Abstract : The focus of critical U.S. programs on Homeland Security and Homeland Defense applications, and on the brown water navies of potential adversaries elicits a need for understanding and visualizing the near-shore land and maritime environments. The goal of this project is to develop a windows application that will provide a near real-time visual depiction of wave, wind, or other environmental elements' impact on the littoral environment that can be used as an aid to decision makers in their planning/response efforts. To achieve our goal we will use our latest commercially available PC-based military simulation. Our commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) naval strategy simulation, Sonalysts Combat Simulations - Dangerous Waters (registered trademark), includes high fidelity 3D micro-simulations of subsurface, surface, and air platforms that also include environmental characteristics such as day/night, currents, wind and stormy weather. The primary focus of this simulation is in the deep water environment. We will modify this engine as necessary to provide a realistic animation of the shallow water environment that exists within the littoral zone. We intend to show the feasibility of performing this shallow water visualization process through a proof of concept application developed during this Phase I period of nine months. This proof of concept will demonstrate a computer-based tool capable of providing fairly rapid rendering and realistic visualization of a littoral environment that is composed of varying elements such as wind speed and direction, wave height, periodicity, and direction.


Defects in the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) can lead to aneuploidy and cancer. Sphingolipids have important roles in many cellular functions, including cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. However, the specific mechanisms and functions of sphingolipids in cell cycle regulation have not been elucidated. Using analysis of concordance for synthetic lethality for the yeast sphingolipid phospholipase ISC1, we identified two groups of genes. The first comprises genes involved in chromosome segregation and stability (CSM3, CTF4, YKE2, DCC1, and GIM4) as synthetically lethal with ISC1. ABSTRACT Defects in the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) can lead to aneuploidy and cancer. Sphingolipids have important roles in many cellular functions, including cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. However, the specific mechanisms and functions of sphingolipids in cell cycle regulation have not been elucidated. Using analysis of concordance for synthetic lethality for the yeast sphingolipid phospholipase ISC1, we identified two groups of genes. The first comprises genes involved in chromosome segregation and stability (CSM3, CTF4, YKE2, DCC1, and GIM4) as synthetically lethal with ISC1. The second group, to which ISC1 belongs, comprises genes involved in the spindle checkpoint (BUB1, MAD1, BIM1, and KAR3), and they all share the same synthetic lethality with the first group. We demonstrate that spindle checkpoint genes act upstream of Isc1, and their deletion phenocopies that of ISC1. Reciprocally, ISC1 deletion mutants were sensitive to benomyl, indicating a SAC defect. Similar to BUB1 deletion, ISC1 deletion prevents spindle elongation in hydroxyurea-treated cells. Mechanistically, PP2A-Cdc55 ceramide-activated phosphatase was found to act downstream of Isc1, thus coupling the spindle checkpoint genes and Isc1 to CDC55-mediated nuclear functions.


Mice which survive a preliminary dose per os of paratyphoid-enteritidis bacilli are more resistant to a second dose per os of a similar epidemic mouse typhoid strain than are mice which have received no preliminary culture. The amount of this resistance is related to the pathogenicity of the preliminary strain more than to its antigenic similarity to the second strain. Mice which survive a preliminary dose per os of paratyphoid-enteritidis bacilli are more resistant to a lethal dose of mercury bichloride per os than are mice which have not received the preliminary bacterial culture. Mice which have resisted and mice which have recovered from a preliminary dose per os of paratyphoid-enteritidis bacilli are more resistant to a lethal intraperitoneal dose of an epidemic mouse typhoid strain than are mice which have not received the preliminary culture. Mice in which the preliminary dose of paratyphoid-enteritidis bacilli has induced a chronic infection readily succumb to a second dose of such bacilli. These findings indicate that the resistance mechanism of the host contains important non-specific factors which vary in degree with the individual mice.


SUMMARY Ex-situ collections of vegetatively propagated root crops are difficult to maintain in developing countries. On-farm conservation could be a solution but is more complex for vegetatively propagated than for sexually propagated species. In Vanuatu, a Melanesian archipelago where yam, taro, sweet potato and cassava are staples, a study was undertaken to develop an on-farm conservation system based on the geographic distribution of allelic diversity. Two years after the introduction of new varieties, a survey was conducted with 449 farmers located on 10 different islands. In order to evaluate on-farm conservation efficiency, qualitative and quantitative investigations were conducted and data were analysed. The conclusion was that farmers do enrich their varietal portfolios with introduced exotic genotypes thus broadening the narrow genetic bases of some species. Nevertheless, no local varieties were lost. Significant geographic distribution of clones of new varieties throughout the archipelago also took place via spontaneous, informal distribution to farmers' relatives. These encouraging results point to the potential impact of the geographic distribution of allelic diversity on smallholders' varietal portfolios. On-farm conservation appears to be an appropriate strategy for the conservation of root crop germplasm diversity in Vanuatu. Potential applications for transfer of the methodology to other locations are discussed.


Background The aim of this study was to observe the expression of microRNA-222 (miR-222) and matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor 3 (TIMP3) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and discuss their significance. Methods A total of 230 patients with NSCLC were enrolled in the observation group during the operation. Ninety-eight normal adjacent tissues were used as the control group. Two groups of miR-222 and TIMP3 were detected by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. The distribution of miR-222 and TIMP3 in A549/H358/PC9 cells was observed by immunofluorescence. Chi-squared and Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the relationship among miR-222, TIMP3 expression, and clinicopathological parameters of NSCLC. Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to analyze the prognostic impact of miR-222 and TIMP3. Results Immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of miR-222 in lung cancer tissue was significantly higher, but TIMP3 was lower than that in normal lung tissue (P = 0.0001 for the former and P = 0.0002 for the latter). Meanwhile, miR-222 and TIMP3 were mainly distributed in the cytoplasm. Among them, cTIMP3 accounted for 70.29% (72/101), cmiR-222 for 59.35% (92/155), 14.85% for nTIMP3 (15/101), and 18.06% for nmiR-222 (28/155). There was a significant difference in distribution (both P < 0.0001). The expression of miR-222 and TIMP3 were negatively correlated in lung cancer tissues (r = −0.43, P = 0.0219). With the progression of clinical stage, the positive intensity of cTIMP3 showed a decreasing trend, while the cmiR-222 showed a reverse trend (the former P = 0.0024 and the latter P < 0.0001). In the Kaplan–Meier prognostic analysis, we found that the high expression of cTIMP3 could predict a better prognosis (P = 0.0040), whereas cmiR-222 was the opposite (P = 0.0016). Multivariate analysis shows that both can be used as independent factors. Conclusion TIMP3 expression in lung cancer is relatively low and has a negative correlation with lung cancer staging and prognosis, suggesting that it may play a defensive function in the development of lung cancer, while miR-222 has the opposite effect, and the expression of both proteins is negatively correlated, suggesting that in lung cancer progresses, both proteins may play some role together.


Using growth rate method, biological activities of 20 water extracts from 20 different plants were assayed against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Agaricodochium camellia Liu. The results show the inhibition rates of the extracts of Syzygium aromaticum, Scutellaria altissima L, Aloe Vera, Lonicera japonica Thunb, Andrgraphis paniculata are more than 60%. The best inhibition effects was S. aromaticum, respectively 96.2% and 98.2%. The toxicity test indicates that the EC50 of S. aromaticum and S. altissima L extracts and the mixture at the 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 2:1, 5:1 volume ratio against C. gloeosporioides and A. camellia are, respectively ,4.2 and 3.68mg/ml,4.52 and 6.90 mg/ml,5.28 and 5.33 mg/ml,5.84 and 7.01 mg/ml,4.89 and7.01 mg/ml,5.24 and 6.11 mg/ml,4.77 and 5.65mg/ml. Synergistic interaction values are >0.5 and <1.5.


Previous studies of sea-level and tidal amplification in the Bay of Fundy suggested a linear increase of tidal amplitude as relative sea level rose. New data presented here are used in a numerical tidal model in an effort to reproduce paleotidal regimes over the last 7000 years. Five new sea-level curves covering the last 4000 years and some previously published data extending the record back to 7000 years before present (BP) are used as the data base. These data, when used together with the tidal model, indicate that tidal amplitudes increased much more rapidly between 7000 and 4000 years ago than in the period 4000 years ago to present. It is also shown that changes in depth within the Bay of Fundy produce little effect on the tidal amplitudes, whereas such variations in water depth on Georges Bank account for almost all the change. This calculation of tidal-amplitude changes allows calibration of sea-level curves to be made for the Bay of Fundy using higher high-water (HHW) indicators.


We document a negative relationship between population size and inequality in the cross-country data. We propose an explanation built on the existence of a size effect in the political economy of redistribution, particularly in the presence of different channels of popular request for redistribution, e.g. "institutional" channels and "revolutions". Based on the assumption that the threat of revolution is directly related to the number of people that may attempt to revolt, the theory predicts that the stylized fact initially uncovered by the paper can be refined as follows: there is a negative relationship between population size, and its geographical concentration, and post-tax inequality in non-democracies. We subject these predictions to extensive empirical scrutiny in a cross-country context, and the data robustly confirm these patterns of inequality, population, and the interaction with democracy.

http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/quocanhdo/default_files/Papers/Campante Do 2007 Ineqsize.pdf


We study frequently hypercyclic operators, a natural new concept in hypercyclicity that was recently introduced by F. Bayart and S. Grivaux. We derive a strengthened version of their Frequent Hypercyclicity Criterion, which allows us to obtain examples of frequently hypercyclic operators in a straightforward way. Moreover, Bayart and Grivaux have noted that the frequent hypercyclicity setting differs from general hypercyclicity in that the set of frequently hypercyclic vectors need not be residual. We show here that, under weak assumptions, this set is only of first category. Motivated by this we study the question of whether one may write every vector in the underlying space as the sum of two frequently hypercyclic vectors. This investigation leads us to the introduction of a new notion, that of Runge transitivity.


