Australia's policy in the South Pacific is obsessed with security concerns and market-driven solutions to the problems of poorer nations, write SHAHAR HAMEIRI and TOBY CARROLL. THE recent release of a commissioned progress report into the largest Australian-led state building program in recent history demonstrates the need for a qualitatively new approach to assisting the Pacific. After three years of extensive involvement through the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, the report paints a disturbing picture. Although the security situation has thankfully improved under RAMSI, the same cannot be said for the economy, with Solomon Islanders suffering prohibitive prices for basic goods and low employment prospects. Unfortunately, the Australian Government's approach to the Pacific region is constrained by a lack of imagination that does little to improve the development prospects of our neighbours or advance Australia's long-term security interests. Indeed, not a day has gone by in the past year without news of political and social unrest in the Pacific. In some circles, the island states to Australia's north and east have acquired the dubious moniker of the "Arc of Instability". Important questions relating to the nature of this instability, as well as to Australia's approach to ameliorating it, need to be raised. This is because the fundamental reading in Australia of the Pacific quagmire is biased in favour of promoting stopgap measures that are difficult to implement and, when implemented, can amplify the root causes of the problem. Crucially, the Australian Government's short-term interests are with curbing immediate regional security threats in the form of migrant outflows, international crime and breeding grounds for terrorists. In the long-term, the Government's plan is to stabilise the region and implement so-called "good governance" programs, which are seen as the bedrock of market-led development. Market-led development, in turn, is seen as generating stable societies, thereby guaranteeing Australia's security. The short-term concern for stability goes some way towards explaining the Howard Government's recent decision not to intervene in Fiji after the military coup - preferring the use of diplomatic sanctions and other softer measures. In sum, the existence of a capable Fijian military, while detrimental to democracy, is congenial to Australia's immediate security interests, as perceived by the Australian Government. In the Solomon Islands, the situation has been very different. In the Solomons, before the Australia-led intervention, no such circuit-breaker existed to control unlawful elements. This meant that the Australian Government had a more elemental interest in stabilising the security situation as a precursor to governance and economic reforms. The problem with the Government's approach in the Pacific is that it almost never works. Even in the Solomon Islands, where the intervention was initially lauded as a great success, devastating riots and increasing tensions reversed this appraisal drastically, as the report suggests. In Fiji, where Australia is a leading donor, we also see the limits of "good governance" programs. A report such as the RAMSI one can lead to knee-jerk reactions from those who are already sceptical of the utility of Australian aid. We should be clear that we do not advocate reducing or eliminating Australia's efforts in the Pacific. We do, however, argue for a qualitatively different framework. Pacific states are geographically small and widespread, have limited natural resources and face significant environmental challenges - especially those associated with climate change. The problems of the Pacific cannot be solved with the logic of comparative advantage, so critical to market-led development approaches. For example, in the Solomon Islands, deforestation has created massive social and environmental problems, making the industry unsustainable and divisive. There are many possible policy alternatives to those being promoted by Australia and other major donors. First, there should be a stronger shift away from "boomerang aid" that often ends up in the pockets of Western companies and consultants. Rather than playing a Keynesian-style role in developing local economies, this form of aid has very little impact on kick-starting domestic markets. While critics might be concerned about corruption in the process of financial distribution, this should not preclude considering such policies in tandem with suitable checks and balances. This is because corruption has both played a part in the development of Western economies and actually continues to play a role in promoting Western economic interests in developing countries. To focus on corruption as the primary cause for development failure is to miss the bigger picture. A second measure has been endorsed by the Labor Party's foreign affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland, and the World Bank. This involves opening up Australia's labour market to temporary workers from the Pacific. At present, Australian employers in seasonal industries, such as agriculture and hospitality, cannot meet staffing demands. In the Pacific, on the other hand, we see a "youth bulge" and massive unemployment. In the Solomon Islands, for example, the median age is just under 19, whereas in Australia it is about 37. The final policy option relates to a combination of tax concessions to promote Australian foreign direct investment in the Pacific, controlled transfer of technology associated with productive output, and preferential trading arrangements for Pacific states. But preferential trading should not take the form of free trade agreements, which invariably give preference to the most powerful party. New trading regimes should nurture budding industries and protect them from competition, where appropriate, within a regional framework. The World Trade Organisation is a potential barrier here, but the present international trade regime is part of the problem that needs to be tackled. Far from radical, some of the policies were flagged in 2003 by a report of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. But the report's recommendations have found little expression within Australian Government policy. The present approach of the Australian Government is not only tight-fisted, it is inefficient in generating outcomes congenial to regional stability. The debate on regional engagement needs to be expanded beyond its ideologically and politically constrained boundaries. Shahar Hameiri and Toby Carroll research regional economic development and security issues at the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University. This article first appeared in The Age. Photo: 'Palm tress overs lava rocks' by L. Southam, istock photos.


Summary 1. Hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha) and mermithid nematodes (phylum Nematoda) have independently evolved almost identical life cycles: both parasites cause their terrestrial arthropod hosts to seek water, required for their aquatic free-living adult stage. Hairworms achieve this by altering host neurotransmitters, but the mechanisms used by mermithids remain unknown. 2. The physiological effects of the mermithid nematode Thaumamermis zealandica on its host, the supralittoral talitrid amphipod Talorchestia quoyana, are investigated. The parasite develops in the haemocoel, and induces the host to burrow more deeply than healthy amphipods and the adult T. zelandica emerges from the host into moist sand at these greater depths. 3. Parasitized amphipods had higher haemolymph osmolality than unparasitized amphipods. There was no difference in haemolymph Na + , K + or Mg 2+ concentrations between parasitized and unparasitized amphipods. 4. Water content did not differ between parasitized and unparasitized amphipods. Lipid reserves were lower in parasitized male amphipods than in unparasitized males; there was no difference among females. 5. Increase of host haemolymph osmolality by T. zealandica could induce 'thirst', explaining why parasitized amphipods seek water-saturated sand. This mechanism appears more parsimonious than that used by nematomorphs to achieve the same change in host behaviour.


Abstract. Bivalves of the Order Trigoniida were abundant and diverse in the Andean Early Jurassic shallow-marine paleoenvironments. Based on extensive collections with detailed stratigraphic information from 40 localities in central-western Argentina, we describe 20 species (4 new) belonging to 11 genera (3 new) and 5 families (Groeberellidae, Trigoniidae, Prosogyrotrigoniidae, Frenguelliellidae, and Myophorellidae). The abundant material allows the description of ontogenetic development and intraspecific variability, highlighting the likely phylogenetic significance of previously underestimated features. Within Frenguelliellidae, we show that the stratigraphic range of Frenguelliella Leanza in the region is restricted to the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian. We propose Poultoniella new genus for some late Pliensbachian–Toarcian species. Jaworskiella Leanza is limited to its type species, whereas for certain convergent forms we propose Moerickella new genus (most likely the oldest Myophorellidae). Pseudovaugonia new genus likely descended from Moerickella n. gen., rather than from the highly diverse Promyophorella Kobayashi and Tamura, and is unrelated to Vaugonia Crickmay. Frenguelliella chubutensis (Feruglio) and Promyophorella basoaltorum new species are the most frequently occurring species. Some species were probably endemic (e.g., Promyophorella? sanjuanina new species), although a few (such as Frenguelliella eopacifica new species and Poultoniella jaworskii new genus new species) had a wide paleolatitudinal range and occur throughout the Pacific coasts and terranes of the Americas, revealing a significant faunal interchange among marine basins during Hettangian–Pliensbachian times. The well-documented Argentinian Early Jurassic record shows a rapid recovery and radiation of the Trigoniida after the Triassic/Jurassic extinction. Many of the new taxa that evolved in America eventually dispersed worldwide by Toarcian and Middle Jurassic times.


Abstract• Studies on wood density variations are necessary for estimating the forest carbon pool. Further, they can help predict the technological properties of wooden end-products. While there have been frequent reports on the relationships between wood density, cambial age, and ring width, there is little information about the historical trend in wood density for the last century, particularly in the context of global climate change.• In this study, different sources of variations in mean ring density (site, tree, ring age, ring width, and calendar date) were studied using an original sampling design. A total of 105 Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) trees were sampled in north-eastern France, from thirteen sites with trees of different ages growing at the same site and in similar conditions. X-ray densitometry measurements were performed on samples taken at breast height. The chronology of the mean ring density over the 20th century was estimated by using a statistical modelling approach based on linear mixed-effects models after accounting for the effect on the mean ring density introduced by different ring widths, cambial ages, sites, and trees.• The mean ring density of Norway spruce was seen to decrease by about 18 kg m−3 relative to the year 1900. The chronology showed no evolution between 1900 and 1950, a steep decline from 1950 to 1980 (reaching a maximum decrease of 30 kg m−3), followed by an increase from 1980 to 2000.• The observed decrease was consistent with the results of previous works and supports the hypothesis that this could indicate a global trend and that this trend is independent of the wood structure. Moreover, high inter-annual density variations were found. In future studies, the influence of climate on the wood density and within-ring properties must be clarified to identify the anatomic causes for wood density variations.


