A danger signal released from dying cells is required for antiviral immunity in mice. When small protein fragments or nucleic acids derived from an invading pathogen are detected by pattern recognition receptors on immune cells, the innate immune response is triggered. This event activates cells of the adaptive immune system and, together, both responses clear the infection. Infections also induce the release of "danger-associated molecular patterns," or alarmins, from the host as a result of tissue damage. Whether these are also important for the ensuing immune response is less clear. Bonilla et al. report that the alarmin interleukin-33 is required for optimal cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses and antiviral immunity in mice. In virus-infected mice deficient in IL-33 or its receptor, IL-33 is essential for signaling CD8+ T cells to expand, produce multiple cytokines, and acquire cytotoxic capabilities. These results showed that endogenous materials, independently of pathogen-derived molecules, are also required for antiviral immunity. W. V. Bonilla, A. Fröhlich, K. Senn, S. Kallert, M. Fernandez, S. Johnson, M. Kreutzfeldt, A. N. Hegazy, C. Schrick, P. G. Fallon, R. Klemenz, S. Nakae, H. Adler, D. Merkler, M. Löhning, D. D. Pinschewer, The alarmin interleukin-33 drives protective antiviral CD8+ T cell responses. Science 335, 984–989 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This article begins with a historical overview of international communication and an evaluation of the successive paradigms that have dominated the discipline: modernization theory in the 1950s and 1960s, cultural imperialism in the following two decades and, more recently, the globalization paradigm. It examines the impact of the economic and the political factors on the discipline, focusing on the overwhelming influence of the Cold War. It is argued that the conflict locked the discipline into a national perspective that began to be deconstructed only when the structure of international relations changed in the 1990s. Today, it is apparent that a nation-centric discourse cannot comprehend contemporary trends in international communication, and it is suggested that the discipline adopts Ulrich Beck's cosmopolitan methodology in order to ascertain its epistemological shift towards a postnational perspective.

In the second part, this article applies the cosmopolitan methodology to the understanding of contemporary international communication flows.It is argued that globalization and technology are remapping media spaces, shaping new media practices and products and contributing to the emergence of a transnational media order. This order is analysed through four key features that characterize it: transnationalization (the intensification of trans-border
media flows), individualization (users' growing access to international communication tools), deterritorialization (the disconnection between place and culture) and cosmopolitization (the changing relationship between the local and the global. It is contended that these new media spaces and processes are not only transforming international communication, but also national media
systems from within and reshaping them with transnational connectivity.


Resonator structures show great potential for improving ultrafast, nonlinear data processing and provide new functionalities such as limiting and bistability which cannot be realised with simple, homogeneous components. When operated in a pump-probe configuration, the signal processing possibilities are extended to multiple channels, however at the expense of a higher power level, which is related to the channel spacing. In this paper, all-optical phase shifting is discussed in the case of a pump-probe set-up and the advantages and disadvantages compared to a single signal approach are investigated.


Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows:
recent studies with varieties of canning tomatoes for mechanical harvesting support tests and observations during the past four years emphasizing the effectiveness of date of planting. An orderly and continuous supply of fruit to the processor can be assured only through the use of properly spaced planting dates. During the 1965 season, more than 200 machines are expected to be used in harvesting a potential 20,000 acres-about 17 to 20% of California's average annual canning tomato production.


The term 'youth' is very elastic, as it means different things in different spatial and temporal contexts and/or political systems. However, what these contexts and political systems have had in common is the need to control their delinquent youth. The 'enterprise' for controlling the 'dangerous youth', known as juvenile justice system, does of course not operate in a social policy vacuum, but co-exists alongside other networks influencing, regulating or controlling the lives of the juveniles, such as child care and education. The primary aim of this article is to examine the extent to which the British 1998 Crime and Disorder Act (CDA) has introduced elements of a restorative approach as part of a mainstream response to youth offending. Moreover, it attempts to examine whether, by introducing restorative justice elements, young offenders are being held more or less accountable for their actions. Occasional reference will be made to the Canadian Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), which came into effect in April 2003, since it shares a number of similar characteristics with the CDA, and serves as a comparative counterpoint. But before moving to the presentation of the relevant sections of the British 1998 CDA and the Canadian 2003 YCJA, it should be appropriate to look at the evolution of the two systems, since it is useful in terms of helping us understand the ways in which the current juvenile systems are influenced.


Background: Existing predictive models for lung cancer focus on improving screening or referral for biopsy in general medical populations. A predictive model calibrated for use during preoperative evaluation of suspicious lung lesions is needed to reduce unnecessary operations for a benign disease. A clinical prediction model (Thoracic Research Evaluation And Treatment [TREAT]) is proposed for this purpose. Methods: We developed and internally validated a clinical prediction model for lung cancer in a prospective cohort evaluated at our institution. Best statistical practices were used to construct, evaluate, and validate the logistic regression model in the presence of missing covariate data using bootstrap and optimism corrected techniques. The TREAT model was externally validated in a retrospectively collected Veteran Affairs population. The discrimination and calibration of the model was estimated and compared with the Mayo Clinic model in both the populations. Results: The TREAT model was developed in 492 patients from Vanderbilt whose lung cancer prevalence was 72% and validated among 226 Veteran Affairs patients with a lung cancer prevalence of 93%. In the development cohort, the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) and Brier score were 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83–0.92) and 0.12, respectively compared with the AUC 0.89 (95% CI, 0.79–0.98) and Brier score 0.13 in the validation dataset. The TREAT model had significantly higher accuracy (p < 0.001) and better calibration than the Mayo Clinic model (AUC = 0.80; 95% CI, 75–85; Brier score = 0.17). Conclusion: The validated TREAT model had better diagnostic accuracy than the Mayo Clinic model in preoperative assessment of suspicious lung lesions in a population being evaluated for lung resection.


This article examines different forms of Ukrainian migrant women's social remittances, articulating some results of two ethnographic studies: one focused on the migration of Ukrainian women to Italy, and the other on the social impact of emigration in Ukraine. First, the paper illustrates the patterns of monetary remittance management, which will be defined as a specific form of social remittance, since they are practices shaped by systems of norms challenged by migration. In the second part, the article moves on to discuss other types of social remittances transferred by migrant women to their families left behind: the right of self-care and self-realisation; the recognition of alternative and more women-friendly life-course patterns; consumption styles and ideas on economic education. Therefore, I will explore the contents of social remittances, but also the gender and intergenerational conflicts that characterise these flows of cultural resources.


We construct 2Ω(n 5/4) combinatorial types of triangulated 3-spheres on n vertices. Since by a result of Goodman and Pollack (1986) there are no more than 2O(n log n) combinatorial types of simplicial 4-polytopes, this proves that asymptotically, there are far more combinatorial types of triangulated 3-spheres than of simplicial 4-polytopes on n vertices. This complements results of Kalai (1988), who had proved a similar statement about d-spheres and (d + 1)-polytopes for fixed d ≥ 4.


Sweden is often perceived as a multicultural welfare state and "the Swedish model" has been role model for other countries to follow. Whilst cultural and religious pluralism have been celebrated, the potential areas of conflicts that can occur in a multicultural society have been neglected. This may be challenging as we are confronted with situations where intolerance is expected to be met with tolerance, motivated by respect for religion and culture. Lately the debate about multiculturalism has increased in media and different perspectives of what multiculturalism is or is not have continuously been discussed. The debate is split between two different arguments where each argument excludes the other. Criticism of certain cultural or religious traditions is perceived of the left-winged as intolerant, respectless towards other cultures as well as xenophobic. The purpose of this essay is to analyze in which way the absence of debate about multiculturalism on the political arena has affected the application of the human rights in Sweden.


Hyperproperties generalize trace properties, which are sets of traces, to sets of sets of traces. The most prominent application of hyperproperties is information flow security: information flow policies characterize the secrecy and integrity of a system by comparing two or more execution traces, for example by comparing the outputs on execution traces that result from di↵erent values of a secret input. HyperLTL is an extension of linear-time temporal logic (LTL) with explicit quantification over traces. In this overview paper, we survey recent results on the expressiveness of HyperLTL and on the satisfiability and model checking problems. We also consider HyperCTL⇤, the extension of HyperLTL to branching time, and HyperFOLTL, the extension of HyperLTL with first-order quantification.


There are two parallel themes involved in the construction of this thesis. One of these themes is the goal of showing the sociological relevance of the study of humour, and the other is the means to achieve the goal, by showing the role of humour in the reaffirmation of the imagery informing the regional identity of the north-east of England. Consequently the first chapter of the thesis is designed to qualitatively develop the theme of regional imagery. From having decided to use regional imagery to illustrate the significance of humour as a social discourse, the focus on the north-east assumes the characteristic of a case study. This enables the research to expand into detail on the working of humour, by keeping to the scope of the regional frame of reference. Within this regional frame, chapter two shows humour as a social practice on the level of professional performance, rather than on the more private level of conversational expression. This is deemed analytically expedient, insofar as the professional comic text can be assessed in terms of its appeal to the region's public. This is to say, that the appeal of the comic text will depend upon the ability of the comedian to produce humour and laughter. Hence chapters two and three are set to find out what makes a professional comedian successful in the north-east. The findings of chapter two suggest the importance of establishing the complete contextual location of live performance humour in the region. This is to show the influence of audience and setting on the success of humour. Chapter three aims to conclude the thesis, by taking account of the extent to which regional image structures feature in the practice of successful live performance humour in the north-east; and thereby display the communicative value of humour.


