On the southeast coast of Australia, there are extensive infestations of the environmental weed Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata (L.) T. Norl. (Bitou bush). This weed is highly invasive and persistent, yet little is known about how it impacts on coastal ecosystems. Plant invasions can greatly alter the area they invade, and can modify primary productivity, plant species composition, species diversity, decrease ecosystem stability and disrupt ecosystem processes. This research aimed to determine if C. monilifera invasion changes leaf litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Leaf litter invertebrates were also investigated as they play key roles in functioning of forest ecosystems and can greatly enhance litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. The herbicide glyphosate is widely used to control C. monilifera, however there have been few studies examining the effects of this herbicide on invertebrate communities in the field, especially on sand dunes. I aimed to determine if glyphosate application impacts leaf litter invertebrate involved in decomposition. Field studies and experiments were undertaken in five sites along the N.S.W coastline, each with an area heavily infested with C. monilifera and in native un-infested area. A litterbag decomposition study found that the succulent C. monilifera leaves decomposed at least three times faster than a sclerophyllous native leaf mix (Acacia longifolia var. longifolia, Banksia integrifolia and Leptospermum laevigatum) with the decomposition rates being related to the physical properties of the leaves. Nutrients were leached and mineralised quicker from the C. monilifera leaves, mostly due to the rapid decay. There was some immobilisation of sulphur and phosphorous in the native leaves when placed in the native sites and more immobilisation is expected with time. xii C. monilifera leaves decayed significantly faster in coarse mesh litterbags compared to the fine mesh, indicating leaf litter invertebrates positively influenced their decomposition. Mesh size had little effect on the native leaf decomposition rate. All C. monilifera litterbags and the coarse native litterbags decomposed faster and generally had greater nutrient loss within the C. monilifera infestations. This is due to an increase in invertebrate detritivores within the C. monilifera, and dense infestations creating a protected environment with an altered microclimate. There was a greater input of litter to the native sites, and this was highly seasonal compared to the C. monilifera areas. Maximal litter fall corresponded with periods of peak flowering and growth (spring –summer). Due to the higher leaf fall rate there is a greater input of nutrients to the forest floor in the native sites, even though large amounts of nutrients were withdrawn from the leaves before abscission. The slow decomposition and high litter fall resulted in greater amounts of litter accumulating on the native forest floor, which appears to act as a nutrient sink. Invasion by C. monilifera in coastal areas does not appear to change the nitrogen budget, but there are differences in where nitrogen is stored in comparison to uninvaded areas. The total soil nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen were significantly greater in most of the bitou bush sites, whereas in the native vegetation there was more nitrogen held within the leaf litter layer. Nitrogen appears to be cycled faster in the weedy areas, mainly as result of the increase in leaf quality and the speed of breakdown. Leaf litter invertebrate abundance and assemblage were compared between habitats over twelve months. The total abundance was not significantly reduced in the weedy habitat but the abundance of mites, thrips, spiders, ants, and centipedes was reduced at many sites. The invertebrate assemblages also differed between habitats, with the C. monilifera supporting a lower diversity of beetles. However, the millipedes, xiii amphipods, earthworms, pseudoscorpions and isopods appeared to respond positively to the invasion, occurring in higher abundance and detected more frequently in the weedy areas. This has been attributed to the change in microclimate within C. monilifera infestations, which are moister and darker, which these invertebrates tend to prefer. Furthermore as the leaf litter is of lower quantity and higher quality, and possibly higher palatability, than the native sclerophyllous vegetation, the detritivores assemblages seems to have responded positively. To determine the impact of the herbicide glyphosate on non-target litter invertebrates control and impact sites were selected in coastal hind dunes heavily infested with C. monilifera. The impact sites were sprayed with a 1:100 dilution of Roundup® BiactiveTM. The herbicide application had no direct or indirect effect on leaf litter invertebrate abundance or community composition in the four months following application. The litter invertebrate assemblages were highly variable on a small spatial scale with abiotic factors more strongly regulating leaf litter invertebrate numbers than glyphosate application. These results conflict with previous studies, indicating the detrimental indirect effects herbicide application has on non-target litter invertebrates may depend upon the application rate, the vegetation community and structure and postspray weather. Invasion by C. monilifera has changed the movement of leaf litter and the cycling of nutrients within coastal ecosystems, mainly through a change in quality and quantity of leaf litter. It has impacted on the litter invertebrates, which has amplified the increase in decomposition rate. The change in soil nutrient availability could increase the competitive superiority of C. monilifera directly by increasing growth rate, or indirectly by impairing the establishment of native species.


Moderating role of self-efficacy has been studied in several research contexts which also frequently involved organizations. According to the theoretical framework borrowed by social cognitive theory and referent cognitions theory, we have decided to explore the moderating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between justice perceptions and turnover intentions. Nine-hundred and four employees coming from private companies in Istanbul and Ankara participated in our study. Our results revealed important findings in relation to the moderating effects of different self-efficacy dimensions. Many interaction effects were as expected, except for those high in willingness to expend effort in completing the behavior. We discussed the results in light of certain theoretical assumptions and offered related recommendations for organizational practice and future research.


Abstract Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) offers high-resolution anatomic characterization of the coronary vasculature but may be suboptimal for lesions dependent on real-time visualization of flow including chronic total occlusion (CTO). In CTOs, heavy calcification and distal vessel opacification from collateralization may confound luminal assessment. Several studies have examined the role of CCTA in characterizing known CTOs to guide percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the efficacy of CCTA in the de novo diagnosis of CTOs prior to coronary angiography (CAG) has not been demonstrated. A total of 233 consecutive patients who presented for CAG within a 3-month period of having CCTA were retrospectively reviewed. Those patients with prior diagnosis of CTO or prior bypass of the occluded vessels were excluded. Sensitivity and specificity analysis of CCTA in identifying CTOs using CAG as the gold standard was performed. The prevalence of CTO was 21.11% in the population that met criteria for analysis (n = 199). The sensitivity of CCTA in predicting CTO was 57.1%, while the specificity was 96.8%. The positive predictive value and negative predictive value of CCTA in detection of CTO were 82.8 and 89.4%, respectively. Our study shows that CCTA has excellent specificity but poor sensitivity in the detection of CTO thus limiting its clinical use in de novo diagnosis. Further studies to determine the effect of de novo CTO diagnosis on clinically important procedural factors, such as radiation exposure, contrast use, and need for repeat procedures, are warranted and may implicate a role for CCTA in this setting.


The main purpose of this study is to investigate which strategies teachers identify as important to help pupils with severe language disorder to succeed in comprehensive school. Another purpose is to explore how teachers motivate the connections between chosen strategies that support learning and the pupils' achievements at school. Four research issues has been used: Which educational strategies do teachers use in classroom during teaching? How do teachers motivate their stance of chosen strategies during teaching? How do teachers explain the connection between chosen strategies and pupils achievements at school? How can collected data be interpreted and analyzed to clarify favorable strategies for learning? Qualitative method has been used for collecting data through semi-structured interviews with teachers working in comprehensive school. The teachers in this study are geographically well spread from the north of Sweden to the south of Sweden. The result in this study indicate that if teachers have a special educational approach, i.e. see environmental factors on teaching as their concern, it improves the students' knowledges. The result also show that teachers choose strategies out of experience in order to facilitate pupils' learning and improve their results at school.


Traditional audit methods served auditors for decades but as technology advances and stakeholders' expectations evolve, so does the need for auditors to innovate and transform their approaches in order to keep pace with demand. This publication describes some of the opportunities that new technologies, especially the use of audit data analytics, can offer for audits of entities of all sizes. It also provides a few tips which might be useful for practitioners, Small and Medium Sized Practices (SMPs) and Professional Accountancy Organizations (PAOs) as they support their members.


This study aimed to evaluate the inter rater reliability of the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH), in its version adapted to the Portuguese language, in patients with chronic leg ulcers. Kappa index was used for the analysis. After accomplishing ethical issues, 41 patients with ulcers were examined. A total of 49% of the ulcers were located in the right leg and 36% of them were venous ulcers. The Kappa indices (0.97 to 1.00) obtained in the comparison between the observations of the clinical nurses and the stomal therapists for all sub-scales and for total score, confirmed the tool inter rater reliability, with statistical significance (p<0.001). The PUSH instrument, in its Portuguese adapted version, showed to be reliable to the use in patients with chronic leg ulcers. Further studies should be conducted to evaluate its prospective performance.


This paper develops a structured low rank approximation (SLRA) method for noise elimination from a noisy impulsive response function (IRF). Cadzow's algorithm is implemented for the SLRA on the Hankel matrix constructed by measured IRF in order to obtain a filtered IRF. Using the proposed noise elimination scheme, some important factors, such as the size of a Hankel matrix and the quantification of the noise reduction performance are evaluated. Synthesized IRFs are applied to demonstrate the performance, and illustrate the procedure as well, of the proposed scheme in the numerical study. The results indicate that this method can eliminate noise from measured IRFs efficiently.