This study investigates the use of public transport by visitors in the city of Munich, Germany. It seeks to understand how visitors perceive public transport services and which factors influence their level of satisfaction. Data were collected from a survey in April and May 2012 with a random sample at selected tourist sites in Munich. Factor analysis resulted in four different service dimensions—traveling comfort, service quality, accessibility and additional features. Visitors were found to be generally satisfied with public transport services in Munich, and their perceptions are independent from most factors.


Abstract. The British coast is not considered at particular risk from tsunami, a view that is supported by a number of recent government reports. However, these reports largely ignore some written historic records that suggest southern Britain has experienced a number of events over the past 1000 yrs. This study briefly assesses these records and recognises four groups of events: 1) sea disturbance and coastal floods in southeast England linked to earthquakes in the Dover Straits (e.g. 1382 and 1580), 2) far-field tsunami reaching the coast of the British Isles, for example, from earthquakes along the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone offshore Portugal (e.g. 1755), 3) tsunami associated with near-coastal low magnitude earthquakes (e.g. 1884 and 1892), and 4) a flood event in AD 1014 that has been linked to comet debris impact. The seismogenic events range from minor water disturbance, through seismic seiching, to small and "giant" waves, suggesting near-coastal, low-magnitude, shallow earthquakes may be capable of triggering disturbance in relatively shallow water, as supported by similar occurrences elsewhere, and that the British tsunami risk requires a more careful evaluation.


The temperature-induced gel-to-liquid crystalline phase transition of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) is characterized by a shift towards high frequencies and an increase of the width of the bands due to the methylene stretching vibrations. These spectral modifications are frequently used to measure the conformational order of lipid acyl chains. However, it is not clear whether these bands contain two spectral components due to trans and gauche conformers or whether they gradually shift with temperature. The temperature-induced gel-to-liquid crystalline phase transition of DPPC has been investigated in the present study by two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) correlation spectroscopy. Our results show that each methylene stretching band in both the synchronous and the asynchronous maps is characterized by two peaks. The same pattern is also observed when the temperature range is restricted to the gel phase. These results were compared to those obtained by spectral simulations using either a single band that shifts in frequency and gets broader with the increase of temperature (shifting-band model), simulating a continuously evolving one-phase system, or a band made of two components (two-band model), simulating the trans and gauche spectral contributions of a two-phase system. The results obtained for the asynchronous maps of the simulated spectra indicate clearly that the experimental results cannot be modeled by a pure two-phase system and are best simulated by the shifting-band model.


Press releases, scientific publications and anecdotal evidence demonstrate that organisations worldwide are adopting agile software development methods at increasing speed. Little is still known about the current usefulness of agile methods in the complex environment of the embedded software development industry. Embedded devices are already commonplace in regular households. The goal of this survey is to provide first-hand knowledge of the adoption and experience of two of the most known agile methods, namely Extreme Programming and Scrum, in a number of European organisations of embedded software known to be interested and active in experimenting with agile software development methods. The survey involved 13 industrial organisations in eight European countries and 35 individual software development projects. The focus of the questionnaire was to enquire into the level of use as well as the experienced usefulness - or expected usefulness if there was no experience available - of the two agile methods and their individual practices. The results show that the embedded industry has been able to apply agile methods in its development processes. The results also indicate that the appreciation of the agile methods and their individual practices appears to increase once adopted and applied in practice.


BACKGROUND
Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma account for more than 90% of all esophageal cancer cases. Although the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma has declined, the incidence of adenocarcinoma has risen due to increases in obesity and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

METHODS
The authors examine the role of radiation therapy alone (external beam and brachytherapy) for the management of esophageal cancer or combined with other modalities. The impact on staging and appropriate stratification of patients referred for curative vs palliative intent with modalities is reviewed. The authors also explore the role of emerging radiation technologies.

RESULTS
Current data show that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection is the accepted standard of care, with 3-year overall survival rates ranging from 30% to 60%. The benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy is limited to patients with node-positive cancer. The survival benefit of surgical resection after chemoradiotherapy remains controversial. External beam radiation therapy alone results in few long-term survivors and is considered palliative at best. Radiation dose-escalation has failed to improve local control or survival. Brachytherapy can provide better long-term palliation of dysphagia than metal stent placement. Although three-dimensional conformal treatment planning is the accepted standard, the roles of IMRT and proton therapy are evolving and potentially reduce adverse events due to better sparing of normal tissue.

CONCLUSIONS
Future directions will evaluate the benefit of induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy, the role of surgery in locally advanced disease, and the identification of responders prior to treatment based on microarray analysis.


The majority of Desmoscolecoidea are characterized by ring-shaped accumulations of mineral particles on the cuticle resulting in the impression of a peculiar body articulation. Live observations made during the extraction of desmoscolecoids from mud sampled in the Swedish Gullmar fjord suggested new ideas pertinent to the particle accretion and the likely functional significance of the prominent rings. Undisturbed desmoscolecoids were observed to perform perpetual, vigorous, stationary undulations with their body. In our opinion these undulations affect the distribution of particles adhering to the cuticle by pushing them from soft, pliable cuticular sections to comparably stiff rings thus generating distinct concretion rings and naked interzones. The prominent concretion rings are assumed to increase positive mechanical effects of the undulations on the productivity of ubiquitous microbial populations residing on ambient sediment particles. The microbial production boosted by this kind of bioturbation may be of nutritional importance for the desmoscolecoids. An electron-microscopic investigation (TEM) of Tricoma sp. from the Gullmar fjord revealed the concretion rings to consist of stacks of clay mineral platelets in the submicrometer size range. A perusal through contributions of other authors suggests that such clay mineral aggregates are the basic component (granular component sensu Timm 1970) in the concretion rings of all desmoscolecoids. In a number of species these aggregates contain a specifically determined admixture ofconspicuous other mineral grains.


Abstract. Over the past 30 years, the Canadian Twin Otter research group has operated an aircraft platform for the study of atmospheric greenhouse gas fluxes (carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide and methane) and energy exchange (latent and sensible heat) over a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems in North America. Some of the acquired data from these projects have now been archived at the Flight Research Laboratory and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The dataset, which contains the measurements obtained in eight projects from 1987 to 2011 are now publicly available. All these projects were carried out in order to improve our understanding of the biophysical controls acting on land-surface atmosphere fluxes. Some of the projects also attempted to quantify the impacts of agroecosystems on the environment. To provide information on the data available, we briefly describe each project and some of the key findings by referring to previously published relevant work. As new flux analysis techniques are being developed, we are confident that much additional information can be extracted from this unique data set.


Big Data research is currently split on whether and to what extent Twitter can be characterized as an informational or social network. We contribute to this line of inquiry through an investigation of digital humanities (DH) scholars' uses and gratifications of Twitter. We conducted a thematic analysis of 25 semi-structured interview transcripts to learn about these scholars' professional use of Twitter. Our findings show that Twitter is considered a critical tool for informal communication within DH invisible colleges, functioning at varying levels as both an information network (learning to 'Twitter' and maintaining awareness) and a social network (imagining audiences and engaging other digital humanists). We find that Twitter follow relationships reflect common academic interests and are closely tied to scholars' pre-existing social ties and conference or event co-attendance. The concept of the invisible college continues to be relevant but requires revisiting. The invisible college formed on Twitter is messy, consisting of overlapping social contexts (professional, personal and public), scholars with different habits of engagement, and both formal and informal ties. Our research illustrates the value of using multiple methods to explore the complex questions arising from Big Data studies and points toward future research that could implement Big Data techniques on a small scale, focusing on sub-topics or emerging fields, to expose the nature of scholars' invisible colleges made visible on Twitter.


. As a response to negative growth in the mobile legacy projection - which supports 50% of Telkom revenue, and a positive high growth projection in the ICT and digital business revenue, Telkom decides to shift the business to digital. To be a successful digital company, Telkom has created strategic initiatives, including organizational transformation adopting Customer Facing Unit (CFU) concept that has been done for several months but there still no evaluation method for the success. This paper purpose is to evaluate the implementation of one human capital management strategic initiatives - CFU transformation implementation success, through Organizational Health Index and Organizational Agility Maturity model and formulate a recommendation for Telkom to create a more healthy and agile organization. This research using 11 synthetized dimension of Organization Health Index and Organizational Agility Maturity Model method as tools. Questionnaire consist of 53 practices that represented by 55 questions that asks about respondents extent to which they agree (satisfaction) and whether it meet respondents expectation. Survey result shows that Telkom already in a healthy condition and agile as an organization. This result concluded that by methods used in this research, the transformation could be stated as a success. However, according to the result, maintain and improvement of current health and agility still needed, especially improvement regarding innovation and learning.


The Yuchis are one of the least known yet most distinctive of the Native groups in the American southeast. Located in late prehistoric times in eastern Tennessee, they played an important historical role at various times during the last five centuries and in many ways served as a bridge between their southeastern neighbours and Native communities in the northeast. First noted by the Soto expedition in the sixteenth century, the Yuchis moved several times and made many alliances over the next few centuries. The famous naturalist William Bartram visited a Yuchi town in 1775, at a time when they had moved near Creek communities in Georgia and become allied with them. This alliance had long-lasting repercussions: when the United States government forced most southeastern groups to move to Oklahoma in the early nineteenth century, the Yuchis were classified as Creeks and placed under the jurisdiction of the Creek Nation. Today, despite the existence of a separate language and their distinct history, culture, and religious traditions, the Yuchis are not recognized as a sovereign people by the Creek Nation or the United States. Jason Baird Jackson examines the significance of community ceremonies for the Yuchis today. For many Yuchis, traditional rituals remain important to their identity, and they feel an obligation to perform and renew them each year at one of three ceremonial grounds, called "Big Houses." The Big House acts as a periodic gathering place for the Yuchis, their Creator, and their ancestors. Drawing on a decade of collaborative study with tribal elders and using insights gained from ethnopoetics, Jackson captures in vivid detail the performance, impact, and motivations behind such rituals as the Stomp Dance, the Green Corn Ceremony, and the Soup Dance and discusses their continuing importance to the community. Jason Baird Jackson is an assistant curator of ethnology at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.


