Comparing Qatar with some developed countries such as Unite States and Europe, electricity price in Qatar is ultra-low because most of electricity is produced from low-cost gas and subsides are offered by the goverment. With facing this truth, it is very important to keep in mind that current electricity tariff is neither sustainable nor energy-saving due to oil price down, and also it will cause more and more electricity waste and carbon emission. Therefore, it is necessary for stakeholders and policymakers such as Kahramaa to evaluate what is the best tariff for electricity tariff for energy-saving and renewable energy initiative of Qatar. This paper investigate and addresses this issue by developing an approach on how to design and validate an efficient electricity tariff for renewable energy in Qatar. Firstly, negative impacts on the public and other stakeholders are investigated for the current electricity tariff. Based on demand analysis, a numerical pricing model of electricity for suppliers and users is built, and its quantitative economics are designed, considering renewables as a key utility function factor. Based on the designed pricing model of electricity, a convex quadratic minimization with linear constraints is defined. Optimization solving algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA) are utilized to search the best solution to maximize the utility function. Finally, the dynamics of the pricing model is investigated and validated based on simulation scenarios. The main contribution of this study is to help stakeholders such as Kaharama to evaluate the effectiveness of current electricity tariff and advise a better pricing solution under consideration for renewable energy initiative of Qatar. Also, the quantitative model can also work as an efficient and dynamic evaluation tool and approach for stakeholders and policy-makers.


Support vector machines (SVMs), a relatively new paradigm in statistical learning theory, are studied for their potential to recognize transient behavior of detector signals corresponding to various accident events at nuclear power plants (NPPs). Transient classification is a major task for any computer-aided system for recognition of various malfunctions. The ability to identify the state of operation or events occurring at an NPP is crucial so that personnel can select adequate response actions. The Modular Accident Analysis Program, version 4 (MAAP4) is a program that can be used to model various normal and abnormal events in an NPP. This study uses MAAP signals describing various loss-of-coolant accidents in boiling water reactors. The simulated sensor readings corresponding to these events have been used to train and test SVM classifiers. SVM calculations have demonstrated that they can produce classifiers with good generalization ability for our data. This in turn indicates that SVMs show promise as classifiers for the learning problem of identifying transients.


Video indexing is a central component necessary to facilitate efficient content-based retrieval and browsing of visual information stored in large multimedia databases. This thesis presents work towards a unified framework for automated video indexing. To create an efficient index, a set of representative key frames are selected which capture and encapsulate the entire video content. This is achieved by, firstly, segmenting the video into its constituent shots and, secondly, selecting an optimal number of frames between the identified shot boundaries. The segmentation algorithm is designed to detect both abrupt shot transitions, or cuts, and gradual transitions, such as di solves andfades. This is achieved by means of a two-component frame differencing metric taking both image structure and colour distributions into account. The application of hierarchical block-based normalised correlation and local colour histogram differences leads to a method which is both accurate and robust. After the segmentation step, the key frames are selected to minimise representational redundancy whilst still portraying the content in each shot. This is achieved by employing a graph-based representation of each shot where nodes represent frames and connection weights the amount of shared content between the frames corresponding to the connected nodes. The key frames are then selected as those corresponding to nodes present on the least weight path through the graph. As a final step, the camera motion is characterised to provide an additional layer of video annotation which may prove useful for indexing.


Objectives A systematic review to assess the evidence supporting surgical repair of digital nerve injury versus no repair in adults in terms of clinical outcomes. Design A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-compliant systematic review with methodology based on the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Data sources Databases included OvidMEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, clinicaltrials.gov and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, searched from inception until 10 November 2018. Eligibility criteria Adult digital nerve injury in which either direct repair or no repair was undertaken and an outcome measure was recorded. Data extraction and synthesis Study data extracted included demographics, injury type and extent, timing, treatment details, outcome data and time points, adverse outcomes, hand therapy and return to work. The National Institute of Health quality assessment tool for case series was used to assess risk of bias. Results Thirty studies were included. One compared surgical repair with non-repair. All studies were case series of between 15 and 110 nerve injuries, with heterogeneous patient, injury and treatment characteristics. Two studies detailed nerve repair without magnification. Static 2-point discrimination (s2PD) was the most commonly reported outcome measure. Return of protective sensation was achieved in most cases in the nerve repair and no nerve repair groups. Repair resulted in better s2PD than no repair, but <25% repaired nerves achieved normal levels. Adverse outcomes were similar between repair and no repair groups. Conclusions Only level IV evidence is available to support surgical repair of digital nerves in adults. Return of normal sensibility is uncommon and almost all unrepaired nerves regained protective sensation by 6 months and all patients declined further surgery. There was no difference in adverse outcomes. There is currently a lack of high-quality evidence to support surgical repair of digital nerve injuries in adults and further research is needed. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017065092.


This paper describes the effects of composition and processing conditions on the efficiency of the compatibilizer prepared from a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP) and the sodium salt of a poly(ethylene-co-r-acrylic acid) ionomer (EAA-Na) in TLCP/low-density polyethylene (LDPE) blends and TLCP/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blends. The TLCP-ionomer graft copolymer formed by a melt acidolysis reaction effectively reduced the interfacial tension between TLCP and polyethylene, which improved impact strength and toughness of the compatibilized blends. Higher processing temperatures for the reactive extrusion produced a more efficient compatibilizer, presumably due to increased graft-copolymer formation, but the reaction temperature had little effect on the impact strength of compatibilized blends for temperatures above 300°C. The addition of the compatibilizer to TLCP/LDPE blends significantly increased the melt viscosity due to increased interfacial adhesion. The TLCP/EAA-Na ratio used to prepare the compatibilizer had little effect on the performance of the compatibilizer. Although the compatibilizer can be prepared in situ by blending and extruding a ternary blend of TLCP/EAA-Na/polyethylene, pre-reacting the compatibilizer resulted in blends with improved toughness and elongation.


Some commentators believe that American society and politics have become unusually - and dangerously - polarized. The Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade has been one of the most prominent and persisting causes of that polarization. President Bush's recent appointments of two new Supreme Court Justices have renewed speculation whether the Court might again consider overruling Roe. If Roe were overruled, it might seem that the question of abortion could be returned to the States, and that different legal regimes regulating abortion, reflecting the values of the electorates in different states and regions, would then emerge. Such a checker-board solution to the problem of abortion, while unsatisfactory to both pro-life and pro-abortion forces, might at least ease much of the polarization that Roe has occasioned. Moreover, that approach would accord well with the original design and structure of our federalist system, which has historically referred decisions over polarizing moral differences to the state rather than the national level. This article argues that a checker-board outcome is unlikely to emerge if Roe is overruled. De-constitutionalizing the abortion issue will not de-nationalize it. The Supreme Court's past and recent decisions concerning Congress' powers to regulate interstate commerce, to appropriate funds, and even to exercise a purported national police power, would vest Congress with the authority, in a post-Roe world, to legislate a national abortion policy. Overruling Roe would thus be likely to trigger a continuing winner take all struggle over abortion at the national political level, rather than leading to a federalism-based resolution of the problem of polarization.


Acknowledgments Preliminary forms of this argument were presented to the BGC/Columbia Medieval-Renaissance Seminar in May 2008; the Early Modern History workshop at Princeton University in April 2010; and at the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, in May 2010. I benefited much from the lively exchanges and am grateful to all who attended, and especially to those who invited me. Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Adam J. Kosto, Jacob Soll, and Orest Ranum read and commented on earlier versions of the written text, for which they have my deepest appreciation. Marc Fumaroli, Tony Grafton, Alain Schnapp, and Jerome Delatour have been part of a long-running conversation with me about Peiresc, and it is a pleasure to thank them yet again for all that they have given me. If there is one book that has inspired ine at many different stages of my thinking ever since I was an undergraduate, and which, I realize now that it is finished, marks this project as well, it is John Pocock's Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law. I have been helped by many librarians and archivists over the years. I would like to signal the special consideration I have received from the late Isabelle Battez, Christiane Imbert, and Jean-Francois Delmas, who have been the Conservators of the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine at Carpentras during the years I have worked there on Peiresc materials. I am especially grateful to M. Delmas for his commitment to furthering access to Peiresc's archive. Michel de Laburthe at the Bibliotheque Mejanes in Aix and Mireille Pastoureau at the Bibliotheque de l'Institut in Paris also deserve special thanks. At home, the staff of Bard Graduate Centers library has been unfailingly helpful in dealing with requests for books and loans: Heather Topcik, Karyn Hinkle, and Janis Ekdahl in particular. I am grateful to Mary McDonald of the American Philosophical Society, and Pamela Lankas of 1GS, for the patience and unfailing courtesy that has made work on the final steps of this project so easy. This book is dedicated to my son, but it is the life of my whole family these last years-Deborah and Livia, as well as Sam-that has surely found its way into every word, mood, and tense. List of Illustrations f Figure 1.1 Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc. Engraving by Lucas Vorsterman, after Jan Van Dyck. Private Collection. Figure 2.1 Peiresc's rendering of his own family chart. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. 1882, fol. 387. Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Archives et Musees de Carpentras. Figure 2.2 An example of how PeiresC represented genealog)'. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. 1814, fol. 26v-27r. Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Archives et Musees de Carpentras. Figure 2.3 Genealogical chart of the Dukes of Brieg and Liegnitz by Pierre d'Hozier. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. 1801, fol. 75r. Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Archives et Musees de Carpentras. Figure 2.4 An example drawn from Peiresc's volume illustrating seals. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. 1784, fol. 253r, detail. Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, Archives et Musees de Carpentras. Figure 3.1 Peiresc's chart of the Counts of Toulouse and Provence (fols. 58v-59r). Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. Nouvelles acquisitions francais 5174. Figure 3.2 Peiresc's chart of the Counts of Toulouse and Provence (fols. 58v-59r), detail, Paris. Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. Nouvelles acquisitions francais 5174. Figure 3.3 "Porcellet of Aries" list of documents sent by Peiresc to the Bishop ofToul. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. 1845, fol. 347r. Archives et Musees de Carpentras Figure 3.4 Continuation of the "Porcellet of Aries" list of documents sent by Peiresc to the Bishop of Toul. Carpentras, Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, MS. L845, fol. 347v. Archives et Musees de Carpentras. Figure 3.5 Jacques Callot, "Genealogy of the Porcellet Family, " general view. Carpentras, Bibliotheque inguimbertine, MS. …


