One of the genes that the authors have isolated by a differential display of hepatocellular carcinoma compared to adjacent liver is the alpha6 integrin. alpha6 integrin is the major adhesion receptor for laminin and is suggested to be involved in tumor cell invasion and metastasis. To our knowledge, however, there are no reports on alpha6 integrin expression in esophageal carcinoma. We thus conducted a study to determine its clinicopathologic significance in human esophageal carcinoma. The tumor/normal (T/N) ratio of alpha6 integrin expression was calculated by Northern hybridization in 45 cases of esophageal carcinoma. In selected cases the expression of the alpha6 integrin variants A and B was also investigated by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and immunostaining for alpha6 integrin was performed. The expression levels of alpha6 integrin mRNA in the tumor tissue were greater than those of the corresponding normal tissue in 39 of 45 cases (87%). The overexpression of alpha6 integrin was also recognized by immunostaining. Fifteen cases with a high T/N ratio demonstrated a deeper invasion into the esophageal wall than the 30 cases with a low T/N ratio. Although there was no significant difference, the 15 cases with a high T/N ratio had a tendency for a worse prognosis. The ratio of the two variants (alpha6A/alpha6B) did not show any relationship to survival. The findings imply that alpha6 integrin is overexpressed in human esophageal carcinomas and that alpha6 integrin may play an important role in esophageal tumor invasion.


Chronic exposure of animals to benzene results in lymphocytopenia and bone marrow depression. A highly sensitive microculture system was developed to amplify and characterize marrow mitogen response which depended on the isolation of cells by Percoll continuous density gradient centrifugation and strict adherence to optimal culture conditions. Maximal mitogen responses to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and concanavalin A (con A), as assessed by (3H)-thymidine uptake, occurred at later times in rat bone marrow cultures (days 5-7 of culture) compared with spleen and thymus (days 2-3). Compared with spleen and thymus, the PHA: con A stimulation ratio was inverted for marrow, yet the responsive cells were morphologically identical to those of peripheral lymphoid organs. Populations enriched in lymphoid precursors were inhibited from responding to PHA stimulation at noncytotoxic concentration (less than microM) of the benzene metabolites, p-benzoquinone or 1, 2, 4-benzenetriol. Pretreatment with less than microM concentrations of metabolite resulted in a modulation of lectin-induced responses such the blastogenesis was induced at higher concentrations of lectin relative to untreated cells. These changes indicate that known metabolites of benzene induce a concentration dependent modulation of differentiation and proliferation in lectin-stimulated cells from rat bone marrow in vitro.


In recent years there has been increased concern within Australia's agricultural industry regarding water availability and quality for irrigation. Prolonged droughts and dwindling water storages have put the nation's water resources under increased pressure. As a result, Australia's coal seam gas industry has been investigating the utility of coal seam gas (CSG) by-product water for irrigation. However, CSG by-product water comprises of high sodicity and salinity concentrations which are potentially harmful to crops and soil structure if used for irrigation. The aim of this project was to investigate the physical and chemical characteristics involved with the determination of the electrolyte thresholds in soils, and their inter-relationships, with regard to the effects of sodium. This project also investigated these characteristics and their significance to Australia's Coal Seam Gas mining industry, with the ultimate aim of determining the utility of CSG by-product water for irrigation.
The methodology for determining the threshold electrolyte concentration (TEC) in soils was found to be appropriate for identifying differences between soils.In the present study, soils subjected to water with high sodium concentrations were generally found to have a substantial reduction in hydraulic conductivity compared to soils leached with calcium-dominated water. However, the hydraulic conductivities for two soils with low clay content were not affected by the application of saline-sodic water. A substantial variation in the TEC was found between soils and there was no clear relationship between the TEC and the soil chemical or physical properties of the soils. This suggests that there is a need to individually measure the TEC for each soil and that it may not be possible to identify surrogate indicators of structural stability to saline-sodic water application. While the TEC measurement methodology appeared appropriate for the soils evaluated in this study, further research is required to validate the utility of this methodology for use across a broader range of soils


Summary

1
 Crop damage caused by pest bird species is an economic problem in agricultural areas world-wide. Previous research in North America has focused on estimating regional loss of yield for economic purposes, and largely ignored small-scale variation in crop damage. If a bird depredation problem is perceived, farmers need to know how to identify areas of their farms that are most susceptible to bird damage so that they may focus their deterrent efforts most efficiently.

2
 We developed sensitive sampling and analysis techniques to allow the identification of spatial and temporal patterns in bird damage to wine grapes at the level of single vineyards.

3
 We used visual estimation techniques and novel data collection and management procedures to detect small-scale spatiotemporal patterns in bird damage to Baco Noir and Vidal (ice-wine) grape varieties in the St Catharine's area of Ontario, Canada, during the 1998 and 1999 ripening seasons. We detected three overall trends in study vineyards: (i) bird damage was greatest on the edges of vineyards and decreased with distance towards the centre; (ii) bird damage was vertically stratified in vineyards, with grape clusters near the top of vines sustaining more damage than those close to the ground; and (iii) bird damage increased at specific times during the ripening season.

4
 An exotic species, the European starling, was responsible for most of the crop damage. Starlings foraged by making short forays into vineyards from perches in adjacent vegetation. This kind of foraging behaviour was reflected in the spatial damage patterns measured in our study plots.

5
 We suggest that the data presented here are more useful than estimates of total loss of yield to the managers of individual farms, because they identify the areas of vineyards most susceptible to bird damage. Future field experiments should evaluate the utility of focusing deterrent measures only in the most highly susceptible areas of crop fields. More detailed knowledge of where birds concentrate their foraging efforts, when crops become susceptible, and which species are responsible will allow farmers to focus their deterrent efforts most effectively, while attenuating conflict with non-offending species.


A key design constraint of circuits used in hand-held devices is the power consumption, mainly due to battery-life limitations. Adaptive power management (APM) techniques aim at increasing the battery life of such devices by adjusting the supply voltage and operating frequency, and thus the power consumption, according to the workload. Testing for resistive bridging defects in APM-enabled designs raises a number of challenges due to their complex analog behavior. Testing at more than one supply voltage setting can be employed to improve defect coverage in such systems; however, switching between several supply voltage settings has a detrimental impact on the overall cost of test. This paper proposes a multi- automatic test generation method which delivers 100% resistive bridging defect coverage and also a way of reducing the number of supply voltage settings required during test through test point insertion. The proposed techniques have been experimentally validated using a number of benchmark circuits.


Considering a Latin@ fifth-grade dual-language classroom (Spanish/English) as a community of practice, this paper explores how a bilingual teacher and her bilingual students, as members of such community, utilize translanguaging (Garcia, 2009) as a learning and teaching tool in social studies and science classes. In this particular classroom, the science curriculum is taught in English, whereas social studies is taught in Spanish. Using sociocultural theories of learning and development (Vygotsky, 1978); "anthropolitical linguistics" (Zentella, 1997); and the Community of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) approach as theoretical frames, we examined and analyzed linguistic instances as they occurred within natural classroom discourse in the two subject-classes. Findings suggest that translanguaging is present within the intersection of a conceptual and pedagogical tool that allows fluidity and movement of the teaching and learning process and maximizes the co-construction of meaning; in doing so, translanguaging identities are being practiced. Some implications for teachers and teacher education programs are presented.


Linguistic analysis is applied to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This one-sentence amendment has a syntactic structure comprising an "absolute" (a non-tensed propositional modifier of a main clause) which conditions the speech act embodied in the main clause. Because the absolute's proposition ("A well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state") is false, the main clause speech act (prohibition of infringement of the right to keep and bear arms) is unsupported, giving rise to a hard problem: what the Amendment says it does, it doesn't do, but being law, it does. The linguistic analysis in the majority opinion in D.C. v. Heller (554 U.S. 570 (2008)), authored by Justice Scalia, is analyzed. The analysis shows that Scalia covertly abandoned his own prominently and energetically advocated textualist program. A faithful application of textualism would have resulted in a different outcome in the case.


Transcriptome sequencing has identified more than a thousand potentially imprinted genes in the mouse brain. This comes as a revelation to someone who cut his teeth on the identification of imprinted genes when only a handful was known. Genomic imprinting, an epigenetic mechanism that determines expression of alleles according to sex of transmitting parent, was discovered over 25 years ago in mice but remains an enigmatic phenomenon. Why do these genes disobey the normal Mendelian logic of inheritance, do they function in specific processes, and how is their imprinting conferred? Next generation sequencing technologies are providing an unprecedented opportunity to survey the whole genome for imprinted genes and are beginning to reveal that imprinting may be more pervasive than we had come to believe. Such advances should lay the foundation for a definitive account of imprinting, but may also challenge accepted views on what it means to be imprinted.


