Stratigraphic sequences in a Middle Ordovician platform-interior carbonate succession (Steinhauff and Walker, in press) are correlated to the platform margin. Surfaces of subaerial exposure are correlated among seven stratigraphic sections, four from the platform succession and three from platform-margin rocks. Surfaces of subaerial exposure define stratigraphic sequences within a carbonate succession that shows little evidence of cyclicity in the field. Interpretation of carbonate facies geometry is based on outcrop observation, petrographic and geochemical analysis of samples, and consideration of paleobathymetric curves. In the platform succession, most sequences are bounded by exposure surfaces, but in more continuously subtidal areas periods of shallowing and drowning are discerned in bathymetric curves on the basis of multiple lines of evidence. Exposure surfaces are evidenced by subjacent meteoric cements or other features indicating exposure such as truncated marine cements, vuggy porosity with vadose silt and pendant cements, or mud cracks. At some localities, a marked shallowing event correlates to exposure elsewhere. In subtidal sediments, drowning is indicated by the lack of shallow-water physical sedimentary features and water-depth curves based on multiple lines of evidence including the presence of red algae, thin-shelled (eyeless) trilobites, delicate arborescent bryozoa, and deposit-feeding organisms. Evidence for drowning unconformity is in some cases provided by cephalopod-rich, black to blood-red limestone beds rich in iron and manganese oxides, and occasionally by corroded surfaces encrusted with these minerals. We have referred to the succession as "apparently noncyclic" because evidence for exposure and shallowing is subtle and is not always observable in the field. Nonetheless, these strata show fourth-order subsequences that can be grouped into third-order sequences by the existence of pronounced and less pronounced exposure surfaces. Pronounced surfaces of exposure are those that overlie fenestral mudstones that contain exposure features, such as crystal silt and calcite cement in vugs lined by reddish crusts, and are truncated by deeper-water lithologies. For example, seven pronounced surfaces of subaerial exposure define six third-order sequences, 10-50 m thick, on the platform near Thorn Hill, Tennessee. Within the lower four third-order subsequences, 19 less pronounced surfaces showing fewer exposure features are present in approximately 400 m of section. These surfaces define fourth-order subsequences that are correlative from place to place in the platform succession. Many, but not all, of these platform fourth-order subsequences can be correlated to the platform margin. Also, some fourth-order subsequences are present only at the platform edge. Fifth-order, "meter-scale" packages, or parasequences, are present within these fourth-order sequences, but are not correlative over wide areas as are the other sequences. Most are probably the result of migration of lateral environments. Geometries unlike those of siliciclastic sequences result where condensed sections or deepening events are followed by exposure in this carbonate succession. The sequences defined here constitute shallowing-upward packages that are, then, a type of cycle. These are used to construct modified Fischer plots for both the platform-interior and platform-margin stratigraphic successions. Surfaces of subaerial exposure are correlated from the platform to the platform margin by matching pronounced exposure surfaces and deepening events shown in water-depth curves for the platform with pronounced exposure surfaces and deepening or shallowing events at the platform margin. This analysis provides several possible solutions, the most conservative of which suggests that some sequences or cycle "beats" are missing. Beats are missed in three ways: (1) sea level remains near the platform margin, causing deposition to be restricted to that area; (2) tectonic uplift exposes the platform interior but not platform-margin areas until subsidence allows resubmergence; and (3) drowning carries platform margin areas to depths precluding carbonate deposition there, though sediment does accumulate on the platform. In Cases 1 and 2 the missed "beats" would be on the platform, but in Case 3 they would be at the platform margin.


Abstract Secondary markets have a coextensive history with the world wide web – from email lists to message boards, people have consistently used the web to facilitate the exchange of used goods, job ads and apartment listings. As a way of tracing the socio-technical trajectory of secondary markets, this article offers an extended comparison of two online platforms: craigslist and VarageSale. The former represents one of the earliest and most stable platforms for the online secondary market, whereas the latter is a newcomer that both critiques and seeks to improve on older visions of peer-to-peer exchange. By comparing the monetisation strategies, aesthetics, marketing and user policies of these two platforms, this article generates a historical discussion of key shifts in the online sharing economy specifically and online interactions generally. In particular, this article argues that the gap between these two companies illustrates a transition towards monetisation and away from anonymity, and demonstrates the difference between anonymity as a tool versus anonymity as a way of being.


Ethiopia is a country whose economy is deep-rooted on agriculture sector. This is indicated by the development philosophy of the country which is Agriculture Led Industrialization (ADLI). The country has undergone various development strategies, where agricultural extension program takes the highest responsibility and consumed highest resource over years. Since the last six decades, when it was formally institutionalized under Ministry of Agriculture, extension services remained a public good focusing on crop production, where the marketing part of the systems was missing. During these periods, the system has been reinforced by the public sector without having someone accountable to farmers in cases of failures in services provided including inappropriate input supply. Farmers have been lacking guarantee in trying new technologies. The risk and cost of trying innovations remain with the farmers. Despite this, achievement in increased production is the success of extension roles with the support of research system. However, the follow up challenge is finding better market and improving access to inputs. This is the concern needing policy attention. Today's extension should focus on quality, cost of production, value addition, and market orientation. These economic activities call for active involvement of private sector in the system. The purpose of this study was hence to identify available alternatives with the capacity to discharge the responsibility of agricultural extension services and suggest the gradual withdraw of the public sector in extension service delivery. The existence of potential private sectors to deliver extension services in some form of commercialization is evident due the current technological advancement, increased farmers awareness, increasing need of inputs, and market orientation. Growing number of private input traders, farm business, farmer cooperatives, growing number of graduates to offer advisory service, and NGOs are potential institutions that necessitate the transfer of public roles of extension to private sectors whose complementary role improves the efficiency of service delivery, while modernizing agricultural production. The growing digital resource in transfer of information and maintaining the important technological database is an added opportunity for the system. This implies the call for private sector involvement in the extension service delivery in Ethiopia.


AIMS
Anemia and cardiovascular (CV) events are major complications of chronic kidney disease (CKD) during dialysis. We conducted a retrospective observational study in CKD patients with anemia to evaluate the association between predialysis use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) and postdialysis CV outcomes.

METHODS
The study analyzed claims data on incident hemodialysis patients aged > or = 18 years (identified between January 2000 and November 2005). Patients were identified as anemic and ESA-treated prior to dialysis. ESA treatment was categorized into 4 consistency groups (from least to most consistent ESA use).

RESULTS
Of 5,848 hemodialysis patients, 52% were identified as anemic prior to onset of dialysis. Predialysis ESA treatment was received by 62% of anemic patients, with only 23% receiving the most consistent treatment. The risk of a CV event was significantly lower for the ESA-treated compared with ESA-untreated patients (relative risk (RR) 0.70, 95% (95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.61 - 0.82)). Compared with ESA-untreated, those who received ESAs had significantly lower risk of acute myocardial infarction (RR 0.65 (95% CI 0.44 - 0.95)) or inpatient mortality (RR 0.52 (95% CI 0.40 - 0.68)). ESA-treated patients in each of the 4 consistency groups had significantly lower risk of CV events compared with ESA-untreated patients, with the greatest benefit seen in patients who received most consistent ESA (RR 0.61 (95% CI 0.48 - 0.76)).

CONCLUSIONS
This analysis suggests consistent ESA use to treat anemia of CKD in the predialysis period is associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes in postdialysis patients.


Phylogeny is the study of relationships and evolution between collections of things (genes, proteins, organisms or etc.) that are derived from a common ancestor. It is a useful tool for classifying organisms and gives better results than traditional identification methods based on morphological, metabolic and other phenotypic traits. Pediococcus acidilactici TISTR 2309 is one of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that was found in traditional Thai fermented sausages and it has the potential to produce bacteriocin against foodborne Gram positive bacteria, including Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus . Three phylogenetic trees derived from the Maximum Likelihood, Neighbor-Joining and Maximum Pasimony methods, were compared in order to find the relationship of the strains constructed by each method. The results from phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA sequences by these 3 methods indicated that P. acidilactici TISTR 2309 is homogenous to P. acidilactici IMAU60189. However when the same sequence of TISTR 2309 was used as input for search tools of NCBI Blast and ENA, the two databases provided different results of identification and different suggested strains. It was also found that the potential in bacteriocin production of the P. acidilactici TISTR 2309 isolate did not reduce over nine years of laboratory subculture.


We investigate the performance of a magnesium-oxide-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal (MgO:PPLN) in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously-pumped by 530nm, 20ps, 230MHz pulses with an average power of up to 2W from a frequency-doubled, gain-switched laser diode seed and a multi-stage Yb:fiber amplifier system. The OPO produces ~165mW (signal, 845nm) and ~107mW (idler, 1421nm) of average power for ~1W of pump power and can be tuned from ~800nm to 900nm (signal) and 1.28µm to 1.54µm (idler). Observations of photo-refraction and green-induced infrared absorption (GRIIRA) in different operational regimes of the MgO:PPLN OPO are described and the role of peak intensity and average power are investigated, both with the aim to find the optimal operating regime for pulsed systems.


The leaf area index increased linearly as the plant population of corn (Zea mays L.) was increased from 34,500 to 69,000 plants per hectare. The leaf area per plant, however, decreased as the plant population increased. Nitrogen rates of 112 to 280 kg per hectare and row width had no effect on leaf area per plant nor the leaf area index. The yield of grain per plant was dependent upon the leaf area per plant. The efficiency of a given leaf area to produce grain was higher as nitrogen rates increased. The yield of grain per hectare of the long season hybrid was not influenced by row width except under drought conditions where 53-cm wide rows gave higher yields than 106-cm wide rows. Highest grain yields were obtained at 280 kg of N per hectare and 51,750 plants per hectare. Maximum yields were obtained with a leaf area index of 3.5 and remained constant up to an index of 4.5 with adequate nitrogen.


