The immunoregulatory cytokine IL-12 plays a central role in cell-mediated immune responses through its effects on NK cells and T lymphocytes. While IL-12 is known to share some functions with other cytokines, such as IFN-alpha, it also maintains distinct roles, such as its ability to induce Th1 differentiation. The molecular basis for these unique and overlapping functions is not well understood. IL-12 has previously been shown to induce tyrosine phosphorylation and DNA-binding of STAT3 and STAT4, members of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) family. Because STAT4 has only been shown to be activated in response to IL-12, this specificity has been suggested to be a basis for the unique actions of IL-12. In this study, we demonstrated that STAT4 activation by IL-12 is not unique; IL-12 and IFN-alpha, but not IFN-gamma, induced tyrosine phosphorylation and DNA binding of STAT4. Since tyrosine and serine phosphorylation of STAT1 have previously been shown to be important in IFN-alpha-mediated signaling, we also investigated IL-12- and IFN-alpha-induced serine phosphorylation of STAT4. We demonstrated that both cytokines induced serine phosphorylation. This modification was not required for DNA binding, but may be important in STAT-mediated transcription. Thus, STAT4 activation was not IL-12 specific, and IL-12 and IFN-alpha activated STAT4 through both tyrosine and serine phosphorylation. These findings have significant implications for understanding the role of STAT4 in mediating biologic functions; specifically, the data argue that the unique effects of IL-12 cannot be solely explained by STAT4 activation.


BACKGROUND
Changes in oxidative stress and thiol / disulfide balance are thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Our study investigates total oxidant level (TOS), total antioxidant level (TAS), oxidative stress index (OSI) levels and thiol / disulfide balance in pediatric patients with acute and chronic ITP.

METHODS
Thirty four patients with acute ITP, eighteen patients with chronic ITP and thirty three healthy children (control) were included. TOS, TAS, OSI, thiol / disulfide balance were analyzed.

RESULTS
In acute ITP, TAS levels were lower than chronic ITP and control, TOS and OSI levels were higher than control, and native thiol level was lower than chronic ITP (p < 0.05). In acute ITP; disulfide level, disulfide / native thiol and disulfide / total thiol ratios were higher than chronic ITP and control, and native thiol / total thiol ratio was lower than chronic ITP and control group (p = 0.038, p = 0.018, respectively). TOS and OSI levels of the chronic ITP were higher than the control group (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study have shown that oxidative stress increases in children with acute ITP and chronic ITP, that thiol / disulfide balance is disrupted in favor of disulfide in acute ITP, and that thiol / disulfide balance isn`t disrupted in chronic ITP patients whose platelet count is close to normal and who don`t require treatment.


This thesis has been written under the supervision of my mentor Prof. Miodrag Mateljevi
c, and my co-mentor dr. Vladimir Bozin at the University of Belgrade in the academic
year 2012-2013. The topic of this thesis is Complex analysis related with geometric
function theory, more precisely the theory of quasiconformal mappings in the Euclidean
n-dimensional space. For good survey of the eld, see F. W. Gehring [20] in the handbook
of K uhnau [33] which also contains many other surveys on quasiconformal mappings
and related topics. The main source in this dissertation is J. V ais al a [67]. The thesis
is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 is divided into 5 sections. In this chapter,
we focus on quasiconformal mappings in Rn and discuss various equivalent denitions.
We give The Modulus of family of curves in the rst section, geometric denition of
quasiconformal space mappings in second section, analytic denition of quasiconformal
space mappings in third section, equivalence of the denitions in fourth section, and the
Beltrami equation in fth section. Chapter 2 is divided into 5 sections. We begin by
generalizing the class of Lip(
), 0 < 1, and some properties of that class. Chapter
2 is devoted to understanding the properties by introducing the notion of Linearity,
Dierentiability, and majorants. A majorant function is a certain generalization of the
power functions t, this is done in the rst section. In the second section we introducing
the notion of moduli of continuity with its Some Properties which gotten from I.M.
Kolodiy, F. Hildebrand paper [39]. In third section we produced harmonic mapping as
preliminary for the fourth section which including subharmonicity of jfjq of harmonic
quasiregular mapping in space. In the last section we introducing estimation of the Poisson
kernel which were extracted from Krantz paper [42]. Chapter 3 is divided into 3
sections. This chapter is include the main result in this dissertation. In this chapter we
prove that !u() C!f (), where u : ! Rn is the harmonic extension of a continuous
map f : @
 ! Rn, if u is a K-quasiregular map and is bounded in Rn with C2 boundary.
Here C is a constant depending only on n, !f and K and !h denotes the modulus
of continuity of h. We also prove a version of this result for !-extension domains with
c-uniformly perfect boundary and quasiconformal mappings, and we state some results
regarding HQC self maps of the quadrant Q = fz : z = x + iy; x; y > 0g.


The work is focused on methodology of penetration modelling of multilayered KE protection plates. The method described, intended for penetration process modelling and bulletproof estimation of multi-layered barriers, is based on threedimensional computer simulation. The nonlinear material behaviour models are proposed for the most common protection materials, like metals, aramid fabrics, ceramics, UHWMPE. For the proposed models, the methods for identifying the parameters of governing equations and failure criteria are given, based on Split Hopkinson bar technique. The finite element model database on projectiles is developed, including standard projectiles, mentioned in NATO and RF standards on ballistic protection. The material database structure is developed, which includes the parameters of suggested material models for each material used. On the basis of proposed method, the software interface for LS-DYNA code is developed, combining all the mentioned databases and allowing to perform penetration calculations of different barriers with different projectiles, velocities and impact angles. With the developed software tool, the sample optimization problem for multi-layered armour penetration was solved using pSeven optimization software by DATADVANCE. It was shown that the nontrivial solution of such problem exists, confirming that the optimal thickness ratio can be obtained for given set of materials in multi-layered amour concept.


The human brain is a complex organ containing about 100 billion neurons, connecting to each other by as many as 1000 trillion synaptic connections. In neuroscience and computer science, spiking neural network models are a conventional model that allow us to simulate particular regions of the brain. In this thesis we look at these spiking neural networks, and how we can benefit future works and develop new models. We have two main focuses, our first focus is on the development of a modular framework for devising new models and unifying terminology, when describing artificial spiking neural networks. We investigate models and algorithms proposed in the literature and offer insight on designing spiking neural networks. We propose the Spiking State Machine as a standard experimental framework, which is a subset of Liquid State Machines. The design of the Spiking State Machine is to focus on the modularity of the liquid component in respect to spiking neural networks. We also develop an ontology for describing the liquid component to distinctly differentiate the terminology describing our simulated spiking neural networks from its anatomical counterpart. We then evaluate the framework looking for consequences of the design and restrictions of the modular liquid component. For this, we use nonlinear problems which have no biological relevance; that is an issue that is irrelevant for the brain to solve, as it is not likely to encounter it in real world circumstances. Our results show that a Spiking State Machine could be used to solve our simple nonlinear problems which only needed small networks. For more complex problems the liquid required a substantial growth in order to find a solution. Growing the network may be unfeasible for more challenging problems compared to manually constructed networks, which may provide better clarification of the situation and the mechanics involved. Our second focus is the modelling of spontaneous neurotransmission in the brain, for which we propose a novel model called the imperfect synaptic model. Imperfect synapses allow for communication without spiking, by potential differences in the membrane potentials of neurons. We evaluated this method against the standard synapse model on the classical control system problem of balancing a pole on a cart. We found that networks with imperfect synapses responded quicker to external actions. Otherwise, there was no significant difference to networks of standard synapses. We discovered that by doping a network with imperfect synapses, the network learnt to balance the cart-pole system in half the time compared to networks with standard synapses and networks with only imperfect synapses. We suspect that doping imperfect synapses increase the separation potential of the network, by allowing some neurons to inhibit or excite other neurons without action potentials. This decreases the chance of repeated structures occurring within the network. Our proposed method does not cover all mechanisms of neurotransmission, and in general, neurons will require at least some prior stimulation. Computationally, the imperfect synaptic model requires more computation per propagation cycle.


ABSTRACT Finding parameters that minimise a loss function is at the core of many machine learning methods. The Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) algorithm is widely used and delivers state-of-the-art results for many problems. Nonetheless, SGD typically cannot find the global minimum, thus its empirical effectiveness is hitherto mysterious. We derive a correspondence between parameter inference and free energy minimisation in statistical physics. The degree of undersampling plays the role of temperature. Analogous to the energy–entropy competition in statistical physics, wide but shallow minima can be optimal if the system is undersampled, as is typical in many applications. Moreover, we show that the stochasticity in the algorithm has a non-trivial correlation structure which systematically biases it towards wide minima. We illustrate our argument with two prototypical models: image classification using deep learning and a linear neural network where we can analytically reveal the relationship between entropy and out-of-sample error. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Slowly changing boundary conditions can sometimes cause discontinuous responses in climate models and result in relatively rapid transitions between different climate states. Such terrestrially induced abrupt climate transitions could have contributed to biotic crises in earth history. Ancillary events associated with transitions could disperse unstable climate behavior over a longer but still geologically brief interval and account for the stepwise nature of some extinction events. There is a growing body of theoretical and empirical support for the concept of abrupt climate change, and a comparison of paleoclimate data with the Phanerozoic extinction record indicates that climate and biotic transitions often coincide. However, more stratigraphic information is needed to precisely assess phase relations between the two types of transitions. The climate-life comparison also suggests that, if climate change is significantly contributing to biotic turnover, ecosystems may be more sensitive to forcing during the early stages of evolution from an ice-free to a glaciated state. Our analysis suggests that a terrestrially induced climate instability is a viable mechanism for causing rapid environmental change and biotic turnover in earth history, but the relation is not so strong that other sources of variance can be excluded.