Sand waves form a pattern of more or less parallel ridges. The wave length is about 300 meters and the height up to 10 meters, which is a considerable amount of the total water depth. Sand waves migrate with speeds of about 10 meters per year. Information on their behaviour is valuable: the larger part of the south of the North Sea bottom is covered with sand waves and there are plans to use this region for sand extraction, the placement of wind turbines and even the construction of an artificial island. Knowledge of the implications of such plans is needed to make decisions about them.

The currently used models that describe sand wave behaviour, try to incorporate the complete physics of both the tidal flow and the sand transport. Especially the flow calculation is very time consuming. For this reason, only the effect of sine formed disturbances has been investigated. Using this approach the occurrence of sand waves can be predicted. The predicted waves are all equal in size and shape and there is no (non-trivial) dynamic behaviour.

In reality, however, the amplitudes and wave lengths of natural sand waves do vary in space and time. The reasons for this are not yet theoretically understood.

In order to predict the full dynamic behaviour in 2D, a more efficient technique to predict the development of sand waves is needed. The goal is to find a model combined with a calculation method that is applicable to arbitrary initial conditions. This in order to be able to investigate whether irregularities in the initial conditions could be the cause of variations in sand wave patterns found in nature. An added benefit of such a model is that it can be used to predict the effect of large real life disturbances caused by human interference, like e.g. dredged channels, dams and artificial islands. These disturbances are usually not harmonic. Although thorough validation is still work in progress, a preliminary model with very promising results has now been found.


Wisata Alam Nglimut, one of the natural tourism object in Kendal Regency.
It has a potential prospect for tourism industry of Kendal. At this moment, the
number of visitors in the object is still lower compared to the other tourism
objects in Kendal. This might be due Nglimut is newly promoted and has not well
known by people. The objective of this study is to identify the factors affecting the
demand to visit in natural tourism object of Nglimut.
Quoted accidental sampling was employed to select 100 respondents. Travel
cost method was involved to analyze the collected data. Further, the consumer
surplus (CS) is estimated in order to value the appreciation of respondents about
the tourism object observed.
The results showed that five out of seven independent variables found
significantly influenced to the respondent in determining of the number of visit to
Nglimut. These factors are travel cost, leisure time, length time, facilities, and the
natural beauty of Nglimut s perceived by repondents. Economic value in this site
is Rp 35.453.126.400, the estimated CS is about Rp 760.960 per year per head.
Assuming at the end of 2012 there will about 50.000 visitors, therefore the
estimated economic value will reach to Rp 38 billions per year.
There will be a very bright prospect for Nglimut as the natural tourism
object for Kendal as the periphery of Semarang City with highly density in
population.


Preface. 1 Introduction to Clinical Trials (John Goffin). 2 Regulatory Requirements for Investigational New Drug (Venkat Rao). 3 Preclinical Assessment of Safety in Human Subjects (Nancy Wintering and Andrew B. Newberg). 4 Predicting human adverse drug reactions from non-clinical safety studies (Jean-Pierre Valentin, Marianne Keisu & Tim G. Hammond). 5.1 History of Clinical Trial Development and the Pharmaceutical Industry (Jeffery Peppercorn and Thomas Roberts). 5.2 Adaptive Research (Michael Rosenberg). 6 Organization and Planning (Sheila Sprague and Mohit Bhandari). 7 The Process of Data Management (Nina Trocky and Cynthia Barndt). 8 Clinical Trials Data Management (Eugenio Santoro and Angelo Tinazzi). 9.1 Clinical Trials and the FDA (Tarek M. Mahfouz and Janelle S. Crossgrove). 9.2 Phase I Clinical Trials (Shayne Gad). 9.3 Phase II Clinical Trials (Say-Beng Tan and David Machin). 9.4 Designing and Conducting Phase III Studies (Nabil Saba, M.D., John Kauh, M.D., and Dong M. Shin, M.D.). 9.5 Phase IV (Karl Wegscheider). 9.6 Phase IV and Post Marketing Clinical Trials (Ali Miraj Khan). 9.7 Regulatory Approval (Fred Henry and Weichung J. Shih). 9.8 A New Paradigm for Analyzing Adverse Drug Events (Ana Szarfman, Jonathan G. Levine, and Joseph M. Tonning). 10.1 Clinical Trials in Interventional Cardiology: Focus on the XIENCE Drug-Eluting Stent (Doostzadeh J, Bezenek S, Cheong W-F, Sood P, Schwartz L, Sudhir K). 10.2 Clinical Trials Involving Oral Diseases (Bruce L Pihlstrom, Bryan Michalowicz, Jane Atkinson and Albert Kingman). 10.3 Dermatology Clinical Trials (Maryanne Kazanis, Alicia Van Cott, Alexa Boer Kimball). 10.4 Emergency Clinical Trials (Joaquin Borras-Blasco, Andres Navarro-Ruiz and Consuelo Borras). 10.5 Gastroenterology (Lise Lotte Gluud and Jorgen Rask-Madsen). 10.6 Gynaecology Randomised Control Trials (Khalid Khan). 10.7 Special Population Studies (Healthy Patient Studies) (Doris K. Weilert). 10.8 Musculoskeletal (Masami Akai). 10.9 Oncology (Matjaz Zwitter). 10.10 Pharmacological Treatment Options for Non-exudative and exudative age-related macular degeneration (Alejandro Oliver, Thomas Ciulla, and Alon Harris). 10.11 Paediatrics (Anne Cusick, Natasha Lannin & Iona Novak). 10.12 Dementia (Encarnita Raya-Ampil and Jeffrey Cummings). 10.13 Clinical Trials in Urology (Geoffrey R Wignall, Carol Wernecke, Linda Nott & Hassan Razvi). 10.14 Clinical Trials on Cognitive Drugs (Elisabetta Farina and Francesca Baglio). 10.15 Bridging Studies in Pharmaceutical Safety Assessment (Jon Ruckle). 10.16 A Brief History of Clinical Trials on Vaccines (Megan J. Brooks, Joseph J. Sasadeusz, and Gregory A. Tannock). 11 Methods of Randomization (Gladys McPherson and Marion Campbell). 12 Randomized Controlled Trials (Giuseppe Garcea and David P. Berry). 13 Cross-Over Designs (Raphael Porcher and Sylvie Chevret). 14.1 Biomarkers (Michael R. Bleavins, Claudio Carini, Malle Jurima-Romet, and Ramin Rahbari). 14.2 Biomarkers in clinical drug development: parallel analysis of Alzheimer Disease and Multiple Sclerosis (Christine BETARD, Filippo MARTINELLI BONESCHI & Paulo CARAMELLI). 15 Review Boards (Maureen Hood, Jason Kaar, and Vincent Ho). 16 Size of Clinical Trials (Jitendra Ganju). 17 Blinding and Placebo (Artur Bauhofer). 18 Pharmacology (Thierry Buclin). 19 Modeling and Simulation in Clinical Drug Development (Jerry Nedelman, Frank Bretz, Roland Fisch, Anna Georgieva, Chyi-Hung Hsu, Joseph Kahn, Ryosei Kawai, Phil Lowe, Jeff Maca, Jose' Pinheiro, Anthony Rossini, Heinz Schmidli, Jean-Louis Steimer, Jing Yu). 20 Monitoring (Nigel Stallard and Susan Todd). 21 Inference Following a Sequential Clinical Trial (Aiyi Liu and Kai F. Yu). 22 Statistical methods for Analysis of Clinical Trials (Duolao Wang, Ameet Bakhai, and Nicola Maffulli). 23 Explanatory and Pragmatic Clinical Trials (Rob Herbert). 24.1 Ethics of Clinical Research in Durg Trials (Roy G. Beran). 24.2 Ethical Issues in Clinical Research (Kelton Tremellen and David Belford). 25 Regulations (Ramzi Dagher, Rajeshwari Sridhara, Nallaperumal Chidambaram, and Brian P. Booth). 26 Future Challenges in the Design and Ethics of Clinical Trials (Carl-Fredrik Burman and Axel Carlberg). 27 Proof-of-Principle/Proof-of-Concept trials in Drug Development (Ayman Al-Shurbaji).


Since the beginning of the 1980s, artists such as Neville Tranter in the Netherlands, Philippe Genty in France, Ilka Schonbein in Germany and Compagnie Mossoux-Bonte in Belgium have developed a new form of performance that I call manipulacting. By interacting with puppets, performers enter the fictional world of the puppets and appear as their Others. This study argues that manipulacting is a new and distinct form of performance. Although manipulacting combines acting and puppetry, it differs from them because it discloses a human being and an object engaged in a relation of self to Other. Manipulacting is defined by this specific relation and not by a particular aesthetic or technique. The methodology of the thesis is framed by Practice-as-Research from a directorial perspective. The enquiry includes four personal research projects – Seaside (2007-08), Postalgia (2008), Urashima Taro (2007-09) and The Maids (2009-10) – that explore the relations between manipulactors and puppets through different dramaturgical and performative settings, interviews with Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva, and detailed analyses of Cuniculus (2008) by Tranter and Twin Houses (1994) by Mossoux-Bonte. The thesis proposes two areas of new knowledge. Firstly, it suggests a rethinking of the nature of the puppet and an understanding of it by way of its alterity. It discusses the ontological ambiguity of the puppet in manipulacting, by re-functioning phenomenological aspects of thought developed by Sartre in The Imaginary (1940) and 5 Being and Nothingness (1943), and by Levinas in Totality and Infinity (1961). Secondly, the thesis explores the specificity of manipulacting by looking at representations of the Other developed in dramatic and postdramatic performances. It explores the alterity of the puppet in relation to dramaturgical meaning, as well as the production of ambiguity in performance. It concludes by discussing the core dramaturgical and performative elements that constitute manipulacting.


