We propose a simple component or " topic " model for relational data, that is, for heterogeneous collections of co-occurrences between categorical variables. Graphs are a special case, as collections of dyadic co-occurrences (edges) over a set of vertices. The model is especially suitable for finding global components from collections of massively heterogeneous data, where encoding all the relations to a more sophisticated model becomes cumbersome, as well as for quick-and-dirty modeling of graphs enriched with, e.g., link properties or nodal attributes. The model is here estimated with collapsed Gibbs sampling, which allows sparse data structures and good memory efficiency for large data sets. Other inference methods should be straightforward to implement. We demonstrate the model with various medium-sized data sets (scientific citation data, MovieLens ratings, protein interactions), with brief comparisons to a full relational model and other approaches .


The morphology of Atriophallophorus coxiellae n.sp., Matritrema calvertensis n.sp.,
and Microphallus tasmaniae n.sp. (Trematoda: Microphallidae) is described. The
description of A. coxiellae is based on metacercariae found encysted in the hepatopancreas
and gonads of the brackish water snail Coxiella badgerensis Johnston 1878.
Adult, but sexually immature, trematodes taken from the small intestine of the dotterels
Charadrius cucullatus Vieillot and Charadrius ruficapillus Temminck, which feed
on Coxiella badgerensis, are considered identical with the metacercariae from the
snail. The account of Maritrema calvertensis n.sp. is based on adult trematodes found
in the lower intestine, caeca, and rectum of the duck, Anas castanea Eyton, and
dotterels Charadrius cucullatus and C. melanops Vieillot. From a comparison of metacercariae
taken from certain small cysts found in the alnphipod Austrochiltonia
australis Sayce 1901, and also in the alimentary tract of the birds, it is assumed
that the amphipod is an intermediate host. The description of Microphallus tasmaniae
n.sp. is based on adult trematodes found in the intestine, caeca and rectum of Anas
castanea and the dotterels Charadrius cucullatus, C. melanops and C. ruficapillus.
Certain large cysts found in the amphipod Austrochiltonia australis, and also in the
gut of the birds infected with Microphallus tasmaniae n. sp., contained metacercariae
almost identical with the adult. It is therefore assumed that the amphipod is an
intermediate host of M. tasmaniae n.sp. The definitive and intermediate hosts of
the trematodes described were all taken at Calverts Lagoon, Tasmania.


Abstract .  In response to popular demand for tropical island travelogues, The Century Company, a prominent New York City publisher, sent its star travel writer, Harry Franck, to the West Indies in 1919 to write a book and at least eight magazine articles. Roaming Through the West Indies was released in the fall of 1920, after selected chapters had been abridged and serialized in The Century Magazine . The book transformed Franck's reputation from that of a raconteur of entertaining travel tales to that of a contemporary critic of the United States' occupation of Haiti, guerilla warfare of so-called cacos , and the counterinsurgency campaign led by the US Marine Corps that effected the dramatic killing of cacos leader Charlemagne Peralte. I explore connections between Franck's charged criticisms of the occupation and civil administration of Haiti and the fiery rhetoric of National Association for the Advancements of Colored People (NAACP) officers James Weldon Johnson and Herbert Seligmann. The three men played decisive roles in the national debate over the morality of intervention by a United States experiencing its worst race relations in many years. The article closes with a discussion of the repurposing of travel writing in the 1930s as increased tourism to the West Indies demanded texts that showed readers how to comfortably experience the exotic. Franck's chapter on Haiti in Sky Roaming Above Two Continents , published in 1938, is compared to his earlier representation of the country.


AZT (3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine; zidovudine), which is used for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1, is transplacentally transferred to the fetus across the blood-placenta barrier, which is composed of syncytiotrophoblasts. We recently showed that apical uptake of AZT by syncytiotrophoblasts is mediated by saturable transport system(s) in the TR-TBT 18d-1 cell line, and the cellular accumulation of AZT was increased in the presence of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS). Here, we aimed to clarify the mechanism of this effect of DHEAS. Inhibitors of efflux transporters, including breast cancer resistance protein, P-glycoprotein, and multidrug resistance proteins, had little effect on the cellular accumulation of AZT in TR-TBT 18d-1. Kinetic study revealed that the rate constant for AZT uptake was greatly increased in the presence of 1 mM DHEAS. These results suggested that the effect of DHEAS was because of enhancement of the uptake process(es), rather than inhibition of efflux. When AZT uptake was analyzed according to the Michaelis-Menten equation, the estimated Michaelis constant, Km, for AZT uptake in the presence of 1 mM DHEAS was lower than that in its absence, whereas maximum uptake velocity, Vmax, and nonsaturable uptake clearance, kns, were similar in the presence and absence of DHEAS, indicating that DHEAS may change the recognition characteristics of the transporter for AZT in TR-TBT 18d-1. Thus, the increase of AZT uptake in TR-TBT 18d-1 cells in the presence of DHEAS was concluded to be because of a DHEAS-induced change in the affinity of AZT uptake system, although the transporter responsible for AZT uptake has not been identified.


BACKGROUND
The cuffed oropharyngeal airway (COPA) is a modified Guedel airway with a cuff at its distal end and a standard 15 mm connector at its proximal end. This study was performed to determine if the COPA would offer any advantage over the laryngeal mask airway (LMA).

METHODS
Eighty ASA class I to II adult patients scheduled for short elective procedures (less than 1 h) were randomly allocated into two groups. All patients were given atropine 0.01 mg/kg, fentanyl 2 micrograms/kg and propofol 2 mg/kg intravenously for induction of anesthesia. The COPA or LMA was inserted following the loss of eyelash reflex. If the jaw was not relaxed enough for insertion of a COPA or LMA, succinylcholine 1 mg/kg was given to facilitate the insertion. When correctly positioned, the cuff was immediately inflated with an appropriate volume. Gentle positive pressure ventilation was applied before spontaneous breathing resumed. Capnography was used to assess the patency of the airway. Anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane-N2O-O2 until the end of surgery. The success rate, vital signs, and adverse events were evaluated and compared.

RESULTS
The success rate in the LMA group (95%) was higher than the COPA group (85%). The increase in circulatory response after the LMA insertion was greater than that after the COPA insertion (P < 0.05). Nine patients (22.5%) in the LMA group needed succinylcholine to facilitate insertion compared with only two patients (5%) in the COPA group. Additional manipulation was frequently (57.5%) needed after inserting the COPA to maintain the patency of the airways, but none needed so in the LMA group. Two patients had laryngospasms upon removal of the LMA, but none had laryngospasm in the COPA group. The incidence of sore throat in the LMA group was higher than in the COPA group (18% vs. 10%).

CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that the COPA could be easily inserted without the need of muscle relaxants in most patients. But the COPA needed airway intervention to provide an effective airway in most patients. Compared with the LMA, the COPA caused less stimulation than the LMA.


The major objective of this study was to develop further understanding of 3D nearshore hydrodynamics under a variety of wave and tidal forcing conditions. The main tool used was a comprehensive 3D numerical model – combining the flow module of Delft3D with the WAVE solver of XBeach – of nearshore hydro- and morphodynamics that can simulate flow, sediment transport, and morphological evolution. Surf-swash zone hydrodynamics were modeled using the 3D Navier-Stokes equations, combined with various turbulence models (k-e, k-L, ATM and H-LES). Sediment transport and resulting foreshore profile changes were approximated using different sediment transport relations that consider both bed- and suspended-load transport of non-cohesive sediments. The numerical set-up was tested against field data, with good agreement found. Different numerical experiments under a range of bed characteristics and incident wave and tidal conditions were run to test the model's capability to reproduce 3D flow, wave propagation, sediment transport and morphodynamics in the nearshore at the field scale. The results were interpreted according to existing understanding of surf and swash zone processes. Our numerical experiments confirm that the angle between the crest line of the approaching wave and the shoreline defines the direction and strength of the longshore current, while the longshore current velocity varies across the nearshore zone. The model simulates the undertow, hydraulic cell and rip-current patterns generated by radiation stresses and longshore variability in wave heights. Numerical results show that a non-uniform seabed is crucial for generation of rip currents in the nearshore (when bed slope is uniform, rips are not generated). Increasing the wave height increases the peaks of eddy viscosity and TKE (turbulent kinetic energy), while increasing the tidal amplitude reduces these peaks. Wave and tide interaction has most striking effects on the foreshore profile with the formation of the intertidal bar. High values of eddy viscosity, TKE and wave set-up are spread offshore for coarser grain sizes. Beach profile steepness modifies the nearshore circulation pattern, significantly enhancing the vertical component of the flow. The local recirculation within the longshore current in the inshore region causes a transient offshore shift and strengthening of the longshore current. Overall, the analysis shows that, with reasonable hypotheses, it is possible to simulate the nearshore hydrodynamics subjected to oceanic forcing, consistent with existing understanding of this area. Part II of this work presents 3D nearshore morphodynamics induced by the tides and waves.


Electricity transmission has become the pivotal industry segment for electricity restructuring. Yet, little is known about the shape of transmission cost functions. Reasons for this can be a lack of consensus about the definition of transmission output and the complexitity of the relationship between optimal grid expansion and output expansion. Knowledge of transmission cost functions could help firms (Transcos) and regulators plan transmission expansion and could help design regulatory incentive mechanisms. We explore transmission cost functions when the transmission output is defined as point-to-point transactions or financial transmission right (FTR) obligations and particularly explore expansion under loop-flows. We test the behavior of FTR-based cost functions for distinct network topologies and find evidence that cost functions defined as FTR outputs are piecewise differentiable and that they contain sections with negative marginal costs. Simulations, however, illustrate that such unusual properties do not stand in the way of applying price-cap incentive mechanisms to real-world transmission expansion.


