Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery, and Prostitution Edited by Lynn McDonald (Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2005) (1,085 pages; $150 cloth) Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery, and Prostitution is the eighth volume of the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, and it follows the format of the earlier volumes in the series. There is a brief summary of Nightingale's life with particular reference to the content of the book and how it relates to other volumes. An editing key for the series helps readers to find references. All adult women in the volume are addressed by surname, a favor frequently accorded primarily to male subjects, as the editor emphasizes. The book logically falls into two halves. The first half addresses substantive political themes related to women, while the second half primarily consists of Nightingale's correspondence with other women. Each of the substantive theme areas has its own introduction, which includes the editor's evaluation and judgment of Nightingale's work and concerns. Earlier volumes included Nightingale's views on women in relation to different topics such as home and family. Major nursing correspondents will be covered in future volumes. The first theme, women's place in the Victorian era, deals with roles for women in medicine, nursing, and midwifery; income security and management of money; marriage and gender; social class; and education. A draft version, one seldom seen, of Nightingale's novel Cassandra completes the section on women, with the editor wanting "to bring out Nightingale's views on women, their place in life and God's intentions for them, as she developed them" (p. 112). The final printed version of the novel will be included in a later volume. Perhaps it will demonstrate refinement in Nightingale's thinking on this important subject. The second substantive theme is Nightingale's work on midwifery. McDonald, a social scientist, clearly identifies Nightingale's general lack of success in this area. The editor brings an authoritative understanding to the problems existing at the time and the major persons involved. She covers material from several countries as well as personages such as Ignaz Semmelweiss, Leon LeFort, and numerous others. The correspondence and editorial comments also cover a midwifery school's establishment, operation, and closing. It began in October 1861 and closed in December 1867. The discussion of the status of puerperal sepsis in the 1860s at the time of Nightingale's midwifery training at King's College is perhaps the most outstanding part of this volume. Between 1862 and 1866, puerperal fever occurred; in 1867 there were nine deaths out of 125 deliveries. Although, according to McDonald, the statistics for puerperal sepsis deaths did not exceed those in many other lying-in institutions, even so the school was closed. Nightingale's book, Introductory Notes on Lying-In Institutions, reprinted in this volume with a good editorial commentary, illustrates Nightingale's use of a statistical problem-solving approach to "ascertain the 'normal death rate of lying-in women' and the great question whether a training school for midwifery nurses can safely be conducted in such a building"(p. 294). The lengthy coverage of Nightingale's experience with midwifery ends: "Evidently the answer remained 'No' " (pp. 407-8). Prostitution and the Contagious Disease Act plus treatment for syphilitic prostitutes comprise the third, and last, substantive issue of the first half of the book. The editor's brief introduction covers the growing problem of venereal/sexually transmitted disease in the 1860s among the British military, the corresponding loss of service and resources, and the Continental system of compulsory inspection and treatment of prostitutes that the British government proposed to implement. Nightingale's progressive position that vice or prostitution was the problem rather than the resulting diseases of gonorrhea and syphilis differed from the position of the prevailing majority. …


Increased synthesis and deposition of extracellular matrix proteins in the blood vessel wall are implicated in vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis, restenosis and hypertension. (Liau and Chan 1989). The increase in extracellular matrix proteins can be mostly attributed to smooth muscle cells (SMC's) within vascular lesions (Mecham et al 1987). It is presumed that modulation of SMC's from their normally quiescent, contractile phenotype to a proliferative synthetic phenotype results in increased synthesis of extracellular matrix proteins. Studies have also demonstrated that signals elicited from the extracellular matrix (ECM) may play a role in the regulation of this SMC phenotypic modulation (Yamamoto et al 1993; Hedin et al 1988). The mechanism by which ECM can alter the phenotypic state of SMC's is not well understood but clearly involves the induction of intracellular signals as a consequence of ECM ligand - cell surface integrin binding. These signals must subsequently exert downstream molecular events altering gene expression and ultimately cell phenotype. The research project presented in this thesis examined the influence various extracellular matrix substrates have on vascular SMC behaviour in vitro. Initial observations demonstrated that SMC's cultured on different matrix substrates exhibit distinct morphological growth patterns. Functional differences in SMC proliferation and migration rates were also observed in response to seeding on different ECM surfaces. Analysis of the expression levels of known SMC phenotypic protein markers between SMC's cultured on different matrix substrates did not reveal any significant differences in protein expression. Slight upregulation of Myosin Light Chain Kinase (MLCK)-210 kd isoform was observed in SMC's cultured on cellular fibronectin, Collagen III and Vitronectin substrates. The Meta-vinculin protein was upregulated in SMC's cultured on fibronectin coated substrates. In order to identify altered gene expression patterns induced by ECM adhesion, SMC populations cultured on fibronectin coated plastic and SMC's grown on uncoated plastic
were selected for analysis by the differential display technique. Differential display is a recently developed PCR based technique that allows the identification of differentially expressed genes between related cell populations (Liang and Pardee 1992). Much effort was spent optimising the differential display procedure to overcome such limitations as primer redundancy and high false positive selection rates. However, as a result of the persistence of false positives only one gene, meta-vinculin was confirmed as being differentially expressed between SMC populations cultured on fibronectin coated and uncoated tissue culture plastic surfaces. It was concluded that the failure to identify a significant number of fibronectin modulated genes was probably a result of limitations in the differential display procedure as carried out in this study, and may also possibly be due to the existence of only very minor
differences in phenotype between SMC's grown on plastic with or without fibronectin precoating.


The phylum Aquificae comprises chemolithoautotrophic thermophilic to hyperthermophilic bacteria, in which the nitrogenase reductase gene (nifH) has been reported. However, nitrogen-fixing activity has not yet been demonstrated in members of this deeply branching bacterial phylum. We isolated two thermophilic diazotrophic strains from chemosynthetic microbial communities in slightly alkaline hot springs (≥70°C) in Nakabusa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA genes identified these strains as members of the genus Hydrogenobacter within Aquificae. Their NifH sequences showed 96.5 and 97.4% amino acid sequence identities to that from Hydrogenobacter thermophilus TK-6. Nitrogenase activity, measured by acetylene reduction, was confirmed in both strains at 70°C. These novel strains grew under semi-aerobic conditions by using CO2 as the sole carbon source and N2 as the sole nitrogen source in media containing hydrogen and/or thiosulfate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of active nitrogen fixation in thermophilic bacteria at 70°C and in the phylum Aquificae.


Agencies and courts have generally been understood to relate in two primary ways. First, judicial review of agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act is the cornerstone of the agency-court relationship. Second, and more recently, scholars have identified how agencies act as litigation gatekeepers, influencing which suits may proceed in federal court. But we have yet to recognize a third, critical and emerging relationship between agencies and courts: agencies acting as litigation rulemakers. As litigation rulemakers, agencies implicitly amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and shape how litigation proceeds in federal court. Agencies have engaged in notice-and-comment rulemaking restricting the availability of binding arbitration, adjudicated cases to require courts to grant class relief, and issued guidance limiting the confidentiality of settlement agreements. Whether through notice-and-comment rulemaking, adjudication, guidance, or other actions, agencies are directing judges as to how they should address cases that appear before them. In so doing, agencies are effectively modifying the default procedural regime set forth by the Federal Rules. Understanding litigation rulemaking deepens our awareness of how the Federal Rules are shaped and put into practice in the federal courts. A closer look at litigation rulemaking also illuminates the increasing complexity of the relationship between agencies and courts. This undocumented pathway for procedural reform complements the formal Rules Enabling Act process led by the federal courts' Rules Committee. Agencies acting as litigation rulemakers are also imposing additional constraints on the federal courts. When courts respond to these agency actions, typically through judicial review, a novel institutional dialectic arises. Moreover, by effectively amending the procedural regime that governs federal litigation, agencies are shaping substantive law.


ABSTRACT In a variety of organisms, including plants and several eubacteria, isoprenoids are synthesized by the mevalonate-independent 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway. Although different enzymes of this pathway have been described, the terminal biosynthetic steps of the MEP pathway have not been fully elucidated. In this work, we demonstrate that thegcpE gene of Escherichia coli is involved in this pathway. E. coli cells were genetically engineered to utilize exogenously provided mevalonate for isoprenoid biosynthesis by the mevalonate pathway. These cells were then deleted for the essential gcpE gene and were viable only if the medium was supplemented with mevalonate or the cells were complemented with an episomal copy of gcpE.


The article is dedicated to the analysis of talks during acquaintance on the content of recordings of speed dating. The issue of research of the romantic discourse is taken into account. The format of speed dating is described, which is not only a unique cultural and socio-psychological phenomenon and a special genre of dialog, but is also regarded as a promising methodology of communication, interpersonal relationships and attraction studies. The review of studies, based on this methodology is presented. Special consideration is given to the method of conversation analysis, created by H. Sacks et al. at the end of the 1950s to solve applied problems of expertise in phone-calls, which belongs to the group of qualitative methods of research in social sciences and is oriented to the detailed analysis of short episodes of talks of the two or more interlocutors. A model of analysis of mundane talks is proposed, which includes elements of the scene-context, the general design of the talk, ways to change the sequence of speech, recurring patterns, communicative difficulties and institutional specifics of the talks. The results of empirical research on young people (N = 48) during the process of acquaintance at the speed dating parties is presented. The phenomena of talks in this situation are found and described: typical and atypical ways to start the talk, the increase in the size of the turns during the communication, pattern "question-answer-commentary", the search for mutual similarities as a strategy of the talkers, recapturing of initiative, the direct transference of the turn, the change of the theme as a way to avoid confrontation, speech patterns to soften misunderstanding, hesitations and their influence on the talk, clarifications, the conveyor of the interaction, the transference of content and postponed reaction, the "telegraphic style", the lack of finishing lines in a dialog, the gender asymmetry of the interaction.


