Background: Colon cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer both in men and women and cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. Treatment for the recurrent and metastatic colon cancer remains a center of clinical attention. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are suggested to be the only cells within tumor with tumorigenic capacity and implicated in metastasis. We have shown that vitamin E delta-tocotrienol (VEDT) is the most bioactive tocotrienols against cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VEDT on colon cancer growth, metastatic epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration/ invasion/angiogenesis and colon CSCs growth and apoptosis. Methods: Human colon cancer cells HCT-116 and metastatic colon cancer cells SW-620 and colon CSCs were treated with VEDT (10-100 μM) for 72 h and cell viability recorded. VEDT (50 μM) was used for malignant transformation; migration/invasion, CSCs spheroid formation, and pluripotency were determined. Azoxymethane treated Fisher 344 rats were used as colon carcinogenesis model. They were treated with 1) vehicle control and 2) VEDT (200 mg/kg, orally twice a day) for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks the polyps and tumor formation were recorded. Results: VEDT significantly inhibited the anchorage-dependent and independent cancer cell growth, migration/invasion and induced apoptosis compared to control. VEDT inhibited the CSC spheroid formation EMT (E-cadherin to vimentin), metastasis (MMP9), angiogenesis (VEGF), CSCs transcription factors (Nanog, Oct4, Sox2 and KLF4) compared to control. Conclusion: Vitamin E delta-tocotrienol inhibited colon cancer growth and metastasis through inhibition of cancer stem cell pluripotency, EMT, migration, invasion, angiogenesis and induction of apoptosis. Citation Format: Kazim Husain, Domenico Coppola, Said M. Sebti, Mokenge P. Malafa. Vitamin E delta-tocotrienol targets human colon cancer stem cells and inhibits colon cancer metastasis and induces apoptosis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3839.


Following Soto v State (1999), New Jersey was among the first states to enter into a comprehensive Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to end racially selective enforcement on the state's highways. The Consent Decree led to extensive reforms in the training and supervision of state police troopers, and the design of information technology to monitor the activities of the State Police. Compliance was assessed in part on the State's progress toward the elimination of racial disparities in the patterns of highway stops and searches. We assess compliance by analyzing data on 257,000 vehicle stops on the New Jersey Turnpike by the state police from 2005-2007, the final months of the Consent Decree. Specifically, we exploit heterogeneity of officer and driver race to identify disparities in the probability that stops lead to a search. We assume a crime-minimizing or welfarist rationale for stops, under which race-neutral factors are equally likely to motivate stops, regardless of driver or passenger race. We also test a Fairness Presumption (Durlauf, 2006) by comparing search patterns between driver-officer pairs where the driver and officer are different races, and a set of race-neutral benchmarks where the driver and officer are the same race. Results of fixed effects logistic regressions show that Black and Hispanic drivers, when stopped, are more than twice as likely as White drivers to be searched, regardless of officer race. The results also suggest that search patterns vary significantly by officer race: Black officers are less likely to conduct a search in the course of a stop than are white drivers. We also see significant interactions between the race of officers and that of the drivers they stop: Black drivers are significantly more likely to be searched by white officers than they are by black officers; on the other hand, Hispanic drivers are significantly less likely to be searched by either black or white officers than they are by Hispanic officers. Racial disparities in the selection of stopped drivers for search suggest that despite institutional gains under the Consent Decree in management and professionalization, there were no tangible gains in distributional equity. We review the design of the Consent Decree and the accompanying oversight mechanisms to identify structural weaknesses in external monitoring and institutional design in the oversight of the State Police that compromised the pursuit of equality goals.


In Nigeria, most of businesses operate in the form of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs play a significant role in the economic development of many nations. This paper employs current perspectives to examine the factors affecting investment, productivity and growth of SMEs by employing the World Bank Enterprise Survey in Nigeria. It explored five main factors affecting investment and productivity in Nigeria as follows: education of the labour force, access to infrastructure, access to finance, size of firms and other business climate variables. Other business climate variables are insecurity, bribe or corruption, the amount of time that businesses spend dealing with government regulation, poor power availability, etc. In a survey of 2,676 firms, access to finance (33.1%), access to electricity (27.2%) and the level of corruption (12.7%) were the most ranked obstacles for business owners. By employing the World Bank Enterprise Survey, this paper presents and analyses the business environment challenges at the national level. Keywords: SMEs, Enterprise, Productivity, Sustainability and African Business Environment.


A method is presented which allows the FT-IR spectrum of a material to be related to many of the significant practical properties of that material. The method uses factor analysis of all or part of the spectra of a calibration set of well-characterized samples to determine the minimum set of factors and the associated factor loadings required to reproduce the spectra. Multiple linear regression of the factor loadings against measured properties gives close correlations which are used to predict the properties of unknown samples similar to those constituting the base set. The method is often fast compared with conventional techniques and, by suitable choice, of calibration sets, can give semiquantitative results for a widely varying set of samples, or quantitative results of accuracy comparable with conventional techniques for a calibration set and unknowns from a narrower range of samples. Examples of the use of the method are given for coal, bauxite, manganese dioxide ore, and diesel fuel.


Remote laboratories are software and hardware tools that allow students to remotely access real equipment located in universities. The integration of remote laboratories in learning tools (learning management systems, content management systems, or personal learning environments) has been achieved to integrate remote laboratories as part of the learning curricula. A cross-institutional initiative called gateway4labs has been created to perform this integration extensible to multiple remote laboratories in multiple learning tools. This contribution focuses on describing this initiative and, in particular, how opening it to public systems (where users do not need to be registered) produces new technical and organizational challenges due to the public availability of labs. In addition, this contribution shows integrations of systems that were not previously addressed in this initiative, such as PhET or ViSH, as well as a new approach for integrating supported laboratories in external specifications such as the smart device one through OpenSocial.


The effects of double passages on waves passing through an inhomogeneous turbulent medium before and after being reflected by a scatterer are investigated. The first effect is enhanced backscattering: The average intensity of the backscattered field in a turbulent medium is approximately twice as strong as that in the absence of turbulent inhomogeneities. Among other important effects the partial reversal of a wave in a turbulent medium and the effect of long-range correlations should be mentioned. The influence of moving inhomogeneities on the efficiency of the wave-reversing mechanism is also investigated.


ABSTRACT
Background. It has been recently hypothesized that a sub-lethal ischemic insult induced in an organ is able to protect from a harmful ischemia occurring in a different and anatomically distant organ. In this paper, a new neuroprotective strategy termed remote ischemic postconditioning is described and characterized for the first time. This neuroprotective mechanism occurs in rats in which a harmful brain ischemia is followed by a sub-lethal ischemic insult applied at the femoral artery level.
Methods and Results. Remote ischemic postconditioning was induced in adult male rats by subjecting them to 100 minutes of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by several brief cycles of ipsilateral femoral artery occlusion-reperfusion. Within all the considered experimental protocols, the one in which 100 minutes of MCAO were followed by 10 minutes reperfusion and 20 minutes occlusion of the femoral artery was the most effective in reducing brain infarct, resulting in almost 50% reduction in the infarct volume if compared to animals subjected to 100' MCAO alone. Importantly, this protection was still present 7 days after remote postconditioning induction. Experiments carried out with specific inhibitors of each NO synthesizing enzyme, demonstrated that NO production through nNOS mediates part of the neuroprotective effect induced by remote ischemic postconditioning. In fact, the pharmacological blockade of nNOS was able to partially revert the neuroprotection induced by remote postconditioning. In addition, the neuroprotection induced by remote postconditioning was partially reverted when ganglion transmission was pharmacologically interrupted by hxamethonium, thus showing that neural factors are involved in this neuroprotective process.
Conclusion. Collectively, the results of the present study demonstrate that remote postconditioning induces a marked neuroprotection through nNOS activation and it may represent a new clinically feasible therapeutic approach to treat ischemic stroke.


This work tackles the problem of unsupervised modeling and extraction of the main contrastive sentential reasons conveyed by divergent viewpoints in text documents. It proposes a pipeline framework that is centered around the detection and clustering of phrases, assimilated to argument facets using a novel Phrase Author Interaction Topic-Viewpoint (PhAITV) model. The evaluation is conducted on all the components of the framework. It is mainly based on the informativeness, the relevance and the clustering accuracy of extracted reasons. The framework shows a significant improvement over several configurations and state-of-the-art methods in contrastive summarization on online debate datasets.


Many students with learning disabilities have difficulty establishing and maintaining high quality friendships (Bauminger, Edelsztein & Morash, 2005; Bryan, Wong & Donahue, 2002; Kavale & Forness, 1996). Many factors influence quality of friendship, including language and cognitive abilities, social skills, personality, and temperament. The present study examined the influence of social skills, temperament, and language skills on the quality of friendships in adolescents with and without learning disabilities. Participants were 30 sixth, seventh and eighth grade middle school students; 16 were typically developing, and 14 had a diagnosis of a specific learning disability. Students completed self-report questionnaires for friendship, social skills, and temperament. Students also responded to questions for six social skill scenarios that involved helping, access, and forgiveness behaviors. No strong relationships were found between friendship quality and measures of social skills, temperament and language skills. The best predictors of friendship quality were attention and empathy, but these accounted for less than 30% of the variance. As expected, the TD group had significantly higher mean scores for friendship quality, language skills, inhibitory control, and affiliation. There were no significant group differences for social skills. The findings confirm the significant challenges with friendship quality experienced by adolescents with learning disabilities. Future studies should continue to investigate the influence of temperament, language, and social skills on friendship quality.


