Motivation Advances in the sequencing of uncultured environmental samples, dubbed metagenomics, raise a growing need for accurate taxonomic assignment. Accurate identification of organisms present within a community is essential to understanding even the most elementary ecosystems. However, current high-throughput sequencing technologies generate short reads which partially cover full-length marker genes and this poses difficult bioinformatic challenges for taxonomy identification at high resolution Results We designed MATAM, a software dedicated to the fast and accurate targeted assembly of short reads sequenced from a genomic marker of interest. The method implements a stepwise process based on construction and analysis of a read overlap graph. It is applied to the assembly of 16S rRNA markers and is validated on simulated, synthetic and genuine metagenomes. We show that MATAM outperforms other available methods in terms of low error rates and recovered genome fractions and is suitable to provide improved assemblies for precise taxonomic assignments. Availability https://github.com/bonsai-team/matam Contact firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com


Reestablishing blood flow and allowing the continuation of root development are some of the objectives of pulp revascularization. This procedure is currently indicated for teeth with incomplete root formation as an alternative to the traditional treatment of apecification, which consists of inserting calcium hydroxide paste into the root canal for a determined time period in order to induce the formation of a calcified barrier. Although it is considered as the most classically employed therapy, the permanence of the paste for long time periods may lead to the weakening of the root due to hygroscopic properties, as well as proteolytic activities of calcium hydroxide. Therefore, there has been a permanent search for alternatives which allow the full development of immature teeth. Revascularization has emerged as such an alternative, and a range of treatment protocols can be found in the scientific literature. The aim of this paper is to accomplish a literature review concerning this issue.


Background Serum HBsAg decline is an index for the effectiveness of antiviral treatment hepatitis B virus (HBV) e-antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Unfortunately, for entecavir (ETV), HBsAg decline or clearance only occurs in a minority of patients even after decades of antiviral therapy. Our previous study showed that Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was able to induce HBeAg clearance in patients with positive HBeAg after long-term antiviral therapy. However, the effect of FMT on HBeAg negative CHB patients after long-term antiviral therapy is still unclear. Thus, we reported a case-controlled, open-label pilot trial of FMT for HBeAg negative CHB patients. Methods We recruited 10 patients who remained HBsAg positive following >1 years of ongoing ETV antiviral therapy. 5 of them were enrolled in the FMT arm while other 5 were enrolled in the control arm. All patients went on their previous antiviral therapy. We performed FMT via nasojejunal tube for the FMT arm every 2 weeks. The faecal microbial community was analysed using Illumina Hisequencing of 16S rDNA and bioinformatics methods. Serum HBsAg and endotoxin levels were monitored every 2 weeks. Results Serum HBsAg declined gradually after each time of FMT in the FMT arm compared to control arm. FMT induced serum HBsAg decline up to 55.27%±8.52% in the trial group accompanied with serum endotoxin decline while serum HBsAg in the control group increased 38.07% which may closely be related to drug resistance. 16S rDNA analysis of the stools showed that gut microbiota in the FMT group transformed towards the donors. In particular, the proportion of Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, Clostridium, Clostridiaceae, Blautia, Coprococcus and Megamonas in the gut microbiota of the FMT group decreased significantly towards the donors while the proportion of Bacteroides, Butyricimonas, Odoribacter, Prevotella, Parabacteroides, Anaerostipes, Oscillospira, Ruminococcaceae and Sutterella increased towards the donors. Conclusions This study suggested that HBsAg decline in the serum of HBeAg negative CHB patients were detected after several times of FMT accompanied with serum endotoxin decline and the gut microbiota prone to the donors. Gut microbiota may be a new target for the treatment of HBeAg negative CHB.


In two recent papers [9, 10] we answered a question raised in the book by Eklof and Mekler [7, p. 455, Problem 12] under the set theoretical hypothesis of ♦ ℵ 1 which holds in many models of set theory, respectively of the special continuum hypothesis (CH). The objects are reflexive modules over countable principal ideal domains R, which are not fields. Following H. Bass [1] an R-module G is reflexive if the evaluation map σ : G −→ G * * is an iso-morphism. Here G * = Hom (G, R) denotes the dual module of G. We proved the existence of reflexive R-modules G of infinite rank with G ∼ = G ⊕ R, which provide (even essentially indecomposable) counter examples to the question [7, p. 455]. Is CH a necessary condition to find 'nasty' reflexive modules? In the last part of this paper we will show (assuming the existence of super-compact cardinals) that large reflexive modules always have large summands. So at least being essentially indecomposable needs an additional set theoretic assumption. However the assumption need not be CH as shown in the first part of this paper. We will use Martin's axiom to find reflexive modules with the above decomposition which are submodules of the Baer-Specker module R ω .


Deep shadow maps unify the computation of volumetric and geometric shadows. For each pixel in the shadow map, a fractional visibility function is sampled, pre-filtered, and compressed as a piecewise linear function. However, the original implementation targets software-based off-line rendering. Similar previous algorithms on GPUs focus on geometric shadows and lose many important benefits of the original concept. We focus on shadows for interactive direct volume rendering, where shadow algorithms currently either compute additional per-voxel shadow data, or employ half-angle slicing to generate shadows during rendering. We adapt the original concept of deep shadow maps to volume ray-casting on GPUs, and show that it can provide anti-aliased high-quality shadows at interactive rates. Ray-casting is used for both generation of the shadow map data structure and actual rendering. High frequencies in the visibility function are captured by a pre-computed lookup table for piecewise linear segments. Direct volume rendering is performed with an additional deep shadow map lookup for each sample. Overall, we achieve interactive high-quality volume ray-casting with accurate shadows. To conclude, we briefly describe how semi-transparent geometry such as hair could be integrated as well, provided that rasterization can write to arbitrary locations in a texture. This would be a major step toward full deep shadow map functionality.


A microorganism was isolated from the surfaces of the cleanroom facility in which the Phoenix lander was assembled. The isolated bacterial strain was subjected to a comprehensive polyphasic analysis to characterize its taxonomic position. Both phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses clearly indicate that this isolate belongs to the genus Paenibacillus and represents a novel species. Bacillus spores have been utilized to assess the degree and level of microbiological contamination on spacecraft and their associated spacecraft assembly facilities. Spores of Bacillus species are of particular concern to planetary protection due to the extreme resistance of some members of the genus to space environmental conditions such as UV and gamma radiation, vacuum, oxidation, and temperature fluctuation. These resistive spore phenotypes have enhanced potential for transfer, and subsequent proliferation, of terrestrial microbes on another solar body. Due to decreased nutrient conditions within spacecraft assembly facility clean rooms, the vegetative cells of Bacillus species and other spore-forming Paenibacillus species are induced to sporulate, thereby enhancing their survivability of bioreduction


This study reflects on reforms in health systems and social policies within the framework of the so-called public sector reforms. The point of departure is a review of various explanations for the crisis in the Welfare State, present in the literature from the 1990s. Social policies, at the heart of the crisis, are heavily challenged. What we intend to demonstrate is that this argument plays a specific role, that of introducing neoliberal changes into economic policy, in which the economic tools used generate abstention by the state from the social sphere, deregulation of national economies in favor of the free market, and the fundamentally oversized role of the international financial market. Within this context we analyze the social security and health system reforms. The final part of the article deals with current difficulties in social policies, focusing the debate on a mapping of possible alternatives for developing social and health policies.


Breast cancer is a serious problem for women and also a risk for men. In assessing the risk of breast cancer associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields and radiation (EMF & EMR) this review approaches the problem primarily from both the whole-body point of view. Our minds control many body functions through the central nervous system and through mediating a wide range of hormones. This includes melatonin, which is a highly potent free radical scavenger. Hence melatonin protects cells from cancer and it strengthens the immune system. EMR is shown to influence the brain, reduce the output of key hormones (e.g. Melatonin and Thyrotropin), and to impair the immune system. Thus EMR is carcinogenic. Alteration of cellular calcium ions is a well-established biological effect of EMR exposure. Calcium ion influx is associated with the survival of damaged cells, and thus increases cancer risk. Calcium ion efflux is associated with enhanced cell death (apoptosis) of damaged cells, and hence enhances neurodegenerative diseases. Calcium ion efflux is also related to impairment of the immune system, and to alteration of reaction times and brain EEG rhythms. German research has proven that human brains detect and use the Schumann Resonances (SR) for timing synchronization. Altering the intensity and frequency of the SR changes human reaction times and circadian rhythms. A large body of research shows that there is an optimal intensity of SR, with increases and decreases in natural EMR being associated with a wide range of adverse neurological and cardiac health effects, and breast cancer. This research proves that sensitive and vulnerable human beings are made ill and can die when the natural EMR changes. The mean ELF intensity level of the SR is about 0.1 pW/cm. This is 2 billion times lower than internationally recommended public health guidelines for ELF exposure. Cell line and animal exposure experiments, and epidemiological studies of populations who are occupationally and residentially exposed to EMR reveal significant hormonal, neurological, cardiac and cancer effects. A series of laboratory experiments involving breast cancer prone rats exposed to 50/60Hz exposure down to 0.1μT EMF, produced dose response relationships with the size and number of mammary tumors, with melatonin reduction and with reduced T lymphocytes. They also show a significant increase in proto oncogene activity. Occupational and residential studies of human populations show significant increases in breast cancer across the EMR spectrum, especially for premenopausal women and for positive estrogen receptor breast cancer. Since cell phones pose a very high risk it is recommended that all EMR exposures, especially cell phone exposure, be minimized.


