It is vital to find reasons for differences in the results of environmental input‐output (EIO), physical input‐output (PIO), and hybrid input‐output (HIO) models for industrial and environmental policy analysis. Using EIO, PIO, and HIO models, China's industrial metabolism is calculated. Four reasons were found to account for differences in the results of analysis using EIO, PIO, and HIO models: the manner in which they deal with residential consumption, service sectors, and waste recycling, and the assumption of unique sector prices. The HIO model, which treats residential consumption as sectors of the intermediate delivery matrix, is preferred to the EIO and PIO models for analyzing industrial and environmental policies. Moreover, waste recycling in five sectors—agriculture; the manufacture of paper, printing, and articles for culture, education, and sports activities; the manufacture of nonmetallic mineral products; smelting and pressing of metals; and construction—should be comprehensively considered when using the HIO model to study problems related to these five sectors. Improvements in the EIO, PIO, and HIO models and future work are also discussed.


An important aspect of developing conversational agents is to give a bot the ability to improve through communicating with humans and to learn from the mistakes that it makes. Most research has focused on learning from fixed training sets of labeled data rather than interacting with a dialogue partner in an online fashion. In this paper we explore this direction in a reinforcement learning setting where the bot improves its question-answering ability from feedback a teacher gives following its generated responses. We build a simulator that tests various aspects of such learning in a synthetic environment, and introduce models that work in this regime. Finally, real experiments with Mechanical Turk validate the approach.


The Herefordshire Lagerstätte (c. 430 Ma) from the UK is a rare example of soft-tissue preservation in the Silurian. It yields a wide range of invertebrates in unparalleled three-dimensional detail, dominated by arthropods and sponges. The fossils are exceptionally preserved as calcitic void infills in early diagenetic carbonate concretions within a volcaniclastic (bentonite) horizon. The Lagerstätte occurs in an outer shelf/upper slope setting in the Welsh Basin, which was located on Avalonia in the southern subtropics. The specimens are investigated by serial grinding, digital photography and rendering in the round as 'virtual fossils' by computer. The fossils contribute much to our understanding of the palaeobiology and early history of the groups represented. They are important in demonstrating unusual character combinations that illuminate relationships; in calibrating molecular clocks; in variously linking with taxa in both earlier and later Paleozoic Lagerstätten; and in providing evidence of the early evolution of crown-group representatives of several groups.


In this paper, the near-infrared spectroscopy is used to obtain the near-infrared spectra data of tea for the detection of West Lake Longjing tea and the general Longjing tea. Noise and other redundant information contained in the full spectrum will have a negative impact on the accuracy of the models during the data processing. Using the characteristic wavelength variables to build the models is more effective than the full spectrum. The competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) is one of the most common and effective methods for the characteristic wavelength variables selection. However, the regression coefficients of variables will change with the selected samples of the model varying randomly in CARS method. Therefore, the absolute value of the regression coefficients is not always able to fully reflect the importance of the variables. This paper introduces the variable effectiveness and proposes a wavelength selection approach called effectiveness competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (ECARS) to make up for this shortfall. This study is mainly to classify the 110 samples of West Lake Longjing tea and the general Longjing tea. The training set consists of 72 samples and the prediction set contains 38 samples. After the preprocessing of the second derivative, CARS, uninformative variable elimination, backward interval partial least squares, and ECARS algorithm proposed in this paper are used for the variables selection. Then the variable subset and the full spectrum are, respectively, used to build support vector machine (SVM) model and linear discriminant analysis model for the identification of West Lake Longjing tea and the general Longjing tea. The experiment results show that: (1) the accuracy of models that are processed by the variables selection methods is higher than those of the full spectrum models and all the other models; (2) the accuracy of the ECARS-SVM model is highest, and the accuracies of the training set and prediction set are 100% and 98.4%, respectively; (3) the ECARS algorithm the number of variables, simplify the models, and improve the accuracy and stability of the models.


Speaker detection is an important component of a speech-based user interface. Audiovisual speaker detection, speech and speaker recognition or speech synthesis for example find multiple applications in human-computer interaction, multimedia content indexing, biometrics, etc. Generally speaking, any interface which relies on speech for communication requires an estimate of the user's speaking state (i.e. whether or not he/she is speaking to the system) for its reliable functioning. One needs therefore to identify the speaker and discriminate from other users or background noise. A human observer would perform such a task very easily, although this decision results from a complex cognitive process referred to as decision-making. Generally speaking, this process starts with the acquisition by the human being of information about the environment, through each of its five senses. The brain then integrates these multiple information. An amazing property of this multi-sensory integration by the brain, as pointed out by cognitive sciences, is the perception of stimuli of different modalities as originating from a single source, provided they are synchronized in space and time. A speaker is a bimodal source emitting jointly an auditory signal and a visual signal (the motion of the articulators during speech production). The two signals are obviously co-occurring spatio-temporally. This interesting property allows us – as human observers – to discriminate between a speaking mouth and a mouth whose motion is not related with the auditory signal. This dissertation deals with the modelling of such a complex decision-making, using a pattern recognition procedure. A pattern recognition process comprises all the stages of an investigation, from data acquisition to classification and assessment of the results. In the audiovisual speaker detection problem, tackled more specifically in this thesis, the data are acquired using only one microphone and camera. The pattern recognizer integrates and combines these two modalities to perform and is therefore denoted as "multimodal". This multimodal approach is expected to increase the performance of the system. But it also raises many questions such as what should be fused, when in the decision process this fusion should take place, and how is it to be achieved. This thesis provides answers to each of these issues through the proposition of detailed solutions for each step of the classification process. The basic principle is to evaluate the synchrony between the audio and video features extracted from potentially speaking mouths, in order to classify each mouth as speaking or not. This synchrony is evaluated through a mutual information based function. A key to success is the extraction of suitable features. The audiovisual data are then processed through an information theoretic feature extraction framework after having been acquired and represented in a tractable way. This feature extraction framework uses jointly the two modalities in a feature-level fusion scheme. This way, the information originating from the common source is recovered while the independent noise is discarded. This approach is shown to minimize the probability of committing an error on the source estimate. These optimal features are put as inputs of the classifier, defined through a hypothesis testing approach. Using jointly the two modalities, it outputs a single decision about the class label of each candidate mouth region ("speaker" or "non-speaker"). Therefore, the acoustic and visual information are combined at both the feature and the decision levels, so that we can talk about a hybrid fusion method. The hypothesis testing approach gives means for evaluating the performance of the classifier itself but also of the whole pattern recognition system. In particular, the added-value offered by the feature extraction step can be assessed. The framework is applied in a first time with a particular emphasis on the audio modality: the information theoretic feature extraction addresses the optimization of the audio features using jointly the video information. As a result, audio features specific to speech production are produced. The system evaluation framework establishes that putting these features at input of the classifier increases its discrimination power with respect to equivalent non-optimized features. Then the enhancement of the video content is addressed more specifically. The mouth motion is obviously the suitable video representation for handling a task such as speaker detection. However, only an estimate of this motion, the optical flow, can be obtained. This estimation relies on the intensity gradient of the image sequence. Graph theory is used to establish a probabilistic model of the relationships between the audio, the motion and the image intensity gradient, in the particular case of a speaking mouth. The interpretation of this model leads back to the optimization function defined for the information theoretic feature extraction. As a result, a scale-space approach is proposed for estimating the optical flow, where the strength of the smoothness constraint is controlled via a mutual information based criterion involving both the audio and the video information. First results are promising even if more extensive tests should be carried out, in noisy conditions in particular. As a conclusion, this thesis proposes a complete pattern recognition framework dedicated to audiovisual speaker detection and minimizing the probability of misclassifying a mouth as "speaker" or "non-speaker". The importance of fusing the audio and video content as soon as at the feature level is demonstrated through the system evaluation stage included in the pattern recognition process.


In recent years, a paradox has emerged in the study of youth. On the one hand, in the context of the processes of globalization, neoliberalism and precarity, the patterning of leisure and work for young people is becoming increasingly convergent across time and space. On the other hand, it is clear that young people's habits and dispositions remain deeply tied to local places, with global processes filtered and refracted through specific cultural contexts. Against this backdrop, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council/Research Grants Council (ESRC/RGC)-funded study of contemporary youth in Glasgow and Hong Kong, this article seeks to explore the role of the city as a mediating lens between global forces and local impacts. Utilizing both historical and contemporary data, the article argues that despite parallels in the impact of global forces on the structure of everyday life and work, young people's leisure habits remain rooted in the fates and fortunes of their respective cities.


It is commonly thought that the United States is a highly legalistic nation, and as a result it is commonly thought as well that official disobedience of law is publicly and politically disfavored. Yet when we look at numerous contemporary and not-so-contemporary examples, we discover that public and political condemnation of officials who violate the law is so closely linked to condemnation of the underlying substance of the act that it is not clear whether breaking the law qua breaking the law is very much subject to public or political sanction at all. When officials break the law in the service of what are taken to be good ends, the violation of law is rarely taken to justify condemnation in the court of public opinion or punishment at the ballot box. And if this is so, then not only is official violation of the law not nearly as disfavored as is ordinarily supposed, but we have also created a climate of politics and public opinion that does little to discourage officials from treating the violation of law as substantially irrelevant to their policy and political decisions.


