This dissertation describes a comprehensive set of experiments aimed at understanding two distinct biological phenomena that are essential to the cell—1) Interorganelle communication, and 2) regulation of protein unfolding and degradation. The compartmentalization of cells permits the segregation and regulation of diverse and specialized biochemical reactions. The tremendous benefits of intracellular compartmentalization also come at a price; to function harmoniously, cells must coordinate the exchange of biological information between compartments. Numerous mechanisms have evolved to facilitate these exchanges. One that has not been well appreciated until the last few years is the transmission of signals between organelles at regions where the organelles are closely apposed, often called membrane contact sites (MCSs). Emerging evidence highlight essential roles for interorganelle tethering complexes in the formation and maintenance of MCS. These molecular tethers are widespread and function primarily by bridging two organelles, including the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. Chapter 2 discusses the structural and biochemical characterization of the multi-subunit interorganelle tethering complex ERMES (endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial encounter structure), which bridges the ER and mitochondria in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To our knowledge, this is the first structure of a multi-subunit tether known to date. Our findings highlight novel roles for the conserved SMP domain (synaptotagmin-like mitochondrial and lipid-binding protein)—present in three ERMES subunits—in ERMES assembly and phospholipid binding, and suggest a structure-based mechanism for the facilitated transport of phospholipids between the ER and mitochondria.Intracellular proteolysis is regulated by a wide array of molecular systems consisting of molecular chaperones and proteases. These surveillance systems ensure that misfolded proteins and short-lived regulatory proteins are targeted for degradation. The Clp family of chaperones and proteases play an important role in protein homeostasis in the cell. They function mainly in the disaggregation, unfolding and degradation of native as well as misfolded proteins. Several members of the Clp family were recently identified in Plasmodium falciparum, the etiologic agent of malaria. Chapters 3 and 4 detail the structures of three members of the Plasmodium Clp family—the AAA+ chaperones ClpB1 and ClpB2, and the adaptor protein ClpS. These structures provide novel insights into the role of the elusive Plasmodium Clp protease machinery in protein unfolding and degradation, and open new venues for the design of novel anti-malarial drugs aimed at disrupting parasite-specific, protein quality control pathways.


Existing approaches to recommend services using natural language queries are supervised or unsupervised. Supervised approaches rely on a dataset with natural language queries annotated with categorizing labels. As the annotation process is manual and requires deep domain knowledge, these approaches are not readily applicable on new datasets. On the other hand, unsupervised approaches overcome the limitation. To date, unsupervised approaches are primarily based on matching keywords, entity relationships, topics and clusters. Keywords and entity relationships ignore the semantic similarity between a query and services. Topics and clusters capture the semantic similarity, but rely on mashups that explicitly capture relationships between services. Again, for new services, the information are not readily available. We propose NL2API, a framework that relies solely on service descriptions for recommending services. NL2API has the benefit of being immediately applicable as a bootstrap recommender for new datasets. To capture relationships among services, NL2API provides different approaches to construct communities where a community represents an abstraction over a group of services. Based on the communities and users' queries, NL2API applies a query matching approach to recommend top-k services. We evaluate NL2API on datasets collected from Programmable Web and API Harmony. Our evaluation shows that for sizable datasets such as Programmable Web NL2API outperforms baseline approaches.


: Elections are a procedure typical for democratic systems, but also systems which do not respect the principles of democracy often employ them. However, due to their different functional positioning, they fulfill various func - tions. The presented text is an attempt to present the most important functions performed by the elections in democratic systems. The adopted model of generalization has allowed for separation of seven basic functions, present in all elections: delegation of political representation; selection of the political elite; legitimisation of those in power; control over authorities; political accountability; creation of political programmes; recreation of public opinion image. The presented typology allows for its use both in different types of elections (parliamentary, presidential, local, regional and European Parliament) as well as in relation to different electoral systems. The general nature of the described types of functions allows the separation of specific categories within its framework, but the objective of the present study has determined that the focus remains on the description and analysis of the presented types.


Intravenous inoculation of an attenuated agerminative strain of Candida albicans (PCA-2) of low virulence, but not of two other species of Candida of low virulence (C. parapsilosis and C. viswanathii) into CD2F1 mice conferred protection against the highly virulent microbes C. albicans CA-6, Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus fumigatus. To provide protection, a definite inoculum size (10(6) cells per mouse) resulting in organ colonization and establishment of a long-lasting chronic infection with PCA-2 was needed. An inoculum of 10(5) cells gave rise to transient kidney colonization whereas inocula greater than 10(6) cells led to acute septicaemia and eventual death. Chronic infection of mice following inoculation of 10(6) PCA-2 cells was accompanied by detectable mannoprotein antigen levels in the serum (30-70 ng ml-1) while specific antibodies did not appear until 14 d after inoculation, at which time low antimannan antibody was present (ELISA titre 1:40-1:80). Chronic infection was characterized by the presence in the kidneys of 2-3 x 10(6) c.f.u. of PCA-2 for at least 40 d after inoculation. Pharmacological modulation of the host through administration of either an anti-Candida drug, amphotericin B, or an immunosuppressive agent, cyclophosphamide, strongly supported the premise that the anti-infectious state conferred by PCA-2 'immunization' correlated with the maintenance of a sufficient number of PCA-2 in vivo. Protection was 'switched on' when 2-3 x 10(5) cells were present in the kidneys. It was maximal at a kidney count of 2-3 x 10(6) c.f.u. of PCA-2, and promptly declined when the number of PCA-2 cells in the kidney fell below 2 x 10(5). Mice chronically infected with PCA-2 had splenic macrophages with pronounced candidacidal activity in vitro. Modulation of the growth of PCA-2 in vivo, which determined activation or deactivation of the protective state, was paralleled by a similar modulation in macrophage activation, showing that in all cases resistance to virulent organisms persisted as long as macrophage activation was present. The results demonstrate that a critical in vivo antigenic load is crucial for the occurrence of resistance to infection and suggests that macrophages could be involved in this protection.


OBJECTIVE
Clinically meaningful recovery from acute mania may not be captured by conventionally reported response categorizations. We defined new and stringent criteria for remission in bipolar mania. Using a cohort of patients with acute mania randomized to treatment with either olanzapine or placebo, we contrasted remission rates to findings using previously reported but more lenient categorical outcome measures of response and euthymia.

METHODS
We pooled and reanalyzed results through 3 weeks from two published randomized double-blind trials of olanzapine versus placebo for treating acute bipolar mania (1, 2). Response was previously defined as > or = 50% decrease from baseline to endpoint total Young Mania Rating Scale (3) (Y-MRS) scores, and euthymia as an endpoint total Y-MRS score of < or = 12. In this report, remission required an endpoint total Y-MRS score of < or = 7, and an endpoint total Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, (HAM-D21) (4) score of < or = 7 and an endpoint Clinical Global Impression Scale - Bipolar version, CGI-BP (5), overall severity score of < or = 2.

RESULTS
Olanzapine treated subjects achieved statistically significantly greater rates of clinical response, euthymia and remission than those assigned to placebo, 55% versus 29.5%, 50% versus 27%, and 18% versus 7%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Olanzapine monotherapy resulted in discernable clinical improvements in mania in over 50% of subjects and just under 20% of subjects achieved a near complete resolution of manic and accompanying depressive symptoms after 3 weeks of treatment. Full remission is an important but potentially elusive goal during short-term management of acute mania.


Background: Linear accelerators are so sensitive to variability of temperature, pressure, humidity and dust; thus, weather factors can cause common errors in photon output which in turn can compromise constancy and consistency in precise delivery of tumor dose. Dose checker is such a dose-measuring devices that has an inbuilt correction factor for bunker temperature and pressure changes which ensures the photon output is within the accepted values to the patient. The aim of the study is to find the effect of seasonal changes on Linac and its influence on the patient. Methods: This is a retrospective study and daily records of 6 and 15 MV photon output with their corresponding temperature and pressure from January 2019 and December 2021 were extracted and reviewed. Precision mercury-in-glass thermometer and Barometer (OPUS 10 THI) were used to keep daily records of bunker temperature and pressure while their seasonal behaviours were recorded. Mean values of each month of the year was calculated and arranged according to three seasons of the year; results were represented in graphs, tables and bar charts. Results: The overall mean photon outputs were 0.997 and 0.828 cGy/MU for 6 and 15 MV respectively. The deviation of photon outputs from their reference values were ±2% for 6MV and ±3% for the 15MV energy. The mean bunker temperature was 27.07oC. The overall mean bunker pressure was 977.23 hpa. During harmattan season the temperature and pressure ranged between 26.8-25.4oC and 978-976.1 hpa respectively. In hot season bunker temperature was between 25.7-29.5oC and pressure was between 976.1-975.0 hpa. For the wet season, the temperature was between 29.5-25.7oC, and the corresponding bunker pressure ranged between 980.0-976.3 hpa. Conclusion: The seasons of year influenced variation in bunker temperature and pressure with corresponding seasonal photon output variation despite the use of dose checker. Low photon outputs were recorded during harmattan and hot seasons while higher outputs were recorded during wet season. Keywords: Season; Trend; Photon output, Linear Accelerator


