We have shown previously that the putative prostate carcinoma cell lines TSU-Pr1 and JCA-1 share a common origin. The observation that these cell lines have p53 and Ha-ras mutations identical to those in bladder carcinoma cell line T24 prompted us to investigate their possible interrelations. We used cytogenetics and DNA profiling to compare the genetic backgrounds of the three cell lines. At least 12 structural chromosomal abnormalities are shared between T24, TSU-Pr1, and JCA-1 cells. DNA profiles were identical for all three cell lines. These results clearly indicate that the cell lines TSU-Pr1 and JCA-1 are not of prostatic origin but are derivatives of the bladder carcinoma cell line T24. TSU-Pr1 and, to a lesser extent, JCA-1 are frequently used as models in prostate cancer research, and numerous publications have appeared based on these lines. Several other T24 cross-contaminants have been identified in the past, and some of these, such as ECV304, continue to be used under the wrong identity. Our findings highlight the insidious problem that can occur when information regarding cross-contamination does not reach individual researchers and/or the importance of the problem is not fully acknowledged.


Background/Aims: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive malignancy that responds in a diverse manner to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). This study was aimed to uncover an RNA signature in TNBC patients which predicts pathological complete responses (pCR) to NAC by analyzing long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and coding gene expression. Methods: Microarray datasets from 26 TNBC patients receiving NAC including ten patients showing pCR were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Results: A total of 172 coding genes and 84 lncRNAs were differentially expressed between patients achieving pCR and those who did not. Filtering based on the predictive efficacy of response to NAC using receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC) shortlisted 23 lncRNAs and 15 coding genes from consideration. Finally, a response score consisting of 1 lncRNA and 2 coding genes was developed: response score = 2.595*BPESC1 – 1.09*WDR72 –1.428*GADD45A – 0.731. The response score had good predictive performance (AUC=0.931, p< 0.01) and at the cut-off of 0.545, the response score had sensitivity and specificity of 0.8 and 0.9, respectively. Conclusion: We propose a simple gene expression signature of only three RNA species could be employed clinically to predict pCR in TNBC patients receiving NAC.


Weight-based dosing strategies have been used in psychostimulant studies for ADHD in children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. The efficacy of weight-based psychostimulant doses changes throughout early childhood and into adolescence in ways that are not in keeping with weight-based dosing practices. Future treatment and research must explore new possibilities in order to afford patients the most benefit for the least amount of effective drug intervention.


PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the 49-item Diabetes Time Management Questionnaire (DTMQ) in individuals with diabetes. The DTMQ was designed to assess general time management skills and those specifically relevant to compliance to a diabetes healthcare regimen. METHODS Participants completed the DTMQ; the Habits, Attitudes, and Knowledge Questionnaire of Diabetic Compliance (HAK); and the Diabetes Knowledge Schedule (DKS) to provide two indices of construct validity of the DTMQ. Three HAK items related to time management skills (HAK-TM) provided an index of concurrent criterion-related validity for the DTMQ. RESULTS Test-retest stability reliability results were significant for DTMQ total and individual item scores. Concurrent criterion-related validity of the DTMQ was supported by a significant correlation with the HAK-TM items. Construct validity of the DTMQ was partly supported by significant correlations with the DKS and two HAK items measuring diet and exercise compliance. CONCLUSIONS The results support the use of the DTMQ to assess the time management skills of individuals with diabetes.


A simple discussion of compliance suggests that organizations either comply with or disobey the prescript of the legal norm, on the basis of a cost-benefit calculation. The literature on compliance has already demonstrated that this simple model of compliance does not fully capture the gamut of incentives for compliance, or the continuum of behaviours that ranges from defiance to compliance. Drawing on a case study of an Israeli legal norm that requires employers to reinstate workers after postpartum parental leave for sixty days, we seek to further unpack the notion of compliance along two axes. First, the duty to reinstate is 'ambitious' because it seeks to affect managerial bias and educate for virtue within organizations. Second, the study of compliance must open the fictitious black box of organizations, and reveal internal negotiations over the extent and form of compliance. Based on a qualitative study, we demonstrate that even a seemingly strict norm is applied and perceived differently, between and within the same organization. Findings identify the strengths as well as the shortcomings of the legal ambition to induce an educational experience in organizations.
Labour Law, Compliance, Enforcement, Parental Leave, Organizational Theory


Millions of individuals around the world face challenges enjoying their right to a nationality, and millions more face challenges enjoying their right to adequate housing. While these human rights violations are recognised in general terms, little research has considered the extent to which these human rights abuses intersect as stateless persons face violations of specific socioeconomic rights, especially the right to adequate housing. This research attempts to fill that gap. This analysis explores the term adequate housing and the various legal instruments that enshrine this right, as well as the unique challenges faced by stateless persons in its enjoyment. This research argues that states have failed to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for stateless persons in a number of contexts and that these failures are particularly acute for stateless persons with additional marginalised identities, which can then result in additional human rights violations. This analysis examines how previous policy solutions have failed to adequately consider the unique needs of inadequately housed stateless persons and calls attention to the need for more holistic and inclusive approaches to realise the right to adequate housing for all, which must include stateless persons.


Many real-world reinforcement learning tasks require multiple agents to make sequential decisions under the agents' interaction, where well-coordinated actions among the agents are crucial to achieve the target goal better at these tasks. One way to accelerate the coordination effect is to enable multiple agents to communicate with each other in a distributed manner and behave as a group. In this paper, we study a practical scenario when (i) the communication bandwidth is limited and (ii) the agents share the communication medium so that only a restricted number of agents are able to simultaneously use the medium, as in the state-of-the-art wireless networking standards. This calls for a certain form of communication scheduling. In that regard, we propose a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning framework, called SchedNet, in which agents learn how to schedule themselves, how to encode the messages, and how to select actions based on received messages. SchedNet is capable of deciding which agents should be entitled to broadcasting their (encoded) messages, by learning the importance of each agent's partially observed information. We evaluate SchedNet against multiple baselines under two different applications, namely, cooperative communication and navigation, and predator-prey. Our experiments show a non-negligible performance gap between SchedNet and other mechanisms such as the ones without communication and with vanilla scheduling methods, e.g., round robin, ranging from 32% to 43%.


Heterogeneity for the length of telomeric DNA sequences has been found among different mitotic chromosomes in several mammalian species. However, there are no studies reporting such heterogeneity in meiotic chromosomes. To analyse this heterogeneity we have performed fluorescence in situ hybridization with a telomeric (C3TA2)3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe on spread metaphase chromosomes during both male mouse meiotic divisions. Our results show that independently of the meiotic division, telomeric DNA signals were always surrounded by DAPI-stained chromatin, even at centromeric regions. Moreover, we have found heterogeneity for the size of telomeric DNA signals among different chromosomes, between homologues, and even within a given chromosome. We discuss the functional significance of the location of telomeric DNA in condensed meiotic chromosomes, and then the possible origin for the different polymorphisms found.


Our modified lymphocyte-mediated microcytotoxicity assay, which allows the serial estimation of lymphocyte cytotoxicity, was used to evaluate the immune response of patients with advanced renal cell and transitional cell carcinoma who were receiving BCG therapy. Preliminary data suggested that this assay may be useful in monitoring cancer patients receiving BCG.


Atherosclerosis is a disease driven by lipid accumulation and leukocyte influx in the vessel wall.1 Because visualizing leukocyte behavior in vivo is the holy grail for those interested in understanding leukocyte migration, major progress has been made in developing intravital microscopy approaches to study leukocyte movement. Understanding how certain leukocytes, such as T cells, participate in various diseases including cancer2,3 has been one of intravital microscopy's success stories. The technology has also proven beneficial for understanding basic processes of leukocyte biology, such as the patrolling behavior of monocytes,4 monocyte movement within the spleen,5 the existence of neutrophil slings,6 and the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells to leukocytes in the bone marrow.7 These 3-dimensional methods that combine high temporal resolution, (sub)cellular spatial resolution, and multicolor encoding for multiple cells or proteins can inform on in vivo biology in unprecedented ways, including real-time interaction of cells with each other and the tissue environment.

Article, see p 770

One of the major challenges in performing intravital microscopy in live animals is the need to control respiratory, peristaltic, and cardiovascular motion. The beating heart (and to a somewhat lesser degree, the arterial vasculature) in a live animal moves rapidly with a high amplitude of motion. Without sophisticated stabilization methods, cardiovascular motion makes it impossible to focus on a cell residing in tissue, let alone isolation and resolution …


The nature of mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), demands stringent requirements on primitives that could be used to secure such networks. Mobility imposes restrictions on memory and processor requirements due to limited battery life. The ad hoc nature warrants schemes that could operate for extended periods without referring to a trusted authority (TA). Additionally, any enabling scheme for security should be able to scale well. We introduce a novel key management scheme, RPS - random preloaded subset key distribution - which satisfies all the above requirements. More specifically, RPS is an n-secure r-conference key predistribution scheme. While most of the previously reported key predistribution schemes also meet all the stringent requirements, RPS has many inherent advantages. In this paper we investigate the applicability of RPS in securing MANETs.


Aim

Understanding the mechanisms that generate diversity patterns requires analyses at spatial and temporal scales that are appropriate to the dispersal capacities and ecological requirements of organisms. Oceanic archipelagos provide a range of island sizes and configurations which should predictably influence colonization, diversification and extinction. To explore the influence of these factors on archipelagic diversity, we relate the numbers of native and endemic species of vascular plants, birds, land snails and spiders – taxa having different dispersal capabilities and population densities – to the number and sizes of islands in the major oceanic archipelagos of the globe.