: A growing number of studies use a dichotomous variable indicating the presence of a standalone CSR report to capture impacts of CSR disclosure. Our concern is that, without considering differences in the information provided, such an approach could lead to incorrect inferences regarding those impacts. Accordingly, we extend prior research by examining whether, similar to differences in environmental disclosure, the mere presence of a standalone CSR report mitigates negative market reactions at times of regulatory cost exposure. We focus on the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster and a sample of international utilities with nuclear power generation. Controlling for other factors related to social and regulatory cost exposures, we find only the environmental disclosures appear to reduce negative market effects. We thus argue that, in exploring the impacts of CSR disclosure, researchers need to carefully consider, beyond just the presence of a CSR report, differences in the extent of information being provided.


We previously designed ophthalmic formulations (nTRA) containing tranilast nanoparticles (Tra-NPs) with high uptake into ocular tissues. In this study, we used in situ gel (ISG) bases comprising combinations of pluronic F127 (F127) and methylcellulose (MC/F127), pluronic F68 (F68/F127), and Carbopol (Car/F127), and we developed in situ gels incorporating Tra-NPs (Tra-NP-incorporated ISNGs) such as nTRA-F127, nTRA-MC/F127, nTRA-F68/F127, and nTRA-Car/F127. Moreover, we demonstrated the therapeutic effect on conjunctival inflammation using lipopolysaccharide-induced rats. Each Tra-NP-incorporated ISNG was prepared by the bead mill method, the particle size was 40–190 nm, and the tranilast release and diffusion from formulation were nTRA > nTRA-F127 > nTRA-F68/F127 > nTRA-Car/F127 > nTRA-MC/F127. In the Tra-NP-incorporated ISNGs, the tranilast residence time in the lacrimal fluid, cornea, and conjunctiva was prolonged, although the Cmax was attenuated in comparison with nTRA. On the other hand, no significant difference in conjunctival inflammation between non- and nTRA-F127-instilled rats was found; however, the nTRA-F68/F127, nTRA-Car/F127, and nTRA-MC/F127 (combination-ISG) attenuated the vessel leakage, nitric oxide, and tumor necrosis factor-α expression. In particular, nTRA-F68/F127 was significant in preventing the conjunctival inflammation. In conclusion, we found that the combination-ISG base prolonged the residence time of Tra-NPs; however, Tra-NP release from the formulation was attenuated, and the Tmax was delayed longer than that in nTRA. The balance of drug residence and diffusion in lacrimal fluid may be important in providing high ocular bioavailability in formulations containing solid nanoparticles.


Dating business cycle turning points is still an important task for economic policy decisions. This study does this for the Austrian economy for the period between 1976 and 2005, using only quarterly national accounts data of Austria, Germany and the euro area. Three different filtering methods are applied: first-order differences, the Hodrick-Prescott filter, and the Baxter-King filter. To all of them, two different methods of determining the business cycle are applied: the ad-hoc determination of the business cycle and a dynamic factor model, taking into account the common variations of Austria, the euro area and the German business cycle movements. The results of both methods are dated by the Bry-Boschan algorithm in order to locate peaks and troughs of the cycle. The results are interpreted and compared to already exiting studies on the euro area and the Austrian business cycle.


A simple mechanism could underlie the growth and self-replication of protocells—putative ancestors of modern living cells—suggests a study publishing September 3 in Biophysical Journal. Protocells are vesicles bounded by a membrane bilayer and are potentially similar to the first unicellular common ancestor (FUCA). On the basis of relatively simple mathematical principles, the proposed model suggests that the main force driving protocell growth and reproduction is the temperature difference that occurs between the inside and outside of the cylindrical protocell as a result of inner chemical activity.


The development of resistance to antiretroviral therapies has become a formidable barrier to providing optimal treatment of HIV infection in the United States. The emergence of new mutations resistant to antiretroviral agents and a rise in transmission of resistant viruses contribute to an increased risk of treatment failure. Resistance testing of both treatment-experienced and treatment-naive patients i snow recommended for identification of the most effective treatment regimen; however, resistance testing is not universally available or easily interpreted. Furthermore, poor adherence to a treatment regimen or treatment with less potent antiretroviral agents can lead to exposure of virus to subinhibitory levels of drug and the development of resistance. In this article, we discuss several issues that specifically impact the development and transmission of resistant HIV in patients belonging to ethnic minorities and teh implementation of strategies that will overcome resistance as an obstacle to optimal treatment.


The objective of this paper is to delve into the question of whether and how the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are channels through which many forms of power are being exercised. The analysis will be based on the findings drawn from interviews with persons having been appointed in powerful positions in the Greek public administration and under this role have contributed to the ICTs usage as well as, secondary written sources on public administration. The main elements of this analysis include an examination of a. the nature of power, b. the subjects in positions of power within public administration as are defined within the framework of this paper, c. the ideologies of modernisation and globalisation as vehicles to the changes incurred regarding the ICTs, and finally d. the transmission of the aforementioned to wider society.


Geothermal energy is a renewable form of energy, however due to misuse, processing and management issues, it is necessary to use the resource more efficiently. To increase energy efficiency, energy systems engineers carry out careful energy control studies and offer alternative solutions. With this aim, this study was conducted to improve the performance of a real operating air-cooled organic Rankine cycle binary geothermal power plant (GPP) and its components in the aspects of thermodynamic modeling, exergy analysis and optimization processes. In-depth information is obtained about the exergy (maximum work a system can make), exergy losses and destruction at the power plant and its components. Thus the performance of the power plant may be predicted with reasonable accuracy and better understanding is gained for the physical process to be used in improving the performance of the power plant. The results of the exergy analysis show that total exergy production rate and exergy efficiency of the GPP are 21 MW and 14.52%, respectively, after removing parasitic loads. The highest amount of exergy destruction occurs, respectively, in condenser 2, vaporizer HH2, condenser 1, pumps 1 and 2 as components requiring priority performance improvement. To maximize the system exergy efficiency, the artificial bee colony (ABC) is applied to the model that simulates the actual GPP. Under all the optimization conditions, the maximum exergy efficiency for the GPP and its components is obtained. Two of these conditions such as Case 4 related to the turbine and Case 12 related to the condenser have the best performance. As a result, the ABC optimization method provides better quality information than exergy analysis. Based on the guidance of this study, the performance of power plants based on geothermal energy and other energy resources may be improved.


In this study, specimens were made with profile thicknesses and shear reinforcement as parameters. The bending and shear behavior were checked, and comparative analysis was conducted of the results and the theoretical values in order to see the applicability of T-section Modular Composite Profiled Beams (TMPB). In TMPB, the profiles of formwork functions play a structural role resisting the load. Also, the module concept, which is introduced into TMPB, has advantages: it can be mass-produced in a factory, it is lighter than an existing H-beam, it can be fabricated on the spot, and its section size is freely adjustable. The T1 specimens exhibited ductile behavior, where the whole section displayed strain corresponding to yielding strain at least without separation between modules. They also exhibited maximum strength similar to the theoretical values even if shear reinforcement was not applied, due to the marginal difference between shear strength and maximum bending monment of the concrete section. A slip between modules was incurred by shear failure of the bolts in all specimens, excluding the T1 specimen, and therefore bending moment could not be fully displayed.


NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) project will bring Mars surface and atmosphere samples back to Earth for detailed examination. Langley Research Center's MSR Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV) is a core part of the mission, protecting the sample container during atmospheric entry, descent, and landing. Planetary protection requirements demand a higher reliability from the EEV than for any previous planetary entry vehicle. An overview of the EEV design and preliminary analysis is presented, with a follow-on discussion of recommended future design trade studies to be performed over the next several years in support of an MSR launch in 2018 or 2020. Planned topics include vehicle size for impact protection of a range of sample container sizes, outer mold line changes to achieve surface sterilization during re-entry, micrometeoroid protection, aerodynamic stability, thermal protection, and structural materials selection.


In the present study, the transient stress distribution caused by a break in the fibers of an adhesive bonding is investigated. Transient stress is a dynamic response of the system to any discontinuity in the fibers from detachment time till their equilibrium state (or steady state). To derive the governing dynamic equilibrium equations shear lag model is used. Here, it is assumed that the tensile load is supported only by the fibers. Employing dimensionless equations, initial conditions and proper boundary conditions, the differential-difference equations are solved using explicit finite difference method and the transient stress distribution is obtained in the presence of discontinuities. The present work aims to investigate the transient stress distribution in a single-lap joint, caused by the fiber breakage in a single layer of the adhesive joint. For this purpose, the effect of different number of broken fibers (including mid fiber) in the adherend on load distribution in other intact filaments, the location of fiber breaks in the adherend, and the effect of adhesive length is studied on the overall joint behavior. The results show that a the fiber is broken away, the amount of initial shock (maximum load) into the fiber and thus the dynamic overshoot is reduced. Maximum amount of shock in the lateral fibers is broken at this point due to breakage in the thirteenth fiber maximum axial load and shock are introduce to the fourteenth fiber.


