A project for deriving temperature and humidity profiles from High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) observations is underway to build a long-term dataset for climate applications. The retrieval algorithm development of the project includes a neural network retrieval scheme, a two-tiered cloud screening method, and a calibration using radiosonde and Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) measurements. As atmospheric profiles over high surface elevations can differ significantly from those over low elevations, different neural networks are developed for three classifications of surface elevations. The significant impact from the increase of carbon dioxide in the last several decades on HIRS temperature sounding channel measurements is accounted for in the retrieval scheme. The cloud screening method added one more step from the HIRS-only approach by incorporating the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) observations to assess the likelihood of cloudiness in HIRS pixels. Calibrating the retrievals with radiosonde and GPS RO reduces biases in retrieved temperature and humidity. Except for the lowest pressure level which exhibits larger variability, the mean biases are within ±0.3 °C for temperature and within ±0.2 g/kg for specific humidity at standard pressure levels, globally. Overall, the HIRS temperature and specific humidity retrievals closely align with radiosonde and GPS RO observations in providing measurements of the global atmosphere to support other relevant climate dataset development.


Background: Propofol alone for laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion is unsatisfactory. To overcome the problems associated with it, a number of co-induction drugs have been introduced. The present study was conducted to compare the insertion conditions using midazolam and fentanyl co administered with propofol during intravenous induction of anesthesia. Materials and Methods: This prospective, double-blinded, randomized study was conducted at a tertiary healthcare teaching hospital at Imphal. Ninety American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I and II patients aged 18-60 years were randomly divided into three equal groups and received intravenous (IV) fentanyl 2 μg/kg (Group I), IV midazolam 0.05 mg/kg (Group II), and control (saline) group (Group III) followed by induction with propofol 2.5 mg/kg. LMA was inserted after 90 s. The insertion conditions and hemodynamic changes were noted. Data were collected and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v.20. Results: There were no statistical differences in the demographic profile ( P > 0.05). Adequate jaw relaxation was present in 21 (70%) patients in Group II and 14 (46.6%) patients in Group I ( P > 0.05). Excellent insertion conditions were present in 80% of the patients in both fentanyl and midazolam groups, respectively. Conclusion: Midazolam and fentanyl provides adequate conditions for LMA insertion, although midazolam provides better jaw relaxation.


Abstract Prior to the construction of a new mineshaft, hydrological and geophysical tests are performed on a shaft centreline borehole and the recovered core which permit water-bearing zones to be located, and potential shaft inflows to be estimated. An assessment of this information enables the most appropriate method of groundwater control to permit safe and controlled shaft sinking to be selected. The three methods discussed in this paper are grouting, freezing and pressure relief. Grouting is the process of reducing the permeability of water-bearing strata by the injection of appropriate materials under pressure, thereby reducing the shaft inflow to an acceptable level. The geometry of the injection hole pattern required to form a grout cover, and the selection and subsequent injection of a suitable grout are discussed. An in-shaft test, performed from the advancing shaft sump into the water bearing strata, is described. This test gives a final check on the local aquifer characteristics, and allows the grouting scheme to be modified as required. A similar test performed after grouting enables the efficacy of the treatment to be assessed.


This paper presents the methodologies of IDS technologies. Essentially, any system requiring security must be protected from attacks. Intrusiondetection systems are used to detect unusual activity in a network of computer systems to identify if activity is unfriendly or unauthorized in order to enable a response to that violation. To achieve this, there are two main types of IDS: network-based and host-based. This paper outlines these two types of IDS respectively and highlights the advantages of each kind.


In patients with vitamin B12 deficiency, phytohemagglutinin-stimulated cultured lymphocytes had little or no thymidylate synthetase activity. Ample activity was found in such lymphocytes from normal individuals and patients with folic acid deficiency or pernicious anemia in remission. It therefore appears that the megaloblastosis that is associated with vitamin B12 deficiency is related to low thymidylate synthetase activity.


Hepatocyte invasion by Plasmodium sporozoites represents a promising target for innovative antimalarial therapy, but the molecular events mediating this process are still largely uncharacterized. We previously showed that Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite entry into hepatocytes strictly requires CD81. However, CD81-overexpressing human hepatoma cells remain refractory to P. falciparum infection, suggesting the existence of additional host factors necessary for sporozoite entry. Here, through differential transcriptomic analysis of human hepatocytes and hepatoma HepG2-CD81 cells, the transmembrane protein Aquaporin-9 (AQP9) was found to be among the most downregulated genes in hepatoma cells. RNA silencing showed that sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes requires AQP9 expression. AQP9 overexpression in hepatocytes increased their permissiveness to P. falciparum. Moreover, chemical disruption with the AQP9 inhibitor phloretin markedly inhibited hepatocyte infection. Our findings identify AQP9 as a novel host factor required for P. falciparum sporozoite hepatocyte-entry and indicate that AQP9 could be a potential therapeutic target.


Ayurveda give importance for the care of mother at every phase of her life specially when it comes to antenatal care and postnatal care. A postnatal period beginning immediately after the separation of placenta and extending up to 6 weeks, otherwise called as puerperium or puerperal period. Postnatal care certainly co-related with Sutika Paricharya explained in Ayurvedic classics. Garbhini and Sutika Paricharya are well described by our Ancient Ayurvedic scholars in their respective Samhitas. They have described dietary regimen, living style, and other required management for whole pregnancy and up to 6 month after delivery. In this stage mother should be educated to take care of herself and the new born baby. This period is of happiness and contentment, on one hand and physical and mental fatigue due to delivery, on the other hand, she become weak or emaciated after loss of blood and body fluid during delivery. Garbhini is much prone to the disease due to aggravation of Doshas. This further may be aggravated during delivery and puerperium due to loss of blood and other important Dhatus of body. Therefore she needs special and proper care during pregnancy as well as during puerperium. The regimen that helps the woman to regain her lost vitality and helps her body to revert back to prepregnant state is called Sutika Paricharya, as during this period she restores her health and strength.


We statistically investigated winter-summer climatic connectivity between the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the summer Okhotsk High. We found that the winter NAO persistently influences the surface air temperature, snow cover over the Eurasia continent, sea ice and SST around the Barents Sea region from winter to summer. The warm air temperature anomalies in East Siberia make a preferable condition for upper-level blocking. Warm signals around the Barents Sea region excite the Rossby wave propagating toward the Sea of Okhotsk. In addition, regional persistency of the wintertime local phenomena, and their possible influence on the summertime Okhotsk High is examined. The negative phase of the winter NAO is related to the winter and spring heavy sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk. The heavy spring sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk brings about the cold SST around the Sea of Okhotsk. However, since the Okhotsk High does not have correlation with the SST around the Sea of Okhotsk in the previous month, the local connection of the sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk with the summer Okhotsk High is unlikely. Associated with an enhanced Okhotsk High, cold SST anomalies appear to the east of Japan. This cold SST anomaly is a response to the cold air advection associated with the Okhotsk High. We suggest that the winter NAO remotely regulates both the winter sea ice, and the summer Okhotsk High.


Although low-power lossy network (LLN), at its early stage, commonly used asynchronous link layer protocols for simple operation on resource-constrained nodes, development of embedded hardware and time synchronization technologies made Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) viable in LLN (now part of IEEE 802.15.4e standard). TSCH has the potential to be a link layer solution for LLN due to its resilience to wireless interference (e.g., WiFi) and multipath fading. However, its slotted operation incurs non-trivial cell scheduling overhead: two nodes should wake up at a time-frequency cell together to exchange a packet. Efficient cell scheduling in dynamic multihop topology in wireless environments has been an open issue, preventing TSCH's wide adoption in practice. This work introduces ALICE, a novel autonomous link-based cell scheduling scheme which allocates a unique cell for each directional link (a pair of nodes and traffic direction) by closely interacting with the routing layer and using only local information, without any additional communication overhead. We implement ALICE on Contiki and evaluate its effectiveness on the IoT-LAB public testbed with 68 nodes. ALICE generally outperforms Orchestra (the state-of-the-art method) and even more so under heavy traffic and high node density, increasing throughput by 2 times with 98.3% reliability and reducing latency by 70%, route changes by 95%, and radio duty cycle by 35%. ALICE can serve as an autonomous scheduling framework, which paves the way for TSCH-based LLN to go on.


A new fully integrated two-stage operational transconductance amplifier-capacitor (OTA-C) sine oscillator circuit configuration using a 0.5 μm CMOS digital process is described. A simple linear impedance analysis is presented to predict the amplitude and distortion of oscillation. The accuracy of this approach is examined by comparing calculated, simulated and measured results. Transconductance tuning keeps the startup condition satisfied within the frequency range from 2 to 11 MHz.


Banks guarantee mortgage rates for a period of sixty days or more. These commitments represent put options for the borrower, who has the right but not the obligation to sell a mortgage to the bank at the promised rate. This article presents a proportional hazard model to estimate the closing rate on mortgage loan applications. The findings reveal that the closing rate accelerates with high rates and for owner-occupied dwellings, and slows for brokered loans, second residences, and borrowers who refinance an existing mortgage. The volatility of interest rates as well as the variation in the spread between fixed and adjustable rates during the lock period have a significant impact on the decision to close. In particular, the impact of volatility is in line with options, theory, and suggests that in a volatile interest environment, borrowers delay closing in an effort to maximize the value of their put.


