In vitro lymphocyte blastogenic responses to the commonly employed mitogens, phytohemagglutinin, pokeweed, and concanavalin A, were evaluated when adenine arabinoside (ara-A) in a concentration of 3 μg/ml was added to the culture materials. Similarly, blastogenic and cytotoxic responses to cell cultures persistently infected with herpes simplex virus 1, herpes simplex virus 2, and varicella-zoster virus were determined in the presence of ara-A. No depression of these cellular immune responses by ara-A was demonstrated. This was in contrast to the effect of cytosine arabinoside, which at a concentration of 3 μg/ml severely inhibited these immune responses. Further studies examined lymphocyte blastogenic responses to the mitogens and blastogenic and cytotoxic responses specific for the herpes group virus infecting patients who were subsequently treated with ara-A; determinations were made before, during, and after treatment. In vitro responses during and after treatment with ara-A were unchanged or often enhanced as compared to pretreatment values. Therefore, the antiviral chemotherapeutic agent, ara-A, does not appear to depress the host's cellular immune responses, which are vital to successful elimination of invading herpes group viruses.


This paper describes a wet-etching technique that solves the major difficulty of fine patterning a c-axis oriented polycrystalline ZnO film. The technique uses aqueous NH/sub 4/Cl with electrolytically added copper ions and convection flow, and for the first time, allows the ZnO film to be etched 1) with controlled etch rate ratio between the vertical and horizontal etch rates and 2) with controlled etch-front slope. The ratio between the vertical and horizontal etch rates is as high as 20 to 1, while the angle between the sidewall etch-front surface and the substrate surface can be electrically controlled between 73/spl deg/ and 106/spl deg/. Also, ZnO films can now be patterned to fine features (even sub-/spl mu/m level) with a wet etchant. The electroless galvanic etching technique described in this paper produces uniform etching over a large area (larger than 3" in diameter).


To detect the cluster centers automatically by fast clustering using density peak detection and overcome the disadvantage of original algorithm: selecting the centers by visual identifying, Chebyshev's inequality is applied. The new clustering algorithm by finding density peaks based on Chebyshev's inequality (CDP) can get the judgment index by screening density and distance which are normalized. The judgment index can reflect the attributes of the data because cluster centers' judgment indices are much larger than others'. These points whose judgment indices are over the upper bound based on Chebyshev's inequality will be selected as the cluster centers. Then assign the remaining points by their nearest neighbor of higher density. The experimental results show its good performance for data sets in different shapes in comparison with other excellent clustering algorithms.


Sedimentary rocks of late Mesozoic age exposed at Camp Hill, northern Antarctic Peninsula, are associated with calc-alkaline volcanic rocks. They represent deposition on a fault-controlled floodplain, with marginal alluvial fans, on a volcanic arc. Finely laminated mudstone and occasional graded laminae were deposited from suspension and by density underflow currents, respectively, in small shallow lakes. Thickening- and coarsening-upward sandstone bodies overlying the lake deposits are interpreted as lacustrine deltas of which two types are preserved: (1) Gilbert-type with steep foresets and (2) mouth-bar type which lack steep foresets. Sections through the latter type reveal the presence of sub-environments characteristic of fluvial-dominated marine deltas, i.e. prodelta, distributary mouth-bar and distributary channel. Abandoned mouth-bars resulting from avulsion are recognized. It is suggested that the processes which operated during formation of the mouth-bar deltas resulted from hyperpycnal flow. By contrast, the Gilbert-type delta is thought to be the consequence of a reduced inflow of suspended sediment causing homopycnal flow, and thorough mixing of the river and lake waters.


Summary Evolutionary science remains an overlooked area in psychiatry and medicine. The newly established Royal College of Psychiatrists' Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group aims to reverse this trend by raising the profile of evolutionary thinking among College members and others further afield. Here we provide a brief outline of the importance of the evolutionary approach to both the theory and practice of psychiatry and for future research.


The emerging field generally known as ''animal studies'' is vexed by a problem familiar to medievalists: the reference of general names. Among scientists, names for species and genera have been subject to debate and revision at least since Charles Darwin undermined the assumption that organisms can be assigned to stable categories. More fundamentally, many contemporary scholars echo the medieval debate over the most general names, universals, with their challenge to animal itself. The most widely cited version of that challenge is central to Jacques Derrida's L'animal que donc je suis (2006), edited and translated as The Animal That Therefore I Am. Derrida opens the lecture on which the book is based by acknowledging his embarrassment when naked before the gaze of his ''little cat,'' who is, he insists, a truly singular creature, not ''the exemplar of a species called 'cat,' even less so of an 'animal' genus or kingdom.''1 Animal epitomizes the ''general singular'' name, he argues, with which we claim ''to designate every living thing that is


There is compelling evidence that climate change is affecting water resources in many parts of the world. Managing the societal consequences of this is one of the 21st century's major challenges to the prosperity and security of the international community. In few places will the changes and challenges be greater than in the boreal/subarctic region (defined broadly as the higher midlatitudes) of the Northern Hemisphere. In this circumpolar, transitional climatic zone, slight temperature differences determine the status of frozen ground, whether precipitation falls as rain or snow, and the degree to which winter snowpacks accumulate and subsequently melt.


This paper investigates an image coding system using the Hadamard Naturalness-Preserving Transform (HNPT) . This work focuses both on the encoding and the decoding processes. Symmetric Lloyd-Max quantizers are designed to encode the HNPT coefficients. The theory of projections onto convex sets (POCS) is used as a basis for the design of an iterative reconstruction algorithm. A constraint set is defined that imposes consistency with known values. Experimental results to date demonstrate the convergence of the restoration algorithm.


Since this topic was last reviewed in Thorax' a number of developments have occurred and it would seem, therefore, timely to present an updated review. Generally speaking the prognosis for AIDS patients has not improved over the last few years. Despite a massive international investment programme in research into all aspects of HIV infection, the prognosis remains poor with a median survival for HIV positive persons remaining at only 17 months from diagnosis of AIDS in European patients,' although years may elapse between infection and development ofAIDS. For example, in one study 20% of HIV infected individuals remained asymptomatic 11 years after infection,3 and recent projections from a cohort study estimate that asmany as 25% will survive for 20 years after infection with HIV without developing AIDS.4 Recent experience with zidovudine and other antiretroviral agents has not supported early enthusiasm; in particular, the results of the Concorde study show that zidovudine, which remains the only widely used antiretroviral agent, is of limited efficacy, at best providing a few additional months of relatively symptom free life.5 These features mean that respiratory physicians will continue to see infectious and non-infectious pulmonary complications in HIV infected individuals, and in this review recent information on respiratory aspects ofHIV infection will be discussed in the hope of facilitating the management ofthese patients. Pneumocystis pneumonia was discussed in last month's issue of Thorax. Here we consider (1) some general features of pulmonary disease in HIV infection that have changed recently; (2) our improved understanding ofpulmonary bacterial infection and the importance ofupper airway disease including tuberculosis and atypical mycobacterial infection which remain ofcentral importance while viral and fungal infections are of less importance clinically; and (3) non-specific aspects oflung disease and secondary neoplasms in HIV infection. Kaposi's sarcoma will be the subject ofthe third review in this series.


1. The effects of electrical stimulation of presynaptic and post‐synaptic cells on sprouting after partial denervation were examined in the guinea‐pig superior cervical ganglion with intracellular recording. The partial denervation reduced the mean number of preganglionic axons innervating each ganglion cell from about eleven to about two (Maehlen & Njå, 1981). 2. One week after partial denervation alone, the number of residual preganglionic axons innervating each superior cervical ganglion cell was increased by about 30%. This means that the number of ganglion cells contacted by each residual preganglionic axon was increased by the same amount, which represents an early stage of sprouting. 3. Preganglionic stimulation for 1 hr immediately after the partial denervation (with 100 pulses at 20 Hz every 25 sec) increased the rate of sprouting. Thus 1 week after partial denervation and preganglionic stimulation the number of residual preganglionic axons innervating each ganglion cell was increased by about 70%. Preganglionic stimulation had no similar effect on the innervation of normal ganglia. 4. The acceleration of sprouting caused by preganglionic stimulation was abolished by blocking ganglionic transmission with hexamethonium (30‐‐60 mg kg‐1 hr‐1 I.V.) during the stimulation. 5. Furthermore, the rate of sprouting of residual preganglionic axons was increased by electrical stimulation of the ganglion cells alone. 6. These results show that after partial denervation of the superior cervical ganglion, a period of impulse activity in ganglion cells enhances their subsequent ability to receive innervation from sprouts arising from residual preganglionic axons.


Increased levels of automation will be necessary in view of more stringent performance requirements that next generation optical transport networks need to support in a near term, not only for high capacity, but, even more importantly, for dynamicity, latency, and availability. All these aspects will become more relevant with the growing complexity of modern networks. Network automation targets resource re-optimization to rapidly adapt the network to the expected conditions, quick degradation detection to improve the quality of the connections, as well as failure detection and identification to facilitate maintenance. Network automation requires and implies the collection of data for performance monitoring, being then elaborated by data analytics algorithms to produce meaningful inputs for the network controller, which will finally program the underlying devices. In this paper, we analyze alternative architectures for monitoring and data analytics (MDA) and illustrative control loops are presented aiming at validating the usefulness of MDA to automate optical networks operation.


Allicin is one of the active ingredient of freshly crushed garlic homogenates and showed a wide spectrum activity. The antimicrobial activity of different concentration of allicin against gram positive and gram negative bacterial isolate was studied by standard protocols. The maximum zone of inhibition has been observed in Salmonella mgulani and mimimum for Proteus mizobills The minimul inhibitory concentration (MIC) varies bacteria to bacteria and fungus to fungus respectively. The effect of time, temperature and pH were also studied. The antibacterial efficacy was maintained at room temperature for maximum one week and maintains for longer time only at low temperature. Antimicrobial activity of garlic come from allicin, is mainly due to S-S and S-O bond which has the ability to react with thiol containing enzyme to form S-thiolation product, the broad spectrum antimicrobial effects of allicin is due to the multiple inhibitory effects on various thiol dependent enzymatic systems.


