ZAPOTOCZNY, P. and M. MARKOWSKI, 2014. Influence of hypobaric storage on the quality of greenhouse cucumbers, Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 1406-1412 The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hypobaric (10, 50 and 100 kPa) conditions and storage time on selected color, textural and chemical indicators of quality of greenhouse cucumbers. The smallest changes in total color difference, chroma and hue of cucumbers were observed in the samples stored at 10 kPa. The highest values of force at bioyield and energy to bioyield after 30 days of storage, as derived from a puncture test, at 48.7 N and 0.172 J, respectively, were observed in cucumbers kept at 10 kPa. After 30 days of storage, the cucumbers kept under hypobaric conditions underwent less extensive changes in dietary fiber, pectin and sugar content in comparison with those stored under atmospheric conditions. Hypobaric storage was found to contribute to the preservation of cucumber quality.


After conquering Belgium and the Rhineland in 1794, the French Army of the Sambre and Meuse faced severe logistical, disciplinary, and morale problems that signaled the erosion of its capabilities. The army's degeneration resulted from a revolution in French foreign policy designed to conquer the natural frontiers, a policy often falsely portrayed as a diplomatic tradition of the French monarchy. In fact, the natural frontiers policy – expansion to the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and the Alps – emerged only after the start of the War of the First Coalition in 1792. Moreover, the pursuit of natural frontiers caused more controversy than previously understood. No less a figure than Lazare Carnot – the Organizer of Victory – viewed French expansion to the Rhine as impractical and likely to perpetuate war. While the war of conquest provided the French state with the resources to survive, it entailed numerous unforeseen consequences. Most notably, the Revolutionary armies became isolated from the nation and displayed more loyalty to their commanders than to the civilian authorities. In 1797, the Sambre and Meuse Army became a political tool of General Lazare Hoche, who sought control over the Rhineland by supporting the creation of a Cisrhenan Republic. Ultimately, troops from Hoche's army removed Carnot from the French Directory in the coup d'etat of 18 fructidor, a crucial benchmark in the militarization of French politics two years before Napoleon Bonaparte's seizure of power. Accordingly, the conquest of the Rhine frontier contributed to the erosion of democratic governance in Revolutionary France.


Is future teachers' contact with the physical environment significant enough for them to choose to educate their students about sustainability? These digital natives stand out from previous generations by their way of living, working and learning. Does the use of ICT by these young adults contribute to distancing them from the physical environment? Are future teachers, better informed thanks to technology, committed to environmental action? This research based on grounded theory was aimed at understanding future teachers' relationships with physical and technological environments. The analysis of individual and group interviews with Moncton and Montreal teacher education students reveals that future teachers maintain a sporadic relation to the natural environment. They are still conscious that nature provides them with calmness, rejuvenation, and beauty. The Internet, visited at least two hours daily, offers them distraction, social affiliation, and personalized information, as well as facilitates their tasks and contact with the World. Future teachers are critical and cautious in their use of ICT, but are not much involved in the environmental cause. This research emphasizes the need to work on future teachers' relationship to the physical environment with outdoor activities to get to know, appreciate, analyze, and improve the natural and urban environments. Key words: education, environment, Social networks,pedagogy.


This study addresses the balance struck under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) between the right to health and access to medicines and the need to maintain the economic incentives to spur innovation and research and development through intellectual property protection. The analysis focuses on the patent and data-related intellectual property protection provisions of the TPPA, specifically regarding pharmaceutical (small-molecule and biologic) products, including on patent duration, linkage and term extensions as well as clinical test data protection and market exclusivity. Special attention is paid to the United States and its negotiating position with respect to those aspects of intellectual property rights, as it has been and remains the world's principal demandeur for high intellectual property rights (IPR) standards in trade agreements, including the TPPA.


An infrared rotating rotationallly shearing interferometer can be used for detection of a potential planet orbiting around a nearby star. An expression is derived for the signal generated by a star and its faint companion, and this signal is detected by a rotationally shearing interferometer. It is shown that the planet's signal can be detected, despite the presence of a much larger star signal, because the planet produces a faint modulation superimposed upon the large star signal when the aperture rotates. In the particular case of a rotating rotationally shearing interferometer, the argument of the cosine term is shown to depend only on the planet's and the observational parameters. However, the amplitude of the modulation term in the interferometric signal is shown to be proportional to the star's intensity.


The distribution patterns and feeding habits of 4 deep-water decapod species were investigated from samples collected in experimental trawl surveys carried out along the continental slope of Crete (Eastern Mediterranean) in 1994 to 1995, at depths between 100 and 1000 m. Despite their distribution overlap, the differences in the distribution patterns of the species along the depth gradient were clear, with Plesionika ensis and Polycheles typhlops occurring at greater depths than Parapenaeus longirostris and Plesionika heterocarpus. Stomach content analysis revealed that all species were active predators of benthic invertebrates, while scavenging activity became more important at depths below 500 m. The species exhibited highly diverse diets, but dietary diversity was higher for those inhabiting shallower depths. Ontogenetic dietary shifts were pronounced, although dietary patterns were also significantly affected by season and depth. Interspecific dietary overlap was less than intraspecific overlap between size classes and between months. Feeding intensity was associated with the distribution patterns of the species and decreased with depth, thus it was significantly lower for the species at the deepest depths, P. typhlops and P. ensis. Dietary patterns of the species examined were quite similar and differences noted were more consistent with depth-related changes in available food resources than with changes in the position of the species in the food web. Since dietary overlap among the species when they co-occur was high, it is possible that competitive trophic interactions accounted for the low overlap in the bathymetrical distribution of the species examined. Such interactions may be of fundamental importance on the deep-sea bottoms in the Eastern Mediterranean since environmental parameters such as temperature and salinity are rather constant.


This essay is about human resource management, internal labor markets, and assorted theories of wage behavior. A stereotype of managerial activities and policies is sketched out in the first section, which, although reflecting a parochial (U.S.) orientation, is intended to approximate a set of real-world conditions to which analyses of labor market behavior should presumably relate. In the second section, we consider institutionalist interpretations, which either .supplement or challenge standard market analysis by appeal to the historical record, the behavioral sciences, or even the consensus of expert behavior. In particular, the importance of conventional forces, based heavily on perceptions of equity, interpersonal preferences, and custom and practice, is revealed by the scholarship and insights of Henry Phelps Brown. Next (section II) are assessed the claims and contributions of a sample of theories based on the assumption of individualistic utility maximization in competitive markets: the theories of equalizing wage differentials, human capital, deferred compensation, transaction costs, implicit contracts, and (least conventional) efficiency wages. None is found to be lacking in interpretive value or relevance to one or more attributes of the stereotype, and all help to relate it to a wider family of markets and to economic behavior. In general, however, this group is less satisfactory in explaining why wages should be high enough—in a present value sense and relative to market-clearing levels—to contribute to the relative insulation of internal labor markets and to restrict employment. An exception is provided by efficiency wage theory, in particular by one of its older variants which, because it is based on group (rather than individualistic) psychology and behavior, is discussed in the following section (V).


One assumption in regression-based models is that no theoretically important variables have been omitted from the model. Provided an omitted variable has a strong effect in the model, its omission can introduce bias in one or more parameter estimates. The exact discrete model, a continuous time panel model, has been extended to include heterogeneity in the intercept by estimation of manifest or trait variance. The inclusion of what is equivalent to a random effect should reduce bias due to omitted variables. Two simulations examined exact discrete model estimates' to see if they were robust to omission of time-invariant predictors and both timeinvariant and time-varying predictors. Auto-effects, cross-effects, and time-invariant effects were compared by computing bias and efficiency for a two predictor model, a one predictor model where some important variables were missing and some were present, and a model that only estimated the dynamic process. Relative bias and relative efficiency were computed to compare the two predictor model to the omitted variable models. Results were influenced the most by cross-effect conditions, strength of the omitted variable, and whether the omitted variable was related to other parameters in the model. In the first simulation, results also varied by size of the random intercept but did not always change the overall result. In the second simulation, most estimates showed less bias or more efficiency in the omitted variable models in conditions in which the time-varying effect was correlated with trait variance.


The ground state properties of neon clusters are studied through the Gaussian Time-Dependent Hartree (G-TDH) method. The presence of significant quantum effects in these systems poses a significant challenge to its theoretical investigation, because it drastically reduces the number of atoms that can be simulated in a computer. The application of the G-TDH method alleviates this difficulty, and it allows to study the ground state properties as a function of cluster size without neglecting the quantum effects. The method is based on the construction of an approximate wavefunction for the whole system, consisting in a Hartree product of normalized single-particle wavepackets of Gaussian shape. These Gaussian functions are characterized by their widths, and their centroids in position and momentum spaces. Using the Dirac-Frenkel-McLachlan variational principle and the imaginary-time propagation technique, we obtain the equations of motion that describe how these parameters approach the values that better describe the ground state of the system, and they enable to synthesize the system wavefunction of the system and to compute the structural and energetic properties of the cluster in the ground state.


Recent popular research has suggested that it is possible to time the U.S. equity market over long investment horizons by looking at the real value of the aggregate stock market index relative to an average of the recent past levels. This article shows that this is not the case and that a simple buy-and-hold equity strategy dominates for nearly all time periods for both the U.S. and the U.K. in the 20th century. However, the aggregate real stock price is a more useful long-run valuation metric than incorporating dividend and earnings information, a result that has potential value for investment managers, given the problems with definitions and consistency of these variables.


