Although little is known about consumers' attitudes towards wireless marketing channels, many organizations are today making considerable investments to take advantage of the new business possibilities offered by wireless technologies - encouraged by optimistic, yet contradictory forecast on the future volume of m-commerce. This paper highlights the importance of setting out from a consumer perspective when developing m-commerce strategies, proposing an analytical framework that can be used to assess whether, and in what ways, specific mobile services are likely to offer value for wireless Internet users. The paper reports on a national consumer survey conducted to investigate the Finnish consumers' willingness to use a number of initial mobile services, and to explore whether consumers recognize the value proposition of these applications. Besides offering theoretical and empirical insights relating to the value-creating features of m-commerce from a consumer's point of view, the study presents results indicating a rather low willingness to use mobile services in general, but an exceptionally high willingness to use some applications. The results do not, however, support the supposition that m-commerce is likely to increase the overall volume of ecommerce significantly by penetrating into untapped markets (non-PC users).


Space and time are often thought to be closely related, if conceptually distinct, cognitive and semantic domains. "Time as space" is a common conceptual and linguistic metaphor in diverse languages, and it has been proposed that this is a universal of human thought and language. This proposal, and the related assumption that the domain of "time as such" is equivalently given for all languages and cultures, are criticized. Research on crosslinguistic variation in the language of space and time needs to supplement experimental studies with the ethnographic linguistic exploration of the more profoundly intercultural sources of language variation, situated in diverse, multi-level material-symbolic socio-cognitive artefacts and niches.


In this paper we present Nessy (Named Entity Searching System) and its application to German in the context of the GermEval 2014 Named Entity Recognition Shared Task (Benikova et al., 2014a). We tackle the challenge by using a combination of machine learning (Naive Bayes classification) and rule-based methods. Altogether, Nessy achieves an F-score of 58.78% on the final test set.


A practical vision-based method is proposed to measure single axis rotation angles. Compared with existing angle measurement methods, the proposed method is more practical because of the simple equipment required and an easy installation. Furthermore, unlike most existing methods, the proposed method does not require the rotation axis information at all. The information is calibrated by two-view geometry of the single axis motion. Then, on the basis of the calibration results, an angle estimation algorithm with point matching is proposed. Experiments on synthetic and real images show that the proposed method is robust with respect to image noises and occlusion. A measurement accuracy of less than 0.1° is obtained in real experiments only using a provided camera and a normal printed checkboard. Moreover, a single axis rotation angle measurement MATLAB toolbox is developed, which is available online (http://quanquan.buaa.edu.cn/Anglemeasurementtoolbox.html).


Models for near-rigid shape matching are typically based on distance-related features, in order to infer matches that are consistent with the isometric assumption. However, real shapes from image datasets, even when expected to be related by "almost isometric" transformations, are actually subject not only to noise but also, to some limited degree, to variations in appearance and scale. In this paper, we introduce a graphical model that parameterises appearance, distance, and angle features and we learn all of the involved parameters via structured prediction. The outcome is a model for near-rigid shape matching which is robust in the sense that it is able to capture the possibly limited but still important scale and appearance variations. Our experimental results reveal substantial improvements upon recent successful models, while maintaining similar running times.


Many questions about the role of planktonic organisms remain unanswered because of the difficulty in obtaining a medium where bacteria and fungi are not present. Moreover, an excess load of these microorganisms in phytoplankton cultures and zooplankton organisms may cause nutrient competition or diseases and consequently the death of the organisms of interest. For this reason, we reviewed several methods that have been used to obtain axenic planktonic cultures through specific metabolic inhibitors, such as antibiotics and antifungal agents. From 1940 to 2016, most research was related to microalgae and crustacean's cultures, with the antimicrobials: penicillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, oxytetracycline, neomycin and nystatin being the most frequently used. The studies that applied antimicrobials agents to planktonic cultures were mainly focused on being able to culture them and to answer questions about the role of bacteria in aquatic communities without previous testing their effectiveness or their effects on non-target organisms. Therefore, this review sought to determine the correct use of antimicrobials in cultures of planktonic organisms to prevent bacterial and fungal growth, without causing damage to non-target organisms and may assist in the implementation of ecologically-oriented scientific experiments where bacterial and/or fungal inhibition is necessary.


The initial phase of civil construction has begun on a new Linac Experimental Facility at Fermilab with beneficial occupancy anticipated in fall, 2003. This facility is being designed for multipurpose use by establishing direct and independent control over incident beam parameters; for example, pulse duration from 1 - 50 /spl mu/sec, and beam transverse sizes from 1 15 cm (95% of beam). The facility will be capable of accepting up to the full Fermilab Linac beam intensity (1.6 /spl times/ 10/sup 13/ protons/pulse @ 15 Hz) making it one of the few areas where a primary beam is available for high intensity experiments. The purpose of the facility initially is to test the basic techniques and components proposed for muon ionization cooling in a proton beam judged equivalent in impact to a muon beam for a Neutrino Factory or Muon Collider. As such, the facility will provide the advanced cryogenic capability and safety systems required to perform R&D on liquid hydrogen targets. However, parallel future experiments are invited and, as a general facility, many areas of physics including radiation, medical, nuclear, atomic and beam diagnostics and control will be supported.


ijereja and entoptic landscape are both pieces that employ an iterative compositional practices. These practices consider the forms of the works as ongoing and evolving; they are shaped by and through their performance practices as compositional practices. As part of this approach, the distinction between composing, performing and notating has been blurred: practices such as the creation of notation have been considered performative and compositional; the mixing and editing of recorded performances in the studio has similarly been considered performative; performances themselves have become notational when they are used as the material for further performances.
 This practice research has investigated the temporal nature of performing, composing, and notating practices, positing that they are concurrent and continuous with each other. As such, it has generated documentation that, far from a definitive picture of the work, is a snapshot of one possible view of the music and its practices at a given time. The ontology of such a work is that described in Eco's The Infinity of Lists (2009) as a 'non-normal list' as it contains itself: the set of all materials and performances pertaining to each of these piece is a performance of the piece itself. (pp395-396) The 'work' is thus a constantly expanding pool of notation, performance, sound, text and concepts, none of which can be discarded from its multiplicity. In addition, the nature and role of the exegesis within practice research has been questioned as the contextual exploration of the work has been subsumed into its performance practice by way of the performance-lecture.
 This portfolio presents a selection of the materials of the two works alongside supporting documentation of their practices and performance histories.


The remarkable drop in the cost of embedded computing, sensing, and actuation is creating a corresponding explosion in the use of these technologies in new systems. In order to reduce complexity and contain costs, manufacturers are moving toward modularizing their systems and building reconfigurable products from simpler but smarter components. Of particular interest have recently been highly reconfigurable systems, i.e., systems that can be customized, repaired, and upgraded at a fine level of granularity throughout their lifetime. High reconfigurability puts new demands on the dynamic calibration, control, and coordination software in the system. There is much promise in existing software approaches, but current techniques face a number of new challenges before they can be embedded in the kind of real-time, distributed, and dynamic environment found in highly reconfigurable systems. In this tutorial paper, we will discuss challenges, solutions, and lessons learned in the context of a long-term project at PARC to bring such techniques to a highly reconfigurable paper path system.


Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been used for a long time in the manufacturing of prime silicon wafers for the IC industry. Lately, other substrates, such as silicon-on-insulator has become in use which requires a greater control of the silicon CMP process. CMP is used to planarize oxide interlevel dielectric and to remove excessive tungsten after plug filling in the Al interconnection technology. In Cu interconnection technology, the plugs and wiring are filled in one step and excessive Cu is removed by CMP. In front end processing, CMP is used to realize shallow trench isolation (STI), to planarize trench capacitors in dynamic random access memories (DRAM) and in novel gate concepts. This thesis is focused on CMP for front end processing, which is the processing on the device level and the starting material. The effects of dopants, crystal orientation and process parameters on silicon removal rate are investigated. CMP and silicon wafer bonding is investigated. Also, plasma assisted wafer bonding to form InP MOS structures is investigated. A complexity of using STI in bipolar and BiCMOS processes is the integration of STI with deep trench isolation (DTI). A process module to realize STI/DTI, which introduces a poly CMP step to planarize the deep trench filling, is presented. Another investigated front end application is to remove the overgrowth in selectively epitaxially grown collector for a SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor. CMP is also investigated for rounding, which could be beneficial for stress reduction or to create microoptical devices, using a pad softer than pads used for planarization. An issue in CMP for planarization is glazing of the pad, which results in a decrease in removal rate. To retain a stable removal rate, the pad needs to be conditioned. This thesis introduces a geometrically defined abrasive surface for pad conditioning.


Many approaches to semantic image hashing have been formulated as supervised learning problems that utilize images and label information to learn the binary hash codes. However, large-scale labelled image data is expensive to obtain, thus imposing a restriction on the usage of such algorithms. On the other hand, unlabelled image data is abundant due to the existence of many Web image repositories. Such Web images may often come with images tags that contains useful information, although raw tags in general do not readily lead to semantic labels. Motivated by this scenario, we formulate the problem of image hashing as an unsupervised learning problem. We utilize the information contained in the user-generated tags associated with the images to learn the hash codes. More specifically, we extract the word2vec semantic embeddings of the tags and use the information contained in them for constraining the learning. Accordingly, we name our model Unsupervised Deep Hashing using Tag Embeddings (UDHT). UDHT is tested for the task of semantic image retrieval and is compared against several state-of-art unsupervised models. Results show that our approach sets a new state-of-art in the area of unsupervised image hashing.


