Microarray technology captures the rate of expression of genes under varying experimental conditions. Genes encode the information necessary to build proteins; proteins used by cellular functions exhibit higher rates of expression for the associated genes. If multiple proteins are required for a particular function then their genes show a pattern of coexpression during time periods when the function is active within a cell. Cellular functions are generally complex and require groups of genes to cooperate; these groups of genes are called functional modules. Modular organization of genetic functions has been evident since 1999. Detecting functionally related genes in a genome and detecting all genes belonging to particular functional modules are current research topics in this field.
The number of microarray gene expression datasets available in public repositories increases rapidly, and advances in technology have now made it feasible to routinely perform whole-genome studies where the behavior of every gene in a genome is captured. This promises a wealth of biological and medical information, but making the amount of data accessible to researchers requires intelligent and efficient computational algorithms. Researchers working on specific cellular functions would benefit from this data if it was possible to quickly extract information useful to their area of research.
This dissertation develops a machine learning algorithm that allows one or multiple microarray data sets to be queried with a set of known and functionally related input genes in order to detect additional genes participating in the same or closely related functions. The focus is on time-series microarray datasets where gene expression values are obtained from the same experiment over a period of time from a series of sequential measurements. A feature selection algorithm selects relevant time steps where the provided input genes exhibit correlated expression behavior. Time steps are the columns in microarray data sets, rows list individual genes. A specific linear Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is then constructed to contain one hidden state for each of the selected experiments and is trained using the expression values of the input genes from the microarray.
Given the trained HMM the probability that a sequence of gene expression values was generated by that particular HMM can be calculated. This allows for the assignment of a probability score for each gene in the microarray. High-scoring genes are included in the result set (of genes with functional similarities to the input genes.) P-values can be calculated by repeating this algorithm to train multiple individual HMMs using randomly selected genes as input genes and calculating a Parzen Density Function (PDF) from the probability scores of all HMMs for each gene.
A feedback loop uses the result generated from one algorithm run as input set for another iteration of the algorithm. This iterated HMM algorithm allows for the characterization of functional modules from very small input sets and for weak similarity signals.
This algorithm also allows for the integration of multiple microarray data sets; two approaches are studied: Meta-Analysis (combination of the results from individual data set runs) and the extension of the linear HMM across multiple individual data sets. Results indicate that Meta-Analysis works best for integration of closely related microarrays and a spanning HMM works best for the integration of multiple heterogeneous datasets.
The performance of this approach is demonstrated relative to the published literature on a number of widely used synthetic data sets. Biological application is verified by analyzing biological data sets of the Fruit Fly D. Melanogaster and Baker.s Yeast S. Cerevisiae. The algorithm developed in this dissertation is better able to detect functionally related genes in common data sets than currently available algorithms in the published literature.


Objectives Non-surgical contraceptive management of free-roaming cat populations is a global goal for public health and humane reasons. The objectives of this study were to measure the duration of contraception following a single intramuscular injection of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone-based vaccine (GonaCon) and to confirm its safe use in female cats living in colony conditions. Methods GonaCon (0.5 ml/cat) was administered intramuscularly to 20 intact female cats (queens), and saline was administered to 10 queens serving as sham-treated controls. Beginning in late February, 4 months after injection, all cats were housed with fertile male cats in a simulated colony environment. Time to pregnancy, fetal counts and vaccine-elicited injection-site reactions were evaluated. Results All control cats (n = 10/10) and 60% (n = 12/20) of vaccinated cats became pregnant within 4 months of the introduction of males. Two additional vaccinates became pregnant (70%; n = 14/20) within 1 year of treatment. Average fetal counts were significantly lower in vaccinated cats than in control cats. Vaccinates had a significantly longer (P = 0.0120) median time to conception (212 days) compared with controls (127.5 days). Injection-site reactions ranging from swelling to transient granulomatous masses were observed in 45% (n = 9/20) of vaccinated cats. Conclusions and relevance A single dose of GonaCon provided contraception lasting for a minimum of 1 year in 30% (n = 6/20) of treated cats. The level of contraception induced by this GonaCon dose and vaccine lot was not sufficiently effective to be recommended for use in free-roaming cats.


Zygosaccharomyces bailii ISA 1307 displays biphasic growth in a medium containing a mixture of glucose (0.5%, w/v) and acetic acid (0.5%, w/v), pH 5.0 and 3.0. In cells harvested during the first growth phase, no activity of a mediated acetic acid transport system was found. Incubation of these cells in phosphate buffer with cycloheximide for 1 h restored activity of an acetic acid carrier which behaved as the one present in glucose-grown cells. These results indicated that the acetic acid carrier is probably present in cells from the first growth phase of the mixed medium but its activity was affected by the presence of acetic acid in the culture medium. In glucose-grown cells, after incubation in phosphate buffer with glucose and acetic acid, the activity of the acetic acid carrier decreased significantly with increased acid concentration in the incubation buffer. At acid concentrations above 16.7 mM, no significant carrier activity was detectable. Furthermore, the intracellular acid concentration increased with the extracellular one and was inversely correlated with the activity of the acetic acid carrier, suggesting the involvement of a feedback inhibition mechanism in the regulation of the carrier. During biphasic growth, the first phase corresponded to a simultaneous consumption of glucose and acetic acid, and the second to the utilization of the remaining acid. The enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase was active in both growth phases, even in the presence of glucose. Activity of isocitrate lyase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase was found only in acetic-acid-grown cells. Thus it appears that both membrane transport and acetyl-CoA synthetase and their regulation are important for Z. bailii to metabolize acetic acid in the presence of glucose. This fact correlates with the high resistance of this yeast to environments with mixtures of sugars and acetic acid such as those often present during wine fermentation.


Digital fault location scheme is presented based on the transient analysis of a faulted network. The theoretical basis is first described using the Laplace transform technique, and an attempt is made to clear its relation to the Fourier transform scheme. With the theoretical fault data, location performances are analyzed regard to system characteristics. Finally, the study is extended to determine the optimal operator value for numerical Laplace transform. The proposed scheme will be suitable for implementation at an integrated digital protection and control system for transmission substations.


This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the relation between inflation and globalization, measured in terms of trade and financial openness. Using a large crosssection of 91 countries covering the period 1985-2004, we establish two main empirical regularities. Both higher trade and financial openness i) reduce central bank's inflation bias,yielding lower average inflation, and ii) are associated with a larger output-inflation tradeoff. This evidence is at odds with the standard Barro-Gordon framework, which would require globalization to have a negative effect on the output-inflation tradeoff to yield lower equilibrium inflation, but it is consistent with a recent strand of new Keynesian models emphasizing the role of imperfect competition and wage rigidities. Moreover, our findings do not hold up for the OECD subsample, which suggests that a group of highly developed countries has been successful in creating an institutional framework for central banks that eliminates distortions due to the time inconsistency problem.


We show how, under certain conditions, programs written in the behavioral programming approach can be modified (e.g., as result of new requirements or discovered bugs) using automatically-generated code modules. Given a trace of undesired behavior, one can generate a relatively small piece of code, whose execution is interwoven at run time with the rest of the system and brings about the desired changes without modifying existing code, and without introducing new bugs. At the core of our approach is the ability of a thread of behavior to prevent the triggering of events from other threads. Our repair algorithms apply model checking to the program and transform the counterexamples produced by the model-checker into corrective modules. Our work is supported by a proof-of-concept tool, which creates understandable modules that can be further manually managed as part of ongoing incremental system development.


We present a method for enhancing the color recognition ability of dichromats. Whereas trichromats (usual people) recognize all colors in a 3-D color space, dichromats only recognize colors on a degenerate 2-D space in it. Our method compensates for the lost information along the degenerate direction in the color space with the amount of noise in the image. Dichromats recognize the lost color information as noisy textures, while the original color information for trichromats is preserved. Our method is applicable not only to artificial figures such as graphs but also to natural photographs. We show the effectiveness of our method by experiments.


As part of our screening for anti-HIV agents from marine invertebrates, the MeOH extract of Didemnum molle was tested and showed moderate in vitro anti-HIV activity. Bioassay-guided fractionation of a large-scale extract allowed the identification of two new cyclopeptides, mollamides E and F (1 and 2), and one new tris-phenethyl urea, molleurea A (3). The absolute configurations were established using the advanced Marfey's method. The three compounds were evaluated for anti-HIV activity in both an HIV integrase inhibition assay and a cytoprotective cell-based assay. Compound 2 was active in both assays with IC(50) values of 39 and 78 μM, respectively. Compound 3 was active only in the cytoprotective cell-based assay, with an IC(50) value of 60 μM.


We have investigated the transmission and reflection properties of structures incorporating left-handed materials with graded index of refraction. We present an exact analytical solution to Helmholtz' equation for a graded index profile changing according to a hyperbolic tangent function along the propagation direction. We derive expressions for the field intensity along the graded index structure, and we show excellent agreement between the analytical solution and the corresponding results obtained by accurate numerical simulations. Our model straightforwardly allows for arbitrary spectral dispersion.


High resolution Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) in a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM) was used to study substructural development during the deformation by cold rolling of a single-phase Al-0.1Mg alloy with initial grain sizes between ~3µm and 120µm. In the coarse-grained material, bands of elongated cells aligned at approximately 35º to the rolling direction were formed at low strains. However, as the grain size was reduced, fewer of these aligned microstructural features were formed, and at the smallest grain sizes, there was little evidence of significant substructure within the deformed grains. The alignment of low angle boundaries was analysed from EBSD data and shown to be a function of grain size, strain and boundary misorientation.