At present, there is great interest over the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) in all of its forms: OpenCourseware repositories OCW, spare open resources, or even more recently as Massive Online Open Courses (also called MOOC). This panorama has generated considerable debate about their effectiveness in terms of learning, sustainability and especially the role that higher education institutions play in this context. We understand that students are involved on formal and informal learning activities, and require universities should have new model to recognize their skills and abilities on these scenarios. One case study is the MOOC learning framework, where universities are interested but there are nowadays some doubts and fears about the official recognition as a usual learning activity. In this article we analyse some data from the activity in an Open Course developed in the University of Granada and the implications regarding learning skills and recognition.  Finally, we link this approach with the studies given in the Open Learning Framework developed within the European project OERtest, in which five higher education institutions have conducted a pilot on this issue. We can offer some conclusions regarding the feasibility of certifying and award credits to a student.


This essay explores the tension between international human rights law regulating religious freedom in relation to the right of minority and cultural relativism in Indonesia. The international standard of those rights is extremely diffcult to implement even though the Indonesian Constitution and Human Rights Act also comprehensively guarantee those rights. The conflict of laws and the privilege treatment against religious minority groups often lead the government to implement practice discriminative acts. The case of Ahmadiyah as a minority illustrates how their religious freedom is discriminated against by the government due to the existence of cultural relativism. Additionally, the state policy to apply offcial religion also diminishes the validity and international standard of religious freedom for minority groups. Besides, the majority uses a loophole in national regulations to justify this prohibition because the character of minority is seen as a threat to public order. This paper answers the problem with an emphasis on the importance of equality and amending regulations contradicted with international human rights in ending the conflict.


Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression is positively correlated with malignant features in canine mammary carcinomas. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit COX activity and may therefore possess anticancer effects. Meloxicam is an NSAID that is widely used in human and veterinary medicine. High concentrations of meloxicam have been reported to be antitumorigenic in vitro; however, the effect of meloxicam at concentrations that are equivalent to those that can be obtained in vivo remains unknown. In the current study, the in vitro effects of low-dose meloxicam (0.25 µg/ml) on CF41.Mg canine mammary carcinoma cells were evaluated. The effects on cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration and invasion, in addition to the expression of different molecules associated with tumor invasiveness were analyzed. No effect on cell viability and apoptosis were observed. However, cell migration and invasion were significantly reduced following treatment with meloxicam. MMP-2 expression and activity were similarly reduced, explaining the impaired cell invasion. In addition, β-catenin expression was downregulated, while its phosphorylation increased. These results indicate that 0.25 µg/ml meloxicam reduces cell migration and invasion, in part through modulating MMP-2 and β-catenin expression. Additional studies are required to elucidate the mechanism associated with the anti-invasive effect of meloxicam on CF41.Mg cells. The results of the present study suggest that meloxicam has a potential adjunctive therapeutic application, which could be useful in controlling the invasion and metastasis of canine mammary carcinomas.


A liquid-metal–cooled fast reactor Proliferation-resistant Environment-friendly Accident-tolerant Continuable-energy Economical Reactor (PEACER) is being developed at Seoul National University with metallic-type U-Pu-Th fuel and lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) coolant, employing the steam-generating Rankine cycle without an intermediate loop. The natural circulation potential is a key ingredient of the liquid-metal reactor design. PEACER is designed as a loop system, which increases the natural circulation capacity and reduces the maintenance cost. This work is concerned with design of a large-scale test loop Heavy Eutectic Loop Integrated Operation System (HELIOS) to simulate thermal-hydraulic behavior of Pb-Bi in the PEACER system following a single-phase one-dimensional flow loop model. The full-height loop is being constructed for Pb-Bi natural-circulation testing and operating procedure development. Electrically heated rods are used in the heating section, and a water-cooling method is adopted in the cooling section. HELIOS has the same elevation difference between thermal centers of the heat source and heat sink but reduced piping diameters.


Many modern applications have a significant operating system (OS) component. The OS execution affects various architectural states, including the dynamic branch predictions, which are widely used in today's high-performance microprocessor designs to improve performance. This impact tends to become more significant as the designs become more deeply pipelined and more speculative. In this paper, we focus on the issues of understanding the OS effects on the branch predictions and designing architectural support to alleviate the bottlenecks that are created by misprediction. In this work, we characterize the control flow transfer of several emerging applications on a commercial OS. It was observed that the exception-driven, intermittent invocation of OS code and user/OS branch history interference increased misprediction in both user and kernel code. We propose two simple OS-aware control flow prediction techniques to alleviate the destructive impact of user/OS branch interference. The first consists of capturing separate branch correlation information for user and kernel code. The second involves using separate branch prediction tables for user and kernel code. We demonstrate in this paper that OS-aware branch predictions require minimal hardware modifications and additions. Moreover, the OS-aware branch predictions can be integrated with many existing schemes to further improve their performance. We studied the improvement contributed by OS-aware techniques to various branch prediction schemes ranging from the simple Gshare to the more advanced Agree, Multi-Hybrid, and Bi-Mode predictors. On the 32 K-entry predictors, incorporating the OS-aware techniques yields up to 34 percent, 23 percent, 27 percent, and 9 percent prediction accuracy improvement on the Gshare, Multi-Hybrid, Agree, and Bi-Mode predictors, respectively


The threat of climate change and other global sustainability challenges has prompted organisations of all types to consider their impact on the environment. In the legal sector, law firms are beginning to recognise that there is a need to reduce their carbon footprints whilst developing strategies to capitalise on the cost savings and other opportunities environmental initiatives can create. Despite this little is known about the response of the legal sector to the challenge of climate change and sustainability in general. Whilst there are a number of academic studies that examine the environmental performance of organisations by sector, there are none that are focus solely on legal firms. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by reporting on the efforts of the legal sector to respond to sustainability challenges. Using data acquired from the Legal Sector Alliance, an inclusive movement of law firms and organisations committed to working collaboratively to take action on climate change, it reviews progress on environmental performance. The paper also comments on the unique opportunities and challenges that the sector faces in attempting to reduce its impact on the environment and develop a strategy for embedding wider principles of sustainable development.


Research in the area of controlled drug release is increasingly important in the pharmaceutical industry both from quality of life and commercial perspectives. One form of controlled release is of active components incorporated in solid polymer matrices. Understanding the nature and control of drug release is focal to the effective control and targeting of drugs. This will allow the prediction and modelling of new delivery systems. The aim of this thesis is to determine the principal manufacturing parameters affecting the release of a soluble drug from a non-swelling polymer matrix and so to understand better the dissolution mechanism. The matrix chosen for study is Eudragit and the chosen drug is Diltiazem Hydrochloride. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) experiments on Eudragit tablets with different levels of compression, drug loading and particle size exposed to water were made in order to observe the ingress of the water into the tablets. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to assess the amount of drug released. Stimulated-echo pulsed-field-gradient diffusion measurements of drug and water mobility in Diltiazem Hydrochloride solutions were made so as to estimate the self-diffusion coefficient of drug and water. Additional X-ray Computed Microtomography (muCT) and optical microscopy experiments were used to characterise the tablet microstructure. Experimental evidence shows that there is a rapid capillary uptake (≤ 10mins) of water into the initial pore space of a tablet ahead of the primary dissolution. This porosity is very small, less than 4% for pure compact Eudragit and even less for a drug loaded tablet. There is a slow subsequent dissolution characterised by a sharp diffusion front which separates the invaded and un-invaded regions. The water ingress proceeds linearly with the square root of time, t1/2. It is observed that water ingresses faster into tablets with small drug particle size and higher drug loading. Swelling of the whole tablet at intermediate ding loadings is seen as water ingresses into the system. However, no comparable swelling for either 100% polymer or 100% drug tablets is observed. There is evidence that as water ingresses into the tablet, air voids start to accumulate and ripen within the sample. Theoretical models are developed based on the experimental results in terms of diffusion and solubility parameters and the measured microstructure. In particular, a dimensionless time is introduced to best reflect the competition between dissolution and diffusion. This parameter is defined as the ratio of the time required for water to diffuse across the tablet and the time for the drug to dissolve.


The socio-technical framework (STF) is useful for describing how technologies are embedded in social systems and how people, groups and technologies are interrelated. This perspective, however, lacks theoretical specificity and has limited usefulness in explaining the dynamics of actual situations. In this paper we address the question of how to extend the STF to better analyse technologies in their social context. We build on the STF by including the concept of 'information ecology' and research on service provision to suggest a more empirically focussed way of analysing the relationships between people and technologies. In particular, we examine changes that have occurred as B2C eCommerce technologies have been implemented in service organisations, using case study findings from retail banking to introduce the concept of 'Coactive Commerce Systems'. This concept provides a theoretically based descriptor for understanding the technologically-mediated interrelationships between organisations and their customers.