To determine if the abnormal A-cell function of human diabetes can be corrected by insulin therapy, 10 patients with juvenile-type and 10 with adult-onset types of diabetes were aggressively treated with insulin for up to 10 days. Glucose, immunoreactive glucagon (IRG), and, where possible, insulin were measured in plasma specimens obtained at two-hour intervals for periods of up to 10 days. These patients were compared with nine nondiabetics who were studied similarly. During a two-day "uncontrolled" period, marked hyperglycemie, glycosurie, and elevated IRG concentrations were present in both groups of diabetic patients. "Improved control" was achieved in the juvenile-type diabetic group with an average insulin dose of 115 ± 24 U. per day. Such therapy significantly reduced the mean plasma glucose (p < 0.001) and IRG (p < 0.05) concentrations when compared with the "uncontrolled" period, but both remained above (p < 0.05) the values seen in the nondiabetk subjects. "Improved control" was achieved in the maturity-onset group of patients with an average insulin dose of 160 ± 24 U. per day. This dose was associated with a mean plasma-insulin value of 106 ± 26 μU. per milliliter, significantly greater (p < 0.05) than that of the nondiabetk: group. Mean plasma glucose (p < 0.001) and IRG (p < 0.02) concentrations were reduced significantly as compared with the "uncontrolled" period; the mean IRG level was the same as that of the nondiabetics, but the mean plasma glucose levels remained significantly greater (p < 0.001) than in the nondiabetics. The results indicate that aggressive administration of insulin by conventional means does significantly reduce the average IRG level in juvenile-type and adult-type diabetics. However, despite the large doses of insulin and unphysiologically high concentrations of circulating insulin in the juvenile-diabetic group, IRG remained significantly above that of the nondiabetics. In the adult-onset group, although it was reduced to normal, the IRG level can be viewed as above normal relative to the persistent hyperglycemie and hyperinsulinemia.


Due to global change, temperate forests are expected to face growing threats to forest health (e.g. insects/disease) and increasing probabilities of severe disturbances (e.g. wildfires), which may result in amplified tree mortality against a backdrop of a changing climate and associated ecosystem/atmospheric feedbacks (i.e. increased rates of dead wood decay/combustion). Despite these expectations, we lack a fundamental understanding of current forest biomass trends among live and dead components across large spatial and temporal domains. The goal of this study was to examine changes in forest biomass components (downed dead wood (DDW), standing dead trees (SDs), and live trees) across coterminous US forests using a nation-wide, multi-decade (∼2006–2010 to ∼2015–2019) repeated forest inventory at the scale of regional ecosystems. It was found that the total biomass stocks of DDW, standing dead, and live trees all increased (18.3%, 14.7%, and 3.9%, respectively) with biomass accumulation in large live trees coupled with increases in the biomass of smaller sized down dead wood illustrating the influence of stand development across US forests at the scale of individual forest ecosystems (i.e. self-thinning). Coupled with this observation, tremendous positive skew of biomass change across all biomass components and size classes demonstrates the ability of severe but episodic disturbance events to produce substantial biomass inputs to SD and DDW pools with legacy effects exceeding the period of this study. Overall, against a backdrop of expected future global change and growing interest in the maintenance of the terrestrial forest carbon pool, the incorporation of dead wood-focused analytics such as decay-related functional traits, microbial/fungal community assessments, or dead/live biomass relationships into broader forest carbon/biomass monitoring efforts is essential.


Boron, which is ubiquitous in the environment, causes developmental and reproductive effects in experimental animals. This observation has led to efforts to establish a Tolerable Intake value for boron. Although risk assessors agree on the use of fetal weight decreases observed in rats as an appropriate critical effect, consensus on the adequacy of toxicokinetic data as a basis for replacement of default uncertainty factors remains to be reached. A critical analysis of the existing data on boron toxicokinetics was conducted to clarify the appropriateness of replacing default uncertainty factors (lO-fold for interspecies differences and 10-fold for intraspecies differences) with data-derived values. The default uncertainty factor for variability in response from animals to humans of lo-fold (default values of 4-fold for kinetics and 2.5-fold for dynamics) was recommended, since clearance of boron is 3- to 4-fold higher in rats than in humans and data on dynamic differences-in order to modify the default value--are unavailable. A data-derived adjustment of 6-fold (1.8 for kinetics and 3.1 for dynamics) rather than the default uncertainty factor of 10-fold was considered appropriate for intrahuman variability, based on variability in glomerular filtration rate during pregnancy in humans and the lack of available data on dynamic differences. Additional studies to investigate the toxicokinetics of boron in rats would be useful to provide a stronger basis for replacement of default uncertainty factors for interspecies variation. * Author to whom all correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.


This paper examines the art of central banking as practised by the European Central Bank (ECB) through the prism of Goodfriend's (2009) determination of the three policies that fall within the remit of a central bank: monetary policy, which consists in varying the size of the balance sheet, credit policy, which consists in modifying the credit structure, and interest rate policy, which consists in adjusting the interest rates of the marginal lending and deposit facilities. The theoretical literature emphasises the existence of a separation principle between the first policy, which seeks to ensure monetary stability and the other two policies, which are intended to ensure financial stability through the smooth functioning of the interbank money market. This paper shows in particular that a central bank not only has the capacity but indeed must strive to separate the conduct of its monetary policy, which must seek to ensure medium and long-term price stability, from that of its credit policy, which is driven by short-term imperatives and consists in supplying the banking system with liquidity in the event of temporary money demand shocks. During the first part of the crisis, the ECB acted in accordance with the separation principle. However, it became increasingly difficult to apply as interest rates approached the zero-lower-bound. In effect, the unconventional measures adopted by the ECB created interference between its monetary policy, its credit policy and its interest rate policy.


Abstract We construct a measure of human capital using micro datasets on labor composition of age, gender, education, and wage rate and analyze its role in economic growth for the Korean economy. Over the past three decades, human capital has grown steadily at about 1% per year, contrasting to a continuously declining trend of total work-hours. This growth has been driven by the rise of better-educated baby-boom cohorts. A growth accounting exercise shows that human capital contributes significantly to economic growth; it accounted for 0.5% points of annual GDP growth over the period. Human capital is projected to remain a major growth factor over the next two decades as the increase in educational attainment continues. Increased employment rate of elderly or female workers reduces the aggregate human capital growth while increasing the available labor. Polices to improve human capital of female or elderly workers help to increase aggregate human capital growth.


On June 16th, 2018 family, friends, and the world of online learning scholarship lost Dr. John Benard Arbaugh, known to everyone as "Ben".  Ben was a pioneer in online learning with more than 80 publications including 17 best article or best paper awards.  Ben was also a member of the OLJ Editorial Board.  Many of us knew Ben for his scholarship on the Community of Inquiry model and for his work as an evaluator on national projects such as the Predictive Analytics Framework (PAR).   Ben's passing is felt by the many colleagues and coauthors with whom he worked around the world.  He was a true mentor, teacher, scholar and friend.  We will miss him.


BACKGROUND
A pathogenic link between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and MALT-type lymphomas has been suggested. However, studies assessing the role of HCV infection separately in different forms of MALT lymphomas are not available.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The prevalence and clinical implications of HCV seropositivity were analyzed in 55 patients with ocular adnexa lymphoma (OAL) of MALT-type.

RESULTS
HCV seropositivity was detected in seven (13%) patients. At presentation, HCV infection was significantly associated with concomitant extra-orbital disease, lymph node dissemination and involvement of additional extranodal organs. HCV seropositivity was associated also with a higher relapse rate and worse progression-free survival. In fact, 16 patients experienced relapse after first-line treatment: five (71%) were HCV-seropositive and 11 (23%) were HCV-seronegative, with a median TTP of 31 and 50+ months (P = 0.01), and a 5-year progression-free survival of 43 +/- 18% and 77 +/- 7% (P = 0.005), respectively. HCV-seropositive patients experienced frequent relapses despite further lines of therapy; relapses were systemic in all cases but one; multiple subcutaneous nodules were common at relapse.

CONCLUSIONS
HCV seropositivity is present in 13% of OAL of MALT-type. Concomitant HCV infection is associated with more disseminated disease and aggressive behavior in OAL, with a consequent potential negative impact in patients managed with radiotherapy alone.


