The resource-based view (RBV) has been widely adopted as the theoretical code for harnessing the strategic contributions of information technology (IT). However, mere ownership of resources, as prescribed by this body of theory, is no guarantee of competitiveness. Furthermore, RBV does not convey the wider concerns of social and environmental sustainability that many leading corporations now accept as pressing responsibilities of the 21 st Century. We propose a relevant extension to the RBV as a strategic paradigm. It begins with the argument that the tenets of sustainability translate commercially into a customercentric strategy of lean production. In this context, the Value Chain concept could be an important mediator for ensuring the most profitable IT investments, while promoting green economic practices. We tested our model using a sample of third party logistics firms, with supportive results.


The influence of exercise-induced arousal on the processing of visual information by three age groups was tested. Subjects were required to perform the Treisman visual detection task both at rest and during a steady-state walk at 75% of their maximum heart rate. The expected age differences in perceptual performance were apparent. The detection performance of 8-year-olds was poorer than that of 11-year-olds and adults. Detection of conjoined feature targets, with increases in the array size, showed a decrement in comparison to single feature targets. Subjects responded more quickly at all levels of distraction when a target was present while they were exercising. The results supported certain elements of Treisman's feature integration theory. This study has provided evidence that an exercise stress equivalent to 75 % of maximum heart rate had a positive effect on the visual perceptual performance of all groups tested. Both array size and feature conditions interacted with age. This suggests that children ...


We recently introduced a method called conveyor belt (CB) thermodynamic integration (TI) for the calculation of alchemical free-energy differences based on molecular dynamics simulations. In the present work, the CBTI approach is generalized to conformational free-energy changes, i.e. to the determination of the potential of mean force (PMF) along a conformational coordinate ξ of interest. The proposed conveyor belt umbrella sampling (CBUS) scheme relies on the parallel simulation of K replicas k = 0, 1, ..., K - 1 of the system, with K even. For each replica k, the instantaneous value of ξ is restrained to an anchor value λk. The latter anchor points are equally spaced along a forward-turn-backward-turn path (i.e. a CB) between two extreme values defining the ξ-range of interest. The rotation of the CB is controlled by a variable Λ (range 0 to 2π) which evolves dynamically along the simulation. The evolution of Λ results from the forces exerted by the restraining potentials on the anchor points, taken equal and opposite to those they exert on the replicas. Because these forces tend to cancel out along the CB, the dynamics of Λ is essentially diffusive, and the continuous distribution of ξ-values sampled by the replica system is automatically close to homogeneous. The latter feature represents an advantage over direct counting (DCNT) and traditional umbrella sampling (TRUS), shared to some extent with replica-exchange umbrella sampling (REUS). In this work, the CBUS scheme is introduced and compared to the three latter schemes in the calculation of 45 standard absolute binding free energies. These correspond to the binding of five alkali cations to three crown ethers in three solvents. Different free-energy estimators are considered for the PMF calculation, and the calculated values are also compared to those of a previous study relying on an alchemical path, as well as to experimental data.


Purpose: The objective of this research is to determine the service improvement priority based on tourist judgements and experiences on service quality in a zoological park. Design/methodology/approach: A powerful integrated model was developed to acquire accurate critical service attributes and their priority ranks that can promote tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty. Drawing on relevant literature, a model was proposed based on tourists' perspective by integrating structural equation model (SEM) with SERVQUAL and refined Kano models. Findings and Originality/value: Based on the analysis of data through some quantitative tools, the study helped in prioritizing the critical service attributes, which, if adopted, improved, and implemented, could lead to satisfaction of tourists. This will help a zoological park to propose more efficient and value-added improvement policies of the service Research limitations/implications: The primary limitation in the scope its sample. Because the study involved only one Zoological Park in Indonesia, the results cannot be generalized across a national wide spectrum. Originality/value: The study was the first to successfully apply an integrated model in tourism sector, which has previously not been used. The study has hopefully opened up an area of research and methodology that could provide considerable further benefits for researchers interested in this topic. Moreover, the integrated model has proven to be useful in determining the priority rank of critical service quality attributes.


Instructional Rounds is a continuous improvement strategy that focuses on the technical core of educational systems as well as educators collaborating side-by-side. Concentrating on collective learning, this process only makes sense within an overall strategy of improvement. This case study examined the Instructional Rounds process in a northern Michigan school district. Pressure points identified included a culture of distrust, an unclear definition of learner outcomes and effective teaching, and a status quo view of improvement. Supportive strategies for change were identified and continue to be implemented as part of the district's continuous improvement strategy.


In most cases symptoms of autism begin in early infancy. However, a subset of children appears to develop normally until a clear deterioration is observed. Many parents of children with "regressive"-onset autism have noted antecedent antibiotic exposure followed by chronic diarrhea. We speculated that, in a subgroup of children, disruption of indigenous gut flora might promote colonization by one or more neurotoxin-producing bacteria, contributing, at least in part, to their autistic symptomatology. To help test this hypothesis, 11 children with regressive-onset autism were recruited for an intervention trial using a minimally absorbed oral antibiotic. Entry criteria included antecedent broad-spectrum antimicrobial exposure followed by chronic persistent diarrhea, deterioration of previously acquired skills, and then autistic features. Short-term improvement was noted using multiple pre- and post-therapy evaluations. These included coded, paired videotapes scored by a clinical psychologist blinded to treatment status; these noted improvement in 8 of 10 children studied. Unfortunately, these gains had largely waned at follow-up. Although the protocol used is not suggested as useful therapy, these results indicate that a possible gut flora-brain connection warrants further investigation, as it might lead to greater pathophysiologic insight and meaningful prevention or treatment in a subset of children with autism. (J Child Neurol 2000;15:429-435).


Developing a market strategy is a complex task. Analysts need to identify a diverse range of issues and correctly assess their impact. This article uses political, economic, social and technology analysis to assess the market drivers that are affecting all medical device companies. The wide-ranging implications of the euro are also examined.


It is shown that the spectral points (bound states and resonances) generated by a central potential of a single-channel problem, can be found using rational parametrization of the S-matrix. To achieve this, one only needs values of the S-matrix along the real positive energy axis. No calculations of the S-matrix at complex energies or a complex rotation are necessary. The proposed method is therefore universal in that it is applicable to any potential (local, non-local, discontinuous, etc) provided that there is a way of obtaining the S-matrix (or scattering phase shifts) at real collision energies. Besides this, combined with any method that extracts the phase shifts from the scattering data, the proposed rational parametrization technique would be able to do the spectral analysis using the experimental data.


The case presents a $1+billion technology company seeking new growth through the introduction of a radically new product platform. During its first ten years, PTC Corporation grew faster than Microsoft did during the similar period of its evolution. By the late 1990s PTC was faced with intensified competition and saturation in its core markets. To maintain growth, the company introduced a completely new product platform. While PTC focused on developing and selling the product, it failed to recognize that this new product was so different from its traditional offerings that it required a new organizational structure, sales capabilities, support processes, and market strategy. The case traces the company's evolution from development and launch of Windchill through the four-year period post-launch, during which its founding CEO was forced out and the company transformed. Ultimately, Windchill became a top seller for PTC, but not until after significant internal change.

The PTC case illustrates what it means to build a new business within the context of an existing, successful firm. It can also be used to explore what it takes to accomplish a successful new product launch for a substantially new product platform. Sales and channel strategy also figures prominently in the case.


Latent image representations arising from vision-language models have proved immensely useful for a variety of downstream tasks. However, their utility is limited by their entanglement with respect to different visual attributes. For instance, recent work has shown that CLIP image representations are often biased toward specific visual properties (such as objects or actions) in an unpredictable manner. In this paper, we propose to separate representations of the different visual modalities in CLIP's joint vision-language space by leveraging the association between parts of speech and specific visual modes of variation (e.g. nouns relate to objects, adjectives describe appearance). This is achieved by formulating an appropriate component analysis model that learns subspaces capturing variability corresponding to a specific part of speech, while jointly minimising variability to the rest. Such a subspace yields disentangled representations of the different visual properties of an image or text in closed form while respecting the underlying geometry of the manifold on which the representations lie. What's more, we show the proposed model additionally facilitates learning subspaces corresponding to specific visual appearances (e.g. artists' painting styles), which enables the selective removal of entire visual themes from CLIP-based text-to-image synthesis. We validate the model both qualitatively, by visualising the subspace projections with a text-to-image model and by preventing the imitation of artists' styles, and quantitatively, through class invariance metrics and improvements to baseline zero-shot classification. Our code is available at: https://github.com/james-oldfield/PoS-subspaces.


