There is a rising interest for the integration of decentralised heat supply in district heating (DH) systems in the form of so-called prosumers, i.e., customers that both can withdraw and supply heat to the grid. The interest comes from a growing interest in local energy supply among owners of property as well as a growing awareness among DH companies about the need to view their customers more like partners rather than just consumers of heat.In a previous study, decentralised solar heat plants in Sweden were mapped out and their performance were evaluated. In general, the performance in terms of delivered heat was at least 20% lower than expected. The main reason for this is deficiencies regarding the feed-in of theheat to the grid, caused by an inability of the control system to handle the variation of the differential pressure between the supply and the return pipe in the DH network. These variations, caused mainly by the rapid load fluctuations caused by consumption of domestic hot water, has so far been overlooked when designing the control system.This paper describes and pins down this problem with support from measurements and simulations of differential pressure.There are different ways to connect decentralised heat supply, where a primary return/supply connection is the most common, implying the heat being added to the DH water before the customer's substation or directly to the DH supply pipe. Although the field study-objects utilise solar energy, it must be emphasised that the results from the project will be of general interest for any type of decentralised heat supply, e.g. surplus heat from local cooling machines or industrial processes. Suggestions for improved control strategies is given in the paper and future work will aim to support them.Keywords: Prosumers, decentralised heat supply, differential pressure, return/supply connec


Classical Antiquity is strongly present in youth culture globally. It accompanies children during their initiation into adulthood and thereby deepens their knowledge of the cultural code based on the Greek and Roman heritage. It enables intergenerational communication, with the reception of the Classics being able to serve as a marker of transformations underway in societies the world over. The team of contributors from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand focuses on the reception of mythical creatures as the key to these transformations, including the changes in human mentality. The volume gathers the results of a stage of the programme 'Our Mythical Childhood', supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives and an ERC Consolidator Grant. Thanks to the multidisciplinary character of its research (Classics, Modern Philologies, Animal Studies) and to the universal importance of the theme of childhood, the volume offers stimulating reading for scholars, students, and educators, as well as for a wider audience.


Social and cultural sciences in Germany are finally concerned with disability and develop theoretic approaches. Thereby two main fields of work appear. Current works in tradition of »systems theory« focus on specific operating modes of social institutions in systems of welfare work and social help. They describe processes of exclusion and integration of people with disabilities in terms of addressability and exclusion carriers. Alongside works connected and critical engaged with concepts of »disability studies« search for normative and cultural fundamentals of these mechanisms. They identify discourse power as main force in social construction of disability. However, both theoretical approaches to understand disability are not mutually exclusive but enriching in answering extensively the questions of "how" and "why" of social exclusion of disabled people.


In this work, we propose two novel methodologies to study temporal and morphological phenotypic effects caused by different experimental conditions using imaging data. As a proof of concept, we apply them to analyze drug effects in 2D cancer cell cultures. We train a convolutional autoencoder on 1M images dataset with random augmentations and multi-crops to use as feature extractor. We systematically compare it to the pretrained state-of-the-art models. We further use the feature extractor in two ways. First, we apply distance-based analysis and dynamic time warping to cluster temporal patterns of 31 drugs. We identify clusters allowing annotation of drugs as having cytotoxic, cytostatic, mixed or no effect. Second, we implement an adversarial/regularized learning setup to improve classification of 31 drugs and visualize image regions that contribute to the improvement. We increase top-3 classification accuracy by 8% on average and mine examples of morphological feature importance maps. We provide the feature extractor and the weights to foster transfer learning applications in biology. We also discuss utility of other pretrained models and applicability of our methods to other types of biomedical data.


Abstract In order to improve the optical properties and enhance the stability of Zn1-xCdxS nanoparticles, which are important optoelectrical materials, the ternary Zn1-xCdxS nanoparticles were enclosed in a layered octosilicate by a three-step process, namely (i) protonation of Naoctosilicate, (ii) ion-exchange in order to introduce Zn and Cd ions into the interlayer space, and (iii) addition of S2- to form Zn1-xCdxS particles in the interlayer space of the octosilicate. The basal spacing (~10 Å ) of the final ZnCdS-Oct-n (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) composites noticeably increased in comparison with that of the precursor H-Oct (7.5 Å ). This may be attributed to the incorporation of larger size Zn1-xCdxS particles into the interlayer space of H-Oct. The UV-visible spectra of the composites suggested that the transmission band-edges gradually shifted to low energy with increasing molar ratio of Cd/Zn. Moreover, the transmission band-edges of the composites are between those of layered Octosilicate, ZnS, and CdS. TEM observation confirmed that the size of Zn1-xCdxS nanoparticles enclosed in the layered silicate was about ~3-5 nm.


Ocean acidification is an emerging consequence of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. The full extent of the biological impacts are currently not entirely defined. However, it is expected that invertebrate species that rely on the mineral calcium carbonate will be directly affected. Despite the limited understanding of the full extent of potential impacts and responses there is a need to identify potential pathways for human societies to be affected by ocean acidification. Research on these social implications is a small but developing field. This research contributes to this field by using an impact assessment framework, informed by a biophysical model of future species distributions, to investigate potential impacts facing Atlantic Canadian society from potential changes in shellfish fisheries driven by ocean acidification and climate change. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are expected to see declines in resource accessibility but are relatively socially insulated from these changes. Conversely, Prince Edward Island, along with Newfoundland and Labrador are more socially vulnerable to potential losses in fisheries, but are expected to experience relatively minor net changes in access.


Particle flows in spatial networks are susceptible to congestion. In this paper, we analyze the phase transitions of these networks to a state of congested transport and the influence of both topology and spatial dynamics on its emergence. We systematically show that the value of the critical loading rate at which congestion emerges is affected by the addition of spatial dynamics, changing the nature of this transition from a continuous to a discontinuous one. Our numerical results are confirmed by introducing an analytical solvable framework. As a case of study, we explore the implications of our findings in the San Francisco road network where we can locate the roads that originate the congested phase. These roads are spatially constrained, and not necessarily those with high betweenness as predicted by models without spatial dynamics.


The Jamaican mustached bat has delay-tuned neurons in the inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body, and auditory cortex. The responses of these neurons to an echo are facilitated by a biosonar pulse emitted by the bat when the echo returns with a particular delay from a target located at a particular distance. Electrical stimulation of cortical delay-tuned neurons increases the delay-tuned responses of collicular neurons tuned to the same echo delay as the cortical neurons and decreases those of collicular neurons tuned to different echo delays. Cortical neurons improve information processing in the inferior colliculus by way of the corticocollicular projection.


Drs. Paul L. Kaufman, Albert Alm, Leonard A Levin, Siv F.E. Nilsson, James Ver Hoeve, and Samuel Wu present the 11th edition of the classic text "Adler's Physiology of the Eye", updated and reorganized to enhance your understanding of ocular function. This full-color, user-friendly edition captures the latest molecular, genetic, and biochemical discoveries and offers you unparalleled knowledge and insight into the physiology of the eye and its structures. Forty-one chapters have been reorganized by function to help you make a stronger connection between physiological principles and clinical practice. Access them all online, along with more than 1,000 great new illustrations that help clarify complex concepts.


"While the body of critical and analytic texts concerning voice training grows, so, too, does the discourse continue to develop its on-going debate as to the importance of various criteria involved in voice classification. There exist also numerous documents from previous centuries which may be explored for insight into historical conceptions of voice classification. Yet as this body of literature on physiology and pedagogy continues to grow, there remains a lack of critical writings examining the Fach system. Indeed, the Fach system continues to be considered primarily a listing of roles organized by appropriate voice type, though the fluid nature of the system alone is enough to question the possibility of voice type as the true and constant categorization principle. Without any critical studies of the system, Fach is bound to remain a controversial subject over which pedagogues argue in vain. This paper offers a suggestion for approaching the system from two different angles: first, from a historical perspective which will allow for an overview of the fluidity of the system; second, with a tessitura study of a group of roles considered all part of one Fach."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


This document presents a coastal and marine resources management strategy for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The strategy provides new directions for Bank activities which significantly affect sustainable development of coastal and marine areas in Latin America and the Caribbean. Calling for a renewed, more integrated approach, the strategy is intended to bring the Bank's interventions in sectors such as marine fisheries, tourism, maritime transport and pollution control in line with the fundamental objectives of the 8th Capital Replenishment. Looking beyond these sectoral considerations, the strategy highlights new opportunities for lending and non-lending support in line with the distinct character of coastal and marine areas, their evolving regulatory framework, and the responsibility shared by governments and coastal communities in the Region to manage them.


Catalytic Chemical Vapour Deposition (CCVD) is considered as the most suitable technique for the large scale and low‐cost production of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. We have studied the effect of the preparation process, and of the support particle size on the catalyst efficiency, conversion yield of the carbon source and diameter of the nanotubes produced. When 50 nm calcite CaCO3 particles support the Fe2Co nanoparticles and when the catalyst is freeze dried to avoid the particles agglomeration, 85% of acetylene is converted into MWCNTs; and by using our rotary tube furnace, 1200 g of MWCNTs can be produced per day. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Barrier trees are a method for representing the landscape structure of high-dimensional discrete spaces such as those that occur in the cost function of combinatorial optimization problems. The leaves of the tree represent local optima and a vertex where subtrees join represents the lowest cost saddle-point between the local optima in the subtrees. This paper introduces an extension to existing Barrier tree methods that make them more useful for studying heuristic optimization algorithms. It is shown that every configuration in the search space can be mapped onto a vertex in the Barrier tree. This provides additional information about the landscape, such as the number of configurations in a local optimum. It also allows the computation of additional statistics such as the correlation between configurations in different parts of the Barrier tree. Furthermore, the mappings allow the dynamic behavior of a heuristic search algorithms to be visualized. This extension is illustrated using an instance of the MAX-3-SAT problem.


