The importance of biodiversity (below and above ground) is increasingly considered for the cleanup of the metal contaminated and polluted ecosystems. This subject is emerging as a cutting edge area of research gaining commercial significance in the contemporary field of environmental biotechnology. Several microbes, including mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi, agricultural and vegetable crops, ornamentals, and wild metal hyperaccumulating plants are being tested both in lab and field conditions for decontaminating the metalliferous substrates in the environment. As on todate about 400 plants that hyperaccumulate metals are reported. The families dominating these members are Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Cyperaceae, Cunouniaceae, Fabaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Lamiaceae, Poaceae, Violaceae, and Euphobiaceae. Brassicaceae had the largest number of taxa viz. 11 genera and 87 species. Different genera of Brassicaceae are known to accumulate metals. Ni hyperaccumulation is reported in 7 genera and 72 species and Zn in 3 genera and 20 species. Thlaspi species are known to hyperaccumulate more than one metal i.e . T. caerulescence = Cd, Ni. Pb, and Zn; T. goesingense = Ni and Zn and T. ochroleucum = Ni and Zn and T. rotundifolium = Ni, Pb and Zn. Plants that hyperaccumulate metals have tremendous potential for application in remediation of metals in the environment. Significant progress in phytoremediation has been made with metals and radionuclides. This process involves rising of plants hydroponically and transplanting them into metal-polluted waters where plants absorb and concentrate the metals in their roots and shoots. As they become saturated with the metal contaminants, roots or whole plants are harvested for disposal. Most researchers believe that plants for phytoremediation should accumulate metals only in the roots. Several aquatic species have the ability to remove heavy metals from water, viz., water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms); pennywort ( Hydrocotyle umbellata L.) and duckweed ( Lemna minor L.). The roots of Indian mustard are effective in the removal of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn and sunflower removes Pb, U, 137 Cs, and 90 Sr from hydroponic solutions. Aquatic plants in freshwater, marine and estuarine systems act as receptacle for several metals. Hyperaccumulators accumulate appreciable quantities of metal in their tissue regardless of the concentration of metal in the soil, as long as the metal in question is present. The phytoextraction process involves the use of plants to facilitate the removal of metal contaminants from a soil matrix. In practice, metal-accumulating plants are seeded or transplanted into metal-polluted soil and are cultivated using established agricultural practices. If metal availability in the soil is not adequate for sufficient plant uptake, chelates or acidifying agents would be applied to liberate them into the soil solution. Use of soil amendments such as synthetics (ammonium thiocyanate) and natural zeolites have yielded promising results. Synthetic cross-linked polyacrylates, hydrogels have protected plant roots from heavy metals toxicity and prevented the entry of toxic metals into roots. After sufficient plant growth and metal accumulation, the above-ground portions of the plant are harvested and removed, resulting the permanent removal of metals from the site. Soil metals should also be bioavailable, or subject to absorption by plant roots. Chemicals that are suggested for this purpose include various acidifying agents, fertilizer salts and chelating materials. The retention of metals to soil organic matter is also weaker at low pH, resulting in more available metal in the soil solution for root absorption. It is suggested that the phytoextraction process is enhanced when metal availability to plant roots is facilitated through the addition of acidifying agents to the soil. Chelates are used to enhance the phytoextraction of a number of metal contaminants including Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn Researchers initially applied hyperaccumulators to clean metal polluted soils. Several researchers have screened fast-growing, high-biomass-accumulating plants, including agronomic crops, for their ability to tolerate and accumulate metals in their shoots. Genes responsible for metal hyperaccumulation in plant tissues have been identified and cloned. Glutathione and organic acids metabolism plays a key role in metal tolerance in plants. Glutathione is ubiquitous component cells from bacteria to plants and animals. In phytoremediation of metals in the environment, organic acids play a major role in metal tolerance. Organic acids acids form complexes with metals, a process of metal detoxification. Genetic strategies and transgenic plant and microbe production and field trials will fetch phytoremediaition field applications.The importance of biodiversity and biotechnology to remediate potentially toxic metals are discussed in this paper. Brassicaceae amenable to biotechnological improvement and phytoremediation hype are highlighted.


Excerpt] When Wells Fargo made headlines this year for illegally opening 2 million fake accounts on behalf of unknowing customers, they exposed a corporate culture that not only ignored wrongdoing, but also actively promoted ethical misconduct. While the full extent of the corruption will yet be revealed, Wells Fargo nonetheless joins a long list of recent commercial scandals that have all but shattered public trust in corporate America. High profile businesses are not the only ones susceptible to unethical practices. The Ethics Resource Center's 2013 National Business Ethics Survey conservatively estimates that 41% of U.S. workers observed unethical or illegal misconduct in the past year. Other estimates place that number as high as 74%. Either way, the results are eye opening. With the rate of immorality among organizations so high, one may ask the following: How do you change an unethical culture into an ethical culture? By outlining key strategies and tools, this report will show HR professionals and business leaders alike how they can achieve ethical realignment for their organization.


In problem-based learning (PBL) curricula, first-year students need to adapt to a new learning environment and an unfamiliar new pedagogy. The small-group tutorial potentially offers a learning environment where students can become self-directed learners, collaborating with other group members to achieve individual and group learning goals. At the end of the first six-week theme in a relatively new PBL curriculum, new medical students were canvassed about coping with PBL (self-directed learning; content; time management; resources) and the value of the small-group tutorial, the latter of which is currently being reported. Almost 84% of students (n = 178) responded. The benefits of participating in small groups were categorized into three domains—cognitive, affective and social—as identified from student responses. Results were analysed in terms of gender and prior educational experience (secondary school vs. prior tertiary educational experience). For almost 94% of students, the small-group tutorial provided a conducive learning environment that influenced their personal development (i.e. tolerance, patience) and socialization into the faculty. Significantly more males indicated that they had developed social skills, while more school-leavers (matriculants) than mature students felt more receptive to the views of others. More mature students claimed to have made friends. Irrespective of some conflicting opinions in the literature, the present results suggest that the PBL tutorial may be important in facilitating student socialization into a new and unfamiliar academic environment, particularly when the pedagogy differs markedly from their past educational experiences. Through interacting with fellow students from diverse origins who hold different views in the intimate setting of the small group, students felt that they had not only increased their knowledge but had also developed personally and socially. It is proposed that the small group may be useful for integrating a diverse population of students into a new academic environment.


I consider the problem of evaluating the effect of a health care reform on the demand for doctor visits when the effect is potentially different in different parts of the outcome distribution. Quantile regression is a useful technique for studying such heterogeneous treatment effects. Recent progree has been made to extend such methods to applications with a count dependent variable. An analysis of a 1997 health care reform in Germany shows the benefit of the approach: lower quantiles, such as the 25 percent quantile, fell by substantially larger amounts than what would have been predicted based on Poisson or negative binomial models.


Background Tardive dyskinesia (TD) may be mediated through free radical damage to neurons. Plasma lipid peroxide levels are a measure of radical damage to fats. Vitamin E is a free radical scavenger. Method One hundred and twenty-eight schizophrenic patients were examined for TD using the Abnormal Involuntary Movements Scale. Blood samples were taken to measure plasma lipid peroxide, serum vitamin E and cholesterol, and vitamin Exholesterol ratios. Twenty-four patients were also examined in October 1993, January 1994, and April 1994. Biochemical results were compared in 81 patients and 79 normal subjects. Results Patients with and without TD did not differ in median plasma lipid peroxide and serum vitamin E levels, or vitamin Exholesterol ratios. Correlations between seasonal change scores in TD and biochemical measurements were low. Lipid peroxide levels were higher and vitamin Exholesterol ratios lower in patients than in normal subjects. Vitamin E levels were lowest in in-patients and in those living in supported accommodation. Conclusions The results do not support the hypothesis that TD is mediated through free radical damage to neurons, but suggest increased free radical activity in schizophrenia.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivations, concerns, benefits and consequences associated with non-use of social media. In doing so, it extends Wyatt's commonly used taxonomy of non-use by identifying new dimensions in which to understand non-use of social media. This framework encompasses a previously unidentified category of non-use that is critical to understand in today's social media environment.

Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory interview study with 17 self-identified social media non-users distributed across age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. A thematic analysis is conducted based on a novel extension of Wyatt's framework and the risk-benefits framework. This is supplemented by open coding to allow for emerging themes.

Findings
This paper provides empirical insights into a formerly uninvestigated population of non-users who are prevented from using social media because of social engagement (rather than functional) barriers. It identifies how these individuals face social consequences both on and off social media, resulting in social disenfranchisement.

Research limitations/implications
This is an initial exploration of the phenomenon using an interview study. For generalizability, future research should investigate non-use with a broader and random sample.

Practical implications
This paper includes design recommendations and implications for social media platform designers to mitigate the consequences experienced by socially disenfranchised non-users.

Social implications
Addressing concerns of this newly identified class of non-users is of utmost importance. As others are increasingly connected, these non-users are left behind and even ostracized – showing the dark sides of social media use and non-use.

Originality/value
This work identifies types of non-use of social media previously unrecognized in the literature.