Counting targets (people or things) within a monitored area is an important task in emerging wireless applications, including those for smart environments, safety, and security. Conventional device-free radio-based systems for counting targets rely on localization and data association (i.e., individual-centric information) to infer the number of targets present in an area (i.e., crowd-centric information). However, many applications (e.g., affluence analytics) require only crowd-centric rather than individual-centric information. Moreover, individual-centric approaches may be inadequate due to the complexity of data association. This paper proposes a new technique for crowd-centric counting of device-free targets based on unsupervised learning, where the number of targets is inferred directly from a low-dimensional representation of the received waveforms. The proposed technique is validated via experimentation using an ultra-wideband sensor radar in an indoor environment.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a PGF 2α analogue (Dinoprost) on involution of the puerperal uterus, especially with pyometra during 35 to 45 days postpartum in multiparous high yielding Holstein dairy cows. At days 40 ± 5 postpartum, 1250 cows were ultrasonographically examined. Fifty cows were diagnosed as pyometric. Fifty pyometric and 50 clinically healthy cows were assigned randomly to one of four groups. Groups were: 1.) Pyometric+Dinoprost cows (PD, n = 25 treated with 25 mg of Dinoprost), 2.) Pyometric+Saline cows (PS, n = 25 treated with saline), 3.) Healthy+Dinoprost cows (HD, n = 25 treated with 25 mg of Dinoprost), and 4.) Healthy+Saline cows (HS, n = 25 treated with saline). All treatments were given intramuscularly. Ultrasonography was performed at the time of examination and 7 days later to evaluate changes in uterine diameter. Treatment with Dinoprost significantly reduced gross uterine diameter in PD in comparison to the PS group in the presence or absence (P4 concentrations <1 ng/ml) of an active corpus luteum. Dinoprost treatment did not decrease gross uterine diameter in groups HD and HS. Luminal diameter was significantly smaller in the PD than in the PS group. Pregnancy rate of PD was greater than PS cows (36% vs 20%, respectively). Days to first service (110 d vs. 140 d) and open days (160 d vs. 190 d) were shorter in PD cows than PS cows. It was concluded that injection of 25 mg of Dinoprost to pyometric cows had uterotonic effects in presence or absence of functional corpus luteum. Therefore, this treatment can help uterine involution in puerperal dairy cows affected by pyometra and consequently improved reproductive performance. Keywords: Cattle, Dinoprost, pregnancy rate, pyometra, uterine health


Mount Pentelikon was a primary source of white marble since the early fifth century BC. The fine- to medium-grain marble was heavily utilized by the ancient Greeks and Romans for statuary, architecture and epigraphic tablets. Despite the increased sophistication of recent signature studies, the archaeologically important white marble quarries on Mount Pentelikon, Attica, Greece have eluded precise characterization.|The presented research challenges the assumption of earlier scholars that Pentelic marble is homogeneous by investigating the geochemical and stable isotopic profile of the entire Pentelic quarry area. An extensive field study was undertaken to locate, map and categorize all surviving ancient and modern quarries. Field observations were also used to construct a geologic map of the quarry area. The maps reveal that the marble quarries fall within three marble units. The survey maps were used to acquire a 610 sample reference collection representing 72 of the 162 identified quarries.|Whole-rock compositional studies were carried out by NAA on sixty-one samples representing five geographically distinct quarry groups. Discriminant, cluster and principal component analyses were performed on the data to identify any significant structure within the data. No structure was evident. Since mineralogical impurities such as aluminosilicates and oxides can cause significant random compositional variation, a suggestion for future compositional studies recommends employing ICP, which has the benefit of only measuring the carbonate fraction.|Analyses using stable isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen suggest that there are regions within the greater Pentelic quarry area that can be distinguished. Correlating the ?13C and ?18O values with the geologic map reveals that Marble Units 1 and 2 have significantly increased ?13C values. Marble Unit 3 is recognizable by having a narrow range of ?13C values and significantly higher ?18O values. The marble with the highest oxygen ratios are from three neighboring quarries on the upper slope of Marble Unit 3. The high values correspond to the isotope ratios of the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum in London. The success of the database in locating the quarries for the Parthenon sculptures attests to the importance of carrying out extensive fieldwork when undertaking quarry characterization studies.


Catalogue for the 'Revolutionary Books' exhibition, displayed at Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society between January and March 2017.

The Lit & Phil's collections include many contemporary accounts of the Russian revolutions of 1917. These include the memoirs of key politicians and participants, accounts by western witnesses of the revolution, travelogues devoted to early visits to the Soviet Union, and early editions of the works of revolutionaries. This brochure showcases some examples from the library's collections.


This paper presents an approach to dynamic component composition that facilitates creating new composed components using existing ones at runtime and without any code generation. The dynamic abilities are supported by extended type notion and implementation based on additional superstructure provided with its Java API and corresponding JavaBeans components. The new component composition is performed by building the composed prototype object that can be dynamically transformed into the new instantiable type (component). That approach demonstrates interrelations between prototype-based and class-based component-oriented programming. The component model proposed can be used when implementing user-defined types in declarative languages for event-driven applications programming.


The Diomedeidae (Albatrosses) family is comprised of 22 recognised species, 13 are of high conservation concern because they are experiencing population declines. The taxonomy of albatrosses has always been problematic, which makes it difficult to estimate the number and size of breeding groups within a species. The Northern Buller's Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri platei) and Southern Buller's Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri bulleri) (Robertson & Nunn 1998; Turbott 1990) were recognised as separate species until 2006. A review of morphological data provided a basis for defining them as one species (Thalassarche bulleri); a result that was supported by international conservation agreements. However, there was no genetic data available at the time to corroborate the taxonomic change. The species status of Buller's Albatross ssp. is an important issue because they are consistently recorded in the top five observed seabird interactions with commercial fishing vessels within New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. Despite their prevalence in fisheries interactions, the relative impact of commercial fishing activity on northern and southern populations is unknown. Incidental mortality of albatrosses in commercial fisheries is recognised as a primary source of population disturbance.  The overall goal of this thesis research was to investigate the genetic differences between the two sub-species of Buller's Albatross. DNA was isolated from blood samples collected from a total of 73 birds from two Northern Buller's Albatross colonies (n = 26) and two Southern Buller's Albatross colonies (n = 47). The degree of genetic differentiation between the Northern and Southern taxa was estimated using DNA sequences from a 221 bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region, Domain II (CRII). The genetic differentiation between regional colony groups was high (pairwise ΦST = 0.621, p < 0.00001). Two haplogroups were identified within Northern Buller's Albatross, while Southern Buller's Albatross samples composed a single haplogroup. An analysis of molecular variance did not find any significant population structuring at the colony level. All individuals sampled from fisheries bycatch (n = 97) were assigned with maximum probability to either Northern (n = 19) or Southern Buller's Albatross (n = 78; P = 1.00). The DNA sequences differences found in the mitochondrial control region can be used to assign provenance of T. bulleri ssp. samples, which will be a useful conservation management tool.  In addition, a genome wide set of markers was obtained using a Genotyping by Sequencing approach. DNA was digested using restriction enzymes, fragments were labeled adaptor sequences, and shotgun sequenced on an Illumina platform by AgResearch. The Stacks pipeline was used to filter the sequences and obtain a set of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers across the genome. Estimates of genetic diversity and gene flow were conducted for 26 319 putative loci comprised of 54,061 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Estimates of genetic diversity were consistent across datasets with both taxa exhibiting similar levels of nucleotide diversity (Northern π ≈ 0.002 – 0.004; Southern π ≈ 0.002 – 0.003). However, estimates of genetic differentiation increased slightly as filtering protocols became increasingly restrictive (FST ≈ 0.019 – 0.048). This low level of differentiation was supported by admixture analyses, which identified two distinct 'clusters', one corresponding to T. b. platei and the second to T. b. bulleri. The results of this research demonstrate that Northern and Southern Buller's Albatrosses are two genetically distinct groups.