In this work we report on the characterization of InAsNSb dilute nitride alloys and mutli-quantum well structures. InAsN epilayers with room-temperature photoluminescence emission have been successfully grown by MBE on InAs and GaAs substrates. By careful attention to growth conditions, device quality material can be obtained for N contents up to ~3% with band gap reduction which follows the band anti-crossing model. Mid-infrared light-emitting diodes containing ten period InAsNSb/InAs multi-quantum wells within the active region were fabricated. These devices exhibited electroluminescence up to room temperature consistent with e-hh1 and e-lh1 transitions within type I quantum wells in good agreement with calculations. Comparison of the temperature dependence of the EL with that of type II InAsSb/InAs reveals more intense emission at low temperature and an improved temperature quenching up to T~200 K where thermally activated carrier leakage becomes important and further increase in the QW band offsets is needed. This material system shows promise for use in mid-infrared diode lasers and other optoelectronic devices.


The overall aim of the thesis was to describe care of the newborn infant immediately after birth, during maternal-infant separation; the father as primary caregiver and the mother's experiences of separation and later reunion with the infant, in order to enhance development of care for the newborn infant during maternal-infant separation. In study I, II and III a phenomenological approach was used to gain access to mothers' and fathers' lived experiences (I, III) and lifeworld (II). Six interviews with mothers with experiences of separation and later reunion with their infants (study I) and interviews with 15 fathers taking care of their infants as primary caregivers during maternal-infant separation (study III) were included in the analyses. Study II was an observation study through videotape recording of 15 fathers taking care of their infants during the first two hours after birth. For the purpose of study IV and V, a quantitative design with naturalistic observations, audiotape recordings and respiratory monitoring was used. The infants in study IV and V were randomly assigned two groups: being cared for skin-to-skin with their father who was seated comfortably in an armchair or being placed in a cot, with their father seated beside them. Data was collected from 29 (study IV) and 13 infants (study V) respectively. The essence of the mothers' experiences (study I) was their strong desire to be close to their babies during maternal-infant separation. Mothers wanted to be close to their babies whatever the circumstances, and to be kept fully informed at all times. It was the mothers' experience that the organization, staff and other circumstances prolonged the separation. The essence of fathers lived experiences while taking care of their infant while mother and child were apart (study III) yielded a meaning of alterability towards togetherness between father and child. This movement meant immediate and gradual alterability within the father himself that made him gradually undertake the responsibility, as he got to know his child. The essence of the father's observed lifeworld in study II yields the very first experience of the father coming increasingly closer to the newborn infant and revealing an ebb and flow variation in the father's involvement with the child. There was an ebb and flow between becoming a father and a physical withdrawal, rather than immediately taking the practical approach of becoming a resource for the infant. In study IV the infants in the skin-to-skin group cried less than the infants in the cot group (p<0.001). Rooting activity was more frequent in the cot group than in the skin-to-skin group (p<0.01), as were sucking activities (p≤0.001). The pattern for wakefulness showed a lower level for the skin-to-skin group when compared with the cot group (p<0.01). The infants in the skin-to-skin group of study V showed higher inspiratory and expiratory air flows, larger breath volume (all (p<0.001) and minute ventilation when compared with the cot group. A caregiving model, where fathers hold their infants skin-to-skin in an upright position on their chest, seemed to have a positive impact on the infant's wellbeing. At the same time, the father took the child to himself. The mothers, separated from their child, had a strong desire to be close to the baby.


Multi-date Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite imagery was classified to develop data layers for a portion of the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. The data layers were developed to be used as inputs to fire simulation models. Pair-wise comparisons of all mapped layers showed that only four layers were statistically different. Kappa analysis showed that twenty-four of the thirty-nine classified layers were statistically better than chance. Crown fire activity was modeled using the FlamMap fire simulation program. Simulations were run using 10, 40, and 70 km/hr wind speeds. Area of active crown fire increased by 221(percent) between the 10 and 70 km/hr wind speed scenarios. At the landscape-level, mean patch size of active crown fire increased over 700(percent) from the 10 to 70 km/hr wind speed scenarios and the number of patches decreased by 60(percent) between 10 and 70 km/hr wind speed scenarios. At the class-level, active crown fire mean patch size increased slightly in all five forest types (aspen, bristlecone pine, mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, and spruce-fir) with increasing wind speed. The number of patches increased, at the class-level, between the 10 and 40 km/hr wind speed scenarios but tended to decrease between the 40 and 70 km/hr wind speed scenarios. An Erosion Index model to identify areas that had a high potential for erosion was created using slope, coarse woody debris (1000 hour sound and rotten fuels), and heat/area layers created in 10, 40, and 70 km/hr wind speed simulations, as inputs.


Multiple Independent Gate Field Effect Transistors (MIGFETs) are expected to push FET technology further into the semiconductor roadmap. In a MIGFET, supplementary gates either provide (i) enhanced conduction properties or (ii) more intelligent switching functions. In general, each additional gate also introduces a side implementation cost. To enable more efficient digital systems, MIGFETs must leverage their expressive power to realize complex logic circuits with few physical resources. Researchers face then the question: How many gates do we need? In this paper, we address the logic side of this question. We determine whether or not an increasing number of gates leads to more compact logic implementations. For this purpose, we develop a logic synthesis flow that intrinsically exploits a MIGFET switching function. Using simplified design assumptions and device/interconnect models, we synthesize MCNC benchmarks on 5 promising MIGFET devices, with number of gates ranging from 1 to 7. Experimental results evidence nontrivial area/delay/energy minima, located between 1 and 4 gates, depending on a MIGFET switching function and device/interconnect technology.


This study combines an investigation of the ecology of the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) and the epidemiology of diseases shared by saigas and domestic livestock. Ecological data from 2 saiga populations were collected and analysed, including a comparison of 3 ageing techniques for saigas. A serological survey of 1,151 saigas and 958 domestic livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) was carried out. Official data and fann surveys provided information on policy and practice in disease control, showing that both veterinary provision and livestock numbers have collapsed since independence.

Seroprevalence to brucellosis among saigas was 3.8% in the Betpak-dala population and zero in the Ustiurt population. No serological evidence of infection with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), bluetongue, epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD), peste-des-petitesruminants (PPR) or rinderpest was found among saigas. A recently-developed enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to differentiate vaccine-induced antibodies to those caused by infection with FMD virus (FMDV). Serological evidence of infection with FMDV was found only in cattle (2.9%). Vaccine-induced antibodies to FMDV were found among 29.0% of cattle, 13.8% of sheep and 5.8% of goats, reflecting speciesdependent vaccination. Seroprevalence to brucellosis was 5.4% among cattle, 1.3% among sheep and 0.7% among goats. Of diseases not previously recorded in Kazakhstan, seroprevalence to bluetongue among livestock averaged 23.2%, EHD and PPR were found at low levels, and rinderpest was not found. Modelling of FMD and bluetongue sero-status found significant farm-level clustering. For FMD this may reflect the behaviour of individual owners, but as bluetongue is unrecognised, it may reflect small-scale differences in exposure to the vector.

A model framework was developed for FMD dynamics in saigas, including a seasonally dependent transmission coefficient (P). This produced a pattern of FMD outbreaks similar to that seen in Kazakhstan in the 1950s and 1960s, with large epidemics in spring, dying out in the summer or autumn. The results suggest that FMD is not endemic in saiga, and that the saiga population is not a reservoir of infection for domestic livestock. However, saigas may constitute a reservoir of infection for brucellosis if full control of this disease in domestic livestock were attempted. Recommendations are made for disease control and saiga conservation in the light of these findings.


Over the past three years, house prices have increased 52 percent in Auckland, but only 11 percent in the rest of New Zealand. Regional variation in house price inflation is not unusual, but the extent of the current divergence between house prices in Auckland and the rest of the country is unprecedented. Historically, Auckland house prices have trended upwards relative to those in the rest of New Zealand. But in instances when they have deviated significantly from house prices elsewhere, this divergence has subsequently reversed to some extent. Correction has occurred both via prices in the rest of New Zealand catching up to those in Auckland, and by Auckland prices falling to levels more consistent with those elsewhere.


