Destination image is a concept created by different demand and supply agents. The balance between what is expected and what is being delivered is essential in promoting the destination. The main goal of this study is to describe the different destination images related to Dracula tourism in Transylvania. This is accomplished by looking at the Western tourists' expectations and demands as expressed in their travel blogs, and by analyzing the supply side through the elicitation of information from locals and Bran Castle tour guides through qualitative interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the content, visual and audio information on sampled blogs and interviews. This method identified 11 different themes which captured the overall destination image. The themes focused primarily on historical and fictional images of the destination, on the type of tourists visiting Bran Castle, but also on the locals' image and response to Dracula tourism. The findings of this study reveal that the majority of Western bloggers visit Bran in search for Count Dracula; however, the Bran Castle tour guides focus on presenting the historical truth. Local residents, although seeing Dracula as a national hero, sometimes adopt the mythical image as a marketing or product development tactic in selling to visitors. Nevertheless, the stakeholders involved in the creation of the image each fit into different destination image frameworks, allowing for the creation of an overall destination image based on historical and fictional elements.


Tools and techniques for planning, decision making, and implementation. This new book examines and documents methods for developing and employing critical project management skills. The emphasis is on providing both novice and seasoned project managers with insight into real-world, practical applications. The techniques are proven, the approach sound, and the results measurable and significant. Case studies presented in the book illustrate the application of various project management strategic and tactical tools. The book follows a step-by-step approach, supported by tools, techniques and examples to illustrate each important aspect of project management. Among other topics readers will learn how to establish result-oriented project performance metrics to guarantee measurable results, exercise fundamental process control techniques that will help keep a project on budget and on schedule, accurately assess project support systems and address deficiencies early, plus many more.


Cognitive functions dependent on the prefrontal cortex, such as the ability to suppress behavior (response inhibition) and to learn from complex feedback (probabilistic learning), play critical roles in activities of daily life. To what extent do different neurochemical systems modulate these two cognitive functions? Here, using stop-signal and probabilistic learning tasks, we show a double dissociation for the involvement of noradrenaline and serotonin in human cognition. In healthy volunteers, inhibition of central noradrenaline reuptake improved response inhibition but had no effect on probabilistic learning, whereas inhibition of central serotonin reuptake impaired probabilistic learning with no effect on response inhibition.


The aim of the article is to examine the meaning of references to laughter in the Synoptic Gospels and a number of Gnostic texts. Whereas Jesus is depicted as an object of ridicule (Mk 5:40 par.) and as condemning those who laugh in the Synoptic Gospels (Lk 6:25), it is he who often laughs derisively at the ignorance of others in Gnostic texts. The meaning of laughter in the Synoptic Gospels and a number of Gnostic texts is examined in the light of the general Greco-Roman attitude towards laughter and, more specifically, in regard to the archetypical distinction between playful and consequential laughter in Greek culture.


This article focuses on the Turkish Language Reform and the practice of intralingual translation in Turkey as the updating of archaic or older texts, an area that has been largely overlooked in previous theoretical discussions within translation studies. It examines the ways in which the "purification" movement gave rise to intralingual translations of Ottoman Turkish literary works and affected the language of these translations and Turkish literature after 1928. This study argues that intralingual translations in Turkey cannot be divorced from the nationalist agenda and that they reveal linguistic, translational and ideological norms of the period when these translations were produced. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the presentation of and discussions around intralingual translations also shed light on the practice and perception of interlingual translations and on Turkey's relationship with her Ottoman past.


There has been much debate for many years as to what should be the objective of the large public company. This issue is important for a number of reasons, not least of which is that the theory nominated will underpin corporate governance and dictate to a large extent the kind of corporate governance system that will exist. As far as the objective of the company is concerned, two theories have been dominant. They are the shareholder primacy and stakeholder theories. The former is said to be operative in what can be called "Anglo-American jurisdictions." Notwithstanding the fact that it has been regularly said that the US and the UK and other Anglo-American jurisdictions embrace shareholder primacy, there are many who feel that, due to a number of factors (mentioned in the paper), some of these jurisdictions are moving towards more of a stakeholder approach to corporate governance. After setting out what stakeholder theory stands for, this paper analyses whether stakeholder theory should overtake shareholder primacy as the leading theory in Anglo-American jurisdictions. Specifically, the paper examines the arguments propounded in support of stakeholder theory and evaluates the strength of these arguments with the aim of determining if there is sufficient justification for the theory to be wholeheartedly embraced in Anglo-American jurisdictions. The two major parts of the paper involve, first, an examination of the rationale given for the theory's existence as well as the leading arguments that are put forward for it being embraced by all companies. The second part identifies and analyses some of the concerns raised about the theory and the primary points that are directed against the theory. The paper concludes that while the stakeholder theory is attractive in a number of ways, it is lacking in many respects, and it cannot be justified as a theory of the objective of large corporations.


The estimation of loads acting on an aircraft structure is an indispensable task ranging from conceptual, preliminary, and detail design to loads flight testing when an aircraft is already in service. Work package 4 of the DLR project iLOADS covers the range broadly. Physics-based loads and aerodynamic performance analysis methods in pre-design are presented using a parameterized and automatized process nested in an overall aircraft design loop. Such process can be used for conventional an unconventional configurations. Covering the complete design process, a parametric set-up for structural modeling, estimation of loads and loads flight testing for the DLR HALO, a modified Gulfstream G550, is also shown. Finally the in-flight system identification activities including flight tests for the DLR Discus-2c are described.


Following Lactation is an extremely energy demanding event, impacting naïve dams to a greater extent as they are still physiologically immature. The objective of the current study was to determine if a unique plasma metabolome exists at early and late lactation from first parity gilts having similar body measurements and litter sizes post-farrow (PF) with divergent body condition measurements at weaning. Farrowing data, body composition traits (bodyweight, backfat thickness, and loin eye area), and a plasma sample were collected PF (2.7 ± 1.45 d) and 1d prior to weaning (WN) from composite Landrace-Duroc-Yorkshire gilts bred with Yorkshire semen. Twenty-seven gilts were identified from 68 first parity farrowings with similar farrowing ages (P = 0.9442), PF body weight (P = 0.6789), PF backfat thickness (P = 0.8549), and litter size (P ≥ 0.2263). Dams were fed to appetite from d3 PF through WN. Of the 27 dams, 10 with the greatest (Hi) and 10 with the least (Lo) body weight loss (P ˂ 0.0001; 26.1 ± 1.90 kg and 8.6 ± 1.48 kg, respectively) and backfat thickness loss (P = 0.0094; 4.7 ± 0.86 mm and 1.3 ± 0.67 mm, respectively) had plasma samples submitted for non-targeted profiling by UPLC-MS and GC-MS techniques. Raw spectral data was processed using XCMS package in R to generate feature detection and alignment followed by grouping of features into compounds. Samples were blocked by time of collection (PF and WN) and body condition loss (Hi and Lo) and ANOVA was performed on each compound in R with a Benjamini-Hochburg false discovery rate adjustment. Several compound changes (P ≤ 0.05) in the metabolome occurred from PF to WN under both detection techniques (UPLC-MS, 112; GC-MS, 59). While changes (P ≤ 0.05) in compounds between Hi loss and Lo loss also occurred, the prevalence was much less (UPLC-MS, 21; GC-MS, 11). Interestingly, the interaction of time by body condition loss yielded unique compound profiles for both detection techniques (UPLC-MS, 16; GC-MS, 20). Of the 36 compounds significant for interactions, 11 compound signatures may prove to be relevant as predictors for animals that will or won't lose excessive weight and backfat thickness during the course of lactation. Further investigations into the specific identities and validation of all significant compounds will provide potential nutraceuticals to offset intensive depletion of energy stores in young dams during lactation. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.


An unknown Phytophthora species was recovered in southwestern Oregon from rhododendron and tanoak leaf baits used for monitoring streams and soils for the presence of Phytophthora ramorum, from a blighted shoot of myrtlewood and from tanoak bark cankers. Isolates of this species yielded ITS-DNA sequences that differed substantially from other Phytophthora sequences in GenBank. Morphological features also differed from available descriptions of known Phytophthora species. Based on the combination of unique morphology and unique ITS sequences a new species is proposed. The new species, Phytophthora siskiyouensis, is homothallic with globose to subglobose oogonia, which may be terminal, sessile or laterally intercalary. Antheridia are capitate and mostly paragynous but sometimes amphigynous. Oospores are mostly aplerotic. Sporangia are variable but commonly ovoid to reniform, with apical, subapical or lateral semipapillae (occasionally more than one). Sporangia are terminal, subterminal or occasionally intercalary on unbranched sporangiophores, with basal, subbasal or lateral attachment. Sporangia are weakly deciduous, with variable length pedicels. This combination of characters clearly separates Phytophthora siskiyouensis from other known Phytophthora species.


What will the future of work, social freedom and employment look like? In an era of increased job insecurity and social dislocation, is it possible to reshape economics along democratic lines in a way that genuinely serves the interests of the community? Of Labour and Liberty arises from Race Mathews's half a century and more of political and public policy involvement. It responds to evidence of a precipitous decline in active citizenship, resulting from a loss of confidence in politics, politicians, parties and parliamentary democracy; the rise of 'lying for hire' lobbyism; increasing concentration of capital in the hands of a wealthy few; and corporate wrong-doing and criminality.

