The mechanism of bacterial selection was investigated in aerobic granular sludge wastewater treatment systems (i) to determine why biological nutrient removal (BNR) gets deteriorated during granulation start-up under wash-out dynamics, and (ii) to identify the operation factors governing bacterial dynamics, PAO-GAO competition, and BNR performances in mature systems operated at steady-state. Bacterial community dynamics and nutrient removal performances were analyzed in a SBR started under wash-out conditions and inoculated with activated sludge. Subsequently, bacterial population shifts were followed with stepwise changes in acetate-propionate (Ac/Pr) ratio and concentration. Finally, a multifactorial experimental design was used to screen for main effects on PAO/GAO competition within a set of six parameters, i.e. COD concentration, Ac/Pr and COD/P ratios, pH, temperature, and redox conditions during starvation. Eight SBRs were run over 50 days at a fixed sludge age (15 days) and with fixed 4-h cycles comprising anaerobic feast (100 min) and mixed starvation (120 min) phases. During wash-out, insufficient sludge age and anaerobic contact time between acetate and biomass led to predominance of Zoogloea spp. (54±8%) and deteriorated BNR. BNR populations proliferated again after a substantial granular sludge bed (>5 gVSS•L-1) had formed and enabled full anaerobic acetate uptake. Experimental campaigns on PAO/GAO competition with mature granules showed that Accumulibacter (47%) and dephosphatation (80-100%) were favored with alkaline pH (7.5), temperature below 20°C, and Ac/Pr of 50:50%. Efficient nitrification-denitrification was obtained at pH 7.5 and above 25°C, and enhanced BNR was obtained with at least 750 mgCOD•L-1. With a fixed 2-h starvation phase, dephosphatation was only complete with full aeration, whereas with alternating aerobic-anoxic starvation conditions, the phase length had to be extended for full BNR. In conclusion, pH was identified as the most dominant factor for bacterial selection. Furthermore, control of duration of anaerobic and starvation phases is required for optimal performance.


As regulators increasingly embrace cooperative approaches to governance, voluntary public-private partnerships and self-regulation programs have proliferated. However, because few have been subjected to robust evaluation, little is known about whether these innovative approaches are achieving their objectives and enhancing regulatory effectiveness. In the context of a federal government program that encourages companies to voluntarily self-police and self-disclose regulatory violations, we examine how participation affects the behaviors of regulators and regulated facilities. We find that on average, facilities that committed to self-police experienced a decline in abnormal events resulting in toxic pollution, and that regulators reduced their scrutiny over self-policing facilities. Upon closer examination, we find strong evidence of these effects among facilities with clean past compliance records, but find no such evidence of among facilities with more problematic compliance histories. These findings support the theoretical promise of meaningful self-policing practices and suggest that voluntary disclosure can serve as a reliable signal of future compliance—but only among a subset of facilities.


In a centralized marketplace that was designed to be simple, we identify participants whose choices are dominated. Using administrative data from Hungary, we show that college applicants make obvious mistakes: they forgo the free opportunity to receive a tuition waiver worth thousands of dollars. At least 10 percent of the applicants made such mistakes in 2013. Costly mistakes have externalities: they transfer tuition waivers from high- to low-socioeconomic status students, and increase the number of students attending college. To shed light on the mechanisms underlying mistakes, we exploit a reform that substantially increased the selectivity of admission with financial aid in some fields of study. Increased admission selectivity raises the likelihood of making obvious mistakes, especially among high-socioeconomic status and low-achieving applicants. Our results suggest that mistakes are more common when their expected cost is lower. Still, the average cost of a mistake in 2013 was 114-365 dollars.


Empirical testing of competing theories lies at the heart of social science and applied Science research. We demonstrate that a well-known class of statistical models, called finite mixture models, provides an effective way of rival theory testing. In the proposed framework, each observation is assumed to be generated either from statistical models implied by one of the competing theories or more generally from a weighted combination of multiple statistical models under consideration. Researchers can then estimate the probability that a specific observation is consistent with each rival theory. By modeling this probability with covariates, one can also explore the condition under which a particular theory applies. We discuss a principles way to identify a list of observations that are statistically consistent with each theory and propose measure of the overall performance of each competing theory. We illustrate the relatives' advantages of our method over existing methods through empirical and stimulation studies.


Records of abnormal gymnosperm pollen morphotypes from coeval localities in Russia and NW China provide independent and unique evidence of deteriorating atmospheric conditions at the close of the Permian. Although at similar palaeolatitude, the Vologda region of European Russia and the Junggar Basin of Xinjiang Province, China, were thousands of kilometres apart and on different tectonic plates. The co-occurrence of the megaspore Otynisporites eotriassicus Fuglewicz 1977, and its restricted distribution elsewhere in marine sections with either Late Permian ammonoids or the basal Triassic conodont marker Hindeodus parvus, confirms the age range, and correlation of the Russian and NW Chinese sections. In three Chinese sections, rapid changes in carbon isotopic (δ13Corg) composition of between 4 and 10‰ occur over the intervals showing abnormal pollen. These patterns reflect bioclastic facies contributions responding to local environmental changes. They are nevertheless coincident with global perturbations in the atmosphere, caused by extensive volcanic activity around the Permian–Triassic boundary.


In this paper we investigate the relationship between labor's share, the market power of firms and the elasticity of output with respect to labor input using an approach based on an unobserved components model. The approach yields time-varying estimates of the market power and the elasticity. Evidence on the evolution of the market power of firms contributes to a deeper understanding of movements in labor's share and of the firm's contribution to the labor wedge. The generated values of the elasticity also yield revised estimates of US TFP growth which is informative about the (non-trivial) bias inherent in traditional estimates of TFP growth which use the wage share as a proxy for the elasticity.


With the dramatic increase in development costs for state-of-the-art process technologies, such as next-generation automotive electronic systems, specialization of traditional microcontrollers no longer makes business sense. This white paper discusses a process to develop an exact microcontroller for a specific application by implementing it into an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA for prototyping and volume production. Verification, software development, and field testing can be done immediately after design or even in parallel.


textabstract1. Introduction As described in the earlier chapters, one of the entry points in our study of urban governance was the supply and demand of services. Education is one important service that we studied in three of the four cities (Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata). Our focus was on primary education.
Many changes have taken place in the area of education in the past fifteen to twenty years. First, universal primary education is increasingly viewed as a major important policy objective, both in order to enhance individual capabilities and as a way to stimulate economic growth. This is reflected in the adoption in 2002 of the 86th Constitutional Amendment, making free and compulsory education a fundamental right. The Planning Commission regards education as 'the most critical element in empowering people with skills and knowledge and giving them access to productive employment in the future' (GoI, 2006: 45). Second, the demand for education has significantly increased. As the Probe report (1999) observed, many parents, also from sections of the population that were hitherto excluded from education, would like to send their children to school. Literacy rates have gone up significantly, which is why the 1990s is labeled as the literacy decade. Third, there has been a rapid increase in private providers. Especially in urban India, but also in rural India, many children go to private, often English-medium schools. Fourth, civil society actors have become more prominent in the field of education. There are a number of very large and influential and a lot of small NGOs that work with or complement the government, or that monitor progress in a critical manner. Fifth, in order to improve the quality of education and in conjunction with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, there have been efforts to decentralize school management.


This paper describes the theoretical framework behind the development of a series of knitted prototypes inspired by the biomimetic model of the hygromorph. Three moisture responsive pieces are described which use the inherent properties of wood veneer as an actuator incorporated into complex knitted forms constructed from linen and wool. These textile/veneer assemblies are environmentally responsive, transformable and constructed from natural, sustainable materials. This represents a new interpretation of shape changing textiles for architecture. The work illustrates the potential of designing hierarchically organised structures where functionalities are incorporated at different levels of material fabrication. The paper argues that the implementation of textile materials and processes offers the potential for the development of environmentally responsive architecture through the development of shape changing textile/veneer assemblies.