Major depressive disorder (MDD) and risk for its development are characterized by
reduced reactivity and flexibility to environmental demands. Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA),
heart rate variability (HRV), and salivary cortisol reactivity are each well-established indicators of
regulation across neural, autonomic, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) physiological
systems, respectively. Growing literature suggests that each of these processes is dysregulated in
individuals with a history of MDD. However, patterns of dysregulation across these physiological
systems and relative MDD risk are unknown. Moreover, these physiological regulatory patterns
may extent beyond markers of MDD risk in adulthood to also capture the transmission of risk for
MDD from parent to offspring. The following series of five studies investigated the
pathophysiology of MDD and the permeability of risk across the lifespan. First, the pattern of
dysregulation across physiological indices—representing neural, autonomic, and HPA
functioning—in adults was examined with regard to depressive symptoms. Second, the
associations amongst infant FAA, HRV, and cortisol reactivity and maternal depressive symptoms
were assessed as potential early markers of depression risk. Third, mother-infant associations
across physiological indices were investigated to assess direct intergenerational transmission of
depression risk. Studies 4 and 5 further investigated pathophysiological functioning in mothers
and infants within the context of comorbid anxiety and current depressive symptomatology versus
lifetime MDD illness. Mothers and their 12-month-old infants (n = 35 dyads) completed resting-
state and stressor tasks to assess regulatory patterns across neural, autonomic, and HPA systems,
associations with MDD, and intergenerational transmission. In adults, results suggest that lifetime
history of MDD is significantly associated with blunted cortisol reactivity; FAA and high-
frequency HRV also demonstrated the same direction of associations. In infants, results
demonstrated that maternal depressive symptoms, particularly current symptoms, relate to blunted
physiological regulation in infants specifically for FAA and HRV indices. For mothers and infants,
there was support for the direct intergenerational transmission of FAA and HRV indices. These
intergenerational associations did not fully account for intergenerational risk of depression, as
maternal physiological regulation and maternal depression were found to each significantly predict
infant regulation as simultaneous predictors. Accounting for comorbid anxiety and examining
current symptoms versus lifetime illness were essential to investigating associations amongst physiological functioning and depression. These patterns in conjunction with the literature suggest
a developmental model to MDD pathophysiology that encompasses multiple theoretical
frameworks. Future research is necessary to clarify regulatory patterns across physiological
systems within individuals and across time with regard to MDD risk, onset, and course.


2D and 3D finite-element techniques are used to investigate the influence of geometric asymmetries and the leading dimensions of the stator core, namely the diameter and thickness of the yoke, the width and number of poles, the lamination notches, and the stator windings on the natural frequencies and vibration modes of switched reluctance motors. Predictions are validated against measurements on various experimental models. Both finite-element analysis and experimental measurements are used to quantify the influence of the mass and stiffness of the laminated core and the windings on the natural frequencies and vibration modes, and thereby to obtain the effective material properties.


A novel type of dissimilatory sulfate-reducing bacterium, designated strain RS-1T, capable of producing intracellular magnetite particles (magnetosomes) was isolated from freshwater sulfide-rich sediments. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences revealed that RS-1T is a member of the genus Desulfovibrio. Its closest known relative is Desulfovibrio burkinensis (sequence similarity of 98.7%). Strain RS-1T contains desulfoviridin, c-type cytochromes and, unlike other Desulfovibrio spp., it possesses menaquinone MK-7(H2) instead of MK-6 or MK-6(H2). Strain RS-1T is also unique compared with other members of Desulfovibrio in its ability to synthesize intracellular magnetite particles. A novel species, Desulfovibrio magneticus sp. nov., is proposed for RS-1T (= ATCC 700980T = DSM 13731T), a sulfate-reducing magnetotactic bacterium.


Volume One Kevin White Introduction I. Guy, W. A. Cholera Gossip [1849] II. Southwood-Smith, T. Contagion and Sanitary Laws Westminster Review [1825] III. Southwood-Smith, T. Plague-Typhus-Fever-Quarantine Westminster Review [1825] IV. Felkin, W. Moral Statistics of a District near Gray's Inn Journal Statistical Society [1839] V. Fripp, C. Report of an Inquiry into the Condition of the Working Classes of the City of Bristol Journal Statistical Society London [1839] VI. Sykes, M., Guy, W. and F. Neison Report of a Committee of the Council of the Statistical Society of London to Investigate the State of the Inhabitants and their Dwellings in Church Lane, St. Giles's Journal Statistical Society London [1848] VII. Head, F. B. Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes Quarterly Review [1843] VIII. Alison, W. P. Observations on the Epidemic Fever of MDCCCXLIII in Scotland, and its Connection with the Destitute Condition of the Poor [1844] IX. Lawson, R. On the Hourly Distribution of Mortality Journal of the Institute of Actuaries and Assurance Magazine [1876] X. Eastwood, J.W. Life Insurance and Suicide Journal of the Institute of Actuaries [1878] XI, Neison, F. The Influence of Occupation upon Health as Shown by the Mortality Experience Journal of the Institute of Actuaries and Assurance Magazine [1873] Volume Two Rumsey, H.W. Essays on State Medicine [1856] Volume Three Roberton, J. Medical Police: or the Causes of Diseases with the Means of Prevention. Vol. 1 [1812] Volume Four Roberton, J. Medical Police: or the Causes of Diseases with the Means of Prevention. Vol. 2 [1812] Volume Five Gairdner, W. T. Public Health in Relation to Air and Water [1862] Volume Six Arlidge, J. T. The Hygiene, Diseases and Mortality of Occupations [1892]


Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that the antianxiety and antioxidant activities of the roots of the blue variety of Clitoria ternatea were greater compared to the white variety. An attempt has been made to investigate the antianxiety and antioxidant activities of aerial parts of this plant using elevated plus maze and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay, respectively. Methanol extract of stems and leaves of the blue variety (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.), diazepam (2 mg/kg, p.o.) and control (vehicle) were separately evaluated for antianxiety activity. The stem extract (200 mg/kg) and leaf extract (100 or 200 mg/kg) exhibited significant antianxiety activity with respect to control and standard. The remaining doses did not exhibit any antianxiety activity. Mice treated with the blue variety leaf extract, showed decresed number of entries from 6.20 to 4.60 when the dose was increased from 100 to 200 mg/kg indicating a possibility of decreased locomotor activity, which could be due to cental nervous system depressant activity. In case of blue variety stem extract, the average number of entries increased from 3.20 to 5.80 as the dose was increased from 100 to 200 mg/kg. The IC50 values of ascorbic acid, blue variety stem extract and leaf extract were found to be 20.01, 264.32 and 251.13 µg/ml, respectively. None of the plant parts showed activity close to that of ascorbic acid. Finally, it can be concluded that aerial parts of blue variety of C. ternatea exhibited mild antianxiety and antioxidant activities.


Following a long period of socio-political and economic transition, the number of NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria has risen significantly. In the current climate of international pressures and economic changes, NGOs in both countries are seeking to position themselves in what is an unsettled welfare climate. These NGOs have different functions ranging from advocacy, research and policy making to providing various social services. This chapter compares the actions of international and national NGOs, in tandem with parents' and human rights organisations and considers collaborative and conflict approaches from NGOs in working with other organisations. Based on PhD research supported by UNICEF and 15 months of fieldwork conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria, this chapter explores the role of NGOs in advancing the inclusion of disabled children (Becirevic 2010).
According to Lendvai (2007, p. 28) South East Europe has a crowded international policy space and for over a decade now it has had a multi-level social policy governance. The aim of this chapter is to map the various influences in disability, inclusion and child care policies currently taking places in BiH and Bulgaria; to identify dilemmas and tensions that come with these influences and to suggest ways forward. The first part of the chapter maps the diverse international influences on the development of social and inclusion policies, whilst the second part presents contradictions and dilemmas that come with this diversity. The final section suggests several ways forward in advancing the inclusion of disabled children and their families through more effective communication with all stakeholders and policies that have a 'bottom up' rather than a 'top down' approach'.


The objective of this study was to develop a systematic and flexible method for assembling multiplex simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker panels for high throughput genome analysis in rice, Oryza sativa, and to test these panels on a set of cultivated rice germplasm. To do this, 159 microsatellite markers were fluorescently labeled and assembled into 21 multiplex panels for semiautomated genotyping, providing genome-wide coverage of the 12 rice chromosomes. Panels are comprised of an average of eight markers each, occurring at approximately 11-centimorgan (cM) intervals throughout the genome. On a standard set of 13 genetically diverse cultivars of Oryza, these markers detected an average of five alleles per locus and had a mean polymorphism information content (P.I.C. value) of 0.67. Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were optimized on a per marker basis to generate a uniform amount of PCR product and each primer pair was assessed in replicated trials for reliability of allele size estimates. T4 DNA polymerase was used to treat PCR products where the standard deviation of allele molecular weight was greater than 0.5 base pairs (bp). This treatment minimized the variance so that, in the multiplex set reported here, the average std. devJmarker was 0.24 bp, allowing accurate discrimination of alleles that differed by a single nucleotide. The resulting data on allele sizes were then entered into GeneFlow analysis software for the evaluation of polymorphism patterns among diverse rice cultivars. The use of an automated software tool for designing multiplex panels on the basis of both highly polymorphic and more conservative SSR markers resulted in the development of a highly informative semiautomated genotyping system for applications in rice genetics and breeding.


