I refer to the paper by Wang et al entitled "FMR1 fully expanded mutation with minimal methylation in a high functioning fragile X male" published in Med Genet 1996;33:376-8, in which the authors state that the case described "represents one of fewer than 10 documented which show this mutation pattern". I would like to draw your and the authors' attention to the fact that in 1993 (Am JHum Genet 1993;53:1064-73) we presented four such cases which were not referred to in the above paper. If these had been added to the list, and the possibility of general under-representation of such males in the total sample of fragile X males ascertained through affected probands were considered, this might have somewhat changed the view expressed in the paper that thediscrepancy between the size of CGG repeat and methylation in fragile X is "an extremely rare molecular genetic pattern".


High yields of liquid straight-chain alkanes were obtained directly from cellulosic feedstock in a one-pot biphasic catalytic system. The catalytic reaction proceeds at elevated temperatures under hydrogen pressure in the presence of tungstosilicic acid, dissolved in the aqueous phase, and modified Ru/C, suspended in the organic phase. Tungstosilicic acid is primarily responsible for cellulose hydrolysis and dehydration steps, while the modified Ru/C selectively hydrogenates intermediates en route to the liquid alkanes. Under optimal conditions, microcrystalline cellulose is converted to 82% n-decane-soluble products, mainly n-hexane, within a few hours, with a minimum formation of gaseous and char products. The dominant route to the liquid alkanes proceeds via 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), whereas the more common pathway via sorbitol appears to be less efficient. High liquid alkane yields were possible through (i) selective conversion of cellulose to glucose and further to HMF by gradually heating the reactor, (ii) a proper hydrothermal modification of commercial Ru/C to tune its chemoselectivity to furan hydrogenation rather than glucose hydrogenation, and (iii) the use of a biphasic reaction system with optimal partitioning of the intermediates and catalytic reactions. The catalytic system is capable of converting subsequent batches of fresh cellulose, enabling accumulation of the liquid alkanes in the organic phase during subsequent runs. Its robustness is illustrated in the conversion of the raw (soft)wood sawdust.


Cardiovascular (CV) mortality in chronic kidney disease (CKD) associate with traditional risk factors (1) including dyslipidaemia, diabetes, smoking and left ventricular mass hypertrophy. Furthermore, increasing evidence supports the role of non-traditional risk factors that associate with CV morbidity, especially vascular calcification (2). These risk factors are inflammation and altered mineral metabolism.


Abstract We have undertaken 2D forward modelling across the northern North Sea, based on reprocessed, interpreted and depth-converted deep reflection seismic lines NSDP84-1 and −2 (15 s twt) and refraction data. Two separate stretching phases, Permo-Triassic and Jurassic, are recognized. The cumulative stretching is consistent with the observed crustal structure and the overall basin configuration, as reproduced by forward modelling. Good agreement between observed and modelled top basement level, and crustal thickness below the platform areas are particularly emphasized. Crustal-scale modelling indicates that crustal thickness varied across the northern North Sea at the onset of the Permo-Triassic rifting, from c. 35 km in the platform areas to less than 30 km in the interior of the basin. This may be ascribed to Devonian(-Carboniferous?) crustal stretching. Thinning of the crust has progressively been narrowed, from post-Caledonian extensional collapse, to less regional Permo-Triassic basins, and finally development of the Viking Graben area in the Jurassic-early Cretaceous time. Most of the Permo-Triassic stretching occurred between the Øygarden Fault Zone to the east and the Shetland Platform (southern transect) and the Hutton Fault alignment to the west. The width of the Permo-Triassic basin was c. 120–125 km, with calculated βmean between 1.38 and 1.40. Permo-Triassic βmean estimates across the present Horda Platform vary between 1.33 and 1.39. The Jurassic βmean estimates for the same area vary between 1.08 and 1.13. Across the Viking Graben, Permo-Triassic βmean varies between 1.28 (southern transect) and 1.41 (northern transect). This is lower than estimates for the Jurassic βmean, which amounts to 1.53 and 1.42. Permo-Triassic and Jurassic βmean estimates across the East Shetland Basin are 1.29 and 1.11, respectively. Lithospheric thermal evolution reflects the general differences between Permo-Triassic and Jurassic stretching, with a much wider thermal perturbation during the former and a focusing and lateral migration towards the east of the peak thermal elevation during the latter. There are still uncertainties related to the degree of (de)coupling between the upper crust and upper mantle during the Permo-Triassic and the Jurassic rift phases. These uncertainties are related to the interplay between age, strain rate, crustal rheology, crustal thickness and long-lived zones of weaknesses.


ESSAYS ON MOMENTUM, AUTOREGRESSIVE RETURNS, AND CONDITIONAL VOLATILITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE SAUDI STOCK MARKET Abdullah Alsubaie Old Dominion University Director: Dr. Mohammad Najand The objective of this dissertation is to examine different aspects of return behavior and provide an out of sample evidence from the Saudi stock market (SSM). It consists of three essays. The first essay is organized into two parts. In the first part, I investigate the relationship between momentum profitability and trading volume in the SSM. The objective of this part is to find out whether momentum strategies exist in the SSM and whether trading volume affects momentum profitability. In the second part, I investigate whether a 52-week high price momentum profitability exists in the SSM. The empirical results document the existence of price momentum strategy in the SSM. In addition, the momentum strategy is more profitable when it is conditioned on high volume stocks than when it is conditioned on low volume stocks. High volume winner portfolio drives the momentum profit in the SSM. However, the results on the 52 week-high price indicate a reversal in portfolio returns which contradicts the results of earlier study conducted in the U.S and Australian markets. The second essay examines the relationship between abnormal changes in trading volume of both firms and portfolio levels, and the short-term price autoregressive behavior in the SSM. The objective is to investigate the informational role that trading volume plays in predicting the direction of short-term returns. I evaluate whether the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. abnormal change in lagged, contemporaneous, and lead turnover affects serial correlation in returns. Consistent with the prediction of Campbell, Grossman, and Wang (1993) model, the result of this essay indicates that lagged abnormal change in trading volume lead to reversal in consecutive weekly returns. Contemporaneous and lead changes in volume provide mixing results. The third essay tests the effect of trading volume on the persistence of the time varying conditional volatility in the SSM. I utilize GARCH models to test the persistence of return volatility without volume, with contemporaneous volume, with lagged volume, and with two other alternative proxies of volume. This approach is applied to the market index, five industry indices, and 15 individual companies. In addition, this essay investigates the volatility spillover between size-based portfolios in the SSM using a twostage GARCH approach. The results indicate that the SSM exhibit strong volatility persistence; however, when I include contemporaneous volume, the persistence vanishes, indicating that the rate of information arrival measured by the volume series can be a significant source of the conditional heteroskedasticity in SSM. The results show that the spillover effect is larger and statistically significant from large to small firm portfolios. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © Copyright, 2007Abdullah N. Alsubaie. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.


Intrathymic injection of Ag induces Ag-specific tolerance in several clinically relevant experimental autoimmune and transplantation models. However, the exact mechanisms of acquired thymic tolerance in vivo remain unclear. We investigated the mechanisms of acquired thymic tolerance in mice that are transgenic for the TCR specific for peptide 323-339 of OVA. Intrathymic injection of OVA leads to apoptosis of thymocytes starting as early as 3 h after injection and persisting up to 7 days. Double positive thymocytes undergo apoptosis earlier than single positive thymocytes, and significantly higher percentages of double positive thymocytes ultimately die as compared with single positive cells. Apoptotic cells show decreased surface expression of CD4. In the periphery, T cells from intrathymically injected animals had suppressed proliferation and IL-2 production to OVA compared with T cells from control Ag-injected mice. We conclude that intrathymic injection of Ag induces apoptosis of immature thymocytes and a subpopulation of mature thymocytes and induces prolonged anergy in peripheral T cells in vivo. Understanding the mechanisms of acquired thymic tolerance may lead to development of novel clinical strategies to prevent autoimmune disease and transplant rejection. The Journal of Immunology, 1998, 160: 1504–1508.


Much is published about the Bank of England's policy functions and its financial operations. But less is typically known about the Bank's role as a bank in the more traditional sense, offering accounts and banking services to its customers. The three main customer groups to which the Bank provides banking services are: the UK Government; overseas central banks; and certain other financial institutions, such as central counterparties. The Bank's approach is not to compete with commercial banks, but to provide banking services where doing so supports its mission and in particular its objective to maintain financial stability.


This unit describes the theory and detailed protocols for performing in vivo lineage tracing from Lgr5(+ve) intestinal stem cells using an Lgr5-EGFP-ires-CreERT2/Rosa26lacZ mouse model. Lineage tracing can be initiated in mice at any age by administering limiting doses of the hormone tamoxifen. This activates the lacZ reporter gene in the Lgr5(+ve) stem cells, which subsequently transmit this permanent genetic mark to their progeny as they repopulate the epithelium during normal homeostasis. Because the Lgr5(+ve) cells are long-lived, self-renewing stem cells, they continuously generate lacZ progeny, which contribute to tissue renewal over the entire lifetime of the mouse. The same protocols can be applied to performing in vivo lineage tracing from other Lgr5(+ve) stem cell populations, including those in the hair-follicle and stomach.


