This book explains the importance of the history of economic thought in the curriculum of economists, whereas most discussions of this kind are devoted only to explaining why such study is of value simply to the individual economist. Steven Kates reaches out past the individual to explain the crucial importance of the history of economic thought in the study of economics itself; without its history at the core of the curriculum, he contends, economics is a lesser subject, less penetrating, less interesting and of much less social value.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have achieved significant success in generating real-valued data. However, the discrete nature of text hinders the application of GAN to text-generation tasks. Instead of using the standard GAN objective, we propose to improve text-generation GAN via a novel approach inspired by optimal transport. Specifically, we consider matching the latent feature distributions of real and synthetic sentences using a novel metric, termed the feature-mover's distance (FMD). This formulation leads to a highly discriminative critic and easy-to-optimize objective, overcoming the mode-collapsing and brittle-training problems in existing methods. Extensive experiments are conducted on a variety of tasks to evaluate the proposed model empirically, including unconditional text generation, style transfer from non-parallel text, and unsupervised cipher cracking. The proposed model yields superior performance, demonstrating wide applicability and effectiveness.


Polyethyleneimine (PEI) and Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) have been used to buildup polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM) on silicone oxide and silicone oxynitride surfaces at different pH values and with different electrolyte and polyelectrolyte/colloid concentrations of the components. Consecutive adsorption on these surfaces was studied by in situ dual-polarization interferometry (DPI) and quartz crystal microbalance measurements. The adsorption data obtained from both the techniques showed a steady buildup of multilayers. High pH and electrolyte concentration of the PEI solution was found to be beneficial for achieving a high adsorbed amount of PEI, and hence of MFC, during the buildup of the multilayer. On the other hand, an increase in the electrolyte concentration of the MFC dispersion was found to inhibit the adsorption of MFC onto PEI. The adsorbed amount of MFC was independent of the bulk MFC concentration in the investigated concentration range (15-250 mg/L). Atomic force microscopy measurements were used to image a MFC-treated silicone oxynitride chip from DPI measurements. The surface was found to be almost fully covered by randomly oriented microfibrils after the adsorption of only one bilayer of PEI/MFC. The surface roughness expressed as the rms-roughness over 1 microm2 was calculated to be 4.6 nm (1 bilayer). The adsorbed amount of PEI and MFC and the amount of water entrapped by the individual layers in the multilayer structures were estimated by combining results from the two analytical techniques using the de Feijter formula. These results indicate a total water content of ca. 41% in the PEM.


Interpolation is an important property of classical and many non-classical logics that has been shown to have interesting applications in computer science and AI. Here we study the Interpolation Property for the the non-monotonic system of equilibrium logic, establishing weaker or stronger forms of interpolation depending on the precise interpretation of the inference relation. These results also yield a form of interpolation for ground logic programs under the answer sets semantics. For disjunctive logic programs we also study the property of uniform interpolation that is closely related to the concept of variable forgetting. The first-order version of equilibrium logic has analogous Interpolation properties whenever the collection of equilibrium models is (first-order) definable. Since this is the case for so-called safe programs and theories, it applies to the usual situations that arise in practical answer set programming.


ABSTRACT The catalytic core of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III contains three tightly associated subunits, the α, ε, and θ subunits. The θ subunit is the smallest and least understood subunit. The three-dimensional structure of θ in a complex with the unlabeled N-terminal domain of the ε subunit, ε186, was determined by multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The structure was refined using pseudocontact shifts that resulted from inserting a lanthanide ion (Dy3+, Er3+, or Ho3+) at the active site of ε186. The structure determination revealed a three-helix bundle fold that is similar to the solution structures of θ in a methanol-water buffer and of the bacteriophage P1 homolog, HOT, in aqueous buffer. Conserved nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE) patterns obtained for free and complexed θ show that most of the structure changes little upon complex formation. Discrepancies with respect to a previously published structure of free θ (Keniry et al., Protein Sci. 9:721-733, 2000) were attributed to errors in the latter structure. The present structure satisfies the pseudocontact shifts better than either the structure of θ in methanol-water buffer or the structure of HOT. satisfies these shifts. The epitope of ε186 on θ was mapped by NOE difference spectroscopy and was found to involve helix 1 and the C-terminal part of helix 3. The pseudocontact shifts indicated that the helices of θ are located about 15 Å or farther from the lanthanide ion in the active site of ε186, in agreement with the extensive biochemical data for the θ-ε system.


Private recruitment agents have been a major concern of policy makers in international labour migration. The agents are seen to undermine state authority, the market order and migrant rights. It is commonly suggested that their role can be curtailed or even eliminated if the administrative red tape of migration control is cut down (a liberal approach), or regulation on the intermediary business is tightened up (an interventionist approach). The Chinese government has done both at different times since the 1980s, but only to make the process of recruitment more complicated and private agents more powerful. This paper explains why. Based on a period of seven years of field research and documentary study, the article provides an ethnographic account of the change of the practice of international labour recruitment in China, especially in relation to systemic reforms, between 1980 and 2008. The centralized state in a liberalizing economy seems to need private agents in order to render individual mobility governable, migrants protectable and agents themselves "blamable" and punishable. If limited centralization of state power gave rise to earlier intermediary forms (e.g., tax farming), intermediary agents today result from governmental practices of the highly centralized state. As such, private agents should not be construed as autonomous entities located between demand and supply, or between migrants and states; they are instead an integral part of a complex structure of governance.


This paper analyses the optimal timing and macro-economic costs of carbon emission reductions that mitigate the global average atmospheric temperature increase. We use a macroeconomic model in which there are two competing energy sources, fossil-fuelled and non-fossilfuelled. Technological change is represented endogenously through learning curves, and niche markets exist implying positive demand for the relatively expensive non-fossil-fuelled energy source. Under these conditions, early abatement is found to be an optimal strategy. The costs of this strategy prove to be low. We perform an extensive sensitivity analysis of our results regarding the uncertainties that dominate various economic and technological modelling parameters. Uncertainties in the learning rate and the elasticity of substitution between the two different energy sources most significantly affect the robustness of our findings.


The aim of this paper was synthesis of bentonite nano-composites from bentonitic clay. Calcium bentonitic clay obtained from El Barqan area northern Egypt was activated by Na2CO3 and purified. Both raw and purified bentonitic clay were characterized by XRD, XRF, SEM, TGA\ DTA and TM in addition to the study of the mineralogical composition of non-clay mineral under polarizing microscope. Physico-chemical and geotechnical properties such as Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Specific Surface Area (SSA), free swelling, Atterberge limits, GSD, OMC and MC were determined. Purification of raw Egyptian bentonitic clay was used for preparation of bentonitic clay nanocomposites as its high content of montmorillonite. Purification was done by four steps; eliminate the impurity levels of non-clay minerals, eliminate the impurity levels of Fe, eliminate the impurity levels of AL and concentrate   montmorillonite in the sample using centrifuge. The grain size analysis, SEM and XRD of purified bentonitic clay showed the average grain size 200- 300 nm with one dimension less than 100 nm and the content of montmorillonite  become 95%.


Background Because of the risk of anaphylaxis, the national drug agency published guidelines for the prescription and administration of parenteral iron complexes. Two drugs have been available since 2013: iron sucrose generics and more recently ferric carboxymaltose (Ferinject). Purpose To analyse prescriptions for intravenous iron treatment and biological follow up in 5 surgical units (urology, orthopaedics, digestive surgery, stomatology, kidney transplant unit). Material and methods Over 2 months the biological monitoring of all patients hospitalised in surgery who received parenteral iron complex were analysed: haemoglobin, red blood cells count, blood iron status (serum ferritin, transferrin, iron, and transferrin saturation rate). Results Among 70 patients, the majority of prescriptions were written in orthopaedics (83%, N = 58) of which 98% (N = 57) included iron sucrose. 14% (N = 11) were treated with ferric carboxymaltose principally prescribed by other surgery units (N = 10). The majority of patients had anaemia (N = 66) but only in 2 was it associated with microcytosis. Blood iron status was only done for 5 patients (7%) of whom 2 presented iron deficiency. In this study, the majority of prescriptions were to reduce the need for transfusion in orthopaedic surgery, the efficacy of which has been proven.1 Notice that the full market approval of iron sucrose includes post-surgical treatment when the oral route is not possible. The majority of ferric carboxymaltose prescriptions cause probably more controversy because of no information about blood iron status although absence of iron deficiency is a contraindication. Conclusion Prescribers have to be reminded of the necessity for blood iron status assessment especially when ferric carboxymaltose is prescribed. Good practice in oral and parenteral iron treatment will be discussed in a multidisciplinary approach (physicians, pharmacists, and biologists). This work will be completed with a pharmacoeconomic study comparing costs between iron sucrose generics and ferric carboxymaltose, which seems to be better tolerated but more expensive. References and/or Acknowledgements Muñoz M, García-Erce JA, Cuenca J, et al. Blood Transfus 2012;10(1):8–22 No conflict of interest.


If a rule is only as good as its exceptions, and a reporter is only as good as her sources, then, according to a recent Supreme Court of Pennsylvania opinion, Pennsylvania's reporter's privilege is the best of privileges and the worst of privileges. In that opinion, the justices failed to carve a crime-fraud exception out of Pennsylvania's reporter's privilege - its "Shield Law" - despite having previously read a similar exception into every other evidentiary privilege. Ironically, this alleged act of judicial passivism transformed the Shield Law into both a shield and a sword and mischaracterized the purposes served by the attorney-client privilege and all other evidentiary privileges. According to the court, the Shield Law is exceptional, and thus exceptionless, because it is directed toward the public end of protecting the free flow of information to society while the attorney-client privilege, like all professional privileges, is intended for the private benefit of the client. This essay argues, however, that as the United States Supreme Court recognized in Jaffee v. Redmond, all evidentiary privileges must serve two masters, private interests and public ends, and crime-fraud exceptions do not undercut those public ends but bolster them.


