Latinofuturism describes a broad range of Latina/o speculative aesthetics and an emerging field of study. In addition to referencing a broad spectrum of speculative texts produced by Chicana/os, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Americans, Cuban Americans, and other Latin American immigrant populations, Latinofuturism also includes innovative cultural productions stemming from hybrid and fluid borderlands spaces such as the US–Mexico border. The umbrella genre of speculative fiction (SF), moreover, indexes the companion genres of science fiction (sci-fi), horror, and fantasy. Instead of approaching these genres separately, SF recognizes the ways in which these genres overlap, blend, and mutually inform one another. As Shelley Streeby notes, the umbrella genre of the speculative is especially useful in analyzing Latinofuturist texts that self-consciously appropriate and blend genres in a manner evocative of the mestizaje animating Latina/o culture. The broader category of SF further enables us to unearth, remap, and focalize how Latina/os have contributed to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, as well as related subgenres. Through employing the speculative, Latinofuturist texts articulate a grammar of the subjunctive, daring to ask and imagine, "what if?"
 Latinofuturism builds upon Catherine Ramírez's foundational prism of Chicanafuturism, which denotes cultural production that redeploys the technological in relation to cultural identity, and, in doing so, interrogates and effaces boundaries between primitive and modern, the past, present, and future, as well as the human and non-human. Propelling Latinofuturism is the disordering aesthetic of rasquachismo, a working-class Chicana/o sensibility of creative recycling or making do. Latinofuturist writers and artists do not passively consume received forms of the speculative, but instead creatively repurpose them toward emancipatory ends. In addition, Latinofuturism draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as articulated by scholars such as Mark Dery, Alondra Nelson, and Ytasha Womack. Whereas Afrofuturism foregrounds the African diaspora and the legacy of slavery in regard to new media and the technological, Latinofuturism focuses on migrations within and across the Americas and beyond. Prevalent themes in Latinofuturism include indigenismo, mestizaje, and coloniality, which operate to question narratives of progress and technological advancement as well as to render more radical visions of the future. However, as Isabel Millán argues, Afrofuturism and Latinofuturism become tightly knit when considering Afro-Latina/o speculative productions. More broadly, Latinofuturism must be also situated within US ethnic and global subaltern futurisms as the experiences of people of color in the United States and throughout the world are interwoven through histories of bodily and epistemological violences systematically omitted from narratives of progress and technological advancement. Importantly, Latinofuturism, along with other ethnic futurisms, share a radical reimagining of a collective future that blurs colonial binaries, making collective space to imagine and enact otherwise.


Women who inherit the BRCA1/2 gene have up to an 85% lifetime chance of developing breast cancer and a 63% chance of developing ovarian Cancer. Since the publication and update of the UK Nice National Guidelines (2015) for women with a strong family history and Angelina Jolie, the famous American actress declared her status and her surgery, many more women are seeking testing in order to undergo bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy and oophorectomy. Very little is known about the longer-term effect on the woman her partner and her relatives following diagnosis and bilateral mastectomy from a qualitative research perspective. Aim - The aim of this study, therefore, was to explore, interpret and develop an understanding of the experiences of women and their relatives living with the BRCA gene who elect to have bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy in an attempt to improve clinical practice by providing a new horizon of understanding. Methods - An interpretive hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted guided by the philosophy of Gadamer (2004) with its emphasis on a fused horizon of understanding with eight BRCA positive women, five of their husbands and five of their relatives. This study is a prospective study that took place in a large teaching hospital in Wales. Findings - This study provides a new fused horizon of understanding of what it means to be a BRCA Positive woman and a relative living with the BRCA gene who elect to undergo bilateral mastectomy as a risk-reducing modality. A hermeneutic text of interpretation exposed three main horizons (Gadamer, 2004). 'The price of survival', which includes the journey of the overall desire to survive, not just prevent cancer. 'The altered child's trajectory' which involves the transference of the fear of cancer onto (for) children and future generations and 'disembodied, a separation from self' which includes the effects of surgery on sexuality, femininity and identity. These horizons unite the experiences of the women and her relatives resulting in a new fused horizon of understanding, 'being disembodied'. These findings add knowledge and understanding for clinicians, researchers and policy makers working in the field of breast care with many implications for practice.


Oral administration of lead-containing paint to rhesus monkeys induced anemia, more profound in older primates. Erythrocytes were microcytic and hypochromic, but tended to become macrocytic terminally. Stippled erythrocytes were increased in all poisoned monkeys, especially in those with high blood lead levels and anemia. Proteinuria, glycosuria, casts and sloughed tubular cells containing acid-fast inclusion bodies were found on urinalysis. Terminal elevations of blood urea nitrogen were associated with profound anemia and renal tubular damage. Repeated blood lead values over 200 microgram/dl were associated with a moribund termination while monkeys which had levels under 100 microgram/dl remained apparently healthy. Behavioral studies in a small number of subclinically poisoned juveniles and neonates failed to reveal deficiencies of visual acuity or cognitive ability, nor was there evidence of alterations in levels of activity.


An account is given in this paper of results obtained from radiotherapy and combined therapy in cases of regionally spreading carcinoma of the lung. Exploratory thoracotomy was definitely found to be accompanied by a minimum of complications (4.8 +/- 1.2 per cent) and low lethality (1.7 +/- 0.7 per cent). Complete remission, lasting more than 36 months, was recorded from 15.4 +/- 7.2 per cent of exploratively thoracotomised patients, following radically programmed radiotherapy. Extensive surgery, combined with preoperative and/or postoperative radiotherapy, was found to be practicable in cases of epidermoid lung carcinoma with metastases in mediastinal lymph nodes.


Research suggests that the drinking environment can affect dynamic processes involved in group decision making. The current study evaluated the need for cognitive closure (NFCC) as a mechanism underlying previously observed effects of alcohol dosage-set (i.e., beliefs persons have about the content of their beverages) on risk-seeking behavior. Five-hundred-four social drinkers (261 female) were assembled into 168 three-person groups and randomly assigned to one of three beverage conditions: alcohol, placebo, and no-alcohol control. Following beverage consumption, groups were asked to choose between two options of equal expected value, one of which offered a greater yet less certain (i.e., "riskier") outcome. Groups were given 150-sec to make a decision and were required to reach consensus. Group discussion was video-recorded, and behavioral measures of NFCC were systematically coded by three independent raters. Results did not support NFCC as a mechanism explaining the earlier finding; however, results suggested that the decision making task used here may not have offered a sensitive test of NFCC. Though methodological limitations were detected, supplemental analyses indicate that dosage-set affected group decision making prior to observable deliberation, and that groups valued affiliation more than they valued specific decision making outcomes regardless of which beverage was consumed or which decision was initially endorsed. These findings raise new questions regarding the effects of implicit cognitions and normative influence on decisions made in drinking contexts.


MAP3Kδ4 (At4g23050) is a Raf-like mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K) in Arabidopsis thaliana, classified as subgroup B2. The B2 subgroup MAP3Ks have a kinase domain in the C-terminus and a PAS domain in the N-terminal region. PAS domains are found in a variety of proteins and are reported to mediate protein–protein interactions and to sense environmental stimuli. However, the function of MAP3Kδ4 has not yet been determined. We generated transgenic plants constitutively expressing MAP3Kδ4 or its kinase-negative mutant (MAP3Kδ4KN) and characterized their physiological traits. The transgenic plants overexpressing MAP3Kδ4 showed earlier bolting than wild-type plants. They also showed more vigorous growth by both fresh weight and stem length. In contrast, the transgenic plants overexpressing MAP3Kδ4KN showed a highly branched phenotype; MAP3Kδ4 overexpression had no effect on branch number. These results indicated that MAP3Kδ4 is crucial to regulating both plant growth and shoot branching. In addition, MAP3Kδ4 transcripts were found in all Arabidopsis tissues examined and upregulated by auxin treatment in seedlings, suggesting that MAP3Kδ4 functions in an auxin-dependent manner.


Inventory record inaccuracy has significant negative impacts on the performance of inventory management. We investigate a robust replenishment problem for an inventory system under inventory record inaccuracy caused by invisible stock loss, with the objective of minimizing the sum of the inventory holding cost, the backorder cost, and the materials transportation cost. First, we develop a recursive algorithm to estimate the probability distribution of the physical inventory levels. Based on this probability distribution, a robust myopic reorder-time/order-quantity (RTQ) policy is designed, which determines the robust reorder time and the robust replenishment quantity. Theoretical analysis and numerical experiments reveal some managerial insights of the proposed RTQ policy and the classical (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${r}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), and (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) policies: 1) if there exist invisible stock loss and inaccurate inventory record, the inventory system will be trapped into the zero-service state (i.e., the inventory level becomes less than or equal to zero with probability one) in finite time under the classical policies and 2) if the probability distribution of inventory record error is known exactly, the RTQ policy prevents the inventory system from being trapped into the zero-service state and maintains a high service level, even if we do not make any audit of its physical inventory level.


