In late August 2007 an outbreak of Equine Influenza (EI) occurred in Australia. This was the nation's first outbreak and the disease spread rapidly, especially in areas of high horse density. A comprehensive disease control response was mounted swiftly; which included a nationwide horse standstill, use of disease control zoning, movement restrictions, quarantine, and a vaccination program. The disease was successfully contained within two eastern Australian States; New South Wales and Queensland. The last cases of EI were confirmed in December 2007 and an extensive program of monitoring and surveillance was undertaken to prove freedom from disease, which resulted in Australia being formally declared EI-free in December 2008. During the disease control phase attention was focused on the economic impacts of the disease. This chapter details a study conducted during the EI outbreak to assess the psychosocial ('human impacts') of EI across all industry sectors. Specifically, this chapter focuses on risk factors associated with high levels of adverse psychosocial response as assessed using three outcome measures; a standardized population measure of psychological distress (the K10), and reported levels of isolation and misery. In addition, respondent comments regarding suggestions for disease control response improvement are considered. Statistical analysis identified a core set of risk factors that were associated with all three psychosocial outcome measures. These were a high perception of vulnerability to EI, poor self-rated physical health status, low individual resilience, as measured by a sense of poor ability to adapt to change and poor ability to bounce back from hardship, and high reported emotional impact caused by EI. Further analyses of the risk factors associated with individual adverse psychosocial outcome measures are also reported. Discussion of results focuses on possible explanations for the research findings in the Melanie Taylor, Kingsley Agho, Beverley Raphael et al. 2 context of EI and suggestions for response improvements to address these; informed by comments and suggestions made by respondents during the outbreak. The results of this study help us to understand human psychosocial response to an infectious animal disease threat and the prolonged control measures needed to control, contain, and eradicate that disease. The findings identify many person-related risk factors for adverse psychosocial response that are likely to generalize to other emergency or adverse events, and therefore the findings have potential use and relevance not only for future animal disease outbreaks, but may also inform those involved with emergency response to disaster, terrorism, and human infectious disease outbreaks.


Being "top of the league" may be heartwarming for footballers but in the world of ischaemic heart disease it brings cold comfort. Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England and-Wales are currently among the leaders for mortality rates from ischaemic heart disease both for men and women. While some countries, such as the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, have shown impressive declines in mortality rates for men over the past decade or so, the rates in the United Kingdom have shown little change. Improvements in the managei ment of ischaemic heart disease, both medical and surgical, have considerably alleviated the suffering of many patients,. but they are unlikely to bring about major reductions in the overall population risk of death or disability from ischaemic heart disease. We have become accustomed to being a high risk community and we can either continue in this frame of reference or we can recognise that a national policy for the prevention of ischaemic heart disease is needed urgently. The administration of lime juice to prevent scurvy and the removal of the Broad Street pump handle to stop the spread of cholera are much quoted examples of successful action that preceded "adequate" information about a health hazard. The complexity of ischaemic heart disease and the controversies surrounding its aetiology and management, however, have raised the level of certainty demanded before action can be taken. Even though national committees of many countries have produced reports recommending action in various directions-almost all affect diet, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, and physical activity-there is still considerable argument about the extent to which these measures would affect the impact of ischaemic


Assessment of exchange-rate arrangements have become an integral feature of recent discussions on reform of the international financial architecture. Meanwhile, numerous articles have sought to identify viable exchange-rate regimes in a world increasingly characterised by high capital mobility. The upshot of this recent interest in exchange-rate regimes is that a large part of the profession appears to have become converted to " the hypothesis of the vanishing middle regime" , for countries well-integrated into world capital markets, there is little, if any, middle ground between floating exchange rates and monetary unification. Monetary unions are expected to have welfare improving allocative effects by boosting international trade and economic growth inside the currency area because of the increased stability of the exchange rate brought about by the increased credibility of the exchange rate regime. The literature on optimal currency areas emphasizes that policy independence is crucial if countries face recurrent idiosyncratic disturbances. If member-countries of the EMU show sizeable asymmetry in the timing of business cycle phases and their exposure to exogenous shocks, these countries may be better off retaining their ability to conduct monetary and exchange rate policies. Consequently, the important empirical issue is whether Europe is a region in which country-specific shocks prevail or whether shocks affect most of these countries in a similar way. Eurozation is a relatively rare phenomenon. Yet in recent years it has attracted a lot of attention, which can be proved by an increasing number of studies dealing with this problem, as well as an increasing number of countries taking this course of action. This paper deals with the advantages and disadvantages of eurozation (dollarization), not only from the theoretical aspect but also on the basis of experience of other dolarized countries. The unequivocal conclusion is that eurozation (dollarization) is not a monetary policy instrument that can be recommended to Croatia. Ultimately, a credible exchange-rate regime depends upon the trust evoked by governments. A governance structure that enforces the rule of law and sanctity of contracts and a political system that delivers credible, non-inflationary policies are prerequisites for the existence of a sustainable exchange-rate regime.


Triple effect absorption chillers can achieve 50% coefficient of performance (COP) improvement over double-effect systems. However, to translate this potential into cost-effective hardware, the most promising embodiments must be identified. In this study, 12 generic triple effect cycles and 76 possible hermetic loop arrangements of those 12 generic cycles were identified. The generic triple effect cycles were screened based on their pressure and solubility field requirements, generic COPs, risk involved in the component design and number of components in a high corrosive environment. This screening identified four promising arrangements: alkitrate topping cycle; pressure staged envelope cycle; high pressure overlap cycle; and dual loop cycle. All of these arrangements have a very high COP (/spl sim/1.8), however the development risk and cost involved is different for each arrangement. Therefore, the selection of a particular arrangement will depend upon the specific situation under consideration.


Privacy is one of the major concerns when publishing or sharing social network data for social science research and business analysis. Recently, researchers have developed privacy models similar to k-anonymity to prevent node reidentification through structure information. However, even when these privacy models are enforced, an attacker may still be able to infer one's private information if a group of nodes largely share the same sensitive labels (i.e., attributes). In other words, the label-node relationship is not well protected by pure structure anonymization methods. Furthermore, existing approaches, which rely on edge editing or node clustering, may significantly alter key graph properties. In this paper, we define a k-degree-l-diversity anonymity model that considers the protection of structural information as well as sensitive labels of individuals. We had seen a novel anonymization methodology based on adding noise nodes. We implemented that algorithm by adding noise nodes into the original graph with the consideration of introducing the least distortion to graph properties. We here propose novel approach to reduce number of noise node so that decrease the complexity within networks. We implement this protection model in a distributed environment, where different publishers publish their data independently Most importantly, we provide a rigorous analysis of the theoretical bounds on the number of noise nodes added and their impacts on an important graph property. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.


An important implementation issue in the design of hybrid evolutionary multiobjective optimization algorithms such as multiobjective genetic local search (MOGLS) is how to combine local search with evolutionary algorithms. It has been demonstrated that the performance of MOGLS strongly depends on the order of global search and local search. A balance between local search and global search also affects its search ability. We can use three ideas for designing high-performance MOGLS algorithms. One idea is to choose one of two options: local search after global search or global search after local search. In general, their appropriate order depends on the problem. Another idea is to use tuned parameter values to appropriately specify their balance. The other idea is to change both their order and the parameter values during the execution of MOGLS. This idea can be implemented by dividing the whole search period into some sub-periods (i.e., dividing all generations into some intervals of generations). The appropriate order and parameter values are assigned to each sub-period. In this paper, we propose off-line algorithm structure optimization for MOGLS. The effectiveness of the proposed idea is examined by computational experiments on a two-objective knapsack problem and a two-objective flowshop scheduling problem. Based on experimental results, we discuss the importance of structure optimization of MOGLS.


Neutrophils plays a crucial role in the intertwined processes of thrombosis and inflammation. Altered neutrophil phenotype may contribute to inadequate resolution which is known to be a major pathophysiological contributor of thrombo-inflammatory conditions such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The endogenous protein Annexin A1 (AnxA1) facilitates inflammation resolution via Formyl Peptide Receptors (FPRs). We sought to comprehensively elucidate the functional significance of targeting neutrophil dependent AnxA1/FPR2/ALX pathway in SCD. Administration of AnxA1 mimetic peptide AnxA1Ac2-26 ameliorated cerebral thrombotic responses in Sickle transgenic mice via regulation of FPR2/ALX (a fundamental receptor involved in resolution) pathway. We demonstrated direct evidence that neutrophils with SCD phenotype play a key role in contributing to thrombo-inflammation. In addition, AnxA1Ac2-26 regulated activated SCD neutrophils through protein kinase B (Akt) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) to enable resolution. Herein, we present compelling conceptual evidence that targeting the AnxA1/FPR2/ALX pathway may provide new therapeutic possibilities against thrombo-inflammatory conditions such as SCD.


Following a brief overview of approaches to workplace health promotion and more specifically of health education courses the paper describes the objectives, contents and methods of a new health course for workers at elevated health risk. This course was developed as part of a comprehensive workplace intervention programme. It comprises three consecutive modules, coping with stress, nutrition, and fitness, each consisting of five 75-minute lessons. Due to intervals of several months between the modules the whole course takes about a year. Course objectives are to improve awareness of own health-related life-style, to mobilise health resources and to develop potentials for health action. Instructional methods include teaching of relevant knowledge, exchange of experience, observational tasks as well as practical exercises.