The acoustic black-hole (ABH) effect is a well-known way of controlling structural vibrations in solid beams and plates. The theory behind this effect is to reduce the velocity of waves by altering the physical properties of the domain according to a power-law profile. For an ideal ABH, this leads to vanishing reflections from the end of the termination. In practice, there will be a truncation in the profile, which leads to some reflections. A well-known way of minimizing this truncation error is to add damping material to the end of the ABH termination. For a waveguide embedding a set of rings with retarding inner radius according to a power-law profile, the velocity of sound waves tends to zero. However, unlike the structural counterpart, experimental results in the literature show that adding damping material to reduce the truncation error is not effective for waveguides. Here, we present a finite element simulation of the considered cylindrical setup. Our results confirm that the addition of damping material to the end of the waveguide is ineffective while suggesting that the local absorption effects at the lateral surface of the cylinder are a primary source of damping to achieve the ABH effect.


We analyze the emergence and spatial evolution of the German laser systems industry. Regional knowledge in the related field of laser sources, as well as the presence of universities with physics or engineering departments, is conducive to the emergence of laser systems suppliers. The regional presence of source producers is also positively related to entry into laser systems. One important mechanism behind regional entry is the diversification of upstream laser source producers into the downstream systems market. Entry into the materials processing submarket appears to be unrelated to academic knowledge in the region, but the presence of laser source producers and the regional stock of laser knowledge are still highly predictive in this submarket.


Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (NRF2) is a master regulator of antioxidant and detoxification activities that can eliminate reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced via irradiation. However, Nrf2 overexpression in liver cancer cells may cause both radioresistance and chemoresistance. Reducing Nrf2 levels can enhance the radiosensitivity of HepG2 cells. Wingless/int-3A (Wnt3A) is a Wnt family protein that mainly activates the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Recent studies showed that the Axin1-GSK-3β protein complex, a component of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, can capture Nrf2 and facilitate its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation in the cytoplasm. This protein complex is degraded upon activation of the Wnt signaling pathway. In the present study, we treated HepG2 cells with the Wnt3A inhibitor LGK-974, an effective and specific PORCN inhibitor that can prevent the formation of a proper folding of the Wnt protein in the endoplasmic reticulum. We found that HepG2 cells became more sensitive to radiation with increasing LGK-974 concentrations. Upon 2 Gy or 4 Gy irradiation, the cells treated with LGK-974 more frequently underwent apoptosis and grew less rapidly. PCR and western blot results showed that inhibiting the secretion of Wnt3A blocked the Wnt signaling pathway and prevented Nrf2 signaling. Notably, the Wnt inhibitor may serve as a radiosensitizing drug.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of prior tactual, prior visual, and prior tactualvisual experience on the recognition of simple shapes embedded in more complex figures, the length of time needed to recognize the shapes, the transfer to new designs following the recognition task, and the length of time needed to make the transfer. The variables were compared in relation to race and sex. Eighty, five-year-old Head Start Children were randomly selected from all the children attending Head Start in the area covered by the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council. There were forty males and forty females; forty black and forty white children randomly assigned to the four treatment groups. There were twenty children per treatment variable with an equal number of males and females, and an equal number of blacks and whites. A recognition task and a transfer of training task were administered to each child. Response latencies were recorded. Four analyses of variance were computed with subsequent t tests on significant main effects and interaction effects.


"We live together under the thick canopy, each searching for the other; the same leeches and mosquitoes that feed on our blood feed on his blood." John Edmund Delezen felt a kinship with the people he was instructed to kill in Vietnam; they were all at the mercy of the land. His memoir begins when he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam in March of 1967. He volunteered for the Third Force Recon Company, whose job it was to locate and infiltrate enemy lines undetected and map their locations and learn details of their status. The duty was often painful both physically and mentally. He was stricken with malaria in November of 1967, wounded by a grenade in February of 1968 and hit by a bullet later that summer. He remained in Vietnam until December, 1968. Delezen writes of Vietnam as a man humbled by a mysterious country and horrified by acts of brutality. The land was his enemy as much as the Vietnamese soldiers. He vividly describes the three-canopy jungle with birds and monkeys overhead that could be heard but not seen, venomous snakes hiding in trees and relentless bugs that fed on men. He recalls stumbling onto a pit of rotting Vietnamese bodies left behind by American forces, and days when fierce hunger made a bag of plasma seem like an enticing meal. He writes of his fallen comrades and the images of war that still pervade his dreams. This book contains many photographs of American Marines and Vietnam as well as three maps.


Tuberculosis is one of the major causes of infection across the world. The emergence of multi-, extensively- and totally drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis contributes to the lack of therapeutic options available. The mechanisms associated with this resistance could involve mutations in genes coding for target proteins, decreased permeability, increased efflux and so on. Resistance mediated by efflux systems has become more relevant, since these systems help the bacteria to extrude antibiotics until relevant mutations emerge and become established in the population. Therefore, compounds that inhibit these transport systems are of major importance and have been studied in the last few years. Not only do these compounds act on the bacterial efflux systems but they have also been explored for their dual role as boosters of the macrophage-infected cells. The search for novel compounds or combinations of adjuvant compounds and antibiotics to treat mycobacterial multidrug-resistant infections has become a major goal in the treatment of these diseases.


Emphasizing how modes of book production, promotion, and consumption shape ideas of literary value, Edward Mack examines the role of Japan's publishing industry in defining modern Japanese literature. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, as cultural and economic power consolidated in Tokyo, the city's literary and publishing elites came to dominate the dissemination and preservation of Japanese literature. As Mack explains, they conferred cultural value on particular works by creating prizes and multivolume anthologies that signaled literary merit. One such anthology, the Complete Works of Contemporary Japanese Literature (published between 1926 and 1931), provided many readers with their first experience of selected texts designated as modern Japanese literature. The low price of one yen per volume allowed the series to reach hundreds of thousands of readers. An early prize for modern Japanese literature, the annual Akutagawa Prize, first awarded in 1935, became the country's highest-profile literary award. Mack chronicles the history of book production and consumption in Japan, showing how advances in technology, the expansion of a market for literary commodities, and the development of an extensive reading community enabled phenomena such as the Complete Works of Contemporary Japanese Literature and the Akutagawa Prize to manufacture the very concept of modern Japanese literature.


The objective of this paper is to critically evaluate the working capital management as practiced in the two Islamic banks in Bangladesh. To achieve this goal, the study also examines the policy and practices of cash management, evaluates the principles, procedures and techniques of CCC, debtors collection period (DCP), creditors' payment period (CPP), GRO and loan loss reserves (LLR) are used as a working capital variables and return on equity (ROE) is used as a profitability variable. For this study the data from last five years (2008 - 2012) have been used. The key findings from the study are: cash conversion cycles are positively related with two Islamic banks profitability. Two variables like Bank creditors' payment period and growth of the two banks have significant negative relationship with profitability; but debtors' collection period, Credit risk, Leverage have shown different results for two banks. Leverage and credit risk have significant positive relationship with profitability of AIBL bank. The performance of AIBL bank is better in some aspects like cash conversion cycle, creditors' payment period, credit risk and growth. On the other hand, the performance of IBBL Bank is better in some facets like debtors' payment period and leverage. Overall results show that the working capital management of AIBL bank is better that of IBBL bank. Aus. J. Acc. Eco. Fin. Vol 2(1), April 2016, P 57-68


"In the Toolik Lake region of arctic Alaska, ponds contain one of two distinct zooplankton communities. Small ponds are typically dominated by Daphnia pulex and medium and large ponds are typically dominated by the larger daphnid, Daphnia middendorffiana. An invertebrate predator, Heterocope septentrionalis, exists in the medium and large ponds with D. middendorffiana. D. pulex were exposed to Heterocope kairomone in laboratory and in situ experiments in an effort to explain why these two species do not coexist in nature. An increase in average egg number per brood was observed when D. pulex were exposed to predator kairomone both in laboratory and in situ studies. In laboratory studies, D. pulex increased size at 24 hours old in response to Heterocope kairomone. Behavioral changes, such as an alternation in vertical position, were not observed when D. pulex and D. middendorffiana were exposed to predator kairomones."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


We develop a general equilibrium stochastic OLG model with heterogenous households. Households differ with respect to their productivity. Productivity depends stochastically on parents' unobservable investment in their child's human capital and an aggregate productivity shock. We introduce a PAYG social security system that conditions benefits on the aggregate wage sum and on the wage of one's child. We analyze the effects of such a social security system on the endogenous distribution of human capital and compare it to real world systems, which typically do not condition benefits on the wages of one's children. We decompose the effects of social security on the investment in human capital into an incentive effect, an insurance effect, a redistributive effect and a general equilibrium effect. Furthermore, we discuss the effects of social security on the long run distribution of human capital. Our approach suggests a novel role for a well-designed social security system: it can foster human capital accumulation and act as intragenerational insurance against human capital risk.


Maintaining dynamic security of a power system subjected to large disturbances is of utmost importance. Fast and accurate online detection of instability is essential in initiating certain emergency control measures. The techniques reported in the literature involve mainly the application of global phasor measurements and heuristic algorithms. In this paper, an accurate technique for the online detection of loss of synchronism based on voltage and current measurements in a line is presented. The technique makes use of the concept of potential energy in a line. The conditions for the system instability are derived from energy function analysis. However, no assumptions are made regarding the power-angle relationship in a line, nor are any data on the system equivalents necessary in implementing the detection scheme.


