These volumes contain the proceedings of the conference held at Aarhus, Oxford and Madrid in September 2016 to mark the seventieth birthday of Nigel Hitchin, one of the world's foremost geometers and Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. The proceedings contain twenty-nine articles, including three by Fields medallists (Donaldson, Mori and Yau). The articles cover a wide range of topics in geometry and mathematical physics, including the following: Riemannian geometry, geometric analysis, special holonomy, integrable systems, dynamical systems, generalized complex structures, symplectic and Poisson geometry, low-dimensional topology, algebraic geometry, moduli spaces, Higgs bundles, geometric Langlands programme, mirror symmetry and string theory. These volumes will be of interest to researchers and graduate students both in geometry and mathematical physics.


In order to obtain a real shape of membrane structure, a new shape finding method was developed based on real material property. The curved shape is first obtained by raising the control points above the projection plane. The convergence was improved using pseudo material properties to get a preliminary shape, and then the real properties to get the final shape. A large number of examples were analyzed to verify the validity and practicality of this method. The results showed that the final curved surface after the second shape finding process was always quite similar to the first one. Moreover the curved surface obtained after the second shape finding process is accurate and will be realized in real.


With chitosan as the raw material, a new type of resin material is synthesized through formaldehyde crosslinking. The effects of the reactant ratio, the reaction temperature, the reaction time, the stirring rate and the system pH on the cross-linking rate are studied in detail. The resin material is then characterized by means of IR. The experimental results show that the reaction occurs mainly on the amino and the hydroxyl of chitosan. The chitosan-based resin material with good properties of sphericity and acidresistivity can be prepared under the optimal experimental conditions, which are found to be 1:5 for the ratio of chitosan and formaldehyde, 60°C for the temperature, 1 h for the reaction time, 440r/min for the stirring rate and 10 for the pH.


Patients with chronic renal failure show a greater incidence of malignancies. We evaluated whether moderately impaired renal function at baseline influenced risk of all cancers during long‐term follow in young persons. Our cohort included 33,346 subjects, aged 26–61 years at baseline, in a representative, population‐based study enrolling subjects from 1974 to 1992. Median follow‐up time was 28 years. Plasma creatinine was analyzed as a single measure at baseline. Incident cases of cancer were identified from the Swedish Cancer Registry. We studied 24,552 subjects from the cohort. To account for the unique sampling design, participants were divided by sex and age at baseline into 1,132 older men (age 60), 14,254 younger men (age 40–52), 7,498 older women (age 47–57) and 1,688 younger women (age 35–43). Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated using the CKD‐EPI formula. Patients were classified as having either normal to mildly impaired kidney function (eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m2), or moderate kidney dysfunction (eGFR<60 mL/min/1.73 m2). We calculated the risk of all cancers using competing risks regression. Overall, 6,595 participants were diagnosed with cancer, and 854 subjects (3.5%) had moderately impaired renal dysfunction at baseline. There was a significant association between moderately decreased GFR and subsequent risk of kidney cancer in younger men (hazard ratio, 3.38; 95% CI, 1.48 to 7.71; p = 0.004). However, we found no association with overall long‐term cancer risk. Our confirmation of an association between moderately impaired renal function and risk of kidney cancer in younger men requires further exploration of high‐risk groups and biological mechanisms.


Tripeptidyl peptidase II (TPPII) is an exopeptidase which cleaves tripeptides from theN-terminus of peptides. The exact functional role of TPPII is still a matter of investigation. Itis believed that the enzyme is primarily involved in intracellular protein degradation, where itcooperates with the proteasome and other peptidases to degrade proteins into free aminoacids. These amino acids can subsequently be used in the production of new proteins. The aimof this work was to express murine wild type TPPII using E. coli and thereafter purify theenzyme from the bacterial lysate. Methods used for the purification included protein andnucleic acid precipitation, anion exchange chromatography, hydrophobic interactionchromatography and gel filtration. The presence of TPPII was determined using activityassay, western blot and SDS-PAGE. Despite the fact that some modification is still needed,the purification yielded a total of 34μg TPPII with a purity of approximately 60%. Thispurified enzyme can be used for future functional characterization.


We present a case of primary renal angiosarcoma. We focus on the characteristic striated pattern of the tumor on T2-w MR sequence as well as on other radiological features and correlate them with the pathologic findings. A review of the imaging characteristics of cases published in the literature was subsequently performed.


The Ensemble Kalman filter is a sophisticated and powerful data assimilation method for filtering high dimensional problems arising in fluid mechanics and geophysical sciences. This Monte Carlo method can be interpreted as a mean-field McKean-Vlasov type particle interpretation of the Kalman-Bucy diffusions. In contrast to more conventional particle filters and nonlinear Markov processes these models are designed in terms of a diffusion process with a diffusion matrix that depends on particle covariance matrices. Besides some recent advances on the stability of nonlinear Langevin type diffusions with drift interactions, the long-time behaviour of models with interacting diffusion matrices and conditional distribution interaction functions has never been discussed in the literature. One of the main contributions of the article is to initiate the study of this new class of models The article presents a series of new functional inequalities to quantify the stability of these nonlinear diffusion processes. In the same vein, despite some recent contributions on the convergence of the Ensemble Kalman filter when the number of sample tends to infinity very little is known on stability and the long-time behaviour of these mean-field interacting type particle filters. The second contribution of this article is to provide uniform propagation of chaos properties as well as Lp-mean error estimates w.r.t. to the time horizon. Our regularity condition is also shown to be sufficient and necessary for the uniform convergence of the Ensemble Kalman filter. The stochastic analysis developed in this article is based on an original combination of functional inequalities and Foster-Lyapunov techniques with coupling, martingale techniques, random matrices and spectral analysis theory.


We consider Penrose limits of the Klebanov-Strassler and Maldacena-N¶~ nez holographic duals toN = 1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills. By focusing in on the IR region we obtain exactly solvable string theory models. These represent the nonrelativistic motion and low-lying excitations of heavy hadrons with mass proportional to a large global charge. We argue that these hadrons, both physically and mathematically, take the form of heavy nonrelativistic strings; we term them \annulons." A simple toy model of a string boosted along a compact circle allows us considerable insight into their properties. We also calculate the Wilson loop carrying large global charge and show the efiect of conflnement is quadratic, not linear, in the string tension.


In subset selection we search for the best linear predictor that involves a small subset of variables. From a computational complexity viewpoint, subset selection is NP-hard and few classes are known to be solvable in polynomial time. Using mainly tools from discrete geometry, we show that some sparsity conditions on the original data matrix allow us to solve the problem in polynomial time.


The complete understanding of the mechanical and thermal responses to strain in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites holds great potential for their proper functionalities in a range of applications, such as in photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and flexible electronics. In this work, we conduct systematic atomistic simulations on methyl ammonium lead iodide, which is the prototypical hybrid inorganic-organic perovskite, to investigate the changes in their mechanical and thermal transport responses under uniaxial strain. We find that the mechanical response and the deformation mechanisms are highly dependent on the direction of the applied uniaxial strain with a characteristic ductile- or brittle-like failure accompanying uniaxial tension. Moreover, while most materials shrink in the two lateral directions when stretched, we find that the ductile behavior in hybrid perovskites can lead to a very unique mechanical response where negligible strain occurs along one lateral direction while the length contraction occurs in the other direction due to uniaxial tension. This anisotropy in the mechanical response is also shown to manifest in an anisotropic thermal response of the hybrid perovskite where the anisotropy in thermal conductivity increases by up to 30% compared to the unstrained case before plastic deformation occurs at higher strain levels. Along with the anisotropic responses of these physical properties, we find that uniaxial tension leads to ultralow thermal conductivities that are well below the value predicted with a minimum thermal conductivity model, which highlights the potential of strain engineering to tune the physical properties of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites.


As a community-based innovation, Open Source Software (OSS) development intrigues researchers and practitioners, especially on why OSS projects succeed with light coordination and control mechanisms. In the view that the viability and sustainability of an OSS project rely on individuals' contribution and engagement, we investigate how the psychological feelings of empowerment derived from the assessments of OSS tasks affect participants' participation outcomes. In particular, we posit that empowerment can lead directly to participants' task performance and satisfaction in OSS projects. In addition, empowerment's effect on task performance and satisfaction can also be mediated by task effort. The research model is supported by data collected from 233 OSS participants. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study are discussed.


Abstract Currently, radionuclide studies offer the simplest and most accurate means of determining the patency of CSF shunts. The selection of the best test procedure depends upon the type of hydrocephalus and the type of shunt which has been inserted. This review documents the development of radionuclide shunt patency tests and suggests the optimum test procedure for a given clinical problem.


Ever-increasing numbers of atmospheric observations from orbiting spacecraft, and increasingly sophisticated numerical atmospheric models, have recently permitted data assimilation techniques to be applied to planets beyond the Earth. Mars is the first extra-terrestrial planet for which reanalyses of the atmospheric state are now available.

The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) has produced an extensive atmospheric data set during its scientific mapping phase between 1999 and 2004. Nadir thermal profiles for the atmosphere below about 40 km altitude, and total dust and water ice opacities, have been retrieved from TES spectra, covering almost three complete Martian seasonal cycles (each seasonal cycle on Mars corresponds to 668.6 mean solar days, and the Martian mean solar day is about 24 hours and 40 minutes). Note that dust on Mars plays a key role in the weather and climate, mainly through its strong absorption of short wave radiation with a short radiative relaxation timescale of 1-2 days. Assimilating dust opacities correctly is, therefore, particularly important for atmospheric data assimilation on the Red Planet.