This study was based on a rainstorm that happened in Beijing on 20 July 2016. We analyzed the characteristics of rainfall and runoff during this rainstorm, compared it to rainstorm 721, and investigated why no surface runoff was observed during this rainstorm. A runoff plot experiment showed that almost all runoff consisted of deep interflow (40–60 cm). For runoff plots with identical vegetation, the slope was smaller, and the lag time of the deep interflow relative to the process of rainfall was shorter. The runoff yield of the deep interflow was inversely proportional to the slope. Compared to plots with pure tree forest and shrub forest, the interflow process curve of plots with coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest was relatively gentle during the rainfall process. Thick litter layers, low antecedent moisture content of the soil, high gravel content of the soil, and the short duration of high intensity rainfall are the causes for the observed lack of surface runoff. To simultaneously prevent flooding and waterlogging, we propose to utilize vegetation to improve water storage at the reservoirs and to replenish the groundwater during cumulative rainstorms with a stable rain tendency.


pardon. The document is, after all, sent by Truth, the divine authority whose tower overshadows the fair field. Its message "Et qui bona egerunt ibunt in vitam eternam; / Qui vero mala in ignem eternum" is an article of the Athanasian Creed and thus an orthodox tenet of the faith. Moreover, critics who argue that Truth's document is a pardon maintain that its text is consistent with the theme of the Visio. Frank, for example, contends that "the message of the pardon, do well, is a logical culmination of the doctrine of labor and good works preached throughout the Visio. If the pardon is no pardon, if do well is not the way to salvation, the reader has been led down the garden path by a most irresponsible poet."' Many readers of Piers Plowman remain uncomfortable with this interpretation, however, because, contrary to what we expect, Piers himself tears up the parchment from Truth and vows to change his life. Piers's response is hardly that of a man who accepts "do wel and haue wel" as a pardon, and his action forces us to examine what doing well meant to a medieval audience. If we place the poem in a historical context, we discover the importance of a crucial theological controversy of the fourteenth century to the understanding of the issues involved in the pardon scene. The relationship between the "doctrine of labor and good works" expressed in Truth's pardon and in the theological debate between the Augustinians and the Nominalists demonstrates conclusively that Langland does not intend Truth's pardon as a true pardon.2 Let us begin by considering the circumstances in which Piers receives the


Background: Saudi Arabia is one of the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries which have common characteristics such as high-income governments, dominant expatriate populations, and under-developed healthcare systems, including healthcare financing. The dominance of the expatriate working population raises the question of how to find a mechanism that ensures expatriates have appropriate access to medical care whilst the employers bear the responsibility of healthcare expenses. Saudi Arabia is one of the few GCC countries to have reformed its private healthcare system through a Compulsory Employment-Based Health Insurance (CEBHI). The CEBHI was designed to mitigate some of the disadvantages of the Employment Sponsored Insurance scheme previously implemented in the United States; and this is the first study to investigate the impact of this form of private health insurance on access to medical care, in a country such as Saudi Arabia.
The main aim of the study was to explore the influence of health insurance on access to medical care, in order to assist the Saudi Government in their deliberations about making CEBHI compulsory for all people (citizens and expatriates) within Saudi Arabia. This aim was investigated through the following objectives: 1) to review health financing in Saudi Arabia and compare it with other GCC countries and elsewhere in the world; 2) to compare the access to medical care of insured and uninsured expatriates in Saudi Arabia; 3) to develop a framework for understanding the complex relationship of health insurance and access to healthcare, 4) to make policy-relevant recommendations regarding the key question as to whether compulsory health insurance in Saudi Arabia should be expanded.
Methods: Two methods were used to tackle the study objectives. Firstly, a framework for country-level analysis of healthcare financing arrangements was used to compare and analyse the national expenditure on healthcare within the GCC and other developing/developed countries.
Secondly, a logistic regression analysis of data from a cross-sectional survey was undertaken to investigate the impact of health insurance on access to medical care, considering the main workplace and personal characteristics of the expatriates. Three access measures, access to usual medical care (Access 1), inability to access medical care (Access 2), and utilization of medical care (Access 3), were used to evaluate access to medical care for the expatriate population. Prior to the implementation of CEBHI the expatriate population accessed medical care through a variety of different avenues. These modes of access were used as classification of the expatriate population into four groups. Two of these groups were insured but had a different Previous Method of Paying for Healthcare (PMPHC) (Group B=insured, not paid, and Group D=insured and paid) and two groups were not insured but also had different PMPHC (Group A=not insured, not paid and Group C=not insured, but paid). A multistage stratified cluster sampling was used, and a sample selected from each sector and company size proportionately. The total sample size was 3,278. A simple conceptual framework for studying access to medical care was developed to guide the multi-variate regression techniques, and greatly assisted interpretation of the results.
Results: The GCC characteristics impact on the healthcare financing strategies of GCC countries in three ways. First, GCC governments provide the majority share of the health budget, similar to high-income countries. Second, GCC countries use different strategies to control expatriates costs, but some of these strategies lead to increased out-of-pocket expenses, which is a characteristic of low-income countries. Third, health care financing systems in GCC countries are still being developed as they finance most of their public services, including health care services, with revenue from natural resources (i.e. oil or gas). Additionally, some of their health care indicators are identifiable with those from below upper-middle income countries. In addition, after CEBHI, private expenditure did not change but remained around 22.4%, which does not reflect the huge number of people having access to medical care though private sector only. However, there was a shift in the means of private sector expenditure from Out Of Pocket payments to private insurance expenditure. OOP expenditure decreased from 32.3% in 2006 to 28.4% in 2008, and private insurance expenditure increased as a percentage of private sector expenditure from 26.2% in 2006 to 36.7% in 2008.
Analysis of the data from the survey demonstrates that health insurance is strongly associated with access to medical care, as measured by the three different access measures). Compared to uninsured workers, being enrolled in CEBHI increased the possibility of an expatriate's access to usual medical care and utilisation of medical care by more than 10 (8.709-12.299, 95%), and 2.3 (1.946-2.750, 95%) respectively. However, the influence of PMPHC is greater than the influence of insurance alone on reducing the inability to access medical care (health insurance reduced the inability to access medical services by 42% (0.515-0.995, 95%), whereas PMPHC reduced the inability to access medical services by more than 65.% (0.273-0.436, 95%)).Therefore, the impact of health insurance on access to medical care is much greater for those expatriates previously having had healthcare costs met by their employer, than for those who had not. These impacts remained, when the odds ratios were adjusted for both workplace and personal characteristics.

Conclusion: CEBHI has a clear positive impact on reducing out of pocket payments and increasing private insurance expenditure. However, overall, private healthcare expenditure has increased insignificantly. This indicates that the main impact of CEBHI on private expenditure, is the change in the mode of payment from out of pocket payments to private insurance expenditure. However, the actual impact on private sector expenditure is still minor.
Access to medical care is influenced by health insurance. In addition, it is also influenced by PMPHC as a contributory role to play in the influence of health insurance on access to medical care. Workplace and personal characteristics play a small part in mediating the influence of health insurance on access to medical care.
A framework was developed for understanding the complex relationship of health insurance and access to healthcare, which will be useful for further investigations regarding the influence of health insurance on access to medical care. Both long and short-term recommendations are proposed for increasing the expatriate population's access to medical care, whilst reducing the burden on healthcare financing.


Cold forming generally allows the reproduction of parts with a high production rate and low waste of material. For this reason, many small parts for example of the body of a smartphone undergo at least one forming operation during their fabrication, e.g. screws, brackets or springs. However, when the size of forming products is reduced to the micro range, size effects appear and affect the forming process. One size effect leads to the fact that conventional multi stage upsetting processes cannot be scaled to micro range accordingly. As a consequence, the maximum achievable upset ratio decreases from 2.3 in macro range to values below 2 in micro range. This reduces the efficiency of the upsetting process significantly as more upsetting stages have to be carried out to reach the desired shape of the forming product. A very promising approach to reduce required forming stages is the laser rod end melting process which takes advantage of a size effect. Herein, the lower end of a rod is melted by the energy of a laser beam. The molten part of the rod automatically forms spherical due to surface tension. This droplet-shaped part is called "preform". After total cooling, the preform is upset within a single stage cold forming operation to achieve the desired shape. In this paper, results of the upsetting operation with regard to surface accuracy of the forming product are presented. It is shown that surface characteristics with dimensions as small as 500 nm can be reasonably reproduced.


