Since 1967, when it decided Katz v. United States, the Supreme Court has tied the right to be free of unwanted government scrutiny to the concept of reasonable expectations of privacy. An evaluation of reasonable expectations depends, among other factors, upon an assessment of the intrusiveness of government action. When making such assessment historically the Court has considered police conduct with clear temporal, geographic, or substantive limits. However, in an era where new technologies permit the storage and compilation of vast amounts of personal data, things are becoming more complicated. A school of thought known as "mosaic theory" has stepped into the void, ringing the alarm that our old tools for assessing the intrusiveness of government conduct potentially undervalue privacy rights. Mosaic theorists advocate a cumulative approach to the evaluation of data collection. Under the theory, searches are "analyzed as a collective sequence of steps rather than as individual steps." The approach is based on the recognition that comprehensive aggregation of even seemingly innocuous data reveals greater insight than consideration of each piece of information in isolation. Over time, discrete units of surveillance data can be processed to create a mosaic of habits, relationships, and much more. Consequently, a Fourth Amendment analysis that focuses only on the government's collection of discrete units of trivial data fails to appreciate the true harm of long-term surveillance — the composite. In the context of location tracking, the Court has previously suggested that the Fourth Amendment may (at some theoretical threshold) be concerned with the accumulated information revealed by surveillance. Similarly, in the Court's recent decision in United States v. Jones, a majority of concurring justices indicated willingness to explore such an approach. However, in general, the Court has rejected any notion that technological enhancement matters to the constitutional treatment of location tracking. Rather, it has found that such surveillance in public spaces, which does not require physical trespass, is equivalent to a human tail and thus not regulated by the Fourth Amendment. In this way, the Court has avoided quantitative analysis of the amendment's protections. The Court's reticence is built on the enticingly direct assertion that objectivity under the mosaic theory is impossible. This is true in large part because there has been no rationale yet offered to objectively distinguish relatively short-term monitoring from its counterpart of greater duration. As Justice Scalia recently observed in Jones: "it remains unexplained why a 4-week investigation is 'surely' too long." This article suggests that by combining the lessons of machine learning with the mosaic theory and applying the pairing to the Fourth Amendment we can see the contours of a response. Machine learning makes clear that mosaics can be created. Moreover, there are also important lessons to be learned on when that is the case. Machine learning is the branch of computer science that studies systems that can draw inferences from collections of data, generally by means of mathematical algorithms. In a recent competition called "The Nokia Mobile Data Challenge," researchers evaluated machine learning's applicability to GPS and cell phone tower data. From a user's location history alone, the researchers were able to estimate the user's gender, marital status, occupation and age. Algorithms developed for the competition were also able to predict a user's likely future location by observing past location history. The prediction of a user's future location could be even further improved by using the location data of friends and social contacts. Machine learning of the sort on display during the Nokia competition seeks to harness the data deluge of today's information society by efficiently organizing data, finding statistical regularities and other patterns in it, and making predictions therefrom. Machine learning algorithms are able to deduce information — including information that has no obvious linkage to the input data — that may otherwise have remained private due to the natural limitations of manual and human-driven investigation. Analysts can "train" machine learning programs using one data-set to find similar characteristics in new data-sets. When applied to the digital "bread crumbs" of data generated by people, machine learning algorithms can make targeted personal predictions. The greater the number of data points evaluated, the greater the accuracy of the algorithm's results. In five parts, this article advances the conclusion that the duration of investigations is relevant to their substantive Fourth Amendment treatment because duration affects the accuracy of the predictions. Though it was previously difficult to explain why an investigation of four weeks was substantively different from an investigation of four hours, we now have a better understanding of the value of aggregated data when viewed through a machine learning lens. In some situations, predictions of startling accuracy can be generated with remarkably few data points. Furthermore, in other situations accuracy can increase dramatically above certain thresholds. For example, a 2012 study found the ability to deduce ethnicity moved sideways through five weeks of phone data monitoring, jumped sharply to a new plateau at that point, and then increased sharply again after twenty-eight weeks. More remarkably, the accuracy of identification of a target's significant other improved dramatically after five days' worth of data inputs. Experiments like these support the notion of a threshold, a point at which it makes sense to draw a Fourth Amendment line. In order to provide an objective basis for distinguishing between law enforcement activities of differing duration the results of machine learning algorithms can be combined with notions of privacy metrics, such as k-anonymity or l-diversity. While reasonable minds may dispute the most suitable minimum accuracy threshold, this article makes the case that the collection of data points allowing predictions that exceed selected thresholds should be deemed unreasonable searches in the absence of a warrant. Moreover, any new rules should take into account not only the data being collected but also the foreseeable improvements in the machine learning technology that will ultimately be brought to bear on it; this includes using future algorithms on older data. In 2001, the Supreme Court asked "what limits there are upon the power of technology to shrink the realm of guaranteed privacy." In this piece, we explore an answer and investigate what lessons there are in the power of technology to protect the realm of guaranteed privacy. After all, as technology takes away, it also gives. The objective understanding of data compilation and analysis that is revealed by machine learning provides important Fourth Amendment insights. We should begin to consider these insights more closely.


Under the U.S. Constitution, if federal interests conflict with state law, when must the latter give way? Although the Constitution's text appears to resolve the question in Article VI's supremacy clause, important recent scholarship argues that an approach anchored by the supremacy clause's text cannot provide a practical account of modern law nor useful guidance for the future. More broadly, these critiques use the example of the supremacy clause to cast general doubt upon text-based originalism as a practical tool for resolving modern disputes. This article defends a textual approach to key modern issues of supremacy, including executive foreign affairs preemption, preemptive federal common law, and non-self-executing treaties. It finds that, while modern doctrine and modern conceptions of law differ somewhat from the outlook of the founding era, these differences are not insurmountable obstacles: a combination of text and stare decisis, as indicated by the Supreme Court's approach to executive preemption in Medellin v. Texas, can supply workable solutions to modern supremacy debates. The article thus suggests that conventional academic concerns over the practicality of text-based originalism may be considerably overstated.


The article describes the evolution of problems in the Lithuanian labour law and labour law science since the re-establishment of independence in 1990. Three periods of evolution are presented: the Soviet period (lasted until 1990), the transitional period (1990- 2004) and the period of the Labour Code (2003 and onwards). During the Soviet period, the Code of Labour Laws regulated employment relationship in strict detail as the main employer was the state itself. Good reflections of that period can be pointed out: active (but forced) collective bargaining, single tariff system that implemented equal treatment in the field of remuneration for work and fluent performance of enforcement of labour laws (legal clarity). During the transitional period, new labour laws were introduced and tuned-up with international labour standards (ILO), but in general there were no essential changes in practice. During all that period, the Lithuanian Labour Code was drafted and came in force in 2003. The period of the new Labour Code started together with the European integration and had to bring new trends of the European labour market into Lithuanian practice. The government and academics brought few initiatives for the liberalisation of labour laws but most of them were stuck in the stage of consulting with social partners (Tripartite Council). Nevertheless, 22 years after the collapse of command economy labour laws incompatible with free labour market still dominate. It is obvious that the Lithuanian Labour Code is outdated and needs general reconstruction. Scientific researches and the EU Council recommendations call for the introduction of flexibility, implementation of flexicurity aiming for full integration into the single European labour market. Some strict labour code rules are prevented from functioning in practice. The courts are forced to derogate from disproportionate and improper articles of the Labour Code. The author brings some of the existing problems of labour law into light and proposes their possible solutions. The existing crisis of labour law could be solved by drafting a new Labour Code with the help of academic researchers and by introducing it directly to the Parliament for adoption.


Background: Securing future blood supply is a major issue of transfusion safety. In this prospective 10-year longitudinal study we enrolled all blood donation services and hospitals of the federal state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Methods and Results: From 2005 to 2015 (time period with major demographic effects), whole blood donation numbers declined by 18%. In male donors this paralleled the demographic change, while donation rates of females declined 12.4% more than expected from demography. In parallel, red cell transfusion rates/1,000 population decreased from 2005 to 2015 from 56 to 51 (-8.4%), primarily due to less transfusions in patients >60 years. However, the transfusion demand declined much less than blood donation numbers: -13.5% versus -18%, and the population >65 years (highest transfusion demand) will further increase. The key question is whether the decline in transfusion demand observed over the previous years will further continue, hereby compensating for reduced blood donation numbers due to the demographic change. The population structure of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania reflects all Eastern German federal states, while the Western German federal states will reach similar ratios of age groups 18-64 years / ≥65 years about 10 years later. Conclusions: Regular monitoring of age- and sex-specific donation and transfusion data is urgently required to allow transfusion services strategic planning for securing future blood supply.


We here report for the first time the synergistic implementation of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) and multifocus microscopy (MFM). This imaging modality is designed to alleviate the problem of insufficient volumetric acquisition speed in super-resolution biological imaging. SIM is a wide-field super-resolution technique that allows imaging with visible light beyond the classical diffraction limit. Employing multifocus diffractive optics we obtain simultaneous wide-field 3D imaging capability in the SIM acquisition sequence, improving volumetric acquisition speed by an order of magnitude. Imaging performance is demonstrated on biological specimens.