Identifying the major drivers of ecosystem change remains a central area of ecological research. Although top–down drivers of change have received particular focus, we still have little understanding of how consistently these factors control an ecosystem's shift in both directions, between different ecosystem states. Using a crossed experiment in a shallow embayment in southeastern Australia, we investigated the roles of disturbance (kelp removal) and sea urchin herbivory (via increased density) to determine their contributions to shifts away from a kelp-dominated community. In a second experiment, done in urchin barren areas at two sites, we tested whether reductions in ambient sea urchin densities allowed an algal shift in the reverse direction. In both experiments, we observed that high densities of sea urchins could negatively influence kelp and macroalgal abundance. However, in the kelp bed, a moderate or severe disturbance resulted in a comparable algal response, irrespective of urchin density. The influence of sea urchins also varied dramatically between the two urchin barren sites. Here, reducing urchin densities resulted in algal recovery at one site, but at the other site, substantial colonisation of barren areas by canopy-forming brown algae and Ulvales occurred across all (low, medium, and high) urchin density treatments. Our findings illustrate multiple pathways of urchin barren creation and algal recovery, and reveal that shifts both to and from an urchin barren state can occur irrespective of herbivore pressure. These alternate pathways can operate over short spatial distances or with different regimes of disturbance.


Low-head labyrinth weir control structures installed on mild sloping channels or where the channel downstream of the weir is constricting and/or heavily vegetated can experience submergence. Weir submergence occurs when the tailwater surpasses the weir crest elevation, causing an increase in the upstream driving head for a given discharge, relative to a free-discharge condition. The most familiar relationship for predicting submerged weir head-discharge relationships is likely that of James R. Villemonte, which he published in 1947 for sharp-crested linear weirs. For lack of a better alternative, Villemonte's relation has also been applied to predicting submerged labyrinth weir performance. A new dimensionless submerged head relationship developed in this study is presented for submerged labyrinth weirs. A similar relationship is also presented for linear sharp-crested weirs. The accuracy of the submerged linear weir relationship was equivalent to Villemonte's and is simpler to solve when working in terms...


BACKGROUND
Following the introduction of sugammadex to the US clinical practice, scarce data are available to understand its utilization patterns. This study aimed to characterize patient, procedure, and provider factors associated with sugammadex administration in US patients.

METHODS
This retrospective observational study was conducted across 24 Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group institutions in the United States with sugammadex on formulary at the time of the study. All American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-IV adults undergoing noncardiac surgery from 2014 to 2018 receiving neuromuscular blockade (NMB) were eligible. The study established 3 periods based on the date of first documented sugammadex use at each institution: the presugammadex period, 0- to 6-month transitional period, and 6+ months postsugammadex period. The primary outcome was reversal using sugammadex during the postsugammadex period-defined as 6 months after sugammadex was first utilized at each institution. A multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression model controlling for institution was developed to assess patient, procedure, and provider factors associated with sugammadex administration.

RESULTS
A total of 934,798 cases met inclusion criteria. Following the 6-month transitional period, sugammadex was used on average in 40.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 39.8-40.2) of cases receiving NMB. Multivariable analysis demonstrated sugammadex use to be associated with train-of-four count of 0-1 (adjusted odds ratio = 4.06; 95% CI, 33.83-4.31) or 2 (2.45; 2.29-2.62) vs 3-4 twitches before reversal; the amount of NMB administered (3.01; 2.88-3.16) for the highest effective dose 95 quartile compared to the lowest quartile; advanced age (1.83; 1.71-1.95) compared to age <41; male sex (1.36; 1.32-1.39) compared to female sex; major thoracic surgery (1.26; 1.13-1.39); congestive heart failure (1.17, 1.07-1.28); and ASA III or IV (1.13; 1.10-1.16) versus ASA I or II.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data demonstrate broad early clinical adoption of sugammadex following Food and Drug Administration approval. Sugammadex is used preferentially in cases with higher degrees of NMB before reversal and in patients with greater burden of comorbidities and known risk factors for residual blockade or pulmonary complications.


Author(s): Yang, Shizhou | Abstract: Although critical pedagogy has been widely discussed in the Americas, little research has been done to recontextualize it in foreign language (FL) writing and explore its actual impact on the learners' sense of self. Hence, I consider in this article the possibility of transforming FL writing education by using a reconceptualized critical pedagogy. It first adapts from existing literature to develop a new framework for critical pedagogy for FL writing, emphasizing four interrelated components, i.e., relationship, identity, power and agency. It then describes the implementation of such a pedagogy in a creative writing classroom by a teacher researcher in an FL environment. Evidence such as students' written reflections, writing samples and teacher's fieldnotes suggests that this new critical pedagogy can help FL learners develop agentive ways with writing, which entails more increased confidence in writing, greater mastery of writing and healthier writing dispositions. My intention is not to provide a template for future work, but rather to generate discussion and localized explorations that facilitate rich understandings of both self and other through employing critical pedagogy for FL writing education.


We examine the diffusion of sustainable planning and design concepts into neighbourhood development projects, based on findings of a survey of planners in all 180 cities of five Southern California counties. Sustainable neighbourhood development has particular significance in Southern California owing to the regions's rapid growth. We compare 'typical' and 'innovative' neighbourhood developments to determine whether sustainable planning and design concepts are being incorporated in these projects. Although planners agree that 'innovative' projects are more likely than 'typical' projects to incorporate sustainable planning and design concepts, sustainability is not a high priority even in innovative neighbourhood projects. Our respondents identified significant barriers to and limited opportunities for encouraging sustainable neighbourhood development. These trends in planning and design appear likely to continue unless strong policy and other mechanisms are adopted to encourage sustainable neighbourhood development. The paper concludes with recommendations to promote more sustainable neighbourhood development.


Infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is a major health risk owing to birth defects, its chronic nature, ability to reactivate to cause blindness and encephalitis, and high prevalence in human populations. Unlike most eukaryotes, Toxoplasma propagates in intracellular parasitophorous vacuoles, but like nearly all other eukaryotes, Toxoplasma glycosylates many cellular proteins and lipids and assembles polysaccharides. Toxoplasma glycans resemble those of other eukaryotes, but species-specific variations have prohibited deeper investigations into their roles in parasite biology and virulence. The Toxoplasma genome encodes a suite of likely glycogenes expected to assemble N-glycans, O-glycans, a C-glycan, GPI-anchors, and polysaccharides, along with their precursors and membrane transporters. To investigate the roles of specific glycans in Toxoplasma, here we coupled genetic and glycomics approaches to map the connections between 67 glycogenes, their enzyme products, the glycans to which they contribute, and cellular functions. We applied a double-CRISPR/Cas9 strategy, in which two guide RNAs promote replacement of a candidate gene with a resistance gene; adapted MS-based glycomics workflows to test for effects on glycan formation; and infected fibroblast monolayers to assess cellular effects. By editing 17 glycogenes, we discovered novel Glc0–2-Man6-GlcNAc2–type N-glycans, a novel HexNAc-GalNAc-mucin–type O-glycan, and Tn-antigen; identified the glycosyltransferases for assembling novel nuclear O-Fuc–type and cell surface Glc-Fuc–type O-glycans; and showed that they are important for in vitro growth. The guide sequences, editing constructs, and mutant strains are freely available to researchers to investigate the roles of glycans in their favorite biological processes.


Rationale: Objective adherence to inhaled therapy by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has not been reported. Objectives: To objectively quantify adherence to preventer Diskus inhaler therapy by patients with COPD with an electronic audio recording device (INCA). Methods: This was a prospective observational study. On discharge from hospital patients were given a salmeterol/fluticasone inhaler with an INCA device attached. Analysis of this audio quantified the frequency and proficiency of inhaler use. Measurements and Main Results: Patients with COPD (n = 244) were recruited. The mean age was 71 years, mean FEV1 was 1.3 L, and 59% had evidence of mild/moderate cognitive impairment. By combining time of use, interval between doses, and critical technique errors, thus incorporating both intentional and unintentional nonadherence, a measure "actual adherence" was calculated. Mean actual adherence was 22.6% of that expected if the doses were taken correctly and on time. Six percent had an actual adherence greater than 80%. Hierarchical clustering found three equally sized well‐separated clusters corresponding to distinct patterns. Cluster 1 (34%) had low inhaler use and high error rates. Cluster 2 (25%) had high inhaler use and high error rates. Cluster 3 (36%) had overall good adherence. Poor lung function and comorbidities were predictive of poor technique, whereas age and cognition with poor lung function distinguished those with poor adherence and frequent errors in technique. Conclusions: These data may inform clinicians in understanding why a prescribed inhaler is not effective and to devise strategies to promote adherence in COPD.


© 2019 Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC 4.0
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).


Bulgarian–West German relations played a crucial role in Bulgarian foreign policy in Europe from the time the FRG became a leading West European political and economic power and a key member of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Economic Community. The normalization of official relations between Bulgaria and the FRG was significantly influenced by two major factors: the policy of closer coordination and multilateral interaction within the Warsaw Pact and the somewhat slower, though increasing, process of East-West détente and security negotiations in Europe through CSCE and the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction talks. This case study of the establishment of diplomatic relations between a powerful European state and a smaller one with opposite political orientation amid the East-West détente in the 1970s contributes to scholars' understanding of the complex nature of international relations in Europe during the Cold War.