The idea of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) seems to polarise the educational sphere into supporters and opponents. Both groups relate their enthusiasm or criticism to underlying competences motivated by or needed for building up, running, and maintaining a PLE. Within the following article, results of a qualitative study with multiple cases will be presented to shed light onto which competence and which of its building blocks are involved in running a (mash-up) PLE. Data about the involved skills, abilities, habits, attitudes and knowledge will be presented in a raster of the five dimensions 'plan', 'reflect', 'monitor', 'act', and 'interact' against the three stages 'start', 'trigger', and 'outcome'. The findings indicate that there is a continuum ranging from the ones needed right ahead to the ones ultimately sought.


Oxidative stress is involved in the development of diabetes. Nitric oxide (NO) contributes to oxidative stress, affects the synthesis of glutathione (GSH) in tissues and also regulates important physiological processes. The levels of nitrosative stress, assessed by measuring the levels of 3-nitrotirosina (3NT) as well as the bioavailability of NO are modulated by exercise and hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of exercise and HBO on the levels of NO, 3NT and GSH in tissues of various organs obtained from diabetic mice. Female mice were fed a high-fat/high-fructose diet to induce diabetes. Mice with diabetes were subjected to exercise and/or HBO. Initial and final concentrations of NO, 3NT and GSH were assessed in the muscle, liver, kidney, heart, spleen, lung, brain, visceral adipose, thoracic aorta and small intestine. Diabetes did not affect initial values of NO, although it significantly increased the levels of 3NT. The basal level of GSH in the diabetic group was lower than or comparable to that of the control group in the majority of the organs assessed. A negative correlation was observed between 3NT and GSH levels in the initial values of all tissues of the control group only, whereas all pathological tissues showed a positive correlation between NO and GSH. There was an increase or a stabilization of GSH levels in the majority of the organs in all treated mice despite the increase in nitrosative stress.


Scholarship and advocacy needs to bring defender duties to the forefront of any discussion and investigation of armed conflicts. The necessarily joint contribution of attackers and defenders alike to civilian harm must be recognized. Any investigation of an armed conflict must focus on the duties of both parties and evaluate the feasibility of attacker compliance with some of the more open-ended obligations of international humanitarian law (IHL), such as the so-called duty of proportionality, as a function in part of the extent of defender compliance with its duties. . There are open areas in IHL. States that have acceded to Additional Protocol (AP) I are not necessarily bound by ICRC interpretations and they and states that have declined to ratify AP I can play an active role in formulating and urging others to adopt rules of practice that strike the right balance between attacker and defender duties. Even if, for example, there is widespread international recognition that, at some abstract level, the duty of proportionality is grounded in customary law, the content of that duty is not necessarily identical to the wording contained in AP Article 57. The effectiveness of such a duty, including the ability of military commanders to implement it in the air and on the ground, may well depend on serious consideration, elaboration and implementation of defender duties, for defenders are often in the superior position to minimize civilian exposure to the dangers of military operations. Defender duties in armed conflicts is a neglected area of IHL. This needs to change if the overall mission of this body of law – minimization of harm to civilians – is to have any reasonable prospect of being realized.


Most of the studies have noted that urban ho~sing development
probl~~s jn Kenya are mainly due to high urban population growth
rates resulting from immigration and natural population growth, lag
in development of urban infrastructure that support housing development,
low purchasing power of the majority of the urban households
and the lack of appropriate building standards and by-laws especially
for the low-cost housing.
Heilbrun (1981) argues that the obvious and the most frequently
neglected fact is that every family must have a place to live and
that generally speaking the main function of the market is to match
up the existing number of households with the existing stock. It
has also been observed that the income of households is a major
determinant of housing units that may be supplied on the market.
Therefore the market function essentially reduces to matching up a
distribution of households by income amount with a distribution of
housing units by rent/price level.
The government policy is to discourage housing subsidies as much as
possible and encourage construction of affordable housing for various
income groups. Affordable housing implies that households are able
to pay market prices for the given housing.
The main purpose of the paper is to determine if the policy of
affordable nonsubsidized low-cost housing is realizable. Under
various assumptions, we estimate and analyze the affordability of
some of the housing programs that are being financed by the public
sector and the international agencies over the plan period 1979-83
by the lower and middle income households at market prices. In this
paper we assume that households spend between 15% and 25% of their
income on housing, PRENT. Each income group is subdivided into
three subgroups.
This paper is divided into five sections. It demonstrates that the
lower and middle income families would afford some of these housing
projects under the assumption that PRENT = 25%. However, the very
low income group would afford none of these projects. It is noted
that cost, offer and bid price functions if properly specified and
estimated as well as knowledge of the wage/income structure in the
urban areas would provide a better guide to formulation of building
standards and by-laws. Gentrification process possibilities are not
ruled out as about 75% of these projects are targeted at the mid-low
and upper-low income groups and only 12% of them are for the middle
income households.


The article links two seemingly different fundamental theoretical concepts of autopoiesis and homeostasis and tries to apply them to the realm of socio-technical systems with the use of the Fractal Enterprise Model (FEM). Autopoiesis is the property of a system that constantly reproduces itself. Homeostasis describes a way a complex system constantly maintains its identity while adapting to changes in its internal and external environment. To be able to use FEM for this task, the original version of FEM has been extended by adding special elements for representing the system's context – part of the environment to which the system is structurally coupled. The approach taken in this article differs from other works in the same field in having the focus on the "body" (concrete elements being reproduced) of the socio-technical system, as well as on identifying concrete processes that reproduce the system, and demonstrating concrete ways of how a specific system adapts or can adapt to the perturbations in the environment (i.e. internal and external disturbances that affect the system).


Vaccination represents a canonical example of externalities in economics, yet there are few estimates of their magnitudes. I estimate social and externality benefits of influenza vaccination in two settings. First, using a natural experiment, I estimate the impacts of aggregate vaccination rates on mortality and work absences in the United States. Second, I examine a setting with large potential externality benefits: vaccination mandates for healthcare workers. I find that the social benefits of vaccination are substantial, most of benefits operate through an externality, and the benefits of healthcare worker vaccination are particularly large.


A finite element code based on the level-set method is used to perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the transient and steady-state motion of bubbles rising in a viscoelastic liquid modelled by the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation. The role of the governing dimensionless parameters, the capillary number (Ca), the Deborah number (De) and the polymer concentration parameter c, in both the rising speed and the deformation of the bubbles is studied. Simulations show that there exists a critical bubble volume at which there is a sharp increase in the terminal velocity with increasing bubble volume, similar to the behaviour observed in experiments, and that the shape of both the bubble and its wake structure changes fundamentally at that critical volume value. The bubbles with volumes smaller than the critical volume are prolate shaped while those with volumes larger than the critical volume have cusp-like trailing ends. In the latter situation, we show that there is a net force in the upward direction because the surface tension no longer integrates to zero. In addition, the structure of the wake of a bubble with a volume smaller than the critical volume is similar to that of a bubble rising in a Newtonian fluid, whereas the wake structure of a bubble with a volume larger than the critical value is strikingly different. Specifically, in addition to the vortex ring located at the equator of the bubble similar to the one present for a Newtonian fluid, a vortex ring is also present in the wake of a larger bubble, with a circulation of opposite sign, thus corresponding to the formation of a negative wake. This not only coincides with the appearance of a cusp-like trailing end of the rising bubble but also propels the bubble, the direction of the fluid velocity behind the bubble being in the opposite direction to that of the bubble. These DNS results are in agreement with experiments.


Batch tests were used to study the contribution of redox potential to the inhibition of methanogenesis by nitrates. Using cultures containing cysteine solution which lowered the redox potential to about −300 mV, it was found that methane production started only after the total reduction of all oxides of nitrogen. However, it was observed that cysteine enhanced methanogenesis for cultures not containing nitrate. These cultures produced more methane than those without cysteine. Furthermore, cysteine was also found to enhance denitrification. Denitrification rates were 7 and 3.5 mg NO3-N gVSS−1 h−1 for cysteine and non cysteine-containing cultures respectively. This study shows that to have simultaneous denitrification and methanogenesis processes in a continuous single reactor would require a reactor system with zones of different nitrate concentrations, so that denitrifying and methanogenic populations could coexist and flourish.


Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) was developed out of the need for relatively short psychodynamic psychotherapeutic treatment approaches to complex and resistant patient populations so common in public health systems. Based on extensive study of video recordings, Habib Davanloo discovered, and other researchers have validated, some important clinical ingredients that align the therapist with healthy aspects of the patient striving for resolution of chronic neurotic disorders and fragile character structure. In the case of character neurotic highly resistant patients, these approaches including "pressure," "clarification," "challenge to defenses," and "head on collision" can be used in a tailored and properly timed way to help the chronically suffering patient to overcome his or her own resistance and access core drivers of these pathologies. In this article the meta-psychological basis of ISTDP is reviewed and illustrated with an extended case vignette.


ABSTRACT Africa has not suffered a chronic failure of growth. In fact, Africa has experienced recurring periods of growth, and this paper reviews some of these growth "spurts" to substantiate that claim. The immediate cause of low income in Africa is that these "spurts" have always been followed by a ''bust''. This is a significant reorientation of the central research question – away from a search for the root causes of Africa's underdevelopment and towards explaining the causes and effects of growth and decline. The growth spurts are approached as local responses to a global demand for African produced commodities. In this paper, I shall argue that these supply responses involved more than a reallocation of land and labour; they entailed investment and required institutional change. It is precisely because these periods of rapid economic change and accumulation caused significant qualitative changes in how society and the economy were organized that they cannot be ignored – as they have tended to be in the search for a root cause of Africa's chronic failure to achieve growth.