Introduction There is no consensus on gender differences in clinical outcomes of HIV-infected patients. Immunologic, virologic, and survival data for patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) show an inconsistent presence and direction of a gender gap. Gender and sexual behavior-based outcomes analysis is lacking in Guatemala, which has largely sexual transmission of HIV. We examine outcomes of HIV-positive Guatemalans receiving ART over a 9 year period. Methods Retrospective cohort analysis was conducted using a database of treatment-naïve patients offered free ART at the Clinica Familiar Luis Angel Garcia in Guatemala City from 2004 to 2014. Multivariate Cox regression was used to study gender differences in all-cause mortality, immunologic failure (CD4 <100 cells/µL twice or CD4 < baseline) and virologic suppression (viral load <50 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL within 1 year of starting ART). Results 4248 patients were included: 2605 men, 1617 women, and 26 transgender patients (analysed separately). Compared to men, women had higher median CD4 counts (198 vs. 126 cells/µL, p<0.001) and lower median viral loads (6.48 × 104 copies/mL vs. 11.27 × 104 copies/mL, p<0.001) at baseline. In multivariate analysis, mortality decreased with female gender (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.29–0.93, p=0.029) while it increased with age (HR 1.02, 95% CI 1.003–1.04, p=0.02) and inconsistent condom use (HR 9.36, 95% CI 2.61–33.63, p=0.001). In women alone, these factors did not predict mortality. In men alone, mortality increased with inconsistent condom use (HR 23.26, 95% CI 2.89–187.3, p=0.003), and number of sexual partners (HR 1.02, 95% CI 1.001–1.039, p=0.041). Gender did not predict immunologic failure. Female gender predicted a lower rate of viral suppression (HR 0.6, 95% CI 0.41–0.85, p=0.005). Conclusion Women receiving ART have lower mortality than men when adjusted for sociodemographic factors and sexual behaviours. Sexual risk factors affect genders differently and can predict treatment outcomes in previously infected patients.


OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to review the short- and long-term clinical and radiological results of intramedullary compression screw fixation of proximal fifth metatarsal fractures in athletes. METHODS: Eleven male and six female active patients with fifth metatarsal zone II and zone III fractures fixed with a 4.5-mm cannulated compression screw were evaluated by chart review, review of radiographs, and clinical evaluation. Fifteen of the patients were high-level athletes (soccer: n=11; basketball: n=1; track and field: n=3) and two were recreational-level athletes. Mean follow-up from surgery to evaluation was 54 (38-70) months. RESULTS: Mean time to healing as shown on radiographs and mean time to return to full activity after surgery were 7.3 and 7.5 weeks, respectively. All patients were able to return to their previous levels of activity. There were no reports of union delay, nonunion or refracture to date. CONCLUSION: In our patients, cannulated screw fixation of proximal fifth metatarsal fractures was a reliable procedure with low morbidity associated that provided athletes a quick return to activity. Level of Evidence I, Case Series.


Visible-light enabled titanium oxide (TiO2) films deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates are investigated for their capabilities to both pollution control and splitting water on hydrogen production. Three types of TiO2 films are prepared at different levels of doping nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) and sputtering power. All three samples are similar in morphological and microstructural features, but differ in their interfacial phase and dopants. For the N,C-codoped TiO2 film prepared at a higher sputtering power, tin ions can permeate into the growing TiO2 film from the ITO substrate and promote the formation of crystalline Ti1-xSnxO2 layer. It shows the highest photocatalytic oxidation rate over methylene blue (MB) solution under ultraviolet and blue light irradiation, respectively. This is ascribed to the photosensitized carbon on the columnar grains, leading an increase in the MB adsorption capacity and light harvesting efficiency. Conversely, the N-TiO2 film prepared at a lower power exhibits the highest photocurrent density of which a higher Schottky barrier formed at the TiO2/ITO interface. A hydrogen yield rate of 0.25 μmol/cm2 h is obtained under blue light irradiation. These suggest that the interfacial properties of TiO2/ITO film and C-doping truly control its photocatalytic capabilities in addition to the well-known surface states.


The Superannuation Industry Supervision Act 1993 (Cth) (the SIS Act) has been amended from 1 July 2013 to require the trustees of Australian superannuation funds to have regard and consider the taxation consequences of their investment strategy. In spite of the literature strongly supporting the benefits of taking tax into account when investing (Tax Aware Investment Management, TAIM) by funds, the extent to which negative perceptions existed about TAIM were unclear. This study was directed at exploring the attitudes, practices and expectations of Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) of public offer superannuation funds in respect of TAIM and in the context of the recent reform. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 CIOs. It was found that they rejected all negative reasons for not utilising TAIM. More importantly, the CIOs were supportive of TAIM and felt that any views to the contrary were not theirs. The CIOs did already practice limited TAIM methods with respect to Capital Gains Tax and imputation credits, and they expected little change in the way that they manage their funds from 1 July 2013.


We have investigated lateral In–In pair correlations within the wetting layers of buried InAs/GaAs quantum dots imaged with cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy. We quantified the number of In–In pairs along the [110] direction as a function of the spacing between them. Since the number of In–In pairs exceeds that of a randomly generated distribution of In atoms, significant lateral In clustering within the wetting layers is apparent. A comparison of the experimentally determined and randomly generated In–In pair distributions reveals nearest-neighbor In–In pair interaction energies similar to those calculated for InGaAs alloy surfaces [J. -H. Cho, S. B. Zhang, and A. Zunger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3654 (2000)]. The In–In pair correlations increase with high temperature annealing, indicating that vertical In–Ga interdiffusion occurs simultaneously with lateral In segregation. Together, these results suggest that initial In clustering in the wetting layer may be frozen at the surface during growth, ...


Reading the Communist Manifesto today, it is impossible not to be struck by the confidence with which it conceptualises history. The positive energy of this bold grand narrative stands in such stark contrast to the negative and jaded mentality of our times, which conceives of grand narratives only to tell us that there can be none. Such talk as there is of history today is more likely to be of "the end of history". There are three senses in which references to the end of history feature in contemporary debates: apocalyptic prediction, postmodernist pronouncement and capitalist triumphalism. This paper addresses the crisis of historicity in our time in relation to these positions and asks what is it about our age that produces them. It explores the widespread rejection of grand narratives, as well as grand narratives, which nevertheless persist, implicit and explicit, right and left. It looks at the position of marxism in the 1990s, counterposing it to postmarxism and postmodernism in particular on the question of grand narratives. It calls for resistance to the detotalising pressures of the age and revival of a totalising (as opposed to totalised) philosophy of history.


Fusion can be described as the complete or partial union between the dentin and enamel of two or more developing teeth. This union could be seen in the primary or permanent dentition or between a permanent tooth and a supernumerary tooth. Various theories have been put forward to explain the aetiology of fusion including that of increased force generated during growth, use of thalidomide or viral infection during pregnancy and a genetic aetiology. Fusion may cause aesthetic problems, occlusal disturbances, increased tendency for dental caries and periodontal disease. Developmental anomalies such as fusion are not observed frequently in clinical practice. Morphologic alterations of teeth can be observed as an incidental finding during thorough clinical examination. This case report discusses 2 such cases of fusion along with review of literature.


Calcium channel blockers have been a treatment of first choice for patients with Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) for many years. The aim of the study: The aim of the study is to compare the therapeutic effect and safety of Diltiazem, Nifedipine and Felodipine in patients with primary and secondary RP and to determine their therapeutic effectiveness in patients with severe RP with digital ulcers. Patients and methods: For a period of six months 86 patients with RP were followed up - 19 with systemic sclerosis and 67 with primary RP. The patients are devided into three groups - treated with Diltiazem, Nifedipine and Felodipine. The first group (I) includes 28 patients (n=28) - 6 with scleroderma (3 patients with digital ulcers; n=3) and 22 patients with primary RP. They received Diltiazem at the dose of 60mg 3 times daily. The second group (II) includes 26 patients (n=26) - 6 with scleroderma (3 patients with digital ulcers; n=3) and 21 patients with primary RP. They received Nifedipine at the dose of 10mg 3 times daily. The third group (III) includes 32 patients (n=32) - 8 with scleroderma (4 patients with digital ulcers; n=4) and 24 patients with primary RP. They were treated with Felodipine at the dose of 5mg 2 times daily. For evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of the medications was used VAS 100mm for global assessment of the severity of RP from the patient and the physician before the treatment and at the follow up. It was performed capillaroscopy. There were followed up also the adverse events in the course of treatment. Results: At the end of the second week we found significant decrease of values of VAS for the global assessment of severity of RP by the patients and by the doctor in groups of patients - I, II and III. In the three groups of patients the frequency and severity of vasospastic episodes was reduced as well as the degree of pain and disability. Capillaroscopy of nail-fold showed incresed blood flow at the end of the second week compared to baseline in the three groups of patients. Healing of digital ulcers we observed in four patients only in the group treated with Felodipine. These three calcium channel blockers that we used in the present study possess good therapeutic effect in patients with RP, which enhances in the sequence: Diltiazem. Scripta Scientifica Medica 2007;39(1):31-34


A promising multi-user access scheme, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with successive interference cancellation (SIC), is currently under consideration for 5G systems. NOMA allows more than one user to simultaneously access the same frequency-time resource and separates multi-user signals by SIC. These render resource optimization in NOMA different from orthogonal multiple access. We provide theoretical insights and algorithmic solutions to jointly optimize power and channel allocation in NOMA. We mathematically formulate NOMA resource allocation problems, and characterize and analyze the problems' tractability under a range of constraints and utility functions. For tractable cases, we provide polynomial-time solutions for global optimality. For intractable cases, we prove the NP-hardness and propose an algorithmic framework combining Lagrangian duality and dynamic programming to deliver near-optimal solutions. To gauge the performance of the solutions, we also provide optimality bounds on the global optimum. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithmic solution can significantly improve the system performance in both throughput and fairness over orthogonal multiple access as well as over a previous NOMA resource allocation scheme.