It also questions whether political democracy can survive indefinitely in the absence of economic democracy – of labour hiring capital rather than capital labour. It highlights the potential of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the now largely forgotten Distributist political philosophy and program that originated from them as a means of bringing about a more equal, just and genuinely democratic social order. It describes and evaluates Australian attempts to give effect to Distributism, with special reference to Victoria. And with an optimistic view to future possibilities it documents the support and advocacy of Pope Francis, and ownership by some 83,000 workers of the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain.


Robert Westman's massive book—The Copernican Question. Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. xviii 681 pp. (double columns), 85 b&w illustrations, 7 tables, index—presents a novel thesis and a wealth of material. It is certain to raise questions that go beyond the Copernican. Therefore the Editors are pleased to be able to offer reviews by two people familiar with the documents to which the book refers. The arst of these, by Noel Swerdlow, examines the evidence for the book's central thesis: concern for the defense and improvement of astrology caused Copernicus to build his system. The other review, by John Heilbron, considers the workmanship behind the book and related matters, particularly as manifested in its extensive treatment of Galileo.—The editors.


Considering the current advancements in biometric sensors and other related technologies, as well as the use of bio-inspired models for AI improvements, we can infer that the swarm intelligence paradigm can be implemented in human daily spheres through the connectivity between user gadgets connected to the Internet of Things. This is a first step towards a real Ambient Intelligence, but also of a Global Intelligence. This unconscious (by the user) connectivity may alter the way by which we feel the world. Besides, with the arrival of new augmented ways of capturing and providing information or radical new ways of expanding our bodies (through synthetic biology or artificial prosthesis like brain–computer connections), we can be very close to a change which may radically affect our experience of ourselves and of the feeling of collectivity. We call it the techno-phenomenological turn. We show social implications, present challenges, and and open questions for the new kind of swarm intelligence-enhanced society, and provide the taxonomy of the field of study. We will also explore the possible roadmaps of this next possible situation.


With online course development on the rise (Allen & Seaman, 2011) the challenge for instructors is to enhance and ensure learning through this modality (Brinkerhoff & Koroghlanian, 2007). When direct contact with students in a traditional face-to-face classroom is not feasible, instructors must be innovative in content delivery and provide for students a sense of instructor presence. It has been suggested that the online instructor is the critical factor for a successful learning experience (Brabazon, 2001; McKenzie, Mims, Bennett, & Waugh, 2000; Beaudin, 1999). Indicators of instructor presence include behaviors such as communicating, sharing information, and maintaining a sense of community within the course (Palloff & Pratt, 2003). These indicators have been directly related to student perception of success in meeting learning outcomes (Kupczynsk, Ice, Wiesenmayer, & McCluskey, 2010). Web 2.0 tools offer ways to personalize classes and demonstrate instructional presence. Some of the more widely recognized tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, video and photo sharing, avatars, microblogging, social bookmarking, and social media. This generation of free, easily accessible Web-based tools allows users to access as well as create and contribute information to sites. In an online classroom setting, Web 2.0 tools enable instructors to interact with students in a variety of innovative ways. Rather than passively viewing information, students collaborate and learn as a classroom community. The purpose of this paper is to help novice online instructors understand exactly what Web 2.0 tools are, as well as why, and how they can be used in the online classroom. Suggestions for specific Web 2.0 tools that work well across disciplines are provided.


Heavy metals contamination from industrial wastewaters into the environment is a serious environmental problem. Activated carbon adsorption is the most effective means of removing heavy metals from industrial effluents before discharge into the environment but is expensive. Several low cost adsorbents have been utilized as alternatives for heavy metal removal. However a thorough literature search revealed a dart of information on the use of Gourd Cell Seed Husk (GCSH) as adsorbent for heavy metals. This study therefore investigates the performance of GCSH for the biosorption of Co (II), Zn (II) and Pb (II) ions from aqueous solution. The adsorbent was characterized by the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Batch biosorption was used to determine the effect of pH, metal ion concentration, adsorbent dose and contact time on metals sequestration. Isotherm was analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models. Kinetic mechanism of biosorption was analyzed using the Pseudo-first order, Pseudo-second order, Intra-particle diffusion and Film diffusion rate equations. FTIR and SEM showed the presence of surface functional groups and a porous surface of GCSH. The trend of metal biosorption was Co (II)>Pb (II)>Zn (II) ions. The results of this study revealed a good performance of GCSH for the removal of the three metal ions from solution. This indicated the usefulness of GCSH as an alternative low cost adsorbent.


PURPOSE
The objective of this study was to evaluate the secondary cancer risk of various organs due to the radiation treatment of breast cancer.

METHODS
The organ doses were measured with photoluminescent dosimeter (PLD) in anthropomorphic phantom for the treatment of breast cancer with 3D conformal radiation therapy (3D), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). The cancer risk based on measured dose was calculated using the BEIR (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation) VII models which yield lifetime attributable risks (LAR) for radiotherapy techniques.

RESULTS
The secondary dose per treatment dose (50.4 Gy) from 3D-CRT in various organs ranged from 0.02 to 0.36 Gy. The secondary doses per treatment dose from IMRT and RapidArc, however, ranged between 0.07 and 8.48 Gy, indicating that IMRT and RapidArc are associated with higher doses of secondary radiation than 3D-CRT. The organ specific LARs of the thyroid, contralateral breast and ipsilateral lung were 0.02, 19.76, 0.74 per 100,000 population in 3D-CRT which is much lower compared with IMRT (0.11, 463.6, 10.2) or RapidArc (0.11, 290.37, 11.71).

CONCLUSION
The overall estimation of LAR indicated that the radiation-induced cancer risk due to the beast radiation therapy was lower with 3D-CRT than with IMRT or RapidArc.


There are several studies that suggest that aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid [ASA]) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are associated with esophagitis or esophageal stricture formation. There are limited data on the potential of low-dose ASA and over-the-counter (OTC) NSAIDs to cause esophageal injury. The goal of this study was to determine whether there is an association between esophageal strictures and ASA/NSAID use, including low-dose ASA and OTC NSAIDs. A total of 79 consecutive patients (mean age, 52.8 years; 38 men, 41 women) referred for endoscopy from 4/1/96 to 11/15/96 for chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms were evaluated. Data collected include gender, race, and age, NSAID or ASA use, as well as an assessment of dysphagia, heartburn duration, and heartburn frequency. Patients taking NSAIDs or ASA at least twice a week were considered ASA/NSAID users. There were 46 patients without strictures and 33 patients with peptic strictures. Patients with strictures were older than patients without strictures (mean age, 58.7 versus 48.6 years; p < 0.01), had longer duration of heartburn symptoms (8.6 versus 6.4 years, p < 0.05), and were more likely to have mucosal injury (50% versus 26.1%). Stricture patients were more likely to use ASA/NSAIDs (63.6% versus 26.1%; p < 0.01). In particular, stricture patients were more likely to use low-dose ASA than patients without strictures (30.3% versus 2.2%; p < 0.01). Otherwise, there were no significant differences with regard to gender, race, or heartburn duration or frequency. Linear regression analysis showed that ASA/NSAID use had a greater influence on the incidence of peptic strictures than age. There is an association between esophageal stricture and ASA/NSAID use, which includes OTC NSAIDs and low-dose ASA.


In this paper, we present an overview of GBA+ and its central components, as well as a case study application of the framework to the question of poverty in the British Columbia context. We begin by tracing the theoretical foundations and development of SWC's GBA+ tool, touching on the relevance of the framework given broader government goals of diversity, inclusion, and inclusive growth. Next, we consider the limitations and potential of GBA+ as operationalized in Canada, and then build on this analysis to adjust the existing GBA+ tool, with the goals of better incorporating the concept of intersectionality and rendering the framework useful beyond governmental contexts. Finally, we apply relevant elements of the adapted framework in a case study, examining the issue of poverty in B.C. from a gendered and intersectional perspective. Our main finding is that exploring the nature and causes of poverty in B.C. results in a harrowing picture, both of need and oppression, and one that government systems have been complicit in constructing. As a result, the BC Government will need to implement GBA+ frameworks within a context that includes broader reconsiderations of government process, structures, institutions, and norms, with an aim to remove discrimination and bias (e.g., heteronormativity, colonialism, misogyny, ableism). Ultimately, an understanding of both the broad context of systemic pathologies and the barriers associated with intersecting identity factors and social positions that shape individual experiences will be integral for analysts hoping to advance agendas of diversity, inclusion, and poverty reduction, particularly through the development of public policy.


A generating family in a category C is a collection of objects {Ai|i 2 I} such that if for any subobject Y / m / X, every Ai f / X factors through m, then m is an isomorphism - i.e. the functors C(Ai, ) are collectively conservative. In this paper, we examine some circumstances under which subobjects of 1 form a generating family. Objects for which subobjects of 1 do form a generating family are called partially well-pointed. For a Grothendieck topos, it is well known that subobjects of 1 form a generating family if and only if the topos is localic. For the elementary case, little more is known. The problem is studied in (1), where it is shown that the result is internally true, an equivalent condition is found in the boolean case, and certain preservation properties are shown. We look at two dierent approaches to the problem, one based on a generalization of projectivity, and the other based on looking at the most extreme sorts of counterexamples.