This thesis aims to better understand highly connected regions of the human brain, termed network hubs, which are essential for coordinated brain function. Using a combination of brain imaging and mathematical modelling, the findings of the thesis show the way in which network hubs are defined can depend on methods used for data processing and quantification, and that simple network wiring rules are sufficient to account for the emergence of hubs in brain networks, but not their spatial location. This work identifies optimum methods for brain network mapping and sheds new light on how network hubs develop.


Road lighting is widely recognised as an efficient traffic safety measure. However, we know too little about the effect of road lighting on accidents in a given situation and we do not know what kind of lighting that is optimal for the situation. Society today has a demand for energy savings, locally and globally, and we should not use more energy for road lighting than is necessary. In the field of road lighting the demand for energy savings is accompanied by a fast development of techniques and equipment that give great opportunities for energy savings. The opportunity already exists to adapt the lighting to the actual road, traffic and weather situation. It is a problem, however, that we do not know what lighting quantity and quality which gives the best benefit – cost ratio. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to more knowledge about the relationship between road lighting and traffic safety and thus make a basis for benefit – cost calculations (including environmental costs). The thesis is based on four studies about the safety effect of road lighting, reported in four papers. The first is a literature study, the second is a Norwegian before-and-after study, the third is a cross-section study of Dutch accidents and the fourth is a study of Dutch motorway accidents. The thesis also contains three appendices presenting some more details from the studies than were shown in the papers. The content of the four papers are presented and discussed as a whole in a (fairly comprehensive) introductory part consisting of 10 chapters, where conclusions about the safety effect are discussed and summarised. The thesis in addition discusses the benefit – cost ratio of road lighting, but it is not treated in any of the papers. It has been useful to discuss this matter in advance of the discussion of the future role of road lighting. In the literature study (Paper I), the mean effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -30 %. The mean effect on fatal accidents was -60 %. The mean effect on pedestrian injury accidents was -45 %, and on motorways the mean effect on injury accidents was -50 %. In the Norwegian before-and-after study (Paper II), the estimated effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was -28 %. The estimated effect was larger at high speed limits than at low speed limits. The estimated effect was smaller on roads with AADT (average daily traffic volume) > 8000 vehicles than on roads with AADT < 8000 vehicles. In the cross-section study of accidents on all Dutch roads (Paper III), the mean effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -50 %, while it was -54 % when only rural roads were considered. The effect on pedestrian, bicycle and moped accidents was larger than the effect on automobile and motorcycle accidents, and the differences were statistically significant. There was no significant difference between the safety effects for different accident types (Rear end collisions, Frontal collisions etc.) and no significant difference between the driver age groups 60 – 74 years and 30 – 39 years. The effect on fatal accidents was found to be slightly larger than the effect on injury accidents. The mean effect on twilight accidents was 2/3 of the effect during darkness. In the study of motorway accidents (Paper IV), the effect on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -49 % on Dutch motorways, while the effect seemed to be much smaller on British and Swedish motorways. On Dutch rural roads and Dutch motorways, the estimated effect of road lighting on accidents during darkness was smaller during adverse weather and road surface conditions than in fine weather and dry surface conditions. The differences were statistically significant. In fog, there was found no effect of road lighting during darkness. However, there were indications on a daylight safety effect during fog, possibly due to guidance from light poles. The results from the studies described in this thesis give a basis for increasing the application of road lighting as a traffic safety measure worldwide. Cost – benefit calculations indicate that road lighting is one of the most efficient road safety measures available. However, the energy consumption related to road lighting is a problem that must be considered. The great challenge is to reduce the energy consumption as much as possible without reducing the safety benefit too much. Future road lighting will probably be of the adaptive type, and it will be essential to know how the safety effect varies according to traffic and weather conditions and how it varies with the road lighting level and the quality of the lighting. The thesis answers some question about the safety effect during different weather conditions. There is, however, too little information about safety effect related to varying road and traffic conditions. A more serious lack of knowledge is that we do not know how the safety effect varies according to the lighting level. It is not possible to balance the energy consumption and the safety effect as long as this relationship is not known.


Background & Aims Genetic variations near the interferon lambda 3 gene (IFNL3, IL28B) are the most powerful predictors for sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, compared to other biochemical or histological baseline parameters. We evaluated whether the interplay of both IFNL3 polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917 together with non-genetic clinical factors contributes to the predictive role of these genetic variants. Methods The cohort comprised 1,402 patients of European descent with chronic HCV type 1 infection. 1,298 patients received interferon-based antiviral therapy, and 719 (55%) achieved SVR. The IFNL3 polymorphisms were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction and melting curve analysis. Results A significant correlation was found between the IFNL3 polymorphisms and biochemical as well as virologic predictors of treatment outcome such as ALT, GGT, cholesterol, and HCV RNA levels. In multivariate regression analysis, IFLN3 SNPs, HCV RNA levels, and the GGT/ALT ratio were independent predictors of SVR. Dependent on the GGT/ALT ratio and on the HCV RNA concentration, significant variations in the likelihood for achieving SVR were observed in both, carriers of the responder as well as non-responder alleles. Conclusions Our data support a clear association between IFNL3 genotypes and baseline parameters known to impact interferon responsiveness. Improved treatment outcome prediction was achieved when these predictors were considered in combination with the IFNL3 genotype.


Manuscript ID: RCMSS/IJPAMR/1310 Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the e ff ct of the cost of peace, militancy and unrest or  peace accounting on the productivity of firms in Ni geria. To achieve this purpose, Niger-Delta region was used as the case study, hypothesis was r aised and a review of extant literature and theoretical framework was made. In order to generat e the necessary data for this study, the secondary method of data collection was employed an d a longitudinal survey designed for a period of ten (10) years i.e. 2003-2012 was adopted. The d ata for the study were generated from the Central Bank of Nigeria's Statistical Bulletin of 2 009. The result of the researchers' analysis showed that cost of peacekeeping in the Niger-Delta r gion of Nigeria has a significant negative impact on the productivity of firms in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that to eliminate cost of peace-enthronement in the Niger-Delta region and consequently improve the economic development of Nigeria, the federal government and her parastatals as well as the multinational oil companies should pay special attention to the Niger -Delta question by making provision for higher level of infrastructures (electricity, good roads, efficient communication systems, portable water, employment opportunities, scholarship awards, etc) to the people.


The stock market is seen as an everyday part of life in any economy is it developed or third world countries. As the world is gradually moving to the information age which a major characteristic of this age is speed; speed in sending messages, speed in healthcare delivery, speed in banking, there is a need for investors to be able to monitor their investments with speed. In this work, we introduce P-Stock, an application for monitoring the activities that go on in the stock market. It tracks stock market activities as well as using the data that has been pooled to calculate the values of stock in an investor's portfolio all in real-time. It is hoped that this will help new investors in monitoring their investments firsthand without need for their brokers.


In this article I examine as mediations of urban experience poems written by Koos du Plessis. a contemporary Afrikaans poet. together with their musical rendition by Johannes Kerkorrel. a singer and musician from the Afrikaans altemative music scene and former member of Die Gereformeerde Blues Band. The poetry was initially published with musical arrangements in the volume Kinders van die Wind : En Ander Lirieke (1981) . In order to use this material in an article produced as part of an English study . I have translated the poetry into English . The translation (in linguistic and performative terms) of these poems has the dual effect of rendering them more appropriately for this study, and making them accessible to a wider audience. I am concemed with the way poems written by a poet from an earlier decade (the 1980s) interpret and mediate an urban identity and. further . with the fact that performance not only gives them a new lease of life. but also transforms them into works which have meaning and appeal for a more contemporary, broader audience. The fundamental issues addressed in this poetry , namely a response to and a negotiation of urban (South African) experience. continue to speak compellingly today . Mediating Urban Identity: Orality I Perfonnance and Poetry in the Work of Koos du Plessis.


Youth who are at risk of dropping out of high school are often challenged by significant emotional and behavioral support needs, and are typically disengaged from the educational process and the social networks that can help them succeed in their homes, in school, and in their communities. This research project investigated the experiences of four youth, two females and two males, who were at significant risk of dropping out of high school as they were engaged in a supportive intervention designed to build skills in selfdetermination, school-to-adult life transition planning, and leveraging social resources. Using social capital as a sensitizing concept, the researcher spent 18 months in the field using an ethnographic methodology to collect and analyze narratives from the four youth. Through an iterative process of coding, grouping, recoding, categorizing and contextualizing the data, the analysis identified four social processes that were critical to the meaning-in-context perceptions of the youth as they engaged in the intervention: positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, agency and control of social goods. These social processes occurred within contexts or situational elements that converged across youth and across events. The analysis culminates with a description of four critical purposes of the youth's responses and social actions: to attain success, to avoid harm, to maintain relationships, and to increase control. The researcher found that each youth wanted to be successful in the traditional academic and vocational senses, however, multiple environmental, contextual, and relationship factors worked to thwart their social inclusion and hampered their abilities to access social goods. The researcher also found that attempts by adults to control the actions or outcomes for each youth were unsuccessful. In effect each youth accepted help and guidance only in the context of what they perceived as a caring relation. The analysis concludes with recommendations for additional research and for practice in schools.


The aim of this paper is to identify and outline the
characteristics that distinguish family businesses from
non-family businesses in the construction industry of the Czech
Republic. The paper presents the results of the research that
was carried out in the construction market of the Czech
Republic in the years 2007 - 2011 and that indicated some
connections with the current knowledge from the field of family
business. Characteristics that distinguish family businesses
from non-family businesses were defined by means of literary
sources - Orientation to maintaining the business; Tendency to
centralization; Orientation to local markets, Customer
Orientation, Applied Business Strategy and Number of employees.
In accordance with the theoretical concept, it was found out
that family businesses have on average a smaller number of
separate establishments than non-family businesses. It was
found out that the observed family businesses slightly better
manage to adapt their offer to customer requirements and also
that they pay more care to customers, which supports the
hypothesis of higher orientation of family businesses to
customers. Business strategies of family businesses are focused
on the strategy of differentiation. The tendency to employ a
lower number of employees was also confirmed at both family and
non-family businesses. In contrast, quality of production was
slightly lower in family businesses.