Background The U.S. Army uses universal preventives interventions for several negative outcomes (e.g. suicide, violence, sexual assault) with especially high risks in the early years of service. More intensive interventions exist, but would be cost-effective only if targeted at high-risk soldiers. We report results of efforts to develop models for such targeting from self-report surveys administered at the beginning of Army service. Methods 21 832 new soldiers completed a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) in 2011–2012 and consented to link administrative data to SAQ responses. Penalized regression models were developed for 12 administratively-recorded outcomes occurring by December 2013: suicide attempt, mental hospitalization, positive drug test, traumatic brain injury (TBI), other severe injury, several types of violence perpetration and victimization, demotion, and attrition. Results The best-performing models were for TBI (AUC = 0.80), major physical violence perpetration (AUC = 0.78), sexual assault perpetration (AUC = 0.78), and suicide attempt (AUC = 0.74). Although predicted risk scores were significantly correlated across outcomes, prediction was not improved by including risk scores for other outcomes in models. Of particular note: 40.5% of suicide attempts occurred among the 10% of new soldiers with highest predicted risk, 57.2% of male sexual assault perpetrations among the 15% with highest predicted risk, and 35.5% of female sexual assault victimizations among the 10% with highest predicted risk. Conclusions Data collected at the beginning of service in self-report surveys could be used to develop risk models that define small proportions of new soldiers accounting for high proportions of negative outcomes over the first few years of service.


Ms. Vaginal "Crème" Davis has come to occupy a unique position in the parallel and intertwining histories of performance and live art, punk, and queer subcultures. As lead singer of the Afro Sisters, black fag, Pedro, Muriel & Esther (PME), and ¡Cholita! The Female Menudo, she developed a fearsome reputation and cult following on the alternative music scene of the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, emerging as a prime antagonist of the post-punk subgenre Queercore. Alongside this musical practice, she directs and stars in her own independent films and theatrical productions, and was a central figure in the burgeoning fanzine culture of the 1980s, producing both home-printed magazines and the influential video-zine Fertile La Toyah Jackson. Davis also ran and hosted several highly influential performance/club nights in Los Angeles throughout the 1990s and 2000s including Club Sucker, G.I.M.P., and Bricktops. Now living in Berlin, Davis continues to produce work as a performer, visual artist, sculptor, and writer, and as a musician with her most recent bands Tenderloin and Ruth Fisher. Davis produces work that blends a peculiarly Angeleno understanding of celebrity, glamor, and showbiz with the cultural politics of race, sexuality, privilege, and class, all made within a DIY ethos that stretches back to the earliest days of Californian punk. This interview was recorded in a cold Berlin on December 3, 2014, at Davis's home in Schöneberg.


Background The extent to which angina is associated with future cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease has long been debated. Methods and Results Included were outpatients with established coronary artery disease who were enrolled in the REACH registry and were followed for 4 years. Angina at baseline was defined as necessitating episodic or permanent antianginal treatment. The primary end point was the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Secondary end points included heart failure, cardiovascular hospitalizations, and coronary revascularization. The independent association between angina and first/total events was examined using Cox and logistic regression models. Out of 26 159 patients with established coronary artery disease, 13 619 (52%) had angina at baseline. Compared with patients without angina, patients with angina were more likely to be older, female, and had more heart failure and polyvascular disease (P<0.001 for each). Compared with patients without angina, patients with angina had higher rates of first primary end‐point event (14.2% versus 16.3%, unadjusted hazard ratio 1.19, CI 1.11–1.27, P<0.001; adjusted hazard ratio 1.06, CI 0.99–1.14, P=0.11), and total primary end‐point events (adjusted risk ratio 1.08, CI 1.01–1.16, P=0.03). Patients with angina were at increased risk for heart failure (adjusted odds ratio 1.17, CI 1.06–1.28, P=0.002), cardiovascular hospitalizations (adjusted odds ratio 1.29, CI 1.21–1.38, P<0.001), and coronary revascularization (adjusted odds ratio 1.23, CI 1.13–1.34, P<0.001). Conclusions Patients with stable coronary artery disease and angina have higher rates of future cardiovascular events compared with patients without angina. After adjustment, angina was only weakly associated with cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, but significantly associated with heart failure, cardiovascular hospitalization, and coronary revascularization.


Abstract : Integration and incorporation of COTS components into legacy and emerging systems has never been more attractive in the information industry. The COTS marketplace has become very competitive with the increased number of vendors and the increasing number of products offered. This, combined with ever increasing pressures to deliver systems sooner and cheaper, has only hastened the call to use COTS. However, it is also important to recognize that most markets are driven by that which can be sold to the largest audience, and that audience may not always share the same perspective or notional model as that of any one buyer (in this case the system integrator). Security is one such area of interest that managers and system integrators must address. Each may find themselves in dire straits trying to reconcile what the market has to offer and what the needs are of the information system. This monograph offers a heads-up to decision makers who are building information systems that have security constraints, who feel the market imperatives, and who want to make opportunistic use of what the market has to offer.


Genetic yield improvement in maize (Zea mays L.) has been associated with heterosis and increased tolerance to high plant densities, but the physiological processes underlying heterosis for tolerance to plant density stress have not been identified. The objective of this study was to quantify the response of heterosis for grain yield to increasing plant density, and to examine the processes underlying this response. Field experiments were conducted in Ontario, Canada, during the 2005 and 2006 growing seasons in which the hybrid CG60 x MBS1236 and its parental inbred lines were grown at a low plant density (4 plants m- 2 ), a high plant density (12 plants m -2 ), and a plant density resulting in an approximately equal leaf area index (LAI) for all three genotypes. Increasing plant density from 4 to 12 plants m- 2 resulted in an increase in heterosis for grain yield and harvest index (HI), but did not affect heterosis for dry matter at maturity. Heterosis for dry matter accumulation did not differ between the low and the high plant density treatment, increased from the presilking to the postsilking period, and was only to a small extent attributable to a higher maximum LAI and light interception by the hybrid as compared to its parental inbred lines. Increased heterosis for Hl was associated with a greater plant-to-plant variability and a higher threshold plant dry matter for HI at maturity in the inbred lines as compared to the hybrid.


Music modifies moods and emotions by interacting with brain mechanisms that remain to be identified. One powerful emotional effect induced by music is a shivery, gooseflesh type of skin sensation (commonly called "chills" or "thrills"), which may reflect the brain9s ability to extract specific kinds of emotional meaning from music. A large survey indicated that college-age students typically prefer to label this phenomenon as "chills" rather than "thrills," but many mistakenly believe that happiness in music is more influential in evoking the response than sadness. A series of correlational studies analyzing the subjective experience of chills in groups of students listening to a variety of musical pieces indicated that chills are related to the perceived emotional content of various selections, with much stronger relations to perceived sadness than happiness. As a group, females report feeling more chills than males do. Because feelings of sadness typically arise from the severance of established social bonds, there may exist basic neurochemical similarities between the chilling emotions evoked by music and those engendered by social loss. Further study of the "chill" response should help clarify how music interacts with a specific emotional process of the normal human brain.


Recent reports showed that thalidomide has anti‐angiogenic activity and is effective for the treatment of refractory multiple myeloma (MM). We examined the relationship between the clinical efficacy and adverse effects of thalidomide and the plasma concentrations of this drug as well as angiogenic growth factors in refractory MM. Ten out of twenty‐four evaluable patients (42%) showed more than 25% reduction of M‐protein, and eight (33%) achieved more than 50% reduction. These changes were associated with restoration of anemia and recovery of normal immunoglobulin level. Somnolence and headache, constipation, peripheral neuropathy and skin rash were frequently observed, but were well tolerated. However, grade 2–4 severe neutropenia was also observed in nine cases. These adverse effects other than neutropenia occurred more frequently in the patients with higher plasma concentrations of thalidomide (≥2.0 μg/ml at 12 h after the last administration) and were readily alleviated by dose reduction. In contrast, neutropenia developed regardless of the plasma concentration. Plasma concentrations of angiogenic growth factors were frequently elevated before treatment. After thalidomide treatment, these growth factor levels tend to decrease to near‐normal ranges in responders but were still high in most non‐responders. After thalidomide treatment, plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level was significantly reduced in responders (P=0.025), but not in non‐responders (P=0.37). Reduction of plasma VEGF level might be an important indicator for anti‐myeloma effect of thalidomide.


This study examined empirically the impact of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) succession on the financial performance of firms listed on the Nigerian stock exchange. For the purpose of this research, secondary data was used and the instruments of data collection were financial statements. Amatchedpaired t-test was used in testing the hypothesis. The overall results show that using return on asset, return on equity, return on capital employed and Tobin's Q as a measure of performance; companies that experienced forced CEO turnovers had disrupted performances and therefore experienced decreased performance following CEO succession. The results also show a significant decline in the performance of companies that had insider successors. However, the study found increase performance in firms where the CEO voluntarily resigns and an outsider took over as the CEO. As CEO succession has a significant impact on subsequent performance of Nigerian firms, this study therefore recommends that board should have well-structured succession plans that would define what exactly is the goal of the firms and the type of successor required to fit in. In addition the apparent successors should be assessed based on the proficiencies needed to achieve high financial and organizational performance and the capabilities and profile necessary to undertake the role of the CEO should be properly defined. This should include a narrative explanation of the required skill, competencies, attitudes, knowledge and other important abilities required for a standard performance.