Abstract Geo-referenced archive databases on mountain organisms are very promising tools for achieving a better understanding of mountain biodiversity and predicting its changes. The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) of DIVERSITAS, in cooperation with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, encourages a global effort to mine biodiversity databases on mountain organisms. The wide range of climatic conditions and topographies across the world's mountains offers an unparalleled opportunity for developing and testing biodiversity theory. The power of openly accessible, interconnected electronic databases for scientific biodiversity research, which by far exceeds the original intent of archiving for mainly taxonomic purposes, has been illustrated. There is an urgent need to increase the amount and quality of geo-referenced data on mountain biodiversity provided online, in order to meet the challenges of global change in mountains.


The Smart Grid is at the same time a part of the Internet of Things and an example of a cyber-physical system where the physical power grid is surrounded by many intelligent and communication devices that allow for an enhanced management of the power network itself. The Smart Grid may bring great performance benefits to the society in terms of enabling the massive introduction of renewable energy sources in the power grid, the reduction of carbon emissions and improved sustainability among others. However, it may also bring big computer networking challenges to achieve the needed high reliability and low latency and even risks in terms of cybersecurity since it opens the power system to at least the same threats faced by the Internet. In fact, it is reasonable to think that the vulnerabilities will be still larger, considering the novel, heterogeneous and distributed nature of the Smart Grid. Furthermore, cybersecurity in Smart Grids is essential for the survival and feasibility of this electricity concept, thus making the risks still more relevant. Such ICT systems and computer networks supporting the Smart Grid concept need to be very efficient and to comply with very stringent requirements, at least for some of the services to be provided. They also need to efficiently integrate and manage in a single network a vast array of technologies among which diverse link layer technologies, meshed and non-meshed Ethernet networks, different cybersecurity protocols, networking at different layers, cognitive systems and storage and replication of data. The objective is to provide a system capable of providing adequate service to the wide array of applications foreseen for the Smart Grid but the complexity of the problem is really impressive and it is not possible to focus all of its aspects in a single paper or even project. The present paper presents these requirements, the solutions and results developed and tested in the FP7 European Project INTEGRIS as well as the future challenges and research lines identified as a result of the project and some prospective solutions.


Out-of-pocket payments are the principal source of health care finance in most Asian countries, and India is no exception. This fact has important consequences for household living standards. In this paper the author explores significant changes in the 1990s and early 2000s that appear to have occurred as a result of out-of-pocket spending on health care in 16 Indian states. Using data from the National Sample Survey on consumption expenditure undertaken in 1993-94 and 2004-05, the author measures catastrophic payments and impoverishment due to out-of-pocket payments for health care. Considerable data on the magnitude, distribution and economic consequences of out-of-pocket payments in India are provided; when compared over the study period, these indicate that new policies have significantly increased both catastrophic expenditure and impoverishment.


Friction is a critical factor in determining the quality of metal cutting operations. In this work, influences of workpiece material properties and the real area of contact on interfacial friction were analytically investigated at elevated temperatures. From the analytical results, the yield strength of the workpiece material was found to not only directly influence the friction as indicated by Challen and Oxley's model, but also indirectly influence the friction by changing the real contact area. An rigid plastic model for tool/workpiece real contact area was proposed which showed that the real contact area and the average asperity slope angle increased significantly at elevated temperatures. Based on experiments conducted upon a specially designed experimental apparatus, influences of tool coating material and temperature on the friction in a metal cutting process were investigated. By the help of atomic force microscopy, it was found that the friction coefficient in the metal cutting process studied was directly related to the slope of the tool asperities, the real area of contact within the tool/workpiece interface, and the level of asperity interaction. By varying the working temperature over a wide range of operating conditions, the microstructures of the workpiece materials and thermal properties of the tool coatings were found to significantly influence the friction coefficient. For the specific coating materials studied, Al2O3 was found to have the best friction and wear performance at higher temperature, while TiN performed better at the lower temperature examined. The TiC/TiN coated tools demonstrated a consistent performance with respect to friction over the range of temperature studied. Finally, an empirical model that related the friction to the yield strength of workpiece material was established and discussed.


The introduction of genetic modifications in donor cells for NT requires a significant number of population doublings (PD), and the deleterious effects, which may be attributed to aneuploidy or changes in DNA methylation and histone acetylation, are difficult at this time to circumvent. We hypothesize that the identification of a donor cell that is genetically stable for a long period of time in vitro such as somatic stem cells or those cells that demonstrate stem-like characteristics may be reprogrammed more completely, thus providing the key to increasing the efficiency of NT. Regulators of development in undifferentiated cells are suggested to be silenced by the presence of a bivalent domain modification pattern in which a large region of repressive histone 3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) contains smaller regions of activating histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3).The dual marks work to silence developmental genes in embryonic stem cells while simultaneously keeping them receptive to activation. The objectives of the current study were to determine the chromosomal stability of porcine adipose tissue-derived adult stem cells (pASC) through in vitro culture, to analyze pASC alongside fetal porcine fibroblasts (FPF) for gene expression profiles of chromatin remodeling proteins and global methylation and acetylation patterns, and to determine the presence of a co-enrichment of H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 within the promoter regions of developmentally important transcription factors. Metaphase spreads were prepared, and the presence of H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 was investigated in each of 3 individual pASC primary cultures for each analysis; whereas, gene expression and global methylation and acetylation were analyzed in each of 4 individual pASC and FPF primary cultures. Of 714 metaphases analyzed, 509 (71.3%) were aneuploid and only 205 (28.7%) were normal diploid porcine cells. For each cell population, we found a remarkable percentage of aneuploidies (43.7, 48.9, and 47.3, with a 46.6 ± 1.5 average) present immediately after the cultures were established. Chi-square analysis indicated that the percent of aneuploid cells during PD 1-10 was significantly less than that for PD 11-20 and PD 21-30. Also, porcine ASC demonstrated a consistently lower level of DNA methylation and histone acetylation through passages 2 through 7; whereas, the patterns for FPF varied. The expression levels of chromatin remodeling transcripts remained lower in pASC throughout culture when compared with FPF. Finally, porcine ASC possess a co-enrichment of H3K27me3 and H3K4me3 on the promoter region of the developmentally important transcription factor OCT-4. In vitro-cultured porcine ASC used as donor cells for NT should be chosen from early PD because of increased levels of aneuploidy at later PD. With a more complete characterization of porcine ASC, a donor cell population that can be more efficiently reprogrammed following fusion with the oocyte might be identified.


Defeasible reasoning is a simple but efficient approach to nonmonotonic reasoning that has recently attracted considerable interest and that has found various applications. Defeasible logic and its variants are an important family of defeasible reasoning methods. So far no relationship has been established between defeasible logic and mainstream nonmonotonic reasoning approaches. In this paper we establish close links to known semantics of logic programs. In particular, we give a translation of a defeasible theory $D$ into a meta-program $P(D)$. We show that under a condition of decisiveness, the defeasible consequences of $D$ correspond exactly to the sceptical conclusions of $P(D)$ under the stable model semantics. Without decisiveness, the result holds only in one direction (all defeasible consequences of $D$ are included in all stable models of $P(D)$). If we wish a complete embedding for the general case, we need to use the Kunen semantics of $P(D)$, instead.


Adaptive transmission can maximize the average information rate on a time-varying channel for a given power constraint and target bit error rate (BER) by adapting certain parameters of the transmitted signal to the temporal variations of the channel. This rate-adaptation idea has been extended to systems in which multi-carrier transmissions are used to combat frequency selective multipath fading. Since the outage probability of such schemes can be quite high, especially for channels with low average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), adaptive systems require buffering of the input data. Because separate-layer consideration may not be appropriate for the time-varying wireless channels, this design challenge prompts a new design methodology that jointly optimizes the allocation of system resources through a cross-layer design. We conduct a cross-layer performance analysis of an adaptive multicarrier transmission system with a finite buffer. We formulate such system as an M/G/1 queue in which the departure rates form a discrete set. We then derive an upper bound and a lower bound to the buffer overflow probability. We also obtain the mean waiting time to quantify the average delay experienced by data in the system. With these results, we establish a link between the physical layer design criteria, such as the transmission rate and the reception error rate, and those of higher layers. Numerical examples are also provided and discussed to illustrate the mathematical formalism and the effects of various system parameters.


Students' engagement and persistence in test preparation require their use of self-regulated learning strategies to negate distraction and facilitate good preparation. This research aimed to investigate students' self-regulation strategies when taking a TOEFL preparation course, by measuring their attitudes towards the course and analyzing the correlation between their pre-test and progress test scores. The data collected comprised self-reported answers from a Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the scores of a pre-test and progress test taken by the students during the course. The students were cognizant that hard work affected learning performance, valuing in particular overcoming difficult tasks or continuing to learn even when performance lagged. A strong positive correlation was also found between pre-test and progress test scores (r = 0.8422), indicating high academic performance in the students. These findings emphasize the importance of developing students' methods of learning and practice. Students should be empowered to become regulated-learners, and should be made more aware of different self-regulated learning strategies to better evaluate, regulate, and improve their own performance.