This study comprised two sets of experiment. The field trials were conducted at MARDI Bertam Rice Research Station in Seberang Perai, Penang, while the experiments on weed seed viability were done in a glass house and the Weed Biology Laboratory at Universiti Putra Malaysia. This study began in February 2004 and ended in June 2006. All field trials and weed seed viability studies were done in Off Season 2004 and Main Season 2004/2005. The objectives of the study were: a) to investigate the population and status of dominant weeds and their effect on rice yield under different water regime treatments in field condition; b) to determine the total weed seed reserve, species composition of the entire weed seed bank in the soils and their viability after being treated under different water regime treatments in the rice field.
Five water regime treatments were used namely; T1 = continuous flooded condition until maturity, T2 = early flooding until 55 DAS (day after sowing) followed by saturated condition until maturity, T3 = early flooding until 30 DAS followed by saturated condition until maturity, T4 = continuous saturated condition until maturity, T5 = continuous field capacity condition throughout the experiment period.
Results from field trials indicated that in unweeded plots (no weed control treatment involved), T1 and T2 showed the lowest number of weed m-2 and weed biomass m-2 compared to the other water regime treatments. Plots treated with T1 and T2 significantly suppressed weed population to approximately 18 – 58% and reduced weed biomass to 14 – 57% as compared to the highest in T5 at all sampling dates (30, 60 and 90 DAS) in both Off Season 2004 and Main Season 2004/2005. For weed composition across the water regime treatments, 11 weed species were recorded in Off Season 2004 and 10 weed species in Main Season 2004/2005. Broadleaved weeds mostly Monochoria vaginalis and Limnocharis flava were the most dominant weeds in most of the water regime treatments. The SDR values of broadleaved weeds were 48.7% (T2) > 46.4% (T1) > 44.2% (T3) > 40.7% (T5) > 35.8% (T4) in Off Season 2004. In Main Season 2004/2005, the SDR values for broadleaved weeds increased to 79.5% (T2) > 68.2% (T1) > 62.4% (T3) > 62.2% (T4) > 50.57% (T5). Sedges mainly Fimbristylis miliacea and Cyperus iria were dominant in Off Season 2004 with SDR value more than 34% in all water regime treatments, but decreased to less than 23% in Main Season 2004/2005. For grasses, mostly Echinochloa crus-galli, Echinochloa colona and Leptochloa chinensis, SDR value more than 20% were recorded in T4 and T5 in Off Season 2004 while in Main Season 2004/2005, SDR value between 21 – 34% were observed in T1, T3 and T5.Meanwhile rice plants treated with T1 significantly produced the highest rice grain yield, followed by T2 and T3, while T4 and T5 were the lowest in weeded plots in both planting seasons. However, rice yield in unweeded plots were not significantly different in all water regime treatments. The rice productions in weeded plots were in the range of 22 – 60% higher in Off Season 2004 and 56 – 78% higher in Main Season 2004/2005 than in unweeded plots. Weed control treatment evidently showed stronger influence than water regime treatments. The percentages of reduction in weeded plots from the highest rice yield in T1 to lowest in T5 were 40% in Off Season 2004 and 44.4% in Main Season 2004/2005. Meanwhile the reduction of rice yield in unweeded plots compared to weeded plots was much higher, which recorded the highest of 59.1% (in T1) in Off Season 2004 and 78.3% (in T4) in Main Season 2004/2005.
The effect of different water regime treatments on viability of weed seeds in rice field was evaluated. Total weed seed reserves in soils taken from Off Season 2004 rice plots were dominated by broadleaved weeds (90625 seeds m-2) mainly Hedyotis corymbosa, Monochoria vaginalis and Ludwigia hyssopifolia, followed by sedges (34257 seeds m-2), mostly F. miliacea and Cyperus iria, while grasses (20647 seeds m-2), predominantly Leptochloa chinensis recorded the lowest number in all water regime treatments. In soils taken from Main Season 2004/2005 rice plots, sedges (53041 seeds m-2) mainly Fimbristylis miliacea along with broadleaved weeds (54624 seeds m-2), predominantly Monochoria vaginalis and Ceratopteris pteridoides dominated in most of the water regime treatments, while grasses, mainly Leptochloa chinensis and Panicum repens again recorded the lowest number (24935 seeds m-2). 10 weed species, which were not observed in the field trials, were recorded from the same soil in the weed seed bank experiment.Differences in water regime treatments did not significantly reduce the viability of weeds seeds in the soil in Off Season 2004. However, a small reduction in seed viability (approximately 8%) was observed in Main Season 2004/2005. As for the similarity between weed seed bank composition and aboveground weed flora composition, a moderate value (62.07 - 73.33%) was observed in Off Season 2004, while in Main season 2004/2005, the value was slightly lower (51.65 – 64.29%).


A strategy activated in one task may be transferred to subsequent tasks and prevent activation of other strategies that would otherwise come to mind, a mechanism referred to as procedural priming. In a novel application of procedural priming we show that it can make or break cognitive illusions. Our test case is the 1/k illusion, which is based on the same unwarranted mathematical shortcut as the MPG illusion and the time-saving bias. The task is to estimate distances between values of fractions on the form 1/k. Most people given this task intuitively base their estimates on the distances between the denominators (i.e., the reciprocals of the fractions), which may yield very poor estimations of the true distances between the fractions. As expected, the tendency to fall for this illusion is related to cognitive style (Study 1). In order to apply procedural priming we constructed versions of the task in which the illusion is weak, in the sense that most people do not fall for it anymore. We then gave participants both "strong illusion" and "weak illusion" versions of the task (Studies 2 and 3). Participants who first did the task in the weak illusion version would often persist with the correct strategy even in the strong illusion version, thus breaking the otherwise strong illusion in the latter task. Conversely, participants who took the strong illusion version first would then often fall for the illusion even in the weak illusion version, thus strengthening the otherwise weak illusion in the latter task.


The SRC Kinase Adaptor Phosphoprotein 2 (SKAP2) is a broadly expressed adaptor associated with the control of actin-polymerization, cell migration, and oncogenesis. After activation of different receptors at the cell surface, this dimeric protein serves as a platform for assembling other adaptors such as FYB and some SRC family kinase members, although these mechanisms are still poorly understood. The goal of this study is to map the SKAP2 interactome and characterize which domains or binding motifs are involved in these interactions. This is a prerequisite to finely analyze how these pathways are integrated in the cell machinery and to study their role in cancer and other human diseases when this network of interactions is perturbed. In this work, the domain and the binding motif of fourteen proteins interacting with SKAP2 were precisely defined and a new interactor, FAM102A was discovered. Herein, a fine-tuning between the binding of SRC kinases and their activation was identified. This last process, which depends on SKAP2 dimerization, indirectly affects the binding of FYB protein. Analysis of conformational changes associated with activation/inhibition of SRC family members, presently limited to their effect on kinase activity, is extended to their interactive network, which paves the way for therapeutic development.


This article investigates the political agency of deportable people and the legacies of detention. It explores the hunger strike as a form of political action and revisits the politics of a high-profile strike organised by Zimbabwean detainees in British removal centres in 2005. The discussion emphasises the controversy surrounding this form of protest: how hunger strikes can create new connections between detainees and broader communities of citizens and non-citizens, while at the same time being contentious and divisive. The article also debates the opportunity structure, rhetorical devices and political linkages involved in the broader anti-deportation campaigns to which high-profile political actions by detainees are sometimes linked. It explores the advantages and disadvantages of protests (such as the Zimbabwean case discussed here) that depend on political space opened up by hostile inter-governmental relations between deporting and receiving states and the multitude of transnational connections produced through post-colonial ties that can give particular migrant groups an exceptional embeddedness. The article examines the hunger strike in the context of a broader discussion of the politicising effects of detention: the ways insecure legal status shapes detainees' capacity to rebuild their lives, attitudes towards the law, justice and notions of belonging. It draws on interviews with former hunger strikers and other ex-detainees, as well as the members of their family, friends, visitors and support groups.


In this paper we describe the framework we created to understand the communication process in gaming experiences and that we have used to elaborate an educational process for future game designers or teachers. This educational process uses ludonarratives as an object of both game research and production. Considering that contemporary Cultural Studies admits the possibility of a Decolonial Pedagogy, can we entertain the possibility of building a Decolonial Ludology through ludonarratives? We aim to identify some of the Eurocentric foundations in game design in order to look for Decolonial alternatives that improve diversity and, if possible, make these alternatives also seductive. We describe four actions in our exploratory research to this goal.


Countless studies have demonstrated that many emergency-room visits and hospital admissions are drug-related and that a significant proportion of these drug-related visits (DRVs) are preventable. It has not been previously studied which DRVs could be prevented through enhanced monitoring of therapy. The objective of the study was to determine the incidence of DRVs attributed to laboratory or physiologic abnormalities. Three authors independently performed comprehensive searches in relevant health care databases using pre-determined search terms. Articles discussing DRV associated with poisoning, substance abuse, or studied among existing in-patient populations were excluded. Study country, year, sample, design, duration, DRV identification method, proportion of DRVs associated with laboratory or physiologic abnormalities and associated medications were extracted. The three authors independently assessed selected relevant articles according to the Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) as applicable according to the studies' methodology. The initial literature search yielded a total of 1,524 articles of which 30 articles meeting inclusion criteria and reporting sufficient laboratory or physiologic data were included in the overall analysis. Half employed prospective methodologies, which included both chart review and patient interview; however, the overwhelming majority of identified studies assessed only adverse drug reactions (ADRs) as a drug-related cause for DRV. The mean (range) prevalence of DRVs found in all studies was 15.4% (0.44%–66.7%) of which an association with laboratory or physiologic abnormalities could be attributed to a mean (range) of 29.4% (4.3%–78.1%) of cases. Most laboratory-associated DRVs could be linked to immunosuppressant, antineoplastic, anticoagulant and diabetes therapy, while physiologic-associated DRVs were attributed to cardiovascular therapies and NSAIDs. Significant proportions of laboratory and physiologic abnormalities contribute to DRVs and are consistently linked to specific drugs. These therapies are potential targets for enhanced medication monitoring initiatives to proactively avert potential DRVs.


It is generally agreed that government ownership and participation in national carriers and regulated air service agreements can lead to inefficiencies and abuses of market power. This can result in poor carrier performance and service levels, impeding further growth in tourism markets. This paper contrasts this theory with recent case evidence from the Caribbean and the Middle-East. The former represents the mature exotic type beach holiday while the latter is a fast developing religious, cultural and multi-product form of tourism. In both cases multi-step relationships exist between the development of air transport policy and the number of incoming visitors. The strength and significance of these interrelationships are tested using two separate best-fit Structural Equation Models (SEMs) based on a panel data set of a selection of endogenous and exogenous variables for the period 2000-2007. It is found that, despite both regions' continued government participation in national carriers, only in the Caribbean has this appeared to have resulted in the theoretical dampening effect on tourism output, whereas a reverse effect was found for the sample of Middle-Eastern states. Focussing on their formidable hub-and-spoke networks, state owned and vertically integrated Middle-Eastern carriers are still encouraged to offer competitive fare and service levels to capture 6th freedom traffic with the growing number of long-stay visitors being one of the main beneficiaries of this.