The aim of this research is to explore the inclusive education practice in Libyan universities. This thesis developed a model of inclusive education based on a review of the literature to empirically investigate in one single model: (1) the affect of philosophy and policy on inclusive education practices; (2) the affect of curriculum design on inclusive education practices; and (3) the affect of teaching methods on inclusive education practices. The researcher designed a questionnaire to investigate attitudes of faculty members towards inclusive educational practice within their universities, and their concerns about inclusive educational practice. Four hundred questionnaires were distributed to faculty members working in four Public universities in Libya; 288 questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 62%.Of these, 41 of the questionnaires received were excluded and 247 were processed for analysis.

The data collected for the purpose of this study is analysed. The analysis includes two parts: First, descriptive analysis is presented, starting with the main characteristics of the respondents and covering the trends of their opinions obtained from their answers, presented in percentages. Second, inferential analysis is conducted using the Structural Equation Model(SEM), applying Exploratory Factor Analysis in the first stage to identify the model that contains the factors that have the most significant impact on Inclusive Education using SPSS, then in the second stage the fitness of the model is tested through Confirmatory Factor Analysis using AMOS. Before implementing the SEM, the data is tested for normality and consistency, in order to ensure its validity for the analysis.

The findings of this thesis largely support the hypothesised relationships proposed in the theoretical model. The model suggests some correlations to complement these factors and work together to influence inclusive education, correlations are suggested to be implemented regarding the dimension of policies, curricula and teaching; this means that when policy factors are designed they should be linked to the factors of curriculum and teaching, as the interaction of these factors could be considered as a new dimension. The results also provide strong evidence of the relationship between policies; curriculum and teaching, which in turn are necessary determinants of inclusive education. This thesis contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing for the first time, evidence about relationship between policies, curriculum and teaching. The study makes recommendations and suggests strategies to deal with the identified challenges and finally provides a roadmap to policymakers educational in Libyan universities that may assist in the successful implementation of inclusive education in Libyan higher education.


The effect of calcium channel blockers on the extrarenal disposition of an acute potassium load was examined in acutely nephrectomized rats infused with KCl (0.75 meq X kg-1 X h-1 for 60 min) alone or in combination with either verapamil or nifedipine. The increment in plasma potassium concentration during the potassium infusion (delta PK) with either verapamil or nifedipine was less than control (P less than 0.05 and 0.01, respectively). Studies were repeated in acutely adrenalectomized rats (ADX) to evaluate whether the changes in plasma potassium were consequent to the enhanced activity of epinephrine and other adrenal hormones. delta PK with ADX was higher than control (P less than 0.01). Verapamil or nifedipine with ADX resulted in a lower delta PK than ADX alone (P less than 0.05). Further studies were then conducted with the selective beta 2-adrenergic blocker butoxamine hydrochloride to rule out enhanced peripheral sympathetic activity of the beta 2-adrenergic system in facilitating the potassium disposal. delta PK with butoxamine was greater than control (P less than 0.01) but not significantly different from ADX. Verapamil or nifedipine in conjunction with butoxamine resulted in a lower delta PK than butoxamine alone (P less than 0.01). Changes in arterial pH and plasma bicarbonate were similar in all groups. In conclusion, during potassium infusion the delta PK is lower in the presence of calcium channel blockers. The alteration in potassium transport produced by calcium channel blockers does not appear to be dependent on adrenal function or peripheral sympathetic activity. Impaired calcium entry into cells may alter potassium transport in the intact animal.


Hypoxia has been shown to be a key factor inhibiting the successful treatment of solid tumours. Existing strategies for reducing hypoxia, however, have shown limited efficacy and/or adverse side effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for reducing tumour hypoxia using an orally delivered suspension of surfactant-stabilised oxygen nanobubbles. Experiments were carried out in a mouse xenograft tumour model for human pancreatic cancer (BxPc-3 cells in male SCID mice). A single dose of 100 μL of oxygen saturated water, oxygen nanobubbles or argon nanobubbles was administered via gavage. Animals were sacrificed 30 minutes post-treatment (3 per group) and expression of hypoxia-inducible-factor-1α (HIF1α) protein measured by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis of the excised tumour tissue. Neither the oxygen saturated water nor argon nanobubbles produced a statistically significant change in HIF1α expression at the transcriptional level. In contrast, a reduction of 75% and 25% in the transcriptional and translational expression of HIF1α respectively (p<0.001) was found for the animals receiving the oxygen nanobubbles. This magnitude of reduction has been shown in previous studies to be commensurate with an improvement in outcome with both radiation and drug-based treatments. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in this group and corresponding increase in the expression of arrest-defective protein 1 homolog A (ARD1A).


In a series of Commission papers, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) described its policy for inservice testing (IST) programs to be developed and implemented at nuclear power plants licensed under 10 CFR Part 52. This paper discusses the expectations for IST programs based on those Commission policy papers as applied in the NRC staff review of combined license (COL) applications for new reactors. For example, the design and qualification of pumps, valves, and dynamic restraints through implementation of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Standard QME-1-2007, "Qualification of Active Mechanical Equipment Used in Nuclear Power Plants," as accepted in NRC Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.100 (Revision 3), "Seismic Qualification of Electrical and Active Mechanical Equipment and Functional Qualification of Active Mechanical Equipment for Nuclear Power Plants," will enable IST activities to assess the operational readiness of those components to perform their intended functions. ASME has updated the Operation and Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants (OM Code) to improve the IST provisions for pumps, valves, and dynamic restraints that are incorporated by reference in the NRC regulations with applicable conditions. In addition, lessons learned from performance experience and testing of motor-operated valves (MOVs) will be implemented as part of the IST programs together with application of those lessons learned to other power-operated valves (POVs). Licensee programs for the Regulatory Treatment of Non-Safety Systems (RTNSS) will be implemented for components in active nonsafety-related systems that are the first line of defense in new reactors that rely on passive systems to provide reactor core and containment cooling in the event of a plant transient. This paper also discusses the overlapping testing provisions specified in ASME Standard QME-1-2007; plant-specific inspections, tests, analyses, and acceptance criteria; the applicable ASME OM Code as incorporated by reference in the NRC regulations; specific license conditions; and Initial Test Programs as described in the final safety analysis report and applicable RGs.


Aging adults are impacted by pain. Technology can assist older adults with pain self-management while allowing for independence. The current usability study explored the use of voice assistant reminders for two pain self-management tasks in aging adults. Fifteen community-dwelling older adults with chronic pain and an average age of 65 years used the voice assistant for 4 weeks. Participants had moderate scores for pain severity (mean = 4.6 [SD = 2.3]) and pain interference (mean = 4 [SD = 2.6]). Voice assistant usability was above average (78 of 100). Median time to set up the Google Home Assistant profile was 5 minutes (SD = 7.5), with a median of asking for help two times. Pain self-management task reminders from the voice assistant were perceived as consistent, easy to set up, and helpful for accountability. Voice assistant reminders may be an option to help encourage a variety of pain self-management tasks in aging adults. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, xx(x), xx-xx.].


Many researchers have studied the use of game-based learning. Game-based learning takes many forms, including virtual reality, role playing, and performing tasks. For students to learn specific course content, it is important that the selected game be suited to the course. Thus far, no studies have investigated the use of game-based cooperative learning in an operating systems course. For this study, an online game was developed to enable students to learn cooperatively. The findings indicate that students' desire to win the game motivates them to learn from online course materials before they play, which in turn can enable them to achieve better learning outcomes.


Purpose
Although several studies have examined demographic and clinical variables associated with findings of incompetency to stand trial (IST), few studies have examined factors influencing competency restoration success. This study is among the first to longitudinally examine demographic variables and mental health symptoms' impact on both IST and competency non-restoration. This study fills a gap in the competency to stand trial literature by utilizing the same defendants to examine progression through initial competency decisions to their eventual restoration outcomes.

Methods
This study examined demographic variables and mental health symptoms differentiating defendants deemed competent to stand trial, not competent and restored, and not competent and not restored. We coded and analysed 237 competency evaluations consecutively conducted over a 3-year period.

Results
Specific psychotic (e.g., thought derailment, delusions, auditory/visual hallucinations) and neuropsychological symptoms (e.g., impaired executive functioning, impaired mental status) were independently associated with findings of IST and non-restoration. Additional analyses revealed an intellectual disability diagnosis and a greater number of psychotic and manic symptoms predicted a decreased likelihood of competency restoration.

Conclusions
These findings suggest more severe symptom combinations (e.g., psychotic and manic symptoms) are predictors of both initial findings of incompetency and non-restorability.


With over 150 years of history, social pedagogy is both an interdisciplinary scholarly field of inquiry and a field of practice that is situated in the intersection of three areas of human activity: education, social work and community development. Although social pedagogy has different emphases and approaches depending on particular historical and geographical contexts, a common theme is that it deals with the connections between educational and social dynamics, or put in a different way, it is concerned with the educational dimension of social issues and the social dimensions of educational issues. The first part of this paper analyzes the history of the field of social pedagogy since its origins until today, with a focus on transnational flows between Europe and the Americas. The second part of the paper discusses the main issues raised in this special issue of EPAA, and extracts the main threads and connections among the different papers included in the volume.