Toxoplasmosis is the most widespread infection worldwide due to the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The protozoan is a ubiquitous pathogen of warm-blooded animals, including man. In man it is responsible for fetal damage and is a common cause of death in acquired immune deficiency syndrome patients, and is therefore considered as a major zoonosis (Dubey 1994). The infection has become a serious public health problem worldwide. It is estimated that about one third of the world population is chronically infected with T. gondii (Montoya et al. 2004, Zhou et al. 2008) The principal horizontal transmission of toxoplasmosis to humans is caused by consuming food or water contaminated with oocysts shed in the feces of infected cats or by eating undercooked meat from animals which have ingested oocysts and developed tissue cysts. (Dubey et al, 2009). Indeed, Felids, mainly cats (Felis catus), can eliminate millions of environmentally resistant parasite oocysts in their faeces. Cats are often infected at less than 1 year of age where they can contaminate the environment shedding millions of oocysts per day for 1–2 weeks (Dubey, 2001). Stray cats are more likely to be exposed and infected; thereby contributing more frequently to environmental contamination than domestic indoor cats (Ballash et al, 2015). Stray - refers to street, alley, farm or semi dependent cats that may or may not receive some food directly from humans; however they do so indirectly by scavenging scraps from rubbish bins, dump sites or from slaughter remains on farms. No attempt is made to house these animals yet they may inhabit manmade structures such as farm buildings, factories, wharves or abandoned vehicles. Moreover, the large home range of a feral cat of up to 10 km2 ensures widespread contamination of the environment in a relatively short period, with some cats travelling up to 45 km in two days (Fancourt & Jackson, 2014). Indeed, stray cats are considered as the linkage between wild life and urban life in T. gondii transmission. The prevalence of T. gondii in cats is thought to reflect prevalence of the parasite in animals that cats access for food. Under favorable climatic conditions privileged by humidity, oocysts develop infectivity in a few days by sporulation and may remain infectious for more than one year in unfrozen, moist soil (Mancianti et al, 2015). Number or presence of cats on farms was the risk factors the often identified in epidemiological studies. An environmental contamination with ooysts derived from infected cats can cause outbreakes of toxoplasmosis (Mullens, 1996; Karanis et al, 2013). Indeed, a large waterborne outbreak of toxoplasmosis in humans was epidemiologically linked to oocyst contamination of a water reservoir in British Columbia, Canada (Bowie et al., 1997). In Qatar, scarce data are available about the prevalence of the parasite in the environment. Feline patent Toxoplasma-like coccidiosis among feral cats was investigated (Abu Madi & Behnke, 2014). Previous study reported an average seroprevalence rate in human of 29.8% with a progressive rise from 45 years of age (Abu Madi et al, 2008). Such observations provide further evidence for the increased risk of infection with acquisition of age through longer contact with infective parasite from the environment. Within our current work, we investigated the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii among stray cats in Qatar with gender, area and seasons correlation analysis. Feral cats were caught live as part of the routine activities of the QCCU as described elsewhere (Abu Madi & Behnke, 2014). Briefly, trapped adult Cats were eligible for the trap-neuter-return (TNR) program and were transported to a shelter for sterilization, respecting current animal welfare rules. For each animal the GENDER, the AREA and the SEASON of sampling were recorded. Sera were checked to detect T. gondii IgG antibodies using the modified agglutination test (MAT) (Dubey and Desmonts, 1987). A titer of 1:25 or higher was considered indicative of T. gondii infection in cats. SPSS 21.0 statistical package has been used for the analysis. Antibodies to T. gondii were found in 406 of the 495 (82%) of the stray cats in Qatar with four samples presenting prozone effect with negative result at the low dilution of 1:25 and positive agglutination at high dilutions ≥ 1:1600. The overall seroprevalence, presented in our study, was 82%, which is far more than other reports from neighbor countries where prevalence among stray cats didn't exceed 19.6% in Kuwait (Abdou et al, 2013); 30.4% in Iraq (Switzer et al, 2013) and ranged from 33 to 52% in Turkey depending of the used technique (Ozkan et al, 2008 & Can et al, 2014). Positive MAT results were found among 82.5% of male, 81.6% of female, 82.4% from urban area and 81.7% from sub-urban localities with no significant difference between the subgroups. The consistent high seroprevalence, in the different sampling areas, demonstrates a high level of T. gondii contamination throughout Doha. The non-significant difference between seroprevalences in male and female cats suggests that both genders are equally exposed and susceptible to infection. Taken in account the season of sampling, 333 sera form 394 sampled in Summer were positive (84.5%). Anti-T.gondii antibodies were found in 73 of 101 sera sampled in Winter (72.3%). The difference is retained significant (p < 0.005). From the overall seropositive cats, 37.7% have a titer greater that 1:400. The observed high seroprevalence and its significant correlation to season of sampling gives further confirmation of the fact that favourable climatic conditions support long-term oocyst survival in the environment. While oocysts are not infective when first shed, they sporulate and become infective after 1–5 days in the environment and can remain viable at least 18 months under cool and moist areas (Frenkel et al, 1975).


Barchan dunes — crescent-shaped dunes that form in areas of unidirectional winds and low sand availability — commonly display an asymmetric shape, with one limb extended downwind. Several factors have been identified as potential causes for barchan dune asymmetry on Earth and Mars: asymmetric bimodal wind regime, topography, influx asymmetry and dune collision. However, the dynamics and potential range of barchan morphologies emerging under each specific scenario that leads to dune asymmetry are far from being understood. In the present work, we use dune modeling in order to investigate the formation and evolution of asymmetric barchans. We find that a bimodal wind regime causes limb extension when the divergence angle between primary and secondary winds is larger than 90, whereas the extended limb evolves into a seif dune if the ratio between secondary and primary transport rates is larger than 25%. Calculations of dune formation on an inclined surface under constant wind direction also lead to barchan asymmetry, however no seif dune is obtained from surface tilting alone. Asymmetric barchans migrating along a tilted surface move laterally, with transverse migration velocity proportional to the slope of the terrain. Limb elongation induced by topography can occur when a barchan crosses a topographic rise. Furthermore, transient asymmetric barchan shapes with extended limb also emerge during collisions between dunes or due to an asymmetric influx. Our findings can be useful for making quantitative inference on local wind regimes or spatial heterogeneities in transport conditions of planetary dune fields hosting asymmetric barchans.


Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year 2015 Sometimes you love a football team not only for their strengths, the splendour of their play and the appealing thrust of their character, but also the haunting possibility that their best hopes may never be fulfilled. This has rarely been demonstrated so vividly as by the Manchester City team who briefly, but unforgettably, illuminated the late sixties. And no one was more caught up in their struggles and their triumphs than James Lawton, a young sportswriter starting out on a career that would take him to all the great events of world sport. Yet still, 50 years after Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison began to shape the brilliant team, he counts watching their rise to glory as one of the most exciting times of his professional life. Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee - these players loomed large over the game as they charged at the peaks of English football, and today evoke a period of the sport's history that seems distant and unknowable, hard to see except through the rose-tinted gloss of nostalgia. Lawton goes back to those heroes, interviewing all the main players and characters who are still alive, and vividly brings to life the story of that City team which with such wonderful panache, and freedom, won the first division title, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup between 1967 and 1970. This, though, is not just the story of one team, but a broader one of how sport can sometimes so perfectly mirror the exaltation and the despair of the real world, how it carries those who do it, and sometimes even those who merely see it, to moments that will claim a permanent place in their hearts.


We report the case of a 34-year-old man of African origin, positive for both HIV and hepatitis B virus, who developed symptoms of mania and psychosis while being treated with efavirenz (a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor used in HIV therapy) that required inpatient psychiatric admission and treatment with antipsychotic medication. Our case illustrates multiple predisposing and precipitating factors occurring simultaneously that have been previously implicated individually in the development of neuropsychiatric complications with efavirenz (and other HIV treatments in general). We suggest that patient's commenced on antiretroviral medication should have a screening process for pre-existing mental and medical health problems as well as psychosocial risk factors that might put a patient at risk. In addition with advances in pharmacogenomics we advocate future cytochrome P450 gene variant testing coupled with routine efavirenz plasma concentration monitoring to help ensure maximum treatment benefit and minimal risk of side effects.


Breaks that appear in DNA and violate its integrity are a serious threat to the life of the cell. There is a special repair system for their recovery, which includes many different enzymes. However, the exact mechanisms of this process are currently still unclear. In this article, we considered single-strand discontinuities based on the Michaelis–Menten equation and using the quasi-equilibrium approximation. A scheme of interaction between the mechanisms of the reparation system was developed and a computational model was built in the COPASI software to verify it. As a result of the work, the dependences of the concentrations of the participants in the repair system were obtained, and the known experimental data were also approximated. We observed that the plot with a logarithmic scale of fully corrected DNA concentration versus time is close to a sigmoid. We obtained that, the polymerase enzymatic reaction is the limiting factor for the rate of DNA repair and the rate of ligase operation is limited by the rate of DNA appearance. Being a regulatory link in the DNA repair system, polymerase and its parameters exert a control influence on the rest of the model parameters. In turn, the parameters for PARP1, PNKP, and LIG3α should provide rates of enzymatic reactions higher than the rate of polymerase operation.


Dose proportionality/linearity is a desirable property in pharmacokinetic studies. Various methods have been proposed for its assessment. When dose proportionality is not established, it is of interest to evaluate the degree of departure from dose linearity. In this paper, we propose a measure of departure from dose linearity and derive an asymptotic test under a repeated measures incomplete block design using a slope approach. Simulation studies show that the proposed method has a satisfactory small sample performance in terms of size and power. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Oxonitridoalumosilicates Y4Al2−2xSi2xO9−2xN2x (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 1.00) were prepared and the substitution effect of [Al3+O2−] pairs by [Si4+N3−] pairs in Y4Al2O9–Y4Si2O7N2 solid solutions on the structure and its corresponding influence on the Ce3+ activated luminescence properties are investigated. Y4Al2−2xSi2xO9−2xN2x (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 1.00) shows two solid solution regions, x = 0.00–0.40 for solid solution I, x = 0.50–1.00 for solid solution II from X-ray and neutron diffraction analysis. In the solid solution I, the Ce3+ emission is mainly in the UV range with the maximum wavelength at 350 nm, and the intensity decreases rapidly with the increase of the N content. In the solid solution II, the Ce3+ doped samples show blue-green luminescence with the maximum wavelength at ∼450 nm and the wide excitation bands extend from UV to 450 nm. The phosphors in the solid solution II are promising candidates for white-LED applications.


Background Interrogative suggestibility and compliance are important psychological vulnerabilities during interrogation. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship of suggestibility and compliance with childhood and current symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Compliance has not been studied previously in relation to ADHD. A further aim was to investigate the relationship between ADHD and the reporting of having made a false confession to the police. Method The participants were 90 male prisoners, all of whom had completed the Gudjonsson Suggestibility and Compliance Scales (GSS and GCS) within 10 days of admission to the prison. Childhood ADHD symptoms were screened by the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) and current adult symptoms by the DSM-IV Checklist criteria for ADHD. Results Half of the prisoners (50%) were found on screening to meet criteria for ADHD in childhood and, of those, over half (60%) were either fully symptomatic or in partial remission of their symptoms. ADHD symptoms were found to be significantly associated with compliance, but not with suggestibility. The relationship with compliance was stronger (effect size) in relation to current than childhood symptoms. The ADHD symptomatic groups were significantly more likely to claim that they had made a false confession to the police in the past. Conclusions The findings raise important questions about the potential vulnerability of adults with ADHD symptoms in terms of their ability to cope with interrogation.


