BACKGROUND
Bedside estimates of the risk for hypoglycemia by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urine albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR), and use of antihyperglycemic medications would be helpful.

STUDY DESIGN
Population-based cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
Older adults (mean age, 75 years) in Ontario, Canada, from April 2002 through March 2013.

FACTORS
eGFR stage, ACR stage, and use of antihyperglycemic medications.

OUTCOME
3-year incidence rate of a hospital encounter with hypoglycemia (emergency department or inpatient encounter).

RESULTS
In users and nonusers of antihyperglycemic medications, there was a graded increase in risk for hypoglycemia by eGFR stage. Incidence rates in antihyperglycemic medication users were 82 (95% CI, 71-94), 122 (95% CI, 115-130), 235 (95% CI, 218-254), 379 (95% CI, 349-413), 596 (95% CI, 524-678), and 785 (95% CI, 689-894) encounters per 10,000 person-years when eGFR was ≥90, 60 to <90, 45 to <60, 30 to <45, 15 to <30, and <15mL/min/1.73m2 or the patient was receiving dialysis, respectively (P<0.001). Corresponding values in nonusers were 2 (95% CI, 2-4), 3 (95% CI, 3-4), 3 (95% CI, 2-4), 7 (95% CI, 5-9), 14 (95% CI, 9-22), and 55 (95% CI, 43-71) encounters/10,000 person-years, respectively (P<0.001). A similar relationship was evident by eGFR and ACR risk category.

LIMITATIONS
Only hypoglycemia episodes that were associated with a hospital encounter were assessed. Results cannot be generalized to younger patients.

CONCLUSIONS
In older adults, the risk for hypoglycemia is higher in those with lower kidney function. Our results may aid the patient-provider dialogue and inform future studies to prevent hypoglycemia in an at-risk population.


Summary. Protection against disclosure is important for statistical agencies releasing microdata files from sample surveys. Simple measures of disclosure risk can provide useful evidence to support decisions about release. We propose a new measure of disclosure risk: the probability that a unique match between a microdata record and a population unit is correct. We argue that this measure has at least two advantages. First, we suggest that it may be a more realistic measure of risk than two measures that are currently used with census data. Second, we show that consistent inference (in a specified sense) may be made about this measure from sample data without strong modelling assumptions. This is a surprising finding, in its contrast with the properties of the two 'similar' established measures. As a result, this measure has potentially useful applications to sample surveys. In addition to obtaining a simple consistent predictor of the measure, we propose a simple variance estimator and show that it is consistent. We also consider the extension of inference to allow for certain complex sampling schemes. We present a numerical study based on 1991 census data for about 450 000 enumerated individuals in one area of Great Britain. We show that the theoretical results on the properties of the point predictor of the measure of risk and its variance estimator hold to a good approximation for these data.


Abstract For firms that adopted economic profit plans between 1983 and 1996, we document changes in investment behavior that lead to improvements in operating performance and growth opportunities relative to these firms' past performance. The improvements, however, are similar to those realized by a set of non-adopting control firms that are selected on the basis of a logistic regression model of adoption choice. We then consider the possibility that some firms are better candidates for economic profit plans than others and classify adopters according to whether they make anticipated or surprising choices based on the adoption choice model. We find that anticipated adopters make changes in investment behavior that reduce invested capital and allow them to become more profitable than a sample of control firms that were expected to adopt but chose to continue using a traditional plan. A similar analysis of surprise adopters does not reveal significant performance differences relative to a sample of anticipated non-adopters. The classification analysis suggests that economic profit plans work best for firms that are expected to adopt such plans based on pre-adoption operating, organizational, financial, and compensation characteristics.


"Rural electrification" is a key element in the global energy development agenda. While being a developing country, Sri Lanka is enroot to achieve 100% of electrification at present. After the civil war ended in 2009 which lasted for more than 25 years, there has been much focus to fulfill the energy needs of the country. But the studies carried out to assess the impact of electrification are very much limited. This study focuses on meeting the gap of carrying out a scenario analysis of rural electrification and assessing the socio economic impact of electrification. The major focus has been given to see how energy system of a newly electrified village will vary over time. The research intends to identify how far the strategies used to implement a policy is realistic in the real world. Also the research extends to apply the proposed strategies to the energy model and analyze the behavior of the model. During the study a survey was carried out in a rural village in southern part of Sri Lanka and the data obtained were used to model the energy system of the village using a software called - LEAP (Long Range Energy Alternative Planning System). The energy system is simulated under different scenarios to analyze if certain strategies in the policy have been implemented in the village. Two scenarios were energy efficient lighting and energy efficient cooking stoves. A total energy balance has been carried out for the target sample with an analysis of global warming potential of the activities of the target family. The total energy consumption variation with the electrification and the percentage of energy consumed as electricity over time has been analyzed. Further the socio economic impacts of electrification have been studied. The impact of agricultural usage and economic productivity with electricity has been studied. The qualitative measures like attitude changes, modernization & technology adaptation were addressed to the extent possible.


Border cities have to cope with divergent interests more than other cities, because in the same place protection of national sovereignty clashes with local practices and international cross-border movements. The question of how economic, political, and societal transformations linked to the globalisation process shape the urban space of border towns should thus be answered through a multifaceted analysis. This article introduces the analytical framework of border intermediation, dealing with the internal characteristics of the city, its function in national and transnational networks, its relation to the direct rural environment and the ways in which the border conditions these dimensions. The two towns studied, Ouanaminthe and Dajabon, are located on the Haitian- Dominican border, which is strongly marked by its complex history since the times of French and Spanish colonization. This case study is based on qualitative methods — such as mapping use of urban space and interviewing local stakeholders and residents. Cartography and other primary and secondary sources complement these observations. Following the economic opening of the border, the remarkable demographic and spatial growth of both towns has dramatically changed ground property values. Urban development remained principally in the hands of landowners. Cross-border exchanges and the establishment of a "maquiladora" industry have had a different impact on the relations between both towns. At the local level, recognition of common problems has built some basic cross-border solidarity, supported by civil society and local governments. But this apprehension is not shared by the central governments and transnational economic actors, and it is undermined by strong prejudices of people on both sides. Both towns develop, following their own inherent characteristics, and despite the fact that they play common roles in cross-border networks, no bi-national urban space exists. The links between both towns are mainly functional and not strong enough for creating the sentiment of belonging together.


Objectives: The aim of this work was to show Effect of scapular mobilization on improvement of shoulder flexion in erbs palsy.
Method: Thirty children were enrolled in this study and randomly assigned into two groups; group A (scapular mobilization plus traditional physiotherapy program), and group B (traditional physiotherapy program only). Standard goniometer was used to detect and follow shoulder flexion in addition to stand and reach test. This measurement was taken before initial treatment and after 12 weeks of treatment. The children parents in both groups B were instructed to complete 3 hours of home routine program.
Results: Data analysis was available on the 30 Erb's palsy children participated in the study. The mean value of shoulder flexion ROM test in both groups at baseline measurement (pre-treatment) was insignificant (p>0.05). By comparison of both groups there was significant improvement in shoulder flexion ROM post-treatment (p<0.05). The difference between pre and post treatment results was significant in both groups in favor of the study group (p=0.0079).
Conclusion: According the results of this study it can be concluded that the combined effect of physiotherapy training program in addition to scapular mobilization can be recommended in improvement shoulder flexion range of motion in erbs palsy children.


Summary and Conclusions
It has been shown from the study of thirty-five chickens which have been inoculated with malarial parasites belonging to the species praecox, circumflexum, cathemerium, rouxi and elongatum that genuine infections can be produced with the first three of these five species, but that the parasite-level in these infections is usually too low for microscopic demonstration, so that detection is only possible by inoculation of massive doses of chicken blood into fresh canaries. Canary subinoculation was not tried on intramuscularly inoculated chicks but microscopic study of blood films from such chicks never revealed parasites. Infections lasting from three to ten days were uniformly produced by intravenous inoculation, in the case of Plasmodium praecox, circumflexum and cathemerium. In several cases there were enough parasites in the blood of such birds to demonstrate easily in stained films.
The following conclusions therefore seem warranted:
1.
The common chicken (Gallus gallus) is susceptible to infection with Plasmodium circumflexum, praecox and cathemerium, but not with rouxi and elongaturn, although plasmodia of the last two species may remain viable in the blood for some hours.
2.
Malarial infection with the three species named above is a much different matter in the chick than in the canary, and the parasite-level is generally so low that the presence of an infection can be demonstrated only by subinoculation of chicken blood into clean canaries. Since the length of the incubation period in such canaries is usually greater than that in birds inoculated with comparable quantities of blood from canaries carrying chronic infections, it is reasonably certain that the parasite-level in chickens is usually lower than that in such chronic cases. Gametocytes have been observed in blood films from malaria-inoculated chickens in certain cases, and this fact makes it virtually sure that mosquitoes could be infected from these cases at least. Although it is a sufficiently well-known fact that a given parasite may produce an infection of a much different type in a host which is not its normal one (as is the case of Trypanosoma equiperdum, which is one thing in the horse, another in the rat and still another in the guinea-pig) the production of a latent infection such as that here demonstrated in the chick suggests that unrecognized hosts of certain parasites—and conceivably of human malaria—may perhaps exist in nature.
3.
Although chickens are susceptible to malarial infection with the species of plasmodia named above, they are much more resistant than birds such as the canary, and the parasites seem able to maintain themselves for only a few days. In no case was an infection proved to last more than ten days.
4.
If malaria parasites have ever been observed in the blood of the domestic fowl it is virtually certain that they did not belong to any one of the five species used in the present study, and hence would constitute a new species.