Location

Fourteen major oceanic archipelagos of the globe.

Methods

Species richness was collated for native and endemic species in each archipelago. We used linear mixed effect models to quantify the influence on diversity of total area, number of islands, isolation and latitude. We then applied process-based modelling in a Bayesian framework to evaluate how speciation, colonization and extinction are influenced by characteristics of archipelagos associated with species richness, i.e. area, isolation and number of islands.

Results

We found parallel scaling of species richness among taxa with respect to total area and number of islands across groups. The process-based model supported effects of isolation on colonization and of area and number of islands on extinction rates, with the scaling exponents mostly similar across taxa. Data are consistent with a range of scaling exponents for speciation rate, implying that those relationships are difficult to infer from the data used.

Conclusions

We demonstrate an unexpected parallel scaling of species richness of four taxa with area and number of islands for the major oceanic archipelagos of the globe. We infer that this scaling arises through similar effects of the physical characteristics of archipelagos on extinction, colonization and speciation rates across these disparate taxa, indicating that similar mechanisms have created variation in diversity.


Thanks to the struggle of the state's women, South Australia was one of the first places in the world to grant the vote to women. This guide covers a wide range of women's history in SA, from suffrage to prostitution and the women who changed the state.


Recent work has shown that additive threat models, which only permit the addition of bounded noise to the pixels of an image, are insufficient for fully capturing the space of imperceivable adversarial examples. For example, small rotations and spatial transformations can fool classifiers, remain imperceivable to humans, but have large additive distance from the original images. In this work, we leverage quantitative perceptual metrics like LPIPS and SSIM to define a novel threat model for adversarial attacks.
To demonstrate the value of quantifying the perceptual distortion of adversarial examples, we present and employ a unifying framework fusing different attack styles. We first prove that our framework results in images that are unattainable by attack styles in isolation. We then perform adversarial training using attacks generated by our framework to demonstrate that networks are only robust to classes of adversarial perturbations they have been trained against, and combination attacks are stronger than any of their individual components. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate that our combined attacks retain the same perceptual distortion but induce far higher misclassification rates when compared against individual attacks.


By adulthood, our fingers have developed a high level of dexterity: sensory and motor skills that developers have only just started to make use of in modern interfaces. Previous research has unveiled the possibilities of enhancing touch modalities by introducing visual feedback of the magnified touch image. Yet, most of the microscopes on the market require a complicated procedure to operate and this makes it difficult to move the felt/observed area. To address this, we introduce MagniFinger, a new finger-based microscope that allows users to magnify the contacting surface on their fingertips using two means of control: sliding and tilting. The tilting-based control enables a more precise movement under micro-environments. According to the results of our experiments, it shortens the time of reaching targets compared to the simple sliding-based control.


Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) has been used to study reactor pressure vessel (RPV) welds from the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation (HSSI) Program. Each of the welds contains high bulk copper contents ranging from 0.26 to 0.40 wt %. The welds were irradiated in test reactors to fluences ranging from 0.5 to 1.9 {times} 10{sup 19} n/cm{sup 2} (E > 1 MeV). SANS measurements were performed to determine number density, radius, and volume fraction of irradiation-induced scattering centers which were consistent with copper-rich precipitates (CRPs). The bulk copper content had no effect on CRP number density, volume fraction, and average radius. Postirradiation annealing (PIA) was performed on the welds for 168 h at 343, 399, and 454 C. SANS measurements on these samples show that high temperature PIA decreases the CRP number density and volume fraction while increasing the average radius. The SANS data obtained on these welds are consistent with the University of California, Santa Barbara, database and comparison is made with two A533B type model alloys irradiated to a similar fluence and following PIA. Evolution of the CRP scattering centers with irradiation and PIA is compared to the changes in mechanical properties.


We study the capacity of the banking system to provide liquidity to the corporate sector in times of stress and how changes in this capacity affect corporate liquidity management. We show that the contractual arrangements among banks in loan syndicates co-insure liquidity risks of credit line drawdowns and generate a network of interbank exposures. We develop a simple model and simulate the liquidity and insurance capacity of the banking network. We find that the liquidity capacity of large banks has significantly increased following the introduction of liquidity regulation, and that the liquidity co-insurance function in loan syndicates is economically important. We also find that borrowers with higher reliance on credit lines in their liquidity management have become more likely to obtain credit lines from syndicates with higher liquidity. The assortative matching on liquidity characteristics has strengthened the role of banks as liquidity providers to the corporate sector.


Since its relaunch in 1979, "Granta" magazine has championed the art and craft of reportage - journalism marked by vivid description, a novelist's eye to form and eyewitness reporting that reveals hidden truths about people and events that have shaped the world we know. This updated edition of "The Granta Book of Reportage" collects a dozen of the finest and most lasting pieces Granta has published. Featuring distinguished writers and reporters: John Simpson, James Fenton, Martha Gellhorn, Germaine Greer, Ryszard Kapuscinski, John le Carre, as well as new talents Elana Lappin, Suketu Mehta and Wendell Steavenson, the book covers some of the signal events of our time: the fall of Saigon, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq.


particularly if an increase in thrombotic tendency is the cause. However, the evidence from the studies cited is contrary to this. The evidence shows that risk is much higher in those women who have been taking the Pill for five years or more than in those women who have been doing so for a shorter time. Further, it demonstrates an increased risk in ex-takers similar to that in current takers. Indeed, the authors of the larger (R.C.G.P.) study state: "It is premature to draw firm conclusions about the long-term and residual vascular effects of oral contraceptives." In the light of this, telling women to cease oral contraceptives only beyond 35 years of age is analogous to telling smokers, who are predominantly at risk oflung cancer after age 50, not to bother to stop smoking until they reach that age.


Background: The various herbal remedies have been used in Ayurveda which symbolizes traditional medicine system since ancient times. The increasing popularity of herbal medicines has prompted us toward the development of natural therapeutics for preventing neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) in living organisms. This study focused on a flavonoid compound 5,7-dihydroxy-4-methoxyflavone (DMF) also known as acacetin which is a major constituent of Premna odorata (L.) plant. This bioactive flavonoid exhibits several medicinal properties such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-carcinogenic. Objective: The aim is to determine the protective effects of DMF against amyloid beta (Aβ)-induced toxicity and oxidative stress in transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans model of AD. Materials and Methods: The therapeutic potential of DMF treatments (5, 25, and 50 μM) was investigated to counteract Aβ paralysis and oxidative stress through paralysis assay, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, protein carbonylation, aldicarb assay, and mRNA quantification using transgenic C. elegans model of AD. Results: The present study reports that DMF effectively delayed Aβ-induced paralysis, attenuated ROS level reduced protein carbonylation and conferred aldicarb resistance. In addition, DMF was also found to up-regulate the expression of stress modulating (sod-1, sod-2, sod-3, ctl-1, hsp-16.2, and gst-4), acetylcholine transporter(unc-17), regulator of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (unc-50), and choline acetyltransferase (cha-1) related genes. Conclusion: These findings suggest DMF may provide protection against Aβ toxicity and oxidative stress due to its antioxidant activity. Therefore, the bioactive flavonoid DMF may provide invaluable medicinal and health benefits which can delay the onset of age-related diseases. Abbreviations used: DMF: 5, 7-dihydroxy-4-methoxyflavone; ROS: Reactive oxygen species; C. elegans: Caenorhabditis elegans; AD: Alzheimer's disease; Aβ: Amyloid beta; DMSO: Dimethyl sulphoxide; NGM: Nematode growth media; ACh: Acetylcholine; Ald: Aldicarb; APP: Amyloid precursor protein.


Background Firearm dealer density is correlated with firearm interpersonal violence, but no quasi-experimental studies have assessed whether changes in dealer density lead to changes in firearm self-harm injuries and deaths. We assessed whether openings of firearm dealers are associated with short-term changes in local firearm self-harm injury rates. Methods We identified 718 openings of firearm dealers in California using licensing data, 2014–2016. We defined exposure regions based on aggregations of zip codes defined by proximity to firearm dealer openings and matched each opening to four control regions on time and determinants of firearm injury. We applied a differences-in-differences approach to compare rates of firearm self-harm, in the month before and after each opening, in places with and without openings. Results Firearm dealer openings were not associated with acute, local changes in firearm self-harm relative to places without openings (ratio of rate ratio: 0.90 [95% CI:0.68–1.19]). Results were robust to numerous sensitivity and secondary analyses. Conclusion We found no associations of firearm dealer openings with acute, localized firearm self-harm deaths and injuries. Our focus on acute, local effects; broad availability of dealers and firearms; durability of firearms; or strong confounding-control may explain these null findings.


This paper examines the distribution of Yarrow Achillea millefolium L. (Asteraceae), in the Snowy Mountains. Location data from species specific surveys, field experiments and 18 general vegetation surveys were mapped in relation to altitude/floristic zone, climatic parameters (rainfall and temperature) and location of roads and tracks. Achillea millefolium is less common with increasing altitude and benefits from human disturbance. Using all location data, Yarrow was found at 376 sites; nearly all associated with human disturbance (91% of sites) mostly road or trail verges (72%) and around buildings and other ski tourism infrastructure. It occurred along 100 km of public access roads, management trails and walking tracks, from the tableland to the alpine zone (800 m to 2100 m altitude). The general vegetation surveys, however, indicate that although it can be found in 15% of disturbed sites, it is uncommon in undisturbed vegetation (4%). Yarrow occurred at high density around buildings and low density along walking tracks in the species specific surveys. The distribution of A. millefolium demonstrates that human disturbance provides favourable habitats for weeds even in mountains. Although its distribution was affected by altitude, A. millefolium was able to establish and grow on some of the highest mountains in Australia, along tracks. Increased disturbances as well as climate change are likely to facilitate its spread. (The Victorian Naturalist, 124 (1), 2007, 52-63)


This study re-examines the macroeconomic variables those explaining the outstanding balance of non-performing loans (NPL) in Malaysia, namely interest rate, unemployment rate, output, and price level. It covers 11 financing sectors between commercial and Islamic banks, for examples, primary agriculture, electricity, gas and water supply, manufacturing, household sectors, and so on. The data covers monthly observations for the period 2019-2021. Given non-stationarity property in nature for the variables, the ordinary least square (OLS) estimator applies for the first-differenced variables. The empirical results show that higher output reduces overall NPL including of Islamic banks but is inelastic. The past NPL explains the recent outstanding balance. The macroeconomic variables explain the most for primary agriculture, construction, mining & quarrying, transport, storage & communication, and other sector. This study also provides some relevant policy implications.


Butt welding of 0.2mm thick TiNi shape memory alloy sheet was successfully realized by using micro impulse laser whose average power is 80W and the microstructure of welded joint was study in this paper. The results show that, the welded joint of micro laser welding can be divided into four zones according to grain size and microstructure. The microstructure in base metal zone is rolled structure and the grains are coarse and heterogeneous. The microstructures of welded seam center zone are fine equiaxed crystals and the microstructures of both lower surface and upper surface edge zone are columnar crystals. There is almost no obvious coarse grain heat-affected zone at the edge between welded seam and base metal. There is obvious segregation layer in local area of welded seam because the content of Ti and Ni elements is changed and different with base metal during the crystallizing course of welding pool.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The role of vertebroplasty in patients with myeloma remains relatively undefined. Accordingly, we sought to better define the efficacy of vertebroplasty for myeloma-associated fractures and determine the effect of procedure timing relative to the initiation of systemic therapy on outcomes and complication rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical, laboratory, and medication data were retrieved for 172 patients with multiple myeloma treated with vertebroplasty since October 2000. Quantitative outcome data (Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire [scale, 0–24] and the Numeric Rating Scale [0–10] for pain at rest and with activity) were collected immediately pre- and postoperatively and at 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year following vertebroplasty. Patients with ≥50% improvement on the Numeric Rating Scale and ≥40% improvement on the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire were classified as "responders." Peri- and postoperative complications were also collected. RESULTS: Significant median improvement in the Roland-Morris Disability and rest and activity Numeric Rating Scale scores (15, 2, and 6 points, respectively; P < .0001) persisted at 1 year without significant change from the immediate postoperative scores (P > .36). Patients on systemic therapy at the time of vertebroplasty were more likely to achieve "responder status," compared with patients not on systemic therapy, for the Numeric Rating Scale pain at rest score (P < .01) and the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire score (P < .003), with no difference in complication rates (χ2 = 0.17, P = .68). CONCLUSIONS: Vertebroplasty is an effective therapy for patients with myeloma with symptomatic compression fractures. Favorable outcomes are more likely to be achieved when spinal augmentation is performed after systemic therapy is initiated. Complication rates were not affected by the timing of systemic therapy.


In recent years the energy usage of supermarkets, in particular that of their refrigeration systems, has been investigated using a variety of approaches, such as floating pressure set points and integrating the heating and refrigeration systems. Something which has not yet attracted much attention is the energy consumption of the dry condenser fans in refrigeration systems. This is surprising as it has been shown for comparable installations that including the energy consumption of these fans when optimizing the system efficiency was beneficial. To address this deficit, COP maximization has been compared to optimizing the Coefficient of System Performance (COSP). The simple refrigeration system used for this investigation was based on a commercially available R404A/CO2 system comprising the basic components, with the condenser having extractor fans. The results show that, when the outdoor temperature is below about 15°C, there is no observable difference between these two approaches. However, when the ambient temperature increases beyond this threshold, the control method which optimizes COSP is significantly better for part load conditions. This indicates that maximizing the COP can lead to a sub-optimal system in terms of energy consumption under part load conditions. When the refrigeration system is at its full load point, however, both approaches produce similar results again.


A simple and fast, but sensitive TLD method for the measurement of energy and homogeneity of therapeutically used electron beams has been developed and tested. This method is based on the fact that when small thicknesses of high-Z absorbers such as lead are interposed in the high-energy electron beams, the transmitted radiation increases with the energy of the electron beams. Consequently, the ratio of readouts of TLDS held on the two sides of a lead plate varied sharply (by factor of 70) with a change in energy of the electron beam from 5 MeV to 18 MeV, offering a very sensitive method for the measurement of the energy of electron beams. By using the ratio of TL readouts of two types of TLD ribbon with widely different sensitivities, LiF TLD-700 ribbons on the upstream side and highly sensitive CaF2:Dy TLD-200 ribbons on the downstream side, an electron energy discrimination of better than +/- 0.1 MeV could be achieved. The homogeneity of the electron beam energy and the absorbed dose was measured by using a jig in which the TLDS were held in the desired array on both sides of a 4 mm thick lead plate. The method takes minimal beam time and makes it possible to carry out measurements for the audit of the quality of electron beams as well as for intercomparison of beams by mail.


The Penaeidae family includes some of the most economic and ecological important marine shrimp, comprising hundreds of species. Despite this importance and diversity, the taxonomic classification for penaeid shrimp has constantly been revised, and issues related to the species identification are common. In this study, we implemented DNA barcoding analyses in addition to single-gene species delimitation analyses in order to identify molecular operational taxonomy units (MOTUs) and to generate robust molecular information for penaeid shrimp based on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) mitochondrial gene. Our final data set includes COI sequences from 112 taxa distributed in 23 genera of penaeids. We employed the general mixed Yule coalescent (GMYC) model, the Poisson tree processes (PTP), and the Bayesian PTP model (bPTP) for MOTUs delimitation. Intraspecific and interspecific genetic distances were also calculated. Our findings evidenced a high level of hidden diversity, showing 143 MOTUs, with 27 nominal species not agreeing with the genetic delimitation obtained here. These data represent potential new species or highly structured populations, showing the importance of including a non-distance-based species delimitation approach in biodiversity studies. The results raised by this study shed light on the Penaeidae biodiversity, addressing important issues about taxonomy and mislabeling in databases and contributing to a better comprehension of the group, which can certainly help management policies for shrimp fishery activity in addition to conservation programs.


The WGNEO, a Working Group of Divisions I and III, was formed in the early 1990s to coordinate study of Earth-approaching asteroids and comets (NEOs) and provide timely advice to the General Secretary and officers of the IAU on discovery of any objects that threaten collision with the Earth. Since then, the WGNEO has steadily grown, reflecting increasing international interest and concern over impacts, especially from asteroids (which dominate over comets in their risk to Earth). In this triennium, the WGNEO had a membership of 49 (including the Organizing Committee of 17 members), plus 10 consultants. The Chair is David Morrison (USA), Vice-Chair Andrea Milani (Italy), Secretary Richard Binzel (USA), and Past-Chair Andrea Carusi (Italy).


BACKGROUND
Although postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) is prevalent after cardiac surgery, the corresponding medication burden associated with this postoperative arrhythmia is unknown.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective study of 204 patients aged 60 or older (median age 73) undergoing cardiac surgery at two academic medical centers. We defined "AF at discharge" as AF that developed after surgery and was present on the day of discharge. We evaluated the prevalence of anticoagulant and antiarrhythmic use at discharge, and out to 1 year post-discharge. We investigated the association between age and prescription of both classes of medications at discharge.

RESULTS
Ninety-one (45%) patients developed new postoperative AF, which persisted at discharge in 28 (14%) patients. Thirty-four percent of patients with postoperative AF were discharged on warfarin, 62% were discharged on antiarrhythmic medication, and 25% were discharged on both. Eighty-two percent of those discharged on both were older than 72 years of age. Patients with AF present at discharge were more likely to be discharged on anticoagulant agents than patients whose AF resolved prior to discharge (54% versus 26%, p=0.01), and more likely to be discharged on antiarrhythmic agents than patients whose AF resolved prior to discharge, though not significantly so (73% versus 57%, p=0.2). At 12 months, the proportion of patients on antiarrhythmic and anticoagulant medications had still not returned to preoperative rates.

CONCLUSIONS
AF persists at hospital discharge in nearly one-third of affected patients. Cardiac surgery results in the initiation of anticoagulant and antiarrhythmic medications in many older patients annually, often concurrently. Our findings underscore the need for additional studies on the natural history of this arrhythmia and clinical trials investigating different management strategies after discharge. Such research will help to inform development of guidelines addressing duration of use for these medications, to aid physicians in these complicated post-discharge management decisions.


Studies of detailed chemical compositions in particles with different size ranges emitted from ships are in serious shortage. In this study, size-segregated distributions and characteristics of particle mass, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), 16 EPA polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 25 n-alkanes measured aboard 12 different vessels in China are presented. The results showed the following. (1) More than half of the total particle mass, OC, EC, PAHs and n-alkanes were concentrated in fine particles with aerodynamic diameter (Dp) < 1.1 μm for most of the tested ships. The relative contributions of OC, EC, PAH and alkanes to the size-segregated particle mass are decreasing with the increase in particle size. However, different types of ships showed quite different particle-size-dependent chemical compositions. (2) In fine particles, the OC and EC were the dominant components, while in coarse particles, OC and EC only accounted for very small proportions. With the increase in particle size, the OC / EC ratios first decreased and then increased, having the lowest values for particle sizes between 0.43 and 1.1 μm. (3) Out of the four OC fragments and three EC fragments obtained in thermal–optical analysis, OC1, OC2 and OC3 were the dominant OC fragments for all the tested ships, while EC1 and EC2 were the main EC fragments for ships running on heavy fuel oil (HFO) and marine-diesel fuel, respectively; different OC and EC fragments presented different distributions in different particle sizes. (4) The four-stroke low-power diesel fishing boat (4LDF) had much higher PAH emission ratios than the fourstroke high-power marine-diesel vessel (4-HMV) and twostroke high-power heavy-fuel-oil vessel (2-HHV) in fine particles, and 2-HHV had the lowest values. (5) PAHs and nalkanes showed different profile patterns for different types of ships and also between different particle-size bins, which meant that the particle size should be considered when source apportionment is conducted. It is also noteworthy from the results in this study that the smaller the particle size, the more toxic the particle was, especially for the fishing boats in China.


"The Chemedian and the Crazy Football Match" is a comic strip developed by the authors to bring humour to aspects of the UK primary science curriculum. The comic strip was tested in six English primary school classes (years 3–5; ages 7–10); over 150 children participated in the project, together with six teachers. Children found the comic strip fun to read and engaged with the character. In addition, children were able to provide explanations for the 'science' performed by the Chemedian based on their own experience. However, it was notable that children found it hard to project actions the Chemedian would take in other similar situations that were based on the same scientific premises used in the comic strip. Instead, children seemed to draw on either their own preferences for actions or on actions they expected other more generalised comic characters might undertake. From the teacher assessments of class behaviour, it was clear that the comic strip format had engaged children, particularly boys, in what was essentially a reading and discussion based activity. This approach might open up new avenues for cross curricular links between science and literacy.


Introduction: In this paper we investigate the possible connection between socioeconomic status as demarcated by employment and in-surance status and consumption of healthcare resources in spine surgery patients. Methods: The clinical records of 1599 spine surgery pa-tients counted from 2008-2009 were reviewed. The largest groups of patients belonged to MS-DRG 460 (N = 585) and to MS-DRG 473 (N = 700). These two MS-DRG patient groups were used as the study cohort representing patients who, by definition, did not have serious comor-bidities or complications. Results: Unemployed non-cervical patients tended to stay on average 1.8 days longer in hospital and had on average $5800 higher hospital charges. No major differ-ences were noted in length of stay and hospital cost between government and private insurance patients. However, self-pay non-cervical fusion patients had notable increases in length of stay and hospital cost, especially in the >39 and <60 age group with the difference in length of stay amounting to 5 days and in hospital charges to $10,000. Univariate analysis with DRG (460 or 473) as a covariate showed significant impact from employment status on length of stay (F = 4.259, P = 0.014) and less significant impact from payor category on hospital charges (F = 2.229, P = 0.064) in the economically-productive 40 -59 age group. Conclusions: In general, no increase in hospital resource consumption was noted except among self-pay patients, the same group seemingly least able to afford expensive healthcare.


A fuzzy multi-objective programming model is used to analyze the optimal decisions in a multi-objective grain supply chain in which the firm-level firm goals are conflicting with the channel coordinator's goals. The relative impact of the channel coordinator's goals on performance of the supply chain is determined through a linear weighting method. The study finds that prioritizing the channel coordinator's goals enhances the overall performance of the system.


This review treats of the possible use interest of chitin, chitosan and derivatives in enology. Chitosan and chitin are polysaccharide polymers containing more than 5 000 glucosamine and acetylglucosamine units, respectively, and their molecular weights are over one million Daltons. Chitin is found in fungi, arthropods and marine invertebrates. Commercially, chitin is derived from the exoskeletons of crustaceans (shrimp, crab and other shellfish). Chitosan is obtained from chitin by a deacetylation process. An alternative can be the obtention of chitin and chitosane derivatives from fungi source and has been developed by Kitozyme Firm.Chitin, the polysaccharide polymer from which chitosan is derived, is a cellulose-like polymer consisting mainly of unbranched chains of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Deacetylated chitin, or chitosan, is comprised of chains of D-glucosamine. When ingested, chitosan can be considered as a dietary fiber.The use of chitin, chitosan and derivatives should be favorable for differents aspects of wine production, in particular for : stabilization, clarification, deacidification, removal of heavy metals (lead, cadmium) or major metals (iron , copper), elimination of ochratoxin A, enzymes and pesticides.


Effects of Changing Attentional Focus Reminder Rates on Learning to Throw Darts Arya Alami The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an external focus of attention on the learning of dart throwing at three different focus reminder frequencies (every two, every four and every ten trials). Twenty-four male and female subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Subjects threw darts at a circular target 60 times over two days while getting a reminder of their intended external focus at the three different reminder frequencies. Five-day delayed retention and transfer tests were conducted to assess learning, each consisting of five trials. The target was comprised of five concentric circles, with the center zone worth five points and the outer-most zone worth one point. Target scores were used for statistical analysis. Findings show that the groups given a reminder after every fourth and tenth trial perform better during acquisition (F=13.61; p<0.001). Furthermore, the group that received a reminder after every tenth trial performed the best during the retention test. Although, the high variability within groups may have prevented more significant differences between reminder frequency groups in the retention and transfer test results, it is evident that less-frequent reminders result in better performance and learning of dart throwing.


This paper analyzes the most recent empirical research on social investments in children's human capital, focusing on policies providing non-parental child care. The empirical findings are conceptualized in a theoretical framework showing how policy interventions can shape parents' non-parental child care choices; this framework is also used to discuss the econometric issues arising for the identification of the child care effects. The results from both European and American contributions are presented, taking into account the institutional context where the policy has been implemented and the timing of the intervention. The majority of large-scale policies providing non-parental child care have positive effects on children's cognitive outcomes, both in the short and in the medium run, and on adult outcomes. Results also show that, in countries with scarce availability of public child care services, whether or not child care has an impact on children's development depends on the population at which the service is targeted.


This report is the final product of a two-years research project funded by the European Commission, DG Sanco (Grant agreement 17.020100/05(04)408149) on the protection of energy consumers. The research project was conducted between July 2005 and June 2007. Federico Boffa wrote chapter six, while Giuseppe Bellantuono wrote the remaining part of the report. The first chapter describes the methodology employed to analyse residential energy markets. It highlights the incentive structure of legal rules and the need to assess the relevance of regulatory institutions according to the legal tradition of each country. The second chapter describes the main problems regulators shall tackle in residential energy markets. While they are not exclusive to such markets, it is suggested that they could be more difficult to solve than in other settings. The third chapter lists the national energy laws and regulations implementing the second electricity and gas directives in the 27 Member States. The fourth chapter describes the experiences of those countries that liberalized residential energy markets earlier than the European deadline. Problems encountered and solutions experimented could be very interesting for all countries that open their residential markets by 1st July 2007. The fifth chapter describes the regulatory systems in partner countries, with specific reference to the institutions of consumers representation and the distribution of regulatory powers. The sixth chapter discusses the evolution of retail energy prices in partner countries since the beginning of liberalization and its distributive impact on different categories of consumers. The seventh chapter describes the main terms of residential energy contracts and the type of control on their contents. The eighth chapter describes quality regulation, with special emphasis on its impact on consumers' welfare. The ninth chapter describes energy consumers' complaints and alternative dispute resolution procedures. The tenth chapter describes the role of consumers associations in energy markets. The eleventh chapter contains final recommendations addressed to the European Commission, to ERGEG and to national regulators.


The development of novel systems with oral protein delivery as ultimate goal represents an important field of pharmaceutics. Prilling of protein-loaded polymeric solutions into lipid-based hardening baths could provide here an attractive formulating technology. As the obtained microgel dispersion can be directly capsule-filled, no drying step is required and thermal drug degradation is avoided. This study aims to find excipient combinations for the novel prilling process and investigate systematically diverse material and process factors. Bovine serum albumin and mono-N-carboxymethyl chitosan were selected as model protein and prilling polymer, respectively. The prilling suitability of 880 formulations was screened with 60 ternary phase diagrams comprising two co-solvents, 10 different glycerides, and three so-called complementary excipients. Preliminary capsule compatibility was tested for one month on 245 formulations in hard and soft capsules with different shell materials. Ternary phase diagrams' center points were used to evaluate morphology, encapsulation efficiency, and protein stability of the prilled microgels. As result, several formulations proved suitable for prilling and compatible for capsule filling. Statistical analysis using partial least square regression revealed significant factors regarding different quality attributes of microgel dispersions. Therefore, an improved understanding was obtained for this promising drug delivery approach.


In this work, we investigate theoretically the reflective polarization rotator in a silicon waveguide formed by periodically arranged rectangular air holes. The etched air holes generate the large birefringence for the waveguide. The effective refractive index of the non-etched waveguide is isotropic. The structure can be regarded as a stack of alternating birefringent waveplates and isotropic material similar to the folded Šolc filter. The band structure of the stack of birefringent waveplates with isotropic background is calculated to confirm the fact that high reflection peaks in the reflection spectra of the waveguide result from the photonic bandgap. The polarization extinction ratio for the reflected light is 15.8 dB. The highest reflectivity of the device is 93.1%, and the device length is 9.21 μm. An ultra-wide operation bandwidth from 1450.3 to 1621.8 nm can be achieved.


Seventeen cases of invasive aspergillosis occurring since 1987 in apparently immunologically normal hosts have been reviewed: 9 of invasive sinus aspergillosis, 2 of isolated brain abscesses, 3 of pneumonia (1 in a patient who developed mediastinitis), 2 of lymph node aspergillosis, and 1 of osteomyelitis of the foot. Two of the 9 patients with sinus aspergillosis died; the rest were stable up to March 1993. They responded initially to combined surgical and medical therapy. Both patients with brain abscesses survived following surgery, but one had neurological sequelae. Both patients with pneumonia were well following therapy with amphotericin B; one also received itraconazole. The patient with mediastinitis died, but this disease was diagnosed late. The patients with lymph node involvement were lost to follow-up, as was the patient with osteomyelitis. Invasive aspergillosis may be common in Pakistan. Greater awareness would allow earlier diagnosis and therapy, thereby improving the outcome.


Semantic scripts is a conceptual representation which defines how events are organized into higher level activities. Practically all the previous approaches to inducing script knowledge from text relied on count-based techniques (e.g., generative models) and have not attempted to compositionally model events. In this work, we introduce a neural network model which relies on distributed compositional representations of events. The model captures statistical dependencies between events in a scenario, overcomes some of the shortcomings of previous approaches (e.g., by more effectively dealing with data sparsity) and outperforms count-based counterparts on the narrative cloze task.


Background: With approximately 3 billion people at risk of acquiring the infection, dengue fever is now considered the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, with 390 million dengue infections occurring every year, of which 96 million manifest symptoms with any level of disease severity. Treatment of uncomplicated dengue cases is only supportive and severe dengue cases require hospital intensive care. A vaccine now licensed in several countries and developed by Sanofi Pasteur (CYD-TDV, named Dengvaxia), is able to protect, in the first 25 months of the two Phase III, 66% of a subset of 9 16 year old participants. However, a significantly lower efficacy (including negative vaccine efficacy) was noted for children younger than 9 years of age. Methodology/Principal Findings: Analysis of year 3 results of phase III trials of Dengvaxia suggest high rates of protection of vaccinated partial dengue immunes but high rates of hospitalizations during breakthrough dengue infections of persons who were vaccinated when seronegative, with vaccine appearing to induce enhancing antibodies (ADE). An age structured model was developed based on Sanofi's recommendation to vaccinate persons age 945 years in dengue endemic countries. The model was used to explore the clinical burden of two vaccination strategies: 1) Vaccinate 4 or 20% of individuals, ages 9 45 years, seropositives and seronegatives, and 2) vaccinate 4 or 20% of individuals, ages 9 45 years, who are dengue immune only. Conclusions/Significance: Our results show that vaccinating dengue monotypic immune individuals prevents dengue hospitalizations, but at the same time dengue infections of vaccine-sensitized persons increases hospitalizations. When the vaccine is given only to partial immune individuals, after immunological screening of the population, disease burden decreases considerably. Author Summary Caused by four antigenically related but distinct serotypes a tetravalent vaccine is needed to protect against the huge burden of dengue disease. Dengvaxia is a vaccine candidate now licensed in several countries for individuals 9 45 years of age living in endemic countries with least 70% of seroprevalence. Modelers from Sanofi Pasteur have predicted that this vaccine has the potential to reduce by about 50% the disease burden within 5 years when 20% of an endemic country population is vaccinated, thus achieving a World Health Organization dengue prevention goal. In this paper, mathematical modeling is used to investigate the impact of the newly licensed dengue vaccine using different scenarios. Our results show that to achieve significant reduction in disease burden, the vaccination program is most effective if it includes only individuals that have been already exposed to at least one dengue virus. Immunological screening of the population prior to vaccination is advised and vaccination strategies must be planned based on epidemiological disease dynamics for each specific endemic region.


BACKGROUND
Studies of robotic lobectomy (Robot-L) have been performed using data from high-volume, specialty centers which may not be generalizable. The purpose of this study was to compare mortality, length of stay (LOS), and cost between Robot-L and thoracoscopic lobectomy (VATS-L) using a nationally representative database hypothesizing they would be similar.

METHODS
The Premier Healthcare Database was used to identify patients receiving elective lobectomy for lung cancer from 2009 to 2019. Patients were categorized as receiving Robot-L or VATS-L using ICD-9/10 codes. Survey methodology and patient level weighting were used to correct for sampling error and estimation of a nationally representative sample. A propensity match analysis was performed to reduce bias between the groups. Primary outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were LOS and patient charges.

RESULTS
Among 62 698 patients, 19 506 (31.1%) underwent Robot-L and 43 192 (68.9%) underwent VATS-L. Differences between the groups included age, race, comorbidities, and insurance type. A propensity matched cohort demonstrated similar in-hospital mortality for Robot-L and VATS-L (.9% vs .9%, respectively, P = .91). Patients who underwent Robot-L had a shorter LOS (4 vs 5d, respectively, P < .001) but higher patient charges (90 593.0 vs 72 733.3 USD, respectively, P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
In a nationally representative database, Robot-L and VATS-L had similar mortality. Although Robot-L was associated with shorter hospitalization, it was also associated with excess charges of almost $20,000. As Robot-L is now the most common approach for lobectomy in the U.S., further study into the cost and benefit of robotic surgery is warranted.


In the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching, it is common for instructors and students to come from very different cultural backgrounds. Instructors who leave their home countries and go to teach abroad may have trouble adjusting to the culture of their new teaching context, and cultural misunderstandings that interfere with learning may occur in the classroom (Kramsch, 1993). This research focused on cultural conflicts between Western, native English-speaking instructors and their Arab students at two university-level EFL programs in the UAE. Questionnaires and interviews were used to discover the details of specific classroom cultural conflicts and categorize them. Nine categories of classroom cultural conflicts were identified, the major ones being inappropriate materials/discussion topics, mixed-gender issues, and disrespect for religious customs.


The English go future, a quintessential example of grammaticalization, has shown layering with will since at least 1490. To date, most synchronic evidence for this development comes from dialects where be going to represents a sizable proportion of the future temporal reference system. However, in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century there were still dialects where be going to was only beginning to make inroads, representing a mere 10–15 per cent of future contexts. These varieties offer an effective view of the early stages of grammatical change. Statistical analysis of nearly 5,000 variable contexts reveals that the use of be going to is increasing across generations, but at different rates, depending on location and orientation to mainstream norms. Major patterns of use mirror previous findings: be going to is favoured for subordinate clauses. However, other widely reported constraints conditioning be going to are radically different across age groups, exposing contrasts between incipient vs later stages of grammaticalization. In the most conservative dialects be going to is strongly correlated with negatives and questions especially in the first person singular. This suggests that these contexts may have been the 'trigger' environments for redistribution of meaning of the incoming grammatical form (Hopper & Traugott 1993: 85). The fact that strong effects of negatives and questions endure in contemporary urban varieties (Torres-Cacoullos & Walker 2009) confirms that grammaticalization begins in very specific syntactic contexts, and impacts on the system for generations to come. In contrast, other reported constraints – resistance of be going to in the first person singular and extension to inanimates and far future readings – emerge across generations, suggesting they are later developments. Taken together, these findings demonstrate how synchronic dialects show us incremental steps in the grammaticalization process. Comparative sociolinguistic analysis thus offers insights into which patterns define the point of grammaticalization itself; which derive from systemic processes; which can be attributed to discourse routines and collocations; and how these factors converge in shaping the evolution of grammar.


This paper describes the application a semi-parametric approach, a varying coefficients model (Hastie and Tibshirani, 1993), to implement an Oaxaca-Blinder type of decomposition in the presence of self-selection into treatment groups for a continuum of comparison groups. The flexibility of this methodology may allow detecting heterogeneity of the role of endowment and coefficient effects when analyzing endogenous dose treatments. The methodology is then used to revisit the impact of Obesity on wages (Cawley, 2004), using BMI as the continuum of groups. The results suggest that body weight does have a negative impact on wages for white women, but the impact decreases for higher BMI levels. For white men, the impact is also negative and significant, but positive for low levels of BMI, which explains why they are not significant in the linear IV approach.


A functional analysis of current laparoscopic surgical technology prompted a redesign of the tools in order to provide multiple functionalities within a single tool. With this redesign came the need for a number of novel mechanisms to actuate and deploy functional tips to the surgical site from their storage locations. In this study we have adopted a multifaceted approach to biomedical device design: functional decomposition to determine problems with the current minimally invasive surgery paradigm, axiomatic design to ensure an efficient design, and quality function deployment to mathematically determine important design criteria. These methods were applied to the design of several novel mechanisms for achieving multifunctionality in a modular surgical instrument. The new actuation mechanism transfers squeezing motion from the hand through a gear train to the distal end of the tool where a pin-slot mechanism actuates the tool tip. The most pronounced change from current technology is the method for rotating the tool's shaft: rather than a rotary/rotary interaction using the index finger, a more ergonomic slider mechanism translates linear thumb motion into rotation of the tool's shaft through a gear train. Finally, rather than locking or unlocking the jaws of the tool using multiple trigger/ ratchet interaction, the new tool uses a binary ratcheting mechanism (similar to a retractable ballpoint pen) to lock or unlock the tool with only one motion. In addition to the actuation mechanisms, the methods for indexing functional tips within the tool and interfacing the tips with a lead screw were redesigned for a modular tool. Rotary indexing of the tool cartridge is done using a Geneva-type mechanism and cam/follower to provide positive locking once the tip is in place. Transferring the tool tip from the rotary chamber to contact the actuation/shuttling screw is accomplished using a screw/wedge assembly to ensure proper attachment. Each of these mechanisms is described and analyzed in detail to show the overall improvement in surgical performance of this novel tool. The benefits identified include multiple functionalities in a single tool, ergonomic benefits of an increased input/output force scaling, decreased out-of-plane motion required to rotate the tool's shaft, and decreased cognitive load required to lock and unlock the tool's jaws.


Background Based on the extensive biological effects of melatonin (MLT), it is beneficial to increase the MLT content in the bodies of animals at a specific physiological stage. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a diet supplemented with rumen-protected (RP) 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) on the pineal gland and intestinal tract MLT synthesis of sheep. Material/Methods Eighteen Kazakh sheep were assigned randomly to 3 diet groups: control group (CT, corn-soybean meal basal diet), CT+111 group (111 mg/kg BW RP 5-HTP), and CT+222 group (222 mg/kg BW RP 5-HTP). The gene expressions of aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (AADC), arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AA-NAT), hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase (HIOMT), monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), and the intermediates of MLT synthesis were observed from the pineal gland and intestinal tract by the reverse transcription (RT)-PCR method. The 5-HTP, 5-HT, N-acetylserotonin (NAS), MLT, and 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (5-HIAA) contents in the pineal gland and intestinal tract were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Results The study showed that the pineal gland HIOMT expression (P<0.05), MLT (P<0.05) and 5-HIAA (P<0.05) levels in the 222 mg/kg group significantly increased compared to those in the CT and CT+111 mg/kg groups. In addition, the AADC (P<0.01) and AA-NAT (P<0.05) gene expression levels in the duodenum and jejunum were increased by the supplementation of RP 5-HTP. Conclusions Rumen-protected 5-hydroxytryptophan promoted melatonin synthesis in the pineal gland and intestinal tract during the natural light period.


Statistical graphics play an important role in exploratory data analysis, model checking and diagnostics, but they are not usually associated with statistical inference. Recent developments allows inference to be applied to statistical graphics. A new method, called the lineup protocol, enables the data plot to be compared with null plots, in order to obtain estimates of statistical significance of structure. With the lineup protocol observed patterns visible in the data can be formally tested. The research conducted and described in this thesis validates the lineup protocol, examines the effects of human factors in the application of the protocol, and explains how to implement the protocol. It bridges the long existing gulf between exploratory and inferential statistics. In the validation work, additional refinement of the lineup protocol was made: methods for obtaining the power of visual tests, and p-values for particular tests are provided. A head-to-head comparison of visual inference against the best available conventional test is run for regression slope inference, using simulation experiments with human subjects. Results indicate that the visual test power is higher than the conventional test when the effect size is large, and even for smaller effect sizes, there may be some super-visual individuals who yield better performance than a conventional test. The factors that may influence the individual abilities are examined, and results suggest that demographic and geographic factors have statistically significant but practically insignificant impact. This work provides instructions on how to design human subject experiments to use Amazon's Mechanical Turk to implement the lineup protocol.


Princess Di, Fergie, and the rest of the royal clan may have had their public relations problems over the years, but it's not for lack of available counsel. The country that brought you fish and chips and lukewarm beer also happens to have the second-largest public relations industry in the world. While public relations in the United Kingdom is different from that of the United States in several key respects - most notably, in solicitation of new business and the degree of knowledge among clients and higher-ups about what public relations can do - boundaries between the United States and its neighbors "across the pond" are gradually blurring. These are just a few of the conclusions we reached during a recent two-month visit to Great Britain. We interviewed top executives with the 10 largest U.K public relations firms and many smaller firms, every U.S. public relations firm with a major presence there, and a smattering of associations, boutique agencies, academic sources and others. Here's what we found. More than 48,000 people are employed in public relations in Britain, according to a study by the Institute of Public Relations, an association head-quartered in London. In contrast, there are 155,000 people in the United States employed in public relations, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By most estimates, about 70% of the British public relations industry is concentrated in London. Firms in Wales and Scotland account for 20%, with the remaining 10% located primarily in the Midlands, particularly the cities of Manchester and Birmingham. These ratios may soon be changing, however. As the British government privatizes utilities and other companies, many local public relations firms are rushing in to capitalize on opportunities for new business. These "provincial players" are certain to be a growing force, according to a number of industry insiders. Economic climate As in the United States, British public relations practitioners are clawing their way out of a recession in which budgets and staff were slashed. The British recession began earlier than the most recent U.S. recession and, unfortunately, is taking longer to reverse. Still, the country's public relations industry is faring better than its counterparts in advertising. While U.K ad agency revenues stayed flat throughout 1992 and 1993, public relations firms grew about 5% to 15% each year. Small- to medium-sized firms were the biggest gainers, reported Stephen Farish, editor of PR Week, a tabloid newspaper covering the public relations industry. Some specialty firms, such as those in health care and environmental public relations, saw robust growth. Other firms, such as those specializing in mergers and acquisitions and financial public relations, did not do as well because of limited activity in those fields. "While the economy improved in 1993, growth is still weak, with more clients offering assignments, not annual retainers," said Roger Haywood, chairman of Kestrel Communications Ltd. in London. This trend is echoed elsewhere throughout the global economy, he said, as companies attempt to keep a lid on fixed costs, starting and stopping projects as needed. Other industry leaders held a more cynical view. "Clients think [contracting on a per-project basis] gives them better control and keeps us more on our toes," said John de Upbaugh, deputy chief executive of Dewe Rogerson's European office in London. As for 1994 business prospects, Colin Thompson, director of the Public Relations Consultants Association in London, forecast that business volume will increase about 10%. U.S./U.K. ties "There has been so much interaction in ownership, affiliation, movement of personnel and exchange of information that differences in public relations practice and performance between the world's two major English-speaking countries are gradually narrowing," said David Wright, chief executive of Citigate Communications Group Ltd. …


Demands are placed on undergraduate courses in chemistry to develop transferable skills, such as teamwork, alongside subject content and technical skills. Such skills can be developed by implementing pedagogies which involve students working together. Such pedagogies can, however, pose various challenges, including unfavourable student perceptions and experiences including the occurrence of dysfunctional student teams. This article presents a research-informed group project assignment delivered as part of an upper-year undergraduate chemistry course which has been found to overcome these challenges. The instructional activity is characterized by a high degree of structure and support for teamwork. Student perceptions, collected by survey and interview, and peer- and self-evaluations of contributions to the work of the groups reveal that students have experienced the activity positively. Many perceived disadvantages of working in a team to complete a project were either reportedly not experienced or could be overcome by the students, while perceived advantages were often reported to be experienced. Dysfunction within teams did not represent a significant issue.


Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a high-performance electrochemical device for energy conversion. Usually, the electrolyte is made of dense YSZ (Yttria Stabilized Zirconia) and the anode is a porous YSZ-Ni composite. The electrolyte is submitted to high stresses mainly due to the thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between components and the volume change associated with the redox cycling of Ni. Because the mechanical integrity of the cell is a major issue during its life time, it is proposed in this study to determine both micro and macro stresses in the electrolyte. Macro stresses in the 10 µm-thick electrolyte were measured using the sin²(Ψ) method after different treatments of the cell : (i) manufacturing, (ii) thermal cycle, (iii) reduction and (iv) re-oxidation of the anode layer. After manufacturing, the electrolyte is under strong biaxial compressive stresses (-690 MPa). These stresses decrease after reduction of the anode. They finally reach tensile stresses and induce the cracking of the electrolyte for full re-oxidation. Micro stresses determinations were performed using the micro-diffraction setup of the BM32 beam line at ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility). Complete strain-stress tensor and crystallographic orientation determinations have been achieved within 5 µm grains. The accuracy of the method has been improved and is now 2.4 10-4 for strain values. On an average, local measurements are found to be consistent with global ones. Both strain and stress heterogeneities between grains with various orientations have been evidenced.


Disease-modifying drugs are changing the natural history of multiple sclerosis (MS). However, currently available clinical trial data are insufficient to develop accurate personalized treatment algorithms to assign the best possible treatment to each person with MS according to disease features, treatment history, and comorbidities. Such accurate algorithms would require the presence of numerous head-to-head trials of long duration, which is virtually impossible, given the economic costs, required time, and difficulties with attrition. Thus, efforts are being made to compare relative treatment efficacy through observational designs, using large multicenter prospective cohorts or "big MS data," and network meta-analyses. Although such studies can yield useful information, they are liable to biases and their results should be confirmed in other study populations, including smaller, single-center cohorts, where some of these biases can be minimized. In this View article, we analyze the potential benefits and biases of all these strategies alternative to head-to-head trials in MS. Finally, we propose the combination of all these types of studies to obtain reliable head-to-head drug comparisons in the absence of randomized designs.


This paper studies a hitherto unexplored reading of 'still' as an additive particle, attested when it appears in the consequent of a conditional. A standard existing approach to the meaning of 'still' is couched in terms of events. However, I show that prominent event-based analyses (such as Ippolito 2007) are incompatible with modal environments, raising the general issue of the cross-world identity of events (cf. Hacquard 2009). This issue can be avoided by being explicit about the ontological status of events. On the basis of this I build a revised version of Ippolito's (2007) event-based account of aspectual 'still'. I argue that the additive reading of 'still' is the result of an additive focus particle taking wide scope over the conditional. This reading is also attested in the well-studied case of semifactual conditionals, and hence this analysis contributes to the open question about the role of 'still' in semifactual conditionals.


Abstract : The U.S. Air Force is said to be evolving into an Air and Space Force on its way to becoming a Space and Air Force. Part of this transition includes the possibility of deploying weapons in space. While much has been written about the need for weapons in space, or conversely the need to keep space as a sanctuary, little has been published about what space-based weapons can and cannot bring to the battlefield. A decision to put weapons in space, or to refrain from doing so, should be based on a firm foundation of knowledge about what the weapons can be expected to do. Numerous concepts have been advocated as natural evolutions of surface and airborne weapons; it is critical to examine how these orbital weapons compare with their terrestrial counterparts. This essay evaluates the theoretical capabilities of orbital weapons and compares them to weapons already in existence and concepts proposed for development. The objective of this essay is to provide insight into where future investments should be made if the United States is to protect its increasingly important space-based assets, and retain its position as a global leader able to project military power wherever necessary.


This study combines address-level residential photovoltaic (PV) adoption trends in California with several types of geospatial information—population demographics, housing characteristics, foreclosure rates, solar irradiance, vehicle ownership preferences, and others—to identify which subsets of geospatial information are the best predictors of historical PV adoption. Number of rooms, heating source and house age were key variables that had not been previously explored in the literature, but are consistent with the expected profile of a PV adopter. The strong relationship provided by foreclosure indicators and mortgage status have less of an intuitive connection to PV adoption, but may be highly correlated with characteristics inherent in PV adopters. Next, we explore how these predictive factors and model performance varies between different Investor Owned Utility (IOU) regions in California, and at different spatial scales. Results suggest that models trained with small subsets of geospatial information (five to eight variables) may provide similar explanatory power as models using hundreds of geospatial variables. Further, the predictive performance of models generally decreases at higher resolution, i.e., below ZIP code level since several geospatial variables with coarse native resolution become less useful for representing high resolution variations in PV adoption trends. However, for California we find that model performance improves if parameters are trained at the regional IOU level rather than the state-wide level. We also find that models trained within one IOU region are generally representative for other IOU regions in CA, suggesting that a model trained with data from one state may be applicable in another state.


Freeway work zone capacity has been the focus of significant research, but most studies were limited to specific geographic regions or work zone configurations or both. To date, no work zone predictive capacity model exists for U.S. freeways that is based on a geographically representative data set or sensitive to key geometric and operational attributes of the work zone. This paper proposes a new capacity model for freeway work zones, developed from nationwide field data fused with data obtained from an in-depth review of archived literature of prior work zone capacity studies in the United States. The proposed model estimates work zone capacity as a function of the lane closure severity index, barrier type, area type, lateral clearances, and daytime or nighttime work conditions. The model was successfully validated with 25% of the combined data that were not used for the model development. In addition, findings from literature archives suggested a 13.4% difference between prebreakdown, uninterrupted capacity and the ensuing queue discharge rate. The developed capacity model is intended to be incorporated into the next release of the Highway Capacity Manual and provides important insights on the relative effects of work zone configuration and other variables on the expected capacity of freeway work zones.


The optimal control model (OCM) of the human pilot is applied to the study of aircraft handling qualities. Attention is focused primarily on longitudinal tasks. The modeling technique differs from prev%ous applications of the OCM in that considerable effort is expended in simplifying the pilot/vehicle analysis. After briefly reviewing the OCM, a technique for modeling the pilot controlling higher order systems is introduced. Following this, a simple criterion for determining the susceptability of an aircraft to pilot induced oscillations (PI0) is formulated. Finally, a model-based metric for pilot rating prediction is discussed. The resulting modeling procedure provides a relatively simple, yet unified approach to the study of _ variety of handling qualities problems.


Backward emission of the supercontinuum from a light filament induced by high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air has been observed to be enhanced compared with linear Rayleigh-Mie scattering. This enhancement is interpreted as a nonlinear scattering process onto longitudinal refractive-index changes induced by the laser pulse itself. The spectral dependence of the supercontinuum angular distribution is also investigated.


Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the nature of inequality in Africa was dramatically altered. In this book, Alden Young traces the emergence of economic developmentalism as the ideology of the Sudanese state in the decolonization era. Young demonstrates how the state was transformed, as a result of the international circulation of tools of economic management and the practice of economic diplomacy, from the management of a collection of distinct populations, to the management of a national economy based on individual equality. By studying the hope and eventual disillusionment this ideology gave to late colonial officials and then Sudanese politicians and policymakers, Young demonstrates its rise, and also its shortfalls as a political project in Sudan, particularly its inability to deal with questions of regional and racial equity, not only showing how it fostered state formation, but also civil war.


The effects of stimulation of periaqueductal gray matter on pain threshold and blood corticosterone level were studied in anesthetized rats. The stimulation resulted in a alteration of analgesia and corticosterone level. Stimuli-induced analgesia was decreased by adrenalectomy. Corticosterone implantation (50 micrograms) in periaqueductal gray matter resulted in the increase of analgesia. Pretreatment with naloxone (1 mg/kg) failed to modify the effect of stimulation of periaqueductal gray matter on analgesia and corticosterone level. Our results indicate the involvement of corticosterone in the analgesia induced the stimulation of periaqueductal gray matter.


Scene: Large corner office, 10th (and top) floor of an old downtown Newark office building. Nice navy-blue sofa, very large desk, executive-style conference table, framed pictures and posters on the walls, floor-to-ceiling windows on two corners, and doors that open onto a rooftop deck. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "This is a super office," I exclaim, asking Cami Anderson, the new superintendent of Newark schools, to tell me a little bit about it. Sitting a bit stiffly on the sofa, Anderson winces. "I hate it. My ideal would be to take one of our old, gorgeous schools and make it a place of bustling collaboration and activity between adults and children," she says. "That would actually look and feel quite different than our corporate tower here." This California blond is clearly not your ordinary educator, which could be the best thing that has happened to the perennially failing Newark Public Schools (NPS) since--well, perhaps, ever. The state took over the district in 1995, to little effect. With 75 schools and almost 40,000 students, Newark is the largest district in New Jersey, and with graduation rates hovering just about 50 percent, one of the most troubled. Enrollment is down some 9,000 students since 2001. As the New York Times reported when Anderson took over, in June of 2011, "Cami Anderson faces the monumental task of rescuing an urban school system that has long been mired in low achievement, high turnover and a culture of failure, despite decades of state intervention." It was, said the Times, with exquisite understatement, "the ultimate high-risk opportunity," Even with the popular and smart Newark mayor Cory Booker on her side and a $100 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, she'll need all the help she can get. As even Chris Christie, the take-no-prisoners Garden State governor, said at the press conference announcing Anderson's appointment, "It took us a long time to get to where we are now [in Newark], and no leader, no matter how good, is going to be able to turn this around overnight." It would have been hard to find anyone disagreeing with the blunt-spoken governor on that one. "Judge me by my actions," Anderson said at the time. "Let me roll up my sleeves and dive in. Then we'll talk." And talk we did, last May, just as Anderson was finishing her first year on the job. "The first year of anything is tough because you're saying, 'Trust me. Trust me. Trust me," she said. "But you haven't really had time to, 'Show me. Show me. Show me." Shaking Things Up In fact, Anderson showed her stuff immediately. "I had to make some very important leadership decisions," she recalled about those first days on the job, "right then." And since Anderson's "theory of change" is about "great school leaders," she "ran around to as many schools as possible to try to get a sense of the quality of our principals, most particularly those who I'd heard deep concerns about or had heard were awesome and were approaching their tenure date." The result? Seventeen new principals when school opened the following September. Major shakeup. Indeed, Anderson's first year in Newark was marked by serious change--she closed six schools, reorganized her central administration team, cut 120 jobs--and marked the beginning of a deep systemic overhaul, financial and pedagogical. So far, so good. There have been the fights over the school closings and the upset of a system being (rather quickly) turned inside out, but as friends predicted, Anderson's engaging personal style won many people over. She did not arrive with an agenda, but she did have a clear vision of where to start--even before the principal shakeup. "The first thing is to define success," she said. "And that's pretty simple. Every kid of school age in Newark is in a school that puts him or her on the path to graduate from college. …


Sixteen normal young dogs were exposed to 1200 r of Co60 radiation over their entire bodies continuously at 5 to 6 r per minute. They were then given intravenous infusions of 1 to 5 billion of their own nucleated marrow cells that had been previously aspirated and stored frozen at -80 C. in dimethyl-sulphoxide.

Nine received samples stored in 10 per cent dimethyl-sulphoxide. All made prompt clinical and hematologic recoveries. Three dogs received samples stored in 5 per cent dimethyl-sulphoxide. One died. Three received samples stored in 15 per cent dimethyl-sulphoxide. Two died.

No toxicity of dimethyl-sulphoxide was recognized in these experiments. A disagreeable odor emanated from the injected animals and persisted for a number of hours.

Dimethyl-sulphoxide in 10 per cent concentration is suitable for the preservation of dog marrow at low temperature. Because the specimens preserved in it can be administered intravenously without prior dilution, this additive has an advantage over glycerol.


The paper presents a formulation for support optimization to maximize heat dissipation in additive manufacturing. To simulate heat transfer from the part to the supports, a boundary-dependent heat flux is applied on the part/support interface. Since the density-based topology optimization does not involve explicit boundary, the heat flux is implicitly imposed through a domain integration of a Heaviside projected density gradient. As such, this formulation also supports simultaneous optimization of support and parts in additive manufacturing. Self-supporting supports are obtained by controlling the anisotropic thermal conductivity of the supports. Three different objective functions related to heat dissipation efficiency are investigated. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed approach.


First generation models assume that the level of reserves of a Central Bank in a fixed exchange rate regime is common knowledge among consummers, and therefore the timing of the attack on the currency, in an economy with persistent deficit, can be correctly anticipated. In these models, the collapse of the peg leads to no discrete change in the exchange rate. We relax the assumption of perfect information and introduce uncertainty about the willingness of a Central Bank to defend the peg. In this new setting, there is a unique equilibrium at which the fixed exchange is abandoned. In our model, the lack of common knowledge will lead to a discrete devaluation of the local currency once the peg finally collapses.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze trends of glaucoma filtration surgery in Ontario.

METHODS
From April 1, 1992, through March 31, 2004, correlations were examined between the annual rates of trabeculectomies in Ontario, the use of glaucoma medications, and the numbers of practicing ophthalmologists and optometrists.

RESULTS
The number of trabeculectomies per 1000 persons at risk for primary open-angle glaucoma increased from 33.5 in 1992 to 46.2 in 1996 (37.7% increase; 6.6% increase per year) and then steadily decreased to 38.2 in 2004 (17.0% decrease; 2.7% decrease per year). The number of glaucoma medications dispensed in Ontario increased from 766 000 in 1992 to 1 466 543 in 2004 (91.5% increase; 10.5% annual increase). The increase in dispensed prostaglandin analogues strongly correlated (P<.001; 95% confidence interval, -0.87 to -0.41) with the decreasing number of trabeculectomies. The decreasing number of ophthalmologists positively correlated (r = 0.87) with the filtration surgery rate after 1997.

CONCLUSIONS
The number of trabeculectomies has decreased substantially in Ontario coinciding with the introduction of medications for the treatment of glaucoma in December 1996. This decrease in trabeculectomies highly correlated with the introduction of prostaglandin analogues (P<.001) and the decreasing number of ophthalmologists from 1997 through 2004.


This paper presents a novel study of the dynamic performance analysis of an advanced static VAr compensator (ASVC) using a three-level voltage source inverter. The analysis is based on the modelling of the system in the d-q axis. The dynamic behaviour of the system is further analysed using MATLAB through a set of simulation tests. The results obtained may lead to correct design of a robust controller for reactive power applications.


OBJECTIVE
To analyse severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM) and maternal mortality in the Pretoria region over a 2-year period (2000-2001).

SETTING
Public hospitals in the Pretoria region, South Africa, serving a mainly indigent urban population.

METHODS
A descriptive study was performed whereby women with SAMM and maternal deaths were identified at daily audit meetings and an audit form was completed for all cases fulfilling the definition of SAMM ('near miss') and for all maternal deaths.

RESULTS
The number of maternal deaths declined slightly but not significantly from 18 deaths in 2000 to 16 in 2001. This represents a change in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from 130/100,000 live births in 2000 to a MMR of 100/100,000 live births in 2001. However, when data for women with SAMM and maternal deaths were combined, there was a significant increase in major maternal morbidity from 90 cases (SAMM and maternal death rate 649/100,000 live births) in 2000 to 142 cases (SAMM and maternal death rate 889/100,000 live births) in 2001 (p = 0.006). This increase was due to a significant increase in severe maternal morbidity related to abortions and obstetric haemorrhages.

CONCLUSION
Analysis of maternal deaths only in the Pretoria region failed to identify abortions and haemorrhages as major maternal care problems. When data for women with SAMM were combined with data for maternal deaths, however, these problems were clearly identified, and remedial action could be taken. Including SAMM in maternal death audits increases the rapidity with which health system problems can be identified.


In this work we have studied flare related geomagnetic storms of magnitude ≤-90nT during the period of 1997-2012 and analyzed with coronal mass ejections, X-ray solar flares and disturbances in solar wind plasma parameter. We have found total number of flare related geomagnetic storms are 87. Out of 87 geomagnetic storms 67(77.00%) geomagnetic storms are found to be associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Further we observed that 68.66% and 31.34% geomagnetic storms are associated with halo and partial halo CMEs. Statistically there is positive correlation between magnitude of flare related geomagnetic storms and speed of associated CMEs with correlation coefficient 0.28. All the geomagnetic storms have been identified as being associated with X-ray solar flares and 42(48.27 %) flare related geomagnetic storms have been found to be associated with radio bursts of different categories type-II and type-IV. Further we have analyzed those jumps in solar wind plasma density (JSWD) which are associated with flare related geomagnetic storms and see the statistical behavior with CMEs. Positive co-relation has been found between speed of CMEs and peak value of associated JSWD events with coefficient 0.23. Again there is a Positive co-relation with correlation coefficient 0.28 has been found between magnitudes of JSWD events and speed of associated CMEs.


Nitriding is one of the most efficient methods used to enhance the service life of aluminum extrusion dies. In this paper, a new nitriding process has been introduced that is characterized by that 4Cr5MoSiV1 steel, a typical material used for extrusion dies, was nitrided by using two-stage nitriding process. The microstructures of nitrided layer have been analyzed by means of optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and microhardness (MH). The results show that pre-heat treatment on the 4Cr5MoSiV1 steel extrusion die can be carried out under the condition of quenching at 1040 °C, double tempering at 600 °C and 560 °C for 2 hours each. Operating parameters of two-stage nitriding are set as follow: stage one, 520 °C for 6 hours, the flow rate of NH3 of 0.6 m3/h; nitriding pressure of 453 Pa and stage two, 580 °C for 8 hours, the flow rate of NH3 of 0.35 m3/h; nitriding pressure of 453 Pa.


Background: The results of previous studies suggest that portion size is a major factor dictating dietary energy intake. We investigated the relationship between frequencies of rice meals, bowl volumes, and dietary energy intake in a sample of patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A total of 203 type 2 diabetes patients were enrolled in the st udy. A one-week food diary was collected from each patient and used to assess the types of mea l consumed as well as the context of consumption. The volumes of the eating vessels (rice, soup and side dish bowls) used by each patient were obtained by comparisons to measuring cylinders, and dietary energy and macronutrient intake were estimated for each patient by consulting three-day dietary records. Results: The mean age of the 203 subjects (male: 76, female: 127) was 53.9 ± 9.1 years and the average body mass index (BMI) was 25.6 ± 4.2 kg/m 2 . Among the subjects who ate three times per day, 96.4% consumed rice more than twice out of three meals. The median volume of rice bowls used by patients was 350 cc, of soup bowls was 530 cc and of side dish bowls was 260 cc. Portion size, as estimated by rice bowl volume, was not associated with BMI. Male subjects tended to eat out of larger rice and soup bowls (P < 0.001). Portion size was correlated with energy intake from rice (P = 0.021), but not with total energy intake (kcal/kg/day), especially in male subjects. Conclusion: Portion size of rice bowl was correlated with energy intake from rice, but not with total energy intake in male subjects with type 2 diabetes. To design effecti ve meal planning methods for patients with type 2 diabetes, further prospective studies are warranted to investigate causative relationships between portion size andmetabolic condit ions as well as variation by gender. (Korean Diabetes J 33:335-343, 2009)


The modelling of empirically observed data is commonly done using mixtures of probability distributions. In order to model angular data, directional probability distributions such as the bivariate von Mises (BVM) is typically used. The critical task involved in mixture modelling is to determine the optimal number of component probability distributions. We employ the Bayesian information-theoretic principle of minimum message length (MML) to distinguish mixture models by balancing the trade-off between the model's complexity and its goodness-of-fit to the data. We consider the problem of modelling angular data resulting from the spatial arrangement of protein structures using BVM distributions. The main contributions of the paper include the development of the mixture modelling apparatus along with the MML estimation of the parameters of the BVM distribution. We demonstrate that statistical inference using the MML framework supersedes the traditional methods and offers a mechanism to objectively determine models that are of practical significance.


Estuaries and coastal lagoons are the dynamic interface among marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. The Coorong, an Australian wetland, has been ecologically degraded by protracted drought and subsequent low freshwater flow, and transformed into a hyper-saline lagoon system. The Coorong consists of the North and South lagoons and connects to the Southern Ocean through a narrow channel at Murray Estuary. The present study investigated spatiotemporal variation of three primary prey-fish assemblage in the Murray Estuary and Coorong. Spatial change in prey-fish assemblage was detected, but temporal variation was not obvious. Prey-fish assemblage was dominated by greater abundance of small-mouth hardyhead (Atherinosoma microstoma) in the South Lagoon. There was low abundance of sandy sprat (Hyperlophus vittatus) and Tamar goby (Afurcagobius tamarensis) in North Lagoon, and complete absence of both species in South Lagoon. The spatial variation in the distribution of prey-fish assemblage was attributed to elevated salinity gradients (Murray Estuary: 2–30; North Lagoon: 11–75; and South Lagoon: 40–85). The change of prey-fish assemblage is mainly driven by the salinity variation in the Murray Estuary and Coorong. The present study has improved our understanding on the dynamics of small-bodied prey-fish assemblage and key environmental factors regulating fish distribution in the Murray Estuary and Coorong.