The Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act is one of many laws passed in the United States and around the world that is designed to protect private information. One of the main directives in this law requires financial institutions to provide customers with a privacy notice that explains how they share their customers' private information with nonaffiliated third parties. This paper uses the GLB Act as a case study to analyze the arguments for and against a policy that requires firms to issue privacy notices to their customers. The arguments for this policy are based on theories and principles that are fundamental aspects of neoclassical and information economics— namely, complete information, unbounded rationality, and asymmetric information. The arguments against this policy are based on two central principles of behavioral economics—present bias and bounded rationality. This paper also presents an alternative policy and examines its shortcomings before recommending that Congress consider adopting the European Union's policy on privacy and information disclosure.


Abstract Background: Malnutrition is a clinical problem with a high prevalence in hospitalized adult patients. Many nutritional screening tools have been developed but there is no consensus on which 1 is more useful. The purpose of this review protocol is to provide an overview of which nutritional screening tool is most valid to identify malnutritional risk in hospitalized adult patients and to analyze the sensitivity and specificity of the different tools. Methods: The protocol of this systematic review and meta-analysis was registered on the INPLASY website (https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2020-9-0028/) and INPLASY registration number is INPLASY202090028. We will perform a systematic literature search of main databases: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and Web of Science and the Cochrane database. Also, grey literature will be search. Peer-reviewed studies published in English, Portuguese or Spanish language will be selected. Screening of titles, abstract and full text will be assessed for eligibility by 2 independent blinded reviewers and any discrepancies will be resolved via consensus. After screening the studies, a meta-analysis will be conducted, if it is possible. Results: Results from this systematic review will help health professionals to identify malnutrition in hospitalized patients and to make decisions to prevent or treat it as well as provide new clues to researchers. Conclusion: Our systematic review will provide aknowledge about the most valid malnutrition risk screening tool in hospitalized adult patients.


AIM: To elucidate the endophytic actinobacterial populations of healthy banana plant roots. METHODS: A surface sterilization protocol was adopted to remove rhizoplane bacterial DNAs and total DNAs of surface-sterilized roots were purified and analyzed by Illumina-based sequencing. RESULTS and CONCLUSION: A total of 2152102 bacterial sequences remained with an average length of 448bp, 31952 different actinobacterial OTUs at the 97% similarity level were obtained, and the dominant families were Nocardioidaceae, PseudoNocardiaceae and Nocardiaceae, which accounted for 56.37%, 14.36% and 9.77%, respectively. At genus level, Pseudonocardia (11.83%), Rhodococcus (9.74%), Nocardioides (3.06%) were the most abundant taxa. The results indicated that surface sterilization approach with formaldehyde (36%) and Illumina-based sequencing is suitable for analysis of endophytic actinobacterial populations in banana roots.


Investigated functionally activation of human complement in vivo an model of high hypoxia (6-7,5 km) as without correction, so at the phone of medicine hydazepam and succinic acid. Discover that by analysis of the sensitive to complement components one can estimate effects of high hypoxia and her pharmacological correction.


We develop several results on hitting probabilities of random fields which highlight the role of the dimension of the parameter space. This yields upper and lower bounds in terms of Hausdorff measure and Bessel-Riesz capacity, respectively. We apply these results to a system of stochastic wave equations in spatial dimension k >= 1 driven by a d-dimensional spatially homogeneous additive Gaussian noise that is white in time and colored in space.


A "call to action" has been issued for scholars in landscape and urban planning, natural science, and public health to conduct interdisciplinary research on the human health effects of spending time in or near greenspaces. This is timely in light of contemporary interest in municipal tree planting and urban greening, defined as organized or semi-organized efforts to introduce, conserve, or maintain outdoor vegetation in urban areas. In response to injunctions from scholars and urban greening trends, this article provides an interdisciplinary review on urban trees, air quality, and asthma. We assess the scientific literature by reviewing refereed review papers and empirical studies on the biophysical processes through which urban trees affect air quality, as well as associated models that extend estimates to asthma outcomes. We then review empirical evidence of observed links between urban trees and asthma, followed by a discussion on implications for urban landscape planning and design. This review finds no scientific consensus that urban trees reduce asthma by improving air quality. In some circumstances, urban trees can degrade air quality and increase asthma. Causal pathways between urban trees, air quality, and asthma are very complex, and there are substantial differences in how natural science and epidemiology approach this issue. This may lead to ambiguity in scholarship, municipal decision-making, and landscape planning. Future research on this topic, as well as on urban ecosystem services and urban greening, should embrace epistemological and etiological pluralism and be conducted through interdisciplinary teamwork.


Background/Aim: Previous studies have suggested that the short-term ambient air pollution and temperature are associated with myocardial infarction. In this study, we aimed to conduct a time-series analysis to assess the impact of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and temperature on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among adults over 20 years of age in Korea by using the data from the Korean National Health Information Database (KNHID). Methods: The daily data of 192,567 AMI cases in Seoul were collected from the nationwide, population-based KNHID from 2005 to 2014. The monitoring data of ambient PM2.5 from the Seoul Research Institute of Public Health and Environment were also collected. A generalized additive model (GAM) that allowed for a quasi-Poisson distribution was used to analyze the effects of PM2.5 and temperature on the incidence of AMI. Results: The models with PM2.5 lag structures of lag 0 and 2-day averages of lag 0 and 1 (lag 01) showed significant associations with AMI (Relative risk [RR]: 1.011, CI: 1.003–1.020 for lag 0, RR: 1.010, CI: 1.000–1.020 for lag 01) after adjusting the covariates. Stratification analysis conducted in the cold season (October–April) and the warm season (May–September) showed a significant lag 0 effect for AMI cases in the cold season only. Conclusions: In conclusion, acute exposure to PM2.5 was significantly associated with AMI morbidity at lag 0 in Seoul, Korea. This increased risk was also observed at low temperatures.


The advent of realistic yet affordable immersive audio-visual recording and reproduction systems that combine binaural or spatial audio with 360-degree video, backed by increasingly efficient and realistic acoustic simulation and auralization models, has led to an increased interest in the acoustic design of urban environments. Architects and designers are however well-known to work by example. One of the goals of the Urban Soundscapes of the World project is therefore to compile a comprehensive reference database of high quality immersive audio-visual recordings of urban sites, within a range of cities worldwide. The well-documented exemplars in this database can be used to serve as an ecologically valid baseline for assessing the perceptual influence of noise control and soundscaping measures through auralization. This paper reports on a perception-based protocol that was developed for the purpose of site selection, in particular for systematically identifying spots within a city with a specific soundscape. This protocol contains an online questionnaire that is conducted among panels of local experts, and that asks participants to pinpoint outdoor public spaces within the city that are perceived in specific ways, regarding the presence of sound sources, the core affect and emotion evoked, and the appropriateness of the sound environment. This approach was designed to lead to a range of urban sites with a wide variety of soundscapes, such that a good statistical power can be achieved in perception experiments that are conducted on the basis of the audio-visual recordings in the database.


Prostate-derived sterile 20-like kinases (PSKs) 1-α, 1-β, and 2 are members of the germinal-center kinase-like sterile 20 family of kinases. Previous work has shown that PSK 1-α binds and stabilizes microtubules whereas PSK2 destabilizes microtubules. Here, we have investigated the activation and autophosphorylation of endogenous PSKs and show that their catalytic activity increases as cells accumulate in G2/M and declines as cells exit mitosis. PSKs are stimulated in synchronous HeLa cells as they progress through mitosis, and these proteins are activated catalytically during each stage of mitosis. During prophase and metaphase activated PSKs are located in the cytoplasm and at the spindle poles, and during telophase and cytokinesis stimulated PSKs are present in trans-Golgi compartments. In addition, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of PSK1-α/β or PSK2 expression inhibits mitotic cell rounding as well as spindle positioning and centralization. These results show that PSK catalytic activity increases during mitosis and suggest that these proteins can contribute functionally to mitotic cell rounding and spindle centralization during cell division.


Direct photometric titration (without an added indicator) using a standard ammoniacal solution of copper(II) prepared from pure copper metal asa primary standard is recommended as a reliable method for the standardization of Na2H2(edta) in 10-3 -5 . 10-4M solutions. The technique of photometric microtitration (720 nm, 50 mm cell) with an increased precision of transmittance reading (s ~10-2%, n > 7) and in optimum medium of pH 4.7 ± 0.4 (acetate buffer) can yield precise results in assays of EDTA (sr ⪬ 10-1%, n = 6-9).


This paper discusses the various aspects of Value-at-Risk (VaR) and the VaR-based risk management process as it pertains to the banking industry. Since its inception in the 1990's, VaR has become the industry standard by which market risk is both measured and managed by financial institutions today. However, there has been much debate regarding VaR's validity and the extent of its role within the banking industry. Yet, now that it is an integral part of the regulatory framework, establishing VaR's legitimacy is more important than ever. Therefore, this paper examines the recent literature on VaR's use as a market risk management tool within the banking environment in an attempt to clarify some of the more contentious issues which have been raised by researchers. The discussion begins by highlighting the underlying theory on which VaR is based, specific aspects which have proven controversial and its use from a regulatory perspective. The focus then turns to what little literature exists on the subject of VaR and asset returns in an attempt to provide some direction for future research.