Understanding the impact of commercial agriculture in the face of global change is critical to support strategies that ensure food security and alleviate poverty among households. We assessed the contribution of commercial sugarcane cultivation to household-level food security among smallholder farmers in Busoga sub-region, eastern Uganda. Land use changes are motivated by quick commercial gains rather than sustained food production; a situation that influences food security. The majority of households cultivate few crop varieties, lack adequate and nutritious foods, and have inadequate income to purchase food to meet their needs. Inadequacy of food within some commercial sugarcane-cultivating households suggests that generating income does not necessarily increase food security. To cope with food insecurity, households offer labour in exchange for food, borrow food, ration food, and at times steal. This is exacerbated by increasing food crop failures, large family sizes, trade in food items, and declining availability of food and land for food production. Commercial sugarcane cultivation is the main driver of food insecurity but given its perceived economic benefits, future sugarcane plantations expansion in the region is probably inevitable. Therefore, future policy should be designed to provide triple-win strategies (i.e., food security, poverty alleviation, and climate change adaptation) that provide sustainable livelihoods.


Patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) across the genome result from a myriad of contributing factors including selection and genetic drift. Natural selection can increase LD near individually selected loci, or it can influence LD between epistatically selected groups of loci. Statistics have previously been derived which compare levels of linkage disequilibrium in subpopulations relative to the total population. These statistics may be leveraged to identify loci that may be under selection or epistatic selection. This is a powerful approach, but to date no framework exists to support its use on a genome-wide scale. We present ohtadstats, an R package designed to facilitate the implementation of Ohta's D statistics in a variety of use cases. Statistics calculated by this package can be used to determine whether a locus is under selection or not, and can provide insight into the nature of the selection that is taking place (hard sweep or epistatic selection). This package is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).


The procedural justice model of legal socialization predicts that perceptions of legitimacy and cynicism toward rules mediate the relation between procedural justice and engagement in rule-violating behavior. This dissertation used a multi-methodological approach to test this model in terms of three authority figures: parents, police, and teachers. In Study 1, cross-sectional methodology was used to test the model in a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Participants completed online surveys assessing the degree to which they perceived three authority figures as procedurally fair, the degree to which they perceived the authorities as legitimate, how cynical they were about the legal system and how many rule-violating behaviors they engaged in during the past six months. Results showed that across all three authority types, perceptions of legitimacy and legal cynicism mediated the relation between procedural justice and engagement in rule-violating behavior. In Studies 2 and 3 experimental methods were used to test the model in a sample of undergraduate college students (Study 2) and a community sample of adolescents and young adults (Study 3). Both studies employed similar methods. Participants read three scenarios describing an interaction between an individual and an authority figure. Within each scenario, voice and impartiality (components of procedural justice) were manipulated. After reading each scenario, participants completed measures assessing perceived legitimacy, rule cynicism, and the intent to violate a rule. Across both studies, voice and impartiality positively affected perceptions of legitimacy and negatively affected cynicism toward the rule. In turn, legitimacy was positively associated with the intent to violate a rule, while cynicism was negatively associated. The model operated differently as a function of authority type. In the parent and teacher scenarios, impartiality was a stronger predictor of legitimacy and cynicism than voice; however, in the police scenario, voice was a stronger predictor than impartiality. The findings presented here support the procedural justice model of legal socialization and expand previous work to non-legal authorities, such as parents and teachers. They highlight that the decision to engage in ruleviolating behavior is not determined solely by individuals' interaction with the criminal justice system, but is dependent on how they interact with a wide range of authority figures.


Traditionally, computationally intense algebraic functions such as LU factorization are solved using complex systems such as supercomputers, parallel processing systems, and non-dedicated computing clusters. While these solutions are adequate for some problems, they typically suffer from classic parallel processing issues such as communication overhead, complex scheduling algorithms, and cost. Moreover, they are not feasible for embedded applications. Extremely high performance solutions are sometimes implemented using costly, custom hardware such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Unfortunately, the design, implementation, and verification of ASICs has become cost prohibitive and such solutions are only feasible if the end design is to be manufactured in very high volumes. As a result, many proposed architectures to solve specific problems lie dormant because they are simply too expensive to realize.In recent years, advancements in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology allow engineers to map complex algorithms to logic gates while achieving performance similar to ASIC technology. This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of the implementation of a three dimensional pipeline designed to solve LU factorization using FPGAs based on an architecture proposed nearly 10 years ago when a technology to implement such an architecture either did not exist or was too costly to implement.


We report the case of a 15-year-old girl with bilateral gonadoblastoma and 45,X/46,X,+mar karyotype. She was short but had no other stigmata of Turner syndrome. Her genitalia were completely of the female type until she began to show signs of masculinization at age 13 years. She had breasts of Tanner stage 4, primary amenorrhea, clitoromegaly, hirsutism and low voice. Plasma testosterone level was elevated and returned to normal after the successful removal of the bilateral gonadoblastoma. Her karyotype was 45,X/46,X,+mar and it was proved that the marker chromosome was derived from the short arm of the Y chromosome by Southern blot analysis with a Y chromosome specific probe, pDP1007. Even when there are no stigmata of Turner syndrome or signs of intrauterine virilization, the possibility of gonadoblastoma should not be ruled out in girls who show postnatal virilization.


Adult skeletal muscle tissue harbors the capacity for self-repair due to the presence of tissue resident muscle stem cells (MuSCs). Advances in the area of prospective MuSC isolation demonstrated the potential of cell transplantation therapy as a regenerative medicine strategy to restore strength and long-term regenerative capacity to aged, injured, or diseased skeletal muscle tissue. However, cell loss during ejection, limits to post-injection proliferation, and poor donor cell dispersion distal to the injection site are amongst hurdles to overcome to maximize MuSC transplant impact. Here, we assess a physical blend of hyaluronan and methylcellulose (HAMC) as a bioactive, shear thinning hydrogel cell delivery system to improve MuSC transplantation efficiency. Using in vivo transplantation studies, we found that the HAMC delivery system results in a >45% increase in the number of donor-derived fibers as compared to saline delivery. Furthermore, we observed a significant improvement in donor fiber dispersion when transplanted MuSCs were delivered in the HAMC hydrogel. Studies to assess primary myoblast and MuSC viability in HAMC culture revealed no differences compared to the media control even when the cells were first ejected through a syringe and needle or exposed to regenerating skeletal muscle extract to mimic the transplantation procedure. However, when we quantified absolute numbers, we found that more cells pass through the syringe and needle when delivered in HAMC. Culture in HAMC also increased the proportion of MuSCs in cell cycle, via a CD44-independent mechanism. An effect on myoblast proliferation was not observed, suggesting a hierarchical effect. Finally, a series of transplant studies indicated that HAMC delivery does not influence passive cell clearance or alter the host immune response, but instead may serve to support in vivo expansion by delaying differentiation following transplant. Therefore, we conclude that MuSC engraftment efficacy is improved by delivering the therapeutic cell population within HAMC.


Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a disease that affects the optical nerve, causing visual loss. The diagnosis of LHON is mostly defined by the identification of three pathogenic variants in the mitochondrial DNA. Idebenone is widely used to treat LHON patients, but only some of them are responders to treatment. In our study, we assessed the maximal respiration rate (MRR) and other respiratory parameters in eight fibroblast lines from subjects carrying LHON pathogenic variants. We measured also the effects of idebenone treatment on cell growth and mtDNA amounts. Results showed that LHON fibroblasts had significantly reduced respiratory parameters in untreated conditions, but no significant gain in MRR after idebenone supplementation. No major toxicity toward mitochondrial function and no relevant compensatory effect in terms of mtDNA quantity were found for the treatment at the tested conditions. Our findings confirmed that fibroblasts from subjects harboring LHON pathogenic variants displayed impaired respiration, regardless of the disease penetrance and severity. Testing responsiveness to idebenone treatment in cultured cells did not fully recapitulate in vivo data. The in-depth evaluation of cellular respiration in fibroblasts is a good approach to evaluating novel mtDNA variants associated with LHON but needs further evaluation as a potential biomarker for disease prognosis and treatment responsiveness.


ABSTRACT The interface between peat and underlying limestone bedrock in the Northern Florida Everglades is often occupied by an unlithified calcitic seat earth that is stratigraphically similar to coal-basin seat rock and contains a complex mineral assemblage composed of 14 different minerals. The distribution and characteristics of the clay-size fraction were used to indicate sediment-source areas, depositional environment, and the degree of alteration of the original mineral assemblage. X-ray-diffraction analysis of 42 samples showed that a significant lateral variation exists in the clay-mineral suite of seat earth with respect to location in the study area. The clay minerals palygorskite, sepiolite, and illite were found primarily towards the center of the study area and were derived from sediments north of the Everglades. Seat earth located along the basin flanks showed an increase in the abundance of mixed-layer smectite, kaolinite, and chlorite. The proposed source area for these minerals is from erosion of marginal marine-bar deposits that rim the basin. Underlying limestone bedrock erosion contributed to the detrital mineral assemblage but was not as important as source areas outside the basin. The study-area seat earth is interpreted to have been deposited in an alkaline environment that allowed much of the original detrital mineral assemblage to be preserved. The only exception to this was the occasional identification of well-crystallized, authigenic mixed-layer chlorite-smectite that occurred in samples located near the basin flanks, which were presumably deposited under more acidic conditions.