As the emission legislation becomes further constraining, all manufacturers started to fulfill the future regulations about the prime movers in the market. Lean-burn gas engines operating under marine applications are also obligated to enhance the performance with a low emission level. Lean-burn gas engines are expressed as a cleaner source of power in steady loading than diesel engines, while in transient conditions of sea state, the unsteadiness compels the engine to respond differently than in the steady-state. This response leads to higher fuel consumption and an increase in emission formation. In order to improve the stability of the engine in transient conditions, this study presents a concept implementing a hybrid configuration in the propulsion system. An engine model is developed and validated in a range of load and speed by comparing it with the available measured data. The imposed torque into the developed engine model is smoothed out by implementing the hybrid concept, and its influence on emission reduction is discussed. It is shown that with the hybrid propulsion system, the NOX reduces up to 40% because of the maximum load reduction. Moreover, eliminating the low load operation by a Power Take In during incomplete propeller immersion, the methane slip declines significantly due to combustion efficiency enhancement.


The main purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which minimum wages influence teenage and youth employment in Greece. More specifically, it focuses on the estimation of the proportional change on teenage and youth employment, caused by the minimum wages using modern time series techniques. The coefficients are derived with different model specifications (linear and logarithmic) and are compared with coefficients found in other countries. Further-more, this study presents a sufficient highlight of theoretical issues and an analysis of the result of the different effects of minimum wage changes on the two groups of young employees. As it was observed for youths, a minimum wage increase has a negative impact on employment, while for teenagers the impact is positive in most of the specifications.


In the present research, we conducted two studies designed to examine the joint influence of avoidance temperament and avoidance-based achievement goals on the experience of flow on a creativity task. In both a laboratory study (N = 101; M(age)  = 22.61, SD(age)  = 4.03; 74.3% female) and a naturalistic study (N = 102; M(age)  = 16.23, SD(age)  = 1.13; 48% female), participants high in avoidance temperament were shown to experience greater flow when performance-avoidance goals were induced; no differences were found in any of the other three achievement goal conditions from the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. These findings reveal a short-term benefit for a disposition-goal match grounded in avoidance motivation, and point to the need for more research on both avoidance-based matches and the short-term versus long-term implications of such matches.


Objectives were to determine effects of feeding pomegranate extract (POMx) rich in polyphenols on performance, health, nutrient digestion, and immunocompetence of calves in the first 70 d of age. Holstein calves (n=67), at 2+/-1 d of age (d 0=birth day) were randomly assigned to 0 (control), 5 (POMx5), or 10 g/d (POMx10) of pomegranate extract containing 16.9% gallic acid equivalent (GAE) to result in intakes of 0, 850 and 1,700 mg of GAE/d or an average of approximately 0, 15, and 30 mg of GAE/kg of body weight (BW) per day. All calves received colostrum during the first 24 h, pasteurized milk thereafter until 61 d of age, and grain was fed ad libitum for the first 70 d of age. Calves were housed in individual hutches, and grain intake, attitude and fecal scores, incidence and duration of health disorders, and treatments for health problems were evaluated daily. Body weight was measured on 2 consecutive days at 2, 30, and 70 d of age and averaged for each measurement. Concentrations of glucose and 3-hydroxybutyrate were measured in plasma. Nutrient digestion was measured using total fecal collection during a 3-d period. Neutrophil phagocytic and killing activities and antibody response to immunization with ovalbumin were measured. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured and cytokine production measured. Feeding POMx had no effect on intake or BW gain in the first 30 d of age, but after 30 d of age, both grain dry matter intake and BW gain decreased with increasing addition of POMx, which resulted in calves that were 1.8 and 4.3 kg lighter at 70 d of age for POMx5 and POMx10, respectively, compared with controls. Feeding POMx did not influence dry matter, organic matter, or starch digestibility, but it reduced crude protein and fat digestion. Plasma concentrations of glucose and 3-hydroxybutyrate were similar among treatments throughout the first 70 d of age. Measures of calf health such as fecal and attitude scores, risk of fever, and rectal temperature were not altered by treatments. Similarly, neutrophil phagocytic and killing activities did not differ among treatments. On the contrary, feeding POMx increased synthesis of interferon-gamma and interleukin-4 by peripheral blood mononuclear cells and improved total immunoglobulin G responses to ovalbumin vaccination. These results suggest that feeding POMx top-dressed onto the grain suppresses intake of grain and digestibility of fat and protein, likely because of the high tannin content. Nevertheless, polyphenols from POMx enhanced mitogen-induced cytokine production and response to vaccination, which might benefit immune competence of calves and potentially health. Additional studies are warranted to minimize the effect of POMx on intake and digestibility and to better understand the mechanisms by which polyphenols improve immune response of calves.


The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the poetry of S.T. Coleridge in relation to his idealist theories of the poetic imagination. According to his various writings on the function of the imagination, the act of poesis ought to reflect the internal principles of creation as manifested in nature. The primary imagination, as Coleridge defines it in Biographia Literaria, speaks the language of God; the secondary imagination (the medium for poetic creativity) strives to imitate this universal power within the language of men. Poetry is thus understood as the vehicle which activates the "whole soul", moving man towards a sympathetic appreciation of the world he inhabits. However, as I intend to demonstrate, Coleridge's poetic language proves consistently inadequate in providing a constubstantiality between the mind and nature. The arbitrary nature of words often undermine the poet's intentions, ironically providing an outlet for repressed desires and fears. This is reflected strongly in the nature of poetic diction which often achieves an artistic fluidity at the expense of theoretical conviction. By contrast, when Coleridge's poetry remains faithful to his views, the language is often forced and stilted. Modem critical theory, in its emphasis on the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, can be useful in locating such a subversion of intended meaning within the romantic text. In my introduction, I shall discuss the generic term "romanticism " in relation to post-modernist literary theory m a manner which suggests that romantic discourse is already profoundly aware of inherit contradictions within its own creative process. Having established a correlation between romanticism and its twentieth century literary criticism, I shall investigate Coleridge's poetry in the terms of his own theory, which always suggests the duplicity of the literary imagination in its articulation of artistic distinctions (Imagination/Fancy; Imitation/Copy).


This policy letter provides an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities of the upcoming comprehensive risk assessment, a euro area-wide evaluation of bank balance sheets and business models. If carried out properly, the 2014 comprehensive assessment will lead the euro area into a new era of banking supervision. Policy makers in euro area countries are now under severe pressure to define a credible backstop framework for banks. This framework, as the author argues, needs to be a broad, quasi-European system of mutually reinforcing backstops.


In this article the problem of social-psychological climate in a class and results of a survey carried among pupils (N=581) are being analyzed. A social pedagogue's role in the educational system is being discussed and a theoretical model of his/her activity in the sphere of intercourses at school is represented. The theoretical model of interrelations at school has been carried out and it has turned out to be manifold. Relations between pupils, teacher's ability to communicate and to teach as well as to interferior with pupils, teacher's and pupil's attitude towards their teachers are structural elements of interrelations at school. They are discussed as well. The results of the research have disclosed the inferior interaction at school and have shown how a teacher's personality affects intercourses. A new professional-social pedagogue is a positive phenomenon at school, which can help to solve many problems in the educational environment. For a regulation of the intercourses some theoretical model of social pedagogue's activity has been created. The model consists of four elements: establishing auto-reflection groups of interrelations; teachers consulting and organization of educational system; creating environment system, which stimulates interaction and collaboration; solution of arisen conflicts. The model is not the completed pattern to be followed. These are only the main landmarks, which can and should be corrected by a social pedagogue according to the situation he/she faces at school.


Various forms of cloud computing principles and technologies are becoming important recently. This paper addresses cloud computing for automation and control applications. It's argued that the open Internet cloud idea has such limitations that its not appropriate for automation. Since automation is physically and geographically local, it is inevitable to introduce the concept of local automation clouds. It's here proposed that local automation clouds should be self contained an be able to execute the intended automation functionalities without any external resources. Thus providing a fence at the rim of the local cloud preventing any inbound or outbound communication. Such a local cloud provides possibilities to address key requirements of both todays and future automation solutions. Adding mechanisms for secure inter-cloud administration and data tranfere enables local automation cloud to meet IoT automation system requirements as: 1) Interoperability of a wide range of IoT and legacy devices 2) Automation requirement on latency guarantee/prediction for communication and control computations. 3) Scalability of automation systems enabling very large integrated automation systems 4) Security and related safety of automation systems 5) Ease of application engineering 6) Multi stakeholder integration and operations agility. How these requirements can be met in such a local automation cloud is discussed with references to proposed solutions. The local automation cloud concept is further verified for a compartment climate control application. The control application included an IoT controller, four IoT sensors and actuators, and a physical layer communication gateway. The gateway acted as host for local cloud core functionalities. The climate control application has successfully been implemented using the open source Arrowhead Framework and its supports for design and implementation of self contained local automation clouds.