The current work presents an understanding of microstructure and mechanical properties as a function of build geometry and build orientation in Cu-Cr-Zr via the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique. Porosity, microstructure, and mechanical properties have been compared in the as-printed (AP) and heat treated (HT) LPBF Cu-Cr-Zr, between cylindrical and cube geometries, along the longitudinal (L) and transverse (T) build orientations. Varying porosity levels were observed that yielded parts with 96-97% relative density in the AP condition. The AP microstructure demonstrated a hierarchical microstructure, comprising of grains (2.5-100 μm) with a cellular substructure (400-850 nm) and intra-cellular nanoscale (20-60 nm) precipitates enriched in Cu and Zr. Unlike most materials in the AP condition, crystallographic texture was found to be absent; however, very distinct river like patterns highlighted a novel feature of the LPBF Cu-Cr-Zr. Upon solutionizing and aging, Cr precipitates were seen heterogeneously nucleating along cell boundaries (0.5-1.3 μm), causing up to 45% enhancement in the strength and a 4-5% lower ductility. The yield strength along the transverse orientation was 10-16% higher than that of longitudinal orientation, in both the AP and HT conditions. Fracture surface of the tensile samples exhibited micro-voids and cleavage facets and unmelted particles. In spite of the porosity, the overall mechanical properties matched well with those obtained in nearly dense (>99%) samples and the mechanical property debit was less than 10%.


In the social sphere there are numerous unmarked and unexamined categories. Heterosexuality, maleness, and middle classness are some of the apparent ones. However, Whiteness is perhaps the foremost unmarked and thus unexamined category in art education. And like other unmarked categories, White is assumed to be the human norm. Moreover, when Whiteness goes unexamined, racial privilege associated with Whiteness goes unacknowledged. In this article, I use the metaphor of sight or vision to examine race through a framework of bodies. My focus is, specifically, on the preparation of the authoritative White body of the art teacher to teach in classrooms consisting primarily of Black bodies, and other bodies of color. I use the Helms Model of White Racial Identity Development to outline both a theoretical and practical structure for critically examining White privilege. Additionally, I center the discussion on helping White preservice and practicing teachers acknowledge their "cultural eye" with the goal being to design a culturally responsive curriculum that vigorously challenges perspectives of Whiteness that result in inequities and injustices in personal, pedagogical, and political educational practice.


Integrating data from autonomous, distributed and heterogeneous data sources to provide a unified vision is a common demand for many businesses. Since the data sources may evolve frequently to satisfy their own independent business needs, solutions which use hard coded queries to integrate participating databases may cause high maintenance costs when evolution occurs. Thus a new solution which can handle database evolution with lower maintenance effort is required.

This thesis presents a new solution: Service Late binding Enabled Data Integration (SLEDI) which is set into a framework modeling the essential processes of the data integration activity. It integrates schematic heterogeneous relational databases with decreased maintenance costs for handling database evolution. An algorithm, named Information Provision Unit Describing (IPUD) is designed to describe each database as a set of Information Provision Units (IPUs). The IPUs are represented as Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structured data instead of hard coded queries, and further realized as data services. Hence the data integration is achieved through service invocations. Furthermore, a set of processes is defined to handle the database evolution through automatically identifying and modifying the IPUs which are affected by the evolution.

An extensive evaluation based on a case study is presented. The result shows that the schematic heterogeneities defined in this thesis can be solved by IPUD except the relation isomorphism discrepancy. Ten out of thirteen types of schematic database evolution can be automatically handled by the evolution handling processes as long as the evolution is represented by the designed data model. The computational costs of the automatic evolution handling show a slow linear growth with the number of participating databases. Other characteristics addressed include SLEDI's scalability, independence of application domain and databases model. The descriptive comparison with other data integration approaches shows that although the Data as a Service approach may result in lower performance under some circumstances, it supports better flexibility for integrating data from autonomous and evolving data sources.


Play therapy in Malaysia is still in the early stages of development. This study investigated the effectiveness of Child-Centered Play Therapy by conducting 3-day training sessions in different part of Malaysia for a total of 116 participants including mental health students and practitioners. Four research questions guided this study in exploring the differences on the three subscales: attitude, knowledge, and skills in play therapy. A repeated measure design was used for the pre-test and post-test instruments. Results indicated statistically significantly differences between pre and post tests on the all subscales. In comparing students and practitioners, result indicated no statistically significantly differences for all subscales on the pre and post tests. However, there was a statistically significantly difference between participants with and without previous play therapy experiences on the knowledge and skills subscales for the pre and post tests. In addition, a correlation design show there was statistical significance between the relationships among the subscales. For future research, a design incorporating random assignment and a control group as well as differencing lengths of training session are planned.


Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, was long believed to be a non-genetic sporadic origin syndrome. The identifi‐ cation of distinct genetic loci responsible for rare Mendelian forms of PD has represent‐ ed a revolutionary breakthrough, allowing to discover novel mechanisms underlying this debilitating still incurable condition. Along with single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), other kinds of DNA molecular defects have emerged as significant disease-causing mutations, including large chromosomic structural rearrangements and copy number variations (CNVs). Due to their size variability and to the different sensitivity and resolution of detection methodologies, CNVs constitute a particular challenge in genetic studies and the pathogenetic or susceptibility impact of specific CNVs on PD is currently under debate. In this chapter, we will review the current literature and bioinformatic data describing the involvement of CNVs on PD pathobiology. We will discuss the recently highlighted role of PARK2 heterozygous CNVs, the possible common founder effects of PD gene rearrangements and the importance to map genetic breakpoints. We will also add a summary about the current available molecular methods and bioinformatics web resources to detect and interpret CNVs. Assessing the global genome-wide burden of large CNVs and elucidating the role of de novo rare structural variants on PD may reveal new candidate genes and consequently ameliorate diagnosis and counselling of mutations carriers.


Purpose. To compare marginal bone loss between subgingivally placed short-collar implants with machined collars and those with machined and laser-microtextured collars. Materials and Methods. The investigators used a retrospective study design and included patients who needed missing posterior teeth replaced with implants. Short-collar implants with identical geometries were divided into two groups: an M group, machined collar; and an L group, machined and laser-microtextured collar. Implants were evaluated according to marginal bone loss, implant success, and probing depth (PD) at 3 years of follow-up. Results. Sixty-two patients received 103 implants (56 in the M group and 47 in the L group). The cumulative survival rate was 100%. All implants showed clinically acceptable marginal bone loss, although bone resorption was lower in the L group (0.49 mm) than in the M group (1.38 mm) at 3 years (p < 0.01). A significantly shallower PD was found for the implants in the L group during follow-up (p < 0.01). Conclusions. Our results suggest predictable outcomes with regard to bone loss for both groups; however, bone resorption was less in the L group than in the M group before and after loading. The laser-microtextured collar implant may provide a shallower PD than the machined collar implant.


Annual Summit on Biomaterials and Tissues happened during June 08, 2020, 2020 is an international Webinar for frank and challenging dialogue, exploring possibilities and dilemmas associated with advancement in biomaterials field. Our event brought together materials professionals, thought leaders, doctors, researchers, entrepreneurs, professors, directors. The participants were encouraged to share experience, insights and strategies for permitting the professional well-being of the entire materials science team. The format of the meeting involved a mixture of keynote talks, presentations on topical issues, and extensive panel discussions, as well as the introduction of interactive working groups, and plenty of scheduled time for official and informal networking. The event was carried out through different sessions, in which the discussions were held on the major scientific topics but not limited to: Biomaterials, 3D printing, Tissue transplants, Bio imaging, Implants, Recent works in biomaterials and more.


The purpose of the present study is to assess the effect of an auxiliary lateral image and display devices on manipulation performance in a virtual reality-based hand rehabilitation system. The system consists of a personal computer, a tracker, a data glove, and a display device. For this study, a projector, a monitor, and a head-mounted display were respectively used as the display devices to present three-dimensional virtual environments. Twelve volunteers were recruited to take a pick-and-place procedure at different levels of difficulty. Task time and collision frequency were the parameters used to evaluate the manipulation performance. It was found that the presence of an auxiliary lateral image was a significant factor only for the performance of the projector group and the monitor group. In addition, no statistically significant difference was found in the comparison between the projector group and the monitor group.


Rainfall passing over a given area is a highly dynamic process; it changes constantly in form and intensity. It varies constantly on short spatial and temporal scales that makes real time measurements of the amount of rainfall challenging. Measuring and sensing rain is important to be able to understand and control our urban environment. Traditionally, rainfall analysis for hydrologic modelling use spatial measurements collected at various sparsely spread observation points using rain gauges working on various principles such as weighing type, tipping bucket, capacitive type etc. An accurate representation of spatial model of rainfall is essential for hydrological operational purposes such as forecasting of river flow, flood irrigation planning and modelling of catchment areas. Measurement of drop size distribution are also exploited to investigate microphysics of precipitation and to improve rainfall remote sensing estimation techniques. However, the high initial costs of convectional rain gauges prevent collection of data with high spatial resolution. The research looks at investigating the sensor stack to be a part of an integrated sensor approach to develop a device architecture for the development of low cost integrated rain sensing and measuring the rain.
The device architecture consists of three main stacks – energy generation layer, sensing layer, processing layer. The raindrop on impact causes vibration on the device surface. This force exerted by the raindrop causes a deflection and is measured indirectly by the use of a thin film piezo sensor. As part of the work, we find there is a good correlation between the vibrations caused and the size or volume of the raindrop by indirectly measuring the impact force of the raindrop. The working range of the device is between 100ℎ


Any rhetorical exchange can involve a form of 'identity theft' if others attempt to wrest authorship from the rhetor. The paradigms of the late 1900s that privileged mutual inquiry into shared knowledge have now evolved into ones that privilege not only the shared, but also difference, debate, even dispute – and the ways in which we might change as a result of a negotiation between what is shared and what is unshared. Such paradigms seek to defang the antagonistic even as they recognize that inquiry into difference is an essential part of rhetorical exchange, as well as increased individual (and social) responsibility for position-taking, i.e. our very identities as social and thinking beings. Whereas 'common ground' now represents the acceptance of difference and responsibility as the starting point of any rhetorical exchange, a 'rhetoric of recognition' represents an increased awareness of the possibility of change as a result of rhetoric.