In Red Ellen: The Life of Ellen Wilkinson, Socialist, Feminist, Internationalist, Laura Beers presents a dynamic account of the life of Ellen Wilkinson, a working-class girl from Manchester turned humanitarian, campaigner and politician. Beers's book offers an insight into Wilkinson's sometimes controversial life and a period of British history when young people from all walks of life were driven by the desire to enact social change, both at home and abroad. Katherine Williams recommends this book to those interested in the history of the radical left in the UK, social history and, of course, Ellen Wilkinson herself.

On Friday 24 February, author Laura Beers will be speaking about her new biography of Ellen Wilkinson for the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2017. This year's theme is Revolutions – not only marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, but also other anniversaries of revolutions in literature, international relations, politics, religion and science. Tickets to all events are free and available here.


(\pm)-Tartaric acid, C4H6O6, crystallized from ethanol in space group P\overline 1. The structure is characterized by five hydrogen bonds, including the formation of a centrosymmetric carboxylic acid dimer which forms infinite chains along the body diagonal. These chains form sheets via hydrogen bonding between α-hydroxyl groups. The sheets are connected through a bifurcated hydrogen bond. Structural comparisons are made with homochiral (2R,3R)-(+)-tartaric acid.


The sensitivity of the 4° × 5° resolution general circulation model of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies to some basic changes in model formulation was studied by comparing parallel simulations forced by global sea-surface temperature of June-August 1987 and 1988. The new modelling schemes were substituted for the control model's parameterizations of moist convection, planetary boundary layer, ground hydrology, and cloud optical thickness in a series of sensitivity experiments. In addition, linear and quadratic upstream schemes for advecting tracers were tried in place of second-order differencing. Elimination of the vertical mixing of horizontal momentum by moist convection was also tested. Impacts of the new modelling schemes on simulated circulation, temperature, and precipitation rates were inferred from pairs of simulations made by model versions that differed with respect to a single change. No discernible positive impacts were found for the new ground hydrology scheme or for changes in the determination of cloud optical thickness. Profiles of zonal wind speeds and lower tropospheric circulation patterns, both in the tropics, were more realistic when the vertical mixing of horizontal momentum was included. Major improvements in modelling the interannual variability of the planetary circulation, mid-tropospheric temperature, and precipitation can be attributed to the salutory effects of the new moist convection, new planetary boundary layer, and the quadratic upstream scheme for advecting tracers.


This handbook provides an indispensable reference guide to most aspects of the history of India's railways. The secondary literature is surveyed, primary sources identified, statistical and cartographic data discussed, and a massive bibliography made available.


Abstract : The effect of a non-symmetric lunar gravitational potential when included in the numerical integration of tight circumlunar trajectories is examined. The label of tight trajectories is applied here because in the lunar phase the vehicle is turned through the greatest possible angle, which is accomplished by very near approaches to the moon. Such trajectories would be affected the greatest by a non-symmetric lunar gravitation potential. The particular trajectories described have distances of closest approach to the moon's surface varying from 100 to 15,000 nautical miles and all impact the earth upon return, the return to earth being retrograde to the earth's rotation. The maximum deviation, due to inclusion of a lunar oblateness term, on return conditions at earth was in the order of 15 miles from a nominal impact position and 0.1 ft/sec in impact velocity, which is beyond the accuracy of n-body programs in use today. Thus it was determined that, for the numerical integration of circumlunar trajectories, the moon may be considered a sphere of uniform density. (Author)


With temperatures in the Arctic rising at twice the pace of anywhere else in the world, the European Union (EU) decided in 2008 to begin formulating an overall Arctic policy tackling maritime, environmental, energy and transport challenges. This attempt to draft a comprehensive policy on a topic that the EU had rarely touched upon unavoidably ran up against other existing strategies from Arctic and non-Arctic states. Against this background, this paper examines whether the EU's current Arctic policy is conducive to framing a strategy that is both correctly targeted and flexible enough to represent Europe's interests. It shows that the EU's approach can serve as an effective foreign policy tool to establish the Union's legitimacy as an Arctic player. However, the EU's Arctic policy is still underestimating its potential to find common grounds with the strategic partners Russia and China. A properly targeted Arctic policy could help influence Russia over the EU's interests in the Northern Sea Route and strengthen cooperation with China in an endeavour to gain recognition as relevant Arctic players.


This document specifies a set of cipher suites for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to support the ARIA encryption algorithm as a block cipher. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.


The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different black cumin (Nigella sativa) concentrations on the characteristics of tulum cheese during ripening (at + 4 ± 1 °C for 90 d). Increasing levels of black cumin decreased dry matter and fat contents (p < 0.05). Titratable acidity increased slightly with addition of black cumin in the samples. Ripening index (water soluble nitrogen/ total nitrogen; WSN/TN, %), nonprotein nitrogen (trichloroaceticsoluble nitrogen/total nitrogen; TCA-SN/TN, %), amino nitrogen (phosphotungstic acid-soluble nitrogen/total nitrogen; PTASN/TN, %) and lipolysis levels, histamine and tyramine contents increased continuously during ripening. Lipolysis increased significantly with black cumin concentration (p < 0.05). The addition of black cumin decreased histamine and tyramine contents of the cheeses (p < 0.05). Total aerobic mesophilic bacteria as well as yeast and mould counts of the samples ranged from 10 5 to 10 3 cfu/g. Coliforms and Staphylococcus aureus were not detected in any of the samples during ripening. Lactobacilli, lactococci and enterococci were the dominant groups of bacteria. Increasing levels of black cumin in cheeses significantly decreased other microorganisms (except lactobacilli, lactococci and enterococci; p < 0.05). Addition of 1 % black cumin improved body and texture properties in the sensory evaluation of tulum cheese while higher black cumin concentrations had a negative effect on the sensory properties, resulting in dark appearance and bitter taste.


Induction of type I interferons (IFNs) by viruses and other pathogens is crucial for innate immunity, and it is mediated by the activation of pattern-recognition receptors, such as Toll-like receptors and cytosolic receptors such as RIG-I and MDA5. The type I IFN induction is primarily controlled at the gene transcriptional level, wherein a family of transcription factors, interferon regulatory factors (IRFs), plays central roles. Here, we summarize the recent studies on IRFs, providing a paradigm of how genes are ingeniously regulated during immune responses. We also consider some evolutional aspects on the IFN-IRF system.


A self-consistent set of thermochemical data for 55 molecules in the Al-H-C-O-F-Cl system are obtained from ab initio quantum-chemistry calculations using the BAC-G2 method. Calculations were performed for both stable and radical species. Good agreement is found between the calculations and experimental heats of formation in most cases where data are available for comparison. Electronic energies, molecular geometries, moments of inertia, and vibrational frequencies are provided in the Supporting Information, as are polynomial fits of the thermodynamic data (heat of formation, entropy, and heat capacity) over the 300--3000 K temperature range.


A stochastic differential equation model for wireless fading channels is considered and the problem of estimating the model parameters from irregularly sampled data is studied. A computationally very efficient estimator based on the least squares method and the introduction of a differentiation operator is suggested. It is described how the operator should be chosen to obtain a consistent estimator as the number of data tends to infinity and the upper bound on the irregular sampling interval goes to zero. Attention is given to the computation of the operator. An online implementation of the estimator is also included.


Introduction Patients rarely accept colonoscopy without anxiety because the procedure is commonly associated with significant pain (1). Different agents were investigated to increase patient comfort and technical performance of colonoscopy with variable success and adverse events profiles (2). Diclofenac inhibited visceral pain signals on colonic stretching in animal studies (3). Method We have conducted a single-centre randomised study to evaluate the analgesic effect of diclofenac versus placebo in patients undergoing unsedated colonoscopy. Patients were randomised to receive 100 mg of diclofenac (Group 1) or placebo (Group 2). We used a 10-point VAS scale for pain. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare mean pain index and time to discharge. Spearman's test was used for correlation between caecal intubation rates and pain. Results We recruited a total of 88 patients divided into 2 groups: 43 (48.9%) in intervention group and 45 (51.1%) into placebo group. Baseline characteristics of patients did not differ significantly. There was no difference between groups in pain during colonoscopy (Mann-Whitney; Z=−0.84; p=0.40) or in grading of colonoscopy experience (1–10 scale) (Mann-Whitney; Z=−0.99; p=0.32), or number of patients that would repeat colonoscopy. There wasn't any significant correlation between caecal intubation time and pain scale values (Spearman's r=0.17; p=0.20). A significant correlation between caecal intubation time and pain scale values was found in placebo group (Spearman's r=0.37; p=0.04) but not in intervention group (Spearman's r=−0.08; p=0.71). Two lethal outcomes were recorded, both in the placebo group (4.4%; p=0.50%). Time to discharge in days was also not significantly different (Mann Whitney; Z=−0.18; p=0.85). Abstract PTH-030 Figure 1 Conclusion There does not seem to be an effect of diclofenac on pain during unsedated colonoscopy compared with placebo. References . Denberg TD, Malhado TV, Coombes JM. Predictor of nonadherence to screening colonoscopy. J Gen Intern Med2005:11;989. . Triantafillidis JK, Merikas E, Nikolakis D, Papalois AE. Sedation in gastrointestinal endoscopy: current issues. World J Gastroenterol 2013;19:463–81. . Gold MS, Zhang L, Wrigley DL, Traub RJ. Prostaglandin E2 modulates TTXR I(Na) in rat colonic sensory neurons. J Neurophysiol 2002;88:1512–22. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Molecular dynamics simulations were performed using the recently determined crystal structure of the reovirus attachment protein, sigma1. These studies were conducted to improve an understanding of two unique features of sigma1 structure: the protonation state of Asp(345), which is buried in the sigma1 trimer interface, and the flexibility of the protein at a defined region below the receptor-binding head domain. Three copies of aspartic acids Asp(345) and Asp(346) cluster in a solvent-inaccessible and hydrophobic region at the sigma1 trimer interface. These residues are hypothesized to mediate conformational changes in sigma1 during viral attachment or cell entry. Our results indicate that protonation of Asp(345) is essential to the integrity of the trimeric structure seen by x-ray crystallography, whereas deprotonation induces structural changes that destabilize the trimer interface. This finding was confirmed by electrostatic calculations using the finite difference Poisson-Boltzmann method. Earlier studies show that sigma1 can exist in retracted and extended conformations on the viral surface. Since protonated Asp(345) is necessary to form a stable, extended trimer, our results suggest that protonation of Asp(345) may allow for a structural transition from a partially detrimerized molecule to the fully formed trimer seen in the crystal structure. Additional studies were conducted to quantify the previously observed flexibility of sigma1 at a defined region below the receptor-binding head domain. Increased mobility was observed for three polar residues (Ser(291), Thr(292), and Ser(293)) located within an insertion between the second and third beta-spiral repeats of the crystallized portion of the sigma1 tail. These amino acids interact with water molecules of the solvent bulk and are responsible for oscillating movement of the head of approximately 50 degrees during 5 ns of simulations. This flexibility may facilitate viral attachment and also function in cell entry and disassembly. These findings provide new insights about the conformational dynamics of sigma1 that likely underlie the initiation of the reovirus infectious cycle.