Predicting the outcome of a legal process has recently gained considerable research attention. Numerous attempts have been made to predict the exact outcome, judgment, charge, and fines of a case given the textual description of its facts and metadata. However, most of the effort has been focused on Chinese and European law, for which there exist annotated datasets. In this paper, we introduce CASELAW4 — a new dataset of 350k common law judicial decisions from the U.S. Caselaw Access Project, of which 250k have been automatically annotated with binary outcome labels of AFFIRM or REVERSE by our hybrid learning system. To our knowledge, it is the first attempt to perform outcome extraction (a) on such a large volume of English-language judicial opinions, (b) on the Caselaw Access Project data, and (c) on US State Courts of Appeal cases, and it paves the way to large-scale outcome prediction and advanced legal analytics using U.S. Case Law. We set up baseline results for the outcome extraction task on the new dataset, achieving an F-measure of 82.32%.


On 30 November 2015, the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee of the Queensland Parliament tabled its report, 'Lemon' Laws – Inquiry into Consumer Protections and Remedies for Buyers of New Motor Vehicles ('Queensland Lemon Law Report'). In its terms of reference, 'lemons' are defined as 'new motor vehicles with numerous, severe defects that reoccur despite multiple repair attempts or where defects have caused a new motor vehicle to be out of service for a prolonged period of time'. There are three different bases by which a consumer can obtain relief in relation to loss or damage arising from the purchase of lemon motor vehicles. The first basis is where the motor vehicle manufacturer conducts an investigation and there is the possibility of a safety concern with one or more of the parts used in its vehicles. The manufacturer may initiate a voluntary recall of the vehicles in the range and repair the defect free of charge. If the manufacturer does not initiate a voluntary recall, the consumer can commence private action for relief under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law ('ACL') located in schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) ('CCA') and adopted in the states and territories as a law of their respective jurisdictions. The third basis for obtaining relief is for the consumer to complain to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ('ACCC') or state and territory regulators for a contravention of the prohibition of misleading conduct in section 18 of the ACL; or for false or misleading representations by the manufacturer or dealer in relation to after-sales care, the availability of spare parts and servicing. There is also scope for the ACCC to bring a representative action on behalf of consumers to enforce the consumer guarantees. The ACCC has published a comprehensive industry guide on consumer remedies and obligations created by the ACL. Claims for damages or compensation for death or personal injury arising from lemon purchases are dealt with elsewhere in the ACL.


Drawing in perspective seems to involve a prolonged development and is not usually present in children's drawings before about age 9—at least as found in previous research. In the study presented here, we built several three-dimensional spatial models to simulate the developmental stages of children's spatial drawing systems, a simple platform without spatial constraints (Stage 1), and a platform with walls and a sky lid (earth model; Stage 2). Stage 3 (orthogonal) and Stage 4 (perspective) models had explicit boundaries around the spatial field to denote areas and a matched control that controlled for the surround area outside of the boundaries. Four age groups from 7 to 10 years of age drew five non-overlapping figures. All age groups adapted the average figure size to the level of the spatial system (stage) of the models but only when explicit spatial field boundaries were available: The more advanced the spatial system, the smaller the average figure size. It was striking to note that 7- to 8-year-old children drew in perspective as often as 9- to 10-year-olds when the spatial models had a trapezoid field with converging diagonal sides. This early perspective mapping may have occurred because of the agreement between retinal image (appearance) and design (identity) of the perspective models. Hence, it would be more useful to think of the perspective drawing development as a layered rather than as a stagewise process because typically developing young children can access low-level visual information and draw in perspective instead of deploying high-level conceptual knowledge about the geometrical principles of perspective construction.


A Ti–44.1 at%Al–1.6 at%Mn alloy with unidirectionally oriented lamellar structure was made by using heavy extrusion of a mixture of titanium and Al–Mn alloy powder followed by reactive sintering under HIP. Compression tests were performed for 5 × 5 × 6 mm samples prepared in such a way that angle between the extrusion direction and compression one becomes 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° or 90°. The yield strength at 293 K is found to strongly depend on the above angle, i.e., the 0° sample shows the highest strength, the 90° sample the second while the other samples show much lower strengths. A similar anisotropic yield strength is observed for the results obtained at 1073 K although the strength of the 0° sample is much higher than that of the 90° one. Anisotropic deformation behavior observed in the present investigation is discussed in comparison with that for TiAl PST crystals reported by Fujiwara et al..


Introduction: Zebrafish ( Danio rerio) is an ideal model organism for the study of vertebrate development. This is due to the large clutches that each couple produces, with up to 200 embryos every 7 days, and to the fact that the embryos and larvae are small, transparent and undergo rapid external development. Material and Methods: Using scientific literature research tools available online and the keywords Zebrafish, biomedical research, human disease, and drug screening, we reviewed original studies and reviews indexed in PubMed. Results: In this review we summarized work conducted with this model for the advancement of our knowledge related to several human diseases. We also focused on the biomedical research being performed in Portugal with the zebrafish model. Discussion: Powerful live imaging and genetic tools are currently available for zebrafish making it a valuable model in biomedical research. The combination of these properties with the optimization of automated systems for drug screening has transformed the zebrafish into "a top model" in biomedical research, drug discovery and toxicity testing. Furthermore, with the optimization of xenografts technology it will be possible to use zebrafish to aide in the choice of the best therapy for each patient. Conclusion: Zebrafish is an excellent model organism in biomedical research, drug development and in clinical therapy .


Fumonisins in Aspergillus niger: Industrial and food aspects Introduction: Fumonisins are toxic seconday metabolites from Fusarium verticillioides and other Fusaria, from Tolypocladium and Aspergillus niger 1,2. Being a generalist Aspergillus niger is the workhorse in a very large number of industrial applications, and is also a common contaminant in foods. Fumonisin production by A. niger is depending on temperature and water activity, but is produced mostly on substrates with high maounts of sugar or salt 1,3,4. We wanted to find out whether industrial strains could produce fumonisins in worst case scenarios and if fumonisin production was only a feature of few black aspergilli or of widespread occurrence. Methods The black aspergilli were grown on CYAS and YES media for 7 days at 25° C in darkness. Small agar plugs were extracted with 75% MeOH, filtered, and analyzed by gradient HPLC-MS. Results and discussion: All publications describing industrial applications of A. niger were scrutinized and approximately half of the strains used were not available for the scientific community. The other strains were available, and few of them proved to be A. tubingensis, A. acidus, A. carbonarius or A. brasiliensis. Among the real A. niger strains, nearly all strains ever used in biotechnology could produce fuminisins B2, B4 & B6. The strains could be subdivided into two clades (representing A. niger and the "phylospecies" A. awamori), and there were fumonisin producers in both clades. Ochratoxin A was also produced by strains in both clades, but only of approximately 6% of the strains. None of the other species in the black Aspergilli produced fumonisins. One strain (NRRL 337), called the "food fungus", because it is used for single cell protein based on cheap growth substrates, produced both fumonisins and ochratoxin A. Industrial citric acid producers produced fumonisins in pure culture, so we tested whether they could produce fumonisins on citric acid production media in shake flasks, and they could indeed produce small amounts of fumonisins. Conclusions: Most strains of Aspergillus niger can produce fumonisins. In order to have entirely safe production conditions there are several possibilities: •The gene clusters responsible for fumonisin and ochratoxin A production can be inactivated •A nontoxigenic strain of A. niger can be used for industrial applications •A closely related species can be used industrially, fx A. brasiliensis, A. vadensis, A. acidus, or A. tubingensis, as they are not able to produce fumonisins or ochratoxins •The fumonisin producing strains of A. niger can be grown under conditions, where fumonisin accumulation is not possible, but in that case a strict scheme for daily chemical control is necessary. This practice is used for Fusarium venenatum, used for single cell protein (Quorn). This fungus can produce trichothecenes under optimal conditions.


Weed management is considered one of the activities that degrade the soil structure most in coffee crops, due to the soil compaction caused by weed control operations. The objective of this study was to determine the bearing capacity models for no weed control and to use this model to determine which weed management causes smaller or greater soil compaction. The study was conducted on a Red-Yellow Latosol (LVA), under coffee (variety Topazio MG 1190), on the Experimental Farm of EPAMIG in the community Farias, Lavras-MG (latitude 21°14'43" S, longitude 44°59'59" W). The following weed managements were assessed: a) in the traffic line of the inter-rows - disc harrow, post-emergence herbicide, pre-emergence herbicide, mower and brush and b) in the center of the inter-rows - peanut (Arachis pintoi), braquiaria (Brachiaria decumbens), hand weeding, sunhemp (Crotalaria juncea) and soybean (Glycine max L). The sampling consisted of two stages, one to determine the bearing capacity models for the treatment no weeding and another to assess the compaction caused by the other weed management. To determine the bearing capacity model for the treatment no weeding, 20 undisturbed soil samples from the layers 0-3, 10-13 and 25-28 cm were collected in the middle of the inter-rows, totaling 60 samples. These samples were subjected to the uniaxial compression test to obtain the preconsolidation pressure and the volumetric water content, which were used to determine the bearing capacity model. To determine the compaction caused by the other weed managements, based on mechanical control, 180 samples with undisturbed structure were collected in January 2010 from the traffic lines of the inter-rows, (5 weed management x 3 depths x 12 soil samples with undisturbed structure). For the weed managements using cover crops, in January 2010, 180 samples with undisturbed structure (5 weed management x 3 depths x 12 soil samples with undisturbed structure) were collected from the middle of the inter-rows These samples were submitted to the uniaxial compression test to determine preconsolidation pressure and the volumetric water content after applying the weed managements and were used in the criteria proposed by Dias Junior et al. (2005) to determine the compaction caused by these managements. By the bearing capacity models and the preconsolidation pressure determined after implementing the weed managements, the treatments disc harrow, mower and brush were detected for causing greatest soil compaction and braquiaria, sunhemp and soybean as causing least compaction in the three studied layers.


