This paper describes the finite volume method implemented in Code Saturne, Electricite de France general-purpose computational fluid dynamic code for laminar and turbulent flows in complex two and three- dimensional geometries. The code is used for industrial applications and research activities in several fields related to energy production (nuclear power thermal-hydraulics, gas and coal combustion, turbomachinery, heating, ventilation and air conditioning...). The set of equations considered consists of the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flows completed with equations for turbulence modelling (eddy-viscosity model and second moment closure) and for additional scalars (temperature, enthalpy, concentration of species, ...).

The time-marching scheme is based on a prediction of velocity followed by a pressure correction step. Equations for turbulence and scalars are resolved separately afterwards. The discretization in space is based on the fully conservative, unstructured fi nite volume framework, with a fully colocated arrangement for all variables. Specic effort has been put into the computation of gradients at cell centres. Industrial applications illustrate important aspects of physical modelling such as turbulence (using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations or Large Eddy Simulation), combustion, conjugate heat transfer (coupled with the thermal code SYRTHES ) and fluid-particle coupling with a lagrangian approach. These examples also demonstrate the capability of the code to tackle a large variety of meshes and cell geometries, including hybrid meshes with arbitrary interfaces.


Abstract. We present a 3.2 Myr record of stable isotopes and physical properties at IODP Site U1308 (reoccupation of DSDP Site 609) located within the ice-rafted detritus (IRD) belt of the North Atlantic. We compare the isotope and lithological proxies at Site U1308 with other North Atlantic records (e.g., sites 982, 607/U1313, and U1304) to reconstruct the history of orbital and millennial-scale climate variability during the Quaternary. The Site U1308 record documents a progressive increase in the intensity of Northern Hemisphere glacial–interglacial cycles during the late Pliocene and Quaternary, with mode transitions at  ∼  2.7, 1.5, 0.9, and 0.65 Ma. These transitions mark times of change in the growth and stability of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. They also coincide with increases in vertical carbon isotope gradients between the intermediate and deep ocean, suggesting changes in deep carbon storage and atmospheric CO2. Orbital and millennial climate variability co-evolved during the Quaternary such that the trend towards larger and thicker ice sheets was accompanied by changes in the style, frequency, and intensity of millennial-scale variability. This co-evolution may be important for explaining the observed patterns of Quaternary climate change.


We examine whether seven state‐of‐the‐art European regional air quality models provide daily ensembles of predicted ozone maxima that encompass observations. Using tools borrowed from the evaluation of ensemble weather forecasting, we analyze statistics of simulated ensembles of ozone daily maxima over an entire summer season. Although the model ensemble overestimates ozone, the distribution of simulated concentrations is representative of the uncertainty. The spread of simulations is due to random fluctuations resulting from differences in model formulations and input data, but also to the spread between individual model systematic biases. The ensemble average skill increases as the spread decreases. The skill of the ensemble in giving probabilistic predictions of threshold exceedances is also demonstrated. These results allow for optimism about the ability of this ensemble to simulate the uncertainty of the impact of emission control scenarios.


Eight 45-year-old naturally aged windows collected from two buildings in two different locations revealed surface characteristic bending strengths in the range of 38-54 MPa. An artificial ageing method by sandfall was developed to reproduce the weakest failure stresses among the naturally aged samples. When this method was applied to chemically strengthened glass, the results varied depending on the glass composition and the strengthening cycle. To achieve the characteristic bending strength of 150 MPa specified by EN 12337, after the artificial ageing, soda-lime silicate glass needed routine strengthening cycle of 24 hours, whereas the newly developed Falcon® glass performed well after a shorter 8-hour strengthening cycle, with characteristic bending strength still above 300 MPa after artificial ageing. This study also includes a comparison with other studies in the literature regarding natural ageing and the application of sandfall artificial ageing to annealed glass and chemically strengthened glass.


This book examines the common challenges confronting the European Union and the United States as they reconfigure work and welfare in a new economy and struggle to develop effective and legitimate governance arrangements. Chapters by leading European and American scholars demonstrate that despite institutional and political differences, the EU and the US face similar problems created by changes in productive organization, employment patterns, household structures, and social risks. They likewise face similar problems of coordinating reforms across interdependent policy domains and levels of governance, each involving a multiplicity of public and private actors. Because the issues are complex, the environment uncertain, and ready-made solutions unsatisfactory, policy makers in Europe and the US have increasingly recognized the need to accept diversity, encourage experimentation, foster collaborative problem-solving, and link multiple levels of governance. The result has been a proliferation of new forms of experimentalist governance based on various combinations of devolved decision making, information pooling and performance comparison, deliberative exploration of promising solutions or 'good practices', and redefinition of policy objectives in light of accumulated experience. Europeans are systematically studying and debating each others' policies and practices through the Open Method of Coordination, while American states and localities are likewise developing new mechanisms for information sharing and horizontal comparison. Hence there is now an opportunity to expand the process of mutual learning to the transatlantic region as a whole. Governing Work and a Welfare in a New Economy contributes to this project by tracing parallel trends in governance and showing how new policy solutions are emerging from such experimentation. The book's innovative interdisciplinary approach and up-to-date coverage of current transformations in work, welfare, and governance on both sides of the Atlantic will make it required reading for scholars, students, and policy makers alike. Contributors to this volume - Joshua Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laura Dresser, University of Wisconsin-Madison Adalbert Evers, Justus Liebig University, Giessen Maurizio Ferrera, University of Pavia Janine Goetschy, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France Joel Handler, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Anton Hermerijck, Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy James Mosher, Ohio University Paul Osterman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ida Regalia, University of Milan Martin Rhodes, European University Institute, Florence Joel Rogers, University of Wisconsin-Madison Charles Sabel, Columbia University Robert Salais, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Alain Supiot, University of Nantes David M. Trubek, University of Wisconsin-Madison Louise Trubek, University of Wisconsin-Madison Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Wisconsin-Madison


Low-volume, high-intensity interval training (HIT) increases skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity, yet little is known regarding potential mechanisms promoting this adaptive response. Our purpose was to examine molecular processes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle in response to an acute bout of HIT. Eight healthy men performed 4 × 30-s bursts of all-out maximal intensity cycling interspersed with 4 min of rest. Muscle biopsy samples (vastus lateralis) were obtained immediately before and after exercise, and after 3 and 24 h of recovery. At rest, the majority of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator (PGC)-1α, a master regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, was detected in cytosolic fractions. Exercise activated p38 MAPK and AMPK in the cytosol. Nuclear PGC-1α protein increased 3 h into recovery from exercise, a time point that coincided with increased mRNA expression of mitochondrial genes. This was followed by an increase in mitochondrial protein content and enzyme activity after 24 h of recovery. These findings support the hypothesis that an acute bout of low-volume HIT activates mitochondrial biogenesis through a mechanism involving increased nuclear abundance of PGC-1α.


In settings with poor formal contract enforcement, profitable investments are likely unrealized. While social closeness can mitigate contractual incompleteness, we examine how to improve the preponderance of cases where contracting parties cannot rely upon social ties. We ask if a community can enlist members to monitor transactions or punish offending parties. We conduct a laboratory experiment in 40 Indian villages, with 960 non-anonymized subjects, where we have social network data. Participants play modified sender-receiver investment games, with and without third-party monitors and punishers. We examine whether network centrality of the third party increases efficiency of interaction. Furthermore, we decompose the efficiency increase into a monitoring channel (central third parties are valuable since they may influence reputations) and an enforcement channel (central third parties may be more able to punish without fear of retaliation). Assigning a third party at the 75th percentile of the centrality distribution (as compared to the 25th) increases efficiency by 21% relative to the mean: we attribute 2/5 of the effect to monitoring and 3/5 to enforcement. The largest efficiency increase occurs when senders and receivers are socially distant, unable to maintain efficient levels autonomously. Results cannot be explained by demographics such as elite status, caste, wealth or gender. Our findings show not every member is equally well-equipped to be part of a local institution. Knowing that a central third party observes their interaction increases sender-receiver efficiency. More importantly, to be able to punish someone, the third party must be important in the community.


Household surveys, one of the main innovations in social science research of the last century, are threatened by declining accuracy due to reduced cooperation of respondents. While many indicators of survey quality have steadily declined in recent decades, the literature has largely emphasized rising nonresponse rates rather than other potentially more important dimensions to the problem. We divide the problem into rising rates of nonresponse, imputation, and measurement error, documenting the rise in each of these threats to survey quality over the past three decades. A fundamental problem in assessing biases due to these problems in surveys is the lack of a benchmark or measure of truth, leading us to focus on the accuracy of the reporting of government transfers. We provide evidence from aggregate measures of transfer reporting as well as linked microdata. We discuss the relative importance of misreporting of program receipt and conditional amounts of benefits received, as well as some of the conjectured reasons for declining cooperation and survey errors. We end by discussing ways to reduce the impact of the problem including the increased use of administrative data and the possibilities for combining administrative and survey data.


We use the T-matrix approach and the analytical orientation-averaging technique to formulate the problem of light scattering by an ensemble of rotationally symmetric particles in arbitrary orientation. The mathematical formulation yields analytical expressions for the elements of the ensemble-averaged scattering matrix that involve no more than four nested summations. An expansion into generalized spherical functions is used in the particular case where the scatterers are partially aligned along the direction of incidence. A computer code that implements the analytical expressions derived is publicly available on the World Wide Web at http://irctr.et.tudelft.nl/ -Skaropoulos/T-matrix.htm.