In a world of apparently ubiquitous information, does knowledge still equal power? Whatever the answer to this question, we will not have power unless we can retrieve our knowledge. Despite the advances of the last decades, issues remain in finding information on the Web relating to Aotearoa. These include: the efficiency with which the global search engines index the NZ web space, searching for macronised words, the quality of Wikipedia information about NZ, and the availability of open access NZ research.


Recently economists have begun to consider the causes and consequences of religious participation. An unanswered question in this literature is the effect upon individuals of changes in the opportunity cost of religious participation. In this paper we identify a policy-driven change in the opportunity cost of religious participation based on state laws that prohibit retail activity on Sunday, known as %u201Cblue laws.%u201D Many states have repealed these laws in recent years, raising the opportunity cost of religious participation. We construct a model which predicts, under fairly general conditions, that allowing retail activity on Sundays will lower attendance levels but may increase or decrease religious donations. We then use a variety of datasets to show that when a state repeals its blue laws religious attendance falls, and that church donations and spending fall as well. These results do not seem to be driven by declines in religiosity prior to the law change, nor do we see comparable declines in membership or giving to nonreligious organizations after a state repeals its laws. We then assess the effects of changes in these laws on drinking and drug use behavior in the NLSY. We find that repealing blue laws leads to an increase in drinking and drug use, and that this increase is found only among the initially religious individuals who were affected by the blue laws. The effect is economically significant; for example, the gap in heavy drinking between religious and non religious individuals falls by about half after the laws are repealed.


Abstract Although thermal lattice expansion is a well-documented nature of crystals, including zircon and zircon-type minerals, chemical lattice expansion of natural mineral is rarely reported. Here we present a comprehensive investigation on three types of natural zircon that records the evolution of the granitic system in Xiangshan, North China, and shows expanding crystallographic parameters induced by chemical incorporation instead of thermal expansion. Prismatic and oscillatory-zoned zircon grains (Type-1A), crystallized early in the granitic magma at high temperatures in a volatile-undersaturated environment, have the smallest lattice parameters (a = 6.603 Å, c = 5.971 Å). Prismatic and altered zircon grains (Type-1B), formed under volatile-saturated conditions and in the presence of F-rich fluid with numerous thorite and xenotime inclusions, have intermediate lattice parameters (a = 6.649 Å, c = 6.020 Å). Pyramidal zircon grains (Type-2), formed in a subsolvus granitic system at relatively low temperatures and coexisted with fluid inclusions, have the biggest lattice parameters (a = 6.677 Å, c = 6.010 Å). Trace elements, including Hf, Th, Ti, Y, and REE, and volatiles content, increase in the structure of zircon from the early to late magmatic origin, which is consistent with the expansion of the lattice parameters. The occurrence of the three zircon types in the Xiangshan arfvedsonite granites is interpreted to reflect the progressive fractionation of granitic melt from hypersolvus to subsolvus conditions. Therefore, we conclude that the lattice expansion of zircon in this study results from chemical incorporation of trace element and volatile components during the magmatic to hydrothermal evolution of granitic magma. Besides, the textural and compositional evolution of zircon can be used as efficient indices for the fractionation and evolution of A-type granitic system.


This paper provides a proof that higher diversion rates of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste from the US landfill sites are not only good from a sustainability standpoint but also an achievable goal. When deconstruction occurs, proper planning should start to take advantage of all technologies and processes available for recycling and reuse along with the emerging markets for transformed C&D materials. In that regard, the mission of the Defence Base Closure and Realignment Commission and its impacts on community and the environment has been discussed and deconstruction projects of Department of Defence (DoD) military installations were analysed in detail in this paper. Although DoD has been pioneering a lot of C&D solid waste management projects to reap the benefits of higher diversion rates from landfill, there have been discernible efforts by the industry to attain diversion rates as high as 90% in many instances.


Fluid Signs is the product of anthropological fieldwork carried out among Tamil-speaking villagers in a Hindu village in Southern India. Combining a richness of ethnographic detail with a challenging and innovative theoretical analysis, Daniel argues that symbolic anthropologists have yet to appreciate the multifaceted function of the sign and its role in the creation of culture. This provocative study underscores the need for Western intellectual traditions in general and anthropology in particular to deepen its discourse with South Asian cultural and religious thought.


Federal law, pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act, maintains a strict criminal prohibition on marijuana use of any kind. In states that have legalized marijuana, and in states proposing to do so, a fundamental conflict arises between federal powers and state sovereignty. This conflict implicates some of the most vital aspects of the structural constitution: the Commerce Power, the Necessary and Proper Clause, the anti-commandeering doctrine, and Supremacy Clause preemption.In recent years a healthy scholarship has emerged to wrestle with the subject, providing insightful commentary and argument, but missing in the literature is an unabbreviated account of the major features of federalism that frame the legalization controversy. Also missing is a historical background situating the CSA's marijuana prohibition within the American political-legal tradition.This article provides the reader with an extensive constitutional and historical foundation for understanding what is now recognized as "the most pressing and complex federalism issue of our time."


Making America: The Society and Culture of the United States. Luther Luedtke, editor. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 554 pp. $34.95 cloth. 16.95 paper. Many of us in the Popular Culture/American Studies community eagerly order anthologies like this one because each new collection promises to make sense of our nation's complex--indeed, often contradictory--experience, Back in the late 1960s, I remember finding fellow graduate students in American Studies poring over Robert E. Spiller's bulky Literary History of the United States (Macmillan), hoping that the sketches of major movements and authors would trot them through comprehensive exams. Not long after I left graduate school, The Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Literature (Daniel G. Hoffman, ed., 1979) came on the scene with helpful efforts to synthesize ethnic, modernist and post-modernist trends. A little over ten years later, Malcolm Bradbury edited a collection entitled Introduction to American Studies (Longman, 2nd edition, 1990), a text which attempted to identify intellectual paradigms decade-by-decade. Very recently, the Columbia UP has turned out two costly--but stimulating--volumes with the goal of synthesis; both The Columbia Literary History of the United States (Emory Elliott, ed., 1988) and The Columbia History of the American Novel (also Elliott, 1991) reevaluate our canon. Most recently, Richard Ruland and Malcolm Bradbury have produced From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature (Viking, 1991), a narrative which traces the evolving national self-image depicted in our literature. Throughout the last 20 years, Pat and Ray Browne's Popular Press at BGSU has served up such volumes as Challenges in American Culture (1970), Symbiosis: Popular Culture and Other Fields (1988) and Dominant Symbols in Popular Culture (1990). Ever hoping to discover the meaning of America, I purchase these vade mecums as soon as they are advertised in journals like this one--in fact, I was about to send off a check to North Carolina for Making America when a review copy arrived from Bowling Green. In 1982, Luther Luedtke, a leading American Studies scholar at the University of Southern California, was given the daunting task of editing a book which would describe the United States to an international audience. With such a readership in mind, he assembled essays about our geography, history, social makeup and customs, literature, and intellectual culture. Each essay was bolstered by an annotated bibliography. The USIA distributed translations of the 1982 collection in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. As Making America, this 1992 version is available in the United States for the first time--amplified by four new essays to reflect very recent concerns. Making America: The Society and Culture of the United States covers a lot of territory. The first section begins with a discussion of the country's physical geography, followed by essays exploring the impact of sheer space on the development of the American family (Lillian Schlissel), the breakdown of towns (Richard Lingeman) and the growth of urban centers (Carl Abbott). Raymond Gastil describes "the cultural regions of America." Anticipating the needs of an international audience, the authors in this section--and others--spell out details which would normally we left unstated in a U. …


With the growth of the Internet, online job portals have become an important medium for job matching. This paper focuses on methodological issues arising from the usage of online job vacancy data and voluntary web-based surveys to analyse the labour market. In addition to providing a comprehensive review of the literature based on online data, we highlight the advantages and possible disadvantages of using online data and suggest strategies for overcoming selected methodological issues. We underline the difficulties in adjusting for representativeness of online job vacancies, but nevertheless argue that this rich source of data should be exploited.


Background Supporting self-management in stroke patients improves psychological and functional outcomes but evidence on how to achieve this is sparse. We aimed to synthesise evidence from systematic reviews of qualitative studies in an overarching meta-review to inform the delivery and development of self-management support interventions. Methods We systematically searched eight electronic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL for qualitative systematic reviews (published January 1993 to June 2012). We included studies exploring patients', carers' or health care professionals' experiences relevant to self-management support following a stroke, including studies describing the lived experience of surviving a stroke. We meta-synthesised the included review findings using a meta-ethnographic framework. Results Seven reviews, reporting 130 unique studies, were included. Themes emerging from the reviews were pertinent, consistent and showed data saturation; though explicit mention of self-management support was rare. Our meta-review highlighted the devastating impact of stroke on patients' self-image; the varying needs for self-management support across the trajectory of recovery; the need for psychological and emotional support throughout recovery particularly when physical recovery plateaus; the considerable information needs of patients and carers which also vary across the trajectory of recovery; the importance of good patient-professional communication; the potential benefits of goal-setting and action-planning; and the need for social support which might be met by groups for stroke survivors. Conclusions The observed data saturation suggests that, currently, no further qualitative research simply describing the lived experience of stroke is needed; we propose that it would be more useful to focus on qualitative research informing self-management support interventions and their implementation. Our findings demonstrate both the on-going importance of self-management support and the evolving priorities throughout the stages of recovery following a stroke. The challenge now is to ensure these findings inform routine practice and the development of interventions to support self-management amongst stroke survivors.


The integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with a reflective electro-absorption modulator (REAM) is a promising candidate for the colorless optical network unit in a wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON), due to its low chirp and wide bandwidth. However, 40 Gb/s operation of REAMs (bandwidth <; 20 GHz) still encounters severe intersymbol interference. Furthermore, Rayleigh backscattering (RB) and discrete reflections cause strong beat noise in WDM-PONs with single-fiber loopback configuration. In this paper, we present two novel techniques based on electrical equalization for a 40-Gb/s single-feeder WDM-PON based on SOA-REAM. The first method is to employ partial-response (PR) signaling and a noise predictive maximum likelihood (NPML) equalizer at the upstream receiver. The other one combines correlative level (CL) pre-coding with partial-response maximum likelihood (PRML) equalization. We experimentally demonstrate a 40-Gb/s uplink of 20 km using a 20-GHz SOA-REAM in a WDM-PON by both PR-NPML and CL-PRML. The results also verify the superiority of PR-NPML over the previously reported equalizers. Moreover, compared with PR-NPML, CL-PRML further improves the system performance. Experiments prove that the tolerance to beat noise and the receiver sensitivity are enhanced by 4 dB and 0.8 dB, respectively, at a bit error ratio of 2 × 10-4.


Purpose

This paper aims to present a literature review on the problem of fire following earthquake (FFE) as a potential hazard to communities in seismically active regions. The paper is important to work toward resilient communities that are subject to extreme hazards.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper lists and reviews the historical FFE events (20 earthquakes from 7 countries), studies the available analytical tools to evaluate fire ignition and spread in communities after an earthquake, discusses the available studies on performance of individual buildings under post-earthquake fires and summarizes the current literature on mitigation techniques for post-earthquake fires.

Findings

FFE can be considered a potential hazard for urban communities that are especially not prepared for such conditions. The available analytical models are not yet fully up to the standards that can be used by city authorities for decision-making, and therefore, should be further validated. Limited structural analyses of individual buildings under FFE scenarios have been completed. Results show that the drift demand on the building frame increases during post-earthquake fires. Despite the mitigation actions, there are still urban cities that are not prepared for such an event, such as certain areas of California in the USA.

Originality/value

The paper is a complete and an exhaustive collection of literature on different aspects of FFE. Research in earthquake engineering is well advanced, while structural analyses under fire load and performance of communities under FFE can be further advanced.


S100A1 is a Ca(2+)-binding protein and predominantly expressed in the heart. We have generated a mouse line of S100A1 deficiency by gene trap mutagenesis to investigate the impact of S100A1 ablation on heart function. Electrocardiogram recordings revealed that after beta-adrenergic stimulation S100A1-deficient mice had prolonged QT, QTc and ST intervals and intraventricular conduction disturbances reminiscent of 2 : 1 bundle branch block. In order to identify genes affected by the loss of S100A1, we profiled the mutant and wild type cardiac transcriptomes by gene array analysis. The expression of several genes functioning to the electrical activity of the heart were found to be significantly altered. Although the default prediction would be that mRNA and protein levels are highly correlated, comprehensive immunoblot analyses of salient up- or down-regulated candidate genes of any cellular network revealed no significant changes on protein level. Taken together, we found that S100A1 deficiency results in cardiac repolarization delay and alternating ventricular conduction defects in response to sympathetic activation accompanied by a significantly different transcriptional regulation.


Background Although obesity and cardiometabolic traits commonly overlap, underlying pathways remain incompletely defined. The association of metabolite profiles across multiple cardiometabolic traits may lend insights into the interaction of obesity and metabolic health. We sought to investigate metabolic signatures of obesity and related cardiometabolic traits in the community using broad-based metabolomic profiling. Methods and Results We evaluated the association of 217 assayed metabolites and cross-sectional as well as longitudinal changes in cardiometabolic traits among 2,383 Framingham Offspring cohort participants. Body mass index (BMI) was associated with 69 of 217 metabolites (P<0.00023 for all), including aromatic (tyrosine, phenylalanine) and branched chain amino acids (valine, isoleucine, leucine). Additional metabolic pathways associated with BMI included the citric acid cycle (isocitrate, alpha-ketoglutarate, aconitate), the tryptophan pathway (kynurenine, kynurenic acid), and the urea cycle. There was considerable overlap in metabolite profiles between BMI, abdominal adiposity, insulin resistance [IR] and dyslipidemia, modest overlap of metabolite profiles between BMI and hyperglycemia, and little overlap with fasting glucose or elevated blood pressure. Metabolite profiles were associated with longitudinal changes in fasting glucose, but the involved metabolites (ornithine, 5-HIAA, aminoadipic acid, isoleucine, cotinine) were distinct from those associated with baseline glucose or other traits. Obesity status appeared to "modify" the association of 9 metabolites with IR. For example, bile acid metabolites were strongly associated with IR among obese but not lean individuals, whereas isoleucine had a stronger association with IR in lean individuals. Conclusions In this large-scale metabolite profiling study, body mass index was associated with a broad range of metabolic alterations. Metabolite profiling highlighted considerable overlap with abdominal adiposity, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia, but not with fasting glucose or blood pressure traits.


This doctoral dissertation is devoted to the studies of some qualitative properties of certain polynomial systems of ordinary differential equations. The main problems that are considered in this thesis are the problems of integrability and cyclicity. Some results on the classification of the global phase portraits of a family of cubic systems are presented as well. In the first chapter basic notions and results of the qualitative theory of systems of ODE's are introduced. Since one of important tools for our study of these problems is the commutative computational algebra, some main notions and properties of polynomial ideals and their varieties, including various algorithms related to them, are also presented in the introduction. In the second chapter methods for investigation of trajectories near degenerated singularities are presented. They are further used for the classification of global phase portraits of a family of cubic systems with the nilpotent center at the origin. In the third chapter the main problem of these thesis is studied, the problem of integrability. The problem of integrability which is connected to the problem of distinguishing between a center and a focus is studied for two different families of cubic polynomial systems of ODE's. With the computational algebra approach the necessary conditions for the existence of the first integral of these systems were obtained. For all but one condition was proven, using various approaches, the existence of the first integrals. The center problem for the real systems can be generalized to the complex systems. The origin of the system obtained after the complexification of the real system is the so-called 1:-1 resonant singular point, from which one additional generalization follows. This is the generalization to the p:-q resonant center. In the third chapter the :-3 resonant singular point of a quadratic family of complex systems is studied. The fourth chapter is devoted to the study of the problem of integrability of a three dimensional polynomial system with quadratic nonlinearities. The problem of existence of two independent first integrals and the existence of one first integral in the system was investigated. In the last chapter local bifurcations of limit cycles of a family of cubic systems are studied. Estimations for the number of limit cycles bifurcated from each components of the center variety are obtained.


Nano-emulsions are a centre of attention for many industrial applications in different fields such as pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and agriculture due to their interesting physical properties such as transparency, larger surface area to volume ratio and long-term physical stability. This PhD project focuses on the preparation of stable nano-emulsions using different emulsification methods with an attempt to find the optimum formulation to produce stable nano-emulsions for food and healthcare applications. The emulsification methods studied in this project were rotor-stator homogeniser (Ultra-Turrax), Phase Inversion Temperature (PIT), dead-end and cross-flow membrane emulsification methods. The model system soybean oil/water/Brij 97 was used to investigate the emulsification methods. However, in the case of two membrane emulsification methods, it was decided to use Tween series surfactants as Brij 97 didn't work for our experiments. Our study showed that stable nano-emulsions containing 10 % (w/w) oil phase ratio can be produced by Homogeniser, PIT and dead-end membrane emulsification methods with droplet sizes in the range of 9 - 90 nm depending on the employed method, surfactant concentration and various experimental conditions. Cross-flow emulsification method failed to produce stable nano-emulsions in this study. PIT method yielded the smallest drop sizes in the range of 9 – 19 nm and lowest energy consumption (200 - 280 J g-1). However, for producing stable nano-emulsions by this method, the minimum amount of surfactant required were found to be 10.5 % (w/w). Dead-end membrane emulsification was also found to be a promising method for producing stable nano-emulsions with using surfactant concentration as low as 4 % (w/w) in oil, bearing also in mind that Tween series surfactants are more biocompatible than Brij 97. The only drawback for this method is its higher energy consumption than PIT method as Ultra-Turrax was used to prepare the premix. If a more energy efficient method for mixing the emulsion components is employed, this method could be a more suitable option than PIT method for food and healthcare applications. Nevertheless, PIT method could still be considered as the favourable choice when shear sensitive materials are used.


Phosphorus (P) export by erosion, surface runoff, throughflow and leaching are considered the main sources of P loss from agricultural land. The present study was conducted on the upper Fitzgerald River Catchment in the South coast region of Western Australia (WA) to examine the process of P mobilization at different P rates (0, 20 and 40 kg P/ha). Intact column leaching, packed box and field runoff plot studies were conducted on contrasting soils from the catchment. Soil solution was collected at 5, 10 and 15 cm by installing Rhizon soil solution samplers, and leachate collected at 30 cm. Runoff and soil solutions were analysed for particulate P (PP), dissolved reactive P (DRP), and total dissolved P (TDP) and dissolved organic P (DOP) was calculated by difference (TDP-DRP). Overall, DRP comprised <35 % of TP in runoff while about 90% or more of relative P losses via runoff, throughflow and leachate were in DOP and PP forms. The DOP and soluble organic carbon (SOC) in soil solution were well correlated in sand (R2 = 0.78, P <0.05) and clay soils (R2 = 0.56, P <0.05) at 0-5 cm suggesting that amounts of organic matter dissolved in soil solution influences P sorption and mobility. The higher PP concentration for the clay soil at the interface of clay and sandy layers indicates subsurface lateral flow is exacerbated by dispersive clay which might be an additional concern regarding P mobility in clay and duplex soils of the catchment. Ponding of water at the surface or lateral movement of water at the interface of sand and clay layers in the profile would increase the risk of P losses in the form of DP or PP in dispersion-prone sodic soils.


This overview presents the results of scientific and practical research into the development of the interface "neuron-electronic device" based on silicon nanowire. The work has been carried out for several years by a team of scientists specializing in various fields of science and technology: neuroscience, surface science, nanoelectronics, crystal growth, physics and chemistry of nanotechnology, and nanocomputing. The technology of formation of the interface "nerve fiber-silicon nanowire" was developed. The experiments were performed in vivo on Wistar rats. The developed technology was used in the manufacture of implants for the regeneration of the injured sciatic nerve. The results of the studies showed the effectiveness of using such implants not only for the regeneration of nerves with severe injuries but also for the creation of a bioelectronic interface for neurocomputers that can be used in vivo for a long time.


Aim: The aim of the study was to establish the relationship between levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in blood and severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Background: The importance of VEGF in the pathogenesis of DR is evident from numerous studies demonstrating a significant increase in VEGF levels in samples obtained from the eye. However, a correlation between blood levels of VEGF and DR has not been conclusively proven or disproven. In this article, we demonstrate the relationship between blood levels of VEGF and the severity of DR. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital-based descriptive analytic study. The study population consisted of 75 Type 2 diabetic patients attending outpatient department for routine DR screening. After obtaining informed consent, 5 ml of blood was drawn from each patient and estimated for the levels of serum VEGF. The data thus obtained were correlated with the grade of DR. Additional parameters studied were duration of diabetes mellitus (DM), hemoglobin levels, blood urea, serum creatinine, fasting blood sugar (FBS) and random blood sugar (RBS), and hemoglobin A1c (HBA1c) levels. Statistical analysis used in this study was Chi-square test, Student's t-test, independent one sample t-test, and analysis of variance using SPSS software version. 19. Results: Overall mean VEGF levels for the study population of 75 diabetic patients were 577.01 ± 291.13 pg/ml. The average duration of DM in the study population was 7.2 years. The average hemoglobin level in the study population was 11.53 ± 2.00 g/dl. The mean urea levels in mg/dl of the whole population were 35.47 ± 25.80 mg/dl. The mean creatinine levels for the population were 1.42 ± 1.55 mg/dL. The mean RBS levels for the whole population were 228.95 ± 74.499 mg/dL. The mean FBS levels for the 75 patients were 165.87 ± 59.04 mg/dl. The mean HBA1c levels were 9.49 ± 2.37%. Conclusion: Levels of blood VEGF are elevated in diabetic patients regardless of whether they have DR or not. There is no statistically significant relationship between blood levels of VEGF and the severity of DR. Even though severe grades of DR showed more anemia, there is no statistically significant relationship between anemia and DR. The levels of urea and creatinine were elevated in the more severe grade of DR. VEGF, therefore, could present a potential treatment and preventive strategy for not only DR but also DM and its complications in general.


Nearest feature line (NFL) (S.Z. Li and J. Lu, 1999) is an efficient yet simple classification method for pattern recognition. This paper presents a theoretical analysis and interpretation of NFL from the perspective of manifold analysis, and explains the geometric nature of NFL based similarity measures. It is illustrated that NFL, nearest feature plane (NFP) and nearest feature space (NFS) are special cases of tangent approximation. Under the assumption of manifold, we introduce localized NFL (LNFL) and nearest feature spline (NFB) to further enhance classification ability and reduce computational complexity. The LNFL extends NFL's Euclidean distance to a manifold distance. And for NFB, feature lines are constructed along with a manifold's variation which is defined on a tangent bundle. The proposed methods are validated on a synthetic dataset and two standard face recognition databases (FRGC version 2 and FERET). Experimental results illustrate its efficiency and effectiveness.


Tourism is important for Africa: international tourist arrivals to Africa continue to grow, income from tourism is crucial to national economies, and tourism investments are considered among the most profitable. This edited volume deals with the interaction of local communities with tourists coming into their areas and villages. Based upon a common theoretical approach, fourteen cases of African tourism are discussed which involve direct contact between 'hosts' and 'guests'. The viewpoint throughout is from the side of the locals, establishing how the processes of interaction shape each small scale destination. Crucial in Africa is the fact that the large majority of tourism is game oriented and the interaction between locals and visitors is very much 'tainted' by this fact. Central is the notion of the tourist bubble - the infrastructure that is generated locally (and internationally) for hosting tourists, as it is this institutional interface that tends to impact on the local society and culture, not the tourists themselves directly. The examples come from all over Africa, from the Sahara to the Eastern Cape, and from Kenya to Ghana. All contributions are based upon original fieldwork. Walter van Beek is professor of anthropology at Tilburg University and Senior Researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden; Annette Schmidt is curator of the African department at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, and is an archaeologist with a long experience in cultural management projects.


Numerous pests and diseases of yams are perpetuated from season to season through the use of infected seed material. Developing a system for generating healthy seed material would disrupt this disease cycle and reduce losses in field and storage. The use of various pre-plant treatments was evaluated in field experiments carried out at three sites in Nigeria. Yam tubers of four preferred local cultivars were cut into 100 g setts and treated with pesticide (fungicide + insecticide mixture), neem extract (1 : 5 w/v), hot water (20 min at 53 °C) or wood ash (farmers practice) and compared with untreated setts. Pesticide treated setts sprouted better than all other treatments and generally led to lower pest and disease damage of yam tubers. Pesticide treatment increased tuber yields over most treatments, depending on cultivar, but effectively doubled the production as compared to the control. Pesticide and hot water treated setts produced the healthiest seed yams, which had lower storage losses than tubers from other treatments. These pre-treated seed yams produced higher yields corresponding to 700 % potential gain compared to the farmers usual practice. Treatments had no obvious influence on virus incidence, although virus-symptomatic plants yielded significantly less than nonsymptomatic plants. This study demonstrated that pre-plant treatment of setts with pesticide is a simple and effective method that guarantees more, heavier and healthier seed yam tubers.


Anthropogenic emissions have a significant effect on Earth's atmosphere and contribute to changes in the global climate. These emissions and their impacts need to be tracked in order to understand their potential consequences and to be able to determine how these impacts can be eliminated or reduced by changes in methods, behaviors, and tools. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions generated by an entity over a specific time period or lifecycle. Developing a consistent and clear approach to determining the sources and quantities of these emissions is important due to the emerging demand to account for carbon impacts. Unfortunately there are very few approaches that can accurately estimate and track carbon to determine the climate change impacts of organizations, businesses, and activities. In this paper we propose an approach to carbon footprinting in which the amount of one or more types of carbon gas emissions can be estimated. We propose that by adapting cost estimation standards to carbon footprinting practices, a standard approach can be developed, thus providing a clearer and more focused approach to carbon footprinting. In this study, we have adapted the cost estimation standard of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This adaptation results in a new methodology for carbon footprint quantification that provides more clarification and robustness to carbon footprinting processes. By breaking down the whole process into three key steps, i.e., inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs, and by introducing relevant steps to take, the methodology can function as a guideline for carbon footprinting studies.


The professional-consumer relationship in professional services has undergone unprecedented change. Relationships which were traditionally dominated by respect for professional status are in flux as increasingly educated consumers challenge the professional establishment. This paper considers the nature of the professional service consumer and the implications for professional service encounters. Based on qualitative interviews we identify four patterns of consumer-professional interaction, compliant, collaborative, confirmatory, and consumerist, which reflect the nature of the discourse between consumer and professional.


E-commerce is a new mechanism to transact business either locally or globally by using the internet or web. In line with the terrific development of e-commerce technology, taxation of e-commerce has also become a major challenge in the world which needs to be addressed seriously. The tax authority has found that the taxation of online transaction is taxing because of the nature of e-commerce and the way it operates. This paper discusses the e-commerce environment including its features and nature which consequently leads to the challenges and difficulties in charging relevant taxes on this kind of business transaction. Discussions on taxation principles and taxes related to e-commerce are also included. In addition, this paper explains various aspects of challenges to tax e-commerce transaction which may cause revenue losses to the Nations. The paper ends with a brief conclusion and recommendations in order to sustain the competitive advantage of e-commerce. .


The paper considers time series evidence on the relationships, and possible trade-offs, between productivity and employment, and on the impact of taxes in this connection. First, a theoretical model is built for an open economy leading to the identification of technology, non-technology and labour and capital tax wedge shocks, as based on their long-run effects. Then structural VAR models are estimated for the EU-15 and some other OECD countries to infer the above relationships. Our conclusion is that there is in the EU a fairly uniform and significant short-run negative impulse on employment from a positive productivity shock, while this becomes smaller and statistically insignificant over time in most, but not in some member countries. The former situation is interpreted to be an indication of nominal and the latter that of real or structural rigidity in the economy. In the US, there is no such trade-off, either in the short or long run. The impulse response of the shocks in the tax wedge on labour in the aggregate EU-15 is a fairly sizeable negative impact on employment both in the short and long run, and the effects of capital income tax shocks are negative on productivity. In the majority of the individual EU-15 countries these results are not, however, statistically significant.


Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionarily advanced sequence-based research with the advantages of high-throughput, high-sensitivity, and high-speed. RNA-seq is now being used widely for uncovering multiple facets of transcriptome to facilitate the biological applications. However, the large-scale data analyses associated with RNA-seq harbors challenges. In this study, we present a detailed overview of the applications of this technology and the challenges that need to be addressed, including data preprocessing, differential gene expression analysis, alternative splicing analysis, variants detection and allele-specific expression, pathway analysis, co-expression network analysis, and applications combining various experimental procedures beyond the achievements that have been made. Specifically, we discuss essential principles of computational methods that are required to meet the key challenges of the RNA-seq data analyses, development of various bioinformatics tools, challenges associated with the RNA-seq applications, and examples that represent the advances made so far in the characterization of the transcriptome.


We studied the temporal dynamics of perceptual switches that are known to occur during prolonged presentations of a multi-stable visual motion stimulus using a neural fields, population-level representation of cortical activity in the middle temporal (MT) visual area. The so-called 'barber pole'' stimulus is considered with an aperture configuration that supports horizontal (H), diagonal (D) or vertical (V) perceived directions for the same input. It was established in previous modelling work and psychophysical experiments that, for short presentations, there is a shift in perceptual dominance from D to either H or V with increasing duration. The experiments described in the companion experimental abstract (I) show that for longer term presentations on the order of tens of seconds, the perceived direction remains multi-stable, with perception switching every few seconds between H and V. Here, we present an extension our previous motion integration model with the addition of a firing rate (spike frequency) adaptation dynamic that enables switching between the mutually inhibitory representations of H and V. A parameter study is performed using the tools of bifurcation analysis and numerical continuation that shows the model supports two different switching characteristics. In the bump oscillation case, with more weight given to the local input, switches between H and V occur at regular intervals with a very fast transition between the two states. In the travelling wave case, with more weight given to lateral connections, switches also occur at regular intervals but the transition is slower and a wave propagates from H to V (or vice-versa) via the diagonal percept D. Interestingly, the experimental results (I) also show a range of subject responses with respect to the switching characteristic involving D as an intermediate percept; this suggests variable dynamical interplay between intracortical connections in MT and the input received from lower cortical areas.


K--12 introductory programming experiences are often highly scaffolded, and it can be challenging for teachers and learners to transition from these scaffolded experiences to experiences of learner-directed creative work, where learners are solving problems and fluently expressing ideas through code. Learners can often "get stuck" in this creative process due to a number of different factors: (1) imagination, (2) concepts, (3) bugs, (4) doubt, and (5) pedagogy. Teachers can support learners in overcoming these factors, but K--12 computing teachers often have minimal preparation and lack computer science backgrounds. However, effective professional development can support teachers in developing the computing skills and pedagogical frameworks for facilitating powerful learning experiences for young people. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of Getting Unstuck, a 21-day, email-based learning experience for K--12 teachers interested in developing greater familiarity and fluency with Scratch. More than 1,900 people subscribed to the mailing list, with 400 people completing at least one day and 73 people completing all 21 days of activities. Participants received a daily email that invited them to: (1) create a Scratch project in response to a creative prompt that focused on a particular programming concept or Scratch feature, (2) share their work in the online community, and (3) reflect on their learning. We discuss our design decisions and how participants responded to them. We hope that this rich description of the course design will offer insights and inspiration for other CS educators who are designing similar K--12 professional development experiences.


The NSF Digital Clay project is focused on the design, prototyping, integration, and validation of a computer-controlled physical device capable of taking any of a wide range of possible shapes in response to changes in a digital 3D model or to changes in the pressure exercised upon it by human hands. Although it clearly is a natural and unavoidable evolution of 3D graphical user interfaces, its unprecedented capabilities constitute a major leap in technologies and paradigms for 3D display, for 3D input, and for collaborative 3D design. In this paper, we provide an overview of the Digital Clay project and discuss the challenges, design choices, and initial solutions for a new finger sculpting interface designed for the Digital Clay and prototyped using conventional 3D I/O hardware.


This paper provides a general framework for electromagnetic (EM) modeling, sensitivity analysis, computation, and measurements regarding the wave propagation characteristics of high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) power cables. The modeling is motivated by the potential use with transient analysis, partial-discharge measurements, fault localization and monitoring, and is focused on very long (10 km or more) HVDC power cables with transients propagating in the low-frequency regime of about 0-100 kHz. An exact dispersion relation is formulated together with a discussion on practical aspects regarding the computation of the propagation constant. Experimental time-domain measurement data from an 80-km-long HVDC power cable are used to validate the electromagnetic model, and a mismatch calibration procedure is devised to account for the connection between the measurement equipment and the cable. Quantitative sensitivity analysis is devised to study the impact of parameter uncertainty on wave propagation characteristics. The sensitivity analysis can be used to study how material choices affect the propagation characteristics, and to indicate which material parameters need to be identified accurately in order to achieve accurate fault localization. The analysis shows that the sensitivity of the propagation constant due to a change in the conductivity in the three metallic layers (the inner conductor, the intermediate lead shield, and the outer steel armor) is comparable to the sensitivity with respect to the permittivity of the insulating layer. Hence, proper modeling of the EM fields inside the metallic layers is crucial in the low-frequency regime of 0-100 kHz.


In the current era, people and society have grown increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. AI has the potential to drive us towards a future in which all of humanity flourishes. It also comes with substantial risks for oppression and calamity. Discussions about whether we should (re)trust AI have repeatedly emerged in recent years and in many quarters, including industry, academia, healthcare, services, and so on. Technologists and AI researchers have a responsibility to develop trustworthy AI systems. They have responded with great effort to design more responsible AI algorithms. However, existing technical solutions are narrow in scope and have been primarily directed towards algorithms for scoring or classification tasks, with an emphasis on fairness and unwanted bias. To build long-lasting trust between AI and human beings, we argue that the key is to think beyond algorithmic fairness and connect major aspects of AI that potentially cause AI's indifferent behavior. In this survey, we provide a systematic framework of Socially Responsible AI Algorithms that aims to examine the subjects of AI indifference and the need for socially responsible AI algorithms, define the objectives, and introduce the means by which we may achieve these objectives. We further discuss how to leverage this framework to improve societal well-being through protection, information, and prevention/mitigation.
This article appears in the special track on AI & Society.


Deployment of an on-site laboratory to contain an expanding outbreak and protect public health through rapid diagnosis of infected patients and identification of their contacts is a challenging and complex response, further complicated by time limitation and dramatic consequences of failure. Effective operations management and decision-making are critical for a successful Fieldable Laboratory (FL) mission at each phase of the mission. To analyze the principles and challenges of the operations management and associated decision-mak-ing process, the FL mission has been broken down into five successive interlinked phases defined as the "FL mission cycle" (FL-MC). Each phase comprises a set of operational func tions (OFs) corresponding to the mission activities. Some decisions are associated with a single OF, whereas others are taken across different OFs and FL-MC phases. All decisions are treated as logical entities inherently linked to each other and to the whole situational context within the FL operational domain. Being part of the laboratory information management system (LIMS), the FL domain ontology is developed as the main knowledge management tool supporting the decision-making process. This is an essential way to promote interoperability and scalability between different FL modules and health care capaci - ties during cross-border biological crises.


Computer simulation of evolutionary processes is already well established technique for the study of environmental, biological and economic dynamics. Use of algorithms for generation of virtual entities that will develop its functional and formal properties within the non-linear process of adaptation of complex system is a foundation for new point of view in understanding architecture and urban environment. This paper describes parametric approach in architectural design through elaboration of shift in paradigms in architecture that has brought to the idea of use of parametric modeling with emphasis on two different groups of parametric software and presents the possibilities of generative algorithms in modeling architectural form and development of cities and urban design.


Three strains of a previously undescribed Actinomyces-like bacterium were isolated from human clinical sources (urine, urethra and vaginal secretion). Biochemical testing and PAGE analysis of whole-cell proteins indicated that the strains were phenotypically homogeneous and distinct from previously described Actinomyces and Arcanobacterium species. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies showed the bacterium to be a hitherto unknown subline within a group of Actinomyces species which includes Actinomyces bovis, the type species of the genus. Based on phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence it is proposed that the unknown bacterium from humans be classified as Actinomyces urogenitalis sp. nov. The type strain of Actinomyces urogenitalis is CCUG 38702T (= CIP 106421T).


Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the progressive changes of columella length and nasal growth after presurgical nasoalveolar molding and primary cheiloplasty in bilateral complete cleft lip–cleft palate infants. Methods: Twenty-two consecutive complete bilateral cleft lip–cleft palate infants were included. All of them underwent nasoalveolar molding for columella lengthening and retraction of the premaxilla for 3 to 4.5 months before primary cheiloplasty. Standard 1:1 basilar photographs were taken before and after nasoalveolar molding, 1 week after cheiloplasty, and yearly for 3 years. Nasal height and width were measured directly on the photographs. Results: The results revealed that columella length was significantly lengthened after nasoalveolar molding and was further improved after primary cheiloplasty. The columella decreased in length slightly in the first and second years postoperatively and started to increase in length slightly in the third year postoperatively, whereas the rest of the nose grew significantly in height year by year. This consequently appeared as relapse of columella length. The shortage of the columella length was 1.9 mm. Conclusions: Both presurgical nasoalveolar molding and primary cheiloplasty lengthened the columella in bilateral cleft lip–cleft palate patients. However, there was a relative relapse in columella length because of the differential growth between the columella and the rest of the nose in the first and second years postoperatively.