Image-text pretrained models, e.g., CLIP, have shown impressive general multi-modal knowledge learned from large-scale image-text data pairs, thus attracting increasing attention for their potential to improve visual representation learning in the video domain. In this paper, based on the CLIP model, we revisit temporal modeling in the context of image-to-video knowledge transferring, which is the key point for extending image-text pretrained models to the video domain. We find that current temporal modeling mechanisms are tailored to either high-level semantic-dominant tasks (e.g., retrieval) or low-level visual pattern-dominant tasks (e.g., recognition), and fail to work on the two cases simultaneously. The key difficulty lies in modeling temporal dependency while taking advantage of both high-level and low-level knowledge in CLIP model. To tackle this problem, we present Spatial-Temporal Auxiliary Network (STAN) - a simple and effective temporal modeling mechanism extending CLIP model to diverse video tasks. Specifically, to realize both low-level and high-level knowledge transferring, STAN adopts a branch structure with decomposed spatial-temporal modules that enable multi-level CLIP features to be spatial-temporally contextualized. We evaluate our method on two representative video tasks: Video-Text Retrieval and Video Recognition. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our model over the state-of-the-art methods on various datasets, including MSR-VTT, DiDeMo, LSMDC, MSVD, Kinetics-400, and Something-Something- V2. Codes will be available at https://github.com/farewellthree/STAN


A fifth novel about this prize-winning wolfcub, illustrated by TONY ROSS. Mum and Dad write to Little Wolf, full of praise for Spoiler, the eldest cub of a neighbour, who has formed The Murkshire RHYWP [Really Harsh Young Wolf Pack]. Determined not to be forced to join their pack, Little and Chums form their own; The Beastshire SPOBBTALOF [Small Pack of Brute Beasts That Have a Load of Fun]. They all pull in different directions and Smells in particular is a pain. Without organisation or real purpose things get messy and they all get a bit snappish. Then comes news that the RHYWP have captured Mr Twister. Stung by this shaming blow, the SPOBBTHALOF elect Little as their pack leader and decide to shape up. Armed with pooled knowledge and camping skills they head off for Murkshire and set up camp. With the aid of a wickerwork Trojan Moose [with Normus inside] and nets, knots, latrine pits, an arksellent communication network, they re-capture Mister Twister for themselves. But in a suprise move, they release their arch-enemy into the wilds. Now Uncle Bigbad is a ghost, they realise that they need one wicked old villain, otherwise they would not have such great adventures.


We present a study of the X-ray properties of the nearby face-on Scd spiral galaxy M101 based on recent XMM‐Newton observations. In this third and final paper in the present series, we focus on the spatial and spectral properties of the residual emission, after excluding bright X-ray sources with LX > 10 37 erg s −1 . Within a central region of radius 10 arcmin (21 kpc), the X-ray emission broadly traces the pattern of the spiral arms, establishing a strong link with recent star formation, but it also exhibits a radial scalelength of ≈2.6 arcmin (5.4 kpc) consistent with optical data. We estimate the soft X-ray luminosity within the central 5 arcmin (10.5 kpc) region to be LX ≈ 2.1 × 10 39 erg s −1 (0.5‐2 keV), the bulk of which appears to originate as diffuse emission. We find a two-temperature thermal model best fits the spectral data with derived temperatures of 0.20 +0.01 −0.01 and 0.68 +0.06 −0.04 keV which are very typical of the diffuse components seen in other normal and starburst galaxies. More detailed investigation of the X-ray morphology reveals a strong correlation with images recorded in the far-ultraviolet through to V band, with the best match being with the U band. We interpret these results in terms of a clumpy thin-disc component which traces the spiral arms of M101 plus an extended lower halo component with large filling factor.


The pharmacokinetics of paclitaxel and docetaxel were compared in diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin (DMIS rats) and the impact of altered expression of cytochrome P450 3A (Cyp3A) and P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) in the diabetic state. The pharmacokinetics of paclitaxel and docetaxel were determined after intravenous (5 mg/kg) and oral (30 and 40 mg/kg, respectively) administration to both groups and the mRNA expression levels of Cyp3A isozymes and Mdr1a and Mdr1b in the liver and small intestine were determined in control and DMIS rats. After intravenous administration, the AUC and clearance of paclitaxel and docetaxel were not significantly different in DMIS vs control rats. After oral administration, the AUC and Cmax of paclitaxel in DMIS rats were significantly greater than those in the control rats, whereas those of docetaxel was not changed significantly. The mRNA expression levels of hepatic Cyp3A1, Cyp3A9 and Mdr1b were significantly increased in DMIS compared with the control rats. In the intestine, Cyp3A62 expression decreased in the DMIS rats compared with the controls. Thus the pharmacokinetic changes of taxanes observed in the DMIS rats were attributed to changes in P‐gp and Cyp3A, predominant factors that control the absorption of paclitaxel and docetaxel, respectively. It seemed that there were different susceptibilities to intestinal P‐gp and Cyp3A between the two taxanes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We have studied the kinetics, biodistribution, and fate of autologous platelets labeled with 111In-oxine in rabbits. The initial recovery was 75% and mean survival time was 2.8 days when the data were analyzed by the multiple-hit gamma function model. Using a modified geometric mean for correction of attenuation, there was good correlation between the values obtained by in vivo quantification and those obtained by postmortem measurements of the radioactivity in the liver and the spleen (i.e., r = 0.854 and 0.899, respectively, n = 32). Using this method, it was shown that after infusion, the 111In-platelets rapidly accumulated in these two organs reaching 35% and 12% of the injected dose in the liver and spleen, respectively, by 1 day. Thereafter, there was little subsequent change. On the sixth day, when essentially all of the 111In-platelets had cleared from the circulation, a total of 82% of the injected dose was deposited in the three major reticuloendothelial organs: liver (40%), spleen (14%), and bone marrow (28%). Our results suggest that in addition to liver and spleen, bone marrow played an important role in sequestering platelets in rabbits.


We present a numerical calculation of the tunnelling time of electrons confined in double-barrier structures performed by means of the so-called stabilization method, widely used in quantum chemistry. From the stabilization graphs we find the resonance energy and its width. The method is especially appropriate for treating the case of double-barrier structures (symmetric or non-symmetric) because it allows one to calculate separately the two different tunnelling times (to the left and to the right of the quantum well) contributing to the total lifetime of a resonant level. We use the effective-mass theory. The behaviour of the tunnelling time under applied bias is also investigated and the results are compared with the ones obtained by two alternative approaches, the quasi-classical approximation and the transmission coefficient analysis, respectively. A good agreement between the three methods is obtained for the cases analysed. Finally, the stabilization method as applied here can be employed in the field of scanning tunnelling microscopy of absorbed atoms or molecules where a double-barrier potential also serves as a model for the problem.


Enlargement and nucleic acid content of the cardiovascular system of several strains (SHRSP/N, SHR/N, OM/N, M520/N) of rats were compared with the WKY/N strain in an attempt to characterize cardiac enlargement. Cardiac enlargement in rats can be due to either hypertrophy (increase in myocyte size), hyperplasia (increase in cell number including supporting tissue), or a combination of both. The sum of the indices of the degree of hypertrophy and hyperplasia calculated from the difference of the heart and aorta deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) concentration and total DNA content between each strain and the WKY/N was almost equal to the degree of heart and aorta enlargement. The SHRSP/N revealed a striking hypertrophy of myocardial cells from the prehypertensive stage, and hyperplasia appeared gradually with the elevation of blood pressure. In contrast, the SHR/N developed a marked hyperplasia with some hypertrophy at the prehypertensive stage. Cardiac enlargement of the OM/N was attributed to both hypertrophy and hyperplasia. A large heart weight of the M520/N was recognized at only a young age, and was due almost entirely to hyperplasia. Aortic enlargements were related to hyperplasia. An increased ribonucleic acid (RNA) concentration was observed in both ventricles of the SHRSP/N, SHR/N, and M520/N rats at 4 weeks of age, and in all of the four strains at 16 weeks of age. A significantly higher RNA concentration was indicated in the aorta of three hypertensive strains of SHRSP/N, SHR/N, and OM/N at established hypertensive stage. These changes might be related to manifestations of genetic or other factors such as the effect of elevated blood pressure.


Naturalistic decision making (NDM) focuses on how people actually make decisions in realistic settings that typically involve ill-structured problems. Taking an experimental approach, we investigate the impacts of using an NDM-based software agent (R-CAST) on the performance of human decision-making teams in a simulated C3I (Communications, Command, Control and Intelligence) environment. We examined four types of decision-making teams with mixed human and agent members playing the roles of intelligence collection and command selection. The experiment also involved two within-group control variables: task complexity and context switching frequency. The result indicates that the use of an R-CAST agent in intelligence collection allows its team member to consider the latest situational information in decision making but might increase the team member's cognitive load. It also indicates that a human member playing the role of command selection should not rely too much on the agent serving as his or her decision aid. Together, it is suggested that the roles of both humans and cognitive agents are critical for achieving the best possible performance of C3I decision-making teams: Whereas agents are superior in computation-intensive activities such as information seeking and filtering, humans are superior in projecting and reasoning about dynamic situations and more adaptable to teammates' cognitive capacities. This study has demonstrated that cognitive agents empowered with NDM models can serve as the teammates and decision aids of human decision makers. Advanced decision support systems built upon such team-aware agents could help achieve reduced cognitive load and effective human-agent collaboration.


A boron-containing cyclohexanone formaldehyde resin (BCFR) was synthesized from cyclohexanone, formaldehyde, and boric acid. The effects of the boric acid concentration, solubility, molecular weight, and thermal properties on the product were investigated. Characterization of the BCFRs was done by NMR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, and Fourier transform infrared–attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy. The thermal properties of the samples were determined with differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. The study results demonstrate that the resin had higher heat-resistance properties than the commonly modified cyclohexanone formaldehyde resin. The obtained samples were also characterized morphologically by scanning electron microscopy. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013


Background: Cardiovascular diseases are among the most common cause of death in Developed countries. In addition to traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, nowadays, accumulating evidence indicates that a variety of infectious agents may contribute to pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease. Patients and methods: 125 patients (25 females and 100 males) attending the department of cardiology, Baghdad, teaching hospital over the period December 2008June 2009were enrolled. Their age range between (39-75 years) compared with 50 healthy individuation (Age & sex matched). The sera were tested for H. pylori antibodies using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: 80% of patients showed the anti-H. Pylori IgGs (P < 0.05). But there were no significant association between risk factors & H. pylori infection (P > 0.05). Conclusions: These findings raise the possibility that exposure to H. pylori may lead to increased risk of coronary artery disease independent of other risk factors.