Jet flows, which are localized flows exhibiting a high speed maxima, are relatively common in nature, and in many devices. They have only been occasionally observed on dunes, and their dynamics are poorly known. This paper examines computational fluid dynamic (CFD) two‐dimensional (2D) modelling of jet flow over a foredune topography. Flow was simulated in 10° increments from onshore (0°) to highly oblique alongshore (70°) incident wind approach angles. CFD modelling reveals that the formation of a jet is not dependent on a critical wind speed, and an increase in incident wind velocity does not affect the magnitude of jet flow. A jet is first formed at ~1.0 m seawards of the foredune crest on the Prince Edward Island foredune morphology example examined here. A jet is not developed when the incident wind is from an oblique approach angle greater than ~50° because there is significantly less flow acceleration across a much lower slope at this incident angle. The presence of a scarp does influence the structure of the crest jet, in that the jet is more pronounced where a scarp is present. Surface roughness affects the magnitude of jet expansion and jets are better developed on bare surfaces compared to vegetated ones. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The MGIT 960 a high capacity, automated, non-invasive liquid culture system was proposed as an alternative to the BACTEC 460, a semi-automated, radiometric liquid culture system, for the growth of mycobacteria from bovine lymph node (LN) tissues. A limit of detection study for Mycobacterium bovis, spiked into negative LN tissue, showed that both liquid culture systems supported growth down to a concentration of 2.5 x 102 cfu/ml.
A total of 867 routine LN tissues mainly from bovines but including some badger, deer and sheep tissues, were cultured on both liquid culture systems and on solid culture systems (Stonebrinks and LJP). For MTBC (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) isolates 92%, 93.2% and 73.9% grew on BACTEC 460, MGIT 960 and solid culture systems respectively. MGIT 960 detected growth of MTBC isolates slightly faster than the BACTEC 460 system (14.6 days compared to 15.2 days respectively). For Rhodococcus equi isolates 42%, 96.6% and 42% grew on BACTEC 460, MGIT 960 and solid culture systems respectively. For atypical mycobacteria isolates 89.5%, 43.4% and 10.5% grew on BACTEC 460, MGIT 960 and solid culture systems respectively. For Mycobacterium avium isolates 33.3%, 100% and 33.3% grew on BACTEC 460, MGIT 960 and Solid culture systems respectively. Contamination rate was 3.1%, 8.2% and 10.9% for BACTEC 460, MGIT 960 and solid culture systems respectively. For growth of MTBC, M. avium and R. equi isolates MGIT 960 system gave a similar or better detection rate compared to BACTEC 460 but gave a poorer isolation rate for the growth of atypical mycobacteria. Even with the higher contamination rate the MGIT 960 system was a suitable alternative to the BACTEC 460 system.
A decontamination study, comparing 5% oxalic acid and 0.75% CPC (cetylpyridinium chloride), was carried out to determine if CPC could be used with the MGIT 960 system. CPC is not a suitable decontamination chemical for use with MGIT 960 system since only 47.4% of MTBC isolates were identified with CPC compared to 100% with oxalic acid decontamination.
A study to compare five extraction methods to detect mycobacterial DNA directly from decontaminated LN tissue to determine which if any could be used, with culture, for rapid diagnosis of high priority samples such as singleton reactors and samples with potential human involvement. This study showed that heat lysis and the Roche High Pure Template Preparation kit were not specific or sensitive enough for
this purpose. Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) gave a limit of detection result for M. bovis of 2.3 x 102 cfu/ml when spiked into PBS but this increased to 2.3 x 103 cfu/ml when spiked into negative LN tissue. IMS is not sensitive enough for the detection of mycobacterial DNA directly from decontaminated LN tissue.
GenoType Mycobacteria Direct kit, with the addition of an overnight Proteinase K digestion, correctly identified 63.3% of the decontaminated LN tissues with 16.7% false negatives, the remainder of the samples failed. A persistent problem with the test was the failure of the positive control sample, supplied with the kit, to be correctly identified.
Sequence Capture PCR, a known method for the detection of mycobacterial DNA in LN tissue, correctly identified 73.3% of the samples and the remaining 26.7% samples gave false negative results.
Both the GenoType Mycobacteria Direct kit and Sequence Capture PCR could be suitable for the direct detection of mycobacterial DNA from decontaminated LN tissues with further work required to reduce the number sample failures and improve the sensitivity of both tests.


Limited water resources exist in numerous remote indigenous settlements around Australia. Indigenous people in these communities are still living in rudimentary conditions while their urban counterparts have full amenities, large scale water supplies and behavioral practices which may not be appropriate for an arid continent but are supported by extensive infrastructure in higher rainfall coastal areas. As remote indigenous communities continue to develop, their water use will increase, and in some cases, costly solutions may have to be implemented to augment supplies. Water harvesting techniques have been applied in settlements on a small scale for domestic and municipal purposes, and in the large, broadacre farm setting for productive use of the water. The techniques discussed include swales, infiltration basins, infiltration trenches and "sand dam" basins. This paper reviews the applications of water harvesting relevant to small communities for land rehabilitation, landscaping and flood control. Landscaping is important in these communities as it provides shelter from the sun and wind, reduces soil erosion and hence reduced airborne dust, and in some cases provides food and nutrition. Case studies of water harvesting systems applied in the Pilbara Region, Western Australia for landscaping around single dwellings in Jigalong and Cheeditha, in a permaculture garden in Wittenoon and at a college and carpark in Karratha are described.


This paper presents a damage detection and localisation technique based on nonlinear elastic waves propagation in a composite laminate. The proposed method relies on the time of arrival estimation of the second harmonic nonlinear response obtained with second order phase symmetry analysis filtering and burst excitation. The Akaike Information Criterion approach was used to estimate the arrival times measured by six receiver transducers. Then, a combination of Newton's method and unconstrained optimisation was employed to solve a system of nonlinear equations in order to obtain the damage coordinates. To validate this methodology, experimental tests were carried out on a damaged composite plate. The results showed that the technique allows calculating the damage position with high accuracy. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/320


The relationship between antecedent flow conditions and nitrate concentrations was explored at eight sites in the 2.9 million square kilometers (km 2 ) Mississippi River basin, USA. Antecedent flow conditions were quantified as the ratio between the mean daily flow of the previous year and the mean daily flow from the period of record (Qratio), and the Qratio was statistically related to nitrate anomalies (the unexplained variability in nitrate concentration after filtering out season, long-term trend, and contemporaneous flow effects) at each site. Nitrate anomaly and Qratio were negatively related at three of the four major tributary sites and upstream in the Mississippi River, indicating that when mean daily streamflow during the previous year was lower than average, nitrate concentrations were higher than expected. The strength of these relationships increased when data were subdivided by contemporaneous flow conditions. Five of the eight sites had significant negative relationships ( p ≤ 0.05) at high or moderately high contemporaneous flows, suggesting nitrate that accumulates in these basins during a drought is flushed during subsequent high flows. At half of the sites, when mean daily flow during the previous year was 50 percent lower than average, nitrate concentration can be from 9 to 27 percent higher than nitrate concentrations that follow a year with average mean daily flow. Conversely, nitrate concentration can be from 8 to 21 percent lower than expected when flow during the previous year was 50 percent higher than average. Previously documented for small, relatively homogenous basins, our results suggest that relationships between antecedent flows and nitrate concentrations are also observable at a regional scale. Relationships were not observed (using all contemporaneous flow data together) for basins larger than 1 million km 2 , suggesting that above this limit the overall size and diversity within these basins may necessitate the use of more complicated statistical approaches or that there may be no discernible basin-wide relationship with antecedent flow. The relationships between nitrate concentration and Qratio identified in this study serve as the basis for future studies that can better define specific hydrologic processes occurring during and after a drought (or high flow period) which influence nitrate concentration, such as the duration or magnitude of low flows, and the timing of low and high flows.


The state-federal vocational rehabilitation system is tasked to demonstrate accountability for employment outcomes of persons with disabilities. State VR agencies have sought to evaluate existing practices, and in areas that existing practices leave room for improvement, create the conditions for innovation to occur. The purpose of this article is to identify promising organizational and cultural factors that appear to promote best practices in the public vocational rehabilitation program. A multi-stage study utilizing the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) was conducted involving four high performing state VR agencies to discover emerging and promising organizational practices leading to improvements in employment outcomes of people with disabilities. The comprehensive examination revealed specific organizational practices, culture and structural elements that encourage and support the development of innovative, effective service delivery practices. Given the complexity of service provision and the increasing demand for successful outcomes, VR agencies must develop organizational cultures that facilitate transformational learning by employing evidence-based practices that lead to successful outcomes for agency consumers.