Background & Aim: Hospitalized neonates are among the groups who are prone to recurrent blood transfusions. Due to neonates' immune defects and common transfusion problems, blood transfusion complications have risen in neonatal intensive care units. In order to decrease the number of transfusions in premature neonates, new procedures and techniques such as recombinant erythropoietin use, satellite blood bags, and changing transfusions protocols have been recommended in many countries. Since satellite blood bags are not available in Iran and there has been no published study about transfusions in premature infants, a retrospective study was performed in the NICU of Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital to determine the number of blood transfusions, total amount of transfused products and number of donors each infant was in contact with. Patients & Methods: In a retrospective study, information was gathered from 144 premature infants under 37 weeks of gestation who were hospitalized in NICU in 2000-2002. Results: 65 infants(45% of hospitalized infants) received at least one blood product. The mean and range of blood transfusion was 1.2 and 0-16 respectively. Thirty-seven infants(26%) had more than one transfusion. There was a significant correlation between gestational age, birth weight, and transfusions. Out of 68 infants with birth weight under 1500 grams, 47 infants needed transfusion(69%), but from 32 infants with weight over 2 kilograms only, 3 infants(9%) had transfusions(P=0.01). 68% of infants under 30 weeks of gestational age had transfusions in comparison to 41% of 31-34 weeks and 16% of 35-37 weeks(P=0.03). There was no correlation between sex of infants, duration and etiology of hospitalization and use of recombinant erythropoietin. Conclusion: As a lot of newborn infants need transfusion during their hospital stay, (45% in our study), and since there is a correlation between blood transfusions and low birth weight and gestational age, we need to find some resolutions for decreasing number of transfusions and number of contacts with different blood donors. Using satellite blood bags(dividing one bag of blood to smaller ones) is a good suggestion which decreases the amount of blood not used in the NICU. In this study, about 3.4% of packed RBCs and 5.5% of FFP had been used and about 95% of all blood products were discarded. Therefore, it is necessary to find a new way for maximum use of this vital product.


GenApp generates applications on an extensible set of target languages for scientific modules. GenApp utilizes JavaScript object notation (JSON) format for all definition files. To create an application, definition files are created for global directives, menu, and modules. Target languages have definition files detailing the steps‐mapping code fragments to output. Modules must be wrapped to accept and produce JSON as defined in the module's definition file. Execution models are not defined by GenApp; they are included in target language code fragments. Previously, GenApp included target languages of HTML5/PHP, Qt3/C++, and Qt4/C++ with execution models of direct local execution, a web server, or a web server accessible resource. A Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2014 student demonstrated Airavata‐managed execution in GenApp's current target languages. Subsequently, Airavata's API and GenApp have evolved. Two GSoC‐2015 students updated the previous Airavata integration to support the current API and extend target languages to include Qt5/C++, Qt5/Android, and Java. GenApp was initially developed to wrap modules utilized in the small angles scattering field but is not restricted to this discipline. The GenApp philosophy is to minimize effort of the researcher to deploy modules and insure preservation in an evolving software landscape. Generated applications are in production and used by small angle scattering researchers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Large scale biofuel production will be possible only if significant quantities of biomass feedstock can be stored, transported, and processed in an economic and sustainable manner. Torrefaction has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of transportation, storage, and downstream processing through the improvement of physical and chemical characteristics of biomass. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of particle size, plant components, and gas residence time on the production of torrefied corn (Zea mays) stover. Different particle sizes included 0.85 mm and 20 mm. Different stover components included ground corn stover, whole corn stalk, stalk shell and pith, and corn cob shell. Three different purge gas residence times were employed to assess the effects of interaction of volatiles and torrefied biomass. Elemental analyses were performed on all of the samples, and the data obtained was used to estimate the energy contents and energy yields of different torrefied biomass samples. Particle density, elemental composition, and fiber composition of raw biomass fractions were also determined. Stalk pith torrefied at 280 °C and stalk shell torrefied at 250 °C had highest and lowest dry matter loss, of about 44% and 13%, respectively. Stalk pith torrefied at 250 °C had lowest energy density of about 18–18.5 MJ/kg, while cob shell torrefied at 280 °C had the highest energy density of about 21.5 MJ/kg. The lowest energy yield, at 59%, was recorded for stalk pith torrefied at 280 °C, whereas cob and stalk shell torrefied at 250 °C had highest energy yield at 85%. These differences were a consequence of the differences in particle densities, hemicellulose quantities, and chemical properties of the original biomass samples. Gas residence time did not have a significant effect on the aforementioned parameters.


This article explores the responses to acknowledged anthropogenic transformations of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, whose ecosystem is considered to have been disturbed by the intensification of agricultural uses of natural resources (notably land and water) over the last half century. It examines the ways in which a "payments for environmental services" (PES) project has been implemented, reflecting the rationale of ecological modernization. This article aims to challenge the environmental narrative that supports the project by revealing its oversimplifications. Empirical data demonstrates how the environmental issues addressed by the project are embedded in historically inherited land trajectories. This in turn forces us to reflect on the necessary question of responsibility, an issue at the heart of the debate since the emergence of the Anthropocene concept.


INTRODUCTION
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are counted among psychosomatic diseases, whose incidence has been rapidly increasing in the last decades. To date, the etiology, diagnostic and therapeutic management of eating disorders have not been uniformly determined. The objective of the study is determination of the role of a pediatric endocrinologist in diagnostics and management of eating disorders.

MATERIAL
In the years 1992-2007 in Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology Chair of Pediatrics, Polish-American Institute of Pediatrics, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland were hospitalized 164 patients with suspected anorexia nervosa, aged 9-20 years, 150 girls, and 14 boys. All girls were included in psychological and dietetic treatment. Additionally, in group of 36 girls, the 3-years observation of bone mineralization changes was performed.

METHODS
The indications for hospitalization included the assessment of nutritional status, particularly electrolyte imbalance, cardiovascular complications and nutritional treatment. II. Procedure included on department: 1) Correction of general children's state. 2) Monitoring of cardiovascular system disorders. 3) Nutritional treatment. 4) Differential diagnosis. III. Prevention and treatment of late complications was performed in group of 36 girls. In this group, every 6 months were evaluated: body mass index, duration of secondary amenorrhea, serum sex hormone, IGF-I and cortisol levels and 24-hour urine cortisol. Spine densitometry in the AP projection was performed every 12 months, using a Lunar unit (DEXA). The pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis was introduced in girls with duration of secondary amenorrhea lasted for more than 6 months, with decreased bone mineralization BMD < (-) 1SD and body mass deficit < 20%. 16 girls which did not presented disorders of bone mineralization, or refused treatment have not got the pharmacological treatment, while in 20 girls the pharmacological therapy (calcium and vitamin D3 supplementation and hormonal treatment - Estraderm TTS and Provera 5 mg) was provided.

RESULTS
Anorexia nervosa was diagnosed in 150 cases, bulimia in 6 cases, in 2 children was diagnosed celiac disease, in 2 patients adrenal insufficiency, in 1 girl myasthenia, in 1 girl diabetes mellitus type 1, in 1 boy hypothalamo-pituitary tumor and in 1 boy psychosis was diagnosed. The nutritional improvement was evaluated in group of 36 girls, which continued treatment in time 3 years. At the beginning of the observation period the mean value of the body mass index (BMI) was 15.95 kg/m2, and after 36 months of the treatment the mean BMI value was 20 kg/m2. Before the treatment one patient was still menstruated despite her body mass loss, 8 girls were pre-menarche, and the remaining 27 patients had secondary amenorrhea of the mean duration of 11.14 months. In the initial period of the follow-up, all the anorectic patients demonstrated a decreased bone mineral density. Before treatment the median Z score in the entire experimental group was (-)1,2 SD whereas after 3 years of treatment value of Z score decreased by 0,5 SD in group of 16 girls without the pharmacological treatment and increased by 0,5 SD in 20 girls on pharmacological treatment. The significant, negative correlation between secondary amenorrhea and Z score value was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
The role of a pediatrician in therapeutic management of eating disorders is intervention in life-threatening conditions, treatment of acute complications, differential diagnosis, nutritional treatment, prevention and management of late complications. Because of etiology and special way of treatment the management of anorexia nervosa should have been taken by psychiatrist. The duty of endocrinologists and gynecologists is the late complications treatment, such as an amenorrhea and osteoporosis.


We develop a theory of the emergence of merchant guilds as an efficient mechanism to foster cooperation between merchants and rulers, building on the complementarity between merchant guilds' ability to enforce monopoly over trade and their social capital. Unlike existing models, we focus on local merchant guilds, rather than alien guilds, accounting for the main observed features of their behavior, internal organization and relationship with rulers. Our model delivers novel predictions about the emergence, variation, functioning, and eventual decline of this highly successful historical form of network. Our theory reconciles previous explanations and the large body of historical evidence on medieval merchant guilds. In doing so, we also shed novel light on the role of the guilds' social capital, and its importance for taxation, welfare, and the development of towns and their government in medieval Europe. JEL Classification: L20, L43, N7, N8.