Although much is known about the bacterial genetics of early nodulation, little is known about the plant cell response. Alfalfa root hair cells were impaled with intracellular microelectrodes to measure a membrane potential depolarizing activity in Rhizobium meliloti cell-free filtrates, a plant response dependent on the bacterial nodulation genes. The depolarization was desensitized by repeated exposure to factors and was not observed in a representative nonlegume. A purified extracellular Nod factor, NodRm-IV(S), caused membrane potential depolarization at nanomolar concentrations. This rapid single-cell assay provides a tool for dissecting the mechanisms of host cell response in early nodulation.


Following Gram-negative bacterial infection there is a reduction in matrix-producing cells. The goal of the present study was to examine the apoptotic effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on fibroblastic cells and to investigate the role that the host response plays in this reaction. This was accomplished in vivo by subcutaneous inoculation of LPS in wild type and TNFR1-/-R2-/- mice. The direct effects of LPS on fibroblast apoptosis was studied in vitro with normal diploid human fibroblasts. The results indicate that LPS in vivo induces apoptosis of fibroblasts. By RNA profiling we demonstrated that LPS stimulates global expression of apoptotic genes and down-regulates anti-apoptotic genes. Fluorometric studies demonstrated that LPS in vivo significantly increased caspase-8 and caspase-3 activity and by use of specific inhibitors, the activation of caspase-3 was shown to be initiated by caspase-8 with no contribution from caspase-9. In vitro studies demonstrated that LPS did not induce apoptosis of fibroblasts, whereas tumor necrosis factor (TNF) did. In addition, the pattern of apoptotic gene expression induced by TNF in vitro was nearly identical to that induced by LPS in vivo, as measured by RNase protection assay. Moreover, pre-treatment of cells with TNF greatly enhanced apoptosis induced by a second stimulation with TNF 24 h later, suggesting that the global induction of pro-apoptotic genes was functionally significant. Thus, LPS acts to modulate the expression of a large number of genes that favor apoptosis of fibroblastic cells that is dependent upon activation of caspase-8 and is largely mediated by TNF.


Calogero-Moser models can be generalised for all of the finite reflection groups. These include models based on non-crystallographic root systems, that is the root systems of the finite reflection groups, H3, H4, and the dihedral group I2(m), besides the well-known ones based on crystallographic root systems, namely those associated with Lie algebras. Universal Lax pair operators for all of the generalised Calogero-Moser models and for any choices of the potentials are constructed as linear combinations of the reflection operators. The consistency conditions are reduced to functional equations for the coefficient functions of the reflection operators in the Lax pair. There are only four types of such functional equations corresponding to the two-dimensional sub-root systems, A2, B2, G2, and I2(m). The root type and the minimal type Lax pairs, derived in our previous papers, are given as the simplest representations. The spectral parameter dependence plays an important role in the Lax pair operators, which bear a strong resemblance to the Dunkl operators, a powerful tool for solving quantum Calogero-Moser models.


drinking water and the reduction in the risk of blood pressure (P value<0.05). Also, the results showed that the degree of correlation (R) between the two variables for drinking water hardness levels and the percentage of high blood pressure in men was (-0.496) and in women was (-0.512) and in the total population over 30 years was (-0.61). Conclusion: Use ofn water with medium to high degree ofn hardness can reduce the risk of high blood pressure and consequently the risk of cardiovascular disease.


Tandem affinity purification (TAP) tagging provides a powerful tool for isolating interacting proteins in vivo. TAP-tag purification offers particular advantages for the identification of stimulus-induced protein interactions. Type II bZIP transcription factors (TGA2, TGA5 and TGA6) play key roles in pathways that control salicylic acid, ethylene, xenobiotic and reactive oxylipin signaling. Although proteins interacting with these transcription factors have been identified through genetic and yeast 2-hybrid screening, others are still elusive. We have therefore generated a C-terminal TAP-tag of TGA2 to isolate additional proteins that interact with this transcription factor. Three lines most highly expressing TAP-tagged TGA2 were functional in that they partially complemented reactive oxylipin-responsive gene expression in a tga2 tga5 tga6 triple mutant. TAP-tagged TGA2 in the most strongly overexpressing line was proteolytically less stable than in the other 2 lines. Only this overexpressing line could be used in a 2-step purification process, resulting in isolation of co-purifying bands of larger molecular weight than TGA2. TAP-tagged TGA2 was used to pull down NPR1, a protein known to interact with this transcription factor. Mass spectrometry was used to identify peptides that co-purified with TAP-tagged TGA2. Having generated this TGA2 TAP-tag line will therefore be an asset to researchers interested in stimulus-induced signal transduction processes.


This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of type of sugars namely dextrose, sucrose, sucrose-invert syrup mix, invert syrup and honey, and dough relaxation time of 15, 40, and 65 min. on the shape characteristics viz. width, thickness, spread ratio, and an expansion ratio of biscuits. The type of sugars significantly affected (p<0.05) all shape characteristics, while the dough relaxation only affected those of crystal sugars (sucrose and dextrose). High dough relaxation time enhanced the width of sucrose biscuits without significantly affecting (p>0.05) their thickness. In contrast, the thickness of dextrose biscuits decreased with increasing relaxation time. Liquid sugars (invert syrup and honey) enhanced the width of biscuits; the former enhancing the thickness as well. The study also demonstrated that a high spread ratio may also be associated witha low expansion ratio. Hence, both the spread ratio and expansion ratio must be considered when discussing the shape characteristics of biscuits with different ingredients.


The semiclassical equations of motion are widely used to describe carrier transport in conducting materials. Nevertheless, the substantial challenge of incorporating disorder systematically into the semiclassical model persists, leading to quantitative inaccuracies and occasionally erroneous predictions for the expectation values of physical observables. In the present work we provide a general prescription for reformulating the semiclassical equations of motion for carriers in disordered conductors by taking the quantum mechanical density matrix as the starting point. We focus on external electric fields, without magnetic fields, and spin-independent disorder. The density matrix approach allows averaging over impurity configurations, and the trace of the velocity operator with the disorder-averaged density matrix can be reinterpreted as the semiclassical velocity weighted by the Boltzmann distribution function. Through this rationale the well-known intrinsic group and anomalous velocities are trivially recovered, while we demonstrate the existence of an extrinsic interband velocity, namely a disorder correction to the semiclassical velocity of Bloch electrons, mediated by the interband matrix elements of the Berry connection. A similar correction is present in the non-equilibrium expectation value of the spin operator, contributing to spin-orbit torques. To obtain agreement with diagrammatic approaches the scattering term in the Boltzmann equation is corrected to first order in the electric field, and the Boltzmann equation is solved up to sub-leading order in the disorder potential. Our prescription ensures all vertex corrections present in diagrammatic treatments are taken into account, and to illustrate this we discuss model cases in topological insulators, including the anomalous Hall effect as well as spin-orbit torques.


The presence of a bacterial community is vital to the germination and growth of the
toxic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum. Previous research has shown that the
bacterium Alcanivorax DG881 is an important stimulatory member of the
dinoflagellate-associated bacterial community, however the nature of the interaction
between the two organisms, and the substances and mechanism involved in growth
stimulation are unknown. This thesis uses a uni-bacterial G. catenatum experimental
culture model to investigate elements of the interaction between the marine bacterium
Alcanivorax DG881 with the dinoflagellate G. catenatum.
In the first experiment, three treatments were used to determine whether the G.
catenatum growth stimulating substances produced by Alcanivorax DG881 were
extracellular or intracellular substances, and whether these substances need to be
continuously provided to G. catenatum to support growth. Addition of extracellular
filtrates from cultures of G. catenatum and it's associated bacteria showed increased
growth stimulating activity in resting cyst germination experiments compared to
treatments containing intracellular substances from Alcanivorax DG881 in absence of live Alcanivorax DG881 cells. Repeated addition of extracellular filtrates sustained G.
catenatum growth after germination for a significantly longer period and to higher cell
concentrations than a single addition of extracellular filtrate. These results indicated that
the G. catenatum did not obtain growth stimulating substances by ingesting bacteria but
requires one or more extracellular dissolved products produced by Alcanivorax DG881.
The patterns of growth suggest that the products were either labile or utilised by the
dinoflagellate during growth.
It has been proposed that dinoflagellate-associated Alcanivorax DG881 benefits from
the utilization of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) exuded from the dinoflagellate cell.
To examine this idea, the single carbon utilization profile of Alcanivorax DG881 was
compared with the closely related but no-stimulatory strain Alcanivorax borkumensis
SK2 using the BIOLOG GN2 plate assay system. Alcanivorax DG881 was able to use a
much wider range of carbon compounds for growth than Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2,
particular a wider range of amino acids, known as an important component of the DOC
exuded from algal cells. The data here suggest that Alcanivorax DG881 is relatively
better adapted to a life associated with algal cells than Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2.
Detection and sequence characterization of putative saxitoxin synthesis gene homologues was attempted. Degenerate PCR primers designed from sequence of three
putative saxitoxin biosynthesis (Sxt) genes from cyanobacteria was used to screen G.
catenatum total DNA extracts. PCR products of expected length were obtained for three
Sxt genes and two products were sequenced and compared to the putative
cyanobacterial homolog and other published DNA sequences available on Genbank.
The putative G. catenatum SxtN gene sequence showed highest similarity with
sulfurtransferase of bacteria Francisella philomiragia subsp. Philomiragia (84%
similarity), and with a hypothetical protein the Arabidopsis thaliana (81% similarity).
The putative G. catenatum SxtU gene sequence showed low similarity with a hypothetical
protein of Peptostreptococcus micros (46% similarity) and hypothetical proteins from the
fungi Aspergillus oryzae (46% similarity). Phylogenetic comparisons of the partial
sequences of both candidate genes suggested that they were of bacterial rather than
dinoflagellate origin, and bacteria associated with G. catenatum not involved in
saxitoxin synthesis directly or indirectly.


The aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics of a generic hingeless coaxial helicopter with a tail-mounted propulsor and stabiliser have been simulated using Brown's Vorticity Transport Model. This has been done to investigate the ability of models of this type to capture the aerodynamic interactions that are generated between the various components of realistic, complex helicopter configurations. Simulations reveal the aerodynamic environment of the coaxial main rotor of the configuration to be dominated by internal interactions that lead to high vibration and noise. The wake of the main rotor is predicted to interact strongly with the tailplane, particularly at low forward speed, to produce a strong nose-up pitching moment that must be countered by significant longitudinal cyclic input to the main rotor. The wake from the main rotor is ingested directly into the tail propulsor over a broad range of forward speeds, where it produces significant vibratory excitation of the system as well as broadband noise. The numerical calculations also suggest the possibility that poor scheduling of the partition of the propulsive force between the main rotor and propulsor as a function of forward speed may yield a situation where the propulsor produces little thrust but high vibration as a result of this interaction. Although many of the predicted effects might be ameliorated or eliminated entirely by more careful or considered design, the model captures many of the aerodynamic interactions, and the resultant effects on the loading on the system, that might be expected to characterise the dynamics of such a vehicle. It is suggested that the use of such numerical techniques might eventually allow the various aeromechanical problems that often beset new designs to be circumvented - hopefully well before they manifest on the prototype or production aircraft.


Abstract : In 2013 the sponsor asked the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to conduct a study regarding possible courses of action in order to answer an inquiry into the status of the MCTL activities by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Among the various COAs explored IDA recommended: to re-invent, in the near term, the MCTL as a shared and integrated set of existing information sources thereby creating a common, dynamic, classified, proprietary, DoD technologies knowledge base (DTKB) reflecting technology velocity, trajectory and disruptive changes to support stakeholders, communities of interest, and other SMEs. In 2014 the sponsor provided initial funding to explore possible implementations of the DTKB concept. This report describes the results obtained pertaining to the use of natural language processing (NLP) technologies to maintain and update a future DTKB.


This article argues for the socially optimal regulation of online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdfunding to advance economic justice in the United States. Peer-to-peer lending websites, such as Prosper.com or Kiva.org, facilitate lending transactions between individuals online without the involvement of a traditional bank or microfinance institution. Crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter.com, enable individuals to obtain financing from large numbers of contributors at once through an open online request for funds. These web-based transactions, and the intermediary organizations that facilitate them, constitute emerging cyberfinancing markets. These markets connect many individuals at once, across class, race, ethnicity, nationality, space, and time in an interactive and dynamic way. During a time of significant economic distress in the United States, these markets also represent an unprecedented economic development opportunity for historically marginalized economic actors. Yet, no legal scholar has addressed the implications of these developments for economic justice in the United States. Drawing from the fields of law and geography, social networking theory, and comparative institutional analysis, this Article conceptualizes these new markets as "cyberspaces," similar to geographic spaces, whose laws, norms, and rules will partially determine who will benefit from the economic opportunities that arise in these spaces. The recently enacted Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act does not facilitate substantial distributive justice in crowdfunding markets. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which produced a report in response to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act's mandate that it study the P2P lending industry, has also failed to recommend a regulatory structure that will facilitate economic justice. This Article recommends that a range of federal regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury), should collaborate to implement a revised Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that would promote economic justice in these markets.


Short for Xi'an-Xianyang New Development area, Xixian New Area is a modern garden city and the development urban agriculture is its key and bright point. With the aid of SWOT method, this paper analyzes strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of urban agriculture in Xixian New Area. Combining actual conditions of developing urban agriculture in Xixian New Area, it discusses general and specific development modes of urban agriculture. It is concluded that urban agriculture in Xixian New Area should bring into play its strength and avoid its weakness, select suitable development mode and road. Besides, it should give into play multi-function of urban agriculture, so as to promote coordinated and sustainable development of economy, society, ecology and environment.


During early childhood, children develop cognitive and socioemotional skills that predict success in multiple socioeconomic dimensions. A large part of the development of these skills depends on the child's context during the first years of life and, in particular, on the quality of parental care. Grounded on recent literature in psychology and behavioral economics, we discuss a theoretical framework for understanding why some children receive adequate care, while others do not. Within this framework, we identify a determinant of the quality of parenting that has not yet been explored in-depth: the availability of parents' mental resources, which are depleted by the subjective feeling of scarcity and the stress generated by adversities. Using cross-sectional data from a household survey in Colombia and administrative data on crime and violence, we find that a greater subjective feeling of scarcity (?=0.45, IC95%: [0.082, 0.979]) and greater exposure to violence (? =0.09, IC90%:[0.004, 0.182]) are associated with a lower likelihood that parents engage in stimulating activities with their children. At the same time, the results show that receiving information on childrearing is correlated with better parental practices (? =-0.48, IC95%:[-0.822, -0.136]).


BBlood glucose lows (hypoglycemia) can come on fast, so you'll want to be prepared to treat immediately—and before you do something dangerous such as drive while low. People with type 1 diabetes frequently have mild lows, while people with type 2 diabetes can also develop hypoglycemia if they take insulin or sulfonylureas. The following products are specifically designed to provide glucose for lows. These products are fat free, which may help speed the absorption of sugar, and the serving sizes are precise, so you'll know exactly how many carbohydrate grams you've swallowed. In addition to the name-brand products listed below, lower-priced yet equally effective store brands are also available. Treat lows fast with these sources of sugar ● By Kelly Rawlings


In only a decade, the BRICS group has achieved policy coordination among five very disparate countries and has started presenting a serious challenge to the status quo in global governance. It is now collaborating on many policy issues and delegating authority to a range of BRICS organizations. Since the inception of BRICS, the protracted India–China rivalry has cast a dark shadow over the group. In the aftermath of the India–China standoff in Ladakh, especially the Galwan Valley clash evoking memories of more serious clashes such as those at Nathu La in 1967 and even the 1962 border war, a crucial axis of BRICS cooperation – the India–China relationship – has deteriorated. This Special Section examines whether the India–China rivalry will render BRICS dysfunctional. Will the BRICS group be broken? The contributors will analyse whether BRICS can be a pacifying force and outline the prospects for the development of BRICS in light of the India–China crisis.


Significance Synonymous recoding of viral genomes by codon-pair deoptimization (CPD) provides live-attenuated vaccine candidates expected to be genetically stable. However, their actual genetic stability is largely unknown. Under selective pressure, a highly attenuated human respiratory syncytial virus bearing CPD G and F ORFs (called Min B) generated abundant subpopulations of genomes containing large internal deletions (LD genomes). These LD genomes contained the CPD F gene in the first or second promoter-proximal position. This provided increased expression of the F protein, which rescued Min B replication. Thus, defective genomes were specifically selected to complement and rescue the replication of a CPD RNA virus. This study describes a previously unknown mechanism of adaptation of negative-strand RNA viruses. Recoding viral genomes by introducing numerous synonymous but suboptimal codon pairs—called codon-pair deoptimization (CPD)—provides new types of live-attenuated vaccine candidates. The large number of nucleotide changes resulting from CPD should provide genetic stability to the attenuating phenotype, but this has not been rigorously tested. Human respiratory syncytial virus in which the G and F surface glycoprotein ORFs were CPD (called Min B) was temperature-sensitive and highly restricted in vitro. When subjected to selective pressure by serial passage at increasing temperatures, Min B substantially regained expression of F and replication fitness. Whole-genome deep sequencing showed many point mutations scattered across the genome, including one combination of six linked point mutations. However, their reintroduction into Min B provided minimal rescue. Further analysis revealed viral genomes bearing very large internal deletions (LD genomes) that accumulated after only a few passages. The deletions relocated the CPD F gene to the first or second promoter-proximal gene position. LD genomes amplified de novo in Min B–infected cells were encapsidated, expressed high levels of F, and complemented Min B replication in trans. This study provides insight on a variation of the adaptability of a debilitated negative-strand RNA virus, namely the generation of defective minihelper viruses to overcome its restriction. This is in contrast to the common "defective interfering particles" that interfere with the replication of the virus from which they originated. To our knowledge, defective genomes that promote rather than inhibit replication have not been reported before in RNA viruses.


Gender differences in colour naming were explored using a web-based experiment in English. Each participant named twenty colours selected from 600 Munsell samples, presented one at a time against a neutral background. Colour names and typing onset response times were registered. For the eleven basic colour terms, elicitation frequency was comparable for both genders. Females demonstrated more elaborated colour vocabulary, with more descriptors in general and more non-basic monolexemic terms; they also named colours faster than males. The two genders differ in the repertoire of frequent colour terms: a Bayesian synthetic observer revealed that women segment colour space linguistically more densely in the "warm" area whereas men do so in the "cool" area. Current "nurture" and "nature" explanations of why females excel in colour naming behaviour are considered.