. Diagnostics of a mental disorder completely bases on an estimation of patient's behaviour, verbal behaviour being the most important. The behaviour, in turn, is ruled by a situation expressed as a system of signs. Perception of a situation could be seen as a function, which depends on the context resulting from the previous situations, structuring personal world. So the world is not given — it is being formed while the person is in action. We argue that distinctive features of behaviour, including its abnormal variants, can be explained not in categories of characters and diseases but in terms of situations taking place in individual worlds. The situation in which a person perceives himself is not simply a site in a three-dimensional space at a certain moment, but a part of the world and an episode of his life. Like a text composed of words, individual world is composed of situations. Each of them needs certain context to cope with ambiguity. This context is induced by the world as a whole. And the world, in turn, is presented as a chain of situations. If the context cannot help to interpret a situation adequately, uncertainty can be eliminated by actions clarifying a situation, which is changed in a predictable way. Thus, purposeful activity, skills to make predictions and corrections of one's own actions are crucial. Weakness of any of them inevitably leads to the distortion of the presentation of the world, to wrong evaluation of situations and, as a result, to inadequate actions that finally reduce the activity as being ineffective. Thus, the lack of activity becomes the key factor in the development of disorder, being simultaneously its cause and effect. In periods of insufficient activity conditions for violated (and violating) sign processing arise. Possible variants of sign malfunction are: oligosemia (reduction of the number of perceivable signs), hyposemia (decrease of significance of signs), hypersemia


obtained from the Dunlop Rubber Company Ltd., Cambridge Street, Manchester, 1. The sealers have been found satisfactory for sealing screw-cap containers and for piercing repeatedly with serum needles for withdrawal of contents with a syringe. In these respects "silastomer" rubber seems at least as good as ordinary rubber, and we have noted no deterioration after repeated re-heating to 180° C. for as long as 100 hours. We have tested the porosity of the rubber to air and bacteria before and after such heat treatment and found it to retain its properties as an efficient seal. It was not permeable, either before or after heating, when exposed for a period of seven days to a growth of Serratia mlarcescents under slight positive pressure. We have also investigated the possibility that the rubber might have an inhibitory effect on bacterial growth and found that it does not inhibit the growth of minimal infecting doses of Staphlylococcius aulreuis, Escherichia coli, Bacillus anthlracis, Clostridiurn sporogenies, and Cl. tetani, nor does it delay germination of spores of the last three species. At present prices, when the rubber sheeting is bought in small quantities, disks for the screw-caps of " universal containers" cost 3s. 8d. per dozen. It is perhaps worth noting that " silastomer " rubber tubing can also be sterilized by dry heat in the same way as the sheet rubber.We are, etc., R. C. NAIRN.


Dual-channel thermal plasma torch can operate with air, argon, or combustible gases to produce high-temperature plasma flow. This plasma torch can be used in various important applications such as metal industry recycling, surface coating and hardening, space operations using controlled thrust, and macroparticle acceleration based on the electrothermal nature of thermal torches and electrical-to-thermal energy conversion. Power for this torch is supplied from the electric mains and the voltage is stepped up to 6 kV. However, the torch can also operate on dc or pulsed mode. The electrical operation is characterized by the voltampere relationship to determine the power rating of the torch as well as diagnosing the dynamic behavior of the plasma. Experiments on the torch using air and argon have shown plasma temperatures in the range of 0.4-0.6 eV with plasma number density in the range of 1024-1025/m3, indicating a dense plasma regime with the plasma tends to be weakly nonideal. Plasma kinetic temperature and electron number density were obtained from optical emission spectroscopy using the relative line method as the plasma is near local thermodynamic equilibrium condition. Plasma temperature has its peak for low flow rates and decreases for increased flow rates. The torch modeling was conducted using an electrothermal plasma code to simulate and predict the parameters for pulsed mode operation. Simulation was conducted on a single channel as the dual torch is symmetric. Code results for extended pulselength show a plasma temperature between 0.6 and 0.8 eV for nitrogen, oxygen, and helium; which are in good correlation with plasma temperatures obtained from optical emission spectra and measured plasma resistivity. A set of computational experiments using short pulses at higher discharge currents has shown temperature in the range of 2.0-2.5 eV for nitrogen and helium.


C57BL/6J male mice of different ages were movement-restricted and exposed to 10 degrees C for 3-hr periods every other week while colonic temperature was measured. A longitudinal trend in cold tolerance related to age and to initial colonic temperature was demonstrated. Adaptative thermoregulatory changes during cold exposure occurred during the first two tests. These were similar for all age groups except 30-month-old mice. There was no adaptation of colonic temperature during cold exposure among aged mice with repeated testing; however, their baseline colonic temperatures prior to testing increased after the first two tests. This finding suggests that old animals adjust to repeated cold stress differently than do younger mice. Specifically, younger animals are capable of adjusting their thermoregulatory response during cold stress with no change in baseline (pre-stress) temperature. Old animals do not modify the responses emitted during the stress; however, they do adapt by raising their baseline temperatures. Repeated cold exposure started later in life increased mortality among old animals but did not affect maximum lifespan.


The Wolverine polymetallic volcanic hosted mass sulfide deposit (VHMS), located in the Finlayson Lake District, Yukon, Canada, contains 6,237,000 tonnes of precious metals that includes 12.66% Zn, 1.33% Cu, 1.55% Pb, 370.9 g/t Ag, and 1.76 g/t Au. The deposit is preferentially associated with ~352 Ma quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) and ~347 Ma feldspar porphyry (FP) intrusions, that underlie the massive sulfide lens. Whole rock geochemical data, and in particular REE and HFSE illustrate the FP suite contains higher HFSE and REE and higher Nb/Ta ratios relative to the QFP suite. These have been interpreted to represent varying crustal and mantle contributions within an evolving Mississippian continental back-arc basin. New in situ LA-Q-ICPMS U–Pb and LA-MC-ICPMS Lu–Hf isotopic data from zircon from the two porphyries suggests the presence of a deep crustal source. Inherited zircon cores identified in both the QFP and FP suite have ages ranging between 1.0 Ga to 2.0 Ga. The Lu–Hf analyses, that were done directly on top of the U–Pb analyses in the zircon grains, in the QFP averaged an eHf value of -12.4, compared to the FP which have an average eHf value of -6.7. These inherited zircon cores were either derived locally from recycled basement sources that have Neoproterozoic crust, and/or regionally with material from the Wopmay Orogen to Paleoproterozoic ages from the North American cratonic basement; which could make up the underlying basement rock of the Finlayson Lake District. The zircon Hf data for both porphyries have negative eHf values indicating a crustal source, but with the FP containing a higher eHf value suggesting a greater interaction with the mantle when comparing it to the QFP. This supports the evolving back-arc basin model for the Finlayson Lake District, with the regional extensional tectonics generating mafic magma at the base of the crust. This mantle driven heat would have melted the overlying crust, generating first the QFP, which were derived predominantly from crustal sources and had more negative eHf. With continued basin opening, mantle upwelling, and crust-mantle mixing, there was a decrease in the amount of crustal material and an increased mantle component leading to a higher eHf in the FP suite. These results are consistent with mantle heat and basaltic upwelling being important in the generation of VMS.


Although hepcidin, a recently discovered peptide hormone, is considered a major regulator of iron metabolism and anemia in chronic inflammation, its role in anemia during pregnancy has not been characterized. Our objective was to characterize the role of hepcidin in anemia during pregnancy. We examined the relationships between urinary hepcidin, iron status indicators, hemoglobin, erythropoietin, alpha-1 acid glycoprotein, and C-reactive protein in a cross-sectional study conducted among 149 pregnant rural Bangladeshi women with biospecimens obtained during home visits. Urinary hepcidin was measured using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Urinary hepcidin, as log(intensity per mmol/L creatinine), was correlated with log ferritin (r = 0.33, p <0.001), the transferrin receptor index (r = -0.22, p = 0.007), and log alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (r = 0.20, p = 0.01), but not hemoglobin (r = 0.07, p= 0.40), log transferrin receptor (r = -0.07, p = 0.41), log erythropoietin (r = -0.01, p = 0.88) or log C-reactive protein (r = 0.06, p = 0.48). The strength of the relationship between hepcidin and ferritin was maintained in multiple linear regression analyses after enhancing the sample with data from women selected for low iron stores (n = 41). Among pregnant women in a community-based study in rural Bangladesh, urinary hepcidin levels were related to iron status and AGP but not hemoglobin, erythropoietin, or C-reactive protein.


Incubation of ribonuclease with 0.1M mercaptoethanol at pH 8.5 can increase the enzyme's hydrolytic activity toward cytidine 2',3'-monophosphate (cyclic CMP) under standard assay conditions. Cation-exchange chromatography of the ribonuclease-thiol reaction mixture revealed seven fractions. The fraction with the highest activity had an approximate tenfold decrease in the apparent Michaelis constant for cyclic CMP with respect to native ribonuclease. The enhanced activity is a metastable property since this fraction reverts back to the control activity and chromatographic behavior of native ribonuclease on standing in solution at room temperature.


Signals from cones are recombined in postreceptoral channels [luminance, L + M; red-green, L − M; blue-yellow, S − (L + M)]. The melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells are also active at daytime light levels and recent psychophysical results suggest that melanopsin contributes to conscious vision in humans. Here, we measured BOLD fMRI responses to spectral modulations that separately targeted the postreceptoral cone channels and melanopsin. Responses to spatially uniform (27.5° field size, central 5° obscured) flicker at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 Hz were recorded from areas V1, V2/V3, motion-sensitive area MT, and the lateral occipital complex. In V1 and V2/V3, higher temporal sensitivity was observed to L + M + S (16 Hz) compared with L − M flicker (8 Hz), consistent with psychophysical findings. Area MT was most sensitive to rapid (32 Hz) flicker of either L + M + S or L − M. We found S cone responses only in areas V1 and V2/V3 (peak frequency: 4–8 Hz). In addition, we studied an L + M modulation and found responses that were effectively identical at all temporal frequencies to those recorded for the L + M + S modulation. Finally, we measured the cortical response to melanopsin-directed flicker and compared this response with control modulations that addressed stimulus imprecision and the possibility of stimulation of cones in the shadow of retinal blood vessels (penumbral cones). For our stimulus conditions, melanopsin flicker did not elicit a cortical response exceeding that of the control modulations. We note that failure to control for penumbral cone stimulation could be mistaken for a melanopsin response. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The retina contains cone photoreceptors and ganglion cells that contain the photopigment melanopsin. Cones provide brightness and color signals to visual cortex. Melanopsin influences circadian rhythm and the pupil, but its contribution to cortex and perception is less clear. We measured the response of human visual cortex with fMRI using spectral modulations tailored to stimulate the cones and melanopsin separately. We found that cortical responses to cone signals vary systematically across visual areas. Differences in temporal sensitivity for achromatic, red-green, and blue-yellow stimuli generally reflect the known perceptual properties of vision. We found that melanopsin signals do not produce a measurable response in visual cortex at temporal frequencies between 0.5 and 64 Hz at daytime light levels.