Article history: Received 19 August 2014 Received in revised form 19 September 2014 Accepted 29 November 2014 Available online 15 December 2014


Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) students' education comprises both theories and practical aspects. Access to resources is required for the development of a professional identity, which includes gaining technical knowledge and receiving feedback, guidance as well as social and emotional support from clinical supervisors. The aim of this study was to evaluate BSN students' views of professional development after clinical supervision (CS) during their undergraduate education. An additional aim was to illuminate how competence development was related to the WHO Patient Safety Educational Model. A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which CS was measured as part of a survey completed by a sample of nursing students after their clinical placement at two time-points, namely 2012 and 2013. Statistical descriptive and inferential analyses were used and differences in the responses between Time 1 and Time 2 compared. The benefit of CS for nursing students' competence development revealed a positive significant relationship between students' Interpersonal skills and the factor Improved care/skills. There were differences in terms of variables related to the Importance value of CS and Professional skills. The results can be used to inform undergraduate nursing education leaders, teachers and practice partners on individual, group and organisational level in order to enhance patient safety and highlight the importance of CS for BSN students' professional development.


We develop singular value techniques in the context of time inhomogeneous finite Markov chains with the goal of obtaining quantitative results concerning the asymptotic behavior of such chains. We introduce the notion of c-stability which can be viewed as a generalization of the case when a time inhomogeneous chain admits an invariant measure. We describe a number of examples where these techniques yield quantitative results concerning the merging of the distributions of the time inhomogeneous chain started at two arbitrary points.


Interaction Design: Foundations, Experiments is the result of a series of projects, experiments and curricula aimed at investigating the foundations of interaction design in particular and design research in general.

The first part of the book - Foundations - deals with foundational theoretical issues in interaction design. An analysis of two categorical mistakes -the empirical and interactive fallacies- forms a background to a discussion of interaction design as act design and of computational technology as material in design.

The second part of the book - Experiments - describes a range of design methods, programs and examples that have been used to probe foundational issues through systematic questioning of what is given. Based on experimental design work such as Slow Technology, Abstract Information Displays, Design for Sound Hiders, Zero Expression Fashion, and IT+Textiles, this section also explores how design experiments can play a central role when developing new design theory.


Clutter in a diagram can be broadly defined as how visually complex the diagram is. It may be that different users perceive clutter in different ways, however. Moreover, it has been shown that, for certain types of diagrams and tasks, an increase in clutter negatively affects task performance, making quantifying clutter an important problem. In this paper we investigate the perceived clutter in concept diagrams, a visual language used for representing ontologies. Using perceptual theory and existing research on clutter for other diagrams, we propose five plausible measures for assigning clutter scores to concept diagrams. By performing an empirical study we evaluated each of these proposed measures against participants' rankings of diagrams. Whilst more than one of our measures showed strong correlation with perceived clutter, our results suggest that a measure based on the number of points where lines cross is the most appropriate way to quantify clutter for concept diagrams.


Can good governance be exported? International development assistance is more frequently being applied to strengthening governance in developing countries, and in Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada's Aid Program, the editors bring together diverse perspectives to investigate whether aid for good governance works. The first section of the book outlines the changing face of international development assistance and ideas of good governance. The second section analyzes six nations: three are countries to which Canada has devoted a significant portion of its aid efforts over the past five to ten years: Ghana, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Two are newer and more complex "fragile states," where Canada has engaged: Haiti and Afghanistan. These five are then compared with Mauritius, which has enjoyed relatively good governance. The final section looks at challenges and new directions for Canadas development policy. Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation


The paper examines current pragmatic worth and considerations in the use of Western psychological tests by reviewing pertinent literature which encompasses definition of psychological testing and assessment, specific standards set by local and international standards with respect to administration, scoring and interpretation of psychological tests, emerging issues and challenges, and newer paradigms in the delivery of psychological assessment. It identifies explicit concerns and recommends directions in the utility of such psychological tests by counselors, psychologists, counselors-in-training and students.


This review is devoted to the most recent developments (2000–2005) of sol–gel materials at the interface with biology. In the context of bioencapsulation in mineral hosts, novel synthetic approaches have been designed, allowing the immobilization of numerous proteins, enzymes and immune molecules as well as poly-saccharides, phospholipids and nucleic acids. These efforts have led to the development of new biosensors and bioreactors. A similar trend was also observed for whole cell encapsulation, survival periods over several weeks now being achieved. This has opened the possibility of designing hybrid hosts for cell-based biosensing and bioproduction, ultimately allowing the development of artificial organs. Indeed, applications of sol–gel processes are not restricted to bioencapsulation, as demonstrated by recent progress in drug release systems and bioactive materials. Finally, the considerable efforts devoted to the biomimetic elaboration of mineral structures suggest that they might be the key for future development of improved sol–gel materials for bio-applications.


In our contemporary society, digital texts circulate more readily and extend beyond page-bound formats to include interactive representations such as online newsprint with hyperlinks to audio and video files. This is to say that multimodality combined with digital technologies extends grammar to include voice, visual, and music, among other modes for articulating ideas beyond written language. In this paper, I discuss these multimodal designs in relation to a group of transcultural youth and their multilingual exchanges online. I examine patterns that reveal how their linguistic exchanges both drew from and extended beyond in-school literacy practices. Using discourse and multimodal analyses, I examine data from a 3-year ethnography that documents specific ways in which their multimodal design migrated across contexts and facilitated their social language development. In so doing, I describe their artistic approach to attending to language variety beyond code-switching through a process I identify as linguistic layering.


Introduction: The present study examined how both clinicians and service users experience existing treatments for Dual Disorders (DDs), namely the co-occurrence of a Severe Mental Illness (SMI) and a Substance Use Disorder (SUD). The literature indicates that many individuals with DDs present with an even more complex clinical portrait, which often includes additional pathologies or stressors, such as cluster B personality disorders, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or trauma history, and depression. Treatment for these individuals is complicated by these mitigating factors and it is not clear whether extant treatments for DDs are successful with this population, and how they could be improved. Objective: This study aimed to explore the specific issues, successes and difficulties regarding the treatment of complex DDs, according to both clinicians' and service users' perspectives. Methods: A qualitative design was used in this exploratory study in order to best grasp the complexity of this clinical issue. Thirty clinicians and program directors specialized in the treatment of DDs, and 31 individuals diagnosed with complex DDs participated respectively in three and four focus groups conducted in various settings. Collected data were coded using a mixed open and closed coding procedure. Results: All participants expressed both positive and negative views on existing treatments. Clinicians and clinical directors expressed various issues, principally: powerlessness, dealing with personality disorders in people with DDs, seeking a common treatment vision, and services issues (notably housing). The main themes emerging in the service users' interviews pertained to exclusion from services, personalised treatment plans, medication, and therapy. Conclusion: Although creative, personalised treatments were noted, it is clear to all clinicians, clinical directors and service users that existent services are not efficiently equipped for dealing with complex DDs. More integrated treatments, more comprehensive trainings and better access to adapted services would improve treatment outcomes for individuals diagnosed with complex DDs.


Component-based models are widely used for embedded systems. The models consist of components with input and output ports linked to each other. However, mismatched links or assumptions among components may cause many failures, especially for large scale models. Binding semantic knowledge into models can enable domain-specific checking and help expose modeling errors in the early stage. Ontology is known as the formalization of semantic knowledge. In this paper we propose an ontology-driven tool for static correctness checking of domain-specific errors. two kinds of important static checking, semantic type and domain-restrcted rules, are fulfilled in a unified framework. We first propose a formal way to precisely describe the checking requirements by ontology and then separately check them by a lattice-based constraint solver and a description logic reasoner. Compared with other static checking methods, the ontology-based method we proposed is model-externally configurable and thus flexible and adaptable to the changes of requirements. The case study demonstrates the effectiveness of our method.


In low-and-middle-income countries, epidemiologic transition is taking place very rapidly from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases. NCDs mortality rates are increasing faster and nearly 80% of NCDs deaths occur in LMICs. Existing weak health systems of LMICs are undergoing a devastating human and economic toll as a result of increasing treatment costs and losses to productivity from NCDs. At the same time, the increasing penetration of mobile phone technology and the spread of cellular network and infrastructure have led to the introduction of the mHealth field. While mHealth field offers a great promise to prevent and control non-communicable diseases in low-and-middle-income countries: there is a great debate going on to explore health systems readiness for adopting mHealth technology to address NCDs in LMICs. There are a number of factors which determine health systems readiness and response for adoption of mHealth technology including preparedness of healthcare institutions, availability of the resources, willingness of healthcare providers and communities. We have discussed these factors to understand health systems preparedness to adopt mHealth field for prevention and control of NCDs. To adequately integrate mobile-phone-based health interventions into existing health systems, these factors should be dealt up-front through constant effort to improve health systems response for NCDs. Currently, there is insufficient empirical and policy evidence on this research area and therefore future research and policy dialogue should be directed to assess the health systems willingness for mHealth adoption principally to address NCDs in the context of LMICs.