Non-native English-speaking students at, or about to enter British Universities and other Western universities where the language of instruction is English may experience challenges with academic writing, often one of the most important means of assessing students. Pre-sessional and in-sessional English academic writingcourses have been developed to aid students, and traditionally covered a range of topics. This paper discusses essential 'pre-writing' tasks. It then outlines some of the essential elements of academic writing; these often focus on paragraph structure, basic components of an essay, and different functional types of essays. Other features covered by this paper include aspects of language such as level of formality, cohesive devices, caution and hedging, supplying evidence, and avoiding plagiarism, amongst others. This paper also emphasizes the growing importance of collaborative learning, critical thinking and autonomous leaning which may be insufficiently familiar to students from non-Western learning environments where traditionally factual recall is given the greatest importance. Inductive and deductive approaches to paragraph organization, and also essay development have also been introduced. These approaches may also contrast with the rhetorical features familiar to nonnative students from various cultures around the world and require special attention. Contemporary pre-sessional courses are also becoming more specialized, targeting English suitable for specific sets of disciplines at the undergraduate at postgraduate level. For example, courses focusing in STEM subjects (science technology, engineering and mathematics) are replacing more 'generic' academic English courses.


We predict the intake rate and prey choice of Oystercatchers feeding along the Frisian coast, Dutch Wadden Sea, combining the optimal prey choice model (Charnov 1976) with detailed measurements of the widely fluctuating food supply. Assuming that the birds maximize their intake rate, the birds should never eat Mussels Mytilus edulis during 10 years of observa- tions, Mya arenaria during two short periods, Macoma blathica and Scrobicularia plana during most summers and Cockles Cerastoderma edule in most winters. Observations on feeding Oystercatchers confirmed the predictions. Due to the seasonal variation in burying depth of Scrobicularia and Macoma, these prey were in winter, if not inaccessible, hardly worthwhile exploiting because of the increase of handing time and searching time with burying depth. Hence, the seasonal variation in intake rate was very large in these deep-living prey compared to surface prey, such as Cockles and Mussels. Consequently, Oystercatchers usually switch from surface to deep-living prey in spring and back to surface prey in autumn in order to maximize their intake rate. Oystercatchers will never achieve a high intake rate when they feed on small prey, even when these prey would occur in extremely high densities. The reason for this is that the yield of small prey during handling is even less than the intake rate during feeding of 1 mg ash-free dry weight (AFDW) s(-1) which Oystercatchers need to meet their energy demands juring the limited feeding periods in the tidal habitat. Since Oystercatchers eat only large bivalves, they might be vulnerable because cohorts of prey may disappear completely before they can be harvested. Despite the very large annual variation in the biomass of the different prey species in the Wadden Sea, the total food supply harvestable by Oystercatchers is large enough for them to stay ir, the area, unless ice covers the tidal flats. However, Oystercatchers cannot survive in the Wadden Sea when their diet is restricted to one or two prey species. They need to switch between at least 3 or 4 prey species. For the same reason, the birds have to roam over feeding areas measuring ar least some ten's of km(2). The winter remains a difficult period, however. The mortality is higher in winter than in summer and increases with the severity of the winter. Besides, the winter mortality increases when the food consumption is reduced, due to either a low intake rate and/or a short feeding time. Therefore, the wintering numbers of Oystercatchers in the Wadden Sea are limited during circumstances which occur in only some of the winters, viz. when ice covers the feeding areas and the harvestable food supplies are low. The total biomass of the five bivalve species in the study area amounted to 81 g ash-free dry flesh (AFDW) m(-2), on average. The annual production was 56 g m(-2), but only 32 g m(-2) can be considered as exploitable by Oyster catchers. Oystercatchers did not han est the 9 g m(-2) year(-1) produced by large Mya living out of I-each of the bill, nor the 5 g m(-2) produced by bivalves too small to be eaten by Oystercatchers. Moreover 9 g m(-2) disappeared during disasters (e.g. frost) and could not be eaten by birds. Oystercatchers consumed 12 g m(-2) year(-1), on average, thus more than the 10 g m(-2) taken by all other shorebird species together. Half of the prey biomass disappearing due to mortality between August and March could be attributed to Oystercatcher predation. The predation pressure by Oystercatchers was much lower iu Scrobicularia and Macoma. In contrast, 80% of the second year Mya was eaten by Oystercatchers in some months. The numbers of Oystercatchers feeding in the study area were weakly related to the annual variations in the total food supply, but strongly related to those of the harvestable food supply. This high correlation must be due to two causal relationships: the bird density increases with the intake rate, and intake rate increases with the harvestable food supply.


Progression to androgen-independent growth of human prostate cancers may be mediated by alterations in the structure and/or expression of the androgen receptor (AR) gene. To date, mutations in the AR gene have largely been identified in hormone refractory tumors. In this study, single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and DNA sequencing of the entire AR gene coding region was performed on 25 primary prostate tumors sampled prior to initiation of hormonal (i.e. , androgen ablation) therapy. Base changes leading to amino acid substitutions in the AR were identified in 11 (44%) tumors. The presence of AR amino acid substitutions was associated with decreased immunohistochemical staining for AR in tumor cells and the rapid failure of subsequent hormonal therapies. Single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis of exons 2, 3, and 8 of the X-linked hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) gene in the same samples revealed no bandshifts, suggesting that the high frequency of AR gene mutations detected was not a consequence of generalized genetic instability. These data indicate that AR gene mutations occur commonly in advanced prostate cancers prior to endocrine treatment of disease and may contribute to altered androgen responsiveness of the tumors.


Until 1988, veterans who believed that they were wrongly denied benefits to which they were entitled had no recourse outside of an administrative process. There was no judicial review. This changed with the Veterans Judicial Review Act of 1988 (the "VJRA"). In the VJRA Congress created an Article I court, today called the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the "Veterans Court"). This Court is an appellate body independent of the Department of Veterans Affairs. It has seven judges who are appointed to fifteen year terms. As Congress recently recognized, the Veterans Court is one of the busiest of all federal appellate courts. This year, the Veterans Court is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. This Article proposes that Congress create a commission to study the effect of judicial review over the past two decades as well as propose specific changes to the system that the Commission considers necessary. Such a commission is highly timely. The number of persons entitled to receive some form of veterans' benefit is growing. We have hundreds of thousands of American service members in harm's way. And we now know from news reports and the Dole-Shalala Commission that there are serious problems with the veterans health care system. The Veterans Court's twentieth anniversary provides a perfect opportunity to take stock. After a brief introduction, the Article proceeds in four parts. Part I describes the current process for obtaining veterans' benefits and, in particular, the procedures by which disputes concerning such benefit determinations are adjudicated and reviewed. After outlining the current structure of benefits determinations and judicial review, this Part considers the success and shortcomings of the endeavor over the past two decades. Having set the current stage, Part II articulates an approach for evaluating judicial review in this area including the role of the Veterans Court. It begins by explaining why such a review is warranted even if one assumes that the current structure is functioning well. It then proceeds to call for the creation of a commission appointed by either Congress or the President to conduct a full review of veterans' benefits determinations and their review. This proposed commission would include representatives of all relevant constituencies and be charged with making specific proposals to address problems in the system and to secure perceived successes. Ideally, the commission would also propose specific legislation to address any problems it identifies. In Part III, I preview some of the courses of action open to the commission the Article proposes. The goal of this Part is not to advocate for a particular approach, although several possibilities are ruled out. Rather, Part III is designed to start the discussion that I hope will continue if a commission is convened. Part IV is a brief conclusion. It acknowledges the political difficulties associated with any change to the current system but ultimately argues that the stakes are too high not to move ahead.


In powder metallurgy research field, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Metal Powder Starch Consolidation (MPSC) are relatively new rapid forming techniques to fabricate complex and near net-shaped components. The working principles of DMLS are to melt and fuse metal powder layer by layer in computer controlled systems to pile up components like three dimensional printing. It has been for instance extensively used for mould inserts, die parts, and functional metal prototypes. Another, less explored method, starch consolidation is a pressureless direct casting method which consists principally of mixing powder slurry, casting into moulds, consolidation, drying, and sintering. With a strong focus on both methods, the study here combines several strong material technology sectors; powder, rapid forming, mechanical property testing and surface technology. It covers the processing chain from green body preparation, optimization of sintering, nitriding, post sinter heat treatment, to modeling and assessment of material behaviour for end-user applications. An iron based powder and a high vanadium high speed steel powder with low and high carbon contents were used in the DMLS and MPSC processes, respectively. The overall aim of the study is to synthesize near net-shaped powder-based components, to characterize pores and microstructure, and to establish a fundamental understanding of failure mechanisms of powder based materials in bending fatigue, thermal fatigue and wear. The study showed the DMLS and MPSC technologies could produce shaped components with a multi-phased structure, controllable nitriding depth and high relative densities in a range of 97 - 99.7 %. Materials' heterogeneity and porosity have detrimental influence on mechanical properties, especially on crack initiation and subsequent propagation.


