48 scale Froude scale model of the stilling basin and American River/Auxiliary Spillway confluence area. The 1:48 scale physical model showed that there was a difference in the energy dissipation characteristics of a traditional shaped baffle block and a super-cavitating baffle block and ramp combination. Different ramp shapes for the super-cavitating baffle blocks were also evaluated. The paper will summarize and compare the findings from the physical model with regard to energy dissipation characteristics between a traditionally shaped baffle block and a super-cavitating baffle block and ramp design.


Accelerators such as NVIDIA GPUs and Intel MICs are currently provided as co-processor devices, usable only through a CPU host. For Intel MICs it is planned that this constraint will be lifted in the near future: CPU and accelerator(s) will then form a single, many-core, processor capable of peak performance of several Teraflops with high energy efficiency. In order to exploit the available computational power, the user will be compelled to write a code more "hardware-aware", in contrast to the common philosophy of hiding hardware details as much as possible. The simple two-sided communication approach often used in message-passing applications introduces synchronization costs that may limit the performance on the next generation machines. PGAS languages, like coarray Fortran and UPC, propose a one-sided approach where a process accesses directly the remote memory of another process without interrupting its execution. In this paper, we propose a CUDA-aware coarray implementation, capable of merging the expressive syntax of coarrays with the computational power of GPUs. We propose a new keyword for the Fortran language, which allows the user to map with a high-level syntax some hardware features of the many-core machines. Our hybrid coarray implementation is based on OpenCoarrays, the coarray transport layer currently adopted by the GNU Fortran compiler.


In this article, we propose a theoretical model which help us to define two possible settings where the European "migration competition" could be analysed. First, we analyse the scenario in which there are two regions: a receiving country and a net sending country. In this scenario we introduce the possibility for each country to increase, by investing resources, the level of integration between countries which consequently reduces the level of migration costs. Thus it is possible to capture the receiving country's trade off between investing resources in order to attract foreign high skilled workers or investing on educational incentives for his citizens. Second, we analyse the scenario in which there are three regions. Starting from the first scenario's framework, we could analyse either the case in which a new country is able to intercept a significant quota of the flow of skilled migrants, either the effect of migration competition between the two regions in order to attract the skilled workers of the sending country. In both case analysed, the presence of a central authority which coordinates the migration and fiscal policies is determinant to obtain better results.


A visit to Ghana, with the hosts interested in developing leaders and the guest interested in developing countries, led to a questioning of both. Three approaches to development are discussed. The top-down government planning approach, discredited with the fall of communism, has been replaced by an outside-in 'globalisation' approach, which is now promoted as the way to develop an economy. But has any nation ever developed by throwing itself open to foreign companies, capital, experts and beliefs? The notable success stories, including the USA, point to a third approach, inside-up indigenous development, which has worked in concert with state intervention. Globalisation thus denies developing countries the very basis by which other countries developed. This argument is woven together with a corresponding one about the development of leaders, which must also happen indigenously, from the life experiences of individuals, not programmes that purport to create leaders. We have had enough of hubris in the name of heroic leadership, much as we have had enough of foreign experts pretending to develop the 'developing' countries.


The formation of high-mass stars is usually accompanied by powerful protostellar outflows. Such high-mass outflows are not simply scaled-up versions of their lower-mass counterparts, since observations suggest that the collimation degree degrades with stellar mass. Theoretically, the origins of massive outflows remain open to question because radiative feedback and fragmentation of the accretion flow around the most massive stars, with M  >  15 M☉, may impede the driving of magnetic disk winds. We here present a three-dimensional simulation of the early stages of core fragmentation and massive star formation that includes a subgrid-scale model for protostellar outflows. We find that stars that form in a common accretion flow tend to have aligned outflow axes, so that the individual jets of multiple stars can combine to form a collective outflow. We compare our simulation to observations with synthetic H2 and CO observations and find that the morphology and kinematics of such a collective outflow resembles some observed massive outflows, such as Cepheus A and DR 21. We finally compare physical quantities derived from simulated observations of our models to the actual values in the models to examine the reliability of standard methods for deriving physical quantities, demonstrating that those methods indeed recover the actual values to within a factor of two to three.


Neural networks are increasingly deployed in real-world safety-critical domains such as autonomous driving, aircraft collision avoidance, and malware detection. However, these networks have been shown to often mispredict on inputs with minor adversarial or even accidental perturbations. Consequences of such errors can be disastrous and even potentially fatal as shown by the recent Tesla autopilot crash. Thus, there is an urgent need for formal analysis systems that can rigorously check neural networks for violations of different safety properties such as robustness against adversarial perturbations within a certain L-norm of a given image. An effective safety analysis system for a neural network must be able to either ensure that a safety property is satisfied by the network or find a counterexample, i.e., an input for which the network will violate the property. Unfortunately, most existing techniques for performing such analysis struggle to scale beyond very small networks and the ones that can scale to larger networks suffer from high false positives and cannot produce concrete counterexamples in case of a property violation. In this paper, we present a new efficient approach for rigorously checking different safety properties of neural networks that significantly outperforms existing approaches by multiple orders of magnitude. Our approach can check different safety properties and find concrete counterexamples for networks that are 10x larger than the ones supported by existing analysis techniques. We believe that our approach to estimating tight output bounds of a network for a given input range can also help improve the explainability of neural networks and guide the training process of more robust neural networks.