Soil moisture and its distribution in space and time plays a decisive role in terrestrial water and energy cycles. It controls the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration and runoff as well as the partitioning of solar radiation into latent and sensible heat flux. Therefore it has a strong impact on numerous processes, e.g., controlling floods, crop yield, erosion, and climate processes. Soil moisture, and surface soil moisture in particular, is highly variable in space and time and its spatial and temporal patterns in an agricultural landscape are affected by multiple natural (precipitation, soil, etc.) and agricultural (soil management, fertilization etc.) parameters. Against this background, the current study investigates the spatial and temporal patterns of surface soil moisture in an agricultural landscape, to determine the dominant parameters and the underlying processes controlling these patterns. The study was conducted on different spatial scales, from the field scale to the whole catchment scale of the river Rur (2364 km2) in Western Germany, because observed patterns are intrinsically connected to the scale on which they are observed. For the investigation three different approaches were used: Analysis based on A) Field measurements, B) Radar remote sensing, and C) Ecohydrological modeling. Extensive field measurements were carried out in a small arable land and grassland test site, measuring surface soil moisture, plant parameters, meteorological parameters, and soil parameters. These measurements were used to analyze the small scale (field scale) patterns of surface soil moisture and for the validation of the two other methods. Since large scale investigations based on field measurements are generally not feasible, surface soil moisture maps from radar remote sensing and ecohydrological modeling were used to analyze large scale patterns of surface soil moisture and their scaling properties.
Precipitation, vegetation patterns, topography and soil properties were found to be the dominant parameters for soil moisture patterns in an agriculturally used landscape. Precipitation can be assumed to be homogeneous on the small scale, but can be very heterogeneous on the large scale at the same time. Evapotranspiration causes high small scale variability, especially during the growing season. If analyzed on coarser resolutions, this small scale pattern is smoothed out. Topography is a source of small scale patterns only on wet surface soil moisture states, because of the lateral redistribution of water during or shortly after precipitation events. Soils have a major influence on the variability of surface soil moisture on all scales, due to the large heterogeneity of soil properties within a given soil type (small scale) and between different soil types (large scale). Altogether, the variability of surface soil moisture increases with an increasing size of the investigation area and with an increasing resolution within the investigation area. During the course of the year surface soil moisture variability and its scaling properties are being influenced by different parameters with temporally varying intensities. During the growing season, at the time of high small scale variability of evapotranspiration, the variability of surface soil moisture is high and decreases much stronger with decreasing spatial resolution of the investigation, than during times outside the growing season. In the beginning and towards the end of the year (outside the growing season, when the soil is wet) the patterns and their scaling properties are mainly determined by soil properties. Precipitation events generally superimpose their large scale patterns for a short period of time and diminish the small scale variability induced by evapotranspiration.
This thesis improves the knowledge about surface soil moisture patterns in agriculturally used areas and their underlying processes. The results of the scaling analysis indicate the potential to use vegetation and precipitation parameters for downscaling purposes. Understanding the subscale soil moisture heterogeneity is, for example, particularly relevant to better utilize coarse scale soil moisture data derived from SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) or the upcoming SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite measurements.


Effective provider communication is the key to patient engagement. However, many providers are not able to effectively communicate with patients, in part due to low health literacy. Evidence in the literature supports the use of specific strategies aimed at improving communication with patients. The purpose of this quality initiative was to influence providers to adopt new communication strategies with their patients. Pharmacists, nurses and physicians were invited to participate in a free, full-day, educational event. During the event providers were alerted to the issue of health literacy and provided communication strategies to improve patient comprehension and engagement. Following the presentation, providers were surveyed and asked if they intended to change the way they communicated with patients. Six weeks after the event, providers were administered a follow-up survey to determine if they had in fact changed their practice as originally intended. This author presents the results of these surveys to understand which areas providers committed to changing in comparison to those actually changed. Results showed most providers who committed to change in the areas of communicating with patients, using teach back and implementing patient follow-up phone calls, subsequently reported they had in fact changed their practice. Whereas many providers intended to utilize communication tools with patients, fewer reported actually incorporating this change into their practice. Future opportunities lie in integrating observations to assess knowledge, along with ongoing management to sustain change and removing barriers for adopting communication tools. INFLUENCING CHANGE IN HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS 5


PURPOSE
To determine the relationship between preoperative serum albumin and postoperative bowel function as well as surgical outcomes in right-sided colon cancer patients.

METHODS
This retrospective study in a university hospital included 84 patients who underwent elective right hemicolectomy for adenocarcinoma of the right-sided colon between January 2004 and December 2005. The patients had a preoperative serum albumin assessment. Serum albumin less than 3.5 g/dL was regarded as hypoalbuminemia. Postoperative outcomes were classified into mortality, morbidity (infectious and noninfectious complications), time to first bowel movement, time to resume normal diet, and hospital stay.

RESULTS
Forty males (48%) and forty-four females (52%) with a mean age of 64 (range, 27-89) years were included. Forty-eight patients (57%) had hypoalbuminemia. No 30-day postoperative mortality occurred. All 14 postoperative complications occurred in hypoalbuminemic cases. Therefore, 29% of the hypoalbuminemics had complications whereas none occurred in nonhypoalbuminemics (p=0.001). In univariate analysis, hypoalbuminemia and postoperative complications were the risk factors for delayed postoperative recovery of bowel function and prolonged length of hospital stay. In multivariate analysis, hypoalbuminemia was the significant risk factor for postoperative complications (p<0.001) and delayed time to first bowel movement (p=0.018) whereas postoperative complications were the significant risk factor for delayed time to resume normal diet (p<0.001) and prolonged hospital stay (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION
Hypoalbuminemia is a potential predictor of delayed recovery of bowel function postoperatively and significantly associated with postoperative complications in right-sided colon cancer patients undergone right hemicolectomy.


Event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded at the scalp are indicators of brain activity associated with event-related information processing; hence they may be suitable for the assessment of changes in cognitive processing load. While the measurement of ERPs in a laboratory setting and classifying those ERPs is trivial, such a task presents major challenges in a "real world" setting where the EEG signals are recorded when subjects freely move their eyes and the sensory inputs are continuously, as opposed to discretely presented. Here we demonstrate that with the aid of second-order blind identification (SOBI), a blind source separation (BSS) algorithm: (1) we can extract ERPs from such challenging data sets; (2) we were able to obtain meaningful single-trial ERPs in addition to averaged ERPs; and (3) we were able to estimate the spatial origins of these ERPs. Finally, using back-propagation neural networks as classifiers, we show that these single-trial ERPs from specific brain regions can be used to determine moment-to-moment changes in cognitive processing load during a complex "real world" task.


This book brings the powerful insights of Continental philosophy to bear on some of the most challenging difficulties of ethical life. Currently philosophy is being radically transformed by questions of how to live well. What does such a way of life mean? How are we to understand the meaning of ethicality? What are the obstacles to ethical living? And should we assume that an ethical life is a betterlife? The movement of history and the developments of culture and knowledge seem to have outstripped the capacity of traditional forms of reflection upon ethical life to understand how we might answer these questions. Ranging from existentialism to deconstruction, phenomenology to psychoanalytic theory, and hermeneutics to post-structuralism, the twelve essays in this volume take up a wide but clearly connected set of issues relevant to living ethically: race, responsibility, religion, terror, torture, technology, deception, and even the very possibility of an ethical life. Some of the questions addressed are specific to our times; others are ancient questions but with quite contemporary twists. In each case, they concern the philosophical significance of ongoing historical, cultural, and political transformations for ethical living and thinking.


Objective: To show the antiviral activity of Metadichol® against Zika virus by an in-vitro assay. Methods: The primary Anti-Zika virus assay was performed using real-time RT-qPCR (TaqMan) to measure extracellular Zika virus RNA copy number associated with virions released from vero cells. The 'vero' cell line (kidney epithelial cells extracted from an African green monkey) treated with antiviral test articles is infected with Zika virus followed by Zika virus associated RNA measurement in the cell culture supernatant. Antiviral compounds blocking any step of viral replication such as transcription, translation, encapsidation, the particle assembly and release were identified and characterized using this sensitive assay system. Findings: Metadichol® [1,2] in vitro assays, inhibited the Zika Virus with a EC50 of 1.48 µg/ml. Conclusion: Metadichol is a safe and effective inhibitor for enveloped viruses in humans. Since it is known to bind to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), its action mechanism likely involves the competitive displacement of virus particles from VDR's on host cell membranes. Metabolism studies of long chain alcohol in fibroblasts suggest that very long chain fatty alcohols, fatty aldehydes, and fatty acids are reversibly interconverted in a fatty alcohol cycle [3]. Metadichol consists of natural components of common foods (classified as GRAS), Metadichol has no known negative side effects. The inhibition of Zika virus by Metadichol is not surprising, given that we have recently published the results of Metadichol which showed broad-spectrum antiviral activity against Dengue, Ebola, H1N1, SARS, Chikungunya and other enveloped viruses [4].


Effectively engaging economically-disadvantaged ethnic minority communities for promoting health has proved to be challenging for a variety of reasons, including factors related to healthcare access, literacy, inadequate or ineffective cultural appropriateness of materials, and the relatively low priority for health due to competing demands related to economic hardship. We have developed a framework of Child-Mediated Health Communication (CMHC), which focuses on children as channels for carrying out health promotion interventions to parents and other caregivers. CMHC is an innovative, alternative strategy for engaging this underserved population, where traditional methods of health promotion have not been successful. We discuss the theoretical foundation, development, and effectiveness of a CMHC framework in our stroke preparedness communication intervention, Hip Hop Stroke.


Complex dynamics deals with the iteration of holomorphic functions. As is well known, the first functions to be studied which gave non-trivial dynamics were quadratic polynomials, which produced beautiful computer generated pictures of Julia sets and the Mandelbrot set. In the same spirit, this article aims to study the dynamics of the simplest non-trivial quasiregular mappings. These are mappings in R2 which are a composition of a quadratic polynomial and an affine stretch.


Third language acquisition (TLA) is a broad, complex, and also new topic of research. The present research aimed to find out the relationship between Georgian-Persian biliterate additive bilingualism on learners' proficiency in English as a foreign language. In this study, the participants were both monolingual and bilingual. Monolinguals live in Golpayegan, which is a monolingual region and people speak Persian. Bilinguals live in Ferydunshahr, which is a bilingual area, and Georgian and Persian are spoken there. All the participants were divided into two groups of A and B. Each group consisted of 40 participants, both male and female, who were 14-18 years old. Monolinguals were studying English at the intermediate level in Arad Private Institute and bilinguals were studying English at the intermediate level in Pegah Omid Private Institute. After completing the questionnaires and tests by the participants, the results were analyzed. The findings indicated that there was no significant relationship between Georgian and Persian biliterary additive bilingualism and proficiency in English as a foreign language. The finding also showed that there was no significant relationship between languages typology and the third language acquisition. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the income, education, and profession of parents had no effect on enhancing learners' language acquisition.


