Abstract A new group of viruses carrying naturally chimeric single-stranded (ss) DNA genomes that encompass genes derived from eukaryotic ssRNA and ssDNA viruses has been recently identified by metagenomic studies. The host range, genomic diversity, and abundance of these chimeric viruses, referred to as cruciviruses, remain largely unknown. In this article, we assembled and analyzed thirty-seven new crucivirus genomes from twelve peat viromes, representing twenty-four distinct genome organizations, and nearly tripling the number of available genomes for this group. All genomes possess the two characteristic genes encoding for the conserved capsid protein (CP) and a replication protein. Additional ORFs were conserved only in nearly identical genomes with no detectable similarity to known genes. Two cruciviruses possess putative introns in their replication-associated genes. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the replication proteins revealed intra-gene chimerism in at least eight chimeric genomes. This highlights the large extent of horizontal gene transfer and recombination events in the evolution of ssDNA viruses, as previously suggested. Read mapping analysis revealed that members of the 'Cruciviridae' group are particularly prevalent in peat viromes. Sequences matching the CP ranged from 0.6 up to 10.9 percent in the twelve peat viromes. In contrast, from sixty-nine available viromes derived from other environments, only twenty-four contained cruciviruses, which on average accounted for merely 0.2 percent of sequences. Overall, this study provides new genome information and insights into the diversity of chimeric viruses, a necessary first step in progressing toward an accurate quantification and host range identification of these new viruses.


Social economy is a recent subject of interest for public agenda mainly due to its capacity to support sustainable jobs especially but not exclusively for vulnerable people. The paper explores the profile of Romanian social entrepreneurs with a particular attention paid to social economy area. The research hypothesis is that the empowerment of vulnerable people towards social economy through entrepreneurship is rather an exception than a general sustainable employment solution. The second research hypothesis is that the employment of vulnerable people in social economy area is supported by social insertion enterprises rather than social enterprises. The first part of the paper is focused on international and national regulations as well as institutional framework with an impact on social economy and vulnerable groups. The second part of the paper explores the profile of Romanian entrepreneurs from an international comparative perspective. The third part of the paper assesses outputs of the European Social Fund (ESF) financed projects towards employment of vulnerable people. As methodology, the article is based on desk research on international and national regulations, primary and secondary analysis of EUROSTAT 2000-2012 Eurobarometer databases, and the database of Romanian volumes dedicated to social economy research. Our forecast is that successful implementation of ESF financed projects, especially priority axis 6 "Promoting social inclusion", main domain of intervention 6.1. Development of social economy depends on the ex-ante assessment of employability of vulnerable groups both as entrepreneurs and employees in social enterprises.


In recent years, census-based and other studies have documented a widening gap between better-off and more deprived residential areas in Britain. While much of this will have come about in situ, through increasing disparities in household wealth and incomes across the social scale, migration may also be contributing. The decennial population census is the only source that can provide robust statistical data on the social composition of residential movement between sub-regional and local areas. This chapter uses the 2001 Census Special Migration Statistics to examine whether migration is increasing the degree of socio-spatial polarisation within Britain's larger city regions. Following an introduction to the study approach and the intricacies of the census data on migration, the results of data analysis are presented in three sections. The first looks at the social composition of the migration exchanges taking place between the 27 cities and the rest of their city regions, testing to see whether the cities' migration balances are less favourable for people of higher occupational status. This identifies three types of city region, based on whether there is a positive, negative or no strong relationship between migration and socio-economic status. An example of each of these types of city region – London, Birmingham and Bristol respectively – is selected for a more detailed examination of the patterns of movement between their constituent residential zones. For these three cases, the second set of analyses compares the migration performance of each of the residential zones with its existing social status in order to see whether or not these within-city-region movements are reinforcing the existing socio-economic patterns. The third set of results seeks a better understanding of the dynamics of the migration through examining the residential movements between all pairings of the zones in each of the three city regions and identifying how consistently the balance of these migration exchanges favours the better-off of the two zones. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-755-8.ch010


Since the early 2000s, research by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and their coathors has revolutionized our understanding of income and wealth inequality. In this paper, I highlight some of the key empirical facts from this research and comment on how they relate to macroeconomics and to economic theory more generally. Top inequality is tightly linked to Pareto distributions. The paper describes simple mechanisms that give rise to this Pareto inequality and considers the economic forces that influence top inequality over time and across countries.


The mercury in Tibetan medicine has become important focus in the research on medicine safety evaluation. The total mercury and the ionic mercury in artificial gastric juice of Tibetan medicine Dangzuo were detected by Gold Amalgam Enrichment-Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (GAE-AFS). In the present study, Tibetan medicine Dangzuo was prepared by H2SO4-KNO3 digestion system and artificial gastric juice. The established method and condition of instrument were investigated. Under the optimum experimental conditions and instrumental operation parameters, the recovery (n=6) of HgS is 99.56$ (RSD = 1.94%), the limit of detection for mercury is 0.2 ng x L(-1), the linear range is 0-500 ng x L(-1), and r = 0.9999. Then, the total mercury and the ionic mercury in artificial gastric juice in Dangzuo samples from different Tibetan regions were assayed. The result showed that the ranges of total mercury and ionic mercury in artificial gastric juice were 3.9980-16.7358 x mg x g(-1) and 45.5377-1033.9850 ng x g(-1), respectively. The analytical method mentioned above is rapid and accurate for determining the amount of mercury in Tibetan medicine Dangzuo.


This paper presents an assessment of the implications of climate change for global river flood risk. It is based on the estimation of flood frequency relationships at a grid resolution of 0.5×0.5°, using a global hydrological model with climate scenarios derived from 21 climate models, together with projections of future population. Four indicators of the flood hazard are calculated; change in the magnitude and return period of flood peaks, flood-prone population and cropland exposed to substantial change in flood frequency, and a generalised measure of regional flood risk based on combining frequency curves with generic flood damage functions. Under one climate model, emissions and socioeconomic scenario (HadCM3 and SRESA1b), in 2050 the current 100-year flood would occur at least twice as frequently across 40 % of the globe, approximately 450 million flood-prone people and 430 thousand km of flood-prone cropland would be exposed to a doubling of flood frequency, and global flood risk would increase by approximately 187 % over the risk in 2050 in the absence of climate change. There is strong regional variability (most adverse impacts would be in Asia), and considerable variability between climate models. In 2050, the range in increased exposure across 21 climate models under SRES A1b is 31–450 million people and 59 to 430 thousand km of cropland, and the change in risk varies between −9 and +376 %. The paper presents impacts by region, and also presents relationships between change in global mean surface temperature and impacts on the global flood hazard. There are a number of caveats with the analysis; it is based on one global hydrological model only, the climate scenarios are constructed using pattern-scaling, and the precise impacts are sensitive to some of the assumptions in the definition and application.


Scholastic Magazine's 100 Greatest Books for KidsNearly a million copies in print!Colorful pictures and simple rhyming texts help children guess what's peeking through the die-cut windows in this delightful board book. The anticipation of what's hiding on the next page and the bright, engaging illustrations will keep curious babies and toddlers guessing and giggling all the way to the surprise ending.And don't forget to check out the Peek-a Who Matching Game!


There is broad consensus that elected officials, at least in some sense, stand in a fiduciary relationship with those they represent. But there is very little consensus on what, if anything, courts should do about that. One major concern with applying fiduciary ideas to government is whether courts -- which lack the democratic legitimacy and accountability of the elected branches -- have the institutional competence to police the relationship between elected officials and the electorate, which may sometimes require making political judgments. This chapter for the Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law, addresses the institutional competence of courts in fiduciary government. Courts face similar questions about their institutional competence in private law. We do not tend to think that judges are any better at making business judgments than political ones. But private law has developed a range of strategies for dealing with courts' incompetence in business matters. Corporate law, for example, sets up incentives for conflicted fiduciaries to seek approval of disinterested decisionmakers to whose business judgment courts can then defer. This chapter explains how courts can use similar strategies to address concerns about their institutional competence when applying fiduciary principles to similarly structured problems in public law. It also responds to some criticisms of my earlier proposal that courts should treat politicians as fiduciaries in the context of political gerrymandering and create incentives for conflicted legislators to adopt more independent processes for drawing district lines.


In this paper, we develop and test a theoretical framework that considers how established firms forming partnerships with startups may be subject to spatial and temporal myopia and how these tendencies are moderated by the established firms' histories of experiencing essential failures and successes in solving R&D problems. We argue that prior failures and successes differ in the extent to which they challenge established firm's conventional ways of solving problems and in the extent to which they allow firms to balance long term and short term organizational demands, so that prior failures and successes very differently shape myopic behavior in partnership formations. The study argues for the value of integrating perspectives on myopia and local search with studies examining events of failures and successes to organizational decisions in technological search.