Large-scale deployment and use of cloud computing in industry
is accompanied and in the same time hampered by concerns regarding protection of
data handled by cloud computing providers. One of the consequences of moving
data processing and storage off company premises is that organizations have
less control over their infrastructure. As a result, cloud service (CS) clients
must trust that the CS provider is able to protect their data and
infrastructure from both external and internal attacks. Currently however, such
trust can only rely on organizational processes declared by the CS
provider and can not be remotely verified and validated by an external party.

Enabling the CS client to verify the integrity of the host where the
virtual machine instance will run, as well as to ensure that the virtual
machine image has not been tampered with, are some steps towards building
trust in the CS provider. Having the tools to perform such
verifications prior to the launch of the VM instance allows the CS
clients to decide in runtime whether certain data should be stored- or calculations
should be made on the VM instance offered by the CS provider.

This thesis combines three components -- trusted computing, virtualization technology
and cloud computing platforms -- to address issues of trust and
security in public cloud computing environments. Of the three components,
virtualization technology has had the longest evolution and is a cornerstone
for the realization of cloud computing. Trusted computing is a recent
industry initiative that aims to implement the root of trust in a hardware
component, the trusted platform module. The initiative has been formalized
in a set of specifications and is currently at version 1.2. Cloud computing
platforms pool virtualized computing, storage and network resources in
order to serve a large number of customers customers that use a multi-tenant
multiplexing model to offer on-demand self-service over broad network.
Open source cloud computing platforms are, similar to trusted computing, a
fairly recent technology in active development.

The issue of trust in public cloud environments is addressed
by examining the state of the art within cloud computing security and
subsequently addressing the issues of establishing trust in the launch of a
generic virtual machine in a public cloud environment. As a result, the thesis
proposes a trusted launch protocol that allows CS clients
to verify and ensure the integrity of the VM instance at launch time, as
well as the integrity of the host where the VM instance is launched. The protocol
relies on the use of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for key generation and data protection.
The TPM also plays an essential part in the integrity attestation of the
VM instance host. Along with a theoretical, platform-agnostic protocol,
the thesis also describes a detailed implementation design of the protocol
using the OpenStack cloud computing platform.

In order the verify the implementability of the proposed protocol, a prototype
implementation has built using a distributed deployment of OpenStack.

While the protocol covers only the trusted launch procedure using generic
virtual machine images, it presents a step aimed to contribute towards
the creation of a secure and trusted public cloud computing environment.


A bottom-up approach that enables readers to master and apply the latest techniques in state estimationThis book offers the best mathematical approaches to estimating the state of a general system. The author presents state estimation theory clearly and rigorously, providing the right amount of advanced material, recent research results, and references to enable the reader to apply state estimation techniques confidently across a variety of fields in science and engineering.While there are other textbooks that treat state estimation, this one offers special features and a unique perspective and pedagogical approach that speed learning:

 Straightforward, bottom-up approach begins with basic concepts and then builds step by step to more advanced topics for a clear understanding of state estimation
 Simple examples and problems that require only paper and pen to solve lead to an intuitive understanding of how theory works in practice
 MATLAB(r)-based source code that corresponds to examples in the book, available on the author's Web site, enables readers to recreate results and experiment with other simulation setups and parameters

Armed with a solid foundation in the basics, readers are presented with a careful treatment of advanced topics, including unscented filtering, high order nonlinear filtering, particle filtering, constrained state estimation, reduced order filtering, robust Kalman filtering, and mixed Kalman/H? filtering.Problems at the end of each chapter include both written exercises and computer exercises. Written exercises focus on improving the reader's understanding of theory and key concepts, whereas computer exercises help readers apply theory to problems similar to ones they are likely to encounter in industry. A solutions manual is available for instructors.With its expert blend of theory and practice, coupled with its presentation of recent research results, Optimal State Estimation is strongly recommended for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in optimal control and state estimation theory. It also serves as a reference for engineers and science professionals across a wide array of industries.A solutions manual is available upon request from the Wiley editorial board.


Abstract Engle and Conant's productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) framework has significantly advanced the study of learning in mathematics and science. This artilce revisits PDE through the lens of critical education research. Our analysis synthesizes two themes of power: epistemic diversity, and historicity and identity. We argue that these themes, when integrated into PDE, strengthen it as a tool for design and analysis of disciplinary learning in relation to power and personhood, and describe the broadened framework of connective and productive disciplinary engagement (CPDE). By comparing and contrasting the use of PDE and CPDE in relation to two cases of classroom learning—for science, Warren et al.'s metamorphosis and for mathematics, Godfrey and O'Connor's measurement—we demonstrate how CPDE surfaces issues of history, power, and culture that may otherwise be overlooked by PDE alone. In particular, we analyze how CPDE makes visible unseen identities and generative resources of disciplinary knowing and doing among minoritized students. We discuss how the revised framework redresses epistemic injustice experienced by minoritized learners held to the narrow rubric of western epistemologies and compels close attention to the diversity of human activity in mathematics and science. Further, we elaborate how it provides a structure for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers to design and analyze learning environments as safeguarding the rightful presence of minoritized learners in STEM classrooms and beyond.


Lead contamination in many foods is reported to endanger consumers' health. Beef as one of the food of animal origin can be contaminated by lead mainly due to the maintenance of cattle in contaminated areas. Balinese cattle that are kept in urban landfills are reported to be contaminated with high levels of lead in the blood and in other tissues with lower levels [4]. The threat of human health from eating foods that contain leads can cause anemia because leads can substitute iron in hemoglobin [2]. Lead poisoning can also cause malfunction of various organs such as liver, kidney [1], lungs, spleen [7] and brain [9] in the form of cognitive impairment [5]. The high threat due to contamination of leads to health, then the meat health check should also be made on the presence of leads. One of the inspection efforts on the presence of lead contamination in beef, then the place of sale in the traditional market is a good location for sampling examination.


The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Maternal and Infant Health Care (MIHCL), enacted in 1995, sparked widespread concerns, criticisms and in some cases fierce outcries in the Western scientific community. This article describes the background in drafting the law, chronicles reactions to its release and its subsequent development, attempts to provide a balanced presentation on perspectives of the West and of Chinese side, draws up a list of questions surrounding this controversy and its subsequent development, and, finally, argues that the entire process holds several lessons to future legislature in China when drafting health-related laws.

Key Concepts:

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Maternal and Infant Health Care (MIHCL) was enacted in 1995.

The law was drafted apparently in response to enormous population pressure, the heavy burden of people with disability, and questionable local practices that restrict reproductive freedom on people with mental and putative hereditary diseases.

The law sparked widespread concerns, criticisms, and in some cases fierce outcries in the Western scientific community, yet experts in China defended the law.

The most contentious articles in the law include ones that propel physicians to provide medical advice on long-term contraception or sterilisation to couples who have been diagnosed with unspecified genetic disease of a serious nature after a mandatory pre-marital medical examination (PMME).

In 2001, the Implementation Methods of MIHCL went effective, in which articles in the MIHCL that aroused controversies were written in a manner that is more 'politically correct' by Western standards.

In 2003, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued The Marriage Registration Code, which effectively abolished the mandatory requirement for PMME as a prerequisite for marriage registration.

This dramatic change, viewed by many as inconsistent with the MIHCL, received warm welcome from the public, many of them unhappy with the mandatory requirement for PMME, but it also raised concern that the abolishment may have resulted in increased incidence of birth defects.

In 2005, a special Task Force reached conclusions that there is no credible evidence that suggests that the rising incidence of birth defects in some areas can be attributable to the abolishment of compulsive PMME and that the PMME has limited value in preventing birth defects.

The enactment of MIHCL and the subsequent, somewhat dramatic reverse in course beg for many questions regarding the scientific basis, if any, for the legislature.

The controversy surrounding the MIHCL and its subsequent development hold several lessons for people who attempt to solve complex health-related problems through judiciary means.