The Belgrade Marathon has been held since 1988 and has the longest tradition in the Western Balkans region. The trend in the number of participants in the Belgrade Marathon showed a significant increase in the 2007-2019 period. In addition to the global increase in the number of participants, a decreasing performance trends in marathon races has been noticed. The aim of this paper was to determine the trends in the performances of participants from Serbia in the Belgrade Marathon in the 2007-2019 period. The general cognitive assumption was that with an increase in the number of participants led to a decline in the average performance in the race. The results on the official website of the Belgrade Marathon were used as a source of data for this non-experimental study. All performances of the marathoners from Serbia (n = 3554) in the period 2007-2019 were analyzed. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the trend of the performances of all marathoners from Serbia, their distribution according to age groups by every 10 years, as well as the performances of the 10 first-ranked athletes in total and in each of the groups. The linear trend model on the sample of all marathoners from Serbia has shown that the performance became significantly worse over the years i.e., by 2:14 minutes per year. The trend of a significant decline in performance, ranging from 1:52 to 3:02 minutes per year, has been observed in all age groups of up to 50 years. The linear trend models obtained on the subsamples of the 10 first-ranked men in each of the analyzed age groups did not exceed the level of statistical significance, except in the group of males aged 50-60, where a significant performance trends improvement by 2:10 minutes a year was determined. The performances of competitors from Serbia at the Belgrade Marathon were declining in the examined period, along with a simultaneous increase in the number of participants in this event. It can be assumed that the average performance is declining due to an increasing number of recreational runners participating in the marathon, while the number of categorized runners is not increasing significantly, which in a way reflects conservatism and unchangeability within athletic long-distance races and marathon running events.


Since its inception, the traditional form of providing survivor benefits through public pension schemes has lost much of its legitimacy. As a result of fundamental changes in marriage behaviour and the typical division of labour between married spouses, offering non-contributory benefits of this kind can not only be seen as inequitable. Since they usually substitute for non-derived pension entitlements based on the survivant spouse's own contributions, they can also lead to incentive effects, especially for married women with some degree of labour force attachment, that appear to be far from optimal. The present paper highlights this problem based on empirical estimates regarding the wage elasticities of labour supply for German females vs males and shows how it could be resolved by installing a joint annuitisation of a given couple's pension entitlements.


Arguments are made that Japan's markets are very closed to U.S. goods while U.S. markets are very open to Japanese goods. In part, these arguments arise from the fact that the U.S. has had a large and growing trade deficit with Japan. The Bush and Clinton administrations have attempted to reduce this problem with different initiatives that have had limited success. The purpose of this paper is to determine how American perceptions towards Japan have changed over time with different trade strategies being negotiated from 1993 to 1996. This study concludes that both countries need to take steps to eliminate trade barriers, open up markets, and promote free trade, for both to gain in the years ahead. INTRODUCTION From 1990 to 1999, the United States continued to experience trade deficits with its third largest trading partner, Japan. These figures are reported in tables 1 and 2. In October of 1999, the year-to-date U.S. trade deficit with Japan was $60,587.83 million; the largest U.S. trade deficit with a single country. The second largest yearto-date U.S. trade deficit for October of 1999 was with China and was equal to $56,571.57 million. These figures have led to considerable debate over U.S.-Japan trade policies and have often been the source of hostilities between U.S. and Japanese producers. Many U.S. businesses who compete with Japanese products would favor a more restrictive policy on U.S. imports of Japanese goods, while U.S. exporters of pharmaceuticals, certain agricultural products, automobiles, cosmetics, and other products, complain about Japan's restrictive policies towards imports. U.S, and Japanese consumers stand to gain the most from free trade; a wide variety of products, competitively priced. The purpose of this paper is to examine recent U.S.Japan trade policies and analyze public perceptions in the U.S. of trade relations with Japan. If an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive that trade relations are deteriorating between the two nations or that unfair trade practices are being engaged in, changes in existing policies may be called for. By taking steps to promote cooperation and mutual respect, the U.S. and Japan can set the standard for the management of global affairs in the future. The outline of this paper is as follows. First, a brief review of the arguments for the existing trade imbalances will be given, followed by trade policies initiated by the Bush and Clinton administrations towards Japan. Second, the results of two U.S. surveys, one given in 1993 and the other in 1996, will be presented and compared where possible. The last section will contain a summary of the results. Review of the Literature Some factors that have been cited as sources of U.S. trade deficits with Japan include high U.S. budget deficits, a strong U.S. dollar, growing U.S. incomes, a low U.S. savings rate, and a Japanese recession. Trade barriers and Japanese business practices have also been cited. In a report by the Japan Economic Institute of America, Inc. (1988), it was noted that there does exist several nontariff barriers and practices that should be addressed in Japan. In some cases the Japanese government has set standards that have led to the exclusion of American imports into Japan. The report cited that after Japan imposed a safety design standard on baseball bats, American-made metal baseball bats were basically eliminated from the Japanese market. Another example of a barrier to American products includes an abundance of required documentation and lengthy delays at Japanese customs. This is particularly harmful if the shipment contains perishable items. Once the U.S. shipment passes through Japanese customs, U.S. exporters then face the difficult task of gaining access to distribution channels within Japan. Japanese distributors often prefer to work with Japanese companies that they have become accustomed to working with and are at times, reluctant to enter into new relationships with a U. …


: In the current study, the oils obtained from the nuts of Corylus avellana L. (hazelnut), Arachis hypogea L. (peanut, groundnut), Pinus pinea L. (umbrella nut), and Juglans regia L. (walnut) were tested for their antioxidant activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and antimicrobial activity against the standard and isolated strains of Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Proteus mirabilis , Klebsiella pneumoniae , Acinetobacter baumannii , Staphylococcus aureus , and Enterococcus faecalis as well as the fungi Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis by microdilution method, in which inhibition was expressed as minimum inhibition concentrations (MICs). Moreover, antiviral activity of the oils was determined using Herpes simplex (HSV) and Parainfluenza (PI-3). Their fatty acid analyses were performed by GC-MS technique. While the hazelnut and walnut oils showed the best antioxidant activity at 100 mg mL -1 (73.58% and 65.10%, respectively), the walnut oil had the most potent anti-PI-3 effect (16-< 0.25 μg mL -1 ). The oils displayed inhibitory potentials towards the isolated strains of E. coli , S. aureus , and E. faecalis at 4, 8, and 8 μg mL -1 concentrations, respectively.


