This research was developed in response to recent interest in offshore wind energy development and the ongoing need for ecosystem-based spatial management planning in Rhode Island's nearshore waters. Despite heavy use and close proximity to a number of marine science institutions, Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds have been neglected in terms of scientific research, resulting in a poor understanding of the fisheries ecosystem in this area. This research aimed to address this knowledge gap by assessing the biogeography, trophic dynamics and habitat associations of the fish and invertebrate communities in this region. Specifically, the goals of this research were to: 1) Evaluate the fine-scale spatial structure of the demersal fish and invertebrate community, 2) Assess the dietary guild structure and the flow of energy through the fisheries food web, and 3) Investigate the relationship between the fish community and benthic habitat. Otter trawls and beam trawls were used to sample fish and invertebrates throughout Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds from 2009 to 2012. Field work was conducted in collaboration with two commercial fishing vessels, the F/V Darana R and F/V Mister G, and the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program. During otter trawl surveys, stomach and white tissue samples were taken from 25 species for analysis of diet composition and nitrogen and carbon stable isotope signatures. A combination of site-specific water column profiles, high resolution acoustic surveys, and seafloor video surveys were used for habitat characterization. Regionally-grouped abundance, biomass, diversity, and size spectra were used to assess spatial patterns in the aggregate fish community, and nonparametric hierarchical cluster analysis was used to determine species assemblages. Analyses revealed coherent gradients in fish community biomass, diversity and species composition extending from inshore to offshore waters, as well as patterns related to the differing bathymetry of Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds. Species assemblages were characterized by a combination of piscivores (silver hake, summer flounder), benthivores (American lobster, black sea bass, little skate, scup) and planktivores (sea scallop), and exhibited geographic patterns that were persistent from year to year, yet variable by season. Such distributions reflect the cross-shelf migration of fish and invertebrate species in the spring and fall, highlighting the importance of considering seasonal fish behavior when planning construction schedules for offshore development projects. Stomach content analysis was used to define trophic structure according to dietary guilds, while nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes were used to determine the trophic position of fish and invertebrate species and to assess the relative importance of benthic and pelagic production in supporting the fisheries food web. Results suggest that the fisheries food chain in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds consists of four trophic levels and six distinct dietary guilds (planktivores, benthivores, shrimp and amphipod eaters, crab eaters, small fish and shrimp eaters, piscivores). Inter-species isotopic and dietary overlap within guilds was high, suggesting that resource partitioning plays a major role in structuring the fish community in this region. Furthermore, carbon isotopes indicate that most fish are supported by pelagic phytoplankton, although there is evidence that benthic production also plays a role, particularly for obligate benthivores such as skates. Multivariate analysis of otter and beam trawl catch data and acoustic, videographic, and oceanographic benthic habitat parameters suggest that the fish communities in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds are structured by both permanent (i.e. depth, habitat type) and transient (i.e. bottom water temperature) habitat characteristics. As such, otter trawl and beam trawl species assemblages can be explained by a suite of seafloor and oceanographic habitat parameters, including mean depth, surface and bottom water temperature, standard deviation of benthic surface roughness, minor grain size, mean slope, and surface salinity. Furthermore, spatial patterns in diet composition indicate habitat-specific feeding by demersal fish species, such as winter flounder and silver hake. Feeding on benthic prey is, therefore, an important link between demersal fish assemblages and their habitats in this region. The results of this work not only provide valuable insight into fisheries ecosystem dynamics in a temperate nearshore environment, but will also inform spatial management plans for Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds. Furthermore, the methods for this study are consistent with European guidelines for assessing the impacts of offshore wind turbines on the marine environment and could provide a baseline for measuring the cumulative effects of offshore development projects within Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds.


This paper deals with the effects of telecommunications on the economic growth in African countries. The telecommunications sector became a vital sector during the era of the economic reform that has been characterising the continent. We investigate empirically the role of telecommunication infrastructures on long-run economic growth in African countries, for the span of time from 1984 to 2005. We use the panel data approach with a dynamic fixed effect model, which evidences that telecommunications contribute in a major way to the economic development of the continent. It is a crucial determinant, as findings indicate a significant and positive correlation between telecommunication infrastructures and regional growth in Africa, after controlling for a number of other factors. Results also show that investment in telecommunications is subject to diminishing returns.


This book examines the interplay of imperial, national and communal conflicts during the most crucial phase of India's national movement. By looking at the independence and partition that took place between 1945 and 1947, it covers a wide range of political events and the positions taken by the British, the Congress, the Muslim league and Hindu communal forces.


Measuring the progress on the goal of attaining universal education requires key indicators. Improving existing indicators requires incorporating other factors that affect school attendance. In this work, we look at the relationship of the National Achievement Test scores and pupil-teacher ratio, which are often used to assess school quality, using available datasets from the Department of Education. Moreover, we incorporate the pupil-teacher ratio as weights to our potential map formulation of school accessibility to see the changes to the public elementary school potential map. The potential map shows the reach of elementary schools in different areas in the country. Adding weights related to the pupil-teacher ratio lowers the contribution of possibly overcrowded schools.


In this study, we adopt Wang's (2002) heteroscedastic stochastic frontier model, which allows us to investigate bank cost efficiency and to measure the marginal effects of some variables on both the level and the variability of inefficiency. In recent years, the financial crisis has significantly affected the banking systems of the transition countries. Hence, the efficiency is of major importance for the stability of the banks. Regarding the determinants of efficiency, we find evidence that banks that follow a more cautious strategy, characterized by lower risk appetite and average expectations on profitability, have higher cost efficiency. We also find that traditional deposit-taking and loan-making still remain the most efficient activity of the banks. Additionally, the results showed that a higher Gross Domestic Product growth rate implies an increase in the inefficiency level, indicating an unsustainable bank management behaviour, which in periods of economic growth adopts policies that can generate inefficiency in order to gain market share and to obtain higher bonuses. Country cost efficiency results show significant differences. The banking systems in transition countries in South Eastern Asia appear to have a higher cost efficiency level. Also, the effects of the financial crisis were less significant in this region.


"Mongrel Nation" surveys the history of the United Kingdom s African, Asian, and Caribbean populations from 1948 to the present, working at the juncture of cultural studies, literary criticism, and postcolonial theory. Ashley Dawson argues that during the past fifty years Asian and black intellectuals from Sam Selvon to Zadie Smith have continually challenged the United Kingdom s exclusionary definitions of citizenship, using innovative forms of cultural expression to reconfigure definitions of belonging in the postcolonial age. By examining popular culture and exploring topics such as the nexus of race and gender, the growth of transnational politics, and the clash between first- and second-generation immigrants, Dawson broadens and enlivens the field of postcolonial studies."Mongrel Nation" gives readers a broad landscape from which to view the shifting currents of politics, literature, and culture in postcolonial Britain. At a time when the contradictions of expansionist braggadocio again dominate the world stage, "Mongrel Nation" usefully illuminates the legacy of imperialism and suggests that creative voices of resistance can never be silenced.Dawson Elegant, eloquent, and full of imaginative insight, "Mongrel Nation" is a refreshing, engaged, and informative addition to post-colonial and diasporic literary scholarship. Hazel V. Carby, Yale University Eloquent and strong, insightful and historically precise, lively and engaging, "Mongrel Nation" is an expansive history of twentieth-century internationalist encounters that provides a broader landscape from which to understand currents, shifts, and historical junctures that shaped the international postcolonial imagination. May Joseph, Pratt InstituteAshley Dawson is Associate Professor of English at the City University of New York s Graduate Center and the College of Staten Island. He is coeditor of the forthcoming "Exceptional State: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the New Imperialism.""


A B ST R ACT. This Note attempts to reroute a burgeoning area of campaign finance scholarship and reform. Though many previous proposals have enshrined liberty or equality as the sole animating value to pursue through doctrinal and political means, few have considered the impact of campaign finance regulation on citizen participation. Those that have proposed participation as a goal often remain tied to unworkable or self-defeating notions of equality. In building an alternative model of maximizing participation, this Note rejects the premise that direct political action such as volunteering embodies a superior form of participation to contributions, but recognizes the externalities that the latter form may produce. It proposes a new mechanism for reform: a cap and trade policy in which citizens can increase their rights to contribute to political candidates or parties by purchasing permits from other contributors. Derived from proposals to regulate pollution in environmental economics, this mechanism serves as a helpful alternative to ineffective and inefficient contribution limits.


This paper describes an approach to harvesting electrical energy from a mechanically excited piezoelectric element. A vibrating piezoelectric device differs from a typical electrical power source in that it has a capacitive rather than inductive source impedance, and may be driven by mechanical vibrations of varying amplitude. An analytical expression for the optimal power flow from a rectified piezoelectric device is derived, and an "energy harvesting" circuit is proposed which can achieve this optimal power flow. The harvesting circuit consists of an AC-DC rectifier with an output capacitor, an electrochemical battery, and a switch-mode DC-DC converter that controls the energy flow into the battery. An adaptive control technique for the DC-DC converter is used to continuously implement the optimal power transfer theory and maximize the power stored by the battery. Experimental results reveal that use of the adaptive DC-DC converter increases power transfer by over 400% as compared to when the DC-DC converter is not used.