Next-generation computation-intensive applications in various fields of science and engineering feature large-scale computing workflows with complex structures that are often modeled as directed acyclic graphs. Supporting such task graphs and optimizing their end-to-end network performances in heterogeneous computing environments are critical to the success of these distributed applications that require fast response. We construct analytical models for computing modules, network nodes, and communication links to estimate data processing and transport overhead, and formulate the task graph mapping with node reuse and resource sharing for minimum end-to-end delay as an NP-complete optimization problem. We propose a heuristic approach to this problem that recursively computes and maps the critical path to the network using a dynamic programming-based procedure. The performance superiority of the proposed approach is justified by an extensive set of experiments on simulated data sets in comparison with existing methods.


The concept of health profession centrism and its effects on interprofessional education is important to Social Work practice. Profession centrism is concerned with a student's professional socialization and their ability to work effectively with other health professionals and clients. This cultural frame determines the salience of curriculum content, core values, practice rituals and customs. It determines the meaning and etiology of symptoms and what constitutes health and treatment success. The interprofessional education (IPE) agenda is often seen as "soft curriculum" content and put to the side for the rigors of health sciences. Paradoxically, it is these issues of communication, ethics, role definition, and working as a team that creates problems among health professionals which compromise safety and efficiency in patient/client care. Learning to minimize profession centrism is a critical education and training objective for health social workers.


In this paper, we have proposed a hybrid transmission scheme which involves beam selection and antenna selection techniques over a MIMO system operating with vary antenna array. Optimal subset of transmit antennas are selected via fast successive selection scheme designed to optimize the target eigenbeam. Optimal eigenbeams corresponding to the largest singular values of the new MIMO channel formed by the selected antennas are exploited for data transmission. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, different array structures, including uniform linear array (ULA) and including uniform circular array (UCA) are employed in the simulations. The transmitter is assumed to be surrounded by scattering objects while the receiver is postulated to be free from scattering objects. The Laplacian distribution of angle of arrival (AoA) of a signal reaching the receiver is postulated. The results presented by this paper indicate that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the performance of data transmission in term of symbol error rate (SER).


Social sustainability is a major concern of planners and local officials when urban renewal projects are being conducted. Extreme individualism can potentially cause conflicts of interest, making urban renewal in Western cities fraught with various types of social risks. As a country with a deep-rooted socialist tradition, urban renewal projects in China are influenced by collectivist culture and show different features from those of the West. The objective of this research is to investigate how different stakeholders in urban redevelopment projects, including local residents, social organizations, the local state, and developers, interact with each other and how the associated social risks are hedged against. Using a recent well-known project in the city of Guangzhou, the authors attempt to present the latest progress in social risk management in China. With support from a government-sponsored project, the authors have conducted a questionnaire-based survey with a year-long fieldwork follow-up. Using ATLAS.ti software, we found that that "residents' demand", "status of collaboration", and "degree of trust" are the keys to risk management. The results of an ordered probit model show that residents are worried about overall planning, the relocation timetable, and whether their personal needs are taken into account. It is also indicated that the timely disclosure of project information, high-quality public participation, and a reasonable compensation plan can possibly boost the support rate. The authors suggest that utilizing China's collectivist culture could be an effective way to mitigate social risks, and residents' personal interests should also be respected.


Background Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. The innate immune system is involved in its pathophysiology at the acute phase. We have recently established a novel murine model of KD coronary arteritis by oral administration of a synthetic microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP). On the hypothesis that specific MAMPs exist in KD sera, we have searched them to identify KD-specific molecules and to assess the pathogenesis. Methods We performed liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis of fractionated serum samples from 117 patients with KD and 106 controls. Microbiological and LC-MS evaluation of biofilm samples were also performed. Results KD samples elicited proinflammatory cytokine responses from human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs). By LC-MS analysis of KD serum samples collected at 3 different periods, we detected a variety of KD-specific molecules in the lipophilic fractions that showed distinct m/z and MS/MS fragmentation patterns in each cluster. Serum KD-specific molecules showed m/z and MS/MS fragmentation patterns almost identical to those of MAMPs obtained from the biofilms formed in vitro (common MAMPs from Bacillus cereus, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus) at the 1st study period, and from the biofilms formed in vivo (common MAMPs from Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis/Bacillus cereus/Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus) at the 2nd and 3rd periods. The biofilm extracts from Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus also induced proinflammatory cytokines by HCAECs. By the experiments with IgG affinity chromatography, some of these serum KD-specific molecules bound to IgG. Conclusions We herein conclude that serum KD-specific molecules were mostly derived from biofilms and possessed molecular structures common to MAMPs from Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus. Discovery of these KD-specific molecules might offer novel insight into the diagnosis and management of KD as well as its pathogenesis.


Over four academic years a design experiment was conducted involving four online university courses with the goal of shifting from Guided to Self-Organized Inquiry to foster Knowledge Building communities in the classroom. Quantitative analyses focused on notes contributed to collective knowledge spaces, as well as reading and building-on notes of others. All team members, including teachers, contributed at high levels. Students tended to produce more notes in the guided-inquiry approach but read more and demonstrated more even distribution of work as part of self-organized inquiry. Qualitative data focused on strategies students reported as new to their school experience. Strategies fell into three categories common to both guided and self-organizing inquiry: elaborating course content for depth of understanding, collaboration in an online environment, and metacognition, with greater reflection on idea development. Distinctive aspects of self-organized inquiry, according to student reports, included going beyond given information, linking new understandings and personal experiences, attention to the collective works of the community, and learning from instructor's strategies.


Measles virus, also called rubeola, and mumps virus are both RNA viruses of the family Paramyxoviridae, subfamily Paramyxovirinae; measles is in the Morbillivirus genus, and mumps virus is in the Rubulavirus genus. Rubella virus is also an RNA virus but is a member of the Togaviridae family. These three viruses, despite differences in their families and genera, are often considered together because the epidemiology of the infections they produce in humans and the preventive measures used against them are similar for all three. Measles and rubella, both of which produce rash-associated illness, and mumps, which typically infects the parotid glands, were all included among the expected illnesses of childhood in the United States prior to the introduction of vaccination programs in the late 1960s. Measles epidemics involving 500,000 to 700,000 cases occurred every 2 years (1), approximately 180,000 cases of mumps were reported annually (2), and approximately 58,000 rubella cases that included 60 congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) cases (3) were seen annually.


Overview This article examines the Westinghouse Science Talent Search over the first sixteen years of its operation. A national contest involving thousands of high school seniors annually, it reflected a growing national concern with developing scientific manpower in the midst of global conflict, the Cold War, and a growing military–industrial complex. Background/Context While there have been recent studies on the historical development of science education, particularly in the mid-twentieth century and immediate postwar era, little attention has been devoted to such extracurricular activities as science fairs and academic contests. This study addresses this gap by examining a prominent national talent search competition, while assessing its place in the development of a meritocratic ethos in science. Focus of Study The study describes the genesis of the Science Talent Search, its approach to identifying winners, and the inequitable impact of this approach. Although the competition's organizers emphasized its meritocratic quality, our analysis demonstrates that the selection process that it employed systematically discriminated against certain groups of students. Research Design The study was conducted by historical research in primary and secondary sources, particularly those associated with the Science Talent Search in the first two decades of its existence. Statistical data also were compiled from Science Talent Search records and combined with data from the U.S. Office of Education and the Census Bureau to conduct an analysis of factors contributing to success in the contest. Conclusions/Recommendations Most Science Talent Search winners over the period in question were White males from large urban schools with greater financial resources. Women and African American students were underrepresented, as were students from rural areas and schools with relatively few resources. Ultimately, this national competition reflected social and cultural forces that shaped the science professions in a crucial period of their growth, and may have represented a lost opportunity to make scientific training more truly meritocratic at a formative time in its development.


BACKGROUND Asthma exacerbations are frightening for patients and are occasionally fatal. We tested the concept that a plan for patients to manage their asthma (self‐management plan), which included a temporary quadrupling of the dose of inhaled glucocorticoids when asthma control started to deteriorate, would reduce the incidence of severe asthma exacerbations among adults and adolescents with asthma. METHODS We conducted a pragmatic, unblinded, randomized trial involving adults and adolescents with asthma who were receiving inhaled glucocorticoids, with or without add‐on therapy, and who had had at least one exacerbation in the previous 12 months. We compared a self‐management plan that included an increase in the dose of inhaled glucocorticoids by a factor of 4 (quadrupling group) with the same plan without such an increase (non‐quadrupling group), over a period of 12 months. The primary outcome was the time to a first severe asthma exacerbation, defined as treatment with systemic glucocorticoids or an unscheduled health care consultation for asthma. RESULTS A total of 1922 participants underwent randomization, of whom 1871 were included in the primary analysis. The number of participants who had a severe asthma exacerbation in the year after randomization was 420 (45%) in the quadrupling group as compared with 484 (52%) in the non‐quadrupling group, with an adjusted hazard ratio for the time to a first severe exacerbation of 0.81 (95% confidence interval, 0.71 to 0.92; P=0.002). The rate of adverse effects, which were related primarily to local effects of inhaled glucocorticoids, was higher in the quadrupling group than in the non‐quadrupling group. CONCLUSIONS In this trial involving adults and adolescents with asthma, a personalized self‐management plan that included a temporary quadrupling of the dose of inhaled glucocorticoids when asthma control started to deteriorate resulted in fewer severe asthma exacerbations than a plan in which the dose was not increased. (Funded by the Health Technology Assessment Programme of the National Institute for Health Research; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN15441965.)