Objective(s): We explored incidence, predictors, and long-term prognosis of hospital admissions attributed to reflex syncope and orthostatic hypotension. Methods: We analyzed a cohort of 32 628 individuals (68.2% men; age, 45.6 ± 7.4 years) without prevalent cardiovascular disease over a follow-up period of 26.6 ± 7.5 years. Results: One thousand and fourteen persons (3.1%, 1.2 per 1000 person-years) had at least 1 hospitalization for orthostatic hypotension (n = 462, 1.42%) or syncope (n = 632, 1.94%). Orthostatic hypotension-related hospitalizations were predicted by age [per 1-year increase, hazard ratio 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12–1.16], smoking (hazard ratio 1.35, 95% CI: 1.12–1.64), diabetes (hazard ratio 1.50, 95% CI: 1.00–2.25), baseline orthostatic hypotension (hazard ratio 1.45, 95% CI: 1.05–1.98), in particular, by SBP fall at least 30 mmHg (hazard ratio 3.93, 95% CI: 2.14–7.23), whereas syncope hospitalizations by age (per 1-year increase, hazard ratio 1.09, 95% CI: 1.07–1.11), smoking (hazard ratio 1.27, 95% CI: 1.08–1.49), and hypertension (hazard ratio 1.42, 95% CI: 1.20–1.69). Both syncope-hospitalized and orthostatic hypotension hospitalized patients had higher burden of hospital admissions for other reasons such as cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal disease, or diabetes. During the follow-up, 10 727 (32.9%) died, with 419 deaths preceded by syncope/orthostatic hypotension hospitalization. After adjustment for traditional risk factors, syncope-hospitalization predicted all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.16, 95% CI: 1.02–1.31), whereas orthostatic hypotension hospitalization predicted cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07–1.19). Conclusion: Hospital admissions due to syncope and orthostatic hypotension occur in ≈3% of older individuals and increase with age and comorbidities. Admissions due to syncope are associated with prevalent hypertension, whereas those due to orthostatic hypotension overlap with diabetes and previously identified orthostatic hypotension. Syncope-related admissions predict higher all-cause mortality, whereas orthostatic hypotension-related admissions herald increased cardiovascular mortality.


The emergence of complex phenotype is a fascinating question of evolutionary biology, and we sought to understand preadaptation which facilitated the development of complex phenotypes, in the context of bacterial metabolic network. Genes coordinated for a phenotype are likely to cluster on the same place of the genome, which so allows horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to pass the phenotype to another bacterium. But for a complex phenotype, its genes are clustered on different places of the genome cannot be transferred adaptively; it is preadaptation, which refers to adaptive transfer of a segment relevant to a complex phenotype for other purposes, that allows it later to be recruited for the complex phenotype. To search for preadaptation in the evolutionary history of E. coli, we reconstructed the ancestral genomes from various strains, identified the transferred genes, grouped them into possible transferred segments, and analyzed the gains in nutritional phenotypes corresponding to the acquisitions of segments of metabolic genes. Properties of these HGT segments inferred from data are enumerated and compared with a model of HGT, which shows that: 1) HGT segments are likely to adaptive, and segments carrying reactions essential to phenotypic gains but non-adaptive are rare; 2) the landscape of segment transfer for complex phenotypes is directional and path-dependent; 3) cooperation between HGT segments to support various nutritional phenotypes are observed to be more frequent than expected, which serves as an evidence to preadaptation in the evolution of bacterial metabolic network.


Crowd Simulation is very important in many virtual reality applications, because it improves the sense of immersion of the users by making the population of agents in the environment to move as real crowds do. Recently, models for simulating crowds, in which each agent is equipped with a synthetic vision system, have shown interesting results regarding the natural manner in which the agents navigate inside the environment thanks to their visual perception. In this article, we propose an upgrade to the agent's visual system with a panoramic view in order to allow an agent to expand its vision beyond the limit of 180o imposed by the common projection provided by rendering APIs. Also, we analyze different parameters, which are used to define the field of view, to investigate the influence they have on the agent's behavior. The impacts that those changes may cause on the efficiency of the algorithms are also analysed. A visible change on the agent's behavior is achieved by using the technique, with a slight loss of performance.


In the Philippines, "sex-sell" advertisements (ads), particularly the 2011 billboard by Bench featuring the Volcano Philippine Rugby Team, have been controversial. Community leaders view the ads as being offensive to the socio-cultural values of the community in which the ad is distributed. In response, producers of the ads contend that their works are merely creative options within the frames of the law. This paper approaches the arguments by investigating the linguistic functions of sex-sell ads through the grammatical analysis of its visual syntax. Using the framework of multimodal discourse analysis in visual semiotics, the paper demonstrates how grammar in visual language is compatible with the systemic functional language of Halliday (1985) as applied in the visual design theories of Kress (2006) and van Leeuwen (2005). The multimodal approach to the analysis of the linguistic functions of sexually implicit billboard ads seek to demonstrate the social semiotic perspective in the construction of meaning in print ads, how ambiguous visual lexicon can occur, and how a dissonant visual assemblage invites resistant reading. Through this discursive analysis, the paper hopes to promote a critical awareness among the passive interpreters of texts (i.e. general public information consumers) and the institutions (e.g. education, creative industry) that actively participate in the discourse, design, production, and distribution of meaning in advertising texts and images.


Many marine species are threatened, and given the importance of biodiversity indices in the current European marine policy, taking stock of existing species and species diversity is crucial. Zooplankton form the basis of the pelagic food web, acting as staple food for fish larvae and adult pelagic fish, but are very susceptible to a changing climate. Inventorying zooplanktonic diversity is therefore important. Based on monthly sampling campaigns in 2009 and 2010, an update is provided on the zooplankton species list for the Belgian part of the North Sea. A total of 137 taxa are listed, some of which had rarely or never been observed in the area. This inventory revealed several species new to the Belgian marine species list: the calanoid copepod Metridia lucens, the cyclopoids Oithona similis and Giardella callianassae, the hydrozoans Amphinema dinema and Eutima gracilis, the mysid Acanthomysis longicornis, the polychaete worm Tomopteris helgolandica, the cladoceran Penilia avirostris and the monstrilloid copepod Cymbasoma germanicum. Additionally, we identified several males of C. germanicum, which have never been described before. Brief discussions are presented on spatial distribution and abundance of all taxa.


: Water temperature and krill abundance in Maxwell Bay, Antarctica, were examined using Pygoscelid penguins carrying appropriate sensors linked to position- determining devices. Fifty-three forag~ng trips from 49 penguins indicated that during December 1991 and January 1992 the temperature in the top 100 m of the water column was highest in the western section of the Bay which concurred with higher krill abundance as determined by a catch per unit effort index. This work demonstrates that abiotic and biotic features of the environment can be studied using animals to transport probes to the study site, provided information is given on the position of the animals when measurements are made.


Four cows with cholestasis, whose general condition was moderately to severely disturbed, were examined. Two of them had signs of colic, and one had severe pruritus. All of them had jaundice and three had dermatitis solaris. Bilirubinuria occurred in three of the cows and they all had increased concentrations of serum bilirubin and serum bile acids and increased activities of hepatic enzymes. An ultrasonographic examination of the liver and gallbladder revealed that in one cow only the extrahepatic bile ducts were dilated, in another only the intrahepatic bile ducts were dilated and in the other two both the intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts were dilated. In three of the cows the gallbladder was severely dilated and the wall was thickened. Ultrasonographically, the bile appeared either anechoic or echogenic. Surgical or post mortem examinations revealed that the cholestasis in one cow was attributable to obstruction of the common hepatic duct in the area of the hepatic hilus, in two it was caused by obstruction of the common bile duct near the duodenal papilla, and in the fourth cow, the common bile duct was compressed by adhesions, resulting from peritonitis, which involved the liver, gallbladder and abdominal wall.


Recognition of structure in an audio mixture is a complex task which may be simplified by first isolating the individual sources in the mixture. There are several approaches to audio source separation. In the fortunate event that one has as many mixtures available as there are independent sources the methods of independent component analysis may be employed. If only a single mixture of multiple sources is available then it is possible to rely on previous knowledge of the individual sources to accomplish the task, or alternatively, on events common to sets of overtones. We propose a source separation method that uses the mutual correlations of the phases of overtones to group information vertically, i.e., in the frequency dimension of a spectrographic sound representation. We use the cleanly separable overtones to create filters to isolate the remaining overtones that are too closely spaced in frequency to be separated by reasonable length band-pass filters. Finally, we use the history of the signal itself to group data horizontally (in time). We discuss the advantages and the limitations of this method using a number of illustrative examples and a proposed quantitative perceptual metric.