The corona pandemic is likely to lead to the most severe economic slump in Germany since the second world war. The present study exploits the regular business survey conducted by the German Economic Institute (IW) to provide guidance on the extent of the operational difficulties companies are currently experiencing and how these impediments are changing. Every week since the beginning of March 2020, companies in all major industries have been asked for an assessment of their situation with a view to identifying any sectoral variation in where the burden falls. Information is also collected on the causes of disruption, i.e. the multiple supply and demand shocks affecting production. According to the 'corona fever curve' issued weekly on the basis of the IW survey, two thirds of the responding companies in Germany are currently experiencing severe difficulties as a result of the pandemic. This burden has decreased somewhat, especially in the service sector, perhaps as a result of the concurrent relaxation of restrictions. In contrast to the 2009 financial crisis, the pandemic has affected manufacturing and service industries equally from the beginning. The fact that there is as yet little difference between companies' short and medium-term expectations suggests that the corona crisis is casting a long shadow over the German economy. While the decline in domestic demand has now assumed considerable significance, a lack of inputs from abroad has become a pressing problem on the supply side.


The efficiency of internal orbital decompression was evaluated in uncompensated edematous exophthalmos (EE). Twenty-two patients aged 17-65 years who had EE (30 orbits) were followed up. EE in a subcompensation and decompensation stage occurred in 12 (17 orbits) and 10 (13 orbits) patients, respectively. When glucocorticoid therapy was ineffective, internal orbital decompression was made in order to preserve visual functions. Surgery was performed via transconjunctival approach (Brovkina, 2004). After surgery, exophthalmos diminished by an average of 4.6 and 5.6 mm in a subcompensation and decompensation stage, respectively. There was a substantial reduction in periorbital tissue edema, in conjunctival changes, corneal opacity, and optical neuropathy to the extent of complete regression. Internal orbital decompression is effective in uncompensated forms of EE, as appeared as a significant alleviation of its clinical symptoms and as preserved or increased baseline visual acuity.


1. "Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura" is the name which we propose for a rare but well-defined disorder which manifests itself clinically as an acute febrile illness and which is characterized by (a) petechiae and ecchymoses, thrombocytopenia, prolonged bleeding time and poor clot retraction, (b) by a severe anemia out of proportion to any observed blood loss, (c) by mild acholuric jaundice, hepato-splenomegaly, (d) by bizarre and intermittent mental and neurologic symptoms and signs, and (e) by a transient leukemoid reaction in the peripheral blood.

2. This clinical picture must be correlated with a remarkable histologic pattern, namely the presence of myriads of platelet thrombi in the small arterioles and capillaries of almost all organs of the body.

3. Eleven such cases have been described in the literature. One case of our own is added.

4. The clinical features of this disease are detailed and the differential diagnosis is discussed. It is emphasized that if the physician is familiar with this syndrome a correct clinical diagnosis may become readily possible.

Acknowledgment for the support of this work is made to the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation for Scientific Research.


The United States is in the midst of a fatal drug epidemic. This study uses data from the Multiple Cause of Death Files to examine the extent to which increases in county-level drug mortality rates from 1999-2015 are due to "deaths of despair", measured here by deterioration in medium-run economic conditions, or if they instead are more likely to reflect changes in the "drug environment" in ways that present differential risks to population subgroups. A primary finding is that counties experiencing relative economic decline did experience higher growth in drug mortality than those with more robust growth, but the relationship is weak and mostly explained by confounding factors. In the preferred estimates, changes in economic conditions account for less than one-tenth of the rise in drug and opioid-involved mortality rates. The contribution of economic factors is even less when accounting for plausible selection on unobservables, with even a small amount of remaining confounding factors being sufficient to entirely eliminate the relationship. These results suggest that the "deaths of despair" framing, while provocative, is unlikely to explain the main sources of the fatal drug epidemic and that efforts to improve economic conditions in distressed locations, while desirable for other reasons, are not likely to yield significant reductions in drug mortality. Conversely, the risk of drug deaths varies systematically over time across population subgroups in ways that are consistent with an important role for the public health environment related to the availability and cost of drugs. Put succinctly, the fatal overdose epidemic is likely to primarily reflect drug problems rather than deaths of despair.


This thesis will examine how the emerging concept of the right to development in international human rights has influenced the policy and practice of New Labour with regards to their international development work. It will focus on some of the main aspects which the right to development incorporates, such as partnerships and participation, and will examine how these principles have been established in the work of DFID. Its aim is to assess whether the changes in recent development policy and practice, under New Labour, have been the result of the creation of a right to development, or whether the corresponding changes in theory and practice can be attributed to other factors. It will explore the existing literature on the right to development, the historical changes in British development policy, the incorporation of participatory and partnership methods into the work of DFID, and the relationship between security and the right to development. The thesis will conclude with an assessment of the extent to which the changes in policy and practice under New Labour can be attributed to the emerging concept of aright to development, and its corresponding codification in the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development, and offer suggestions of the effect that these findings may have on the concept.


Argon laser photocoagulation of diabetic neovascular formations overlying the optic disc risks injury to the nerve fibers. Isolated reports of postoperative field defects have appeared but extensive pathologic studies of the effects on nerve fibers are lacking. In an eye with a malignant melanoma nasally, laser photocoagulation was directed at the superior temporal artery on the disc. Applications were made repeatedly until spasm was produced at two sites. The following day, the eye was enucleated. Histopathologic examination revealed loss of endothelial cells and absence of nuclei in the media of the treated artery, and coagulative necrosis of nerve fibers around the vessel. Extensive damage to the peripapillary outer segments and retinal pigment epithelium also was demonstrated.


Abstract The transcriptional activator RbpA associates with Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA polymerase (MtbRNAP) during transcription initiation, and stimulates formation of the MtbRNAP-promoter open complex (RPo). Here, we explored the influence of promoter motifs on RbpA-mediated activation of MtbRNAP containing the stress-response σB subunit. We show that both the 'extended −10' promoter motif (T-17G-16T-15G-14) and RbpA stabilized RPo and allowed promoter opening at suboptimal temperatures. Furthermore, in the presence of the T-17G-16T-15G-14 motif, RbpA was dispensable for RNA synthesis initiation, while exerting a stabilization effect on RPo. On the other hand, RbpA compensated for the lack of sequence-specific interactions of domains 3 and 4 of σB with the extended −10 and the −35 motifs, respectively. Mutations of the positively charged residues K73, K74 and R79 in RbpA basic linker (BL) had little effect on RPo formation, but affected MtbRNAP capacity for de novo transcription initiation. We propose that RbpA stimulates transcription by strengthening the non-specific interaction of the σ subunit with promoter DNA upstream of the −10 element, and by indirectly optimizing MtbRNAP interaction with initiation substrates. Consequently, RbpA renders MtbRNAP promiscuous in promoter selection, thus compensating for the weak conservation of the −35 motif in mycobacteria.


This thesis documents the development of an autonomous row crop guidance system for a differentially wheeled agricultural robot. Computer vision is used to identify rows and estimate their position and orientation. The estimates are used as measurements in a Kalman filter, before being supplied to a row controller which attempts to make the robot follow the row closely. A simulator with a realistic robot and fields have been developed, and all methods were tested on real robots. Tests have been done on an indoor recreation of a field and outdoors on a real carrot field. The result is a system which is able to autonomously traverse an entire field in simulations and recreated fields.


Drawing on new and established approaches to film costume, this article examines the creative work of the costume designer, contextualizing it as a gendered profession. It takes the career of the British film costume designer Julie Harris as its illustrative case study, tracing her working practice and sense of creative agency through interviews and press coverage as well as the BFI's extensive collection of her annotated costume sketches. Special emphasis is placed on Harris's negotiation of changing modes of postwar British film production, and her management of the professional tensions between costuming in the service of narrative or costuming as spectacle—in Stella Bruzzi's words, the dilemma of whether to look at or through the clothes on-screen. It culminates in a detailed analysis of Harris's Oscar-winning costume work for Darling (1965) and her ambivalence toward the youth-oriented off-the-rack fashions of the 1960s. In conclusion, it emphasizes the significance and complexity of the costume designer's creative labor, and the need for that work to be granted greater visibility.


We determined the relationship between aerobic fitness and a short and long repeated sprint test (RST) in pre pubertal overweight children (10.5±1.5 yrs). Aerobic fitness was evaluated by the 20m shuttle run. Two RST protocols with identical total running distance were performed to determine anaerobic capacities at random order (12×20 m run departing every 20s and 6×40m run departing every 40s). Performance decrement (PD) and total sprint time (TS) were significantly higher in the 12×20 m compared to the 6×40 m protocol. Significant negative correlations were found between the aerobic fitness and TS (r= –0.767) and the fastest sprint time (r= –0.738) of the 12×20 m protocol. Similarly, significant negative correlations were found between the aerobic fitness and TS (r= –0.803) and the fastest sprint time (r= –0.787) of the 6×40 m protocol. There were no significant correlations between PD in both RST's and aerobic fitness. Performance of high number of short repetitions with very short recovery time is more difficult for overweight children than fewer longer repetitions with longer recovery time. Aerobic fitness plays an important role in intense intermittent activity, but not in PD from intermittent activity in obese children.