ANCA-associated vasculitides are a group of inflammatory diseases affecting medium and small vessels with a redundant and hence complex pathogenetic mechanism. Since their first identification, their dismal prognosis has forced researchers to find effective therapies. The prognosis has changed since the advent of immunomodulatory drugs like steroids, cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil and, more recently, biological drugs. Plasmapheresis in association with immune suppressant drugs has shown beneficial effects in some clinical trials, mostly in dialysis-dependent patients. Apheresis should remove, in a nonselective manner, pathogenetic antibodies like ANCA but also immune complexes, cytokines and inflammatory mediators. A recent meta-analysis took into account 28 randomized clinical trials studying therapeutic interventions in adult vasculitis with renal involvement, six of them scheduling plasmapheresis as adjunctive therapy to immune suppressant drugs. This association significantly reduced the need for dialysis at three (1 trial: RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.24-0.84) and twelve (5 trials: RR 0.47, 95% CI 0.3-0.75) months but not the mortality at one year. We can conclude that plasmapheresis is an effective treatment option for vasculitides with severe renal failure. It can also be considered in case of ineffectiveness of or contraindications to standard treatment.


Understanding the determinants of farm households' social engagement patterns in rural communities is important for public policy programs that seek to improve the well-being of the rural population and promote rural sustainability. Within this context, this paper examines the factors that influence both the participation in, and the number of hours dedicated to, social, community and leisure activities among farm operators and their spouse/partner in a region in the West of Ireland. The theoretical underpinnings of this research are an extension of Becker's (1965, 1974) and Gronau's (1977) agricultural household models, whereby households maximise utility subject to a set of constraints, household income and time endowment. The study employs a time-use diary survey, combined with an individual and household survey, to collect data from farm households in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. A Craggs double hurdle model is used to estimate the predictors of time-use and the number of hours spent participating in a range of off-farm activities.


Using a simple societal utility function--giving equal weight to current and future generations-it is concluded that costs need to be discounted on the basis of the expected increase in income and the marginal utility of consumption, and that effects need to be discounted on the basis of the expected increase in health and the marginal utility of health. It is derived that both rates need to be equal when assuming a kind of perfect market, where growth rates are determined by the societal utility function. It is argued that this is an extremely heroic assumption and that different discount rates may be needed. Additionally, the traditional 'inconsistency arguments' of Weinstein and Stason and of Keeler and Cretin are reconsidered. Within the context presented earlier, the first inconsistency only emerges when a growth equilibrium is assumed, reinforcing the arguments put forward before. The Keeler and Cretin paradox is reconsidered by showing that absolutely no paradox emerges when programs are not supposed to stop after a year but are supposed to continue indefinitely. The conclusion is drawn that non-believers in market mechanisms assuring an optimal social policy, need to reconsider the use of their discount rates.


Background HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are the three most important infectious diseases in Ethiopia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the spatial codistribution of these diseases is critical for designing geographically targeted and integrated disease control programmes. This study investigated the spatial overlap and drivers of HIV, TB and malaria prevalence in Ethiopia. Methods HIV, TB and malaria data were obtained from different nationwide prevalence surveys, and geospatial covariates were obtained from publicly available sources. A Bayesian model-based geostatistical framework was applied to each survey leveraging the strength of high-resolution spatial covariates to predict continuous disease-specific prevalence surfaces and their codistribution. Results The national prevalence was 1.54% (95% CI 1.40 to 1.70) for HIV, 0.39% (95% CI 0.34 to 0.45) for TB and 1.1% (95%CI 0.95 to 1.32) for malaria. Substantial subnational variation was predicted with the highest HIV prevalence estimated in Gambela (4.52%), Addis Ababa (3.52%) and Dire Dawa (2.67%) regions. TB prevalence was highest in Dire Dawa (0.96%) and Gambela (0.88%), while malaria was highest in Gambela (6.1%) and Benishangul-Gumuz (3.8%). Spatial overlap of their prevalence was observed in some parts of the country, mainly Gambela region. Spatial distribution of the diseases was significantly associated with healthcare access, demographic, and climatic factors. Conclusions The national distribution of HIV, TB and malaria was highly focal in Ethiopia, with substantial variation at subnational and local levels. Spatial distribution of the diseases was significantly associated with healthcare access, demographic and climatic factors. Spatial overlap of HIV, TB and malaria prevalence was observed in some parts of the country. Integrated control programmes for these diseases should be targeted to these areas with high levels of co-endemicity.


I conducted a review to show that smoking cessation in TB patients can have positive TB outcomes. Behavioural interventions (BI) for smoking cessation are known to be effective and cost effective but there are important variations in quit rates that are hard to explain. My aim was to develop and validate a fidelity index for BIs in smoking cessation, and use it to explore the extent to which variations in smoking quit outcomes reflect the degree to which providers implement the various components and the quality of delivery of a smoking cessation programme in TB treatment settings.
I developed and tested a theoretically mapped fidelity index comprising two sub-indices: 'Adherence' for measuring compliance (37 items) and 'Quality' for measuring provider competence (8 items). Items were rated as fully, partially, or not, implemented against a behaviourally anchored response scale. Fidelity was measured in a prospective study of 18 providers in TB clinics in Pakistan (154 patients) whose sessions were audio-recorded and then coded. These providers had participated in delivering the same BIs as part of the ASSIST trial four years earlier.
Reliability was assessed in three ways. There was good inter-coder reliability using Kripendorff's alpha, Principal Components Analysis showed the items of the index were coherent in measuring fidelity and Generalisability theory showed that the index reliably differentiated between providers by capturing the variation in their BI delivery practice.
Provider Adherence and Quality of provision were positively correlated. I tested the assumption that relative provider practice was consistent between the ASSIST trial in 2010 and the fidelity study in 2014. Using Kendall's W coefficient of concordance on data from a self-recorded checklist used in both studies, I found moderate to strong concordance. I then used binomial regression analysis to estimate the relationship between fidelity and ASSIST trial provider-level quit rates. This showed that the provider-level quit rate was positively associated with Quality of interaction (odds ratio: 2.15; 95% CI, 1.43 to 3.24) but negatively associated with Adherence to BI content (odds ratio: 0.55; 95% CI, 0.40 to 0.77). A negative interaction was found between Adherence and Quality and quit rates.
This research makes several contributions to the field. We have a better understanding of the impact of smoking on TB. I developed and validated a new, theoretically-informed, fidelity index which can be used to quantify and score delivery of BI ingredients in a standardised way and used to better understand how BIs influence outcomes. I report that the quality of delivery of BIs maybe as important as content in influencing smoking cessation.


Human Hanukah Factor (HuHF) is a trypsinlike serine protease associated with cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and natural killer (NK) cells. Employing a radiolabeled RNA probe for the HuHF gene, cells containing HuHF mRNA in situ were detected in skin lesions from patients with a variety of reactive and neoplastic dermatoses including positive allergic contact dermatitis patch tests, lichen planus, erythrodermic psoriasis, Sezary syndrome, and poikilodermatous mycosis fungoides. The results were correlated with in situ studies of CTL/NK subsets as defined immunohistologically by a panel of monoclonal antibodies applied to sermiserial sections of the same tissue blocks used for the HuHF hybridizations. The results suggest that cytotoxic cells are present in each of these dermatoses, that they may be situated within either the epidermis or the dermis, and that they belong predominantly to the CTL subset because Leu-7+ or CD16+ cells (NK cells) were typically rare or absent. A variable proportion of cells expressed Leu-19 antigen (a marker for non-MHC-restricted cytotoxic cells); however, its rarity in several cases suggests that most of the HuHF+ cells identified in them belonged to the MHC-restricted, Leu-19- CTL subset. It is concluded that the correlation of molecular biologic and immunohistologic data will be a useful method for the further characterization of cytotoxic cell subsets in human dermatoses.


This information pathfinder is designed to help students with library research as they complete various assignments in Professor Morata's class at the Wolfson Campus.


Objectives Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths globally, with low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) disproportionately affected. Estimates of CRC rates in LMIC are scarce. We aimed to (1) estimate sex-specific incidence of CRC, (2) estimate temporal trend and (3) determine regional variations of CRC rates on the African continent. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis Methods PubMed (MEDLINE), OVID (MEDLINE), Scopus and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched from inception to 12 December 2020. We included population-based studies that reported the incidence or prevalence estimates of CRC in Africa. Studies not conducted in humans or did not directly report the rates of CRC were excluded. Random effects model was used to pool the estimates. The methodological quality of studies was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Outcome measures Overall and sex-specific annual age-standardised incidence rates (ASIR) of CRC per 100 000 population. Results The meta-analysis included 14 studies consisting of 3365 individuals with CRC (mean age, 58 years, 53% male). The overall ASIR of CRC in Africa per 100 000 population was 5.25 (95% CI 4.08 to 6.75). The rates were slightly higher in males (4.76) than in females (4.18), but not significantly different. Subgroup analysis indicated greater point estimates in North Africa (8.66) compared with sub-Saharan Africa (5.91); and higher estimates in Eastern (8.29) and Northern (8.66) Africa compared with Western (3.55) and Southern (3.57) Africa, but not statistically significant. The overall trend in ASIR has remained constant at nearly 5 per 100 000 population for the last 6 decades. Conclusion CRC estimates in Africa are heterogeneous and could be underestimated. High-quality data collection systems such as population-based cancer registries may facilitate accurate estimation of country-specific rates and provide critical information which would be lucrative to the consideration of resources needed for screening, early detection, treatment and improving overall patient outcomes.