In analysis-synthesis of musical sounds based on a sinusoidal model, the difference between the original signal and the synthesized signal, termed the residual, is typically a broadband noise process. It contains such musical phenomena as flute breath noise or violin bow noise. Synthesis without such "noise" tends to sound artificial; it is desirable to improve the synthesis realism by modeling the residual in such a way that it can be reinjected in the synthesized signal. This paper deals with a model of noise perception based on the equivalent rectangular bands (ERBs) of the auditory system. Since a broadband noise is perceptually well-represented by the time-varying energy in each of these frequency bands, the residual is parametrized in terms of these energies in the proposed model. An application of the model to music synthesis based on the inverse fast Fourier transform (FFT) is described in detail.


AIM: The present study was aimed to assess the attitude of modern health practitioners towards the integration of modern and traditional medical practices in central Ethiopia.
METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted on 92 modern health practitioners working at selected health facilities in Ambo town using structured questionnaire from January 22 to February 15, 2009. The data was edited and were entered in Epi Info Version 6.0 and analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16.0.
RESULT: A total of ninety two modern medical practitioners were included in the study. About 72.8% of modern medical practitioners accept traditional medical practice and 65.2% believed the necessity of education for the use of traditional medicine. Most modern medical practitioners (64.13%) think that traditional medicine has advantages over modern medicine in that it is cheap and accessible to most of the people. On the other hand, lack of standard and qualified dose (71.7%), toxicity (46.7%), lack of knowledge on scientific disease processes (46.7%) and liability to contaminations (35.9%) was mentioned as disadvantages, respectively. Forty seven (51.0%) preferred modern medicine operating alone and 43.4% preferred integrated health care services. Fifty six (60.9%) said cooperation of the two system have positive impact on patient satisfactions.
CONCLUSION: The study showed that the majority of the modern medical practitioners prefer modern medicine operating alone and some modern medical practitioners support the idea of integrative medicine though collaborative work so far is limited. The modern medical practitioners believe that adequate scientific research on traditional medicine and training of traditional medical practice are important for the integration of the two services.


... The James Bay project has become a major issue because it involves a number of factors that represent a critical change in our outlook over the past twenty years. The first of these is the growth in popularity and scientific credibility of the environmental movement. Environmental awareness has flowered since the first phase of the James Bay project was begun. The environmental impact of the project was not a matter of great debate in the early '70s and no formal environmental assessment was ever done prior to construction of the first phase. It has only been since the mid-1970s that environmental impact assessments of major government projects have been performed on a regular basis in Canada. A surge in public concern about the state of the environment in the late 1980s came at the time Hydro-Quebec began preparations for the Great Whale phase of the project. As a result, the environmental impacts of the first phase have come under close scrutiny, and many of the concerns expressed by opponents in the 1970s have been substantiated. It has been shown that environmental impacts of the first phase include: methyl mercury contamination of water in reservoirs and downstream rivers and mercury accumulation in fish; reversal of the natural seasonal flow patterns of rivers; conversion of La Grande estuary from a saltwater environment to a freshwater one because of regulated peak flow in winter; changes in water temperatures in affected rivers; loss of wetland productivity; production of greenhouse gases by the decomposition of vegetation in inundated areas; destruction of shoreline and shoreline habitat (creation of dead zones) around reservoirs due to fluctuating water levels; riverbank erosion downstream from dams; and interference with animal migration routes. This presents a far different picture from the one advanced in the past of hydroelectricity as a clean, environmentally safe energy source. A second factor has been the internationalization of environmental issues. ... A third factor is our growing understanding of, and respect for, native peoples. ... Today, the idea of progress is undergoing a massive shift away from material and economic growth for growth's sake and toward what has come to be known as "sustainable development." The James Bay project might have been considered "the project of the century" in an earlier era. However, in the era of sustainable development, it must be regarded as something quite different.


In the light of many mergers and acquisitions in the world of optical transport network, distributed control of SONET/SDH rings using GMPLS has become an important entity. The main requirements are topology discovery, path computation and connection control in the multi-vendor SONET/SDH networks utilizing the in-built protection capabilities of SONET/SDH topologies. In this paper we are explicitly taking up these requirements and making small changes in the OSPF-TE LSA processing rules and RSVP-TE signaling mechanism. To show its application, we take up an example TDM network consisting of 2F BLSR, 1:1 linear, 1+1 linear, unprotected, 4F BLSR and UPSR. We then show how each of the links in the example network is advertised with our changes to enable a remote node or EMS/NMS to discover the topology automatically for each network segment. We also show the creation of path automatically in the same way as the creation of LSP in an MPLS based IP networks. We mention when and where detour LSP setup is required to provide protection and when and how it is taken care by the underlying protection scheme of SONET/SDH


Instagram has succeeded in becoming a pervasive part of everyday life for many of its million users. Drawing on the Debordian concept of the spectacle and principles of Actor Network Theory, we approach Instagram as a sociotechnical assemblage, examining how it functions as a norm-(re)producing mechanism and how it constructs user subjectivities, analyzing both the platform's design and the surrounding discourses. Four types of "ideal" users are prescribed: (1) spectators, (2) producers of spectacular content, (3) sociable users, and (4) consumers of commodities and aspiring influencers. Based on this analysis, we argue that Instagram closely resembles a contemporary spectacle ("Spectacle 2.0"), whose key logic is the aestheticization of everyday life.


The 2008 economic crisis can be analysed as a demand-side shock to the Hungarian residential real estate market. Post-crisis adjustment in prices and transaction volumes is different in smaller settlements than in larger ones. According to income data, the crisis hit smaller settlements harder. In a static framework, this would imply that transaction volumes decreased more (relatively) in smaller settlements than in larger ones. A first glance at empirical data in Hungary, however, shows the opposite: there appears to be a smaller relative decrease in transaction volumes in smaller settlements. We measure settlement size by the number of properties in the settlement in 2009, and the change in transaction volume as the number of transactions before and after the crisis, divided by settlement size (that is, the change in relative transaction volume). The unexpected negative relationship between size and the change in volume is robust to the inclusion of controls (eg. for NUTS2 region, or the distance from the nearest larger town). A more dynamic approach is warranted to address this puzzle. A possible explanation is the following. The fact that transaction volumes fall after a crisis means that sellers will receive fewer offers over a given space of time. In smaller settlements, offers are generally less frequent than in larger settlements. Therefore, in a post-crisis smaller settlement, if an offer does come along, sellers will be likely to accept it even if it is low – since they anticipate that this offer will be the only one they receive for some time. Sellers in larger settlements, however, may still find it worth their while to hold out and wait for a better offer. This means that while post-crisis adjustment in smaller settlements happens less in volume than in price, the converse is true of larger settlements. The above argument fits into an optimal stopping framework, in which sellers receive differing offers at various intervals (each offer only being available for a limited amount of time), and must decide which offer to accept. We therefore address our puzzle using an optimal stopping model.


The present study used visual prior entry to determine which of two stimuli received attention first. Observers were asked to judge whether two test stimuli across a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) were synchronized or not (simultaneity judgment task; SJ), or to report the temporal order of the two test stimuli (temporal order judgment task; TOJ). Before the presentation of the two test stimuli, a single noninformative stimulus that matched the color of one of the test stimuli was presented in the center of the display. The results showed that, in both the TOJ and SJ tasks, the noninformative stimulus caused a shift in the psychometric function such that the test stimulus that had the same color as the preceding noninformative stimulus was seen earlier in time than the test stimulus that had a color that did not match. In other words, the mere processing of the color of a noninformative stimulus, rendered the stimulus having that same color more salient, an effect that we attributed to priming. Because priming made one of the stimuli more salient, it received attention first and accelerated its processing, causing prior entry into awareness. Importantly, when the noninformative stimulus was a color word, no such priming effect was observed. We conclude that a primed test stimulus has the ability to capture attention in an automatic way.