Keywords:

China;
eugenics;
infant;
law;
maternal


This is the sixth case study in the series Holding These Truths: Empowerment and Recognition in Action. This series presents case studies for a future conflict resolution textbook. It has been successfully piloted with several international classes. Those, who benefit most, stress the importance of carefully studying the introduction. (See Introduction to Conflict Case Studies, Nancy D. Erbe). Because the case study format is intentionally unique, written in an interactive and non-linear workbook style, unlike many introductions, the information provided there is required for understanding the case studies. Readers are encouraged to send comments and critiques directly to the author. Because of the deliberate one-of-a-kind format of the text, detailed page-by-page comments and questions are welcome. A list of the entire series is included below. Introduction to Conflict Case Studies Case Study #1: Neutral Fact-Finding and Empowerment Within Conflicted Systems Case Study #2: Intrapersonal Approaches to Conflict: Cognitive and Perceptual Biases Case Study #3: Negative Intergroup Influence Case Study #4: Empathy: Effective Response with Escalating Aggression Case Study #5: Assessing Covert Bad Faith and Power Abuse Case Study #6: Cultural Competence: Ethical and Empowered Response With Discrimination Case Study #7: Empowered Process---Skilled Leadership: Diffusion, Party Capacity and Speaking Truth to Power Case Series #8: Empowered Process: Multicultural Collaboration


The International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme for Ocean Energy Systems (OES) initiated the OES Wave Energy Conversion Modelling Task, which focused on the verification and validation of numerical models for simulating wave energy converters (WECs). The long-term goal is to assess the accuracy of and establish confidence in the use of numerical models used in design as well as power performance assessment of WECs. To establish this confidence, the authors used different existing computational modelling tools to simulate given tasks to identify uncertainties related to simulation methodologies: (i) linear potential flow methods; (ii) weakly nonlinear Froude–Krylov methods; and (iii) fully nonlinear methods (fully nonlinear potential flow and Navier–Stokes models). This article summarizes the code-to-code task and code-to-experiment task that have been performed so far in this project, with a focus on investigating the impact of different levels of nonlinearities in the numerical models. Two different WECs were studied and simulated. The first was a heaving semi-submerged sphere, where free-decay tests and both regular and irregular wave cases were investigated in a code-to-code comparison. The second case was a heaving float corresponding to a physical model tested in a wave tank. We considered radiation, diffraction, and regular wave cases and compared quantities, such as the WEC motion, power output and hydrodynamic loading.


Self-supervised tasks such as colorization, inpainting and zigsaw puzzle have been utilized for visual representation learning for still images, when the number of labeled images is limited or absent at all. Recently, this worthwhile stream of study extends to video domain where the cost of human labeling is even more expensive. However, the most of existing methods are still based on 2D CNN architectures that can not directly capture spatio-temporal information for video applications. In this paper, we introduce a new self-supervised task called as Space-Time Cubic Puzzles to train 3D CNNs using large scale video dataset. This task requires a network to arrange permuted 3D spatio-temporal crops. By completing Space-Time Cubic Puzzles, the network learns both spatial appearance and temporal relation of video frames, which is our final goal. In experiments, we demonstrate that our learned 3D representation is well transferred to action recognition tasks, and outperforms state-of-the-art 2D CNN-based competitors on UCF101 and HMDB51 datasets.


Using in-depth analysis of power relations, material changes and developments in ideologies, this essential text provides an accessible and student friendly historical introduction to the changing relations between states. The subjects covered include long term trends relating to war, the changing balance of power, decolonisation, the European system and the Cold War. This volume is essential reading for all those interested in the history of International Relations in the twentieth century.


This paper discusses the effects of adding a combination of interactive online and hands-on activities on high school biology students in a blended, virtual-learning environment. The project was designed to determine if credit-deficient students in a selfpaced, online biology course would learn more and become more engaged learners if active learning opportunities were added to the normal online program. Students in these courses normally receive only passive instruction and occasional tutoring when requested. The students involved in the study were enrolled in the Virtual High School program in Clarksville-Montgomery County, Tennessee for the 2012-13 school year for the purpose of catching up to the required 22 credits necessary for on-time graduation. Each of these students was considered credit deficient to the point of not completing the graduation requirements before being dropped at the end of their fourth year of high school, as per district policy. Student learning using the traditional online program was compared to student learning using the online program combined with both interactive online activities and hands-on, small-group activities. Results indicated that student understanding was increased, but there was little effect on long-term memory. Data also indicated a negative impact on both teacher and student attitude and motivation due to the increased structure and time requirement for the additional activities.


Partnering as a concept has matured in its application and many empirical studies provide evidence of its impact on project performance beyond the rather prescriptive and anecdotal claims of earlier cookbooks on the subject. What has remained elusive, however, is a guiding theory on partnering. Drawing on the literature, partnering is explained within the framework of intergroup contact theory and teamwork in organizations. More specifically, partnering has the potential to create the essential conditions for optimal intergroup contact and hence, to reduce bias and increase cooperation among construction project workgroups and, consequently, favorably impact on project performance. Demonstrating a close fit with the published literature on partnering provides useful support for the proposed model. The model can clearly help project managers to focus their attention on the necessary aspects of workgroup processes that lead to high cooperation and performance.


This report describes the work performed to develop and test a new switching system and communications network that is useful for economically switching lighting circuits in existing commercial buildings. The first section of the report provides the general background of the IBECS (Integrated Building Environmental Communications System) research and development work as well as the context for the development of the new switching system. The research and development effort that went into producing the first proof-of-concept (the IBECS Addressable Power Switch or APS) and the physical prototype of that concept is detailed in the second section. In the third section of the report, we detail the refined Powerline Carrier Based IBECS Title 24 Wall Switch system that evolved from the APS prototype. The refined system provided a path for installing IBECS switching technology in existing buildings that may not be already wired for light level switching control. The final section of the report describes the performance of the IBECS Title 24 Switch system as applied to a small demonstration in two offices at LBNL's Building 90. We learned that the new Powerline Carrier control systems (A-10 technology) that have evolved from the early X-10 systems have solved most of the noise problems that dogged the successful application of X-10 technologies in commercial buildings. We found that the new A-10 powerline carrier control technology can be reliable and effective for switching lighting circuits even in electrically noisy office environments like LBNL. Thus we successfully completed the task objectives by designing, building and demonstrating a new switching system that can provide multiple levels of light which can be triggered either from specially designed wall switches or from a digital communications network. By applying commercially available powerline carrier based technologies that communicate over the in-place lighting wiring system, this type of control can be economi cally installed even in existing buildings that were not wired for dual-level lighting.


The CACREP Standards document leadership as an essential part of counselor development. However, there does not yet seem to be a consensus in the profession about what specific knowledge, skills, practices and attributes (KSPAs) are necessary for leadership roles in counseling. The purpose of this study was to develop expert consensus of the KSPAs that are necessary for leadership roles. This study utilized Delphi Methodology and consisted of two phases with three rounds of data collection in Phase 2. Phase 1 utilized an online brainstorming session with expert counseling leaders to develop a list of KSPAs. Phase 2 involved three rounds of data collection utilizing the questionnaire, developed from the combination of Phase I results and current resources, to come to consensus about the perceived necessity of the KSPAs for leadership roles. The expert panel consisted of 48 participants for Round 1, 29 for Round 2, and 24 for Round 3. Of the 105 items analyzed, 70 were identified as very necessary by the expert panel. Nine of these items had more than 50% agreement by the expert panel as the most necessary for leadership roles in counseling. These items are: Strong counselor identity (78%), Being ethical (61%), Empowering others (57%), Ability to see the "big picture" (57%), Modeling/leading by example (57%), Collaboration (52%), Knowledge of the membership (52%), Genuine/authentic (52%), and Being strategic (52%).


Reliable and precise classification is essential for successful diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Thus, improvements in cancer classification are increasingly sought. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is the most effective method of cancer classification in high-dimensional prediction, but there are drawbacks to tumor classification by a formal method such as LDA. We propose a method for lung cancer gene microarray classification that combines a feature reduction approach, partial least squares (PLS), and discriminate method, LDA, for improving classification performance. The real dataset used related to lung cancer gene expression. After bioinformatics data preprocessing, data reduction and feature selection were carried out using PLS and then LDA was used for classification. The results were validated using the accuracy index and gene ontology analysis. Of the total of more than 50,000 genes, 214 genes were shown to have relevance. The classification accuracy of this method was 94.5% and gene ontology analysis results were good. It can be said that the LDA classifier combined with PLS is powerful method. This method can identify gene relationships warranting further biological investigation.


The major gneissic metasediment within the Grenville series of the northwest Adirondacks extends northeastward across the Grenville Lowlands for about 35 miles, though areas of different degrees of metamorphism and igneous intrusion. Within this region, the gneiss is interpreted to be grossly monoclinal, but overturned to form the southeast flank of a regional anticlinorium. The opposite flank of this structure probably lies just northwest of the St. Lawrence River in the Brockville-Mallorytown-Kingston areas, Ontario.

The gneiss is interstratified with thick zones of siliceous magnesian marble, thin quartzites, and schists. Two siliceous marble zones stratigraphically below the gneiss have a total thickness of about 8000 feet. A siliceous dolomite zone immediately above the gneiss (southeast of it) is at least 4000 feet thick and, with an overlying feldspathic quartzite, adjoins the central Adirondack igneous-rich massif. The gneiss itself is about 3000 feet thick and, except for thin interlayers of amphibolite and marble, the layers interpreted as relict beds are monotonous in texture and composition. These least-altered layers of gneiss are granoblastic, faintly foliated, quartz-greenish biotite-oligoclase gneiss in which the ratio of Na2O/K2O is approximately 1.3:1. Consequently the rock is far more sodic than typical shales. Layers of this composition are widely although sporadically distributed through the complex, and are injected lit-par-lit, replaced by and transitional into biotitic quartz-microcline-oligoclase granite, pegmatite, and alaskitic granite. Variants from these fades include garnetiferous and sillimanitic gneiss and migmatite, and tourmaline-bearing pegmatites.

The simple assemblage quartz-greenish biotite-oligoclase, found principally in those areas farthest from large bodies of igneous granite, undoubtedly represents not only the least-altered metasediment but moreover the lowest-rank metamorphic facies into which the parent sediment is reconstituted. This rock type is abundant northwest of Hyatt, New York, in that segment of the gneiss farthest from the central Adirondack igneous complex.