We propose DeepMiner, a framework to discover interpretable representations in deep neural networks and to build explanations for medical predictions. By probing convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained to classify cancer in mammograms, we show that many individual units in the final convolutional layer of a CNN respond strongly to diseased tissue concepts specified by the BI-RADS lexicon. After expert annotation of the interpretable units, our proposed method is able to generate explanations for CNN mammogram classification that are correlated with ground truth radiology reports on the DDSM dataset. We show that DeepMiner not only enables better understanding of the nuances of CNN classification decisions, but also possibly discovers new visual knowledge relevant to medical diagnosis.


The high temperature phase austenite in steel has the property to transform into a variety of room temperature phases like coarse pearlite, bainite & martensite depending upon the cooling cycle. The machinability and toughness depend upon the shape and distribution of pro eutectoid harder phases. The spherical or oval shapes give lesser resistance for machining process. So it is required to design the heat treatment to tailor the property as required by the application. In this view, it is proposed to study the mechanical and micro structural properties of EN47 steel undergoing Spheroidization. The aim of this work is to test the hardness, toughness and wear property of the steel in spheroidised condition. Hardening treatment improves hardness of the material, a marginal decrease in hardness value with improved ductility is observed in tempering. Hardening and longer duration tempering show better wear resistance compared to other heat treatments. Both mild and severe wear regions are observed. Generally mild wear region is observed above five hours of continuous running of the specimen. Micro structural analysis shows the existence of pearlitic structure in as bought & normalized specimen, lath martensitic structure in hardened specimen.


Mechanical fatigue tests were conducted on specimens of A356-T6 casting alloys under multi-axial cyclic loadings with 5 loading paths (proportional, circular, square, diamond, and ellipse path). Optical microscopy and TEM were used to examine both undeformed and fatigue failure specimens. It is shown that undeformed material has coarse microstructure with low density of dislocation. Under every loading path, cyclic hardening dominates the whole fatigue process. Additional hardening is found in this casting material, but the rate and extent of cyclic hardening and additional hardening are quite dependent on particular loading paths. Various dislocation substructures are observed in the specimens including specimens fatigued to 20 cycles and fatigue failure specimens. While these dislocation substructures are determined by the moving ability of dislocation and interactions between dislocation and particles. Low cycle fatigue life is sensitive to the difference of loading paths, and the fatigue life increases as the extent of cyclic hardening decreases.


WY : An 18-year-old footballer with no previous significant medical history sustained a tendon injury during a football match. This was repaired successfully under general anaesthetic, but the SaO2 (% saturation of haemoglobin) was found to be 78.5% on air. Following recovery from the injury, he returned to playing football six times per week while he was investigated further. Chest X-ray and CT scan demonstrated three pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) that were thought to be due to underlying hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT).

CLS : That would be the most likely cause of the clinical picture. PAVMs1 affect approximately 1 in 2600 people,2 have usually completed growth by puberty and frequently result in hypoxaemia.3 The PAVM vessels provide an anatomic right-to-left shunt that allows a fraction of pulmonary arterial blood to bypass the pulmonary capillary bed and hence gas exchange. Greater shunt flow (as a proportion of cardiac output) results in lower PaO2/SaO2, but this is frequently asymptomatic. The majority of patients have underlying HHT, especially if they have multiple PAVMs.

WY : How was it possible for him to be so sporty?

CLS : The relevant term for oxygen transport to the tissues is not the SaO2 or PaO2 (in kPa or mm Hg), but the arterial oxygen content (CaO2 (mL of oxygen per unit blood volume)). CaO2 depends on the concentration of haemoglobin in addition to the commonly measured oxygen parameters. I would predict that the patient had secondary polycythaemia at presentation.

WY : Yes, the haemoglobin was 20.9 g/dL and haematocrit 0.61%.

CLS : So this will have maintained his CaO2, which we can calculate as SaO2×haemoglobin×1.34/100. His CaO2 was 22 mL/dL, which is higher than normal, as seen in 23 athletes with PAVMs, …


China has become the second-largest economy in the world; however, the price of its rapid economic development has been a rise in serious environmental pollution, with air quality being a major public issue in many regions. However, few previous energy and environmental sustainability studies have included the Air Quality Index (AOI) and in particular CO2 and PM2.5 emissions in their calculations and few have included regional differences, as these are difficult to describe using radial and non-radial methods. In this paper, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to assess the energy and economic efficiencies of Chinese provinces and cities, in which the environmental pollution source variable is CO2, and the main methods applied are radial (CCR or BCC) and non-radial SBM (Slacks Based Measures). Different from past studies, this study used both a Meta Undesirable EBM (Epsilon-Based measure) method to overcome the radial and non-radial errors and geographical differences and AQI environmental pollution indicators to accurately assess the economic, energy, and environmental efficiencies. It was found that: (1) Guangzhou and Shanghai had the best four-year efficiencies, (2) the energy efficiency differences in each city were large and there was a significant need for improvements, (3) the GDP efficiencies in each city were high, indicating that all cities had strong economic development, (4) the CO2 efficiencies indicated that around half the cities had had sustained improvements, (5) the AQI efficiencies in each city were low and there was a significant need for improvement, and (6) the technological differences between the cities were large, with the efficiencies in the high-income cities being much higher than in the low-income cities.


Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are developed in order to reduce the fuel consumption and the emission of carbon dioxide. Besides the series, parallel and power split configurations are commonly used for conventional hybrid electric vehicles, and multimode transmissions are used for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which are able to switch between different modes like parallel or series operation of the combustion engine and electric motor. Several concepts have already been discussed and presented. These concepts comprise novel structures and multi-speed operation for the combustion engine and the electric motor, respectively. For improving the fuel and energy consumption, model-based optimizations of multimode transmissions are performed. In the first step of the optimization, the optimal number of gears and transmission ratios, as well as the corresponding fuel and energy savings, are estimated. Based on these results, a new multimode transmission concept with two-speed transmissions for the combustion engine and the electric motor has been developed. The knowledge of the concrete concept enables the further optimizations of the transmission ratios and the transmission control. In order to prove the benefit of the new and optimized transmission concept, powertrain simulations have been carried out. The new powertrain concept is compared to a powertrain concept with single-speed transmissions for the internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric motor operation. The new transmission concept enables a significant improvement of the fuel consumption.


This paper presents an intelligent control of a microgrid in both grid-connected and islanded modes using the multiagent system (MAS) technique. This intelligent control consists of three levels. The first level is based on local droop control, the second level compensates power balance between the supply and the demand optimally, and the third level is at the system level based on electricity market. An intelligent MAS was developed and implemented based on foundation for intelligent physical agents standards by representing each major autonomous component in the microgrid as an intelligent software agent. The agents interact with each other for making their own decisions locally and optimally. The coordination among the agents ensures power quality, voltage, and frequency of the microgrid by determining the set points that optimize the overall operation of the microgrid. The proposed control architecture and strategies for the real-time control of microgrids were analyzed in detail, and tested under various load conditions and different network configurations. The outcomes of the studies demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed control and strategies, as well as the capability of the MAS technique for the operation of microgrids.


In recent years, Iran's economy has been under sever sanctions. The sanctions were increased by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after 2012 which caused rapid changes in the price of all imported materials. As the result, price of the imported parts and materials of car manufacturing companies rapidly increased. After this sudden jump in the prices, the government decided to import technology and adjust it with regards to the economic, social, and political conditions of the country which is termed as technology localization. In this paper, we first propose a model describing effect of sanctions on Iran's energy market and relate these sanctions to the market of car manufacturing companies. Then we model the effect of technology localization in stabilizing the car prices in long term.


Introduction. Rocking movements appear to influence sleep and studies suggests a facilitated transition from wake to sleep due to lateral rocking movements. In a recent study of our lab, investigating the effect of different movement directions on relaxation and their potential to promote sleep, an increase in respiration frequency was found. Respiration was increased in all conditions with movement, reaching values close to the movement frequency. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different movement frequencies and amplitudes on respiration. Furthermore, it was of interest whether subjects also adapt their respiration to movement frequencies below their spontaneous respiration frequency. Methods. 21 subjects (24–42 years, 12 male) were measured using an actuated bed, moving along a lateral translation. Following movement frequencies were applied: +30%, +15%, −15%, and −30% of subject's resting respiration frequency during baseline (no movement). Furthermore, two different movement amplitudes were tested. Respiration frequency was measured with a thermistor flow sensor as well as with a respiration belt. Results. An increase in respiration frequency compared to baseline was found for all movement frequencies and amplitudes. No differences between the different movement frequencies as well as between the two different movement amplitudes were observed. Conclusion. Movements along a lateral translation induced an increase in respiration frequency. This increase appeared to be independent of the applied movement frequencies or amplitudes. Furthermore, no synchronization of the respiration frequency to the movement frequency was observed. In particular, subjects did not lower their respiration frequency below their resting frequency.