This study focuses on three topics in the behaviour of small manufacturing firms using theories from industrial economics as theoretical benchmarks. The study takes as its starting point the perspective of the individual enterprise rather than that of an industry or a market. For the study a considerable amount of new data was collected by interviewing about 80 small business managers in Finland up to three times by the end of 1997. The first of the three parts of the study considers the adoption of an export strategy. The non-linear econometric model adopted suggests that the adoption of an export strategy in small firms is in particularly influenced by the language skills of entrepreneurs, and has become faster over time. The second chapter provides insights into the differentiation behaviour of industrial small firms. At the individual firm's level, vertical differentiation seems to have a special weight since horizontal differentiation is often limited by the requirement of technical compatibility, and because improving quality is perceived to incorporate lower risk than differentiation based on taste differences between customers.

The third chapter studies exiting from export markets using the case-study method of research. There is no strong case for, or against, the export hysteresis in the data, and thus one can argue that the behaviour of the firms has been largely in accordance with the standard theory of a competitive industry. The lack of an explicitly export strategy and concentration on exports to one country seem to contribute to exit where the nature of exporting can be described as opportunistic. Overall, the firm-level study presented here suggests the relevance of further studies using models of diffusion of innovations to theorize small business exporting and to taking better into consideration of an individual firm's perspective in studies on product differentiation. Moreover, demand side influences on export hysteresis should be studied further.


Complex-systems research is becomingly increasingly data-driven, particularly in the social and biological domains. Many of the systems from which sample data are collected feature structural heterogeneity at the mesoscopic scale (i.e. communities) and limited inter-community diffusion. Here we show that the interplay between these two features can yield a significant bias in the global characteristics inferred from the data. We present a general framework to quantify this bias, and derive an explicit corrective factor for a wide class of systems. Applying our analysis to a recent high-profile survey of conflict mortality in Iraq suggests a significant overestimate of deaths.


The negative association between depression and marital satisfaction has been clearly documented, with theoretical approaches describing the direction of effects as depression leading to marital dissatisfaction (Stress Generation Model) and marital dissatisfaction leading to depression (Marital Discord Model). Therapy approaches have found that treating the relationship of relationally distressed couples can result in positive changes in relationship satisfaction and depression. However, it is possible that many relationally distressed couples do not attend therapy. Because there is evidence that they are attending Couple and Relationship Education (CRE), we examined whether relationally distressed participants of a CRE program reported shifts in depressed affect and/or relationship quality after program participation. We found that reported depressed affect decreased and relationship quality increased after program participation. In order to test whether shifts in constructs predicted each other, we fit two separate models. In the first model, informed by the Marital Discord Model, shift in depressed affect was the outcome variable, and we examined whether these shifts were predicted by shifts in relationship quality. In the second model, informed by the Stress Generation Model, shift in relationship quality was the outcome variable, and we examined whether these shifts were predicted by shifts in depressed affect. Results indicated that shifts in relationship quality were predicted by shifts in depressed affect, and shifts in depressed affect were predicted by shifts in


We study the statistical properties of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) using explicit and implicit updates for fitting generalized linear models (GLMs). Initially, we develop a computationally efficient algorithm to implement implicit SGD learning of GLMs. Next, we obtain exact formulas for the bias and variance of both updates which leads to two important observations on their comparative statistical properties. First, in small samples, the estimates from the implicit procedure are more biased than the estimates from the explicit one, but their empirical variance is smaller and they are more robust to learning rate misspecification. Second, the two procedures are statistically identical in the limit: they are both unbiased, converge at the same rate and have the same asymptotic variance. Our set of experiments confirm our theory and more broadly suggest that the implicit procedure can be a competitive choice for fitting large-scale models, especially when robustness is a concern.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the efficacy and safety of endoscopic middle ear paraganglioma (glomus tympanicum) resection.

STUDY DESIGN
Case series with chart review.

SETTING
Multi-institutional tertiary university medical centers.

PATIENTS
Adult patients with middle ear paragangliomas treated via a transcanal endoscopic approach from 1/2012 to 11/2015.

INTERVENTION
All tumors were initially approached via a transcanal endoscopic technique. An operating microscope was used only if the tumor could not be adequately visualized or resected with endoscopic techniques alone.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The main outcome was completeness of tumor resection via the endoscopic technique. Secondary measures were resolution of pulsatile tinnitus, audiometric outcomes, surgical duration, and surgical complications.

RESULTS
Endoscopic resection was attempted on 14 middle ear paragangliomas. Thirteen patients (93%) were women with a mean age of 61.6 years. The mean tumor size was 6.2 mm (SD, 3.3). Eleven cases (79%) had complete resection via an exclusive endoscopic approach. The mean surgical duration was 108.1 minutes (SD, 55.6). One case required use of an operating microscope via a transcanal route and two cases required postauricular incisions with mastoidectomy. There were no significant postoperative complications. Two patients (14%) had tympanic membrane perforations repaired intraoperatively without residual perforation on follow-up. All patients had normal postoperative facial nerve function. Pulsatile tinnitus resolved after surgery in all 13 patients who presented with this symptom preoperatively. The mean pure-tone average improved by 5.9 dB (SD, 4.6) after surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
Endoscopic management of middle ear paraganglioma is safe, feasible, and effective.


The study focuses on two Slovak corruption cases, both well-documented and of similar social relevance, of which one did not receive any cross-media coverage. Moreover, the case of large-scale bribery was rather under-hyped in comparison to other major corruption scandals occurring in the country. The case of cronyism formed a typical example of extremely poor inter-media coverage of highly unfair and politicised cronyism. Through these cases, especially in the one in which the media failed to stimulate the creation of a full-blown scandal, the study further analyses the criteria and circumstances that determine the worthiness of a case for wide media coverage. The study on Slovakia is framed within theories of scandalous reporting and the theory of agenda setting and inter-media agenda setting role of the media, and supported by quantitative analysis of actual media coverage of the bribery case.


This paper presents a general framework for the integration of speaker and speech recognizers. The framework poses the problem of combining speech and speaker recognizers as the joint maximization of the a posteriori probability of the word sequence and speaker given the observed utterance. It is shown that the pos- teriori probability can be expressed as the product of four terms: a likelihood score from a speaker-independent speech recognizer, the (normalized) likelihood score of a text-dependent speaker recognizer, the likelihood of a speaker-dependent statistical language model, and the prior probability of the speaker. Efficient search strategies are discussed, with a particular focus on the problem of recognizing and verifying name-based identity claims over very large populations (e.g., "My name is John Doe"). The efficient search approach uses a speaker-independent recognizer to first generate a list of top hypotheses, followed by a resorting of this list based on the combined score of the four terms discussed above. Experimental results on an over-the-telephone speech recognition task show a 34% reduction in the error rate where the test-set consists of users speaking their first and last name from a grammar covering 1 million unique persons.


The establishment of social work qualifications in South Africa emerged at a few universities from 1937 onwards (Earle, 2008; Nicholas, Rautenbach & Maistry, 2010; Potgieter, 1998). In accordance with Section 18A (1) of the Social Service Professions Act (No. 110 of 1978), up until 1987 a social worker required a three-year degree, after which a four-year qualification was required. At some institutions the introduction of a fourth year was included in the undergraduate programme, while others added the fourth year as a separate Honours qualification. This system allowed social workers to gain registration through a range of bachelor's qualifications in the arts, social sciences or social work. At the time the need for a standardised qualification for all social workers to meet the requirements of practice settings became a growing concern to all the different stakeholders.


In this study we analyze the determinants of job satisfaction of doctorate holders in Spain. Specifically, we consider overall job satisfaction as well as basic and motivational satisfaction following Herzberg's typology (based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs). Using data from the Spanish Survey on Human Resources in Science and Technology of 2009, representative of the Spanish doctoral graduate population, we develop an analysis by gender and institutional sector (university and non-university) where employees are employed. We propose OLS regression to identify the determinants of basic and motivational satisfaction at job as well as an ordered logit model for overall job satisfaction. Results do not allow us to confirm Herzberg's differentiation for the Spanish PhD holders, since factors related with basic motivation (such as salary or working conditions referred to 'safety') have a bearing on all types of job satisfaction (not only the basic one as expected). Likewise, results do not show significant differences by gender. However, it seems that these 'basic' needs are less important for the job satisfaction those PhD holders working at the University. Our results seem reasonable for a Southern European country where monetary conditions in labor relations are worse than in other developed countries.


Greek-owned shipping has been at the top of the world fleet for the last twenty years. Winner of the 1997 Runciman Award, this richly sourced study traces the development of the Greek tramp fleet from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Gelina Harlaftis argues that the success of Greek-owned shipping in recent years has been a result not of a number of entrepreneurs using flags of convenience in the 1940s, but of networks and organisational structures which date back to the nineteenth century. This study provides the most comprehensive history of development of modern Greek shipping ever published. It is illustrated with numerous maps and photographs, and includes extensive tables of primary data.