The inclusive jet cross section is measured in pp collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider using the CMS experiment. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The measurement is made for jet transverse momenta in the range 18-1100 GeV and for absolute values of rapidity less than 3. The measured cross section extends to the highest values of jet p(T) ever observed and, within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties, is generally in agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions.


Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes an acute vesicular disease of domesticated and wild ruminants, and pigs. The virus is highly variable with 7 serotypes and numerous subtypes. A method was developed to sequence the complete genome of the Pan Asia O serotype FMDV that caused the UK 2001 epidemic. The sequence data was used to quantify the genetic diversity of FMDV that arose over the course of this epidemic. 197 nucleotide substitutions were observed at 191 different sites across the genome, with a ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous change of 0.09. It was estimated that the date at which FMDV first infected livestock in the UK was the 7th February 2001 (95% CI Jan 20th – Feb 19th) using coalescent methods, which is in close agreement to that generated on the basis of lesion aging at the first infected premises. The rate of nucleotide substitution during the epidemic was estimated to be 2.26 x 10-5 per site per day (95% CI 1.75-2.80 x 10-5). This was a sufficiently high rate that detailed histories of transmission pathways could be reliably reconstructed and motivated a comprehensive study of genetic changes that arose between infected premises in the Darlington area. This study highlighted the potential of tracing virus transmission between farms using genetic data. A maximum likelihood methodology was proposed to combine epidemiological data (describing the infection profile of individual farms) with the genetic data. Integration of genetic and epidemiological data reduced the number of transmission trees (describing infection transmission within this cluster) that were consistent with the genetic data from 41,472, to 1,728, of which 9 represented 95% of the total likelihood calculated. An average of 4.3 (S.D. 2.1) variant nucleotides within the complete genome, were observed between consecutive farm infections. Difficulties in identifying direct transmission events in this analysis arose mainly as a result of limited data on the extent of genetic variation on a single premises (complicated by variation in animal types, and farm sizes), and the manner in which mutations become fixed within the consensus sequence (i.e. upon replication and selection, and transmission through a 'bottleneck'). This encouraged an analysis of the minimum mutant frequency of Pan Asia O FMDV from a single lesion sampled from naturally infected hosts which led to an estimate of 3.06 x 10-4 mutations per nucleotide sequenced (this parameter has previously only been measured in cell culture). In addition an experiment was initiated to measure the spontaneous mutation rate of O1BFS FMDV. The relevance of this analysis of the evolution of FMDV during the UK 2001 epidemic was demonstrated during the outbreak of O1BFS FMDV in Surrey in 2007, where complete genome sequencing was used in real time to trace virus spread. Genetic analysis of complete viral genomes generated in real-time revealed a chain of transmission events, predicting undisclosed infected premises, and connecting a second cluster of outbreaks in September to the initial outbreaks in August. Thus, this thesis has pioneered the use of complete genome sequencing for fine scale molecular epidemiology.


In many countries and regions, traffic infrastructure projects suffer from low funding. The budget is tight for new infrastructure building and, thus, the importance of inspection, maintenance and assessment of the existing traffic infrastructure increases. A new fatigue assessment guideline for the estimation of the remaining fatigue life of steel bridges has been written by technical committee 6 of the European Convention of Constructional Steelwork (ECCS). It will be a useful tool for the complementation of bridge management systems, used commonly for condition assessment. Design specifications and rules are harmonised throughout Europe. They are under constant development, but there is still a lack of forwarding and concentrating experiences as well as developing rules for the fatigue assessment on existing steel structures. This paper presents a guideline with a proposed fatigue assessment procedure for existing steel structures embedded in information about old materials and non-destructive testing methods for the evaluation of details (ECCS 2004, Assessment of existing steel structures). Particular attention is paid on remedial measures which are proposed for weak details and damages caused by fatigue. The developed fatigue assessment procedure can be applied to existing steel structures under cyclic loading in general, but the guideline concentrates on the existing traffic infrastructure made from old steel, because of the public importance. The proposed procedure summarizes, regroups and arranges the knowledge in the field of assessment on existing steel to be applied by practicing engineers. The procedure is a milestone in knowledge transfer from a state of scientific knowledge to state-of-the-art.


Dynamic software visualization is designed to provide programmers with insights as to what the program is doing. Most current visualizations either use program traces to show information about prior runs, slow the program down substantially, show only minimal information, or force the programmer to indicate when to turn visualizations on or off. We have developed a dynamic Java visualizer that provides a statement-level view of a Java program in action with low enough overhead so that it can be used almost all the time by programmers to understand what their program is doing while it is doing it.


We study joint end-to-end congestion control and Per-link medium access control (MAC) in ad-hoc networks. We use a network utility maximization formulation, where the goal is to find optimal end-to-end source rates at the transport layer and per-link persistence probabilities at the medium access control (MAC) layer to maximize the aggregate source utility. Under certain conditions, by applying appropriate transformations and introducing new variables, we obtain a decoupled and dual-decomposable convex formulation. We develop a novel dual-based distributed algorithm using the sub gradient method. In this algorithm, sources at the transport layer adjust their log rates to maximize their net benefits, while links at the MAC layer select transmission probabilities proportional to their conceived contribution to the system reward. The two layers are connected and coordinated by link prices.


In a review of six years of first-year physics assessment results, we have identified a number of individual questions which display a persistent gender gap in performance: the facility displayed by males on these questions is consistently higher than that displayed by females. We have looked for patterns in student answers to these questions by gender and overall performance, and identified reasons why these questions might be more challenging for females. Our results indicate that the presentation and wording of questions can result in undesirable cueing, particularly when words and concepts such as 'positive' need to be uncoupled from their near-synonyms (such as 'upwards' and 'increasing') to be correctly applied in a physics context. The observations presented here suggest that this issue is more significant for females than it is for males. Since individual questions may contribute disproportionately to any overall gender gap in assessment, we encourage other educators to review their own historical records and assessment questions.


Background: Chronic pain creates a significant public health burden and disproportionately affects veterans. Over 56% of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans have a diagnosis of chronic pain. The frequency and extent of pain, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, and the co-occurrence of all three conditions (post-deployment multi-symptom disorder, PMD) can complicate and reduce the effectiveness of traditional treatments for pain. Taken in combination with the opioid crisis in the United States, there is an urgent need for innovative and integrative approaches to non-medical pain management. However, readiness to engage in pain self-management varies. Objective: The objective of this Phase I pilot was to design, develop, and establish the feasibility of a theoretically-grounded, mobile-optimized, interactive pain self-management intervention for veterans that leverages principles of gamification. Methods: The development of Health eRide: Your Journey to Managing Pain included extensive end-user input including a veteran advisory panel (n=5), formative focus groups (n=20), and iterative usability testing (n=20). Health eRide is tailored not only to veterans' preference for pain self-management strategies but also their readiness to adopt those strategies as measured by a Transtheoretical Model-based stage of change assessment. The program incorporates core components of promising treatments for PMD by intervening on sleep hygiene and stress management. Health eRide includes (1) an online computer-tailored intervention that provides tailored behavior change guidance and (2) an individually tailored subway-themed "map" of their pain management journey. Stops along the map include stage-based interactive activities designed to further users along in their journey to self-managing pain. The program also included optional text messaging and a Facebook page. A pilot study with a 30-day follow-up was conducted with 69 veterans (81% male, 58% Caucasian, average age=50) to examine the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of Health eRide. Users completed stage of change algorithms and pain rating scales at baseline and follow-up and completed a measure of acceptability and the System Usability Scale (SUS) at follow-up. Results: A total of 44 veterans (64%) completed the follow-up assessment (no significant differences on baseline demographics between those who completed the follow-up assessment and those who did not). The mean rating of acceptability for Health eRide was 3.20 on a 4 point scale, indicating that users found the program useful, informative, reliable, and easy to navigate. Likewise, the mean score on the SUS was 65.4, indicating the program meets standards for usability. The results show significant changes in movement to readiness to adopt strategies to self-manage pain (54.5% at baseline vs 79.5% at follow-up, P=.007) and effectively manage stress (50% vs 88.6%, P<.001). While there was movement to readiness to adopt healthy sleep habits (25% vs 38.6%), the change was not significant. There were significant improvements in ratings of pain: "How would you rate your pain right now?" (partial η2=.205, P=.002) and "How would you rate your usual pain in the last week?" (partial η2=.378, P<.001). Conclusions: Findings provide encouraging evidence of the acceptability and effectiveness of incorporating principles of gamification into a theoretically grounded intervention for veterans at all levels of readiness for self-managing chronic pain. [iproc 2016;2(1):e29]


The wavelet scattering transform is an invariant signal representation suitable for many signal processing and machine learning applications. We present the Kymatio software package, an easy-to-use, high-performance Python implementation of the scattering transform in 1D, 2D, and 3D that is compatible with modern deep learning frameworks. All transforms may be executed on a GPU (in addition to CPU), offering a considerable speed up over CPU implementations. The package also has a small memory footprint, resulting inefficient memory usage. The source code, documentation, and examples are available undera BSD license at this https URL


The magnetic properties of the (Fe,Mn)2(P,Si)-system have been shown to be readily manipulated by small changes in composition. This study surveys the FeMnP1−xSix-system (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 1.00) reporting sample syntheses and investigations of crystallographic and magnetic properties using X-ray powder diffraction and magnetic measurements. Two single phase regions exist: the orthorhombic Co2P-type structure (x < 0.15) and the Fe2P-type structure (0.24 ≤ x < 0.50). Certain compositions have potential for use in magnetocaloric applications.