South Africa has been regarded as a hopeful example of moving past a racially divided and ethnically cleaved world. In my 13 years as the leader of South Africa's principal opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), I have thought long about racial identity and its impact on politics as well as the attempt to transcend racial boundaries. South Africa's democratic constitution, finalized in 1996, was premised on impeccable claims and commitments to non-racism, with the goal of establishing full and equal democratic order. However, South Africa's transition from the epoch of apartheid racial chauvinism to a non-racial democracy has not been entirely complete. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In parallel to South Africa's history of racial politics, US politics has also been characterized by inequality. The US 2008 presidential campaign offers an alternative, and perhaps better, way to attempt to break with this tradition. The campaign of presidential hopeful Barack Obama represents the first genuine possibility in US history of a minority being elected president. While his African-American ethnicity is certainly quite visible, he does not use this fact to solicit votes by emphasizing racial politics. In contrast, while South Africa has all the appurtenances and appearances of a race-transcending constitutional order, in many ways it remains firmly racialized. The South African elections, since 1994, have confined themselves to a form of ethnic head-counting. An Election of Change A case in point was the 2004 general election campaign, which was the last occasion on which South Africans went to the polls to elect a new parliament. During the campaign, the Democratic Alliance attempted not simply to hold on to the minority constituencies that formed the core of the party's political support; it also tried to reach out to the majority black constituency. This constituency has been firmly in the hands of the majority governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), since the advent of democracy in 1994. In designing the DA campaign to appeal to the broad black electorate, a detailed and renovated policy program was wrapped into a package of offers aimed to meet the most urgent and important needs of the majority. The introduction discussed the best and the worst of South Africa's first democratic decade, while the ANC government's own assessment was largely self-congratulatory and located its failures in "the legacy of apartheid." There were certain incontestable facts and stark statistics: since 1994 one million jobs had been lost; one-quarter of a million citizens had been murdered; and five million South Africans were sick, or dying, of HIV/AIDS. The DA therefore campaigned on a real message of change, including boosting economic growth with reforms to the rigid labor market, and pledging to provide free antiretroviral drugs. Constitutionally, it pledged to roll back the "creeping authoritarianism of the ANC." While each pledge was backed by the neccessary background research, none of the contentions was seriously challenged. As the election unfolded, the manifesto did not electrify the electorate or the media. Essentially, the reason for this was that the campaign on the ground could have come from the pages of George Orwell's Animal Farm. To dismiss chronic delivery failures, the ruling party resorted to the South African equivalent of the pig's retort, "You don't want Farmer Jones back." The election results proved that the DA consolidated its position as the dominant opposition force in the country with over 1.9 million votes (at 12.37 percent of the total, an increase by some 400,000 votes over DA's 1999 performance). The DA now had 50 MPs in parliament compared to the 28 of the third party in parliament, the Inkatha Freedom Party. While the results confirmed our dominance on the opposition terrain, the DA was still dwarfed by the ANC's 69.69 percent of the vote and 266 MPs netted. …


The oxidation of unsaturated fats generally occurs at the oil-water interface of emulsions, so surface-active antioxidants are needed for inhibiting lipid oxidation. In this study, a scallop gonad protein isolate (SGPI)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) conjugate was fabricated and characterized as an amphiphilic surface-active antioxidant in improving the physicochemical and oxidative stability of tuna oil-loaded emulsions via a free-radical grafting method. The covalent binding of EGCG to SGPIs was verified by using electrophoresis and gel permeation chromatography. Meanwhile, the structural, physical, thermal, as well as the in vitro antioxidant properties of the SGPI-EGCG conjugate were further characterized. The results indicated that the SGPI-EGCG conjugate contained more β-sheet but less α-helix than SGPIs, leading to the changes of the secondary and tertiary conformation stability after conjugation. The radical scavenging and oxygen radical absorbance capacity of SGPIs were significantly increased by 4.9 times and 7.4 times, respectively, after the EGCG-grafting reaction. Compared with that stabilized by SGPIs, tuna oil emulsions emulsified by the SGPI-EGCG conjugate exhibited a smaller particle size and better storage stability. Furthermore, the SGPI-EGCG conjugate inhibited lipid and fatty acid oxidation during storage more significantly in tuna oil emulsions than SGPIs due to its higher interfacial accumulation and antioxidant activities. These results suggested that the SGPI-EGCG conjugate could be utilized as an efficient surface-active antioxidant and emulsifier for the encapsulation and protection of unsaturated lipids.


Abstract The climate of change in music reference represents a challenge to librarians. The three issues in the library literature that probably have the greatest impact on music reference service and are the subject of this paper are changes in users, sources, and modes of access to sources. These three issues are certainly related, as users need to use sources, and they need to know how to access them in order to use them. Reference librarians are called upon to mediate this process. Music library collections have their own peculiarities, however. Because they contain a wider variety of materials than many other kinds of library collections, reference librarians for music collections must be aware of the format, content, and intended uses of these materials, as well as the research patterns of their patrons. In the recent past, as cultural norms have changed with the paradigm of Western culture, users have wanted to use music libraries in new ways, and librarians are challenged to accommodate them. The musical genres used and requested by today's library patrons are different than they once were, both for listening and for academic study. Musical reference sources are being issued in electronic formats, and this represents a challenge for some users. The expanded use of interlibrary loan and electronic access to materials represents new opportunities and challenges. Music librarians are being called upon to provide services to patrons they may never see.


Over the past few years, various electronic market systems have been introduced by market-making firms to improve transaction effectiveness and efficiency within their markets. Although successful implementation of electronic marketplaces may be found in several industries, some systems have failed or their penetration pace is slower than was projected, indicating that significant barriers remain. This paper analyzes the economic forces and barriers behind the electronic market adoptions from the perspective of market process reengineering. Four cases of electronic market adoptions--two successful and two failed--are used for this analysis. Economic benefits are examined by investigating how the market process innovation enabled by information technology (IT) reduces transaction costs and increases market efficiency. Adoption barriers are identified by analyzing transaction risks and resistance resulting from the reengineering. Successful deployment of electronic market systems requires taking into account these barriers along with the economic benefits of adoption. The paper presents suggestions based on these case studies, which are relevant to the analysis, design, and implementation of electronic market systems by market-making firms.


Background There are unique challenges to the implementation and evaluation of public health interventions that are implemented in community settings. These limit our ability to evaluate intervention impact, yet the mechanisms through which challenges and barriers can operate remain unclear. In this study, we investigated challenges and barriers to implementation and evaluation for five different interventions from a health improvement programme. We used the Pillar Integration Process (PIP), a novel technique, to combine and analyse mixed methods data. Methods We used a sequential explanatory study design and a 'subtle realist' epistemological approach. Project interventions were selected for study inclusion using explicit criteria. Ethics approval was obtained. First we conducted before-and-after quantitative evaluations of five recognised public health improvement interventions addressing physical activity, diet, mental wellbeing and alcohol misuse in 2011/12. Second, we conducted fifteen qualitative, semi-structured interviews with staff who implemented and managed the interventions. Third, PIP was developed to analyse the extent of congruence between barriers to implementation and barriers to evaluation identified within the datasets. PIP was constructed using a matrix built in six stages: 'listing' 'matching' 'expanding' 'clustering' 're-matching' and 'pillar-building' between qualitative and quantitative datasets. The central 'pillar' issues which emerged were compared with theories of public health evaluation and implementation. We synthesised these findings and produced a logic model to illustrate them. Results Three interventions generated both implementation and process evaluation data. Synthesis and integration of findings revealed personal, intersubjective, and socio-political barriers important to both the evaluation and implementation of the interventions. Contextual issues (staff capacity, team cohesion, setting compatibility, history, time, communication styles, co-production, understanding and use of evidence) facilitated implementation in some settings whilst hindering it in others. The logic model illustrated how the convergence of some contextual issues (e.g. timing, organisational history, staff capacity and beliefs about evidence) exacerbated challenges to evaluation. PIP highlighted differences in practices and beliefs which caused inter-organisational conflicts. These conflicts are likely to have contributed to barriers to evaluation fidelity, lower intervention uptake rates, and unequal provision of services. Conclusion We found parallel barriers to evaluation and implementation of public health interventions which lowered their effectiveness in a real world situation. Using a mixed methods approach - PIP - we allowed greater insights into the context and mechanisms of those barriers than either qualitative or quantitative research methods alone would have afforded. PIP provides demonstrable methodological rigour that could be used in other mixed methods research and practice contexts.


Relatively little is known about aesthetic chills, the experience of goose bumps and shivers in response to the arts. The present study explored how often people report such experiences and what people who often experience them are like. After noting which domain of the arts they encountered most often in daily life, young adults (n = 188) rated how often they experienced aesthetic chills and related states. Latent variable models suggested three latent factors—aesthetic chills, feeling touched, and absorption—that shared a higher-order factor. As expected, people high in openness to experience and expertise in the arts consistently reported experiencing aesthetic chills more often. The Big Five personality factors accounted for about half of the variance, whereas cognitive and demographic variables were relatively unimportant. The individual-differences approach thus seems like a promising complement to experimental work on aesthetic chills.


Some of us have weary memories of ecclesiastical and scholarly debates around fifty years ago about the precise form of the church's ministry in the New Testament and its relation to that of contemporary churches. Those debates have never stopped, though they have slowly become a more minority interest. Here now by Benjamin J. Merkle, The Elder and Overseer: One Office in the Early Church (Peter Lang, Zoo3. £41.00. pp. xviii + 183. ISBN o-8zo4-6234-9) is a fresh study, highly technical and amply supplied with footnotes (though unfortunately lacking indices) which gives a review of the history of the question. All the relevant passages are then examined in detail in the attempt to give full grounding to a view long and widely held, even if questioned from time to time. The book's subtitle says it all. Firstly, there was office in the primitive church, and not just charismatic leadership of an ad hoc and varying character. Both can and did co-exist. Secondly, elders and 'overseers' (episcopoi) were the same office. It is true that an elder can simply be an older person, but there was such an office in early Christianity and it did have precedents. The overseers were the elders in their role as rulers, but there was no movement, even in the Pastoral Epistles (which are early and by Paul) towards a monepiscopate. Finally, any church which holds the New Testament to be normative for


This is a continuation of previous works on the municipalities of Gibara and Banes done by the Meteorological Center in Holguin, with similarities in the processing of information and the assessment methods. We have carried out a characterization of the meteorological drought, its extent and intensity in Gibara, and we have climatologically defined the territory through the table of Lang.