Imidacloprid is a systemic insecticide used for the control of the vine mealybug Planococcus ficus. However, biological control of P. ficus is the primary alternate management method recommended for the integrated control of this pest. We therefore aimed to establish the detrimental effects on the development of Anagyrus. sp. near pseudococci and Coccidoxenoides perminutus feeding on imidacloprid-contaminated vine mealybugs as indicated by the subsequent emergence and survival of the F1 generation. The results imply that A. sp. near pseudococci and C. perminutus were equally susceptible to imidacloprid, based on probit analysis. However, survival was significantly different between the control and insecticide treatment for C. perminutus (χ2 = 23.80; d.f. = 3; p < 0.001), but not for A. sp. near pseudococci (χ2 = 5.07; d.f. = 3; p = 0.17). As this study was laboratory based, the effect of imidacloprid on populations of parasitoids in the field should be assessed further. Treatment recommendations to minimise the impact on parasitoids are discussed briefly.


In the western Great Basin of North America, a system of dextral faults accommodates 15%–25% of the Pacific–North American plate motion. The northern Walker Lane in northwest Nevada and northeast California occupies the northern terminus of this system. This young evolving part of the plate boundary offers insight into how strike-slip fault systems develop and may reflect the birth of a transform fault. A belt of overlapping, left-stepping dextral faults dominates the northern Walker Lane. Offset segments of a W-trending Oligocene paleovalley suggest ∼20–30 km of cumulative dextral slip beginning ca. 9–3 Ma. The inferred long-term slip rate of ∼2–10 mm/yr is compatible with global positioning system observations of the current strain field. We interpret the left-stepping faults as macroscopic Riedel shears developing above a nascent lithospheric-scale transform fault. The strike-slip faults end in arrays of ∼N-striking normal faults, suggesting that dextral shear diffuses into extension in the Great Basin. Coeval extension and dextral shear have induced slight counterclockwise fault-block rotations, which may ultimately rotate Riedel shears toward the main shear zone at depth, thus facilitating development of a throughgoing strike-slip fault.


Background : Tension pneumothorax is one of the leading causes of preventable death on the battle�eld. Current prehospital diagnosis relies on a subjective clinical impression complemented by a manual thoracic and respiratory examination. These techniques are not fully applicable in �eld conditions and on the battle�eld, where situational and environmental factors may impair clinical capabilities. We aimed to assemble a device able to sample, analyze, and classify the unique acoustic signatures of pneumothorax and hemothorax. Methods : Tested on an ex-vivo porcine model, we have assembled a device consisting of two sensitive digital stethoscopes and sampled 12 seconds of mechanical ventilation breathing sounds over the animals' thorax. The thoracic cavity was injected with increasing volumes of 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 ml of air and saline to simulate pneumothorax and hemothorax, respectively. The data was analyzed using a multi-objective genetic algorithm that was used to develop an optimal mathematical detector through the process of arti�cial evolution, a cutting-edge approach in the arti�cial intelligence discipline. Results : The algorithm was able to classify the signals according to their distinctive characteristics and to accurately predict, in up to 80% of cases, the presence of pneumothorax and hemothorax, starting from 400 ml, and regardless of background noise. Conclusions : We present a potential objective and rapid diagnosis modality that can overcome independent and subjective factors that may delay diagnosis and treatment of potentially lethal thoracic injuries, with emphasis on �eld conditions. A future diagnostic device could be embedded with the algorithm and provide real-time detection and monitoring of pneumothorax and hemothorax.


BACKGROUND
Lung cancer screening with low-dose helical computed tomography (LDCT) can improve high-risk individuals' chances of being diagnosed at an earlier stage and increase survival.

OBJECTIVES
The aims of this article are to present the risk factors associated with the development of lung cancer, identify patients at high risk for lung cancer qualifying for LDCT screening, and understand the importance of early lung cancer detection through the use of LDCT screening.

METHODS
PubMed and CINAHL® databases were searched with key words lung cancer screening to identify full-text academic articles from 2004-2014. This resulted in 529 articles from PubMed and 195 from CINAHL. PubMed offered suggestions for additional relevant journal articles. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines also provided substantial evidence-based information.

FINDINGS
Nurses need to provide support, education, and resources for patients undergoing lung cancer screening.


■ The article discusses some of the major omissions and simplifications created by established approaches to European communication, in particular the inclination to think of Europeanization primarily, and often exclusively, in relation to things national. It points to the simplistic narrative that sees transnational communication in Europe as a very recent phenomenon, and demonstrates how this narrative glosses over various historical forms of transnational communication in Europe. It then briefly addresses the intellectual roots of this narrative, and argues that they also lead to neglecting the existence of diverse, often competing contemporary forms of Europeanization and transnationalization in public communication. Finally, the article argues that more sustained attention should be paid to subnational patterns of stratification of European communication, particularly those arising along class divisions. ■


A child of six who had had several losses of consciousness died suddenly during a spell of tachycardia. The EKG showed at times a type B Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, at times a Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome. Intracavitary electrophysiological explorations had been carried out. The interest of this case lies in the comparison between these electrophysiological explorations and the histological examination of the normal and accessory conduction pathways. The short PR interval, which did not lengthen under the effect of premature atrial stimulation, was accounted for by the presence of atrio-His bundle tracts. The intermittent delta wave was due to Hissio-ventricular Mahaim fibres. These two accessory conduction pathways are considered as abnormal.


Increasingly, social capital, defined as shared norms, trust, and the horizontal and vertical social networks that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutually beneficial collective action, is seen as an important asset upon which people rely to manage natural resources and resolve conflicts. This paper uses empirical data from households and community surveys and case studies, to examine the role, strengths, and limits of social capital in managing conflicts over the use and management of natural resources. We inventoried over 700 cases ranging from conflicts between multiple resource users to supra- community conflicts between local communities concerns for better livelihoods and national/international concerns for environment conservation. Results show how different types of social capital are used in preventing and managing conflicts. Endowment in certain dimensions of social capital significantly decreased the occurrence of conflicts and played a significant role in managing them. However, social capital mechanisms have some limits, and are not always effective in resolving some types of conflicts. For such conflicts, people rely on formal mechanisms for arbitration and adjudication. In many cases, these have resulted in exclusion, coercion, and violence. Results show that policies or social capital alone do not possess the resources needed to promote broad-based and sustainable conflict resolution strategies. Rather, people use a range of conflict management strategies of different types and combinations of social capital and local polices. This synergy between social capital and local policy is based on complementarity and embededness: mutually supportive relations between local government and local communities, and the nature and extent of the ties connecting people and communities and public institutions. Better understanding of how this synergy between social capital and local policy can be strengthened is crucial to minimize natural resource management conflicts.


cDNA for neutrophil attractant protein-1 (NAP-1, also known as IL-8) was cloned from Con A-stimulated guinea pig spleen cells with human NAP-1 cDNA as a probe. Guinea pig NAP-1 cDNA is composed of 1433 bp with an open reading frame which encodes for a 101-amino-acid protein. Guinea pig NAP-1 had 70% amino acid sequence similarity to human NAP-1, which was much higher than a similarity between human and guinea pig monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) (56%). Nucleotide sequence similarity within the coding region was 75%. To confirm its biological activity in guinea pig, recombinant guinea pig NAP-1 was expressed in COS-7 cells then purified. N-terminal sequence analysis gave two different N-termini at position 23 (Met) or 24 (Val). The two proteins showed their peak activity for guinea pig neutrophils at the concentration of 1 microgram/ml (10-7 M). Despite its high similarity to human NAP-1, the responsiveness of human neutrophils to guinea pig NAP-1 was minimum. Recombinant guinea pig NAP-1 caused strong neutrophil infiltration after intradermal injection into guinea pig skin. Since guinea pig is classified as a rodent, it was of interest to know whether human NAP-1 cDNA hybridizes to genomic DNA of other rodents such as mouse or rat, in which a NAP-1 homologue has not been found. Under low stringency conditions, human NAP-1 cDNA hybridized to human, rabbit, and guinea pig DNA, but not to mouse or rat DNA. Unlike NAP-1, human MCP-1 cDNA hybridized to genomic DNA of rabbit, guinea pig, mouse, and rat; MCP-1 cDNA have been cloned from these species. The apparent absence of a NAP-1 gene in mouse or rat makes this chemoattractant unique among the members of the protein family to which NAP-1 and MCP-1 belong.