Many shallow lakes have lost a large part of their ecological value during the past decades. Human‐induced factors such as eutrophication and inappropriate fish stock management are generally the main causes for this loss. To restore such degraded habitats, several measures are taken, typically involving a reduction of nutrient loading and interventions in the aquatic food web functioning (biomanipulation). In this study, we report on the joint effects of a series of restoration measures in a shallow lake (Lake Kraenepoel, Belgium, 22 ha) and evaluate these effects via three different criteria. The first criterion is that the target condition, being a clearwater phase with submerged macrophytes, was successfully achieved and persisted for a period of at least 5 years after restoration. Second, we detected a substantial change in community structure of cladoceran zooplankton and an associated increase in species richness and conservation value following restoration measures. Finally, we observed that the general structure of the present day cladoceran zooplankton community resembles well that of the preeutrophication period (1929–1931). Current species richness, however, tends to be lower than in the reference period, and some rare species are still lacking. It is conceivable that, when submerged macrophytes develop further, a subset of specialist species may reappear. Overall, the use of historical habitat‐specific samples offers a major opportunity for evaluating restoration success in great detail. Community structures may directly be compared, the gain or loss of specific species can accurately be documented, and more insights in the observed patterns be obtained.


Employment restructuring is a transformative process that brings about significant changes in how work is organised and experienced. Scholars who study restructuring in industries that employ large numbers of immigrant workers, including construction, food processing, or janitorial services, often point to the undermining effects of this transformation on industry wage standards, working conditions, and training supports. But often missing from these accounts is a recognition that restructuring is uneven and incomplete at best and often produces shortcomings and limitations that continue to frustrate and perplex immigrant and native-born workers alike. Drawing on a multi-year study of construction workers in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, we find Latino immigrants are far from passive inheritors of the problems of restructuring that they and others encounter during their daily work. Rather, they respond to these challenges with innovative and lasting solutions, developing new work structures and routines that support industry skill development, knowledge sharing, and quality standards. Equally important, their native-born supervisors and co-workers have learned to value these solutions and ultimately have stepped in as influential allies, helping immigrant workers leverage these contributions to secure improved working conditions and higher compensation levels. These exchanges have tethered immigrant and non-immigrant workers together and in ways that challenge standard narratives of native dominance and immigrant exploitation. The result is intensified interdependency and ultimately the creation of an enduring relational resource for promoting worker rights and also for guiding further immigrant advocacy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Self-esteem seems to be a crucial factor in adolescents' psychological well-being. Our study aimed to identify the likelihood of high/medium/low adolescents' self-esteem in personal experiences of abuse and/or violence (abuse by an adult in childhood, bullying and cyberbullying, and dating violence victimization), different socioeconomic characteristics, perceived social support, and ability to resolve social problems. The study participants were 1451 students from secondary schools (age 13–16) in Spain, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Poland and the UK. We calculated relative risk ratios using multinomial regression models to understand how socioeconomic characteristics, personal experiences of abuse and/or violence, perceived social support, ability to resolve social problems were associated with a self-esteem level. Having no experience of being a victim of physical and sexual abuse in childhood and not being a victim of bullying and cyberbullying is connected with the likelihood of high self-esteem regarding having low self-esteem. Taking as reference those who have never been in a dating relationship, the probability of medium and high self-esteem, decreases when teens are in a romantic or dating relationship and they are victims of intimate partner violence, but the negative effect is explained when other violent variables are included in the model. Being a boy, begin a younger teenager, mother's paid work, high problem-solving skills and perceptions of social support is in relation with the prospect for higher self-esteem. Promoting adolescent self-esteem means preventing all forms of violence perpetrated by significant others, as well as increasing the ability of youth to seek social support and develop problem-solving skills.


When robots serve in urban areas such as shopping malls, they will often be required to approach people in order to initiate service. This paper presents a technique for human–robot interaction that enables a robot to approach people who are passing through an environment. For successful approach, our proposed planner first searches for a target person at public distance zones anticipating his/her future position and behavior. It chooses a person who does not seem busy and can be reached from a frontal direction. Once the robot successfully approaches the person within the social distance zone, it identifies the person's reaction and provides a timely response by coordinating its body orientation. The system was tested in a shopping mall and compared with a simple approaching method. The result demonstrates a significant improvement in approaching performance; the simple method was only 35.1% successful, whereas the proposed technique showed a success rate of 55.9%.


The analysis for extra-functional properties like power and performance takes a critical role in the system design workflow. Hardware-software co-simulation is one of the commonly used ways to perform this type of analysis. However, with the modern development of many-core systems the problem of scalability is becoming a bottleneck for all analysis techniques including simulation, especially when a simple extrapolation from the single core results is unacceptable. This paper presents a framework aimed at the extra-functional analysis during the rapid prototyping stages of system design. The tool is based on stochastic modelling and simulation of cross-layer system representations. The concept of selective abstraction is applied to ensure a sufficient level of accuracy where it is needed, while reducing the complexity of the parts that are of less importance. A set of Networks-on-Chip topologies has been analysed and presented as a use case example.


Medication therapy is an important component of the comprehensive treatment plan designed to maintain or improve health. If patients do not take prescribed medications correctly or are non-adherent, less successful therapy occurs. Reasons given for noncompliance include cost, misunderstanding the therapy, side effects, forgetfulness, or a belief that the medication is not effective or necessary. This study had two goals, the first was to evaluate medication use while simultaneously assessing knowledge, compliance, tolerance, and perceived efficacy. Drug-related problems, if any, were also identified. The second goal was to develop methods to improve patient outcomes based upon identified problems. For eight weeks, all patients attending four rural North Central Florida clinics were asked to participate in this study by completing a short questionnaire and personal interview. A significant inverse correlation (p<0.05) was found between participant age and knowledge about medications. Also, those with five or more prescriptions had decreased knowledge about their medications (p<0.05). Based upon these findings, researchers recommend that health professionals use specific communication techniques when teaching older persons for example, incorporation of open ended-questions in interactions will elicit more information than closed, thus enabling a clinician to better identify patient needs. In addition, devotion of more time and attention to instruction may improve learning outcomes, especially in the elderly.


When quantizing conformal dilaton gravity, there is a conformal anomaly which starts at two-loop order. This anomaly stems from evanescent operators on the divergent parts of the effective action. The general form of the finite counterterm, which is necessary in order to insure cancellation of the Weyl anomaly to every order in perturbation theory, has been determined using only conformal invariance. Those finite counterterms do not have any inverse power of any mass scale in front of them (precisely because of conformal invariance), and then they are not negligible in the low-energy deep infrared limit. The general form of the ensuing modifications to the scalar field equation of motion has been determined, and some physical consequences have been extracted.


Information links are an integral part of the functioning of any real system (whether it is a biological system, the economic system of the state or the control system of the company). For proper operation of the system is necessary to have a well-defined information flows both: direct, indirect and feedback. The work is focused on feedback information links. Overall, the issue of the feedbacks is considered eminently as a theoretical domain and the practical consequences of the correct function or dysfunction feedbacks in real life are systematically not paying proper attention. It is ignored the need of purposeful use of feedback and improvement within the building or maintenance of systems at all levels and areas, including control systems. In the literature does not exist consensus on the existence and amount of feedback, which are - regardless of their structure and quality - the limiting factor in the practical performance of control system. This paper is focused on the resolution (or selection) feedbacks relevant to the effective performance of the functions of communication in the process of management and organizational structures of selected companies in the Czech Republic and quantitative expression of their relationship and the transmission reliability control and feedback information. The research was implemented in 178 farms. The output of theoretical and practical research is designed of mathematical model testing information links. This model was applied to the example of management information links within business processes and is also described in the paper.


A variety of powerful techniques to control the position and velocity of neutral particles has been developed. As examples of this new ability, lasers have been used to construct a variety of traps, to cool atoms to temperatures below 3 x 10-6 kelvin, and to create atomic fountains that may give us a hundredfold increase in the accuracy of atomic clocks. Bacteria can be held with laser traps while they are being viewed in an optical microscope, and organelles within a cell can be manipulated without puncturing the cell wall. Single molecules of DNA can now be stretched out and pinned down in a water solution with optical traps. These new capabilities may soon be applied to a wide variety of scientific questions as diverse as precision measurements of fundamental symmetries in physics and the study of biochemistry on a single molecule basis.


What happens in a science classroom where students are engaged and how do teachers observe and interpret student engagement? This article highlights teachers' perspective on students' engagement in science education and to what extent it is connected to the scientific content. This approach complements earlier research which focuses mostly on students' attitude towards science education and their interest in various topics in science.The findings are based on a three-stage Delphi survey distributed to 39 expert science teachers. The results shows science education with a range of different perspectives and that most teachers do not perceive any direct connection between specific science topics and the students' engagement. The survey also shows that teachers to a high level interpret students' emotional expressions and academic behavior as engagement rather than their cognitive behavior.