The authors model retail rents in the United Kingdom with use of vector-autoregressive and time-series models. Two retail rent series are used, compiled by LaSalle Investment Management and CB Hillier Parker, and the emphasis is on forecasting. The results suggest that the use of the vector-autoregression and time-series models in this paper can pick up important features of the data that are useful for forecasting purposes. The relative forecasting performance of the models appears to be subject to the length of the forecast time-horizon. The results also show that the variables which were appropriate for inclusion in the vector-autoregression systems differ between the two rent series, suggesting that the structure of optimal models for predicting retail rents could be specific to the rent index used. Ex ante forecasts from our time-series suggest that both LaSalle Investment Management and CB Hillier Parker real retail rents will exhibit an annual growth rate above their long-term mean.


We have constructed a replication-deficient adenovirus encoding a nonphosphorylatable Thr(34)-->Ala mutant of the apoptosis inhibitor survivin (pAd-T34A) to target tumor cell viability in vitro and in vivo. Infection with pAd-T34A caused spontaneous apoptosis in cell lines of breast, cervical, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer. In contrast, pAd-T34A did not affect cell viability of proliferating normal human cells, including fibroblasts, endothelium, or smooth muscle cells. Infection of tumor cells with pAd-T34A resulted in cytochrome c release from mitochondria, cleavage of approximately 46-kDa upstream caspase-9, processing of caspase-3 to the active subunits of approximately 17 and 19 kDa, and increased caspase-3 catalytic activity. When compared with chemotherapeutic regimens, pAd-T34A was as effective as taxol and considerably more effective than adriamycin in induction of tumor cell apoptosis and enhanced taxol-induced cell death. In three xenograft breast cancer models in immunodeficient mice, pAd-T34A suppressed de novo tumor formation, inhibited by approximately 40% the growth of established tumors, and reduced intraperitoneal tumor dissemination. Tumors injected with pAd-T34A exhibited loss of proliferating cells and massive apoptosis by in situ internucleosomal DNA fragmentation. These data suggest that adenoviral targeting of the survivin pathway may provide a novel approach for selective cancer gene therapy.


In this study, the Determination of heat flow in the Sokoto Basin North Western Nigeria using spectral analysis of aeromagnetic data was carried out. The study area is bounded by latitude 11.0 o N to 13.5 o N and longitude 3.5 o E to 6.5 o This research is necessitated by the need for renewable alternative sources of energy for use in Nigeria. Depth estimates were made from the spectral analysis of the magnetic anomalies. The Upward continuation filter control was utilized to suppress the short wavelength components in the Sokoto Basin. The continuation was carried out at various heights (2km, 5km, 10km, 15km and 20km). The centriod depth which relates to the point where magnetism is lost in the crust was calculated using the rate of decay of the spectrum. The results from spectral analysis suggested that in the Sokoto basin the basement is deepest at the north eastern portion toward Niger Republic and varies between 0.61 and 1.54km, while the centriod depth varies from 6.35 to 13.05km. It also suggested that basin is underlain by a Curie-point isotherm of between 11.36 to 22.30km and corresponding gradient and heat flow values varying from 26.18 to 44.62 0 C/km and 52.36 to 98.57mW/m 2 respectively. The maximum heat flow is found around the central area (i.e around Tambuwal). The average heat flow in normal continental region is about 60mW/m 2 , values between 80 and 100 mW/m 2 are good geothermal sources while values greater than hundred is an indication of anomalous condition. Anomalous and good high heat flow for good geothermal sources was observed in the area. These areas with high heat values may be good geothermal sources and therefore are recommended for further investigation.


Before widescale emigration in the early 1960s, North Africa's Jewish communities were among the largest in the world. Without Jewish emigrants from North Africa, Israel's dynamic growth would simply not have occured. North African Jews, also called Maghribi, strengthed the new Israeli state through their settlements, often becoming the victims of Arab-Israeli conflicts and terrorist attacks. Their contribution and struggles are, in many ways, akin to the challenges emigrants from the former Soviet Union are currently encountering in Israel. Today, these North African Jewish communities are a vital force in Israeli society and politics as well as in France and Quebec. In the first major political history of North African Jewry, Michael Laskier paints a compelling picture of three Third World Jewish communities, tracing their exposure to modernization and their relations with the Muslims and the European settlers. Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this volume is its astonishing array of primary sources. Laskier draws on a wide range of archives in Israel, Europe, and the United States and on personal interviews with former community leaders, Maghribi Zionists, and Jewish outsiders who lived and worked among North Africa's Jews to recreate the experiences and development of these communities.Among the subjects covered: --Jewish conditions before and during colonial penetration by the French and Spanish; --anti-Semitism in North Africa, as promoted both by European settlers and Maghribi nationalists; --the precarious position of Jews amidst the struggle between colonized Muslims and European colonialists; --the impact of pogroms in the 1930s and 1940s and the Vichy/Nazi menace; --internal Jewish communal struggles due to the conflict between the proponents of integration, and of emigration to other lands, and, later, the communal self-liquidiation process;--the role of clandestine organizations, such as the Mossad, in organizing for self-defense and illegal immigration;--and, more generally, the history of the North African 'aliyaand Zionist activity from the beginning of the twentieth century onward. A unique and unprecedented study, Michael Laskier's work will stand as the definitive account of North African Jewry for some time.


Most database management systems maintain statistics on the underlying relation. One of the important statistics is that of the "hot items" in the relation: those that appear many times (most frequently, or more than some threshold). For example, end-biased histograms keep the hot items as part of the histogram and are used in selectivity estimation. Hot items are used as simple outliers in data mining, and in anomaly detection in networking applications.We present a new algorithm for dynamically determining the hot items at any time in the relation that is undergoing deletion operations as well as inserts. Our algorithm maintains a small space data structure that monitors the transactions on the relation, and when required, quickly outputs all hot items, without rescanning the relation in the database. With user-specified probability, it is able to report all hot items. Our algorithm relies on the idea of "group testing", is simple to implement, and has provable quality, space and time guarantees. Previously known algorithms for this problem that make similar quality and performance guarantees can not handle deletions, and those that handle deletions can not make similar guarantees without rescanning the database. Our experiments with real and synthetic data shows that our algorithm is remarkably accurate in dynamically tracking the hot items independent of the rate of insertions and deletions.


Small RNAs, either microRNAs (miRNAs) or short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are emerging as important regulators of gene expression. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, single-stranded RNAs that inhibit gene expression by posttranscriptionally targeting RNAs for degradation. Short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are double-stranded RNAs that also mediate gene silencing. Sunkar and Zhu constructed a library of small RNAs from Arabidopsis seedlings exposed to various stresses, cold, dehydration, high salt, or abscisic acid, in order to identify new small RNAs and gain insight into the roles of small RNAs for mediating abiotic stress responses. Twenty-six new miRNAs were identified and were classified into 15 new families, with two miRNAs falling into previously reported families. In addition, 102 putative siRNAs were identified. Target transcripts regulated by the miRNAs were predicted based on sequence analysis and suggest that more than one miRNA may target the same transcript, that a single miRNA may target multiple transcripts, and that often these transcripts tend to be from members of the same gene family. For example, miR400 is predicted to interact with at least 10 members of the PPR (pentatricopeptide repeat) family. Furthermore, the abundance of several miRNAs was increased or decreased in response to various abiotic stresses, and several of the newly identified miRNAs exhibited tissue or developmental stage-specific expression patterns. These results open the door for further exploration of the role of small RNAs in abiotic stress signaling. R. Sunkar, J. K. Zhu, Novel and stress-regulated microRNAs and other small RNAs from Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 16, 2001-2019 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Renewable resources become more and more relevant to maintain energy demands for an increasing global population. Biosynthetic fuels like biodiesel might replace conventional petrochemical fuels. In this study the influence of microbial growth on biodiesel and diesel on the storage tank systems were investigated. Polymeric fuel storage tanks for diesel and biodiesel provide suitable environmental conditions for a broad spectrum of fungi and various bacteria, including cyanobacteria and aerobic heterotrophic, and even anaerobic, fermentative Bacteria. However, the questions whether and how ageing of the materials is affected by biofouling processes have not been answered so far. Therefore, a model system for biofilm formation was established to study the initial attachment phase of bacteria in dependency of ageing, quality and surface modification of thermoplastic polymers used for storage tank systems. The microbial survey is closely connected with a detailed characterization of the material's properties and its ageing processes.
A widely applied plastic used for fuel storage tanks is high-density polyethylene (PE-HD), which is available with various additives to increase UV-light stability and even for the storage of biodiesel. These materials were aged under UV-light and temperature using a defined climate chamber set-up. Further, the repeated filling of fuels was mimicked for such storage tanks, as this has an important impact on the life-cycle length for the storage Container. The aged polymers showed a significant change in the material's characteristics, including surface characteristics (e.g. hydrophobicity) and carbonyl groups. The effect of the changed material properties on the biofilm formation are studied using bacterial isolates, previously obtained from a "dieselpest", and as a model-reference E. coli. The unaged polymers showed already some significant differences for the initial attachment of E. coli K12. Polyethylene with additives was colonized faster than the reference material (without additives) although the final biofilm coverage was not impaired. Likewise, the settlement of a kerosene-isolated Bacillus species on the unaged materials independently of additives was only minor interfered.
In future, our results should give stakeholders in industry and public authorities a better estimation of the life-cycle security for fuel storage tank systems and on the fuel quality. Further, our results could help to test and develop new materials or additives to prevent biofouling processes.