A sample of 141 international students from different U.S. colleges completed surveys related to social support, demographic variables, and acculturative stress. Findings indicated that social support and English proficiency uniquely contribute to the variance in students' acculturative stress. Results also indicated that students who primarily socialized with non-Americans and that students from Asian countries experienced more acculturative stress compared with other subgroups, implications are discussed and suggestions for counseling practice are provided. ********** The United States hosts approximately half of the world's total number of international students. Presently, students representing roughly 170 foreign countries are enrolled in American institutions of higher education. Estimates place international student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities at around half a million (Zikopoulos, 1993), and this number is expected to increase consistently as U.S. colleges and universities strive to achieve their visions of diversity across a broad range of demographic and cultural dimensions (Hayes & Lin, 1994; Pedersen, 1991). This phenomenon has generated a number of research studies aimed at understanding the experiences of this population. Over the course of their studies, most international students encounter adjustment issues that include acculturative stress. Despite the substantial body of literature that addresses adjustment processes among international students, only a small portion of this literature has, in fact, addressed the issue of acculturative stress. Within this literature, the only variables that have emerged as consistent predictors of international student adjustment are English language proficiency and access to social support. Predictors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and other demographic variables have received only partial or mixed support. Therefore, the purpose of this study was (a) to examine the association of demographic variables with acculturative stress levels to better understand their possible importance, (b) to examine the way in which English language ability and social support may interact to better predict acculturative stress, and (c) to understand the differential influence ethnicity (European vs. Asian) may exert on students' levels of acculturative stress. Acculturation Processes and Outcomes Acculturation is defined as a process of cultural change that results from repeated, direct contact between two distinct cultural groups (Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987). A possible result accompanying the process of acculturation is the manifestation of acculturative stress. Acculturative stress is defined as a marked deterioration of the general health status of an individual; it encompasses physiological, psychological, and social aspects that are explicitly linked to the acculturation process. The degree of acculturative stress experienced by an individual can range from mild stress, which gradually improves as the individual adapts, to a debilitating stress that worsens over time (Berry et al., 1987; Williams & Berry, 1991). Most notably, individuals experiencing acculturative stress typically display symptoms of anxiety and depression, which may increase if the individual lacks an effective social support system (Hovey & Magana, 2002). Acculturative Stress and International College Students Although acculturative stress is typically most severe among refugee immigrants, it is surprising that the acculturative stress levels experienced by student sojourners can approach that of refugees (Berry & Kim, 1988). International students are likely to have limited personal resources when they enter the host country and, as a result, are likely to experience considerably greater difficulty acculturating than established ethnic groups (Berry, 1980; Berry & Kim, 1988; Hayes & Lin, 1994; Sykes & Eden, 1985). …


Longitudinal and transverse modulus of elasticity(MOE) tests of plybamboo form with different moisture content were performed. The results show that both longitudinal MOE and transverse MOE decrease with the increasing of the moisture content of the plybamboo form, which decrease linearly at low moisture content stage. Curve regression equations of longitudinal and transverse MOE of plybamboo form were constructed by the method of numerical fitting, and linear regression equations at low moisture content stage were also constructed. Decline of plybamboo form strength itself and bonding invalidation lead to the decrease of MOR The results of variance analysis and significance test of four regression equations show that all the regression equations achieve very significant level.


Recent studies have shown very high frequen- cies of atmospheric new particle formation in different en- vironments in South Africa. Our aim here was to investigate the causes for two or three consecutive daytime nucleation events, followed by subsequent particle growth during the same day. We analysed 108 and 31 such days observed in a polluted industrial and moderately polluted rural environ- ments, respectively, in South Africa. The analysis was based on two years of measurements at each site. After rejecting the days having notable changes in the air mass origin or local wind direction, i.e. two major reasons for observed multiple nucleation events, we were able to investigate other factors causing this phenomenon. Clouds were present during, or in between most of the analysed multiple particle formation events. Therefore, some of these events may have been sin- gle events, interrupted somehow by the presence of clouds. From further analysis, we propose that the first nucleation and growth event of the day was often associated with the mixing of a residual air layer rich in SO2 (oxidized to sul- phuric acid) into the shallow surface-coupled layer. The sec- ond nucleation and growth event of the day usually started before midday and was sometimes associated with renewed SO2 emissions from industrial origin. However, it was also evident that vapours other than sulphuric acid were required for the particle growth during both events. This was espe- cially the case when two simultaneously growing particle modes were observed. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the relative contributions of estimated H 2SO4 and other vapours on the first and second nucleation and growth events of the day varied from day to day, depending on anthro- pogenic and natural emissions, as well as atmospheric con- ditions.


Abstract. The Cantabrian domain represents the western portion of the Pyrenean orogen, in the area where the Iberian continental lithosphere was subducted toward the north underneath the transitional to oceanic lithosphere of the Bay of Biscay. There, the about 100 km of orogenic convergence have been mostly accommodated in the northern portion of the orogen (i.e. the retro wedge) developed in the Bay of Biscay abyssal plain, while only crustal-scale folding with limited internal deformation occurred in the Cantabrian southern wedge (pro-wedge). Integrated meso- and macrostructural analyses and a reappraisal of available information from the transitional area between the Pyrenean and Cantabrian domains are presented in this work, allowing to set geometric and kinematic constraints on the entire Meso-Cenozoic history of the northern portion of the Iberian Plate, including subduction initiation and evolution in the western portion of the Pyrenean orogen. The structural record of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deformation stage, which was associated with rifting and seafloor spreading in the Bay of Biscay, indicates a ridge perpendicular (NNE-SSW oriented) extension, with no evidence of relevant strike-slip components during rifting. A Cenozoic NNW-SSE oriented shortening stage followed, related to the limited (about 100 km) north-directed subduction of the Iberian continental lithosphere underneath the transitional to oceanic lithosphere of the Bay of Biscay. Subduction led to the formation of the poorly-developed Cantabrian pro-wedge, which is laterally juxtaposed to the well-developed Pyrenean pro-wedge to the east. During this convergence stage, the structural framework in the Cantabrian pro-wedge, and particularly along its transition with the Pyrenean wedge to the east, was severely complicated by the reactivation of Paleozoic and Mesozoic inherited structures. Data presented in this work fully support the development of the Cantabrian Mountains as related to indentation and consequent thickening of the Bay of Biscay transitional lower crust during north-directed subduction of Iberian continental lithosphere. In essence, the Cantabrian pro-wedge is a lithospheric south-verging fault-propagation anticline developing above the subduction plane. The structural record in the area indicates that a lithospheric fault-propagation folding stage was predated, during the very early stages of orogenic shortening, by the development of a lithospheric-scale open syncline overlying the nucleation point of lithosphere sinking. Such a syncline is today partially preserved and represents one of the few natural examples of subduction initiation.


Type 1 diabetes is characterized by the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β-cells. Recognition of major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-bound peptides is critical for both the initiation and progression of disease. In this study, MHC peptide complexes were purified from NIT-1 β-cells, interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-treated NIT-1 cells, splenic and thymic tissue of 12-week-old NOD mice, and peptides identified by mass spectrometry. In addition to global liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis, the targeted approach of multiple-reaction monitoring was used to quantitate the immunodominant Kd-restricted T-cell epitope islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit-related protein (IGRP)206–214. We identified >2,000 MHC-bound peptides; 1,100 of these presented by β-cells grown under normal conditions or after exposure to IFN-γ. These include sequences from a number of known autoantigens. Quantitation of IGRP206–214 revealed low-level presentation by Kd (∼25 complexes/cell) on NIT-1 cells after IFN-γ treatment compared with the simultaneous presentation of the endogenously processed Kd-restricted peptide Janus kinase-1355–363 (∼15,000 copies/cell). We have successfully sequenced peptides from NIT-1 β-cells under basal and inflammatory conditions. We have shown the feasibility of quantitating disease-associated peptides and provide the first direct demonstration of the disparity between presentation of a known autoantigenic epitope and a common endogenously presented peptide.