We present a unified treatment of the diffraction properties of stratified volume holographic optical elements (SVHOE's). We show that the relative phasing of the diffraction orders as they propagate from layer to layer gives rise to a unique notched diffraction response of the +1 order (for the case of Bragg incidence) as a function of the normalized buffer-layer thickness, the grating spatial frequency, and the readout wavelength. For certain combinations of these parameters Bragg diffraction behavior characteristic of volume holographic optical elements (VHOE's) is observed, whereas for other combinations pure Raman–Nath behavior periodically recurs. By using these same relative-phasing arguments, the principal features of the periodic angular sensitivity of the +1 and −1 orders can be predicted. In addition to examining the fundamental aspects of SVHOE diffraction behavior, we discuss several possible applications, including optical array generation, spatial frequency filtering, and wavelength notch filtering. With the use of the SVHOE concept, holographic materials with otherwise exemplary characteristics that are currently available only in thin-film form can be used in structures designed either to access unique SVHOE diffraction properties or to emulate conventional VHOE's.


For integers $k$ and $l$, each greater than $1$, suppose that $p$ is a prime with $p\equiv1\,(\textrm{mod}\, k)$ and that the $k^{\rm th}$-power classes $\textrm{mod}\, p$ induce a coloring of the integer segment $[0,\, p-1]$ that admits no monochromatic occurrence of $l$ consecutive members of an arithmetic progression. Such a coloring can lead to a coloring of $[0,\,(l-1)p]$ that is similarly free of monochromatic $l$-progressions, and, hence, can give directly a lower bound for the van der Waerden number $W(k,l)$. P. R. Herwig, M. J. H. Heule, P. M. van Lambalgen, and H. van Maaren have devised a technique for splitting and "zipping" such a coloring of $[0,\, p-1]$ to yield a coloring of $[0,\,2p-1]$ which, for even values of $k$, is sometimes extendable to a coloring of $[0,\,2(l-1)p]$ where both new colorings still admit no monochromatic $l$-progressions. Here we derive a fast procedure for checking whether such a zipped coloring remains free of monochromatic $l$-progressions, effectively reducing a quadratic-time check to a linear-time check. Using this procedure we find some new lower bounds for van der Waerden numbers.


[1] In our isochron studies using grains of different sizes, we observed that the IRSL ages obtained from K‐feldspar without correction for fading show an increase with increasing grain size [Li et al., 2007, 2008]. Huntley [2011a] argued that this result was caused by different fading rates for grains of different sizes or by different source materials for different sizes of grains. We replied to his comment [Li et al., 2011], suggesting that the phenomenon could be explained by there being different fading rates for the IRSL signals produced by natural and laboratory irradiation [Li et al., 2007, 2008]. Instead of applying a correction to the whole of the IRSL signal [Zhao and Li, 2002], Li et al. [2008] deduced that the IRSL signal derived from the internal dose rate does not fade. An isochron dating method using the internal dose was proposed, and it appeared to be able to give reliable ages for well‐bleached aeolian samples [Li et al., 2008]. We are pleased that Huntley [2011b] has put forward new comments and some valuable explanations for our isochron data [Li et al., 2008] and that we can take the opportunity to reply to his comments.


This paper reports on redesign of the existing manual system of a Doctor Surgery, to a
computerised system, which takes the advantage of the latest technologies and allows the
patients to have better interaction with the system.
The Doctor surgery plays a major role in human life, over the years we have seen the drastic
changes in the treatment of patient in surgery, however we haven't really seen much changes
on structure of the system as a whole. Many surgeries still use a manual paper based system
for their transaction. The recent rapid development in web technology and growth of
distributed processing seems to be only applicable for commercial business and field such as
medical treatment seems to have fallen behind in the technology and as consequence,
inefficient and ineffective services provided to the patients. The new prototype system has
been designed using Object Oriented Methodology and implemented by using mainly JAVA
(RMI, SQL, SERVLET and other Java packages) for creating the communication server and
the web site. Also, for the end user interface of the database in the surgery ORACLE 7 and
Developer 2000 application was used.
The implementation of the system allows the patient to carry out appointment transaction
(create, query, delete) and communicate with the doctor via the web site, which is connected
to the oracle server in the surgery. The web site provides all the necessary details and
information about the surgery and practice. The final prototype utilises distributed
technology and built upon the research carried out.


This paper consists of five related notes on Japanese health care.

Section 1 of the paper proposes a simple model of health care needs in a stationary population where all the sickness is concentrated in the period leading up to death. The main variables determining the burden of health care, such as life expectancy, duration of chronic illness prior to death, etc., are identified. While we are not able to comment (at this time), on trends in the prevalence of chronic conditions in old age, extrapolation of trends in life expectancy presented in Section 2 of the paper suggest that there will be continuing increase in the number of Japanese surviving to extremely old ages. This aging of the population will assuredly put upward pressure on health spending, but this pressure must be put in the context of other factors. Section 3 decomposes increase in Japanese health care spending into portions attributable to overall demographic increase, change in population age structure, and change in a residual "underlying factors" term subsuming changes in technology, health system coverage, etc. The residual dominates total increase in health care spending. In fact, based on historical data and projected demographic trends, the strongest upward pressure from population aging occurred in the period 1980-95, when aging accounted for 1.4 percentage points of 5.6% per annum total health expenditure growth. Health care spending growth attributed to ageing is estimated to be 1.13% per annum in 1995- 2020 and only 0.34% per annum in 2020-2050.

Section 4 focuses on home care of the elderly and suggests that there is a substantial ongoing decline in the supply of potential in-family caregivers. Lower fertility is an important determinant of this trend. Section 5 describes the overall profile of the Japanese health care system, noting that it receives relatively high marks in international comparisons but tends to lump together acute care and chronically ill patients. As recognized by the "Gold Plan" policy currently being implemented, there is a severe shortage of nursing home facilities beds as well as services to make home care a more practical option for families. A simple ratio analysis suggests that the number of bedridden chronically ill persons (i.e., the population that would ideally be cared for in a nursing home setting) will reach 1,800,000 by 2020 as opposed to 600,000 today.


Preference-based teaching (PBT) incorporates choice and preferred activities into a teaching task to increase the rate of learning among students with developmental disabilities (DD). This study compared the efficacy of discrete trial training with and without PBT. Participants included three students from an afterschool facility that serves children with DD. Researchers met with each participant in one-on-one teaching sessions to determine if the PBT method embedded in discrete trial training led to more learning than discrete trial training alone. Learning occurred in both conditions and there was no clear difference between the PBT and comparison conditions. Generalization and social validity assessments were conducted for each participant. The generalization assessments failed to show a difference between conditions such that all participants retained the same amount of learned skills across both conditions. During the social validity assessments, all three participants chose the PBT condition over the discrete trial training condition. Interpretations of the results are discussed.


Fluid flow out of accretionary wedges is a consequence of the porosity reduction of wedge material both with depth and with distance from the toe of the wedge. Changes in porosity result in changes in bulk density, because bulk density is a function of solid density and porosity. These variations in bulk density in turn affect the critical taper of the wedge. The critical taper of a wedge with spatially varying strength, pore pressure, and/or bulk density is dependent not only on the value of these parameters, but on their first derivatives as well [Dahlen, 1990]. Using the equations derived by Dahlen we find that the arc ward decrease in porosity results in the commonly observed convex wedge surface. A hypothetical model using a density-depth function generated from a synthesis of accretionary wedge data [Bray and Karig, 1985] demonstrates that the surface angle can decrease between 0.5 and 1° in the first 60 km from the toe of the wedge. Steeper wedges exhibit a greater degree of convexity (greater changes in slope). The amount of change in slope is relatively insensitive to the internal strength of the wedge. Wide angle seismic data from the Barbados accretionary wedge [Bangs et al., 1990] imaged velocity variations from the surface down to the decollement for a distance of 100 km from the toe. These data can be used to map the spatial variations in bulk density within the Barbados accretionary wedge. Holding strength and pore pressure values constant, and allowing only bulk density to vary, results in a model that closely matches the observed bathymetry both in overall convexity and in shorter wavelength bathymetrie features. The model allows a limited range of acceptable basal pore pressure values for the wedge. The ability of the model to accurately match the majority of the observed bathymetry suggests that bulk density variations are of first order importance for determining not only the wedge shape but also the shorter wavelength features. The model, however, does not produce the most pronounced changes in slope at the ten kilometers nearest the toe. This suggests that other factors, such as variations in pore pressure, sediment strength, or cohesion, are more important influences on the wedge taper nearest the toe.


A novel structure of Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) is proposed. The proposed structure uses the benefits of the axial flux path, short flux path, segmental rotor, and flux reversal free stator motors all together to improve the torque density of the SRMs. The main geometrical, electrical and physical specifications are presented. In addition, some features of the proposed structure are compared with those of a state-of-the-art radial flux SRM, considered as a reference motor. Then, the proposed structure is modified by employing a higher number of rotor segments than the stator modules and at the same time, reshaped stator modules tips. Achieved results reveal that, compared with the reference motor, the proposed and the modified proposed motors deliver about the same torque with 36.5% and 46.7% lower active material mass, respectively. The efficiency and torque production capability for the extended current densities are also retained. These make the proposed structures a potentially proper candidate for the Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) as an in-wheel motor.