TES retrieved observations have been analysed by assimilation into a Mars general circulation model (MGCM), making use of a sequential procedure known as the Analysis Correction scheme, a form of successive corrections method which has proved simple and robust under Martian conditions, even during the less-than-ideal MGS aerobraking period. The MGCM used at the University of Oxford and at The Open University consists of a spectral dynamical solver and a tracer transport scheme developed in the UK. Its package of state-of-the-art physical parameterization routines is shared with the LMD-MarsGCM, developed by the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique in Paris (France).

One limitation of TES is that relatively few limb profiles are available, compared to nadir soundings. Our MGS/TES reanalysis, therefore, does not include observations of temperature above about 40 km altitude, nor 3D information on dust opacity (the vertical distribution of dust opacity is prescribed assuming a well mixed dust layer with a rapid transition to a clear upper atmosphere at a height which depends on latitude and season.

In September 2006 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) started its mapping phase. The Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) on board MRO is a radiometer with eight mid- and far-infrared
channels and one visible channel, which takes measurements in limb and off-nadir geometries. Retrieved vertical profiles of temperature, dust and water ice opacities from MCS observations can now be assimilated using the same scheme we used for TES, with the advantage of the extension in altitude (thermal profiles can extend to above 80 km altitude, although errors become larger at greater altitudes), the increased vertical resolution (~ 5km compared to > 10km for TES nadir retrievals), and the direct information on the vertical distribution of dust and water ice.

Overall, the application of our data assimilation scheme to retrieved observations from TES and MCS spans almost six complete Martian seasonal cycles. This represents a multi-annual climatology for Mars, which has the advantage of being a complete, dynamically-balanced, four-dimensional best-fit to observations for all the atmospheric variables, including those for which no direct measurements are available (e.g. wind and surface pressure) and with regions of no observations filled-in in a physically-consistent way.

The reanalysis represents, therefore, a unique opportunity to study the inter-annual variability of the Martian weather and climate with respect to all its components, such as the dust cycle, the water cycle, the CO2 cycle, the atmospheric tides and other prominent waves, such as high latitude baroclinic waves.

In this contribution we present the first results of a complete assimilation of both datasets, using a consistent model and data assimilation scheme, and highlight the challenges of combining TES and MCS data assimilation to produce a multi-annual climatology. Particular attention will be devoted to the inter-annual variability of the atmospheric thermal field in response to dust storm activity. We will also provide an insight into the dynamics, looking in particular at the high latitude winds, waves and polar vortices.

Our data assimilation products are freely available to the community for both science- and engineering-oriented purposes. The British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC, http://badc.nerc.ac.uk) hosts our datasets, which, for the time being, are limited to the MGS/TES reanalysis. People may contact the corresponding author in order to register their interest and be updated about the status of the project. New versions of the MGS/TES reanalysis as well as the MRO/MCS reanalysis will be made available through the BADC in future.

Interested people can download the current TES reanalysis dataset by registering at the BADC and searching for the MACDA ("Mars Analysis Correction Data Assimilation") project. The direct link to the project is provided by the following URL: http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/badc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__DE_095e8da2-cf02-11e0-8b7a-00e081470265


We introduce the safe linear stochastic bandit framework—a generalization of linear stochastic bandits—where, in each stage, the learner is required to select an arm with an expected reward that is no less than a predetermined (safe) threshold with high probability. We assume that the learner initially has knowledge of an arm that is known to be safe, but not necessarily optimal. Leveraging on this assumption, we introduce a learning algorithm that systematically combines known safe arms with exploratory arms to safely expand the set of safe arms over time, while facilitating safe greedy exploitation in subsequent stages. In addition to ensuring the satisfaction of the safety constraint at every stage of play, the proposed algorithm is shown to exhibit an expected regret that is no more than O(√T log(T)) after T stages of play.


In this paper, we made the claim that there is a problem with the way the current Zimbabwean education curriculum is designed and implemented in both primary and secondary schools where subjects are put before the learner and learning often proceeds with the curriculum stipulating the subjects to be taught in order of their importance, with certain academic subjects being given more prominence than others. In getting to the above conclusion, we utilised the document research method. We argued for the need to give equal prominence to all academic subjects in order to develop a balanced graduate. This claim was made out of the realisation that education was multi-dimensional; that is, apart from developing cognitive/intellectual capacities in the child, it also promoted the development of the physical and moral powers of the learner. Against this backdrop, we argued that the development of the physical powers of the learner would only be made possible through the emphasis on the teaching of physical education and sport while the moral abilities of the learner would be awakened through emphasizing the teaching of indigenous languages as well as religious education among other humanities subjects.


SummaryIvermectin 2 mg/kg single dose reduced worm load by 83.3 % (75.0 – 91.7 %) for rats experimentally infected with 20 Gnathostoma spinigerum advanced third-stage larvae administered at week 1, with sacrifice at week 15 post-infection. Some larvae recovered from the muscles of treated rats were found to be grossly deformed in appearance. Morphological changes in the Gnathostoma larvae were clearly observed. The internal structures of the deformed larvae showed significant degeneration in the esophageal glandular tissues. The esophageal lumen branched irregularly and occupied a wider area in the center of the esophagus. The epithelial cells thickened along these branches. The esophageal gland ducts were completely destroyed. The excretory ability of the esophageal cell glands may be depressed, causing loss of function. It is suggested that ivermectin is effective against Gnathostoma larvae due to worm recovery reductions. The drug efficacy appears to generate by esophageal destruction of the worms.


Received Feb 18, 2020 Revised Dec 10, 2020 Accepted Dec 11, 2020 A new full-reference Perceptual Image Quality Assessment (PIQA) technique based on Hue-Saturation-Intensity (HSI) transformation method for colour images is offered in this work. Fundamentally, it is combined with three approaches (colour transformation, histogram processing and Human Visual System (HVS) based weighting) and it uses the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain. The PIQA is composed of four phases. At the first phase, a colour image is transformed using the HSI because an important characteristic of eyes reaction to intensity of light and colour knowledge is used for quality assessment processes. All channels' DCT coefficients have been calculated at the second phase, because many specifications cannot be assessed in the spatial domain. At the third phase, histogram based quality assessment results are obtained by using histogram of each channel (Hue, Saturation and Intensity). These results are weighted for obtaining perceptual quality result taking into account the HVS specifications at the last phase because the human eye has different sensitivities to the intensity and the others (i.e., hue and saturation). Experimental outcomes about feasibility of the PIQA on test images under different deteriorations, both sensible by the HVS and with the same Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) result are offered. The PIQA shows better performance in comparison to state-of-the-art techniques.


Anthropogenic litter, plastic in particular, is an emerging ecological hazard. To effectively prevent, mitigate and reduce litter in river systems, accurate monitoring of litter in the Dutch rivers is necessary. Inspired by the OSPAR Guideline for monitoring marine litter on the beaches in the OSPAR maritime area, a riverbank litter monitoring protocol (River-OSPAR) was developed by Stichting De Noordzee. In this report, we present an evaluation of the River-OSPAR method in. We compared the River-OSPAR protocol with the original Beach-OSPAR protocol, as well as other methods for riverbank litter monitoring. Subsequently, we present the results of a data analysis based on the two years of available observations (2017 – 2019) at in total 211 unique measurement locations. We explored the variation of space and time, as well as the composition, sources and transport mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the learnings from monitoring efforts focusing on litter in other components of the river system, and potential use of additional data to study sources and pathways of litter in Dutch Rivers. The strengths of the River-OSPAR include the extensive geographical coverage and detailed item categorization. These data allow for detailed hotspot analysis along the rivers Meuse and Waal. Both incidental and consistent hotspots were found. Incidental peaks may be related to increased input or accumulation at that location. Consistent hotspots were found to be located close to urban areas with direct access to the river, such as the cities of Nijmegen, Roermond and Maastricht. The detailed data on occurrence of specific items allowed for a correlation analysis to determine the sources of each item. Recommendations for improvement of the method and dataset include (1) increased temporal resolution, (2) additional reference measurements, and (3) inclusion of item mass statistics. The limited temporal extent of the data causes some uncertainty. Tentative conclusions on the spatial variation and seasonality can only be supported through expansion of the dataset in time. Increasing the measurement frequency from two to four times per year will also increase the possible analysis, specifically with regard to exploring the relation between litter density and hydrometeorological conditions. Additional reference measurements will shed light on the volunteer bias. It was found that volunteers generally observe less items than the reference measurements. It is recommended to plan reference measurements at the exact same locations to determine the bias. Finally, inclusion of mass statistics will allow expressing the litter density in terms of mass rather than items. Mass can in turn be related to production, consumption and waste handling data. Furthermore, this can help optimizing strategies to mitigate and remove litter from river systems. Additional recommendations include the application of new technology for data collection and management, and observing other components of the river system. New technological advances include the development of camera-based automated litter monitoring systems, UAVs and mobile applications. Cameras can be used for permanent monitoring of litter at specific locations. UAVs on the other hand can be used for quick scans of large areas, or follow-up monitoring of hotspots from the River-OSPAR observations. To facilitate better recording of raw data, it is recommended to use mobile apps for data collection. As samples need to be sorted in over 100 categories, apps with smart indexing may faster data collection. Also, raw data can easier be quality checked. The current monitoring effort mainly focusses on riverbank litter. A large share of litter however is mobile as floating litter. Several citizen science methods exist for rapid monitoring of floating litter in rivers. We recommend to expand the country-wide monitoring effort with floating litter observations from bridges. They can either be implemented in the current monitoring effort, or be organized as stand-alone observations with higher temporal frequency. The current River-OSPAR method has provided an unprecedented data with high spatial frequency and detailed item categorization. These insights already provide valuable insights that can support decision-making in litter prevention, mitigation and reduction strategies. Several aspects can be considered to further improve the protocol, which may help answering the questions that remain open to date.