BEST PRACTICES IN MARKETING WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL Alex Yoh, B.S. Marquette University, 2014 Many women's college basketball programs struggle in the area of fan attendance. The purpose of this research study is to identify potential contributing factors to this problem. A review of the existing literature helped procure several possibilities including possible failures to locate appropriate target audiences, misguided reliance on winning games to produce fans, distracted fans, lack of star players in the sport, and the inability to produce a sense of belonging among fans. In order to substantiate and/or detail these potential issues, a group of women's basketball coaches, administrators and team marketers was interviewed. Many of the researched issues were corroborated, while other relevant concepts were revealed through speaking with the respondents. In summary, most respondents emphasized the notion that not enough is being done in women's basketball to incentivize fans attending and returning to games. This report used a considerable amount of the data and input from the Marquette University's Women's Basketball team, with the hope that the findings specifically benefit the program in the near future. BEST PRACTICES IN MARKETING WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL i


The paper describes the development process, present status, and research plans for Introductory Financial Accounting, a free MOOC (Massively Open Online Course). The course is built in D2L Brightspace and was launched in September 2021. It is a means to reduce educational costs and encourage more students to consider the institution's Bachelor of Commerce program. The project will allow students to explore the field of accounting without pressure or financial risk, and at their own pace. The instructional material used is an open educational resource, Introduction to Financial Accounting (Based on International Financial Reporting Standards). Learning material for each unit is integrated with sophisticated interactive online exercises and tailored feedback. There are also auto-graded quizzes at the end of each of five modules that can be attempted as often as desired. Learners can review material and receive feedback in a non-threatening learning environment. Discussion forums are available for student-student interactions. These are also monitored on a volunteer basis by an academic expert. A frequently-asked question database is being expanded as the project proceeds. A total of five badges are awarded as material is completed. Progress is automatically tracked, and milestones are communicated via intelligent agents as emails to individual participants. When learners have completed at least 75% of the material, they are automatically notified. A student can then purchase a $160 certificate of completion and if desired, attempt an online invigilated exam. If the exam is successfully completed, the learner can receive transfer credit for ACCT 253: Introductory Financial Accounting. This is a required 3-credit course in Athabasca University's Bachelor of Commerce program. A research program studying correlating relative success and persistence with social presence in three different types of discussion forums is also outlined.


The range of motion of a particle with certain energy E confined in a potential is determined from the energy conservation law in classical mechanics. The counterpart of this question in quantum mechanics can be regarded as what the possible range of the expectation values of the position operator 〈x〉 of a particle, which satisfies E = 〈H〉. This range depends on the state of the particle, but the universal upper and lower bounds, which is independent of the state, must exist. In this study, we show that these bounds can be derived by using the bootstrap method. We also point out that the bootstrap method can be regarded as a generalization of the uncertainty relations, and it means that the bounds are determined by the uncertainty relations in a broad sense. Furthermore, the bounds on possible expectation values of various quantities other than position can be determined in the same way. However, in the case of multiple identical particles (bosons and fermions), we find some difficulty in the bootstrap method. Because of this issue, the predictive power of the bootstrap method in multi-particle systems is limited in the derivation of observables including energy eigenstates. In addition, we argue an application of the bootstrap method to thermal equilibrium states. We find serious issues that temperature and entropy cannot be handled. Although we have these issues, we can derive some quantities in micro-canonical ensembles of integrable systems governed by generalized Gibbs ensembles.


Objectives:- The aims of this investigation were two-fold. First, within the literature no firm conclusions have been drawn about the nature of the psychological and therapeutic needs of individuals with fertility problems. The first section of this investigation, therefore, attempted to explore in more depth the interaction between Clinical Psychologists and the infertile population.

Second, research examining the psychology of receiving treatment for infertility (namely, In Vitro Fertilisation - IVF) has largely overlooked the experiences of those for whom treatment has been unsuccessful and a decision to stop has been made. The aim of the second section of the investigation was therefore, to gain a more detailed understanding of the experience of individuals stopping IVF, and to look closely at their adjustment and coping.

Design:-
Section One - A survey design was employed.

Section Two - A qualitative research paradigm using a grounded theory methodology was employed.

Method:-
Section One - A survey instrument was developed to explore Clinical Psychologists therapeutic contact with persons with fertility problems. Of a total of 1000 questionnaires distributed, a response rate of 43.6 per cent was achieved.

Section Two - Eleven participants were recruited from a population of patients who had discontinued unsuccessful IVF treatment. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, exploring participants' feelings and experiences across three areas. (1) their experience of the IVF treatment process; (2) their decision to stop treatment; (3) their
lives 'post decision'.

Results:-
Section One - only a small proportion of the sample were found to be working with individuals with fertility problems. Female clients were more likely to have been seen therapeutically, with those undergoing infertility treatment during therapy essentially receiving the most Clinical Psychology service resources. Clients were unlikely to be referred to services for issues related to their infertility, whilst the primary therapeutic task was often identified as dealing with issues of infertility.

Section Two - Transcripts of participants' interviews were analysed using aspects of grounded theory methodology. Five themes were identified as unifying the data.

Conclusions and Implications:- The quantitative survey findings suggest that at present, services may not be fully addressing the therapeutic needs of the infertile population. Specific difficulties were found to exist at the point of initial referral. Suggestions are made for improving the service delivery to this client group.

A tentative theoretical framework was developed to explain the experience and adjustment of individuals discontinuing IVF treatment. This preliminary process model suggests that certain psychological and social factors exist which have the potential to lead to a greater or lesser degree of adaptation for individuals (the effects of these factors are mediated by a core process within the individual, namely their belief system). The implications of this model for preventative and therapeutic interventions are discussed, both in relation to services provided by Clinical Psychologists and for other professionals working in specialist infertility services.


The article presents a method for studying the factuality of narrative as a rhetoric. The need for such a method is apparent in the so-called post-truth climate, which sees us witnessing debates about semantic chimeras like "alternative facts" and "fake news." The article arrives at its method by tackling challenges arising both in narrative theory and in fictionality studies. This involves developing models that let us take into account both the effects of local discursive features and the "macrogeneric" and "generic" frames guiding expectations about how communication is meant to work. The method is used in analysis of one of the controversial stories by the journalist Claas Relotius, who is currently being investigated in the forgery scandal of the magazine Der Spiegel.


According to the report of the Inter-American Bank of Development (BID) of 2000 and data from the National Secondary Education Examination (ENEM) of 2003, it is a necessity for the majority of Brazilian students who attend secondary school to conciliate studies and work. This reality can be a challenge for these students regarding their attendance and progress in school but on the other hand it can provide new conceptual horizons and perspectives that are favourable for the fusion of knowledge that is originated from the work practice and systematised knowledge learned in school. This fusion can mean new learning opportunities both in school and in the workplace, better progress in school and it can also show us possible ways of overcoming the dichotomy between theory and practice. Considering these potentialities in the face of the necessity of development of contents which are more linked to the reality of the Physics teaching, this research tried to relate fragments of knowledge in Physics which are present in the professional activities of the students to the knowledge in Physics which are typically addressed in secondary education. In order to do the research, a questionnaire was devised and it offered us a distribution of the students who work and study at secondary schools at night in Araraquara – SP. Later these worker students were interviewed and their workplaces visited with the purpose of identifying fragments of knowledge of Physics present in their work activities and the personal sense students attribute to the school knowledge. A classroom research was also done in order to evaluate the students' receptivity to an approach of Physics that take into consideration common elements from their work activities. The contribution of cultural-historical psychology, in particular the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (LEONTIEV, 1978a) made possible an analysis that take into account the psychological elements that are involved in the human activities which gives grounds for the importance of creating conditions for the students to relate the personal purpose they attribute to the scientific knowledge learned at school and its social meaning. The results suggest that connexions between the Physics knowledge present in the students professional activities and that taught in school have the potential for the creation of new learning needs and this way worker students may attribute new personal sense to the learning of Physics.


Indium (In), a rare element existing only in a few natural minerals, is mainly used to produce indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films for applications including liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Therefore, developing an effective method to recover In from waste LCDs is of great significance. In the present study, In was extracted from indium oxide (In2O3) and LCD powder after alkali dissolution via a chloride volatilization process using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as the chlorination precursor. High purity In2O3 was investigated firstly in a nitrogen atmosphere. The results indicated that high purity In2O3 could have a high recovery ratio of indium using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as the chlorination agent. The recovery ratio of indium could reach 99.36%. The product was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the results indicated that the condensed products were InCl3 and InCl. Real LCD powder after alkali dissolution was also examined. The recovery ratio of indium was 97.50% and the utilization of hydrogen chloride was 53.91% under the conditions of a molar Cl/In ratio of 11, a degradation temperature of PVC of 400 °C, a chlorination temperature of 500 °C, carrier gas flow rate at 0.1 L min−1, and a reaction time of 30 min. The condensed products were also mainly InCl3 and InCl. It is an effective method to recover In from LCD panels.


Humans form mental images of 3D scenes to support counterfactual imagination, planning, and motor control. Our abilities to predict the appearance and affordance of the scene from previously unobserved viewpoints aid us in performing manipulation tasks (e.g., 6-DoF kitting) with a level of ease that is currently out of reach for existing robot learning frameworks. In this work, we aim to build artificial systems that can analogously plan actions on top of imagined images. To this end, we introduce Mental Imagery for Robotic Affordances (MIRA), an action reasoning framework that optimizes actions with novel-view synthesis and affordance prediction in the loop. Given a set of 2D RGB images, MIRA builds a consistent 3D scene representation, through which we synthesize novel orthographic views amenable to pixel-wise affordances prediction for action optimization. We illustrate how this optimization process enables us to generalize to unseen out-of-plane rotations for 6-DoF robotic manipulation tasks given a limited number of demonstrations, paving the way toward machines that autonomously learn to understand the world around them for planning actions.


In Experiment 1, to examine contamination sensitivity, children ages 36 to 47 months were shown juice that had been in contact with a cockroach. In contrast to previous research suggesting that young children do not have the cognitive prerequisites to understand the invisible nature of contamination, most children indicated that the juice was not good to drink even though the cockroach had been removed, leaving no trace. Children made accurate evaluations of others' responses to this type of incident and inferred actions to protect others. The purpose of Experiment 2 was to determine whether contamination sensitivity may be guided by an implicit knowledge of the distinction between appearance and reality. Children ages 30 to 42 months were presented with a piece of moldy bread. The brad was then covered by a breakfast spread. In contrast to a control group that was given fresh bread without mold, most responded that the bread would not be good to eat even after the mold was concealed by the spread.


The development of international sourcing and overseas flows are at the core of Renault's supply chain strategy. In order to link distant assembly plants with suppliers, Renault relies on a worldwide network of cross-dock logistics platforms. These centers act both as information and physical consolidation point. In other words, from the point of view of an assembly plant, the logistic center performs as any other supplier. Thus, distribution and operation planning are carried out by the platform. At the shop-floor, inland deliveries are received, sorted, repacked (if needed) and loaded onto containers for overseas shipping. In this paper we present the current planning process at Renault platforms and we propose an alternative method which seeks to minimize transportation and internal resources costs, respecting storage capacity and time windows constraints. The system is modeled as an integer linear program and tested in CPLEX. Encouraging results obtained from numerical simulations led to a real-life implementation of a simplified version of the model. Our research not only responds to a specific industrial problem, but also tackles simultaneously two cross-docking research fields: distribution and operation planning.


Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of Justicia tranquebariensis (Thavasu murungai) in bronchial asthma.
Materials and Methods: 40 asthmatics were enrolled for the clinical trial. The patients were selected according to the patient subjective assessment scale, objective parameters and WHO GINA guideline. The patients with severe diseases such as AIDS, Malignancy, TB, Renal and CVS disorders were excluded from the study. This open labeled study was conducted at Government Siddha Medical College Hospital, Chennai-106. All the patients were administered 30 ml leaf juice of Justicia tranquebariensis for the period of 3 months. Clinical trial usually focuses on asthma control as measured by pulmonary function test (FEV1, FVC, PEFR, Breath holding time and FVR), symptom scores and medication requirement. The study infers improvement on subjective and objective parameters of bronchial asthma. During the trial period, 4 patients were discontinued from the study due to need for parenteral and inhalation therapy. 36 patients were completed the study. Results: There was a significant improvement in all parameters compared at each follow up visit. Based on the result out of 36 cases 29 had marked response, 5 had moderate response and only 2 cases had fair response. No side effects have been observed during the study period.
Conclusion: Thus we concluded that Justicia tranquebariensis (Thavasu murungai) is effective for the treatment of bronchial asthma.


Abstract Lypopolysaccharides of gram-negative bacteria can interact with TLR4 with subsequent formation of atheromas. Mutational deletion of TLR4 decreases risk of development of atherosclerosis. Other bacterial ligands, in particular, peptidoglycan as well as endogenous ligands reacting with TLRs and emerging in microorganism under the action of stress factors can contribute to induction of atherosclerosis. It has been concluded, that reactions initiated by interaction of TLRs with exogenous and endogenous ligands lie in the basis of atherosclerosis pathogenesis.


Numerical models for wave energy converters (WECs) are utilized in a number areas within the design process. These include, but are not limited to, performance assessment, control design, and survival analysis. Thus, the accuracy of such a model is paramount to design of a WEC. WEC dynamic models can take a number of forms. At the most basic level, the model should capture the rigidbody dynamics based on hydromechanic, kinematic and mechanical considerations. Additional components, capturing power take-off (PTO), realistic mooring systems, and transmission, should ideally be included to produce a so-called "wave-to-wire" model. Here, we focus on the hydrodynamic component of such models. WEC hydrodynamic models are often based on a radiation/diffraction model (see, e.g., [1]). (


Agreements concerning inter-institutional rules in the treaties of the European Union often give rise to reactions and processes of adaptation within the EU institutions. Recent literature on EU legislative politics has increasingly examined decision-making within the EU institutions, but has largely overlooked how these internal processes react and adapt to changes in relations between the EU bodies. To fill this gap the authors present a series of empirical studies that examine how shifts in inter-institutional rules and procedures affect intra-institutional politics. They show that the resulting intra-institutional adaptations may in turn both have distributive consequences and affect the efficiency of the initial inter-institutional reforms. In addition, they provide some stepping stones for theory-building on how treaty reforms affect organisational structure and decision-making within the EU institutions by outlining a series of mediating variables that link these two types of change processes.


A phase I/II study was conducted to determine the response rate and the toxicity of escalating doses of paclitaxel (Taxol; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ) plus cisplatin with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor support in patients with untreated advanced head and neck carcinoma. Twenty-eight patients with locally advanced inoperable squamous cell head and neck carcinoma were included. Median age was 51 years. Karnofsky performance status was > or =90% in all patients. Primary tumor sites were oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, oral cavity, parotid gland, nasal cavity, and unknown primary. We observed 13 complete responses, eight partial responses, four patients with stable disease, and two patients with progressive disease for an overall response rate of 78%. Toxicity was paresthesia grade 1/2 in 27 patients, and myalgias were grade 1/2 in 23 patients and grade 3 in four patients. One patient died 5 days after the first cycle due to acute renal failure, respiratory distress, and pancytopenia. No dose-limiting hematologic toxicity has been observed, and intrapatient escalations were performed in all patients when planned. Calculated dose intensity for the two drugs was 100% in all evaluable patients. The combination of escalating doses of paclitaxel 175 to 300 mg/m2 and cisplatin 75 mg/m2 was active in untreated head and neck carcinoma, with an overall response rate of 78%. No dose-limiting toxicity has been encountered at paclitaxel doses up to 300 mg/m2 given with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.


Disputes are common in construction projects. Protracted unresolved dispute destroys contracting parties' desire to fulfil the project objectives. In this regard, promoting amicable and efficient construction project dispute resolution (CPDR) has been one of the key recommendations of almost every construction industry review. However, disputants' irrational behaviors would derail trajectory to settlement. Notable example of irrational decision is failing to seize settlement option that provides utility to both disputing parties. This can be the result of a deep-rooted psychological barrier called reactive devaluation (RD). RD describes the behavior of habitually devaluing the proposal raised by the counterpart. Disputants would reject a proposal irrespective of the quality and reasonableness of the proposal, just because it is raised by the counterpart. The occurrence of RD in CPDR would block proposal exchanges that are inevitable if a settlement is to be reached. This study aims to examine the application of RD in CPDR. Possible manifestations of RD in CPDR scenario were summarized and a conceptual framework of RD was proposed. Five types of RD were identified: reluctance to change, doubts about counterpart's ability, overconfidence, biased information processing, and mistrust of the counterpart. Furthermore, suggestions to alleviate RD were also discussed.


The Modified Vlasov Model is applied to the free vibration analysis of thick plates resting on elastic foundations. The effects of the subsoil depth, plate dimensions and their ratio, the value of the vertical deformation parameter within the subsoil on the frequency parameters of plates on elastic foundations are investigated. A four-noded, twelve degrees of freedom quadrilateral finite element (PBQ4) is used for plate bending analysis based on Mindlin plate theory which is effectively applied to the analysis of thin and thick plates when selective reduced integration technique is used. The first ten natural frequency parameters are presented in tabular and graphical forms to show the effects of the parameters considered in the study. It is concluded that the effect of the subsoil depth on the frequency parameters of the plates on elastic foundation is generally larger than that of the other parameters considered in the study.


With increasing human uses of the ocean, existing seascapes containing natural habitats, such as biogenic reefs or plant-dominated systems, are supplemented by novel, human-made habitats ranging from artificial reefs to energy extraction infrastructure and shoreline installments. Despite the mixture of natural and artificial habitats across seascapes, the distribution and extent of these two types of structured habitats are not well understood but are necessary pieces of information for ocean planning and resource management decisions. Through a case study, we quantified the amount of seafloor in the southeastern US (SEUS; 103,220 km2 in the Atlantic Ocean; 10 – 200 m depth) covered by artificial reefs and natural reefs. We developed multiple data-driven approaches to quantify the extent of artificial reefs within state-managed artificial reef programs, and then drew from seafloor maps and published geological and predictive seafloor habitat models to develop three estimates of natural reef extent. Comparisons of the extent of natural and artificial reefs revealed that artificial reefs account for substantially less habitat (average of two estimates 3 km2; <0.01% of SEUS) in the region than natural reefs (average of three estimates 2,654 km2; 2.57% of SEUS) and that this pattern holds across finer regional groupings (e.g., states, depth bins). Our overall estimates suggest that artificial reef coverage is several orders of magnitude less than natural reef coverage. While expansive seafloor mapping and characterization efforts are still needed in SEUS waters, our results fill information gaps regarding the extent of artificial and natural reef habitats in the region, providing support for ecosystem-based management, and demonstrating an approach applicable to other regions.


University, Moscow Drug delivery using natural biological carriers, especially erythrocytes, is a rapidly developing field. Erythrocytes can act as carriers with the gradual release of a pharmacological agent, as bioreactors with encapsulated enzymes, or as a tool for targeted delivery of drugs to target organs especially tissue macrophages, liver and spleen. To date, red blood cells have been studied as carriers for a wide range of drug compounds, such as enzymes, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, antiviral drugs, etc. The review is devoted to the advantages of erythrocytes as carriers for the delivery of drugs loaded into the erythrocyte, or related to its surface, and defines the main directions of research on erythrocytes carriers of biologically active substances. Particular attention is paid to in vivo studies that reveal the potential of carrier erythrocytes for


ABSTRACT:Urban populations rely on a suite of ecosystem services generally provided by the ecological function of natural areas. But the expansion of urban environments and growing suburban or exurban neighborhoods often necessitates destruction of those natural areas for development supporting a growing urban populace. Ecological impacts from development reduce regional biodiversity and negatively affect the ability of remaining natural areas to provide goods and services critical to people. Secondary impacts to biodiversity also occur at broad geographic scales through commodity production supporting urban centers. For example, agricultural production often involves creating agroeconomic systems based largely on farming a limited number of species, and commonly relegates biological diversity to small patches of land deemed unsuitable for crops. Such practices exacerbate the negative biological effects inherent in urban development and drastically increase the need for urban populations to address biological diversity within municipalities. Residents are becoming progressively knowledgeable about environmental issues and are expressing values and concerns to local and regional managing agencies. Governments are responding to public pressure through recommendations intended to reduce resource use, improve wildlife habitat, and provide a local aesthetic. Although the appropriateness of native plants in urban settings is often questioned, the use of regionally specific native vegetation is identified as one method to meet those recommendations. Native plants as primary landscape elements have the added benefit of increasing biodiversity and creating environments capable of providing ecosystem goods and services within urban environments.


Objective— Lmo (LIM-domain-only)2 transcription factor is involved in hematopoiesis and vascular remodeling. Sphk (sphingosine kinase)1 phosphorylates sphingosine to S1P (sphingosine-1-phosphate). We hypothesized that Lmo2 regulates Sphk1 to promote endothelial cell (EC) migration and vascular development. Approach and Results— Lmo2 and Sphk1 knockdown (KD) were performed in Tg(fli1:EGFP)y1 zebrafish and in human umbilical vein EC. Rescue of phenotypes or overexpression of these factors were achieved using mRNA encoding Lmo2 or Sphk1. EC proliferation in vivo was assessed by BrdU (bromodeoxyuridine) immunostaining and fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis of dissociated Tg(fli1:EGFP)y1 embryos. Cell migration was assessed by scratch assay in human umbilical vein EC and mouse aortic rings. Lmo2 interactions with Sphk1 promoter were assessed by ChIP-PCR (chromatin immunoprecipitation-polymerase chain reaction). Lmo2 or Sphk1 KD reduced number and length of intersegmental vessels. There was no reduction in the numbers of GFP+ (green fluorescent protein) ECs after Lmo2 KD. However, reduced numbers of BrdU+GFP+ nuclei were observed along the dysmorphic intersegmental vessels, accumulating instead at the sprouting origin of the intersegmental vessels. This anomaly was likely because of impaired EC migration, which was confirmed in migration assays using Lmo2 KD human umbilical vein ECs and mouse aortic rings. Both in vivo and in vitro, Lmo2 KD reduced Sphk1 gene expression, associated with less Lmo2 binding to the Sphk1 promoter as assessed by ChIP-PCR. Sphk1 mRNA rescued the Lmo2 KD phenotype. Conclusions— Our data showed that Lmo2 is necessary for Sphk1 gene expression in ECs. Lmo2 KD reduced Lmo2–Sphk1 gene interaction, impaired intersegmental vessels formation, and reduced cell migration. We identified for the first time Sphk1 as downstream effector of Lmo2.


In task allocation problems one usually only considers a single round in which players participate. In practice, many allocation problems are of repeated nature, in which players can decide to keep participating or leave. Players' participation, or behavior, influences the outcome, or social welfare, of these problems. In this paper, we use a fuzzy connective to model agents' behavior in regard to their perception of the game, i.e., optimism level, based on their experiences thus far. We conduct simulations to investigate the interactions between the agents' participation behaviors and the outcomes of the task allocations in multiple rounds. We compare two task allocation algorithms, one merely focusing on costs, and the other focusing on both fairness in the allocation and costs. The results show that the fairer algorithm makes agents more optimistic, and in return, agents keep participating in the allocation game. This leads to a higher social welfare in the long run compared to the cost-minimization algorithm.


T
The role of high yielding varieties along with fertilization and water management for increasing rice productivity is essential. Therefore, the efforts to increase productivity in the middle freshwater swamp are carried out using high yielding varieties with fertilization and water management called mini polder. The mother trial was conducted to introduce 10 rice genotypes, with optimal fertilizer and water management. It has been carried out in Hulu Sungai Utara District, South Kalimantan Province. The research was following a randomized block design with three replications. The baby trials were carried out in 10 farmer fields. Assessment of genotypes was carried out using questionnaires and participatory selection methods. The results showed that the yield and yield components of genotypes grown in the mother trial were better than baby trials. Both assessment of genotypes produced fairly consistent assessments. There were three varieties preferred by most respondents, namely Inpara 3, Tapus and Inpara 8 Agritan. Some characters such as plant vigor, number of productive tillers, grain shape and color, maturity, and disease resistance were important in the development of rice varieties in swamp land.
Keywords: high yielding varieties, freshwater swamp, preference, participatory selection


BACKGROUND
Infectious complications encountered after major surgery include operative site infections and nosocomial pneumonia. Recent infection surveillance programs have identified the increasing pathogenic role of gram-positive bacteria in these infections and the high prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States and abroad. Surgical site infections and nosocomial pneumonia, often serious infections, are associated with adverse clinical outcomes including bacteremia and its resultant complications, as well as the socioeconomic consequences of excess hospitalization and discharge to nursing care.

METHODS
The essential triad for management of postoperative soft tissue infection consists of thorough appraisal of the infection site for reintervention, culture of drainage or infected tissue, and prompt initiation of empiric antimicrobial therapy designed to cover the most probable causative pathogens. Broad-spectrum antimicrobial regimens are often necessary for empiric therapy of skin and soft tissue infections or nosocomial pneumonia; however, regimens should be tailored to the most effective and clinically appropriate agent based on results of susceptibility testing.

RESULTS
Results of the clinical trial experience with the first United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antimicrobial in the new class of oxazolidinones, linezolid, are reviewed.

CONCLUSION
In randomized, controlled trials, linezolid 600 mg twice daily (intravenously or orally) provided effective antimicrobial therapy for gram-positive soft tissue infections, including MRSA, and nosocomial pneumonia in which S. aureus was a causative pathogen.


The flipped class, wherein students typically encounter new content outside the classroom with an opportunity to explore it deeper in the classroom, is becoming an increasingly popular format of teaching in engineering. Since the flipped class typically results in increased availability of instructor created/curated resources for use outside the class and provides greater opportunity for receiving tailored assistance in the class, one would expect students to perform far better when classes are flipped. However, studies have shown that students generally do not perform much better (if at all) in flipped classes, but that students appreciate the increased resources available to them. Although the resources and help exist, it is possible that students simply do not know the best way to incorporate them into their studies. With the eventual aim of helping students better interact with the new resources available to them (pre-class lecture videos in this case), this study aims to understand their current viewing behavior by analyzing video viewing data collected from multiple sections of a sophomore-level engineering statics course. The dataset consisting of 69 students viewing 89 pre-class videos assigned thrice a week over 17 weeks indicates that, on an average, approximately three quarters of videos were viewed to any extent before class, and when viewed, videos were viewed to approximately three quarters of their duration before class. Coverage of each video as well as number of full viewings dropped over the semester, longer videos were watched to a lesser extent than shorter videos, and day of the week had a significant effect on viewing metrics. Video viewing was unaffected by gender and pre-class GPA, and there was no correlation between video viewing metrics and course performance. Hypotheses for differences between the above and previously published trends are discussed with suggestions for improving engagement in pre-class videos.


Turning points are considered to refer to emotional and important events. The present study compared turning point memories to other memories on several ratings and investigated the association between turning points, distress and meaning. Memories may act as organising units in extended narratives, hence the study also tested whether overlap between memories and extended illness narrative was associated with a more coherent narrative. Fifteen patients with breast cancer were asked to tell a 10-minute narrative about their illness course and describe meaning in their illness.Each patient was asked to recall five memories, to state whether or not the memories were turning points, and to rate memories on both event and phenomenological variables.Lastly, the patients were asked to rate distress. The narratives were scored for coherence and the memories were scored for thematic content as well as thematic overlap with the narratives. The results showed that all participants rated the mammography as a turning point and that turning points were rated higher on both event and phenomenological variables. Patients reporting more turning points also reported more distress and not finding meaning in the illness and treatment. High degree of overlap between memories and narratives showed a trend towards an association with a more coherent narrative. The present article discusses processes, which may be involved in the interaction between memories and narratives.