Although a great deal has been written on the Paris Peace Conference, only in recent years have the necessary German documents been available for an analysis of the conference, not only from the Allied viewpoint but also from the German side. One of the great problems faced by the Allied statesmen in 1919 was the territorial conflict between Germany and Poland. The final boundary decisions were much criticized then and in subsequent years, and in 1939 they became the excuse for another world war. In the 1960's, over twenty years after the boundaries established at Versailles ceased to exist, they continued to be subjects of controversy. To understand the nature of this problem, it is necessary to study the factors which influenced the delineation of the German-Polish boundary in 1919. From the conflict of national interests there emerged a compromise boundary which satisfied almost no one. After this boundary was destroyed by another world war, the victors were again faced with the complex task of reconciling conflicting strategic and economic necessities with the principle of self-determination. This time no agreement was possible, and the problem remained a significant factor in German-Polish and East-West relations. The methods by which the statesmen of 1919 arrived at a settlement are pertinent to the unsolved problem of today.


Objective: The objective of this paper was to describe the computed tomographic appearance, characteristics, and significance of fat in the wall of the urinary bladder. Methods: Twenty-three cases of intramural fat were reviewed. Use of intravenous contrast, sex, and degree of bladder distention were noted. Location of intravesical fat was tabulated. Results: Intramural fat is typically seen as a thin low-density band along the anterior and superior portions of a partially filled urinary bladder. Most of the cases are in men (90%) and are seen on unenhanced studies (>80%). The prevalence of intramural fat was just less than 2%. Conclusions: Fat within the wall of the urinary bladder can be a normal histological finding that is detected at computed tomography typically in patients with nondistended urinary bladders on unenhanced studies.


Parallel coordinates plots (PCPs) are a well-studied technique for exploring multi-attribute datasets. In many situations, users find them a flexible method to analyze and interact with data. Unfortunately, using PCPs becomes challenging as the number of data items grows large or multiple trends within the data mix in the visualization. The resulting overdraw can obscure important features. A number of modifications to PCPs have been proposed, including using color, opacity, smooth curves, frequency, density, and animation to mitigate this problem. However, these modified PCPs tend to have their own limitations in the kinds of relationships they emphasize. We propose a new data scalable design for representing and exploring data relationships in PCPs. The approach exploits the point/line duality property of PCPs and a local linear assumption of data to extract and represent relationship summarizations. This approach simultaneously shows relationships in the data and the consistency of those relationships. Our approach supports various visualization tasks, including mixed linear and nonlinear pattern identification, noise detection, and outlier detection, all in large data. We demonstrate these tasks on multiple synthetic and real-world datasets.


We report the commissioning of the novel holography endstation for the P10 coherence beamline at PETRA III at DESY. The experimental imaging scheme is based on a highly coherent and divergent (cone) beam illumination, achieved by fixed‐curvature focusing mirrors with additional spatial and coherence filtering by x‐ray waveguides. The optical elements along the beam path and the instrument in commissioning are described. First experimental results are shown.


Wikipedia is a well-known platform for disseminating knowledge, and scientific sources, such as journal articles, play a critical role in supporting its mission. The open access movement aims to make scientific knowledge openly available, and we might intuitively expect open access to help further Wikipedia's mission. However, the extent of this relationship remains largely unknown. To fill this gap, we analyze a large dataset of citations from Wikipedia and model the role of open access in Wikipedia's citation patterns. We find that open-access articles are extensively and increasingly more cited in Wikipedia. What is more, they show a 15% higher likelihood of being cited in Wikipedia when compared to closed-access articles, after controlling for confounding factors. This open-access citation effect is particularly strong for articles with low citation counts, including recently published ones. Our results show that open access plays a key role in the dissemination of scientific knowledge, including by providing Wikipedia editors timely access to novel results. These findings have important implications for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field of information science and technology.


Background Presence of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is associated with a higher risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality. The relationship between a healthy lifestyle and CHIP is unknown. Methods and Results This analysis included 8709 postmenopausal women (mean age, 66.5 years) enrolled in the WHI (Women's Health Initiative), free of cancer or cardiovascular disease, with deep‐coverage whole genome sequencing data available. Information on lifestyle factors (body mass index, smoking, physical activity, and diet quality) was obtained, and a healthy lifestyle score was created on the basis of healthy criteria met (0 point [least healthy] to 4 points [most healthy]). CHIP was derived on the basis of a prespecified list of leukemogenic driver mutations. The prevalence of CHIP was 8.6%. A higher healthy lifestyle score was not associated with CHIP (multivariable‐adjusted odds ratio [OR] [95% CI], 0.99 [0.80–1.23] and 1.13 [0.93–1.37]) for the upper (3 or 4 points) and middle category (2 points), respectively, versus referent (0 or 1 point). Across score components, a normal and overweight body mass index compared with obese was significantly associated with a lower odds for CHIP (OR, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.57–0.88] and 0.83 [95% CI, 0.68–1.01], respectively; P‐trend 0.0015). Having never smoked compared with being a current smoker tended to be associated with lower odds for CHIP. Conclusions A healthy lifestyle, based on a composite score, was not related to CHIP among postmenopausal women. However, across individual lifestyle factors, having a normal body mass index was strongly associated with a lower prevalence of CHIP. These findings support the idea that certain healthy lifestyle factors are associated with a lower frequency of CHIP.


Humans are organisms of a creative sort. We make new things that scaffold the ecology of our minds, shape the boundaries of our thinking and form new ways to engage and make sense of the world. That is, we are creative 'thingers'. This paper adopts the perspective of Material Engagement Theory (Malafouris 2013) and introduces the notion 'thinging' to articulate and draw attention to the kind of cognitive life instantiated in acts of thinking and feeling with, through and about things. I will focus more specifically on Creative thinging, or creative material engagement, exploring the importance of thinging for understanding our species unique capacity for inventiveness.


The evolutionary history of vertebrate locomotion is punctuated by innovations that have permitted expansion into novel ecological niches. Frictional adhesion of geckos is an innovation renowned for enabling locomotion on vertical and inverted smooth surfaces. Much is known about the microstructure and function of the fully-expressed gekkotan adhesive apparatus, although how it originated is poorly understood. Therefore, identifying species that exhibit the earliest stages of expression of frictional adhesion will provide significant insights into the evolution of this trait. Our previous investigation of digital proportions, shape, scalation, skeletal form, and subdigital epidermal micro-ornamentation in the genus Gonatodes led us to hypothesize that Gonatodes humeralis expresses incipient frictional adhesion. To test this, we first conducted a phylogenetic analysis of Gonatodes and related sphaerodactyl genera to clarify the historical context of the evolution of frictional adhesive capability in the genus. We then measured the ability of G. humeralis and its close relatives to generate frictional adhesive force, examined their locomotor capabilities on low-friction surfaces, and observed animals in their natural habitat. After accounting for body mass and phylogenetic relationships, we found that G. humeralis generates frictional adhesive force essentially equivalent to that of Anolis, and can scale vertical smooth surfaces. Gonatodes vittatus, a species that lacks elaborated epidermal setae, generates negligible frictional adhesive force and can only ascend smooth inclined surfaces with a pitch of ≤ 40°. We conclude that the ostensibly padless G. humeralis, with feet lacking the musculoskeletal, tendinous, and vascular modifications typical of pad-bearing geckos, nevertheless can employ frictional adhesive contact to assist locomotion. As in Anolis, the release of frictional adhesive contact occurs when the foot is plantar flexed after the heel has lifted from the surface. Our findings indicate that the origin of frictional adhesion was likely gradual but that, ultimately, this led to major shifts in ecology and function.


Fer kinase, a protein involved in the regulation of cell-cell adhesion and proliferation, has been shown to be required during invertebrate development and has been implicated in leukemia, gastric cancer, and liver cancer. However, in vivo roles for Fer during vertebrate development have remained elusive. In this study, we bridge the gap between the invertebrate and vertebrate realms by showing that Fer kinase is required during zebrafish embryogenesis for normal hematopoiesis and vascular organization with distinct kinase dependent and independent functions. In situ hybridization, quantitative PCR and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses revealed an increase in both erythrocyte numbers and gene expression patterns as well as a decrease in the organization of vasculature endothelial cells. Furthermore, rescue experiments have shown that the regulation of hematopoietic proliferation is dependent on Fer kinase activity, while vascular organizing events only require Fer in a kinase-independent manner. Our data suggest a model in which separate kinase dependent and independent functions of Fer act in conjunction with Notch activity in a divergent manner for hematopoietic determination and vascular tissue organization.


Ulrike Pesold examines the portrayal of class, gender, race and ethnicity in selected school stories by Thomas Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling. She shows how the treatment of the Other develops over a period of a century and a half.


Faculty of Technology Department of Informatics by Majid Almaraashi This thesis reports the work of using simulated annealing to design more efficient fuzzy logic systems to model problems with associated uncertainties. Simulated annealing is used within this work as a method for learning the best configurations of type-1 and type-2 fuzzy logic systems to maximise their modelling ability. Therefore, it presents the combination of simulated annealing with three models, type-1 fuzzy logic systems, interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems and general type-2 fuzzy logic systems to model four bench-mark problems including real-world problems. These problems are: noisefree Mackey-Glass time series forecasting, noisy Mackey-Glass time series forecasting and two real world problems which are: the estimation of the low voltage electrical line length in rural towns and the estimation of the medium voltage electrical line maintenance cost. The type-1 and type-2 fuzzy logic systems models are compared in their abilities to model uncertainties associated with these problems. Also, issues related to this combination between simulated annealing and fuzzy logic systems including type-2 fuzzy logic systems are discussed. The thesis contributes to knowledge by presenting novel contributions. The first is a novel approach to design interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems using the simulated annealing algorithm. Another novelty is related to the first automatic design of general type-2 fuzzy logic system using the vertical slice representation and a novel method to overcome some parametrisation difficulties when learning general type-2 fuzzy logic systems. The work shows that interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems added more abilities to modelling information and handling uncertainties than type-1 fuzzy logic systems but with a cost of more computations and time. For general type-2 fuzzy logic systems, the clear conclusion that learning the third dimension can add more abilities to modelling is an important advance in type-2 fuzzy logic systems research and should open the doors for more promising research and practical works on using general type-2 fuzzy logic systems to modelling applications despite the more computations associated with it.