We present Laneformer, a conceptually simple yet powerful transformer-based architecture tailored for lane detection that is a long-standing research topic for visual perception in autonomous driving. The dominant paradigms rely on purely CNN-based architectures which often fail in incorporating relations of long-range lane points and global contexts induced by surrounding objects (e.g., pedestrians, vehicles). Inspired by recent advances of the transformer encoder-decoder architecture in various vision tasks, we move forwards to design a new end-to-end Laneformer architecture that revolutionizes the conventional transformers into better capturing the shape and semantic characteristics of lanes, with minimal overhead in latency. First, coupling with deformable pixel-wise self-attention in the encoder, Laneformer presents two new row and column self-attention operations to efficiently mine point context along with the lane shapes. Second, motivated by the appearing objects would affect the decision of predicting lane segments, Laneformer further includes the detected object instances as extra inputs of multi-head attention blocks in the encoder and decoder to facilitate the lane point detection by sensing semantic contexts. Specifically, the bounding box locations of objects are added into Key module to provide interaction with each pixel and query while the ROI-aligned features are inserted into Value module. Extensive experiments demonstrate our Laneformer achieves state-of-the-art performances on CULane benchmark, in terms of 77.1% F1 score. We hope our simple and effective Laneformer will serve as a strong baseline for future research in self-attention models for lane detection.


During a free cataract eye screening camp organised by the Alakh Nayan Mandir Eye Institute in the remote rural village of Kardha, Barwada in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, we detected a case of a girl aged 3 years with congenital cataract in both eyes. This orphan girl from a tribal area was unable to get proper medical treatment for her blindness.

Her carers resorted to using the services of the local 'quacks', who subjected her lower chest and abdomen to red hot iron bars in the belief that this would cure her blindness.

She was escorted to our base hospital for bilateral cataract extraction by phaco-emulsification and IOL implantation under general anaesthesia. Post-operatively she had good vision. She was kept under observation for two weeks in the base hospital, to avoid post-operative infection.

The outcome of this surgery was that, in this particular region, the community became aware that 'quacks' should not treat cataract. This has motivated older cataract patients to come for eye surgery despite their earlier reluctance, thinking previously that it is a curse of old age.

Photo: L S Jhala

Timely and successful intervention with regard to childhood blindness, especially in rural and tribal regions, is the need of the hour. Furthermore, we need to find ways to bridge the gap between the 'quacks' response to childhood eye problems, and the urgent medical attention children need.


Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) directly abuts the lamina adventitia of conduit arteries and actively communicates with the vessel wall to regulate vascular function and inflammation. Mounting evidence suggests that the biological activities of PVAT are governed by perivascular adipocytes, a unique class of adipocyte with distinct molecular and phenotypic characteristics. Perivascular adipocytes surrounding human coronary arteries (pericoronary perivascular adipocytes) exhibit a reduced state of adipogenic differentiation and a heightened proinflammatory state, secreting ≤50-fold higher levels of the proinflammatory cytokine monocyte chemoattractant peptide-1 compared with adipocytes from other regional depots. Thus, perivascular adipocytes may contribute to upregulated inflammation of PVAT observed in atherosclerotic human blood vessels. However, perivascular adipocytes also secrete anti-inflammatory molecules such as adiponectin, and elimination of PVAT in rodent models has been shown to augment vascular disease, suggesting that some amount of PVAT is required to maintain vascular homeostasis. Evidence in animal models and humans suggests that inflammation of PVAT may be modulated by environmental factors, such as high-fat diet and tobacco smoke, which are relevant to atherosclerosis. These findings suggest that the inflammatory phenotype of PVAT is diverse depending on species, anatomic location, and environmental factors and that these differences are fundamentally important in determining a pathogenic versus protective role of PVAT in vascular disease. Additional research into the mechanisms that regulate the inflammatory balance of perivascular adipocytes may yield new insight into, and treatment strategies for, cardiovascular disease.


The welfare effect of an intra-industry trade liberalization between two different countries is studied in this paper. Firms are firstly assumed to behave a la Cournot, results are then generalized in a conjectural variation model. If trade liberalization increases "world"welfare, it is nevertheless true that one country should be better off in the autarkic situation.The crucial parameters for evaluating the convenience of opening the market to foreign competition are the relative dimensions of domestic and foreign market and industry. In general small countries with oligopolistic industries have greater advantages from free trade. Consumers gains from trade liberalization are shown to be important, to open the market may , in fact, be considered a second-best competition measure if antitrust policy is not in place. Unilateral trade liberalization is studied; an example of Nash Equilibrium in policy, where only one country opens its market to foreign competition is furnished.


Biotechnology in the food industry has developed rapidly in recent years. In the United States, Genetically Modified Organisms in food have increased exponentially, while these products are largely banned and strictly regulated overseas. After examining the scientific issues, including unintended risks to human health and the environment, this article explores the rigorous regulatory scheme of the EU and international community in contrast to the relatively unrestrictive approach of the United States. This article proposes an expanded model of mandatory positive labeling, in combination with voluntary negative labeling, along with a system of pre-market and post-market testing, monitoring, and tracking of GM components. In responding to the concerns of its citizens and giving greater weight to unknown risks, the U.S. government would increase consumer confidence and strengthen the long-term viability of the biotechnology industry. Moreover, by implementing more stringent standards, the United States can regain entry for its agricultural products into the global marketplace.


Principles of component-based software construction like decomposition, decoupling, late binding and late composition are mainstream concepts found in many software systems, technologies and domains. The definition of individual components and component properties is well supported on the level of programming languages. However, tool support for component-based software architectures is insufficient. In particular, component-level abstractions are not integrated well enough with lower-level architectural elements, architectural views are not editable or missing, and validation of component-based system configurations is not provided. In addition, existing approaches only support a specific component technology and lack support for heterogeneous systems. We present a toolkit supporting the design, analysis and implementation of component-based software systems independent of concrete component models and technologies. The foundation of the toolkit is an architecture description metamodel that unifies concepts of existing component models and that scales from component-based applications to distributed service-oriented architectures. In this paper we focus on the concepts provided for modeling and visualizing different structural relationship of component-based system architectures.


of Thesis Autophagy is a membrane-dynamic self-degradation system conserved among eukaryotes. Recent studies have revealed its multiple roles in physiology and pathophysiology, including starvation adaptation, cellular protein and organelle clearance, anti-microorganism, etc. Autophagy involves the degradation of various autophagic cargoes including different organelles and macromolecules, which inevitably induces drastic changes in the metabolome. However, due to the limitation of traditional approaches, such information has been extremely limited. To deepen our knowledge on autophagy, this study approached from a brand-new viewpoint by employing metabolome analysis for the investigation of autophagy process and through monitoring the changes induced by autophagy at metabolome level, it shed new light on the mechanism of autophagy-induced RNA degradation under starvation conditions. This thesis is comprised of 4 chapters. A general introduction of autophagy and metabolomics was presented in Chapter 1. In particular, the potential and necessity of applying metabolome analysis to autophagy study were elaborated. In Chapter 2, overall changes in the metabolome during autophagy were first investigated. The metabolic profiling of yeast S. cerevisiae X2180 (wild-type) and an autophagy-defective mutant (atg2∆) under three commonly studied autophagy-triggering conditions were performed and compared. The results highlighted RNA-related metabolites as a potential point of interest: intriguing changing patterns in nucleosides were observed, which strongly suggested autophagy-induced RNA degradation under starvation conditions. Therefore, in Chapter 3, the research was focused on elucidating the mechanism of autophagy-induced RNA degradation. With a combination of metabolome analysis to monitor the dynamic changes of intraand extra-cellular metabolites under starvation conditions and molecular genetic approaches tractable in yeast, a comprehensive picture of RNA degradation via autophagy was successfully characterized. In Chapter 4, the important conclusions obtained in this study were summarized and the future perspectives were presented. This thesis represents a successful example of metabolomics in autophagy study from discovering a problem to solving it and demonstrates the power of metabolomics as a useful tool for investigating mechanisms of physiological phenomena.


In this study, different mechanisms of diffusion such as Knudsen and bulk were investigated for diethylbenzene diffusion into a catalyst and it was concluded that the pore sizes should be in the range that permit transitional diffusion (both Knudsen and bulk diffusion). The catalyst grain size can be controlled and varied by different parameters such as speed and time of mixing, type of alkali, temperature and pH. Particle size distribution experiments were conducted for different types of alkali and speed of mixing to characterize the catalyst. The effects of grain size formed during coprecipitation on pore size distribution of the catalyst pellet which affect the effective diffusivity were discussed. Pore size distribution of the model catalyst was obtained and the effective diffusivities were calculated by numerical integration of Johanson-Stewart equation.


Familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL) is a genetic disorder characterized by increases in plasma cholesterol and/or triglyceride, elevated apolipoprotein B, and heterogeneous low density lipoprotein (LDL). To examine the relation between plasma triglyceride concentrations and LDL heterogeneity, 13 hypertriglyceridemic FCHL patients with a predominance of small LDL (LDL subclass phenotype B) were treated with gemfibrozil. The distribution of LDL was determined using nondenaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and nonequilibrium density gradient ultracentrifugation. Mean plasma triglyceride levels decreased 55% (p < 0.01) after 3 months of treatment. Mean LDL peak particle size remained small (247 +/- 4 versus 249 +/- 5 A), and the correlation between change in plasma triglyceride concentrations and a change in LDL peak particle size was not significant. Individual changes in LDL flotation rate (Rf) were, however, inversely correlated with changes in triglyceride concentration (R = 0.60, p < 0.05). Although mean LDL Rf increased during treatment (p < 0.005) due to an increase in buoyant LDL, dense LDL remained elevated compared with that of a control population. Thus in FCHL patients, small, dense LDL persists despite decreases in plasma triglyceride concentrations.