In this paper, we present an efficient digital signature scheme with message reco\-very and without using any one-way hash function and message redundancy. The new scheme is based on conic curve cryptography (CCC) that offers a very high level of security with a small key size. Obviously, the result is a low computational cost and a clear saving in memory and bandwidth. The security of the new scheme is based on two hard problems, the discrete logarithm on conic curve and factorization problem. It provides higher level security than schemes based on a single hard problem. We show in details that the proposed scheme does not involve any modular exponentiation operation in all algorithms.


Revisiting the Balfour Declaration, this article offers a threefold argument: first, challenging
those who read the Declaration as symbolizing a new dawn of Jewish political
history, the article proposes an alternative reading that considers it as a continuation
of familiar patterns of Jewish political behaviour based on the forging of 'vertical alliances'.
Second, it argues that this perspective led many Jews to treat the Declaration
as an unsigned 'contract', and it was not until the 1940s, with the rise in popularity of a
discourse concerning Britain's 'betrayal', that this view began to be challenged. Third,
explaining how and why the vertical alliance perspective was pushed to the margins
of Israeli collective memory, the article looks at the rise of the 'security paradigm' in
Hebrew literature and examines the ways in which the creation of a Jewish army was
imagined as marking the end of old forms of Jewish politics.


The impact of mycotoxin contamination of foodstuffs and feedstuffs on human and animal health is well documented. Trichothecene mycotoxins are metabolic compounds produced by various Fusarium species such as F.graminearum, F. culmorum, F. sporotrichioides, F. poae and F. equiseti on different grains like wheat, oats or maize. The most significant thrichothecenes produced by fusaria are T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol (type A) and nivalenol, deoxynivalenol, 3- and 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (type B). Deoxynivalenol (DON), mainly synthesized by F. graminearum and F. culmorum (that produce Fusarium Head Blight disease = FHB), is the most common trichothecene contaminant of wheat, and appears to play an important role in the aggressiveness of both species toward wheat. In order to prevent the contamination of the cereals with mycotoxigenic fungi, various strategies were developed (cultural practices: tillage, crop rotation; use of fungicides, resistant cultivars or biological control agents = BCAs). Because of the low efficacy of fungicides to control members of the Fusarium head blight Complex, the selection of highly efficient antagonists is of great interest for the specialists all over the world. Environmental friendly, the use of BCA is an important additional strategy that can be used as part of an integrated management of FHB. For this reason, the aim of our work was to select potential microbial antagonists that are able to inhibit the growth of Fusarium graminearum and F.culmorum, and to prevent the presence of DON on wheat. 37 Fusarium spp. strains were used in experiments and the in vitro aggressiveness of these isolates was determined. Twelve fungal strains with differences in the aggressiveness potential and DON biosynthesis were selected and used for interactions with eight bacterial strains isolated from compost or soil. Four out of the eight bacterial strains used were selected based on their high inhibitory activity against all the fungal isolates. Specific microscopically modifications of hyphae were observed at the edge of fungal colonies near the antagonist. The effect of the bacterial antagonists on DON accumulation in specific culture medium was also checked by TLC method. The results showed the possibility to use one or more bacterial strains as a tool for the biological control of FHB agents that survives in crop residues.


The use of customised soft-core processors in which instructions can be integrated into a system in application hardware is increasing in the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) field. Specifically, the partial run-time reconfiguration of FPGAs in specialised processors for a particular domain can be very beneficial. In this report, the design and implementation for the customisation of a soft-core MIPS processor using an FPGA and partial reconfiguration (PR) of FPGA technology will be addressed to achieve efficient resource use. This can be achieved using a PR design flow that helps the design fit into a smaller device. Moreover, the impact of static power consumption could be reduced due to runtime reconfiguration. This will be done by configurable custom instructions implemented in the hardware as an extension on the MIPS CPU. The aim of this project is to investigate the PR of FPGAs for run-time adaptations of the instruction set of a soft-core CPU, including the integration of custom instructions and the exploration of the potential to use the MultiBoot feature available in Xilinx FPGAs to carry out the PR process. The system will be evaluated and tested on a Nexus 3 development board featuring a Xilinx Spartran-6 FPGA. The system will be able to load reconfigurable custom instructions dynamically into user programs with the help of the trap handler when the custom instruction is called by the MIPS CPU. The results of this experiment demonstrate that custom instructions in hardware can speed up a certain function and many instructions can be saved when compared to a software implementation of the same function. Implementing custom instructions in hardware is perfectly possible and worth exploring. Keywords—Customisation, FPGA, MIPS, partial reconfiguration.


Aims: To determine the prognostic relevance of cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its relationship to important clinicopathological parameters. Methods: A series of 196 patients with HCCs treated either by surgical resection (n = 106) or liver transplantation (n = 90) was investigated. Immunohistochemically confirmed COX-2 expression was correlated with a series of clinicopathologically relevant parameters as well as proliferative activity and apoptosis. Results: Overexpression of COX-2 correlated statistically with high histological tumour differentiation (p<0.001) and early TNM stage (p = 0.003). COX-2 overexpression was associated with lower apoptotic rates (p = 0.001), whereas proliferation activity did not differ significantly. In addition, COX-2 overexpression showed a significant correlation with favourable overall survival (p<0.001). In multivariate survival analysis, COX-2 expression qualified as an independent prognostic parameter (p = 0.030). Conclusions: Overexpression of COX-2 in HCC indicates early-stage cancer with less aggressive tumour behaviour and constitutes an independent prognostic factor.


Abstract. Temperature exerts strong controls on the incidence and severity of fire. All else equal, warming is expected to increase fire-related carbon emissions, and thereby atmospheric CO2. But the magnitude of this feedback is very poorly known. We use a single-box model of the land biosphere to quantify this positive feedback from satellite-based estimates of biomass burning emissions for 2000–2014 CE and from sedimentary charcoal records for the millennium before the industrial period. We derive an estimate of the centennial-scale feedback strength of 6.5 ± 3.4 ppm CO2 per degree of land temperature increase, based on the satellite data. However, this estimate is poorly constrained, and is largely driven by the well-documented dependence of tropical deforestation and peat fires (primarily anthropogenic) on climate variability patterns linked to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Palaeo-data from pre-industrial times provide the opportunity to assess the fire-related climate–carbon-cycle feedback over a longer period, with less pervasive human impacts. Past biomass burning can be quantified based on variations in either the concentration and isotopic composition of methane in ice cores (with assumptions about the isotopic signatures of different methane sources) or the abundances of charcoal preserved in sediments, which reflect landscape-scale changes in burnt biomass. These two data sources are shown here to be coherent with one another. The more numerous data from sedimentary charcoal, expressed as normalized anomalies (fractional deviations from the long-term mean), are then used – together with an estimate of mean biomass burning derived from methane isotope data – to infer a feedback strength of 5.6 ± 3.2 ppm CO2 per degree of land temperature and (for a climate sensitivity of 2.8 K) a gain of 0.09 ± 0.05. This finding indicates that the positive carbon cycle feedback from increased fire provides a substantial contribution to the overall climate–carbon-cycle feedback on centennial timescales. Although the feedback estimates from palaeo- and satellite-era data are in agreement, this is likely fortuitous because of the pervasive influence of human activities on fire regimes during recent decades.


Risk mitigation instruments such as guarantees are attractive options for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals because they provide a way for multilateral development banks (MDBs) to strategically de-risk investments while crowding in private financial resources. However, despite the potential attractiveness of these instruments and their effectiveness in mobilizing private resources, their use has been relatively limited. According to private estimates, guarantees represent only 5 percent of MDB operations, although they account for 45 percent of total private resource mobilization. This paper considers supply and demand determinants of MDBs' current guarantee products, addresses the requirements of private sector investors, and identifies ways to close the gaps between private sector needs and the ability of MDBs to scale up risk mitigation mechanisms. The main conclusion from this analysis is that MDBs' business models impose significant limitations on the further use of guarantees. A possible alternative to overcome these limitations is the creation of specialized entities or off-balance-sheet facilities, learning from the experience of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.


Nowadays, high-performance transaction processing applications increasingly run on multisocket multicore servers. Such architectures exhibit non-uniform memory access latency as well as non-uniform thread communication costs. Unfortunately, traditional shared-everything database management systems are designed for uniform inter-core communication speeds. This causes unpredictable access latencies in the critical path. While lack of data locality may be a minor nuisance on systems with fewer than 4 processors, it becomes a serious scalability limitation on larger systems due to accesses to centralized data structures. In this paper, we propose ATraPos, a storage manager design that is aware of the non-uniform access latencies of multisocket systems. ATraPos achieves good data locality by carefully partitioning the data as well as internal data structures (e.g., state information) to the available processors and by assigning threads to specific partitions. Furthermore, ATraPos dynamically adapts to the workload characteristics, i.e., when the workload changes, ATraPos detects the change and automatically revises the data partitioning and thread placement to fit the current access patterns and hardware topology. We prototype ATraPos on top of an open-source storage manager Shore-MT and we present a detailed experimental analysis with both synthetic and standard (TPC-C and TATP) benchmarks. We show that ATraPos exhibits performance improvements of a factor ranging from 1.4 to 6.7x for a wide collection of transactional workloads. In addition, we show that the adaptive monitoring and partitioning scheme of ATraPos poses a negligible cost, while it allows the system to dynamically and gracefully adapt when the workload changes.