Objectives: It is important to know what patient reported outcome measure (PROM) scores relate to a meaningful change in health status across time. The aim of this study was to investigate the minimally important difference (MID) of the Diabetes Health Profile (DHP-18), EQ-5D and SF-6D in a Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patient sample. Methods: A longitudinal dataset including a UK community sample of people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes was used for the analysis. A combination of anchor and distribution methods was used to investigate the MID. For the anchor based method, a global health change indicator was used if it correlated with the PROM scores at baseline and follow up. To calculate the anchor based MID, the change in PROM score for those reporting no change on the anchor was subtracted from those reporting small change. For the distribution based estimation, the 1 Standard Error of Measurement, 0.5 and 0.33 standard deviation methods were used. Results: The anchor was not correlated with the DHP-18 dimensions so was only used to estimate MID values for the EQ-5D and SF-6D. For the DHP-18, MID estimates for the Psychological Distress domain range from 6.99 to 10.59, the Barriers to Activity domain range from 6.48 to 9.89, and the Disinhibited Eating domain range from 7.52 to 11.39. The EQ-5D estimations range from 0.058 to 0.158, and the SF-6D estimations range from 0.038 to 0.081. The 0.5 SD and 1SEM estimations are of a similar magnitude across the three measures. Conclusions: This study has derived a range of values for each measure that may correspond to an important change in health status. The MID values may guide researchers who are using the measures as part of their assessment of both Type 1 and Type 2 patients with diabetes mellitus.


Everyone is familiar with the problem of online scheduling (even if they are not aware of it), from the way we prioritize our everyday decisions to the way a delivery service must decide on the route to follow in order to cover the ongoing requests. In computer science, this is a problem of even greater importance. This thesis considers two main families of online scheduling problems in computer science, and aims to provide an extended clear framework for their analysis, presenting at the same time some common characteristics that connect these problems.

The first and main family of online scheduling problems considered, is task scheduling in fault-prone computing systems. As the number of clients and the possibilities offered by the rapid development of computing systems, grow with time, the increase of demands of computationally-intensive tasks is inevitable. Uniprocessors are no longer capable of coping with the escalation of these demands, which among others, has led to the development of multicore-based parallel machines, Internet-based computing platforms and co-operational distributed systems. Nonetheless, the challenges of these systems, even of the simplest ones, are numerous: They have to deal with continuous dynamic requests from the clients, which are probably not of the same nature (require different amount of computational resources). The processing elements (i.e., machines) may suffer from unpredictable failures, either malicious or due to overload. Furthermore, depending on the size of these systems and the exact processing units, their power consumption may be of significant amount; even equal to the electricity needed for a small town. Hence, limiting their power consumption is another challenge.

To analyze such a system one must consider the online nature of the problem; the dynamic task arrivals (client requests) of different sizes (computational demands), and the unpredictable machine crashes and restarts (failures). It is important to give guarantees for the performance of the algorithms used in these systems, thus the thesis conducts worst-case competitive analysis and covers a significant level of the three dimensions of the problem. More precisely, it studies the effects of the number of machines, the number of different task sizes and the speed of the machines – which as will be explained through the thesis, affects the power consumption of the system – on the efficiency of online scheduling algorithms. As performance measures, this thesis uses the completed load, the pending load and the latency competitiveness of the algorithms. In some cases, it considers the long-term competitiveness versions of these measures as well.

One of the most important results shown, is that resource augmentation in the form of increasing the machine speedup, is necessary in order to achieve some competitiveness, or to reach optimal competitiveness. The sufficient amount of speedup is found, and online algorithms that achieve the desired competitiveness are proposed and analyzed. Apart from the algorithms designed, some of the most widely used algorithms in scheduling are also analyzed in the model considered for the first time; namely, Longest In System (LIS), Shortest In System (SIS), Largest Processing Time (LPT), and
Smallest Processing Time (SPT). Nonetheless, deciding on the best algorithm between them, is not easy. Each algorithm behaves better with respect to a different evaluation metric and under different model parameters.

The second family of problems considered, is packet scheduling over an unreliable wireless communication link. As claimed, these problems have a strong connection to the task scheduling problem, especially when considering one machine and no speedup, hence some of the results can be shared. A setting with a single pair of nodes is considered, connected through an unreliable wireless channel. The sending station transmits packets to a receiving station over the channel, which can be jammed and hence corrupt the packet being transmitted. First, worst-case scenarios are assumed for the channel jams, modeled by a malicious adversarial entity. The packet arrivals however, follow a stochastic distribution and competitive analysis of scheduling algorithms is pursued giving matching bounds for the most pessimistic scenarios of channel jams. The aim of the algorithms is to find the schedule (or order or transmission of the arriving packets) in order to maximize the asymptotic throughout, which corresponds to the long-term competitive ratio of total length of successfully transmitted packets.

Then, a slightly different problem is considered, assuming infinite amount of data to be transmitted over the same unreliable communication link. This time however, an adversarial entity with constrained power is assumed for the channel jams. The constrained power is modeled by an Adversarial Queueing Theory (AQT) approach, defined with two main parameters; p, the error availability rate, and o, the maximum batch of errors available to the adversary at any time. This is the first time AQT is used to model channel jams; it has been mostly used to model the packet arrivals in networking problems. In this problem, the scheduling algorithms must decide on the length of the packets to be transmitted, with the objective of maximizing the goodput rate; the rate of successfully transmitted load. It is seen, that even for the simplest settings, the analysis and results are not trivial.


Using an inducible thyroid transformation system (FRTL-5/ERTM-H-RasV12cells), the gene expression profile changes at early times after oncogene activation were analyzed. I observed that Ras activation is able to rapidly reorganize gene expression, by inducing profound changes in the expression of several genes in few hours. Among these, one of the most strongly repressed is Wnt4. Wnt4 is a secreted glycoprotein that through its binding to cell surface receptors, is able to activate canonical beta catenin-dependent signaling as well as non-canonical pathways, depending on the cell and receptor context. Although its role in cancer has not been deeply investigated, wnt4 has been found either overexpressed or downregulated in different types of cancer. In the in vitro transformation system used Wnt4 repression is associated with the acquisition of the neoplastic phenotype. Ras in fact is able to repress its expression between one and six hours after its activation, and to chronically repress wnt4 expression in stably transformed cells. To study the role of wnt4 repression in thyroid transformation, I generated an FRTL-5/ERTM-H-RasV12 cell line constitutively expressing Wnt4 in order to ectopically maintain its expression when Ras abolishes the expression of the endogenous Wnt4. Forced expression of Wnt4 does not interfere with the ability of Ras to induce loss of differentiation and TSH-independent cell proliferation. However, I observed that, in the presence of forced expression of Wnt4, the ability of Ras to promote cell migration in FRTL-5 cells is severely impaired. Measurement, by real-time RT-PCR, of Wnt4 mRNA in a panel of human thyroid tumors of different histotypes, show that Wnt4 expression is significantly lower in cancer respect to normal thyroid tissue. Signaling experiments using either chemical inhibitors of Ras downstream pathways or Ras effector domain mutants suggest the involvement of MAPK pathway in the repression of Wnt4. From a molecular point of view the restore of Wnt4 expression in presence of oncogenic Ras interferes with the downregulation of Rho activity managed by oncogenic Ras. Moreover I observed a switch in cytoskeleton reorganization from membrane ruffles formation to stress fiber formation when both oncogenic Ras and Wnt4 are expressed. Taken together these results suggest that Wnt4 repression could be involved in the promotion of the aggressive character of thyroid carcinomas bearing oncogenic Ras.


Background:Pregnancy is the most common cause of a diastasis recti abdominis (DRA), usually occurring during the third trimester. An abnormally wide interrecti distance (IRD) from a DRA can persist up to 1 year postpartum or longer. Although some women can fully recover function with an abnormally widened IRD, in others impaired muscle contractility of the abdominals decreases trunk stability and strength during load transfer activities of daily living. Diastasis recti abdominis has also been correlated with support-related pelvic floor impairments persisting years after delivery. There is a paucity of research describing conservative interventions for DRA, and no existing clinical protocols for best practice patterns at present to guide the physical therapist. This case report describes physical therapy intervention for a postpartum patient with a large DRA. Study Design:Case study with review of the literature. Case Description:This report describes physical therapy intervention for a 32-year-old gravida 2, para 2 (G2P2) woman referred at 7 weeks postpartum with a DRA measuring 11.5 cm IRD at the umbilicus and extending more than 9 cm vertically along the linea alba. Outcome:The patient attended 18 sessions from evaluation to discharge over a 4-month period. Interrecti distance was reduced to 2.0 cm at the widest point of separation. She regained functional strength and achieved all goals for load transfer activities: standing, walking, lifting and carrying her child, and light jogging. Discussion:The patient in this case report demonstrated successful reduction of IRD of a large DRA and restoration of functional strength with physical therapy intervention. Physical therapists play an important role in identifying and treating patients with significant DRAs. However, guidelines are currently not available in the literature identifying how large of a diastasis can be conservatively treated with exercise. Interventions should include patient education on precautions with DRA, therapeutic progressive exercise with abdominal muscle retraining, and recommendations for support garments or self-bracing of recti muscles during trunk flexion.


Electronic business (e-business) is of vital importance to the small and medium enterprise sector (SME); failure to participate may disadvantage them. This has been recognised and numerous SMEs are now adopting e-business. However, there has been little systematic research into how e-business is being adopted or the resulting changes
that occur within the organisation. The investigation sought to discover whether the existing research into large organisations was applicable to the SME sector; the research
found that it was not always relevant. Through an exploration of their level and sequence of adoption., structural re-alignment and process change, a greater understanding of how SMEs in the North West of England are adopting e-business is provided.

Previous research has failed to de-lineate the actual use of e-business to depict the potential benefits available through adopting e-business. This research has addressed
this issue along with providing an account of the areas where the benefits occurred. Positioned in the infonnation systems discipline from a business process perspective at
the enterprise level, the implementation of e-business is investigated throngh a mixed mode methodology of research. The research which was conducted by the means of two empirical stages (questionnaire and interviews) found that SMEs do not always follow the sequential linear stages of progression suggested in the literature (DTI, 2000). The
route taken is dependant on the use of e-business and the existence of an e-business strategy. It was also discovered that e-business causes minimal structural re-a1ignment
When changes did occur, it was dependant on the use of e-business; with some of the organisations interconnecting components needing to be changed. Adopting e-business
does not always cause SMEs to change their processes; neither does it affect all of the III different business activities. The research has identified where and how the processes are transformed; resulting in the presentation of a new model for SME e-business adoption.


In this paper we discuss aid and the environment in Ghana. Our analysis indicates that expenditure by the government of Ghana has increased consistently since 2000, with seven sectors weakly linked to the environment taking about 78.9 per cent of all government expenditure. Also, the rate of increase of environmental expenditures has not kept pace with overall expenditure. External aid disbursement to environmental sectors has expanded and efforts are being made by the development partners to steer more grants instead of loans to environment-related activities. A 19-sector analysis of data from the AidData dataset from 1993 to 2009 indicates that the environmental sector ranks 11th in terms of project numbers, commitments and disbursements. A worrying phenomenon is the average disbursement rate of 27.8 per cent which is lower than the average rate of disbursements for all the 19 sectors (29 per cent), indicating the poor implementation of environmental projects. Also, cross-cutting issues such as climate change, biodiversity and desertification appear to be important only for the environmental sectors even though some of these, such as education, can be used to combat environmental degradation. Poor commitment of aid to the environmental sectors reflects the views of the development partners that the non-environmental sectors require more aid than the environmental sectors, even though donors recognize that non-environmental sectors have environmental impacts and are addressing them in their activities.


As is common across the public sector, the UK police service is under pressure to do more with less, to target resources more efficiently and take steps to identify threats proactively; for example under risk-assessment schemes such as 'Clare's Law' and 'Sarah's Law'. Algorithmic tools promise to improve a police force's decision-making and prediction abilities by making better use of data (including intelligence), both from inside and outside the force. This article uses Durham Constabulary's Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART) as a case-study. HART is one of the first algorithmic models to be deployed by a UK police force in an operational capacity. Our article comments upon the potential benefits of such tools, explains the concept and method of HART and considers the results of the first validation of the model's use and accuracy. The article then critiques the use of algorithmic tools within policing from a societal and legal perspective, focusing in particular upon substantive common law grounds for judicial review. It considers a concept of 'experimental' proportionality to permit the use of unproven algorithms in the public sector in a controlled and time-limited way, and as part of a combination of approaches to combat algorithmic opacity, proposes 'ALGO-CARE', a guidance framework of some of the key legal and practical concerns that should be considered in relation to the use of algorithmic risk assessment tools by the police. The article concludes that for the use of algorithmic tools in a policing context to result in a 'better' outcome, that is to say, a more efficient use of police resources in a landscape of more consistent, evidence-based decision-making, then an 'experimental' proportionality approach should be developed to ensure that new solutions from 'big data' can be found for criminal justice problems traditionally arising from clouded, non-augmented decisionmaking. Finally, this article notes that there is a sub-set of decisions around which there is too great an impact upon society and upon the welfare of individuals for them to be influenced by an emerging technology; to an extent, in fact, that they should be removed from the influence of algorithmic decision-making altogether. * Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Information & Communication Technology Law on 3 April 2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600834.2018.1458455.


Latex is one of the largest sources of foreign exchange in Indonesia. The technology of stimulant etepon application and tapping frequency is one of alternative waysto increase the production.The experiment was conducted to examine the effects of different dosing of etepon and tapping frequencies on the rubber crop production.The research was conducted in PT.Agro Muko, Division II Jerinjing, Mukomuko district of Bengkulu province from July to August 2016. The method used was the randomized block design (RBD) factorial with two factors; the first factor was the etepon doses consisting of five levels: e0 = 0 cc trees-1, e1 = 0.3 cc trees-1, e2 = 0.6 cc trees-1, e3 = 0.9 cc trees-1, e4 = 1.2 cc trees-1, while the second factor was the tapping frequency consisting of three levels: f1 = frequency of 2 days, f2= frequency of 3 days, f3 = frequency of 4 days. Therefore, there were15 combinations of treatments repeated three times. The further test used was Duncan's Multiple Range Test 5%.The results showed that there was no interaction between the dosing and tapping frequency of etepon on all observed parameters. The effect of 0.9 cc trees-1 etepon dose was able to increase the flow rate of latex by 0.46 ml min-1and 63% fresh latex volume, while the tapping frequency on f3increased latex flow rate by0.42 ml min-1and fresh latex volume by 859.8ml.In the dry rubber content parameters, the etepon dosing at 0.3 cctrees-1 produced 38.07%. On the other hand, frequency of 4 days tapping resulted 37.44% less than other treatments.


The present study examines the effects of physical module elements (adventure based activity) included in the Malaysian National Service Programme and to investigate the socio-demographic variables impact on team cohesion building among the participants. In this study, the participants were selected from three different camps, namely, Tasoh camp, Guar Chenderai camp and Meranti camp, located in the state of Perlis, Malaysia. The participants were those from the second batch intake in the year 2007. The sample sizes comprised of 994 participants (480=males, 514=females). The present study applied a pre-test and post-test design. The group was tested before and after the programme. This design was chosen because it could measure the impacts of the adventure-based activity towards team cohesion over time through the preand post-test scores (Berg & Latin, 2004). The variables comprised of the demographic factors (age, gender and place of residence), which included team cohesion were measured by Group Environmental Questionnaire (GEQ) (Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985). Results indicated that the participants of the National Service Training Programme underwent group cohesion change during the Physical Module activities (adventure based activities) that were carried out at the camp. The changes were observable based on the statistically analyzed data during the pre and post-test.


Agriculture uses large quantities of energy to pump groundwater for irrigation. This means the cost of energy has important implications for the industry in terms of costs and profitability. Increases in the prices of energy sources such as natural gas, electricity, liquid petroleum gas and diesel can cause economic hardship for irrigators, particularly if those increases are unanticipated. The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize important trends in the current domestic energy situation that could have significant impacts on the future cost and availability of energy, and to show what the implications of those trends are for irrigated agriculture. The primary focus is on trends in natural gas, since natural gas is the major fuel used for irrigation in the Great Plains states.


In late summer 2000 the Jasper Fire burned approximately 34,000 ha of ponderosa pine forest in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Although regarded as a catastrophic event, the Jasper Fire left a mosaic of fire severity across the landscape, with live trees present in areas burned under low and moderate fire severity. In October 2005, we cored 96 trees from unburned, low-severity, and moderate-severity stands and assessed whether tree growth differed among fire severity classes during the 5 years postfire. We observed no differences in basal area increment (BAI) 10 years prefire among fire severities with BAI averaging 9.6 cm2 per year. Despite severe drought conditions, BAI in moderate severity sites 2 years postfire was 58% greater than in unburned and low-severity stands. Although significant, this growth increase was short-lived. Three, 4, and 5 years postfire, no differences in growth among unburned, low-severity, and moderate-severity sites were detected, as BAI averaged 8.3, 7.5, and 7.0 cm2, respectively. The lack of a consistent and prolonged growth response suggests that the Jasper Fire did not result in any short-term changes in growth patterns. Data extending beyond 5 years postfire are required to infer potential long-term changes in tree growth and productivity.


We present an algorithm for automatic segmentation of the human pelvic bones from CT datasets that is based on the application of a statistical shape model. The proposed method is divided into three steps: 1) The averaged shape of the pelvis model is initially placed within the CT data using the Generalized Hough Transform, 2) the statistical shape model is then adapted to the image data by a transformation and variation of its shape modes, and 3) a final free-form deformation step based on optimal graph searching is applied to overcome the restrictive character of the statistical shape representation.

We thoroughly evaluated the method on 50 manually segmented CT datasets by performing a leave-one-out study. The Generalized Hough Transform proved to be a reliable method for an automatic initial placement of the shape model within the CT data. Compared to the manual gold standard segmentations, our automatic segmentation approach produced an average surface distance of 1.2 ± 0.3mm after the adaptation of the statistical shape model, which could be reduced to 0.7±0.3mm using a final free-form deformation step. Together with an average segmentation time of less than 5 minutes, the results of our study indicate that our method meets the requirements of clinical routine.