Because of the environmental importance, ozone has long been one of the prominent research topics in the scientific community. Surprisingly, in spite of all the research, the UV photodissociation dynamics of ozone has not been completely understood yet. More specifically, the origin of the small structural features overlapping the broad-band feature in the UV absorption spectrum of ozone still remains a mystery. However, theoretical calculations done in our lab predict, subject to UV radiation, great majority of ozone molecules fall apart in roughly 6 femtoseconds while a very minute portion, about 1% corresponding to small structural features take much longer to dissociate (up to 150 femtoseconds). Even with the fastest lasers currently available, it would not be possible to learn about the photodissociation dynamics of ozone using Femtosecond chemistry. However, a unique technique called continuous-scan Raman Excitation Profiles developed and tested on iodobenzene in our lab has proven to be a powerful method in learning about extremely fast dissociating processes such as ozone. One of the features that make REP's a powerful tool is that, it provides valuable knowledge of time domain behavior based on only the intensity and frequency of the emitted photons. However, primarily because of its extremely low photon yield, one must overcome several significant and challenging experimental problems associated with the apparatus before achieving any reliable ozone REPs. The main objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how these problems were solved and to discuss and analyze some recently obtained preliminary data to be the guide for those pursuing full-scale ozone REP'S in the future.


Adolescence is a developmental period of heightened importance of the individual's position within a group of peers, traditionally measured by affective sociometry. Recently, researchers have emphasized the necessity of distinguishing popularity defined by affective sociometry from perceived popularity measured by judgmental sociometry in which group members give the direct estimation of popularity of other group members. While numerous studies about the predictors and correlates of classical sociometric popularity exist, factors associated with perceived popularity are poorly explored. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived popularity and gender of both the assessor and the assessed person as well as loneliness in early adolescence. The participants were 290 elementary school pupils from the sixth and seventh grades. Data were collected by the Sociometric Questionnaire of Perceived Popularity and UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3). The study showed that boys perceived other boys as more popular than girls, whereas girls perceived other girls as more popular than boys. This gender bias was more pronounced among boys. Low popular students of both genders were more lonely than average and high popular students, while differences in loneliness between average and high popular students were not found. Gender did not moderate the relationship of perceived popularity and loneliness. The obtained results can help in the prevention of emotional and behavioral problems related to difficulties in interpersonal relationships.


This paper discusses an additional signal processing procedure for use in a recently proposed frequency-domain additive synthesizer 1, 2]. The overlap-add approach used in the frequency-domain synthesis can result in amplitude modulation in the overlap region between successive time frames if the partial frequencies in those frames are signiicantly diier-ent. A new method is proposed in which sinusoids of linearly time-varying frequency (chirps) are used to accommodate the frame-to-frame frequency changes.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of plaque composition on renal function after renal artery intervention (RAI).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In 33 consecutive patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (enrolled between January 1, 2007, and April 30, 2009), renal angiography, pressure gradients across the lesion, and intravascular ultrasonography (IVUS) with virtual histology (VH)-derived plaque characteristics were assessed. In 25 patients who underwent RAI, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was evaluated at baseline and at 3 months.

RESULTS
Mean pressure gradients across the lesion were poorly associated with baseline eGFR (r=-0.37; P=.07). In gray scale IVUS data, only remodeling index was significantly correlated with baseline eGFR (r=-0.38; P=.03). Plaque components classified by VH-IVUS had no correlation with baseline eGFR. During follow-up of 25 patients, the improvement in eGFR after RAI was observed in 9 patients, unchanged in 3, and deteriorated in 13. Overall, follow-up eGFR (median, 49.0 mL/min/1.73 m(2); interquartile range [IQR], 40.6-63.9 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) was unchanged compared with baseline eGFR (median, 53.8 mL/min/1.73 m(2); IQR, 41.4-63.4 mL/min/1.73 m(2); P=.38). The percent change in eGFR (median, -0.2%; IQR, -16.0% to 16.0%) after RAI had a significant negative correlation with the mean percentage of necrotic core classified by VH-IVUS (r=-0.47; P=.02), and the mean percentage of necrotic core was significantly larger in patients with deterioration of eGFR than in patients without deterioration of eGFR (median, 12.7%; IQR, 9.5%-19.5%; vs median, 8.3%; IQR, 5.5%-11.6%; P=.04).

CONCLUSION
In patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis, the change in eGFR after RAI was related to plaque composition classified by VH-IVUS. The evaluation of plaque composition may provide more insights into the change in renal function after RAI.


This book shows how the release of the free market in the last part of the twentieth century produced a rise in inequality and violence, the development of a huge criminal economy and the degradation of social and cultural life.

It questions the silence of academics in the face of these changes and asks how much they have been incorporated into the priorities of commerce and governments. Many academics in the social sciences, media and cultural studies have avoided critical issues and become occupied in obscure theoretical debates such as post-modernism. The effect was to draw inellectuals and students away from the engaged and empirical work needed to identify key social problems and possibilities for change.

The authors of this book point to the need for independent research which can criticise political policies and reveal their effects. They show, for example, why contemporary policies on drugs and education are creating more problems than they solve. The book features contributions from a wide range of academic disciplines including mass communications, sociology, politics, geography, philosophy and economics, and points to new directions for radical science. It also examines the possibilities for a free and democratic media and calls for the development of critical and open debate.


Practitioners and academics have long assumed that financial markets value the deal-specific legal terms of public company acquisition agreements, yet legal scholarship has failed to subject this premise to empirical scrutiny. The conventional wisdom is that markets must value the tremendous amount of time and money invested in negotiating and tailoring the legal provisions of acquisition agreements to address the distinctive risks facing each merger. But the empirical question remains of whether markets actually price the legal terms of acquisition agreements or whether they solely value the financial terms of mergers. To investigate this question, we designed a modified event study to test whether markets respond to the details of the legal terms of acquisition agreements. Our approach leverages the fact that merger announcements (which lay out the financial terms) are generally disclosed one to four trading days before the disclosure of acquisition agreements (which delineate the legal terms). We focused on a data set of cash-only public company mergers spanning the decade from 2002 to 2011 to ensure that the primary influence on target company stock prices is the expected value of whether a legal condition will prevent the deal from closing. Our analysis shows that there is no economically consequential market reaction to the disclosure of the details of the acquisition agreement. Markets appear to recognize that parties publicly committed to a merger have strong incentives to complete the deal regardless of what legal contingencies are triggered. We argue that the results suggest that dealmakers and lawyers focus too much on negotiating "contingent closings" that allow clients to call off a deal, rather than on "contingent consideration" that compensates clients for closing deals that are less advantageous than expected. Our analysis suggests drafting recommendations that could enable counsel to protect clients against the effects of the clients' own managerial hubris in pursuing mergers that may (and often do) fall short of expectations.


As if to affirm that "History repeats itself," the third oil shock in seventeen years has been threatening. But history never repeats itself exactly, and important differences exist between this incipient oil shock and the previous two, including differences in the likely magnitude of the shock, in the vulnerability of oil consumers, in the state of the world economy, and in the economic policy options open to governments in the industrial oil-importing countries. ; The author finds that all of these differences are favorable, tending to weaken the force of the latest shock. He cautions, however, that some OPEC members may not yet have learned that large, abrupt oi! price increases are inimical to their own interests.


Results from an experimental program undertaken to study the effect of fuel quantity and location on ethanol pool fires in the open and in a small enclosure (an ISO 9705 room) are compared with simulations using the Fire Dynamics Simulator version 4.03 (FDS4). The fuel in trays is placed at three locations (front, back, and center) within the room enclosure as well as directly under the calorimeter hood. The measured heat release rate (HRR) is found to vary substantially when a fuel package consisting of different quantities of ethanol is placed at different locations within the room. Instead of prescribing this HRR into the FDS simulation, these experimental results are compared with HRR predictions obtained using the FDS4 combustion model. The comparison reveals that there are significant and variable differences between the experimental results and the FDS4 predictions in contrast to simulations where the HRR is prescribed.


POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CRISIS OF GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF WEIMAR CONSTITUTIONALISM. By Peter C. Caldwell.^ Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Pp. xiv, 300. $49.95 (cloth); $17.95 (paper).^^ LEGALITY & LEGITIMACY: CARL SCHMITT, HANS KELSEN AND HERMANN HELLER IN WEIMAR. By David Dyzenhaus.ff Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. Pp. xiv, 283. $75.0044 Hard cases make bad law but great political theory. The books reviewed here concern a notoriously hard case argued in the final months of the Weimar Republic. Prussia v. Reich1 turned on the constitutionality of President von Hindenburg's use of emergency powers against Prussia in July 1932 under Article 48. That provision of the Weimar Constitution specified two emergency circumstances: when a state could not fulfill its obligations under Reich (Federal) law or the constitution, or when public safety and order are "manifestly disturbed. "2 In those circumstances, the President could take "such measures as are necessary to restore public safety and order."3 Article 48 specifically authorized the use of armed force and suspension of individual rights such as free movement, privacy of post, telephone and telegraph, free speech, freedom of assembly, and security of person, dwelling, and effects.4 The environment in which the Reich acted against Prussia was politically charged. The largest of the German states had enacted a series of laws banning political demonstrations and the wearing of political uniforms, measures intended to calm the atmosphere of civil unrest fed by Communist and Nazi agitators in Prussia.5 At the urging of his advisors, Hindenburg replaced the elected government of Prussia, the most vigorously anti-Nazi in Germany, with Commissars of the right-national Reich government under Franz von Papen.6 Both the Prussian and the Reich government claimed to be acting in the interests of law and order. One side invoked Article 48 to justify its action; the other denied the grounds for intervention. As in any great case, the facts were open to more than one interpretation. Peter Caldwell's masterful study of German constitutional law and theory between 1919 and 1933 identifies the origins of the conflict between Prussia and the Reich in the preceding regime, the German Reich (1871-1918). Caldwell's analysis of legal positivism and constitutional monarchy in the Reich of 1871 is the best account in English since Rupert Emerson's State and Sovereignty in Modern Germany.7 The foundation of the conflict over Article 48, Caldwell's first chapter suggests, can be traced back to nineteenth-century legal positivism and the claim of its foremost representative, Paul Laband, to have redeemed "the German people from its division"8 by excluding anything "non-scientific." "Laband hoped . . . that he could find a value-free, logical method of ordering legal norms and explaining their 'positive' true content. His lifelong goal was the exclusion of politics, or 'caprice' (words Laband used as synonyms), dilettantism, and political journalism from legal science. "9 Germany after 1871 was an Empire and a federation, and Laband's chief difficulty was how to reconcile the centrifugal impulse of federalism with the political development of a centralized state. Contemporary discourse phrased that issue as the problem of sovereignty: Where did the final decision-making authority lie? Was Germany a confederation or a federation? The United States, having fought a civil war over that very issue in the decade before, was an obvious case for comparison during the first years of the Empire; many German jurists looked to America for help in interpreting their new constitution. John C. Calhoun, The Federalist Papers, and Abraham Lincoln were all cited in an attempt to sort out the relationship between the German states and the central government.10 Laband rejected that approach, suggesting instead an analogy between state law and private law in which "the state" was a legal person. …


There is a widespread belief among observers that a lower premium is paid when the target CEO is retained by the acquirer in a private equity deal because the CEO's potential conflicts of interest leads her to negotiate less aggressively on behalf of the target shareholders. Our empirical evidence is not consistent with this belief. We find that, when a private equity acquirer retains the target CEO, target shareholders receive an acquisition premium that is larger by as much as 18% of pre-acquisition firm value when accounting for the endogeneity of the retention decision. Our evidence is consistent with what we call the "valuable CEO hypothesis." With this hypothesis, retention of the CEO can be valuable to private equity acquirers because, unlike public operating companies with managers in place, these acquirers have to find a CEO to run the post-acquisition company and the incumbent CEO may be the best choice to do so because she has valuable firm-specific human capital. When a private equity acquirer finds a target with a CEO who can manage the post-acquisition company better than other potential CEOs, we expect target shareholders to receive a larger premium because the post-acquisition value of the target is higher.


A recent dispersal of modern humans out of Africa is now widely accepted, but the routes taken across Eurasia are still disputed. We show that mitochondrial DNA variation in isolated "relict" populations in southeast Asia supports the view that there was only a single dispersal from Africa, most likely via a southern coastal route, through India and onward into southeast Asia and Australasia. There was an early offshoot, leading ultimately to the settlement of the Near East and Europe, but the main dispersal from India to Australia ∼65,000 years ago was rapid, most likely taking only a few thousand years.


This paper raises concerns about the tenor of 21st century interaction by identifying a tendency whereby relatively innocuous, canonically private communication is transformed into public communication deemed offensive enough to attract institutional or legal sanction. To understand examples of this tendency, it applies Goffman's architecture of interaction to email communication and proposes the notion of situational transformation to encapsulate reframing processes involving footing, face and participation framework. Through these processes (to which, it is shown, the email medium is especially vulnerable) and a discourse of civility, the private becomes public and opposition becomes offence.


This project sought to explore the impact of generic competitive strategies on corporate research and development (R&D) in Japanese technology-based companies through an extensive survey. It results in the generation of information on how Japanese firms approach the integration of R&D and corporate strategic management. Research hypotheses are empirically tested on the basis of the feedback provided by R&D managers from eighty-five leading companies in Japan. The results suggest that both cost leadership and differentiation have considerable impact on corporate R&D. However, Japanese managers particularly place great emphasis on the overall differentiation, because the strategy enables companies to satisfy the increasing demand of customers from a broad range of market segments. We also find out that Japanese managers in different types of industries and different sizes of firms tend to perceive each generic strategic alternative similarly important. Finally, we conclude that consistency with a firm's competitive strategy is considered essential for strategic R&D management.


To improve the spatial resolution of imaging and get more effective brain function information, a multi-distance probe configuration with three distances (28.2, 40, and 44.7 mm) and 52 channels is designed. At the same time, a data conversion method of modified Beer–Lambert law (MBLL) with partial pathlength (PPL) is proposed. In the experiment, three kinds of tasks, grip of left hand, grip of right hand, and rest, are performed with eight healthy subjects. First, with a typical single-distance probe configuration (30 mm, 24 channels), the feasibility of the proposed MBLL with PPL is preliminarily validated. Further, the characteristic of the proposed method is evaluated with the multi-distance probe configuration. Compared with MBLL with differential pathlength factor (DPF), the proposed MBLL with PPL is able to acquire more obvious concentration change and can achieve higher classification accuracy of the three tasks. Then, with the proposed method, the performance of the multi-distance probe configuration is discussed. Results show that, compared with a single distance, the combination of the three distances has better spatial resolution and could explore more accurate brain activation information. Besides, the classification accuracy of the three tasks obtained with the combination of three distances is higher than that of any combination of two distances. Also, with the combination of the three distances, the two-class classification between different tasks is carried out. Both theory and experimental results demonstrate that, using multi-distance probe configuration and the MBLL with PPL method, the performance of brain function detected by NIRS can be improved.


BACKGROUND
Medical students may be at risk of sharps injuries for several reasons. These exposures can transmit a range of blood-borne pathogens including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus.

AIMS
To evaluate medical students' knowledge regarding the prevention and management of sharps injuries and their experience of such exposures in the calendar year 2007.

METHODS
A cross-sectional, web-based, survey of fourth and fifth year medical students enrolled at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. All students were at the mid-point of their year of study. An invitation e-mail and two electronic reminders were sent, on specified days, to the study population. These contained a summary of the study and the link to the anonymous questionnaire.

RESULTS
Of the 395 medical students e-mailed, 238 (60%) responded. When compared with fourth year medical students, final year students had higher mean knowledge scores for sharps injury management (P < 0.01). Of total, 18% reported resheathing used needles and 31% reported disposing of sharps for others, indicating poor compliance with standard precautions. In the event of an injury, 29% stated that they would scrub the wound. Only 44% were familiar with policies for reporting exposures. In all, 11% of students had experienced at least one contaminated sharps injury in 2007 and, of those, 40% had reported the most recent incident.

CONCLUSIONS
Medical students are at risk of sharps injuries and their knowledge regarding the prevention and management of these exposures is limited: training on these issues should be increased.


Creativity in adults is highly valued in our society. Personal creativity contributes to inventiveness, innovation, social and cultural change as well as political development and economic progression. The creator is an innovator, a problem solver, an entrepreneur, an artist. Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey. Creativity is both a skill set and a unique and individual personality structure that is developed throughout childhood and fine tuned in adolescence and adulthood. Education has a key role to play in its development. Positive creativity inspiring experiences at every stage of the educational journey are needed. This is especially true in both early childhood and the infant primary classes. Educators who rise to the creativity challenge will be well rewarded in rich teaching experiences and the joy of seeing children reach their creative potential in supportive and integrated learning systems.


Information technology and globalization are the two most influential forces of the modern times. IT has given new meanings to the transmission, dissemination and storage of information; whereas globalisation is reducing the importance of geographical boundaries. Libraries as an important social institution have been affected by these changes. Information retrieval, information storage and information transmission are the core competencies of the libraries. Digital age characterized by efficient graphic user interface,
digital imaging, efficient transfer and storage of texts, is presenting important challenges for the libraries. Information privacy, copyrights, and information security are some of the challenging issues faced by the libraries in digital age. This paper is an attempt to present as well as to discuss the implications of these issues so that strategies can be devised to address them effectively and efficiently.


The subject of studying the institutional powers of state governors has largely been expressed on a macro level. Scholars have focused on obtaining a measurement of overall gubernatorial powers, often overlooking the quality of the individual measurements that make up their cumulative index. The most recognized method for measuring the formal and informal powers of state governors was created by Joseph A. Schlesinger in 1960, with Thad Beyle carrying on the work and providing periodical updates to the index. The scales used in these studies fall somewhat short of measuring the reality of gubernatorial powers in individual states, as existing scales of individual powers in appointment, tenure, veto, budget, branch official selection and party control fail to recognize important differences among the states. Measuring gubernatorial powers can be important for scholars and citizens alike. Further knowledge of the governor's role and powers in the political process can give voters and researchers a better sense of what a governor may be able to accomplish, and serve as a possible predictor of policy success. This study reviews and reworks the Beyle scales in an effort to identify power differences between states in terms of their individual powers. A closer look at the categories used in cumulative indices reveals that many states are scored identically despite awarding significantly different powers to their state executives. By identifying constitutional and statutory differences among states, revised scales and scores are suggested to improve the validity of measuring the individual powers. A time period comparison for the years 1980-2005 shows that the revised scales find less change in certain powers than the Beyle scales. Finally, the results of the project are used to partially fulfill an existing framework for predicting and evaluating gubernatorial policy success in the states, allowing researchers a better relative context from which to predict and assess gubernatorial actions.