Hyperthyroidism in the older patient often presents with nonspecific symptoms, such as apathy, weight loss, and atrial fibrillation. General screening is not cost-effective, with the exception of two populations: women over age 40 with one or more nonspecific complaints and patients being admitted to a specialized geriatric unit. The sensitive TSH test is an excellent screen; a low TSH should be confirmed by an actual or estimated high free thyroxine test (FT4). The RAIU can help narrow the differential diagnosis. Radioiodine is the preferred treatment for the older patient with Graves' disease, the most common form of thyrotoxicosis. Graves' must be differentiated from thyroiditis and toxic nodular goiters, as treatment regimens differ for each disorder.


Estrogens are critical mediators of breast tumorigenesis. This occurs via the action of estrogens on the estrogen receptor (ER), which regulates the transcriptome of breast cancer cells. Despite the long history of the search for estrogen-regulated genes in breast cancer, knowledge of the E2-regulated transcriptome and its effects is incomplete. We used Affymetrix GeneChips to profile the effects of estradiol on the expression of genes in EFF-3, EFM-19 and MCF-7 cells. In addition to many well-characterized estrogen-regulated genes, this identified a novel group of genes that have roles in vesicle trafficking, including exocytosis. Recent evidence in the literature supports a role for vesicle trafficking in tumorigenesis. We focused on five genes (SYTL5, RAB27B, SNX24, GALNT4 and SLC12A2/NKCC1/BSC2) and confirmed their estrogen-regulation using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). qPCR also demonstrated that these five genes were expressed in invasive breast carcinoma tissue. Immunohistochemistry showed expression of SYTL5 in cells of normal breast ductal epithelium, ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) and invasive breast carcinoma. The results suggest that a significant effect of estrogens is to regulate the expression of genes that affect diverse aspects of vesicle trafficking including exocytosis.


In this review we investigated the diet and nutrition of wombats and highlight areas for future research. The low energy requirements of wombats, conservative foraging behaviours and burrowing lifestyle allow them to subsist on low-quality food. Furthermore, their digestive anatomy and physiology is well adapted for digesting the resources available in their habitats. All species feed predominantly on native grasses; however, the nutritional requirements of juvenile and aged wombats are largely unknown. Changes to food availability and grass species in wombat habitats may alter their diet and nutritional intake. Also, despite evidence suggesting that wombats can satisfy their water requirements via the food they eat, the minimum threshold of water content at which wombats will cease feeding is unknown. Other areas for future research include investigating factors that affect digesta retention times (such as age or lactation), and the development of a method to determine age, because unlike most other mammals, wombat teeth grow continuously, hence teeth cannot be used as a reliable predictor of age in wombats.


Carrierless impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radios have attracted significant research interest due to their low system complexity and power consumption. Unfortunately, IR-UWB systems suffer from the difficulty in controlling the transmitted spectral mask because of process, voltage, and temperature variations. In this paper, a monolithic 3-5-GHz IR-UWB transceiver is presented that integrates both amplitude and spectrum tunability, thereby providing adaptable spectral characteristics for different data rate transmission. The noncoherent receiver employs a simplified low-power merged correlator, eliminating the need for a conventional sample-and-hold circuit. After self-correlation, the demodulated data is digitally synchronized with the baseband clock. The 4 mm2 0.13 μm CMOS transmitter and receiver consume 2.2 and 13.2 mW, respectively at the data rate of 100 Mb/s. The measured peak-to-peak transmitted pulse amplitudes are 240, 170, and 115 mV, with a tunable frequency range of 3.2-4.1 GHz. The receiver exhibits a maximum gain of 70 dB, noise figure of 8.6 dB, and the input 1-dB compression point of -28 dBm . With off-chip antennas, the transceiver achieves a bit error rate of 10-3 at a sensitivity of -50 dBm.


Background and purpose: Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is an uncommon diagnosis that has as part of its presentation unilateral facial paralysis. Functional limitations can include: asymmetric facial expression and difficulty speaking, drinking and eating. The most effective treatment is not clear based on published research. The following case study describes the use of various interventions to assist in facial muscle activation in a patient diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. Case description: A 55 year old female patient presented with right sided facial paralysis two months after diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The patient received progression of range of motion exercises, neuromuscular re-education, soft tissue mobilization, and trials of electrical stimulation as outlined in the current research. In conjunction, she received instruction and application of kinesthetic taping to facilitate and/or inhibit facial muscle activation. The patient was seen for 21 visits over a 14 month time period. Outcomes: House Brackmann grades improved from a grade V to a grade II. Strength increased from 1 to 4 + . Functional improvements included improvements in communication, eating/drinking, and facial symmetry at rest. The patient also reported significant improvement in experienced pain. Presence of watery eye, and synkinesis were still mildly observed. Discussion: Limited research is available regarding the treatment of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The combination of interventions described in this report was observed to improve muscle activation, facilitate a decrease in pain, and coincide with an improved House Brackmann grade. Further research should include randomized controlled trials to explore the cause and effect of each treatment.


Aims Anxiety and depression are more common in people with epilepsy than the general population and are associated with poor quality of life. This study aims to study the performance of a short non-verbal screening tool (revised emotional thermometer (ET) tool) for these conditions which are under-identified and undertreated in the epileptic patient group. Methods A total of 122 people (53% female, 66% White British, age range 16–89, mean 39.6) attending the epilepsy clinic at Atkinson Morley Neurosciences centre completed five screening tools for anxiety and depression (NDDI-E; MDI; BDI-II; HADS; Revised Emotional Thermometers). These scales were scored and for depression BDI-II, NDDI-E, MDI, HADS depression and ET were compared while for anxiety HADS -anxiety and ET were compared. Results The preliminary results for screening of depression suggest that the revised ET is a potentially useful tool with 44% of patients responding with clinically significant scores. This is comparable to the BDI-II (43%) and NDDI-E (35%). The MDI identified 19% of cases fulfilling ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depression. Based on this sensitivity of all the tools is comparable (NDDI-E 96%, BDI 96%, ET 83%, HADS 70%). In screening for anxiety, the proportion of patients scoring positive for anxiety from ET are comparable with HADS (53% vs 48%). Conclusions Results so far suggest that a brief non-verbal screening instrument (revised ET tool) may be useful in screening for anxiety and depression in patients with epilepsy. Further analysis of data is required to assess the sensitivity and specificity of this instrument and its overall usefulness in this population.


We summarize an extensive Tevatron (1984–2011) electroweak physics program that involves a variety of W and Z boson precision measurements. The relevance of these studies using single and associated gauge boson production to our understanding of the electroweak sector, quantum chromodynamics and searches for new physics is emphasized. We discuss the importance of the W boson mass measurement, the W/Z boson distributions and asymmetries, and diboson studies. We highlight the recent Tevatron measurements and prospects for the final Tevatron measurements.


Australia, Canada, and the United States formally apologized to their Indigenous peoples in February 2008, June 2008, and December 2009, respectively. The Indigenous peoples in these countries are relatively small in size and Indigenous issues usually lack salience in national elections, so these near simultaneous apologies appear somewhat surprising. All three came after years of pressure and incompletely realized apologies. The presence of a focusing event and the level of Indigenous mobilization help explain the variation among the apologies, with Canada and Australia's apologies stronger than the U.S. one. However, the impact of the apologies on the three governments' efforts to reconcile with their Indigenous populations remains unclear.


ABSTRACT The effects of Rhizopus head rot, caused by Rhizopus oryzae, on the yield of confectionery sunflower and its quality were studied in field experiments conducted from 1994 to 1996. The extent of yield loss was related to the crop growth stage at inoculation. When heads were inoculated at the budding stage, loss was not apparent, because inoculated heads were not infected. When inoculated at the anthesis stage, loss was relatively high (42.5 to 99.1%), and both the number of achenes per head and the individual achene weight were reduced. When heads were inoculated at the seed development stage, yield was not reduced significantly (although the entire receptacle was rotted). Effects of Rhizopus head rot on measures of yield quality were examined as well. Inoculation with R. oryzae did not affect the size of the achenes at any crop growth stage. In contrast, the incidence of discolored achenes (an external sign of nutmeats with a bitter off-flavor) was affected by the disease at all crop growth stages. A survey in eight commercial fields from 1992 to 1996 found that, by the end of the season, incidence of disease ranged from 2.3 to 17.4%. However, since disease intensified late, resultant yield losses were minor and did not exceed 3.1%. Loss figures were estimated by means of a model that was developed and validated in the field experiments. The disease did affect the incidence of discolored achenes. Thus, the conclusion drawn is that the effects of Rhizopus head rot in confectionery sunflower on crop yield is of minimal concern, at least when disease intensifies late, as was the case in the studied fields, but management of the disease should be considered in some situations. The objectives would be to prevent a reduction in yield quality, not yield quantity.