FOXO transcriptional activity is promoted by arginine methylation, which blocks phosphorylation by Akt. FOXOs (class O Forkhead transcription factors) stimulate transcription of proapoptotic genes, cell cycle inhibitory genes, and genes encoding enzymes that detoxify reactive oxygen species. FOXO proteins are acetylated, as well as subject to phosphorylation by at least two kinases, MST1 and Akt (see Michalek and Rathmell). Phosphorylation by Akt inhibits FOXO activity by promoting its nuclear export and proteasome-mediated degradation. Yamagata et al. now show that FOXO1 is methylated at several arginine residues by protein methyltransferase1 (PRMT1) in vitro. Two of the primary methylation sites (R248 and R250, amino acid numbering from mouse) occur within the consensus Akt phosphorylation site. In vitro assays with FOXO1, FOXO3, FOXO4, or FOXO6 peptides suggested that arginine methylation prevented Akt phosphorylation. Silencing of PRMT1 increased the phosphorylation of FOXO1 at the Akt site, increased the cytoplasmic localization of FOXO1, and, in the presence of proteasome inhibitors, increased the abundance of ubiquitinated FOXO1. Using a methylation-specific antibody, methylated FOXO1 was only detected in the nucleus, and the abundance of methylated FOXO1 was decreased when PRMT1 was knocked down. Reporter gene assays suggested that arginine methylation of FOXO1 promoted its transcriptional activity. Knockdown of PRMT1 or FOXO1 increased cell survival in response to oxidative stress, presumably due to decreased stimulation of proapoptotic genes, a conclusion supported by the reduction in the mRNA and protein abundance of the proapoptotic protein BIM in the PRMT1 or FOXO1 knockdown cells. Methylation of FOXO1 was stimulated by hydrogen peroxide, while Akt-phosphorylated FOXO1 was decreased. These results suggest that protein methylation and protein phosphorylation are coordinately regulated. In the case of FOXO1, these two posttranslational modifications produce opposing results: Methylation promotes the apoptotic response, whereas Akt phosphorylation promotes a survival response. K. Yamagata, H. Daitoku, Y. Takahashi, K. Namiki, K. Hisatake, K. Kako, H. Mukai, Y. Kasuya, A. Fukamizu, Arginine methylation of FOXO transcription factors inhibits their phosphorylation by Akt. Mol. Cell 32, 221-231 (2008). [PubMed] R. D. Michalek, J. C. Rathmell, Methed-up FOXOs can't in-Akt-ivate. Mol. Cell 32, 160-162 (2008). [PubMed]


Based on numerical studies performed by the authors, the paper presents to Force-Based (FBD) and Displacement-Based (DBD) seismic Design provisions for dissipative post-tensioned rocking timber wall (Pres-Lam) systems. At first, a discussion on the seismic design requirements of post-tensioned rocking timber wall systems is provided, including suggested material limit states to be considered in the design phase (Ultimate Limit State) also aimed to prevent collapse in case of more severe events. The required amendments to a Force-Based Design provision in accordance to NZS1170.5 are then discussed focussing on the development and significance of the inelastic spectrum scaling factor (kμ). Similarly, the key modifications to design equations required within a Displacement Based Design Provisions are proposed, based on extensive numerical analyses and focusing on the as the design inelastic displacement shape and the equivalent viscous damping. In the final part of the paper a multi-storey building is designed using both FBD and DBD and the two different approaches are discussed.


Objective To identify the immediate economic impact of maternal death on rural Chinese households. Methods Results are reported from a study that matched 195 households who had suffered a maternal death to 384 households that experienced a childbirth without maternal death in rural areas of three provinces in China, using quantitative questionnaire to compare differences of direct and indirect costs between two groups. Findings The direct costs of a maternal death were significantly higher than the costs of a childbirth without a maternal death (US$4,119 vs. $370, p<0.001). More than 40% of the direct costs were attributed to funeral expenses. Hospitalization and emergency care expenses were the largest proportion of non-funeral direct costs and were higher in households with maternal death than the comparison group (US$2,248 vs. $305, p<0.001). To cover most of the high direct costs, 44.1% of affected households utilized compensation from hospitals, and the rest affected households (55.9%) utilized borrowing money or taking loans as major source of money to offset direct costs. The median economic burden of the direct (and non-reimbursed) costs of a maternal death was quite high - 37.0% of the household's annual income, which was approximately 4 times as high as the threshold for an expense being considered catastrophic. Conclusion The immediate direct costs of maternal deaths are extremely catastrophic for the rural Chinese households in three provinces studied.


In this paper, atomic force microscopy is used to monitor, in situ, the shape evolution of polycrystalline copper during anodic dissolution in 0. 5 M H[sub 2]SO[sub 4]. During dissolution of the copper surface under a small anodic potential (30 mV), an overlayer of material that resulted from mechanical polishing was removed, exposing the underlying grain boundaries. A chemically etched sample was exposed to the same experimental conditions, and no overlayer was observed. Dissolution of the copper bulk metal was monitored under a higher applied potential (100 mV, 0. 5M H[sub 2]SO[sub 4]). The overlayer was immediately removed, and the dissolution produced a nonuniform, crystallographically etched surface. The inhibiting effect of benzotriazole (BTA) on copper dissolution in 0. 5M H[sub 2]SO[sub 4]/20 mM BTA was observed. Copper dissolution did not proceed at 100 mV or 200 mV applied potential; but at 300 mV, rapid localized dissolution resulted in the formation of pit-like features.


John Dewey's classical pragmatism, Daniel M. Savage asserts, can be used to provide a self-development-based justification of liberal democracy that shows the current debate between liberal individualism and republican communitarianism to be based largely on a set of pseudoproblems. From Dewey's classical pragmatism, Savage derives a conception of individual autonomy that, while meeting all of the criteria for a conception of autonomy, does not, as the dominant Kantian variant does, require transcendence from any particular language community. The Deweyan conception of autonomy that Savage derived from classical pragmatism, in fact, requires that the individual be situated within a context of cultural beliefs. Savage argues that this particular conception of autonomy is necessary if one wants to conceive of life, as communitarians do, as a quest for the good life within a social context. Thus, Savage constructs a conception of autonomy that consists of a set of intellectual virtues, each of which can be understood, like Aristotle's moral virtues, as a mean between two extremes (or vices). The virtue of critical reflection is the mean between the vices of dogmatism on the one hand and philosophical skepticism on the other. The virtue of creative individuality is the mean between the opposing vices of conformity and eccentricity. Finally, the virtue of sociability is the mean between the extremes of docility and rebelliousness. The three virtues together provide a natural method of adapting to change. The method is natural because it is in accord with a continuous cycle of activity - tension/movement/harmony - that is generic to all living things, Dewey's method of adapting to change requires, in both the individual and in the community, the synthesis of integrating and differentiating forces.


Positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission-computed tomography (SPECT) are important nuclear-medical imaging tools in diagnosing cancers and creating effective treatment plans. Commercially imaging systems are operated externally and can create 3D images of the whole body or of specific organs by rotating the gamma-ray detectors, and then employing software to reconstruct the 3D images from the multiple 2D projections at different angles of view. However, their uses in intraoperative environments or for imaging specific small organs, e.g., the prostate, ovary, and cervix, are limited because of their bulky designs and the long working-distance, hence causing low efficiency and poor spatial-resolution. In such situations, compact imaging devices, e.g., the trans-rectal gamma camera developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Hybridyne Imaging Technologies, are preferable for detecting intra-prostatic tumors. The camera uses pixilated cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) detectors with a matched parallel-hole collimator. However, their lack of 3D imaging capability limits their use in clinics, because the acquired images cannot be interpreted easily due to missing depth information. Given the constraint on space in such operations, the traditional 3D-image acquisition methods are impractical. For this reason, we designed an interwoven collimator dedicated for 3D imaging using an endocavity probe. This novel collimator allows us to take two or multiple views of a specific organ or tissue without rotating the camera. At the first stage of design for the collimator, we carried out Monte-Carlo simulations to study the response of the collimator and the attached detectors to gamma rays, and then developed a maximum-likelihood-based algorithm for reconstructing 3D images. In this paper, we detail our modeling of the collimator on a cluster Linux computer, and discuss the imaging capability of this novel collimator.


Relationship dissolution is a complex process that involves more than the act of termination. The process affects and is affected by an individual's communication with members of the social network. The attributions made by the individual to account for the dissolution constitute an attempt at failure management. This study was undertaken to determine how the strategies used to manage the failure event of divorce vary according to social network groups, gender, and expectation of approval. One hundred eleven divorced individuals completed questionnaires soliciting recollection of accounts made to family, friends, and acquaintances regarding their divorce. Findings include 1) excuses were used more often than other types of accounts (this supports earlier research in accounting), 2) excuses were used slightly more often with family, justifications substantially more often with friends, and silence and interactive accounts substantially more often with acquaintances, 3) there were no gender differences in type of account used or in the number of accounts used, 4) males selected males with whom to interact, and females selected females, 5) females initiated the divorce (as reported by both sexes), 6) families and friends were offered higher vii numbers of accounts than acquaintances. Content analysis revealed five types of excuses: abuse, unfaithfulness, refusal to change or get help, personality flaws and abrupt termination by other. Ttests revealed that females predominantly used the first three types and males predominantly used the last two. This study has examined reports of the actual accounts communicated to members of different social networks regarding divorce and has revealed differences with respect to these social networks. It has begun the task of developing a typology of interpersonal relationship failure management strategies and has established a connection between type of communication strategy selected and target audience.


I study the relative academic performance of students tracked or randomly assigned to South African university dormitories. Tracking reduces low-scoring students' GPAs and has little effect on high-scoring students, leading to lower and more dispersed GPAs. I also directly estimate peer effects using random variation in peer groups across dormitories. Living with higher-scoring peers raises students' GPAs, particularly for low-scoring students, and peer effects are stronger between socially proximate students. This shows that much of the treatment effect of tracking is attributable to peer effects. These results present a cautionary note about sorting students into academically homogeneous classrooms or neighborhoods. (JEL I23, I24, I28, O15, Z13)


This book provides a much-needed re-examination of monetary and fiscal policies, their application in the real world and their potential for macroeconomic policy in the 21st century. It provides a detailed discussion and critique of the 'new consensus' in macroeconomics along with the monetary and fiscal policies encapsulated within it.


We present a simple and effective blind image deblurring method based on the dark channel prior. Our work is inspired by the interesting observation that the dark channel of blurred images is less sparse. While most image patches in the clean image contain some dark pixels, these pixels are not dark when averaged with neighboring highintensity pixels during the blur process. This change in the sparsity of the dark channel is an inherent property of the blur process, which we both prove mathematically and validate using training data. Therefore, enforcing the sparsity of the dark channel helps blind deblurring on various scenarios, including natural, face, text, and low-illumination images. However, sparsity of the dark channel introduces a non-convex non-linear optimization problem. We introduce a linear approximation of the min operator to compute the dark channel. Our look-up-table-based method converges fast in practice and can be directly extended to non-uniform deblurring. Extensive experiments show that our method achieves state-of-the-art results on deblurring natural images and compares favorably methods that are well-engineered for specific scenarios.