Author(s): Rothenberg, Janell | Advisor(s): Slyomovics, Suzanne | Abstract: ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONThe Social Life of Logistics on the Moroccan Mediterranean CoastbyJanell RothenbergDoctor of Philosophy in AnthropologyUniversity of California, Los Angeles, 2015Professor Suzanne Slyomovics, ChairIf Morocco is the historic crossroads between Africa and Europe, then Tangier is the informal capital of crossing. To be urban denizens of this city includes the everyday experience of seeing Spain and Gibraltar on the horizon, and of navigating between the winds that blow from the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. This dissertation follows the Tangier Med Port, a new infrastructure opened in 2007 at this intersection between lands and seas in order to transform Morocco into a major actor in the global logistics of trade. Merely nine miles from Europe, this port was built at one of the busiest bottlenecks in world shipping to serve as a platform for global commodity circulation. To be Moroccan actors in the industries of this emerging global hub includes the shared experience of seeing this bottleneck translated into the materials of work. While mega-ports are planned as infrastructures of commodity circulation, port actors translate plans into the everyday logistics of circulating commodities.In the five chapters of this dissertation, I analyze both the aspirations of this global logistics hub as well as the everyday logistics of commodity circulation in the port region. In chapter one, I examine the global, national, and regional context of the Tangier Med Port through an analysis sensitive to the past, present and future. I show how the perspectives of Tangier inhabitants and port administrators reveal contrasting versions of global regionalism. In chapter two, I follow the regional social worlds of trailers and containers in order to illustrate how these objects of physical movement connect the Tangier Med Port to a larger region of socio-technical practice. In chapter three, I examine how the aspirational discourses at the port authority exclude concerns deemed too "Moroccan" in order to qualify the Tangier Med Port as a uniquely modern infrastructure. These discourses position the port as the ideal platform for transcending the perceived temporal incongruity between Morocco and the Global North. In chapter four, I propose the concept of "practical connectivity" to replace traditional metaphors of friction or flow for understanding how emerging port connections are mediated in particular projects of global logistics. In the final chapter, I contrast the shifting visibilities of labor and infrastructure during and after a major work stoppage at the port's container terminals in 2011. Stoppages reveal how these terminals, designed primarily for moving transshipped goods between vessels, are reframed by dockworkers into innovative platforms of global solidarity. My ethnographic study of the Tangier Med Port and its actors reveals multiple, planned and unplanned ways through which commodity movement is assembled in a particular context. I intend this dissertation to advance the ethnography of logistics as a discrete field of inquiry into the maritime infrastructures changing the shores of the Global South, creating new supply-chain subjectivities, and altering how commodities move in the world.


Background: Recently, mounting of studies has shown that lncRNA affects tumor progression through the regulation of ferroptosis. The current study aims to construct a robust ferroptosis-related lncRNAs signature to increase the predicted value of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) by bioinformatics analysis. Methods: The transcriptome data were abstracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Differentially expressed lncRNAs were screened by comparing 535 LAUD tissues with 59 adjacent non-LAUD tissues. Univariate Cox regression, lasso regression, multivariate Cox regression were conducted to design a ferroptosis-related lncRNA signature. This signature's prognosis was verified by the log-rank test of Kaplan-Meier curve and the area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) in train set, test set, and entire set. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate Cox regression were used to analyze its independent prognostic ability. The relationship of the ferroptosis-linked lncRNAs' expression and clinical variables was demonstrated by Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Kruskal-Wallis test. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to signaling pathways it may involve.Results: 1224 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified, of which 195 are ferroptosis-related lncRNAs. A nine ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (AC099850.3, NAALADL2-AS2, AL844908.1, AL365181.2, SMIM25, FAM83A-AS1, LINC01116, AL049836.1, C20orf197) prognostic signature was constructed. This model's prognosis in the high-risk group is obviously worse than that of the low-risk group in train set, test set, and entire set. The AUC of ROC predicting the three years survival in the train set, test set, and entire set was 0.754, 0.716, and 0.738, respectively. Moreover, the designed molecular signature was found to be an independent prognostic variable. The expression of these lncRNAs and the lncRNA signature are related to clinical stage, T stage, Lymph-node status, distant metastasis. Finally, GSEA analysis results show that the signature is involved in eight tumor-related and metabolism-related signaling pathwaysConclusion: The current study constructed, validated, and evaluated a nine ferroptosis-related lncRNA signature which can independently be used to predict the prognosis of LAUD patients, and may become a new therapeutic target.


La cresta de Ilión (2002) by Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico, 1964) suggests a utopian project that employs gender to confront homogenizing forces. Judith Butler's and Lucy Sargisson's theories on gender and utopianism inform this reading of the novel as it relates to new forms of utopia as an alternative to patriarchal order. La cresta de Ilión, which takes place along a blurry U.S./Mexico border, creates a utopian space where marginal figures move freely across both national and gender divides. Certain aspects of this text characterize it as a gender utopia: fluid identitary praxes that reject fixed notions of identity; an exploration of adjacencies of the masculine and the feminine; and the development of alternative language and power structures that deconstruct patriarchal notions and traditional national identities. This text suggests a broader project for reconfiguring geographic and cultural boundaries in a way that would permit a utopia of gender.


Generating novel and useful concepts is essential during the early design stage to explore a large variety of design opportunities, which usually requires advanced design thinking ability and a wide range of knowledge from designers. Growing works on computer-aided tools have explored the retrieval of knowledge and heuristics from design data. However, they only provide stimuli to inspire designers from limited aspects. This study explores the recent advance of the natural language generation (NLG) technique in the artificial intelligence (AI) field to automate the early-stage design concept generation. Specifically, a novel approach utilizing the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) is proposed to leverage the knowledge and reasoning from textual data and transform them into new concepts in understandable language. Three concept generation tasks are defined to leverage different knowledge and reasoning: domain knowledge synthesis, problem-driven synthesis, and analogy-driven synthesis. The experiments with both human and data-driven evaluation show good performance in generating novel and useful concepts.


The robustness of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) compensation utilizing radio-frequency feedback in the presence of polarization-dependent loss (PDL) is investigated using a closed-loop dynamic model. Simulations using mean PMD of 30% of the bit period show that mean PDL of up to 2 dB increases the Q-penalty after PMD compensation by less than 0.1 dB. We find that the compensator can become trapped in secondary optima at high PDL, incurring significant additional penalty.


What could the principle of a parental right to educational authority mean for democracy in the long run? Taking its starting point in three models of educational authority, this article questions the current permissive attitude to a parental right in this area. It does so in the light of the shortcomings of such a right with regard to pluralism in education for each child and a development towards a democracy with deliberative qualities, which is used here as a normative point of reference. The article develops three arguments for a common pluralist public education system for the public good and analyses different ways in which the parental right to educational authority has been legitimised as a basis for creating independent schools. It also highlights the neglect of the role of political socialisation in political philosophy, while raising the question of whether it is possible to create a deliberative democracy without future citizens growing into a deliberative culture, with schools serving as the crucial intermediate institution.


Nowadays, the investigations relating to the FRP re-bars have been increased due to their superior physical and mechanical properties such as environmental resistance, electro-magnetic transparency, and high specific strength and stiffness. In this paper, we present the results of an experimental investigation pertaining to the flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with GFRP re-bar bundles for tension and CFRP grids for shear. A total of eight specimens, two pairs of four different shear reinforcement spaces, is loaded to failure under the 4-point bending test set-up. In addition to the experimental investigation, theoretical evaluation is also conducted according to the ACI Committee 440 for all beam specimens. Both experimental and theoretical results such as failure modes and load-deflection relations are compared and good agreements are observed.


Forest is inseparable part of life and livelihood of the tribes, in the present study two large and sympatric tribal groups were compared for their knowledge in terms of medicinal plants used. In order to assess their rich knowledge in terms of the medicinal plants a targeted questionnaire was prepared. In the twin Central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 7 Gond and 4 Baiga villages were surveyed.  The paper highlights the rich traditional knowledge of the tribes; we report 100 species of medicinal plants being used by both the tribes living in Central India. Baiga tribes used 59 species belonging to 55 genus and 35 plant families while Gond tribe used 10 species belonging to 10 genus and 10 plant families. Gond tribes used 6 different plant parts out of which root 33%, seed 50%, fruit 50%, bark 33%, tuber 17%, flower 17%. Baiga tribes used 10 different plant parts the contribution of each part are root 2%, bark 1%, leaf 90%, rhizome 30%, whole plant 40%, seed 10%, fruit 50%, tuber 20%, prop root 10%, inflorescence 2%. This point to fact that the Baiga tribes are more knowledgeable in terms of medicinal plants use than Gond. This study did not share similarities with respect to plant species being used by different tribes when compared to the works of earlier authors.


ABSTRACT Standard rose diagrams are a favorite method of depicting orientations because of their ease of comprehension, but they are known to have two serious problems. First, arbitrary decisions about class width and starting position can dramatically alter the resulting diagram, although the degree of variation has been underappreciated. Second, when rose diagrams are correctly scaled to the square root of the class frequency, they can be awkward to evaluate. Possible solutions that deserve consideration include (1) representing 1° classes with rays of dots ("dot diagrams", allowing linear scaling), and (2) overcoming arbitrariness by combining all possible rose diagrams for a dataset into one diagram ("summed datasets"). Solution #1 can work by plotting either one dot per datum ("corona dot diagrams") or one dot for each value above or below the mean membership ("mean-deviation dot diagrams"). Both plot types can show either raw or summed data. Drawing one-degree class-width diagrams and summing (combining) all possible rose diagrams offers the only non-arbitrary versions of orientation diagrams, but summing diagrams smoothes the data slightly, thereby additionally weighting clusters of similar but not identical data points. My recommendation is to publish a dot plot of the raw data, and another of the summed results. Mean-deviation diagrams and factor-averaged summed datasets work together particularly well.