The thesis is made up of four separate but related texts recording the author's investigations of loss, searches and re-constructions. Questions of ownership are also examined, with particular reference to objects of cultural and artistic significance. The Holocaust is a major focus, especially attitudes of the New Zealand government and New Zealanders themselves to the refugees who wished to settle here before and after World War II.  The thesis is a hybrid of critical and creative writing. The first three texts, "The autobiographical museum", "History-making" and "Cairn", are also hybrid in genre, containing found text, new prose and poems, discussion of other writers' work and the author's experiments in 'active reading'. The fourth text is an Index which offers an alternative reading of the other three texts and helps the reader to locate material. While somewhat different from each other in form, all texts focus on the activity of gathering objects and information. All four texts are fragmented rather than complete.  Interviews with curators, education officers and CEOs in two Australian museums that have Holocaust exhibits provided information on the aims and processes of these exhibits. Meetings with six Holocaust survivors who act as volunteer guides in museums and reactions of visitors to the museums provided other perspectives on the work of the museums. The author also reports on visits to the Holocaust Gallery at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand in Wellington.  Activity Theory, a cultural-historical model often applied to the analysis of learning and pedagogy, is used in the thesis as a metaphorical backdrop to the author's own activity. The author's focus on intentions, tools, processes, division of labour and financial pressures reflects the influence of Activity Theory as does the author's willingness to let understanding take shape gradually through tentative conclusions, some of which are later overturned.  Over the period of the research, records of the past are recovered and re-examined in the present, as was intended. Individual and collective memory, including archival records, fiction and poetry are resources for these investigations. The author receives an object lesson in the power of the informal networking role of the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, as well as benefiting from its formal displays and materials.  During the research the author writes records of the present because it seems necessary to do so. By the time the research ends, these have become records of the past – an outcome which Emanuel Ringelblum would have predicted but was a surprise to the author.


Authoritarian regimes frequently commit systematic killings of their own subjects, yet the mechanisms governing this behavioral shift remain unclear. We address this puzzle by developing a formal model that shows authoritarian elites perpetrate systematic killing campaigns preemptively in response to an exogenous shock where urban development levels are sufficiently high. In these contexts, the civilians cannot commit not to mobilize and pose a credible threat to the regime, which often preempts these efforts using systematic killings. Statistical analyses of a global high-resolution sample within all authoritarian states between 1996 and 2008 confirm the model's predictions. This study thus explicates when elites would resort to systematic killing as a rationalist strategy, and identifies an important dynamic that explains geographical and temporal variations in systematic killings within authoritarian states.


Nitrifying bacteria were found to be widely distributed among the products of the weathering crust of ultrabasite rocks. Nitrosospira briensis and Nitrobacter winogradskyi involved in the first and second phases of nitrification, respectively, were detected and isolated as pure cultures. In experiments conducted with a pure culture of Nitrosospira briensis, a correlation was established between degradation of serpentinite by this culture and an increase in the content of nitrites in the growth medium. The presence of nitrogen compounds in the deposits, as well as wide distribution of nitrifying bacteria, suggests that this bacterial group along with other, in particular, heterotrophic microorganisms participates in weathering of serpentinized ultrabasite rocks, leaching of elements, and formation of the weathering crust.


We propose an expression for a local planetesimal formation rate proportional to the instantaneous radial pebble flux. The result—a radial planetesimal distribution—can be used as an initial condition to study the formation of planetary embryos. We follow the idea that one needs particle traps to locally enhance the dust-to-gas ratios sufficiently, such that particle gas interactions can no longer prevent planetesimal formation on small scales. The locations of these traps can emerge everywhere in the disk. Their occurrence and lifetime is subject to ongoing research; thus, here they are implemented via free parameters. This enables us to study the influence of the disk properties on the formation of planetesimals, predicting their time-dependent formation rates and the location of primary pebble accretion. We show that large α-values of 0.01 (strong turbulence) prevent the formation of planetesimals in the inner part of the disk, arguing for lower values of around 0.001 (moderate turbulence), at which planetesimals form quickly at all places where they are needed for proto-planets. Planetesimals form as soon as dust has grown to pebbles (mm to dm) and the pebble flux reaches a critical value, which is after a few thousand years at 2–3 au and after a few hundred thousand years at 20–30 au. Planetesimal formation lasts until the pebble supply has decreased below a critical value. The final spatial planetesimal distribution is steeper compared to the initial dust and gas distribution, which helps explain the discrepancy between the minimum mass solar nebula and viscous accretion disks.


Study Objective: We compared the effects of intraoperative body position on blood gas and fluid
balance in patients undergoing a thoracoscopic esophagectomy as well as during
operation and postoperative laboratory data. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Operating room
and intensive care unit. Patients: ASA physical
status 1 and 2 patients (n = 26), scheduled for elective thoracoscopic
esophagectomy and immediate reconstruction under general anesthesia with
one-lung ventilation were enrolled. Interventions: Patients were assigned to either the lateral (n = 16) or prone (n = 10)
position groups based on the planned intraoperative body position. A
pneumothorax procedure was concomitantly performed only in the prone position
group. Measurements: Fluid balance,
PaO2/FIO2 ratio (P/F ratio), and maximum PaCO2 during the operation and postoperative laboratory data were analyzed. Main Results: There were no significant
differences between the groups for amount of blood loss, blood transfusion,
fluid infusion, or urine output. The P/F ratio during one-lung ventilation was
significantly higher in the prone than the lateral position group (379 ± 122 vs.
297 ± 67 mmHg, p = 0.017), as was maximum intraoperative PaCO2 (72.2
± 15.6 vs. 48.3 ± 6.3 mmHg, p Conclusions: A thoracoscopic esophagectomy in the prone position performed concomitantly
with a CO2 pneumothorax procedure resulted in a significantly better
P/F ratio during one-lung ventilation as compared to the lateral position,
indicating that the prone position is more advantageous for oxygenation.


Objectives To further demonstrate the validity of Affordable Rapid Olfaction Measurement Array (AROMA), an essential oil−based smell test, and compare it to the Sniffin' Sticks 12 Test (SST12). Study Design Prospective cross-sectional study. Setting Academic medical center. Methods Fifty healthy individuals without sinonasal disease were recruited to the study. AROMA has been previously validated against the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test. The current study tests 2 additional higher concentrations to increase the ability to detect olfactory reserve. Healthy participants completed AROMA, SST12, Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), and Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders (QoD). Spearman correlations were used to evaluate AROMA, SST, SNOT-22, and QoD. Results AROMA demonstrated strong test-retest reliability (r = 0.757, P < .01). AROMA showed a moderate correlation to SST12 (ρ = 0.412, P < .01). Age and SNOT-22 were significantly correlated (P < .05) with AROMA (ρ = −0.547, −0.331, respectively), and age was weakly correlated with SST (ρ = −0.377, P < .01). Median percent correct scores were as follows: SST12 identification, 92%; AROMA detection, 90%; and AROMA identification, 81%. Median correct odor identification of AROMA concentrations at 1×, 2×, 4×, and 8× were 64%, 75%, 92%, and 92%, respectively. Conclusion AROMA has a moderate correlation with SST12. AROMA is more strongly correlated than SST12 to age and SNOT-22. AROMA's stronger correlation with subjective olfactory status, low cost, and adaptability may help remove barriers to routine olfactory testing in the clinic.


One major challenge in automated segmentation of lymph nodes in CT scans is the high variance in terms of texture, surrounding tissue, shape and also size. Mass Spring Models have been proven to be suitable for this task. However due to their size preserving property, their performance is highly affected by the size of the target structures. This paper addresses this point by introducing a size invariant Mass Spring Model, which relates to relative rest lengths, has balanced torsion forces and an initial model expansion. We evaluated our method on a set of 25 lymph nodes from routinely gathered CT images and compared it to state of the art Mass Spring Models with different initial sizes. The average Dice Similarity Coefficient toward gold standard was 0.72 for our method compared to 0.61 for the best fitted state of the art model. Thus our method can be successfully applied to clinical relevant lymph nodes of different size without prior knowledge about the size of the target structures in contrast to existing methods.


The underlying theory of "Spin" of an electron and its associated inter-actions causing internal fields and spectral shift to bulk-magnetism iswell established now. Our understanding of spin properties is significant andmore useful than ever before. In recent years there seems to be an enormousinterest towards application oriented materials that harness those spin prop-erties. Theoretical simulations remain in a position to "assist or pilot" theexperimental discovery of new materials.In this work, we have outlined available methodologies for spin coupling inmulti-reference and DFT techniques. We have benchmarked multi-referencespin-Hamiltonian computation in isoelectronic diradicals - Trimethylenemethane(TMM) and Oxyallyl. Also with DFT, parameters are predicted with anewly discovered TMM-like stable diradicals, reported to have large positiveexchange interactions. Excellent agreement were obtained and our findingsemphasize that the dipole-dipole interactions alone can predict the splittingof triplet states and that DFT spin procedures hold well in organic species.We have extended our spin-studies to a highly application oriented ma-terial - nanographene. Using our novel spin-parameter arguments we haveexplained the magnetism of graphene. Our studies highlight a few signifi-cant aspects - first there seems to be a size dependency with respect to thespin-Hamiltonian; second, there is a negligible contribution of spin-orbit cou-pling in these systems; third, we give a theoretical account of spin restrictedand unrestricted schemes for the DFT method and their consequences forthe spin and spatial symmetry of the molecules; and, finally, we highlightthe importance of impurities and defects for magnetism in graphene. Wepredict triplet-singlet transitions through linear response TDDFT for thetris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium complex, an organic molecule shown tohave spintronics applications in recent experiments. Our spin studies werein line with those observations and could help to understand the role of thespin-coupling phenomena.