Treatment and disposal/beneficial use are the most important aspects of municipal sludge management. Particularly, the application guidelines and limit values for treatment systems and the major disposal routes including landfilling, land application and incineration are covered in the legislations. This study aims to review the legislations about municipal sludge treatment and disposal from different counties such as Turkey, USA, EU, Canada and South Africa. Evaluations show that the current legislations place a greater emphasis on the beneficial use of sludge, rather than the mere disposal. The specifics of regulations related to combustion changes between different countries such that in some countries separate regulation for sludge combustion is implemented, whereas in others sludge is not specifically mentioned but included among the big group of wastes to be combusted. Similarly, some countries have particular regulations for landfilling of sludge, whereas the others consider sludge within the greater category of biodegradable wastes together with the organic fraction of solid wastes. This study compares and contrasts these issues and current legislations of the aforementioned countries.


A new formula, which is derived from a deformed rotor model for describing nuclear rotational spectra, is analyzed. The ground band of most even-even rare-earth and actinide nuclei are accurately reproduced using a damped nonlinear least-square fitting procedure for determining parameters of the theory. The results show that energy spectra obtained from a deformed rotor model are more accurate than those from a three-parameter formula based on perturbation theory.


Pulmonary blastoma is one of the least common primary malignant tumors of the lung. There is considerable controversy as to its exact histogenesis; it is uncertain if it arises from a single cell or if it is a mixed tumor arising from two different cell lines. We report three patients with pulmonary blastomas, describing in detail their radiological, cytological, and histopathological features.


Economists are increasingly interested on the internal working of the management hierarchy of business firms, and in particular on the determinants of the allocation of formal and real authority. In spite of the relevant number of papers which tackle theoretically this issue, empirical evidence is still scarce. This article is a first step towards a robust quantitative analysis of the determinants of the allocation of decision power within the management hierarchy of firms. In order to do so, we have gathered questionnaire data on the allocation of formal and real authority for a sample of 438 Italian manufacturing plants. Then we have proceeded to test the effects of a number of possible explanatory variables on the allocation of decision power through the estimates of multinomial logit models. Results show that factors such as ownership status, monitoring technology, size of the management hierarchy and urgency of decision-making are key in explaining how decisions are allocated among agents of firms.


Chest roentgenogram of a sixty-year-old male patient, revealed a tumoral mass in the right lung, that was later demonstrated by transbronchial biopsy, to be a bronchogenic adenocarcinoma. There was no tomographic evidence of distant metastasis, however, in order to assess the mediastinal involvement for staging of the tumor, biopsies from the regional lymph nodes were obtained. Microscopic examination of the sample tissues failed to show any metastatic lesion, but, unexpectedly, revealed the presence of cicatricial granulomas in an advanced stage of fibrosis. They contained a few round, empty and collapsed corpuscles, limited by a thick PAS-positive, membrane. These structures were identified as adiaconidia of Emmonsia crescens, the etiological agent of human adiaspiromycosis. In the tissue sections, a large amount of carbon dust (anthracosis) was also seen.


ABSTRACT To what extent is an island economy cut off from the rest of the world? Defined as a mass of land bounded by water, island societies connect and exchange with their surroundings rather intensely. Based on empirical research, this paper explores the role of a 'remote' island society on Trinket in generating or sheltering itself from the process of globalisation in which con‐textually given borders are transgressed and displaced. To this end, we apply the concepts of societal metabolism and colonising natural processes operationalised by Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA), and Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) respectively. Using these biophysical indicators, we describe the transition from a metabolism based upon the natural environment to metabolism based on exchange with other societies. Data presented in this paper further reveal a process of industrialisation and integration into the global market of a so‐called 'closed' and 'inaccessible' island society.


The aim of this study was to explore the effects that match location and match status have on the success rate of a penalty kick in the English Premier League. A total of 931 penalties were analysed from the English Premier League season commencing 2007/08 to the finale of the 2016/17. There were no significant associations between match location and penalty kick outcomes (χ2 (1) = 3.66, p = 0.06). There was also no significant association between match status and penalty kick outcomes (χ2 (1) = 1.87, p = 0.39). Two match status performance indicators were also analysed. Player position was found to have no significant association with penalty kick outcome (χ2 (1) = 6.6, p = 0.46) and neither was deficit of score (χ2 (1) = 12.1, p = 0.28). A total of 62.8% (461) penalties were scored at home, however 55.3% (109) of missed penalties were also at the home location, signifying that there was no home advantage. There was only a slight non-significant association between location and outcomes. Having the highest conversion rate at home would indicate that there would have been a home advantage. A non-significant association was found because it also had the highest miss rate compared to away penalties. Losing had highest conversion rate of penalties, for match status, with 231 (81.3%) scored out of 284. Drawing had the highest amount of goals scored with 301 (41%) however, also had the highest number of misses with 90 out of 197 (45.7%). Penalties whilst winning had the lowest total frequency with 256 (27.5%) attempted out of the 931 total but did have the second highest miss rate of 54 (27.4%). The position of the player and deficit in score were also tested as it was pointed out in literature that these are key performance indicators for match status. Midfielders scored the highest amount of goals with 357 (48.6%) whilst attackers missed the highest amount with 104 (52.8%). Drawing was the most common deficit of score and had the highest scoring rate with 300 (40.9%), but also had the highest miss rate of 90 (45.7%). The findings emphasis the need for players and coaches to take these factors into account before deciding who, where and when the highest chance of scoring would be. Further detailed analysis is required in the investigation of optimum chance of scoring a penalty kick and suggestions have been made for future research.


The response of the insular cortex (IC) and amygdala to stimuli of positive and negative valence were found to be altered in patients with anxiety disorders. However, the coding properties of neurons controlling anxiety and valence remain unknown. Combining photometry recordings and chemogenetics in mice, we uncover the anxiogenic control of projection neurons in the anterior IC (aIC), independently of their projection target. Using viral tracing and ex vivo electrophysiology, we characterize the monosynaptic aIC to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) connection, and employed projection-specific optogenetics, to reveal anxiogenic properties of aIC-BLA neurons in anxiety-related behaviors. Finally, using photometry recordings, we identified that aIC-BLA neurons are active in anxiogenic spaces, and in response to aversive stimuli. Together, these findings show that negative valence, as well as anxiety-related information and behaviors, are encoded by aICBLA glutamatergic neurons, providing a starting point to understand how alterations of this pathway contribute to psychiatric disorders.


Although the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has not observed supersymmetric (SUSY) partners of the Standard Model particles, their existence is not ruled out yet. One recently explored scenario in which there are light SUSY partners that have evaded current bounds from the LHC is that of a light long-lived stop quark. In this paper we consider light stop pair production at the LHC when the stop mass is between 200 and 400 GeV. If the stops are long-lived they can form a bound state, stoponium, which then undergoes two-body decays to Standard Model particles. By considering the near-threshold production of such a pair through the gluon-gluon fusion process and taking into account the strong Coulombic interactions responsible for the formation of this bound state, we obtain factorization theorems for the stop pair inclusive and differential production cross sections. We also perform a resummation of large threshold logarithms up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy using well-established renormalization group equations in an effective field theory methodology. These results are used to calculate the invariant mass distributions of two photons or two Z bosons coming from the decay of the stoponium at the LHC. For our choices of SUSY model parameters, the stoponium is not detectable above Standard Model backgrounds in \gamma \gamma or ZZ at 8 TeV, but will be visible with 400 fb^(-1) of accumulated data if its mass is below 500 GeV when the LHC runs at 14 TeV.


Arachidonic [ARA, 20:4(n-6)], eicosapentaenoic [EPA, 20:5(n-3)], and docosahexaenoic acids [DHA, 22:6(n-3)] occur in the diet in animal tissue lipids, play important roles in human development and health, but have interactive and opposing functions. Meat and poultry have higher ARA and fish are richer in EPA and DHA. National databases were recently revised to include complete data on ARA in foods. We used a validated FFQ and the revised nutrient databases to quantify the distribution of ARA, EPA, and DHA intakes and balance for 204 healthy Canadian pregnant women. We focused on intake distributions because risk of adverse health effects increases at lower nutrient intakes. RBC fatty acids were analyzed concurrenly with dietary assessment. The distribution of ARA, EPA, and DHA intakes were skewed (P < 0.001), with a median (5-95th percentile) of 107 (41-225), 65 (10-228), and 105 (10-430) mg/d ARA, EPA, and DHA, respectively. Fish provided 66 and 76% of EPA and DHA, respectively, whereas eggs, poultry, and meats provided 81% of ARA. Women consuming <101 g fish/wk consumed less EPA and DHA and had markedly elevated median dietary ARA:EPA and ARA:DHA ratios and RBC lipid ARA:EPA + DHA ratios compared with women consuming >or=101 g fish/wk (P < 0.001). Relatively small increases in fish intake of 1-2 servings (25-50 g)/wk corrected the distorted dietary (n-6):(n-3) fatty acid balance among women consuming meats, but not fish. Median fish and DHA intakes below the recommended 1-2 servings/wk fish for pregnant women suggest major changes in the availability, cost, or acceptance of fish are needed.


Using proteomics, previous work in our
laboratory identified five mitochondrial related proteins [citrate synthase (CS), glucose-regulated protein 75 (GRP75), heat
shock protein 60 (HSP60), prohibitin (PHB), voltage-dependent anion channel 1
(VDAC1)] to be
differentially expressed in primary cortical neuronal cultures following
preconditioning treatments [1] [2]. To investigate a protective or damaging
role of these five proteins in neurons, we used RNAi constructs to knockdown
and adenoviral vectors to over-express the proteins in cortical neuronal
cultures prior to exposure to three
ischemia-related injury models: excitotoxicity (L-glutamic acid), oxidative stress
(hydrogen peroxide) and in vitro ischemia (oxygen-glucose deprivation). We observed
that down-regulating
these mitochondrial proteins had no effect on neuronal viability, in any injury
model. By contrast, over-expression of PHB
exacerbated cell death in the hydrogen peroxide and L-glutamic acid injury
models. These findings indicate that PHB plays a neurodamaging role following
oxidative and excitotoxic stress and suggests that the protein is a potential therapeutic
target for the design of drugs to limit neuronal death following cerebral ischemia
and other forms of brain injury.