The present study was carried out to determine the mobilization of seed storage components of sunflower seeds during germination and early seedling development. Two sunflower cultivars (DUET CL and TR 3080) were used as plant materials. Seeds were germinated for 120 h and samples were taken every 24 h. The total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents of the germinating seeds of both cultivars significantly increased till 96 h, and then decreased. While the total soluble and reducing sugar contents were decreased during the first 24 h, their amounts increased significantly afterwards. The total protein contents of the germinating seeds of TR 3080 and DUET CL decreased from 48.1% and 40.9% to 35.5% and 28.4%, respective-ly. However, their free amino acid contents were steadily increased during germination and early seedling growth. The oil contents of DUET CL and TR 3080 started to decrease significantly after 72 h and dropped to 41.3% and 40.2%, respectively, at the end of the study. Free fatty acid contents of the seeds increased until 72 h, but decreased thereafter. While, oleic acid contents of the cultivars decreased during the germination period, their linoleic acid contents increased. These results suggest that significant changes occur in the pigment, sugar, lipid and protein metabolisms during germination and early seedling growth period of sunflower.


In recent years the number of citations a paper is receiving is seen more and more (maybe too much so) as an important indicator for the quality of a paper, the quality of researchers, the quality of journals, etc. Based on the number of citations a scholar has received over his lifetime or over the last few years various measures have been introduced. The number of citations (often without counting self-citations or citations from "minor" sources, in whatever way this may be defined), or some measurement based on the number of citations (like the h- or the g-factor) are being used to evaluate scholars; the citation index of a journal (again with a variety of parameters) is seen as measuring the impact of the journal, and hence the importance one assigns to publications there, etc. The number of measurements based on citation numbers is steadily increasing, and their definition has become a science in itself. However, they all rest on finding all relevant citations. Thus, "citation mining tools" used for the ISI Web of Knowledge, the Citeseer citation index, Google scholar or software such as the "publishorperish.com" software based on Google scholar, etc., are the critical starting points for all measurement efforts. In this paper we show that the current citation mining techniques do not discover all relevant citations. We propose a technique that increases accuracy substantially and show numeric evaluations for one typical journal. It is clear that in the absence of very reliable citation mining tools all current measurements based on citation counting should be considered with a grain of salt.


Iron-doped titanium nitride films deposed on glass substrates were prepared by magnetron sputtering technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to analyze the phases existed in the films. Investigations have shown that as-deposited films were XRD-amorphous, and the TiN phase was formed in the film after additional annealing. It was found that iron-doped TiN films preserved the same crystal structure as TiN. The ferromagnetic properties of iron doped TiN films have been measured using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the electric resistances of the films were also determined by IR four-probe methods. The experiment results proved that the iron-doped TiN films possessed ferromagnetic property with low electric resistance at room temperature. It was investigated that the saturation magnetization was about 2.21×108 A/m, the coercivity about 23 kA/m, and the electric resisitivity 1.401×10-6 3•m for typical Fe-doped-TiN-films sample.


Purpose: To develop novel segmentation software that allows users to segment regions of interest and reconstruct three‐dimensional surfaces using non‐transverse image planes. Method and Materials: To date the manual segmentation process in radiation oncology has been performed on consecutive transverse computed tomography(CT)image planes. This method of contouring provides little information about the ends of a structure and is poorly suited for structures whose longitudinal axis lies oblique to the transverse plane. Due to these limitations it has been illustrated that the segmentation of structures using only transverse planes is prone to error and time consuming in nature. We hypothesize that the intelligent selection and use of non‐transverse image planes will reduce observer error and the time burden of the segmentation process. At present few treatment planning systems offer segmentation in non‐transverse planes. The development of this software has four phases: 1) Navigation and segmentation toolsets. 2) Segmentation validation. 3) Curve and vertex processing. 4) Three‐dimensional surface reconstruction.Results: The first and fourth phases are complete. Phases two and three are currently underway with data from a user study illustrating process improvements to be addressed by our software. Our initial results are promising and indicate that it is possible to generate accurate surfaces with a significant reduction in the segmentation burden. Conclusions: The current method of manual structure segmentation is not ideal and represents a significant bottleneck in the treatment planning process. This software promises to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the segmentation process through the use of non‐transverse image planes. While this software was specifically developed to improve the segmentation process, we feel the use of non‐transverse image planes is directly applicable to segmentation and dose distribution review.


A cause-related marketing exchange model, investigating product-cause fit, donation format, and the moderating effects of need for cognition (on fit and format) on consumer purchase intentions, is tested. The results suggest that individuals who have a low need for cognition do not display a difference in purchase intentions for different permutations of product-cause fit and donation format. Individuals who have a high need for cognition, by contrast, indicate greater purchase intentions for an exact donation format when the product-cause fit is low, while exhibiting no difference when the product cause fit is high, regardless of the donation format.


Immunosuppression due to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection has led to a marked increase in Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Prophylaxis against PCP is standard practice in pediatric cancer patients but is associated with unique problems in HIV-infected patients, including the need for lifelong therapy, adverse reactions, and drug interactions. HIV-infected patients at highest risk for PCP are those with a prior episode of PCP and/or a CD4 lymphocyte count of less than 200 cells/microL. A combination of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole is effective prophylactically, although a significant rate of adverse reactions makes long-term prophylaxis difficult. Other oral medications such as dapsone and a combination of pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine are promising but not yet adequately tested. Inhalation of aerosolized pentamidine is an effective and safe means of prophylaxis if the proper dose and nebulizer are used. The only common adverse effects with the latter are airway irritation manifested by cough or wheezing. Zidovudine appears to have a synergistic benefit in further reducing the attack rate of PCP when used with aerosolized pentamidine.


The ambiguity in determination of complete elastic strain tensor by convergent beam electron diffraction can be overcome by simultaneous use of multiple diffraction patterns. Numerical tests of strain determining procedure based on multiple patterns have been carried out. Patterns were simulated using both kinematic and dynamic approaches, and then they were used as input in the tested procedure. The tests indicate that, in practice, at least three patterns are needed in order to determine a complete strain tensor with reasonable accuracy. The strain resolution of two parts per ten thousand was achieved with five diffraction patterns. Moreover, the impact of errors in voltage and camera length is considered. It is shown that within the kinematic description, the deviations from the correct voltage are equivalent to errors in the isotropic part of strain.


The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of human resource management practices on employee's job satisfaction in Monduli District Council. A cross-sectional quantitative survey research strategy was adopted. A sample of 100 respondents was selected using stratified sampling techniques. Data were collected using questionnaires with three parts- demographic information's with 6 items, HRM practices - training and development with 4 items, performance appraisal with 5 items and compensation with 5 items and job satisfaction with 36 items. Analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regression analysis. The results of the study revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between training and development and job satisfaction but not for compensation and performance appraisal. It is recommended that that the government and other stakeholders should take consideration on the issue of training and development of its employees in order to improve their levels of satisfaction with their jobs.


The many island countries of the South Pacific region contain extensive areas of reefs and lagoons that provide highly favourable habitats for giant clam mariculture and related activities. These reef and lagoon areas fall almost entirely under customary forms of marine tenure whereby fishing rights are held by indigenous tribal, village or family groups. In general, these marine tenure arrangements confer upon members of each tribal and village group the right to share in the marine resources of the group, subject to any restrictions that may be imposed by custom. The customary marine areas that form the traditional fishing grounds of a tribal or village group are the usually adjacent reef and lagoon areas which extend from the land boundaries to the outer edge of the fringing reef. The sharing of marine areas over which a particular customary owner holds exclusive fishing rights is fairly common throughout the South Pacific region. A rich tradition of sharing in the exploitation of marine resources is still found among tribal and village groups. In general, this sharing is not restricted to members of a particular customary group but extends to outsiders, particularly neighbouring villages and an element of reciprocity is usually involved in these cases. As it currently operates among the Pacific island countries, customary marine tenure can be a significant constraint to the development of a major giant clam mariculture project. Uncertainty over ownership rights of customary groups can, for example, involve an unacceptable degree of risk for the prospective developer who will wish to locate his operations in a country and region where marine property rights favour success of the project. To gain access and lease rights over a section of reef and lagoon that is suitable for a giant clam mariculture project, the developer has to obtain the consent of the customary group which controls the area in question. Such consent is normally the prerogative of the tribal or village leaders as representatives of their people. From the available evidence, it seems that whether or not consent is given largely depends on how villagers perceive the kind of benefits expected to derive from a giant clam mariculture project. Perceived benefits appear to include only monetary payments but also those that can arise from a project's impact on local infrastructure, nutrition and the regeneration of fished-out reef and lagoon areas. Consent can also significantly depend on the involvement of local villagers in the development and operation of such the project, for example, by equity contribution, appointment to senior positions, and employment participation. Giant clam mariculture can be initiated and operated by villagers themselves and this approach may be most suitable in relation to small-scale, subsistence-orientated projects. For major commercial ventures the participation of outside developers seems imperative, especially to provide capital funds and technical knowhow. Various forms of institutional arrangements are possible, including joint ventures, but a vital prerequisite is to ensure significant and meaningful participation by the local people. Tribal and village authorities have a range of customary sanctions at their disposal which can be applied to protect a giant clam mariculture project site from encroachment by villagers. These authorities can also support such a project by assisting in the policing of the project site against both local and outside poaching.