Introduction: Creatine is one of the supplements most used by athletes in order to increase protein synthesis and consequently muscle mass and strength. Objective: This study investigated the effects of creatine intake on the performance and lean body mass of Wistar rats. Methods: Male Wistar rats were allocated into one of the four groups: sedentary without creatine (S); Sedentary with creatine (SC); exercise without creatine (E); and exercise with creatine (EC) and received water and chow ad libitum. Those animals in SC and EC groups ingested creatine daily (0.430 g/kg body weight for 7 days and 0.070 g/kg body weight for the following 6 weeks). Animals from E and EC groups underwent a progressive vertical jump regimen (5 x 10 jumps with 1 min. resting interval) in a tank filled with water at 30 ± 1oC, 5 days/wk for 7 weeks. Performance was assessed by taking the time to perform 5 x 10 vertical jumps. The contents of water, fat and protein of the rat's muscles and bones were measured. Results: The performance was not affected by creatine intake (P > 0.05). Animals supplemented with creatine had an increased percentage of protein and a reduced percentage of fat (P < 0.05), regardless the exercise training. Exercised animals exhibited a higher percentage of protein and a lower percentage of fat and gained less body weight when compared to sedentary animals (P < 0.05), regardless the creatine supplementation. There was no difference between groups for water content and food intake (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Creatine supplementation did not affect performance of the animals. Nevertheless, it altered the lean body mass. Creatine supplementation as well as the power training program, independently, raised the protein percentage of the muscles and bones and reduced the fat percentage, with no alteration in the water percentage.


The more xeric southand west-facing slopes of the Ouachita Mountains of west-central Arkansas once supported fire-maintained shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) forests with a well-developed herbaceous understory. Fire suppression following the original harvest of these forests resulted in forests with increasingly abundant woody vegetation in the understory, midstory, and canopy, and a very suppressed herbaceous understory. Due largely to these habitat changes, redcockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) populations declined to extremely low levels by the 1990s. Ouachita National Forest managers increased the emphasis on prescribed burning and thinning in the late 1970s and initiated landscape-level restoration of shortleaf pinebluestem (Schizachyrium spp. and Andropogon spp.) communities in 1996, in part to support recovery of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Restoration involves thinning the pine and hardwood overstory, mechanical removal of midstory pines and hardwoods, and prescribed burning on approximately a 3-year return interval. This management (which will eventually encompass over 48,000 ha) has been very successful in returning large areas to a condition similar to historical photographs of original shortleaf pine forests. Restoration results in a more open, pine-dominated overstory and an increase in herbaceous vegetation compared to untreated control areas. The abundance of nectar resources was significantly higher in treated areas compared to controls, peaking in the first growing season following burning and declining thereafter. Overall abundance and species richness of butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds were generally greater in restored areas compared to controls. Many species of conservation concern, including Diana fritillary (Speyeria diana), red-cockaded woodpecker, northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), prairie warbler (Dendroica discolor), brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), and Bachman's sparrow (Aimophila aestivalis), also responded positively to restoration. Of the taxonomic groups studied, few maintained higher abundances in the control areas. Overall, regional abundance and natural patterns of diversity of the examined taxa will be enhanced with rrjswration of shortleaf pine-bluestem communities on appropriate sites in the Ouachita Mountains.


A study was conducted to assess the type and prevalence of abnormalities occurring in the female reproductive tracts of 405 buffalo cows slaughtered at Mosul abattoir. Out of the 405 buffalo genital tracts examined, various abnormalities with different degrees of severity were observed in 216 (53.3%) of cases. Twenty two (5.4%) were pregnant and the remaining 41.2% (167/405) were macroscopically normal. The most common abnormalities encountered were endometritis 50 (12.3%), ovarobursal adhesions 26 (6.4%) and hydrosalpinx 20 (4.9%). Other abnormalities recorded were follicular cyst, luteal cyst, cystic corpus luteum, paraovarian cyst, ovarian sarcoma, inactive ovaries, senility anestrous, pyosalpinx, hemosalpinx, obstruction of oviduct, salpingitis, double oviduct, hydrometra, mucometra, pyometra, permetritis, parametritis, uterine edema, perimetrial adhesions, parametrial adhesions, parauterine abscess and uterine tumor. Histopathological examinations in this study revealed that reproductive tract lesions seem to be an important problem with possible subsequent infertility and sterility in buffalo cows leading to animals slaughtered.


There is shift in the Architectural / Engineering / Construction and Facility Management (AEC&FM) industry toward performance-driven projects. Assuring good performance requires efficient and reliable performance control processes. However, the current state of the AEC&FM industry is that control processes are inefficient because they generally rely on manually intensive, inefficient, and often inaccurate data collection techniques. Critical performance control processes include progress tracking and dimensional quality control. These particularly rely on the accurate and efficient collection of the as-built 3D status of project objects. However, currently available techniques for as-built 3D data collection are extremely inefficient, and provide partial and often inaccurate information. These limitations have a negative impact on the quality of decisions made by project managers and consequently on project success. This thesis presents an innovative approach for Automated 3D Data Collection (A3dDC). This approach takes advantage of Laser Detection and Ranging (LADAR), 3D Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) modeling and registration technologies. The performance of this approach is investigated with a first set of experimental results obtained with real-life data. A second set of experiments then analyzes the feasibility of implementing, based on the developed approach, automated project performance control (APPC) applications such as automated project progress tracking and automated dimensional quality control. Finally, other applications are identified including planning for scanning and strategic scanning.


[1] We investigated the spatial and temporal variability of soil CO2 efflux across 62 sites of a 393-ha complex watershed of the northern Rocky Mountains. Growing season (83 day) cumulative soil CO2 efflux varied from ∼300 to ∼2000 g CO2 m−2, depending upon landscape position, with a median of 879.8 g CO2 m−2. Our findings revealed that highest soil CO2 efflux rates were observed in areas with persistently high soil moisture (riparian meadows), whereas lower soil CO2 efflux rates were observed on forested uplands (98% of watershed area). Furthermore, upslope accumulated area (UAA), a surrogate measure of the lateral redistribution of soil water, was positively correlated with seasonal soil CO2 efflux at all upland sites, increasing in explanatory power when sites were separated by the major aspects of the watershed (SE/NW). We used the UAA–soil CO2 efflux relationship to upscale measured CO2 efflux to the entire watershed and found watershed-scale soil CO2 efflux of 799.45 ± 151.1 g CO2 m−2 over 83 days. These estimates compared well with independent eddy covariance estimates of nighttime ecosystem respiration measured over the forest. We applied this empirical model to three synthetic watersheds with progressively reduced complexity and found that seasonal estimates of soil CO2 efflux increased by 50, 58, and 98%, demonstrating the importance of landscape structure in controlling CO2 efflux magnitude. Our study represents an empirical quantification of seasonal watershed-scale soil CO2 efflux and demonstrates that UAA (i.e., landscape position) and drainage patterns are important controls on the spatial organization of large-scale (∼km2) soil CO2 efflux, particularly in semiarid, subalpine ecosystems.


In order to improve the characteristics of the general broad-waveguide 808-nm semiconductor laser diode (LD), we design a new type quantum well LD with an asymmetric cladding structure. The structure is grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). For the devices with 100-\mum-wide stripe and 1000-\mum-long cavity under continuous-wave (CW) operation condition, the typical threshold current is 190 mA, the slope efficiency is 1.31 W/A, the wall-plug efficiency reaches 63%, and the maximum output power reaches higher than 7 W. And the internal absorption value decreases to 1.5 cm^{-1}.


Transient dynamic topography is maintained by time-varying density anomalies deep within Earth9s mantle. There is considerable interest in predicting and measuring dynamic topography because its spatial and temporal variation will help to track changes in the pattern of mantle convection. Despite the availability of increasingly elaborate predictive models, there is little agreement about the amplitude, wavelength, and rate of change of dynamic topography. Here we analyze a hybrid data set of subsidence observations from continental and oceanic basins in Southeast Asia, where published dynamic models predict 1–2 km of regional subsidence. Residual subsidence was isolated by removing the well-defined effects of lithospheric extension and/or cooling. At long wavelengths (∼10 3 km), the amplitude of residual subsidence (i.e., maximum permissible dynamic subsidence) has an upper bound of only ∼300 m. The spatial distribution of permissible dynamic topography has no simple spatial or temporal relationship to the pattern of subduction over the past 65 m.y.; anomalous subsidence commenced 5–10 m.y. ago, accelerating to a present-day rate of ∼100 m/m.y. Our results show that density anomalies within the lower mantle have little apparent influence at Earth9s surface. Instead, the distribution of residual subsidence reported here can be accounted for by minor variations in lithospheric thickness or by transient density variations beneath the lithospheric plate. The absence of measurable dynamic topography is surprising and indicates that mantle mass anomalies are supported elsewhere, presumably at internal boundaries within Earth. Our hybrid data set can thus be used as an independent constraint on the viscosity structure of the mantle.