With troubling frequency, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern procedures of all civil actions in federal district courts, are manipulated or avoided when their prescriptions prove inconvenient. The Supreme Court has, on several occasions, admonished lower courts for disregarding or misconstruing these binding procedural rules. Ad hoc procedures are obnoxious to our legal system because they upset traditional notions of fairness and predictability - the very purpose of uniform rules of civil practice. Federal civil rights claims brought by prisoners are a recurrent setting for procedural abnormalities and the misapplication, or avoidance, of clear precedent; these procedural challenges compound the myriad difficulties already faced by prisoner litigants in federal court. While pleading standards for all litigants are modest and pro se plaintiffs enjoy liberal construction of their pleadings, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) established several unique hurdles for prisoner plaintiffs. Relief in federal court for the most common civil rights suits does not require the exhaustion of state or administrative remedies. However, among the PLRA's most effective barriers is the requirement that prisoners exhaust all "available" administrative remedies before bringing an action in federal court "with respect to prison conditions." Exhaustion of administrative remedies is said to serve the dual purposes of protecting an agency's authority to maintain procedures and correct its own errors, and promoting efficiency by avoiding unnecessary litigation and facilitating litigation that does result by developing an administrative record. In the prison context, administrative exhaustion means pursuing grievances through internal prison procedures and completing all levels of administrative appeals. Complying with every procedural nuance is vital because the Supreme Court has held that the PLRA's exhaustion requirement includes a procedural default rule. In other words, while certain exceptions apply, when a prisoner fails to follow any grievance procedure related to a complaint, he is barred from pursuing that claim in federal court. Frequently, prison grievance procedures include several steps: they often involve speaking with and/or providing a written grievance to prison officials - not infrequently, the officials who work in the area of the prison where the prisoner lives and, may be the very same officials whom the prisoner alleges have violated his constitutional rights; and pursuing one or more levels of administrative appeals. In several states, the time limit for pursuing a grievance is as little as two business days and, in at least one state, is as short as twenty-four hours. Because of the nature of prison grievances, disputes often arise over whether administrative remedies are "available," whether those remedies were properly exhausted, and if not, whether an exception applies. Federal courts have grappled with how to properly decide claims by the defendants prison officials that the plaintiff prisoner failed to properly exhaust available administrative remedies. In particular, courts have divided sharply over the overlapping questions of what is the appropriate procedural vehicle for raising a defense of failure to exhaust - e.g., by a motion to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment, or affirmatively pleading in the answer - and whether disputed factual issues raised by the exhaustion defense should be decided by the judge or a jury. In weighing this issue, courts must contend with the Supreme Court's recent decision in Jones v. Bock, which held that exhaustion is not a pleading requirement, but an affirmative defense. Therefore, federal courts are faced with two competing principles: in order to reduce the impact of prisoner litigation on federal courts, the PLRA mandates proper administrative exhaustion prior to filing suit; however, failure to exhaust is an affirmative defense, which defendants maintain the burden to plead and prove in an inquiry that is frequently fact intensive. How can courts avoid the burden of cases with unexhausted claims where properly adjudicating the exhaustion issue is dependent on disputed facts and credibility determinations? To reconcile these interests, some courts have fashioned sui generis procedures for resolving an exhaustion defense.This Note contends that courts are bound by the usual procedural rules for raising and deciding claims of prisoner non-exhaustion as with any affirmative defense, and argues that the unusual procedures employed by some courts violate the usual practice. Part I outlines the background of the PLRA, and its administrative exhaustion requirement and important case law. Part II surveys the unique procedures employed by federal courts for deciding exhaustion issues, and Part III addresses the doctrinal weaknesses of these procedures. In particular, Part III addresses the Supreme Court's staid enforcement of the usual practice prescribed by the rules of civil practice, the historical development of the relevant Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, conflicting federal statutory provisions, well-established Seventh Amendment jurisprudence on the province of the jury in determining genuine factual disputes, and the overarching policy implications of employing these ad hoc procedures. Finally, this Note concludes with a recommendation for the appropriate procedure to govern this particular area of civil procedure.


ABSTRACT An exceptionally well-preserved new acanthothoracid (placoderm fish) presenting complete endocranium and skull roof, from Saudi Arabia (Qasr Limestone Member, Jauf Formation), Early Devonian in age, is described as Arabosteus variabilis n. gen., n. sp. Compared to other Acanthothoraci, the new taxon exhibits a skull roof variable in its dermal plate distribution (e.g., a supernumerary plate: the posterior central plate) and sensory line pattern. Even the different specimens of this taxon show such variability between them. Arabosteus variabilis n. gen., n. sp. enlarges the scope of our knowledge of Acanthothoraci and Placodermi in general. Traditionally, the Arthrodira, one of the historically earliest described groups, provide the standard reference model for the placoderm skull roof pattern. The interpretation of the acanthothoracid skull roof pattern of the Saudi taxon from an arthrodiran model and the establishment of homologies is impossible to resolve unless based on prior assumptions (e.g., hypothesis of fragmentation or fusion for the paranuchal plate complex). The lateral line system of A. variabilis n. gen., n. sp. is unstable (e.g., presence or absence of the postmarginal sensory line canal) making it ambiguous to define bone homology and terminology. Consequently spatial distribution of skull roof plates has been retained for such a task with a minimal reference to the instable features of the sensory line groove distribution.


A novel method of improving the selectivity of metal oxide gas sensors has been developed by using catalytically active molecular sieve materials. They have been successfully introduced into a proprietary sensor array and a commercially available electronic nose. The cracking patterns of various organic compound groups including alkanes, aromatics and flavours over transition metal exchanged zeolites (ZSM-5, zeolite Y, and zeolite p) have been measured using a zeolite bed/GC/MS experimental set-up within a temperature range of 200 C to 400 C. The findings have been successfully translated for the use of the zeolites as filter technology on chromium titanium oxide (CTO) sensors for the purposes of selective gas sensing. Studies have been carried out regarding the effects of metal loading, zeolite type, material fabrication techniques and operating temperature with regards to catalytic activity and selectivity. Variations in activity due to alkane chain length have been related to the ability of the molecule to enter the zeolite cavity, the quantity of supported metal complexes and their oxidation state in the zeolite pores. The composite sensors utilising the novel zeolite materials have been used in a custom built sensor rig that houses 3 dual electrode sensors and can measure real time responses of these sensors to an introduced headspace generated from organic liquids. The response data have been utilised in a statistical software package (SPSS 12.0) to rationalise sensor discriminatory behaviour to various compound groups. The zeolite coated CTO sensors have also been tested in a commercial electronic nose array which has provided enhanced discrimination as compared to a standard CTO sensor array for a number of active and potential commercial applications mainly involving complex flavour compound mixtures.


Design tools for the quintuple-play service provisioning in a long-reach passive optical network (LR-PON) using off-the-shelf directly modulated lasers (DMLs) are experimentally demonstrated. The quintuple-play service including broadband wired Internet, phone/voice data, wireless high-definition TV, wireless data, and home security/control is provided by a radio-over-fiber bundle of multi-format orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. This bundle occupies a multi-octave band and consists of a full-standard worldwide-interoperability-for-microwave access signal, a long-term evolution signal, two ultra-wideband channels, and an ad hoc OFDM signal providing gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Dynamic centralized impairment compensation, fixed optical dispersion compensation, proper selection of the multiplexed signal level applied to the DML, and unbalanced power sharing between the different OFDM-based signal formats are shown as effective design tools for the delivery of the quintuple-play service to end-users. The experimental validation confirms that the DMLs are an effective solution to deliver the quintuple-play service to end-users 125 km away from the central office. Additionally, it is shown that the directly modulated LR-PON employing negative residual dispersion is able to provide the quintuple-play service to end-users located between 75 and 125 km away from the central office with an error vector magnitude (EVM) margin, relative to the EVM stated in each signal standard, by more than 1 dB. Therefore, the proposed directly modulated LR-PON is a cost-effective alternative to networks using external modulation for the provision of wireless and wired quintuple-play service to end-users using a single hybrid network.


The p7 protein is a small ion-channel-forming membrane polypeptide encoded by the hepatitis C virus which consists of two transmembrane R-helices, TM1 and TM2, and can be blocked by long-alkyl-chain iminosugar derivatives. The length of TM1 and TM2 was estimated by employing different secondary structure prediction algorithms and is proposed to span from Ala-10 to Leu-32 for TM1 and from Trp-36 to Pro-58 for TM2. A configurational search protocol based on simulated annealing combined with short restrained molecular dynamics simulations is used in addition to protein -protein docking to investigate the packing of TM1/TM2. Full p7 oligomeric bundles were generated, and in the most plausible models serines and threonines are facing the hydrophilic pore. In these models, His-17 would be a pore-facing residue, suggesting that p7 may be sensitive to pH in respect to its function.


Constantly increasing prices of energy and rising heating costs are forcing inhabitants of multifamily apartment houses and individual houses to think about savings of heating costs and improvement of living conditions as well. Air tightness is one of the most important factors influencing comfortable, energy efficient living environment. During winter time, air movement forms because of the pressure difference between outside and inside air. Air moves from the higher to the lower pressure zone, i. e. cold outside air penetrates to the room through the lower parts of the walls, and finally when it warms up, it goes out of the premises through the upper parts of the construction. The higher of uncontrolled air circulation is present in the premises, i.e. the more of cold air penetrates into the room, the higher energy consumption is required for heating. These energy losses can be reduced by increasing air tightness of the buildings. The aim of this research is to investigate the most common places of the buildings' leakage and the causes of it. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.3.4.4375


Generating natural language descriptions for the structured tables which consist of multiple attribute-value tuples is a convenient way to help people to understand the tables. Most neural table-to-text models are based on the encoder-decoder framework. However, it is hard for a vanilla encoder to learn the accurate semantic representation of a complex table. The challenges are two-fold: firstly, the table-to-text datasets often contain large number of attributes across different domains, thus it is hard for the encoder to incorporate these heterogeneous resources. Secondly, the single encoder also has difficulties in modeling the complex attribute-value structure of the tables. To this end, we first propose a two-level hierarchical encoder with coarse-to-fine attention to handle the attribute-value structure of the tables. Furthermore, to capture the accurate semantic representations of the tables, we propose 3 joint tasks apart from the prime encoder-decoder learning, namely auxiliary sequence labeling task, text autoencoder and multi-labeling classification, as the auxiliary supervisions for the table encoder. We test our models on the widely used dataset WIKIBIO which contains Wikipedia infoboxes and related descriptions. The dataset contains complex tables as well as large number of attributes across different domains. We achieve the state-of-the-art performance on both automatic and human evaluation metrics.