The article analyzes the conditions, peculiarities and application techniques of the step-by-step method of iteration to the equations simple regression which are not reduced to any linear forms of their own parameters and variables. Such a practical task arises often enough during the investigation of the class of Tornquist functions. In practice, such tasks arise in economics during research and analysis of consumer demand on a narrow market segment. In particular, the 2nd equation of this class successfully describes a Russian family's cost for the purchase of relatively expensive tourist products for foreign travels. The method of progressive approximation regards the plotting of the normal equations set with application of the Jordan—Gauß process and the expansion into Taylor's infinite series of the function of the corrections for parameters of the desired equation. The amendments themselves are allowing to calculate the parameters of the Tornquist functions (2nd equation) and accomplish the forecast estimations of budget charges for purchase of the expensive tourist's products. The considerations expressed in this article lead to three local outputs on the applicability of the procedure in question in dealing with similar ones on the content of economic and statistical research problems of supply and demand a high level of tourist products: in the epistemological and methodological aspects of the formulated problem of estimating the parameters in a typical nonlinear this technique (sequential iterative procedure) does not give a final decision, i. e. the results are not complete and not statistically pure; because of the inherent rounding even reliable and accurate measures of economic parameters are approximate. When using iterative procedures, approximation error is added to the actual implementation of the method, and its effectiveness depends on the more or less successful choice of initial conditions approximation and the convergence rate of the iteration process; finally, a common approach to stochastic approximation of a nonlinear function is understood by the author through the use of Taylor series and polynomials search for suitable forms. In particular, the linearization of the equations of simple regression with typical nonlinearity must be carried out by the power series expansion with all members of the first order of smallness eliminated from further calculations. APPROXIMATION APPROACH; LINEAR FORM; REGRESSION EQUATION; PROBABILISTIC DISTRIBUTION; TOURIST'S PRODUCT; SEGMENT OF THE MARKET; CONSUMER DEMAND.


Jurassic rocks in the Danube Region of northwestern Bulgaria and northeastern Serbia have been the subject of numerous earlier studies that have shown notable similarities between their sedimentary facies and depositional environments. In terms of regional palaeotectonic zonation, this area represents the westernmost parts of the Vidin Early–Middle Jurassic Complex Horst and the Mihaylovgrad Early–Middle Jurassic Graben in NW Bulgaria, as well as the easternmost part of the Lower Danubicum in NE Serbia, which collectively take part of the Jurassic Moesian Platform. For compiling an overall conception of the palaeoenvironments that existed during the Jurassic, nine palaeoenvironmental sketch maps, from the Aalenian to the late Tithonian, have been composed in this study, based on reinterpretation of the data borrowed from previous literature. It became evident that the Middle Jurassic sedimentary successions of the Danube Region record an evolution from an initially isolated lacustrine-palustrine depositional setting (Aalenian) to rapidly expanding shallow to moderately deeper-marine sandy-calcareous setting (late Bajocian–early Callovian). From the middle Callovian and onwards, during the Late Jurassic, the region became an area of laterally extensive pelagic and platform carbonate deposition. This interpretation is consistent with the available earlier data, but it links the facies and their respective settings from NW Bulgaria to NE Serbia, which has not been made to date and will be of benefit for future regional correlations.


The purpose of this thesis is to assess a new method of controlling load in Intelligent Networks (INs). This will be done through the analysis of experimentation results and comparison with existing methods of IN load control. This exercise will result in the investigation and validation of the proposed benefits being offered by this new methodology and the unveiling of its disadvantages. The methodology is known as network-orientated load control for the IN.

Network-orientated load control is demonstrated using the MARINER Service Traffic Load Control System developed by the European Commission's Advanced Communication, Technologies and Services (ACTS) Multi-Agent Architecture for Distributed Intelligent Network Load Control and Overload Protection (MARINER) Project. This system is shown to be a network-orientated load control application operating at the service level, built specifically for Intelligent Networks.

Network-orientated load control is then assessed by deploying the MARINER System on a model of the IN, and running an exhaustive series of experiments. These experiments are structured to test the proposed benefits, limitations and disadvantages of networkorientated load control.

The conclusions drawn from the results of these trials are then compared with existing IN load control characteristics, and used to make an assessment of network-orientated load control for the Intelligent Network.


1. Stability of operation of Francis turbines Hydraulic disturbances often come with the operation of Francis turbines outside of design head and flow. In some cases, the excessive amplitude of the dynamic system response to these disturbances leads to restriction in the normal operation of the plant. Disturbances largely depend upon operating conditions and the particular turbine design. The response amplitude is under a strong influence from the feed pipe dynamics. Technical and economic consequences of a faulty stability of operation are such that the prediction of stability from model tests is one of the major challenges in present research on hydraulic machinery. Acceptance tests performed on a scale model in a hydraulic laboratory may provide the necessary elements for a full description of characteristics significant for the stability of operation of the full-size turbine in its piping system. This thesis is discussed in the report. 2. Dynamic characterization on the scale model The diagnosis for the dynamic behaviour associated with a machine design and given operating conditions is based on the observation of pressure fluctuations in various positions on the model and test circuit. Auxiliary measurements and surveys of cavitation, noise and vibrations support this data. This study presents a set of evaluation criteria for the elaboration of a diagnosis. The method is illustrated using practical examples from published works and from the numerous experiments performed by the author. A discussion of similitude shows that a diagnosis set using this method provides a good characterisation of the dynamic behaviour associated with the particular turbine design. Adapting acoustic power methods to Francis turbine tests provides a quantitative evaluation of disturbance sources. This tool makes it possible to look forward to an actual prediction of oscillation amplitudes associated with the full-size turbine operation. 3. Elements for the prediction The test laboratory provides a description of the dynamic behaviour associated with a particular turbine design in a guaranteed range of operation. This description is based on three elements of evaluation: discussion of the various dynamic phenomena according to operating conditions: relative frequency and amplitude of the part load precession, of 80 % load oscillation, relative frequency of draft tube column free oscillations, vortex-free region, organisation of the full load pulsation; survey of the draft tube cavitation compliance, lumped at the runner outlet, according to operating conditions; relative emission of the acoustic power toward the piping system, according to operating conditions. These three elements allow an adequate representation of the Francis turbine for a computation of stability of operation involving the piping system dynamics. However, this is the limit of what the test laboratory can say; the prototype piping system layout is liable to change after the turbine model acceptance tests. Once the turbine is adequately described the prediction of stability is performed using known methods and is done under responsibility of the technical consultant. 4. Conclusions The proposed method complies with technical and economic requirements of a laboratory acceptance test on a scale model. Following a simple experimental procedure, if yields a good description of the dynamic behaviour associated with a particular Francis turbine design and its guaranteed range of operation. It provides the elements for computations of stability of operation. Systematic use of the method and comparisons with field observations are the logical sequel to this research. This necessary phase of development will make the stability computations finer, for instance in handling damping in the connecting pipes. It will also provide the basis for a definition of scale effects to be used for the correction of similitudes.


ABSTRACT Recent studies have shown that histone proteins can act as antimicrobial peptides in host defense against extracellular bacteria, fungi, and Leishmania promastigotes. In this study, we used human recombinant histone proteins to further study their leishmaniacidal effects and the underlying mechanisms. We found that the histones H2A and H2B (but not H10) could directly and efficiently kill promastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis, L. major, L. braziliensis, and L. mexicana in a treatment dose-dependent manner. Scanning electron microscopy revealed surface disruption of histone-treated promastigotes. More importantly, the preexposure of promastigotes to histone proteins markedly decreased the infectivity of promastigotes to murine macrophages (Mφs) in vitro. However, axenic and lesion-derived amastigotes of L. amazonensis and L. mexicana were relatively resistant to histone treatment, which correlated with the low levels of intracellular H2A in treated amastigotes. To understand the mechanisms underlying these differential responses, we investigated the role of promastigote surface molecules in histone-mediated killing. Compared with the corresponding controls, transgenic L. amazonensis promastigotes expressing lower levels of surface gp63 proteins were more susceptible to histone H2A, while L. major and L. mexicana promastigotes with targeted deletion of the lipophosphoglycan 2 (lpg2) gene (but not the lpg1 gene) were more resistant to histone H2A. We discuss the influence of promastigote major surface molecules in the leishmaniacidal effect of histone proteins. This study provides new information on host innate immunity to different developmental stages of Leishmania parasites.


We investigate whether stellar-mass black holes have to receive natal kicks in order to explain the observed distribution of low-mass X-ray binaries containing black holes within our Galaxy. Such binaries are the product of binary evolution, where the massive primary has exploded forming a stellar-mass black hole, probably after a common envelope phase where the system contracted down to separations of the order of 10–30 R . We perform population synthesis calculations of these binaries, applying both kicks due to supernova mass-loss and natal kicks due to the newly formed black hole. We then integrate the trajectories of the binary systems within the Galactic potential. We find that natal kicks are in fact necessary to reach the large distances above the Galactic plane achieved by some binaries. Further, we find that the distribution of natal kicks would seem to be similar to that of neutron stars, rather than one where the kick velocities are reduced by the ratio of black hole to neutron star mass (i.e. where the kicks have the same momentum). This result is somewhat surprising; in many pictures of stellar-mass black hole formation, one might have expected black holes to receive kicks having the same momentum (rather than the same speed) as those given to neutron stars.


Ecologists often use nonlinear fitting techniques to estimate the parameters of complex ecological models, with attendant frustration. This paper compares three open‐source model fitting tools and discusses general strategies for defining and fitting models. R is convenient and (relatively) easy to learn, AD Model Builder is fast and robust but comes with a steep learning curve, while BUGS provides the greatest flexibility at the price of speed. Our model‐fitting suggestions range from general cultural advice (where possible, use the tools and models that are most common in your subfield) to specific suggestions about how to change the mathematical description of models to make them more amenable to parameter estimation. A companion web site (https://groups.nceas.ucsb.edu/non-linear-modeling/projects) presents detailed examples of application of the three tools to a variety of typical ecological estimation problems; each example links both to a detailed project report and to full source code and data.


Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rare and unusual manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It deserves special mention whenever a case of PG is seen in any patient population, due to its rarity. It has an unusual association with SLE, with few documented cases. A case of a 53-year-old male patient, who had an unusual first presentation of SLE in 1995, with mainly hematological and renal manifestations of SLE and with a lack of any dermatological or musculoskeletal features until 2012 is presented here. The patient developed two ulcerating lesions on right leg and was diagnosed with PG following biopsy, which was successfully treated with corticosteroids and appropriate wound management. J Med Cases. 2014;5(8):455-458 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jmc1845w


GENOVA, K. and T. MEHMEDOV, 2016. Study of performance on natural resistance in pheasants, infected with pathogenic strain of E.coli and treated with Enterococcus Faecium M74. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 140–143 Probiotics are live micro-organisms that bring benefits to consumer health. It is well known that they are used for prevention of bacterial diseases in poultry, as well as to potent the growth performance and immune response of poultry. The present work was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of probiotic Laktiferm Basic 300® on natural resistance in pheasants, infected with pathogenic strain of E.coli. Pheasants were inoculated intra ingluvial with enteropathogenic strain of E.coli O 103 in an amount of 108 cfu/ml on the 3rd day and divided into four equal groups: Group (1) served as a positive control group, received colistin sulfate. Group (2) was negative control. Group (3) was fed with the probiotic while group (4) was fed with nutritional antibiotic Pharmastim 8%® .Evaluations were made for immunological changes. Our results showed that Enterococcus Faecium M74 possesses positive effect on phagocytic activity and on bactericidal activity of blood serum. Significant decrease was recorded in the phagocytic percent and phagocytic index of neutrophils of pheasants in negative control.


In a survey of 350 laboratories, 41 of 210 respondents indicated that they performed antifungal susceptibility tests. Two-thirds performed 20 or fewer tests per year, and most used a broth dilution method to test amphotericin B and flucytosine activity against Candida albicans. The broth dilution procedure of S. Shadomy and A. Espinel-Ingroff (p. 647-653, in E.H. Lennette, ed., Manual of Clinical Microbiology, 3rd ed., 1980) was the method most frequently cited, and therefore this method was used to test the susceptibility of five isolates of C. albicans and one of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to amphotericin B and flucytosine in seven research laboratories. Agreement among replicates performed on the same day by each laboratory was excellent for both drugs, all values being within 1 twofold drug dilution. Precision from week to week for each laboratory was also good, with 95 and 92% of values being within 1 drug dilution for amphotericin B and flucytosine, respectively. Interlaboratory precision, however, was poor. For amphotericin B, values varied 8- to 32-fold, and for flucytosine, they varied 32- to greater than 512-fold. We conclude that antifungal susceptibility testing is currently being performed in small volumes by numerous laboratories in the United States and that results from one laboratory may not agree with results from another. Improved standardization of fungal susceptibility tests is necessary before their results can be generally applied to clinical situations.


The combination of a SMAC mimetic and a caspase inhibitor kills AML cells by inducing necroptosis. Giving leukemia a SMAC Second mitochondria-derived activator of caspases, or SMAC, is a protein involved in apoptosis, a mechanism of cell death that is commonly targeted by cancer therapies. SMAC mimetics are drugs designed to mimic the action of SMAC. Now, a pair of related articles provides insights into the effects of SMAC mimetics in leukemia. For acute lymphocytic leukemia, McComb et al. show that a SMAC mimetic called birinapant works best when it can activate two different types of cell death: apoptosis and necroptosis. For acute myelocytic leukemia, Brumatti et al. show that birinapant is particularly effective when combined with a caspase inhibitor, which shuts off the apoptotic pathway and promotes cell death by necroptosis. These findings should be helpful for identifying patients most likely to benefit from treatment with SMAC mimetics and selecting effective treatment combinations for these patients. Resistance to chemotherapy is a major problem in cancer treatment, and it is frequently associated with failure of tumor cells to undergo apoptosis. Birinapant, a clinical SMAC mimetic, had been designed to mimic the interaction between inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and SMAC/Diablo, thereby relieving IAP-mediated caspase inhibition and promoting apoptosis of cancer cells. We show that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells are sensitive to birinapant-induced death and that the clinical caspase inhibitor emricasan/IDN-6556 augments, rather than prevents, killing by birinapant. Deletion of caspase-8 sensitized AML to birinapant, whereas combined loss of caspase-8 and the necroptosis effector MLKL (mixed lineage kinase domain-like) prevented birinapant/IDN-6556–induced death, showing that inhibition of caspase-8 sensitizes AML cells to birinapant-induced necroptosis. However, loss of MLKL alone did not prevent a caspase-dependent birinapant/IDN-6556–induced death, implying that AML will be less likely to acquire resistance to this drug combination. A therapeutic breakthrough in AML has eluded researchers for decades. Demonstrated antileukemic efficacy and safety of the birinapant/emricasan combination in vivo suggest that induction of necroptosis warrants clinical investigation as a therapeutic opportunity in AML.


The scour at bridge foundations caused by supercritical flows is reviewed and knowledge gaps are analyzed focusing on the flow and scour patterns, available measuring techniques for the laboratory and field, and physical and advanced numerical modeling techniques. Evidence suggests that the scour depth caused by supercritical flows is much smaller than expected, by an order of magnitude compared to that found in subcritical flows, although the reasons for this behavior remain still unclear. Important questions on the interaction of the horseshoe vortex with the detached hydraulic-jump and the wall-jet flow observed in supercritical flows arise, e.g., does the interaction between the flow structures enhance or debilitate the bed shear stresses caused by the horseshoe vortex? What is the effect of the Froude number of the incoming flow on the flow structures around the foundation and on the scour process? Recommendations are provided to develop and adapt research methods used in the subcritical flow regime for the study of more challenging supercritical flow cases.


We have characterized the role of Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding in the 3′-terminal base pair on the 3′-5′ exonuclease activity of the human mitochondrial DNA polymerase. Nonpolar nucleoside analogs of thymidine (dF) and deoxyadenosine (dQ) were used to eliminate hydrogen bonds while maintaining base pair size and shape. Exonuclease reactions were examined using pre-steady state kinetic methods. The time dependence of removal of natural nucleotides from the primer terminus paired opposite the nonpolar analogs dF and dQ were best fit to a double exponential function. The double exponential kinetics as well as the rates of excision (3–6 s–1 fast phase, 0.16–0.3 s–1 slow phase) are comparable with those observed during mismatch removal of natural nucleotides even when the analog was involved in a sterically correct base pair. Additionally, incorporation of the next correct base beyond a nonpolar analog was slow (0.04–0.22 s–1), so that more than 95% of terminal base pairs were removed rather than extended. The polymerase responds to all 3′-terminal base pairs containing a nonpolar analog as if it were a mismatch regardless of the identity of the paired base, and kinetic partitioning between polymerase and exonuclease sites failed to discriminate between correct and incorrect base pairs. Thus, sterics alone are insufficient, whereas hydrogen bond formation is essential for proper proofreading selectivity by the mitochondrial polymerase. The enzyme may use the alignment and prevention of fraying provided by proper hydrogen bonding and minor groove hydrogen bonding interactions as critical criteria for correct base pair recognition.


Pretraining language models with next-token prediction on massive text corpora has delivered phenomenal zero-shot, few-shot, transfer learning and multi-tasking capabilities on both generative and discriminative language tasks. Motivated by this success, we explore a Vector-quantized Image Modeling (VIM) approach that involves pretraining a Transformer to predict rasterized image tokens autoregressively. The discrete image tokens are encoded from a learned Vision-Transformer-based VQGAN (ViT-VQGAN). We first propose multiple improvements over vanilla VQGAN from architecture to codebook learning, yielding better efficiency and reconstruction fidelity. The improved ViT-VQGAN further improves vector-quantized image modeling tasks, including unconditional, class-conditioned image generation and unsupervised representation learning. When trained on ImageNet at \(256\times256\) resolution, we achieve Inception Score (IS) of 175.1 and Fr'echet Inception Distance (FID) of 4.17, a dramatic improvement over the vanilla VQGAN, which obtains 70.6 and 17.04 for IS and FID, respectively. Based on ViT-VQGAN and unsupervised pretraining, we further evaluate the pretrained Transformer by averaging intermediate features, similar to Image GPT (iGPT). This ImageNet-pretrained VIM-L significantly beats iGPT-L on linear-probe accuracy from 60.3% to 73.2% for a similar model size. VIM-L also outperforms iGPT-XL which is trained with extra web image data and larger model size.