The role of angiotensin II (Ang II) in the early embryonic development of the heart has not been examined. We have used RT-PCR to identify mRNA for angiotensinogen, angiotensin-converting enzyme, and the Ang II AT1 and AT2 receptors in embryonic day 10.25 Sprague-Dawley rats, and have used confocal microscopy to localize the AT1 receptor to the greater curvature of the developing ventricle in these animals at embryonic days (ED) 9.25 and 10.25. The antibodies used in immunolocalization studies did not distinguish between the AT1a and AT1b receptor subtypes. In whole embryo culture, Ang II added to the culture media resulted in increased ventricular growth and myocyte hypertrophy when treated embryos were compared to cultured littermate controls. Use of Losartan and PD123,319 to block the Ang II AT1 and AT2 receptors resulted in reduced ventricular development and cardiac dilation when compared to control and Ang II-treated embryos. Addition of Ang II and PD123,319 to the culture media also resulted in cardiac loop inversions which may be associated with disruption of normal myofibrillar development. These results clearly indicate an important role for Ang II in the early embryonic development of the heart.


West Africa has a high burden of malnutrition and the drivers are often complex, highly context-specific, and cut across individual, social, political and environmental domains. Public health research most often considers immediate individual health and diet drivers, at the expense of wider considerations that may fall outside of a health agenda. The objective of this systematic mapping review is to map the broad drivers of malnutrition in West Africa, from public health and social science perspectives, and to evaluate the additional value of an interdisciplinary approach. Evidence was gathered from one public health (MEDLINE) and one social science (International Bibliography of Social Science) database using a detailed search syntax tailored to each disciplinary configuration. Literature was screened against pre-determined eligibility criteria and extracted from abstracts. Studies published in English or French between January 2010 and April 2018 were considered for inclusion. Driver categories (immediate, underlying and basic drivers) were coded against the UNICEF conceptual framework of malnutrition. A total of 358 studies were included; 237 were retrieved from the public health database and 124 from the social science database, 3 studies were included in both. The public health and social science literature document different drivers, with MEDLINE most often reporting immediate drivers of malnutrition and the International Bibliography of Social Science database reporting underlying and basic drivers. The combined literature offers more balanced representation across categories. An interdisciplinary approach proved successful in achieving complementarity in search results while upholding rigorous methods. We recommend that interdisciplinary approaches are utilised to bridge recognised gaps between defined disciplines.


A recently proposed model, known as blind/referenceless image spatial quality evaluator (BRISQUE), achieves the state-of-the-art performance in context of blind image quality assessment (IQA). This model used the predefined generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) to describe the regularity of natural scene statistics, introducing fitting errors due to variations of image contents. In this paper, a more generalized model is proposed to better characterize the regularity of extensive image contents, which is learned from the concatenated histograms of mean subtracted contrast normalized (MSCN) coefficients and pairwise products of MSCN coefficients of neighbouring pixels. The new feature based on MSCN shows its capability of preserving intrinsic distribution of image statistics. Consequently support vector machine regression (SVR) can map it to more accurate image quality scores. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves a slight gain from BRISQUE, which indicates the crafted GGD modelling step in BRISQUE is not essential for final performance.


A sensitive and reliable analytical method for the simultaneous enantiomeric analysis of chiral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and flurbiprofen) in water, river sediment, and sludge was established. Enantioseparation of the analytes was performed on a Chiralpak IG column using a mobile phase of 0.1% aqueous formic acid and acetonitrile. Magnetic solid-phase extraction, based on dummy-template molecularly imprinted polymer-coated magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes combined with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction, was employed to pretreat complex environmental samples. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the pretreatment processes were systematically optimized. Under the optimized conditions, recoveries of all enantiomers from environmental matrices were in the range 75.8–92.1% with relative standard deviations no higher than 12.4%. The quantification limits for enantiomers ranged from 6.17 to 11.94 ng L−1 in water samples and from 1.16 to 2.54 ng g−1 in river sediment and sludge samples. This method was successfully used to analyze the enantiomeric composition of three chiral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in real environmental samples, which will improve understanding of their degradation processes and aid evaluation of their ecological toxicity.


Despite the importance of rapidly‐flowing ice streams to ice sheet mass balance, their incorporation into numerical ice sheet models is a major scientific challenge. This introduces large uncertainties in model output and inhibits a more complete understanding of the role of ice streams in overall ice sheet stability. Recent computational advances have enabled more realistic representations of ice streaming but few studies have attempted to compare model output against known locations of ice streams. This paper compares predictions of ice streaming derived from a large ensemble analysis of a Glacial Systems Model of the Laurentide Ice Sheet against independent geological evidence compiled from previously published studies. Although the precise dating of paleo‐ice stream locations is problematic, our analysis includes comparisons at six different time‐steps (18 to 10 cal ka BP) during deglaciation. Results indicate that the model is successful in predicting all of the major marine‐terminating ice streams but there is mixed success in simulating terrestrial ice streams in the right place and at the right time, which is vital in guiding future model development. The model also reveals that whilst some ice streams persist throughout deglaciation the focus of mass loss associated with ice streaming switches through time with dynamic changes in ice stream catchments and tributaries. This implies that major changes in ice stream activity are to be expected in a deglaciating ice sheet, with important implications for contemporary ice sheet dynamics.


ConclusionIs the density-fertility relation a statistical artifact? The answer, I conclude, is no. Like all empirical findings, the observed coefficients might misstate the true effects, so the density coefficient could be "wrong." Moreover, the density coefficient does not identify the mechanism(s)—inheritance, child labor value, or migration—through which density affects fertility. But the density coefficient is not artifactual. Jensen's claims are specious. His principal claim, that the use of ratio variables with common components creates bias, is based on a statistical myth. Two other claims, that pooling the village data creates a spurious correlation between density and the CBR and that the density coefficient has been inflated by simultaneity bias are shown to be false. His final claim, that omitted-variable bias must inflate the density coefficient, is also wrong. I see no reason, then, to modify the conclusions of the Punjab study.


[1] This paper briefly reviews the background, objectives, and results of the Arctic Transitions in the Land–Atmosphere System (ATLAS) Project to date and provides thoughts on future directions. The key goal of the ATLAS Project is to improve understanding of controls over spatial and temporal variability of terrestrial processes in the Arctic that have potential consequences for the climate system, i.e., processes that affect the exchange of water and energy with the atmosphere, the exchange of radiatively active gases with the atmosphere, and the delivery of freshwater to the Arctic Ocean. Three important conclusions have emerged from research associated with the ATLAS Project. First, associated with the observation that the Alaskan Arctic has warmed significantly in the last 30 years, permafrost is warming, shrubs are expanding, and there has been a temporary release of carbon dioxide from tundra soils. Second, the winter is a more important period of biological activity than previously appreciated. Biotic processes, including shrub expansion and decomposition, affect snow structure and accumulation and affect the annual carbon budget of tundra ecosystems. Third, observed vegetation changes can have a significant positive feedback to regional warming. These vegetation effects are, however, less strong than those exerted by land–ocean heating contrasts and the topographic constraints on air mass movements. The papers of this special section provide additional insights related to these conclusions and to the overall goal of ATLAS.


Abstract The application of natural dyes is increasing each year due to their environmental friendliness and easy application on cellulose fibers. In this study, the natural dye from the Mexican marigold flower was extracted using a Soxhlet extraction apparatus. The extracted natural dye was applied on lyocell fabric with five different metallic salts using pre-mordanting and post-mordanting methods. It was observed that different color shade depth was achieved with different fixing agents. The color shade depth (K/S) washing fastness, light fastness, rubbing fastness, perspiration, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) test results of all dyed samples were excellent in both pre- and post-mordanting methods. There was no significant difference in the results between post- and pre-mordanting fixation methods. However, the results showed that mordant ferrous sulfate had higher K/S value as compared to all other mordants. The dye extracted from marigold flower showed good dyeing efficiency with mordant to excellent colorfastness tests. FTIR results showed that there was no structural change in lyocell fabrics, before and after dyeing processes. Thus, a natural dye extracted from marigold flower has shown good colorfastness properties without damaging its fiber structure.


The performance of anytime algorithms having a nondeterministic nature can be improved by solving simultaneously several instances of the algorithm-problem pairs. These pairs may include different instances of a problem (like starting from a different initial state), different algorithms (if several alternatives exist), or several instances of the same algorithm (for non-deterministic algorithms). A straightforward parallelization, however, usually results in only a linear speedup, while more effective parallelization schemes require knowledge about the problem space and/or the algorithm itself. In this paper we present a general framework for parallelization, which uses only minimal information on the algorithm (namely, its probabilistic behavior, described by a performance profile), and obtains a super-linear speedup by optimal scheduling of different instances of the algorithm-problem pairs. We show a mathematical model for this framework, present algorithms for optimal scheduling, and demonstrate the behavior of optimal schedules for different kinds of anytime algorithms.