Instructional decisions about the nature and extent of teacher input in mathematics classrooms typically lie on a continuum somewhere between teachers directly telling students how to carry out mathematical procedures and free exploration situations where teachers provide little or no guiding input. Making decisions about instructional input is an area of practical concern for many teachers. Some worry that by providing too much information they may deprive their students of opportunities to reason and build knowledge of mathematical relationships. Others struggle with concerns that their students who freely explore mathematical situations with little direction may fail to reach established curriculum goals in a timely manner. The challenge of instructional decision-making has been the subject of much research and scholarly consideration (Cobb, Yackel, & Wood, 1991; Lampert, 1985). Several researchers have identified characteristics for appropriate teacher intervention in mathematics classrooms. Chazan and Ball (1995) pointed out that it is appropriate for a teacher to contribute to and shape a classroom discussion by inserting substantive mathematical comments aimed at moving students away from entrenched disagreement or to provoke useful disagreement. Rittenhouse (1998) suggested that teachers might explicitly teach vocabulary, rules and conversational norms associated with a developing mathematical discourse, and conventional notation for a distinction that students already have made. Brousseau (1997) proposed a learning theory based upon strategic problem situations selected by a teacher to engage learners and facilitate their development of culture-specific mathematics knowledge and in which learners reason without teacher inp ut to produce knowledge intended to be useful beyond the immediate situation. But many teachers remain uncertain about judging the appropriateness of their input in the development of students' mathematics knowledge. How can teachers insert substantive mathematical comments and teach notational conventions without impairing opportunities for learners to develop meaning from their instructional experiences? How can they insure the continuation of learning when students appear unable to progress? To address these concerns, one must consider the questions of what understanding in mathematics means and how teachers' inputs influence students' understandings. According to Lesh (1979), the ability to translate from one mode of representation to another is an important way by which students make mathematics meaningful. He identified five nondistinct representational modes: real-world situations, manipulative models, pictures, spoken symbols, and written symbols. Linking mathematics knowledge constructed in one representational format to another is valued as an indication of students' understanding of mathematics (Lesh, Landau, & Hamilton, 1983). Kaput (1989) described representational systems in which learners use their knowledg e of mathematics developed in one representational format to give meaning and to extend their knowledge of mathematics in a different representational format. When teachers assist learners to develop links between representations, they help their students to learn mathematics. By insuring that those links connect a "known" representational format to a less familiar format, teachers maximize the opportunities for reasoning and building knowledge of mathematics relationships. Tracing its roots to Vygotsky's theory of intellectual development (1962, 1978, 1983), the notion of scaffolding may potentially provide an instructional mechanism through which students might be enabled to create links between representations. Wood, Bruner, and Ross (cited in Wood, 1989) describe "scaffolding functions" through which a more knowledgeable individual helps novices extend their competence beyond levels of their individual capability. Scaffolding is a term used by many to refer to the language-based guidance provided to a novice learner by a more knowledgeable individual (e. …


An industry adage held that "there are two types of rental car companies: those that lose money and Enterprise." The company that would become Enterprise Rent-A-Car was started in 1957 in St. Louis, Missouri, by Jack Taylor. Taylor set up Enterprise offices in neighborhoods rather than at airports because he believed that Americans would welcome a local option for renting cars when their own vehicles were being repaired. In 2010 Enterprise had more than 6,000 rental locations in the United States and a fleet of 850,000 cars in service. Its parent, Enterprise Holdings (comprising Enterprise, National, and Alamo brands) accounted for nearly half of the car rental market and was more than twice the size of Hertz, the number two competitor. Enterprise's competitive advantage was the result of the combination of its practices in hiring, training, compensation, organization, customer service, IT, and fleet management, among others.


Online Material: Descriptions of validation events and scenarios; fixed and region‐dependent parameters; additional goodness‐of‐fit plots for ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) versus data, simulations versus GMPEs, and pseudospectral accelerations (PSA) bias versus distance; and comparison of rupture models with associated PSA bias and time histories for Landers.

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has completed phase 1 of its Broadband Platform (BBP) ground‐motion simulation results, evaluating the potential applications for engineering of the resulting 0.01–10 s pseudospectral accelerations (PSAs) generated by five different methods. The exercise included part A, in which the methods were evaluated based on the bias of simulation results to observations for 12 well‐recorded historical earthquakes: 7 in the western United States, 2 in Japan, and 3 in the eastern United States/Canada. In addition, part B evaluated simulation results for M w 5.5, 6.2, and 6.6 scenarios at 20 and 50 km from the fault. The methods were assessed based on the bias of the median PSA for the 12 events in part A and on a specified acceptance criterion compared with Next Generation Attenuation‐West (NGA‐West) ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) in part B. The results were evaluated by the bias of mean PSA from simulations using 1D velocity models with ![Graphic][1] (see the electronic supplement of Goulet et al. , 2015) with respect to recorded data corrected for site effects. The part A events and part B scenarios are described in ![Graphic][2] Tables S1 and S2 (available in the electronic supplement to this article), respectively.

One of the five methods evaluated was the Broadband Synthetics Generator Module BBtoolbox, a hybrid method combining deterministic low‐frequency (LF) synthetics with high‐frequency (HF) scatterograms (Mai et al. , 2010; Mena et al. , 2010). The LFs may be computed using deterministic or dynamic descriptions in 1D or 3D media. The HF scatterograms are generated for each component of motion …

 [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif
 [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif


In this paper we present a novel and general memory-related attack method on ARM-based computing platforms. Our attack deploys the principles of return-oriented programming (ROP), however, in contrast to conventional ROP, it exploits jumps instead of returns, and hence it can not be detected by return address checkers. Although a similar attack has been recently proposed for Intel x86, it was unclear if the attack technique can be deployed to ARM-based computing platforms as well. Developing a jump-based attack on ARM is more involved, because ARM is based on a RSIC architecture which differs in many aspects from Intel's x86 architecture. Nevertheless, we show a Turing-complete attack that can induce arbitrary change of behavior in running programs without requiring code injection. As proof of concept, we instantiate our attack method on the Android platform.


Traditional approaches to ecological modeling, based on mathematical equations, are hampered by the qualitative nature of ecological knowledge. In this article, we demonstrate that qualitative reasoning provides alternative and productive ways for ecologists to develop, organize, and implement models. We present a qualitative theory of population dynamics and use this theory to capture and simulate commonsense theories about population and community ecology. Advantages of this approach include the possibility of deriving relevant conclusions about ecological systems without numeric data; a compositional approach that enables the reusability of models representing partial behavior; the use of a rich vocabulary describing objects, situations, relations, and mechanisms of change; and the capability to provide causal interpretations of system behavior.


Health can be described as a dynamic abstract, multidimensional and culturally oriented concept. Every person may have a different perception of health which influences his/her health-related behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the meaning of health in a group of the Iranian elderly. A phenomenological method (Benner's interpretive phenomenology) has been utilized with semi-structured interviews. Responses were transcribed and verbatim and then analyzed qualitatively for themes and categories. Fourteen elderly persons aged over 65participated in the study. From the analysis of data in this research three major concepts emerged from the participants'viewpoints about the meaning of health;Physical and mental well-being in carrying out normal daily activities, having faith in religious matters and the shadow effect of older people's family members' health on their health. It is important that policy makers in health care systems investigate taken for granted concepts such as health and illness periodically, in order to plan for proper health promotion and health management programs particularly in specific groups like the elderly.


If all three OH groups on the glycerol molecule are esterified with the same fatty acid, the resulting ester is called a simple triglyceride. Although simple triglycerides have been synthesized in the laboratory, they rarely occur in nature. Instead, a typical triglyceride obtained from naturally occurring fats and oils contains two or three different fatty acid components and is thus termed a mixed triglyceride.


The power of phylogeographic inference resides in its ability to integrate information from multiple sources in an iterative hypothesis-testing framework. In this paper, we build upon previous mtDNA-based hypotheses about the evolutionary history of the Iberian newt Lissotriton boscai using sequences of the highly variable nuclear β-fibrinogen intron 7. In addition to the nuclear sequences, we produced new mtDNA data across the species range to delineate contact zones and test the congruence between nuclear and mitochondrial datasets at the same level of spatial organization. Through a combination of phylogenetic, phylogeographic continuous diffusion, and genetic landscape modelling analyses, we infer the evolutionary history of the species. We found notable congruence between nuclear and mtDNA datasets, which confirms deep and consistent differentiation between two major lineages that originated in the Miocene. Additionally, we found a new nuclear haplogroup with no mtDNA counterpart, roughly circumscribed to the Iberian Sistema Central mountains, and extensive areas of nuclear admixture across mtDNA lineages. We describe potential historical dispersal routes from an ancestral hypothetical refugium in the western end of the Sistema Central in central Portugal and highlight how deep phylogeographic breaks do not necessarily indicate cryptic speciation events.


This paper investigates the cross Germanic variation found in the use of support verbs in connection with VP Topicalization, VP Ellipsis and VP Pronominalization. The differences between Swedish and English are highlighted, but Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and German are also considered.
In this analysis, the support verb is a spelled-out little v, and the topicalized, elided and pronominalized parts are √(root)Ps. The variation between English and Swedish is an effect of where the support verb is first merged: English do in little v, Swedish gora in the head of the complement of little v. The other investigated languages have support verbs of the Swedish type, but Danish and Norwegian have developed a support verb of the English type as well.