At the first stage in this research, the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)
were grown by using the floating catalysts chemical vapor deposition (FC-CVD)
method. The produced MWCNTs were characterized by using the scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the high resolution
transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The MWCNTs was incorporated into
polypropylene (PP) to produce the PP/MWCNTs nanocomposites through the direct
melt compounding process using an internal mixer. The mixer parameters were
varied to determine the best parameter to produce the nanocomposites. It was
determined through the tensile test which performed on every nanocomposite which
fabricated from the various combinations of parameters. The best parameters to
produce the nanocomposites were at the temperature of 175°C, rotor speed of 60 rpm
and the compounding time of 8 minutes. In the next stage, the effect of filler loading
was studied. The filler loading was varied from 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00wt.%. The best tensile properties was observed in the nanocomposites with 0.75wt.% of
MWCNTs, with the improvement of 42.82% and 126.90% of the tensile strength and
tensile modulus, compared to the virgin PP matrix. The validation of the tensile test
data was carried out by using the historical data design from the Response Surface
Methodology (RSM) with the aid of the Design Expert Software 6.10. The
PP/MWCNTs nanocomposites which compounded from the best processing
parameter were further characterized for other properties. Physical test on the
nanocomposites density was revealed that the density is decreased with the
increasing percentage of MWCNTs addition. This condition gives benefit on the
weight saving of the materials. Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) and X-Ray
diffraction analysis disclosed that the melt blending between the PP matrix and
MWCNTs filler is entirely physical-mechanical blending, without involving any
chemical interaction. This further explained the reinforcement behavior of the
MWCNTs within the PP matrix. Furthermore, TEM images of the nanocomposites
surface confirmed an excellent dispersion and distribution of the MWCNTs in the PP
matrix. This condition was supported by the significant improvement of the flexural
strength, flexural modulus, impact strength, and storage modulus and loss modulus
properties of the fabricated nanocomposites. In overall, the proper selection of the
melt blending processing parameter and the use of low filler loading was
significantly helped to disperse and distribute the MWCNTs homogenously within
the PP matrix, resulting major improvements to the many of the properties studied


Introduction Most anal cancers are associated with HPV, particularly HPV 16. The incidence of anal cancer is increased among men who have sex with men (MSM) compared with the general population. Screening and treatment of anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN), the anal cancer precursor, are not yet standard of care, and prevention efforts are needed to reduce the incidence of anal cancer. We tested the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to determine its ability to reduce the incidence of AIN/anal cancer. Methods 598 MSM aged 16–26 years with five or fewer lifetime sex partners were randomised to receive vaccine or placebo at enrolment, month 2 and month 6. Subjects underwent detailed anogenital exams and HPV sampling from the penis, scrotum, perineal/perianal and anal canal at enrolment, month 7 and at 6-month intervals afterwards. Efficacy analyses were performed in a per-protocol (PPE) population (sero-negative and DNA-negative from day 1 through month 7 to the relevant vaccine HPV type) and in all enrolees in an intent-to treat (ITT) analysis. Median follow-up of the PPE population was 2.5 years (post-dose 3). Results Vaccine efficacy against HPV 6/11/16/18-related AIN and anal cancer in the PPE population was 77.5% (95% CI 39.6 to 93.3) (5 vaccine cases vs 24 placebo cases). Efficacy against high-grade AIN (AIN 2+) was 74.9% (95% CI 8.8 to 95.4). In the ITT population the efficacy was 50.3% (95% CI 25.7 to 67.2) and 54.2% (95% CI 18.0 to 75.3), respectively. No anal cancer was seen in either treatment group. Conclusions These results demonstrate that the quadrivalent HPV vaccine is efficacious in preventing AIN related to HPV 6/11/16/18 in MSM subjects naïve to vaccine HPV types at enrolment, as well as in an ITT population. The quadrivalent HPV vaccine may be a useful measure to reduce the incidence of anal disease in at-risk populations.


Abstract : This research focuses on the mechanical wear due to the sliding between two surfaces. Currently there is a need to identify and compare materials that would endure sliding wear under these severe conditions. The high costs of the high-speed sliding experiments has prevented the collection of the necessary data required to characterize wear. Simulating wear through Finite Elements (FE) would enable its prediction. This 3D wear model allows one to reasonably predict high-speed sliding mechanical wear. In the aerospace, automotive and weapon industries this model can aid in material selection, design and/or testing of systems subjected to high-speed sliding wear.


Modern cities are subject to a lot of periodic or unexpected critical events, which may have different monitoring and control requirements according to the expected impacts on people safety and urban mobility. When multiple monitoring and automation systems are deployed, adaptive wireless sensor networks may adjust sensing and transmission configurations according to the detected events, optimizing the network overall operation. In this context, mobile sinks come as an effective way to enhance monitoring performance in smart city environments. However, practical issues related to the available roads and traffic load should be considered, allowing the computation of the best final positions and movement paths for each sink. Therefore, this paper proposes algorithms to compute dynamic sinks movement in reactive wireless sensor networks, supporting efficient adaptation to event-based monitoring in smart cities.


Background. The aimof this study was to investigate familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, Portuguese type patients' endocrine cell content in the stomach and duodenum before and after liver transplantation, and to relate the findings to the patients' gastrointestinal disturbances. Methods. Ten liver-transplanted familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, Portuguese type patients and 10 healthy controls were seen. Endocrine cells were identified by immunohistochemistry and quantified with computerized image analysis. The activity of the cells was appraised by measurements of the cell secretory index and nuclear area. Clinical symptoms were obtained from the patients' medical records. Results. After transplantation, a significant increase of several endocrine cell types were noted, and the pretransplant depletion of several types of endocrine cells disappeared. For no type of endocrine cell was any difference compared with controls noted after transplantation. There was no significant decrease of the amount of amyloid in the biopsies after liver transplantation. The patients' symptoms remained generally unchanged after transplantation, although a substantial time lapse between pretransplant evaluation and transplantation was present. Conclusions. Liver transplantation restores the endocrine cells in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. The restoration was not correlated with an improvement of the patients' symptoms. No decrease of the amyloid deposits was noted.


Abstract By presenting perceptions of Nigerian students enrolled in the online international postgraduate programmes of the University of Liverpool regarding academic integrity, this paper aims to explore Western ideas, such as originality and plagiarism that are extraneous in the students' local cultures. Different historical and cultural circumstances may contribute to the construction of diverse meanings that online students attribute to these concepts. The multidisciplinary study follows phenomenological research design (van Manen, 1997; Creswell, 2007) and combines cultural anthropology (Hall, 1996, Hannerz, 2001; Coleman et al., 2010) as well as online education (Anderson, 2008) in the research. The paper promotes a non-judgmental and culturally aware approach when dealing with issues of academic integrity, intends to find ideological reasons in authentic cultural belief systems that may demonstrate that the common 'nonunderstanding' concerning academic integrity is due to a culture-dependent meaning construction process, which leads to the ideological misinterpretation of these Western concepts.


As organizations grow larger and more distributed, the problems of maintaining corporate awareness and effective communication channels escalate. The clinical domain poses particular challenges to maintaining good corporate communications because users have limited time to access information and often have negative technology perceptions. This article highlights how a screen saver application, initially designed to increase privacy and security, developed into a new communication medium improving corporate communication across the organization. An ethnographic study of the application within a hospital setting, analysed using grounded theory methods, details the iterative and organic development of the design through 'community of practice' involvement. This application and the evolutionary process through which it was developed were found to not only increase awareness of resources, activities and hospital changes but also positively influence users' perceptions of, involvement in and ownership of general IT developments. User involvement also raised the importance, for the designers, of application usability, quality and aesthetics.


The primary role of law in society is to protect people, ensure a common good, settle disagreements, and persuade people to do the right thing. In the field of occupational health and safety (OHS), employees should be guaranteed a safe place to work by law, protecting them from occupational hazards, accidents, and disease. However, it is estimated that 2.3 million workers die annually for reasons attributed to work, mainly due to work-related diseases (1). As important as this number appears, it is likely to be a considerable underestimate of the true number of deaths due to shortcomings in the available data (2). This gap inevitably brings into question the effectiveness of OHS legislation, the process in which it is formulated, and the extent to which it is enforced.