In South Africa, significant changes in health care have taken place since the first democratic
elections in 1994. The change had lead to a position of integrated service delivery with specific
reference to primary health care. Increasingly in developing countries, the private sector impacts
significantly on the rights to education and the highest attainable standard of health.
Inappropriate prescribing e.g. prescribing a drug without an acceptable indication, specifying an
incorrect dosage, schedule or duration of treatment, duplicating therapeutic agents and
prescribing drugs without adequate regard to potential interactions, can cause adverse
outcomes, deplete health care resources, compromise the quality of care and possible increase
in health costs. One approach monitoring prescribing practices is drug utilisation review.
The general objective of this study was to review and interpret aspects of drug usage patterns in
a private primary health care setting, with special reference to the top ten diagnoses made and
the top twenty medicine items prescribed as well as the associated costs. A quantitative,
retrospective drug utilisation review as well as certain aspects of managed and primary health
care, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, medicine formularies and standard
treatment guidelines were reviewed in the literature as a base for the study.
The results of the empirical study showed that 83648 patients consulted at the nine medicentres
during the study period (1 January to 31 December 2001). A total number of 132591 patient
visits (consultations) were made, 140723 medical conditions (diagnoses) performed and
516177 medicine items prescribed during the study period.
Analysis of medicine usage patterns and associated costs of the top ten diagnoses made and
top twenty medicine items prescribed in the study population, revealed the following: The top ten diagnoses determined accounted for 29.07% of the total number of
diagnoses made,
. a total medicine treatment cost accounting for 32.11% in the study population,
. the top twenty medicine items determined accounted for 56.23% of the total medicine
items prescribed and
. a total medicine treatment cost accounting for 28.63% in the study population.
The highest prevalence of diagnoses made and medicine items prescribed was found in age
groups 4 and 5 (Le. patients between the ages of 19 to 40 years) and was also found to be
more prevalent in the female than in the male population.
In completion of the research, recommendations to review the medicentres medicine treatment
protocols and on provision of primary health care education were made. Reference to the
investigation of environmental factors is also made.


A widespread consensus understands Gideon's promise to be largely, sadly, unfulfilled. Yet in truth, we possess precious little hard evidence about the state of indigent defense nationally or the actual impact of indigent defense policies on the quality of representation received. A burgeoning but little-noted trend in the field could alter that state of affairs: the push toward adoption of evidence-based practice. Put most simply, evidence-based practice is a paradigm that aims to tether decision-making to empirical, rather than intuitive or experiential, evaluations of practice or policy options. Originating in medicine and already taking hold in isolated sectors of criminal justice policy, evidence-based practice is sprouting in the indigent defense field, spurred on by legislative reform, shifts in federal funding priorities, and the concerted energy of thought leaders in a number of states. The Essay shines a light on this trend through close examination of three states — North Carolina, Texas, and New York — in which indigent defense oversight commissions have placed the development of evidence-based practice at the front and center of their missions. Critically assessing the prospects for evidence-based indigent defense policymaking, the Essay shares in some of the enthusiasm evinced by evidence-based practice's promoters, but also enumerates significant barriers to a full flowering of the paradigm, and cautions that an expanded evidence base might, ironically, pose barriers to furthering Gideon's promise of equal access to counsel for the indigent.


An exponential body of extant research illustrates the symbiotic dyad action research, andragogy, reflective praxis, and transformative learning share. This paper contains a narrative review of 83 action research papers submitted to the researcher as part of the fulfilment of the Bachelor of Education degree from April 2011 to May 2013. Additionally, interviews via email and telephone with 42 of the 83 student-teachers on their perceptions of the importance of action research on their instructional practice are examined. The narrative review of student-teachers' archival action research proposals was thematically coded to reflect challenges confronting primary school, special needs, and early childhood educators in Trinidad. Interviews from 42 of the 83 participants yielded the following four themes: (a) andragogy/empowerment; (b) student satisfaction; (c) the promotion of a culture of reflective praxis; and (d) transformative learning.


While it is well-known that texture can be used to classify very high resolution (VHR) data, the limits of its applicability have not been unequivocally specified. This study examines whether it is possible to divide satellite images into two classes associated with "low" and "high" texture values in the initial stage of processing VHR images. This approach can be effectively used in object-oriented classification. Based on the panchromatic channel of KOMPSAT-2 images from five areas of Europe, datasets with down-sampled pixel resolutions of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 m were prepared. These images were processed using different texture analysis techniques in order to discriminate between basic land cover classes. Results were assessed using the normalized feature space distance expressed by the Jeffries–Matusita distance. The best results were observed for images with the highest resolution processed by the Laplacian filter. Our research shows that a classification approach based on the idea of "low" and "high" textures can be effectively applied to panchromatic data with a resolution of 8 m or higher.


New scientific and technological opportunities exist by marrying dusty plasma research with metamaterials. Specifically, by balancing control and self-assembly, certain laboratory plasmas can become a generic levitation platform for novel structure formation and nanomaterial synthesis. We propose to experimentally investigate two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) levitated structures of metamaterials and their properties. Such structures can self assemble in laboratory plasmas, similar to levitated dust crystals which were discovered in the mid 1990's. Laboratory plasma platform for metamaterial formation eliminates substrates upon which most metamaterials have to be supported. Three types of experiments, with similar setups, are discussed here. Levitated crystal structures of metamaterials using anisotropic microparticles are the most basic of the three. The second experiment examines whether quasicrystals of metamaterials are possible. Quasicrystals, discovered in the 1980's, possess so-called forbidden symmetries according to the conventional crystallography. The proposed experiment could answer many fundamental questions about structural, thermal and dynamical properties of quasicrystals. And finally, how to use nanoparticle coated microparticles to synthesize very long carbon nanotubes is also described. All of the experiments can fit inside a standard International Space Station locker with dimensions of 8-inch x 17-inch X 18-inch. Microgravity environment is deemed essential in particularmore » for large 3D structures and very long carbon nanotube synthesis.« less


When facing any vascular lesion present in the first moments of life, it is necessary to determine whether one is dealing with a tumour or a vascular malformation, given the different evolution of both processes and, hence, the different treatments they require. Diagnosis is basically clinical, based on a correct anamnesis and a detailed physical exploration. The first thing is to establish whether the lesion was present at birth and has changed size significantly, which would lead one to think of a haemangioma or, on the contrary, whether it is congenital and of very slow growth, such as vascular malformations. Facing dubious lesions, it is recommendable to carry out a biopsy with immunohistochemistry for the GLUT-1 antibody, specific to haemangiomas. Amongst the image tests, the first choice is usually ecography-Doppler, which makes it possible to determine whether the lesion is of high or low flow and to distinguish whether one is dealing with a haemangioma or a vascular malformation. Depending on the type of lesion, its localisation and degree of affectation it might be necessary to carry out radiography, magnetic resonance, phlebography, angio-resonance, arteriography or lymphoscintigraphy to complete the study. In more particular cases, such as multiple haemangiomatosis, it is necessary to carry out an hepatic echography, blood concealed in faeces, gastroscopy and colonoscopy, as well a determination of thyroid hormones; and in venous or combined extensive malformations, a haemogram and coagulation tests. On the other hand, the possible repercussions on other organs make a multidisciplinary approach essential, with the participation of different specialists. Due to the wide spectrum covered by vascular anomalies, treatment must be individualised.


Abstract For estimating fatalities and injured within minutes after an earthquake worldwide, we rely on real-time teleseismic determinations of epicenters. To estimate the teleseismic location errors, we computed the difference between the local epicenters of the dense seismograph networks of Japan, Italy, and Taiwan with those given by the PDE, those distributed in real time by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC). The average difference is 16 and 8 km between PDE teleseismic epicenters and those by the local networks for Japan/Taiwan and Italy, respectively. For EMSC epicenters, the average difference is 13 km for Italy. The average difference between real-time USGS parameters and those listed in the PDE is 12 km (median 9 km) for 30 earthquakes in Japan. Comparisons of real-time USGS epicenters and the Japan Meterological Agency (JMA) locations yield an average difference of 31 km (median 26 km). Estimates indicate that the epicenter errors in the local catalogs are typically 1 and 3 km for Japan/Italy and Taiwan, respectively. Assuming that the differences in earthquake locations are mostly due to teleseiseismic errors, we conclude that the mean errors in real-time epicenter solutions are in the range of 25 to 35 km. This implies that for earthquakes of M ≈ 6:7 in the vicinity of a medium-sized city (80,000), the fatality estimates using QLARM in real time have to range from near 0 to 10,000 in the developing world and from 0 to 500 in an industrialized country. These results were verified by comparison with observed numbers of fatalities in the cases of the 2003 M 6.7 Bam, Iran, and the 2008 M 6.9 Iwate–Miyagi, Japan, earthquakes.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the antidepressant, nortriptyline, is effective for treatment of depression, tinnitus-related disability, and tinnitus symptoms in patients with severe chronic tinnitus.

DESIGN
A 12-week, double-blind, randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
A university otolaryngology clinic.

PATIENTS
Ninety-two subjects with severe chronic tinnitus: 38 with current major depression and 54 with depressive symptoms and significant tinnitus-related disability.

INTERVENTION
Nortriptyline (maintained at 50 to 150 mg/mL for 6 weeks) or placebo.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Tinnitus Disability Measures, and Audiometric Measures.