Embroidery is a traditional non-photorealistic art form in which threads of different colours stitched into a base material are used to create an image. This thesis presents techniques for automatically producing embroidery layouts from line drawings and for rendering those layouts in real time on potentially deformable 3D objects with hardware acceleration. Layout of stitches is based on automatic extraction of contours from line drawings followed by a set of stitch-placement procedures based on traditional embroidery techniques. Rendering first captures the lighting environment on the surface of the target object and renders it as an image in texture space. Stitches are rendered in this space using a lighting model suitable for threads at a resolution that avoids geometric and highlight aliasing. It is also possible to render stitches in layers to capture the 2.5D nature of embroidery. A filtered texture pyramid is constructed from the resulting texture and applied to the 3D object. Aliasing of fine stitch structure and highlights is avoided by this process. The result is a realistic embroidered image that properly responds to lighting.


The neoliberal project in the West has created an increasingly polarized and impoverished world, to the point that the vast majority of its citizens require liberation from their present socioeconomic circumstances. The marxist theorist Kenneth Surin contends that innovation and change at the level of the political must occur in order to achieve this liberation, and for this endeavor marxist theory and philosophy are indispensable. In Freedom Not Yet , Surin analyzes the nature of our current global economic system, particularly with regard to the plight of less developed countries, and he discusses the possibilities of creating new political subjects necessary to establish and sustain a liberated world.

Surin begins by examining the current regime of accumulation—the global domination of financial markets over traditional industrial economies—which is used as an instrument for the subordination and dependency of poorer nations. He then moves to the constitution of subjectivity, or the way humans are produced as social beings, which he casts as the key arena in which struggles against dispossession occur. Surin critically engages with the major philosophical positions that have been posed as models of liberation, including Derrida's notion of reciprocity between a subject and its other, a reinvigorated militancy in political reorientation based on the thinking of Badiou and Zizek, the nomad politics of Deleuze and Guattari, and the politics of the multitude suggested by Hardt and Negri. Finally, Surin specifies the material conditions needed for liberation from the economic, political, and social failures of our current system. Seeking to illuminate a route to a better life for the world's poorer populations, Surin investigates the philosophical possibilities for a marxist or neo-marxist concept of liberation from capitalist exploitation and the regimes of power that support it.


Power electronics are vital for the generation, conversion, transmission, and distribution of electrical energy. Improving the efficiency, power density, and reliability of power electronics is an important challenge that can be addressed with electrothermal codesign and optimization. Current thermal management approaches utilize metallic heat sinks (HSs), resulting in parasitic load generation due to different potentials between electronic components on the printed circuit board (PCB). To enable electrical isolation, a thermal interface material (TIM) or gap pad is placed between the PCB and HS, resulting in poor heat transfer. Here, we develop an approach to eliminate TIMs and gap pads through modularization of metallic HSs. The use of smaller modular heat sinks (MHSs) strategically placed on high power dissipation areas of the PCB enables elimination of electrical potential difference, and removal of electrical isolation materials, resulting in better cooling performance due to direct contact between devices and the HS. By studying a gallium nitride (GaN) 2 kW DC–DC power converter as a test platform for electrothermal codesign using the modular approach, and benchmarking performance with a commercial off-the-shelf HS design, we showed identical power dissipation rates with a 54% reduction in HS volume and a 8 °C reduction in maximum GaN device temperature. In addition to thermal performance improvement, the MHS design showed a 73% increase in specific power density with a 22% increase in volumetric power density.


Probabilistic programming systems make machine learning more modular by automating inference. Recent work by Shan and Ramsey makes inference more modular by automating conditioning. Their technique uses a symbolic program transformation that treats conditioning generally via the measure-theoretic notion of disintegration. This technique, however, is limited to conditioning a single scalar variable. As a step towards modular inference for realistic machine learning applications, we have extended the disintegration algorithm to symbolically condition arrays in probabilistic programs. The extended algorithm implements lifted disintegration, where repetition is treated symbolically and without unrolling loops. The technique uses a language of index variables for tracking expressions at various array levels. We find that the method works well for arbitrarily-sized arrays of independent random choices, with the conditioning step taking time linear in the number of indices needed to select an element.


To take advantage of the high speed in an optic fiber, one of the basic concept in fiber optic communication is to allow several users to simultaneously transmit data over the channel. One technique that provides multiple access is it fiber optic-code division multiple access (FO-CDMA). In FO-CDMA each user is assigned one or more signature sequences called codewords, which are subsets of a type of optical orthogonal code (OOC). The channel input/output consists of the superposition of several users codewords and at the receiver end an optical correlator extracts the information. In the parallel code constructions, presented in this report, each user j is assigned a subset Cj from a code C. The subsets are disjoint and their union is the whole set C. A new way to map the information bits is to insert up to L zeros before each codeword from Cj and let this represent information aswell. This gives high rates for active users but an investigation is needed to ensure that this does not compromise the systems wanted property of sending information with a small probability of errors for all users. Therefore a simulation environment has been implemented in Matlab. The result from these simulations shows that BER for the L parallel codes is acceptable and not much higher than for the traditional constructions. Because of the higher rate these construction should be preferred but an analysis if a hardware implementation is possible.


This book discusses the most significant features of formal language theory: the classes
 of the Chomsky-hierarchy and the corresponding classes of automata. There are three
 descriptions of the regular languages given: regular grammars, regular expressions and
 finite automata (both deterministic and nondeterministic versions). The equivalence of
 these descriptions are proven. Moreover, finite state transducers, for example, Mealy and
 Moore automata are described. Linear languages are presented. The class of context-free
 languages are also widely used, Chomsky normal form and Bar-Hillel pumping lemma is
 presented. This class are also characterized by push-down automata. The parsing problem
 is solved by CYK and Earley algorithms. Context-sensitive languages form a much wider
 class. Kuroda normal form is proven for this class. Linear-bounded automata is shown.
 Turing machines and the class of recursively enumerable languages, as well as, the class
 of recursive languages are presented. Finally, closure properties of the mentioned classes
 are also proven.


Learning a visual concept from a small number of positive examples is a significant challenge for machine learning algorithms. Current methods typically fail to find the appropriate level of generalization in a concept hierarchy for a given set of visual examples. Recent work in cognitive science on Bayesian models of generalization addresses this challenge, but prior results assumed that objects were perfectly recognized. We present an algorithm for learning visual concepts directly from images, using probabilistic predictions generated by visual classifiers as the input to a Bayesian generalization model. As no existing challenge data tests this paradigm, we collect and make available a new, large-scale dataset for visual concept learning using the ImageNet hierarchy as the source of possible concepts, with human annotators to provide ground truth labels as to whether a new image is an instance of each concept using a paradigm similar to that used in experiments studying word learning in children. We compare the performance of our system to several baseline algorithms, and show a significant advantage results from combining visual classifiers with the ability to identify an appropriate level of abstraction using Bayesian generalization.


This paper proposes an evaluation model that assesses quality of care from a patient-centered care (PCC) perspective by incorporating the PCC concepts of empowerment, dignity, and respect, to determine whether the standard of care meets patient expectations and to gain a sense of quality of life measures from the perspective of the patient. It begins with a review of the core concepts of PCC and develops a general model of patient-centered care evaluation. A case study of a long-term care geriatric PACE organization is utilized as a means to illustrate an assessment of an organization's PCC evaluability and evaluation efforts. This assessment is followed by the construction of a PCC evaluation framework that includes an example logic model, a set of indicators, and data collection methods and procedures that are based on PCC principles. The paper concludes with recommendations that are made to improve the organization's capacity to conduct PCC evaluations.


Smartphones that collect user geolocation provide opportunities for mobile Health (mHealth). Although granularity of geolocation data may be high, data completeness depends on the device's operating system, application developer decisions, and user actions. We investigate completeness of geolocation data collected via smartphones of 5601 people that self-reported daily chronic pain symptoms on 349,293 days. On 17% of these days, hourly geolocation data is reported, but days with 0 (16%), 1 (14%) and 2 (13%) geolocations are common. Android phones collect geolocation more often than iPhones (median 17 versus 2 times a day). Factors on operating system level and individual user level influence completeness of geolocation data collected with smartphones. mHealth researchers should be aware of these factors when designing their studies. The mHealth research community should devise standards for reporting geolocation data quality, analysing systematic differences in data quality between participant groups, and methods for data imputation.


People with a learning disability have an increased longevity. The majority of adults with a learning disability live with their parents which means that many of these parents are themselves elderly people. For the first time more adults with learning disability are outliving their parents. This paper presents some of the findings of a qualitative case study using interviews and focus groups with 24 carers and 14 adults with learning disabilities. It explores older carers' perceptions of stress and experiences of the longevity of care giving, together with the views of people with learning disabilities about their relationship with their parents. It shows that there is often mutual or co-caring between the older carer and their relative with a learning disability, and that the amount and quality of mutual caring is frequently overlooked by service providers and professionals alike. The findings highlight the complexity of ways that older carers make sense of, and develop strategies for, dealing with the effects of the longevity of care-giving, and their ambivalent relationship with social work and other professionals.