Abstract : A detailed study of the predictability of the scalar horizontal wind speed at an upper elevation from wind data obtained at lower reference heights over varying averaging lengths is summarized. To study this predictability, several mathematical models were developed. The first, or 'simple;' model was achieved by multiplying the reference speed by a constant to obtain the corresponding average at the higher elevation. This form was suggested by the power law describing the variation of the mean wind speed with height. The simple model, which employs spectral and cross-spectral computation, was used to evaluate the mean square error over various averaging lengths. The second or 'mean' model has the same general form as the first, but the mean value of the wind speed at all levels is subtracted from the actual wind speed prior to computation of the mean square error. The final model produces the best possible predictor using linear methods. This 'best possible' model, although not applicable under actual conditions, provides a benchmark with which the mean square errors from other linear models can be compared. Such comparison clearly indicates that the mean model is an excellent approximation to the best possible. (Author)


Hepatoma cell lines have characteristics derived from both their hepatic lineage and their transformation. We examined the potential of retinoic acid to enhance the function of a hepatoma cell line, HepG2, under conditions of reduced serum as are desired for bioreactor cultivation. We found that retinoic acid drastically slows the growth of HepG2 cells and induces a more spread morphology. Retinoic acid also augments the differentiated function of the cells, as measured by albumin and urea secretion rates. Expression levels of a panel of liver-enriched transcription factor were increased from retinoic acid exposure. Overall, we demonstrate that retinoic acid has significant effects on HepG2 growth and differentiated function. These results have implications for the use of retinoic acid both as a chemotherapeutic agent and as a medium component for cells of hepatic origin.


Many potential therapeutic properties have been recognized to carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) but the therapeutic uses are strongly limited by its short lifetime in human plasma. This fact has been the main reason for developing the synthesis of various carnosine derivatives stable to carnosinase enzymes with interesting potentialities. Carnosine derivatives have been designed differently to conjugate the biological activity of carnosine with that of the functionalizing moiety. In the last years carnosine derivatives have been tested in vivo with very successful results, but until now there has been no application of these derivatives in vivo on human beings. These carnosine derivatives could represent the future drugs for many pathologies related to oxidative stress, reactive carbonyl species and metal-ion dyshomeostasis.


Apoptosis is a highly regulated mechanism by which cells undergo cell death in an active way. As one of the most challenging tasks concerning cancer is to induce apoptosis in malignant cells, researchers increasingly focus on natural products to modulate apoptotic signaling pathways. This book reviews the main effects of natural compounds on the different apoptotic signaling pathways, including the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways, the NF-kB-mediated pathway, the PI3K/Akt signaling, and other main pathways. Among the topic specially covered are: Effects of natural compounds on cancer cells Natural compounds as inducers of cell death Diet in health and disease Inflammation and cancer Natural compounds as kinase inhibitors Natural compounds in neurodegenerative diseases Natural compounds as inhibitors of ROS NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas . ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order ( www.nyas.org ). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.


Abstract. The usage of data from commercial microwave link (CML) networks for scientific purposes is becoming increasingly popular, in particular for rain rate estimation. However, data acquisition and availability is still a crucial problem and limits research possibilities. To overcome this issue, we have developed an open-source data acquisition system based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It is able to record transmitted and received signal levels of a large number of CMLs simultaneously with a temporal resolution of up to 1 s. We operate this system at Ericsson Germany, acquiring data from 450 CMLs with minutely real-time transfer to our database. Our data acquisition system is not limited to a particular CML hardware model or manufacturer, though. We demonstrate this by running the same system for CMLs of a different manufacturer, operated by an alpine ski resort in Germany. There, the data acquisition is running simultaneously for four CMLs with a temporal resolution of 1 s. We present an overview of our system, describe the details of the necessary SNMP requests and show results from its operational application.


Purpose: To compare the effect of different deviation measurement techniques and different lens powers on gradient accommodative convergence to accommodation (AC/A) ratio. Methods: We randomly selected 78 eligible students of different majors from Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. Following retinoscopy for refractive errors, alternate prism cover test, von Graefe and Maddox rod without additional lenses and with ±1, ±2 and ±3 D lenses were performed for measurement of deviation at near and determination of gradient AC/A Ratio. Data were analyzed using within subject factorial repeated measurement ANOVA and correlation tests. Results: Mean AC/A ratio was 3.6, 3.7 and 4 prism diopter to diopter using alternate cover test, Maddox rod and von Graefe methods, respectively (P=0.2). The highest and lowest AC/A ratios were related to von Graefe method with +3D and cover test with -1D lens power, respectively. Only differences between AC/A ratios with -1 and +2 lenses as well as with -1 and +3D were significant (P<0.05). For all different deviation measurement methods, AC/A ratios with plus lenses were higher than minus lenses. Conclusions: The type of deviation measurement method had no effect on AC/A ratio but selected lens power affected the results. We recommend using 2 or 3 diopter instead of 1 diopter lenses to avoid possible effects of depth of focus.


This paper explores how the chemical equilibrium constant, KEQ, affects the design of reactive distillation columns for exothermic reversible reactions. The steady-state optimum economic design of the column involves tradeoffs between the number of trays, column operating pressure, and energy consumption. The design objective is to minimize the total annual cost of capital and energy. As the value of KEQ is reduced, the optimum design has more reactive stages and higher energy consumption. The column operates at lower pressure to lessen the effect of the lower equilibrium constant.


Vocabulary knowledge is a building block in language learning, but many students struggle to learn new words regardless of their proficiency level. Various studies have demonstrated the efficacy of explicit instruction of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS). On the other hand, other studies have demonstrated that gender can affect a student's use of language learning strategies including vocabulary learning strategies, and many of them have confirmed that females use a larger variety of strategies more often than their counterparts. The aim of this study was to shed light on gender difference as a variable for the influence of explicit VLS training. The participants were 109 Japanese EFL bioscience majors. They completed a questionnaire on vocabulary learning behavior before and after receiving explicit VLS training for 11 weeks. The questionnaire consisted of nine categories of items, two on metacognitive strategies, six on the use of cognitive and memory strategies, and one on overall use of VLS. The quantitative measures used a 5-point Likert scale and multiple-choice. The VLS training focused on four memory strategies, namely imagery, association, affix and grouping. The results from two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with VLS training and gender as factors revealed that VLS training was effective in enhancing the participants' use of metacognitive strategies, writing rehearsal, and grouping strategy, although significant gender differences were observed for writing and grouping strategies. The students' written comments gave us insight into their perception of these strategies. Gender difference was also observed in the overall use of strategies.


Sport coaching is at a pivotal moment in its short history. The publication of the International Sport Coaching Framework by the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) in 2013 has drawn attention to coaching world-wide and fostered a step change in the way coaching systems are understood and built. Within this evolving context, higher education institutions are increasingly playing a greater role in the education and development of coaches in many countries. One way in which they are doing so is through the delivery of partial or full sport coaching degrees. ICCE recognises this emerging landscape. In this article we present an introduction to the newly developed International Sport Coaching Bachelor Degree Standards. The Standards are the culmination of a 12-month process of cooperation and consultation between an expert group and the coaching community at large. They aim to respond to the needs of higher education institutions and serve as an internationally accepted reference point to aid the development of bachelor coaching degrees that prepare coaches to effectively support athletes and participants.


The AthaMap database generates a map of potential transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) and small RNA target sites in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. The database contains sites for 115 different transcription factors (TFs). TFBS were identified with positional weight matrices (PWMs) or with single binding sites. With the new web tool 'Gene Identification', it is possible to identify potential target genes for selected TFs. For these analyses, the user can define a region of interest of up to 6000 bp in all annotated genes. For TFBS determined with PWMs, the search can be restricted to high-quality TFBS. The results are displayed in tables that identify the gene, position of the TFBS and, if applicable, individual score of the TFBS. In addition, data files can be downloaded that harbour positional information of TFBS of all TFs in a region between -2000 and +2000 bp relative to the transcription or translation start site. Also, data content of AthaMap was increased and the database was updated to the TAIR8 genome release. Database URL: http://www.athamap.de/gene_ident.php.


Studies have shown PTSD has a negative impact on close relationships among Vietnam War veterans. Recently, studies have replicated these findings in the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) cohort. Currently, over half of the military is married and veterans are returning from combat with elevated rates of PTSD. Thus, investigating which symptom clusters influence marital satisfaction of the veteran the most is important for assisting social workers and other mental health professionals in identifying and prioritizing treatment goals. The current study identifies which of the four PTSD symptom clusters impacts marital satisfaction the most in returning combat veterans using regression analysis. The emotional numbing cluster negatively impacted marital satisfaction whereas the hyper-arousal cluster positively impacted it. Using all 17 Post-traumatic Disorder Checklist-Military (PCL-M) questions as possible predictors of veterans' marital satisfaction, regression analysis revealed five of the questions account for 26 percent of the variance in marital satisfaction. Clinical implications and recommendations are explored.