Pressure surge is a severe problem that causes catastrophic damage to pipelines. Several sequential actions are required to mitigate the pressure surge and protect the pipeline from damage. The present paper investigates the condition at which pressure surge is likely to occur and proposes the methods by which it can be avoided. A hydraulic steady-state simulation and surge analysis is carried out using Pipeline Studio ® Liquid version 3.6.0 (PLS) that calculates time-invariant pressure, temperature and flow profile throughout a pipeline network for specified boundary conditions and network element set points. Using the results obtained by steady state simulation as the starting point, the simulation is further carried out for transient conditions. Various pressure trends obtained by exposing the pipeline to various surge occurrence scenarios have been collected and compared with the Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) in pipelines. Result successfully finds out the conditions that causes the formation of pressure surge. Further actions have been recommended that mitigates the formation of pressure surge.


In cultures of excess, the challenge is to see. In a time of climate change, how will humans find the questions, the reflections, the poems, or the prayers that will bring ecological justice and peace? This writing begins a response to the call made on the last day of our gathering at Loon Lake for a "commonist manifesto" around environmental education. In responding to this, and to the journal's theme of "Dark Matters," the goal of this writing is to shine a plain light on the counter-narratives, the smaller, ground-level stories, that informally shape narratives around human ecology. Here, the tools of storytelling, narrative, counter narrative, and poetry pose an inquiry into our earth-centred educational encounters. Such stories are rooted in gardens, forests, neighbourhoods, and classrooms in East Vancouver and in the Okanagan of British Columbia. The stories include questions for discussion that invite the development of "commonist" guiding principles among readers and researchers. This writing seeks common ground among teaching, learning, nature, humans, and all entities too often artificially divided. This paper is also a call to observation where the imagination becomes the starting point for healing and awareness as we enter an era of climate change, and a time of new human evolution. In a world of excess, in words and deeds, this writing is to a call to less, with story, with poetry—with less.


We first consider the following problem. We are given a fixed perfect matching $M$ of $[n]$ and we add random edges one at a time until there is a Hamilton cycle containing $M$. We show that w.h.p. the hitting time for this event is the same as that for the first time there are no isolated vertices in the graph induced by the random edges. We then use this result for the following problem. We generate random edges and randomly color them black or white. A path/cycle is said to \emph{zebraic} if the colors alternate along the path. We show that w.h.p. the hitting time for a zebraic Hamilton cycle coincides with every vertex meeting at least one edge of each color. We then consider some related problems and extend to multiple colors. We also briefly consider directed versions.


Not a single tree species distribution in the Amazon basin has been reliably mapped, though speculation regarding such distributions has been extensive. We present data from a network of 21 forest plots in Manu National Park, Peru, totaling >36 ha and sited over an area of -400 km2, to explore how tree species are distributed across upper Amazonia at a variety of spatial scales. For each of 825 tree species occurring in the plots we asked three questions: (1) Does the species have a large or small geographic range? (2) Is the species restricted to a single forest type, or is it found in several? (3) Is the species locally abundant anywhere or is it scarce everywhere? The answers served to classify a subset of species under Rabinowitz's classification scheme for rare species. Three main conclusions emerged. First, the great majority of tree species at Manu are geographically widespread. Every species identified to date occurs elsewhere in South America, outside the department of Madre de Dios; more than two-thirds of them have been collected 1500 km away in Amazonian Ecuador. Second, 15-26% of species appear to be restricted to a single forest type, when forest types are defined by historical river dynamics (i.e., terra firme forest, mature floodplain forest, swamp forest, and primary successional floodplain forest). The proportion of restricted species declined with increasing sampling effort, mak- ing 15% a more reliable figure. Third, while 88% of species occurred at densities of 1.5 individuals/ha. Extrapolating these results provides a first guess at how tree species are distributed across the western portion of the Amazon basin. We conclude with the suggestion that most tree species in the region are habitat generalists occurring over large areas of the Amazonian lowlands at low densities but large absolute population sizes.


Annual development of density and mean weight of juvenile plaice Pleuronectes platessa was examined at 2 nursery grounds (Port Erin Bay, Isle of Man, Irish Sea and Admucknish Bay, Firth of Lorne, west coast of Scotland) over a number of years. In both cases there was evidence of 'self-thinning' in the populations when the density was high, although in Port Erin Bay the slope suggested a relationship different from the standard - 4 ⁄3 rule proposed for animal populations. The site specific dynamic thinning lines (dynamic carrying capacities) were consistent with the dynamic thinning line (-4⁄3 rule) for both populations. The 2 nursery grounds were different, with growth rates and densities generally higher on the Ardmucknish Bay nursery ground compared with Port Erin Bay. Similarly, the estimated total biomass of plaice was higher in Ardmucknish Bay than Port Erin Bay, but there was considerable inter-annual variation. Maximum plaice biomass generally occurred from August to September for both sites. In Port Erin Bay this coincided with the maximum consump- tion rates. The size structure was described using the Gini coefficient (G) and the timing of size struc- ture development by the centre of gravity (CG). The size structure of the populations differed and in both cases varied during the season in response to settlement and mortality. Over the study periods, population density was only occasionally high enough to reach the site specific self-thinning line. This suggests that these populations rarely approached the carrying capacity of the nursery grounds.


A remote sensing method is proposed to derive vertical profiles of the visible extinction coefficients in ice clouds from measurements of the radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity taken by a vertically pointing 35-GHz cloud radar. The extinction coefficient and its vertical integral, optical thickness t, are among the fundamental cloud optical parameters that, to a large extent, determine the radiative impact of clouds. The results obtained with this method could be used as input for different climate and radiation models and for comparisons with parameterizations that relate cloud microphysical parameters and optical properties. An important advantage of the proposed method is its potential applicability to multicloud situations and mixed-phase conditions. In the latter case, it might be able to provide the information on the ice component of mixed-phase clouds if the radar moments are dominated by this component. The uncertainties of radar-based retrievals of cloud visible optical thickness are estimated by comparing retrieval results with optical thicknesses obtained independently from radiometric measurements during the yearlong Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) field experiment. The radiometric measurements provide a robust way to estimate t but are applicable only to optically thin ice clouds without intervening liquid layers. The comparisons of cloud optical thicknesses retrieved from radar and from radiometer measurements indicate an uncertainty of about 77% and a bias of about 214% in the radar estimates of t relative to radiometric retrievals. One possible explanation of the negative bias is an inherently low sensitivity of radar measurements to smaller cloud particles that still contribute noticeably to the cloud extinction. This estimate of the uncertainty is in line with simple theoretical considerations, and the associated retrieval accuracy should be considered good for a nonoptical instrument, such as radar. This paper also presents relations between radar-derived characteristic cloud particle sizes and effective sizes used in models. An average relation among t, cloud ice water path, and the layer mean value of cloud particle characteristic size is also given. This relation is found to be in good agreement with in situ measurements. Despite a high uncertainty of radar estimates of extinction, this method is useful for many clouds where optical measurements are not available because of cloud multilayering or opaqueness.


We propose a framework for analysing party elite perceptions of voting behaviour based on four party competition and voting behaviour models: the Downsian proximity, saliency, competence and directional models. We analyse whether and to what extent party elite perceptions support these theories of party competition and voting behaviour. Empirical analysis is based solely on internal party documents from two Swedish parties, the Social Democrats and the Conservatives, from 1964 to 1988/1991. We demonstrate that elements of all four party competition models have characterized Swedish party elite thinking and reasoning about voting behaviour in recent decades. Discussion in the Social Democratic elite was most in line with Downs' model. Until the mid-1970s, Downs' model tended to be combined with the competence model and thereafter with the saliency model. The Conservative elite clearly favoured the salience and competence models until the early 1970s and the saliency and Downs' models since then.


A novel incoherent guided wave optoelectronic correlator architecture for performing code recognition is introduced. The output of this correlator corresponds to the difference between agreements and disagreements, thus mimicking the output obtained in classical electrical code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. The approach is described through a tapped delay line concept, but if viewed as a means of additional encoding, it can be realized using ladder networks or other architectures. Synchronons CDMA (S/CDMA) networks lend themselves particularly well for implementation through this architecture. The approach, in tandem with special codes defined as double balanced codes, allows detection of the autocorrelation peak without interference from unwanted users. Proof-of-principle experimental verification of the architecture for a 2-b correlation at 50 Mb/s and computer simulations of a multiuser network are presented. >


Summary

1
We used up to 35 years of capture–recapture data from nearly 3300 individual female ducks nesting on Engure Marsh, Latvia, and multistate modelling to test predictions about the influence of environmental, habitat and management factors on breeding dispersal probability within the marsh.

2
Analyses based on observed dispersal distances of common pochards and tufted ducks provided no evidence that breeding success in year t influenced dispersal distance between t and t+ 1.

3
Breeding dispersal distances (year t to t+ 1) of pochards and tufted ducks were associated with a delay in relative nest initiation dates in year t+ 1. The delay was greater for pochards (c. 4 days) than for tufted ducks (c. 2 days) when females dispersed > 0·8 km.

4
Northern shovelers and tufted ducks moved from a large island to small islands at low water levels and from small islands to the large island at high water levels before the construction of elevated small islands (1960–82). Following this habitat management (1983–94), breeding fidelity was extremely high and not influenced by water level in the marsh for either species.

5
Because pochard nesting habitats in black-headed gull colonies were saturated during the entire study period, nesting females moved into and out of colonies with similar probabilities. Local survival probabilities and incubation body masses were higher for both yearlings (SY) and adults (ASY) nesting within gull colonies, suggesting that these females were of better quality than females nesting outside of the colonies.

6
Tufted ducks showed higher probabilities of moving from islands to emergent marshes when water levels were higher both before and after habitat management. However, rates of movement for a given water level were higher during the period before management than after.

7
Both pochards and tufted ducks exhibited asymmetric movement with respect to proximity to water, with higher movement probabilities to near-water nesting locations than away from these locations.

8
Multistate capture–recapture models provided analyses that were useful in investigating sources of variation in breeding dispersal probabilities.


This article explores the everyday practice of security management and negotiations for access conducted by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and archival exploration, it examines the experience of MSF Congolese employees, who navigate a complex politics of humanitarian fixing and brokerage. Their role in MSF is simultaneously defined and circumscribed by their political and social situation. MSF's security management relies on local staff's interpersonal networks and on their ability to interpret and translate. However, local staff find themselves at risk, or perceived as a 'risk': exposed to external pressures and acts of violence, while possibilities for promotion are limited precisely because of their embeddedness. They face a tension between being politically and socially embedded and needing to perform MSF's principles in practice. As such, they embody the contradictions of MSF's approach in North Kivu: a simultaneous need for operational 'proximity', as well as performative distance from everyday conflict processes.


Titanium matrix composites (TMCs) have wide application prospects in the field of aerospace, automobile and other industries because of their good properties, such as high specific strength, good ductility, and excellent fatigue properties. However, in order to improve their fatigue strength and life, crack initiation and growth at the surface layers must be suppressed using surface treatments. Shot peening (SP) is an effective surface mechanical treatment method widely used in industry which can improve the mechanical properties of a surface. However, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used as an efficient approach to predict and optimize the science and engineering problems. In the present study the effects of SP on TMC were modeled by means of ANN and the capability of the ANN in predicting the output parameters is investigated. A back-propagation (BP) error algorithm is developed for the network training. Data of experimental tests on the (TiB + TiC)/Ti–6Al–4V composite are employed in order to train the network. The volume fractions of the reinforcements (TiB + TiC) were 5 % and 8 %. ANN testing is accomplished using different experimental data thaat were not used during the network training. The distance from the surface (depth) and SP intensity are regarded as input parameters and residual stress and hardness of the Ti–6Al–4V before and after the SP and adding reinforcements are gathered as the output parameters of the network. A comparison was made between experimental and predicted data. The predicted results were in good agreement with experimental ones, which indicates that developed neural network can be used for modeling the SP process on TMCs.


This paper presents a comprehensive non-linear dynamic model of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that can be used for transient behaviors studies. The model based on electrochemical and thermal equations, accounts for temperature dynamics and output voltage losses. The relaxation time is strongly related to the transient temperature distribution of the solid oxide fuel cell structure. Therefore, it is in the order of some minutes depending on the design parameters and the operating conditions. The model contains the hydrogen, oxygen and water block separately. Other blocks are concentration, activation and ohmic losses block. The analytical details of how active and reactive power output of a stand-alone solid oxide fuel cell power plant (FCPP) is controlled. This analysis depends on an integrated dynamic model of the entire power plant including the reformer.


Author(s): Pacer, Michael D. | Advisor(s): Griffiths, Tom; Lombrozo, Tania | Abstract: Humans build theories out of the data we observe, and out of those theories arise wonders. The most powerful theories are causal theories, which organise data into actionable structures. Causal theories make explicit claims about the structure of the world: what entities and processes exist in it, which of these relate to one another and in what form those relations consist. We can use causal theories to induce new generalisations about the world (in the form of particular models or other causal theories) and to explain particular occurrences. This allows rapidly disseminating causal information throughout our cognitive communities. Causal theories and the explanations derived from them guide decisions we make, including where and when to look for more data, completing the cycle. Causal theories play a ubiquitous and potent role in everyday life, in formal pursuit of them in the sciences, and through their applications in medicine, technology and industry. Given this, the rarity of analyses that attempt to characterise causal theories and their uses in general, computational terms is surprising. Only in recent years has there been a substantial refinement of our models of causal induction due to work by computational cognitive scientists — the interdisciplinary tradition out of which which this dissertation originates. And even so, many issues related to causal theories have been left unattended; three features in particular merit much greater attention from a computational perspective: generating and evaluating explanation, the role of simplicity in explanation choice, and continuous-time causal induction. I aim to redress this situation with this dissertation. In Chapter 0, I introduce the primary paradigms from computational cognitive science – computational level analysis and rational analysis – that govern my research. In Chapter 1, I study formal theories of causal explanation in Bayesian networks by comparing the explanations the generate and evaluate to human judgements about the same systems. No one model of causal explanation captures the pattern of human judgements, though the intuitive hypothesis, that the most probable a posteriori explanation is the best performs worst of the models evaluated. I conclude that the premise of finding model for all of human causal explanation (even in this limited domain) is flawed; the research programme should be refined to consider the features of formal models and how well they capture our explanatory practices as they vary between individuals and circumstances. One feature not expressed in these models explicitly but that has been shown to matter for human explanation is simplicity. Chapter 2 considers the problem of simplicity in human causal explanation choice in a series of four experiments. I study what makes an explanation simple (whether it is the number of causes invoked in or the number of assumptions made by an explanation), how simplicity concerns are traded off against data-fit, which cognitive consequences arise from choosing simpler explanations when the data does not fit, and why people prefer simpler explanations. In Chapter 3, I change the focus from studying causal explanation to causal induction --- in particular, I develop a framework for continuous time causal theories (ctcts). A ctct defines a generative probabilistic framework for other generative probabilistic models of causal systems, where the data in those systems expressed in terms of continuous time. Chapter 3 is the most interdisciplinary piece of my dissertation, accordingly it begins by reviewing a number of topics: the history of theories of causal induction within philosophy, statistics and medicine; empirical work on causal induction in cognitive science, focusing on issues related to causal induction with temporal data; conceptual issues surrounding the formal definition of time, data, and causal models; and probabilistic graphical models, causal theories, and stochastic processes. I then introduce the desiderata for the ctct framework and how those criteria are met. I then demonstrate the power of ctcts by using them to analyse five sets of experiments (some new and some derived from the literature) on human causal induction with temporal data. Bookending each experiment and the model applied to it is are case from medical history that illustrate a real-world instance of the variety of problem being solved in the section; the opening discussion describes the case and why it fits the problem structure of the model used to analyse the experimental results and the closing discussion illustrates aspects of the case omitted from the initial discussion that complicate the model and fit better with the model introduced in the next section. Then, I discuss ways to incorporate other advances in probabilistic programming, generative theories and stochastic processes into the ctct framework, identify potential applications with specific focus on mechanisms and feedback loops, and conclude by analysing the centrality of temporal information in the study of the mind more generally.Excepting the supporting appendices and bibliography that end the dissertation, I conclude in two parts. First, in Chapter 4, I analyse issues at the intersection of three of the main themes of my work: namely, (causal) explanation, (causal) induction and time. This proceeds by examining these topics first in pairs and then as a whole. Following that, is Chapter 5, an epilogue that clarifies the interpretations and intended meanings of the "Mind as Theory Engine" metaphor as it applies to human cognition.


Internet use has grown rapidly over the last 15 years and so has its integration into the rural economy. Connecting to the Internet via high-speed technology such as DSL lines, cable, satellite, and wireless networks increases bandwidth and makes the Internet much more useful to businesses, households, and governments. Rural households are almost as likely as urban households to use the Internet. Broadband Internet access in rural areas has been less prevalent than in much more densely populated areas of the country. Evidence suggests that the difference may lie in the higher cost or less availability of broadband Internet access in rural areas. The paucity of national geographically-specific data, however, presents a challenge in trying to analyze questions of broadband take-up. Data from the June Agricultural Surveys, however, address this. The other difficulty has been obtaining local price in demand analysis. We use ARMS and industry data to develop local broadband service price indices. We use descriptive statistics and binomial logit models in our analysis. The data shows sharp differences in conversion rates across the country, and when also considering the changes over time giving some credence to the common hypothesis that people do choose to use broadband if given the option. Farms were unlikely to make the direct jump from no Internet use to Internet use with broadband access; farms that already had Internet access were more likely to convert to broadband Internet access. Some of the farms that did not convert already had broadband Internet access by 2005, roughly 24 percent of all farms using the Internet in 2005. The preponderance of DSL service for farms indicates both the mostly rural location of most farms as well as Internet users finding satellite a less desirable option. While broadband Internet access availability is necessary for take-up of broadband Internet access, there are other factors that are also limiting broadband Internet use such as price of access, age of user, household income, and educational attainment.