It may be beneficial to the community of scholars in general and the members of Association of Information Systems (AIS) – Special Interest Group on Security and Privacy (SIGSEC) to coordinate research activities to achieve accomplishments that are beyond the scope of individual scholars as well as having the possibility to solve problems that are of value to both academics and practitioners. The Bright Blue Cybersecurity (BBC) research project seeks to develop a set of research goals in the area of cybersecurity and then devise strategies to coordinate efforts of both current and future scholars who wish to participate.


Background: N-heptyl-D-galactonamide (GalC7) is a small synthetic carbohydrate derivative that forms a biocompatible supramolecular hydrogel. In this study, the objective was to analyze more in-depth how neural cells differentiate in contact with GalC7. Method: Direct (ex vivo) cells of the fresh hippocampus and culture (In vitro) of the primary cells were investigated. In vitro, investigation performed under three conditions: on culture in neurospheres for 19 days, on culture in GalC7 gel for 7 days, and on culture in both neurospheres and GalC7 gel. Total RNA was isolated with TRIzol from each group, Sox8, Sox9, Sox10, Dcx, and Neurod1 expression levels were measured by qPCR. Result: Sox8 and Sox10, oligodendrocyte markers, and Sox9, an astrocyte marker, were expressed at a much higher level after 7 days of culture in GalC7 hydrogel compared to all other conditions. Dcx, a marker of neurogenesis, and Neurod1, a marker of neuronal differentiation, were expressed at better levels in the GalC7 gel culture compared to the neurosphere. Conclusions: These results show that the GalC7 hydrogel brings different and interesting conditions for inducing the differentiation and maturation of neural progenitor cells compared with polymer-based scaffolds or cell-only conditions. The differences observed open new perspectives in tissue engineering, induction, and transcript analysis.


The design optimization of digital communication systems using selectively fading transmission media such as HF and troposcatter requires knowledge of the selective fading characteristics of the media. A minimal characterization is provided by the gross channel parameters of multipath spread and Doppler spread. This paper presents several techniques which will allow the simultaneous measurement of multipath and Doppler spread in real time with a minimum of equipment complexity. The techniques are first divided into two classes depending upon whether measurements are made on in-phase and quadrature components of received carriers or on envelopes of received carriers. A further subdivision is made according to two different techniques of multipath spread measurement, one of which, called the SSB method, uses two transmitted carriers while the other, called the FM method, uses a frequencymodulated carrier. The envelope measurements are the simplest and should provide considerable help in any large scale testing of the selective fading properties of the HF and troposcatter media.


IZA DP No. 13679 SEPTEMBER 2020 Trade and Economic Growth: Theories and Evidence from the Southern African Development Community This paper empirically tests the hypothesis that trade can act as an engine of growth using panel data for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional integration agreement (RIA) organization, the central objective of whose formation was the need to accelerate, foster, and encourage the region's growth. Our results indicate that during the period covered by this study (2005-2017), export expansion stimulated growth, more openness to trade reduced it, and that the formation of SADC had not yet brought about any effects on growth perhaps because of lack of full establishment of the primary instruments for achieving its central objective. These results lead to three conclusions. Firstly, trade through export expansion seems to be a better solution for SADC for achieving the central objective of its formation. Secondly, more openness to trade seems to jeopardize growth. Finally, the formation of SADC has not yet brought about the expected gains from a RIA. In this context, we recommend that policymakers should consider adopting measures aimed at supporting increased trade through promoting export expansion, achieving strong absorption of negative chocks that usually result from trade, and exploring the possibility of establishing all the planned primary instruments for achieving SADC's central objective. JEL Classification: F15, F36, F43, O43, O47


We assessed the performance of ten incidence-based estimators of tree species richness in simulated simple random sampling with fixed-area plots. Stem diameter-limited tree species and location data came from two species-rich wet tropical forest compartments in Panama and India. Lower limits of stem diameter were 1 cm and 30 cm, respectively. Estimators varied widely in their estimates of richness and their rankings changed frequently across sites and sample designs. A gammaPoisson estimator was overall best according to a performance score of three accuracy statistics and sample size. However, until corroborated by further studies, Chao's 1981 non-parametric estimator is recommended for forest inventories with fixed-area plots.


The metallurgical properties of oxidized pellets are of great importance to achieve high efficiency and smooth running of blast furnace and gas-based direct reduction shaft furnace. In this study, the new method of adding B-Mg compound additive has been put forth to improve metallurgical properties of pellets. The effects of adding B-Mg additive on the strength of green balls, cold compressive strength, reduction swelling, and the strength after reduction and cooling of oxidized pellets are investigated through the experiments and microstructure analysis. The results revealed that, the B-Mg additive has not-so-remarkable effects on the properties of green balls. The rational addition amount of B-Mg additive is 0.6 %, and B-Mg additive make it feasible to reduce roasting temperature of the pellets. High temperature properties show remarkable improvement with the increase of B-Mg additive amount, the RSI decrease from 14.7% to 7.17%, and the strength of pellets after reduction and cooling increase from 162.5 N to 650.8 N when the addition amount increases from 0 to 0.6%.


Software design involves translating a set of task requirements into a structured description of a computer program that will perform the task. A software designer can use design schema, collaborative design knowledge, or can reuse design artifacts. Very little has been done to include reuse of design artifacts in the software development life cycle, despite tremendous promises of reuse. As a result, this technique has not seen widespread use, possibly due to a lack of cognitive understanding of the reuse process. This research explores the role of a specific cognitive aspect, opportunism, in demand-side software reuse. We propose a cognitive model based on opportunism that describes the software design process with reuse. Protocol analysis verifies that the software design with reuse is indeed opportunistic and reveals that some software designers employ certain tasks of the reuse process frequently. Based on these findings, we propose a reuse support system that incorporates blackboard technology and existing reuse library management system.


Studies were undertaken to compare interferon production among a variety of lymphoreticular cells, with emphasis on the alveolar macrophage. Explanted cells from rabbit lung, spleen, peritoneum, bone marrow, and blood produced interferon in varying amounts in response to six of the seven viruses studied. The various lymphoreticular tissues responded differently to a single interferon-inducing virus, and each tissue produced varying amounts of interferon when stimulated by different viruses. In addition, glass-adherent rabbit alveolar macrophages produced more interferon than did the nonadherent subpopulation. Human blood and lung cells produced much less interferon than did the equivalent rabbit cells under similar conditions of stimulation. It appeared that interferon production may have been controlled by several variables, including the species, the type of inducer, and the type of tissue and cell.


Abstract. Besides agricultural soils, temperate forest soils have been identified as significant sources of or sinks for important atmospheric trace gases (N2O, NO, CH4, and CO2). Although the number of studies for this ecosystem type increased more than tenfold during the last decade, studies covering an entire year and spanning more than 1–2 years remained scarce. This study reports the results of continuous measurements of soil-atmosphere C- and N-gas exchange with high temporal resolution carried out since 1994 at the Hoglwald Forest spruce site, an experimental field station in Southern Germany. Annual soil N2O, NO and CO2 emissions and CH4 uptake (1994–2010) varied in a range of 0.2–3.0 kg N2O-N ha−1yr−1, 6.4–11.4 kg NO-N ha−1yr−1, 7.0–9.2 t CO2-C ha−1yr−1, and 0.9–3.5 kg CH4-C ha−1yr−1, respectively. The observed high fluxes of N-trace gases are most likely a consequence of high rates of atmospheric nitrogen deposition (>20 kg N ha−1yr−1) of NH3 and NOx to our site. For N2O, cumulative annual emissions were ≥ 0.8 kg N2O-N ha−1yr−1 in years with freeze-thaw events (5 out 14 of years). This shows that long-term, multi-year measurements are needed to obtain reliable estimates of N2O fluxes for a given ecosystem. Cumulative values of soil respiratory CO2 fluxes tended to be highest in years with prolonged freezing periods, i.e. years with below average annual mean soil temperatures and high N2O emissions (e.g. the years 1996 and 2006). Furthermore, based on our unique database on trace gas fluxes we analyzed if soil temperature, soil moisture measurements can be used to approximate trace gas fluxes at daily, weekly, monthly, or annual scale. Our analysis shows that simple-to-measure environmental drivers such as soil temperature or soil moisture are suitable to approximate fluxes of NO and CO2 at weekly and monthly resolution reasonably well (accounting for up to 59 % of the variance). However, for CH4 we so far failed to find meaningful correlations, and also for N2O the predictive power is rather low. This is most likely due to the complexity of involved processes and counteracting effects of soil moisture and temperature, specifically with regard to N2O production and consumption by denitrification and microbial community dynamics. At monthly scale, including information on gross primary production (CO2, NO), and N deposition (N2O), increased significantly the explanatory power of the obtained empirical regressions (CO2: r2 =0.8; NO: r2 = 0.67; N2O, all data: r2 = 0.5; N2O, with exclusion of freeze-thaw periods: r2 = 0.65).


In the present work, zirconium gadolinium oxide (Gd2Zr2O7) ceramics were prepared by annealing in different conditions and with APS (air plasma sprayed) techniques for thermal barrier coating (TBC) application. Thermal properties, phase transformation, crystal structure and cross-sectional morphologies of these materials were investigated. The thermal behaviour of the material was investigated from room temperature to 1500°C using the differential thermal analysis (DTA). The X-ray diffraction methods were used for the qualitative phase analysis. The structure of the studied samples has been characterized by employing powerful Rietveld's whole X-ray profile fitting technique using the DBWS 9807a program. The SEM and EDS techniques were used to in the ceramic samples morphology analysis and for their chemical composition, respectively. The research showed that further stages of annealing result in the phase transformation of the parent substances and the main phase Gd2Zr2O7. It was found out that complete phase transformation into Gd2Zr2O7 phase takes place only for the air plasma sprayed sample. The analysis of the morphology of the initial powder revealed the spherical shape of the powder particles, which have a porous internal structure.