The objective of discovering network communities, an essential step in complex systems analysis, is two-fold: identification of functional modules and their semantics at the same time. However, most existing community-finding methods have focused on finding communities using network topologies, and the problem of extracting module semantics has not been well studied and node contents, which often contain semantic information of nodes and networks, have not been fully utilized. We considered the problem of identifying network communities and module semantics at the same time. We introduced a novel generative model with two closely correlated parts, one for communities and the other for semantics. We developed a co-learning strategy to jointly train the two parts of the model by combining a nested EM algorithm and belief propagation. By extracting the latent correlation between the two parts, our new method is not only robust for finding communities and semantics, but also able to provide more than one semantic explanation to a community. We evaluated the new method on artificial benchmarks and analyzed the semantic interpretability by a case study. We compared the new method with eight state-of-the-art methods on ten real-world networks, showing its superior performance over the existing methods.


The aim of this work is to assess the benefit of total-lightning information as independent
data source for thunderstorm tracking and short-term prediction (nowcasting) of storm evolution. Special focus has been laid on the three-dimensional lightning information
and the in-cloud and cloud-to-ground discrimination provided by the lightning detection network LINET. The reliability of the lightning information and its usability for nowcasting purposes have been tested both separately and in combination with other data sources which are commonly used for thunderstorm nowcasting.

The new thunderstorm tracker ec-TRAM (tracking and monitoring of electrically charged cells; Meyer et al. (2009)) has been developed to identify, track, and monitor
thunderstorms in high temporal and spatial resolution by combining the information of independently tracked convective ground-precipitation cells and lightning-cells to new cell objects. The algorithm builds on the autonomously operating routines rad-TRAM (tracking and monitoring of radar cells; Kober and Tafferner (2009)) and li-TRAM
(tracking and monitoring of lightning cells). The latter has also been developed within this work.

The new tracking algorithm has been tested based on a thunderstorm data set of more than 500 storm tracks which were recorded by ec-TRAM in southern Germany during summer 2008. It is found that the newly composed cell objects comprehensively describe simple as well as complex thunderstorm structures and the cell tracking method
of ec-TRAM proves to be more coherent and stable in comparison with the tracking performances of rad-TRAM and li-TRAM.

For two selected thunderstorms the time series of cell parameters monitored by ec-TRAM have been complemented with three-dimensional polarimetric radar data and satellite data to assess how the temporal evolution and parameter correlation of total lightning strokes, hydrometeor formation, ground precipitation patterns, and cloud top temperature can be used to estimate the storm state and predict its development. The parameter evolutions are found to be consistent with the current state of knowledge.

A principal life-cycle scheme can be identified for the cell parameters on large time scales. The stronger
fluctuating short-term parameter evolutions are found to refl
ect the
momentary storm dynamic. Based on the lifetime diagrams several warning parameters for subsequent storm events can be suggested.

Significant cell parameter correlations, which can be parameterized, are also found in statistical analyses over the complete data set. Strong positive correlations are found between cell extension, discharge frequency, and in-cloud discharge height. Two cell regimes, sharply separated at a specific cell characteristic, can clearly be identified in all correlation diagrams. Interpreted on the basis of previous studies and in terms of the current state of knowledge, it seems most likely that the two cell-regimes refl
ect the storm characteristics of different storm organization forms. The parameterized correlation
curves could then be used as cell parameterizations in operational nowcasting tools to predict the dynamic evolution, duration, and danger potential of a storm, provided that the storm system can be classified. Finally, it can be concluded that this study demonstrates the usability and the promising potential of total-lightning data as reliable and independent data source for future nowcasting tools.


This work describes a novel approach for total power estimation in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) while considering spatial correlation among the different signals in the design. The signal probabilities under spatial correlations are used to properly model the dynamic power dissipation and the state-dependency of the leakage power dissipation in the logic and routing resources of FPGAs. Moreover, the proposed model accounts for power due to glitches. The accuracy of the developed power estimation technique is compared with that of HSpice simulations and other FPGA power estimation techniques that assume spatial independence. It is found that the spatial independence assumption can overestimate power dissipation in FPGAs by an average of 19%.


To infer the rate and prevailing direction of littoral transport along a given coast is of prime importance in the functional and rational designing of coastal structures as well as in the environmental consideration of coastal zones. Many efforts have been made to develop the inferring method from field evidences such as 1) coastal landforms and shore configurations in the vicinity of existing structures1'~°', 2) alongshore variations in beach and bed sediment properties V)~12)j 3) statistical analysis of incident wave properties 13)~16)/ 4) movements of natural or artificial tracers 17)-20)^ an(j so on_ Among these evidences, the alongshore variations of indigeneous beach materials have served as a powerfull, practical and economical tool in the inference of general trend of littoral transport. Properties of beach sediment, such as grain size of sand and volume and shape of gravels, indicate some progressive trends with alongshore distance from supply sources2D. Thus the littoral transport direction along a given coast is inferable from variations in beach sediment properties. However, inferring criteria of prevailing direction from variations in various beach sediment properties have not yet been fully established. For example, the prevailing direction of littoral transport should be defined to be alongshore component of intergrated vector of littoral transport during several years or decades along a given coast. But this direction is often confused with the alongshore dislocating or traveling direction of beach sediment, which is indicated by the variations. It has also been concluded simply that the variation series obtained from backshore samples show a long-term trend of littoral transport, whereas those from foreshore indicate a short-term trend such as seasonal changes. In this inferring procedure any considerations have never been paid on differences in grain size of beach materials (sand and gravels) and in wave conditions during the period of field study. Rate or intensity of littoral transport has scarcely been inferred from the variation series of beach sediment properties even quantitatively. To solve these problems, the present study proposed a new concept on the basis of field evidences obtained on the Enshu Coast, Central Japan.


We show theoretically that range of reflection bands and defect modes inside the band gap can be tuned by using a one-dimensional tilted photonic crystal (TPC) structure. A TPC structure is similar to the conventional PC structure with the only difference that in this case alternate layers are inclined at certain angle in the direction of periodicity of the structure. In order to obtain the reflectance spectra of the proposed structure transfer matrix method (TMM) has been employed. From the analysis of the reflectance curve, it is found that 100% reflectance range can be varied and enhanced by using TPC structure for both (TE- and TM-) polarizations. The enhancement in reflection bands increases as the tilt angle increases for both the polarizations and hence the enlarged omni-reflectance bands are obtained. Further, we study the properties of the defect modes in TPC structure by introducing the tilted defect at the different tilt angle. The results show that defect modes (tunneling modes) can be tuned at different wavelengths by changing the tilt angle of the structure without changing other parameters. Finally, the effect of variation thickness of defect layers on the tunneling mode has been studied for both TPC and conventional PC structure. The proposed model might be used as a tunable broadband omnidirectional reflector as well as tunable tunneling or transmission mode, which has potential applications in the field of photonics and optoelectronics.


The psalms often praise Yahweh for his transformative and restorative interventions both in the past and in all times. They portray the deity as the one who offers protection to the weak and defenceless members of society. He uplifts the downtrodden and affords them a place in structure where they gain a new status. In Psalm 113:7-9, Yahweh changes the circumstances of the poor and needy and the childless woman. Social outcasts have their dignity and honour restored. This article explicates these divine acts in terms of the topos of mundus inversus (world-upside down). This cultural phenomenon, which finds expression in artistic, socio-political and religious spheres, accentuates the possibility of another reality by inverting the status quo. Psalm 113 praises Yahweh as the incomparable God who inverts the situation of those condemned to a life of suffering. His incomparability is linked with his power to create a mundus inversus in which the poor and needy have a banquet with nobles and a barren woman takes pleasure in motherhood.


This article considers the problem of popular, collectively organized political action in the context of the abolition movement of the slave trade (1788–1807). Various primary sources, a petition, a trade directory, church records, and a self-built historic GIS are used to locate petitioners for abolition in the social fabric of Manchester. Through matching and computational experiments the article highlights which social structural forces led individuals to support the abolition movement by signing a petition. Specifically, gathering places that were historically involved in the movement, as well as those that housed traveling merchants from communities with successful abolitionist petitions from preceding campaigns shaped abolitionist petitioning—and the impact of these institutions remained important over and above family ties, active religious congregations, and the occupational groups. The article gives a new understanding of the role that early industrialization played in the abolition movement, building it from the bottom up, forging cohesion within and across communities through local institutions, rather than creating new boundaries and divides through processes of class formation.


Multi-connectivity is emerging as promising solution to provide reliable communications and seamless connectivity at the millimeter-wave frequency range. Due to the obstacles that cause frequent interruptions at such high frequency range, connectivity to multiple cells can drastically increase the network performance in terms of throughput and reliability by coordination among the network elements. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the link scheduling optimization that maximizes the network throughput for multi-connectivity in millimeter-wave cellular networks. The considered approach exploits a centralized architecture, fast link switching, proactive context preparation and data forwarding between millimeter-wave access points and the users. The proposed algorithm is able to numerically approach the global optimum and to quantify the potential gain of multi-connectivity in millimeter-wave cellular networks.


The government can and should stop providing financial incentives in the form of copyright protection for the production and distribution of pornographic works that cause direct harms, such as child pornography, revenge pornography, crush pornography and filmed sexual abuse. The Article proceeds in five parts. Part I provides an overview of the relationship of copyright law to pornography. Copyright law, viewed in a certain light, plays a structural role in the commoditization of sex and sexual images. In most jurisdictions in the United States, buying and selling sex is illegal, but when sex-for-hire is fixed in a tangible medium of expression, it becomes an act of free speech protected by the First Amendment. That tangible medium also gains protection under copyright law. Pornographers use copyright law to facilitate profitable commercial exploitation of their works.Against this background, Part II explores the ways in which copyright law in general is not content neutral. Indeed, in order to obtain a protectable copyright, one must demonstrate the existence of 'original' content. Once a copyright is secured, copyright law constructs operate to suppress (by labeling as 'infringing,' and thus illegal) any content that is substantially similar to or derivative of the copyrighted work. From an analytic perspective that suppression operates as a form of content-based, government-sponsored censorship in the broadest sense of the word. To be sure, copyright law allows for 'fair use' as a right or privilege, or as an affirmative defense to an allegation of copyright infringement. In this way, copyright law includes a mechanism that seeks to soften the suppressive aspect of copyright enforcement. Whether an unauthorized use is 'fair' is a legal determination that is, by definition, not content neutral (i.e., it requires substantive consideration of the allegedly offending work). Thus robust copyright protection for any book, image, film, or other copyrightable work requires (at least) two content-specific inquiries by the government: first as to the originality of the initial work, and second as to any fair use by any allegedly offending work.Part III considers the relationship between pornography and copyright law. Numerous legal scholars have offered critiques and defenses of pornography that are sophisticated and sustained. One of the most well-known critiques of pornography takes a harms-based approach. It considers the potential harm to actual human beings during the production, distribution, or consumption of pornography. This part of the Article applies this harms-based framework in the copyright context and considers how labeling such works non-progressive or non-useful would put them beyond the purview of the Intellectual Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Types of pornography that would lose copyright protection under this framework include child pornography, crush pornography, revenge pornography, and pornography in which the performers are physically abused or endangered.Part IV argues that the government's withholding of copyright protection from this narrowly defined band of pornographic works will reduce the incentives for its creation and distribution. Thus copyright law could become a powerful tool in the hands of pornography's opponents. Part V argues that there is, in fact, a clear precedent for amending the Copyright Act to deny protection to 'non-progressive' and 'non-useful' pornographic works. In the trademark context, the Lanham Act prohibits the federal registration of 'scandalous' or 'immoral' marks. Such content-specific restriction has been found to be constitutionally permissible. Although that prohibition is enforced inconsistently, it nevertheless suggests the contours of legitimate, content-based denial of formal governmental protection for certain intellectual property.


In the mangrove of the Caete Estuary (North Brazil) a detailed sampling was carried out in order to gain insight into the dynamics of inorganic nutrients and organic matter in one of the world's largest mangroves and to identify the driving forces behind these processes. Throughout 36 tidal cycles in the course of one year, concentrations of dissolved and particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC, POC, DON, PON) and dissolved inorganic nutrients (N, P, Si compounds) were determined in a mangrove tidal creek. Annual average concentrations (in μM) were DOC 360, POC 240, DON 20, PON 29, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) 11, silicate 170 and phosphate 2·4. Ammonium and nitrite were about 80 and 17% of DIN, respectively. Nutrient dynamics in the creek were significantly influenced by porewater input from the upper forest sediment layer. This led to characteristic tidal signatures of nutrient and organic matter concentrations with maximum values during low tide. Annual phosphate and DOC oscillations were caused mainly by tidally dependent variations of porewater input. Their concentrations in the creek were directly proportional to the hydraulic gradient between creek and sediment water table. Due to autotrophic activity, dissolved oxygen, pH and DOC were higher and DIN was lower during daytime than at night. Annual oscillations of DIN and DON could also be attributed to varying phytoplanktonic activity. Silicate and phosphate showed only weak response to aquatic photosynthesis with slightly lower concentrations during the day. Assuming equilibrated fluxes, nitrogen fixation in the forest could be estimated to be 2·3 mmol N m−2 d−1. Based on these findings, tidal range and porewater concentrations were identified as driving forces behind coastal outwelling of nutrients and organic matter from mangroves. Outwelling probably occurs only from mangroves where the nutrient concentration in porewater exceeds the demands of the benthic community and trees, caused by positive sedimentation balances and high nitrogen fixation rates, and only in macrotidal regions where porewater can flow in considerable amounts to the tidal creeks and the ocean.


Paranormal beliefs often become stronger in times of stress. Such beliefs have also been found to vary in accordance with thinking style, whereby stronger beliefs are often observed in experiential thinkers. Little research, however, has explored the interaction between perceived stress and thinking style. Eighty-two males and females aged 18 to 62 years (M = 29.96 ± 12.53 years) completed measures of perceived stress, thinking style (rational and experiential), and paranormal belief. The results revealed stronger beliefs in experiential thinkers, compared with those with a rational thinking style. Perceived stress alone was not a prominent predictor of belief, but the combination of stress and thinking style, specifically high-perceived stress with a rational thinking style, significantly predicted greater global paranormal belief, belief in superstition, traditional religious belief, and belief in psi. High-perceived stress appeared to facilitate belief in rational thinkers as conversely belief was lowest in rational thinkers under conditions of low-perceived stress. These findings suggest that stress may lower the propensity for rational thinking and consequently encourage belief in scientifically unsubstantiated phenomena. This interaction may have implications for coping during stressful situations.


...................................................................................................................... ii! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv! NOMENCLATURE ........................................................................................................... v! TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vi! LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ viii! LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. x!


Average age and size at maturation have decreased in many commercially exploited fish stocks during the last decades. This phenomenon could be either a direct phenotypic response to some environmental variation or the evolutionary consequence of some selective pressure. Traditionally used maturation indices, e.g., the age and size at which 50% of individuals are mature, are not appropriate to assess the causes of changes in maturation because they are influenced, in addition to maturation per se, by growth and survival. To make up for this shortcoming, we use a reaction-norm-based approach to disentangle evolutionary changes and phenotypic plasticity. A method is presented to es- timate the reaction norm for age and size at maturation from data commonly gathered for the management of fisheries. This method is applied to data on Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine stocks of Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua). The results show that maturation reaction norms in these stocks have shifted significantly downward, resulting in a tendency to mature earlier at smaller size. These findings support the hypothesis that an evolutionary trend, probably caused by high fishing mortalities, is partially responsible for the observed de- crease in age and size at maturation in these cod stocks. Two independent reasons justify this interpretation. First, there is no corresponding trend in growth that would suggest that improved feeding conditions could have facilitated maturation. Second, the results are based on maturation reaction norms, from which the known confounding effects of the growth and mortality variation are removed. Consequences of fisheries-induced evolution for the sustainability of the fishery are discussed.


The influence of pi-stacking on the magnetic properties of atoms that belong to adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine pairs in sequences of three and five layers of DNA base pairs was analysed. As probes we used NMR spectroscopic parameters, which are among the most useful tools to learn about the transmission of magnetic interactions in molecules. Four DFT functionals were employed: B3LYP, BHANDLYP, KT2 and KT3, together with the SOPPA method. Besides, given that the number of non-hydrogen atoms of the supramolecular systems studied here is larger than 50 we applied a locally dense basis set scheme. Our results show that the piling up of a few Watson-Crick base pairs above and below a given pair modifies its NMR spectroscopic parameters by an amount that may be measurable and the percentage of variation does not depend on dispersion. We found that magnetic shieldings are more sensitive than J-couplings, and also that some atoms are more sensitive than others. Stacking affects the shielding of non-hydrogen atoms like nitrogens, that are donors in hydrogen bonds, HBs, and the carbons bonded to them. The amount of variation of these shieldings was found to be from 2% to 5% when the pairs are considered first as isolated, and then, placed in the middle of a sequence of three layers of base pairs. Such a variation becomes vanishingly small when the sequence contains more than three layers, showing that the stacking effect on NMR spectroscopic parameters has a local nature. We have also found a pattern for shieldings. First, equivalent atoms of similar monomers (thymine and adenine, or guanine and cytosine) have similar values of absolute shieldings in isolated pairs, and the amount of variation from isolated pairs to aggregates of a few pairs is also similar, meaning that equivalent atoms are affected in a similar manner by pi-stacking. Second, the hydrogen atoms which belong to hydrogen bonds are more sensitive to the piling up than the non-hydrogen atoms.


Purpose To assess the extended efficacy and safety of suprachoroidal triamcinolone acetonide injectable suspension (CLS-TA) among patients with macular oedema (ME) secondary to non-infectious uveitis (NIU). Methods Patients with uveitic ME were treated with suprachoroidal CLS-TA at baseline and week 12 of the Efficacy and Safety of Suprachoroidal CLS-TA for Macular Edema Secondary to Noninfectious Uveitis: Phase 3 Randomized Trial (PEACHTREE) study. Time to rescue was evaluated over 24 additional weeks for MAGNOLIA. Safety data, visual acuity and retinal central subfield thickness (CST) reduction were also evaluated. Of the 53 eligible patients (46 CLS-TA and 7 control), 33 patients were enrolled (28 CLS-TA and 5 control). Results Over the entire 48-week period for PEACHTREE and MAGNOLIA, the median time to rescue therapy was 257 days versus 55.5 days for the CLS-TA and sham-control arms, respectively. Of 28 CLS-TA treated patients who participated in MAGNOLIA, 14 (50%) did not require rescue therapy through approximately 9 months after the second treatment. Among CLS-TA patients not requiring rescue, there was a mean gain of 12.1 letters and mean CST reduction of 174.5 µm at week 48. No serious adverse events related to study treatment were observed. Conclusion Approximately 50% of patients did not require additional treatment for up to 9 months following the last CLS-TA administration.