An adaptive BOWL impedance relay is proposed in this paper. Compared with the circular and quadrilateral impedance relays, it has the advantages of larger coverage of fault resistance, simple criterion, fast operation, mature technique, easy setting, good phase selection, distinct directionality, accurate distance measurment, high security in heavy load and easy to realize adaption. Simulating calculation and practical tests have verified the analyses. The BOWL relay has been applied in microprocessor-based distance protection developed by our institute.


The use of eye movements is a usual method of measuring attentional and emotional response in laboratory. However, when it comes to clinical practice, it is seldom applied. Two studies were conducted to examine whether extraocular and intraocular movements can be used as indices of attentional bias and autonomic activation. In the first study, a free-viewing task, combined with subliminal exposure, showed that high-fear individuals tend to orient more their attention toward the visual space where threat-stimuli (snakes) were presented. The findings suggest a reflexive overt attentional orienting bias for subliminal snakes in comparison with subliminal control stimuli. The differentiation between participants with high and low fear of snakes suggested that a disposition to fear snakes affects the initial ocular saccades. In the second study, participants were instructed to discriminate a sign that was randomly displayed at the center of the display while subliminal images were peripherally presented. The results revealed larger pupil dilation for threatening stimuli subliminally presented; again, high-fear individuals showed larger pupillary dilations, independently of the stimulus category. Our results are in line with the assumption that a predisposition to fear is relevant for extraocular and intraocular movements when exposed to threat stimuli. These findings suggest that eye measurements, combined with subliminal exposure techniques, could be a reliable and nonintrusive aid tool to be used for the assessment and treatment of fear and phobias.


Stock brokerage is an investment services company that is primarily involved in the business of buying and selling stocks and other financial securities on behalf of its clients in return for a fees or commission. The industry operates under close government regulations that aim to protect the investing public. A stock brokerage may not open for business without filing for appropriate registrations and obtaining certain memberships. A stock brokerage may focus on different investment services and clients. It must also be able to provide a wide range of security information to clients for investment research and trade selections. As per Section 65(93) of Finance Act, 1994 "Stock-broker" means a person, who has either made an application for registration or is registered as a stock broker, in accordance with the rules and regulations made under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. A retail brokerage serves only individual investors, whereas an institutional brokerage has the capacity to handle large order flows from institutional investors such as mutual funds. The objectives of the study are to study the performance analysis of Stock Brokering Services and providing findings/ results and conclusions based on analysis. Exploratory research design has been adopted. The study is based on secondary data containing annual number, fees & other charges, type and turnover of registered stock brokers from 2009- 2014. The data is collected from sebi.gov.in, money control.com and various other reports like magazines, journals, published books and official websites. The statistical tools applied for data analysis in the present study are descriptive statistics, correlation and hypotheses testing It is concluded that stock brokering service plays a major role in mobilizing funds through its expertise in attracting investors to make investment by its suitable guidance. It has become lucrative service in terms of earning.


In a study of the content of occupational health care for hospital workers we carried out a separate study to measure the professional protection used to prevent contamination with HIV or hepatitis B virus. Therefore we carried out a study among Dutch general and orthopaedic surgeons. A questionnaire was sent to a representative sample of this population. The conclusions are that the respondents are relatively poorly informed about HIV and (or) hepatitis risks. A relatively small part of the respondents used protecting instruments; 40 (operating rooms) and 83% (emergency departments) of the respondents did not use safety glasses. The availability of protecting instruments is higher in operating rooms than in emergency departments, but this availability does not imply use of these instruments. The information on occupational contamination risks, the individual safety measures and the quality of the safety glasses are subject to criticism.


SUMMARY 1. Thoracic temperatures were measured in 12 syrphid species. 2. During field activity the flies maintained thoracic temperatures near 30°C by a combination of basking and endothermy. In the 10 species which were mimics of Hymenoptera, thoracic temperatures averaged a few degrees below those of their models. 3. All of the syrphids tested demonstrated a marked capacity for endothermic warm-up in the laboratory. Warm-up rates ranged from 1-2-5-5°C min" 1 . The maximum rate of warm-up increased in a linear fashion with body mass, with a slope of 4-3. 4. The flies sometimes sustained endothermy beyond the 2—S min necessary for thoracic temperature to reach flight temperature. One individual maintained an average temperature excess of 134°C for more than 26 min. 5. Cooling rates were highly dependent on body mass and did not differ significantly between pubescent Bombus mimics and glabrous species. Removal of pile from the thorax of Bombus mimics increased their cooling rates by about 30%. 6. From the comparisons between wasp and bee mimics, we conclude that although the pubescence of Zfow6(«-mimicking flies aids endothermy, it is not necessary to achieve it. Their pubescence has apparently evolved primarily to improve visual mimicry.


I. INTRODUCTION In the United States, interest in consolidation of urban governments is cyclical. Many of the existing city-county consolidations occurred in the 1950's and 1960's. Recently, the successful city- government consolidations in Kansas City-Wyandotte County, Kansas in 1997 and Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky in 2000 renewed interest among urban reformers and academics. In most major U.S. metropolitan areas, a combination of suburban activism and central city minority political control makes metropolitan government a non-starter. The literature in recent years (e.g., Rusk 1999 and Stephens and Wikstrom 2000) emphasizes "governance" rather than "government." Nelson Wikstrom, a leading academic expert writes that "given the rise, recognition and institutionalization of regional governance, the concept of one comprehensive metropolitan government has become a somewhat archaic intellectual relic, identified with the past century" (Wikstrom, 2002). It is fair to say that no existing city-county consolidation, on either side of the border, can really be called a comprehensive metropolitan government. Despite these recent differences, we think that a U.S.-Canadian contrast is very important, feasible and useful, for at lease two reasons. First, these are strong local government similarities. City governments in both countries exist in the context of federal systems. Local governments are legal creatures of the state (or province) in both countries. Municipal governments share a common heritage based upon the English system (even in Quebec). Many of the reforms associated with the Progressive Era in the early 20th century United States crossed the border. These include the city-manager system, and the practice of nonpartisan local elections. Both countries lack strong socialist parties, especially at the local level. In recent years, both countries have devolved and downloaded governmental functions to the local level. Both countries have shown evidence of an active neighborhood movement. Some experiments in U. S. local democracy, such as Chicago's Local School Councils and Alternative Policing Strategy (Fung, 2004) can be viewed as parallels to developments in Canadian cities, such as the Montreal borough system. Second, many of our academic colleagues have made such comparisons previously. The most explicit comparison appears in Rothblatt and Sancton's (1998) edited volume on metropolitan governance. In this rich, detailed work, a Canadian metropolitan area (i.e., Montreal) is implicitly paired with a single U.S. metropolitan area (i.e., Boston). Laura Reese's (1997) study of local economic development policy compares cities in Michigan and Ontario. A recent volume on city-county consolidation (Carr and Feiock, 2004) includes a chapter on the Ottawa amalgamation. Donald Phares's recently edited volume (2004) on metropolitan governance presents an overview chapter on the U.S. and Canada, as well as a case study of the Vancouver region. Interestingly, this book also includes a case study of Mexico City, and a survey chapter on Europe. Overall, this literature concludes that Canadian cities have more highly developed metropolitan planning and government systems than their U.S. counterparts. Rothblatt and Sancton (1998) consider the differences and similarities in terms of political culture influences, policymaking influences, and the global social and economic situation. The political culture argument, in brief, is that the U.S. is more individualistic and privatistic than Canada. Thus, Canadian metropolitan areas have a political and social climate more sympathetic to metropolitan government. The lengthy, tragic history of U.S. racism also comes into play. Policymaking influences include the interplay of these levels of government; we will have more to say about this below. The global forces argument is that jobs and people have decentralized, and that a common competitiveness is important to any metropolitan area today. …


The aim of this study is to synthesize new benzenesulfonamide derivatives that possess antibacterial activity using Bumetanide as a precursor of benzenesulfonamide. A novel series of hydrazones containing benzenesulfonamides (4a-i) and 1,3,4 oxadiazole containing benzenesulfonamides (5a-e) were prepared and their antibacterial and antifungal activities were measured using microplate broth assay against Gram-positive: Staphylococcus aureus, Gram-negative: Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Fungi: Aspergillus fumigates and Candida albicans. The results showed that some of the prepared compounds exhibit a good to excellent activity against the mentioned bacteria, however all the series showed no activity against fungi. Among the series, Compound (4i) demoed an excellent antibacterial activity better than that of the standard reference (Sulfamethoxazole) against Escherichia coli, while compounds (4c, 4e, 4g) showed good activity against all tested bacterial strains equals to Sulfamethoxazole activity. Moreover, compounds (4g, 5d) exert an antimicrobial activity equals to that of Sulfamethoxazole against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while compounds (4a, 4b, 4c, 4f, 4g, 4h) exhibit similar activity to Sulfamethoxazole against Escherichia coli.


A one-dimensional numerical MOSFET model suitable for fast transient analysis of analog as well as digital circuits is presented. This model, based on a fast resolution of the Poisson and current continuity equations is continuous over all region of operation, from weak to strong inversion. Moreover, this modeling approach implicitly takes into account the non-quasi-static nature of the charge dynamics. This last feature proved to be very useful for the simulation of current copier based circuits that are strongly affected by charge injection effects. Systematic comparisons are given between this model, BSIM3 and two-dimensional (2D) simulations for basic and cascoded current copier cells.