This paper analyses the gap in educational access according to parental education over 10 year period using evidence from the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) in six African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). Each country contains two DHS datasets, separated by at least a decade. The study uses the model of "zones of exclusion" developed by the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity to operationalised educational access for children. Parental education is defined according to years of schooling. To investigate narrowing or widening in the gap in educational access according to parental education a probit model is used to estimate the likelihood that 15 to 19 years old children move out of the zones of exclusion and reach meaningful access. Three cohorts of parents and two cohorts of children are identified from our datasets. We estimated the slope of the relationship between parental education and children"s educational access for all combinations of parent-children cohorts. Our results show a widening of the gap in Kenya, narrowing of the gap in Malawi and Uganda, and to a lesser extent in Nigeria and Zambia. In Tanzania there have been no changes in the gradient. Our methodology enables us to identify whether these changes are the result of the institutional educational system experienced by mothers, their children or a combination of these.


Smartphones are programmable and equipped with a set of cheap but powerful embedded sensors, such as accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope, GPS, microphone, and camera. These sensors can collectively monitor a diverse range of human activities and the surrounding environment. Crowdsensing is a new paradigm which takes advantage of the pervasive smartphones to sense, collect, and analyze data beyond the scale of what was previously possible. With the crowdsensing system, a crowdsourcer can recruit smartphone users to provide sensing service. Existing crowdsensing applications and systems lack good incentive mechanisms that can attract more user participation. To address this issue, we design incentive mechanisms for crowdsensing. We consider two system models: the crowdsourcer-centric model where the crowdsourcer provides a reward shared by participating users, and the user-centric model where users have more control over the payment they will receive. For the crowdsourcer-centric model, we design an incentive mechanism using a Stackelberg game, where the crowdsourcer is the leader while the users are the followers. We show how to compute the unique Stackelberg Equilibrium, at which the utility of the crowdsourcer is maximized, and none of the users can improve its utility by unilaterally deviating from its current strategy. For the user-centric model, we design an auction-based incentive mechanism, which is computationally efficient, individually rational, profitable, and truthful. Through extensive simulations, we evaluate the performance and validate the theoretical properties of our incentive mechanisms.


In this article we describe the design and construction of a laboratory astrophysics experiment that recreates the harsh conditions of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) and is used to study the heterogeneous chemistry that occurs there. The Nottingham Surface Astrophysics Experiment is used to determine, empirically, accurately, and usually for the first time, key physical and chemical constants that are vital for modeling and understanding the ISM. It has been designed specifically to investigate gas–solid interactions under interstellar conditions. The pressure regime is ideally matched to molecular densities in dusty disks in protostellar or protoplanetary regions. The ultrahigh vacuum system is routinely capable of obtaining pressures that are only three orders of magnitude above those in the ISM, with similar relative concentrations of the two most abundant gases in such regions, H2 and CO, and an absence of any other major gas components. A short introduction describes the astronomical motivation behind this experiment. In Sec. II we then give details of the design, construction, and calibration of each component of the experiment. The cryostat system has far exceeded design expectations, and reaches temperatures between 7 and 500 K. This is comparable with the ISM, where dust temperatures from 10 K have been observed. Line-of-sight mass spectrometry, reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy, and quartz crystal microbalance mass measurements were combined into a single instrument for the first time. The instrument was carefully calibrated, and its control and data acquisition system was developed to ensure that experimental parameters are recorded as accurately as possible. In Sec. III we present some of the experimental results from this system that have not been published elsewhere. The results presented here demonstrate that the system can be used to determine desorption enthalpies, ΔdesH, bonding systems, and sticking probabilities between a variety of gases and ices common to the ISM. This instrument will greatly facilitate our understanding of surface processes that occur in the ISM, and allow us to investigate "mimic" ISM systems in a controlled environment. In this article we illustrate that laboratory surface astrophysics is an exciting and emerging area of research, and this instrument in particular will have a major impact through its contributions to both surface science and astronomy.


This case was atypical because the patient was conscious and apneic. The usual responses that indicate a patient's distress during terminal weaning would not have been evident in this patient. Introducing noninvasive monitoring of end-tidal CO2 and SpO2 and using BIS allowed the weaning to progress with confidence that the patient was as comfortable as possible. We think we kept our commitment to HD to honor his wishes by using the most humane method we could devise, and to address his family's needs at the same time.


Palaeomagnetic data from Klasies River main site Cave 1 (Eastern Cape Province, South Africa) are reported. Natural remanent magnetisation directions obtained from 77 oriented samples were determined by progressive alternating field demagnetisation methodology. Three palaeomagnetic samplings from the Witness Baulk from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) Late Pleistocene White Sand member and the Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) middens in Cave 1 were dated and analysed to obtain the palaeomagnetic directions recorded in the sediments. Here we provide new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates for the White Sand Member, and new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates for the LSA midden of areas not previously dated. The palaeomagnetic analysis took into account rock magnetism and directional analysis. The former reveals that the main magnetic carrier was magnetite; the latter shows that characteristic remanent magnetisation of normal and anomalous directions was observed in the lower portion of the White Sand Member and LSA midden. Normal directions correspond to the palaeosecular variation record for South Africa during the Late Pleistocene. On the other hand, the anomalous directions recorded in the LSA midden might represent the likely Sterno-Etrussia geomagnetic field excursion which occurred during the Late Holocene and is observed in other places on the planet. Finally, the directional data obtained are a potential tool for discussing the age of deposits corresponding to those periods.


Objectives
Many cell culture and animal studies have demonstrated that Trans-resveratrol (R) has the potential to induce beige cell formation and activity. Although human studies indicate that R can maintain metabolic health, evidence is inconclusive regarding its browning effectiveness mainly due to its low aqueous solubility and high hepatic metabolism in humans. To combat the shortcomings of R, we have successfully synthesized biocompatible and biodegradable R-encapsulated liposomes (Rlipo). We will directly inject Rlipo into inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) in this project. The purpose of this study to evaluate the anti-obesity effects of resveratrol-encapsulated liposomes in female APOE*3Leiden.CETP transgenic mice, which have human-like lipoprotein metabolism.

Methods
Rlipo was prepared using R and soy phosphatidylcholine (soy-PC) dissolved in ethanol. After mixing and drying with nitrogen, deionized water was added followed by a sonication step. Ultrafiltration was used to remove any unencapsulated R. The void liposomes (Vlipo) were prepared using only soy-PC.Female APOE*3Leiden.CETP mice (n = 40) were fed with a high fat diet (45% of calorie from fat) throughout the study. After 4 weeks of the high-fat diet administration, mice were randomly divided into 4 groups (n = 10) and received iWAT injections of Rlipo, Vlipo, free R and saline (control) once per week for 5 weeks. R concentration was 17.5 mg/kg body weight/week. Body weight and food intake were measured weekly. Body composition of mice was measured using an EchoMRITM every other week. Paired sample t-test and One-way ANOVA were used to analyze differences between means.

Results
After 5-weeks of treatment compared to baseline, fat percentage differences were 1.99 ± 0.93%, 1.85 ± 0.58%, 1.45 ± 0.67%, and 1.40 ± 0.68% in control, free R, Vlipo and Rlipo groups, respectively. Body weight and fat mass showed a similar trend of change. Although control group showed an increase in lean mass (0.25 ± 0.95 g), RLipo group showed a decrease (-0.14 ± 0.52 g). Food intake was similar among four groups.

Conclusions
Nanoencapsulation of R can enhance R's anti-obesity effects. However longer treatment time might be necessary to see more prominent results.

Funding Sources
NIH/NCCIH (Grant R15AT008733).


n-6 PUFA are well known for their critical role in many physiological functions and seem to reduce risks of CHD. However, some argue that excessive consumption of n-6 PUFA may lead to adverse effects on health and therefore recommend reducing dietary n-6 PUFA intake or fixing an upper limit. In this context, the present work aimed to review evidence on the link between n-6 PUFA and risks of CVD. Epidemiological studies show that n-6 PUFA dietary intake significantly lowers blood LDL-cholesterol levels. In addition, n-6 PUFA intake does not increase several CVD risk factors such as blood pressure, inflammatory markers, haemostatic parameters and obesity. Data from prospective cohort and interventional studies converge towards a specific protective role of dietary n-6 PUFA intake, in particular linoleic acid, against CVD. n-6 PUFA benefits are even increased when SFA intake is also reduced. In regards to studies examined in this narrative review, recommendation for n-6 PUFA intake above 5 %, and ideally about 10 %, of total energy appears justified.


Introduction: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are widely used to assess medical residents. The study aims to analyse MCQ exams of medical residents administered at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences during 2008-2012. Method: Data of this retrospective study were extracted from 63 MCQ exams including 9600 tests. Quantity related variables included; discrimination index, difficulty level, reliability of test index (KR20). Quality related variables included; proportion of questions without structural defect and proportion of taxonomy 1, 2 and 3 questions. Data were collected using MCQs from question bank and analyzed by SPSS V.16 software. Results: Over the specified five years, the average difficulty level was %0.62, the average discrimination index was 0.27 and the average of reliability coefficient (KR20) in total exams was 0.88. The average of questions in Taxonomy 1 over the specified years was 33.5% and questions with taxonomy 2 and 3 were66.5%. The average of questions without structural defect was 62.6% which fell in the unacceptable range. A significant difference was observed in reliability coefficient (KR20)- (P=0.017), difficulty level (P=0.001), taxonomy 1 (P=0.001) and Taxonomy 2 and 3 (P=0.006). Conclusion: According to findings of this study, taxonomy 2 and 3 were decreased and taxonomy 1 was increased over the specified five years. We recommend the specialist board members and the Deputy for Education of the Ministry of Health to consider the results of this study and react to them by improving MCQ quality of future exams.