RESULTS
Nortriptyline was superior to placebo by multivariate analysis of covariance for depression (10.6 vs 14.3 final Hamilton Depression score), for tinnitus-related disability (1.8 vs 2.4 final MPI Tinnitus Interference), and tinnitus loudness (13.6 vs 20.0 dB final loudness match [in worst ear at tinnitus frequency]). When major depression and depressive symptoms groups were considered separately, nortriptyline was superior to placebo on these same measures but differences did not achieve statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS
The antidepressant nortriptyline decreases depression, functional disability, and tinnitus loudness associated with severe chronic tinnitus. What appears to be irreversible disability of otologic origin may, in part, be reversible disability of psychiatric origin.


Abstract. High Hg levels in the pristine lacustrine ecosystems of the Nahuel Huapi National Park, a protected zone situated in the Andes of Northern Patagonia, Argentina, have initiated further investigations on Hg cycling and source identification. Here we report Hg records in sedimentary sequences to identify atmospheric sources during the past millennium. In addition to global transport and deposition, a potential atmospheric Hg source to be considered is the local emissions associated with volcanic activity, because the Park is situated in the Southern Volcanic Zone. Two sediment cores were extracted from Lake Toncek, a small, high-altitude system reflecting mainly direct inputs associated with atmospheric contributions, and Lake Moreno Oeste, a much larger and deeper lake having an extended watershed covered mostly by native forest. The sedimentary sequences were dated based on both 210Pb and 137Cs profiles. In addition, tephra layers were identified and geochemically characterized for chronological application and to investigate any association of volcanic eruptions with Hg records. Hg concentrations in sediments were measured along with 32 other elements, as well as organic matter, subfossil chironomids, and biogenic silica. Observed background Hg concentrations, determined from the sequence domains with lower values, ranged from 50 to 100 ng g−1 dry weight (DW), whereas the surficial layers reached 200 to 500 ng g−1 DW. In addition to this traditional pattern, however, two deep domains in both sequences showed dramatically increased Hg levels reaching 400 to 650 ng g−1 DW; the upper dated to the 18th to 19th centuries, and the lower around the 13th century. These concentrations are not only elevated in the present profiles but also many-fold above the background values determined in other fresh water sediments, as were also the Hg fluxes, reaching 120 to 150 μg m−2 y−1 in Lake Toncek . No correlation was observed between Hg concentrations and the contents of organic matter, subfossil chironomids, biogenic silica, or the other elements determined. However, distinctly increased Hg concentrations were observed immediately above some tephra layers, suggesting a link to volcanic events. Extended fires might be another potential atmospheric source because the earlier Hg peaks coincide with reported charcoal peaks, whereas the upper Hg peaks coincide with evidences of extended forest fires from tree-ring data and historical records.


An almost complete skull and jaws of Riojasaurus incertus demonstrates that the melanorosaurid skull is the most primitive among prosauropod dinosaurs. The preorbital depression and opening are large, placed anterior to a vertical lacrimal; the jaw articulation is in line with the alveolar plane of the maxilla; the basicranial region does not show a step between the basioccipital and the basisphenoid; and the teeth are rather conical , not leaf shaped. The position of the lacrimal and the preorbital depression suggests that sauropods may be derived from Melanorosauridae and not from prosauropods with a backwardly inclined lacrimal and a preorbital opening that is placed partially below it. The origin of the Prosauropoda is briefly discussed and some shared derived characters between Riojasaurus and Coelophysis appear consistent with the assumption that Triassic Ceratosauria and Melanorosauridae possibly had a near common ancestor, -not Herrarasauridae-, from which both evolutionary lines split.


Curriculum Development in Nursing: Process and Innovation Leana R. Uys and Nomthandazo S. Gwele London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2005, pp. 237. Innovations in nursing education are imperative because of the changing global economy and increased diversity in the workplace. The text by Usy and Gwele states that the successful implementation of innovations in nursing education requires careful consideration of curriculum development because curriculum changes can be daunting to nursing students, faculty, and the school administration. There are many nursing textbooks on curriculum development; however, there is not a single textbook that can be regarded as the authority on the topic of curriculum development. The authors of this text may be seen as experts on the topic of innovative curriculum development, and they present convincing arguments for developing innovative nursing curriculums. A summary of their arguments in chapter one includes: nurse educators have dual roles; nurses face increased demands worldwide; health care is often dependent upon the quality of nurses since they provide the bulk of human resource capacity; traditional hospital-based, lecturer-dependent, and narrowly focused training often does little to prepare for practice in under-served areas, where they need to work and think independently, nurses need to be the leaders in their local health team; and the challenge in nursing is doing more with less (p. 11). In addition, the authors use multiple international case studies to make the above points and include international reading recommendations throughout the text. The authors' arguments in support of innovative curriculums were sound, comprehensive, and logical. Even though the book is only 237 pages, it is well organized and user-friendly. The book has a high level of readability that may be attributed to English being a second language for both authors because their primary language is Afrikaans. The authors guide the reader from general to specifics topics. The book format begins with a philosophical basis for curriculum development and ends with blueprints to develop innovative models. The text provides enough detail for nurse educators to apply the process of developing an innovative curriculum, offers a blueprint for the process, and outlines theoretical rationales for nursing decisions. One of the positive components of the book is that it provides advantages and disadvantages of innovative curricula and a blueprint for committee members who want to implement such models. Another positive outcome of the book is that the authors have developed a global view on nursing as well as illustrated case studies. The format is easy to follow, and the book is divided into thirteen chapters. The authors began chapter one with a review of the philosophical basis for the process of curriculum development. Similarly, chapters two through seven discussed the process, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum development. Each of the chapters (2-7) listed a step in the development process. For example, the title of chapter six is "Implementing a New Curriculum" and at the end of the chapter, one article describes an example of an implementation process, an extensive reading list, and reference to a research article (pp. 93-108). Most importantly, chapters 8 through 13 provide additional examples of common types of innovative curricula advantages and disadvantages as well as describe specific tasks related to developing a curriculum. …


The class E switched mode power amplifier consists of a load network and a single transistor that is operated as a switch at the carrier frequency of the output signal. Main three parts of the power amplifier that specify its total efficiency are: the Q factor of output band-pass filter, the transistor on-state resistance, and the driver stage. In this paper, we design and optimize three common structures of power amplifiers using a random search algorithm. Optimized designs are simulated with HSPICE in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS technology at the carrier frequency of 5.2 GHz. The maximum efficiency for each structure is calculated, and then its bottle-neck is determined. We also achieve the total efficiency of 92.3% for the power amplifier.


Clean water is essential for ecosystem processes and for the maintenance of human populations. However, fresh water accounts for less than three percent of the world's total water volume. Numerous anthropogenic and natural processes impact the quality and quantity of the available resource. The value of high-quality water will likely increase as threats to water resources expand and human demands increase. In the United States, public lands such as forests and grasslands often contain watersheds that have been minimally modified by human disturbances. Wilderness areas in particular often provide disproportionately large volumes of high quality water. Such regions are critically important for providing water supplies that serve a variety of purposes and uses. The value of water draining these lands is arguably higher now than when the National Wilderness Preservation System was created 50 years ago. The purpose of this technical report is to review currently available information and to encourage future research. The report discusses several important topics and themes relating to fresh water resources originating in wilderness areas, including: surface water quality and quantity; groundwater resources; water uses and benefits; ecosystem services and water valuation mechanisms; potential climate change impacts; water-related legislation; and case studies and maps. Case studies highlight the societal benefits that may be obtained from water derived from designated wilderness areas. A GIS mapping analysis of several regions provides a qualitative view of the value of water draining wilderness areas by illustrating the physical proximity of high-quality resources to populous regions. Scientific research completed in the last several decades has provided a framework for understanding the contributions and benefits of large volumes of high-quality water from wilderness areas for a variety of uses. More recent analysis has begun to refine our understanding of these resources in the areas of water supply and quantity, water quality, climate change impacts, and ecosystem services. However, additional crucial research is needed to document and evaluate the benefits of such resources and their importance to ecological vitality, to economies, and to future generations.


A fraction of the cellular nicking-closing (NC) enzyme cosediments with SV40 chromatin isolated after Triton X-100 treatment of infected cells nuclei. Extraction of viral DNA according to the Hirt procedure by treatment of infected cells with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) followed by sedimentation in sucrose gradient to separate the DNA from the bulk of detergent also revealed NC activity associated with DNA. Reconstitution experiments showed that only prebinding of the NC enzyme to DNA protects it against irreversible inactivation by SDS. These results suggest that a fraction of the cellular NC activity is indeed associated with the viral chromosome in vivo.