IN BOTH THE EUDEMIAN ETHICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS, Aristotle says that the aim of ethical inquiry is a practical one; (1) we want to know what virtue is so that we may become good ourselves and thereby do well and be happy. By classifying ethical inquiry as a practical endeavor, Aristotle is rejecting a view that he attributes to Socrates according to which ethics is a kind of theoretical science. In theoretical sciences, such as geometry or astronomy, the knowledge of a particular subject matter is sought as an end in itself, and the possession of such knowledge is sufficient to make one a geometer or an astronomer. In rejecting this model Aristotle argues that the knowledge of virtue is sought not solely for itself but in order to inform praxis and in order that we become virtuous and good, not by knowing what the virtues are but by cultivating them in practice. Merely accepting the idea that ethics is a practical enterprise in the sense outlined above, however, does not commit one to a more specific conception of the relationship between attaining a general knowledge of virtue and being able to perform the activities that are essential to cultivating virtuous states of character. The extent to which one can acquire a general knowledge of ethical matters before one has engaged in the practical affairs of life, for instance, remains an open question. In the discussion that follows, I will argue that Aristotle's views in the Eudemian Ethics (EE) leave open the possibility of a "theory first" approach to ethical development. According to this approach, it is possible to acquire general moral knowledge independently from one's experience with the practical affairs of life and to benefit from using this knowledge to shape one's subsequent activities. I will also argue, however, that Aristotle explicitly rejects this conception of ethics in the Nicomachean Ethics (NE) where he embraces instead what might be called an "experience first" approach to ethical development. In the NE, Aristotle places constant emphasis on the importance of gaining a knowledge of particulars that comes from practical experience not only in order to act well, but to be able to acquire and to benefit from a general knowledge of ethical matters. I will also suggest that this emphasis on experience results from a clarification that Aristotle makes in the NE of the relationship between actions, emotions, and states of character in order to avoid a puzzle or aporia to which the account of the acquisition of virtue in the EE is left open. Finally, I will suggest that the underlying reasons motivating this difference in emphasis support the view that the NE is later than the EE and that, as such, we should take the view expressed in the NE to represent Aristotle's considered view on this matter. The differences between the EE and the NE that I will discuss are subtle and for this reason they have been largely overlooked. So I want to emphasize that important questions about the role of philosophical inquiry in the development of virtue and the practical role of general moral knowledge ride on these differences. In taking a clear and unambiguous stance on these issues in the NE, Aristotle is explicitly ruling out answers to these questions which were perfectly consistent with the account of these issues in the EE. I argue below that this marks an important shift in Aristotle's thinking. Finally, a word of clarification is in order. In referring to the NE and the EE in what follows I mean to refer only to the books that are unique to each work. Because there is some controversy over the place of the common books (NE 5-7 and EE 4-6) my analysis of the two treatises will rely almost exclusively on material from these non-common books. I will explain my reasons for doing so near the end of the following discussion. I The Practical Science of Virtue. In the EE Aristotle tells us that Socrates did not ask how and from what virtue is produced because he took all of the virtues to be forms of knowledge and he therefore thought that one could become virtuous by attaining a knowledge of virtue just as one could become a geometer by acquiring the knowledge of geometry. …


There is substantial concern in the state about the economic health of our two remaining independent milk processors, Guida-Seibert Milk Company, New Britain; and Marcus Dairy, Danbury, Connecticut. Some Connecticut farmers are also exploring the possibility of constructing a new cooperative fluid milk processing plant. Farmers and consumers also prefer a milk channel that is effectively competitive-a milk channel with the services of several processors is desirable. Farmers seek continued access to fluid milk processing in southern New England for their milk. Shipping raw milk to New York for processing and then bringing processed product back to Connecticut puts Connecticut farmers and consumers at the far ends of the distribution channel rather than at its center. Both could lose in this arrangement. The dairy industry also generates jobs and economic activity in the state that would be lost if dairy farms and processing shift west. Recent retail pricing patterns in Connecticut effectively guarantee that even if wholesale milk prices were lower, and there is absolutely no guarantee that they would be if dairying and milk processing shifts west, retail milk prices would not be lower. For these reasons there is a critical need for the proposed milk pricing law and, as explained in this briefing paper, a need for a meeting the competition clause in the law. As we will show below, the law and this clause forms the core linkage in a vertical strategic alliance between farmers, Connecticut's existing processors and any other processors located in the Northeast who would compete in Connecticut with the nation's and northeast region's dominant vertical strategic alliance Dairy Farmers of America/DMS, and the Dean/Garelick processing system.


Salinity is one of the major stresses especially in arid and semi-arid regions, which severely limites crop production. It is a significant problem affecting agriculture worldwide and is predicted to become a larger problem in the coming decades. This study was conducted to assess the effect of different salinity level (0, 50, 150, 250 mMol of NaCl) on lentil seed germination efficiency (germination, seedling shoot length, seedling root length, seedling fresh shoot weight and seedling fresh root weight). Five Tunisian genotypes of lentil (Lens culinaris M) namely: Kef, Siliana, Nefza, Ncir, and Local oueslatia were investigated. Results showed that there were significant differences among the different NaCl solution for all evaluated traits. Indeed, the experiment showed that the concentrations of salt have a negative impact on the germination and growth of lentil. As a result when the concentration of salt increases, the germination, length of root and shoot and fresh weight of root and shoot decreases. At 250 mM salt stress level, seed germination percentage of all genotypes was notably reduced compared with non-stress condition (0.0 mMol). Moreover, the seeds were not germinated by the 250 mM salinity level for kef genotype. From the results of this present investigation, it can be concluded that seeds of Kef and Ncir genotypes were susceptible to higher concentrations of salt solutions in germination stage. However, Siliana, Local oueslatia and Nefza genotypes can be considered as tolerant to salt stress compared to the other ones. These genotypes could be used for further analysis and for hybridization in the breeding program for enhancing lentil cultivation in newly reclaimed soils.


Efficient operation of wireless networks and switches requires using simple (and in some cases distributed) scheduling algorithms. In general, simple greedy algorithms (known as Greedy Maximal Scheduling - GMS) are guaranteed to achieve only a fraction of the maximum possible throughput (e.g., 50% throughput in switches). However, it was recently shown that in networks in which the Local Pooling conditions are satisfied, GMS achieves 100% throughput. Moreover, in networks in which the σ- Local Pooling conditions hold, GMS achieves σ% throughput. In this paper, we focus on identifying the specific network topologies that satisfy these conditions. In particular, we provide the first characterization of all the network graphs in which Local Pooling holds under primary interference constraints (in these networks GMS achieves 100% throughput). This leads to a polynomial time algorithm for identifying Local Pooling-satisfying graphs. Moreover, by using similar graph theoretical methods, we show that in all bipartite graphs (i.e., input-queued switches) of size up to 7×n, GMS is guaranteed to achieve 66% throughput, thereby improving upon the previously known 50% lower bound. Finally, we study the performance of GMS in interference graphs and show that in certain specific topologies its performance could be very bad. Overall, the paper demonstrates that using graph theoretical techniques can significantly contribute to our understanding of greedy scheduling algorithms.


Abstract A high-quality 3D seismic survey, located in the northwest Porcupine Basin (Irish Atlantic Margin), has been used to investigate the geometry and origin of pervasively developed and complexly distributed linked extensional fault arrays, present within Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary sequences. The faults show a downwards transition from relatively simple, planar fault segment geometries (~N-S-trending) within younger Early Eocene sand-dominated clastic sequences, into complex conjugate arrays in the underlying older Early Eocene to Late Cretaceous shale-dominated sequences. Rectilinear to polygonal structural configurations are developed at the deeper levels. Most of the fault array ultimately terminates downwards into the Late Cretaceous, where structural accommodation may have taken place by localized or more regional bedding plane slip and/or by volume changes resulting from compaction of fine-grained sequences. Locally, reactivated Jurassic syn-rift extensional faults are locally seen to link upwards into the shallow fault array and appear to have controlled both the intensity and facing direction of the shallower faults on a km scale. The seismic data also clearly show that early upslope-throwing faults are cross-cut by later, downslope-throwing faults. Such geometries are comparable to those formed in sandbox models where gravitational collapse of a tilted sequence is the dominant process controlling fault development. Overall, the fault array geometries seen in the Cretaceous and lower Tertiary successions in this area are interpreted to have resulted from gravitational collapse processes during basin subsidence and sediment compaction, and where the main deformation mechanism was non-rigid block rotation. Differential compaction of Cretaceous and lower Tertiary sediments over pre-Cretaceous rift topography and selective reactivation of the Jurassic fault array are also considered important influences on the resultant fault distribution in 3D.


We present three new ideas for grid-based path-planning algorithms that improve the search speed and quality of the paths found. First, we introduce a new type of database, the Local Distance Database (LDDB), that contains distances between boundary points of a local neighborhood. Second, an LDDB based algorithm is introduced, called Block A*, that calculates the optimal path between start and goal locations given the local distances stored in the LDDB. Third, our experimental results for any-angle path planning in a wide variety of test domains, including real game maps, show that Block A* is faster than both A* and the previously best grid-based any-angle search algorithm, Theta*.


Planning trajectories for nonholonomic systems is difficult and computationally expensive. When facing unexpected events, it may therefore be preferable to deform in some way the initially planned trajectory rather than to re-plan entirely a new one. We suggest here a method based on affine transformations to make such deformations. This method is exact and fast: the deformations and the resulting trajectories can be computed algebraically, in one step, and without any trajectory re-integration. To demonstrate the possibilities offered by this new method, we use it to derive position correction, orientation correction and obstacle avoidance algorithms for three classical nonholonomic systems: the unicycle, the bicycle, and an underwater vehicle.


The article presents the results of the analysis of existing models of innovative development, features of the scientific, technological and innovation policies of the leading countries in the formation and development of their own national innovation systems. The leading countries are Great Britain, Germany, USA, Canada, Japan, France and Italy. The study shows that the innovation systems of each of these states have common features that reflect the main directions of development of science and technology, as well as certain specific features. Such features depend on what models of innovation policy the countries belong to - the "Euro-Atlantic policy", "East Asian policy" and "triple helix policy". The article presents the innovations that are offered to be included in the innovation system of Russia with regards to the development of the new State Program, and suggests recommendations for further development of the Russian national innovation system.


The algebraic modelling languages (AML) have gained wide acceptance and use in Mathematical Programming by researchers and practitioners. At a basic level, stochastic programming models can be defined using these languages by constructing their deterministic equivalent. Unfortunately, this leads to very large model data instances. We propose a direct approach in which the random values of the model coefficients and the stage structure of the decision variables and constraints are "overlaid" on the underlying deterministic (core) model of the SP problems. This leads not only to a natural definition of the SP model: the resulting generated instance is also a compact representation of the otherwise large problem data. The proposed constructs enable the formulation of two stage and multistage scenario based recourse problems, as well as chance constrained problems. This design is presented as a stochastic extension of the AMPL language which we call SAMPL.


According to the 2006 data of Turkish National Police (TNP), throughout Turkey, 1742 cases comprised of organized crime, collective or individual smuggling, nuclear stuff smuggling were recorded. Between 2000 and 2006, 11600 organized crimes had been recorded. It is known that the high number of crime is closely related to the geo-strategic and geo-political position of Turkey. Turkey functions as a bridge between Asia and Europe, the West and East blocks, European and Middle East countries, and Muslim and Christian cultures in many aspects. Moreover, it has borders with eight countries in Asia and Europe (Georgia, Armenia, Nakhichevan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Greece and Bulgaria). With such a position, Turkey is involved in all the routes of human trafficking. In this study, the reasons for Turkey to be a bridge in this intercontinental crime trafficking were defined with respect to its geo- strategic and geo-political position. The study is comprised of three sections first of which presents the crime routes related to the geo-strategic and geo-political position of Turkey. In the second part, the spatial distribution and gates of the crimes committed over Turkey were specified and the motives behind these crimes were analysed. In the conclusion part, suggestions were put forward for the existing problems and their solutions.


In the brain, phosphate-activated glutaminase catalyzes the recycling of glutamine back to glutamate for excitatory neurotransmission. In mice, genetic knockdown of phosphate-activated glutaminase has been shown to confer resilience to schizophrenia-like symptoms, suggesting that inhibition of glutaminase may have therapeutic potential for the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. As there are no known neuroactive inhibitors of glutaminase, i.e. inhibitors that get into the brain, high-throughput screening of a library of 58,000 neuroative compounds was conducted using a fluorescence-based assay; this screen identified 320 potential glutaminase inhibitors. A secondary screen was carried out to access specificity; this yielded 10 hits. Using a kinetic analysis, two leads with low micromolar activity were found.


Transformation of tobacco with a gene encoding the fungal elicitor protein, β-cryptogein, resulted in resistance to the pathogen Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae. Resistance was improved when the foreign gene was in the hemizygous state, and a single amino acid substitution that reduced the necrotic effects of the protein also conferred some resistance.


In Australia, Stylosanthes little leaf (StLL) phytoplasma has been detected in Stylosanthes scabra Vogel, Arachis pintoi Krapov, Saccharum officinarum L., Carica papaya L., Medicago sativa L., and Solanum tuberosum L. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of StLL phytoplasma strains from S. scabra, C. papaya, S. officinarum and S. tuberosum were compared and share 99.93–100 % nucleotide sequence identity. Phylogenetic comparisons between the 16S rRNA genes of StLL phytoplasma and other 'Candidatus Phytoplasma' species indicate that StLL represents a distinct phytoplasma lineage. It shares its most recent known ancestry with 'Ca. Phytoplasma luffae' (16SrVIII-A), with which it has 97.17–97.25 % nucleotide identity. In silico RFLP analysis of the 16S rRNA amplicon using iPhyClassifier indicate that StLL phytoplasmas have a unique pattern (similarity coefficient below 0.85) that is most similar to that of 'Ca. Phytoplasma luffae'. The unique in silico RFLP patterns were confirmed in vitro. Nucleotide sequences of genes that are more variable than the 16S rRNA gene, namely tuf (tu-elongation factor), secA (partial translocation gene), and the partial ribosomal protein (rp) gene operon (rps19-rpl22-rps3), produced phylogenetic trees with similar branching patterns to the 16S rRNA gene tree. Sequence comparisons between the StLL 16S rRNA spacer region confirmed previous reports of rrn interoperon sequence heterogeneity for StLL, where the spacer region of rrnB encodes a complete tRNA-Isoleucine gene and the rrnA spacer region does not. Together these results suggest that the Australian phytoplasma, StLL, is unique according to the International Organization for Mycoplasmology (IRPCM) recommendations. The novel taxon 'Ca. Phytoplasma stylosanthis' is proposed, with the most recent strain from a potato crop in Victoria, Australia, serving as the reference strain (deposited in the Victorian Plant Pathology Herbarium as VPRI 43683).


P(X < was considered. A nonparametric estimator for Y) P(X < was developed using the kernel density estimator of the joint distribution of X and Y, may be dependent. The resulting estimator was found to be similar to the estimator based on the sign statistic, however it assigns smooth continuous scores to each pair of the observations rather than the zero or one scores of the sign statistic. The asymptotic equivalence of the sign statistic and the proposed estimator is shown and a simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed estimator. Results indicate that the estimator has a good overall performance.


Inaugurated in 1931 by Louis Zukofsky, Objectivist poetry gave expression to the complex contours of culture and politics in America during the Great Depression. This study of Zukofsky and two others in the Objectivist constellation, George Oppen and Lorine Niedecker, and elaborates the dialectic between the formal experimental features of their poetry and their progressive commitments to the radical potentials of modernity. Mixing textual analysis, archival research, and historiography, Ruth Jennison shows how Zukofsky, Oppen, and Niedecker braided their experiences as working - class Jews, political activists, and feminists into radical, canon-challenging poetic forms. Using the tools of critical geography, Jennison offers an account of the relationship between the uneven spatial landscapes of capitalism in crisis and the Objectivists' paratactical textscapes. In a rethinking of the overall terms in which poetic modernism is described, she identifies and assesses the key characteristics of the Objectivist avant-garde, including its formal recognition of proliferating commodity cultures, its solidarity with global anticapitalist movements, and its imperative to develop poetics that nurtured revolutionary literacy. The resulting narrative is a historically sensitive, thorough, and innovative account of Objectivism's Depression-era modernism. A rich analysis of American avant-garde poetic forms and politics, "The Zukofsky Era" convincingly situates Objectivist poetry as a politically radical movement comprising a crucial chapter in American literary history. Scholars and students of modernism especially will find much to discuss in Jennison's theoretical study.


The recent experience after the financial crisis has led to some debate on the role of economic policies; in particular, the im plications of monetary policy regimes. However, at a theoretic analysis level, open-economy models only show the two polar cases of flexible and fixed exchange rates, while monetary unions are not properly described. In this paper, we will analyze how economic policies responses have contributed to offset the decline of GDP growth after a financial shock. Our main contribution will be to extend the standard approach providing a macroeconomic model that describes a monetary union.


Voluntary return is one of the pillars of durable solutions proposed for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) under the international normative framework and human rights instruments. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident that occurred in March 2011 following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, displaced more than 150,000 persons as a large amount of radioactive materials were released into the sea and the atmosphere from crippled reactors. Four years later, many of these evacuees remain displaced, unable or hesitant to return home, due to radiological and social consequences caused by the disaster. This policy brief seeks to examine the case of Fukushima evacuees with a special focus on the question of return and attempts to make policy recommendations, specifically tailored to deal with the nuclear displacement. It explores ways in which genuine durable solutions can be found for their case in line with international protection guidelines for IDPs.


A grazing incidence telescope has been developed for the x-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT including a verification model and a flight model. The telescope consists of a fourfold nested Wolter type I mirror assembly of 84-cm front aperture and 240-cm focal length. The verification model has been built and fully assembled to a telescope. Full aperture x-ray measurements performed in our 130-m long-beam facility are pesented and successfully compared with model predictions based on mirror metrology data. An energy independent angular resolution of 4-sec of arc half-energy width for the encircled point spread function and a mirror surface microroughness of <3 A have been achieved. Metrology of the actual flight mirrors (although not yet assembled to a telescope) indicates an even better performance.


A carefully created and chosen cigarette brand name is a critical element of branding and an integral part of any tobacco marking strategy. Brand names can bring immediate value to a brand, enhance awareness and create a favourable image for the product, thus influencing purchasing and consumption behaviours.1 ,2 Article 11 of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires each party to ensure that tobacco product packaging and labelling do not promote a tobacco product by means that are false, misleading, deceptive or likely to create an erroneous impression about its characteristics, health effects, hazards or emissions.3 However, cigarette brand names, which can be deceptive and can create false impressions about a product's characteristics, have rarely been targeted by tobacco control efforts. The objective of this study was to identify the themes of Chinese cigarette brand names, and to discuss whether these cigarette brand names are complying with …


Sri Lanka is hailed internationally for her achievements in literacy, educational enrolment and equality of educational opportunity. However, progress has not been straightforward due to the complex interactions between politics, policy formulation, and the implementation of reforms. This dynamic process has often led to contradictory outcomes. This monograph describes and analyses the political drivers and context of educational reform from the colonial era to the present before an in-depth exploration of the origins and implementation of the comprehensive 1997 education reforms. Much of the evidence referring to the later period has been drawn from extensive interviews with 20 senior members of Sri Lanka's education policy community. From 1931 to 1970 education policies were driven by the need to assert national control over an inherited colonial system and to create a unified system of education. Policy formation relied heavily on debate in public and in parliament, following practices of governance inherited from the former colonial master. The implementation of reforms was largely undertaken by bureaucrats and teachers without interference from politicians. This policy environment changed markedly during the 1970s as decisions regarding education came to be largely driven by the need to contain rising youth unrest. Debate was stifled both in the public domain and in parliament, and politicians became increasingly involved in the day-to-day practices of education, especially those concerning teacher transfers. The 1997 education reforms were comprehensive, including programmes to ensure universal access to basic education and improvements in learning outcomes. They attracted considerable 'political will', a vague but much vaunted term in the international policy discourse. Yet, despite seemingly high levels of national political will, reform has not been plain sailing. School rationalisation has been impeded by community resistance and by bureaucratic demands insensitive to local conditions and cost constraints. The reforms in junior secondary education have been inhibited by weak leadership, lack of planning, heavy curriculum demands, and the absence of a pilot programme. The monograph explores the connections between the political and technical drivers and inhibitors of reform in practice and argues that low-level, as well as high-level political will, has played an active part in determining whether formulated policies are translated into action on the ground. Bi-partisan support for education policy is essential if implementation is to endure.


OBJECTIVE
To review recent findings on the skeletal actions of vitamin D and to examine results of the latest clinical trials of vitamin D in the treatment of osteoporosis.

OPTIONS
The vitamin D analog 1-alpha hydroxycholecalciferol (1 alpha-OH-D3); the vitamin D metabolite calcitriol.

OUTCOMES
Fracture and loss of bone mineral density in osteoporosis; increased bone mass, prevention of fractures and improved quality of life associated with vitamin D therapies.

EVIDENCE
Relevant laboratory and clinical studies and reports were examined. Greatest reliance was placed on recent large-scale, randomized, controlled trials; others were noted and their methods critiqued. Clinical practice in Japan was also considered.

VALUES
Reducing fractures, increasing bone mineral density and minimizing side effects of treatment were given a high value.

BENEFITS, HARMS AND COSTS
Vitamin D maintains the dynamic nature of bone and so presumably helps to keep it healthy. Calcitriol and 1 alpha-OH-D3 may be effective in increasing bone mass and preventing fractures in osteoporosis. Calcitriol may be an alternative treatment in the prevention and management of corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis. Possible side effects of vitamin D analogs and metabolites are hypercalcemia, hypercalciuria, renal calcification and renal stones.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The use of 1 alpha-OH-D3 for the treatment of osteoporosis in Canada cannot be supported without larger and longer randomized, controlled clinical trials. Calcitriol appears to prevent vertebral fractures in patients with osteoporosis. More information is needed on its mechanism of action and efficacy in preventing hip fractures. Future studies should focus on comparisons with other effective therapies and on determining whether its effect on fractures is greater than that achieved through improved vitamin D nutrition. Patients taking calcitriol at dose levels required for antifracture effects should be monitored for serum and urine calcium response to the drug. Calcitriol should not be given to patients whose calcium intake is at current generally recommended levels. At present, prescription of calcitriol for the treatment of osteoporosis should be reserved for physicians with a special interest in the treatment of metabolic bone disease.


Semantic representation of multimedia information is vital for enabling the kind of multimedia search capabilities that professional searchers require. Manual annotation is often not possible because of the shear scale of the multimedia information that needs indexing. This paper explores the ways in which we are using both top-down, ontologically driven approaches and bottom-up, automatic-annotation approaches to provide retrieval facilities to users. We also discuss many of the current techniques that we are investigating to combine these top-down and bottom-up approaches.


Genome Snapshot and Molecular Marker Development in Penstemon (Plantaginaceae) Rhyan B. Dockter Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Master of Science Penstemon Mitchell (Plantaginaceae) is one of the largest, most diverse plant genera in North America. Their unique diversity, paired with their drought-tolerance and overall hardiness, give Penstemon a vast amount of potential in the landscaping industry—especially in the more arid western United States where they naturally thrive. In order to develop Penstemon lines for more widespread commercial and private landscaping use, we must improve our understanding of the vast genetic diversity of the genus on a molecular level. In this study we utilize genome reduction and barcoding to optimize 454-pyrosequencing in four target species of Penstemon (P. cyananthus, P. davidsonii, P. dissectus and P. fruticosus). Sequencing and assembly produced contigs representing an average of 0.5% of the Penstemon species. From the sequence, SNP information and microsatellite markers were extracted. One hundred and thirtythree interspecific microsatellite markers were discovered, of which 50 met desired primer parameters, and were of high quality with readable bands on 3% Metaphor gels. Of the microsatellite markers, 82% were polymorphic with an average heterozygosity value of 0.51. An average of one SNP in 2,890 bp per species was found within the individual species assemblies and one SNP in 97 bp were found between any two supposed homologous sequences of the four species. An average of 21.5% of the assembled contigs were associated with putative genes involved in cellular components, biological processes, and molecular functions. On average 19.7% of the assembled contigs were identified as repetitive elements of which LTRs, DNA transposons and other unclassified repeats, were discovered. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of using the GR-RSC technique to selectively reduce the genome size to putative homologous sequence in different species of Penstemon. It has also enabled us the ability to gain greater insights into microsatellite, SNP, putative gene and repetitive element content in the Penstemon genome which provide essential tools for further genetic work including plant breeding and phylogenetics.


In the context of generating functions for $P$-partitions, we revisit three flavors of quasisymmetric functions: Gessel's quasisymmetric functions, Chow's type B quasisymmetric functions, and Poirier's signed quasisymmetric functions. In each case we use the inner coproduct to give a combinatorial description (counting pairs of permutations) to the multiplication in: Solomon's type A descent algebra, Solomon's type B descent algebra, and the Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra, respectively. The presentation is brief and elementary, our main results coming as consequences of $P$-partition theorems already in the literature.


Background: Obesity has become a serious health concern in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Researchers have indicated that sedentary behaviors, especially technological activities, such as video games and other forms of screen-based activities is the main barrier to participate in physical activities. Active video games have demonstrated the efficacy in increasing physical activity and reducing body weight in children and adolescents with disabilities. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the exercise intensity and enjoyment level of interactive video game cycling (IVGC) in comparison with conventional stationary cycling (CSC) during matched number of sessions utilizing the same bicycle at the same resistance. Method: Three adolescents with high functioning autism HFA (two males and one female) participated in an alternating treatment single-case design study. Two Game Rider bicycles that included gym mode and interactive video game mode were utilized in this study. In a random order, participants completed five cycling sessions engaging in conventional stationary cycling and five sessions carrying out the interactive video game cycling. Cycling method alternated every day with each participant receiving one treatment a day, and each session lasted 15 minutes. Measurements evaluated throughout the study were average HR, minutes spent in THRR, distance pedaled, and enjoyment level. Results: Tau-U effect size and percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) were computed to analyze the significant differences between the two cycling methods. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the two applied treatments in average heart rate, minutes in THRR, and distance pedaled. The average heart rate within the recommended THRR (70% and above of HRmax) was achieved by one participant in both cycling methods. Participants reported a high enjoyment level in terms of IVGC. Conclusion: Interactive video game cycling may lead to higher intensity of physical activity in adolescents with HFA when applying some recommendations that can increase individual's motivation, such as offering variety of the latest video games cycling, administering token system, and organizing contests between students. One limitation of this study was the small sample size. Therefore, larger sample size and/or replication of the study is needed.


In this book, you learn how to: Develop perfect fluency in subnetting Understand the OSI model and the Cisco three-layer hierarchical model Connect Cisco equipment, make initial configurations, and connect to other devices to build a network Configure Cisco routers and back up and restore your Cisco IOS Software configurations Implement, verify, and troubleshoot a small, switched network Configure and verify a basic WAN serial connection Understand and apply wireless LAN (WLAN) concepts Mitigate network security threats and secure network devices Configure static routes and RIPv2 Connect a small office to the Internet WRITTEN BY CCNA/CCENT Experts!Michael Valentine has been in the IT field for 12 years, focusing on network design and implementation. He is currently a Cisco trainer with Skyline Advanced Technology Services and specializes in Cisco Unified Communications instruction as well as CCNA and CCNP courses.Andrew Whitaker is the director of enterprise InfoSec and networking and senior training instructor for Training Camp. He has achieved several Cisco certifications and has written on several Cisco topics.This book includes a CD-ROM that features: Complete coverage of CCENT exam objectives Realistic exam questions for effective practice Detailed explanations of correct and incorrect answers Multiple exam modes Flash Card format An electronic copy of the book


This paper discusses the status of FTTP plans and deployment in the United States and in Japan. An overview of PON standards is provided, along with a discussion of video delivery over a PON network. The choice of a particular technical implementation for PON and video delivery is explained by equipment providers (AFC and Harmonic Inc.) and followed by a discussion of its deployment in Verizon's service provider network. Finally, we review the history and status of FTTP deployments in Japan.


Background: Human milk has considerable short and long term benefits for preterm infants, but mothers may experience difficulties in expressing breast milk for infants too immature or sick to breast feed. Oxytocin has been used to assist breast feeding and milk expression, but few data are available to support this intervention in the neonatal unit setting. Aim: To test the hypothesis that oxytocin nasal spray increases early milk output in mothers expressing milk for preterm infants. Methods: A randomised, double blind trial of oxytocin nasal spray (100 µl per dose) versus placebo was conducted in mothers delivering infants <35 weeks gestation. Sprays were used before expression of milk using an electric pump up to day 5. Main outcome: Total weight of milk expressed while using spray (study powered to detect >1SD difference between groups). Secondary outcomes: Pattern of milk production; number of pumping sessions; weight/fat content of milk expressed during a fixed 20 minute period on day 5 ("physiological study"); mother's opinion of expressing and spray assessed by questionnaire. Results: Fifty one mothers were randomised (27 oxytocin, 24 placebo). Total milk production did not differ between groups. Repeated measures analysis of variance suggested significantly (p  =  0.001) different patterns of milk production, with initial faster production in the oxytocin group then convergence between groups. Parity did not influence the response to the intervention. No significant differences were seen in milk weight or fat content in the physiological study nor in mothers' opinions of milk expression and treatment. Conclusions: Despite marginal differences in the pattern of early milk production, the use of oxytocin nasal spray did not significantly improve outcome. Most mothers believed they were receiving the active spray, suggesting a significant placebo effect (supported by limited data from historical controls) and benefits from the extra breast feeding support available during the study.


Outsourcing relationship quality (ORQ) has shown to be an important construct in previous research on outsourcing effectiveness. But, while there are various works that have conceptualized and operationalized ORQ as a rich and multi-dimensional construct, other studies which consider ORQ as (usually mediating) component of their theoretical models make hardly use of those works but often use less rich constructs. The research on hand attempts bridging the gap between those two groups of works. A multi-dimensional ORQ construct is used to evaluate the relative importance of different ORQ dimensions, such as commitment, trust, etc., in regard to different dimensions of outsourcing success (overall satisfaction, goal achievement, service quality). For example, while many studies use trust as proxy for ORQ, our study shows that, depending on the outcome variable, other ORQ dimensions might be more relevant and should be used instead or additionally. Thus, the main contribution is identifying those ORQ dimensions which are most relevant regarding different outsourcing success variables. Future studies on outsourcing success factors will have a better ground to argue for or against using certain ORQ dimensions in their studies. Moreover, the study sensitizes managers for different distinct ORQ dimensions and their importance for a successful outsourcing relationship.


The current global recession and financial crisis have significantly affected virtually all investment managers. The severity of the effects on investment management risk has induced many investment managers to reconsider their investment approaches in terms of investment management risk. This paper summarizes and evaluates many of the resulting "lessons learned" by the author from these effects of the crisis. The perspective is that of a high net worth investor. Some of the "lessons learned" by investors, however, are inappropriate responses to the investment crisis and are refuted. These are, however, other responses investors should learn and consider using prospectively. These responses include both modified responses to the financial crisis we have witnessed and also new quantitative methodologies which have been developed to treat the investment problems which have been encountered. Among the issues considered are: (1) the utility of MPT; (2) the development process of contagion and a quantitative response to contagion; (3) quantitative and qualitative rebalancing; (4) recent evidence on the ERP (Equity Risk Premium) and the stock/bond allocation; (5) the paradigm of extreme events (a.k.a. the "black swan") and hedging extreme events; (6) the changing role of liquidity in investment management; (7) a consideration of risk tolerance in portfolio development and others. Overall, the paper reviews both potential strategic and tactical responses with respect to these issues to the recent severe financial crisis from the perspective of a high net worth investment adviser.


Abstract. The paper presents an exposure-stance concept model with three basic elements: proximity regarded as a measurement of nearness, accessibility which refers to the road stance serviceability that convey the people or goods from place to place by means of a vehicle, and connectivity of uncontrolled activities i.e. road and/or building constructions, nearness (measurement) information to be reached from or to be reached by to transport people and resources regardless if it traverses the danger or hazard zones in the slopes of Mayon Volcano. The challenging work is modelling the level of exposure-stances operationally defined as the accessibility in terms of road stance serviceability, connectivity in terms of road constructed and building footprints' nearness measurement with danger or hazard zones relative to the risk reality phenomenon information happening in Mayon Volcano. This paper practically highlighted results, specifically on the matrix of levels of exposure-stances contexts that creates knowledge prompted by spatial information (nearness measurements) featuring accessibility, connectivity, proximity, risk reality, danger and hazards zones, and OSM roads and building footprints variables. The study concluded that rejecting roads and building (lines and polygons) mimics the perpetual relocation of exposed residents. Also, closing the proclaimed protected forest areas to any activities will likely nil exposure, thus lowering risk hotspot level of significance. Hence, nulling exposure stance variable if not dispersing exposure featuring roads and buildings within the protected areas, development constraint areas, and permanent and extended danger zones of Mayon Volcano has a practical implication to stabilize and sustain developments at the foot slopes of the volcano.


Hydraulic modelling principles, together with a knowledge of channel pattern thresholds, allow the development of a small scale model of a gravel braided stream with flow characteristics and equivalent dimensions of a natural river. The forms and processes of natural gravel braided rivers are reproduced by imposing a constant flume discharge and slope, and maintaining approximate equilibrium with an adjustable sediment feed.

Beginning from a straight trough, braiding is initiated by development of a series of alternating bars and scour pools which produce bends of increasing amplitude, leading finally to channel division. These lobate bars accrete downstream by deposition of bed material at their margins, often in the form of avalanche faces. Together with the scour pools with which they are necessarily closely associated, these bars are the fundamental elements of the channel pattern. Channel migration and division is a response to the development of bars, and these adjustments leave portions of the originally active bars in the form of exposed and eroded remnants. Complex flats built from these lobate forms show varying degrees of preservation of the original depositional units, but the model allows observation of the systematic construction of some flats.

Sorting of sediment on active bars with avalanche faces shows a distinct fining downstream. This may be the result of the accretion of fining upwards avalanche faces along the bar margins rather than a 'winnowing out' of fine material.

The processes and forms observed in the model appear to be very similar to those occurring in natural gravel braided streams during peak flows.


In many parts of the United States, water is quickly becoming a scarce resource. Data-driven insights can enable utilities and consumers to manage water use better, identify leaks sooner, and discover opportunities to use water more efficiently, writes the Center for Data Innovation. To help unlock innovative uses of water data, utilities should provide consumers open access to their water usage data in a standardized format. The federal government should support this goal by encouraging water utilities to do this using the "Green Button" data standard, which has already been adopted by the energy industry to provide consumers access to their utility data.


This Essay addresses a debate that emerged in the Supreme Court's decision last Term in Tennessee v. Lane, 124 S. Ct. 1978 (2004), regarding whether challenges to legislation enacted to enforce section five of the Fourteenth Amendment should be assessed on a facial or as-applied basis. It begins by reviewing the Court's precedent involving claims that statutes exceed Congress' enumerated powers to determine how the Court thus far has approached the question of facial challenges and severability in that context. One of the main points that emerges from this review is the confusion spawned by the Court's current and unduly narrow definition of facial challenges as entailing the claim that a statute (or statutory provision) has no valid applications. This definition obscures both the range of forms facial challenges can take and the important role severability plays in the Court's treatment of facial challenges. The Essay then turns to assessing whether, precedent aside, a doctrine of nonseverability should govern in the section five context, and answers this question in the negative. While section five statutes should not be immune from facial attack, the Essay argues that in assessing the merits of such challenges no reason exists to diverge from the ordinary rule that federal courts will presume unconstitutional applications of federal statutes are severable. It concludes with consideration of whether federalism concerns justify a departure from ordinary practice in other congressional power contexts.


Maritime boundary disputes with neighboring states, especially in continental shelf driven by potentially large hydrocarbon deposits lying in overlapping continental shelf. Presently, there are many states remain in the hydrocarbon extraction and exploration in the form of joint development Agreement. The impacts of the joint development in conducting exploitation in the offshore which become the disputing continental shelf may potentially cause pollution or environmental damage in the adjacent area. The objective of the research is to evaluate whether the joint development Agreement in disputing continental shelfconcerns to the protection of the marine environment.The paper undertakes a critical examination of the issues relating to the role of coastal states to protect the marine environment in Joint Development Agreement.The paper is a normative research and the methodology employed in this paper is library research. While the approaches employed in the research are statutory approach, comparative approach and conceptual approach. The research finds that the protection of the marine environment in joint development agreement in the joint development zone needs has not carried out optimumly particularly in developing countries.


As enterprise systems, Grids, and other distributed applications scale up and become increasingly complex, their authorization infrastructures--based predominantly on the request-response paradigm--are facing the challenges of fragility and poor scalability. We propose an approach where each application server recycles previously received authorizations and shares them with other application servers to mask authorization server failures and network delays. This paper presents the design of our cooperative secondary authorization recycling system and its evaluation using simulation and prototype implementation. The results demonstrate that our approach improves the availability and performance of authorization infrastructures. Specifically, by sharing authorizations, the cache hit rate--an indirect metric of availability--can reach 70 percent, even when only 10 percent of authorizations are cached. Depending on the deployment scenario, the average time for authorizing an application request can be reduced by up to a factor of two compared with systems that do not employ cooperation.


Overview Why I Wrote the Basics of Process Mapping Key Features of Each Map Three Views of the Same Work Introduction to Phil's Quick Lube Overview of an Oil Change-Work Sequence Thinking about Work What Is Work? Work: A Working Definition Why this Matters Work: Boundaries, Components, Features, and Properties Work Is a System It Consists of Several Components Work: Viewed as a Process Work: Viewed as a Workflow Work: Viewed as a Value Stream (Process) Maps are Models of Work Some Assumptions Regarding Work Why Map a Process? Chapter Overview Why Map a Process? Reasons to Map a Process (Part 1) Reasons to Map a Process (Part 2) How Do the Two Lists of Reasons Compare? What Is a Model? Why Create a Model of Work? (Process) Maps as Models of Work "The Map Is Not the Territory" (It Is a Model of the Territory) New Types of Maps May Come and Go, but the Work They Represent Will Remain Relationship Maps How to Create a Relationship Map Relationship Map Interview Interpreting Relationship Maps Interpreting the Relationship Map View of Phil's Quick Lube Cross-Functional Process Maps or Swimlane Diagrams How to Create a Cross-Functional Process Map Cross-Functional Process Map Interview Interpreting Cross-Functional Process Maps Interpreting the Cross-Functional Process Map of Phil's Quick Lube Flowchart How to Create a Flowchart Flowchart Interpreting the Flowchart for Activity 2 Seven Principles to Improve Flow Background of the Engagement Seven Principles for Improving Flow Principle 1: Improve Flow from the Outside In Principle 2: Measure What Matters to the Customer Principle 3: Make the End-to-End Flow Visible Principle 4: Identify and Remove Barriers to Flow Principle 5: Connect and Align Value-Creating Principle 6: Organize around the End-to-End Flow Principle 7: Manage the Flow Visually Appendix: Methods to Gain Content


In this study, we estimate the impact of the 2004-2012 energy and mining boom on the real effective exchange rate in Colombia and the sectoral composition of its economy. To this end, we introduce the new "extended Dutch Disease" concept, according to which a currency appreciation may not only occur due to traditional "spending" and "relocation" effects but also due to exports and massive inflows of external capital that finances the booming sector. The empirical results indicate that Colombia experienced an overvaluation of its real exchange rate, which in turn negatively affected the competitiveness of its manufacturing and agricultural sector.


Spatial development patterns in Switzerland and future development trends and infrastructure requirements are not only the result of decisions at Swiss federal or cantonal levels, but also considerably influenced by developments in the EU. In the collaboration between two institutions at ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne with the European Observatory Network ESPON, four spatial scenarios have been developed in this project. Two scenarios are affected by an individual, two scenarios by a cohesive value and distribution system. One scenario on each group takes place in a more dynamic economy and the other in a rather stagnating one. The project has used the methodology adopted by ESPON 3.2 by drawing up spatial scenarios based on an analysis of driving forces and trend projections. Furthermore, agent-based simulations have been used in an innovative way. Thematic scenarios have been designed around the broad topics of demography, economy and tourism, energy, socio cultural issues, transportation and mobility, and environment. These specific scenarios have been transformed into integrated scenarios and visualized by a sophisticated cartography.


Increasingly available mobile devices (e.g., mobile robots, smart phones) are becoming more intelligent in their ability to autonomously perform tasks for users. However, when deployed in complex human environments, these devices still face many sensing, reasoning, and actuation limitations. To overcome limitations, we propose symbiotic relationships as those in which the device can request help from humans in the environment while it performs tasks for them. Because the devices are performing tasks for humans, humans have incentive to help the device complete its tasks effectively. However, they may not always be available or willing to help. We introduce human-centered planning to model and reason about humans in the environment in addition to their own state and goals to determine how to act and whether, who, and how to seek help.
The thesis first contributes an understanding of what and how to model humans in the environment through user studies. We first evaluate whether attributes such as availability and interruptibility affect willingness to help. Then, we contribute to the understanding of how to ask humans for help to increase the accuracy of their responses. We show that providing humans with device context, classification prediction and uncertainty, and additional feedback all increase the accuracy of human responses to device questions. Finally, we contribute algorithms to learn these models both through surveys and online while the device is performing tasks.
The thesis then introduces human-centered conditional, deliberative, and replanning algorithms that use models of humans. We contribute conditional plans that include asking actions to enable devices to perform tasks that they could not otherwise perform. We then contribute a human-centered deliberative planner for a robot to use to determine which navigational path to take that minimizes its uncertainty and maximizes the likelihood of finding available human helpers. Finally, we contribute a replanning algorithm for a robot to determine which helper to have travel to help in a particular location, such as elevators or kitchens.
Through extensive experiments and deployments, in particular with a mobile service robot, this thesis shows that human-centered algorithms trade off task performance with costs of asking and interrupting human helpers increase functionality while maintaining usability.


Micro-expressions (MEs) are rapid and subtle facial movements that are difficult to detect and recognize. Most recent works have attempted to recognize MEs with spatial and temporal information from video clips. According to psychological studies, the apex frame conveys the most emotional information expressed in facial expressions. However, it is not clear how the single apex frame contributes to micro-expression recognition. To alleviate that problem, this paper firstly proposes a new method to detect the apex frame by estimating pixel-level change rates in the frequency domain. With frequency information, it performs more effectively on apex frame spotting than the currently existing apex frame spotting methods based on the spatio-temporal change information. Secondly, with the apex frame, this paper proposes a joint feature learning architecture coupling local and global information to recognize MEs, because not all regions make the same contribution to ME recognition and some regions do not even contain any emotional information. More specifically, the proposed model involves the local information learned from the facial regions contributing major emotion information, and the global information learned from the whole face. Leveraging the local and global information enables our model to learn discriminative ME representations and suppress the negative influence of unrelated regions to MEs. The proposed method is extensively evaluated using CASME, CASME II, SAMM, SMIC, and composite databases. Experimental results demonstrate that our method with the detected apex frame achieves considerably promising ME recognition performance, compared with the state-of-the-art methods employing the whole ME sequence. Moreover, the results indicate that the apex frame can significantly contribute to micro-expression recognition.


The whole spectacular world of golf comes to life in these pages - the great men and women players, both pro and amateur, the architects, the courses, the wonderful stories and marvellous images. "History of Golf: 365 Days" covers not only the usual beginnings of the game to the present day but also golf around the world, and women's golf as well as men's. Individual players as well as beautiful courses are highlighted, with many interesting anecdotes. Sidorsky's narrative begins in Scotland, the home of golf's legendary origins and continues right on through the most recent tournaments and dramas, including modern phenomenon's such as Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie, Zach Johnson and Paula Creamer. A companion volume to Robert Sidorsky's "Golf Courses Around the World", "History of Golf" includes hundreds of pictures and detailed commentaries combine to create a source of endless interest and pleasure for any active or armchair golfer.


**** Note that the pagination of this article has been adjusted due to resolving a production error in another article in this issue.***


The High Court's decision in Kirk v Industrial Court of New South Wales (2010) 239 CLR 531 follows the 2009 decision in International Finance Trust Co Ltd v New South Wales Crime Commission (2009) 240 CLR 319; both decisions breathing new life into the principle from Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) (1996) 189 CLR 51. Whereas the 2009 case involved a relatively straightforward application of Kable (as developed and re-articulated in subsequent cases), the decision in Kirk is far-reaching. The High Court has effectively extended the reach of ch III of the Constitution, holding that the supervisory jurisdiction of the state supreme courts is a defining characteristic of those courts and cannot therefore be removed. The implications of the decision will be played out over time, in cases where jurisdictional error is alleged and where state privative clauses come under closer scrutiny by the courts. However, the wider significance of Kirk lies in the High Court's defiant stance with respect to preserving its own supervisory role in reviewing the fundamental errors of inferior courts and tribunals. In this respect, the impact of Kirk may not be completely felt until the matters which the Court was ultimately able to sidestep in Kirk, but which absorbed the parties and interveners in their submissions, arise for determination in a future case.


Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) and a few related mycobacteria, is a devastating disease, killing more than a million individuals per year worldwide. However, its pathogenesis remains largely elusive, as only a small proportion of infected individuals develop clinical disease either during primary infection or during reactivation from latency or secondary infection. Subacute, hematogenous, and extrapulmonary disease tends to be more frequent in infants, children, and teenagers than in adults. Life‐threatening primary TB of childhood can result from known acquired or inherited immunodeficiencies, although the vast majority of cases remain unexplained. We review here the conditions conferring a predisposition to childhood clinical diseases caused by mycobacteria, including not only M.tb but also weakly virulent mycobacteria, such as BCG vaccines and environmental mycobacteria. Infections with weakly virulent mycobacteria are much rarer than TB, but the inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies underlying these infections are much better known. Their study has also provided genetic and immunological insights into childhood TB, as illustrated by the discovery of single‐gene inborn errors of IFN‐γ immunity underlying severe cases of TB. Novel findings are expected from ongoing and future human genetic studies of childhood TB in countries that combine a high proportion of consanguineous marriages, a high incidence of TB, and an excellent clinical care, such as Iran, Morocco, and Turkey.