1. Twenty-two patients with renovascular hypertension and significant lateralization of renin secretion were investigated with respect to arterial and renal venous plasma noradrenaline and dopamine concentrations before and 30 min after two different blood pressure-lowering procedures (enalaprilat or dihydralazine intravenously). 2. In one group of patients (n = 10) blood pressure reduction by 7.5 mg of dihydralazine caused stimulation of the renin-angiotensin system and increased heart rate (P < 0.01) as well as arterial and renal venous plasma noradrenaline and dopamine concentrations (P < 0.01 for both). The elevation of the plasma dopamine concentration was more pronounced than that of noradrenaline, yielding increased dopamine/noradrenaline ratios both peripherally (P < 0.05) and in the renal veins (P < 0.05). 3. In the second group of patients (n = 12) a comparable reduction in blood pressure elicited by 1.25 mg of enalaprilat was not accompanied by alterations in heart rate or in noradrenaline or dopamine levels in arterial plasma or renal venous plasma from either kidney. 4. Thus, inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme does not elicit the expected sympathetic counter-regulatory response to blood pressure reduction; the mechanism(s) involved remains to be clarified.


Insurance mandates for children's autism increase service use, but do they also increase out-of-pocket spending? BACKGROUND: The health care costs associated with treating autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children can be substantial. State-level mandates that require insurers to cover ASD-specific services may lessen the financial burden families face by shifting health care spending to insurers. METHODS: We estimated the effects of ASD mandates on out-of-pocket spending, insurer spending, and the share of total spending paid out of pocket for ASD-specific services. We used administrative claims data from 2008 to 2012 from 3 commercial insurers, and took a difference-in-differences approach in which children who were subject to mandates were compared with children who were not. Because mandates have heterogeneous effects based on the extent of children's service use, we performed subsample analyses by calculating quintiles based on average monthly total spending on ASD-specific services. The sample included 106 977 children with ASD across 50 states. RESULTS: Mandates increased out-of-pocket spending but decreased the share of spending paid out of pocket for ASD-specific services on average. The effects were driven largely by children in the highest-spending quintile, who experienced an average increase of $35 per month in out-of-pocket spending (P < .001) and a 4 percentage point decline in the share of spending paid out of pocket (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: ASD mandates shifted health care spending for ASD-specific services from families to insurers. However, families in the highest-spending quintile still spent an average of >$200 per month out of pocket on these services. To help ease their financial burden, policies in which children with higher service use are targeted may be warranted.


The mobile IP (MIP) protocol for IP version 4 as being standardized by the Internet community provides continuous Internet connectivity to mobile hosts, without requiring any changes to existing routers and higher-layer applications. We propose an alternative protocol, mobile IP with location registers (MIP-LR) which is closer to the "service node" database approach used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN): before launching a packet to the mobile host, the sender first queries a database to obtain the recipient's current location. MIP-LR is designed for operation in enterprise environments or within logical administrative domains, as it requires a sending host to be aware of which hosts are potentially mobile and implement the MIP-LR protocol. The benefits of MIP-LR are that potentially long routes, called "triangle routes", from the sender to the mobile host are avoided, encapsulation of packets sent to a mobile host is not required, the load on the home network as well as the home and foreign agents is reduced, and there is substantially improved interoperability with protocols such as RSVP for providing QoS guarantees. We carry out a simplified average-case analysis of the costs and benefits of MIP-LR and show it can result in significant reductions in mean network costs compared to MIP.


African names are not philosophical rhetoric, but they are believed to convey deep intrinsic significance for the bearer and the community as a whole. It is argued that African names evaluate nature, essence as well as provide a string of relationship between the living and the dead. This paper argued that though African names function thus much, the various incursions into Africa have continued to vitrify their context, nature and continuum. Through the gristmill of religious interpretive framework, it is argued that if this trend remains unabated, African names as part of African religious cultural value or heritage would in no distant time ebb into oblivion. KEYWORDS : Names, African, culture, community, colonialism, Christianity


Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease, which affects more than 9 million people in Latin America. We have generated a draft genome sequence of the TcI strain Sylvio X10/1 and compared it to the TcVI reference strain CL Brener to identify lineage-specific features. We found virtually no differences in the core gene content of CL Brener and Sylvio X10/1 by presence/absence analysis, but 6 open reading frames from CL Brener were missing in Sylvio X10/1. Several multicopy gene families, including DGF, mucin, MASP and GP63 were found to contain substantially fewer genes in Sylvio X10/1, based on sequence read estimations. 1,861 small insertion-deletion events and 77,349 nucleotide differences, 23% of which were non-synonymous and associated with radical amino acid changes, further distinguish these two genomes. There were 336 genes indicated as under positive selection, 145 unique to T. cruzi in comparison to T. brucei and Leishmania. This study provides a framework for further comparative analyses of two major T. cruzi lineages and also highlights the need for sequencing more strains to understand fully the genomic composition of this parasite.


Contrastive rhetoric research is beginning to consider the variations in native-speaker varieties of English as well as non-native or nativized varieties. In this study, want ads in Philippine English and Qatari English newspapers were compared to see how writers of these ads use English to accomplish the ad's objectives and at the same time adhere to the discourse community's conventions. A modified version of Bhatia's (1993) framework which he utilized in his analysis of job application and sales promotion letters was used to examine the structure of and moves in the want ads in the present study. Results reveal that Qatari writers of want ads tend to be more conventional in terms of structure and tend to give out less information as evidenced by the fact that fewer moves were found in their ads. On the other hand, Filipino writers of want ads also tend to be conventional in terms of structure but provided more information in the ads as evidenced by the presence of more moves. Possible reasons for the differences are discussed.


ABSTRACT Sage-grouse are iconic, declining inhabitants of sagebrush habitats in western North America, and their management depends on an understanding of genetic variation across the landscape. Two distinct species of sage-grouse have been recognized, Greater (Centrocercus urophasianus) and Gunnison sage-grouse (C. minimus), based on morphology, behavior, and variation at neutral genetic markers. A parapatric group of Greater Sage-Grouse along the border of California and Nevada ("Bi-State") is also genetically distinct at the same neutral genetic markers, yet not different in behavior or morphology. Because delineating taxonomic boundaries and defining conservation units is often difficult in recently diverged taxa and can be further complicated by highly skewed mating systems, we took advantage of new genomic methods that improve our ability to characterize genetic variation at a much finer resolution. We identified thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among Gunnison, Greater, and Bi-State sage-grouse and used them to comprehensively examine levels of genetic diversity and differentiation among these groups. The pairwise multilocus fixation index (FST) was high (0.49) between Gunnison and Greater sage-grouse, and both principal coordinates analysis and model-based clustering grouped samples unequivocally by species. Standing genetic variation was lower within the Gunnison Sage-Grouse. The Bi-State population was also significantly differentiated from Greater Sage-Grouse, albeit more weakly (FST = 0.09), and genetic clustering results were consistent with reduced gene flow with Greater Sage-Grouse. No comparable genetic divisions were found within the Greater Sage-Grouse sample, which spanned the southern half of the range. Thus, we provide much stronger genetic evidence supporting the recognition of Gunnison Sage-Grouse as a distinct species with low genetic diversity. Further, our work confirms that the Bi-State population is differentiated from other Greater Sage-Grouse. The level of differentiation is much less than the divergence between Greater and Gunnison sage-grouse, supporting the idea that the Bi-State represents a unique population within the Greater Sage-Grouse. New genomic methods like the restriction-site-associated DNA (RAD-tag) method used here illustrate how increasing the number of markers and coverage of the genome can better characterize patterns of genetic variation, particularly among recently diverged taxa, providing vital information for conservation and management.


ABSTRACT Volunteering is a dominant social force that signals a healthy state. However, although the literature on volunteering is extensive, knowledge on how life's discontinuities (life and financial shocks) affect volunteering is limited because most studies work with static (cross-sectional) data. To reduce this shortcoming, we use longitudinal data from Australia (HILDA) that track the same individuals over time to assess how individuals from different income and wealth groups respond to life and financial shocks with respect to volunteering. Although both income and wealth can act as buffers against life shocks by providing stability and reducing vulnerability – which decreases the need to actually change behaviour patterns – we observe more heterogeneity than expected and also stickiness at the lowest income levels. Response delays in post-shock volunteering also suggest that volunteering habits may be driven and influenced by strong commitment and motivation that are not shattered by life or financial shocks. In fact, the amount of time spent volunteering tends to increase after negative income shocks and decrease after positive income shocks.


ABSTRACT Biofilm cells differ phenotypically from their free-floating counterparts. Differential growth rates in biofilms are often referred to, particularly in response to limited diffusion of oxygen and nutrients. We observed growth rates of attached Pseudomonas sp. strain CT07 cells that were notably higher than the maximum specific growth rate measured in batch culture. Despite dilution rates in continuous flow cells that exceeded the maximum planktonic specific growth rate by 58 times, sampling of the effluent revealed >109 cells ml−1, suggesting that biofilms function as a source of planktonic cells through high cell yield and detachment. Further investigation demonstrated considerable planktonic cell yield from biofilms as young as 6 h, indicating that detachment is not limited to established biofilms. These biofilm-detached cells were more sensitive to a commercial biocide than associated biofilm- and chemostat-cultivated populations, implying that detached biofilm cells exhibit a character that is distinct from that of attached and planktonic cell populations.


