ABSTRACT Previous evidence regarding morphology led us to examine an exhaustive set of specimens assigned to Alpheus heterochaelis Say, 1818 and closely allied species, in order to test for the existence of possible cryptic taxa. The analysis of material assignable to this species from the states of Pará, Bahia and São Paulo in Brazil, and from Venezuela and Colombia revealed minor morphological differences between these specimens and others that could be confidently identified as A. heterochaelis from the eastern USA coast and the Gulf of Mexico, such as the absence of spiniform setae on the ischium of the fifth pereiopods (vs present in A. heterochaelis s.s.). Additionally, genetic analysis using the ribosomal 16S subunit also indicated levels of genetic difference supporting the existence of a cryptic species and revealing that A. heterochaelis is, in fact, a species complex. Thus, a new species, A. petronioi n. sp. is described and illustrated for the material from northern South America and Brazil. The new species is also compared with other, similar species of Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 in terms of morphology and DNA sequences in a phylogenetic context.


Hygroscopic properties of aerosol particles in the sub-micrometer and one-micrometer size ranges were measured during the ACE-Asia study (Aerosol Characterization Experiment-Asia) in spring 2001. The measurements took place off the coasts of Japan, Korea, and China. All instruments contributing to this study were deployed in a container on the forward deck of the NOAA Research Vessel Ronald H. Brown. Air masses with primarily marine influence and air masses from the Asian continent affected by both anthropogenic sources and by the transport of desert dust aerosol were encountered during the cruise. Results showed very different hygroscopic behavior in the sub-micrometer size range compared to the one-micrometer size range. In general, for all continentally influenced air masses, the one-micrometer particle population was characterized by two different particle groups – a nearly hydrophobic fraction with growth factors around 1.0 representative of dust particles and a sea salt fraction with hygroscopic growth factors around 2.0. The number fraction of dust particles was generally about 60% independent of long-range air mass origin. For sub-micrometer particles, a dominant, more hygroscopic particle fraction with growth factors between 1.5 and 1.9 (depending on dry particle size) consistent with ammonium sulfate or non-neutralized sulfates as major component was always found. In marine air masses and for larger sizes within the sub-micrometer range ( Dp=250 and 350 nm), a sea salt fraction with growth factors between 2.0 and 2.1 was also observed. For all other air masses, the more hygroscopic particle fraction in the sub-micrometer size range was mostly accompanied by a less hygroscopic particle fraction with growth factors between 1.20 and 1.55 depending on both the continental sources and the dry particle size. Number fractions of this particle group varied between 4 and 39% Correspondence to: A. Massling (email@example.com) depending on dry particle size and air mass type. Nearly hydrophobic particles indicating dust particles in the submicrometer size regime were only found for particles with Dp=250 and 350 nm during a time period when the aerosol was influenced by transport from Asian desert regions.


Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) diodes fabricated from 0.52eV lattice-matched InGaAsSb alloys are grown by Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) on GaSb substrates. 4cm{sup 2} multi-chip diode modules with front-surface spectral filters were tested in a vacuum cavity and attained measured efficiency and power density of 19% and 0.58 W/cm{sup 2} respectively at operating at temperatures of T{sub radiator} = 950 C and T{sub diode} = 27 C. Device modeling and minority carrier lifetime measurements of double heterostructure lifetime specimens indicate that diode conversion efficiency is limited predominantly by interface recombination and photon energy loss to the GaSb substrate and back ohmic contact. Recent improvements to the diode include lattice-matched p-type AlGaAsSb passivating layers with interface recombination velocities less than 100 cm/s and new processing techniques enabling thinned substrates and back surface reflectors. Modeling predictions of these improvements to the diode architecture indicate that conversion efficiencies from 27-30% and {approx}0.85 W/cm{sup 2} could be attained under the above operating temperatures.


The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is an ongoing longitudinal study of people born in the United Kingdom in a particular week in 1970. It is the third study in Britain's world-renowned series of birth cohort studies, following the 1946 and 1958 birth cohorts. Compared to the generations born in 1946 and 1958, the 1970 cohort were subject to an era of economic and labour market transformation and turbulence and experienced growing socio-economic inequalities. They can be seen as entering middle age with a degree of reluctance, as child-bearing has been delayed to later ages compared to previous generations.  The notion that this generation is more troubled than the previous generation gains some support from the higher levels of mental distress reported by the 1970 cohort members at age 42. This special issue asks how this generation is faring in mid-life, and addresses a diverse range of themes including social mobility, obesity and religion. This paper provides an introduction to the 1970 cohort and the social context in which they have lived, and an overview of the remaining papers in the special issue.


Field campaigns are instrumental in providing ground truth for understanding and modeling global ocean biogeochemical budgets. A survey however can only inspect a fraction of the global oceans, typically a region hundreds of kilometers wide for a temporal window of the order of (at most) several weeks. This spatiotemporal domain is also the one in which the mesoscale activity induces through horizontal stirring a strong variability in the biogeochemical tracers, with ephemeral, local contrasts which can easily mask the regional and seasonal gradients. Therefore, whenever local in situ measures are used to infer larger-scale budgets, one faces the challenge of identifying the mesoscale structuring effect, if not simply to filter it out. In the case of the KEOPS2 investigation of biogeochemical responses to natural iron fertilization, this problem was tackled by designing an adaptive sampling strategy based on regionally optimized multisatellite products analyzed in real time by specifically designed Lagrangian diagnostics. This strategy identified the different mesoscale and stirring structures present in the region and tracked the dynamical frontiers among them. It also enabled back trajectories for the ship-sampled stations to be estimated, providing important insights into the timing and pathways of iron supply, which were explored further using a model based on first-order iron removal. This context was essential for the interpretation of the field results. The mesoscale circulation-based strategy was also validated post-cruise by comparing the Lagrangian maps derived from satellites with the patterns of more than one hundred drifters, including some adaptively released during KEOPS2 and a subsequent research voyage. The KEOPS2 strategy was adapted to the specific biogeochemical characteristics of the region, but its principles are general and will be useful for future in situ biogeochemical surveys.


Where and what is the near surface? According to Butler (2005), the majority of near-surface surveys are shallower than 30 m, occasionally down to 100 m, and very rarely considered for depths beyond 100 m. In Saudi Arabia, the majority of upholes are of 100 m depth, and models of the near surface are deeper than 100 m in order to model to the seismic datum. In metalliferous mining areas, low-grade metamorphosed sediments or igneous rocks can constitute the near surface for mining engineering but are not considered near surface in the search for hydrocarbons. For those studying the earth's crust and who have a different perspective, Sharma (1978) finds "… velocity distributions show a well-defined low-velocity layer at 100–150 km depth …"; in those studies, the whole of the sedimentary section would be included in the near surface.


(NOTE: Each chapter begins with an Introduction and concludes with a Summary, To Probe Further, and Exercises and Design Problems.) I. THE FABRICS. 1. Introduction. A Historical Perspective. Issues in Digital Integrated Circuit Design. Quality Metrics of a Digital Design. 2. The Manufacturing Process. The CMOS Manufacturing Process. Design Rules-The Contract between Designer and Process Engineer. Packaging Integrated Circuits. Perspective-Trends in Process Technology. 3. The Devices. The Diode. The MOS(FET) Transistor. A Word on Process Variations. Perspective: Technology Scaling. 4. The Wire. A First Glance. Interconnect Parameters-Capitance, Resistance, and Inductance. Electrical Wire Models. SPICE Wire Models. Perspective: A Look into the Future. II. A CIRCUIT PERSPECTIVE. 5. The CMOS Inverter. The Static CMOS Inverter-An Intuitive Perspective. Evaluating the Robustness of the CMOS Inverter: The Static Behavior. Performance of CMOS Inverter: The Dynamic Behavior. Power, Energy, and Energy-Delay. Perspective: Technology Scaling and Its Impact on the Inverter Metrics. 6. Designing Combinational Logic Gates in CMOS. Static CMOS Design. Dynamic CMOS Design. How to Choose a Logic Style? Perspective: Gate Design in the Ultra Deep-Submicron Era. 7. Designing Sequential Logic Circuits. Timing Metrics for Sequential Circuits. Classification of Memory Elements. Static Latches and Registers. Dynamic Latches and Registers. Pulse Registers. Sense-Amplifier Based Registers. Pipelining: An Approach to Optimize Sequential Circuits. Non-Bistable Sequential Circuits. Perspective: Choosing a Clocking Strategy. III. A SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE. 8. Implementation Strategies for Digital ICS. From Custom to Semicustom and Structured-Array Design Approaches. Custom Circuit Design. Cell-Based Design Methodology. Array-Based Implementation Approaches. Perspective-The Implementation Platform of the Future. 9. Coping with Interconnect. Capacitive Parasitics. Resistive Parasitics. Inductive Parasitics. Advanced Interconnect Techniques. Perspective: Networks-on-a-Chip. 10. Timing Issues in Digital Circuits. Timing Classification of Digital Systems. Synchronous Design-An In-Depth Perspective. Self-Timed Circuit Design. Synchronizers and Arbiters. Clock Synthesis and Synchronization Using a Phased-Locked Loop. Future Directions and Perspectives. 11. Designing Arithmetic Building Blocks. Datapaths in Digital Processor Architectures. The Adder. The Multiplier. The Shifter. Other Arithmetic Operators. Power and Spped Trade-Offs in Datapath Structures. Perspective: Design as a Trade-off. 12. Designing Memory and Array Structures. The Memory Core. Memory Peripheral Circuitry. Memory Reliability and Yield. Power Dissipation in Memories. Case Studies in Memory Design. Perspective: Semiconductor Memory Trends and Evolutions. Problem Solutions. Index.