Drawing upon the wealth of literature previously written about the Masan Free Export Zone (MAFEZ), this thesis will disentangle the conflicting information and hypotheses about the some of the zone's 'welfare benefits.' That is, the thesis will examine production linkages and technology spillover from the export processing zone (EPZ) itself to the greater economy. The vast literature already written on this subject is divergent, to say the least, and much of it is inconsistent with simple facts available in archival materials and exhaustively compiled statistical evidence. Therefore, this thesis will examine the extant literature on the zone and compare this with archival material gathered in South Korea to reinterpret the facts through a more holistic and interdisciplinary lens. This thesis will demonstrate that the establishment of MAFEZ was successful in creating such welfare benefits to the domestic Korean economy outside of the zone, and that such success was mostly policy-induced. Chapter One will introduce some of the divergent ideas and academic controversies about EPZs in general and MAFEZ in particular. Chapter Two will give a brief history of Korea's export-oriented industrialization drive, and how Korean Industrial Estates (IEs) and EPZs figured in this drive. It will also delineate important political and economic differences between Korean IEs and EPZs. Chapter Three will examine in detail production linkages from MAFEZ. Chapter Four will study technology spillover from the zone and the impact of such spillover. This thesis will conclude with an overview of the argument and an explication of some of the problems that MAFEZ, as a development tool, faced during its evolution


Mg-Al-Sn alloy is a novel magnesium alloy with extremely high application values; however, it also has defects in high temperature properties and corrosion resistance. Alloying and preparation technology are two effective approaches used to improve alloy properties. In this study, specimens of Mg-5Al-3Sn-0.2Sc alloy were prepared using the copper mold spray casting method. A series of experiments, including XRD, SEM, and mechanical and corrosion resistance property tests were conducted. First, the results indicated that the alloy prepared using the copper mold casting method was an amorphous alloy, and its tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation at ambient temperature were 462MPa, 378MPa, and 21.8%, respectively. Compared to the ambient temperature, when at a higher temperature of 350°C, the tensile strength and yield strength decreased by 5% and 9.8%, respectively, but elongation increased by 35.8%. Second, the corrosion potential increased 509mV, compared to commercial AZ31 magnesium alloy, indicating its corrosion resistance property significantly improved. The results show that using the copper mold casting method is efficient. The experiment results demonstrate that the alloy prepared using the copper mold casting method has important academic significance and application prospects.


The operation error of a robot that occurs inevitably due to the manufacturing tolerance needs to be controlled within a certain range to achieve proper performance of the robot system. The reduction of manufacturing tolerance, however, increases the manufacturing cost in return. Therefore, design engineers try to solve the problem of maximizing the tolerance to reduce the manufacturing cost while minimizing the operation error to satisfy the performance requirement. In the present study, a revolute joint model considering uncertainties due to joint clearance is employed to perform a reliability analysis of the robot manipulator operation. The reliability analysis procedure employs single Monte-Carlo simulation and a statistical relation between the tolerance and the operation error. Significant reduction of computing time can be achieved with the proposed method. The present method is especially effective if sensitivity information is hard to be obtained for the analysis.


We define two conformal structures on S1 which give rise to a different view of the affine curvature flow and a new curvature flow, the "Q-curvature flow". The steady states of these flows are studied. More specifically, we prove four sharp inequalities, which state the existence of the corresponding extremal metrics.


The molecular-rich atmospheres of M type stars complicate our understanding to their atmospheric properties. Recently, great progress has been made in atmospheric modeling of M-type stars, and we take advantage of the updated BT-Settl model grid to develop a pipeline LASPM to measure atmospheric parameters (T eff, log g, [M/H]) of M-type stars from low-resolution spectra. The pipeline was applied to the sixth and seventh data release (DR6 & DR7) of Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), which released atmospheric parameters for 610 419 and 680 185 M-type spectra, respectively. The key algorithm is to find the best-matching for templates in the synthetic spectral library for an observed spectrum, and then minimizing χ 2 through a linear combination of five best-matching templates. The intrinsic precisions of the parameters were estimated by using the multiple epoch observations for the same stars, which are 118 K, 0.20 dex, 0.29 dex for T eff, log g, and [M/H] respectively. The T eff and log g are consistent with the spectral and luminosity classifications by LAMOST 1D pipeline, and the loci of giants and dwarfs both on spectral index and color-magnitude diagrams show the validity. The metallicities of LASPM are also checked with the selected members of four open clusters (NGC 2632, Melotte 22, ASCC_16, and ASCC_19), which are consistent without any bias. Comparing the results between LASPM and the APOGEE Stellar Parameter and Chemical Abundance Pipeline (ASPCAP), there is a scatter of 73 K, 0.22 dex, 0.21 dex for T eff, log g, and [M/H], respectively.


Although the legal framework for gender equality exists in Vietnam, gender mainstreaming in climate change planning and action have not yet been fully realised and addressed by local actors. In Da Nang, a gendered view to climate resilience building was also a new approach for the city and local authorities and vulnerable communities. This study examines the gender issue through the climate resilience lens within the context of Da Nang to see how gender and its link to climate change was locally perceived and at what level(s) gender equality and women's role were appreciated and incorporated into climate change planning and action. The study applied the Resilience Framework provided by the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) to examine the linkages of gender and climate change resilience building. Three key components of this Framework, Agent, Institution and System, were then used to analyse the data collected from the stakeholder consultations and field survey. The key research findings include (i) in Da Nang, gender relations have recently been given a positive signal; (ii) the lack of specific instructions on gendered relations is likely to cause local actors to underestimate the importance of gendered interventions in practice; and (iii) the greater vulnerability of women is not merely due to social or gender biases but also because of their own physical weaknesses. Three important policy implications generated from the study are (i) the necessity of improving women's capacity to address their vulnerability; (ii) the necessity of having supportive mechanisms to enable full participation of women in planning and decision making; (iii) the necessity of integrating gender-sensitive indicators into plans and strategies to guide gendered interventions in practice. AsiAn Cities ClimAte ResilienCe 5


PURPOSE
This study investigated the use of neck-skin acceleration for relative fundamental frequency (RFF) analysis.

METHOD
Forty individuals with voice disorders associated with vocal hyperfunction and 20 age- and sex-matched control participants were recorded with a subglottal neck-surface accelerometer and a microphone while producing speech stimuli appropriate for RFF. Rater reliabilities, RFF means, and RFF standard deviations derived from the accelerometer were compared with those derived from the microphone.

RESULTS
RFF estimated from the accelerometer had slightly higher intrarater reliability and identical interrater reliability compared with values estimated with the microphone. Although sensor type and the Vocal Cycle × Sensor and Vocal Cycle × Sensor × Group interactions showed significant effects on RFF means, the typical RFF pattern could be derived from either sensor. For both sensors, the RFF of individuals with vocal hyperfunction was lower than that of the controls. Sensor type and its interactions did not have significant effects on RFF standard deviations.

CONCLUSIONS
RFF can be reliably estimated using an accelerometer, but these values cannot be compared with those collected via microphone. Future studies are needed to determine the physiological basis of RFF and examine the effect of sensors on RFF in practical voice assessment and monitoring settings.


Intellectual disability (ID) is a major health problem mostly with an unknown etiology, affecting 1–3% of the general population. Discovering the genetic cause of these cases is dramatically challenging. Nowadays, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology provides advantages for the genetic diagnosis of ID. Here, by the help of Whole exome sequencing, we report an Iranian family with a child having non-syndromic ID (NS-ID) with autistic behaviors and seizure. The results revealed a novel nonsense mutation (c.3283CGA>TGA) located in an autozygous region on chromosome 7, leading to an amino acid change to terminal codon (p.Arg1095*) in CNTNAAP2. The affected child was homozygous for the mutation and his parents were heterozygous as expected in autosomal recessive inheritance. In conclusion, our study identified a novel mutation in CNTNAAP2 gene, and showed that WES provides advantages for detecting novel ID associated variants and can greatly facilitate the genetic diagnosis of the disease.


The plasma time-activity curve is often required as the input function for dynamic quantitative FDG PET studies to estimate the metabolic rate of glucose. The invasive gold standard arterial blood sampling has been suggested, however, it has many inconveniences and challenges in clinical and pre-clinical settings. Thus, the image-derived input function has been proposed to obtain the input function from dynamic images non-invasively. This method often needs a manual drawing of one or two regions of interest (ROIs), which is an operator-dependent and time-consuming task. The aim of the presented study was to capture the spatial and temporal patterns of dynamic PET images for automatic ROI extraction. Our proposed approach tries to overcome the main limitation of image clustering methods: the loss of temporal information for dynamic PET ROI definition. The experiments showed that the proposed automatic ROI method can be used for dynamic PET parameter estimation.