This chapter explores the role of individualization in careers, and especially with regard to older workers. The central aim of the chapter is to elucidate the role of individualization in the establishment of careers, as well as how organizations treat their workers, and employ HRM systems and practices in order to retain and motivate workers of all ages. Based on the argument that the older workers become, the more heterogeneous they become in terms of career preferences, I propose that individualization of career arrangements will be increasingly important in the sustainability of contemporary careers. An individualized approach, such as through the lens of idiosyncratic deals (or I-deals), can facilitate older workers to retain work motivation and performance. However, the extent to which I-deals will benefit motivation and performance is dependent upon a range of factors, including supportive climate, psychological processes that occur within the worker, and fairness in the distribution of negotiated deals across the organization.


This dissertation investigates the impact on classroom practice of the use of new language texts which are based on the Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) model, and the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Draft materials of a newly published series, Language in My World, were used by the researcher. The central aim of the study was to establish whether the use of the new materials, without accompanying in-service training in their use, would effect any change in the teaching methodology of the participant teachers, as well as a change in learner involvement. A qualitative, non-participatory method of observation was applied. Four teachers from one rural ex-Department of Education and Training (DEC) school, and seven teachers from two ex-KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture (KDEC) rural schools, participated in the study. Lessons were observed over a period of six weeks. The research design, the field work, and analysis of the observed lessons are described and recorded. The findings indicate aspects of classroom practice which hinder the effective learning and teaching of English as a second language. Learners were not taught by adequately trained teachers. In most of the lessons observed, the teachers engaged in the 'recitation script' and there was no sensitization of learners to show their understanding of the texts. Learners were not given the opportunity to analyze the information received in the light of their own experiences and emotions. Teachers needed to be taught about the principles of CLT. The climate at many schools (not enough classrooms, no toilet facilities, no learning resources), is not conducive to learning. The implications of the findings are considered. Certain recommendations from the findings are made which will enable. teachers to develop their professional knowledge and improve their teaching practice.


Since 1990, the number of preferential trade agreements has increased rapidly. The argument in this article explains this phenomenon, known as the new regionalism, as a result of competition for market access; exporters facing trade diversion because of their exclusion from a preferential trade agreement concluded by foreign countries push their governments into signing an agreement with the country in which their exports are threatened. The argument is tested in a quantitative analysis of the proliferation of preferential trade agreements among 167 countries between 1990 and 2007. The finding that competition for market access is a major driving force of the new regionalism is a contribution to the literature on regionalism and to broader debates about global economic regulation.


Accounting fairness refers mostly to the fair presentation, and therefore, measurement or valuation of an element recognized in the entity's financial statements. In accounting and finance, fair value is a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset. Applying different accounting and valuation methods across firms or countries makes financial statements incomparable to each other. The research objects of the paper are: a literature view of IFRS2 and US GAAP3 principles and accounting standards for fixed assets; a critical perspective of the used accounting frameworks, providing comparison for each framework and each portfolio; the incorporation of uncertainty into the WLC4 methodology for the valuation and management of real property assets. The methodology of WLC with the NPV5 technique of a property asset, are used. These methods are incorporated into a decision-making mathematical model using the PERT 6 probability distribution function for the input variables. The model is applied to a typical property asset (an office building as a part of a company's fixed assets portfolio) in order to explore the significance of impacts from changes in structured variables by using the Monte Carlo Simulation. After the above procedure a unique fair value accounting model is founded on the dynamic integration of WLC fundamental concepts and the widely used appraisal measures for property assets with quantitative risk analysis to address the endemic in the property assets uncertainty.


The performance of filtered analog photonic links, useful in signal processing applications, is analyzed along with techniques for compensation of distortion. We analyze the attributes of various link configurations and compare the performance of filtered coherent-detection links with intensity-modulated-direct-detection links. Experimental results on the dynamic range and the compensation of nonlinearities using predistortion compensation are presented for a filtered coherent link. We demonstrate suppression of third-order nonlinearity by 20 dB. In addition to supporting signal processing operations such as filtering and arbitrary intermediate frequency downconversion, at the same detected power, we find filtered coherent links to have up to 9 dB noise figure advantage over unfiltered direct-detection links, dependent on the limits of the operating optical power in the link.


Differential semblance measures the deviation from flatness or focus of image gathers. The differential semblance objective function posed on the sub-surface offset domain responds smoothly to velocity changes. Therefore gradient descent methods are uniquely attractive for velocity updating by differential semblance optimization. Because of their kinematic fidelity, wave equation (depth extrapolation) migration methods are natural platforms for velocity analysis in complex structures. The gradient of the objective function with respect to velocity is fomulated through the adjoint of differential migration. Limited memory BFGS algorithm is used for the velocity optimization. The method for wave equation velocity analysis developed in this thesis study is applied to both synthetic and real data examples.


There are indisputable concerns over the ineffective participation of LeastDeveloped Countries (LDCs) and Small Vulnerable Economies (SVEs) in the process of global integration, and their failure to derive benefits from the ongoing process of trade liberalisation and globalisation. This paper explains the theme of 'marginalisation' of LDCs and SVEs in the international trade arena, and their declining relative importance in world trade. Statistical analysis is used to determine the longterm declining share of LDCs and SVEs in world merchandise exports. The study argues that the process of marginalisation of these countries is mostly the result of the failure of LDCs and SVEs to diversify from their static comparative advantage related to the production of primary products, the significance of which in world trade has declined considerably during the past decades. The analysis emphasises the need for diversification of exports and an expansion of the manufacturing export base in these countries.


Whip scorpions are an enigmatic group of terrestrial raptorial arachnids that show remarkable mating and courtship behavior in which the male forms a complex spermatophore. While whip spiders (Amblypygi) are relatively well-studied, whip scorpions (Uropygi) are poorly known. The two orders form the Pedipalpi, whip scorpions (Uropygi include Thelyphonida and Schizomida) and whip spiders (Amblypygi). Two major groups have been described based on the mode of sperm transfer that differ in the duration and mode of the typical female–male tandem mating dance. Because comprehensive studies are lacking, in this study we add to our knowledge of the reproductive biology of whip scorpions by analyzing the mating behavior and spermatophore morphology of the previously unstudied species Typopeltis dalyi Pocock, 1900. Our observations show that this species belongs to the second group and supports the hypothesis of P. Weygoldt that their mode of sperm transfer appears more effective than that of the first group and that sufficient sperm can be supplied with one mating. The mating behavior and spermatophore morphology in T. dalyi are similar to those of closely related species and add additional characters applicable for species classification and phylogenetic inferences.


Background and objective: Malaria and HIV co-infection pose significant health concerns in many regions of the world. Co-infection significantly increases the burden of these diseases in pregnancy, yet the interactions of these diseases in pregnant women are not well understood. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and examine the factors that could be associated with malaria in HIV positive infected pregnant women on antiretroviral therapy.
Methodology: Blood samples were collected from 301 confirmed HIV positive pregnant women in various trimesters and examined for malaria parasite presence and density with other laboratory indices. Baseline socio-demographic information, antenatal information, CD4 levels, and viral load were collected from clinical records. Information on type of treatment, such as intermittent malaria preventive treatment (IPT) and ART therapy/ prophylaxis, was extracted from care cards. Information on the prior use of antimalarial drugs and cotrimoxazole intake was obtained from direct interviews.
Results: The prevalence of malaria among HIV-positive pregnant women was 49.83% and the odds of having malaria doubledwith living in a rural community (AOR 2.04, CI [1.07-3.91] P 350 had reduced odds of malaria parasitaemia (AOR 0.50, CI [0.81-1.44] P=0.202) and (AOR 0.65, CI [0.24-1.73] P=0.391), respectively, compared with those with lower CD4 counts. Malaria parasites were unlikely in those with normal haemoglobin levels (AOR 0.08 CI [0.04-0.16] P<0.001). Pregnant women who were not on treatment before coming to the hospital ANC were about nine times more likely to have malaria parasites than those who had it recently (AOR 9.30, CI [4.44-19.50] P<0.001).
Conclusion: The prevalence of malaria in HIV-positive pregnant women was influenced by the locality, level of haemoglobin and self-medication prior to coming to the hospital. Low haemoglobin, which serves as an index of malnutrition, was also a serious factor that should be evaluated to reduce the scourge and burden of malaria complications, and programs geared towards provision of mosquito and environmental barriers should be improved.


Since August 2007, the U.S. and global financial markets have endured the worst crisis since the Great Depression, accompanied by a deep economic recession. At the height of the crisis, whole segments of financial markets froze and market participants hesitated to engage in transactions with even the most creditworthy counterparties.


Episodes of mania in bipolar affective disorder patients are associated with a decrease in cerebrospinal fluid calcium. A reduction in extracellular calcium in most neurones leads to a decrease in calcium‐activated potassium conductance mechanisms. Such mechanisms help govern the rate of action potential generation by neurones, and thus the rate of information processing. The dopamine hypothesis of neuroleptic action cannot explain the antimanic actions of lithium, calcium antagonists or carbamazepine. This paper proposes a common mechanism of action for such substances — namely, an action on calcium‐activated potassium conductances.