Misperceptions of stock and flow relationships are pervasive and an important problem to solve in system dynamics. Prior studies have shown that individuals perform poorly on accumulation problems, even when considering relatively simple systems, an effect termed the Stock–Flow (SF) failure. This study examines the effects of domain experience in overcoming the SF failure. We compared performance of medical students and undergraduates with no medical education on accumulation problems in medical and general domains. Medical students performed better than undergraduates only in some of the problems (including the general domain problems), and they performed equally poorly as undergraduates in problems that required medical domain experience. There was no correlation between performance in the stock and flow problems and either duration of medical education or age. Thus we conclude that domain experience is not a strong indicator for overcoming the SF failure. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Collaborative learning has numerous benefits (Astin, 1993; Bloom, 2009; Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2014; Light, 2001; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Springer, Stanne, & Donovan, 1998). The strategy of collaborative testing, where students take quizzes in small groups, allows students to learn more by teaching and being taught by their peers, improves confidence, relieves stress and anxiety, and improves performance (Bloom, 2009; Kirkland & Karkhanis, 2017; LoGiudice, Pachai, & Kim, 2015). NURS 419 is an adult medical-surgical pathophysiology course for the accelerated cohort of nursing students. These students have a previous bachelor's or graduate degree in another field. Program completion occurs in three semesters. After graduation, all undergraduate nursing students must take a licensure exam to practice nursing. The style of questions on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) are vastly different from testing items they have had in the past. Nursing is an applied science, so the questions involve a higher order of learning objectives including application, analysis, evaluation, synthesis, prioritization and delegation. The goal for utilizing collaborative quizzing was to develop and refine test-taking strategies and critical thinking skills. This is the first nursing course taught in the Active Learning with Technology (ALT) classroom. Recognizing that articulation of ideas fosters ownership of learning and that academic achievement improves through small group learning, we began allowing collaborative efforts for our Past and Present (P&P) quizzes in the fall of 2017. These are 10-item quizzes administered at the beginning of each class via Blackboard. Questions cover past material and current content. An unexpected benefit to colloaborative quizzing included the ability to listen in on group discussion as students came to consensus on responses. The discussions we witnessed were respectful and inclusive and provided an additional, albeit informal, formative evaluation of student knowledge. Immediately following the quiz an item analysis identified commonly missed questions, forming the basis for class discussion and review. We recommend this strategy of formative evaluation. Low-stakes collaborative quizzing allows exposure to and synthesis of difficult NCLEX testing items. The students also viewed the process favorably in the mid-term and semester-end course evaluations. Implementation suggestions include allowing two quiz attempts, either group followed by individual attempt or vice versa. Permit various group sizes. Ensure adequate time for question discussion. Lastly, in order to foster appropriate preparation, we suggest that students come to class not knowing whether quizzing will be an individual or group effort. Several limitations are recognized. Collaborative quizzes may artificially improve grades, allow a safety net for lack of preparation, and a false sense that students understand the material, when in fact, they do not. We also realize that the discussion of questions and rationale has the potential to lead to animosity between group members and confusion regarding the material.


The Sahara desert is a significant source of particulate pollution not only to the Mediterranean region, but also to the Atlantic and beyond. In this paper, PM 10 exceedences recorded in the UK and the island of Crete are studied and their source investigated, using Lagrangian Particle Dispersion (LPD) methods. Forward and inverse simulations identify Saharan dust storms as the primary source of these episodes. The methodology used allows comparison between this primary source and other possible candidates, for example large forest fires or volcanic eruptions.

Two LPD models are used in the simulations, namely the open source code FLEXPART and the proprietary code HYSPLIT. Driven by the same meteorological fields (the ECMWF MARS archive and the PSU/NCAR Mesoscale model, known as MM5) the codes produce similar, but not identical predictions. This inter-model comparison enables a critical assessment of the physical modelling assumptions employed in each code, plus the influence of boundary conditions and solution grid density. The outputs, in the form of particle concentrations evolving in time, are compared against satellite images and receptor data from multiple ground-based sites. Quantitative comparisons are good, especially in predicting the time of arrival of the dust plume in a particular location.


The coniferous tree Araucaria laubenfelsii forms a key component of vegetation structural assemblages on ultramafic substrate at Mont Do, New Caledonia. It is the sole species to be found both as an emergent in maquis and as a common canopy species in adjacent rainforest patches. This paper describes a spatially explicit, landscape-level model developed to investigate the vegetation pattern on Mont Do and provides preliminary results of model analyses. Results indicate that the interaction between fire, terrain and the long residence times of fire-prone successional stages may be largely responsible for the landscape patterns visible. Maquis is found predominantly on hillsides where fire spread is likely to be most rapid, while maquis with emergent A. laubenfelsii, and A. laubenfelsii woodland, are restricted to rocky areas and rainforest margins of likely intermediate fire frequency. The model indicates that if fires were to become either more frequent or increase in size, maquis would become increasingly prevalent in the landscape. Pattern metrics, such as fractal dimension, indicate that as a result of such a change, the spatial complexity and fragmentation of the landscape may be reduced. Conversely, if fire frequency decreases or fire sizes become smaller, then rainforest becomes more dominant. Although the presence of A. laubenfelsii on Mont Do is not threatened under such a scenario, the persistence of certain 'transient' structural assemblages at their current abundances seems less certain. While the role that ultramafic soil conditions might play at the landscape level is not clear, several possible interactions between the plant-soil relationship and broader scale dynamics are identified. In particular, soil chemical constraints on plant growth may be responsible for the very long time-scales associated with succession from maquis to forest, and this slowed succession increases the potential role of fire as a major determinant of landscape-scale vegetation pattern relative to that on nearby non-ultrabasic substrates.


This article examines the decisions involved in translating swear words and sexually explicit language in Pedro Almodovar's film iAtame! ("Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!") from Spanish into English and Polish. Possible motivations for specific renditions will be suggested via a comparison of the source and target language versions. This analysis aims to investigate how the target culture and the film industry can influence the sometimes-delicate task of translating obscene and strong language. Beyond the mere transfer of words from one language into another, translating is, above all, an intercultural activity in which ideology and social values play an important role in the translation process. Therefore, the characteristics of the target culture must be considered before analyzing the translation product. Moreover, the cost-benefit criterion is a crucial component of audiovisual translation, especially in the film industry. Reflection on the circumstances in which the film was released in the United States and in Poland allows for predictions about what to expect from the translation and also establishes a hypothesis for testing. This article calls for reflection on translation decisions and the author's influence on how closely the translation follows the original. Likewise, the article examines the extent to which economic interests prevail over socio-cultural values.


In this book, Jose Luis Bermudez addesses two fundamental problems in the philosophy and psychology of self-consciousness: (1) Can we provide a noncircular account of fully fledged self-conscious thought and language in terms of more fundamental capacities? (2) Can we explain how fully fledged self-conscious thought and language can arise in the normal course of human development? Bermudez argues that a paradox (the paradox of self-consciousness) arises from the apparent strict interdependence between self-conscious thought and linguistic self-reference. The paradox renders circular all theories that define self-consciousness in terms of linguistic mastery of the first-person pronoun. It seems to follow from the paradox of self-consciousness that no such account or explanation can be given. Drawing on recent work in empirical psychology and philosophy, the author argues that any explanation of fully fledged self-consciousness that answers these two questions requires attention to primitive forms of self-consciousness that are prelinguistic and preconceptual. Such primitive forms of self-consciousness are to be found in somatic proprioception, the structure of exteroceptive perception, and prelinguistic forms of social interaction. The author uses these primitive forms of self-consciousness to dissolve the paradox of self-consciousness and to show how the two questions can be given an affirmative answer.


The tourism industry is a young industry in Sweden but important for the economy and a large part of the field is mountain tourism. Marketing a place is called destination marketing, which has become a huge phenomenon and an important part of efforts for promotion in the tourism industry. The entrepreneurs in the tourism industry are an important part, as these are a big part of the destination. Their marketing and communication becomes a force to reckon with in order to attract tourists to the area. The purpose of this study is to examine how entrepreneurs through destination marketing reach their target market and with the intention to identify marketing channels that the entrepreneur uses. To achieve this, two questions will be answered:How can entrepreneurs attract customers through destination marketing? Which marketing channels do business owners use to reach out to their target market in the tourism industry? The theories used in this study are destination marketing, internet marketing, services marketing, and entrepreneurs as business owners. This study's methodology consists of four semi-structured interviews with companies operating in Are, which is a destination where tourists can visit the mountain all year out. Also a content analysis has been done where an observation was made looking at the company's internet marketing. The conclusion is that the entrepreneurs through collaboration can increase the demand on the destination and reach out to more tourists. The marketing channels that was used the most is digital communication, more specifically, social media like Facebook and Instagram. Also search engine optimization to get higher traffic to the corporate website is used.


Abstract - Maternal behaviour and contact between cow and calf is limited or absent in modern dairy systems due to the wide use of bucket feeding. This is also the case in organic dairy systems. An increasing number of individual farmers are not satisfied with the artificial bucket feeding system. In order to improve the welfare of their dairy cattle, a number of organic farms introduced suckling systems. On the dairy farms that make use of a suckling system calves are suckled by their mother or a nurse cow, for a duration that ranges from three days up to three months. We evaluated on-farm the growth and production of calves reared in a bucket feeding system or a suckling system. Suckling systems make better use of the growing potential of calves in the first months of their lives. A high weaning weight may result in a lower age at first calving and a higher weight at calving. Higher bodyweight at calving also has a positive effect on milk production in the first lactation .


In recent years, huge amounts of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data have been generated by various institutions around the world and, collectively, this heterogeneous data is referred to as big data. The health industry sector has been confronted by the need to manage the big data being produced by various sources, which are well known for producing high volumes of heterogeneous data. Various big-data analytics tools and techniques have been developed for handling these massive amounts of data, in the healthcare sector. In this paper, we discuss the impact of big data in healthcare, and various tools available in the Hadoop ecosystem for handling it. We also explore the conceptual architecture of big data analytics for healthcare which involves the data gathering history of different branches, the genome database, electronic health records, text/imagery, and clinical decisions support system.