The influence of the chemical phosphite on Phytophthora species was investigated by studying the morphological and molecular changes induced by phosphite.

In vitro experiments were conducted to study the effects of phosphite on five isolates of each of five species of Phytophthora grown in low phosphate defined medium. Sensitivity to phosphite varied greatly among the five isolates of each species and resulted in a significant interaction between isolate and phosphite effect. The EC50 values ranged from less than 5 to 10 mcg/ml for P. cinnamomi, to 13 mcg/ml for P. nicotianae, to 27 mcg/ml for P. citricola, to 24 mcg/ml for P. palmivora and to 49 mcg/ml for P. capsici.

Phosphite concentrations from 5 to 100 mcg/ml caused different degrees of morphological changes. Mycelial growth of all species was significantly suppressed by phosphite at 5 mcg/ml while at 100 mcg/ml there was hyphal lysis. Swelling of hyphae with stunted sidebranches and shrinking of cytoplasm from hyphal tips and hyphal walls were characteristic changes observed. Phosphite also retarded the development and caused distortion and lysis of chlamydospores, sporangia and zoospores. Zoosporogenesis was also adversely affected.

Differential display reverse transcription-PCR was used to study changes in gene expression in P. cinnamomi induced in response to phosphite stress. The differential conditions were simulated by growth on a defined medium with and without phosphite amendment. This technique resulted in the isolation of 34 putative differentially expressed cDNA fragments which were cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequences of 26 of these cDNA clones were generated. BLASTX analysis of these nucleotide sequences against the NCBI database revealed that 18 exhibited homology to gene sequences encoding known proteins involved in various biological processes. The remaining eight showed homology to either hypothetical or unknown or unnamed proteins.

The expression level of four of these cDNA clones were further analysed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR using SYBR Green 1 assay. Three candidate endogenous reference genes namely, tubulin, cyclophilin and actin were evaluated to determine their expression level under the influence of phosphite. None of these genes were significantly regulated by phosphite. As tubulin had the highest expression among the three, it was chosen as the endogenous reference gene. Amplification efficiencies between the reference gene and each of the target genes were validated and found to be approximately equal or within 5% of each other. The relative gene expression between the phosphite-treated and untreated samples can thus be determined using the comparative CT ([Delta][Delta]CT) method. One of the cDNA clones, CP6 which showed differential expression of three-fold was up-regulated. The remaining three were constitutively expressed. CP6 which encodes 1564 nucleotides showed sequence homology, at the amino acid level with proteophosphoglycans from Leishmania major.

This study demonstrated the growth inhibition and morphological deformities caused by phosphite in Phytophthora species. It also illustrated the use of a modified DDRT-PCR method to study genes expressed in phosphite stress regulation. The application of real-time quantitative RT-PCR with SYBR Green I assay facilitated the quantification of the expression level of some of these genes.


This study was conducted to investigate the effects of cage tier and age on performance characteristics of layer hybrids, egg quality and some stress parameters. Ninety laying hens (hybrid ATAK-S) of similar bodyweights were used in the experiment. They were housed in three-tier conventional battery cages (bottom, middle and top) with 600 cm 2 /per bird. The experiment was conducted on hens from the age of 18 weeks to 42 weeks. Layers at the age of 18 weeks were randomly allocated to conventional three-tier battery cages with five replicates of six hens per treatment in a completely randomized design. In the bottom, middle and top tiers, 5% age of yield was observed as 151, 146 and 156 days, respectively; 50% age of yield was 162.4, 158.6 and 161.8 days; 5% yield age bodyweight (BW) as 1597.8, 1460.5 and 1599.2 g; 50% yield age BW as 1708.7, 1666.4 and 1671.7 g, respectively. The effects of cage tiers on week 42 BW, feed conversion ratio (FCR), tonic immobility (TI), egg weight (EW), egg yield (EY), and most external and internal quality traits of the hens' eggs were found to be insignificant. Except for shape index (SI) and albumen pH, internal and external quality traits of eggs were significantly affected by age of the hens. In addition, there were significant effects of age on the FCR, EY, EW and oviposition time. The effects of cage tier on tonic immobility (TI) in week 42 and viability were found to be insignificant, but TI in week 30 was found to be significant. It can be concluded that cage tier did not have significant effects on egg yield, egg quality and indicators of stress parameters studied in the experiment. However, these parameters were affected by the age of the hens at the beginning of the laying period.


This report has explored changes in two regulations targeting energy performance of buildings in Sweden, energy requirements and certification of buildings. The objective has been to investigate the effect of the implementation of the EU directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD) on these two regulations and to what degree the directive can explain the regulative changes. The analytical framework has also included domestic factors; the influence of the national government and the organizational field. The analysis revealed that whereas the EPBD has acted only as facilitator in connection with the changes in energy requirements, it has been the sole driver of some of the changes in Sweden's new certification system. Several of the changes during the period studied can however be traced to the national government and the organizational field. But the EPBD has also worked as a facilitator of the changes promoted by domestic actors. The directive has been used to legitimize radical changes that would have been difficult to implement in other ways.


The accumulation of discharge along a stream valley is frequently assumed to be the primary control on solute transport processes. Relationships of both increasing and decreasing transient storage, and decreased gross losses of stream water have been reported with increasing discharge; however, we have yet to validate these relationships with extensive field study. We conducted transient storage and mass recovery analyses of artificial tracer studies completed for 28 contiguous 100 m reaches along a stream valley, repeated under four base‐flow conditions. We calculated net and gross gains and losses, temporal moments of tracer breakthrough curves, and best fit transient storage model parameters (with uncertainty estimates) for 106 individual tracer injections. Results supported predictions that gross loss of channel water would decrease with increased discharge. However, results showed no clear relationship between discharge and transient storage, and further analysis of solute tracer methods demonstrated that the lack of this relation may be explained by uncertainty and equifinality in the transient storage model framework. Furthermore, comparison of water balance and transient storage approaches reveals complications in clear interpretation of either method due to changes in advective transport time, which sets a the temporal boundary separating transient storage and channel water balance. We have little ability to parse this limitation of solute tracer methods from the physical processes we seek to study. We suggest the combined analysis of both transient storage and channel water balance more completely characterizes transport of solutes in stream networks than can be inferred from either method alone.


Abstract We consider the classical problem of a single-layer homogeneous fluid at rest and a low, slowly varying, long and positive bottom obstacle, which is abruptly started from rest to move with a constant speed $V$. As a result a system of transient waves will develop, and we assume that locally in the region over the obstacle dispersion can be ignored while nonlinearity cannot. The relevant governing equations for the near-field solution are therefore the nonlinear shallow water (NSW) equations. These are bidirectional and can be formulated in terms of a two-family system of characteristics. We analytically integrate and eliminate the backward-going family and achieve a versatile unidirectional single-family formulation, which covers subcritical, transcritical and supercritical conditions with relatively high accuracy. The formulation accounts for the temporal and spatial evolution of the bound waves in the vicinity of the obstacle as well as the development of the transient free waves generated at the onset of the motion. At some distance from the obstacle, dispersion starts to play a role and undular bores develop, but up to this point the new formulation agrees very well with numerical simulations based on a high-order Boussinesq formulation. Finally, we derive analytical asymptotic solutions to the new equations, providing estimates of the asymptotic surface levels in the vicinity of the obstacle as well as the crest levels of the leading non-dispersive free waves. These estimates can be used to predict the height and speed of the leading waves in the undular bores. The numerical and analytical solutions to the new single-family formulation of the NSW equations are compared to results based on the forced Korteweg–de Vries/Hopf equation and to numerical Boussinesq simulations.


In this paper, an innovative method to findthe workspace of a hexapod mobile robot is presented.Differently, to the current state of the art methods thatallows to determine the working spaces for walking instraight line, the proposed method allows estimatingthe optimal set of configurations for walking in anyviable direction. The method takes advantage of theexisting similitudes between the hexapod and theDelta robot during the tripod walk; however, thereare some movement restrictions between them, whichwere conveniently solved by handling them as amultiobjective optimization problem. Particularly, theMOEA/D algorithm was used to solve the problem.


Clustering is defined as the grouping of similar items in a set, and is an important process within the field of data mining. As the amount of data for various applications continues to increase, in terms of its size and dimensionality, it is necessary to have efficient clustering methods. A popular clustering algorithm is K-Means, which adopts a greedy approach to produce a set of K-clusters with associated centres of mass, and uses a squared error distortion measure to determine convergence. Methods for improving the efficiency of K-Means have been largely explored in two main directions. The amount of computation can be significantly reduced by adopting a more efficient data structure, notably a multi-dimensional binary search tree (KD-Tree) to store either centroids or data points. A second direction is parallel processing, where data and computation loads are distributed over many processing nodes. However, little work has been done to provide a parallel formulation of the efficient sequential techniques based on KD-Trees. Such approaches are expected to have an irregular distribution of computation load and can suffer from load imbalance. This issue has so far limited the adoption of these efficient K-Means techniques in parallel computational environments. In this work, we provide a parallel formulation for the KD-Tree based K-Means algorithm and address its load balancing issues.