Excerpt] The purpose of the educational enterprise is LEARNING. Engagement is essential to achieving this purpose. Students must come to school, pay attention, do homework, engage with the subject and construct their new knowledge in ways that allow them to retrieve it later. How are students induced to do all this hard work? Teachers try to make their subject interesting, but sixty–one percent of American students, nevertheless, say they "often feel bored" (OECD 2002 p. 330). Studies of time use in classrooms have found that American students actively engage in a learning activity for only about half the time they are scheduled to be in school. A study of schools in Chicago found that public schools with high-achieving students averaged about 75 percent of class time for actual instruction. For schools with low achieving students, the average was 51 percent of class time (Frederick, 1977). Overall, Frederick, Walberg and Rasher (1979) estimated 46 percent of the potential learning time is lost due to absence, lateness, inattention, classroom disruptions or teachers being off task.1 In 1998, 23 percent of high school seniors reported not being assigned homework or not doing the homework assigned (NCES, Condition... 2001b, p. 41). Studies have found that learning has a strong relationship with time on task (Wiley 1986), time devoted to homework (Cooper 1989; Betts 1996) and the share of homework that is completed. Differentials in time committed to learning are likely to be an important reason for variations in achievement across students and across schools.


PURPOSE
Mutations in BEST1, encoding bestrophin-1 (Best1), cause autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy (ARB). Encoding bestrophin-1 is a pentameric anion channel localized to the basolateral plasma membrane of the RPE. Here, we characterize the effects of the mutations R141H (CGC > CAC) and I366fsX18 (c.1098_1100+7del), identified in a patient in our practice, on Best1 trafficking, oligomerization, and channel activity.

METHODS
Currents of Cl- were assessed in transfected HEK293 cells using whole-cell patch clamp. Best1 localization was assessed by confocal microscopy in differentiated, human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived RPE (iPSC-RPE) cells following expression of mutants via adenovirus-mediated gene transfer. Oligomerization was evaluated by coimmunoprecipitation in iPSC-RPE and MDCK cells.

RESULTS
Compared to Best1, Best1 I366fsX18 currents were increased while Best1 R141H Cl- currents were diminished. Coexpression of Best1 R141H with Best1 or Best1 I366fsX18 resulted in rescued channel activity. Overexpressed Best1, Best1 R141H, and Best1 I366fsX18 were all properly localized in iPSC-RPE cells; Best1 R141H and Best1 I366fsX18 coimmunoprecipitated with endogenous Best1 in iPSC-RPE cells and with each other in MDCK cells.

CONCLUSIONS
The first 366 amino acids of Best1 are sufficient to mediate channel activity and homo-oligomerization. The combination of Best1 and Best1 R141H does not cause disease, while Best1 R141H together with Best1 I366fsX18 causes ARB. Since both combinations generate comparable Cl- currents, this indicates that ARB in this patient is not caused by a loss of channel activity. Moreover, Best1 I366fsX18 differs from Best1 in that it lacks most of the cytosolic C-terminal domain, suggesting that the loss of this region contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of ARB in this patient.


Abstract Harmine, a major alkaloid in ayahuasca (hoasca), is a selective and reversible inhibitor of the enzyme monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A). It is also a selective inhibitor of the human cytochrome P450 isozyme 2D6 (CYP 2D6), which metabolizes harmine to a more hydrophilic derivative for eventual excretion. CYP 2D6 exhibits a wide range of polymorphisms in human populations, and variations in this enzymatic activity could account for differences in effects between individuals who use hoasca. This report broadly describes two subgroups of CYP 2D6 phenotypes—i.e., fast and slow metabolizers of harmine—in 14 experienced male members of the Uniāo do Vegetal (UDV) who received a standardized dosage of hoasca. To compensate for metabolic variations in their normal religious practice, the administered dose of hoasca is always determined by the presiding mestre, who is responsible for deciding the actual amount for each individual. This age-old method compensates for metabolic variations between individuals and variations in both the alkaloid profile and strength of the hoasca.


Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are nowadays being used much more than some years ago. One of the major reasons is the increasing number of devices that have risen lately capable of forming part of such networks. This situation makes feasible the development of new services. Especially, video-streaming is one of the most successful services demanded by the customers. In this paper we propose a QoS-aware multipath DSR-based (dynamic source routing) routing protocol which helps to improve the reliability of the connections while balancing the load and decreasing the end-to-end delay. Several multipath routing designs have been evaluated seeking to get better global performance of the network. Besides, we propose a QoS-aware architecture that includes a cross-layer scheme in which a network layer scheduler manages different priority traffics and operates according to the IEEE 802.11e MAC (medium access control) layer. Extensive simulations have been carried out to show the benefits of our scheme in providing different levels of QoS, including user-level QoS parameters


Upon request of the PETI Committee, the Policy Department on Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs commissioned the present analysis, which examines the situation in relation to openness, transparency, access to documents and information in the EU. Case law and developments in the jurisprudence of the CJEU are examined, notably for legislative documents, documents relating to administrative proceedings, to Court proceedings, infringement proceedings and EU Pilot cases, protection of privacy and international relations. Current and future challenges, as well as conclusions and policy recommendations are set out, in order to ensure compliance with the Treaties' and Charter of Fundamental Rights' requirements aimed at enhancing citizens' participation in the EU decision-making process, and consequently stronger accountability and democracy in the EU.


Recently, hybrid systems of clustering and neural diarization models have been successfully applied in multi-party meeting analysis. However, current models always treat overlapped speaker diarization as a multi-label classification problem, where speaker dependency and overlaps are not well considered. To overcome the disadvantages, we reformulate overlapped speaker diarization task as a single-label prediction problem via the proposed power set encoding (PSE). Through this formulation, speaker dependency and overlaps can be explicitly modeled. To fully leverage this formulation, we further propose the speaker overlap-aware neural diarization (SOND) model, which consists of a context-independent (CI) scorer to model global speaker discriminability, a context-dependent scorer (CD) to model local discriminability, and a speaker combining network (SCN) to combine and reassign speaker activities. Experimental results show that using the proposed formulation can outperform the state-of-the-art methods based on target speaker voice activity detection, and the performance can be further improved with SOND, resulting in a 6.30% relative diarization error reduction.


Copyright's fair use doctrine is increasingly applied to large-scale uses of creative works by new digital technologies, such as the Google Books Project. Such technologies—which the Second Circuit has recently come to call "utility-expanding"—allow the public to more productively use or efficiently access books, articles, music, films, and other copyrighted content. This is new terrain for the fair use doctrine, which has more commonly been applied to the use of a work in the service of new creative expression.

This Article examines the relationship between utility-expanding technologies, fair use, and copyright's overall policy agenda. Even though utility-expanding technologies often benefit the public, many also threaten to harm copyright owners' dissemination markets and thus potentially undermine copyright's overall goal of financially incentivizing cultural creation. Reflecting this tension, some recent cases have found that an access-enhancing technology was "transformative" and of benefit to the public but not fair use because of market harm to the copyright owner. In the absence of a fair use determination, technology developers can be subject to restrictive licensing demands from copyright owners or risk an injunction and high damages award, threatening the growth and adoption of new services.

As fair use appears to be an increasingly unwieldy framework for legitimizing the full range of utility-expanding technologies, the Article suggests an alternative approach: compulsory licensing. Indeed, Congress previously developed compulsory licensing systems for certain technologies that benefit the public by increasing the availability and accessibility of copyrighted works but posed some risk of market harm to copyright owners. In particular, the creation of the compulsory license for digital radio provides useful insight into the relationship between utility-expanding technologies and copyright's policy agenda. Rather than providing no compensation to copyright owners (as fair use does) or a market-based price (as is the norm in copyright licensing markets) this regime used policy-oriented price-setting criteria explicitly designed to identify royalty rates that would allow new disseminators to flourish but still ensure that rightsholders were compensated. The Article identifies some ways a similar policy-oriented compulsory licensing approach could be implemented within copyright's current remedies regime for those utility-expanding technologies that do not warrant a fair use finding.


Introduction Occupational asthma (OA) became an important public health problem worldwide in the last few decades. From two different OA types, sensitizer-induced OA accounts for approximately 90% of all OA cases. Objective To present the distribution of sensitizer-induced OA by occupation in R. Macedonia in the period 2005–2016. Methods Sensitizer-induced OA was diagnosed by serial measurements of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) at and away from work or by combination of serial PEFR measurements at and away from work and non-specific bronchial provocation at and away from work in subjects with diagnosed asthma and work-relatedness of the symptoms. Results The annual incidence rate of the diagnosed sensitizer-induced OA in the mentioned period varied from 1.8/100,000 working population in 2013 to 2.8/100,000 in 2006. Sensitizer-induced OA in bakers, cleaners, textile workers and agricultural workers accounted up to more than a third of the all diagnosed cases. Atopy was registered in approximately a half of the sensitized-induced OA cases. Majority of the cases with sensitizer-induced OA caused by high-molecular-weight (HMW) agents (i.e. OA in bakers, textile workers, tanners, herbal and fruit tea processors, and health care workers) was atopics and had positive prick tests to occupational allergens. Conclusion Our findings indicate the sectors with highest occurrence of sensitizer-induced OA in R. Macedonia in the period 2005–2016. The data obtained enable directing of adequate activities to prevent developing of the disease, as well as to identify affected workers and to prevent further respiratory impairment.


Lignin oil methyl ether (LOME) is a bio-derived solvent obtained from lignin by pyrolysis, methylation, and rectification. It performs well as an alternative polar aprotic solvent for organic reactions such as the Menschutkin synthesis of quaternary amines. Methylation of lignin pyrolysis oil was achieved using dimethylcarbonate under mild reaction conditions. The resulting methylated oil was subjected to supercritical fluid rectification in supercritical CO2, yielding LOME (90 wt% of eight identified veratroles and anisoles) which can be directly used as a bio-derived aprotic solvent.