Implantable microelectrode arrays (MEAs) usually have on-site electronics that need to be powered, both in neural recording and stimulation applications. Interconnecting wires between implanted electrodes and the outside world constitute a major source of complications. Our solution to this tethering problem is to design a light waveguide that can collect the optical power transcutaneously and transmit it to the microelectrode array where it is to be converted to an electric current. A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based waveguide was fabricated and its attenuation was measured in vitro and found to be 0.36 dB/cm. The skin flap of the thenar web space in the hand was used to test the photon collection efficiency of the waveguide in diffuse light. The efficiency of the waveguide alone was 44±11% (mean±std), excluding the attenuation within the thenar skin, as measured in 13 subjects with different skin pigmentations. These preliminary results suggest that a PDMS waveguide may collect and deliver optical power with sufficient efficiencies to deep structures inside the body. Optical powering scheme can solve the tethering and breakage problems associated with metal wire connections.


Applying hotplate tests and gravimetric measurements of vapour uptake under high humidity, basic bedding items containing different fibre materials in filling, shell fabrics and mattress ticking were compared regarding ther- mo-physiological comfort. The effect of adding moisture absorbing fibre materials such as lyocell into layers beneath the surface, which are not supposed to have direct skin contact, was investigated in typical commercial bedding items such as filled duvet comforters and double jersey mattress tickings. The results show the positive effects achieved by adding vapour absorbing materials under the surface and thus proving the contribution thereof to sleep comfort.


Writing has never been a core object of sociolinguistics, and this paper argues for a mature sociolinguistics of writing. Seen from a sociolinguistic viewpoint, writing needs to be seen as a complex of specific resources subject to patterns of distribution, of availability and accessibility. If we take this approach to the field of writing, and unthink the unproductive distinction between 'language' and 'writing', we can distinguish several specific sets of resources that are required for writing: from infrastructural ones, over graphic ones, linguistic, semantic, pragmatic and metapragmatic ones, to social and cultural ones. These resources form the 'sub-molecular' structure of writing and each of them is subject to different patterns of distribution, leading to specific configurations of writing resources in people's repertoires. Thus, we can arrive at vastly more precise diagnostic analyses of 'problems' in writing, and this has a range of important effects.


This study aims to describe and explain the impact of trade liberalization between the EU- 15 and the southern Mediterranean countries, with special emphasis on Southern EU (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece). The selected activity to be studied is the processing tomato industry. To do that, we use three related approaches (systems, industrial economics and management tools). After describing the tomato processing system, we introduce three case studies: Copador (member of CIO) located in Parma, Louis Martin SA nearby Avignon and Alsat SL located in Don Benito (Extremadura). Some conclusions : the EU processing tomato industry will continue and probably expand its activities on the Mediterranean borders; the competition between Italy and Spain will increase; the southern part of France risks losing its first - level processing activities; specialization of work within the European space will intensify, with the southern part specializing in raw materials and the northern part in high value added products; Greek and Portuguese activities will carry on. Three main reasons can be advanced: the raw materials have to meet some very rigorous standards; some activities (manufacturing of tomato paste) are highly mechanized and, second and third level finished products which are evolving very quickly (packaging, recipes and process techniques) require good logistics and flexible services.


Fluidized beds are widely used in reactive industrial processes such as: olefins production, oil cracking or uranium fluorination because of their high efficiency mixing properties. In such processes, the chemical reaction is strongly dependent on the temperature and liquid is injected into the reactor in order to cool it. The experimental data of the time evolution of the gas temperature in an anisothermal dense fluidized bed with a liquid injection provided by INEOS is first compared with the results predicted by a simple model with an assumption of a perfectly mixed fluidized bed (uniform solid and temperature distribution in the bed). The results of this simple model show that the time evolution of the gas temperature is accurately predicted. Additionally, we point out that the wall-to-bed heat transfer plays a crucial role of the gas temperature in the bed. Then, we performed 3-D numerical simulations that let us investigate local interactions between phases and heat transfer with wall. The simulations show that the liquid evaporates quickly and the temperature is in a satisfactory agreement with the experiment data.


The performance of the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) under overload is studied. It is well known that, under overload, FDDI can settle into one of many recurrent sets of states. The idea of desirable and undesirable states is introduced. A desirable state is one where users share the capacity more or less equally in each token rotation. It is shown that the response times of interactive users are adversely affected if the system operates in an undesirable set of states. The waiting time of heavy users can be reduced by forcing the system to settle into the desirable states. Simple control mechanisms are proposed to ensure that the system settle into the desirable states.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND: The economic costs of depression are significant, both the direct medical costs of care and the indirect costs of lost productivity. Empirical studies of antidepressant cost-effectiveness suggest that the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be no more costly than tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), will improve tolerability, and is associated with longer therapy duration. However the success of depression care usually involves multiple factors, including source of care, type of care, and patient characteristics, in addition to drug choice. The cost-effective mix of antidepressant therapy components is unclear. AIMS OF THE STUDY: Our study evaluates cost and antidepressant-continuity outcomes for depressed patients receiving antidepressant therapy. Specifically, we determined the impact of provider choice for initial care, concurrent psychotherapy, and choice of SSRI versus TCA-based pharmacotherapies on the joint outcome of low treatment cost and continuous antidepressant therapy. METHODS: A database of private health insurance claims identifies 2678 patients who received both a diagnosis of depression and a prescription for an antidepressant during 1990-1994. Patients each fall into one of four groups according to whether their health care charges are high versus low (using the median value as the break point) and by whether their antidepressant usage pattern is continuous versus having discontinued pharmacotherapy early (filling fewer than six prescriptions). A bivariate probit model controlling for patient characteristics, co-morbidities, type of depression and concurrent treatment is the primary multivariate statistical vehicle for the cost-effective treatment situation. RESULTS: SSRIs substantially reduce the incidence of patients discontinuing pharmacotherapy while leaving charges largely unchanged. The relative effectiveness of SSRIs in depression treatment is independent of the patient's personal characteristics and dominates the consequences of other treatment dimensions such as seeing a mental health specialist and receiving concurrent psychotherapy. Initial provider specialty is irrelevant to the continuity of pharmacotherapy, and concurrent psychotherapy creates a tradeoff through reduced pharmacotherapy interruption with higher costs. DISCUSSION: Longer therapy duration is associated with SSRI-based pharmacotherapy (relative to TCA-based pharmacotherapy) and with concurrent psychotherapy. High cost is associated with concurrent psychotherapy and choice of a specialty provider for initial care. In our study cost-effective care includes SSRI-based pharmacotherapy initiated with a non-specialty provider. Previous treatment history and other unobserved factors that might affect antidepressant choice are not included in our model. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION: The decision to use an SSRI-based pharmacotherapy need not consider carefully the patient's personal characteristics. Shifting depressed patients' pharmacotherapy away from TCAs to SSRIs has the effect of improving outcomes by lowering the incidence of discontinuation of pharmacotherapy while leaving largely unchanged the likelihood of having high overall health care charges. Targeted use of concurrent psychotherapy may be additionally cost-effective. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: The interaction of various components of depression care can alter the cost-effectiveness of antidepressant therapy. Our results demonstrate a role for the non-specialty provider in initiating care and support increased use of SSRIs as first-line therapy for depression as a way of providing cost-effective care that is consistent with APA guidelines for continuous antidepressant treatment. IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Further research that improves our understanding of how decisions regarding provider choice, concurrent psychotherapy, and drug choice are made will improve our understanding of the effects treatment choices on the cost-effectiveness of depression care. We have suggested that targeted concurrent psychotherapy may prove to be cost-effective; research to determine groups most likely to benefit from the additional treatment would further enable clinicians and healthcare policy makers to form a consensus regarding a model for treating depression.


The decline of traditional religion in the West has been matched by a rise in the visibility of conspiracy theories. Are conspiracy theories therefore a replacement for religious belief in an increasingly secular society? Conspiracy theories seem to fulfil some of the psychological needs addressed by religion, such as imposing a sense of order and agency upon the world, and the two seem to share some of the same psychological predispositions. Many conspiracy beliefs have parallels in content and structure to religious beliefs: some propose an Edenic existence that was corrupted by a conspiracy, while others anticipate an apocalypse that will be either brought about or welcomed by a conspiracy. In this chapter, we take a psychological perspective on the parallels between religion and conspiracy theory, and discussing how the two types of belief systems complement and contradict one another.