The value of a statistical life (VSL) is a widely used measure for the value of mortality risk reduction. As VSL should reflect preferences and attitudes to risk, there are reasons to believe that it varies depending on the type of risk involved. It has been argued that cancer should be considered a "dread disease," which supports the use of a "cancer premium." The objective of this study is to investigate the existence of a cancer premium (for pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma) in relation to road traffic accidents, sudden cardiac arrest, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Data were collected from 500 individuals in the Swedish general population of 50–74‐year olds using a web‐based questionnaire. Preferences were elicited using the contingent valuation method, and a split‐sample design was applied to test scale sensitivity. VSL differs significantly between contexts, being highest for ALS and lowest for road traffic accidents. A premium (92–113%) for cancer was found in relation to road traffic accidents. The premium was higher for cancer with a shorter time from diagnosis to death. A premium was also found for sudden cardiac arrest (73%) and ALS (118%) in relation to road traffic accidents. Eliminating risk was associated with a premium of around 20%. This study provides additional evidence that there exist a dread premium and risk elimination premium. These factors should be considered when searching for an appropriate value for economic evaluation and health technology assessment.


The barley pathogen Rhynchosporium commune secretes necrosis-inducing proteins NIP1, NIP2, and NIP3. Expression analysis revealed that NIP1 transcripts appear to be present in fungal spores already, whereas NIP2 and NIP3 are synthesized after inoculation of host plants. To assess the contribution of the three effector proteins to disease development, deletion mutants were generated. The development of these fungal mutants on four barley cultivars was quantified in comparison with that of the parent wild-type strain and with two fungal strains failing to secrete an "active" NIP1 avirulence protein, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction as well as microscopic imaging after fungal green fluorescent protein tagging. The impact of the three deletions varied quantitatively depending on the host genotype, suggesting that the activities of the fungal effectors add up to produce stronger growth patterns and symptom development. Alternatively, recognition events of differing intensities may be converted into defense gene expression in a quantitative manner.


We linked a leaf‐level CO2 assimilation model with a model that accounts for light attenuation in the canopy and measurements of sap‐flux‐based canopy conductance into a new canopy conductance‐constrained carbon assimilation (4C‐A) model. We estimated canopy CO2 uptake (AnC) at the Duke Forest free‐air CO2 enrichment (FACE) study. Rates of AnC estimated from the 4C‐A model agreed well with leaf gas exchange measurements (Anet) in both CO2 treatments. Under ambient conditions, monthly sums of net CO2 uptake by the canopy (AnC) were 13% higher than estimates based on eddy‐covariance and chamber measurements. Annual estimates of AnC were only 3% higher than carbon (C) accumulations and losses estimated from ground‐based measurements for the entire stand. The C budget for the Pinus taeda component was well constrained (within 1% of ground‐based measurements). Although the closure of the C budget for the broadleaf species was poorer (within 20%), these species are a minor component of the forest. Under elevated CO2, the C used annually for growth, turnover, and respiration balanced only 80% of the AnC. Of the extra 700 g C m−2 a−1 (1999 and 2000 average), 86% is attributable to surface soil CO2 efflux. This suggests that the production and turnover of fine roots was underestimated or that mycorrhizae and rhizodeposition became an increasingly important component of the C balance. Under elevated CO2, net ecosystem production increased by 272 g C m−2 a−1: 44% greater than under ambient CO2. The majority (87%) of this C was sequestered in a moderately long‐term C pool in wood, with the remainder in the forest floor–soil subsystem.


Report presents the results of a study of combustion in a spark-ignition engine given in NACA Technical Reports 704 and 727. The present investigation was made with the NACA high-speed motion-picture camera, operating at 40,000 photographs a second, and with a cathode-ray oscillograph operating on a piezoelectric pick-up in the combustion chamber. Photographs are presented showing that the origin of knock is not necessarily in the end gas. The data obtained indicates that knock takes place only in a part of the cylinder charge which has been previously ignited either by autoignition or by the passage of the flame fronts but which has not burned to completion. Mottled regions in the high-speed Schlieren photographs are demonstrated to represent combustion regions.


Work in the construction industry is particularly tough. It demands excessively long hours and frequent weekend work. Other characteristics are particularly marked, such as re-location, job insecurity and distinctive behavioural patterns, which negatively affect employees' personal lives further. Work-life balance has emerged as one of the most pressing management issues in the 21st century. For construction managers dealing with traditional models of work and rigid work schedules, the issue may be especially difficult to manage, and ... Show more yet the work-life balance is now recognised as an issue of strategic importance to the construction industry. It is critical to the construction industry's continued ability to attract and retain a talented workforce, and it is also inextricably linked to organizational effectiveness and employees' well-being. This book presents the argument for the management of work-life balance in the construction industry. It maps the changes to the workforce demographic profile and the changing expectations relating to work and personal life that occurred during the second half of the 20th century. Legal imperatives for managing work-life balance are set out. It also presents work-life balance theory and discusses the practical implications of research, along with extensive empirical data collected from the industry. Lastly, practical advice is provided about what construction organizations can and should do to manage work-life balance. This provides a unique guide to a key issue.


Technology transfer projects within the construction industry transcends crossnational, -industrial sector and/ or business-to-business interfaces to transfer knowledge and technical capacity to enhance a recipient's capabilities. These capabilities encapsulate both new forms of knowledge (soft technology), and/ or skills and tools (hard technology) which drive business efficiency gains and concomitant productivity/ profitability enhancements. In the developing world, technologically advanced construction organizations from developed nations often initiate and steer the technology transfer process when working with developing world partners. Maximizing the opportunity presented depends upon the recipient's 'absorptive capacity' and hitherto scant research has been conducted in this novel area of construction science. This paper therefore seeks to clarify the enablers of absorptive capability in Ghanaian construction technology transfer projects. Using a quantitative analytical approach, theoretical hypotheses generated were tested on empirical data gathered from technology transfer projects. Results reveal that a significant relationship exists between the dependent variable (absorptive capacity) and independent variables (employee capability; knowledge sharing; working culture; research and development (RD and communication capability). The findings will provide guidance for construction contractors in developing countries who seek to improve their technical knowledge and capability.


GST is abbreviation for Goods and Service Tax. GST is also known as Value Added Tax (VAT) in few countries. To uphold a country's political and economic stability, governments often implement policies. There are many different types of policies that a government would implement to stabilize their country. As we know however, one significant policy that almost every country uses is tax (i.e. Direct or Indirect tax).The Goods and Services Tax is considered as a biggest tax reform since 1947.As we know that day of midnight session of India's Parliament are reserved to ring in events of great significance, beginning with India's Independence on August 15, 1947. For the NDA to choose a special mid night session to roll out its landmark GST signifies the enormous symbolism best owed on this biggest of tax reforms. GST will free India of its archaic, multi layered tax structure with a regime that will create a single market across the country. It will unify all the states with single tax rate & reduce the interface with tax inspectors, setting the stage for a new normal, as union finance minister Sri Arun Jaitley puts it. In anticipation of the new normal are anxious traders and businessman, who are grappling with the fine print of the new tax, the prospect of anti-profiteering agency and an electronic system that will now rate tax payers on how promptly they upload their invoice, pay taxes and file returns. Considered India's most significant tax reform since independence, GST comes after 17 years of deliberations & dithering. It is considered transformational as it not only envisages a "One Nation One Tax" policy that makes life simple for the common man, but also builds transparency & accountability in the tax collection process. It aims to curb tax evasion in a country where small traders / business routinely evade tax by not creating invoices for goods sold. It is also transformational because what seems on economic decision took intense political mono curving bringing, states on board with a give & take negotiations that has arguably diluted the bill in the process. GST is expected to be as disruptive as the recent demonetization move money but ended up hurting the country growth in final quarter (e.g. it falls from 701% to 6.1% of financial year 2016-17). Once GST comes into effect, all centraland state-level taxes and levies on all goods and services will be subsumed within an integrated tax having two components: a central GST and a state GST. The government has successfully implemented GST from 1st July 2017 and for this efforts are made continuously. The main expectation is that India to compete with World Trade. Under it, there will be tax only on value addition at each stage, with the producer or seller at every stage able to set off his taxes against the central or state GST paid on his purchases. The end-consumer will bear only the GST charged by the last dealer in the supply chain, with set-off benefits at all the previous stages. Under GST a lot of underground transactions will come over the ground. Single tax for one India proves to be a game changer in a positive way and proves to be beneficial not only to the common man, but to the country as a whole. It is our expectation that impact of GST will be positive and will bring positive effect to Indian GDP.


Abstract This paper describes the characterization of radiation doses to the hands of nuclear medicine technicians resulting from the handling of radiopharmaceuticals. Radiation monitoring using ring dosimeters indicates that finger dosimeters that are used to show compliance with applicable regulations may overestimate or underestimate radiation doses to the skin depending on the nature of the particular procedure and the radionuclide being handled. To better understand the parameters governing the absorbed dose distributions, a detailed model of the hands was created and used in Monte Carlo simulations of selected nuclear medicine procedures. Simulations of realistic configurations typical for workers handling radiopharmaceuticals were performed for a range of energies of the source photons. The lack of charged-particle equilibrium necessitated full photon-electron coupled transport calculations. The results show that the dose to different regions of the fingers can differ substantially from dosimeter readings when dosimeters are located at the base of the finger. We tried to identify consistent patterns that relate the actual dose to the dosimeter readings. These patterns depend on the specific work conditions and can be used to better assess the absorbed dose to different regions of the exposed skin.