People struggle to invent safe passwords for many of their typical online activities, leading to a variety of security problems when they use overly simple passwords or reuse them multiple times with minor modifications. Having different passwords for each service generally requires password managers or memorable (but weak) passwords, introducing other vulnerabilities [1], [2]. Recent research [3], [4] has offered multiple alternatives but those require either rote memorisation [5] or computation on a physical device[6], [7]. This paper describes a secure and usable solution to this problem that requires no assistance from any physical device. We present the Cue-Pin-Select password family scheme that requires little memorisation and allows users to create and retrieve passwords easily. It uses our natural cognitive abilities to be durable, adaptable to different password requirements, and resistant to attacks, including ones involving plain-text knowledge of some passwords from the family. We include a theoretical analysis of its security according to multiple attack models. Finally, we show the promising results of a small-scale user study that put participants in real-life conditions for multiple days.


Abstract In an article from 1994, I tried to read Franz Kafka's short story 'In the Penal Colony' as what I called 'minor jurisprudence' by drawing on an analogy from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Whatever Kafka had to say about law should not, so I claimed, be understood as a form of theodicy as it usually is but, rather, as the possibility for a new 'politics of desire'. As 'minor literature', Kafka's texts were inherently resistant to attempts to box them into conventional literary taxonomies. And it was this inherent resistance that created the opening for his 'minor jurisprudence', as well. My aim will be to discuss the nature of this discordant force through the notion of vitalism. More specifically, I will discuss this vitalistic element through Wilhelm Dilthey's 1883 treatise Introduction to the Human Sciences. But instead of focusing on the hermeneutical method which is the usual way in which Dilthey is introduced into the jurisprudential tradition, I will discuss his more general views on law as a cultural and political phenomenon and on jurisprudence as the 'human science' that studies it, both significant themes in the 1883 Introduction but which scholarship has largely ignored. these Impulse, pressure and resistance are the stable constituents that impart to all external objects their solidity. Will, conflict, work, need, and satisfaction are the constantly recurring core elements that provide the scaffolding of all human history. Here is life itself. It constantly demonstrates itself (Dilthey 2010d: 50).


With the current increase of interest in cloud computing, the security of user data stored in remote servers has become an important concern. Hiding access patterns of clients can be crucial in particular applications such as stock market or patent databases. Private Information Retrieval (PIR) is proposed to enable a client to retrieve a file stored in a cloud server without revealing the queried file to the server. In this work, we offer improvements to BddCpir, which is a PIR protocol proposed by Lipmaa. The original BddCpir uses Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) as the data structure, where data items are stored at the sink nodes of the tree. First of all, we offer the usage of quadratic and octal trees instead, where every non-sink node has four and eight child nodes, respectively, to reduce the depth of the tree. By adopting more shallow trees, we obtain an improved server implementation which is an order of magnitude faster than the original scheme, without changing the asymptotic complexity. Secondly, we suggest a non-trivial parallelization method that takes advantage of the shared-memory multi-core architectures to further decrease server computation latencies. Finally, we show how to scale the PIR scheme for larger database sizes with only a small overhead in bandwidth complexity, with the utilization of shared-memory many-core processors. Consequently, we show how our scheme is bandwidth-efficient in terms of the data being exchanged in a run of the CPIR protocol, in proportion to the database size.


Sparse signal representation based on redundant dictionaries contributed to much progress in image processing in the past decades. But the common overcomplete dictionary model is not well structured and there is still no guideline for selecting the proper dictionary size. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for dictionary learning based on subspace segmentation. Our algorithm divides the training data into sub-spaces and constructs the dictionary by extracting the shared basis from multiple subspaces. The learned dictionary is well structured and its size is adaptive to the training data. We analyze this algorithm and demonstrate its ability on some initial supportive experiments using real image data.


Identifying the impact of a design decision on a product's life cycle characteristics is important, but often difficult. Constructing links between these aspects is even more challenging in the early phases of design, since the consequences of the decisions are far away and little is yet known about the product's life cycle. Nevertheless, early design decisions have a high influence on the life cycle characteristics of a product. One early design decision is the selection of product architecture, that is, the fundamental structure and layout of a product. In this paper, we present a method to determine a relative comparison of product architectures based on a model of life cycle costs that can be assessed very early in the design process. The method utilises reliability distributions, relative cost estimates and cost incurrence distributions. We demonstrate our method on a real industrial case study of an energy-producing device. The alternative product architectures of the product are identified to possess very different life cycle characteristics. The relative comparison considers these characteristics and provides valuable information to support the design decision.


In order for China to move forward in the international community, it needs to continue to improve its standing on human rights issues. Of particular concern to many observers is the relationship between the government and religion. While foreign religious organizations and missionaries are still heavily regulated by a 1994 law, a new law respecting religious citizens and organizations within China went into effect in 2005. This new law is salutary in some respects in that it provides a much fuller delineation of the relationship between government and religion within China, and it appears more solicitous toward religious rights than previous regulations. But the new law is very vague in places and contains several provisions that could be troublesome and problematic depending on how and whether they are implemented. This paper is primarily built on a lecture given at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2005. Its premise is that international human rights laws are a useful but not sufficient benchmark by which to assess China's law. It is also important to understand the theological premises of some of the religious communities and believers for a broader measure of the efficacy and fairness of China's law. By focusing upon and using these dual lenses of law and religion, the paper offers both preliminary assessments of the 2005 law and also some possible ways forward that will further China's efforts to respect its heritage while simultaneously allowing it to better align itself with prevailing international norms regarding religious rights and obligations.


This volume showcases the impact of the work of Douglass C. North, winner of the Nobel Prize and father of the field of new institutional economics. Leading scholars contribute to a substantive discussion that best illustrates the broad reach and depth of Professor North's work. The volume speaks concisely about his legacy across multiple social sciences disciplines, specifically on scholarship pertaining to the understanding of property rights, the institutions that support the system of property rights, and economic growth.


Software developers have many information needs which could be answered using the various repositories at their disposal, but they underutilize these knowledge resources for a variety of good reasons. Backstory is a search tool for software developers aimed at addressing those reasons, and so to improve knowledge flow among teammates. This paper presents as background the results of a survey of developers' current search habits and desires for a new tool. A case study of root-cause analysis is also presented, which informs the design of Backstory and adds detail to an accepted model of sensemaking. The Backstory UI is described with respect to the needs identified in the survey and user study. Finally, the Backstory UI design suggests that a tool can support sensemaking in such a way that it's not intimidating or distracting for simple investigations, yet has mechanisms that the user may employ incrementally as the complexity of an investigation increases – a characteristic referred to here as scalable sensemaking.


Public outreach and wildfire education activities have been shown to limit the number of unintentional human-caused ignitions (i.e., 'accidental' wildfires). Such activities include the airing of public service announcements, visiting with homeowners in at-risk areas, distributing informative brochures and flyers, hosting of public forums (with presentations), and facilitating community sponsored neighborhood hazard assessments. By limiting the number of ignitions, prevention entirely avoids costs and losses related to fire suppression (initial attack) and property damage. In this paper, we show that the benefits of wildfire prevention education activities carried out in the State of Florida, USA, far outweigh their costs. We also report how the return on wildfire prevention education investment in that State varies—i.e., the effectiveness of these programs varies—with many exogenous factors, including weather, season, and recent wildfire history and fuels management activities. To illustrate how this effectiveness variation could be exploited to increase returns to money spent on prevention, we explore the optimal timing of wildfire prevention activities. Optimal timing of wildfire prevention education spending is defined as the spending allocation over time that yields the lowest wildfire-induced cost plus net value change to society. We find that, for Florida, the optimal (monthly) timing of prevention activities can be forecasted by exploiting the relationships between prevention effectiveness and fire weather measures, which vary predictably within the year.


Multimetric indices, incorporating information on a range of fish community attributes, have been shown to provide an effective, simple and sensitive method for evaluating the health of aquatic environments worldwide. We outline progress in developing a multimetric index of estuarine health for the Swan Estuary, Western Australia.

An extensive suite of fish community metrics, including those reflecting species composition, diversity and abundance, and measures of trophic structure and life history function, have been tested for their suitability for incorporation into an Estuarine Health Index (EHI).

Meaningful reference conditions for the selected metrics are to be established using historical fish assemblage data (1977-2009). Reference conditions will incorporate natural spatial and temporal variability in fish assemblage characteristics, and together represent a best available standard of biotic integrity against which the current and future health of the estuary may be assessed.

Values for the EHI will be calculated for recent years, to investigate recent trends in estuarine health and to validate index sensitivity and reliability.

The scheme outlined is the first to develop fish community-based indicators of the health of estuaries in Western Australia. It is envisaged that the index developed will (i) provide managers with a reliable, practical and cost-effective method to monitor the health of the Swan Estuary; (ii) facilitate more informed management actions; (iii) provide a simple, easily understood method for communicating with the public and stakeholders. It is further envisaged that the index could potentially provide a crucial tool for assessing and comparing the health of estuaries across south-western Australia in future years.