This paper considers the propagation of plane longitudinal waves in a liquidsaturated porous medium with allowance for the nonlinear relationship between deformations and displacements of the solid phase. This porous liquid-saturated medium is examined herein within the framework of the classical Biot's theory. It is shown that a mathematical model allowing for a geometric nonlinearity may be reduced to a system of evolutionary equations with respect to displacements of the medium skeleton and liquid in pores. The system of evolutionary equations, in its turn, depending on the availability of viscosity, is reduced to a simple wave equation or the generalized Burgers equation. The solution of the Riemann equation is obtained for a bell-shaped initial profile. The solution for the generalized Burgers equation has been found in the form of a stationary shock wave. The relationship between the amplitude and width of the shock wave front is established.


Computing and in particular, programming and video game development in UK primary schools are about to receive a big investment. And most primary school children have never been exposed to the many programming languages or what it takes to build a video game, therefore, this research investigates how schools might approach teaching children this area of computing. Also taking into account VARK's (1987) idea that everyone learns differently; how could schools effectively teach programming and game design to individuals? This was approached by using VARK (1987) heavily as a framework to develop tutorials and exposing them to a traditional classroom environment in primary schools. Observations and interviews with children and teachers suggests that these current forms of tutorials are somewhat effective in teaching the Scratch software package, the effectiveness though, depends on factors that are present in a traditional classroom environment. Refinement of the tutorials as well of more control over classroom factors might improve the effectiveness and reliability of these tutorials.


Many computer vision tasks involve processing large amounts of data contaminated by outliers, which need to be detected and rejected. While outlier detection methods based on robust statistics have existed for decades, only recently have methods based on sparse and low-rank representation been developed along with guarantees of correct outlier detection when the inliers lie in one or more low-dimensional subspaces. This paper proposes a new outlier detection method that combines tools from sparse representation with random walks on a graph. By exploiting the property that data points can be expressed as sparse linear combinations of each other, we obtain an asymmetric affinity matrix among data points, which we use to construct a weighted directed graph. By defining a suitable Markov Chain from this graph, we establish a connection between inliers/outliers and essential/inessential states of the Markov chain, which allows us to detect outliers by using random walks. We provide a theoretical analysis that justifies the correctness of our method under geometric and connectivity assumptions. Experimental results on image databases demonstrate its superiority with respect to state-of-the-art sparse and low-rank outlier detection methods.


The present work aimed to study the biology of Agistemus brasiliensis Matioli, Ueckermann & Oliveira at the following temperatures, namely 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35°C, fed with Brevipalpus phoenicis (Geijskes) and Typha pollen, in laboratory conditions. Life tables were calculated to evaluate the biological parameters. The optimal development of A. brasiliensis took place at 29°C. The values of T (time of generation - days), R0 and rm at 30°C were, 13.95, 16.25 and 0.20, respectively. The prey consumption of A. brasiliensis was studied at the densities of 5, 10, 20, 40 and 60 leprosis mite females per cage (3 cm in diameter) on citrus fruits at 29°C. The maximum prey, namely 7.6 B. phoenicis females per day, were consumed at a density of 20 leprosis mites. At densities of above 40 leprosis mites per cage, A. brasiliensis oviposits 4.7 eggs per day, in comparison to 2.5 eggs per day at 20 mites per cage.


Objectives:To measure tissue glucocorticoid sensitivity in patients with septic shock and determine its relationship to standard measurements of adrenal function and of outcome. Design:Prospective observational trial. Setting:Teaching hospital ICU. Subjects:Forty-one patients and 20 controls were studied. Interventions:Glucocorticoid sensitivity was measured by in vitro suppression of cytokine production from lipopolysaccharide-stimulated leukocytes. Measurements and Main Results:There was no significant difference between the groups in the relative suppression of cytokine production, although there was a greater range and variance in the patient data. Patients in the lowest quartile of glucocorticoid sensitivity had higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores (25 [24–28] vs 20 [14–23]; p = 0.02) and a trend toward higher mortality (30% vs 0%; p = 0.2) compared to those in the highest. The mRNA expression of the &bgr; variant of the glucocorticoid receptor and the 11-&bgr; hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 isozyme were significantly higher in patients compared to controls (8.6-fold, p = 0.002 and 10.1-fold, p = 0.0002, respectively). Changes in mRNA expression of these genes did not correlate with measurements of glucocorticoid sensitivity. Conclusions:Patients with septic shock and controls do not differ in their median glucocorticoid sensitivity. However, patients exhibited a greater variability in glucocorticoid responsiveness and had evidence of association between increased sickness sensitivity and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity. Sensitivity to glucocorticoids did not appear to be mediated by changes in the expression of the &bgr; variant of the glucocorticoid receptor or the 11-&bgr; hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 isozyme.


Within the European project Climate for Culture, we are trying to evaluate the risks for valuable historical objects exposed to changing indoor conditions due to outdoor climate change. We have used building simulation models to calculate the expected indoor climate in historic buildings subjected to a varying outdoor climate. This outdoor climate can be constructed from a historical data file (more than 100 years ago), recent meteorological data (less than 50 year ago) or predicted future data from outdoor climate scenarios (for the next 100 years). The simulated indoor climate is coupled with damage functions to predict the damage risk for objects directly. This paper deals with the modelling approach and shows the potential for damage risk evaluation. The historic, present and future indoor climate conditions in a characteristic historic building have been modelled and the damage risk to historical objects has been compared when the building is virtually placed on 468 different locations in Europe. In this way, the impact of future climate change on the indoor climate conditions in a building and damage risk to its collection can be assessed for areas all over Europe.


1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) imprinted polymer was prepared as microspheres by precipitation polymerization method to obtain molecular recognition systems based on the noncovalent interactions between DBU template, methacrylic acid (MAA), and ethylene .glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) in acetonitrile. 1H NMR analysis of DBU/MAA mixture has been performed and hydrogen bonding interactions have been established. Microspheres have been characterized by FTIR studies with evidence of DBU linkage in polymer particles and by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to study their morphological properties. How pH values affect the binding capacity of imprinted polymer during the binding stage has been also discussed and results suggest that imprinted poly-(MAA-EDMA) behavior is related to the influence of DBU basicity during rebinding processes and the optimum pH value for binding has been found around neutral range. Binding ability of the imprinted polymer towards different concentration of DBU buffered solutions has been evaluated and compared with binding ability of the non-imprinted polymer. A more sensitive response to the template in the imprinted system suggests that a reasonable number of specific binding sites is formed. Finally, differential selectivity towards other less strong than DBU nitrogen bases, such as pyridine, imidazole, and 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene (DBN) has been also discussed. Our results indicate that both specific sites and basic properties are involved in the rebinding process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007


Online social networks produce a visuality that reflects the attention economy governing this space. What is seen becomes elevated into prominence by networked publics that 'perform' affective expressions within platform affordances. We mapped Twitter images of refugees in two language spaces – English and Arabic. Using automated analysis and qualitative visual analysis, we found similar images circulating both spaces. However, photographs generating higher retweet counts were distinct. This highlights the impact of affective affordances of Twitter – in this case retweeting – on regimes of visibility in disparate spheres. Representations of refugees in the English language space were characterized by personalized, positive imagery, emphasizing solidarity for refugees contributing to their host country or stipulating innocence. Resonating images in the Arabic space were less personalized and depicted a more localized visuality of life in refugee camps, with an emphasis on living conditions in refugee camps and the efforts of aid organizations.


Water reuse and desalination are increasingly considered as viable sources of potable water because improvements in materials and designs have decreased the cost of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes and their operation. Although most contaminants are efficiently rejected by reverse osmosis membranes, compounds with neutral charge and low molecular weight have proven to be difficult to remove. Depending on the characteristics of the membrane and the feed water, some contaminants may be present in reverse osmosis permeate at concentrations that are high enough to compromise water quality. When chemical disinfection is applied in desalination systems, compounds that pose potential risks to the human health and aquatic ecosystems or impact the aesthetic quality of drinking water may be formed. In particular, several compounds of concern are produced when chlorine is used as pretreatment. The formation and speciation of chlorination byproducts in desalination systems is affected by the elevated concentrations of bromide and iodide in seawater and desalinated product water. To gain insight into byproducts most likely to be formed in desalination systems, disinfection byproduct formation studies conducted in saline source waters, coastal power stations and existing desalination systems were reviewed. These prior studies suggested that chlorine, chloramine and chlorine dioxide all pose potential risks in desalinated water systems. Chlorination of seawater intakes to prevent membrane fouling and disinfection of blended product water both pose potential risks to water quality. To assess the formation and fate of chlorination byproducts under different conditions likely to be encountered in desalination systems, trihalomethanes, dihaloacetonitriles, haloacetic acids, and bromophenols were analyzed in water samples from a pilot-scale seawater desalination plant. In the pilot plant, the rejection of neutral, low-molecular-weight byproducts ranged from 45% to 92%, while charged species of similar molecular weights ranged between 77% to 97% rejection. Bench-scale chlorination experiments conducted on seawater from various locations indicated significant temporal and spatial variability for chlorination byproduct formation that could not be explained by bulk measurements of dissolved organic carbon concentration and UV absorbance. When desalinated water was blended with freshwater, elevated concentrations of bromide in the blended water enhanced dihaloacetonitrile formation through a shift in the active disinfecting agent from hypochlorous acid (HOCl) to hypobromous acid (HOBr). In most situations, data from the pilot plant and bench-scale studies indicated that chlorination byproducts formed from continuous chlorination of seawater or blending of desalinated water and freshwater will not compromise water quality or pose significant risks to aquatic ecosystems. However, blends of desalinated seawater with water rich in humic substances could lead to higher-than-expected production of haloacetonitriles and other chlorination byproducts. When reverse osmosis is used for the treatment of municipal wastewater effluent, compounds that exhibit low taste and odor thresholds could compromise water quality. To assess potential for odors in wastewater effluent to compromise potable water reuse schemes, we evaluated odors in secondary effluent using flavor profile analysis and gas chromatography with olfactometry detection (GC/Olfactometry or GC/Olf). The primary odor reported in secondary effluent samples was classified as earthy/musty and was typically present at an intensity well above the odor threshold. Using GC/Olfactometry on samples prior to reverse osmosis, we identified sixteen peaks present at high intensity in more than 80% of the wastewater effluent samples. Odor descriptors reported in GC/Olfactometry analysis of secondary effluent were categorized as fragrant, sulfide, rancid, and hydrocarbon/chemical. Potential odorants associated with olfactometry peaks were identified by comparing the odorant with sensory descriptors and gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis of an authentic standard of the putative compound. Other than organosulfide, aldehydes and volatile acid odorants previously identified in wastewater treatment, compounds including 2-pyrrolidone, lactones, chlorophenol, and vanillins were also identified as odorants associated with olfactometry peaks. Potent odorous compounds were detected in secondary effluent by quantitative GC/MS. The most prominent compounds were 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (median concentration 9.5 ng/L) and geosmin (median 7 ng/L). Both compounds exhibited earthy/musty sensory profiles at these concentrations. During advanced treatment, olfactometry peaks exhibited variable fate depending on their abundance, molecular structures and odor thresholds. Reverse osmosis significantly decreased the concentrations of low molecular weight odorous compounds in wastewater, but did not eliminate all odors. Odor peaks were typically reduced to below their odor thresholds during advanced oxidation processes (i.e., UV/H2O2¬) but also in a system employing biologically activated carbon (BAC) with ozone pretreatment. Odors can be removed from secondary effluent by applying multiple barrier treatment trains that combine reverse osmosis or another physical treatment method with chemical oxidation.