The tropical Andes are undergoing climate changes that rival those occurring anywhere else on the planet, and are likely to have profound consequences for ecosystems. Paleolimnological investigations of remote mountain lakes can provide details of past environmental change, especially where monitoring data are absent. Here, we reconstruct fossil diatom and chironomid communities spanning the last several hundred years from an Andean lake located in an ecological reserve near Quito, Ecuador. Both diatoms and chironomids recorded assemblage shifts reflective of changing climate conditions. The diatoms are likely responding primarily to temperature-related limnological changes, recording an increase in the number of planktonic taxa in the most recent sediments. This change is consistent with warmer conditions that result in enhanced periods of thermal stratification, allowing planktonic species to proliferate. The chironomids appear to respond mainly to a change in precipitation regime, recording a greater number of terrestrial and semi-terrestrial taxa that have been transported to the lake. A thick tephra deposit at the base of the sediment core affected both diatom and chironomid assemblages. The diatoms registered a change in species composition highlighting the ability of certain taxa to rapidly colonize new environments. In contrast, the chironomids showed a marked drop in abundance immediately following the tephra, but no change in species composition. In both cases the ecological response was short-lived, illustrating the resiliency of the lake to return to baseline conditions following volcanic inputs.


: In our fast-paced digital economy, expectations for improved user experiences (UX) increasingly drive innovation. Thus, companies must fully grasp users' points of view when they design innovative technologies that can successfully compete in a crowded global market. These technologies must not only satisfy users' expectations but also empower them and improve their quality of life. To address this challenge in our rapidly evolving and globally expanding digital economy, we need new theories and models for technology design—ones that incorporate UX. In this paper, we address this need by developing conceptual models for UX-driven innovation. We explain how these models can enable innovative, responsive technologies that meet users' needs in real time. These models also facilitate the production of new theories that are discovered via accessing the rich, real-time data sets that our increasingly smart and connected worlds create.


1. Organic farming in Europe has been shown to enhance biodiversity locally, but potential interactions with the surrounding landscape and the potential effects on ecosystem services are less well known. 2. In cereal fields on 153 farms in five European regions, we examined how the species richness and abundance of wild plants, ground beetles and breeding birds, and the biological control potential of the area, were affected by organic and conventional farming, and how these effects were modified by landscape complexity (percentage of arable crops within 1000 m of the study plots). Information on biodiversity was gathered from vegetation plots, pitfall traps and by bird territory mapping. The biological control potential was measured as the percentage of glued, live aphids removed from plastic labels exposed in cereal fields for 24 h. 3. Predation on aphids was highest in organic fields in complex landscapes, and declined with increasing landscape homogeneity. The biological control potential in conventional fields was not affected by landscape complexity, and in homogenous landscapes it was higher in conventional fields than in organic fields, as indicated by an interaction between farming practice and landscape complexity. 4. A simplification of the landscape, from 20% to 100% arable land, reduced plant species richness by about 16% and cover by 14% in organic fields, and 33% and 5·5% in conventional fields. For birds, landscape simplification reduced species richness and abundance by 34% and 32% in organic fields and by 45·5% and 39% in conventional fields. Ground beetles were more abundant in simple landscapes, but were unaffected by farming practice. 5. Synthesis and applications. This Europe-wide study shows that organic farming enhanced the biodiversity of plants and birds in all landscapes, but only improved the potential for biological control in heterogeneous landscapes. These mixed results stress the importance of taking both local management and regional landscape complexity into consideration when developing future agri-environment schemes, and suggest that local-regional interactions may affect other ecosystem services and functions. This study also shows that it is not enough to design and monitor agri-environment schemes on the basis of biodiversity, but that ecosystem services should be considered too.


We have determined new relations between UBV colors and mass-to-light ratios (M/L) for dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies, as well as for transformed g′ − r′. These M/L to color relations (MLCRs) are based on stellar mass density profiles determined for 34 LITTLE THINGS dwarfs from spectral energy distribution fitting to multi-wavelength surface photometry in passbands from the FUV to the NIR. These relations can be used to determine stellar masses in dIrr galaxies for situations where other determinations of stellar mass are not possible. Our MLCRs are shallower than comparable MLCRs in the literature determined for spiral galaxies. We divided our dwarf data into four metallicity bins and found indications of a steepening of the MLCR with increased oxygen abundance, perhaps due to more line blanketing occurring at higher metallicity.


St. Augustine was undoubtedly one of the great thinkers of the early church. Yet it has long been assumed--and not without reason--that the main lines of Augustine's thought have been more or less fixed since his death. That insofar as we should be aware of him in the twenty-first century, he is a figure described-if not circumscribed--by his times. A major revisionist treatment of Augustine's life and thought, Saint Augustine of Hippo overturns this assumption. In a stimulating and provocative reinterpretation of Augustine's ideas and their position in the Western intellectual tradition, Miles Hollingworth, though well versed in the latest scholarship, draws his inspiration largely from the actual narrative of Augustine's life. By this means he reintroduces a cardinal but long-neglected fact to the center of Augustinian studies: that there is a direct line from Augustine's own early experiences of life to his later commentaries on humanity. Augustine's new Christianity did not--in blunt assaults of dogma and doctrine--obliterate what had gone before. Instead, it actually caught a subtle and reflective mind at the point when it was despairing of finding the truth. Christianity vindicated a disquiet that Augustine had been feeling all along: he felt that it alone had spoken to his serious rage about man, abandoned to the world and dislocated from all real understanding by haunting glimpses of the Divine. A major new treatment of Augustine on all fronts, this superb intellectual biography shines a bright light on a genuinely neglected element in his writings. In so doing it introduces us to Augustine as he emerges from the unique circumstances of his early life, struggling with ironies and inconsistencies that we might just find in our own lives as well.


In 2006, a seminar on Aspects of Digital Game Culture was held at the TU Ilmenau, Department of Media Management. This seminar acknowledged the fact that in recent years, Digital Games (Computer-, Video- and Mobile-Games) have become an interesting topic for academic research. Within the booming sector of Game Studies the focus is no longer solely on the usage of digital games by children and teenager, or the influence digital games have on aggressive behaviour. Economic and cultural aspects of digital gaming play a significant role in the academic discourse on digital games. This paper presents two empirical studies on intercultural aspects of digital gaming. The first study explores the importance of digital games in Eastern Europe. The second, extensive study focuses on the emerging games market in China


We consider the behavior of an incumbent that can deploy local public goods and private goods to buy votes, and is unable to verify vote choice but capable of monitoring voter turnout, a common scenario in secret-ballot polities. As advanced by recent literature, the ability to monitor turnout rather than vote choice implies that politicians should use targetable private goods to mobilize voters. However, politicians also deploy non-excludable local public goods, which have low mobilization potential because of free-rider incentives. We argue that vote-buying politicians reserve local public goods for loyal constituencies (where they enjoy support from most voters that bother to turn out) and provide private goods in other constituencies where they gain from motivating less committed supporters to turn out. We test aggregate-level implications of our theory on Venezuela's social programs.


High‐grade neuroepithelial tumor with BCOR exon 15 internal tandem duplication (HGNET BCOR ex15 ITD) is a recently proposed tumor entity of the central nervous system (CNS) with a distinct methylation profile and characteristic genetic alteration. The complete spectrum of histologic features, accompanying genetic alterations, clinical outcomes, and optimal treatment for this new tumor entity are largely unknown. Here, we performed a comprehensive assessment of 10 new cases of HGNET BCOR ex15 ITD. The tumors mostly occurred in young children and were located in the cerebral or cerebellar hemispheres. On imaging all tumors were large, well‐circumscribed, heterogeneous masses with variable enhancement and reduced diffusion. They were histologically characterized by predominantly solid growth, glioma‐like fibrillarity, perivascular pseudorosettes, and palisading necrosis, but absence of microvascular proliferation. They demonstrated sparse to absent GFAP expression, no synaptophysin expression, variable OLIG2 and NeuN positivity, and diffuse strong BCOR nuclear positivity. While BCOR exon 15 internal tandem duplication was the solitary pathogenic alteration identified in six cases, four cases contained additional alterations including CDKN2A/B homozygous deletion, TERT amplification or promoter hotspot mutation, and damaging mutations in TP53, BCORL1, EP300, SMARCA2 and STAG2. While the limited clinical follow‐up in prior reports had indicated a uniformly dismal prognosis for this tumor entity, this cohort includes multiple long‐term survivors. Our study further supports inclusion of HGNET BCOR ex15 ITD as a distinct CNS tumor entity and expands the known clinicopathologic, radiographic, and genetic features.


This research explored the lives and worldviews of Asian immigrants in the United States presented in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's stories in The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (2001). Central characters in Divakaruni's narratives embody the sufferings of immigrants in the New Land. Precisely it was proposed to study the stories from the perspective of the diaspora. In this collection, the researcher has selected five stories, including "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter," "The Intelligence of Wild Things," "The Blooming Season for Cacti," "The Names of Stars in Bengali," and "The Unknown Errors of Our Lives." Since the characters like Mrs. Dutta, Mira, Radhika, and Kahuku's mother emigrate from India to different zones of America, they combat issues of cultural contradiction, identity crisis, disruption and family strives. Unlike them, Tarun, Mrs. Dutta's son, and her family are assimilated into the American society, whereas the characters such as Mrs. Dutta, Didi, and Mira recurrently remember their original house and early childhood days with friends. It is because they are fragmented and frustrated in America. The study concluded that the characters in her stories are ambitious and want to live a luxurious life but because of the lack of opportunities, they could not fulfill their desires and even some of them decided to return to their homeland to get a better life.