Silicon based integrated circuits has been dominating the electronics technology industry in the last few decades. As the telecommunications and the computing industry slowly converges together, the need for a material to build photonics integrated circuits (PIC) that can be cost-effective and be produced in mass market has become very important.

This thesis describes and outlines the characteristics of high index contrast waveguides as a building blocks that can be designed, fabricated and employed on devices in silicon photonics. Initially in this work, a fully vectorial H-field based finite element method has been used to obtain the modal characteristics of high index contrast bent waveguide to get a better understanding of the curved section. Through the beam propagation method, the propagation losses and the spot-size along the propagation distance are obtained when a mode from the straight guide is launched into a bent guide. It is also learnt that mode beating exists at the junction of a straight-to-bent waveguide, in which higher order modes will also be generated. It will be shown in this work that power do exchange between the two polarization states, therefore the polarization conversion, the power losses and the bending losses will be investigated. It will also shown in here that by applying lateral offsets with coupled waveguides of unequal widths, the insertion loss can be reduced. Secondly, for a high index contrast waveguide such as the silicon strip waveguide with a nanoscale cross-section, modes in such waveguide are not purely TE or TM but hybrid in nature, with all the six components of their E and H-fields being present. Therefore a detail analysis of the modal field profiles along with the Poynting vector profile will be shown. The effects of waveguide's width and height on the effective indices, the hybridness, the modal effective area and the power confinement in the core or cladding has been studied. Furthermore the modal birefringence of such strip waveguide will be shown. It will be presented that for a strip waveguide with height of 260 nm, single mode exists in the region of the width being 200 nm to 400 nm and that the modal effective is at its minimum when width is around 320 nm for both polarization states.

Thirdly, a compact polarization rotator with an asymmetric waveguide structure design, suitable for fabrication that does not require a slanted side wall or curved waveguide is considered in this work. It will be shown in here that due to the hybrid nature of the asymmetric waveguide design, maximum polarization rotation (from TE to TM) will be achieve by enhancing the non-dominant field profile of both polarized fundamental mode. As the modal hybridness and the propagation constants of both polarized modes will be obtained, the half-beat length, polarization conversion and polarization cross-talk will be calculated by using the FEM and the least squares residual boundary method (LSBR). It is learnt that a compact single stage polarization rotator with a device length of 48 μm with more than 99% of polarization conversion is achieved in this work.

Finally, a study of vertical and horizontal slot waveguide will be shown. Based on silicon strip waveguide, a detail modal characteristics of E and H-fields along with the Poynting vectors are presented. It will be shown that for slot waveguide, high power confinement and power density will be achieved in the slot area. It will be presented that by optimising the waveguide and slot dimension, the performance of the power confinement and power density in the slot region can be improved.


The formation of phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is a major step in the gluconeogenic pathway in which tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates are converted to hexose sugars. In Rhizobium (now Sinorhizobium) meliloti this step is catalysed by the enzyme PEP carboxykinase (PCK) which converts oxaloacetate to PEP. R. meliloti Pck- mutants grow very poorly with TCA cycle intermediates as the sole source of carbon. Here, the isolation and mapping of suppressor mutations which allow Pck- mutants to grow on succinate and other TCA cycle intermediates is reported. Tn5 insertions which abolished the suppressor phenotype and mapped to the suppressor locus were located within the pod gene encoding pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK). Strains carrying suppressor mutations had increased PPDK activity compared to the wild-type. The suppressor phenotype was dependent on the combined activities of malic enzyme and PPDK, which thus represent an alternative route for the formation of PEP in R. meliloti. PPDK activity was not required for symbiotic N2 fixation.


Objective: Gnetum gnemon L. (melinjo) seed extracts have been known to have some biological activities. One of them is ACE (angiotensinconverting enzyme) inhibitor. The present study was conducted to predict potential ACE inhibitory activity of several compounds isolated from Gnetum gnemon L. seeds by using in silico method. Methods: In this study, several compounds isolated from melinjo seeds were determined for their ACE inhibitory activity through molecular docking study and molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular docking experiment was performed by using AutoDock4Zn. Subsequently, molecular dynamics simulations using AMBER within 20 ns was conducted to analyze the interactions stability between zinc-ligand and ligand-amino acids in the active site of ACE since both of these mechanisms were known to play essential roles to inhibit ACE. Results: The results showed that resveratrol, gnetol, isorhapontigenin, gnetin C, trans-e-viniferin, gnemonol K, gnemonol M and aglycone of gnemonoside B exhibited ΔG values which were lower than or close to lisinopril, captopril, and enalaprilat. Some of these ligands were able to bind zinc ion via cation-pi interactions. According to the free-energy binding calculations using MM-GBSA and MM-PBSA methods, gnetin C showed the highest affinity for ACE among other ligands at a temperature of 300 K, while at a temperature of 310 K the highest affinity was exhibited by gnemonol K. Conclusion: According to the molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, several compounds isolated from melinjo seed showed potential ACE inhibitory activities, in which gnemonol K promised as the most potential compound to have ACE inhibitory activity. Key words: ACE, Cation-pi, Hypertension, Molecular docking, Molecular dynamics, Zinc ion.


Background Major depressive disorder afflicts an estimated 17% of individuals during their lifetimes at tremendous suffering and costs. Cognitive therapy may be an effective treatment option for major depressive disorder, but the effects have only had limited assessment in systematic reviews. Methods/Principal Findings We used The Cochrane systematic review methodology with meta-analyses and trial sequential analyses of randomized trials comparing the effects of cognitive therapy versus 'no intervention' for major depressive disorder. Participants had to be older than 17 years with a primary diagnosis of major depressive disorder to be eligible. Altogether, we included 12 trials randomizing a total of 669 participants. All 12 trials had high risk of bias. Meta-analysis on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression showed that cognitive therapy significantly reduced depressive symptoms (four trials; mean difference −3.05 (95% confidence interval (Cl), −5.23 to −0.87; P<0.006)) compared with 'no intervention'. Trial sequential analysis could not confirm this result. Meta-analysis on the Beck Depression Inventory showed that cognitive therapy significantly reduced depressive symptoms (eight trials; mean difference on −4.86 (95% CI −6.44 to −3.28; P = 0.00001)). Trial sequential analysis on these data confirmed the result. Only a few trials reported on 'no remission', suicide inclination, suicide attempts, suicides, and adverse events without significant differences between the compared intervention groups. Discussion Cognitive therapy might be an effective treatment for depression measured on Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and Beck Depression Inventory, but these outcomes may be overestimated due to risks of systematic errors (bias) and random errors (play of chance). Furthermore, the effects of cognitive therapy on no remission, suicidality, adverse events, and quality of life are unclear. There is a need for randomized trials with low risk of bias, low risk of random errors, and longer follow-up assessing both benefits and harms with clinically relevant outcome measures.


Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are major public health problem of economically productive age group. Worldwide more cases of STI are seen among reproductive age group i.e., 15 to 49 years. World Health Organization estimates 340 million curable STIs each year. In India, 6% to 15% population is infected with one or more STIs. Hence, present study was conducted at STI clinic in suburban area. The objectives were to assess the socio-demographic factors, syndromes suffered and factors influencing treatment outcome among clients attending STI OPD. Methodology: 274 clients participated in the longitudinal study over a period of 6 months. Results: 232 female clients (84.7%) proved female preponderance at STI clinic. Around 194 cases (70.8%) belonged to the age group 25 to 44 years which is economically productive age group. Married females (92.24%) and unmarried males (59.5%) presented with STI syndromes. Among males, urethral discharge (66.67%) and among females, vaginal discharge (82.76%) were the predominating symptoms. The clients studied up to 10th standard, constituted 48.54% of the study sample. 53.28% of the clients belonged to upper lower socio-economic status. About 211 (90.9%) women were housewives. About 31 (73.8%) males were semi-skilled and skilled laborers. Conclusion: This study highlighted the vulnerability of females to STIs. The reproductive and economically productive age group forms major part of the affected population. The gap between the knowledge and application of correct and consistent use of condom needs to be reduced. Special emphasis on partner notification and their management will have an impact on prevention of STIs.


This paper presents a control algorithm of 3ph STATic synchronous COMpensator (STATCOM). The algorithm depends on the accurate reference currents extraction from only the nonlinear load current spectrum in frequency domain using Fast Fourier Transfer (FFT). Then the determined harmonics and reactive components of load current are added together to form the compensating reference signals, the PI controllers then generate signals which control the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) method. The simulation of the study is car-ried out under MATLAB/Simulink environment to show the usefulness of this control algorithm with nonlinear dynamic loads. It determines exactly the phase shift between the power system current and source voltage using only load current measurement. It is also able to calculate accurately the harmonics presence in source current. Various simulation results are presented with many modes of operation of dynamic nonlinear reactive loads. The results show a perfect damping of harmonics and reactive power compensating. The current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) maintains the IEEE STD 519 Standard and power factor is almost 1, the STATCOM also has a fast dynamic response for transients.


Learning the syntax, semantics, and concepts behind software engineering can be a challenging task for many individuals. This paper examines the Alice 3 software, a three-dimensional visual environment for teaching programming concepts, to determine if it is an effective tool for improving student achievement, raising self-efficacy, and engaging students. This study compares the similarities and differences between a Fundamentals of Programming course with and without Alice integrated into the curriculum. Both the treatment and control Groups are using the same Java materials, assignments, and exams. The treatment group also completes Alice activities for each programming concept throughout the course; as well as two Alice assignments.