Web stresses and flange stresses were measured in three built-up beams: one of constant depth with flanges of constant cross-section, one linearly tapered in depth with flanges of constant cross section, and one linearly tapered in depth with tapered flanges. The measured stresses were compared with the calculated stresses obtained by the methods outlined in order to determine the degree of accuracy that may be expected from the stress analysis formulas. These comparisons indicated that the average measured stresses for all points in the central section of the beams did not exceed the average calculated stresses by more than 5 percent. It also indicated that the difference between average measured flange stresses and average calculated flange stresses on the net area and a fully effective web did not exceed 6.1 percent.


We have demonstrated a facile and green way to synthesize dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSNs) on an ultra-large scale (kg) with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and an anionic surfactant as dual templates free of organic solvents. In contrast to its co-template role in tuning the packing parameter of the surfactant molecule organization, the anionic surfactant herein acts as a more strongly competitive counterion against the adsorption of negatively charged silicate oligomers (I−) on the micelles. Based on the new understanding of the interaction between the cationic–anionic surfactant ionic pairs and the silicate oligomers, we proposed a dual template synergistically controlled micelle self-aggregated model to understand the formation mechanism of dendritic MSNs where the anionic surfactant stabilized micelles or micelle blocks are basic self-assembling building units for the formation of center-radial pore channel networks. By using one-pot in situ isomorphous substitution, the metal Ti atom can be easily incorporated into the silica frameworks of DMSNs, and the obtained Ti-DMSN catalyst shows a superior catalytic performance in the epoxidation of cyclohexene over the typical mesoporous Ti-MCM-41 silicas.


With the advent of commodity 3D capturing devices and better 3D modeling tools, 3D shape content is becoming increasingly prevalent. Therefore, the need for shape retrieval algorithms to handle large-scale shape repositories is more and more important. This track provides a benchmark to evaluate large-scale 3D shape retrieval based on the ShapeNet dataset. It is a continuation of the SHREC 2016 large-scale shape retrieval challenge with a goal of measuring progress with recent developments in deep learning methods for shape retrieval. We use ShapeNet Core55, which provides more than 50 thousands models over 55 common categories in total for training and evaluating several algorithms. Eight participating teams have submitted a variety of retrieval methods which were evaluated on several standard information retrieval performance metrics. The approaches vary in terms of the 3D representation, using multi-view projections, point sets, volumetric grids, or traditional 3D shape descriptors. Overall performance on the shape retrieval task has improved significantly compared to the iteration of this competition in SHREC 2016. We release all data, results, and evaluation code for the benefit of the community and to catalyze future research into large-scale 3D shape retrieval (website: https://www.shapenet.org/shrec17).


Dutch cabaret is a theatrical genre that originated from France in the year 1881. 1 Initially established to create a new performance genre between art and entertainment, it found its way to the Dutch theatres at the start of the 20th century. However, this geographical relocation had little influence on the core elements of an original French cabaret performance, that was now adapted into the Dutch national culture. Dutch cabaret is, aside from entertainment, a way of confronting the audience with a certain aspect of reality or humanity that is usually avoided in public. Thus, contemporary Dutch cabaret, as generally a one-man, stand-up performance, expresses opinions or ideas that touch on topical issues, taboos, or other 'sacred cows'. One could subsequently summarize Dutch cabaret as a performance art focusing on societal, political, or cultural critique. To do so, satire is essential to any cabaret performance, as it is an effective means for critique to be delivered to a corresponding audience. In what follows, I will provide a definition and a short history explaining what Dutch cabaret in essence entails. Next, I will discuss why satire and social critique is essential in Dutch cabaret, and I will explain how it uses these concepts. Through examples of a selection of Dutch cabaret performance excerpts, it will be shown in what way social critique is delivered, how it is done, and what their according purposes and effects are. Because Dutch cabaret performances are always performed in the Dutch language, I have taken the liberty of freely translating some performance excerpts from Dutch to English. I take no academic credit for these translations, as they are merely done to the best of my knowledge, and the result is what I believe to be best in terms of form, function, and effect. On the other hand, citing excerpts on paper runs the risk of losing some effect – the few songs and poems cited here do not rhyme in English, and other citations or quotes are not as effective on paper as they are on stage. Lastly, in some cited excerpts, there is strong language present – this language comes from the performances, and are in no way edited in by myself as author of this paper.


BACKGROUND
Though the transplantation of in vitro expanded human corneal endothelial precursors in animal models of endothelial damage by injecting into the anterior chamber has been reported, the practical difficulties of accomplishing such procedure in human patients have been a hurdle to clinical translation. Here we report the successful transplantation of in vitro expanded human corneal precursor cells to an animal eye using a transparent Nano-composite sheet and their engraftment.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Human Corneal endothelial cells (HCEC) were isolated from human cadaver eyes with informed consent and expanded in the lab using a sphere forming assay in a novel Thermoreversible Gelation Polymer (TGP) for 26 days. HCEC obtained by sphere forming assay were seeded in a novel Nano-composite sheet, which was made of PNIPA-NC gels by in-situ, free-radical polymerization of NIPA monomer in the presence of exfoliated clay (synthetic hectorite "Laponite XLG") uniformly dispersed in aqueous media. After a further seven days in vitro culture of HCEC in the Nano-composite sheet, cells were harvested and transplanted on cadaver-bovine eyes (n=3). The cells were injected between the corneal endothelial layer and the Nano-composite sheet that had been placed prior to the injection in close proximity to the endothelial layer. After three hours, the transplanted Nano-composite sheets were removed from the bovine eyes and subjected to microscopic examination. The corneas were subjected to Histo-pathological studies along with controls.

RESULTS
HCEC formed sphere like colonies in TGP which expressed relevant markers as confirmed by RT-PCR. Microscopic studies of the Nanosheets and histopathological studies of the cornea of the Bull's eye revealed that the HCEC got engrafted to the corneal endothelial layer of the bovine eyes with no remnant cells in the Nanosheet.

CONCLUSION
Transplantation of in vitro expanded donor human corneal endothelial cells using a transparent Nano-composite sheet was feasible in bovine eyes and the HCEC an engrafted within three hours of transplantation. Pilot human studies could be planned for utilization of this material and strategy.


Crops producing insecticidal toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted to manage insect pests. Bt crops can provide an effective tool for pest management; however, the evolution of Bt resistance can diminish this benefit. The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner, is a significant pest of maize and is widely managed with Bt maize in the Midwest of the United States. When Bt crops are grown in conjunction with non‐Bt refuges, fitness costs of Bt resistance can delay the evolution of resistance. Importantly, fitness costs often vary with ecological factors, including host‐plant genotype and diapause. In this study, we examined fitness costs associated with Cry1F resistance in O. nubilalis when insects were reared on three maize lines. Fitness costs were tested in two experiments. One experiment assessed the fitness costs when Cry1F‐resistant and Cry1F‐susceptible insects were reared on plants as larvae and experienced diapause. The second experiment tested resistant, susceptible and F1 heterozygotes that were reared on plants but did not experience diapause. Despite some evidence of greater adult longevity for Cry1F‐resistant insects, these insects produced fewer fertile eggs than Cry1F‐susceptible insects, and this occurred independent of diapause. Reduced fecundity was not detected among heterozygous individuals, which indicated that this fitness cost was recessive. Additionally, maize lines did not affect the magnitude of this fitness cost. The lower fitness of Cry1F‐resistant O. nubilalis may contribute to the maintenance of Cry1F susceptibility in field populations more than a decade after Cry1F maize was commercialized.


Despite evidence to the contrary, policy makers, some researchers and many who provide health and social services to sex workers continue to reflect and reinforce the notion that sex workers are dysfunctional and constitute a threat to public health. This thesis presents the results of a study which explicitly examined how indoor sex workers look after their psychological wellbeing. Twelve participants (who had worked as sex workers for at least 3 years) took part in semi-structured interviews and discussed how they looked after themselves both at work and in their wider social context. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two main themes emerged from the data. The first, "doing sex work", relates to workplace practices. The second theme, "being a sex worker", relates to how the women understand their experience of being a sex worker in their social context and how they care for themselves in this arena; also apparent in this theme are aspects related to entry and exit of the industry. All participants took part in the study to increase understanding of and social justice for sex workers. Most of the participants see sex work as having a positive contribution to their personal growth. The findings show that participants are resilient and employ self-care practices that are commonly used by many in occupations that deal with people or who are stigmatised in some way. Major conclusions drawn from the study are that working in a supportive environment, prior understandings of sex work, personal traits and reasons for entering the sex industry are closely related to positive psychological wellbeing.


My Bachelor's Thesis is a comparative analysis that identifies a paradigm shift based on how imagining and portraying futuristic technology and human - computer (or machine) interaction within science fiction works and explore how they depict the technology and the future thinking of their own era. I use two very popular and influential works from two different eras: 2001 A Space Odyssey from the late 1960s and Minority Report from the early 2000s. In the first part of this analysis, I analyze the technology and human interaction with technology in 2001: A Space Odyssey and argue what this tells about the technology thinking of the late 1960s, the high time of the Space Race. During the second part, the analysis continues with the other primary source, Minority Report. However, in this part I make direct comparisons with 2001: A Space Odyssey in order to illustrate the paradigm shift with clear examples.


Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder, characterized by hyperglycemia and glycosuria resulting from a defect in insulin secretion, its action or both. Oxidative modification of LDL is recognized as one of the major process involved in the etiopathogenesis of diabetes mellitus. The aim of the present study is to investigate the LDL oxidation and its antioxi-dant potential in diabetes mellitus. The study was carried out in 80 diabetic subjects, classi-fied into two group according to their glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values as regulated ( 0.60 M hexose/ M Hb). 40 healthy age matched subjects were also included for comparison. LDL from the serum sample was precipitated by heparin-citrate precipitation method. The LDL fractions were exposed to oxidation with CuSO4 and sensitivity to oxidation was evaluated. AOP was measured by taking 10 sub-jects from each group. The sensitivity of LDL oxidation was significantly higher in all dia-betic groups compared to control group. AOP was significantly decreased in unregulated diabetic group compared to control group. Low AOP probably shortens the lag phase of LDL oxidation so the sensitivity to oxidation appears to be higher in diabetes mellitus pa-tients.


ABSTRACT Background: Chronically ill patients often develop symptoms of depression. They run the risk of sliding into a downward spiral because of the interaction between depression and chronic illness. A minimal psychological intervention (MPI) has been developed to break through the spiral by applying principles of self-management and cognitive behavioral therapy. This study examines the effects of the MPI on self-efficacy, anxiety, daily functioning and social participation. Methods: A randomized controlled trial compared the MPI with usual care in 361 primary care patients. Nurses visited patients at home over a period of three months. Patients were aged 60 years and older, had minor depression or mild to moderate major depression and either type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Outcomes were measured at baseline and at one week, three months, and nine months after the intervention period. Results: At nine months after treatment, the MPI was associated with less anxiety (mean difference 2.5; 95% CI 0.7–4.2) and better self efficacy skills (mean difference 1.8; 95% CI 3.4–0.2), daily functioning (mean difference 1.7; 95% CI 0.6–2.7), and social participation (mean difference 1.3; 95% CI 0.4–2.2). Effect sizes for these outcomes were small to medium (0.29–0.40). Differences were primarily due to a stabilization of outcomes in the intervention group and deterioration in the control group. No major differences were observed between DM and COPD patients. Conclusions: The intervention appears to be reasonably effective in improving care for chronically ill elderly people. We recommend further evaluation of the MPI, including emphasis on detection and watchful waiting.


In this investigation the surface properties optimisation of a flexible PEN foil to use as substrate for thin film silicon solar cells is presented. The polymer surface, usually hydrophobic and inactive to chemical reactions, can give poor adhesion for films deposited on it. Furthermore, gas desorption from the polymer sometimes causes serious problems to the quality of the devices. To overcome these problems a thin film of silica-like functional material has been developed on polymer foil. Silica-like films were produced by sol-gel process starting from an organic silanes compound (APTMS) as precursor and the solution was deposited by spin-coating. Amorphous silica-like films were obtained with a hydrophilic surface. They were smooth, dense, homogeneous, transparent and exhibited an excellent adhesion to the polymer substrate due to the chemical bond between amine groups of the APTMS with carbonyl bonds in PEN. Physical properties such as elastic modulus and hardness and the UV irradiation effect on structure and surface hydrophilicity of the silica-like coatings have been analysed. A water contact angle of 34° was obtained after UV irradiation. Nanoindentation analysis showed that the silica-like coating have an hardness and an elastic modulus up to 2.0 GPa and 13.2 GPa respectively much higher than that of pure PEN. Oxygen permeability measured on silica-like coated PEN gave a value of 5.7 x 10-9 cc m/m2 s atm showing larger barrier properties respect to pure PEN. Strong adhesion, improved mechanical properties and barrier effect of our silica-like coating make the modified PEN substrate suitable to be used in thin film solar cell technology.


Advances in cell biology and tissue engineering rely heavily on performing 2D cell culture experiments. Analysis of these is conventionally done with 2D imaging techniques such as light (LM) or electron microscopy (SEM), since they are readily available. Cells, however, might act significantly differently when cultured in 2D or 3D environments. In order to analyse cells in a 3D arrangement, new imaging techniques are necessary not only in order to visualize the periphery of the cell culture in reflection mode but also to perform qualitative and quantitative investigations of the inner parts. Synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SRμCT) using hard x-rays was shown to be a promising tool that can be used for 3D cell culture visualization. SRµCT allows not only visualization of cell cultures in their native 3D environment but also use of the volumetric nature of this imaging procedure to evaluate the cells quantitatively. In our approach, cells were seeded on polymer yarns, stained and measured with SRμCT in absorption and in differential absorption contrast mode. A new segmentation procedure was developed and the measured volumetric data were quantitatively assessed. Quantification parameters included total cell volume, total yarn volume, cell volume density, which is the ratio of cell to yarn volume, and the radial cell mass distribution. The applied variation of the staining parameter of gold enhancement incubation time was shown to have significant influence on the cell volume density. Differential absorption contrast mode was found to provide similar but no additional information on the investigated sample. Using novel approaches of hierarchical volumetric imaging allows closure of the gap between imaging of whole organs and single cells and might be expanded to even higher resolutions, offering investigation of the cell machinery in closer detail.


The draft National Road Safety Strategy sets an overall target for reducing the road toll by 2010, but does not specify targets for reductions in crashes involving trucks and buses. This paper describes the formulation of a Heavy Vehicle Safety Strategy. Only marginal improvements in heavy vehicle safety have occurred since the early 1990s and substantial increases in heavy vehicle traffic are forecast. Consequently, the overall burden of heavy vehicle crashes may increase. The aim of the strategy will be to reduce both fatal crashes and crashes involving serious injuries, where a truck or bus is involved. The strategy is to be jointly developed by the National Road Transport Commission (NRTC), Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Department of Transport and Regional Services (DoTRS), industry representatives and state and territory government agencies. The strategy will be research based and will review both Australian and overseas initiatives to improve heavy vehicle safety. Consultations and negotiations will play a vital part in acceptance of the strategy, which will incorporate both an action plan and a research plan. Formulating the strategy is in its very early days, but is expected to provide a significant plank in support of the draft National Road Safety Strategy. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. E202589.


Fatigue failure of steel occurs when cracks form in a component and continue to grow to a size large enough to cause fracture. In order to understand the strength of a steel component, it is important to locate these cracks. We developed a scanning Hall probe microscope (SHPM) equipped with GaAs films sensors and observed fatigue cracks at room temperature in air while they were growing. In our previous works, we determined the correlation between crack growth and magnetic field in high carbon tool steels (JIS SKS93 and JIS SUJ2). We also reported the sensitivity of the SHPM equipped with a three-dimensional line-probe that was developed to decrease the sensor gaps. By using the line-probe sensor we succeeded to measure the magnetic flux density distributions in very close proximity to the specimen's surface. However, in order to further understand the relation between magnetic flux density and crack growth, other materials, microstructures and fatigue test conditions should be evaluated. In the present work, we focus on the effect of stress ratios on the changes of the magnetic flux density in annealed carbon tool steel.


This study has developed a hydrologic forecasting system for correcting the systematic bias inherent in hydrologic simulations based on the Bayes' theorem. The observed climatology was used as prior information, and results of a linear regression model that describes the relationship between 'the observed streamflow' and 'the mean of the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) forecasts' was used to form a likelihood function. The Bayes' theorem was then applied to produce posterior information for the streamflow forecast. Thirty-five watersheds, in which a dam is operated, were tested in this study, and the forecast accuracy was evaluated. It was found that the developed Bayesian ESP (B-ESP) model is capable of improving the forecast accuracy of the ESP. It was found that the forecasting accuracy was improved for all the different lengths of lead-times with the B-ESP model. Nonetheless, the B-ESP model obtained lower RPSS values than the ESP, while its deterministic forecasting accuracy was better than the ESP. This is due to the intrinsic attribute of the Bayesian inference.


This Thesis adopts a variety of different approaches in order to throw light on French perceptions of the British at the turn of the twentieth century. Introduction, chapters one and two set these in the broader context of nineteenth-century attitudes, in particular the genre of invasion literature, and the corpus of work produced by writers from the Ecole Libre, Paris. Not straightforwardly Anglophobic or Anglophile, both drew upon similar British stereotypes, and were shaped by French self-perceptions and internal concerns. The impact of the 1898 Fashoda incident and 1899-1902 Boer War upon French attitudes generally and these strands is considered, before analysis of French diplomacy. This departs from the contending ideas that the French Foreign Minister, Delcassé, determinedly sought an alignment with the British from June 1898 onwards, or that across 1898-1901 he was presumptively hostile to Britain, suggesting instead a selfinterested opportunist agenda pursued irrespective of others in policymaking circles. Chapter five takes up John Keiger's suggestion that the Paris press may have been less hostile towards Britain before and during the Fashoda incident than is often depicted, to broaden its evidential base, and push it further, arguing that French anger over Fashoda was in part directed against other, often domestic, targets and its Anglophobia was largely retrospective. Chapter six pursues this story into the early months of the Boer War, pointing to how French press opinions, if emboldened by the tide of international criticism of British policy, again strongly reflected internal preoccupations. The French who volunteered to fight on the Boer side in the war might represent an avowed kernel of Anglophobic opinion. Chapter seven, however, concludes that their motivation had more to do with asserting a certain vision of France, not least at home, something clearly understood by them and the French press of the time.