Many epidemiological studies have addressed various aspects of blood pressure, ranging from descriptions of normal blood pressure distributions in different populations to the influence of age and other factors on blood pressure. However studies consider blood pressure in terms of hypertension, assessing prevalence, treatment and control of hypertension in diverse populations. Very few studies are available dealing with the distribution of blood pressure values in population as percentiles, none of which is from Europe and none of which addresses a wide age range, sex and coexisting cardiovascular risk factors.
Therefore, main aim of this thesis was to examine in detail the distribution of blood pressure of a large cross sectional study sample of 35,869 women and men aged 18-99 years. The second aim was to validate the observed age-effects in the cross-sectional German Metabolic and Cardiovascular Risk Study, in the independent, longitudinal and population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study, using baseline and 5 year follow up data of 4,157 men and women, aged 45-75 years.
This study showed an age-related increase of the systolic blood pressure in all percentiles in both men and women, independent of the intake of antihypertensive medication, and/or presence of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) or CVD risk factors. This is the first study to provide detailed information on the population distribution of blood pressure readings relating to both sexes, very old individuals and CVD risk factors. Furthermore, the age related increase observed in the systolic blood pressure in the cross sectional study could be confirmed for men and women, aged 45-75 years in the independent, longitudinal Heinz Nixdorf Recall study.


For children from low-income families, parent school involvement can be a crucial protective factor that supports children's cognitive and emotional development. The present study seeks to explore how maternal stress in early childhood is associated with mothers' later school involvement and whether children's internalized positive, disciplinary and negative maternal representations act as potential mediators of this relationship. Currently, little research has been done on the contextual factors influencing parent school involvement in early childhood and this study aims to fill this gap in the literature. The data included 169 children and mothers from low-income families. Mothers completed questionnaires designed to assess parenting stress and school involvement. Children completed story stem narratives. The results revealed that children of mothers reporting greater dysfunctional interactions with their child had fewer disciplinary representations in their stories. Also, mothers who were represented more negatively in the children's stories reported higher levels of Home-School Conferencing. Moreover, mothers who reported higher levels of Parental Distress at The Parenting Stress Index Short-Form (PSI-SF) also reported higher levels of Home-School Conferencing at the Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ). These results support an ecological and multidimensional construct of mother's school involvement. Interventions that target improved parent school involvement practices through addressing maternal stress and informed by children's representations are needed.


In June 2007, the International Labour Conference (ILC) discussed the promotion of sustainable enterprises. This calls for the strengthening of the institutions and governance systems which nurture enterprises. Strong and efficient markets need strong and effective institutions. Promoting sustainable enterprises is also about ensuring that human, financial and natural resources are combined equitably and efficiently in order to achieve innovation and enhanced productivity.


TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. THE STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT A. SCA Background B. What Does the SCA Do? 1. Parties Covered by the SCA 2. Protections and Restrictions on ECS and RCS Providers III. APPLYING THE SCA TO SOCIAL NETWORKS: CRISPIN V. CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER, INC A. Case Background B. The Court's Analysis 1. Private Messages 2. Wall Posts, Comments, etc. C. Result IV. CASES THAT HAVE IGNORED THE SCA A. Ledbetter v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. B. Romano v. Steelcase Inc. V. THE PROPER APPROACH TO SOCIAL NETWORK DISCOVERY A. Step One: Apply the Rules of Civil Procedure B. Step Two: Apply the SCA VI. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION For many people, online social networks have become an important part of everyday life. A recent study showed that Americans spend over 20% of their online time on social networks and blogs. (1) Although these networks began as sites where users could simply find friends and view their contact information, they have grown increasingly complex. Modern social networking sites allow users to upload photographs and videos, post status updates, comment on friends' posts, play games, and send messages to other users. As the functionality of these sites has expanded, there has been a dramatic increase in both the number of users and the amount of content shared on social networks. Facebook, for example, currently has over five-hundred million active users, and the " [a]verage user creates 90 pieces of content each month." (2) As Americans share more personal information on their social networking pages, lawyers have increasingly looked to these social networks as litigation resources. (3) Information from these sites is useful because "users of social network sites often 'let their hair down' in a way that surpasses even the thoughtless statements that all too often appear in email." (4) However, the best method for obtaining this information remains unclear. Lawyers can request social network information directly from users, but there may be problems with information access and formatting. Because social network users do not have access to the native format, they are only able to produce screenshots of their social network pages. (5) Additionally, it is impossible to know whether users have included all relevant information, because they may not have access to all of it. (6) For these reasons, many lawyers have found it easier to request social network information directly from social networks using civil subpoenas. (7) Social networks, like Facebook and Myspace, (8) have resisted these subpoenas, however, by invoking the protection of the Stored Communications Act ("SCA"). (9) Since the adoption of the SCA in 1986, courts have used the Act to protect the privacy of Internet users. (10) This is consistent with Congress's intention to "protect privacy interests in personal and proprietary information, while protecting the Government's legitimate law enforcement needs." (11) From the text of the SCA, it is uncertain whether this protection extends to information on social networks, as Facebook and Myspace claim. Without the SCA, however, there is little to protect users from aggressive litigants and government prosecutors who wish to access their social network information. (12) This Note explores the challenges related to discovery of online social network information. Part II explores what protections, if any, the SCA provides against discovery of information on online social networks. Part III analyzes the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California's decision in Crispin v. Christian Audigier, Inc.,12 the first case to hold that social networks are protected from disclosing some information by the SCA. Part IV critiques recent decisions that have allowed broad discovery of social network information, arguing that the discovery requests in these cases violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1) and that the requested information should have qualified for SCA protection. …


In this paper, the global finite time tracking problem of desired trajectories for a wide group of nonlinear systems subjected to unbounded disturbances and uncertainties is addressed. The considered class for nonlinear systems, containing a chain of interacting double integrator subsystems, can describe and model variety of practical systems. To tackle the mentioned problem, the adaptive control approach is incorporated with a nonsingular terminal sliding mode control and a new control method is suggested. Finite time adaptation laws are designed to estimate unknown constant coefficients of upper bound of uncertainties and disturbances within a finite time. Analytical studies demonstrate that by applying the proposed control scheme, tracking errors will converge to zero exactly after a tunable finite time. Also, a relation is presented for calculating an upper bound for the mentioned time which depends on initial conditions of the states and some arbitrary parameters. The convergence rate of the tracking errors could be tuned by proper choice of these parameters. Finally, analytical results are simulated on two practical systems including thrust active magnetic bearing (TAMB) and twolink robot manipulator to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested control technique.


Abstract This article explores the responses of Sephardi Jews to two moments of heightened tension and politicized violence in the Ottoman Empire during the late 19th century—the massacres of Armenians in Istanbul in 1896 and the Greco–Ottoman War of 1897. It argues that many of the strategies of representation that Jewish elites employed during these moments speak to their ability and willingness to work within a framework of Islamic Ottomanism. Recognizing this pattern complicates scholarly assumptions about the relationship of religious minorities to the deployment of state religion in general and about the responses of non-Muslims to the Hamidian regime's mobilization of Islam more specifically. Identifying the pattern is not to celebrate it, however. Sephardi Jews' relationship with Islamic Ottomanism was in many cases deeply ambivalent. Finding themselves torn between civic and Islamic forms of imperial identification during this period, Ottoman Jews soon learned that both positions could entail uncomfortable choices and disturbing consequences.


Introduction Faecal immunochemical tests (FIT) are acceptable to a large part of the general population but used alone are poor at detecting adenomas. An ELISA which measures faecal M2-pyruvate kinase (M2-PK) has been shown to be useful for detecting colonic pathology. Aims To prospectively compare M2-PK and FIT in screening for colonic polyps and cancer in the second round of our pilot FIT-based Colorectal cancer screening programme. Methods The second round of our FIT pilot programme was conducted over a two year period. Patients were sent invites by post to return a FIT sample from each of two days. All participants were aged 50 – 74 and living locally to our hospital. As part of this round, over a six month period all invitations additionally included containers to collect a single M2-PK stool sample. All FIT's returned on time were measured locally. All M2-PK samples received within 48 hours of passing stool were frozen and analysed centrally by ScheBo Biotech AG (Germany). All FIT positive (>100 ngHb/ml) or M2-PK positive (>4 U/ml) patients were contacted and assessed for colonoscopy. All colonoscopies were conducted in the same way between both groups. Results Over the six month period 1,800 combined M2-PK and FIT invites have been sent. 879 samples were returned and analysed for faecal M2-PK and FIT; of these 245 were positive for either one or both of these markers. After being contacted 34 (13%) of this group were excluded as they had a colonoscopy within 3 years and were all in polyp surveillance programmes. Of the remaining patients: 30 (3.4% of 879) were FIT positive M2-PK negative; 160 (18.2%) were positive for M2-PK ( > 4U/ml) negative for FIT and 21 (2.3%) were positive for both markers. In the FIT positive M2-PK negative group there were 10 patients with adenomas (adenoma detection rate 33%). In those who were M2-PK positive but FIT negative there were 34 people with adenomas (ADR 23%). Therefore these adenomas would not have been detected by relying on FIT alone. Of the remaining 21 positive for both, 6 (29%) had adenomas and another 4 (19%) had colitis/proctitis. There have not been any cancers in this group to date. Interestingly sessile serrated adenomas were detected in 5 (4.4%) of people M2-PK positive but only two (less than 1%) in our entire FIT positive group. Conclusion Studies have shown FIT has relatively low sensitivity for adenomas. The addition of another stool marker such as faecal M2-PK increases the detection of polyps in a screening population. A single M2-PK sample detects more adenomas than two day FIT alone. Also M2-PK appears to be more sensitive for serrated adenomas than FIT but further studies are needed to confirm this. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem that affects most people during their life. The goal of this research is to track the dynamics of seated stability through the falling region and determine how the maximum finite time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) changes over time. The FTLE describes how quickly two initially close points in state space diverge. Human torso stability tests were conducted using an unstable sitting apparatus capable of attaining large deflection angles. Angle data was collected using a gyroscopic sensor and Matlab was used to calculate the FTLE in the time domain. The analysis results for the Lyapunov exponent in the time domain were consistent with the results found in state space. Deterministic behavior of the dynamical system was also detected. A suite of parameters were investigated in the data analysis. The Lyapunov exponent was found to be sensitive to changes in evolution time but not sensitive to the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter when it was above 3.2 Hz. A key point of this research was to understand how the Lyapunov exponent changed with time as it approached a critical event. Tracking the Lyapunov exponent in the time domain may be a useful indicator to predict a future event. Moreover, this approach may be generalizable to other dynamic systems that have critical transitions. This research helps to better understand torso stability and build onto the foundation of knowledge to diagnose and prevent LBP.