As the high-yield (HY) bond market has grown in size and significance, it is important to examine its place in the total capital market and to develop a better understanding of its composition and characteristics. This article considers differences between the investment-grade and the HY bond market, unique characteristics within the HY bond market, and changes in the correlations between asset class sectors and their volatilities over time. There is strong evidence that HY bonds have a very significant equity component that makes them a different asset class from investment-grade bonds. Within the HY bond universe, BB bonds are heavily affected by market interest rates with some equity effect; B-rated bonds have more equity-like characteristics than an interest rate effect; and CCC-rated bonds have virtually no market interest rate effect. There is also clear evidence of changes in correlations among asset classes over time. There have been significant changes in volatility over time, with striking changes duing the 1990–1991 recession, the 1998 Russian credit crisis, and the year 2000 credit crunch. The authors discuss the significant implications of these results for bond analysts and portfolio managers.


A phylogenetic analysis was used to determine evolutionary relationships within the Early Cambrian superfamily Olenelloidea Walcott, 1890. Phylogenetic patterns within the suborder Olenellina Walcott, 1890, which contains the Olenelloidea and the Fallotaspidoidea Hupé, 1953, are also discussed. The Olenelloidea are monophyletic, and synapomorphies uniting them include the condition of the ocular lobes where they intersect the frontal lobe of the glabella, and the condition of the lateral margins of the glabellar lobes. In contrast, taxa formerly assigned to the Fallotaspidoidea are shown to represent a paraphyletic grade of several genera, some more closely related to the Olenelloidea, and some more closely related to the Redlichiina Richter, 1933. Seventy-nine exoskeletal characters were coded for 26 taxa within the Olenellina. These included 22 ingroup Olenelloidea and four outgroup taxa that have traditionally been assigned to the Fallotaspidoidea. When subjected to parsimony analysis these character data yielded a single most parsimonious cladogram that provides an hypothesis of relationship for the generic clades within the superfamily. Two new genera are recognized herein, Fritzolenellus and Lochmanolenellus. It has been argued that genetic flexibility was so great and trilobite morphology was so plastic in the Early Cambrian that suprageneric classification of Early Cambrian trilobites is precluded. Although levels of intraspecific variability may have been slightly higher in the Early Cambrian relative to the mid Paleozoic, based on the extent of polymorphic character codings, it was not so high as to obviate attempts at recovering phylogenetic structure in a major clade of Early Cambrian taxa. In addition, the consistency index recovered by this analysis is not unduly low for a phylogenetic database of this size. The phylogenetic analysis also has bearing on patterns of allometric heterochrony, which have often been held to be significant in Early Cambrian trilobites. The paedomorphic retention of advanced genal spines into the adult probably evolved at least four times. Three of the episodes can be best described as neoteny, the fourth, as progenesis. Finally, based on the phylogeny, it is likely that rates of speciation in trilobites may have been two to three times higher in the Early Cambrian than in the mid Paleozoic.


Silver alloys with tellurium, selenium and sulphur fulfil the conditions for the internal oxidation. Microstructure of these alloys consists of matrix (dilute solid solution) and particles of intermetallic compounds. Internal oxidation of ternary alloys is very similar to that of the binary alloys, but there are also distinctions in thermodynamics properties of alloying elements.
At the direct oxidation of the particles of the intermetallic compound the phenomena of the selective oxidation was observed. Concentration of more reactive elements is increasing in the oxidized part of the particles of the intermetallic compound (Te in AgTeSe alloys). Therefore the precipitated oxides formed with diffusional internal oxidation are richer with less reactive alloying element (Se in AgTeSe alloy). In the precipitated oxide particles the concentration of selenium is more than twice higher than of tellurium.


Sponges constitute an important part of marine and aquatic ecosystems, however compared to other benthic groups little is known about sponges. Knowledge of sponge species and distribution is extremely limited on Mo'orea, French Polynesia. The purpose of this research was to describe the distribution of sponges using Rapid Habitat Assessment surveys at different locations around the island and to investigate distributional influences that cause zonation via a transplant experiment. Sponge species were given arbitrary species names and identified based on basic morphological characteristics. RHA's were conducted at fives sites around Mo'orea sampling the sub habitats present on the reef in terms of % cover of substrate types and ecological benthic attributes as well as taxon abundance for coral, fish and, sponges. To examine influences on distribution one sponge species was transplanted from the fringing to the barrier reef and caged against various factors then evaluated based on weight change. A one way ANOVA revealed certain species have significant differences in distribution with respect to location on the reef. Experimental results did not show a significant difference between weight loss based on the cage treatments, but overall every treatment lost weight. Based on the factors examined by the RHA no habitat types or distributional information specific to any one species could be attained. Analysis of the experiment data indicated that predation may limit some species to specific habitats.


: Reactions like flight, anxiety, aggressiveness, and aversion are usually observed among students of nursing when they attend transmissible Disease subject, in Nursing Course. This symptoms are caused by the chance of contagion. The objectives of this study are to identify the students preoccupation of being infected or being a transmission vehicle of any transmissible disease, to their family or community and to verify what kind of diseases they are fear of being infected.


The serine-threonine kinase Akt is a downstream target of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase); it is activated by the phosphoinositide 3-phosphate-dependent kinases PDK1 and PDK2. Certain mutated forms of Akt induce oncogenic transformation in chicken embryo fibroblast cultures and hemangiosarcomas in young chickens. This ability to transform cells depends on localization of Akt at the plasma membrane and on the kinase activity of Akt. A transdominant negative form of Akt interferes with oncogenic transformation induced by the p3k oncogene, which codes for an activated form of PI 3-kinase. Akt is therefore an essential mediator of p3k-induced oncogenicity.


Rwanda is one of the countries with the best strategies for women empowerment and gender equality in Africa and globally. Nonetheless, some inequalities exist especially in education attainment.This study investigates the gender gaps in business performance using nationally representative household survey and establishment census data.Ordinary Least Squares results indicate that female-owned business enterprises employ fewer workers and are less productive than male-owned counterparts. Specifically, turnover and net revenue per worker are 20-22 per cent and 22-25 per cent lower among female-owned enterprises.The results are corroborated by propensity score matching estimates, implying that the estimated gender productivity gap is robust to observed heterogeneity between male- and female-owned enterprises.We investigate the potential mechanisms and find that female owners invest less capital, are less likely to seek and/or obtain credit and devote fewer hours per week to their businesses. Credit products targeting collateral-constrained and female-owned household enterprises could partially close the gender productivity gap.


The associahedron is classically constructed as a removahedron, i.e. by deleting inequalities in the facet description of the permutahedron. This removahedral construction extends to all permutreehedra (which interpolate between the permutahedron, the associahedron and the cube). Here, we investigate removahedra constructions for all quotientopes (which realize the lattice quotients of the weak order). On the one hand, we observe that the permutree fans are the only quotient fans realized by a removahedron. On the other hand, we show that any permutree fan can be realized by a removahedron constructed from any realization of the braid fan. Our results finally lead to a complete description of the type cones of the permutree fans.


ABSTRACT The present article develops an argument that conceptualizing the customer journey as a complex system provides both a systematic portrayal of the complex and holistic nature of customer experience and an opportunity to serve as an integrative framework for differing definitions in the service literature. A comprehensive literature review reflecting the contemporary understanding of the concept of customer journey is presented. Theoretical and practical implications of adopting a complexity theory-based stance in customer experience research are discussed under five fundamental tenets of complexity theory.


This paper assesses the feasibility of two industrial wastes, fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash (RHA), as raw materials for the production of geopolymeric pastes. Three typologies of samples were thus produced: (i) halloysite activated with potassium hydroxide and nanosilica, used as the reference sample (HL-S); (ii) halloysite activated with rice husk ash dissolved into KOH solution (HL-R); (iii) FA activated with the alkaline solution realized with the rice husk ash (FA-R). Dense and porous samples were produced and characterized in terms of mechanical properties and environmental impact. The flexural and compressive strength of HL-R reached about 9 and 43 MPa, respectively. On the contrary, the compressive strength of FA-R is significantly lower than the HL-R one, in spite of a comparable flexural strength being reached. However, when porous samples are concerned, FA-R shows comparable or even higher strength than HL-R. Thus, the current results show that RHA is a valuable alternative to silica nanopowder to prepare the activator solution, to be used either with calcined clay and fly ash feedstock materials. Finally, a preliminary evaluation of the global warming potential (GWP) was performed for the three investigated formulations. With the mix containing FA and RHA-based silica solution, a reduction of about 90% of GWP was achieved with respect to the values obtained for the reference formulation.


Psychometric Properties of the Professional Preferences Crystallization Inventory The Professional Preferences Crystallization Inventory (PPCI) is an important instrument which evaluates two dimensions: choosing a career and thus promoting professional development. This study presents the steps of the elaboration of the PPCI and the measurement of its psychometric properties obtained with a sample of 487 students from a private university in the south of Brazil, of both sexes and age ranging from 17 and 51 ( X = 22; X 5% = 21,3; Median = 20; Mode = 19). The results are presented systematically according to its theoretically proposed dimensions. Alpha coefficients for the two dimensions studied are found to be highly satisfactory (α > 0,85). The results of both the factor analysis and correlations (item-item, item-dimension, and item-total scale) seem to support a two-factor solution. Further studies are still needed to proceed with the investigation of other important psychometric qualities.