1 - The gulf of Gera is a semi-enclosed water body located on the island of Lesvos, Greece in Eastern Mediterranean. The main economic activities in the surrounding watershed are related to the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, among which the former and the latter have increased during the last decade. The primary sector activities include agriculture (mainly oliveculture), fisheries, livestock breeding and aquaculture. The most important industrial activity in the Gera watershed is the elaboration of oil crops, whereas tertiary sector is focused on tourism and services.
2 - Three scenarios of environmental and socio-economic change have been applied in the area: the baseline or reference scenario (Business As Usual, BAU), the policy targeted scenario (Policy Targeted, PT) and the 'deep green' scenario (Deep Green, DG). Two versions of each scenario were evaluated, one that considers low and practically non-influential climate change (BAU1, PT1 and DG1) and one that assumes an important influence of climate change (BAU2, PT2 and DG2). A quantitative description of each scenario was developed and simulation was applied for evaluation. Increased nutrient loading was predicted by the model from November to May, especially in winter, during the period of flow of the ephemeral rivers.
3 - The main effect of climatic change in nutrient loading is observed in winter, due to rainfalls of high intensity. The effects of future climatic changes are important since a fourfold increase in surface runoff is predicted by the model. This will increase substantially the frequency of flood events in the watershed, have an important effect on the amount and pattern of the nutrient loads into the gulf and cause problems of erosion. The overall phosphorus loading predicted by the model is higher in the BAU and lower in the DG scenarios, whereas nitrogen loading is almost equal under the BAU and PT scenarios and halved under the DG scenarios.


At the center of the hardware in the clinical laboratory are people, and managing these people can be difficult for the resident who has had no management experience or instruction in management skills. Last month, in the first of the two part article, the author explained how a pathologist's administrative role differs from his role as a physician, reviewed management styles, and discussed management tools the laboratory director needs to organize and operate a laboratory. Here, he focuses on the orientation program for new employees, motivational factors, and the importance of personnel policies, job performance evaluation, counseling and disciplinary action, and proper delegation of responsibilities.


Sentencing in Australia is founded upon two premises that are in perennial conflict: individualised justice and consistency. The first holds that sentences should be proportionate to the particular circumstances of each case. The second holds that similar offenders should receive substantively equal outcomes. While there is an inherent tension between both premises, they are both essential to a fair sentencing system. In grappling with these dual demands of proportionality and equality, however, different jurisdictions have placed different emphases on these two aspects of justice. The result has been two competing paradigms of fairness: 'individualism' and 'comparativism'.

Individualism is solipsistic; it measures fairness in relation to the 'unique' circumstances of each case and therefore protects extensive discretion to tailor punishment to individual facts. Comparativism is outward-facing; fairness is measured against similar cases, using extrinsic aids like sentencing statistics and the analogical reasoning intrinsic to the common law. Despite these differences, the paradigms of individualism and comparativism are not dichotomous but points at the ends of a spectrum, along which a balance can be struck. In Australia, while both are emphasized at the level of theory, sentencing practice heavily favors individualism. The result is an ambivalent jurisprudence that inadequately supports sentencers in their attempt to reconcile the conflicting demands of each premise.

In recent decades, common law jurisdictions have developed measures designed to reduce unjustified disparity in sentencing. However, while the pursuit of this aim is noncontroversial, its manifestations are not. There is disagreement about the nature of disparity and little empirical evidence regarding its extent and the effectiveness of the measures introduced to reduce it. In Australia, the contention that unjustified disparity exists is not broadly accepted by the judiciary and, where accepted, is considered a lesser evil than its remedies. However, since the 1970s empirical studies in comparable jurisdictions have demonstrated that unregulated discretion is directly correlated with unjustified disparity because judges interpret sentencing principles and same case facts differently. This raises the question whether sentencing in Australia is systematically fair in the sense required by legality principles.

This thesis examines the nature and efficacy of the reforms introduced in Australia to reduce unjustified disparity within a highly individualised sentencing framework. These are: appellate review, the provision of sentencing information to judges, judicial education, mandatory sentencing, sentencing legislation, guideline judgments and sentencing councils. This thesis finds that by rigourously protecting unguided discretion, the individualist authorities have neutralised, or seriously diminished, the regulatory effects of each of these disparity reduction measures. For the most part, these failures in regulation are not due to structural problems with the measures themselves. Rather they are the result of trying to implement comparativist tools in an uncompromising context of high individualism. This lesson is instructive for jurisdictions seeking to avoid problems which arise at this end of the spectrum. The Australian challenge is not to find new ideas, but to determine which of the current ones could be effective in doing what they purport to do and to make evidence-based reforms to sentencing methodology required to reach that goal.Awards: Winner
of the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence, Faculty of Law, 2016.


ABSTRACT In many 'smart city' applications, congestion arises in part due to the nature of signals received by individuals from a central authority. In the model of Mareček et al., each agent uses one out of multiple resources at each time instant. The per-use cost of a resource depends on the number of concurrent users. A central authority has up-to-date knowledge of the congestion across all resources and uses randomisation to provide a scalar or an interval for each resource at each time. In this paper, the interval to broadcast per resource is obtained by taking the minima and maxima of costs observed within a time window of length r, rather than by randomisation. We show that the resulting distribution of agents across resources also converges in distribution, under plausible assumptions about the evolution of the population over time.


Perfluorinated chemicals, PFCs, are analyzed in laboratories worldwide to determine human blood levels and exposure pathways. The development of the analytical technique has been rapid in the last ten years, and prerequisites for accurate and precise determination of PFCs in human blood at low ng/g concentrations are today readily available. The main contributing factors are the improved LC-MS instrumentations, the increased availability of native and mass labeled PFC standards, and new column materials available for chromatographic separations. The results of the first international interlaboratory study (ILS) in 2005 on PFCs revealed relatively better analytical results for human blood analyses when compared to analyses of a number of environmental matrices. The representative accuracy for the analyses of PFCs in human matrixes reported in recent years was established in the second human serum ILS in 2006. Interlaboratory standard deviations for the two human serum samples one low level concentration and one medium level concentration were found to be 12% and 16% for PFOS, respectively, and 47% and 21% for PFOA, respectively. Reported detections for all PFCs followed a frequency of PFOS>PFOA>PFHxS>PFNA>PFDA>>PFDoA>> PFDS>>PFHxA. Due to the small number of reported values for the other perfluorosulfonates and perfluorocarboxylates, standard deviations were not established.


Examinations help students learn more efficiently by filling their learning gaps. To achieve this goal, we have to differentiate students who have from those who have not mastered a set of attributes as measured by the test through cognitive diagnostic assessment. K-means cluster analysis, being a nonparametric cognitive diagnosis method requires the Q-matrix only, which reflects the relationship between attributes and items. This does not require the estimation of the parameters, so is independent of sample size, simple to operate, and easy to understand. Previous research use the sum score vectors or capability scores vector as the clustering objects. These methods are only adaptive for dichotomous data. Structural response items are, however, the main type used in examinations, particularly as required in recent reforms. On the basis of previous research, this paper puts forward a method to calculate a capability matrix reflecting the mastery level on skills and is applicable to grade response items. Our study included four parts. First, we introduced the K-means cluster diagnosis method which has been adapted for dichotomous data. Second, we expanded the K-means cluster diagnosis method for grade response data (GRCDM). Third, in Part Two, we investigated the performance of the method introduced using a simulation study. Fourth, we investigated the performance of the method in an empirical study. The simulation study focused on three factors. First, the sample size was set to be 100, 500, and 1000. Second, the percentage of random errors was manipulated to be 5%, 10%, and 20%. Third, it had four hierarchies, as proposed by Leighton. All experimental conditions composed of seven attributes, different items according to hierarchies. Simulation results showed that: (1) GRCDM had a high pattern match ratio (PMR) and high marginal match ratio (MMR). This method was shown to be feasible in cognitive diagnostic assessment. (2) The classification accuracy (MMR and PMR) of this method was not dependent on the size of sample. This method had high classification accuracy even in a sample of 100, so it can be used in small assessment and classroom assessment. (3) The classification accuracy under divergent or unstructured attribute hierarchy structure were better than other attribute hierarchy structure in having a high classification accuracy, especially under divergent attribute hierarchy structure. We used this method as in the simulation studies to analyze empirical data from cognitive diagnostic assessment on primary school student's arithmetic word problem solving, and compared the results to that obtained using the rule space method which was based on the graded response model. Results showed that the attributes difficulty with the classification method was suitable for attributes nature. In different types of schools, the proportion of mastery in each attribute can be different. The better ones have more students mastering each attribute than the worse ones. So, GRCDM has high internal and external validity for use in these situations. In conclusion, this paper provides a new method and a new direction for the development of cognitive diagnostic assessment.