Doxorubicin (DOX) is an anthracycline antibiotic that is widely used as an
anticancer agent. However, the clinical use of DOX is limited due to its toxic side effects upon nontarget

tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of 6 weeks of aerobic training on
dox-induced toxicity in rat tissues (heart and liver).
Materials & Methods: This study was conducted on thirty-two Wistar male rats randomly assigned to
1.control+salin, 2. control+DOX, 3. training+salin, 4) training+DOX groups. Groups 3 and 4 were
trained on treadmill between 25 to 54 min/day and 15 to 20 m/min, 5 days/week for 6 weeks. The
groups 2, 4 and groups 1, 3 received DOX (20 mg.kg
-1
 i.p) and saline (0.9% NaCl i.p), respectively.
Animals were sacrificed 24 h after DOX and saline injections. Also, heart and liver tissue
homogenization and assay parameters were performed.
Results: Doxorubicin administration cause a significant increase in malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric
oxide (NO) and a significant decrease in the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in heart and liver
tissues; however, the difference was not significant between the two tissues. Although the 6-week
aerobic training+DOX caused a down-regulation of oxidant markers and up-regulation of the SOD
activity in heart and liver tissues, but only changes of the SOD activity was significant between the
heart and liver tissues.
Conclusion: Our study suggests that cardiac/liver protection induced by chronically exercise in DOX
treated rats is associated with inhibition of oxidative stress and increase in the antioxidant defense
levels.


Background: This multicenter phase III study (NCT01340937) evaluated the consistency of immune responses to 3 separate lots of diphtheria–tetanus toxoids–acellular pertussis 5, inactivated poliovirus vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and hepatitis B (DTaP5-IPV-Hib-HepB), an investigational hexavalent vaccine (HV). Methods: Healthy infants were randomized (2:2:2:1) to receive HV or Pentacel (Control). Groups 1, 2 and 3 received HV at 2, 4 and 6 months, and Control at 15 months. Group 4 received Control at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months, plus Recombivax HB (HepB) at 2 and 6 months. Concomitant Prevnar 13 was given to all groups at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months; pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) was given to all groups at 2, 4 and 6 months. Blood specimens (3–5 mL) were collected immediately before administration of dose 1, postdose 3, immediately before toddler dose, and after toddler dose. Adverse events were recorded after each vaccination. Results: The 3 manufacturing lots of HV induced consistent antibody responses to all antigens. Immunogenicity of HV was noninferior to Control for all antibodies, except for pertussis filamentous hemagglutinin geometric mean concentration postdose 3, and pertussis pertactin (PRN) geometric mean concentration after toddler dose. Postdose 3 immunogenicity of concomitantly administered Prevnar 13 was generally similar (except for serotype 6B) when given with HV or Control. Adverse events of HV were similar to Control, except for a higher rate of fever ≥38.0°C [49.2% vs. 35.4%, estimated difference 13.7% (8.4, 18.8)]. Conclusions: HV demonstrated lot-to-lot manufacturing consistency; safety and immunogenicity were comparable with the licensed vaccines. HV provides a new combination vaccine option within the US 2-month, 4-month and 6-month vaccine series.


Most underground assets owners would like to know what the probability is for failure of a given pipeline asset as a function of material type, function type, age of the asset, geotechnical environment, and other factors, when we know past failure distributions, predominant failure mechanisms, and other attributes. While most underground utilities have collected voluminous data that could guide them into better buried asset management in the future, the use of suitable reliability analyses have been beyond their reach. Often the replacement and rehabilitation decisions have been based on simple rules of thumb rather than either good science or statistical analyses even when tremendous amount of resources and time are expended on benefiting from the use of state-of-the-art condition assessment techniques. When civil engineers struggle to convince the public and the legislators the dire need for increased rate of investments into buried assets, it is our obligation to engage the most suitable analytical tools to make the best use of past failure data and available infrastructure capex funds. This paper provides a methodology on how sound reliability analysis tools can be used in such management decisions to maintain and operate our underground assets better.


Truffles, the subterranean mycelial fruit bodies are wonderful gustatory delights across the globe. Of late, several therapeutic compounds with antioxidant, immunosuppressor, antimicrobial, and anticarcinogenic properties have been discovered from truffles. The so far unexploited fungal resource truffles have been recently discovered to possess great economic potential. However, their cultivation methods have not proved much successful. Submerged fermentation for higher production yield, use of response surface methods for optimum polysaccharide extraction, innovative storage techniques to eradicate spoilage, adulterant determination in canned truffles by molecular tools are strategies for their optimal utilization. In the present paper, the issues hindering the popularity of truffles, the current scenario and the future potentials are reviewed.


The global food crisis of 2008 threw into sharp relief the problem of food security in many developing countries. In the case of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the food crisis served to highlight the decline in agricultural productivity over the years and the descent of some countries from net food exporters to net food importers. Although the reasons for such decline are many and varied, there are some elements that are trade policy-related. One of the often ignored trade policy factors is that of services trade liberalisation and the impact it can have on agricultural productivity, particularly the liberalisation of network and intermediate services such as finance, transport, communications and energy. Despite the fact that these services are often inefficient and excessively overpriced due to monopolies, there seems to be little appetite in the region for services trade liberalisation. Rather, the priority when it comes to regional integration has so far been on tariff reductions and trade in goods. Indeed, there seems to be little awareness of the interconnectivity of trade in goods and trade in services, or, in essence, the adverse impacts that inefficient services can have on productivity and supply when it comes to goods trade. This has a particularly negative impact on agricultural trade, especially given the distance of the agricultural areas from urban areas, where services are more readily available. Liberalisation of trade in services in the SADC region would help stimulate increased agricultural productivity and supply through increased investment in network services and, concomitantly, Leveraging Services Trade Liberalisation for Enhanced Food Security in SADC r E c o M M E n D A t i o n s


Aims Ischaemia–reperfusion (IR) injury causes endothelium-dependent vasomotor dysfunction that can be prevented by ischaemic preconditioning. The effects of IR injury and preconditioning on endothelium-dependent tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) release, an important mediator of endogenous fibrinolysis, remain unknown. Methods and results Ischaemia–reperfusion injury (limb occlusion at 200 mmHg for 20 min) was induced in 22 healthy subjects. In 12 subjects, IR injury was preceded by local or remote ischaemic preconditioning (three 5 min episodes of ipsilateral or contralateral limb occlusion, respectively) or sham in a randomized, cross-over trial. Forearm blood flow (FBF) and endothelial t-PA release were assessed using venous occlusion plethysmography and venous blood sampling during intra-arterial infusion of acetylcholine (5–20 µg/min) or substance P (2–8 pmol/min). Acetylcholine and substance P caused dose-dependent increases in FBF (P<0.05 for all). Substance P caused a dose-dependent increase in t-PA release (P<0.05 for all). Acetylcholine and substanceP-mediated vasodilatation and substanceP-mediated t-PA release were impaired following IR injury (P<0.05 for all). Neither local nor remote ischaemic preconditioning protected against the impairment of substance P-mediated vasodilatation or t-PA release. Conclusion Ischaemia–reperfusion injury induced substanceP-mediated, endothelium-dependent vasomotor and fibrinolytic dysfunction in man that could not be prevented by ischaemic preconditioning. Clinical Trial Registration Information: Reference number: NCT00789243, URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00789243?term=NCT00789243&rank=1


Background and context: In Africa, up to two thirds of breast cancer patients have been reported to present with an advanced stage of III or IV at diagnosis leading to a disproportionately higher mortality. In Kenya, breast cancer is the most common cancer in females in terms of diagnosis and mortality. Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients are an ignored part of the breast cancer community as they are marginalized in many of the breast cancer related initiatives. MBC suffer from clinical depression, anxiety and four out of five of these women do not receive any services, referral or guidance to help them with their emotional distress. Preferred evidence based methods of support desired by women with MBC, include online support. International resources are not always applicable to the local context thus making them unattractive for people from diverse cultures and background, such as those from Africa. Kenya has a high percentage of literate females and highest Internet usage in the area. This provides a unique opportunity in an otherwise limited resource country to reach out to a significant population of MBC patients. The patients voices are a valuable and trustworthy assessment of their actual needs. They have been used frequently in the area of cancer as a first step in designing needs-tailored interventions. We propose to develop a virtual online forum with the aim of providing patients with MBC, and their caregivers an interactive forum for psycho social support, addressing stigmas, seek relevant clinical advice, find links to the nearest healthcare facilities, download helpful information, participate in support group activities and receive links to other important helpful sites that are locally relevant. We also propose that such forum should also reflect the needs of our patients as described by themselves. Aim: Primary aim of this project is developing a virtual online interactive support forum where MBC patients and their caregivers can access information on social, psychological, spiritual, religious and clinical needs. The purpose is to be partly achieved by assessing the patient needs by needs assessment survey and to evaluate the impact of such intervention on patient knowledge and satisfaction with care. Strategy/Tactics: Web site development is the key component of the project. Patients would be asked to fill out the Supportive Care Needs Survey/The Knowledge Assessment Tool. The surveys will take place at four major cancer treatment hospitals in Kenya. Postlaunch promotion and awareness about Web site will be made and, usage data and knowledge tool to be used to assess the impact and acceptability. Web site updated regularly to address issues identified. Program/Policy process: Information gathered would be made part of policy on national cancer strategy, recommendations to factor in identified patient needs in policy. What was learned: Ongoing process.