For the past five years we have attempted to correct knee instability due to rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament with a procedure that employs a free graft of one-third of the patellar tendon with its tibial and patellar attachments. This procedure was done for chronic instability in thirty-three patients and was combined with primary repair of an acute mid-substance tear of the posterior cruciate ligament in fifteen patients. Moderate to severe articular injury of the medial femoral condyle was found at operation in 48 per cent of the patients with chronic injury. Seventy-one per cent of the patients for whom the interval between injury and ligament reconstruction was two to four years, and 90 per cent of those for whom the interval was more than four years, showed articular injury of the medial femoral condyle. Only 31 per cent of the patients, however, had preoperative radiographic findings that indicated femoral articular damage. Twenty-three of the twenty-five patients with a minimum follow-up of two years returned for evaluation. All of the ten patients who had had a repair and reconstruction of an acute ligament injury (whose average follow-up was forty-one months) had a static and functional result that was graded as good or excellent. Of the thirteen patients for whom surgery was done for chronic instability (whose average follow-up was thirty-one months), the over-all static and functional result was graded as good or excellent in eleven. These results indicate that the use of one-third of the patellar tendon for reconstruction in patients with acute mid-substance tears as well as in patients with symptomatic chronic instability of the posterior cruciate ligament is an effective procedure for achieving static and functional stability of the knee.


Background: Although parental support is an important component in overweight prevention programs for children, current programs pay remarkably little attention to the role of parenting. To close this gap, we developed a web-based parenting program for parents entitled "Making a healthy deal with your child". This e-learning program can be incorporated into existing prevention programs, thereby improving these interventions by reinforcing the role of parenting and providing parents with practical tools for use in everyday situations in order to stimulate a healthy lifestyle. Here, we report the research design of a study to determine the effectiveness of our e-learning program. Methods/Design: The effectiveness of an e-learning program was studied in a two-armed cluster randomized controlled trial. Parents of children 9–13 years of age who live in the Nijmegen region, the Netherlands, and who participated in the existing school-based overweight prevention program "Scoring for Health" were invited to participate in this study. Our goal was to recruit 322 parent–child dyads. At the school grade level, parents were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (which received e-learning and a brochure) or the control group (which received only the brochure); the participants were stratified by ethnicity. Measurements were taken from both the parents and the children at baseline, and then 5 and 12 months after baseline. Primary outcomes included the child's dietary and sedentary behavior, and level of physical activity. Secondary outcomes included general parenting style, specific parenting practices (e.g., set of rules, modeling, and monitoring), and parental self-efficacy. Discussion: We hypothesize that children of parents who follow the e-learning program will have a healthier diet, will be less sedentary, and will have a higher level of physical activity compared to the children in the control group. If the e-learning program is found to be effective, it can be incorporated into existing overweight prevention programs for children (e.g., "Scoring for Health"), as well as activities regarding Youth Health Care. Trial registration: Dutch Trial Register: NTR3938. Date of registration: April 7, 2013.


We develop a class of differential motion trackers that automatically stabilize when in finite domains. Most differential trackers compute motion only relative to one previous frame, accumulating errors indefinitely. We estimate pose changes between a set of past frames, and develop a probabilistic framework for integrating those estimates. We use an approximation to the posterior distribution of pose changes as an uncertainty model for parametric motion in order to help arbitrate the use of multiple base frames. We demonstrate this framework on a simple 2D translational tracker and a 3D, 6-degree of freedom tracker.


Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), associated with antimicrobial use (AMU), is a major public concern. Surveillance and monitoring systems are essential to assess and control the trends in AMU and AMR. However, differences in the surveillance and monitoring systems between countries and sectors make comparisons challenging. The purpose of this article is to describe all surveillance and monitoring systems for AMU and AMR in the human and livestock sectors, as well as national surveillance and monitoring systems for AMR in food, in six European countries (Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway) as a baseline for developing suggestions to overcome current limitations in comparing AMU and AMR data. Methods A literature search in 2018 was performed to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles and national and European grey reports as well as AMU/AMR databases. Results Comparison of AMU and AMR systems across the six countries showed a lack of standardization and harmonization with different AMU data sources (prescription vs sales data) and units of AMU and AMR being used. The AMR data varied by sample type (clinical/non-clinical), laboratory method (disk diffusion, microdilution, and VITEK, among others), data type, ie quantitative (minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) in mg/L/inhibition zone (IZ) in mm) vs qualitative data (susceptible-intermediate-resistant (SIR)), the standards used (EUCAST/CLSI among others), and/or the evaluation criteria adopted (epidemiological or clinical). Discussion A One Health approach for AMU and AMR requires harmonization in various aspects between human, animal and food systems at national and international levels. Additionally, some overlap between systems of AMU and AMR has been encountered. Efforts should be made to improve standardization and harmonization and allow more meaningful analyses of AMR and AMU surveillance data under a One Health approach.


Abstract Mass media play a critical role through the production of news in influencing how citizens have their perceptions and opinions shaped. This article intends to delve into the role of news production in creating knowledge and shaping public perception and opinion within the Syrian case and demonstrates that news is not an accidental occurrence, neither in terms of subject or timing. Articles on specific issues, such as the reaction to the chemical weapons attack of August 2013 and the allegations of "industrial killings" by the Syrian government, appearing in the mass media, are subjected to analysis based on the theoretical notions outlined in the paper. These two cases hint that the timing and nature of these specific news events are not as "random" and coincidental as would seem at first glance.


To study the control of the lower urinary tract, the state space of the myocybernetic model by Bastiaanssen et al. (1996) is analysed. This model is able to respond to input signals from a neural network and includes descriptions of the muscle dynamics of both the detrusor in the bladder wall and the urethral sphincter. The equilibrium states of the model for constant input signals were found by evaluation of the roots of calculated flow curves. Two types of equilibrium states could be distinguished: (i) the inflow and the outflow of the bladder are both equal to zero and (ii) the bladder in- and outflow are both equal to a prescribed small constant flow from the ureters into the bladder. The first type of equilibrium features a very high bladder pressure, which in vivo could result in a reflux of urine into the ureters. The second type shows a constant loss of urine. For different combinations of constant input signals, several stable equilibrium states of both types were found. The neural controller should avoid these states so that the lower urinary tract fulfils either its storage or its voiding function. Therefore, the trajectory through the state space of a simulated normal filling and micturition event was evaluated here. It appeared that equilibrium states were avoided by rapid changes of the input signals. The behaviour of the model outside the normal trajectory is compared with neurologic urinary tract disorders. Several pathological behaviours are in qualitative agreement with the model predictions.


This article describes the development of an autonomous hybrid microrobot that uses legs for propulsion and support of the rear half of the body and a pair of wheels for support of the front half. McKibben artificial muscles actuate the legs, and compressed air is generated by an onboard power plant. Control is also onboard in the form of a PIC microcontroller, from Microchip Technology Inc., that controls the actuators through four three-way valves that are each made up of a pair of microelectromechanical system devices. Its motion resembles that of a cricket.


Web 2.0 technologies have gained increased popularity over the last decade. They have transformed user engagement on the World Wide Web and have made inroads in Education. However, adoption of these technologies in Higher Education in developing countries is hindered by the absence of facilitating conditions such as administrative support, equipment, skills and infrastructure. This study explores the readiness of lecturers at a Caribbean University for the adoption of Web 2.0 in the education process through a survey instrument which includes constructs from the decomposed theory of planned behavior. The study also investigates the limiting factors to achieving maximum benefits from Web 2.0 adoption in the learning process through experimental employment of a Facebook group in the teaching of a computer science course followed by a survey. Lecturers at the University are found to be ready, however, the extent of Web 2.0 adoption does not mirror this readiness signaling the need to address the facilitating conditions. The students' responses to the survey items indicate the existence of limiting factors such as internet connection speed, familiarity with moderators and frequency of feedback. These should be deliberately addressed in any effort to adopt Web 2.0 in education in a developing country setting. * Authors are listed according to university department. All three authors contributed equally to this paper .


Newborn hamsters were inoculated intraperitoneally with neuroadapted mumps virus and sacrificed at intervals from days 3 through 50. Intracytoplasmic collections of nucleocapsids were found in ependymal cells and neurons on days 3 and 5 and virus formed at the plasma membrane of such cells by building. At closely apposed ventricular surfaces, mature particles appeared to form "bridges" between cilia of adjacent cells. Intracytoplasmic collections of nucelocapsids without evidence of maturation from cell surfaces could be found in ependyma for as long as 33 days. At the sites of apparent aqueductal occlusion, located in several animals, were found enlarged and distorted ependymal cells that did not define a lumen. The ependyma lining hydrocephalic lateral ventricles showed markedly attenuated cytoplasmic processes. Ependymal lined channels frequently coursed below the ventricular surface. Interstitial edema separated parenchymal elements of the underlying white matter. Conversion from an acute productive phase of infection to a chronic, nonproductive phase of infection in this model has ultrastructural correlates that appear to typify persistent paramyxoviral infections of brain.