Abstract 1594 Background: Tumor-infiltrating immune cells perform important functions in host immune reaction against tumor cells including diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Recently, variable tumor-infiltrating cells were reported to give a influence for prognosis, for example, regulatory T cell (T reg), cytotoxic T cell, macrophage and mast cell etc. Among these microenvironmental cells, we focused on Treg, cytotoxic T and macrophage cell, and we assessed the distribution and prognostic significance of these cells in DLBCL. Patients and Methods: We examined samples from 124 patients with DLBCL (69 men and 55 women; median age, 70 years) at diagnosis who were prospectively enrolled between 2002 and 2008. All patients were treated with R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone). FOXP3 protein expression as Treg cells, CD8 expression as cytotoxic T cells, and CD163 expression as activated macrophage cells were evaluated by using immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embeded tissue samples. Results: The median count of FOXP3+ cells was 15.2/mm 2 (×400) (range 1– 350/mm 2 ), the median of CD8+ cells was 72/mm 2 (8−402) and the median of CD163+ cells was 24/mm 2 (0−114). Patients with high count of FOXP3+ cells (>15/mm 2 ) have better prognosis than those of low count (5 year (5-y) overall survival (OS); 72.1%, 49.7% p=0.024, respectively). No significant difference was observed for progression free survival (PFS) of FoxP3 expression. No significant difference was observed for OS and PFS of CD8 expression. Patients with low count of CD163+ cells ( 2 ) have better prognoses than those of high count (5-y OS; 80.1%, 52.5% p=0.009, 5-y PFS: 84.3%, 42.9% p=0.0019, respectively). Multivariate analyses employing factors such as poor risk group of revised International Prognostic Index (R-IPI), non-GCB type of subtype and low counts of FoxP3, low count of CD8, and high count of CD163 demonstrated that CD163 and R-IPI for OS and PFS were independent prognostic factors (OS; CD163 odd9s ratio: 2.56, p=0.038, R-IPI: 2.66, p=0.015, PFS; CD163: 2.73, p=0.03, R-IPI: 2.56, p= 0.012). Conclusion: The count of tumor-infiltrating cells especially CD163+ macrophage might predict prognosis of DLBCL treated with R-CHOP. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


A novel algorithm to estimate instance-level future motion (FM) in a single image is proposed in this paper. First, the FM of an instance is defined with its direction, speed, and action classes. Then, a deep neural network, called FM-Net, is developed to determine the FM of the instance. More specifically, the multi-context pooling layer is proposed to exploit both object and global context features, and the cyclic ordinal regression scheme is developed using binary classifiers for effective FM classification. Also, the proposed FM-Net is trained in a semi-supervised domain adaptation setting to obtain reliable FM estimation results, even when a source domain in the training process and a target domain in the inference process are different. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm provides remarkable performance and thus can be used effectively for computer vision applications, including single object tracking, multiple object tracking, and crowd analysis. Furthermore, the FM dataset, collected from diverse sources and annotated manually, is released as a benchmark for single-image FM estimation.


A variety of cyclic and acyclic products are reported for reactions of thiocarbonyl compounds with carbenes and their metal complexed derivatives. Electrophilic and nucleophilic carbenes react with non-enolizable thioketones yielding thiocarbonyl ylides or 1,3-zwitterions, respectively, as plausible, reactive intermediates. In most cases, the initially formed intermediates undergo 1,3-electrocyclization yielding respective thiiranes, which, depending on the substitution pattern, are either isolated as final products or extrude elemental sulfur forming substituted ethylene derivatives. In addition, reactive thiocarbonyl ylides formed from α-oxo substituted carbenoids after the thiophilic attack onto the C = S bond undergo competitive 1,3- versus 1,5-dipolar electrocyclization leading to thiiranes or 1,3-oxathioles, respectively. From the point of view of potential practical applications (coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry), zwitterionic hetarylidene dithiocarboxylates accessible as stable 1:1 adducts from the reactions of nucleophilic heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with carbon disulfide are of great interest. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


During the SFM I project, studies were made on the relevance to Africa of Sweden's experience in 100–150 years to become a successful forestry country. Six major issues have influenced the development of forests, forestry and forest industries in Sweden. The first relates to the societal, economic and political macro-trends of the last 150 years—democratisation, industrialisation, urbanisation, etc. Obviously, developments in forestry have been influenced, and to a significant degree, made possible by these factors. Five other key issues help explain the current forest situation: that wood early on acquired a commercial value and that private land owners, the Government and industry exploited the opportunities to add extra value by industrial processing; that ownership of forests was largely in private hands (farmers and industry); that forest policies and legislation were put in place to support the developments in forestry; the role of NGOs; and the roles of Government. Although ecological and economic conditions are obviously different, it was concluded that many Swedish lessons related to the processes and mechanisms of developing and administrating forest policies and legislation, strengthening institutional capacity for supporting mechanisms to SFM, e.g. within areas of research, education/ training, resource inventories and statistics, extension services, certification and market intelligence, etc., and in organising and empowering stake-holders in the use, management and conservation of forest and tree resources, could be of relevance, in adapted forms, also to Africa.


Aim: Whole-body gallium scan was performed to evaluate the usefulness of gallium scan for detecting extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) lesions. Methods: Thirty-seven patients with extrapulmonary TB were included in this study. Four patients were found to have two lesions. Totally, 41 lesions were identified, including 19 TB arthritis, 8 spinal TB, 5 TB meningitis, 3 TB lymphadenopathy, 2 TB pericarditis, 1 TB peritonitis, 1 intestinal TB, 1 skin TB and 1 renal TB. Results: Of the 41 extrapulmonary TB lesions, gallium scan detected 32 lesions with a sensitivity of 78%. All the patients with TB meningitis showed negative gallium scan. When the five cases of TB meningitis were excluded, the detection sensitivity of gallium scan increased to 88.9% (32/36). Conclusion: Our data revealed that gallium scan is a convenient and useful method for evaluating extrapulmonary TB lesions other than TB meningitis. We suggest that gallium scan be included in the clinical routine for patients with suspected extrapulmonary TB.


Current trends in the wind turbine industry demand that manufacturers and related research facilities increase development efficiency whilst minimizing production costs. A key component developed is the blade, which needs to efficiently capture the wind energy whilst being able to survive severe weather conditions. More recently larger blades have been used, where main advantages include an increase in wind capture efficiency, a reduction in the installation and reduction in maintenance costs per MW. This paper outlines the main principles behind optical measurement techniques employed, influencing factors for using this technology, and presents the importance of the results achieved thus far and describes ongoing development activities.


South Africa's role in Africa since its democratic transition has been mired in controversy and characterised by differing interpretations. While it has wrestled ambivalently about constructing an African identity in the Mandela years, President Mbeki has firmly located South Africa's interests in Africa. The normative foundations of its Africa engagement with regard to providing public goods and leadership in peace diplomacy, resolving conflicts, and helping to develop the continent's institutions collides with the more instrumental aspects relating to investment, its commercial interests and the material sources of its hegemony. These dynamics have been profoundly shaped and determined by South Africa's domestic transitional order and its own development imperatives, as well as international role expectations. This article examines these issues and concludes that South Africa's future relations with Africa will depend on how it addresses the multiple ambiguities and contradictions of its engagement and pursues a hegemony that is more firmly grounded in meeting the continent's development and growth challenges.


In this section readers are encouraged to share their experiences with computers and calculators as they apply to the two-year college mathematics curriculum. There is special interest in innovative uses of these tools to solve problems, to present concepts, and to define new directions for curriculum development. All material for this section should be sent to Thomas Green. (See inside cover for details on submitting manuscripts.) Be sure to include with your paper a copy of the computer or calculator program and a successful run and output.


With the globe facing various scales of natural disasters then and there, disaster recovery is one among the hottest research areas and the rescue and recovery services can be highly benefitted with the advancements of information and communications technology (ICT). Enhanced rescue effect can be achieved through the dynamic networking of people, systems and procedures. A seamless integration of these elements along with the service-oriented systems can satisfy the mission objectives with the maximum effect. In disaster management systems, services from multiple sources are usually integrated and composed into a usable format in order to effectively drive the decision-making process. Therefore, a novel service indexing method is required to effectively discover desirable services from the large-scale disaster service repositories, comprising a huge number of services. With this in mind, this paper presents a novel multilevel indexing algorithm based on the equivalence theory in order to achieve effective service discovery in large-scale disaster service repositories. The performance and efficiency of the proposed model have been evaluated by both theoretical analysis and practical experiments. The experimental results proved that the proposed algorithm is more efficient for service discovery and composition than existing inverted index methods.


ABSTRACT Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is a transmembrane signal transducer for tripalmitoyl-S-glyceryl-cysteine (Pam3Cys)-modified lipoproteins, including OspA from the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The Pam3Cys modification provides adjuvant activity for inducing humoral responses, suggesting that TLR2 could function as the adjuvant receptor for the OspA vaccine. The importance of TLR2 in the humoral response to OspA was confirmed, because overall levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) were reduced in TLR2-deficient mice, when compared with those in wild-type mice. However, the levels of production of IgG1 were similar in both mouse strains, and the levels of induction of protective immunity were comparable. Unlipidated OspA was not immunogenic in wild-type or TLR2-deficient mice, indicating the lipid modification was active in the absence of TLR2. These findings indicate that the Pam3Cys modification of bacterial lipoprotein has adjuvant properties independent of TLR2 signaling.


This paper proposes the streaming radio frequency identification (RFID) protocol to support robust data streaming in a passive communication, which is extended from the ISO18000‐6 Type C RFID standard. By observing and modeling the unique bit error behavior through detailed analysis in this paper, we found that performance is significantly limited by inaccurate and unstable link frequencies as well as low SNR which are inevitable for passive devices. Based on the analysis, we propose a simple and efficient protocol to adaptively insert extra error control sequences in a packet for tolerating tough link condition while maximizing the throughput and preserving the minimal implementation cost. To evaluate effectiveness of our proposal in real‐time streaming applications, we experimented on real‐time H.264 video streaming and prototyped the system on FPGA. To our best knowledge, our paper is the first work to take analytical approach for maximizing the throughput and demonstrate the possibility of the real‐time multimedia streaming transmission in the passive RFID system.