The initial government debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio and the government's commitment play a pivotal role in determining the welfare-optimal speed of fiscal consolidation in the management of a debt crisis. Under commitment, for low or moderate initial government debt-to-GDP ratios, the optimal consolidation is very slow. A faster pace is optimal when the economy starts from a high level of public debt implying high sovereign risk premia, unless these are suppressed via a bailout by official creditors. Under discretion, the cost of not being able to commit is reflected into a quick consolidation of government debt. Simple monetary–fiscal rules with passive fiscal policy, designed for an environment with "normal shocks," perform reasonably well in mimicking the Ramsey-optimal response to one-off government debt shocks. When the government can issue also long-term bonds—under commitment—the optimal debt consolidation pace is slower than in the case of short-term bonds only, and entails an increase in the ratio between long- and short-term bonds.


The research project dealt with the implementation of EIT light storage in the solid state medium Pr:YSO for storage of single photons on a microsecond timescale and weak coherent pulses on a timescale of seconds. The main challenge was to maintain a large efficiency at long storage times and suppress control pulse background by about 120 dB to enable detection of signals on the single photon level. We used a configuration with counterpropagating probe and control beams which enabled a control pulse suppression of about 80 dB and achieved the remaining suppression by spectral filtering. Since the signal and control read pulse frequencies differ only by ∼10 MHz, we built a filter based on a second Pr:YSO crystal in which we tailored the absorption spectrum to the experimental requirements by optical pumping. For short storage times of 2 μs, the filter enhanced the separation between the signal and control read pulses by 42 dB. This enabled the storage of a weak coherent pulse with an average photon number of 1.1 with an efficiency of 42% and a SNR of 3.2. The efficiency was limited by the OD of the storage medium and could be increased by a multipass setup. Residual leakage of the control pulse through the filter limited the SNR. Still, to the best of our knowledge, our result represents the first implementation of single photon storage based on EIT in a solid state medium.
To prolong the coherence lifetime, we implemented ZEFOZ. The influence of the magnetic field reduced the OD of the Pr:YSO crystal which led to a lower storage efficiency. We characterized light storage under ZEFOZ conditions at a short storage time of 2 μs. By application of a multipass setup with three passes and temporal shaping of the probe pulse, we partially compensated the reduced OD and achieved efficiencies of up to 23% for storage of classical light pulses. In order to maintain a high setup transmission, we used only two passes for storage of weak coherent pulses. We demonstrated storage of a weak coherent pulse with an average of 10.2 photons for 2 μs with 16% efficiency and a SNR of 1.3. Again, leakage of the control read pulse through the spectral filter limited the SNR. We found this leakage to be due to a weak but spectrally broad pedestal in the spectrum of our OPO-SFG laser system.
In order to prolong the light storage time and exploit the long coherence lifetime under ZEFOZ conditions, we applied different sequences for rephasing with RF pulses. In the design of our RF coils for rephasing, we had to consider restrictions given by the static magnetic field setup. Therefore, the rephasing π pulses had a significant inhomogeneity which led to a low rephasing efficiency of 15% when we applied two π pulses. To compensate these errors, we applied UR DD which increased the rephasing efficiency to 40%. Due to an experimental limitation, we could not reduce the separation of the rephasing π pulses below 10 ms without reducing the storage efficiency. This limited the effectiveness of DD. Nevertheless, we achieved a storage time of 7.5 s for classical light pulses and confirmed this timescale for storage of weak coherent pulses with an average of 52 photons. We stored weak coherent pulses with different photon number for 1.28 s and extrapolated a SNR of 0.09 for storage of a single photon. For storage of a weak coherent pulse with an average of 7 photons, we determined an efficiency of 6% and a SNR of 0.6. This represents the first implementation of a memory for weak coherent pulses close to the single photon level with a storage time in the regime of seconds. Compared to the current state-of-the-art single photon storage time of 100 ms, we achieve a more than one order of magnitude longer storage time.
As an extension of our investigations, we developed, implemented and studied novel universal composite pulse sequences to invert superposition states or efficiently transfer population between two states. In particular, we experimentally demonstrated UCPs for population inversion which are especially suited for situations in which pulse area and detuning errors are correlated. We showed that we can rotate the excitation profile of the sequence by changing the phases of the excitation pulses. This enables adaption to the specific correlation of errors present in an experiment. Moreover, we demonstrated a composite version of STIRAP. We showed that for detuned pulses, the phases of UCPs enhance the robustness to variations in any experimental parameter. We achieved an increase in population transfer efficiency from 50% for five times repeated detuned STIRAP to 85% for UR CSTIRAP.


The first of these volumes (in Dutch; English summary) explains the theory and practice of the computerized analysis of parallel text between Isaiah 40-66 and 5666 ; the second (m English) is a computerized concordance (actually a set) of the parallels. Vol. A defines 'analogy' technically, and explams how a computer can search a database of the tagged Hebrew text to find them (it takes six procedures). From the generated data all kinds of presentations are possible: concordance, distnbution clusters, and gaps-and these three are provided in vol. B. The study has an obvious implication in the composition history of Isaiah, but that is for others to do (and once you can understand the concordance, ancient Hebrew scrolls are pretty easy!)


We used a new method to assess spinal flexibility in thirty patients who were to be managed operatively for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. The method involves placing the patient in the lateral decubitus position and bent over a fulcrum (a radiolucent padded cylinder) so that the spine is passively hinged open. For thoracic curves the fulcrum is centered under the rib corresponding to the apex of the curve, and for lumbar curves the fulcrum is placed directly under the apex. The preoperative workup for the thirty patients included an anteroposterior radiograph made with the patient standing, a lateral-bending radiograph made with the patient supine, and the new fulcrum bending radiograph. All patients were treated with posterior spinal arthrodesis with segmental spinal instrumentation. The degree of flexibility obtained with the traditional and new methods was compared with the degree of correction observed on the radiograph made, with the patient standing, one week after the operation. Preoperatively, the mean Cobb angle was 58 degrees on the anteroposterior radiograph made with the patient standing, 31 degrees on the lateral-bending radiograph made with the patient supine, and 24 degrees on the fulcrum bending radiograph. The mean angle was 25 degrees on the anteroposterior radiograph made one week postoperatively, so the mean correction was 57 per cent. The difference between the mean angle on the lateral-bending radiograph and that on the postoperative radiograph was significant (p < 0.001); however, the mean angle measured on the preoperative fulcrum bending radiograph and the postoperative angle were almost identical. We found the fulcrum bending radiograph to be more predictive of the degree of flexibility and correctability than the lateral-bending radiograph in this group of patients who had segmental spinal instrumentation for correction of idiopathic scoliosis.


EDITOR,-I read with interest the article by Lam et al.' They describe iris crystals and keratic precipitates in anterior uveitis without hypergammaglobinaemia. However, they did not study the aqueous humour, which might have shown dysproteinhydria as described by Behrens-Baumann et al.2 We studied crystalline deposits in the anterior chamber without iridocyclitis. Using two dimensional microthin layer chromatography, samples of aqueous humour revealed a protein of molecular weight about 110 000 and an isoelectric point of 7-8 not seen in controls. We suggest using electrophoresis of the aqueous humour to study the possible nature of the crystals seen on the iris and lens surface as well as retrocorneally.