The alteration of the gneiss into various rock types reflecting increasing degree or rank of metamorphism as well as increasing interaction with magmatic fluids may be observed as the gneiss is traced northeastward toward Edwards, New York, which lies adjacent to the igneous massif. Alteration of the quartz-greenish biotite-oligoclase gneiss by granitic fluids commonly is accompanied by successive and marked decreases in biotite and in both the amount of plagioclase and in the per cent anorthite molecule of the plagioclase, as well as by a decrease in quartz content. Marked increases in potash feldspar content, particularly, serve as a useful index against which other mineralogical and textural changes may be plotted. As these changes appear in the gneiss, the greenish-brown biotite commonly gives way to a reddish-brown, probably more magnesian and titaniferous variety. A corollary to these successive mineralogical changes of gneiss toward granitic types are the chemical modifications involving, especially, a diminution in total iron, lime, and magnesia, and an increase in alkalis, particularly K2O, which becomes dominant over Na2O in many granitized facies. Intermediate types of this alkali-rich, potassic derivative of the gneiss most nearly approximate the composition of well-sorted shales and are possibly those considered by some earlier workers as representative of the sedimentary parent.

Textural changes include the development not only of migmatite, pegmatite, and equigranular granite, but also of widespread augen gneisses and "porphyritic" granite, both of which contain large porphyroblasts and possibly some phenocrysts, chiefly microcline.

The processes of injection and granitization seem to involve both magma and fluids from magma, which permeated the gneiss, interacting with and replacing it. Where the interaction of granitic fluids and gneisses occurred near, along, and in the central igneous-rich complex of the Adirondacks, in an environment of higher temperatures, the reddish-brown biotite appears almost or quite to the exclusion of greenish varieties. In addition, almandite garnet and sillimanite are formed, in that order, as products of the interaction. Almandite and some orthoclase also have formed as new phases presumably reflecting increasing rank of regional metamorphism without significant chemical modification of the parent sediment. Some of the earliest magmatic fluids appear to have included iron-rich derivatives, which by metasomatism formed scattered ferriferous biotite and hornblendic layers in and along the gneiss. These are largely granitized by the subsequent and dominant incursions of potassic, low-iron magma and associated fluids. Considerations of volume relations, compositional features, and paragenesis in the gneiss complex indicate that the potash in the "injecting" fluids had its source outside the gneiss; that is, it could not have been derived from the gneiss itself by secondary leaching, differential anatexis, or related processes. Nor seemingly could the relatively high soda content of the least-altered gneiss represent an earlier, but secondary, inoculation of the gneiss or parent sediment after diagenesis. Accordingly, the soda to potash ratio which approaches 1.3:1 in the quartz-biotite-oligoclase layers is regarded as either inherent in the sedimentary particles, or added essentially at the interface of sedimentation.

If the composition of the quartz-biotite-oligoclase gneiss near Hyatt was inherent in the clastic particles deposited in Grenville seas, graywacke type sediments or tuffs are the most logical parent rocks. If soda was added to the clastic particles at the interface of deposition, or penecontemporaneously, the pre-existing sediment may have been one of the more common clay-weathering products. Unfortunately neither alternative is particularly compelling or more readily demonstrated than the others. The seemingly intimate and concordant intercalation of the gneiss with thick marbles and pure quartzites suggests that the gneiss was derived from shales or argillaceous sandstones which were products of marked residual weathering and good sorting. Graywackes, on the other hand, are presumed to imply a minimum of chemical weathering with rapid erosion, transportation, and deposition in an unstable crustal environment. Thick, monotonous tuffs are as anomalous within this Grenville association of sediments as are graywackes and hardly represent a logical parent to the gneiss.

To assume soda-rich clays as the parent sediment poses problems equally great. The uniform addition of soda to great volumes of the commoner clayey products of residual weathering is almost unknown as a normal marine process. Commonly potash, rather than soda, is added to the accumulating clays, forming illitic shales. In addition to potash, both calcium and magnesium have greater replacing power than sodium and thus would replace it in requisite marine environments. The principal justification for assuming that soda could have been added to Grenville clays lies in indications that parts of the Grenville seas were, periodically at least, abnormally saline and soda rich. The great thickness of the carbonate sequence, its content of magnesia, silica, anhydrite, and halite indicate this, although most or all of these substances except the silica could be of secondary origin.

If seas of abnormal salinity were involved, several possibilities suggest themselves. Some water-laid tuffs, altered tuffs, and clays are known to alter to zeolites and zeolitelike minerals. Thus, clinoptilolite, analcime, and apophyllite with more or less admixed clay are found as marine beds evolved through interaction of tuffaceous material and saline water. Some zeolites even form in open seas. The zeolitic rocks occur as both intermediate and end-stage products in the weathering of tuffs and probably of other rocks and form widespread uniform beds. As such they suggest a possible parent to the gneiss.

Another alternative is that during sedimentation sodic shales are formed, by base exchange, from clay products of marked residual weathering. Base exchange of this type is credible if the seas were abnormally warm, rich in soda, and depleted in other bases which have greater energies of exchange than soda. In this environment, common clay minerals such as montmorillonite are known to take up soda in exchange for a previously held base, especially calcium, magnesium, or hydrogen.

Lateral extensions of the Adirondack type gneiss should appear in the near-by parts of Canada where most gneisses in the Grenville series are described as "normal shales." It is hardly reasonable to infer that the lateral transition from a sodic to potassic sediment coincides with the international boundary. The data, though fragmentary, suggest that gneiss of the Adirondack type occurs in the Brockville-Mallorytown-Kingston areas and possibly for many miles beyond. Along and northeast of the Ottawa River, however, most gneisses described to date appear to represent derivatives of more normal shales or argillaceous sandstones. Accordingly the Adirondack gneiss may be inferred to pinch out to the northeast or grade laterally into metasediment probably derived from much less sodic parent elastics. In the northern and northeastern parts of the subprovince, however, paragneisses which seem to approach the Adirondack type are reported in numerous areas. The relations of these rocks to those in the southwest part of the subprovince are, unfortunately, a major enigma.


As taxpayers typically pay low attention to a small inflation-induced bracket creep of the income tax, policy-makers tend to postpone its correction into the future. However, the fiscal illusion fades away and political pressure for a tax relief arises since after some years the cumulative increase of the average tax rate exceeds a critical threshold. Using Germany as an example, this paper shows that bracket creeps can provoke revenue cycles in public budgets hindering governments' compliance with the numerical budget rules. An indexation of the tax tariff could prevent such fluctuations and thus provides a favourable framework for the debt rule.


This study proposes and describes a novel approach for cementing sandy soils in marine environments by modifying the promising technique of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP). In contrast to the usual MICP technique described in the literature, the method proposed herein relies on the calcium ions dissolved in seawater as the sole source of calcium for calcite formation. This proposed method involves flushing high-salinity-tolerant, urease-active bacteria followed by a mixture of urea and seawater through a porous sandy soil, leading to bacterial carbonate release from the urease reaction and precipitation of insoluble and semi-soluble carbonate salts including calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate trihydrate. This precipitation method resulted in a physical stabilisation of sand that reached an unconfined compressive strength of up to 300 kPa, which is about two-fold higher (with same amount of crystals produced) than that of the MICP treatment in which highly concentrated calcium and urea solutions are used. Permeability was retained at about 30% for all MICP-treated samples, suggesting good drainage ability. This new exploration of MICP technology provides a high potential for using bio-cementation in marine environments, for applications such as mitigation of submarine sediment liquefaction and prevention of beach sand erosion and cliffs scouring.


The international debate over how to balance access to medicines with the intellectual property protection demanded by their developers divides the economically developed countries from the developing countries. Economically developed countries have pushed for an interpretation of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement) that would confer on large pharmaceutical companies price-inflating monopolies over drugs that are neither patented nor patentable, through guarantees of exclusive rights to clinical testing data necessary to obtain marketing approval. The purpose of data exclusivity is to ensure that the initial registrant of a new drug can recover the considerable costs of testing the drug for efficacy and safety. Many developing countries see little point in granting exclusive marketing privileges to wealthy foreign drug companies so that they may sell much-needed drugs at a premium price to an impecunious population. Allowing later registrants to free ride on the data submitted by the drug's initial registrant prevents wasteful repetition of testing and facilitates rapid development of competition in drug markets. The Article analyzes the contentions of both sides of the debate and proposes a resolution that strikes the right balance between maximizing drug developers' incentives to obtain new drug marketing approvals in developing countries and fostering free and fair competition in drug markets. The time has come to propose an alternative approach that is consistent with the requirements of the TRIPs Agreement and satisfies the reasonable policy needs of both the pharmaceutical industry and developing countries.


The School of Best Practices is an online resource that describes how to create lasting digital documentation according to the standards developed by a community of linguists, archivists, and computer scientists. The School was developed as part of the NSF-sponsored E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data) project, an initiative undertaken to develop digital infrastructure for the documentation of endangered languages. Users of the School can access recommendations of digital best practices and simple instructions for using the technologies recommended. The School also offers case studies of exemplary digitization processes, and searchable databases of tools and bibliographic resources. This paper describes how to use the School in creating digital language documentation, emphasizing its role among existing documentation and archiving initiatives.


Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is one of the standard treatment options for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The details of the biological defense mechanisms against BCG remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether BCG-induced release of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs; e.g., human β-defensin-2, -3, and cathelicidin) is involved with mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, and investigated the enhanced anticancer effect of BCG through the down-regulation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and MAPK pathways in bladder cancer cells. BCG-infected bladder cancer cells produced AMPs as a defense mechanism against BCG, which were reduced by MEK inhibitors by blocking phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2 or MEK) and c-Jun. MEK inhibitors enhanced inhibition of bladder cancer cell growth by decreased binding of c-Jun, p65 and Pol II to the activated protein-1 promoter. Knockdown of TLR2 and TLR4 reduced ERK phosphorylation. Knockdown of TLR 2 decreased release of AMPs, which was similar to the efficacy of MEK inhibitor on BCG-infected cells. BCG-infected bladder cancer cells were more prone to induction of AMP release following TLR2 activation via ERK and c-Jun pathway mediators. In conclusion, our data suggest that the BCG-induced release of AMPs in bladder cancer cells is a promising molecular target for enhancing the immunotherapeutic efficacy of BCG in bladder cancer patients.


This chapter presents a novel simultaneous monostatic and bistatic ground moving target indication (GMTI) mode for improved target detection and imaging capability. The mode uses an airborne multichannel radar system and a stationary transmitter. Both systems transmit simultaneously on adjacent frequency bands, and the airborne multichannel system receives both its monostatic echoes and the bistatic returns. Geometrical diversity between the monostatic and the bistatic measurements enhances moving target-detection capabilities. Moreover, for movers detected in both datasets, an estimation of the target velocity vector (i.e., velocity and direction of motion) can be performed. By simply extracting a singlechannel dataset, this also allows correct focusing of moving targets both in monostatic and in bistatic datasets, if SAR-GMTI capability is required. Consequently, situational awareness over the observed area is greatly improved. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is analyzed both from a theoretical point of view and by means of an ad-hoc experiment conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (FHR) in fall 2013.


This paper presents a method for decomposing long, complex consumer health questions. Our approach largely decomposes questions using their syntactic structure, recognizing independent questions embedded in clauses, as well as coordinations and exemplifying phrases. Additionally, we identify elements specific to disease-related consumer health questions, such as the focus disease and background information. To achieve this, our approach combines rank-and-filter machine learning methods with rule-based methods. Our results demonstrate significant improvements over the heuristic methods typically employed for question decomposition that rely only on the syntactic parse tree.


The time and sequence of ossification pattern of the skeletal system of the Rattus rattus were studied in serial whole mounts prepared from Day 10 to Day 21.5 (day of delivery). In the neurocranium, each bone is represent by a single ossification centra. At birth, the neurocranium is a well formed miniature of that in the adult. Four stages can be distinguished in the ossification of the vertebral column. All ossification centres in the vertebrae were found to be present at birth. In the appendicular skeleton, the chondrogenesis and osteogenesis patterns proceed in proximo-distal sequence with postero--anterior direction. It is possible to map limb part giving rise to each skeletal element as it appears. The pelvic limb bones are ossified later than those of the pectoral limb. Sexual dimorphism during ossification is not pronouced.


Availability of resources is a limiting factor for many populations. Diminished resource availability due to intraspecific competition is expected to decrease the annual growth increments of individuals. We study an age-structured population model for individuals with indeterminate growth and annual reproduction; parameters of the model are chosen to characterize a population with life history similar to the Eurasian perch. Different variants of this model are analyzed, all of which have a potential for exhibiting non-equilibrium population fluctuations. We demonstrate that incorporating density-dependent individual growth into these models changes the dynamics of these populations by damping or even eradicating fluctuations in abundance and biomass. This finding offers an explanation for the observed stable dynamics of unperturbed perch populations. Further, density-dependent individual growth may also be a significant factor contributing to the conspicuous empirical rarity of non-equilibrium population dynamics in general.


The Kv2.1 voltage-gated K+ channel is found both freely diffusing over the plasma membrane and concentrated in micron-sized clusters localized to the soma, proximal dendrites, and axon initial segment of hippocampal neurons. In transfected HEK cells, Kv2.1 channels within cluster microdomains are nonconducting. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, the number of GFP-tagged Kv2.1 channels on the HEK cell surface was compared with K+ channel conductance measured by whole-cell voltage clamp of the same cell. This approach indicated that, as channel density increases, nonclustered channels cease conducting. At the highest density observed, only 4% of all channels were conducting. Mutant Kv2.1 channels that fail to cluster also possessed the nonconducting state with 17% conducting K+ at higher surface densities. The nonconducting state was specific to Kv2.1 as Kv1.4 was always conducting regardless of the cell-surface expression level. Anti-Kv2.1 immunofluorescence intensity, standardized to Kv2.1 surface density in transfected HEK cells, was used to determine the expression levels of endogenous Kv2.1 in cultured rat hippocampal neurons. Endogenous Kv2.1 levels were compared with the number of conducting channels determined by whole-cell voltage clamp. Only 13 and 27% of the endogenous Kv2.1 was conducting in neurons cultured for 14 and 20 d, respectively. Together, these data indicate that the nonconducting state depends primarily on surface density as opposed to cluster location and that this nonconducting state also exists for native Kv2.1 found in cultured hippocampal neurons. This excess of Kv2.1 protein relative to K+ conductance further supports a nonconducting role for Kv2.1 in excitable tissues.


The argument advocating a moderate level of inflation based on the downward nominal-wage rigidity (DNWR) hypothesis rests on three factors: its presence, extent, and negative impact in the labour market. This paper focuses on the employment effect of DNWR. It reviews the evidence presented by Simpson, Cameron, and Hum (1998), in light of a potential bias problem associated with their reduced-form model. We describe modifications to their employment model that aim to better isolate the effects of DNWR on employment growth. Analysis shows that empirical evidence in Simpson, Cameron, and Hum (1998) is sensitive to model specification. In contrast to Simpson, Cameron, and Hum (1998), who found—economically and statistically—significant employment costs for DNWR, in most of our specifications DNWR has no significant effect on employment growth.


The porous structure and the state of the water are two main factors which define the vast applications of hydrogels in the life science arena. The structural characterisation and water state in hydrogels produced by the cryogelation of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and gelatine were undertaken using different techniques. Images obtained using confocal laser scanning and multiphoton microscopies were analysed using ImageJ/Fiji software to estimate the total porosity, specific surface area and pore size and wall thickness distribution functions of each of the hydrogels. The hydration properties and structural characteristics of the nanopore component of the polymer and protein hydrogels were analysed using DSC, 1H NMR spectroscopy and cryoporometry and modelled using the PM6 quantum chemical method. The hydrogels produced by cryogelation were shown to have a large macropore volume, high pore interconnectivity and small specific surface area. The main portion of water was shown to be attributable to bulk water located within macropores. The relative amounts of bound water in the hydrogels were demonstrated to be small (<10 wt% of bulk water) making macroporous hydrogels an attractive system for biological applications. An understanding of the parameters studied here is important for the future engineering of cryogels for biological applications.


Social participation is an area of occupation that can increase and enhance an individual's participation in life. This is particularly true in senior housing communities where common issues of aging and adjustment can be addressed while reducing feelings of social isolation. The purpose of this demonstration project was to provide a venue where older adults living at The Redwoods, a senior housing community in Mill Valley, California, could share and develop meaningful strategies for living, and ultimately foster a sense of connectedness, which would affect quality of life. The project's goals were to create and implement a series of process groups to benefit the well-being of the residents of The Redwoods, and to produce a resource manual for Dominican University occupational therapy graduate students in co-facilitating the process groups. The project and manual were used as the basis for a Community Practice Lab during which the students were able to gain experience in the psychosocial occupational therapy skills for which they had been trained, while simultaneously providing the residents with an opportunity for social engagement and meaningful activity. Within the scope of occupational therapy practice, therapists can develop and facilitate psychosocial process groups that promote connectedness and well-being among residents of senior housing communities.


The often disappointing performance of optimizing neural networks can be partly attributed to the rather ad hoc manner in which problems are mapped onto them for solution. In this paper a rigorous mapping is described for quadratic 0-1 programming problems with linear equality and inequality constraints, this being the most general class of problem such networks can solve. The problem's constraints define a polyhedron P containing all the valid solution points, and the mapping guarantees strict confinement of the network's state vector to P. However, forcing convergence to a 0-1 point within P is shown to be generally intractable, rendering the Hopfield and similar models inapplicable to the vast majority of problems. A modification of the tabu learning technique is presented as a more coherent approach to general problem solving with neural networks. When tested on a collection of knapsack problems, the modified dynamics produced some very encouraging results.


In winter, temperate resident birds are often faced with periodic low natural food availability. This reduction or unpredictability in resource availability might then have a negative impact on immune function, given that immune system support is highly resource dependent. We investigated the balance between energetic and immune management in captive black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilus) by manipulating the predictability of resources. The control group received food ad lib. every day, while the experimental group received a reduced amount of food on random days and food ad lib. on all other days. We measured two key metrics of energetic management (body and fat mass) as well as a suite of immune system components. Compared with control birds, experimental birds maintained significantly higher total body and fat mass, had lower acute phase protein concentrations, and had decreased body temperature and lost more body mass during the fever response following injection with lipopolysaccharides. Interestingly, birds in both groups had similar levels of complement lysis, delayed-type hypersensitivity response (phytohemagglutinin), and primary antibody production (keyhole limpet hemocyanin). This experiment demonstrates that black-capped chickadees strategically increase their fat mass in response to decreased food availability and that this might allow the birds to maintain most of the immune system unaltered, except some of the most costly immune components.


