1. The effect of a 4 h period of bilateral hind limb ischaemia on the concentrations of ketone bodies in blood and liver of post-absorptive and starved rats has been investigated. 2. The concentration of total ketone bodies in the blood did not change after injury in post-absorptive rats, but fell after injury in starved rats; the blood β-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio fell after injury in both post-absorptive and starved rats. 3. Apart from a transient increase in fed rats, the hepatic β-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio did not change after injury in post-absorptive or starved rats until the terminal stages, indicating adequate hepatic oxygenation during the early response to injury. 4. In control post-absorptive and starved rats the concentration of liver total ketone bodies was correlated with that of plasma non-esterified fatty acids; in post-absorptive rats the liver ketone body concentration rose after injury and was higher than would be predicted from the regression line for these controls, suggesting increased ketogenesis compatible with inhibition of complete oxidation of non-esterified fatty acids after injury. In contrast, in starved rats the liver total ketone-body concentration did not change after injury.


The predominant approaches to comparative corporate governance view legal transfers dichotomously, seeing corporate governance systems as either converging or diverging as a result of legal reform. Drawing on legal studies, this paper proposes an alternative model using the metaphor of the staircase to conceptualize how legal transplants can meet different evaluation criteria before being considered 'successful'. The model is empirically illustrated by the introduction of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code. It is found that different corporate governance rules when transplanted could be said to meet evaluation criteria more or less strictly. This finding has implications for our empirical and theoretical understanding of how corporate governance systems converge.


Exaggerated and incompetent use of chemical pesticides in crop production can have adverse effects on human health, natural ecosystems and social capital. The potential impacts are interconnected and complicated, so the current scientific knowledge base of its understanding seems to be imperfect, and the degree of impacts could be much more; therefore the rationality of pesticide use in agriculture ought to be redefined. The paper highlights how disciplinary sciences professed and interpreted multifaceted impacts of pesticide use over time and it explores the opportunities arising from the complexities of such impacts. The opportunity is explored for Nepal as an example.

 Key words: Pesticides, health and environmental impacts, complexities, interconnectedness, interdisciplinary, Nepal.


Can a prototypical process involving literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires, design charrettes, and advanced computer visualization tools, be applied to create golf facilities valid to the subjects involved in the process? The research attempts to create a prototypical process by exploring and applying various research schemes that attempts to solve a selected design issue. Thus, the issue selected: How can the golf course be designed to attract, accommodate, and educate today's youth? Children should be introduced to activities at an early age to build character and self worth. The golf course acts as a place for today's youth to build relationships, test and enhance their character, and expand their education. This research is a result of these ideals. It focused on creating a prototypical process to create a junior golf facility, using data collection methods inclusive to: literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires, and design charrettes. As an addendum to this prototypical process, these methods of data collection were validated through computer visualization. These preceding methods, along with the basic ideals of youths in golf, were the main focus in researching golf course design catered to the youth. The First Tee junior golf program was the model used to compare the conceptual golf facility prototype, because it is the leader in making golf accessible to the youth. The First Tee Program, established in 1997 by the World Golf Foundation, teaches kids of all backgrounds the game of golf, including fundamentals, etiquette, and sportsmanship: elements that are of value to our society. It also educates them on how to become a valuable member of his/her community. The goals of The First Tee are in two phases: to create one hundred golf facilities by the year 2000, and to reach 500,000 youths by the year 2005. While the First Tee program is successful, this research attempts to improve upon junior golf facility development by addressing the youths' interest in a customized, conceptual golf facility built upon the principles of a state-of-the-art facility created by programs like The First Tee. The results of this research could potentially serve as an addendum to junior golf development, and also act as a resource for future designers, by assisting to acquire user needs and demands for buildings, interiors, landscapes, and products. The conceptual golf facility was created from two major resources. Students in Montgomery County, Virginia, were the subject resources, while the available literature, designers, and superintendents were the professional resources. A research strategy was created to serve as a guide for better organization. As a result, the Conceptual Research Diagram was implemented to serve as the prototypical process of the research. The subjects were Montgomery County students of various ages, skills, physical dependants, and also of various cultural backgrounds. Although the subjects were randomly selected, it was necessary to have an adequate amount of subjects to each subject group for a wellformed response to the research. The subjects were given a questionnaire, asked to participate in a design charrette, and given the option to participate in the C.A.V.E. (Cave Automated Virtual Environments) experiment. The CAVE is a three-wall cell, each wall with a dimension of 10x10x9 feet in diameter, which uses a Silicon Graphics Machine, plus projection devices, to project three-dimensional computer images onto its walls and floor. As a result, life size, three-dimensional computer models are created for an experience in virtual reality. All of the data was complied to obtain requests and demands to create a custom golf facility in virtual reality. The youth input and site location was limited to the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, with an attempt of creating a prototypical process that can possibly be applied to any town or city around the world.


50 exercises to help you find bugs faster -- with less aggravation!Bug hunting is an art, and you need to be a master. Get Find the Bug, and you'll become one. Long-time Microsoft programmer Adam Barr presents 50 programs, each with exactly one bug. Your assignment: find it. As you do, Barr will teach you how to "think like your processor"... anticipating exactly how code will behave, even without running it. You'll learn better ways to read code, understand it -- and above all, improve it. Whether you're building new systems or maintaining someone else's, you'll find bugs earlier, faster, with less frustration... and write cleaner code to begin with. Presents "bugged" programs in C, Java, Python, Perl, and x86 assembly language, with carefully explained solutions Includes language overviews to help you debug all 50 examples, even if you don't know the language Shows how to look past the "surface" of code to uncover its hidden internal logic Offers practical guidance on analyzing programs, including specific inputs to test Presents a wide range of realistic bugs, with no phony "gotchas" Draws on the types of coding and debugging challenges Microsoft uses to interview new programmers An indispensable resource for working programmers, maintainers, testers, quality specialists, and everyone involved in code reviews© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


The city centre is a place of emblematic significance for the urban community, where the essence of the socio- urban identity is condensed. The centre of the post-socialist city has travelled varied meanings and extensions that have been perceived differentiated between sequences of generations. Functionalist stratifications have induced in the collective imagination a superposed series of centres: historical, tourist, economic, cultural, each dilating or contracting the urban centre's limits, depending on the significance that has been inoculated to the receiving subject. It was starting with year 1977 that the political will imposed the achievement of a new "Civic Centre" which was desired to be an imprint of the cultural and scientific progress of that moment. Communist interventions attempted to uniform the urban landscape by inserting visual and emotional mutations. The present analysis regards the perception of Bucharests centre and offers a perspective on the relation between residents and place, considering that human behaviour indicates some inconsistencies related to the urban planning of the post-socialist city that deals with intense processes of identity transformation.


'You will be made an outlaw, forced always to live in the wilds and to live alone.' A sweeping epic of the Viking Age, Grettir's Saga follows the life of the outlaw Grettir the Strong as he battles against sorcery, bad luck, and the vengefulness of his enemies. Feared by many, Grettir is a warrior and also a poet and a lover, who is afraid of the dark. Unable to resolve the dispute that has outlawed him, he lives outside the bounds of family life and he roams the countryside, ridding Iceland and Norway of berserker warriors, trolls, and the walking dead. The saga presents a poignant story of medieval Icelandic society, combining details of everyday legal disputes with folklore and legend. Written in the fourteenth century, but based on earlier oral and written sources, Grettir's Saga, with its scathing humour, explicit verses, and fantastic monsters, is among the most famous and widely read of Iceland's sagas. This new translation features extensive illustrative material to elucidate the story. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


This article analyzes the use of a role-playing game in a civic planning process. We focus on the qualities of interactions generated through gameplay, specifically the affordances of voluntary play within a "magic circle" of the game, that directly impact participants' ability to generate new ideas about the community. We present the results of a quasi-experimental study where a role-playing game (RPG) called @Stake is incorporated into participatory budgeting meetings in New York City and compared with meetings that incorporated a trivia game. We provide evidence that the role-playing game, which encourages empathy, is more effective than a game that tests knowledge for generating what we call civic creativity, or an individual's ability to come up with new ideas. Rapid ideation and social learning nurtured by the game point to a kind of group creativity that fosters social connection and understanding of consequence outside of the game. We conclude with thoughts on future research.


Membrane proteins represent an important class of proteins as they are encoded in up to 30 % of the open reading frame. More than 50 % of currently available drugs target membrane proteins, emphasising the importance of membrane protein research. A large number of complex membrane proteins consist of the well-known ɑ-helices. Therefore, different peptidomimetics have been developed to imitate the behaviour and function of ɑ-helical transmembrane proteins in a less complex environment. Besides the use of transmembrane ɑ-peptides, the design and synthesis of further transmembrane model systems based on artificial β-peptides consisting of β-amino acids has become of great interest. The development of model transmembrane β-peptides can help to understand the orientation or the peptide aggregation of helical transmembrane peptides and proteins.
The first part of this thesis focuses on the synthesis, characterisation and investigation of transmembrane β-peptides which were inspired by prior studies. These novel transmembrane β-peptides differ in the N-terminal modification and partially in the peptide length, which extend range of transmembrane β-peptides. Their secondary structure was analysed in organic solvents as well as in large unilamellar vesicles by means of circular dichroism spectroscopy. Furthermore, membrane insertion was investigated by tryptophan fluorescence spectroscopy. Therefore, D-β3-homotryptophan (D-β3-hTrp) was inserted either peripherally or centrally into the hydrophobic peptide sequence to observe the tryptophan fluorescence which is influenced by the surrounding polarity.
The second part of this thesis deals with the question whether β-peptides can function as membrane-anchored molecular rulers to investigate processes at the membrane interface. Hence, the advantages of β-peptides like conformationally well defined and stable secondary helix structures seem to be interesting for the development of new transmembrane anchoring peptides. Recently published transmembrane β peptides were equipped either with a pH sensor (carboxyfluorescein) or with a newly designed Ca2+ sensor. To analyse near membrane pH values, two carboxyfluorescein labelled transmembrane β-peptides were synthesised with different sensor distances to the membrane surface and pH titration was employed. The different distances were achieved by attaching the sensor to peptides with varying lengths of the peptide sequence outside the membrane. To analyse near membrane Ca2+ concentration, two Ca2+ sensors were developed based on literature known models.


The automotive industry has played a big role to provide job opportunities to a country and the populace. With the development of the technology in automotive field, foreign power would not underestimate Malaysia for it is a small country compared to others. By the power that we possess we could make Malaysia stand in the eyes of the world. To achieve this goal, R3 was given the mandate by Proton to play a part to realize it. The planned objective's purpose is to monopolize Malaysian automotive industry and to be the best is Asia. Apart from that, R3 hoped to give a good competition to other car constructor such Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Mitsubishi and et cetera. Proton put in their faith in R3 to reproduce manufactured Proton cars in racing specification. R3 has also modified their produced car internal and externally to achieve the status of a race car and accordingly to the strict law specifications from the Department of Road and Transportation. International car manufacturer also has their own car reproducer such as Toyota Racing Development for Toyota, Mitsubishi Motorsport Corporation for Mitsubishi, Subaru Technica International for Subaru and et cetera. With the advancement of new technology, R3 team could deliver the best of their products and sen/ices par to other car racing brands. Location also plays an important role in designing the interior of the showroom to make it parallel with its price and quality.


A design for a pump is suggested which is based on well-known peristaltic pumps. In order to simply describe the operation of the proposed pump, an innovative interpretation of low Reynolds number swimmers is presented and thereafter a similar theoretical model would be suggested to quantify the behavior of the pumps. A coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulation is used to examine the theoretical predictions and measure the efficiency of the pump in nano scales. It is shown that this pump with a modest design is capable of being a good option for transport processes in nano scale.


Business leaders impact their subordinate performance and attitudes through their leader behaviors and attitudes. This study discusses the potential impact of leader behaviors via emotional intelligence attributes on employee satisfaction and commitment to their leader and to the organization. The findings suggest strategies for enhancing leader behaviors to maximize positive individual-level and organization-level outcomes.Methodology: This study presents a brief review of emotional intelligence and summarizes the current research on organizational leadership regarding how leader behaviors impact employee and organizational outcomes, especially employee satisfaction and commitment, two variables of interest in this study. Study data was collected via survey methodology, utilizing workers with full-time work positions across multiple industries.Implications: This article contributes to the field of management by determining the impact and effect of leader behavior on employee satisfaction and commitment. Vast research to date has shown the overwhelming importance of high satisfaction and commitment among employees - both with their job and organization - toward improved performance, increased motivation, and reduced absenteeism and turnover, as examples. The results of the study are have implications for leader selection, training, and evaluation, employee retention, and succession strategies.


The primary physiological significance of cytochrome P450c27 (CYP27) has been associated with its role in the degradation of the side chain of C27 steroids in the hepatic bile acid biosynthesis pathway, which begins with 7α-hydroxylation of cholesterol in liver. However, recognition that in humans P450c27 is a widely or ubiquitously expressed mitochondrial P450, and that there are alternative pathways of bile acid synthesis which begin with 27-hydroxylation of cholesterol catalyzed by P450c27, suggests the need to reevaluate the role of this enzyme and its catalytic properties. 27-Hydroxycholesterol was thought to be the only product formed upon reaction of P450c27 with cholesterol. However, the present study demonstrates that recombinant human P450c27 is also able to further oxidize 27-hydroxycholesterol giving first an aldehyde and then 3β-hydroxy-5-cholestenoic acid. Kinetic data indicate that in a reconstituted system, after 27-hydroxycholesterol is formed from cholesterol, it is released from the P450 and then competes with cholesterol for reentry the enzyme active site for further oxidation. Under subsaturating substrate concentrations, the efficiencies of oxidation of 27-hydroxycholesterol and 3β-hydroxy-5-cholestenal to the acid by human P450c27 are greater than the efficiency of hydroxylation of cholesterol to 27-hydroxycholesterol indicating that the first hydroxylation step in the overall conversion of cholesterol into 3β-hydroxy-5-cholestenoic acid is rate-limiting. Interestingly, 3β-hydroxy-5-cholestenoic acid was found to be further metabolized by the recombinant human P450c27, giving two monohydroxylated products with the hydroxyl group introduced at different positions on the steroid nucleus.


Abstract In the present study, isolated midguts of larval Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) were mounted on perfusion pipettes and bathed in high buffer mosquito saline. With low buffer perfusion saline, containing m-cresol purple, transepithelial voltage was monitored and luminal alkalinization became visible through color changes of m-cresol purple after perfusion stop. Lumen negative voltage and alkalinization depended on metabolic energy and were stimulated in the presence of serotonin (0.2 µmol l-1). In some experiments a pH microelectrode in the lumen recorded pH values up to 10 within minutes after perfusion stop. The V-ATPase inhibitor concanamycin (50 µmol l-1) on the hemolymph side almost abolished Vte and inhibited luminal alkalinization. The carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, methazolamide (50 µmol l-1), on either the luminal or hemolymph-side, or the inhibitor of anion transport, DIDS (1 mmol l-1) on the luminal side, had no effect on Vte or alkalinization. Cl- substitution in the lumen or on both sides of the tissue affected Vte, but the color change of m-cresol purple was unchanged from control conditions. Hemolymph-side Na+ substitution or addition of the Na+/H+ exchange inhibitor, amiloride (200 µmol l-1), reduced Vte and luminal alkalinization. Luminal amiloride (200 µmol l-1) was without effects on Vte or alkalinization. High K+ (60 mmol l-1) in the lumen reduced Vte without affecting alkalinization. These results indicate that strong luminal alkalinization in isolated and perfused anterior midgut of larval A. aegypti depends on basolateral V-ATPase, but is apparently independent of carbonic anhydrase, apical Cl-/HCO3- exchange or apical K+/2H+ antiport.


Processing of DNA sequences using traditional digital signal processing methods requires their conversion from a character string into numerical sequences as a first step. Many representations introduced previously assign values to indicate the four DNA nucleotides A, C, G, and T that impose mathematical structures not present in the actual DNA sequence. In this paper, almost all existing methods are compared for the purpose of identifying protein coding regions, using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based spectral content measure to exploit period-3 behaviour in the exonic regions for the GENSCAN test set. False positive vs. sensitivity, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and exonic nucleotides detected as false positive results all show that the two newly proposed numerical of DNA representations perform better than the well-known Z-curve, tetrahedron, and Voss representations, with 66-75% less processing. By comparison with Voss representation, the proposed paired numeric method can produce relative improvements of up to 12% in terms of prediction accuracy of exonic nucleotides at a 10% false positive rate using the GENSCAN test set.


In this paper, we study combinatorial pure exploration for dueling bandits (CPE-DB): we have multiple candidates for multiple positions as modeled by a bipartite graph, and in each round we sample a duel of two candidates on one position and observe who wins in the duel, with the goal of finding the best candidate-position matching with high probability after multiple rounds of samples. CPE-DB is an adaptation of the original combinatorial pure exploration for multi-armed bandit (CPE-MAB) problem to the dueling bandit setting. We consider both the Borda winner and the Condorcet winner cases. For Borda winner, we establish a reduction of the problem to the original CPE-MAB setting and design PAC and exact algorithms that achieve both the sample complexity similar to that in the CPE-MAB setting (which is nearly optimal for a subclass of problems) and polynomial running time per round. For Condorcet winner, we first design a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for the offline problem of finding the Condorcet winner with known winning probabilities, and then use the FPTAS as an oracle to design a novel pure exploration algorithm CAR-Cond with sample complexity analysis. CAR-Cond is the first algorithm with polynomial running time per round for identifying the Condorcet winner in CPE-DB.


L2 language socialization asks how learners come to gain the ability to write appropriately and sufficiently in an institutional academic community of practice. In the same line, this study focuses on the process of socialization of an Iranian English L2 essay writing class in the context of higher education. The theoretical backgrounds rely on the socialization and Vygotsky's sociocultural theories. Three case studies were analyzed throughout six weeks. The learners' essays, outlines, and reflective diaries were analyzed to trace their development in appropriating academic discourse and argumentation. Also, an interview session was held at the end of the study in which the issues regarding the whole experience of socialization were discussed with the participants. The results suggested that each learner pursued their path of socialization based on their individual and social needs of the academic discourse community. Accordingly, a model demonstrating their paths of development is presented. The model shows that the new-comers to this social site of engagement were mediated by the old-timer agent of practice (instructor) to appropriate the values, principles, and behaviors of this community of practice through the activities they were engaged in.


As demand for proficient English speakers increases worldwide, there is growing concern about the standard of English achieved by students during their schooling. With English teachers (rightly or wrongly) receiving much of the blame for a perceived decline in language standards, policy-makers are increasingly interested in the language-related competencies of English teachers: both their language proficiency (or 'communicative language ability', CLA) and their 'knowledge about language' (or Teacher Language Awareness, TLA). As a result, the assessment of English teachers' language-related competencies has become more widespread. In any attempt to measure those competencies, however, several important interrelated issues have to be confronted. Some relate to the precise nature of the knowledge/awareness that English teachers have of the language they teach, and the difficulties inherent in setting/measuring standards of Teacher Language Awareness. Others concern the language model(s) of which English teachers are expected to be aware, and about which teachers themselves feel they should be aware. The present paper examines some of these issues. It begins by exploring the nature of TLA, and some of the challenges in TLA measurement. It then considers questions relating to the varieties of English which form models for TLA, with particular reference to Hong Kong.


ABSTRACT This article explores the challenges local youth workers face at the intersection of providing social care and detecting violent extremism. Extremism and other radical ideologies are often assumed to be a harbinger of terrorism. Even though both are still a rare phenomenon among adolescents, European states have become highly concerned with being alert to early signs of radicalisation processes. As a result, youth workers as well as other local professionals have been confronted with the task of detecting these early signs. However, despite training and increased knowledge, the question remains whether youth workers are sufficiently equipped to assess potential risks in youth who show no concrete plans for criminal action. In these cases, prevention targets ideas rather than violent behaviour. This article details qualitative results of a case study among Dutch youth workers and suggests that no clear framework exists for detection of radicalisation processes into (violent) extremism. This has two main causes. Firstly, the concepts of radicalisation and (violent) extremism are in practice difficult to distinguish. Secondly, the youth worker's judgement often relies more on individual perceptions rather than evidence-based criteria to identify potential 'risky' persons. This situation may lead to undesired side effects such as executive arbitrariness, prejudice or stigmatisation.


Millennial Culture and Epistemology takes a mixed methods approach to understanding the culture and epistemological processes of the current cohort of millennial undergraduate students at a small residential liberal arts college. The study first identifies specific trends in epistemological frameworks, ethics, and claimed spiritual/religious identities among a sample of undergraduate students and finds that students are commonly utilizing subjectivist epistemological frameworks that are built around cultural relativism and skepticism. The study then unpacks markers of undergraduate millennial culture as they relate to epistemology and finds that students' stances on issues of community, social ethics and responsibility, religion, and spirituality are often heavily influenced by students' experiences with trauma, mental health concerns, widespread generalized cultural anxiety, broadly shared disdain for traditional organized religion, and a social ethos of individualism. They maintain a preference for personal spirituality over communal religious practices, though many do not find religion or spirituality to be important and some regard it as harmful to persons and society. This does not mean the students aren't interested in social care and community building—quite the contrary. The study finds that students are very active in caring for others around them, and they often enact this social care through personalized moral communities. These findings suggest that scholars of sociology and religion must develop new academic language and study tools that accurately detach millennial community practices and epistemology from religion and spirituality so as to more fully and inclusively address the relationship between cultures, epistemology, and ethics.


Background: Plastination is the process to preserve the perishable biological tissues for long time using curable polymers. This technique was invented by Gunther Von Hagens, a German anatomist, in 1977. Since then, there have been many modifi cations according to the need and availability of infrastructure in various institutions. Many deviations from the standard plastination procedure have been suggested and used successfully. Methods: Modified short plastination protocol using epoxy resin has been adopted and standardized by the Department of Anatomy, Maulana Azad Medical College. Results and Conclusion: This technique provides dry, odorless, durable, nontoxic specimens that are easy to handle and can be stored at room temperature indefi nitely. This can be performed in a short period of time with limited and less expensive infrastructure. Our department organizes regular national workshops on "body preservation techniques" to train young anatomists.


Furosemide is a potent loop diuretic used for the prevention of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage in horses. This drug may interfere with the detection of other substances by reducing urinary concentrations, so its use is strictly regulated. The regulation of furosemide in many racing jurisdictions is based on paired limits of urinary SG (<1.010) and serum furosemide concentrations (>100 ng/ml). To validate this regulatory mechanism, a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry method employing a solid-phase extraction procedure and furosemide-d5 as an internal standard was developed. The method was used to determine the pharmacokinetic parameters of furosemide in equine serum samples and its effects on urinary SG after IV administration (250 mg) to 10 horses. Pharmacokinetic analysis showed that serum concentrations of furosemide were well described by a two-compartmental open model. Based on results in this study, it is very unlikely for horses to have serum furosemide concentrations greater than 100 ng/ml or urine SG less than 1.010 at 4 hours after administration (250 mg IV). However, it should be remembered that urine SG is a highly variable measurement in horses, and even without furosemide administration, some horses might naturally have urine SG values less than 1.010.


This paper describes the field research and development (FRD) process followed by agrochemical companies when developing a new plant growth regulator (PGR). Specific approaches used by Valent BioSciences Corporation in developing EcoLyst, a newly registered PGR for use on orange (Citrus sinensis) in the United States, are cited as examples of this process. Agrochemical companies acquire some new PGR compounds from outside sources, while others are discovered internally. Internal development of new compounds is simpler to control and manage. When a new PGR is identified from an outside source, a company must first determine if the compound is available for licensing or outright purchase. If so, they assemble a team of internal experts to review all available data (due diligence) to determine if it has sufficient value to warrant pursuit. Once a PGR passes the initial screening processes and is approved for acquisition and potential development, negotiations begin with the owner of the compound. Many projects stop abruptly when the negotiating companies fail to reach an agreement. Immediately after an agrochemical company successfully acquires a new PGR, a well-coordinated chain of events is initiated throughout the company's organization to accelerate work on the project. One component of this involves the FRD team, which creates a comprehensive field research plan for the PGR containing clearly defined development goals that are global in scope. The FRD team works throughout the world, near important crop production areas, conducting research with the company's products. Members of the FRD team generally report to a research leader located at the company's main headquarters. The FRD team is one part of a larger development team, that works collectively to find and develop promising new compounds and new uses for existing company products. If initial research results from a new compound are favorable, the objectives of the workplan increase significantly after the first year. University and government researchers are generally brought into the research programs after a year or two of in-house testing. Early stage work is often done under a secrecy agreement in order to protect proprietary information and interests. Specific control points are identified in the development process, where decisions are made to continue or not, based on reviews of research data, business plans, and regulatory progress.


Attiat Ott and Richard Cebula have recognised the need to present, in an accessible and straightforward way, the voluminous literature in the public economics arena. Advances in econometric techniques and the spillover of knowledge from other disciplines made it difficult, not only for students but also for lecturers, to accurately find the information they need.


Universities are important players in the global development of knowledge economy, alongside being significant contributors to the economic development of their host cities. They are both significant knowledge enterprises and the suppliers of the human and intellectual capital on which the knowledge-based economy depends. What seems under-explored is how deliberative partnerships between universities and city authorities can develop around projects of mutual benefit, especially based on campus development. In this paper, with the help of five case studies (QUT, MIT, Harvard, Twente and Newcastle universities), we investigate how the spatial development of universities can be one of the main meeting points between the city and university and how it can be used for stimulating economic development and managing growth. These cases show that university—city collaborative initiatives focused on the university properties represent a desire to produce creative and competitive new urban spaces, which reinforce the position of the university and the city in global economy. They also show that these developments need to be jointly managed to avoid undesirable impacts on either side.


Phenotypic traits are products of two processes: evolution and development. But how do these processes combine to produce integrated phenotypes? Comparative studies identify consistent patterns of covariation, or allometries, between brain and body size, and between brain components, indicating the presence of significant constraints limiting independent evolution of separate parts. These constraints are poorly understood, but in principle could be either developmental or functional. The developmental constraints hypothesis suggests that individual components (brain and body size, or individual brain components) tend to evolve together because natural selection operates on relatively simple developmental mechanisms that affect the growth of all parts in a concerted manner. The functional constraints hypothesis suggests that correlated change reflects the action of selection on distributed functional systems connecting the different sub-components, predicting more complex patterns of mosaic change at the level of the functional systems and more complex genetic and developmental mechanisms. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive but make different predictions. We review recent genetic and neurodevelopmental evidence, concluding that functional rather than developmental constraints are the main cause of the observed patterns.


Eight networks, based on temperature records from four different geographical regions in two pressure levels, are created in resolute snapshots of time for the last 28 years. The links represent the level of robust phase synchronization between places in the interior of each regime. The number of links appears to be a sensitive measure of the El-Nino influence even on regimes far away from the El-Nino basin. A comparison between the statistical information of the phase synchronization network and the similar information obtained previously using cross correlation technique is provided.


How should we create wealth in societies, and why is it necessary to do so? What improves the lives of the largest number of people? And how do we, living in a globalised world caught in an age of financial and ecological turbulence, respond to the differing needs of individuals and institutions? Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC, reflects on how the human desires for exploration and exchange have led us into a globalised, urban world, and considers why it is that capitalism is the best system by which to improve material human wealth. As the world's financial order is in a state of flux, how do we align these drives, and capitalism, with our spiritual and psychological needs? And how should the financial sector respond not only to the current crisis but to the wider needs of the people it serves. Do businesses - and banks in particular - have a duty to society that goes beyond the creation of profit? Does open market capitalism remain our best hope for creating wealth that benefits all of society? Encompassing history, politics, religion and economics, "Good Value" offers new perspectives on how we can live in a richer, more dynamic world.


Spatio-temporal variation in tropical savanna tree cover remains poorly understood. We aimed to
quantify the drivers of tree cover in tropical mesic savannas in Kakadu National Park by relating changes in tree
cover over 40 years to: mean annual rainfall, fire activity, initial tree cover and prior changes in tree cover. Aerial
photography, acquired in 1964, 1984 and 2004, was obtained for fifty sites in Kakadu that spanned a rainfall
gradient from approximately 1200 to 1600 mm.The remotely sensed estimates of tree cover were validated via field
survey. Linear mixed effects modelling and multi-model inference were used to assess the strength and form of the
relationships between tree cover and predictor variables. Over the 40 years, tree cover across these savannas
increased on average by 4.94  0.88%, but was spatio-temporally variable.Tree cover showed a positive albeit weak
trend across the rainfall gradient.The strength of this positive relationship varied over the three measurement times,
and this suggests that other factors are important in controlling tree cover.Tree cover was positively related to prior
tree cover, and negatively correlated with fire activity. Over 20 years tree cover was more likely to increase if (i) tree
cover was initially low or (ii) had decreased in the previous 20-year interval or (iii) there had been fewer fires. Across
the examined rainfall gradient, the greater variability in fire activity and inherently higher average tree cover at the
wetter latitudes resulted in greater dynamism of tree cover compared with the drier latitudes.This is consistent with
savanna tree cover being determined by interactions between mean annual rainfall, tree competition and frequent
fire in these tropical mesic savannas.


Presidencies in Eastern Europe and the successor states of the Soviet Union are a potential threat to stability: on the one hand they can be used in such a way as to increase conflict between the executive and legislative functions of government; on the other, they provide a possible means for the reestablishment of outright authoritarian rule. The presidential office can, however, serve a more positive role, helping to overcome political crises and providing national leadership. An examination of the sources of presidentialism in the Hungarian case and of the way in which the issue of the presidency has shaped political developments in that country, when viewed against experience in other countries of the region, indicates that the collapse of communism has created a political vacuum which strong presidences often arise to fill ‐ a political institution whose very attractions can also destabilize the political system as a whole.


In Canada, Water Survey of Canada, a division of the Water Resources Branch of Environment Canada, is responsible for the collection and processing of data from more than 3,300 active streamflow, water level and sediment data gauging stations. Because of the climatic conditions prevalent in Canada, an important part of the monitoring program is conducted under winter ice conditions. The determination of daily streamflow records during the winter period is important for several practical purposes, in particular for water power development. Essential to the computation of daily discharge records, are reliable streamflow measurements. However, discharge measurements under ice conditions are generally difficult to obtain because of severe weather conditions, hazardous field conditions, and ill-adapted field measurement techniques.

In this paper, the field methods and instruments, and computational methods used by Water Survey of Canada for streamflow measurement and computation under ice conditions are reviewed. Factors affecting the accuracy of discharge measurements performed under ice conditions are discussed. Newly developed instruments for use under ice conditions are described and their advantages discussed. A comparison between techniques used by Canada and other northern countries is also given. Areas of research and investigations for improvement in the overall quality of data are suggested.


The hospitality industry (especially the restaurant segment) has a historically high rate of financial failures. Yet, financial failure in the industry has not received the attention it deserves. In this article, the authors identify basic reasons underlying failed ideas while presenting a study of several hospitality chains that have experienced varying degrees of financial failure. The characteristics and pitfalls of these companies provide the necessary groundwork to explore major lessons to be learned which should aid hospitality management to aviod future business failures.


Hepatic lipid metabolism is profoundly affected by cigarette smoke; which likely contributes to the atherogenic plasma lipid profile observed in cigarette smokers. There is, however, a paucity of data on the identification of molecular networks and mechanisms responsible for the reduction of cardiovascular risk in former smokers compared to the risk of current smokers. Using ApoE-/- mice, an experimental model exhibiting a high atherogenic rate that leads to rapid development of vascular lesions, we investigated the effects of discontinuing smoke exposure on both hepatic lipid and transcriptome profiles. Livers from ApoE-/- mice exposed to: (i) mainstream smoke of the reference research cigarette 3R4F for six months (CS), (ii) fresh air for six months (sham exposed), or (iii) CS for three months followed by fresh air for three months (cessation), were extracted and their lipid composition analyzed on six different mass spectrometry platforms. Targeted and non-targeted mass spectrometry methods allowed quantification of more than 200 lipid species. The liver transcriptomes of the same animals were profiled using Affymetrix arrays. With the exception of Triacylglycerols (TAGs), most lipid species that were elevated in liver as a result of cigarette smoke exposure were decreased during the smoking cessation protocol. They included free and esterified cholesterol, phospholipids, sphingomyelins, and ceramides. The hepatic concentration of TAGs was higher in the cessation group as compared to the sham or CS groups. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of the transcriptomes of the three experimental conditions revealed key hepatic functions affected by CS exposure and smoking cessation, including glutathione metabolism, oxidoreduction, and lipid biosynthesis. A subset of mice across the three experimental groups displayed up regulation of a set of genes consistent with an exocrine pancreas signature. Investigating the simultaneous changes on the hepatic lipidome and transcriptome in a murine model of atherosclerosis enabled the characterization of a liver-specific profile in response to smoking cessation. This information supports our efforts to develop an integrative model of key metabolic changes induced by cigarettes smoke and smoking cessation in tissues relevant to atherogenesis, including blood vessels, adipose tissue and liver.


Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used as a diagnostic tool in neurology for more than a decade. Recent research indicates that it when applied repeatedly as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has an antidepressant effect. RTMS is based on the principle of electro-magnetism. An electromagnetic coil placed on the scalp produces a time-varying magnetic field, which gives rise to a current in the proximity of the cerebral cortex. Unlike electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) rTMS does normally not give rise to epileptic seizures and does not require anaesthesia. This review covers a critical summary of the literature on the subject. The results of recent placebo-controlled, randomized trials are promising. However, further investigations are required, before rTMS can be fully integrated in the antidepressant therapeutic armamentarium.


This paper analyses rent-based determinants of earthquake damage from an urban planning perspective with the data gathered from Adapazari, Turkey, after the disaster in 1999 Eastern Marmara Earthquake (EME). The study employs linear regression, log-linear regression, and artificial neural networks (ANN) meth- ods for cross-verification of results and for finding out the significant urban rent attribute(s) responsible for the damage. All models used are equally capable of predicting the earthquake damage and converge to similar results even if the data are limited. Of the rent variables, the physical density is proved to be especially significant in predicting earthquake damage, while the land value contributes to building resistance. Thus, urban rent can be the primary tool for planners to help reduce the fatalities in preventive planning studies.


Critical Praise. "In my interviews with over 30 of the best traders of our time, there were some questions that I raised in each conversation. One of these was: Are there any books that you found particularly valuable and would recommend to aspiring traders? By far, the most frequent response was Reminiscences of a Stock Operator-a book that was over 70 years old!" -from the Foreword by Jack Schwager Author of Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards "Although Reminiscences.was first published some 70 years ago, its take on crowd psychology and market timing is as timely as last summer's frenzy on the foreign exchange markets." -Worth magazine "The most entertaining book written on investing is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre, first published in 1923." -The Seattle Times "The best book I've read is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. I keep a supply for people who come to work for me." -Martin Zweig "After 20 years and many re-reads, Reminiscences is still one of my all-time favorites." -Kenneth L. Fisher Forbes First published in 1923, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the fictionalized biography of Jesse Livermore, one of the greatest speculators ever. Reminiscences remains the most widely read, highly recommended investment book ever written. Generations of investors have found that it has more to teach them about themselves and other investors than years of experience in the market. This is a timeless tale that will enrich the lives-and portfolios-of today's investors as it has those of generations past.


Obesity, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and hypertension often cluster together as the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular diseases [1–3]. Even a modest increase in body weight may lead to a rather significant increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Ever since its appearance in the medical vernacular three decades ago, the term "metabolic syndrome" or "cardiorenal metabolic syndrome" has caught sufficient attention due to its unfavorable impact on the overall human health in particular cardiovascular diseases. In fact, metabolic syndrome is not a particular disease but rather a cluster of symptoms encompassing large waist circumference, hypertension, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance, all commonly associated with the increased prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus [3]. Patients with metabolic syndrome display nonspecific symptoms, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Ample of epidemiological, clinical, and experimental evidence has defined a unique role of insulin resistance and central obesity for the occurrence of metabolic syndrome and, later on, type 2 diabetes [3, 4]. However, confirmed metabolic syndrome provides little therapeutic value or guidance other than treating each single component individually, which may or may not reduce the overall cardiovascular risks. To better address the health care issues of metabolic syndrome, intensive effort has been geared towards elucidation of the contributing cardiovascular risk factors and how they contribute to metabolic syndrome. Several contributing factors have been identified for the onset and development of metabolic syndrome. In particular, food intake and lifestyle are perhaps the most devastating factors responsible for the rapid rise in the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome [5]. Excessive caloric intake and inadequate physical activity are deemed the modern lifestyle traits responsible for overweight and obesity [6]. In addition, socioeconomic factors also play an important role in the ever-increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome including physical exercise, technological advances, and higher workload. Therefore, there is a critical need for a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for regulation of satiety, lipid metabolism, energy balance, thermogenesis, adiposity, and weight gain, as well as central and peripheral regulation of metabolic processes. Given that recent advances in biology and medicine have introduced new technologies to study the genetics and pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome. Knowledge and understanding of these conditions lead to the development of animal models, successful therapies, and novel concepts to characterize the cardiovascular complications in metabolic syndrome, which should help to greatly improve the efficacy of clinical therapies for management of metabolic syndrome.

This special issue examines some of the critical issues in our understanding of the pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome and its cardiovascular complications. The paper by J. Palios and colleagues discusses the association between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and metabolic syndrome. HIV and the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may contribute to the onset of metabolic syndrome. These authors suggest a role of adipokines such as visfatin, apelin, and vaspin in the pathogenesis of the HIV/HAART-related metabolic syndrome, which should shed some lights for cardiovascular therapeutic strategy in HIV patients. The paper by N. Martinelli and coworkers addressed the rising role of low plasma concentrations of paraoxonase (PON1) in metabolic syndrome. PON1 activities are found lower in patients with metabolic syndrome, with a progressively decreasing trend by increasing the number of metabolic syndrome components. These findings suggest a role of low PON1 concentrations in predicting metabolic syndrome-associated cardiovascular diseases. The paper by I. Isordia-Salas and colleagues found a rather high prevalence of metabolic syndrome (59.7% and 68.7% based on definitions of American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), resp.) in an urban Mexican sample, alerting the necessity for early detection of metabolic syndrome and its components to prevent type 2 diabetes and atherothrombotic complications in these patients. In the paper by D. Bharadwaj and coworkers, the variant gene MTHFR-rs1801133 involved in homocysteine metabolism was found to be associated with type 2 diabetes, postload glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and total cholesterol in Indians. the paper by, S.-C. Chen and colleagues assessed the determinants of left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in diabetic patients at various stages of chronic kidney disease, and their findings suggest increases in LVMI and decreases in LVEF coincide with advances in chronic kidney disease stages in diabetic patients. the paper by H., Upur and colleagues reported an overtly higher prevalence of diabetes in periodontitis patients than individuals without periodontitis, suggesting the role of moderate periodontitis as an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

In the second part of this special series involving basic science reports, J. R. Sowers and colleagues discussed the role of chronic alcohol consumption in cardiac insulin resistance. Chronic alcohol consumption inhibits mTOR/S6K1 activation in cardiac tissue. These authors suggested the activation of mTOR/S6K1 regulated by the mTOR-AT2R loop and microRNA that target S6K1. The paper by L. Brown and colleagues tested the therapeutic potential pf soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibition in obesity and metabolic dysfunction using a rat model of diet-induced metabolic syndrome. These authors reported that chronic oral treatment with an epoxide hydrolase inhibitor alleviates signs of metabolic syndrome including glucose, insulin, and lipid abnormalities, changes in pancreatic structure, systolic blood pressure, cardiovascular structural and functional abnormalities, and structural and functional changes in the liver. Then, L. Li and colleagues evaluated the effect of dietary supplementation of short-chain fatty acid propionate on cardiac contractile dysfunction in an Akt2 knockout-induced insulin resistance model, revealing the beneficial role of propionate or short-chain fatty acids against Akt2 deficiency-associated cardiac anomalies. The last but not least, L. Cai and colleagues review the unfavorable impact of diabetes mellitus on ischemic-preconditioning- (IPC-) and ischemic-postconditioning- (Ipost-) mediated myocardial protection. Diabetes has been shown to inhibit IPC- and Ipost-mediated myocardial protection through inhibition of the PI3K/Akt-GSK-3β pathway. To this end, activation of PI3K/Akt-GSK-3β pathway may relief the diabetic inhibition of both IPC and Ipost-mediated myocardial protection during ischemia/reperfusion injury.

As with all areas of cutting-edge human and experimental research, the advances in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular complications in metabolic syndrome described in this special raise as many questions as they answer. First, we need to better understand how individual component of metabolic syndrome work in concert to trigger cardiovascular complications. In particular, the clinical value of these individual factors in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular anomies needs further scrutiny. Second, effective intervention for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight remains a major challenge for health care. Third, experimental model reminiscent of human metabolic syndrome remains a critical issue to advance metabolic syndrome research. Despite the availability of animal models for individual metabolic syndrome component, special caution is needed to translate findings from experimental setting to the clinic.

In summary, the metabolic syndrome research agenda remains a lengthy one with a large number of important questions to be answered. We hope that this special issue will help clarify the research agenda and so provide a launching pad for future progress in the field.

Yingmei Zhang

James R. Sowers

Jun Ren


This paper is based on studies of a living lab process, which is an open, user-centric, innovation approach, where several actors from industry, user groups and academia are involved. We aim to describe and analyze the dynamics in an innovation boundary context based on a living lab process. An action-oriented research approach was applied and the empirical results are from The Find Project (TFP), with the aim of customizing an ICT product based on the needs of a user group. The findings are analyzed from a community of practice perspective where the three different communities i) researchers from Halmstad Living Lab (HLL), ii) ICT developers (ICTD), and iii) next of kin's to demented elderly persons (NOKD) represented the units of analysis. The analysis identified several boundary situations that played a vital role for the innovation process. The contribution of our research to innovation theory is a process model describing the dynamics in an innovation boundary context with regard to boundary objects-in-use as well as to brokering. The research highlights two different levels of brokering: i) product/service brokering; and ii) process brokering.


This paper discusses the transportation challenges that urban areas in Latin America and the Caribbean face and reviews the causal evidence on the impact brought by different urban transport system interventions implemented around the world. The objective is to highlight the main lessons learned and identify knowledge gaps to guide the design and evaluation of future transport investments. The review shows that causal studies have been concentrated in certain areas and that an important number have been carried out in developed countries. Empirical challenges due to the non-random placement of these interventions and their possible effects over the entire transport network might explain the reduced amount of causal evaluations. A large part of the literature has focused on the impact of transport systems on housing values, finding overall increases in prices and rents, but with results highly dependent on the quality and perceived permanency of the system. There are few studies that explore socioeconomic effects, and those available have emphasized employment access. There are almost no studies exploring displacement effects, which should be examined to better understand the social inclusion role of transport systems. New avenues of research are emerging that exploit non-traditional sources of data, such as big data. Moreover, studies looking at ways to improve the operational efficiency of systems and those seeking to promote behavioral changes in transport users.


Background Associations of three markers of thrombotic tendency, von Willebrand factor, tissue plasminogen activator antigen and fibrin D-dimer, with coronary heart disease have been reported in meta-analyses. It is not known, however, whether findings are generalizable to older women. Design Prospective cohort of 3582 women aged 60-79 years randomly selected from 23 towns without evidence of cardiovascular disease at entry into the British Women's Heart and Health Study. Methods Women were followed for 4.7 years for incident coronary heart disease. Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare the hazard ratio of coronary heart disease per doubling for each thrombotic factor. Results In models adjusting for age and town only there was no association between von Willebrand factor or D-dimer and incidence of coronary heart disease, but there was a positive association of tissue plasminogen activator: coronary heart disease hazard ratio per doubling was 1.37 (95% confidence interval: 1.08-1.75). Adjustment for potential confounders (socio-economic position, smoking, lung function, physical activity, alcohol consumption, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio) attenuated association to 1.20 (0.92-1.58). Further adjustment for risk factors that may be part of the same pathophysiological process linking tissue plasminogen activator to coronary heart disease (high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen) attenuated the hazard ratio to 1.05 (0.79-1.40). Conclusion In older women, tissue plasminogen activator was associated with incident coronary heart disease, but does not appear to be an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease as the association was attenuated by adjustment for confounding and other metabolic and vascular risk factors. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 14:638-645 © 2007 The European Society of Cardiology


'The critic explicitly acknowledges his dependence on prior words that make his word a kind of answer. He calls to other texts "that they might answer him."' Geoffrey Hartman is the first book devoted to an exploration of the 'intellectual poetry' of the critic who, whether or not he 'represents the future of the profession', is a unique and major voice in twentieth-century criticism. Professor Atkins explains clearly Hartman's key ideas and places his work in the contexts of Romanticism and Judaism on which he has written extensively. In Geoffrey Hartman he provides a valuable introduction to a major critical voice who has called into question our assumptions about the distinction between commentary and imaginative literature.


An extensive study of the flexural performance of monoblock prestressed concrete sleepers in a light rail system was conducted as part of a research program funded by the Federal Transit Administration. Five consecutive sleepers deployed on the track were instrumented with strain gauges at their critical design cross-sections (center and rail seats) to obtain relevant flexural information during an uninterrupted period of 14 months. Results were compared with the projected design capacities obtained from the application of current design standards, resulting in glaring differences. The current design methodologies were deemed insufficient for the development of optimal design solutions for light rail applications. Furthermore, structural reliability analysis is employed to study the flexural capacity of the sleeper design. A capacity model based on the material and geometric properties of the sleeper design was developed. The demand model was derived from the field flexural data of over 27,000 train passes, fitting this information to predefined probability distributions. Four limit-state functions were defined to represent the typical flexural failure modes. The probability of failure was calculated using first-order reliability method, second-order reliability method, and Monte Carlo simulation. Ultimately, the analysis yielded consistent results for the three methods, showing largely low probability of failure at both design cross-sections under the studied demand level. In conclusion, the sleeper's capacity was higher than the existing field demands, indicating an overly conservative design approach.


Swedish arms export is one of the world´s largest per capita in the world today, an export that occur to countries heavily criticized for a lack of human rights. Despite the strong support of the development of international control mechanisms to counter export to countries with poor human rights, support of arms control as well as the Swedish participation in international peace support operations, the policy has to a limited extent been affected. The study starts from the assumption that cabinet formations with varying degrees of idealism and realism, and if the cabinet has a majority or minority, should pursue a policy of arms export that differs and reflect this. An assumption based in fundamental ideological beliefs and scepticism or enthusiasm towards NATO. Three different cabinet formations during 2002-2014 are studied, focusing on bills and committee reports with the lenses of idealism and realism. The results of the study show that differences exist, albeit subtle ones. The overall result shows a policy justified in terms of economy and industry where no need to change the Swedish guidelines are considered to exist. Although such a desire occasionally is expressed, the result indicates difficulties to unite on a common bill. Arms export and the need of such is justified in terms of idealistic goals, with means of a realistic character to achieve them.


We present the Illumimote, a new light sensing module for the Mica mote platform. The Illumimote achieves performance comparable to a commercial light intensity meter, while conforming to the size and energy constraints imposed by its application in wireless sensor networks. The Illumimote was developed to replace the Mica sensor board (MTS310) whose slow response time and narrow dynamic range in light intensity capture is unsuitable to many applications, including media production. The Illumimote features significantly improved SNR due to its adoption of high-end photo sensors, amplification and conversion circuits coupled with active noise suppression, application-tuned filter networks, and a noise-attentive manual layout. Unlike the MTS310, the Illumimote can capture RGB color intensity (for color temperature calculation) and incident light angle (which discerns the angle of ray arrival from the strongest source). Our prototype demonstrated significantly faster response time (> 6times) and a much wider dynamic range (> 10times) in light intensity measurement as compared with the MTS310. The light-angle estimation results were well correlated with an average error of just 2.63deg


Today's high-end multicore systems are characterized by a deep memory hierarchy, i.e., several levels of local and shared caches, with limited size and bandwidth per core. The ever-increasing gap between the processor and memory speed will further exacerbate the problem and has lead the scientific community to revisit numerical software implementations to better suit the underlying memory subsystem for performance (data reuse) as well as energy efficiency (data locality). The authors propose a novel multi-threaded wavefront diamond blocking (MWD) implementation in the context of stencil computations, which represents the core operation for seismic imaging in oil industry. The stencil diamond formulation introduces temporal blocking for high data reuse in the upper cache levels. The wavefront optimization technique ensures data locality by allowing multiple threads to share common adjacent point stencil. Therefore, MWD is able to take up the aforementioned challenges by alleviating the cache size limitation and releasing pressure from the memory bandwidth. Performance comparisons are shown against the optimized 25-point stencil standard seismic imaging scheme using spatial and temporal blocking and demonstrate the effectiveness of MWD.


Background Hyperperfusion syndrome after carotid interventions has a low incidence but it can lead to morbidity and mortality. Objective To evaluate the usefulness of quantitative DSA for predicting hyperperfusion phenomenon (HPP) after carotid artery stenting and angioplasty. Methods Thirty-three consecutive patients with carotid stenosis treated with carotid artery stenting or angioplasty between February 2014 and August 2016 were included. Color-coded digital subtraction angiograms showing the time to maximum contrast intensity of each image pixel were obtained from conventional DSA before and after procedures. The cerebral circulation time (CCT) was defined as the difference in the relative time to maximum intensity between arterial and venous regions of interest set on the angiograms. HPP was diagnosed straight after the procedure with qualitative 123I-IMP single-photon emission CT (SPECT). Cut-off points for detecting HPP for preprocedural CCT and periprocedural change of CCT were assessed by receiver operating characteristic analysis using 123I-IMP SPECT as reference standard. Results 123I-IMP SPECT showed HPP in 4 of 33 patients. In these 4 patients, preprocedural prolongation of CCT (13.0±6.1 vs 7.2±1.3 s; p<0.001) was seen compared with patients without HPP as well as larger periprocedural changes of CCT (5.9±5.7 vs 0.5±1.3 s; p<0.001). The optimal cut-off points of preprocedural CCT and change of CCT for predicting HPP were 8.0 s (100% sensitivity, 69% specificity) and 3.2 s (75% sensitivity, 100% specificity), respectively. Conclusions Preprocedural prolongation and greater periprocedural change of CCT are associated with the occurrence of HPP. Periprocedural evaluation of CCT may be useful for predicting HPP.


Comunicational interaction of agents can be described at different levels of complexity and abstraction: The lowest level introduces possible message types. The protocol level links messages together to create communicational contexts. The decision layer consists of all (usually domaindependent) criteria and measurements to rank and compare different suggestions and proposals arising during a negotiation. The usage of these criteria determines an agent's actual decisions. Within the framework of the protocol these decisions compose the negotiation strategy of an agent. The cooperative behavior can be described by considering the society of all interacting agents and it emerges from the interdependencies of the different negotiation strategies of the agents. This interaction model is exemplified by the problem of appointment scheduling. COSMA agents (COoperative Schedule Management Agents) are designed to act as personal assistants to maintain their user's calendar. They are provided with competence for negotiating about scheduling appointments with other COSMAs. COSMA is an ongoing research project and several features are not yet fully developed. Therefore, throughout the whole paper we will also discuss future extensions to the system.


We tested the hypothesis that the reported low blood lactate accumulation ([La]) during exercise in altitude-native humans is refractory to hypoxianormoxia transitions by investigating whether acute changes in inspired O2 fraction (FIo2) affect the [La] vs. power output (W) relationship or, alternatively, as reported for lowlanders, whether changes in [La] vs. W on changes in FIo2 are related to changes in blood epinephrine concentration ([Epi]). Altitude natives [n = 8, age 24 +/- 1 (SE) yr, body mass 62 +/- 3 kg, height 167 +/- 2 cm] in La Paz, Bolivia (3,600 m) performed incremental exercise with two legs and one leg in chronic hypoxia and acute normoxia (AN). Submaximal one- and two-leg O2 uptake (Vo2) vs. W relationships were not altered by FIo2. AN increased two-leg peak Vo2 by 10% and peak W by 7%. AN paradoxically decreased one-leg peak Vo2 by 7%, whereas peak W remained the same. The [La] vs. W relationships were similar to those reported in unacclimatized lowlanders. There was a shift to the right on AN, and maximum [La] was reduced by 7 and 8% for one- and two-leg exercises, respectively. [Epi] and [La] were tightly related (mean r = 0.81) independently of FIo2. Thus normoxia attenuated the increment in both [La] and [Epi] as a function of W, whereas the correlation between [La] and [Epi] was unaffected. These data suggest loose linkage of glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation under influence from [Epi]. In conclusion, high-altitude natives appear to be not fundamentally different from lowlanders with regard to the effect of acute changes in FIo2 on [La] during exercise.


Seagrasses constitute the basis for diverse and productive ecosystems worldwide. In East Africa, they provide important ecosystem services (e.g. fisheries) but are potentially threatened by increasing resource use and lack of enforced management regulations. The major aim of this PhD thesis was to investigate effects of anthropogenic distur-bances, primarily seaweed farming and coastal fishery, in East African seagrass beds. Seaweed farming, often depicted as a sustainable form of aquaculture, had short- and long-term effects on seagrass growth and abundance that cascaded up through the food web to the level of fishery catches. The coastal fishery, a major subsistence activity in the region, can by removing urchin predators indirectly increase densities of the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla, which has overgrazed seagrasses in several areas. A study using simulated grazing showed that high magnitude leaf removal – typical of grazing urchins – affected seagrasses more than low magnitude removal, typical of fish grazing. Different responses in two co-occurring seagrass species furthermore indicate that high seagrass diversity in tropical seagrass beds could buffer overgrazing effects in the long run. Finally, a literature synthesis suggests that anthropogenic disturbances could drive shifts in seagrass ecosystems to an array of alternative regimes dominated by other or-ganisms (macroalgae, bivalves, burrowing shrimp, polychaetes, etc.). The formation of novel feedback mechanisms makes these regimes resilient to disturbances like seagrass recovery and transplantation projects. Overall, this suggests that resource use activities linked to seagrasses can have large-scale implications if the scale exceeds critical levels. This emphasizes the need for holistic and adaptive management at the seascape level, specifically involving improved techniques for seaweed farming and fisheries, protection of keystone species, and ecosystem-based management approaches.


SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Reformatio in capite et membris - 3. La riforma gregoriana - 4. Rinnovamento monastico e nuove forme di religiosità - 5. Erasmo da Rotterdam e l'Umanesimo cristiano - 6. Ecclesia semper reformanda - 7. Gli antecedenti della Riforma - 8. I poveri di Lione - 9. Il movimento dei Lollardi - 10. La rivoluzione boema - 11. Le guerre hussite.
The Protestant Reformation between requests for renewal and heretical movements
ABSTRACT: The Protestant Reformation represents an epochal event as it is widely considered the true moment of transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age. Without wishing in the least to diminish the innovative significance of the aforementioned phenomenon, it is however necessary to point out how the Catholic Church, during the course of its history, has been crossed by a yearning for regeneration that has involved both the constitutional and the devotional aspects of its being. To this end, it is enough to recall the reforming work of Gregory VII, the Cluniac monastic rigor, the contribution of some regular Orders (mendicants), as well as the spread of new forms of religiosity, from the modern Devotio to the Christian humanism of Desiderio Erasmus of Rotterdam. Similarly, the originality of the Reformation did not prevent modern Protestant historiography from considering it the natural result of an evangelical pluralism already present in the twelfth century. The direct reference is to the doctrines of Pietro Valdo, John Wycliff and Jan Hus, and in particular to their ecclesiology which in various ways will be proposed by Martin Luther, with his own peculiarity, and without ever reducing himself to it.


OBJECTIVE
Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) complicated with PM or DM are frequently aggressive and refractory to treatment. Recently some reports have suggested the potential benefit of tacrolimus for severe ILD complicated with PM/DM. However, little evidence has yet shown the efficacy of tacrolimus in these settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of tacrolimus as a treatment for PM-/DM-related ILD.

METHODS
This retrospective study comprised 49 previously untreated patients diagnosed as PM-/DM-related ILD admitted to Hokkaido University Hospital from January 2000 to July 2013. These patients were treated with tacrolimus plus conventional therapy or only with conventional therapy (prednisolone, i.v. CYC and/or ciclosporin). The primary endpoint was defined as the time to relapse or death of respiratory cause or a serious adverse event. The secondary endpoint was defined as the time from the initiation of immunosuppressive treatment to relapse or death of respiratory cause. Endpoints were compared by adjusted Cox regression model by using inverse probability of treatment weighting in order to reduce the impact of these selection biases and potential confounding factors.

RESULTS
After adjustment, the tacrolimus group (n = 25) had significantly longer event-free survival as compared with the conventional therapy group (n = 24). The weighted hazard ratio (HR) was 0.32 (95% CI 0.14, 0.75, P = 0.008). In addition, the tacrolimus group had significantly longer disease-free survival as compared with the conventional therapy group. The weighted HR was 0.25 (95% CI 0.10, 0.66, P = 0.005).

CONCLUSION
The addition of tacrolimus to conventional therapy significantly improved the prognosis of patients with PM-/DM-related ILD.


This study entitled " The Analysis of influence of Promotion, Quality of
service, and Image of Product of IM3 on Customer Loyalty in the city of
Semarang", which aims to explain the influence of promotion, service quality, and
image of product on customer loyalty in marketing universe.
This study was conducted by a questionnaire that using a non-probability
sampling technique, which means the sample of units where the selected units in
the sample have an unknown probability of being selected and where some units
of the target population may even have no chance at all of being in the sample.
The sample that being used are 96 samples. Technique of data collecting were
done by distributing questionnaires in two stages. The first phase was spreading
30 questionnaires in order to check the validity and reliability. Then continued by
spreading all the 96 questionnaires in order to fulfill predetermined number of
samples for analysis purposes.
The methods of data processing and analysis were using qualitative
analysis including interpretation of data obtained in this study, and results of data
processing that have been implemented with a description and explanation, as
well as quantitative analysis which are including validity and reliablity test, the
classic assumption test, multiple regression analysis test, goodness of fit test
through the F test, t test and also the regression coefficient analysis (R2). This test
is used for regression models produced unbiased.
The hypothesis testing were using F test and t test with a significance level
of 5%. As for measuring the validity and reliability this study using Pearson's
product moment and cronbach's alpha. And the tool to test the statistical analysis
is SPSS 17.0.
Based on the research that has been done, it can be concluded as follows:
(1) Based on the results of multiple linear regression analysis in this study,
obtained the regression equation as follows:
Y = 0.352 X1 + 0.043 X2 + 0.536 X3
(2) It discovered that the image of product variable (X3) has a positive and
significant influence on customer loyalty as dependent variables (Y). (3) It
discovered that the promotion variable (X1) has a positive and significant
influence on customer loyalty as dependent variables (Y). (4) It is known that the
quality of service (X2) has a positive influence but not significant on customer
loyalty as dependent variable (Y). Therefore, IM3 is expected to prioritize quality
of service as a factor that need to be improved in order to achieve a greater
customer loyalty, and keeping the other two factors, namely the image of products
and promotions remain stable to maintain the IM3 users.


A distributed system is a system composed of a set of autonomous computation units endowed with communication abilities in order to solve a global task. This model is general enough to describe any kind of network (LAN, sensor network, ...). When the size of a distributed system gets larger or when it is deployed in hazardous environments, the possibility that some elements of the system are subject to faults (failure, memory corruption, hacking, ...) become impossible to elude. Faults can be classified according to duration, span, or nature. In this thesis, we focus on distributed systems that simultaneously tolerate several kinds of faults using three classical problems as case studies. We present first a distributed protocol simulating a single-writer multi-reader atomic register in the presence of transient faults and of permanent crash faults. This protocol relies on two re-usable tools: a communication primitive and a bounded timestamp scheme. Then, we study logical clock weak synchronization in the presence of transient faults and of intermittent Byzantine faults. We prove several impossibility results and provide a protocol that is optimal both with respect to impossibility result and with respect to recovery time. Finally, we define three new fault tolerance schemes in distributed systems that are subject to transient faults and to intermittent Byzantine faults. We design a protocol constructing a wide class of spanning trees that is optimal with respect to fault tolerance metrics defined for these three schemes.


This paper assumes that the literary work of art is a "stratified system of norms", and that the description of each stratum may require a different kind of logic. One of the main problems is the meaningful integration of these descriptions. A speech sound may be described on an acoustic, a phonetic and a phonemic level; normally, its acoustic description is irrelevant to its linguistic or poetic significance. However, in certain circumstances, the acoustic description may account for the emotional quality of the speech sound, may yield insight into the rhythmic structure of a poem (or just of a performance thereof), etc. Furthermore, pieces of poetry may be used to illustrate psychological theories about the aesthetic event; or psychological theories may be used to yield insight into the aesthetic nature of pieces of poetry. The paper focuses on the methodological issues involved in foregrounding the possible aesthetic significance of the transitions from one level of description to another. In doing this, it attempts to carefully navigate between two theoretical extremes: a reductionist view of literary theory according to which all the "special sciences " can be reduced to "more basic sciences" and, eventually, to physics; and the one formulated by Wellek and Warren (1956:135) as follows: "The psychology of the reader, however interesting in itself and useful for pedagogical purposes, will always remain outside the object of literary study [...] it must be unrelated either to the structure or the quality of a poem ". The middle course here proposed relies on "the principle of marginal control", that is, "the control exercised by the organizational principle of a higher level on the particulars forming its lower level" (Polânyi, 1967: 40). Paraphrasing Polânyi, the principles of literature may be said to govern the boundary conditions of a cognitive system—a set of conditions that is explicitly left undetermined by the laws of lower processes — physical, cognitive, and linguistic. If one knows more about these "lower" processes, one may get a better understanding of the principles of literature that govern those boundary conditions. It is claimed that in this way Cognitive Poetics is capable of discerning and explaining significant literary phenomena which present insurmountable difficulties to other approaches.


A very fast heuristic iterative method of projection on simplicial cones is presented. It consists in solving two linear systems at each step of the iteration. The extensive experiments indicate that the method furnishes the exact solution in more then 99.7 percent of the cases. The average number of steps is 5.67 (we have not found any examples which required more than 13 steps) and the relative number of steps with respect to the dimension decreases dramatically. Roughly speaking, for high enough dimensions the absolute number of steps is independent of the dimension.


Pre-registration occupational therapy (OT) education in the UK stands at the crossroads of higher education (HE) and professional practice. It is subject to various government agendas, including an ongoing commitment to widening participation in HE and to diversifying the health and social care workforce to reflect modern cultural diversity, which have contributed to a changing profile in the OT student population. In 2005, 67% of the intake was mature (COT 2007), and increasing numbers are entering with 'non-traditional' academic backgrounds, an umbrella term which subsumes a variety of entry qualifications. The early weeks of study in HE can prove challenging to students as they settle into the new learning environment and begin to understand what will be expected of them (Yorke 2005). It has been suggested that those from non-traditional academic backgrounds may find this transition, particularly the need to take a high level of responsibility for their own learning, difficult as a result of the skills, experiences and expectations they have developed throughout their pre-entry educational experiences (Sambell and Hubbard 2004). While small-scale studies suggest that students from such backgrounds who graduate from OT programmes are as academically successful as traditional school-leavers (Howard and Jerosch-Herold 2000), there is little evidence offering insight into how they actually experience and negotiate the demands of their programmes. The research presented in this paper focused on developing insight into and understanding of the educational experiences of students with non-traditional academic backgrounds as they studied OT in an HE environment. Recognising that learning and teaching are inextricably linked and embedded with the milieu in which they occur, this research adopted a case study methodology to capture complexity and to understand issues within their natural context (Yin 2003). In an instrumental single-case design (Stake 1995), a neither unique nor extreme undergraduate OT programme became a vehicle for exploring the educational experiences of students with non-traditional academic backgrounds. A longitudinal study followed thirteen volunteer participants who were drawn from a single cohort in one of the UK's research intensive universities through their undergraduate programme. Data were collected via: a) focus groups conducted prior to and in the first days of the participants' first semester, exploring their pre-entry educational experiences and motivations for, expectations of and perceived preparedness for studying in HE; b) reflective diaries recording any educational experiences that participants felt were particularly significant or meaningful; c) one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted towards the end of their first year, informed by individual reflective diaries and focusing on participants' initial experience of learning in HE; d) one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted towards the end of their third year, informed by individual reflective diaries and other previously collected data, and focusing on participants' learning experiences during the latter phases of their programme. As the study progressed, the data available at the end of each phase was subject to theoretical thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) underpinned by Bourdieu's (1990) conceptual tools of habitus, field and capital. Emerging codes converged to represent themes suggesting clusters of shared experience amongst some of the participants. Further examination of each complete data set enabled exploration of how individual participants were positioned in relation to the field of HE and it was evident that some felt much more comfortable within it than others. Juxtaposing the nature and expectations of the new field in relation to those previously occupied by individual participants and the established habitus that each brought with them helped to shed light on this situation (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). With the role of language as a high-value form of cultural capital discussed elsewhere (Watson et al 2009), this paper focuses on the role of social capital in participants' experiences of learning in HE. Reflecting the potential for valued capital to beget capital, the study's findings highlight that social capital plays an important role in how participants manage the challenges they encounter within in the field, and its role in facilitating the accumulation of further capital relevant to the field. Drawing on examples from amongst the study's participants, this paper explores how social capital confers advantages in a number of guises to those participants who found that they could comfortably fit into, or ultimately adapt to, the field of HE. It also highlights that an apparent paucity of relevant social capital limited the resources available to those who struggled to adapt and remained on the margins of, or were excluded from, the field. Employing Bourdieu's conceptual tools adds a new dimension to understanding individual experiences of learning in HE. By illustrating the important role played by social capital in the way that students learn to play 'the game' and present knowledge and understanding in the 'legitimate' form recognised and accepted by the field, this paper adds to understanding of the role of social integration in student experiences.


Daily stress has been documented to play a significant role in symptom exacerbation of chronic illnesses in adults, such as coronary heart disease, asthma, diabetes, and chronic headaches. Mediating daily stress may be effective in not only decreasing problem symptoms in chronic illness, but also decreasing unnecessary and costly primary and tertiary health care services. While the effects of daily stress have been well researched and documented with adult populations, adolescent populations have been afforded only minimal research attention. Given that the period of adolescence is a time when persons are first experiencing the stresses of adult life, understanding the daily stressors of adolescence might be important in early intervention and preventive health care services for adolescents. The present study developed a measure of daily stress for adolescents (DSI-A; Daily Stress Inventory for Adolescent) by directly sampling selfreports of 281 adolescents using checklists and open-ended inquiry. Reliability and validity of the DSI-A was assessed, as well the relationship of daily stress to self-reported health and behavior problems in an additional 365 adolescents. While reliability and validity data for the DSI-A were sound, hypothesized age and sex differences were not supported. Results do support a relationship between daily stress, somatic complaints, and behavior problems.


Images of an object embedded in an inhomogeneous medium are shown to contain speckle artefacts. The efficacy of a speckle processing technique called 'shift-and-add' for removing these artefacts is investigated. Shift-and-add is known to be applicable to any object which is dominated by a bright isolated point scatterer. This scatterer is called the 'reference'. Evidence that certain naturally occurring biological structures are capable of acting as a reference is presented. It is shown that an idealised version of shift-and-add, in conjunction with Fourier imaging, provides an approximate method for imaging an arbitrary object. Experimental results are reported which show that under most circumstances shift-and-add is able to reduce artefacts caused by multiple scattering. When the object is not dominated by point scatterers the shift-and-add image contains a significant 'ghosting' artefact. A theoretical model which accounts for this artefact is proposed and verified by simulation. Several extensions of shift-and-add are reported which allow the artefacts to be reduced and so allow an appreciably larger class of objects to be imaged. In particular, most objects dominated by several bright point scatterers can be reconstructed. This is verified experimentally for a simple object embedded in animal tissue. Additionally, a wide class of piecewise-constant extended objects can be reconstructed. One dimensional simUlations are presented to support this conclusion. A generalised shift-and-add prinCiple, which in theory allows arbitrary objects to be reconstructed, is proposed. It is shown that, in practice, the class of objects which can be reconstructed by the extensions to shift-and-add introduced in this thesis is considerably wider than that which can be successfully imaged by previously reported versions of shift-and-add.


Warming of the planet has accelerated in recent years and is predicted to continue over the next 50 to 100 yr. Evidence of responses to present warming in marine ecosystems include shifts in the geographic range of species as well as in the composition of pelagic and demersal fish, benthic and intertidal assemblages. Here we provide a review of the changes in geographic distributions and population abundance of species detected on rocky shores of the NE Atlantic over the last 60 yr. This period encompassed the warm 1950s, a colder period between 1963 and the late 1980s and the recent period of accelerating warming to levels above those of the 1950s. The likely consequences of these responses are then explored. To do this, a summary of the dynamic balance between grazers, macroalgae and barnacles in structuring mid-shore communities is given before outlining experi- mental work on interactions between key components of rocky shore communities. Modelling and quantitative forecasting were used to predict changes in community composition and dynamics in a warmer world and their consequences for ecosystem functioning discussed. We then identify areas that need further work before making a case for the use of rocky shore species not just as inexpen- sive indicators of change offshore, but as tractable models to explore the direct and indirect effects of climate change in marine and coastal ecosystems. We also provide a societal perspective emphasis- ing the value of long-term studies in informing adaptation to climate change.


Early indication of possible drought can help in developing suitable drought mitigation strategies and measures in advance. Therefore, drought forecasting plays an important role in the planning and management of water resource in such circumstances. In this study, a non-linear streamflow forecasting model was developed using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modeling technique at the Melka Sedi stream gauging station, Ethiopia, with adequate lead times. The available data was divided into two independent sets using a split sampling tool of the neural network software. The first data set was used for training and the second data set, which is normally about one fourth of the total available data, was used for testing the model. A one year data was set aside for validating the ANN model. The streamflow predicted using the model on weekly time step compared favorably with the measured streamflow data (R2 = 75%) during the validation period. Application of the model in assessing appropriate agricultural water management strategies for a large-scale irrigation scheme in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia, has already been considered for publication in a referred journal.


Intellectual property (IP) is a crucial contributor to economic growth and competitiveness within the EU. This book offers a compact and accessible account of EU intellectual property law and policy, covering copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and the enforcement of rights. The author also addresses aspects of the free movement of goods and services, competition law, customs measures and anti-counterfeiting efforts. Setting EU intellectual property law in its wider international context, this work reveals the framework within which the national IP laws of member states operate. The book seeks to highlight the most important policy issues and arguments of relevance to the EU, both within the Union, and in its relations with the rest of the world. With its detailed references, cross-referencing and suggestions for further readings, EU Intellectual Property Law and Policy is essential reading for postgraduate students and academic lawyers in IP and EU law. Practitioners seeking a broad account of the area will also appreciate this important contribution.