This article investigates the underlying themes and principles that inform curriculum debate and how they are articulated in current school policy discussions. This topic is approached with the help of a case study covering the debate on which subjects should be mandatory for students at the upper secondary school curriculum in Sweden. The focus is on the arguments for and against the inclusion of History among these core subjects. The aim is to order and structure this debate and to link the arguments found to basic underlying principles. Why was History considered important or unimportant? What arguments are found about the best way to teach History? This study employs a 4-fold distinction which distinguishes between perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructivism as four schools of thought, each outlining its own particular view on what kind of knowledge is important and how such knowledge should be taught. One major finding is that two of the schools—progressivism and essentialism—completely dominate the debates under study. There existed a major fault line between those who emphasized the instrumental value of History as a tool for fostering good citizens, and those who considered History part of essential general knowledge about society.


Matthias Peter Hilty, Andrea Mueller, Daniela Flück, Christoph Siebenmann, Peter Rasmussen, Stefanie Keiser, Katja Auinger, Carsten Lundby, and Marco Maggiorini. Effect of increased blood flow on the pulmonary circulation before and during high altitude acclimatization. High Alt Med Biol. 17:305-314, 2016.-Introduction and Methods: Acute exposure to high altitude increases pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). The evolution of Ppa and PVR with continuous hypoxic exposure remains, however, elusive. To test the hypothesis that altitude exposure leads to a persistent elevation in Ppa and PVR throughout acclimatization in seven healthy male subjects, echocardiography was performed at sea level (SL; 488 m) weekly during a 4-week sojourn at 3454 m (HA1-HA4) and upon return (SL2). Pulmonary artery catheterization and bilateral thigh cuff release maneuver were performed at SL and HA3 to study the properties of pulmonary circulation after 3 weeks of acclimatization.

RESULTS
Pulmonary artery catheter determined that systolic Ppa (mean ± SEM) was increased from 20 ± 1 at SL to 27 ± 2 mmHg at HA3 (p < 0.01). Echocardiography assessed that systolic Ppa remained equally increased throughout acclimatization (26 ± 2, 25 ± 2, 25 ± 2, and 24 ± 2 mmHg at HA1-HA4; p = 0.93) and returned to baseline upon return (17 ± 2, 18 ± 1 mmHg at SL, SL2; p = 0.3). The same was shown for PVR. Right heart function remained unaffected. Thigh cuff release maneuvers at SL and HA3 resulted in similar increase in cardiac output (2.5 ± 0.5 and 2.2 ± 0.4 L/min; p = 0.61) without affecting mean Ppa.

CONCLUSIONS
Prolonged altitude exposure leads to a persistent increase in Ppa and PVR without affecting right heart function and is fully reversible within 1 week after return to SL. The thigh cuff release maneuver-induced increase in cardiac output suggests a preserved ability of pulmonary circulation to cope with sudden remarkable increase in pulmonary blood flow throughout acclimatization.


Advanced communication/networking technologies should be integrated in next-generation power systems (a.k.a. smart grids) to improve their resilience, efficiency, adaptability, and sustainability. Many believe that the smart grid communication infrastructure will emerge from the interconnection of a large number of small-scale networks organized into a hierarchical architecture covering larger geographic areas. In this article, first we carry out a thorough analysis of the key components of the smart grid communication architecture, discussing the different network topologies and communication technologies that could be employed. Special emphasis is given to the advanced metering infrastructure, which will be used to interconnect the smart meters deployed at customers' premises with data aggregators and control centers. The design of scalable, reliable, and efficient networking solutions for AMI systems is an important research problem because these networks are composed of thousands of resource-constrained embedded devices usually interconnected with communication technologies that can provide only low-bandwidth and unreliable links. The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks was recently standardized by the IETF to specifically meet the requirements of typical AMI applications. In this article we present a thorough overview of the protocol, and we critically analyze its advantages and potential limits in AMI applications. We also conduct a performance evaluation of RPL using a Contiki-based prototype of the RPL standard and a network emulator. Our results indicate that although average performance may appear reasonable for AMI networks, a few RPL nodes may suffer from severe unreliability issues and experience high packet loss rates due to the selection of suboptimal paths with highly unreliable links.


The telomere is a specialized simple sequence repeat found at the end of all linear chromosomes. It acts as a substrate for telomere binding factors that in coordination with other interacting elements form what is known as the shelterin complex to protect the end of the chromosome from the DNA damage repair machinery. The telomere shortens with each cell division, and once critically short is no longer able to perform this role. Short dysfunctional telomeres result in cellular senescence, apoptosis, or genome instability. Telomere length is regulated by many factors including cis-acting elements in the proximal sequence which is known as the subtelomere. The Riethman lab played a pivotal role in generating the reference sequence of the subtelomere in both the human and mouse genomes, providing an essential resource for this work. Short high throughput sequencing (HTS) reads generated from the simple repeat containing telomere or the segmental duplication rich subtelomere cannot be aligned to a reference genome uniquely. They are filtered and excluded from many HTS analysis methods. A ChIP-Seq analysis pipeline was developed to incorporate these multimapping reads to study DNA-protein interactions in the subtelomere. This pipeline was employed to search for factors regulating the expression TERRA, an essential long non-coding RNA, and to better characterize their transcription start sites. ChIP-seq analysis in the human subtelomere found colocalization of CTCF and Cohesin directly adjacent to the telomere and throughout the subtelomere specific repeats. Follow up functional studies showed this binding regulated TERRA transcription at these sites. Extending these analyses in the mouse genome showed very different patterns of CTCF and cohesin binding, with no evidence of binding at apparent sites of TERRA transcription. Mouse subtelomere sequence analysis showed the cooccurence of two repeats at sites of putative TERRA expression, MurSatRep1 and MMSAT4, one of which was previously shown to be expressed in lincRNAs. The Telomere Analysis from SEquencing Reads(TASER) pipeline was developed to capture telomere information from HTS data sets and used to investigate telomere changes that occur in prostate cancer. TASER analysis of 53 paired prostate tumor and normal samples revealed an overall decrease in telomere length in tumor samples relative to matched paired normal tissue, especially sequence containing the exact canonical telomere repeat. Multimapping reads contain important information, that when used properly, help elucidate understanding of telomere biology, cancer biology, and genome regulation and stability. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Genomics & Computational Biology First Advisor Harold Riethman This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1460


In this study we compared three overland flow models, a full dynamic model (shallow water equation), a local inertial equations model (gravity wave model), and a diffusive wave model (parallel diffusive wave model). The three models are coupled with the same full dynamic sewer network model (SIPSON). We adopted the volume exchange between sewer and overland flow models, and the hydraulic head and discharge rates at the linked manholes to evaluate differences between the models. For that purpose we developed a novel methodology based on RGB scale. The test results of a real case study show a close agreement between coupled models in terms of the extents of flooding, depth and volume exchanged, despite highly complex flows and geometries. The diffusive wave model gives slightly higher maximum flood depths and a slower propagation of the flood front when compared to the other two models. The local inertial model shows to a slight extent higher depths downstream as the wave front is slower than the one in the fully dynamic model. Overall, the simplified overland models can produce comparable results to fully dynamic models with less computational cost.


In Murray-Rust, H.; Droogers, P. (Eds.). Water for the future: linking irrigation and water allocation in the Zayandeh Rud Basin, Iran. Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMI


The thesis wants to analyze "the strategies of wrapping in Dutch contemporary architecture" and wants to re-define, in a systematic way, some aspects that have not been investigated by those publications and authors that, since the beginning of the '90s until today, have spoken about the recent development of the architectural culture in the Netherlands. In the previous decade an idea stratified itself of a Dutch architecture as a collective and identity phenomenon, linked to a programmatic and conceptual approach, in which the differences have been, for propaganda reasons or simply editorial, leveled to only one adjective – "Dutch" – that has hidden all the specificities of the approaches of the offices. At the base of this collective vision, were the actions of some institutions, such as NAI, and of some critiques, such as Bart Lootsma and Aaron Betsky, that have, for years, promoted the idea of "superdutch", i.e. the way of thinking architecture that was common and shared by the characters of the architectural scene of those years. This attitude, if on one side it helped to create the myth of the Dutch architecture of the '90s and of its main characters (OMA, West8, MVRDV, NOX, Neutelings Riedijk, UNstudio, Arets, Jo Coenen, Koen van Velsen, Klaus en Kaan, Mecanoo), on the other it dimmed the differences between them. During the '90s architecture was associated to certain themes – the programmatic component, the artificiality of the landscape, the flexibility, the architecture of concept and the urban programming –, that have become dominant, especially in foreign magazines. This even though, towards the end of the '80s, before the "Dutch Touch" started, the same Dutch architects that would take advantage of the economic situation and the propagandistic approach of the Nai, showed profound differences. The difference was partly due to their academic background and to the local sphere they came from. This reality has never been analyzed properly. The reason for this historical void is that, in the years between 1988 and 1992, the offices collected in this thesis were dealing with their first buildings (that, particular detail, will be scarcely documented by critiques and by the authors themselves in their monographies). The boom would arrive only a couple of years later, accompanied and, shall we say, conditioned, by a uniforming critic interpretation. The thesis wants show those differences, retracing the architectural career of some of the offices of that generation. The belonging to that generation has been considered more as an anagraphic aspect rather that due to common aims: the idea of breaking down the selection to three architects professionally born in those years was useful to give a more objective interpretation. The subject of the thesis does not concern only rediscovering the existing differences between the architects born in those years, but has to do, especially, with a topic that has been surprisingly removed from the analysis of the work of the studied offices, that has become in the last decade, even more central. The wrapping has never had a dominant role in the years of the "superdutch", as if the exterior was a direct consequence (and therefore secondary) of the concept and the typological programming at the basis of the project. Though, already at the time, the selected offices demonstrated, with their texts and their realizations, a critical position as regards to the shell. The idea of choosing three very different offices (Neutelings Riedijk Architecten, UNstudio, Wiel Arets) comes from a second critic aim: to demonstrate that the original differences slowly disappeared, if compared under the common filter of the theme of the exterior. We are therefore in front of a double paradox : on one side the partial vision of the Dutch architecture of the '90s given by the critiques, on the other, the inexistence in the last years, of a research that tried to document what was actually happening, which means the progressive convergence of the offices towards common strategies of covering. This gap has to be filled via a diachronic analysis that, retracing the beginning of the documented offices, rediscovers the differences and the common aspects. The description of the parallel career of the three offices shows how much this heterogeneity of intents and approaches has had some partial moments of contact – particularly in the years between 2000 and 2006 –, evident especially in the solutions for the shell. The individuated "strategies" have been six: the wrapping, the annulment of the junction, the annulment of the scale, the integration of the texture of the exteriors with a pattern given by the windows, the invention of neutral shells that hide complex programs and the decorated shed of venturian inspiration. These are a-stylistic groups, that in its generality, tell more than a simple categorization would make you think. The strategies, selected because they are common to the three offices, demonstrate implicitly the evolution of the architectural Dutch panorama and they tell about the economic and maybe also about cultural crisis. The Dutch specificity of the '90s, as this thesis demonstrates, has slowly disappeared. The idea of a generation born thanks to a visionary spirit of the concept and a programmatic logic has been taken over, today, by a group of individual personalities, comparable via a new – even though it would be more correct to say renewed – attention towards the topic of the wrapping (of its tactile qualities, of its designing and technological aspects). During the editing of the research the consistency of the proposed topic has progressively defined itself, as the historical evolution of the offices was retraced from an analytical point of view. Therefore the initial three differences have been recomposed in the final chapter, which gets into depth of the years between 2000 and 2006, via the analysis of three completely different projects, where the specific identities are encountered and confused. The "ad hoc" wrapping produced by the studios in those years demonstrates profound similarities (in the technologies and the strategies adopted), but still remains coherent with the personal path that the designers have started since the end of the '80s.


Distributed Mean Estimation (DME) is a central building block in federated learning, where clients send local gradients to a parameter server for av-eraging and updating the model. Due to communication constraints, clients often use lossy compression techniques to compress the gradients, resulting in estimation inaccuracies. DME is more challenging when clients have diverse network conditions, such as constrained communication budgets and packet losses. In such settings, DME techniques often incur a sig-nificant increase in the estimation error leading to degraded learning performance. In this work, we propose a robust DME technique named EDEN that naturally handles heterogeneous communication budgets and packet losses. We derive appealing theoretical guarantees for EDEN and evaluate it empirically. Our results demonstrate that EDEN consistently improves over state-of-the-art DME techniques.


Written for the University of Cambridge International Examinations' AS and A Level Computing syllabus (9691) by experienced authors and a CIE examiner. It is written with clear explanations using diagrams, screenshots and photos, making it accessible for International students. Self-assessment questions in each chapter and answers at the back of the book give students the opportunity to assess their own revision needs. Exam questions at the end of each Module give the students plenty of practice and a chapter devoted to exam preparation will help them get ready. A detailed Glossary allows quick access to key and/or difficult terms.


The pelagic tunicate Salpa thompsoni is an important member of Southern Ocean mesozooplankton. They especially proliferate in areas with low chlorophyll a concentrations as higher particles concentrations seemingly harm their feeding mechanism. During the European Iron Fertilisation EXperiment (EIFEX, 21.01. 25.03.2004), an eddy in the Southern Polar Frontal Zone was fertilized with Fe(II)SO4 to follow the build-up and fate of an iron induced bloom. Salps from fertilized and unfertilized waters in the eddy showed high gut fluorescence and high experimental fecal pellet production indicating a strong grazing impact in both areas at the beginning of the experiment. Gut fluorescence was significantly higher for in-patch salps which showed no direct signs of clogging. Microscopy and detailed pigment analysis revealed that the phytoplankton composition of adjacent waters down to 500 m was reflected in the salp guts and changed with the developing bloom. Salps generally showed a higher phaeopigment to chlorophyll a ratio than found in the water masses due to digestion. Also, differences in digestion efficiency for different chlorophyll concentrations could be observed. These findings will help to understand the salp distribution especially in the Southern polar sea and their possible impact on the Antarctic food web and downward fluxes.


In electromagnetism, acoustics, and quantum mechanics, scattering problems can routinely be solved numerically by virtue of perfectly matched layers (PMLs) at simulation domain boundaries. Unfortunately, the same has not been possible for general elastodynamic wave problems in continuum mechanics. In this Rapid Communication, we introduce a corresponding scattered-field formulation for the Navier equation. We derive PMLs based on complex-valued coordinate transformations leading to Cosserat elasticity-tensor distributions not obeying the minor symmetries. These layers are shown to work in two dimensions, for all polarizations, and all directions. By adaptative choice of the decay length, the deep subwavelength PMLs can be used all the way to the quasistatic regime. As demanding examples, we study the effectiveness of cylindrical elastodynamic cloaks of the Cosserat type and approximations thereof.


The reliability of KT1000 knee arthrometer measurements has been established at a flexion angle of 20° to 30°. However, no studies have assessed its reliability at multiple joint positions. This study was conducted in order to compare the displacement at three positions (20°, 45°, and 90°) and to determine the test-retest reliability at each position. Twenty subjects having no history of knee pathology participated in the study. A KT1000 knee arthrometer (MEDmetric Corporation, San Diego, CA) was positioned on the leg to measure anterior displacement of the proximal tibia at the three knee joint positions in random order. Post-hoc analysis indicated greater displacement at the 20° and 45° positions than at the 90° position. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the test- retest sessions were R=.92, .84 , and .90 for the 20°, 45°, and 90° positions, respectively. These findings suggest that the KT1000 is a reliable instrument for measurement of passive anterior displacement throughout the knee joint's range of motion. Injury to the anterior cruciate ligament may involve rupture of the entire ligament, or may be isolated to a particular portion of the ligament. As such, assessment of anterior displacement at multiple joint angles is recommended to most accurately evaluate the integrity of the anterior cruciate ligament.


Abstract The purpose of this essay is to capture, in its earliest stages, the influence that formal recognition of Boyer's multiple domains of scholarship within faculty evaluation standards had on a select group of colleagues within a disciplinary diverse academic unit at a mid-sized, comprehensive university. A process is described whereby the combination of a book discussion group, a newly approved faculty contract recognizing Boyer's multiple domains, and a genuine commitment from a disciplinary diverse group of colleagues to the academic mission of the unit, resulted in a transformation in attitudes toward scholarship and teaching. Scholarship of teaching and learning was viewed as the key element leading to the formation of a team approach to a scholarship of teaching and learning project within a group that had traditionally pursued research separate from instruction, and individually rather than collectively.


A whole cell melanoma cancer vaccine with potential immunostimulating and antineoplastic activities. B16alphaGal melanoma vaccine contains three types of human melanoma cell lines that are genetically engineered to express the alpha(1,3)-galactosyl (alphaGal) epitope on cell surfaces. The agent stimulates a hyperacute rejection of whole melanoma cancer cells expressing alphaGal epitopes, initiated by opsonization by anti-alphaGal antibodies and followed by antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and cell lysis. This results in the stimulation of a broader cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response (CTL) directed against tumor antigens on melanoma cells that do not express alphaGal. AlphaGal is not normally expressed in humans because alpha(1,3)-galactosyltransferase (Alpha-GT), the enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of alphaGal epitopes on glycoproteins and glycolipids, is not naturally present in humans and other primates.


The development of agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is still determined by the processes of transition of the economic system and overcoming the consequences of the last war. Therefore, it inevitably requires modernization which again requires investments. Provided financial sources are the main preconditions for investing, so the researching sources and terms of financing investments in agricultural sector in BiH are the actual subject of research. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to determine sources of financing agricultural business at the level of family farms, dominating in the agriculture of BiH, the structure of their investment, lending conditions and other sources of financing and farmers' satisfaction with those conditions. Besides the review of literature, the research has been conducted by interviewing a random sample of hundred family farms from the five different regions in BiH, in spring of 2016. The results indicate that self-financing is still a dominant source of financing agricultural businesses, which reduces and slows down level of investment. The next source by relevance is lending (the farmers are not very satisfied with the lending terms and conditions), and followed by subsidies.