Tidal freshwater wetlands represent a transitional wetland between tidal salt marshes and non-tidal wetlands. As such, they exhibit some of the vegetation characteristics of both systems. If the changes in the vegetation pattern favor the characteristics of of one system over the other, the changes may be an indication of changes in the environmental conditions of the estuarine ecosystem that favors that system. Unfortunately, little is known of the temporal and spatial changes that occur in the vegetation patterns of tidal freshwater marshes of the mid-Atlantic coastal region. In 1987 a vegetation analysis was done on a 60 hectare section of Sweet Hall Marsh, a tidal freshwater marsh of Chesapeake Bay. The data was compared with that of a similar study completed in 1974 to determine the changes that may have occurred in the vegetation pattern of the marsh. The results found that there was no significant difference in the species diversity of the two studies. However, further analysis showed that there was a change in the plant species contributing to the diversity. Snartina cvnosuroides. an oligohaline species that was not important in the 1974 study, had the fourth highest importance value in this study. The shift in species composition of Sweet Hall Marsh may reflect a shift in the marsh's environment from being historically that of tidal fresh water to one of being more transitional between oligohaline and tidal fresh water. James E. Perry, III SCHOOL OF MARINE SCIENCE THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY IN VIRGINIA ANALYSIS OF VEGETATION PATTERNS IN A TIDAL FRESHWATER MARSH


Adaptive conjoint analysis was used to elicit farmers' and experts' preferences for attributes of improving food safety with respect to chemical hazards on the dairy farm. Groups of respondents were determined by cluster analysis based on similar farmers' and experts' perceptions of food safety improvement. Results show differences in priority of the more important attributes. However, respondents in all groups valued "identification of treated cows" as one of the most important attributes. The results provide the processing industry and extension service with a better understanding of aspects that may form farmers' perceptions of improving food safety, and thus help to define the message for targeting different farmer groups.


Near-infrared spectroscopy is being considered as a tool for the noninvasive determination of important cell culture media constituents, which would allow frequent, harmless sampling and computer interfacing for closed-loop control. Partial least-squares calibration models for glucose and lactate are constructed for cell culture media and aqueous media comprised of several absorbing species. Wavelength selection, having failed in previous attempts with these data, is shown to reduce the error prediction and number of required wavelengths when performed with the use of a newly developed "peak-hopping" algorithm. The selection method reduces prediction errors in every case considered here and is extendable to combined calibration models that are built for use with a particular type of sample with the aid of high-quality spectra from simpler mixtures. The new selection algorithm leads to calibrations producing accurate predictions with fewer wavelengths, in support of previous results obtained when applied to single-component Raman spectroscopy data. The findings continue to suggest that the algorithm can be used as a simple alternative to the difficult-to-configure genetic algorithm.


AIM
The purpose of the present study is to analyze the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) grading and histopathological alterations of the intervertebral disc (IVD) for correlations with each other and with the age, gender and low back pain duration of the patients who had undergone operations for lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Forty-two patients were admitted to our clinic with signs of LDH and underwent surgery for LDH at 48 IVD levels. In all cases, specimens for histological and immunohistochemical analyses were removed from the IVD space. Lumbar IVD degeneration on MRI of the 48 IVDs from which surgical specimens had been obtained was classified into five grades using the Pfirrmann classification.

RESULTS
In the degenerated IVD, the expression of MMP-3, MRI grading and histopathological alterations of the IVD displayed significant correlation. Increased age is closely related with aforementioned alterations. There was no correlation between MMP-3 expression and age, gender and duration of the pain.

CONCLUSION
For evaluating and treating IVD degeneration, MRI is a good and non-invasive diagnostic tool to determine the severity of degeneration. MMP-3 may be a therapeutic target of the degenerated IVD.


Plants have efficient mechanisms for detoxification and sequestration of xenobiotic chemicals and trace elements, basis of any efficient phytoremediation process. However the amount of pollutants that can be accumulated and detoxified without disrupting the normal plant metabolism and wellness is probably limited and specific to a particular plant species, ecotype or cultivar. For example, overloading a plant with a xenobiotic requiring oxidation by cytochrome P450 monooxygenases may compete with the physiological functions of these enzymes. An increase in their activity may also impose a major demand on cellular pools of oxygen and NAD(P)H, affecting plant redox and energy status, and possibly the complex respiratory chains of plant mitochondria. Molecules involved in conjugation of xenobiotics, like glutathione, also play a major role in normal plant metabolism. The presence of many xenobiotic compounds induces the biosynthesis of glutathione transferases and thus an increased use of glutathione. Plant glutathione level and redox status are thus affected under such conditions, with probable implications on sulphur requirement and assimilation. Finally many plant specific metabolites, often involved in plant interactions with its environment, have a structure similar to xenobiotics, and detoxification of the latter does probably use at least partially the metabolic pathways of the former. For example, most of the natural anthraquinones are glycosylated, whereas glycosyl-transferases are known to be involved in the conjugation of many xenobiotics. Xenobiotics metabolism seems to be integrated into the metabolism involved in the plant interactions with its environment, with probable crosstalks between detoxification and secondary metabolism.


Congenital anomalies are the structural and functional irregularities at birth. In this progressive study, all the neonates who are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during the three year period from 1st June 2017 to 31 May 2020. Aim: The study aims to examine the prevalence, type, and epidemiological factors of congenital anomalies among the population of Ladakh India. Subject and methods: All the neonates during the study period were examined by pediatrics and questionnaire filled by the consent of the family. A total of 936 parents of neonates was agreed to participate in this study and among them, 524 are male neonate and 412 was female. Results: Four and a half percent were diagnosed as being congenital malformed and the common system affected by congenital anomalies in the digestive system followed by the mucso-skeletal system. In this study, based on the logistic regression consanguineous marriage with OR of 9.862 (4.221; 23.041), P= <0.001, familial congenital anomalies in the family with OR of 17.008 (4.343; 66.606), P=0.001, an anaemic mother with OR of .124 (.029; .538). P = .005, Apgar score with .033 (.016: .067), P-value of <0.001 and paternal smoking with OR of 13.305 (5.558: 31.854) with P value of <0.001 had shown a very good significant correlation with the congenital anomalies. Conclusion: The occurrence and distribution of congenital anomalies in Ladakh were reported. More active prenatal screening and the possible role of genomics study are major importance to uncovering the susceptibilities.


Surface soil moisture is one of the few direct hydrological variables which can be measured. It plays a crucial part in the water cycle, agriculture, drought development, runoff generation, and many other phenomena. Satellite observations from active and passive microwave radiometers are best suited for the retrieval of soil moisture. The relationship between soil dielectric constant and water content is direct and is used to determine the surface soil moisture levels. Active microwave remote sensing techniques measure the energy reflected from target surfaces (ocean, soil, biomass) after transmitting a pulse of microwave energy, whereas passive microwave sensors measure the self-emissions of the target surfaces. The passive missions by ESA's SMOS and NASA's SMAP have demonstrated this technology for remote sensing on a global scale. Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is an alternative approach to the remote sensing of soil moisture, as demonstrated through several airborne and ground-based experiments. The new technique of Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) uses a bistatic radar configuration in which the non-cooperative transmitter already transmits signals designed for communication or navigation. The receiver reuses the reflected energy from the target surface (ocean, soil, biomass), thereby making the digital communication and navigation signal spectrum useful to the remote sensing science community. Several airborne and ground-based experiments have been conducted on the use of digital communication signals, a range of frequencies from P-band to Ku-band, for measurement of ocean surface roughness, wind speed, and soil moisture. This thesis presents the preliminary results obtained for reflectivity retrievals for the 2017 and 2018 S-band tower-based SoOp field experiment conducted at Purdue's Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). XM signals were recorded by a sky-facing antenna and an Earth-facing antenna mounted atop a tower. The line-of-sight (direct) signal is captured by the sky-facing antenna and reflected signal from the soil captured by the Earth-facing antenna was used for the ambiguity function of XM transmission. A link budget was used to determine the received signal to noise ratio (SNR). The cross-correlation between the direct and the reflected XM signals was used to estimate reflectivity values. The reflectivity retrievals were compared with the in-situ soil moisture content at 5 cm depth obtained by the HydraProbes. The reflectivity values were also verified by a Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) Coherent Bistatic (SCoBi) simulated model.


Throughout the 2013 to 2014 academic year, three institutions have been collaborating in the education of three cohorts of students through the BIM Hub project ; these are Coventry University and Loughborough University in the UK and Ryerson University in Canada. Students formed groups of six individuals, two from each university, including architects, construction engineers and project managers. The project was designed to create an authentic simulation of industrial collaboration and practices. At Coventry participation was optional (students had the alternative of forming collaboration with other Coventry students). At Ryerson and Loughborough participation was mandatory. They were set a project to design and plan a building for a particular site in Coventry through forming online collaboration, and reflect on their experiences. The study was funded by the Higher Education Academy in the UK with the intention of identifying which success factors led to effective online collaboration and is a follow-up to a previous project sponsored by the Hewlett Packard Catalyst Program (Soetanto, et al, 2014). Focus groups were conducted with the students at the institutions, the following analysis focuses on the issues faced and solutions identified in terms of the technologies involved and the strategies for successful collaboration. The analysis focuses on two of the universities and offers reflections based on their experience.


This paper proposes an enhanced authentication model, which is suitable for low-power mobile devices. It uses an Extended Password Key Exchange Protocols (2) and elliptic-curve-cryptosystem based trust delegation mechanism to generate a delegation pass code for mobile station authentication, and it can effectively defend all known attacks to mobile networks including the denial-of-service attack. Moreover, the mobile station only needs to receive one message and send one message to authenticate itself to a visitor's location register, and the model only requires a single elliptic-curve scalar point multiplication on a mobile device. Therefore, this model enjoys both computation efficiency and communication efficiency as compared to known mobile authentication models.