Unidentified infrared bands (UIBs) have been observed in virtually every dusty astrophysical environment investigated. The UIB carrier must be abundant and ubiquitous. Strong evidence points to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as likely candidates, but the identification is not complete. Additional diagnostics are needed to further constrain the UIB carrier, such as probing excitation sources ranging from UV-strong to UV-weak to determine the "band gap" of the UIB carrier. Observations and models suggest that the UIBs can be found in sources with weak UV fields. To that end, we present new results of observing the 3.3 μm spectral region in six stars embedded in reflection nebulae and in six Vega-like stars. These objects have effective temperatures ranging from 3500 to 12,000 K. Their environments include dust that should be relatively unprocessed (reflection nebulae) and dust that has most likely undergone significant processing (Vega-like) by the embedded illumination source. Together with data from the literature, we have a sample of 27 sight lines. Our analysis suggests that neither the strength of the UV field impinging on the dust nor the effective temperature of the star is the determining factor in whether the 3.3 μm UIB emission is present in an object. We found three detections of the 3.3 μm emission band, one in a Vega-type object, one in a Herbig Ae/Be object, and one in a reflection nebula, and all with disks. The role of disk geometry is likely to be important in revealing or obscuring the photodissociation regions from which the UIB emission arises.


We developed a new instrument, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), to assess 10 behavioral disturbances occurring in dementia patients: delusions, hallucinations, dysphoria, anxiety, agitation/aggression, euphoria, disinhibition, irritability/lability, apathy, and aberrant motor activity. The NPI uses a screening strategy to minimize administration time, examining and scoring only those behavioral domains with positive responses to screening questions. Both the frequency and the severity of each behavior are determined. Information for the NPI is obtained from a caregiver familiar with the patient's behavior. Studies reported here demonstrate the content and concurrent validity as well as between-rater, test-retest, and internal consistency reliability; the instrument is both valid and reliable. The NPI has the advantages of evaluating a wider range of psychopathology than existing instruments, soliciting information that may distinguish among different etiologies of dementia, differentiating between severity and frequency of behavioral changes, and minimizing administration time.


This research examines the life science and video games industries in Liverpool. Previous research on agglomerations and cities tends to focus on epicentres or high concentration places such as Silicon Valley or global cities such as London and Tokyo, neglecting the northern post-industrial cities such as Liverpool, Leeds or Newcastle. Equally, many studies tend to focus in on one particular industry, whereas this research examines two key knowledge economy sectors in one place. Petilis (2012) argues that the cluster literature has become overemphasised and lacks analytical ability in the investigation of smaller firms and highly diverse concentrations of activity. An alternative ecological perspective is used in this thesis, which is considered more reflexive and flexible to the composition of the agglomerations seen outside the epicentres of the global economy.

Using the heterarchical approach, as outlined by Grabher (2001), this research investigates the emergence and organisation of Liverpool's life science and video game industries. It reveals the changing composition of the industries in Liverpool and how firms are connected into wider production networks beyond Liverpool. Finally, the research analyses how the two industries are situated in the anatomy of the city. The key findings are generated from a mixed methodology utilizing qualitative semi-structure interviews with owner-managers, industry informants and supporting institutions. Secondary quantitative data has been used gathered from annual reports, company websites, industry association and office for national statistics.

Firstly, it is argued that the two industries emerged in Liverpool under different conditions and are on different trajectories, conditioned by local events and global mechanisms in the wider industry. Such trajectories have aided the rise or the fall of various structures and institutions within the city of Liverpool. This has resulted in a life science industry that resembles an institutionally thick anatomy and a video games industry that resembles an institutionally thin anatomy. Secondly, key findings regarding the organisation and connections beyond Liverpool highlight the fact that both industries show a lack of internal connectivity within the ecology and depend significantly on their external connections for inputs in production. For the life sciences this is exacerbated with the high level of product diversity between firms decreasing the likelihood of potential internal connectivity in production or joint resource utilization between firms. Thus firms rely on their external connections for finance and resources in order to further the production of their products through licensing and merger and acquisition agreements. Thirdly, the video games industry has gained greater autonomy over production analogues to that of the industry norm. For the life sciences, the rigidity in the generic business model is reinforced by the high levels of regulation and intellectual property protections and reduces the ability of some smaller firms to complete a product. Overall, we see two key knowledge economy sectors emerging with changing degrees of functionality as a result of global changes in the industry and the development of institutional infrastructures around these two sectors.


The remarkable lectures that Hegel gave in Berlin in the 1820s generated an exciting intellectual atmosphere which lasted for decades. From the 1830s, many students flocked to Berlin to study with people who had studied with Hegel, and both his original students, such as Feuerbach and Bauer, and later arrivals including Kierkegaard, Engels, Bakunin, and Marx, evolved into leading nineteenth-century thinkers. Jon Stewart's panoramic study of Hegel's deep influence upon the nineteenth century in turn reveals what that century contributed to the wider history of philosophy. It shows how Hegel's notions of 'alienation' and 'recognition' became the central motifs for the era's thinking; how these concepts spilled over into other fields – like religion, politics, literature, and drama; and how they created a cultural phenomenon so rich and pervasive that it can truly be called 'Hegel's century.' This book is required reading for historians of ideas as well as of philosophy.


Coupled extensional–torsional behaviour of axially pre-loaded helically wound steel cables (wire ropes and/or spiral strands) under specific forms (i.e. unit-step, triangular, and half-sine) of impact loading are considered in some detail. The final closed-form formulations can handle both the no-slip and/or the traditionally used full-slip coupled extensional/torsional constitutive equations for helically wound cables, and describe the various characteristics of the resulting pairs of axial or torsional waves at any location along the cable with one end fixed against movement and the other end subjected to impact loading. By using extensive numerical results, which cover the full range of current manufacturing limits for the lay angle (with this being the sole controlling geometrical parameter as far as the axial/torsional stiffnesses are concerned), it is shown that significant differences exist between a number of axial/torsional wave characteristics, depending on whether the no-slip or the full-slip version of the constitutive relations is used in the analysis. It is demonstrated that modest increases in the magnitudes of the lay angles can lead to significant increases in the differences between the no-slip and the full-slip wave propagation characteristics. The present findings may have significant practical implications in relation to the currently adopted techniques used by industry for calibrating the electronic boxes, which are subsequently used as permanently installed devices, for the in situ detection of individual wire fractures under, say, fatigue loading associated with cable-supported structures.


Over the last few decades, robotics has become an important field of technology which is rapidly evolving and without which modern manufacture cannot be imagined today. Such development also affects the educational process, which needs to be adjusted in order for the society to move forward. Due to the attractiveness and wide availability of various robotic and automated devices and gadgets, robotics has become a subject of interest for children of different ages, as well as the school subject taught in various schools and incorporated in out-of-school programs and activities. Nevertheless, given the complexity and multidisciplinary nature of such content and the high cognitive demands placed on learners, there are problems related to the adequacy of approaches, strategies and methods used in the learning and teaching of robotics, as well as the issues concerning the development and operationalization of robotics curriculum. Therefore, this paper is a theoretical and practical starting point for introducing such teaching and developing an appropriate curriculum. The theoretical part of the paper deals with the importance and role of technology in general education, discusses some theoretical concepts and examines the approaches to the development of technology education in general and the teaching of automatics and robotics in particular. The second part of the paper provides guidelines for the development and operationalization of such curriculum in general education, and outlines a proposal for a curriculum framework. Despite the fact that in these guidelines, a number of student activities are not explained at the micro level, they represent a clear starting point for developing and operationalizing the curriculum that each teacher has to adapt to their students and the environment.


Medication non-adherence is a global problem that has been studied over the past 40 years. Despite the large number of studies there is not an agreed upon definition of "adherence" in the literature. The lack of a consistent definition has resulted in issues in adherence research, clinical implementation, and HIT system development. In this paper a critical review of adherence literature is conducted. Based on this review, a new Adherence Interaction Model (AIM) is proposed and described in detail. AIM considers provider recommendations, the patient's interpretation of the recommendations, and the patient's behavior and provides the foundation for building a more objective view of adherence. AIM provides a foundation for future formalization of medication adherence concepts.


Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected event that has led to a drastic shift in the practice of medicine around the world. Currently, not many studies are available in India regarding the role of telepsychiatry and no study has been done to assess the usability and satisfaction scores of patients who undergo a telepsychiatric consultation. Aim: The aim of the study is to find the profile of patients attending the telepsychiatry Unit and its usability and satisfaction during the pandemic in South India. Setting and Design: The study was conducted on patients attending telepsychiatric consultation from a period of March 25, 2020, to September 2020. Materials and Methods: A retrospective chart analysis of patients attending telepsychiatry consultation from March 25, 2020, to September 2020 was made. Patients who underwent video consultation were asked to fill out the telehealth usability questionnaire scale through Google Forms. The usability of the telehealth system was assessed using a Likert Scale and scoring was done. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the study population. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. The design and findings of this study were written in accordance with SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines. Results: Twenty-two percent of the study population had consultation for more than fourtimes. Around 78% of the study population had online consultation for less than four times. More than 74% of the study population had video consultation and 26% of the study population had audio consultation. The total average Telehealth Usability Questionaire score was 5.3. The usefulness score summary was found to have a low score of 5.2 ± 0.6, whereas the satisfaction scale summary was found to have the highest score of 5.3 + 0.9. Conclusion: Profile of patients who attend a telepsychiatry unit during the crisis and their satisfaction helped us to know the pros and cons of online consultation and the ways to improve telemedicine in regard to psychiatric patient care. Our study shows that majority are satisfied with telepsychiatric consultation.