SUMMARY Plummer–Vinson syndrome is characterized by dysphagia, iron deficiency, anemia and the presence of esophageal web or webs. Two cases of this syndrome are reported in middle-aged women, which were treated over the last eight years. Both patients presented with dysphagia, anemia, sideropenia, glossitis and cheilitis. Radiological examination of the pharynx showed the presence of webs in both cases. The patients were treated with iron supplementation, which resulted in elimination of the symptoms. Both patients remain in good general condition and without any dysphagic complaints, 5 and 8 years after the diagnosis, respectively.


Recent cosmic microwave background observations favor low-energy-scale inflationary models in a closed universe. However, the onset of inflation in such models for a closed universe is known to be severely problematic. In particular, such a universe recollapses within a few Planck seconds and encounters a big crunch singularity when initial conditions are given in the Planck regime. We show that this problem of the onset of inflation in low-energy-scale inflationary models can be successfully overcome in a quantum-gravitational framework where the big bang/big crunch singularities are resolved and a nonsingular cyclic evolution exists prior to inflation. As an example, we consider a model in loop quantum cosmology and demonstrate that the successful onset of low-energy-scale inflation in a closed universe is possible for the Starobinsky inflationary model starting from a variety of initial conditions where it is impossible in the classical theory. For comparison, we also investigate the onset of inflation in the ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{2}$ inflationary model under highly unfavorable conditions and find similar results. Our numerical investigation including the phase-space analysis shows that the preinflationary phase with quantum gravity effects is composed of nonidentical cycles of bounces and recollapses resulting in a hysteresis-like phenomenon, which plays an important role in creating suitable conditions for inflation to occur after some number of nonsingular cycles. Our analysis shows that the tension in the classical theory amounting to the unsuitability of closed Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker universes with respect to the onset of low-energy-scale inflation can be successfully resolved in loop quantum cosmology.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of clonal plasma cells (PC) which develops as a consequence of a multistep process of transformation from a normal PC to an asymptomatic stage known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) to MM to the more aggressive plasma cell leukaemia (PCL). MGUS is the most common PC disorder and the majority of cases never progress to MM requiring treatment, as progression only occurs in ~1% of patients per year. From a genetic point of view, specific abnormalities represent initiating events (i.e. IgH translocations or hyperdiploidy) of this multistep process while others occur at later stages. In this study, interphase-FISH showed that initiating events are present in MGUS (n=187) and asymptomatic MM (SMM, n=128) at similar frequencies as found in MM (n=400) (the only exception was t(4;14)) and showed that these abnormalities alone, regardless of their biological impact in MM, cannot drive progression to overt disease. The time of occurrence of deletion/monosomy of chromosome 13 (13) was found to depend on the presence of specific concurrent abnormalities. 13 was extremely rare in MGUS and SMM with translocations directly involving CCND1 and CCND3 suggesting a possible role of 13 in the progression of disease specifically in these genetic sub-groups. However, it was clear that, excluding 13 in these sub-groups, standard interphase-FISH abnormalities are insufficient to predict progression of MGUS and SMM. High resolution array CGH showed an increasing level of genomic complexity from MGUS (n=25) to SMM (n=15) to MM (n=47) to PCL (n=11). In MGUS, the number of copy number changes per case was highly associated with progression (P=0.003). The simplest profiles belonged to MGUS cases with t(11;14) and t(14;20); surprisingly, none of these patients had progressed to MM by the end of this study (median follow-up=72 months). The integration of results from interphase-FISH, array CGH and metaphase analysis suggested that there were various abnormalities (corresponding to distinct molecular pathways) responsible for disease progression. A number of chromosomal changes were found to be strongly associated with progression (del(1)(p22.3-p23); del(6)(q25), MYC changes, del(12)(p13), 13 in t(11;14), abnormalities involving members of the NF-B pathway, del(17)(p13)). Such associations were not only suggested by the fact that these abnormalities were rare in MGUS/SMM compared to MM, but also by the observation that all pre-malignant patients positive for these changes progressed to overt disease. However, among patients who did progress and carried the same abnormalities, time to progression was found to be highly variable from case to case. This suggested that other factors (genetic or otherwise) must be interacting with chromosomal abnormalities in order to lead to progression. Other changes, e.g. 1q21 gain, despite being rare in pre-malignant cases compared to MM and despite some being associated with a dismal prognosis in MM, did not appear to be linked to rapid progression. This study has made significant progress towards understanding the progression from pre-malignant disease to MM, which will provide information towards potential novel targets for therapy to prevent progression or prolong the pre-malignant phase of a highly aggressive disease


Recommender systems (RS) have emerged as a means of providing relevant content to users, whether in social networking, health, education, or elections. Furthermore, with the rapid development of cloud computing, Big Data, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the component of all this is that elections are controlled by open and accountable, neutral, and autonomous election management bodies. The use of technology in voting procedures can make them faster, more efficient, and less susceptible to security breaches. Technology can ensure the security of every vote, better and faster automatic counting and tallying, and much greater accuracy. The election data were combined by different websites and applications. In addition, it was interpreted using many recommendation algorithms such as Machine Learning Algorithms, Vector Representation Algorithms, Latent Factor Model Algorithms, and Neighbourhood Methods and shared with the election management bodies to provide appropriate recommendations. In this paper, we conduct a comparative study of the algorithms applied in the recommendations of Big data architectures. The results show us that the K-NN model works best with an accuracy of 96%. In addition, we provided the best recommendation system is the hybrid recommendation combined by content-based filtering and collaborative filtering uses similarities between users and items.


Tin/silver alloy nanoparticles with various sizes were synthesized by the chemical reduction method and their thermal properties were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Both the particle size dependent melting temperature and latent heat of fusion have been observed. The melting point can be achieved as low as 194degC when the diameter of the nanoparticles is around 10 nm. The 64 nm (average diameter) SnAg alloy nanoparticle pastes showed good wetting properties on the cleaned copper foil surface and the intermetallic compounds formed. These low melting point SnAg alloy nanoparticles could be used for low temperature lead-free interconnect applications.


In this dissertation I argue that the tavern is the institution best suited to understanding the relationship between literature and politics in the years building up to and following the French Revolution, when new political and aesthetic identities were being configured. This is because the taverns of the period index - and thus in a historically concrete way embody - the period's renegotiations of public and private space, self and community, seriousness and pleasure. As material manifestations of the ideologies that shaped physical assembly, taverns reveal the most important social dynamics underlying the transformation of literature from the Enlightenment narratives of the eighteenth century to the transcendental aesthetic premises of Romanticism.This study traces a revolution in metropolitan sociability, from an age when men could gather in taverns to cultivate an image of themselves as the leading figures of a masculine literary culture, to a time when this fantasy had been exposed as thoroughly unsustainable. I examine the increasingly suspect reputation of tavern talk from the literary clubs of the 1760s, through the convivial poetry of Captain Morris, to the song and supper clubs of the 1820s and 1830s. The shift in literature's association with the tavern produces, and is produced by the tavern's uneasy relationship with politics, and in particular with the tavern's association with seditious practices in the debates surrounding the French Revolution. In the years following the Fall of the Bastille, the once celebrated spaces of public and patriotic convivial assembly became associated with the conspiratorial whisperings of a radical community who were agitating for political reform. Once literary tavern conviviality had been exposed as debased, misogynistic, and potentially seditious, a new concept of literature emerged that transcended sites of assembly and located inspiration in the mind of the poet. My examination of the tavern provides a new account of the development of the aesthetic premises of canonical Romanticism, while also arguing for the continued relevance of convivial assembly, and a poetry of physical presence that fell outside the new definitions of literature.


Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune checkpoint molecule expressed by cancer cells. Previous studies have demonstrated the prognostic role of PD-L1 expression in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), where the results were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to identify the prognostic impact of PD-L1 on SCLC. Methods: We searched the PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for articles published before and on March 2nd, 2020. Data of PD-L1 expression in tumor cells detected using immunohistochemistry methods were extracted for analysis. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs were calculated to assess the correlations among PD-L1, overall survival (OS), and clinicopathological factors. Results: Nine studies of 921 patients published between 2015 and 2019 were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled data (HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.46–1.80, p = 0.787) indicated that PD-L1 expression is not a significant predictor of poor OS. Moreover, the results also revealed that PD-L1 expression is not significantly associated with gender (OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 0.73–1.74, p = 0.601), age (OR = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.58–2.30, p = 0.683), pN stage (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.24–1.72, p = 0.381), pT stage (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.26–5.23, p = 0.847), serum lactate dehydrogenase level (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.13–8.43, p = 0.958), or performance status (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.24–1.95, p = 0.479). No significant publication bias was detected in this meta-analysis. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests that PD-L1 expression is not a significant prognostic factor of poor survival in SCLC. Because of significant variations, high-quality studies are needed to validate our results.


Eucalyptus short rotation woody crops (SRWC) with superior genotypes are promising in central and south Florida due to their fast growth, freeze resilience, coppicing ability, and site tolerance. Four Eucalyptus grandis cultivars, E.nergy™ G1, G2, G3, and/or G5, were established in 2009 at varying planting densities on a reclaimed clay settling area (CSA) in phosphate mined land in central Florida and a bedded former citrus site in southern Florida. Planting densities were 1025, 2050, and 3416 trees/acre on the CSA, and 581, 869, 1162, 1452, and 1742 trees/acre on the citrus site. Modified land expectation values (LEV) for coppicing species are reported for G2, G3, and/or G5 SRWCs on CSAs and citrus land. Optimal coppice stage and cycle lengths to the nearest 1/10th year were estimated for each cultivar × spacing × land scenario, assuming a range of coppice yields, cultural treatments (weed control and fertilization), plantation establishment and maintenance costs, stumpage prices, and real discount rates of 6, 8, and 10 percent. For example, at a 10 percent discount rate, stumpage price of $14 green/ton, costs of $250, 50, 974, 55, 90, and 10/acre for land preparation, bedding, planting, pre– and post–establishment weeding, fertilization, and annual management, respectively, and expected coppice yields, the LEV of CSAs under G3 at 1025 trees/acre was $561/acre or an equal annual equivalent of ~$56/acre/year. Currently, Eucalyptus is primarily harvested for landscape mulch, but markets are likely to expand into bioenergy and pulpwood applications.


A common view in public finance is that there is an efficiency-redistribution tradeoff in which distortions are tolerated in order to redistribute income. However, the fact that so much public- and private redistributive activity involves in-kind transfers rather than cash may be indicative of merit motives on the part of the payers rather than a preference for the well-being of the recipients. Efficiency-enhancing public policy in a merit good economy has the primary purpose of creating distortions and may only redistribute income from rich to poor in order to create those distortions the reverse of the conventional efficiency-redistribution tradeoff. We discuss why the largest programs on the federal and local level in the US including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and Public Schooling seem consistent with the reverse tradeoff rather than the classic one. Transfers are not lump sum in a merit good economy, and explicitly accounting for this when calculating tax incidence reduces the estimated progressivity of government policy. As one example, we calibrate the conventional life-cycle model to show how the amount of over-saving induced on the poor by Social Security hurts them at least as much as the progressive' benefits help them. When the distortions outweigh fiscal transfers in this manner, the classic efficiency-redistribution tradeoff cannot justify the program and the program is far less progressive than conventional analysis suggests.


The functions of proteins are closely related to their subcellular locations. Computational methods are required to replace the laborious and time-consuming experimental processes for proteomics research. This paper proposes combining homology-based profile alignment methods and functional-domain based Gene Ontology (GO) methods to predict the subcellular locations of proteins. The feature vectors constructed by these two methods are recognized by support vector machine (SVM) classifiers, and their scores are fused to enhance classification performance. The paper also investigates different approaches to constructing the GO vectors based on the GO terms returned from InterProScan. The results demonstrate that the GO methods are comparable to profile-alignment methods and overshadow those based on amino-acid compositions. Also, the fusion of these two methods can outperform the individual methods.


Abstract The purpose of this study is to cross-validate HRM measurement instruments for employability (individual competence-based approach) and innovative work behaviour within the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) further. The sample consisted of 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors who work in 151 SMEs. A multitrait-multimethod analysis was performed, and the results suggest that for both instruments, requirements regarding convergent and divergent validity have been met satisfactorily. Structural Equation Modeling was performed in order to confirm the factor structure of the instruments. Paired-samples comparisons showed that all of the inter-method correlations for the two-source (employee and immediate supervisor) ratings and for both instruments were significantly positive. As for the final part of the cross-validation, multiple regression analyses were performed to demonstrate predictive validity. Depending on the stage of innovative work behaviour, different dimensions of employability appeared to play a significant role, although the effect did not always veer towards the direction expected. Investing in employability enhancement appeared to contribute to innovative work behaviour. The measurement instruments of employability and innovative work behaviour can provide SME managers with effective instruments to be used for performance appraisals, assessments, and employee development tools.


A cytoplasmic male-sterile sudangrass (A Rhodesian) was crossed with three other sudangrasses (Common, Greenleaf, and Piper) and six forage sorghums (Sart, Millo Blanco, Bloomless, Forage Sorgo x Sugar Drip, Collier, and Brawley). The nine F 1  hybrids were compared for yield of green forage (GF), yield of dry forage (DF), crude protein (CP) content, CP yield, and height at lsabela, Puerto Rico. Four cuttings were made. The first was 45 days after planting and the remaining three were at about 30-day intervals thereafter. The second harvest had the highest DF yield but the lowest CP content. The CP content was 15.7, 12.2, 14.6, and 15.6% for harvests 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. When data for all four harvests were combined, the F 1  hybrid of A Rhodesian sudangrass x Common produced the highest GF ana DF yields, 143 kg•ha -1 •day -1 of the latter which was 30% and 29% more than the 2nd and 3rd- highest DF producing hybrids. Differences in CP content among the nine F 1 hybrids were not significant, but A Rhodesian sudangrass x Common produced the highest CP yields. The tallest F 1  hybrids were A Rhodesian x Common and A Rhodesian x Greenleaf. The GF and DF yields of A Rhodesian x Common were excellent. The results indicated that A Rhodesian sudangrass is a male-sterile line with potential for use in the development of superior F 1  forage-sorghum hybrids in Puerto Rico.


In 2018, more homes in the US have pets than those that have children. Though pets are regarded as property by US law, a majority of people identify pets as part of the family unit. Animal abuse and cruelty have been identified as a potential indicator and precursor to interpersonal violence (IPV). Moreover, child maltreatment, domestic violence, elder abuse, and animal abuse co-occur in households and communities link together to indicate the nexus of these heinous crimes; these co-occurring forms of violence have been increasingly referred to as The Link, to indicate the linked violence. However, there is an incongruence in the definition of animal abuse and cruelty; thus, documenting cases, bringing charges, and achieving a conviction is difficult. Furthermore, the initial education to learn of these topics in human service professions, such as social work, remains absent from many curricula. In practice, cross-reporting of suspected abuse or neglect is a vital mechanism for connecting human and animal professionals to address the issues between human and animal welfare systems. This sharing of information can increase the likelihood that clients experiencing IPV will receive comprehensive services that can improve their level of safety and quality of life. By providing professionals with education for indicators of abuse, and strategies for how to make a report, communities can build stronger support networks for those in need. Herein, Ohio legislation and current community efforts serve as a case study to define animal abuse, delineate transdisciplinary factors for relevance, and make recommendations for addressing this vital social welfare need. The strategies within this case-study are encouraged to be adapted and applied nationally and internationally.


Making Sense of War provides a comprehensive and clear analysis of the complex business of waging war. It gives readers a thorough understanding of the key concepts in strategic thought, concepts that have endured since the Athenian general Thucydides and the Chinese philosopher/warrior Sun Tzu first wrote about strategy some 2500 years ago. It also examines the influence on strategic choice and military strategy of political, legal and technological change. This book discusses strategy at every level of competition, employing a thematic approach and using historical examples from 500 BCE to the present. It discusses the contraints and opportunities facing military commanders in the 21st century, and demonstrates that the formulation of military strategy will continue to be perhaps the single most important responsibility for senior security officials. Making Sense of War offers original insights into the imperatives of military success in the era of asymmetric warfare.


It is widely believed that the semantic contents of some linguistic and mental representations are determined by factors independent of a person's bodily makeup. Arguments derived from Hilary Putnam's seminal Twin Earth thought experiment have been especially influential in establishing that belief. I claim that there is a neglected version of the mind-body relation which undermines those arguments and also excludes the possibility of zombies. It has been neglected because it is
counterintuitive but I show that it can nonetheless be intelligibly worked out in detail and all obvious objections met. This suggests that we may be faced with a choice between embracing a counterintuitive interpretation of the mind-body relation or accepting that a currently very promising theory in cognitive science, Prediction Error Minimization, faces a fundamental problem. Furthermore, blocking that threat entails that any physicalist/materialst theory of mind is freed from the spectre of zombie worlds. The proposal also makes the ideas of personal
teleportation of mind uploading more plausible.


Structure and variability of water temperature gradients and potential influence on distribution of two tropical zooplankters (the mysid Mesopodopsis africana and the copepod Acartia natalensis) and their temperate congenerics (M. wooldridgei and A. longipatella) was investigated over a 10-year period in the Mgazi Estuary, South Africa. Intra- and inter-monthly water temperatures were highly variable, driven primarily by the interactive effects of river runoff, tidal exchange and mouth state. Variability was greatest in summer, temperatures ranging between <13 °C (linked to nearshore upwelling and a wide open mouth) and >30 °C when the mouth was near-closed. A strong horizontal temperature gradient characterised the estuary, the upper reaches remaining consistently warmer compared to the lower estuary. In winter, abundance of the tropical zooplankters showed a positive and significant correlation with increasing distance upstream. No pattern was evident in summer. The temperate species reflected a negative trend in abundance moving upstream during both seasons, but correlations were not significant. In terms of climate change, future population responses remain uncertain. This uncertainty is primarily linked to ongoing changes in the relative dominance of key drivers influencing estuarine water temperatures. Estuary mouth state will also respond to changes in nearshore wind regimes and morphodynamics of the adjacent beach.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The remarkable resistance of the mucosal lining the upper gastrointestinal tract to concentrated gastric acid remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of upper gastrointestinal physiology. Even with the discovery of the involvement of Helicobacter pylori in gastroduodenal injury, the mechanism by which the organism causes injury remains unresolved. In the past year, there have been striking findings regarding trefoil peptides, the protective effect of regulatory peptides such as adrenomedullin, and the influence of H. pylori on the junctions that join the epithelial cells.

RECENT FINDINGS
Trefoil peptide-2-deficient mice were more susceptible to gastric injury from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents, confirming that trefoil peptides increased the barrier properties of the pre-epithelial mucus gel. With regard to H. pylori, the gastric mucosa of mice deficient in the tyrosine phosphatase receptor type Z were not damaged by H. pylori vacuolating cytotoxin. Proton pump inhibition appears to be equally or more effective in upper gastrointestinal mucosal protection compared with other interventions such as exogenous prostaglandins or H. pylori eradication.