This essay, prepared for the Fordham Environmental Law Review's 20th Anniversary edition marking key developments in environmental law, addresses the past and future of environmental justice. From a historical perspective, it analyzes the central features of the environmental justice movement, its strengths and weaknesses in influencing environmental law, and the systemic reasons why environmental justice has struggled for influence in environmental policy. Looking forward, the essay focuses on how the environmental justice movement can contribute to the future of environmental law. Amplifying the voices of many environmental justice scholars, it argues that the environmental justice movement and its sister movement, environmental sustainability, offer visionary, comprehensive, and inclusive paths forward that could increase the environmental movement's breadth and political strength.


The present paper aims to analyze the positive or negative impact of local integrated firms on strategies of intrapreneurship and sustainability. The study was developed in the region of Tâmega e Sousa, located in the north of Portugal. For that 283 firms from manufacturing and construction industries were analyzed. By local integrated firm were considered those firms that are doing all their business activities within the region where they are established. Most of firms (83.2%) in this region present very good results in the adoption of sustainable strategies, while 80.9% present a weak adoption of intrapreneurship strategies. Crossing variables on local integration and sustainability it was found a light tendency in favor of local firms, i.e., local firms apparently are more concerned with the regional sustainable development, than those that are acting outside the region borders. On what regards the relation between local integration and the adoption of intrapreneurship strategies, those firms that are doing business beyond the region are adopting more intrapreneurship strategies.


New generations of wireless communication systems require linear efficient RF power amplifiers (PAs) for higher transmission data rates and longer battery life. On the contrary, conventional PAs are normally designed for peak efficiency under maximum output power (Pout). Thus, in power back-off, the overall efficiency degrades significantly and the average efficiency is much lower than the efficiency at maximum Pout. Chireix outphasing PA, also called LINC (Linear amplification using Non-linear Components), is one of the most promising techniques to improve the efficiency at power back-off. In this method, a variable envelope input signal is first decomposed into two constant-envelope phase-modulated signals and then amplified using two highly efficient non-linear PAs. The output signals are combined preferably in a loss-less power combiner to build the desired output signal. In this way, the PA exhibits high efficiency with good linearity. In this thesis, first we analyze a complex model of outphasing combiner considering its nonidealities such as reflection and loss in transmission lines (TL). Then we propose a compact model with analytical formula that is validated through several comparative tests using ADS and Spectre RF. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of reactive load in Chireix combiner with stubs (a parallel inductor and capacitor), while distinguishing between its capacitive and inductive parts. It is demonstrated that only the capacitive part of the reactive load degrades the performances. Based on this, a new architecture (Z LINC) is proposed where the power combiner is designed to provide a zero capacitive load to the PAs whatever the outphasing angle. The theory describing the operations of the system is developed and a 900 MHz classical LINC and Z-LINC PAs are designed and measured. In addition, a miniaturization technique is proposed which employs I»/8 or smaller TLs instead of conventional I»/4 TLs in outphasing power combiner. This technique is applied to implement a 900 MHz PA using LDMOS power transistors. Besides single-band PAs, dual-band PAs are more and more needed because of an increasing demand for wireless communication terminals to handle multi-band operation. In chapter 5, a new compact design approach for dual-band transmitters based on a reconfigurable outphasing combiner is proposed. The objective is to avoid the cumbersome implementations where several PAs and matching network are used in parallel. The technique is applied to design a dual band PA with a fully integrated power combiner in 90 nm CMOS technology. An inverter-based class D PA topology, particularly suitable for outphasing and multimode operations is presented. The TLs in the combiner, realized using a network of on-chip series inductors and parallel capacitors, are reconfigurable from I»/4 in 1800 MHz to I»/8 in 900 MHz. In order to maximize the efficiency, the on-chip inductors are implemented using high quality factor on chip slab inductors. The measured maximum Pout at 900/1800 MHz are 24.3 and 22.7 dBm with maximum efficiencies of 51% and 34% respectively.


This paper presents a new freeware simulation tool (IberWQ) for 2D water quality modelling in rivers and non-stratified estuaries. The model computes the spatial and temporal evolution of several species and variables which are relevant for the evaluation of the environmental status of rivers and estuaries, including: Escherichia coli, dissolved oxygen, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, organic nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrate–nitrite nitrogen, water temperature and salinity. A depth-averaged transport equation is solved for each variable with a mass conservative unstructured finite volume solver. IberWQ is fully coupled to the hydrodynamic module of the software Iber, a freeware simulation tool for solving the 2D shallow water equations. Both models are integrated in the same windows graphical environment, including several tools which allow the user to generate unstructured meshes adapted to the site topography, define spatially variable input parameters and visualize model outputs. We present four application examples to illustrate the possibilities of the software for the dynamic simulation of water quality in rivers and estuaries.


Some farmers are offering subsidized or "cost-off-set" community supported agriculture (CO-CSA) shares as a strategy to counter market saturation and improve low-income families' access to fresh local foods. However, little is known about farm-a ers' experiences with this model, particularly in re-gard to the balance between additional resources required for adoption and subsequent contributions to farm revenue. As part of the Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids Study of the impact of a CO-CSA on dietary behaviors in low-income families, we conducted qualitative interviews with 12 farmers across four states after the first and the third years of CO-CSA implementation . We explored these data to understand what accommodations farmers provided to low-income families, the benefits and challenges of implementing the CO-CSA model, and farmers' perceptions of its impact on cash flow and profitability. We found that farmers selected pick-up locations that met CO-CSA members' needs, were responsive to members' food preferences in selecting CSA contents, and allowed for late payments and pickups, though sometimes this placed an additional burden on farmers' time and resources. Additionally, weekly payment transactions led to increased recordkeeping. Despite its challenges, most farmers said CO-CSA adoption was a worthwhile addition to their business model. Expanding food access through this mechanism may become more sustainable with the additional support of innovative policies like eased land-use restrictions, operational models, and community strategies to fund and operate CO-CSA programs. This is an area ripe for future research, as there is little documentation on both single farm and multifarm CO-CSA operations.


The Latvian economy mainly consists of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). There are two important moments in the enhancement of their successful development and competitiveness: competition and collaboration. In the modern world collaboration or partnership is starting to play an ever increasing role as is shown by the research carried out. This research analyzes the partnership model which consists of three components: partnership context component, external partner network component, and internal environment component. The following research methodology was used: monographic method based also on lit- erature review; logically constructive method – to formulate conclusions, analyze the results and establish correlations; analytical method – to divide whole into parts and analyze the parts during the research; synthesis method – unification of elements into a system to research their correlations; social research methods – to obtain primary information and to verify it; graphic method – to depict factor interactions.


Noting and tracing former ownership of rare materials has been a common cataloging practice for many years. This paper explores the value of examining special collections materials that may not be old and rare for evidence of provenance in order to provide notes and added entries pointing to former owners in bibliographic records. This case study of a small group of mid-twentieth century books, formerly owned by a Swiss family, demonstrates the significance of the cataloging process in revealing information about the original owners. Building on the bibliographic work of catalogers working with a collection of books on mountaineering topics, the author uses the case study to show how cataloging books as objects with a history can enable users to find new topics of research in special collections materials. ********** For special collections librarians and users of their collections, provenance is an important aspect of the materials. In the exhibitions they mount and in the classes they teach, many special collections librarians often highlight evidence of previous ownership of materials in their collections. In addition to research interests in the content of rare books, scholars working in special collections also may focus on the materials as objects and the evidences of provenance they reveal. While the Oxford English Dictionary's first general definition of provenance is "the fact of coming from some particular source or quarter; origin; derivation," the second is more specific to materials in library or museum collections: "The history or pedigree of a work of art, manuscript, rare book, etc.; concr., a record of the ultimate derivation and passage of an item through its various owners." (1) Carter likewise defines provenance as "the pedigree of a book's previous ownership" and notes that "the evidences of [a book's] earlier history are always of interest (documentary or sentimental) and sometimes of importance." (2) The provenance of a particular work of art or printed work can be verified in several ways: authenticating documentation may accompany the object, catalogs or lists may include entries confirming the names of former owners, or the work itself may contain the evidence of former ownership. Provenance has significance for special collections and the users of special collections for a number of reasons: (1) former ownership may make the book or object more valuable or important to users and to the holding institution; (2) knowledge of the content of a former owner's collection may bring insight to the intellectual interests and pursuits of a particular person; and (3) historians of the book and bibliographers often have a keen interest in the personal libraries of persons well known in their fields--for example, authors, politicians, or scientists, particularly those who lived in an earlier age. In his comprehensive reference work, Provenance Research in Book History, Pearson categorized and discussed the various types of provenance evidence and presented the bibliographical resources and indexes that support scholarly research on private libraries from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century. (3) To keep a record of the characteristics denoting value and significance and to facilitate the study of former ownership, catalogers of rare materials routinely note the provenance evidence in books they catalog and many provide added entries for the previous owners of the materials. The physical evidence of former ownership includes autographs or annotations, stamped names, bookplates, book labels, and presentation inscriptions, among others. The uniqueness of provenance evidence makes it paramount for catalogers to note the names of former owners to establish the relationship of other materials belonging to the same person or family. A recent posting to the rare books list Exlibris-L asked for information concerning any books libraries currently hold with provenance indicating that the books belonged to the Sidney family of Penshurst Place, Kent, beginning in the sixteenth century. …