Controlling a brain-actuated device requires the participant to look at and to split his attention between the interaction of the device with its environment and the status information of the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). Such parallel visual tasks are partly contradictory, with the goal of achieving a good and natural device control. Is there a possibility to free the visual channel from one of these tasks? To address this, a stimulation system based on 6 coin-motors is developed, which provides a spatially continuous tactile illusion as BCI feedback, so that the visual channel can be devoted to the device. Several experiments are conducted in this work, to optimize the tactile illusion patterns and to investigate the influence on the electroencephalogram (EEG). Finally, 6 healthy BCI participants compare visual with tactile feedback in online BCI recordings. The developed stimulator can be used without interfering with the EEG. All subjects are able to perceive this type of tactile feedback well, and no statistical degradation in the online BCI performance could be identified between visual and tactile feedback.


Present companies require of complex businesses models with an organizational structure, processes and systems that must explicitly be designed. The task to design these business models is clearly interdisciplinary, since it requires knowledge of business development, different processes that happen in the company and of the processes management and technological applications. In software engineering context, it would be advisable to be able to count on a system of methods, tools and techniques that allow reusing the best practices during software development process, according to each one of the processes that are implemented in each domain. On this basis, in this work we propose an integral referential theoretician framework and a methodology that includes from requirements analysis to processes monitoring, supporting analysis, design, and modeling and configuration stages, through patterns use. The proposal methodology is conformed by two macro-processes: the first one related to the creation of the process itself. The second one corresponds to the administration, and includes: maintenance, administration of the process in production and the monitoring through management indicators.


Newly presenting maturity-onset diabetic subjects were put on diet and if, after 3–4 mo, their fasting plasma glucose continued >6 mmol/L, they were randomized to three therapies: (1) continuing diet alone, (2) with additional sulfonylurea, or (3) with additional basal insulin supplement provided by ultralente insulin. Obese patients were also randomized to metformin therapy. The aim was to lower the fasting plasma glucose to <6 mmol/L and the degree to which this reduced the hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) concentration was studied in 195 patients over 1 yr. Sulfonylurea and insulin similarly reduced (P < 0.001) the fasting plasma glucose from 8.3 ± 1.9 to 6.7 ±1.3 mmol/L (mean ± 1 SD) and 8.6 ± 2.2 to 6.8 ±1.4 mmol/L, respectively. This was accompanied by a significant reduction (P < 0.001) of the HbA1c to the high normal range, from 9.1 ± 2.1% to 7.8 ± 1.2%, and from 9.1 ± 1.9% to 8.1 ± 1.3%, respectively, both values at 1 yr being significantly (P < 0.05) lower than in patients randomized to diet alone. Patients randomized to diet alone had little change in fasting plasma glucose (8.6 ± 1.8 to 9.3 ± 2.3 mmol/L) or HbA1c (8.8 ± 1.7% to 9.1 ± 1.6%, respectively). Thus, the simple therapeutic aim of trying to reduce the fasting plasma glucose to <6 mmol/L is an effective means of reducing the HbA1c to a high-normal level. The HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose concentrations were similarly related for all three therapies (HbA1c [%] = 0.47 × fasting plasma glucose [mmol/L] + 4.7). If the fasting plasma glucose concentration after dieting was >10 mmol/L, maximal-dose sulfonylurea therapy rarely reduced the fasting plasma glucose to 6 mmol/L and such patients could be started on maximum sulfonylurea therapy. Similar patients randomized to a basal insulin supplement alone required high insulin doses (mean 25 U/day), and also had mean fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels above the normal range.


This Article, written for a symposium on national security, describes and analyzes standing doctrine as it applies to covert government surveillance, focusing on practices thought to be conducted by the National Security Agency. Primarily because of its desire to avoid judicial incursions into the political process, the Supreme Court has construed its standing doctrine in a way that makes challenges to covert surveillance very difficult. Properly understood, however, such challenges do not call for judicial trenching on the power of the legislative and executive branches. Instead, they ask the courts to ensure that the political branches function properly. This political process theory of standing can rejuvenate the "chilling" arguments that the Supreme Court has rejected in Fourth and First Amendment cases. Additionally, the theory provides a third, independent cause of action against covert surveillance that is based on separation of powers principles, specifically the notion that, in a representative democracy governed by administrative law principles, one role of the courts is to ensure that the legislative branch authorizes and monitors significant executive actions and that the executive branch promulgates reasonable regulations governing itself. Litigants who can show that their participation in the political process has been concretely compromised by covert surveillance should have standing to bring any of these causes of action.


Three novel triarylamine derivatives (TPACs: TPAC0M, TPAC2M and TPAC3M), sharing the same conjugation scaffold but possessing different numbers of methoxy units, were designed for high performance hole transport materials (HTMs) of p–i–n planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Cyclic voltammetry and absorption results showed that their energy levels would be beneficial to work as HTMs of PSCs, and time-resolved photoluminescence and transient photo-voltage studies proved that TPAC-based PSCs had better charge extraction and more suppressed non-radiative recombination properties than PEDOT:PSS-based PSCs, leading to superior power conversion efficiency (PCE). We confirmed that the methoxy units introduced to the triarylamine derivatives did not cause noticeable changes in their optical properties, such as absorption and bandgap, electrical conductance, measured by conductive atomic force microscopy, and mobility, but the charge extraction and recombination behaviors of TPAC-based PSCs could be improved by increasing the number of methoxy units in the arylamine moiety. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that methoxy units could act as a Lewis base passivating the defect sites at the interface between HTM and perovskite, consequently resulting in an increase of their PCE to 17.54% without any dopants.


Over the last decade the prevalence of glaucoma has been reported by the Vellore Eye Survey, Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study, Aravind Comprehensive Eye Survey, Chennai Glaucoma Study, and West Bengal Glaucoma Study. There have been some differences largely because of methodologic variations. We use the reported age and gender stratified prevalence estimates from these studies and the Indian population census estimates to calculate the number of persons with glaucoma or at risk of the disease in the country. On the basis of the available data, we estimate that there are approximately 11.2 million persons aged 40 years and older with glaucoma in India. Primary open angle glaucoma is estimated to affect 6.48 million persons. The estimated number with primary angle-closure glaucoma is 2.54 million. Those with any form of primary angle-closure disease could comprise 27.6 million persons. Most of those with disease are undetected and there exist major challenges in detecting and treating those with disease. In the light of the existing manpower and resource constraints, we evaluate options for improving case detection rates in the country.


In this paper, the performance of high-tunable polarization rotator (PR) based on nematic liquid crystal (NLC) photonic crystal fiber is reported. The tunability of the proposed PR results from the change of the optical properties of the NLC with the temperature and external electric field. The influence of the different structure geometrical parameters, rotation angle of the director of the NLC, temperature and operating wavelength on the PR performance is investigated. The numerical results reveal that the suggested PR can provide a strong polarization conversion ratio of 99.81% with a device length of 1072 ¿m. It is expected that over the 1.53-1.6 ¿ m wavelength range, polarization conversion would be more than 99%. The simulation results are evaluated using the full-vectorial finite-difference method and confirmed by the full-vectorial finite-difference beam-propagation method.


My point of departure is that nationality, or, as one might prefer to put it in view of that word's multiple significations, nation-ness, as well as nationalism, are cultural artefacts of a particular kind. To understand them properly we need to consider carefully how they have come into historical being, in what ways their meanings have changed over time, and why, today, they command such profound emotional legitimacy. I will be trying to argue that the creation of these artefacts towards the end of the eighteenth centuryl was the spontaneous distillation of a complex 'crossing' of discrete historical forces; but that, once created, they became 'modular', capable of being transplanted, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, to a great variety of social terrains, to merge and be merged with a correspondingly wide variety of political and ideological constellations. I will also attempt to show why these particular cultural artefacts have aroused such deep attachments.


Clamshell casting is a popular manufacturing technique where liquid is poured into a mold or cast and the cast is removed once the liquid has hardened. The term clamshell refers to the way in which the cast is removed. The two cast parts are removed by rotation through a hinge much like a clamshell. Given an object, modeled by a polyhedron P of arbitrary genus with combinatorial complexity n , we determine when the surface of the polyhedron can be decomposed into two parts s.t. each part can be rotated around a line in space without colliding with each other or intersecting the interior. Such a line is a valid casting line. Specifically, we solve the following problems: (1) Given a line l in space, we determine in ( ) O n time whether l is a valid casting line for P . If degeneracies are present, such as a reflex edge or face of P is perpendicular to l , the running time increases slightly to ( log ) O n n . (2) In 4 ( ( )) � O n n time, where ( ) �n is the inverse Ackermann function, we report all combinatorially distinct valid casting lines. The running time is 4 ( log ) O n n in the presence of degeneracies. All of the running times are shown to be almost optimal.


Many studies of school achievement find a significant association between reading and arithmetic achievement. The magnitude of the association varies widely across the studies, but the sources of this variation have not been identified. The purpose of this paper is to examine the magnitude and determinants of the relation between arithmetic and reading performance during elementary and middle school years. We meta-analyzed 210 correlations between math and reading measures, coming from 68 independent samples (the overall sample size was 58923 participants). The meta-analysis yielded an average correlation of 0.55 between math and reading measures. Among the moderators tested, only transparency of orthography and use of timed or untimed tests were significant in explaining the size of the correlation, with the largest correlations observed between timed measures of arithmetic and reading and between math and reading in opaque orthographies.