Background Empowering sex workers to mobilise and influence the structural context that obstructs risk reduction efforts is now seen an essential component of successful HIV prevention programmes. However, success depends on local programme environments and history. Methods The authors analysed data from the Integrated Behavioural and Biological Assessment Round I cross-sectional survey among female sex workers in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The authors used propensity score matching to estimate the impact of participation in intervention activities on reduction of risk (consistent condom use) and vulnerability (perceived collective efficacy and community support). Results Background levels of risk and vulnerability as well as intervention impact varied widely across the different settings. The effect size ATT of attending meetings/trainings on consistent condom use was as high as 21% in Tamil Nadu (outside of Chennai) where overall use was lowest at 51%. Overall, levels of perceived collective efficacy were low at the time of the survey; perceived community support was high in Tamil Nadu and especially in Chennai (93%) contrasting with 33% in Mumbai. Consistent with previous research, the context of Mumbai seems least conducive to vulnerability reduction, yet self-help groups had a significant impact on consistent condom use (ATT=10%) and were significantly associated with higher collective efficacy (ATT=31%). Conclusions Significant risk reduction can be achieved by large-scale female sex worker interventions, but the impact depends on the history of programming, the complexity of the context in which sex work happens and pre-existing levels of support sex workers perceive from their peers.


From July 4 to 11, 2006 at Back Garden site (23°28'86"N; 113°02'91"E), nighttime nitrate radical (NO3) was measured with a long path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) during an intensive field campaign in the Pearl River Delta of China. The NO3 concentration in polluted air masses varied from 3.6 to 82.5 ppt with an average level of 21.8 ± 1.8 ppt. NO3 at these levels can play a significant role in oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The calculated production rate of nitrate radical ranged from 8 × 10^5 to 2.98 × 10^7 cm^(-3) s^(-1), while its lifetimes spanned from between just several seconds to 650 seconds, with an average of 89 seconds. N2O5 levels were calculated with the average of 620 ± 93 ppt during this campaign. The possible scavenging processes for the nitrate radical were obtained by using a statistical analysis of the correlation between NO3 and NO levels, NO3 concentration and its production rate, and the NO3 lifetime and NO2 levels, respectively. Results showed that the direct losses were of importance at Back Garden in summer Pearl River Delta, China.


Adam Smith's landmark treatise on the free market paved the way for modern capitalism, arguing that competition is the engine of a productive society, and that self-interest will eventually come to enrich the whole community, as if by an 'invisible hand'. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


Approximately 70,000 m(3) of salvinia (Salvinia molesta) was removed from the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, during 2004. This study assessed the risks associated with applying compost prepared from aquatic weeds (AWC) to land, namely, survival and spread of aquatic and terrestrial weeds, eutrophication of waterways, accumulation of heavy metals and phytotoxicity. The results demonstrate composting is an effective method of reducing the viability of aquatic and terrestrial weeds. However, mortality of alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides), which was used as an indicator plant, was significantly (P < 0.001) correlated with the temperature within the windrows and the length of time the material was subjected to composting. Conditions within the central core of the windrow were sufficient to kill the alligator weed, although not all of the aquatic weed material was exposed to the windrows' central core. This resulted in alligator weed continuing to grow at the base of the windrow. To reduce the risk of weeds surviving and spreading in aquatic and terrestrial environments it is suggested compost windrows should be located on an appropriate hard pad to enable complete mixing of the material and ensure all material is exposed to temperatures >55 degrees C for greater than three consecutive days. The likelihood of other risks associated with the AWC was low. If composting is selected as the preferred method for managing organic material harvested from waterways, then ongoing monitoring and evaluation is required to validate the composting process and ensure consumer confidence in the final product.


Chinese authorities often frame their activities in the development sector as distinctive from those pursued by Western donors by stressing that they are not seeking to export a specific model but simply to help countries reach their potential. This demand-driven approach has applied to old and new development areas, from education to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and has appeared fairly consistent across countries. This pledge, however, has not meant that Chinese aid is neutral or without significant political implications. China's concessionary loans and support to development projects have tended to shift balances of power by favouring certain actors over others and have challenged existing development paradigms,revitalizing ideas of the developmental state. Building on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Ethiopia,and Kenya this article explains to which extent China's entrance in the media and telecommunication sector actually challenges the dominant, Western-driven approaches to media development, promoting a state centred vision of the information society.


Classical recursion theory asserts that all conventional programming languages are equally expressive because they can define all partial recursive functions over the natural numbers. However, most real programming languages support some form of higher-order data such as potentially infinite streams, lazy trees, and functions. Since these objects do not have finite canonical representations, computations over these objects cannot be accurately modeled as ordinary computations over the natural numbers.
In my thesis, I develop a theory of higher order computability based on a new formulation of domain theory. This new formulation interprets elements of any data domain as lazy trees. Like classical domain theory, it provides a universal domain T and a universal language KL. A rich class of domains called observably sequential domains can be specified in T with functions definable in KL. Such an embedding of a data domain enables the operations on the domain to be defined in the universal language. Unlike embeddings in classical domain theory, embeddings in T retain enough computational information to separate terminating and non-terminating computations. An important practical consequence of this embedding is the fact that the definitions of program operations are effective, implying that denotational language definitions expressed in this framework are effective interpreters.


This article represents a review of trends in the development of Communication as academic discipline in South Africa. Salient results of a number of surveys are the following: (a) large number of students have graduated over the past ten years. Wide differences in post-graduate penetration between universities are also noticeable (see tables 1 and 2; (b) Mass communication is at present the single most frequently offered course in university communication curricula while theory and methodology as independent communication courses figure fairly prominently. Speech and interpersonal communication are not salient in university courses (see figure 1); (c) Since 1980 a total of 182 research projects in communication have been completed. As in the case of teaching, mass communication has been the most popular field of research. In contrast hardly any research on methodological problems have been undertaken over the past seven years (see figure 2); (d) Analysis of applications by communication students and researchers for financial support from the HSRC indicated that their success rates have been lower than comparable disciplines (see figure 3). Against the background of the importance and relevance of communication to contemporary South African society the paper concludes with a number of interpretations and future challenges.


The literature suggests that prevailing understandings of the makeup of design knowledge and agency in producing design knowledge in technology is not helpful for design processes and its practitioners.
Tensions arise within processes of designing, when design knowledge is understood as objective, whilst subjectivity is experienced in the research methods employed. In the same time, knowledge production is pursued in an individualist manner, where the situated nature of knowing as an interplay of factors, likely reaching beyond personal traits and human intention, is not acknowledged. In this way, design processes are currently working against their inherent potential with likely effects on designers and subsequently design outcomes. The arising tensions cause issues for practitioners, who are stuck in between an objectivity demand and experienced subjectivity, without an alternative conception of their work. Practice-oriented conceptualisations of social dynamics, how things are, and come to be, as well as existing research in consumption practices and sustainable design, have shown that agency and knowing conceptualised as emerging from practice might reconcile this tension. It is therefore that we argue for a reconceptualization of the makeup of knowledge and agency in knowledge production, so that these advancements in conceptualising practices can be of service to the technology design discipline


Understanding human behavior lies at the heart of responses to climate change. Many environmentally relevant behavior patterns are frequent, stable, and persistent. There is an increasing focus on understanding these patterns less in terms of deliberative processes and more in terms of habits and routines embedded in everyday life. Examinations of the 'habitual' nature of environmentally consequential activities have been approached from two theoretically distinct perspectives. From a social psychological perspective, 'habit' is studied as an intra‐individual psychological construct that sustains ingrained behavior patterns in stable settings and obstructs adoption of more environmentally friendly alternatives. Sociologists from the social practice tradition, in contrast, have sought to highlight the ways in which resource‐intensive 'habitual practices' become established and maintained in society through a commingling of material, procedural, and socio‐discursive elements. We reflect critically upon key theoretical differences underpinning these two approaches to repetitive behaviors and review empirical work from both traditions that speaks to the relevance of 'habitual behavior patterns' central to addressing climate change. Finally, we examine how changes in habits are theorized and operationalized within both social psychological and social practice approaches, and practical implications for promoting environmentally sustainable societies. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:113–128. doi: 10.1002/wcc.327


Abstract The measurement of construction performance is a vexed problem. Despite much research effort, there remains little agreement over what to measure and how to measure it. The problem is made even more complicated by the desire to benchmark national industry performance against that of other countries. As clearly construction cost forms part of the analysis, the mere adjustment of cost data to an 'international currency' has undermined past attempts to draw any meaningful conclusions. The aim in this paper is to develop a method for benchmarking construction projects on the basis of their integrated time, cost and quality performance, and test it using what is understood to be one of the largest collections of construction project data ever assembled across two sample countries: Australia and the United States. The research draws on 337 high-rise projects of 20 storeys or more, completed between 2003 (i.e. 5 years pre-GFC) and 2012 (i.e. 5 years post-GFC), throughout the five largest cities in Australia and the United States, representing two-thirds of the known population of such buildings in these locations. Performance outputs of construction efficiency and construction complexity are selected to enable projects to be ranked and mapped via data envelopment analysis to identify potential instances of best practice worthy of further investigation. Furthermore, using a four-quadrant model to aid interpretation, it is clear that obtaining best practice in both efficiency (i.e. construction speed) and complexity (i.e. product sophistication) is very challenging and often mutually-exclusive. The use of a four-quadrant model combined with DEA provides context to the analysis. The scales for CE and CC applied in this research render the majority of projects to the 'normal (typical)' quadrant, demonstrating that fast construction speed and high product sophistication are often mutually-exclusive. This is a significant wake-up call for the industry and highlights the marked difference between 'business-as-usual' and achieving 'best practice'.


Biobased adsorbents are eco-friendly materials used for water and wastewater treatment and air cleaning. This research work explores the potential use of rice husk chars as a low-cost adsorbent for pollutants from water, such as methylene blue and ethinylestradiol. Rice husk chars are prepared by combustion of rice husks (RH-Char) or pre-treated rice husks (PT-Char). A third char (M-Char) supplied by a local company which uses rice husks as combustion material is also studied. The chars are characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) in conjunction with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and zeta-potential measurements. The three bio-chars are tested as adsorbent for the removal of two wastewater contaminants: methylene blue (MB) and ethinylestradiol (EE2). According to the results, RH-Char and PT-Char present zeta-potential values near −52 mV, whereas M-Char shows a zeta-potential value of −32 mV. Both RH-Char and PTChar are rich in amorphous SiO2 and M-Char has crystalline SiO2 (cristobalite). The bio-chars remove MB and EE2 efficiently showing the following results for the adsorption capacity of MB (in μmol g): 769.2 (RH-Char), 41.2 (PT-Char), and 31.7 (M-Char). The adsorption capacity values for EE2 (in μmol g) are: 33.1 (RH-Char), 19.1 (PT-Char), and 16.9 (M-Char). The information gathered in the present work evidences the potential of rice husks bio-chars for bio-remediation and may in future contribute to the conversion of a side-stream from the rice industry into value-added materials.


Background A reciprocal relationship between activated innate immune system and changes in mood and behavior has been established. There is still a paucity of knowledge on how the immune system responds during psychiatric treatment. We aimed to explore circulating cytokines and assess psychiatric symptom severity scores during 12 weeks of inpatient psychiatric treatment. Methods The study was a longitudinal assessment of 124 patients (88 women and 36 men) in treatment at Modum Psychiatric Center, Norway. The patient sample comprised a mixed psychiatric population of whom 39 were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Serum blood samples for cytokine analysis and measures of mental distress using Global Severity Index were collected at admission (T0), halfway (T1), and before discharge (T2). Other factors assessed were age, gender, and the use of antidepressants and anti-inflammatory drugs. Multilevel modeling was used for longitudinal analyses to assess the repeated cytokine samples within each patient. Results Overall level of IL-1RA was higher in PTSD patients when compared to those without PTSD (P=0.021). The level of IL-1β, MCP-1, and TNF-α increased over time in PTSD compared to non-PTSD patients (P=0.025, P=0.011 and P=0.008, respectively). All patients experienced reduced mental distress as measured by self-reported Global Severity Index scores. Stratified analysis showed that PTSD patients who used anti-inflammatory drugs had higher levels of IL-1β (P=0.007) and TNF-α (P=0.049) than PTSD patients who did not use such drugs. Conclusion The study indicates that traumatized patients may have a distinct neuroimmune development during recovery. Their activated immune system shows even further activation during their rehabilitation despite symptom reduction.


Background We have previously reported that patients who had single or double lung transplants had higher concentrations than controls of nitrite and nitrate, which are metabolites of reactive nitrogen species (RNS), in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and serum. Methods This study investigates implications of RNS metabolites as markers of airway inflammation in a distinct group of lung transplant patients (n=40). All patients underwent spirometry, routine surveillance transbronchial lung biopsies, and bronchoalveolar lavage as required by clinical protocol. Four normal controls also had bronchoscopy for measurement of BALF nitrite (NO2 -) and nitrate (NO3 -). BALF NO2 - and NO3 -, myeloperoxidase (MPO), protein, and urea were assayed. Total nitrite (NO2 - plus enzymatically reduced NO3 -) and urea were measured in serum. Results BALF RNS metabolites were mainly NO3 -. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) obtained near bronchoscopy was compared with best postoperative FEV1. Total nitrite in transplant patients' BALF and serum were 3.8±0.2 and 49±5 μM, respectively. Total nitrite in controls' BALF and serum were 2.2±0.7 and 19±2 μM, respectively (P<0.05 compared with transplant values). Serum total nitrite correlated (Pearson product moment) with percentage of neutrophils in BALF (R=0.650, P<0.0001), MPO (R=0.431, P=0.0055), change in FEV1 from baseline (ΔFEV1) (R=-0.348, P=0.0298), and days after transplantation (R=0.345, P=0.0294). None of the associated variables, airway inflammation (quantified as a score, "B"), ΔFEV1, serum, or BALF total nitrite, were explained by infection. Univariate analysis of airway inflammation in patients showed that it was associated with BALF neutrophils, ΔFEV1, and serum total nitrite. Conclusions Serum nitrite appears to reflect the degree of airway inflammation in this lung-transplant study group.


OBJECTIVE
To present the case of an 18-year-old collegiate decathlete with a Salter-Harris type I epiphyseal plate fracture of the proximal humerus.

BACKGROUND
A collegiate decathlete was playing flag football and fell on an outstretched arm. He was taken to the emergency room and diagnosed with a type I epiphyseal plate fracture.

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
AC sprain, dislocation or subluxation, rotator cuff tear, labral tear.

TREATMENT
Active and passive range of motion exercises were completed after two days of immobilization. He then started strengthening exercises and returned to competitive activity in 10 weeks.

UNIQUENESS
Proximal humeral epiphyseal plate fractures are uncommon injuries, especially in athletes over the age of 15.

CONCLUSIONS
If an accurate diagnosis is made, an appropriate conservative rehabilitation program can be implemented to safely return an athlete to participation without permanent deformity following a type I Salter-Harris fracture.


FixL's are chimeric heme protein kinases from symbiotic nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia. We have overexpressed three FixL variants in Escherichia coli. Bradyrhizobium japonicum FixL, a soluble dimeric protein, is the first full-length FixL to be purified. The other two proteins are soluble truncations of Rhizobium meliloti FixL, which is a membrane protein. One contains both heme and kinase domains and is dimeric; the other has only the heme domain and is monomeric. We find that all the FixL's bind oxygen and carbon monoxide non-cooperatively, with very low affinities due entirely to slow association rates. FixL P50's for oxygen are 17-76 mmHg. FixL's may sense nitric oxide and carbon monoxide in addition to oxygen, especially at the low oxygen pressures encountered in vivo. Autoxidation rates are about 50 times faster than that of sperm whale myoglobin. The carbon monoxide affinity of FixL's is about 300 times lower than that of myoglobin, resulting in the unusually low values of 7.5-17 for the partition constant, M = P50(O2)/P50(CO), between carbon monoxide and oxygen. Met-FixL's have their Soret absorption maximum at 395 nm instead of the typical 408 nm and a steep hydroxymet transition at pH > or = 9.3; these properties indicate a pentacoordinated high-spin ferric heme and suggest a sterically hindered hydrophobic heme pocket lacking a distal (E7) histidine. FixL is the first member of a new class of heme proteins, the heme-based sensors, distinct from the oxygen carriers and electron transporters. We expect that some of the novel properties of FixL will be characteristic of the class.


It is generally accepted that carbon isotope variations in seawater were muted between c. 2.06 Ga, after the end of the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion (LCIE), and c. 1.3 Ga. Evidence is presented here that c. 30 myr after the end of the LCIE, the biogeochemical cycle of carbon experienced a short-term (c. 2 myr), high-amplitude (up to +8.4‰ V-PDB) perturbation, recorded in the Horseshoe rift basin, Western Australia. The basin was initiated at c. 2.03 Ga with deposition of fluvial and shallow-marine sandstones, followed by the eruption of flood basalt, and culminated with the deposition of platform carbonates, and accompanying volcaniclastic and siliciclastic sediments (Wooly Dolomite). The Horseshoe rift basin during deposition of the Wooly Dolomite was fault-compartmentalized but connected to an ocean. Six depositional sequences make up the Wooly Dolomite. Sequence 1 records establishment of a carbonate platform conformably on basalt and coevally with volcaniclastic sedimentation. All other sequences have dominant carbonate-platform deposits and are unconformity-bounded. Sequence 3 contains a c. 57 m thick section with 13C-enriched carbonates bracketed between carbonates with close to 0‰ carbon isotope values. Further high-resolution chemostratigraphic studies may reveal a more complex pattern of carbon isotope variations during the 'boring billion years', but without precise geochronology similar short-term carbon isotope excursions in carbonate successions could be incorrectly correlated to the LCIE. Supplementary material: Table 2 including chemical and isotopic data, sample locations and their position in Figure 8 is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.2868055.


Metal concentrations in oyster, Crassostrea gigas, were investigated using 155 samples collected seasonally during 1996-2001 from the Chi-ku, Tai-shi, and Tapeng Bay areas in southwestern Taiwan. Seasonal variations as well as site difference were identified in the metal concentrations. The metal concentrations of oyster in southwestern Taiwan indicated a typical seasonal pattern of "winterspring maximum" and "summer minimum". Among the three sites, Zn, Cu and Cd contents were found to be the highest in the March sample from Tai-shi, whereas Hg level was found to be the highest in the January sample from Chi-ku. The overall mean concentrations of Zn, Cu, Cd and Hg sampled from the three sites were 860 ± 375, 267 ± 193, 0.954 ± 0.484 and 0.097 ± 0.056 mg/kg dry wt., respectively, representing the baseline metal concentrations of oyster in Taiwan. In comparison with the 1970's survey, except the 1.8fold increase in Cu, the other three elements were within the same ranges. After the transformation of the dry-weight-base data into flesh-weight-base data based on a ratio of 6.8 to1, the mean metal levels, for the most part, closely agreed with many international food standards. However, extraordinarily high level of Cu (1115 mg/kg dry wt.) in oyster were found occasionally in wintertime. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that regulations with respect to food safety standards of metal concentrations need to be established as soon as possible.


The aim of these experiments was to compare conceptual priming for linguistic and for a homogeneous class of nonlinguistic sounds, impact sounds, by using both behavioral (percentage errors and RTs) and electrophysiological measures (ERPs). Experiment 1 aimed at studying the neural basis of impact sound categorization by creating typical and ambiguous sounds from different material categories (wood, metal, and glass). Ambiguous sounds were associated with slower RTs and larger N280, smaller P350/P550 components, and larger negative slow wave than typical impact sounds. Thus, ambiguous sounds were more difficult to categorize than typical sounds. A category membership task was used in Experiment 2. Typical sounds were followed by sounds from the same or from a different category or by ambiguous sounds. Words were followed by words, pseudowords, or nonwords. Error rate was highest for ambiguous sounds and for pseudowords and both elicited larger N400-like components than same typical sounds and words. Moreover, both different typical sounds and nonwords elicited P300 components. These results are discussed in terms of similar conceptual priming effects for nonlinguistic and linguistic stimuli.


The integrin αVβ5 is a receptor for sCD23 molecule and the αVβ5-CD23 interaction sustains proliferation of the pre-B cell line SMS-SB. This thesis describes further investigation into the role of αVβ5 integrin during human B cell development. B cell development in the bone marrow involves stepwise maturation of progenitor cells through different defined stages. A tight regulation of proliferation and differentiation mediates the progression of progenitor cells through this developmental pathway. A variety of signals from soluble molecules and adhesive interactions regulate this balance of proliferation and differentiation. The main aim of this work was to assess the importance of the integrin αVβ5 during B cell development by defining its expression and function during specific stages of B cell development in the bone marrow.

The αVβ5 integrin was expressed by B cell precursors in the bone marrow, by different pre-B cell lines and the αVβ5-CD23 interaction sustained proliferation of some pre-B cell lines. The pre-B cell lines SMS-SB, RS4;11 and 697 showed a significant proliferative response to αVβ5 stimulation by sCD23, a sCD23-derived long peptide and anti-αVβ5 MAb 15F11. Transitional and more mature B cell lines down-regulated αVβ5 expression and did not show a proliferative response. Both αVβ5 and αVβ3 integrin could be detected on normal bone marrow B cell precursor populations, though αVβ5 was the more highly expressed integrin. In preliminary functional experiments, stimulation of CD19+/κ- cells with sCD23 induced cell proliferation whereas equivalent treatment of CD19+/κ+ cells did not. The data are consistent with the interpretation that αVβ5 integrin is expressed in B cell precursors but that its ability to sustain growth of these cells wanes as the cells mature towards a membrane immunoglobulin-positive state.

The αVβ5-mediated proliferation was enhanced by the chemokine SDF-1 and PDGF but not by the cytokines IL-3, IL-4, IL-7 or IL-11. This effect was apparently restricted to earlier B cell precursors and was independent of levels of expression of both αVβ5 and CXCR4. Stimulation of SMS-SB cells by αVβ5 ligands provoked ERK phosphorylation and co-stimulation with SDF-1 promoted a more rapid and sustained ERK activation. PDGF induced a similar effect on αVβ5-mediated activation of ERKphosphorylation. These data suggest that ligation of αVβ5 by soluble, adhesion-independent stimuli activates ERK phosphorylation and this pathway can be modulated by inputs from G-protein-coupled and tyrosine kinase receptors.
The murine pro-B cell line BAF03 also displayed αVβ5-mediated proliferation in response to human CD23. Preliminary experiments showed that human CD23 sustained growth of murine bone marrow B cell precursors. Therefore, these data suggest that murine B cells can also use αVβ5 integrin to sustain their growth and the studies described here in human cell lines could be translated into in vivo murine models.
Further work is needed to confirm the proliferative response due to the αVβ5-CD23 interaction in normal B cell precursors in the bone marrow and to define the exact stage of development where this interaction is critical. In addition to its expression in the bone marrow B cell precursors, previous work has also demonstrated the expression of αVβ5 integrin in B cells from patients with ALL. Therefore, the αVβ5-CD23 interaction could have important implications not only in proliferation of normal B cell precursors but also in proliferation of neoplastic B cells. These data identify the αVβ5-CD23 interaction as a potentially important interaction during early B cell development, as αVβ5 expression and function is stage-specific, regulated by other molecules and can be demonstrated in both human and murine cell lines.


ABSTRACT The increasingly multifaceted nature of event impacts makes them even more attractive as a potential solution to a range of urban and regional problems. As a result, competition to stage major cultural and sporting events is intensifying, and the cost of bidding is also rising. Given that such bidding processes only produce one winner, this means that a growing number of disappointed cities have to justify the costs of bidding for major events. In this context, we analyse the bidding process for the European Capital of Culture in the Netherlands (2018) and its impacts on local social structures. In particular the article focuses on the less tangible, non-economic effects of bidding for events, establishing a framework based on network formation, public support for the bidding process and social cohesion. The conclusions point to the key role of sociality and networking for events, which should therefore be developed throughout the bidding process for successful impacts, whether the event is won or not.


The North Carolina state House recently gave preliminary approval to legislation that would establish a new government agency to operate a network of toll roads. The stated objective of the proposed North Carolina Turnpike Authority would be to alleviate traffic congestion on the state's major arteries.


The phase transition of a metallic In chain structure on Si(111) was investigated by high-resolution photoemission. Core-level spectra clearly elucidate that the symmetry breaking at low temperature occurs only within the inner parts of the In chains. In the valence bands, the transition is accompanied by the formation of pseudogaps of 80--150 meV and the band backfolding with only marginal changes of the band dispersion. No sign of Luttinger liquid behavior is observed in the spectral function near the Fermi level. This result is generally consistent with the idea of a fluctuating one-dimensional charge-density wave state but conflicting with the present structure model for the low-temperature phase.


As the requirement for more realistic 3D environments is pushed forward by the computer {graphics | movie | simulation | games} industry, attention turns away from the creation of purely synthetic, artist derived environments towards the use of realworld captures from the 3D world in which we live. However, common 3D acquisition techniques, such as laser scanning and stereo capture, are realistically only 2 2D in nature such that the backs and occluded portions of objects cannot be realised from a single uni-directional viewpoint. Although multi-directional capture has existed for sometime, this incurs additional temporal and computational cost with no existing guarantee that the resulting acquisition will be free of minor holes, missing surfaces and alike. Drawing inspiration from the study of human abilities in 3D visual completion, we consider the automated completion of these hidden or missing portions in 3D scenes originally acquired from 2 2D (or 3D) capture. We propose an approach based on the visual propagation of available scene knowledge from the known (visible) scene areas to these unknown (invisible) 3D regions (i.e. the completion of unknown volumes via visual propagation the concept of volume completion). Our proposed approach uses a combination of global surface fitting, to derive an initial underlying geometric surface completion, together with a 3D extension of nonparametric texture synthesis in order to provide the propagation of localised structural 3D surface detail (i.e. surface relief). We further extend our technique both to the combined completion of 3D surface relief and colour and additionally to hierarchical surface completion that offers both improved structural results and computational efficiency gains over our initial non-hierarchical technique. To validate the success of these approaches we present the completion and extension of numerous 2 2D (and 3D) surface examples with relief ranging in natural, man-made, stochastic, regular and irregular forms. These results are evaluated both subjectively within our definition of plausible completion and quantitatively by statistical analysis in the geometric and colour domains.


This paper develops a welfare-based model of monetary policy in an open economy. We focus on the extent to which monetary policy should be employed in maintaining the exchange rate. The traditional approach maintains that exchange rate flexibility is desirable in the presence of real country-specific shocks that require adjustment in relative prices. However, in the light of empirical evidence on nominal price response to exchange-rate changes - specifically, that there appears to be a large degree of local-currency pricing in industrialized countries - the expenditure-switching role played by nominal exchange rates may be exaggerated in the traditional literature. In the presence of local-currency pricing, we find that optimal monetary policy in response to real shocks pricing is fully consistent with fixed exchange rates. On the other hand, when real country-specific shocks are not important, and when a country's monetary sector is stable, the case for freely floating rates (a monetary policy in which exchange rates are not a consideration) is strengthened in the presence of local-currency pricing.