SUMMARY
Peptic ulcer disease, although declining in prevalence, appears to be increasing in virulence, perhaps because of the overall aging of the population and improved intensive care unit care. Although H. pylori and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been identified as key pro-ulcerogenic factors, many ulcers may also result from a deficiency of other, unknown host protective factors. A more detailed understanding of the host factors involved in mucosal protection will thus help identify novel therapeutic targets aimed at the prevention and treatment of upper gastrointestinal mucosal injury.


This paper presents an alternative method of adaptive beamforming. Under an assumption that the desired signal is large enough compared to each of interfering signals at the receiver, which is preconditionally achieved in code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile communications by the chip correlator, the proposed technique provides for a suboptimal beam pattern that increases the signal-to-noise/signal-to-interference ratio (SNR/SIR) and eventually increases the capacity of the communication channel. The main advantages of the new technique are: (1) the procedure requires neither reference signals nor a training period; (2) the signal intercoherency does not affect the performance or complexity of the entire procedure; and (3) the total amount of computation is tremendously reduced compared to that of most conventional beamforming techniques such that the suboptimal beam pattern is produced at every snapshot on a real-time basis. In fact, the total computational load for generating a new set of weights including the update of an N-by-N autocovariance matrix is O(3N/sup 2/+12N). It can further be reduced down to O(11N) by approximating the matrix with the instantaneous signal vector.


Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as the controlling protocol hasattracted much attention. SIP is one of the most widely used forsecuring and controlling communication over the Internet. Recently,Arshad et al. proposed an enhanced mutual authentication scheme forSIP based on Tasi's scheme. In this paper, we focus on the securityweaknesses in the Arshad et al.'s SIP authenticated scheme withElliptic Curve Cryptography. We found that the enhanced schemeproposed by Arshad et al. is insecure against internal andmasquerade attacks while it does not provide anonymity and updatepassword phase. We then propose an advanced scheme to remedy theflaws and maintain benefits of the original scheme at the cost of increasing thecomputation costs slightly. Through a carefully securityanalysis and BAN logic analysis of our scheme, we show that ourscheme is more secure than other related schemes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.45.4.13401


We developed a forced non-electric-shock running wheel (FNESRW) system that provides rats with high-intensity exercise training using automatic exercise training patterns that are controlled by a microcontroller. The proposed system successfully makes a breakthrough in the traditional motorized running wheel to allow rats to perform high-intensity training and to enable comparisons with the treadmill at the same exercise intensity without any electric shock. A polyvinyl chloride runway with a rough rubber surface was coated on the periphery of the wheel so as to permit automatic acceleration training, and which allowed the rats to run consistently at high speeds (30 m/min for 1 h). An animal ischemic stroke model was used to validate the proposed system. FNESRW, treadmill, control, and sham groups were studied. The FNESRW and treadmill groups underwent 3 weeks of endurance running training. After 3 weeks, the experiments of middle cerebral artery occlusion, the modified neurological severity score (mNSS), an inclined plane test, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed platform. The proposed platform showed that enhancement of motor function, mNSS, and infarct volumes was significantly stronger in the FNESRW group than the control group (P<0.05) and similar to the treadmill group. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed platform can be applied to test the benefit of exercise-preconditioning-induced neuroprotection using the animal stroke model. Additional advantages of the FNESRW system include stand-alone capability, independence of subjective human adjustment, and ease of use.


The modulation of N-type calcium current by protein kinases and G-proteins is a factor in the fine tuning of neurotransmitter release. We have previously shown that phosphorylation of threonine 422 in the alpha(1B) calcium channel domain I-II linker region resulted in a dramatic reduction in somatostatin receptor-mediated G-protein inhibition of the channels and that the I-II linker consequently serves as an integration center for cross-talk between protein kinase C (PKC) and G-proteins (Hamid, J., Nelson, D., Spaetgens, R., Dubel, S. J., Snutch, T. P., and Zamponi, G. W. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 6195-6202). Here we show that opioid receptor-mediated inhibition of N-type channels is affected to a lesser extent compared with that seen with somatostatin receptors, hinting at the possibility that PKC/G-protein cross-talk might be dependent on the G-protein subtype. To address this issue, we have examined the effects of four different types of G-protein beta subunits on both wild type and mutant alpha(1B) calcium channels in which residue 422 has been replaced by glutamate to mimic PKC-dependent phosphorylation and on channels that have been directly phosphorylated by protein kinase C. Our data show that phosphorylation or mutation of residue 422 antagonizes the effect of Gbeta(1) on channel activity, whereas Gbeta(2), Gbeta(3), and Gbeta(4) are not affected. Our data therefore suggest that the observed cross-talk between G-proteins and protein kinase C modulation of N-type channels is a selective feature of the Gbeta(1) subunit.


Objective: Clinical management of bipolar disorder patients might be affected by culture and is further dependent on the context of healthcare delivery. There is a need to understand how healthcare best can be delivered in various systems and cultures. The objective of this qualitative study was to gain knowledge about culture-specific values, beliefs and practices in the medical care provided to patients with bipolar disorders from a provider perspective in various areas of the world. Sampling and methods: The International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) network provided the framework for this qualitative study. An electronic interview with open-ended questions was administered to 19 international experts on bipolar spectrum disorder representing the International Society for Bipolar Disorders chapter network in 16 countries and six continents. In addition, there were two in-depth interviews with bipolar spectrum disorder experts done prior to the survey. The data were analysed using content analysis, and the information was structured using the software NVivo by QSR International Pty Ltd. Findings: All participants described sociocultural factors as important in healthcare delivery to bipolar patients in their part of the world, both in accessing healthcare and in providing culturally appropriate care. Factors that affected the provider's ability to supply good clinical management of patients were access to treatment options and long-term follow-up, as well as general strategies to combat stigma. In some societies, the patients' use of alternative treatments, gender issues and religion were also important factors. Understanding the impact of such culturally specific factors was overall regarded as essential for proper treatment interventions. Conclusion: Sociocultural factors clearly affect the nature and quality of medical services delivered to bipolar patients. Financial, social and cultural factors affect patients' health-seeking behaviour, and this highlights the need for knowledge about such factors in order to adequately identify and treat bipolar patients globally. Culturally adapted training and psychoeducation programmes are particularly warranted.


This article attempts to critically examine the experiences of participatory budgeting (PB) that have proliferated across Taiwan's cities over the past three years. It is argued that PB in Taiwan remains an isolated initiative instead of an integral part of a comprehensive administrative reform. What makes Taiwan's PB experiences theoretically interesting is that, in most cases outside the Taipei City, the tasks of promoting PB, designing the procedure of participation, and organizing and mobilizing lay citizens have been contracted out to NGOs or teams led by scholars. In light of the analytical framework of state power - political society - civil society, this article argues that (1) PB in Taiwan takes place in the absence of active support from civil society and confronts a political society that is hostile to or skeptical of PB; (2) the "outsourced" model of PB generates incentives for the commissioner to evade administrative and political responsibilities, and imposes structural constraints on the performance of the contractor regarding mobilization, organizing and deliberative quality; and (3) the future of PB in Taiwan depends on whether the current modus operandi of PB will give way to a more comprehensive institutional reform and whether a growing number of active citizens and civil society organizations can fill the new political space created by PB that may otherwise be occupied by vested interests and political elites.


ABSTRACT: Primordial prevention is defined as the initial prevention of risk factors, through the adoption of healthier behaviors. Within this concept, the American Heart Association (AHA) has defined seven metrics, based on evidence, to achieve ideal cardiovascular health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular health in the Brazilian population, according to sex, age, and region of residence, using data from the latest National Health Survey (2013). We assessed the risk factors, as recommended by the AHA, combined (number of factors) and individually: four behavioral (smoking, physical activity, body mass index and diet) and three biological factors (blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels). The Brazilian population has reached very low prevalence (1%), for the sum of 7 factors in ideal level. Individually, 3.2% of the population consumed ideal diet, followed by physical activity (23.6%) and body mass index (43.7%). The subjects aged between 18 and 35 years showed higher prevalence of metrics combined at the optimal levels (0.5%), which was also reached by the population of the Northern region. These results indicate that greater efforts are urgent by public policies at the level of primordial prevention in order to achieve appropriate targets of cardiovascular health in the Brazilian population.


Providing energy conservation services becomes a hot research topic because more and more people attach importance to environmental protection. This research proposes a framework that consists of four process models: appliance recognition, activity-appliances model, unattended appliances detection, and energy conservation service. Appliance recognition model can recognizes the operating states of appliances from raw sensing data of electric power. An activity-appliances model has been built to associate activities with appliances according to the data of Open Mind Common Sense Project. Using the relationship between activities can help to detect unattended appliances, which are consuming electric power but not take part in the resident's activities. After obtain information of appliance operating states and unattended appliances, residents can receive energy conservation services for notifying the energy consumption information. Finally, the experimental results show that dynamic Baysian network approach can achieve higher than 92% accuracy for appliance recognition. Data of activity-appliances model shows most appliances are strong activity-related.