The current issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health contains a systematic review by MacEachen and colleagues of the qualitative literature on OHS legislation and regulatory enforcement planning and implementation (3). This meta-ethnographic synthesis of 18 qualitative studies yielded four important themes pertaining to regulation formation, regulation challenges, inspector organization, and worker representation, and its findings will certainly reach a large audience among the OHS community.
Although the review was conducted with explicit methodological standards, some caveats are worth mentioning. First, the evidence base of the review is limited to a few developed countries (with the notable exception of the Philippines) dominated by Australia and Canada where half of the studies were conducted. The way OHS is regulated in different nation states may vary to a certain extent (4), and, consequently, MacEachen et al's results should be interpreted according to one's own context.

Second, half of the studies were published between 1991–2009, before the financial crisis in the US sparked the global recession in the years 2008–2009. Two articles in the review linked weakened OHS legislation coverage to unions being constrained by economic conditions. It is plausible that the general economic decline observed in developed countries has amplified OHS regulation challenges, such as organizational restructuring, complex contracts, and psychosocial issues in the workplace.
Third, the findings of the review remain essentially descriptive. They offer insights into policy-making and implementation challenges but stay cautiously away from political science theoretical frameworks, which could be advanced to discuss causal mechanisms linking policy and politics, for example. How to conceptualize the relationship between policy and politics is central to political science. The linkage between policy types (distributive, redistributive, regulatory) and sectors (housing, employment, labor, etc), on the one hand, and politics (forms and strategies of policy-making such as relabeling issues, agenda setting or policy coalitions), on the other hand, is characterized by complex relationships and a certain degree of conflict or consensus for which different theories have tried to account (5, 6). Such theoretical perspectives in political science are somehow missing in the synthesis of MacEachen and colleagues, either due to the content of the studies synthetized, the review process, or both.

The development of regulations and associated challenges described in the review fall within the realm of public policy analysis that seeks to explain how decision-makers, elected politicians, interest groups, lobbyists, experts, and political institutions produce public actions intended to have a large-scale impact. The study of public policy emerged in the 1960s at a time where optimism affected the social sciences and nurtured the belief that research could contribute to the success of public action. This overtly confident view was let down by the failure of many state-run programs, to the point that understanding policy failures has been described as intellectually stimulating albeit politically depressing (7).

Public policy evaluation faces theoretical, methodological, and political challenges. From a theoretical point of view, political science encompasses a variety of approaches, each one claiming to explain why policies differ between sectors and countries, and why some policies are stable and others change. Methodological challenges pertain to the difficulty in applying experimental approaches to expose the relationships between variables within a political system. Last but not least, political challenges are the limited culture of evaluation in politics and the scarcity of available data to perform evaluations. The lack of accuracy and comparability of statistical tools at the European Union and Member States level to monitor the progress of the European strategy on health and safety at work has been mentioned as a key challenge, in particular with regard to occupational diseases (8).

At first sight, some findings of the review could induce a defeatist view of the state's ability to address in a timely manner OHS issues associated with new forms of work in fast-evolving economies, such as outsourcing, temporary work, and international supply chains. In the current era of globalization where influential ideologies advocate for minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, these findings are concerning. However, other findings open promising research avenues. The influence of the coordination and clarity of communication between parties on OHS should be further explored. The impact of the workers' representative involvement (experts with technical expertise or worksite-based workers with local legitimacy) should also be examined. The optimal degree of precision of OHS laws is still to be determined so that they can be followed and evaluated. The role of employers as policy recipients is largely ignored and the conditions that motivate them to participate in OHS systems should be studied.

About a hundred years ago, the German sociologist Max Weber emphasized the radical difference between "Science as a Vocation" and "Politics as a Vocation" (9). Researchers are definitely not supposed to paint the world according to their own views. For the worker's sake, let us hope they can help policy-makers develop laws to change it.


ABSTRACT:
 For plant species important in ecological restoration, seed transfer zones have been developed to maximize the probability that sown seed will germinate, establish, persist, and reproduce without negatively impacting the genetic composition of remnant plant populations. However, empirically based seed transfer zones have not been developed for most species. In their absence, maps based on ecological or climatic variables have been suggested as proxies. In the United States, these maps typically include the Environmental Protection Agency's Levels III and IV Ecoregion maps and the US Forest Service's Provisional Seed Zones. Maps of different spatial scales represent a compromise between economic and ecological considerations; those that delineate larger seed transfer zones are less costly to implement but impose more risk of poor adaptation to local conditions. To test the relative suitability of each map in delineating seed transfer zones, we conducted common garden experiments using five forb species found throughout the Great Basin and measured variation in traits thought to influence plant performance. We distinguished between environmentally and genetically controlled variation in measured traits and assessed how well this variation was explained by different candidate seed transfer zones. We found significant, population-level variation in all species for most measured traits. All tested seed transfer zones significantly explained some of this variation, but the proportion explained generally decreased with increasing zone size. Results suggest the intersection of Provisional Seed Zones and Level III Ecoregions was the best proxy for formal seed transfer zones developed based on common garden studies. This spatial scale captured 80% of the variation among source populations on average, and represents a viable compromise between ecological and economic considerations.


Network Intrusion Detection is one of the most researched topics in the field of computer security. Hacktivists use sophisticated tools to launch numerous attacks that hamper the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer resources. There is an incessant need to safeguard these resources to avoid further damage. In the proposed study, we have presented a meta-classification approach using decision jungle to perform both binary and multiclass classification. We have established the robustness of our approach by configuring an optimal set of hyper-parameters coupled with relevant feature subsets using a production-ready environment namely Azure machine learning. We have validated the efficiency of the proposed design using three contemporary datasets namely UNSW NB-15, CICIDS 2017, and CICDDOS 2019. We could achieve an accuracy of 99.8% pertaining to UNSW NB-15 whereas the accuracy in the case of CICIDS 2017 and CICDDOS 2019 datasets has been 98% and 97% respectively. A distinctive ability of the proposed model lies in its finesse to detect thirty-three modern attack types considerably well. Unlike conventional stacking ensembles, the proposed solution relies on a train-test ratio of 40:60 to establish the legitimacy of predictions. We also conducted statistical significance tests to compare the performance of classifiers involved in the study. To extend the functionalities further, we have automated the proposed model that can be a reliable candidate for real-time network intrusion detection.


Information and Communication Technologies, known as ICT, have undergone dramatic changes in the last 25 years. The 1980s was the decade of the Personal Computer (PC), which brought computing into the home and, in an educational setting, into the classroom. The 1990s gave us the World Wide Web (the Web), building on the infrastructure of the Internet, which has revolutionized the availability and delivery of information. In the midst of this information revolution, we are now confronted with a third wave of novel technologies (i.e., mobile and wearable computing), where computing devices already are becoming small enough so that we can carry them around at all times, and, in addition, they have the ability to interact with devices embedded in the environment. The development of wearable technology is perhaps a logical product of the convergence between the miniaturization of microchips (nanotechnology) and an increasing interest in pervasive computing, where mobility is the main objective. The miniaturization of computers is largely due to the decreasing size of semiconductors and switches; molecular manufacturing will allow for "not only molecular-scale switches but also nanoscale motors, pumps, pipes, machinery that could mimic skin" (Page, 2003, p. 2). This shift in the size of computers has obvious implications for the human-computer interaction introducing the next generation of interfaces. Neil Gershenfeld, the director of the Media Lab's Physics and Media Group, argues, "The world is becoming the interface. Computers as distinguishable devices will disappear as the objects themselves become the means we use to interact with both the physical and the virtual worlds" (Page, 2003, p. 3). Ultimately, this will lead to a move away from desktop user interfaces and toward mobile interfaces and pervasive computing.


The human impact on natural landscapes has been steadily increasing during the last few decades and the current decline of biodiversity is largely the result of human activity. Many of these activities have resulted in a wide range of environmental changes that accelerate and interact with other environmental changes at local, regional and global scales. Ecosystem degradation in many areas of the world has been associated with the increase in the distribution of human plague cases, both land use and climate changes have been suggested as causes of the persistence of human plague in Africa, America and Asia. In West Usambaras, Tanzania, human plague is a public health problem, which has been associated with land use and land cover changes and the level of the spreading of the disease has increased from one village in 1980 to about 48 villages by the end of the year 2002, in the whole district. This case study shows how local people link the anthropogenic modifications of the ecosystems with the frequent outbreak of human plague in the area. Using a case study protocol developed by Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability (ISTS), the case study has been expanded to look at the issues such as stakeholder involvement in the development of this case study, the science policy- interface and the challenges of interdisciplinary research for sustainable development.


Abstract Background and literature - It has been widely recognised in the literature regarding termination of pregnancy (TOP) care that it causes deleterious effects on those caring. Though this has been widely accepted there have been no studies, looking at student nurses lived experience in this area of care. With the increasing advancements in technology and nurses autonomy, day case TOPs are set to increase. With student regularly placed on day surgery units there is a need to explore how this will affect student nurses while on placement. Aim - To investigate student nurses' lived experiences of caring for women undergoing a termination of pregnancy. Methodology and methods - A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology research approach was used. Obtaining the data through phenomenological semi- structured interviews of four student nurses retrospective accounts of TOP care. They were then analysis using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Findings - During student nurses lived experience of TOP care they suffered an emotional burden. Within this emotional burden, various stressors made them elicit closed-off, withdrawn or emotionally attached coping response. These stressors include; the 'Termination of life', 'Apprehension of the unknown', 'Challenging patients' and the 'Care environment'. There were certain mediators of these stressors this included support. There were some predicaments of accessing this support while on placement. Conclusion - TOP care affected the emotional attributes of the student nurses. The stressors they experienced on placement caused them to elicit negative coping responses. These findings provide a different perspective to the existing literature.
Abstract
2
Recommendations - Following the Lazarus Transactional Model of Stress and Coping recommendations on extra mentorship and information throughout the students placement were made at different organisational levels.