The flow field of a herringbone grooved hydrodynamic journal bearing is numerically simulated by using FLUENT, a computational fluid dynamics software, to reveal the complexity of hybrid oil flowing. Influences of structure parameters on pressure distribution, static characteristics and cavitation are analyzed. Results indicate that the load capacity of bearing increases with the enlarging of spiral angle, reducing of groove depth, increasing of groove number and widening of oil seal margin. The friction moment reduces with the decreasing of groove number and oil seal margin length, and enlarging of groove depth. The maximum friction moment appears as the spiral angle is about π/6. Rate of flow can increase with the increasing of spiral angle and groove depth, and reducing of the grooves number and oil seal margin length. Fewer cavitations can be induced with the increasing of spiral angle, groove depth, and groove number, and narrowing of oil seal margin length.


When identifying relative value opportunities across credit and equity markets, the arbitrageur faces two major problems, namely positions based on model misspeci cation and mismeasured inputs. Using credit default swap data, this paper addresses both concerns in a convergence-type trading strategy. In spite of dierences in assumptions governing default and calibration, we nd the exact structural model linking the markets second to timely key inputs. Studying an equally-weighted portfolio of all relative value positions, the excess returns are insigni cant when based on a traditional volatility from historical equity returns. However, relying on an implied volatility from equity options results in a substantial gain in strategy execution and highly signi cant excess returns - even when small gaps are exploited. The gain is largest in the speculative grade segment, and cannot be explained from systematic market risk factors. Although the strategy may seem attractive at an aggregate level, positions on individual obligors can be very risky.


Background: Since the ancient times the skin aging application of honeybee venom (BV) is practiced and persisted until nowadays. The present study evaluated the effect of the honeybee venom (BV) on keratinocyte migration in wound healing model in vitro. Objective: To access BV further as a cosmetic ingredient and a potential external application for topical uses, we performed studies to investigate the biologic effect of BV treatment on keratinocyte proliferation and migration in vitro. Material and Methods: BV cytotoxicity was assessed by using a 3-[4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay over 24 h. To assess BV genotoxicity, damage to human epidermal keratinocyte (HEK) was evaluated using the Comet assay. HEK migration was evaluated using a commercial wound healing kit. The skin pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-8 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were examined to evaluate the pro-inflammatory response to BV. Results: It was found that BV (<100 μg/ml) was not cytotoxic and stimulated more HEK proliferation and migration compared to negative control, and did not induce DNA damage. There were also decreases in IL-8 and TNF-α expression levels in HEK at all time points. Conclusion: These findings highlight the potential of topical application of BV for promoting cell regeneration and wound treatment.


Data on 4971 test-day milk yield traits [milk (TDMY), fat (TDFY) and protein (TDPY)] for 691 Egyptian buffalo cows, daughters of 120 sires and 532 dams were used for fitting the lactation curve parameters of milk, fat and protein yields using multiple-trait animal model. The random effects included in the model were direct additive genetic, permanent environment and error, while the fixed effects were herd test-day, year and season of calving and parity as well as days in milk as a covariable. The means for TDMY, TDFY, TDPY and lactation curve parameters [initial (a), ascending slope (b), descending slope (c), persistency (P), and maximum milk production during lactation (Ymax) and the peak test-day (PY)] were estimated. Heritabilities of TDMY, a, b, c, P, PY and Ymax were 0.22, 0.37, 0.38, 0.39, 0.37, 0.37 and 0.38, respectively. The corresponding heritabilities for TDFY and fat curve parameters were 0.21, 0.41, 0.40, 0.39, 0.38, 0.36 and 0.42, while the estimates for TDPY and protein curve parameters were 0.22, 0.38, 0.40, 0.40, 0.38, 0.40 and 0.43, respectively. Genetic correlations among TDMY and curve parameters of a, b, c, P, PY and Ymax were 0.31, -0.23, -0.34, 0.52, 0.48 and 0.87, respectively. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between milk yield traits were high (mostly of 0.83 and 0.99), like the correlations between curve parameter in milk, fat and protein (from 0.71 to 0.96). In practice, genetic selection for lactation curve parameters (a, P and Ymax) in the Egyptian buffalo would improve total milk yield traits.


The last few decades have witnessed a growth in advocacy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, and that this activism for equality is
now increasingly visible within the Criminal Justice System.1 The Ministry of Justice report The Care and Management of Transsexual Prisoners PSI 07/2011 provides guidelines about the duties and responsibilities that prisons must comply with in ensuring that all transsexual people are treated fairly and in accordance with the law. However, two high profile cases highlighted issues of inequality for transgender people in the secure estate. In late 2015, Vikki Thompson and Joanne Latham, two transgender women placed in male prisons in England, committed suicide in their prison cells within weeks of each other. While it is understood that Joanne Latham had not requested a transfer to a women's prison, it is reported that Vikki Thompson said she would kill herself if placed in a male prison.2 Following their deaths, it was announced that a review into the care and management of transgender people in prisons would be undertaken in light of a number of concerns that the current system does not adequately address their specific needs. In addition, the Minister for Women, Equalities and Family Justice, Caroline Dinenage indicated that the review extend to transgender people being managed in the community.3 The review was published in November 2016 that aimed to ensure that the care and management of transgender people in prison was 'fit for purpose and provides an appropriate balance between the needs
of the individual and the responsibility to manage risk and safeguard the wellbeing of all prisoners'.4 According to Caroline Dinenage, there are approximately 80 transgender people in prison in England and Wales and although the exact number is unknown, she estimates that the population is increasing. Referring to prisons in the USA, Simopoulos and Khin Khin5 argue that the true estimate of transgender people may be unknown because people in prison are reluctant to disclose their gender identity for fear of transphobia and abuse. However, the recently published review indicated that there will be a data collection exercise across the prison estate (that has already been commissioned) and there will be a new equality information form that among other equality questions, will be a question on gender identity.6 The experience of transgender people in prison is an under-researched area generally but particularly in the UK. The majority of research about transgender people who offend has been undertaken in the USA.
This is despite existing research (discussed in this literature review) indicating that transgender people in prison are significantly more likely to experience more problems than other prison populations.


[1] A coupled mesoscale model (e.g., MM5V3) was used to investigate the mechanisms of land-atmosphere interaction during summertime rainfall in the southern Great Plains. Numerical experiments were conducted for two storms and for clear weather conditions using three distinct physical parameterizations of convective processes. Analysis of the dynamics of moisture and energy states in the boundary layer for all model grid cells revealed the existence of dual limit cycles in the model's phase space of Bowen ratio and relative humidity. The scaling behavior of these limit cycles is consistent with self-similarity of the second kind (i.e., in the sense of intermediate asymptotics). Specifically, the dual limit cycles suggest two distinct regimes of land-atmosphere interactions: (1) a divergent (splitting) trajectory of increasing diurnal variations of Bowen ratio and relative humidity for persistently dry weather conditions and (2) a convergent (merging) trajectory of rapidly decreasing Bowen ratio and increasing relative humidity for wet weather conditions. At the onset of rainfall the convergent cycle exhibits intermittent instability and collapses into a very limited region of high relative humidity and low Bowen ratio, the rainfall attractor. The position of the attractor in phase space is determined by surface controls of land-atmosphere interactions (e.g., soil moisture availability in our applications): That is, land surface heterogeneity determines the dynamic range of land-atmosphere interactions. Regionally, the footprint of these two regimes of land-atmosphere interactions is apparent in the correlation between Bowen ratio and the vertical distribution of relative humidity in the troposphere. In dry weather the correlation varies periodically from positive at night to negative during the day and generally does not penetrate into the upper air. Under wet conditions, however, the correlation is strong and persistently positive throughout the troposphere. These results support the argument that increased surface evaporation during rainfall affects stability conditions in the boundary layer, and thus convective activity in the model, therefore establishing a positive feedback mechanism of land-atmosphere interactions consistent with the rainfall attractor.


Radial basis function (RBF) is well known to provide excellent performance in function approximation and pattern classification. The conventional RBF uses basis functions which rely on distance measures such as Gaussian kernel of Euclidean distance (ED) between feature vector and neuron's center, and so forth. In this work, we introduce a novel RBF artificial neural network (ANN) where the basis function utilizes a linear combination of ED based Gaussian kernel and a cosine kernel where the cosine kernel computes the angle between feature and center vectors. Novelty of the proposed work relies on the fact that we have shown that there may be scenarios where the two feature vectors (FV) are more prominently distinguishable via the proposed cosine measure as compared to the conventional ED measure. We discuss adaptive symbol detection for multiple phase shift keying (MPSK) signals as a practical example to show where the angle information can be pivotal which in turn justifies our proposed RBF kernel. To corroborate our theoretical developments, we investigate the performance of the proposed RBF for the problems pertaining to three different domains. Our results show that the proposed RBF outperforms the conventional RBF by a remarkable margin.


This study explored how trainee therapists react to and handle client sexual attraction (SA) in their work. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 volunteer trainees of counselling psychology and psychotherapy who responded to an advert. Transcripts were analysed using constructivist grounded theory (GT). The conceptual stages developed highlight the difficulties trainees experience in relation to client sexual attraction: conflicting feelings and anxious professional beliefs encapsulated in moralistic reactions, culminating in defensive handling of sexual attraction. These psychological conditions seem to be a strategy for professional survival. The trainee experience is captured in the core category: Moralistic Responses to Sexual Attraction and Defensive Handling, associated with a climate of fear that client sexual attraction could potentially influence the therapist into behaving unethically. The study found that trainees believe that professionalism is free of sexual feelings whether these are client, therapist or mutual.