Two clay-rich beds (AHY and RPC) are interstratified in the Lower Cenomanian sediments of the northern domain of the Aquitaine basin (France). The paleobiological associations indicate a change in the sedimentation environments: a lagoon for the oldest one (AHY) and a sea internal platform for the most recent one (RPC). Although the mineralogical composition of both is dominated by smectite-rich random I/S mixed-layers, chemical and mineralogical differences were observed. The AHY clay material is richer in Zr, Th and REE. These chemical components indicate the presence of zircon and monazite or allanite. As no free crystals were observed, it is probable that these mineral species are disseminated as solid inclusions in the clays. The RPC sediment contains detrital (feldspars, micas, pyrophyllite) and post-sedimentary minerals (gypsum and pyrite). The AHY and RPC clay-rich beds are respectively a bentonite derived from a volcanic ash deposit and a sediment formed by the re-working of this bentonite during sea-invasion. The volcanic source is probably related to the opening of the Gascogne gulf and the large Cenomanian trachytic series of northern Spain (Bilbao area).


A complete formulation of the post-version of the continuum distorted wave-eikonal initial state (CDW-EIS) model is used to investigate single ionization of multishell atoms by fast bare proton beams. The influence of the non-ionized electrons on the dynamic evolution is studied for each of the different shells of the targets. Its inclusion was made by means of the parametric Green–Sellin–Zachor potential. In this way, it is shown that discrepancies between the prior- and post-versions of the CDW-EIS model are avoided for any nl states of the systems studied here. The present analysis is supported by comparisons with existing experimental electron emission spectra.


Export subsidies can generate or curb many perverse incentives for exporters, their expansionary effects on exports notwithstanding. These include expansion into soft markets or even deflection of domestic production into markets with similar taste and product specifications. Also, if there is under-invoicing, in principle it should decline with export subsidies since the government makes cash transfers based on the invoice presented to the authorities. In this paper, we study the effect of export subsidies on the under-invoicing of exports in Bangladesh. In a framework that allows for unobserved heterogeneity among importing countries and product specificities, we find evidence for under-invoicing in Bangladesh. The evidence at first seems counterintuitive, with a statistically significant increase in under-invoicing after introduction of a subsidy. After a more careful analysis, however, the positive incentives for under-invoicing can be explained by reasons such as black market premium (BMP) in foreign exchange markets or domestic tax evasion (among other factors). Even though BMP has been declining in Bangladesh over time, the incentives to evade domestic taxes (particularly with a nonlinear tax schedule and inclusion of subsidies on the inflow side of a firm's balance sheet) remain strong, bolstered by weak enforcement.


Introduction The Earth's Climate System What Is Climate Change? The Global System Concept The Atmosphere's Structure The Carbon Cycle: Natural versus Human Amplification The Hydrologic Cycle and the Relationships between the Land, Ocean, and Atmosphere Global Energy Balance Rates of Change Atmospheric Circulation and Climate Change Extreme Weather The Role of Ocean Circulation in Climate Change The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt and Consequences of Destabilization: Abrupt Climate Change Effects of Sea-Level Rise Future Projections The Role of Greenhouse Gases Radiation Transmission The Natural and Enhanced Greenhouse Effect Radiative Forcing The Earth's Energy Balance Greenhouse Gases Climate Change Potential Carbon Sequestration Sinks and Sources Types of Carbon Sequestration Impacts of Deforestation Anthropogenic Causes and Effects: Carbon Footprints Areas Most at Risk Fossil Fuels and Climate Change The New Carbon Balance: Summing It All Up The Concern about Coal Emissions Health Issues Associated with Climate Change Contributors to Climate Change and Pollution Key Impacts Climate Change and Its Effect on Ecosystems The Results of Climate Change on Ecosystems Impacts to Forests Impacts to Rangelands, Grasslands, and Prairies Impacts on Polar Ecosystems Impacts to Desert Ecosystems Mountain Ecosystems in Danger Worldwide Challenges in Marine Environments The Inception of Climate Change Management The Montreal Protocol: A Working Model The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol The UNFCCC The Kyoto Protocol The U.S. Response and International Reactions The G8 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC Reports The Bali Conference (2007) Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (2009) Cancun Convention (2010) Bangkok (2011) Sociological Connections to Climate Change The Environment and Sociology The Need for Biodiversity Environmental Movements: The Classic Case of Earth Day The Ramifications of Climate Change on Society Climate Justice Immigration Issues One Explanation to Encourage Going Green Other Social Factors to Consider Human Psychology and the Media Climate Change, Human Psychology, Cultural Values, and the Media The Power of the Media Keeping a Journalistic Balance Scientists' Mindsets and Data Change The Occasional Data Flaw The Role of International Organizations The Evolution of International Cooperation The Role of International Organizations The Progress of Individual Countries Nations Working toward Sustainability The Political Arena The Current Political Climate in the United States President Obama's Outlook on Climate Change at Election The Beginnings of Change in Legislation Current Executive Branch Action Current Congressional Action Congressional Input and Contributions toward Climate Change Legislation with Obama Past Congressional Input and Contributions toward Climate Change Legislation The International Political Arena Policies in Key Countries Sociopolitical Impacts of Climate Change Climate Change, National Security, and Terrorism Climate Change, Inaction, and War Climate Change, Conflict, and State Fragility The Concept of Climate Justice and Equity Military Issues and Climate Change Climate Change and Military Effectiveness The Pentagon Takes the Lead on Cutting Back on Fossil Fuels DoD Embraces Green Energy: Turning Goals into Examples Economics of Climate Change and Socioeconomic Implications Climate Change and Economic Considerations Economic Impacts of Drought and Desertification The Fishing and Forestry Industries Changes in Monsoon Patterns Agriculture and Food Production Impacts to the Recreation and Tourism Industry Healthcare and Labor-Related Impacts Transportation and Energy Considerations Resulting Insurance Costs and Impacts The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change Meeting the Challenges of Climate Impacts The Economics of Mitigation Options Cap and Trade Project-Based Markets Allowance-Based Markets The Economics of Cap and Trade Economics of Mitigation Carbon Capture and Storage Geological Formation Sequestration Ocean Sequestration Adaptation Strategies Professional Guidance: Climate Research, Modeling, and Data Analysis Climate Change Research Climate Modeling The Modeling Challenge: A Brief History Fundamentals of Climate Modeling The Physics of Modeling Simplifying the Climate System Modeling the Climate Response Types of Climate Models Testing a Model: Modeling Trouble Spots Confidence and Validation Modeling Uncertainties and Challenges Error Amplification Modeling Uncertainties and Drawbacks Other Unknowns Two Case Studies The Clock Is Ticking: Changing for the Benefit of Future Generations A Look toward the Future Winners and Losers New Technologies The Final Choice Appendix United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Member Nations Glossary Index Chapters begin with an overview, an introduction, and development, and end with conclusions, discussion, references, and suggested reading.


This paper focuses on the functioning of local civil defense units in natural disaster. With this focus, however, certain implications can be derived which can be projected into the more inclusive context of probable operational problems which might occur in a nuclear situation. The basic assumption made here is that the range of problems experienced by the local civil defense unit in a disaster setting would be similar to those which would be encountered subsequent to a nuclear catastrophe. Where there are differences, they can be visualized primarily as one of degree. With the exception of the specific form of secondary threat, i.e. radiation and the probability that a wider geographical area will be involved, a nuclear explosion would not create essentially different problems for community response.


Title : Capital cost and control in small-cap companies: size matters Abstract : Small companies have important economic significance as the most dynamic, innovative and risk-taking sector of the economy. So why do small-cap companies offer only limited corporate governance provisions? Christina Atanasova, Evan Gatev, and Daniel Shapiro find that small companies are incentivised to improve governance by being offered the carrot of easier access to equity financing. Author : Christina Atanasova, Evan Gatev Daniel, Daniel Shapiro Title : Sailing the illiquid seas of foreign exchange markets Abstract : Toby Daglish and Phuong Ho review the literature on liquidity in the Foreign Exchange market – a crucial issue for New Zealand, which sources most of its investment funding from overseas. Author : Toby Daglish, Phoung Ho Title : Merging mandatory saving and monetary policy Abstract : Alfred Duncan investigates the Labour Party's Variable Savings Rate policy, where KiwiSaver contributions would become compulsory, and contribution rates adjusted by the Reserve Bank in conjunction with changes in the Official Cash Rate to achieve Monetary Policy objectives. Author : Alfred Duncan Title : The grape escape Abstract : Guy Robinson and Toby Daglish investigate the implications of fluctuating commodity prices on farm land values. Author : Guy Robinson, Toby Daglish Title : Behavioural economics: the implications for competition policy Abstract : Behavioural economics, the interdisciplinary field of research that studies the impact of psychological factors on economic decision making, is a trending topic in policy circles. Annemieke Tuinstra-Karel discusses the implications for competition policy, based on a recent investigation by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets. Author : Annemieke Tuinstra-Karel Title : Renewable energy policy: the Italian experience Abstract : Since worldwide concerns about climate change were made official by the Kyoto Protocol at the end of 1997, renewable energy sources (RES) have been receiving increasingly more attention by policy makers. Teresa Romano investigates. Author : Teresa Romano Title : How good is local eGovernment Abstract : Mairead de Roiste proposes new ways of assessing the usability of local government websites. Author : Mairead de Roiste