A game learner's experience is no more than the nodes it encoumers in the search space. For a challenging game, only a small fraction of that space can ever be visited. People's ability to learn to play difficult games well is a clear indication that not all nodes are equally relevant to learning. There are, it is argued here, key nodes particularly important to the development of expertise, and those key nodes appear in clusters in the game tree. A game learning program might arrive at a key node by chance, be drawn there by a choice it makes, or be driven there by the moves of its opposition. Trainer guidance has some similarity to varying the sequence of training examples in ordinary induction, but here is delegated to file program itself. This paper offers empirical evidence of substantial improvement in the quality of play when a program is steered to clusters of key nodes, and considers several ways to do so.


The aim of the dissertation was to test the feasibility of a new psychotherapeutic protocol for treating children and adolescents with mood and anxiety disorders: Child-Well-Being Therapy (CWBT). It originates from adult Well-Being Therapy protocol (WBT) and represents a conceptual innovation for treating affective disorders. WBT is based on the multidimensional model of well-being postulated by Ryff (eudaimonic perspective), in sequential combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Results showed that eudaimonic well-being was impaired in children with affective disorders in comparison with matched healthy students. A first open investigation aimed at exploring the feasibility of a 8-session CWBT protocol in a group of children with emotional and behavioural disorders has been implemented. Data showed how CWBT resulted associated to symptoms reduction, together with the decrease of externalizing problems, maintained at 1-year follow-up. CWBT triggered also an improvement in psychological well-being as well as an increasing flourishing trajectory over time. Subsequently, a modified and extended version of CWBT (12-sessions) has been developed and then tested in a controlled study with 34 patients (8 to 16 years) affected by mood and anxiety disorders. They were consecutively randomized into 3 different groups: CWBT, CBT, 6-month waiting list (WL). Both treatments resulted effective in decreasing distress and in improving well-being. Moreover, CWBT was associated with higher improvement in anxiety and showed a greater recovery rate (83%) than CBT (54%). Both groups maintained beneficial effects and CWBT group displayed a lower level of distress as well as a higher positive trend in well-being scores over time. Findings need to be interpret with caution, because of study limitations, however important clinical implications emerged. Further investigations should determine whether the sequential integration of well-being and symptom-oriented strategies could play an important role in children and adolescents' psychotherapeutic options, fostering a successful adaptation to adversities during the growth process.


In the absence of a comprehensive international agreement, each country unilaterally sets her abatement of greenhouse gas emissions at a level that possibly maximizes her expected net benefit. In addition to a cleaner and healthier domestic environment and a slower global warming, a country's benefit from self emission-abatement may include improved image and, in turn, bilateral economic and political relations. This paper analyses a country's cooperative and non-cooperative emission abatements within a cost-benefit framework that, for equality consideration, is centered on per capita emission and takes international rewards for commitment to be responsive to per capita income and output composition.


ABSTRACT Bean golden mosaic geminivirus (BGMV) is the single most devastating virus of common beans in the tropical and subtropical Americas and the Caribbean Basin. The BGMV from Brazil, named BGMV-BZ, is considered distinct from BGMV-PR isolates from Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic because of DNA sequence data, the ability to form pseudorecombinants, and mechanical transmissibility properties. In bean-growing areas of Brazil, samples were collected from beans, lima beans, and the weed Leonurus sibiricus displaying typical symptoms of infection by geminiviruses. Viral DNA fragments comprising part of the rep gene, the common region, and part of the cp gene were amplified by polymerase chain reaction, cloned, and sequenced. The bean samples had geminivirus with sequences nearly identical to that of BGMV-BZ collected in Goiânia, state of Goiás, in 1986. The sample from lima bean contained a new species of geminivirus that induces symptoms similar to those induced by BGMV-BZ and was named lima bean golden mosaic virus (LBGMV-BR). While all sequences from bean samples clustered with BGMV-BZ, the sequence from the lima bean isolate stood alone. A mixed infection with abutilon mosaic geminivirus was also found in a single sample from the state of São Paulo. DNA sequence comparisons indicate that the virus isolate from L. sibiricus represents a new geminivirus species, designated here as leonurus mosaic virus.


This article reviews the literature on the linkages between political tensions, economic diplomacy and international trade in the light of China's rise in the global economy. The existing scholarly work suggests that economic diplomacy should be more pivotal in economic exchange with China than with Western market economies. In an econometric test, I analyze how diplomatic tensions, measured through foreign dignitaries' meetings with the Dalai Lama, affect the likelihood of an official visit from a Chinese leader. The results show that the likelihood of the Chinese leadership traveling to a country is 13.6 percent lower if the country's government receives the Dalai Lama in a given year but increases in the following year, supposedly to restore ties. This finding underlines that economic diplomacy is an important channel linking political climate and economic exchange between nations.


Tamara Prosic gives a new explanation of the origins, development and symbolism of Passover. First, she examines Passover from the diachronic perspective, tracing its development from the period before the centralisation of the cult until the second destruction of the temple. Issues with previous scholarship are considered, while at the same time she places the study of Passover within the framework of the new paradigm of historical studies of ancient Israel that advocates the indigenous Canaanitic origin of Israelites. The second part of the book is synchronic in its approach to Passover and deals with its symbolism. Prosic discusses Passover in biblical legends arguing that the pre-Yahwistic Passover was essentially a rite of passage. From there the investigation moves to symbolic elements of Passover such as time symbolism, space symbolism and symbolism of the sacrifice. This is volume 414 in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series.