(33rd Publication of the Vogeltrekstation Foundation) The steady increase of the human population with all its consequences is an omnipresent threat to the wildlife of the Netherlands, especially to the larger animals who make greater demands on their habitat. That is why preservationists must continuously watch that the living conditions of such species do not drop below a certain level. Besides the various reclamation works and reallotment schemes that have been carried out all over the country, the huge hydraulic-engineering works, known as the "Delta Plan" in the provinces of Zuid-Holland and Zeeland will probably prove to have a really serious effect on the birds that are in the habit of feeding in tidal waters. For these hydraulic works will close off the estuaries of the Rhine and the Meuse, thus bringing an end to the tides which provide not only rich feeding opportunities but also safety (by making the habitat more or less inaccessible to men). Among the birds frequenting these tidal waters the Spoonbill is perhaps the most precious one. Hence, as regards its favourite feeding grounds the prospects for this species — chosen as our "national bird" in 1962 — are rather unfavourable. These prospects, together with the fact that our Spoonbill population has shown a decrease since 1950-1954, lead me to the subject of this paper. Although it is mainly based on literature, the first two chapters contain many of my own observations; I am indebted to Mr. C. van Orden for some recent data on the Zwanenwater and Texel colonies. Furthermore I want to thank Dr. A. C. Perdeck and his staff of the "Vogeltrekstation Foundation" for the kind assistance in providing me with the most recent ringing records, and Prof. K. H. Voous for help with literature.


We used frequency‐domain reflectometry to make continuous, high‐resolution measurements for 22 months of the soil moisture to a depth of 10 m in an Amazonian rain forest. We then used these data to determine how soil moisture varies on diel, seasonal and multi‐year timescales, and to better understand the quantitative and mechanistic relationships between soil moisture and forest evapotranspiration. The mean annual precipitation at the site was over 1900 mm. The field capacity was approximately 0·53 m3 m−3 and was nearly uniform with soil depth. Soil moisture decreased at all levels during the dry season, with the minimum of 0·38 m3 m−3 at 3 m beneath the surface. The moisture in the upper 1 m showed a strong diel cycle with daytime depletion due to evapotranspiration. The moisture beneath 1 m declined during both day and night due to the combined effects of evapotranspiration, drainage and a nighttime upward movement of water. The depth of active water withdrawal changed markedly over the year. The upper 2 m of soil supplied ∼56% of the water used for evapotranspiration in the wet season and ∼28% of the water used in the dry season. The zone of active water withdrawal extended to a depth of at least 10 m. The day‐to‐day rates of moisture withdrawal from the upper 10 m of soil during rain‐free periods agreed well with simultaneous measurements of whole‐forest evapotranspiration made by the eddy covariance technique. The forest at the site was well adapted to the normal cycle of wet and dry seasons, and the dry season had only a small effect on the rates of land–atmosphere water vapour exchange. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Filamentous actinobacteria from the genus Frankia and diverse woody trees and shrubs together form N2-fixing actinorhizal root nodule symbioses that are a major source of new soil nitrogen in widely diverse biomes 1. Three major clades of Frankia sp. strains are defined; each clade is associated with a defined subset of plants from among the eight actinorhizal plant families 2,3. The evolution arytrajectories followed by the ancestors of both symbionts leading to current patterns of symbiont compatibility are unknown. Here we show that the competing processes of genome expansion and contraction have operated in different groups of Frankia strains in a manner that can be related to the speciation of the plant hosts and their geographic distribution. We sequenced and compared the genomes from three Frankia sp. strains having different host plant specificities. The sizes of their genomes varied from 5.38 Mbp for a narrow host range strain (HFPCcI3) to 7.50Mbp for a medium host range strain (ACN14a) to 9.08 Mbp for a broad host range strain (EAN1pec.) This size divergence is the largest yet reported for such closely related bacteria. Since the order of divergence of the strains is known, the extent of gene deletion, duplication and acquisition could be estimated and was found to be inconcert with the biogeographic history of the symbioses. Host plant isolation favored genome contraction, whereas host plant diversification favored genome expansion. The results support the idea that major genome reductions as well as expansions can occur in facultatively symbiotic soil bacteria as they respond to new environments in the context of their symbioses.


Aquaculture has become a rapidly growing industry: over the past 3 decades, commercial production has steadily increased, and further expansion seems likely. However, the rise of aquaculture has been accompanied by concerns, especially regarding environmental sustainability. Substrates located under aquaculture sites receive large influxes of organic matter that can subsequently create anoxic conditions and thereby impact existing benthic communities. Shifts in the relative abundance of specific groups of bacteria could prove to be important indicators of impact and remediation. Here, we investigated bacterial community composition via 16S rRNA gene sequencing on isolated DNA from flocculent matter samples and associated bacterial mats under a hard-bottom aquaculture site in Newfoundland, Canada. We describe the heterogeneous community present in the flocculent matter, characterized by high relative abundances of the genera Spirochaeta (12%), Prolixibacter (5.6%) and Marinifilum (4.6%). Bacterial mats were not composed of Beggiatoa as often hypothesized, but instead were dominated by the genera Spirochaeta (15%), Prevotella (21%), Meniscus (11%) and Odoribacter (20%). Our findings provide insights into the bacterial composition of flocculent matter deposited on hard substrates and undergoing de gradation, and point to 3 unexpected bacterial genera as potential indicators of organic enrichment.


The title compound, C19H17NO, has an E conformation about the N=C bond. The molecule is relatively planar, with the benzene ring and naphthalene ring plane being inclined to one another by 4.28 (10)°. There is an intramolecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bond generating an S(6) ring motif. In the crystal, molecules are linked via C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains propagating along [100]. Within the chains there are π–π interactions involving the benzene ring and the naphthalene ring system of an adjacent molecule [inter-centroid distance = 3.6405 (14) Å].


Varying doses of 5-azacytidine (5-aza) were given to four sickle cell individuals for 500, 200, 100, and 30 days. The percentage of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) containing reticulocytes (F reticulocytes) increased two- to five-fold within five days of 5-aza therapy in all patients, with a two- to three-fold rapid response (less than 48 hours after initial dose) in three patients. Reticulocyte suppression was not observed prior to, during, or after therapy in those patients who responded within 48 hours. Subcutaneous 5-aza was given in 35-day courses consisting of every day, every other day, or three consecutive days a week. No marrow toxicity was observed on any of the regimens. For three patients, the highest average F reticulocyte level was observed on the three consecutive day a week regimen. Oral 5-aza, given with tetrahydrouridine, produced comparable F reticulocyte response. In the two patients treated for more than 100 days, Hb levels increased to 11 to 12 and 9 g/dL, MCV and MCH increased by 25%, and lysate HbF levels peaked at 12% and 20%. Fetal erythroid characteristics (i- antigen, galactokinase activity, and G gamma/A gamma ratios) did not correlate with maximal HbF production. The frequency of vasoocclusive crises appeared to decrease in both patients followed for more than 100 days.


Background Metagenomics is a relatively new but fast growing field within environmental biology and medical sciences. It enables researchers to understand the diversity of microbes, their functions, cooperation, and evolution in a particular ecosystem. Traditional methods in genomics and microbiology are not efficient in capturing the structure of the microbial community in an environment. Nowadays, high-throughput next-generation sequencing technologies are powerfully driving the metagenomic studies. However, there is an urgent need to develop efficient statistical methods and computational algorithms to rapidly analyze the massive metagenomic short sequencing data and to accurately detect the features/functions present in the microbial community. Although several issues about functions of metagenomes at pathways or subsystems level have been investigated, there is a lack of studies focusing on functional analysis at a low level of a hierarchical functional tree, such as SEED subsystem tree. Results A two-step statistical procedure (metaFunction) is proposed to detect all possible functional roles at the low level from a metagenomic sample/community. In the first step a statistical mixture model is proposed at the base of gene codons to estimate the abundances for the candidate functional roles, with sequencing error being considered. As a gene could be involved in multiple biological processes the functional assignment is therefore adjusted by utilizing an error distribution in the second step. The performance of the proposed procedure is evaluated through comprehensive simulation studies. Compared with other existing methods in metagenomic functional analysis the new approach is more accurate in assigning reads to functional roles, and therefore at more general levels. The method is also employed to analyze two real data sets. Conclusions metaFunction is a powerful tool in accurate profiling functions in a metagenomic sample.


It is a longstanding puzzle why non-coding variants in the complement factor H (CFH) gene are more strongly associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than functional coding variants that directly influence the alternative complement pathway. The situation is complicated by tight genetic associations across the region, including the adjacent CFH-related genes CFHR3 and CFHR1, which may themselves influence the alternative complement pathway and are contained within a common deletion (CNP147) which is associated with protection against AMD. It is unclear whether this association is mediated through a protective effect of low plasma CFHR1 concentrations, high plasma CFH or both. We examined the triangular relationships of CFH/CFHR3/CFHR1 genotype, plasma CFH or CFHR1 concentrations and AMD susceptibility in combined case–control (1256 cases, 1020 controls) and cross-sectional population (n = 1004) studies and carried out genome-wide association studies of plasma CFH and CFHR1 concentrations. A non-coding CFH SNP (rs6677604) and the CNP147 deletion were strongly correlated both with each other and with plasma CFH and CFHR1 concentrations. The plasma CFH-raising rs6677604 allele and raised plasma CFH concentration were each associated with AMD protection. In contrast, the protective association of the CNP147 deletion with AMD was not mediated by low plasma CFHR1, since AMD-free controls showed increased plasma CFHR1 compared with cases, but it may be mediated by the association of CNP147 with raised plasma CFH concentration. The results are most consistent with a regulatory locus within a 32 kb region of the CFH gene, with a major effect on plasma CFH concentration and AMD susceptibility.