Private water wells and municipal water supplies function as different systems of water provision, creating distinct—but understudied—patterns of water consumption. This article examines private well ownership to assess the relationships among conspicuous water consumption, cultural practices, and environmental structures. We surveyed well owners and non-well owners throughout Kansas, a state highly reliant on groundwater (n = 864). Borrowing insights from Bourdieu's analysis of cultural consumption, this research considers the relationships between demographic variables and watering routines. We provide evidence that well ownership is a significant predictor of conspicuous water usage, and suggest attention to individuals' hydrologic habitus—a disposition toward water usage shaped by infrastructure, class, and pertinent social variables—facilitates a better understanding of well ownership, drought-time watering, and conspicuous water consumption.


Fabrication process introduces some inherent variability to the attributes of transistors (in particular length, widths, oxide thickness). As a result, every chip is physically unique. Physical uniqueness of microelectronics components can be used for multiple security applications. Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are built to extract the physical uniqueness of microelectronics components and make it usable for secure applications. However, the microelectronics components used by PUFs designs suffer from external, environmental variations that impact the PUF behavior. Variations of temperature gradients during manufacturing can bias the PUF responses. Variations of temperature or thermal noise during PUF operation change the behavior of the circuit, and can introduce errors in PUF responses. Detailed knowledge of the behavior of PUFs operating over various environmental factors is needed to reliably extract and demonstrate uniqueness of the chips. In this work, we present a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the behavior of two PUF designs, a ring oscillator PUF and a timing path violation PUF. We have implemented both PUFs using FPGA fabricated by Xilinx, and analyzed their behavior while varying temperature and supply voltage. Our experiments quantify the robustness of each design, demonstrate their sensitivity to temperature and show the impact which supply voltage has on the uniqueness of the analyzed PUFs.


OBJECTIVE: To describe how Ohio Appalachian women are over- or under-estimating risk for cervical cancer by comparing an objective measure of cervical cancer risk to subjective interpretations of risk. METHODS: A cervical cancer risk index was computed for 530 female participants recruited from clinics in Ohio Appalachia (2006–2008). Risk factors for cervical cancer, including human papillomavirus infection, number of sexual partners, parity, age at first intercourse, age at first pregnancy, oral contraceptive use and cigarette smoking were used to create a cervical cancer risk index. This index was used to categorize participants into low, average or high risk for cervical cancer. Subjective risk was assessed by asking women to indicate whether they believe their risk of cervical cancer to be below, about average, or higher than other women. Objective risk categories were compared to subjective risk to determine if women were accurately perceiving risk, or over- or under-estimating risk. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to determine correlates of risk perception accuracy. The outcome was a categorical variable consisting of over-estimating risk, underestimating risk and accurate risk perception, with accurate risk perception serving as the reference level in the model. RESULTS: Out of 530 women, 33.6% (n = 178) over-estimated risk and 24.9% (n = 132) under-estimated risk. Women with household incomes of <$25 k were more likely to under-estimate cervical cancer risk, as opposed to being accurate in their risk perception, than women in households earning over $50 k [OR = 2.06, 95% CI (1.04–4.07)] as were women with less than a high-school education [OR = 2.52, 95% CI (1.06–5.96)] compared to women with a college education. Also, women who reported recent alcohol use were more likely to under-estimate risk [OR = 1.94, 95% CI (1.18–3.19)] compared to women with no self-reported recent alcohol use. No variables were found to be associated with risk over-estimation. CONCLUSIONS: Many women in Ohio Appalachia do not accurately perceive their cervical cancer risk. Low income and education are associated with under-estimating risk. Future studies should determine if risk misperceptions are associated with cervical cancer screening and other preventive behaviors.


A life cycle assessment of a Swedish short‐rotation coppice willow bioenergy system generating electricity and heat was performed to investigate how the energy efficiency and time‐dependent climate impact were affected when the feedstock was converted into bio‐oil and char before generating electricity and heat, compared with being combusted directly. The study also investigated how the climate impact was affected when part of the char was applied to soil as biochar to act as a carbon sequestration agent and potential soil improver. The energy efficiencies were calculated separately for electricity and heat as the energy ratios between the amount of energy service delivered by the system compared to the amount of external energy inputs used in each scenario after having allocated the primary energy related to the inputs between the two energy services. The energy in the feedstock was not included in the external energy inputs. Direct combustion had the highest energy efficiency. It had energy ratios of 10 and 36 for electricity and heat, respectively. The least energy‐efficient scenario was the pyrolysis scenario where biochar was applied to soils. It had energy ratios of 4 and 12 for electricity and heat, respectively. The results showed that pyrolysis with carbon sequestration might be an option to counteract the current trend in global warming. The pyrolysis system with soil application of the biochar removed the largest amount of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, compared with the direct combustion scenario, the climate change mitigation potential depended on the energy system to which the bioenergy system delivered its energy services. A system expansion showed that direct combustion had the highest climate change mitigation potential when coal or natural gas were used as external energy sources to compensate for the lower energy efficiency of the pyrolysis scenario.


The Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress, yet Congress grants expansive lawmaking authority to federal agencies. As positive political theorists have long explored, Congress intends for federal agencies to faithfully exercise their delegated authority, but ensuring fidelity to congressional wishes is difficult due to asymmetries in information, expertise, and preferences that complicate congressional control and oversight. Indeed, this principal-agent problem has a democratic and constitutional dimension, as the legitimacy of administrative governance may well depend on whether the unelected bureaucracy is a faithful agent of Congress. Despite the predominance of lawmaking by regulation and the decades-long application of principal-agent theory to the regulatory state, we know very little about how federal agencies interpret statutes.This Article looks inside the black box of agency statutory interpretation in the rulemaking context. The Article reports the findings of a 195-question survey of agency rule drafters at seven executive departments (Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation) and two independent agencies (the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Reserve). Of the 411 officials sent the survey, 128 responded, and their answers shed considerable light on the tools and approaches they use to interpret statutes and draft regulations. The findings uncovered challenge some theories on agency interpretation while reinforcing others. As Congress, courts, and scholars gain more insight into how federal agencies use the canons, legislative history, and judicial deference doctrines in agency statutory interpretation, the relationship between Congress and federal agencies should improve, as should the judicial branch's ability to monitor and faithfully constrain lawmaking by regulation.The appendices for this paper are available at the following URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2481631.


The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) denotes a trend where a large
number of embedded devices employ communication services offered by
Internet protocols. Many of these devices, often called "smart
objects", are not directly operated by humans but exist as components
in buildings or vehicles, or are spread out in the environment.
Following the theme "Everything that can be connected will be
connected", engineers and researchers designing smart object networks
need to decide how to achieve this in practice. This document offers
guidance to engineers designing Internet- connected smart objects.


For the last few decades, Maldives has been seen as being at the forefront of addressing climate change impacts. The low elevation of the islands makes them vulnerable to slow-onset hazards, such as coastal erosion, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, and change in monsoon patterns and hence rainfall. Consequently, migration has long been discussed as an adaptation strategy for the population. This study covers outcomes from our field research conducted among islanders in Male, the capital of Maldives, in 2013. It contributes empirical evidence toward understanding complex relations among environmental challenges, climate change, and migration. We set up two main research questions. The first question explored islanders' perceptions of impacts of climatic variability in recent years and possible impacts of future climate change. The second question probed whether out-migration from the islands might be considered to be an adaptation strategy and whether the islanders were willing to move outside Maldives due to projected climate change impacts. We conducted our field research in the capital Male and nearby residential islands, using quantitative questionnaires with local respondents (N=347). Our results suggest that, besides a set of actually experienced environmental and climate challenges, slow-onset climate change impacts such as sea-level rise are perceived as being one of the key factors affecting Maldivian society and livelihoods. More than 50% of respondents perceive future sea-level rise to be a serious challenge at the national level and they accept that migration from islands to other countries might be a potential option. Conversely, from the individual perspective, sea-level rise is not perceived by the local population as being one of their own important challenges. The reason is that many other factors - cultural, religious, economic and social - play an important role in decisionmaking about migrating or not.


The HIV epidemic is a serious and pervasive health issue in the Latino community. While prevention efforts have helped maintain stability in the overall number of infections among Latinos for more than a decade, this population continues to be affected by HIV at high levels. In particular, Predominantly Spanish-speaking Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV. Several factors contribute to the HIV epidemic among Predominantly Spanish-speaking Latino MSM including substance use; intimate partner violence; the presence of certain STIs; same-sex relationship dynamics; avoidance of seeking testing counseling and treatment out of fear of discrimination and immigration status; and poverty, migration patterns, and language barriers. In particular, epidemiological behavioral research has identified how relationship dynamics in male couples are associated with sexual risk behavior. Consequently, further research is needed to identify and deliver interventions geared toward couple-based risk reduction among men in same-sex relationships. This paper describes the potential significance that innovative couple-based approaches can have on reducing HIV and AIDS cases among Predominantly Spanish-speaking Latino MSM and their same-sex partners.