The Problem of the Unknown Component: Theory and Applications addresses the issue of designing a component that, combined with a known part of a system, conforms to an overall specification. The authors tackle this problem by solving abstract equations over a language. The most general solutions are studied when both synchronous and parallel composition operators are used. The abstract equations are specialized to languages associated with important classes of automata used for modeling systems. The book is a blend of theory and practice, which includes a description of a software package with applications to sequential synthesis of finite state machines. Specific topologies interconnecting the components, exact and heuristic techniques, and optimization scenarios are studied. Finally the scope is enlarged to domains like testing, supervisory control, game theory and synthesis for special omega languages. The authors present original results of the authors along with an overview of existing ones.


SONYC Urban Sound Tagging (SONYC-UST) is a dataset for the development and evaluation of machine listening systems for realworld urban noise monitoring. It consists of 3068 audio recordings from the "Sounds of New York City" (SONYC) acoustic sensor network. Via the Zooniverse citizen science platform, volunteers tagged the presence of 23 fine-grained classes that were chosen in consultation with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. These 23 fine-grained classes can be grouped into eight coarse-grained classes. In this work, we describe the collection of this dataset, metrics used to evaluate tagging systems, and the results of a simple baseline model.


Multiphase materials combine properties of several materials, which makes them interesting for high-performing components. This thesis considers a certain set of multiphase materials, namely silicon-carbide (SiC) particle-reinforced aluminium (Al) metal matrix composites and their modelling based on stochastic geometry models.
Stochastic modelling can be used for the generation of virtual material samples: Once we have fitted a model to the material statistics, we can obtain independent three-dimensional "samples" of the material under investigation without the need of any actual imaging. Additionally, by changing the model parameters, we can easily simulate a new material composition.
The materials under investigation have a rather complicated microstructure, as the system of SiC particles has many degrees of freedom: Size, shape, orientation and spatial distribution. Based on FIB-SEM images, that yield three-dimensional image data, we extract the SiC particle structure using methods of image analysis. Then we model the SiC particles by anisotropically rescaled cells of a random Laguerre tessellation that was fitted to the shapes of isotropically rescaled particles. We fit a log-normal distribution for the volume distribution of the SiC particles. Additionally, we propose models for the Al grain structure and the Aluminium-Copper (\({Al}_2{Cu}\)) precipitations occurring on the grain boundaries and on SiC-Al phase boundaries.
Finally, we show how we can estimate the parameters of the volume-distribution based on two-dimensional SEM images. This estimation is applied to two samples with different mean SiC particle diameters and to a random section through the model. The stereological estimations are within acceptable agreement with the parameters estimated from three-dimensional image data
as well as with the parameters of the model.


It is easy to criticize the traditional model of public service employment. However, its distinctiveness met the particular needs of a political environment and Westminster conventions. It was a bureaucratic model of employment aligned to the bureaucratic form of public administration, based on strong conventions of merit, tenure, political neutrality and a unified service, administered by an independent central authority. This model endured for more than a century. As public administration was transformed into public sector management, public sector employment was varied in pursuit of efficiency and responsiveness, and became an unstable mixture of traditional and new practices. Institutional changes have brought accompanying problems of duplication, lack of strategic direction or monitoring, and decreasing independence from political influences. The current public sector is beset with recruitment difficulties, high turnover in some fields, increasing use of insecure forms of employment, an aging workforce, and lower morale than many private sector counterparts.


Change is an inescapable aspect of natural and artificial systems, and adaptation is central to their resilience. Optimization problems are no exception to this maxim. Indeed, viability of businesses depends heavily on their effectiveness in responding to a change in the myriad of optimization problems they entail. Changes in optimization problems usually are result of change in the objective function and/or number of variables and/or constraints. Such optimization problems are denoted as dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) in the literature. Despite the large body of literature on DOPs and algorithms in this domain, there are still noticeable gaps between real-world DOPs and academic research. The first objective of this thesis is investigating DOPs to identify any class of DOPs or any DOPs' characteristics that are common in practical situation but have not been studied by the researchers. In this thesis, two important gaps are identified, namely considering switching cost in DOPs and large-scale DOPs. Both are common in many real-world dynamic problem but a few research investigated them in the past. In an attempt to bridge these gaps, this thesis makes the following contributions: First, this thesis considers the impact of cost for changing solutions after environmental changes. In fact, changing solutions in real-world problems is costly. Furthermore, larger changes have higher cost and need more resources such as time, human resources and energy. Thus, lack of switching cost consideration in most previous algorithms makes them unsuitable for many of real-world DOPs. In this thesis, different scenarios of DOPs with switching cost are investigated, their challenges are identified, and the performance of the state-of-the-art methods are investigated for solving them. Contributions include developing a novel robust optimization over time (ROOT) framework, a novel adaptive method for maximizing efficiency by changing or keeping solutions after environmental changes, and a novel multi-objective and time-linkage based method for minimizing switching cost. Second, this thesis investigates large-scale DOPs. Up to now, little attention has been given to the scalability of DOPs. Indeed, the dimension of typical DOPs studied in the literature hardly exceeds twenty. In this thesis, the challenges of large-scale DOPs are studied, then the efficiency of the current methods are investigated for solving them. Moreover, this thesis proposes a novel cooperative coevolution algorithm based on a multi-population approach which benefits from a new resource allocation method for DOPs with high-dimensional search space. All the proposed methods in this thesis use particle swarm optimization as the core optimizer embedded in a multi-population framework. The performance of the proposed methods are compared with state-of-the-art methods on a wide range of problem instances generated by the state-of-the-art and the proposed DOP benchmarks. The comparison results indicate the superiority of the proposed methods.


In many OECD countries, including the U.S., interest in developing agri-environmental payment programs is currently strong. In the future, the inclusion of an agri-environmental payment program into the WTO's "green box" could be more easily challenged by WTO member countries on the basis that it has more than "minimal" trade-distorting impacts on production. The goal of this paper is to conduct an ex ante analysis of the trade impacts of stylized examples of agri-environmental payment programs that have been proposed for implementation in the near future. To simulate the production and trade impacts of these programs, we use a partial equilibrium model of the U.S. agricultural sector in a sensitivity analysis across a range of design options for agri-environmental payments. For the three agri-environmental payment scenarios evaluated, the maximum change in exports ranges from a 7 percent decrease (wheat) to a 1 percent increase (soybeans). We do not expect the programs that decrease U.S. production, which would tend to have an upward pressure on world commodity prices, to be challenged before the WTO.


Background: Toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis is the most common cause of posterior uveitis (intraocular inflammatory syndrome) in immunocompetent patients. Leucocytes- endothelial adhesion is an early step in many inflammatory disorders that mediated by endothelial cell adhesion molecules. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was reported to be upregulated in retinal inflammatory diseases.
Objective: The present study aimed to determine the frequency of T. gondii infection among patients presented with retinal inflammatory lesions and also, determine whether the ICAM-1 implicated in the pathogenesis of toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis.
Methods: Forty four patients with retinal inflammatory lesions, 44 healthy controls without any ocular manifestation were subjected to determine anti- Toxoplasma IgG antibodies seropositivity and sICAM-1 serum level using the commercially available enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kits.
Results: Our results showed that the frequancy of anti- Toxoplasma IgG antibodies among ocular group (59.1%) was high statistically significant than that in healthy controls group (18.2%). Regarding the level of the sICAM-1 in ocular Toxo positive subgroup, there was significantly higher level compared to ocular Toxo negative subgroup and healthy controls Toxo positive subgroup. Also, it was significantly higher than healthy controls Toxo negative subgroup. Concerning the healthy controls group, there was significantly higher level of sICAM-1 in Toxo positive subgroup compared to Toxo negative subgroup.
Conclusion: our findings suggested that ICAM-1 expression might be implicated in the pathogenesis of toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis whereas sICAM-1 could be a good marker reflecting disease severity.


In group communications, larger computation and communication are consumed to causally order all the messages transmitted in the network. Transactions in clients manipulate objects in servers by sending read and write requests to the servers. In this paper, we define significant messages by using the relation among the transactions. We newly propose an object vector to causally order only the significant messages. The scheme of the object vector is invariant in the change of the group membership. We also show a TBCO (transaction-based causally ordered) protocol which adopts the object vector, by which the number of messages to be causally ordered are reduced.