Intense investigation into the molecular basis of angiogenesis is rapidly revealing novel signaling pathways involved in the generation of new vasculature. These range from elucidation of the mechanism by which hypoxia initiates expression of a proangiogenic gene repertoire via the hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIFs) to molecular pathways involved in extra- and intracellular signaling during new vessel formation. Extracellular pathways include those of the Notch/delta, ephrin/Eph receptor and roundabout/slit families, and intracellular pathway members of the hedgehog and sprouty families. The involvement of these pathways in angiogenesis is discussed, together with some comments on recently identified targets in the vasculature that present new therapeutic opportunities.


Displacement feedback control of a cantilever beam is studied using non-collocated piezoelectric patch sensors and actuators. The solution to the problem is obtained using two different methods, one analytical and another numerical. The analytical method involves an integral equation formulation of the problem where the eigensolutions of the integral equation are shown to be the eigensolutions of the governing differential equation of motion of the smart beam. This approach eliminates the difficulties associated with discontinuities caused by patch sensors and actuators which introduce Heaviside functions and derivatives of the Heaviside functions into the differential equation formulation. The numerical method of solution uses a finite-element model of the controlled beam with modified beam element mass and stiffness matrices to account for the piezo patches and the control effect. The control circuit consists of a piezoceramic and polyvinylidene fluoride sensor patch and a lead zirconium titanate actuator patch. The mass and stiffness of the piezoceramic actuator patch are taken into account in the mass and stiffness calculations. Numerical examples with non-collocated sensor and actuator patches are presented and the first three natural frequencies are given using the integral equation and the finite-element methods. The results of these methods match very closely which provides a verification of the results.


Recently, there is an emerging interest in adversarially training a classifier with a rejection option (also known as a selective classifier) for boosting adversarial robustness. While rejection can incur a cost in many applications, existing studies typically associate zero cost with rejecting perturbed inputs, which can result in the rejection of numerous slightly-perturbed inputs that could be correctly classified. In this work, we study adversarially-robust classification with rejection in the stratified rejection setting, where the rejection cost is modeled by rejection loss functions monotonically non-increasing in the perturbation magnitude. We theoretically analyze the stratified rejection setting and propose a novel defense method -- Adversarial Training with Consistent Prediction-based Rejection (CPR) -- for building a robust selective classifier. Experiments on image datasets demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms existing methods under strong adaptive attacks. For instance, on CIFAR-10, CPR reduces the total robust loss (for different rejection losses) by at least 7.3% under both seen and unseen attacks.


The main drawback of conventional stenting procedure is the high risk of restenosis. The idea of a stent that "disappears" after having fulfilled its mission is very intriguing and fascinating. The stent mass should diminishing in time to allow the gradual transmission of the mechanical load to the surrounding tissues. Magnesium and its alloys seem to be among the most appealing materials to design biodegradable stents. The objective of this work is to develop, in a finite element (FE) framework, a model of magnesium degradation able to predict the corrosion rate and thus providing a valuable tool to design biodegradable stents. Continuum damage approach is suitable for modelling different damage mechanisms, including several types of corrosion. Corrosion is modelled by a scalar damage field which accounts for the material strength loss due to geometrical discontinuities. As damage progresses, the material stiffness decreases. Corrosion damage results as the superposition of stress corrosion process and uniform corrosion. The former describes the stress-mediated localization of the corrosion attack through a stress-dependent evolution law similar to the one used in analytical models, while the latter affects the free surface of the material exposed to an aggressive environment. The effects of both phenomena described are modelled through a linear composition of the two specific damage evolution laws. The model, developed in a FE framework, manages the mesh dependency, typical of strain-softening behaviour, including the FE characteristic length in the damage evolution law definition. The developed model is able to reproduce the behaviour of different magnesium alloys subjected to static and slow-strain-rate corrosion tests. Moreover, 3D stenting procedures accounting for the interaction with the arterial vessel are simulated.


The social studies course is one of the most appropriate courses for individuals to acquire social and cultural experiences and to have knowledge and experience in these subjects. The social studies course contains a lot of knowledge, skills, and values to enable the individual to know himself and gain a social identity. It is seen how a society expresses its feelings and emotions at different times, on sad or happy days through folk songs, which have an essential place among the literary products used in the course. This study, which aimed to determine the opinions of the prospective social studies teachers regarding the use of folk songs in social studies courses, was carried out with 16 prospective social studies teachers. In this study, a semi-structured interview form was used to collect data. Explanatory and inferential codes that emerged during the analysis were used to explain the qualitative data and relationships. In line with the data obtained, prospective teachers stated that they found the use of folk song-supported teaching activities in social studies teaching useful in ensuring permanence, drawing students' attention, and being fun. They also expressed that it has benefits such as giving an idea about our national culture, presenting values to students, increasing intelligibility, ensuring that traditions and customs are conveyed from generation to generation, and providing students with different perspectives.


Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common nutritional diseases worldwide, this is particularly true in Iran due to the populations limited exposure to natural sunlight, especially in urban areas. Several concerns exist regarding vitamin D deficiency, including disorders of calcium homeostasis, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune disorders, and some common cancers.1,2 Hence, due to the devastating effects of vitamin D deficiency, Iranian people have been strongly encouraged to take vitamin D supplements and vitamin D is administered freely in schools and health centers. Consequently, products containing vitamin D became a popular medication and supplementation in the community. Additional amounts of vitamin D are ingested from processed foodstuffs such as fortified edible oil and dairy products.3 The irrational administration and consumption of vitamin D has transformed it into a double-edged sword. There are several reports regarding vitamin D toxicity after long-term consumption of vitamin D inappropriately. The toxicity of vitamin D may last for long duration because it is a fat-soluble vitamin with a high accumulation rate in adipose tissue. Remarkably, the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level has been reported to be up to 500 ng/mL in some case reports, which demonstrate that the irrational usage of vitamin D could lead to severe toxicity.4,5 A case series study concluded that hypervitaminosis is the most important differential diagnosis of patients with hypercalcemia, particularly in endemically vitamin D deficient regions.6 The study warned physicians against prescribing vitamin D in high doses without careful monitoring.6 Vitamin D toxicity is accompanied by several serious problems. Early symptoms of toxicity include gastrointestinal disorders, bone pain, lethargy, severe headaches, arrhythmia, frequent urination, calcinosis, and nephrolithiasis.7 Therefore, it is necessary to employ effective strategies to correct this irrational pattern of vitamin D usage. The appropriate regimen of vitamin D should be prescribed based on age, associated risk factors, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. The necessary education should also be provided to health care providers and the general public. In addition, high doses of vitamin D products should not be purchased from pharmacies without a vast medical or nutritional history. By employing these strategies, the toxicity of vitamin D can be diminished significantly and avoid any potential issues for the countries health system. This letter is the first published alarm for health professionals in Iran.


The ability of cuttlefish shell (Sepia recurvirostra) to adsorb heavy metals copper in water solutionhave been investigated. The study was conducted in laboratory scale using batch method and using synthetic waste of Cu. Optimum biosorption conditions determined of pH, adsorbent dosage, the initial concentration of metal ions, contact time and temperature. The results showed the highest Cu ion biosorption capacity in synthetic waste of Cu(II) amounted to 29.535 mg/g at pH 4; biosorbent dose of 0.2 g; initial concentration of Cu(II) 140 mg/L and the contact time of 1 hour. Biosorption equilibrium described with Freundlich Isotherm equation and biosorption kinetics known to follow the pseudo second order with a value of R2 each 0.9483 and 0.9999. Biosorption thermodynamic parameters are determined by the free energy change (ΔG0), enthalpy (ΔH0) and entropy (ΔS0) during biosorption at a temperature of 29-400C.


Rupture of the ventricular septum following posterior myocardial infarction is an uncommon, but lethal, injury that requires prompt repair. Surgical reconstruction can be complex, demanding, and unfamiliar. Conventional techniques, as described in the literature, are associated with a variety of potential pitfalls. An alternative method we have successfully used in our last four patients is presented in detail. The procedure uses two composite (felt/pericardium) patches: an internal patch to reconstruct the left ventricular geometry and an external patch to repair the subtotal infarctectomy. For maximal security, all suture lines sandwich myocardium between two continuous felt surfaces. Specific transition stitches are described, which reliably anchor the entire repair at the critical, but poorly visualized, areas where the ventricular septum makes its transition to left and right ventricular free walls. This technique offers immediate hemostasis and a more anatomical left ventricular geometry. The method also reduces the risk of systemic thromboembolism, residual VSD, and repair disruption.


CD4+ CD56+ hematodermic neoplasm (HN) is a rare and aggressive neoplasm that has raised controversy regarding its etiology. CD4+ CD56+ HN is thought to be derived from plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and most commonly stains with CD4, CD56, CD123, and T-cell leukemia/lymphoma 1 (TCL1). Skin manifestations usually are the presenting signs and vary in appearance. Lymph node involvement also is common at the time of presentation, and the natural course of the disease is a progression to leukemia. Treatment of CD4+CD56+ HN focuses on multiple chemotherapeutic regimens but none have been proven to successfully impact overall survival.