The cardiomyocyte-specific knockout (KO) of monoamine oxidase (MAO)-B, an enzyme involved in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduced myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in vitro. Because sex hormones have a strong impact on MAO metabolic pathways, we analyzed the myocardial infarct size (IS) following I/R in female and male MAO-B KO mice in vivo. Method and Results: To induce the deletion of MAO-B, MAO-B KO mice (Myh6 Cre+/MAO-Bfl/fl) and wild-type (WT, Cre-negative MAO-Bfl/fl littermates) were fed with tamoxifen for 2 weeks followed by 10 weeks of normal mice chow. Myocardial infarction (assessed by TTC staining and expressed as a percentage of the area at risk as determined by Evans blue staining)) was induced by 45 min coronary occlusion followed by 120 min of reperfusion. Results: The mortality following I/R was higher in male compared to female mice, with the lowest mortality found in MAO-B KO female mice. IS was significantly higher in male WT mice compared to female WT mice. MAO-B KO reduced IS in male mice but had no further impact on IS in female MAO-B KO mice. Interestingly, there was no difference in the plasma estradiol levels among the groups. Conclusion: The cardiomyocyte-specific knockout of MAO-B protects male mice against acute myocardial infarction but had no effect on the infarct size in female mice.


The short half-lives due
to the enzymatic degradation in blood, the lack of tissue targetability and
the incapability to passively diffuse across the plasma membrane and smoothly
traffic across the harsh intracelluar environment are the major shortcomings
for nucleic acid-based potential
therapeutics, such as recombinant plasmid and antisense oligonucleotides
or small interferring RNA (siRNA). Plasmid DNA containing a gene of interest could
have immense impact as a promising therapeutic drug for treating genetic as
well as acquired human diseases at the molecular level with high level of
efficacy and precision. Thus both viral and non-viral synthetic vectors have
been developed in the past decades to address the aforementioned challenges of
naked DNA. While in the viral particles plasmid DNA is integrated into the viral
genome, in most non-viral cases the DNA being anionic in nature is
electrostatically associated with a cationic lipid or polymer forming lipoplex
or polyplex, respectively, or a cationized inorganic gold, silica or iron oxide
particle. Due to the potential immunogenicity and carcinogenicity issues with
the viral particles, non-viral vectors have drawn much more attention for the
clinical evaluation. However, the main concern of using non-biodegradable particles,
specially the inorganic ones, is the adverse effects owing to their long term
interactions with body components. We have recently developed biodegradable
pH-sensitive inorganic nanoparticles of Mg/CaPi and carbonate apatite for
efficient transgene delivery to primary, cancer and embryonic stem cells, by
virtue of their high affinity binding with the DNA, ability to contact the cell
membrane by ionic or ligand-receptor interactions and fast dissolution kinectis
in endosomal acidic pH facilitating release of the DNA from the dissolving
particles and also from the endosomes.


Free spectral range of whispering-gallery (WG)-like modes in a two-dimensional (2D) square microcavity is found to be twice that in a 2D circular microcavity. The quality factor of the WG-like mode with the low mode number in a 2D square microcavity, calculated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique and the Pade approximation method, is found to exceed that of the WG mode in 2D circular microcavity with the same cavity dimension and close mode wavelength.


The complex system response of 3D position-sensitive gamma-ray detectors complicates modeling the recorded measurements and makes exact expressions for detection performance intractable. This makes source detection performance difficult and expensive to compute. Asymptotic analysis has the potential to simplify detection performance prediction with complex systems and has previously been applied to detection performance prediction with simulated gamma-ray detectors. In this work, we use asymptotic performance prediction methods to predict points on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the illustrative task of detecting a 137Cs source in background with an 18-detector CdZnTe array. We assume that the source position, source energy, background spectrum, and background spatial distribution are known. Although these assumptions are not always valid in practice, the efficiency of the prediction method makes it attractive for detection system design problems. Our results show that the asymptotic performance prediction method accurately predicts the empirically observed performance with real data recorded with a real system. Our results also characterize the performance of the detector array for the task of source detection. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the asymptotic detection performance prediction method make it a viable alternative to empirical performance evaluation.


Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) is a rapidly growing problem with the fast development of the Internet. There're multitude DDoS detection approaches, however, three major problems about DDoS attack detection appear in the big data environment. Firstly, to shorten the respond time of the DDoS attack detector, secondly, to reduce the required compute resources, and lastly, to achieve a high detection rate with low false alarm rate. In the paper, we propose an abnormal network flow feature sequence prediction approach which could fit to be used as a DDoS attack detector in the big data environment and solve aforementioned problems. We define a network flow abnormal index as PDRA with the percentage of old IP addresses, the increment of the new IP addresses, the ratio of new IP addresses to the old IP addresses and average accessing rate of each new IP address. We design an IP address database using sequential storage model which has a constant time complexity. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) trending prediction module will be started if and only if the number of continuous PDRA sequence value, which all exceed an PDRA abnormal threshold (PAT), reaches a certain preset threshold. And then calculate the probability that is the percentage of forecasting PDRA sequence value which exceed the PAT. Finally we identify the DDoS attack based on the abnormal probability of the forecasting PDRA sequence. Both theorem and experiment show that the method we proposed can effectively reduce the compute resources consumption, identify DDoS attack at its initial stage with higher detection rate and lower false alarm rate.


Learn to create Augmented Reality applications in no time using the Appcelerator Titanium Framework Create an open source Augmented Reality Titanium application Build an effective display of multiple points of interest. Learn to calculate distances between points of interest. Understand how to effectively and cleanly move the points of interest as the device rotates In Detail Titanium Mobile has quickly become the platform of choice for many mobile developers and is growing and changing at a rapid rate. From the implementation of CommonJS, Cloud Services, MVC design patterns and more, the last year in Titanium development has been a roller coaster of change for the better. Augmented Reality is a hot area for mobile applications and this book along with the augmentedTi open source application will give a great start to all augmented applications.. This book will show you how to build an Augmented Reality application, which is clean, efficient and usable. It shows how to hide the processing from the user and build a display which updates and rotates smoothly. Mobile devices have got more powerful, but they still have limitations. Augmented Reality applications test these devices to breaking point and without the correct coding techniques make the applications unresponsive and cumbersome. This book gives a solution, which will enable you to build an effective application, and is accompanied by a complete working application and source code. It's essential for anybody who is creating a multiple points of interest augmented reality application. It shows how to build this type of application efficiently and takes into consideration the devices limitations and processing capabilities What you will learn from this book Getting current location of devices Obtaining and displaying the data relevant to the current location Calculating the distance between two points Scaling images based on distance Titanium common JS application architecture Handling device processing limitations Understanding the pitfalls in developing Augmented Reality applications Approach It's a quick start tutorial to help you get started with creating Augmented Reality applications and acquainting yourself with essential aspects of creating AR applications using the Appcelerator Titanium Framework. The instructions are clear with easy to follow examples. Who this book is written for This book is for anybody who wishes to understand how to build an Augmented Reality Application. It uses the Appcelerator Titanium mobile development framework, but the techniques and practices can be applied to other frameworks and native code. You will need to have a good working knowledge of development and JavaScript, it is not aimed at the beginner.


Gaussian processes (GP) are a natural tool for estimating unknown functions, typically based on a collection of point-wise observations. Interestingly, the GP formalism can be used also with observations that are integrals of the unknown function along some known trajectories, which makes GPs a promising technique for inverse problems in a wide range of physical sensing problems. However, in many real world applications collecting data is laborious and time consuming. We provide tools for optimizing sensor locations for GPs using integral observations, extending both model-based and geometric strategies for GP sensor placement. We demonstrate the techniques in ultrasonic detection of fouling in closed pipes.


Objectives: To evaluate a method of determining the optimal feeder space allowance for pigs. Materials and methods: Trial 1 used eight pens of 12 pigs to determine total eating time in pigs to estimate occupancy rates of a single-space feeder. Feed was provided in four combinations of feed form (mash versus pelleted) and water availability in the feeder (dry versus wet-dry). Eating behavior of pigs was video-recorded during both growing and finishing phases. Trial 2 used 560 pigs for the growing phase and 454 pigs for the finishing phase. Effects of feeder occupancy rate (< 80%, 95%, 110%, and 125% for the growing phase; 80%, 103%, and 125% for the finishing phase) on total eating time and growth performance were determined. Results: Both feed form (P < .01) and water availability in the feeder (P < .001) affected total eating time and, consequently, feeder occupancy rate. Pigs spent more time eating a dry mash diet than any other diet by water combination during both growing (P < .001) and finishing (P < .01) phases. As feeder occupancy rate increased to above 80%, either eating time (P < .05) or growth performance (P < .05) decreased. Implications: When testing levels of feeder space allowance and identifying the optimum, the designated number of pigs per feeder space should be determined according to feeder occupancy rates under different production settings. Optimal feeder space allowance should maintain both productivity and eating time of pigs.


[1] Convection and its changes, driven by the solar wind, are related to geomagnetic disturbances such as substorms, dynamic pressure disturbances and convection bays. Furthermore, convection is theoretically related to the evolution of the Harang electric field reversal (or "discontinuity"), which has been related observationally and theoretically to these disturbances. Interplanetary measurements generally used for studying and making associations of convection with disturbances are acceptable for statistical studies, but spatial structure and propagation timing errors due to the highly variable orientation of interplanetary structures create significant ambiguity for case studies and have prevented definitive understanding. Moreover, small but geoeffective structure in the solar wind may be missed by even multispacecraft observations. Direct observation of dayside convection with high time resolution offers a potential solution to this problem. In this paper, we demonstrate that Sondrestrom incoherent scatter radar (ISR) observations have the ability to accurately monitor the dayside convection with ∼2.5 min temporal resolution. The observations clearly show the dayside convection responses to IMF Bz, By and solar wind dynamic pressure variations and thus shed new light on how the magnetosphere and ionosphere respond to different external driving. Then, we illustrate an application of this technique by showing how it can be applied to study substorm triggering. We plan to use this technique in the future to study the relationships between convection, other geomagnetic disturbances, and the Harang reversal, as well as to evaluate the preceding convection strength and duration and the convection changes that lead to substorm onset.


nu-Dysprosium borate (nu-DyBO(3)) was synthesized under conditions of high temperature and pressure in a Walker-type multi-anvil apparatus at 3 GPa and 1323 K. The compound is isotypic with the already known nu-samarium and nu-europium orthoborates.