This paper describes how the education sector of the Welsh Input-Output tables is disaggregated to identify a separate sector for each of Wales's twelve Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The process draws on accounting and survey data to accurately determine the incomes and expenditures of each institution. In particular we emphasise determining the HEIs incomes source of origin to inform their treatment, as endogenous or exogenous, in subsequent analyses. The HEI-disaggregated Input-Output table provides a useful descriptive snapshot of the Welsh economy and the role of HEIs within it for a particular year, 2006. The table can be used to derive multipliers and conduct various impact studies of each institution or the sector as a whole. The table is furthermore useful to calibrate other multi-sectoral, HEI-disaggregated models of regional economies, including Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models.


A new approach for the systemized optimization of power distribution systems is presented in this paper. Distribution system reliability is modelled in the optimization objective function via outage costs and costs of switching devices, along with the nonlinear costs of investment, maintenance and energy losses of both the substations and the feeders. The optimization model established is multi-stage, mixed-integer and nonlinear, which is solved by a network-flow programming algorithm. A multi-stage interlacing strategy and a nonlinearity iteration method are also designed. Supported by an extensive database, the planning software tool has been applied to optimize the power distribution system of a developing city.


In value-based reinforcement learning methods such as deep Q-learning, function approximation errors are known to lead to overestimated value estimates and suboptimal policies. We show that this problem persists in an actor-critic setting and propose novel mechanisms to minimize its effects on both the actor and the critic. Our algorithm builds on Double Q-learning, by taking the minimum value between a pair of critics to limit overestimation. We draw the connection between target networks and overestimation bias, and suggest delaying policy updates to reduce per-update error and further improve performance. We evaluate our method on the suite of OpenAI gym tasks, outperforming the state of the art in every environment tested.


Characterizing fossils and quantifying paleoenvironmental proxies at a detailed scale is a significant challenge. Three-dimensional tomographic reconstructions are becoming increasingly common, and new imaging approaches, such as synchrotron-based fast X-ray scanning and full-field multispectral imaging, now provide the means to (1) describe fossil morphology at a very fine scale, (2) decipher long-term alteration processes, and (3) better identify conservation requirements. These developments have opened new research avenues for the study of complex heterogeneous materials at the intersection between paleontology, biology, mineralogy, geochemistry, conservation science, materials science, and analytical instrumentation.


This paper presents a series of experiments which test the use of sub-syllable acoustic data in the automatic detection of Tilt [Tayng] intonation events. A set of speaker-dependent HMMs is used to detect accents, boundaries, connections and silences. A base result is obtained, following Taylor, by training the models using fundamental frequency and RMS energy. A second baseline is obtained using normalized F0 and energy. These base figures are then compared to a number of experiments which augment the F0 and energy data with auto-correlation peak, zero-crossing, or cepstral coefficients. In all cases, both the first and second derivative of each feature are included. The baseline results of the normalized data are within one percentage point of those in Taylor on the same speaker, which supports the comparison of this study with Taylor's. The best results at present show a relative error reduction of 12% over the baseline.


Ultrashort-pulse, high average power thin-disk lasers matured and became efficient tools for precise material processing and hi-tech laser applications. Hilase centre developed a diodepumped thin-disk laser platform for Yb:YAG regenerative amplifiers delivering pulse energy >40 mJ, pulse repetition rate up to 400 kHz, nearly diffraction-limited output beam, and average power reaching of >500 W. The platform called Perla is based on a chirped-pulse amplification system (CPA) consisting of a fiber-based front-end, and a thin-disk regenerative amplifier followed by a compact pulse compressor. The system generates pulses <2 ps in duration. A TRL 7 (technical readiness level) version of the system with average power reaching up to 100 W is ready for customers, a 0.5 kW version exists like a laboratory prototype (TRL 4). The Yb:YAG system emitting at 1030 nm can be alternatively equipped by a frequency conversion stages to visible, UV, or mid-infrared (1.5 – 3 um) spectral regions. We demonstrate capabilities and construction details of the Perla platform.


Abstract. Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. This study systematically assesses how climate change and increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations may affect irrigation requirements in the Mediterranean region by 2080–2090. Future demographic change and technological improvements in irrigation systems are taken into account, as is the spread of climate forcing, warming levels and potential realization of the CO2-fertilization effect. Vegetation growth, phenology, agricultural production and irrigation water requirements and withdrawal were simulated with the process-based ecohydrological and agro-ecosystem model LPJmL (Lund–Potsdam–Jena managed Land) after an extensive development that comprised the improved representation of Mediterranean crops. At present the Mediterranean region could save 35 % of water by implementing more efficient irrigation and conveyance systems. Some countries such as Syria, Egypt and Turkey have a higher savings potential than others. Currently some crops, especially sugar cane and agricultural trees, consume on average more irrigation water per hectare than annual crops. Different crops show different magnitudes of changes in net irrigation requirements due to climate change, the increases being most pronounced in agricultural trees. The Mediterranean area as a whole may face an increase in gross irrigation requirements between 4 and 18 % from climate change alone if irrigation systems and conveyance are not improved (4 and 18 % with 2 °C global warming combined with the full CO2-fertilization effect and 5 °C global warming combined with no CO2-fertilization effect, respectively). Population growth increases these numbers to 22 and 74 %, respectively, affecting mainly the southern and eastern Mediterranean. However, improved irrigation technologies and conveyance systems have a large water saving potential, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, and may be able to compensate to some degree for the increases due to climate change and population growth. Both subregions would need around 35 % more water than today if they implement some degree of modernization of irrigation and conveyance systems and benefit from the CO2-fertilization effect. Nevertheless, water scarcity may pose further challenges to the agricultural sector: Algeria, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Serbia, Morocco, Tunisia and Spain have a high risk of not being able to sustainably meet future irrigation water requirements in some scenarios. The results presented in this study point to the necessity of performing further research on climate-friendly agro-ecosystems in order to assess, on the one hand, their degree of resilience to climate shocks and, on the other hand, their adaptation potential when confronted with higher temperatures and changes in water availability.


During the infusion of insulin in vivo, the rate of activation of glucose disposal lags significantly behind the rate of increase in serum insulin levels. To determine whether this delay was related to transcapillary transport of insulin, we determined increments in serum insulin levels, glucose disposal rates (GDR), and insulin receptor (IR) kinase activity measured during continuous infusions of insulin (40 and 120 mU · m−2 · min−1) administered to 8 nondiabetic males; similar studies were done at 1,200 · m−2 · min−1 in 2 of the subjects. Half-maximal insulin levels were achieved at a mean of 4.9 and 7.2 min during the 40 and 120 mU · m−2 · min−1 clamps, respectively, with corresponding half-maximal GDR stimulation at a mean of 59 and 47 min. Unlike the rise in insulin levels, IR kinase activation was much slower with half-maximal activity occurring at ∼40–60 min in the 2 clamps. Thus, the rise in serum insulin levels in each clamp was much faster than the increment in either kinase activity or glucose disposal. Insulin infusion increased both IR kinase and GDR maximally ∼10-fold, with half-maximal stimulation at ∼3,600 and ∼700 pM, indicating spare kinase for glucose disposal. These results demonstrate that the delay in stimulation of glucose disposal by insulin is related to a rate-limiting step between the intravascular space and the cell-surface of skeletal muscle. This may involve delayed transendothelial transport of insulin.


Abstract. We investigated dissolved methane distributions along a 6 km transect crossing active seep sites at 40 m water depth in the central North Sea. These investigations were done under conditions of thermal stratification in summer (July 2013) and homogenous water column in winter (January 2014). Dissolved methane accumulated below the seasonal thermocline in summer with a median concentration of 390 nM, whereas during winter, methane concentrations were typically much lower (median concentration of 22 nM). High-resolution methane analysis using an underwater mass-spectrometer confirmed our summer results and was used to document prevailing stratification over the tidal cycle. We contrast estimates of methane oxidation rates (from 0.1 to 4.0 nM day−1) using the traditional approach scaled to methane concentrations with microbial turnover time values and suggest that the scaling to concentration may obscure the ecosystem microbial activity when comparing systems with different methane concentrations. Our measured and averaged rate constants (k') were on the order of 0.01 day−1, equivalent to a turnover time of 100 days, even when summer stratification led to enhanced methane concentrations in the bottom water. Consistent with these observations, we could not detect known methanotrophs and pmoA genes in water samples collected during both seasons. Estimated methane fluxes indicate that horizontal transport is the dominant process dispersing the methane plume. During periods of high wind speed (winter), more methane is lost to the atmosphere than oxidized in the water. Microbial oxidation seems of minor importance throughout the year.


Homiletics is a diverse field, drawing upon multiple resources within the seminary curriculum and serving a community that includes seminarians, faculty, ministers, and laypeople. Bibliographic control in the field of homiletics has a long history in America and extends beyond cataloging monographs to encompass abstracting and indexing services as well as Web sites in the larger electronic world. Specifically, work done at the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) is discussed in this paper, and the ATLA Religion Database is evaluated. The debate between using controlled vocabulary versus natural language and keyword searching is also presented. Unmet needs among homiletics bibliographers are listed, and reasons for the lack of interest in bibliographic control among preachers while preparing sermons are considered.


Europe's trade policies matter in global politics. Despite the recent focus on Brazil, India, and particularly China, the European Union remains the world's largest market and trader. Despite its recent economic troubles, Europe remains in a powerful position to shape how globalization is governed. We know surprisingly little about how its trade policy is actually made, because previous works have focused on individual trade policy decisions to the detriment of the 'big picture' of the Union as a trade power. Parochial Global Europe argues that trade policy is composed of multiple, distinct policies. Each presents a distinctive constellation of mobilized societal preferences, pattern of political institutions, and range of government preferences. The balance of economic power between the EU and its trade partner(s) affects the stakes involved. Together these four factors define trade policy sub-systems, which help explain both the EU's objectives and whether it realizes them. The authors advance this argument by analysing the EU's role in the demise of the Doha Round, its use of anti-dumping and pursuit of market access, the trade effects of its single market programme and efforts at regulatory diplomacy, including the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Parochial Global Europe thus focuses centrally on modern, 21st century trade policy. It also sheds light on the EU as a global actor by analysing its use of trade policy as a tool of foreign policy from promoting development, to encouraging human rights and environmental protection, to punishing security threats.


The "raging frenzy" of the sex drive, to use Plato's phrase, has always defied control. However, that's not to say that the Sumerians, Victorians, and every civilization in between and beyond have not tried, wielding their most formidable weapon: the law. At any given point in time, some forms of sex were condoned while others were punished mercilessly. Jump forward or backward a century or two (and often far less than that), and the harmless fun of one time period becomes the gravest crime in another. "Judging Desire" tells the story of the struggle throughout the millennia to regulate the most powerful engine of human behavior. Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz uses flesh-and-blood cases--much flesh and even more blood--to evoke the entire sweep of Western sex law, from the savage impalement of an Ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde in 1895 for "gross indecency." The cast of "Judging Desire" is as varied as the forms taken by human desire itself: royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval transvestites, lonely goat-lovers, prostitutes of all stripes, London rent boys. Each of them had forbidden sex, and each was judged--and justice, as Berkowitz shows, rarely had much to do with it.With the light touch of a natural storyteller, Berkowitz spins these tales and more, going behind closed doors to reveal the essential history of human desire.


Dr Thomas Cronin is a worthy recipient of the Brady Medal, not simply for his outstanding achievements in the application of micropalaeontology to palaeoceanography, palaeoclimatology and evolutionary studies but because, like the Brady brothers, he has worked on both ostracods and foraminifera, fossil and living.

Fig. 1
Tom Cronin.

Tom Cronin was born in 1950 in the Bronx, New York City, USA and first became interested in geology when attending a freshman general course at Colgate University taught by Bob Linsley and Jim McClelland – in Tom's words: 'two great educators'. He graduated with a BA in Geology from Colgate in 1972 and then carried out postgraduate work at Harvard University leading to a MA (1974) and PhD (1977) in Geology. After graduation he joined the US Geological Survey and is currently a senior scientist with the Eastern Geology and Climate Science Center, US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. There his present role is Project Chief for the 'Abrupt Climate Change: Eastern US' project and he also contributes to the 'South Florida Ecosystem Project'.

Tom's doctoral work concerned both foraminifera and ostracods of the Pleistocene of the north-eastern seaboard of North America, but it is as an ostracod worker that he is best known, especially for deep sea fossil and living faunas. His publications portray a developing pattern of research interest and achievement from a relatively classical doctoral treatment of shallow marine Pleistocene ostracods and foraminifera and their environmental significance, via early marine palaeoclimate reconstruction work in the Neogene-Quaternary of the US eastern seaboard, to the innovative interpretation of deep sea palaeoceanographic parameters using ostracods and other proxies. The following …


The present study explored the biological connotation of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndromes of rheumatoid arthritis(RA) from the "disease-syndrome-symptom" association network. RA patients with four TCM syndromes(dampness-heat obstruction, phlegm-stasis obstruction, Qi-blood deficiency, and liver and kidney deficiency), three for each type, were assigned as the RA TCM syndrome group, and three healthy volunteers as the normal control group. The differential gene sets of four syndromes were screened out through transcriptome expression profiling and bioinformatics mining. The relevant gene sets of syndrome-related clinical symptoms were collected from TCMIP v2.0(http://www.tcmip.cn/). The "disease-syndrome-symptom" association networks of four RA syndromes were established by using the intersection genes of syndrome-related differential genes and symptom-related genes, and the key network target genes of each syndrome were screened out and the corresponding biological functions were mined through topological feature calculation and enrichment analysis. The genes associated with clinical symptoms such as vasculitis, joint pain, and fever in the damp-heat obstruction syndrome ranked the top, and the key network target genes of this syndrome were most significantly enriched in the pathways related to material and energy metabolism and thermal reaction biological processes. The clinical symptom-related genes of the phlegm-stasis obstruction syndrome were most significantly enriched in the pathways related to "immunity-inflammation", nervous system regulation, and sensory response. The clinical symptoms such as hypoglycemia, hypotension, weight loss, palpitation, and arrhythmia in Qi-blood deficiency syndrome were predominant, and its key network target genes were most significantly enriched in the pathways related to the nervous system and "immunity-inflammation" response. The abnormal symptoms in the liver and kidney in the liver and kidney deficiency syndrome were commonly seen, and its key network target genes were most significantly enriched in the "immunity-inflammation" regulatory pathways, and liver and kidney development and metabolic response. In conclusion, the differences and connections of the biological basis between different TCM syndromes of RA are in line with the theoretical interpretation of TCM on the etiology and pathogenesis of RA. This study summarized the objective essence of syndromes to a certain extent from the "disease-syndrome-symptom" association network and is expected to provide a theoretical basis for the discovery of serum biomarkers of RA syndromes.


Aurubis Cu-PHC is a deoxidized, oxygen-free copper with a very low residual phosphorus content. It combines good electrical conductivity with excellent hot and cold formability and excellent joining characteristics. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, hardness, elasticity, and tensile properties. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as heat treating and joining. Filing Code: Cu-915. Producer or source: Aurubis AG.


Water use efficiencies (WUEs) between 20% and 60% are commonly reported for single rice paddies. When larger spatial domains are considered, higher WUE than minimum values observed for individual fields are expected due to water reuse. This study investigates scale-effects on water balances and WUEs of four adjacent rice fields located in Northern Italy and characterized by different elevations (A ≅ B + C > D). Water balance terms for the paddies were quantified during the agricultural season 2015 through the integrated use of observational data and modelling procedures. Following a Darcy-based approach, percolation was distinguished from net seepage. Results showed net irrigation of about 2,700 and 2,050 mm for fields A and B, and around 640 and nearly 0 mm for C and D. WUE of A, B, C and D amounted, respectively, to 21, 28, 66 and >100%. Values for C and D were due to less permeable soils, to seepage fluxes providing extra water inputs and to the shallow groundwater level. When the group of paddies ACD was considered (B was not included since separated by a deep channel), net irrigation and WUE were found to reach 1,550 mm and 39%, confirming the important role of water reuses in paddy agro-ecosystems.


The increasing frequency and severity of landscape‐scale wildfire poses new challenges for forested watershed management. The Schultz Fire burned 6,100 ha on the steep slopes of San Francisco Mountain near Flagstaff, AZ, USA in 2010. Within a month of the wildfire, summer monsoon rains created flooding and debris flows 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than prewildfire rainfall events. We estimate a hedonic property model to determine the loss in house prices from the wildfire and postwildfire flooding. While several studies examine the effects of wildfires and flooding on housing prices separately, to our knowledge, no study has determined the effects of postwildfire flooding in a fire‐adapted watershed. Most hedonic property models estimating impacts of wildfire or flooding use regression analysis to predict impacts. We also contribute to the hedonic property model literature by using nonparametric matching techniques. We find a negative and statistically significant average treatment effect of wildfire and post‐wildfire flooding. The treatment effect, however, differs relative to distance to wildfire perimeter and distance to flood zones. For example, houses located within 5 km of the Schultz Fire perimeter have an estimated 31% loss, while houses within 20 km have an estimated 6% loss. In addition, prices for houses located within 100 m of the 5‐year flood drop by 10% after the flood, whereas prices for houses within 2 km drop by 5%. Our results indicate that careful consideration of the impacts of both wildfire and postwildfire flooding is essential for understanding the net benefits of forested watershed restoration.


When Portugal began building railways in its mainland territory in the 1850s, the main goal was to connect its harbours (mainly Lisbon) to the border with Spain (and beyond to Central Europe). This strategy left out of the network vast areas of the nation, some of which were perceived as very rugged, poor, and with low economic potential, where the construction of a railway was not cost effective. The same quandaries existed in the colonies, where investment in public works started in the 1870s. To bring railroads to these regions, it was necessary to find a low-cost technical solution. That solution was narrow-gauge railroads. In this paper, we analyse how this technology was transferred from Central Europe to Portugal and its colonies via a travel circuit of learning by Portuguese engineers and how it was developed through a mixture of Portuguese and foreign expertise.


SummaryAim of this keynote is to develop a framework how to approach the design of pension policies as rationally as possible. The first step is to realize and accommodate endogenous adjustments. The second step is to align the root causes of demographic change with corresponding reform steps which include but are not confined by pension reform. The third step is to separate the issues as best as possible to strengthen the political feasibility of reform.The paper shows that relatively few and moderate reform steps suffice to solve the demographic problem in countries such as Germany and Switzerland. This is in striking contrast to the widespread resistance to reform. We falsify some of the myths, prejudices and misperceptions which make reforms politically so hard to put into place.


Purpose

This interview demonstrates how CEOs can focus on CSR to engage the workforce and change the culture and performance of an organization.

Design/methodology/approach

This article reports on an interview with Dr David Cooke, Managing Director of Konica Minolta Australia.