CAROLINE G. COLDEN An Immunohistochemical Study of the Temporal Distribution of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus and the Preferred Cells for Viral Replication in Experimentally Infected Cattle Under the Direction of DR. CORRIE BROWN Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a single-stranded, negative-sense arbovirus in the Family Rhabdoviridae. Cattle, pigs, and horses can become infected and the virus settles in and causes damage to the surface tissues of the feet, tongue, snout, and teats, causing vesicular (blistering) lesions. Infection can have debilitating effects on the animals, as they are reluctant to eat, nurse, or move around. They lose a great deal of weight, which diminishes their economic value. In order to devise effective control measures, it is important to understand how the virus spreads around the body and how it damages cells. In this study, immunohistochemistry was used to detect the presence of the virus in tissues of cattle experimentally infected with VSV. Virus was inoculated into the skin at the top of the hoof (coronary band) and tissues were examined sequentially to envision presence of virus and associated damage. By immunohistochemistry, VSV was present in the coronary bands 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 hours post-infection (hpi) with highest intensity in the coronary bands at 48 and 72hpi. Virus appeared predominantly in cells of the stratum spinosum layer, which exhibit unique intercellular bridges. Special staining for these intercellular bridges revealed a marked correlation between presence of this structure and replicating virus, indicating that the intercellular bridges may be functioning in viral entry or transport. INDEX WORDS: Vesicular Stomatitis, Immunohistochemistry, Cattle, Epidermis, Desmogleins AN IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF THE TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE VESICULAR STOMATITIS VIRUS AND THE PREFERRED CELLS FOR VIRAL REPLICATION IN EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED CATTLE


Introduction: Annona squamosa L. commonly known as custard apple, is an important under-utilized fruit species from tropical and subtropical parts of India with high potential as commercial horticultural crop. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic diversity among populations spread across districts of Udaipur, Rajsamand and Chittaurgarh falling within Aravallis in Rajasthan. In all, 21 populations were identified and subjected to molecular evaluation using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The cumulative analysis carried out on the basis of RAPD and ISSR data sets revealed 73.91% polymorphism.
Methods: A total of 251 amplicons were produced using 19 RAPD and 15 ISSR primers. The pair-wise distance matrix calculated by Dice's co-efficient showed a distance range of 0.67 to 0.95 when computed using cumulative data set.
Results: Characterization of genetic diversity within populations based on combined data set showed that percentage of polymorphism bands (PPB) ranged from 29.19 to 50.93. Nei's gene diversity (HE) values varied from 0.1002 to 0.1964 within a total genetic diversity (HT) of 0.2509. The average observed number of alleles per locus (Na) was 1.3602 and Ne was 1.2400. The Shanon's index was 0.2002 (Hpop) and 0.3800 (Hsp) at population and species level, respectively.
Conclusion: The moderate gene flow value (Nm=0.59) and significant coefficient of genetic differentiation (GST=0.458) revealed low level of genetic diversity within population and highly significant genetic differentiation among populations of A. squamosa. The UPGMA dendrogram resolved all the 21 populations representing 3 districts into various clusters according to their genetic distances. The principal component analysis (PCA) supported the UPGMA results and justified the relationship among populations.


Substantial changes in the hydroecosystem of the Zaporizke reservoir have led to a significant transformation of aquatic biocoenoses. As a result, number of some aboriginal fish species have decreased. The regulation of the Dnipro river has contributed to the spread of new species of fish. Over the past 30 years, the ichthyofauna of the reservoir has gained about 20 species of fish that acclimatized and expanded their range. The article presents the results of ichthyological research of 2010- 2016. The article determines main causes of the spread of new species of fish, and gives the results of complex monitoring studies on the number and biomass of young alien fish species of the Zaporizke reservoir. It was found that the most numerous first summer individuals of alien fish species are big-scale sand smelt Atherina pontica (Eichwald, 1831), Prussian carp Carassius gibelio (Bloch, 1782), topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck et Schlegel, 1846), black-striped pipefish (Syngnathus abaster Risso, 1826) and pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus (Linnaeus, 1758).


This proposed American National Standard has been accepted for publication by American National Standards Committee X3, Computers and Information Processing. In order that the final version of the proposed standard reflect the largest public consensus, X3 authorized publication of this document to elicit comment and general public reaction, with the understanding that such a working document is an intermediate result in the standardization process and is subject to change, modification, or withdrawal in part or in whole. Comments should be directed to the X3 Secretary, Business Equipment Manufacturers Association, 1828 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036.—C.K.


Glucose‐responsive (GR) neurons from hypothalamic nuclei are implicated in the regulation of feeding and satiety. To determine the role of intracellular ATP in the closure of ATP‐sensitive K+ (KATP) channels in these cells and associated glia, the cytosolic ATP concentration ([ATP]c) was monitored in vivo using adenoviral‐driven expression of recombinant targeted luciferases and bioluminescence imaging. Arguing against a role for ATP in the closure of KATP channels in GR neurons, glucose (3 or 15 mm) caused no detectable increase in [ATP]c, monitored with cytosolic luciferase, and only a small decrease in the concentration of ATP immediately beneath the plasma membrane, monitored with a SNAP25‐luciferase fusion protein. In contrast to hypothalamic neurons, hypothalamic glia responded to glucose (3 and 15 mm) with a significant increase in [ATP]c. Both neurons and glia from the cerebellum, a glucose‐unresponsive region of the brain, responded robustly to 3 or 15 mm glucose with increases in [ATP]c. Further implicating an ATP‐independent mechanism of KATP channel closure in hypothalamic neurons, removal of extracellular glucose (10 mm) suppressed the electrical activity of GR neurons in the presence of a fixed, high concentration (3 mm) of intracellular ATP. Neurons from both brain regions responded to 5 mm lactate (but not pyruvate) with an oligomycin‐sensitive increase in [ATP]c. High levels of the plasma membrane lactate‐monocarboxylate transporter, MCT1, were found in both cell types, and exogenous lactate efficiently closed KATP channels in GR neurons. These data suggest that (1) ATP‐independent intracellular signalling mechanisms lead to the stimulation of hypothalamic neurons by glucose, and (2) these effects may be potentiated in vivo by the release of lactate from neighbouring glial cells.


Every year several children and dogs around the world are suffering from hyperthermia and heat illness after being left or forgotten inside of cars that get hot. In this thesis the possibility of implementing a system in cars in the future that eliminates serious hyperthermia cases among children and dogs that are left in cars that get hot is investigated. The project research has shown that people are aware of the problem and its consequences but do not understand how fast cars can heat up, and how insufficient solutions such as lowering the windows of the car are. There is a need of a system solving the problem that is integrated in the car, and does not rely on user behaviour. A conceptual system that solves this problem has been developed. The development process consisted of several phases, with each phase being iterated before moving on to the next. As the development moved from phase to phase the level of detail increased. With the results from each design phase new needs and requirements were set for the development during the next phase. To gather information and data related to the problem literature studies, questionnaires and interviews have been used. The development work was carried out using engineering methods such as the Pugh and Kesselring matrices and brainstorming techniques. The developed conceptual system resulted in an integrated solution "HeatSafe", consisting of infrared cameras to detect any child and/or dog left in the car, utilising the AC system to cool the interior of the vehicle, the built in thermometer in the car to trigger the cameras, an mobile application to deliver information to the user and the car software to run the system. To conclude, the system is feasible for implementation in the future, and a suggestion is to start implementing it in hybrid vehicles where running the AC does not cause emissions. In the current situation the infrared cameras are not economically feasible, but with future development and full scale quantities the concept is possible to integrate in future vehicles.


This study is about the meaning of dwelling features. It relates the research areas of housing preferences and the meaning of a dwelling with each other and with aspects of the means-end approach as applied in marketing research. It results in a conceptual and methodological framework for studying the meaning of preferences for dwelling features. These features are viewed as functional for achieving the goals and values that people pursue. The meaning of dwelling features lies in these functional relationships. The model presented in this study therefore relates preferences for the features of a dwelling to the meaning they have for people. These relationships are called meaning structures. Meaning structures are measured by a semi-structured interviewing technique, which is an adapted version of the laddering technique for measuring means-end chains, and network methods are used for the representation and analysis of these meaning structures.


It is well known that amiodarone is effective for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. However, effects of amiodarone on the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor-operated K+ current (IK.ACh), which plays an important role in the repolarization of atrial action potential, have not been evaluated. This study was undertaken to determine whether amiodarone inhibits the acetyl-choline-sensitive muscarinic K+ (KACh) channel by use of the patch-clamp technique. In isolated guinea pig atrial cells, IK.ACh was activated by extracellular application of carbachol (1 microM) or adenosine (10 microM) or by the intracellular loading of GTP gamma S (100 microM). Amiodarone inhibited the IK.ACh activated in these three different ways with similar IC50 values around 2 microM, which indicated that amiodarone directly depresses the function of the KACh channel itself and/or GTP-binding proteins. Single KACh channel current was also recorded by use of a pipette solution containing carbachol (1 microM) or atropine (10 microM) plus theophylline (100 microM) in a cell-attached configuration. Amiodarone at a concentration of 3 microM significantly decreased the open probability of the KACh channel in both conditions. Amiodarone also reversed the carbachol- and adenosine-induced action potential shortening in a concentration-dependent manner. In isolated guinea pig hearts, perfusion of 1 microM carbachol shortened the effective refractory period of the atria and lowered the atrial fibrillation threshold. Addition of 10 microM amiodarone reversed these electrophysiological parameters to the control level. These results suggest that amiodarone inhibits IK.ACh by depressing the function of the KACh channel itself and/or associated GTP-binding proteins. This effect of amiodarone may at least in part be involved in the antiarrhythmic action against atrial fibrillation.