A thick, calcareous, clastic megabed of late Maastrichtian age has been known for sometime in western and central Cuba. This megabed was formed in association with the bolide impact at Chicxulub, Yucatn, at the K/T boundary, and is composed of a lower gravity-flow unit and an upper homogenite unit. The lower gravity-flow unit is dominantly composed of calcirudite that was formed because of collapses of the Yucatn, Cuban, and Bahamian platform margins and subsequent accumulation in the lower slope to basin margin environment. The gravity flow probably was triggered by a seismic wave induced by the impact, although a ballistic flow may have triggered collapse in the case of proximal sites (Yucatn margin). The upper homogenite unit is composed of massive and normally graded calcarenite to calcilutite that was formed as a result of large tsunamis associated with the impact and deposited in wider areas in the deeper part of Paleo-western Caribbean basin. Slight grain-size oscillations in this unit probably reflect the influence of repeated tsunamis. The large tsunamis were generated either by the movement of water into and out of the crater cavity or by the large-scale slope failure on the eastern margin of the Yucatn platform. In upper slope to shelf environments, gravity-flow deposits and homogenite are absent, and a thin sandstone complex influenced by repeating tsunami waves was deposited.


This thesis aims to investigate four main areas of interest in the functioning of different markets in the dry bulk shipping sector using recent econometric and time series techniques. These areas include; seasonality patterns in freight markets, the efficient market hypothesis and the existence of time-varying risk premia in freight rate and ship price formation, the dynamic interrelationships between freight rate levels and spillover effects in freight rate volatilities, between sub-markets of the dry bulk sector. The seasonal behaviour of' dry bulk freight rates is measured and compared across vessel sizes, contract duration and under different market conditions. Seasonality is deterministic rather than stochastic and it varies across vessel sizes, contract durations and market conditions. In particular, freight rates for larger vessels show higher seasonal variations than smaller ones. Seasonality in spot rates is higher than timecharter rates across the size. Also, seasonal fluctuations are found to be stronger during market expansions compared to market down turns. The validity of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure (EHTS) in the formation of both one and three-year time-charter rates is strongly rejected for all size carriers. Failure of the EHTS is attributed to shipowners' perceptions of risk regarding their decision to operate in spot or time-charter markets. Time-varying risk premia in the formation of period rates is found to be negative; shipowners are prepared to accept lower rates for the relative security of longer contracts. The higher risk involved in contracts with shorter term to maturity are thought to emanate from higher freight rate volatilities, relocation costs, risk of unemployment in spot markets as well as fluctuations in voyage costs. Investigating the dynamic interrelationships between freight rates for different size vessels and spillover effects between volatilities in spot and period markets reveal that the interaction between freight rates in the spot market is higher than in the period markets. It is also found that there is a unidirectional transmission of volatility from larger to smaller size vessels in both spot and period markets. Finally, results strongly reject the EMH in the market for newbuilding and secondhand dry bulk vessels. Failure of the present value model and price efficiency is attributed to the risk associated with holding these assets. Results of Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity in Mean (GARCH-M) models suggest that there is a positive relationship between time-varying risk and return on shipping investments, a result which is consistent with asset pricing theories in the financial economics literature.


The amount of medical research with persons who lack decision-making capacity is rapidly increasing, but in most states it takes place without clear legal authority. In addition to creating significant liability risks for researchers and persons who provide consent on behalf of incapacitated subjects, the lack of explicit legal standards means that few, if any, safeguards exist to protect incapacitated persons' rights and welfare. Previous efforts to close the gap between clinical reality and legal requirements have failed in part because they have not provided a coherent or persuasive ethical justification for permitting this research. This Article seeks to fill that void by proposing a new way of thinking about the ethics of research with incapacitated persons, grounded in a long-term, systemic approach to risk-benefit assessment. This approach explains why it is ultimately in incapacitated persons' best interests to be governed by a policy that permits them to be enrolled in research without their personal authorization?even if such a policy puts them at risk of participating in studies that, when viewed in isolation, may involve more burdens than benefits. Unlike other approaches, the framework developed here does not depend on false analogies between participating in research and receiving medical treatment, or dubious claims about family members' inherent authority or incapacitated persons' obligations to society. Because the proposed framework directly responds to the criticism that research with incapacitated persons is a form of exploitation, it may increase the likelihood that proposals to authorize this research will actually be adopted. It also has important implications for both how laws governing research with incapacitated persons should be structured, and the roles and responsibilities of surrogate decision makers.


The aim of this article is to describe, explain and understand the problems of effective state ownership administration in modern Russia. The author discusses the need of qualitative institutional transformations in the system of state ownership management due to modern conditions of innovative processes in the economic system. The main direction of the state policy concerning the implementation of state ownership administration (including the current process of privatization) is qualitative improvement of public administration. The overview of Russian experience in active introduction of results-based management into the authorities' activities has revealed a negative concern in the existing management system: introduced productivity indicators are generally used as the instrument of control or reporting instead of management. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an effective monitoring and evaluation system of state ownership administration that can promote remedial action for the weak elements of the civil service management system.


Background Early manic relapse following lithium discontinuation offers an important opportunity to investigate the relationship between symptoms, effects of treatment and regional brain activation in bipolar affective disorder. Method Fourteen stable bipolar patients on lithium were examined with neuropsychological measures, clinical ratings and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) before and after acute double-blind withdrawal of lithium. Brain perfusion maps were spatially transformed into standard stereotactic space and compared pixel-by-pixel. A parametric analysis was used to examine the change in brain perfusion on lithium withdrawal, and the relationship between symptom severity and brain perfusion separately both between and within subjects. Results Lithium withdrawal was associated with an important redistribution of brain perfusion, with increases in inferior posterior regions and decreases in limbic areas, particularly anterior cingulate cortex. Seven of the 14 patients developed manic symptoms during the placebo phase, correlating with relative increases in perfusion of superior anterior cingulate and possibly left orbito-frontal cortex. Conclusions The important effect of lithium withdrawal on brain perfusion implies that after withdrawal of lithium, the brain develops an abnormal state of activity in limbic cortex. The structures involved did not co-localise with those apparently modulated by manic symptoms.