Genetic improvement of maize with elevated levels of zinc (Zn) can reduce Zn deficiency among populations who rely on maize as a staple. Inbred lines of quality protein maize (QPM) and non-QPM with elevated Zn levels in the kernel have been identified. However, information about the optimal strategy to utilize the germplasm in breeding for high-Zn concentration is lacking. As a preliminary step, this study was conducted to ascertain the potential of QPM, non-QPM, or a combination of QPM and non-QPM hybrids for attaining desirable Zn concentration. Twenty elite inbreds, 10 QPM and 10 non-QPM, were crossed according to a modified mating design to generate hybrids, which were evaluated in four environments in Mexico during 2015 and 2016 in order to evaluate their merits as parents of hybrids. The highest mean values of Zn were observed when high-Zn QPM lines were crossed with high-Zn non-QPM lines. Hybrids with high Zn and grain yield were identified. General combining ability (GCA) effects for Zn concentration were more preponderant than specific combining ability (SCA) effects, suggesting the importance of additive gene action for the inheritance of Zn.


For soils to be suitable for engineering works, they must meet existing requirements for index properties in addition to certain strength criteria. Typically, specifications limit these properties to some threshold values which in most cases are project specific. The objective of this study is to evaluate properties (such as moisture content, particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, California bearing ratio and compaction characteristics) of soils derived from Ugwu, Orlu borrow pit with a view to providing sufficient data for engineers, planners, designers and contractors who might wish to utilise the materials for diverse construction purposes. Three soil samples were collected and tested. The soil has grain size ranging from 0.075mm to 2.00mm; average natural moisture content of 6.83% and mean plasticity Index of 9.5%. The soil is classified as CL according to USCS classification system since the samples plot slightly above "A" line and within the CL zone in the plasticity chart. The average liquid limit (LL) is 26%. The compaction characteristics shows that the OMC for the three samples ranges from12.3 to 13% and MDD ranges from 1.9 to 1.96 mg/m³. California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values are low ranging from 4.25 to 4.50% for the soaked and 7.13 to 10.29% for the unsoaked; hence cannot withstand excessive loading. Although the soil will not exhibit significant rheological properties, that is swelling up with increase in water content or shrinking with decrease in water content, and this property makes it suitable for engineering works because it will not cause cracking to foundations and structures due to heaving.


This Article fills a gap in commercial finance law. Despite the fact that "securitization" has become enormously important to capital markets — and is sometimes blamed for the credit crisis — we have no agreed understanding of the term. Various regulators and commentators have generated a wide range of definitions, but many are vague or omit crucial elements. Perhaps most surprising, the Dodd-Frank financial services reform — the most aggressive attempt yet to regulate securitization — does not define it at all. How can we regulate something without a shared conception of what it is?This Article assesses data on the performance and function of securitizations to develop a normative definition of the term based on its essential elements (its inputs, structure, and outputs) and its legitimate social and economic functions, namely providing a more effective means of connecting buyers and sellers of capital than traditional methods of financing, such as bank lending or issuing shares of stock. The definition offered here distinguishes "true" securitizations from other transactions, such as collateralized debt obligations and Enron's structured financings, which may satisfy current legal definitions of a securitization, but which in fact lack one or more essential elements, and which therefore fail to perform the important social and economic functions captured by the normative definition advanced here. The Article concludes by summarizing the benefits of a better definition of securitization.


Root proliferation and greater uptake per unit of root in the nutrient-rich zones are often considered to be compensatory responses. This study aimed to examine the influence of plant phosphorus (P) status and P distribution in the root zone on root P acquisition and root and shoot growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in a split-root soil culture. One compartment (A) was supplied with either 4 or 14 mg P (kg soil)-1, whereas the adjoining compartment (B) had 4 mg P kg-1 with a vertical high-P strip (44 mg kg -1) at 90-110 mm from the plant. Three weeks after growing in the split-root system, plants with 4 mg P kg-1 (low-P plants) started to show stimulatory root growth in the high-P strip. Two weeks later, root dry weight and length density in the high-P strip were significantly greater for the low-P plants than for the plants with 14 mg P (kg soil)-1. However, after 8 weeks of growth in the split-root system, the two P treatments of compartment A had similar root growth in the high-P strip of compartment B. The study also showed that shoot P concentrations in the low-P plants were 0.6-0.8 mg g-1 compared with 1.7-1.9 mg g-1 in the 14 mg P kg -1 plants after 3 and 5 weeks of growth, but were similar (1.1-1.4 mg g-1) between the two plants by week 8. The low-P plants had lower root P concentration in both compartments than those with 14 mg P kg -1 throughout the three harvests. The findings may indicate that root proliferation and P acquisition under heterogeneous conditions are influenced by shoot P status (internal) and soil P distribution (external). There were no differences in the total root and shoot dry weight between the two P treatments at weeks 3 and 5 because enhanced root growth and P uptake in the high-P strip by the low-P plants were compensated by reduced root growth elsewhere. In contrast, total plant growth and total root and shoot P contents were greater in the 14 mg P kg-1 soil than in the low-P soil at week 8. The two P treatments did not affect the ratio of root to shoot dry weight with time. The results suggest that root proliferation and greater P uptake in the P-enriched zone may meet the demand for P by P-deficient plants only for a limited period of time.


Four patients are presented who had apparently anomalous vascular channels that were initially erroneously interpreted as vascular malformations. These vascular channels represent the normal venous drainage of a pachygyric cortex. The recognition of this finding as a manifestation of the underlying abnormal neuronal migration is important in order to avoid further intervention in these patients.


Factor VIIa (FVIIa) consists of a γ-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) domain, two epidermal growth factor-like domains, and a protease domain. FVIIa binds seven Ca2+ ions in the Gla, one in the EGF1, and one in the protease domain. However, blood contains both Ca2+ and Mg2+, and the Ca2+ sites in FVIIa that could be specifically occupied by Mg2+ are unknown. Furthermore, FVIIa contains a Na+ and two Zn2+ sites, but ligands for these cations are undefined. We obtained p-aminobenzamidine-VIIa/soluble tissue factor (sTF) crystals under conditions containing Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and Zn2+. The crystal diffracted to 1.8Å resolution, and the final structure has an R-factor of 19.8%. In this structure, the Gla domain has four Ca2+ and three bound Mg2+. The EGF1 domain contains one Ca2+ site, and the protease domain contains one Ca2+, one Na+, and two Zn2+ sites. 45Ca2+ binding in the presence/absence of Mg2+ to FVIIa, Gla-domainless FVIIa, and prothrombin fragment 1 supports the crystal data. Furthermore, unlike in other serine proteases, the amide N of Gly193 in FVIIa points away from the oxyanion hole in this structure. Importantly, the oxyanion hole is also absent in the benzamidine-FVIIa/sTF structure at 1.87Å resolution. However, soaking benzamidine-FVIIa/sTF crystals with d-Phe-Pro-Arg-chloromethyl ketone results in benzamidine displacement, d-Phe-Pro-Arg incorporation, and oxyanion hole formation by a flip of the 192-193 peptide bond in FVIIa. Thus, it is the substrate and not the TF binding that induces oxyanion hole formation and functional active site geometry in FVIIa. Absence of oxyanion hole is unusual and has biologic implications for FVIIa macromolecular substrate specificity and catalysis.


The objective of this research was to characterize the pattern of spatial structure of a Pinus hartwegii forest in the Sierra Madre Oriental, affected by a fire in 1998. Sampling was stratified by fire severity. Three fire severity classes were defined based on the degree of crown consumption (low, medium and high). Three sample plots of 40m x 40m were established for each severity. The variables obtained for all trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 5 cm in each plot were: DBH to 1.30 m (cm), height (m), spatial location by recording the azimuth (°) and distance (m) from center of the plot to each tree. To describe the stand structure three groups of indices were employed: "contagion" and "distances" (Wi and Di), "dominance" (Ui), and "size differentiation" (TDi and THi) for DBH and height respectively. An analysis of variance was performed to detect differences between dasometrics parameters by fire severity. Statistical analysis shows significant differences (p>0.001) in the parameters such as basal area, diameter, and height, along the low, medium, and high fire severities. The characterization of the Pinus hartwegii spatial structure suggests that, with increasing degree of fire severity, the stands showed an increase on the aggregation index, however, the dimensional differentiation and dominance indices decreases as the fire severity increases.


As we move further into the information age, it is becoming ever more apparent that society as a whole, and information and computing specialists as its agents, will have to confront the general problem of information overload. The rising flood of information will soon compel us to use techniques and resources aimed at maximising our information handling efficiency. Storing and retrieving digital information according to consumer requirements is only part of the equation, information must also be presented in a form suited to the consumer's needs at the time of consumption. We call this information customisation and characterise it as the transformation of information into its most appropriate form. Thus, customisation makes existing information more useful.<<ETX>>


This paper started with the definition of imagination and the role it plays in the crystallization of reason and history evolution. Then, it moves to explain the relationship between reason and legend and how even history can not escape the impact of both. It is quite difficult to separate reality from legend, as legends have been built in a way to express certain reality which led to a negative expression among the fundamentalist communities of the divine books (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in light of the evolving cultural, psychological and linguistic mutual trends.