The importance of immune reaction in controlling tumor invasion and metastasis has been debated but is of seminal importance for identifying novel targets for cancer treatment through immunointervention. The participation of chronic inflammation in tumor promotion is well established and recognized but the involvement of tumor-rejecting immune responses is largely disregarded. Based on the analysis of immuno-compromised animals, the group of R.D. Schreiber has established that tumors arise and grow in all mice deficient for both adaptive and innate immunity, bringing experimental evidence to the immunosurveillance theory. In man, epidemiologic evidence of higher incidence of cancers in immunodeficient individuals or in allografted patients also supported the theory but no direct evidence of the impact of immune reactions among the factors controlling clinical outcome had been established. We addressed the question of the role of the "in situ" type, location and functional orientation, i.e. the "immune contexture" in three human cancers, two arising in immunoactive sites (colorectal and lung) and one in an immunological sanctuary (primary intra-ocular lymphoma). Using high throughput analysis of the components of the immune system, we first established that the presence of high adaptive immune infiltration in the center and in the margin of colorectal tumors was the strongest prognosticator of disease free survival, recurrence and overall survival above the classical tumor associated factors, such as age differentiation and lymph node involvement. Similar results were obtained in non small cell lung cancers, both adenocarcinomas and squamous cell, with the additional characterization of tumor-associated lymphoid islets as being the putative location of an anti-tumor immune reaction. In primary intraocular lymphoma, where there is no pre-existing inflammation or immunity in the eye, the tumor also attracts a TH1 and CD8 immune infiltration with shared characteristics with the "efficient" TH1/CD8 reaction in colorectal and lung carcinomas. We believe that the fact that adaptive immune reactions present in three different human cancers are major prognosticators of clinical outcome supports the hypothesis of efficient immune responses which control in the long term the metastatic potential of circulating tumor cells and represent targets and tools for immunointervention. The mechanisms underlying the shaping of an efficient immune response are being deciphered.


A number of studies have examined the direct impacts of cash crop production on producer households. This is the first to quantify the general equilibrium impacts of introducing a new cash crop into a poor isolated economy, including impacts on environmentally sensitive fishing activities. We find that the introduction of oil palm production explains the striking growth in income in Uganda's Ssese Islands, including large-scale production spillovers to non-palm sectors, as well as a significant reduction in pressure on the Lake Victoria fishery. It appears that oil palm development, via a project that connected a commercial aggregator with small-scale farmers, enabled an economy at a low-level equilibrium to transition to a higher equilibrium state, with positive spillovers across households as well as across production sectors. Econometric evidence confirms results from simulations using an island-wide general equilibrium model parameterized from new micro survey data.


We develop a dust efflux model of radiation pressure acting on dust grains which successfully reproduces the relation between stellar mass, dust opacity and SFR observed in local star-forming galaxies. The dust content of local star-forming galaxies is set by the competition between the physical processes of dust production and dust loss in our model. The dust loss rate is proportional to the dust opacity and star formation rate. Observations of the relation between stellar mass and star formation rate at several epochs imply that the majority of local star-forming galaxies are best characterized as having continuous star formation histories. Dust loss is a consequence of sustained interaction of dust with the radiation field generated by continuous star formation. Dust efflux driven by radiation pressure rather than dust destruction offers a more consistent physical interpretation of the dust loss mechanism. By comparing our model results with the observed relation between stellar mass, dust extinction and star formation rate in local star-forming galaxies we are able to constrain the timescale and magnitude of dust loss. The timescale of dust loss is long and therefore dust is effluxed in a "Slow Flow". Dust loss is modest in low mass galaxies but massive galaxies may lose up to 70 � 80% of their dust over their lifetime. Our slow flow model shows that mass loss driven by dust opacity and star formation may be an important physical process for understanding normal star-forming galaxy evolution.


Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Psychology Perspective for the Asia Pacific (OB) is an exciting new addition to our Psychology/B and E lists. OB is a ground up original with an international author group from Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand. Between them, the authors have generated a huge publishing and research output as well as receiving numerous awards for teaching and service excellence between them. The authors' teaching excellence is reflected in the carefully considered pedagogical features found throughout the text. OB is a unique offering for MGH; an interdisciplinary text that combines theory and practice and sits between traditional OB and OP. The interdisciplinary nature of the text meets the market needs and services a market niche in which there are no real competitors.


Bacteriophages play important roles in regulating the intestinal human microbiota composition, dynamics, and homeostasis, and characterizing their bacterial hosts is needed to understand their impact. We applied a metagenomic Hi-C approach on 10 healthy human gut samples to unveil a large infection network encompassing more than 6000 interactions bridging a metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs) and a phage sequence, allowing to study in situ phage-host ratio. Whereas three-quarters of these sequences likely correspond to dormant prophages, 5% exhibit a much higher coverage than their associated MAG, representing potentially actively replicating phages. We detected 17 sequences of members of the crAss-like phage family, whose hosts diversity remained until recently relatively elusive. For each of them, a unique bacterial host was identified, all belonging to different genus of Bacteroidetes. Therefore, metaHiC deciphers infection network of microbial population with a high specificity paving the way to dynamic analysis of mobile genetic elements in complex ecosystems.


ABSTRACT Characterizing the functional relevance of transcription factors (TFs) in different biological contexts is pivotal in systems biology. Given the massive amount of genomic data, computational identification of TFs is emerging as a useful approach to bridge functional genomics with disease risk loci. In this article, we use large-scale gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) data corpuses to conduct high-throughput TF-biological context association analysis. This work makes two contributions: (i) From a methodological perspective, we propose a unified topic modeling framework for exploring and analyzing large and complex genomic datasets. Under this framework, we develop new statistical optimization algorithms and semiparametric theoretical analysis, which are also applicable to a variety of large-scale data analyses. (ii) From an experimental perspective, our method generates an informative list of tumor-related TFs and their possible effected tumor types. Our data-driven analysis of 38 TFs in 68 tumor biological contexts identifies functional signatures of epigenetic regulators, such as SUZ12 and SET-DB1, and nuclear receptors, in many tumor types. In particular, the TF signature of SUZ12 is present in a broad range of tumor types, many of which have not been reported before. In summary, our work established a robust method to identify the association between TFs and biological contexts. Given the limited amount of genome-wide binding profiles of TFs and the massive number of expression profiles, our work provides a useful tool to deconvolute the gene regulatory network for tumors and other biological contexts. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


The development of on-demand cross-linking strategies is a key aspect in promoting mechanical properties of high-performance bioinspired nanocomposites. Here, we embed styrene sulfonyl azide groups with latent chemical reactivity into water-soluble copolymers and assemble those with high-aspect-ratio synthetic nanoclays to generate well-defined layered polymer/nanoclay nacre-mimetics. A considerable stiffening and strengthening occurs upon activation of the covalent cross-linking using simple heating. Varying the amount of cross-linkable units allows molecular control of mechanical properties from ductile to stiff and strong. Moreover, the covalent cross-linking enhances the moisture stability of water-borne nacre-mimetics. The strategy is facile and versatile allowing for a transfer into applications.


This is the most comprehensive study of "pien-wen" ("transformation texts," i.e., tales of metamorphosis) in any language since the manuscripts were discovered at the beginning of this century in a remote cave complex in northwest China. They are the earliest written vernacular narratives in China and are thus extremely important in the history of Chinese language and literature. Numerous scholarly controversies have surrounded the study of the texts in the last three-quarters of a century; this volume seeks to resolve some of them -- the extent, origins, and formal characteristics of the texts, the meaning of "pien-wen," the identity of the authors who composed these popular narratives and the describes who copied them, the relationship of the texts to oral performance, and the reasons for the apparently sudden demise of the genre around the beginning of the Sung dynasty. Mair's is a multi-disciplinary study that integrates findings from religious, literary, linguistic, sociological, and historical materials, carried out with philological rigor. It includes an extensive bibliography of relevant sources in many languages.


This paper deals with a path planning and intelligent control of an autonomous robot which should move safely in partially structured environment. This environment may involve any number of obstacles of arbitrary shape and size; some of them are allowed to move. We describe our approach to solving the motion-planning problem in mobile robot control using neural networks-based technique. Our method of the construction of a collision-free path for moving robot among obstacles is based on two neural networks. The first neural network is used to determine the "free" space using ultrasound range finder data. The second neural network "finds" a safe direction for the next robot section of the path in the workspace while avoiding the nearest obstacles. Simulation examples of generated path with proposed techniques will be presented.


The COVID-19 pandemic itself and related public health measurements have had substantial impacts on individual social lives and psychological and mental health, all to the detriment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There have been extensive studies investigating the mental health of people in different populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have explored the impact of COVID-19 and its association with HRQoL. To fill this research gap and provide further empirical evidence, this study examined the impact of COVID-19 on Hong Kong people and evaluated its association with HRQoL. A total of 500 participants were randomly recruited to complete an online questionnaire on their concerns related to COVID-19. This entailed responding to the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF instrument. Data were collected between 24 April and 3 May 2020. Independent t-tests and multiple linear regressions were used to examine the association between the impact of COVID-19 and HRQoL. Overall, 69.6% of participants were worried about contracting COVID-19, and 41.4% frequently suspected themselves of being infected. Furthermore, 29.0% were concerned by the lack of disinfectants. All of these findings were associated with poorer HRQoL in the physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environment domains. On the other hand, 47.4% of participants were concerned that they may lose their job because of the pandemic, while 39.4% were bothered by the insufficient supply of surgical masks. These two factors were associated with poorer HRQoL in the physical and psychological health and environment domains. The adverse impact of COVID-19 on individuals is multifactorial, affecting all aspects of HRQoL. In addition to enhancing anti-epidemic efforts, it is equally important to implement public health and social welfare measures, thereby diminishing the adverse impact of COVID-19 on overall well-being.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Inherited prion diseases represent over 15% of human prion cases and are a frequent cause of early onset dementia. The purpose of this study was to define the distribution of changes in cerebral volumetric and microstructural parenchymal tissues in a specific inherited human prion disease mutation combining VBM with VBA of cerebral MTR and MD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: VBM and VBA of cerebral MTR and MD were performed in 16 healthy control participants and 9 patients with the 6-OPRI mutation. An analysis of covariance consisting of diagnostic grouping with age and total intracranial volume as covariates was performed. RESULTS: On VBM, there was a significant reduction in gray matter volume in patients compared with control participants in the basal ganglia, perisylvian cortex, lingual gyrus, and precuneus. Significant MTR reduction and MD increases were more anatomically extensive than volume differences on VBM in the same cortical areas, but MTR and MD changes were not seen in the basal ganglia. CONCLUSIONS: Gray matter and WM changes were seen in brain areas associated with motor and cognitive functions known to be impaired in patients with the 6-OPRI mutation. There were some differences in the anatomic distribution of MTR-VBA and MD-VBA changes compared with VBM, likely to reflect regional variations in the type and degree of the respective pathophysiologic substrates. Combined analysis of complementary multiparameter MR imaging data furthers our understanding of prion disease pathophysiology.


Introduction I. Bail, Its Tendency to Promote an Inference of Guilt for Indigent Misdemeanants, and Alternatives to For-Profit Bail Bondsmen A. Bail and Its Impact on Indigent Defendants B. For-Profit Bail Bondsmen C. Attorneys Posting Bail for Their Clients and Attendant Ethical Concerns D. The Bronx Freedom Fund: The Bronx Defenders' Alternative to "For-Profit" Bail Bondsmen E. The Charitable Bail Bonds Bill F. Attorney-Client Privilege II. Enumerating the Ethical Concerns that Exist when Attorneys at Legal Services Organizations Work Closely with Charitable Bail Funds A. Conflict of Interest B. Duty of Confidentiality C. Improper Solicitation of Clients D. Improper Financial Assistance and Entering into a Business Transaction with the Client III. Anticipating How Ethics Committees Will Resolve the Ethical Concerns A. Does a Conflict of Interests Exist when Attorneys at Legal Services Organizations Work Closely with a Charitable Corporation that Posts Bail for the Attorney's Clients? B. Can an Attorney Uphold Her Duty of Confidentiality While Serving as Her Client's Bondsman? 1. Voluntarily Revealing Information Related to a Client's Whereabouts Under 1.6(a) 2. Revealing Information Related to a Client's Whereabouts Under 1.6(b) 3. Can a Court Compel an Attorney to Reveal Information that Would Cause the Attorney to Breach Her Duty of Confidentiality to Her Client C. Is Implementing a Charitable Bail Fund Just a Way For Legal Services Organizations to Solicit Clients? D. Do Attorneys Provide Improper Financial Assistance to Their Clients or Enter into a Business Transaction with Them by Agreeing to Work with a Charitable Organization that Posts Bail on Their Behalf? Conclusion INTRODUCTION On an unseasonably cold evening in southern Texas, Leslie Chew had trouble sleeping in the car that he called home. (1) After finally deciding that he needed something to keep warm, Mr. Chew entered a store with no money and a bad plan. Shortly after, Mr. Chew was arrested for attempting to steal four thirty-dollar blankets. (2) Later that night, a judge set bail at $3500 for Mr. Chew. (3) One hundred eighty-five nights later, Mr. Chew was still incarcerated. (4) Mr. Chew did not spend six months in jail because he was found guilty of petit larceny. Instead, Mr. Chew was confined to a cell because he could not afford to pay either a $3500 cash deposit to the court or a nonrefundable $350 fee to a bail bondsman. (5) As a result, Mr. Chew remained in Lubbock County Jail until he ultimately received and accepted a plea from the prosecution. (6) Similarly, Carol Brown was recently arrested in Brooklyn when a police officer claimed that he saw her drop a crack pipe. (7) When bail was set at $1000, Ms. Brown realized it would be impossible for her to come up with the money. (8) Although the case was eventually dismissed after a lab test revealed that there was no drug residue on the pipe, Ms. Brown had already spent twelve days incarcerated, eight of which were on Rikers Island. (9) Meanwhile, a wealthy attorney in Seattle accused of raping several massage therapists was able to preserve his liberty after posting the requisite one-million-dollar bail. (10) Even the much-maligned George Zimmerman was not detained before being tried for allegedly murdering Trayvon Martin because he was released from custody on $150,000 bail. (11) Bail is a distinctive component of the United States' legal system in that it provides wealthy individuals with the opportunity to avoid pretrial detention, while making it more likely that indigent defendants will remain incarcerated before either an admission or a finding of guilt. …


The human c-fes locus encodes a non-receptor tyrosine kinase (c-Fes) that is structurally and functionally unique. Originally, c-fes was isolated as the normal cellular homolog of sarcoma-inducing avian and feline retroviruses. However, unlike its viral oncoprotein counterparts that display constitutive tyrosine kinase activity, c-Fes exhibits restrained activity that is regulated by an undefined mechanism. Adding to its unique nature, recent studies have implicated c-Fes as a colorectal cancer-associated tumor suppressor despite its status as a proto-oncogene and tyrosine kinase.Previous work from our group has demonstrated that c-Fes forms high molecular weight oligomers in vitro, suggesting that c-Fes catalytic activity is governed by the interconversion of c-Fes between inactive monomeric and active oligomeric forms. However, this model was based largely on in vitro data and has not been assessed in living cells. To assess the involvement of oligomerization in regulating c-Fes activity in vivo, I employed a yellow fluorescence protein (YFP)-based bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay. Using BiFC, I demonstrated for the first time that c-Fes forms constitutive oligomers in vivo, regardless of its activation status. In addition, I determined that both coiled-coil domains mediate the oligomerization of c-Fes. Moreover, I established that c-Fes forms coiled-coil dependent oligomers in physiologically relevant cellular contexts, suggesting a new model for c-Fes regulation where conformational changes rather than oligomerization govern c-Fes kinase activity in cells.In colorectal cancers, loss of c-Fes expression is a common occurrence. This is not unusual, as tumorigenesis proceeds as oncogenes are activated and tumor suppressors are inactivated. To date, however, the mechanism responsible for c-fes gene repression has not been characterized. Upon determining that the absence of c-fes gene transcription was common among colorectal cancer cell lines, I used methylation inhibitor, bisulfite sequencing, and in vitro methylation analyses to establish that promoter methylation governs Fes gene and protein expression in colorectal cancers. Preliminary studies also suggest that promoter methylation governs c-Fes expression in human colon cancer surgical specimens. Taken together, the studies outlined in this thesis advance the field of c-Fes research by defining previously unknown regulatory mechanisms of both kinase activity and gene expression.


Background Dietary and illness factors affect risk of growth faltering; the role of enteropathogens is less clear. As part of the Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study, we quantify the effects of enteropathogen infection, diarrhoea and diet on child growth. Methods Newborns were enrolled and followed until 24 months. Length and weight were assessed monthly. Illnesses and breastfeeding practices were documented biweekly; from 9 to 24 months, non-breast milk intakes were quantified monthly. Routinely collected non-diarrhoeal stools were analysed for a broad array of enteropathogens. A linear piecewise spline model was used to quantify associations of each factor with growth velocity in seven of eight MAL-ED sites; cumulative effects on attained size at 24 months were estimated for mean, low (10th percentile) and high (90th percentile) exposure levels. Additionally, the six most prevalent enteropathogens were evaluated for their effects on growth. Results Diarrhoea did not have a statistically significant effect on growth. Children with high enteropathogen exposure were estimated to be 1.21±0.33 cm (p<0.001; 0.39 length for age (LAZ)) shorter and 0.08±0.15 kg (p=0.60; 0.08 weight-for-age (WAZ)) lighter at 24 months, on average, than children with low exposure. Campylobacter and enteroaggregativeEscherichia coli detections were associated with deficits of 0.83±0.33 and 0.85±0.31 cm in length (p=0.011 and 0.001) and 0.22±0.15 and 0.09±0.14 kg in weight (p=0.14 and 0.52), respectively. Children with low energy intakes and protein density were estimated to be 1.39±0.33 cm (p<0.001; 0.42 LAZ) shorter and 0.81±0.15 kg (p<0.001; 0.65 WAZ) lighter at 24 months than those with high intakes. Conclusions Reducing enteropathogen burden and improving energy and protein density of complementary foods could reduce stunting.


To effectively prepare construction and engineering students for their careers as building professionals, it is imperative for educators to understand what teaching methods are effective to enhance student learning in project scheduling. Technical skills, like project scheduling, rely heavily on practical experience and instructors face the difficult task of how to replicate this experience to enhance student learning. This paper provides a summary of the current instructional delivery methods utilized in a scheduling course at a major university and evaluates the delivery methods and what students perceive as most, and least effective in regard to learning how to create, manage and update a project schedule. The major finding, based on student feedback was the demand for additional visual learning experiences to further develop students' understanding of construction scheduling. These visual experiences include the implementation of visuals exploring jobsite examples as well as time-lapse videos showing the processes and sequence of activities. In addition, the overall results of the student surveys are presented, discussed, and evaluated. This information may assist educational and industry programs interested in developing scheduling course material, based on the needs reported by students.


Europe in the sixteenth and most of the seventeenth century was engulfed in a wave of Sinophilia. However, by the eighteenth century a dramatic shift in the popular view of China in Europe occurred and Sinophobic writings began to dominate. The primary scholarly argument about the causes behind this shift in perceptions maintains the transformation stemmed predominantly from changes in European history, particularly, economic growth and political consolidation. This paper asks how the motives, the roles and the consequences of the Jesuits as agents of information regarding China affected the European perception of the Middle Kingdom and contributed to the evolution of Orientalism. It examines the evolution of the Jesuit mission in China, the role of personal motivation and problems surrounding conceptual and practical barriers to the construction and transmission of information. It finds that economic progress and political consolidation in Europe did result in a changing of perspectives on the nature of the Empire of China. However, this shift did not occur solely due to endogenous changes in Europe, but was also a result of the creation of the one-dimensional image of China by the Jesuits according to their personal motivations and unique context.