Over the last few decades, the educational system in Ghana has undergone a series of educational reforms to enhance teaching and learning in the country for high skills acquisition and national development. The Ghana Educational Reforms, initiated in 1987 recognized the need for relevant practical education for the solution of problems for the country's overall development. In line with these reforms, Ghana's polytechnics were upgraded from Second Cycle Technical Institution to Tertiary Institutions in 1992. This was on account of the growing need to produce more middle level manpower for the industries in Ghana. In September 2007, another educational reform took placed and the polytechnics were mandated to train graduates for industry, commence, business and administration in Ghana. Competency Based Training (CBT) therefore has been introduced in the polytechnics in order to help in achieving this goal and objective. The paper highlights on the educational reform that has taken placed in Ghana and the need for polytechnics to reform their programmes and run them on the principles of CBT. It also outlines the importance of CBT in the polytechnic education. Keywords: Educational Reform, Tertiary Institution, Polytechnic, Ghana


New strategies for identifying chemical carcinogens and assessing risk have been proposed based on the Tg.AC (zetaglobin promoted v-Ha-ras) transgenic mouse. Preliminary studies suggest that the Tg. AC mouse bioassay may be an effective means of quickly evaluating the carcinogenic potential of a test agent. The skin of the Tg.AC mouse is genetically initiated, and the induction of epidermal papillomas in response to dermal or oral exposure to a chemical agent acts as a reporter phenotype of the activity of the test chemical. In Tg.AC mouse bioassays, the test agent is typically applied topically for up to 26 weeks, and the number of papillomas in the treated area is counted weekly. Statistical analyses are complicated by within-animal and serial dependency in the papilloma counts, survival differences between animals, and missing data. In this paper, we describe a statistical model for the analysis of skin tumor data from a Tg.AC mouse bioassay. The model separates effects on papilloma latency and multiplicity and accommodates important features of the data, including variability in expression of the transgene and dependency in the tumor counts. Methods are described for carcinogenicity testing and risk assessment. We illustrate our approach using data from a study of the effect of 2,3,7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) exposure on tumorigenesis.


Equine Applied and Clinical Nutrition is a landmark text that provides a comprehensive source of information on the nutrition and feeding management of horses. In this authoritative and accessible account, experts from around the world provide a global perspective while the editors tackle key controversial areas. Topics covered include the basic foundations of equine nutrition (digestive and metabolic physiology, nutrient functions and requirements), nutritional management by life stage or function, the assessment of feedstuffs and feeding programs, and clinical nutrition. Also included is discussion on feed hygiene and the role of manufacturers in feed quality and safety. The book contains abundant practical nutritional advice for the treatment of clinical conditions seen by veterinarians in their daily practice, together with the fundamental information needed to make recommendations for the nutritional management of healthy horses. Equine Applied and Clinical Nutrition provides the most substantial overview currently available of the nutritional management of key equine clinical conditions. It further presents the up-to-date scientific background needed to underpin recommendations. It will be of core relevance to equine veterinarians and nutritionists, and a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as lay horsemen and women who wish to be better informed about their horses' nutritional needs.


A new Copper-base SHS welding material was developed to meet the demand of the welding mend about metal parts in field. The structure and properties of the welding line were studied and the results indicated that the welding was belong to fusion welding, the fusion area between the parent metal and the welding line was clear, the tensile strength of the welding line over 200MPa, the bend strength close to 600MPa and the surface hardness close to HRB130. All these indicated that this copper-base material could be used in emergency maintenance welding about metal parts.


There is no doubt that smoking is damaging global health on an unprecedented scale. However, there is continuing debate on the economics of tobacco control, including the costs and consequences of tobacco control policies. This book aims to fill the analytic gap around this debate This book brings together a set of critical reviews of the current status of knowledge on tobacco control. While the focus is on the needs of low-income and middle- income countries, the analyses are relevant globally. The book examines tobacco use and its consequences including new analyses of welfare issues in tobacco consumption, poverty and tobacco, and the rationale for government involvement. It provides an evidence-based review of policies to reduce demand including taxation, information, and regulation. It critically reviews supply-side issues such as trade and industry and farming issues, including new analyses on smuggling. It also discusses the impact of tobacco control programs on economies, including issues such as employment, tax revenue and welfare losses. It provides new evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of control interventions. Finally, it outlines broad areas for national and international action, including future research directions. A statistical annex will contain information on where the reader can find data on tobacco consumption, prices, trade, employment and other items. The book is directed at academic economists and epidemiologists as well as technical staff within governments and international agencies. Students of economics, epidemiology and public policy will find this an excellent comprehensive introduction to economics of tobacco control.


Mishchenko, L. T., Dunich, A. A., Mishchenko, І. А., Petrenkova, V. P., & Mukha, Т. І. (2018). Monitoring of economically important wheat viruses under weather conditions change in Ukraine and investigation of seed transmission of Wheat streak mosaic virus. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 24(4), 660–669 WSMV and BYDV are the most harmful and widespread viruses of cereals in all wheat growing areas in the world. Many foreign scientifi c reports are devoted to the study of the climate change impact on plants, pathogens and their vectors. But only few of them are about cereal viruses. Recently, data about seed transmission of WSMV is appeared. The aim of the study was to research the variability of economically important wheat viruses (WSMV and BYDV) in several regions of Ukraine under change of weather conditions; and to investigate the ability of Ukrainian WSMV isolates to seed transmission. Long-term monitoring of wheat fi elds has shown that the most widespread and economically important in the Poltava, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions are WSMV and BYDVPAV. In 2011-2017 it was revealed that BYDV and WSMV are replacing each other from year to year, and cases of co-infection of these viruses are not recorded. In 2011, 2013 and 2015 WSMV incidence was 42.4%, 35%, 7%. In contrast, BYDV was detected in 1.2%, 1.5% and 0.9 %, respectively. In 2012 and 2014 the frequency of BYDV detection was higher than WSMV (40-41% and 1-13.6%, respectively). An analysis of dependence of viruses' circulation in the agrocenoses on weather conditions change is carried out. It has been established that the periodic variability of viruses (WSMV or BYDV) is closely related to agroclimatic changes (air temperature, rainfall, temperature at soil surface, soil temperature on tillering node depth of winter crops and perennial grasses, and soil freezing depth in winter) that affect their host plants, vectors throughout the year and plants reservoirs in the winter, and also cause symptoms similar to viral infection. Decrease of viral infection of wheat and obtaining more stable gross harvest of grain and yield in recent years is substantiated. This is due to the creation of new wheat cultivars, adapted to negative biotic/abiotic factors and modifying the sowing dates to later ones. It has been experimentally proved that the Poltava isolate of WSMV is not seed-transmitted. Even if contamination of seeds with WSMV is possible, the frequency of such cases is insignifi cant and, as we think, does not play an important role in the epidemiology of this wheat virus in Ukraine.


The nervous system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as an excellent model for fundamental neuroscience as well as for biomedical research of human neurological diseases. In this thesis, two aspects of the neuromuscular system have been investigated: the role of the IkB-protein Cactus in the larval neuromuscular junction and the morphology of motor terminals throughout adult life.We found that cactus mutant larvae have poor locomotion, morphological abnormalities at the presynaptic site of motor terminals and impaired mechanical and electrophysiological properties, demonstrating that Cactus is clearly involved in the normal functioning of Drosophila neuromuscular system. In the adult, we show that cactus, dorsal and dif are expressed in the brain but are not redistributed between cytoplasm and nucleus in a circadian manner as expected from a previous finding in larval brain. Both Cactus and Dif immunoreactivity was strong in mushroom bodies and antennal lobes, suggesting a putative role in olfactory memory. In the rat, proteins of the same family are involved in the regulation of sleep but we found no indication of such regulation in flies subjected to 6 hrs of sleep deprivation.We found that neuromuscular junctions continue to change throughout adult life. Two types of long-term changes in the morphology of neuromuscular junctions are demonstrated here: a daily change in the size of synaptic boutons and long-term changes in bouton size developing over several weeks. By careful morphological studies of flight neuromuscular terminals in clock-gene mutants and wild type flies of different ages we demonstrate that the daily changes depend on the biological clock and disappear in the old fly. Moreover, we show that light is necessary for the motor neurons studied to reach maximum size of synaptic boutons. Lastly, we found that the two clock genes period and timeless are also necessary to control axonal branching.Transmission electron microscopy revealed several ultrastructural features distinct of the aging fly and indicative of reduced plasticity. We used a temperature-sensitive allele of shibire that rapidly and reversibly blocks vesicle recycling to investigate whether the morphological phenotype found in neuromuscular junctions of aging flies could be explained by impairment of endocytotic mechanisms. Our results show a clear reduction of the time required for complete paralysis and an increased recovery time in old flies, indicating that aging correlates with impaired endocytosis and membrane dynamics.


Exosomes, as a subset of extracellular vesicles, function as a mode of intercellular communication and molecular transfer, and facilitate the direct extracellular transfer of proteins, lipids, and miRNAs/mRNAs/DNAs between cells. Cancers have adapted exosomes and related microvesicles as a pathway that can suppress the immune system and establish a fertile local and distant environment to support neoplastic growth, invasion, and metastasis; these tumor-derived exosomes affect immunoregulation mechanisms, including immune activation and immune suppression. Immune cell-derived exosomes can modulate the immune response in cancer, which supports the belief that these membranous vesicles are immunotherapeutic reagents. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in the cancer immunotherapy, roles of exosomes in cancer, immunoregulation of tumor-derived exosomes, and immunomodulation by immune cell-derived exosomes. The topics covered here highlight novel insights into the development of efficient exosome-based cancer vaccines for cancer therapeutic intervention.