B cells can be stimulated to undergo a DNA event called class switch recombination (CSR), which allows a B cell to change the constant heavy chain tail of the antibodies it is producing. The antibody isotype [immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgG, IgE, or IgA] is defined by this tail, which binds to receptors on the target cells to initiate different cellular responses to the same anitgen. Litinskiy et al. describe a mechanism for CSR that does not require T cell-B cell interaction. Cultured B cells stimulated with exogenous BLyS or APRIL underwent CSR, as detected by small amounts of switch circle DNA, an extrachromosomal product of CSR, and the expression of transcripts from this event. The addition of BLyS or APRIL with interleukin (IL)-10, IL-4, or tranforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) potentiated CSR. BLyS and APRIL both stimulated the activity of the transcription factor NF-κB. BLyS or APRIL stimulated increased IgA and IgG antibody secretion. The authors determined that interferons, CD40 ligand, and bacterial lipopolysaccharide stimulated BLyS and APRIL production in dendritic cells or monocytes, which promoted CSR in B cells. CSR in response to activated dendritic cells was blocked by treatments that neutralized BLyS or APRIL action. When the B cell receptor was activated and the cells were exposed to activated antigen-presenting cells, then IgA and IgG were secreted through a process that required BLyS and APRIL. Thus, antigen-presenting cells alone may be able to control B cell antibody production without requiring a T cell intermediary. MacPherson and Lamarre discuss the relevance of these results for autoimmune disease. A. J. Macpherson, A. Lamarre, BLySsful interactions between DCs and B cells. Nat. Immunol. 3, 798-800 (2002). [Online Journal] M. B. Litinskiy, B. Nardelli, D. M. Hilbert, B. He, A. Schaffer, P. Casali, A. Cerutti, DCs induce CD40-independent immunoglobulin class switching through BLys and APRIL. Nat. Immunol. 3, 822-829 (2002). [Online Journal]


Learning long-term dynamics models is the key to understanding physical common sense. Most existing approaches on learning dynamics from visual input sidestep long-term predictions by resorting to rapid re-planning with short-term models. This not only requires such models to be super accurate but also limits them only to tasks where an agent can continuously obtain feedback and take action at each step until completion. In this paper, we aim to leverage the ideas from success stories in visual recognition tasks to build object representations that can capture inter-object and object-environment interactions over a long-range. To this end, we propose Region Proposal Interaction Networks (RPIN), which reason about each object's trajectory in a latent region-proposal feature space. Thanks to the simple yet effective object representation, our approach outperforms prior methods by a significant margin both in terms of prediction quality and their ability to plan for downstream tasks, and also generalize well to novel environments. Code, pre-trained models, and more visualization results are available at this https URL.


Near the threshold of stability, an intrinsically denser fluid heated from below and underlying an isothermal fluid can undergo oscillatory instability, whereby perturbations to the interface between the fluids rise and fall periodically, or it can be mechanically stable and in thermal equilibrium with heat flux extracted by small-scale convection at the interface. Both the analysis of marginal stability and laboratory experiments in large-Prandtl-number fluids show that the critical Rayleigh number, scaled to parameters of the lower fluid, depends strongly on the buoyancy number, B, the ratio of the intrinsic density difference between the fluids and the maximum density difference due to thermal expansion. For small buoyancy number, B < ∼ 0.1, the critical Rayleigh number, RaC, for oscillatory instability is small RaC < ∼50, and increases steeply for B ∼ 0.25. For B > ∼ 0.5 and RaC > ∼1100, a second form of instability develops, in which convection is confined to the lower layer. The analysis of marginal stability for layers with very different viscosities shows further that two modes of oscillatory instability exist, depending on the value of B. For B < 0.275, the entire lower layer is unstable, and wavelengths of perturbations that grow fastest are much larger than its thickness. For B > 0.275, only the bottom of the lower layer is buoyant, and instability occurs by its penetrating the upper part of the lower layer; the wavelengths of the perturbations that grow fastest are much smaller than those for B < 0.275, and the maximum frequency of oscillatory instability is much larger than that for B < 0.275. Oscillations in the laboratory experiments show that the heights to which plumes of the lower fluid rise into the upper one increase with the Rayleigh number. Moreover, in the finite-amplitude regime, the oscillation is not symmetrical. Plumes that reach maximum heights fall quickly, folding on themselves and entraining some of the upper fluid. Hence oscillatory convection provides a mechanism for mixing the fluids. Applied to the Earth, these results bear on the development of continental lithosphere, whose mantle part is chemically different from the underlying asthenosphere. As shown by the laboratory experiments and stability analysis, the lithosphere can be mechanically stable and in thermal equilibrium such that heat supplied by small-scale convection at the top of the asthenosphere is conducted through it. The lithosphere seems to have developed in a state near that of instability with different thicknesses depending on its intrinsic buoyancy. It may have grown not only by chemical differentiation during melting, but also by oscillatory convection entraining chemically denser material from the asthenosphere.


Neural volume rendering became increasingly popular recently due to its success in synthesizing novel views of a scene from a sparse set of input images. So far, the geometry learned by neural volume rendering techniques was modeled using a generic density function. Furthermore, the geometry itself was extracted using an arbitrary level set of the density function leading to a noisy, often low fidelity reconstruction. The goal of this paper is to improve geometry representation and reconstruction in neural volume rendering. We achieve that by modeling the volume density as a function of the geometry. This is in contrast to previous work modeling the geometry as a function of the volume density. In more detail, we define the volume density function as Laplace's cumulative distribution function (CDF) applied to a signed distance function (SDF) representation. This simple density representation has three benefits: (i) it provides a useful inductive bias to the geometry learned in the neural volume rendering process; (ii) it facilitates a bound on the opacity approximation error, leading to an accurate sampling of the viewing ray. Accurate sampling is important to provide a precise coupling of geometry and radiance; and (iii) it allows efficient unsupervised disentanglement of shape and appearance in volume rendering. Applying this new density representation to challenging scene multiview datasets produced high quality geometry reconstructions, outperforming relevant baselines. Furthermore, switching shape and appearance between scenes is possible due to the disentanglement of the two.


Manipulation of DNA is both an intrinsic and essential component of molecular biology and biotechnology. Reagents capable of cutting DNA are applied within these fields as probes for DNA structure and function, with the ultimate aim being the design of target-specific—customised endonucleases—capable of modifying genomic DNA. Thus, DNA cleaving reagents are essential tools for both sequence analysis and genome engineering. Furthermore, the discovery of new molecular mechanisms by which small molecules modify DNA structure, reactivity, and biological repair contributes significantly to potential drug development.

The chemical nuclease of [Cu(Phen)2]2+ (where Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), is a well studied reagent which randomly cleaves nucleic acids in the presence of molecular oxygen (or hydrogen peroxide) upon reduction to Cu+. In addition, compounds based on this chemotype have found application in the biological field as antimicrobial and anticancer agents, DNA intercalators, and as nucleoside constituents for incorporation into the DNA backbone. [Cu(Phen)2]+ oxidises duplex DNA without specificity, predominately at the minor groove with C-H bonds at C1′, C4′, and C5′ being the main targets of hydrogen atom abstraction.

The aim of this research was to extend structure-activity relationships of Cu2+-Phen complexes containing sterically functionalized pendant carboxylates and to investigate how synthetic extension of the ligated phenazine ligand within this complex model influences DNA recognition and oxidative degradation. These compounds have shown an enhanced DNA recognition relative to the well-studied chemical nuclease, [Cu(Phen)2]+. Furthermore, the effects of nuclearity on DNA oxidation were elucidated using the [Cu(-terephthalate)(Phen)4]2+ cation with results showing potent DNA oxidation in the absence of exogenous reductant. Many compounds developed in this work constitute a series of novel anticancer leads capable of intracellular DNA oxidation leading to genomic double strand breaks. In addition to the application of developmental metallodrugs as inducers of chemical nuclease activity, the effects of cytotoxic trinuclear platinum(II) complexes as high-affinity DNA binders that inhibit—or block—endonuclease enzyme recognition and excision are reported through a wide variety of biophysical and molecular biological methods.


Background : Pain is a common sequela of surgery and foot massage has been advocated as an effective and easy technique that can be applied independently by nurses to patients in postoperative period to relive pain intensity. It involves a simple technique, costs little and requires no special equipment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of foot massage on postoperative pain and vital sign parameters in postoperative breast cancer patients. Methods: A quasiexperimental design was used to investigate any causality between foot massage and postoperative pain with a total of 60 breast cancer patients (n = 30 in the control group who received only analgesic treatment and n = 30 in the experimental group who received analgesic treatment plus foot massage). A structured questionnaire was developed by the researcher to collect data related to participants' characteristics such as age, level of education, type of surgery and usage of Non-steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs [NSAIDs]. Following an initial complaint from patients that they were experiencing post-operative pain the pain intensity level was assessed by a Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] as a baseline and after 60 minutes and 120 minutes following foot massage. Vital signs were assessed using the same time intervals. Findings: When analyzing pain levels over time a significant difference was found between both groups with the mean pain level of the experimental group who had experienced foot massage as an adjunct to analgesia being noted to be lower than that of the control group. A statistically significant reduction of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in both groups was also observed but a higher reduction was observed in the experimental group ( P < .001) whilst the respiratory rate remained unchanged in both groups. Conclusion : Foot massage is an effective modality in helping to relieve postoperative pain among women who have been treated with surgery for breast surgery. To promote and improve the quality of foot massage in clinical settings, regular meeting should be held by health team members to discuss the potential positive clinical outcomes, patient benefits and methods of implementation and audit of this technique. Consideration should be given by schools of nursing to include this technique within their nursing curriculum, through the integration of the complementary therapy foot massage technique as part of the considerations on the fundamentals of surgical nursing theory and practice.