Electrochemical biosensors have superior properties over other existing measurement systems because they can provide rapid, simple and low-cost on-field determination of many biological active species and a number of dangerous pollutants. In our work, we suggested a new heavy metal biosensor based on interaction of heavy metal ions (Cd2+ and Zn2+) with phytochelatin, which was adsorbed on the surface of the hanging mercury drop electrode, using adsorptive transfer stripping differential pulse voltammetry. In addition, we applied the suggested technique for the determination of heavy metals in a biological sample – human urine and platinum in a pharmaceutical drug. The detection limits (3 S/N) of Cd(II), Zn(II) and cis-platin were about 1.0, 13.3 and 1.9 pmole in 5 μl, respectively. On the basis of the obtained results, we propose that the suggested technique offers simple, rapid, and low-cost detection of heavy metals in environmental, biological and medical samples.


Heat and mass transport across phase boundaries are central in many engineering problems. The systematic description offered by classical non-equilibrium thermodynamics theory, when extended to surfaces, gives the interaction between the two fluxes in terms of coupling coefficients. It is shown in this paper that these coupling coefficients are large. The few experimental and computational results that are available confirm this. Neglect of coupling coefficients, which is common in most models for surface transport, may lead to errors in the heat flux. We present values for the coupling coefficient in a one-component system in terms of the heat of transfer, as obtained from non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, kinetic theory and the integrated non-equilibrium van der Waals' square gradient model.


The use of unmanned systems is becoming widespread in commercial and military sectors. The ability of these systems to take on dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks which were formerly done by humans is encouraging their rapid adoption. In particular, a subset of these undesirable tasks are uniquely suited for small unmanned aerial vehicles such as quadrotor helicopters. Examples of such tasks include surveillance, mapping, and search and rescue. Many of these potential tasks require quadrotors to be deployed in environments where a degree of position estimation is required and traditional GPS–based positioning technologies are not applicable. Likewise, since unmanned systems in these environments are often intended to serve the purpose of scouts or first–responders, no maps or reference beacons will be available. Additionally, there is no guarantee of clear features within the environment which an onboard sensor suite (typically made up of a monocular camera and inertial sensors) will be able to track to maintain an estimate of vehicle position. Up to 90% of the features detected in the environment may produce motion estimates which are inconsistent with the true vehicle motion. Thus, new methods are needed to compensate for these environmental deficiencies and measurement inconsistencies. In this work, a RANSAC–based outlier rejection technique is combined with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to generate estimates of vehicle position in a 2–D plane. A low complexity feature selection technique is used in place of more modern techniques in order to further reduce processor load. The overall algorithm was faster than the traditional approach by a factor of 4. Outlier rejection allows the abundance of low quality, poorly tracked image features to be filtered appropriately, while the EKF allows a motion model of the quadrotor to be incorporated into the position estimate. The algorithm is tested in real–time on a quadrotor vehicle in an indoor environment with no clear features and found to be able to successfully estimate position of the vehicle to within 40 cm, superior to those produced when no outlier rejection technique was used. It is also found that the choice of simple feature selection approaches is valid, as complex feature selection approaches which may take over 10 times as long to run still result in outliers being present. When the algorithm is used for vehicle control, periodic synchronization to ground truth data was required due to nearly 1 second of latency present in the closed–loop system. However, the system as a whole is a valid proof of concept for the use of low quality images for quadrotor position control. The overall results from the work suggest that it is possible for unmanned systems to use visual data to estimate state even in operational environments which are poorly suited for visual estimation techniques. The filter algorithm described in this work can be seen as a useful tool for expanding the operational capabilities of small aerial vehicles.


Chicago's Southwest Side is one of the last remaining footholds for the city's white working class, a little-studied and little-understood segment of the American population. This book paints a nuanced and complex portrait of the firefighters, police officers, stay-at-home mothers, and office workers living in the stable working-class community known as Beltway. Building on the classic Chicago School of urban studies and incorporating new perspectives from cultural geography and sociology, Maria Kefalas considers the significance of home, community, and nation for Beltway residents.


Continuously tunable cw emission near 4.5 μm was generated by difference frequency generation (DFG) within a Nd:YAG pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The periodically poled lithium niobate crystal used for DFG contained eight grating bands that enabled wavelength tuning between 4.25 and 4.65 μm. As much as 90 mW of power at 4.48 μm was achieved for 16.7 W of pump.


The Fuels and Energy Research Group at the university of Surrey (FERGUS) have been investigating the heat transfer and energy utilisation within rotary cement kilns since the early 1970's. One such project has been the study of chain systems in cement kilns. The work presented in this thesis is an investigation of a chain system for dry process cement kilns. A review of the literature has highlighted that there is a general paucity of experimental work on cement kilns, and in particular, very little on the role of chain systems. This lack of applicable results is due to the fact that experimentation on this type of full-sized plant is exceedingly difficult. In modelling the convective heat transfer in a chained dry process cement kiln the analysis of Gardeik and Jeschar (1979) has been applied. These authors have developed an expression which enables the regenerative nature of a chained rotary kiln wall to be quantified. The similarity criteria utilised to scale down a chain system is that of equal voidages between the model chainbank and its industrial counterpart. This modelling criteria was developed by Patterson (1980) through air and water modelling experiments on different chain systems. In order to generate the basic heat transfer data a 1/8th scale, indirect fired, model of the chained section of Chinnor No. 1 Kiln of the Rugby Portland cement p.l.c. has been constructed. Clean low momentum flue gas from a vortex combustor has been used to heat, countercurrently, raw meal cement nodules for a range of gas and solid flowrates at different kiln rotational speeds. As with most experimental rotary kilns working at elevated temperatures (400oC) many difficulties have had to be overcome, with a consequent alterations to the original design. The problem of continuous monitoring of temperature within the model kiln has been solved by the use of a programmable data recorder and a gold slip ring assembly external to the kiln. This system has simplified the acquisition, storage and retrieval of temperature data from a rotating kiln. Experiments have been performed with the model kiln operating without and with a chain system to quantify the swirl produced by the combustor and the regenerative action of the chainbank, respectively. The direct heat transfer coefficients between gas and wall have been determined as well as the overall heat transfer coefficient. Correlations of the data have been presented and where possible the results have been compared with the literature and to commonly used equations. For the model kiln operating with a chain system the gas to wall heat transfer has been correlated to yield: NU = 0.00661 Re1.15 Pr.33 and the overall heat transfer coefficient by: Keff = 0.002188 Re1.28 Significant enhancement in heat transfer to, a moving bed of solids has been achieved by using swirling flows in tandem with a chain system.


Excerpt} For decades, unions around the world, like the teachers' union in Australia, have been struggling. Across advanced English-speaking economies, we have seen the rising power of capital and its increasing influence over government. This has created a hostile environment for unions, characterized by aggressive employers, unfriendly governments, and declining union membership. Unions have been forced to reevaluate their role and objectives. Debates have considered how unions could advance the conditions of their members and whether achieving this goal also requires a more fundamental confrontation with the political and economic logic that underpins this crisis for unions (Hyman 2007). This book is about the promise of successful coalitions. I consider why coalitions have re-surfaced as a strategy and the various ways in which coalitions can successfully achieve social change and rebuild the organizational strength of civil society. To do this, I identify three elements of coalitions using case studies based in Australia, the United States, and Canada. I draw out key principles about how to build strong coalitions and the circumstances under which coalitions succeed. I apply these lessons directly to unions, distinguishing the ways in which coalitions support union revitalization and enable unions to win on issues and build political agendas that they have struggled with on their own. Comments The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from the Cornell University Press. For ordering information, please visit the Cornell University Press This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/books/59


The economic calculations carried out prior to the Plan for the Aquatic Environment III included a comparison of regulation systems aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching, analyses of measures for reducing phosphorus losses and estimation of administrative costs. The conclusions were that taxation of the N-surplus introduced at the sector level was the most cost effective regulation when compared with administrative regulation and set a side. For phosphorus a balance between incoming and outgoing phosphorus is very costly as this requires that much slurry is transported from the western to the eastern part of Denmark. The final plan for the Aquatic Environment III from 2004 included a 13% reduction of N-leaching until 2015 based on cost effective administrative measures like wetlands and catch crops. Also a tax on mineral phosphorus in feedstuffs was included in order to half the phosphorus surplus. The measures in the Plan will have to be supplemented by more measures to meet the targets in the EU's Water Framework Directive.


During development and tissue homeostasis, cells must integrate different signals. We investigated how cell behavior is controlled by the combined activity of transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) and receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling, whose integration mechanism is unknown. We find that RTK/Ras/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) activity induces p53 N-terminal phosphorylation, enabling the interaction of p53 with the TGF-β–activated Smads. This mechanism confines mesoderm specification in Xenopus embryos and promotes TGF-β cytostasis in human cells. These data indicate a mechanism to allow extracellular cues to specify the TGF-β gene-expression program.


The pathogenicity of chicken anemia virus (CAV), as shown in previous studies, is the function of apoptotic mechanism as observed in chicken thymocytes and transformed chicken-lymphoblastoid T cells. Thus the present study aimed to
investigate the gene and its gene product responsible for apoptosis in as such that leads to the destruction of affected cells. It is known that apoptosis process is an
important natural physiological mechanism that induces killing of cancer cells. Therefore, in theory, the gene or its gene product that is responsible for the apoptotic
mechanism could be exploited especially in cancer therapy. In this study, a complete open reading frame (ORF) encoding VP3 protein was obtained from the DNA extracted from archival paraffin-embedded tissues and cloned into a plasmid vector. The sequencing of the full length of the ORF encoding VP3 protein showed that it was 363 base pairs long, which is similar in size to that of the reference CA V Cux-l strain. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of this VP3 gene with that of the CAV Cux-l strain exhibited 98% sequence homology indicating that these two viruses are closely related. The functional characteristics of VP3 gene were further investigated by using an eukaryotic expression system, plasmid pcDNA 3.1/Zeo+. The purified recombinant pcDNA-VP3 plasmid was used to transfect mammalian cells and cancer cells via electroporation. The induction of apoptosis, upon expression of VP3 gene, was studied by identifying and detecting morphological and biochemical changes due to apoptosis. Upon electron microscopic examination, typical apoptotic features were observed, which includes nuclear margination and formation of apoptotic bodies, as early as two days after transfection. Morphological changes developed due to apoptosis were obvious which were later confirmed by means of the apoptotic biochemical staining and DNA fragmentation assay. The differential activities of VP3 were further investigated by the use of the immunofluorescence technique. The VP3 protein was expressed and detected only in the cytoplasm of normal cells. In contrast, the expression of VP3 protein was localized particularly in the nucleus of the transformed cell lines (Vero and rat embryo fibroblast cells) and human derived breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDAMB 231). This differential cellular localization of VP3 protein in normal versus tumorigenic and transformed cells was the reason of VP3 specifically inducing apoptosis in transformed and cancerous cells but not in normal cells. The effects of VP3 protein expression in these three types of cells were also confirmed upon
examination by confocal microscopy analysis with cells stained in propidium iodide and acridine orange stains. In conclusion, VP3 protein expression alone was able to induce apoptosis in transformed cells and in human derived cancer cells but had no effect on normal cells. The substantial evidences indicated that the DNA construct containing the VP3 gene under the control of human cytomegalovirus (hCMV)
promoter, alias in the form of a DNA vaccine is the new potential candidate for anticancer therapy.


This report was commissioned as an independently researched report by Hill & Knowlton, acting for the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt. The global offshore outsourcing market for IT and business services exceeded $55 billion USD in 2008, and some estimates suggest an annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years. It is common to talk of Brazil, Russia, India and China as the BRIC inheritors of globalisation, offering both offshore IT and back-office services, and also, with their vast populations and developing economies, huge potential markets. This report, however, which was commissioned by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt, set out to investigate to what extent, within this context, non-BRIC countries could also be seen to be potential inheritors of globalisation. A representative sample of 14 countries drawn from Central and Eastern Europe, the African Mediterranean, the Americas and Asia Pacific, where the main active non-BRIC economies can be found, provided the focus for the systematic comparison of their relative competitiveness from which a benchmarking index could be developed. Setting out the long-term context and trends through which these countries are emerging as IT and business service 'hot spots', and identifying the global sourcing trends and pressures that are likely to develop in the next five years and their implications for these non-BRIC countries, the report turns in its final chapters to consider Egypt in more detail to assess its current positioning, the future path that it can take, and the challenges it faces as well as actions needed for it to get there.


The quantitative analysis of decomposed electromyographic (EMG) signals reveals information for diagnosing and characterizing neuromuscular disorders. Neuromuscular jitter is an important measure that reflects the stability of the operation of a neuromuscular junction. It is conventionally measured using single fiber electromyographic (SFEMG) techniques. SFEMG techniques require substantial physician dexterity and subject cooperation. Furthermore, SFEMG needles are expensive, and their re-use increases the risk of possible transmission of infectious agents. Using disposable concentric needle (CN) electrodes and automating the measurment of neuromuscular jitter would greatly facilitate the study of neuromuscular disorders. An improved automated jitter measurment system based on the decomposition of CN detected EMG signals is developed and evaluated in this thesis. Neuromuscular jitter is defined as the variability of time intervals between two muscle fiber potentials (MFPs). Given the candidate motor unit potentials (MUPs) of a decomposed EMG signal, which is represented by a motor unit potential train (MUPT), the automated jitter measurement system designed in this thesis can be summarized as a three-step procedure: 1) identify isolated motor unit potentials in a MUPT, 2) detect the significant MFPs of each isolated MUP, 3) track significant MFPs generated by the same muscle fiber across all isolated MUPs, select typical MFP pairs, and calculate jitter. In Step one, a minimal spanning tree-based 2-phase clustering algorithm was developed for identifying isolated MUPs in a train. For the second step, a pattern recognition system was designed to classify detected MFP peaks. At last, the neuromuscular jitter is calculated based on the tracked and selected MFP pairs in the third step. These three steps were simulated and evaluated using synthetic EMG signals independently, and the whole system is preliminary implemented and evaluated using a small simulated data base. Compared to previous work in this area, the algorithms in this thesis showed better performance and great robustness across a variety of EMG signals, so that they can be applied widely to similar scenarios. The whole system developed in this thesis can be implemented in a large EMG signal decomposition system and validated using real data.


Abstract. Satellite-based earth observations offer great opportunities to improve spatial model predictions by means of spatial-pattern-oriented model evaluations. In this study, observed spatial patterns of actual evapotranspiration (AET) are utilised for spatial model calibration tailored to target the pattern performance of the model. The proposed calibration framework combines temporally aggregated observed spatial patterns with a new spatial performance metric and a flexible spatial parameterisation scheme. The mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM) is used to simulate streamflow and AET and has been selected due to its soil parameter distribution approach based on pedo-transfer functions and the build in multi-scale parameter regionalisation. In addition two new spatial parameter distribution options have been incorporated in the model in order to increase the flexibility of root fraction coefficient and potential evapotranspiration correction parameterisations, based on soil type and vegetation density. These parameterisations are utilised as they are most relevant for simulated AET patterns from the hydrologic model. Due to the fundamental challenges encountered when evaluating spatial pattern performance using standard metrics, we developed a simple but highly discriminative spatial metric, i.e. one comprised of three easily interpretable components measuring co-location, variation and distribution of the spatial data. The study shows that with flexible spatial model parameterisation used in combination with the appropriate objective functions, the simulated spatial patterns of actual evapotranspiration become substantially more similar to the satellite-based estimates. Overall 26 parameters are identified for calibration through a sequential screening approach based on a combination of streamflow and spatial pattern metrics. The robustness of the calibrations is tested using an ensemble of nine calibrations based on different seed numbers using the shuffled complex evolution optimiser. The calibration results reveal a limited trade-off between streamflow dynamics and spatial patterns illustrating the benefit of combining separate observation types and objective functions. At the same time, the simulated spatial patterns of AET significantly improved when an objective function based on observed AET patterns and a novel spatial performance metric compared to traditional streamflow-only calibration were included. Since the overall water balance is usually a crucial goal in hydrologic modelling, spatial-pattern-oriented optimisation should always be accompanied by traditional discharge measurements. In such a multi-objective framework, the current study promotes the use of a novel bias-insensitive spatial pattern metric, which exploits the key information contained in the observed patterns while allowing the water balance to be informed by discharge observations.


We conducted monthly visits to the coastal community of Mata de Limon (December 2011 to November 2012) in central Pacific of Costa Rica for assessment the extraction of the burrowing shrimp called coloncho Callichirus seilacheri, a species intensely caught as bait for fishing along the Pacific coast of Central America. The outcomes indicate that fishery effort varied between 4 and 14 harvesters day -1 with a high percentage of them from the same community (70-100%). Daily catch varied between 76 and 1120 shrimps and its value was strongly correlated with catches realized for the local harvesters (R 2 = 0.88). The shrimps density and total abundance in Mata de Limon was estimated in 1.2 ± 0.88 ind m -2 and 49,607 ± 3,638 individuals, respectively. Ovigerous females were exclusively present between May and November, peak in September. According to our outcomes, population of C. seilacheri in Mata de Limon could be in risk of overfishing if the daily catches exceed 800 individuals. The main results of the present study allow recommend the implementation of a total fishing ban during the reproduction peak of C. seilacheri directed to protection and conservation of this local resource for its sustainable harvesting. Also, we suggest the establishment of a management program between the community of Mata de Limon and the Instituto Costarricense de Pesca y Acuicultura (INCOPESCA) in order to optimize and legalize the extraction of this important resource.


The 8;21 translocation, which involves the gene encoding the RUNX family DNA-binding transcription factor AML1 (RUNX1) on chromosome 21 and the ETO (MTG8) gene on chromosome 8, generates AML1-ETO fusion proteins. Previous analyses have demonstrated that full-length AML1-ETO blocks AML1 function and requires additional mutagenic events to promote leukemia. More recently, we have identified an alternatively spliced form of AML1-ETO, AML1-ETO9a, from t(8;21) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient samples. AML1-ETO9a lacks the C-terminal NHR3 and NHR4 domains of AML1-ETO and is highly leukemogenic in the mouse model. Here, we report that the AML1 DNA-binding domain and the ETO NHR2-dimerization domain, but not the ETO NHR1 domain, are critical for the induction of AML by AML1-ETO9a. A region between NHR1 and NHR2 affects latency of leukemogenesis. These results provide valuable insight into further analysis of the molecular mechanism of t(8;21) in leukemogenesis.


Interest plays an important role in a child's reading development. When a text appeals to a child's interest, that child is motivated to read more. The more children read the better readers they become. Teachers want students to read as often as possible. This will have a positive effect on a child's development. In order for students to be n1otivated to read, they n1ust have an interest. Vvrhen students reach preadolescence the desire and motivation to read tends to decrease. Once this occurs students begin to fall behind their classmates. Teachers need to foster the desire to read through supporting the interests of his or her students. The study Interest Books and Reading Engagement was completed in a rural elementary school in western, New York. Three students were chosen to participate in the study. All three students were students with disabilities and struggling readers. The data were collected through interviews, observations, parent surveys, student surveys and a strategy activity. Data were analyzed by three questions. These questions included the type of effect reading interest books has on reading engagement, the impact reading interest books has on the use of reading strategies and how reading interest books impact literacy discussions. The study was created to analyze the impact of using interest books in the classroom on a child's reading development.


IZA DP No. 11962 NOVEMBER 2018 The Labeling Effect of a Child Benefits System: Evidence from Russia 1994-2015* Impacts of child benefits and earned incomes on child wellbeing are identified for Russia. To predict earnings, a counter-factual commodity price model is constructed using information on local industrial composition and the evolution of world prices during 1994-2015 for six key commodity exports. Discontinuity in benefits eligibility at age 16 is exploited to predict the probability of receipt. Child benefits are found not to be spent differently from earned incomes or to influence child health differentially. Benefits do not observably crowd out private transfers to households containing children. Earned incomes and child health appear to be little related. JEL Classification: H3, I12, O12, O5, R11


We retrospectively reviewed 32 patients who underwent parathyroidectomy at our hospital for the last fourteen years. 1) Clinical appearance of primary hyperparathyroidism was in younger age in women. 2) In previous history or at the time of PTX, 9 patients had malignant tumors including 6 thyroid cancers, 36% of the patients with out bone related symptoms had a remarkable decrease in bone mineral content. 3) After PTX, none of patients had recurrent urolithiasis and bone mineral content of all patients was significantly increased in a short time. In addition, upper GI complaints were improved, or hypertension was partially normalized. However, renal insufficiency remained unchanged. 4) In preoperative localization study, Ultrasound sonography (US) demonstrated the best accuracy rate of 88% when only one gland was involved. US was able to detect multiple gland involvement only in 20% of 5 cases. 5) Hypercalciuria was recognized as one of the risk factors of stone formation in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism.


This paper analyzes the role of seller-induced shortage as a signal of quality. Unlike dissipative advertising, the cost of inducing shortage is different for different quality types. It is shown that under certain conditions, a high-quality monopoly firm that signals quality by inducing shortage makes more profit than using price alone or combined with dissipative advertising. This is because the forgone profit from the lost sales is always lower for the high-quality firm than for the low-quality firm. The result explains why high-quality firms may prefer to initially limit supply with a price weakly lower than that in the complete-information case.


IAnglo-American common law has long taught that marriage is more than a mere contract. This Article documents the historical roots of this common law teaching in classical and Christian traditions and its parallels in Judaism and Islam. All of these traditions teach that marriage is at once a contract (a ketubah, pactum,or kitab) but also a covenant with social, economic, communicative and spiritual dimensions. The marital covenant is both private and public, individual and social, civil and religious, temporal and transcendent. Its origin, nature, and purpose lie beyond and beneath the terms of the marriage contract itself. Historically, the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions found ways to reconcile the contractual and covenantal dimensions of marriage, but American law today juxtaposes them and has moved much more toward a straight contractual model. In all but three states, parties who wish to marry must choose the state's contract marriage option. In Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona, though, parties may choose contract marriage or covenant marriage, which has tighter marital formation and dissolution rules. But even in those three states, there is not yet a robust legal appreciation and reification of some religious covenantal notions of marriage. Ultimately, a fuller legal response may well be necessary to recapture the multi-layered dimensions of marriage. America's religious communities may need to draw upon and reformulate their own norms and resources, and American states, in turn, may need to think more seriously about granting greater deference to the marital laws and customs of legitimate religious and cultural groups that cannot accept a marriage law of the common denominator.


Semiconductor GaN NWs are promising components in next generation nano- and optoelectronic systems. In addition to their direct band gap, they exhibit piezoelectricity, which renders them particularly attractive in energy harvesting applications for self-powered devices. Nanowires are often considered as one-dimensional nanostructures; however, the electromechanical coupling leads to a third rank tensor that for wurtzite crystals (GaN NWs) possesses three independent coefficients, d(33), d(13), and d(15). Therefore, the full piezoelectric characterization of individual GaN NWs requires application of electric fields in different directions and measurements of associated displacements on the order of several picometers. In this Letter, we present an experimental approach based on scanning probe microscopy to directly quantify the three-dimensional piezoelectric response of individual GaN NWs. Experimental results reveal that GaN NWs exhibit strong piezoelectricity in three dimensions, with up to six times the effect in bulk. Based on finite element modeling, this finding has major implication on the design of energy harvesting systems exhibiting unprecedented levels of power density production. The presented method is applicable to other piezoelectric NW materials as well as wires manufactured along different crystallographic orientations.


During the formation of stars, the accretion of surrounding material toward the central object is thought to undergo strong luminosity outbursts followed by long periods of relative quiescence, even at the early stages of star formation when the protostar is still embedded in a large envelope. We investigated the gas-phase formation and recondensation of the complex organic molecules (COMs) di-methyl ether and methyl formate, induced by sudden ice evaporation processes occurring during luminosity outbursts of different amplitudes in protostellar envelopes. For this purpose, we updated a gas-phase chemical network forming COMs in which ammonia plays a key role. The model calculations presented here demonstrate that ion–molecule reactions alone could account for the observed presence of di-methyl ether and methyl formate in a large fraction of protostellar cores without recourse to grain-surface chemistry, although they depend on uncertain ice abundances and gas-phase reaction branching ratios. In spite of the short outburst timescales of about 100 years, abundance ratios of the considered species higher than 10% with respect to methanol are predicted during outbursts due to their low binding energies relative to water and methanol which delay their recondensation during cooling. Although the current luminosity of most embedded protostars would be too low to produce complex organics in the hot-core regions that are observable with current sub-millimetric interferometers, previous luminosity outburst events would induce the formation of COMs in extended regions of protostellar envelopes with sizes increasing by up to one order of magnitude.


The aim of the paper is to analyse the dominant trends of demographic evolution in South and East Mediterranean (SEM) countries since the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the evolution of demographic policies and popular debates surrounding the shift. It seeks to highlight from these two sources the deep socio-demographic rifts dividing youth and societies in the SEM countries today, in the mid-2010s. Additionally, it attempts to pinpoint how reforms (or attempts at reform) of family law actually reflect the goals and stakes of "high politics," regarding the role of youth as agents in the reproduction of socio-political structures.


This guide hands readers a new management paradigmthat stresses people-oriented values, proving how they have a greater influence on the success of a project than organizational structures. The handbook emphasizes the integration of information by all people involved in a project to facilitate quick comprehension of the project, and covers a variety of aspects including control issues ... management as a problem-solving process ... team driven projects ... upper management involvement ... Rapid Application Planning ... management information sets ... and real-time project management. Ideal for software project managers and all those involved in software project development.


Human trafficking finally presents a crime that appropriately shifts the culpability from the abused to the abuser. As the heinous world of human trafficking is studied and more is understood about its inner workings, we can no longer conflate victimization with over-criminalization. The purpose of this paper is to shine light on the force and fraud that perpetuates the enslavement of victims who are sexually trafficked. Beginning with the Mann Act passed by Congress and up until more recently, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, this paper traces the historical and societal shifts that are necessary to situate Sex Purchasers in their proper place as the cause of so much victimization. It also calls for the need to refocus our methodology and law enforcement efforts to change previously held beliefs about the causes and effects of prostituting people. Sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud, coercion or the use of minors to in engage in a commercial sexual act. When Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and finally identified sex trafficking as a standalone federal crime, this passage paved the way for an effective way to combat sex trafficking; prosecution of the sex purchasers. This recent legislation can be used to put purchasers in their proper place as integral components to the system of degradation that is sex trafficking. Such a tool can only be effective if utilized by prosecutors. Resistance to this effort has precluded this legislation from reaching its promise. This article proposes adjustments to the sentencing scheme of Purchasers of Sex convicted of sex trafficking. It calls for a graduated approach to sentencing determined by the level of knowledge of the purchaser to accurately reflect the gravity of the victimization.


Abstract To what extent does ichnological diversity (the number of distinctive trace fossil morphologies) serve as a proxy for zoological diversity (species richness of trackmakers in the living fauna) in footprint assemblages made by terrestrial lower vertebrates? This question was investigated in a study of body form and trackway features of monitor lizards (varanids) from the Western Australian desert. Body-shape parameters deemed likely to affect trackway pattern of seven varanid species were measured. These lizards differ in average adult size, but there is considerable size overlap between adults of small-bodied species and juveniles of large-bodied species. Although subtle species differences in body form were detected, these were largely swamped by intraspecific variability. Furthermore, the most distinctive features in which trails of monitor species differ reflect interspecific differences in foraging behavior rather than anatomical differences, and are features that would be difficult or impossible to recognize without actually capturing the trackmaker. These observations provide empirical support for the widely held belief that trace fossil diversity commonly under-represents zoological diversity. The degree to which this is so is likely to be influenced by trackmaker body size and metabolic physiology.


From the Publisher:
Having successfully "reinvented the factory" in his previous books, Roy Harmon extends his discussion of productivity from the factory to twenty-first-century warehouse and logistics channels. Harmon illustrates real-life applications of important warehousing improvements in over 50 companies throughout the world and presents state-of-the-art warehouse designs for high-quality, lightning-fast, low-cost customer service. Harmon describes superior operations in a variety of environments - including retail warehousing and logistics, service parts warehousing and distribution, manufacturing material and component storage, and industrial products - that can lead to 80 to 90 percent improvements in a company's capital and inventory investments and operating expenses. To be competitive in the twenty-first century, Harmon argues, companies must create new, small "focused warehouses" that will decrease bureaucracy and increase the authority of managers and work-teams to ensure successful operations. Modern "clusters" of suppliers' facilities in regional market areas will virtually eliminate the thousands of miles products and components travel from raw material source locations through production, into the hands of their customers. Such radical changes, asserts Harmon, will reduce the size and quantity of trucks on highways and increase the volume of more economical rail and water transport of raw materials. Truly superior warehousing, Harmon argues, entails maximum utilization of all logistics assets, such as manpower, facilities, and equipment: multifunctional warehouseman teams with complete responsibility for an area of the warehouse including receiving, stocking, packing, and shipping; modular warehousing designs for fast, nondisruptive additions during peak seasons; and increased hours and days during which expensive equipment is utilized by adding night and weekend shifts. Harmon introduces other strategies such as cross-docking - a procedure used to transfer rec


Historically in the United States, we have used the court system as the way to settle disputes. As a society we are coming to recognize that this system is not working to our advantage and we are turning to mediation as a far superior method of resolving conflict. Within the last two decades, mediation has grown exponentially and continues to become entrenched in our schools, courts, businesses, governmental agencies in every area of our lives. As mediation evolves as a profession, there are key issues and trends that you must be aware of and factor into your career planning in order to maximize your mediation practice. This article will focus on a few of the hot issues currently swirling in the field.


With outstanding integration of mechanical performances and biocompatibility, 3 mol% of yttria stabilised tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (3Y-TZP) ceramic are extensively fabricated as biomedical implants. Conventional sintering (CS) was generally employed to produce 3Y-TZP bodies with promising densification, which resulted in grain coarsening and mechanical properties deterioration due to elevated sintering temperatures (> 1500°C). The main weakness of 3Y-TZP ceramic is the spontaneous tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation under humid environment, which is known as low-temperature degradation (LTD). In present work, undoped and MnO2 (0.3 and 0.5 wt%) doped 3Y-TZP green bodies were prepared and subjected to CS at 1200–1500°C for an hour of dwelling time. It was found that the optimum concentration of MnO2 dopant was 0.5 wt%. Reasonable toughness values of 5–7 MPa.m revealed the tetragonal phase stability of 3Y-TZP grains was not altered by doping of MnO2. Moreover, outstanding density level of > 96% of 0.5 wt% MnO2 doped 3Y-TZP ceramics demonstrated the superb Young's modulus of > 200 GPa and Vicker's hardness of >13 GPa. Fabrication of 3Y-TZP by doping MnO2 had reduced the total processing time by ~ 9% and sintering temperature by up to 150°C when compared to undoped 3Y-TZP ceramics sintered at 1400°C.


Although there has been an increase in risk of malpractice for all physicians, general psychiatrists continue to have a relatively low risk of being sued. With the change in the nature of involuntary patient populations as a result of dangerousness criteria for commitment, and the advent of an activist mental health bar, however, psychiatrists who work in the public sector are significantly more likely than private psychiatrists to face grievances and law suits. While specific data providing direct comparisons of numbers of lawsuits between private and public psychiatrists are not available, a review of the existing literature supports this hypothesis, particularly with respect to grievances. The author suggests reasons for the increased risk of legal challenges faced by psychiatrists working with committed patients, and discusses various strategies for preparing ward staff as well as professional staff to reduce the risk of being challenged as well as the chance of losing grievances and law suits. While the article focuses on psychiatrists, most of its arguments are equally applicable to other mental health professionals, whose risk of being legally challenged is escalating rapidly.


This thesis investigates the problem of dexterous manipulation; how can robots affect the world around them by means of their end-effectors? Dexterous manipulation is fundamental to robots operating intelligently and independently in their environments and it is a special motion planning problem.
Since the general motion planning problem with uncertainty is NEXP-hard, effort must be directed to defining classes of tasks that are tractable. We consider the reorientation problem: for a given robot hand, an arbitrary object, and a desired orientation with respect to the hand, find an algorithm to synthesize a robust plan for the fingers that accomplishes the desired reorientation. A reorientation algorithm devised for a robot hand should satisfy several properties. First, it must be able to accomplish arbitrarily large rotations. Second, since it must be implemented on a real device, it should involve simple finger motions that can be computed fast. Third, since the application domain is characterized by uncertainties that manifest themselves as imprecisions in calculations and inaccuracies in control, it must exhibit good stability properties. We propose algorithms for the reorientation problem that satisfy these properties. The basic idea is to use some of the robot fingers to constrain the motion of the object and others to generate motion. This results in the idea of finger tracking as a high-level primitive for manipulation. We also propose an algebraic framework for manipulation that is theoretically well-founded and in which it is possible to use systematically and effectively the differential equations describing the interaction between objects in contact. Finally, we describe a simulator for the reorientation of polyhedra by finger tracking.


PURPOSE
Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) using aluminium oxide crystals (Al2O3:C) is a dosimetry technique (1), already validated in radiation therapy (2). The aim of this study was to characterize the OSL detectors in terms of energy dependence using monochromatic beams in the low-medium energy range (25-85 keV); and to evaluate their potential for experimental dosimetry in therapeutic applications at these energies.

METHODS
The OSL system is composed of a multichannel reader and alumina crystals (Al2O3:C, 0.09 mm3) that are remotely read by laser light. The OSL signal is directly linked to the absorbed dose. Irradiations in were performed at 8 energy points from 25 to 90 keV using a synchrotron source. Absolute OSL dose measurements were also performed at 80 keV at 2 cm depth in water equivalent phantoms (3) (1-8 Gy range). The detectors have been read over 300 s to collect all the light available from the trapped electrons.

RESULTS
The OSL detector show a lower energy dependence (< 10%) in the 25 to 50 keV range than at higher energies (∼ 45% from 50 to 90 keV). OSL is a reproducible absolute dosimetry technique at 80 keV (sigma<5 %). The field size has no other influence on the OSL signal than the one due to phantom scatter output factors (3).

CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that the OSL energy dependance decreases with the beam energy. The conventional models (4) of OSL response in function of beam energy and delivered dose were confronted to our results. The next step of this study is to use OSL for beam penumbra caracterisation, where conventional detectors exhibit a severe energy dependance due to low energy spectra. In vivo dosimetry applications in low-medium enregy radiotherapy are foreseen due to the good reproducibility in OSL signal for absolute dose measurements. References: 1.Rad. Prot Dosim. 2006; 119(1- 4):368374.2.IEEE.Trans.Nucl.Sci.2011;58(2): 386 394.3.Med.Phys. 2011; 38(3) : 1709-1717.4.Med.Phys.2011;38(7):4396-4405.


The long-only strategies that currently dominate the commodity index market do not best serve investors as investment vehicles or as benchmarks. Since futures price changes and roll yields are the sources of excess return for commodity indexes, long-only indexes have no way to capture the returns available from shorting futures when there is downward price pressure or a positively sloped futures price curve. Long-only indexes generate negative roll yields when markets are in contango and thus can have negative returns when commodity prices are rising. Furthermore, since many actively managed commodity trading advisors (CTAs) invest in long and short futures based on momentum trading rules, the long-only indexes are not appropriate benchmarks, rendering traditional approaches to representing beta exposure unsuitable. By using a momentum-based approach that takes into account both price change and the slope of the futures price curve, long/short indexes aim to maximize both sources of excess return—price change and roll yield—to produce better performance. In addition, these indexes are logically consistent with the underlying economics of commodities futures markets, and back-tested results show an attractive risk profile, low downside risk, and low correlations to both traditional asset classes and long-only commodity indexes. As passive investment alternatives, these rules-based indexes could offer easier access to actively managed commodities trading strategies.


Usable security and privacy researchers use many study methodologies, including interviews, surveys, and laboratory studies. Of those, lab studies allow for particularly flexible setups, including programming experiments or usability eval-uations of software. However, lab studies also come with challenges: Often, it is particularly challenging to recruit enough skilled participants for in-person studies. Especially researchers studying security information workers reported on similar recruitment challenges in the past. Additionally, situations like the COVID-19 pandemic can make in-person lab studies even more challenging. Finally, institutions with limited resources may not be able to conduct lab studies. Therefore, we present and evaluate a novel virtual study environment prototype, called OLab, that allows researchers to conduct lab-like studies remotely using a commodity browser. Our environment overcomes lab-like study challenges and supports flexible setups and comprehensive data collection. In an iterative engineering process, we design and implement a prototype based on requirements we identified in previous work and conduct a comprehensive evaluation including a cognitive walkthrough with usable security experts, a guided and supervised online study with DevOps, and an unguided and unsupervised online study with computer science students. We can confirm that our prototype supports a wide variety of lab-like study setups and received positive feedback from all study participants.


According to Director Generalof Livestock Production currently supply new chicken meat can meet 5.5% of total national chicken meat needs. In the next 10 years is expected chicken supplies will reach 25% of the total national chicken meat needs. In fact farming chicken encountered major obstacles that growth tends to be slower when compared to the broiler capable harvest in 40 days. The selling price of chicken is super higher than broiler chicken, super chicken is across between chicken java (male) with chicken arabic (female). This type of chicken called chicken because chicken has a super character, nature and taste the same as the original chicken, but still has some other advantages, namely: shorter maintenance period (between 4-5 months) with an average weight of 0.7-1kg (weight demanded by consumer seating house/restaurant), way easier maintenance and more resistant to isease (small mortality), Impurities in cages odorless, easy marketing, profitable (profitable). prices range from Rp. 50.000-Rp. 70,000/kg according to market research during the year 2013 while the widths/big day can reach Rp.80.000-100,000 /kg. The method implementation is done in several phases: Phase I Preparation (selection and crossover market surveys), Phase Implementation (hatching, rearing), Packaging Phase III, Phase IV Phase V Evaluation Sales and calculations, Phase VI Reporting. Marketing strategies used to increase sales, among others, with the distribution of leaflets, posters and attractive packaging Eggs sold at whole Rp. 1500-@ Rp. 2000 to. Chicken forth meal (roast chicken) aged 4-6 months @Rp. 45,000. Stool sare sold in the form of fertilizer per firstname.lastname@example.com. From the analysis of the work done, got a profit of Rp1,536,750a month, the value of B/C ratio of 2.6 and the value obtained Payback Period (PBP) or there turn of capital for 18 days. Poultry business then Java Super DELIMAKEDATON (With Five Advantages and Stores On Line) is feasible to be developed and maybe a promising business opportunity profits. Keywords : Chickenjavasuper, DOC(Day OldChick), business opportunities


We develop a gradient algorithm for optimizing the performance of product-form networks through online adjustment of control parameters. The use of standard algorithms for finding optimal parameter settings is hampered by the prohibitive computational burden of calculating the gradient in terms of the stationary probabilities. The proposed approach instead relies on measuring empirical frequencies of the various states through simulation or online operation so as to obtain estimates for the gradient. Besides the reduction in computational effort, a further benefit of the online operation lies in the natural adaptation to slow variations in ambient parameters as commonly occurring in dynamic environments. On the downside, the measurements result in inherently noisy and biased estimates. We exploit mixing time results in order to overcome the impact of the bias and establish sufficient conditions for convergence to a globally optimal solution. We discuss our algorithm in the context of different systems, including queueing networks, loss networks, and wireless networks. We also illustrate how the algorithm can be used in such systems to optimize a service/cost trade-off, to map parameter regions that lead to systems meeting specified constraints, and to achieve target performance measures. For the latter application, we first identify which performance measures can be controlled depending on the set of configurable parameters. We then characterize the achievable region of performance measures in product-form networks, and finally we describe how our algorithm can be used to achieve the target performance in an online, distributed fashion, depending on the application context.


This work investigates the underlying volatility processes in earthquake series, high frequency (tick) data, financial indice and explosive series. Furthermore it examines the applicability of a range of GARCH specifications for modeling volatility of these series in order to identify similarities and differences in the volatility structures. The GARCH variants considered include the basic GARCH, IGARCH, ARFIMA (0,d,0)-GARCH and FIGARCH specifications. The methodology is not new, however the major contribution of this work comes in the realm of applications. The methodology is applied to three domains: Geophysics (earthquake data), Finance (high frequency data and indices) and explosives data. In all the applications the methodology provides insight into features of these series volatility. The results show that the FIGARCH specification is favoured in the DJIA, S&P500 and the explosives series volatility but in the BAC and JPM high-frequency data and in the earthquake series the ARFIMA-GARCH specification is preferred as it more reliably describes the volatility of these series. The WMT and IBM high-frequency data volatility were best described using the GARCH model.


Because it has recently been shown that selective activation of neuronal perikarya in the septal area elicits arterial depressor responses, it seems reasonable to expect that information from receptors in the cardiovascular system may be related to the septum. This possibility was investigated by searching for single units in the medial and lateral septal nuclei responding to activation of baroreceptors, elicited either by electrical stimulation of the aortic depressor nerve (ADN) or by systemic injection of phenylephrine (PE), or responding to activation of chemoreceptors, elicited by intracarotid injection of sodium cyanide. Fifty-four male Wistar rats weighing 300-400 g were anesthetized with urethan (1.4 g/kg ip) or alpha-chloralose-urethan (35 and 400 mg/kg ip, respectively) and allowed to breathe spontaneously. One-third of spontaneously firing units tested responded to ADN stimulation; these 93 units were divided into two groups according to their response patterns; 62 (67%) showed an increase and 31 (33%) a decrease in their discharge. Of 35 units tested, 6 responded to intravenous injection of PE. The majority of the units (48 of 60) affected by chemoreceptor activation were excited, and the remaining 12 were inhibited. These experiments suggest that sensory information from cardiovascular receptors may play an important role in the control of the circulation by the septum.


The welfare, or best interests, of the child has become a central tenet in international and national laws concerning adoption. Debates about what this means, or how this should be assessed, rarely consider divergences of approach engendered by cultural diversity or legal pluralism. This article takes the reader to the islands of the South Pacific, and examines the regulation of adoption in countries where Common Law was introduced under colonial influence alongside existing and surviving customary laws, and where international laws directed at safeguarding children have yet to make an impact. Although there are flaws in the present systems the article concludes by suggesting that there are also features which more developed countries might take into account when considering their own adoption regimes.


Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive tumour of the lung pleura with very poor patient prognosis. MM is unresponsive to all treatment regimes and over the next 30 years an estimated 100,000 fatalities will occur from this disease in Western Europe alone. MM is an extremely fibrous tumour containing abundant amounts of extracellular matrix, including collagen. Cell-matrix interactions are important for tumour progression and MM cells synthesise collagen as well as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), a key regulator of collagen production. Thiaproline, a proline analogue, was used to inhibit collagen production in MM cells in vitro and in vivo to test the hypothesis that collagen is important for MM growth. Murine MM cells (AC29) were incubated with increasing concentrations of thiaproline with and without TGF-beta1 (1ng/ml) and incorporation of tritiated thymidine and hydroxyproline levels measured as an index of cell proliferation and collagen production (nM hydroxyproline/106 cells) respectively. The effect of thiaproline on tumour growth (median weight, mg [range]) was determined in syngeneic mice subcutaneously injected in the flank with 106 MM cells. In vitro, 10mM thiaproline significantly reduced cell proliferation by over 65% (control 27400 3200; thiaproline 8950 1000 dpm/well, p 0.001) and basal and TGF-beta1-induced collagen production by over 50% (control 1.6 0.1; thiaproline 0.7 0.1, p 0.005) and 60% (TGF-beta1 3.8 0.2; TGF-beta1+thiaproline 1.3 0.1, p 0.005) respectively. At 10 days after injection of cells, 100mg/kg/day thiaproline reduced median tumour weight by over 80% (control 58 [30-105]; thiaproline 10.5 [5-12], p 0.01) but no significant difference was seen at 18 days. To summarise, thiaproline inhibited MM cell proliferation, collagen production and delayed tumour growth, suggesting an important role for collagen in MM growth. MM also secretes TGF-beta, which regulates cell growth and collagen production. MM cells produce 30 - 70 times more TGF-beta than untransformed normal mesothelial cells. To investigate the role of specific TGF-beta isoforms in MM cell proliferation and collagen production and to determine the relative importance in tumour growth, selective neutralising antibodies to TGF-beta1 and TGF-beta2 were used in conjunction with a pan-specific TGF-beta antibody which neutralised all TGF-beta isoforms. Through the use of the neutralizing antibodies it was determined that the predominant isoform produced by AC29 cells into conditioned medium was TGF-beta2. TGF-beta and control antibodies had no effect on AC29 cell proliferation or collagen production in vitro. TGF-beta and control antibodies (5mg/kg) were injected intraperitoneally into the murine flank model of MM tumour growth at three-day intervals until the end of the experiment, when the tumours were resected and weighed. TGF-beta2 antibody administered in vivo significantly decreased median tumour weight compared with PBS and control antibody (PBS control 67.5 [27-114], control antibody 57 [35-193], TGF-beta2 antibody 27 [5-51], p 0.001 for both controls). Pan-specific antibody reduced median tumour weight compared to PBS control (PBS control 46.5 [25-109], control antibody 36 [19-107], pan-specific TGF-beta antibody 30 [14-66], p 0.05 vs. PBS control). Antibodies against TGF-beta1 had no effect on tumour growth. Collagen analysis of the tumours revealed a significantly lower concentration of collagen in the pan-specific antibody treated tumours (PBS control 9.11 0.76, pan-specific TGF-beta antibody 4.03 0.68 nM hydroxyproline / mg tumour, p 0.0001). Collectively, this thesis has clearly demonstrated that TGF-beta-induced collagen production may be an important aspect of MM tumour growth, and inhibition of either collagen production or TGF-beta activity can delay MM tumour growth with a resultant decrease in tumour collagen content. A dual approach targeting both collagen and TGF-beta production may be of benefit in the treatment of this disease in which the current therapies are inadequate.