There is increased evidence of the important roles of telomere capping proteins Cdc13 and Stn1 for cell survival in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Dysfunctional telomeres due to alterations in telomere capping proteins activate DNA damage response and genomic instability causing cellular senescence and eventually cell death. The main aim of this study was to investigate the roles of Cdc13 and Stn1 in ageing and cellular senescence.
Based on the phenomenon of non-essentiality of CDC13 gene in the absence of EXO1 gene, CDC13 full gene deletion and its N-and C-termini disrupted variants were generated using target oriented PCR based approach and verified by automated DNA sequencing. Loss of Cdc13 and/or Stn1 or the presence of defective Cdc13 with truncated N- or C-termini, manifested heterogeneous telomeric DNA profiles with various sizes of unique telomeric bands comparable to type I and type II survivors.
The mutants with telomere capping dysfunctions in the absence of Cdc13 and/or Stn1 disclosed significant differences in survival time under different metabolic conditions. The reduction in viability of the combined deletion mutants (cdc13Δ and stn1Δ) was much slower in water at 4°C compared to synthetic complete (SC) medium at 30°C, and a similar mortality rate observed at day 6 in (SC) medium was only observed at day 35 in water. The dramatic loss of viability in combined deletion mutant highlighted additive effects of the two capping proteins on chronological survival. The Stn1 deletion mutants (stn1::HIS exo1 LEU2 rad24::TRP) showed significantly reduced lifespan as compared to Cdc13 deletion mutants. However, the N- and C-truncated variants of Cdc13 manifested large differences in ageing as compared to WT, indicating different roles of the Cdc13 domains in cell survival.
The strong inhibition of cellular growth of combined deletions mutants of cdc13 and stn1 (in the absence of EXO1 and RAD24 genes) in responses to genotoxic agents (UV, MMS and HU) suggest the interaction of cdc13Δ and stn1Δ cooperatively. However, the absence of Stn1 protein made cells highly resistant to H2O2-mediated oxidative stress as compared to the combined deletion and cdc13Δ mutants. Different extent of growth inhibition was observed for cdc13Δ mutants, and its N- and C-terminus truncated variants with the allele dosage effect in N/C-heterozygous diploids.
In conclusion, this study highlighted the significance of Cdc13 and Stn1 in the integrity of telomeres and revealed their important roles in preventing senescence and in cellular responses to oxidative and genotoxic stress. The previously unknown role of Stn1 in chronological lifespan and in cellular responses to oxidative stress observed in this study warrants further investigations about Stn1 in genetic stability, checkpoint control and cellular senescence in the integrated scenario of ageing.


In Braintrust, Patricia Churchland sets out to synthesize and explain recent developments in the biological sciences that shed light on the nature of human morality. Churchland casts a wide net and covers a lot of ground. After a brief introduction, seven dense chapters examine a range of complex topics, including evolutionary constraints on social and moral behavior; the evolution of the mammalian brain (with particular emphasis on hormones such as oxytocin); the neurobiological basis of human cooperation (again with reference to oxytocin); the genetic blueprint for moral cognition and the evidentiary status of specialized moral modules; mirror neurons and other neurocognitive mechanisms of mental state attribution; the proper place of rules, norms, and laws in a naturalistic ethics; and religion and morality. The treatment of these subjects is generally informative and often quite illuminating, albeit occasionally superficial. Churchland writes elegantly and presents a clear, distinctive, and forceful viewpoint on the science of morality, which draws inspiration from Aristotle, Hume, and Darwin. Her principal thesis, that moral and social values are rooted in the neurobiology of care, trust, and cooperation, deserves to be taken seriously by scientists and philosophers alike. In this review, I focus on three perceived weaknesses of Churchland's stimulating book that likely will be of particular interest to philosophers: her interpretation of Hume, her skepticism toward innate moral principles, and her treatment of moral rules. I then conclude by making a few brief observations about the general significance of Braintrust.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common lethal form of liver cancer. Apart from surgical removal and transplantation, other treatments have not yet been well established for patients with HCC. In this study, we found that carboxylesterase 1 (CES1) is expressed at various levels in HCC. We further revealed that blockage of CES1 by pharmacological and genetical approaches leads to altered lipid profiles that are directly linked to impaired mitochondrial function. Mechanistically, lipidomic analyses indicated that lipid signaling molecules, including polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which activate PPARα/γ, were dramatically reduced upon CES1 inhibition. As a result, the expression of SCD, a PPARα/γ target gene involved in tumor progression and chemoresistance, was significantly downregulated. Clinical analysis demonstrated a strong correlation between the protein levels of CES1 and SCD in HCC. Interference with lipid signaling by targeting the CES1-PPARα/γ-SCD axis sensitized HCC cells to cisplatin treatment. As a result, the growth of HCC xenograft tumors in NU/J mice was potently slowed by coadministration of cisplatin and CES1 inhibition. Our results, thus, suggest that CES1 is a promising therapeutic target for HCC treatment.


The Fiction of Chinua Achebe, by Jago Morrison. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 185 pp. ISBN (hardback) 978-1-403-98671-9, £42.50, (paperback) 978-1-403-98672-6 £13.99. The various celebrations heralding the recent fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Achebe's Things Fall Apart make it necessary to once more consider the art of the great novelist. Jago Morrison's The Fiction of Chinua Achebe is therefore a right step in this direction. Divided into six chapters, the work x-rays the critical arguments of some scholars regarding their interpretation of Achebe's works. In the first chapter entitled "Things Fall Apart (1958): Challenging the Canon", such early critical responses to the novel as those of Honor Tracy, G. D Killam, Eustace Palmer and A. G. Stock are examined. The flaw evident in their various interpretations of the novel is their employment of the Anglo-Irish canon as a yardstick for their assessment of an African novel. Later critical responses like those of Oladele Taiwo and Naheem Yousaf, amongst others articulate the established fact that Things Fall Apart is Achebe's attempt at interrogating the distorted Eurocentric views of Africa by writers such as Joseph Conrad and Joyce Cary. Feminist readings of the novel by Rhonda Cobham, Kirsten Holst Petersen and Florence Stratton criticize Achebe's subjugation of women in the novel, perhaps not paying sufficient attention to what extent Achebe was only reflecting traditional African society as it was. Things Fall Apart is also the novel we encounter in chapter two. Here, Robert Wren and Raisa Simola, among others articulate the historical developments that form the background to the novel. The second part of this chapter considers the arguments of Achebe himself, Romanus Okey Muoneke and Ode Ogede in their readings of the novel as a text interrogating colonialism in Nigeria, though from different perspectives. "No Longer at Ease (1960)" is the title of the third chapter and here, the novel of the same title comes under examination. Arthur Ravenscroft, and David Caroli are some of the criticise who attempt to locate the intertextual allusion in No Longer at Ease. David Caroll's dismissal of the novel as a West African novel hardly meeting the demand of universalism is truly incredible. It is rather disturbing how Eurocentric scholars are quick to dismiss any work which does not reflect their expectation as failing the test of universalism. Caroli and friends need to understand the gulf between the world of Europe and Africa. Such differences should manifest themselves in the literary traditions too. Umelo Ojinmah, Michael Valdez Moses and Simon Gikandi in their historical readings of the novel argue that historical changes in Nigeria, nay Africa, of the 1960s constitute the context of No Longer at Ease. In their study, Robert Wren, Charles Nnolim and CL. Innes trace the major influences of Achebe's Arrow of God. The arguments of Charles Nnolim and CL. …


Does financial compensation for providing environmental conservation, improve the food security of the rural poor in the drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa? This paper explores this question using data from a randomized controlled trial of a large scale reforestation implemented by the Government of Burkina Faso. Members of communities located around selected protected forests were invited to plant indigenous tree species on degraded areas, and to take care of their maintenance. The financial compensation they would receive depended on the number of trees still alive a year later. The vast majority of the community members participating in the project were farmers, and the timing of the payments coincided with the lean season, when most farmers were at risk of food insecurity. Compared with the control group, the project's participants' households reported 12 percent higher food consumption expenditures, and a reduction in moderate and severe food insecurity by 35 percent to 60 percent. The transfers received were spent mostly on cereals, meat, and pulses, with no evidence of increased consumption of temptation goods.