Although theoretically the patent system is meant to bolster innovation, the current United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is cumbersome and involves a significant time investment to locate inactive patents less than 20 years old. This article reports on the development of an open source database to find these public domain ideas. First, a search strategy is explained. Then the operation and use of free and open source software are detailed to meet the needs of open hardware innovators. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the utility of the approach with 3-D printing. The results showed how the Free Inactive Patent Search enables users to search using plain language text to find public domain concepts and then provides a hyperlinked list of ideas that takes users to the USPTO database for the patent for more information. All of the source code to operate the search and the website are open source themselves and provided in the public domain for free. In the case study on 3-D printing the time to identify public domain patents was cut by a factor of more than 1500. This tool has the potential for accelerating the development of open hardware technologies to create high value for the public.


The languages of the Amdo region in the Sino-Tibetan borderzone form an areal union of the Sprachbund type, in which all participants have been approaching a common goal of structural uniformity. There are, however, differences as to how the goal of uniformity has been achieved in each given language. Some structural features seem to be easily lost or borrowed, while others are more stable and language-specific. Observations made of the Amdo Sprachbund confirm results obtained in other parts of the world concerning the stability of features like ergative and nominal phrase word order. On the other hand, the universally rare category of perspective, present in several languages of the Amdo region, seems to be easily transferred from one language to another.


The Peinan archaeological site is the largest prehistoric village in Taiwan. Only small-scale pits are allowed for research purposes because the Peinan site is protected by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act. Careful selection of the pit locations is crucial for future archaeological research at this site. In this study, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey was applied near the stone pillar to understand the GPR signatures of the subsurface remains. Seven GPR signatures were categorized based on the radar characters shown on the GPR image. A detailed GPR survey with dense parallel survey lines was subsequently conducted in the area of northern extent of the onsite exhibition to map the subsurface ancient buildings. The results were verified by two test pits, which indicate that the distribution of the subsurface building structures can be well recognized from GPR depth slices. It will be very helpful for setting proper pits priorities for future archaeological research, and for making proper design of the new onsite exhibition.


Adolescents with juvenile justice system experience may be enrolled into alternative schools to increase academic success or to reduce delinquency. This study used longitudinal data on a racially/ethnically diverse sample of 1,216 male, first-time adolescent offenders to examine how youthful offenders' school experiences were associated with academic outcomes, school attitudes, and delinquency. Effects varied by domain in important ways. Youth who attended alternative schools generally fared better academically than youth who attended traditional schools. However, importantly, youth who attended alternative schools subsequently engaged in more delinquency and violent reoffending than youth in traditional schools. The findings indicate that disrupting normative schooling appears to be the most detrimental to youth outcomes across domains.


Gravimetric and dielectric measurements of water uptake by a series of carboxy terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (CTBN) -amine cured epoxy resin systems are reported. The amount of water absorbed and rate of diffusion increases up to approximately 15 w/w% CTBN content. Anomalous behaviour is observed around a composition of approximately 20% CTBN which is coincident with the occurrence of a cocontinuous phase structure in the resin. Dynamic mechanical analysis and atomic force microscopy studies provide evidence for phase separation and inversion of phase structure at 20% CTBN. The increase in the water uptake with increasing CTBN content reflects the ability of the highly polar acrylonitrile group to bind water. The general increase in the diffusion coefficient is consistent with CTBN being initially dispersed in the epoxy matrix tending to a lowering of the effective segment density inhibiting mobility of the water molecules. In the cocontinuous region subtle effects of mutual solubility of components and generation of a long percolation path leads to the observed anomalous behaviour. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) indicated that water absorption suprisingly leads to an increase in the glass transition temperature and is associated with a densification of the matrix structure. Atomic force microscopy measurements reveal that the surface roughness changes with composition with a marked increase in the surface roughness at 20% CTBN. q 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Man evolved as a hunter-gatherer, and the invention and spread of agriculture was followed by changes in diet, the environment and population densities which have resulted in globally high prevalences of anaemias due to nutritional deficiencies of iron, folate and (locally) vitamin B12, to infestations by hookworm and schistosomes, to malaria, and to the natural selection for the genes for sickle-cell diseases, beta-thalassaemias, alpha-thalassaemias, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, ovalocytosis and possibly (locally) elliptocytosis. The present explosion of population is driving an expansion of agriculture, especially the cultivation of rice, and this has led often to disastrous increases of transmission of malaria, schistosomiasis and other diseases, to widespread chemical pollution, and to degradation of the environment. Anaemia, as the commonest manifestation of human disease, is a frequent consequence. The urgent need for increased food production is matched by the urgent need for assessment and control of the health impact of agricultural development.


An expression is derived for the intensity correlation function of a partially coherent beam wave of arbitrary size and focus propagating through weak atmospheric turbulence. Because the derivation employs the quadratic structure function (QSF) approximation, it describes only long-term beam-wander effects. Calculated covariance results agree well with measured data and substantiate the importance of beam-wander effects on focused beam statistics. Illustrative results show the effects of the phase deviation, size, and phase curvature of the source as well as the strength of turbulence and range. The weak-turbulence formulas are used to calculate strong-turbulence statistics by iterative recalculation of the coherence parameters of the beam in a succession of weakly turbulent path intervals. Successively calculated values of the beam-phase deviation and correlation length effectively provide wave-tilt correlation information that is missing in the original QSF approximation. The iterative solution for the normalized beam-intensity variance saturates and asymptotically approaches unity in a manner predicted by other theories. Calculated covariance functions also exhibit the initial rapid falloff and subsequent long coherence tail typical of saturated covariance behavior. Some magnitude discrepancies between calculated results and reported measurements are apparent for strong turbulence conditions. The iteration analysis predicts that log-amplitude fluctuations are diminished for increasingly strong turbulence and that saturated conditions arise solely from phase effects, in agreement with Fante's conclusions [ R, L. Fante, Radio Sci.15, 757 ( 1980)].


A semantic database has been extended with visual information to enable video annotation. This paper describes a lexical database, WordNet. We show its limitations with respect to describing visual characteristics, and describe an extension to WordNet that contains specific visual information. Having such a semantic database makes video annotation possible for broadcast news: a domain that can cover any topic and involve a wide variety of events, objects and scenes. Combining basic visual analysis techniques and a semantic database containing visual descriptions avoids the problem developing large numbers of specific object and event detectors. Such a semantic database can be of great value for the analysis of multi-modal information. As far as we know, such a database has not been developed before.


ABSTRACT A large proportion of the existing building stock worldwide needs renovation and upgrading that will help comply with new energy codes and reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Improvements with minimal interference to inhabitants can be achieved by upgrading facades using elements that enhance energy efficiency and user comfort. Prefabricated energy retrofit systems have been suggested, but at present many lack adaptability to weather and usage conditions. This paper presents BRESAER, a retrofit system that provides adaptability through combination of passive strategies and intelligence features, which can be used in different climates and diverse building types. Energy performance was analysed for five types of European climates, results are shown for two climate types and three usages. A comparison was made of the presented system with a mostly passive retrofit system. Results show that in both climates, adaptability provides higher energy savings, complying with current definitions of very low-energy buildings.


For a long time, the European Parliament (EP) was viewed as a lobbying sideshow mainly to be targeted if interest groups were unsuccessful at getting their demands included in the European Commission's proposal. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a reputation for being particularly open to diffuse interests who, due to their limited resources, use 'friendly' MEPs to put pressure on the European Commission and the Council. The notion of the EP representing diffuse interests conflicts with the broader political science literature on interest groups, which dwells on business bias. There are, however, good reasons to doubt the EP's reputation as a defender of diffuse interests. Much of our current knowledge about the EP's interest group politics stems from a time when the EP's legislative powers were more limited. Within the last twenty years, the EP has evolved from a 'multilingual talking shop' to a genuine co-legislator with the Council. The increased powers of the EP raise the question of whether EP interest group politics has normalised, whereby the assumptions of the interest group literature would seem to reflect the reality of the EP. A common assumption in the interest group literature is that diffuse interests carry limited weight in decision-making because their resources and interests remain subordinate to that of business. However, business influence differs across policy fields depending on how the costs and benefits related to policies are distributed. The aim of my thesis is to investigate how the distribution of costs and benefits of legislative proposals influence interest groups' likelihood of winning particular conflicts in the EP. This is done by examining four legislative dossiers in the areas of employment, consumer, and environmental policies. The thesis draws on the process-tracing of EU documents, and 144 interviews with MEPs, EP officials, and interest groups.


Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of the Nematophagous fungus Esteya vermicola CBS 115803 was determined using the PacBio RS II sequencing technology. The circular molecule is 47,282bp in length with a GC content of 24.85%. Annotated genes including 14 conserved protein-coding genes, the large and the small rRNA subunit (rnl and rns) and 27 tRNAs. The phylogenetic analysis showed that E. vermicola had close genetic relationship with the genus Sporothrix.