In this article, I examine the seemingly incompatible epistemologies of sex offered by dominance ('governance') feminism and queer theory. While these bodies of work, especially when applied to US legal and political activity on prostitution, are commonly viewed as divergent sparring partners, I propose a 'convergence' of the two in the form of a revived and enhanced sex-positive feminism. If dominance feminism is the 'theory of no' to heterosexuality's male gender power, and if queer theory is the 'theory of yes' to the defiant possibilities of sex, sex-positive feminism is a 'theory of maybe': it examines practices of gender and sexuality in multiple contexts to find the ways in which heterosexuality can sometimes reify, and other times resist, the transfer of eroticised dominance and submission to political practices of patriarchy. After tracing the split between feminism and queer theory and arguing for a 'sex-positive queer feminism', I use the example of prostitution to consider some theoretical and practical implications of this shift in feminist lenses.


Natural Emerging Patterns: A Reformulation For Classification. Emerging Patterns (EPs) are itemsets (characteristics) whose supports change significantly from one dataset to another. They have been proposed for a very long time to capture multi-attribute contrasts between data classes or trends over time. A study carried out in this work shows that Emerging Patterns, as it is formulated to date, has several deficiencies and limitations to face classification problems. Different approaches based on this previous and deficient formulation of Emerging Patterns have been proposed in the literature. These different approaches have been created showing that, despite these limitations, have very high predictive power. These approaches range from classifiers directly built on Emerging Patterns to instance-weighting schemes for weighted Support Vector Machines. In this work, a new formulation for Emerging Patterns, which is completely aimed at dealing with classification problems, is proposed. A new classifier and a new instance-weighting scheme have also been created based on the novel formulation. They have been created to prove the advantages of this novel formulation handling classification problems over the previous formulation. An empirical study carried out on benchmark datasets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository shows that the proposed classifier is superior to other state-of-the-art classification methods such as C4.5, Naive Bayes. It has also shown to be superior to all of the most representative EPbased classifiers, based on the previous and deficient formulation, in terms of overall predictive accuracy in almost all of the used databases. The created instance-weighting scheme has been also empirically compared with the previous related works outperforming them in most of the cases. In addition to these empirical studies about the predictive power of the new formulation, a second set of studies has also been carried out. This second set of studies was made to show some other interesting features of the novel formulation. These other interesting features are, for instance, the number of patterns required to do a decent classification job or the robustness of the created classifier based on the new version of Emerging Patterns. These other features, in addition to the overall predictive accuracy, could also be determinant in the selection of the appropriate classifier for some specific classification problems. It is this way because, in very typical situations, there could be some classification constraints such as the available computational power or, for instance, the time to classify a test instance could be limited. The raise in overall predictive accuracy as well as the other results could be considered as clear proofs of the advantages of the novel formulation handling classification problems. To finish, drafts of some possible future works based on the proposed formulation of Emerging Patterns are also given, describing them in some detail. These possible future works, if they were successful, could be of great importance and could be seen as new tools to handle classification problems.


This essay focuses on goals, strategies and techniques for the facilitation of student learning. It reflects a bias toward what can be called active learning in which students move beyond being passive listeners (and too often even less than that) and instead are prompted to travel along a continuum of becoming fully responsible and active participants in their own learning processes. The underlying assumption is that this increasingly participatory engagement with the learning environment - one constructed and facilitated by the teacher - offers great potential for increasing the quality and depth of students' learning. Ironically, it does the same for the teacher because it places a far heavier responsibility on the teacher to listen, interpret, guide and interact rather than merely "profess". The analysis also begins from the belief that there is a convenient assumption among law teachers that the existing model of the American law school works effectively. This includes the conclusion that its methods and goals are not only appropriate and comprehensive but are being achieved. The reality is quite different. While law teachers have many positive attributes we tend to be amateurs from the perspective of the quality of teaching and awareness of the most effective ways to structure a curriculum, integrate course offerings and design and execute individual courses. Because most law professors have been extremely successful in their undergraduate and law school careers they may feel as if they are endowed by that experience with the knowledge and ability required to teach well, or they may understand their lack of knowledge and seek to compensate for that deficiency through denial and rationalization. In any event there is no guarantee that earlier academic success bears any direct relationship to excellence in teaching. With that criticism in mind this essay examines strategies for facilitating learning. Preliminary to that analysis, however, I thought it useful to discuss briefly the history of the Langdellian Hypothesis about the scientific nature of university legal education and academic legal research and scholarship. It is this flawed hypothesis that shaped the American law school.


The paper introduces the family semantics grid (FSG), a unitizing and coding system for the semantic
analysis of dyadic therapeutic conversations and self-narratives. Inspired by systemic and cognitivist
therapeutic approaches centered on meaning and psychopathology, the manual focuses on Ugazio's
(1998) constructionist concept of family semantic polarities and operationalizes the narrated semantic
polarities, namely the explicit semantic oppositions inferred from what is said in dyadic conversations.
The FSG provides a system for coding the narrated semantic polarities extracted from the transcripts.
The grid consists of four semantics — freedom, goodness, power, and belonging — which, according
to Ugazio, prevail in conversations with clients diagnosed with phobic, obsessive-compulsive,
eating, and mood disorders, respectively. Suitable also for biographical interviews, political speeches
and literary texts, the FSG is consistent and reliable


Performance related pay has been extended to practically the whole of the Civil Service over the last few years, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently announced the Government's intention to enlarge its role even further. Almost no serious work on seems to have been published on whether the existing systems have succeeded. The present study, directed solely at the Inland Revenue, begins to fill the gap. Performance Pay was introduced for the majority of staff at the Inland Revenue in 1988. The reason for doing this is not completely clear but the central justification for performance related pay must surely be that it acts as a motivator. We therefore wish to establish whether Revenue staff have been motivated to improve the quality and quantity of their work in response to Performance Pay. We surveyed the views of nearly 2,500 staff on the impact of the Performance Pay system on their own behaviour and that of others. Our first finding is that the majority of Revenue staff support the principle of performance related pay but that a significant minority feels hostile to it. Our second finding is that any positive motivational effects of Performance Pay have been, at most, very modest among Revenue staff. Even worse, there is clear evidence of some demotivation among staff. It is by no means implausible that the net motivational effect has been negative. The main reason for this failure to motivate looks to be that the allocation of performance payments is seen by very many staff to be unfair. Awards are given only to those who have received good appraisal ratings, but many of our respondents feel that the appraisal system has been corrupted. A second reason is that staff feel the amount of money involved in performance pay awards is simply not large enough to justify a change in behaviour. A third reason is that very many staff feel that they are already working to the right standard and that they cannot improve.


CONTEXT
The physiological determinants of ultramarathon success have rarely been assessed and likely differ in their contributions to performance as race distance increases.

PURPOSE
To examine predictors of performance in athletes who completed either a 50-, 80-, or 160-km trail race over a 20-km loop course on the same day.

METHODS
Measures of running history, aerobic fitness, running economy, body mass loss, hematocrit alterations, age, and cardiovascular health were examined in relation to race-day performance. Performance was defined as the percentage difference from the winning time at a given race distance, with 0% representing the fastest possible time.

RESULTS
In the 50-km race, training volumes, cardiovascular health, aerobic fitness, and a greater loss of body mass during the race were all related to better performance (all P < .05). Using multiple linear regression, peak velocity achieved in the maximal oxygen uptake test (β = -11.7, P = .002) and baseline blood pressure (β = 3.1, P = .007) were the best performance predictors for the men's 50-km race (r = .98, r2 = .96, P < .001), while peak velocity achieved in the maximal oxygen uptake test (β = -13.6, P = .001) and loss of body mass (β = 12.8, P = .03) were the best predictors for women (r = .94, r2 = .87, P = .001). In the 80-km race, only peak velocity achieved in the maximal oxygen uptake test predicted performance (β = -20.3, r = .88, r2 = .78, P < .001). In the 160-km race, there were no significant performance determinants.

CONCLUSIONS
While classic determinants of running performance, including cardiovascular health and running fitness, predict 50-km trail-running success, performance in longer-distance races appears to be less influenced by such physiological parameters.


In this article, we propose new heuristics for minimising the amount of XOR gates required to compute a system of linear equations in GF(2). We first revisit the well known Boyar-Peralta strategy and argue that a proper randomisation process during the selection phases can lead to great improvements. We then propose new selection criteria and explain their rationale. Our new methods outperform state-of-the-art algorithms such as Paar or Boyar-Peralta (or open synthesis tools such as Yosys) when tested on random matrices with various densities. They can be applied to matrices of reasonable sizes (up to about 32 × 32). Notably, we provide a new implementation record for the matrix underlying the MixColumns function of the AES block cipher, requiring only 94 XORs.