ABSTRACT A mutual relationship exists between the morphology of longitudinal (seif) dunes and their dynamics and internal structure. The basic mechanism of longitudinal dune movement results from the deflection of oblique wind flow into a longitudinal flow on the lee flank. The magnitude of the longitudinal flow depends on the angle of the wind incidence with the crest line. Deposition occurs when this angle of incidence increases through meandering of the longitudinal dune crest line. After heavy rain exposed the internal structure of the dune, two kinds of depositional unit were found: the main unit forms in the meandering area on both sides of the dune; the other, secondary unit is a narrow belt on both sides and parallel to the crest line. The two units have different strikes. Because the laminae deposited on the dune are of the three primary stratification types--"climbing translatent strata," "sand flow cross-strata," and "grainfall laminae"--the range of dips is wide (10° to 30°). These dips accord with topographic profiles across the dune. A model of the internal structure of a longitudinal dune has been developed from the field data. The model shows the erosional and depositional areas along this linear dune.


The ongoing debate on the use of transgenic crops in agriculture and its possible ecological consequences is well into its third decade. Within this debate, three moral positions can be identified that rest upon different theories of normative ethics:
a consequentialist, a deontological and a virtue ethical position. Although the debate cannot be fully resolved, a closer examination of the functions of the different moral positions is warranted in order to find constructive approaches for managing the controversy. Such an examination could contribute to a more objective debate on the use of transgenic crops. As a first step
to achieve this goal the author develops criteria for ethical decision-making that integrate the different moral positions.


The field of Compressed Sensing has shown that a relatively small number of random projections provide sufficient information to accurately reconstruct sparse signals. Inspired by applications in sensor networks in which each sensor is likely to observe a noisy version of a sparse signal and subsequently add sampling error through computation and communication, we investigate how the distortion differs depending on whether noise is introduced before sampling (observation error) or after sampling (sampling error). We analyze the optimal linear estimator (for known support) and an l1 constrained linear inverse (for unknown support). In both cases, observation noise is shown to be less detrimental than sampling noise and low sampling rates. We also provide sampling bounds for a non-stochastic l¿ bounded noise model.


The chromosomal translocation t(15; 17) in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) results in the production of a fusion gene PML-RAR alpha specific for the disease. Using the retrotranscriptase/polymerase chain reaction (RT/PCR), we cloned several distinct isoforms of PML-RAR alpha fusion transcripts and obtained their nucleic acid sequences. The results showed that the RAR alpha derived sequences were the same in fusion genes while the PML sequences differed as a result of the locations of PML gene breakpoints. The biological significance of this finding should be further studied.


Examining the process of abolition on the island of Pemba off the East African coast in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book demonstrates the links between emancipation and the redefinition of honour among all classes of people on the island. By examining the social vulnerability of ex-slaves and the former slave-owning elite caused by the abolition order of 1897, this study argues that moments of resistance on Pemba reflected an effort to mitigate vulnerability rather than resist the hegemonic power of elites or the colonial state. As the meaning of the Swahili word heshima shifted from honour to respectability, individuals' reputations came under scrutiny and the Islamic kadhi and colonial courts became an integral location for interrogating reputations in the community. This study illustrates the ways in which former slaves used piety, reputation, gossip, education, kinship and witchcraft to negotiate the gap between emancipation and local notions of belonging.


OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the G-to-A polymorphism at position -308 in the promoter of the tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) gene influences the therapeutic response to TNFalpha-blockers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS: A total of 54 patients with RA, 10 with PsA and 22 with AS were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction for the -308 TNFalpha promoter polymorphism. They were treated with infliximab (n = 63), adalimumab (n = 10) or etanercept (n = 13). Clinical response was assessed after 24 weeks by the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (DAS28) for RA and PsA, and the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Activity Index (BASDAI) for AS patients. RESULTS: All patients with the A/A genotype (n = 3, all RA) and two patients with the A/G genotype (AS) failed to respond to anti-TNF treatment. Irrespective of the underlying disease, moderate response (n = 44) was predominantly associated with the A/G genotype (A/G 18/22, G/G 4/22), whereas good response (n = 59) was exclusively seen in patients with the G/G genotype. The average improvement in the DAS28 score was 0.83 in the A/A, 1.50 in the A/G and 2.64 in the G/G group of RA and PsA patients (P < 0.0001). The BASDAI score in AS improved on average by 1.21 in the A/G and by 3.30 in the G/G group (P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that humans with a TNFalpha -308 G/G genotype are better responders to anti-TNFalpha treatment than those with A/A or A/G genotypes independent of the treated rheumatic disease (RA, PsA or AS).


ABSTRACT Current debates about building performance evaluation often emphasize the 'performance gap' between how buildings perform in practice and how performance was envisaged during the design stage. While such debates continue to be dominated by energy considerations, increasing attention is directed towards the subjective experiences of building users in terms of thermal comfort and wellbeing. The latter trends are undoubtedly to be welcomed, but buildings continue to be conceptualized as fixed physical objects rather than entities that are enacted in practice. With the aim of challenging current assumptions, research is described which sought to reclaim the concept of building appraisal as practised by the pioneering architectural practice DEGW. The concept of building appraisal differs from current notions of building performance evaluation in that the point of departure is not the supposedly fixed entity of the building, but the essential fluidity of the occupying organization and their aspirations in terms of space. Empirical data are derived from archival sources and through extensive interaction with the DEGW diaspora, many of whom remain active at the leading edge of international practice. It is concluded that the continued fixation with the 'performance gap' reinforces long-since discredited assumptions of environmental determinism.


The introduction of cloud technology has reduced the feedback time in software development for many companies. However, companies require significant resources to run applications in an Infrastructure as a Service. The study aims at developing an innovation platform which enables faster deployment of web-based applications. The innovation platform is an add-on for a cloud service, its purpose is to allow developers to set up and use multiple cameras in a cloud environment. Furthermore, the study investigates the drivers and value created by the platform for Axis. We developed a proof of concept built on the innovation platform, using the design science methodology and evaluated it in a focus group. The prototype was a mock version of a grocery store's internal website, used to show the potential of the innovation platform. Moreover, we conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate the drivers for implementing the platform and the value it created. Results showed that the implementation of the prototype may make the deployment of web-based applications easier. A majority of the interviewees and the focus group participants agreed that the development of the innovation platform should continue and be tested to adopt the platform as a complement to AWS. However, the degree to which the platform should be open source needs a more clear management strategy. The prototype is seen as an innovation platform which may be used to quickly experiment with new ideas. The key drivers for implementing a prototype entails reduced cost, faster time to market and reduced complexity of web-based deployments.


Abstract. The first step of a risk assessment analysis is the evaluation of flood-prone areas. Its importance is considered for both managing and planning emergency activities, such as hydraulic risk reduction management, and also town planning. Nowadays, using GIS technology for risk assessment analysis is very common. However, it is not widely used for defining inundated areas. LiDAR data, such as Digital Elevation Models (DEM), makes GIS numerical models attractive methods for obtaining a flooded area automatically. Using GIS tools, is beneficial for effective processing and accuracy assessment in comparison to the traditional methods which are based on topographic maps and field surveys. A first approach (Federici and Sguerso, 2007; Marzocchi et al. 2009) is the use of a GIS module in order to create perifluvial flood maps, having as prerequisites (i) the conformation of the river floodplain by a high resolution DEM and (ii) a water surface profile along the river axis calculated for a given water discharge through a generic one-dimensional (1D) hydraulic model (HEC-RAS, Basement, MIKE 11, etc). On the other hand, a second approach is the use of a 2D model GIS embedded in order to create flooded areas due to a dam break (Cannata & Marzocchi, 2012). This module solves the conservative form of the 2D Shallow Water Equations (SWE) using a Finite Volume Method (FVM). The intercell flux is computed by a one-side upwind conservative scheme extended to a 2D problem (Ying et al., 2004). The new developed GIS module gives as an output maximum intensity maps which can be directly used during the risk assessment process. Both models implemented in GRASS GIS software (GRASS, 2013) and two new commands (r.inund.fluv and r.damflood) have been created. They are all available on the official GRASS website and they are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). In this work we present a comparison between the two models mentioned above. We analyse the possibility of integrating these two approaches. We intend to use the 1D model, GIS embedded if possible, to calculate the water surface profile along the river axis and the 2D numerical one to analyse inundation beside the river levees.


For 15 years German measles has been known to hold serious risks for the human embryo if contracted by the expectant mother during pregnancy. Yet, little progress has been made toward control of the disease. Furthermore, no firm epidemiologic observations have been collected to confirm the clinical evidence—although this is convincing enough. Much of the epidemiologic difficulty lies in case finding, which is no simple matter when the problem concerns members of society who will not even be born for several months after a mother's infection and who will have no rash or telltale sign that means rubella and only rubella. Appreciation of the hazard came from clinical observations in Australia, where Gregg and others showed that an epidemic of rubella in 1939 and 1940 left in its wake a whole train of pathologic consequences for unborn babies: congenital cataract, deafness, mental retardation, and heart disease. American and European reports


Background
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global public health issue and in low-incidence countries guidance identifies the need to screen for and treat latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) with the prison environment recommended as a setting to perform LTBI screening. This study describes the findings of a LTBI screening programme which took place on entry to a remand prison in the UK.

Methods
Testing for LTBI was undertaken alongside screening for blood borne viruses in 567 men. During the screening process, information was collected on demographic variables and also specific risk factors based on World Health Organization recommendations. LTBI analysis was performed using Interferon-Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) technique.