In the context of persisting gender inequality, women's participation in informal settlement upgrading in South Africa needs special attention. Disparities in access to resources are coupled with gender relations that are biased towards male power and marginalise the voice, agency and influence of women. This limits the contributions of women in upgrading projects and the potential for upgrading projects to contribute to gender equality. Informal settlement upgrading practitioners observe this in community participation processes. This issue highlights the need for a human settlement policy that acknowledges the effect of gender relations on informal settlement upgrading and creates an enabling environment for women to participate equally in transforming their living conditions. A Gender Lens on Informal Settlement Upgrading: Strengthening Women's Participation


Background Simple methods for the accurate triaging and screening of HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) are urgently needed. We hypothesized that combining serum antibody with urine lipoarabinomannan (U-LAM) detection can improve the detection of HIV-associated TB. Methods We performed a case-control study with sampling from a prospective study of South African HIV-infected subjects who were screened for TB prior to initiating antiretroviral therapy. Sera from all available TB cases (n = 74) and randomly selected non-TB controls (n = 30), all tested for U-LAM, sputum microscopy, GeneXpert, and cultures, were evaluated for antibodies to LAM and arabinomannan (AM). Diagnostic logistic regression models for TB were developed based on the primary test results and the additive effect of antibodies with leave-one-out cross-validation. Results Antibody responses to LAM and AM correlated strongly (p<0.0001), and IgG and IgM reactivities were significantly higher in TB than non-TB patients (p<0.0001). At 80% specificity, the target specificity for a non-sputum-based simple triage/screening test determined by major TB stakeholders, combining U-LAM with IgG detection significantly increased the sensitivity for HIV-associated TB to 92% compared to 30% for U-LAM alone (p<0.001). Sputum microscopy combined with IgG detection increased sensitivity to 88% compared to 31% for microscopy alone, and Xpert with IgG increased sensitivity to 96% and 99% compared to 57% for testing one, and 70% for testing two sputa with Xpert alone, respectively. Conclusion Combining U-LAM with serum antibody detection could provide a simple low-cost method that meets the requirements for a non-sputum-based test for the screening of HIV-associated TB.


Background HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most frequent chronic blood-borne infections among injecting drug users (IDU) causing significant morbidity and mortality among them and their sexual partners. Currently, injection drug use is the dominant risk factor for HIV and HCV transmission due to sharing syringes and drug injection equipment and is implicated in 30–40% of recent HCV cases in Albania. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and risk behaviours of HIV, HCV infection and Syphilis among IDU in Tirana, Albania. Methodology Data were collected from June to November 2011 among Needle Exchange Program (NEP) users in Tirana, Albania using Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS). Structured questionnaires were administered to measure drug use and sexual risk behaviours. Rapid test technique was used to determine the HCV, HIV and Syphilis prevalence. Results 68 (34%) participants were positive for HCV; 1 (0.5%) for HIV and 2 (1%) with Syphilis. Heroin (93.2%) was the most frequently used drug, followed by diazepam (33.4%) and cocaine (30%). Risk factors for HCV infection included unsafe cleaning practises and sharing drug injection equipments. 40% of IDU have injected with a used needle, 34.1% sharing needles with 3 or fewer persons and 88% drew drug solution from a common container. Unsafe sex and multiple drug-using sexual partners were associated with HIV infection. Discussion Results indicate that HCV prevalence remains unacceptably high among IDU when compared to the estimated HIV or Syphilis prevalence IDU is strongly associated with significant drug use and needle-sharing behaviours. HIV and Syphilis prevalence appear to be low and are mostly associated with sexual risk behaviours. The presence of HIV, HCV and Syphilis among NEP users suggests that these venues provide a good opportunity to provide continues prevention and care services to IDU and their partners.


The purpose of this study is to investigate how local and foreign newspapers used the war journalism and peace journalism frames when covering the Sri Lankan civil war, and to uncover subframes specific to the conflict. The first part of the thesis provides an in- depth literature review that addresses the history of the conflict and media freedom in Sri Lanka. The newspaper articles for the textual analysis were selected from mainstream Sri Lankan and U.S newspapers: the Daily News (a state sponsored newspaper) and Daily Mirror from Sri Lanka, and the New York Times and Washington Post from the U.S. A total of 185 articles were analyzed and categorized into war journalism and peace journalism. Next, subframes specific to the Sri Lankan conflict were identified. The overall coverage is dominated by the peace journalism frame, and the strongest war journalism frame is visible in local newspaper articles. Furthermore, two subframes specific to the Sri Lanka conflict were identified: war justification subframe and humanitarian crisis subframe. In conclusion, the study reveals that in the selected newspapers, the peace journalism frame dominated the coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war. All in all, while adding to the growing scholarship of media framing in international conflicts, the study will benefit newspaper editors and decision-makers by providing textual analysis of content produced from the coverage of war and conflict during a dangerous time period for both journalists and the victims of war.


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This technical report presents results from the FEEDcities Project – Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a cross-sectional survey conducted in Almaty, Aktau and Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, between July and August 2017, to evaluate the local street food environment. It characterized the vending sites, the food offered and the nutritional composition of the industrial and homemade foods available in these settings. The policy implications of the findings are outlined. The study was conducted within a bilateral partnership between WHO and the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (WHO registration 2015/591370 and 2017/698514). The study was funded through a biennial collaborative agreement and joint programmes between the Government of Kazakhstan and United Nations agencies in Kazakhstan for Kyzylorda and Mangystau oblasts, a voluntary contribution by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Resolve to Save Lives project of Bloomberg Philanthropies.


Computer vision technology is being used by many but remains representative of only a few. People have reported misbehavior of computer vision models, including offensive prediction results and lower performance for underrepresented groups. Current computer vision models are typically developed using datasets consisting of manually annotated images or videos; the data and label distributions in these datasets are critical to the models' behavior. In this paper, we examine ImageNet, a large-scale ontology of images that has spurred the development of many modern computer vision methods. We consider three key factors within the person subtree of ImageNet that may lead to problematic behavior in downstream computer vision technology: (1) the stagnant concept vocabulary of WordNet, (2) the attempt at exhaustive illustration of all categories with images, and (3) the inequality of representation in the images within concepts. We seek to illuminate the root causes of these concerns and take the first steps to mitigate them constructively.


Metabolic syndrome is one of the most common diseases both in Iran and in the world, which has been widely reported to be associated with anxiety and distress in the metabolic syndrome group. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational group logotherapy on existential anxiety in patients with metabolic syndrome. This study was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The study population consisted of adult women aged between 25 to 60 years old with Metabolic Syndrome that referred to the health center of Semnan County in 2018. The sample included 30 (15 for each group) patients with Metabolic Syndrome who were selected as an available and randomly recruits to each of the groups. Then, the participants in the experimental group participated in 10 sessions of 90 min of Group Logo-Therapy Program, while the control group did not receive any intervention. The instrument for gathering data was the Existential Anxiety Questionnaire. To analyze the data, SPSS.v21 software and statistical tests such as MANCOVA and paired t-test were applied. The results indicated that the group logo-therapy program had a statistically significant impact on components of meaning anxiety and death anxiety, but no difference between control and experimental group in term of loneliness anxiety and responsive anxiety was observed. Also, the results indicated that there was stability at the follow-up stage for death anxiety and loneliness anxiety. According to the results, the group logic training program has been effective in changing some of the variable dimensions of existential anxiety and has increased the ability of individuals to face logic and consequently responsibility for life. And, considering the transient existence of the world in place of insecurity and isolation, it calls for human effort and activity, so it is recommended to use this intervention for people with existential anxiety.


Experimental studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of backwashing and air-scouring to prevent cake-layer formation on the membranes in a hybrid PAC-MF process. The membrane filtration chamber used in this study was separated into two zones; namely, the PAC adsorption zone (PAZ) and the membrane filtration zone (MFZ). In MFZ tubular ceramic membranes were installed, and powdered activated carbon (PAC) was suspended in PAZ at a concentration of 20 g/L by aeration. Air-scouring and backwashing rates were gradually increased to see if these physical cleaning measures can reduce or maintain the filtration resistance due to formation of PAC cake layer on the membrane. Two types of saw-dust PAC having different sizes were used to find the difference of the effects of air-scouring and backwashing. A smaller PAC (Shirasagi C1, Japan EnviroChemicals, Co.) showed a slower increasing rate of filtration resistance than the larger PAC (Shirasagi S-10, Japan EnviroChemicals, Co.). It was found that air-scouring didn9t reduce the rate of cake fouling formation of PAC S-10, but can quite effectively reduce the rate of PAC C-1 attachment to the membrane. On the contrary, backwashing was not effective for PAC C-1, but quite effective for PAC S-10. PAC C1 formed a porous cake with low specific resistance, which can be easily removed by air-scouring, but cannot be removed by backwashing. On the other hand, PAC S-10 formed a tight cake layer because suspended particles get in to the void space between the PAC S-10. A dynamic model was proposed to explain the effect of air-scouring and backwashing to removal cake layer from the membranes.


The US public health response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been dismal, characterized by antimask behavior, antivaccine beliefs, conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19, and vocal support by elected officials for unproven therapies. Less than half of the people in the US heed health recommendations to wear a mask when out in public.1 Antiscience rhetoric has consequences. While only 4% of the world's population resides in the US, the US has accounted for 20% of the world's deaths related to COVID-19 and has performed less well than several other wealthy nations.2 Low science literacy contributes to denial of science. The relationship between antiscience viewpoints and low science literacy underscores new findings regarding the brain mechanisms that form and maintain false beliefs.