The aim of this study was to investigate the hepatoprotective action of the protein fraction of Phyllanthus niruri against acetaminophen (APAP) hepatotoxicity. The partially purified protein fraction of P. niruri was injected intraperitoneally in mice either prior to (preventive) or after the induction of toxicity (curative). Levels of different liver marker enzymes in serum and different antioxidant enzymes, as well as lipid peroxidation in total liver homogenates were measured in normal, control (toxicity induced) and P. niruri protein fraction‐treated mice. P. niruri significantly reduced the elevated glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels in the sera of toxicity induced mice, compared with the control group. Lipid peroxidation levels were also reduced in mice treated with P. niruri protein fraction compared with the APAP treated control group. Among the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione–S‐transferase (GST) levels were restored to almost normal levels compared with the control group. P. niruri treatment also enhanced reduced hepatic glutathione (GSH) levels caused by APAP administration. The results demonstrated that the protein fraction of P. niruri protected liver tissues against oxidative stress in mice, probably acting by increasing antioxidative defense. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Palladium complexes bearing N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands, and their applications in catalysis have remained topical in the literature for the past two decades. Their versatility is due to a vast array of structural modifications possible that afford influences on metal complex geometry and reactivity, and alternative ligand binding modes. These have been extensively developed due to the wide range of catalytic applications for palladium NHC complexes and continue to remain of interest. This thesis describes investigations into several aspects of palladium NHC complexes with potential or known catalytic applications.

The synthesis of the novel bis(NHC) dipalladium(I) hydride complex `[μ-{(MesIm)_2CH_2}_2Pd_2H][PF_6]` has been reported. \(^1H\) `NMR` spectroscopic studies and preliminary single crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction studies on a THF solvate of this complex were indicative of possible solid state hydride dynamics. This hypothesis was probed by further variable temperature and low temperature single crystal neutron diffraction experiments, and by incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (IINS) experiments coupled with DFT-MD simulations. The simulations allowed us to approximate the rate of hydride transfer in the solid state. Laue single crystal neutron diffraction was also employed to examine the propylene-linked bis(NHC) complexes `[μ-{(MesIm)_2(CH_2)_3}_2Pd_2H][PF_6]` and `[μ-{(MesIm)_2(CH_2)_3}{(PdH)(MesIm)_2(CH_2)_3}_2][PF_6]_2`.

The synthesis of chelated bis(NHC) palladium(II) dihalide complexes has been established to proceed via a pendant imidazolium mono(NHC) palladium(II) dihalide acetate intermediate. This intermediate was isolable for the `t`-`butyl` `N`-substituent and a series of complexes sharing the motif `[{(tBuIm)(tBuImH)CH_2}PdX_2CO_2R]` were prepared with variations to the ancillary halide ligands and acetate substituent. The hydrogen bonding between the imidazolium C-2 proton and the acetate ligand was examined in solution by \(^1H\) `NMR` spectroscopy and in the solid state by single crystal X-ray and Laue neutron diffraction. The `N`-mesityl pendant imidazolium mono(NHC) palladium(II) trihalide complexes of the motif `[{(MesIm)(MesImH)(CH_2)_n}PdX_3]` were prepared and used to access the mono(NHC) palladium dihalide acetate intermediates of the form `[{(MesIm)(MesImH)(CH_2)_n}PdX_2CO_2R]`.

We expanded previous studies on chelated bis(NHC) palladium(II) complexes to include saturated NHC species through the preparation of complexes \([\{(^sMesIm)_2CH_2\} PdBr_2]\) and \([{(^SMesIm)_2CH_2}Pd(NCMe)_2][PF_6]2\) and examined the catalytic activity of the latter towards ethylene and carbon monoxide copolymerisation, similar to studies undertaken on the unsaturated analogue. The reactivity towards formation of the dipalladium(I) hydride complex from the dicationic palladium(II) precursor under basic conditions was also examined.

Expansion of these saturated NHC complexes to include extended alkyl linkers was limited by the formation solely of the pendant imidazolinium mono(NHC) palladium(II) tribromide complexes \([{(^SMesIm)(^SMesImH)(CH_2)_n}PdBr_3]\) upon reaction of the iimidazolinium salts with palladium acetate. The bis(NHC) disilver(I) complexes \([{(^SMesIm)_2(CH_2)_n}_2Ag_2][PF_6]_2\) bearing methylene and propylene-linked imidazoline ligands were prepared, though transmetallation via PdBrMe(COD) to form reactive palladium(II) complexes for catalysis was not successful.

There has been growing interest in the study of abnormal or remote NHC ligands (aNHCs and rNHCs, respectively) due to their apparent increase in σ-donor strength and reported improvement in catalytic activity `cf.` their normal NHC (nNHC) counterparts. We prepared an aNHC ligand precursor containing a 5-(4-pyridinium) substituent which, if aligned coplanar to the NHC ring, could allow conjugation through the biaryl C-C bond, and show varying contributions from aNHC and "partially normalised" NHC resonance forms. The complexes of the motif \([1,2,3−trimethyl−5−(N−methylpyridinium)ImPdL_n][PF_6]_y\) were prepared by oxidative addition of the 4-brominated ligand precursor to palladium(0) and structurally characterised by X-ray crystallography. The degree of contribution from the desired resonance form was probed by examination of key C-C bond lengths and by the angle between the NHC and pyridinium ring planes.


Unemployment benefits have played an unprecedented role in the U.S. economy as a result of record high job losses and the authorization of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act authorized a $600-per-week supplement, which hugely increased the value of unemployment benefits, such that the median jobless worker received unemployment benefits equal to 145% of their pre-job loss wages compared to 50% in normal times. The $600 weekly supplement expired at the end of July, however, causing the total value of unemployment benefits paid out to fall by 52 percent between July and August. In this paper, we present evidence that the increased unemployment benefits boosted both spending and savings among the unemployed and that upon the expiration of the $600 benefit supplement in August, families receiving unemployment benefits sharply cut spending and dipped into savings. Our first finding shows that spending of the unemployed increased by 22 percent upon receipt of unemployment benefits and declined by 14 percent in August with the expiration of the $600 supplement. Our second finding shows that the unemployed roughly doubled their liquid savings over the four month period between March and July 2020 but then spent two-thirds of the accumulated savings in August alone. Eventually, without further government support or significant labor market improvements, jobless workers may exhaust their accumulated savings buffer, leaving them with a choice to further cut spending or fall behind on debt or rent payments.


Storage management is usually handled by skilled system administrators. The specific task of configuring and allocating disk space for applications, often referred to as storage system design, is especially timeconsuming and error-prone. Automated storage system design, a solution proposed by many, relies on fast and accurate performance predictions. However, challenges with conventional performance modeling have prevented such automation from being fully realized in practice. Relative fitness is a new approach to modeling the performance of storage systems. In contrast to conventional models that predict the performance of storage systems based on the characteristics of workloads, referred to in this dissertation as absolute models, relative fitness models predict performance differences as workloads are moved across storage systems. There are two primary advantages. First, because relative fitness models are constructed for each pair of storage systems, the feedback of a closed workload can be captured (e.g., how the I/O arrival rate changes as the workload moves from storage system A to storage system B). Second, relative fitness models allow performance and resource utilization to be used in addition to workload characteristics. This is beneficial when workload characteristics are difficult to obtain or concisely express. For example, rather than trying to describe the spatio-temporal characteristics of a workload, one could use the observed performance and cache hit rate of storage system A to help predict the performance of storage system B. This dissertation describes the steps necessary to build a relative fitness model, with an approach that is general enough to be used with any black-box modeling technique. Relative fitness models and absolute models are compared across a variety of workloads and disk arrays (RAID). When compared to absolute models, relative fitness models reduce the bandwidth prediction error up to 53%, throughput up to 23%, and latency up to 20%. In general, the best predictors of the relative fitness models are performance observations, followed by conventional workload characteristics. Relative fitness models can be used in automated storage system design in a similar way that absolute models are used. Specifically, workloads can be observed on the storage systems that they are initially assigned to, relative fitness models can use these observations to predict the performance of different assignments, and optimization techniques can be used to select an assignment that optimizes performance.


Much has been written about how the social structures of honor and shame affected women in Mediterranean antiquity. Sometimes "honor and shame" are taken out of context and used as absolute opposites, an oversimplification. Rather, honor and shame function as coordinates within a complex matrix of other societal factors. Chief among them are kinship, social hierarchy, economic control and effective social networking. Some contemporary studies from southern Europe help illuminate this pattern. The complexity and variation present in the social dynamics of these contemporary cultures indicate that the same kind of complexity and variation must have been present in ancient cultures too.