Results
In total, 40 men returned an IGRA positive result (7.1%). However, irrespective of IGRA/LTBI status there was a substantial burden of risk factors present including previous prison stay, history of substance misuse and no BCG vaccination. Non-White ethnicity, a history of substance misuse and age over 34 years were the most significant factors in identifying individuals who would require treatment for LTBI (Positive IGRA result).

Conclusions
The study further demonstrates that the prevalence of LTBI remains increased within the prison environment and is a setting that still requires effective LTBI management.


Assigning homework to students make they are learning more effective and they comprehend the assigned task in depth by applying drill and practice activities. The current study examines the effects of assigning homework on the achievement of students at the primary level. The population of the study was 100 boys' primary schools. The sample respondents of the study were students of class 5th consist of a total of sixty students and each group such as experimental, comparison, and control group was twenty students. The experimental, comparison and control groups of the students were selected by the flipping of the coin as to which will be experimental, comparison, and the control group. The researcher adopted a simple random sampling technique. The data were collected through pre and post-standardized achievement tests based on mixed items (mix tests) developed by the researcher. The researcher developed fourteen lesson plans to teach the fourteen lessons. The pre and post standardized achievement tests were conducted, collected, and evaluated under the supervision of the researcher. Data were analyzed in the form of one-way ANOVA to find out the significant difference in f-value and p-value of the experimental, comparison, and control group regarding the 14 selected topics taught. The research concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in p-value and f-value in the achievement of the students in experimental, comparison, and control group from the lessons 1-6 due to repetition and diffusion in lessons and there was a statistically significant difference in p-value and f-value in experimental, comparison and control group from the lessons 7-14 taught. The data were presented in the form of tables.


Ia antigen-bearing (Ia+) Langerhans cells have attained an important position as immunocompetent cells in the epidermis. Recently there have been successive reports on other new possible candidates for immunocompetent cells in the epidermis, i.e., Ia+ keratinocytes and dendritic Thy-1 antigen-bearing (Thy-1+) epidermal cells which also express Ly-5 antigen and asialo-GM1. Based on our previous findings that in allergic contact sensitivity reactions, keratinocytes express Ia antigen 3-9 days postchallenge, in this report, we have attempted to define more clearly the dynamic changes of Ia+ keratinocytes and dendritic Thy-1+ epidermal cells by enumeration of the precise percentages of Ia+, Thy-1+, and Ly-5 antigen-bearing (Ly-5+) cells in epidermal cells at various times of the challenge phase in allergic contact sensitivity reactions by use of a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. By 24 h postchallenge, the percentages of Ia+, Thy-1+, and Ly-5+ cells showed hardly any change. There were approximately 2% Ia+ cells, 50% Thy-1+ cells which consist of 2 populations (i.e., 45% weakly Thy-1 antigen-positive cells and 4% strongly Thy-1 antigen-positive cells), and 3.5% Ly-5+ cells. From 48 h postchallenge, however, the percentage of Ia+ cells and that of Thy-1+ cells began to increase and reached a plateau, with approximately 20% Ia+ cells and 70% Thy-1+ cells, respectively, at 120 h postchallenge. The change of the percentages of Ly-5+ cells appears to correspond to that of strongly Thy-1 antigen-positive cells. Only at 48 h postchallenge, Ly-5+ cells and strongly Thy-1 antigen-positive cells showed a small increase in number, comprising approximately 10% of the epidermal cells. These data suggest that among Thy-1+ epidermal cells, strongly Thy-1 antigen-positive cells correspond to dendritic Thy-1+ epidermal cells, and in contact sensitivity reactions in mice, dendritic Thy-1+ epidermal cells show only a minor dynamic change in contrast to Ia+ cells, in which more than 15% of keratinocytes express Ia antigen from 48 h postchallenge.


We present a study, based on archival XMM―Newton observations, of the extended X-ray emission associated with the inner disc of M33. After the exclusion of point sources with L x > 2 x 10 35 erg s ―1 (0.3-6 keV), we investigate both the morphology and spectrum of the residual X-ray emission, comprising the integrated signal from unresolved discrete sources and diffuse components. This residual emission has a soft X-ray spectrum which can be fitted with a two-temperature thermal model, with kT ≈ 0.2 keV and ≈0.6 keV, the cooler component accounting for the bulk of the luminosity. There is evidence that the X-ray emitting plasma has a subsolar metal abundance. The soft X-ray surface brightness distribution shows a strong correlation with far-ultraviolet (FUV) emission and since the latter serves as a tracer of the inner spiral arms of M33 this is indicative of a close connection between recent star formation activity and the production of soft X-rays. Within 3.5 kpc of the nucleus of M33, the soft X-ray and FUV surface brightness distributions exhibit similar radial profiles. The implication is that the ratio of the soft X-ray luminosity (0.3-2.0 keV) per unit disc area to the star formation rate per unit disc area remains fairly constant within this inner disc region. We derive a value for this ratio of 1-1.5 × 10 39 erg s ―1 (M ⊙ yr ― 1 ) ―1 , which is towards the top of the range of similar estimates for several other nearby face-on spiral galaxies (e.g. M51, M83). In the same region, the ratio of soft X-ray luminosity to stellar mass (the latter derived from K-band photometry) is 4 x 10 28 erg s ―1 M ―1 ⊙ , a factor of 5-10 higher than is typical of dwarf elliptical galaxies (e.g. M32, NGC 3379), suggesting that 10-20 per cent of the unresolved emission seen in M33 may originate in its old stellar population. The remainder of the soft X-ray emission is found to be equally split between two spatial components, one which closely traces the spiral arms of the galaxy and the other more smoothly distributed across the inner disc of M33. The former must represent a highly clumped low-filling-factor component linked to sites of recent or ongoing star formation, encompassing H II regions, X-ray source complexes and X-ray superbubbles, whereas the distribution of latter gives few clues as to its exact origin.


In this investigation, we prepared samples with five different grain misorientations by cold-rolling an X70 pipeline steel plate. The hydrogen permeation and hydrogen visualization experiments were used to compute the diffusion parameters and to reveal the diffusion path in steel samples. The dual-polarized permeation experiment allowed us to show that permeability and effective diffusion coefficient were decreased with an increase in misorientation. Hence, the total and irreversible trapping sites were also raised with the extent of deformation in the steel. On the other hand, the visualization study permitted us to show that hydrogen diffusion intensity changes within the microstructure. The diffusion intensity increases in the order of non-deformed grains, grain boundaries, and deformed grains with deformed grains as the easiest path for hydrogen diffusion.


Preface. About the book. Acknowledgments. Chapter 1: Introducing User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF USER AND TASK ANALYSIS. Chapter 2: Thinking about Users. Chapter 3: Thinking about Tasks. Chapter 4: Thinking about the Users' Environment. Chapter 5: Making the Business Case for Site Visits. PART 2: GETTING READY FOR SITE VISITS. Chapter 6: Selecting Techniques. Chapter 7: Setting Up Site Visits. Chapter 8: Preparing for the Site Visits. PART 3: CONDUCTING THE SITE VISIT. Chapter 9: Conducting the Site Visit-Honing Your Observation Skills. Chapter 10: Conducting the Site Visit-Honing Your Interviewing Skills. PART 4: MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM ANALYSIS TO DESIGN. Chapter 11: Analyzing and Presenting the Data You Have Collected. Chapter 12: Working Toward the Interface Design. Chapter 13: Prototyping the Interface Design. Chapter 14: User and Task Analysis for Documentation and Training. Bibliography. Appendix A: Template for a Site Visit Plan. Appendix B: Resources. Appendix C: Guidelines for User-Interface Design. Index.


This article examines recent struggles over the mobility of Roma across Europe in terms of the insights that these provide into the limits of European Union (EU) citizenship. Showing how the struggle to deport and contain Roma citizens across Member States of the Union reflect a broader series of limits regarding EU citizenship, the analysis questions any simplistic assumptions regarding the progressiveness of European citizenship over national citizenship. Rather, it points to the constitutive tensions between citizenship as derivative of the nationstate and citizenship as formed through free movement provisions, and reads these tensions as important in understanding the conditions under which contestations of the limitations of EU citizenship emerge. Focusing specifically on the struggles of Roma and Sinti activists in Italy, the article goes on to suggest that questions of mobility are critical to the transformation of European citizenship through 'acts of citizenship' that contest the limits of an EU citizenship regime. This is not understood in the sense that free movement automatically or inevitably rights the wrongs of territorial or nationally-inscribed regimes by including those who are excluded. Rather, the article argues that mobilisations of Roma around mobility are important both in contesting the internal differentiations of EU citizenship, as well as in reconfiguring the limits through which such a regime is inscribed as such. This occurs through acts whereby exclusionary processes such as criminalisation are transformed into claims to social justice. Such claims might be said to take on new significance when developed at the European scale, since claims to social justice in this regard become 'transnational' in the scope of their enactment. However, the transnational cannot be understood in a fixed or spatially-contained sense when viewed through the lens of mobility, but is perhaps better understood as a means of questioning received ways of thinking and enacting politics that are confined to the individual or to the aggregate constitution of nation-states.