The recent phenomenon of rising outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows has raised serious policy concerns about its effects on the domestic investment and capital formation in the countries of origin of such FDI flows. Does OFDI stimulate domestic investment or does it crowd it out? The concern arises because OFDI activities could shift not only some of the production activities from home to foreign destinations but also could possibly threaten the availability of scarce financial resources at home by allocating resources abroad. All this have the potential to reduce domestic investment, thus lowering the long run sustainable economic growth and employment of the home economies. The central goal of this paper is to empirically explore the evidence of the macroeconomic relationship between OFDI and levels of domestic capital formation in India. Our study reveals that OFDI has long run strong positive causality with domestic investment and thus figures out to be a significant factor affecting domestic investment in India. It becomes imperative therefore that the nation make special effort to promote its OFDI through the designing of appropriate OFDI policies that would help stimulate its domestic investment now and in the future so as to sustain economic growth and development in the long run.


Abstract Cyber attacks cost the global economy approximately $445 billion per year. To mitigate attacks, many companies rely on cyber threat intelligence (CTI), or threat intelligence related to computers, networks, and information technology (IT). However, CTI traditionally analyzes attacks after they have already happened, resulting in reactive advice. While useful, researchers and practitioners have been seeking to develop proactive CTI by better understanding the threats present in hacker communities. This study contributes a novel CTI framework by leveraging an automated and principled web, data, and text mining approach to collect and analyze vast amounts of malicious hacker tools directly from large, international underground hacker communities. By using this framework, we identified many freely available malicious assets such as crypters, keyloggers, web, and database exploits. Some of these tools may have been the cause of recent breaches against organizations such as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The study contributes to our understanding and practice of the timely proactive identification of cyber threats.


This paper examines the production structure of the Australian sawmilling sector over the period 1950-51 to 1984-85 using a translog cost function. The results show that the sawmilling industry is best represented by a production function which does not have any restrictions on functional form. Inputs, including capital, labour, materials and energy, are generally found to substitutable for one another, although the degree of substitutability is small. There have been economies of scale in the Australian sawmilling industry, and technological change has been capital and energy-using, and labour and materials-saving.


Data mining is becoming more important and can be applied to several domains. The importance of data mining refers to its ability to derive valuable knowledge from voluminous datasets. Nowadays, numerous analytic platforms are developed which execute different data mining algorithms such as Spark, Mahout, WEKA, etc. These analytic platforms differ by their characteristics, purposes, performance, and the manner of processing the data. The plethora of analytic platforms escalates the difficulty of selecting the most appropriate analytic platform that fit the needed data mining algorithm, the submitted dataset, and additional user-defined criteria. Several works were introduced in order to help users in selecting the appropriate analytic platform. These works are mainly benchmarks for evaluating the performance of these analytic platforms. However, these benchmarks have several issues regarding their objectivity and the considered measures. For example, several benchmarks focus only on the execution runtime as a performance indicator with completely ignoring other measures such as the consumption of resources. This thesis introduces a novel approach to solve the problem of selecting the most appropriate analytic platform automatically for executing the needed data mining algorithm. The selection process depends on a hypothesis which is executing a data mining algorithm on similar datasets, using the same analytic platform, yields comparable performance. Depending on a previously conducted benchmark, the selection process compares the performance of different analytic platform and selects the one with the best performance according to a user-defined criterion, e.g., runtime of the data mining algorithm. The introduced approach in this thesis aggregates several analytic platforms with various data mining algorithms in order to offer a single, abstract interface to several analytic platforms. Hence, it enables the user to execute data mining algorithms on different analytic platforms according to the user need. Moreover, this approach allows novice users without profound programming background to execute data mining algorithms easily by solely calling the algorithm with the required parameters via a REST API. Therefore, the proposed approach can be used with several programming languages. Furthermore, this approach can perform an automatic benchmark for several execution engines using different data mining algorithms and different datasets. The benchmark result is stored so it can be used for the automatic selection later on. The prototypical implementation of the introduced approach has a loosely coupled and extensible architecture that gives it the flexibility to add more execution engines and more data mining algorithms later on. The introduced approach is evaluated on several analytic platforms such as Spark, Mahout, and WEKA along with several data mining algorithms from classification, clustering, and association rule discovery. The experimental results unveil that automatic selection of the analytic platform can save up to 98.45% of the execution time of the data mining algorithm in some cases. The proposed selection process achieves accuracy of 87.00% in selecting the analytic platform with best performance according to the runtime criterion. Selecting the most appropriate analytic platform causes a runtime overhead. However, this overhead is negligible compared to the actual execution time of the data mining algorithm.


Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy including preeclampsia (PE) affect ~15% of all pregnancies. We have previously demonstrated that excessive maternal immune system activation via Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) contributes to the development of PE-like symptoms such as hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, and proteinuria in mice only when pregnant. Recently, increased miR-155 (an inflammation-related miRNA) expression was reported in placentas from women with PE compared to normotensive women suggesting a pathophysiological role of miR-155 in PE. Whether miRNAs play a role in the etiology of PE by augmenting inflammation is unknown. We confirmed miR-155 expression was up-regulated in placentas of poly I:C (a TLR3 agonist) treated wild type mice by microarray (P-PIC: 1.56 fold, p<0.5 vs controls) and qRT-PCR analyses (P-PIC: 3.15 fold, p<0.05 vs. controls). Based on our data we hypothesized that TLR3 activation induces placental miR-155 expression that augments maternal inflammation leading to PE. Transcription factors NF-κB and AP-1 which are known to bind to the promoter of miR-155 were increased in placentas of P-PIC mice. TargetScan, a target identification algorithm predicted suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) as a putative target of miR-155. SOCS1 prevents overactivation of immune responses but failed to increase in P-PIC mice. ICAM, a marker of inflammation increased significantly in P-PIC mice. P-PIC TLR3 KO mice did not develop hypertension and proteinuria as well as did not exhibit increased placental levels of NF-κB, AP-1, miR-155 expression and ICAM or decreased levels of SOCS1. To determine the placental etiology, human cytotrphoblasts (CTBs) were treated with poly I:C and NF-κB, AP-1 transcription factor levels and miR-155 expression were increased significantly while SOCS1 levels decreased. Together, these data suggest that TLR3 activation increases placental miR-155 expression which downregulates SOCS1 levels and increases inflammation which may contribute to the development of PE.


Sedentary, group-living taxa, such as bivalves, respond to waterborne predator cues by enhancing tissues that increase anti-predation attributes such as muscle and shell mass. The ability of bivalves to differentiate among cues generated by the consumption of different prey species that vary in phylogenetic relatedness is unknown. We exposed mussels to cues generated by crabs feed- ing on mussels, cockles and periwinkles to test whether there was a relationship between the magni- tude of the induced response and the level of relatedness to the cue source. Mussels exposed to either effluents of unfed crabs or seawater only served as controls. Exposure to cues from conspecifics and cockles caused significantly reduced growth in shell size of mussels compared to control mussels. Shell growth of mussels exposed to cues from crabs feeding on periwinkles did not differ significantly from mussels exposed to effluents from unfed crabs only. Tissue dry weight increased least in mus- sels exposed to cues of crabs fed conspecifics, followed by mussels exposed to crabs fed cockles. Cues of crabs that were fed mussels caused increased byssus thread production, whereas the other treat- ments did not. Exposure to cues from crabs fed mussels and crabs fed cockles resulted in significantly thicker and heavier shells compared to unexposed control mussels. The results of this study indicate that alarm cues of progressively more closely related molluscs cause a higher degree of induced morphological anti-predator responses in mussels. The physiological and behavioural responses of mussels to these cues may therefore have a phylogenetic basis.


New technologies and analysis methods are enabling genomic structural variants (SVs) to be detected with ever-increasing accuracy, resolution, and comprehensiveness. Translating these methods to routine research and clinical practice requires robust benchmark sets. We developed the first benchmark set for identification of both false negative and false positive germline SVs, which complements recent efforts emphasizing increasingly comprehensive characterization of SVs. To create this benchmark for a broadly consented son in a Personal Genome Project trio with broadly available cells and DNA, the Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) Consortium integrated 19 sequence-resolved variant calling methods, both alignment- and de novo assembly-based, from short-, linked-, and long-read sequencing, as well as optical and electronic mapping. The final benchmark set contains 12745 isolated, sequence-resolved insertion and deletion calls ≥50 base pairs (bp) discovered by at least 2 technologies or 5 callsets, genotyped as heterozygous or homozygous variants by long reads. The Tier 1 benchmark regions, for which any extra calls are putative false positives, cover 2.66 Gbp and 9641 SVs supported by at least one diploid assembly. Support for SVs was assessed using svviz with short-, linked-, and long-read sequence data. In general, there was strong support from multiple technologies for the benchmark SVs, with 90 % of the Tier 1 SVs having support in reads from more than one technology. The Mendelian genotype error rate was 0.3 %, and genotype concordance with manual curation was >98.7 %. We demonstrate the utility of the benchmark set by showing it reliably identifies both false negatives and false positives in high-quality SV callsets from short-, linked-, and long-read sequencing and optical mapping.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the ability of the 4-week healing rate to predict complete healing over a 12-week period in a large prospective multicenter trial of diabetic patients with foot ulceration.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We examined the change in ulcer area over a 4-week period as a predictor of wound healing within 12 weeks in patients who were seen weekly in a prospective, randomized controlled trial.