Background: The incidence of caesarean section for breech presentation has reached approximately 90 % in Sweden. In many of these cases, by means of specific selection criteria, it would be as safe to plan for vaginal breech delivery. Aim: The objective of this study was to investigate differences in management and to compare maternal and fetal outcomes according to delivery mode of breech presentation; vaginal vs. caesarian section. The study included breech presentation in full term singleton pregnancies at the UppsalaUniversityHospital, Uppsala, Sweden (UAS). Method: The study was based on medical record data with a retrospective, descriptive, comparative design with quantitative approach. The method for data collection was a manual review of patient records using a structured questionnaire. Results: Of the women with children in breech presentation during the period studied, 11 % gave birth vaginally. Mother's wish was the most common cause of caesarean section. The group with caesarean section included more first-time mothers, longer length of stay at the hospital, increased bleeding and need for pain medication, separation from the child, later lactation and earlier introduction of formula. Vaginally delivered mothers had increased incidence of straight urine catheterization postpartum and of infants with lower Apgar scores. Conclusion: This study does not support the suggestion that it would be safer to give birth by caesarean section for breech presentation in cases where the woman at full term meets strict selection criteria. Instead of applying medical criteria, the decision regarding mode of delivery was more often left up to the mother.


Objective. To create an IPE course that improved knowledge related to HIV history, prevention, and therapy, in health professions students and improved their interest and confidence in becoming interprofessional collaborative clinicians, specifically involved in the care of people living with HIV. Methods. A motivational design framework was used to create an interprofessional course that incorporated whole-task complex scenarios, team-based application, and experiential components. Multiple sources of quantitative and qualitative data, including the AIDS Education and Training Center evaluation tool and Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale instrument, as well as assignments and course evaluations, were collected and analyzed. Results. Fifteen students from medicine, nursing, and pharmacy participated in 2017, and 21 students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work participated in 2018. In both offerings, students rated the course experience positively and self-reported increases in confidence related to interprofessional competencies. Ninety-three percent and 68% of the students in 2017 and 2018, respectively, stated they planned to be involved in HIV care to some degree in the future. Students demonstrated high levels of knowledge of the AIDS Training & Education Center National HIV Curriculum at the end of the 2018 course offering. Conclusion. This educational course design provided an effective interprofessional learning experience and establishes a sustainable interprofessional format for teaching health professions students about HIV.


OBJECTIVE
To review published clinical trial data related to efficacy and safety of administering denosumab at extended dosing intervals for prevention of skeletal-related events (SREs) in cancer patients.

DATA SOURCES
A literature search of PubMed was performed (January 2006 to February 2023) using the following search terms: denosumab, bone metastasis, bone lesions, and lytic lesions. Abstracts from conferences, article bibliographies, and product monographs were also reviewed.

STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION
Relevant English-language studies were considered.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Early phase II denosumab trials included treatment arms that utilized extended-interval denosumab, and various retrospective reviews, meta-analyses, and prospective trials have included extended-interval regimens. Most recently, the ongoing randomized REDUSE trial is comparing the efficacy and safety of extended-interval denosumab to standard dosing. At this time, the best available data are restricted to small, randomized trials not designed to compare efficacy and safety of extended-interval denosumab to conventional dosing and did not use consistent endpoints. Furthermore, primary endpoints of available trials largely consisted of surrogate markers of efficacy that may not be reflective of clinical outcomes.

RELEVANCE TO PATIENT CARE AND CLINICAL PRACTICE
Historically, denosumab has been dosed at 4-week intervals for prevention of SREs. If efficacy is maintained, extending the dosing interval could potentially reduce toxicity, drug cost, and clinic visits compared to every 4-week dosing.

CONCLUSIONS
At this time, data demonstrating efficacy and safety of extended-interval denosumab remain limited, and the results of the REDUSE trial are eagerly anticipated to help answer remaining questions.


In this paper, we study the problems of opinion expression extraction and expression-level polarity and intensity classification. Traditional fine-grained opinion analysis systems address these problems in isolation and thus cannot capture interactions among the textual spans of opinion expressions and their opinion-related properties. We present two types of joint approaches that can account for such interactions during 1) both learning and inference or 2) only during inference. Extensive experiments on a standard dataset demonstrate that our approaches provide substantial improvements over previously published results. By analyzing the results, we gain some insight into the advantages of different joint models.


Reforms in the public health infrastructure such as those called for in recent Institute of Medicine reports require stakeholder engagement on different levels than traditional grass-roots community work. The Turning Point Initiative, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, involves 21 state-wide partnerships established for systems change and focused in specific areas of public health innovation and policy development. These partnerships represent a different model of strategic alliances and relationship-building than has been previously described in the literature on community-level and health-promotion collaborations. This article utilizes qualitative data to illustrate the ways in which state-level partnerships for systems change both confirm and extend previous models. Findings indicate that state-level public health partnerships share many of the challenges and opportunities of locally-based and health-promotion-oriented partnerships. Collaboration at the state level, however, involves more attention to organizational alliances, coordination of institutional change, and strategic responses to political changes. These partnerships depend on a combination of interpersonal skills, material resources, and organizational savvy to manage complex planning and implementation processes. Influencing policy development and organizational redesign in public health systems requires nuanced understanding of the opportunities provided by various kinds of organizational partners.


We used natural mercury (Hg) stable isotopes to investigate the Hg cycle in a rainforest soil catena (French Guiana) partially gold-mined during the early 1950s. Litterfall showed homogeneous Δ199Hg values [-0.18 ± 0.05‰, i.e., a modern gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) isotopic signature]. After litter decomposition, Hg bound to organic matter (OM) is mixed with Hg from pristine (-0.55 ± 0.22‰) or gold-mined (-0.09 ± 0.16‰) mineral materials. Negative Δ199Hg values in deep pristine mineral horizons (-0.60 ± 0.16‰) suggest the transfer of Hg bound to dissolved OM depleted in odd isotopes due to mass-independent fractionation during Hg abiotic reduction. Perennial palm tree leaves collected above gold-mined and pristine soil recorded contrasting Δ199Hg signatures likely resulting from GEM re-emission processes from soils and leaf surfaces. Upslope, soil δ202Hg signatures showed a negative shift (ε ∼ -1‰) with depth attributed to mass-dependent fractionation during Hg sorption and complexation onto iron oxides and dissolved OM. Downslope, higher δ202Hg values in soils resulted from hydromorphy [lower humification, greater Hg(II) reduction, etc.]. The unique Hg isotopic signatures of Amazonian soils probably result in multistep fractionation processes during pedogenesis (millions of years) and in a potentially different Hg isotopic signature of preanthropogenic background GEM.


Because variation in fat reserves (i.e., condition) is expected to contribute to variation in survival and reproductive success, zoologists often wish to estimate the condition of the animals they study. The conventional condition estimates used for snakes are the residuals from a regression of body mass on body length. Because this estimate of condition is not independent of the variables used to estimate it (i.e., fat is a component of body mass), estimates derived in this fashion will be confounded whenever fat varies nonrandomly with length. To avoid this problem we used total lipid extraction to estimate percent body fat in a representative sample of northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon). The conventional condition index explained less than half the variance in the measured percent body fat in this sample. An improved estimate of condition calculated as the difference between total body mass and predicted lean mass (based on the results of the lipid extraction) explained 70% of the variation in percent body fat in the original sample of snakes. 'This improved estimate also revealed that condition declined with body size in a large sample of male water snakes measured in early spring over a 4-year period. This last result, coupled with theoretical expectations that condition will not vary randomly with body size in snakes, suggests that researchers interested in condition should derive indices from direct measurements of body fat.


Nitrogen oxide (NO x =NO+NO 2) emissions from various sources contribute to the ozone budget. The identification of these contributions is important, e.g. for the assessment of emissions from traffic. The non-linear character of ozone chemistry complicates the online diagnosis during multi-decadal chemistry-climate simulations. A methodology is suggested, which is efficient enough to be incorporated in multi-decadal simulations. Eight types of NO x emissions are included in the model. For each a NO y (=all N components , except N 2 and N 2 O) tracer and an ozone tracer is included in the model, which experience the same emissions and loss processes like the online chemistry fields. To calculate the ozone changes caused by an individual NO x emission , the assumption is made that the NO x relative contributions from various sources are identical to the NO y relative contributions. To evaluate this method each NO x emission has been increased by 5% and a detailed error analysis is given. In the regions of the main impact of individual sources the potential error of the calculated contribution is significantly smaller than the contribution. Moreover, the changes caused by an increase of the emissions of 5% were detected with a higher accuracy than the potential error of the absolute contribution.


The National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A) in northeastern Alaska provides winter maternal denning habitat for polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) and also has high potential for recoverable hydrocarbons. Denning polar bears exposed to human activities may abandon their dens before their young are able to survive the severity of Arctic winter weather. To ensure that wintertime petroleum activities do not threaten polar bears, managers need to know the distribution of landscape features in which maternal dens are likely to occur. Here, we present a map of potential denning habitat within the NPR-A. We used a fine-grain digital elevation model derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) to generate a map of putative denning habitat. We then tested the map's ability to identify polar bear denning habitat on the landscape. Our final map correctly identified 82% of denning habitat estimated to be within the NPR-A. Mapped denning habitat comprised 19.7 km2 (0.1% of the study area) and was widely dispersed. Though mapping denning habitat with IfSAR data was as effective as mapping with the photogrammetric methods used for other regions of the Alaskan Arctic coastal plain, the use of GIS to analyze IfSAR data allowed greater objectivity and flexibility with less manual labor. Analytical advantages and performance equivalent to that of manual cartographic methods suggest that the use of IfSAR data to identify polar bear maternal denning habitat is a better management tool in the NPR-A and wherever such data may be available.