Increases in purchased services, foreign outsourcing, and investments in computers are alleged to have resulted in an understatement of input growth in manufacturing, and thus. overstatement of growth in productivity. GNP, and value-added in industries heavily engaged in these activities. Based on Census Bureau data, we examine whether the recent (post-1979) improvement in measured manufacturing productivity growth can be attributed to an increase in the rate of foreign and domestic outsourcing. Our preliminary evidence, based on data that are not comprehensive, suggests that an industry's propensity to outsource is unrelated to its acceleration in productivity. In auditing the industry numbers, we found that a non-negligible number of sectors were not consistently defined over time. Using industry and establishment-level data sets (the NBER 4-digit SIC Productivity data set and the Longitudinal Research Database), we conclude that some of these anomalies may be due to the general decline in the magnitude of information solicited from establishments by the Census Bureau in conducting its economic surveys. Another consistency problem explored in this paper is the industry reclassification of large plants. Although these definitional and sampling problems are troubling and need to be carefully documented, there does not appear to be a systematic relationship between an industry's post-1979 productivity growth and attrition or "switches" in its ASM plants. We do find, however, positive and statistically significant relationship between total factor productivity growth and an industry's rate of investment in Computers.


Summary Precise microseismic event location is necessary to correctly assess the hydraulic stimulation effectiveness. In order to obtain proper event locations reliable location uncertainty analysis have to be performed. Location uncertainty computed with use of the Bayesian inversion is efficiently characterised by probability density function (pdf). We present the Bayesian approach for location of microseismic events recorded by a single vertical receiver array during hydraulic fracturing in northern Poland. We compare a cumulative probability density function for the location of all events with a standard representation of events as maximum likelihood points ('dots in the box'). The discussion is extended by considering seismic moment and moment magnitude as the weighting parameters for pdf visualization. Bayesian approach is more intuitive and easier to directly transfer into reservoir engineering parameters, like the Stimulated Reservoir Volume, or to be used in Discrete Fracture Network modelling. The obtained cumulative location pdf clearly points out highly fractured zones and shows directly the scale and the distribution of the location uncertainty. Particularly in case of the studied acquisition geometry the shape of the pdf distribution cannot be explained in standard way in terms of horizontal and vertical errors.


The decomposition rates and litter chemistry carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and lignin of senesced leaf litter of seven dominant tree species in three elephant-transformed woodlands were examined in semi-arid Botswana. The woodlands were selected on the basis of a gradient in woodland cover mainly caused by elephant herbivory. The species studied were Combretum elaeagnoides, Croton megalobotrys, Philenoptera nelsii from the heavily browsed and open canopy Shrubland, C. elaeagnoides, Friesodielsia obovata, Baikiaea plurijuga from the ecotone and moderately browsed Mixed woodland, and B. plurijuga, Combretum apiculatum and Croton gratissimus from the least browsed and closed canopy Teak woodland. Overall, there were significant differences in decomposition rates of litter species between the three vegetation communities (Kruskall Wallis 48.585, p<0.001). Significant differences in decomposition rates were observed between litter species, with P. nelsii (k = 0.22 y) in Shrubland and B. plurijuga in Teak woodland (k = 0.231 y) showing lower rates than other litter species. Despite having lower decomposition rates P. nelsii suprisingly had a higher N concentration and lower C:N and lignin-to-N ratios suggesting that these ratios may not have been the only ones influencing the decomposition rates of the litter species. For similar litter species placed across different communities, B. plurijuga decomposed faster in moderately open Mixed woodland than in closed canopy Teak woodland. The decomposition rates of C. eleagnoides in Shrubland and in Mixed woodland were marginally different, with litter in Shrubland decomposing slightly faster than the one in Mixed woodland. C. elaeagnoides in the Shrubland also had lower C:N and lignin-to-N ratios than in Mixed woodland. The lignin-to-N ratio was generally a better predictor of the decomposition rates than C:N ratio, suggesting that future studies on decomposition of tree leaf litter can largely use lignin-to-N ratios rather C:N for predicting plant litter decomposition rates. Generally, litter species in Shrubland had a higher N concentration pointing to the positive feedback mechanisms of herbivory by megafauna where dung and urine deposited increase soil N availability and subsequently increase forage quality and high decomposition rates.


The substantial growth in the electronics industry has created a need for environmental and user-friendly alternatives to tin/lead (Sn/Pb) solders for attaching encapsulated surface mount components on rigid and flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs). Electronically conductive adhesives (ECAs) have been explored in this manner to establish mechanical as well as electrical joints between PCBs and surface mount components. Applications of conductive adhesive are limited due to serious concerns associated with the long-term reliability data of current commercial ECAs. One critical concern in wire bonding applications is the significant decrease in the bond strength and consequent loss of the conducting properties of adhesive due to silver migration. In this study, an effort is made to understand and model long-term silver migration phenomenon with respect to different parameters (duration of the migration, dry and wet conditions), and pull-out strength of silver wire embedded in an epoxy adhesive matrix. Morphology of embedded silver wire after migration and pull-out was also studied using scanning electron micrographs. Migration area increased with the duration of migration, and reduction in the pull-out strength was significant in wet condition as compared to dry condition. The increase in migration area was consistent with the reduction in pull-out strength in both wet and dry conditions.


Human computation is the technique of performing a computational process by outsourcing some of the difficult-toautomate steps to humans. In the social and behavioral sciences, when using humans as measuring instruments, reproducibility guides the design and evaluation of experiments. We argue that human computation has similar properties, and that the results of human computation must be reproducible, in the least, in order to be informative. We might additionally require the results of human computation to have high validity or high utility, but the results must be reproducible in order to measure the validity or utility to a degree better than chance. Additionally, a focus on reproducibility has implications for design of task and instructions, as well as for the communication of the results. It is humbling how often the initial understanding of the task and guidelines turns out to lack reproducibility. We suggest ensuring, measuring and communicating reproducibility of human computation tasks.


This practice-led research investigates – through artworks comprising of drawings, video, spoken word and installations – issues of cultural and national identity, forms of memoralising, belonging, conflict and loss in relation to a transitional period during the break up of Former Yugoslavia. I am interested in how these issues could be addressed indirectly through avoiding representation of or by employing motifs directly associated with this transitional period and war. These issues are not necessarily directly reflected in my work; rather they have a significant impact on my approach to making work. The question I ask is how can a work of art have both a strong sense of loss and a strong sense of connection to a place? In the process of making work I explore and test different visual references in order to illustrate detachment, displacement and geopolitical fragmentation as processes that reflect the transitional period and disintegration of a country. I do this through developing installations as immersive, disorientating and disintegrating sites. To that extent I employ processes of repetition, recollection, reconstruction and invention in a variety of media. In the process of drawing and painting my aim is to articulate states of flux, flexibility and change through experimenting with the use of different media and methods of practice. The space of the gallery, the context in which the work is shown and the visitors' interpretation of the space are an important aspect of the work. The installations are composed of works reconstructed and remade in a variety of media in order to destabilise forms of presentation and to develop different and shifting angles on the topics I work with. In order for work to have a conversation and connection with its own past I re-stage and re-build one aspect of work on to another, such that works become cumulative. Through producing works that evolve from earlier works the intention is to foreground multiple readings and perceptions of places. My intention is to investigate the influence that dislocation may have on the move from a geopolitical to an imaginary landscape. I develop a methodology that explores travelling and forgetting as metaphors, thematic elements and artistic strategies for displacement and change. In practice, this is examined through spatial models that allude to fixity and mobility, the real and the imaginary: the museum, the monument and the ship at sea. The experience of the Balkan wars informed my initial work for the research, part of which was to look at symbols like monuments and museums. I sought concepts that relate to this problem, finding that memory/memorialising and forgetting are conditions that I specifically associate with the work of Jan Kampenaers and David Maljkovic. I considered amnesia and amnesty as suggestive concepts of questionable stability and loss, which informed my subsequent work (supported by reference to the writings of Paul Ricoeur). The thesis submission includes the presentation of an exhibition of artwork, with published art books and a vinyl record.