Sato et al. used a strain of yeast lacking the pheromone receptor to functionally screen mammalian cDNA libraries and identify nonreceptor proteins that activate heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein) signaling. They identified a previously uncharacterized protein that they called activator of G protein signaling (AGS) 8, which was derived from cardiac tissue in a rat model of transient myocardial ischemia. Expression of AGS8 mRNA was increased in ischemic ventricles but not in other models of cardiac dysfunction. The effects of hypoxia were specific: Whereas expression of AGS8 mRNA increased in response to hypoxia in cultured ventricular myocytes, it was unaffected in aortic smooth muscle cells, aortic endothelial cells, and cardiac fibroblasts. AGS8 was functionally active in yeast strains that expressed various Gα subunits, including a mutant Gαi2 believed to remain bound to GDP (rather than exchanging GTP for GDP), but required the presence of Gβγ and downstream components of the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway (the kinase Ste20 and the scaffolding protein Ste5). Moreover, an in vitro binding assay indicated that AGS8 interacted with Gβγ but not with Gαi1/2, Gαi3, Gαo, or Gαs. In COS-7 cells, coexpression of AGS8 with Gβγ and the Gβγ effector PLC-β2 did not inhibit Gβγ-stimulated inositol phosphate production; rather, it reversed inhibition of Gβγ-stimulated inositol phosphate production by Gα13. A similar reversal by AGS8 of inhibitory effects of Gα on Gβγ function was apparent in yeast. Thus, AGS8 appears to be a regulator of G protein signaling that is induced in ischemic heart to act through a mechanism involving interaction with Gβγ. M. Sato, M. J. Cismowski, E. Toyota, A. V. Smrcka, P. A. Lucchesi, W. M. Chilian, S. M. Lanier, Identification of a receptor-independent activator of G protein signaling (AGS8) in ischemic heart and its interaction with Gβγ. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 797-802 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The two most important words Harry Markowitz ever wrote are "portfolio selection." In 1952, when everyone in the stock market was looking for the next hot stock, as a doctoral candidate, he proposed to look at many, diverse stocks--a portfolio. He laid the first cornerstone of Modern Portfolio Theory and defended the idea that strategic asset growth means factoring in the risk of an investment. More than 60 years later, the father of modern finance revisits his original masterpiece, describes how his theory has developed, and proves the vitality of hisrisk-return analysis in the current global economy. Risk-Return Analysis opens the door to agroundbreaking four-book series giving readers a privileged look at the personal reflections and current strategies of a luminary in finance. This first volume is Markowitz's response to what he calls the "Great Confusion" that spread when investors lost faith in the diversification benefits of MPT during the financial crisis of 2008. It demonstrates why MPT never became ineffective during the crisis, and how you can continue to reap the rewards of managed diversification into the future. Economists and financial advisors will benefit from the potent balance of theory and hard data on mean-variance analysis aimed at improving decision-making skills. Written for the academic and the practitioner withsome math skills (mostly high school algebra), this richly illustrated guide arms you with: Concrete steps to accurately select and apply the right risk measures in a given circumstance Rare surveys of a half-century of literature covering the applicability of MPT Empirical data showing mean and riskmeasure used to maximize return in the long term PRAISE FOR RISK-RETURN ANALYSIS "Harry Markowitz invented portfolio analysis and presented the theory in his famous 1952 article and 1959 book. Nobody has greater insight into the process than Harry. No academic or practitioner can truly claim to understand portfolio analysis unless they have read this volume." -- Martin J. Gruber, Professor Emeritus and Scholar in Residence, Stern School of Business, New York University "Surveying the vast literature inspired by [Markowitz's] own 1959 book has stimulated an outpouring of ideas. He builds on the strengths and limitations of the important papers in order to come up with a position that should silence a lot of critics." -- Jack Treynor, President, Treynor Capital Management "The authors do not overlook various criticisms of the MPT, but rather address them convincingly. This excellent book is an essential reference for academics and practitioners alike." -- Haim Levy, Miles Robinson Professor of Finance, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel "Markowitz's groundbreaking publications on Portfolio Selection prescribe a methodology that a rational decision-maker can follow to optimize his investment portfolio in a risky world...Thischallenging new book clarifies many common misconceptions about modern portfolio theory." -- Roger C. Gibson, author of Asset Allocation and Chief Investment Officer, Gibson Capital, LLC "Contain[s] great wisdom that every economist, portfolio manager, and investor should savor page by page." -- Andrew W. Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor and Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering, MIT Sloan School of Management "[Markowitz's] monumental work in the 1950s would be sufficient to qualify as a lifetime achievement for most mortals, but he keeps spouting fresh insights like lightning flashes year after year, and penetrating ever deeper into the theory, mathematics, and practice of investing." -- Martin Leibowitz, Managing Director, Global Research Strategy, Morgan Stanley "Risk-Return Analysis is a wonderful work in progress by a remarkable scholar who always has time to read what matters, who has the deepest appreciation of scientific achievement, and who has the highest aspirations for the future." -- Enterprising Investor (CFA Institute)


In The Queen v The Commissioner of Police for the State of Tasmania ex parte North Broken Hill Limited (Trading as Associated Pulp and Paper Mills and APPM), (hereafter called the APPM case) Justice Wright has foreshadowed the possibility that the scope and ambit of police discretion may be under severe, judicial threat in the state of Tasmania, if not Australia. The facts of the APPM dispute are destined to be replicated in one degree or another during the 1990's as Australian industrial relations undergo fundamental change. The system of industrial relations being created in Victoria and Tasmania, under Liberal State Governments, has the potential for generating a repetition of the APPM dispute. Therefore the APPM ruling will be of considerable importance in future industrial disputes.


Investigations were carried out in order to assess the groundwater chemistry of aquifers in the Soutpansberg Basin. Water samples were collected from Sagole, Tshipise, Mphephu, Dopeni and Siloam thermal springs during the winter and summer seasons of May 2013 and October 2013, respectively. Water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen and total dissolved solids were determined on-site, using a multiparameter meter. The concentrations of major anions (Cl − , NO 3 − , SO 4 2− and PO 4 3− ,) were determined using ion chromatography. Cations (Na + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + , Al 3+ and Fe 2+ ) were analysed using optical emission spectrometry. The highest water temperatures during both the summer and winter seasons were recorded at Siloam (59.4°C and 59.0°C), Tshipise (51.2°C and 51.2°C) and Dopeni (46.0°C and 46.5°C), respectively. The thermal spring water samples were found to be rich in sodium, bicarbonate and chlorine with very low concentrations of other element species. The chemical composition of Sagole and Siloam thermal springs indicates the same origin of Na-Cl-HCO 3 waters, typical of deep circulating groundwater. None of the thermal springs exhibited any evidence of groundwater pollution. The seasonal variations in the chemical composition of winter and summer samples were found to be negligible and consequently show that the source of the hot water was deep and therefore not affected by seasonal rainfall recharge.


Wireless sensor networks are emerging from the mobile ad hoc network concept and as such they share many similarities. However, it is not the similarities that differentiates sensor networks from their ad hoc counterparts, it is the differences. One of the most important difference is that they should operate unattended for long periods of time. This is especially important since they usually rely on a finite energy source to function. To get this into a perspective, a sensor network constitutes of a sensor field where a number of sensor nodes are deployed. The sensor nodes relay the gathered information to a base station from which the data are forwarded either through a network or directly to the enduser. The communication between sensor nodes are conducted in an ad hoc manner, which means that paths toward the base station are dynamically constructed based on current network conditions. The network conditions changes and examples of this includes node failure, deactivated nodes, variations in the radio channel characteristics, etc. As mentioned above, the sensor nodes are energy constrained and one of the more important design criteria is the life time of a sensor node or network. To be able to evaluate this criteria an energy dissipation model is needed. Most of the energy dissipation models developed for wireless sensor networks are not based on the basic sensor node architecture and as such they where not accurate enough for our needs. Thus, an energy dissipation model was developed. This model utilises the basic sensor node architecture to obtain the operation states available and their corresponding state transitions. Communication is the most energy consuming task a sensor node can undertake. As such, the contributed energy dissipation model is used to evaluate this aspect of the proposed controlled flooding protocols. Generally, the controlled flooding protocols tries to minimise the number of forwarding nodes and by doing this they lower the energy consumed in the network. Along with this, the communication overhead of a protocol also needs to be taken into account. Our idea is to utilise the received signal strength directly to make forwarding decisions based on a cost function. This idea has a number of key features, which are: no additional overhead in the message, no neighbour knowledge and no location information are needed. The results from the proposed flooding protocols are promising as they have a lower number of forwarding nodes and a longer lifetime than the others.


Photosystem II (PSII) is the light-harvesting water oxidase of thylakoid membranes. The catalytic center where oxygen forms in PSII is located at the manganese cluster, Mn4O5Ca, which is highly conserved throughout nature as seen in cyanobacteria and in higher plants. PSII requires both Ca2+ and Cl- for oxygen evolution activity, but their roles in catalysis and the interactions between the two cofactors are not well understood. Two studies were done to elucidate the interaction between Ca2+ and Cl-. The first study investigated the interdependence of Ca2+ and Cl- activation of oxygen evolution in spinach PSII using enzyme kinetics analyses at the low pH of 5.5. At this pH substrate inhibition at high chloride concentrations was observed, with a decrease in inhibition when the Ca2+ concentration increased. The KI for Cl- doubled from 31 mM at 0.2 mM Ca2+ to 68 mM at 5 mM Ca2+. Bisubstrate enzyme kinetics analyses of activation showed that the Michaelis constants were 0.26 mM for Ca2+and 0.97 mM for Cl- and the dissociation constants were 0.31 mM for Ca2+ and 1.15 mM for Cl-. The second study investigated the effect of fluoride, a competitive inhibitor of Cl- activation, on the tyrosine Z (TyrZ) radical that is involved in electron transfer from the manganese cluster. Using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, the TyrZ radical was observed at 77 K in fluoride-inhibited PSII, indicating that electron transfer as blocked. The study showed a positive correlation in TyrZ radical formation with increasing F- concentration which is believed to indicate formation of the S2YZ* state.