Aims A pilot study to determine whether the method of skin closure affects wound infection rates following caesarean section (CS). To evaluate current practice and preference of skin closure methods following CS among obstetricians in Scotland. Method A retrospective cohort study of women with CS at St John's Hospital, Livingston between 1 October 2009 and 31 December 2009 was performed. Data collected included age, booking body mass index (BMI), obstetric history, skin closure method, microbiology confirmed wound infection and other wound complications. Online questionnaires were distributed to all consultant obstetricians in Scotland. Results 191 women had a CS (54% elective; 3% emergency pre-labour and 43% emergency in labour). 32 (16.2%) women developed a superficial wound infection and 22 (11%) other complications. Surgical notes were available for 158 women. There was no difference in rates of wound infection with skin closure by staples (10/158; 21%) compared to sutures (16/158; 29%) (p=0.29). BMI and other wound complications were the only predictors of wound infection (p=0.01). 51% (51/100) of consultants completed the questionnaire. Consultants preferred skin closure by sutures in women with a BMI <25 kg/m2 and staples with interrupted skin sutures in women with a BMI >40 kg/m2. The main factors influencing consultant's mode of skin closure were cosmetic outcome and lower risk of infection. Conclusion BMI was an important predictor for wound infection following CS. Rates of wound infection of 21% and 29% after skin closure by staples and sutures, respectively will inform future studies to determine the optimal method of skin closure at CS.


Medical practitioners in seventeenth century England came in many different forms, from herbal hawkers to apothecaries to barber-surgeons and physicians. Midwives occupied a special role within this complex cast of characters, as the only group of practitioners dominated by women. Working within the birthing room, midwives determined patrilineage through declaring births legitimate or illegitimate. In a patriarchal kingdom, this power determined property rights and often, the very throne of England. As informally educated practitioners, midwives drew their authority from observing more experienced midwives, attending successful deliveries, and even delivering their own children. Formally university-educated practitioners such as male physicians attempted to co-opt the power of the birthing-room through an absorption of reproductive health knowledge into the male academic sphere, a place where this knowledge had never been before. Rather than passively allowing a male intrusion, some midwives entered academia themselves to publish treatises valuing experiential knowledge over the hypothetical knowledge touted by physicians, who never attended childbirths. This thesis analyzes the ways in which midwives, despite the prevalent gender-based stereotype of their ignorance, disseminated their own reproductive health knowledge in academia while simultaneously adapting their responses to the social and political context of 1600s England.


This thesis is about localised responses to a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project located in the Aceh Besar District of Indonesia. It is intended as an inquiry into how locality is created by the encroachment of the FDI project and how locality motivates responses and strategies by local people. The FDI project in question is the Indonesian operation of a French cement multinational, Lafarge Cement Indonesia (hereafter called LCI). This company started to produce cement for domestic and export use in the 1980s, attracted to the region by the stocks of limestone found there. Since that time, it cannot be denied that the project has delivered on many of the promises of benefit that proponents of FDI associate with such projects. The project has endured, along with local subjects, a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions in 2004 when a tsunami struck the region, causing around 300,000 deaths in all of Aceh and untold destruction. But at the same time, the project has brought disruptions at the local level that are concealed in the statistics frequently marshalled to justify the benefit of FDI projects at national level. These statistics obscure local conditions. Through an intensive ethnographic study of the communities in the vicinity of the project, and through deliberations based on interpretations of locality in the anthropological and development literature (especially the World Bank concept of 'Place Premium'), I examine the role of locality in these disruptions and responses to them by local actors. I argue that global civil society (represented by a local NGO, the United Community Committee), and the Lafarge Corporate Social Responsibility program, have provided locals with 'weapons' through which their locality can be mobilised to achieve benefits from the FDI project.


We report on efficient, narrow linewidth exciton recombination in GaAs/AlGaAs V-groove quantum wire light-emitting diodes at room temperature. The high efficiency is due to a selective carrier injection mechanism resulting in an estimated internal quantum efficiency of ∼20% with an electroluminescence (EL) linewidth as narrow as 15 meV. The thermal broadening contribution to the linewidth is 6 meV due to exciton scattering with optical phonons. An analysis of the EL peak shift in a magnetic field points out the typical superlinear behavior of the excitonic binding energy for a quantum wire.


Abstract. The atmospheric aerosol properties were obtained within the framework of the AERONET program at the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory (Moscow MSU MO) over the 2001–2014 period. The quality data control has revealed the necessity of additional cloud screening and NO2 correction. The application of additional cloud screening according to hourly visual cloud observations provides a decrease in monthly average aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 500 nm of up to 0.03 compared with the standard data set. We also show that the additional NO2 correction of the AERONET version 2 data is needed in large megalopolis, like Moscow, with 12 million residents and NOx emission rates of about 100 kt yr−1. According to the developed method, we estimated monthly mean NO2 content, which provides an additional decrease of 0.01 for AOT at 340 nm, and of about 0.015 – for AOT at 380 and 440 nm. The ratios of NO2 optical thickness to AOT at 380 and 440 nm are about 5–6 % in summer and reach 15–20 % in winter when both factors have similar effects on UV irradiance. Seasonal cycle of AOT at 500 nm is characterized by a noticeable summer and spring maxima, and a minimum in winter conditions, changing from 0.08 in December and January up to 0.3 in August. The application of the additional cloud screening removes a local AOT maximum in February. Statistically significant negative trends in annual AOT for UV and mid-visible spectral range have been obtained both for average and 50 % quantile values. The pronounced negative changes were observed in most months with the rate of about −1–5 % yr−1 and could be attributed to the negative trends in emissions (E) of different aerosol precursors of about 135 Gg yr−2 in ESOx, 54 Gg yr−2 in ENMVOC, and slight negative changes in NOx over the European part of Russia. No significant influence of natural factors on temporal AOT variations has been revealed.


ABSTRACT This paper is based on a multiple case study of schools which have been identified as improving their performance for about a decade. We proposed different criteria by which to characterize and study these improvement processes and, by applying them to our sample, we elaborated a typology of school improvement trajectories: we identified 4 different trajectories of school improvement. We called the first type restricted improvement because at its center is the management of processes that mainly target academic achievement tests; the second is incipient improvement, which is based on changes that restructure the school processes; the third identified trajectory are cases where school improvement is moving toward institutionalization, while the last are those cases where improvement has been already institutionalized and the schools have achieved high levels of educational effectiveness. We identified challenges that schools face at different stages of school improvement and discussed some related policy issues.


The first section of this paper investigates some theoretical ramifications of the tempting but problematic interactions between postcolonial and disability studies. It presents and evaluates views by several critics who applaud or caution against cross-fertilizations between the two fields of study. It concludes that despite the validity of the critiques of such interactions, the two fields are closely connected, and each can illuminate some of the blind spots of the other. A postcolonialist perspective can curb the false universalism of disability studies, and the latter can help postcolonial studies embrace its other others. The second section of the paper uses the framework developed in the first section in reading Egyptian playwright Lenin al-Ramli's "A Point of View." The reading examines and problematizes al-Ramli's use of the blindness metaphor to represent the illiterate masses. Although the metaphor successfully conveys al-Ramli's message of empowerment (the blind take over the management of the charitable institution that abuses them), it unknowingly reinforces colonialist and elitist views of democracy as the burden of the enlightened. The educated speak for the illiterate, who are deemed unprepared for democracy, although the two groups do not share similar pursuits or ideological orientations.


This paper presents a systematic electromagnetic-circuit method for efficient simulation of coupled interconnects on dispersive dielectrics in the presence of electromagnetic interference. The dispersive substrate of coupled interconnects is characterized by the multiterm Debye or Lorentz formula. According to the differential equations derived from the equivalent circuit modeling of dispersive media, the full-wave finite-difference time-domain algorithm is utilized to capture accurate field in a dispersive substrate. The effects of incident field, under the quasi-TEM assumption, are then represented by the distributed sources along transmission lines. An efficient algorithm based on the waveform relaxation with transverse partitioning (WR-TP) is employed for fast simulation of coupled transmission lines. A simple and clear derivation of the relaxation sources in WR-TP is described and the compact results are given. The impact of dispersive dielectrics on the incident field, and thus to the transient response of interconnects, is investigated by comparison with conventional techniques. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.


Previous research has yielded conflicting findings about the existence and the direction of the size changes which occur in children's drawings when they are asked to draw topics which have been given an affective characterisation. The present study was designed to investigate whether children scale up the size of drawings of topics which have been given a positive characterisation, and scale down the size of drawings of topics which have been given a negative characterisation. Two hundred and fifty-eight children aged between 4 and 11 years completed three drawings of either a man, a dog or a tree. Each child drew a baseline drawing of a neutrally characterised figure, and two further drawings of a positively and a negatively characterised version of the same figure. It was found that the children drew the positively characterised topics larger than the neutrally characterised topics, and reduced the size of the negatively characterised topics relative to the baseline drawings. These patterns occurred at all ages and with all three drawing topics. Two possible explanations of the findings are discussed: the operation of an appetitive-defensive mechanism in children, and the acquisition of pictorial conventions.