Freud Upside Down: African American Literature and Psychoanalytic Culture AUTHOR: BADIA SAHAR AHAD UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS, 2010 PRICE: $40.00. ISBN: 978-0-252-03566-1 The dense Introduction to Freud Upside Down opens with a powerful quote from Carl Jung: Just as the coloured man lives in your cities and even within your houses, so also he lives under your skin, subconsciously. Naturally, it works both ways ... every Negro has a white complex and every American [white] a Negro complex. As a rule, the coloured man would give anything to change his skin, and the white man hates to admit that he has been touched by the black (as cited in Jung, 1953, p. 508). Jung's observation serves as the impetus to Badia Sahar Ahad's argument: that while Jung's perception of the Negro depended upon an interconnected relationship between American Negroes and whites, Negro intellectuals rejected his contention outright and created instead a "psychoanalytic counter discourse to Jung's paradigm" that underscored black nationalism and challenged white supremacy (Badir, 2010, p.1). In order to uncover such a counter discourse, Ahad focuses her research on a psychoanalytic approach to African-American culture in the early twentieth century through a New Historic lens. She examines a myriad of artifacts- from the arts to politics, from the Harlem Renaissance to the black nationalist movement. She also incorporates an in-depth review of other critical views of psychoanalytic analysis of African-American culture, including such scholars as Claudia Tate, Hortense Spillers, Anne Anlin Cheng and Jean Walton. Eventually Ahad reveals the relevance of a study of the intersection of psychoanalysis and African-American culture: "to bridge the divide" between the two and explore "how psychoanalysis has clarified psychical impulses with African-American literature and.... in the lives of its authors." (Badir, 2010, p.8) The density of the Introduction continues throughout the book. For example, Chapter One, which is divided in to four sections, begins with a discussion of Floyd J. Calvin's stint as Assistant Editor of Messenger (1922) magazine and his collection of psychoanalytic articles which subvert a tenant of psychoanalysis proper by dismissing the notion of repression and thereby creating a psychological space for intimacy between the races. She contrasts the Messenger, Crisis and Opportunity in order to expose the vast differences between African-American intellectuals, including A. Philip Randolf and W.E.B. DuBois. In the next subsection --"Signifyin' Psychoanalysis and the Rhetoric of Interracialism"--Ahad argues that Messenger editorials, taken as one narrative, support race mixing in order to create a "mulatto nation," invert Freud's argument that blackness "signified a space of willful ignorance or unknowability" and instead present the idea of blackness as the space that shapes "white psyche" and the resultant b(1)acklash of that space. …


Title of Dissertation: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF EMPATHY ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE PRINCIPLES: NEED VERSUS EQUITY Bing Han, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Deborah A. Cai, Department of Communication This dissertation research examined how cultures differ in the use of the distributive justice principles of need and equity. Empathy was proposed as a possible mechanism to explain cultural differences in the conflict between the ethics of care and justice as reflected in the use of the need and equity principles. Four experiments were conducted to investigate the role of empathy in three distinct distribution situations across two cultural groups, Chinese nationals and U.S. Americans. In all four studies, participants were asked to assume the role of a high-status person and make a distribution decision in a questionnaire. The first and second studies examined how empathy affected the equity principle in a bonus distribution situation in a company; the third study explored how empathy influenced the need principle in an assistance-fund distribution situation in a charity organization; and the fourth study investigated how empathy affected the choice between merit and need in a scholarship distribution situation in a university. Data were collected in both China and the U.S. for each of the four studies (total N = 1,022). Results indicated a significant moderating effect of culture such that empathy had different effects on the principles of equity and need in the two cultural groups. Empathy narrowed the money gap between lowand high-competence employees for Chinese, but maintained the gap for U.S. Americans; it also equalized the amount of money given to lowand high-need applicants for Chinese, but preserved the difference for U.S. Americans. Interpretations and implications of the results are provided, and the methodological and theoretical significance of the research along with future directions are discussed. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF EMPATHY ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE PRINCIPLES: NEED VERSUS EQUITY


I distinguish between political and economic populism. Both are averse to agencies of restraint, or, equivalently, delegation to technocrats or external rules. In the economic domain, delegation to independent agencies (domestic or foreign) occurs in two different contexts: (i) in order to prevent the majority from harming itself in the future and (ii) in order to cement a redistribution arising from a temporary political advantage for the longer-term. Economic policy restraints that arise in the first case are desirable; those that arise in the second case are much less so.


ABSTRACT A better understanding of how human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection affects the course of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is required to select patients with HIV who would benefit from current HCV therapy. Between June 1996 and March 2000, HCV RNA levels were quantified for 1,279 patients at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center; 28 of these patients were coinfected with HIV. HCV loads were quantified by the Bayer branched-DNA assay with a lower limit of detection of 0.2 Meq/ml. We compared the median HCV RNA levels of for patients coinfected with HIV and HCV and patients infected only with HCV who were in the same age range (23 to 55 years). The median HCV load for the 28 patients coinfected with HCV and HIV (17.8 Meq/ml) was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than that for similarly aged patients infected only with HCV (6.1 Meq/ml). The HCV load did not correlate with age or sex for either group of patients. A significant (R = −0.4; P < 0.05) negative correlation was observed between HCV load and CD4 count in the coinfected group, for whom the CD4 counts at the time of HCV load analysis ranged from 6 to 1,773/mm3. The increased HCV load in patients coinfected with HCV and HIV compared to that in patients infected only with HCV and the inverse relationship of the HCV load to the CD4 count indicate that immunosuppression results in decreased control of HCV replication. In addition, we report significantly higher HCV loads among coinfected African Americans than Caucasians.


A locus for triphalangeal thumb, variably associated with pre-axial polydactyly, was previously identified in the zone of polarizing activity regulatory sequence (ZRS), a long range limb-specific enhancer of the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) gene at human chromosome 7q36.3. Here, we demonstrate that a 295T>C variant in the human ZRS, previously thought to represent a neutral polymorphism, acts as a dominant allele with reduced penetrance. We found this variant in three independently ascertained probands from southern England with triphalangeal thumb, demonstrated significant linkage of the phenotype to the variant (LOD = 4.1), and identified a shared microsatellite haplotype around the ZRS, suggesting that the probands share a common ancestor. An individual homozygous for the 295C allele presented with isolated bilateral triphalangeal thumb resembling the heterozygous phenotype, suggesting that the variant is largely dominant to the wild-type allele. As a functional test of the pathogenicity of the 295C allele, we utilized a mutated ZRS construct to demonstrate that it can drive ectopic anterior expression of a reporter gene in the developing mouse forelimb. We conclude that the 295T>C variant is in fact pathogenic and, in southern England, appears to be the most common cause of triphalangeal thumb. Depending on the dispersal of the founding mutation, it may play a wider role in the aetiology of this disorder.


At a number of synapses, long-term potentiation (LTP) can be expressed by an increase in presynaptic strength, but it is unknown whether presynaptic LTP is expressed solely through an increase in the probability that a single vesicle is released or whether it can increase multivesicular release (MVR). Here, we show that presynaptic LTP decreases inhibition of AMPA receptor EPSCs by a low-affinity antagonist at parallel fiber–molecular layer interneuron (PF–MLI) synapses. This indicates that LTP induction results in larger glutamate concentration transients in the synaptic cleft, a result indicative of MVR, and suggests that MVR can be modified by long-term plasticity. A similar decrease in inhibition was observed when release probability (PR) was increased by forskolin, elevated extracellular Ca2+, and paired-pulse facilitation. Furthermore, we show that MVR may occur under baseline physiological conditions, as inhibition increased when PR was lowered by reducing extracellular Ca2+ or by activating presynaptic adenosine receptors. These results suggest that at PF–MLI synapses, MVR occurs under control conditions and is increased when PR is elevated by both short- and long-term plasticity mechanisms.


"Empire of the Dharma" explores the dynamic relationship between Korean and Japanese Buddhists in the years leading up to the Japanese annexation of Korea. Conventional narratives cast this relationship in politicized terms, with Korean Buddhists portrayed as complicit in the "religious annexation" of the peninsula. However, this view fails to account for the diverse visions, interests, and strategies that drove both sides. Hwansoo Ilmee Kim complicates this politicized account of religious interchange by reexamining the "alliance" forged in 1910 between the Japanese Soto sect and the Korean Wonjong order. The author argues that their ties involved not so much political ideology as mutual benefit. Both wished to strengthen Buddhism's precarious position within Korean society and curb Christianity's growing influence. Korean Buddhist monastics sought to leverage Japanese resources as a way of advancing themselves and their temples, and missionaries of Japanese Buddhist sects competed with one another to dominate Buddhism on the peninsula. This strategic alliance pushed both sides to confront new ideas about the place of religion in modern society and framed the way that many Korean and Japanese Buddhists came to think about the future of their shared religion.


The linguistic analyses on easily accessible, user-generated social media content offers great opportunities to identify individual characteristics such as their cognitive styles. In this paper, We explore the potential to use social media content to identify individuals' cognitive styles. We first employed crowdsourcing to collect Twitter users' cognitive styles using standard psychometric instruments. Then, we extracted the linguistic features of their social media postings. Leveraging these features, we build prediction models that provide estimates of cognitive styles through statistical regression and classification. We find that user generated content in social media provide useful information for characterizing people's cognitive styles. The models' performance indicates that the cognitive styles automatically inferred from social media are good proxies for the ground truth, and hence provides a promising and scalable way to automatically identify a large number of people's cognitive styles without reaching them individually.