This paper presents a novel high speed clustering scheme for high dimensional data streams. Data stream clustering has gained importance in different applications, for example, in network monitoring, intrusion detection, and real-time sensing are few of those. High dimensional stream data is inherently more complex when used for clustering because the evolving nature of the stream data and high dimensionality make it non-trivial. In order to tackle this problem, projected subspace within the high dimensions and limited window sized data per unit of time are used for clustering purpose. We propose a High Speed and Dimensions data stream clustering scheme (HSDStream) which employs exponential moving averages to reduce the size of the memory and speed up the processing of projected subspace data stream. The proposed algorithm has been tested against HDDStream for cluster purity, memory usage, and the cluster sensitivity. Experimental results have been obtained for corrected KDD intrusion detection dataset. These results show that HSDStream outperforms the HDDStream in all performance metrics, especially the memory usage and the processing speed.


The holotype of Saurornitholestes robustus (SMP VP-1955) from the upper Kirtland Formation (De-na-zin Member), originally identified as a dromaeosaurid, is here re-identified as an indeterminate troodontid theropod. The frontal has no diagnostic dromaeosaurid characters, but is shown to have several features unique to troodontids among deinonychosaurs, including the shallow lateral wall defining the fossae for the olfactory system, the exclusion of the supratemporal fossa from the dorsal surface of the frontal, and a raised orbital rim. The size and morphology of SMP VP-1955 is also consistent with better-known troodontid material from the late Campanian of Alberta, and as preserved, the Kirtland specimen is indistinguishable from comparable Alberta material. The revised identification of SMP VP-1955 provides the first non-dental skeletal record of a troodontid from the Kirtland Formation, and a rare record of this clade from the Kirtlandian land-vertebrate age.


This study examines the intergenerational social mobility of different ethnic groups in Britain between 1971 and 1991.The small body of previous research on intergenerational mobility and ethnicity in Britain has not distinguished between premigration and post-migration social class, and thus has been unable to relate findings directly to studies of intergenerational social mobility or to accounts of the changing class composition of different ethnic groups within Britain. This study, instead, focuses on social mobility between generations as it is experienced by different groups in the same country, over the same time period and over the same age range. Using data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Study, this study describes the different patterns of class mobility experienced by a single cohort of children aged 8-15 in 1971 from each of three ethnic groups: white non-migrants, Indians and Caribbeans. It finds that the impact of class origin varies with ethnicity. However, the impact of ethnicity is less salient in determining outcomes for women than it is for men.


With more companies using Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) for employee communication and collaboration, the influence of ESN on organizational hierarchies has been subject of discussions in science and practice. Conversely, the question if formal hierarchies affect interaction inside ESN and outside (i.e., personal interaction or interaction via traditional media) in the same way has not yet been addressed. The aim of our research is to analyse those hierarchical effects. By contrasting a rich dataset comprising two years of communication and collaboration inside an ESN with data from an online survey, we found significant differences between the hierarchical effects inside and outside the ESN and their impact on communication and collaboration. Although our findings indicate significant impact of formal hierarchy, we found it to be weaker inside the ESN. We conclude that interaction inside ESN is more inclusive and balanced across hierarchical levels.


During nodule development on stems of Sesbania rostrata, the ENOD2 gene was expressed in the nodule parenchyma and in outer cortical cells. The latter; novel expression pattern was low in uninfected nodulation sites, strongly enhanced 1 day after infection, and correlated with young peridermal cells at later stages. The induction of both ENOD2 transcript accumulation patterns was dependent on Nod factor-producing bacteria.


The entropic irreversibility of thermnodynamic descriptions of fluid behavior is often contrasted with the dynamical reversibility of the underlying molecular model. There is no conflict, however, if we distinguish among different kinds of irreversibility. The thermodynamic kind is not opposed to dynamical reversibility. It is a directional irreversibility that is a common feature of stochastic descriptions arising from the excessive time symmetry of such descriptions; entropy is created in both directions of time. Symmetric stochastic descriptions can be compatible with asymmetric dynamical descriptions for one direction of any fluid process but not in the other direction. The origin of thermodynamic irreversibility in the dynamical molecular model is a constraint on initial conditions that rules out the non-stochastic direction. The constraint materializes in any molecular model for any number of molecules whenever the times between changes of external conditions are short compared to the lengths of equilibrium intervals. In the case of an observable fluid the equilibrium intervals are overwhelmingly larger than the times between interruptions and the fluid is maintained in a condition of having a quickly interrupted equilibrium in its recent past. This guarantees the randomness that permits a stochastic description but it does not imply that the actual fluid behavior is symmetric in time. If time were reversed the fluid process would certainly be reversed and it would not obey the second law.


Infectious diseases are the largest cause of mortality worid-wide and in 1997 were responsible for one third of total deaths. Despite this, there has been little discussion of infectious disease by health economists. This undoubtedly reflects the concentration of infection related deaths in developing countries and their relative unimportance in the west. Partly because of the AIDS epidemic there has been increasing interest in the area and a number of recent studies have examined the unique issues arising from 'economic epidemiology'. This literature is reviewed. Infectious diseases have also been the subject of on going cost effectiveness analyses and, in the second half of the paper, these and associated issues are discussed. The need for methodological standardisation in these studies is noted. It is argued that the priority accorded to studies of infectious diseases may be illegitimately compromised if priority setting is based upon the total burden of each disease and that this error may be the result of an excessive focus upon interventions for diseases associated with designated areas of national priority.


Finding a piece of music based on its content is a key problem in music in for music information retrieval . For example, a user may be interested in finding music based on knowledge of only a small fragment of the overall tune. In this paper, we consider the searching of musical audio using symbolic queries. We first propose a relative pitch approach for representing queries and pieces. Experiments show that this technique, while effective, works best when the whole tune is used as a query. We then present an algorithm for matching based on a pitch classes approach, using the longest common subsequence between a query and target. Experimental evaluation shows that our technique is highly effective, with a mean average precision of 0.77 on a collection of 1808 recordings. Significantly, our technique is robust for truncated queries, being able to maintain effectiveness and to retrieve correct answers whether the query fragment is taken from the beginning, middle, or end of a piece. This represents a significant reduction in the burden placed on users when formulating queries.


This research examines the efficacy, if any, of the Music and Visual Arts (MVA) program in improving the English vocabulary development of first grade Thai students. The researcher developed the Vocabulary Recognition Assessment (VRA) as a measure of English vocabulary development. It employs the accuracy and rapidity method of word recognition as a measurement of English language development in Thai children.
 Forty first grade Thai students in a Bangkok elementary school participated in the study. Participants were divided equally between an experimental group and a control group. During a nine-week period, students in the experimental group were instructed with the MVA strategy, while students in the control group were taught with the Visual Arts (VA) strategy. Paired sample t-test, ANOVA, and ANCOVA were used to analyze data from the VRA, to compare the pre-test and the post-test in terms of accuracy scores and rapidity scores of the control group and the experimental group.
 Data revealed that students instructed with the MVA strategy improved their English vocabulary development in terms of accuracy of word recognition significantly more than students taught English using the VA strategy. No significant difference was found between the MVA strategy and the VA strategy in terms of rapidity of word recognition. The MVA strategy could be a useful strategy for Thai early childhood teachers to use in helping Thai children learn English vocabulary.


Customer churn is the term used to describe customers who terminate their relationship with a company. Since churn means a loss of revenue to a company, it is important to identify customer churn and provide incentives to them in order to retain them to the company. This paper aims to design methodologies for the customer churn prediction problem in wireless telecommunications industry. Since the number of features in customer churn dataset is rather large, the performance of decision trees is significantly degraded if inappropriate features are selected and used for building decision trees. This paper finds features that have high effect on customer churn, and to design methodologies that will cope with high dimensionality of dataset and the customer churn prediction problem. This paper provides experimental results of a set of data mining schemes and feature selection methods for customer churn datasets.


An observed trend, which can be defined as tourist interest in natural hazards and disasters, has persuaded the authors to attempt to research several issues, including tourist motivations and specific tourism properties and functions of this form of activity. The objective also covered the allocation of this social and natural process in the general structure of tourism. This interest has a long history, and a new stage is currently forming, which partly results from factors affecting society, such as information and education, which provoke antagonistic reactions. Extreme natural phenomena entail a common reduction of tourist interest in the destination which hosted the event; however, it never drops to zero. Differences are visible depending on the type of phenomenon. On the other hand, natural hazards and disasters are considered to hold a specific tourism value. This article discusses the allocation of this human activity in the tourism forms known to scientists, accounting for its diversity and relating to ethics.