Sagar Island which is located in the world's largest delta, the Sunderban, in the eastern coast of India faces severe power crunch. Due to its isolated location, the power infrastructure is underdeveloped. This has led to very unreliable power supply and frequent power cuts. The island being economically weak, power is inaccessible to most of its residents. Thus, the per unit energy consumption of the area is low and it has led to the lowering of the human development index of the area. However, Sagar Island, owing to its location, has huge solar and wind power potential. This paper discusses the prospect of developing a solar-wind hybrid power plant to supply power to the area. The developed hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) power plant will provide uninterrupted power to the island. Results show that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from the proposed power plant is 0.03707 $/kWh, which is lower than the LCOE from the available grid. Lowering the cost of electricity will make electricity accessible to most of the inhabitants of the island. This will, in turn, increase the per unit energy consumption and hence the human development index. The proposed power plant will also help the environment by reducing CO2 emissions by 1894.08 tonnes annually. It will also save 587.39 tonnes of coal in its lifetime. Hence, the HRES power plant will make power accessible and also help Sagar Island to become a renewable fed "Green Island."


PURPOSE
This article presents a framework for prescribing, ordering, and adapting a new wheelchair, focusing on individual, environmental and wheelchair factors that must be taken into consideration to ensure optimal function.

METHOD
A review and analysis was conducted of all factors relevant to the transition to a new wheelchair. Without appropriate planning and implementation, this transition can result in unnecessary expenses, duplication of effort, and possibly even injury to the user and abandonment of the wheelchair.

RESULTS
Recommendations are provided to manufacturers, therapists, technicians, users, insurers and physicians, who must work together throughout this process. To the extent feasible, the authors suggest that major changes from the previous wheelchair should be avoided, particularly for people with substantial functional limitations. Therapists and technicians must measure the user accurately, and anticipate those factors that can impede a smooth transition. Insurers and other payors must recognize that changing wheelchairs will often require substantial professional assistance, including several fittings to adjust the new chair to the needs of the user.

CONCLUSION
Additional research and case reporting on outcomes of adjusting to a new wheelchair appear warranted.


Semantic contour detection is a challenging problem that is often met in medical imaging, of which placental image analysis is a particular example. In this paper, we investigate utero-placental interface (UPI) detection in 2D placental ultrasound images by formulating it as a semantic contour detection problem. As opposed to natural images, placental ultrasound images contain specific anatomical structures thus have unique geometry. We argue it would be beneficial for UPI detectors to incorporate global context modelling in order to reduce unwanted false positive UPI predictions. Our approach, namely UPI-Net, aims to capture long-range dependencies in placenta geometry through lightweight global context modelling and effective multi-scale feature aggregation. We perform a subject-level 10-fold nested cross-validation on a placental ultrasound database (4,871 images with labelled UPI from 49 scans). Experimental results demonstrate that, without introducing considerable computational overhead, UPI-Net yields the highest performance in terms of standard contour detection metrics, compared to other competitive benchmarks.


The deterioration of reinforced concrete structures and the associated rehabilitation work represent an economic cost of premier importance. In Switzerland, the structural maintenance expenditures amount to 40% to 65% of the initial construction cost (over a 100 year life-span). Among the maintenance and rehabilitation activities, those dedicated to combating corrosion constitute the largest portion of invested financial resources. For example, the curbs of each highway bridge need to be repaired every 20 to 30 years, resulting in extensive maintenance and user costs. The corrosion phenomenon is initiated by the presence of oxygen and water acting upon steel reinforcement with a compromised protective oxide film (a natural protective layer surrounding the steel). This protective layer is eliminated by carbonization of the concrete (the reaction between carbondioxide and concrete calcium-hydroxide paste), a sufficient chloride ion concentration around the steel reinforcement (introduced by the spreading of de-icing salts on the roads during winter), or a combination of the two phenomena. The water diffusion in the concrete cover facilitates the chloride ion movement, reducing the corrosion initiation time, and likewise, increasing deterioration rate. This research proposes a model, "TransChlor," to evaluate the duration of the corrosion initiation processes. TransChlor can therefore serve as a decision aid during the structural maintenance plan selection process and during the design of new structural elements to mitigate the steel reinforcement corrosion problem. The model can also complement and elaborate upon the existing codes. TransChlor is based on a structural analysis approach that groups the elements of a structure into distinct groups. Each group is defined by similar functional and structural qualities influencing the corrosion phenomenon (concrete cover permeability, degree of exposure to aggressive corrosive agents, local defects). The model in particular distinguishes the elements exposed to mist and liquid water. This model is based on in-situ measurements (structural monitoring) and inspections performed by trained inspectors. TransChlor employs a deterministic approach to simulate water diffusion, chloride ion diffusion, gas penetration, and thermal conduction. The penetration of liquid water into the concrete pours, called capillary suction, was experimentally studied in the laboratory at low temperatures to match in-situ conditions. These experiments formed the calibration base of this model. TransChlor also incorporates a probabilistic model to consider the variable and indeterminate aspects of the corrosion problem, such as the permeability space, the concrete cover thickness, and the reinforcing steel physical-chemical resistance to chloride ion attack. The deterministic model is refined by the probabilistic approach and together TransChlor offers a more exact evaluation of the corrosion deterioration risks and can facilitate the objective dialogue and discussion between owners and maintenance specialists. For locations exposed to liquid water and brine, the standards should impose additional protective provisions such as periodic hydrophobic impregnations, implementation of stainless steel reinforcing bars, etc. For other locations (exposed to salt spay and carbonated concrete not exposed to chloride ions), the codes should require complementary construction and maintenance provisions.


Existing research on the relationship between Israeli intelligence services and the media is limited and fragmented. This work attempts to fill in the gaps by shedding light on four main strategies that have been commonly implemented by the Israeli intelligence community: ambiguity and concealment of media relations, the "if you would only know" strategy, exploiting patriotism and cooptation, and information manipulations and psychological warfare. These strategies were utilized frequently by Israel's intelligence services, and thus have had an impact on the intelligence services' accountability. However, significant changes in Israel's society and media have created new challenges to the intelligence services in the public sphere. This study examines these changes and differentiates between the organizations within the intelligence community, domestic and foreign, which, facing differing challenges, tailor different methods for addressing the media as a result. This paper is based on several years of research and a large database of literature, media coverage, and in-depth interviews with key figures in Israel's intelligence community (former Mossad and Israeli Security Authority directors), senior journalists, and politicians.