This project is based on the planning and control of the progress of the construction of the Children's Park in the Corozal Precinct, to carry out the planning of this work, the information was provided by the district administration of Isisdro Ayora, and after a thorough review, we proceeded to calculate the quantities of work, the analysis of unit prices which was used to develop the budget of the project. Then the Gantt chart was drawn up using the Ms Project software, which shows us the time it takes to carry out each activity with its cost and resources, after which the valued schedules of the team and staff were made. To use the BIM 5D methodology, the 3D model was made using the Revit 19 software, after obtaining the 3D model, the other two dimensions are integrated by the Navisworks software, in which we integrate the 3D Model with the Gantt Diagram of the Project, obtaining a Model in 5D. Finally, a simulation of the progress of the project is made, which reflects the time and cost of the work.


Point-to-multipoint communications are expected to play a pivotal role in next-generation networks. This paper refers to a cellular system transmitting layered multicast services to a multicast group of users. Reliability of communications is ensured via different random linear network coding (RLNC) techniques. We deal with a fundamental problem: the computational complexity of the RLNC decoder. The higher the number of decoding operations is, the more the user's computational overhead grows and, consequently, the faster the battery of mobile devices drains. By referring to several sparse RLNC techniques, and without any assumption on the implementation of the RLNC decoder in use, we provide an efficient way to characterize the performance of users targeted by ultra-reliable layered multicast services. The proposed modeling allows to efficiently derive the average number of coded packet transmissions needed to recover one or more service layers. We design a convex resource allocation framework that allows to minimize the complexity of the RLNC decoder by jointly optimizing the transmission parameters and the sparsity of the code. The designed optimization framework also ensures service guarantees to predetermined fractions of users. The performance of the proposed optimization framework is then investigated in a LTE-A eMBMS network multicasting H.264/SVC video services.


The changing dynamics of banking and business environment forced banks to re-engineer their operational process for fantastic business performance. The bank operational process which is intended to meet emerging challenges of bank consolidation, operating cost containment, improvement of customer service and increase revenue call for innovative banking practices through Business Process Re-engineering. This is to enable Nigerian banks to incorporate strategic innovative customer schemes in order to bridge the service gap inherent in a Nigerian banking sector. The broad objectives of this study are: 1) to determine the current status of an operational process reengineered in the Nigerian banks; and 2) To determine the most organizational objective of BPR implementation in Nigerian banks. Self- delivery and collection of data strategy with help of research assistants were used to in this study. Out of 560 questionnaires distributed to the sampled banks, 417 were returned representing 74% rate. First, the study found that Nigerian banks surveyed have re-engineered their branch operations, customer services, cash tellering services, cheque's clearing, domestic fund transfer, loan processing, credit administration and appraisal. In addition, 21.3% of the banks surveyed have reengineered their services with respect to foreign operations, process for letter of credit, Western Union/MoneyGram money payment and wire transfer to a fund through SWIFT and other electronic channels. Second, the result showed that 24.7% of the surveyed banks agreed that enhancement of profit is the most objective of BPR implementation. These followed closely by 23.3% of the surveyed banks that are of the opinion that improvement over the quality of customer service is the most objective of BPR adoption. Furthermore, 20.4%, 11.5% and 12.9% of the survey banks are of the opinion that organisation objective of BPR adoption was to either be proactive, reactive for future/current challenges, competitive pressure being faced as a result of globalization and deregulation of the financial sector or to reduce operating cost respectively. The outcome from this study provides important insights to both managers and researchers for further understanding about the objectives of BPR adoption, and the operational processes reengineered by the banks. The necessary suggestions on new area of research were recommended for future study.


Romer and Romer (1989,1990,1992) identify dates where the Federal Reserve appears to have shifted its policy towards reducing the rate of inflation. This paper examines the economic context that drives this decision. It finds that the Fed appears to weigh the outlook for unemployment as well as that for inflation in making its decision about disinflation. Previous work has not examined the course of inflation over the disinflations. This paper finds responses of the inflation rate to the "disinflations" only in a specification where the effects of the policy are presumed to be permanent Moreover, the Volcker disinflation is found to be the only "disinflation" to reduce inflation permanently. The disinflation after the 1973 OPEC price increases was effective, but only temporarily. Other disinflations had negligible impacts on the rate of inflation over all horizons. Variables measuring the expected present discounted values of unemployment and inflation are constructed. These variables are used in a discrete-choice model to explain the Fed's decision to disinflate. This model does a fairly good job of explaining the Fed's decisions. Both inflation and unemployment drive the Fed's decision. For some episodes, notably in the 1970's, inflation is the main variable driving the decision. In the 1969 and 1988 episodes, unemployment matters more.


Osteoporosis in men is a heterogeneous disease that has received little attention. However, one third of worldwide hip fractures occur in the male population. This problem is more prevalent in people over 70 years of age. The etiology can be idiopathic or secondary to hypogonadism, vitamin D deficiency and inadequate calcium intake, hormonal treatments for prostate cancer, use of toxic and every disease or drug use that alters bone metabolism.Risk factors such as a previous history of fragility fracture should be assessed for the diagnosis. However, risk factors in men are very heterogeneous. There are significant differences in the pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis between men and women fundamentally due to the level of evidence in published trials supporting each treatment. New treatments will offer new therapeutic prospects. The goal of this work is a revision of the present status knowledge about male osteoporosis.


BACKGROUND: During thoracic surgery, patients are usually positioned in lateral decubitus and only the dependent lung ventilated. The ventilated lung is thus exposed to the weight of the contralateral hemithorax and restriction of the dependent chest wall. We hypothesized that mechanical power would increase during one-lung ventilation in the lateral position. METHODS: We performed a prospective, observational, single-center study from December 2016 to May 2017. Thirty consecutive patients undergoing general anesthesia with mechanical ventilation (mean age, 68 ± 11 years; body mass index, 25 ± 5 kg·m−2) for thoracic surgery were enrolled. Total and partitioned mechanical power, lung and chest wall elastance, and esophageal pressure were compared in supine and lateral position with double- and one-lung ventilation and with closed and open chest both before and after surgery. Mixed factorial ANOVA for repeated measurements was performed, with both step and the period before or after surgery as 2 within-subject factors, and left or right body position during surgery as a fixed, between-subject factor. Appropriate interaction terms were included. RESULTS: The mechanical power was higher in lateral one-lung ventilation compared to both supine and lateral position double-lung ventilation (11.1 ± 3.0 vs 8.2 ± 2.7 vs 8.7 ± 2.6; mean difference, 2.9 J·minute−1 [95% CI, 1.4–4.4 J·minute−1] and 2.4 J·minute−1 [95% CI, 0.9–3.9 J·minute−1]; P < .001 and P = .002, respectively). Lung elastance was higher during lateral position one-lung ventilation compared to both lateral and supine double-lung ventilation (24.3 ± 8.7 vs 9.5 ± 3.8 vs 10.0 ± 3.8; mean difference, 14.7 cm H2O·L−1 [95% CI, 11.2–18.2 cm H2O·L−1] and 14.2 cm H2O·L−1 [95% CI, 10.8–17.7 cm H2O·L−1], respectively) and was higher compared to predicted values (20.1 ± 7.5 cm H2O·L−1). Chest wall elastance increased in lateral position double-lung ventilation compared to supine (11.1 ± 3.8 vs 6.6 ± 3.4; mean difference, 4.5 cm H2O·L−1 [95% CI, 2.6–6.3 cm H2O·L−1]) and was lower in lateral position one-lung ventilation with open chest than with a closed chest (3.5 ± 1.9 vs 7.1 ± 2.8; mean difference, 3.6 cm H2O·L−1 [95% CI, 2.4–4.8 cm H2O·L−1]). The end-expiratory esophageal pressure decreased moving from supine position to lateral position one-lung ventilation while increased with the opening of the chest wall. CONCLUSIONS: Mechanical power and lung elastance are increased in the lateral position with one-lung ventilation. Esophageal pressure monitoring may be used to follow these changes.


Basic information on physical and chemical properties of Gayam (Inocarpus edulis Forst), one of the domestic commodities, is still very limited. The objectives of this research were to investigate chemical composition of gayam seed and the functional properties of gayam starch, especially the pasting behavior and the characteristic of its gel. Moisture, crude protein, lipid, ash, and carbohydrate content of gayam seed, respectively, were 50.11% (w/w), 11.66%, 8.21 %, 3.39% , and 76.74% (dw). The gayam starch granules were very strong and remain physically intact during heating up to 90 ° C. The highest swelling-power (24.76) occurred at 95 ° C, with low amylose leaching (0.27% dw) and solubility (0.25 ° Brix). Pasting behavior of starch suspension (10% w/v) showed the initial pasting temperature at 81 ° C and peak viscosity 750 Brabender unit (BU) reached at 90 ° C. The paste viscosity was relatively stable at 95 ° C. The gel was formed during cooling. The gel of gayam starch was unstable at (-16 ° C) at which six times freezing-thawing cycles resulted in 66.95% water dripped. The gel characteristics may indicated the high amylose content. Scanning electron micrographs of freeze-dried gel revealed the sponge-strucuture. The data indicated that gayam starch has great potential to be explored further for industrial applications.