Motor neuron disorders (MNDs) are a heterogeneous group of diseases that result from degeneration of motor neurons. If both upper and lower motor neurons (UMNs and LMNs) are affected, the disease is classified as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) and progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) selectively affect the UMNs or LMNs, respectively, but are sometimes considered to be incomplete ALS variants because their phenotype may evolve into typical ALS over time. Bulbar affection in a UMN disease would favour a diagnosis of PLS over hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), whereas rapid progression may separate PMA from adult-onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Some SMA-like or even ALS-like phenotypes have been incorporated into the large category of sensorimotor axonal neuropathies (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2, CMT2),1 although sensory abnormalities may be subtle in some forms.2 On the other hand, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (Kennedy disease) is classified as a form of adult-onset SMA despite prominent sensory abnormalities. It has recently been argued that the current classification system of MNDs is unsatisfactory and should be revised to include genetically and prognostically important categories.3

We have recently identified a new form of motor neuron disease in 55 patients from 17 Finnish families, where distinctive phenotype did not match any pre-existing neuromuscular disease category.4–6 Spinal muscular atrophy Jokela type (SMAJ, OMIM #615048) is characterised by painful cramps, fasciculations, decreased or absent tendon reflexes, elevated creatine kinase and hand tremor. The first symptoms appear commonly after age 30–40. Electromyography (EMG) and muscle biopsy display widespread neurogenic findings and a proportion of patients show sensory abnormalities. Muscle weakness and atrophy appear much later in the disease course, and patients have remained ambulant for several decades and their life expectancy is within normal range.4 ,5 SMAJ is caused by a dominant …


Software by Numbers is a significant new contribution to value-based, financially responsible software engineering...-Barry Boehm, Ph.D., Director, USC Center for Software Engineering, Creator of COCOMO and Spiral ModelLink software development to value creation and optimize ROI.Ultimately, software development is about creating value-yet, all too often, software fails to deliver the business value customers need. This book will help you change that, by linking software development directly to value creation. You'll learn exactly how to identify which features add value and which don't-and refocus your entire development process on delivering more value, more rapidly.Software by Numbers shows you how to: Identify Minimum Marketable Features (MMFs)-the fundamental units of value in software development Accelerate value delivery by linking iterative development to iterative funding Optimize returns through incremental architecture techniques Effectively involve business stakeholders in the development process Sequence feature delivery based on "mini-ROI" assessments Quantify financial risk at every step throughout the development process Manage "intangibles" throughout the software development processWhatever methodology you're already using-whether it's RUP or XP-this book shows how to achieve the goals that matter most to your business: reduced risk, better cash flow, and higher ROI.


OBJECTIVES
Autoimmune thyroiditis (ATD) has been linked to various forms of arthritis. The relationship with spinal degenerative disc disease (DDD) is not known. We studied the association between ATD and spinal DDD.

METHODS
We performed a cross-sectional analysis of patients who had data on both anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) from January 1997 to January 2014 in Clinical Looking Glass (CLG), a data analysis software platform. Spinal DDD was confirmed by radiological diagnosis.

RESULTS
Of the 7698 patients for whom the TPOAb and TgAb values were available, 4383 patients with complete data for the following covariates; age, gender, race, ethnicity, smoking, diabetes, body mass index and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels, were included. Thirty-three percent had ATD, while 67% did not. The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of having spinal DDD with ATD was 1.5 (95% confidence interval (CI)1.3, 1.7), p<0.001. After adjustment for covariates, ATD remained associated with a higher frequency of spinal DDD, OR 1.8 (95% CI 1.6, 2.2), p<0.001. Stratifying by BMI and TSH levels showed similar results. Additional analyses excluding patients with known connective tissue diseases and spondyloarthritis (SpA) also showed consistent results.

CONCLUSIONS
ATD is associated with increased frequency of spinal DDD independent of BMI and TSH levels, and among those without connective tissue diseases or SpA. This finding suggests that there may be an important link between thyroid autoimmunity and spinal DDD.


A dataset of the relative general social status (S factor) of 1,890 first names of persons living in Denmark was obtained from a previous study. 1,100 linguistic features were generated based on n-grams augmented by regex and each name was scored on each feature. An initial check using t-tests showed strong signal in the features taken as a whole (42.5 % of p values were < .05), and that this was due mostly to low status names having rarer patterns. OLS and lasso regression were used to combine the linguistic features into a single model. The results showed strong evidence of signal in the data. As a control, the main geographic origin of each name was inferred using data from behindthename.com. I validated this by comparing social status by origin group with data from official sources, r = .72, n = 28. The main origin for each name was then entered as a covariate and models were rerun. The results indicated that subtle linguistic features still provide substantial incremental validity, though a precise numerical estimate was difficult to arrive at. I validated this conclusion by training the model only on the subset of data identified as Danish. Model out of sample predictive validity was substantial in general, r = .75 (including origin covariate), and r = .46 in the Danish subset (linguistic features only). I conclude that it is possible to train fairly accurate social status predictors from subtle linguistic patterns in names. It's possible that humans might pick up on such cues to inform social perception when limited data is available.


This work focuses on the use of the audiovisual opera recording as a document to analyze contemporary stagings labeled by the German critics as director's theater [Regietheater]. In director's theater, Wagner's total artwork project [Gesamtkunstwerk] achieves a turn in meaning, for the three artistic dimensions of opera – word, music and staging – become different texts. In this paper, we discuss the limitations of audiovisual recording as a register of director's theater opera stagings, as well as filmic resources that allow for a reconstruction of the audiovisual text of such productions with solutions that are often quite distinct from those adopted on the stage. We are interested above all in problematizing the equivalence that is sometimes established between a staging and its recording – especially in the contemporary context of productions that frequently suffer considerable changes and are characterized by the unique aspect of each performance, always full of singular events and relatively autonomous regarding the general plan of the director. Thus, we will discuss problems and solutions of video direction of audiovisual recordings of stagings of the operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen [The Ring of Nibelungo], by Richard Wagner (1813-1883).


Robert Putnam's 2007 empirical study, E Pluribus Unum, has become the seminal study in a growing body of work which uses statistical methods to measure the effects of ethnic diversity on social capital, or other measures of social quality. Putnam's study found that ethnic diversity negatively affects social capital in the United States, leading people to withdraw from social contact and 'hunker down' at home, alone, miserably watching TV. This study revisits Putnam's findings and seeks to plug two major gaps across this field: firstly, the absence of any frame of reference for social capital or other measures of social quality, which has led to both a narrowing of the commonly used indicators of social quality and a possible over-stating of the relative importance to overall social quality of those indicators which are employed; and, secondly, the lack of any investigation into how relationships between ethnic diversity and social quality change over time.

This study addresses two research questions: Do ethnic diversity and immigration have any effects on a range of indicators of social quality in local areas of England? Do any effects from ethnic diversity and immigration on social quality change over time? The study analyses data from the Citizenship Survey and other sources to investigate whether the rapid increase and spread of ethnic diversity throughout England in the twenty year period from 1991 to 2011 had any measurable effects on indicators of social quality in local authority areas over the period 2001 to 2011.

The study finds that ethnic diversity and immigration do have the negative effect on local trust identified by Putnam but that they also have positive effects on some social quality measures, and no effects on others. Broadly, these effects become more positive over time for measures of social cohesion and more negative for measures of social capital. The study demonstrates that the negative, positive and null effects of ethnic diversity are linked to differences in the measure of social quality; when individual-level, attitudinal, proximate measures of social quality are used, like local trust, negative findings are far more likely. The study concludes that ethnic diversity and immigration are not useful explanations for variance in social quality; levels of deprivation and higher-education more strongly account for this. It would be worthwhile to further develop a robust framework for quantitative studies of social quality and to improve methodologies for measuring social quality relationships over time.


A wide range of technological advances have helped to make extensive image and video acquisition close to effortless. As a consequence many applications which capture image data of people for either immediate inspection or storage and subsequent sharing have become possible. Along with these improved recording capabilities, however, come concerns about the privacy of people visible in the scene. While algorithms have been proposed to de-identify images, currently available methods are still lacking. In this paper we propose a general framework for the de-identification of images which subsumes a number of previously introduced approaches. Unlike the ad-hoc methods currently used in the field our algorithms aim at providing privacy guarantees. In experiments on illumination-and expression-variant face datasets we show that the proposed algorithms achieve the desired privacy protection while minimally distorting the data.


This paper seeks to dispel or at least reduce the confusion surrounding the related key concepts of the risk-free rate, safe assets, and sovereign risk, which are central to policy and academic discussions. This confusion gives rise to a lack of consensus as to how to define, measure, and price "sovereign risk," thus creating a major obstacle to assessing sovereign borrowers' stress. In this paper, safe assets are considered to be those that are virtually default- free. These so-called safe assets function as "information-insensitive" instruments (they serve as "money" and have the associated basic functions of money, such as collateral and backing of checkable deposits of commercial banks and money-market funds). The return on these assets is the (relatively) risk-free rate. The pricing of risky assets involves assessing or evaluating the risk dimensions of relative asset safety. A significant complication in carrying this out is the fact that the market is often driven by emotions, or animal spirits. Sometimes these market emotions change rapidly, having a knock-on effect on the (mis)pricing of relatively safe assets and sovereign risk. The track record of sovereign-risk pricing is not very impressive, characterized by prolonged periods of risk under-pricing (excessively compressed spreads) followed by risk overpricing (sudden widening of spreads). Market measurements (including ratings) thus seem somewhat unreliable. One should, therefore, be extremely cautious in concluding that the sovereign debt of an OECD country has indeed lost its "risk-free" status. At the same time, the overarching strategic objective of debt managers is to raise funds at the lowest possible cost within the boundaries of a preferred risk level. This implies for the sovereign borrower a two-part goal: issuing (relatively) risk-free sovereign debt and preserving this relatively risk-free status. Reinforcing government borrowers' focus on this strategic objective is the knowledge that a steady supply of safe sovereign assets is essential for the smooth functioning of the worldwide financial system (for allocating resources, pricing benchmarks, and as a collateral source). Clarity and consistency are necessary conditions for the proper pricing of sovereign risk. Beyond that, the proper pricing of sovereign risk has implications for the economy as a whole (via the impact on risk-weight rules for capital adequacy of banks, posting sovereign debt as collateral, the pricing of bonds issued by banks and other non-governmental entities). The transition from a (relatively) "risk-free asset" to a (relatively) "risky asset" has therefore major macro and micro financial ramifications.