The introduction of electric vehicles into the transportation sector helps reduce global warming and carbon emissions. The interaction between electric vehicles and the power grid has spurred the emergence of a smart grid technology, denoted as vehicle-to grid-technology. Vehicle-to-grid technology manages the energy exchange between a large fleet of electric vehicles and the power grid to accomplish shared advantages for the vehicle owners and the power utility. This paper presents an optimal scheduling of vehicle-to-grid using the genetic algorithm to minimize the power grid load variance. This is achieved by allowing electric vehicles charging (grid-to-vehicle) whenever the actual power grid loading is lower than the target loading, while conducting electric vehicle discharging (vehicle-to-grid) whenever the actual power grid loading is higher than the target loading. The vehicle-to-grid optimization algorithm is implemented and tested in MATLAB software (R2013a, MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA). The performance of the optimization algorithm depends heavily on the setting of the target load, power grid load and capability of the grid-connected electric vehicles. Hence, the performance of the proposed algorithm under various target load and electric vehicles' state of charge selections were analysed. The effectiveness of the vehicle-to-grid scheduling to implement the appropriate peak load shaving and load levelling services for the grid load variance minimization is verified under various simulation investigations. This research proposal also recommends an appropriate setting for the power utility in terms of the selection of the target load based on the electric vehicle historical data.


In today's pop culture world, celebrities are seen as perfect individuals with grand houses, cars, and entourages. When Chris Brown came on the scene in the mid-2000s, he was a teenage heartthrob who could do no wrong. That all changed when he brutally beat fellow music superstar and then girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Brown's media persona came crashing down, along with seemingly everything else in his life. However, in a situation where many artists would normally descend and never return, Brown has surged back almost to the heights he reached prior to 2009. How did this happen? What does the role of the music industry play in this? The norms and tendencies of the popular music industry are examined to determine the external factors that both hindered and helped Brown's changes in reputation (and by extension, record sales) over time. This article is available in The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/


In many cases of imminent environmental harm, a trial may take years. To prevent harm in the meantime, pre-trial injunctions are essential. The author highlights the important role of interlocutory injunctions in Canadian environmental litigation, uncovers the judicial assumptions and attitudes toward the environment which these decisions reveal, and proposes a precautionary approach to interpreting the interlocutory injunction test in environmental cases. She argues that prevailing judicial attitudes and presumptions in relation to environmental claims often negatively influence how the discretionary elements in procedural rules governing pre-trial injunctions are applied. Although there has been much analysis of principles such as the precautionary principle in substantive environmental law, the author argues that if substantive law is to achieve its intended goals, principles such as precaution must also be applied when interpreting procedural rules. In environmental litigation, ecological realities and environmental law principles should guide discretion, particularly in decisions which appear to be "merely procedural" yet have significant substantive effect.


The 30-kDa lipoprotein (LP) family of mulberry silkworm comprises major hemolymph proteins specific to the fifth instar larvae. The family consists of 46 members, 24 of which are referred to as typical 30-kDa LPs. To date, two crystal structures of 30-kDa LPs from Bombyx mori have been described (Bmlp3 and Bmlp7). Here, we present the crystal structure of Bmlp6, another 30-kDa LP member. Bmlp6 is comprised of two domains characteristic of this family, the VHS-type N-terminal domain and β-trefoil C-terminal domain. The structures of the three 30-kDa LPs have been compared and a number of differences are noted, including loop conformation, the surface electrostatic potential, and the potential binding cavities. We discuss the observed structural differences in the light of the potential different roles of the particular 30-kDa LP members in silkworm physiology.


Abstract. Land degradation affects 10–20 % of drylands globally. Intensive land use and management, large-scale disturbances such as extractive operations, and global climate change, have contributed to degradation of these systems worldwide. Restoring these damaged environments is critical to improving ecosystem services and functions, conserve biodiversity, and contribute to climate resilience, food security, and landscape sustainability. Here, we present a case study on plant species of the mining intensive semi-arid Pilbara region in Western Australia that examines the effects of climate and soil factors on the restoration of drylands. We analysed the effects of a range of rainfall and temperature scenarios and the use of alternative soil materials on seedling recruitment of key native plant species from this area. Experimental studies were conducted in controlled environment facilities where conditions simulated those found in the Pilbara. Soil from topsoil (T) stockpiles and waste materials (W) from an active mine site were mixed at different proportions (100 % T, 100 % W, and two mixes of topsoil and waste at 50 : 50 and 25 : 75 ratios) and used as growth media. Our results showed that seedling recruitment was highly dependent on soil moisture and emergence was generally higher in the topsoil, which had the highest available water content. In general, responses to the climate scenarios differed significantly among the native species which suggest that future climate scenarios of increasing drought might affect not only seedling recruitment but also diversity and structure of native plant communities. The use of waste materials from mining operations as growth media could be an alternative to the limited topsoil. However, in the early stages of plant establishment successful seedling recruitment can be challenging in the absence of water. These limitations could be overcome by using soil amendments but the cost associated to these solutions at large landscape scales needs to be assessed and proven to be economically feasible.


This study was carried out on Syrian olive oil (SOO) produced from Olea europaea L. cv Kaissy, to determine the influence of different doses of gamma irradiation treatments (0, 1, 2 and 3 kGy) and various storage periods (0, 6, 12, 24 and 36 months) on fatty acid (FA) content. As a result, the composition of FAs was determined as palmitic acid (C16:0) (13.11%); palmitoleic acid (C16:1) (0.90%); stearic acid (C18:0) (3.08%); oleic acid (C18:1) (71.37%); linoleic acid (C18:2) (10.31%) and linolenic acid (C18:3) (1.22%), in order of relative abundance. Gamma irradiation significantly increased (p<0.01) the saturated fatty acid (SFA) and decreased (p<0.01) the unsaturated fatty acids (USFA). These results indicated that the USFA/SFA ratio of the virgin olive oil was markedly decreased by irradiation at 1, 2 and 3 kGy. Long storage has a significant (p<0.05) effect in SFAs and USFAs in both irradiated and non-irradiated olive oil samples.