The strategy of protecting the traditional glass fibre HEPA filtration train from it's blinding contamination and the recovery of dust by the means of self cleaning, pre-filtration is a proven means in the reduction of ultimate disposal volumes and has been used within the Fuel Production Industry. However, there is an increasing demand in nuclear applications requiring elevated operating temperatures, fire resistance, moisture resistance and chemical composition that the existing glass fibre HEPA filtration cannot accommodate, which can be remedied by the use of a metallic HEPA filter media. Previous research suggests that the then costs to the Department of Energy (DOE), based on a five year life cycle, was $29.5 million for the installation, testing, removal and disposal of glass fibre HEPA filtration trains. Within these costs, $300 was the value given to the filter and $4,450 was given to the peripheral activity. Development of a low cost, cleanable, metallic, direct replacement of the traditional filter train will the clear solution. The Bergman et al work has suggested that a 1000 ft^3/min, cleanable, stainless HEPA could be commercially available for $5,000 each, whereas the industry has determined that the truer cost of such an item in isolation would be closer to $15,000. This results in a conflict within the requirement between 'low cost' and 'stainless HEPA'. By proposing a system that combines metallic HEPA filtration with the ability to self clean without interrupting the process flow, the need for a tradition HEPA filtration train will be eliminated and this dramatically reduces the resources required for cleaning or disposal, thus presenting a route to reducing ultimate costs. The paper will examine the performance characteristics, filtration efficiency, flow verses differential pressure and cleanability of a self cleaning HEPA grade sintered metal filter element, together with data to prove the contention.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


ABSTRACTBimetallic nanoparticle (BNP) that comprises nanoscale zero-valent iron with a noble metal such as Pd, Pt, Ni, Ag, or Cu has been effective in removing various organic and inorganic compounds. In this study, the removal performance of tetracycline antibiotics, tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and chlortetracycline (CTC), from aqueous solution by nanoscale copper/iron (Cu/Fe) bimetallic particle was investigated. Batch experiments were performed to evaluate the effect of experimental variables such as solution pH, bimetallic particle dosage, and temperature on the removal efficiency of tetracyclines. The results obtained from the study indicated that the removal rate of tetracyclines was greatly dependent on pH. The removal of TCs above 90% was achieved at optimum conditions. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were applied to experimental data and the results fitted to Langmuir model. The pseudo-first-order and the pseudo-second-order models were used to express of adsorption ki...


As social beings we express, communicate, and, ultimately, negotiate our identity through many different channels: one such channel may be the way we dress, another the way we comport ourselves; yet another important channel is the use of language. We can even claim that the way in which we use language plays a crucial role when enhancing, maintaining, and challenging relationships in interpersonal communication. This use of language has variously been termed facework, identity work, relational work or rapport management (cf. Section 3 and 4 for references). This chapter is intended to explain this use by utilizing some of the literature on identity that follows a postmodernist understanding of the concept of identity as "the social positioning of self and other" (Bucholtz and Hall 2005:586). In a ddition, an attempt is made to combine research on the construction of identity by means of language more generally with the linguistic literature that has developed ideas under the keyword politeness. It is shown in this chapter that politeness research can fruitfully be combined with research on identity construction. This line of thought has already been pursued to some extent in the field of gender research (cf. Swann 2000), and also in studies on face and identity more generally (cf. Tracy 1990; Spencer-Oatey 20 07a,b). The chapter thus focuses on the interpersonal side of communication and further intends to explore the links between identity, face, and politeness. It is organized as follows: In section 2, I will discuss the interpersonal and the informational aspect of language. In Section 3, I will move on to link these ideas to identity construction in general. In Section 4, different approaches to politeness will be at the heart of the investigation and will be discussed with identity construction in mind. In Section 5, concluding remarks on the two approaches to interpersonal communication will round off the chapter.


In recent years, wireless networks have evolved tremendously especially in heterogeneous systems in order to effectively and efficiently support multiple access technologies. Heterogeneous networks will be paramount in the next generation wireless networks where devices are able to roam under various radio access technologies that lead to utilization of an IP-based core network. With the increasing accessibility and performance of different radio access technologies which are WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) have stimulated the mobile users towards increased of utilization. In such network, it is imperative for handovers between networks in order to maintain the seamless connectivity and a satisfactory quality of service for mobile users. Therefore, providing the quality of service (QoS) and seamless handover processes is one of the major matters for real-time services. This paper proposes a unified handover scheme to reduce the latency period of vertical handover during the video transmission. The proposed scheme is evaluated based simulation work on the handover performance under real-time video streaming networks.


Thermally induced transition from ordinary phosphorescence to delayed fluorescence in two kinds of luminescent copper(I) complexes is comprehensively investigated by using variable-temperature time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements as well as model analysis. A pronounced impact of the molecular structure on exciton transfer from the lowest excited triplet spin states to the singlet spin states with higher energy is firmly demonstrated. Moreover, several fundamental photophysical processes including triplet localization, triplet harvesting, and reverse intersystem crossing are explored using theoretical models. Temperature dependence abnormalities of the emission intensity are quantitatively interpreted. Raman spectral characterization and theoretical calculations of vibronic emission transitions reveal that the molecules' thermal vibrations play an essential role in the fluorescence process.


Gas-side fouling of waste-heat-recovery boilers, caused mainly by the deposition of particulate matter, reduces the heat transfer in the boiler. The fouling as observed on the tube bundles in the boiler of a Dutch refuse waste incinerator varied from thin and powdery for the economizer to thick and sintered for the superheater. Analysis of process data showed that both types of layers resulted in a 27% decrease of the heat transfer coefficient of the bundles. To determine the important mechanisms in the deposition of particles, layers taken from the different bundles are analyzed using electron microscopy. The analysis revealed the existence of a melt in the thick deposit. The melt, giving rise to a liquid phase, increases the sticking efficiency of the deposit and leads to larger deposition rates. For the economizer and the superheater the actual deposition rate is calculated from the change in heat transfer. On the basis of a comparison between the calculated deposition rates and deposition rates to be expected in the case of a pure diffusion and thermophoresis process, it is shown that for both types of deposits inertia-controlled transport is the dominant transport mechanism of particles.


Background/Objectives: Social Networking has been entertaining people for sharing their common ideas and proposals which are analyzed through social relations among them. The problem in the field of social network analysis is the absence of adequate computing resources to handle huge amount of data on World Wide Web. Therefore, users are unable to gather needed information correctly and thereby, the aim is to locate right information at the right time and delivering it to distinct group of people. Methods: Present paper gives the insight into the existing deployment of social network analysis and various ranking techniques which have been devised by various researchers for the social networking capabilities over the network. In order to accomplish the aim, virtual environment can be created for social network analysis. This analysis can be performed by various mining methods such as opinion mining, expert mining, etc. and ranking techniques like object average rating, neighbour variance rating, random rating and many more. Although these techniques optimize the information overload problem accordingly, still there is a need for expert identification. Findings: The future enhancement for social network analysis includes collaborative thinking. Social Network Analysis gathers people having similar interest by creating collaboration among users. This collaboration leads to resource sharing in an efficient manner after the creation of virtual environment. Furthermore, the field of social network analysis may take a turn to link analysis and its various algorithms like Page Rank, Weighted Page Rank and Weighted Page Content Rank which will further help in finding the expert and enhances the information effectively. Application/Improvements: The application to social network analysis is to discover the network of innovators in a regional economy, enhancing dark web analysis and spam behaviour detection. The arduous task of expert identification is an upcoming trend that can be implemented through virtual environment.


Background: Shoulder pain and disability pose a diagnostic challenge for clinicians owing to the numerous causes that exist. Unfortunately, the evidence in support of most clinical tests is weak or absent. Purpose: To determine the diagnostic validity of physical examination maneuvers for rotator cuff lesions. Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 1. Methods: Consecutive shoulder patients recruited for this study were referred to 2 tertiary orthopaedic clinics. A surgeon took a thorough history and indicated his or her certainty about each possible diagnosis. A clinician performed the physical examination for diagnoses where uncertainty remained. Arthroscopy was considered the reference standard for patients who underwent surgery, and MRI with arthrogram was considered the reference for patients who did not. The sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios were calculated to investigate whether combinations of the top tests provided stronger predictions of the presence or absence of disease. Results: There were 139 participants. None of the tests were highly sensitive for diagnosing rotator cuff tears or tendinosis. Tests for subscapularis tears were all highly specific. No optimal combination of tests improved the ability to correctly diagnose rotator cuff tears. Closer analysis revealed the internal rotation and lateral rotation lag sign did not improve the ability to diagnose subscapularis or supraspinatus tears, respectively, although the lateral rotation lag sign demonstrated a discriminatory ability for tear size. Conclusion: No test in isolation is sufficient to diagnose a patient with rotator cuff damage. A combination of tests improves the ability to diagnose damage to the rotator cuff. It is recommended that the internal rotation and lateral rotation lag signs be removed from the gamut of physical examination tests for supraspinatus and subscapularis tears.


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is growing increasingly important, with more and more companies acknowledging that they have an obligation to the environment in which they operate. We were interested in inquiring into why companies chose to do so, even though there are no laws that condition them to engage in CSR. One answer to this might be that companies use CSR as a way to distinguish themselves from the competition as well as to gain trust and goodwill from the stakeholders. When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, the question is no longer whether or not companies should engage in it, but how they can gain competitive advantage by doing so. This study aims at providing a framework for possible ways of integrating CSR and branding, as well as different strategies for CSR-communication. We also tried to define how, and why, consumers respond to CSR-initiatives. We based our case study on the Swedish fashion brands Gina Tricot and Nudie Jeans, two companies that have both chosen to undertake CSR- and sustainability efforts. The study's foundation lies on material from our conducted in-depth interviews and quantitative survey, as well as former studies on the subject. We sought to understand how and why companies engage in CSR-activities, how the two companies have chosen to incorporate CSR in their branding, how they communicate this both internally and externally, and finally how the CSR-efforts are perceived by the average consumer and influence their view of the brand. The theoretical framework relies on earlier studies and research regarding CSR, branding, different strategies for CSR-communication, as well as theories regarding how the consumers respond to CSR. Our analysis highlights the way our chosen companies have underestimated the degree to which consumers want to learn about the companies' CSR-efforts, as well as how they wish to be informed. The result from our survey implies that the consumers have an interest in learning about companies' CSR-programs and that such efforts for the most part will be beneficial when it comes to the stakeholders' view of the company.