Multiple ion fragmentation methods involving collision-induced dissociation (CID), higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD) with regular and very high energy settings, and electron-transfer dissociation with supplementary HCD (EThcD) are implemented to improve the confidence of cross-link identifications. Three different S. cerevisiae proteasome samples cross-linked by diethyl suberthioimidate (DEST) or bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)suberate (BS3) are analyzed. Two approaches are introduced to combine interpretations from the above four methods. Working with cleavable cross-linkers such as DEST, the first approach searches for cross-link diagnostic ions and consistency among the best interpretations derived from all four MS2 spectra associated with each precursor ion. Better agreement leads to a more definitive identification. Compatible with both cleavable and noncleavable cross-linkers such as BS3, the second approach multiplies scoring metrics from a number of fragmentation experiments to derive an overall best match. This significantly increases the scoring gap between the target and decoy matches. The validity of cross-links fragmented by HCD alone and identified by Kojak, MeroX, pLink, and Xi was evaluated using multiple fragmentation data. Possible ways to improve the identification credibility are discussed. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD018310.


Fifteen beef cow-calf producers in southern Iowa were selected based on locality, management level, historical date of grazing initiation and desire to participate in the project. In 1997 and 1998, all producers kept records of production and economic data using the Integrated Resource Management-Standardized Performance Analysis (IRM-SPA) records program. At the initiation of grazing on each farm in 1997 and 1998, Julian date, degree-days, cumulative precipitation, and soil moisture, phosphorus, and potassium concentrations were determined. Also determined were pH, temperature, and load-bearing capacity; and forage mass, sward height, morphology and dry matter concentration. Over the grazing season, forage production, measured both by cumulative mass and sward height, forage in vitro digestible dry matter concentration, and crude protein concentration were determined monthly. In the fall of 1996 the primary species in pastures on farms used in this project were cool-season grasses, which composed 76% of the live forage whereas legumes and weeds composed 8.3 and 15.3%, respectively. The average number of paddocks was 4.1, reflecting a low intensity rotational stocking system on most farms. The average dates of grazing initiation were May 5 and April 29 in 1997 and 1998, respectively, with standard deviations of 14.8 and 14.1 days. Because the average soil moisture of 23% was dry and did not differ between years, it seems that most producers delayed the initiation of grazing to avoid muddy conditions by initiating grazing at a nearly equal soil moisture. However, Julian date, degree-days, soil temperature and morphology index at grazing initiation were negatively related to seasonal forage production, measured as mass or sward height, in 1998. And forage mass and height at grazing initiation were negatively related to seasonal forage production, measured as sward height, in 1997. Moreover, the concentrations of digestible dry matter at the initiation of and during the grazing season and the concentrations of crude protein during the grazing season were lower than desired for optimal animal performance. Because the mean seasonal digestible dry matter concentration was negatively related to initial forage mass in 1997 and mean seasonal crude proteins concentrations were negatively related to the Julian date, degree-days, and morphology indeces in both years, it seems that delaying the initiation of grazing until pasture soils are not muddy, is limiting the quality as well as the quantity of pasture forage. In 1997, forage production and digestibility were positively related to the soil phosphorus concentration. Soil potassium concentration was positively related to forage digestibility in 1997 and forage production and crude protein concentration in 1998. Increasing the number of paddocks increased forage production, measured as sward height, in 1997, and forage digestible dry matter concentration in 1998. Increasing yields or the concentrations of digestible dry matter or crude protein of pasture forage reduced the costs of purchased feed per cow.


NF is the process of feeding back real-time information to an individual about his/her ongoing brain activity, so that he/she can train to self-regulate neural substrates of specific behavioral functions. NF has been extensively studied for brain rehabilitation of patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. However its effective deployment in the clinical armamentarium is being held back by the lack of evidence about its efficacy.
One of the possible reason for the debated efficacy of current approaches could be the inherent limitations of single imaging modalities. Indeed, most NF approaches rely on the use of a single modality, EEG and fMRI being the two most widely used. While EEG is inexpensive and benefits from a high tem- poral resolution (millisecond), its spatial resolution (centimeters) is limited by volume conduction of the head and the number of electrodes. Also source lo- calization from EEG is inaccurate because of the ill-posed inverse problem. In a complementary way, fMRI gives access to the self-regulation of specific brain regions at high spatial resolution (millimeter) but has low temporal resolution (second).
Combined EEG-fMRI has proven much valuable for the study of human brain function, however it has rarely been exploited for NF purpose. In the con- text of NF, combining EEG and fMRI enables cross-modal paradigm evaluation and validation. But more interestingly it opens up avenues for the development of new NF approaches that would mix both modalities, either at the calibration phase or to provide a bimodal NF signal. Combined EEG-fMRI poses numer- ous challenges with regard to basic physiology, study design, data quality, analy- sis/integration and interpretation. These challenges are even greater if EEG and fMRI are both to be used simultaneously for online NF computation, because of the real-time constraint and the difficulty to find a task design compatible with EEG and fMRI' diverging natures.
The theoretical part of this PhD dissertation aims at identifying methodologi- cal aspects that differ between EEG-NF and fMRI-NF and at examining the mo- tivations and strategies for combining EEG and fMRI for NF purpose. Among these combination strategies, we choose to focus on bimodal EEG-fMRI-NF as it seems to be one of the most promising approach and is mostly unexplored. The feasibility of this approach was recently demonstrated and opened an en- tire new field of investigation. First and foremost, we would like to address the following questions: what is the added value of bimodal NF over unimodal NF; are there any specific mechanisms involved when learning to control two NF signals simultaneously; how to integrate EEG and fMRI to derive a single feed- back ? The experimental part of this PhD dissertation therefore focuses on the development and evaluation of methods for bimodal EEG-fMRI-NF. In order to conduct bimodal NF experiments, we start by building up a real-time EEG- fMRI platform. Then in a first study, we compare for the first time bimodal EEG-fMRI-NF with unimodal EEG-NF and fMRI-NF. Eventually, in a second study, we introduce and evaluate two integrated feedback strategies for EEG- fMRI-NF.


The proposed empirical research uses a national sample of 19 Romanian companies from various industries to estimate de utilities for financial and non-financial performance measures used in Romanian supply chains. Empirical findings show that national supply chain measurement systems are balanced, using both financial and non-financial performance measures. The high estimated utility corresponding to indicators measuring logistic costs provides evidence that inter-functional and inter-organization integration in supply chains at national level are realized through operational excellence. Achieving the full potential of supply chain integration requires that management fosters both integration of operations and integration of customers.


The land surface parameterization used with the community climate model (CCM3) and the climate system model (CSM1), the National Center for Atmospheric Research land surface model (NCAR LSM1), has been modified as part of the development of the next version of these climate models. This new model is known as the community land model (CLM2). In CLM2, the surface is represented by five primary subgrid land cover types (glacier, lake, wetland, urban, vegetated) in each grid cell. The vegetated portion of a grid cell is further divided into patches of up to 4 of 16 plant functional types, each with its own leaf and stem area index and canopy height. The relative area of each subgrid unit, the plant functional type, and leaf area index are obtained from 1-km satellite data. The soil texture dataset allows vertical profiles of sand and clay. Most of the physical parameterizations in the model were also updated. Major model differences include: 10 layers for soil temperature and soil water with explicit treatment of liquid water and ice; a multilayer snowpack; runoff based on the TOPMODEL concept; new formulation of ground and vegetation fluxes; and vertical root profiles from a global synthesis of ecological studies. Simulations with CCM3 show significant improvements in surface air temperature, snow cover, and runoff for CLM2 compared to LSM1. CLM2 generally warms surface air temperature in all seasons compared to LSM1, reducing or eliminating many cold biases. Annual precipitation over land is reduced from 2.35 mm day21 in LSM1 to 2.14 mm day21 in CLM2. The hydrologic cycle is also different. Transpiration and ground evaporation are reduced. Leaves and stems evaporate more intercepted water annually in CLM2 than LSM1. Global runoff from land increases from 0.75 mm day21 in LSM1 to 0.84 mm day21 in CLM2. The annual cycle of runoff is greatly improved in CLM2, especially in arctic and boreal regions where the model has low runoff in cold seasons when the soil is frozen and high runoff during the snowmelt season. Most of the differences between CLM2 and LSM1 are attributed to particular parameterizations rather than to different surface datasets. Important processes include: multilayer snow, frozen water, interception, soil water limitation to latent heat, and higher aerodynamic resistances to heat exchange from ground.


Modern microencapsulation techniques are employed to protect active molecules or substances such as vitamins, pigments, antimicrobials, and flavorings, among others, from the environment. Microencapsulation offers advantages such as facilitating handling and control of the release and solubilization of active substances, thus offering a great area for food science and processing development. For instance, the development of functional food products, fat reduction, sensory improvement, preservation, and other areas may involve the use of microcapsules in various food matrices such as meat products, dairy products, cereals, and fruits, as well as in their derivatives, with good results. The versatility of applications arises from the diversity of techniques and materials used in the process of microencapsulation. The objective of this review is to report the state of the art in the application and evaluation of microcapsules in various food matrices, as a one-microcapsule-core system may offer different results according to the medium in which it is used. The inclusion of microcapsules produces functional products that include probiotics and prebiotics, as well as antioxidants, fatty acids, and minerals. Our main finding was that the microencapsulation of polyphenolic extracts, bacteriocins, and other natural antimicrobials from various sources that inhibit microbial growth could be used for food preservation. Finally, in terms of sensory aspects, microcapsules that mimic fat can function as fat replacers, reducing the textural changes in the product as well as ensuring flavor stability.