NASA has identified the need for advanced non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods to characterize aging and durability in aircraft materials to improve the safety of the nation's airline fleet. 3D THz tomography can play a major role in detection and characterization of flaws and degradation in aircraft materials, including Kevlar-based composites and Kevlar and Zylon fabric covers for soft-shell fan containment where aging and durability issues are critical. A prototype computed tomography (CT) time-domain (TD) THz imaging system has been used to generate 3D images of several test objects including a TUFI tile (a thermal protection system tile used on the Space Shuttle and possibly the Orion or similar capsules). This TUFI tile had simulated impact damage that was located and the depth of damage determined. The CT motion control gan try was designed and constructed, and then integrated with a T-Ray 4000 control unit and motion controller to create a complete CT TD-THz imaging system prototype. A data collection software script was developed that takes multiple z-axis slices in sequence and saves the data for batch processing. The data collection software was integrated with the ability to batch process the slice data with the CT TD-THz image reconstruction software. The time required to take a single CT slice was decreased from six minutes to approximately one minute by replacing the 320 ps, 100-Hz waveform acquisition system with an 80 ps, 1,000-Hz waveform acquisition system. The TD-THZ computed tomography system was built from pre-existing commercial off-the-shelf subsystems. A CT motion control gantry was constructed from COTS components that can handle larger samples. The motion control gantry allows inspection of sample sizes of up to approximately one cubic foot (.0.03 cubic meters). The system reduced to practice a CT-TDTHz system incorporating a COTS 80- ps/l-kHz waveform scanner. The incorporation of this scanner in the system allows acquisition of 3D slice data with better signal-to-noise using a COTS scanner rather than the gchirped h scanner. The system also reduced to practice a prototype for commercial CT systems for insulating materials where safety concerns cannot accommodate x-ray. A software script was written to automate the COTS software to collect and process TD-THz CT data.


This paper provides an overview of the reform of water institutions in developing countries in the last three decades focusing on the 'what, why and how' of institutional reform, and outlines their implications for policy and research. The review covers four areas: (1) water rights and river basin institutions; (2) decentralized irrigation management; (3) private sector participation in urban water supply; and (4) regulation of water infrastructure. The review suggests that (a) the theoretical rationale for reforms is mostly grounded on arguments for efficiency, effectiveness and fiscal sustainability with little considerations for equity; (b) models of institutional design varies from incremental to comprehensive; and (c) implementation experiences among countries are mixed, given the conditional nature of institutional reform; and (d) changes in elite perception holds the key to reform.


We investigate the finite sample properties of a large number of estimators for the average treatment effect on the treated that are suitable when adjustment for observable covariates is required, like inverse probability weighting, kernel and other variants of matching, as well as different parametric models. The simulation design used is based on real data usually employed for the evaluation of labour market programmes in Germany. We vary several dimensions of the design that are of practical importance, like sample size, the type of the outcome variable, and aspects of the selection process. We find that trimming individual observations with too much weight as well as the choice of tuning parameters is important for all estimators. The key conclusion from our simulations is that a particular radius matching estimator combined with regression performs best overall, in particular when robustness to misspecifications of the propensity score is considered an important property.


The generation of strongly potassic melts in the mantle is generally
thought to require the presence of phlogopite in the melting assemblage.
In the Mediterranean region, trace element and isotope compositions
indicate that continental crustal material is involved in the generation
of many potassium-rich lavas. This is clearest in ultrapotassic rocks
like lamproites and shoshonites, for which the relevant chemical signals
are less diluted by extensive melting of peridotite. Furthermore, melting
occurs here in young lithosphere, so the continental crust was not
stored for a long period of time in the mantle before reactivation. We
have undertaken two types of experiments to investigate the reaction
between crust and mantle at 1000–1100 °C and 2–3 GPa. In the first,
continental crustal metasediment (phyllite) and depleted peridotite
(dunite) were juxtaposed as separate blocks, whereas in the second,
the same rock powders were intimately mixed. In the first series, a
clear reaction zone dominated by orthopyroxene was formed between
dunite and phyllite but no hybridized melt could be found, whereas
analyzable pools of hybridized melt occurred throughout the charges
in the second series. Melt compositions show high abundances of Rb
(100–220 ppm) and Ba (400–870 ppm), and consistent ratios of Nb/Ta
(10–12), Zr/Hf (34–42), and Rb/Cs (28–34), similar to bulk continental
crust. These experiments demonstrate that melts with as much as 5
wt% K 2 O may result from reaction between melts of continent-derived
sediment and depleted peridotite at shallow mantle depths without
the need for phlogopite or any other potassic phase in the residue.


Weed seeds remain a "commodity" for which some means of disposal must be found after harvest. Where suitable for the specific weed seeds involved, fine grinding (to destroy viability of the seed) and subsequent use in livestock rations remains one of the most desirable options for North Dakota small grain producers. Salvage value for weed seeds has been obtained in this manner for many years, yet little actual information is available concerning the true worth of weed seeds in livestock rations. The article focuses upon a series of swine and rat experiments reported which were intended to permit the evaluation of yellow foxtail ("pigeon grass") screenings in the rations of growing-finishing pigs. Weather encountered during the 1974 cropping season was difficult for
cereal grain production but appeared to promote the growth of weeds. Several farmers suggested that their harvest of weed seeds exceeded the amount of small grain combined. Yellow foxtail I"pigeon grass"l was harvested in large quantities and frequently could be cleaned from the grain in nearly pure form. While analytical data are available, information concerning the actual feeding value of "pigeon grass" creenings was lacking. The data reported here provided information concerning the feeding value of"pigeon grass" for growing finishing swine.