A novel approach for the immediate sealing of traumatic wounds is under development. A portable microwave generator and handheld antenna are used to seal wounds, binding the edges of the wound together using a biodegradable protein sealant or solder. This method could be used for repairing wounds in emergency settings, by restoring the wound surface to its original strength within minutes. This technique could also be utilized for surgical purposes involving solid visceral organs (i.e., liver, spleen, and kidney) that currently do not respond well to ordinary surgical procedures. A miniaturized microwave generator and a handheld antenna are used to deliver microwave energy to the protein solder, which is applied to the wound. The antenna can be of several alternative designs optimized for placement either in contact with or proximity to the protein solder covering the wound. In either case, optimization of the design includes the matching of impedances to maximize the energy delivered to the protein solder and wound at a chosen frequency. For certain applications, an antenna could be designed that would emit power only when it is in direct contact with the wound. The optimum frequency or frequencies for a specific application would depend on the required depth of penetration of the microwave energy. In fact, a computational simulation for each specific application could be performed, which would then match the characteristics of the antenna with the protein solder and tissue to best effect wound closure. An additional area of interest with potential benefit that remains to be validated is whether microwave energy can effectively kill bacteria in and around the wound. Thus, this may be an efficient method for simultaneously sterilizing and closing wounds. Using microwave energy to seal wounds has a number of advantages over lasers, which are currently in experimental use in some hospitals. Laser tissue welding is unsuitable for emergency use because its large, bulky equipment cannot be easily moved between operating rooms, let alone relocated to field sites where emergencies often occur. In addition, this approach is highly dependent on the uniformity and thickness of the protein solder as well as the surgeon s skills. In contrast, the use of microwave energy is highly tolerant of the thickness of the protein solder, level of fluids in and around the wound, and other parameters that can adversely affect the outcome of laser welding. However, controlling the depth of penetration of the microwave energy into the wound is critical for achieving effective wound sealing without damaging the adjacent tissue. In addition, microspheres that encapsulate metallic cores could also be incorporated into the protein solder to further control the depth of penetration of the microwave energy.


Background Elbow ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries are common injuries in adolescent athletes, particularly overhead athletes. Surgical UCL incidence and outcomes are well-researched, but non-surgical UCL injury patterns and management in developing athletes are not clear. Objective To determine patterns of UCL injuries among competitive athletes aged 11–22 years. We hypothesized that non-surgical UCL injuries occurred more frequently in younger athletes during the time frame of 2000–2016. Design Descriptive epidemiological study. Setting Academic, tertiary medical center. Patients (or Participants) Electronic medical records and key word searches were used to identify patients with UCL injuries sustained during competitive athletics (N=136). Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Age, time of injury by year, sport classification, sex. Main Outcome Measurements UCL injuries and severity; injury management (surgical, non-surgical). Results There were 53 surgical and 83 non-surgical UCL injuries. Non-surgical cases increased nine-fold from 2009–2016 compared to 2000–2008. Injury distribution was as follows: 60 sprains, 39 partial tears, 36 ruptures, 1 re-rupture. 92% of sprains did not undergo surgical intervention, whereas 51% of partial tears and 78% of ruptures underwent UCL-Reconstruction (UCL-R). There are increasing numbers of UCL injuries with increasing age; X2 (4,136)=14.209, p=0.007. Non-surgical UCL injuries occurred in highest frequency in the youngest athletes (100% of total injuries in 11–13 years; 71.4% of 14–16 years; 44.3% of 17–22 years). UCL injury volume was most commonly associated with the sports baseball (OR 1.55, p=0.32; 95% CI 0.69–3.51), softball (OR 0.76, P=0.76, 95% CI 0.22 to 2.68), American football (OR 0.50, p=0.48; 95% CI 0.10–2.59, and javelin (OR 6.69, p=0.07; 95% CI 0.72–61.62). Conclusions Younger athletes are sustaining more frequent, less severe UCL injuries. Enforcement of appropriate rest, proper sport-related mechanics and diversifying sport participation are important to prevent a) UCL injury at a young age, and b) progression of a non-surgical injury to a potential UCL-R.


Introduction: Pregnancy anxiety is a common disorder occurred due to various factors. It has significant impact on the outcome of pregnancy. Objective: This study aimed at determining the role of perceived stress and social support to tame anxiety among pregnant women. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive-analytical study with correlational design. The study's population included all pregnant women who were referred to Ardabil health centers in the second half of 2013 to receive prenatal care. A total of 110 subjects were selected using random sampling method and responded to demographic, perceived stress and social support questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. Results: The results showed that anxiety during pregnancy had a negative correlation with negative perception of stress (r=0.56; P<0.001) and positive correlation with positive perception of stress (r=-0.36; P<0.001). It also has support of friends (r=0.42; P<0.001) and family (r=-0.52; P<0.001) and total score of social protection (r=0.52; P<0.001). Results of regression analysis also revealed that 37% of the total variance of pregnancy anxiety is justified by perceived stress and social support. Conclusion: The results showed that the perception of stress and social support received by pregnant women play a role in anxiety during pregnancy.


This research report provides detailed analysis of data collected from a major survey into how company directors balance the competing and sometimes conflicting interests of stakeholder groups, including employees, creditors and shareholders. The findings have significant policy implications. The obligations of directors toward company stakeholders and whether the law of directors' duties needs to be changed have been the subject of much public debate. There have been government inquiries on this topic in a number of countries. However, there has been little empirical evidence of directors' attitudes and business practice. The survey tested directors' understanding of their obligations under the law and their priorities in relation to stakeholders using simple ranking exercises and a more sophisticated 'salience' test in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of the extent to which directors prioritise particular interests. The survey revealed results which suggest that directors do not adhere to a simple 'shareholder primacy' corporate strategy.


Recently, the Probabilistic Sentential Decision Diagram (PSDD) has been proposed as a framework for systematically inducing and learning distributions over structured objects, including combinatorial objects such as permutations and rankings, paths and matchings on a graph, etc. In this paper, we study the scalability of such models in the context of representing and learning distributions over routes on a map. In particular, we introduce the notion of a hierarchical route distribution and show how they can be leveraged to construct tractable PSDDs over route distributions, allowing them to scale to larger maps. We illustrate the utility of our model empirically, in a route prediction task, showing how accuracy can be increased significantly compared to Markov models.


This paper describes the ethical issues involved when research is conducted in an Inuit context by non-Inuit researchers. It draws on the experience of a three-year participatory action research project in Nunavik. It describes the strategies and approaches deployed and adapted by the "Other" researchers to apply the principles of critical Indigenous methodologies. The paper is a reflection on our relationship with the research participants and stakeholders and how our approaches and actions facilitated or hindered their meaningful participation in and ownership of the research. Participants' feedback and reactions to the research process were elicited and are reflected in this paper. This article is of significance for researchers who are thinking of working in Aboriginal communities or other communities to which they are outsiders. While focusing mainly on the role of researchers and their approach, the paper also questions the challenge of bridging Western research practices and critical Indigenous research methods.


This article considers a new source that has not previously attracted the attention of researchers: an account of a journey undertaken by clerks from Arkhangelsk province to Pomerania. In 1716, the clerks, who served in the local administration in Kevrola and Mezen, were sent to take the money collected from Arkhangelsk province to the regiments of Peter the Great's army. The clerks travelled through Moscow, Novgorod, St Petersburg, Narva, Dorpat, Riga, Mitau, and, on their way home, through Smolensk and Moscow. The most important feature of this account is that it is not an official report (it is hoped that the official report will also be found in archives), but that it was written for a private purpose. Thus, it can be considered the first Russian travelogue to describe a trip between the two Russian capitals, and also one of the first Russian descriptions of St Petersburg (many modern foreign descriptions of St Petersburg are well known, but the text in question is one of the oldest Russian descriptions). As far as their narrative manner is concerned, the clerks were conservatives rather than innovators in their approach to writing. Describing every town in their own manner, they were primarily interested in the relics of Orthodox saints and miracle-working icons. Their description of St Petersburg is very laconic: furthermore, it is hardly surprising that the clerks lacked a means of expression colourful enough to describe Protestant Courland and the Catholic Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The combination of the official purpose of the trip and its route, connecting the most important 'lieux de memoire' of Russia, makes this account unique.


The within‐plant, vertical (internodal) distribution of the silverleaf whitefly (SLW), Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) MEAM1 (biotype B) adult, large nymph (3rd and 4th instar) and egg stages was quantified in relation to four major Australian field crops, viz., cotton, mungbean, soybean and sunflower in 2003. The objective was to identify suitable sampling locations within the crop canopy. Ovipositional preference of SLW among the four crops under field conditions was also determined to gauge potential susceptibility and support crop choice and configuration decisions in multi‐crop systems. SLW abundance at main stem leaf nodes within each crop was characterised in a two‐stage analysis of the proportion of infested nodes and the number of SLW at the node if infested. The vertical distribution profiles of adults and nymphs from the experimental plots were validated for cotton using scouting data collected in the 2002–2003 growing season and for mungbean from an agronomic comparison of commercial germplasm conducted in 2003. Vertical distributions of adults and juvenile stages differed among the four crops. Based on their distribution profiles, the optimal sampling locations in cotton, mungbean, soybean and sunflower are leaf nodes 3–5, 2–3, 3–4 and 5–7 for adult SLW and 7–10, 4–5, 5–6 and 17–21 for large nymphs, respectively. A comparison of egg density per unit area of green leaf among the four host plant species indicated that soybean is the most attractive to ovipositing females, mungbean the least, and cotton and sunflower intermediate. The potential of each crop as a source for SLW on the basis of nymph abundance is discussed. Low preference combined with a low source potential makes mungbean the crop of choice in broad acre cropping areas in which SLW is endemic.