This article provides meta-analyses of the relation between goal consensus and collaboration and individual psychotherapy outcome using studies published in English between 1978 and June 2017. Inclusion criteria involved (a) a measure of psychotherapy outcome, (b) a measure of goal consensus and/or collaboration, (c) a group design, (d) adult patients (aged 18 years or older), and (e) a reported effect or statistic that could be converted to an effect size. For the 54 studies (N = 7,278) of goal consensus and outcome, the result was r = .24 (95% confidence interval [CI] [.19, .28]) or d = .49, representing a medium effect. For the 53 studies (N = 5,286) of patient–therapist collaboration and outcome, the result was r = .29 (95% CI [.24, .34]) or d = .61, another medium effect. In all, 21 studies (N = 2,081) of therapist collaboration and outcome yielded an omnibus effect of .26 (95% CI [.18, .35]) or d = .54. Results suggest patient–therapist goal consensus and collaboration enhance psychotherapy outcome. The article concludes with research limitations, diversity considerations, and therapeutic practices. Limitations of the studies included a dearth of diverse samples, assessment of goal consensus and/or collaboration at a single time during treatment, failure to relate measures to outcome, and analyses that do not permit causal conclusions. Research suggests that therapists seek input from patients to form and effect treatment goals and plans, provide patients with regular feedback, and seek their involvement throughout therapy.


Abstract In developing countries and in particular in sub-Saharan Africa, social protection schemes tend to operate in silos. However, schemes targeting the same geographical areas may have synergies that have not yet been examined, and which are worth scrutinising. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by examining the joint impacts of two social protection programmes in Ethiopia, that is, the Productive Safety Net Programme and a Community Based Health Insurance Scheme. Based on three rounds of individual level panel data and several rounds of qualitative interviews, we find that individuals covered by both programmes, as opposed to neither or only one of the two programmes, provide greater labour supply, have larger livestock holdings, and have a lower amount of outstanding loans. Furthermore, joint participation is associated with greater use of modern health care facilities as compared to participating only in the safety net programme. These results show that bundling of interventions enhances protection against multiple risks and that linking social protection schemes yields more than the sum of their individual effects.


[1] Decomposition conditions of methane hydrates in sediments were measured during formation-decomposition cycles. As test sediments, we used silica sand, sandstone, and clays (kaoline and bentonite), which are typical natural materials known as hydrate bearing sediments, and the range of samples cover a range of water saturating abilities. To better understand the results, we also used uniformly sized glass beads. Pore effects on decomposition of these materials were investigated by analyzing the pore-space distributions of the materials and by varying the initial water content of the samples. The results obtained for sand and sandstone samples indicated that the final decomposition temperatures were shifted lower than those for bulk hydrates at the same pressure. Temperature shifts were more negative for smaller initial water contents with the maximum shift being approximately −0.5 K. The results were consistent with those measured for glass beads with nearly the same particle size. For kaoline clays, the shift was at most −1.5 K. We conclude that the decomposition conditions are mainly affected by the pore sizes. The surface textures and mineral components had less influence on the results. We confirmed that glass beads mimic the effect of sediments for sand, sandstone, and kaoline clays, which have little to no swelling when put in contact with water. On the other hand, for bentonite particles, the results indicated that methane hydrates formed not only between the particles but also in the interlayers. A thermodynamic promoting effect was found for dilute bentonite solutions, although the positive decomposition-temperature shift was at most +0.5 K.


Background: Despite well-established correlation of postmastectomy radiotherapy and surgical complications in breast reconstruction, its impact on patient reported outcomes is less clear. We sought to determine the effect of postmastectomy radiotherapy on patient reported outcomes throughout the breast reconstruction process. Methods: Patients undergoing prosthetic and autologous breast reconstruction from November 2010 to June 2013 were prospectively followed with BREAST-Q surveys (preoperatively, after expander placement, and 6 and 12 months after final reconstruction). Paired t test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, and multiple linear regression were used to determine the effect of radiation on patient reported outcomes. Results: Two hundred patients were included in the study, of which 51 (25.5 percent) received postmastectomy radiotherapy. Prosthetic reconstruction was performed in 75 patients (37.5 percent), autologous reconstruction was performed in 118 (59 percent), and pure fat grafting was performed in seven (3.5 percent). At one-year follow-up, the nonirradiated group reported higher BREAST-Q scores when compared with the irradiated group, in Satisfaction with Breasts (p = 0.003), Psychosocial Well-being (p = 0.003), Sexual Well-being (p < 0.001), Physical Well-being of Chest (p = 0.024), and Satisfaction with Outcome (p = 0.03). When accounting for baseline values, Satisfaction with Breasts and Physical Well-being of Chest significantly worsened in irradiated patients undergoing prosthetic reconstruction, an effect not seen with autologous reconstructions. All irradiated patients significantly worsened in Psychosocial Well-being and Sexual Well-being scores. Conclusions: Postmastectomy radiotherapy is associated with worse patient reported outcomes following breast reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction can mitigate patient dissatisfaction in some domains. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, II.


This dissertation is a study on the original roles and functions of a mosque in
comparison to the current mosques in Malaysia focusing on the mosques in Kuala
Lumpur City centre. Mosque is an important building in Islam that represents the
establishment and creates the characteristic of Muslim society. A survey of the
literature on mosque suggests two different ideas of the mosques which are as a House
of God and a Community Development Centre. Due to its function as community
development centre, Kuala Lumpur City Centre has been chosen for the scope of study
given that it was the largest city in Malaysia that have high rate of population with wide
range of roles, functions, and features as centre of community development in
Malaysia. The objectives of the study are; to identify and investigate the roles and
functions of mosques in Islam in developing the community, to analyze and study
current management of the mosque, and to discover opportunities in the effort to
enliven the mosques institution. A proper research methodology was adopted for this
research in order to achieve the objectives. The methodologies include literature
reviews, case studies, observations and interviews. There are three case studies that
have been chose for the purpose of this research which are; Jamek Mosque, Kampung
Baru, As-Syakirin Mosque, KLCC, and Khalid Ibnu Al-Walid Mosque, Jalan Padang
Tembak. A comparison between roles and functions of each case study with the ideal
mosque during Prophet's (p.b.u.h) time will be analyzed. From the analysis, it can be
said that current mosques in Malaysia are still practicing relatively the same roles as it
used to be during the time of Prophet (p.b.u.h), but in smaller scopes and target groups
due to inadequate facilities to supports its proper functions. Consequently, even though
the need to revitalize the roles and functions of mosque is not debatable anymore,
however there are still needs to discover opportunities to prosper the mosque. This
dissertation has also suggested some recommendations to improve the roles and
functions of mosque in Malaysia. As a conclusion, designers, architects, engineers, and
all stakeholders have to play important roles in prospering the mosque as it was during
the golden age of Islam.


PURPOSE
We have demonstrated that a relatively mild chemotherapy regimen, vinblastine, methotrexate, and bleomycin (VBM), and involved-field radiotherapy (IFRT) could substitute for extended-field radiotherapy in patients with favorable Hodgkin's disease (HD) who have been laparotomy-staged. The purpose of this study is to determine if VBM and regional radiotherapy can substitute for extended-field radiotherapy in favorable clinical stage (CS) I and II HD.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Seventy-eight patients with favorable CS I to II HD were randomly assigned to subtotal lymphoid irradiation (STLI) or VBM chemotherapy and regional radiotherapy. Randomization was stratified on the basis of age, sex, number of Ann Arbor sites, histology, and institution. Patients were evaluated for freedom from progressive HD, survival, and toxicity. Results were compared with the predecessor trial in pathologically staged patients.

RESULTS
With a median follow-up period of 4 years, the rate of freedom from progressive HD was 92% (95% confidence interval [CI], 88% to 96%) for patients treated with STLI and 87% (95% CI, 81% to 93%) for patients treated with VBM and regional radiotherapy. Six of seven patients who relapsed are alive and in remission following successful second-line therapy.

CONCLUSION
Given the caveat of a small number of patients, the results of extended-field radiotherapy and VBM and regional radiotherapy are comparable with a median follow-up period of 4 years. VBM serves as a paradigm to reduce late effects in favorable early-stage HD. We do not advocate its routine use in clinical practice, but instead encourage participation in clinical trials with the objective of maintaining efficacy while reducing toxicity in CS I and II HD.


Since the 1980s, a number of episodes of financial market distress have underscored the importance of the smooth functioning of markets for the stability of the financial system. At the heart of these episodes was a sudden and drastic reduction in market liquidity, characterised by disorderly adjustments in asset prices, a sharp increase in the costs of executing transactions and, in the most acute cases, a "seizing up" of markets. This essay explores the anatomy of market distress as well as the policy options to address it. It argues that, despite appearances, the genesis and dynamics of market distress resemble quite closely those of banking distress and that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the growth of markets for tradable instruments, and hence the greater scope to sell assets and raise cash, need not have reduced the likelihood of funding (liquidity) crises. At times of distress, in contrast to more normal times, risk management practices, funding constraints and counterparty risk become critical determinants of market liquidity. Articulating an appropriate policy response calls for an approach that takes full account of the interdependencies between the behaviour of market participants and market dynamics. To date, much useful work has been done to address market distress by improving the market infrastructure and the risk management at individual financial institutions. The territory that remains largely unexplored is precisely the link between the collective actions of individual market participants and market dynamics.


CD4+ T cells have been shown to be crucial for the induction and maintenance of cytotoxic T cell responses and to be also capable of mediating direct tumor rejection. Therefore, the anticancer therapeutic efficacy of peptide‐based vaccines may be improved by addition of HLA class II epitopes to stimulate T helper cells. Survivin is an apoptosis inhibiting protein frequently overexpressed in tumors. Here we describe the first immunological evaluation of a survivin‐derived CD4+ T cell epitope in a multipeptide immunotherapy trial for prostate carcinoma patients. The survivin peptide is promiscuously presented by several human HLA‐DRB1 molecules and, most importantly, is naturally processed by dendritic cells. In vaccinated patients, it was able to induce frequent, robust and multifunctional CD4+ T cell responses, as monitored by IFN‐γ ELISPOT and intracellular cytokine staining. Thus, this HLA‐DR restricted epitope is broadly immunogenic and should be valuable for stimulating T helper cells in patients suffering from a wide range of tumors.