RESULTS
Wound area measurements at baseline and after 4 weeks were performed in 203 patients. The midpoint between the percentage area reduction from baseline at 4 weeks in patients healed versus those not healed at 12 weeks was found to be 53%. Subjects with a reduction in ulcer area greater than the 4-week median had a 12-week healing rate of 58%, whereas those with reduction in ulcer area less than the 4-week median had a healing rate of only 9% (P < 0.01). The absolute change in ulcer area at 4 weeks was significantly greater in healers versus nonhealers (1.5 versus 0.8 cm2, P < 0.02). The percent change in wound area at 4 weeks in those who healed was 82% (95% CI 70-94), whereas in those who failed to heal, the percent change in wound area was 25% (15-35; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The percent change in foot ulcer area after 4 weeks of observation is a robust predictor of healing at 12 weeks. This simple tool may serve as a pivotal clinical decision point in the care of diabetic foot ulcers for early identification of patients who may not respond to standard care and may need additional treatment.


In this work, the use of fuel cells for valorizing agricultural-derived biogas in Switzerland is studied. The Swiss agricultural case is characterized by farms with small numbers of animals (20 cows) and high feed-in tariffs (FIT) for biogas-derived electricity (0.49 CHF/kWh(el)). Thus, small-scale biogas installations are reviewed and the possibility to couple them with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and photovoltaic (PV) panels is analyzed. To date, less than 5% of the Swiss agricultural biogas potential is used. It is possible to increase this value significantly up to 86% through the deployment of 2 kW(el) engines. The small size of the Swiss farm requires biogas installations in the kW-range. Small-scale biogas facilities are not profitable yet: the main challenge is to bring down the lifetime cost of the fuel cells to 11,000 CHF/kW(el) (considering a lifetime of ten years) and to reduce the investment cost (IC) of small-scale biogas facilities to around 9500 CHF/kW(ch). In the kW-range, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have higher electrical conversion efficiencies than internal combustion engines (ICEs). It is shown that SOFCs become competitive over combustion engines if the investment cost of the former decreases below 13,000 CHF/kW(el) for a lifetime of 11 years. Combining the biogas facility with a PV-battery system, which covers the digester's electricity needs, is found to be beneficial. A considerable reduction in the feed-in tariffs would make small- to medium-scale biogas installations unprofitable, at current cost. In order to reach a break-even under these conditions, the investment cost of the biogas plant needs to drop below 4000 CHF/kW(ch), whereas the investment cost of the SOFC needs to drop below 3400 CHF/kW(el).


The technique of solving integral equations describing a microstrip antenna structure using the method of moments is well known and widely used. In this paper an efficient procedure is presented to determine subsectional edge expansion functions (SEEFs) containing the correct singularities of the currents at the edges of a rectangular patch located in an arbitrary multilayered structure. It is proven that the use of these SEEFs considerably improves the convergence of the calculated resonant frequency.


The purposes of this study are to: 1) develop the historical learning media of android app based digital comics legend of Kyai Kolodete, 2) determine the eligibility of historical learning media based on android app nearness digital comics legend of Kyai Kolodete in the learning process, 3) determine the effectiveness of the historical learning based on android media apps, digital comics of Kyai Kolodete legend in improving learning achievement and cultural awareness of students. This research was conducted in SMA Negeri 1 Sapuran Wonosobo for 2.5 months. The historical development research based on learning media of android apps of digital comics legend Kyai Kolodete to increase cultural awareness in SMA Negeri 1 Sapuran used the method of Research and Development (R & D), which uses a model ADDIE of Molenda. The research model consists of five stages 1) analysis, 2) product design, 3) product development, 4) implementation, and 5) evaluation. The eligibility of test model in this study used the model of Likert scale 1 to 5, and testing the effectiveness of using independent sample t test using SPSS. The results of this research are: 1) the lack of interesting learning media in SMA Negeri 1 Sapuran, 2) the learning media based on android is produced decently based on the results of validation of media experts and also the material, 3) the historical learning using digital comics media android apps was proven to improve learning achievement and also cultural awareness of students in SMA Negeri 1 Sapuran Wonosobo.


Since its fifth framework programme (1998–2002), the European Union has promoted gender equality and equal opportunities in the higher education sector and science and technological development. In its current framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe (2021–2027), the EU requires scientists to systematically integrate the concepts of sex, gender and intersectionality into their research paths and to promote equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in their working environments. However, for historical reasons, following the EU requirements is challenging, particularly for scientists in STEM disciplines. The University of Genoa is planning a MOOC suited to a large research institution audience to address this problem. The MOOC's targets are researchers, scholars, administrative personnel and students interested in advancing EDI practices in the scientific fields. It enables them to understand the basic principles underlying the gender mainstreaming adopted by the EU and integrate methods and strategies related to sex, gender and intersectionality to progress towards an EDI-sensitive institution. Supported by a learner-centred instructional strategy, this chapter explores the choices related to EDI-sensitive methods and strategies adopted to develop and implement an online education path. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.


The main objective of this research is to investigate the structural behavior and strength of reinforced reactive powder concrete beams with a hollow section subjected under two point concentrated loading. The experimental work consist of ten beams with dimensions (150mm width×200mm height×1000 mm length), eight of them are hollow beams and two solid beams were cast and tested up to failure. The major parameters adopted in the current research includes the hollowness ratio (10% and15%), hollow location (at top or at bottom), and hollow shape (circle or square). The amount of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement, concrete strength and the other parameters were kept constant for all the specimens. The comparisons between all specimens (hollow and solid) are based on the load carrying capacity, deflection, crack pattern and mode of failures. Results showed that the strength capacity of hollow beam when the hollow lies in the bottom is much higher than for top hollow, and the square hollow will lead to more decrease in the beam strength compared with the circular hollow and this is more evident when the hollowness ratio increases from (10% to 15%).


Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of mortality worldwide. The Food and Drug Administration recently designated pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) against a programmed death-1 receptor, as a breakthrough drug for the treatment of patients with mCRC whose tumors have deficient mismatch-repair gene expression (as evidenced by microsatellite instability-high) and patients with solid tumors with a high tumor mutational burden with ≥10 mutations/megabase. We present a patient with metastatic CRC having renal and adrenal gland metastases. Comprehensive molecular profiling performed on a site of metastatic CRC in the kidney revealed multiple genomic alterations characteristic of CRC and rare chromosome 9p24.1 amplification, resulting in a co-amplification of the PDL1, PDL2, and JAK2 genes. Although this genomic alteration may predict the response to ICI, the lack of pembrolizumab prevented the patient from receiving targeted treatment and succumbing to the disease.


Accumulation of 53BP1 at DNA breaks determines DNA repair pathway choice and promotes checkpoint activation. Here, we show regulation of 53BP1 beyond repair foci. 53BP1 movements are constrained in the nucleoplasm and increase in response to DNA damage. 53BP1 interacts with the structural protein NuMA, which controls 53BP1 diffusion. This interaction, and colocalization between the two proteins in vitro and in breast tissues, is reduced after DNA damage. In cell lines and breast carcinoma, NuMA prevents 53BP1 accumulation at DNA breaks and high NuMA expression predicts better patient outcomes. Manipulating NuMA expression alters PARP inhibitor sensitivity of BRCA1-null cells, end-joining activity, and immunoglobulin class switching that rely on 53BP1. We propose a new mechanism that involves the sequestration of 53BP1 by NuMA in the absence of DNA damage. Such mechanism may have evolved to disable repair functions and may be a decisive factor for tumor responses to genotoxic treatments.


Water chemistry is known to be one of the most important factors controlling species composition of many macro-organisms in wetlands. It is unclear to what extent micro-organisms respond to water chemistry as compared to chemistry-mediated substratum structure. We explored how the assemblages of different groups of micro-organisms in bryophyte tufts of spring-fens were determined by water chemistry and substratum structure. The aim was to compare unicellular autotrophic diatoms, unicellular heterotrophic testate amoebae and multicellular heterotrophic monogonont rotifers. Assemblages of all three groups showed a strong compositional gradient correlated with water pH and conductivity, calcium concentration and dominance of Sphagnum. While a second strong gradient in species composition of diatoms and testate amoebae was explained by factors such as substratum structure and water content, that of rotifers remained unexplained. Unlike the other two groups, testate amoeba assemblages were significantly determined by phosphates. Nitrates and iron were important species composition determinants for diatoms. Rotifers differed from the other groups in that they did not respond significantly to silica, iron or nutrients. When variation caused by substratum characteristics and water chemistry were partitioned out, testate amoebae were controlled more by substratum, while rotifers and diatoms were controlled more by water chemistry. Variation explained by individual effects of substratum or water chemistry, as compared to shared effects, was much lower for rotifers than for testate amoebae and diatoms. Our results show that, in semi-terrestrial ecosystems, pH and calcium concentrations are generally the main drivers of variation in species composition of unicellular and multicellular microorganisms, mirroring well described patterns for macro-organisms, providing support for general ecological hypotheses. Other water chemistry variables differed between shell-forming and other organisms, and between autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. Even though water chemistry variables controlled the structure of the bryophyte tufts that acted as substratum for the micro-organisms, both water chemistry and bryophyte structure effects were independently significant for diatoms and testate amoebae. On the other hand, no effects of either substratum characteristics or water chemistry were found for rotifers. This was because their species composition is not influenced by chemical factors, apart from pH and calcium, which both strongly influence the occurrence of Sphagnum