AIMS
Bepridil is highly effective in terminating persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Despite continued treatment, a high rate of AF recurrence after pharmacological cardioversion (PC) with bepridil has been reported. Bepridil therapy is also associated with significant adverse effects.

METHODS AND RESULTS
This retrospective case-control study included 82 patients with persistent AF (PEF). Group 1 (22 patients) comprised cases undergoing AF ablation following attempted PC with bepridil. Group 2 (60 patients) comprised control that underwent AF ablation without bepridil pre-treatment. In Group 1, 15 patients (68%) restored sinus rhythm (SR) with bepridil (SR group) and 7 continued to have AF (AF group). SR group underwent extensive pulmonary vein isolation (EPVI) alone. AF group and Group 2 underwent linear ablation after EPVI, if AF was inducible. At the end of 18 +/- 5 months off antiarrhythmic drugs, the AF-free rate was 87% in SR group, 29% in AF group, and 72% in Group 2 (72 vs. 29%, P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION
Following AF ablation in patients who successfully restored SR with bepridil pre-treatment, AF-free rate was significantly higher than in those who failed to do so. Conversion to SR with bepridil might help select the optimal patients with PEF for catheter ablation.


Low frequency modulation strategies are a good solution to increase the energy conversion efficiency in high power applications. The paper is devoted to presents an innovative way to low order harmonics mitigation for seven-level Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters. In particular, this approach is based on the mitigation of selected harmonics without solve non-linear equations for an extended range of the fundamental amplitude. In fact, in real-time operation to evaluate the control angles the polynomial equations have been identified. Through circuit simulation analysis in MatLab/PLECS environment, the effectiveness of the harmonic mitigation method has been tested and compared with theoretical results.


The authors propose an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)-based subscriber network using a ring with star topology, virtual paths, and ring-type distributed queuing (DQ) access control. For reducing access unfairness between the nodes to traffic congestion, the authors proposed the ring-type DQ, including a sink function for the request flag (RF) and a time-out function of RF drop indicator (DR). Simulation results indicate the effectiveness of ring-type DQ. For highly efficient subscriber access network operation, DQ and virtual path (VP) must be employed because they provide flexible path assignment and do not require sending direction control. Subscriber access networks using layered structures and the virtual path concept will be important in providing future high-speed/broadband services.<<ETX>>


This study investigates the influence of motion of a sound source on localization performance in the presence of a binaurally correlated noise masker in the free field. For moving sources, the interaural differences in time and level are time varying which might influence localization performance. Four subjects localized the static position and the trajectory?s end position of a 500 Hz sine tone, both with a constant duration of 300 ms, in the presence of an octave-band noise from the front. All tones were presented 5 dB above the masking threshold obtained at the end position of the moving trajectory. The simulated velocities ranged from m 0°/s to 200°/s. Static stimuli where positioned at azimuthal angles from 0° to 60°. Both types of stimuli were simulated with 17th order Ambisonics and played on 36 horizontally arranged loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. Without the noise masker, localization bias is small and about 3.5� for the moving and 2� for the static sine tones. If a noise masker at 0° is presented with the target sine tone slightly above masking threshold, the overall localization error increases for both static and moving signals. For more lateral positions, caused by higher velocities, the localized direction seems to saturate around 35� for stimuli moving faster than 100°/s. This results in an increasing underestimation of the laterality of the tone?s end position for increasing velocities. The tendency for underestimating the most lateral position of the sound source is more pronounced for moving sound sources than for static ones. The results indicate a sluggish integration of sound source location in the auditory system in presence of a noise masker.


The success of service-oriented architectures (SOA) depends on faultless and seamless service integration. Formal modeling of global communication protocols between services enables a model-based integration testing (MBIT) approach. In this paper we present an MBIT approach based on SAP proprietary choreography models called Message Choreography Models (MCM). We explain how MBIT fits into the SAP testing methodology for SOA and give some insights into the experience we gained from the work.


recto-vaginal fistulas by individual justification of selection the method and formation of differential diagnostic and treatment algorithm. Materials and methods: results of surgical treatment 15 patients with rectovaginal fistulas have been evaluated. Applied two categories of surgical procedures: 8 patients underwent excision of the fistula, followed by stratified suturing wound tight without of components sfinkterolevatoroplasty. 7 patients supplemented operation performing segmental proctoplasty, plastic vaginal wall mobilized mucous and submucosal graft after anterior sfinkterolevatoroplasty. Results: two cases of recurrence were registered in the first group occurring. In the second group was not registered any recurrences. Summary: the use of radical excision techniques of rectovaginal fistula, supplemented anterior sfinkterolevatoroplasty is the most promising way to significantly reduce the number of postoperative complications and recurrence of the disease by restoring the layered structure of the rectovaginal septum.


Key Word : adolescent , video game, addiction ABSTRACT : Video games are very dominant play a lot of people around the world. Of various ages, from children to adults. Requirements for video games to know the game fairly easy. If someone does not have full tools, he could still play in some place or land rental video game that many were scattered everywhere. From the start of the small environment, small shops to the simple kiosk. The method used in this research is qualitative research by using the triangulation of the linking theory with the theories of existing triangulation methods, which use the method of using a qualitative approach to interviewing and observation methods, and triangulation of data, or sources, namely observations of data comparing with the data subject interviews with significant others who are addicted subject to bias play video games and video games more than three hours per day, subject to eliminate saturation play will daily activity. Subjects were tireless when playing video games. The subject will feel very offended when he gets a reprimand would be a video game habits of the surrounding environment. Be reluctant doing subject of homework given by the teacher. Also subject to reduce the habit of playing video games but it felt very hard. The impact of video game addiction, including the positive and negative impacts. Positive impact felt by the subject is feeling proud if successfully solve challenges in a game, because the subject will get praise from other gamers as well regarded as the greatest. While the negative effects of playing video games are perceived by the subject is the subject of declining school performance in some recent semester. This happens because the subject is difficult to concentrate when studying at home or at school. Concentration of the subject is always divided between a video game that he has not finished playing with the subject to learn. Another negative impact is the subject of a forgotten time, often forgetting his obligation to serve, and the subject often forget a meal. Besides, the subject felt the game suggested considered very exciting and interesting.


This article presents a case study of two individuals' workplace instant messages. More specifically, it examines the strategies for maintaining a coherent conversation present in their IM manuscripts. It then presents three strategies that the two participants used. Finally, the article presents recommendations for future work on workplace instant messaging.


Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials are currently one of the most explored materials for developing efficient and stable electrocatalysts in energy conversion applications. Some of the 2D metal phosphorous trichalcogenides (M2P2X6 or MPX3 in its simplified form) have been reported to be useful catalysts for water splitting, although results have been less promising for the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to insufficient activity or compromised stability. Herein, we report the OER catalysis of a series of M2P2X6 (M2+ = Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Cd; X = S, Se). From the series of MPX3, CoPS3 yields the best results with an overpotential within the range of values usually obtained for IrO2 or RuO2 catalysts. The liquid-phase exfoliation of CoPS3 even improves the OER activity due to abundant active edges of the downsized sheets, accompanied by the presence of surface oxides. The influence of the OER medium and underlying substrate electrode is studied, with the exfoliated CoPS3 reaching the lowest overpotential at 234 mV at a current density of 10 mA/cm2, also able to sustain high current densities, with an overpotential of 388 mV at a current density of 100 mA/cm2, and excellent stability after multiple cycles or long-term operation. Quantum chemical models reveal that these observations are likely tied to moieties on CoPS3 edges, which are responsible for low overpotentials through a two-site mechanism. The OER performance of exfoliated CoPS3 reported herein yields competitive values compared to those reported for other Co-based and MPX3 in the literature, thus holding substantial promise for use as an efficient material for the anodic water-splitting reaction.


Matching theory predicts choices on concurrent variable ratio schedules on which consumers' brand selection occurs will show maximization via exclusive choice of the richest schedule. However, aggregate studies of consumer choice indicate two modes of consumer brand purchase within a product category: either exclusive purchase of one brand or multibrand purchasing. This article uses brand-selection data from individual consumers to determine whether, at this level of analysis, (a) consumers' purchasing patterns show matching, (b) consumers maximize returns, and, if so, (c) what they maximize. Consumer behavior for fast-moving goods exhibits matching, but in the form of multibrand purchasing rather than exclusive choice. Moreover, for substitutes, brand selection is price sensitive, suggesting both melioration and maximization; for nonsubstitutes, choice is not price sensitive but still appears consistent with maximization of price- and nonprice-related sources of value. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Random-noise radar has been applied successfully to range measurement, velocity estimation and terrain/target imaging. For applications involving stationary targets, long integration times and process averaging are easily tolerated. In situations where the target or radar platform moves at high speed, the impact of this relative motion on system design should be considered. This work addresses the statistical performance of a generic random-noise radar receiver and examines the inter-relationships between design parameters and performance tradeoffs. Complementing this examination, a random-noise monopulse system is also investigated as a possible architecture for real-time angle estimation. Simulations and numerical illustrations provide the basis of processor design and performance prediction.


To understand better how users take advantage of wireless networks, we examine a twelve-week trace of a building-wide local-area wireless network. We analyze the network for overall user behavior (when and how intensively people use the network and how much they move around), overall network traffic and load characteristics (observed throughput and symmetry of incoming and outgoing traffic), and traffic characteristics from a user point of view (observed mix of applications and number of hosts connected to by users).
Amongst other results, we find that users are divided into distinct location-based sub-communities, each with its own movement, activity, and usage characteristics. Most users exploit the network for web-surfing, session-oriented activities and chat-oriented activities. The high number of chat-oriented activities shows that many users take advantage of the mobile network for synchronous communication with others. In addition to these user-specific results, we find that peak throughput is usually caused by a single user and application. Also, while incoming traffic dominates outgoing traffic overall, the opposite tends to be true during periods of peak throughput, implying that significant asymmetry in network capacity could be undesirable for our users.
While these results are only valid for this local-area wireless network and user community, we believe that similar environments may exhibit similar behavior and trends. We hope that our observations will contribute to a growing understanding of mobile user behavior.


This paper proposes a method for evaluating a physical gait motion based on a 3D human skeleton measured by a depth sensor. While similar methods measure and evaluate the motion of only a part of interest (e.g., knee), the proposed method comprehensively evaluates the motion of the full body. The gait motions with a variety of physical disabilities due to lesioned body parts are recorded and modeled in advance for gait anomaly detection. This detection is achieved by finding lesioned parts a set of pose features extracted from gait sequences. In experiments, the proposed features extracted from the full body allowed us to identify where a subject was injured with 83.1% accuracy by using the model optimized for the individual. The superiority of the full-body features was validated in in contrast to local features extracted from only a body part of interest (77.1% by lower-body features and 65% by upper-body features). Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed full-body features was also validated with single universal model used for all subjects; 55.2%, 44.7%, and 35.5% by the full-body, lower-body, and upper-body features, respectively. key words: gait motion, full-body motion, lesioned part, 3D human skeleton


Described herein is a photoinduced copper-catalyzed 1,2-difunctionalization of 1,3-dienes. The selenium atom radical was generated by the visible light irradiation of diselenides, triggering radical addition with 1,3-dienes to form allyl radical intermediate. Subsequent rapid Z/E isomerization allowed for thermodynamically favorable intermediate formation and enabled copper catalyzed stereoselective functionalization with various nucleophiles.


In Reply .—Our study found that chronic but not acute antenatal hypoxia was associated with lower-than-expected IQ scores in 7-year-old children. These findings did not change when children with one-minute Apgar scores of 7 through 10 were included in the acute hypoxia analyses. Dr Harkavy may have also misunderstood how multiple regression analysis data should be interpreted. The β values in our tables take into consideration all nonhypoxic factors that might influence IQ values. In addition, antenatal hypoxia does contribute to the IQ influences attributed to social and demo-graphic factors, but the elucidation of these factors was not the purpose of our study. Our purpose was to determine if antenatal hypoxia affects children's subsequent IQ values, independent of social and demographic factors. Dr Harkavy also asks if antenatal hypoxia affected the cognitive performance of children who died before 7 years of age. These children had lower-than-expected eight-month Bayley Mental Test


Interaction between dense silicon nitride ceramics and Ni and/or Ni-Cr alloys during diffusion bonding at 1,398 K was investigated. The reaction phenomena in these systems can be explained by assuming a high nitrogen pressure (fugacity), which is built up at the contact surface. Experimental results on diffusion couples were compared with those of direct nitriding of Ni-Cr(Si) alloys from the gas atmosphere (1--6,000 bar). Based on experimental data and thermodynamic considerations of the Ni-Cr-Si-N system, evidence for ``up hill`` diffusion of nitrogen near the precipitation front in the reaction zone between dense Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} and Ni-Cr alloys with 10--18 at% of Cr was found. This can be attributed to the relative instability of cubic chromium nitride (CrN) and the strong Cr-N interaction in the nickel-based solid solution.


To better assess the relationship between excess nutrient runoff and plant species diversity in the Egyptian northern coastal lakes, the relationships between aboveground biomass, species diversity, and both micro and macronutrient concentrations in sediment, water, and plant materials were investigated. A total of 38 sampling sites were established for the five Egyptian northern lakes (8 for Bardawil, 10 for Manzala, 8 for Burullus, and 6 for each of Edku and Mariut). Sediment, water, and plant materials were collected and analyzed for both micro and macronutrients including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), iron (Fe), boron (B), sodium (Na), and aluminum (Al). Based on the Sørensen similarity index, Burullus and Mariut lakes were very similar (0.70) in their vegetation composition, while Bardawil Lake had no similarity with the rest of the lakes. In sediment, Mariut Lake had the highest total P concentrations (1.3 g kg−1), while Bardawil Lake had the lowest (0.3 g kg−1). Bardawil, a hypersaline lake, had the highest concentrations for both Na and B (9.6 and 0.1 g kg−1, respectively). Among the deltaic lakes, Mariut Lake water bodies had the lowest plant species richness. The current study indicated that the excessive agricultural and industrial nutrient runoff had a greater impact on the nutrient distribution pattern and negatively impacted plant species diversity at the Egyptian coastal lakes. An integrated management plan, including establishing more pretreatment facilities for runoff and wastewater, should be implemented to reduce the nutrient loads from the main industrial and agricultural runoff sources. Moreover, periodic monitoring and assessment for nutrient runoff reaching the lakes are necessary to help reduce eutrophication levels.


We developed CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a perpendicularly magnetized synthetic antiferromagnetic (p-SAF) reference layer for magnetic sensor applications. The MTJs exhibited linear tunnel magnetoresistance curves to out-of-plane applied magnetic fields with dynamic ranges more than ±2.5 kOe, which are wider than those in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB-MTJs reported to date. The performance metrics of MTJ sensors, i.e., sensitivity and nonlinearity, depend significantly on the anisotropy field of the free layer. We explained the dependences by a simple model based on the Stoner-Wohlfarth and Slonczewski models, which gives us a guideline to design the sensor performance metrics. These findings demonstrated that MTJs with a p-SAF reference layer are promising candidates for wide-dynamic-range magnetic sensors.


The growth rate of intracranial neoplasms has been studied extensively in three patients with the use of ultrasonic visualization methods. Normal and abnormal structural details in their brains have been compared to the brain structure of one patient without neoplastic disease. These patients' brains were scanned ultrasonically through the healed scalp, after a portion of the underlying calvaria had been removed during surgery for the neoplasm. Fissures, sulci, ventricles, cisterns, blood vessels, and some gray-white matter interfaces were visualized. Fine details of tumor proliferation and regression (glioblastoma multiforme and metastatic carcinoma) were accurately delineated. Ultrasound brain visualization has achieved sufficiently significant results to warrant its continued use through large skull defects to detect increase or decrease in the size of malignant neoplasia. The study also suggests that the substantial scientific effort required to provide comparable visualization through the intact skull be undertaken.


Introduction * Democracy and Human Rights in the Caribbean Ivelaw L. Griffith and Betty N. Sedoc-Dahlberg. International Dimensions And Common Problems * International Law and Human Rights: A Caribbean Context Anselm A. Francis. * The OAS and Human Rights in the Caribbean David J. Padilla and Elizabeth A. Houppert. * NGOs and IGOs as Promoters of Liberal Democracy in the Caribbean: Cases from Nicaragua and Guyana W. Marvin Will. * Drugs and Democratic Governance in the Caribbean I. L. Griffith and Trevor Munroe. Case Studies * Democracy and Human Rights: The Case of Cuba Damian J. Fernandez. * Democracy and Human Rights in the Dominican Republic Larman C. Wilson. * Democracy and Human Rights in the Eastern Caribbean Francis Alexis. * Democracy and Human Rights in Guyana I. L. Griffith. * Democracy and Human Rights in Haiti Robert E. Maguire. * Globalization, Structural Adjustment, and Democracy in Jamaica Dorith Grant-Wisdom. * Democracy and Human Rights in Suriname B. N. Sedoc-Dahlberg. * Human Rights and State Security in Trinidad and Tobago Clifford E. Griffin. * Democracy and Human Rights at the Centurys End I. L. Griffith and B. N. Sedoc-Dahlberg.


Background: A substantial coronal plane deformity is common in the context of end-stage ankle osteoarthritis. Recent literature shows a trend toward extending the indication of total ankle arthroplasty in increasingly severe coronal deformities, showing promising results when correct alignment is achieved. Nevertheless, the results of lateral transfibular total ankle replacement (LTTAR) in valgus has not been extensively studied. We aimed to evaluate if the outcomes of LTTAR in ankles with valgus deformity were similar to those with no major deformity at short-term follow-up. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 228 LTTARs. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to the preoperative coronal plane tibiotalar angle (TTS): neutral (less than 10 degrees of coronal deformity, 209 patients) and valgus (above 10 degrees of valgus, 19 patients). Clinical evaluation was performed using the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) score, visual analog scale (VAS), 12-Item Short Form Health Survey 12 (SF-12) regarding its Physical and Mental Component Summary items. The radiographic evaluation considered anteroposterior and lateral ankle radiographs. Complications were also registered and classified as major or minor. The minimum follow-up was 2 years. Results: The average AOFAS, VAS, and SF-12 scores improved significantly postoperatively (P < .001), without differences between groups. At final radiographic follow-up, the valgus alignment group did not show significant differences with the neutral alignment group regarding TTS, lateral distal tibial angle, or anterior distal tibial angle (P > .05). Conclusion: LTTAR in cases with valgus deformity achieved and maintained correction at short-term follow-up, as obtained in neutral alignment ankles. Clinical outcomes improved significantly regardless of preoperative valgus deformity. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level III, retrospective cohort study.


A self-administered anonymous waiting room survey was used to evaluate men's preferences on testing, notification, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in a community clinic in Upper Manhattan in 2007. Sixty-seven percent of eligible men (n = 199) participated. Most were willing to collect a urine sample at home (71%, n = 140) or at the clinic (87%, n = 171). Respondents preferred learning of a positive STI test result by phone (67%, n = 123). However, men were willing to receive results by text (65%, n = 127) or e-mail (61%, n = 121). Most (83%, n = 162) reported they would be (very) likely to take STI medication brought to them by a partner. Twenty-one percent reported previous gonorrhea or Chlamydia infection (n = 41). Of these, 39% (n = 16) had received medication to bring their partner, and almost all (n = 14/16) reported their partner took the medicine. Multiple options for STI testing, notification, and treatment are recommended to maximize service use among men, including providing patient-delivered partner therapy.


Time-limited psychodynamic psychotherapy is garnering empirical support as an intervention for clinical depression. However, research is needed to examine the efficacy of psychodynamic approaches among patients presenting with diverse psychiatric and medical problems. This case study examined the efficacy of eight sessions of pragmatic psychodynamic psychotherapy (PPP) in treating a woman with major depression and breast cancer. Pre- to posttreatment assessment indicated significant reductions in depression and weekly assessment indicated increased environmental reward was associated with reduced depression. Secondary aims involved piloting a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task as a neurobiological indicator of depression attenuation as a function of PPP. This assessment was conducted to explore alternative means of evaluating treatment responsiveness and addressing the problem of arbitrary metrics in measuring change. Clinical and assessment implications are discussed, with a focus on innovative approaches to evaluate treatment outcome and behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of change associated with PPP.


The Maxwell equations of electrodynamics describe electrical and magnetic forces with great accuracy in the vacuum of space. But the equations of electrodynamics applied to material systems are usually written in a way that obscures their accuracy. The usual formulation of the Maxwell equations includes a dielectric constant as a single real number that grossly over-approximates the actual properties of matter, particularly liquid matter so important in applications of electrodynamics to biology and chemistry. We rewrite two Maxwell equations here to make clear the precision of the Maxwell equations in the presence or absence of matter. We discuss and derive two well known corollaries that are as universal and precise as the Maxwell equations themselves: (1) a continuity equation that relates charge and flux and (2) a conservation equation in which total current never accumulates at all. The total current is the right hand side of the Ampere-Maxwell law. Total current is perfectly incompressible. It is conserved exactly, everywhere and at every time, independent of the microphysics of charge conduction. The total current combines the flux of charges and the ethereal current. The ethereal current \varepsilon_{o\ }\sfrac{\partial\mathbf{E}}{\partial t}\ exists everywhere, including the interior of atoms, because it is a property of space, not matter. The ethereal current exists, and thus flows, in a vacuum devoid of mass. The ethereal current is a consequence of the relativistic (Lorentz) invariance of charge. Charge does not change even if it moves at speeds approaching the velocity of light. Total current has properties quite distinct from flux of mass because of the ethereal current. Most strikingly, in the one dimensional unbranched systems of electronic circuits and biological ion channels, the total current is independent of location, even if the flux of charges varies a great deal. Indeed, the Maxwell equations—and thus conservation of total current—act as a perfect low pass spatial filter, converting the infinite variation of (the Brownian model of) thermal motion of charges to the zero variation of the total current.


The translation of email presents unique challenges to translation systems. At the same time, features peculiar to email constitute new sources of information for these systems. A corpus of Japanese email is examined and its particular characteristics discussed: visual formatting, use and nature of openings and closings, visual devices for capturing aspects of speech (e.g., nonstandard punctuation, spelling, and use of English), and patterns of discourse marker, formal/informal verb form and verb tense use. It is suggested that author-specific features (use of closings, number of sentences, size of paragraphs, and use of visual devices) allow customization of translation. Implications of these features for modifications to translation systems are discussed.


'This gracefully-written work concerns the Riemann Hypothesis, promulgated nearly 150 years ago, and so far still unproved...yet the story of a search for a proof draws you along as if it were a detective thriller' Simon Hoggart, Guardian In 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a shy German mathematician, wrote an eight-page article, suggesting an answer to a problem that had long puzzled mathematicians. For the next 150 years, the world's mathematicians have longed to confirm the Riemann hypothesis. So great is the interest in its solution that in 2001, an American foundation offered a million-dollar prize to the first person to demonstrate that the hypothesis is correct. Karl Sabbagh's book paints vivid portraits of the mathematicians who spend their days and nights on the race to solve the problem. 'Dr Riemann's Zeros is as jolly a romp as one could hope to see into the world of obsessive abstraction that pure mathematics inhabit' Daily Express 'A lively and interesting work...a page-turner - even those who know little about maths will find themselves reading on to find out what happens.' Good Book Guide 'A pleasurable and painless read for anyone intrigued by numbers' Ian Stewart, author of Nature's Numbers and Flatterland


A study that was aimed to explore the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi inoculation on the potential of wild plant species ( Paspalum conjugatum, Cyperus kyllingia , and Lindernia crustacea ) for phytoextraction of mercury from small-scale gold mine tailings was conducted in a glasshouse. Each of the plant seedlings was planted in a plastic pot containing 10 kg of planting medium (mixture of tailings and compost; 50%: 50% by weight). Treatments tested were three plant species and doses of AM fungi inoculation, i.e. 0 and 30 spores/plant. At harvest of 63 days, plant shoot and root were analyzed for mercury concentration. The remaining planting media in the pots were used for growing maize for 84 days. The results showed that the most potential plant species for phytoextraction of mercury was Paspalum conjugatum , while the most mercury tolerant plant was Cyperus kyllingia . Without AM fungi inoculation, the highest accumulation of mercury (44.87 mg/kg) was found in the root of Paspalum conjugatum . If AM fungi were inoculated, the highest accumulation of mercury (56.30 mg/kg) was also found in the shoot of Paspalum conjugatum . Results of the second experiment proved that the growth and biomass production of maize after mycophytoextraction by the plant species were higher than those of maize grown on media without mycophytoextraction of mercury.


To investigate protein synthesis during bovine oocyte maturation in vitro, oocytes were put in culture with 35S‐methionine for 4 hr periods from time zero to 28 hr. Pools of 10 oocytes were then prepared for two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis (2‐DE). For each time interval, three gels were obtained, digitalized, and analyzed to detect proteins. Then, the gel containing the most proteins was chosen as the reference gel and compared with the others. An averaged gel was created with proteins present in at least two gels of the three. Our results indicate that the rate of protein synthesis is higher at the beginning of maturation until the appearance of metaphase I (MI, 8–12 hr) and then it decreases and stays relatively constant. Percentages of initial proteins (0–4 hr) and remaining present during the progression decrease progressively from 100% to 53%. In contrast, when we compare proteins synthesized from the 4 to 8 hr period with proteins from the 8 to 12 or the 12 to 16 hr intervals, percentages of overall protein matching are stable with values of 81 and 79%, respectively. Comparison of proteins from 20 to 24 hr with proteins from 16 to 20 or 24 to 28 hr intervals also gives stable percentages of overall protein matching with values of 83 and 84%, respectively. Furthermore, a higher number of new proteins is observed at 4–8 hr (n = 130) and 16–20 hr (n = 136) of maturation. Thus, three major patterns of protein synthesis were observed during bovine oocyte maturation in vitro: one at the beginning of maturation (0–4 hr), another one in the middle (4–16 hr), and the last one after the completion of MI stage (16–28 hr). Mol. Reprod. Dev. 67: 313–322, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The indirect radiative effect of aerosol variability on shallow cumulus clouds is realized in nature with considerable concurrent meteorological variability. Large-eddy simulations constrained by observations at a continental site in Oklahoma are performed to represent the variability of different meteorological states on days with different aerosol conditions. The total radiative effect of this natural covariation between aerosol and other meteorological drivers of total cloud amount and albedo is quantified. The changes to these bulk quantities are used to understand the response of the cloud radiative effect to aerosol–cloud interactions (ACI) in the context of concurrent processes, as opposed to attempting to untangle the effect of individual processes on a case-by-case basis. Mutual information (MI) analysis suggests that meteorological variability masks the strength of the relationship between cloud drop number concentration and the cloud radiative effect. This is shown to be mostly due to variation in solar zenith angle and cloud field horizontal heterogeneity masking the relationship between cloud drop number and cloud albedo. By combining MI and more traditional differential analyses, a framework to identify important modes of covariation between aerosol, clouds, and meteorological conditions is developed. This shows that accounting for solar zenith angle variation and implementing an albedo bias correction increases the detectability of the radiative effects of ACI in simulations of shallow cumulus.


Greyhound racing is a sport closely related to betting. The racing of greyhounds in pursuit of a mechanical hare first appeared in the United States in 1922 and was soon embraced by Britain in 1926. Two years later, thanks to the management and investment of British expatriates, it came into vogue in Shanghai, a Chinese metropolis with large clusters of foreigners. While greyhound racing became a great attraction, the track betting drew severe criticism from local Chinese organizations. They claimed dog racing encouraged gambling and was an incentive to crime, and thus insisted the International Settlement authorities stop it. The Settlement, controlled by British who were influenced by the fact that greyhound racing could be traced back to the sport of coursing and the hunting culture in old Britain, was reluctant to cooperate, and thus was sparked a seesaw battle between the Chinese and the British for the next three years. By analyzing the rich discourse on greyhound racing from 1928 to 1931, this paper argues that this case reveals much about the formation of modern Shanghai in material, political and intellectual aspects. On the other hand, it also reveals how the Chinese Municipality and the Settlement authorities utilized this dog-racing discourse to justify their existence-they shared the view that "we have to rule better than the others" in making their respective policies.


In this study we compared the effects of compression on the maturity and pattern of osseous healing in canine tibial osteotomies that were fixed with an external fixation system at a single time-period, ninety days after osteotomy. The in vitro model demonstrated that compression increased rigidity of fixation. Relative to the rigidity of the intact tibia, this increase was small. Estimation of osteotomy-site bone blood flow at ninety days by 85Sr clearance and torsional testing to failure of the healed osteotomies were used to compare the maturity of bone union in each group. The pattern of healing of the osteotomy was evaluated by quantitative histological determination of new-bone formation and porosity. All of the osteotomies healed by the ninetieth day. We found no significant difference at that time in osteotomy-site bone blood flow or strength of healing of the osteotomy, although the compression-treated osteotomies healed with higher torsional stiffness. No differences were demonstrated between the two groups in the pattern of healing of the osteotomy. In both groups there was a significantly greater amount of periosteal new-bone formation in the relatively less rigidly fixed antero-posterior plane when compared with the mediolateral plane. Primary bone-healing of both the contact type and the gap type was seen in both groups. There were no significant complications and the pin-loosening rate was similar in both groups.


Smooth muscle cells (SMC) isolated from neonatal and adult rats differ markedly in their growth characteristics. The growth of neonatal cells is mainly due to autocrine stimulation, whereas the growth of adult SMC is dependent upon addition of exogenous mitogens. Increasing intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels effectively inhibits DNA synthesis in adult cells, but is essentially without effect on the rate of DNA synthesis in neonatal cells. In the present study we investigated whether this difference in cAMP sensitivity is due to an effect of cAMP on early response genes. The results show that increasing intracellular levels of cAMP by exposing the cells to the synthetic adenosine analogue N-ethyl-carboxamido adenosine (NECA) results in an accumulation of c-jun and c-fos mRNA in both cell types. NECA also lowered c-myc mRNA levels in neonatal cells, whereas it marginally increased the presence of c-myc mRNA in adult cells. Exposure to NECA also resulted in a limited increase in alpha-actin mRNA levels. NECA did not inhibit DNA synthesis or growth of adult SMC actively proliferating in the presence of 10% serum, suggesting that cAMP interferes with processes taking place during the early G1 phase or in the entry of growth-arrested cells into the G1 phase of the SMC cell cycle. It is concluded that the growth-inhibitory effect of NECA is unlikely to be due to actions of cAMP on early response genes. However, it cannot be completely excluded that an increased synthesis of jun/fos transcription factors may induce the transcription of other, growth-suppressing genes in the cells.


The Topp-Leone distribution is an attractive model for life testing and reliability studies as it acquires a bathtub shaped hazard function. In this paper, we introduce a new family of distributions, depending on Topp– Leone random variable as a generator, called the Type II generalized Topp– Leone–G (TIIGTL-G) family. Its density function can be unimodel, leftskewed, right-skewed, and reversed-J shaped, and has increasing, decreasing, upside-down, J and reversed-J hazard rates. Some special models are presented. Some of its statistical properties are studied. Explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, Rényi entropy and order statistics are derived. The method of maximum likelihood is used to estimate the model parameters. The importance of one special model; namely; the Type II generalized Topp–Leone exponential is illustrated through two real data sets.


Spatial diversity for digital TV systems has been studied using the results of a measurement campaign of the radio channel complex frequency response for two different situations: an outdoor-indoor channel and an indoor-indoor channel. It is shown that the actual improvement of spatial diversity is not only the mean level increase, but the reduction of both the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD). The mean level gain is in the range 1.2-3 dB for the indoor-indoor channel and within 1.4-2.9 dB for the outdoor-indoor channel and the LCR/AFD improvement is between 9.5 and 15 dB for both environments. To explain the behavior of the diversity system, high resolution angle of arrival and delay information was obtained. It is concluded that it is the interference of the direct propagation path with the main reflections that causes the received field to follow a standing wave pattern and shapes the spatial diversity gain behavior.


While organizing efforts by movements such as Black Lives Matter and responses to the hate-filled policies and rhetoric of President Donald Trump are heightening public discourse of racism, much less attention is paid to mechanisms of racial oppression in the field of education. Instead, conceptualizations that allude to racial difference but are disconnected from structural analyses continue to prevail in K–12 education research. In this chapter, our goal is to challenge racism-neutral and racism-evasive approaches to studying racial disparities by centering current research that makes visible the normalized facets of racism in K–12 schools. After narrowing over 4,000 articles that study racial inequity in education research, we reviewed a total of 186 U.S.-focused research studies in a K–12 school context that examine racism. As we categorized the literature, we built on a theory of the "new racism"—a more covert and hidden racism than that of the past—and grouped the articles into two main sections: (1) research that brings to light racism's permanence and significance in the lives of students of Color through manifestations of what we conceptualize as (a) evaded racism, (b) "antiracist" racism, and (c) everyday racism and (2) research focused on confronting racism through racial literacy and the resistance of communities of Color. In our conclusion, we articulate suggestions for future directions in education research that include a more direct acknowledgement of racism as we attend to the experiences and needs of K–12 students of Color.


Separation of aromatics from aliphatics is challenging because of the close range of their boiling points and the formation of several combinations of azeotropes. Until now, no feasible separation process is available for aromatic concentrations below 20 wt%. In this work, we have investigated the possibility of using selected Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) for the liquid-liquid extraction of aromatics. DESs have emerged as green solvents that may offer several industrial alternatives. The DESs used in this work were synthesized from ammonium salt with ethylene glycol, lactic acid and sulfolane as Hydrogen Bond Donor (HBD). Equilibrium data for the ternary system consisting of ethylbenzene and n-octane with all DESs were measured at 25°C and atmospheric pressure. The results showed comparable distribution ratio and selectivity with commercial solvents. The absence of the HBD in the hydrocarbon layer, means the reduction of the number of separation stages. In addition, the Non-Random Two Liquid (NRTL) model was successfully used to correlate the experimental tie-lines and to calculate the phase compositions of the ternary systems. Keywords-Deep Eutectic Solvent; ethyl benzene/n-octane mixture; Liquid-liquid Extraction


A comparative analysis of results of the pre- and postoperative investigations carried out in 232 patients with gastric ulcerations of different nature has shown a relatively low effectiveness of fibrogastroscopy with biopsy in the recognition of malignant ulcers. The sensitivity of this method was found to be (83 +/- 3)%. The results obtained show the necessity to widen the operative treatment of patients with ulcer disease of the stomach, patients with the so called relative indications included.


This article reviews research on the construct of emotion regulation in young children. The lack of consensus with regard to a definition of emotion regulation notwithstanding, it appears that biological and behavioral processes involved in emotion regulation can be reliably measured early in life. Such indices of reactivity may be useful in identifying children at risk for developmental psychopathology, but the predictive utility of these indices has yet to be established. Measurement issues and factors hypothesized to affect an infant's risk for dysregulation, such as care-giving factors, are presented. The implications of continued programmatic research on emotion dysregulation early in life are discussed.


The investigation and detection of near-surface structures (cavities, caves, tunnels, mineshafts, buried objects, archeological ruins, water reservoir, etc.) is important to mitigate geo- and environmental hazards. We use a method inspired by seismic interferometry to estimate the location of a cavity in a scaled ultrasonic experiment, representative for geophysical field problems. We use only one source at the surface and retrieve ghost scattered waves by evaluating the correlation of scattered waves at different receiver locations. As an exploitation of the ghost arrival information, the ghost travel times are determined and combined to estimate the location of a cavity with good accuracy.


The main objective of this research work was to obtain two formulations of ablative composites. These composites are also known as ablative structural composites, for applications in atmospherically severe conditions according to the high-temperature, hot gaseous products flow generated from the burning of solid propellants. The formulations were manufactured with phenolic resin reinforced with chopped carbon fiber. The composites were obtained by the hot compression molding technique. Another purpose of this work was to conduct the physical and chemical characterization of the matrix, the reinforcements and the composites. After the characterization, a nozzle divergent of each formulation was manufactured and its performance was evaluated through the rocket motor static firing test. According to the results found in this work, it was possible to observe through the characterization of the raw materials that phenolic resins showed peculiarities in their properties that differentiate one from the other, but did not exhibit significant differences in performance as a composite material for use in ablation conditions. Both composites showed good performance for use in thermal protection, confirmed by firing static tests (rocket motor). Composites made with phenolic resin and chopped carbon fiber showed that it is a material with excellent resistance to ablation process. This composite can be used to produce nozzle parts with complex geometry or shapes and low manufacturing cost.


The histological criteria for classifying endometrial hyperplasia (EH) are based on architectural crowding and nuclear atypia; however, diagnostic agreement among pathologists is poor. We investigated molecular biomarkers of endometrial cancer (EC) risk in women with simple hyperplasia or complex hyperplasia without atypia (SH/CH-nonA). Forty-nine patients with EC preceded by SH/CH-nonA were identified, of which 23 were excluded (15 with complex atypical hyperplasia (CAH), six not consenting, one with a diagnosis < 6 months prior, and one lost to follow-up). The EH tissues of these patients were compared with those of patients with SH/CH-nonA that did not progress to EC (control) through microRNA (miRNA) array analysis, and the results were verified in an expanded cohort through reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). MiRNA arrays analyses revealed 20 miRNAs that differed significantly (p < 0.05, fold change > 4) between the control (n = 12) and case (n = 6) patients. Multiplex RT-qPCR for the 20 miRNAs in the expanded cohort (94 control and 25 case patients) led to the validation of miR-30a-3p (p = 0.0009), miR-141 (p < 0.0001), miR-200a (p < 0.0001), and miR-200b (p < 0.0001) as relevant biomarkers, among which miR-141, miR-200a, and miR-200b regulate the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). For the prediction of EC, the area under the curve for miR-30a-3p, miR-141, miR-200a, and miR-200b was 0.623, 0.754, 0.783, and 0.704, respectively. The percentage of complete PTEN loss was significantly higher in the case group than in the control group (24% vs. 0%, p < 0.001, Fisher's exact test). A combination of complete PTEN loss and miR-200a provided optimal prediction performance (sensitivity = 0.760; specificity = 1.000; positive predictive value = 1.000; negative predictive value = 0.937; accuracy = 0.947). MiR-30a-3p, miR-141, miR-200a, miR-200b, and complete PTEN loss may be useful tissue biomarkers for predicting EC risk among patients with SH/CH-nonA.


MOTIVATION
Researchers usually conduct statistical analyses based on models built on raw data collected from individual participants (individual-level data). There is a growing interest in enhancing inference efficiency by incorporating aggregated summary information from other sources, such as summary statistics on genetic markers' marginal associations with a given trait generated from genome-wide association studies. However, combining high-dimensional summary data with individual-level data using existing integrative procedures can be challenging due to various numeric issues in optimizing an objective function over a large number of unknown parameters.

RESULTS
We develop a procedure to improve the fitting of a targeted statistical model by leveraging external summary data for more efficient statistical inference (both effect estimation and hypothesis testing). To make this procedure scalable to high-dimensional summary data, we propose a divide-and-conquer strategy by breaking the task into easier parallel jobs, each fitting the targeted model by integrating the individual-level data with a small proportion of summary data. We obtain the final estimates of model parameters by pooling results from multiple fitted models through the minimum distance estimation procedure. We improve the procedure for a general class of additive models commonly encountered in genetic studies. We further expand these two approaches to integrate individual-level and high-dimensional summary data from different study populations. We demonstrate the advantage of the proposed methods through simulations and an application to the study of the effect on pancreatic cancer risk by the polygenic risk score defined by BMI-associated genetic markers.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
R package is available at https://github.com/fushengstat/MetaGIM.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


BACKGROUND
To determine whether the gene expression of both acute-phase reactants (APR) and the major heat-shock protein (hsp-72) can occur simultaneously, transcriptional rates were measured during shock and resuscitation.

METHODS
A nuclear runoff technique was applied to hepatic biopsy specimens obtained from pigs before shock, during 40% blood volume hemorrhagic shock (1 and 2 hours), and after resuscitation (4 and 6 hours).

RESULTS
Shock-induced transcription of hsp-72 was elevated elevenfold over sham operation at 2 hours (p less than 0.02, Mann-Whitney rank test). Individually shocked animals did not transcribe both classes of stress genes but segregated into two groups: (1) strong APR transcriptional responders and (2) hsp-72 transcriptional responders. In group 2, APR transcription was significantly suppressed. Antichymotrypsin transcription was an average of eighteenfold lower in group 2 versus group 1 (p less than 0.05 at 1,2, and 6 hours).

CONCLUSIONS
Different classes of stress protein genes are not transcribed simultaneously. We infer that their increased accumulation at the mRNA level is the result of sequential transcription. Hsp-72 transcription excludes that of the APR genes that may be critical to survival after stress.


This paper is written from the perspective of a Dalit counselling psychologist and aims to provide an understanding of the exclusion of Dalit perspective in the theoretical as well as therapeutic domains of psychology as a discipline. It aims to elaborate on the impact of caste on the internalised-self of psychologist as well as their client and how it influences the whole process of learning as well as practice. It identifies the gaps in this field and suggests a revision and reformulation of its course and training programmes so that the closed doors can be opened for all. Further it addresses the various dyads of relationships in therapeutic alliance that can be possibly influenced by caste-based oppression in social life. The paper is highly concerned with the unaffordable and inaccessible nature of clinical settings and the persistent ignorance of the mental health concerns of Dalits. In this paper significant issues like the sense of disconnect, lack of dialogical spaces, and dehumanised processes have been explored in detail. Expressing the hope that there will be a possibility of revisiting and reformulation of theoretical orientations and philosophical frameworks, the paper calls for adequate attention towards the Dalit perspective in counselling psychology to envision egalitarianism in reality.


A coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model was implemented in order to estimate the effects of Major Baltic Inflows on the near-bottom hydrophysical and biogeochemical conditions in the northern Baltic Proper and the western Gulf of Finland during the period 1991–2009. We compared results of a realistic reference run to the results of an experimental run where Major Baltic Inflows were suppressed. Further to the expected overall decrease in bottom salinity, this modelling experiment confirms that in the absence of strong saltwater inflows the deep areas of the Baltic Proper would become more anoxic, while in the shallower areas (western Gulf of Finland) near-bottom average conditions improve. Our experiment revealed that typical estuarine circulation results in the sporadic emergence of short-lasting events of near-bottom anoxia in the western Gulf of Finland due to transport of water masses from the Baltic Proper. Extrapolating our results beyond the modelled period, we speculate that the further deepening of the halocline in the Baltic Proper is likely to prevent inflows of anoxic water to the Gulf of Finland and in the longer term would lead to improvement in near-bottom conditions in the Baltic Proper. Our results reaffirm the importance of accurate representation of salinity dynamics in coupled Baltic Sea models serving as a basis for credible hindcast and future projection simulations of biogeochemical conditions.


Inter-cell co-channel interference (CCI) mitigation is investigated in the context of cellular systems relying on dense frequency reuse. A distributed Base Station (BS) cooperation aided soft reception scheme using the Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) algorithm and Soft Combining (SC) is proposed for the uplink of multi-user multi-cell MIMO systems. The realistic hexagonal cellular model relying on unity Frequency Reuse (FR) is considered, where both the BSs and the Mobile Stations (MSs) are equipped with multiple antennas. Local cooperation based message passing is used instead of a global message passing chain for the sake of reducing the backhaul traffic. The PDA algorithm is employed as a low complexity solution for producing soft information, which facilitates the employment of SC at the individual BSs in order to generate the final soft decision metric. Our simulations and analysis demonstrate that despite its low additional complexity and backhaul traffic, the proposed distributed PDA-aided reception scheme significantly outperforms the conventional non-cooperative benchmarkers.


Pseudoaneurysm (PA) of posterior tibial artery (PTA) is not very common and that of middle one-third of PTA is rare. Endovascular treatment of symptomatic PAs has become a viable less invasive option compared to open repair. In this case report, a 64-year-old gentleman came with acute thrombosis of superficial femoral artery which was treated successfully by embolectomy. He later presented to us with increasing pain over the calf region which on duplex scan revealed us a PA of middle one-third of PTA. It was successfully managed by endovascular stenting without compromising the distal blood flow. An extensive review of the literature has also been performed. J Curr Surg. 2015;5(4):209-212 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jcs279w


Human same-sex sexual attraction (SSSA) has long been considered to be an evolutionary puzzle. The trait is clearly biological: it is widespread and has a strong additive genetic basis, but how SSSA has evolved remains a subject of debate. Of itself, homosexual sexual behavior will not yield offspring, and consequently individuals expressing strong SSSA that are mostly or exclusively homosexual are presumed to have lower fitness and reproductive success. How then did the trait evolve, and how is it maintained in populations? Here we develop a novel argument for the evolution of SSSA that focuses on the likely adaptive social consequences of SSSA. We argue that same sex sexual attraction evolved as just one of a suite of traits responding to strong selection for ease of social integration or prosocial behavior. A strong driver of recent human behavioral evolution has been selection for reduced reactive aggression, increased social affiliation, social communication, and ease of social integration. In many prosocial mammals sex has adopted new social functions in contexts of social bonding, social reinforcement, appeasement, and play. We argue that for humans the social functions and benefits of sex apply to same-sex sexual behavior as well as heterosexual behavior. As a consequence we propose a degree of SSSA, was selected for in recent human evolution for its non-conceptive social benefits. We discuss how this hypothesis provides a better explanation for human sexual attractions and behavior than theories that invoke sexual inversion or single-locus genetic models.


Changes in hydrotime model parameters were determined in Matricaria maritima L. subsp. inodora seeds during burial in a field in order to describe the seasonal dormancy pattern. Seeds were exhumed at regular intervals over a year and incubated at different water potentials at 19°C. Germination time courses were analyzed to determine hydrotime population parameters. Values of ѱb(50), ѲH and σѱb varied each month. Mean base water potential values in seeds exhumed each month were related to precipitation over 20 days before their exhumation. Soil temperature could be a trend-controlling factor of this relationship. The seeds were in deep dormancy after remaining 80-90 days in soil below or above limit temperature 15°C. The application of the hydrotime model to describe and predict seasonal dormancy patterns of weed seed is promising, especially for species with a considerable diversification of life strategies and ecophysiological flexibility of diaspores. It could also suggest mechanisms of seasonal dormancy changes of seeds in natural conditions and provide a basis for their examination. One of advantages of the dormancy pattern description of weed seeds remaining in a soil bank by means of threshold models is its simplicity.


The success of yield-improvement programmes hinges on the accurate selection of parents from which to generate superior breeding populations, and the selection of high-yielding genotypes from early-segregating generations. Development of the ideotype concept has focused the attention of plant physiologists and breeders on the identification of simple morphological characters which influence physiological processes determining yield. A major advantage in breeding for ideotype is that genes for certain characters can be easily introgressed from the related species with aid of biotechnological interventions. Characters such as leaf inclination and leaf shape are often simply inherited and can greatly influence crop canopy structure and radiation interception. Such characters could be rapidly modified by selection to increase crop photosynthesis and yield. This review provides integrated information on these relationships and gives plant breeders a blueprint of the characteristics of high-yielding cultivars of rice in specified environments.

 Key words: Ideotype, physiological traits, sustainable yield, rice, new plant type.


The English grain aphid, Sitobion avenae (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a significant pest of cereal crops, but molecular factors and mechanisms that underpin its ability to develop differential biotypes on variable host plants are still not well understood. In this study, we investigated the interactions between two plant secondary metabolites (i.e., gramine and gallic acid) and three glutathione S‐transferases (GSTs) of S. avenae. Using artificial diets complemented or not with one of these two plant compounds, we found that gramine had relatively stronger negative effects on fitness of S. avenae biotype 3 (adapted to barley), and gallic acid on that of biotype 4 (adapted to wheat). Gramine significantly induced overexpression of SaveGST1 and SaveGST2 in biotype 4, but not in biotype 3. Gramine also reduced SaveGST3 expression in biotype 4, but not in biotype 3, suggesting biotype‐specific effect of GSTs' regulation. In the treatments with gallic acid, the overexpression of SaveGST1, but not SaveGST2 or SaveGST3, was significantly induced in both biotypes, suggesting a critical role of SaveGST1 in detoxification of phenolic compounds such as gallic acid. The total constitutive GST activity was much higher in biotype 4 than in biotype 3. Significant increase in GST activity was obtained by the addition of both secondary metabolites in biotype 4, but not in biotype 3, showing significantly higher expression plasticity of GSTs in biotype 4. Thus, both constitutive and induced expression of GSTs could affect the adaptability of S. avenae on plants with variable secondary compounds, and thus contribute to the divergence of biotypes in this aphid species.


Summary: An electroporation-mediated transformation method was developed and optimized for Lactobacillus helveticus CNRZ 32. The effects of electroporation buffers, growth conditions, cell-wall-weakening agents and field strength on transformation frequency were examined. Optimal conditions yielded a frequency of 2 × 104 transformants (μg pGK12)−1. Using this procedure, an integration plasmid was introduced into L. helveticus CNRZ 32 to inactivate the chromosomal X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase gene (pepXP). The integration plasmid, designated pSUW200, consisted of pUC19, the pE194 erythromycin resistance gene and a 1.6 kb internal fragment of the pepXP gene. The erythromycin resistance transformants obtained were X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase (X-PDAP) negative. Southern hybridization results indicated that pSUW200 had integrated into the L. helveticus CNRZ 32 chromosome via Campbell-type integration. After growth of the pSUW200-derived transformants for 112 generations under non-selective conditions, erythromycin-sensitive X-PDAP+ isolates were obtained. Southern hybridization results indicated that precise excision of pSUW200 had occurred via recombination between the 1.6 kb pepXP-derived nontandem repeats.


We report a case of malignant phyllodes tumor of the prostate which is the eleventh reported case in the world. Phyllodes tumor of the prostate is extremely rare and histologically resembles mammary phyllodes tumor. Phyllodes tumor of the prostate is classified into benign, borderline and malignant, but health professionals should carefully follow up the borderline cases in case they take a malignant clinical course. This case was the first to be treated by pre‐ and postoperative radiation therapy. Although the patient had a slight response to radiation therapy, he eventually developed metastasis. Because malignant phyllodes tumor of the prostate is a very aggressive tumor, people with the condition should undergo systemic chemotherapy as adjuvant therapy.


Primary care physicians (PCPs) in Hawai'i face many challenges in treating patients with substance use disorders (SUD) who tend to have higher medical complexity and thus require more resources. PCPs play a vital role in identifying early misuse, integrating and coordinating care for patients with SUD including office-based interventions like medication-assisted treatment, and connecting patients to community treatment programs. In addition to enormous burdens to care for and increasingly complex patient panels, the challenges include lack of education on addiction medicine, insufficient resources and SUD treatment programs in the office and community, low reimbursement for the complexity of care provided, and an overall physician shortage which drives higher patient volume and less time for any given physician. This article suggests responses to address these challenges such as providing more training and continuing education in SUD for PCPs and trainees, enhancing team-based care to better support PCPs, and funding more SUD treatment programs. More funding should widen accessibility to treatment and reduce the overall burden on the health care system by preventing or treating the disease early, which is a core principle of primary care. Additionally, incentives to practice in Hawai'i in primary care, and especially to treat patients with SUD, need to be improved. Such steps must be taken to address the overall physician shortage that limits patients' access to SUD treatment. A collaborative care model between PCPs, care managers, and addiction specialists is an example of an integrated care system that may address many of these challenges in the short term. To truly improve care for all in Hawai'i, however, system wide interventions are essential to increase the incentive for PCPs to remain and practice in Hawai'i to take care of its unique population, including those dealing with SUD.


This article discusses attempts to revive gender in the context of the geography curriculum at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The reluctance of Dutch geography/-ers to embrace gender geography is related to the way in which the discipline has been understood and practised in the past and by whom as well as to the neglect of gender issues at the societal level. Both trajectories may account for a lack of awareness by students and staff of the relevance of gender to Dutch geography.


The effect of surface tension on the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability and Richtmyer – Meshkov (RM) instability induced development of nonlinear structures like spike and bubble at two fluid interface have been investigated. In case of RT instability, the surface tension reduces the velocity of the tip of both the bubble and the spike by the factor (1-k2 /3 kc2) where, k2c = (ρh-ρl)g/T. For k2 > 3 kc2, RT instability is stabilized. Any perturbation, whatever be its magnitude, results in stable large amplitude nonlinear oscillations. The RM instability is always stabilized by surface tension leading to nonlinear oscillation. Both the amplitude and the period of oscillation decreases monotonically as S = 12k2T / (ρh+ρl) increases where k is the wave number. The maximum height attained by the peak of the nonlinear interfacial structures (spike or bubble) increases approximately logarithmically with the initial interface velocity resulting from the shock.


State-owned enterprises and privatization has long been a major economic topic. After large privatizations in Great Britain, France etc., the privatization became an interesting topic again when now transition economies changed its economic system. The purpose of this article is to present preliminary results of the analysis that took into consideration of privatization proceeds potentially influencing some macroeconomic variables. However, we found that in Slovenia privatization so far influenced only on lowering public debt, while other influences could not be proven.


Extraordinary attempts have been dedicated to increase the utilization efficiency and catalytic performance and decrease the economy issues related to Pt-based electrocatalysts for fuel cells due to their daunting price, extremely low earth abundance and unsatisfactory catalytic performance for practical applications in the past few decades. Recently, our group successfully synthesized novel one-dimensional (1D) Pt–Rh–Te nanotubes (NTs) as anodic electrocatalysts via a sacrificial template method. The typical 1D nanotubes that comprise porous walls and hollow interiors could be achieved by using PtCl62− and Rh3+ as the metal precursors and Te nanowires as the reductive template in this project. By integrating the multiple compositional and structural merits into one catalyst, more significantly, the mass activities of the as-resulted Pt–Rh–Te NTs/C catalyst were calculated to be 5.08 and 2.98-fold higher than those of commercial Pt/C catalysts and PtTe NTs/C catalysts, respectively. Apart from the excellent catalytic activity when compared with that of the commercial Pt/C catalysts, the optimized Pt–Rh–Te NT electrocatalyst exhibited substantially enhanced long-term stability owing to the combination of a hollow tubular nanostructure and extra incorporation of the Rh element. This work probably provides a general orientation to design and fabricate cost-efficient low-dimensional electrocatalysts.


The Hopfield Neural Network is a parallel, distributed information processing structure consisting of many processing elements connected via weighted connections. The objective function was then expressed as quadratic energy function and the associated weights between neurons were computed using the gradient descent of energy function. This paper reports a development of a Hopfield type neural network model to solve minimum cost delay leap multicast routing problem. The multicast tree is obtained by recursively obtaining the delay leap optimized path from source to various destinations and combining them by union operator. The union operator ensures that a link is appearing only once in the multicast tree. The minimum energy function is obtained with minimization of constrained parameter as per a defined annealing schedule, which increases the probability of visiting lower energy states. Finally, the goal of minimization of objective function (minimum cost delay leap route) is achieved by using mean filed approximation with stochastic annealing process of reducing constrained parameter.


In this paper, joint differential space-time modulation (DSTM) and eigen-beamforming for correlated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels. While DSTM does not require knowledge of each channel realization, the channel's spatial correlation can be easily estimated without training at the receiver and exploited by the transmitter to enhance the error probability performance. A transmission scheme is developed here that combines beamforming with differential multiantenna modulation based on orthogonal space-time block coding. Error probability is analyzed for both spatially correlated and independent Rayleigh fading channels. Based on the error probability analysis, power loading coefficients are derived to improve performance. The analytical and simulation results presented here corroborate that the proposed scheme can achieve considerable performance gain in correlated channels relative to DSTM without beamforming.


A systematic procedure for curriculum design is briefly summarized, and the crucial step of content selection is then discussed in detail. The content is described in terms of the domain, principles, and problems of the discipline, and some suggestions regarding the teaching of each are made. The various reasons for curriculum revision are listed, with particular emphasis on the ways of solving the dilemma posed by the fact that time devoted to learning cannot increase in proportion to knowledge itself.


This work addresses unsupervised chunking as a task for syntactic structure induction, which could help understand the linguistic structures of human languages especially, low-resource languages. In chunking, words of a sentence are grouped together into different phrases (also known as chunks) in a non-hierarchical fashion. Understanding text fundamentally requires finding noun and verb phrases, which makes unsupervised chunking an important step in several real-world applications. In this thesis, we establish several baselines and discuss our three-step knowledge transfer approach for unsupervised chunking. In the first step, we take advantage of state-of-the-art unsupervised parsers, and in the second, we heuristically induce chunk labels from them. We propose a simple heuristic that does not require any supervision of annotated grammar and generates reasonable (albeit noisy) chunks. In the third step, we design a hierarchical recurrent neural network (HRNN) that learns from these pseudo ground-truth labels. The HRNN explicitly models the composition of words into chunks and smooths out the noise from heuristically induced labels. Our HRNN a) maintains both word-level and phrase-level representations and b) explicitly handles the chunking decisions by providing autoregressiveness at each step. Furthermore, we make a case for exploring the self-supervised learning objectives for unsupervised chunking. Finally, we discuss our attempt to transfer knowledge from chunking back to parsing in an unsupervised setting. We conduct comprehensive experiments on three datasets: CoNLL-2000 (English), CoNLL2003 (German), and the English Web Treebank. Results show that our HRNN improves upon the teacher model (Compound PCFG) in terms of both phrase F1 and tag accuracy. Our HRNN can smooth out the noise from induced chunk labels and accurately capture the chunking patterns. We evaluate different chunking heuristics and show that maximal left-branching performs the best, reinforcing the fact that left-branching structures indicate closely related words. We also present rigorous analysis on the HRNN's architecture and discuss the performance of vanilla recurrent neural networks.


abstract:The importance of open access (OA) advocacy is well-documented in the literature of academic librarianship, but previous research shows that librarians' OA behaviors are less conclusive. This article compares the self-archiving practices of music librarians and musicologists to see how librarians rank in OA adoption. Availability of articles published from 2013 to 2017 in six green OA journals in music librarianship and musicology indicates a need for continued advocacy and enhanced understanding of OA policies and opportunities.


Introduction: Sensitization to cat and dog allergens is common in patients with allergic respiratory diseases. The study objective was to determine the prevalence of immunoglobulin E (IgE) sensitization to specific cat and dog allergens using component-resolved diagnosis (CRD) in patients with allergic respiratory diseases plus cat and/or dog sensitization. Methods: We included 87 patients aged 8–62 years, diagnosed with allergic asthma and/or rhinitis plus cat and/or dog sensitization, and attended at the allergy section of a tertiary hospital in Badalona (Catalonia, Spain). We used CRD to determine IgE sensitization to specific cat/dog allergens and skin prick tests (SPTs) to determine differences between diagnostic test results. Results: Patients were monosensitized to cats (20.7%) or dogs (3.4%) or sensitized to both (75.9%). The highest positive allergen rates were for Fel d 1 (91.7%) and Fel d 4 (41%) in patients sensitized to cat allergens and for Can f 5 (80%) and Can f 1 (70%) in those sensitized to dog allergens. CRD and SPT results differed somewhat: 16.1% and 27.6% of patients CRD positive for cat or dog sensitization, respectively, were SPT negative, and 6.9% SPT positive for dog sensitization were CRD negative. Few statistically significant relationships were found between any allergen components and any respiratory disease characteristic or contact with furry animals. Conclusions: CRD may be used to determine the prevalence of IgE sensitization to specific cat and dog allergens in patients with allergic respiratory diseases plus cat and/or dog sensitization. As SPT may not correctly identify all patients sensitized to cats and dogs, our results support the use of CRD.


The enactment of Republic of Indonesia's Law Number 25 of 2009 about Public Service gave the community the opportunity to participate in improving the delivery of public servicesand lodging complaints.  Each innovation of public service-complain mechanism had some challenges. Community empowerment-based complaint mechanism faced the challenges in building public awareness of their rights to efficient public service.  One of the challenges to improving the IT-based complaint mechanism conducted by PATTIRO Surakarta and Inspectorate of Surakarta City is limited by budget commitment, human trust, and human resource capacity in accessing IT.  This paper examines the challenges to the innovation of public service complaint mechanism.


Suppurative tonsillitis (ST) is a common respiratory disease in children. This study aims to investigate the association between calcium (Ca)/magnesium (Mg)/phosphorus (P) and the risk of onset of suppuration in tonsillitis in children. Seventy children with ST and 61 age- and sex-matched children with non-ST were enrolled in this study. The association between Ca/Mg/P and suppuration risk in tonsillitis was investigated. The relationship between Ca/Mg/P and the potential risk factors for ST were also studied. White blood cell (WBC), platelet (PLT), c-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels were significantly higher in the ST group than those in the non-ST group (p less than 0.05). Mg and P levels were significantly lower in the ST group than those in the non-ST group (p less than 0.05). There was no obvious difference in Ca level between the ST group and the non-ST group (p=0.762). A significantly negative association between P and PCT was noted (r=-0.236, p=0.035). The results indicated that Mg/P disorder may be associated with the susceptibility to suppuration in children with tonsillitis, inflammatory indexes may reflect this risk.


The expression of several protooncogenes was detected in three different differentiated gastric cancer cell lines (MKN28, MKN45, SGC7901) and 5 specimens from 5 human primary gastric cancers at cellular level by in situ hybridization. The data indicated that there were high levels of c-Ha-ras expression in both cell lines and tumor tissues as compared with control samples. But the transcripts of c-myc and c-erbB were rather low. The results suggested that Ha-ras be involved in or associated with the gastric cancer. There were another two interesting findings: (1) The levels of c-Ha-ras was different among the individual cancer cells within a single gastric cnacer. (2) Some inflammatory cells in the tumor tissuse and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer displayed high level of c-Ha-ras expression. Those two phenomena are worthwhile for further study.


This article describes an algorithm that is capable of solving any instance of a 3-SAT CNF in maximal O(n), whereby n is the literal index range within the formula to solve. The algorithm has been tested at great length in form of a C++ implementation whose download link is given. Under the supposition the algorithm is correct, the P-NP-Problem would be solved with the result that the complexity classes NP and P are equal.


This ambitious and stimulating work seeks not only to present a detailed study of Picard French in the Middle Ages in its sociolinguistic context — a worthy goal in itself — but also to develop a new approach to the study of the relationship between language and society in the past, which the author names 'sociolinguistic history'. Whereas in historical sociolinguistics 'l'histoire ne semble que dresser le décor d'une pièce dont les répliques sont échangées entre le linguiste et les sources du passé qu'il interroge' (p. 41), sociolinguistic history uses findings drawn from linguistic and metalinguistic sources to inform the study of social history, taking as its inspiration Lucien Febvre's observation that 'la langue [est] le fait social par excellence' (quoted on p. 9). An historian by training, the author's mastery of sociolinguistic research is exemplary. Concerning Picard French, the core claim is that the variety had a similar high status to the French of Paris until the fifteenth century, being used in literature and in administrative documents over a wide geographical area. Chapter 3, which discusses the role of the University of Paris in the formation of Picard identity, is particularly insightful. The author argues that the term 'Picard' originated not in the north of France but in the University of Paris as an initially derogatory term to designate both people from the dioceses north of Beauvais and the language that they spoke. Thirteenth-century sources from the university refer to four 'nations' of students based on their geographical origin, one of which is the 'nation of Picards'; yet at this time sources from the Picard region itself refer to their language consistently as 'roman' (as opposed to 'françois'). Moreover, since the (Parisian) 'nation of Picards' was 'le lieu qui réunissait la plus grande concentration de lettrés picards' (p. 142), its role in the formation of a relatively fixed Picard scripta, subsequently diffused through schools in the Picard region, should not be underestimated. Evidence for the high status of Picard French is discussed in Chapters 4 and 5, where the relationship between Picard, French, Anglo-French, and Dutch is considered. For example, administrative documents 'translated' into Picard from françois or Anglo-French demonstrate an awareness on the part of scribes of the differences between the scriptae, and it is significant that native Dutch speakers in the provinces of Flanders and Brabant consistently adopt Picard, rather than Parisian French. Although it is convincingly argued that Picard French existed as a written scripta, it is harder to assess its status as a supraregional spoken norm. In Chapter 6, it is argued that literary and cultural exchanges between prosperous northern cities, such as the puys de rhétorique, served to promote Picard French, yet these remain limited to the middle classes, and thus the supraregional norm emerges 'en particulier à l'écrit' (p. 273). To assess the likelihood that a spoken norm existed, it would perhaps be fruitful to compare what we know of medieval Picard with studies of koineization and dialect-levelling situations in the present day.


Saudi Arabia constitutes an interesting paradox regarding female labour force participation. Despite high living standards and education levels among women, Saudi Arabia has the largest gender employment gap in the world. The Saudi government addresses this issue in the recently launched National Development Plan Vision 2030 which aims to reconstruct the economy in order to decrease the kingdom's oil dependence. This thesis analyses the position the labour market policies under Vision 2030 attribute Saudi women and discuss how this is likely to affect female labour force participation (FLFP) in general and in the private sector in particular. The study is based on the "What's the problem represented to be"-approach developed by Carol Bacchi. It carries out a discourse analysis of the Saudi Labor Market Report 2016, connecting the discussion in academia about reasons for low FLFP in Saudi Arabia to the notion of subjectification effects. The study finds that the depiction of women is inconsistent throughout the policies, portraying Saudi women, on one side, as strong agents and untapped potential and, on the other side, as unproductive, unable citizens. Picking up on previous studies which have pointed towards restrictive cultural norms as one of the major causes of the Saudi gender employment gap, this thesis concludes that the labour market policies exemplify the government's struggle between preserving traditional Islamic values and the desire to modernize the Saudi labour market. While the labour market policies under Vision 2030 represent a positive first step towards a gender-balanced workforce, the inconsistency in the depiction of Saudi women in the labour market and the resistance to overcome restrictive cultural norms are likely to hamper Saudi women's labour force participation in general and in the private sector in particular. (Less)


An analysis was carried out to determine the strength of welded joints in High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) dam liners. Samples were collected of welded joints and subjected to tensile tests and creep test. It was observed that the welded joints from field welded samples were much weaker and had a very low straining capacity than the un-welded material. The field welded specimens registered average strengths of 5 MPa as compared to 12 MPa of un-welded specimens and a maximum strain at fracture of 0.5 as compared to 3.5 of un-welded specimens. As a result of the weak welds it was found necessary to conduct further research into the best welds possible and a protocol for hot air and hot knife welding was developed. It was shown that for hot air welding while holding the width of the weld, applied pressure and dwell time of the pressure constant at 2.6cm, 0.3 MPa and 60 s, the recommended temperature of the hot air to achieve the strongest weld was 176 and for hot knife welding the recommended temperature of the knife was 400°C.