Any basin with seafloor spreading that forms over an active subduction zone is a backarc basin (BAB). The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) opened behind the 232–150 Ma Nazas arc over an east-dipping subduction zone in Late Jurassic time, beginning ca. 165 Ma, and thus is a BAB. The hypothesis that the Gulf of Mexico formed as a backarc basin explains two enigmas: (1) Why was the GoM opening pole (79–84°W, 23–30°N) so different from that of the central Atlantic (15–18°W, 65–67°N)? and (2) Why was the GoM opening so short-lived (ca. 165–142 Ma), when there was no collision or other obvious reason for seafloor spreading to stop? The GoM BAB hypothesis also illuminates the relationship between the GoM and the Border rift system, which can be traced from the GoM near the mouth of the Rio Grande >2000 km along the U.S.–Mexico border into the Independence Dike Swarm of eastern California. Late Jurassic rifting in the Border rift system was succeeded by thermotectonic subsidence through Early Cretaceous time. In addition, the segmentation of the transitional crust beneath the northern GoM into a magmatically robust segment beneath the Texas coast and a stretched margin beneath Louisiana is also consistent with BAB behavior: igneous activity is most prolific nearest the arc and diminishes with distance from the trench. A possible objection to the GoM BAB hypothesis is that the spreading ridge was oriented at high angles to the Nazas arc trend, whereas modern oceanic BAB spreading ridges generally parallel the associated arc. Continental BABs like the GoM develop spreading ridge orientations that are often at high angles to the associated convergent margin; for example, spreading ridges associated with the Miocene Sea of Japan and Andaman Sea BABs trend perpendicular to the associated arc. Such geometries reflect the presence of extensional stresses that are not orthogonal to the subduction zone, a situation that also existed in the GoM region during Late Jurassic time.


Background: This article explored the leadership responses that were used by two comprehensive universities in South Africa (Nelson Mandela University and University of Johannesburg) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in continuing with the rolling out of their teaching and learning programmes safely and digitally under disruptive conditions. Aim: Whilst universities in the developing world such as South Africa were expected to face challenges during the pandemic, this article showed that the leadership executives and general staff in two of its large universities, instead, crafted equitable and flexible improvisations to overcome the social challenges that could have posed a threat to their academic project. Setting: The selection of these two specific universities provided a unique opportunity to engage with comprehensive, massified and post-merger former Technikon-university institutions that mainly cater for working-class students. Methods: The social justice theory was utilised to frame the study, whilst critical narrative analysis was the methodology. Results: This research reveals that South African comprehensive universities possess capacity to adapt and innovate in the middle of an institutional crisis using their flexible systems and agile personnel to drive the academy under such circumstances. The study also reveals that the process of social justice is full of contradictions. As the universities created equitable measures to assist underprivileged students, these measures also generated injustices for others. Conclusion: This generated admirable and productive systematic traits to observe about some of our universities, as the South African higher education sector continued to engage with difficult conversations such as transformation.


This chapter reviews some of the main empirical findings from more than three decades of social science research on the causes, consequences and indicia of police-induced false confessions. The author couches this discussion in the context of the three sequential errors -- misclassification, coercion and contamination -- that occur in virtually all police-induced false confessions and that combine to create the powerful, but erroneous, appearance that a false confession is true and persuasive, sometimes leading to a wrongful conviction. This chapter also reviews the constitutional law of criminal procedure governing the admissibility of confession evidence in American courts. The author argues that this body of law fails both to meaningfully protect suspects against interrogation methods that cause false confessions and to prevent the use of false confession evidence against them at trial. The chapter concludes with the recommendation that the United States Supreme Court should interpret the Fourteenth Amendment as independently allowing courts to exclude unreliable confession evidence on due process grounds alone and/or create a different doctrinal mechanism for courts to exclude false confession evidence prior to trial.


"Several laboratories have analyzed the content and stability of anthocyanins from foods and flowering plants ranging from potatoes to petunias. Previous research in the Cech and Lacey laboratories tentatively identified anthocyanins in Plantago lanceolata using reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS). The goal of this research was to gain more information about the identification of these anthocyanins using hydrolysis and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and to test the stability of these anthocyanins when stored for various periods of time at three different temperatures (room temperature, -20, -80 °C). Repeatability studies were also conducted to validate the analytical method. Hydrolysis experiments and analysis by HPLC-ESI-MS confirmed the presence of cyanidin and peonidin glycosides in the original P. lanceolata extract. The most abundant anthocyanin was isolated from P. lanceolata, but attempts to collect an NMR spectrum of this sample were not successful due to the small yield and apparent low purity of the sample isolated. The method variability from injection to injection on the same day was determined to be 10 - 20 %, variability from day to day on the same extract was 30 % and the variability from extraction to extraction on different days was 30 - 60 % for cyanidin glycosides a and c, delphinidin glycoside b, peonidin glycoside a, and petunidin glycoside b. Stability studies revealed that there was no degradation that exceeded the variability of the method from day to day in both the -20 and -80 oC temperatures for any of the anthocyanins. There was however, significant degradation in the room temperature condition for the cyanidin glycosides a and c."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


We consider front propagation problems for forced mean curvature flows with a transport term and their phase field variants that take place in stratified media, i.e., heterogeneous media whose characteristics do not vary in one direction. We provide a convergence result relating asymptotic in time front propagation in the diffuse interface case to that in the sharp interface case, for suitably balanced nonlinearities of Allen-Cahn type. Our results generalize previous results for forced Allen-Cahn equations.


Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision and other books inspired founders of the Electric Universe Theory with its implication of plasma-based electrical interactions between planets, as recorded in historical records such as the Bible. His theories sparked great controversy by implying close encounters between some of the inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) within recorded human history, but were summarily dismissed as fiction by mainstream scientists and continue to be dismissed today. Nonetheless, Electric Universe theorists contend that there may be truth in Velikovsky's conclusions when these "interactions" are considered in light of a "plasma/electric universe." Having also read Velikovsky's works, and Electric Universe Theory, I endeavored to perform a simple set of calculations to ascertain if any of Velikovsky's interactions could have been possible.


API evolution is the process of migrating an inter-library interface from one version to another. Such a migration requires checking that all libraries which interact through the interface be updated. Libraries can be updated one by one if there is a transition period during which both updated and non-updated libraries can communicate through some transitional version of the interface. Static type checking can verify that all libraries have been updated, and thus that a transition period may end and the interface be moved forward safely. Anti-deprecation is a novel type-checking feature that allows static checking for more interface evolutions periods. Anti-deprecation, along with the more familiar deprecation, is formally studied as an extension to Featherweight Java. This formal study unearths weaknesses in two widely used deprecation checkers.


Cellulolytic properties of two white rot fungi, Bjerkandera adusta and Pycnoporus sanguineus , cultivated on wheat straw agar medium, were characterized and compared. Optimal growing parameters for maximum enzyme production for both fungi were wheat straw medium pH 5 and 28oC. B. adusta showed, on the 6th day of culture, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)ase activity levels 1.6 times higher than maximal P. sanguineus activity, achieved on the 8th day. B. adusta supernatants also displayed higher activity levels towards xylan (3.6-fold) compared to those of P. sanguineus . However, enzymes from P. sanguineus were more robust resisting one hour incubation at high temperatures (up to 80oC), and exhibiting activity and stability in pH range from 2 to 8. Cellulolytic activities, with molecular masses ranging from 25 to 90 kDa, from the two species were detected in zymograms.


A novel axial position sensor is presented. The sensor offers a unique combination of advantageous properties not found collectively in other axial position sensing solutions. These include ability to work in dusty environments and in many working fluids, low sensitivity to temperature as well as external electrical and magnetic fields, good linearity over a large displacement range, large intrinsic gain, easy integration into a machine, robustness to the variations in parameters of the external wiring, simplicity of the signal processing electronics, sufficient frequency bandwidth and a commonality of used elements with radial magnetic reluctance position sensors. This paper describes the operating principle, test procedure and test results of the constant-flux edge sensor in both single-sided and differential configurations. Presently the sensor has been successfully integrated into several commercial machines and extensively tested under various operating conditions.


Bayesian optimization has become a successful tool for optimizing the hyperparameters of machine learning algorithms, such as support vector machines or deep neural networks. Despite its success, for large datasets, training and validating a single configuration often takes hours, days, or even weeks, which limits the achievable performance. To accelerate hyperparameter optimization, we propose a generative model for the validation error as a function of training set size, which is learned during the optimization process and allows exploration of preliminary configurations on small subsets, by extrapolating to the full dataset. We construct a Bayesian optimization procedure, dubbed FABOLAS, which models loss and training time as a function of dataset size and automatically trades off high information gain about the global optimum against computational cost. Experiments optimizing support vector machines and deep neural networks show that FABOLAS often finds high-quality solutions 10 to 100 times faster than other state-of-the-art Bayesian optimization methods or the recently proposed bandit strategy Hyperband.


In this essay, we explore and expand the meaning of "inclusion," as it relates specifically to the sports and recreation programs that are made available to students with mobility impairments enrolled at colleges and universities. In the first part of the essay we examine how the two disciplinary areas of disability sport and disability studies address the politics of inclusion. In the second section of the paper, we will use one public university. South State (a pseudonym), as an example to demonstrate how certain social institutions interpret the concept of inclusion. Finally, we expand this discussion to offer an alternative theorization of the concept of inclusion that will impact not only students with disabilities but also students marked by race, class, gender, and sexuality who are also excluded despite the university's espousal of the popular rhetoric of "inclusion."