This report utilizes 2000 Census migration data to assess the role of race-ethnicity as part of inter-state migration within the United States. The rising prominence of immigrant minorities, Hispanics and Asians, as well as blacks in the US population, and their changing dispersal patterns, calls for explicit attention to their roles in inter-state migration. The analysis employs maps, graphs, descriptive statistics and a nested logit migration model that evaluates residents' departures from origin states, and migrants' selections of destination states over the 1995-2000 period. The analysis focuses on two themes: First, we assess the role of 'cultural constraints' as they affect departures and destination selections for different race-ethnic groups. These constraints shape migration patterns for these groups due to their needs for social support networks, kinship ties, and access to informal employment opportunities that tend to be available in areas that house large concentrations of co-ethnics. For both the departure and destination selection parts of the migration process, we find that a concentration of co-ethnics in a state serves to deter potential out-migrants and to attract potential new migrants. There is also evidence of spatial assimilation in that cultural constraints are less pronounced in the destination selections for the more educated Hispanic, Black, and Asian migrants. Second, we examine the impacts that low-skilled immigration and high housing costs exert on domestic out-migration from urbanized, high immigration states. Our earlier research indicated that the former factor affected a low skilled "white flight." However, more recently, high housing costs, along with more racially diverse populations in these areas, suggest that the latter may be promoting a more multiethnic "middle class flight". Our results support this interpretation by showing accentuated outmigration and reduced destination selections of less educated migrants among all race-ethnic groups for states with high housing values and high levels of foreign born immigration. DATA USED: 2000 US Census 5% Public Use MicroSample (PUMS) files


This article focuses on the nature of legislative discretions in the hands of the executive authority of the state. Relevant concepts are analysed, followed by an exposition of the position regarding delegation of legislative authority to the executive under the previous constitutional dispensation when the country had a sovereign Parliament. This is followed by a discussion of the legal position in Germany, which shows similarities to the situation in South Africa. It appears that differences in approach to the problem exist worldwide, but one similarity is to be found in all, namely that a complete parliamentary abdication of legislative authority is always disallowed. What follows from this is that South African law seems to follow the German example regarding the delegation of legislative powers. It seems that the South African Constitutional Court considers the delegation of essential legislative authority as undesirable. Limits have to be placed on the extent of Parliament's competencies pertaining to legislative delegation. Furthermore the manner and form requirements in the Constitution must be met when legislation is adopted. This however does not occur in all instances of legislative delegation to the executive authority. When legislative delegation takes place, it is consistently done by granting the executive the authority to adopt subordinate legislation, which in any event has the same legal effect as legislation of Parliament itself. Next the Transitional Constitution of 1993 is considered against the background of relevant case law. It appears that the legal position was not changed by the promulgation of the ("final") Constitution of 1996. Empowering legislation that delegates any legislative authority must lay down guidelines providing direction regarding the exercise of the delegated authority. Delegated legislation may of course not contain substantive norms. Like the German Bundesverfassungsgericht, the South African Constitutional Court seems to require empowering legislation to lay down the content, extent and purpose of the empowering provisions before it will enjoy legal effect. This content, extent and purpose will not primarily be evident from the delegated legislation, but must be contained in the empowering legislation itself. If this is not the case, the delegation of authority will have exceeded constitutional limits. Therefore, a wide delegation of legislative authority without limitations regarding its exercise, at least as far as content, extent and purpose are concerned, will without doubt be unconstitutional.


Climatic conditions on the earth's surface are in part a function of varying physical position (elevation, latitude, and aspect) and the influence of large-scale meteorological forces such as air and ocean currents. The density and architecture of plant canopies in natural systems are directly influenced by these climatic factors. By contrast, for agricultural systems, it is the crop canopies that often influence local microclimate. In both instances, the soil plays an important role in affecting climate near the surface. Properties of the surface soil layer including color, water content, texture, and density affect the partitioning of incident radiation and how much energy is used to evaporate water, warm the air above the ground, or warm the soil. The amount of thermal energy that moves through an area of soil in a unit of time is the soil heat flux or heat flux density. The ability of a soil to conduct heat determines how fast its temperature changes during a day or between seasons. Soil temperature is a key factor affecting the rate of chemical and biological processes in the soil essential to plant growth. Soil heat flux is important in micrometeorology because it effectively couples energy transfer processes at the surface (surface energy balance) with energy transfer processes in the soil (soil thermal regime). This interaction between surface and subsurface energy transfer processes has led to detailed investigations of soil heat flux for a wide variety of agricultural systems. Disciplines Agricultural Science | Climate | Soil Science Comments This chapter is from Sauer, T.J. and R. Horton. 2005. Soil heat flux. In: J.L. Hatfield and J.M. Baker (Editors), Micrometeorology in agricultural systems. ASA Monograph 47: 131-154. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin. doi: 10.2134/agronmonogr47.c7. Rights Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. This book chapter is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/agron_pubs/304


Safe exploration is essential for the practical use of reinforcement learning (RL) in many real-world scenarios. In this paper, we present a generalized safe exploration (GSE) problem as a unified formulation of common safe exploration problems. We then propose a solution of the GSE problem in the form of a meta-algorithm for safe exploration, MASE, which combines an unconstrained RL algorithm with an uncertainty quantifier to guarantee safety in the current episode while properly penalizing unsafe explorations before actual safety violation to discourage them in future episodes. The advantage of MASE is that we can optimize a policy while guaranteeing with a high probability that no safety constraint will be violated under proper assumptions. Specifically, we present two variants of MASE with different constructions of the uncertainty quantifier: one based on generalized linear models with theoretical guarantees of safety and near-optimality, and another that combines a Gaussian process to ensure safety with a deep RL algorithm to maximize the reward. Finally, we demonstrate that our proposed algorithm achieves better performance than state-of-the-art algorithms on grid-world and Safety Gym benchmarks without violating any safety constraints, even during training.


This study was designed to determine the regulatory network that controls expression from two \(Escherichia\) \(coli\) K-12 promoters, \(pyeaR\) and \(pogt\), during anaerobic growth. These promoters were identified from transcriptomic studies as being positively regulated by NarL independently of FNR, the master regulator of anaerobic respiration. Biochemical and genetic analyses presented in this study confirmed that expression from both the \(yeaR\) and \(ogt\) promoters is dependent upon NarL, which binds to a single site in the \(yeaR\) promoter and two sites in the \(ogt\) promoter. The nucleoid-associated protein, Fis, repressed transcription from both promoters, especially in rich medium, by binding to sites that overlap the NarL site, excluding the essential activator. Both promoters were more active in the absence of functional FNR. However, mutational analysis revealed that FNR does not bind to the \(yeaR\) promoter region, so this effect is indirect. How the absence of functional FNR might affect NarL-dependent nitrite signalling was investigated. The Ogt protein is known function as an O\(^6\)-alkyguanine methyltransferase. However, the functions of the gene products of \(yeaR-yoaG\) and another operon implicated in nitrosative stress management, \(hcp-hcr\), were unknown. Strains carrying a chromosomal \(yeaR-yoaG\) deletion were not more sensitive to nitric oxide or hydroxylamine compared with the parental strain, suggesting that the products of this operon are not essential for dealing with these toxic nitrogen species. Conversely, a strain deleted in \(hcp-hcr\) was shown to be slightly more sensitive to both nitric oxide and hydroxylamine, implicating Hcp and Hcr in nitrosative stress management.


Rehabilitation should be concerned with equipping offenders with the capabilities and values to live prosocial and personally meaningful lives. is depends on the acquisition of accurate knowledge of the social and physical world, development of a robust understanding of their own values and standards, the ability to pursue their own personal good in specific environments, and being able to utilise the resources they require to overcome routine obstacles in the pursuit of that good. ese two sets of capacities are embedded in a narrative identity that reflects peoples' commitments, personal projects or goals, and subsequent activities. Narratives are stories of past experience and sets of expectations about future experiences and lives. ey both guide the actions of individuals and shape their experiences and lives (Kekes, 1993; Ward & Stewart, 2003). A person's sense of who he is emerges from his personal projects and activities in the world.


PURPOSE
To determine the role of visual-spatial information in stabilizing movement during treadmill locomotion.

METHODS
Physiological, biomechanical, and psychological indices of coordination stability were recorded while participants were visually coupled with a whole-body image of themselves during treadmill locomotion. Ten participants ran on a treadmill under three visual conditions: two dynamic images (symmetrical, mirror image; asymmetrical, reversed mirror image) and one static. Performance was examined at two speeds.

RESULTS
Participants ran more economically (mL x kg x min(-1)) when they were visually coupled with a symmetrical rather than with an asymmetrical or static image. An asymmetrical coupling resulted in increased variability in footfall position at the faster speed, in comparison to the symmetrical and static conditions. However, at slower speeds, footfall variability and frequency were higher under both dynamic visual conditions in comparison to the static control. Changes in metabolic economy (mL x kg x min(-1)) were only partially mediated by movement kinematics.

CONCLUSION
Visual information influences treadmill locomotion and associated measures of stability even when there is no intention to coordinate with external stimuli.


When this research project was initiated, my advisor, Dr. David Maxwell, said to me, "Freda, good research answers one question and asks ten more." Thus, we prepared to test our hypothesis regarding specific nuclear binding of estrogen in four organs of the laboratory rat. Based on information obtained from studies involving estrogen binding in the uterus, spleen, liver and large intestine, we hypothesized that the uterus, a well known target organ for estrogen, would have a high degree of specific nuclear binding. The large intestine, for which no evidence was found that implicated it as a target organ, would characteristically have a small amount of specific nuclear estrogen binding. The liver and spleen are two possible target organs. More substantial research has been found that implicates the liver as a target organ than has been found implicating the spleen, so we expected to find a degree of specific binding in the liver somewhat less than the uterus, but significantly greater than the large intestine. The spleen, while it is a controversial organ does not seem to be as good a candidate for a target organ as the liver--at least not at the present--so we expected specific nuclear binding to be less than the liver but still significantly greater than the large intestine.

This states the hypothesis of this paper and what we expect to see in the results. The remainder of the paper concerns itself with giving background information about estrogen and estrogen binding, with a statement of the procedure used to test the hypothesis and the results of that test.