We investigate the appearance of magnetic field amplification resulting from a cosmic ray escape current in the context of supernova remnant shock waves. The current is inversely proportional to the maximum energy of cosmic rays, and is a strong function of the shock velocity. Depending on the evolution of the shock wave, which is drastically different for different circumstellar environments, the maximum energy of cosmic rays as required to generate enough current to trigger the non-resonant hybrid instability that confines the cosmic rays follows a different evolution and reaches different values. We find that the best candidates to accelerate cosmic rays to ~few PeV energies are young remnants in a dense environment, such as a red supergiant wind, as may be applicable to Cassiopeia A. We also find that for a typical background magnetic field strength of 5 microG the instability is quenched in about 1000 years, making SN1006 just at the border of candidates for cosmic ray acceleration to high energies.


Alzheimer's disease is the only disease in the ten leading causes of death in the United states that cannot be slowed, prevented, or cured. Alzheimer's dementia and type II diabetes are the top two diseases caused by improper protein folding, aggregation, and deposition of fibrillar plaques in tissues. These plaques, originally thought to be the cause of these diseases, have been discovered to be mostly benign and representative of the later stages of the disease. The smaller, more soluble oligomeric aggregates are responsible for the death of pancreatic and neural cells. Many oligomeric species are unstable and exist only for a short period of time, which makes them difficult to study. Photo-induced cross-linking of unmodified proteins (PICUP) is a method that allows researchers to take "snapshots" of an aggregation as it progresses. In this study, PICUP is used to study two proteins, amyloid beta and amylin, which are involved in the continuation of Alzheimer's dementia and type II diabetes. Both proteins were successfully cross-linked and visualized on polyacrylamide gels using silver staining techniques. Amyloid beta aggregation in sodium phosphate and HEPES buffers were also compared and showed similar aggregation between the two.


Modern discussions of copyright readily treat the institution as a government-sponsored mechanism for encouraging creativity. In so doing, they all too easily ignore its core private law architecture and the unique form of legal normativity that this brings to the institution and its functioning. This Essay unpacks copyright's private law complex, and in so doing, makes three claims: First, that copyright theories ought to pay greater attention to the analytical structure of its entitlement framework, and the ways in which this structure is intended to operate in practice. Discussions of copyright law would do well to understand that the institution's exclusive rights framework functions almost entirely through its creation of an obligation not to copy original expression. Second, that copyright can be usefully re-conceptualized as revolving around the "wrong of copying," which originates in the right-duty structure that it creates. Reorienting discussions along these lines would allow for a more direct focus on why it treats copying as a wrong, what actions constitute the wrong, and the plural values that fruitfully co-exist within the private law structure of the institution. Third, that focusing on copyright's internal logic need not come at the cost of its instrumentalism. To the contrary, it entails mediating the institution's instrumentalism through its private law structure on a nuanced, pragmatic basis.


This article analyses the development and marketing of Islamic gated communities in Basaksehir, Istanbul. It demonstrates how a blueprint of public-private urban development was appropriated by middle-class Islamists. The gated communities in Basaksehir -which, at the outset, were not explicitly religious-gradually became attractive to religious actors searching for enclosed urban enclaves where Islamic communities would be protected against perceived moral-urban threats. While urban-religious enclaves appear to bear similarities to pre-modern Ottoman Islamic urban enclaves, the rise of contemporary Islamic gated communities should be understood in light of the recent coming to power of the Islamist Turkish government. In cooperation with this government, housing development agencies approached Islamic investors to find capital for their public-private housing projects. One of the results of this form of urban development is that, contrary to pre-modern Ottoman Islamic urban enclaves, the Islamic gated communities are homogenous in terms of economic class, catering specifically to the Islamic middle classes. Moreover, people who invest in Basaksehir desire an urban-religious lifestyle that differs from the 'traditional' religious lifestyle experienced in 'traditional' Islamic neighbourhoods. The specific urban-religious configuration generates a new type of Islam that better fits middle-class values and a middle-class lifestyle.


This article is an historical analysis of a colonial vernacular (Kiswahili) newspaper. As Mambo Leo ('Today's Events') was sold across Tanganyika to a Kiswahili readership of new East African British subjects, the task necessarily requires an appreciation of irony. In fact, it is irony and humour that was crucial to Mambo Leo reaching its audience, crossing thresholds between Western news reporting and East African oral performance, between literacy and orality. In particular, it was the newspaper's cartoons that attracted its readership. Like cartoons elsewhere, Mambo Leo's represent captured moments of laughter, which, for want of these comic strips, might escape history's notice. Crafted by coastal Tanganyikans (for whom Kiswahili was at least a familiar second language) under editorial direction of British editors, they attempt to plumb the contentious process of identity construction in a colonial cultural milieu for all of its comedic potential. The vernacular news publication, ostensibly a vehicle of British Imperial hegemony, ingratiated itself to Tanganyikan readers by observing the absurd in fraught relationships between Africans and Europeans, with both categories finding themselves reified in stark ink black and paper white.


The eScience paradigm is enabling researchers to collaborate over the Web in virtual laboratories and conduct experiments on an industrial scale. But, the inherent variability in the quality and trust associated with eScience resources necessitates the use of provenance information describing the origin of an entity. Existing systems often model provenance using ambiguous terminology, have poor domain semantics and include modeling inconsistencies that hinders interoperability. Further, mere collection of provenance information is of little value without a well-defined and scalable query mechanism. In this paper, we present "PrOM", a framework that addresses both the modeling and querying issues in eScience provenance management. The theoretical underpinning for PrOM consists of, (a) a novel foundational ontology for provenance representation called "Provenir", and (b) the first set of query operators to be defined for provenance query and analysis. The PrOM framework also includes a scalable provenance query engine that supports complex queries (high "expression complexity") over a very large real world dataset with 308 million RDF triples. The query engine uses a new class of materialized views for query optimization that confers significant advantages (up to three orders of magnitude) in query performance.


This paper reviews current piezo-resistive characteristics pertaining to conventional and novel piezo-resistive strain transducers. These characteristics govern the performance of the sensor node. In this application, low power consumption, high signal to noise ratio (SNR), sensitivity and resolution in the sensor node are optimized for a distributed sensor network. In this low frequency application at < 100 Hz, it is found that electrical noise can limit the nominal resistance of the strain gauge to be used. By reducing the nominal resistance to lower the SNR, power consumption is increased. Optimization of the nominal resistance for excess noise and other material parameters must take place. Typical values have been used to explore the SNR over a range of resistance values and against frequency. The trade-off is also optimized in the volume and sheet resistance of the piezo-resistive material. Irreversible phenomena such as ageing and material creep are responsible for very low frequency drift (approaching DC) with respect to time and temperature. It is found that this drift is material specific and can be numerically compensated in situ. Maximizing sensitivity of the transducer is desirable to reduce the overhead at the sensor front-end. This overhead is shown to be dependant on gauge factor and the configuration of the strain-sensing circuit. The configuration of the strain-sensing circuit impacts on cost, complexity and SNR.


This article presents a conceptual framework and methodological guide for researching the process of public management policy change in the Latin America region. It provides an explicit the methodological approach for case study research on this topic. The focus on the Latin America region is due to the sponsorship of the Inter-American Development Bank, which desired an explicit methodological guide for conducting research on public sector management reform. While the article is specifically geared to this purpose, it also exhibits a distinctive general approach to a large class of case study research designs. This class includes instrumental case study research about processes, incorporating variants that are rich in narrative, explicit in their explanatory framework, and comparative. Publishing the article in IMPR is appropriate since a) this class of case study research has not benefited from specialized methodological exposition and b) much public management research fits within this class. Accordingly, the article is addressed to both public management researchers interested in the specific research topic and those engaged in instrumental case-oriented research on processes, more generally.


The Eros and Psyche myth has, over the course of the twentieth century, received nearly as much attention from depth psychologists as has the Oedipus story. In their attempt to better understand this popular story, scholars have proposed various interpretations, which have generally followed eithether Freudian or Jungian theories about the nature of the psyche and its development. This elaborate work provides serious students of psychology, religion and mythology with a detailed account and analysis of what has been accomplished in the spychological interpretation of the Eros and Psyche myth to date. It emphasizes how psychological theory determines the direction of interpretation much more than does the literary context of the myth itself. It also examines the strengths and weaknesses of these psychological interpretations (five Freudian and six Jungian) of the Eros and Psyche myth in order to lay the groundwork for an interpretation which (1) avoids the rigidity of both Freudian and Jungian dogma and (2) restores the myth to its rightful literary and religious context -- something which has been ignored by most psychological interpretations.


The goal of introducing the diagnosis of Developmental Trauma Disorder is to capture the reality of the clinical presentations of children and adolescents exposed to chronic interpersonal trauma and thereby guide clinicians to develop and utilize effective interventions and for researchers to study the neurobiology and transmission of chronic interpersonal violence. Whether or not they exhibit symptoms of PTSD, children who have developed in the context of ongoing danger, maltreatment, and inadequate caregiving systems are ill-served by the current diagnostic system, as it frequently leads to no diagnosis, multiple unrelated diagnoses, an emphasis on behavioral control without recognition of interpersonal trauma and lack of safety in the etiology of symptoms, and a lack of attention to ameliorating the developmental disruptions that underlie the symptoms. What follows are our proposed diagnostic criteria, a brief review of published and unpublished data, rationale and assessment of the reliability and validity data which bear upon this topic, as well as the justification for meeting the criteria for creating a new diagnosis in the DSM V.