To call a place rural is to categorize it as a particular kind of place and, often, to presume that particular kinds of being innately occur there. Over the past 20 years, however, trends in British rural studies have problematized easy ascription; this article is an ethnographic contribution within those trends. If it is no longer adequate to read the rural as a container for being, then, as I contend here, rurality can be explored anew through doing. I draw upon David Matless's (1994) frame of 'doing the village' representationally, and amplify it to include concepts of place as representational and relational. I thus use 'doing' to read the multiple ways in which diverse residents in a Northern England village engage with both their real locality and with nationally shared rural imaginings.


Color quantization replaces the color of each pixel with the closest representative color, and thus it makes the resulting image partitioned into uniformly-colored regions. As a consequence, continuous, detailed variations of color over the corresponding regions in the original image are lost through color quantization. In this paper. we present a novel blind scheme for restoring such variations from a color-quantized input image without it priori knowledge of the quantization method. Our scheme identifies which pairs of uniformly-colored regions in the input image should have continuous variations of color in the resulting image. Then, such regions are seamlessly stitched through optimization while preserving the closest representative colors. The user can optionally indicate which regions should be separated or stitched by scribbling constraint brushes across the regions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through diverse examples, such as photographs, cartoons, and artistic illustrations.


In a competitive market, market splitting (nodal pricing) is the most efficient way to deal with congestion. Counter-trading is inefficient as it gives the wrong long term signals for entry and exit of power plants, and hence, causes over-entry in the market. However, in a non-competitive market, entry will improve the competitiveness of the market, and will increase social benefit by reducing price-cost margins. This paper studies whether the procompetitive entry effects could make counter-trading more efficient than market splitting. We find that this is not the case and that counter-trading is likely to have a negative effect on overall welfare. The benefits of additional competition (more competitive prices and lower production cost) do not outweigh the distortions (additional investment cost for the entrant, and socialization of the congestion cost to final consumers).


Inflammation plays a crucial role in protecting the host from infection and tissue injury. However, uncontrolled inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of major auto-inflammatory diseases. Interleukin-1 (IL-1), a pleiotropic pro-inflammatory cytokine, is a pivotal mediator of many of these diseases. The best characterised IL-1 family members, IL-1? and IL-1?, are produced as precursor forms of 31 kDa in size. Both precursors are cleaved and secreted, activating transmembrane IL-1 receptors on IL-1-responsive cells. Many studies that focused on IL-1? have shown that the precursor and processed mature Ct peptide, as well as its N terminus (Nt) form, can elicit a signal. However, with IL-1?, only the processed mature Ct form is known to elicit an inflammatory response and no immunological activity has been attributed to Nt fragments of pro-IL-1?. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to produce recombinant human Nt-IL-1? fragments in bacterial and mammalian expression system to investigate their possible immunomodulatory functions. Recombinant His-tagged N-terminus fragments (10 and 14 kDa) of pro-IL-1? were cloned into the bacterial expression vector pET-22(+) and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) followed by purification using three consecutive columns (IMAC, SEC and AEC). Purification analysis of eluted proteins from columns indicated that the recombinant proteins were always co-purified with some other bacterial proteins. The Nt fragments of pro-IL-1? were cloned into the mammalian expression plasmid, pcDNA3.1(+). Expression of these proteins was monitored by transfection of two mammalian cell lines: Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK) 293 cells and monkey kidney cells (COS-7). No protein expression was observed with either construct.These limitations urged us to investigate the expression and degradation of endogenous IL-1 in vitro. Previous studies have shown that the transcription of cytokine genes in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is usually rapid and begins to decline within a few hours after stimulation. The proteasome is the major cellular proteolytic apparatus and controls the turn-over of cellular proteins. We investigated the intracellular stability of IL-1? and IL-1? in LPS-stimulated mouse J774 macrophages and primary mouse bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs). Exposure of LPS-stimulated J774 and BMDMs to three different classes of proteasome inhibitors (peptide alhedyde (ALLN), peptide boronate (MG262) and non-peptide inhibitor (?-lactone)) prevented the degradation of intracellular IL-1? and IL-1? in a concentration and time dependent manner. Furthermore, the release of IL-1 into the culture media was not affected by any of these inhibitors in LPS-stimulated J774 cells. However, in LPS-stimulated BMDMs, ?-lactone increased the release of both IL-1? and IL-1? and ALLN only increased IL-1? release into culture supernatant compared to control. MG262 had no effect on the release of either. These data suggest that the proteasome plays an important role in controlling the amount of IL-1? and IL-1? by restricting the intracellular levels of these cytokines in activated monocytes and macrophages. Therefore, this study provides evidence in support of the hypothesis that the proteasome is involved in the degradation of IL-1? and IL-1? and may offer a potential therapeutic target in inflammatory diseases.


The role of schools in providing economic education from an early age should be maximized through non-formal or informal education as new economic education begins to be taught in the earliest schools at Junior High School level. In this research will be developed a story book in which contains a message on how to conduct economic activities in a rational manner so that children understand and can apply it in everyday economic activities. This research is a development research using Design Based Research development model. Based on the results of this study it is found that economic storybooks that have been developed are feasible to be used with the percentage of assessment from material experts of 86.72% (very feasible), and the percentage of assessment from media experts of 90.20% (very feasible). In addition, this story book is also effective to provide knowledge about the economic rationality that can be seen from the field trial results with a percentage of success of 80% (very good).


The book 'International Relations and the European Union: Values before Power' treats the role, status, and nature of the European Union in contemporary international relations, with special emphasis on the value corpus and potential of the European Union in relation to other actors on the global political stage. In this context, the operationalization and rationalization of the nature of the European Union, i.e. its postmodern determination and the deeply planted modern core, composed of 27 sovereign member states, is being established. The book also analyzes the institutional and political architecture of the Lisbon Treaty, especially in the area of EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, as well as the legal implications of this Treaty for the further development and transformation of the EU into a political union. Consequently, elitism and parochialism are identified as the key obstacles for further development of the European Union as a coherent and effective political union. Furthermore, the possible development perspectives of the European integration process in the future are presented, with special emphasis on the concept of an 'avant-garde Europe'.
The book also discusses the status and role of the EU in relation to the BRICS grouping and their external and internal value capacity, in the context of the contemporary international liberal order, taking into account the new global deviations, such as the rise of populism and illiberalism in Europe and the world. Immediately after that, the EU's relations with China are analyzed, taking into account the Chinese 'project of the century', embodied in the 'Belt and Road Initiative', considered as a process of expansion of Chinese influence in the global context.
In the context of the EU's establishment as an actor in international relations, special attention is paid to the imperial past of its member states, especially since out of 27 EU member states, 10 of them are former colonial empires. Hence, conclusions are drawn about the possibilities for deepening the cooperation between the EU member states with their former colonies (today sovereign states), but this time in the favor of the European Union global goals and interests.
Finally, the book analyzes the EU's projections on the creation of a new, post-American international context, according to its 'ideological baggage' composed of the values of multilateralism, regionalism, and institutional creativity, as a 'community of values', firmly constituted on the power of law, instead of on the right of force.


Pan Yutong and Li Tianbao are both well-known Mahua fictionists. Due to the gorgeous writing style and the consideration about female, their works of fiction are always being seen as having femininities. Thus, the writings of masculinity in their fictions are worth to be explored. This study applies R.W. Connell's Theory of Masculinities Practice in analysing the construction of masculinities amongst these fictions which were presented or shown by the male characters in different circumstances. This research found out that, male who applies the hegemony of masculinity would dominate female by using male's privilege, physical strength and economic superiority. This phenomenon is also reflecting the relationship between males and patriarchy, as well as the oppression of female. Through the study of complicity of masculinity, there are two issues could be explained: the reason that female is willing to be dominated by men and the desire of male to dominate female. The group of man that lack of domination towards women will be seen as subordination of masculinity and being discriminated by men in general. Li Tianbao is used to the depiction of this type of male characters in his works of fiction. In which the men were being exploited because of the difference of working classes and races, they are considered as practitioners of marginalisation of masculinity. In the other hand, Pan Yutong tends to depict the way these men construct their masculinities in the adversity of life. As a conclusion, this study points out that, although Pan Yutong and Li Tianbao include femininities in their fictions, masculinities which identifies to patriarchy could be seen clearly in fictions.


Logo detection and recognition module is a principle requirement in official automation systems for document image archiving and retrieval applications. In this paper, we present a logo detection and recognition algorithm based on sequential segmentation and classification strategy of document image. In this framework, using a two-stage segmentation algorithm (consisting of wavelet-based and threshold-based segmentation algorithm) and hierarchical classification by two multilayer perceptron (MLP) classifiers and a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier, a document image divides to text, pure picture and logo candidate regions. Ultimately, in final decision, class of logo candidate region is determined based on pre-defined classes. In the hierarchical classification and logo recognition stages, the best feature space is selected by forward selection algorithm from a perfect set of texture and shape features. The proposed structure is evaluated on a variety and vast database consisting of the document and non-document images with Persian and international logos. The obtained results show efficiency of the proposed framework in the real and operational conditions.