Abstract. Characteristics of the electric fields produced by stepped and dart-stepped leaders 200 µs just prior to the return strokes during natural negative cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning discharges have been analyzed by using data from a broad-band slow antenna system with 0.08 µs time resolution in southeastern China. It has been found that the electric field changes between the last stepped leader and the first return stroke could be classified in three categories. The first type is characterized by a small pulse superimposed on the abrupt beginning of the return stroke, and accounts for 42% of all the cases. The second type accounts for 33.3% and is characterized by relatively smooth electric field changes between the last leader pulse and the following return stroke. The third type accounts for 24.7%, and is characterized by small pulses between the last recognizable leader pulse and the following return stroke. On the average, the time interval between the successive leader pulses prior to the first return strokes and subsequent return strokes was 15.8 µs and 9.4 µs, respectively. The distribution of time intervals between successive stepped leader pulses is quite similar to Gaussian distribution while that for dart-stepped leader pulses is more similar to a log-normal distribution. Other discharge features, such as the average time interval between the last leader step and the first return stroke peak, the ratio of the last leader pulse peak to that of the return stroke amplitude are also discussed in the paper. Key words. Meteology and atmospheric dynamics (atmospheric electricity; lightning) – Radio science (electromagnetic noise and interference)


Objective: To evaluate chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with nasal polyp (NP) characteristics in patients with routine visits to the Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery outpatient clinic of Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung. Methods: This descriptive retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the Rhinology-Allergy Outpatient Clinic, Departement of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung, in the period of January 2014 to December 2014. Data were obtained from medical records and the sampling method used was total sampling. A total of 100 CRS with NP patients were evaluated. Nasal endoscopy examinations were performed. Patients were classified based on age into 10–20 years, 21–31 years, 32–42 years, 43–53 years, and >54 years groups. Results: Chronic rhinosinusitis with NP incidences were mostly found in male patients compared to females. There were several CRS cases with NP risk factors, including smoking and allergy. Conclusions: In the study, CRS with NP patients may possibly have one or more risk factors. Smoking is the major risk factor from CRS with NP after allergy. Keywords: Nasal polyp, nasal endoscopy, rhinosinusitis, risk factor DOI: 10.15850/ijihs.v4n2.834


We show that topological Quillen homology of algebras and modules over operads in symmetric spectra can be calculated by realizations of simplicial bar constructions. Working with several model category structures, we give a homotopical proof after showing that certain homotopy colimits in algebras and modules over operads can be easily understood. A key result here, which lies at the heart of this paper, is showing that the forgetful functor commutes with certain homotopy colimits. We also prove analogous results for algebras and modules over operads in unbounded chain complexes.


The aim of this paper is to discuss the rationale for, development, and use of a remote access experiment facility for use in the teaching and learning of microelectronic circuit design and test principles. In particular, the operation and test of a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit is the primary focus. In this arrangement, a set of existing experiments for the learning of the principles of operation of the PLL have been updated for remote access capability via a standard internet link. This arrangement provides for a range of tests to be undertaken by a remote learner with access to the PLL test board arrangement. This arrangement has been achieved by the modification to an existing remote laboratory arrangement in order to facilitate access to the PLL test board.


For highly complex missions, it is not realistic to expect to "get it right" from the outset. The initial conditions are much less important than the ability to improve performance over time. This is the aim of Adaptive Campaigning. We present a methodology that is a first step towards achieving this aim, based on the notion of an explicit, shared, Causal and Influence Network (C&IN). Firstly, we describe the feedback loops between the force and its environment, which provides the basis for adaptation. Secondly, we analyse the flow of information between the environment and the C&IN. This reveals the need for targeted probing actions that generate small information-rich signals, in contrast to a sensor grid that would collect large amounts of information-poor data. Thirdly, we outline the features and composition of the C&IN and discuss how it may be evolved, represented and used. Fourthly, we reflect on the assumptions and limitations of our approach. In conclusion, we highlight how this novel approach to adaptive campaigning can capture lessons learned across rotations, increase adaptability at all scales, levels and classes, and thereby significantly improve the chances for successful outcomes.


In evolutionary robotics there has been research about the pursuit problem with different numbers of predators and prey: (i) one predator and one prey, (ii) many predators against one prey, and (iii) many predators against many prey. However, these different experiments are only involving food chains with two populations (two trophic levels). This dissertation uses three trophic levels to investigate if individuals in the middle trophic level perform equally or better than those that are been evolved in a two trophic level environment. The investigation was done in a simulator called YAKS. A statistical analysis was conducted to evalutate the results. The result indicated that a robot with two tasks gets better at hunting and evading than robots with one task (either hunt or evade). Robots from the middle trophic level that are moving in the same direction as the camera is facing, were the best predators and prey. This dissertation is a step towards more complex and animal-like behaviours of robots.


This article examines the effect of the liability reforms on medical malpractice insurance over the 1984-91 period. This is the first study to use data by firm and by state for every firm writing medical malpractice insurance over that time period. The liability reforms increased insurance profitability (that is, decreased the loss ratios), where the main mechanism of influence was through decreasing losses. The quantile regression estimates imply that the greatest effects of liability reform are on the most unprofitable firms and that the effect is not uniform across the entire market. This pattern is consistent with the other principal finding, which is that damages caps appear to be most influential.


This paper focuses on the problem of resource consolidation management within cloud computing environments and extends our previous IMPROMPTU model which demonstrated the viability of distributed Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to provide a resource consolidation management that simultaneously achieves lower numbers of reconfiguration events and fewer service level agreement (SLA) violations as compared to other approaches. A core limitation of our previous work was that it only assessed the PROMETHEE II outranking-based MCDA method, leaving open the question of whether better outranking schemes exist and, more generally, what denotes the properties of good outranking approaches for this problem domain. This work addresses these deficiencies through extending the IMPROMPTU model to directly compare PROMETHEE II with ELECRE III and PAMSSEM II, two other well-known outranking-based MCDA schemes. An in-depth analysis of the generated simulation results are then used to highlight the core trade-offs between each of these MCDA approaches.


We analyze the changes in the training and educational efforts of the SciNet HPC Consortium, a Canadian academic High Performance Computing center, in the areas of Scientific Computing and High-Performance Computing, over the last six years. Initially, SciNet offered isolated training events on how to use HPC systems and write parallel code, but the training program now consists of a broad range of workshops and courses that users can take toward certificates in scientific computing, data science, or high-performance computing. Using data on enrollment, attendence, and certificate numbers from SciNet's education website, used by almost 1800 users so far, we extract trends on the growth, demand, and breadth of SciNet's training program. Among the results are a steady overall growth, a sharp and steady increase in the demand for data science training, and a wider participation of 'non-traditional' computing disciplines, which has motivated an increasingly broad spectrum of training offerings. Of interest is also that many of the training initiatives have evolved into courses that can be taken as part of the graduate curriculum at the University of Toronto.


The need for a fusion between technological singularity and transcendental monism is posited as the best compromise for sustainable alternative futures. Four possible futures could emanate from a combination of two types of technological progress and metaphysical monism: (a) Technological singularity and material monism could lead to the end of humanity as we know it and usher in the era of transhumanism. (b) Linear change and material monism could lead to an extrapolation of the present into the current future, i.e. development and under-development, haves and have-nots, ecological-environmental unsustainability. (c) Linear change and transcendental monism could lead to consciousness as the dominant causal reality in a low-technological world with sustainable naturalism. (d) Technological singularity and transcendental monism could lead to completely new futures where higher conscious humans use technology (innovation) as a means for sustainable higher order living expandable to the universe as a whole.


This study was carried out having the purpose of determining the aspect of the mobbing behaviors incurred on the staff working at the youth center directorates of the in Turkey Youth Services and Sports, the Province Directorates. The sample of the study, which was conducted by using a scanning model, was consisted of 253 employees working at the directorate of the youth centers in different regions, who were selected by a random method. The study data were collected by the "Negative Behaviors Questionnaire (NAQ)†. Arithmetic mean, crosstab, t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's test were used in the survey. As the result of the survey, it was found out that 44.7% of the staff in the sample was exposed to mobbing behaviors at a lower medium level during the past six months. Additionally, it was also identified that the contractual civil servants of the staff were exposed to mobbing behaviors at a total ratio of 57.5%. It has been identified that the mobbing actions have been incurred downward upon the contractual civil servants by the branch managers (21.5%) and the managers of the youth centers (18.5%), upon the permanent staff by the branch managers (42.9%), and upon the managers of the youth centers by the provincial directors (66.7%).