In more than half of U.S. states over the past two decades, the implementation of merit aid programs has dramatically reduced net tuition expenses for college-bound students who attend in-state colleges. Although the intention of these programs was to improve access to enrollment for high-achieving students, it is possible that they had unanticipated effects. We analyze whether state funding for higher education and K-12 education changed as a result of program implementation, and whether local school districts attempt to counter any such changes. We employ two methodologies to study whether this has been the case: a difference-in-differences model and a synthetic control estimation strategy. We find robust evidence that implementation of state merit aid programs led to an economically (and statistically) significant decline in state funding for K-12 education, which was mostly offset through increases in local revenues by school districts. These results have important implications for understanding how merit aid policies could have unintended consequences for the students they aim to support.


Small area estimation (SAE) of survey data down to small area level has become an increasingly widespread activity as scholars and policy-makers have sought to gain ever more detailed spatial information to better target interventions or resources and to evaluate local policy impacts. The availability of small area data has improved dramatically since the late 1990s yet many spatial variables of interest – income, fear of crime, health-related behaviours, and so the list goes on – remain impossible to access at small area geographies (i.e. beneath local authority level in the UK context). Various alternative methodologies have emerged to carry out SAE and these can be grouped broadly into statistical approaches and spatial microsimulation approaches, each with multiple differing approaches within them. A recent network, funded by the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, brought together experts from across these methodological approaches and relevant external partners in order to enhance the state of the art in SAE through stimulating detailed comparative methodological discussion so as to better understand the strengths, weaknesses, similarities and differences between these methodologies. This methodological review paper emerges from the network discussions and aims to: summarise the main methodological approaches to SAE and their linkages; discuss the role of the small area covariate data and the opportunities and challenges around such data; identify the main methodological priorities around SAE in need of collective research attention; and, propose the need for a collective multi-methods SAE project in order more fully explore the conceptual and technical linkages between the statistical and spatial microsimulation methodologies


We explore the variation in single-star 15–30 , nonrotating, solar metallicity, pre-supernova MESA models that is due to changes in the number of isotopes in a fully coupled nuclear reaction network and adjustments in the mass resolution. Within this two-dimensional plane, we quantitatively detail the range of core masses at various stages of evolution, mass locations of the main nuclear burning shells, electron fraction profiles, mass fraction profiles, burning lifetimes, stellar lifetimes, and compactness parameter at core collapse for models with and without mass-loss. Up to carbon burning, we generally find that mass resolution has a larger impact on the variations than the number of isotopes, while the number of isotopes plays a more significant role in determining the span of the variations for neon, oxygen, and silicon burning. Choice of mass resolution dominates the variations in the structure of the intermediate convection zone and secondary convection zone during core and shell hydrogen burning, respectively, where we find that a minimum mass resolution of ≈0.01 is necessary to achieve convergence in the helium core mass at the ≈5% level. On the other hand, at the onset of core collapse, we find ≈30% variations in the central electron fraction and mass locations of the main nuclear burning shells, a minimum of ≈127 isotopes is needed to attain convergence of these values at the ≈10% level.


Natural hybrid zones provide opportunities for studies of the evolution of reproductive isolation in wild populations. Although several recent investigations have found that the formation of neo-sex chromosomes is associated with reproductive isolation, the mechanisms remain unclear in most cases. Here, we assess the contemporary structure of gene flow in the contact zone between largely allopatric cytotypes of the dioecious plant Rumex hastatulus, a species in which there is evidence of sex chromosome turn-over. Males to the west of the Mississippi river, USA, have an X and a single Y chromosome, whereas populations to the east of the river have undergone a chromosomal rearrangement giving rise to a larger X and two Y chromosomes. Using reduced-representation sequencing, we provide evidence that hybrids form readily and survive multiple backcross generations in the field, demonstrating the potential for ongoing gene flow between the cytotypes. At the scale of chromosomes, cline analysis of each chromosome separately captured no signals of difference in cline shape between chromosomes. However, when comparing SNPs, principal component regression revealed a significant increase in the contribution of individual SNPs to inter-cytotype differentiation on the neo-X, but no correlation with recombination rate. Cline analysis revealed that the only SNPs with significantly shallower clines than the genome-average were located on the neo-X. Our data are consistent with a role for the neo-sex chromosome in reproductive isolation between R. hastatulus cytotypes. Our investigation highlights the importance of studying plant hybrid zones in species with sex chromosomes for understanding mechanisms of reproductive isolation and for understanding the role of gene flow in governing the spread of the neo-X chromosomes.


The Stern Review, described as the most comprehensive review ever carried out on the economics of climate change, was published on 30 October 2006. The twin papers from a combined team of scientists and economists present a critique in two parts of the Stern Review. Part I focuses on scientific issues and their treatment in the Review. It forms the point of departure for Part II which deals with economic aspects. Each paper has its own list of authors. In relation to both scientific and economic issues, the authors question the accuracy and completeness of the Stern Review's analysis and the objectivity of its treatment. They conclude that the Review fails to present an accurate picture of scientific understanding of climate change issues, and will reinforce ill-informed alarm about climate change. Two interrelated features of the Stern Review are that it greatly understates the extent of uncertainty as to possible developments, in highly complex systems that are not well understood, over a period of two centuries or more; and its treatment of sources and evidence is persistently selective and biased. These twin features have combined to make the Review a vehicle for speculative alarmism. In the judgement of the authors of the Dual Critique, the Stern Review mishandles data; gives too little attention to actual observation and evidence, as distinct from the results of model-based exercises; and takes no account of the failures of due disclosure, and the chronic limitations of peer reviewing, that have been characteristic of work relating to climate change which governments have commissioned and drawn on. As to specifically economic aspects, the authors note among other weaknesses that the Review systematically overstates projected costs of climate change, partly though by no means wholly as a result of its failure to acknowledge the scope for long-term adaptation to possible global warming; underestimates the likely cost—including to the world's poor—of the drastic global mitigation programme that it calls for; and proposes worldwide adoption of a specially low rate of interest for discounting the costs and benefits of mitigation, on the basis of inadequate analysis and without regard for the problems and risks that would result. So far from being an authoritative guide to the economics of climate change, the Stern Review is deeply flawed. It does not provide a basis for informed and responsible policies.


The goal of this paper is to compare appositive relative clauses (henceforth ARCs) to other structures that convey the same information, in order to determine the morphosyntactic, semantic and above all pragmatic factors conditioning the choice of structure. Alternatives to ARCs examined here include sentential parentheticals, juxtaposed/coordinated independent clauses, adverbials or noun modifiers which, along with ARCs, can be considered competing allostructures representing the different possible syntactic realizations of the same informational, logico-semantic content. Setting register-related phenomena aside so that they do not interfere with the results, the paper investigates several parameters like the hierarchization of the informational contents (and discourse coherence as a whole), the (non) existence of an open proposition (as defined in Prince 1986), the influence of a familiarity constraint ('fame effect') among others as constraints accounting for the choice of structure. The identified constraints will be paralleled with the discourse functions of ARCs defined in previous research, justifying the suggested typology.


Governments in Africa are turning to large-scale partnerships with donors and multinational companies to stimulate investment in agriculture. However, so-called mega agricultural public–private partnerships are by and large unproven and risky, and are likely to skew the benefits of investments towards the privileged and more powerful, while the risks fall on the most vulnerable. Oxfam concludes that there are more effective, tried and tested approaches for donor aid and public investment that are more likely to reach those who need it.


There is substantial evidence to support the contention that the Smad portion of the TGF-beta signal transduction pathway provides an important tumor-suppressor function. Mutational loss of function of Smad pathway members have been associated with the development of human cancers and appear to be causative in selected rodent carcinogenesis models. TGF-beta also has multiple other actions that appear to be independent of the growth-inhibitory/tumor suppressor effects. The predominant effect of TGF-beta appears to be dependent on the context of the responding cell. Once transformation has occurred, TGF-beta effects may be detrimental and may actually promote tumor cell survival, invasion, and metastasis. Recent work suggests that these effects may involve TGF-beta regulation of COX-2 and other pathways that may contribute to tumor cell aggressiveness. In gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms by which TGF-beta may promote tumor progression, it is likely that new therapeutic strategies may be developed that preserve tumor-suppressor function of TGF-beta while inhibiting the tumor-promoting effects.


The main function of the diet is to provide the necessary nutrients to meet the nutritional needs of people. Since long, there is evidence that there is a relationship between diet and health, and from these arose the concept of functional foods. In general, functional foods are those that not only fulfil a nutritional function but also contain biologically active components that offer health benefits and reduce the risk of suffering diseases. An important key to know the effect that functional foods have on nutrition is to determine how the body responds to the stimulation of these. In other words, the components of the diet can alter genomic expression. However, not all people respond in the same way. Performing epidemiological studies without genetic knowledge may result in erroneous scientific conclusions and misinformed nutritional recommendations.


Recent experience in Australia has seen the requirement by the federal Department of Finance and Administration to conduct output pricing reviews of government agencies including research organisations. Health and medical research, while generally regarded as an important 'public good', is now pressed by the same demands as other research fields to account for public investments in terms of value of outcomes and value for investment. This paper reports on current trends towards international benchmarking of health and medical research performance. Comparative data from overseas show unique aspects of the Australian health and medical research funding system. The paper suggests possible future routes for carrying out health research evaluation in Australia. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.