The sulphuric acid is a known growing threat to concrete sewer pipes. Acid production is dictated by rapid urbanisation, increased use of hot water and discharge of toxic metals and sulphate containing detergents into the wastewater. Concrete sewer pipe corrosion due to sulphuric attack is known to be the main contributory factor of pipe degradation. Very little tools are available to accurately predict the corrosion rate and most importantly the remaining safe life of the asset. This paper proposes a new robust model to predict the sewer pipe corrosion rate due to sulphuric acid. The model makes use of a powerful Evolutionary Polynomial Regression method that provides a new methodology of hybrid data-mining. The results obtained by the model which was validated in the field indicates that the proposed hybrid methodology can accurately predict the corrosion rate in concrete sewer pipe's given that the pipe installation conditions as well as in-pipe sewage conditions are known.


The downstream effects of dams on riparian forests are strongly mediated by the character and magnitude of adjustment of the fluvial-geomorphic system. To examine the effects of flow regulation on sand-bed streams in eastern Colorado, we studied the riparian forest on three river segments, the dam-regulated South Fork Republican River downstream of Bonny Dam, the unregulated South Fork Republican River upstream of Bonny Dam, and the unregulated Arikaree River. Although Bonny Dam significantly reduced peak and mean discharge downstream since 1951, there was little difference in forest structure between the regulated and unregulated segments. On all river segments, the riparian forest was dominated by the native pioneer tree, Populus deltoides, which became estab- lished during a period of channel narrowing beginning after the 1935 flood of record and ending by 1965. The nonnative Elaeagnus angustifolia was present on all river segments, with recruitment ongoing. The lack of contrast in forest structure between regulated and unregulated reaches resulted primarily from the fact that no large floods occurred on any of the study segments since dam construction. Most of the riparian forest in the study area was located on the broad narrowing terrace, which was rarely inundated on the unregulated segments, resulting in little contrast with the regulated segment. A minor dam effect oc- curred on the small modern floodplain, which was actively disturbed on the unregulated segments, but not on the regulated segments. Although Bonny Dam had the potential to significantly influence downstream riparian ecosystems, this influence had not been ex- pressed, and may never be if a large flood does not occur within the lifetime of the dam. Minor dam effects to riparian systems can be expected downstream of large dams in some settings, including the present example in which there was insufficient time for the dam effects to by fully expressed.


Neurofibromatosis (NF1) is a relatively common autosomal dominant disorder. Secondary causes of hypertension, such as renovascular disease, coarctation of the abdominal aorta or phaeochromocytoma, may be identified in up to 1% of patients with NF1. Usually, renal angiography, which is always used to confirm the diagnosis of renovascular hypertension, reveals stenoses and rarely bilateral or unilateral renal artery aneurysms. We present the first description of a percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty performed in an adult female patient with NF1, severe hypertensive disease and renal artery aneurysms, in order to restore renal artery anatomy and treat renovascular hypertension.


Growth of C. tetragonoloba suffered with increase in concentration of Pb in soil. Plant biomass declined significantly at concentrations above 60 ppm of Pb. Roots showed more pronounced impact as compared to shoots. At highest applied concentration of lead (100 ppm), fresh weight of fruits decreased by 33% and dry weight by 52% as compared to control. No significant impact was noticed on the development of mycorrhiza at lower concentrations (15-45 ppm) of lead contamination. At higher concentrations of Pb (60 and 75 ppm), there was a decrease in VAM colonization. VAM hyphae had irregular size and terminated abruptly in outer cortex of root. Number of VAM fungal spores in rhizosphere also decreased with increase in the edaphic Pb concentration.


Autophagy plays an essential role in the defence against many microbial pathogens as a regulator of both innate and adaptive immunity. Among some pathogens, sophisticated mechanisms have evolved that promote their ability to evade or subvert host autophagy. Here, we describe a novel mechanism of autophagy modulation mediated by the recently discovered Vibrio cholerae cytotoxin, MakA. pH-dependent endocytosis of MakA by host cells resulted in the formation of a cholesterol-rich endolysosomal membrane aggregate in the perinuclear region. Aggregate formation induced the noncanonical autophagy pathway driving unconventional LC3 lipidation on endolysosomal membranes. Subsequent sequestration of the ATG12-ATG5-ATG16L1 E3-like enzyme complex required for LC3 lipidation at the membranous aggregate resulted in an inhibition of both canonical autophagy and autophagy-related processes including the unconventional secretion of IL-1β. These findings identify a novel mechanism of host autophagy modulation and immune modulation employed by V. cholerae during bacterial infection.


Several premature failures were occurred in the high-pressure section of an industrial gas turbine compressor due to the fracture of Titanium blade roots. In this work, the failure process of the compressor blades was investigated based on the experimental characterisation. Macro/microfractographic studies were carried out on the fracture surfaces. Optical and scanning electron microscopy of the blade airfoil and root were performed. Mechanical properties of the blade alloy were also evaluated and compared with the standard specifications. The experimental results showed no metallurgical and mechanical defects for the blade materials. Microstructures of the blade root and airfoil as well as the hardness and tensile properties were all comparable with those reported in the standard specification AMS 4928Q. Fractography experiments showed clearly multiple crack initiation sites and fatigue beach marks. Debris particles were observed on the fracture surface of samples and in the mouth of initiated cracks. The blade surface in contact to the disc in the dovetail region showed a higher surface roughness than the other surfaces. Based on the results obtained, the fretting fatigue mechanism was proposed for the premature failures. It was concluded that the stress concentration has been caused by either unsuitable curvature ratio of the disk dovetail, incorrect design of the blade or insufficient distance between the blade root and the disk in dovetail region.


Personal identity recognition is vital to information society. Multimodal biometric is proved to be a promising authentication technique. The fusion recognition algorithms were studied based on three biometric traits, hand vein, iris and fingerprint. The independent feature extraction and matching modules were designed for each unimodal biometric to output matching scores. The fusion operation was implemented at the matching score level after score normalization. Simple average fusion recognition algorithm was finally employed to realize the personal identity authentication. The experiments were carried out to verify availability of the proposed algorithm. The experiment results showed the multimodal biometric system had much higher recognition accuracy than any unimodal biometric system.


Bacterial spot of tomato and pepper, a major problem in tropical climates, can be caused by several Xanthomonas genospecies. We examined the genetic and pathological diversity of a collection of 72 strains from the southwest Indian Ocean region as part of a regional research and development program to update inventories of agricultural pests and pathogens. Xanthomonas euvesicatoria, X. perforans, X. gardneri, and X. vesicatoria were identified in our strain collection. The identification of strains at the species level was consistently achieved by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA). Overall, X. euvesicatoria was the species recovered prevalently. MLSA data based on four housekeeping genes identified two to three sequence types per genospecies. It suggested that sequence variations primarily consisted of synonymous mutations, although a recombination event spanning several hundred nucleotides was detected for some strains of X. euvesicatoria on the atpD gene coding for the F1-F0-ATPase β subunit. The pathogenicity of strains was consistent with data found in the literature. Some pathological variations were primarily observed among strains identified as X. euvesicatoria. This study provides the first ever comprehensive description of the status of Xanthomonas species that cause bacterial spot of tomato and pepper in the southwest Indian Ocean region.


The article aims to shed light on the connection between rhetoric and politics, and its dissemination in the sophistic and philosophical tradition. The argumentation is based on the conceptions of two contemporary philosophers – Barbara Cassin and Hans Blumenberg, who appear as the protagonists of positions according to which rhetoric takes up a significant place in political life. Since Plato, the sophists were treated as other pre-Socratics, as demagogs, who do not hold the truth but spread a false opinion. The philosophers share a conviction that speech immediately expresses reality, and they also prohibited following the way of non-Being (Parmenides). The sophists (Gorgias, Protagoras) shared the position that speech expresses only itself, but not reality. Two opposite (but related) ways of thinking are best seen in M. Heidegger's and H. Arendt's philosophies. Keeping in mind the main theme, Blumenberg's philosophical position includes logos as the mean of distancing, the art of politics is determined by the ability to delay decisions and soften conflicts by rhetorical means, while Cassins' logology is understood as the ontology.


Transmission planning in the modern paradigm of deregulation is a delicate balancing activity. More reliable network structures may be needed to establish successful competitive electricity markets. This paper proposes a framework for evaluating transmission network expansion plans considering economic and supply reliability indices based on Expected Congestion Cost (ECC) and Expected Outage Cost (EOC), which are caused by power transmission congestion under the competitive environment. We Examined the impact of transmission expansion plan on electric supply reliability and congestion cost using a test system model.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of doctoral dissertations in nursing science submitted since 2000.

METHOD
Three-hundred and five dissertations of six schools of nursing published from 2000 to 2006 in Korea were analyzed with the categories of philosophy, method, body of knowledge, research design, and nursing domain.

RESULT
In philosophy, 82% of all dissertations were identified as scientific realism, 15% were relativism, and 3% were practicism. Two-hundred and fifty dissertations (82%) were divided into a quantitative methodology and 55 dissertations (18%) were qualitative methodology. Specifically, 45% were experimental, 23% methodological, 13% survey and 17% qualitative designed researches. Prescriptive knowledge was created in 47% of dissertations, explanatory knowledge in 29%, and descriptive knowledge in 24%. Over 50% of all research was studied with a community-based population. In the nursing domain, dissertations of the practice domain were highest (48.2%).

CONCLUSION
Dissertations since 2000 were markedly different from the characteristics of the previous studies (1982-1999) in the increase of situation-related, prescriptive and community-based population studies. A picture of current nursing science identified in this study may provide a future guideline for the doctoral education for nursing.