Background/Aim: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, also referred to as the coronavirus (CoV) pandemic, is an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV 2. Health-care workers (HCWs) are at amplified risk of infection of CoV due to the nature of their work. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward (COVID-19) among Libyan HCWs. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out from the 5th until the 15th of April 2020; data were collected through an online questionnaire. The study sample was not restricted to specific cities; any Libyan HCW could join. The 318 participants were Libyan residents from the various cities who had completed the online questionnaire. Results: The majority of participants were from the capital Tripoli (34.9%), Zawia (32.4%), and Benghazi (9.1%). More modest rates of responding HCWs were divided among 27 other Libyan cities. Of the participants, 79.9% were positive they have sufficient information about COVID-19, and 69.8% were following updates regarding the outbreak. Their main sources of information were health-care providers (33.3%), social media (30.2%), and journal articles (29.2%). Conclusion: Most of the Libyan HCWs had good knowledge for virus, and the knowledge scores were significantly associated with the age difference. In addition, they had a positive attitude for COVID-19. The findings will assist authorities to establish the essential educational programs to provide advanced learning by providing necessary recommendations and deliver the best practice to control the pandemic. Essentially, these procedures will ensure their health and safety.


Weick (2006) calls for researchers to investigate how employees 'hold it together' during periods when organizational routine and order are challenged. This thesis focuses on employee experiences during two types of organizational upheaval: periods of planned, large-scale organizational change and periods of organizational crisis triggered by external events. In both conditions, employees can react negatively. This leads to failure to cope with the current situation and with future situations that pose similar threats and challenges. On the other hand, if employees can make sense of a threatening, challenging situation, the outcomes are more positive for them as individuals and for the organization as a whole. Weick's (1988) concept of sensemaking is used as a guiding framework for investigating the experiences, attitudes, and actions reported by employees in times of organizational change and crisis. The general assertion of the thesis is that the espoused and enacted values of an organization provide sensemaking cues to employees in difficult times. More specifically, the role of stated organizational values is examined. Organizational values are often stated as a set of principles that provide guidance for employees, particularly as part of a managing-by-values approach. The context for the research program is the healthcare industry, because values are very important for healthcare employees. Moreover, healthcare organizations must continue to function optimally during challenging conditions. Three research studies are reported. Study 1 was conducted in an Australian public hospital that was undergoing large-scale change. Thirty-five employees from a range of occupations were interviewed midway through the five-year period of change. Thematic analysis of their interviews revealed that employees mostly reported negative experiences of the change program. Furthermore, employees made sense of the change program by focusing on specific cues in their situation. One such cue was the organization's strongly promoted set of 'core values'. The stated values were seen to be a visible symbol of the hospital's principles, but there were negative perceptions about how well these principles were enacted. Study 2 was conducted in a public hospital in Singapore exposed to a crisis situation due to the SARS virus in 2003. Thirty-one employees from a range of occupations were interviewed four months after the outbreak had ended. Twenty of these participants returned for a second interview, one week after the first interview. A card sort procedure and thematic analysis of the interview data were used to investigate employees' experiences of the crisis. Results revealed that employees made sense of the crisis through identification with their profession and their organization. They also perceived that the hospital's actions during the crisis were consistent with its written set of organizational values. In addition, employees identified a number of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) that they had shown during the crisis. Study 3 was conducted at three hospitals in Singapore. A pilot study involved 24 employees from a public hospital. They engaged in a focus group discussion about professionalism and they refined a set of hospital-specific employee behaviors that could potentially be classified as OCBs. The main study involved survey completion by a stratified sample of employees from another public hospital (n= 214) and from a private hospital (n=184). All respondents were invited to complete a second survey (measuring related variables) three weeks after the first survey. Analysis of 301 usable survey responses revealed findings that contribute to different literatures. Firstly, asking respondents to rate OCBs according to whether they were voluntary, unrewarded, and beneficial to the organization, revealed that many OCB items used in previous research were not perceived as being 'true OCBs' by the survey respondents. Furthermore, despite the use of many possible OCB dimensions, the true OCB items were factor analyzed into just two factors. One factor reflected OCBOs, which are behaviors directed towards the organization as a whole, while the other factor reflected OCBIs, which are behaviors directed towards other individuals. A second contribution is the suggestion that employees' sense of 'professionalism' is a single construct. Survey respondents did not distinguish between professional identification and professional commitment in the same way as organizational identification and commitment were differentiated. Professionalism was weakly related to tendency to engage in OCBOs and more strongly related to tendency to engage in OCBIs. Finally, the main contribution to the values literature is the development of the concept of 'organizational values integrity' (OVI). This is conceptualized as the perceived alignment between organizational actions and organizational words, especially those words espoused in values statements. Structural equation modeling revealed that OVI influenced organizational identification and organizational commitment, which both mediated the impact of OVI on OCBOs. Furthermore, OVI had a direct impact on OCBOs. Overall, this thesis highlights employee perceptions that the organization acts in ways that are aligned to its stated values as important influences on employee attitudes and OCBs, particularly in difficult times. Implications for managerial practice and further research are discussed.


Food wasting is a serious economic, environmental, social and
also nutritional problem. This study focused on description of
total amount and structure of food wasting in 17 selected
Central European families of four members living in the Czech
republic. Observed persons estimated the amount of their food
waste for 5 days in average 354,41 g per household, while the
real amount was 1011,65 g. Underestimation of waste quantity is
highly significant (Wilcoxon pair test p= 0.002278). We found a
significant positive correlation between the age difference
between children and food waste amount (correlation coefficient
0.5739, p = 0.016). Among the most frequent wasted food there
was milk and dairy products, then fresh vegetable, followed by
cereals, then unconsumed pre-prepared foods and fruit, together
with smoked meat products, followed by residues of food on a
plate. Raw meat, fish, preserved products and sweets were not a
subject of food wasting. Among the suitable strategies aimed at
reducing food waste is also the inclusion of this issue in the
education system at all levels.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To describe clinical manifestations, diagnostic approaches, therapy, and outcomes of biopsy-proven intraocular lymphoma. Methods: Review of tertiary referral center records between 2005 and 2015. Results: A total of 51 eyes of 26 patients were included; mean age of onset was 60.42 years. Common ocular complaints included floaters (42%) and blurred vision (35%); 62% of patients had ocular and central nervous system involvement; 11% had systemic lymphoma; and 27% had only ocular involvement. Vitreous analysis was positive for malignant cells in 77% of patients on initial biopsy, and in 100% of patients on repeat biopsy. In total, 20/26 patients received systemic and topical treatment before IOL diagnosis was made; 25 patients received intravitreal methotrexate and/or rituximab; one patient received intracameral rituximab. All patients achieved remission by their final visit. Conclusions: Intraocular lymphoma often masquerades as intraocular inflammation, resulting in delayed or misdiagnosis with subsequent inappropriate management. Optimal therapy is a challenge for oncologists and ophthalmologists.


DURAMID with 45 % of glass fibre (PA 9T) have been successfully modified using beta rays. PA 9T samples were prepared by injection moulding technology and then were irradiated from 33 to 198 kGy in electron accelerator RHODOTRON. The thermal properties (e.g. DSC and TGA) of modified PA 9T samples by beta rays were measured. The tested samples showed significant changes of thermal properties after irradiation. From this point of view, new applications could also be seen in areas where more expensive materials (metals, composites etc.) are used, especially for application in automotive and military industry.


Objective: To establish the usefulness of cervicovaginal interleukin-6 concentrations for the prediction of preterm delivery. Design: Case-control study. Setting: Hospital Central "Dr. Urquinaona", Maracaibo, Venezuela. Participants: Patients with preterm delivery (group A), as cases, and pregnant women with term delivery (group B), considered as controls. Interventions: Cervicovaginal secretion samples were obtained from both the external cervical os and vaginal fornix between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. All patients were followed until delivery. Main outcome results: General characteristics, cervicovaginal interleukin-6 concentrations, and prognostic efficacy. Results: Mean gestational age at measurement of interleukin-6 cervicovaginal concentrations was 26.2 +/- 1.1 weeks in group A and 25.9 +/- 1.1 weeks in group B (p = ns). There were no significant differences in maternal age, body mass index and history of preterm labor (p = ns). Group A patients presented higher cervicovaginal interleukin-6 concentrations (195.8 +/- 74.4 pg/mL) than group B (123.4 +/- 69.6 pg/mL) (p < 0.0001). A cut-off value of 150 pg/dL had a value under the curve of 0.75 and presented a sensitivity of 63.4%, a specificity of 62.5%, a positive predictive value of 13.5% and a negative predictive value of 94.8%. Conclusion: Cervico-vaginal interleukin-6 concentrations appeared useful in the prediction of preterm delivery.


The ever-growing need for gene-expression data analysis motivates studies in sample generation due to the lack of enough gene-expression data. It is common that there are thousands of genes but only tens or rarely hundreds of samples available. In this paper, we attempt to formulate the sample generation task as follows: first, building alternative Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) models, second, sampling data from each of them, and then filtering the generated samples using metrics that measure compatibility, diversity and coverage with respect to the original dataset. We constructed two alternative GRN models using Probabilistic Boolean Networks and Ordinary Differential Equations. We developed a multi-objective filtering mechanism based on the three metrics to assess the quality of the newly generated data. We presented a number of experiments to show effectiveness and applicability of the proposed multi-model framework.


Climate change has potential effects on global biodiversity by shifting the optimal distribution of terrestrial organisms, particularly species with narrow distributions. Goniurosaurus lichtenfelderi, a forest-dwelling lizard, is found on both the island and mainland sites of northern Vietnam and southern China. The species is categorized as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List and was recently listed in CITES Appendix II and the Vietnam Government's Decree 06 in 2019 due to severe anthropogenic impacts on its populations. In this study, we employ Maxent species distribution modeling with climatic and vegetation cover data to identify the potential distribution of G. lichtenfelderi. We also used this approach to assess future climate impacts on the potential distribution under different climate change scenarios. Our model predicts that the potential distribution of G. lichtenfelderi will shrink significantly under future scenarios and even vanish in the entire study area under novel environmental conditions of the BCC-CSM 1-1 – RCP 8.5 scenario by the 2070s. Overall, the current potential distribution is expected to shift towards higher latitudes within the next decades. The forecasted maps provide useful guidelines to implement conservation strategies to mitigate synergistic impacts from climate change and other negative anthropogenic activities. In the context of the potentially severe impacts, the border areas between China and Vietnam, Yen Tu Mountain Range, Bai Tu Long National Park, and their surroundings should be considered core refugia for the species, where conservation measures need to be prioritized in the future.


A method for estimating the degree of polynomial fitted to gravity anomalies to evaluate the regional anomaly is presented. The anomaly can be fitted by polynomials of different degrees with the least-squares method and the optimum degree of the polynomial evaluating this anomaly can be estimated from the point of discontinuity of the gradient on a graph of variance against the polynomial degree. The Bouguer gravity is initially separated by upward continuation to a proper height and then the degree of regional polynomial to fit the Bouguer anomaly can be estimated. Theoretical and field examples show the effectiveness of the method.


We show explicitly, by using astrophysical data plus reasonable assumptions for the bulk viscosity in the cosmic fluid, how the magnitude of this viscosity may be high enough to drive the fluid from its position in the quintessence region at present time t = 0 across the barrier w = −1 into the phantom region in the late universe. The phantom barrier is accordingly not a sharp mathematical divide, but rather a fuzzy concept. We also calculate the limiting forms of various thermodynamical quantities, including the rate of entropy production, for a dark energy fluid near the future Big Rip singularity.


L'Annee Philologique (APh) has long been one of the most important scholarly resources for students of the history of ancient philosophy. Even though in pr int form it contains errors and omissions, has become of unwieldy size, and does not appear promptly enough for up-to-date research, there is no other single source of such international comprehensiveness. It is far more inclusive in many respects than The Philosopher's Index. The Database of Classical Bibliography (DCB) is a long-term project sponsored by the N.E.H., the American Philological Association and others to make the full contents of APh accessible from a CD-ROM either from individual PCs or on a local network. Unlike the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, the DCB CD-ROM comes with its own search software (DCB CompLex) on the disk. This software is set up both for IBM and MAC machines, installs quickly, and operates extremely well. The manual gives clear instructions both for general use and for detailed search strategies. CompLex enables the user to search DCD in many different ways; e.g., by ancient or modern authors and works, by titles, publisher, place of publication, year of publication, journal , modern language, or series name, as well as by APh volumes, years, page numbers, rubrics, and topics. It can also search by any word in a modern language (i.e., in Roman characters) or for words in a Greek index. And CompLex enables one to perform more complex searches utilizing wildcards and Boolean operators in a user-friendly form. DCB Version ~, containing Volumes 45 -60 0974-1989) , fulfills the editor's initial commitment to make a new release available each year with the addition of three to five years, since it includes four years of APh (1973-74 and 1988-89) not on Version 1. Also new in Version ~ is a French interface and manual. DCB has faults, however. It repeats mistakes that appeared in the pr int version of APh and contains other mistakes that did not originate in APh. Many were noted in reviews of Version 1, but this should not be surprising in a work of such magnitude as either APh or DCB. What is perhaps disturbing is that errors noted in Version 1 have not been corrected in Version ~, though it would not seem difficult to make use of the information provided by careful reviewers. Nevertheless, DCB is a terrific scholarly tool. No college or university library should be without it. GERALD A. PRESS Hunter College


Recent advances in model compression have provided procedures for compressing large neural networks to a fraction of their original size while retaining most if not all of their accuracy. However, all of these approaches rely on access to the original training set, which might not always be possible if the network to be compressed was trained on a very large dataset, or on a dataset whose release poses privacy or safety concerns as may be the case for biometrics tasks. We present a method for data-free knowledge distillation, which is able to compress deep neural networks trained on large-scale datasets to a fraction of their size leveraging only some extra metadata to be provided with a pretrained model release. We also explore different kinds of metadata that can be used with our method, and discuss tradeoffs involved in using each of them.


The role of leadership in ensuring high performance organizations and employee organizational commitment cannot be overemphasized. The business environment has become so complex and it is no longer possible for organizations to guarantee employees a job for life which makes the issue of commitment even more pertinent. It has been noted that one of the key factors that will influence an employee's decision to remain with or leave an organization is the supervisors or manager's leadership style. Since committed employees are bound to perform over and beyond the call of duty, it may be in the organization's best interest for managers to understand how their leadership behaviour can influence employees' commitment to the organization. One of the contemporary leadership stylesthat holds great promise for effective organizational performance as well as enhancing employee loyalty and commitment to the organization is servant leadership. Various studies have indicated that one of the challenges facing state corporations in Kenya is the issue of commitment as evidenced by a shortage of human resources both in the headquarters and in the field and poor service delivery. Employees in these corporations are said to work only within the working hours and consider any work outside these working hours to be none of their concern or their responsibility. This study therefore seeks to explore the role of servant leadership on organizational commitment in Kenyan state corporations. Finally, this study develops a conceptual framework that attempts to explain the relationship between servant leadership and employee organizational commitment.


summary:Casebooks are the richest sources that we have for encounters between early modern medical practitioners and their patients. This article compares astrological and medical records across two centuries, focused on England, and charts developments in the ways in which practitioners kept records and reflected on their practices. Astrologers had a long history of working from particular moments, stellar configurations, and events to general rules. These practices required systematic notation. Physicians increasingly modeled themselves on Hippocrates, recording details of cases as the basis for reasoned expositions of the histories of disease. Medical records, as other scholars have demonstrated, shaped the production of medical knowledge. Instead, this article focuses on the nature of casebooks as artifacts of the medical encounter. It establishes that casebooks were serial records of practice, akin to diaries, testimonials, and registers; identifies extant English casebooks and the practices that led to their production and preservation; and concludes that the processes of writing, ordering, and preserving medical records are as important for understanding the medical encounter as the records themselves.


The literature on the development of global cities suggests that Hong Kong had qualified as a global city by the early 1990s. Using data from the Population Censuses, this paper documents the extent to which the process of social polarisation accompanied Hong Kong's globalisation. As predicted by the global city literature, Hong Kong experienced during the 1990s a process of occupational polarisation and widening income inequality as a result of its transformation from an industrial colony to a producer service-driven global city. The paper outlines the gender dimension in this polarisation process, and how the forces of migration contributed to the reshaping of the social structure so that it now resembles an 'hour-glass'. The findings largely support Sassen's hypotheses regarding the social consequences of global city development, but the paper also highlights the effect of local institutional contexts in mediating the impact of global forces.


Effects of different follicular cell types on resumption of meiosis were studied. Cumulus enclosed oocytes (CEO), denuded oocytes (DO), cumulus cells (CCs) and mural granulosa cells (GCs) were used. Oocytes were obtained from mature gonadotrophin-stimulated and unstimulated mice. The resumption of meiosis was assessed by the germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) at the end of cultivation. It has been shown that GCs produced a meiosis activating substance due to gonadotrophin stimulation; for meiosis resumption connections between CCs and the oocyte were not necessary, but the very production of the meiosis activating substance, was, however, dependent on the initial connection between CCs and the oocyte. The presence of oocyte was necessary for stimulating CCs to produce a diffusible heat stable meiosis activating substance; gonadotrophins induced CCs to produce a diffusible thermostable meiosis activating substance. This substance induced, in a paracrine fashion, resumption of meiosis directly. It is proposed that the heat stable meiosis activating component of the used media from gonadotrophins-stimulated CEO may belong to a kind of meiosis activating sterols, previously isolated from human follicular fluid and from adult bull testes.


We propose two heuristics for the bipartite matching problem that are amenable to shared-memory parallelization. The first heuristic is very intriguing from parallelization perspective. It has no significant algorithmic synchronization overhead and no conflict resolution is needed across threads. We show that this heuristic has an approximation ratio of around 0.632. The second heuristic is designed to obtain a larger matching by employing the well-known Karp-Sipser heuristic on a judiciously chosen subgraph of the original graph. We show that the Karp-Sipser heuristic always finds a maximum cardinality matching in the chosen subgraph. Although the Karp-Sipser heuristic is hard to parallelize for general graphs, we exploit the structure of the selected sub graphs to propose a specialized implementation which demonstrates a very good scalability. Based on our experiments and theoretical evidence, we conjecture that this second heuristic obtains matchings with cardinality of at least 0.866 of the maximum cardinality. We discuss parallel implementations of the proposed heuristics on shared memory systems. Experimental results, for demonstrating speed-ups and verifying the theoretical results in practice, are provided.


Real-world networks, e.g., the social relations or world-wide-web graphs, exhibit both small-world and scale-free behaviour. We interpret lattice triangulations as planar graphs by identifying triangulation vertices with graph nodes and one-dimensional simplices with edges. Since these triangulations are ergodic with respect to a certain Pachner flip, applying different Monte Carlo simulations enables us to calculate average properties of random triangulations, as well as canonical ensemble averages, using an energy functional that is approximately the variance of the degree distribution. All considered triangulations have clustering coefficients comparable with real-world graphs; for the canonical ensemble there are inverse temperatures with small shortest path length independent of system size. Tuning the inverse temperature to a quasi-critical value leads to an indication of scale-free behaviour for degrees k ≥ 5 ?> . Using triangulations as a random graph model can improve the understanding of real-world networks, especially if the actual distance of the embedded nodes becomes important.


Predictors of college performance are markers of learners' characteristics that can be used to optimize admission, advising, counseling, and instruction. The present study focused on female and male graduates of a Saudi Arabian university that follows a USA general education curriculum. Saudi Arabia exemplifies a society in transition from a rigid patriarchal system to one that is more gender equitable. The study investigated the extent to which gender, high-school Grade Point Average (hs-GPA), and the GAT (equivalent to the SAT I) can predict GPA at graduation, as well as verbal, analytical, and quantitative competencies of graduates in Business, Engineering, and Law. In our study, females outperformed males on most measures except on the GAT. Gender differences in the choice of major were also found. For all, hs-GPA and GAT were poor predictors of academic success. Alternative measures were proposed along with the use of a data-driven approach for predicting students' performance at a given institution.


The Real-Time Calculus (RTC) framework proposed in [Chakraborty et al., DATE 2003] and subsequently extended in [Wandeler et al., Real-Time Systems 29(2-3), 2005] and a number of other papers is geared towards the analysis of real-time systems that process various types of streaming data. The main strength of RTC is a count-based abstraction, where arrival patterns of event streams are specified as constraints on the number of events that may arrive over any specified time interval. In this framework, algebraic techniques can be used to compute system properties in a compositional way. However, the main drawback of RTC is that it cannot model state information in a natural way. For example, when a scheduling policy depends on the fill-level of a certain buffer or there is a shift from one type of data stream into another. In this paper, we extend RTC in a manner that enables state information to be easily captured while limiting the state-space explosion caused by fine grained state-based models such as timed automata. Our model, called "multi-mode RTC", specifies event streams as finite automata whose states are annotated with functions that specify constraints on the arrival patterns of event streams or the service available to process them. Our new framework combines the expressiveness of state-based models with the algebraic and compositional features of the RTC formalism. In particular, system properties within a single mode can be analyzed using the RTC-based algebraic techniques and state-space exploration can be used to piece together the results obtained algebraically for the individual modes. We show how to determine typical system properties with the focus on efficient approximate techniques and illustrate the advantages of multi-mode RTC using two case studies.


This thesis explores the effects of grant competition in Chilean Municipalities. I select a mixed method approach to assess this phenomenon from a top-down and bottom-up perspective. The research carries out a statistical analysis of the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Regional (FNDR) grant and also collects the views of 21 Chilean local, regional and municipal officers. I establish New Public Management (NPM) as my theoretical lens from which I problematise the formulation, evaluation and final allocation of grants. To integrate my different sources of data I link my quantitative and qualitative data with the contextual particularities of the Chilean institutions to form a synthesis of interconnected findings that shed light onto a relevant but understudied phenomenon in public administration. The first part of this thesis describes and assesses the FNDR, scrutinising the accomplishment of its goals and testing the impact of a municipality's capacity on its success in bidding for funds. With the records of allocation obtained in the quantitative analysis I selected my purposive sample of municipalities and officers to be interviewed. Finally, I have integrated both sources of data, drawing conclusions and establishing an overarching perspective on the effect of grant competition.

The study finds that the FNDR grant has a regressive pattern of allocation in which better-off and more populated municipalities are favoured. Success in bidding for FNDR is positively associated with municipal capacity and this effect gets stronger for municipalities located further from the capital Santiago. This pattern reinforces municipal inequalities, widening the gap between high capacity and low capacity authorities and acting against the goals of the FNDR. This is acknowledged by local officers in poorly-resourced municipalities who feel handicapped in bidding for funds by the high fixed cost of making bids. Central officers exercise their power when evaluating and prioritising bids. The research found that contrary to what the existing theoretical analysis of competitive grants suggests, grant competition in Chile favours central government agendas instead of being driven by local needs. This situation works against the efficiency of the competitive scheme, fostering the shaping of bids to meet central agenda rather than local needs. This centralised orientation of grant allocation is facilitated by a lack of regional and national service standards, together these elements lead to a patchwork of isolated and uneven municipalities unable to set up cooperative agreements to tackle social issues. This study finds that, due to the historical circumstances of the introduction of FNDR, competition has been established among municipalities as the predominant theme of intergovernmental relations. This hampers local collaboration and makes it difficult to respond to regional challenges. The situation has a deep impact on local officers' motivation, leading to frustration and feeling of hopelessness. In their view, competition is seen as being more than just a system to allocate grants and instead reflects a centralists' conception of local government action, where municipalities are passive agents competing for the chance to improve their territories.

This thesis provides a relevant contribution to public administration theory and policy practice by showing the complexities of adopting quasi-market strategies in underdeveloped and unequal contexts. The establishment of NPM reforms in Chile had profound consequences and although more scholarly effort has gone into exploring collaborative forms of governance, in Chile inter-municipal competition is still very much alive. These findings may be informative in considering other countries in similar situations and might contribute to improving the structure of incentives set up in intergovernmental competitions for goods or services. In addition, using a mixed method approach to assess both extremes of the competitive exchange allowed me to better understand the processes involved and arrive at more robust findings.


ABSTRACT Understanding intrinsic (physiological) and extrinsic (e.g., temperature) causes of variation in embryonic development time (incubation period) is important because they can have different impacts on individual quality. Robert Ricklefs and colleagues have argued that longer incubation periods result primarily from intrinsic physiological programs that increase individual quality and adult survival. They claim that incubation periods are largely invariant and that extrinsic factors like temperature have little impact. We have argued that adult survival may be a cause rather than a consequence of much of the variation in embryonic development time. A reduction in extrinsic sources of annual adult mortality (e.g., migration, predation, nonbreeding-season mortality) favors reduced parental effort during incubation to minimize costs to future reproduction and survival. Reduced parental effort, in turn, manifests as cooler average egg temperatures that yield longer incubation periods. Ricklefs and colleagues mischaracterized our hypothesis and deconstructed their own incorrect version, while also making some incorrect statements. We show that reevaluation of previous evidence provided by this group actually supports a role of egg temperature for the variation in incubation periods. We also summarize other observational and experimental evidence that incubation periods are not invariant and that egg temperature has a strong causal influence on variation within and among species. In fact, egg temperature explains ∼60% of the difference in incubation periods among species. The remaining ∼40% reflects intrinsic physiological programs and other factors, potentially providing intrinsic benefits. Ultimately, annual adult mortality explains substantial variation in parental effort and egg temperature, and the latter strongly explains variation in incubation periods. Both intrinsic programs and extrinsic temperature effects need to be considered in attempts to understand incubation strategies.


Inflammatory responses are induced by members of the Toll-like and Interleukin-1 receptor family. We have identified an IL-1RI (interleukin-1 receptor type I) co-receptor, TILRR, (toll-like and IL-1 receptor regulator), which associates with the signalling receptor and potentiates activation of NF-kB and inflammatory responses.1 Earlier studies have confirmed expression and function of TILRR in both inflammatory and vascular cells. More recent experiments have demonstrated a pronounced increase in TILRR expression in the atherosclerotic plaque using mouse models (ApoE−/− and LDLR−/−). The current studies focus on determining the role of TILRR in development of atherosclerosis, specifically in relation to its impact on IL-1-induced responses. Immuno-histochemical studies have demonstrated the presence of TILRR in sections of vascular lesions from human samples, correlating with areas of IL-1RI activity. In experiments using ApoE/IL-1RI double knockouts, the high fat diet had only minor impact on the level of TILRR expression in vascular tissue. We have confirmed specificity of the co-receptor to IL-RI by demonstrating that other receptor systems controlling vascular inflammation, such as TNFR, are insensitive to TILRR expression over a range of ligand concentrations. Ongoing studies use custom anti-TILRR antibodies to test effects of blocking TILRR association with IL-1RI on development of atherosclerosis. Antibodies are injected into fat-fed ApoE−/− mice, and plaque formation determined using computer based imaging and semi-quantitative scoring.


A rotation, scaling, and translation invariant local watermarking is proposed with one or two Krawtchouk moment(s) of the original to estimate the geometric distortion parameters including rotation angle, scaling factor, and translation parameter. Krawtchouk moments can be used as private key of watermark extractor. Watermark is inserted into perceptually significant Krawtchouk moments of original, and watermark based on Krawtchouk moments is local. Independent component analysis (ICA) is utilized to extract watermark blindly. Experimental results show that this method has a good robustness against distortions preformed by watermark benchmark -- Stirmark.


Economic development policies in a newly independent Central American country are the subjects treated in Polarization and Capital Relocation in Belize; Case Studies in Urban Development and Planning, edited by Helmut Nuhn and Heinz,Jurgen Probst (Hamburg, GFR: WAYASBAH-Verlag, 1990. Pp. 179. Illustrations. Tables. DM 44.00). Nuhn focuses on decentralization and the polarization of development. R. Krause-Kupsch studies decentralization in Belize. Of especial interest is the chapter by C. C. Borland on the complex relations between urban growth and rural development. On the whole, the focus of the studies is on urban rather than rural development. But the volume will be of interest to social scientists who need to know more about contemporary approaches to the problems of Belize.


Education leaders are one of the important aspects to ensure quality education in any context. The main aim of this study was to assess the influence of education leaders on enhancing quality of secondary education in Tanzania. The study was guided by four specific objectives as follows to examine the relationship between educational leaders" competence and performance and the level of literacy of secondary school students in Arusha city, to assess the extent which educational leaders honesty and integrity has an influence on life skills acquisition of secondary school students in Arusha city, to establish the relationship between educational leaders and the assurance of educational facilities availability for quality education in Arusha city, Tanzania and to explore the suggestions and prospects for the future improvement of quality of secondary education in Arusha city, Tanzania through competent educational leadership. A study was conducted in Arusha City. The study used a mixed method whereby both qualitative and quantitative approach was employed. Techniques included interviews, documentary review and questionnaires. Data were analysed using SPSS. A sample of 6 secondary school leaders answered the questionnaire, 13 Education Officers were interviewed. The findings observed that there is negative relationship between competency of secondary school leaders and the literacy level of students. Learning and teaching resources in secondary schools were found to be having a negative effect on quality of education provided in Tanzania. Despite all challenges of teaching and learning resources in Tanzania secondary schools, School leadership does pose minimum impact on quality of school output and thus quality of secondary school education. It was recommended that, the school leaders should make use of parents towards their resources acquisition and mobilization.


There is an urgent need in oncology to link molecular aberrations in tumors with altered cellular behaviors, such as metabolic derangements, and to identify novel therapeutics for cancer treatment. We have sought to identify synthetic-lethal genetic interactions that cancer cells acquire in the presence of specific mutations. Using engineered isogenic cells, we generated an unbiased and quantitative chemical-genetic interaction map that measures the influence of 51 aberrant cancer genes on 90 drug responses. The dataset strongly predicts drug responses found in cancer cell line collections, indicating that isogenic cells can model more complex cellular contexts. Applied to triple-negative breast cancer, we report clinically actionable interactions with the MYC oncogene including resistance to PI3K/AKT pathway inhibitors and an unexpected sensitivity to dasatinib through LYN inhibition in a synthetic-lethal manner. These studies provide new drug and biomarker pairs for clinical investigation. We have also performed global metabolomics analysis in a subset of the isogenic cell lines demonstrating alterations in metabolic pathways that are shared across multiple oncogenes, as well as those that are distinct to specific oncogenic drivers. This scalable approach enables the prediction of drug responses from patient data and can be used to accelerate the development of new genotype-directed therapies. This abstract is also presented as a poster at the Translation of the Cancer Genome conference. Citation Format: Maria M. Martins, Alicia Y. Zhou, Alexandra Corella, Dai Horiuchi, Christina Yau, Taha Rakshandehroo, John D. Gordan, Rebecca S. Levin, Jeff Johnson, John Jascur, Mike Shales, Antonio Sorrentino, Jaime Cheah, Paul A. Clemons, Alykhan Shamji, Stuart Schreiber, Stuart Schreiber, Nevan J. Krogan, Kevan M. Shokat, Kevan M. Shokat, Frank McCormick, Daniel Nomura, Sourav Bandyopadhyay, Andrei Goga. Functional analysis of diverse oncogenic driver mutations using an isogenic cell line library identifies novel drug responses and alterations in metabolism. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Computational and Systems Biology of Cancer; Feb 8-11 2015; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(22 Suppl 2):Abstract nr PR07.


In this investigation, the effect of heat treatment parameters on the microstructure and impact energy as a measure of toughness of the austempered ductile cast iron (ADI) was studied. Yblocks were casted from ductile cast iron with following composition: 3.2% C, 2.5% Si, 1.09% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.5% Mo and 0.16%Mn. Charpy specimens (un-notched) were machined from the straight part of Y-blocks. All of specimens were heat treated with different conditions. Some of them were austenitized at 900°C for 60 min and then austempered at 250, 300, 350 and 400°C for various durations. Then, hardness test, impact test, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were performed on the heat treated ductile iron samples. The results reveal the highest impact energy (105 J) for the sample austenitized at 900°C and austempered at 350°C for 150 min. The microstructure of this sample consisted of 28% austenite and broad ferrite needles.


This paper tests whether the 2003 dividend tax cut—one of the largest reforms ever to a US capital tax rate—stimulated corporate investment and increased labor earnings, using a quasi-experimental design and US corporate tax returns from years 1996-2008. I estimate that the tax cut caused zero change in corporate investment and employee compensation. Economically, the statistical precision challenges leading estimates of the cost-of-capital elasticity of investment, or undermines models in which dividend tax reforms affect the cost of capital. Either way, it may be difficult to implement an alternative dividend tax cut that has substantially larger near-term effects. (JEL C72, C78, C91)


Identification and classification of strains of Acetobacter bacteria were determined by standard methods of microbiology and molecular biology. 16S-23S rDNA internal transcribed spacer regions of four strains of genus Acetobacter pasteurianus were analysed in order to re-examine classification of these strains. By ITS-PCR amplification of the 16S-23S spacers, two products of similar size were produced for three analysed strains, but only a single product for one strain. The sequence of spacer regions of Acetobacter bacteria were subjected to restriction analysis by Haelll, HpaII and Alul enzymes. After analysis we obtained three different restriction groups of strains of A. pasteurianus for all enzymes. Amplified products were sequenced and nucleotide sequences were compared. The results showed two identical sequences for three strains A. pasteurianus 3612, A. pasteurianus 3614 and A. estunensis 3613. Intergenic region of A. pasteurianus 2374 is 40 % similar to other tested bacteria.


This paper contends that law and society fail to engage with the gender aspects of 'street grooming' and the risk of harm posed by male gangs who groom adolescent girls for sexual abuse and exploitation. It will also consider 'street grooming' of adolescent girls in a context that reflects the recent legal and societal challenges posed by this phenomenon, within a discourse of gendered identities. Understanding how a child sexual groomer may target potential victims, engage young girls in communication and build a relationship of trust, thus enabling the child's sexual abuse and exploitation is vital to understanding the essence of the 'street grooming'. Groomers can become adept at quickly identifying vulnerabilities that make certain children more susceptible to grooming and they can then manipulate their grooming technique in a way that is tailored to meet a particular child's needs. Attention needs to be placed not only on endeavouring to understand more about this harmful phenomenon, but also on ensuring that the social response to the problem does not exacerbate the 'problem'. This paper will focus on the gendered aspects of the victimisation process with a view to establishing how gendered norms of sexual behaviour enable groomers to exploit ideas of 'appropriate' femininity and 'appropriate' sexuality by creating the perception that the relationship is akin to an 'adult relationship'. This could result in a victim having a more exclusive, reliant bond with the groomer, therefore increasing the likelihood of subsequent sexual abuse and exploitation.


Brylawski identitied the class of binary matroids with no minor isomorphic to M(&) as being the class of series-parallel networks. From this he deduced that, for all such matroids M, the critical exponent c(M; 2) is at most 2. He also conjectured that a similar result is true over all finite fields GF(q). This paper examines the classes of ternary and GF(4)-representable matroids with no M(K,)-minor. The main result characterizes the former class by showing that, with one exception, the only non-trivial 3connected members of this class are whirls or minors of the Steiner system S(5, 6: 12). This characterization is then used to show that, for all ternary matroids M with no M(K,)-minor, c(M; 3) < 2, thereby verifying Brylawski's conjecture in the case that q = 3. The characterization is also used to give excluded-minor descriptions for the class of ternary gammoids and two other related classes. The first of these results answers a question of Ingleton and verities another conjecture of Brylawski.


Abstract Cretaceous non-marine deposits are widespread in China and have been studied comprehensively. The Songliao Basin in northeast China is thought to be well suited for investigation of Cretaceous biostratigraphy. However, despite much research having been conducted in the basin, little is known about its Late Cretaceous biostratigraphy and paleoenvironment. Here, we establish a high-resolution biostratigraphy of the Late Cretaceous based on ostracods from borehole SK1(n) in the Songliao Basin, northeast China. As part of the present study, 45 species assigned to 20 genera have been recovered, with one new species (Ilyocypris bisulcata n. sp.) and five ostracod assemblages: the Cypridea gunsulinensis–Mongolocypris magna assemblage, which is marked by the first occurrence (F.O.) of Ilyocyprimorpha with nodes and spines; the Ilyocyprimorpha–Limnocypridea sunliaonensis–Periacanthella assemblage, which ranges from the F.O. of Ilyocyprimorpha with nodes and spines to the F.O. of Strumosia sp.; the Strumosia inandita assemblage from the F.O. of Strumosia sp. to the lower occurrence (L.O.) of Strumosia inandita; the Talicypridea amoena–Metacypris kaitunensis–Ziziphocypris simakovi assemblage from the F.O. of Mongolocypris apiculata (Cea) and Talicypridea amoena to the F.O. of Ilyocypris sp.; and the Ilyocypris assemblage from the F.O. of Ilyocypris sp. to the L.O. of Ilyocypris bisulcata n. sp. Moreover, the zonal fossil Ilyocypris bisulcata n. sp. of Zone 5 is here described for the first time from the upper Mingshui Formation, and Paleocene charophyte genera including Neochara and Grovesicahra have been found to coexist with the Zone 5 fauna. The age of the Ilyocypris Assemblage is assigned to the latest Maastrichtian to the earliest Danian.


In this study, water table elevations were monitored weekly in 81 hand-dug wells within Ondo metropolis over a period of four months that cuts across the dry and wet seasons. Some physicochemical parameters of water in the wells were measured weekly. Fifty-two Vertical Electrical Soundings were carried out at selected locations. Spatial and temporal distributions of saturated thickness of the available aquifers were determined. Recharge conditions were found to dominate central parts of the study area. Generally, three geo-electric layers, which are the Top Soil, Weathered Layer and Fresh Bedrock, are present. The fourth and fifth layers, the Boulder Zone and Fracture Zone, occur in few places. Overburden thickness range from zero at outcrop points to 29.3m in deeplyweathered areas while the saturated thickness of the aquifers varied from 1.49 to 22.76m. Groundwater development is most promising in areas where thick overburden is complemented with presence of fractures.


We propose a formal approach for relating abstract separation logic library specifications with the trace properties they enforce on interactions between a client and a library. Separation logic with abstract predicates enforces a resource discipline that constrains when and how calls may be made between a client and a library. Intuitively, this can enforce a protocol on the interaction trace. This intuition is broadly used in the separation logic community but has not previously been formalised. We provide just such a formalisation. Our approach is based on using wrappers which instrument library code to induce execution traces for the properties under examination. By considering a separation logic extended with trace resources, we prove that when a library satisfies its separation logic specification then its wrapped version satisfies the same specification and, moreover, maintains the trace properties as an invariant. Consequently, any client and library implementation that are correct with respect to the separation logic specification will satisfy the trace properties.


Ribosomal protein S4X (RPS4X) is one of the 40S ribosomal proteins encoded by the RPS4X gene. The cDNA and the genomic sequence of RPS4X were cloned successfully from giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and touchdown-PCR technology respectively, followed by  sequencing and analyzing. The cDNA of the RPS4X cloned is 812 bp in size, containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 792 bp encoding 263 amino acids with deduced molecular weight of 29.6 kD and isoelectric point (PI) of 10.16. The length of the genomic sequence is 5074 bp, which was found to possess 7 exons and 6 introns. There are 1 N-glycosylation site, 3 protein kinase C phosphorylation sites, 4 casein kinase II  phosphorylation sites, 2 tyrosine kinase phosphorylation sites and 4  N-myristoylation sites in the RPS4X of giant panda by topology prediction. Alignment analysis indicated that the coding sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence of RPS4X gene shows very high homology with other reported mammalian species. The information on cDNA and the genomic sequence from giant panda RPS4X will provide basic information for further research of mammals RPS4X gene, which would be beneficial in the study of ribosomal  biogenesis and would allow the elucidation of structure,  organization and regulation of genes encoding ribosomal proteins in eukaryote. Key words : RPS4X gene, giant panda, genomic cloning, sequence analysis.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is to draws on self-determination and self-evaluation theories to examine the psychological factors impacted by augmented reality (AR) services, an augmented reality try-on system. This study highlights three characteristics of modality, synchronous sense or ownership and re-processability within an AR try-on experiences as well as the moderating effects of consumers' body surveillance and fashion consciousness.

Design/methodology/approach
Using a scenario survey approach, this study designs characteristics of an AR try-on system to examine the research model and the hypotheses. A total of 207 responses are collected and analysed using the SmartPLS 3 statistical software.

Findings
The results show that modality, synchronous sense of ownership control and re-processability of AR try-on system positively affect consumer's rapport experience. Both body surveillance and fashion consciousness significantly moderate the effects of AR try-on service system characteristics on consumer rapport experience.

Research limitations/implications
This study highlights the importance of understanding the implications of the evolution of cyborg consumerism where consumer technology interface systems such as AR, as a source of technologically mediated modality, become part of the consumer's body, an extension of their body if you will.

Practical implications
Based on the study findings, marketing managers can understand how to better use AR to implement digital promotional strategies for various body-involvement products.

Originality/value
Using immersive technologies, this study shows that AR allows a consumer see an authentic self and tangible extension of their physical self in an online shopping setting, thus enhancing a consumer's online shopping experience.


The prospective decrease of portion of economically and reproductively active cohorts in the population structure as related to the demographic development of Russia is discussed. The dynamics of accumulation of risks of premature death and negative aspects of natality is demonstrated. The significance of qualitative prior to quantitative benchmarks in this area is substantiated.


ABSTRACT Slope wetlands occur where groundwater emerges from hillsides to create shallow pools. These wetlands may be the initial point of contact between biota and emerging contaminated groundwater. We sampled several slope wetlands on the upper coastal plain of South Carolina that received contaminated groundwater and compared them to undisturbed slope wetlands. All of the wetlands supported a variety of insects, especially midge larvae and other Diptera, annelid worms, and aquatic beetles. Some supported large numbers of mites and copepods, and a few supported salamanders. Most taxa were tolerant of harsh conditions such as low dissolved oxygen and pH. Assemblage composition varied among wetlands due to differences in hydroperiod and likelihood of being flooded by nearby streams. Also important was the lack of shading in some disturbed wetlands, which permitted the growth of filamentous algae, sphagnum moss, and other plants. Few metrics commonly used for impact assessment differed between disturbed and undisturbed wetlands. High natural variability among slope wetlands and the natural tolerance of many slope wetland organisms may complicate the development of slope wetland multimetric indices, although such indices may be useful for identifying severely impacted wetlands.


The development of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure and applications is stimulating advanced and innovative ideas and solutions, some of which are pushing the limits of state-of-the-art technology. The increasing demand for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that must be capable of collecting and sharing data wirelessly while often positioned in places hard to reach and service, motivates engineers to look for innovative energy harvesting and wireless power transfer solutions to implement battery-free sensor nodes. Due to the pervasiveness of RF (Radio Frequency) energy, RF harvesting that can reach out-of-sight places could be a key technology to wirelessly power IoT sensor devices, which in order to be ubiquitous, need to be wireless, maintenance-free, battery-free and low cost enough to be used almost anywhere. In this article the implementation of an RF power transfer system for battery-free wireless sensor nodes will be shown. The system comprises an RF power transmitter which delivers a power of 0.5 W at 900 MHz and an RF energy harvesting which is used as an RF power receiver to power a battery-free sensor node. Experimental results will show how the system can feed a 10 mA load for a 50 ms acquisition time with the transmitted power delivered from several distances.


The RepEval 2017 Shared Task aims to evaluate natural language understanding models for sentence representation, in which a sentence is represented as a fixed-length vector with neural networks and the quality of the representation is tested with a natural language inference task. This paper describes our system (alpha) that is ranked among the top in the Shared Task, on both the in-domain test set (obtaining a 74.9% accuracy) and on the cross-domain test set (also attaining a 74.9% accuracy), demonstrating that the model generalizes well to the cross-domain data. Our model is equipped with intra-sentence gated-attention composition which helps achieve a better performance. In addition to submitting our model to the Shared Task, we have also tested it on the Stanford Natural Language Inference (SNLI) dataset. We obtain an accuracy of 85.5%, which is the best reported result on SNLI when cross-sentence attention is not allowed, the same condition enforced in RepEval 2017.


Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), have been considered to be involved in cancers, but the underlying mechanisms are not known well. Various cancers are closely related to genetic alteration; therefore, we investigated the effect of PCBs on genetic stability, through p53, a guardian of genome, in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. Among several congeners examined, 2,2 (cid:1) ,4,6,6 (cid:1) -pentachlorobiphenyl (PeCB) specifically activated p53-dependent transcription. It also induced p53 nuclear accumulation, but did not cause DNA strand breakage. On the other hand, cell cycle progression that is closely connected to p53 was affected by 2,2 (cid:1) ,4,6,6 (cid:1) -PeCB, resulting in mitotic arrest. In the arrested cells, mitotic spindle damage was detected. More-over, in the absence of functional p53, polyploidy was caused by 2,2 (cid:1) ,4,6,6 (cid:1) -PeCB. These results imply that 2,2 (cid:1) ,4,6,6 (cid:1) -PeCB induces mitotic arrest by interfering with mitotic spindle assembly, followed by genetic instability which triggers p53-activating signals to prevent further polyploidization. Taking these findings together, we suggest that 2,2 (cid:1) ,4,6,6 (cid:1) -PeCB could be involved in cancer development by causing genetic instability through mitotic spindle damage, which brings about aneuploidy in p53-deficient tumor cells.


: Obesity is one of the main public health problems in developed countries. It is considered to be a risk factor associated with the genesis or development of the major chronic diseases. The classification of a population by weight and the awareness of its determining factors are essential elements in order to undertake health planning programmes and health promotion projects. In Europe, the prevalence of obesity (BMI 30) is greater in northern countries (7% in men and 9% in women in the Netherlands; 5.3% and 9.1% respectively in Sweden) than in southern countries (Spain: 11.5% in men and 15.2% for women) or further east (Germany: 10.6% in men and 11.6% among women). In the United States, obesity is taking on alarming proportions, with an increase of 8 percentage points between 1976 and 1994, placing the problem at a level of 22.5% of the population classified as obese. The prevalence of obesity in Spain is 13.4%, higher after the age of 45 years, among women and in individuals with a lower educational level. The pattern of geographical distribution evidences a greater prevalence towards the south and south-east, with statistical significance among males. It is necessary to analyze in further depth the factors involved in the genesis of obesity and to institutionalize community health programmes for its prevention, monitoring and treatment.