Background: Recently the worldwide usage of earphones has increased especially among the school and college students who have a high rate of sharing among them. Alike airline headsets, headphones and stethoscope ear-pieces, ear phones can easily be a vector of potential pathogens, which can give rise to otitis externa. Purpose: To compare the bacterial growth of the external ear in association with earphone and assess the role of earphones as vector or microorganisms. Material and Methods: 50 voluntary male subjects (age 18-25 years) were chosen and divided into two groups, A and B, according to the use of earphones. Swabs were taken from their left ear and the left earpiece of the earphone. Samples were processed as recommended. Results: In group A, bacteria were found in 20 (80%) ear and 14 (56%) earphone swabs. In group B, bacteria were found in 23 (92%) ear and 17 (68%) earphone swabs. Group B showed heavy growth and a significant increase in the number of bacterial growths after frequent and constant use. Conclusion: Frequent and constant use of earphones increases the bacterial growth in the ear and sharing of earphones might be a potential vector of commensals. It is therefore, always better not to share or else to clean the earphones before sharing


Scientific research processes are accompanied by burgeoning amounts of research data that serves as findings of the research and provides a platform for the results to be verifiable. Scientific researchers are under pressure to make their data openly available to other researchers for use. Access to scientific data and its curation has become a dominant theme in scientific policy discussions. Besides the funder requirements, researchers are making their data openly available for a number of reasons that include, raising the profiles of their research outputs, to increase their citations, to validate their research outputs and for their authenticity and integrity as researchers. However, not all researchers possess the skills to curate their own data and make it openly available for use in an open environment that is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). The primary objective of this paper is to raise awareness of the strategic role of data scientists in the scientific research process. The study seeks to contribute towards a growing and emergent discourse of data science in HEIs. It also seeks to contribute towards an educational model for data scientists in HEIs in South Africa. In-order to realise these objectives the paper asks the following research questions:How are the emergent roles of data scientists conceptualised in HEIs in South Africa?What is the strategic role of a data scientist in the scientific research process?.This study analysed data science programs offered by universities in South Africa to understand how the role of data scientists is conceptualised and to delineate the scope of this emergent field. A qualitative content analysis survey method is used to analyse courses offered by HEIs in South Africa. Preliminary findings from the research revealed that data scientists are drawn from fields like mathematics, statistics, information science, and computer science. The practical jobs of data scientists as conceptualised by the majority of universities employs theories drawn from the information science, computer science and statistics. The data scientists are expected to work closely with the researchers where the research is done. Most universities are offering data science programs at post-graduate level as professional courses for learners coming in from diverse backgrounds. The study recommends that the next generation of data scientists in a South African context should possess a cocktail of skills that enable them to conduct data analysis and enquiry to enable others to work with digital data. Presentation at the UCT E-Research Conference 2019: DataScience4D: Explore the practice, principles and opportunities of data science for development15 – 18 April 2019 held at the University of Cape Town


In the specification of linear regression models it is common to indicate a list of candidate variables from which a subset enters the model with nonzero coefficients. This paper interprets this specification as a mixed continuous-discrete prior distribution for coefficient values. It then utilizes a Gibbs sampler to construct posterior moments. It is shown how this method can incorporate sign constraints and provide posterior probabilities for all possible subsets of regressors. The methods are illustrated using some standard data sets.


Near the end of her life, Mina Anderson penned a lively memoir that helped Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg create "Kristina", the central female character of his beloved emigrant novels, a woman who constantly yearns for her homeland. But Mina's story was quite different. Showcasing her previously untranslated memoir, "I Go to America" traces Mina's trip across the Atlantic to Wisconsin and then the Twin Cities, where she worked as a domestic servant, and her move to rural Mille Lacs County, where she and her husband worked a farm, raised seven children, and contributed to rural Swedish community life. Mina herself writes about how grateful she was for the opportunity to be in America, where the pay was better, class differences were unconfining, and children -- girls included -- had the chance for a good education. In her own words, "I have never regretted that I left Sweden. I have had it better here". Author Joy Lintelman greatly expands upon Mina's memoir, detailing the social, cultural, and economic realities experienced by countless Swedish women of her station. Lintelman offers readers both an intimate portrait of Mina Anderson and a window into the lives of the nearly 250,000 young, single Swedish women who immigrated to America from 1881 to 1920 and whose courage, hard work, and pragmatism embody the American dream.


Imagine you are a scientist, working on collections. You have your pet taxon and you need information which is distributed in a number of books and publications but also in the specimens deposited in Museums or Herbaria. Instead of paying visits to these establishments, around the world, you wish there was a means to transform all the information you need into a digitized form of the physical objects, you can reach from the screen of your laptop, tablet or cell phone. You dream you were able to watch, inspect and even dissect the type material you need online but also to compare it with others they way sequences are blasted against large databases, these days. You plan to make global research on this taxon and try to derive patterns from both the molecular and organismal level of the biological organization and to link the patterns resulting to the drivers of change for this taxon. This is the vision of the Virtual Museum of Natural History and one of the ways to achieve this vision is to address the "collections on demand" requirement.
 One of the possible means to address this requirement is the digitization through the use of the micro-ct technology. The micro-CT virtual laboratory (vLab), developed by LifeWatchGreece research infrastructure (RI), makes it possible the online exploration and dissemination of micro-CT datasets, which are only rarely made available to the public due to their large size and a lack of dedicated online platforms for the interactive manipulation of 3D data.
 This presentation shows the development of such a "collections on demand" function, implemented by the SYNTHESYS+ project (DiSSCo RI), which combines such high-throughput technologies, that is micro-ct and genomics, to address the scientific community's requirements. We show that this approach to combine patterns deriving from the application of novel techniques, which represent different kinds of observations is possible and we propose certain case studies as examples. The innovation aspects of this function include:

 Expansion and development of cost models for Collections on Demand;

 Development of standards and guidelines for exchange of collection-derived imaging data;

 Construction of new data pipelines and standard workflows, enabling access to complex digital content such as 3D scans;

 Development of novel molecular lab protocols, workflows and informatics pipelines, to enable large scale;

 DNA sequencing of NH collections.

 Expansion and development of cost models for Collections on Demand;
 Development of standards and guidelines for exchange of collection-derived imaging data;
 Construction of new data pipelines and standard workflows, enabling access to complex digital content such as 3D scans;
 Development of novel molecular lab protocols, workflows and informatics pipelines, to enable large scale;
 DNA sequencing of NH collections.


A series of numerical experiments on mantle flow and melting predict a positive relation between mantle temperature and crustal thickness. The models also demonstrate that crust formed at slow spreading rates is more sensitive to variations in mantle temperature than crust formed at fast rates so that the range of calculated thicknesses is much greater for crust formed at slower rates. An instantaneous mantle temperature increase results in a transient pulse of melt production that is also more pronounced at slower spreading rates. The predicted behavior is caused by the interplay between mantle flow driven by plate separation and that driven by thermal, compositional, and melt-related buoyancy. A temperature increase results in a decrease in mantle viscosity and an increase in the depth at which melting begins. A lower viscosity leads to stronger buoyancy-driven flow that carries more mantle to shallow depths below the ridge. Thermal buoyancy effects, which may result in cooling and mixing of depleted and undepleted material under the ridge, appear to be of greater importance at slower spreading rates. The steady state results are broadly consistent with global compilations of oceanic crustal thickness that show larger variations in crustal thickness at slower spreading rates than at faster rates. Thicknesses estimated from seismic refraction data from crust formed within a single segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge but at different spreading rates (1.0 to 1.9 cm/yr) are consistent with (but do not prove) the model results. The transient pulse of melt production associated with a rapid increase in mantle temperature might occur when a ridge becomes proximal to a hot spot.


According to a 2007 global survey of 178 organisational intranets, 3 out of 5 organisations are not satisfied with their intranet search services. However, as intranet data collections become large, effective full-text intranet search services are needed more than ever before. To provide an effective full-text search service based on current information retrieval algorithms, organisations have to deal with the need for greater computational power. Hardware architectures that can scale to large data collections and can be obtained and maintained at a reasonable cost are needed.

Web search engines address scalability and cost-effectiveness by using large-scale centralised cluster architectures. The scalability of cluster architectures is evident in the ability of Web search engines to respond to millions of queries within a few seconds while searching very large data collections. Though more cost-effective than high-end supercomputers, cluster architectures still have relatively high acquisition and maintenance costs. Where information retrieval is not the core business of an organisation, a cluster-based approach may not be economically viable.

A hybrid scavenger grid is proposed as an alternative architecture — it consists of a combination of dedicated and dynamic resources in the form of idle desktop workstations. From the dedicated resources, the architecture gets predictability and reliability whereas from the dynamic resources it gets scalability. An experimental search engine was deployed on a hybrid scavenger grid and evaluated. Test results showed that the resources of the grid can be organised to deliver the best performance by using the optimal number of machines and scheduling the optimal combination of tasks that the machines perform. A system efficiency and cost-effectiveness comparison of a grid and a multi-core machine showed that for workloads of modest to large sizes, the grid architecture delivers better throughput per unit cost than the multi-core, at a system efficiency that is comparable to that of the multi-core.

The study has shown that a hybrid scavenger grid is a feasible search engine architecture that is cost-effective and scales to medium- to large-scale data collections.