This publication provides an analysis of the dental visiting patterns of children aged 5 to 17 years during the period 1994 to 2005. From 1994 to 2005 approximately 80 per cent of children aged 5-11 years and 75% of children aged 12-17 years visited a dentist within the previous 12 months. Private dental attendance by the younger age group increased significantly from 2002 to 2005, reflecting a decline in the utilisation of the School Dental Service. Regular access to dental care for all Australian children is vital to ensure children receive preventively-focussed care, prompt treatment of dental disease and professional advice on oral hygiene. Establishing favourable dental visiting behaviour during childhood will lead to better oral health outcomes as adults.


Learning rich representation from data is an important task for deep generative models such as variational auto-encoder (VAE). However, by extracting high-level abstractions in the bottom-up inference process, the goal of preserving all factors of variations for top-down generation is compromised. Motivated by the concept of "starting small", we present a strategy to progressively learn independent hierarchical representations from high- to low-levels of abstractions. The model starts with learning the most abstract representation, and then progressively grow the network architecture to introduce new representations at different levels of abstraction. We quantitatively demonstrate the ability of the presented model to improve disentanglement in comparison to existing works on two benchmark data sets using three disentanglement metrics, including a new metric we proposed to complement the previously-presented metric of mutual information gap. We further present both qualitative and quantitative evidence on how the progression of learning improves disentangling of hierarchical representations. By drawing on the respective advantage of hierarchical representation learning and progressive learning, this is to our knowledge the first attempt to improve disentanglement by progressively growing the capacity of VAE to learn hierarchical representations.


Cross Reacting Material 197(CRM197) is a Diphteria toxin non toxic mutant that had shown anti-tumor activity in mice and humans. CRM197 is utilized as a specific inhibitor of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), that competes for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), overexpressed in colorectal cancer and implicated in its progression.
We evaluated the effects of CRM197 on HT-29 human colon cancer cell line behaviour and, for CRM197 recognized ability to inhibit HB-EGF, its possible effects on EGFR activation.
In particular, while HT-29 does not show any reduction of viability after CRM197 treatment, or changes in cell cycle distribution, in EGFR localization or activation, they show a change in gene expression profile analyzed by microarray. This is the first study where the CRM197 treatment on HT-29 show the alteration of a specific and selected number of genes.


Among premature infants, the bacterial colonization of the respiratory tract has been associated with the development of pneumonia, chronic lung disease, acute respiratory insufficiency, and even death. Genital mycoplasmas, particularly Mycoplasma hominis, M. genitalium, and Ureaplasma spp., have been associated with these pathological conditions, and also with neonatal pneumonia and respiratory dystress syndrome. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of M. hominis, M. genitalium, U. parvum and U. urealyticum in newborn child's, and to determine whether its presence is associated with the development of respiratory complications in these patients. Were analyzed 62 respiratory secretion samples (27 nasal swabs and 35 endotracheal tubes) obtained from 34 mechanical ventilated infants. Was realized the bacteriological culture for the isolation of Ureaplasma and Mycoplasma spp., and the PCR for the Mollicutes Class and Multiplex-PCR for the identification of U. urealyticum, U. parvum, M. hominis and M. genitalium species. The bacteriological culture was positive in one sample to mycoplasmas, while with the PCR for the Mollicutes Class was obtained 25 positive samples. From these, with the Multiplex-PCR were identified three positive samples to U. parvum, two positive to U. urealyticum and one positive to M. hominis. These six samples showed coinfection with other bacteria. Were identified mycoplasmas and ureaplasma species in new born ventilated child´s. Statistical association was not demonstrated between the mycoplasmas or ureaplasmas infection and respiratory complications in the infant.


Introduction: Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is the most common head and neck malignancy. To decrease the side effects of treatment and mortality from disease relapse, careful staging for the proper treatment plan is necessary. The main purpose of this prospective study is to compare the diagnostic value of Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in oral SCC and its lymph node metastasis in order to represent the proper treatment plan. Materials and Methods: 30 patients (19 men and 11 women) with oral SCC underwent CT and MRI before surgery. Imaging modalities of each study were evaluated individually for tumor size, bone invasion, muscle infiltration. These evaluations were done by two radiologists and an oral-maxillofacial surgeon and verified with histopathology findings as gold standard. The results of the radiological assessment were correlated with the intraoperative and histopathological findings in all patients. Results: CT and MRI have equal potential for detecting the tumor size, perineural invasion and nodal metastasis. The sensitivity and specificity were 50%, 90% for CT in the detection of bone invasion and 90%, 85% for MRI. The sensitivity and specificity were 66.66%, 90.47% for CT in detection of muscle infiltration and 55.55%, 90.47% for MRI. Conclusion: The comparison of these modalities showed no statistically significant difference between CT and MRI. Regarding bone infiltration the sensitivity of CT scan was higher than of MRI, but regarding muscle invasion the spe


Background: The optimal timing to start continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) for acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill ICU patients has not been accurately detected. The recently proposed risk, injury, failure, loss, end-stage kidney disease (RIFLE) criteria for diagnosis of AKI may provide a method for nephrologists to decide the "optimal timing" for starting dialysis. Objective: our study aimed: (1) to analyze the correlation between RIFLE stages at the start of CRRT and 90-day survival rate after CRRT start, (2) to further analyze the correlation of RIFLE stage with the malignant kidney outcome in the 90-day survivors, and (3) to determine the effect of the timing of CRRT on the 90-day survival and malignant kidney outcome in 90-day survivors. Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed on the data of 96 critically ill patients in ICU, CCU, and CICU with AKI, treated with CRRT during a 1-year period in MOH hospital, makkah, Saudi Arabia from November 2011 to November 2012. Information such as age, sex, RIFLE stage, sepsis, sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, and number of organ failures before CRRT, CRRT time, survival, and kidney outcome conditions at 90 days after CRRT start was collected. According to their baseline severity of AKI at the start of CRRT, the patients were assigned to three groups according to the increasing severity of RIFLE stages: RIFLE-R (risk of renal dysfunction, R), RIFLE-I (injury to the kidney, I) and RIFLE-F (failure of kidney function, F) using RIFLE criteria. The malignant kidney outcome was classified as RIFLE-L (loss of kidney function, L) or RIFLE-E (end-stage kidney disease, E) using RIFLE criteria. The correlation between RIFLE stage and 90-day survival rate was analyzed among these three RIFLE-categorized groups. Additionally, the association between RIFLE stage and the malignant kidney outcome (RIFLE-L+RIFLF-E) in the 90-day survivors was analyzed. Results: forty eight of the overall 96 patients survived to 90 days after the start of CRRT. There were 14, 20 and 62 patients in RIFLE-R, RIFLE-I and RIFLE-F groups respectively with corresponding 90-day survival rate of 78.5 % (11/14), 60 % (12/20) and 40.3 % (25/62) (P <0.01, compared among groups). The percentage of the malignant kidney outcome of 90-day survivors in the RIFLE-R, RIFLE-I, and RIFLE-F groups was 18.18 % (2/11), 25 % (3/12) and 56 % (14/25), respectively (P <0.01). After adjustment for other baseline risk factors, the relative risk (RR) for the 90-day mortality significantly increased with baseline RIFLE stage. Patients in RIFLE-F had a higher RR of 1.96 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06–3.62) than patients in RIFLE-I (RR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.55–2.15) compared with patients in RIFLE-R (P for trend <0.01). Similarly, baseline RIFLE stage also significantly correlated with the odds ratio (OR) for the malignant kidney outcome in 90-day survivors (P <0.05). Ninety-day survivors in the RIFLE-F group had a borderline significantly highest OR of 6.88 (95% CI: 0.85–55.67). Conclusions: The RIFLE classification may be used to predict 90-day survival after starting CRRT and the malignant kidney outcome of 90-day survivors in the critically ill patients with AKI treated with CRRT. Early versus late initiation of dialysis prior to RIFLE-F stage may be the optimal timing. [Walid M Afifi, Haitham E Mohamed, Mohamed Abdelzaher. Predictive and prognostic value of RIFLE classification on ICU Patients with acute kidney injury treated with continuous renal replacement therapy. J Am Sci 2013;9(3): 16-21]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 3


In the debate on in-work benefits in Germany it is often overlooked that such subsidies may only be effective if basic minimum income is remarkably decreased for those who are employable. However, proposals following this principle will hardly achieve political consensus as can be derived from reactions to the model of ifo or the board of economic advisors. IZA is therefore proposing workfare as an effective alternative, which may accomplish a strong incentive for the acceptance of low paid jobs without having to cut the current welfare level. Simulations based on a micro-econometric labor supply model show that this could add to the workforce an additional number of 800,000 workers. Roughly the same effect could be achieved by the ifo model, however, at the expense of massive cuts of disposable income for welfare recipients. Hence, workfare turns out as an efficient alternative. Moreover, there is no useful combination between in-work benefits based on the current welfare level and workfare.


Background: As in many authorities, psychotic problems appear to be commuting. Claim of psychiatric disorder has become an important basis for offenders to defend themselves. Aim of this study was to investigate faking symptoms in forensic psychiatry evaluation of malingerers in Tehran. Methods: in a cross-sectional survey, in 1389, perpetrators with a judicial order were assessed by two psychiatrists, using American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th Edition (DSM-IV) standards for mental disorders at the Tehran center for forensic psychiatry. Forty one cases identified as malingerers and were evaluating in another specific conversation. Collected data analyzed with statistical methods and p<0.05 used for significance. Results: In this study, behavioral symptoms (75.6 %), Mood and affect symptoms (65.9%), cognitive function symptoms (56.1%), thought process symptoms (46.3%), perceptual disorder symptoms (34.1%) and thought content symptoms (19.5%) were observed respectively. Only thought process symptoms were significantly increased based on the educational level (p=0.045). There was no statistically significant difference among other groups. Conclusion: In general, simulating the symptoms of mental illness is more likely to be observed in low socioeconomic estates and many will attempt to mimic simple symptoms of behavioral as well as mood and affect disorders. Probably, intelligence and reasoning ability of defendants has a close relation to expressed symptoms that should be considered during psychiatric interview.