Hospitals and nursing homes were surveyed in 2006 to obtain information on employee influenza vaccination programs and baseline rates of influenza vaccination among employees. Results were used to make recommendations for improving employees' 2007 influenza vaccination rates. Facilities should continue to provide convenient and free vaccination programs, offer education to promote vaccination, and use signed declination forms.


AlgR is a key transcriptional regulator required for the expression of multiple virulence factors, including type IV pili and alginate in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, the regulon and molecular regulatory mechanism of AlgR have yet to be fully elucidated. Here, among 157 loci that were identified by a ChIP-seq assay, we characterized a gene, mucR, which encodes an enzyme that synthesizes the intracellular second messenger cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP). A ΔalgR strain produced lesser biofilm than did the wild-type strain, which is consistent with a phenotype controlled by c-di-GMP. AlgR positively regulates mucR via direct binding to its promoter. A ΔalgRΔmucR double mutant produced lesser biofilm than did the single ΔalgR mutant, demonstrating that c-di-GMP is a positive regulator of biofilm formation. AlgR controls the levels of c-di-GMP synthesis via direct regulation of mucR. In addition, the cognate sensor of AlgR, FimS/AlgZ, also plays an important role in P. aeruginosa virulence. Taken together, this study provides new insights into the AlgR regulon and reveals the involvement of c-di-GMP in the mechanism underlying AlgR regulation.


Disease caused by atherosclerosis are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in western societies. The inadequacy of current therapeutic modalities is most pronounced in the significant proportion of patients with arterial obstructive disease, in whom anatomical and technical limitations rule out the possibility of angioplasty or surgery. Therefore, less invasive approaches are necessary to treat these patients. The development of collateral circulation improves blood flow to ischemic tissues and to alleviate ischemia-related symptoms. Our project concentrates on enhancement of the natural mechanism of angiogenesis by adenoviral based vector encoding vascular endothelial growth factor as an angiogenic factor. The aim of our study was to determine the efficacy of human vascular cell infection by adenoviral based vectors in vitro and in vivo. Human saphenous vein endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells were infected by adenoviral vectors encoding the lacZ and VEGF genes (rAdlacZ, rAdVEGF). VEGF expression by adenoviral vector-infected cells was detected by western analysis and its biological activity was examined by proliferation assay. The feasibility of adenoviral based gene transfer in vivo was evaluated after direct femoral artery injection of rAdlacZ in the rat. Vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells expressed high levels of VEGF following rAdVEGF infection. The mitogenic effect of VEGF was validated by threefold increase in EC proliferation rate in comparison to the control groups. In vivo gene transfer was demonstrated using lacZ gene transfer to arterial wall cells in the superficial femoral artery. Efficient adenoviral based gene delivery was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. VEGF over-expression enhanced endothelial cell proliferation, which is the key step for induction of angiogenesis.


This chapter provides an overview of the application of abnormal/mesoionic N-heterocyclic carbenes in organometallic chemistry in the last five years. This update is compiled as an addition to the chapter in the previous edition of this book rather than an extended version. In particular, it highlights recent advances in the use of abnormal imidazolylidenes and the rapid emergence and diverse application of 1,2,3-triazol-4-ylidenes as a distinct subclass of non-classical carbenes. The chapter introduces synthetic methodologies, specific reactivity and stability properties, and discusses the catalytic activity of abnormal/mesoionic carbine–metal complexes. Significant progress has been made in oxidative transformations, whereas cross-coupling catalysis is compromised by low catalyst stability and heterogeneization when using complexes with abnormal carbene ligands.


How a mechanized tool for reasoning about CSP (communicating sequential processes) can be developed by customizing an existing general-purpose theorem prover based on higher-order logic is described. How the trace semantics of CSP operators can be mechanized in higher-order logic is investigated, and how the laws associated with these operators can be proved from their semantic definitions is shown. The resulting system is one in which natural-deduction style proofs can be conducted using the standard CSP laws. >


UNLABELLED
Idiopathic macular holes are today treated surgically with good results. The prognostic value of factors predictive for the anatomical and functional outcome has not been completely evaluated.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
One hundred and thirty-five eyes with penetrating macular holes (stage II-IV) were investigated prospectively. The mean follow-up was 19.5 months (6-50 months).

RESULTS
In 86% of cases the hole was closed postoperatively. The age of the macular hole proved to be a significantly predictive factor for the outcome; the age of the patient did not. The diameter of the hole showed no influence on the results. Application of autologous serum in front of the hole did not significantly improve the anatomical, but the functional results. The strongest improvement of visual acuity was seen in eyes with poor preoperative function. In 118 eyes a prefoveal membrane could be peeled off. Seventeen eyes without detectable membrane showed identical results.

CONCLUSION
Some predictive factors in macular hole surgery are proven, others remain uncertain. Identical results in eyes with and without prefoveal membranes support the assumption of different pathomechanisms in macular hole formation.


The review report on Kyoga basin lakes (NAFIRRI 2007) described Kyoga basin lakes as important natural resource for the communities within the basin and the surrounding areas. Fisheries of the basin provide a source of protein, income, and employment to generally poor communities in the area. The lakes also generate revenue to the local Governments within the catchment. This indicates that the fisheries of Kyoga basin lakes are a key instrument in poverty eradication and food security. The lakes also act as a source of water for domestic, agricultural and transport purposes. Some of the Kyoga small lakes harbour fish species, which have disappeared from the main lakes Victoria and Kyoga and are therefore important for biodiversity conservation


In the present work, a solar humidifier suitable for solar thermal energy-driven humidification–dehumidification desalination has been proposed and experimentally investigated. The proposed solar humidifier compacts the solar heater and humidifier into a single component while reducing energy costs by utilizing solar thermal energy. Several local flow storage and distributor elements are created in the absorber surface that produces a "dam effect" in combination with stainless steel mesh and airflow baffles. The effect of varying flowrates of air and water, inlet water temperature as well as inlet relative humidity on the performance of the solar humidifier is investigated. Humidity based normalized gain (NGhumidity) versus solar humidifier efficiency curve, which depicts a heat and mass performance of the solar humidifier, is reported. This curve is analogous to the normalized gain versus collector efficiency curve of the solar water/air heater. The productivity of the present system is compared with the published results of similar studies. Best mean productivity of 838.5 g/m2/h and best instantaneous productivity of 955.2 g/m2/h were achieved using a present solar humidifier, showcasing the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The comparison of the performance of the solar humidifier with the performance of conventional configuration having separate heating and humidification is also carried out. It was found that the investigated solar humidifier (internal heating configuration) does perform the same in terms of utilization of solar energy for evaporation, if not better, than the conventional separate humidifier and heater (external heating configuration).


BACKGROUND/AIMS
Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) represent the more common forms of idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease. They have a peculiar course, which is characterized by exacerbation and submissions, and a symptomatology that changes in relation to severity and extension of the lesions. The aim of this study is to establish the diagnostic usefulness of 99m Tc human policlonal immunoglobulin (HIG) imaging in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

METHODOLOGY
During the period between September 1995 and September 1997 we submitted a group of 32 patients affected by UC (n = 22) and CD (n = 10), to Human Immunoglobulin labeled with Technetium 99m (99m Tc-HIG) scintigraphy. The diagnosis of IBD was obtained in all cases by endoscopy with biopsy.

RESULTS
Scintigraphic examination with labeled HIG showed an abnormal intestinal fixation (ileal or colic) of the marked immunoglobulins in 17 patients (77.2%) affected by UC and in 8 patients (80%) affected by CD. In 5 (22.7%) and 2 (20%) patients, respectively, the scintigraphic examination revealed a normal distribution of the immunoglobulins without appreciable focal accumulation. Among the patients with a negative scintigraphic examination, only one presented an endoscopic and histologic report that documented UC in an active stage. The histologic and endoscopic findings observed in all cases of CD were similar to that of HIG scintigraphy in 7 of the 8 scintigraphic-positive cases and in 1 of the 2 scintigraphic-negative patients.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors, on the basis of their results, suggest that this diagnostic strategy may have a significant role in the diagnostic protocol and in the follow-up of chronic inflammatory bowel disease.


The purpose of this research is to determine the effect of production costs and selling prices on increasing sales profits at PT Shimano Batam. The sample used in this study is financial statements: (1). PT Shimano Batam financial statements before the period 2013 - 2017; (2). The financial statements of PT Shimano Batam that were listed during the period 2013 - 2017; and (3). The financial statements have been audited as of December 31, 2013 - 2017. The results of this study have a significant effect on production costs and selling prices on increasing sales profits at PT Shimano Batam with significant values of 0,000 and 0,000 <0,05, respectively. While simultaneous production costs and selling prices have a significant effect on increasing sales profits at PT Shimano Batam with a significant value of 0,000 <0,05.


We consider extended LANs composed of two different parts: a static one with hosts and routers, and a dynamic one with mobile hosts. We propose a scheme for interconnecting the two parts that builds on OLSR to establish compact routing tables, by aggregating addresses into prefixes whenever possible. Prefix advertisements imply possible conflicts of prefixes covering the same address ranges, thus we propose an extension to OLSR for solving this issue. We report on performance improvement measured on an experimental testbed.


Longitudinal studies are often used to investigate age-related developmental change. Whereas a single cohort design takes a group of individuals at the same initial age and follows them over time, an accelerated longitudinal design takes multiple single cohorts, each one starting at a different age. The main advantage of an accelerated longitudinal design is its ability to span the age range of interest in a shorter period of time than would be possible with a single cohort longitudinal design. This paper considers design issues for accelerated longitudinal studies. A linear mixed effect model is considered to describe the responses over age with random effects for intercept and slope parameters. Random and fixed cohort effects are used to cope with the potential bias accelerated longitudinal designs have due to multiple cohorts. The impact of other factors such as costs and the impact of dropouts on the power of testing or the precision of estimating parameters are examined. As duration-related costs increase relative to recruitment costs the best designs shift towards shorter duration and eventually cross-sectional design being best. For designs with the same duration but differing interval between measurements, we found there was a cutoff point for measurement costs relative to recruitment costs relating to frequency of measurements. Under our model of 30% dropout there was a maximum power loss of 7%.


The role of an epitaxial growth technique in the performance of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices was investigated. Using a pioneering method like selective epitaxy, the performance and integration of MOS devices found to be improved significantly. It is also seen that epitaxy is essential for realizing modern semiconductor device like FinFETs. The cheap and improved semiconductor structure like vertical MOSFET also required service of epitaxy technique. The stringent control of the epitaxial process was necessary for achieving the superlative performance and desiredstructures.


The emergence and the widespread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) demands an accurate detection method to establish a diagnosis. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) is accounted for the perfect point of reference in detecting this virus. The notion that this virus also invades the male reproductive tract requires further investigation to prove the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the semen. This investigation was designed to detect SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 survivors semen. This study design was a cross-sectional examination and conducted between November 2020 and March 2021 in the Andrology Unit of Dr. Soetomo General Hospital and Professor Nidom Foundation, both located in the City of Surabaya, Indonesia. The sample was 34 male participants aged above 18 years old and had been confirmed COVID-19 by nasopharyngeal swab PCR test. Part of the semen was taken for real-time PCR testing with the QuantStudio 5 Applied Biosystem (AB) PCR machine and the kits utilized were the STANDARD M nCOV Real-Time Detection Kit and mBioCov-19 RT-PCR Kit. Furthermore, the mean of participants ages was 35.74 years old with 25% of them had had a history of primary infertility and 21.8% of secondary infertility. From the real-time PCR COVID-19 of the semen examination, this investigation found that 27 participants had been negatives (74.4%), six inconclusive (17.6%), and one positive (3%) of SARS CoV-2. In summary, SARS-CoV-2 could be found in the semen of COVID-19 survivors. This should be a concern for the potential impact of COVID-19 in male fertility and the possibility of transmission reproductively.


Income reported to shareholders (book income) and income reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (taxable income) are alternative measures of U.S. corporate economic performance discussed in recent research, academic texts, and by U.S. legislators. In measuring economic performance, taxable income contains more 'mandated rule' error than book income because legislators generally write tax rules to raise revenue and motivate behavior and not specifically to measure performance. However, recent research suggests taxable income likely contains less 'managerial bias' error (i.e. error due to managers' biased application of rules) than book income. We decompose book income and taxable income into operating cash flows, book accruals, and tax accruals. We find that tax accruals have explanatory power for contemporaneous annual stock returns incremental to book accruals and operating cash flows, but that book accruals have relatively more explanatory power. However, the dominance of book accruals over tax accruals declines significantly and from 1997-2001, tax accruals explain returns as well as book accruals. In contrast to the conventional notion that low book relative to taxable income indicates high quality book income and vice versa, we find the opposite: tax accruals explain returns better than book accruals when the ratio of book to taxable income is low. Book losses partially, but do not fully, explain our results. Our results are relevant to policy debates concerning book-tax differences and to explanations for changes in the value relevance of book income during the 1990's.


The measurement of spectacle lenses by conventional focimeters and automated focimeters assesses only a small region of the lens, and only the power and related data at that point are indicated. In this paper, two methods based on optical Fourier filtering and optical correlation are suggested for contour-mapping the deviations of a spectacle lens over its whole aperture. The fringe pattern appearing on the lens image depicts vividly the characteristics of the tested lens. All the related data are qualitatively seen at a glance and can be calculated from the fringe distribution. Furthermore, the optical processing of the fringes by defocusing is described; thus, the fringes can be continuously changed by shifting the illuminating point source or mask. The shift indicates the spherical power needed to decrease or increase the lens fringes. In addition, a fringe-reading technique is suggested by counting the number of the fringes within a reticle ring. Therefore, the sphere power, cylinder power, cylinder axis, prism power, and prism orientation can be obtained from the reading of the fringes, the shift position, or their combination with a high accuracy. The methods are suitable not only to sphere, spherocylinder, and prism lenses but also to multifocus and progressive power lenses. The suggestion provides a practical way to measure spectacle lenses over the whole aperture.


Carboxypeptidase A1 (CPA1) is a zinc metalloprotease that is produced in pancreatic acinar cells and plays a role in cleaving C-terminal branched-chain and aromatic amino acids from dietary proteins. This study assessed the utility of immunohistochemical CPA1 staining for diagnosing pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma (ACC). A total of 12,274 tumor samples from 132 different tumor types and subtypes as well as 8 samples each of 76 different normal tissue types were interpretable by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray format. CPA1 was strongly expressed in acinar cells of all normal pancreas samples but not in any other normal tissues. CPA1 immunostaining was detected in 100% of 11 pancreatic ACCs and 1 mixed acinar endocrine carcinoma, but absent in 449 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, 75 adenocarcinomas of the ampulla Vateri, and 11,739 other evaluable cancers from 128 different tumor entities. A weak to moderate diffuse staining of epithelial and stromal cells of cancer tissues immediately adjacent to non-neoplastic pancreatic acinar cells often occurred and was considered to be caused by the diffusion of the highly abundant CPA1 from normal acinar cells that may have suffered some autolytic cell damage. In conclusion, our data show that CPA1 is a highly sensitive and largely specific marker for normal and neoplastic pancreatic acinar cells. CPA1 immunohistochemistry greatly facilitates the otherwise often difficult diagnosis of pancreatic ACC.


The paper describes novel multimedia tools and architectures for hardware/software co-simulation of reconfigurable systems. The main contributions are provided in the following three areas: 1) multimedia tools making it possible to manage animated graphical objects for virtual simulation of real world physical objects in the scope of reconfigurable system design; 2) a remotely accessible prototyping system, which is very helpful for both solving the problems of hardware design and supporting multimedia systems which can be used in vast varieties of practical applications, the most important of which are engineering training and education; 3) design methodology based on physical circuits and virtual objects. A number of illustrative examples demonstrating capabilities of the proposed approach are presented and discussed.


Although bone metabolism is reportedly associated with production and maturation of blood corpuscles, and serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels have been associated with bone metabolism, no published study has investigated the association between ALP and anemia. Furthermore, although ALP is known as an enzyme affected by alcohol consumption, there are no reports in the literature on associations between ALP and the risk of anemia in relation to drinking status. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 907 men aged 30-89 years undergoing a general health check-up to investigate the associations between ALP and anemia in relation to drinking status. Of the 907 participants, 120 men were diagnosed with anemia. The association between ALP and anemia was J-shaped. With the second quartile of ALP (194-228 IU/L) (Q2) as the reference group, the multivariable adjusted OR and 95%CI for anemia were 1.91 (95%CI: 0.96-3.82) for 277 IU/L (Q4). When the analysis was limited to non-drinkers, the associations became stronger with corresponding values of 3.34 (95%CI: 1.28-8.74), 3.18 (95%CI: 1.28-7.88) and 3.22 (95%CI:1.37-7.59). Not only lower but also higher levels of serum ALP are associated with anemia for men, especially non-drinkers. For analyses of associations between ALP and anemia, alcohol consumption should thus be considered a potential confounder. ACTA MEDICA NAGASAKIENSIA 58: 125−130, 2014


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

The H+ vacuolar ATPase is a multimeric complex, which acidifies intracellular vesicles and extracellular space. Notch signaling is a key signaling pathway regulating cell proliferation and differentiation during development and cancer. The expression of both V-ATPases and Notch signaling is aberrant in most cancers and hence, are potential targets for therapeutics. It is speculated that the vacuolar ATPases regulate Notch signaling directly by endosomal acidification and indirectly by endocytosis. Here, we studied the role of the a2 isoform of vacuolar ATPase (a2V) in regulating Notch Signaling in Breast cancer. Using confocal microscopy, we traced the location of a2V in MCF7, SKBR3 and MDA-MB231 breast cancer cell lines. We found that a2V is present on the plasma membrane and not on the early endosomes. The amount of a2V correlated with the invasiveness of the cancer. Most importantly, the expression of a2V was restricted to one side of the cells marking their leading edge. Also, no a2V expression was found when cells contacted each other on the inside. Next, we evaluated the effect of a2V knockdown in MDA-MB231 cells. Using siRNA, a2V was knocked down. We found that decrease of a2V enhances the expression of Notch2 and Notch 4 significantly (>1.75 fold). Notch ligands (DLL family) and Notch targets also increased, supporting the finding. When we looked at Wnt pathway genes, we found a significant increase in Wnt4 (>2 fold) and c-Myc(∼3 fold) expression although levels of β-catenin were unchanged. Since c-Myc is known to mediate apoptosis, we looked at apoptotic genes Bax and Bcl2 to after siRNA knockdown of a2V. Although Bax increased, there was no significant change in apoptosis, as seen in PI-annexin assay. Taken together, our data suggests that a2V is important for tumor growth and its presence on leading edge marks aggressiveness of tumors. Interestingly, a2V depletion results in the activation of Notch and several proliferative markers in breast cancer. We postulate that this is due to indirect effects of a2V in endocytosis or in regulating pH dependent enzymes responsible for Notch and Wnt signal transduction.

Citation Format: Sahithi Pamarthy, Alice Gilman-Sachs, Kenneth Beaman. Breast cancers are notched up with a proton pump at their leading edge. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 513. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-513


Pure and metal (Cu, Mn) doped In2S3 nanoparticles were prepared by the standard co-precipitation technique. This work aims to study the influence of metal (Cu, Mn) on the synthesized nanoparticles' structural, morphological, optical, photoluminescence, and electrical properties (NPs). The XRD pattern reveals that the metal (Cu, Mn) doped In2S3 NPs were polycrystalline with a cubic phase whose particle size varies between 36.2 and 49 nm. A significant decrease in the crystallite size was observed after metal doping. It is noted from the EDS spectra the elements like In, Cu, Mn and S are present in the NPs. The optical studies reveal that the high transmittance (80%) was observed for pure In2S3 NPs makes them an efficient window layer for solar cell applications. Also, the calculated bandgap energy was found to increase ( 2.8 – 3.28 e V) for metal doping. Photoluminescence measurements reveal that the photoemission is mainly due to the donor-acceptor pair transitions. The electrical studies indicate that the electrical conductivity decreases significantly with doping, and maximum electrical conductivity of 1.28 x 10-6 (Ω m)-1 was obtained for pure In2S3 NPs. A photocatalytic study reveals that high photocatalytic activity is observed for Mn-doped NPs under Methylene blue (84%).


Presented on Thursday 19 May: Session 22 Studies have shown that fugitive emissions are dominated by a small number of sources with extremely high emission rates, known as super-emitters. These super-emitters present an opportunity to significantly reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner if they are managed effectively. This requires the ability to detect, locate, and accurately measure emissions. However, the uncertain nature of fugitive emissions presents challenges to monitoring. Existing and emerging technologies enable emissions management with varying levels of success. This paper provides a practical comparison of several fugitive emissions monitoring technologies, including handheld gas detectors, optical gas imaging cameras, vehicle-based systems, satellites, aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles. These technologies provide periodic monitoring of a facility and are compared to continuous monitoring technologies that monitor emissions on a 24/7 basis using fixed sensors and advanced analytics to identify and track emission plumes. Continuous monitoring with intelligent analytics has demonstrated great potential in overcoming the challenges of monitoring fugitive emissions to reduce greenhouse gases and other problematic emissions. Features, capabilities, and limitations of these technologies are explored in the context of gas facilities, including their ability to detect intermittent sources, identify unsuspected and off-site sources, and quantify emissions. The range of monitoring for each technology and safety concerns associated with their use are discussed. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here


The data on cytogenetic examination concerning the offspring of the Chernobyl accident liquidators (cleanup personnel) have been obtained. It has been established that spontaneous chromosomal aberrations level before folic acid administration was 1,8 times higher than that value after its employment (4,45 to 2,42 %, p < 0,01). In lymphocyte cultures treated with mitomycin C accompanied by folic acid it was 4,5 times higher before their administration (23,95 to 5,36 %, p < 0,001). The data obtained confirm a possibility of stabilization of genetic apparatus in offspring of the Chernobyl disaster liquidators after folic acid administration.


Two clinical practice guidelines published in 2012 and in 2013 by the Haute autorité de santé (HAS) respectively entitled "Adult chronic kidney disease" (clinical pathway guidelines) and "Clinical utility of vitamin D measurements" (Health technology assessment) contradict each other on a notable point: in 2012 the HAS recommend to measure blood concentrations of vitamin D once a year in all patients with chronic kidney disease whereas in 2013 the HAS recommend to use this test only for the ambulatory follow-up of patients three months after kidney transplantation. This contradiction encouraged us to evaluate the methodological quality of these two guidelines with the help of the AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation) instrument which is consensual at an international level, in particular at the WHO (World Health Organization) and at the European Union. At the end of this comparative evaluation this preliminary hypothesis might be proposed: a more rigorous development (AGREE domain n̊3) as well as a higher editorial independence (AGREE domain n̊6) in 2013 than in 2012 (scores respectively are 57% and 56% in 2013 versus 24% and 25% in 2012) ensure a higher validity to the 2013 recommendations than to the 2012 recommendations. However this hypothesis is weakened by the subjective intrinsic value of the AGREE tool, and by various methodological shortcomings in these two guidelines. Therefore we conclude, using the AGREE terminology, that the methods for developing those guidelines are too uncertain, above all in 2012, for recommending their use without modifications.


In this article, we model the mechanical behavior of light-activated shape memory polymers with a view toward determining the effect of the viscoelasticity of the polymers with regard to their shape memory response. This study is a companion to our earlier investigation of both isotropic and anisotropic elastic light-activated shape memory polymers. The constitutive model is based on a multi-network approach consisting of two microstructural networks, the original network and the second network that is formed due to light irradiation. A single integral model is adopted to incorporate the viscoelastic response in the original and second networks. We study the response of viscoelastic light-activated shape memory polymers subject to uniaxial and biaxial tension. Parametric studies are carried out to obtain a better understanding of the effect of quantities such as relaxation time and the ratio of the relaxation modulus to the instantaneous modulus. A combination of the classical trapezoidal integration method, recursive scheme, and root-finding methods is adopted to solve the governing equations. Finally, the model is used to describe the stress relaxation behavior of light-activated shape memory polymer reported in the literature.


The city of Puebla was put on the UNESCO list of Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1987; its history dates back to the sixteenth century allowing for the preservation of various important buildings, such as churches with baroque and neoclassical facades, buildings from the period known as Novo Hispanics, when some of its historic neighbourhoods were founded, including the Barrio el Refugio, hereinafter referred to as BR, where indigenous people employed in the lime manufacture used to live. Since those times, however, the neighbourhood has become a place with bad reputation, "a den of thieves" (Leicht). The traditional, religious commemoration, the "Fiesta Patronal de la Virgen del Refugio," is the most important celebration in the neighbourhood. In the Church of La Virgen del Refugio, built in the seventeenth century after an inhabitant painted a mural with the image of the virgin, the "mañanitas" are sung with the Mariachi. During the patronal feast, the "El Refugio Cultural Festival" is held with more than a hundred artists taking part and creating about a thousand murals according to the organiser's estimation. This happens in the city where a project "Puebla Ciudad Mural" was started, as an initiative of the "Colectivo Tomate," which sought to regenerate the neighbourhood through art, in alliance with the government and private companies. However, these policies are more tourist oriented rather than benefit the neighbourhood. For this reason, the graffiti movement "Festival Cultural el Refugio" is becoming a meeting point for urban artists from Mexico and Puebla, accustomed to taking up public or private space, as they demand space where they can live and express themselves. For ten years the festival has realised more than one thousand pieces of urban art, including Wild Style graffiti, bombs, stickers, stencil, and murals. All this is done under the patronage of the artists themselves, as three hundred of them come from all over the country to take part in every edition of the festival that does not receive any government support or other form of sponsorship.


A simple high-power ionosphere sounding equipment for use at low frequencies is described. Its application to the measurement of virtual height at vertical incidence at a carrier frequency of 100 kc is reported. Results of nearly a year of intermittent night-time measurements showed a remarkably large variation in virtual height which ranged from about 84 km to as high as 106 km. Some evidence was found to indicate that frequently at night the reflecting region consists of clouds or patches of ionization, rather than the more nearly uniform ionization characteristic of the regular layers at high frequencies. A rotation of the polarization of the reflected signal with respect to that of the transmitted signal was observed.


: Activity-based sensing (ABS) probes equipped with a NIR bioluminescence (BL) readout are promising chemical tools to study cancer biomarkers owing to their high sensitivity and deep tissue compatibility. However, the standard approach of installing a responsive trigger at the aniline site through a self-immolative linker is not suitable for NIR substrates because they require N , N -dialkylation at this position to achieve NIR emission. Capping the carboxylate is also unfavorable due to the instability of the resulting ester moiety which would result in high background signals. In this study, we rationally designed a hydrolysis-resistant ester featuring an isopropyl shielding arm. Compared to a benzyl ester analog (proxy for self-immolative linker), the new design is 140.5-fold and 67.8-fold more resistant toward spontaneous and esterase-mediated hydrolysis, respectively. After further in cellulo evaluation of stability, this ester moiety was transformed into a general self-immolative linker for ABS probe development via carboxylate masking. We showcased the utility of this technology by developing the first NIR BL probe for hypoxia sensing (BL660-NTR) and applied it in lung cancer cells and in a murine model of non-small cell lung cancer. n


The spin polarization of electrons injected into GaAs from a CoFe∕MgO(100) tunnel spin injector is inferred from the circular polarization of light emitted from a GaAs-based quantum well (QW) detector. The circular polarization strongly depends on the spin and electron hole recombination lifetimes in the QW. Using time-resolved optical techniques, we show that these lifetimes are highly temperature dependent. A peak in the charge lifetime versus temperature is likely responsible for the previously observed dip in the electroluminescence polarization. Evidence for a temperature-independent spin injection efficiency of ∼70% from 10 K to room temperature is found.


The use of polymer-modified binders in asphalt mixtures has become more widespread due to their reduced thermal susceptibility and improved rutting and fatigue resistance. Nevertheless, their high cost limits their application, thus making the use of reclaimed polymers (RP) an interesting alternative for both reducing price and extending the service life of pavements. This paper; therefore, presents a comparative review of the recycled polymers most commonly studied as bitumen modifiers: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA), and ground tire rubber (GTR), in order to facilitate their selection and extend the use of the bitumen. The differences in terms of melting point, mixing conditions, and maximum quantity of added polymer are analyzed. Moreover, their effect on the mechanical behavior of the asphalt binders and their stability with and without the use of additives is presented. According to the literature revision, the performance of the new binder is more influenced by the kind of polymer that was incorporated and the mixing conditions than by the base bitumen that was chosen, although rheological evaluation is needed to fully understand the modification mechanisms of the modified binder. In general terms, plastomers have a stronger effect in terms of increasing the stiffness of the bitumen in comparison with crumb rubber (elastomers), thus providing an improved rutting resistance. The joint use of polyethylene (plastomer) and crumb rubber (elastomer) can be an interesting option for its recycling potential and mechanical performance, although further study is needed to achieve stable bitumen across the entire range of temperatures; additives, such as maleic anhydride (MA), are commonly employed to improve the stability of the binder and enhance its characteristics, but their use could limit the economic benefits of using recycled materials.


A bleeding disorder with absent collagen-induced platelet aggregation and adhesion has been described in a patient whose platelets failed to express surface glycoprotein Ia. We studied the interaction of her platelets with subendothelium in an annular perfusion chamber and the interaction with purified human collagen type III in a rectangular perfusion system under flow conditions. Platelet adherence was almost completely absent both at low and high shear rates. The few platelets which adhered remained in the contact stage without subsequent spreading and aggregate formation. Addition of a monoclonal antibody, which was directed against the von Willebrand moiety of FVIII-VWF, to the blood, completely abolished platelet adherence at high shear rates and had a partial effect at low shear rates. These data indicate that von Willebrand factor plays a role in the initial attachment (contact stage) of platelets to subendothelium. We conclude that the bleeding disorder and excessively prolonged bleeding time in our patient are caused by a new specific defect of the platelet-vessel wall interaction.


ABSTRACT Background: Women who have had miscarriages or stillbirths are known to have a high risk for enduring grief. However, the course and frequency of enduring grief in this subgroup are not fully understood. Objective: Our aims were to assess the intensity of grief and its course in women with miscarriages or stillbirths and to estimate the frequency of severe grief reactions in this population. Additionally, we compared subgroups with miscarriages versus stillbirths and with single versus recurrent pregnancy loss. Method: A systematic literature search of the databases MEDLINE, psycINFO and PSYNDEX was conducted to consider all studies published between 2000 and 31 March 2022 in English or German on the prevalence and intensity of grief in women who had miscarriages or stillbirths. Studies that used validated assessment methods were included in this systematic review. The PRISMA guidelines were followed. Results: Study characteristics and grief data were extracted independently by two investigators from 13 cross-sectional and eight longitudinal studies from 11 countries (N = 2597). All studies used self-reporting instruments. According to 17 of 21 studies (81%), grief is markedly elevated in women after miscarriages or stillbirths. The studies are very heterogeneous regarding the samples, the length of pregnancies and the time of assessment regarding grief after miscarriages. Most studies document intense grief and frequent severe grief reactions – with a decrease over time – in women who have had miscarriages or stillbirths. Clear conclusions regarding corresponding differences between women with miscarriages and stillbirths or single and recurrent pregnancy losses cannot be drawn. Conclusions: Pronounced grief is frequent in women who had miscarriages or stillbirths. More longitudinal studies are needed to examine the course of grief in this group and to identify those women who develop prolonged grief disorder, depression or other mental-health problems. HIGHLIGHTS Pronounced grief is frequent in women who had miscarriages or stillbirths. More longitudinal studies are needed to examine the course of grief in this group and to identify those women who develop prolonged grief disorder, depression or other mental-health problems.


The formation of appropriately patterned blood vessel networks requires endothelial cell migration and proliferation. Signaling through the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGFA) pathway is instrumental in coordinating these processes. mRNA splicing generates short (diffusible) and long (extracellular matrix bound) Vegfa isoforms. The differences between these isoforms in controlling cellular functions are not understood. In zebrafish, vegfaa generates short and long isoforms, while vegfab only generates long isoforms. We found that mutations in vegfaa affected endothelial cell migration and proliferation. Surprisingly, mutations in vegfab specifically reduced endothelial cell proliferation. Analysis of downstream signaling revealed no change in MAPK (ERK) activation, while inhibiting PI3 kinase signaling phenocopied vegfab mutants. The cell cycle inhibitor cdkn1a/p21 was upregulated in vegfab deficient embryos. Accordingly, reducing cdkn1a/p21 restored endothelial cell proliferation. Together, these results suggest that extracellular matrix bound Vegfa acts through PI3K signaling to specifically control endothelial cell proliferation during angiogenesis independently of MAPK (ERK) regulation.


We propose a novel process to make liquid crystal (LC) cells using a poly(vinyl–cinnamate) photoalignment technique. In this process, the photoaligning treatment is performed after the LC cell is assembled. The LC aligns homogeneously on both substrates upon a single shot of linearly polarized UV irradiation at the temperature above the nematic–isotropic transition temperature. In addition, several repetitions of photoaddressing and –erasing can be demonstrated in this LC cell. This reversible alignment is discussed in relation to the slow–axis direction of the photoalignment film.


The researches have recently progressed toward the use of the superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) to develop new smart control systems that reduce permanent deformation occurring due to severe earthquake events and that automatically recover original configuration. The superelastic SMA materials are unique metallic alloys that can return to undeformed shape without additional heat treatments only after the removal of applied loads. Once the superelastic SMA materials are thus installed at the place where large deformations are likely to intensively occur, the structural system can make the best use of recentering capabilities. Therefore, this study is intended to propose new buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) with superelastic SMA bracing systems. In order to verify the performance of such bracing systems, 6-story braced frame buildings were designed in accordance with the current design specifications and then nonlinear dynamic analyses were performed at 2D frame model by using seismic hazard ground motions. Based on the analysis results, BRBFs with innovative SMA bracing systems are compared to those with conventional steel bracing systems in terms of peak and residual inter-story drifts. Finally, the analysis results show that new SMA bracing systems are very effective to reduce the residual inter-story drifts.


Long-term care insurance (LTCI) covers are rather recent products, in the framework of health insurance. It follows that specific biometric data are scanty, and pricing problems then arise because of difficulties in the choice of appropriate technical bases. Different benefit structures imply different sensitivity degrees with respect to changes in biometric assumptions. Hence, an accurate sensitivity analysis can help in designing LTCI products, and, in particular, in comparing standalone products to combined products, i.e. packages including LTCI benefits and other lifetime-related benefits.


An investigation of sound propagation in an air-water vapor mixture contained in a cylindrical tube with wet walls was recently completed [Hickey et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 1126-1130 (2000)]. A generalization to include the heat flux at the tube wall is presented here. The attenuation of sound in air-water vapor mixtures can be affected by the thermal properties of the tube wall. The controlling parameter is epsilons, which is a proportionality constant that relates the heat flux per degree Kelvin for the substrate to that of the gas mixture. For a given amount of heat, provided by expansion and rarefaction of the working fluid, different substrates will undergo different temperature excursions. These temperature swings at the boundary change the vapor pressure of the condensate and thus reduce the diffusion of vapor to and from the boundary resulting in a reduction of the attenuation.


The issue of urban shrinkage has become the new 'normal' across Europe: a large number of urban areas find themselves amongst the cities losing population. According to recent studies, almost 42 per cent of all large European cities are currently shrinking. In eastern Europe, shrinking cities have formed the overwhelming majority – here, three out of four cities report a decrease in population. Shrinkage has proved to be a very diverse and complex phenomenon. In our understanding, a considerable and constant loss of population by an urban area classifies it as a shrinking city. So, while the indicator of shrinkage used here is rather simple, the nature of the process and its causes and consequences for the affected urban areas are multifaceted and need to be explained and understood in further detail. Set against this background, the article presents, first, urban shrinkage as both spatially and temporally uneven. Second, this article shows that the causes of urban shrinkage are as varied as they are numerous. We explore the 'pluralist world of urban shrinkage' in the European Union and beyond. The article provides an original process model of urban shrinkage, bringing together its causes, impacts and dynamics, and setting them in the context of locally based urban trajectories. The main argument of this arrticle is that there is no 'grand explanatory heuristics' of shrinkage; a 'one-size-fits-all' explanatory approach to shrinkage cannot deliver. To progress and remain relevant, one ought to move away from outcome-orientated towards process-orientated research on urban shrinkage.