In recent years superconducting qubits coupled to coplanar transmission line resonators were developed sufficiently to convincingly be considered a promising candidate for realizing a scalable quantum computer. One of the main advantages of superconducting quantum circuits is the variability of many of its parameters and the possibility to engineer and fabricate the circuits with high accuracy. Furthermore, it is possible to make the couplings between its individual constituents (superconducting qubits) on the order of several hundreds of megahertz. Given typical decoherence rates of the system on the order of one hundred kilohertz, this allows for fast and high-fidelity quantum operations. It enables the realization of long coherence times of the system and high-fidelity quantum operations at the same time. In this thesis, the realization and characterization of important experimental building blocks of a quantum processor are presented. Moreover, the fundamental concepts of circuit quantum electrodynamics are discussed. In particular we describe a typical experimental setup as well as the design and fabrication of superconducting quantum circuits. We investigate two quantum communication protocols with up to four transmon qubits and carefully characterize its quantum gates in order to achieve high fidelities. The protocol that we experimentally study first is deterministic quantum teleportation with real-time quantum feedback. We specifically concentrate on the characterization of the protocol by quantum process tomography. Furthermore, we investigated an entanglement distillation protocol up to the single-shot readout, where two copies of weakly entangled states are used to achieve higher entanglement on one of the pairs. This protocol is specifically interesting as it is using only local operations, classical communication and measurement. A clear increase of the entanglement by the coherent part of the protocol is observed with averaged readout, where the entanglement is quantified with the entanglement measure concurrence and with quantum channel capacities. The presented techniques and results contribute towards realizing a scalable quantum computer with superconducting circuits and quantum communication in the microwave regime.


In this study, it was aimed to evaluate DynED courses used in English classes in elementary schools of Turkey from the views of teachers. The study was conducted with the students and teachers in Nigde, Turkey in the spring term of 2008-2009 academic year. The participants of the study were twelve English language teachers from six elementary schools. Two teachers from each school participated in the study which makes totally twelve English language teachers. Six teachers from some rural area elementary schools and six teachers from city centre elementary schools participated in the study. The teachers were selected randomly. The data of this study were analysed through descriptive analysis techniques by using NVivo2 Qualitative Data Analysis Programme. In this study, semi-structured illustrative qualitative research method was used. Consequently, the teachers stated that they were applying DynED courses in schools. Similarly, they had positive observations during the application of these courses. On the other hand, they stated that they faced with some difficulties such as technological problems, limited time of English courses at school and school principals" negative attitudes towards the usage of these courses, etc. They also stated other difficulties and problems they faced in the duration of DynED courses at school.


A description is given of a Fabry-Perot interferometer whose plates are maintained automatically parallel independently of their separation.* Errors in the spacing of the plates due to lack of parallelism nowhere exceed the errors in the flatness of the plates themselves. The mounting of piezoelectric barium titanate ceramics to achieve rapid scanning rates is discussed.


In this 2-volume edition of "Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America" experts in the surgical management of the nasal airway address the range of anatomic abnormalities that contribute to nasal obstruction, and describe in detail the surgical methods available for treatment of these problems. In Volume 1, expert rhinologists address sinonasal aspects of surgery for nasal obstruction. In Volume 2, experts in rhinoplasty describe surgical interventions for nasal obstruction from a facial plastic surgery perspective. Together, these two volumes should increase the otolaryngologist's armamentarium for the comprehensive surgical management of nasal airway obstruction. Many aspects of nasal airway obstruction may be mitigated by medical management alone. For instance, swelling from allergic rhinitis typically responds well to allergy treatment. In a number of cases, however, medical intervention is insufficient. When medical management fails, and anatomic abnormalities contribute significantly to nasal obstruction, surgical intervention may be indicated. Septal deviation, turbinate hypertrophy, internal and external nasal valve collapse, sinusitis, polyps, encephaloceles, and tumors are just a few of the varied sources of nasal obstruction. Equally diverse are the surgical means available to the contemporary otolaryngologist to address these anatomic abnormalities.


Bank failures are widely feared for a number of reasons, including concern that depositors may suffer both losses in the value of their deposits (credit losses) and, possibly more importantly, restrictions in access to their deposits (liquidity losses). In the United States, this is not true for insured deposits, which are fully protected and made available to the depositor almost immediately. But both problems may occur for uninsured depositors. Thus, there is pressure on regulators to protect all depositors in bank failures. This is likely to increase both moral hazard risk-taking by banks and poor agency behavior by regulators with large ultimate costs to taxpayers. While ways of reducing the credit loss in bank failures have been widely examined, reducing liquidity losses has received far less attention. One way to mitigate this loss to uninsured depositors is to make the estimated recovery value of their deposits quickly available to them upon failure of the bank through an advance dividend or other payment by the FDIC secured by the bank's assets. Quick depositor access was suggested as a superior solution to deposit insurance in alleviating adverse effects from bank failures during the debate on deposit insurance in the early 1900s and was actually put into effect by both the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the New York State Banking Department shortly before the establishment of the FDIC. More recently, the FDIC has experimented with the concept. This paper analyzes the pros and cons of providing quick depositor access to deposits at failed banks and reviews the history of the concept. It concludes that such a policy would greatly enhance the FDIC's ability to resolve large bank insolvencies without having to protect uninsured depositors through too-big-to-fail policies.


This article aims to unravel the complex negotiations surrounding
property settlements and custody in cases of divorce in customary
courts in Botswana today in the light of an earlier legacy of penalising
divorce initiators. It argues that women's attempts to get their husbands to
initiate divorce proceedings can entangle women in lengthy negotiations
and ultimately frustrate the aim of achieving a divorce. Repeated court
hearings can last for years, we show. At the same time, in Botswana's
statutory courts today, an equal division of property irrespective of the
causes of marital breakdown has become established practice. In the article,
we aim to show that customary laws regarding property settlement
in divorce have indeed changed, gradually adjusting to notions of equity
in women's rights in marriage, in response to a wider ideological, critical
movement, even though chiefs or headmen presiding over customary
courts do not always explicitly acknowledge this change.


Mitochondrial disease is induced by mutations in both mitochondrial DNA and DNA of nuclear genes that encode mitochondrial proteins, and there is a general lack of genotype-phenotype correlation in many mitochondrial disorders, which makes the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease difficult. We treated a 37-year-old woman with congenital cataract, bilateral sensory deafness, severe bilateral ptosis, oculomotor disorder in all directions and systemic muscular atrophy and weakness. These clinical characteristics made us perform further examinations, and we found ischemic change in brain and remarkable atrophy of extraocular muscles by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optic atrophy by fundus examination and high levels of serum lactate and lactate/pyruvate ratio, which confirmed the diagnosis of mitochondrial disease. Finally, she was diagnosed with having mitochondrial disease for over 30 years after onset. J Endocrinol Metab. 2018;8(6):149-152 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem542


The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus is a sweeping global and intellectual history that radically recasts our understanding of Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, the most famous book on population ever written or ever likely to be. Malthus's Essay is also persistently misunderstood. First published anonymously in 1798, the Essay systematically argues that population growth tends to outpace its means of subsistence unless kept in check by factors such as disease, famine, or war, or else by lowering the birth rate through such means as sexual abstinence. Challenging the widely held notion that Malthus's Essay was a product of the British and European context in which it was written, Alison Bashford and Joyce Chaplin demonstrate that it was the new world, as well as the old, that fundamentally shaped Malthus's ideas. They explore what the Atlantic and Pacific new worlds—from the Americas and the Caribbean to New Zealand and Tahiti—meant to Malthus, and how he treated them in his Essay. Bashford and Chaplin reveal how Malthus, long vilified as the scourge of the English poor, drew from his principle of population to conclude that the extermination of native populations by European settlers was unjust. Elegantly written and forcefully argued, The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus relocates Malthus's Essay from the British economic and social context that has dominated its reputation to the colonial and global history that inspired its genesis.


Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) grow fast and play an important role in regional development. Fast-growing companies may contribute to more than 50% GDP growth (Europe INNOVA Gazelles Innovation Panel, 2008). There is interdependence between innovative development of regions and emergence of fast growing SMEs ('gazelles'). Developed regional innovation systems create a fertile environment for increasing the number of fast-growing companies. We assume that regional innovation performance (as a share of R&D personnel in employment, share R&D expenditures in gross regional product, etc.) may be a significant factor for gazelles' concentration. There were no papers on Russian regional data before that could prove it. The main objects of the article are factors, which can determine the proportion of fastgrowing manufacturing SMEs during post-crisis period (2009-2012) in the Russian regions. An econometric analysis demonstrates a strong correlation between the share of fastgrowing manufacturing SMEs and indicators of regional innovation performance. Market potential also plays an important role. Results could be used as a policy advice in Russia.