1. Twenty heifer calves were allocated to four groups and maintained for 32 weeks on a diet based mainly on barley and straw and containing 4 mg copper/kg. The diet was supplemented with 0 or 800 mg iron/kg and 0 or 5 mg molybdenum/kg. 2. Liver and plasma Cu concentrations, erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (EC 22.214.171.124) and plasma caeruloplasmin (EC 126.96.36.199) activities decreased greatly and rapidly in all calves given the Fe or Mo supplements or both. Levels indicative of severe Cu deficiency were attained within 16 weeks. There were no significant differences in values in animals given Fe, Mo or Fe plus Mo. 3. Clinical signs of Cu deficiency developed after 20 weeks in the calves given the Mo supplement. Growth rates were reduced, skeletal lesions developed and hair texture and colour were affected. No such effects were observed in the calves given only the Fe supplement. 4. Plasma and liver Fe concentrations increased in calves given the Fe supplement but were not greatly affected by Mo, even when the calves were severely Cu-deficient. 5. The significance of the effects of Fe and Mo on Cu metabolism are discussed with special regard to the influence of soil ingestion on Cu availability and to the frequent lack of correlation between the Cu status of animals and their clinical condition.


Urodele amphibians display a remarkable ability to regenerate and are the only adult vertebrates able to regenerate their limbs. In mammals the capacity for regeneration is greatly curtailed and an important aspect of this is thought to be the plasticity of the differentiated state. On amputation of a newt limb, mature differentiated cell types at the site of injury are able to dedifferentiate to produce a mass of proliferating cells which will eventually re-differentiate to form the tissues of the regenerate. These events are absent in mammals where an inflammatory response predominates. Skeletal muscle is widely used as a model system for the study of dedifferentiation events in limb regeneration. Skeletal muscle myoblasts withdraw from the cell cycle and fuse to form multinucleate myotubes during differentiation, providing a striking differentiated phenotype. These multinucleate cells undergo conversion to mononucleate cells, referred to as cellularisation, during limb regeneration in urodeles. In recent years, a number of experimental tools to reverse differentiation of mammalian myotubes in vitro have been reported, one of which is myoseverin, a small microtubule-binding molecule isolated from a combinatorial chemical library by its ability to induce cellularisation of multinucleate myotubes. The work in this thesis has further investigated the mechanism of action of myoseverin, assessing to what extent the molecule can be said to initiate a programme in mammalian cells characteristic of that involved in urodele regeneration. Time-lapse microscopy has made possible observation of the process of cellularisation at a single cell level, and of the resulting mononucleate progeny, to determine the fate of these cells following cellularisation, while microarray analysis enabled evaluation of'events at a molecular level. These experiments revealed a significant role for microtubules in the mechanism of cellularisation and have highlighted cellularisation as a necessary, but not sufficient, aspect of the complex process of dedifferentiation.


The development of the mitochondrial mass of the previtellogenic oocytes of Xenopus laevis has been analysed by a morphometric method and it has been correlated with the growth of the occyte itself. The study which was performed with oocytes from females of very different ages shows that the relative size of the mitochondrial mass in the smallest oocytes decreases gradually with the age of the females. Cytophotometric analysis of the Feulgen-stained mitochondrial mass enabled the mtDNA content of that structure to be quantified during its development. This development involves about 12 rounds of replication out of the total 16--17 rounds of replication during complete differentiation of large oocytes. It is possible to estimate the mean replication rate of the mtDNA during the course of the previtellogenic period. The calculated rate of replication is very high in the mitochondrial mass of all the growing oocytes of very young females(about 1--2 months old), then it decreases rapidly when the oocytes reach 120 microns in diameter. These results suggest that the mitochondrial masses found in small oocytes of old females do not correspond to sites of active mitochondrial biogenesis but rather they represent a physiologically arrested collection of organelles. Thus the aggregation of mitochondria is the cytological expression of rapid and strictly localized mitochondriogenesis only in very young females.


Abstract. The research area of climate field reconstructions has developed strongly during the past 20 years, motivated by the need to understand the complex dynamics of the earth system in a changing climate. Climate field reconstructions aim to build a consistent gridded climate reconstruction of different variables, often from a range of climate proxies, using either statistical tools or a climate model to fill the gaps between the locations of the proxy data. Commonly, large-scale climate field reconstructions covering more than 500 years are of annual resolution. In this method study, we investigate the potential of seasonally resolved climate field reconstructions based on oxygen isotope records from Greenland ice cores and an isotope-enabled climate model. Our analogue-type method matches modeled isotope patterns in Greenland precipitation to the patterns of ice core data from up to 14 ice core sites. In a second step, the climate variables of the best-matching model years are extracted, with the mean of the best-matching years comprising the reconstruction. We test a range of climate reconstructions, varying the definition of the seasons and the number of ice cores used. Our findings show that the optimal definition of the seasons depends on the variability in the target season. For winter, the vigorous variability is best captured when defining the season as December–February due to the dominance of large-scale patterns. For summer, which has weaker variability, albeit more persistent in time, the variability is better captured using a longer season of May–October. Motivated by the scarcity of seasonal data, we also test the use of annual data where the year is divided during summer, that is, not following the calendar year. This means that the winter variability is not split and that the annual data then can be used to reconstruct the winter variability. In particularly when reconstructing the sea level pressure and the corresponding main modes of variability, it is important to take seasonality into account, because of changes in the spatial patterns of the modes throughout the year. Targeting the annual mean sea level pressure for the reconstruction lowers the skill simply due to the seasonal geographical shift of the circulation modes. Our reconstructions based on ice core data also show skill for the North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, in particularly during winter for latitudes higher than 50 ∘  N. In addition, the main modes of the sea surface temperature variability are qualitatively captured by the reconstructions. When testing the skill of the reconstructions using 19 ice cores compared to the ones using eight ice cores, we do not find a clear advantage of using a larger data set. This could be due to a more even spatial distribution of the eight ice cores. However, including European tree-ring data to further constrain the summer temperature reconstruction clearly improves the skill for this season, which otherwise is more difficult to capture than the winter season.


Cycling has become increasingly popular as a means of transportation. However, cyclists remain a highly vulnerable group of road users. According to accident reports, one of the most dangerous situations for cyclists are uncontrolled intersections, where cars approach from both directions. To address this issue and assist cyclists in crossing decision-making at uncontrolled intersections, we designed two visualizations that: (1) highlight occluded cars through an X-ray vision and (2) depict the remaining time the intersection is safe to cross via a Countdown. To investigate the efficiency of these visualizations, we proposed an Augmented Reality simulation as a novel evaluation method, in which the above visualizations are represented as AR, and conducted a controlled experiment with 24 participants indoors. We found that the X-ray ensures a fast selection of shorter gaps between cars, while the Countdown facilitates a feeling of safety and provides a better intersection overview.


Individual differences have been of special interest in the field of second language acquisition for decades. Recent studies show special interest in the stability of various individual differences. The results, however, have not proven to be coherent. This thesis aimed to investigate individual differences of Swedish students enrolled in a German course in 2011 and addressed the issue of stability and correlation, in terms of personality, motivation/attitude and communication strategy use. Furthermore, teachers' perception of their students" individual differences, as well the enhancement of ID factors in the language classroom were determined. The results could not verify recent criticism on previous individual difference research, since ID factors analyzed proved to be stable and to be highly correlated with each other. Especially the correlation between anxiety and extroversion, as well as communication strategy use proved to be interesting. Furthermore, a correlation between teaching practices and students' individual differences could be found.


Fenestrae are transcellular membrane pores that mediate blood-tissue exchange in highly specialized vascular endothelia such as in choroidal capillaries. Substances that traverse the pore never encounter the contents of the cytoplasm and are transported in a rapid and presumably energy-efficient manner. Fenestrae arise in attenuated regions of the endothelial cell periphery and are highly organized in clusters termed sieve plates. My PhD project was based on the identification of novel components of fenestrae and how these components contribute to mechanisms regulating fenestra formation. Using an in vitro biogenesis model coupled with proteomic analysis, we identified several proteins enriched in fenestrated plasma membranes. Localisation of candidate proteins was accomplished by immunolabelling, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Functional roles for the candidate proteins in fenestra biogenesis were probed through gain- and loss of function techniques. Coimmunoprecipitation was used to uncover protein-protein interactions, and biochemical reagents were applied to probe the signalling pathways involved in fenestra formation. Through extensive investigation, we identified the ERM (ezrin/radixin/moesin) protein moesin as a component of fenestral sieve plates. Inhibition of moesin function by expression of a dominant negative mutant or siRNA resulted in inhibition of fenestra formation, whereas knockdown of another regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, annexin II, led to a robust increase in fenestra formation. Biochemical and structural analyses showed that these modulators control the formation of an actin-fodrin submembrane cytoskeleton that is essential for sieve plate and fenestra formation, and that this cytoskeleton is directly linked to the fenestra pore protein PV-1. The transmembrane protein Na,K-ATPase is also a structural component of the submembrane complex, and functions as a regulator of fenestra formation in vitro and in vivo. These findings provide a conceptual framework linking the actin cytoskeleton to membrane remodeling during fenestra biogenesis and new molecular tools for probing fenestra structure and function.