The aim of this study was to investigate the phytochemical diversity of essential oil of leaves and stems of tarragon ( Artemisia dracunculus L.) with main functional components, essential oils extracted by hydro-distillation using Clevenger apparatus and the phytochemical compound screened by GC-MS instrument. Forty bioactive phytochemical compounds were identified in the essential oil of (Artemisia dracunculus L.). The detection of phytochemical compounds is based on the peak area, retention time, molecular weight, molecular formula, chemical structure, MS Fragment ions and pharmacological actions. GC-MS analysis of ( Artemisia dracunculus L.) revealed to  the existence of the α-pinene, Camphene, β-Thujene, L-β-Pinene, 3-Octanone, β.-Myrcene, dl-5-Hydroxylysine,N,N,o-tris(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-,tert-butyldimethylsilylester, α-Terpinene, m-Cymene, Eucalyptol,  γ-Terpinene, cis-Sabinene hydrate,  (+)-4-Carene,β-Methylisoallylbenzene  , Linalool, Chrysanthenone, Camphor, Evonine, Carbamic acid, [2-[[1-(diphenoxyphosphinyl)-2-phenylethyl]amino]-2-oxo-1-, (-)-Borneol , (-)-terpinen-4-ol (3-Cyclohexen-1-ol,4-methyl-1-(1-methylethyl)-,(R)-), Phenol,2-ethyl-4,5-dimethyl-, α-Terpineol (3-Cyclohexene-1-methanol,.alpha.,.alpha.,4-trimethyl-,(S)-), Borneol, cis-Verbenone,cis-Carveol, (-)-cis-Myrtanol, Dihydrocarveol (Cyclohexanol,2-methyl-5-(1-methylethenyl)-), p-Benzoquinone,2-(3-hydroxy-3,7,11,15,19,23,27-heptamethyl-6,10,14,18,22,26-oct, Methyl nerolate ( 3,6-Octadienoicacid,3,7-dimethyl-,methylester,(Z)-), Isopiperitenone (2-Cyclohexen-1-one,3-methyl-6-(1-methylethenyl)-,(S)-), bornyl ester, 2-Methylbicyclo[4.3.0]non-1(6)-ene, Piperitenone, Cyclopentane,1-acetoxymethyl-3-isopropenyl-2-methyl-, 3,5-Heptadienal,2-ethylidene-6-methyl-, Caryophyllene, 1,4,7,-Cycloundecatriene,1,5,9,9-tetramethyl-,Z,Z,Z-, Caryophylleneoxide, 1-Oxaspiro[2.5]octane,5,5-dimethyl-4-(3-methyl-1,3-butadienyl)-, The analysis of Artemisia dracunculus L. leaves and stems showed the presence of Alkenes, Aliphatic fluoro compounds, Alcohols, Ethers, Carboxylic acids, Esters, Nitro compounds, Alkanes, Aldehydes, Ketones compounds. These founding confirm that beside the uses of Tarragon as seasoning due to containing a wide range of essential oil diversity, it can be also useful for various herbal therapy, as anti-inflammatory, cardiac tonic analgesic, antipyretic, antiepileptic, laxative, antispasmodic, carminative remedy and anti-asthmatic. Keywords :  GC-MS Analysis, Essential oils, Tarragon, Medicinal plants, Health benefits.


Background: Constructive alignment (CA) is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the alignment between the intended learning outcomes (ILOs), teaching and learning activities (TLAs) and assessment tasks (ATs) as well as creation of a teaching/learning environment where students will be able to actively create their knowledge.Objectives: This paper aims at investigating the extent of constructively-aligned courses in Computer Engineering and Informatics department at Dalarna University, Sweden. This study is based on empirical observations of teacher's perceptions of implementation of CA in their courses.Methods: Ten teachers (5 from each department) were asked to fill a paper-based questionnaire, which included a number of questions related to issues of implementing CA in courses.Results: Responses to the items of the questionnaire were mixed. Teachers clearly state the ILOs in their courses and try to align the TLAs and ATs to the ILOs. Computer Engineering teachers do not explicitly communicate the ILOs to the students as compared to Informatics teachers. In addition, Computer Engineering teachers stated that their students are less active in learning activities as compared to Informatics teachers. When asked about their subjective ratings of teaching methods all teachers stated that their current teaching is teacher-centered but they try to shift the focus of activity from them to the students.Conclusions: From teachers' perspectives, the courses are partially constructively-aligned. Their courses are "aligned", i.e. ILOs, TLAs and ATs are aligned to each other but they are not "constructive" since, according to them, there was a low student engagement in learning activities, especially in Computer Engineering department.


Re-engineering of business processes and their automation is an activity very common in most organizations in order to keep or create a competitive business advantage in the changing business environment. Business Process Modeling Tools (BPMTs) and Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) are the most popular tools used for business process transformation and automation of the redesigned business processes within and outside organization's boundaries. This chapter describes a set of criteria for selecting appropriate BPMTs and WFMSs among the diversity of the tools offered in the market in order to assist the interested manager or business process engineer to more successfully manage the business process transformation. While establishing the proposed criteria, we considered currently available technology and standards for visual enterprise support and inter-organizational business process modeling and automation.


A series of new hydrophobic two‐photon absorbing (2PA) chromophores with varied electron‐donating groups in quasi‐linear and multibranched structures are synthesized to correlate their structure/photophysical property relationships. The feasibility of using these large two‐photon absorption cross‐sectional (δ, expressed in GM = 1 × 10–50 cm4 s photon–1 molecule–1) materials in aqueous solution is also explored. All four hydrophobic 2PA materials can be encapsulated into micelles generated by dispersing an amphiphilic block copolymer, poly(methacrylic acid)‐block‐polystyrene (PMAA‐b‐PS), into water. The micellar nanostructures are characterized using dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. After these dyes are incorporated into micelles, they exhibit strong fluorescence in water. It is found that the quantum yield and δ values of these chromophores are strongly dependent on the diameters of the micelles, concentrations of the PMAA‐b‐PS, and molecular structures of the 2PA chromophores. One of the compounds that has a strong triarylamino donor and a multibranched structure exhibits a large δ value of 2790 GM and high quantum yield (0.56) in micelle‐containing water. Although this value is smaller than the original value of 5300 GM in toluene, it is still substantially larger than the values of most water‐soluble 2PA materials, which have δ values of less than 100 GM.


Abstract The aim of the current study was to examine the psychological impact of employment status, locus of control and attribution stability in the Vietnamese community in a Queensland sample. It was hypothesised that employment status, locus of control and stability of attributions regarding employment status would contribute significantly to the prediction of depression, anxiety, stress and somatisation symptomatology. One hundred and seventeen people in the Vietnamese community participated in this community-based explorative research. Results indicated that employment status and locus of control made significant contributions to the prediction of depression, stress, anxiety and somatisation. The clinical implication from the current research is that in the Asian community studied, individuals who encounter an adverse situation such as unemployment, and internally attribute that adverse experience to themselves, have a higher risk of developing mental disorders. Practitioners working in the field may find this information useful in their consultations with the 'at-risk' community.


Growth and yield responses of tomato to Trichoderma inoculants in Soilless
medium (mixture of coconut dust and peat) (Cdp) under Protected Environment
Agriculture (PEA) system was attempted. Two Trichoderma species; T harzianum (UPM
29) and T. Virens (UPM 23) singly and as mixtures were used in the study. The physical,
chemical and microbiological properties of Cdp was suitable for growth of tomato and
proliferation and survival of Trichoderma. Cdp has good pore size with bulk density
within the range of mineral soil (1.0 -1.8 g/l). Cdp has high water availability of
22.23%. However they has low microbial populations comprising of mainly the genera
Aspergillus and Penicillium.
The effect of soilless media on proliferation and survival of Trichoderma was
carried out by either adding the inoculant as an additive to the soi11ess medium or as bioseed
treatment. T. harzianum population in Cdp was reduced by 32% after 15 days of
application. However, population for T Virens when applied singly or as mixtures of T. harzianum + T virens dropped at day 6 but remained stable thereafter until the end of the
experiment. Trichoderma population was higher on the roots throughout the 21 days of
experimental period, suggesting that Trichoderma can colonize the germinating roots and
live on the root exudates. Application of Trichoderma as additives to the soilless medium
was a better delivery method as it gave better distribution and easy contact with the
growing roots. Therefore, application as additives to germination mixes was selected to
evaluate the effect of air-dried preparation of Trichoderma inoculants on growth and yield
responses of tomato.


People face a wide range of risks throughout their lifetime that can disrupt employment, reduce earnings, derail retirement planning, and impair economic well-being later in life. This paper measures the impact of health, employment, and marital status shocks on lifetime earnings. Using household survey data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation matched to administrative earnings records, we compared lifetime earnings for people who developed a health problem that limited the type or amount of work they could do, were laid off from their job, or became widowed, divorced, or separated with those who did not experience these shocks. The paper found that: -Employment shocks are fairly common, and disability shocks become much more common as people age. About one in five workers is laid off from their job over a four-year period, even when the job market is robust. About one in seven men and one in six women develop a work-limiting disability in their early 50s. -People who eventually develop disabilities or lose their jobs generally have lower lifetime earnings even before these shocks occur than people who do not experience these shocks. -Health and employment shocks have substantial and long-lasting impacts on earnings. Relative lifetime earnings rank falls by 5 percentile points a decade and a half after disability onset and by 3 percentile points a decade and a half after job loss. The policy implications of the findings are: -Strong safety nets are essential for people who experience health problems and job losses during their working years. -Increased investment in workforce development programs, including retraining of displaced workers, might raise lifetime earnings for workers who have experienced job layoffs.


The coconut water in 15 coconuts bought in 7 cities in Iran was examined for various physicochemical properties (electrical conductivity [EC], total dissolved solids [TDS], turbidity, pH, and fluoride [F] concentration) and the risk associated with the intake of F from coconut water was estimated. The SPADNS Zirconium Lake method was applied for the determination of the F concentration. The results showed that coconut water has a significant F concentration, (mean = 3.401 mg/L, range = 2.680– 4.160 mg/L). Significant correlations (Pearson) were found between the EC and TDS (0.980) and between the EC and turbidity (–0.525). The average F intake from the consumption of 350 and 700 mL of coconut water is about 15% and 30%, respectively, of the maximum acceptable daily intake of the fluoride of 0.1 mg/kg body weight/day. The fluoride intake from coconut water should be taken into account when calculating the dietary F intake.


We examine the relationship between nonlinear magnetic responses and the change in the Gilbert damping parameter α for patterned and unpatterned thin Permalloy films when subjected to pulsed magnetic fields. An improved magnetization-vector-resolved technique utilizing magnetization-induced optical second-harmonic generation was used to measure magnetization dynamics after pulsed-field excitation. The magnetization excitations were achieved with pulsed fields aligned parallel to the hard axis of thin permalloy (Ni80Fe20) films while a dc bias field is applied along the easy axis. At low bias fields, α was inversely related to the bias field, but there was no significant reduction in the absolute value of the magnetization, as might be expected if there was significant spin-wave generation during the damping process. We discuss the discrepancies between data obtained by ferromagnetic resonance, whereby spin-wave generation is prevalent, and pulsed-field studies, with the conclusion that fundamental differe...


OBJECTIVE There is a dearth of long-term data regarding patient and limb survival in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). The purpose of our study was therefore to prospectively investigate the limb and person survival of DFU patients during a follow-up period of more than 10 years. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Two hundred forty-seven patients with DFUs and without previous major amputation consecutively presenting to a single diabetes center between June 1998 and December 1999 were included in this study and followed up until May 2011. Mean patient age was 68.8 ± 10.9 years, 58.7% were male, and 55.5% had peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Times to first major amputation and to death were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox multiple regression. RESULTS A first major amputation occurred in 38 patients (15.4%) during follow-up. All but one of these patients had evidence of PAD at inclusion in the study, and 51.4% had severe PAD [ankle-brachial pressure index ≤0.4]). Age (hazard ratio [HR] per year, 1.05 [95% CI, 1.01–1.10]), being on dialysis (3.51 [1.02–12.07]), and PAD (35.34 [4.81–259.79]) were significant predictors for first major amputation. Cumulative mortalities at years 1, 3, 5, and 10 were 15.4, 33.1, 45.8, and 70.4%, respectively. Significant predictors for death were age (HR per year, 1.08 [95% CI, 1.06–1.10]), male sex ([1.18–2.32]), chronic renal insufficiency (1.83 [1.25–2.66]), dialysis (6.43 [3.14–13.16]), and PAD (1.44 [1.05–1.98]). CONCLUSIONS Although long-term limb salvage in this modern series of diabetic foot patients is favorable, long-term survival remains poor, especially among patients with PAD or renal insufficiency.


To investigate the development of diabetes mellitus in patients with thalassemia major, plasma glucose and immunoreactive insulin (IRI) levels following oral glucose and intravenous tolbutamide and glucose disappearance rates following intravenous insulin were measured in 10 patients before and during five years on a high transfusion program (HTP). Plasma immunoreactive glucagon (IRG) levels following oral glucose, intravenous insulin, and arginine were measured during the sixth year. Serial percutaneous liver biopsies were performed on seven patients. The oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) and mean peak IRI levels were normal in nine of 10 patients before HTP. After HTP was begun a progressive deterioration of OGTT occurred despite normal IRI levels. Following tolbutamide, the mean per cent fall in plasma glucose in the patients before HTP was significantly less than in controls (p < 0.01) and similar to that of controls during five years of HTP in spite of higher than normal peak IRI levels. Of seven survivors after six years of HTP, three had normal OGTT and four had chemical diabetes; mean peak IRI levels were normal, but fasting IRG levels were significantly higher than in controls (p < 0.05). In all seven patients, plasma IRG failed to increase following insulin-induced hypoglycemia and was significantly higher than in controls after arginine (p < 0.01); after oral glucose, plasma IRG fell significantly below that of fasting only in the patients with chemical diabetes (p < 0.03). Following intravenous insulin, the mean per cent fall in glucose before and during HTP was significantly less than in controls (p < 0.01). Hemosiderosis and cirrhosis were present in all biopsied patients. Four patients died; two had chemical and two had nonketotic insulin-dependent diabetes. These data suggest that diabetes mellitus occurs frequently in patients with thalassemia on HTP and that insulin resistance and hyperglucagonemia, possibly due to cirrhosis, are important etiologic factors.


A large proportion of diarrhoeal illnesses in children in developing countries are ascribed to an unknown aetiology because the only available methods, such as microscopy and culture, have low sensitivity. This study was aimed at decreasing the diagnostic gap in diarrhoeal disease by the application of molecular techniques. Faecal samples from 158 children with and 99 children without diarrhoea in a hospital in South India were tested for enteric pathogens using conventional diagnostic methods (culture, microscopy and enzyme immunoassays) and molecular methods (six PCR-based assays). The additional use of molecular techniques increased identification to at least one aetiological agent in 76.5 % of diarrhoeal specimens, compared with 40.5 % using conventional methods. Rotavirus (43.3 %), enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (15.8 %), norovirus (15.8 %) and Cryptosporidium spp. (15.2 %) are currently the most common causes of diarrhoea in hospitalized children in Vellore, in contrast to a study conducted two decades earlier in the same hospital, where bacterial pathogens such as Shigella spp., Campylobacter spp. and enterotoxigenic E. coli were more prevalent. Molecular techniques significantly increased the detection rates of pathogens in children with diarrhoea, but a more intensive study, testing for a wider range of infectious agents and including more information on non-infectious causes of diarrhoea, is required to close the diagnostic gap in diarrhoeal disease.


Objective: To describe a classification of errors and to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a method for recording staff reported errors in general practice. Design: An iterative process in a pilot practice was used to develop a classification of errors. This was incorporated in an anonymous self-report form which was then used to collect information on errors during June 2002. The acceptability of the reporting process was assessed using a self-completion questionnaire. Setting: UK general practice. Participants: Ten general practices in the North East of England. Main outcome measures: Classification of errors, frequency of errors, error rates per 1000 appointments, acceptability of the process to participants. Results: 101 events were used to create an initial error classification. This contained six categories: prescriptions, communication, appointments, equipment, clinical care, and "other" errors. Subsequently, 940 errors were recorded in a single 2 week period from 10 practices, providing additional information. 42% (397/940) were related to prescriptions, although only 6% (22/397) of these were medication errors. Communication errors accounted for 30% (282/940) of errors and clinical errors 3% (24/940). The overall error rate was 75.6/1000 appointments (95% CI 71 to 80). The method of error reporting was found to be acceptable by 68% (36/53) of respondents with only 8% (4/53) finding the process threatening. Conclusion: We have developed a classification of errors and described a practical and acceptable method for reporting them that can be used as part of the process of risk management. Errors are common and, although all have the potential to lead to an adverse event, most are administrative.


Yeasts represent a very diverse group of microorganisms, and even strains that are clas- sified as the same species often show a high level of genetic divergence. Yeasts biodi versity is closely related to their applicability. Biotechnological importance of yeast is almost immeasurable. For centuries, people have exploited its enzymatic potential to produce fermented food as bread or alcoholic beverages. Admittedly, yeasts application was initially instinctual, but with science and technology development, these microor ganisms got the object of thorough scientific investigations. It must be recognized that yeast represents an excellent scientific model because of its eukaryotic origin and knowl edge of genetics of yeast cells as well as metabolism examined in detail. In 1996, the genome of baker yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been elucidated, what opened the opportunity for the global study of the expression and functioning of the eukaryotic genome. Also, currently, an international team is working on the synthesis of the 16 yeast chromosomes by synthetic biology tools, and the results are expected till the end of the year. Nowadays, yeast is regarded as a versatile tool for biotechnological purposes.


The physics of tunneling from one spacetime to another is often understood in terms of instantons. For some instantons, it was recently shown in the literature that there are two complementary ``interpretations'' for their analytic continuations. Dubbed ``something-to-something'' and ``nothing-to-something'' interpretations, respectively, the former involves situation in which the initial and final hypersurfaces are connected by a Euclidean manifold, whereas the initial and final hypersurfaces in the latter case are not connected in such a way. We consider a de Sitter space with real projective space ℝP3 spatial sections, as was originally understood by de Sitter himself. This original version of de Sitter space has several advantages over the usual de Sitter space with S3 spatial sections. In particular, the interpretation of the de Sitter entropy as entanglement entropy is much more natural. We discuss the subtleties involved in the tunneling of such a de Sitter space.


We report on a diffusive analysis of the motion of flagellate protozoa species. These parasites are the etiological agents of neglected tropical diseases: leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania braziliensis, African sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei, and Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. By tracking the positions of these parasites and evaluating the variance related to the radial positions, we find that their motions are characterized by a short-time transient superdiffusive behavior. Also, the probability distributions of the radial positions are self-similar and can be approximated by a stretched Gaussian distribution. We further investigate the probability distributions of the radial velocities of individual trajectories. Among several candidates, we find that the generalized gamma distribution shows a good agreement with these distributions. The velocity time series have long-range correlations, displaying a strong persistent behavior (Hurst exponents close to one). The prevalence of "universal" patterns across all analyzed species indicates that similar mechanisms may be ruling the motion of these parasites, despite their differences in morphological traits. In addition, further analysis of these patterns could become a useful tool for investigating the activity of new candidate drugs against these and others neglected tropical diseases.