The amount of information necessary to practice in the clinical environment continues to increase daily. As a result, curricula in clinical programs have become increasingly strained and the amount of time devoted to teaching basic research skills has steadily declined. Techniques of Patient-Oriented Research attempts to fill this gap by providing an introduction to the basic principles of clinical research. It is written for medical students, residents, and fellows; however, the principles outlined are useful for any clinician who is beginning to conduct clinical research. The book is based on a series of seminars on an Introduction to Clinical Research presented at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The authors cover the basics of clinical research, starting with a review of the decline in the number of physicians trained to do research and what this means to the future of clinical research. The subsequent chapters discuss various aspects of clinical research, including grantsmanship, study design, laboratory techniques, and statistical analysis. More in-depth discussions of these topics can be found elsewhere; however, these chapters provide an adequate introduction to the topics with some basic guidelines. One of the strengths of this book is its coverage of topics that are typically covered only briefly or not at all in other publications of this nature. Examples include chapters on the role of the Investigational Review Board in protecting human subjects and its implications for writing protocols, nutritional aspects of clinical research, and the basics of how to write a scientific paper, all of which are important to the novice investigator. The first section of the chapter on statistics is largely repetitive of material presented in previous chapters. The remainder of the chapter presents brief overviews of various statistical considerations, such as blinding, data collection forms, and various statistical methods. Two highlights of this chapter are the discussions of sample size determination and confidence intervals. Finally, the last chapter reviews the importance of submitting the results of clinical research for publication and outlines the steps involved in writing a scientific paper. This chapter should be particularly useful to the inexperienced writer. The experienced researcher will not find detailed discussions of research techniques in this text; however, that is not the intent of this book. Techniques ofPatient-Oriented Research is an easy-to-read introduction to the steps involved in basic clinical research and will be useful to anyone interested in becoming involved in clinical research.


The overarching purpose of this paper is to explore the transformation of intercultural education in Cyprus in the context of European integration. More specifically, it indicates the ways in which intercultural policy has been formed by complex and often counteractive influences. The analysis draws upon policy documents collected from the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and interviews carried out with Cypriot policy-makers. Europe has come to play an important role in the development of Cypriot intercultural policy by becoming a mechanism of pressure for educational change. Through monitoring processes, Europe has indicated problems deriving from the culturally pluralistic character of the Cypriot society that should be addressed by national policies. In this context, Cyprus has initiated an educational reform, including a reform of the national curriculum towards a more intercultural orientation. Nonetheless, the findings of this research assert that there is a gap between policy rhetoric and practice.,This study reports on an analysis of the policy dynamics influencing intercultural education in the Greek–Cypriot context. The authors aim to examine the context and content of educational policies and directives which have been initiated and/or developed at the Greek–Cypriot level. To this end, the authors drew upon policy documentary and data derived from interviews conducted with Greek–Cypriot policy-makers and education officers.,It appears that intercultural education became an important part of the state's rhetoric. Cyprus has initiated an educational reform, including a reform of the national curriculum towards a more intercultural orientation. Therefore, since 2008, the state and particularly the MEC have replaced the previously used term of multicultural education with the rhetoric of intercultural education and inclusion as the preferable educational responses to immigration.,The findings of this study suggest that the development of intercultural education requires the re-conceptualisation and re-structuring of the Cypriot educational system and schooling. The state should adopt a balanced governance model between school autonomy and centralised management.,This paper can help schools and teachers to improve their intercultural education approach.,The findings could be helpful for improving the intercultural education policy in Cyprus.,These research finding are the first that deal with intercultural education policy in Cyprus.


Checking the validity of test scores is important in both educational and psychological measurement. Person-fit analysis provides several statistics that help practitioners assessing whether individual item score vectors conform to a prespecified item response theory model or, alternatively, to a group of test takers. Software enabling easy access to most person-fit statistics was lacking up to now. The PerFit R package was written in order to fill in this void. A theoretical overview of relatively simple person-fit statistics is provided. A practical guide showing how the main functions of PerFit can be used is also given. Both numerical and graphical tools are described and illustrated using examples. The goal is to show how person-fit statistics can be easily applied to testing of questionnaire data.


A congenital tumor arising from an embryologic rest in the region of the pituitary body and the sella turcica is rarely encountered even in a large neurosurgical clinic, but the occurrence is sufficiently frequent to warrant consideration of such a tumor in the differential diagnosis of the cause of disturbance of vision in a child or a young adult. Particularly is this true if the patient's vision cannot be improved with corrective lenses or if there is edema of the optic disks as observed on funduscopic examination. The diagnosis of a tumor in the chiasmal region usually is not difficult if the condition is considered as a possibility. Cases of intracranial tumor arising from a residual cell rest of the primitive hypophysial duct were reported as early as the latter part of the nineteenth century. The early reports were based on both operative material and material obtained at necropsy. In


In a dynamic world where societies and crimes are growing more complex, we see that police organisations increasingly reach out to stakeholders, and vice versa. In this thesis we try to learn more about stakeholder management in police organisations. On the one hand, we do this to attempt to close some gaps in the literature on stakeholder management in the policing sector. On the other hand, an elaborate study is desired from the practical perspective. As police forces and many individual officers cope with external parties on a daily basis, it is highly relevant to ask if they are doing it right, and if they could do it in ways that are more satisfactory for the stakeholders. Satisfying stakeholders is crucial for police and other public organisations alike, because their operations thrive on the legitimacy they receive from the citizenry. We approached the topic from several angles, looking both at strategic and operational stakeholder management. In our first study, we focus broadly on stakeholder management strategies that are employed towards different types of police stakeholders in Europe. In the second and third study we investigate the success factors of collaborations between the police and other public organisations in the Netherlands. Finally, in the fourth study, we provide a cautionary note concerning the potential biases in stakeholder perceptions of European police organisations.


Weight-class sports incite the sportsmen to loose weight to change class and increase their chance of success in competition. Although these sports are very demanding on the physiological level (high intensity), most of the competitors undertake caloric restrictions that are likely to induce physiological disorders detrimental to their health and sport performances. Two strategies allow to loose bodyweight. The first is maintained over a very short time (less than 1 week), the second is maintained over a longer period (several weeks). Managing weight reduction, food intake, and physical activities over several weeks is a particularly efficient way to conserve the sportsman's performance abilities. On the other hand, the transgression of certain principles in only one of these fields is enough to deteriorate the sportsman's capacities of performance and (or) his health, whatever the duration of the period of the loss of weight. During food restriction, the carbohydrate and protein rations must be increased to prevent the unavoidable involutions of body composition and performance. In spite of food restriction, the training intensity must be high, and only the training volume must decrease to remain competitive.


We performed a comprehensive experimental investigation of two-photon absorption (2PA) spectra of a series of 12 symmetrical and asymmetrical cationic polymethine dyes, including complete one-and two-photon excitation anisotropy measurements. Quantum-chemical calculations were performed with the goal of understanding the nature of 2PA bands and of uncovering structure-property relations. We found that there are 2PA bands in the spectral region between the first absorption band and that for twice its energy. A weakly allowed 2PA band within the short-wavelength shoulder of the first absorption band was observed owing to the effects of vibrational and charge distribution symmetry breaking. The nature of the strongest 2PA band is connected to the electron transition from the molecular orbital localized at the benzene rings of the terminal groups to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). Structure-property relations revealed that the 2PA cross section tends to be enhanced by either an increase in the length of the polymethine chromophore or an increase in the donor strengths in the terminal groups.


A serious crisis is identified in theories of neurocomputation, marked by a persistent disparity between the phenomenological or experiential account of visual perception and the neurophysiological level of description of the visual system. In particular, conventional concepts of neural processing offer no explanation for the holistic global aspects of perception identified by Gestalt theory. The problem is paradigmatic and can be traced to contemporary concepts of the functional role of the neural cell, known as the Neuron Doctrine. In the absence of an alternative neurophysiologically plausible model, I propose a perceptual modeling approach, to model the percept as experienced subjectively, rather than modeling the objective neurophysiological state of the visual system that supposedly subserves that experience. A Gestalt Bubble model is presented to demonstrate how the elusive Gestalt principles of emergence, reification, and invariance can be expressed in a quantitative model of the subjective experience of visual consciousness. That model in turn reveals a unique computational strategy underlying visual processing, which is unlike any algorithm devised by man, and certainly unlike the atomistic feed-forward model of neurocomputation offered by the Neuron Doctrine paradigm. The perceptual modeling approach reveals the primary function of perception as that of generating a fully spatial virtual-reality replica of the external world in an internal representation. The common objections to this "picture-in-the-head" concept of perceptual representation are shown to be ill founded.


Capacitive reverse electrodialysis (CRED) is a newly proposed technology to generate electricity from mixing of salt water and fresh water (salinity gradient energy) by using a membrane pile as in reverse electrodialysis (RED) and capacitive electrodes. The salinity difference between salt water and fresh water generates a potential difference over ion selective membranes, which can be used as a renewable power source. The strength and unique characteristic of CRED in comparison to the other technologies is that it allows multiple membrane cells between a single set of electrodes and at the same time avoids redox reactions using capacitive electrodes. The capacitive electrodes use activated carbon on a support of Ti/Pt mesh to store ions and their charge. A periodic switching of the feed waters, combined with a switching of the direction of the electric current, ensures that the capacitive electrodes do not get saturated. The large membrane pile enables the electrodes to be charged more than in previous approaches for capacitive mixing. As a consequence, the energy cycle of CRED has a larger range in both voltage and accumulated charge compared to previous capacitive mixing technologies. The power density obtainable with CRED stacks with capacitive electrodes is an order of magnitude higher than in previous attempts for capacitive energy extraction and close to or even better than similar RED stacks with conventional redox based electrode systems. CRED is considered to be a stable, safe, clean and high performing technology to obtain energy from mixing of salt water and fresh water.


Yang–Mills theories in four space–time dimensions possess a hidden symmetry which does not exhibit itself as a symmetry of classical Lagrangians but is only revealed on the quantum level. It turns out that the effective Yang–Mills dynamics in several important limits is described by completely integrable systems that prove to be related to the celebrated Heisenberg spin chain and its generalizations. In this review we explain the general phenomenon of complete integrability and its realization in several different situations. As a prime example, we consider in some detail the scale dependence of composite (Wilson) operators in QCD and super-Yang–Mills (SYM) theories. High-energy (Regge) behavior of scattering amplitudes in QCD is also discussed and provides one with another realization of the same phenomenon that differs, however, from the first example in essential details. As the third example, we address the low-energy effective action in a SYM theory which, contrary to the previous two cases, corresponds to a classical integrable model. Finally, we include a short overview of recent attempts to use gauge/string duality in order to relate integrability of Yang–Mills dynamics with the hidden symmetry of a string theory on a curved background.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progresses at highly variable rates. It is widely believed that active treatment should begin as soon as possible after diagnosis. This may not always occur for various reasons, and it remains unclear whether such delays shorten overall survival.


This paper presents preliminary results for the design, development and evaluation of a hand rehabilitation glove fabricated using soft robotic technology. Soft actuators comprised of elastomeric materials with integrated channels that function as pneumatic networks (PneuNets), are designed and geometrically analyzed to produce bending motions that can safely conform with the human finger motion. Bending curvature and force response of these actuators are investigated using geometrical analysis and a finite element model (FEM) prior to fabrication. The fabrication procedure of the chosen actuator is described followed by a series of experiments that mechanically characterize the actuators. The experimental data is compared to results obtained from FEM simulations showing good agreement. Finally, an open-palm glove design and the integration of the actuators to it are described, followed by a qualitative evaluation study.


We show that differential IT investment across cities has been a key driver of job and wage polarization since the 1980s. Using a novel data set, we establish two stylized facts: IT investment is highest in firms in large and expensive cities, and the decline in routine cognitive occupations is most prevalent in large and expensive cities. To explain these facts, we propose a model mechanism where the substitution of routine workers by IT leads to higher IT adoption in large cities due to a higher cost of living and higher wages. We estimate the spatial equilibrium model to trace out the effects of IT on the labor market between 1990 and 2015. We find that the fall in IT prices explains 50 percent of the rising wage gap between routine and non-routine cognitive jobs. The decline in IT prices also accounts for 28 percent of the shift in employment away from routine cognitive towards non-routine cognitive jobs. Moreover, our estimates show that the impact of IT is uneven across space. Expensive locations have seen a stronger displacement of routine cognitive jobs and a larger widening of the wage gap between routine and non-routine cognitive jobs.


Objective.

To investigate a nasopharyngeal carriage and serotypes of S. pneumoniae in children aged 3 to 6 years from day-care centers in Smolensk.
Materials and Methods.

A total of 245 isolates of S. pneumoniae from 1027 nasopharyngeal swabs from healthy children attending day-care centers was tested. Identification of S. pneumoniae was performed according morphological, cultural and antigenic characteristics (Slidex pneumo-Kit, bioMeriеux, France), susceptibility to optohin and bile. Extraction of S. pneumoniae DNA (338) from nasopharyngeal specimens and cultures was performed using nucleic acids extraction kit AmpliSens® DNA-sorb-В (Interlabservice, Russia). Molecular typing was performed using CDC-recommended PCR method with 22 pairs of primers.
Results.

Children without signs of infection diseases from 14 day-care centers were examined, whose parents have signed an informed consent. There were 245 (24.0%) isolates of S. pneumoniae from 1027 specimens of nasopharynx's swabs. The partly vaccinated with PCV13 were children aged 3–4 years – 311 (30.3%), in 95 children were healthy carriage (38.2%) of S. pneumoniae. The majority of children under 4 years (716⁄69.7%) were non vaccinated, healthy carriage of S. pneumoniae were 216 (29.3%). The predominant serotypes of S. pneumoniae in partly vaccinated children were: 3 (9.8%), 6AB (17.9%), 19F (13.8%), 11AD (12.2%), 23F (5.3%), 19A (2%), 18ABCF (1.6%), 14 (2%), 9AV (1.2%), 6CD (0.8%). The coincidence of S. pneumoniae serotypes in vaccinated children and included in PCV13 were 54%. The most common serotypes of S. pneumoniae in non-vaccinated children were: 11AD (12.2%), 15A/F (2%), 23A (2%), 22AF (0.4%), 19A (1.3%), 33FA/37 (1.6%) and non-typeable serotypes (27.8%).
Conclusions.

The low coverage of pneumococcal vaccine in children under 6 years shows the initial process of its implementation in Health Care. We detect the reduction of vaccine serotypes in children with incomplete immunization (54%) and notable increase in non-typeable serotypes (27.8%) in nonvaccinated children.


It has been well established that prototyping is an important part of development projects. Prototypes are used in engineering design courses but teaching students the strategic skills needed to decide what to prototype during development projects is often not a part of the curriculum.
 This paper proposes a model that uses the prototyping process to link individual prototyping activities and project goals. The proposition is that when designers work intentionally with prototyping as a process, they will be able to make strategic decisions about how and when to use prototypes.
 To teach students a prototyping process mindset, a simple prototype prioritization tool, the Prototyping Target, was developed and integrated into project-based product development courses. Fifteen student teams used the Prototyping Target to decide which project questions to answer with prototypes every week over three weeks. Results show that criticality to project success is a good starting point but not the only parameter to consider when deciding what to prototype.
 A comparison between prototyping plans made with and without the Prototyping Target shows that student teams selected a clearer purpose for their prototypes when they used the prioritization tool before planning specific prototyping activities.
 Overall, this paper demonstrates the benefits of teaching student designers to navigate the prototyping process.


We present azimuthal velocity profiles measured in a Taylor–Couette apparatus, which has been used as a model of stellar and planetary accretion disks. The apparatus has a cylinder radius ratio of ${\it\eta}=0.716$ , an aspect ratio of ${\it\Gamma}=11.74$ , and the plates closing the cylinders in the axial direction are attached to the outer cylinder. We investigate angular momentum transport and Ekman pumping in the Rayleigh-stable regime. This regime is linearly stable and is characterized by radially increasing specific angular momentum. We present several Rayleigh-stable profiles for shear Reynolds numbers $\mathit{Re}_{S}\sim O(10^{5})$ , for both ${\it\Omega}_{i}>{\it\Omega}_{o}>0$ (quasi-Keplerian regime) and ${\it\Omega}_{o}>{\it\Omega}_{i}>0$ (sub-rotating regime), where ${\it\Omega}_{i,o}$ is the inner/outer cylinder rotation rate. None of the velocity profiles match the non-vortical laminar Taylor–Couette profile. The deviation from that profile increases as solid-body rotation is approached at fixed $\mathit{Re}_{S}$ . Flow super-rotation, an angular velocity greater than those of both cylinders, is observed in the sub-rotating regime. The velocity profiles give lower bounds for the torques required to rotate the inner cylinder that are larger than the torques for the case of laminar Taylor–Couette flow. The quasi-Keplerian profiles are composed of a well-mixed inner region, having approximately constant angular momentum, connected to an outer region in solid-body rotation with the outer cylinder and attached axial boundaries. These regions suggest that the angular momentum is transported axially to the axial boundaries. Therefore, Taylor–Couette flow with closing plates attached to the outer cylinder is an imperfect model for accretion disk flows, especially with regard to their stability.


Objective:

 Thoracic surgical approach has taken a decisive turn since videoscopy utilization for cardiac and non-cardiac thoracic surgery. This study aims to present indications and results of chest surgical approaches performed in Cote d'Ivoire. Methods: Using the 1998 and 2014 nationwide inpatient database, we identified retrospectivly 814 patients including 475 men and 339 women who underwent a cardiothoracic surgery. Mean age was 32.73 years; range was: 2 months - 88 years.

 Results: Cardiac Surgery was performed on 473 patients (58.10%) and Gene- ral Thoracic Surgery on 341 patients (41.89%). For Cardiac Surgery, median vertical sternotomy was the most surgical approach performed (n=250; 52.85%), while classic postero-lateral tho- racotomy was the most surgical approach performed in General Thoracic Surgery (n=321; 94.13%). Immediate postoperative pain required opioids administration in 84.39% of cases. Ave- rage length of hospitalization and healing were respectively 9.43 days (range: 2-50 days) and 18.30 days (range: 1-56 days).

 Conclusion: Development of minimally invasive chest approaches remains one of our challenges because those currently practiced are uncomfortable for patients and make longer hospital stay and wound healing.

 Keywords: Surgical Approach, Thorax, Minimally Invasive Procedures.


An interesting and unusual work on a little-explored field of study. By means of the iconographic evidence, the author aims to provide a counterbalance to the traditional studies of medieval welsh piety with their heavy emphasis on poetic material. There are interesting and suggestive divergences between the ideas communicated by literary evidence and those suggested by the surviving visual culture. In considering the importance of visual imagery as evidence for religious beliefs, the part played by imagery in the formation and reinforcement of a distinctive spirituality is not ignored. The work concentrates on surviving images from the 'golden century', but patterns of destruction and preservation are identified, including rare works lost through poverty and neglect.


The Holy Grail is an image familiar to us all as an almost unattainable, infinitely desirable goal. The idea has passed into everyday speech and the legends behind it are as current in today's culture as they have ever been. And yet the Grail has no real religious meaning and is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. What is the truth behind this elusive symbol? Here, Barber traces the history of the stories surrounding the Holy Grail. He describes how through a long series of imaginative transformations, the grail has moved from the sphere of romance to religion, and in twentieth century popular culture has become an emblem of mysticism and man's highest aspirations, intimately linked with the central ritual of the Christian faith. The search for the grail has always been described as a quest; in this book, Barber goes on his own quest, brilliantly exploring the richness of the Holy Grail's cultural impact. Barber traces the history of legends surrounding the Holy Grail, from Chretien de Troyes' great romances to the popular bestsellers of the late twentieth century.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative, research-based approach for stimulating self-awareness, reflection and intentional leadership development and address a call from the academic and business community to educate and prepare graduate students for leadership in contemporary complex workplaces. Building on previous research findings and recommendations, the authors suggest that leadership potential is understood and facilitated through leadership assessment, increased self-awareness and faculty coach-supported reflection and development planning by MBA students. Based on three key constructs in leadership development, a conceptual model depicts the approach to developing potential leaders at this juncture in their professional development.

Design/methodology/approach
New MBA students completed a leadership potential assessment instrument designed to target areas for focused leadership development throughout their MBA program and beyond. The assessment process is followed by faculty coach-supported reflection and development planning as an assignment during the students' MBA orientation course. To explore the impact of this innovative approach to accelerating the development of leadership potential, reflection papers from students who completed the process were analyzed. Data analysis consisted of content coding with an inter-rater reliability of 0.99 to classify the responses into four key categories. Survey data were also collected from 504 MBA students who attended an on-campus orientation course to measure students' increasing understanding and awareness of the value of the leadership development opportunity.

Findings
Quantitative and qualitative results provide initial support for this approach to developing leadership potential. Results suggest that the integrative model stimulates a process of awareness, reflection and intentional development, and supports the identification and pursuit of goal-directed learning opportunities throughout students' MBA program.

Originality/value
Graduate business school students are at a leadership inflection point in their trajectory as leaders. Business colleges play a key role in closing the leadership gap during the development cycle of the students' MBA program. The innovative approach in this paper, which facilitates self-awareness, reflection and intentional leadership development, offers a model for business colleges exploring how to foster these necessary leadership insights and capabilities.


Aim: Mentoring is widely acknowledged as being crucial for portfolio learning. The aim of this study is to examine how mentoring portfolio use has been implemented in undergraduate and postgraduate settings. Method: The results of interviews with six key persons involved in setting up portfolio use in medical education programmes were used to develop a questionnaire, which was administered to 30 coordinators of undergraduate and postgraduate portfolio programmes in the Netherlands and Flanders. Results: The interviews yielded four main aspects of the portfolio mentoring process – educational aims, individual meetings, small group sessions and mentor characteristics. Based on the questionnaire data, 16 undergraduate and 14 postgraduate programmes were described. Providing feedback and stimulating reflection were the main objectives of the mentoring process. Individual meetings were the favourite method for mentoring (26 programmes). Small group sessions to support the use of portfolios were held in 16 programmes, mostly in the undergraduate setting. In general, portfolio mentors were clinically qualified academic staff trained for their mentoring tasks. Conclusion: This study provides a variety of practical insights into implementing mentoring processes in portfolio programmes.


This work discusses the use of Lyapunov Characteristic Exponents to assess the stability of nonlinear, time-dependent mechanical systems. Specific attention is dedicated to methods capable of estimating the largest exponent without requiring the Jacobian matrix of the problem, which can be applied to time histories resulting from existing multibody solvers. Helicopter ground resonance is analyzed. Improvements over the available literature are: the problem is formulated in physical coordinates, without eliminating periodicity through multiblade coordinates; the rotation of the blades is not linearized; the problem is modeled considering absolute positions and orientations of parts. The dynamic instability that arises at some angular velocities when the isotropy of the rotor is broken (e.g., caused by the failure of one lead-lag damper, a design test condition) is observed to evolve into a large amplitude limit cycle, where the usual Floquet-Lyapunov analysis of the linearized time-periodic simply predicts instability.


The penultimate chapter analyses anti-corruption efforts within the Afghan police sector with reference to the responses provided by the interviewee, survey and structured interview respondents. It initially covers the interior ministry's internal anti-corruption strategy which is supported by both the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan and Major Crimes Task Force. Subsequently, efforts to mitigate payroll fraud with a biometric validation system is provided which is facing some technical difficulties. In addition, training efforts are examined which are too short to train the police force measures on anti-corruption, particularly for many officers who remain either literate or semi-literature. Further strategies to combat corruption and the development of patronage relations are examined. These include pay and rank reform phases that aimed to reduce the top heavy police generals, increase street-level police and increase their salaries. Despite several phases of pay reform, wages remain low to cover for living costs and the recruitment strategies remain hindered from patronage relations. As a measure to combat patronage and retaining loyalty to tribal elders and warlords rather than the state, rotation strategy was recommended by international actors and endorsed by the interior ministry which inadvertently resulted in further economic hardship.


USE OF TIMBER - A 5-year project designed to show the various ways that man has used timber in his developing technology through the ages. The whole project is broken down into 5 separate parts, one part having been completed in each school year from February to May since early in 1970. There is a common approach to each part, namely : - a) The study of a particular aspect of the use of wood by reading, visits, films and the production of written material, photographs, drawings and maps . b) The construction of detailed scale models of the selected subjects wherever possible in the original hardwoods.


We have designed and evaluated the performance of a custom Affymetrix microRNA (miRNA) microarray that enables the analysis of 15,090 unique mature miRNAs that are predicted or biologically verified. The comprehensive probe content of the array was selected from multiple sources including the Sanger miRBase sequence database (version 8.0), published reports, and a proprietary database of predicted miRNAs. Most of the ~31,000 25-mer probes on the array were designed by selecting two overlapping oligonucleotide sequences that span the mature miRNA sequences and a portion of the flanking precursors (pre-miRs). We also included antisense control probes as well as probes that target the predicted hairpin loop region of the pre-miR for a subset of well-characterized human miRNAs. We evaluated the array performance using a model system of two total RNA reference standards isolated from different tissues that were mixed in calibrated ratios. The custom array performance was compared to an enhanced mir Vana™ miRNA Bioarray, using the same calibrated mixtures of reference RNAs. We assessed the reproducibility, relative sensitivity, dynamic range and concordance between the results from the two platforms. The performance of the two platforms was similar, with both platforms reliably detecting differential miRNA expression. For those miRNAs that are represented on both platforms, there was a strong correlation of the log 2 ratios of differential expression levels between the RNA reference standards. Many of the miRNAs with detectable expression signals were novel predicted miRNAs derived from bioinformatic exploration of human genomic sequence data. This provides initial evidence that some of the predicted miRNAs are expressed in tissues and, therefore, may function as regulators by mechanisms consistent with other well-characterized miRNAs. In summary, our data illustrate the technological and biological feasibility of the custom high-density miRNA microarray for the comprehensive identification and global expression profiling of novel miRNAs.


Abstract From a New Institutional Economics (NIE) perspective, standards are acknowledged to play a central role in building efficient market infrastructure by defining what is exchanged and reducing the level of transaction and measurement costs. Nevertheless, only a few prior NIE studies have considered standard-setting activities as coordination and governance issues per se. This article aims to fill this gap by adapting and extending the classical Williamsonian analytical framework to the governance of standard-setting institutions. This analysis is substantiated by empirical data on global private standards in the agricultural sector. Our results highlight the importance of standard selection and the limits to current harmonisation as regards institutional failure to define alternative multilateral governance mechanisms at the international level.


We give an explicit formula for the motivic integrals related to the Milnor number over spaces of parametrised arcs on the plane with fixed tangency orders with the axis. These integrals are rational functions of the parameters and the class of the affine line. Using a set of natural recurrence relations between them, we prove an unexpected invariance property with respect to the simultaneous inversion of the parameters and the class of the affine line. We also discuss a generalization of this system of recurrence relations whose solutions are also symmetric and satisfy additional differential equations.


Reliable prediction of binding affinity of peptides is one of the most challenging but important complex modelling problems in the post-genome era due to the diversity and functionality of the peptides discovered. Generally, peptide binding prediction models are commonly used to find out whether a binding exists between a certain peptide(s) and a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule(s). Recent research efforts have been focused on quantifying the binding predictions. The objective of this thesis is to develop reliable real-value predictive models through the use of fuzzy systems. A non-linear system is proposed with the aid of support vector-based regression to improve the fuzzy system and applied to the real value prediction of degree of peptide binding. This research study introduced two novel methods to improve structure and parameter identification of fuzzy systems. First, the support-vector based regression is used to identify initial parameter values of the consequent part of type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy systems. Second, an overlapping clustering concept is used to derive interval valued parameters of the premise part of the type-2 fuzzy system. Publicly available peptide binding affinity data sets obtained from the literature are used in the experimental studies of this thesis. First, the proposed models are blind validated using the peptide binding affinity data sets obtained from a modelling competition. In that competition, almost an equal number of peptide sequences in the training and testing data sets (89, 76, 133 and 133 peptides for the training and 88, 76, 133 and 47 peptides for the testing) are provided to the participants. Each peptide in the data sets was represented by 643 bio-chemical descriptors assigned to each amino acid. Second, the proposed models are cross validated using mouse class I MHC alleles (H2-Db, H2-Kb and H2-Kk). H2-Db, H2-Kb, and H2-Kk consist of 65 nona-peptides, 62 octa-peptides, and 154 octa-peptides, respectively. Compared to the previously published results in the literature, the support vector-based type-1 and support vector-based interval type-2 fuzzy models yield an improvement in the prediction accuracy. The quantitative predictive performances have been improved as much as 33.6% for the first group of data sets and 1.32% for the second group of data sets. The proposed models not only improved the performance of the fuzzy system (which used support vector-based regression), but the support vector-based regression benefited from the fuzzy concept also. The results obtained here sets the platform for the presented models to be considered for other application domains in computational and/or systems biology. Apart from improving the prediction accuracy, this research study has also identified specific features which play a key role(s) in making reliable peptide binding affinity predictions. The amino acid features "Polarity", "Positive charge", "Hydrophobicity coefficient", and "Zimm-Bragg parameter" are considered as highly discriminating features in the peptide binding affinity data sets. This information can be valuable in the design of peptides with strong binding affinity to a MHC I molecule(s). This information may also be useful when designing drugs and vaccines.


When compared with differences in snow accumulation predicted by widely used hydrological models, there is a much greater divergence among otherwise "good" models in their simulation of the snow ablation process. Here, we explore differences in the performance of the Variable Infiltration Capacity model (VIC), Noah land surface model with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP), the Catchment model, and the third-generation Simplified Simple Biosphere model (SiB3) in their ability to reproduce observed snow water equivalent (SWE) during the ablation season at 10 Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) stations over 1992–2012. During the ablation period, net radiation generally has stronger correlations with observed melt rates than does air temperature. Average ablation rates tend to be higher (in both model predictions and observations) at stations with a large accumulation of SWE. The differences in the dates of last snow between models and observations range from several days to approximately a month (on average 5.1 days earlier than in observations). If the surface cover in the models is changed from observed vegetation to bare soil in all of the models, only the melt rate of the VIC model increases. The differences in responses of models to canopy removal are directly related to snowpack energy inputs, which are further affected by different algorithms for surface albedo and energy allocation across the models. We also find that the melt rates become higher in VIC and lower in Noah-MP if the shrub/grass present at the observation sites is switched to trees.


The paper assesses how remittances directly and indirectly affect industrialisation using a panel of 49 African countries for the period 1980-2014. The indirect impact is assessed through financial development channels. The empirical evidence is based on three interactive and non-interactive simultaneity-robust estimation techniques, namely: (i) Instrumental Fixed Effects (FE) to control for the unobserved heterogeneity; (ii) Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) to control for persistence in industrialisation and (iii) Instrumental Quantile Regressions (QR) to account for initial levels of industrialisation. The non-interactive specification elucidates direct effects of remittances on industrialisation whereas interactive specifications explain indirect impacts. The findings broadly show that for certain initial levels of industrialisation, remittances can drive industrialisation through the financial development mechanism. Policy implications are discussed.


The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision is perhaps the Roberts Court's most well-known and controversial ruling. It has been criticized and, indeed, reviled, by the President of the United States on down. It is also cited as Exhibit A for the proposition that the Roberts Court is a relentlessly pro-business institution in its key decisions. In this chapter of a book entitled Business and the Roberts Court, I contend that both the criticism of the decision and of the Court is wrong. In my view, Citizens United is a decision which embodied and applied classic First Amendment principles. In doing so, the Court freed labor unions, non-profit organizations and yes, business corporations, from unwarranted restraints on their ability to speak on behalf of their members, supporters, shareholders and adherents. In protecting free speech and political freedom, the landmark decision was part of a larger Roberts Court pattern of deregulatory rulings, not just in the campaign finance area, but in a number of First Amendment contexts far removed from that area. Indeed, many of the Court's rulings manifest a strongly libertarian caste to them with a pervading theme that where free speech is concerned, it is the people, not the government, who get to decide what form and content that speech will take. In the end, the Citizens United decision, embodying these principles, reflects the work not of a pro-business Court, but of a pro-free speech Court.


The inferotemporal cortex of the macaque monkey mediates the recognition of objects in the visual world. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation was to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying two poorly understood aspects of object recognition. The first experiment addressed the question of how visual features are integrated in IT. In this study, we sought to determine whether feature selectivity for shape and color is integrated by IT neurons via a conjunction-coding mechanism, or via linear summation. We demonstrate that visual responses of most IT neurons encode shape and color information in a linear manner. Our results shed light on the computational strategy that the brain employs to construct a versatile representation of the visual world.The purpose of the second experiment was to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying repetition priming. Repetition priming is a form of rapid visual learning, whereby previous experience with an object allows for faster, more efficient perceptual processing of that object upon subsequent encounters. This behavioral process is believed to be dependent on activity reductions in single IT neurons, but this hypothesis has never been tested. Indeed, repetition priming has never been demonstrated before in monkeys. To address this issue, we adapted the experimental paradigm of repetition priming for use in primate physiology. We demonstrate that repetition priming at the level of behavior is accompanied by repetition suppression at the level of single neurons in IT. We further demonstrate that repetition suppression in IT results in a proportional scaling reduction of visual responses, and not in a sharpening of the stimulus selectivity. These findings constrain the possible mechanisms whereby visual response plasticity in IT could contribute to behavioral priming.


It is well known that in surface mount technology (SMT), thermal strains in electronic assemblies are induced in the solder joints by the mismatch between the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of the components, substrate and solder, both during their processing and in service. Therefore, thermo-mechanical damage is likely to occur in the solder and the principle reliability hazard in SMT assemblies is the resulting fatigue cracking of the solder fillet, caused by cyclic thermal stresses. These stresses may be caused by both cyclic variations in power dissipation within equipment and by external environmental temperature changes. Most work reported to date has focused on the effects of environmental temperature changes, although for many types of equipment power cycling may result in significant stresses. The present paper describes the experimental determination of the actual temperature distribution in a chip resistor assembly when it is powered. The paper also discusses the significance of such experimentally determined non-uniform temperature distributions in electronic assemblies to fatigue damage accumulation due to both power cycling and to cyclic variations in the ambient temperature whilst the chip resistor is powered. This fatigue damage accumulation study is carried out using finite element analysis.


This is a collection of short stories about children and young people in Jamaica. Full of wonderfully atmospheric background detail combined with the rhythms and patterns of speech, these contemporary narratives bring to life a culture highly relevant to multi ethnic Britain. Stories include "Becky and the Wheels and Brake Boys"; "A Thief in the Village"; "Tukku Tukku and Sampson"; "All other Days Run into Sunday"; "The Mouth Organ Boys"; "Elias and the Mongoose"; "The Pet, The Sea and Little Buddy"; "Fanso and Granny-Flo"; and, "The Banana Tree".


The ILO works with developing countries to promote employment, income and decent work opportunities for all women and men, in keeping with the SDGs, but in particular, SDG 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and SDG 8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men. This report has reviewed and compiled selected examples of gender-responsive (inclusive) employment policies and programmes that underpin ILO's work, as well as examples of good practice from other organizations, recognizing that collaboration and partnerships on a global scale will be required to achieve the SDGs.


This thesis proposes two mathematical stochastic optimisation models handling two different aspects of uncertainty in the daily problem of deciding start times for a set of surgeries in a single operating room. The uncertainty related to surgery durations are modelled by scenarios generated using moment-matching on a statistical basis of detailed data on almost 90 000 past surgeries at St. Olavs Hospital. Both problems have the objective of minimising the expected cost of waiting time, idle time and overtime. The first is based on the hypothesis that, for some surgeries, the uncertainty in duration depends on the start time, a hypothesis that is tested using a twosample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of independence. The model formulated to solve this problem is a mixed integer program including decision-dependent uncertainty, something that complicates the problem considerably on a computational level. The second problem includes both stochastic surgery durations and stochastic arrival of emergency patients, a combination that, to the authors' best knowledge, has not yet been covered by existing literature. The model formulations are tightened by the introduction of several valid inequalities, the most effective of which is a cut strengthening the link between two types of sequencing variables. On average this reduces execution time by roughly 40%. To further overcome the computational challenges posed by decision-dependent uncertainty, and in order to investigate alternative solution methods, we test the heuristics most commonly used in surgery scheduling literature. These tests conclude that the best performance is by a heuristic sorting surgeries by increasing variance, while the popular Bailey-Welch heuristic shows poor performance. Based on insights gained from our practical analysis, and with foundation in literature, we propose a decision rule stating that you should sequence the surgeries by ascending variance, and set start times with intervals equal to each surgery's mean duration. We proceed to show that this rule captures large parts of the total potential gain from solving the stochastic models using optimisation. Averaged over our problem instances, the model results signify that the case hospital can reduce waiting time, idle time and overtime by 160, 22, and 16 minutes per day, respectively. The contribution of this thesis is thus both on a practical and a theoretical level.


PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER TRAFFIC FACILITATOR1 (PHF1) is known to regulate the plasma membrane localization of PHT1;1, a high-affinity inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporter in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). OsPHF1, a rice (Oryza sativa) gene homologous to AtPHF1, was isolated and found to regulate the localization of both low- and high-affinity Pi transporters to the plasma membrane. Three OsPHF1 allelic mutants carrying one-point mutations at the fifth WD-repeat motif and two at the transmembrane helix, respectively, showed arsenate resistance and severely reduced Pi accumulation. The data indicate that mutation of OsPHF1 results in the endoplasmic reticulum retention of the low-affinity Pi transporter OsPT2 and high-affinity Pi transporter OsPT8. Mutation of OsPHF1 also reduced Pi accumulation in plants exhibiting excessive shoot Pi accumulation due to the overexpression of OsPHR2. However, the transcript level of OsPHF1 itself is not controlled by OsPHR2. Overexpression of OsPHF1 increased Pi accumulation in both roots and shoots in a solution culture with Pi-supplied condition. These results indicate that the role of OsPHF1 is unique in the localization of both low- and high-affinity Pi transporters on the plasma membrane in rice and determines Pi uptake and translocation in rice. The similar function of PHF1 required to facilitate PHT1 transit through the endoplasmic reticulum between Arabidopsis and rice provides an example of expectations from what one would deduce from sequence comparisons to extend knowledge from Arabidopsis to crops.


Abstrac t—This paper will present the findings of the pilot studies on the use of online social network in Malaysia. A total of 40 questionnaires were distributed to active users of this social media to get an early indication on this activity. In addition, discussion about the global activities of online social networking is also undertaken as a comparison. The analysis shows that online social networking has been used as a new mode of communication especially for Internet active users to meet and interact with their friends. Early findings indicate that they spent quite many hours in this environment and log in into their accounts a few times a day. This shows that social interaction in cyberspace by using new media applications such as social networking has been adapted by more and more people and has changed human communication.


In recent years, learning user preferences has received significant attention. A shortcoming of existing learning to rank work lies in that they do not take into account the multi-level hierarchies from social choice to individuals. In this paper, we propose a multi-level model which learns both the common preference or utility function over the population based on features of alternatives to-be-compared, and preferential diversity functions conditioning on user categories. Such a multi-level model, enables us to simultaneously learn a coarse-grained social preference function together with a fine-grained personalized diversity. It provides us prediction power for the choices of new users on new alternatives. The key algorithm in this paper is based on Split Linearized Bregman Iteration (SplitLBI) algorithm which generates a dynamic path from the common utility to personalized preferential diversity, at different levels of sparsity on personalization. A synchronized parallel version of SplitLBI is proposed to meet the needs of fast analysis of large-scale data. The validity of the methodology are supported by experiments with both simulated and real-world datasets such as movie and dining restaurant ratings which provides us a coarse-to-fine grained preference learning.


A first principles study of the elastic and structural properties of selected elements and compounds is presented. The theoretical basis for these investigations is the density functional theory, in combination with a full potential linear muffin-tin orbital method.The elastic constants have been calculated for the hexagonal 4d and 5d elements and for the compounds ZnO and TiSi2; these agree with measurements within 30%. For the hexagonal elements in the 4 d and 5 d series it is shown that the elasticity is more isotropic than the cubic elements inthe same series.A study of the recently measured pressure induced isostructural phase transition in Zn is presented. The lattice parameter a, in the hexagonal plane, has been observed to exhibit a highly anomalous behavior. The effect is reproduced by theory and the mechanism causing the anomaly is demonstrated to be a change in the topology of the Fermi surface (FS) with decreasing volume.Uranium metal exhibits three temperature driven phase transitions in the range of 47K to 30K. These transformations are usually referred to as changes in the charge density wave states, with the most dominating one called α1. The transition to the α1 phase is investigated and it is shown that the driving mechanism is a Peierls distortion of the uranium lattice.Several ground state properties of the elements in the lanthanide series have been investigated, such as the cohesive energy, equilibrium volume and bulk modulus. In addition a novel way of calculating the valence stability for lanthanide systems is presented.Some technologically important materials have also been considered. The quantity hardness is coupled to the bulk modulus for the compound RuO2; it is shown that this system is almost as hard as diamond.


A discussion is presented of problems of multisensory integration and feedback in a robot gripper. Various contact and noncontact sensors are described and it is shown how a number of such 'low-dimensional' sensors are integrable in an advanced robot gripper. The resulting gripper uses only a few data and power supply connections out of the wrist. Feedback structures are outlined with the main emphasis on different alternatives in force-torque feedback; the various approaches proposed in the literature are considered in more detail. The problem of sensor data fusion, including the redundancy problem, is briefly explained. >


To establish the best approach to develop a quality of life (QoL) questionnaire for cancer-patient caregivers, this study attempts to identify primary domains of QoL in terms of their impact on a purposive sample of caregivers. Seventy-seven informal adult caregivers of cancer patients (breast cancer, paediatric haematological malignancies or melanoma) with different relationships with the patients (parents, children, spouses, siblings, and friends) were recruited at three specialised French centres and extensively interviewed. Caregivers' lives were altered in several domains: psychological well-being, leisure and everyday activities, relationships with institutional caregivers, occupation and finances, relationships with family and friends, physical well-being, and relationship with the patient. The relative importance of these domains varied mainly in association with the caregiver-patient relationship. Multiple correspondence analysis identified two isolated clusters: children, and, most significantly, friends and siblings. The latter groups emphasised the repercussions on their psychological well-being and their relationship with the patient, but were less willing to discuss the impact on their relationship with caregivers and on occupation, finances, leisure, and everyday activities. This study focuses on the caregiver's perspective and advocates the development of a short QoL core questionnaire. Additional modules should be cancer-specific or dedicated to specifics of the caregiver-patient relationship.


Adequate surgical margins in breast-conserving surgery are an important predictor of local recurrence (LR) rates. The definition of tumor-free margins in National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) trials requires that tumor cells do not touch ink, but subsequent retrospective single-institution studies have suggested that wider margins confer greater protection against LR. Particularly wide margins have been proposed for ductal carcinoma in situ. However, wider margin requirements lead to higher re-excision rates, with attendant economic, psychological, and cosmetic costs, and perhaps increased mastectomy rates. Juxtaposed against these concerns about optimal margin width, a meta-analysis of clinical trials has demonstrated the survival value of minimizing LR. We are therefore at a juncture where a reduction of LR may be achieved by tumor resection with wide margins, but data regarding optimal margin width are conflicting and the risk/benefit balance of tumorectomy with wide margins has not been demonstrated. A randomized trial of reexcision for close margins inserted into trials of systemic therapy could be considered but seems unlikely. Alternatively, detailed longitudinal data need to balance the value and the cost of wide margins. Until better data are available, the desirable margin width will vary depending on individual circumstances, including age, histology, and patient preference.


Abstract : Our Nation has been at war for over six years. Our Army Active, Guard and Reserve has been a leader in this war and has been fully engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, and defending the homeland. We also have provided support, most notably by the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, to civil authorities during domestic emergencies. Today, of the Nation's nearly one million Soldiers, almost 600,000 are serving on active duty and over 250,000 are deployed to nearly 80 countries worldwide. We live in a world where global terrorism and extremist ideologies threaten our safety and our freedom. As we look to the future, we believe the coming decades are likely to be ones of persistent conflict protracted confrontation among state, non-state, and individual actors who use violence to achieve their political and ideological ends. In this era of persistent conflict, the Army will continue to have a central role in implementing our national security strategy. While the Army remains the best led, best trained, and best equipped Army in the world, it is out of balance. The combined effects of an operational tempo that provides insufficient recovery time for personnel, Families, and equipment, a focus on training for counterinsurgency operations to the exclusion of other capabilities, and Reserve Components assigned missions for which they were not originally intended nor adequately resourced, result in our readiness being consumed as fast as we can build it. Therefore, our top priority over the next several years is to restore balance through four imperatives: Sustain, Prepare, Reset, and Transform. The Army's strength is its Soldiers and the Families and Army Civilians who support them. The quality of life we provide our Soldiers and their Families must be commensurate with their quality of service. We will ensure that our injured and wounded Warriors, and their Families, receive the care and support they need to reintegrate effectively into the Army or back into society.


This research is a complementary study to a recent experimental study on a newly developed seismic isolator called ball rubber bearing (BRB). BRB-type isolators can be easily manufactured similar to the standard elastomeric bridge bearings and can provide significant energy dissipation during an earthquake through friction provided by steel balls inside the cylindrical core. Structural response of BRBs at low temperatures has not been examined in previous research. In this research, behavior of BRBs exposed to different simulated weather conditions is tested under combined axial and cyclic lateral load. Comparison of room temperature and low-temperature test results indicates that the BRB can have slightly increased damping characteristics and horizontal stiffness in cold-weather conditions. This shift in performance has been included in the proposed design recommendations.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a better system for classification of herd infection status for paratuberculosis (Johne's disease [JD]) in US cattle herds on the basis of the risk of potential transmission of Mycobacterium avium subsp paratubeculosis.

SAMPLE
Simulated data for herd size and within-herd prevalence; sensitivity and specificity for test methods obtained from consensus-based estimates.

PROCEDURES
Interrelationships among variables influencing interpretation and classification of herd infection status for JD were evaluated by use of simulated data for various herd sizes, true within-herd prevalences, and sampling and testing methods. The probability of finding ≥ 1 infected animal in herds was estimated for various testing methods and sample sizes by use of hypergeometric random sampling.

RESULTS
2 main components were required for the new herd JD classification system: the probability of detection of infection determined on the basis of test results from a sample of animals and the maximum detected number of animals with positive test results. Tables were constructed of the estimated probability of detection of infection, and the maximum number of cattle with positive test results or fecal pools with positive culture results with 95% confidence for classification of herd JD infection status were plotted. Herd risk for JD was categorized on the basis of 95% confidence that the true within-herd prevalence was ≤ 15%, ≤ 10%, ≤ 5%, or ≤ 2%.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Analysis of the findings indicated that a scientifically rigorous and transparent herd classification system for JD in cattle is feasible.


Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D), but whether NAFLD plays a causal role in the pathogenesis of T2D is uncertain. One proposed mechanism linking NAFLD to hepatic insulin resistance involves diacylglycerol-mediated (DAG-mediated) activation of protein kinase C-ε (PKCε) and the consequent inhibition of insulin receptor (INSR) kinase activity. However, the molecular mechanism underlying PKCε inhibition of INSR kinase activity is unknown. Here, we used mass spectrometry to identify the phosphorylation site Thr1160 as a PKCε substrate in the functionally critical INSR kinase activation loop. We hypothesized that Thr1160 phosphorylation impairs INSR kinase activity by destabilizing the active configuration of the INSR kinase, and our results confirmed this prediction by demonstrating severely impaired INSR kinase activity in phosphomimetic T1160E mutants. Conversely, the INSR T1160A mutant was not inhibited by PKCε in vitro. Furthermore, mice with a threonine-to-alanine mutation at the homologous residue Thr1150 (InsrT1150A mice) were protected from high fat diet-induced hepatic insulin resistance. InsrT1150A mice also displayed increased insulin signaling, suppression of hepatic glucose production, and increased hepatic glycogen synthesis compared with WT controls during hyperinsulinemic clamp studies. These data reveal a critical pathophysiological role for INSR Thr1160 phosphorylation and provide further mechanistic links between PKCε and INSR in mediating NAFLD-induced hepatic insulin resistance.


Carotenoids are one of the most widespread groups of pigments in nature and more than 600 of these have been identified. Beside provitamin A activity, carotenoids are important as antioxidants and protective agents against various diseases. They are isoprenoids with a long polyene chain containing 3 to 15 conjugated double bonds, which determines their absorption spectrum. Cyclization at one or both ends occurs in hydrocarbon carotene, while xanthophylls are formed by the introduction of oxygen. In addition, modifications involving chain elongation, isomerization, or degradation are also found. The composition of carotenoids in food may vary depending upon production practices, post-harvest handling, processing, and storage. In higher plants they are synthesized in the plastid. Both mevalonate dependent and independent pathway for the formation of isopentenyl diphosphate are known. Isopentenyl diphosphate undergoes a series of addition and condensation reactions to form phytoene, which gets converted to lycopene. Cyclization of lycopene either leads to the formation of β-carotene and its derivative xanthophylls, β-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, antheraxanthin, and violaxanthin or α-carotene and lutein. Even though most of the carotenoid biosynthetic genes have been cloned and identified, some aspects of carotenoid formation and manipulation in higher plants especially remain poorly understood. In order to enhance the carotenoid content of crop plants to a level that will be required for the prevention of diseases, there is a need for research in both the basic and the applied aspects.


The enzyme alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) plays an important role in peroxisomal beta-oxidation of branched-chain fatty acid and therefore is relevant to carcinogenesis. The involvement of AMACR in prostate cancer (CaP) is implicated by the recent observation that expression of AMACR is consistently and extensively up-regulated in CaP. This observation is of particular interest, given previous findings from epidemiological studies that red meat and dairy products, major sources of branched-chain fatty acid, are associated with CaP risk and from linkage studies that the AMACR gene region at 5p13 is linked to a CaP susceptibility gene. In this study, we hypothesize that sequence variants in AMACR may alter the risk for CaP. To test this hypothesis, we sequenced all five exons, exon-intron junctions, the promoter region, and 3'-untranslated region of AMACR in germ-line DNA samples of 96 probands from hereditary CaP (HPC) families. Seventeen sequence variants, including five novel (R118Q, V185A, P238S, Q239H, and L250R) and five known (M9V, S52P, D175G, S201L, and K277E) missense changes, were identified. Six of these variants are at conserved residues among the rat and mouse AMACR. Eleven of these single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped in a total of 159 HPC probands, 245 sporadic cases, and 211 unaffected controls to assess their association with CaP risk. Significantly different genotype frequencies between HPC probands and unaffected controls were found for several missense changes, including M9V (P = 0.03), G1175D (P = 0.02), S291L (P = 0.02), and K277E (P = 0.02). Haplotype analysis provided stronger evidence for association (P = 0.001). Furthermore, the AMACR sequence variants strongly cosegregate with CaP in HPC families (log of odds = 3.78; P = 0.00006), especially in the subset of families whose probands carry the "A-A" haplotype of M9V and D175G (log of odds = 4.34; P = 0.000008). These results suggest that sequence variants in AMACR may be associated with CaP risk.


Abstract The context for land resistance in liberalising India is dynamic. As the state promotes capital investment, lines between public and private are blurred. Land is central to these efforts, as new industries, mines, large-scale agricultural projects and infrastructure initiatives all require vast amounts of land. The introduction of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the Indian state of Goa highlight land deal tensions. Following protests rallying thousands and widespread public mistrust of land and regional planning processes, the state's chief minister halted the zones. This action mollified public unrest and temporarily appeased anti-SEZ social movements. However, scepticism arose as the chief minister failed to legally de-register the zones and return SEZ lands to original owners or collectives. Amidst state inaction, movement members sought judicial justice. Protest and corruption theories are integrated with political interpretations of liminality in this article to frame how social movements shift their patterns of intervention in response to or in anticipation of inaction. Enhanced opportunities for corruption, exemplified by the SEZ model, lead movements to adapt strategies of resistance beyond state-oriented protest. The interventions discussed represent a shift in the ritual form of protest and the degree of political engagement with the judiciary. The multi-faceted contestation altered power structure, while politicising and scrutinising land deals.


Due to its dynamic and rapid development and due to a variety of academic disciplines and research communities contributing to information systems (IS) research, a broad variety of research approaches can be found. These approaches are often discussed as contrasting "paradigms". Positivism and interpretivism are frequently accepted to be the most relevant paradigms (cf., for instance, Klein & Myers 1999; Lee 1991; Walsham 1995; Weber 2004). A further set of paradigms consists of behavioural science research ('problem understanding paradigm') and design science research ('problem understanding paradigm') which has been introduced in the IS literature and heavily adopted since (cf., for instance, Hevner et al. 2004; Jani 2001; March & Smith 1995). On top of this distinction, the critical research paradigm, including its logical complement, the non-critical paradigm, shaped the discussion of IS research philosophy for more than two decades (cf., for instance, Brooke 2002; Klein & Huynh 2004; Landry & Banville 1992; Mumford et al. 1985). Though it is essential to research theory and practice in the IS discipline to discuss the interconnections between these different sets of paradigms, such endeavour has not yet been undertaken. Some approaches address the interdependency between interpretivism and critical research. However, a holistic framework, also taking into account also behavioural and design science is still missing. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide an integrated discussion of these different sets of paradigms and to provide novel perspectives for IS research on how to deal with the apparent diversity of approaches. We will furthermore point out why this discussion is of great importance to IS research especially in Europe.


Background Adjustment for morbidity level is important in ensuring fair comparison of outcomes between patient groups and healthcare providers. The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in UK primary care, which records numerous diseases systematically, offers potential for developing a standardised morbidity score that can be easily applied in research and service settings. Methods Using The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a large primary care database of 375 UK general practices in 2008–9, half the practices were randomly selected as a training set to derive a morbidity score based on chronic conditions recorded in QOF, and the other practices formed a validation set to assess predictive performance. A total of 653,780 patients aged 60 and over registered in 2008 were included, and mortality at one year was assessed. Results Nine QOF conditions were identified as robust co-predictors (Hazard Ratio ≥1.2) of mortality independent of age and sex, and were assigned integer score weights based on the strength of their association with mortality. Cancer (HR=3.4) and Dementia (HR=2.8) were the strongest predictors. In a Cox model with age and sex included, the addition of the QOF score improved model discrimination in predicting mortality (c-statistic=0.82 vs. 0.78), performing similarly to the Charlson index, an established morbidity index. In a multilevel logistic model, an individual's QOF score explained more of the variation in mortality between practices than the Charlson index (46% compared to 32%). At practice level, the mean QOF score per patient was strongly correlated with practice standardised mortality ratios (r=0.64) and explained more variation in practice death rates than the Charlson index. Conclusion A simple score derived from routine QOF recording provides a morbidity index which is highly predictive of one year mortality in older UK Primary Care patients, is simpler to implement than existing morbidity scores, and explains practice level variations in mortality. This new score has potential utility in research and healthcare outcome monitoring and could be easily implemented nationally through existing mechanisms for anonymised collection of QOF data from practices.


Attacks on information security continue to be reported in the media, and result in large losses for organizations. While some attacks are the result of sophisticated threats, others can be traced to failures by organizational insiders to observe basic security policies such as using caution when opening unsolicited email attachments. Faced with the challenges and time demands of everyday stressors, security policy compliance can be costly for individuals; security actions require time and distract attention from other primary tasks. This costliness can lead individuals to ignore prompts to perform security updates, scan their computers for threats, or reboot their computers to apply security updates.

This dissertation contains three studies that address the following overarching research question: How can end-user adherence to security messages be better understood and improved, and how can theory inform security-message design? First, two complementary studies are presented that examine the integration of media naturalness theory into a security message context using field study and fMRI designs. Study 1, the field study, unobtrusively captures objective measures of attention from Amazon Mechanical Turk users (N=510) as they perform a between-subjects deception protocol. Study 2, the fMRI study, examines neural activations from a within-subjects participant design (N=23) in response to different security message designs with integrated emotive human facial expressions. Data from studies 1 and 2 show that warnings with integrated facial expressions of threat (fear, disgust) generally elicited greater adherence rates and higher evidence of cognition and elaboration than did warnings with integrated neutral facial expressions or than did warnings with no integrated facial expressions, supporting our hypotheses. Study 3 explores the pattern of risk taking and analysis that users engage in when interacting with interruptive security messages. The corroboration of multiple behavioral dependent variables suggests that users predominantly use a bimodal risk tradeoff paradigm when interacting with interruptive security messages. All three studies address the overarching research question of understanding and improving end user adherence to security messages.


We live in world of technological advancement, a digital age and this has an impact on all sectors of activity, including education and communication. In our present-day society, communication has become more and more technology-based, and that is why, universities, as promoters of values, aim to meet the society needs, by implementing new methods of communication.
At university level, there is a Courses Management System which comprises a series of Web applications, that run on a server and that are accessed by means of a web browser. This system offers tools, which the education specialists can use in order to create the course website, and also to control the access to courses, so that only the enrolled students may be granted the access. Besides this access control, the system offers various tools, which could improve the lectures: uploading teaching materials, forums, chats, tests and surveys, home assignments and virtual registration of the grades.
This article defines the technology-based educational communication which takes place in a technical university, and analyses several methods and tools of this type of communication which are offered by the Moodle platform, used in the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. It also describes the benefits and limitations of this type of communication. Our research is mainly qualitative and is based on two focus-groups, which had an exploratory role and on a case study, carried out on basis of the researcher?s observations and of several interviews. The aim of our research is to identify the students? perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the information technology-based educational communication in their faculty.
Although the new IT communication tools represent alternative and effective ways for improving the lectures, the diversity of facilities which they offer can lead to an exaggerated enthusiasm regarding their use in education. We should not ignore the advantages that they bring, but, at the same, we shouldn't use them randomly.


To facilitate future research in unsupervised induction of syntactic structure and to standardize best-practices, we propose a tagset that consists of twelve universal part-of-speech categories. In addition to the tagset, we develop a mapping from 25 different treebank tagsets to this universal set. As a result, when combined with the original treebank data, this universal tagset and mapping produce a dataset consisting of common parts-of-speech for 22 different languages. We highlight the use of this resource via three experiments, that (1) compare tagging accuracies across languages, (2) present an unsupervised grammar induction approach that does not use gold standard part-of-speech tags, and (3) use the universal tags to transfer dependency parsers between languages, achieving state-of-the-art results.


Based on the coal petrology character of Taixi anthracite, the selective flocculation-flotation preparation of super clean coal is studied. The influences factors of the type and dosage of dispersant, the type and dosage of flocculant, pulp density etc etc on its effect is analyzed, and, through the orthogonal experimental methods, the salience order, interaction, and the optimum combination of the main factors is revealed. The finally test results indicate that we can obtain an ash about 1.29% at a yield of 41.85%% super clean coal, thus will provide basis for the future super clean coal industrialization.


The process is described of the replacement of cordierite by basic plagioclase associated with subordinate chlorite and sporadical biotite. It took place during regressive metamorphism of the metamorphic Krynki series (Precambrian substrate of NE Poland) developed in the hornfels facies, with calcium and alkalies supplied probably under a low pressure and temperatures ranging from 330 to 500° C. The recognized plagioclase has been analysed on a universal stage for ills composition, facial development and orientation in reIation to the cordierite being replaced.


By adding frequency modulated signal to the equation of the laser intensity of the gain-noise model of the single-mode lasers, we use the linear approximation method to calculate the power spectrum and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the laser intensity, which is driven by two white noises correlated in the form of δ function. The result shows that the SNR shows typical stochastic resonance with the change of intensities of the pump noise and quantum noise. As the amplitude of a modulated signal has an effect on the SNR, it shows suppression, monotonic increase, resonance, suppression and resonance and so on, with the varing of the frequencies of the carrier signal and modulated signal.


This paper deals with the stability and transition to turbulence of wall-bounded unsteady velocity profiles with reverse flow. Such flows occur, for example, during unsteady boundary layer separation and in oscillating pipe flow. The main focus is on results from experiments in time-developing flow in a long pipe, which is decelerated rapidly. The flow is generated by the controlled motion of a piston. We obtain analytical solutions for laminar flow in the pipe and in a two-dimensional channel for arbitrary piston motions. By changing the piston speed and the length of piston travel we cover a range of values of Reynolds number and boundary layer thickness. The velocity profiles during the decay of the flow are unsteady with reverse flow near the wall, and are highly unstable due to their inflectional nature. In the pipe, we observe from flow visualization that the flow becomes unstable with the formation of what appears to be a helical vortex. The wavelength of the instability ≃3δ where δ is the average boundary layer thickness, the average being taken over the time the flow is unstable. The time of formation of the vortices scales with the average convective time scale and is ≃39/(Δū/δ), where Δu=(umax−umin) and umax, umin and δ are the maximum velocity, minimum velocity and boundary layer thickness respectively at each instant of time. The time to transition to turbulence is ≃33/(Δū/δ). Quasi-steady linear stability analysis of the velocity profiles brings out two important results. First that the stability characteristics of velocity profiles with reverse flow near the wall collapse when scaled with the above variables. Second that the wavenumber corresponding to maximum growth does not change much during the instability even though the velocity profile does change substantially. Using the results from the experiments and the stability analysis, we are able to explain many aspects of transition in oscillating pipe flow. We postulate that unsteady boundary layer separation at high Reynolds numbers is probably related to instability of the reverse flow region.


Objectives: Canada and Australia share two priority areas for HI workforce capacity building: to support research and education. This presentation will discuss a collaborative, nationwide health informatics (HI) PhD/Postdoc training program in Canada, which demonstrates a potential solution to meet these priorities. The status of HI higher education in Australia is briefly reviewed. The potential solution in resolving workforce shortage in Australia through adopting overseas practice is discussed, such as implementing a similar collaborative HI research training program across the country. Background: A Think Tank organized by Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing in 2003 explored the issue of HI workforce capacity building and identified a list of priorities for action. These included support for research and education. One proposed strategy for addressing research support was to: "Fund the formation of a virtual collective of researchers." Proposed strategies for enhancing education included: "exploring the potential of collaboration between universities for efficiency gains." This paper discusses how to move the agenda forward based on case study of a similar Canadian initiative for addressing similar issues. Methods: A comparative case study approach was taken that integrated a literature research, which identified the importance of support for research and education in HI workforce capacity building in Australia, document review, interview of key informants and observation of project progress. Results and Implications: In response to the national need for solutions to HI research and education capacity building, this paper explored the possibility of introducing a program similar to a nationally funded Canadian project with eight universities that established a collaborative HI PhD/Postdoc research training program. However, the education system in Australia is different from that of Canada. Substantial strategic and tactical issues remain to be solved before such an initiative could move forward. Despite the challenges, Canadians have demonstrated that such an initiative can succeed and play a vital role in enhancing HI research and education capacity nationwide.


The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is used for conducting rapid assessments of energy use in cities. It helps prioritize sectors with significant energy savings potential, and identifies appropriate energy efficiency interventions across six sectors-transport, municipal buildings, water and waste water, public lighting, solid waste, and power and heat. It is a simple, low-cost, user-friendly, and practical tool that can be applied in any socioeconomic setting. This report is based on the implementation of the TRACE tool in Constanta in July 2013 and it outlines ideas on what the city could further do to improve its energy efficiency performance. It details the analysis carried out and the recommendations derived as a result, for district heating maintenance and upgrade, non-motorized transport, public transport development, parking restraint measures, municipal building benchmarking program, municipal buildings audit and retrofit, street lighting timing program, energy efficiency action plan and strategy, and awareness raising campaigns.


This paper describes research carried out by means of simulation software AVL FIRE. The paper presents detailed steps leading to the implementation of the simulation model of the selfignition combustion chamber. As a result of the modeling process an animation was created which shows the behavior of the piston and the fuel injection temperature changes depending on the angle of rotation of the crankshaft. The simulation of the phenomena occurring during injection and combustion in the combustion chamber was conducted for the fluid of physical properties and chemical composition corresponding to the properties of diesel fuel and for the fluid with properties corresponding to the rapeseed oil. Simulation results of the carbon black and nitric oxide emission were presented for these two fuels. The aim of this study was to obtain information of the combustion chamber of the diesel engine adapted for feeding with rapeseed oil.


Abstract Given a passive tracer distribution $f(x,y)$, what is the simplest unstirred pattern that may be reached under incompressible advection? This question is partially motivated by recent studies of three-dimensional (3-D) magnetic reconnection, in which the patterns of a topological invariant called the field line helicity greatly simplify until reaching a relaxed state. We test two approaches: a variational method with minimal constraints, and a magnetic relaxation scheme where the velocity is determined explicitly by the pattern of $f$. Both methods achieve similar convergence for simple test cases. However, the magnetic relaxation method guarantees a monotonic decrease in the Dirichlet seminorm of $f$, and is numerically more robust. We therefore apply the latter method to two complex mixed patterns modelled on the field line helicity of 3-D magnetic braids. The unstirring separates $f$ into a small number of large-scale regions determined by the initial topology, which is well preserved during the computation. Interestingly, the velocity field is found to have the same large-scale topology as $f$. Similarity to the simplification found empirically in 3-D magnetic reconnection simulations supports the idea that advection is an important principle for field line helicity evolution.


Against a gallium-based liquid metal alloy, we report super-lyophobic surfaces that have micro/nano hierarchical structures made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and carbon nanotube (CNT) materials. The surface oxidation of the liquid metal is a challenging problem to be utilized for various applications, as it wets most surfaces. However, the micro/nano hierarchical structures of a fabricated-PDMS micro pillar array with dual-scale surface texturing and a grown-CNT surface enable one to minimize a contact area between the liquid metal droplet and the surface. Due to the low contact area, a large static contact angle and a low contact angle hysteresis are achieved, indicating super-lyophobic surfaces. Based on these super-lyophobic surfaces, the gallium-based liquid metal alloy can be more widely utilized for undeveloped applications that rely on the liquid metal's mobility.


AZ31B Magnesium alloy sheets with about 1 mm in thickness were rolled by one pass and several passes from the extruded ingots with different thickness. The effects of processing variables on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31B Mg alloy sheets were investigated. XRD indicated that AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets have a dominant texture with (000l) orientated plane. The large deformation results in the formation of fine and homogeneous microstructure due to the recrystallization during extruding and hot-rolling. The thinnest sheet rolled by several passes showed equiaxed grains with 5-10μm in diameter. The fine grains result in the increase in the strength and the ductility. The tensile strength of the sheet rolled by several passes reached 292 MPa and the elongation was twice as larger as that rolled by one pass.


This article is a brief account on the introduction and development of the concept of social exclusion in the intellectual discourse and national policy, primarily in the western countries. The concept, which is multidimensional in nature, is a new paradigm that seeks to explain deprivation and poverty in the light of asymmetric relations between the
exclusive groups who command a variety of resources and the ones who are made disadvantageous. The concept, first introduced in France in 1974 to explain the erosion of solidarity among the French society, has sinced been adopted in many western countries and developing countries alike, to explain the causes social discontents of the excluded. Despite
its relatively successful application as policy guidelines to minimize deprivation in many European countries, the concept has not yet been widely known in Indonesia. While, many forms of social exclusion have been part of social and cultural life in the archipelago since the historical past, in fact, the concept of social exclusion as a scientific approach has not been instrumental in explaining factors leading to the disadvantages and impoverishment of the deprivative groups. While another concept, social capital, has entered intellectual discourse since many years and has been used by many international assistance agencies as an approach in their development programs and projects, only a limited number of scientific papers on social exclusion have been found to
address this issue.

Keywords: Social exclusion, paradigm, deprivation, poverty, social capital


Resistant starch (RS) is starch and products of its small intestinal digestion that enter the large bowel. It occurs for various reasons including chemical structure, cooking of food, chemical modification, and food mastication. Human colonic bacteria ferment RS and nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP; major components of dietary fiber) to short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), mainly acetate, propionate, and butyrate. SCFA stimulate colonic blood flow and fluid and electrolyte uptake. Butyrate is a preferred substrate for colonocytes and appears to promote a normal phenotype in these cells. Fermentation of some RS types favors butyrate production. Measurement of colonic fermentation in humans is difficult, and indirect measures (e.g., fecal samples) or animal models have been used. Of the latter, rodents appear to be of limited value, and pigs or dogs are preferable. RS is less effective than NSP in stool bulking, but epidemiological data suggest that it is more protective against colorectal cancer, possibly via butyrate. RS is a prebiotic, but knowledge of its other interactions with the microflora is limited. The contribution of RS to fermentation and colonic physiology seems to be greater than that of NSP. However, the lack of a generally accepted analytical procedure that accommodates the major influences on RS means this is yet to be established.


In this article, a timeless and spaceless theory of consciousness in terms of quantum entanglement is proposed. It is shown that time and consciousness can be spontaneously emerged and, thus, be defined by separating a subsystem from a much bigger quantum system. The mass and relative distances are recognized as functions of the entanglement entropies between separated systems and the classical background space can be restored in terms of these relative distances. We carefully examine the world with two coexisting consciousnesses. By equivalence principle of consciousness, the criterion of whether an entity is conscious or not is formulated implying that nowadays robots cannot be conscious. In addition, the relativity of intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of consciousness is discussed which might reveal the intricate connections between material and spiritual worlds at the deepest level. This relativity together with the new interpretation of mass further implies that consciousness has a negative mass, but this counterintuitive prediction needs to be verified by future experiments.

NeuroQuantology | September 2013 | Volume 11 | Issue 3 | Page 431-442


— Within the framework of European Space Agency (ESA) activities, several campaigns were carried out in the last decade with the purpose of exploiting the capabilities of multi-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to retrieve snow information. This paper presents the results obtained from the ESA SnowSAR airborne campaigns, carried out between 2011 and 2013 on boreal forest, tundra and alpine environments, selected as representative of different snow regimes. The aim of this study was to assess the capability of X and Ku band SAR in retrieving the snow parameters, namely Snow Depth (SD) and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). The retrieval was based on Machine Learning (ML) techniques and, in particular, of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). ANN have been selected among other ML approaches since they are capable to offer a good compromise between retrieval accuracy and computational cost. Two approaches were evaluated, the first based on the experimental data (data driven) and the second based on data simulated by the Dense Medium Radiative Transfer (DMRT). The data driven algorithm was trained on half of the SnowSAR dataset and validated on the remaining half. The validation resulted in a correlation coefficient R ≃ 0.77 between estimated and target SD, a root-mean-square error (RMSE) ≃ 13 cm, and bias = 0.03 cm. ANN algorithms specific for each test site were also implemented, obtaining more accurate results, and the robustness of the data driven approach was evaluated over time and space. The algorithm trained with DMRT simulations and tested on the experimental dataset was able to estimate the target parameter (SWE in this case) with R=0.74, RMSE =34.8 mm and bias=1.8 mm. The model driven approach had the twofold advantage of reducing the amount of in-situ data required for training the algorithm and of extending the algorithm exportability to other test sites.


Abstract Objective: We report a typical case of earlobe lymphocytoma. Method: A case report and literature review are presented. Results: A 10-year-old girl presented with a blue-coloured earlobe. A diagnosis of Lyme disease was confirmed by serological tests. Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne disease in the northern hemisphere. It is caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. The patient was successfully treated with antibiotics. Conclusion: The diagnostic process and ENT symptomatology of Lyme disease and borrelial lymphocytoma are summarised and discussed.


This paper presents a simple, yet effective method of enhancing the inherent diversity among packet retransmissions in digital communication systems that employ high-order modulations such as M-PSK and M-QAM through frequency-selective channels. Diversity is enhanced by uniquely redefining the bit-to-symbol mapping for each retransmission. Finding the optimal mappings leads to iterative solutions of the quadratic assignment problem. More importantly, jointly equalizing transmission with different mappings only requires a marginal increase in complexity, while providing substantial gains in bit error rates (BER) and frame error rates (FER).