The current paper describes research that is aimed at elucidating our understanding of media technology factors that may help users of exercise equipment to stay motivated for doing regular workouts. In particular, we investigated the effects of immersion and coaching by a virtual agent on intrinsic motivation and the sense of presence of participants cycling on a stationary home exercise bike. A basic two-by-two within-subjects experimental design was employed whereby participants were presented with a virtual racetrack with two levels of immersion (high vs. low) and two levels of a virtual coach (with vs. without). Results indicate a clear positive effect of immersion on both motivation and presence. The virtual coach significantly lowered the perceived control and pressure/tension dimensions of intrinsic motivation, but did not affect the enjoyment dimension. The presence of the virtual coach also reduced negative effects associated with VEs, such as feeling dizzy or nauseated.


Donald Allan Ramsay made significant contributions to the study of molecular spectra and molecular structure during a 60-year career at the Sussex Drive Laboratories of the National Research Council of Canada. He was an early pioneer in the technique of flash photolysis, or kinetic spectroscopy, opening new vistas in generating the spectra of unstable free radical molecules and probing their dynamics. His work on the amidogen radical, NH2, provided the first example of the Renner–Teller effect in molecular spectroscopy, resulting from interactions between electronic and vibration–rotational motions. He was one of the best-known figures in the field of molecular spectroscopy. Travelling widely, he had abundant and productive collaborations with scientists from all around the world. His seminal publications are a true indication of the energy, insight and originality that he applied to his scientific work.


Physical processes limiting colonization of bare tidal flats by pioneer mangrove species have commonly been described but not yet quantified. Understanding thresholds to early seedling establishment is critical for successful restoration and management of mangrove forests. We determined how seedling establishment of Avicennia alba Bl. is affected by the combination of increasing hydrodynamic forces and sediment dynamics. As the buoyant propagules of A. alba are dispersed by water, early establishment on bare tidal flats requires propagules to quickly anchor to stay in place. Flume studies and field observations showed that 3 thresholds have to be passed until the seedling is successfully established: (1) stranded propagules need an inundation-free period to rapidly develop roots that are long enough to withstand displacement by flooding, (2) roots need to become long enough to withstand seedling dislodgement by hydrodynamic forces from waves and currents, with the required root length being proportional to the force that needs to be resisted, (3) even longer roots are needed to survive high energy events that cause sheet erosion and can thereby induce seedling dislodgement. This sequence of thresholds implies that establishment of the pioneer mangrove species A. alba requires a suitable window of opportunity to pass all thresholds and underlines the importance of rapid root expansion as a crucial pioneer trait for the species.


In the wake of widespread interethnic "clashes" and al-Shabaab terrorist attacks in Kenya over the last few years, the state has embarked on the devolution of capacities for ensuring security and peace to the local level. The state gave the rights to handle specific local conflicts and crime prevention to local peace committees in an attempt to standardise an aspect of customary law, and to Nyumba Kumi committees in a strategy of anchoring community policing at the household level. These changes were conditioned and framed by ideas of decentralisation and the delegation of responsibilities from the state to the community level. In this paper, the following questions are raised: Are hybrid governance arrangements effective and appropriate? To what extent do peace committees and Nyumba Kumi provide institutional support for peaceful conflict management and crime prevention in Kenya? What guarantees and what constrains their success? The author draws on ethnographic data from the Maasai–Kikuyu borderlands near Lake Naivasha, a former hotspot of interethnic clashes.


OBJECTIVES
In clinical practice, a visual-tactile caries examination is frequently supplemented by bitewing radiography. This study evaluated strategies for combining visual-tactile and radiographic caries detection methods and determined their implications for clinical management decisions in a low-caries population.

METHODS
Each of four examiners independently examined preselected contacting interproximal surfaces in 53 dental students aged 20-37 years using a visual-tactile examination and bitewing radiography. The visual-tactile examination distinguished between noncavitated and cavitated lesions while the radiographic examination determined lesion depth. Direct inspection of the surfaces following tooth separation for the presence of cavitated or noncavitated lesions was the validation method. The true-positive rate (i.e. the sensitivity) and the false-positive rate (i.e. 1-specificity) were calculated for each diagnostic strategy.

RESULTS
Visual-tactile examination provided a true-positive rate of 34.2% and a false-positive rate of 1.5% for the detection of a cavity. The combination of a visual-tactile and a radiographic examination using the lesion in dentin threshold for assuming cavitation had a true-positive rate of 76.3% and a false-positive rate of 8.2%. When diagnostic observations were translated into clinical management decisions using the rule that a noncavitated lesion should be treated nonoperatively and a cavitated lesion operatively, our results showed that the visual-tactile method alone was the superior strategy, resulting in most correct clinical management decisions and most correct decisions regarding the choice of treatment.


This thesis focuses upon the under-researched history of the Ladies' Orange Association of Scotland from 1909-2013. Challenging prevalent assumptions that Orangewomen are overwhelmingly working-class, it demonstrates a small - yet significant - core of female luminaries to be occupationally middle-class. The desire to articulate dual Scottish and British patriotic - rather than diasporic Irish Protestant - identities is also acknowledged as an emergent subjective shift in women's motivations for joining. The sisters' apparent complicity with their unequal institutional standing is accounted for chiefly in terms of their desire to promote a unified public image of Orangeism as a 'family' institution. Orangewomen however, also actively resisted gendered 'equal but different' organisational discourses by using familial networks to sway male voting, appropriation of charitable work to showcase their abilities, subversive contributions to organisational literature and mobilisation of national press to lobby for the reversal of their subordinate status. This thesis represents a rare academic exploration of gendered Orange ritual symbolism, interpreting female rites as both spiritual legitimation of patriarchal subordination and, conversely, as a celebration of sisterly love. Additionally, this study exposes the one-dimensionality of media representations of Orangewomen which obscure, rather than divulge, individual subjectivities. It is argued that Orangewomen adaptively prioritised their class, gender, and ethno-religious identities, according to the differing contexts in which they operated, to support a disparate profile of benevolent causes and political campaigns. Appropriating oral history testimony and archival sources, this work not only updates findings of existing research, but also engages unexplored aspects of female Orangeism to illustrate Orangewomen's considerable diversity.


Traffic Engineering objective is to optimize network resource utilization. Although several works have been published about minimizing network resource utilization in MPLS networks, few of them have been focused in LSR label space reduction. This letter studies Asymmetric Merged Tunneling (AMT) as a new method for reducing the label space in MPLS network. The proposed method may be regarded as a combination of label merging (proposed in the MPLS architecture) and asymmetric tunneling (proposed recently in our previous works). Finally, simulation results are performed by comparing AMT with both ancestors. They show a great improvement in the label space reduction factor.


— Today is widely understood that global energy consumption patterns are directly related to the urban expansion and development process. This expansion is based on the natural growth of human activities and has left most urban areas totally dependent on fossil fuel derived external energy inputs. This status-quo of production, transportation, storage and consumption of energy has become inefficient and is set to become even more so when the continuous increases in energy demand are factored in. The territorial management of land use and related activities is a central component in the search for more efficient models of energy use, models that can meet current and future regional, national and European goals. In this paper a methodology is developed and discussed with the aim of improving energy efficiency at the municipal level. The development of this methodology is based on the monitoring of energy consumption and its use patterns resulting from the natural dynamism of human activities in the territory and can be utilized to assess sustainability at the local scale. A set of parameters and indicators are defined with the objective of constructing a systemic model based on the optimization, adaptation and innovation of the current energy framework and the associated energy consumption patterns. The use of the model will enable local governments to strike the necessary balance between human activities and economic development and the local and global environment while safeguarding fairness in the energy sector.


Objective: To examine the effects of chlorhexidine gluconate (Chx) and ozone on the bond strength of currently used restorative materials to dentin. Methods : Ninety third molar teeth were randomly divided into three groups of 30 each. Samples in Groups 1 and 2 were disinfected with Chx and ozone, respectively, whereas those in Group 3 were not disinfected (controls). Subsequently, the samples in all three groups were further divided into three subgroups of 10 teeth each and restored with Filtek Silorane (a), Gradia Direct (b), or Quixfl (c). Shear force was applied to the samples at 1 mm/min until breaking point. Fracture types were determined by examining the broken surfaces under a stereomicroscope. Results : No signifcant differences in bond strengths were noted between the Chx and control groups. However, the bond strengths in the ozone subgroups were found to be signifcantly lower than that of the control subgroups (p < 0.05). Adhesive type fractures were observed in majority of the treatment groups. Conclusion : As Chx did not affect the shear bond strength of the restorative materials, it may be considered for use as a cavity disinfectant before restoration; conversely, ozone should be used with caution for cavity disinfection.