We employ first-principles density-functional calculations to study structural and topological electronic transitions in two-dimensional bismuth layers. Our calculations reveal that a free-standing hexagonal bismuthene phase (the most stable one in the absence of strain) should become thermodinamically unstable against transformation to a putative 'pentaoctite' phase (composed entirely of pentagonal and octagonal rings), under biaxial tensile strain. Moreover, our results indicate that 2D bismuth layers in the pentaoctite phase should undergo a topological electronic phase transition under either a biaxial or uniaxial tensile strain. More specifically, at its equilibrium lattice parameters the pentaoctite lattice is a topologically trivial system with a direct band gap. Strain-induced parity inversion of valence and conduction bands is obtained, and the pentaoctite structure undergoes a transition to a topological-insulator phase at a biaxial tensile strain of 5%. In the case of uniaxial tensile strains, the topological transition happens at a tensile strain of 6% along the armchair direction of the pentaoctite lattice, and at a 5% tensile strain in the zigzag direction. Our study indicates that 2D bismuth layers may prove themselves a rich platform to realize topologically non-trivial 2D materials upon strain engineering.


Operating at room temperature, a solution-processed photodetector with near infrared sensitivity would be a significant advancement towards industrial and scientific applications. Polymer-inorganic quantum dot (QD) composites are attractive due to combination of the merits of polymeric and inorganic semiconductors in novel electronic and photonic systems. Inorganic QDs are highly suitable as infrared absorbers, and polymer bulk heterojunctions are attractive as solution-processable diodes. Herein, we demonstrated a photodetector with a spectral response ranging from 300 nm to 1600 nm using a bulk heterojunction composite of a wide bandgap conjugated polymer with narrow bandgap PbS QDs. Operating at room temperature, the solution-processed photodetectors exhibit a detectivity greater than 1010 cm Hz1/2 W−1 and an external quantum efficiency of over 80% in the visible region and 10% in the infrared region. All these device performances are comparable to those of their inorganic counterparts. Thus, our results demonstrate a simple way to fabricate uncooled solution-processed broadband photodetectors.


In this review, we address the natural history of obesity in children, the most promising family- and school-based approaches to the prevention of obesity, and the barriers and opportunities associated with secondary prevention. In childhood, the most important periods of risk appear to be the periods of adiposity rebound and adolescence. Caution regarding the period of adiposity rebound is still warranted, because it is not yet clear that early rebound is attributable to changes in body fat. Families and schools represent the most important foci for preventive efforts in children and adolescents. One productive approach is to proceed from an examination of factors that affect energy balance to the identification of more proximal influences on those factors. This approach may help to narrow the strategies necessary to prevent or treat childhood obesity. For example, television viewing affects both energy intake and energy expenditure, and therefore represents a logical target for interventions. Anticipatory guidance by pediatricians may offer an effective mechanism by which to change parental attitudes and practices regarding television viewing. A similar process is used to emphasize the potential influence of school-based interventions directed at changes in food choices and sedentary behavior.


The boundary determination problem is one of the most fundamental and difficult issues in spatial analysis. This is also true of space syntax where syntactic values are meaningful only with reference to the system boundary we have chosen to draw for analysis. This paper investigates how our choice of a boundary can affect our understanding of a system's spatial structure and functionality. It will be argued that to draw a boundary is not only a priori condition for syntactic analysis but also a posteriori product which should be carefully designed based on our understanding of a syntactic structure it induces. The four standard test areas in London Barnsbury, Calthorpe, South Kensington and Brompton are re-employed for this purpose. We apply various boundary conditions, both in topological and metric spaces, to these areas, and compare how sensitively the predictability of human movement patterns by global syntactic values change under each condition. Although many researches in the space syntax community have untilised the same datasets already, few views the boundary condition as an independent variable. We then recall one of the key propositions in space syntax that the degree to which movement rate is predictable from a spatial system is a function of its intelligibility. This proposition is tested against the empirical findings, which will lead to a critical discussion as to how and why the conventional measure of intelligibility falls short of holding the proposition to be valid. Our aim in this regard is to develop a novel morphological index that may work, in place of the measure of intelligibility, more effectively for the proposition. That is, we will find that the new measure, called 'understandability' in this paper, is a better indicator of the spatial system's predictability. Based on this it is suggested that such kind of measure has the potential to serve as a useful guide and reference for designers as well as researchers at their earlier stage of practices.


Discourses on storage and clutter have become central issues in contemporary domestic space. The anxiety caused by accumulation and disorder are directly related to the progressive entry of goods into homes. Now, what happens in the case of some elderly homeowners whose lifestyles have changed little over the past decades and have a much different relationship to current consumer culture and domestic accumulation? Based on an auto-ethnographic approach, this visual essay looks at the home the author's grandparents have built throughout their life. It argues that, although the house is full of objects that have been accumulating over the decades, these objects can hardly be catalogued as stuff. Material and symbolic stability are favoured by the reduced traffic of objects entering and leaving the house and the importance of care and maintenance practices but, overall, by the ability of the house to provide a specific and differentiated place for each object.


Theoretical ideas about the reactions of thermal and "hot" hydrogen atoms are examined and experimental data, characterising the mode of reactions involving hydrogen atoms with different energies, are presented. The bibliography includes 212 references.


The straw ethanol residue, a complex material, mainly consists of lignin and its derivatives. Lignin is a three-dimensional phenolic polymer and can be renewable and biodegradable, which has received increasing attention from research and utilization. The focus of this paper is to show the effects of straw ethanol residue on SBS waterproofing membrane properties. The results indicated that physical characteristics of SBS waterproofing membrane was significantly improved by adding 10–11% of straw ethanol residue which made its refractoriness, low-temperature flexibility and waterproofing quality improved 2.18% , 1.09% and 8.1%,respectively. Moreover, being environmentally friendly, the lignin could reduce the production cost at 8∼9%.


Tropical forest ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon balance. Depending on age and land use, they can act as carbon sources, sinks, or be in approximate balance, but it is uncertain if global environmental changes are forcing these ecosystems outside their natural range of variation. We asked the question of whether or not the net carbon flux of a tropical primary forest, which should be in balance over the long term, is within the expected range of natural variation. A simple Bayesian hypothesis testing method was used to address this question for primary forests in the Porce region of Colombia. Net ecosystem production (NEP) was measured in this forest in a set of 33 permanent plots from 2000 to 2002 in 2, 1‐year intervals. Our estimate of NEP ranged between −4.03 and 2.22 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 for the two intervals. This range was compared with a priori defined range of natural variation estimated from the ecosystem model STANDCARB, which estimated spatial and temporal variation due to gap dynamics. The prior range of variation was estimated between −1.5 and 1.5 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. The observed data on NEP did not provide sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis that these forests are in C balance. We concluded that the ecosystem is likely behaving within its range of natural variation, but measurement uncertainties were a major limitation to finding evidence to reject the null hypothesis. A literature review of C flux studies in the tropics revealed that about half of the observations could be explained by gap dynamics alone, while significant C sinks have only been observed during La Niña years, with contrasting results in other tropical forests. In conclusion, observational data of carbon fluxes do not appear to provide direct evidence for a significant carbon sink in some sites in the tropics.


The empirical VAR literature on the monetary transmission mechanism in closed economies has been successful in providing evidence with which theoretical models of the monetary transmission mechanism are now confronted. The empirical VAR literature on the monetary transmission mechanism in open economies has not enjoyed the same success and it is still marred with a number of empirical puzzles. In this paper we firstly assess the relevance of the progress made estimating VAR in closed economies for the specification of VAR in open economies. Second, we propose to solve the simultaneity between exchange rate and policy interest rates by using information extracted from financial markets independently from the VAR. Lastly, we evaluate the relative importance of macroecomnomic and monetary policy variables in explaining short-term fluctuations in the nominal exchange rates. Our main results are that a commodity price index is an important variable in any VAR analysis of the monetary transmission mechanism, that the simultaneity between German policy rates and the US dollar/D mark exchange rate is not an empirically relevant problem, and that monetary factors are dominated by macroeconomic factors for the explanation of exchange rate fluctuations.


Mice carrying human immunoglobulin transloci were immunised with HIV-1 gp140 antigen to gain insight into the range and nature of human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can be elicited from such humanised mice. Using five-feature mice that harbour YAC-based germline-configuration human IgM, Igκ and Igλ transloci in a mouse background disrupted for endogenous mouse IgH and Igκ expression, gp140-specific human IgM mAbs were readily elicited following serial immunisation. These mAbs were converted to human IgG1 format and were found to bind diverse epitopes within gp140, exhibiting high functional affinity for the antigen-typically in the nanomolar or sub-nanomolar range. The number of specific, stable hybridomas per mouse was, however, low (typically around five) with the hybridomas within individual mice often being clonally related. Nevertheless, different mice used B cell clones expressing varied V(D)J combinations, with affinity maturation through somatic hypermutation making a critical contribution. Thus, a wide range of distinct high-affinity mAbs can be obtained by immunising multiple animals. The results confirm the utility of the translocus-mouse approach and give insight into strategies for possible future improvement.