Agroforestry has potential to address the adverse effects of climate change through increasing biodiversity and improving adaptive capacity and resilience among smallholder farmers. However, this potential is context specific and insufficiently quantified in smallholder faming systems, partly because of inherent variability of smallholder farms. Our study aimed to determine the tree/shrub diversity and carbon stocks in different agroforestry systems within smallholder farms in two 100 km 2 sites, the so-called lower and middle Nyando sites, in western Kenya. In both, context-specific agroforestry adoption had been promoted among households of four community associations through an asset-based community development (ABCD) approach. Their farms were assessed and compared with those of relevant comparison samples. Trees and shrubs were inventoried on a total of 106 farms, and their formations classified in five major agroforestry practices: hedgerows, multipurpose trees on farm (MPT), riparian buffers, woodlots, and boundary planting. To assess above-ground biomass (AGB) of individual trees/shrubs, diameter at breast height measurements were taken. Strong regional differences were considered in data analysis and presentation. Altogether, 3,353 and 6,346 trees/shrubs were inventoried in the lower and middle Nyando sites, respectively. AGB was significantly higher in middle than in lower Nyando. Woodlots had the highest amount of AGB carbon stock, while MPT had the highest diversity of tree/shrub species in all the groups. Conversely, boundary planting had the highest number of trees/shrubs inventoried and hence was the most common agroforestry practice across all the samples in both regions. Dominant AGB contributor species were Grevillea robusta (37.8%) in middle, and Eurphobia tirucalli (16.5%) in lower Nyando. This study provides empirical evidence that asset-based and community-driven selection and implementation of both tree/shrub species and agroforestry practices can contribute positively to species and practice diversity, which are associated with AGB carbon stock levels and wider agro-ecosystem diversity. This study hence provides benchmark information that is relevant for SDG goal 15 on "life on land," and various specific targets, and can inform sustainable establishment of carbon sink facilities by supporting smallholders to uptake contextually suitable and economically sensible agroforestry practices in an overall effort to foster and support sustainable development.


Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the residue materials considered as a potential source for biofuel production in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which estab-lishes that a minimum of 10% biofuels for transport shall be used in every Member State by 2020, thus promoting advanced biofuel from waste. A high-temperature gasification technology transforms MSW into a syngas rich in hydrogen and carbon monoxide and free of tar, char and harmful compounds like dioxins appearing as a promising root for methanol production. The overall process including MSW high-temperature gasification, syngas purification and conditioning up to methanol synthesis has been modeled with Aspen Plus analyzing the influence of waste composition and operating conditions on syngas composition and methanol yield. The evaluation of CAPEX and OPEX has been carried out to obtain a cost of production (COP) estimation. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emission has also been estimated and compared with the conventional waste incineration process and methanol production. The technology assessment shows interesting results technically and economically, when compared with waste to energy processes: over 50% of incoming carbon is fixed into methanol molecule, and due to the negative cost paid for RDF disposal, the bio-methanol COP provides a reasonable industrial margin.


We often regulate actors as a proxy for protecting categories of information. Rather than directly protect reading records, for example, we target actors like libraries who are likely to possess them. This approach has proven increasingly untenable in the digital age, where the relevant actors are difficult to identify and constantly shifting. Unanticipated third parties now insert themselves as intermediaries or eavesdroppers in all manner of transactions, even in protected spaces like libraries. Where this happens, actor-defined regimes fail to vindicate their privacy commitments even within the institutions for which they were designed.Libraries provide a clear example of this problem. Private reading historically has been protected through a regime that restricts libraries' ability to exploit reading records. Yet this regime now fails to protect reading records even in libraries because it does not bind third parties who provide library services digitally. Illustrating the point, Amazon facilitates e-book lending for a number of public and academic libraries. Although Amazon collects detailed reading records from patrons utilizing these services, the library confidentiality regime does not restrict what it can do with the records. These patrons accordingly confront the risks to intellectual privacy the library regime was meant to counter.This Article proposes a content-defined approach whereby confidentiality obligations would attach to particular types of information regardless of which actors possessed it. Such an approach would not only save extant confidentiality regimes from obsolescence, but also provide a vehicle for extending privacy commitments to future data practices that implicated the same types of sensitive records.


In many problems in dynamical systems one is interested in the identification of sets which have qualitatively different fates. The finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) method is a general and equation-free method that identifies codimension-one sets which have a locally high rate of stretching around which maximal exponential expansion of line elements occurs. These codimension-one sets thus act as transport barriers. This geometric framework of transport barriers is used to study various problems in phase space transport, specifically problems of separation in flows that can vary in scale from the micro to the geophysical. The first problem which we study is of the nontrivial motion of inertial particles in a two-dimensional fluid flow. We use the method of FTLE to identify transport barriers that produce segregation of inertial particles by size. The second problem we study is the long range advective transport of plant pathogen spores in the atmosphere. We compute the FTLE field for isobaric atmospheric flow and identify atmospheric transport barriers (ATBs). We find that rapid temporal changes in the spore concentrations at a sampling point occur due to the passage of these ATBs across the sampling point. We also investigate the theory behind the computation of the FTLE and devise a new method to compute the FTLE which does not rely on the tangent linearization. We do this using the 925 matrix of a probability density function. This method of computing the geometric quantities of stretching and FTLE also heuristically bridge the gap between the geometric and probabilistic methods of studying phase space transport. We show this with two examples.


Why doesn't your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? The first book ever about the science of web page rankings, Google's PageRank and Beyond supplies the answers to these and other questions and more. The book serves two very different audiences: the curious science reader and the technical computational reader. The chapters build in mathematical sophistication, so that the first five are accessible to the general academic reader. While other chapters are much more mathematical in nature, each one contains something for both audiences. For example, the authors include entertaining asides such as how search engines make money and how the Great Firewall of China influences research. The book includes an extensive background chapter designed to help readers learn more about the mathematics of search engines, and it contains several MATLAB codes and links to sample web data sets. The philosophy throughout is to encourage readers to experiment with the ideas and algorithms in the text. Any business seriously interested in improving its rankings in the major search engines can benefit from the clear examples, sample code, and list of resources provided. Many illustrative examples and entertaining asides MATLAB code Accessible and informal style Complete and self-contained section for mathematics review


This dataset covers a Nationally Representative Sample of the Guyana population during the July-September 2017 quarter. It measures all main employment indicators. This is the first quarter of a continuous quarterly labor force survey with an individual level rotating panel component detailed in the survey report also included in the package.


Men's Sheds and similar community programmes are known to encourage help-seeking behaviour and thus improve the health and well-being outcomes for the men who attend. This paper investigates this issue through a community needs assessment of a Men's Shed programme in inner-regional Australia. The immediate purpose of this research was to help direct future funding initiatives, and provide recommendations for potential changes and improvements to the programme. A community-level needs assessment is a systematic process used to determine and address gaps or needs between current and desired conditions within a particular community. We sought to explore how particular formats and structures of Men's Sheds programmes contribute to improve social and medical well-being, and whether there are key programme characteristics that could be emulated. In total, 22 surveys and 20 interviews were conducted with the men who participated in the programme. The report finds 95% of men are satisfied with the current running of the programme. While there were areas that have been identified for improvement, most men reported that they are content with the current format and would not like to see major changes to its implementation. The results of this research confirm the known benefits of these types of programmes. This paper provides other community programmes with some insight into the key success factors for running a Men's Shed.


The interjection of pneumatology in both theologies of interreligious dialogue and in the theology-and-science conversation comes together in this volume. The resulting Christianity-Buddhism-science trialogue opens up to new pneumatological perspectives on philosophical cosmology and anthropology in interdisciplinary and global context.


This paper analyses, whether history and culture from pre-1911 China influence and shape China-EU policy today. It argues that although the People`s Republic of China claims to have turned a page after 1949, some diplomatic traditions with respect to Europe are still valid. Instead of only making broad assumptions about the nature of these traditions, it is recommended to analyze more closely the perceptions of Chinese and European agents alike, but focus particularly on the Chinese agents and on the "contact zones" in which the mutual European-Chinese perceptions were coined. It will be the research in the field of diplomatic strategy combined with personal experiences of Chinese and European agents that will turn out the most notable results in this somewhat underresearched but vital field of international history.


Depositional facies variability with a secondary overprint of Turonian palaeokarst controls the quality of the Cenomanian Mishrif reservoir, the main oil producer in the southeastern Persian Gulf. Subsequent drowning of the prominent area and successive deepening of the basin during the Coniacian and Santonian enabled the deposition of pelagic marls of the Coniacian Laffan Formation and the development of a carbonate turbidite system within the overlying Santonian Ilam Formation. The Ilam Formation occurs within slope and pelagic carbonates and consists of oil-bearing channel-reworked limestone facies. Although high-quality 3D seismic data exist over the Sirri C/D oil fields studied in this paper, it is a real challenge to map the palaeokarst and turbidite deposits in 3D space using conventional seismic interpretation procedures. This work describes a procedure using Paradigm's Seisfacies software for seismic facies classification and uses this to develop a volume-based interpretation of palaeokarst geobodies and sedimentary patterns of the carbonate turbidite. A hierarchical facies classification technique combined with principal component analysis (PCA) is used to analyse a set of seismic attribute volumes that capture the seismic stratigraphic patterns inherent in the data. PCA as a data reduction algorithm greatly optimized the analysis of the attribute volumes while preserving the essential features of seismic character. A hierarchical facies classifier recognized enough variability within the seismic data to reveal details of the associated geological features. This classification method uses multiple 3D volume attributes as input and generates a single 3D seismic facies volume (a synthesis of different attributes). Using this method, interpretative work can focus directly on geological features in 3D space. This study gives new insights into the internal variability of palaeokarst and carbonate turbidite systems in the Sirri C/D oil fields (SE Persian Gulf) that are essential for the estimation of reservoir volume, connectivity and variability.


Anxieties about negative effects of pesticide use in developing countries have motivated the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs in these countries. In Malaysia, the IPM collaborative research support program (CRSP) was established to specifically address the widespread misuse of pesticides in cabbage vegetable cultivation in Cameron Highlands, one of the major vegetable producing regions in the country.

IPM adaptations in cabbage production initiatives include research on the optimal use of pesticides, complementary weed control strategies, and alternative cultural and biological controls. The program would generate benefits that can be measured in economic terms. These benefits include improvements in water quality, food safety, pesticide application safety, and long run sustainability of pest management systems.

This study aims to measure the health and environmental benefits of the IPM programs in cabbage cultivation in Cameron Highlands. A primary data collection from 102 cabbage farmers in three zones of Cameron Highlands was undertaken to identify farm and farmer characteristics, pesticide usage, pest management practices, perceptions about pesticide hazards, awareness of IPM strategies, and willingness to adopt specific technologies being developed under the IPM program. In addition, a contingent valuation survey was used to evaluate farmers' willingness-to-pay to avoid risks of pesticides use in different environmental categories namely human, beneficial insects, aquatic life, birds, and farm animals.

A comprehensive measure of the benefits of the IPM program was undertaken by 1) identifying the hazards related to pesticide usage, 2) providing an ex ante measure of program impacts on pesticide usage, 3) predicting IPM adoption rates, and 4) estimating society's willingness-to-pay to avoid health and environmental risks from pesticides under Malaysian conditions. An estimate of the amount of risks avoided because of IPM adoption was combined with farmers' willingness to pay bids for risk avoidance to derive a monetary value of the program benefits. The estimated economic benefits of the IPM to farmer residents in the three zones in Cameron Highlands amounted to RM 33,354 for one Cabbage season.


Abstract This paper examines transboundary conservation initiatives in the Rocky Mountains of North America with a particular focus on the world's first peace park, located on the Alberta‐Montana border. The peace park concept envisions the free migration of animals and humans within a select area by removing artificial boundaries and seeks to encourage harmonious relations between countries through co‐management of shared ecosystems. As such, Rocky Mountain conservation initiatives are significant because they are a symbol of bilateral cooperation between two countries that claim the world's longest shared border. The so‐called "ecosystem approach" to managing a portion of the northern border of the U.S. stands in sharp contrast to other American initiatives that seek to promote national security on its southern frontier by sealing borders, and as a result, dividing ecosystems. More pointedly, the post 9–11 U.S. security focus on illegal immigration and terrorism could cause irreparable damage to the concept of using transborder conservation to foster peace between contiguous nations in other parts of the world. The best hope for success in overcoming these challenges likely rests within civil society, specifically conservationists and their allies on both sides of the border for whom wilderness integrity is the highest priority.


Doctors writing about menopause in France vastly outnumbered those in other cultures throughout the entire nineteenth century. The concept of menopause was invented by Frenchmen medical students in the aftermath of the French Revolution, becoming an important pedagogic topic and a common theme of doctors' professional identities in postrevolutionary biomedicine. Older women were identified as an important patient cohort for the expanding medicalisation of French society and were advised to entrust themselves to the hygienic care of doctors in managing the whole era of life from around and after the final cessation of menses. However, menopause owed much of its conceptual weft to earlier themes of women as the sicker sex, of vitalist crisis, of the vapours, and of astrological climacteric years. This book is the first comprehensive study of the origins of the medical concept of menopause, richly contextualising its role in nineteenth-century French medicine and revealing the complex threads of meaning that informed its invention. It tells a complex story of how women's ageing featured in the demographic revolution in modern science, in the denigration of folk medicine, in the unique French field of hygiène, and in the fixation on women in the emergence of modern psychiatry. It also reveals the nineteenth-century French origins of the still-current medical and alternative-health approaches to women's ageing as something to be managed through gynaecological surgery, hormonal replacement, and lifestyle intervention.


Abstract:  Palaeozoic corals and stromatoporoids exhibit a variety of internal banding phenomena, many of which have been commonly interpreted as annual growth bands. We evaluate bands through analysis of colonial corals and stromatoporoids from three stratigraphic intervals: Upper Ordovician of Manitoba Canada, and Llandovery–Wenlock and Ludlow of Gotland, Sweden. Banding features are divided into four categories: (1) absence of banding; (2) density banding formed by variation in density or form of elements; (3) growth‐interruption banding indicating growth cessation and regeneration; and (4) post‐mortem banding caused by compaction or diagenesis. For discrimination of band types, it is essential to examine internal structures and skeletal margins in thin sections or acetate peels. Species vary considerably in degree and type of banding; each has a distinct pattern of variation. We propose criteria to determine if banding is consistent with seasonally induced growth variation: (1) consistency in band character and thickness; (2) continuity of skeletal growth; (3) marginal features; and (4) evidence of diagenetic alteration. Density bands in tabulate and rugose corals probably represent annual growth variations, but results for stromatoporoids are more ambiguous; although stromatoporoids commonly show banding, unequivocal density banding is poorly developed and growth interruption generated most stromatoporoid banding. Cerioid rugose and tabulate corals possess the thickest density bands; the thinnest bands are in stromatoporoids and heliolitid tabulates.


The special importance medical education has among sectors is universal, and its most important expectation is to fulfill a certain quality of standards that contribute to its basic universal perfectionism. The aim of our study is to evaluate medical students' expectations from medical education and how these expectations are realized within the academic process in terms of quality and standards. The universe of the study consists of 230 students. The students were asked two open-ended questions in order to understand what they had expected after successfully passing the student selection and placement system exam (OSYS) and whether their expectations had been fulfilled or not. In summarizing the data frequency, averages, standard deviation, and mean were used; the t-test was used to compare student data, with p < .05 assumed as statistically significant. In our study, 116 (41.4% female, 58.6% male) students were accessed between the ages of 20-28 (average age = 22.12, SD = 1.43). Their score average for the OSYS is 501.85 (SD = 11.85). Their native regions are the Mediterranean (54.3%) and southeastern Anatolia (28.4%). As far as quality standards, 70 students (60.3%) stated having expectations about their profession's features. Fifty percent stated their expectations had been fulfilled, 35 (30.2%) stated their expectations had not been fulfilled, and 23 (19.8%) did not state a clear opinion. The OSYS average score for students who stated their expectations had been fulfilled is found to be lower than the average score of those who stated their expectations had not been fulfilled. (p = .00). In our study, we observed students to have expectations about post-graduation, the academic process, and social environment in terms of the quality of standards in medical education. As a result, increasing students' knowledge levels on quality is thought able to develop their expectations positively and contribute to the quality of medical education.


The availability of quantum mechanical wave functions in molecular dynamics simulations - for example in those of the Car-Parrinello type - offers the ability to analyze intermolecular interactions of a system in terms of quantum chemical descriptors. We demonstrate how standard population analyses can be utilized for a semiquantitative analysis of intermolecular interactions. The approach is therefore of particular value for the study of those systems for which geometric criteria and predefined interaction potentials have not yet been obtained. This is demonstrated for a DMSO-water mixture, for which the population-analysis criterion provides a simple measure for different interaction types, e.g., between water-oxygen and methyl-hydrogen atoms. In the case of a polypeptide, it is shown that the wave-function-based criterion provides insight into hydrogen bonding of the C=O groups with a hydrogen atom attached to a carbon atom from the peptide's backbone.


Take These Hands presents a series of newly commissioned work by Norwegian artist Stian Adlandsvik. The exhibition includes fifteen collages developed from photographs belonging to the National Spinal Injuries Centre archive at Stoke Mandeville hospital, and a sculptural installation created from two wheelchairs. The work explores ideas of human mobility and fragility; forms of dependency for disabled and non-disabled people, and our bodily relationship to machinery and technological devices. The materials and objects used to create the works have been dismantled and reconstructed to establish new forms and functions. The exhibition forms part of RELAY, Turning Point South East's (TPSE) programme of free contemporary art events, exhibitions, and performances taking place around the South East of England in 2012. RELAY celebrates the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by taking sport, art and location as starting points for a series of artist commissions. The National Spinal Injuries Centre archive is a collection of photographs and documents, which includes historic images of wards, physio and occupational therapy and medical conditions. It charts the history of the oldest, and one of the largest spinal injuries centres in the world, established by neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1944 at Stoke Mandeville hospital. Having revolutionised the treatment and life chances for those with spinal injuries, in 1948 Guttmann organised the 'Stoke Mandeville Games' to coincide with the start of the London Olympics, thus sparking the beginning of the Paralympic movement. The National Spinal Injuries Centre collection forms part of the Mandeville Legacy, which comprises the Wheelpower collection and that of the International Wheelchair Sports and Amputees Federation. With support from Creative Campus Initiative, Take These Hands will tour to Bucks New University in High Wycombe in October 2012. The exhibition will be complemented by a short programme of talks and seminars exploring themes including prosthetics and the interactions of body and technology in visual culture. Creative Campus Initiative is a consortium of twelve southeast higher education partners working together to contribute exciting programmes and events for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.


We present here a cosmological myth, alternative (but complementary) to "the Universe Story" and "the Epic of Evolution", highlighting the roles of entropy and dissipative structures in the universe inaugurated by the Big Bang. Our myth offers answers these questions: Where are we? What are we? Why are we here? What are we to do? It also offers answers to a set of "why" questions: Why is there anything at all? and Why are there so many kinds of systems? - the answers coming from cosmology and physics (thermodynamics); Why do systems not last once they exist? - the answer coming from a materialist interpretation of information theory; and, Why are systems just the way they are and not otherwise? - the answer coming from evolutionary biology. We take into account the four kinds of causation designated by Aristotle as efficient, final, and material formal, with the Second Law of thermodynamics in the role of final cause. Conceptual problems concerning reductionism, "teleology", and the choice/chance distinction are dealt with in the framework of specification hierarchy, and the moral implications of our story explored in the conclusion.


Next-generation smart city applications, attributed by the power of Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), significantly rely on the quality of sensing data. With an exponential increase in intelligent applications for urban development and enterprises offering sensing-as-aservice these days, it is imperative to provision for a shared sensing infrastructure for better utilization of resources. However, a shared sensing infrastructure that leverages low-cost sensing devices for a cost effective solution, still remains an unexplored territory. A significant research effort is still needed to make edge based data shaping solutions, more reliable, feature-rich and costeffective while addressing the associated challenges in sharing the sensing infrastructure among multiple collocated services with diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Towards this, we propose a novel edge based data pre-processing solution, named UniPreCIS that accounts for the inherent characteristics of lowcost ambient sensors and the exhibited measurement dynamics with respect to application-specific QoS. UniPreCIS aims to identify and select quality data sources by performing sensor ranking and selection followed by multimodal data pre-processing in order to meet heterogeneous application QoS and at the same time reducing the resource consumption footprint for the resource constrained network edge. As observed, the processing time and memory utilization has been reduced in the proposed approach while achieving upto 90% accuracy which is arguably significant as compared to state-of-the-art techniques for sensing. The effectiveness of UniPreCIS has been evaluated on a testbed for a specific use case of indoor occupancy estimation that proves its effectiveness.


As life expectancy in people with chronic neurological conditions such as spina bifida and cerebral palsy improves, thin bones and broken bones are emerging as health issues for these patients. This thesis examines different ways of assessing bone health in these individuals, what causes poor bone health and what treatments may be effective. This can then be used to develop guidelines to help clinicians best manage bone health in those with chronic disability.


Continental-scale strike-slip faults rooted in the upper mantle have been recently interpreted in deep seismic profiling. These shear zones transect the entire crust, and it may be assumed that the deformation pattern associated with their propagation at different depths was strongly influenced by the rheological properties of the rocks. The continental-scale West Pernambuco shear zone provides information on the deformational behavior of a hot and partially melted crust that has undergone large-scale shearing. This late Precambrian shear zone terminates eastward in a fanlike structure, passing to a wide transpression zone at a high angle to the shear direction. The main fault branches into numerous splay faults over a distance of about 50 km. Severe perturbation of the mylonitic flow pattern commonly occurs at branch points where subsidiary shear zones diverge from the main zone. In these areas, problems of strain compatibility are raised by the sharp bending and decrease in dip of the foliation surface. We propose that this unusual deformation pattern is a result of the low strength of the continental crust at the considered level of observation.


"Giovanna d'Arco" (Joan of Arc), Verdi's seventh opera, premiered at La Scala in 1845 to great public success despite subpar production standards, and modern performances have swept away both audiences and critical reservations when the work is executed with faithfulness to his score. At the heart of this large-scale opera, with its prominent choruses, is the difficult and beautiful part of Joan - simultaneously ethereal soprano and dynamic warrior. The libretto by Temistocle Solera, based in part on Schiller's play "Die Jungfrau von Orleans", omits Joan's trial for heresy and burning at the stake, ending instead with an offstage battle in which she is mortally wounded leading the French to victory against the English.This critical edition of "Giovanna d'Arco", the first publication in full score, is based on the composer's autograph score preserved in the archives of Verdi's publisher, Casa Ricordi. It restores the opera's original text, which had been heavily censored, and accurately reflects Verdi's colorful and elaborate musical setting. Editor Alberto Rizzuti's introduction discusses the opera's origins, sources, and performance questions, while the critical commentary details editorial problems and solutions.


English for specific purposes (ESP), the popular catchphrase of presently English language teaching programs, has been investigated from different perspectives. However, there have been occasional forays in to the role of ESP practitioner as one of the most distinctive features in the literature. In addition to fulfilling the usual role of a language teacher, ESP practitioner may be required to deal with administrative, personnel, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, curricular, and pedagogical issues that may be unfamiliar to general English teachers (Hutchinson & Waters 1990; Koh 1988; Robinson 1991; Waters 1994). Consequently, those practitioners who have passed the thorny way of professionalization would be great assets for the teachers who are new to the ESP programs. Moreover, lack of an independent disciplinary status for ESP worsens the issue. Drawing on the interview data and observational evidence, present study investigates the route of professionalization of two Iranian ESP teachers in the particular context of Petroleum University of Technology (PUT) in Ahwaz. What they say are critically analyzed in the context and emerging guidelines are categorized accordingly. It is hoped that findings grounded minimally in this particular ESP context will act as broad guidelines that bestow a more academic image to the general English teacher-ESP teacher change in the present 'no man land' of Iranian ESP teaching programs.


Cancer testis antigens, such as NY-ESO-1, are expressed in a variety of prevalent tumors and represent potential targets for T-cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy. DNA encoding a murine anti-NY-ESO-1 TCR gene (mTCR) was isolated from immunized HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice and inserted into a &ggr;-retroviral vector. Two mTCR vectors were produced and used to transduce human PBL. Transduced cells were cocultured with tumor target cell lines and T2 cells pulsed with the NY-ESO-1 peptide, and assayed for cytokine release and cell lysis activity. The most active TCR construct was selected for production of a master cell bank for clinical use. mTCR-transduced PBL maintained TCR expression in short-term and long-term culture, ranging from 50% to 90% efficiency 7–11 days after stimulation and 46%–82% 10–20 days after restimulation. High levels of interferon-&ggr; secretion were observed (1000–12000 pg/mL), in tumor coculture assays and recognition of peptide-pulsed cells was observed at 0.1 ng/mL, suggesting that the new mTCR had high avidity for antigen recognition. mTCR-transduced T cells also specifically lysed human tumor targets. In all assays, the mTCR was equivalent or better than the comparable human TCR. As the functional activity of TCR-transduced cells may be affected by the formation of mixed dimers, mTCRs, which are less likely to form mixed dimers with endogenous hTCRs, may be more effective in vivo. This new mTCR targeted to NY-ESO-1 represents a novel potential therapeutic option for adoptive cell-transfer therapy for a variety of malignancies.


This article argues that ethnic problems are only one aspect of political violence in Africa, while violent conflicts must be considered a failure of the state to perform some of its fundamental tasks. State formation in Africa is a transition process starting from an institutional endowment of ethnic division. Ethnic capital in Africa ensures the provision of many of the services that a modern state has taken over in rich countries, e.g. security, education, norms of behaviour. Few African states can deliver all these services adequately, and must go through an initial phase of federation of ethnic groups before they can provide a credible substitute for ethnic capital. The system of redistribution within and among groups is the key to creating the solidarity links between them, and its breakdown is liable to trigger political violence. A formal game-theoretic model is presented which brings out the impact of redistribution on rebellious activity, as well as the crucial role of the ability of the government to commit credibly to its expenditure policy. Without this, there is no redistribution taking place in equilibrium, and large amounts of resources are invested in warring. Civil wars, or other forms of political violence, are thus an integral part of the political economy of Africa.


Though the cause of motor abnormalities in cerebral palsy is injury to the brain, structural changes in muscle and fascia may add to stiffness and reduced function. This study examined whether myofascial structural integration therapy, a complementary treatment that manipulates muscle and fascia, would improve gross motor function and gait in children <4 years with cerebral palsy. Participants (N = 29) were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial (NCT01815814, https://goo.gl/TGxvwd) or Open Label Extension. The main outcome was the Gross Motor Function Measure-66 assessed at 3-month intervals. Gait (n = 8) was assessed using the GAITRite® electronic walkway. Parents completed a survey at study conclusion. Comparing Treatment (n = 15) and Waitlist-Control groups (n = 9), we found a significant main effect of time but no effect of group or time × group interaction. The pooled sample (n = 27) showed a main effect of time, but no significantly greater change after treatment than between other assessments. Foot length on the affected side increased significantly after treatment, likely indicating improvement in the children's ability to approach a heel strike. Parent surveys indicated satisfaction and improvements in the children's quality of movement. MSI did not increase the rate of motor skill development, but was associated with improvement in gait quality.