Findings

By introducing CSR to the firm, and in particular pursuing the UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #8 against human trafficking, the MD not only changed the management style and culture in the organization, but also enhanced commercial results. Performance improved across many measures: revenue, profit, market share in a declining marketplace, highest number of units placed into the Australian market, increasing prestige associated with the company's brand, and becoming an employer of choice.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are consistent with the literature on corporate sustainable investment, but further studies are needed to fully understand the processes involved in changing culture and improving performance via CSR.

Practical implications

This interview clearly shows the steps that the new CEO took in radically changing the culture of his organization by adopting CSR extensively.

Social implications

The power of business is vital to pursuing societal goals, and the case of Konica Minolta Australia demonstrates that doing so also benefits the company.

Originality/value

This study clearly explains how a corporate culture was changed and performance enhanced through a strategy based on investment in social issues.


Antarctic marine biodiversity is largely contained in the continental shelf zone and is characterized by high levels of endemism and a high proportion of invertebrate species with brooding life histories. Benthic marine species in Antarctica are considered highly vulnerable to the predicted warming environment, and therefore there is an urgent need for research to aid their effective management and preserve biodiversity. Our knowledge of the processes affecting population genetic diversity and structure in the Antarctic benthos remains very limited, particularly in East Antarctica. The irregular heart urchins (genus: Abatus, Spatangoidea: Schizasteridae) are endemic to the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic regions, and their brooding life history is expected to restrict their dispersal capabilities, leading to isolated and potentially inbred populations that may be susceptible to the effects of environmental change. The broad aim of this thesis is to characterize the genetic diversity and structure of heart urchin populations at different spatial scales (hundreds of meters to thousands of kilometers) in order to elucidate past and contemporary processes affecting heart urchin populations in East Antarctica.
Two mitochondrial markers (16S and COI) were used to examine large-scale phylogeographic relationships in Abatus ingens and Abatus nimrodi. Samples were collected near three Antarctic stations separated by over 1000 km: Davis, Casey, and Dumont D"Urville. In addition, three other Abatus species: A. shackletoni, A. philippii, and A. cavernosus, and the closely related Amphipneustes lorioli, were included in the analysis in order to clarify taxonomic relationships within the genus. Large-scale genetic patterns were indicative of populations that survived in shelf refugia and experienced pronounced bottlenecks during Quaternary glaciations.
Genetic diversity was higher at Davis than in Casey and Dumont D"Urville for A. ingens and A. nimrodi. Populations of A. ingens from the three study areas were genetically distinct, while populations of A. nimrodi from Casey, and Dumont D"Urville shared a single haplotype and were differentiated from Davis individuals. Phylogenetic inferences suggest that the species classified as A. nimrodi is more closely related to Amphipneustes lorioli than other Abatus spp. and requires taxonomic revision.
Microsatellite DNA markers were developed from A. ingens to study the fine-scale (ca. 5km) patterns of population genetic diversity and structuring in the area surrounding Davis Station. The markers successfully cross-amplified in A. shackletoni and A. philippii allowing for a multispecies comparison. In order to test for potential impacts by anthropogenic pollutants, samples were taken at five sites at varying distances from the outfall of wastewater discharge from the station. There was no evidence of an effect of pollution from Davis Station on genetic variation, and patterns of population genetic differentiation varied among the species. Gene flow occurs across distances of at least 5km, which is not consistent with the hypothesis of limited dispersal associated with the brooding life history, and suggests life history is not a good predictor of fine-scale population structure in these species. There was genetic evidence of a long-term population decline in all three species, but the estimated timing at the decline precedes any likely impact due to anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, two genetic clusters inferred in A. ingens and A. shackletoni suggest secondary contact after population differentiation in glacial refugia. The declining effective population size inferred for these three benthic species highlights their fragility and the need for conservation concern.
Taken together, the results from this study provide a significant insight into the processes that have shaped patterns of genetic diversity and structure of Antarctic heart urchin populations in East Antarctica. This research has implications for the management and preservation of Antarctic marine biodiversity. A clear influence from the cyclic glaciations of the Pleistocene on the present day population genetic differentiation patterns of the Antarctic heart urchin species studied is evidenced at both large and fine spatial-scales. The brooding development of these species does not appear to restrict their dispersal capabilities at fine spatial-scales, and population connectivity may be promoted by physical factors such as rafting on floating sea ice. The vulnerability of Abatus populations in East Antarctica was suggested by their reduced effective population sizes and population isolation at a large scale, which can contribute to a higher risk of local extinction.


Finding the best stimulus for a neuron is challenging because it is impossible to test all possible stimuli. Here we used a vast, unbiased, and diverse hypothesis space encoded by a generative deep neural network model to investigate neuronal selectivity in inferotemporal cortex without making any assumptions about natural features or categories. A genetic algorithm, guided by neuronal responses, searched this space for optimal stimuli. Evolved synthetic images evoked higher firing rates than even the best natural images and revealed diagnostic features, independently of category or feature selection. This approach provides a way to investigate neural selectivity in any modality that can be represented by a neural network and challenges our understanding of neural coding in visual cortex. Highlights A generative deep neural network interacted with a genetic algorithm to evolve stimuli that maximized the firing of neurons in alert macaque inferotemporal and primary visual cortex. The evolved images activated neurons more strongly than did thousands of natural images. Distance in image space from the evolved images predicted responses of neurons to novel images.


Background: Running biomechanics have traditionally been analyzed in laboratory settings, but this may not reflect natural running gait. Wearable sensors may offer an alternative. Methods: A concurrent validation study to determine agreement between the RunScribeTM wearable sensor (triaxial accelerometer and gyroscope) and the 3D motion capture system was conducted. Twelve injury-free participants (6 males, 6 females; age = 23.1 ± 5.5 years, weekly mileage = 16.1 ± 9.3) ran 1.5 miles on a treadmill. Ten consecutive strides from each limb were collected, and the mean values were analyzed. Pronation excursion, maximum pronation velocity, contact time, and cycle time were compared between measurement platforms using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and Bland-Altman analyses. Results: Excellent ICC estimates were found for maximum pronation velocity, contact time, and cycle time. Pronation excursion demonstrated fair ICC estimates. The mean differences between platforms were small with limits of agreement clustered around zero, except for contact time measures which were consistently higher with the RunScribe compared to the camera-based system. Conclusion: Our study revealed that the RunScribe wearable device showed good to excellent concurrent validity for maximum pronation velocity, contact time, and cycle time; however, direct comparisons or results between the two platforms should not be used.


In the spring of 1994, the tiny African nation of Rwanda was ripped apart by a genocide that left nearly a million dead. Neighbors attacked neighbors. Family members turned against their own. After the violence subsided, Rwanda's women—drawn by the necessity of protecting their families—carved out unlikely new roles for themselves as visionary pioneers creating stability and reconciliation in genocide's wake. Today, 64 percent of the seats in Rwanda's elected house of Parliament are held by women, a number unrivaled by any other nation.

While news of the Rwandan genocide reached all corners of the globe, the nation's recovery and the key role of women are less well known. In Rwandan Women Rising , Swanee Hunt shares the stories of some seventy women—heralded activists and unsung heroes alike—who overcame unfathomable brutality, unrecoverable loss, and unending challenges to rebuild Rwandan society. Hunt, who has worked with women leaders in sixty countries for over two decades, points out that Rwandan women did not seek the limelight or set out to build a movement; rather, they organized around common problems such as health care, housing, and poverty to serve the greater good. Their victories were usually in groups and wide ranging, addressing issues such as rape, equality in marriage, female entrepreneurship, reproductive rights, education for girls, and mental health.

These women's accomplishments provide important lessons for policy makers and activists who are working toward equality elsewhere in Africa and other postconflict societies. Their stories, told in their own words via interviews woven throughout the book, demonstrate that the best way to reduce suffering and to prevent and end conflicts is to elevate the status of women throughout the world.


Stakeholder partnerships have increasingly been used as part of the process of policy debate and decision-making in recent years. By bringing together representatives from different stakeholder communities in an inclusive, sustained and indefinite discourse, they also offer a potentially important means of engaging stakeholders in the full cycle of risk governance. A key challenge in this is how to establish a practicable yet balanced partnership, which can properly represent the interests and views of large numbers of stakeholders. Barriers to participation which otherwise act to bias involvement also need to be overcome, and issues of legitimacy and accountability addressed, in order to ensure that stakeholder partnership genuinely speaks for their stakeholder communities. Further challenges also occur in enabling fair and open debate within the partnerships, with differing styles of discourse and goal-seeking strategies having to be recognised and accommodated, and collaborative strategies, which seek the so-called win-win solutions encouraged.


A method is presented for the prediction of rate of inbreeding for populations with discrete generations. The matrix of Wright's numerator relationships is partitioned into 'contribution' matrices which describe the contribution of the Mendelian sampling of genes of ancestors in a given generation to the relationship between individuals in later generations. These contributions stabilize with time and the value to which they stabilize is shown to be related to the asymptotic rate of inbreeding and therefore also the effective population size, Ne approximately 2N/(mu 2r + sigma 2r), where N is the number of individuals per generation and mu r and sigma 2r are the mean and variance of long-term relationships or long-term contributions. These stabilized values are then predicted using a recursive equation via the concept of selective advantage for populations with hierarchical mating structures undergoing mass selection. Account is taken of the change in genetic parameters as a consequence of selection and also the increasing 'competitiveness' of contemporaries as selection proceeds. Examples are given and predicted rates of inbreeding are compared to those calculated in simulations. For populations of 20 males and 20, 40, 100 or 200 females the rate of inbreeding was found to increase by as much as 75% over the rate of inbreeding in an unselected population depending on mating ratio, selection intensity and heritability of the selected trait. The prediction presented here estimated the rate of inbreeding usually within 5% of that calculated from simulation.


'This is a lucid and detailed account of the tragic effects of frontier expansion upon the native inhabitants of Minnesota. It depicts the condition of the eastern Sioux in the era of fur trading, considers the treaties that exchanged land for annuities, interprets the uprising of 1862, and traces Santee history' - "Midcontinent American Studies Journal". 'A remarkably comprehensive study...[Meyer] makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of American Indian policy...The documentation is exceptionally full...The tone throughout is judicious and moderate, yet the author's deep sympathy for his subject is evident' - Francis Paul Prucha, "Minnesota History".'This volume adds immeasurably to our historical knowledge about the fate of the Mdewakatons, Wahpekutes, Wahpetons, and Sissetons, the bands or divisions that constitute the Santee Sioux...Meyer joins the few historians...who continue their studies beyond the military subjugation of the American Indian' - Donald J. Berthrong, Historical Society of Southern California. 'One of the most substantial additions to our knowledge of the Dakota to appear' - "Ethnohistory". 'The book adds insight to the motivations of such famous individuals as Little Crow and Wabasha as well as the influential white men such as Taliaferro, Galbraith, and Bishop Whipple...[It] not only brings the story of the Santee to its immediacy but offers the opportunity for this nation to learn something from history and profit from it' - Royal B. Hassrick, "Colorado Magazine".'The first real effort to deal with the history of this eastern division of the Sioux Nation...it is all well written and rings true' - "Choice". Since its original publication by the University of Nebraska Press in 1967, "History of the Santee Sioux" has become known as the definitive work on its subject. Now, in a revised edition, Roy W. Meyer brings the story of the Santees up to date. Roy W. Meyer is a professor emeritus of English at Mankato State University. His works include "The Village Indians of the Upper Missouri: The Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras", also published by the University of Nebraska Press.


An analysis of viscosity data from sets of raw data on the shear rheological properties of fresh human faeces was performed to generate model constants that can be used for the design of faecal treatment processes. The models selected are standard choices in computational fluid dynamics software for shear-thinning fluids. Initial screening for model selection was based on a literature review of similarly viscous materials. Results showed reasonable agreement with Power Law (PL). PL model parameters were proposed for fresh human faeces and correlated against sample properties. A PL model for shear stress as a function of moisture content was proposed.


Objective Spinal cord injury is a major problem for all communities that affect personal and social aspects of the patient's life. The most common issues that spinal cord injury patients face are paralysis, muscle atrophy, pain, and spasticity. The ability to walk also may be disrupted or lost in many of the patients with spinal cord injury. Most common approaches to rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injury are the emphasis on healthy neuromuscular sections to promote these sectors and compensate existing defects. But recent studies have reported that the neuromuscular system is capable of plasticity and after spinal cord injury is necessary to pay attention to health and impaired neuromuscular parts of the body. Gait training is one of the rehabilitation approaches that is trying to recruit impaired neuromuscular parts and improve them. This reha - bilitation is performed in different ways. In this study, the effect of body weight supported treadmill training on balance and quality of life in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury was evaluated. Materials & Methods This is a quasi-experimental study. Patients with incomplete spinal cord injury (n=15) aged 26 and 48 years with a chronic (>1 year post-injury), grade D=4 and C=11 (according to American spinal cord injury association scale [ASIA]) voluntarily participated in this study. Sampling was conducted from hospi - tals and spinal cord injury rehabilitation centers of Tehran. For intervention, the patient was in the body weight support system. Patients' weight supported and suspended with harnesses and lifter of the body weight sup - port system to the extent that knees were not bent in stance phase and fingers can't be dragged into swing phase. Treadmill speed and amount of weight support adjusted depending on the patient's conditions. Inter - vention applied for eight weeks and three sessions a week. Each session lasted 30 minutes. Outcome mea sures were Berg balance scale and SF-36 questioner. The quality of life evaluated before and after the inter vention. Berg balance scale was evaluated at baseline and every two weeks throughout the intervention. The results were compared with each assessment. Repeated measure ANOVA test used for analysis of the scores of Berg balance scale and SF-36, paired t-test used. Results The evaluation results indicated that the scores of Berg balance scale, increased significantly compared to the previous stage in each reevaluation. Between the various stages of evaluation, the maximum difference was between the second and third stages (P=0.008) that were after two and four weeks after the first session respectively. The score of SF-36 showed no significant difference. Between 8 items that measured in SF-36 questioner, just score of »emotional roll functioning « increased significantly (P=0.006). Conclusion According to achieved results, eight weeks body weight supported treadmill training can improve the balance of the patients with spinal cord injury. It was observed that the gait training with stimulation and use of proprioceptors and increase of patient's confidence in walking and standing positions improve the patient's balance. The patients were also able to control the internal and external perturbations and maintain the better balance. But eight weeks gait training had no significant effect on the quality of life in patients with spinal cord injury which suggest that more extended rehabilitation is required.


tion of integrated health and social care organisations and systems has occurred across several continents. These models of care have implied the adoption of new approaches to their organization and governance. As a result, many countries have begun to focus specifically on the regulation, assessment and inspection of integrated care. This editorial argues that there is both an opportunity and a need to share the successes and challenges from these experiences and to promote methods for collaborative learning. Three themes appear to be driving and influencing the focus of regulation, assessment and inspection when it comes to integrated health and social care:


The ammonium produced by nitrogen fixation in the bacteroid is rapidly excreted to cytosol of infected cell of soybean nodules and then assimilated into glutamine and glutamic acid, by glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase pathway. Most of the nitrogen is further assimilated into ureides, allantoin, and allantoic acid, via purine synthesis, and they are transported through xylem to the shoots. Nitrate absorbed in the roots is reduced by nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase to ammonia either in the roots or leaves. The ammonia is also assimilated by glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase pathway, and mainly transported by asparagine, and not ureides. The nitrogen transported into leaves is readily utilized for protein synthesis, and then, some of them are decomposed and retransported to roots, apical shoots, and pods via phloem mainly in the form of asparagine.


Blended learning combines face-to-face class based and online teaching and learning delivery in order to increase flexibility in how, when, and where students study and learn. The development, integration, and promotion of blended learning in frameworks of curriculum design can optimize the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies and, concomitantly, accommodate a broad range of student learning styles. This study critically reviews the potential benefits of blended learning as a progressive educative paradigm for the teaching of biomedical science and evaluates the opportunities that blended learning offers for the delivery of accessible, flexible and sustainable teaching and learning experiences. A central tenet of biomedical science education at the tertiary level is the development of comprehensive hands-on practical competencies and technical skills (many of which require laboratory-based learning environments), and it is advanced that a blended learning model, which combines face-to-face synchronous teaching and learning activities with asynchronous online teaching and learning activities, effectively creates an authentic, enriching, and student-centred learning environment for biomedical science. Lastly, a blending learning design for introductory biochemistry will be described as an effective example of integrating face-to-face and online teaching, learning and assessment activities within the teaching domain of biomedical science.


Membranous Met is classically identified with its role in cancer metastases, while nuclear Met is associated with a more invasive, aggressive and proliferative form of cancer. Full-length Met or N-terminal transmembrane domain cleaved Met can translocate into nucleus in a cell growth and pH dependent but both ligand-dependent (full length Met) and -independent (cleaved Met) manner. nMET may play greater essential roles in cancer recurrence than membranous Met. For example, in prostate cancer, it has been found that androgen receptor (AR) may inhibit the expression of membranous Met so anti-androgen based prostate cancer therapy may promote the expression of nuclear Met (nMET). We recently found a novel nMET/SOX9/ β-Catenin/AR pathway in relapsed prostate cancer which may contribute to the formation of the feedback loop of AR reactivation via MET/nMET. Emerging evidence suggests the possibility of nMET as a prognostic marker in relapsed cancer. This review summarizes recent findings about nMET and its unique role in recurrent cancer.


This study was done to compare the various semen parameters of infertile male smokers with nonsmokers and also draw comparisons among light, moderate, and heavy smokers. Materials and methods: A total of 130 infertile male patients were included in this study from the outpatient department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad, from January 2010 to May 2010. The subjects were infertile males married for more than 1 year, and they were selected randomly. The subjects were thoroughly interviewed and were selected according to inclusion criteria. History about cigarette smoking and its duration was obtained and was recorded in the questionnaire form. Results of the semen examinations were collected from the laboratory. Subjects were divided into different groups as nonsmokers and smokers. Smokers were further grouped as light, moderate, and heavy smokers. Sperm motility and morphology were taken as parameters for semen analysis. Results: It was found that 33.3% of nonsmokers showed below 5% sperm motility and 25.9% showed below 3% normal sperm morphology. Meanwhile, 66.7% of smokers showed below 5% sperm motility, and 74.1% showed below 3% normal sperm morphology. Among the 3 groups of smokers, sperm motility below 5% was present in 18.8% of light smokers, 31.2% of moderate smokers, and 50% of heavy smokers. Regarding morphology of sperm, less than 3% of normal sperm cells were present in 25% of light, 35% of moderate, and 40% of heavy smokers. Conclusion: It is concluded that cigarette smoking can affect male fertility by decreasing the sperm motility and percentage of normal sperm cells. These abnormalities are also related to the amount of cigarettes smoked per day.