The femoral triangle in the anterior superior third of the thigh is a sub-fascial space that appears as a triangular depression inferior to the inguinal ligament; the depression is visible when the thigh is abducted, flexed, and laterally rotated. The borders of the femoral triangle are composed of the inguinal ligament superiorly, the adductor longus muscle medially, and the sartorius muscle laterally. The apex of the triangle is located distally and is formed by the intersection of the lateral border of the femoral triangle, the sartorius, crossing over the medial border of the triangle, the adductor longus. The floor of the femoral triangle is composed of several muscles, medially the floor is formed by the pectineus and adductor longus, and laterally by the iliopsoas. The roof of the femoral triangle from superficial to deep is composed of skin, subcutaneous tissue, superficial fascia, and deep fascia known as the fascia lata.From lateral to medial, the contents of the femoral triangle include the femoral nerve, femoral artery, femoral vein, and lymphatics. The femoral artery, femoral vein, and deep inguinal lymph nodes and associated lymphatics are within a conical fascial sheath, the femoral sheath. The sheath is continuous with the transversalis fascia of the abdomen and the inguinal ligament; it encases the vessels as they pass through the femoral triangle. The femoral sheath merges inferiorly with connective tissue associated with the vessels. Each vessel has a separate sub-compartment of the femoral sheath as it passes through the femoral triangle. The femoral nerve is not within the sheath.


In this paper we attempt to draw attention to the widespread variation in legislation and regulation of assisted conception services throughout Europe and the implications that this may have for what is understood as 'a family'. At present, access to assisted conception services appears to rely on a 'traditional' notion of the family with the consequence that large numbers of potential service users are excluded. We believe that the existing state of assisted conception legislation already demonstrates a turn to the postmodern. This paper aims to make this turn to the postmodern more explicit and take it further towards what we argue is its inevitable conclusion. It is argued that a postmodern approach should benefit both assisted conception service providers and, perhaps more importantly, service users through an emphasis on localized knowledge, acceptance of difference and 'otherness', and a recognition of the complexity and ambiguity of human behaviour.


Currently, scramjet designers have two viable choices for fuel; hydrogen or liquid hydrocarbon. Both of these chemicals have their own advantages and disadvantages as scramjet fuel, and this makes them useful for different scramjet applications. This literature review illustrates the challenges which must be overcome for combustion to occur in hypersonic vehicles, the advantages of each fuel type, recent advances in scramjet combustion technology, and finally, gives an overview of several scramjet designs which have utilised either hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuel.


We have reported that development of texture can be controlled by colloidal processing in a strong magnetic field followed by heating even for diamagnetic ceramics such as alumina, titania and so on. We demonstrate in this study that alumina/alumina laminar composites with different crystalline-oriented layer are produced by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) in a strong magnetic field. This composite was fabricated by alternately changing the angle between the directions of the magnetic and electric fields layer by layer during EPD in 12T. The grains in alternate layers are aligned differently.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a valuable new treatment option for patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the pivotal phase I/II trials, emerging real-world evidence and ongoing trials.

RECENT FINDINGS
For decades, attempts at improvement of the poor prognosis of patients with R/R large B-cell lymphoma with new treatment regimens have been disappointing. Since the first report of CD19-directed CAR-T-cell therapy in 2010, three constructs have been tested in large phase I/II trials and resulted in 30-40% durable responses. This has led to Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency approval for axicabtagene ciloleucel and tisagenlecleucel and filing of the biologics license application for lisocabtagene maraleucel. Emerging real-world evidence seems to confirm the promising results. However, considerable toxicity, mainly cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity limits their general applicability and not all patients intended to be treated can be bridged during the manufacturing period due to kinetics of the disease. Randomized phase III clinical trials are being conducted to test anti-CD19 CAR-T-cell therapy in the second-line and several phase II trials are aiming to improve efficacy and decrease toxicity.

SUMMARY
CD19-directed CAR-T-cell therapy has become standard of care for aggressive R/R diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DLBCL), but challenges still remain.


Onboard diffuse reflecting plaques are carried to orbit as radiometric reference standards for Earth-observing satellite instruments. For many instruments the reflectance properties of the plaque are characterized independently of the instrument, and the effects of scattering by the diffuser housing are determined through mathematical modeling. The pre-launch laboratory calibration of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) included a system-level calibration of the onboard diffuser using an external lamp and a reference plaque at the sensor's Earth-view port. The calibration of the onboard diffuser was made relative to the reference plaque using SeaWiFS as a transfer radiometer. Recent developments in laboratory light sources enable a significant improvement to the SeaWiFS calibration technique. These include sets of fiber-optically coupled tunable lasers that illuminate integrating spheres or the prime focus of a collimator, to produce uniform, high radiant flux Lambertian or collimated sources, respectively. In addition, newly developed, spectrally tunable supercontinuum-based light sources can provide sets of radiance spectra for the collimator to validate the laser-based diffuser calibration. An absolute calibration of the diffuser system in the laboratory also provides the first step in a two-part transfer-to-orbit experiment, in which the second step uses the illumination of the diffuser on orbit by the Sun. For hyperspectral instruments, the laboratory calibration must account for spectral artifacts in the diffuser material. For on-orbit measurements, the calibration must account for the effects of Earth-shine as a contaminating source of irradiance illuminating the diffuser.


Nations may defend their freedom of Information and availability of their Information and Communications Technology Services by either Isolation or Habituation, which are both applicable but require totally different structures, culture and governance. Information Operations are not only state level measures, but can be utilized at very low levels and by small entities. It requires multilevel preparations of defence executed together in public-private-voluntary sector alliance extending over national borders. Unlike conventional military operations information operations are ongoing at strategic, operational and tactical levels even in peace time.


Magmatic and detrital zircon ages from the Rocas Verdes basin, a tectonically juxtaposed remnant of sea floor in the Magallanes fold and thrust belt (southern Patagonia, South America), indicates that a rifting phase of the Rocas Verdes basin occurred between 152 and 142 Ma, and was accompanied by bimodal magmatism. A dacite dyke cross-cutting pillow-basalt successions and a plagiogranite dyke in mixed mafic–felsic terranes of the basal Sarmiento Ophiolite Complex contain 150 Ma zircon crystals, indicating that mafic submarine volcanism had started prior to or during the Late Jurassic, 10–15 Ma earlier than previously thought. The silicic pyroclastic rocks of the Tobífera Formation, with two samples dated at 148 and 142 Ma, were heralded by synrift sedimentation along fault-bounded grabens within Palaeozoic metasediments. No evidence for an active volcanic arc during the early formation of the Rocas Verdes basin was detected in detrital zircon grains of the lower sedimentary member of the Tobífera Formation. A minimum of 25 Ma of continuous sedimentation in the Rocas Verdes basin is suggested by detrital zircon grains in the upper member of the Zapata Formation. The Rocas Verdes basin was rimmed on the western side by an incipient and subaerial magmatic arc only in its later evolution.


This paper discusses the pricing of Contingent Convertible bonds (CoCos) with stock price triggers. CoCos are a new kind of hybrid securities that aim to provide a capital bu er for banks in times of nancial distress. They are debt securities during periods of economic stability, but automatically convert into equity when a predetermined trigger is breached. Therefore, CoCos are attractive from a regulatory perspective, and several regulators have already shown an interest in using them to manage nancial crisis. The fair values of CoCos are driven by their structures, and the goal of this paper is to price CoCos with stock price triggers that have varying structures in terms of the trigger level, conversion ratios, and their maturity. This paper presents rst the general form of the price and credit spread of CoCos without modeling stock price dynamics. Then, assuming the Black-Scholes model, we provide two explicit pricing formulas for CoCos. Because CoCos combine debt-like and equity-like features, they are priced using the credit derivatives (reduced form) and equity derivatives approaches. In addition to the analytical formulas presented herein, pricing by Monte Carlo simulation is also shown. In order to examine the suitability of the Black-Scholes assumptions, the formulas used in this study are applied to the CoCos issued by Credit Suisse. Because the market trigger, implied by the formulas, is associated with a constant accounting trigger, it is expected to be constant over time. The comparative statics of the formulas show that the mathematical structures of the formulas explain the economic structure of CoCos. However, we nd that the formula in the equity derivatives approach is more accurate than that in the credit derivatives approach because of its more realistic treatment of cash ow. Its accuracy is con rmed by Monte Carlo simulation, as the estimated con dence interval includes the price evaluated using the equity derivatives approach. If the interest rate is equal to the dividend yield, we nd that the two analytical formulas provide the same price. The empirical analysis of the CoCos of Credit Suisse demonstrates that the Black-Scholes assumptions are empirically unreasonable for pricing CoCos, because the implied market trigger is volatile over time. Given that the constant volatility assumption of the Black-Scholes model is empirically unreasonable, this paper suggests the stochastic volatility model (Heston model) to be a suitable alternative for modeling stock price dynamics, because it produces a more realistic fat-tail distribution of stock returns. Thus, the pricing under the Heston model is expected to show a constant implied trigger over time.