Quality management provides to companies a framework to improve quality in overall systems, reduction of costs, reallocation of resources efficiently, correct planning of strategies, prevent or correct errors in the right time and increase the performance of companies. In this text, we discuss the different theories in this field, their obligatory or non-obligatory compliance, the importance of quality management for exporting companies and a case study of a Colombian firm that its main objective is to manage quality. In conclusion, we find out that there is different types of quality management systems such as Juran's trilogy, Deming 14 points, Six sigma, HACCP, and so on;
also that companies have to manage suppliers and that quality has a positive influence on exports volume; in the case of Colombian small and medium enterprises, it can be mentioned that the majority has implemented tools regarding quality management but is not enough.


The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which was passed in the late 1980's, set provisions to help remove the barriers to receiving an education for the more than 1.35 million children living in homelessness today. In the 25 years that have passed since the enactment of this legislation McKinney-Vento continues to define the educational rights afforded to homeless and highly mobile students. The purpose of this research paper was to determine if this legislation continues to meet the needs of homeless and highly mobile students. In this qualitative study, four district liaisons to homeless and highly mobile students were interviewed. The school districts that these liaisons served represented rural, suburban and urban districts within Minnesota. After analyzing the data, six main themes and multiple subthemes emerged. The six main themes were: district liaison role, collaboration, economic climate, funding, unmet student needs, and needed changes to McKinney-Vento Legislation. While McKinney-Vento Legislation provides an important framework for the educational rights of homeless and highly mobile students, more work needs to be done to provide the same educational experience as housed students. While this could include many recommendations, the most important is providing equitable funding for all school districts with homeless and highly mobile students. Betters HOMELESS AND HIGHLY MOBILE 3


Increased domestic energy production is of enhanced importance to the United States. Given the growing focus on domestic energy development, many, including tribal governments, have increasingly looked to Indian country for potential energy development opportunities. Such attention is warranted, as abundant alternative and renewable energy sources exist within Indian country. Many tribes are increasingly exploring possible opportunities related to alternative and renewable energy development. Despite this interest, large alternative and renewable energy projects are virtually absent from Indian country. This article explores why, despite the great potential for alternative and renewable energy development in Indian country and strong tribal interest in such development, such little development is occurring. Congress enacted the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act (HEARTH Act) in July 2012 to address one of the obstacles to alternative and renewable energy development in Indian country — federal approval for leases of tribal lands. In brief, the HEARTH Act allows tribes with tribal leasing provisions pre-approved by the Secretary of the Interior to lease tribal land without Secretarial approval required for each individual lease. To fully understand the potential implications of the HEARTH Act, this Article explores obstacles to effective energy development in Indian country, what the HEARTH Act is and how it supposedly addresses those obstacles, and some significant problems associated with enactment of the HEARTH Act — specifically, the mandatory environmental review provisions and waiver of federal liability, and the impact of the liability waiver on the federal government's trust responsibility to federally recognized tribes. The article ends with some concluding thoughts on how the HEARTH Act and potential future reforms to the existing federal regulatory scheme applicable to energy development in Indian country might better address tribal sovereignty and the federal trust responsibility to Indian country.


We present a probabilistic factor analysis model which can be used for studying spatio-temporal datasets. The spatial and temporal structure is modeled by using Gaussian process priors both for the loading matrix and the factors. The posterior distributions are approximated using the variational Bayesian framework. High computational cost of Gaussian process modeling is reduced by using sparse approximations. The model is used to compute the reconstructions of the global sea surface temperatures from a historical dataset. The results suggest that the proposed model can outperform the state-of-the-art reconstruction systems.


This paper recommends an approach to the implementation of semantic representation languages (SRLs) which exploits a parallelism between SRLs and programming languages (PLs). The design requirements of SRLs for natural language are similar to those of PLs in their goals. First, in both cases we seek modules in which both the surface representation (print form) and the underlying data structures are important. This requirement highlights the need for general tools allowing the printing and reading of expressions (data structures). Second, these modules need to cooperate with foreign modules, so that the importance of interface technology (compilation) is paramount; and third, both compilers and semantic modules need "inferential" facilities for transforming (simplifying) complex expressions in order to ease subsequent processing. But the most important parallel is the need in both fields for tools which are useful in combination with a variety of concrete languages -- general purpose parsers, printers, simplifiers (transformation facilities) and compilers. This arises in PL technology from (among other things) the need for experimentation in language design, which is again parallel to the case of SRLs. Using a compiler-based approach, we have implemented NLL, a public domain software package for computational natural language semantics. Several interfaces exist both for grammar modules and for applications, using a variety of interface technologies, including especially compilation. We review here a variety of NLL, applications, focusing on COSMA, an NL interface to a distributed appointment manager.


This paper describes and explores the case of a South African bioprospecting consortium involving some technology transfer, but also exhibiting features of a biotechnology learning network which includes different communities-of-technology practice and various partnerships, within a national system of innovation. This emerging social architecture for knowledge production is occurring at the tension-fraught intersection of South Africa's biodiversity and two coexisting epistemic cultures of unequal power modern science and indigenous knowledge systems. The case suggests that there is a need to probe power/knowledge/culture relations further in configurations for technology development and innovation in Africa, as well as the role of national public organisations in shaping new technology development policy. The bioprospecting project, while not unproblematic, may be a case of social innovation whose effectiveness will depend as much on a more equitable "inward stretch" to endogenous knowledge as on "outward reach" to global sources.


To observe the solar corona, stray light in the coronagraph, arising primarily from an external occulter and diaphragm illuminated directly by the Sun, should be strongly suppressed. A toothed occulter and diaphragm can be used to suppress stray light because they diffract much less light in the central area than a circular disk. This study develops a method of computing the light diffracted by a toothed occulter and diaphragm, obtaining the optimum shape using this method. To prove the method's feasibility, the diffracted fields of circular and rectangular disks are computed and compared with those calculated by a conventional method.


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Regeneration of a cut muscle nerve fails to restore the stretch reflex, and the companion paper to this article [Alvarez FJ, Titus-Mitchell HE, Bullinger KL, Kraszpulski M, Nardelli P, Cope TC. J Neurophysiol (August 10, 2011). doi:10.1152/jn.01095.2010] suggests an important central contribution from substantial and persistent disassembly of synapses between regenerated primary afferents and motoneurons. In the present study we tested for physiological correlates of synaptic disruption. Anesthetized adult rats were studied 6 mo or more after a muscle nerve was severed and surgically rejoined. We recorded action potentials (spikes) from individual muscle afferents classified as IA like (*IA) by several criteria and tested for their capacity to produce excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in homonymous motoneurons, using spike-triggered averaging (STA). Nearly every paired recording from a *IA afferent and homonymous motoneuron (93%) produced a STA EPSP in normal rats, but that percentage was only 17% in rats with regenerated nerves. In addition, the number of motoneurons that produced aggregate excitatory stretch synaptic potentials (eSSPs) in response to stretch of the reinnervated muscle was reduced from 100% normally to 60% after nerve regeneration. The decline in functional connectivity was not attributable to synaptic depression, which returned to its normally low level after regeneration. From these findings and those in the companion paper, we put forward a model in which synaptic excitation of motoneurons by muscle stretch is reduced not only by misguided axon regeneration that reconnects afferents to the wrong receptor type but also by retraction of synapses with motoneurons by spindle afferents that successfully reconnect with spindle receptors in the periphery.


Abstract Universities play a crucial role in the development of any nation. The success of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is the bedrock of the growth in human capacity required to support the growth of an economy. However, HEIs have been criticized for not playing their rightful role in national development. This has been partly attributed to not being able to manage their performance in view of the dynamic and turbulent environment they are operating in. Most HEIs have been caught up in the "business as usual" situation preferring doing things in the traditional ways as opposed to changing with the times. As a result their survival has been at risk especially from those HEIs who have adopted the "business un-usual" mentality. It is as a result of the challenges facing Kenyan HEIs that this paper proposes an adoption of the Balanced Scorecard as a management tool in HEIs. This paper provides a review of literature on the HEI environment globally and in Kenya, highlighting the challenges faced by Kenyan HEIs and proposes the use of the BSC to address the same. The BSC is a tool that helps mainstream the vision and mission of HEIs in their activities thus making the HEIs become strategy focused organizations. The BSC is a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization and to monitor organization performance against strategic goals. Finally, a sample BSC for HEIs in Kenya is proposed. It is felt that if HEIs focused on the issues proposed and measured their performance on the issues identified, their performance will be improved tremendously.