We consider the fundamental problem of solving quadratic systems of equations in yi=|〈ai,x〉|2, i=1,…,m , and x∈ℝn is unknown. We propose a novel method, which starts with an initial guess computed by means of a spectral method and proceeds by minimizing a nonconvex functional as in the Wirtinger flow approach [13]. There are several key distinguishing features, most notably a distinct objective functional and novel update rules, which operate in an adaptive fashion and drop terms bearing too much influence on the search direction. These careful selection rules provide a tighter initial guess, better descent directions, and thus enhanced practical performance. On the theoretical side, we prove that for certain unstructured models of quadratic systems, our algorithms return the correct solution in linear time, i.e., in time proportional to reading the data {ai} and {yi} as soon as the ratio m/n between the number of equations and unknowns exceeds a fixed numerical constant. We extend the theory to deal with noisy systems in which we only have yi≈|〈ai,x〉|2 and prove that our algorithms achieve a statistical accuracy, which is nearly unimprovable. We complement our theoretical study with numerical examples showing that solving random quadratic systems is both computationally and statistically not much harder than solving linear systems of the same size—hence the title of this paper. For instance, we demonstrate empirically that the computational cost of our algorithm is about four times that of solving a least squares problem of the same size. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a highly prevalent condition among aging adults, and a common cause of hospitalization in the United States. It is consequently a great financial burden. Many studies have shown a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and CHF, but little is known about the benefits, if any, of vitamin D supplementation in adults with CHF. Methods: An exhaustive search was conducted using Medline-OVID, Medline-PubMed, and Web of Science using the keywords: vitamin D supplementation and heart failure. Relevant articles were assessed for quality using GRADE. Results: Three trials were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria. The design of each study varied, as did the results. Two studies evaluated the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) as a measure of physical function. One study showed improvement with treatment and the other showed no change. All three studies measured brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone released by the heart when it is under stress and a common marker of severity of heart failure. Two studies found a significant decrease in BNP with treatment, and one study found no change. Conclusion: There is some evidence to suggest that vitamin D supplementation is beneficial earlier in the disease process of CHF, but no evidence at this time to support that it is helpful in more elderly, advanced disease patients. A larger randomized control trial is necessary to provide more evidence for or against vitamin D supplementation in CHF. Degree Type Capstone Project Degree Name Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies First Advisor Annjanette Sommers, MS, PA-C


We tested the hypothesis that platelet loss following blood contact with foreign materials is partly related to the presence of microbubbles of gas (gas nuclei) trapped in surface defects on the membrane material. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenator perfusions were conducted in two groups of sheep, with use of standard priming techniques for the oxygenator in one group and a new vacuum priming technique in the other group. The vacuum priming technique was developed to eliminate gas nuclei from the oxygenator surface. With denucleation priming, platelet loss during perfusion was markedly reduced, as was thrombus formation on the membrane surface. The platelet particle-size distribution curve showed a shift consistent with platelet aggregation with the standard priming technique but not with the vacuum priming technique. We conclude that the elimination of trapped gas nuclei from the membrane surface during priming reduces the initial interaction between blood elements and the foreign surface.


High prevalence and insufficient efficacy of medical treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) poses a major challenge for medical care. Generally, only 30% of patients reach therapeutic goals, while remission occurs only in the minority of patients. In the obese (BMI>35 kg/m2), bariatric surgery provides an alternative to pharmacological treatment of T2DM, boosting remission/compensation rate up to 76.8%. A few recent clinical studies explored the anti-diabetic effect of ileal transposition (IT). This type of surgery targets restoration of incretin balance by proximal transposition of ileal segment. In this review, we discuss the salutary mechanisms of IT in T2DM based on the analysis of the pioneering clinical trials.


We present an approach to explain the decisions of black box image classifiers through synthetic exemplar and counterexemplar learnt in the latent feature space. Our explanation method exploits the latent representations learned through an adversarial autoencoder for generating a synthetic neighborhood of the image for which an explanation is required. A decision tree is trained on a set of images represented in the latent space, and its decision rules are used to generate exemplar images showing how the original image can be modified to stay within its class. Counterfactual rules are used to generate counter-exemplars showing how the original image can "morph" into another class. The explanation also comprehends a saliency map highlighting the areas that contribute to its classification, and areas that push it into another class. A wide and deep experimental evaluation proves that the proposed method outperforms existing explainers in terms of fidelity, relevance, coherence, and stability, besides providing the most useful and interpretable explanations.


Plants, especially herbs and spices, have always been the major sources of numerous natural compounds with antioxidant activity and other beneficial properties and, specifically, Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) has been widely accepted as one of the spices with highest antioxidant activities which appear to be related to their richness of phenolic compounds. This study was undertaken with the aim to estimate the total phenolic content, identify and quantify the polyphenolic compounds of the methanolic extracts from post-distilled rosemary, collected from two different bioclimatic areas from Tunisia. Total phenolic content (TPC) was determined by Folin–Ciocalteu method. Identification and quantification of polyphenolic compounds was performed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. TPC ranged from 85.8 to 137.3 mg GAE/g DE in rosemary extracts. HPLC analysis showed the presence of carnosic acid and carnosol, wich were found to be the most abundant compounds in all analyzed extracts (46.3 to 76.4 and 22.4 to 43.5 mg/g of plant dry weight respectively), rosmarinic acid and caffeic acid as phenolic acids, besides some flavonoids such as apigenin, luteolin, genkwanin and hesperidin. This study revealed that rosemary post-distilled residues were shown to be promising with regard to their incorporation into various foods, cosmetics and fragrances.Therefore, supplementing a balanced diet with herbs may have beneficial health effects.


Background: Natural remedies have been widely used and generally accepted as established treatments of depressive disorders, leading to the investigation of their potential role and efficacy in the treatment of the various anxiety disorders. Methods: Numerous case reports, open‐label, and placebo‐controlled trials investigating the use of natural remedies in the treatment of anxiety disorders have yielded some encouraging results. Results: Overall, these studies have indicated a potential role for natural remedies in the treatment of anxiety and suggest that such agents may possess a safer side effects profile when compared to conventional agents. However, these early findings, albeit promising, are yet to be supported by further investigation in large‐scale, placebo‐controlled studies. Conclusions: This article reviews past and present research being performed in this area of clinical interest, while also revealing a remarkable paucity of data. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract: The domination of Modernism has expired, numerous and complicated pluralistic trends in design of Postmodernism have effectively taken over. Of them, conceptual design approaches philosophy the most. In a word, this is the criticism made by Postmodernism to Functionalism and the criticism to the modern society representing Modernism. Key words: Functionalism; Postmodernism; Concept; Criticism Resume: La domination de modernisme a expire, nombreuse tendances pluralistes compliques dans le design de Post-modernisme ont ete efficacement charges. Parmi eux, le design conceptuel s'approche de la philosophie le plus. En un mot, c'est la critique faite par le Post-modernisme au Fonctionnalisme et a la critique de la societe moderne representant le Modernisme. Mots-cles: Le Fonctionnalisme; Post-modernisme; Concept; La Critique The function of a chair in the traditional concept is to sit on, so it should be stable and solid in its form. Nevertheless, Design One shows us a very dangerous object: the fragmented glass piles on together and makes a form of a chair ..... Does this embody a kind of crisis in design? In the eyes of some conservatives, the orthodox and rigorous concepts of modern design, the exquisite functions pursued by Modernism and initiated in Germany are being questioned, criticized. Concise, form being in conformity with function, clear and distinct beauty of sequence is ceasing to be in force. It seems that someone opened Pandora's box, all of a sudden, variously absurd, weird, even hideous objects flood everywhere. The whole world is in chaos, nothing is steady and the old fashioned standard seems invalid in measuring the reality. However, in the sight of the radicals, this is a novel and splendid new world where is abundant with chances and challenges, everybody could be the master of himself and could find the way to express himself, or he could find a reason for what he does. The past outdated conventions and detestable customs are not adaptable for the present, the rebellious spirit in the circle of design extends its territory. This is the conceptual design of Postmodernism which germinated in the 1960's and flourished in the 1980'sinthewest. CHALLENGES AND QUERIES At first, this rebellion reflects a kind of distrust in the traditional and established concepts, in other words, it is a kind of challenge and doubt to the rational spirit of Modernism. The typical characteristic of industrial society is the industrial civilization sweeping the globe produced by standardized production. Modernism is bred in this womb. Machinery is the substance which the most represents industry, so the form of machinery is the visual language symbol which the most represents the industrial society and which is a sort of aesthetics ideology - machinery aesthetics. Modern design seeks being realistic and democratic, it hopes that a perfect society of equal opportunities could be established through designing. They see a spirit which has no class distinction and which has the real democracy from the abstract form of machinery aesthetic. Therefore, Modernism provides a pure and absolute designing norm - form follows function. Up till the I960' s, from architectural design to product design, it forms a standardized design in the global scope. For a very long period, people pursue this standardization without complaints and they create a kind of mode which marks the modern civilization. Indeed, since the industrial revolution, capitalism has created surprising material wealth for the 20th century. The progress achieved in less than 3 centuries by the mankind overdid the sum total of the human progress from primary society, slavery society and feudal society. Industrial civilization makes mankind realize the magnificent power of science and technology. Production, life, traffic, transportation and communication are unprecedented convenient and rapid. …


In this paper, the backstepping approach is proposed for synchronization in a pair of topologically inequivalent systems, the Genesio Tesi and Coullet systems. Firstly, the control problem for the chaos synchronization in the pair systems without unknown parameter is considered. Then an adaptive backstepping control law is designed to make the error signals between drive Genesio Tesi system and response Coullet system with three unknown parameters synchronized. The stability analysis in this article is proved according to a wellknown Lyapunov stability theorem. These methods are applicable to a large class of topologically inequivalent systems where only a few algebraic inequalities are involved. Numerical simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.