A 1.2-kilobase (kb) cDNA clone (NF68) encoding the mouse 68,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein is described. The clone was isolated from a mouse brain cDNA library by low-stringency cross-hybridization with a cDNA probe encoding mouse glial fibrillary acidic protein (Lewis et al., 1984, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 81:2743-2746). The identity of NF68 was established by hybrid selection using mouse brain polyA+ mRNA, and cell-free translation of the selected mRNA species. The cell-free translation product co-migrated with authentic 68,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein on an SDS/polyacrylamide gel, and was immunoprecipitable with a monospecific rabbit anti-bovine neurofilament antiserum. In addition, DNA sequence analysis of NF68 showed 90% homology at the amino acid level compared with the sequence of the porcine 68,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein. At high stringency, NF68 detects a single genomic sequence encoding the mouse 68,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein. Two mRNA species of 2.5 kb and 4.0 kb are transcribed from the single gene in mouse brain. The level of expression of these mRNAs remains almost constant in postnatal mouse brains of all ages and, indeed, in the adult. At reduced stringency, NF68 detects a number of mRNAs that are expressed in mouse brain, one of which encodes the 150,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein. The NF68 probe cross-hybridizes at high stringency with genomic sequences in species as diverse as human, chicken, and (weakly) frog, but not with DNA from Drosophila or sea urchin.


Control strategies in most complex problem-solving systems, though highly parameterized, are not adaptive to the characteristics of the particular task being solved. If the characteristics of the task are atypical, a fixed control strategy may cause incorrect or inefficient processing. We present an approach for adapting the control strategy by introducing a meta-level control component into the problem-solving architecture. This meta-level control component is based on the paradigm of Fault Detection/Diagnosis. Our presentation will concentrate on modeling the problem-solving system and on the inference techniques necessary to use this model for diagnosis. We feel that meta-level control based on the Fault Detection/Diagnosis paradigm represents a new approach to introducing more sophisticated control into a problem-solving system.


This research examined content and task decisions of 11 urban secondary
physical educators who placed a high priority on social curriculum goals.
Transcript data from a stimulated-recall protocol were analyzed using constant
comparison to determine the extent to which content and task decisions
represented social justice and reform goals of social reconstruction or of
citizenship and positive interaction more consistent with social responsibility.
Results suggested that teachers' content decisions were consistent with the
goals of cooperation, teamwork, and involvement within the social responsibility
value orientation. Task structures for middle school programs involved
large group activities, while high school tasks focused on individual activities
performed as a member of a small group.


ABSTRACT Cadavers are an abundant source of organic matter. During their decomposition, a variety of organisms – insects, bacteria, and fungi – can feed on them. Within the ambit of forensic science, fungi have thus far received little attention. Nevertheless, the current study found that forensic mycology can be developed as a tool that provides useful evidence for case resolution. The fungal biota found growing on the surface of two cadavers with different post-mortem intervals (PMI) was examined and identified. The fungal samples were cultured and identified by morphology and molecular genetics. Fungal species such as Arthrinium arundinis, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Candida guillermondii, Candida lypolitica, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Chrysosporium merdarium, and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis were registered. These findings are the first contributions to forensic mycology from Argentine research. In combination with the joint investigations of forensic researchers worldwide, these results should contribute in the discussion of the use of mycology as a valid forensic tool in which fungi can provide evidence in complex cases.


Importance Sex-associated differences in immune response are known, but a meta-analysis suggested men, compared with women, derive greater value from immunotherapy for advanced solid-organ malignant neoplasms. However, methodologic concerns and subsequent trials have placed these results in doubt. Objective To perform an updated, comprehensive meta-analysis that assesses the efficacy of immunotherapy in advanced cancers according to patient sex. Design, Setting, and Participants A systematic review of studies (n = 23) indexed in MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, and Scopus from inception of these databases to October 2, 2018, was conducted. Randomized clinical trials that compared immunotherapy with standard of care in the treatment of advanced solid-organ malignant neoplasms were included if overall survival was reported as an outcome and if data stratified by patient sex were available. Observational studies, editorials, commentaries, review articles, non–peer-reviewed publications, studies that compared various immunotherapy regimens, studies that reported other measures of oncologic response, and studies that reported subgroup analyses for 1 sex only were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures Overall survival, with a test for heterogeneity between women and men, to assess the null hypothesis that no difference in the survival advantage of immunotherapy exists by patient sex. Results This meta-analysis included 23 randomized clinical trials that reported on 9322 men (67.9%) and 4399 women (32.1%); the age of most patients was in the 70s. An overall survival benefit of immunotherapy was found for both men (hazard ratio [HR], 0.75; 95% CI, 0.69-0.81; P < .001) and women (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.67-0.88; P = .002). Random-effects meta-analysis of study-level differences in response to immunotherapy demonstrated no statistically significant difference between the sexes (I2 = 38%; P = .60). Subgroup analyses according to disease site, line of therapy, class of immunotherapy, study methodology, and representation of women recapitulated these findings. Conclusions and Relevance Stratified analyses demonstrated no statistically significant association of patient sex with the efficacy of immunotherapy in the treatment of advanced cancers using overall survival as the outcome.


This study investigates the institutional impediments of remittances with reference to the cost of transmission in Nigeria. The study is motivated by the increasing inflows of remittances through informal channels that would have been directed into the financial system to improve savings and enhance financial deepening if they were accounted for. The study therefore investigates whether the use of informal channels is caused by the increasing costs of collecting remittances that is partly induced by financial institutions. The study uses a bank exit survey data and a household survey data collected by the Center for Demographic and Allied Research (CDAR). T-test analysis and logit regressions were employed to achieve the objectives of the research. The findings show that there is no significant difference in the frequency of receipt for the formal and informal channels, transaction cost negatively and significantly determinants the use of formal channels flows, and finally there exist a significant difference between the transaction costs of using formal and informal channels of remittances. Financial institutions should therefore checkmate the charge of remittance receipt to encourage the use of formal channels and increase the frequency of flows.


Rho, Rac and Cdc42, three members of the Rho family of small GTPases, each control a signal transduction pathway linking membrane receptors to the assembly and disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton and of associated integrin adhesion complexes. Rho regulates stress fibre and focal adhesion assembly, Rac regulates the formation of lamellipodia protrusions and membrane ruffles, and Cdc42 triggers filopodial extensions at the cell periphery. These observations have led to the suggestion that wherever filamentous actin is used to drive a cellular process, Rho GTPases are likely to play an important regulatory role. Rho GTPases have also been reported to control other cellular activities, such as the JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) and p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) cascades, an NADPH oxidase enzyme complex, the transcription factors NF-kappaB (nuclear factor kappaB) and SRF (serum-response factor), and progression through G1 of the cell cycle. Thus Rho, Rac and Cdc42 can regulate the actin cytoskeleton and gene transcription to promote co-ordinated changes in cell behaviour. We have been analysing the biochemical contributions of Rho GTPases in cell movement and have found that Rac controls cell protrusion, while Cdc42 controls cell polarity.


The normal function of any organism, its organizational complexity notwithstanding, depends on the interaction of its proteins with their targets. Thus, analysis of target site interaction is an essential part of all biology. At the protein level, such analyses are critical to both mechanistic knowledge and potential clinical applications such as drug discovery. Approaches to map amino acid residues involved in target site interaction typically are experimental or based on three-dimensional structures obtained through crystallography. Here we test a novel approach that combines phylogenetic analyses with mining of experimental data using neuronal calcium sensor proteins. The proteins fall into three groups based on sequence comparison. One interaction was taken up for analysis from each group. Using the sequence divergence to evaluate the role of amino acids identified experimentally to form the interface with the target, we demonstrate that it is possible to predict residues that are likely to contribute to the specificity of the interaction and, therefore, the functional divergence. Thus, evolutionary analyses of proteins provide an important addition in approaches to generate refined maps of target site interactions in proteins. This approach is especially useful in delineating the functional divergence in a family of closely related proteins.


Among Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in particular, the UK Government�s ambitions regarding BIM uptake and diffusion across the construction sector may be tempered by a realpolitik shaped in part by interactions between the industry, Higher Education (HE) and professional practice. That premise also has a global perspective. Building on the previous 2 papers, Architectural technology and the BIM Acronym 1 and 2, this third iteration is a synthesis of research and investigations carried out over a number of years directly related to the practical implementation of BIM and its impact upon BE SMEs. First challenges, risks and potential benefits for SMEs and micros in facing up to the necessity to engage with digital tools in a competitive and volatile marketplace are discussed including tailoring BIM to suit business models, and filtering out achievable BIM outcomes from generic and bespoke aspects of practice. Second the focus is on setting up and managing teams engaging with BIM scenarios, including the role of clients; addresses a range of paradigms including lonely BIM and collaborative working. The significance of taking a whole life view with BIM is investigated including embedding soft landings principles into project planning and realisation. Thirdly procedures for setting up and managing common data environments are identified and the value of achieving smooth information flow is addressed. The overall objective of this paper is to provide SMEs with a practical strategy to develop a toolkit to BIM implementation.