The snake spoke truth: it was the tree of knowledge; It was the tree of life: - knowledge is good, And life is good; and how can both be evil? Byron, Cain (I, i, 36-38) To LORD BYRON in the Wilderness What doest thou here Elijah? Can a Poet doubt the Visions of Jehovah? Nature has no Outline: but Imagination has. Nature has no Tune: but Imagination has! Nature has no Supernatural & dissolves: Imagination is Eternity. Blake, The Ghost of Abel (1)1 Within a year of the publication of Byron's Cain, Blake had composed and printed his final illuminated book, a short two-plate response to Cain, entitled The Ghost of Abel: A Revelation in the Visions of Jehovah Seen by William Blake. Although recent discoveries have led to a reassessment of the longstanding claim that The Ghost was Blake's last piece of illuminated printing,2 it nevertheless retains a unique claim to fame in Blake's corpus in view of its dedication to Lord Byron. This is the only one of Blake's illuminated works specifically to present itself as the continuation of another living poet's work and it offers the first clue to an affinity between Blake's work and Byron's. Though historically there has been significant debate over whether The Ghost, which begins immediately after the action in Cain ends, opposes or aligns itself with Byron's drama, current research suggests that Blake may be largely in agreement with Byron.3 However, while considerable attention has been directed at the opening address, and in particular the allusion to I Kings 19, little work has been undertaken with regard to the rather perplexing chorus that ends Blake's text.4 Similarly, while earlier studies have discussed Byron in relation to Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,5 a specific focus on the role of satire within the work of both poets offers insight into further points of connection. While an investigation of Blake's and Byron's use of satire enhances our understanding of the ways in which they both situate themselves within a community of letters, viewing their work within the larger tradition of Menippean satire can inform our discussion of the concept of community itself, along with the related notions of strife, atonement, death and identity. Unlike Byron, whose penchant for publicly and privately commenting on the works of his contemporaries is well known, Blake has a reputation for preferring to set himself, as T. S. Eliot would also later prefer, 'among the dead'.6 Thus, while Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton are all seminal influences on Blake's work, it has been variously claimed that Byron is the only living poet to appear in his writing or - as is slightly more accurate - that he is the only one to appear in his published works. The fact of the matter is, however, as S. Foster Damon noted many years ago, that Byron is 'the only contemporary poet whom Blake named in his publications' (emphasis added).7 William Hayley, Friedrich Klopstock and William Cowper all appear in unpublished poems in Blake's notebook, with Hayley also appearing - but not under his own name - in Milton and Jerusalem. Blake also entered into a one-sided exchange with William Wordsworth in his annotations to The Excursion and Poems: Including Lyrical Ballads. Moreover, while The Ghost does not appear to have been widely circulated, Blake was far from unknown amongst contemporary poets. On 24 July 1811 he met Robert Southey, to whom he showed an incomplete copy of Jerusalem, and it is possible that he also conversed with Coleridge, who in any case was familiar with Songs of Innocence and Experience.8 Wordsworth, meanwhile, appears to have been reasonably impressed with Songs of Innocence and may, in conversation with Crabb Robinson, have been the first to link Blake and Byron, albeit in a manner rather unflattering to the latter: Robinson described reading Wordsworth 'some of Blake's poems' and recalled that Wordsworth 'was pleased with some of them & considered B[lake] as having the elements of poetry a thousand times more than either Byron or Scott'. …


In Reverse Nearest Neighbour (RNN) Query, every single object in the space has a certain region where all objects inside this region will think of the query object as their nearest neighbour. Other objects that are outside the region will not consider the query object as their nearest neighbour. In many cases, we might encounter a situation where we want to find this kind of region for several objects altogether, instead of a single object. Current RNN region approach cannot be used for this problem. Therefore we propose Group Reverse kNN as a solution, which we will find a specific region based on multiple query objects. So any objects located inside this region will always consider all of the query objects as the nearest compare to the non-query objects. Our experiments demonstrate the performance efficiency of the proposed Group Reverse kNN algorithm.


Environmental niche modeling (ENM) is commonly used to develop probabilistic maps of species distribution. Among available ENM techniques, MaxEnt has become one of the most popular tools for modeling species distribution, with hundreds of peer-reviewed articles published each year. MaxEnt's popularity is mainly due to the use of a graphical interface and automatic parameter configuration capabilities. However, recent studies have shown that using the default automatic configuration may not be always appropriate because it can produce non-optimal models; particularly when dealing with a small number of species presence points. Thus, the recommendation is to evaluate the best potential combination of parameters (feature classes and regularization multiplier) to select the most appropriate model. In this work we reviewed 244 articles from 142 journals between 2013 and 2015 to assess whether researchers are following recommendations to avoid using the default parameter configuration when dealing with small sample sizes, or if they are using MaxEnt as a "black box tool". Our results show that in only 16% of analyzed articles authors evaluated best feature classes, in 6.9% evaluated best regularization multipliers, and in a meager 3.7% evaluated simultaneously both parameters before producing the definitive distribution model. These results are worrying, because publications are potentially reporting over-complex or over-simplistic models that can undermine the applicability of their results. Of particular importance are studies used to inform policy making. Therefore, researchers, practitioners, reviewers and editors need to be very judicious when dealing with MaxEnt, particularly when the modelling process is based on small sample sizes.


Background: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a choline-derived metabolite produced by gut microbiota, and its biomarker precursors have not been adequately evaluated in relation to colorectal cancer risk. Methods: We investigated the relationship between serum concentrations of TMAO and its biomarker precursors (choline, carnitine, and betaine) and incident colorectal cancer risk in a nested case–control study of male smokers in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study. We measured biomarker concentrations in baseline fasting serum samples from 644 incident colorectal cancer cases and 644 controls using LC/MS-MS. Logistic regression models estimated the ORs and 95% confidence interval (CI) for colorectal cancer by quartile (Q) of serum TMAO, choline, carnitine, and betaine concentrations. Results: Men with higher serum choline at ATBC baseline had approximately 3-fold greater risk of developing colorectal cancer over the ensuing (median ± IQR) 14 ± 10 years (in fully adjusted models, Q4 vs. Q1, OR, 3.22; 95% CI, 2.24–4.61; Ptrend < 0.0001). The prognostic value of serum choline for prediction of incident colorectal cancer was similarly robust for proximal, distal, and rectal colon cancers (all P < 0.0001). The association between serum TMAO, carnitine, or betaine and colorectal cancer risk was not statistically significant (P = 0.25, 0.71, and 0.61, respectively). Conclusions: Higher serum choline concentration (but not TMAO, carnitine, or betaine) was associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer. Impact: Serum choline levels showed strong prognostic value for prediction of incident colorectal cancer risk across all anatomical subsites, suggesting a role of altered choline metabolism in colorectal cancer pathogenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(6); 945–52. ©2017 AACR.


We propose a theory of the economic advantage (EA) of regulating carbon emissions by linking two emissions trading systems versus operating them under autarky. Linking implies that permits issued in one system can be traded internationally for use in the other. We show how the nature of uncertainty, market sizes, and sunk costs of linking determine EA. Even when sunk costs are small so EA>0, autarky can be preferable to one partner, depending on jurisdiction characteristics. Moreover, one partner's permit price volatility under linking may increase without making linking the less preferred option. An empirical application calibrates jurisdiction characteristics to demonstrate the economic significance of our results, which can make linking partner match crucial for the effectiveness and success of the Paris Agreement.


Anish Kapoor is one of a highly inventive generation of sculptors who emerged in London in the early 1980s. Since then he has created a remarkable body of work that blends a modernist sense of pure materiality with a fascination for the manipulation of form and the perception of space. This book--the first major American publication on Kapoor's work--surveys his work since 1979, with a focus on sculptures and installations made since the early 1990s. With more than ninety color images of these ambitious and complex works, three original essays, an extended interview with Kapoor, and selections from his sketchbooks, this book confirms Anish Kapoor's place as one of the most remarkable sculptors working today. Kapoor's work has evolved into an abstract and perceptually complex elaboration of the sculptural object as at once monumental and evanescent, physical and ethereal--as in his famous Cloud Gate (2004) in Chicago's Millennium Park. The works in Anish Kapoor include such striking works as Past, Present, Future (2006), 1000 Names (1979-1980) and When I Am Pregnant (1992). This book, which accompanies an exhibition at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, offers American readers a long-overdue opportunity to consider the extraordinary clarity, subtlety, and power of Kapoor's art.


Todd R. Slimm Active Collaborative Teaching 2000 Dr. Ronald Capasso School Administration The purpose of this study was to determine if the effects of teachers collaborating would have an affect on professional knowledge (pedagogy) and teacher efficacy. Teachers were exposed to three programs designed to promote collaboration (teachers talking about teaching and learning). The entire school staff was introduced to the program with 29 participants in the actual data study. Data was gathered through a questionnaire/ survey/ interview process. The major method of data analysis was tallies, percentages, and personal comments during interviews. The study found that the three programs had an effect on teacher collaboration. All three programs were found to be of professional value. All three programs caused teachers to talk about teaching and learning. Teacher talk sessions yielded the highest professional value. The professional literature impacted the most members of the group.