Abstract. To improve our understanding of how snow properties influence sea
ice thickness retrievals from presently operational and upcoming satellite
radar altimeter missions, as well as to investigate the potential for
combining dual frequencies to simultaneously map snow depth and sea ice
thickness, a new, surface-based, fully polarimetric Ku- and Ka-band radar
(KuKa radar) was built and deployed during the 2019–2020 year-long MOSAiC
international Arctic drift expedition. This instrument, built to operate
both as an altimeter (stare mode) and as a scatterometer (scan mode),
provided the first in situ Ku- and Ka-band dual-frequency radar observations from
autumn freeze-up through midwinter and covering newly formed ice in leads and
first-year and second-year ice floes. Data gathered in the altimeter mode
will be used to investigate the potential for estimating snow depth as the
difference between dominant radar scattering horizons in the Ka- and Ku-band
data. In the scatterometer mode, the Ku- and Ka-band radars operated under a
wide range of azimuth and incidence angles, continuously assessing
changes in the polarimetric radar backscatter and derived polarimetric
parameters, as snow properties varied under varying atmospheric conditions.
These observations allow for characterizing radar backscatter responses to
changes in atmospheric and surface geophysical conditions. In this paper, we
describe the KuKa radar, illustrate examples of its data and
demonstrate their potential for these investigations.


This chapter examines the domestic sources of foreign economic policies. Different people in every society typically have different views about what their government should do when it comes to setting the policies that regulate international trade, immigration, investment, and exchange rates. These competing demands must be reconciled in some way by the political institutions that govern policy making. To really understand the domestic origins of foreign economic policies, we need to perform two critical tasks: identify or map the policy preferences of different groups in the domestic economy; and specify how political institutions determine the way these preferences are aggregated or converted into actual government decisions. The first task requires some economic analysis, while the second requires some political analysis. These two analytical steps put together like this, combining both economic and political analysis in tandem, are generally referred to as the political economy approach to the study of policy outcomes. The chapter then considers the impact of domestic politics on bargaining over economic issues between governments at the international level.


In this ground-breaking book, Jenny Slater uses the lens of 'the reasonable' to explore how normative understandings of youth, dis/ability and the intersecting identities of gender and sexuality impact upon the lives of young dis/abled people. Although youth and disability have separately been thought within socio-cultural frameworks, rarely have sociological studies of 'youth' and 'disability' been brought together. By taking an interdisciplinary, critical disability studies approach to explore the socio-cultural concepts of 'youth' and 'disability' alongside one-another, Slater convincingly demonstrates that 'youth' and 'disability' have been conceptualised within medical/psychological frameworks for too long. With chapters focusing on access and youth culture, independence, autonomy and disabled people's movements, and the body, gender and sexuality, this volume's intersectional and transdisciplinary engagement with social theory offers a significant contribution to existing theoretical and empirical literature and knowledges around disability and youth. Indeed, through highlighting the ableism of adulthood and the falsity of conceptualising youth as a time of becoming-independent-adult, the need to shift approaches to research around dis/abled youth is one of the main themes of the book. This book therefore is a provocation to rethink what is implicit about 'youth' and 'disability'. Moreover, through such an endeavour, this book sits as a challenge to Mr Reasonable. © 2015 Jenny Slater.


Tort law remains a dynamic field, subject to constant refinement and rethinking. The Ninth Edition reflects these evolving developments in recent case law and legislative activity, as well as commentary ranging from the almost-completed Third Restatement of Torts: Liability for Physical & Emotional Harm to emerging tort issues arising from the Internet. The principal focus of this book is the law of negligence, strict liability, and no-fault legislation as alternative approaches to compensating the victims of accidental harm and creating optimal incentives to safety. This leading casebook covers all major aspects of tort law with expertly edited cases, and original text. It also includes comprehensive chapters on intentional harm, damages and insurance, defamation, privacy, and economic torts.


Six numerical examples are presented for steady, two-dimensional, compressible, nonviscous flow in centrifugal compressors with thin straight blades, the center lines of which generate the surface of a right circular cone when rotated about the axis of the compressor. A seventh example is presented for incompressible flow. The solutions were obtained in a region of the compressors, including the impeller tip, that was considered to be unaffected by the diffuser vanes or by the impeller-inlet configuration. Each solution applies to radial and mixed flow compressors with various cone angles but with the same angle between blades on the conic flow surface. The solution also apply to radial and mixed flow turbines with the rotation and the flow direction reversed. The effects of variations in the following parameters were investigated: (1) flow rate, (2) impeller-tip speed, (3) variation of passage height with radius, and (4) angle between blades on conic flow surface. The numerical results are presented in plots of the streamlines and constant Mach number lines. Correlation equations are developed whereby the flow conditions in any impeller with straight blades can be determined (in the region investigated by this analysis) for all operating conditions.


Seven mentally retarded women were sterilized in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Medical School Hannover between 1.6.74 and 1.6.81. The decision to operate proceeded only after careful consideration by the director of the clinic. Each case was documented with proof that improvement of the mental situation was unprobable and that sterilization seemed highly desirable. In spite of strong reservation the sterilization of a mentally retarded may medically and ethically be justified in exceptional cases. The operation seems possible by the following: The sterilization may only be performed if the patient does not obviously refuse it. Diagnosis and prognosis of the mental handicap must undoubtedly be proven. If the patient cannot judge the consequence of the operation the legal guardian must decide for her. The court must consent in these cases. Regarding legal theory the decision by the guardian is an open question.


The purpose of this study is to obtain: 1) the influence of several characteristics that influence entrepreneurial success entrepreneurship, 2) factors characteristic of the entrepreneurial spirit among some of the most dominant influence entrepreneurial success, and 3) the influence of the characteristics of the entrepreneurial spirit of the most dominant influence on the success of entrepreneurship in vocational graduates Purworejo. This research is quantitative research methods that ex-post facto research is correlational (correlation studies). The study population was all vocational school graduates in the district that are categorized Purworedjo has become a successful entrepreneur. The sample was 60 alumni population taken by purposive sampling technique. Data collection techniques used were questionnaires (questionnaire). Techniques of data analysis performed by factor analysis and multiple linear regression. The results of this study are as follows: 1) the characteristics of the entrepreneurial spirit shown to have a high impact on the success of entrepreneurship, 2) the dominant factor affecting the success of entrepreneurship in having a clear vision and purpose, confidence (self-confidence), and has the soul of a leader, 3) vision and goals positive and significant impact on the success of entrepreneurship, self-confidence and a significant negative effect on the success of entrepreneurship, soul leader, and a significant positive effect on the success of entrepreneurship. Keywords:Characteristics of the Spirit of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Success, Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis.


We investigated helper and suppressor functions to B-cell responses and T-T cell interactions of purified T4 and T8 cells from 20 untreated patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Appropriate mixtures of purified T4 or T8 cells from patients with CLL were cultured with purified B cells or T4 and B cells from normal donors for 7 days with pokeweed mitogen (PWM). IgM, IgA, and IgG produced were determined in the supernatants of these cultures by a heavy chain-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and compared to those obtained by the corresponding mixtures of T4, T8, and B cells from normal donors. Purified T4 cells from 14 of 20 patients with CLL exhibited defective helper function (P less than .001) to immunoglobulin (Ig) production by purified B cells from normal donors. Purified T4 cells from 6 of these 14 patients were able to suppress significantly (P less than .001) and in a concentration-dependent manner Ig production by mixtures of T4 and B cells from normal donors, in the absence of T8 cells. These suppressor effector T4 cells from certain patients were partially radiosensitive. Purified T8 cells from 8 of 20 patients with CLL exhibited excessive suppressor activity. These cells significantly suppressed (P less than .001), Ig production by mixtures of T4 and B cells from normal donors to a degree significantly higher (P less than .005) than that observed by equal numbers of T8 cells from normal donors. This inhibition was dependent on the numbers of the T8 CLL cells added to the cultures. Excessive suppressor activity by T8 CLL cells was at least in part radiosensitive in four of eight patients. These results demonstrate a wide range of immunoregulatory T-cell abnormalities in patients with CLL. Naturally occurring T4 suppressor effector cells, directly inhibiting Ig production by mixtures of T4 and B cells, in the absence of T8 cells, are present in certain patients with CLL.


Educational institutions are structured around achievement: improving,evaluating and comparing students' achievements. Stratification processes are,though, not just about cognition but about social processes and affect:negotiations of values and causes of achievements. In company with otherNordic countries, Sweden has long been associated with equality – not least ineducation. Many statistics now point to a negative comparative change bothover time and compared to other countries. Increased differences are primarilyconcerning school and student categories in terms of class and "race", whilstgender stratification has been more of a focus for policy debates.The paper aims to examine privilege via analyses of peer-group interactionsamong a student category that is rarely problematised: an ethnographicallyinformed doctoral study on young men's identity negotiations in Swedishupper secondary school, with special attention to a setting structured by highperformanceand white, upper middle-class students. Identification processes,social categorizations (e.g. gender, class and age) and dominance-relationswere studied as micro-processes, and placed in the context of equality/equityand education. Both young men and women in the study drew attention todominance relations among peers in class and hierarchies between schools andstudy programs. Though the students questioned the legitimacy of suchidentity claims and hierarchies, the latter were often reproduced and mademeaningful in terms of unequal educational and social ability (resources).Being ascribed as a high-achieving pupil due to natural abilities, not just effort,facilitated peer-group status.