Background: Declining response rates pose a serious threat to the validity of estimates derived from epidemiological studies. If respondents and non-respondents differ systematically from each other, there can be a bias in the results of the study. A population-based cohort study was conducted to investigate disparities in socioeconomic structure between respondents and non-respondents and the contribution of these disparities to socioeconomic differences in total and cardiovascular mortality. Design: Data comprised 32 354 male and female participants and 4890 non-participants aged 35–74 years who belonged to the sample in one of the five FINRISK surveys in 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987 or 1992 in Finland. They were followed up for 9 years and 6 months. Results: It was found that the lower socioeconomic groups were over-represented among non-respondents both in men and women. When comparing the relative risk of death using the highest socioeconomic group of the participants as the reference group, it was found that although the socioeconomic gradient was similar for participants and non-participants—that is, lower groups had a higher risk of death—the risk was at a higher level among non-respondents. Conclusions: Basing analysis on participants does not distort the relative risk of death associated with socioeconomic position. However, it does underestimate the absolute risk.


Gaze-following, the tendency to direct one's attention to locations looked at by others, is a crucial aspect of social cognition in human and nonhuman primates. Whereas the development of gaze-following has been intensely studied in human infants, its early ontogeny in nonhuman primates has received little attention. Combining longitudinal and cross-sectional observational data from Barbary macaques at 'La Forêt des Singes', we show here that gaze-following among conspecifics develops within the first year of life with a rapid increase between 5 and 6 months, reaching adult levels at 1 year. Sex, rank, and relatedness of the animal whose gaze the subject followed did not affect gaze-following rates. Interestingly, however, the behavior was enhanced in all age classes if a gaze-cue was accompanied by a facial expression. Furthermore, the effect of facial expressions had a modulatory influence on the ontogenetic trajectory of gaze-following, suggesting that it is of functional significance in the development of the behavior. Follow-up analyses revealed that one specific facial expression that is given in response to social interactions between third parties was particularly efficient in eliciting gaze-following responses, indicating the importance of cues that are able to guide the acquisition of social information. Taken together, these results suggest that the development and the operation of gaze-following are tuned to the social and physical characteristics of a species' environment.


Air cooling may decrease rolling efficiency in controlled rolling for needing long holding time to obtain the correct rolling temperature because of small cooling rate. The intermediate cooling can increate the cooling rate, and improve rolling efficiency. Experiment was carried out to research the effect of intermediate cooling on rolling efficiency. The influence of different cooling mode on the temperature distribution and the temperature profile characteristics of different cooling strategy are analyzed with FEM. It shows that intermediate cooling can decrease the holding time effectively, and improve rolling efficiency; the temperature homogeneity in thickness direction can be improved by opening the header one after another and cooling the plate by oscillating cooling.


In this study, the effect of out-of-plane fiber waviness on ballistic performance of thin compliant laminates was investigated. Waviness varying from 2.46% to 32.27% was artificially induced into thin DSM Dyneema® HB50 laminates. Analogous to crimp in woven textiles, waviness is defined as the fraction of total arc length divided by the wavelength of the crimping. Several amplitudes and wavelengths of undulations were investigated. The ballistic limit of each sample against a 17 grain Fragment Simulating Projectile (FSP) was determined and high speed videography was used to track the longitudinal and transverse wave positions as a function of time. It was found that outof- plane fiber waviness had a significant deleterious effect on both the transverse wave velocity and the maximum energy absorption of the laminates before failure. It was found that small, high frequency undulations were more deleterious than large, low frequency undulations due to the increased number of wave reflections.


Abstract. Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) are formed during the oxidation
of gas-phase hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. However, analytical challenges
have hampered ambient measurements for many of these species, leaving
unanswered questions regarding their atmospheric fate. We present the
development of an in situ gas chromatography (GC) technique that, when
combined with the sensitive and specific detection of chemical ionization
mass spectrometry (CIMS), is capable of the isomer-resolved detection of a
wide range of OVOCs. The instrument addresses many of the issues typically
associated with chromatographic separation of such compounds (e.g., analyte
degradation). The performance of the instrumentation is assessed through data
obtained in the laboratory and during two field studies. We show that this
instrument is able to successfully measure otherwise difficult-to-quantify
compounds (e.g., organic hydroperoxides and organic nitrates) and observe the
diurnal variations in a number of their isomers.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has recently received increased attention due to its capability of supporting high-data-rate communications in frequency-selective fading environments with a comparatively simple receiver structure. However, the time variations (high mobility) of the channel during one OFDM symbol destroy the orthogonality of the different subcarriers and generate power leakage among the subcarriers, known as Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI), which will cause degradation in system performance. Therefore, our research emphasis on Doppler sensitivity is especially meaningful given the popularity that fixed wireless/low mobility OFDM systems have experienced (e.g. 802.11a). In this dissertation, we first analyze the theoretical performance degradation of OFDM system due to Doppler spreading by developing a two-dimensional Gram- Charlier representation for the bivariate pdf of the ICI, after the bivariate probability density function (pdf) of the ICI is shown to be a weighted Gaussian mixture. Secondly, in order to suppress ICI in OFDM systems, we describe an MMSE based OFDM detection according to the estimated channel information through a simple and efficient polynomial surface channel estimation technique. Thirdly, we consider filtered multitone (FMT) modulation over frequency-selective time-varying fading channels. Both ICI and ISI are quantified under several different fading channels conditions. An analysis of the C/I ratio of the FMT system is compared with the conventional OFDM system in order to demonstrate the underlying trade-offs between the spectral efficiency and system performance. Finally, a per-channel tap-delay-line equalizer is proposed at the FMT receiver to mitigate the ISI. A closed -form expression of the upper bound for its C/I ratio is derived for the per-channel equalized FMT system and used to evaluate the system performance. Performance comparisons are made with an un-equalized FMT system as well as a standard OFDM system


In comparison with a traditional planetary gearbox, the split torque gearbox (STG) potentially offers lower weight, increased reliability, and improved efficiency. These benefits have driven helicopter object exchange models (OEMs) to develop products using STG. However, the unique structure of the STG creates a problem on how to locate the gear faults in an STG. As of today, only limited research on STG fault detection using vibration and acoustic emission (AE) sensors has been conducted. In this paper, an effective gear fault location detection methodology using AE sensors for STG is presented. The methodology uses wavelet transform to process AE sensor signals at different locations to determine the arrival time of the AE bursts. By analyzing the arrival time of the AE bursts, the gear fault location can be determined. The parameters of the wavelets are optimized by using an ant colony optimization algorithm. Real seeded gear fault experimental tests on a notional STG are conducted. AE signals at different locations of the gearbox with both healthy and damaged output driving gears are collected simultaneously to determine the location of the damaged gear. Experimental results have shown the effectiveness of the presented methodology.


Recently the Review has extended its hospitality to studies which are not, technically, within the discipline it serves. A new school of Shakespeare criticism may be in the making; and since everyone deplores departmentalization, one should like to welcome, without misgivings, APSR publication of two Shakespeare interpretations. But I, for one, do have misgivings. It may be that the views of the authors are useful and needful for political theory; of that I am no judge. But I am sure that to present these views as Shakespeare's can serve neither political theory nor Shakespeare criticism. The study of Shakespeare can profit from a knowledge of the history of political theory; and we on the belletristic side of the quad like to think that we are not the sole beneficiaries of the exchange. But the two articles in question go beyond this simple form of barter; they are interpretations of dramatic poetry. They do not accept and retail what Shakespeare criticism has concluded about the poet's political philosophy; they are ambitious attempts to discover this philosophy by taking a direct and novel look at some Shakespearean texts. That is a praiseworthy ambition; but it demands something the authors do not have nor even know they lack: an adequate concept of the specificity of literature as a mode of discourse different from other modes. They have a worthy aim: to give a great poet a voice in the great concerns of practical life. But they have not yet learned to distinguish between the poet's voice and their own—so that, though I greet the aim, I must withhold the applause.


Introduction Isolation of the virus of measles in human tissue culture and its subsequent adaptation to growth in embryonated eggs and chick embryo cell culture by Enders and his colleagues 1-3 has led to the rapid development in the United States of vaccines suitable for use in the immunoprophylaxis of this disease. 1 Similar achievements have been reported from the Soviet Union by Smorodintsev 4 and Zhdanov. 5 Clinical and immunologic evaluation of attenuated measles-virus vaccines derived from the Edmonston strain has revealed the relatively benign nature of vaccine-induced infection and potent immunogenicity of this virus. 6-9 Our own studies have included comparisons of chick embryo cell-culture-derived vaccine with virus propagated in canine renal cell culture, the details of which have been presented in part previously. Summary of our experience with unmodified measles vaccine is the subject of this report. Materials and Methods Vaccine propagated in canine renal cell culture


Using the principal-agent approach, a theoretical model is developed, in which dishonest government officers lobby authorities (in the form of a corrupted political contribution) for getting some advantage over honest officers. The government agency authority should maximize the welfare of the civil service officers by distributing an economic compensation granted by a central government through the use of an institutional policy. The contribution scheme promotes a relevant truthful equilibrium. A larger institutional level favors honest people; a smaller institutional level favors dishonest people and the bribe they offer. This result has two opposite implications. If government is only an efficient authority, the optimal institutional policy will grant the same amount of economic compensation to all officers. On the other hand, if authority is assuming a moral role against corruption, then the government will be inclined to set the strictest institutional policy.