The high temperature tribological applications of state-of-the-art diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings in automotive industry are often compromised due to their poor adhesion strength and low thermal stability. A molybdenum and tungsten doped carbon-based coating (Mo−W−C) is developed in order to overcome these limitations and to enhance tribological performance during boundary lubricated sliding at ambient and elevated temperature. The coating was deposited utilising HIPIMS technology. Mo−W−C coating showed lowest mean friction coefficient (µ=0.033) compared to a number of commercially available state-of-the-art DLC coatings when pin-on-disc experiments were carried out at ambient temperature. Similarly at 200°C, a significant reduction in friction coefficient was observed for Mo−W−C coating with increase in sliding distance unlike DLC coating. Raman spectroscopy revealed importance of combined Mo and W doping and tribochemically reactive wear mechanism of Mo−W−C coating during sliding. The significant decrease in friction and wear rate was attributed to the presence of graphitic carbon particles (from coating) and 'in-situ' formed metal sulphides (WS2 and MoS2, where metals from coating and sulphur from oil) in transfer layer.


PURPOSE
The objective of this study was to analyze the stress concentration factor (Kt) in specimens of uniform material with the most commonly used geometry (square hourglass) during microtensile tests using finite element analysis. Standardization is emphasized with the aim of obtaining the most representative nominal strength of the material.

METHODS
Eighty cases were simulated using three-dimensional models, in which we varied the fixation of specimens in the jig (f = 1 or 2 sides), the height of this fixed region (h = 1 or 2.75 mm), the specimen width (D = 1.5, 2, 3, 4 or 5 mm), and the radius of curvature of the notch (r = 0.2, 0.5, 0.7 or 1 mm). The cross-sectional area (1 mm2) remained constant in all analyses. The stress concentration factor Kt (maximum tensile stress/nominal tensile stress) was calculated.

RESULTS
A 150% difference was observed from the lowest Kt value (1.3) to the highest one (3.2). Results indicated that the radius of curvature is a very influential geometric parameter in microtensile strength tests (variation in Kt values up to 47.4%). For two-side fixed specimens, the Kt values varied from 3 to 4%, while the one-side fixed models resulted in variations from 11 to 15%.

CONCLUSION
Variations in the specimen geometry and mode of load application can be responsible for part of the different strength values obtained in microtensile tests. The specimen fixation by two sides is a simple and easily performed method to reduce the stress concentration factor and its variations induced by specimen geometry and test assembly.


Background and aims : The application of computer codes and numerical modeling in studies and industry is growing. When using computer codes, the accuracy of these encodings and modelings are big questions. Comparing the results of the software with experimental results is the best method of evaluating these programs. The objective of this study was to experimentally validate a software program developed for local exhaust ventilation design. Methods : In this experimental study, seven different local exhaust ventilation systems were designed and constructed. Velocity pressure, static pressure, total pressure and air velocity were measured at key points of each system. All measured values were compared with similar calculated values by computer software. One-sample T test and Bland Altman plot were used to compare the similar measured and computed parameters. SPSS version 19 was applied for statistical analysis. Results : The percentage difference of measured and calculated air velocities at all channels and hoods were ignorable with maximum amount of 0.5%. Difference between the measured and the calculated values of velocity pressure, static pressure and total pressure in the entire systems were less than 5 percent. Bland-Altman plot and one sample T test showed that the differences were in the range of 2SD and confirmed matching. The results revealed that the air velocities measured with Pitot tube are much more accurate than those measured by thermal anemometer with maximum difference of 14.7%. Conclusion : This study showed that the tested software has an acceptable accuracy with less than ± 5% of error. It also revealed that the application of Pitot tube is much more accurate that thermal anemometer.


ALTERATIONS IN REGIONAL CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW WITH PROPOFOL ANESTHESIA COMPARED WITH SEVOFLURANE. Tejas Manchandia, Maolin Qiu, Margaret Rose, Todd Constable, and Ramachandran Ramani. Department of Anesthesiology and Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Alterations in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) are a reflection of neuronal activity in the brain because of the property of flow-metabolism coupling. Our group has previously reported a non-uniformity in rCBF changes with 0.25 MAC sevoflurane. The purpose of this project was to measure the alteration in rCBF with 0.5 MAC equivalent propofol and compare the changes in rCBF with those observed previously with sevoflurane. We hypothesize that sevoflurane and propofol produce spatially non-uniform changes in rCBF, with significant decreases in the thalamus and prefrontal cortex. The study protocol was approved by the Yale University Human Investigation Committee (HIC). The subjects were 30 healthy volunteers (19-35 years old). Propofol was administered through a target controlled infusion (TCI) device to a target plasma concentration of 2 μg/mL (0.5 MAC equivalent). Propofol level was confirmed by drawing a blood sample at the beginning and end of the infusion period. Regional CBF was measured in a 3 Tesla Siemens Trio scanner using the pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) technique. CBF was measured in the subjects while awake and under anesthesia, and the difference was calculated (δCBF). With 2 μg/mL plasma level propofol, there was a drop in rCBF in several areas of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal cortices as well as the


LNE has set up a new national standard in gas flowrate measurement between 0.2 mg·s−1 and 200 mg·s−1 of nitrogen or dry air to calibrate automatically Molbloc laminar flowmeters. This paper describes the metrological qualification of this standard based on the dynamic gravimetric method: optimization of the method to reduce the uncertainty by a factor of 2 compared to those obtained with the LNE old gravimetric benches, participation to an interlaboratory comparison to validate this result. The uncertainty calculation is developed up to the calibration of a Molbloc laminar flowmeter.


This thesis presents a novel ZnO-hydrogel based fluorescent colloidal semiconductor nanomaterial system for potential bio-medical applications such as bio-imaging, cancer detection and therapy. The preparation of ZnO nanoparticles and their surface modification to make a biocompatible material with enhanced optical properties is discussed. High quality ZnO nanoparticles with UV band edge emission are prepared using gas evaporation method. Semiconductor materials including ZnO are insoluble in water. Since biological applications require water soluble nanomaterials, ZnO nanoparticles are first dispersed in water by ball milling method, and their aqueous stability and fluorescence properties are enhanced by incorporating them in bio-compatible poly N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) based hydrogel polymer matrix. The optical properties of ZnO-hydrogel colloidal dispersion versus ZnO-Water dispersion were analyzed. The optical characterization using photoluminescence spectroscopy indicates approximately 10 times enhancement of fluorescence in ZnO-hydrogel colloidal system compared to ZnO-water system. Ultrafast time resolved measurement demonstrates dominant exciton recombination process in ZnO-hydrogel system compared to ZnO-water system, confirming the surface modification of ZnO nanoparticles by hydrogel polymer matrix. The surface modification of ZnO nanoparticles by hydrogel induce more scattering centers per unit area of cross-section, and hence increase the luminescence from the ZnO-gel samples due to multiple path excitations. Furthermore, surface modification of ZnO by hydrogel increases the radiative efficiency of this hybrid colloidal material system thereby contributing to enhanced emission.


In this research, we compared the anatomy and biomechanics of two species of mudskipper vs an aquatic sandgoby in view of terrestrial locomotion. Of particular interest was the relationship (if any) of pectoral fin movement with pelvic fin movement. We show that the pelvic fins of the terrestrial mudskippers studied herein, are retractable and move antagonistically with the pectoral fins. The pelvic fin of the sandgoby studied here is contrarily non-retractable and drags on any underlying substrate that the sandgoby tries to crawl across. We find that the pelvic and pectoral fin muscles of all fish are separated, but that the pectoral fins of the mudskipper species have bulkier radial muscles than the sandgoby. By coupling a detailed morphological investigation of pectoral-pelvic fins musculature with finite element simulations, we find that unlike sandgobies, the mudskipper species are able to mechanically push the pelvic fins downward as pectoral fins retract. This allows for an instant movement of pelvic fins during the pectoral fin backward stroke and as such the pelvic fins stabilize mudskippers through Stefan attachment of their pelvic fins. This mechanism seems to be efficient and energy saving and we hypothesize that the piston-like action might benefit pelvic–pectoral fin antagonism by facilitating a mechanical down-thrust. Our research on the biomechanics of tree-climbing fish provides ideas and greater potential for the development of energetically more efficient systems of ambulation in biomimetic robots.


A reliable technique for measuring near field phase fronts of phased-array semiconductor lasers is proposed and demonstrated. Laterally sheared interferograms are generated in a ring-type interferometer with zero optical path difference between two beams, eliminating problems due to equal optical path requirements in other systems. Fourier transform methods are used to extract phase difference information from the nonuniformly illuminated interferograms, and phase discontinuities between adjacent stripes of carrierguided laser arrays are observed. Test data agree with theoretical predictions and far field interpretations.


The encapsulation of sensitive drugs into nanocarriers retaining their bioactivity and achieving selective release is a challenging topic in current drug delivery design. Established protocols rely on metal-catalyzed or unspecific reactions to build the (mostly synthetic) vehicles which may inhibit the drug's function. Triggered by light, the mild tetrazole-ene cycloaddition enables us to prepare protein nanocarriers (PNCs) preserving at the same time the bioactivity of the sensitive antitumor and antiviral cargo Resiquimod (R848). This catalyst-free reaction was designed to take place at the interface of aqueous nanodroplets in miniemulsion to produce core-shell PNCs with over 90% encapsulation efficiency and no unwanted drug release over storage for several months. Albumins used herein are major constituents of blood and thus ideal biodegradable natural polymers for the production of such nanocarriers. These protein carriers were taken up by dendritic cells and the intracellular drug release by enzymatic degradation of the protein shell material was proven. Together with the thorough colloidal analysis of the PNCs, their stability in human blood plasma and the detailed protein corona composition, these results underline the high potential of such naturally derived drug delivery vehicles.