Global warming is one of the most important consequences of excess energy consumption. Phase change materials (PCMs) have prominent advantages in thermal energy storage owing to their high latent heat capacities and small temperature variations during the phase change process. However, leakage is a major problem that limits the use of PCMs. Leakage may occur in encapsulated PCMs or in composites where the PCM is attached to the surface of a supporting material or within the pores of that material. In this study, pentadecane/diatomite and pentadecane/sepiolite nanocomposites were fabricated by using unmodified and microwave‐irradiated diatomite and sepiolite samples and by using different compounding processes, such as direct impregnation, vacuum impregnation, and ultrasonic‐assisted impregnation methods. The microstructures and the chemical and thermal properties of the composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. Subsequently, the thermal reliability and stability and the thermal conductivity of the PCM composites were also investigated. A melting temperature of 9.25°C and a latent heat capacity of 58.73 J/g were determined for the pentadecane/diatomite composite that was prepared with the direct impregnation method using a microwave‐treated diatomite sample. The pentadecane/sepiolite composite prepared in the melting temperature range 7.98°C to 8.53°C and latent heat capacity range 41.05 to 46.02 J/g. The results of the thermal analysis indicate that fabricated diatomite‐based or sepiolite‐based PCM composites have good potential as thermal energy storage materials.


The increasing demand for oil and gas in the world today drives the need for new and improved methods for identifying hydrocarbon prospects. The petroleum industry uses information about the subsurface in the exploration and production of oil and gas. The industry's tendency to explore deeper waters and more geologically complex areas requires reliable and more robust methods for extracting such information.This thesis illustrates possible strategies for using seismic reflection data in the inversion for subsurface earth properties. One strategy which is the traditional approach in seismic is to consider inversion as a stepwise procedure consisting of a model-driven global reflectivity imaging process (migration) followed by target-related elastic inversion of the reflectivity information into earth property parameters.In this thesis a method describing wave equation prestack depth migration of converted wave data in anisotropic media is presented. The migration is accomplished by numerical wavefield extrapolation in the frequency-space domain using precomputed space-variant fillter operators. Imaging is performed by crosscorrelating the source wavefield with the data wavefield at each depth level. Data examples demonstrate good dip response and correct kinematic behavior and illustrate the method's ability to handle complex multi-layer models with a relatively high degree of anisotropy.By considering seismic inversion as a stepwise approach, this thesis also presents a method for inversion of reflection information into medium parameters. The method provides estimation of density and P-wave and S-wave velocities at the seafloor by inversion of the acoustic-elastic PP reflection coefficient estimated at the seafloor. The PP reflection coefficient is calculated in the frequency-slowness domain from seafloor measurements of the pressure and the vertical component of the particle velocity. The algorithm gives estimates of seafloor parameters in good agreement with the true model parameters.Another strategy for using seismic data in the inversion for subsurface earth properties is to perform inversion as a data-driven procedure where the medium parameters are directly inverted for. In this thesis a new method on inverse scattering for the estimation of the medium properties of a onedimensional acoustic layered medium from single scattering data is presented. The method provides an explicit, non-iterative and fully data-driven solution of the inverse one-dimensional scattering problem.


Dynamical dark energy (DE) phenomenon emerges as a geometrical effect accompanying the cosmological expansion of nonrelativistic fermionic matter. This occurs without the need for any fluid, like e.g. dynamical scalar field (quintessence, cosmon, etc.), and with conventional form of the Einstein equations in contrast to other known geometrical DE models. The phenomenon results from first principles in the framework of the two measures field theory where, in the Einstein frame, both fermion masses and the cosmological constant (CC) turn into functions of the cold fermion density n. This n dependence becomes negligible in regular (laboratory) conditions but it may have an important role in cosmology. In the 4D gravity model where the original action involves only CC and massive fermions without selfinteraction, for different (but wide) regions in the parameter space we have found two possible classes of scenarios for the late universe starting from the cold matter domination era. We argue that the fermions which drive the variable CC should be associated with cold neutrinos disposed in voids and supervoids. The cosmological dynamics of the first class practically coincides with that of the LambdaCDM model, while the dynamics of the second class is of the phantom-like regime with a pseudo-rip scenario. Crossing the phantom divide happens due to a new type of the neutrino DE effect where neutrinos pass through the state with zero mass and with the vacuum-like EoS P_{\nu}=-\rho_{\nu}.


This book consists primarily of fulllength research papers presented at a symposium held in Philadelphia in Jaunuary 1973, on the mechanism of action of steroids and their possible application to the treatment of various types of shock. These papers are by basic scientists and research clinicians. They document basic pharmacological and physiological action of the various steroids and define, in a scientific way, their effects on intracellular, extracellular, and circulatory processes, both in the normal and the shock state. These findings are discussed and interpreted by several international authorities in the field of shock. Although a tremendous amount of information is made available on the action and usefulness of steroids in shock, it is a measure of the objectivity of a summarizing author that he concludes "regarding the use of corticosteroids as an adjunct to the treatment of shock states... neither malpractice to do so nor negligence if you elect


Turning viral persistence on and off Norovirus causes >90% of the world's gastroenteritis. Norovirus can establish persistent infections, which may contribute to its spread. How does norovirus establish itself as a permanentw resident of the gut and how can such persistent infections be cured (see the Perspective by Wilks and Golovkina)? Baldridge et al. studied mice persistently infected with norovirus and found that viral persistence required the gut microbiota: resident bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. Antibiotics prevented persistent mouse norovirus infection in a way that depended on the secreted antiviral protein interferon λ (IFN-λ). Nice et al. report that IFN-λ can cure mice persistently infected with norovirus, independent of the adaptive immune system. Science, this issue p. 266, p. 269; see also p. 233 The antiviral cytokine interferon-λ cures persistent norovirus infection in mice. [Also see Perspective by Wilks and Golovkina] Norovirus gastroenteritis is a major public health burden worldwide. Although fecal shedding is important for transmission of enteric viruses, little is known about the immune factors that restrict persistent enteric infection. We report here that although the cytokines interferon-α (IFN-α) and IFN-β prevented the systemic spread of murine norovirus (MNoV), only IFN-λ controlled persistent enteric infection. Infection-dependent induction of IFN-λ was governed by the MNoV capsid protein and correlated with diminished enteric persistence. Treatment of established infection with IFN-λ cured mice in a manner requiring nonhematopoietic cell expression of the IFN-λ receptor, Ifnlr1, and independent of adaptive immunity. These results suggest the therapeutic potential of IFN-λ for curing virus infections in the gastrointestinal tract.


Power System Harmonics and Passive Filter Designs J. C. Das 2015-03-16 As new technologies are created and advances are made with the ongoing research efforts, power system harmonics has become a subject of great interest. The author presents these nuances with real-life case studies, comprehensive models of power system components for harmonics, and EMTP simulations. Comprehensive coverage of power system harmonics Presents new harmonic mitigation technologies In-depth analysis of the effects of harmonics Foreword written by Dr. Jean Mahseredijan, world renowned authority on simulations of electromagnetic transients and harmonics


Earthquakes are amongst the most destructive of natural phenomena and have been the subject of significant research effort over many decades, to predict the onset of seismic events. Electromagnetic emissions detected prior to earthquakes provide a potential data source for seismic predictions and research suggests that specific pre-seismic electromagnetic activity can be directly related to specific earthquakes although it is still an open issue as to the precise links between these electromagnetic emissions and subsequent earthquakes. In this research, findings of the long memory or the selforganization of several pre-earthquake MHz electromagnetic time-series provide significant outcomes regarding the earthquake prediction. It is also recognised that enhanced radon gas emission has an equally long history as being associated with seismic activity. In general, several anomalous soil radon emissions have been observed prior to earthquakes and this has been recorded all over the world. The abnormal soil radon exhalation from the interior of the earth has been associated with earthquakes and is considered as an important field of research. The research reported in this thesis compared and contrasted the merits of combining electromagnetic emission data and radon exhalation data as precursors of earthquakes with the aim of enhancing earthquake prediction methodology. The findings from the long-memory analysis of radon disturbances in the soil indicated a very significant issue: the radon disturbances in the soil prior to earthquakes exhibit similar behaviour as the MHz RF disturbances of general failure. So, the radon precursors and the MHz electromagnetic correspond to the same pre-earthquake phase. Geological explanations were proposed in view of the asperity model. Persistent and anti-persistent MHz anomalies were due to the micro-cracking of the heterogeneous medium of the earth's crust which may have led the system's evolution towards the global failure. Fractal methods have been used on historical data, to investigate MHz electromagnetic time-series spectra on emissions preceding major earthquakes over the period 2007 to 2014 and the characteristics of enhanced radon emissions have been studied over the period 2008 to 2015 for seismic events occurring in the Aegean Region. It has been found that both the electromagnetic emissions and the radon exhalation data exhibit similar fractal behaviour and are associated with impending seismic activity. Hence both phenomena are relevant to earthquake predictions and should both be employed in any systematic approach to this problem as the varying geological and geographic conditions under which earthquakes can occur, might preclude one or other data from being measurable. According to the several techniques applied in this thesis, all should be employed in sequential steps, albeit the power-law spectral fractal analysis is the most significant to trace long-memory patterns of 1/f processes as those of the processes of earthquakes.