A hike in Oil Prices is inevitably followed by recession. Also the Oil prices are highly volatile. The smallest production cut by OPEC leads to massive increase in prices. Hence even if the Oil importing Countries reduce demand by small amount the prices should fall. Oil importing countries should unite and form Organization of Petroleum Importing Countries (OPIC). The purpose of Organization of Petroleum Importing Countries would be to stabilize the Oil Prices in the region of 10$ a barrel by reducing the consumption of Oil. OPIC will research and help nations reduce their energy intensity of GDP. Since Transportation consumes maximum amount of Oil with little substitutes, the target would be to reduce Oil consumption in Transport sector by promoting Public Transportation by taxing personal vehicles (cars etc) and gasoline appropriately reflecting their externalities. OPIC would promote substitution by Natural Gas wherever possible. OPIC would promote clean environment and meeting the environmental standards set in Rio De Janeiro and Kyoto. OPIC would promote military cooperation between Oil Importing Countries to ensure Energy Security by combating terrorism and conflicts in Middle East. OPIC would use the savings from Oil - 300 billion dollars to 500 billion dollars to create a Global Poverty Fund, which would be used to promote food security, investments in health care and education, drinking water, sanitation and empowerment of women.


The surgery of gunshot wounds of the abdomen, which has been for some years pretty well settled to the satisfaction of the profession, received something of a shock by the report of the surgeons who served in the late war with Spain (seeThe Journalfor July 9, 1898, and the published report of the last meeting of this body.) yet the inferences, and indeed the conclusions, affect surgical judgment to a considerable degree. It was because the settled data of private surgery were so much at variance with these reports that I deemed it justifiable to inquire a little further into the subject. The result of the investigation by Klemm shows, in an analysis of 152 cases, that even those in whom penetrating wounds in the abdomen were established, who did not die of immediate effects, eventually nearly succumbed to exhaustion from sepsis and later suppuration. The meaning of


With this presentation I intend to put forward a new definition of urban porosity as a notion capable of describing the necessary rich quality coupling urban space and social and civic engagement. This is done through the analysis of the social space practiced by new urban social movements, and points to a new geography of social urban governance, which bears the potential of redirecting the policy and praxis of urban interventions. In the current context of the readjustment of large-scale economic and regulatory trends, it is not clear how the coupling of mixity and density alone is capable of articulating a sustainable and socially cohesive urban tissue without mobilizing its socio-political counterpart as a necessary form of reflexive urban governance. Within this problematic, porosity has been put forward as an operative notion capable of capturing and mobilizing capacities of urban space for affording a more adaptive socio-spatial continuum. Drawing on the seminal contributions by authors like Secchi and Dehaenne, I redefine porosity beyond physical or compositional dimensions. I pose porosity as an emergent relational property within a new frame of reference that draws from distributed cognition and environmental psychology. This is done in the context of the analysis of new urban social movements in Madrid, and how they change the geography and spatial scale of reference, questioning through actions at the small scale, a concept of Madrid of new residential peripheries at metropolitan and regional scale.


Abstract The late Maastrichtian sediments of the Mullinax-1 and Mullinax-3 boreholes from Brazos River, Texas, offer pristine material. These cores are prime candidates for providing an extraordinary window into the ecology of Guembelitria, a key genus in the K/Pg mass extinction event, as well as information on the habitats of other neritic species. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses were performed on six planktic species (Guembelitria cretacea, Globigerinelloides asper, Heterohelix globulosa, Paraspiroplecta navarroensis, Pseudoguembelina costulata, Rugoglobigerina rugosa) and three benthic genera (Gavelinella, Cibicides, and Lenticulina). Our records support the contention that Guembelitria was fully planktic, as indicated by its δ18O values, which overlap the other planktic species, despite its possible origin from a tychopelagic benthic ancestor. However, Guembelitria is distinctly ranked very low in δ13C values, which overlap the benthic records. The anomalously low δ13C values of Guembelitria may represent an isotopic disequilibrium due to fast shell growth, like in its modern analogue Gallitellia vivans. Another explanation may be that these values are attributable to a neustonic life mode in the uppermost part of the oceans, where photosynthesis is inhibited by high UV and the near absence of nutrients. Because these waters are not photosynthetically depleted, calcification using carbon directly from these waters should yield δ13C values consistent with those found in Guembelitria. The ecological strategy that Guembelitria species used to deal with the nutrient-poor surface-water environments was an opportunistic blooming during stressful times of Maastrichtian global warming events and later during the K-Pg catastrophe.


Aims: Healthcare professionals have debated the use and effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for more than 65 years. Yet, knowledge about, and attitudes towards, ECT have not been thoroughly researched within the Australian community. This study focused on a Western Australian perspective on these issues. Method: The objectives were achieved with specifically developed questionnaires. Six hundred surveys were distributed across the metropolitan area of Perth, Australia. Results: A total of 379 completed questionnaires indicated that more than 60% of respondents had some knowledge about the main aspects of ECT. Participants were generally opposed to the use of ECT on individuals with psychosocial issues, on children and on involuntary patients. Public perceptions of ECT were also found to be mainly negative. Conclusion: The findings suggest that clinicians should ensure that individuals recommended for ECT are knowledgeable about basic ECT processes and implications in order to ensure their full informed consent.


On June 11, 1963, in a dramatic gesture that caught the nation's attention, Governor George Wallace physically blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium on the University of Alabama's campus. His intent was to defy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, sent on behalf of the Kennedy administration to force Alabama to accept court-ordered desegregation. After a tense confrontation, President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and Wallace backed down, allowing Vivian Malone and James Hood to become the first African Americans to enroll successfully at their state's flagship university. That night, John F. Kennedy went on television to declare civil rights a "moral issue" and to commit his administration to this cause. That same night, Medgar Evers was shot dead. In The Schoolhouse Door, E. Culpepper Clark provides a riveting account of the events that led to Wallace's historic stand, tracing a tangle of intrigue and resistance that stretched from the 1940s, when the university rejected black applicants outright, to the post-Brown v. Board of Education era. In these pages, full of courageous black applicants, fist-shaking demonstrators, and powerful politicians, Clark captures the dramatic confrontations that transformed the University of Alabama into a proving ground for the civil rights movement and gave the nation unforgettable symbols for its struggle to achieve racial justice.


Objective: To report a case of erythema nodosum (EN) and related inflammatory arthropathy in a patient on cabergoline therapy for a microprolactinoma. Case Summary: A 25-year-old white female, who had been receiving cabergoline 0.5 mg orally once per week for the preceding 2 months for a microprolactinoma, developed classic skin lesions of EN (proved by histology) and an associated acute inflammatory arthropathy of her left ankle joint in the absence of any other identifiable causes of EN. She improved substantially (skin lesions of EN and inflammatory arthropathy disappeared) after cessation of cabergoline therapy, Rechallenge with cabergoline in a lower dose of 0, 25 mg orally once per week led to a milder recurrence of EN lesions that once again disappeared after withdrawal of the drug. She had not had a recurrence at a 3 month follow-up visit. Discussion: Although possible autoimmune adverse effects (pleuropulmonary and cardiac) have been reported with the use of cabergoline. to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of EN (panniculitis) associated with cabergoline therapy. Causality assessment using the Naranjo probability scale revealed that the adverse drug event was probable. Conclusions: Cabergoline was probably associated with EN (panniculitis) and the related arthritis in a patient being treated for a microprolactinoma. Panniculitis, like EN, needs to be considered a possible but reversible adverse effect of cabergoline therapy for microprolactinoma of the pituitary gland.


Purpose: The purpose of the study is to substantiate the problems and prospects of Ukraine's achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the condition of developing the economic security of the agricultural sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical method of cognition of the economic phenomena, the position of economic theory as to the economic security, the analysis and synthesis for determining the dynamics of individual indicators of the status of completed tasks. The study period is 2010-2018. Findings: The main recommendations for further development of the economic security of the agricultural sector are to increase the level of investment attractiveness of the agricultural sector, to stimulate the creation of small farms, the technical modernization of the agricultural production, to promote increased value-added food exports, to create a clear mechanism of regulation of the market of organic products and raw materials with a proper system of certification ensuring the stability, predictability and transparency of the state support system for the agricultural sector. Practical Implications: The results of the study may be useful for developing a further strategy for the economic security of Ukraine's agricultural sector, taking into account the implementation of the Global Sustainable Development Goals. Originality/Value: Achieving the sustainable development is a top priority for most countries of the world. Ukraine has the relevant goals, in this direction the achievement of which is impossible without a reliable foundation, that in modern conditions should be the agricultural sector of the economy.


When Whitfords Beach was handed down a quarter of a century ago, it was hailed as a landmark decision which had all but overruled Scottish Australian Mining Co Ltd v FCT (1950)81 CLR 188. It also seemed to indicate that the second limb of s 26 (a) of ITAA 1936 had been unnecessary. The subsequent decision in FCT v Myer Emporium Ltd (1987) 163 CLR 199 indicated that the first limb of that subsection had also een unnecessary. Yet subsequent decisions have avoided the application of Whitfords Beach and shown that Scottish Australian Mining is the more dominant precedent. Despite the prevalence of some dicta about carrying on land development business, Whitfords Beach was a profit‐making scheme case and the central issue was whether a profit making scheme could be constituted by selling alone. Whitfords Beach indicated that it could, though no subsequent case has been decided on this ground. The limited legacy of Whitfords Beach remains significant because, although corporate tax rates are now 30% for revenue and capital gains alike, there is much farmland that is being subdivided by individuals who are escaping tax because of the limited impact of Whitfords Beach. This journal article is available in Revenue Law Journal: http://epublications.bond.edu.au/rlj/vol17/iss1/4 THE LIMITED IMPACT OF WHITFORDS BEACH IN URBAN LAND DEVELOPMENT


The ISO 3166 standard is used for the definition of eligible
designations for country code Top Level Domains. This standard is
maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency. The ISO 3166 standard
contains a set of User-Assigned code elements. This document describes
that these values can be used as top level domains for private DNS
resolution.