Countercyclical country interest rates have been shown to be both a distinctive characteristic and an important driving force of business cycles in emerging market economies. In order to account for this, most business cycle models of emerging market economies have relied on ad hoc and exogenous countercyclical interest rate processes. This paper embeds a financial contract a la Bernanke et al. (1999) in a standard small open economy business cycle model that endogenously delivers countercyclical interest rates. The model is then applied to the data, drawn from a novel panel dataset for emerging economies that includes financial data, namely sovereign and corporate interest rates as well as leverage. It is shown that the model accounts well not only for countercyclical interest rates, but also for other stylized facts of emerging economies` business cycles, including the dynamics of leverage.


Abstract. High-resolution numerical models can be effective in monitoring and predicting natural hazards, especially when dealing with Mediterranean atmospheric and marine intense/severe events characterised by a wide range of interacting scales. The understanding of the key factors associated to these Mediterranean phenomena, and the usefulness of adopting high-resolution numerical models in their simulation, are among the aims of the international initiative HyMeX – HYdrological cycle in Mediterranean EXperiment. At the turn of 2013, two monitoring campaigns (SOPs – Special Observation Periods) were devoted to these issues. For this purpose, a new high-resolution BOlogna Limited Area Model-MOdello LOCale (BOLAM-MOLOCH) suite was implemented in the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) hydro–meteo–marine forecasting system (SIMM – Sistema Idro-Meteo-Mare) as a possible alternative to the operational meteorological component based on the BOLAM model self-nested over two lower-resolution domains. The present paper provides an assessment of this new configuration of SIMM with respect to the operational one that was also used during the two SOPs. More in details, it investigates the forecast performance of these SIMM configurations during two of the Intense Observation Periods (IOPs) declared in the first SOP campaign. These IOPs were characterised by high precipitations and very intense and exceptional high waters over the northern Adriatic Sea (acqua alta). Concerning the meteorological component, the high-resolution BOLAM-MOLOCH forecasts are compared against the lower-resolution BOLAM forecasts over three areas – mostly corresponding to the Italian HyMeX hydrometeorological sites – using the rainfall observations collected in the HyMeX database. Three-month categorical scores are also calculated for the MOLOCH model. Despite the presence of a slight positive bias of the MOLOCH model, the results show that the precipitation forecast turns out to improve with increasing resolution. In both SIMM configurations, the sea storm surge component is based on the same version of the Shallow water HYdrodynamic Finite Element Model (SHYFEM). Hence, it is evaluated the impact of the meteorological forcing provided by the two adopted BOLAM configurations on the SHYFEM forecasts for six tide-gauge stations. A benchmark for this part of the study is given by the performance of the SHYFEM model forced by the ECMWF IFS forecast fields. For this component, both BOLAM-SHYFEM configurations clearly outperform the benchmark. The results are, however, strongly affected by the predictability of the weather systems associated to the IOPs, thus suggesting the opportunity to develop and test a time-lagged multi-model ensemble for the prediction of high storm surge events.


The control of disassembly of supramolecular nanostructures of self-assembled peptides by specific stimuli has not been intensively investigated for the fluorescent detection of analytes in aqueous solutions. In the present study, we investigated the control of assembly and disassembly of self-assembled peptides by monosaccharides for ratiometric detection. A series of amphiphilic dipeptides (1–4) with a different aromatic side chain bearing a phenylboronic acid and pyrene fluorophore were synthesized. The dipeptides (1–3) spontaneously self-aggregated and formed nanoparticles in aqueous solutions, resulting in significant pyrene excimer emissions, whereas the dipeptide (4) did not aggregate, resulting in a little excimer emission. The addition of sugars induced the disassembly of the self-aggregates of 1–3, resulting in a decrease in excimer emission and an increase in monomer emission. All peptides (1–4) showed a high selectivity for fructose among monosaccharides and 3 showed the lowest detection limit for fructose among the peptides showed ratiometric responses. The addition of hydrophobic pinanediol stabilized the self-aggregates of 1–3, resulting in an increase in excimer emission and a decrease in monomer emission. Even though 4 did not self-aggregate in aqueous solution, the addition of pinanediol induced the assembly of nanoparticles, resulting in a significant increase of excimer emission and a decrease of monomer emissions. The results revealed that the assembly and disassembly of the self-assembled peptides could be controlled by covalent bonding with sugar, which was suitable for the sensitive ratiometric detection of monosaccharides in aqueous solution at physiological pH.


Social surveillance and regulation of knowledge will be one of the most important issues in the near future, one that will give rise to unending controversy. In The Governance of Knowledge, Nico Stehr predicts that such concerns will create a new political field, namely, knowledge policy, which will entail regulating dissemination of the anticipated results of rapidly increasing knowledge. The number and range of institutionalized standards for monitoring new knowledge has hitherto been relatively small. Only in cases of technological applications has social control, in the form of political regulation, so far intervened. All modern societies today have complex regulations and extensive concerns with the registration, licensing, testing, and monitoring of pharmaceutical products. The increasingly important and extensive area of intellectual property legislation and administration is an example of social control in which certain measures selectively determine the use of scientific finds and technical knowledge. The Governance of Knowledge assembles a range of essays that attempt to explore the new field of knowledge politics for the first time. It is divided into four parts: The Emergence of Knowledge Politics: Origins, Context, and Consequences; Major Social Institutions and Knowledge Politics; Case Studies on the Governance of Knowledge; and Issues in Knowledge Politics as a New Political Field. Individual chapters concern the emergence of knowledge policy, the embeddedness of such regulations in major social institutions, and offer case studies of the governance of knowledge and discuss controversial issues that are bound to accompany efforts to regulate new knowledge. Professionals and graduate students in the fields of scoiology, political science, social science, and law, including policymakers and natural scientists, will find this book extremely informative.


Most features used for speech recognition are derived from the output of a filterbank inspired by the auditory system. The two most commonly used filter shapes are the triangular filters used in MFCC (mel-frequency cepstral coefficients) and the gammatone filters that model psychoacoustic critical bands. However, for both of these filterbanks there are free parameters that must be chosen by the system designer. In this paper, we explore the effect that different parameter settings have on the discriminability of speech sound classes. Specifically, we focus our attention on two primary parameters: the filter shape (triangular or gammatone) and the filter bandwidth. We use variations in the noise level and the pitch to explore the behavior of different filterbanks. We use the Fisher linear discriminant to give us insight about why some filterbanks perform better than others. We observe three things: 1) there are significant differences even among different implementations of the same filterbank, 2) wider filters help remove the non-informative pitch information, and 3) the Fisher criteria helps us understand why. We validate the Fisher measure with speech recognition experiments on the Aurora-4 speech corpus.


My lab studies the function of Hedgehog proteins and other extracellular signals in morphogenesis (pattern formation) and in injury repair and regeneration (pattern maintenance). We study how the distribution of such signals is regulated in tissues, how cells perceive and respond to distinct concentrations of signals, and how such signaling pathways arose in evolution. We also study the normal roles of such signals in stem-cell physiology and their abnormal roles in the formation and expansion of cancer stem cells.


The most prominent business process notations in use today are BPMN, EPC and BPEL. While all those languages show similarities on the conceptual level and share similar constructs, the semantics of these constructs and even the intended use of the language itself are often quite different. As a result, users are uncertain when to use which language or construct in a particular language, especially when they have used another business process notation before. In this paper, we discuss the core characteristics of graph-based and block-structured modelling languages and compare them with respect to their join and loop semantics.


Second in the "Metallocene" series from PDL, this book focuses on the commercial use and process improvements of resins produced with metallocene, single site, and other modern catalytic methods. Research to broaden the scope of applications and shorten production cycles is presented. New and improved polymer blends resulting from the use of new catalysts and improved polymer compatibility are explored as well as new applications becoming possible due to improved and balanced properties. Current trends and the latest research from the international scientific and industrial community are presented in this volume. Chapters cover use in extrusion, film manufacture, injection molding, foam production, fiber spinning, composites and new applications. Precise testing methods, material characterization, polymer morphology and crystallization are the focus of another section of the book.


Mobile and multimedia devices offer more innovations and enhancements to satisfy user requirements. Chip manufacturers thus propose high performances SoC to address these needs. Unfortunately the growth in digital resources inevitably increases the power consumption while battery life-time does not rise as fast. Aggressive power management techniques such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling have been introduced in order to keep competitive and relevant solutions. Nonetheless continuing in this direction involves more disruptive solutions to meet space and cost constraints. Fully integrated power supply is a promising solution. Switched-capacitor DC-DC converters seem to be a suitable candidate to keep compatibility with the manufacturing process of digital SoCs. This thesis focuses on the design of an embedded power supply architecture using switched-capacitor DC-DC converters.Addressing a large range of output power with significant efficiency leads to consider a multi-ratio power stage. With respect to the typical digital SoC, the input voltage is 1.8 V and the converter is specified to deliver an output voltage in the 0.3-1.2 V range. The reference voltage is varying according to typical DVFS requirements. A modular architecture accommodates the digital design flow where the flying capacitors are situated above the digital block to supply and the power switches are located as an external ring. Such an architecture offers high flexibility. Interleaving strategy is considered to mitigate the output voltage ripple. Such a converter admits the switching frequency as a control variable and linear regulation and hysteretic control are analyzed. A prototype has been fabricated in 28nm FDSOI technology by STMicroelectronics. A power density of 310 mW/mm2 is achieved at 72.5% peak efficiency with a silicon area penalty of 11.5% of the digital block area. The successful design methodology has been also applied to the design of a negative SC converter for body-biasing purpose in FDSOI. Simulation results demonstrate a strong interest for low power application.


Ocean acidification may affect zooplankton directly by decreasing in pH, as well as indirectly via trophic pathways, where changes in carbon availability or pH effects on primary producers may cascade up the food web thereby altering ecosystem functioning and community composition. Here, we present results from a mesocosm experiment carried out during 113 days in the Gullmar Fjord, Skagerrak coast of Sweden, studying plankton responses to predicted end-of-century pCO2 levels. We did not observe any pCO2 effect on the diversity of the mesozooplankton community, but a positive pCO2 effect on the total mesozooplankton abundance. Furthermore, we observed species-specific sensitivities to pCO2 in the two major groups in this experiment, copepods and hydromedusae. Also stage-specific pCO2 sensitivities were detected in copepods, with copepodites being the most responsive stage. Focusing on the most abundant species, Pseudocalanus acuspes, we observed that copepodites were significantly more abundant in the high-pCO2 treatment during most of the experiment, probably fuelled by phytoplankton community responses to high-pCO2 conditions. Physiological and reproductive output was analysed on P. acuspes females through two additional laboratory experiments, showing no pCO2 effect on females' condition nor on egg hatching. Overall, our results suggest that the Gullmar Fjord mesozooplankton community structure is not expected to change much under realistic end-of-century OA scenarios as used here. However, the positive pCO2 effect detected on mesozooplankton abundance could potentially affect biomass transfer to higher trophic levels in the future.


The extraction yield, total phenols, caffeic acid derivatives (CAD), and antioxidant properties of 50% ethanolic Echinacea purpurea flower extract were determined. The in vitro inhibitory effects of 50% ethanolic extract and CAD on α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) linked with type 2 diabetes were also investigated. The extraction yield, total phenols, and total CAD of the extract were 27.04%, 195.69 mg CAE/g and 78.42 mg/g, respectively. Cichoric acid (56.03 mg/g) was the predominant CAD compound in the extract. The extract exhibited good antioxidant properties. The extract and CAD inhibited α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and ACE activities in a concentration-dependent manner. Among the tested samples, chlorogenic acid, and caffeic acid (IC50 of 1.71-1.81 mg/mL) had the highest α-amylase inhibitory activity, cichoric acid (IC50 of 0.28 mg/mL) showed higher α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Both chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid (IC50 of 0.11-0.14 mg/mL) demonstrated higher ACE-inhibitory activity. The in vitro results suggest that E. purpurea extract and CAD have good potential for managing hyperglycemia and hypertension. Overall, the data suggest it is a choice for developing antihyperglycemia and antihypertension compounds from field-grown E. purpurea.


Spleen cells of b4b6 rabbits, shown to be deficient in their ability to produce b4Ig due to prenatal exposure to anti-b4, formed anti-T2 antibodies marked with the b4 determinant in response to solubilized T2 phage (S-T2) only when cultured in the presence of antibodies specific for the nonsuppressed type (b6), thus confirming and extending the previously reported observation of release from b4 suppression in cultured cells of b4-suppressed b4b5 rabbits treated with anti-b5 serum. Only antiallotype sera made in b4 rabbits were active in reversing b4 suppression. Anti-b5 or anti-b6 sera from rabbits of allotypes b6 or b5, respectively, when used in concentrations which completely or partially inhibited the formation of anti-T2 antibodies marked with the corresponding nonsuppressed allotype of the spleen donor, proved to be almost completely ineffective in causing release of suppression. Exceptions were noted when spleen cells of rabbits advanced in spontaneous escape from suppression were tested with such sera. The addition of normal b4 serum to non-b4 antiallotypic sera rendered them as effective in releasing b4 suppression in vitro as were antisera from b4 rabbits. Furthermore, the capacity of a b4 antiallotype serum to cause reversal of b4 suppression could be potentiated by the addition of normal b4 serum, indicating that nonantibody b4 Ig is a limiting factor in such a serum. Thus, the release from allotype suppression observed in cultures of spleen cells from b4-suppressed heterozygous rabbits is dependent upon the presence of two components: antibodies directed against the nonsuppressed allotype of the donor and normal b4Ig. These findings are interpreted in terms of alternate hypotheses involving (a) a mechanism of b4 derepression and (b) inactivation of a suppressor cell with recognition for a b4-labeled target.


Set towards the end of the reign of Henry II of France, The Princesse de Cleves (1678) tells of the unspoken, unrequited love between the fair, noble Mme de Cleves, who is married to a loyal and faithful man, and the Duc de Nemours, a handsome man most female courtiers find irresistible. Warned by her mother against admitting her passion, Mme de Cleves hides her feelings from her fellow courtiers, until she finally confesses to her husband - an act that brings tragic consequences for all. Described as France's first modern novel, The Princesse de Cleves is an exquisite and profound analysis of the human heart, and a moving depiction of the inseparability of love and anguish.


Background Shoulder pathology in adult tennis players including rotator cuff pathology is well known. However, early adaptations have not previously been studied in the adolescent elite tennis players. Objectives To describe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in the shoulder in asymptomatic elite adolescent tennis players. Design A MRI scan using a 3 Tesla scanner of both shoulders were performed. PD (proton density) weighted images with fat-saturation in oblique coronal, oblique sagittal and axial planes together with oblique sagittal T2 images were reviewed especially for the presence of abnormalities regarding labral lesions and rotator-cuff lesions by two radiologists in consensus. The MRI scans were evaluated by to independent experienced radiologists in a blinded manner according to a pre-defined protocol. Data were collected retrospectively for the dominant arm and contralateral arm respectively. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software. Setting Testing environment at Medical Rontgen, Sweden. Participants 35 adolescent elite tennis players from the Swedish national team were selected (ages 13–24 years median age 17). 15 boys and 20 girls participated in the study. Intervention Findings were described according to a predefined protocol. Main outcome measurements MRI findings of the dominant and non-dominant shoulder. Results 19 players (54%) had a normal MRI examination and 16 players (46%) had abnormal findings of which 14 players showed affected tendons/tendinosis. The predominant findings were made in infraspinatus (n=10), Supraspinatus (n=5) and Subscapularis (n=1). Two players had findings in both infra- and supraspinatus. Conclusions This is the first study describing MRI findings in adolescent elite tennis players, revealing infraspinatus and supraspinatus affected tendons/tendinosis in this asymptomatic overhead athletic population. The results can serve as the baseline for a future prospective longitudinal cohort study.


This article is a continuation of our promenade along the winding roads of identity, equality, nameability and completeness. We continue looking for a place where all these concepts converge. We assume that identity is a binary relation between objects while equality is a symbolic relation between terms. Identity plays a central role in logic and we have looked at it from two different points of view. In one case, identity is a notion which has to be defined and, in the other case, identity is a notion used to define other logical concepts. In our previous paper, [16], we investigated whether identity can be introduced by definition arriving to the conclusion that only in full higher-order logic with standard semantics a reliable definition of identity is possible. In the present study we have moved to modal logic and realized that here we can distinguish in the formal language between two different equality symbols, the first one shall be interpreted as extensional genuine identity and only applies for objects, the second one applies for non rigid terms and has the characteristic of synonymy. We have also analyzed the hybrid modal logic where we can introduce rigid terms by definition and can express that two worlds are identical by using the nominals and the @ operator. We finish our paper in the kingdom of identity where the only primitives are lambda and equality. Here we show how other logical concepts can be defined in terms of the identity relation. We have found at the end of our walk a possible point of convergence in the logic Equational Hybrid Propositional Type Theory (EHPTT), [14] and [15].


The increasing use of products from recycled polymers, or from blends with recycled polymers exposed to the outdoors, implies the need for good weathering resistance. This is particularly important when the recycled material comes, in turn, from products exposed during their lifetime to the sun. In this case the presence of CO groups in the macromolecular chains strongly increases the photooxidative degradation kinetics of these secondary materials. In this work the change of the photooxidative degradation of blends of virgin and photooxidized polyethylene was evaluated as a function of the CO content present in the material. As expected, the presence of the CO groups strongly increases the photooxidation kinetics, as revealed by the increase of the carbonyl compounds, and by the decrease of the elongation at break. It was confirmed that the increase of CO groups is dependent on the content of the same groups, whereas this is not true for the mechanical properties. The use of UV stabilizer strongly improves the weathering resistance of these materials, which become almost insensitive to the initial amount of CO groups. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 2244–2255, 2004


This book begins by investigating, through the use of think-aloud protocols, the mental processes of students when they translate. The creative and successful processes observed can be used directly for teaching purposes, while the unsuccessful ones can serve to find out where remedial training is needed. The book then goes on to discuss methods for improving a translator's competence. The strategies offered are based on the pragmatic and semantic analysis of texts from a functional point of view, and they include such practical matters as the use of dictionaries and the evaluation of translations and error analysis. The book is intended for teachers in translator-training institutions, but it can also be used by students for self-training.


Abnormally colored yellow and red Calanus spp. occurred in the Oslofjord (southeast Norway) in late summer. These specimens were infected with an extensive parasitic growth consisting of large branched hyphae‐like tubes filled with spores. This parasite has previously been referred to as Ichthyosporidium sp. (now Ichthyophonus, Ichthyosporea), and suspected to be a stage in the life cycle of the fish pathogen Ichthyophonus hoferi. This assumption was not supported by our examination. Infected copepods were virtually confined to the upper meter, while distribution of the uninfected specimens was much deeper. We argue that the change in color and distribution is induced by the parasite, facilitating nearsurface, visual predation, dispersal of spores, and, hence, increasing transmission to new hosts.


In this work, we investigate the influence of channel structure and fluid rheology on non-inertial migration of non-Brownian polystyrene beads. Particle migration in this regime can be found in biomedical, chemical, environmental and geological applications. However, the effect of fluid rheology on particle migration in porous media remains to be clearly understood. Here, we isolate the effects of elasticity and shear thinning by comparing a Newtonian fluid, a purely elastic (Boger) fluid, and a shear-thinning elastic fluid. To mimic the complexity of geometries in real-world application, a random porous structure is created through a disordered arrangement of cylindrical pillars in the microchannel. Experiments are repeated in an empty channel and in channels with an ordered arrangement of pillars, and the similarities and differences in the observed particle focusing are analyzed. It is found that elasticity drives the particles away from the channel walls in an empty microchannel. Notably, particle focusing is unaffected by curved streamlines in an ordered porous microchannel and particles stay away from pillars in elastic fluids. Shear-thinning is found to reduce the effect of focusing and a broader region of particle concentration is observed. It is also noteworthy that the rheological characteristics of the fluid are not important for the particle distribution in a randomly arranged pillared microchannel and particles have a uniform distribution for all suspending fluids. Moreover, discussion on the current discrepancy in the literature about the equilibrium positions of the particles in a channel is extended by analyzing the results obtained in the current experiments.


Abstract Previous research has demonstrated that the Action-Observation Network (AON) is involved in both emotional-embodiment (empathy) and action-embodiment mechanisms. In this study, we hypothesized that interfering with the AON will impair action recognition and that this impairment will be modulated by empathy levels. In Experiment 1 (n = 90), participants were asked to recognize facial expressions while their facial motion was restricted. In Experiment 2 (n = 50), we interfered with the AON by applying transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the motor cortex. In both experiments, we found that interfering with the AON impaired the performance of participants with high empathy levels; however, for the first time, we demonstrated that the interference enhanced the performance of participants with low empathy. This novel finding suggests that the embodiment module may be flexible, and that it can be enhanced in individuals with low empathy by simple manipulation of motor activation.


The effects of sunlight exposure on the berry growth and composition of two red wine grape cultivars grown in the central San Joaquin Valley of California (Region V) were examined. Field grown Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache grape clusters were grown over a range of sunlight exposures (mid-day PAR 600 µmol m-2 sec-1 [fully exposed]) from berry set to harvest. Both cultivars were planted in east-west oriented rows, and experimental clusters were evenly distributed between the north (afternoon shaded) and south (afternoon exposed) sides of the canopy. Fruit response to sunlight varied based on cluster location within the canopy, and these results were at least partially due to measured differences in berry temperature. At the same exposure level or PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), mid-day berry temperature was generally 3 to 4°C greater for clusters on the south side of the canopy compared to clusters on the north. Soluble solids initially increased with greater sunlight exposure, then declined when mid-day PAR exceeded 31 to 50 and 51 to 100 µmol m-2 sec-1, respectively, for clusters on the north and south sides of the canopy. Titratable acidity generally declined as sunlight exposure increased, with Cabernet Sauvignon clusters on the north side of the canopy maintaining greater acidity at the same exposure level than clusters on the south. Juice pH declined as exposure increased on the north side of the canopy, while sunlight had little effect on juice pH for clusters on the south. Anthocyanins increased linearly as sunlight exposure on the north side of the canopy increased, but declined when cluster exposure on the south exceeded 100µmol m-2 sec-1. Total phenolics generally followed a similar pattern. The results suggest that the effects of light on fruit composition are heavily dependent upon the extent to which berry temperature is elevated as a result of increased sunlight exposure. Prolonged exposure of clusters to direct sunlight should be avoided for maximum berry color in the central San Joaquin Valley and other warm regions.


Multistage process monitoring has recently attracted notable attention in that the statistical relationships between quality variables are taken into account. Here, we dealt with the problem of monitoring and diagnosing a two-stage production process with attribute characteristics in which the outgoing quality variable is impacted by the incoming quality variable from the first process stage. Based on a sampling procedure which inspects each n produced items, these attribute characteristics are assumed to follow binomial and Poisson distributions. Several monitoring techniques including a new method based on the generalized Poisson distribution are presented and the comparison is made to evaluate the effectiveness of these procedures. Moreover, some fault diagnosis methods are fully explored in order to alleviate the identification of the process stage responsible for the outof-control conditions. The results of the simulation based studies reveal that a combined approach consisting of a proportion defective control chart and an adjusted control chart is quite efficacious in addressing the problems with regard to both the detection power and the fault diagnosis.


In recent year's document management tasks (known as information retrieval) increased a lot due to availability of digital documents everywhere. The need of automatic methods for extracting document information became a prominent method for organizing information and knowledge discovery. Text Classification is one such solution, where in the natural language text is assigned to one or more predefined categories based on the content. In my research classification of text is mainly focused on sentiment label classification. The idea proposed for sentiment analysis is multi-class classification of online movie reviews. Many research papers discussed the classification of sentiment either positive or negative, but in this approach the user reviews are classified based on their sentiment to multi classes like positive, negative, neutral, very positive and very negative. This classification task would help the business to classify the user reviews same as star ratings, which are manually given by users. This paper also proposes a better classification approach with multi-tier prediction model. The goal of this research is to provide a better understanding classification for sentiment analysis by applying different preprocessing techniques and selecting suitable features like bag of words, stemming and removing stop words, POS Tagging etc. These features are adjusted to fit with some of the machine learning text classification algorithms such as Naïve Bayes, SVM, sand SGD on frameworks like WEKA, SVMLight & Scikit Learn.


Diabetic patients' numbers are increasing around the world, this metabolic disease affects patient's quality of life in all domains: physically, socially, psychologically and emotionally. As the disease progresses patients need to use insulin. According to the Palestinian MOH (Ministry of Health) 12% of people in Palestine have diabetes. Twenty percent of type 2 diabetic patients visit the MOH clinics and use insulin also 12% use both insulin and oral drugs to control their blood glucose levels. These patients administer insulin subcutaneously by vial and syringe. The aim of this study was to assess QoL (quality of life) of diabetic patients using insulin, factors affecting it, preference of patients to use insulin pen and their willingness to pay for them. Method: A descriptive study conducted with a sample of 311 diabetic patients that use vial/syringe to administer insulin and attending MOH diabetic clinics in Bethlehem and Hebron. A questionnaire was designed to assess four parts; socio-demographic part, patient's health profile, QoL part and willingness to pay for insulin pens part. QoL was measured using SF-36v2® questionnaire and the willingness to pay part validated using pilot study. Results were analyzed using Quality Metric Health OutcomesTM Scoring Software 4.0 and SPSS software. Results and conclusion: The mean scores of QoL domains ranged from 40.7 to 65.6. Diabetic patients had lower scores than general population in all domains of QoL; physical functioning, role-physical, body pain, general health, vitality, roleemotional, mental health, physical composite summary and mental composite summary, except in social functioning. The majority of participants had lower scores than general population in all QoL domains. The results revealed that gender, age and glycemic control, number of family members, duration of insulin use had no significant impact on QoL. Approximately 77% of participants reported having complications, which had a significant negative effect on their QoL (P-value < 0.001 in all domains). Single patients and patients living in Hebron had a significant positive effect on QoL. Higher level of education, high monthly income and being employed had a positive effect on QoL while longer duration of diabetes had negative effect. Eighty-five percent of participants preferred to use insulin pens if it was available as a choice in the MOH; 35% of them were willing to pay extra money to get insulin pens instead of vial/syringe. This study revealed that the QoL of diabetic patients using insulin in this sample was low, which could be increased if the government included insulin pens in the MOH drug list.


BLDC motors find numerous applications in the position and speed control systems. Such motors are not able to meet the desired specifications since they respond slowly to the input owing to inherent parameters. Hence, a feasible and practically realisable controller is required to meet the desired specifications with improved performance. The proposed simple controller is implemented using a versatile TMS320LF2407A digital signal processor. The experimental results are presented to validate the simulation results. The proposed controller is compact, simple in construction and requires few inexpensive components.


Urticaria is a common disorder that affects as many of 20% of all people at sometime during their lives. It is a cutaneous reaction pattern for which there are multiple potential causes. Its physiopathology is poorly defined. The vascular changes observed in urticarial lesions can be attributed to the release of mediators: histamine plays an essential role but others mediators, such as serotonin, eicosanoids, kinins, neuropeptides. may also be involved. These mediators are synthetized by mast cells which are the major effector cell type. However, other cells, basophils, mononuclear cells, platelets, endothelial cells have also been implicated. During immediate hypersensitivity reaction, mast cells and basophils are activated by allergens through cross linking of cell-surface-bound IgE. However, more often than not, these cells are stimulated by non-immunological mechanisms. At present, some data are better understood: in urticaria, there is a late phase reaction which involves cytokines and cell adhesion molecules. Recent work has also demonstrated the role of circulating functional histamine - releasing auto antibodies that bind to the high affinity IgE receptor (FcepsilonRI) or, less commonly, to IgE. As the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for urticaria are better defined, therapeutic agents other than H1 histamines, should be available.


Force-free equilibria containing two vertically arranged magnetic flux ropes of like chirality and current direction are considered as a model for split filaments/prominences and filament-sigmoid systems. Such equilibria are constructed analytically through an extension of the methods developed in Titov & Démoulin and numerically through an evolutionary sequence including shear flows, flux emergence, and flux cancellation in the photospheric boundary. It is demonstrated that the analytical equilibria are stable if an external toroidal (shear) field component exceeding a threshold value is included. If this component decreases sufficiently, then both flux ropes turn unstable for conditions typical of solar active regions, with the lower rope typically becoming unstable first. Either both flux ropes erupt upward, or only the upper rope erupts while the lower rope reconnects with the ambient flux low in the corona and is destroyed. However, for shear field strengths staying somewhat above the threshold value, the configuration also admits evolutions which lead to partial eruptions with only the upper flux rope becoming unstable and the lower one remaining in place. This can be triggered by a transfer of flux and current from the lower to the upper rope, as suggested by the observations of a split filament in Paper I. It can also result from tether-cutting reconnection with the ambient flux at the X-type structure between the flux ropes, which similarly influences their stability properties in opposite ways. This is demonstrated for the numerically constructed equilibrium.


Abstract. The Sondrestrom upper atmospheric research facility, located just north of the Arctic Circle near the west coast of Greenland, will soon celebrate 30 yr of operations. The centerpiece of the facility, an incoherent scatter radar, has collected 46 000 h of data on the ionospheric state parameters. This instrument was designed and built to measure the effects of nuclear bombs on radio wave propagation in the South Pacific, but instead was deployed to Alaska to study the effects of auroral structuring on the ionosphere, and was later moved to Greenland to explore the auroral cusp and the dynamics of the polar cap boundary. This is the story of the birth and genesis of the instrument, its travels, and the evolution of its facility.


The objective of this study was to develop a test method for determining the cytotoxicity and biocompatibility of various biomaterials that are used in orthopaedic surgery. This method is based on the use of a human bone marrow cell culture and was developed as an alternative to animal experiments. Human bone marrow cell culture has certain advantages over other cell culture models, as its results show a greater conformity with animal experimental results and clinical studies. Primary cell adherence, cell number, cell proliferation, production of extracellular matrix, cell viability and cell differentiation were used as indicative parameters of biocompatibility. After 2 weeks in culture, differences could be observed between the biomaterials with respect to these parameters. Cell numbers were greatest on the hydroxyapatite ceramic specimens, but were decreased on the titanium alloy specimens. Extracellular matrix hydroxyapatite production was high for ceramics, but reduced for titanium specimens. The polymers allowed only a few cells to adhere, and there were no signs of extracellular matrix production. The influence of biomaterials on differentiation of large numbers of cells was analysed by using flow cytophotometry. There were similar populations of T cells and monocytes on all specimens. However, extended B cell and granulocyte populations were observed with titanium and polyethylene.


Web service recommendation systems can help service users to locate the right service from the large number of available web services. Avoiding recommending dishonest or unsatisfactory services is a fundamental research problem in the design of web service recommendation systems. Reputation of web services is a widely-employed metric that determines whether the service should be recommended to a user. The service reputation score is usually calculated using feedback ratings provided by users. Although the reputation measurement of web service has been studied in the recent literature, existing malicious and subjective user feedback ratings often lead to a bias that degrades the performance of the service recommendation system. In this paper, we propose a novel reputation measurement approach for web service recommendations. We first detect malicious feedback ratings by adopting the cumulative sum control chart, and then we reduce the effect of subjective user feedback preferences employing the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Moreover, in order to defend malicious feedback ratings, we propose a malicious feedback rating prevention scheme employing Bloom filtering to enhance the recommendation performance. Extensive experiments are conducted by employing a real feedback rating data set with 1.5 million web service invocation records. The experimental results show that our proposed measurement approach can reduce the deviation of the reputation measurement and enhance the success ratio of the web service recommendation.


Ease of dosing and simplicity of monitoring make new oral anticoagulants an attractive therapy in a growing range of clinical conditions. However, newer oral anticoagulants interact with the coagulation cascade in different ways than traditional warfarin therapy. Replacement of clotting factors will not reverse the effects of dabigatran, rivaroxaban, or apixaban. Currently, antidotes for these drugs are not widely available. Fortunately, withholding the anticoagulant and dialysis are freqnently effective treatments, particularly with rivaroxaban and dabigatran. Emergent bleeding, however, requires utilization of Prothrombin Complex Concentrates (PCCs). PCCs, in addition to recombinant factor VIIa, are used to activate the clotting system to reverse the effects of the new oral anticoagulants. In cases of refractory or emergent bleeding, the recommended factor concentrate in our protocols differs between the new oral anticoagulants. In patients taking dabigatran, we administer an activated PCC (aPCC) [FELBA] due to reported benefit in human in vitro studies. Based on human clinical trial evidence, the 4-factor PCC (Kcentra) is suggested for patients with refractory rivaroxaban- or apixaban-associated hemorrhage. If bleeding continues, recombinant factor VIIa may be employed. With all of these new procoagulant agents, the risk of thrombosis associated with administration of factor concentrates must be weighed against the relative risk of hemorrhage.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
This study investigated the relationship of role models to primary care specialty and gathered information on the attributes and functions of role models.

METHODS
A questionnaire on medical school experiences and attitudes was administered to primary care graduates from 24 US medical schools.

RESULTS
Questionnaires were completed by 1,457 physicians. Sixty-three percent of primary care respondents had a role model. Having a role model was significantly related to current specialty and ethnicity. Respondents most valued their role models' patient relationships. For family medicine and internal medicine graduates, having a role model was related to more contact and more-positive views of faculty in their specialty. Those with a role model reported that primary care was encouraged at their medical school and were more satisfied with their specialty choice.

CONCLUSIONS
Role models may be more important to students who are not well represented among medical school faculty, namely women, underrepresented ethnic minorities, and those interested in family medicine. For family medicine graduates, role models function to moderate negative stereotypes. Role models may also make explicit the values of physicians in that specialty, making students more informed when choosing a specialty and as a consequence more satisfied with the decision.


Everybody will one day face death and throughout their lives will have to deal with the death of loved ones. Yet very few of us prepare ourselves, mentally or practically. As a result, we are often ill-prepared for our own deaths or those of loved ones. Drawing on personal experiences, letters, stories and excerpts, this handbook provides a straightforward and pioneering approach to the anxieties of the dying and their loved ones. Prepared by the Natural Death Centre - an educational charity set up for those caring for the dying at home - this guide includes practical advice and suggestions including advice on caring for the dying at home, preparing for death, alternatives to euthenasia, cheap DIY funerals as well as sections on coming to terms with death.


Abstract Right now, Myanmar is a fascinating place to do research on a society as it moves from isolation to openness. During the time I spent in Myanmar doing qualitative field research, I noticed a gap between the literature about the position of women in Myanmar and the situation I came across in the field. This paper will first examine the existing literature on women in Myanmar including recent contributions, publications from the colonial time and during the time after the country gained independence. Secondly, I will expound on my field data relating to women in society and the power held by women within families and households. Finally, I will highlight the gap that arose in comparing literature and the data gained from my field research. I conclude that there is a sharp distinction between the different points of views of authors. Claims and statements of different authors can only be compared if attention is paid to the differing perspectives and their respective methodologies.


A key challenge in the production of second generation biofuels is the conversion of lignocellulosic substrates into fermentable sugars. Enzymes, particularly those from fungi, are a central part of this process, and many have been isolated and characterised. However, relatively little is known of how fungi respond to lignocellulose and produce the enzymes necessary for dis-assembly of plant biomass. We studied the physiological response of the fungus Aspergillus niger when exposed to wheat straw as a model lignocellulosic substrate. Using RNA sequencing we showed that, 24 hours after exposure to straw, gene expression of known and presumptive plant cell wall-degrading enzymes represents a huge investment for the cells (about 20% of the total mRNA). Our results also uncovered new esterases and surface interacting proteins that might form part of the fungal arsenal of enzymes for the degradation of plant biomass. Using transcription factor deletion mutants (xlnR and creA) to study the response to both lignocellulosic substrates and low carbon source concentrations, we showed that a subset of genes coding for degradative enzymes is induced by starvation. Our data support a model whereby this subset of enzymes plays a scouting role under starvation conditions, testing for available complex polysaccharides and liberating inducing sugars, that triggers the subsequent induction of the majority of hydrolases. We also showed that antisense transcripts are abundant and that their expression can be regulated by growth conditions.


The Global University System (GUS) [1] [Utsumi, et al, 2003] is a worldwide initiative to create advanced telecommunications infrastructure for access to educational resources across national and cultural boundaries for global peace. GUS aims to create a worldwide consortium of universities to provide the underdeveloped world with access to 21st Century education via broadband Internet technologies. The aim is to achieve "education and healthcare for all," anywhere, anytime and at any pace.

The GUS works in the major regions of the globe with partnerships of higher education and healthcare institutions. Learners in these regions will be able to take their courses from member institutions around the world to receive a GUS degree. These learners and their professors from partner institutions will also form a global forum for exchange of ideas and information and for conducting collaborative research and development with emerging global GRID computer network technology.

Globally Collaborative Environmental Peace Gaming (GCEPG) project [2] [Utsumi, 2003] with a globally distributed computer simulation system, focusing on the issue of environment and sustainable development in developing countries, is to train would-be decision-makers in crisis management, conflict resolution, and negotiation techniques basing on "facts and figures." The GUS will supply game players from around the world.


In this study, the author's interest is to reduce requirements posed on communication, sensing, processing and energy resources in multi-agent networks (MANs) without compromising MAN objectives. Consequently, the hardware expenses and energy consumption are driven down while MAN multitasking, such as inter-network collaboration, is facilitated. Scenarios, in which agents of one network need to achieve a common goal, call for the study of decentralised cooperative control schemes. To accomplish this goal in an uncertain and noisy setting and to detect changes in the communication topology, agents have to exchange information. Since each transmission and reception of information necessitates energy, communication should be induced only when the goal completion can no longer be guaranteed in order to prolong the MAN mission. Thus, the authors devise an information exchange mechanism which draws upon the ideas of self-triggered communication. The proposed mechanism is inspected both theoretically and experimentally (employing off-the-shelf wireless sensor platforms) for performance against lifetime trade-offs using a single-integrator consensus case study. Their mechanism is applicable to heterogeneous agents with exogenous disturbances, to directed switching communication topologies and to both initial-condition-dependent and initial-condition-independent long-term cooperative behaviours. The investigated stability notions include Lp- and input-to-state stability (with respect to a set).


ABSTRACT. Primaquine (PQ) kills Plasmodium vivax hypnozoites but can cause severe hemolysis in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. We conducted two systematic reviews. The first used data from clinical trials to determine the variety of definitions and frequency of hematological serious adverse events (SAEs) related to PQ treatment of vivax malaria. The second used data from prospective studies and case reports to describe the clinical presentation, management, and outcome of severe PQ-associated hemolysis necessitating hospitalization. In the first review, SAEs were reported in 70 of 249 clinical trials. There were 34 hematological SAEs among 9,824 patients with P. vivax malaria treated with PQ, nine of which necessitated hospitalization or blood transfusion. Criteria used to define SAEs were diverse. In the second review, 21 of 8,487 articles screened reported 163 patients hospitalized after PQ radical cure; 79.9% of whom (123 of 154) were prescribed PQ at ≥ 0.5 mg/kg/day. Overall, 101 patients were categorized as having probable or possible severe PQ-associated hemolysis, 96.8% of whom were G6PD deficient (< 30% activity). The first symptoms of hemolysis were reported primarily on day 2 or 3 (45.5%), and all patients were hospitalized within 7 days of PQ commencement. A total of 57.9% of patients (77 of 133) had blood transfusion. Seven patients (6.9%) with probable or possible hemolysis died. Even when G6PD testing is available, enhanced monitoring for hemolysis is warranted after PQ treatment. Clinical review within the first 5 days of treatment may facilitate early detection and management of hemolysis. More robust definitions of severe PQ-associated hemolysis are required.


The ECJ's judgment in Coop de France represents an important clarification and affirmation of the basic principles and objectives of the EC fining policy for violations of the competition law. In the present case the Community courts encountered the situation where the appellants were in effect attempting to escape the prosecution for the established violation of competition law by concluding and implementing an anticompetitive agreement for the benefit of its members. The judgment demonstrated that the issue of 'objective interests' can make a difference in calculating the fines. Here the Court exemplified the importance of this concept when addressing the principle of non bis in idem and existence of the common members that took part in various associations at the same time. The ruling provided that in situation where the interests of an association are identical to those of its members' the fining based on the latter's turnover is justified. The ECJ's ruling once again indicated the adherence to the main objective of the fining policy articulated in the preceding case law and 2006 fining guidelines: "Fines should have a sufficiently deterrent effect, not only in order to sanction the undertakings concerned (specific deterrence) but also in order to deter other undertakings from engaging in, or continuing, behaviour that is contrary to Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (general deterrence)". It could be expected that the clarification of the legal standards made by the Community courts will contribute to the prevention of the infringements where associations are used as a convenient legal vehicles for fostering anticompetitive objectives, beneficial to their members.


Two hundred sixty-seven consecutive patients with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PROM) and 130 consecutive patients with idiopathic premature labor and intact membranes between 28 and 35 weeks' gestation were compared. A significantly higher incidence of cesarean section for fetal distress was found in patients with PROM (7.9%) compared with patients with premature labor (1.5%) (P < .05). Fetal distress occurred with similar frequency in patients with and without chorioamnionitis. Analysis of electronic fetal heart rate patterns in patients with fetal distress revealed that 16 of 21 patients (76%) with PROM had patterns consistent with umbilical cord compression. A significant difference was found in neonatal mortality rates between the PROM group (4.5%) and the premature labor group (0) (P < .05). The neonatal death rate in patients with fetal distress (three of 12) was significantly higher than in patients without distress (nine of 385) (P < .01). It is suggested that the increased incidence of fetal distress in patients with preterm PROM may represent the loss of the protection of the umbilical cord that amniotic fluid normally provides.


Chaetoceros peruvianus is a marine diatom species with circumglobal distribution. While frequently observed, it appears never to dominate the marine phytoplankton community hence it can be characterized as a rather opportunistic, generalistic species. Here we present ecological interpretations from a long-term data set on marine microphytoplankton in the northern Adriatic Sea, where the abundancies and relative contributions of C. peruvianus were observed along a set of steep ecological gradients. Limited supply of dissolved inorganic phosphate was identified as the driving ecological factor for this ecosystem. In parallel C. peruvianus was cultivated in monoclonal cultures and its morphological and physiological reaction to replete and phosphorus depleted medium was analysed. C. peruvianus reacted to phosphorus depletion by an increase in cell height and length as well as thickness and length of setae. This morphological reaction included an increase in cellular volume and calculated carbon content. Additionally, it represents the transition between two described morphological varieties, C. peruvianus and C. peruvianus var. robusta. C. peruvianus showed a significant induction of extracellular alkaline phosphatase activity if grown in phosphate depleted medium. Microscopical analysis demonstrated this activity to be located exclusively on the setae of the cells.


The earthquake catalog of the Central Aleutian Seismic Network (CASN) was searched systematically for significant rate changes in the period from 1976 through 1985. The magnitude signatures for the nine changes were modeled by synthetic signatures. By this method, six of the rate changes could be identified as artificial, based on the criteria that the rate change was confined to small magnitude events and that magnitude shifts were present. For each of these changes an artificial cause existed that affected the network within one to two months of the time of change as estimated from the catalog analysis. One of these cases was a rate decrease by a factor of 2 associated with a storm that had put out of operation two thirds of the network. Another change coincided with the introduction of digital data processing. The four remaining cases were artificial reporting rate increases due to installation of several new stations or to repair of several stations that had failed. The three rate changes that could not be identified unambiguously as artificial or natural on the basis of magnitude signatures were all rate decreases by factors of approximately 2. Two of these were clearly due to disasters that had put out of operation more than half of the network. The third was the proposed precursory quiescence to the 1986 Andreanof Island (M = 7.9) earthquake. From this we conclude that, without knowledge of the network history, many of the artificial reporting rate changes in earthquake catalogs can be identified as artificial and that their onset time can be estimated to within one to two months.
 An earthquake count, independent from the Adak catalog, was obtained from the Helicorder records of the station Adak for the years 1978 through 1985 for the vicinity of Adak island. Of a total of 1831 events, 335 were not in the Adak catalog and 981 were located within the 1986 aftershock area. The Helicorder earthquake count showed a pronounced decrease by about 50 per cent, similar in amount to that in the Adak catalog. However, the decrease started in 1980, at a time when in the central subregion covered by the Adak catalog only M ≧ 2.9 events decreased, while the smaller magnitude bands show a maximum decrease in 1982. We conclude that the possibility could not be ruled out that electronics changes contributed to the reporting rate decrease starting in the years 1980 to 1982. However, it seems very unlikely that a network that was at its healthiest during the precursor time would be reduced by an improvement in the electronics to a detection level approximately equal to that in two short periods when only one third of the stations were operating. Therefore, the seismic quiescence reported and interpreted as a precursor by Kisslinger et al. (1985) was most likely a natural phenomenon.


Context: Intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is considered as a major clinical problem .It induced tissue injury and apoptosis mainly via oxygen free radicals,. Leading to the development of local and distant organ dysfunction, Objective: This study investigates DNA damage to the heart and kidney, as a result of intestinal I/R, and possible DNA protection through the administration of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). EGCG was chosen to be investigated in this model based on previous studies showed its antioxidants, antifibrotic and anti-apoptotic effects. Materials and methods: A total of 32 rats were randomly divided into four experimental groups: sham, I/R, I/R pretreated with EGCG (50 mg/kg ip 30 min before ischemia) and EGCG treated (50 mg/kg ip). Apoptosis was assessed using comet assay. Indices of heart and kidney damage were measured (caspase3,8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and heat-shock protein-70).Results: Intestinal I/R caused heart and kidney damage as noted by significant increased DNA parameters (DNA tailed % , DNA untailed % , DNA Tail length , Tail DNA % and tailed moment), increased serum level of caspase-3,8hydroxydeoxyguanosineand and heat-shock protein-70. EGCG significantly reduced DNA damage parameters on the comet assay in heart and kidney homogenate, and reduced serum levels of caspase-3,8hydroxydeoxyguanosineand and heat-shock protein-70. Conclusion: Based on our results, we conclude that EGCG can protect the heart and kidney against intestinal I/R injury via an anti-apoptotic mechanism.


BACKGROUND
Over-the-counter (OTC) antifungal products for vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) have gained tremendous popularity, as evidenced by staggering increases in sales since the products were switched from prescription-only to OTC status. The rapid escalation in the sale of these products may imply that women are using them inappropriately. The purposes of this study were to determine (1) whether women could correctly diagnose VVC and common genitourinary tract problems after reading classic case scenarios, (2) whether women could correctly select the appropriate treatment for these cases, and (3) whether a previous diagnosis of VVC by a clinician had any effect on a woman's ability to self-diagnose and self-treat VVC.

METHODS
Women 16 years of age and older were recruited from medical and community sites to complete a 63-question survey instrument designed to assess their knowledge of the symptoms and signs of pelvic inflammatory disease, bacterial vaginosis, acute cystitis, vaginal trichomoniasis, and vulvovaginal candidiasis after reading classic case scenarios.

RESULTS
A total of 601 women completed the questionnaire, 552 subjects and 49 medically trained women who served as a criterion standard for comparison. Of the 552 subjects, 365 reported a prior diagnosis of VCC and 154 reported no such prior diagnosis. The medically trained cohort was more accurate in diagnosing VVC (83.7% correct) than were subjects who had received a prior diagnosis of VVC (34.5% correct), and more accurate than subjects without a previous diagnosis of VVC (11.0% correct, P < .001). A greater percentage of subjects in whom VVC had been previously diagnosed, as compared with the medically trained cohort, would use OTC agents inappropriately for pelvic inflammatory disease (6.7% vs 4.3%, respectively; P = NS), bacterial vaginosis (14.6% vs 6.4%, respectively; P = .028), urinary tract infection (2.0% vs 0%, respectively; P < .001), and vaginal trichomoniasis (11.8% vs 6.6%, respectively; P = .048).

CONCLUSIONS
A minority of women were able to correctly diagnose VVC from a classic case scenario. A prior clinical diagnosis of VVC had only a moderate positive effect on subjects' ability to correctly diagnose a classic case. Based on our findings, women likely use OTC antifungals inappropriately to treat gynecologic conditions that are similar but potentially more severe. Numerous adverse consequences may result from misdiagnosis. Improved patient education by health care providers and the manufacturers of OTC antifungal drugs might improve this diagnostic problem.


We use panel data models to examine variations and changes in faculty employment at four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The share of part-time faculty among total faculty has continued to grow during the last two decades, while the share of full-time lecturers and instructors has been relatively stable. Meanwhile, the share of nontenure track faculty among full-time faculty has been growing, especially among the professorial ranks. Dynamic panel data models suggest that employment levels of different types of faculty respond to a variety of economic and institutional factors. Colleges and universities have increasingly employed faculty whose salaries and benefits are relatively inexpensive; the slowly deteriorating financial situations at most colleges and universities have led to an increasing reliance on a contingent academic workforce. A cross-sectional comparison of the share of full-time nontenure track faculty also reveals significant variations across institutions.


Molecular markers, such as Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR), are relatively easy to use and are highly effective for genetic diversity studies. This research was carried out to evaluate polymorphism and variation among Agropyron accessions. Genetic variability was studied for 13 accessions of Agropyron desertorum using molecular markers. Genetic variations for 13 accessions were screened using 15 ISSR primers and 12 primers were scored. The ISSR primers produced 61 bands, of which the polymorphism was observed in 60 bands. The primers IS5, IS11 and IS13 revealed the highest number of bands (7 bands) and IS3 showed the lowest number of bands (3 bands). The highest Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) value (0.44) belonged to IS3, which determined better genetic distance than other primers based on the PIC index. The IS9 with the lowest PIC value (0.27) did not separate the accessions. The average Resolving Power (RP) index was 4.19, of which primers IS5, IS11, IS12 and IS13 had the greatest value of RP. Primers IS3, IS7, and IS14 had the lowest values of RP. However, IS5, IS11 and IS13 had the greatest values, and IS3 and IS15 had the lowest amount of Marker Index (MI) and Effective Multiplex Ratio (EMR). In addition, IS5, IS11 and IS13 could be introduced as desirable primers for the determination of genetic variation based on all indices. The accession of G11 had the highest similarity (0.79) with G10, while the accessions of G4, G5 had the lowest similarity (0.39) with G8. The Agropyron accessions were classified by cluster analysis method based on Dice's coefficient. All of the 13 accessions were grouped into four clusters.


Ratio-like approaches for estimating global species richness have been criticised for their unjustified extrapolation from regional to global patterns. Here we explore the use of cumulative percentages of 'new' (i.e., not formally described) species over large geographic areas ('megatransects') as a means to overcome this problem. In addition, we take into account undetected species and illustrate these combined methods by applying them to a family of spiders (Pholcidae) that currently contains some 1,700 described species. The raw global cumulative percentage of new species ('new' as of the end of 2008, when 1,001 species were formally described) is 75.1%, and is relatively constant across large biogeographic regions. Undetected species are estimated using the Chao2 estimator based on species incidence data (date by species and locality by species matrices). The estimated percentage of new species based on the date by species matrices is 76.0% with an estimated standard error (s.e.) of 2.6%. This leads to an estimated global species richness of about 4,200 with a 95% confidence interval of (3,300, 5,000). The corresponding values based on locality by species matrices are 84.2% (s.e. 3.0%) and 6,300 with a 95% confidence interval of (4,000, 8,600). Our results suggest that the currently known 1,700 species of Pholcidae may represent no more than about 25–40% of the total species richness. The impact of further biasing factors like geography, species size and distribution, cryptic species, and model assumptions needs to be explored.


This paper derives from the findings of a recent qualitative and quantitative study conducted by the Support to Life Association among Syrian refugees in Istanbul to make their vulnerability assessment with a particular focus on their strong attachment to this city. The research question to be answered in this paper is to what extent Istanbul provides Syrian refugees with a space of cultural intimacy, where they feel safe and secure despite the difficulties of everyday life. The main premise of the paper is that historical, cultural and religious forms of affinity are likely to particularly attach the Sunni-Muslim-Arab-Syrians originating from Aleppo province to Istanbul. However, this sense of safety is not free from various sources of exploitation. This paper is expected to contribute to the discipline of Refugee Studies by shedding light on the historical elements and the agency that are often neglected in such analysis.


Th is article is about the use of trained Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) for transportation, in particular across muddy or fl ooded terrain, clandestine off road transportation, and during guerrilla operations or political revolts. In a sense, these are all in fact the same transport task: the terrestrial conveyance of people and supplies when, due to weather or politics or both, roads cannot be used. While much recent work from fi elds such as anthropology, geography, history, and conservation biology discusses the unique relationship between humans and trained elephants, the unique human mobilities opened up by elephant-based transportation has been for the most part overlooked as a research topic. Looking at both historical and recent (post–World War II) examples of elephant-based transportation throughout South and Southeast Asia, I suggest here that this mode of transportation has been especially associated with epistemologically less visible processes occurring outside of state-recognized, formal institutions.


Nefang is a polyherbal preparation constituted of the leavesof six plants and the bark of one of these,used traditionally for the treatment of malaria by the Bayang community, South West Region of Cameroon. Since no ethnopharmacological survey has been carried out on this preparation, this study aims at obtaining indigenous and folkloric information on the optimal methods for harvesting of constituent plants, preparation and administration of Nefang in the treatment of malaria. The study design was an exploratory survey.Semi-structured questionnaires were administered randomly to 20 respondents after obtaining their informed consent with the assistance of a medical practitioner. Review of literature of constituent plants was also undertaken. This study revealed that the respondents had a good knowledge of malaria and its causes. Various compositions for the preparation by decoction was obtained and administration was ascertained to be by oral route or by enema. The brief scientific review also validated the pharmacological actions of the constituent plants. The diverse indigenous knowledge and folk use of this preparation in the treatment of malaria are a pre-requisite for theoptimization of its compositionfor efficacy and pharmacological screening.


The chemical stability of bacteriogenic "UO2" is one of the seminal issues governing its success as an in-situ waste form in remediated subsurface locations. Little detail is known about the structure and reactivity of this material, but based on comparison to its closest abiotic analog, UO2+x (0 < x < 0.25), we expect that it is complex and defected, likely to exhibit non- stoichiometry, and capable of structurally incorporating common groundwater cations as well as U(VI). This complex behavior is expected to substantially impact its stability in groundwater. Our four-institution team is conducting a systematic and coordinated characterization of: (1) the atomic- and nano-scale structures of bacteriogenic UO2+x in the absence and presence of potentially important environmental cation dopants, (2) the equilibrium solubilities and dissolution rates of these materials, (3) the biogeochemical coupling of biologically mediated Mn cycling and UO2+x oxidation, and (4) the influence of these molecular scale processes on meter scale release of U(VI) in sediments. This presentation describes results from Year 1 of this project.


This article first describes the European Union's idea of gender equality and its implementation into European policies. The second section analyses the extent to which citizens of different European countries support the idea of gender equality. The empirical basis for our analysis is the 'Eurobarometer 63.1' from 2005. The descriptive findings show that while a majority of European citizens support the idea of gender equality, there are substantial differences between individual countries. In the third section we explain these differences by referring to the country's level of modernization and degree of politically institutionalized gender equality, as well as the respondents' religious orientation and level of education, among other factors.


Digital technology is changing everything about modern sports. Athletes and coaches rely on digital data to monitor and enhance performance. Officials use tracking systems to augment their judgment in what is an increasingly superhuman field of play. Spectators tune in to live sports through social media, or even through virtual reality. Audiences now act as citizen journalists whose collective shared data expands the places in which we consume sports news.

In Sport 2.0, Andy Miah examines the convergence of sports and digital cultures, examining not only how it affects our participation in sport but also how it changes our experience of life online. This convergence redefines how we think of about our bodies, the social function of sports, and the kinds of people who are playing. Miah describes a world in which the rise of competitive computer game playing—e-sports—challenges and invigorates the social mandate. Miah also looks at the Olympic Games as an exemplar of digital innovation in sports, and offers a detailed look at the social media footprint of the 2012 London Games, discussing how organizers, sponsors, media, and activists responded to the world's largest media event.

In the end, Miah does not argue that physical activity will cease to be central to sports, or that digital corporeality will replace the nondigital version. Rather, he provides a road map for how sports will become mixed-reality experiences and abandon the duality of physical and digital.


This paper looks at the influence globalization exerts on wage negotiation processes and outcomes. Specifically, it establishes whether, compared to their purely domestically oriented counterparts, exporters share a higher fraction of the rents they generate with their employees. The analysis uses a panel of Austrian manufacturing firms between 2002 and 2006 and demonstrates that, in general, Austrian exporters do not share a higher part of their rents with their employees. Moreover, the analysis also takes into account that exporters are a very heterogeneous group, broadly differing in terms of the degree to which they trade internationally or to which they earn rents from their export activities. Against that backdrop, it determines whether rent-sharing systematically differs by the degree of internationalization of exporters. The results emphasize that particularly the most export-oriented firms are able to cut down on rent-sharing which corroborates the idea that exporters can credibly and effectively exploit their threat-points of either outsourcing or offshoring part of their production which induces employees to concede to more moderate wage changes so as to avert the potential loss of employment.


The nematode C. elegans, not wanting to waste its resources, produces mature oocytes through meiotic maturation only when the presence of sperm is detected. The detection system consists of a transmembrane receptor protein, VAB-1, which recognizes a secreted sperm protein known as MSP (major sperm protein). Constitutive signaling through VAB-1 appears to hold oocytes in check, and the signal from sperm decreases such signaling to allow the oocyte to mature. VAB-1 occurs on both the oocytes themselves and gonadal sheath cells. Cheng et al. used a fusion protein of green fluorescent protein (GFP) linked to VAB-1 to monitor the receptor's location and report that regulation of endocytic trafficking of the receptor might provide a critical control point for the regulation of oocyte maturation. In the absence of sperm, VAB-1::GFP was localized with a marker of recycling endosomes at the cortex. In hermaphrodites (which make their own sperm), VAB-1 was found instead in larger cytoplasmic vesicles. In a mutant in which vesicle transport from the recycling compartment to the plasma membrane is inhibited, VAB-1::GFP accumulated in the endocytic recycling compartment and maturation was inhibited. A search for proteins that interacted with the intracellular domain of VAB-1 yielded RAN-1, which was previously genetically identified as a negative regulator of oocyte maturation but is better known for its role in controlling nuclear transport. Depletion of RAN-1 with RNAi reduced the abundance of VAB-1::GFP in the cortex and enhanced accumulation in the larger cytoplasmic vesicles. The sheath cells do their part through signaling that requires a heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein) and gap-junction channels. Disruption of these elements with RNAi appeared to diminish the signals required to inhibit maturation in the absence of sperm and led exclusion of VAB-1::GFP from the recycling endosome compartment. Although cause and effect remain to be formally established, the authors propose that the gonadal sheath cells may have a primary role in sensing MSP and then influence trafficking in the oocyte and, thus, its ability to respond directly to MSP. As Hang et al. note in commentary, why the double layer of regulation is required and exactly how VAB-1 trafficking regulates signaling by the receptor are among a series of new directions for study that are brought into focus by the new results. H. Cheng, J. A. Govindan, D. Greenstein, Regulated trafficking of the MSP/Eph receptor during oocyte meiotic maturation in C. elegans. Curr. Biol. 18, 705-714 (2008). [PubMed] J. S. Hang, B. D. Grant, A. Singson, Meiotic maturation: Receptor trafficking is the key. Curr. Biol. 18, R416-R418 (2008). [PubMed]


Background: Leukaemia is a complex disease affecting all blood cell lineages. It affects millions of people worldwide each year and mortality rates are high, despite considerable improvements in treatment. Thus, new therapies for leukaemia are urgently needed to improve leukaemia patients' health and survival. Since polyphenols exert pro-apoptotic effects in solid tumours, our study investigated the effects of polyphenols in haematological malignancies.Methods: The effects of eight polyphenols (quercetin, chrysin, apigenin, emodin, aloe-emodin, rhein, cis-stilbene and trans-stilbene) was studied on cellular proliferation, the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle progression in four lymphoid (JURKAT, MOLT-3, CCRF-CEM and U937) and four myeloid (HL-60, THP-1, K562 and KG-la) leukaemia cells lines, together with normal haematopoietic control cells (CD34+ HSC and CD133+ HSC) from cord blood. Further to this, an investigation was made of the effects of the most promising polyphenols used in combination with nine standard chemotherapeutic agents (etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, chlorambucil, cisplatin, methotrexate, 6-mercaptopurine, 5-fluorouracil and imatinib). For this polyphenol and chemotherapy combination work four leukaemia cells lines were used: the two most sensitive (JURKAT and CCRFM-CEM) and two most resistant (KGla and THP-1) to polyphenol treatment. Subsequently, an investigation was undertaken to identify potential mechanisms of action of these polyphenol when used alone and in combination with chemotherapeutics. The extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways were investigated together with effects on glutathione levels and DNA damage.Results: Emodin, quercetin, and cis-stilbene were the most effective polyphenols at decreasing cell viability and inducing apoptosis. Lymphoid cell lines were normally more sensitive to polyphenol treatment compared to myeloid cell lines; however those myeloid (KG-la and K562) cell lines which were most polyphenol resistant; were however affected by emodin and quercetin at micromolar treatment doses. Non-tumour cells were less sensitive to all polyphenols compared to the leukaemia cells. Mechanistically, most polyphenols alone depleted glutathione (GSH) levels associated with a direct activation in caspase 8 and/or caspase 9 in leukaemia cell lines at 24 h. Polyphenols also had differential capacities to induce DNA damage in the leukaemia cell lines. Polyphenols acted synergistically in lymphoid cell lines and differently in myeloid cell lines producing either synergistic, additive, competitive antagonistic or antagonistic effects; when they were combined with toposiomerase inhibitor agents (etoposide and doxorubicin) and alkylating agents (cyclophosphamide and chlorambucil, cisplatin). In contrast, they worked antagonistically with anti-metabolites agents (methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine) in both lymphoid and myeloid leukaemia cell lines. Mechanistically the synergistic induction of apoptosis observed following the combination of polyphenols withchemotherapeutic agents was caused by the direct activation of intrinsic or /and extrinsic apoptotic pathway through the up-regulation of caspase 8 or caspase 9 within the lymphoid and myeloid leukaemia cell line. Furthermore, it has been shown the synergistic effects observed when polyphenols and chemotherapy agents were combined was correlated with down regulation of GSH levels and an induction of DNA damage which drove apoptosis. Alternatively where there was an antagonist effect there was an up-regulation of GSH levels, a reduction in DNA damage and the level of apoptosis.Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that polyphenols induce apoptosis and arrest cell cycle in leukaemia cell lines which could translate to anti-cancer activities in leukaemia, although the effects were dependant on polyphenol type and origin of the cell line investigated. Importantly, the differential sensitivity of emodin, quercetin, and cis-stilbene between leukaemia and normal cells suggests that polyphenols are potential therapeutic agents for leukaemia. Furthermore, this study concluded that the efficacy of standard chemotherapeutic agents were differentially modulated by polyphenols, producing either synergistic, additive or competitive antagonistic/antagonistic effects, which was dependent on type of polyphenol, chemotherapy agent and cell line. Interestingly the study showed that synergistic or antagonistic effects observed following the combination treatments were strongly dependent on the modulation of glutathione levels in association with the formation of H2AX nuclear foci and DNA damage in leukaemia cell lines.


Abstract. The build-up of intrinsic Bjerrum and ionic defects at ice-vapor interfaces electrically charges ice surfaces and thus gives rise to many phenomena including thermoelectricity, ferroelectric ice films, sparks from objects in blizzards, electromagnetic emissions accompanying cracking in avalanches, glaciers, and sea ice, and charge transfer during ice-ice collisions in thunderstorms. Fletcher's theory of the ice surface in equilibrium proposed that the Bjerrum defects have a higher rate of creation at the surface than in the bulk, which produces a high concentration of surface D defects that then attract a high concentration of OH - ions at the surface. Here, we add to this theory the effect of a moving interface caused by growth or sublimation. This effect can increase the amount of ionic surface charges more than 10-fold for growth rates near 1 m m s -1 and can extend the spatial separation of interior charges in qualitative agreement with many observations. In addition, ice-ice collisions should generate sufficient pressure to melt ice at the contact region and we argue that the ice particle with the initially sharper point at contact loses more mass of melt than the other particle. A simple analytic model of this process with parameters that are consistent with observations leads to predicted collisional charge exchange that semiquantitatively explains the negative charging region of thunderstorms. The model also has implications for snowflake formation, ferroelectric ice, polarization of ice in snowpacks, and chemical reactions in ice surfaces


Whilst narrative representations have played a prominent role in AI research, there has been a renewed interest in the topic with the development of interactive narratives. A typical approach aims at generating narratives from baseline action representations, most often using planning techniques. However, this research has developed empirically, often as an application of planning. In this paper, we explore a more rigorous formalisation of narrative concepts, both at the action level and at the plot level. Our aim is to investigate how to bridge the gap between action descriptions and narrative concepts, by considering the latter from the perspective of resource consumption and causality. We propose to use Linear Logic, often introduced as a logic of resources, for it provides, through linear implication, a better description of causality than in Classical and Intuitionistic Logic. Besides advances in the fundamental principles of narrative formalisation, this approach can support the formal validation of scenario description as a preliminary step to their implementation via other computational formalisms.


BACKGROUND
Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) is a useful diagnostic tool for peripheral lung tumors. However, the success rate is variable. Our study was designed to investigate the value of TBLB without fluoroscopic guidance in the diagnosis of variable cell types of peripheral lung cancers.

METHODS
A retrospective study was conducted to investigate a total of 597 patients who had undergone fiberoptic bronchoscopy for lung mass on chest X-ray in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from January 1996 to December 1998. The lung masses were proven to be malignant by cytology and histology.

RESULTS
Of 358 patients (60.0%) proven with malignancy, 107 patients presented with peripheral lung cancer (17.9%), including 59 with adenocarcinoma, 26 with squamous cell carcinoma, 11 with poorly differentiated carcinoma, 3 with small cell carcinoma, and 8 with metastatic cancers. The diagnostic rate of peripheral lung cancer by TBLB reached 54.2%. The sensitivity rates of detection of non-small cell type by TBLB were adenocarcinoma, 50.9%; squamous cell carcinoma, 61.5%; and poorly differentiated carcinoma, 72.7%, while that of small cell carcinoma was 100%. In contrast, the sensitivity rate of TBLB for metastatic cancers was lower (12.5%) than for primary lung cancers. Repeated TBLB of peripheral lung cancers increased the diagnostic rate from 49.5% to 54.2%.

CONCLUSION
TBLB is an effective bronchoscopic sampling technique in the diagnosis of peripheral lung tumors without additional risk. The use of TBLB in the clinical routine should be encouraged.