Parental involvement (PI) has increasingly become a major priority in the educational agenda. Parents are regarded as an important source for schools and teachers that largely contribute to good-quality education. Schools are expected to develop practices that include parents in activities that concern both the learning process and school practical aspects. Research on school effectiveness and improvement suggests that teachers and parents partnership is now strongly recommended in order to ensure children's school success (Mortimore et aI, 1988).
This study discusses PI terminology and concepts; the process and the construction of PI theory with its models and typologies; research and evidence which has influenced this thesis; and evidence from Brazilian schools. PI typologies and models have greatly influenced this piece of work because it is argued teachers' preparedness for PI can only be examined from that knowledge. In particular, the study uses a typology of PI devised by Joyce Epstein (1989) based on PI research in American primary schools (1982, 1985, 1987, and later, extended to middle and secondary schools).
Since little attention has been paid to school PI practices in Brazil, this research aims to understand and reveal Brazilian teachers' position to PI. To pursue this aim two studies were designed to collect parents' and teachers' views about PI practices taken from Joyce Epstein's typology, research and questionnaires.
Eleven Brazilian state pre and primary schools were involved: 21 parents whose children were in the fourth grade were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire, and 181 pre- and primary school teachers answered a structured questionnaire. Parents' data were qualitatively analyzed and teachers' quantitative data were analyzed using factor analysis.
The results showed that Brazilian parents see PI in three different ways: help, involvement and communication. Help was related to the practical aspects of schooling; involvement was related to intellectual and2 I educational activities; and communication was seen as the tool for the other two categories that would need to be more effectively developed. The findings suggest that Brazilian teachers welcome parents' support in preparing children to go to school but seemed to reject the idea of parents' helping with curriculum-related activities in the classroom and school. However, they would like parents to follow their advice and instructions for activities developed at homne including homework.
The importance of positive communication and parents and children's appraisal was also highlighted. Both Brazilian teachers and parents believed that two-way communication and integration of efforts are essential elements for effective in Brazilian schools.


This paper presents the methodological background and some results of a study "Applications, Diffusion and Socio-Economic effects of Microelectronics in Austria", which was financed by the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. The paper consists of two parts: (1) The description of the methodology how to measure the impact of technical change caused by microelectronics on the Austrian economy. For this purpose a mathematical simulation model was constructed which consists of an input-output-model, an econometric demand model and a model for linking technology and economy. (2) By means of socio.-political scenarios the simulation model was used to produce conditional forecasts for the years 1985 and 1990 for the main economic indicators. Some of the results, in particular unemployment figures, are presented.

Although the presented approach was developed for the analysis of microelectronics, a special type of technology, the method could easily be used for any other type of technological change, robots etc., if this technology can be explicitly connected with certain economic indicators, like productivity, manpower, material inputs and outputs.


Nerve injury increases the activity of an enzyme in the brain and contributes to chronic pain–related cortical sensitization. One of the major challenges in pain research is finding ways to reverse chronic pain. Synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) at spinal or cortical levels is a cellular model of chronic pain. X.-Y. Li. et al. studied the role of the enzyme protein kinase M zeta (PKMζ) in neurons of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the maintenance of LTP and for enhanced pain sensitivity after peripheral nerve injury in mice. Nerve injury appeared to lead to the up-regulation and phosphorylation of PKMζ. This triggered LTP at some synapses in the ACC by increasing the number of AMPA receptors. LTP was restricted to ACC neurons that were activated by nerve injury. Blocking PKMζ in the ACC days after nerve injury normalized pain behavior. Thus, PKMζ may represent a promising target for the treatment of chronic pain. X.-Y. Li, H.-G. Ko, T. Chen, G. Descalzi, K. Koga, H. Wang, S. S. Kim, Y. Shang, C. Kwak, S.-W. Park, J. Shim, K. Lee, G. L. Collingridge, B.-K. Kaang, M. Zhuo, Alleviating neuropathic pain hypersensitivity by inhibiting PKMζ in the anterior cingulate cortex. Science 330, 1400–1404 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This book offers a critical assessment of the history of the euro, its crisis, and the rescue measures taken by the European Central Bank and the community of states. The euro induced huge capital flows from the northern to the southern countries of the Eurozone that triggered an inflationary credit bubble in the latter, deprived them of their competitiveness, and made them vulnerable to the financial crisis that spilled over from the US in 2007 and 2008. As private capital shied away from the southern countries, the ECB helped out by providing credit from the local money-printing presses. The ECB became heavily exposed to investment risks in the process, and subsequently had to be bailed out by intergovernmental rescue operations that provided replacement credit for the ECB credit, which itself had replaced the dwindling private credit. The interventions stretched the legal strictures stipulated by the Maastricht Treaty which, in the absence of a European federal state, had granted the ECB a very limited mandate. These interventions created a path dependency that effectively made parliaments vicarious agents of the ECB's Governing Council. This book describes what the author considers to be a dangerous political process that undermines both the market economy and democracy, without solving southern Europe's competitiveness problem. It argues that the Eurozone has to rethink its rules of conduct by limiting the role of the ECB, exiting the regime of soft budget constraints and writing off public and bank debt to help the crisis countries breathe again. At the same time, the Eurosystem should become more flexible by offering its members the option of exiting and re-entering the euro - something between the dollar and the Bretton Woods system - until it eventually turns into a federation with a strong political power centre and a uniform currency like the dollar.


The paper presents the results of the study dedicated to the investigation of sweet corn leaf apparatus growth and development in dependence to the crop cultivation technology elements, viz. depth of plowing, mineral fertilizers application doses, plants density, in the drip-irrigated conditions of the South of Ukraine. The field trials were carried out during three years (2014-2016) by using the split-plot design method in four replications with accordance to the modern requirements of the experimental work in agronomy. The results of the study showed the significant effect of all the studied agro technological treatments on the crop leaf apparatus. The highest Leaf Area Index (LAI) that averaged to 3.72 was obtained under moldboard plowing at the depth of 20-22 cm, fertilization with N120P120, and plants density of 80000 ha-1. The total amplitude of fluctuation of LAI averaged to 2.42. Increased plowing depth improved LAI of sweet corn only under the non-fertilized conditions, however, increased fertilizers doses and thickening of the crops positively affected the studied bio-metric index.


Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetics applies comparative literary approaches to classical Persian traditions of composing and performing poetry and song. Olga M. Davidson focuses on epic, especially the classical epic Shahnama, composed in the early eleventh century ce by the poet Ferdowsi, and on the relationship of this epic to other genres that are found embedded in it. Included among these other genres are forms of verbal art that were originally composed without the aid of writing, such as women's laments. Davidson explores the many ways in which the epic Shahnama incorporates oral poetic traditions in general. Surveying the current state of the art in oral poetic studies, she concentrates on applications of these studies to classical Persian prose as well as poetry. Of special interest is her critical analysis of both modern and ancient claims about the turning of prose into poetry. This second edition of the book contains an added chapter about "live" performances of the epic Shahnama.


In this paper, we present a joint antenna beamforming and power allocation technique to maximize the multiuser sum rate in an underlying microcellular system which reuses the same spectrum of a macrocellular system. One challenge in this kind of hierarchical cognitive radio (HCR) systems is to manage the interference between the macrocell and the microcell. The key contribution of this paper is to develop an optimization technique for antenna beamforming that can maximize the achievable sum rate of the underlying cognitive radio (CR) microcellular system and control the interference between the macrocell and the microcell with a satisfaction level. The proposed technique optimizes the sum rate performance by maximizing its lower bound and transfers the original non-convex problem into a convex optimization problem by introducing auxiliary variables to confine the intra-user interference power among the secondary system. Next, an iterative sum rate maximization (ISM) algorithm is developed to find the beamforming weights and the allocated power for each secondary user to simultaneously maximize system sum rate, coverage, and concurrent multiuser transmission probability in the HCR system. The developed joint design methodology provides valuable insights into the design of an optimal HCR system for various numbers of users as well as cell coverage, and can quantitatively optimize the performance tradeoffs in the hierarchical multiuser CR systems for current and future wireless communication applications.


This title is unique among textbooks in its appeal to a wide range of healthcare professionals including nurses, nursing students, students in the allied health professions and complementary / alternative medicine, paramedics and ambulance technicians. Each chapter provides an explanation of the normal structure and functions of the human body and the effects of disease or illness on normal physiology. The text is written in straightforward language and is complemented by over 400 extensive clear, colour illustrations.


Areas with high species richness have become focal points in the establishment of marine protected areas, but an understanding of the factors that support this diversity is still incomplete. In coastal areas, tidal currents—modulated by bathymetry and manifested in variable speeds—are a dominant physical feature of the environment. However, difficulties resolving tidally affected currents and depths at fine spatial-temporal scales have limited our ability to understand their influence on the distribution of marine birds. We used a hydrographic model of the water mass in Glacier Bay, Alaska, USA, to link depths and current velocities with the loca- tions of 15 common marine bird species observed during fine-scale boat-based surveys of the bay conducted during June of 4 consecutive years (2000 to 2003). Marine birds that forage on the bot- tom tended to occupy shallow habitats with slow-moving currents; mid-water foragers used habi- tats with intermediate depths and current speeds; and surface-foraging species tended to use habitats with fast-moving, deep waters. Within foraging groups there was variability among spe- cies in their use of habitats. While species obligated to foraging near bottom were constrained to use similar types of habitat, species in the mid-water foraging group were associated with a wider range of marine habitat characteristics. Species also showed varying levels of site use depending on tide stage. The dramatic variability in bottom topography—especially the presence of numer- ous sills, islands, headlands and channels—and large tidal ranges in Glacier Bay create a wide range of current-affected, fine-scale foraging habitats that may contribute to the high diversity of marine bird species found there.


