The A mating type locus of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus regulates essential steps in sexual development. The locus is complex and contains several functionally redundant, multiallelic genes that encode putative transcription factors. Here, we compare four genes from an A locus designated A42. Overall, the DNA sequences are very different (approximately 50% homology), but two classes of genes can be distinguished on the basis of a conserved homeodomain motif in their predicted proteins (HD1 and HD2). Development is postulated to be triggered by an HD1 and an HD2 gene from different A loci. Thus, proteins encoded by genes of the same locus must be distinguished from those encoded by another locus. Individual proteins of both classes recognize each other using the region N-terminal to the homeodomain. These N-terminal specificity regions (COP1 and COP2) are predicted to be helical and are potential dimerization interfaces. The amino acid composition of the C-terminal regions of HD1 proteins suggests a role in activation, and gene truncations indicate that this region is essential for function in vivo. A corresponding C-terminal region in HD2 proteins can be dispensed with in vivo. We will discuss these predicted structural features of the C. cinereus A proteins, their proposed interactions following a compatible cell fusion, and their similarities to the a1 and alpha 2 mating type proteins of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.


Elevated nitrate (NO3 � ) concentrations can cause eutrophication, which may lead to harmful algal blooms, loss of habitat and reduction in biodiversity. Denitrification, a dissimilatory process that removes NO3 � mainly as dinitrogen gas (N2), is believed to be the dominant NO3 � re- moval pathway in aquatic ecosystems. Evidence suggests that a less well-studied process, dissimila- tory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), which retains nitrogen (N) in the system, may also be important under favorable conditions. Using stable isotope tracers in sealed microcosms, we mea- sured the potential for NO3 � losses due to DNRA and denitrification in an oligotrophic freshwater ecosystem. We took sediment and water samples at runoff and baseflow, across several ecotypes. Our objective was to quantify the relative importance of DNRA compared to denitrification with changes in ecotype and season. Potential denitrification rates ranged from 0 to 0.14 ± 0.03 µgN gAFDM �1 d �1 . Potential DNRA rates ranged from 0 to 0.0051 ± 0.0008 µgN gAFDM �1 d �1 . Denitrifica- tion losses peaked at the inflow stream ecotype at 96.2% of total dissimilatory NO3 � removal, whereas losses due to DNRA peaked in the lake ecotype at 34.4%. When averaged over the entire system, denitrification peaked at baseflow (31.2%), while DNRA peaked at runoff (2.9%). Although NO3 � transformations due to denitrification were higher than DNRA in all ecotype and temporal comparisons, our results suggest that DNRA is also important under favorable conditions.


In order to saturate a sunflower genetic map and facilitate marker-assisted selection (MAS) breeding for stress response, it is necessary to enhance map saturation with molecular markers localized in linkage groups associated to genomic regions involved in these traits. This work describes the identification and characterization of 1,134 simple sequence repeat (SSR) containing expressed sequence tags (EST) from unigenes available databases. Twelve of these functional markers as well as 41 public SSR markers were successfully localized in linkage groups, thus contributing to the saturation of specific regions on a reference genetic-linkage-map derived from recombinant inbred lines (RIL) mapping population from the cross between PAC2 x RHA266 lines. The enriched map includes 547 markers (231 SSR, 9 EST-SSR, 3 insertions/deletions (InDel) and 304 amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) distributed in 17 linkage groups (LG), spanning genetic size to 1,942.3 cM and improving its mean density to 3.6 cM per locus. As consequence, no gaps longer than 13.2 cM remain uncovered throughout the entire map, which increases the feasibility of detecting genes or traits of agronomic importance in sunflower.


Soil water pressures, measured over space and time, are needed to predict the direction of water flow and chemical transport in the vadose zone. Advanced tensiometers (ATs), which utilize a water‐filled porous cup connected directly to a pressure transducer, can be installed at almost any location and depth using standard drilling techniques such as auger drilling, but these methods can significantly disturb the site. For sites where minimal disturbance is desired, alternate approaches for tensiometer placement have been sought. To test installation techniques and performance longevity, advanced tensiometers were placed into the ground at a test site near Richland, WA using two different installation methods, auger drilling and a drive‐cone push technique. The tensiometers were subsequently monitored for nearly 2 yr without refilling or recalibration. The data indicated that tensiometers placed by the auger technique took several months to equilibrate, while the cone push units came to equilibrium within 24 h following their installation. Soil water pressures always remained above −90 cm pressure head (−90 mbar) at depths >90 cm. At the greatest depth (730 cm), positive then negative pressures were observed as the water table was lowered and the soil drained. The results suggest that for our test conditions (coarse sandy soil, no vegetation), soil water pressures stay well within the tensiometer range and unit gradient conditions persist, indicating a draining profile. Advanced tensiometers, placed either by auger or cone penetrometer, provide a robust and reliable method for long‐term monitoring of soil water pressure profiles.


Many studies have dealt with crop production under climate change projections in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on average long term trends over time-windows of five to twenty years. The efforts undertaken in this study rather combine effective farm management/abiotic factors (e.g., soil tillage, sowing date, fertilizer use, soil fertility status) with variabilities in rainfall conditions at decadal scale to simulate rainfed maize yield in Benin (West Africa). To achieve this goal, the model system Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) was used. Management options such as fertilizer use and sowing date scenarios were considered. Variability in rainfall conditions were considered to account for extremes in yield production. Changes in plant growth limiting factors such as water stress and nitrogen stress were conjointly analyzed to account for not only the effects of climate changes, but also soil fertility status and various pressures on the land resources. Excluding catastrophic factors such as floods and pests the results indicate yield production ranges of about 500 to 1400 (±250) kg ha-1 a-1 in the North and 1100 to 2300 (±300) kg ha-1 a-1 in the South of the investigated region. The impacts of sowing date on the production were within comparable magnitudes of that of climate changes/ rainfall variability (up to -50% of the yield in the North). Higher yield production was globally associated with earlier sowing date referring to the period 2000 to 2009, while associated with later sowing dates referring to period 2010-2050. Moreover, higher water stress is associated with earlier sowing dates, while higher nitrogen stress is associated with later sowing dates referring to the period 2010 to 2050. Shifting towards late sowing dates corresponding to a cumulated rainfall of 180 mm may reduce water stress and make efficient use of fertilizers in future (2010 to 2050), regardless high or low annual rainfall.

 Key words: Maize yield, sowing date, fertilizer use, rainfall variability, climate change impacts.


Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children's Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students' previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.


[1] The particle size distribution (PSD) provides important information about pelagic ocean ecosystem structure and function. Knowledge of the PSD and its changes in time can be used to assess the contributions made by phytoplankton functional groups to primary production, particle sinking, and carbon sequestration by the ocean. However, few field measurements of the PSD have been made in the pelagic ocean, and little is known about its space-time variation. Here, a novel bio-optical algorithm is introduced to retrieve the parameters of a power law particle size spectrum from satellite ocean color observations. First, the particle backscattering coefficient spectrum, bbp(λ), is retrieved from monthly Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) normalized water-leaving radiance observations following Loisel et al. (2006). Mie modeling is then used to estimate the parameters of a power law PSD (the PSD slope and the particle differential number concentration for a given reference diameter) as a function of the particulate backscattering spectrum. Algorithm uncertainties are greater when bbp(λ) slopes are low, which occurs in high-productivity areas. Satellite-based retrievals of PSD parameters are reasonably consistent with available field observations. As an example, the algorithm was applied to monthly SeaWiFS global imagery from August 2007. Global spatial distributions show subtropical oligotrophic gyres characterized by higher PSD slopes and smaller particle number concentrations, as compared with coastal and other high-productivity areas. Partitioning particle number and volume concentrations into picophytoplankton-, nanophytoplankton-, and microphytoplankton-sized classes indicates that the abundance of picoplankton-sized particles is roughly constant spatially and that they dominate the particle volume concentrations in oligotrophic regions. On the other hand, abundances of microplankton-sized particles vary over many orders of magnitude, and they contribute to volume concentration only in the highest-productivity areas. These results are consistent with current understanding of particle dynamics of pelagic ecosystems and provide new tools for biogeochemical modeling and assessment of the global ocean ecosystem.


The idea of cross pairing of select and data voltages in line-by-line addressing is extended for multi-line addressing; to display a large number of gray scales with a small number of time intervals as compared to successive approximation technique. The method is illustrated by selecting two rows at a time with waveforms based on Hadamard matrix.