A previous IPC conference paper (1) described the technical challenges associated with the installation of a new hot tap connection, supplementary to an existing hot tap connection, on the Bord Gais Eireann Brighouse Bay high pressure gas export terminal in the UK. Work carried out to verify that the hot tap connection would be fit for purpose included a pipe stress analysis, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA). These assessments were performed because the split tee shell thickness and consequently also the circumferential fillet weld leg lengths did not achieve the 2 × carrier pipe thickness criterion required by UK specifications for applications where design stress levels exceed 30% specified minimum yield strength.Subsequently, it was identified that the existing hot tap connection installed in 2001 also did not meet the 2 × carrier pipe thickness criterion. Furthermore the material grade was lower than that for newer hot tap, i.e. P355 compared with P460 and the tee had been chamfered down from 50 mm to 40 mm at the ends, leading to reduced section circumferential fillet welds. This resulted in a leaner design than that for the newer hot tap and an ASME B31.3 area replacement calculation revealed that the area replacement ratio barely achieved the 1.0 requirement of the code suggesting a limited tolerance to system loading. Consequently similar stress analysis, FEA and ECA assessments to those previously undertaken were also subsequently performed for the existing hot tap connection. This paper provides details of the analyses and results obtained to determine the integrity of the existing hot tap split tee assembly which required a bespoke approach and a need to challenge conventional thinking.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The complexity of many cases, such as public projects and programs, requires evaluation methods that acknowledge this complexity in order to facilitate learning. On the one hand, the complexity of the cases derives from their uniqueness and nested nature. On the other hand, there is a need to compare cases in such a way that lessons can be transferred to other (future) cases in a coherent and non-anecdotal way. One method that is making headway as a complexity-sensitive, comparative method is Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This contribution aims to explain to what extent QCA is complexity-informed, to show how it can be deployed as such, and to identify its strengths and weaknesses as an evaluation method. We will discuss the properties of complexity, provide an overview of evaluation literature about QCA, and present a simplified step-wise guide for utilizing QCA in evaluation studies.


Smartphone adoption has increased significantly and users can access the Internet, communicate, and entertain themselves anywhere and anytime. However, the negative aspects of smartphone overuse on young adults are being increasingly recognized recently. One such serious problematic usage is peering at brightly lit screens in dark, which can cause sleep loss and resultant health problems. In this paper, we investigate the potential of exploiting sensors embedded in smartphones to detect and prevent such unhealthy habit by measuring the ambient light intensity and detecting the smartphone motion. We implement our system through an Android APP, called PreventDark. We show the feasibility and accuracy of our developed system by experiments on different android smartphones. Field experimental results indicate our system can significantly prevent and decrease the problematic use after intervention with up to 93.6%, particularly in the dark residential environments.


Objectives: To assess the pulmonary function and its association with visceral fat in newly diagnosed hypothyroid patients. Materials & methods: The study group subjects were 37 females and the control group subjects (n=37) were age and gender matched healthy volunteers. Pulmonary functions were assessed by computerized spirometer. The readings for Forced vital capacity (FVC), Forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), Forced expiratory volume percent (FEV1 /FVC%) and Peak expiratory flow (PEF) were noted for participants in both the groups. Body fat assessment was done with Omron HBF 375, a body fat analyzer. Results: The baseline parameters like mean age and height for each group are comparable and there was a significant difference in weight and BMI between the groups (p = 0.000). The pulmonary function test parameters were significantly less in hypothyroid patients when compared to controls (p = 0.000). Further, association between visceral fat pulmonary function test parameters showed negative correlation for (FVC (L): r = - 0.888; p = 0.000), (FEV1 (L): - 0.811; p = 0.000) and (FEV1/FVC (%): r = 0.430; p = 0.008). Conclusion: It is concluded that deteriorated pulmonary function in hypothyroidism is associated with increased visceral fat. Therapeutic interventions like diet, exercise, yoga to reduce visceral fat should be incorporated as part of treatment to improve the pulmonary function.


In this paper we consider stigmergy (loosely, the effect of communication through the environment) in relation to the Internet, especially with regard to Web-based learning. We begin by examining ways in which stigmergy occurs on the Web, before going on to describe its use in the construction of our continually evolving system, CoFIND (Collaborative Filter In N Dimensions). CoFIND's purpose is to replace the role of a traditional teacher in structuring and selecting learning resources. It attempts to achieve this through a process of stigmergy and natural selection, leading to a degree of self-organisation brought about through the independent actions and interactions of its individual users. We discuss some of the issues raised and attempt to explain some of its success as well as account for its failings.


William Maxwell Cowan ('Max') was born in 1931 in Johannesburg. His father was a former Glasgow shipyard engineer driven by the imminent closure of the Clyde shipyards to seek employment in the mining industry in South Africa. Max's parents had intended him to be a real–estate lawyer. However, after taking the initial courses in languages, economics and history at Witwatersrand University, a short vacation work period as a trainee nurse in a psychiatric hospital had aroused what was to be his lifelong interest in the workings of the brain. Max decided he wanted to transfer to medical school.


This paper aims to achieve a better understanding of what Socrates means by "συμϕωνɛiν" in the sections of the Phaedo in which he uses the word, and how its use contributes both to the articulation of the hypothetical method and the proof of the soul's immortality. Section I sets out the well-known problems for the most obvious readings of the relation, while Sections II and III argue against two remedies for these problems, the first an interpretation of what the συμϕωνɛiν relation consists in, the second an interpretation of what sorts of thing the relation is meant to relate. My positive account in Section IV argues that we should take the musical connotations of the term seriously, and that Plato was thinking of a robust analogy between the way pitches form unities when related by certain intervals, and the way theoretical claims form unities when related by explanatory co-dependence. Section V surveys the work of IV from the point of view of the initial difficulties and suggests further consequences for the hypothetical method, including the logical relation between the συμϕωνɛiν and διαϕωνɛiν relations, and the need for care in ordering the results of a hypothesis. "But anyhow I proceeded in this way: on each occasion hypothesising the λoγoς which I judged to be strongest, I put down as true the things that seem to me to συμϕωνɛiν with it – both about a causal account and any of the other things that are – but those things that did not I put down as false." ( Phaedo 100a3-7). "But if someone clung to the hypothesis itself, you would bid him goodbye and wouldn't answer him until you had examined its results, whether according to you they συμϕωνɛi or διαϕωνɛi with one another." ( Phaedo 101d3-5)


The shape of the tooth profile affects the stress-strain state in the gear. In the case of a fatigue failure the stress state is a decisive criterion for the lifetime of the gear. The shape of the tooth flank affects the magnitude of the contact pressure in the contact of the meshing teeth. The consequence of which are surface cracks and pitting. The shape of the tooth root influences the magnitude of the root stress, which, when limit is exceeded, leads to root cracks and teeth breakage. Many different types of gearing are known, but in the practice most widely used is the involute one. Other types of gearing become interesting especially when polymer materials are being used. If the gears are injection molded the type of gearing does not affect the cost of the tool. In the case of metal gears, standardized tools for involute gearing make the use of other special types of gearing economically unjustified. Our research is focused on the S-gears, which got their name from the S-shaped path of contact. The paper presents the research of how the defining parameters of S-gears impact the stress-strain state in the gear. This was done using a numerical model which simulates gear meshing. The stress state of two different types of S-gears was compared with the stress state in an involute gear of the same dimensions (same module, number of teeth and width). It was found that with a proper choice of gearing type we can improve the load bearing capability of the gear pair. With use of our numerical model we have also analyzed the impact of the tip relief on the stress state. The numerical model was validated for the case of meshing steel involute gears, where we can compare the results of the model with the results according the ISO 6336 calculation. A good match between the results of the model and results according the standard was obtained. After validation the same numerical model was used for the calculation of the stress-strain state in S-gears. This was calculated then for metal and polymer (POM/PA) gear pairs.


This study attempts to characterise the manner with which inherent error in radar rainfall estimates input influence the character of the stream flow simulation un- certainty in validated hydrological modelling. An artificial statistical error model described by Gaussian distribution was developed to generate realisations of possible combi- nations of normalised errors and normalised bias to reflect the identified radar error and temporal dependence. These realisations were embedded in the 5 km/15 min UK Nimrod radar rainfall data and used to generate ensembles of stream flow simulations using three different hydrological models with varying degrees of complexity, which consists of a fully distributed physically-based model MIKE SHE, a semi- distributed, lumped model TOPMODEL and the unit hydro- graph model PRTF. These models were built for this purpose and applied to the Upper Medway Catchment (220 km 2 ) in South-East England. The results show that the normalised bias of the radar rainfall estimates was enhanced in the sim- ulated stream flow and also the dominate factor that had a significant impact on stream flow simulations. This prelimi- nary radar-error-generation model could be developed more rigorously and comprehensively for the error characteristics of weather radars for quantitative measurement of rainfall.


Under Black–Scholes (BS) assumptions, empirical volatility and risk-neutral volatility are given by a single parameter that captures all aspects of risk. Inverting the model to extract implied volatility from an option's market price gives the market's forecast of future empirical volatility. But real world returns are not lognormal, volatility is stochastic, and arbitrage is limited; thus, option prices embed both the market's estimate of the empirical returns distribution and also investors' risk attitudes, including possibly distinct preferences over different volatility-related aspects of the returns process, such as tail risk. All these influences are reflected in the risk-neutral density (RND), which can be extracted from option prices without requiring restrictive assumptions from a pricing model. The author computes daily RNDs for the S&P 500 Index over 15 years and finds that risk-neutral volatility is strongly influenced both by investors' projections of future realized volatility and by the risk-neutralization process. Several significant variables are connected in different ways to realized volatility, such as the daily trading range and tail risk; others reflect risk attitudes, such as the level of investor confidence and the size of recent volatility forecast errors.