Objective: The present publication investigates the relationship between the presence of Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in renal tissue and IgA Nephropathy (IgAN). Methods: A systematic review and re-analysis of studies which investigated the relationship between HCMV and IgAN was conducted aimed to answer the following question. Is there a cause-effect relationship between HCMV and IgAN? The method of the conditio sine qua non relationship was used to proof the hypothesis whether the presence of HCMV guarantees the presence of IgAN. In other words, without HCMV no IgAN. The mathematical formula of the causal relationship k was used to proof the hypotheses is, whether there is a cause-effect relationship between HCMV and IgAN. Significance was indicated by a p-value of less than 0.05. Results: The studies analysed were able to provide strict evidence that HCMV is a necessary condition (a conditio sine qua non), a sufficient condition and a necessary and sufficient condition of IgAN. Furthermore, the cause-effect relationship between HCMV and IgAN (N=37, k =+0.514619883, p value (k) =0.001746216) was highly significant. Conclusions: On the basis of published data and ongoing research, sufficient evidence is given to conclude that HCMV is the cause of IgA Nephropathy. Keywords: Cytomegalovirus, IgA Nephropathy, Causal relationship


Abstract Writing is often misused as an assessment tool. This paper suggests faculty use evaluation strategies based in liberatory pedagogy as part of student-centered classrooms, so that assessment can be moved away from summative evaluation to serve a more formative role in the writing process. Strategies are given to help faculty use formative techniques to improve student writing and thinking skills. Background Using writing as an interdisciplinary method of learning and assessing has long been the focus of Writing Across the Curriculum programs. Once exposed to the general philosophies, faculty often find WAC methods logical and compelling ways to enhance student learning in their respective disciplines. Inevitably, the focus turns to assessment, and many faculty are stymied, looking for appropriate ways to evaluate student writing projects. As one study indicates, most writing assessment takes the form of written comments that often serve the rhetorical purpose of justifying the letter grade (Connors and Lunsford). We have all been programmed to think of standard assessment practices as summative evaluations that measure how well instruction has taken place. If we subjectively read student's written projects, write comments, and mark surface-level errors, then we are performing the traditional methods of summative assessment. The problem with this method is that it is part of a top-down, teacher-centered process that does not serve to help students become better writers and better thinkers, nor does it allow students to use their writing as a learning tool. Moving Away From Standard Assessment Unfortunately, we cannot do away with grading altogether. We are part of an institutional matrix that requires evaluating student achievement and assigning grades. Since we cannot step out of that role completely, we must alter our perceptions of the process and our reactions to it. At odds with the summative form of evaluation is the current pedagogical constructivist theory which "emphasizes problem solving, critical-thinking skills, engagement, and cooperation" and advocates the process of learning as more important than any of the products we create (Wolcott and Legg 9, italics in original). Brian Huot suggests that such a shift in pedagogy argues for a "new, shared discourse for understanding assessment as a positive force [...]" (165). Finding that shared discourse, however, is often difficult because we have not been trained to assess a process. Most of our training and understanding of assessment stems from a background where assessment functions as a final evaluation. However, in a new framework of learning which values the learning process, we are challenged to "develop valid performance assessments that capture these processes, and at the same time, allow generalizations to be drawn about students' understanding of a broad subject area" (Wolcott and Legg 9). Thus, assessment should be thought of in two ways: as formative evaluation that allows for improved instruction while learning is still taking place, and as performance assessment that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge through the actual performance of their abilities (Wolcott and Legg 4-5). Additionally, assessment must take into consideration the recursive nature of the writing process and expound on the philosophy of writing to learn strategies. If we want to improve assessment, we must do it by shifting the philosophy of our grading. We do not want to get our students used to having somebody "fix" their papers or find their errors. We want students to be able to revise their writing based on comments that we make that would prompt revision, rather than justifying the grade we place. In essence, it becomes the difference between "grading" a set of papers and "responding" to a set of papers (Bean 242). More than semantic choices, these are actually two competing philosophies. The first, an editing-orientation, would produce a marked paper with errors identified. …


Though data analysis tools continue to improve, analysts still expend an inordinate amount of time and effort manipulating data and assessing data quality issues. Such "data wrangling" regularly involves reformatting data values or layout, correcting erroneous or missing values, and integrating multiple data sources. These transforms are often difficult to specify and difficult to reuse across analysis tasks, teams, and tools. In response, we introduce Wrangler, an interactive system for creating data transformations. Wrangler combines direct manipulation of visualized data with automatic inference of relevant transforms, enabling analysts to iteratively explore the space of applicable operations and preview their effects. Wrangler leverages semantic data types (e.g., geographic locations, dates, classification codes) to aid validation and type conversion. Interactive histories support review, refinement, and annotation of transformation scripts. User study results show that Wrangler significantly reduces specification time and promotes the use of robust, auditable transforms instead of manual editing.


extract] In this paper I will discuss the respective Australian and Canadian approaches to privacy rights. I will then discuss corporate privacy rights in particular, and show that corporations are already afforded at least some rights to privacy. Finally, I will argue that it is inconsistent and unprincipled to restrict corporations from utilizing the tort invasion of privacy, if such a tort does indeed exist.


This paper considers global optimization with a black-box unknown objective function that can be non-convex and non-differentiable. Such a difficult optimization problem arises in many real-world applications, such as parameter tuning in machine learning, engineering design problem, and planning with a complex physics simulator. This paper proposes a new global optimization algorithm, called Locally Oriented Global Optimization (LOGO), to aim for both fast convergence in practice and finite-time error bound in theory. The advantage and usage of the new algorithm are illustrated via theoretical analysis and an experiment conducted with 11 benchmark test functions. Further, we modify the LOGO algorithm to specifically solve a planning problem via policy search with continuous state/action space and long time horizon while maintaining its finite-time error bound. We apply the proposed planning method to accident management of a nuclear power plant. The result of the application study demonstrates the practical utility of our method.