800x600 Postgraduate study is a partnership between supervisor and student. The nature of this relationship is mainly guided by the supervision approach followed by the supervisor. Identified approaches include: Functional supervision, enculturation, critical thinking, emancipation, and developing a quality relationship. It is argued in this paper that this list is not mutually exclusive but rather distinctive goals of supervision of postgraduate students. The aim of this paper is to present the structure of an action research project aimed at creating guidelines for emancipatory supervision. The participatory action research (AR) method used in this study has five phases: diagnosis; action planning; action taking; evaluation of success; and specifying learning. This paper focusses on the diagnosis and action planning phases of the action research project. Critical systems heuristics developed by Werner Ulrich is used to guide the diagnosis process. Critical systems heuristics is used as a tool for participants to articulate their views on how supervision should be done and what the goals thereof should be. The paper presents findings from the diagnosis process representative of the student and supervisor views on their experiences of supervision. A total of ten students and supervisors took part in interpretive interviews. Interview questions were guided by critical systems heuristics and literature on constructivism. The qualitative data collected was analysed using interpretive content analysis. From the findings of the interviews and results of a literature review a plan for taking action is developed to develop a flexible process described by guidelines for supervision of postgraduate students. Although the implementation and evaluation of the guidelines and resulting process are outside the scope of the paper, reflection is done on the applicability of the chosen framework of understanding for the development of a methodology to achieve the desired goals of postgraduate supervision. Normal 0 false false false EN-ZA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4


In the present paper it is first demonstrated that state of the art 3D CFD codes are capable of predicting the correct dependency of the integrated drag of a flat plate placed perpendicular to the flow. This is in strong contrast to previous 2D investigations of infinite plates, where computations are known to severely overpredict drag. We then demonstrate that the computed drag distribution along the plate span deviate from the general expectation of 2D behavior at the central part of the plate, an important finding in connection with the theoretical estimation of drag behavior on wind turbine blades. The computations additionally indicate that a tip effect is present that produces increased drag near the end of the plate, which is opposite of the assumptions generally used in drag estimation for blades. Following this several wind turbine blades are analysed, ranging from older blades of approximately 10 meter length (LM 8.2) over more recent blades (LM 19.1) around 20 meters to two modern blades suited for megawatt size turbines. Due to the geometrical difference between the four blades, the simple dependency on aspect ratio observed for the plates are not recovered in this analysis. The turbine blades behave qualitatively very similar to the flat plates and the spanwise drag distributions show similar tip effects. For the turbine blades this effect is even more pronounced, because the tapering of the blades makes the tip effect spread to a larger part of the blades. The findings are supported by visualizations of the wake patterns behind the blades.


A Cochrane systematic review has found that, when it comes to antibody testing for covid-19, timing is everything.

The review of 54 studies found that antibody tests carried one week after a patient first developed symptoms detected only 30% of people who had covid-19. Accuracy increased in to 72% at two weeks and to 94% in the third week.1

"If you use them at the wrong time they don't work," said Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham and the review's lead author.

The duration of rises in antibodies is also currently unknown, and the researchers found very little data beyond 35 days after the start of symptoms. Another problem is that the data mainly came from …


The cell is an adaptive and complex system that drives the basic processes of life. These intricately efficient systems function independently, or coalesce with other cells in our bodies to produce higher-order intelligent functionalities and structures. In fact, the cell is one of the most efficient autonomous microscale "robotic systems" and is comprised of millions of nanoscale molecular machineries, i.e. hardware, such as DNA/RNA and proteins. Furthermore, the cellular processes are results of these molecular machines working in concert governed by complex regulatory circuitry, i.e. software. Interacting synergistically among the hardware and software, the cell functions continuously over a broad range of time scales and span length scales by three orders of magnitude, nanometers to microns. For therapeutic or basic research purposes, it is necessary to manipulate cellular functions. The challenge obviously lies in the complexity of the system, millions of various types of nanoscale machineries and regulatory circuitries still beyond comprehension. The recently developed nano/micro technology based transducers can match the length scale of molecules and cells. As such, the direct interrogation and manipulation of these cellular functions in real-time has become possible. We have demonstrated that properly designed micro/nano robotic systems can direct the cellular functionalities across multiple length scales to efficiently reach the desired control state. This may yield new insight into unlocking and acquiring novel control modalities of the underlying mechanisms that drive the natural processes of life.


Background: Levothyroxine sodium is widely prescribed to treat primary hypothyroidism. Conventionally, levothyroxine is asked to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach. A pilot study showed that levothyroxine intake at bedtime significantly decreased thyrotropin levels and increased free thyroxine (fT) and total triiodothyronine levels. Till date, no large randomized trial investigating the best time of levothyroxine intake, including quality-of-life evaluation has been performed. Materials and Methods: The primary objective of this study was to compare the serum thyroid stimulating hormone and fT4level between patients taking evening dose of levothyroxine with patients taking morning dose. The secondary objectives were to compare lipid profile between patients of the two groups. Results: A total of 147 patients were recruited and randomized into either of the study groups (73 in Group A and 72 in Group B). A total of 58 patients in Group A and 57 patients in Group B were considered for statistical evaluation. There was no statistical difference in achievement of euthyroidism and improvement of thyroid profile between the two groups. Changes in values of total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very LDL and high-density lipoprotein were not significantly different between the groups. Conclusions: Levothyroxine taken at bedtime improved thyroid hormone level. Serum lipid levels showed no significant changes with bedtime versus morning intake. Clinicians may consider prescribing levothyroxine at bedtime as an alternative to the conventional morning dose.


At the time it was enacted in 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was widely applauded by health activists, as it meant that the United States would at last join the overwhelming majority of industrialized countries in providing its population with guaranteed access to affordable health care. Roughly half of the increase in access to health insurance was to come from the expansion of Medicaid eligibility to all U.S. citizens and legal residents with income below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. However, the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (NFIB) essentially converted the Medicaid expansion into an option for states, and many (fourteen at the time this article went to press, including states with enormously high rates of uninsured residents, such as Texas) have chosen not to participate. Since NFIB, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its initial estimate of the number of individuals who were to gain coverage under the ACA, from thirty-two to twenty-nine million. But the accuracy of these estimates is subject to question; given the number of states that are opting out, the number could well be far higher. In a turn of events entirely unanticipated when the ACA was enacted, the legacy of the ACA may be that it contributes to widening health disparities rather than the reduction that had been expected by its supporters.This result is an injustice that cries out for reform. A first step in that direction is ensuring that states are in possession of — and made to acknowledge — accurate information regarding the economic costs of the Medicaid expansion, which are far less than the potentially bankrupting amount that has been portrayed in some corners. A second step is to emphasize the importance of the incorporation of public health in health policy analysis and design; in addition to benefiting individual health, universal access to health services improves public health. Finally, and most critically, strong voices must demand that health policy be implemented such that it achieves justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Without action to rectify the ACA's unintended consequences, the United States seems likely to consign its poorest and most vulnerable residents to a continued tenuous health status, in which the only options for care are emergency rooms and those institutions that are willing to provide free or nearly free health services.


Finance startups are offering automated advice, touchless payments, and other products that could bring great societal benefits, including lower prices and expanded access to credit. Yet unlike in other digital arenas in which American companies were global leaders, such as search engines and ride hailing, the U.S. has lagged in consumer finance. This Article posits that the current competition framework is holding back consumer financial innovation. It then identifies a contributor that has yet to be articulated: the organizational design of administrative agencies. Competition authority—including antitrust and the extension of business licenses—is spread across at least five regulators. Each is focused on other missions or industries. The Federal Reserve and other prudential regulators prioritize financial stability, which conflicts with their competition mandate. The Department of Justice (DOJ), hindered by statutes and knowledge gaps, devotes significantly fewer resources to banking than to other industries in merger review. No regulator has the right authority, motivation, and expertise to promote competition in consumer finance.
Innovation has raised the stakes for fixing this structural flaw. If allowed to compete fully, financial technology challengers ("fintechs") could bring large consumer welfare advances and reduce the size of "Too Big To Fail" banks, thereby lessening the chances of a financial crisis. If allowed to grow unchecked, either fintech startups or the big banks acquiring them may reach the size of technology giants, thereby increasing systemic risk. Whether the goal is to benefit consumers, strengthen markets, or prevent crises, a reallocation of competition authority would better position regulators to navigate the future of innovation.


Java 8 has introduced a new abstraction called a stream to represent an immutable sequence of elements and to provide a variety of operations to be executed on the elements in series or in parallel. By processing a collection of data in a declarative way, it enables one to write more concise and clean code that can also leverage multi-core architectures without needing a single line of multithread code to be written. In this document, we describe our preliminary work on systematically refactoring loops with Java 8 streams to produce more concise and clean code. Our idea is to adapt existing work on analyzing loops and deriving their specifications written in a functional program verification style. Our extension is to define a set of transformation rules for loop patterns, one for each pattern, by decomposing the derived specification function into a series of stream operations.


Real-world images usually contain vivid contents and rich textural details, which will complicate the manipulation on them. In this paper, we design a new framework based on content-aware synthesis to enhance content-aware image retargeting. By detecting the textural regions in an image, the textural image content can be synthesized rather than simply distorted or cropped. This method enables the manipulation of textural & non-textural regions with different strategy since they have different natures. We propose to retarget the textural regions by content-aware synthesis and non-textural regions by fast multi-operators. To achieve practical retargeting applications for general images, we develop an automatic and fast texture detection method that can detect multiple disjoint textural regions. We adjust the saliency of the image according to the features of the textural regions. To validate the proposed method, comparisons with state-of-the-art image targeting techniques and a user study were conducted. Convincing visual results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Customer satisfaction is an important goal in total quality management. In order to meet this goal, it is necessary to use an evaluation model to measure customer satisfaction. This paper proposes an evaluation model for measuring the customer satisfaction level in a water supply domain. Some important criteria such as water quality, water quantity, responsibility of the company, etc. are distinguished and used in the proposed model. To integrate all of these criteria in a unit index, the analytic hierarchy process technique is used. The proposed model integrates customer opinions in a unit index to measure the customer satisfaction level. To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model, Hamedan Water Company is studied as a case study. The results show that the proposed model can be used as a useful tool for analyzing customer satisfaction levels in water supply domains for other companies. The proposed model also distinguishes company strengths and weaknesses in the field of customer satisfaction.


Objective Overuse of diagnostic imaging for patients with low back pain remains common. The underlying beliefs about diagnostic imaging that could drive overuse remain unclear. We synthesised qualitative research that has explored clinician, patient or general public beliefs about diagnostic imaging for low back pain. Design A qualitative evidence synthesis using a thematic analysis. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED and PsycINFO from inception to 17 June 2019. Qualitative studies that interviewed clinicians, patients and/or general public exploring beliefs about diagnostic imaging for low back pain were included. Four review authors independently extracted data and organised these according to themes and subthemes. We used the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool to critically appraise included studies. To assess confidence in review findings, we used the GRADE-Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative Research method. Results We included 69 qualitative studies with 1747 participants. Key findings included: Patients and clinicians believe diagnostic imaging is an important test to locate the source of low back pain (33 studies, high confidence); patients with chronic low back pain believe pathological findings on diagnostic imaging provide evidence that pain is real (12 studies, moderate confidence); and clinicians ordered diagnostic imaging to reduce the risk of a missed diagnosis that could lead to litigation, and to manage patients' expectations (12 studies, moderate confidence). Conclusion Clinicians and patients can believe that diagnostic imaging is an important tool for locating the source of non-specific low back pain. Patients may underestimate the harms of unnecessary imaging tests. These beliefs could be important targets for intervention. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017076047.


This paper examines the asymptotic behavior of the posterior distribution of a possibly nondifferentiable function g(theta), where theta is a finite dimensional parameter. The main assumption is that the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator theta_n, its bootstrap approximation, and the Bayesian posterior for theta all agree asymptotically. It is shown that whenever g is Lipschitz, though not necessarily differentiable, the posterior distribution of g(theta) and the bootstrap distribution of g(theta_n) coincide asymptotically. One implication is that Bayesians can interpret bootstrap inference for g(theta) as approximately valid posterior inference in a large sample. Another implication—built on known results about bootstrap inconsistency—is that the posterior distribution of g(theta) does not coincide with the asymptotic distribution of g(theta_n) at points of nondifferentiability. Consequently, frequentists cannot presume that credible sets for a nondifferentiable parameter g(theta) can be interpreted as approximately valid confidence sets (even when this relation holds true for theta).


The nuclear-charge-expansion method is used in conjunction with a modified screening approximation to predict oscillator strengths, correct through first order in the perturbation, for the 3d–4p and 4p–4d transitions in the sodium isoelectronic sequence. The results are compared with the values recommended by Smith and Wiese.


Abstract Sustainable cowherds require replacement of cull cows either internally via raised heifers or externally with purchased females. Managing raised replacements begins with a weaned heifer calf and continues on through her second pregnancy and calving. Replacement costs were estimated from research conducted in Nebraska for spring-calving cowherds and included the opportunity cost of the heifer calf. The analysis, based on research data, showed that heifer development programs targeted to 50 to 55% of mature BW (MBW) at first breeding can be successful, challenging the traditional target of 65% of MBW at first breeding. The lower BW programs achieved first-calf pregnancy rates near 90% of heifers exposed and resulted in development costs that were $25 to $30 per head lower than the higher BW programs. Finishing or selling open first-calf heifers was shown to be an economically viable enterprise given development costs were not too large. Numbers of open first-calf heifers were shown not to greatly affect total development costs. The primiparous heifer can increase the overall heifer development costs if not managed properly. Research showed that strategic nutritional programs for primiparous heifers resulted in successful reproduction without large increases in costs (


The estimated obesity-related health care costs across the Western region in 2008 were $16.2 billion (this is an inflation-adjusted estimate based on the work of Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang (2004)). 25 The Western populations, the percentage of obese adults in each state, and the estimated annual obesity-related expenditures by state are summarized in Table 1. The cost estimates include only direct health care expenditures related to obesity. The actual cost of obesity is much higher and includes not only obesity-related illness and disease, but also indirect costs resulting from missed work days and lower worker productivity as well as valued activities foregone as an opportunity cost (Trogdon et al., 2008).


Introduction Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) plays a crucial role in the development and maturation of B-cells. A common side effect of Ibrutinib, a BTK inhibitor approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), is active bleeding in the absence of vascular injury. The mechanisms by which ibrutinib alters haemostasis however are currently unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ibrutinib on platelet and endothelial cell function in vitro, to determine the mechanisms that underpin ibrutinib-induced bleeding. Methods Platelet rich plasma (PRP) collected from healthy volunteers was treated with increasing concentrations of ibrutinib for 15 min at 37°C, prior to stimulation with collagen (2 µg/ml) or ADP (10 µM). Platelet function and activation were measured by light transmission aggregometry (LTA) and flow cytometry respectively (CD62P+, PAC1+) and platelet morphology analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Platelet signalling pathways were analysed by Western blotting and the generation of endothelial microvesicles (EMVs) from HUVECs enumerated by flow cytometry, following 24 hours treatment with ibrutinib (increasing concentrations from 0.1 µM to 10 µM). Results Ibrutinib significantly reduced collagen-mediated platelet aggregation and activation in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). SEM analysis also demonstrated that collagen-mediated shape change and filopodia formation was defective following ibrutinib treatment. Consistent with these findings, signalling downstream of the collagen GPVI receptor was perturbed, with a marked reduction in PLCγ2 phosphorylation. Ibrutinib only exerted mild inhibition of ADP-induced platelet aggregation (p<0.05), which was accompanied by reduced PLA2 activation and inhibition of VASP dephosphorylation. Additionally, our results demonstrated that at low concentrations, ibrutinib reduced the generation of pro-thrombotic EMVs, an effect that is reversed at the highest concentrations (p<0.05). Conclusion Ibrutinib reduces collagen and ADP-mediated platelet aggregation, and activation by reducing phosphorylation of PLCγ2 and PLA2 and inhibiting VASP dephosphorylation. In addition, ibrutinib also appears to alter endothelial cell function by reducing EMV release. Understanding the mechanisms by which ibrutinib alters haemostasis may lead to the identification of novel antithrombotic targets.


Current literature in doctoral education in design is currently wrestling with the with idea that there is little homogeneity in doctoral design programs, and the dissonance which emerges from lack of confidence in practice based design in general. This paper explores a range of reasons for this lack of confidence, and proposes the benefits of a more interdisplinary approach, which might have multiple consequences. Firstly, applying methodologies from other academic areas could lead to a fruitful and more dynamic perspective of artifacts, highlighting their discursive nature, and secondly, using a specifically designed location, that of a product design observation laboratory could lead to greater collaboration and fidelity in design research from other academics outside of the design field.


Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is one freshwater fish which have high economic value. In the culture of tilapia, feed is the most important external factors. The optimal levels of protein to support the growth of tilapia ranged from 28-40 %, however the digested one is only about 20-25 % and the others were wasted and accumulated in the water. An attempt have been done to improve the feed digestibility value in tilapia by using the prebiotics addition to the feed. The aims of this research was to evaluate the addition of prebiotics to the feed to improve feed digestibility value in tilapia. The parameters measured were the amount of feed intake, the total population of bacteria, protein digestibility, fat digestibility, total digestibility, protein retention, fatty retention, specific growth rate, survival rate and feed efficiency. The results showed that the protein digestibility was 92.25%, fatty digestibility was 96.61% and total digestibility was 86.77%. The best results of feed was found in the addition of 1% prebiotic. Keyword: digestibility, prebiotics, tilapia


Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) is a cytoplasmic serine/ threonine kinase. Knockdown of CDK5 enhances paclitaxel sensitivity in human ovarian cancer cells. This study explores the mechanisms by which CDK5 regulates paclitaxel sensitivity in human ovarian cancers. Multiple ovarian cancer cell lines and xenografts were treated with CDK5 small interfering RNA (siRNA) with or without paclitaxel to examine the effect on cancer cell viability, cell cycle arrest and tumor growth. CDK5 protein was measured by immunohistochemical staining of an ovarian cancer tissue microarray to correlate CDK5 expression with overall patient survival. Knockdown of CDK5 with siRNAs inhibits activation of AKT which significantly correlates with decreased cell growth and enhanced paclitaxel sensitivity in ovarian cancer cell lines. In addition, CDK5 knockdown alone and in combination with paclitaxel induced G1 cell cycle arrest and caspase 3 dependent apoptotic cell death associated with post-translational upregulation and nuclear translocation of TP53 and p27Kip1 as well as TP53-dependent transcriptional induction of p21Cip1 in wild type TP53 cancer cells. Treatment of HEYA8 and A2780 wild type TP53 xenografts in nu/nu mice with CDK5 siRNA and paclitaxel produced significantly greater growth inhibition than either treatment alone. Increased expression of CDK5 in human ovarian cancers correlates inversely with overall survival. CDK5 modulates paclitaxel sensitivity by regulating AKT activation, the cell cycle and caspase-dependent apoptosis. CDK5 inhibition can potentiate paclitaxel activity in human ovarian cancer cells.


Alcohol is an important economic and cultural commodity. It also represents a significant public health problem. Alcohol is the third greatest risk factor for the global disease burden even though half of the global population abstain. Currently alcohol control strategies are inadequate and unable to combat the health, social and economic problems caused by a legal drug that has become more widely available, more affordable and promoted aggressively. This thesis considers how alcohol control policy is governed, developed and implemented at global, European, UK and Scottish policy levels with specific focus on the role of the alcohol industry in this area. Contemporary modes of governance are increasingly characterised by a multi-agency partnership approach where unelected stakeholders, including corporate partners, contribute to the development and implementation of policy and of action out with policy. The research investigates the role of the alcohol industry within discourses and action in efforts to reduce alcohol related harm. It aims to identify alcohol industry action at global, European, UK and Scottish levels of authority in order to offer an overview of the extent of action and in turn its influence on policy discourses. The research provides an analysis of the alcohol industry as a political operator. The alcohol industry engages with, and in some respects is, a stakeholder active within public health policy circles in relation to alcohol control. This engagement spans science, research, corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, lobbying and direct engagement within official policy circles. The thesis uses the alcohol industry as a case study that highlights a need for research on how influence is wielded by corporate interests within policy circles. There is acknowledgement in various theoretical accounts on governance that changing modes of governance have resulted in the creation of a space for non-state actors within policy circles. However, thereafter, the role of corporate actors is habitually underestimated and even overlooked all together. The argument presented here is that the role of powerful economic interests is rapidly gaining significance as a factor in policy making. This must be explored further in order to ascertain the extent of the influence and the ways in which economic actors exert influence. Methodologically the research examines policy documents, and industry communications as well as adopting an investigative approach to the strategies and agendas of a variety of policy stakeholders. The outcome is a narrative derived from a synthesis of existing sources that explores the area of alcohol control policy which focuses on the involvement of corporate stakeholders with a clear conflict of interest within the process of developing health policy in relation to alcohol. The results indicate that the influence of corporate actors represents a significant and growing threat to the development and implementation of effective evidence based alcohol control policy. Overall the research is intended to make a contribution to academic and public debates on governance and to support public health efforts to reduce alcohol related harm. It attempts to explore the accumulation of corporate action over multiple levels of authority and to describe and evaluate the effects of this accumulative action on public health policy in relation to alcohol


Regardless the form, nickel is an element commonly used. Its numerous advantages make it irreplaceable in many industries. The widespread use of this element in different branches leads to increasing nickel penetration to the environment and its pollution. Furthermore, the contamination of environment results in affecting the living organisms, including both plants that are directly exposed to Ni in soil, water or air, and humans whose exposition to Ni is direct (e.g. contaminated air) and/or indirect (e.g. food with high amount of Ni). Therefore, the exposition of living organisms to Ni may constitute a threat. This paper constitutes the short review of nickel as an environmental contaminant with characterization of its main sources in the environment. The nickel nanoparticles have been also studied. The influence of Ni and its nanoparticles on living organisms with emphasizing its allergenicity of human has been described.


The study is an exploratory investigation of the relationship among perceived stress, performance evaluation discomfort and beliefs, and employee's self-evaluation – specifically core self-evaluation. Little has been done exploring perceived stress as a possible consequence of the discomfort experienced by appraisers and this study attempts to fill this gap.
This cross-sectional survey obtained usable data from 167 public and private sector employees in Gaborone, Botswana, with about 81% from the public sector. Respondents were 51.5% males, 45% unmarried and 54% having over 10 years work experience. Respondents were well educated with 70% possessing basic university degree or higher and over 65% earned over $1500.00 monthly indicating a fairly well paid African sample. Data were collected using structured questionnaires with 47 standardised items from four scales (perceived stress – 10, performance appraisal discomfort – 20, performance appraisal beliefs – 5 and core self-evaluation – 12). Data was analysed using Pearson's coefficient correlation multiple regression (stepwise).
The result indicated direct but insignificant correlation between performance appraisal discomfort and performance appraisal belief; inverse relationship between performance appraisal discomfort and perceived stress; inverse relationship between performance appraisal discomfort and core self-evaluation. All these results though in the predicted direction were non-significant. A significant and direct relationship was however found between perceived stress and core self-evaluation. This is perhaps indicative of a strong link between how a person sees, views and values self as a possible reflection of the state of the individual's perceived stress. Also core self-evaluation and performance appraisal discomfort emerged as predictor variables for perceived stress, with the former being the stronger predictor and together explaining about 7% of the variance.
Limitations and future research direction include: the small number of predictor variables explored; a need for cross-cultural and multi-cultural investigation of the variables to enhance and enrich our understanding of the constructs; and a sampling limitation imposed by a somewhat self-selecting organisational sample used. Managerial implications include: albeit performance appraisals are infrequently done, the importance attached to it by managers and organisations makes discomforts with it critical as issues such as individual advancement, reward obtainable and disciplinary issues are all associated with it. Similarly core self-evaluation may be a key to high levels of individual performance. These issues may impact on perceived and actual stress experienced by individuals hence the need to direct more attention to the investigation of this linkage – a process that this study attempts to promote.


Metaheuristic and exact methods are one of the most common tools to solve Mixed-Integer Optimization Problems (MIPs). Most of these problems are NP-hard problems, being intractable to obtain optimal solutions in a reasonable time when the size of the problem is huge. In this paper, a hybrid parallel optimization algorithm for matheuristics is studied. In this algorithm, exact and metaheuristic methods work together to solve a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem which is divided into two different subproblems, one of which is linear (and easier to solve by exact methods) and the other discrete (and is solved using metaheuristic methods). Even so, solving this problem has a high computational cost. The algorithm proposed follows an efficient decomposition which is based on the nature of the decision variables (continuous versus discrete). Because of the high cost of the algorithm, as this kind of problem belongs to NP-hard problems, parallelism techniques have been incorporated at different levels to reduce the computing cost. The matheuristic has been optimized both at the level of the problem division and internally. This configuration offers the opportunity to improve the computational time and the fitness function. The paper also focuses on the performance of different optimization software packages working in parallel. In particular, a comparison of two well-known optimization software packages (CPLEX and GUROBI) is performed when they work executing several simultaneous instances, solving various problems at the same time. Thus, this paper proposes and studies a two-level parallel algorithm based on message-passing (MPI) and shared memory (Open MP) schemes where the two subproblems are considered and where the linear problem is solved by using and studying optimization software packages (CPLEX and GUROBI). Experiments have also been carried out to ascertain the performance of the application using different programming paradigms (shared memory and distributed memory).


Myelofibrosis (MF) is a Philadelphia chromosome–negative stem cell myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) associated with cytopenias, splenomegaly, constitutional symptoms, and poor prognosis. MF patients commonly express JAK2 V617F mutation and activation of Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signalling. Agents targeting the JAK/STAT pathway have demonstrated efficacy in patients with MF. This study evaluated panobinostat, a pan‐deacetylase inhibitor that depletes JAK2 V617F levels and JAK/STAT signalling in MPN cells, in patients with primary MF, post–essential thrombocythaemia MF, and post–polycythaemia vera MF. Patients received panobinostat 40 mg administered three times per week. Dose reductions were permitted for toxicities. The primary endpoint was response rate at 6 months using International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Research and Treatment (IWG‐MRT) consensus criteria. Analyses of peripheral blood cells from treated patients revealed that panobinostat inhibited JAK/STAT signalling, decreased inflammatory cytokine levels, and decreased JAK2 V617F allelic burden. However, panobinostat was poorly tolerated at the dose and schedule evaluated, and only 16 of 35 patients completed ≥2 cycles of treatment. One patient (3%) achieved an IWG‐MRT response. Common adverse events were thrombocytopenia (71·4%) and diarrhoea (80·0%). Although molecular correlative analyses suggested that panobinostat inhibits key intracellular targets, limited clinical activity was observed because of poor tolerance.


The first book from the Color Me Beautiful team-created more than 25 years ago-still continues to sell well, and the world's leading image consultancy is back with an updated look at fashion and cosmetics. Millions of people have used this internationally recognized system to look and feel better. Think of it as feng shui for the body, a way of using color to make yourself sparkle from head to toe and glow from within. And now the Color Me Beautiful organization presents brand-new, totally contemporary strategies in an easy-to-follow and lushly illustrated volume. Guided by questionnaires, photos and palettes, and boxed pointers, anyone can do a color analysis and figure out what shades work best with her skin, hair, and eye tones. Confidence-building plans feature ideal outfits for any shape; tricks for adapting your wardrobe to different lifestyles; and ideas for developing a stylish, original approach to dress. Plus, there's makeup and accessory advice for that perfect finishing touch.


This study delves into existing literature regarding web accessibility and usability. It looks into the relationship between accessibility and usability to highlight how both practices complement each other and, when used together, will create a better, and accessible, user experience. This research study employed a survey to understand how web designers, developers and professionals (the participants) perceived the relationship between web accessibility and usability. This survey also presented a table of combined heuristics and questioned whether the participants considered an integrated view using combined web accessibility guidelines and usability heuristics to be a good segue into a more comprehensive, and inclusive, web design framework. This research study is working towards an inclusive web framework that focuses around the user experience of users of all abilities with regard to the perspectives of web designers, developers and professionals in its' development.


This volume presents the results of a collaborative project with the Huu-ay-aht First Nation, a Nuu-chah-nulth group near Bamfield on Vancouver Island's west coast. It reviews ethnographic and ethnohistoric data on Huu-ay-aht territory and provides detailed descriptions and analysis of excavated materials from the site of Huu7ii, an ancient Huu-ay-aht village with an occupation span of nearly 5,000 years. The major focus is on the excavation of one very large house, argued to be a chiefly residence. Appendices present specific contributions to the research by Gay Frederick (vertebrate faunal analysis), Iain McKechnie (fish remains from the column samples), Ursula Arndt and Dongya Yang (aDNA of cetacean remains), Ian Sumpter (invertebrate faunal analysis), Beth Weathers (paleoethnobotany), and Marlow Pellatt (paleoecology and the pollen record). The results make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the Nuu-chah-nulth past and to household archaeology on the Northwest Coast.


Intellectual property holders have invested significant resources into Second Life in pursuit of customers and virtual market share. 15.8 million residents are available to hear your message. Within this virtual world, however, they have found age old intellectual property problems: counterfeiters with virtual Herman Miller furniture and Rolex watches. Similarly, participants have become residents of Second Life for the opportunity to develop virtual intellectual property. Virtual art galleries, magazines, and bar associations have sprung up. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted registration to virtual trademarks created within Second Life. Both real world and virtual world intellectual property holders have come to Linden Research's Second Life on the premise that their intellectual property would be protected. Is it? How should the added exposure of a virtual intellectual property portfolio be managed by an intellectual property right holder? Recently filed complaints indicate that Linden Lab's "commercially reasonable efforts" may not be sufficient. In fact, they may be detrimental to the intellectual property owner. Here, I will discuss suits filed against Linden Lab regarding Second Life's intellectual property protection. The complaints are illustrative of the peril in having intellectual property rights be privately adjudicated and enforced.


We describe a case of septic arthritis caused by Bordetella holmesii in a 15-year-old boy with chronic haemolytic anaemia. B. holmesii was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The patient outcome was favourable. To our knowledge, this is the first case of B. holmesii septic arthritis in an asplenic patient.


This review introduces most of the concepts used in the study of chaotic phenomena in nonlinear systems and has as its objective to summarize the current understanding of results from the theory of chaotic dynamical systems and to describe the original ideas underlying the study of deterministic chaos. The presentation relies on informal analysis, with abstract mathematical ideas visualized geometrically or by examples from physics. Hyperbolic dynamics, homoclinic trajectories and tangencies, wild hyperbolic sets, and different types of attractors which appear in dynamical systems are considered. The key aspects of ergodic theory are discussed, and the basic statistical properties of chaotic dynamical systems are described. The fundamental difference between stochastic dynamics and deterministic chaos is explained. The review concludes with an investigation of the possibility of studying complex systems on the basis of the analysis of registered signals, i.e. the generated time series.


The general S-matrix theory of multiphoton ionization is presented. The freedom in the form of the S matrix is discussed and exploited to derive a form that uses the exact dressed state as the initial state of the process. This results in a new S-matrix form, which is then evaluated in an approximate form. The numerical result is identical with a previously obtained one but radically different from that obtained by using the Keldysh–Faisal–Reiss theories.


One hundred ninety-seven Solitary Sandpipers, Tringa solitaria, and 213 Pectoral Sandpipers, Calidris melanotos, were examined for trematodes. Specimens were taken from the hosts' winter range in Ecuador, South America, during the fall and spring migrations from Louisiana and South Dakota in the United States, and from the breeding grounds of the Solitary Sandpiper in Ontario, Canada. The 13 species of trematodes recorded from the shorebirds included 5 that were common to both species of shorebirds: Tanaisia fedtschenkoi, Cyclocoelum obscurum, Paramonostomum sp., Leucochloridium variae. and Zonorchis microrchis. Of the remaining 8 species, Cyclocoelum brasilianum, Plagiorchis maculosus. Stephanoprora denticulata, and Eurytrema lubens occurred in Solitary Sandpipers while Cyclocoelum tringae. Plagiorchis elegans, Echinoparyphium speotyto, and Echinoparyphium aconiatum were found only in Pectoral Sandpipers. The overall prevalence of trematode infections in these hosts, regardless of season, was fairly constant, and ranged between 35 and 48 percent. The fauna of these long-distance intercontinental migrants was characterized by a high percentage (66%) of low prevalence parasite species. Although some of the trematode species from these migrants have been previously reported from both North and South America, this study includes several range extensions for the parasites. The slight differences in species composition and prevalence of infections were not significant between spring and fall migrants. The fauna was found to be a composite of species acquired by the hosts at various localities throughout their migrations. The breeding grounds were no more significant a source of trematode infection for Solitary and Pectoral Sandpipers than other localities covered during the long migrations. Species from the digestive tract were usually of low prevalence and intensity. The most common species were ubiquitous in geographical distribution and were found within the hosts in sites other than the digestive system. The trematode fauna of the 2 sandpipers was found to be remarkably similar in spite of the hosts' very different breeding ecology.


We consider the problem of allocating divisible items among multiple agents, and consider the setting where any agent is allowed to introduce diversity constraints on the items they are allocated. We motivate this via settings where the items themselves correspond to user ad slots or task workers with attributes such as race and gender on which the principal seeks to achieve demographic parity. We consider the following question: When an agent expresses diversity constraints into an allocation rule, is the allocation of other agents hurt significantly? If this happens, the cost of introducing such constraints is disproportionately borne by agents who do not benefit from diversity. We codify this via two desiderata capturing robustness. These are no negative externality -- other agents are not hurt -- and monotonicity -- the agent enforcing the constraint does not see a large increase in value. We show in a formal sense that the Nash Welfare rule that maximizes product of agent values is uniquely positioned to be robust when diversity constraints are introduced, while almost all other natural allocation rules fail this criterion. We also show that the guarantees achieved by Nash Welfare are nearly optimal within a widely studied class of allocation rules. We finally perform an empirical simulation on real-world data that models ad allocations to show that this gap between Nash Welfare and other rules persists in the wild.


Improved complex-compound sorption pumps are undergoing development for use as prime movers in heat-pump systems for cooling and dehumidification of habitats for humans on the Moon and for residential and commercial cooling on Earth. Among the advantages of sorption heat-pump systems are that they contain no moving parts except for check valves and they can be driven by heat from diverse sources: examples include waste heat from generation of electric power, solar heat, or heat from combustion of natural gas. The use of complex compound sorbents in cooling cycles is not new in itself: Marketing of residential refrigerators using SrCl2 was attempted in the 1920s and 30s and was abandoned because heat- and mass-transfer rates of the sorbents were too low. Addressing the issue that gave rise to the prior abandonment of complex compound sorption heat pumps, the primary accomplishment of the present development program thus far has been the characterization of many candidate sorption media, leading to large increases in achievable heat- and mass-transfer rates. In particular, two complex compounds (called "CC260-1260" and "CC260-2000") were found to be capable of functioning over the temperature range of interest for the lunar-habitat application and to offer heat- and mass-transfer rates and a temperature-lift capability adequate for that application. Regarding the temperature range: A heat pump based on either of these compounds is capable of providing a 95-K lift from a habitable temperature to a heat-rejection (radiator) temperature when driven by waste heat at an input temperature .500 K. Regarding the heat- and mass-transfer rates or, more precisely, the power densities made possible by these rates: Power densities observed in tests were 0.3 kilowatt of cooling per kilogram of sorbent and 2 kilowatts of heating per kilogram of sorbent. A prototype 1-kilowatt heat pump based on CC260-2000 has been built and demonstrated to function successfully.


Much of the literature on the pricing of commercial mortgages underlying commercial mortgage-backed securities pools focuses on the effect of term default (default during the term of the loan), and ignores the possibility of balloon risk, the borrower's inability to pay off the mortgage at maturity through refinancing or property sale. A contingent-claims mortgage pricing model that includes two default triggers—a cash flow trigger and an asset value trigger—may be used to assess the effect of balloon risk on the pricing of CMBS tranches. Simulations of cash flows for individual loans in a CMBS framework reveal how individual tranches are affected by balloon risk. Balloon risk is low at the whole-loan level, but under a number of scenarios total credit risk and balloon risk creep into investment-grade CMBS tranches and significantly impact their valuation.


As GIS technology has evolved and grown, so has the language of this powerful tool. Written, developed, and reviewed by more than 150 subject-matter experts, "A to Z GIS" is packed with more than 1,800 terms; nearly 400 full-color illustrations; and, seven encyclopedia-style appendix articles about annotation and labels, features, geometry, layers in ArcGIS, map projections and coordinate systems, remote sensing, and topology. "A to Z GIS" is a must-have resource for managers, programmers, users, writers, editors, and students discovering the interdisciplinary nature of GIS.


Recent surveys show that more than half of American entrepreneurs share ownership in their business startups rather than going it alone. Yet the media and many scholars continue to perpetuate the myth of the lone visionary who single-handedly revolutionizes the marketplace. In The Entrepreneurial Group, Martin Ruef shatters this myth, demonstrating that teams, not individuals, are the leading force behind entrepreneurial startups. This is the first book to provide an in-depth sociological analysis of entrepreneurial groups, and to put forward a theoretical framework for understanding activities and outcomes within them.


Shown in this work are the characterization, simulation, and implementation of a small-scale back-up power system powered through solar energy conversion. The technical approach utilizes solar arrays with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer and fuel cell. This facilitates the production and storage of electrical energy using hydrogen as a carrier. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology was chosen due to its relatively high power density (in comparison with other fuel cell types), its low operating temperature range, and lack of noxious emissions. The setup employs a solar array designed to provide sufficient power to the electrolyzer under varying temperature and lighting conditions. The electrical power is derived directly from the electrochemical energy stored in the hydrogen supply. In this way, the inherent instability and fluctuations in power due to the intermittent nature of solar energy are diminished.
The focus of this study is strictly technical. Monetary cost considerations are beyond the scope of this document.


Using cases of misalignment and realignment in the unfolding of interactional sequences in which future actions and events are being negotiated in everyday English conversation, this paper demonstrates that participants distinguish between the initiating actions of Proposal*, Offer*, Request*, and Suggestion*, if these labels are understood as technical terms for distinct constellations of answers to the questions (i) who will carry out the future action? and (ii) who will benefit from it?. The argument made is that these different action types are routinely associated with different sets of recurrent linguistic forms, or social action formats, and that it is through these that speakers can frame their turns as implementing one action type as opposed to another and that recipients can recognize these actions as such and respond to them accordingly. The fact that there is only a limited amount of 'polysemy', or overlap in the formats commonly used for Proposals*, Requests*, Offers*, and Suggestions* in English conversation, means that these formats deliver often distinctive cues to the type of action being implemented. When misalignments and realignments occur, they can often be traced to the fact that 'polysemous' linguistic formats have been used to implement the initiating action.


Nowadays the application of temporal databases in modern information systems becomes more and more popular. Time-varying information with valid time, transaction time or both are required by typical applications such as human resource management, medical information systems, agriculture and farm management. Also, the object-oriented paradigm is now the standard paradigm for software development. Object databases are widely available commercially. However, the concept of temporal database is still not included as a standard feature and the users have to implement them at the application level. This paper presents temporal object database implementation techniques. The techniques can accommodate attribute timestamping both at the object class and the association between object classes. A software tool based on the proposed techniques is developed.


AB type monomers for supramolecular polymers have been developed based on the strong and reversible noncovalent interaction between ribonuclease S-peptide (A) and S-protein (B), resulting in an active enzyme complex as the linking unit. Two AB-type protein constructs are synthesized differing in the length of the flexible oligo(ethylene glycol) spacer separating the two end groups. Using an experimental setup where size exclusion chromatography is directly coupled to Q-TOF mass spectrometry, we have analyzed the self-assembled architectures as a function of concentration. The theory of macrocyclization under thermodynamic control is used to quantitatively analyze the experimental data. Using this theory, we show that AB-type monomers linked by flexible linkers grow reversibly via ring–chain competition. Inherently the formation of linear polymeric assemblies is beyond the capability of these types of building blocks due to concentration limits of proteins. The results therefore contribute to the general understanding of supramolecular polymerization with biological building blocks and demonstrate design requirements for monomers if linear polymerization is desired.


Background: Men of African descent experience a disproportionately high prostate cancer mortality. Intratumoral inflammation was found to be associated with aggressive prostate cancer. We and others have shown that prostate tumors in African-American (AA) patients harbor a distinct immune and inflammation signature when compared with European-American (EA) patients. These observations suggest that inflammation could be a driver of aggressive disease in men of African descent, leading to the hypothesis that an anti-inflammatory drug like aspirin could prevent disease progression. Methods: We examined the relationship between aspirin use and prostate cancer in the NCI-Maryland Prostate Cancer Case-Control Study consisting of 823 men with incident prostate cancer (422 AA and 401 EA) and 1,034 population-based men without the disease diagnosis (486 AA and 548 EA). Results: We observed a significant inverse association between regular aspirin use and prostate cancer among AA men. Stratification of AA patients by disease stage showed that daily and long-term (>3 years) aspirin use significantly decreased the risk of advanced disease [adjusted ORs for T3/T4 disease: 0.35, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.17–0.73; and 0.22, 95% CI, 0.08–0.60, respectively], but not early-stage disease (T1/T2). Regular aspirin use also reduced disease recurrence in AA men. Conclusions: Regular aspirin use is associated with a decreased risk of advanced stage prostate cancer and increased disease-free survival in AA men. Impact: Regular aspirin use before and after a prostate cancer diagnosis may prevent the development of aggressive disease in AA men who are at risk of a lethal malignancy. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(6); 845–53. ©2017 AACR.


The Snowden revelations of 2013 have shed some light on the extent of state-performed mass surveillance programs that target people all over the world, violate their privacy, and endanger their cyber security. The presumably most expensive of these surveillance programs is the NSA's decryption program, Bullrun, which aims at breaking and sabotaging cryptosystems. This program cost $254.9 million in 2013 alone. Cryptosystems are vulnerable to sabotage in their mathematical specifications, standardization of their parameters, and their implementations. It has been a bitter surprise to realize that the capabilities of adversaries that have been classically considered in cryptographic models often do not even come close to what is attainable for big brother (i.e., state-level) adversaries. Therefore, it is of utmost necessity to rigorously study cryptographic sabotage and to develop resilient cryptosystems. Considering that the anticipated adversary is an extremely powerful one, finding solutions against sabotage requires not only tailoring the existing approaches from various areas in cryptography and other closely related disciplines to new scenarios but at times also entirely new design and proof techniques. As such, this thesis aims at adding new knowledge and techniques to the cryptographic toolbox to help better combat such attacks. In particular, we tackle the problem of disabling backdoors embedded in the mathematical design of cryptographic primitives as well as re-establishing security in their subverted implementations.

The first part of this thesis is concerned with defeating backdoors in hash functions, which are one of the most fundamental and versatile primitives in cryptography. We formulate and study backdoored hash functions, whereby a big brother designs a hash function that despite displaying reasonable functionality and security properties, can be broken using a secret backdoor. We start by modeling backdoored hash functions in the standard model (i.e., a model without idealized primitives), where the backdoor is a key co-designed with the hash function. We then show the feasibility of efficient backdoored hash functions for fixed-length inputs and how iterating such functions in the Merkle-Damgard or the sponge constructions leads to backdoored hash functions for inputs of arbitrary length, where crucial security guarantees break down. On the positive side, we give evidence that the weak pseudorandomness property of hash functions, which rely on a secret key, is in fact robust against backdooring. This result allows us to build a backdoor-resilient iterative pseudorandom function, more precisely, a variant of HMAC. Furthermore, we show how the key derivation function HKDF can be immunized against backdoors at little cost. Unfortunately our findings also suggest that immunizing a hash function against backdoors, without relying on a secret key, is presumably hard. This observation later motivated our study of combining independent hash functions as a possible strategy in building secure backdoor-resilient hash functions.

We then introduce a model which we call the backdoored random-oracle (BRO) model, whereby a big brother picks a random oracle, i.e., a random function, but he can also obtain arbitrary information about the random oracle using a backdoor oracle. This model captures not only weaknesses that lead to collision-finding and inversion attacks but also any conceivable weakness that can exist in a hash function. Therefore, adversaries equipped with such a backdoor oracle are powerful to the extent that no security can be achieved based on a single arbitrarily backdoored random oracle. However, when two independent BROs are available, we show that certain security properties, such as one-wayness, pseudorandomness, and collision resistance can be re-established. This is true even when we allow unrestricted and adaptive access to both backdoor oracles. To this end we consider three common combiners: concatenation, cascade, and xor. At the core of our results lie new reductions from cryptographic security goals to the communication complexities of several two-party tasks. Along the way we establish a communication complexity lower bound for set-intersection for cryptographically relevant ranges of parameters and distributions and where deciding set-disjointness can be easy.

We further study the technique of combining independent BROs in order to construct a hash function from two or more BROs in a way that it can be used in many cryptographic applications that rely on a backdoor-free random oracle. The property that practically allows a hash function construction to replace a random oracle is referred to as indifferentiability and was introduced by Maurer, Renner, and Holenstein (TCC 2004). Achieving full indifferentiability in our model seems very challenging at the moment. We however make progress in this direction by showing that the xor combiner goes well beyond security against preprocessing attacks and offers indifferentiability as long as the number of the adversary's query switches between the backdoor oracles remains logarithmic in the input size of the underlying BROs. We also show that an extractor-based combiner of three BROs can provide indifferentiability even against adversaries that make a linear number of switches.
To prove these results we build on and refine a recent technique by Goos, Lovett, Meka, Watson, and Zuckerman (STOC 2015) for decomposing high-entropy distributions into convex combinations of distributions on bit strings that are fixed on some points and highly unpredictable on others. Furthermore, a natural restriction of our definition of indifferentiability in the BRO model gives rise to a notion of indifferentiability with auxiliary input, for which we give two positive feasibility results.

The second part of this thesis aims at providing security in face of malicious implementations. We put forward the notion of self-guarding cryptographic primitives as a countermeasure to a subclass of so-called algorithm substitution attacks (ASAs). These attacks are formalized by Bellare, Paterson, and Rogaway (CRYPTO 2014) as attacks, where a big brother secretly substitutes the genuine implementation of a cryptosystem with a malicious one in order to undermine users' security. The authors also show that randomized symmetric encryption schemes are vulnerable to devastating ASAs that practically allow a big brother to steal secret keys, while to users the input-output behavior of the encryption algorithm remains undetectable from that of a genuine implementation. Detecting ASAs, even if theoretically possible, is unfortunately not an easy task. Our self-guarding primitives, however, do not rely on detection and can still prevent undesirable leakage by subverted algorithms, usually for a bounded time, if one has the guarantee that the system has been working properly during an initial phase. This secure initial phase is justified for instance, before a malicious software update is performed or before a malicious internal state is reached. We present constructions of basic self-guarding primitives for symmetric and asymmetric encryption and for signatures. We also argue that the model captures attacks with malicious hardware tokens and show how to self-guard a key exchange protocol that is based on a physical uncloneable function (PUF).


Some recent accounts of relative clause extraction (RCE) in Swedish assume that clauses that allow extraction do not themselves involve A-bar dependencies, and that RCE is possible only from subject relatives (e.g. Kush et al. 2013). I present evidence that Swedish allows A-bar movement from non-subject RCs as well. But not just any type of phrase can be extracted. For example, certain non-argument wh-phrases cannot move out. This means that Swedish RCs are weak, rather than strong islands (cf. Szabolcsi 2006). Szabolcsi takes an algebraic approach to weak islands where phrases that denote individuals, which can be collected into sets forming Boolean algebras, can be extracted, whereas phrases that denote non-individuals, which cannot be collected into such sets, cannot. However, it is not obvious how to extend such an approach to Swedish RCs, since they allow extraction of some phrases that denote non-individuals, like 'how late', as long as they are linked to the discourse. Instead, I propose that the phrases that can move out of relative clauses carry discourse-related features (DR), and that the C-heads in Swedish RCs attract DR-marked phrases, making them available in later stages of the derivation.


Background : Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the most common causes of death in people with immune deficiency diseases such as: organ or tissue recipients, patients with HIV/AIDS and newborn infants. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anti-CMV antibodies in patients with HIV/AIDS in the Kurdistan province.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study carried out on 151 patients with HIV/AIDS covered by behavioral health counseling centers in Kurdistan province, 2015. For all patients the values of CMV antibodies, include IgG and IgM, were determined by ELISA technique and Diagnostic Kits (EIA WELL, Rome, Italy). Data analyses were done by use of t-test and multiple linear regression tests in stata software, version 13.
Results: 116 (76.8%) and 35 (23.2%) of the patients were male and female, respectively. Mean (SD) age of the patients were 39.3 (9.1) years. All studied patients were found positive for CMV-IgG (prevalence=100%), whereas only one case (0.7%) was found positive for CMV-IgM. The relationship between age and CMV-IgG levels was statistically significant.
Conclusion: The results showed that high prevalence of CMV in patients with HIV/AIDS, so in addition to paying more attention to the issue of HIV and CMV co-infection, about value of early antiretroviral treatment conducting further studies seems necessary.
Keywords: Cytomegalovirus, HIV/AIDS, Prevalence.


Abstract. Historical maps are valuable resources to understand the topography, land use, and land cover of the country in the past. Recently they have been used as basic data in fields such as education, disaster prevention or research on local history. Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) has been working on collecting and archiving historical maps which were drawn before than Meiji period. However, public use of these maps is often confined because they are almost non-existent or have the possibility of being damaged. Therefore, in order for everyone to use these maps, GSI created a website "Old Map Collection" (Figure 1), which provides various digitized historical maps. In this presentation, we introduce the summary of "Old Map Collection" and some of its new contents.In 2005 GSI created a website "Old Map Collection" to provide historical maps for public use as historical, cultural, and academic documents. Users can browse about 1,500 map sheets including various related information, e.g., name, size, date-of-creation, author, and pictorial image. Also all maps are categorized into 15 fields such as maps made in Meiji period, maps of Japan, world maps, and Ino's maps, based on their age of publication, range of area, and purpose of use, which enables users to find maps more easily.2018 marked the 150th anniversary since the beginning of Meiji period, when the modernization of Japan started. In order to bequeath the history of Meiji to future generations, Japanese government has promoted the policy named "MEIJI 150th". One of the projects GSI conducted related to "MEIJI 150th" was the additional release of 1:20,000 scale original rapid survey map, e.g., Figure 2, on "Old Map Collection". This map was created from 1880 to 1886 (the 13th -19th years of Meiji period) in advance of the national survey by General Staff Office of the Imperial Japanese Army, and is now owned only by GSI. It contains 921 colored map sheets which cover the area of capital Tokyo and its surrounding regions.


This article presents a high-performance software framework for computing a dense SVD on distributed-memory manycore systems. Originally introduced by Nakatsukasa et al. (2010) and Nakatsukasa and Higham (2013), the SVD solver relies on the polar decomposition using the QR Dynamically Weighted Halley algorithm (QDWH). Although the QDWH-based SVD algorithm performs a significant amount of extra floating-point operations compared to the traditional SVD with the one-stage bidiagonal reduction, the inherent high level of concurrency associated with Level 3 BLAS compute-bound kernels ultimately compensates for the arithmetic complexity overhead. Using the ScaLAPACK two-dimensional block cyclic data distribution with a rectangular processor topology, the resulting QDWH-SVD further reduces excessive communications during the panel factorization, while increasing the degree of parallelism during the update of the trailing submatrix, as opposed to relying on the default square processor grid. After detailing the algorithmic complexity and the memory footprint of the algorithm, we conduct a thorough performance analysis and study the impact of the grid topology on the performance by looking at the communication and computation profiling trade-offs. We report performance results against state-of-the-art existing QDWH software implementations (e.g., Elemental) and their SVD extensions on large-scale distributed-memory manycore systems based on commodity Intel x86 Haswell processors and Knights Landing (KNL) architecture. The QDWH-SVD framework achieves up to 3/8-fold speedups on the Haswell/KNL-based platforms, respectively, against ScaLAPACK PDGESVD and turns out to be a competitive alternative for well- and ill-conditioned matrices. We finally come up herein with a performance model based on these empirical results. Our QDWH-based polar decomposition and its SVD extension are freely available at https://github.com/ecrc/qdwh.git and https://github.com/ecrc/ksvd.git, respectively, and have been integrated into the Cray Scientific numerical library LibSci v17.11.1.


Abstract The margins of the North Atlantic rift are covered by an extensive succession of volcanic rocks, with up to 5 km of continental flood basalts, hyaloclastites and interbedded sedimentary rocks. The volcanic succession deteriorates seismic imaging and has hampered petroleum exploration in these areas. Focused research and pioneering exploration activity, however, has improved the understanding and development of new play models in volcanic-influenced basins. In 2004, the Rosebank discovery finally proved that intra-volcanic siliciclastic sandstones of the Fleet Formation may form attractive hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Faroe–Shetland Basin. The Kangerlussuaq Basin in southern East Greenland offers a unique opportunity to study the interaction of siliciclastic sediments with lavas and various volcaniclastic units. It is demonstrated that: (1) laterally extensive siliciclastic sedimentary units are present in the lower part of the volcanic succession; (2) the morphology of the lavas controlled variations in sandstone geometry and thickness; and (3) deposition of the interbedded sediments and lavas occurred in a low-relief environment close to sea level. The mineralogical composition of the intra-volcanic sediments is highly variable, ranging from siliciclastic to purely volcaniclastic. Diagenetic studies suggest that the nature of the volcanic component in volcaniclastic sandstones is more important to reservoir properties than the relative concentration.