On Sunday June 18, 1815, Napoleon led his army into battle on the fields in front of Mont-Saint-Jean, a few kilometres south of Waterloo. There he faced an Anglo-Dutch army, consisting of regiments from Great Britain, Brunswick, Hannover, Nassau and newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and a Prussian army. At end of the day Napoleon's army was beaten and a few days later Napoleon surrendered and abdicated the French imperial throne for the second and last time.
The main focus of this thesis is not on the events and details of the battle itself, but on how people dealt with and gave meaning to the past of Waterloo in later times. In other words this thesis focuses on the Battle of Waterloo in historical culture. More specifically, this thesis focuses on collective memories of the Battle of Waterloo in the Netherlands at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the battle in 1865. By studying a wide variety of articulations of collective memories of Waterloo in the Netherlands, and by studying in depth the commemorations of the battle in Rotterdam in 1865, I aimed to provide answers to the question of what the significance of Waterloo was for constructing a Dutch national narrative of the past within the context of transforming historical culture in the Netherlands around 1865.
My research shows that in June, 1865, Waterloo was commemorated throughout the nation in locally organized commemorations that took various forms and were organized by people of various backgrounds. Interestingly, the national government was not involved in these commemorations, with the exception of a commemoration ceremony for veterans of Waterloo in Leiden. The case of Rotterdam showed that people of various social, religious and political backgrounds were involved in the production and consumption of collective memories of Waterloo, resulting in a variety of articulations of said memories. In these articulations sub-national as well as national identities were expressed reflecting the social contexts and ideals of the producers.
Despite the variety of producers, consumers and, as a result, the variety of narratives of Waterloo, I argue that commemorating Waterloo was indeed significant for constructing a national narrative. Firstly, because the variety of people commemorating Waterloo were, by doing so, all involved in imagining the nation, albeit in different ways. The Waterloo commemorations thus invoked national consciousness among Dutch people from various social backgrounds. Secondly, almost all narratives of the battle itself, or larger narratives in which Waterloo was but a single event in a plotline, ultimately came down to defending the nation.


Despite scientific and social support, campaigns of the environmental movement often struggle to gain political traction. This research explores political responses to environmental activism using a matrix analysis approach that compares various activism tactics with six designations of potential political response in order to better understand the relationship between activism tactics and the polity, and to consider the relevance of Antonio Gramsci's Counter-Hegemonic theory within the environmental movement. Case studies are drawn from five campaigns within eastern Canada's anti-pesticide spraying movement between 1960-2000, largely collected from the archives of the Ecology Action Centre. Discussion of the case study results suggest that Gramsci's indicators of successful counter-hegemony do not appear to affect the overall likelihood of receiving a political response, but that some individual tactics or trends in tactical approach consistently appear more advantageous. A critical analysis of the method also reflects on the matrices' ability to synthesize information about complex and interconnected events, so that they can be displayed, understood, and compared visually, while also maintaining their complexity and narrative depth. This research provides an interdisciplinary analysis approach, applies activism theory to tactics and events as the intersection between polity and activism, and also adds to the understanding of environmental activism within the Canadian context.


In this paper, I examine the degree and causes of judicial activism in a German subnational constitutional court. This research goal entails two dimensions. On the one hand, I explore whether and to what extent a German subnational constitutional court affects the scope of maneuvering of subnational parliaments and has thus developed a tendency towards judicial activism. I determine the degree of judicial activism with a newly developed "strength index" that measures possible reverberations of decisions made by constitutional courts in the political realm. In this respect, the project addresses a central theme of constitutional democracies: the tension between political self-determination and constitutional adjudication. On the other hand, I assume that judicial activism in the German Lander depends on the competencies and the composition of the court. The project thus combines attitudinal/behaviorist and institutional-theoretical approaches to provide answers to the research question at hand. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the role, subnational constitutional courts play in the German Lander. I apply two methods: linear regression and crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis.


At a basic level, water is a fundamental part of the human experience. Cities are, for the most part, founded on rivers. Water and rivers form a significant metaphor in describing, recording and celebrating historic and personal narratives. The title of this paper is inspired by a Persian fairy tale where a lovelorn princess, needing reassurance that the man she had fallen in love with was true, spoke to and heard back from the river. Symbolised by the river, water is the bringer of life and the connector of people. And yet… in many cities the small urban river is a problem, something to be fenced off and ignored. While cities have rediscovered the importance of major rivers in driving regeneration, smaller tributaries, streams and creeks are covered, diverted or hidden away. But it doesn't take much for the focus to change. Revitalised riparian public spaces provide a natural and neutral meeting point for all members of the community with the river acting as a physical and metaphorical mediator. Previously unloved and unknown spaces can become a key part of a city's infrastructure. More importantly, the city residents have a space to meet becoming, in turn, known and loved.


Polymer-based photovoltaic devices have received intense interest in recent years because of their potential to provide low-cost solar energy conversion, flexibility, manufacturability, and light weight. However, the efficiency of organic solar cells is about 4-6%, and increasing this efficiency is critical for developing practical applications and commercially viable devices. One approach to increasing efficiency is to increase the light absorption on the organic film without increasing the thickness of the photoactive layer, and various light management techniques have been tried for enhancing optical absorption, such as collection mirrors, patterned substrates and microprism substrates. However, these approaches require extra processing steps or technically challenging coating technologies. To overcome these limitations, ISU and Ames Laboratory researchers have developed a process for conformal coating of polymer photovoltaic layers on microtextured substrates for increased light trapping. The light management architecture of these solar cells enables a high degree of light absorption in even very thin photoactive films and leads to improved power conversion efficiency.


We consider a strategic variant of the knapsack problem: the items are owned by agents, and agents can misrepresent their sets of items---either by hiding items (understating), or by reporting fake ones (overstating). Each agent's utility equals the total value of her items included in the knapsack. We wish to maximize social welfare, and attempt to design mechanisms that lead to small worst-case approximation ratios at equilibrium. We provide a randomized mechanism with attractive strategic properties: it has a price of anarchy of 2 for Bayes-Nash and coarse correlated equilibria. For overstating-only agents, it becomes strategyproof, and has a matching lower bound. For the case of two understating-only agents, we provide a specialized randomized strategyproof 1.522-approximate mechanism, and a lower bound of 1.09. When all agents but one are honest, we provide a deterministic strategyproof 1.618-approximate mechanism with a matching lower bound. The latter two mechanisms are also useful in problems beyond the one in consideration.


This paper offers a unifying conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between climate change and "within-country inequalities," referred here collectively as "social inequality." Available evidence indicates that this relationship is characterized by a vicious cycle, whereby initial inequality causes the disadvantaged groups to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality. The paper identifies three main channels through which the inequality-aggravating effect of climate change materializes, namely (a) increase in the exposure of the disadvantaged groups to the adverse effects of climate change; (b) increase in their susceptibility to damage caused by climate change; and (c) decrease in their ability to cope and recover from the damage suffered. The paper presents evidence to illustrate each of the processes above. It also notes that the same analytical framework can be used to discuss the relationship between climate change and inequality across countries. Finally, it points to the ways in which the analysis can be helpful in making relevant policy decisions. JEL Classification: Q53, Q56, Q59


This thesis investigated the process of adsorption of three cationic drugs having different molecular weights and therapeutic effects (propranolol hydrochloride (PPN), diltiazem hydrochloride (DIL) and metformin hydrochloride (MET)) onto a smectite clay (magnesium aluminium silicate (MAS)) and the effects of this process on extending the release of such drugs. Furthermore, two different polymers (xanthan gum (XG) and polyethylene oxide (PEO)) were used in the study in combination with the formulated clay-drug complexes.

The process of adsorption of the three drugs onto MAS was explored using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) along with attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), microscopy and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The calorimetric results confirmed the binding between MAS and the drugs at various pHs and temperatures. In all cases, an overall change in enthalpy was found to be exothermic with a comparatively small entropic contribution to the total change in Gibbs free energy. However, the binding profiles were different, one binding event being observed upon binding of PPN and MET onto MAS. The binding of DIL onto MAS exhibited two binding events and were attributed to DIL binding to montmorillonite and saponite. The findings suggest that the binding process was enthalpically driven and entropically unfavourable (lower affinity) suggesting hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions dominate the interaction.

The latter part of this thesis aimed to investigate the capacity of the formed MAS-PPN complexes combined with XG and PEO, compared to MAS-PPN physical mix combined with the same polymers to control the release of PPN. Bulk compaction behaviour was studied for the formulations prepared as plots of relative density vs. upper punch pressure measured during loading to 130 MPa (10 kN) and unloading. The compaction curves of all the samples tested followed roughly similar trends: the compaction behaviour was dominated by plastic recovery during the loading stage following non-reversible deformation, movement and fragmentation of the particles. Compacts were further tested for their dissolution properties in pH 1.2 hydrochloric acid and pH 6.8 buffer. Results showed that PEO was able to provide controlled PPN release in both acid and buffer at very low polymer concentrations in tablets (5% w/w), whereas burst effects were observed upon dissolution of compacts containing the same amount of XG which may be as a result of it anionic nature. Overall, a more controlled PPN release rate from the tablets containing MAS-PPN complexes compared to those containing MAS-PPN physical mixture was observed which is a result of the MAS-PPN binding and adds important benefits to drug release.

This information therefore provides a better understanding of the mechanisms of adsorption of PPN, DIL and MET onto MAS, and demonstrates the promising potential of MAS-cationic drug (drugs with short half-life) complexes as drug reservoirs in polymeric matrices to modulate drug release.