After the United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, the new unincorporated territory sought to define its future. Seeking to shape the next generation and generate popular support for colonial rule, U.S. officials looked to education as a key venue for promoting the benefits of Americanization. At the same time, public schools became a site where Puerto Rican teachers, parents, and students could formulate and advance their own projects for building citizenship. In "Negotiating Empire," Solsiree del Moral demonstrates how these colonial intermediaries aimed for regeneration and progress through education. Rather than seeing U.S. empire in Puerto Rico during this period as a contest between two sharply polarized groups, del Moral views their interaction as a process of negotiation. Although educators and families rejected some tenets of Americanization, such as English-language instruction, they also redefined and appropriated others to their benefit to increase literacy and skills required for better occupations and social mobility. Pushing their citizenship-building vision through the schools, Puerto Ricans negotiated a different school project one that was reformist yet radical, modern yet traditional, colonial yet nationalist."


The anatomy of the unopened spear leaf of the chambira palm (Astrocaryum chambira), from which chambira fiber is extracted, is described and compared with that of three species (Astrocaryum jauari, occasionally used for fiber extraction, A. standleyanum and A. perangustatum, which do not provide any fiber). Chambira fiber consists of non-vascular fiber strands closely adhered to the adaxial hypodermis; this forms a compact unit, which makes it easy to separate from the rest of the lamina. A similar arrangement is found in Astrocaryum jauari; however, the non-vascular fiber cells are shorter and fewer per strand. Differences in leaf anatomy of Astrocaryum standleyanum and A. perangustatum may explain why fiber is not extracted: Astrocaryum standleyanum has a dense row of non-vascular fibrous strands under the adaxial hypodermis similar to Astrocaryum chambira but the large size of non-vascular fibrous strands that are located in the abaxial part of the mesophyll makes it difficult to properly extract fiber as is done with chambira. In Astrocaryum perangustatum, non-vascular fiber strands are small and irregularly dispersed in the mesophyll, which makes it impossible to extract quality fibers. Density, thickness and tensile strength are higher in chambira fiber than in jauari fiber. Chambira fiber presents a very high cellulose content (93.9%), while lignin content is low (4.2%). The ultrastructure of the cell wall of the non-vascular fiber is described for Astrocaryum chambira only. The major trait is a three-layered cell wall, with a notably thick inner layer. The physicochemical properties of chambira fiber are compared with other vegetal fibers used by the industry.


The contemporary tax reform projects in the world, especially in developing and transition countries, are under the sway of international institutions, theories and experts influenced by developed countries. The repercussion of such tax reforms on development endeavours of a nation can be quizzed from different angles. Ethiopia is not an exception to this influence as it can be learnt from the 2002's comprehensive tax reform that has also introduced Value Added Tax. This paper indicates that the tax reform was a hurried moment and VAT was untimely introduced in Ethiopia. The paper tries to demonstrate that the existing VAT practice is fenced with variety of teething troubles including administrative and fairness issues, which are critically related to the poverty reduction efforts of the nation. This paper concludes by providing legal, administrative and policy recommendations.


We explain how to compute the Jones polynomial of a link from one of its grid diagrams and we observe a connection between Bigelow's homological definition of the Jones polynomial and Kauffman's definition of the Jones polynomial. Consequently, we prove that the Maslov grading on the Seidel–Smith symplectic link invariant coincides with the difference between the homological grading on Khovanov homology and the Jones grading on Khovanov homology. We give some evidence for the truth of the Seidel–Smith conjecture.


Seismic hazard assessments for a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake are largely based on the rupture area predictions of dislocation models constrained by geodetic and geothermal data; this paper tests the consistency of the models for the 1700 great Cascadia earthquake with compiled coastal coseismic subsidence as estimated from paleoelevation studies. Coastal estimates have large uncertainties but show a consistent pattern. Greatest coseismic subsidence (∼1–2 m) occurred in northern Oregon/ southern Washington; subsidence elsewhere was ∼0–1 m. Elastic dislocation models constrained by interseismic geodetic and thermal data are used to predict the coseismic subsidence for two likely strain accumulation periods of (i) 800 and (ii) 550 yr of plate convergence and for uniform megathrust slip of 10, 20, 30, and 50 m. The former two models provide a better and equally good fit; predicted subsidence is in broad agreement with marsh estimates. Discrepancies exist, however, at the ends of the subduction zone. In the south, misfit may be due to breakup of the Gorda plate. The discrepancy in the north may be explained if the 1700 event released only part of the accumulated strain there, consistent with long-term net uplift in excess of eustatic sea-level rise. The coseismic slip magnitude, estimated by comparing uniform slip model predictions with marsh coseismic subsidence estimates, is consistent with the M 9 earthquake indicated by Japanese tsunami records. The coseismic slip was greatest in northern Oregon/southern Washington, declining to the north and south.


A quasi-cyclic low-density parity check (QC-LDPC) code is constructed by an improved stability of the shortest cycle algorithm for 160-Gb/s non-return zero differential quadrature phase shift keying (NRZ-DQPSK) optical transmission system with the fiber-based optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). The QC-LDPC code with stability of the shortest cycle reduces the bit error ratio (BER) to 10-14 and restrains the error floor effectively.


During construction of four 2.05 MW wind turbines at Carsington Pasture the ground conditions revealed a complex and highly variable geology much worse than had been anticipated. Preliminary investigations and ground assessment carried out at the conceptual planning stage for the development by other parties had identified the nature and discussed the likely extent of the complexities. These preliminary findings had concluded that the site was located in an area of known karst weathering, with extensive ancient mine workings for lead, and abandoned silica sand pits. The preliminary studies and investigations had confirmed shallow head deposits overlying dolomitic bedrock with a variably pinnacoidal interface, and presence of occasional large pocket deposits consisting of unconsolidated sediments. These finding concluded by optimizing the siting locations for each structure. During development, the ground conditions revealed at each location differed significantly and it was realized early on that no single ground remedial solution would be possible to adequately reinforce and suitably improve the bedrock foundation base for the envisaged design life. The challenging ground conditions necessitated extensive non-intrusive ground investigation followed by shallow and deep intrusive investigation to better define the ground conditions. The paper describes the unexpected and unusual combination of ground conditions that were encountered and their implications for foundation development, and examines the development of the bespoke engineered ground solutions developed for each of the four turbines. The experience at Carsington Pasture provided direction for the successful development of a further two wind turbines in an adjacent site located at Ryder Point situated over equally complex ground conditions. The paper concludes with discussion of how the experience of the combination of difficult ground conditions encountered at Carsington Pasture and their management served to guide the investigation, foundation development and successful construction of wind turbines in the adjacent area, and demonstrates the wider value of project examples and experience afforded by case studies.


Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently shown that the disease and mortality rates of the entire world population greatly depend on the quality of healthcare access. Access to proper healthcare in each and every part of the world is a major hurdle we have yet to overcome. The attention and focus towards providing reliable healthcare access to even the most remote areas of the world is increasing day by day and has become a major issue. This paper presents a feasible solution in the form of automated medical diagnosis and treatment of diseases for those masses that are deprived the access to experienced professional healthcare. It focuses more on the diagnosis part and the challenges which should be overcome while achieving this feat.


This Article analyzes the functions served by the law of trusts and asks, first, whether the basic tools of contract and agency law could fulfill the same functions and, second, whether trust law provides benefits that are not provided by the law of corporations. The analysis is motivated in part by the increasing interest in the trust -- a familiar feature of common-law jurisdictions -- in a number of civil law countries, and in part by the important role that trusts, such as pension funds and mutual funds, have come to play in capital markets. The article concludes that the important contribution of trust law lies not in its well-recognized role of ordering, via default rules of contract, the relationships among the principal parties to the trust. Rather, the principal benefit of trust law lies in its ordering of relationships between those parties and third parties with whom they deal, relationships that cannot easily be rearranged by contract. Most conspicuously in this respect, trust law allows the parties to the trust to partition off a discrete set of assets for separate treatment in relationships formed with creditors. The essential role of the trust, therefore, is to perform a property law-like, rather than a contract law-like, function. The article also notes the increasing convergence of trust law and corporate law, and asks whether the roles performed by these two legal forms could just as well be served by a single form.


The U.S. drugs-to-patients system fails to achieve its overall system goal of better drugs, sooner, at lower cost. The key constraint that impedes achieving this goal is the FDA's enormously expensive and time consuming clinical testing process. Fixing this constraint should be a strategic objective of the pharmaceutical industry. This objective is achievable with the Free To Choose Medicine plan, which would empower patients, advised by their doctors, to make informed decisions about whether to use approved drugs or new drugs in late stage clinical testing. Free To Choose Medicine would, in general, greatly increase the pace and effectiveness of pharmaceutical industry innovations, and in particular, shift resources to the most skilled firms in developing breakthrough medicines. Free To Choose Medicine legislation would implement a dynamic, self-adjusting system focused on benefiting patients through fast-paced learning in ways that the FDA's randomized control trials cannot accomodate. The result would be substantial shared value for patients and pharmaceutical companies.