Loss of the RecQ DNA helicase WRN protein causes Werner syndrome, in which patients exhibit features of premature aging and increased cancer. WRN deficiency induces cellular defects in DNA replication, mitotic homologous recombination (HR), and telomere stability. In addition to DNA unwinding activity, WRN also possesses exonuclease, strand annealing, and branch migration activities. The single strand binding proteins replication protein A (RPA) and telomere-specific POT1 specifically stimulate WRN DNA unwinding activity. To determine whether RPA and POT1 also modulate WRN branch migration activity, we examined biologically relevant mobile D-loops that mimic structures in HR strand invasion and at telomere ends. Both RPA and POT1 block WRN exonuclease digestion of the invading strand by loading on the strand. However, only RPA robustly stimulates WRN branch migration activity and increases the percentage of D-loops that are disrupted. Our results are consistent with cellular data that support RPA enhancement of branch migration during HR repair and, conversely, POT1 limitation of inappropriate recombination and branch migration at telomeric ends. This is, to our knowledge, the first evidence that RPA can stimulate branch migration activity.


The contribution described in this paper is an algorithm for learning nonlinear, reference tracking, control policies given no prior knowledge of the dynamical system and limited interaction with the system through the learning process. Concepts from the field of reinforcement learning, Bayesian statistics and classical control have been brought together in the formulation of this algorithm which can be viewed as a form of indirect self tuning regulator. On the task of reference tracking using a simulated inverted pendulum it was shown to yield generally improved performance on the best controller derived from the standard linear quadratic method using only 30 s of total interaction with the system. Finally, the algorithm was shown to work on the simulated double pendulum proving its ability to solve nontrivial control tasks.


This paper theoretically introduces and develops a new operation diagram (OPD) and parameter estimator for the synchronous reluctance machine (SynRM). The OPD demonstrates the behavior of the machine's main performance parameters, such as torque, current, voltage, frequency, flux, power factor (PF), and current angle, all in one graph. This diagram can easily be used to describe different control strategies, possible operating conditions, both below- and above-rated speeds, etc. The saturation effect is also discussed with this diagram by finite-element-method calculations. A prototype high-performance SynRM is designed for experimental studies, and then, both machines' [corresponding induction machine (IM)] performances at similar loading and operation conditions are tested, measured, and compared to demonstrate the potential of SynRM. The laboratory measurements (on a standard 15-kW Eff1 IM and its counterpart SynRM) show that SynRM has higher efficiency, torque density, and inverter rating and lower rotor temperature and PF in comparison to IM at the same winding-temperature-rise condition. The measurements show that the torque capability of SynRM closely follows that of IM.


Recently, wearable computing resources, such as smart-phones, are developing fast due to the advancements of technology and their great supports to human life. People are using smartphone for communication, work, entertainment, business, traveling, and browsing information. However, the health-care application is very limited due to many challenges. We would like to break the limitation and boost up the research to support human health. One of the important steps for a health-care system is to understand age and gender of the user through gait, who is wearing the sensor. Gait is chosen because it is the most dominant daily activity, which is considered to contain not only identity but also physical, medical conditions. To this end, we organize a challenging competition on gender and age prediction using wearable sensors. The evaluation is mainly based on the published OU-ISIR inertial dataset which is currently the world largest inertial gait dataset*.


HER-2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase that has been shown to be over expressed in 30% of human primary breast cancers (BrCa). Our animal model data and human bone met data, which we present here, indicates that HER-2 up-regulation is required for breast cancer cells to grow in and remodel bone. However, most bone metastases from BrCa will arise from a primary diagnosis of ER positive/HER-2 negative disease. We found that MCF-7 cells, an ER positive/HER-2 negative breast cancer model, formed tumors in bone that had up-regulated HER-2 protein expression. In order to directly test whether or not HER-2 expression has an affect on bone metastasis, we engineered a knock down of the HER-2 receptor in MCF-7 cells by utilizing a lentivirus plasmid containing the shRNA to the HER-2 receptor. Both the shRNA HER-2 knock-down and the vector-only control expressed the Green Fluorescence Protein (GFP) and puromycin resistance for plasmid selection. Our engineered MCF-7 control cells (shVector alone) or the HER-2 knock-down (shHER-2) were injected into the tibia of SCID mice. We found that both the vector-only and HER-2 knock-down cells grew tumors in mouse tibia. Anti-HER-2 immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis showed that the HER-2 protein was re-expressed in the knock down cells in tumors formed in tibiae. Additionally, we found that in eight patients with breast cancer bone metastasis, 100% of these cases contained a significant expression of HER-2 positive cells by IHC. As confirmation of our mouse studies, we found that all of the human bone biopsies obtained from ER positive/HER-2 negative disease were up-regulated for HER-2 in the bone microenvironment. Concomitant with our human data, MCF-7 cells required exogenous estrogen to form tumors in mammary fat pads and did not require exogenous estrogen to form tumors in bone. Therefore, we believe that BrCa cells can change, up-regulate protein expression of HER-2, and become estrogen independent in the bone microenvironment. It may be that these women could benefit from intervention with agents against HER-2. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 482.


Significance Meeting future food needs requires a substantial increase in the yields obtained from existing cropland. Prior global analyses have suggested that these gains could come from closing yield gaps—differences between yields from small-plot research versus those in farmer fields. However, closing this gap requires knowledge of causal factors not yet identified experimentally. Results here suggest that yield gaps can be closed using farming practices that use conventional synthetic chemicals, but practices that rely more on biological management—as is the case throughout much of the developing world and in organic agriculture—require renewed attention to field-scale resource demands and place greater emphasis on the importance of field-scale experimental research. Knowledge of production-system performance is largely based on observations at the experimental plot scale. Although yield gaps between plot-scale and field-scale research are widely acknowledged, their extent and persistence have not been experimentally examined in a systematic manner. At a site in southwest Michigan, we conducted a 6-y experiment to test the accuracy with which plot-scale crop-yield results can inform field-scale conclusions. We compared conventional versus alternative, that is, reduced-input and biologically based–organic, management practices for a corn–soybean–wheat rotation in a randomized complete block-design experiment, using 27 commercial-size agricultural fields. Nearby plot-scale experiments (0.02-ha to 1.0-ha plots) provided a comparison of plot versus field performance. We found that plot-scale yields well matched field-scale yields for conventional management but not for alternative systems. For all three crops, at the plot scale, reduced-input and conventional managements produced similar yields; at the field scale, reduced-input yields were lower than conventional. For soybeans at the plot scale, biological and conventional managements produced similar yields; at the field scale, biological yielded less than conventional. For corn, biological management produced lower yields than conventional in both plot- and field-scale experiments. Wheat yields appeared to be less affected by the experimental scale than corn and soybean. Conventional management was more resilient to field-scale challenges than alternative practices, which were more dependent on timely management interventions; in particular, mechanical weed control. Results underscore the need for much wider adoption of field-scale experimentation when assessing new technologies and production-system performance, especially as related to closing yield gaps in organic farming and in low-resourced systems typical of much of the developing world.


In this thesis, we focus on the problem of image classification and investigate how its performance can be systematically improved. Improving the performance of different computer vision methods has been the subject of many studies. While different studies take different approaches to achieve this improvement, in this thesis we address this problem by investigating the relevance of the statistics collected from the image.We propose a framework for gradually improving the quality of an already existing image descriptor. In our studies, we employ a descriptor which is composed the response of a series of discriminative components for summarizing each image. As we will show, this descriptor has an ideal form in which all categories become linearly separable. While, reaching this form is not possible, we will argue how by replacing a small fraction of these components, it is possible to obtain a descriptor which is, on average, closer to this ideal form. To do so, we initially identify which components do not contribute to the quality of the descriptor and replace them with more robust components. As we will show, this replacement has a positive effect on the quality of the descriptor.While there are many ways of obtaining more robust components, we introduce a joint feature selection problem to obtain image features that retains class discriminative properties while simultaneously generalising between within class variations. Our approach is based on the concept of a joint feature where several small features are combined in a spatial structure. The proposed framework automatically learns the structure of the joint constellations in a class dependent manner improving the generalisation and discrimination capabilities of the local descriptor while still retaining a low-dimensional representations.The joint feature selection problem discussed in this thesis belongs to a specific class of latent variable models that assumes each labeled sample is associated with a set of different features, with no prior knowledge of which feature is the most relevant feature to be used. Deformable-Part Models (DPM) can be seen as good examples of such models. These models are usually considered to be expensive to train and very sensitive to the initialization. Here, we focus on the learning of such models by introducing a topological framework and show how it is possible to both reduce the learning complexity and produce more robust decision boundaries. We will also argue how our framework can be used for producing robust decision boundaries without exploiting the dataset bias or relying on accurate annotations.To examine the hypothesis of this thesis, we evaluate different parts of our framework on several challenging datasets and demonstrate how our framework is capable of gradually improving the performance of image classification by collecting more robust statistics from the image and improving the quality of the descriptor.


In this study; chemical constituents of the two oils were analyzed by GC/ MS.About 20 and 32 volatile compounds were identified fromthe volatile oils of O. majorana and C. aurantium respectively. Terpinen-4 –ol and terpinene were the major isolated constituents of O. majorana, while limonene and 2-methyl-5-(1-methyl ethenyle)-2-cyclohexene-1-one were the major compounds of C. aurantium oil. Larvicidal activity ofmarjoram (Origanum majorana), (family: Verbenaceae) and bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), (family: Rutaceae) volatile oils were tested against the early fourth instar larvae of Culex pipiens. The larval mortality was observed after 24 hours of exposure. Both of the two oils showed high larvicidal effects; however, the highest larval mortality was found in the treatment withmarjoramvolatile oil. The LC50 values are 188.5 ppmand 251.4 ppmfor marjoram and bitter orange respectively.