This PhD research investigates the effects of the key top management team (TMT) attributes
on the probability of a firm's default. Specifically, the study pursues motivation, loyalty
and effectiveness as the key characteristics to analyse. Synthesising the Behavioural theory
of the firm, Upper Echelons theory, Resource Based View, Agency theory and Seasons
of tenure alongside other key TMT theories this research develops a theoretical model.
The literature on TMT and financial distress has focused mostly on the role of the CEO or
different definitions of the TMT, however, the role of the CFO is very rarely studied. This
research argues that the role of the CFO is extremely important when a firm faces financial
difficulties and is key to the definition of TMT that influence the financing decisions of
the firm. In addition, this research uses both accounting based measures and market based
measures for predicting the likelihood of default while a majority of the literature in this
field has used either accounting based measures or market based measures. This research
uses multilevel modelling on a hierarchical dataset to address some of the limitations of
previous research by modelling for the variability of regression intercepts and slopes and
addressing the violation of the independence assumption. Using a sample of UK listed
companies, on the FTSE 100 index for the period 2013 to 2016, this research uses OLS
regression, Polynomial regression, Random Intercept model and Random Intercept and
Random slope models as robustness checks to test the theoretical model developed. The
study concludes that there is a relationship between key TMT attributes and the likelihood
of default. The effect of the attributes varies for the short-term, long-term and accounting
measures of the probability of firm financial distress. The study provides models that will
be key to future governance ensuring a financially healthier corporate environment.


This work describes an alternative formulation of a system of nonlinear state-dependent delay differential equations (SDDDEs) that governs the coupled axial and torsional vibrations of a 2 DOF drillstring model considering a Polycrystalline Diamond Compact (PDC) bit with realistic cutter layout. Such considerations result in up to 100 state-dependent delays due to the regenerative effect of the drilling process, which renders the computational efficiency of conventional solution strategies unacceptable. The regeneration of the rock surface, associated with the bit motion history, can be described using the bit trajectory function, the evolution of which is governed by a partial differential equation (PDE). Thus the original system of SDDDEs can be replaced by a nonlinear coupled system of a PDE and ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Via the application of the Galerkin method, this system of PDE-ODEs is transformed into a system of coupled ODEs, which can be readily solved. The algorithm is further extended to a linear stability analysis for the bit dynamics. The resulting stability boundaries are verified with time-domain simulations. The reported algorithm could, in principle, be applied to a more realistic drillstring model, which may lead to an in-depth understanding of the mitigation of self-excited vibrations through PDC bit designs.


In this paper,nano-sized of mononuclear tetrahedral zinc(II) complex with the general formula of Zn((pma-ba)2en)Br2.2H2O, (pma-ba)2en=N,N¢-bis{(paramethylamino)benzylidene}ethylenediamine, was synthesized by ultrasonic bath assisted from the reaction of ZnBr2 and Schiff base ligand (pma-ba)2en in molar ratio 1:1 in methanol solution. The zinc(II) Schiff base complex characterized by elemental analyses (CHN), Fourier transformed infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, thermal stability of the complex was studied from room temperature to 780 °C under argon atmosphere. TGA shows three stages for decomposition of the zinc(II) complex. At the end of decomposition, the remainder part is ZnO. The preparation of ZnO at the end of thermal decomposition confirmed with XRD. The XRD pattern of complex has shown that the sharp crystalline peaks indicating the crystalline phase in complex. By Scherrer's formula, the average size of the nano-sizes of the complex was calculated >200 nm, that confirmed by SEM image. In addition, ZnO nanoparticles were obtained by thermal decomposition of zinc(II) Schiff base complex at 550 °C for 3 h. XRD result that the good crystallinity for zinc(II) oxide with no impurity observed in the ZnO product. The average size of the nanoparticles of the ZnO was calculated <50 nm.


Abstract An internally consistent 3D structural model for the central and southern Western Foothills Fold and Thrust Belt (WFFTB) was constructed from serial balanced cross sections. The level of exposure, thrust sheet thickness and degree of internal complexity observed within the WFFTB are influenced by the presence of pre-existing normal faults. Most of the faults of the Western Foothills started their activity before the deposition of the Cholan Formation (c. 3.5 Ma). Out-of-sequence faulting is common and may be due to localized erosion and fault inversion. Basement appears to be more significantly involved towards the south where a new structure, the sub-Yuching uplift, has been identified. The estimated aggregate displacement on WFFTB thrusts is uniformly about 40 km on the central segment cross sections, even in the region of greatest basement involvement. Total thrust displacement starts to decrease on the southernmost cross sections, which may be coincident with the transition from collision in the north to accretion. The restored position of the pre-existing normal faults places them as far east as the present-day Coastal Range. The WFFTB rocks must have been stripped off the Eurasian margin before significant burial could take place.


The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) 16 is a high-risk HPV known to be a causative agent in numerous cancers including cervical cancer. While prophylactic vaccines exist to combat the spread of HPV16, successful therapeutic vaccines to combat established HPV16-associcated disease remain elusive. The expression, in a mouse model ("E7"), of the HPV16 E7 gene in keratinocytes under the control of the K14 promoter, leads to a local immune suppressive environment, as evidenced by the lack of graft rejection when E7 skin grafts are placed on WT recipient mice. Furthermore, well healed (>30 days) E7 skin grafts are not rejected when mice are immunised with E7 peptide in combination with Quil A- or CASAC-based adjuvants. This is despite a substantial increase in E7 peptide/H-2Db pentamer staining in the blood, and marked killing of E7-peptide expressing TC-1 cells when injected i.v., confirming that CD8 T-cells respond to vaccination and differentiate into CTL capable of killing E7-expressing target cells. We hypothesised that the removal of regulatory T-cells (T-reg) might lead to E7 graft rejection in immunised mice. The co-administration of an anti-CD4-depeting antibody at the time of immunisation led to rejection of ∼50% of grafts. To confirm a role for T-reg, E7-grafted T-reg-deficient Rag1-/- mice received purified donor CD8 T-cells from E7-vaccinated WT mice. FACS staining of Rag1-/- lymph nodes 30 days post CD8+ T-cell transfer confirmed the absence of classical CD4+FoxP3+ Treg, however the E7 grafts did not reject. As in the WT mice however, rejection could be induced through the co-administration of an anti-CD4 antibody. The data suggest that the removal of a CD4+, non T-reg cell, leads to CD8+ T-cell activity in the skin as evidenced by E7 skin graft destruction. Citation Format: Jennifer A. Bridge, Nana H. Overgaard, Raymond J. Steptoe, Ian H. Frazer, James W. Wells. Altering the balance between immune activation versus regulation in the skin to promote CD8 T-cell activity within epithelial cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3999.


An assertiveness support group was designed for five women with visual impairments who were attending college. The purpose of the group was to apply concepts underlying assertive behaviors (Phelps & Austin, 1975) to effectively managing psycho-social factors related to adjustment to a disability (Wright, 1960; Donaldson, 1980). Issues such as developing assertive responses other than eye contact, defining a sense of personal power in handling dependency related to the presence of an impairment and identifying strategies for dealing with the stereotypes of others were discussed. Although no formal measurements of the group's effectiveness were made, verbal feedback from participants at the end of the five month program indicated that they felt quite positive about the experience. Further research is recommended to explore various designs and effectiveness of group programs, especially in terms of the impact of a disabled facilitator upon group process. Evaluating the significance of combining assertiveness concepts with psycho-social components of adjustment to a disability is also encouraged.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to predict the distribution and movement of populations of the tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis palpalis (Diptera: Glossinidae), in the wet and dry seasons and to analyze the impact of the use of mono-pyramidal traps on fly populations in the Kogo focus in 2004 and 2005. Three Glossina species are present in Kogo: Glossina palpalis palpalis, major HAT vector in West-Central Africa, Glossina caliginea, and Glossina tabaniformis. The apparent density (AD) G. p. palpalis clearly fell from 1.23 tsetse/trap/day in July 2004 to 0.27 in December 2005. A significant reduction in the mean AD for this species was noted between seasons and years. The diversity of Glossina species was relatively low at all the sampling points; G. p. palpalis clearly predominated over the other species and significantly dropped as a consequence of control activities. The predictive models generated for the seasonal AD showed notable differences not only in the density but in the distribution of the G. p. palpalis population between the rainy and dry season. The mono-pyramidal traps have proven to be effective instrument for reducing the density of the tsetse fly populations, although given that the Kogo trypanosomiasis focus extends from the southern Equatorial Guinea to northern Gabon, interventions need to be planned on a larger scale, involving both countries, to guarantee the long-term success of control.