ABSTRACT The Pirate Party of Germany (PPG) and the Italian 5-Star Movement (5SM) are two digital movement parties that share several ideological features, including their roots in anti-establishment movements, their refusal to position themselves on the Left-Right spectrum, and their belief that the Internet increases the capacity of ordinary citizens for self-government and self-representation. To this end, both parties have adopted online participation platforms, which allow their members to contribute to the development of the party program, vote on strategic decisions, and propose policy initiatives. Given these affinities and given that both parties begun their political ascendancy in the same years, their antipodal political destinies – ascendency to power for the 5SM, downfall for the PPG – are all the more striking. This article accounts for this divergence by showing how the technopopulist orientation of both parties conceals in fact radically different conceptions of political participation and internal party democracy. To this end, it considers the role that different technopolitical cultures have played in shaping the organization of these two parties in their early stages, and how the subsequent adoption and use of online participation platforms has led to internal strife and bitter disputes within the PPG and increasing centralization within the 5SM.


We developed a novel design technique for a D-type flip-flop (D- FF) circuit that is based on a small-signal-equivalent circuit approach. This technique provides the best condition to operate the D-FF at a high frequency. Using this technique, we fabricated a master-slave D-FF using a 0.15-/spl mu/m InP HEMT technology. We achieved 40-Gbit/s operation with clear-eye-waveform patterns and reduced jitter.


Mobile phones are a global phenomenon and can be readily found in places as technologically disparate as Japan and sub-Saharan Africa. Their sociological impact in these diverse cultural and technological contexts is rich because, on top of serving practical functions related to communication, information exchange, and entertainment, the device holds complex symbolic meanings.
This dissertation examines how mobile phones support intimate personal and romantic relationships in digitally emergent places, i.e., locations that are developing pervasive digital telecommunication and media infrastructure. Two field studies are reported here from post-colonial, digitally emergent settings. The first study in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a prelude to the main study in Bangalore, India. The Tashkent study provided a snapshot of mobile phone use that supports personal relationships. This study used interviews of mobile service providers, interviews of users and nonusers, and participant observation to describe the cultural, political, economic, and technological contexts that shape mobile phone use. The study revealed several social uses and symbolic meanings of mobile phones.
The main study reported in this dissertation focuses on fieldwork with young people who work in the global 24/7 environment of Bangalore. This study used surveys, interviews, participant observation, and mobile diaries to document attitudes and behaviors surrounding mobile phone communication with family members and romantic partners. The study revealed that besides cultural influences, the participants' unique circumstances as people who have migrated to a new city and often work the graveyard shift affect their use of the mobile.
This dissertation constructs a new theory of "mobile hybridity" that is framed by hybridity theory, or the evolution of new behaviors and spaces from the contact and fusion of multiple influences. The culturally shifting and blending landscape occupied by users often fractures their intimate relationships with physical distance or cultural differences. Cyborg, or seamlessly integrated, use of mobile phones helps users negotiate these relationships and the liminal spaces created by the close coupling of modern urban life with conservative social values, the co-existence of the global and the local, and the tension experienced by young people who want to be independent but also connected with loved ones.


Suspended carbon nanotubes are known to support self-driven oscillations due to electromechanical feedback under certain conditions, including low temperatures and high mechanical quality factors. Prior reports identified signatures of such oscillations in Kondo or high-bias transport regimes. Here, we observe self-driven oscillations that give rise to significant conduction in normally Coulomb-blockaded low-bias transport. Using a master equation model, the self-driving is shown to result from strongly energy-dependent electron tunneling, and the dependencies of transport features on bias, gate voltage, and temperature are well reproduced.


The purpose of this study was to try to interpret interactions between social worker and adoptive parents during the adoption process from a power perspective. The study was inspired by a hermeneutic inductive approach because we were interested in the interpretation of the empirical material. The study was conducted using four qualitative interviews with a total of seven people, four adoptive parents and three social workers. The collected material is then analyzed using a content analysis. To interpret the contact between the adoptive parents and social workers, we have used a power perspective. Our study showed that the applicant, generally speaking, was positive to that an investigation was made based on "the child's interest", but experienced some of the questions as intrusive. They found that the assessment made was crucial for the decision, and that it easily can vary from case to case for the decision and that the assessment can certainly vary in different cases. The social workers did not feel that they had any noticeable power, because they do not make the final decision. Their assessment was partly based on laws and guidelines that set the context, for example, how old the applicants may be and the requirement that the applicants must be married. Assessments are also made on the social worker's individual characteristics based on the applicant's personal qualities such as insight and ability to care for a child.


This article considers the uses and decline of workplace occupations in the 1980s. Developing the contribution by Alan Tuckman on the rise of occupations in the 1970s, attention is given to the structural factors that can explain the reasons why workers' uses of the tactics have declined since the period. Focusing on the wider context and two contrasting cases (the 1980 Gardner and 1984 Cammell Laird occupations), this article advances six key reasons why this decline has taken place. First, the decline of manufacturing and rising unemployment in the 1980s; second, an overall decline in strikes more generally in terms of their incidence and duration; third, anti-union legislation and policing; fourth, the lack of a positive demonstration effect with regard to 'successful' examples of occupations in the 1980s; fifth, the decline of debates around alternative forms of ownership, including nationalization and the incipient workers' control/cooperatives movement; and sixth, the decline of the far left and the networks that had sustained occupations to some extent in the 1970s and 1980s.


[1] Ground motions at the frequencies (between 0.01 and 0.1 Hz) of ocean infragravity and swell waves were observed on a cross-shore transect extending landward from the edge of a southern California coastal cliff. Cliff top ground motions are coherent and in phase with water level fluctuations at the cliff base. Vertical ground motions at infragravity and single frequencies decay rapidly with inland distance from the cliff edge (e-folding scale is about 12 m), and at the edge decrease by several orders of magnitude between high tide when waves reach the cliff base, and low tide when the waterline is about 50 m from the cliff base. The observed cross-shore decay scales are qualitatively consistent with gravitational loading and attraction of water waves at tidally modulated distances from the cliff base. At approximately constant distance from the waterline, ground motions vary roughly linearly with nearshore swell wave energy. In contrast to these locally forced ground motions, double frequency band (0.1–0.2 Hz) cliff top vertical ground motions are remotely generated with spatially uniform magnitudes approximately equal to those observed 14 km inland. Near the cliff edge, ground tilt dominates the observed large (relative to vertical) cross-shore acceleration at infragravity frequencies, contributes significantly to cross-shore acceleration at swell frequencies, and is a small fraction of cross-shore acceleration at higher frequencies.


Tsebelis and Nardi (2016) and Tsebelis (2017) report that constitutional length correlates with lower levels of GDP per capita. They argue that this may be the case because longer constitutions lead to greater corruption. However, uncovering a causal relationship between constitutional length and corruption is difficult. On the one hand, political elites may pressure drafters to include specific provisions that facilitate their rent-seeking efforts. On the other hand, constitutional drafters may be responding to corruption by including a large number of specific safeguards. Our aim in this paper is to explore whether there is a causal effect of constitutional length on corruption. We utilize data from the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) to identify 5 cases when a country adopted a significantly longer constitution. For each of those cases, we compare the subsequent change in corruption to that of a synthetic control. We report evidence of a significant post-treatment increase in corruption for 3 out of 5 cases (Ecuador in both 1997 and 2008; Venezuela in 1999). However, the 2008 Ecuador result is not robust to a placebo test; and in the case of Venezuela it is difficult to distinguish a constitutional length effect from a "Chavez effect" (Grier and Maynard 2016). The evidence that longer constitutions corrupt is weak.


Glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3 modulates the production of inflammatory cytokines. Because bleomycin (BLM) causes lung injury, which is characterized by an inflammatory response followed by a fibrotic degeneration, we postulated that blocking GSK-3 activity with a specific inhibitor could affect the inflammatory and profibrotic cytokine network generated in the BLM-induced process of pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis. Thus, here we investigated the effects of the GSK-3 inhibitor 3-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-(1-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2,5-dione (SB216763) on a BLM-induced lung fibrosis model in mice. SB216763 prevented lung inflammation and the subsequent fibrosis when coadministered with BLM. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid analysis of mice treated with BLM plus SB216763 revealed a significant reduction in BLM-induced alveolitis. Furthermore, SB216763 treatment was associated with a significantly lower production of inflammatory cytokines by macrophages. BLM-treated mice that received SB216763 developed alveolar epithelial cell damage and pulmonary fibrosis to a significantly lower extent compared with BLM-treated controls. These findings suggest that GSK-3 inhibition has a protective effect on lung fibrosis induced by BLM and candidate GSK-3 as a potential therapeutic target for preventing pulmonary fibrosis.


Testicular cancer represents the more frequent solid tumor affecting males aged 15–35 years. In the last decades, its incidence showed a progressive increased probably due to genetic and environmental factors. Despite exposure to some viruses such as HIV, HCV, EBV, and HPV is frequently related to cancer development, there are no studies aimed to evaluate the possible implication of viral infections in the pathogenesis of testicular cancer. In this study, we analyzed sperm parameters and prevalence of HPV on sperm in 155 testicular cancer patients at diagnosis (T−1), after orchiectomy (T0) and after 12 months from surgery or from the end of adjuvant treatments (T12). All patients showed a significantly higher prevalence of semen infection than controls (9.5% and 2.4% respectively,) and altered sperm parameters both at T−1 and T0. Considering sperm parameters, at T−1 we observed a reduction of progressive motility, and after orchiectomy patients showed a reduction of sperm concentration and count and a further worsening of motility. Thereafter, patients were assigned to three groups on the basis of medical option after surgery: S = surveillance, R = radiotherapy, and C = chemotherapy +/− radiotherapy. At T12, untreated patients had an improvement of sperm parameters while R group and even more C group had a strong decrease of sperm number (p < 0.01 both vs. T0 and S group). Moreover, patients who received radio and/or chemotherapy had a very high prevalence of HPV semen infection (S = 7.7%, R = 30.8%, and C = 61.5%). In conclusion, patients with testicular cancer had frequently altered sperm parameters and higher prevalence of HPV semen infection that were worsened after radio and chemotherapy. Because HPV infection is a risk factor for cancer development and it may further reduce fertility, we suggest screening for HPV in testicular cancer patients at diagnosis and particularly after adjuvant treatments.


An important decrease in the heat flux across the micro-thermal field-flow fractionation (micro-TFFF) channel compared with the standard size channel allowed to control independently the temperatures of the cold and hot walls and to study the behaviour of colloidal particles within an extended temperature range. The only limitation was imposed by the freezing and boiling points of the carrier liquid. The retention and the relaxation processes were found to be influenced by temperature. A decrease in the viscosity of the carrier liquid with increasing temperature results in an increase in the diffusion coefficient of the retained species. Consequently, the relaxation processes associated with the establishment of the steady-state concentration distribution are accelerated, the time to reach the steady state decreases with increasing temperature, and the retention ratio of moderately retained particles decreases to reach a minimum value. The fractograms of colloidal samples of narrow particle size distribution (PSD) obtained at lowest temperatures can exhibit two peaks; the first corresponding to the unrelaxed particles eluted even at higher than the average velocity of the carrier liquid and the second one corresponding to the particles retained less compared with the zone eluted at a steady state from the very beginning. The further increase in temperature above that at which the retention ratio reaches the mentioned minimum produces inversion of the retention ratio, i.e. its increase. The peak corresponding to the unrelaxed part of the particles progressively disappears with increasing temperature. If the flow of the carrier liquid is stopped immediately after the injection of the sample for a time to reach a steady-state concentration distribution of the particles across the channel and restarted after that period, the retention ratio does not exhibit a pronounced minimum. On the other hand, the width of the zone generally decreases with increasing temperature but less if the stop-flow procedure is applied. These findings confirm that the retention ratio is influenced by temperature in agreement with the theoretical prediction. A practical conclusion is that higher resolution and reduced time of the separation can be achieved at higher temperatures of the accumulation wall. The micro-TFFF thus becomes a highly competitive method of separation and determination of the PSD of colloidal particles.


Printed circuit board (PCB) design is getting critical as data rate approaching 25 Gbps (Gigabit per second) and beyond in networking systems. Channel loss, noise coupling and discontinuities are limiting the performance of high-speed channels. Equalization techniques including linear, feed forward and decision feedback are widely used in high-speed SerDes channels to compensate the channel losses. But these are still not sufficient for some extra long channels, and low loss PCB dielectric materials have to be used finally. The consequence is the cost of the networking system soaring significantly. In this paper, a hybrid stack-up is proposed for PCBs used in networking systems. Electrical performance of the hybrid stack-up is investigated in both frequency-domain and time-domain, and a positive conclusion for the hybrid stack-up is reached based on its cost and electrical performances.


This article aims to analyse the relationship between Europeanization and administrative reform within the context of recent developments in Turkey. While doing this, the analytical tools of sociological institutionalism and the misfit model of Europeanization are utilized together with the analysis of related legal documents and in-depth interviews conducted with the actors in various tiers of administration. The article argues that institutional change entails a change in values and discourses of the political actors and in the Turkish case, despite the EU's pressures for administrative reform and the resulting legal changes of the 2000s, because of the institutionalized powers and resistance of the actors at the central level no institutional change has occurred in Turkey regarding the administrative system.


To separate and localize the P300 sources within the brain a robust constrained blind source separation (CBSS) algorithm has been proposed. The algorithm is an extension of the Infomax algorithm, based on minimization of mutual information, for which a reference P300 signal is used as a constraint. The reference signal forces the unmixing matrix to separate the sources of both auditory and visual P300 resulted from the corresponding stimulations. The constrained problem is then converted to an nnconstraained problem by means of a set of nonlinear penalty functions. The P300 sources are then localized based on electrode source correlations.


In the field of the physical environment, public managers perceive fragmentation between projects and policies as problematic. This fragmentation leads to complexity and coherence challenges for program management. This PhD thesis analyses how program management uses its connective capacities to cope with such complexity. The cases Policy with Citizens and Amsterdam Metropolitan Region show how program managements' connective capacities evolve in relation to projects and strategic networks. It then concludes that program management continuously searches for a temporal equilibrium in managing interdependencies. This means that e.g. in project selection strategies, program management balances between 1) relating to a high variety of projects and 2) connecting with major projects to create impact. The effect of each strategy depends on the interaction of fragmented elements in governance processes. Finally, this thesis provides recommendations for public managers coping with complexity. Public managers need to consider program management as a distinctive approach and an adaptive arrangement in complex governance processes. Program managements' connective capacities can deliver added value in these processes through e.g. reciprocal disciplining and adaptation between multiple actors in regional development. It is also recommended to program management to vary leadership styles to match the need for connective capacity.


Macro-modeling and Energy Efficiency Studies of File Management in Embedded Systems with Flash Memory. (May 2005) Nitesh Goyal, B.S., The University of Texas at Austin Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Rabi Mahaptra Technological advancements in computer hardware and software have made embedded systems highly affordable and widely used. Consumers have ever increasing demands for powerful embedded devices such as cell phones, PDAs and media players. Such complex and feature-rich embedded devices are strictly limited by their battery lifetime. Embedded systems typically are diskless and use flash for secondary storage due to their low power, persistent storage and small form factor needs. The energy efficiency of a processor and flash in an embedded system heavily depends on the choice of file system in use. To address this problem, it is necessary to provide system developers with energy profiles of file system activities and energy efficient file systems. In the first part of the thesis, a macro-model for the CRAMFS file system is established which characterizes the processor and flash energy consumption due to file system calls. This macro-model allows a system developer to estimate the energy consumed by CRAMFS without using an actual power setup. The second part of the thesis examines the effects of using non-volatile memory as a write-behind buffer to improve the energy efficiency of JFFS2. Experimental results show that a 4KB write-behind buffer significantly reduces energy consumption by up to 2-3 times for consecutive small writes. In addition, the write-behind buffer conserves flash space since transient data may never be written to flash.


To programmatically interact with the user interface of a web application, element locators are used to select and retrieve elements from the Document Object Model (DOM). Element locators are used in JavaScript code, Cascading stylesheets, and test cases to interact with the runtime DOM of the webpage. Constructing these element locators is, however, challenging due to the dynamic nature of the DOM. We find that locators written by web developers can be quite complex, and involve selecting multiple DOM elements. We present an automated technique for synthesizing DOM element locators using examples provided interactively by the developer. The main insight in our approach is that the problem of synthesizing complex multielement locators can be expressed as a constraint solving problem over the domain of valid DOM states in a web application. We implemented our synthesis technique in a tool called LED, which provides an interactive drag and drop support inside the browser for selecting positive and negative examples. We find that LED supports at least 86% of the locators used in the JavaScript code of deployed web applications, and that the locators synthesized by LED have a recall of 98% and a precision of 63%. LED is fast, taking only 0.23 seconds on average to synthesize a locator.


Challenges in multimedia analysis are calling for the sharing of research efforts, while in practice collaboration is hindered by technical and proprietary issues. The Community of Multimedia Agents project (COMMA) attempts to solve this problem by creating an open environment for developing, testing, and prototyping multimedia content analysis and annotation methods. Each method is represented as an agent (an executable module) that can communicate with the other agents based on descriptors and description schemes in the coming MPEG-7 standard. This allows multimedia-processing agents developed by different organizations to operate and collaborate with each other, regardless of their programming languages and internal architecture. The researchers can compare the performance of agents and combine them to build more powerful and robust system prototypes. It can also serve as a learning environment for researchers and students to acquire and test cutting edge multimedia analysis algorithms. Through sharing of media agents, the Community can increase efficiency of research while protecting the intellectual property of the inventors.


Report of a case of dysplasia epiphysealis hemimelica with congenital partial hemihypertrophy as main symptom. This diagnosis could be ascertained in a boy at the age of four years by typical rentgenographic findings although a clinical suspicion existed earlier. In all cases of hemihypertrophy with impaired mobility of the great joints this disease should be considered.


Purpose

Networking and being a part of an established business network supports the process of translating new ideas into marketable solutions and acquiring customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how aspiring entrepreneurs in a Danish rural area setting manage to get embedded into relevant business networks. Before the literature background on social capital and regional development, the authors use the embeddedness approach in explaining whether weak or strong ties are most beneficial to get the business started and how lacking strong ties can be compensated.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper takes an economic sociology perspective on social capital and is empirically based on a case study. The sample consists of a group of young aspiring entrepreneurs, living in the rural area of Southern Jutland, who are all committed to an organization which supports regional start-ups.

Findings

The authors found that aspiring entrepreneurs have different needs depending on their development status and type of innovation. Founders, who are developing or have developed new product innovations, seem to have an increased need for "strong ties" with consultants and those with knowledge about building up a professional network. Founders, who are developing or have developed a significantly improved service, have strong ties with former fellow students and researchers at the university.

Originality/value

This study illustrates that aspiring entrepreneurs connected to a regional entrepreneurship center gained access to a wider relevant network. Depending on their level of embeddedness, they could build new strong relationships and exploit information stemming from new "weak ties" and as such harness more benefits. The study shows that less privileged start-ups can substitute strong ties, especially through the support of professional managers of startup-supporting organizations. Finally, a model explaining the impact of social capital on the entrepreneurial sphere of regional business networks and on its innovativeness is deduced.


Author(s): Kaplan, Rebecca | Advisor(s): Porter, Dorothy | Abstract: This dissertation explores the conceptualization of brucellosis as a disease and the development of the state-federal brucellosis eradication program. It examines what economic, political, societal, cultural, agricultural, occupational, medical, scientific, and technological factors influenced development of eradication procedures for brucellosis in the United States and which groups of people impacted brucellosis policy. It draws on many different sources including government and organizational records and publications, legal documents, educational material, and trade, scientific, and popular publications. The dissertation serves as a lens to explore the historic relationship between animal and public health, science, agricultural practices, societal norms, and political forces by drawing together research and concepts from history of medicine, public health, science and technology studies, agricultural history, and American political history.Many different stake-holders influenced the understanding of brucellosis as a disease in both animals and humans and eradication policy. Dairy producers, range cattle owners, veterinarians, state and federal animal health officials, researchers in both animal and human health, consumers, and politicians all played a role in the conceptualization of the disease and its eradication policy. Within each of these groups, different factions held various viewpoints on the epidemiology of the disease, the need for brucellosis eradication, and the role of the government in eradication. These positions often evolved based on economic interests, environment and geography, agricultural practices, and interpretation of scientific data. In addition to different groups and organizations, the biology of the bacterium and its transmission between animals and species shaped the understanding of the disease and the attempts to control or eradicate it. This dissertation also explores the relationship between animal and human medicine and how the groups involved with brucellosis eradication policy negotiated issues of human health and animal health. The dissertation focuses on how contagious abortion and undulant fever, two seemingly unrelated diseases in two different populations, cattle and humans, became one disease, brucellosis, and under what circumstances the state-federal plan to end the disease in the United States developed and evolved during the twentieth century.


In the external Western Alps, the collision started with the shortening of the proximal European (Dauphinois) margin. One peculiar feature is the crustal thickening that finally led to the exhumation of the basement External Crystalline Massifs (ECM) during the Neogene. In these massifs, various age of shortening, structural style and sequence of deformation have been proposed leading to different kinematics along the Alpine arc that in turn do not imply the same crustal/lithospheric strength. In this contribution, we present new structural and microstructural data along with Ar/Ar ages from field studies in the Oisans-Grandes Rousses massifs, between Grenoble and Briancon). From balanced cross-sections, we show that about half of the external zone crustal shortening is accommodated within the ECM with similar Ar/Ar ages in all massifs. Furthermore, the shear zones present very large thicknesses (several hundred meters) and do not reactivated either the inherited Liassic normal faults or the Variscan foliation. Finally, the main shortening structures are localized beneath inherited Liassic syn-rift basins. These results suggest that the crust was weak during its shortening. Such behavior is most likely due to the combination of several factors: the crust burial (below the overthrusting internal units) down to about 10km, the presence of weak inherited syn-rift basins, and the strain softening in shear zones that evolve in mica-rich phyllonites. These results are consistent with the studies in the Aar massif and should most likely apply to the Mont Blanc massif, whose relationships with its cover are still debated.


The eight Millennium Development Goals form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. The United Nations Millennium Summit, September 2000, established a time bound (2015) and measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination of women. These goals are now placed at the heart of the global agenda. The Summit's Millennium Declaration also outlined a wide range of commitments in human rights, good governance, and democracy.


Vibrio anguillarum is an opportunistic pathogen of aquatic animals, biocontrol agents have been revealed effective in preventing this disease. Antarctic bacteria were used for the screening of antagonism against V. anguillarum and strain AN32 showed highest activity. AN32 was identified as Pseudoalteromonas according to its morphological, physiological and biochemical and 16S rDNA molecular properties. The antibacterial substance in AN32 culture supernatant was sensitive to pH, temperature and proteinases. The substance could not dissolve in organic solvents, but could be precipitated by ammonium sulfate. These characterizations indicated that the bioactive substance of strain AN32 would be some kind of protein or peptide. This study is a potential application in the control of aquiculture diseases.


The sequentially plasma activated bonding of silicon wafers has been investigated to facilitate the development of chemical free, room temperature and spontaneous bonding required for nanostructure integration on the wafer scale. The contact angle of the surface and the electrical and nanostructural behavior of the interface have been studied. The contact angle measurements show that the sequentially plasma (reactive ion etching plasma followed by microwave radicals) treated surfaces offer highly reactive and hydrophilic surfaces. These highly reactive surfaces allow spontaneous integration at the nanometer scale without any chemicals, external pressure or heating. Electrical characteristics show that the current transportation across the nanobonded interface is dependent on the plasma parameters. High resolution transmission electron microscopy results confirm nanometer scale bonding which is needed for the integration of nanostructures. The findings can be applied in spontaneous integration of nanostructures such as nanowires/nanotubes/quantum dots on the wafer scale.


HuTVeC, an acronym for Humid Tropical Vegetation and Climate hydrological model was developed by Amjad Nabi in 1997. This model includes the plant leaf dependent parameters such as the leaf area index, light extinction coefficient, canopy storage coefficient, etc., which are controlled by the vegetation type. The output of this model are the daily evapotranspiration, canopy storage and streamflow. The input data required for this model includes daily rainfall, minimum and maximum temperatures, minimum and maximum relative humidity and sunshine hours. Daily streamflow data is also required for model calibration and validation. Application of HuTVeC model was carried out in a 66 square kilometre Trolak watershed using continuous five-year data from 1982 to 1986. For model application
to a bigger watershed, Tanjung Malim watershed with watershed area of 186 square kilometres was selected using continuous five-year data from 1988 to 1992. The results of the model application show that HuTVeC model underestimated the streamflow in both watersheds with up to 38.5% underestimation for Trolak watershed and up to 50.8% underestimation for Tanjung Malim watershed. From the analyses, these underestimated streamflow were due to overstated canopy interception by up to 5% and overstated transpiration of up to 9%. Better results were obtained when the maximum rainfall was used in place of average rainfall in the watershed. It is also found that if the ratio of modelled canopy interception to rainfall and the
ratio of modelled transpiration to rainfall were maintained below 20% and 40% respectively, the modelled results were deemed acceptable. The study also found that HuTVeC model is able to produce annual streamflow for planning purposes with more than 60% probability that the modelled annual flow and observed annual are having the same mean with good correlation between monthly modelled flow and observed flow.


Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) are fast emerging as an attractive low-cost substitute in applications such as smart grids and large scale energy storage. But traditional carbon anodes used in SIBs face many practical difficulties due to the fact that the sodium ion is 55% larger than its lithium counterpart. Therefore, anodes in SIBs require special architectures to accommodate the large sodium ions without compromising other essential attributes like conductivity and surface area. In this manuscript, we report the synthesis of three dimensional, 3D mesoporous, N-doped graphene–carbon nanotube (G–Ni@NCNT) networks as anodes in SIBs. The graphene–carbon nanotube–nickel ensemble was synthesized by facile catalytic transformation of isocyanate treated graphene oxide under microwave irradiation. When applied as electrodes in sodium-ion batteries, our 3D graphene–carbon nanotube hybrids show a high specific capacitance of 447 mA h g−1, good rate capability and still retain 98.4% of the initial capacitance even after 150 cycles. The carbon nanotubes anchored on the graphene surface act as spacers and increase the electrolyte-accessible surface area whereas the defects generated by substitution doping of nitrogen on graphene and CNT provide good anchoring points for sodium ion retention.


In the eggs of the newt, Cynops (Triturus) pyrrhogaster, change in stiffness of the cortex was measured in various regions at the time of the cleavage. Measurements were performed by Mitchison and Swann's cell elastimeter method with a modification, in which two fine pipettes were attached to the surface of one egg at the same time, in order to compare the rigidity of two regions. The stiffness of the cortex changed very little before the start of the first cleavage. However, just before the appearance of the first cleavage furrow, the stiffness increased rapidly at the animal pole region, which later returned to the former level. As the cleavage furrow progressed, a wave of high stiffness travelled meridionally as a belt along the surface from the animal pole region toward the vegetal region. At second cleavage, the cycle of change in stiffness was repeated.


ObjectivesThis paper links prescriptions data for the Northern Ireland population with data from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and localized ambient air pollution data from 2002 onwards to estimate the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollutant from fine particulates (PM2.5) and Parkinson's Disease (PD).
ApproachCox Proportional Hazards models are used to examine the impact of air pollution on PD, first unconditionally, and then conditioning on a rich set of observable individual, family and contextual characteristics. Long-term exposure to PM2.5 is defined as exposure averaged over the previous 5 years. Onset of PD is proxied by first receipt of a prescription for PD medication.  Estimates are presented in the form of hazard ratios for the effect of long-term PM2.5 exposure on the risk of PD onset.
ResultsThere is a non-trivial magnitude and statistically significant unconditional association between long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 pollution and receiving a prescription for PD, with those exposed to higher levels of pollution more likely to receive a prescription for PD. This estimated association disappears (becomes insignificantly different from zero), however, when the model accounts for confounding variables at household, individual and geographical levels.
ConclusionsThis study contributes to an emerging literature examining the association between ambient PM2.5 pollution and onset of PD. Despite finding an unconditional association, we find no evidence for an association once individual, family and contextual characteristics are controlled for, at least in the relatively low-pollution context of Northern Ireland.


Objective: We study clinical data and differences in the patients with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (CAD) atended in an Emergency Department (ED). Methods: We described 15 patients with criteria for diagnosis of CAD during a 12-month period. We value prospectively clinical data, precipitating factors, diagnosis associated, previous diagnosed diabetes, complications, mortality and use of and intensive care unit (UCI). We comparing groups according two characteristics: age group and prior diagnosis of diabetes mellitus.


Mobile applications can leverage high-quality deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks and deep neural networks to provide high-performance cognitive services. Prior work on deep learning models-based mobile applications in a cloud-edge computing environment focuses on performing lightweight data pre-processing tasks on edge servers for cloud-hosted cognitive servers. These approaches have two major limitations. First, it is uneasy for the mobile applications to assure satisfactory user experience in terms of network communication delay, because the intermediary edge servers are used only to pre-process data (e.g., images and videos) and the cloud servers are used to complete the tasks. Second, these approaches assume the pre-trained deep learning models deployed on cloud servers are static, and will not attempt to automatically upgrade in a context-aware manner. In this article, we propose a cloud-edge collaboration framework that facilitates delivering cognitive services with long-lasting, fast response, and high accuracy properties. We fist deploy a shallow model (i.e., EdgeCNN) on the edge server and a deep model (i.e., CloudCNN) on the cloud server. EdgeCNN can provide durable and rapid response cognitive services, because edge servers not only provide computing resources for mobile applications, but also close to users. Then, we enable CloudCNN to assist in training EdgeCNN to improve the performance of the latter. Thus, EdgeCNN also provides high-accuracy cognitive services. Furthermore, because users may continue to upload data to edge servers in real-world scenarios, we propose to use the ongoing assistance of CloudCNN to further improve the accuracy of the shallow model. Experimental results show that EdgeCNN can reduce the average response time of cognitive services by up to 55.08 percent and improve accuracy by up to 26.70 percent.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 4 (2017) pp. 1967-1984 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is a highly effective approach for studying genetically complex forms of plant disease resistance. With QTL mapping, the roles of specific resistance loci can be described, race-specificity of partial resistance genes can be assessed and interactions between resistance genes, plant development and the environment can be analysed (Young, 1996). DNA markers tightly linked to quantitative resistance loci (QRLs) controlling QDR can be used for marker-assisted selection (MAS) to incorporate these valuable traits. QDR confers a reduction, rather than lack, of disease and has diverse biological and molecular bases as revealed by cloning of QRLs and identification of the candidate gene(s) underlying QRLs (Dina St. Clair, 2010). Outstanding examples include: quantitative resistance to the rice blast fungus, late blight of potato, bacterial wilt of tomato, and the soybean cyst nematode. These studies provide insights into the number of quantitative resistance loci involved in complex disease resistance, epistasis and environmental interactions, race-specificity of partial resistance loci, interactions between pathogen biology, plant development. A thorough understanding of quantitative disease resistance (QDR) would contribute to the design and deployment of durably resistant crop cultivars. However, the molecular mechanisms that control QDR remain poorly understood, largely due to the incomplete and inconsistent nature of the resistance phenotype, which is usually conditioned by many loci of small effect (Jesse Poland et al., 2008). QTL mapping methods for complex traits are challenged by new developments in marker technology, phenotyping platforms and breeding methods. Thus QTL mapping approaches will need to also acknowledge the central roles of QTL by environment interactions (QEI) and QTL by trait interactions in the expression of complex traits (Fred van Eeuwijk et al., 2010). DNA marker technology, QTL theory and statistical methodology for QTL analysis have undergone rapid developments in the past two decades. These concepts and the jargon used by molecular biologists may not be clearly understood by plant breeders and other plant scientists (Collard et al., 2005). Host pattern recognition receptor (HPRR) genes, and defenseresponsive or defense-related genes are important resources for quantitative broad spectrum resistance and durable resistance (Yanjun Kou and Shiping Wang, 2010). Adaptation to the hypersensitive R-genes by fungal and bacterial specialists is quite different from the adaptations to polygenic quantitative resistance. In first case a loss mutation in the avirulence gene results in restoring the pathogenicity. In the latter, exemplified by the cereals/take-all pathosystem, the mutation is due to a gain mutation. Adaptation by a loss mutation is expected to be much easier than adaptation through a gain mutation. This is the main reason for the large difference in durability (Jan Parlevliet).QRLs for which the phenotypic effects on QDR have been verified and for which tightly linked DNA-based markers have been determined can be (and are) used in marker assisted selection (MAS) breeding strategies for improvement of crop germplasm and development of cultivars. K e y w o r d s


Emotions are known to impact cognitive skills, thus influencing job performance. This is also true for software development, which requires creativity and problem-solving abilities. In this paper, we report the results of a field study involving professional developers from five different companies. We provide empirical evidence that a link exists between emotions and perceived productivity at the workplace. Furthermore, we present a taxonomy of triggers for developers' positive and negative emotions, based on the qualitative analysis of participants' self-reported answers collected through daily experience sampling. Finally, we experiment with a minimal set of non-invasive biometric sensors that we use as input for emotion detection. We found that positive emotional valence, neutral arousal, and high dominance are prevalent. We also found a positive correlation between emotional valence and perceived productivity, with a stronger correlation in the afternoon. Both social and individual breaks emerge as useful for restoring a positive mood. Furthermore, we found that a minimum set of non-invasive biometric sensors can be used as a predictor for emotions, provided that training is performed on an individual basis. While promising, our classifier performance is not yet robust enough for practical usage. Further data collection is required to strengthen the classifier, by also implementing individual fine-tuning of emotion models.


The value setting of the traditional distance protection has become very difficult for the distribution system with distributed generators (DGs) owing to the randomness of the DG output power. This paper proposes a new adaptive distance protection scheme to solve this problem. Firstly, on the basis of the connected point of DGs, the protected feeders are divided into different zones, with adaptive distance protection configured at the upstream side of DG. Then, based on a fault characteristic analysis of the distribution system with DG, the adaptive distance protection scheme for the distribution system with DG is studied to solve this problem. The results show that this scheme can automatically calculate the settings according to the operation mode and the output power of DG with no need for communication. Compared with the traditional adaptive protection scheme, the performance of this method is greatly improved. Simulation results on a 10 kV distribution system have verified the validity of the scheme proposed.


Nitrogen-doped titanium oxide (N-TiO2) films deposited on unheated glass slides at various flow rates of N2 in an atmosphere of Ar and O2 gas mixture by direct current sputtering technique were investigated. The Ti2p, O1s and N1s spectra by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) verified N-substitution into TiO2 lattice which is responsible for the band gap narrowing. The oxygen total ratio (rOT) in the gas mixture had profound influence on the photocatalytic properties of the N-doped films. At a ratio of rOT≦0.18, heterogeneous phases, such as titanium oxynitride (TiNxOy) and titanium nitride (TiN), with low crystallinity were formed in the TiO2 lattice, showing low photocatalytic activity. On the other hand, the N-TiO2 films prepared at rOT≧0.20 were found to have improved photocatalytic activity on methylene blue degradation under visible-light irradiation at wavelengths longer than 500 nm, due to the substitutional N ions in the TiO2 lattice.


Utilization of industrial and agricultural waste products in the construction industry has been the focus of research for economical and environmental reasons. In this paper, Lime sludge, a paper and pulp industry waste product, has been chemically, physically and thermally characterized, in order to evaluate the possibility of its use as construction materials. X-ray Fluorescence and X-ray diffractometry studies for the determination of composition and presence of crystalline material and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis to identify the phase transition of lime sludge, as well as physical and mechanical properties and its pozzolanic activity have been conducted. It is concluded that the acceptance of this waste product by the construction industry could be decided depending on the application, keeping in view of the limitations on the mechanical strength.


Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems have been developed to perform automated meter reading, reduce peak loads, and use energy efficiently. Two issues exist regarding this system. The first issue is the communication and handling of consumer data concerning electricity collected by power utilities. The second issue is the management of communication network resources and scheduling of metering to avoid congestions and communication errors. The major device for addressing these two issues is a concentrator that acts as a data relay point in an AMI system. The concentrator collects data from the meter and sends them through communication networks. This study discusses the aggregation methods of the concentrator with respect to the aforementioned two issues and proposes a method to reduce network utilization and message size on a server. The method concatenates small smart metering messages sent from relevant meters. The traditional method aggregates and concatenates messages without numerical processing. The proposed method processes messages at the concentrator to reduce total message size and calculation cost on the server. Moreover, the method that combines the traditional and proposed methods was evaluated by considering a real-world case. These methods were simulated by using an ns-3 network simulator to evaluate their efficiency in sending messages concerning the volume of power consumption to the server. The results of the simulations show that the proposed methods reduce message size by as much as 98.5% in some cases and, by means of the concentrator, shorten the communication time between meters and the server. The proposed method can help to reduce loads on networks and servers.


Optically-Pumped Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (OP-VECSELs) arc novel semiconductor-based lasers that have many advantages over other lasers in terms of the power scalability, good beam quality, compactness and low cost they can offer. They can be passively mode-locked with a Semiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror (SESAM) to produce transformnm-limnited sub-300 fs pulses directly from the laser cavity with high repetition rates. This thesis describes an experimental and theoretical investigation of OP-VECSELs. A full characterization is done on a VECSEL sample to understand time physics behind its operation iii the Continuous Wave (CW) mode and in the mode—locked mode. Then. a numerical model that, for the first time, shows the role of the Optical Stark Effect (OSE) in shaping the mode-locked pulses in the approach to steady state is introduced. TIme model results are broadly consistent with observed behavior of our rriode-locked VECSELs. Here, I also report the first coherent generation and detection of terahertz radiation using all-semiconductor components. Radiation with a bandwidth of 0.8 THz has been generated using sub-500 fs pulses with an average power of 20 mW from a mode-locked VECSEL which contains InGaAs quantum wells arid an LT-GaAs/InGaAs emitter/receiver antenna in a Terahertz Time Domain Spectrometer (THz-TDS) setup. The first mode locked OP-VECSEL at 830 rim is reported here. The combination of a GaAs quantumrm well—based gain sample and SESAI\I yielded an output with an average power of 5 mW and 15 ps-long pulses at a repetition rate of 1.9 GHz. A pumping module used to drive the laser was built for this purpose by combining the output of two commercial 665 rim diode lasers.


Binding services are crucial building blocks in networks and networked applications. A binding service (e.g., the Domain Name System (DNS)) maps certain information, namely, binding keys (e.g., host names), to other information, i.e., binding values (e.g., IP addresses), and answers queries for such key-value bindings. In a sense, a binding service is a specialized look-up service where each binding has an owner (the user who registers the binding), and only the owner can update or delete the binding. Clearly, building secure binding services that ensure the integrity and authenticity of bindings are vital to the correct operations of many networks and networked applications. In this paper we present a novel approach for building generic secure binding services that allow arbitrary key-value bindings as (trusted) infrastructure services to support a variety of networks and networked applications. We combine the IdentityBased Encryption (IBE) crypto-mechanisms with distributed hash table (DHT) techniques to develop an innovative architecture for building scalable, robust and secure binding services. Using this architecture, we implement a prototype system called Vault and evaluate its performance both in a local testbed and on the PlanetLab.


A revolution is taking place across Europe and worldwide in how we teach our children about computing, in primary and secondary school. Out goes ICT and how to use Microsoft Office; in comes coding and computer science. Assessment has a crucial role to play in this revolution. If teachers use low-quality assessment instruments we will end-up teaching the wrong subject; and viceversa. This paper reviews the state of the field, and makes concrete, achievable proposals for developing shared, high quality assessments for computer science. Central to this proposal is the collaborative platform VIVA (the Vilnius collaboratively coded and Validated computer science questions/tasks for Assess- ment). Two requirements are key to VIVA: 1) support for multiple competency frameworks, so that the contributors can meta-tag resources with respect to the framework they are most familiar with; and 2) support for crowdsourcing the validation of each question/task and its mapping to competencies. The use of a taxonomy of questions/tasks type that has been mapped to computational thinking concepts and to a competency framework is proposed. Some seed questions are already available in the online platform prototype, and various supporters have granted permission to use large questions banks. The design requirements of a full implementation of the VIVA platform for a modern and effective approach to assessment including support for digital badges, are outlined; and some preliminary results from a survey administered to the initial contributors to VIVA are presented.


Senior Japanese business leaders within the U.S. consumer electronics industry were studied to understand the influence Western societal and organizational culture values impact their leadership approach. The focus was temporary ethnocentric cross-cultural staffing assignments. Utilizing a qualitative multi-case study design with a phenomenological element, the findings suggested a majority of these senior Japanese leaders experienced lifetime employment practices, indiscriminate career paths, mentoring, and job rotation. A majority exhibited an ethnocentric philosophy and the path-goal theory of leadership effectiveness. The Japanese leaders had to develop, communicate, and gain support for their mutual goals to be effective in their U.S. assignments. Additionally, they needed to accept opposing viewpoints to operate effectively, given the structure of Western cultural environments. Consequently, these leaders adjusted their communication, motivation, and negotiation practices.


The electrical response of dielectric materials is often graphically represented by means of a plot in the complex impedance (or admittance) plane. In many cases these impedance plots are semicircles. An equivalent circuit consisting of a capacitor (or a constant phase element) and two resistors is often used to describe such a semicircle. It is shown here that even if the experimental data are lying on such a semicircle they do not necessarily correspond to that equivalent circuit because of a different frequency dependency. In addition it is shown that the Kramers-Kronig transforms can be very helpful but are not decisive for the determination of whether experimental errors are made.


Dr. Leopold is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. She received an Erwin Schroedinger stipend from the Austrian Science Fund as well as a Thomas O. Pyle Research Scholarship from Harvard Medical School. Currently she works on various studies in which she assess the impact of policy changes (regulatory or coverage) on the utilization of metastatic breast cancer treatments by looking at trends in claims data. In addition, Dr. Leopold performed a qualitative study on the adaptability of pharmacy benefits systems to the current challenges of high-cost specialty medicines in various high-income countries. Her main research interests include ethical considerations in pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement, evidence-based decision-making in pharmaceutical policy as well as the evaluation of the pharmaceutical policies' impact on affordability and availability of medicines. Prior to joining the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School she co-led the Austrian Centre for Rare Disease as well as the European Network of public authorities of Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) at the Department of Health Economics at the Austrian Health Institute / WHO Collaborating Center for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies. She holds a doctorate in Pharmaceutical Policy from Utrecht University, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Science / WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation in the Netherlands and a Master of Science degree from Bocconi University in Italy.


This study examined effects of harvest and subjective evaluations of the state's deer herd on hunter satisfaction with white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) management in Pennsylvania. Hunters were classified as rifle, archery, or muzzleloader through a probability model based on prior experience. Backward hierarchical log-linear analysis was used to model satisfaction with deer management for the three groups. Successfully harvesting deer was significant in predicting satisfaction with deer management among the three hunting groups. Different models explained satisfaction for each type of deer hunter. Harvest was a main effect for archery and a partial-order effect for rifle and muzzleloader deer hunters. Harvest success was directly related to satisfaction with management for archery deer hunters. In the rifle deer-hunter model, harvest success was associated with perception of balanced harvest, which was related to satisfaction with deer management. Harvest success was associated with perceptions of herd size and seeing deer in the muzzleloader model, and seeing deer directly related to satisfaction with deer management. Differing relationships between harvest success and satisfaction with management for different types of hunters may offer understanding into hunter opposition to management programs.


Microtubule nucleation on the centrosome and the fungal equivalent, the spindle pole body (SPB), is activated at the onset of mitosis. We previously reported that mitotic extracts prepared from Xenopus unfertilized eggs convert the interphase SPB of fission yeast into a competent state for microtubule nucleation. In this study, we have purified an 85-kDa SPB activator from the extracts and identified it as the ribonucleotide reductase large subunit R1. We further confirmed that recombinant mouse R1 protein was also effective for SPB activation. On the other hand, another essential subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, R2 protein, was not required for SPB activation. SPB activation by R1 protein was suppressed in the presence of anti-R1 antibodies or a partial oligopeptide of R1; the oligopeptide also inhibited aster formation on Xenopus sperm centrosomes. In accordance, R1 was detected in animal centrosomes by immunofluorescence and immunoblotting with anti-R1 antibodies. In addition, recombinant mouse R1 protein bound to gamma- and alpha/beta-tubulin in vitro. These results suggest that R1 is a bifunctional protein that acts on both ribonucleotide reduction and centrosome/SPB activation.