Aside from a taste for fine paper and simple wines, there were few obvious links between Stravinsky and his Swiss literary collaborator and friend, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz. Stravinsky was extroverted, socially adept, and direct; Ramuz was introverted, dour, and self-effacing. But from the moment they met there was an immediate empathy. Ramuz mythologized it in his famous Souvenirs sur Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky's testament is found in the extended catalogue of works in which he invited Ramuz's collaboration.1 The close interaction between composer and poet resulted not only in an inventory of greater and lesser works, but also in a mutually evolving aesthetic. Transcending ethnic differences, Ramuz and Stravinsky enshrined both the elemental and the classic within the same aesthetic. If, at the end of his Swiss exile, Stravinsky rejected Ramuz's provincial limitations, the more literal classicism that he evolved in the twenties still owed much to the discipline and freedom from convention they had developed together. The new classicism was defined, in part, in the transposition of traditions of art into new forms. Stravinsky learned that process in the transposition of the elemental materials of folk music or peasant imagery into art.2 Furthermore, the cornerstone work of Stravinsky's new classicism is universally acknowledged as L'Histoire du soldat, the single result of the Ramuz-Stravinsky collaborations in which the writer participated fully in the determination of the work. The gentle Vaudois countryside with its cast of peasants provided the setting for most of Ramuz's fiction, but not his birth and childhood. He was born in Lausanne, on 24 September 1878, the son of a merchant. Though a burgher by birth, Ramuz was a peasant by ancestry and inclination. In the vineyards that had been tended by his mother's people for generations, on the soil that his paternal grandparents had worked, Ramuz found the sole concrete truths that he could nurture into art, and through which he envisioned the birth of a primitive classicism. Ramuz was well into adulthood before he could accept that the sensations he experienced in the Vaudois countryside were a more vital education than the strictures he dutifully accepted at the Gymnasium and Universite de Lausanne. His formal education was classical and doctrinaire. He so capably mastered composition in perfect alexandrines that he persuaded his family to allow him a career in the precarious field of literature. But the classical postures he had acquired were inadequate when the irregular rhythms of Vaudois peasant life naturally suggested a freer poetical form. As early as December 1901 Ramuz found himself questioning the necessity of rigorous discipline: What does it matter if the numerical symmetry of the syllables is always faithful, the rhymes always return, even if it is contrary to preconceived theories and my lively taste for the regular? . . . After all, all interior harmony (the word is ridiculous) being perceptible to anyone, why forbid any research out of fear of the vulgar and uncouth simply under the pretext of rules of prosody and definitive rhythm (Ramuz 1943: 63)?3 The simple recognition that a freer poetic style brought authenticity to his subject matter was not enough to free Ramuz from the metres that had become ingrained in his poetic voice. Remarkably self-aware, even during his apprenticeship, Ramuz recognized that part of his creative struggle would grow from the dichotomy within: the academic versus the elemental. On 28 April 1905 he entered in his diary: I would like to achieve pure sensation: to paint complex things with very simple words; not to describe, but to evoke, and sometimes even to go so far as to break syntax and grammar. I do not try it yet, because of the remnants of my education, but I lean that way (ibid.: 15O).4 Ten years later, through the example of a painter and in collaboration with a composer, Ramuz resolved the dichotomy within. …


Title of Dissertation: THE TORT REVOLUTION: PRODUCT LIABILITY AND THE RULE OF COURTS Ian J. Drake, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Herman J. Belz, Department of History This dissertation is a history of the changes in tort law, specifically in products liability law, from the fault-based negligence standard to the no-fault strict liability standard. It covers a period from the late nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth century. The historical questions this dissertation seeks to answer are i) what caused the change from negligence to strict liability, ii) who were the historical actors responsible for this change, iii) what was the political character of this change, and iv) what were the political consequences of this change. This dissertation reveals that the revolutionary expansion in product liability law in the states in the 1960s was the product of the Progressive ideologies of state court judges. During the Progressive Era, American legal education responded and adapted to the political climate of the wider society by adopting a new philosophical disposition regarding how the courts should address civil wrongs. The political and ideological responses to the industrialization of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century resulted in legal academics and practitioners advocating new ideologically oriented theories about how law does and should affect citizens. These theories, known as sociological jurisprudence and legal realism, became popular in American law schools. The law students of the 1920s became the judges and legal academics of the 1950s and 1960s. In the latter decades, Progressive state court judges instituted dramatic, revolutionary changes in the area of law known as torts, particularly products liability law. Products liability law was changed from a fault-based system to an insurance or nofault system. These politically motivated changes in the courts had the unintended consequence of making a theretofore non-political issue into an inherently political issue, subjecting tort law to the pluralism of the American political system at the state and federal levels. Accordingly, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of the process of legal change, and explores the methods by which social and political changes filter into court decisions. The Tort Revolution: Product Liability and the Rule of Courts


Bangladesh is a growing country with promising economic development. In the Asia Pacific region, Bangladesh's economy is ranked somewhere in the middle. The main barrier to any country's economic growth is unemployment. The current unemployment rate in Bangladesh in 2018 is 4.31%. So, the main objective of this study is how digital marketing can make a platform to face unemployment in Bangladesh. While going through the paper, it gradually reveals whether digital marketing has a positive impact such as creating job sectors and helping to decrease the unemployment rate of Bangladesh or not. The study shows the current scenario of digital marketing and the types of digital marketing that practices in Bangladesh. Bangladesh started to focus on this sector from 2014 to 2015. But digital advertising started its journey in the year 1990. It's nothing but managing customer relationships for promotional porous. It is a form of marketing that happens digitally over the web. In 2018, the total internet user is 81.7 million and social media users are 30.5 million which is 18% of the total population. Now, in 2019, the number of internet users increased to 90.5 million, according to the statistics published on the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)'s website.

This discussion is extended with the impact of digital marketing on unemployment. Moreover, it is also discussed famous digital marketing companies in our country. Even the government is taking steps to expand this digital marketing as well as e-commerce as this concept newly emerges in Bangladesh and people are accepting this very positively which is discussed in the policy and suggestion section. And this paper also explains the advantages which can help to understand the role of digital marketing.


We use Canadian linked employer-employee data to examine gender differences in probability, duration, and intensity of firm-sponsored training. We find that women in the for-profit sector are less likely to receive classroom training, and receive shorter classroom training courses. However, we find the reverse in the non-profit sector, with women being more likely to receive both classroom and on-the-job training, and also receiving longer classroom training courses. Our results suggest that women's worse training opportunities in the for-profit sector mainly operate within workplaces. We find no evidence that gender gaps in training in the for-profit sector are driven by lower probabilities of accepting training offers, child or family commitments, weaker labour market attachment, or worker self-selection. We also find that gender differences in expected changes in wages and training opportunities between the two sectors can explain a large portion of women's higher probability of employment in the non-profit sector. Finally, decomposition results suggest that gender differences in training explain some of the gender wage gap in the for-profit sector, which is twice as large than in the non-profit sector.