This study investigated factors of adherence to Antiretroviral Treatment (ART), factors or variables that can discriminate between adherent and non-adherent patients on ART were selected. Simple structured questionnaire was employed. The study sample consisted of 145 HIV patients who received ART in the Shashemene General
Hospital (SGH). Using self report measure of adherence in the two weeks of study period, 81% of the patients on ART were adherent whereas 19% of the patients were non adherent. The major reasons of non-adherence were: forget to take (28.6%), confused on how and when to take (17.9%) and feel depressed (14.2%). Using discriminant analysis, depression, poor NGO support and HIV serostatus disclosure were identified as barriers of adherence while transportation problem, strong NGO support, good reception in the
service area and high CD4 count were identified as facilitators of adherence. To improve adherence of patients on ART, it was recommend that the current ART program should strive to manage depression before and after the initiation of ART and also strong
linkage between NGOs which are working in care and support program must be established. Keywords : Antiretroviral, Adherence, Non Adherence, Discriminant Analysis African Research Review Vol. 2 (2) 2008 pp. 1-12


A fully integrated fiber-optic receiver chip in a CMOS technology is presented. The design was done in a low-cost mixed-signal analog pure CMOS technology with 0.35-/spl mu/m gate length. It incorporates every building block needed for standard fiber-optic receiver application, e.g., transimpedance amplifier, postamplifier, signal detect, and several control circuits. The chip works without any external components, such as capacitors usually needed to ensure the broadband operation down to several tens of kilohertz. Three designs were processed for typical data applications between 155 Mb/s and 1.25 Gb/s. The difference in the designs can be created by changing only one metal mask and programming some bandwidth and noise-relevant components on the chip. The results in sensitivity, dynamic range, and other behaviors are fully compliant with the relevant standards, such as SONET or IEEE 802.3 (Gigabit Ethernet) and future IEEE 1394 plastic optical fiber (POF) communication.


National focus on the quality of education in the United States had kindled the formation of many local alliances between private industry and education (Sharp & Sharp, 1992; Atkin & Atkin, 1989; Nothdurft, 1989; U.S. Department of Labor, 1988; O'Connell, 1985). As the country's need for unskilled labor continues to diminish and as competition in the global economy sharpens, many U.S. business leaders have concluded that investing in tomorrow's workforce is smart business practice. Moreover, the corporate values of many companies embrace community involvement, perhaps to energize the society in which the company operates. This article describes the establishment of a business-education partnership in a large urban school district in the Southeast, the elements critical to its formation, and how representatives of private industry, government, and higher education worked with teachers to stimulate educational reform. The partnership in Jacksonville, Florida, calls itself "The Alliance for Education" and currently includes representatives of five local businesses, both the city's electric company and its public works department, two branches of the U.S. military, two institutions of higher education, and the local teachers' union. The Alliance is concentrating on improving the quality of education at a single high school, a school with a student population that is 99% African-American. Members of the Alliance are active in abroad range of activities that affect the school including teacher training programs, curriculum revision, student services and public relations. The Beginning An early event that facilitated the formation of Jacksonville's Alliance for Education was a grant to the University of North Florida (UNF) by the Florida Department of Education through Florida's Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Program. The Eisenhower Program derives from the Education for Economic Security Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1982 and was later renamed to honor former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Under Title II of that program, federal funds are distributed to states to support mathematics and science education. In 1991, Eisenhower funds were granted to UNF for the purpose of strengthening educational programs at William M. Raines Senior High School, home of Jacksonville's magnet program in mathematics, science, pre-engineering and technology. In the process of generating an Eisenhower proposal in Summer, 1991, UNF faculty member Ray Bowman discovered that Southern Bell had established a mentor program at Raines High School two years previously. Under the guidance of Southern Bell's Operations Manager, the company had begun by pairing twelve male students with Southern Bell employees who served as mentors and tutors. The Bell engineers who took over the program in 1991 expanded the program to about 90 students of both genders and sponsored monthly events throughout the academic year. Southern Bell and UNF quickly joined forces and collaborated in the design of the Eisenhower project. This affiliation had the immediate effect of increasing the grant funding base because Eisenhower funding in Florida at that time required dollar-for-dollar matching contributions. Donation of time by Southern Bell employees augmented the amount of match available and enabled UNF to enlarge the size of its grant-sponsored project. In 1991-92, UNF and Southern Bell focused their efforts on expansion of the mentor program, on incorporation of new equipment and facilities, especially computers, into science and mathematics curricula, and on recruiting other Jacksonville organizations to assist in the Raines project. A series of events followed that seem almost circumstantial in nature but that illustrate some of the critical factors in establishing a business-education partnership. The events track the evolution of the Southern Bell/UNF collaboration to a larger, more organized Alliance. Grant funding permitted the hiring of a local science teacher, Carla Dawson-Jackson, to help coordinate the Eisenhower-sponsored activities. …


Cerebral endothelial dysfunction is associated with several stroke risk factors, resulting in dysregulated brain perfusion and an increased susceptibility to stroke. Evidence suggests that deficits in vasoprotective nitric oxide (NO) caused primarily by Nox2-NADPH oxidase-driven oxidative stress (excess levels of reactive oxygen species) is a common underlying cause of cerebral endothelial dysfunction associated with these conditions. Thus, this highlights the potential for identifying therapeutic agents to treat endothelial dysfunction associated with risk factors for stroke prevention. Despite advances in our understanding on mechanisms of neuronal cell death after stroke, translation of this knowledge into effective stroke therapies has been, thus far, unsuccessful. Importantly, endothelial dysfunction occurs at all levels of the cerebral vascular tree following ischaemic stroke including at the level of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which can accelerate neuronal injury and potentially increase the risk of a recurrent stroke. Thus, the identification of novel drugs that target both neuronal and vascular injury mechanisms may be a more effective therapeutic approach. Ghrelin-related peptides, namely acylated ghrelin, des-acylated ghrelin and obestatin, are produced primarily by the stomach and are best known for their neuroendocrine actions. Importantly, emerging evidence suggests that these peptides may have neuroprotective actions, as well as vasoprotective actions in the systemic circulation. Taken together, these findings raise the possibility that ghrelin-related peptides may have important protective roles in the cerebral circulation, and may target neuro- and vaso-protective mechanisms after ischaemic stroke. As such, the main aims of this thesis were to firstly investigate the actions of ghrelin-related peptides on mouse cerebral blood vessels by examining their effects on NO and superoxide levels, and secondly test whether post-stroke treatment of ghrelin-related peptides limits brain injury and BBB disruption in a mouse model of cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion.In Chapter 2, we demonstrated that exogenous des-acylated ghrelin or obestatin are potent stimulators of vasodilator NO, and des-acylated ghrelin suppresses Nox2 oxidase-derived superoxide levels in mouse cerebral arteries. In contrast, acylated ghrelin had no effect on cerebral vascular tone or superoxide levels, likely due to the fact that its receptor, GHSR1a, is not expressed in cerebral arteries. Vasodilator responses to des-acylated ghrelin or obestatin were sustained following antagonism of GHSR1a, and responses to des-acylated ghrelin were unaffected in GHSR-deficient mice. Thus, des-acylated ghrelin and obestatin elicit cerebral vascular responses through the activation of unidentified ghrelin receptor(s). Next, using ghrelin-deficient mice, we found that a deficiency in ghrelin-related peptides was associated with impaired cerebral artery vasodilator NO capacity and augmented superoxide levels, indicating that des-acylated ghrelin and/or obestatin presumably regulate cerebral artery NO and superoxide levels in vivo. Collectively, these findings reveal for the first time that both exogenous and endogenous des-acylated ghrelin and obestatin regulate two important and inter-related regulatory mechanisms of cerebral vascular function. As such, we propose that these peptides may be novel regulators of cerebral vascular function and potentially brain perfusion. To date, the majority of studies infer that ghrelin-related peptides may also have protective actions in the systemic vasculature of humans and rats. Unexpectedly, in Chapter 3 we found that, in contrast to these studies, exogenous acylated ghrelin, des-acylated ghrelin or obestatin had no effect on tone or superoxide levels in mouse thoracic aorta or mesenteric arteries. Furthermore, the GHSR1a receptor was not expressed in mouse thoracic aorta. Moreover, NO vasodilator capacity and superoxide levels were unaffected in the thoracic aorta of ghrelin-deficient mice, suggesting that endogenous ghrelin-related peptides do not modulate NO production and superoxide levels in mouse systemic arteries. Thus, taken together with previously published work, this study reveals potential species (human and rat vs. mouse) and regional (cerebral vs. systemic) differences in vascular responses to ghrelin-related peptides, and suggests that the mouse may not be a suitable species to study their potential roles in regulating systemic vascular function. In Chapter 4, we characterized two in vitro BBB models of ischaemia and reperfusion using an immortalised mouse cerebral endothelial cell line (bEnd.3 cells) in combination with oxygen glucose deprivation with or without reoxygenation (RO). After exposure of bEnd.3 cells to OGD (to simulate cerebral ischaemia), we observed endothelial hyperpermeability, and associated loss of tight junction proteins (occludin and claudin-5), and cell death after prolonged exposure periods (16-24 hours). Following exposure of bEnd.3 cells to 1 h OGD followed by 23 h RO (to simulate cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion), we found that RO exacerbated hyperpermeability, which was associated with a loss of tight junction proteins (ZO-1 and occludin), but not cell death. Although both models have limitations, the findings of this study will facilitate their use in future studies of post-stroke BBB disruption and for the testing of novel therapeutics. In Chapter 5, we examined whether post-stroke treatment with acylated ghrelin or des-acylated ghrelin improves stroke outcome in a mouse model of focal cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion, and examined whether des-acylated ghrelin can limit BBB disruption by measuring its effect on BBB permeability. Post-stroke treatment of mice with des-acylated ghrelin treatment reduced brain injury and swelling, as well as potentially reducing the number of apoptotic cells in peri-infarct brain regions. Previous studies have reported that pre-stroke treatment with acylated ghrelin is protective in rodents models of cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion. However, here we found that post-stroke treatment with acylated ghrelin failed to improve stroke outcome at the dose we tested. Next, we found that des-acylated markedly reduced BBB permeability in mice after stroke, indicative of reduced BBB disruption. Also, using the in vitro BBB model of OGD + RO established in Chapter 4, we found that des-acylated ghrelin attenuated the increase in permeability of bEnd.3 cells caused by OGD + RO by potentially preventing the disruption of tight junctions. Although more research is needed, the findings of this Chapter raise the possibility that des-acylated ghrelin or longer acting analogues may represent novel stroke therapies. Collectively, this thesis demonstrates previously unrecognised protective roles for des-acylated ghrelin and obestatin in the cerebral vasculature and shows the existence of novel ghrelin receptor(s) in cerebral vessels. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates that post-stroke treatment with des-acylated ghrelin can improve stroke outcome by limiting brain injury and BBB disruption following cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion. Although further studies are needed, these findings raise the possibility that these peptides could be employed to treat cerebral endothelial dysfunction associated with cardiovascular risk factors, as well as limit brain injury associated with stroke by targeting neuronal and vascular mechanisms.


End of September the World Congress on Organic Cotton "From Fashion to Sustainability" was held in Interlaken in
the Swiss Alps, organized by the Swiss NGO Helvetas and the US-based Organic Exchange, both non-profit organizations
working to promote organic cotton production. The conference offered a platform with more than 30 workshops,
keynote sessions and panel discussions. Around 300 experts, mostly from Europe, exchanged their experience and
lessons learned in dealing with the challenges connected to organic cotton. The conference was organized around
four main topics: building partnerships along the chain, value chain integrity, marketing and communication, trends
and policies, report


Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is an important aspect in the online buying space, especially online reviews. Online reviews are experiences, evaluations and opinions of companies, products, or services. Often, reviews are the only or predominant source of decision-making aid used by consumers. Companies realise that these reviews may have an enormous influence on consumer's purchase behaviour. The most important factor which emerges from the literature study is trust. For consumer reviews to be effective as decision-making aids, the consumer must trust the reviewer. Hence, the CITPI-model (conceptual model of the effects of reviewer's Characteristics and Involvement on Trust and Purchase Intention) is developed. The results of the experiment show that when demographic- or lifestyle homophily is present, consumers find the reviewer (more) trustworthy which in turn has a positive effect on purchase intention. Managers of e-commerce sites, e-marketers and web designers can use these findings to realise the formation of trust within their own consumers. When trust is realised, this will attract more users and will result in a higher purchase intention.


Background The "Five Priorities for Care" (5 PFC) at the end of life were established after the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) was phased out. In order to meet these priorities, London North West Healthcare created the "Last Days of Life Care Agreement" (LDLCA); a template for end of life discussions. A 2016 audit of the use of the LDLCA within Northwick Park Hospital showed that it was not being adequately filled out. There was poor documentation surrounding end of life symptom assessment, ongoing discussions with family members and acknowledgement of spiritual needs. As a result, the LDLCA was re-written and structured around the 5 PFC. A "symptom chart" from another trust1 was introduced to record the severity of end of life symptoms. The new LDLCA was trialled on four wards and its impact on end of life care was re-audited. Methods All patients on the new LDLCA were reviewed over an 11 week period from 9th August 2016 (n=18). Notes were assessed for evidence of the 5 PFC being achieved and frequency of end of life symptom assessment. Results All 5 PFC were achieved in 100% of patients. An end of life discussion was had with 100% of relatives prior to commencing the LDLCA. Ongoing discussions with families were documented in 61% cases (previously 16%). Assessment of spiritual needs was done in 67% (previously 27%). There was evidence of symptom assessment in 100% of patients however these were only recorded on a four-hourly basis in 56%. Conclusions A written care agreement can create a care plan focussed on the 5 PFC. Creating this from a discussion produces individualised care and reduces the risk of "tick-box" care seen with the LCP. A specialised "symptom chart" can aid assessment of end-of-life symptoms and help achieve the care plan. Reference 1. Mason LD. Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.


Objective A retrospective review of all diagnosed cases of esthesioneuroblastoma registered in Denmark between 1978 and 2000 was carried out in order to obtain epidemiological data and optimize national treatment guidelines. Material and Methods Forty cases were verified histologically and included in the analysis Epidemiological and histopathological data were evaluated in relation to the clinical outcome. Results The 40 cases represent an incidence rate of 0.4 cases/million inhabitants per year. Eight (20%) patients were classified as Kadish stage A, 13 (32.5%) as stage B and 19 (47.5%) as stage C. The histopathological findings were classified according to the grading system of Hyams The median follow-up time was 2.3 years (range 0.3–11.1 years). The 5-year crude survival rate was 61%, with a median survival of 3.1 years (range 0.3–19.2 years). The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 50%, with a median survival of 1.7 years (range 0–19.2 years). Only 3 (7%) patients had positive cervical lymph nodes at presentation. A nationwide consensus regarding treatment was seen in patients classified as Kadish stages A and B. The longest duration before the first recurrence of esthesioneuroblastoma was 5(½) years. Conclusion The following therapeutic guidelines are suggested: Kadish stage A patients, surgical tumour resection and radiotherapy; Kadish stage B, surgical tumour resection and radiotherapy; Kadish stage C, surgical tumour resection via a craniofacial resection and radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. Long-term follow-up of esthesioneuroblastoma patients is mandatory.


Vacuum triodes have been scaled down to the microscale on a chip by microfabrication technologies to be vacuum transistors. Most of the reported devices are based on field electron emission, which suffer from the problems of unstable electron emission, poor uniformity, and high requirement for operating vacuum. Here, to overcome these problems, a vacuum transistor based on field−assisted thermionic emission from individual carbon nanotubes is proposed and fabricated using microfabrication technologies. The carbon nanotube vacuum transistor exhibits an ON/OFF current ratio as high as 104 and a subthreshold slope of ~4 V·dec−1. The gate controllability is found to be strongly dependent on the distance between the collector electrodes and electron emitter, and a device with the distance of 1.5 μm shows a better gate controllability than that with the distance of 0.5 μm. Benefiting from field−assisted thermionic emission mechanism, electric field required in our devices is about one order of magnitude smaller than that in the devices based on field electron emission, and the surface of the emitters shows much less gas molecule absorption than cold field emitters. These are expected to be helpful for improving the stability and uniformity of the devices.


The rate of rail degradation and hence its expected life is not uniform throughout any railway network and is governed by a combination of track, traffic and operating characteristics in addition to the metallurgical attributes of the steel. Consequently, it is suggested that any route or network is not a single linear asset but is a compilation of individual segments with different track characteristics, degradation rates and expected life spans. Thus, the choice of rail steel grade to maximise life span needs to combine the knowledge of the metallurgical attributes of the available rail steels with the conditions prevailing at the wheel-rail and vehicle-track interfaces. This approach has been the focus of research at the University of Huddersfield Institute of Railway Research (IRR) and this paper describes some of the results from the EPSRC/RSSB/DfT sponsored project entitled "Designing Steel Composition and Microstructure to Better Resist Degradation during Wheel-Rail Contact". The paper is focussed on:
- Classification of the susceptibility to rail degradation in various parts of a mixed-traffic network.
- Metallurgical attributes of the currently available rail steels


Melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer and advantages stages are inevitably resistant to conventional therapeutic agents. In particular, the inability of undergo apoptosis in response to chemotherapy and other external stimuli poses a selective advantage for tumor progression, metastasis formation as well as resistance to therapy in melanoma. Herein, we will review the discovery of MDR transporters and the apoptotic mechanisms used by melanoma cells. Furthermore, the novel strategies to overcome tumor chemoresistance will also discuss. In particular, we will review the cancer stem cell hypothesis and how the failure of MDR reversal agents might increase the therapeutic index of substrate antineoplastic agents.


Improved marrow purging protocols are needed in autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to achieve complete eradication of minimal residual disease. This study investigates the potential of a human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) nonrestricted killer T-cell line (TALL-104) as a new marrow purging agent in a clinical setting. TALL-104 cells can be irradiated without losing cytotoxic activity against tumor targets in vitro. In vivo, the irradiated killers can be adoptively transferred into immunodeficient and immunocompetent leukemia-bearing mice, and reverse their disease even in advanced stages. The present study shows that gamma-irradiated TALL-104 cells, cultured for 18 hours with marrows from healthy donors, do not impair the viability and long-term growth of committed and pluripotent hematopoietic progenitors. However, as determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and colony assays, TALL-104 cells could completely purge marrows containing up to 50% lysis-susceptible myelomonocytic leukemia cells (U937). When marrows were admixed with a pre-B leukemia cell line (ALL-1), which is fairly resistant to TALL-104 cell lysis in longterm 51Cr-release assays but can be totally growth inhibited by TALL-104 cells in proliferation assays, residual ALL-1 cells were detectable by PCR after TALL-104 purging. However, importantly, these PCR+ marrows were devoid of tumorigenic activity when transplanted into the human hematopoietic microenvironment of human severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) chimeras. These data indicate the strong potential of the TALL-104 cell line in future marrow purging strategies against lysis-susceptible and -resistant leukemias.


As many researchers have argued, the use of science to justify beliefs has long been a popular "legitimation strategy" in new religions. In contrast with other new religions that have adopted science as a source of legitimation, however, Falun Gong's use of "science" discourse is confusing and inconsistent. While it is sometimes claimed by Falun Gong that its doctrines, creeds, and beliefs can be well explained by modern science, at other times its teachings are positioned as transcending the realm of natural science. Li Hongzhi has even gone as far as to suggest that science is responsible for many different types of modern social "disease" (including social and environmental problems). In "Scientific or Anti-scientific: A Critical Analysis of 'Science' Discourses in Falun Gong," Wang Chengjun offers critical reflections on the science-related discourses present in Falun Gong. First, he analyzes such science-related discourses, arguing that they fall into three different categories. Second, he traces these discourses back to their origins in order to suggest that, even if science-based legitimation of the faith is effective in persuading its practitioners, it is by no means successful in a wider sense. Finally, he concludes with some more specific remarks on the ways in which "science" discourses have been used by Falun Gong.


In environmental laboratory analysis, quality issues related to the taking and handling of samples are commonly unrecognized, underestimated, or ignored by the professionals involved in the chain of data acquisition, analysis and use. The ten chapters of this book provide comprehensive coverage of quality issues in environmental sampling, addressing recent developments and research advances together with advice based on the contributing experts' practical experience. Each chapter includes a literature review and, where appropriate, a case study relevant to the topic. The book will be of value to those new to sampling as well as to those who are more experienced but who may face challenges under various scenarios of environmental, resource, and budgetary constraints. The book will be suitable to students in environmental studies as well as practitioners, such as field personnel, project managers, data users, and decision-makers.


Turkey has a strongly countercyclical trade balance like other emerging market economies. De Bock (2010) claims that the procyclical behavior of capital good imports is an important factor driving the countercyclicality of the trade balance in emerging economies. This paper, following De Bock (2010), documents and analyzes the composition and cyclical properties of the trade balance in Turkey. The analysis of Turkish data shows that capital good imports are a sizable fraction of total imports and they are procyclical as in other emerging markets. Based on this observation, a two sector small open economy model, calibrated to Turkish data, is used to quantitatively analyze the role of import structure in driving the cyclical properties of the trade balance, as well as other business cycle properties. The model is able to generate a strongly countercyclical trade balance and also match the major business cycle regularities in the data.


There are several sources of evidence demonstrating that the physical environment impacts directly and indirectly in our lives. Both positive and negative impacts of the physical environment have been observed in our health and wellbeing. Thus, to understand this relationship is crucial to prevent negative impacts and accelerate positive ones. In this regard, this paper presents a summary of the research findings of two research projects looking into the links between environment and wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence about the impacts of the physical environment on wellbeing as well as trends related to the physical environment so that future scenarios can be explored. The research method used was an extensive literature review. Additionally, a workshop was organised in order to better understand the major trends and related drivers in the physical environment that could impact wellbeing over the next 20 years. Research findings demonstrate that there is a considerable amount of evidence linking the physical environment to wellbeing despite the lack of clarity in relation to cause-effect relationships. Moreover, 10 trends and drivers related to the physical environment were identified and considered as impacting on wellbeing.


Considering railway axles, classical fatigue damage can occur at the body as a consequence of corrosion or ballast impacts, while fretting damage can occur as a result of micro-sliding between the wheel assembly and the press-fit seat. As safety critical components, railway axles, whose failure can lead to unacceptable human losses, are periodically inspected by means of well-established non-destructive techniques (typically ultrasonic and magnetic particle inspections) usually requiring expensive service interruptions. On the contrary, as shown within the aeronautical field, a condition-based maintenance can improve the safety and at the same time minimize costs respect to scheduled inspections. This paper investigates the feasibility of an Acoustic Emission based Structural Health Monitoring approach applied to railway axles subjected to classical and fretting fatigue damages. Experiments were performed on full-scale axles using a Vitry test rig, i.e. a three point bending test, with one acoustic-emission sensor coupled at the free end of the axle. Results are found to be consistent with damage evolution.


Objectives: A subgroup of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPC) is infected with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). The object of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1, an oral 5-fluorouracil prodrug, on survival of patients with OPC according to HPV status. Methods: Among OPC patients of stage III or IV who received definitive treatment from 1998 to 2008, 38 who were confirmed tumor-free after primary treatment were analyzed. Before 2003, none of the patients received S-1 adjuvant chemotherapy (S-1(-)-group); however, all patients who were eligible were administered S-1 (S-1(+)-group) after 2003. The expression of thymidylate synthase (TYMS) involved in 5-FU metabolism was also examined in protein and mRNA levels. Results: Although there was a trend to disease-free and overall survival benefit in HPV-negative patients with S-1, it did not achieve statistical significance (P = .082 and P = .065, respectively). For the HPV-positive patients, the survivals were similar with or without S-1 administration. TYMS-expression in HPV-positive OPC tissues was significantly higher than in HPV-negative ones in both protein and mRNA levels (P = .0489 and P = .0446, respectively). Conclusion: The current study provides a rationale to plan a randomized trial to compare the efficacy of S-1 according to the HPV status in OPCs.


Cultured cells from individuals affected with Fanconi anemia (FA) exhibit spontaneous chromosome breakage and hypersensitivity to the cell killing and clastogenic effects of the difunctional alkylating agent diepoxybutane (DEB). We report here the correction of both of these DEB-hypersensitivity phenotypes of FA cells achieved by cotransfection of normal placental or Chinese hamster lung cell DNA and the plasmid pSV2-neo-SVgpt. Transfectants were selected for clonogenic survival after treatment with DEB at a dose of 5 micrograms/ml. At this dose of DEB, the clonogenicity of normal fibroblasts was reduced to 50% and that of FA fibroblasts was reduced to zero. DEB-resistant (DEBr) colonies selected in this system exhibited a normal response to DEB-induced chromosome breakage and resistance to repeated DEB treatment. The neo and gpt sequences were detected by Southern blot analysis of DNA from one of four DEBr colonies independently derived from transfection of human DNA and one of three DEBr colonies independently derived from transfection of Chinese hamster DNA. In addition, Alu-equivalent hamster sequences were detected in three of seven additional independently derived colonies from transfection of Chinese hamster DNA. The DEBr phenotype of these colonies was stably maintained over several subcultures. Our results demonstrate that DNA sequences that complement the two hallmark cellular phenotypes (cellular and chromosomal hypersensitivity to alkylating agents) of FA are present in human as well as Chinese hamster DNA. The cloning of these genes using transfection strategies can be expected to enable molecular characterization of FA.


The purposes of this study were to determine the occupational status of Texas Tech University (TTU) College of Agricultural Science graduates from 1971 to 1986 and to evaluate the graduates' perceptions of their academic undergraduate program. A random sample of one-half the graduates who earned their degrees between 1971 and 1986 were mailed questionnaires. This yielded a sample of 1720 graduates. After one follow up mailing to nonrespondents, a total of 35.6% (612) of the graduates returned a questionnaire. A third mailing to nonrespondents consisted of a postcard to determine first job, current occupational status and the agricultural cluster that best described their occupation. This resulted in responses from 248 additional graduates. Consequently, the occupational status of 50.0% (860) of the graduates was determined. Graduates (860) employed in agricultural occupations were categorized into six occupational clusters as described in the V.S.D.A. publication "Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in the Food and Agricultural Sciences." The percentages employed in each cluster at the time of this study were scientist, engineer or related specialist, 18.5%; manager or financial specialist, 20.3%; marketing, merchandising or sales representative, 12.8%; education, communication or information specialist, 13.6%; social service professional, 2.1%; and agricultural production specialist, 32.7%. Graduates in agricultural occupations (612) indicated a need for increased emphasis in the following subject areas: computer instruction, 89.4%; leadership, 54.3%; internships, 51.1%; and International agriculture, 31.7%. Two-thirds of the graduates in agricultural occupations in-dicated the following business subject areas as needing an increased emphasis: business management, accounting and bookkeeping, business finance, and marketing. Fifty-seven percent of the graduates recommended increased emphasis in oral communications and 48% believed instruction in written communications should be increased. One-fourth of the graduates thought instruction in mathematics and statistics should be increased.


This article considers compensatory remedies for breach of trust. The first part of analysis considers the important recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in AIB Group (UK) v Mark Redler & Co Solicitors, and explores its significance and potential impact. The second part examines more closely what is meant by 'equitable compensation', and what remedial rules might develop to govern 'equitable compensation' following a breach of trust.


Tropical estuarine areas present microbial and geochemical conditions that have been pointed out as important conditions to trigger the mechanisms of mercury methylation improving its bioavailability to higher trophic levels. Despite the potential risk of these mechanisms to human health, few studies have reported in situ analysis in costal subtropical ecosystems, relating bacterial activity and mercury concentrations. In the present work we analyse the relationship between some relevant environmental parameters that may stimulate the bacterial activity and control mercury concentrations in the sediments of a tropical mangrove tidal flat. Forty-four samples were collected and analysed for total organic carbon, bacterial organic carbon, lipids, proteins, esterase activity and mercury concentrations and SEM/AVS. The redox potential, temperature and pH were also measured in situ . The results showed intense bacterial activity and increasing mercury levels when compared with local backgrounds. The use of SEM/AVS indicator recommended by USEPA as a criterium to check the sediment quality, did not show enough accuracy to predict the ecological bioavailability risk in sediments with high organic matter content. This methodology requires new approach to help decision making.


The phenomenon of subtitling as an aesthetic or political choice within a film, rather than a strategy for the transfer of a complete work, merits further examination at a time when filmmakers are increasingly including substantial segments of subtitled dialogue in mainstream films. The potential impact of this trend on an audience assumed to be resistant to screen translation is considerable. Despite important reservations, it is argued here that the growing visibility of translation within mainstream cinema has the potential to create space for certain forms of resistance to the dominance of English in the entertainment market, and promote the development of a 'multilingual imagination' in multiplex cinemagoers.


Abstract The use of videoconferencing technology to support the delivery of language programs shows great potential in regional and rural settings where a lack of access to specialist teachers limits equitable access to education. In this article, we investigate the establishment of two regional and rural primary school networks in Australia for videoconferenced language learning. Adopting a perspective taken from the discipline of information systems called structuration theory, we examine how the technology they use both changes and is changed by its use in language learning, and how schools and teachers take control of technology and adapt their educational approaches. Case studies were carried out on the two networks using multiple data sources, including interviews and observation of language classes. The findings reveal that even with the same conceptual foundations and aims, divergent models of practice emerge as sustainable adaptations to localised factors. These differences are shaped by, among other things, an interplay between the quality of infrastructure, prior knowledge, and the "material properties" of the technology, including its functions, limits, and deployment in physical space. A closer look at these practices illustrates limitations and possibilities specifically for language education, but also more broadly illustrates how the success of these videoconferencing initiatives are influenced by a nuanced combination of social, educational, and technological factors.


The Inner Touch presents the archaeology of a single sense: the sense of being sentient. Aristotle was perhaps the first to define this faculty when in his treatise On the Soul he identified a sensory power, irreducible to the five senses, by which animals perceive that they are perceiving: the simple "sense," as he wrote, "that we are seeing and hearing." After him, thinkers returned, time and again, to define and redefine this curious sensation. The classical Greek and Roman philosophers as well as the medieval Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin thinkers who followed them all investigated a power they called "the common sense," which one ancient author likened to "a kind of inner touch, by which we are able to grasp ourselves." Their many findings were not lost with the waning of the Middle Ages. From Montaigne and Francis Bacon to Locke, Leibniz, and Rousseau, from nineteenth-century psychiatry and neurology to Proust and Walter Benjamin, the writers and thinkers of the modern period have turned knowingly and unknowing to the terms of older traditions in exploring the perception that every sensitive being possesses of its life.The Inner Touch reconstructs and reconsiders the history of this perception. In twenty-five concise chapters that move freely among ancient, medieval, and modern cultures, Daniel Heller-Roazen investigates a set of exemplary phenomena that have played central roles in philosophical, literary, psychological, and medical accounts of the nature of animal existence. Here sensation and self-sensation, sleeping and waking, aesthetics and anesthetics, perception and apperception, animal nature and human nature, consciousness and unconsciousness, all acquire a new meaning.The Inner Touch proposes an original, elegant, and far-reaching philosophical inquiry into a problem that has never been more pressing: what it means to feel that one is alive.Winner of the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies


Structural integrity of bone tissue plays an important role in daily activities of humans. However, traumatic incidents such as sports injuries, collisions and falls can cause bone fracture, servere pain and mobility loss. In addition, ageing and degenerative bone diseases such as osteoporosis can increase the risk of fracture [1]. As a composite-like material, a cortical bone tissue is capable of tolerating moderate fracture/cracks without complete failure. The key to this is its heterogeneously distributed microstructural constituents providing both intrinsic and extrinsic toughening mechanisms. At micro-scale level, cortical bone can be considered as a four-phase composite material consisting of osteons, Haversian canals, cement lines and interstitial matrix. These microstructural constituents can directly affect local distributions of stresses and strains, and, hence, crack initiation and propagation. Therefore, understanding the effect of micromorphology of cortical bone on crack initiation and propagation, especially under dynamic loading regimes is of great importance for fracture risk evaluation. In this study, random microstructures of a cortical bone tissue were modelled with finite elements for four groups: healthy (control), young age, osteoporosis and bisphosphonate-treated, based on osteonal morphometric parameters measured from microscopic images for these groups. The developed models were loaded under the same dynamic loading conditions, representing a direct impact incident, resulting in progressive crack propagation. An extended finite-element method (X-FEM) was implemented to realize solution-dependent crack propagation within the microstructured cortical bone tissues. The obtained simulation results demonstrate significant differences due to micromorphology of cortical bone, in terms of crack propagation characteristics for different groups, with the young group showing highest fracture resistance and the senior group the lowest.


Operational probabilistic forecasts of river discharge are essential for effective water resources management. Many studies have addressed this topic using different approaches ranging from purely statistical black-box approaches to physically based and distributed modeling schemes employing data assimilation techniques. However, few studies have attempted to develop operational probabilistic forecasting approaches for large and poorly gauged river basins. The objective of this study is to develop open-source software tools to support hydrologic forecasting and integrated water resources management in Africa. We present an operational probabilistic forecasting approach which uses public-domain climate forcing data and a hydrologic–hydrodynamic model which is entirely based on open-source software. Data assimilation techniques are used to inform the forecasts with the latest available observations. Forecasts are produced in real time for lead times of 0–7 days. The operational probabilistic forecasts are evaluated using a selection of performance statistics and indicators and the performance is compared to persistence and climatology benchmarks. The forecasting system delivers useful forecasts for the Kavango River, which are reliable and sharp. Results indicate that the value of the forecasts is greatest for intermediate lead times between 4 and 7 days.


Control of organ size by cell proliferation and cell expansion is a fundamental process in plant development, but little is known about the genetic and molecular mechanisms that determine organ size in plants. To understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of organ growth control, we isolate a set of mutants with altered leaf size and identify the narrow leaf mutant, zhaiye 17 (zy17) (zhaiye means narrow leaf in Chinese). zy17 exhibits narrow leaves, slightly short plants, small panicles, reduced panicle branches and decreased grain numbers per pa第 6期 李雪倩等: 水稻窄叶突变体 zy17的遗传分析和候选基因鉴定 583 nicle compared with the wild type. Our cytological analyses show that the narrow leaf phenotype of zy17 is caused by the reduced number of cells, indicating that ZY17 regulates cell proliferation. Genetic analyses show that the zy17 mutant phenotypes are controlled by a single gene. Using the whole genome resequencing approach and linkage analysis, we identify Os02g22390, Os02g28280 and Os02g29530 as candidate genes. Os02g22390 encodes a retrotransposon protein with the mutation occurring in the intronic region; Os02g28280 encodes a protein with unknown function with a base substitution resulting in non-synonymous mutation; Os02g29530 encodes a protein containing the PFAM domain related to glycosyltransferase, with a 2 bp deletion mutation causing a premature termination. Further studies on these three candidate genes will be helpful for understanding the molecular mechanism of organ size control in rice.


The relationship of copper supply to the content and movement of copper among organs of wheat plants was examined at seven stages in their growth from seedlings to maturity on a copper deficient sand. In the absence of copper (Cu0), plants became severely copper deficient and produced no grain; development of tillers, leaves, stems, and inflorescences was delayed and growth of roots strongly depressed; leaf senescence was retarded and tiller growth was prolonged. Application of a marginal supply of copper (Cu1) overcame all symptoms and promoted growth and grain production. Increasing copper supply eightfold (Cu2) did not change vegetative or grain production.

Copper concentrations in stems, individual leaves, and whole tops were highest and responded most strongly to copper supply when they were young. As they aged, Cu1 and Cu2 leaves lost copper rapidly; the first Cu0 leaves retained their copper and remained healthy for more than 7 weeks even though younger leaves developed severe copper deficiency. In all treatments, loss of copper from the oldest leaf paralleled senescence and the loss of nitrogen.

It is suggested that copper does not move out of plant leaves until they lose organic nitrogen compounds. As a result, copper behaves in non-senescent leaves as if it is not mobile in plant phloem. But under conditions favouring senescence, copper is highly mobile: in the present experiment, 67 per cent of the copper present in vegetative organs of the Cu2 primary shoot at flowering moved from them during grain development and this could account for all of the copper found in the grain at maturity.

The retention of copper by leaves before senescence, its rapid loss during senescence, and the effect of copper deficiency in delaying senescence resulted in the oldest leaf of severely deficient Cu0 plants in the present experiment having a higher copper concentration than that of copper adequate Cu1 and Cu2 plants. This behaviour could account for the many reports of anomalous C-shaped 'Piper-Steenbjerg' curves in the relationship of yield to copper concentrations in plant tops. The coupling of copper movement from leaves to nitrogen movement can also account for the unusually high values reported for critical concentrations of copper in tops of plants given high levels of nitrogen fertilizers.

Old organs should not be included in samples for diagnosis of copper deficiency. Only young organs should be used. In the present experiment, the copper concentration of young leaves gave a good indication of the copper status of wheat: a value of 1 μg g−1 in young leaves indicated copper deficiency.


Insecticide applications are not particularly effective on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which has been attributed to their 'closet' behaviour, or ability to rest in places that remain unexposed to insecticides. Some researchers have suggested that insecticides repel mosquitoes, which would result in less exposure and increased dispersal. If repellence due to insecticides is a fact, acquiring a vector-borne disease, such as dengue, could legitimately be attributed to local vector control efforts and this would lead to restitution claims. This study thus investigated the effect of insecticide presence on mosquito behaviour indirectly via oviposition and directly via olfactory response. In all experiments, oviposition in each insecticide compared to its water and ethanol controls was not significantly different. This indicates that Ae. aegypti mosquitoes are not affected by insecticide presence and that increased dispersal is unlikely to be caused by vector control spraying.


The weathering of calcium and magnesium silicate minerals on the continents has exerted a major control on atmospheric CO 2 over geologic time, and vascular plants may have played an important role in this process. In western Iceland, we have examined the role of plants in weathering by measuring the chemistry of waters draining adjacent areas of basaltic rocks that are either barren (having a partial cover of mosses and lichens) or populated by trees. The study area was chosen to maximize vegetational differences and to minimize differences in microclimate, slope, and lithology, while avoiding hydrothermal waters and anthropogenic acid rain. Results, including data on cation uptake by growing trees, indicate that the rate of weathering release of Ca and Mg to streams and vegetation is two to five times higher in vegetated areas than the release of Ca and Mg to streams in barren areas. This finding suggests a major role for vascular plants in accelerating weathering and thereby lowering atmospheric CO 2 as they invaded upland areas of the continents between 380 and 350 Ma.


The patent system gives the courts discretion to tailor patentability standards flexibly across technologies to provide optimal incentives for innovation. For chemical inventions, the courts deem them unpatentable if the chemical lacks a practical, non-research-based use at the time patent protection is sought. The fear is that an early-stage patent on a research input would confer too much control over yet-unknown uses for the chemical, thereby potentially hindering downstream innovation. Yet, denying patents on research inputs can frustrate patent law's broad goal to protect and promote advances in science and technology.

This Article addresses this problem by proposing a new form of intellectual property—a "research patent." This regime would allow inventors to obtain patents on research inputs and extract their full value through licensing and enforcement. Research patents would impose minimal administrative costs on the patent system and ultimately promote the disclosure, development, and use of early-stage inventions. At a broader level, the proposed regime raises the theoretical question of how allowing patent protection on early-stage inventions like research inputs serves patent law's instrumental justification of promoting scientific progress. It also raises significant normative and policy questions about technology-specific patentability standards and their role in furthering the goals of the patent system.


Aims: To evaluate stress tolerance in obese children using a sub-maximal intensity field test and an ergospirometry with maximal stress on a treadmill and study the correlation between the principle variables of both tests. Methods: It is a descriptive transversal study carried out amongst obese children from 6 to 14 years old with a control group of normal-weight children. A 6MWT and an ergospirometry on a treadmill with an incremental maximal stress protocol according to the ERS/ATS recommendations were carried out on the obese children. On the control group, the 6MWT was carried out. Results: A total of 28 obese children (17 male,61%) were studied, with an average age of 10.90years old (±2.43) and a BMI of 27.61kg/m 2 (±3.46). The average 6MWD was 539.4metres (±44.60), which makes up 92.94% (±11.27) of the theoretical. The Hrmax in the 6MWT was 70.10% (±7.24) of the maximum and the perceived effort scale (PE) was 6.8 (±1.6). The VO 2 peak was 35.64ml/kg/min (±5.86), placing itself at 83.21% (±5.86) of the theoretical. The Hrmax was 192.43bpm (±10.10) which makes up 92.05% (±5.17) of the maximum. The RER was 1.15 (±0.13) and the PE was 9.40 (± 0.84). The correlation between the 6MWD and the VO 2 peak was not significant (p>0.05). In the group of normal-weight children, the 6MWD was 95.5% (±7.56) of the theoretical, the Hrmax% was 60.75% (±7.96) and the average on the PE was 5.1 (±3.2). Significant differences (p≤0.05) were found between the PE and the Hrmax% reached between the group of normal-weight and the obese children. Conclusions: The obese children are able to maintain the distance walked in the sub-maximal stress test at the expense of a greater maximal heart rate and a greater stress perception than the normal-weight children.


Background/Aims: To analyze the clinical pattern of ocular toxoplasmosis in a referral center in Spain. Methods: The medical records of consecutive patients with ocular toxoplasmosis admitted from a single referral center for uveitis in Barcelona (Spain) were retrospectively analyzed between January 2005 and January 2011. Results: One hundred and thirteen eyes from 113 patients (74 Spanish and 39 South American) with active ocular toxoplasmosis were analyzed with a 12-month follow-up. Final BCVA ≤20/200 was found in 30 eyes (26.5%). The most frequent complications were macular edema (16.8%) and epiretinal membrane (11.5%). Anterior chamber cell scores of ≥2+ (p = 0.003), vitreous cell scores of ≥2+ (p = 0.001), and the presence of cataracts (p = 0.047) or serous retinal detachment (p = 0.008) were more common among the South American than Spanish cohort. Active macular lesions (p < 0.001) with an initial BCVA ≤20/200 (p < 0.001) and advanced age (p = 0.019) were predictors for final BCVA ≤20/200, whereas female gender (p = 0.021) and an initial BCVA ≤20/200 (p = 0.045) were predictors for ocular complications. Moreover, a BCVA ≤20/200 (p < 0.001) and a vitreous cell score of ≥2+ (p = 0.045) at the initial examination were predictors of an eventual need for ocular surgery. Conclusion: The clinical features of ocular toxoplasmosis in Spanish patients differ from those of South American patients. In general, active macular lesions with an initial BCVA ≤20/200 and advanced age were shown to be predictors for final BCVA ≤20/200 in our patient cohort.


Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) has been noted to occur in patients with cancer receiving bisphosphonate therapy and may also be referred to as bisphosphonate associated osteonecrosis (BON). ONJ has come to attention through case reporting and the pathogenesis and true incidence of this condition are not yet defined. ONJ appears to be a relatively uncommon event, but it is of clinical significance; the evolving data on ONJ are discussed here.


Observations of precursors to P′P′ from a recent exceptionally large deep earthquake in the Fiji Islands (moment magnitude = 7.6) at an array of broadband stations in California revealed mid-mantle reflectors near depths of 785 kilometers and 1200 kilometers under the southern African rift. Such observations, previously reported primarily in subduction zones, suggest that these reflectors may have a global character. Our analysis, which also indicated a sharp, uplifted 670-kilometer discontinuity, demonstrates the power of sparse regional broadband arrays for the study of weak, frequency-dependent features in deep-Earth structure.


With the increasing demands on e-commerce platforms, numerous user action history is emerging. Those enriched action records are vital to understand users' interests and intents. Recently, prior works for user behavior prediction mainly focus on the interactions with product-side information. However, the interactions with search queries, which usually act as a bridge between users and products, are still under investigated. In this paper, we explore a new problem named temporal event forecasting, a generalized user behavior prediction task in a unified query product evolutionary graph, to embrace both query and product recommendation in a temporal manner. To fulfill this setting, there involves two challenges: (1) the action data for most users is scarce; (2) user preferences are dynamically evolving and shifting over time. To tackle those issues, we propose a novel Retrieval-Enhanced Temporal Event (RETE) forecasting framework. Unlike existing methods that enhance user representations via roughly absorbing information from connected entities in the whole graph, RETE efficiently and dynamically retrieves relevant entities centrally on each user as high-quality subgraphs, preventing the noise propagation from the densely evolutionary graph structures that incorporate abundant search queries. And meanwhile, RETE autoregressively accumulates retrieval-enhanced user representations from each time step, to capture evolutionary patterns for joint query and product prediction. Empirically, extensive experiments on both the public benchmark and four real-world industrial datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RETE method.


Research into a sample of Roman glass vessels represented in the York assemblages from the fortress, garrisoned cAD 71-c410, and from the canabae - the industrial area outside the fortress - provides both an insight into the usage and function of the York fortress vessels throughout almost all the Romano-British period, and a case study for future research. Investigations were carried out into the usage dates of the vessels in relation to those elsewhere in Britain, and, where applicable, elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The vessels functions were both discussed generally, and with reference to then fortress contexts. Many of the patterns were found to be common to both military and major settlement sites assemblages in Roman Britain. Analysis suggests that most of the vessels are of first to second century date; that utihtarian vessels and unguentaria play a minor part, mainly in the first to third century; and that the majority throughout the period are tableware, and comprise both highly decorated vessels and/or imports as well as those with lesser degrees of decoration. Uncommon patterns offer evidence for military use of glass vessels. They point to the bias in favour of beakers and cups, normally associated with villa sites; and of a preference for plain cups in the Flavian period; and for highly decorated first to second century beakers. The representation of a comparatively large number of good quality fourth century beakers and cups, both comparatively plain, and highly decorated imports, is, however, unparalleled on British sites elsewhere. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that while very highly decorated vessels, and/or imports, were used by the officers in the first to second century, in the later third to fourth century they may have been used mainly by the general soldiers.


CONTRIBUTING TO RECENT RESEARCH findings and discussion about educators' multiple understandings and enactments of intentional teaching, this paper sheds light on why early childhood educators might find the practice of intentional teaching problematic. It presents research findings from a study conducted in the state of Victoria a decade ago that investigated how dominant discourses influence teacher decision making in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study found that teacher-directed practice was legitimated, marginalised and silenced by teachers in the study. Through the process of looking back to look forward, insights gained from a critical discourse analysis illustrate why intentional pedagogies, such as intentional teaching and teacher-directed practice, might be difficult pedagogical practices in ECEC in Australia.


Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important cool-season food legume grown extensively by the poor farmers throughout the Indian subcontinent. In India chickpea is being grown in 8.32 million hectare with production of 9.8 million tones and 925 kg/ha productivity (Project coordinators report, 2014-16). The Dry root rot (DRR) of chickpea caused by necrotropic fungus Rhizoctonia bataticola. During the past few decades, modern techniques such as mutation breeding by radiation and chemical mutagens and genetic engineering methodology have been tried to develop resistant cultivars of many crop plants. The utilization of mutation breeding is a simple, less cost full and time saving method. Present investigation entitled "Radiation induced mutation for resistance against Rhizoctonia bataticola in chickpea (Cicer arietinum Linn.)" was aimed at identification of suitable mutant or a combination of mutants influencing resistance to dry root rot in chickpea. The experimental material was consisted of the population of three selected cultivars of chickpea (JG 63, JG 74, and JG 130) grown in randomized complete block design in the Seed Breeding Farm, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Jabalpur (M.P) under AICRP on chickpea project during Rabi 2014-16. Dry seeds (10-12% moisture content) of these varieties were irradiated with different doses of gamma rays (150Gy, 200Gy and 400 GY). Another set of presoaked seeds in distilled water (12hrs.) were treated with ethyl methane sulphonate at different concentration (0.3, 0.4 and 0.5%) prepared for 6 hrs. A portion of seeds irradiated at 150 and 200 GY gammaray doses were also treated with 0.3% and 0.4% EMS independently for 6 hrs. present findings revealed that JG 63, JG 74, JG 130 showed significant reaction for mutagenic treatments i.e, 200Gy, 400Gy, 0.3% EMS, 0.4% EMS, 150Gy+0.3% EMS, 200Gy+0.3% EMS. Among 11 treatments, 7 have shown effect on biological traits of experimental genotypes i.e. change in seedling height, decrease in germination percentage and decrease in plant height as compared to control.


Objectives Periampullary region tumors (PRTs) are the fifth highest cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although recent studies have highlighted the prognostic value of the long noncoding RNA HomeoboxA transcript at the distal tip (HOTTIP) in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the relationship between HOTTIP and clinical outcome of all PRTs remains obscure. The aim of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of HOTTIP in patients with all PRTs related to KRAS mutational status. Methods HomeoboxA transcript at the distal tip expression was detected in 100 PRT samples using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The associations between HOTTIP levels, clinicopathological factors, and patient prognosis were also analyzed. Results The expression of HOTTIP was found to be significantly upregulated by 32-fold (P = 0.031) in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. The over expression of HOTTIP was related with presence of invasion and metastasis (P = 0.0467, P = 0.0256). In addition, increased HOTTIP expression was associated with poor prognosis independent of KRAS mutation (P < 0.001; n = 72). Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that high HOTTIP expression was an unfavorable prognostic factor for overall survival. Conclusions Our findings indicate that high levels of HOTTIP expression have the potential to be an independent, unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with PRT.


Recently, increasing attention has been drawn to the internal mechanisms of convolutional neural networks, and the reason why the network makes specific decisions. In this paper, we develop a novel post-hoc visual explanation method called Score-CAM based on class activation mapping. Unlike previous class activation mapping based approaches, Score-CAM gets rid of the dependence on gradients by obtaining the weight of each activation map through its forward passing score on target class, the final result is obtained by a linear combination of weights and activation maps. We demonstrate that Score-CAM achieves better visual performance and fairness for interpreting the decision making process. Our approach outperforms previous methods on both recognition and localization tasks, it also passes the sanity check. We also indicate its application as debugging tools. The implementation is available1.


Many analytical techniques have been executed by core facilities established within academic, pharmaceutical and other industrial institutions. The centralization of such facilities ensures a level of expertise and hardware which often cannot be supported by individual laboratories. The establishment of a core facility thus makes the technology available for multiple researchers in the same institution. Often, the services within the core facility are also opened out to researchers from other institutions, frequently with a fee being levied for the service provided. In the 1990s, with the onset of the age of genomics, there was an abundance of DNA analysis facilities, many of which have since disappeared from institutions and are now available through commercial sources. Ten years on, as proteomics was beginning to be utilized by many researchers, this technology found itself an ideal candidate for being placed within a core facility. We discuss what in our view are the daily challenges of proteomics core facilities. We also examine the potential unmet needs of the proteomics core facility that may also be applicable to proteomics laboratories which do not function as core facilities.


After lung transplantation (LuTx) high level of immunosuppression is needed to prevent rejection, which makes recipients more susceptible to infections. Pulmonary infections are a major clinical problem during the first postoperative year and regular surveillance examinations and immediate adequate treatment is mandatory. As seasonality of respiratory tract infections is well known in chronic pulmonary diseases, we assessed pathogen spectrum and number of infections in the first postoperative year in LuTx recipients. Airway pathogens registered during the first posttransplant year in 16 Hungarian LuTx patients (underlying disease: cystic fibrosis: 8, interstitial lung disease: 4, obstructive lung disease: 3, primary pulmonary hypertension: 1) were analyzed. Microbiological samples were taken from upper and/or lower respiratory tract and serum as part of the routine care. Number of positive samples was analyzed according summer (S=March to August) and winter (W=September to February) period. A total of 107 infections were registered during the first posttransplant year. The most frequent pathogens were Gram negative bacteria (n=48) and fungi (n=33). Total number of respiratory infections in S were significantly less frequent as compared to W (S=40, W=67; including Gram positive: S=8, W=11; Gram negative: S=16, W=31; fungi: S=13, W=20; other: S=4, W=4) independent of the season when LuTx was performed. We report increased number of respiratory tract infection in W period in the first postoperative year in LuTx recipients. More intensive vigilance for possible infections is needed during the W period in these patients.


This report describes the efficient preparation of ω,ω-heterodifunctionalized polymers and polymer bioconjugates under mild conditions using a recently introduced reagent, benzotrifuranone (BTF). Demonstrated is how BTF enables introduction of differentially "clickable" functional groups (e.g., alkenes and alkynes) to monomethyl ether poly(ethylene glycol) amine at ambient temperature using near-stoichiometric amounts of reagents, in contrast to conventional polymer heterofunctionalization approaches that may require high temperatures, significant excesses of reagents, and/or numerous synthetic steps. Showcasing the methodology is facile access to an ω,ω-heterodifunctional polymer bearing a fluorescent (coumarin) dye and biotin. Found, in addition to avidin binding by the polymer bioconjugate, is the unexpected disruption of avidin tetramer formation.


Abstract. The microbial by-product nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas and ozone
depleting substance, has conventionally been assumed to have minimal
emissions in permafrost regions. This assumption has been questioned by
recent in situ studies which have demonstrated that some geologic features in
permafrost may, in fact, have elevated emissions comparable to those of
tropical soils. However, these recent studies, along with every known in situ
study focused on permafrost N2O fluxes, have used chambers to examine
small areas (<50 m2). In late August 2013, we used the airborne
eddy-covariance technique to make in situ N2O flux measurements over
the North Slope of Alaska from a low-flying aircraft spanning a much larger
area: around 310 km2. We observed large variability of N2O
fluxes with many areas exhibiting negligible emissions. Still, the daily mean
averaged over our flight campaign was 3.8
(2.2–4.7) mg N2O m−2 d−1 with the 90 % confidence
interval shown in parentheses. If these measurements are representative of
the whole month, then the permafrost areas we observed emitted a total of
around 0.04–0.09 g m−2 for August, which is comparable to what is
typically assumed to be the upper limit of yearly emissions for these
regions.


Background Previous research has reported increased risk for psychosis among individuals who use cannabis during adolescence. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the interaction between adolescent cannabis use and other factors in moderating risk for psychosis later in life. Method We searched four electronic databases in June 2020 for articles that assessed adolescent cannabis use, had psychosis as an outcome and analyzed for the association between adolescent cannabis use and psychosis. Analysis was done using random-effects meta-analysis and narrative synthesis. Results A total of 63 studies were included in the narrative review and 18 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Adolescent cannabis use was found to increase risk for psychosis (RR = 1.71 (95%CI, 1.47–2.00, p < 0.00001) and predict earlier onset of psychosis. The following factors moderate the relationship between cannabis use and the risk of psychosis: age of onset of cannabis use, frequent cannabis use, exposure to childhood trauma, concurrent use of other substances and genetic factors. Conclusion Adolescent cannabis use is associated with an increased risk for psychosis later in life. In addition, there are factors that moderate this relationship; therefore there is a need for research to assess the interaction between these factors, adolescent cannabis use and psychosis risk.


Identifying and securing reliable funding has long been cited as a major challenge to growth by recreation and leisure professionals ( Crompton, 1999; Walls, 2009) . Whereas municipal park and recreation agencies have traditionally relied on tax-supported revenues, fiscal conservatism and recent economic conditions have necessitated entrepreneurial park funding strategies such as corporate sponsorship ( Mowen, Kyle, Borrie, & Graefe, 2006; Walls, 2009) . However, a greater understanding of constituent perspectives is needed for park and recreation agencies to effectively pursue, design, and manage sponsorships. This study seeks to add to the understanding of how park constituents perceive corporate sponsorship in public parks. Specifically, this study assesses how park constituents personally perceived advantages and disadvantages of corporate sponsorship of a public park agency.  A qualitative method was utilized in order to allow constituents a chance to express their opinions in their own words. Data were collected through three open-ended questions attached to a larger online survey of park users about corporate sponsorship activities by the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA). Data were analyzed using a constant comparison method (Corbin & Strauss, 2007). Participants identified both potential positive and negative outcomes of corporate sponsorship activity, as well as reasons for support or nonsupport. Monetary benefits, and the resulting service, facility, community, and economic benefits were identified as positives. Negatives involved a perceived loss of public ownership, increased commercialization, poor sponsor/agency fit, and negative impacts on the park setting and experience. Respondents also provided advice for pursuing sponsorships, including pursuing other options first, creating a well-defined set of limits to sponsorship activity, emphasizing public benefits, and restricting where sponsorship activity could occur. Results from this study reinforce the notion that corporate sponsorship is a complex and potentially divisive issue. Sponsorship benefits often come with strings attached, and for many respondents the negative impact of sponsorship on these public spaces outweighed the potential positives. Park and recreation agencies wishing to pursue corporate sponsorship should tread carefully when initiating or expanding sponsorship programs. Soliciting public opinion, emphasizing public benefits to sponsorship, proceeding with caution, and establishing a set of guidelines is recommended. Certain areas within and services of the agency may be more suitable to sponsorship than others, and the location and context of the situation should be considered.


We study sports video mining as a machine learning and statistical inference problem. We focus on mid-level semantic structures that can serve as building blocks for high-level semantic analysis. Particularly, we are interested in how to infer multiple coexistent structures jointly. We present a new multichannel segmental hidden Markov model (MCSHMM) that is a unique probabilistic graphical model with two advantages. One is the integration of both hierarchical and parallel dynamic structures that offers more flexibility and capacity of capturing the interaction between multiple Markov chains. The other is the incorporation of the segmental HMM (SHMM) to deal with variable-length observations. In addition, we develop a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator to optimize the model structure and parameters simultaneously. The proposed MCSHMM is used for American football video analysis. The experiment result shows that the MCSHMM outperforms existing HMMs and has potential to be extended for other video mining tasks.