Background: During enteral nutrition in the reanimation unit, reflux and associated aspiration pneumonia are frequently encountered. Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is often selected as it facilitates patient care by decreasing this risk and shortens length of stay in hospital. The aim of this study was to share our PEG experience as it is frequently applied in our hospital. Methods: The study included 29 patients who were applied with a PEG tube in the reanimation clinic between January 2016 and November 2017. Patients were evaluated in respect of indications, length of stay in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), complications and outcomes. Results: The most common indication for the application of PEG was impaired nutrition associated with cerebrovascular disease in 22 (65.5%) patients. No major complications were encountered related to the procedure. The most common minor complications were nutrition intolerance in 4 patients, tube blockage in 3, displacement of the tube in 3, leakage from the side of the tube in 2, and severe wound site infection progressing to necrosis that required surgical debridement in 3. Conclusion: Although PEG has only been defined recently, it is a simple, safe and effective nutrition method for intensive care patients that can be applied with a minimally invasive intervention and has very low rates of morbidity and mortality. *Corresponding author: Erhan Gokcek, MD, Department of Anesthesiaology, Diyarbakır State Hospital, Diyarbakir 21100, Turkey, Tel: +90412 228 5430/ Fax: +90412 228 9193; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Heat transfer in window frames with internal air cavities is studied in this thesis. Investigations focus on two- and three-dimensional natural convection effects inside air cavities, the dependence of the emissivity on the thermal transmittance, and the emissivity of anodized and untreated aluminum profiles. The investigations are mostly conducted on window frames which are the same size as real frames found in residential buildings.Numerical and experimental investigations were performed to study the effectiveness of one commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program for simulating combined natural convection and heat transfer in simple three-dimensional window frames with internal air cavities. The accuracy of the conjugate CFD simulations was evaluated by comparing results for surface temperature on the warm side of the specimens to results from experiments that use infrared (IR) thermography to map surface temperatures during steady-state thermal tests. In general, there was good agreement between the simulations and experiments. Two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics and conduction simulations are performed to study the difference between treating air cavities as a fluid and as a solid when calculating the thermal transmittance of window frames. The simulations show that traditional software codes, simulating only conduction and using equivalent conductivities for the air cavities, give U- values that compare well with results from fluid flow simulations. The difference between the two models are mostly limited to the temperature distribution inside air cavities. It is also found that cavities with an interconnection less than about 7 mm can be treated as separate cavities. Three-dimensional natural convection effects in simple and custom-made PVC and thermally broken aluminum window frames with one open internal cavity were studied, with the use of CFD simulations and thermography experiments. Focus was put on corner effects and heat transfer rates. From the results it appears that the thermal transmittance of a four-sided section can be found by calculating the average of the thermal transmittance of the respective single horizontal and vertical sections. In addition, it was found that two-dimensinal conduction heat transfer simulation software agrees well with tree-dimensional CFD simulations if the natural convection correlations used for the internal cavities are correct. Numerical studies were done with natural convection in three-dimensional cavities with a high vertical aspect ratio and a low horizontal aspect ratio. The cavities studied had vertical aspect ratios of 20, 40, and 80 and horizontal aspect ratios ranging from 0,2 to 5. It was shown that three-dimensional cavities with a horizontal aspect ratio larger than five can be considered to be a two-dimensional cavity to within 4 % when considering heat transfer rates. Nusselt number correlations for the different horizontal aspect ratios are presented for cavities with vertical aspect ratios of 20 and 40. Complex multicellular flow was studied for the case where the vertical and horizontal aspect ratios were 40 and 2, respectively.Experimental studies included the normal spectral and total emissivity of specimens from six meter long untreated and anodized aluminum profiles. Specimens facing the internal cavities (thermal break cavity and all aluminum cavity) were measured. Some masking tapes often used in hot box experiments were also measured. The normal total emissivity was found to be is fairly constant (between 0.834 and 0.856) for exterior parts of the anodized profile and for surfaces facing the thermal break cavity. The normal total emissivity of the all-aluminum internal cavities was found to vary between 0.055 and 0.82. The experiments were performed with a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer in the wavelength interval from 4.5 to 40 μm.


Interference alignment (IA) is a cooperative transmission strategy that, under some conditions, achieves the interference channel's maximum number of degrees of freedom. Realizing IA gains, however, is contingent upon providing transmitters with sufficiently accurate channel knowledge. In this paper, we study the performance of IA in multiple-input multiple-output systems where channel knowledge is acquired through training and analog feedback. We design the training and feedback system to maximize IA's effective sum-rate: a non-asymptotic performance metric that accounts for estimation error, training and feedback overhead, and channel selectivity. We characterize effective sum-rate with overhead in relation to various parameters such as signal-to-noise ratio, Doppler spread, and feedback channel quality. A main insight from our analysis is that, by properly designing the CSI acquisition process, IA can provide good sum-rate performance in a very wide range of fading scenarios. Another observation from our work is that such overhead-aware analysis can help solve a number of practical network design problems. To demonstrate the concept of overhead-aware network design, we consider the example problem of finding the optimal number of cooperative IA users based on signal power and mobility.


Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) is widely considered the most influential British anthropologist of the twentieth century, known to generations of students for his seminal works on South Sudanese ethnography Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937) and The Nuer (OUP 1940). In these works, now classics in the anthropological literature, Evans-Pritchard broke new ground on questions of rationality, social accountability, kinship, social and political organization, and religion, as well as influentially moving the discipline in Britain away from the natural sciences and towards history. Yet despite much discussion about his theoretical contributions to anthropology, no study has yet explored his fieldwork in detail in order to get a better understanding of its historical contexts, local circumstances or the social encounters out of which it emerged. This book then is just such an exploration, of Evans-Pritchard the fieldworker through the lens of his fieldwork photography. Through an engagement with his photographic archive, and by thinking with it alongside his written ethnographies and other unpublished evidence, the book offers a new insight into the way in which Evans-Pritchard's theoretical contributions to the discipline were shaped by his fieldwork and the numerous local people in Africa with whom he collaborated. By writing history through field photographs we move back towards the fieldwork experiences, exploring the vivid traces, lived realities and local presences at the heart of the social encounter that formed the basis of Evans-Pritchard's anthropology.


Abstract Relying on three inter-Asian colonial debates from French Indochina, this paper attempts to widen our analytical approach to the study of colonialism in Indochina beyond the 'colonizer'–'colonized' opposition by factoring in the relationships among the diverse Asian colonized living within the colonial state without downplaying the important role Western colonialism played in transforming those very relationships or being affected by them. The French Indochinese case is helpful, for it suggests that inter-Asian connections did anything vanish, but rather intensified because of the colonial experience. Numerous Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese and Chinese subject elites continued to engage each other and the French in fascinating and sometimes heated debates about the political, legal, cultural and economic place each group held in French Indochina – or did not want to hold. This directly affected how they came to interact with one another in new ways, essential to understanding the complexity of the colonial encounter at the time and can provide new insights into post-colonial and international history. Lastly, this wider approach to studying the colonial encounter allows us to view the French side of the colonial equation from a new vantage point.


We examine the relationship between the VC dimension and the number of parameters of a threshold smoothly parameterized function class. We show that the VC dimension of such a function class is at least k if there exists a k-dimensional differentiable manifold in the parameter space such that each member of the manifold corresponds to a different decision boundary. Using this result, we are able to obtain lower bounds on the VC dimension proportional to the number of parameters for several thresholded function classes including two-layer neural networks with certain smooth activation functions and radial basis functions with a gaussian basis. These lower bounds hold even if the magnitudes of the parameters are restricted to be arbitrarily small. In Valiant's probably approximately correct learning framework, this implies that the number of examples necessary for learning these function classes is at least linear in the number of parameters.


Abstract Playing of sedentary games with dice and playing board games have had a major role in the Indian culture since at least 3000 BCE. This is shown by archaeological sites and early literary references in the Rig-Veda, Mahabharata and other texts. Some of these games have survived in the form of boards, game pieces, dice and cards. Apart from actual sets, the traces of board games can also be found in Hindu rock cut temples. These sculptures and paintings appear across the medieval period. The list is exhaustive. The game play also finds its presence on numerous temple floorings, carved or inscribed. Why would somebody carve these board games on these spaces? Interestingly, throughout history, some board games have increased its popularity, and some have disappeared from artistic expressional record. How did one board game overtake the other in terms of its popularity in the later phases of history? What made these games socially acceptable and popular? Where were these games played? What was the space context? The paintings dominantly show royal houses, court rooms as spaces. Were there special pavilions used for game playing by Indian royals? In India board games were traditionally played at ground level. With growing European influence in the subcontinent in the 18th century, local elites adopted the western custom of elevated furniture for board games. Did this change the space context? The paper thus tries to evolve parameters to analyze the impact of board games on spaces and would throw light on the "space context" with reference to Indian board games tracing it to the contemporary time.


Abstract Abdominal pain is one of the key symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Studies have indicated an increase in the incidence of IBS in Asia. However, yet the pathophysiology of this disease remains unknown. Women are more likely to develop the condition than men, especially the constipation-predominant type. Essential fatty acid (EFA) malnutrition is one of several theories discussing the mechanism of IBS. The authors hypothesized that significant EFA deficiency may cause abdominal pain in patients with IBS. However, because patterns in the oral intake of EFAs differ between cultures, the authors narrowed this study to examine the nutritional status of Asian female patients with IBS The authors investigated Asian female patients with IBS and compared them with a group of healthy controls. Thirty patients with IBS and 39 healthy individuals were included in this study. The participants' age, height, weight, and waist size were recorded. The 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was documented. Both erythrocyte and plasma fatty acid content were analyzed through gas–liquid chromatography. The authors found that patients with IBS exhibited significantly higher scores for depression, higher proportions of plasma saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids, and lower proportions of docosahexaenoic acid and total omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma are associated with IBS in Asian female patients. Further study is indicated to confirm the causality of this association.