Abstract. This article explores the role of the EU as a global actor in international relations and a promoter of its own standards and values abroad. In particular, this article studies selected substantive and procedural means of exporting the acquis communautaire into the legal systems of third countries. It is argued that the substantive means refer to the fundamental ways of implementing the acquis into third country legal orders. The procedural means relate to specific technical/procedural tools which either directly or indirectly encourage the implementation of the acquis into third country legal orders. The article concludes that these substantive and procedural means are not uniformly applicable, but are rather exercised in accordance with the specific objectives of EU external agreements. Analysis of the selected EU external agreements illustrates that their objectives unquestionably constitute a driving force behind understanding the role and mechanism of the substantive and procedural means of exporting the acquis communautaire.


The adrenal steroid hormones have a central role in maintaining homeostasis, as they have influence on almost every physiological process. Their movement across the cell membrane is still poorly understood, although this is of great interest to basic biology and medicine. Previous studies have suggested transporter(s) may participate in this process. In this study the characteristic features of the previously demonstrated ROAT1-like exchange transport system in bovine adrenal cells were investigated with representative substrates. Corticotrophin (ACTH) stimulated 3H-PAH uptake into bovine adrenocortical cells, which could be inhibited by probenecid. Cortisol, glutarate and PAH in the incubation medium also cis-inhibited 3H-PAH uptake, and preincubation with PAH trans-stimulated 3H-PAH uptake. Preliminary studies on human adrenocortical cells also provided evidence for the existence of a probenecid inhibitable PAH-transporter. These results support the concept of an organic anion/dicarboxylate exchanger involved in cortisol release and PAH uptake into adrenocortical cells. Additionally, a sodium-dependent succinate uptake was also demonstrated in bovine adrenocortical cells. The uptake was inhibited by lithium, glutarate, fumarate, a-ketoglutarate and maleate, but not by 2,3-dimethylsuccinate or cis-aconitate. The lack of inhibition by citrate on succinate uptake at pH 7.4 is different from the data reported for the dicarboxylate transporters of all other organs investigated. These data are the first evidence for the existence of a Na+-dicarboxylate cotransporter in adrenocortical cells. The expression of two families of organic anion transporters in adrenal cells was also investigated. This study represents the first demonstration of the renal organic anion transporter (ROAT1) and the three members of the organic anion transporting polypeptide family (oatp1, oatp2, oatp3) by PCR from rat adrenal cDNA. The rat organic cation transporter 2 (OCT2) was also detected from the adrenal gland by in situ hybridization. In addition, in situ hybridization was performed to determine the localisation of the expression of the newly demonstrated transporters in the rat adrenal gland. In the case of ROAT1, intense signal was observed in the outer zona fasciculata, while oatp3 and OCT2 mRNAs were clearly shown to be expressed in the zona glomerulosa. The oatp1- and oatp2-specific probes produced signals in single cells or small groups of cells in the inner zona fasciculata and zona reticularis. For all transporters tested in the adrenal gland, only ROAT1 expression showed clear increase upon exposure to ACTH. The number of cells expressing ROAT1 mRNA was increased, especially in the inner zones of the adrenal cortex, while without ACTH, the signal was no longer detectable even in the inner zona fasciculata. In summary these experiments provide clear evidence for the existence of a variety of transport systems in the adrenal gland. The evidence presented here suggests that of these transporters, the adrenal ROAT1 seems to be involved in glucocorticoid release from adrenocortical cells.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Previous studies of lesion localization in dental of hemiplegia have often been confounded by factors such as the cerebral etiology, which aspects of the disorder are denied, and whether delusions are present. Our investigation focuses on denial of hemiplegia, without concomitant delusions, after cerebrovascular accident (CVA).

METHODS
The CT scans of 30 patients with denial of hemiplegia after acute stroke were compared with those from 10 CVA patients with hemiplegia and visuospatial neglect but no denial. Lesion sites were detailed using the templates of Damasio and Damasio and, for the deep structures, those of Talairach and Tournoux.

RESULTS
Analysis of the CT scans demonstrated that 26 of 30 denial patients had unilateral right-sided lesions and that this group showed a significantly higher incidence of lesions in deep white matter and the basal ganglia.

CONCLUSIONS
The results are discussed in relation to recent ideas regarding the role of the basal ganglia and subcortical circuits in movement and executive function.


A new 1-D template-based automatic target recognition (ATR) algorithm is developed and tested on high range resolution (HRR) profiles formed from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of targets taken from the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) data set. In this work, a superresolution technique known as High Definition Vector Imaging (HDVI) is applied to the HRR profiles before the profiles are passed through ATR classification. The new I-D ATR system using HDVI demonstrates significantly improved target recognition compared with previous I-D ATR systems that use conventional image processing techniques. This improvement in target recognition is quantified by improvement in probability of correct classification (PCC). More importantly, the application of HDVI to HRR profiles helps to maintain the same ATR performance with reduced radar resource requirements.


Abstract:This essay examines the inconsistencies in the discussion of proofs in Rhetoric 1.1 and 1.2. Recent commentators have attempted to reconcile these inconsistencies by claiming that ethos and pathos are to be understood as rational, inferential, or cognitive aspects of Aristotle's conception of rhetorical proof, thus linking the proofs in 1.2 to those in 1.1. In sharp contrast, I contend that the rift between the two conceptions of rhetorical proofs is even greater than most commentators acknowledge. I argue that there are two completely different conceptions of rhetorical proofs that cannot be reconciled in these two sections of the Rhetoric, that the inconsistencies are due to the tumultuous transmission and editorial history of the corpus Aristotelicum (and not to any of Aristotle's developmental views on rhetoric), and that the transmission and editorial history of the text needs to play a much more important role in our interpretation of the Rhetoric than it has hitherto.


INTRODUCTION "A good model can advance fashion by 10 years."--Yves Saint Laurent, 1984 Fashion is an area where interpersonal communications have been found to be highly important in the diffusion of information. Additionally, the frequent introduction of new clothing styles each season makes the fashion market a desirable study for diffusion research focusing upon innovativeness (Baumgarten, 1975). According to Rogers (1995,) an innovation is any idea, practice or object perceived as new. Fashion is characterized by constant innovations, whether real or perceived that often include small changes from the previous season or year. Because fashions are constantly changing, but the fashion changes are not extreme innovations, they can be classified as dynamically continuous innovations (Rogers, 1995). Understanding the diffusion process for fashion therefore is crucial to marketers in the industry since fashion is so dynamic in nature. The study of how new (whether real or perceived) fashions gets diffused has been given lots of attention to in the literature (e.g. Baumgarten (1975), Darden (1972), Darley (1993), Fernie (1997), Hirschman (1978), Kaigler (1978), King (1980), Mitchell (2001), Moore (2000), Reynolds (1973), Sproles and Burns (1994), Summers (1970), Tigert (1980) etc.) The results have typically shown that the fashion diffusion process is similar to that of any category, with fashion innovators being the first to try a new style (comprising approximately 2.5% of the population,) followed by early adopters (comprising approximately 12.5% of the population) who pick up some of the new styles from innovators. If fashion opinion leaders are among this category, then the new look has a greater chance of becoming an established fashion, and of increasing the next category, the early majority, (referred to as mass market consumers by Sproles and Burns (1994)) to make this new style into a full-fledged fashion trend. This category of adopters, together with the next category of late fashion followers comprises about 68% of the total adopters. Finally, in the last category are the laggards, or fashion isolates who are fairly uninterested in fashion and who comprise the remaining 16% of the population (Sproles and Burns (1994), Hirschman and Adcock, (1978)). As alluded to above, the early adopter category has a tremendous impact on the successful adoption of a fashion by the masses. More specifically, the opinion leaders in this category are key members of society that are crucial in disseminating information on the latest fashion trends to the rest of the population. Opinion leadership is defined as "the degree to which an individual is able to influence other individual's attitudes or overt behavior informally in a desired way with relative frequency" (Rogers, 1995). If designers can determine who these opinion leaders are, and target them effectively, then the introduction of a particular fashion has a much higher probability of becoming adopted. We propose that for the fashion industry, specifically for the teen market, celebrities are key opinion leaders in influencing them to adopt a new style. The objective of this paper therefore is to explore the roles of celebrities in the diffusion of fashion amongst teenagers in the United States by examining them as opinion leaders who influence teens to try and ultimately adopt new fashion styles. What is Fashion? According to Oscar Wilde, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every 6 months." Fashion is not merely the objects that designers produce, but rather it is a social process that continually modifies the meanings of styles (Sproles and Burns, 1994). More specifically, "fashion is a way of behaving that is temporarily adopted by a discernable proportion of members of a social group as socially appropriate for certain times and situations" (Sproles and Burns, 1994). The term fashion can be broken down into several subcategories: fad, classic, high fashion and mass fashion. …


Pueschel C.M. and Huisman J.M. 2010. Observations of Pihiella liagoraciphila (Pihiellales, Rhodophyta). Phycologia 49: 42–47. DOI: 10.2216/08-92.1 The structure of the diminutive endo/epiphytic red alga Pihiella liagoraciphila was examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. The structure of the pit plugs consisted of a plug core with cap membranes but no cap layers, thus supporting the independence of this species from the Ahnfeltiales, to which it is most closely related in a molecular phylogeny but whose members have pit plugs without cap membranes. Hair cells were common and prominent and were characterized by exceptionally large pit plugs and an unusual membranous lattice adjacent to the pit plugs. The presence of large, degenerating pit plugs on the flanks of the cells subtending hair cells indicates that the hair cells can regenerate by division of the subtending cell, which acts as an initial. Sporangia also appear to regenerate from their stalk cells. These findings have implications for understanding the incompletely known life history of P. liagoraciphila.