Pregnancy induces numerous changes in the physiology of the mother as she adapts to the metabolically demanding fetus developing within her womb. It is during this period of intense physiological stress that she begins to develop the maternal behaviours that will ultimately support the nurturing of the offspring after parturition and protect them from harm. In human pregnancies, women are particularly susceptible to mood disorders which may reflect an enhanced vulnerability induced by pregnancy. The placenta is the key organ of pregnancy driving the physiological and potentially the behavioural changes required for a successful pregnancy. Placental dysfunction may contribute to maternal mood disorders by mis-programming maternal behaviour, a relationship that can be explored in a tractable animal model.
Imprinted genes are expressed in the placenta and have been implicated in the regulation of key endocrine lineage of the mouse placenta. Phlda2 is a maternally expressed imprinted gene that regulates one such lineage, the Spongiotrophoblast (SpT), which is a source of placental lactogens and a number of other hormones. Placental lactogens belong to the same hormone family as prolactin and some members of this family mediate their action via the Prolactin Receptor (Prlr). Both prolactin and the Prlr have been directly shown to be required for the establishment of maternal care behaviour in rodents. This led to the hypothesis that Phlda2 might modulate maternal care in rodents by regulating the size of the placental endocrine compartment.

To test this hypothesis, we used three cohorts of Wildtype (WT) dams carrying fetuses that possessed either a 50% reduction in the SpT, resulting from a double dose of Phlda2 (Mouseline: Phlda2 +/+ BACx1, TG; 2X) or a 200% increase in the SpT, resulting from a null dose of Phlda2 (Mouseline: Phlda2 -/+), KO; 0X) or 100% of the WT size of the SpT, resulting from a single dose of Phlda2 (Mouseline: Phlda2 +/+, WT; 1X) generated using Recipient Embryo Transfer (RET). Maternal behaviour was studied postpartum and a biomolecular characterisation was performed during pregnancy using microarray and Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) to look at changes in maternal gene expression and a histological approach used to examine maternal neurogenesis in the Sub-ventricular Zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricles and Sub-Granular Zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus. Additionally, a study was made of male offspring carrying the Phlda2 transgene (TG), which were previously shown to be low birth weight, their non-transgenic litter mates (NON-TG) and a fully WT cohort of mice to ask whether placental endocrine dysfunction in utero programmed altered behaviour later in life.
The results of this first study showed distinct changes in pup retrieval, nest building and the dam's grooming and licking behaviour with dams exposed to the smaller endocrine compartment spending less time with their pups. Specific maternal brain regions showed altered transcriptional profiles at Embryonic Day (E) 16.5 of pregnancy and there was a significant reduction in neurogenesis. While there were no differences in anxiety or locomotor activity levels in the offspring cohorts, there were significant changes in hedonic response in both the TG and NON-TG offspring.

Together, these data provide the first evidence that imprinted genes can influence both maternal care behaviour and offspring behavioural outcomes via the placental endocrine compartment. This work has wider implications since human studies have shown that elevated placental PHLDA2 is a common features of human growth restricted pregnancies. There is a a co-occurrence of low birth weight and maternal mood disorders with mothers experiencing prenatal depression having a three-fold increased risk of a Low Birth Weight (LBW) baby. Aberrant imprinting in the placenta could account for this co-occurrence.


Critical limb ischemia (CLI) due to Buerger's disease is a major unmet medical need with a high incidence of morbidity. This phase II, prospective, nonrandomized, open‐label, multicentric, dose‐ranging study was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of i.m. injection of adult human bone marrow‐derived, cultured, pooled, allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells (BMMSC) in CLI due to Buerger's disease. Patients were allocated to three groups: 1 and 2 million cells/kg body weight (36 patients each) and standard of care (SOC) (18 patients). BMMSCs were administered as 40–60 injections in the calf muscle and locally, around the ulcer. Most patients were young (age range, 38–42 years) and ex‐smokers, and all patients had at least one ulcer. Both the primary endpoints—reduction in rest pain (0.3 units per month [SE, 0.13]) and healing of ulcers (11% decrease in size per month [SE, 0.05])—were significantly better in the group receiving 2 million cells/kg body weight than in the SOC arm. Improvement in secondary endpoints, such as ankle brachial pressure index (0.03 [SE, 0.01] unit increase per month) and total walking distance (1.03 [SE, 0.02] times higher per month), were also significant in the group receiving 2 million cells/kg as compared with the SOC arm. Adverse events reported were remotely related or unrelated to BMMSCs. In conclusion, i.m. administration of BMMSC at a dose of 2 million cells/kg showed clinical benefit and may be the best regimen in patients with CLI due to Buerger's disease. However, further randomized controlled trials are required to confirm the most appropriate dose. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:689–699


The purpose of this thesis was to create an automated classifier for periodic stellar objects in the Wide- Angle Search for Planets Survey (SuperW ASP) and to use the classified stars to investigate three phenomena: differentiation of Beta Lyrae and W UMa eclipsing binary stars using eclipse-depth ratio; identification of RR Lyrae stars exhibiting the Blazhko effect; and, the presence of the Oosterhoff dichotomy in the Milky Way.

During this work, period/amplitude ranges and distribution maps were created for the classified stars in stellar classes Algol, Beta Lyrae, W UMa, Delta Scuti and RR Lyrae (RRAB) and comparison made with published equivalents. SuperW ASP objects known in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) were also assessed to identify differences.

The automated system contained three neural networks (NNs) that processed parameters defining the' shape of the phase-folded light-curve and they were trained with representative sets of eclipsing binary, pulsating and sinusoidal-like stars. The system, installed at Leicester University processed 4.3 million object/periods from the SuperWASP database, of which 1.1 million were given prospective classifications. From these, approximately 64 thousand objects consisting of eclipsing binary and pulsating stars were assessed manually to confirm the given period/classifications and roughly half were classified correctly. The reasons for the misclassifications were identified and recommendations made on improving the results.

The manually confirmed objects consisted of 12,882 Algols, 5,226 Beta Lyrae, 2,875 W UMa, 1,979 Delta Scutis and 8,322 RR Lyraes (RRAB), where significant numbers of each were unknowrr in SIMBAD or the GCVS. Many objects had periods and/or amplitudes outside published ranges with the surprising result that the majority of Beta Lyraes had periods shorter than published.

A separation range for eclipse-depth ratio was identified but a cross-over point existed where differentiation was not possible. A number of new RRAB Blazhko stars were identified and the amplitude range between peaks calculated. The presence of the Oosterhoff dichotomy in the Milky Way galaxy was supported, but the causative factors could not be confirmed.

Comparison of the SuperW ASP periods with the GCVS resulted in 649 variable stars being added to the GCVS catalogue where the period was unknown in the GCVS and also revision of the variability period of 194 GCVS variable stars was suggested. For comparison of classification, sub-classes were suggested for 333 unconfirmed objects in the GCVS (e.g. CEP:, EA:, RR etc.) and re-classification was suggested for 197 GCVS objects with suspected incorrect classes.


It is higher superior of the caterpillar mobile robots to others types of robots in unknown complex environment, the advantage is apparently; but the issue is, it is difficulty in exact analyzing the posture of the robot kinematics model. In this paper, the new ideas proposed in the view of this issue, on the solution of posture motion model in the non-structural environment, motion agencies is transformed by the equivalent mechanism transformation, a fixed posture on the ground movement model is established by the screw theory. The posture model of non-holonomic constraints multi-joint caterpillar robot could be transferred into a kinematics model of parallel mechanism posture. Besides, the posture control method on over-obstacle stability is proposed, analyzing with the controlling experiment.


Many students who are doing their majors in English often suffer from English speaking anxiety. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons that hinder the process of speaking English in the students who had English as their major course of studies in a public sector university in Karachi. The study was conducted using qualitative research approach and the data was collected using focus group discussion. The participants of this study were selected using convenient sampling technique for focus group discussion. The findings revealed that the pronunciation, syntactic structures, insufficient lexical knowledge, fear of negative evaluation, role of a teacher, financial and social factors are the main causes of English-speaking anxiety among English majors. Recommended measures by the students disclosed that if the institution provides them with the suggested speaking opportunities, it could help them improve their anxiety towards speaking in English.


This paper deals with how social safety nets may reach the poor with disabilities in developing countries. It presents a framework for analyzing the inclusion of disability in social safety nets. The paper first reviews evidence on the relation between disability and poverty, and, discusses the roles that safety nets may play with regard to disability. Safety nets can reach persons with disabilities through inclusive mainstream programs, as well as disability targeted programs. The advantages and challenges of disability targeting are then discussed. The paper proceeds to analyze different ways that can be used to include disability considerations in the implementation of mainstream safety nets, through the reduction of physical, communication, and social barriers surrounding such programs, and through the careful design and evaluation of safety nets. The use of disability targeting versus, or in combination with disability mainstreaming is then discussed.


Objective: To investigate the chiropractic care of a child with ADHD and review the related literature. Clinical Features: A 3 1⁄2 year old male child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of birth trauma and ear infections presents with signs of vertebral subluxation. Interventions and Outcomes: Vertebral subluxations were addressed using toggle recoil adjustments to reduce an Atlas subluxation. Dietary advice, supplements and proprioceptive exercises were given to the patient as part of the care plan. Patient's mother and teachers reported a decrease in hyperactivity and an increase in attention. Paraspinal thermal scans improved after one month of care. Conclusion: While research on chiropractic care for children with ADHD is limited, some studies have shown improvement in these children while under such care. This is an important area in need of further study and should include the investigation of a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, exercise, and other CAM treatments.


Business management within schools is no longer about making the books balance, it has gone beyond that for many bursars whose role is to give financial information to guide strategic decisions. From Bursar to School Business Manager is the first text of its kind, it offers an insight into how other schools are successfully operating their business and teaching support services. It describes: * the need to manage resources which indirectly support teaching and learning * the tasks, roles, relationships and careers of school business management and managers * he practice of school business managers * the future role and development of school business managers. This invaluable book will be welcomed by all school bursars, senior managers, head teachers, governors, LEA advisers and officers, and students on education leadership and management programmes. From Bursar to School Business Manager expands our understanding of the current and expanding roles and responsibilities of people who oversee school level resources in support of teaching and learning. This text will change school leaders' visions of resource management for the future." Richard A. King, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Northern Colorado, USA.


ASTM Subcommittee C01.11 on Masonry Cement, established a task group on methods of test which determined whether the final time of setting maximum limit could be replaced with an initial time of setting maximum limit. A review was conducted of 52 Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory proficiency samples (spanning 26 years) and data from the Portland Cement Association Masonry Cement Survey. Findings indicate a very reliable and simple linear relationship exists between masonry cement initial and final Gillmore time of setting. Data is presented which resulted in a specification change to ASTM C 91, ASTM C 1328, and ASTM C 1329 in 2005.


I examine the change in voter turnout across Indiana counties before and after the implementation of photo ID requirements. Overall, statewide turnout increased by about two percentage points after photo ID; further, there is no consistent evidence that counties that have higher percentages of minority, poor, elderly or less-educated population suffer any reduction in voter turnout relative to other counties. In fact, the estimated effect of photo ID on turnout is positive for counties with a greater percentage of minorities or families in poverty. The only consistent and frequently statistically significant impact of photo ID in Indiana is to increase voter turnout in counties with a greater percentage of Democrats relative to other counties. These findings run counter to some recent and prominent concerns that have been raised about voter identification reforms; however, these results are consistent with both existing theory on voter behavior and the most recent and reliable empirical evidence on the effects of voter identification requirements on turnout. Report 0–2007 Institute of Public Policy The Effects of Photographic Identification on Voter Turnout in Indiana: A County-Level Analysis


The selective oxidation of methanol has been studied in detail, with particular focus on gaining insights into the surface active sights responsible for directing the selectivity to formaldehyde. Various Fe and Mo containing oxides have been investigated for their reactivity with methanol, to gain an understanding of the different roles of these components in the industrial catalyst employed, which is a mixed phase comprised of MoO3 and Fe2(MoO4)3. Catalysts have primarily been tested through using TPD (temperature programmed desorption) and TPPFR (temperature programmed pulsed flow reaction). The reactivity of Fe2O3 is dominated by combustion products, with CO2 and H2 produced via a formate intermediate adsorbing at the catalyst surface. For MoO3 however, the surface is populated by methoxy intermediates, so that the selectivity is almost 100 % directed to formaldehyde. When a mixture of isolated Fe and Mo sites co-exist, the surface methoxy becomes stabilised, resulting in a dehydrogenation reaction to CO and H2. CO and CO2 can also be observed on Mo rich surfaces, however here a consequence of the further oxidation of formaldehyde, through a linear pathway. TPD and DRIFTS identify these intermediates and products forming.
Since the structure of the industrial catalyst is relatively complex, in that it contains both MoO3 and Fe2(MoO4)3, it is difficult to identify the active site for the reaction with methanol. A novel approach to understanding this further, has involved the synthesis of a series of MoOx modified Fe2O3 catalysts in an attempt to make core-shell oxidic materials of the type MoOx/Fe2O3. Various monolayer loadings are investigated. It is conclusively shown that for all coverages the Mo stays in the surface region, even after annealing to high temperatures, only reacting with the iron oxide surface when the material is annealed above 400 C. From drying at 120 C to calcining at 500 C, the Mo converts from a MoO3-like octahedral layer to Fe2(MoO4)3, with Mo in a tetrahedral structure. Although changes in the Mo phase are clearly evident, it is shown that for all catalysts a one monolayer equivalent of amorphous octahedral MoOx also remains at the surface, regardless of the calcination temperature employed. It is this layer which is deemed as the surface active layer, since all catalysts at varying monolayer overages and anneal temperatures show a similar reaction with methanol. This overlayer is unique, and is suggested to be comparable to the surface terminating layer in bulk catalysts such as Fe2(MoO4)3. Successive work involved studying the reactivity of this upper layer, with suggestions of a two site Mo-Mo surface species forming on adsorption of methanol.
Concluding work involves an investigation into the redox properties of Fe2(MoO4)3, to address the significance of this mixed oxide in commercial materials. Fe2(MoO4)3 forms the majority of the industrial catalyst, and although it shows a superior performance in terms of its activity, it cannot compete with the near 100 % selectivity of MoO3 to formaldehyde. Other supports have been trialled for their performance under reaction with methanol. It is shown that Fe2(MoO4)3 has increased bulk lattice oxygen mobility. Under normal reaction conditions, the reaction is carried out aerobically. However if oxygen supplies are restricted, Fe2(MoO4)3 is able to demonstrate a satisfactory performance above 300 C, as lattice oxygen is able to replace lost surface oxygen. This can continue for some time, until reduced phases containing Mo(IV) form. At this point formaldehyde selectivity drops, matched by a rise in CO production. High oxidation states are crucial to catalyst performance, with the reaction continuously cycling between Mo(VI) and Mo(VI), with a very short lifetime for the Mo(IV) species.


OBJECTIVE
An automated telehealth counseling system, aimed at inactive midlife and older adults, was shown previously to achieve 12-month physical activity levels similar to those attained by human advisors. This investigation evaluated the sustained 18-month impacts of the automated advisor compared with human advisors.

METHODS
Following the end of the 12-month randomized, controlled trial, participants who had been randomized to either the human advisor (n = 73) or automated advisor (n = 75) arms were followed for an additional 6 months. During that period, human or automated advisor-initiated telephone contacts ceased and participants were encouraged to initiate contact with their advisor as deemed relevant. The primary outcome was moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), measured using the Stanford Physical Activity Recall and validated during the major trial via accelerometry.

RESULTS
The two arms did not differ significantly in 18-month MVPA or the percentage of participants meeting national physical activity guidelines (ps >.50). No significant within-arm MVPA differences emerged between 12 and 18 months. Evaluation of the trajectory of physical activity change across the 18-month study period indicated that, for both arms, the greatest physical activity increases occurred during the first 6 months of intervention, followed by a relatively steady amount of physical activity across the remaining months.

CONCLUSIONS
The results provide evidence that an automated telehealth advice system can maintain physical activity increases at a level similar to that achieved by human advisors through 18 months. Given the accelerated use of mobile phones in developing countries, as well as industrialized nations, automated telehealth systems merit further evaluation.


The fact that circum-Antarctic ocean circulation and the Antarctic cryosphere developed in parallel during the Cenozoic era was revealed by results from Antarctic and Southern Ocean Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) legs in the 1970s. This association provided the basis for the paradigm that development of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) reduced meridional heat transport, isolated the continent within an annulus of cold water, and was thus the main cause of intensifying glaciation (e.g. Kennett, 1977).

From 1970s DSDP results it was already clear that the main glacial-climatic thresholds had been crossed near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, during the Middle Miocene and during the Late Pliocene. Subsequent more detailed studies and increasingly refined timescales have narrowed down the times of these steps in environmental evolution to 34.0–33.6, 14.2–13.8 and 3.3–2.5 Ma.

A challenge to the paradigm emerged ten years ago from a coupled climate-ice sheet modelling study (DeConto and Pollard, 2003). The modelling results suggested that ice sheet feedbacks associated with declining atmospheric pCO2 may have been sufficient to cause rapid growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet at around the time of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the absence of any changes in ocean circulation. Remarkably, these results also suggested ice sheet growth in two steps within 0.5 Myr, which was subsequently confirmed by detailed palaeoceanographic data (Coxall et al., 2005). DeConto & Pollard (2003) did, however, also attempt to model the effect of ACC onset by using a parameterized 20% increase in southward ocean heat transport to simulate ice sheet growth with Drake Passage closed. The results suggested that ACC onset resulting from opening of Drake Passage could have been the critical factor controlling the timing of ice sheet inception, but only if atmospheric pCO2 was between 2.5 and 3 times pre-industrial level (i.e. in the range 700–840 ppmv). A recent estimate of past atmospheric pCO2 levels derived from alkenones in marine sediments suggests that they were decreasing rapidly at around the time of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, but may have been within this critical range during the period of rapid ice sheet growth (Pagani et al., 2011).

Other modelling studies incorporating more realistic ocean components have cast doubt on the notion that ACC onset caused a significant reduction in southward ocean heat transport (e.g. Huber and Nof, 2006). In contrast, another study incorporating an ocean general circulation model suggests that southward ocean heat transport and Antarctic air temperatures would have been significantly greater with Drake Passage closed at higher atmospheric pCO2 (Sijp et al., 2009). Indeed, Sijp et al. (2009) conclude that Drake Passage being closed is a necessary condition for ice-free Antarctic conditions at high pCO2.

Even if future, more sophisticated modelling studies rule out the possibility that ACC onset could have caused a significant reduction in southward ocean heat transport, it remains possible that ocean circulation changes were the primary cause of earliest Oligocene global environmental changes through their impacts on the carbon cycle. The ACC is today the strongest current in the world's ocean and the main pathway of nutrient exchange between the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Thus, onset of ACC flow may have increased productivity and accelerated CO2 drawdown. The Early Oliogocene expansion of the zone of accumulation of biosiliceous facies in the Southern Ocean could have resulted from such increased productivity.

Onset of ACC flow through Drake Passage could, however, only have been a contributory factor to earliest Oligocene Antarctic Ice Sheet growth if a deep-water pathway opened at or before 34 Ma. Estimates of when a deep gap first opened extend over a wide range of ages, from Late Eocene to earliest Miocene. Reconstructions of major plate motions indicate divergence between South America and Antarctica started in the Eocene, but the details of how this divergence was manifested in Drake Passage also depend on the evolution of local, short-lived small plates, which shunted continental fragments around and formed small basins. Moreover, even if a deep gap had formed in the vicinity of Drake Passage by 34 Ma, continental fragments to the east and subduction-related topography around the early Scotia Arc may have delayed ACC development further (Barker and Burrell, 1982). Thus, considerable uncertainty remains about the timing of onset of ACC flow through Drake Passage and its possible role in environmental changes in the earliest Oligocene. Further geophysical and drilling investigations are needed to resolve the early history of this important ocean gateway.

Middle Miocene development of both the western Scotia Sea and the East Scotia Sea is well- constrained by undisputed interpretations of marine magnetic anomalies. Debate continues, however, about the age of linear magnetic anomalies in part of the central Scotia Sea lying to the southwest of South Georgia, with interpretations of their ages ranging from Cretaceous to Miocene. Regardless of the true age of this part of the Scotia Sea, it is clear that at the beginning of the Middle Miocene continental and remnant arc fragments formed almost continuous barriers along the North Scotia Ridge and South Scotia Ridge. It is likely that the Scotia Sea was also enclosed to the east by a palaeo-South Sandwich arc, which would have extended southwards from the southern tip of the South Georgia continental block to Discovery Bank. It is not clear whether or not the narrow, >3000 m-deep gap in the North Scotia Ridge at 48 W, through which the modern Polar Front passes, had already formed by then. If this gap is a product of subsequent strike-slip displacement along the Scotia–South America plate boundary, then ACC flow at the start of the Middle Miocene might have been more limited than it is now. The early Middle Miocene step in global environmental evolution coincides with the time that a deep-water gap is likely to have opened to the east of South Georgia as a result of back-arc spreading in the East Scotia Sea (Larter et al., 2003), and we suggest the possibility that there might be a causal link merits further investigation.

Opening of deep-water gaps along the South Scotia Ridge in the Middle Miocene allowed Weddell Sea Deep Water to flow into the Scotia Sea. Although this deep inflow must have uplifted less dense water masses in the Scotia Sea, it remains unclear what its effects were on the upper parts of the water column and on flow of the ACC.

The Middle Miocene step also followed a slow-down of spreading in the western Scotia Sea, which resulted in formation of a median valley along the ridge axis and generation of rougher sea-floor topography on its flanks. The increase in sea-floor roughness would have increased vertical mixing, which could have enhanced productivity. The median valley along the remnant West Scotia Ridge today steers the Polar Front to the gap in the North Scotia Ridge at 48 W. Thus, for mation of the median valley could have caused the course of the Polar Front to switch from a previous, more southerly path. This would in turn have increased flow over rugged topography to the east of the Falkland Plateau, and thus potentially have increased vertical mixing, enhanced productivity and accelerated CO2 drawdown.

Since the Late Miocene the only significant changes in the overall configuration of the Scotia Sea have been further widening of the East Scotia Sea, slow sinistral strike-slip motion along both the North Scotia Ridge and South Scotia Ridge, and slow deformation resulting from transpression along the Shackleton Fracture Zone. It seems unlikely that these changes could have had any significant effect on ACC flow. Therefore, we concur with suggestions that the step in global environmental evolution during the Late Pliocene probably resulted from a decrease in atmospheric pCO2 and rapid variations in insolation that triggered intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation.


Equilibria: The Duke University Economics Review is the official publication of the Economics Student Union at Duke University. This magazine is dedicated to presenting select research and opinions by university scholars on all fields relevant to economics.


Background: Irregularly shaped and three-dimensional soft-tissue defects in the extremities are difficult to cover precisely and efficiently. One strategy is to use the anterolateral thigh flap with two perforators and split the flap into two subunits based on separate perforators. The subunits can be rearranged into various geometric configurations to cover defects with nonelliptical shapes. Such a strategy emphasizes harvesting an elliptical anterolateral thigh flap with a narrower width to allow for primary closure in most cases. This avoids the need for skin grafting and reduces donor-site morbidity. Methods: From 2002 to 2010, 15 patients with upper and lower limb defects were treated with split anterolateral thigh flaps. There were nine male patients and six female patients. The mean age of the patients was 40.6 years (range, 18 to 64 years). The shape of each defect was classified as arrow-shape, hourglass-shape, triangular, or three-dimensional. Results: All split flaps (n = 31) survived without vascular problems. Two split flaps demonstrated margin necrosis without critical structure exposure. Only one donor site needed skin grafting. All other donor sites were closed primarily. Conclusions: The split anterolateral thigh flap is an effective strategy for covering irregular and three-dimensional defects in the extremities. It allows efficient use of the harvested flap and minimizes trimming and discarding unused flap parts. This decreases the area of skin graft needed for donor-site coverage and may even be able to achieve primary closure. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, V.


Background: Bone hardness and strength depends on mineralization, which involves a complex process in which calcium phosphate, produced by bone-forming cells, was shed around the fibrous matrix. This process is strictly regulated, and a number of signal transduction systems were interested in calcium metabolism, such as the phosphoinositide (PI) pathway and related phospholipase C (PLC) enzymes. Objectives: Our aim was to search for common patterns of expression in osteoblasts, as well as in ES and SS. Methods: We analysed the PLC enzymes in human osteoblasts and osteosarcoma cell lines MG-63 and SaOS-2. We compared the obtained results to the expression of PLCs in samples of patients affected with Ewing sarcoma (ES) and synovial sarcoma (SS). Results: In osteoblasts, MG-63 cells and SaOS-2 significant differences were identified in the expression of PLC δ4 and PLC η subfamily isoforms. Differences were also identified regarding the expression of PLCs in ES and SS. Most ES and SS did not express PLCB1, which was expressed in most osteoblasts, MG-63 and SaOS-2 cells. Conversely, PLCB2, unexpressed in the cell lines, was expressed in some ES and SS. However, PLCH1 was expressed in SaOS-2 and inconstantly expressed in osteoblasts, while it was expressed in ES and unexpressed in SS. The most relevant difference observed in ES compared to SS regarded PLC e and PLC η isoforms. Conclusion: MG-63 and SaOS-2 osteosarcoma cell lines might represent an inappropriate experimental model for studies about the analysis of signal transduction in osteoblasts


A 2-walk of a graph is a walk visiting every vertex at least once and at most twice. By generalizing decompositions of Tutte and Thomassen, Gao, Richter and Yu proved that every 3connected planar graph contains a closed 2-walk such that all vertices visited twice are contained in 3-separators. This seminal result generalizes Tutte's theorem that every 4-connected planar graph is Hamiltonian as well as Barnette's theorem that every 3-connected planar graph has a spanning tree with maximum degree at most 3. The algorithmic challenge of finding such a closed 2-walk is to overcome big overlapping subgraphs in the decomposition, which are also inherent in Tutte's and Thomassen's decompositions. We solve this problem by extending the decomposition of Gao, Richter and Yu in such a way that all pieces, into which the graph is decomposed, are edge-disjoint. This implies the first polynomial-time algorithm that computes the closed 2-walk mentioned above. Its running time is O(n3).


The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors 2019 (CHEESEHEAD19) is an ongoing National Science Foundation project based on an intensive field campaign that occurred from June-October 2019. The purpose of the study is to examine how the atmospheric boundary layer responds to spatial heterogeneity in surface energy fluxes. One of the main objectives is to test whether lack of energy balance closure measured by eddy covariance (EC) towers is related to mesoscale atmospheric processes. Finally, the project evaluates data-driven methods for scaling surface energy fluxes, with the aim to improve model-data comparison and integration. To address these questions, an extensive suite of ground, tower, profiling, and airborne instrumentation was deployed over a 10×10 km domain of a heterogeneous forest ecosystem in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin USA, centered on the existing Park Falls 447-m tower that anchors an Ameriflux/NOAA supersite (US-PFa / WLEF). The project deployed one of the world's highest-density networks of above-canopy EC measurements of surface energy fluxes. This tower EC network was coupled with spatial measurements of EC fluxes from aircraft, maps of leaf and canopy properties derived from airborne spectroscopy, ground-based measurements of plant productivity, phenology, and physiology, and atmospheric profiles of wind, water vapor, and temperature using radar, sodar, lidar, microwave radiometers, infrared interferometers, and radiosondes. These observations are being used with large eddy simulation and scaling experiments to better understand sub-mesoscale processes and improve formulations of sub-grid scale processes in numerical weather and climate models.


Claudin-7 belongs to a group of tight junction membrane proteins that play vital roles in many human diseases including human lung cancer. Lung cancer is noted to be the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States, with statistics reporting mortality rates as high as 85% and five-year survival rates as low as 15%. Lung cancer is especially prominent in North Carolina. Our current study focuses on the role of claudin-7 in human lung cancer cell survival under the exposure of tumor microenvironment. Hypoxia is one of the tumor microenvironment conditions and plays an important role in cancer progression. To achieve the hypoxia condition, HCC827 human lung cancer cells with normal claudin-7 expression (control) or with claudin-7 knockdown (KD) were treated with 1% O2 (hypoxic) for 3 days. The cell counting assay showed that the percentage of dead cells were significantly lower in KD cells compared to that of control cells. The immunofluorescent staining analysis also supported our finding through depicting the decreased expression of cleaved PARP in KD cells than that in the control cells (p<0.05). Reduced cleaved PARP expression means the cell survival is better since the cleaved PARP signal is activated in cell apoptosis. Western blot results further confirmed that the suppression of claudin-7 promoted cancer cell survival and reduced cell apoptosis. These results support our hypothesis that claudin-7 has a tumor suppression role in human lung cancer growth and suppression of claudin-7 enhances lung cancer cell survival under tumor microenvironment hypoxia condition through inhibiting cell apoptosis. This study is supported by 2015 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Award from ECU Division of Research and Graduate Studies.


Due to the complexity of thermodynamic system and variability of boundary condition, the striking non-linear relationship exits between the operating parameters and the energy consumption. At present, the research of quantitatively analyzing the problem under systematic variable work conditions is lack of effective method. Based on deep research on the problem, the concept of sensitive factors of the energy consumption of operating parameters was put forward. Furthermore, by the application of analytic models to the whole thermal system under variable work conditions and adoption of the state space theory, the topological relation between the parameters of the measuring points and the energy consumption was established. Then the non-liner analysis problem on the complex thermodynamic system under multi-boundary conditions can be availably solved. With analysis to the possible work conditions of different units, curves of the sensitive factors of energy consumption of all parameters are obtained. Through utilizing the probability density functions of load distribution, the total sensitive factor of energy consumption was defined. And the sequences of all operating parameterspsila sensitive factors of different units are obtained through calculation.


Abstract Background Data suggest lower coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccination coverage among minority and disadvantaged groups. We aimed to identify interactions between sociodemographic factors associated with vaccination gaps. Methods This population study used Israeli National COVID-19 data (extracted: 10 May 2021). The analysis comprised 6 478 999 individuals age ≥15 years with aggregated area-level data on sex and age distribution and no COVID-19 history. We estimated vaccination hazard and cumulative incidence using the Fine and Gray competing risk model. Results Older age and higher socioeconomic status (SES) were associated, with stepwise higher cumulative vaccination rates (age 20–24: 67%, age ≥ 75: 96%; SES 1–3: 61%, 4–5: 74.2%, 6–7: 82%, 8–10: 87%). We found the lowest vaccination rates in Arab (65%) and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish (54%) areas. SES modified the association in Arab neighbourhoods, with higher coverage than in the non-Orthodox Jewish reference group in SES 1–3 [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.06; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02–1.11], and gradually lower coverage in higher SES classes (SES 6–7: HR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.79–0.87). Vaccination rates were also higher among younger Arabs (≤45 years) compared with age counterparts in the reference population group (age 25–34: HR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.12–1.28) and lower than the reference group among Arabs age ≥45 years. Among Ultra-Orthodox Jews, vaccination HRs remained below one across age and SES classes. Conclusions Age and SES modified the association between population group and vaccination coverage. Identifying the interplay between sociodemographic characteristics and the underlying explanations may improve targeted efforts, aimed at closing vaccination coverage gaps and mitigating COVID-19.


Ukraine is a country with close ethnic and historical ties to Russia, although it seeks to limit the political and economic influence of its more powerful neighbor. Therefore, since independence Ukraine has attempted to diversify its international relations as much as possible and to seek support for its territorial integrity. In the long run, it regards its political and economic futures as connected with the West. Meanwhile, the Middle East offers an alternative to mitigate pressure from Russia and to develop mutually beneficial relations with Turkey and Israel, with whom there are strong historical and cultural connections that offer some promise.


.In order to improve the performance of automobile tube-core-fin radiator, the thermo-test and mathematics model method were combined together to study heat transfer and air resistance. The mathematics model was built including heat transfer and air resistance coefficient criterion equations in the certain Reynolds number range. The maximum relative error between results calculated from mathematics model and test values is less than 6.61%. The number of tube rows of the radiator can affect heat transfer and air resistance coefficient through analyzing results.


Angiogenesis is an indispensable biological process, any aberrancy associated with which can lead to pathological manifestations. To manage different pathological conditions associated with abnormal angiogenesis, Nanomaterial based formulations have been tested in in vitro and in vivo models by different groups. The research advancements pertaining to the applications of major candidate nanomaterials for the treatment of pathologies like tumor, cardiovascular diseases, diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, chronic wounds, impaired osteogenesis and nerve tissue degeneration, have been briefed in this chapter.


Joe Simpson didn't anticipate experiencing, again, the events described in "Touching the Void". A fall in the Himalayas crippled and almost broke him. Forced to test his nerve he struggled on crutches to 20,000 feet on Pumori only to hear the news of the death of yet one more friend in the mountains. In an attempt to find a catharsis for his confused emotions, he wrote this memoir of the signposts that have directed him since childhood to live as an adventurer.


: Regulation of tryptophan biosynthesis of facultative methylotrophic Pseudomonas sp. M was studied. Repression of the trpE, trpD and trpC genes by tryptophan was demonstrated. It was also shown that the trpE and trpDC genes are derepressed noncoordinately. No regulation of the trpF gene product could be demonstrated, indicating that its synthesis is constitutive. The trpA and trpB genes are inducible by indol-3-glycerophosphate. Anthranilate synthase and tryptophan synthase were sensitive to the feedback inhibition. The tryptophan concentrations giving 50% inhibition were estimated to be 9 microM and 1 microM, respectively. Experimental evidence for activation of the N-5-phosphoribosyl anthranilate isomerase and for inhibition of the indol-3-glycerophosphate synthase by some tryptophan intermediates was obtained.


We investigated the timing of gait parameter changes (stride length, peak toe velocity, and double-, single-support, and complete step duration) to control gait speed. Eleven healthy participants adjusted their gait speed on a treadmill to maintain a constant distance between them and a fore-aft oscillating cue (a place on a conveyor belt surface). The experimental design balanced conditions of cue modality (vision: eyes-open; manual contact: eyes-closed while touching the cue); treadmill speed (0.2, 0.4, 0.85, and 1.3 m/s); and cue motion (none, ±10 cm at 0.09, 0.11, and 0.18 Hz). Correlation analyses revealed a number of temporal relationships between gait parameters and cue speed. The results suggest that neural control ranged from feedforward to feedback. Specifically, step length preceded cue velocity during double-support duration suggesting anticipatory control. Peak toe velocity nearly coincided with its most-correlated cue velocity during single-support duration. The toe-off concluding step and double-support durations followed their most-correlated cue velocity, suggesting feedback control. Cue-tracking accuracy and cue velocity correlations with timing parameters were higher with the manual contact cue than visual cue. The cue/gait timing relationships generalized across cue modalities, albeit with greater delays of step-cycle events relative to manual contact cue velocity. We conclude that individual kinematic parameters of gait are controlled to achieve a desired velocity at different specific times during the gait cycle. The overall timing pattern of instantaneous cue velocities associated with different gait parameters is conserved across cues that afford different performance accuracies. This timing pattern may be temporally shifted to optimize control. Different cue/gait parameter latencies in our nonadaptation paradigm provide general-case evidence of the independent control of gait parameters previously demonstrated in gait adaptation paradigms.


The aim of this article is to contribute with findings concerning students' ways of experiencing general mathematical structures and, in particular, relationships in additive structures.When students discern relationships in additive structures, it may lead to positive consequences for students' future ability to perform calculations in addition and subtraction tasks. In the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students in grades 3, 8, and 9. An illustration showing a set of different quantities was the starting point during the interviews, together with an opening question regarding how the diverse quantities could be equalised. After the students' discussions, they were asked if this could be described mathematically using written symbols. The students' expressions concerning the phenomenon "relationships between quantities" were analyzed using phenomenography as an analytical tool. According to phenomenography, there are a limited number of ways in which a phenomenon can be experienced. Further, it is not about exploring how many individuals hold a specific experience that is of interest. In the case of this article, it is about capturing qualitatively different ways of experiencing the phenomenon relationships between quantities. Despite no specific numbers being presented, many students attributed specific numbers and values when expressing relationships between quantities. The students expressed general mathematical structures only to a limited extent and, in those cases, mostly only after encouragement from the interviewer. Following the phenomenographical analysis, the students' ways of experiencing "relationships between quantities" are: as something that has to be calculated, or as something that has to be related. The first of these was most common in all grades. In this study, one critical aspect was identified, namely, that quantities are related to each other, additively. Instead of introducing mathematics with a focus on answer-oriented tasks, it is essential to introduce mathematics based on general structures such as additive structures. Even if the students are not familiar with such a mathematical "culture", it is worth it. This was confirmed in our study.


In this information age, there are two trends that have reflective impact on our lives: (i) we depend more and more on information technologies, (ii) and our mobility is getting higher and higher. The demand on wireless handheld devices just keeps on increasing. One particular type is gaining wide-spread acceptance—short range wireless technology, due to its low cost. They are WLAN and WPAN. Nowadays, wireless technologies have been incorporated into various communication and networking applications embedded in many military, industrial and civilian products. WPANs focus on the space around a person or object that typically extends up to 10 meter in all directions. The aims of WPANs are low-cost, low power, short range and very small size. The IEEE 802.15 working group was formed to create WPAN standards, which has currently defined three classes of WPANs that are differentiated by data rate, battery drain and quality of service (QoS) capabilities [1]: 1)High data rate WPANs (IEEE 802.15.3) that require very high speed and strong QoS support, and are normally used for multimedia applications; 2) Medium data rate WPANs (IEEE 802.15.1/Bluetooth) that handle a number of various tasks such as cell phones and PDA communications (among themselves or with peripherals, e.g. earphones, printers) and provide QoS suitable for voice communications; 3) Low data rate WPAN (IEEE 802.15.4/LRWPAN) that are intended for a set of industrial, residential and medical applications with requirements of very low power consumption and cost and relaxed needs for data rate and QoS. Wireless Sensor Networks discussed in this paper belong to the third class of WPAN.This paper aims at solving the problem occurring due to the coexistence of Zigbee and wifi in the same environment . The high power wifi signals end to override the Zigbee signals and thus deterioting the Zigbee data . This problem has been addressed using white space available in the wifi spectrum and accommodating the small Zigbee packets in this white space using the hidden markov model system.


This book brings together scholars from the fields of politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and economics, to explore pathways towards implementing a Basic Income in Australia. It is the first book of its kind to outline avenues for implementation of a basic income specifically for Australia and responds to a gap in the existing basic income literature and published titles to provide a distinct standpoint in the exploration of basic income within the Australian contemporary policy landscape. The first section of the book outlines some of the continuing substantive and philosophical issues regarding BI implementation. In the second section of the book, authors offer practical strategies and models for progressing BI in Australia.


While deep learning approaches to information extraction have had many successes, they can be difficult to augment or maintain as needs shift. Rule-based methods, on the other hand, can be more easily modified. However, crafting rules requires expertise in linguistics and the domain of interest, making it infeasible for most users. Here we attempt to combine the advantages of these two directions while mitigating their drawbacks. We adapt recent advances from the adjacent field of program synthesis to information extraction, synthesizing rules from provided examples. We use a transformer-based architecture to guide an enumerative search, and show that this reduces the number of steps that need to be explored before a rule is found. Further, we show that without training the synthesis algorithm on the specific domain, our synthesized rules achieve state-of-the-art performance on the 1-shot scenario of a task that focuses on few-shot learning for relation classification, and competitive performance in the 5-shot scenario.


Purpose - In the wake of public service liberalisation in many OECD countries, economic interventions into the purpose and implementation of social policies have gained a lot of interest in recent years. The prime aim of this paper is to describe the nature of these interventions. The paper examines the reasons for pursuing elusive efficiency objectives in the conduct of public policy, rationales for purchaser-provider splits, evaluation of cost-quality relationships, service costing and pricing, and the influence of "external" economic variables. Design/methodology/approach - The paper breaks the analysis of public policy down to three layers of economic interventions: macroeconomics (allocative efficiency, intervention rationales and macroeconomic environment), mesoeconomics (economics of delivery in "social industries") and microeconomics (agent behaviour, contracting, pricing and evaluation). Each level of economic intervention is illustrated with examples, mainly taken from Australian public policy and mainstream social economic research. Findings - Some of the most critical questions in policy implementation (outsourcing, pricing, contracting and agency problems) can be traced back to economic reforms. Experiments with new modes of service delivery are driven by a changing economic context, yet the efficiency gains from these innovative approaches may come at the expense of service quality. Practical implications - Changing macro-, meso- and microeconomic variables profoundly alter the parameters of service delivery. Designers and managers of service delivery systems need to be aware of – and skilled in – the practical application of economic principles, concepts and methods. Originality/value - Except for the health sector, there is a lack of consistent research on the interrelationships between the standard economics toolkit and the delivery of public services. Yet the two are profoundly intertwined. The paper helps distinguish these relationships by putting together elements of conceptual analysis and fieldwork.


The ob jective of this research is to identify conceptually factors affecting ICT adoption and its impact among Indonesian SMEs. The prior studies involve conceptual model of the combination between Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, The technology-organization-environment (TEO) theory, and Iocovou's framework. The prior studies believed the Internal and external factors influencing ICT adoption. This study found that the characteristic of technology, organization, and managerial are included as internal factors in adopting ICT. In the meantime, environment factors also are included as the external factor. Thus, the impact of ICT adoption would gave contributions on the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization as reflected in the organization performance. Hence, the organization performance could be measured based on the performance of business processes (operational performance) and financial performance (final performance). Reducing cost, increasing productivity related to operational performance, and profit margin, market share related to final performance. In brief, this study presents the conceptual framework of ICT adoption among Indonesian SMEs. Reviewing numerous prior studies to develop the research framework of this study is undertaken. However, the empirical study of current paper should be continued in the further research. Key word: internal factor, external factor, ICT adoption, organizational performance, operational performance, final performance.


In the present article forecasts of China's upcoming development are given. It is shown why China, even with all its possible future success, will be unable to take the USA's place in the World System. The merits and shortcomings of the characteristics of the modern Chinese economic development model are revealed. The conclusion is made that the Chinese economy, with all its achievements, remains generally extensive and, based on the consumption of excessive numbers of various resources and funds and with respect to the attendant investment gain, will become more and more ineffective. The author believes that it will be impossible to reconstruct the Chinese development model and GDP growth rates will slow down soon.


Nitric oxide (NO) is a potent mediator involved in many biological functions including inflammation and non-specific immunity. Murine macrophages possess the prototype of high-output NO synthase which is not constitutively expressed but induced within a few hours by immunological stimuli. In this study, we explored the possibility of controlling the activity of the inducible NO synthase by interfering with the transduction signal which triggers its induction, in the RAW 264.7 macrophage cell line. We found that nicotinamide, an inhibitor of ADP-ribosylation, prevented NO synthase induction in RAW 264.7 cells after stimulation with interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, the level of NO synthase mRNA was measured by Northern-blot analysis and we found that nicotinamide prevents expression of NO synthase mRNA in IFN-gamma- and LPS-stimulated cells. Nicotinamide was also found to inhibit other macrophage functions expressed in response to IFN-gamma, i.e. tumour necrosis factor secretion and the expression of the Ia antigen of the major histocompatibility complex. Analysis of the pattern of ADP-ribosylated proteins revealed that nicotinamide as well as cholera toxin prevented the ADP-ribosylation of a 107-117 kDa protein found constitutively ADP-ribosylated in stimulated and non-stimulated macrophage extracts. Together, our results indicate ADP-ribosylation as a crucial point of the signalling pathway which leads to NO synthase mRNA induction.


Marine ecosystems directly and indirectly impact human health, providing benefits such as essential food sources, coastal protection and biomedical compounds. Monitoring changes in marine species is important because impacts such as overfishing, ocean acidification and hypoxic zones can negatively affect both human and ocean health. The US west coast supports a diverse assemblage of deep-sea corals that provide habitats for fish and numerous other invertebrates. Currently, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists manually track the health of coral species using extractive methods. In this paper, we test the viability of using a machine learning algorithm Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to automatically classify coral species, using field-collected coral images in collaboration with NOAA. We fine tune the hyperparameters of our model to surpass the human F-score. We also highlight a scalable opportunity to monitor ocean health automatically while preserving corals.


Parthenogenetically activated BCF1 and fertilized BALB/c embryos were aggregated to form chimaeras. The fate of the parthenogenetic component was followed in the conceptus during the second half of gestation. The results indicate an early strong selection against parthenogenetic cells in the extra-embryonal part, which is presumably complete by term, and a weaker selective process in the embryo. During early development, parthenogenetic cells have nearly normal developmental potency in the embryo, which allows their balanced contribution in the chimaeras on day 12. Later, this contribution declines significantly resulting in an unbalanced relation to the advantage of the fertilized counterpart. From the results, we suggest that gametic imprinting may play a role not only in the key steps of preimplantation and early postimplantation development, but later in cell and tissue differentiation.


Regions of the temporal and parietal lobes are particularly damaged in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and this leads to a predictable pattern of brain atrophy. In vivo quantification of subregional atrophy, such as changes in cortical thickness or structure volume, could lead to improved diagnosis and better assessment of the neuroprotective effects of a therapy. Toward this end, we have developed a fast and robust method for accurately quantifying cerebral structural changes in several cortical and subcortical regions using serial MRI scans. In 169 healthy controls, 299 subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 129 subjects with AD, we measured rates of subregional cerebral volume change for each cohort and performed power calculations to identify regions that would provide the most sensitive outcome measures in clinical trials of disease-modifying agents. Consistent with regional specificity of AD, temporal-lobe cortical regions showed the greatest disease-related changes and significantly outperformed any of the clinical or cognitive measures examined for both AD and MCI. Global measures of change in brain structure, including whole-brain and ventricular volumes, were also elevated in AD and MCI, but were less salient when compared to changes in normal subjects. Therefore, these biomarkers are less powerful for quantifying disease-modifying effects of compounds that target AD pathology. The findings indicate that regional temporal lobe cortical changes would have great utility as outcome measures in clinical trials and may also have utility in clinical practice for aiding early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease.


Comparisons between rejection characteristics of natural organic matter and inorganic salts by nanofiltration in a very low operational pressure (<0.5 MPa) are demonstrated here. A nanofiltration pilot plant has been operated at the Tamagawa water purification plant, which is located downstream on the Tama River, Japan. The molecular weight distribution and concentration of natural organic matter that account for trihalomethane formation potential, and concentrations of various inorganic salts have been measured in the raw water from the Tama River, microfiltration pretreated effluent and nanofiltration production during 6-months operation of the pilot plant. This paper discusses the water quality and rejection mechanism of natural organic matter and inorganic salts. In addition, the steric-hindrance pore (SHP) model and the Nernst-Planck equation have been used to evaluate membrane pore structures and rejection of ionic solutes, respectively.


Purpose of review Stearoyl-Coenzyme A (CoA) desaturase is a central lipogenic enzyme catalyzing the synthesis of monounsaturated fatty acids - mainly oleate (C18:1). Oleate is the most abundant monounsaturated fatty acid in dietary fat and is therefore readily available. Why, then, is stearoyl-CoA desaturase a highly regulated enzyme? This review summarizes the recent and timely advances concerning the important role of stearoyl-CoA desaturase in metabolism. Recent findings Recent findings using mice that have a naturally occurring mutation in the SCD1 gene isoform as well as a mouse model with a targeted disruption of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase gene-1 (SCD1−/−) have revealed the role of de-novo synthesized oleate and thus the physiological importance of SCD1 expression. In the highlighted references, it is shown that the SCD1−/− mice have reduced body adiposity, increased insulin sensitivity, and are resistant to diet-induced obesity. The expression of several genes of lipid oxidation is upregulated, whereas lipid synthesis genes are downregulated. SCD1 was also found to be a component of the novel metabolic response to the hormone leptin. Summary SCD1, therefore, appears to be an important metabolic control point, and inhibition of its expression could be of benefit for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases.


Water-based inorganic-organic hybrid sol-gel coatings were developed on aluminium. The coatings were based upon epoxy-silane, glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) as inorganic silane precursors crosslinked with the organic polymer, hexamethylmethoxymelamine (HMMM). The aim of the present work was to modify the hybrid sol-gel coating to obtain hydrophobic properties which could be achieved by either lowering the surface energy or increasing the surface roughness of the coatings. Lowering of surface energy was achieved by incorporating various fluoro-alkylsilanes (FASs) with two different chain lengths, of 3 and 17 fluorine atoms. The subsequent water contact angles achieved were 100° and 110° respectively for FAS modification. As a result, a commercial fluoro emulsion (FE) which was a water based six carbon atom perfluoro polymer, was employed as co-precursor. A substantial improvement in hydrophobicity was achieved with FE modification resulting in contact angle of 118°. Further, the surface roughness of the fluorinated sol-gel coating was enhanced by incorporating various nano-particles with different size, surface area and surface chemistry, namely nano-Zinc Oxide (ZnO), hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) modified nano-silica, dichlorodimethylsilane (DDS) modified nano-silica and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDZ) modified nano-silica. Out of these HMDZ nano-silica modification resulted in maximum hydrophobicity with contact angle of 125° and sliding angle of 25° on aluminium surface. Furthermore an independent study was carried out on application of as developed composite coatings on chemically and mechanically roughened aluminium surfaces. It was found that contact angle increases up to 130° using techniques like chemical etching, plasma etching, sand blasting and grinding etc. The as developed nano-composite coatings when applied on other non-metallic substrate such as glass, cotton, cardboard, paper, concrete and wood, it showed excellent hydrophobicity with a contact angle of > 135°. Furthermore, all the substrates showed a sliding angle of about 15°. The as developed coatings were characterised for their chemical and morphological structures, using techniques including FTIR, XPS, SEM and AFM. The wetting properties were analysed using contact angle goniometry. The performance of the as developed coatings was evaluated by determining corrosion resistance, hardness, adhesion and scratch resistance properties. Finally, the role of nano-particles distribution was studied in detail. It was found that maximum hydrophobic properties were achieved at optimum concentration of nano-particles.%%%%Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India and Monash University, Australia.


The three-dimensional unsteady compressible Full Navier-Stokes equation solver with sliding multi-block method has been applied to analyze three dimensional characteristics of the viscous flow field and compression wave around the high speed train which is entering into a tunnel. The numerical scheme of AF + ADI was used to efficiently solve Navier-Stokes equations in the curvilinear coordinate system. The vortex formation owing to the viscous interaction around the train was found and the generation of compression wave due to the blockage effects was observed ahead of the train in the form of plane wave. The three dimensional characteristics of the flow field compared to the analytic results were discussed in detail. The variation of pressure of tunnel wall surface and velocity profile of the train are identified as the train enters into a tunnel. The changes in aerodynamic forces and streamlines of each specific sections are also discussed.


textabstractMany learning systems use the space of logic formulas as the search space of hypotheses.
To build efficient systems, the set of first order logic formulas can be reduced in many
ways. Most systems restrict themselves to (subsets of) Horn clauses. In this paper we
investigate the space of reduced first order sentences, which has the same expressive
power as an arbritrary first order logic. Shapiro [1981] has used the subset of reduced
first order sentences to define a most general refinement operator. His operator is
claimed to be complete, i.e., all reduced sentences are derivable from the empty sentence.
In this article we will show that his operator is not complete and propose a new, complete
refinement operator for reduced first order sentences.


Summary Reliability and validity are ever-present themes in the evaluation of assessment. Previous research studies have considered the role of the question paper, the mark scheme and the examiners in providing unbiased estimates of students' ability. With particular reference to the mark scheme, this paper focuses on how the rules imposed by levels-based mark schemes might affect the extent to which a measurement can be considered unbiased. It considers neither cognitive strategies nor the role of judgement instead, from a purely statistical point of view, it investigates the potential impact of mark scheme design. It concludes that the responses to a question itself should shape the mark distribution, rather than the shape being determined by the structure of the mark scheme. To this end, and pending further research in the area, it recommends that levels-based mark schemes should be designed such that each band is of equal width.


Diffusion and partition coefficients are two key parameters of importance for the characterization of building materials as sources and sinks of air pollutants indoors. The number of coefficients for each pair 'chemical compound – material surface' available in the literature are still scarce and with a high discrepancy in the results obtained by different methods, even for the same method [1]. The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a simple and rapid experimental method for directly measuring the diffusion coefficient (D), and (2) to perform determinations with both the new and the cup method comparing the results obtained. The new method is based on two existent methodologies, the passive sampling on Tenax TA and the dry cup method, proposed by Haghighat et al. [1] and also developed by this research team [2]. The experiments were carried for three different building materials (cork based material, gypsum board and PVC) and three different compounds (cyclohexane, n-octane and m-xylene). The discussion of the results obtained for D by the two methods is presented in this paper. Observed differences were not of the same order of magnitude for the pairs compound/material studied, varying from the order of 101 in the case of PVC to 102 in the gypsum and in the cork. However some facts were the same: the gypsum board presents the higher values of D and PVC the lower values of D for the three compounds studied in both methods. One of the causes of these marked differences could be high difference of the concentration of the compound in the air between the methods, saturation value in cup method (dozens g/m3) and low values typical from indoor environments (few mg/m3) in the proposed method.


This thesis provides a quantitative comparative investigation into the effects of changes in family policy on gender differences in employment outcomes. Existing comparative research offers a sophisticated account of the influence of family policy on gender equality in employment – certain leave and childcare policies are found to promote female economic activity, especially among less educated women, but may at the same time also damage women's occupational attainment with harmful effects that appear particularly severe for women with high levels of education. Yet, this existing literature does suffer limitations, particularly in the extent to which many studies rely on cross-sectional data only. The contribution of this thesis is to test whether established associations hold when looking at changes within countries over time. It examines how changes in family policies affect measures of gender differences in economic activity and occupational attainment, both at the overall level and when data are broken down by levels of education. Data are measured at the country-level and take time-series cross-section form, with a sample that stretches across 20 OECD countries and the years 1985-2010. Analysis is conducted primarily through fixed effects multiple linear regression. Results suggest that increases in certain leave and childcare policies may help close gender gaps in labour force participation rates, particularly but not exclusively among men and women with low education. Simultaneously, increases in leave entitlements for mothers may moderate gains in women's relative access to managerial positions and top quintile wages. Notably, though, the damaging effects of changes in leave do not appear to apply to highly educated women. Thus, results are consistent with the broader argument that family policies may have contradictory effects on gender differences in employment, but provide less support for the more recent suggestion that any such 'policy paradox' operates neatly along class lines.


Nicotinamide (10 mmol/kg) and 3-aminobenzamide (1.25 mmol/kg), poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase inhibitors, were injected intravenously to rats either 30 min before the intravenous administration of 12 mg/kg alloxan or 50 mg/kg streptozotocin ("Pretreatment") or 5 min after the administration ("posttreatment"). Fifteen minutes after the injection of the diabetogenic agents, pancreatic islets were isolated from the rats and proinsulin synthesis was determined. Proinsulin synthesis was decreased in islets from rats treated with alloxan or streptozotocin. Pretreatment with poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase inhibitors was found to protect against alloxan- or streptozotocin-induced decrease in proinsulin synthesis. By posttreatment with poly(ADP-ribose) synthetase inhibitors, streptozotocin-induced decrease in proinsulin synthesis was also significantly reversed, whereas the decrease induced by alloxan was not.


The present-day lithospheric architecture of modern and ancient orogens can be imaged by geophysical techniques. For ancient orogens, unravelling their architecture at the time of formation is hindered by later tectono-magmatic events. In this paper, we use spatial variations in radiogenic isotopic compositions of Late Triassic magmatism from the Yidun Terrane, eastern Tibetan Plateau, to establish its lithospheric architecture during the Triassic. Comprehensive geochemical and isotopic data of Late Triassic magmatic rocks from four transects across the Yidun Terrane document eastward enrichment in whole-rock Nd, Sr, and zircon Hf isotopic compositions. Mafic and felsic rocks of major plutons show coherent and nonlinear trends in the Zr and P2O5 systematics and have limited variation of isotopic compositions. This indicates that Late Triassic magmatic differentiation was dominated by fractionation of mantle-derived mafic magmas. The spatial isotopic trends result from changing mantle sources, including variable contributions of isotopically depleted asthenospheric mantle and isotopically enriched subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) to magma sources. The spatial variation of mantle sources suggests a westward thinning of the SCLM during the Triassic. We propose that this architecture is most likely associated with eastward subduction of oceanic lithosphere of the Jinshajiang Ocean located at the west of the Yidun Terrane, immediately prior to the Late Triassic magmatism.