This is the first comprehensive study of the community structure and spatial distribution of macrofauna in deep, muddy sediments of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, and the adjacent shelf. The study examines the influence of water column (e.g. chlorophyll a [chl a], temperature and salinity) and sediment characteristics (e.g. grain size, carbon and nitrogen content) on infaunal patterns. Box-core samples were collected at 10 sites in June and July of 1998 from the head of the bay to the edge of the continental shelf. Multivariate analyses of community composition and environmental variation indicated inshore and offshore groupings. Inshore communities had lower species richness, diversity and densities. Fauna living deeper in the sediment were also more abundant in offshore areas. The inshore region was characterised by greater mixed-layer temperatures, higher surface chl a and large amounts of relatively fresh organic carbon (low C/N ratios) in sediments. Within the inshore sites, high levels of organic carbon influenced macrofaunal assemblages that were similar to those characteristic of organic-rich areas. Surface chl a concentration was positively correlated with sedimentary organic carbon, which was the most important predictor of infaunal abundance. At broad scales, surface chl a and sedimentary organic carbon were negatively related to infaunal abundance. Moreover, this pattern was confounded by particularly low densities at 3 inshore sites where organic levels were very high, and elevated densities at 1 productive offshore site. Low densities at these 3 inshore sites may be a result of sulphide production in sediments, or of poor food quality. Broad-scale patterns (inshore vs offshore) of community composition and abundance in Placentia Bay are largely influenced by surface oceanography through production export.


This article examines the institutional arrangements between Social Democratic parties and trade unions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. First, the authors show how these relations have weakened at a varying pace. Party–union ties are now quite distant in Denmark, but remain relatively close in Norway and, especially, Sweden. Second, the authors explore this variation using a simple model of political exchange. The finding is that the intensity of the relationship is correlated with the resources that each side can derive from the other, which in turn reflects national differences. Yet it is also clear that the degree of change is related to the formative phase of the institutional arrangement itself: the weaker the ties were from the beginning, the more easily they unravel in response to environmental changes.


The pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), including the associated local changes in deep paravertebral muscles, is poorly understood. The asymmetric expression of several molecules involved in the melatonin signaling pathway, including melatonin receptors 1A/1B (MTNR1A/MTNR1B), estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and calmodulin (CALM1), has previously been suggested to be associated with AIS. However, this hypothesis is based on single studies in which the data were obtained by different methodological approaches. Therefore, to evaluate the symmetry of the mRNA expression levels of these molecules, 18 patients with AIS and 10 non‑scoliotic controls were enrolled in the present study. Muscle biopsy samples from deep paraspinal muscles (from the convexity and concavity of the scoliotic curve in patients with AIS, or from the left and right sides in controls) were obtained during spinal surgery. For each sample, the relative mRNA expression levels of MTNR1A, MTNR1B, CALM1 and ESR2 were analyzed by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‑qPCR) and were quantified according to the quantification cycle method. The results indicated that the mRNA expression levels of none of the investigated molecules were significantly different between samples obtained from the convex and concave side of the scoliotic curve in patients with AIS. In addition, no difference in expression was detected between the patients with AIS and the controls. With regards to MTNR1A and MTNR1B, their expression was very weak in paravertebral muscles, and in the majority of cases their expression could not be detected by repeated RT‑qPCR analysis. Therefore, these data do not support the previously suggested role of the asymmetric expression of molecules involved in the melatonin signaling pathway in deep paravertebral muscles in the pathogenesis of AIS.


1136 Objectives Previously, we reported an ammonio-trifluoroborate octreotate conjugate, 18F-AmBF3-TATE, that achieved high contrast for imaging somatostatin receptor subtype 2 (sst2r). In this study, we investigated if this strategy could be applied to the potent sst2r binder TOC as well. Methods AmBF3-TOC was prepared by conjugating azidoacetyl-TOC with N-propargyl-N,N-dimethylammoniomethyl-trifluoroborate via click chemistry. The binding affinity of AmBF3-TOC to sst2r was determined by in vitro competition binding assay. 18F-labeling was performed via 18F-19F isotope exchange with 18F-fluoride, and 18F-AmBF3-TOC was purified by solid phase extraction using a C18 Sep-Pak cartridge. PET imaging and biodistribution studies were performed in mice bearing sst2r-expressing ZR-75-1 human breast cancer xenograft. Results AmBF3-TOC bound sst2r with high affinity (Ki= 2.3 ± 1.3 nM). 18F-AmBF3-TOC was obtained in 25 min in 17 ± 1 % decay-corrected radiochemical yield with 94 ± 2 % (n = 3) radiochemical purity. 88% and 63% of 18F-AmBF3-TOC remained intact after 1 and 2 h incubation, respectively at 37 °C in mouse plasma. PET imaging and biodistribution showed that 18F-AmBF3-TOC was excreted mainly via renal pathway. The tumor uptake of 18F-AmBF3-TOC was 12.6 ± 3.66 %ID/g at 75 min post-injection, and the tumor-to-blood and tumor-to-muscle ratios were 10.9 ± 0.64 and 48.4 ± 0.58, respectively. Conclusions 18F-AmBF3-TOC retained high binding affinity to sst2r, and showed excellent pharmacokinetic properties with high tumor uptake and tumor-to-background contrast. Due to the superior radionuclidic and imaging properties of 18F, 18F-AmBF3-TOC could have a widespread applicability than 68Ga-DOTA-TOC for detection of sst2r-expressing neuroendocrine tumors with PET.


The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) identifies civil and criminal litigation as a public health strategy and promotes international cooperation (reporting, technical assistance, and information exchange). Holding the tobacco industry accountable through civil and criminal liability serves a number of public health objectives: punishes companies for hiding known health risks, manipulating nicotine content, and misleading the public; deters and preve nts future harmful behavior; compensates individuals and stake-holders for health care and other costs associated with smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); raises prices, resulting in lower tobacco consumption; increases disclosure of health risks, through labeling and advertising restrictions; and promotes transparency, by compelling discovery of internal industry documents. Tobacco litigation frequently has been used as a method for promoting tobacco control in the United States. Litigation is less common outside the United States, but increasingly advocates have brought innovative lawsuits abroad. This commentary explores global tobacco litigation strategies, with 4 key elements: compensation/recovery, advertising restrictions, criminal liability, and public interest writ litigation. The commentary argues that perhaps the most important effect of tobacco litigation has been to transform public and political perceptions about risk and responsibility in smoking, making clear what manufacturers knew, how they concealed this knowledge, and how they manipulated consumers. Tort law has reframed the debate from personal to corporate responsibility. However, the industry still manages, at least in the political realm, to alter the discourse to one involving freedom of choice for the smoker, the evils of big government, unfair taxation, and the influence of trial lawyers. Furthermore, now that the tobacco industry is aggressively seeking new markets in the poorest, least-regulated countries, litigation will take on new importance. The most promising strategies will use a human rights framework, arguing that tobacco is so detrimental that it violates the rights to health, life, and a sanitary environment.


Although he did not start publishing until middle age, Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) had over sixty published books to his credit by the time of his death. One of them, the short novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), was to bring him fame and notoriety outside England following the 1971 release of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation. The prominence of that single novel would impel its author to confront a public continually asking directly or by implication: What else have you written, Mr. Burgess? Burgess produced scores of novels, biographies, books of literary criticism, film scripts, and news articles. A linguist and polyglot who was fluent in eight languages, he invented the language used in the 1981 film Quest for Fire. He translated and adapted Bizet's Carmen, Weber's Oberon, and other operas for the English stage. His ReJoyce: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader remains a standard in Joycean criticism. Conversations with Anthony Burgess captures, through in-depth interviews, a writer of tremendous energy, inventiveness, and self-discipline. The collection brings together interviews from 1971 to 1989, including two pieces published for the first time. Earl G. Ingersoll is distinguished professor emeritus of English at SUNY College at Brockport. He has written, edited, and coedited many books, including Conversations with May Sarton and Conversations with Rita Dove, both from University Press of Mississippi. Mary C. Ingersoll is a retired elementary school teacher who specialized in teaching humanities to gifted students.


The ability to geolocate ENVISAT ASAR image products and transform them into a map projection is a critical step required to enable not only overlays with other sources of information (e.g. DEM, GIS layers), but even with other ASAR products, especially those acquired with a different track, beam, or incidence angle. This paper summarises geolocation validation results evaluating both the relative (i.e. consistency within product families) and absolute geolocation accuracy inherent to ASAR products generated by the ESA operational processor (PF-ASAR). A set of slant-range complex IMS/APS/WSS-, ground-range detected IMP/APP-, IMM/APM/WSM-, and ellipsoidgeocoded detected IMG/APG products were ordered for a set of data takes over the Netherlands (IM & AP) and Switzerland (WS products). Subswath detection and mosaicking was performed on the WS-SLC (WSS) products to enable their comparison with WSM products derived from the same raw data. All products were then ellipsoid-geocoded to permit direct intercomparisons. To quantify the small relative shifts between the product types, a dense image matching algorithm was used to compare geocoded ellipsoid-corrected (GEC) product pairs. Statistical analysis (mean, standard deviation) of the resulting disparity fields revealed processor biases, and enabled improvement of the PF-ASAR processor. WSS/WSM comparisons revealed slight beam-dependent relative azimuth shifts of up to 19 m, well below the native WSM sample spacing of 75 m. Radiometric differences between WSS and WSM products were also evaluated point by point in the ellipsoid-geocoded map geometry, and revealed a possible error in the AGP calibration for WSS products. For some data sets, the absolute geolocation accuracy was measured using transponders with well-known locations, prominently visible in the ASAR products. Both range-Dopplerand geolocation grid-based geolocation was performed for the in-scene transponders. A given predicted position was then compared to the measured position obtained through direct observation of a strong peak response in the neighbourhood of the prediction. ASAR products were generally found to be extremely consistent with respect to each other, with measured relative differences all at the sub-sample level. An intermittent range bias is the one remaining source of large geolocation error, although it has not yet been observed in images acquired since 2006. ASAR's absolute geolocation accuracy has set a new standard for spaceborne SAR sensors. ASAR was the first operational spaceborne SAR imager to provide data that can (generally) be geolocated without the use of tie-pointing.


Studies of on-shell and off-shell Higgs boson production in the four-lepton final state are presented, using data from the CMS experiment at the LHC that correspond to an integrated luminosity of 80.2 fb(-1) at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Joint constraints are set on the Higgs boson total width and parameters that express its anomalous couplings to two electroweak vector bosons. These results are combined with those obtained from the data collected at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 and 19.7 fb(-1), respectively. Kinematic information from the decay particles and the associated jets are combined using matrix element techniques to identify the production mechanism and to increase sensitivity to the Higgs boson couplings in both production and decay. The constraints on anomalous HVV couplings are found to be consistent with the standard model expectation in both the on-shell and off-shell regions. Under the assumption of a coupling structure similar to that in the standard model, the Higgs boson width is constrained to be 3.2(-2.2)(+2.8)MeV while the expected constraint based on simulation is 4.1(-4.0)(+5.0) MeV. The constraints on the width remain similar with the inclusion of the tested anomalous HVV interactions.


Background Electronic health care data contain rich information on medicine use from which adherence can be estimated. Various measures developed with medication claims data called for transparency of the equations used, predominantly because they may overestimate adherence, and even more when used with multiple medications. We aimed to operationalize a novel calculation of adherence with polypharmacy, the daily polypharmacy possession ratio (DPPR), and validate it against the common measure of adherence, the medication possession ratio (MPR) and a modified version (MPRm). Methods We used linked health data from the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Western Australian hospital morbidity dataset and mortality register. We identified a strict study cohort from 16,185 patients aged ≥65 years hospitalized for myocardial infarction in 2003–2008 in Western Australia as an illustrative example. We applied iterative exclusion criteria to standardize the dispensing histories according to previous literature. A SAS program was developed to calculate the adherence measures accounting for various drug parameters. Results The study cohort was 348 incident patients (mean age 74.6±6.8 years; 69% male) with an admission for myocardial infarction who had cardiovascular medications over a median of 727 days (range 74 to 3,798 days) prior to readmission. There were statins (96.8%), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (88.8%), beta-blockers (85.6%), and angiotensin receptor blockers (13.2%) dispensed. As expected, observed adherence values were higher with mean MPR (median 89.2%; Q1: 73.3%; Q3: 104.6%) than mean MPRm (median 82.8%; Q1: 68.5%; Q3: 95.9%). DPPR values were the most narrow (median 83.8%; Q1: 70.9%; Q3: 96.4%). Mean MPR and DPPR yielded very close possession values for 37.9% of the patients. Values were similar in patients with longer observation windows. When the traditional threshold of 80% was applied to mean MPR and DPPR values to signify the threshold for good adherence, 11.6% of patients were classified as good adherers with the mean MPR relative to the DPPR. Conclusion In the absence of transparent and standardized equations to calculate adherence to polypharmacy from refill databases, the novel DPPR algorithm represents a valid and robust method to estimate medication possession for multi-medication regimens.


In this article the risk and return characteristics and diversification benefits when private equity is used as a portfolio component are investigated. The analysis is based on actual cash flows to and from portfolio companies. Using a dataset that provides complete information for 3620 investments made by 123 funds from 37 investment managers the authors find a dramatic increase in the extent to which private equity outperforms stock investment during the late 1990s. Within the overall class of private equity, returns on earlier private equity investment categories, including venture capital, show on average higher variations and even higher rates of failure. However, by selecting a few extremely well-performing companies, one can achieve high average returns, thus compensating for lost investments. An analysis of various private equity subcategories shows that there is a wide range of optimal allocations to this asset class that minimizes mixed-asset portfolio variance or maximizes performance ratios.


The carpal tunnel syndrome is a compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel with very specific signs and symptoms. Anatomical dissection of 156 wrists is presented and then the authors compare their findings with the findings of other investigators. The purpose of this article is not to present results but rather to discuss the anatomic entities involved with the syndrome and to present the open treatment modality.


Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) receive differentiation cues from a number of stimuli, including extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness. The pathways used to sense stiffness and other physical cues are just now being understood and include proteins within focal adhesions. To rapidly advance the pace of discovery for novel mechanosensitive proteins, we employed a combination of in silico and high throughput in vitro methods to analyze 47 different focal adhesion proteins for cryptic kinase binding sites. High content imaging of hMSCs treated with small interfering RNAs for the top 6 candidate proteins showed novel effects on both osteogenic and myogenic differentiation; Vinculin and SORBS1 were necessary for stiffness-mediated myogenic and osteogenic differentiation, respectively. Both of these proteins bound to MAPK1 (also known as ERK2), suggesting that it plays a context-specific role in mechanosensing for each lineage; validation for these sites was performed. This high throughput system, while specifically built to analyze stiffness-mediated stem cell differentiation, can be expanded to other physical cues to more broadly assess mechanical signaling and increase the pace of sensor discovery.


A case of bifid 3rd rib on the left side of the chest found accidentally at autopsy is discussed. The hole type of bifid rib, where the two cartilaginous divisions reunited and articulated with the sternum was found in this case. The 2nd anterior intercostal artery that branched from the internal thoracic artery was the artery supplying the bifid space. The intercostal nerve ran along the costal groove of the lower division of the rib and no branch was present in the upper division of the rib. These rarities and anatomical variations will widen the prospects of research in the field of medical science.


In this paper, we propose design and initial implementation of a robust system which can automatically translates voice into text and text to sign language animations. Sign Language Translation Systems could significantly improve deaf lives especially in communications, exchange of information and employment of machine for translation conversations from one language to another has. Therefore, considering these points, it seems necessary to study the speech recognition. Usually, the voice recognition algorithms address three major challenges. The first is extracting feature form speech and the second is when limited sound gallery are available for recognition, and the final challenge is to improve speaker dependent to speaker independent voice recognition. Extracting feature form speech is an important stage in our method. Different procedures are available for extracting feature form speech. One of the commonest of which used in speech recognition systems is Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs). The algorithm starts with preprocessing and signal conditioning. Next extracting feature form speech using Cepstral coefficients will be done. Then the result of this process sends to segmentation part. Finally recognition part recognizes the words and then converting word recognized to facial animation. The project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report.


ABSTRACT

Introduction:

The beneficial effects of combined psychosocial and pharmacological treatments for bipolar disorder have been widely documented. However, little research has specifically looked at bipolar II disorder (BP-II), despite it being the most common variant.

Methods:

This study used a matched-pairs two-group pretest–posttest design to compare the effectiveness of the 10-session weekly "BalancingMySwing" (BMS) program with treatment as usual in a Han Chinese cohort with bipolar II disorder. Twenty-four participants from a medical center in southern Taiwan with a DSM-IV diagnosis of BP-II were purposively recruited and divided into two matched-pair groups for treatment feasibility. Primary outcome indicators were medication adherence and mood symptoms, which were assessed at baseline and posttreatment. Medication adherence was assessed using the self-reported Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS). Mood symptoms were assessed by a blinded rater using the 11-item Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS).

Results:

After 10 weeks, a significant group × time interactions for the MARS scores indicated that improvements in medication adherence were greater in the BMS group than in the Treatmentas- Usual (TAU) group. However, there were no significant time effects or group differences for the HDRS or the YMRS scores in either group.

Conclusion:

Our data support the potential beneficial effects of the nurse-led psychoeducational program on medication adherence in Taiwanese Han Chinese with BP-II. Several limitations and barriers to implementation that might confound results are discussed. Future studies with larger samples and longer follow-ups are needed.


This article discusses the structure, anatomical connections, and functions of the hippocampus (HC) of the human brain and its significance in neuropsychology and disease. The HC is concerned with the analysis of highly abstract data derived from all sensory systems but its specific role remains controversial. Hence, there have been three major theories concerning its function, viz., the memory theory, the spatial theory, and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) theory. The memory theory has its origin in the surgical destruction of the HC, which results in severe anterograde and partial retrograde amnesia. The spatial theory has its origin in the observation that neurons in the HC of animals show activity related to their location within the environment. By contrast, the behavioral inhibition theory suggests that the HC acts as a 'comparator', i.e., it compares current sensory events with expected or predicted events. If a set of expectations continues to be verified then no alteration of behavior occurs. If, however, a 'mismatch' is detected then the HC intervenes by initiating appropriate action by active inhibition of current motor programs and initiation of new data gathering. Understanding the anatomical connections of the hippocampus may lead to a greater understanding of memory, spatial orientation, and states of anxiety in humans. In addition, HC damage is a feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Pick's disease (PiD), and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and understanding HC function may help to explain the development of clinical dementia in these disorders.