SenseClusters is a freely available intelligent system that clusters together similar contexts in natural language text. Thereafter it assigns identifying labels to these clusters based on their content. It is a purely unsupervised approach that is language independent, and uses no knowledge other than what is available in raw un-annotated corpora. In addition to clustering similar contexts, it can be used to identify synonyms and sets of related words. It has been applied to a diverse range of problems, including proper name disambiguation, word sense discrimination, email organization, and document clustering. SenseClusters is a complete system that supports feature selection from large corpora, several different context representation schemes, various clustering algorithms, the creation of descriptive and discriminating labels for the discovered clusters, and evaluation relative to gold standard data.


Recently, the UK enacted prohibitions on the possession of extreme pornography with the passage of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008. The law targets the possessor of material that is both violent and pornographic. This controversial measure has brought to the fore the questions of how, and why, this jurisdiction regulates offensive material. This paper will trace the recent developments in the UK, including the prosecutions that have resulted from the law, as well as potential conflicts that may arise. A further focus is on the motivations behind the law as well as the implications and efficacy of the regulations, additionally examining the freedom of expression implications of such measures.


Industrial organizations are adopting productive models that prioritize the reduction of costs and increase the quality of their processes and products. In this context the optimization and streamlining the inventory management is a great opportunity for these companies conquer these goals.
To achieve this research methodology was chosen for the study of multiple cases (two cases), to meet to evaluate the inventory management in two companies in the sector chart located in the region of Bauru, in which one adopts the production system Engineering-To-Order (ETO) and the production system Make-To-Stock (MTS). Which was achieved by means of triangulation of data collection, i.e., semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observation in loco and they were light as the theoretical framework.
Through triangulation of information obtained during data collection, it was possible to develop a description of the inventory management and the production system used in each of the companies presented in case studies and cross-examination. After these procedures were developed to analyze the influence of the production system on the inventory management, which were analyzed in the following: production, estimates of demand, seasonality, layout, inventory management, setup, logistics supplies and logistics of distribution.
While reviewing the analysis of the influence of the production system on the management of inventories could be observed some differences in relation to the literature, they are: Logistics supply, distribution, inventory management, production systems Make-To-Stock and Engineering-To-Order.


A subwavelength annular aperture (SAA) made on metallic film and deposited on a glass substrate was fabricated by electron-beam lithography (EBL) and which was followed by a metal lift-off process to generate a long propagation range Bessel beam. We propose tuning the focal length and depth of focus (DOF) by changing the diameter of the SAA. We used finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations to verify our experimental data. We found that the position of the Bessel Beam focus spot (i.e. focal length) will be farther away from the SAA plane as the diameter of the SAA increases. In addition, the depth of focus (DOF) which is the length of the Bessel beam non-diffracting area, also increases as the diameter of the SAA expands.


Three transfer tax minimization mechanisms—zeroed-out grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), and family-controlled entities with steep valuation discounts—significantly shrink the federal estate and gift tax base. This white paper explains how Congress can close all three loopholes. We estimate that these actions—along with complementary base-protecting and base-expanding proposals—would raise more than $65 billion over the fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2031 window (and possibly much more than $65 billion). They also would enhance the progressivity of the federal tax system and bolster the long-term revenue-raising capacity of the estate and gift taxes.

To summarize key conclusions:

— Congress should repeal section 2702(b)(1), the provision that enables high-net-worth individuals to achieve extraordinary transfer tax savings via GRATs;

— Congress should harmonize the income tax and transfer tax treatment of IDGTs,
preferably by treating these trusts as nongrantor trusts for income tax purposes;

— Congress should limit lack-of-marketability discounts and eliminate lack-of-control discounts with respect to transfers of interests in family-controlled entities; and

— Congress should supplement these three reforms with additional base-protecting and base-broadening measures: shifting to a tax-inclusive base for gift taxes; limiting the gift tax annual exclusion for transfers in trust; and expanding the requirement of consistency in value for transfer and income tax purposes.

All of these steps remain relevant—and in some respects, even more urgent—if Congress enacts the Biden-Harris administration's capital income tax reform proposal, which would limit the tax-free step-up in basis at death to the first $1 million of unrealized gains ($2 million per couple). Unless Congress secures the estate and gift tax base, high-net-worth taxpayers will respond to stepped-up basis reform by exploiting transfer-tax loopholes even more aggressively. For this reason, estate and gift tax loophole closers and stepped-up basis reform should be considered complements, not substitutes.


IKKε-mediated phosphorylation events may redirect endosomal traffic by switching the motor proteins associated with vesicles. The ability to coordinate membrane trafficking events in space and time is of fundamental importance in biology. Polarized trafficking is essential for processes as diverse as cytokinesis, regulated endocytosis, cell motility, and morphogenesis, yet the interface between cellular signaling systems and the trafficking machinery remains ill defined. Using Drosophila mechanosensory bristle growth as a paradigm for polarized trafficking, a study has uncovered a role for localized activation of the inhibitor of nuclear factor κB kinase, subtype ε (IKKε) at the tip of these bristles, where it regulates the trafficking of recycling endosomal vesicles into and out of the bristle tip. IKKε phosphorylates the Rab11 effector Nuf (which is encoded by nuclear fallout), and in doing so coordinates the interaction between Nuf and the motor protein dynein, which regulates the directionality of membrane traffic by a "motor-switching" mechanism. Similar results in mammalian systems suggest that IKKε-dependent phosphorylation of Rab11 effectors is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism by which cells may regulate polarized growth, and studies of vesicle trafficking in cytokinesis support the concept of motor switching as a generic mechanism to modulate the distribution of endosomes. Phosphorylation of other Rab11 effectors also modulates polarized trafficking in other experimental systems, which hints that similar mechanisms may be widely used to control the directionality of membrane traffic.


The after-tax real wage of the average worker in the United States has fallen 13 percent in the last 20 years, while the average chief executive officer has received a pay raise of over 300 percent. This glaring contrast has sparked a flood of papers analyzing CEO compensation contracts. One of the main justifications for the extraordinary pay of top CEOs is that they receive contracts that link CEO compensation to the performance of the firm. The empirical literature, however, has found little evidence that CEO contracts provide such incentives. The compensation of CEOs appears to respond very little to the performance of their firms.> This article addresses three reasons why the previous literature may have been underestimating the response of compensation to firm performance. First, only firms where monitoring the CEOcis costly should have CEO compensation that is performance-sensitive. Restricting the sample to these firms yields a 67 percent increase in the performance sensitivity of compensation contracts. Second, the parameter that measures the performance sensitivity of CEO pay is negatively correlated to performance, causing it to be underestimated in standard regressions. Finally, econometricians do not observe exactly what compensation boards use as performance measures. Correcting this error shows that the elasticity of CEO pay with respect to firm performance is 10 times higher than previously believed.


Whether justified by the concrete circumstances or not, an economic crisis is, by simple association, taken as an implicit refutation of the invisible hand vision and the underlying theory. The fundamental heterodox critique locates the source of apparent theoretical difficulties at the level of methodology. Although acceptable in principle, this belief involves some actual misunderstandings with regard to the respective roles of deterministic laws and deductive reasoning. In order to clarify these, the present paper revisits some key episodes in the history of economic methodology.


The purpose of design validation is to demonstrate that a product performs as intended. The usual route to this goal is showing that every item on the specification has been achieved, but it is not an easy path. The specification itself can create difficulty if it includes statements like "as long as possible" or the real horror "to be decided." Verification tests can reveal so many problems that the design must change to such an extent that earlier tests are no longer relevant. And there is also the practical difficulty of obtaining sufficient samples to test when the manufacturing engineers have not completed their standard operating procedures, the product design is not fixed yet, the component suppliers are late, and the marketing department has taken all the samples to show to prospective customers.


In the beginning of this year Mr. R. C. Keun, formerly Consul of the Netherlands at the empire of Siam, presented the Leyden Museum with a small collection of Reptiles from the neighbourhood of Bangkok. As Mr. Keun, because of ill-health, resigned his honourable employment, he will not be in a position again to add other Siamese specimens to those we have already received, and it is therefore that I give a list of this valuable collection, the more valuable as the Reptiles of the Indian continent are very poorly represented in our Museum, those of Mr. Day's precious collection ¹) being almost our sole representatives of the Indian herpetological fauna. In making up this list I follow the nomenclature and the arrangement adopted by Mr. G. A. Boulenger in his »Reptilia and Batrachia" in »the Fauna of British India" except in his adoptation of the genus Trimeresurus Lacepede. The sole characteristic that, according to Lacepede, separates the snakes of the genus Trimeresurus from all other Opisthoglypha and Proteroglypha is the peculiar arrangement of the subcaudals. This characteristic is not to be found in one of the species belonging to the genus Trimeresurus according to Mr. Boulenger. Moreover the species first described by Lacepede, viz. Trimeresurus leptocephalus (a snake in my opinion very closely related to Naja porphyriaca Shaw and Naja australis Gray, both agreeing in having the peculiar arrangement of the subcaudals described by Lacepede) can by no means be classed in the genus Trimeresurus according to Mr. Boulenger. I think it better to adopt Wagler's genus Bothrops and, if it should be found desirable to preserve Lacepede's genus Trimeresurus, I would substitute it for Wagler's genus Pseudechis.