Chronic progressive liver diseases occur frequently in humans and animals, and lead to severe dysfunction and cirrhosis. The only available treatment is liver transplantation. Due to donor liver shortage, alternatives for liver transplantation are needed. Several forms of hepatitis occurring in dogs present with histological and molecular reaction patterns highly similar to human hepatitis. The important cell types of the liver are hepatocytes (detoxification), cholangiocytes (transport of bile), stellate cells (lipid storage), endothelial cells, Kupffer cells (liver specific macrophages), and hepatic progenitor cells (HPCs, adult liver stem cells). HPCs become activated in liver diseases whit insufficient hepatocyte and/or cholangiocyte replication. The activation is often too little or too late to fully restore liver function. Detailed knowledge of the regulatory signals of HPC activation will be crucial to develop new HPC-based therapies. Furthermore, relevant clinical models are needed to assess safety and efficacy of new treatment strategies and translate fundamental rodent studies into clinical practice. In this thesis we (i) investigated signalling pathways involved in HPC activation in man and dog; and (ii) characterised the canine HPC niche in comparison to man, needed to evaluate its potential as translational model for clinical liver diseases. These studies were exerted in close collaboration with the Department of Morphology and Molecular Pathology (Prof Roskams, Leuven, Belgium). Immunohistochemical comparison of human and canine liver diseases extended the known similarities between these two species to the level of the HPC and its microenvironment (HPC niche). These studies further characterised a canine liver disease with extreme HPC activation unrivalled across species; lobular dissecting hepatitis (LDH). This canine disease offers unique and clinically relevant material for HPC research. Follow up gene-expression and cell culture studies revealed the involvement of Wnt and Notch signalling in proliferation, migration and differentiation of HPCs. Furthermore the well-known self-renewal factor Bmi1 was shown to play a role in HPC proliferation. However, high expression of Bmi1 in aggressive liver tumours highlights the potential risk of tumour formation associated with long standing HPC proliferation. Finally, microarray analysis of LDH revealed a strong involvement of fibrosis, extra cellular matrix (ECM) remodelling and cell-matrix interactions (mainly through integrins) in HPC behaviour during liver disease. Follow up studies should further elucidate the exact role of ECM components in HPC activation. Expression profiling by microarray analysis revealed numerous other new signalling cascades differentially expressed in liver diseases. In collaboration with UMC-Utrecht (Prof Medema) and EU-Rotterdam (Prof Peppelenbosch) two different high throughput screens are now used to discover signalling pathways functionally important in HPC proliferation. The studies document high similarity in histology and regulation of HPCs between man and dog. Therefore we propose clinical liver diseases of the dog as important models to evaluate and implement new HPC based treatment strategies in currently untreatable liver diseases. This work was supported by an NWO-AGIKO research grant and was the basis for the ZonMW grant on liver stem cells on which recently started a PhD-student and a post-doctoral researcher.


OBJECTIVE Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate-5-kinase (PI4P5K) has been proposed to facilitate regulated exocytosis and specifically insulin secretion by generating phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). We sought to examine the role of the α isoform of PI4P5K in glucohomeostasis and insulin secretion. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The response of PI4P5Kα−/− mice to glucose challenge and a type 2-like diabetes-inducing high-fat diet was examined in vivo. Glucose-stimulated responses and PI4P5Kα−/− pancreatic islets and β-cells were characterized in culture. RESULTS We show that PI4P5Kα−/− mice exhibit increased first-phase insulin release and improved glucose clearance, and resist high-fat diet-induced development of type 2-like diabetes and obesity. PI4P5Kα−/− pancreatic islets cultured in vitro exhibited decreased numbers of insulin granules docked at the plasma membrane and released less insulin under quiescent conditions, but then secreted similar amounts of insulin on glucose stimulation. Stimulation-dependent PIP2 depletion occurred on the plasma membrane of the PI4P5Kα−/− pancreatic β-cells, accompanied by a near-total loss of cortical F-actin, which was already decreased in the PI4P5Kα−/− β-cells under resting conditions. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that PI4P5Kα plays a complex role in restricting insulin release from pancreatic β-cells through helping to maintain plasma membrane PIP2 levels and integrity of the actin cytoskeleton under both basal and stimulatory conditions. The increased first-phase glucose-stimulated release of insulin observed on the normal diet may underlie the partial protection against the elevated serum glucose and obesity seen in type 2 diabetes-like model systems.


An encyclopedic dictionary along the lines of Voltaire's classic Dictionnaire Philosophique, Metaphors of Mind provides an in-depth look at the myriad ways in which Enlightenment writers used figures of speech to characterize the mind. Drawn from Brad Pasanek's massive online archive, this volume constitutes a veritable treasury of mental metaphorics. Dividing the book into eleven broad metaphorical categories-Animals, Coinage, Court, Empire, Fetters, Impressions, Inhabitants, Metal, Mirror, Rooms, and Writing-Pasanek maps out constellations of metaphors. He frames his collection of literary excerpts in each section with a more descriptive and theoretical discussion of what he calls "desultory reading," a form of unsystematic perusal of writing frequently employed by Enlightenment thinkers. By surveying the printed past alongside the digital present, the book treats eighteenth-century writing as its topic while essentially exemplifying its rhetorical approach. More than an exercise in quotation, this intellectual history offers illuminating readings of fragmentary literary works and confrontations with neoclassical and contemporary theories of metaphor. The book's entries complicate received ideas about Locke's blank slate, question M. H. Abrams' claims about mirrors and lamps, and chart changing frequencies of metal metaphors in a moment of industrial revolution. The book also responds to current anxieties about reading and the mass digitization of literature, touching on recent discussions of "distant reading," "shallow reading," and "surface reading." Promoting critical and creative anachronism, Metaphors of Mind redefines the notion of an archive in the age of Amazon and Google Books.


The purpose of this study is to explore the current practices in corporate sustainability/CSR communications and how this trend contributes to corporate value creation. More specifically, this study looks at this subject from the angle of how companies can use corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing activities to attain corporate marketing objectives. To achieve the aim of this study, an examination of the current practices in corporate sustainability /CSR communications was performed through a pertinent empirical and theoretical literature review as well as a quantitative and qualitative empirical method using a survey questionnaire. The author attempted, in the same way, to illustrate how corporate sustainability/CSR communications can strengthen corporate reputation and directly enhance financial performance. For theory, two bodies of literature (corporate communications and corporate sustainability) were selected for review in terms of the degree of synergy and integration between them and their implications for this thesis. The key findings from literature review and empirical study showed that the practices of corporate social responsibility communications occurs through CSR, Triple Bottom Line (PPP) or corporate sustainability reporting, stakeholder dialogue on sustainability issues and social and environmental communication programs. Also, the auditing and assurance of CSR reporting is carried out through different measures including internal (i.e. human resources management, CSR and/or PR department) and external (i.e. business partner, consulting or risk management firm) or both measures. It was also found that sustainability has been a part of corporate culture and strategy development for a number of organizations pursuing the sustainability path for decades. Moreover, public relations activity is ranked the most effective in communicating sustainability at corporate level and has the potential to reach a wide spectrum of stakeholder audiences. However, a level of skepticism was noticed among stakeholders towards corporate sustainability/CSR communications. Nonetheless, knowing how stakeholders perceive corporate image and what they expect in return for their support is fundamental in designing effective corporate and marketing communications strategies. Stakeholders' relations management is the bottom line for success and sustainability of the business and lies at the core of CSR practice and its reporting. Further, the growth of corporate sustainability/CSR communications has reflected the keen interest from all stakeholders; hence, it has become a topic of major importance and also, as it was found, a key factor that experts and planners in the field should capitalize on and watch in competitive marketplaces. Furthermore, having a pro-social and environmental agenda means having a sound corporate and marketing communications strategies that can build a company's reputational standing and create sustainable competitive advantages. The trend towards injecting sustainability into corporate decisions making and strategy development has come about through what organizations have achieved in terms of value creation pertaining to reputation and financial performance enhancement. The author's review of the literature makes an advance on extant reviews of the literature by highlighting the importance of corporate sustainability/CSR communications in marketing with respect to corporate value maximization. Overall, this thesis endeavours to present contributions, avenues and departure of journeying for further empirical research and development.


Summary In Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest form of human malaria, the nuclear periphery has drawn much attention due to its role as a sub-nuclear compartment involved in virulence gene expression. Recent data have implicated components of the nuclear envelope in regulating gene expression in several eukaryotes. Special attention has been given to nucleoporins that compose the nuclear pore complex (NPC). However, very little is known about components of the nuclear envelope in Plasmodium parasites. Here we characterize PfSec13, an unusual nucleoporin of P. falciparum, which shows unique structural similarities suggesting that it is a fusion between Sec13 and Nup145C of yeast. Using super resolution fluorescence microscopy (3D-SIM) and in vivo imaging, we show that the dynamic localization of PfSec13 during parasites' intra-erythrocytic development corresponds with that of the NPCs and that these dynamics are associated with microtubules rather than with F-actin. In addition, PfSec13 does not co-localize with the heterochormatin markers HP1 and H3K9me3, suggesting euchromatic location of the NPCs. The proteins associated with PfSec13 indicate that this unusual Nup is involved in several cellular processes. Indeed, ultrastructural and chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that, in addition to the NPCs, PfSec13 is found in the nucleoplasm where it is associated with chromatin. Finally, we used peptide nucleic acids (PNA) to downregulate PfSec13 and show that it is essential for parasite proliferation in human erythrocytes.