Citrus huanglongbing (HLB) disease is considered as one of the most destructive
diseases of citrus in Asian, African and American countries. It is caused by
Candidatus Liberibacter species. In Asian countries, the causal agent is
Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. Surveys of the HLB disease on infected citrus
trees were carried out in the major citrus growing areas in Peninsular Malaysia
namely Selangor, Pahang, Kelantan and Pahang. The occurrence of HLB
disease was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and transmission
electron microscope (TEM) tests. Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus was detected
positive in samples collected from honey mandarin (Citrus reticulata), pummelo
(C. grandis), Mexican lime (C. aurantifolia), mandarin (C. suhueinsis),
calamondin (C. madurensis), Cleopatra (C. reticulata), Troyer citrange (Poncirus
trifolia X C. sinensis) and citrirnelo (P. trifolia X C. paradise). Field-infected citrus
trees showed typical symptoms of HLB disease such as intervienal chlorosis,
green vein, dieback of twigs, lopsided fruit shape, small fruit size and premature
fruit drop easily. All the major citrus growing areas in Peninsular Malaysia were
found infected with HLB disease. The percentage mean estimate disease
incidence ranged from 28.3 - 53.8% and 0.0 - 46.03% depending on localities
and citrus species, respectively. The seriousness of the disease justified further
studies on the epidemiology and molecular characterization of the causal agent,
Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus in Malaysia. HLB vector, Diaphorina citri were
more abundant in the lowland areas such as Selangor and Terengganu. It was
absence in Cameron Highland, Pahang but moderate level was recorded in
Lojing Highland, Kelantan. Further study on characterization and strain
differentiation of Malaysian Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus isolates was carried
out. Based on their biological (pathological) properties, Malaysian isolates
exhibited six types of HLB symptoms such as olive green of leaves, green vein,
vein yellowing, mottling, stunted and dieback of twigs. In terms of disease
incidence and disease severity reactions, Malaysian isolates showed sigmoid
pattern of disease progress curves and caused polycyclic type of disease. Based
on their aggressiveness, Malaysian isolates could be classified into three groups
i.e. severe, moderate and mild. In terms of molecular properties, all isolates
produced intense accumulation of starch granule inside the tissue of infected
leaves. TEM study revealed that Malaysian isolates were pleomorphic and
consisted of two types of bodies i.e. elongated and spherical forms. The body
lengths ranged from 100-1200 nm depending on their body shape and the
isolates. Differentiation of their modal length and composition ratio revealed that
the Malaysian isolates could be classified into two groups i.e. group 1 comprises
of GFB-T and GFB-S and group 2 comprises of GFB-PK. Characterization of
their 16s rDNA gene sequences revealed that Malaysian isolates produced
about 1 156-1 167b.p of nucleotide sequences. Gene sequences between
Malaysian isolates showed high percentage of nucleotide similarity that ranged
from 96-99%. Similar trends were observed on their genetic distances. Analysis
of outer membrane protein (OMP) gene also showed differences between
Malaysian isolates tested, namely GFB-Mandarin and GFB-Pummelo. A study on
host preference of D. citri and susceptibility of citrus species against GFB-T
isolate indicated that D. citri most preferred to colonize and feed on jasmine
orange (Munaya paniculata) followed by sour orange (C. aurantium), pummelo
and honey mandarin. Host susceptibility study revealed that jasmine orange and
pummelo were resistant to HLB infection while sour orange was found to be
tolerant. Calamondin was susceptible and honey mandarin was very susceptible
to HLB infection. The effect of calcium, zinc and copper application on plants'
recovery and severity following infection of HLB disease showed slight protection
against the HLB bacterium but was inconsistent in some cases. Citrus trees
treated with combination of calcium and zinc at 600 ppm, and 10 ppm
respectively resulted to significant increase (P10.05) in terms of fruit production
and total soluble solid (TSS) content. This treatment also resulted in reduction of
AUDPC value of disease severity and also improved mean leaf length, mean leaf
width and mean leaf area. To date, there is no successful treatment available
throughout the world including Malaysia to control HLB disease in the orchards.
Perhaps the combination of present treatment together with good agriculture
practices could improve the efficiency of HLB management in the orchards by
enhancing tree immunity, delaying disease onset to prolong lifespan of citrus
trees.


Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are defined as pluripotent in view of their self‐renewal ability and potential to differentiate to cells of all three germ layers. Recent studies have indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the maintenance of pluripotency and cell cycle regulation. We used a microarray based approach to identify miRNAs that were enriched in hESCs when compared to differentiated cells and at the same time showed significant expression changes between different phases of cell cycle. We identified 34 candidate miRNAs and performed functional studies on one of these, miR‐1305, which showed the highest expression change during cell cycle transition. Overexpression of miR‐1305 induced differentiation of pluripotent stem cells, increased cell apoptosis and sped up G1/S transition, while its downregulation facilitated the maintenance of pluripotency and increased cell survival. Using target prediction software and luciferase based reporter assays we identified POLR3G as a downstream target by which miR‐1305 regulates the fine balance between maintenance of pluripotency and onset of differentiation. Overexpression of POLR3G rescued pluripotent stem cell differentiation induced by miR‐1305 overexpression. In contrast, knock‐down of POLR3G expression abolished the miR‐1305‐knockdown mediated enhancement of pluripotency, thus validating its role as miR‐1305 target in human pluripotent stem cells. Together our data point to an important role for miR‐1305 as a novel regulator of pluripotency, cell survival and cell cycle and uncovers new mechanisms and networks by which these processes are intertwined in human pluripotent stem cells. Stem Cells 2016;34:2306–2317


SUMMARY Ammonoids from the late Asbian (B 2b Assemblage Biozone) Cracoean buildups or reefs of the Peak District (Derbyshire and Staffordshire, England) are revised. Utilizing new collections and additional museum material, enhanced descriptions and illustrations are possible. Details of conch morphology, growth characteristics, suture development and shell ornament are presented for species belonging to the genera Bollandites, Bollandoceras, Beyrichoceras, Goniatites, Sygambrites, Nomismoceras and Prolecanites. The new species Bollandites rileyi sp. nov., Bollandoceras fordi sp. nov., Bollandoceras crowdecotense sp. nov. and Sygambrites mundyi sp. nov. are described. A neotype is proposed for Bollandites castletonensis and a lectotype for Beyrichoceras delicatum.


Abstract According to Police Special Branch intelligence reports, amidst the chaos of Partition, over 60,000 ounces of gold were stolen from fleeing Hindus and Sikhs in 1947. Alongside political identity and religious organisation and territorialisation, desire for wealth or property was a key trigger for the continuation of the Partition violence. This article documents organised communal violence which erupted in the NWFP and Punjab during 1946–47 using largely underutilised police and intelligence reports from the period. The empirical focus of the article is two-fold. First, to show that the intercommunity violence triggered in these provinces was organised and funded by the Muslim League through its volunteer wings, even if specific perpetrators were locals. Second, that looting was a feature of locally-rooted violence to acquire property owned by non-Muslim minorities. As well, individual motives for revenge or a desire to best one's business rival fuelled the violence alongside ideological imperatives such as the commitment to the idea of Pakistan.


We analyze a general model in which, at each echelon of the supply process, an arbitrary number of firms compete, offering one or multiple products to some or all of the firms at the next or possibly subsequent echelons or directly to the end consumer. At each echelon, the offered products are differentiated and the firms belonging to this echelon engage in price competition. The model assumes a general set of piece-wise linear consumer demand functions for all products (potentially) brought to the consumer market, where each product's demand volume may depend on the retail prices charged for all products; consumers' preferences over the various product/retailer combinations are general and asymmetric. Similarly the cost rates incurred by the firms at the most upstream echelon are general as well. We initially study a two-echelon sequential oligopoly with competing suppliers, each selling multiple products indirectly through a pool of multiple competing retailers or directly to end consumers. In some cases, a supplier may choose to sell some or all of its products simultaneously via its direct sales channel and indirectly via some or all of the retailers. We characterize the equilibrium behavior under linear price-only contracts. In the second stage, given wholesale prices and prices of direct sales channels selected in the first stage, all retailers simultaneously decide on their retail prices to maximize their total profits among all products of all suppliers they choose to do business with. In the first stage, the suppliers anticipate the retailers' responses and all suppliers simultaneously maximize their total pro ts from all channels direct or indirect channels by selecting the wholesale prices and direct sales channel prices. We show that in this two-stage competition model, a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium always exists. Multiple subgame perfect equilibria may arise but, if so, all equilibria are equivalent in the sense of generating unique demands and profits for all firms. We subsequently generalize our results to supply chain models with an arbitrary set of echelons, and show how all equilibrium performance measures can be computed with an efficient recursive scheme. The model may, also be used to evaluate the impact of various structural changes in the supply chain network.


A formalism for modelling the dynamics of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) using methods from statistical mechanics, originally due to Prugel-Bennett and Shapiro, is reviewed, generalized and improved upon. This formalism can be used to predict the averaged trajectory of macroscopic statistics describing the GA's population. These macroscopics are chosen to average well between runs, so that fluctuations from mean behaviour can often be neglected. Where necessary, non-trivial terms are determined by assuming maximum entropy with constraints on known macroscopics. Problems of realistic size are described in compact form and finite population effects are included, often proving to be of fundamental importance. The macroscopics used here are cumulants of an appropriate quantity within the population and the mean correlation (Hamming distance) within the population. Including the correlation as an explicit macroscopic provides a significant improvement over the original formulation. The formalism is applied to a number of simple optimization problems in order to determine its predictive power and to gain insight into GA dynamics. Problems which are most amenable to analysis come from the class where alleles within the genotype contribute additively to the phenotype. This class can be treated with some generality, including problems with inhomogeneous contributions from each site, non-linear or noisy fitness measures, simple diploid representations and temporally varying fitness. The results can also be applied to a simple learning problem, generalization in a binary perceptron, and a limit is identified for which the optimal training batch size can be determined for this problem. The theory is compared to averaged results from a real GA in each case, showing excellent agreement if the maximum entropy principle holds. Some situations where this approximation brakes down are identified. In order to fully test the formalism, an attempt is made on the strong sc np-hard problem of storing random patterns in a binary perceptron. Here, the relationship between the genotype and phenotype (training error) is strongly non-linear. Mutation is modelled under the assumption that perceptron configurations are typical of perceptrons with a given training error. Unfortunately, this assumption does not provide a good approximation in general. It is conjectured that perceptron configurations would have to be constrained by other statistics in order to accurately model mutation for this problem. Issues arising from this study are discussed in conclusion and some possible areas of further research are outlined.