Remote sensing allows fast assessment of crop monitoring over large areas; however, questions regarding uncertainty in crop parameter prediction and application to nitrogen (N) fertilization remain open. The objective of this study was to optimize of remote sensing spectral information for its application to grain yield (GY), biomass, grain N concentration (GNC), and N output assessment, and decision making on spring wheat fertilization. Spring wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) field experiments testing two tillage treatments, two irrigation levels and six N treatments were conducted in Northwest Mexico over four consecutive years. Hyperspectral images were acquired through 27 airborne flight campaigns. At harvest, GY, biomass, GNC and N output were determined. Spectral exploratory analysis was used to identify the best wavelength combinations, the most suitable vegetation indices (VIs) and the best growth stages to assess the agronomic variables. The relationship between the spectral information and the agronomic measurements was evaluated by the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square error (RMSE). The ability of the indices to guide fertilizer recommendation was assessed through an error analysis based on the N sufficiency index. GY was better assessed from the end of flowering to the early milk stage by VIs based on the combination of bands from near infrared radiation/visible and from near infrared radiation/red-edge regions (R2 > 0.6; RMSE < 700 kg ha−1). N output was efficiently assessed by a combination of bands from near infrared radiation/red-edge at booting (R2 > 0.7; RMSE < 9 kg N ha−1). The GNC was better estimated by VIs combining bands in near infrared radiation/red-edge at early milk, but with great variability among the years studied. Some VIs were promising for guiding fertilizer recommendation for increasing GNC, but there was not a single index providing reliable recommendations every year. This study highlights the potential of remote sensing imagery to assess GY and N output in spring wheat, but the identification of GNC responsive sites needs to be improved.


Plant defense pathways play a critical role in mediating tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivores, and natural enemies. While the impact of plant defense pathway stimulation on natural enemies has been extensively explored aboveground, belowground ramifications of plant defense pathway stimulation are equally important in regulating subterranean pests and still require more attention. Here we investigate the effect of aboveground stimulation of the salicylic acid pathway through foliar application of the elicitor methyl salicylate on belowground recruitment of the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema diaprepesi. Also, we implicate a specific root-derived volatile that attracts S. diaprepesi belowground following aboveground plant stimulation by an elicitor. In four-choice olfactometer assays, citrus plants treated with foliar applications of methyl salicylate recruited S. diaprepesi in the absence of weevil feeding as compared with negative controls. Additionally, analysis of root volatile profiles of citrus plants receiving foliar application of methyl salicylate revealed production of d-limonene, which was absent in negative controls. The entomopathogenic nematode S. diaprepesi was recruited to d-limonene in two-choice olfactometer trials. These results reinforce the critical role of plant defense pathways in mediating tritrophic interactions, suggest a broad role for plant defense pathway signaling belowground, and hint at sophisticated plant responses to pest complexes.


This report describes the application of the BGS distributed recharge model ZOODRM to produce recharge values (potential recharge) for Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). This model has been run with the rainfall and potential evaporation for the Future Flows Climate datasets (11 ensembles of the HadCM3 Regional Climate Model or RCM). The following results have been produced:
• For groundwater bodies in England and Wales:
o The mean, standard deviation and the following percentiles: 10, 25, 50, 75, 90 (absolute values of annual recharge produced by ranking annual recharge values) have been produced for annual recharge totals for the following periods: simulated historic (1950-2009), 2020s (2010 - 2039), 2050s (2040 - 2069) and 2080s (2070 - 2099).
o The 25th percentile and 75th percentile for the simulated historic recharge for each month have been calculated. The estimated daily recharge values were aggregated to monthly values first and the analysis was undertaken using these monthly values. Further, a proportion of recharge values above and below these values for the future climate has been calculated.
o Mean monthly recharge values were calculated for each month for the simulated historic period. The change in recharge value for each month in absolute terms compared to monthly value calculated for the historic simulation was calculated for the 2020s (2010 - 2039), 2050s (2040 - 2069) and 2080s (2070 - 2099).
o Monthly change factors (percentage difference between monthly average recharge for future climate and historic simulation) for each groundwater body for each of the 11 ensembles were produced. These have been summarised in maps of England and Wales, which illustrate for each month the minimum, maximum and median monthly change factor from all the ensembles for each groundwater body.
• River Basin Management Districts (RBMD) in England and Wales:
o The mean monthly recharge value was calculated for each month for the RBMD. The change in recharge value in absolute terms was calculated for the 2020s (2010 - 2039), 2050s (2040 - 2069) and 2080s (2070 - 2099).
o The total recharge volume for the RBMD for the time periods 1961-90, 1971-00 and for the 2020s (2010 - 2039), 2050s (2040 - 2069) and 2080s (2070 - 2099) was calculated.
o Empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDF) have been produced for seasonal (spring, summer, autumn and winter) as well as monthly averages for historic simulation (both 1961-1990 and 1971-2000) as well as for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s.
Generally the recharge season is shorter in the future. For the historical simulation (1950-2009) the recharge season is between five to seven months each year (September to April). It appears that this is reduced to three to four months for the future climate predictions. This is seen in both the changes in 25% / 75% recharge values and the monthly differences. There appears to be agreement between ensemble outputs. This could make aquifers more vulnerable to droughts if rainfall fails in one or two months rather than a prolonged dry winter as can occur now.
When recharge volumes were produced for the RBMDs then the volumes tend to increase from the historical simulation to the 2020s/2050s, but more significantly in the 2080s. For example in the Thames RBMD the average recharge volume increases from 67 x 106 Ml/d in the 2020s/2050s to just over 73 x 106 Ml/d in the 2080s. However, the range of possible outcomes also increases and so one possible future outcome is that recharge volumes could reduce.
The recharge season appears to be forecast to become shorter, but with greater amount of recharge "squeezed" into fewer months. This is acceptable for ensuring that recharge for groundwater water resources is maintained from a water balance perspective, but could result in greater "lumpiness" of the recharge signal. This increased "lumpiness" could result in flashier groundwater level response and potentially greater drought vulnerability. Groundwater drought could, therefore, occur if rainfall "fails" for one month, i.e. recharge totals are reliant on fewer months of rainfall.
Finally, the results show that the balance between climate variability and climate change shifts towards the end of the future period (2010-2099) with a stronger climate signal being observed in changes to the recharge values in the 2080s than either of the 2020s or 2050s.
Given the amount of data produced, a more detailed examination of the results for groundwater bodies would enable more value to be gained from the work. Alongside this, understanding how water balances for the RBMD varies in the future would be beneficial. Three issues should be examined: 1) Disaggregation of recharge volumes for the River Basin Management Districts to examine how recharge to individual aquifers may change; 2) Shortening of recharge season and vulnerability to drought; and 3) Variability of results from the ensembles and likely worse cases.
Finally, whilst the initial analysis has focussed on how recharge will change for water resources, no consideration of groundwater flooding has been included and this should be examined.


Increasing evidence indicates that single neurons can use more than one neurotransmitter. When the neurotransmitters are stored in different kinds of vesicles, release can be differentially regulated. However, in rat neonatal sympathetic neurons, norepinephrine and acetylcholine (which have excitatory and inhibitory effects on cardiac myocytes, respectively) are produced and are presumably both stored in similar synaptic vesicles. Yang et al. show that, in cultures of such neurons with cardiac ventricular myocytes, electrical stimulation of the neurons normally produces an excitatory signal (mediated by norepinephrine) that increases the beat rate of the innervated myocytes. However, when the cells were briefly (15 min) treated with the neurotrophic factor BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), neuronal stimulation produced an opposite, inhibitory effect on beating of the myocytes. The effect of BDNF appeared to be mediated by the low-affinity p75 neurotrophin receptor. It remains unclear exactly how BDNF signals enhance neurotransmission to the muscle cells by acteylcholine and blunt that of norepinephrine, but the results demonstrate that the neuronal signal can be modulated and even reversed, thus providing a new mechanism for control of synaptic plasticity during development. B. Yang, J. D. Slonimsky, S. J. Birren, A rapid switch in sympathetic neurotransmitter release properties mediated by the p75 receptor. Nature Neuro. 5, 539-545 (2002). [Online Journal]


This article aims at exploring the trust establishment among patients with depression during their journey to psychiatric patient-hood. This study was undertaken in government hospital involving 29 psychiatric outpatient users in Kedah and Pulau Pinang respectively using phenomenological study and gender lens. Semi-structured in-depth interview and non-participant observation were the tools used in data collection. The data explicated with the aid of a qualitative data analysis tool, Atlas.ti., version 7.5. Through the findings, the study identified "Trust" appears critical in the accounts of the patients in shaping the doctor-patient relationship. Five interlocking subthemes describing the health professional's characteristic while giving the service include doctor's integrity, concern, competencies, empathy, and autonomy enabler. The findings had highlighted that both female and male physicians had different approach to their patients, where the female physician had better chances in getting the mandate of trust. This research is useful to health professionals and governance of mental health care to fulfil the patients' needs based on their genders. Please click PDF below to download the full paper...


This paper presents a methodology for the creation of a cropland map for Africa through the combination of five existing land cover products: GLC‐2000, MODIS Land Cover, GlobCover, MODIS Crop Likelihood and AfriCover. A synergy map is created in which the products are ranked by experts, which reflects the likelihood or probability that a given pixel is cropland. The cropland map is then calibrated with national and sub‐national crop statistics using a novel approach. Preliminary validation of the map was undertaken and the results are presented. The resulting cropland map has an accuracy of 83%, which is higher than the accuracy of any of the individual maps. The cropland map is freely available at agriculture.geo‐wiki.org.