The lithium ion
technology is now beginning to enter into electric vehicles and grid storage of
renewable energies (solar and wind energy). However, the current lithium ion
technology has reached the limitations of their charge-storage capacity and
energy density. Therefore, alternative cathode and anode materials that offer
higher capacities need to be developed. Lithium- sulfur battery with sulfur
based cathode undergoes conversion reactions while accommodating more ions and
electrons as promising options to overcome the charge-storage limitations of
lithium ion battery. Cost, cycle life, safety, energy, power, and environmental
impact should be considered for commercializing modified lithium-sulfur
batteries. In this study highly
conductive and lightweight cathode materials consist of
poly 1,5-diaminoanthraquinone (PDAAQ) and magnesium oxide (MgO) have
been considered to increase cycle life and performance of lithium-sulfur
batteries. Modified one and double side coated glass fiber separator
also was investigated to improve confinement of active materials on the pores
and prevented dissolution of undesired materials in the electrolyte. The cells
with MgO/PDAAQ/S cathode and uncoated glass fiber separator showed initial
discharge capacity of 1000 mAh g-1 at 2C. The discharge capacity decreased
at ~ 900 mAh g-1 for 5C. MgO/PDAAQ/S cathode and double side coated
glass fiber separator showed the higher capacities of ~1250 and 1170 at 2C and 5C
respectively.


The problem of generating a virtual view of a scene, i.e. a view from a point where there is not a physical camera to capture the scene, has received recently a lot of attention from the computer vision community. This is probably due to the increase of the computational power of computers, which allows to deal with multiple view systems (systems composed of multiple cameras) efficiently. In this document, an introduction to virtual view generation techniques is presented. In a first part, geometric constraints of multiple view systems are presented. This geometric constraints allow to reconstruct the 3D information of the observed scene, and therefore they allow to generate virtual views from everywhere (although problems with occlusions will arise). In the second part of the document, the state-of-the-art on Image Based Rendering (IBR) techniques is presented. IBR techniques allow to generate virtual views from some constrained regions of the space without requiring a complete 3D reconstruction of the scene. To finish, some concussions are given.


The notion of essence in psychology is examined from a constructivist viewpoint. The constructivist position is summarized and differentiated from social constructionism, after which constructs are distinguished from concepts in order to position ontology and epistemology as modes of construing. After situating constructivism in relation to philosophical approaches to essences, the distinction between essences and kinds is examined and the presumed constructivist critique of essences in psychology outlined. It is argued that criticizing constructivism as an "anything goes" form of antirealism fails to grasp how constructivist psychology, by emphasizing structure and viability, does indeed place limits on the constructions people may hold. In applying a constructivist understanding of essences in general to those fundamental to human psychology, people can be seen as having three essential psychological qualities: they are closed systems, active meaning-makers, and irreducibly social beings. Yet a constructivist view also maintains that these psychological essences only hold while operating within and committed to a constructivist perspective. In other words, what counts as an essence always depends on one's assumptions, or how one construes events. Finally, a personal construct theory model of essentialist and nonessentialist construing is introduced based on the assumption that everyone construes in both essentialist and nonessentialist ways at different times because doing so is pragmatically viable.


Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers Vol. 140, 1975 contains abstracts for ASCE journal papers and technical notes, Civil Engineering—ASCE feature articles published by the Society during 1975. In addition, the memoirs of distinguished deceased members are presented. A Subject index and an Author index are provided to help the user locate an abstract by subject or author.


We distinguish between ideational and interest-based appeals to voters on the supply side of politics, and integrate the Keynes-Hayek perspective on the importance of ideas with the Stigler-Becker approach emphasizing vested interests. In our model, political entrepreneurs discover identity and worldview "memes" (narratives, cues, frames) that shift beliefs about voters' identities or their views of how the world works. We identify a complementarity between worldview politics and identity politics and illustrate how they may reinforce each other. Furthermore, we show how adverse economic shocks may result in a greater incidence of ideational politics. We use these results to analyze data on 60,000 televised political ads in U.S. localities over the years 2000 through 2018. Our empirical work quantifies ideational politics and provides support for the key model implications, including the impact of higher inequality on both identity and worldview politics.


Wheat diseases are one of the constraints limiting wheat  yields wherever the crop is grown. Fusarium crown rot,  incited by Fusarium culmorum, is one of the most important  diseases limiting wheat yields especially in dryland areas.  Although there are no wheat varieties which are fully  resistant to crown rot, the use of varieties showing some  degree of resistance is the most reliable and cost effective  method to control this disease. In this study, seedling  reactions of 165 spring wheat breeding lines (Triticum  aestivum L.) obtained from CIMMYT, Mexico were  determined under growth room conditions using an  aggressive isolate of Fusarium culmorum. Crown rot severity  was assessed using a 1-5 scale. The mean disease severity  scores for the lines tested ranged from 1.4 to 4.4. Two out of  the 165 lines tested (lines 147 and 158) were resistant (R) in  their reaction and had scores of 1.4. Twenty lines showed  moderately resistant (MR) reaction and had scores ranging  from 1.6 to 2.4. The scores of both the R and MR lines were  not significantly different from scores of MR control  cultivars. Sixty-three percent of the lines were moderately  susceptible (MS). Out of the 165 lines tested, 39 were  susceptible (S) in their reaction. The promising wheat lines  that showed some degree of resistance to Fusarium  culmorum in the present study can serve as useful sources of  genetic resistance in breeding for Fusarium crown rot.


Mangroves are critical ecosystems given their key role in conserving biodiversity, protecting coastlines from erosion and supporting coastal resources. They may be impacted by oil and gas activities, either directly or indirectly. Restoring them is therefore of prime importance. In the Mahakam Delta, oil and gas exploration and production have been conducted for more than 40 years. This industry has operated in a quasi-pristine area barely affected by its activities until the mid 80's. Toward the late 1980's and until 2000, the delta was subject to massive and rapid development of shrimp farming and by 2001, 80% of the delta mangroves were destroyed and most of it replaced by ponds used for aquaculture. During the 2000's, shrimps production in the delta decreased due to lack of nutrients in ponds, and a drop in shrimp prices due to the rise of imports worldwide. Numerous ponds were abandoned in the delta. This economic situation generated social instabilities that could threaten the oil and gas industry in the region. Therefore, in order to better protect mangroves and optimize restoration of damaged areas, Total E&P Indonesie has embarked on a mangrove restoration initiative in the Mahakam delta aimed at understanding the restoration processes through both natural recolonization and planting techniques. The general methodology implemented has been to i) describe the land occupation by acquiring satellite images, interpreting aerial photos, conducting field work, and establishing GIS maps, ii) inventory fauna and flora (mangroves, birds, fish and benthic invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and others), iii) conduct a monitoring of naturally re-colonized areas, replanted areas and original forest on selected areas. Results show that natural recolonization of a mangrove area can be very quick under certain conditions (subject to availability of seeds and easy access to the area to be recolonized). But in areas where seeds cannot easily migrate and access, or where seed supply is too difficult, replanting remains the best option. Social aspects have also to be taken into account: replanting promote the local commitment to sustainable environmental conservation. This paper will detail the methodology, present the scientific results and discuss the lesson learned.


This paper evaluates the possible consequences of the forthcoming European and Monetary Union on wage behavior. It will be shown that EMU does not influence wage policy directly, but rather indirectly through its implications on other areas of economic policy, predominantly on monetary policy. Consequently, EMU will put increasing pressure on using wage policy as a flexible adjustment variable, since other adjustment mechanisms shall cease to exist. Six European countries were analyzed empirically, which showed that in the past, southern European countries conducted a much more expansive wage policy than northern European countries. However, this competitive disadvantage of the southern countries was more than compensated by exchange rate developments. What will happen when EMU has come into effect? Either fewer devaluation possibilities within EMU will lead to a shift in competitive positions in favor of the northern countries, or a change in wage behavior will be observed. The descriptive analysis shows that, on the eve of EMU, wage policy has become more moderate. This trend could be accelerated by the arrival of EMU. The econometric analysis provides an argument for this: the stability of exchange rates have been proven to have a dampening effect on wage increases in the past, particularly in southern European countries. Whether the extent of these effects will be sufficient to prevent a shift in relative competitive positions, however, remains to be seen.


The Pleasures of Good Photographs is an intellectual and aesthetic excursion led by Gerry Badger, one of the field's eminent critics and popular writers. In this new volume of essays, Badger offers insight into some of his favorite images, artists, and themes, drawing upon nearly three decades of experience writing and thinking about photography. With deep discernment and a readable mixture of scholarly finesse and wit, Badger describes the meanings of work by dozens of photographers, from Dorothea Lange and Eugene Atget to Martin Parr, Luc Delahaye, Susan Lipper, and Paul Graham. Among the broader topics discussed are the photobook, where Badger believes "photography sings its loudest and most complex song," and Photoshop's role in art-making. An interlude at the heart of the book pairs the author's evocative meditations with nearly a dozen particular images. Alongside some of Badger's classics, The Pleasures of Good Photographs showcases primarily new essays, making it an important addition to the canon of photographic writing.