This Article follows the path of a hypothetical college football player with aspirations to play in the National Football League, explaining from a legal and ethical perspective the health and performance evaluations he will likely face throughout his career. Some of these evaluations are commonplace and familiar, while others are more futuristic — and potentially of unproven value. How much information about themselves should aspiring and current professional players be expected to provide in the employment context? What are the current legal standards for employers collecting and acting on an individual's health- and performance-related information? Drawing on disability law, privacy law, and the law governing genetic testing, this Article seeks to answer those questions, as well as to provide recommendations to better protect the health and privacy of professional football players.The upshot of our analysis is that it appears that some of the existing evaluations of players, both at the NFL Scouting Combine (Combine) and once drafted and playing for a club, seem to violate existing federal employment discrimination laws. Specifically, (1) the medical examinations at the Combine potentially violate the Americans with Disabilities Act's (ADA) prohibitions on pre-employment medical exams; (2) post-offer medical examinations that are made public potentially violate the ADA's confidentiality provisions; (3) post-offer medical examinations that reveal a disability and result in discrimination — e.g., the rescission of a contract offer — potentially violate the ADA provided the player can still perform the essential job functions; (4) Combine medical examinations that include a request for a player's family medical history potentially violate the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA); and (5) the preseason physical's requirement that a player disclose his family medical history potentially violates GINA.We believe all employers — including the NFL and its clubs — should comply fully with the current law. To that end, our recommendations center around four "C"s: compliance, clarity, circumvention, and changes to existing statutory schemes as applied to the NFL (and perhaps other professional sports).


Fuzzy multi-objective zero-one linear programming (FMOZOLP) has many applications in various fields such as assembly line balancing, assignment, project portfolio selection and maximal covering location problems. In many of the existing methods for solving FMOZOLP problems, membership degree of different points of a fuzzy number is not considered or by performing α-cut, points with membership function more than or equal to α, are included in calculations. However, even in this case, membership degree of these points has no effect on optimal solution. In this paper, in addition to modifying defects and failures of Yu and Li method [1] in solving fuzzy zero-one linear programming problems, we develop a novel approach to solve FMOZOLP problems considering membership degree of coefficients. Finally, an illustrative example for the project portfolio selection is included to compare results obtained by the proposed approach with results obtained by the other fuzzy methods.


How could you make the results of the world's original biomedical research freely available to anyone who wanted them? This question remained hypothetical until the arrival of the world wide web, which allows distribution of material at only a fraction of the cost of distribution on paper. But publishing peer reviewed original research has some costs that the internet cannot magic away. Recently, a way to meet those costs has become clear. The goal of original research being free to everybody everywhere could be very close.

Currently subscribers to journals, mostly academic libraries, pay for access to scientific information. In the new model, authors (or, more likely, those who employ them or fund their research) would pay the costs of peer reviewing and electronically disseminating their articles. This one off processing charge would ensure that the article was freely available to all, forever. Journals' estimates of how much this article processing charge would need to be to cover their costs vary between $500 (£314) and $1800 per article.1 In disciplines where authors already pay submission and page charges the change would be small.

Experiments with the "author pays" model are already under way. Over the past two years, the publisher BioMed Central has set up 90 electronic journals adopting this model. The two new journals planned by the Public Library of Science (a pressure group set up to promote open access to the world's primary research literature) will be funded this …


We exploit variation in commercial bank capital ratios across states to identify the impact of commercial bank balance sheet pressures manifested through changes in capital ratios on employment in the manufacturing sector. For industries dependent on external finance, we find that an increase in the capital ratio has no statistically significant effect on net firm creation, but has an economically significant impact on average firm size, as measured in the number of employees. Our findings indicate a lack of substitutes for bank funding both in the short and long run. This lack of substitutes implies a notable adverse impact of balance sheet pressures on employment in industries dependent on external sources of funding. Our results highlight the potential effects that bank balance sheet pressures, for example, from tightening capital adequacy standards, such as Basel III, may have on nonfinancial firm dynamics. JEL Classification: G21, G28, G30, J20, L25


In this introductory article to the special issue Women and War in Kurdistan, we connect our topic to feminist theory, to anthropological theory on war and conflict and their long-term consequences, and to theory on gender, nation and (visual) representation. We investigate Kurdish women's victimisation and marginalisation, but also their resistance and agency as female combatants and women activists, their portrayal by media and scholars, and their self-representation. We offer herewith a critical perspective on militarisation, women's liberation, and women's experiences in times of war and peace. We also introduce the five articles in this issue and discuss how they contribute to the study of women and war in two main areas: the wide-reaching effects of war on women's lives, and the gendered representation and images of war in Kurdistan.


The majority of the algorithms in the software clustering literature utilize structural information to decompose large software systems. Approaches using other attributes, such as file names or ownership information, have also demonstrated merit. At the same time, existing algorithms commonly deem all attributes of the software artifacts being clustered as equally important, a rather simplistic assumption. Moreover, no method that can assess the usefulness of a particular attribute for clustering purposes has been presented in the literature. In this paper, we present an approach that applies information theoretic techniques in the context of software clustering. Our approach allows for weighting schemes that reflect the importance of various attributes to be applied. We introduce LIMBO, a scalable hierarchical clustering algorithm based on the minimization of information loss when clustering a software system. We also present a method that can assess the usefulness of any nonstructural attribute in a software clustering context. We applied LIMBO to three large software systems in a number of experiments. The results indicate that this approach produces clusterings that come close to decompositions prepared by system experts. Experimental results were also used to validate our usefulness assessment method. Finally, we experimented with well-established weighting schemes from information retrieval, Web search, and data clustering. We report results as to which weighting schemes show merit in the decomposition of software systems.


Background Many studies have shown that tobacco and alcohol use co-occur, with many reporting that tobacco use is a risk factor for later alcohol use. Determining the causality of this relationship from conventional epidemiological studies is difficult due to problems of confounding or reverse causation. Mendelian randomisation utilises the properties of genetic variants to assess causality in the absence of these problems. Methods Using data from mothers in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), we investigated observational associations between1 continued smoking (binary variable: yes/no) and alcohol consumption (binary variable: less than one drink per week/ one or more drinks per week) during pregnancy and2 cigarettes per day (continuous measure) in those who smoke and units of alcohol per week (continuous measure) before pregnancy. We also performed a Mendelian randomisation analysis using rs1051730 as the genetic instrument, as this variant has been shown to be associated with both heaviness of smoking in individuals who smoke and reduced ability to quit smoking during pregnancy. Results Observationally, we found evidence of an association between continuing to smoke and alcohol consumption during pregnancy (N = 1,411; OR = 1.87, 95% CI 1.36 to 2.58; P < 0.001) and between cigarettes per day and units of alcohol consumed per week before pregnancy (N = 1,464; change in units per week for each additional cigarette per day smoked = 0.06, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.10; P < 0.001). In Mendelian randomisation analysis there was no evidence of an association between rs1051730 and any of the alcohol outcome measures: alcohol consumption during pregnancy (where rs1051730 is a proxy for continued smoking during pregnancy, N = 2,462; OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.10; P = 0.482) and units of alcohol per week before pregnancy (where rs1051730 is a proxy for cigarettes per day in current smokers, N = 2,416; change in units per week for each extra copy of the risk allele = 0.06, 95% CI -0.24 to 0.35; P = 0.710). Conclusion Observationally, there are strong links between both smoking behaviours and alcohol consumption. However Mendelian randomisation analysis suggests that the associations between smoking and alcohol (both here and in previously reported research) are not causal. This finding should be followed up in larger samples using the Mendelian randomisation approach.


Soil fertility is considered as the most important constraint to increase maize production in Nepal. Although farmers generally apply farmyard manure available on their farms, there is increasing trend towards the use of fertilizers that is likely to augment maize production in Nepal. This study was carried out to identify the influence of socio-economic factors of the improved maize adopters on the decision to adopt fertilizers in the Chitwan district of Nepal, using the survey data collected from 117 farm households in May-June 2005. The impact of age, education, family size, farm size, extension service, credit use, manure application, off-farm income and timely irrigation availability on the adoption of fertilizers were analyzed using the Tobit regression model. The major factors having positive influence on use of fertilizer in maize production were found to be family size, farm size, credit use, off-farm income and irrigation availability. There is need of adequate irrigation facility and assured credit availability to the farmers in the study area. Further, creation of off-farm activities is crucial to obtain additional household income to fulfill cash requirements required for investment in improved technologies. The present study emphasize the provision of technical support via training, seminars, field demonstrations to increase the adoption of fertilizers to improve maize productivity and consequent food security in Nepal.


The frequency of gastric Crohn's disease has been considered low. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of chronic gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with Crohn's disease. Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed on 62 consecutive patients suffering from ileocolonic Crohn's disease. Biopsy specimens from the antrum and corpus were processed for both histological and bacteriological examinations. H pylori antibodies of IgG and IgA classes were measured in serum samples by enzyme immunoassay. Six patients (9.7%) were infected with H pylori, as shown by histology, and in five of them the infection was also verified by serology. Twenty one patients (32%) had chronic H pylori negative gastritis (negative by both histology and serology) and one of them also had atrophy in the antrum and corpus. Granulomas were found in four patients. The characteristic appearance of H pylori negative gastritis was focal and mostly mild inflammation resembling the inflammatory changes seen in the gut in Crohn's disease. Patients with H pylori negative chronic gastritis had a significantly more active disease in their gut than those with normal gastric mucosa (p < 0.01). It is concluded that H pylori positive gastritis is rare, while H pylori negative gastritis is relatively common in patients with Crohn's disease. H pylori negative 'Crohn's gastritis' seems to be associated with active Crohn's disease.


For a version of the interval censoring model, case 2, in which the observation intervals are allowed to be arbitrarily small, we consider estimation of functionals that are differentiable along Hellinger differentiable paths. The asymptotic information lower bound for such functionals can be represented as the squared L2-norm of the canonical gradient in the observation space. This canonical gradient has an implicit expression as a solution of an integral equation that does not belong to one of the standard types. We study an extended version of the integral equation that can also be used for discrete distribution functions like the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator ŽNPMLE., and derive the asymptotic normality and efficiency of the NPMLE from properties of the solutions of the integral equations.


Social Security programs in post-industrial nations are facing the need for policy reforms. Fiscal shortfalls in current Social Security programs are a major driving force promoting these reforms. At the same time, changes in longevity and the nature of work and retirement also suggest the need for policy reform. This article begins with a broad overview of some of the policy innovations of the Europe Union as a whole, and then focuses more in-depth on policy reforms in three countries that exemplify Esping-Andersen's (1990) typology of welfare states: Sweden, Germany, and Canada. These three countries have passed policies that promote flexibility in retirement for older adults, including "gradual retirement", "partial retirement", and credit for caregiving activities. Keeping older adults in the labor force longer retains the tax base of contributors into Social Security as well as allowing those who want to stay in the labor force more choice. The reforms are discussed, along with their potential usefulness for future Social Security policy reforms in the United States. Keywords: retirement, pension policies, pension reform Introduction Both the demographic changes and the changing nature of our society and work emphasize the need to reshape our thinking about retirement. The word "retirement" used to refer to the abrupt and total transition from full-time employment to zero-employment, but the way that retirement is defined and experienced has been evolving in the United States and around the world. Now, "The concept of retirement is not easy to define--it could imply eligibility for benefits, withdrawal from the labor force, changes in lifestyle, changes in family or living situations, or some combination of these characteristics" (Wiatrowski, 2001, p. 3). Increased longevity and population aging are global phenomena for developed and developing countries alike. Every month one million people turn 60 years of age (33,000 every day) and today ten percent of the earth's inhabitants are over the age of 60 (United Nations Population Fund, 1999). In addition, the widespread availability of better health care has improved the physical well-being of older adults (Research & Policy Committee, 1999; Steuerie, Spiro & Johnson, 1999). This paper will focus on the fiscal pressures on current Social Security systems in post-industrial nations resulting from the increase in longevity, the changing nature of work and retirement, and selected efforts to reform policies to promote flexibility. In addition to demographic changes, the nature of work has become increasingly more technologically complex. In the 18th century, the United States and much of Europe had agricultural economies and the working classes were generally forced to work until they were completely disabled or deceased. In the 20th century, these countries became industrialized, and policies were established to provide for the economic needs of older adults (e.g., Social Security), which changed the nature of work and retirement. In the 21st century, the economies of developed countries have begun to move away from industry and toward an information-based economy that requires highly educated workers that are able to obtain and process information effectively. Informational jobs are generally less physically demanding, require continuous learning and skill acquisition, and offer greater options in terms of work hours and work location (international Labour Organization, 2000; Moore, 1996; Reday-Mulvey, 2000; Steuerie, Spiro & Johnson, 1999). Co-existing with the information-based industry are the retail and service industries, in which workers generally have jobs with less flexibility and more physical demands (Moore, 1996; Stewart, 2000). The Information Industry, and to some extent the retail and service industries, offer workers more work schedule and location flexibility than workers in industrial positions. …


The Virgo cluster is the largest Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) source in the sky, both in terms of angular size and total integrated flux. Planck's wide angular scale and frequency coverage, together with its high sensitivity, enable a detailed study of this big object through the SZ effect. Virgo is well resolved by Planck, showing an elongated structure that correlates well with the morphology observed from X-rays, but extends beyond the observed X-ray signal. We find good agreement between the SZ signal (or Compton parameter, y(c)) observed by Planck and the expected signal inferred from X-ray observations and simple analytical models. Owing to its proximity to us, the gas beyond the virial radius in Virgo can be studied with unprecedented sensitivity by integrating the SZ signal over tens of square degrees. We study the signal in the outskirts of Virgo and compare it with analytical models and a constrained simulation of the environment of Virgo. Planck data suggest that significant amounts of low-density plasma surround Virgo, out to twice the virial radius. We find the SZ signal in the outskirts of Virgo to be consistent with a simple model that extrapolates the inferred pressure at lower radii, while assuming that the temperature stays in the keV range beyond the virial radius. The observed signal is also consistent with simulations and points to a shallow pressure profile in the outskirts of the cluster. This reservoir of gas at large radii can be linked with the hottest phase of the elusive warm/hot intergalactic medium. Taking the lack of symmetry of Virgo into account, we find that a prolate model is favoured by the combination of SZ and X-ray data, in agreement with predictions. Finally, based on the combination of the same SZ and X-ray data, we constrain the total amount of gas in Virgo. Under the hypothesis that the abundance of baryons in Virgo is representative of the cosmic average, we also infer a distance for Virgo of approximately 18 Mpc, in good agreement with previous estimates.


Radix labiata is a widely distributed Palaearctic freshwater snail. This work aims to improve the knowledge of the intraspecific variability in the most important characters used for its determination. To find out which characters are really suitable to distinguish this species from other similar Radix species an integrative approach was applied, involving morphological and molecular data.Molecular sequences of the nuclear spacer fragment ITS-2 and/or the mitochondrial gene fragment cyt-b were obtained from 26 individuals of R. labiata from different regions of Europe, including type localities of Limnaeus pereger labiatus. From the subsample of 24 specimens of which sequences of both gene fragments were available, the variability of several characters that are commonly used for species identification (shell morphology, mantle pigmentation, shape and po sition of the bursa copulatrix, length and position of the bursa duct, length ratio of praeputium to penial sheath) were measured or documented. Morphological characters distinguishing R. labiata from R. balthica, R. lagotis and the genus Stagnicola are discussed. The best morphological character to differentiate these species is the position of the bursa and the bursa duct. Mantle pigmentation and the ratio of the length of the praeputium to that of the penial sheath are not useful for differentiating R. labiata and R. balthica. Analysis of the network of haplotypes (cyt-b) revealed no correlation between recognisable clusters and geography amongst the studied specimens.


Chronic hepatic inflammation from multiple etiologies leads to a fibrogenic response that can progress to cirrhosis and liver failure. Transplantation of human amniotic epithelial cells (hAEC) from term delivered placenta has been shown to decrease mild to moderate hepatic fibrosis in a murine model. To model advanced human liver disease and assess the efficacy of hAEC therapy, we transplanted hAEC in mice with advanced hepatic fibrosis. Immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice were administered carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) twice weekly resulting in bridging fibrosis by 12 weeks. hAEC (2×106) were infused via the tail vein at week 8 or weeks 8 and 10 (single and double dose, respectively). Human cells were detected in mouse liver four weeks after transplantation showing hAEC engraftment. CCl4 treated mice receiving single or double hAEC doses showed a significant but similar decrease in liver fibrosis area associated with decreased activation of collagen-producing hepatic stellate cells and decreased hepatic protein levels of the pro-fibrogenic cytokine, transforming growth factor-beta1. CCl4 administration caused hepatic T cell infiltration that decreased significantly following hAEC transplantation. Hepatic macrophages play a crucial role in both fibrogenesis and fibrosis resolution. Mice exposed to CCl4 demonstrated increased numbers of hepatic macrophages compared to normal mice; the number of macrophages decreased significantly in CCl4 treated mice given hAEC. These mice had significantly lower hepatic protein levels of the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 than mice given CCl4 alone. Alternatively activated M2 macrophages are associated with fibrosis resolution. CCl4 treated mice given hAEC showed increased expression of genes associated with M2 macrophages including YM-1, IL-10 and CD206. We provide novel data showing that hAEC transplantation induces a wound healing M2 macrophage phenotype associated with reduction of established hepatic fibrosis that justifies further investigation of this potential cell-based therapy for advanced hepatic fibrosis.


This paper evaluates the effects of the Free Trade Agreement (FT A) between South Africa and the European Union (EU) on the South African orange industry. Oranges account for ten percent of South African agricultural exports. The aggregate trade simulation model used here is designed on the programme STELLA, and consists of regional production models, a local market model, an export model and an exchange rate model. Results indicate that the FT A is expected to have small positive effects on both South African producers and consumers. This is caused by increasing real free-on-board prices and decreasing real local prices of oranges. Total area under oranges will increase more with the FT A, which thus results in a larger orange production too.


Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a severe ulcerative skin disease. Despite systemic immunosuppressive therapy, PG ulcers often progress and can develop into life-threatening conditions. In this case series, we treated 6 patients suffering from recalcitrant PG with topical coagulation factor XIII, which has been shown to exert beneficial effects on tissue regeneration and wound healing. All 6 patients showed a positive response to treatment with a marked reduction in wound size that was maintained during a 3-month follow-up period. The treatment was well tolerated with no remarkable adverse effects or complications. Topical factor XIII has potential in combination with standard immunosuppressive therapy for the treatment of PG.


Shared governance has been a key historical characteristic of higher education although this form of governance has come under increased pressure in recent decades. It is often argued that shared governance is less relevant for tackling the challenges related to a more dynamic environment of the sector. This paper discusses underlying premises for the current conceptions of shared governance and analyses how a sample of Nordic universities perceives the place and role of governance in their strategic development. It is found that most universities emphasise leadership and leadership development as a key measure to strengthen their governance capacity and it is argued that most universities seem to overlook the cultural and symbolic aspects of governance along the way. This may have serious consequences for the internal legitimacy and trust when universities enter into demanding change processes.


I study optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian economy wherein house- holds precautionary-save against uninsured, endogenous unemployment risk. In this economy greater unemployment risk raises desired savings, causing aggregate demand to fall and ul- timately feed back to greater unemployment risk. I show this deationary feedback loop to be constrained-ine¢ cient and to call for an accommodative monetary policy response: after a contractionary aggregate shock the policy rate should be kept signi cantly lower and for longer than in the perfect-insurance benchmark. For example, the usual prescription obtained under perfect insurance of a hike in the policy rate in the face of a bad supply (i.e., productivity or cost-push) shock is easily overturned. If implemented, the optimal policy e¤ectively breaks the deflationary feedback loop and takes the dynamics of the imperfect-insurance economy close to that of the perfect-insurance benchmark.


Aims: Iran is one of the countries that always faced with the unforeseen events and is in danger of all kinds of natural disasters. Since after natural disasters, affected region has the potential of various public health threats, establishing the environmental health department has been proposed. The aim of this study was to assess the preparation rate of environmental health operational teams from all around Iran, in facing with crisis of drinking water in disasters. Instrument & Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in 2015 during the environmental health emergencies maneuver at Hormozgan Province, Iranand 15 operational teams and 15 assessor teams were selected randomly for the study. In order to assess the activities of environmental health teams, a checklist of environmental health was prepared and used. Spearman correlation coefficient and Chi square tests were used to analyze the data. Findings: There were no significant differences between operational and assessor teams according to the studied parameters of water crisis (p>0.05). All operational and assessor teams believed that microbial, latour and chemical sampling were well done (p=0.1). There were significant correlations between operational and assessor teams in general assessment (r=0.607; p=0.017) and all other main parts except tubing design (r=-0.279; p=0.313) Conclusion: The readiness of the operational teams of environmental health is not desirable in dealing with the crisis of drinking water.


During the last two decades, many U.S. universities have restructured themselves to operate more like corporations. Nowhere has this process been more dramatic than at New York University, often touted as an exemplar of the "corporate university." Over the same period, an academic labor movement has arisen in response to this restructuring. Using the unprecedented 2005 strike by the graduate student union at NYU as a springboard, The University Against Itself provides a brief history of labor organizing on American campuses, analyzes the state of academic labor today, and speculates about how the university workplace may evolve for employees. All of the contributors were either participants in the NYU strike-graduate students, faculty, and organizers-or are nationally-recognized writers on academic labor. They are deeply troubled by the ramifications of corporatizing universities. Here they spell out their concerns, offering lessons from one historic strike as well as cautions about the future of all universities. Contributors include: Stanley Aronowitz, Barbara Bowen, Miabi Chatterji, Maggie Clinton, Andrew Cornell, Ashley Dawson, Stephen Duncombe, Steve Fletcher, Greg Grandin, Adam Green, Kitty Krupat, Gordon Lafer, Natasha Lightfoot, Micki McGee, Sarah Nash, Cary Nelson, Matthew Osypowski, Ed Ott, Ellen Schrecker, Naomi Schiller, Sherene Seikaly, Susan Valentine, and the editors.


Outside the confines of cities and metropolitan areas, telecommunications may still be required. Farmers may, for example, want to communicate with each other or with local municipality or law enforcement. Various factors may make the application of fixed infrastructure telecommunications networks to rural situations like these unfeasible. Fixed infrastructure may prove to be ineffective due to geographic, social or monetary reasons. Ad hoc networking seems like an intriguing solution to these elements of the rural telecommunications problem. Instead of using the client-server architecture approach, ad hoc networks use a peer-to-peer network architecture that allows the network to change in a more dynamic fashion. Hosts of such a network can join or leave the network dynamically and will share in the forwarding responsibility. Routing is done dynamically. Transceiver range is still an issue. To counteract this problem satellites can be used to extend the communications range of a network. Communication with a satellite can be added by using gateway hosts that are equipped to establish satellite upor downlinks. Even if one such gateway host is deactivated, ad hoc network hosts should be able to find alternative gateways (if such alternative gateways exist). For this thesis, various MAC and Network protocols will be evaluated. One protocol set will be selected and adapted to a low-bandwidth situation. Cross layer design will be used in an attempt to decrease overhead of this strategy. A simulation model was devised to predict system performance. These simulations was followed by interpretation of results which rendered a theoretical basis with which network behaviour can be explained and even predicted. A tool-like framework has, in effect, been developed for the simulation and development of ad hoc network protocols. Novel approaches to protocol behaviour analysis have also been devised.


The 1 : 1 molar reactions at room temperature of MoCl5 with aliphatic amines were investigated in dichloromethane. Pyrrolidine, diethylamine and dibenzylamine underwent dehydrogenative oxidation when allowed to react with MoCl5; the compounds [MoCl5{NCH(CH2)3}], 1, and [CH3CHNHEt][MoOCl4], 2, were isolated in moderate to low yields from MoCl5/pyrrolidine and MoCl5/NHEt2, respectively. The chloride–amide complex [MoCl4(NEt2)], 3, was afforded in 65% yield from MoCl5 and Et2NSiMe3. The interaction of MoCl5 with Me2NSiMe3 was accompanied by activation of the solvent, and the complexes [MoCl3(NMe2)(κ2-Me2NCH2NMe2)], 4a, and [MoCl3(NMe)(κ2-Me2NCH2NMe2)], 4b, co-crystallized from the reaction mixture. The reactions of MoCl5 with a series of primary amines afforded mixtures of products, and the Mo(VI) chloride imido complexes [MoCl4(NR)]2 (R = Cy, 5a; tBu, 5b) were isolated in ca. 40% yield from MoCl5/NH2R (R = Cy, tBu). C–H bond activation may be viable in the reactions of MoCl5 with tertiary amines: the compounds [(CH2Ph)2NCHPh]2[MoCl6]·CH2Cl2, 6, and [NHEt3]2[Mo2Cl10], 7, were obtained from MoCl5/tribenzylamine and MoCl5/triethylamine, respectively. Pyrrolidine and tribenzylamine underwent analogous activation pathways when allowed to react with [MoCl3{OCH(CF3)2}]2 in the place of MoCl5. The isolated metal products were characterized by analytical and spectroscopic techniques, in addition the structures of 1, 2, 4, 5a, 6·CH2Cl2 and 7 were ascertained by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The organic products were identified by NMR and GC-MS after hydrolysis of the reaction mixtures. DFT calculations were carried out in order to assist the IR assignments, and clarify structural and mechanistic aspects.


This paper addresses the question of whether agents will invest efficiently in attributes that will increase their productivity in subsequent matches with other individuals. We present a two-sided matching model in which buyers and sellers make investment decisions prior to a matching stage. Once matched, the buyer and seller bargain over the transfer price. In contrast to most matching models, preferences over possible matches are affected by decisions taken before the matching process. We show that if bargaining respects the existence of outside options (in the sense that the resulting allocation is in the core of the assignment game), then efficient decisions can always be sustained in equilibrium. However, there may also be inefficient equilibria. Our analysis identifies a potential source of inefficiency not present in most matching models.


The Little Prince is one of the most famous fables. In this paper, we attempt to look at three bioethical issues through the Little Prince's eyes: the end-of-life context, the patient–physician relationship and prevention/precaution. The fable gives us the basis for a perspective we have called 'Medicine of the Invisible', which is value-focused. The Little Prince suggests that we seek the invisible—the "thing that is important", the "matters of consequence", even on a gnoseological and epistemological level—as a new type of 'clinical data' which may help to make healthcare more ethical and effective. However, this invisible is attainable only within a relationship, in which the physician needs to be tamed by the patient and the patient needs to be tamed by the physician—each one becoming responsible for the other, each one becoming himself through the dialogue with the other. Responsibility is also projected towards the future, against those threats to life that are still unseen and unknown: owning a part of the world entails the ethical imperative to act, in order to safeguard life. But, without a relationship—saturated with lived time, shared experiences, and individual's uniqueness—no meaning and no value can be given. For this reason, the Medicine of the Invisible reminds bioethics that "the thing that is important is the thing that is not seen".


There are many practical problems related to coastal engineering, which may be solved by using movable bed scale models of the coastal zone. The scale model must obey the laws of sediment transport in order to obtain satisfactory results. However, sediment transport in the coastal zones is so complex that the mechanism is not fully understood. Some authors have attempted to find a model law relationship for equilibrium beach profiles. Yalin-'-^ derived a scale law for the offshore zone using a bed velocity based on laminar boundary conditions. Brebner, Karaphuis and Paul^' have performed extensive experimental tests on movable-bed models using light weight sediment, and Le Mehaute^) presented a scaling law for coastal movable-bed models in the breaker zones. The purpose of this study is finally to determine the scale law relationship for coastal movable-bed model. As first step, this paper concerns itself with the derivation of proper scale laws for modeling of equilibrium beaches.


Substance abuse has been identified as a significant social problem. Social work is uniquely positioned to affect this problem. Kennesaw State University has established a substance abuse concentration as part of its master's of social work program. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of this curriculum. The curriculum is based on a biopsychosocial view of human functioning and consists of 6 advanced courses: 2 practice, 2 behavior, 1 policy, and 1 seminar. Because of its proximity to the consequences, its ability to work at multiple societal levels, and its value base, it is imperative that the social work profession continues to embrace and enhance its role as a leader in treating and researching substance abuse issues.