Forest fires have been a major threat to forest ecosystems and its biodiversity, as well as the environment in general, particularly in the Mediterranean regions. To mitigate fire spreading, this study aims at finding a fire-break solution for territories prone to fire occurrence. To the effect, here follows a model to map and predict phase transitions in fire regimes (spanning fires vs. penetrating fires) based on terrain morphology. The structure consists of a 2-scale network using site percolation and SIR epidemiology rules in a cellular automata to model local fire Dynamics. The target area for the application is the region of Serra de Ossa in Portugal, due to its wildfire incidence. The study considers the cases for a Moore neighbourhood of warm cells of radius 1 and 2 and also considers a heterogeneous terrain with 3 classes of vegetation. Phase transitions are found for different combinations of fire risk for each of these classes and use these values to parametrize the resulting landscape network.


Effects of high participation in the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), an 8-site randomized trial that targeted low-birth-weight (LBW) premature infants (N=1,082), were estimated. Children in the treatment group were offered high-quality center-based care in their 2nd and 3rd years of life (full-day care, 50 weeks per year). High-dosage effects were estimated with a new methodology that found a matched comparison group within the follow-up group for those with high participation rates; these estimates were compared with traditional intention-to-treat (ITT) estimates. At age 8, effects on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Full and Verbal scales for children who attended > 400 days ranged from 7 to 10 points. For the heavier LBW infants (2,001-2,500 g), the effects were about 14 points for > 400 days; for the lighter LBW infants (< or = 2,000 g), the effects were about 8 points. These effects were all substantially higher than corresponding ITT effects. Similar but smaller effects were found for children who attended > 350 days.


In this study, frequency scan analysis and harmonic resonance modal analysis are two
techniques that have been chosen to analyse the present of resonance in a network. The
presence of resonance is the factor that contributes to the amplification of harmonic
which exist along with the current from non-linear load. Harmonic that occurs contributes
to several negative effects to the power system and has potential to cause the equipment
to damage. Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) new building network, or to be
more specific, the network at new academic buildings is an interesting place to conduct
this study. This is because in UTP there are various types of electrical machines, high
voltage machines and high technology computers and equipments especially in block
5,17 and 22; that may contribute to harmonic. The whole UTP network is first simplified
and the cable is present in pi impedance form. After that, the power flow study of the
network is conducted using a MATLAB Simulink. The potential resonance from UTP
network is analysed using the two techniques that have been mentioned above. The
techniques are also run using MATLAB. The measurement of harmonic current and
voltage at the respective buildings are then performed for six (6) days at the sub switch
board (SSB) of the three blocks that have been chosen as the case studies. The data
obtained from the data logging are compared with the data obtained using the two
techniques mentioned earlier. The expected results are high harmonics is present at the
harmonic frequencies which are high in resonance.


Wideband 8-12-GHz inline-type microwave power sensors that are based on measuring the microwave power coupled from the coplanar waveguide line by a microelectromechanical systems membrane are presented. In this method, the signal is available during the power detection. In order to obtain the low reflection losses and insertion losses, as well as the wideband response of the power sensor, an impedance match structure and a compensating capacitance are proposed. The fabrication of the power sensor is compatible with the GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) process. The experimental results show that the sensor has reflection losses better than 20 dB and insertion losses less than 0.45 dB up to 12 GHz. A sensitivity of more than 30 muV/mW and a resolution of 0.2 mW are obtained at the 10-GHz frequency.


Integrating external biological knowledge in the construction of regulatory networks from LINCS data Xiao Liang Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Ka Yee Yeung Institute of Technology The inference of gene regulatory networks is of great interest and has various applications. The recent advances in high-throughout biological data collection have facilitated the construction and understanding of gene regulatory networks in many model organisms. However, the inference of gene networks from large-scale human genomic data could be challenging. Generally, it is difficult to identify the correct regulators for each gene in the large search space, given that the high dimensional gene expression data only provides small number of observations for each gene. In this thesis, we propose a Bayesian approach integrating external data sources with knockdown data from human cell lines to infer regulatory gene networks. In particular, we assemble multiple data sources including gene expression data, genome-wide binding data, gene ontology and known pathways and employ a supervised learning framework to compute prior probabilities of regulatory relationships. We show that our integrated method improves the accuracy of inferred gene networks. We present our assessment results against benchmark method and data in different forms, figures, graphs and tables. We illustrate our results in two different human cell lines, and demonstrate the generality of our results.


Both earthquake ground motion and pore water pressure observations in valley fill were conducted in the southwestern Tokyo, and central Yokohama region. The difference in the earthquake ground motion between records on the both observatories varied with earthquakes. The non-linear response of excess pore water pressure in valley fill was observed during the strong earthquake. These basic information will be valuable for discussing on prediction of valley fills type landslides induced by strong seismic motion in urban region.Earthquake in 5th May 2014 (M6.0) induced strong seismic intensity 5 in central Tokyo (largest earthquake after 3.11). The response 45-60cm/s/s of horizontal motion of soft valley fill less than response on the original ground indicate the "self-dumping effect" of valley fill. In contrast, the response amplified 120-150cm/s/s of horizontal motion, and large UD component of the motion of ordinary valley fill will be caused by amplification of SP trans-wave in unsaturated near surface soil layer. Excess pore pressure increased rapidly after the S peak stage (response to the plastic deformation). Excess pore pressure and barometric pressure changes was opposite in phase before the S peak stage, however, changes of barometric pressure synchronized to the UD displacement changes. So-called "microphone effect", barometric pressure changes amplified by the UD displacement, was observed in this earthquake.Inclinometer response indicates the movements of the valley fill, and the direction of inclination turns during seismic motion. During the P wave stage, the inclination in ground (G.L. -2, -5,-8m) is small and isotropic. During the 2nd stage (P-S wave), the movement of transvers direction of valley was observed. And, the movement of longitudinal direction of valley was observed at the 3rd stage (S wave). These processes indicate that the friction reduction along the side-wall of valley fill by rolling movement at the P-S wave stage should be prior to the plastic deformation & excess pore water pressure rising during the S wave stage. And, movement along longitudinal valley axis after the peak S wave stage will be possible after the friction reduction in the previous stage. Thus, the friction reduction of side walls will be key process of landslide of urban residential valley fill.


Background
Exposure to low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood predicts increased morbidity and mortality. However, little prospective evidence is available to test pathways linking low childhood SES to adult health.

Purpose
In the current study, indirect effects through positive parenting in adolescence and adult SES were tested in the association between childhood SES and adult health behaviors and psychological resources.

Methods
Men (n = 305; 53% Black) were followed longitudinally from ages 7 to 32. SES was measured annually in childhood (ages 7-9) and again in adulthood (age 32) using the Hollingshead index. Parenting was assessed annually (ages 13-16) using caregivers' and boys' self-report of supervision, communication, and expectations for their son's future. Health behaviors (cigarette and alcohol use, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity) and psychological resources (optimism, purpose in life, self-mastery, and self-esteem) were assessed in adulthood (age 32).

Results
Structural equation modeling showed that higher childhood SES was associated with more positive parenting in adolescence and higher adult SES. Higher childhood SES was indirectly associated with healthier behaviors and higher psychological resources in adulthood through pathways involving positive parenting during adolescence and SES in adulthood. Findings were consistent in both racial groups.

Conclusions
Positive parenting in adolescence was an important pathway in understanding associations among childhood SES and health behaviors and psychological resources in adulthood. Low childhood SES was prospectively associated with healthier behaviors and greater psychological resources in part through more positive parenting in adolescence.


In the following case study, cross-well seismic tomography was used to image both structural and stratigraphic features in Gulf Coast Miocene sediments. A piezoelectric downhole source was used to produce seismic waves which were recorded by hydrophones between wells 250 apart. Traveltime tomography was then applied to a set of over 5000 picks. In addition to the targeted fault delineation, the tomography successfully imaged a number of porous sandstone layers previously identified from type logs for the Miocene. Two different methods of traveltime picking and tomographic inversion were used. The two resulting velocity tomograms show similar velocity variations that lead to a consistent geological interpretation. Borehole gravity meter (BHGM) data, obtained in both wells following the tomographic survey, were used to associate densityvariations with the velocity features imaged by the tomography. The lD BHGM-derived low density zones were found to coincide with the 2D seismically imaged low velocity zones, thus supporting the identification of porous sandstone layers.


The use of corn for ethanol production in the United States quintupled between 2001 and 2009, generating concerns that this could lead to the conversion of forests and grasslands around the globe, known as indirect land‐use change (iLUC). Estimates of iLUC and related 'food versus fuel' concerns rest on the assumption that the corn used for ethanol production in the United States would come primarily from displacing corn exports and land previously used for other crops. A number of modeling efforts based on these assumptions have projected significant iLUC from the increases in the use of corn for ethanol production. The current study tests the veracity of these assumptions through a systematic decomposition analysis of the empirical data from 2001 to 2009. The logarithmic mean divisia index decomposition method (Type I) was used to estimate contributions of different factors to meeting the corn demand for ethanol production. Results show that about 79% of the change in corn used for ethanol production can be attributed to changes in the distribution of domestic corn consumption among different uses. Increases in the domestic consumption share of corn supply contributed only about 5%. The remaining contributions were 19% from added corn production, and –2% from stock changes. Yield change accounted for about two‐thirds of the contributions from production changes. Thus, the results of this study provide little support for large land‐use changes or diversion of corn exports because of ethanol production in the United States during the past decade. © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd