Hodeify R, Tarcsafalvi A, Megyesi J, Safirstein RL, Price PM. Cdk2dependent phosphorylation of p21 regulates the role of Cdk2 in cisplatin cytotoxicity. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 300: F1171–F1179, 2011. First published February 16, 2011; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00507.2010.—Cisplatin cytotoxicity is dependent on cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (Cdk2) activity in vivo and in vitro. We found that an 18-kDa protein identified by mass spectrometry as p21 was phosphorylated by Cdk2 starting 12 h after cisplatin exposure. The analysis showed it was phosphorylated at serine 78, a site not previously identified. The adenoviral transduction of p21 before cisplatin exposure protects from cytotoxicity by inhibiting Cdk2. Although cisplatin causes induction of endogenous p21, the protection is inefficient. We hypothesized that phosphorylation of p21 at serine 78 could affect its role as a Cdk inhibitor, and thereby lessen its ability to protect from cisplatin cytotoxicity. To investigate the effect of serine 78 phosphorylation on p21 activity, we replaced serine 78 with aspartic acid, creating the phosphomimic p21. Mutant p21 was an inefficient inhibitor of Cdk2 and was inefficient at protecting TKPTS cells from cisplatininduced cell death. We conclude that phosphorylation of p21 by Cdk2 limits the effectiveness of p21 to inhibit Cdk2, which is the mechanism for continued cisplatin cytotoxicity even after the induction of a protective protein.


SOX2 is a key gene implicated in maintaining the stemness of embryonic and adult stem cells that appears to re‐activate in several human cancers including glioblastoma multiforme. Using immunoprecipitation (IP)/MS/MS, we identified 144 proteins that are putative SOX2 interacting proteins. Of note, SOX2 was found to interact with several heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein family proteins, including HNRNPA2B1, HNRNPA3, HNRNPC, HNRNPK, HNRNPL, HNRNPM, HNRNPR, HNRNPU, as well as other ribonucleoproteins, DNA repair proteins and helicases. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that the SOX2 interactome was enriched for GO terms GO:0030529 ribonucleoprotein complex and GO:0004386 helicase activity. These findings indicate that SOX2 associates with the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein complex, suggesting a possible role for SOX2 in post‐transcriptional regulation in addition to its function as a transcription factor.


The establishment of hybrid taxa relies on reproductive isolation from the parental forms, typically achieved by ecological differentiation. Here, we present an alternative mechanism, in which shifts in the strength and location of dispersal barriers facilitate diversification by hybridisation. Our case study concerns the highly diverse, stenotopic rock-dwelling cichlids of the African Great Lakes, many of which display geographic colour pattern variation. The littoral habitat of these fish has repeatedly been restructured in the course of ancient lake level fluctuations. Genetic data and an experimental cross support the hybrid origin of a distinct yellow-coloured variant of Tropheus moorii from ancient admixture between two allopatric, red and bluish variants. Deficient assortative mating preferences imply that reproductive isolation continues to be contingent on geographic separation. Linking paleolimnological data with the establishment of the hybrid variant, we sketch a selectively neutral diversification process governed solely by rearrangements of dispersal barriers.


An adult European eel Anguilla anguilla, showing typical signs of the so-called cauliflower disease, was subjected to pathological and molecular virological examinations. Samples taken from internal organs and the polypoid proliferative tissue from the mouth were examined by PCR for the detection of several viruses. Positive results were obtained with a nested PCR targeting the rep gene of circoviruses. Analysis of the partial rep sequence indicated the presence of a putative novel circovirus, but attempts to isolate it remained unsuccessful. The missing part of the genome was acquired by an inverse nested PCR with 2 specific primer pairs, designed from the newly determined rep sequence, followed by genome walking. The circular full genome was found to consist of 1378 nt (GenBank accession no. KC469701). Two oppositely oriented open reading frames (ORFs) were present, of which one was unambiguously identified as a circoviral rep gene. However, the predicted product of the other ORF, though it is a clear positional counterpart of the cap genes, showed no obvious homology to any known circoviral capsid proteins. A stem-loop-like element in the intergenic region between the 5' ends of the ORFs was also found. Phylogenetic calculations indicated that the novel virus belongs to the genus Circovirus in the family Circoviridae. The relative amount of the viral DNA in the organ samples was estimated by quantitative real-time PCR. The results suggested that the examined fish was caught in an active viremic state, although the role of this circovirus in the etiology of the cauliflower diseases could not be ascertained.


Photoelectrocatalytic conversion of biomass and its derivatives is a very significant and promising strategy for energy production. The selective oxidation of biomass alcohol to the corresponding aldehydes is an important class of biomass conversion reactions. In this study, a Z-scheme type solar-driven dual photoelectrode photoelectrochemical cell was used for the simultaneous selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol, which was a model biomass alcohol to benzaldehyde reaction, for hydrogen production promotion using Au/TiO2 nanotube photonic crystals (Au/TiO2 NTPC) as the photoanode. The results show that the Au/TiO2 NTPC photoanode exhibits excellent photoelectrochemical performance and can efficiently conduct charge transport. The conversion of benzyl alcohol is as high 84.68%, whereas selectivity can reach more than 99%. The high conversion rate is attributed to the improvement in the photoelectrocatalytic performance due to the in situ doping of Au nanoparticles. In addition to the Au nanoparticles, O2 is an indispensable factor for the high selectivity. The simultaneous hydrogen production at the cathode can reach 143.83 μmol cm−2. The results show that the anodic oxidation reaction can promote hydrogen production and the hydrogen production efficiency increases with the oxidation rate. This model reaction can also be applied to a series of biomass alcohol selective oxidations. This study achieves simultaneous efficient selective access to hydrocarbon fuels and hydrogen and reveals a novel, sustainable and green energy production idea and direction for development.


Early Cretaceous flysch crops out along all the Alpine Chains of the western, central and eastern Europe for more than 7000 km from the Gibraltar Arc to the Balkans. In the different sectors of the Alpine Chain (Maghrebides, Apennines, Alps, Dinarides, Hellenides, Carpathians and Balkans) these flysch deposits, characterized by calcareous turbidites grading upwards into arenaceous turbidites, mark the contact between the internal and external areas. They show a provenance linked to internal areas and are made up by crystalline sources and locally by ophiolitic complexes. Due to the Cretaceous re-organization of the plates, all these successions experienced a Late Cretaceous tectonics, with the only exception of the Maghrebian flysch deposits. In this area, similar tectonic events have never been recorded but only suspected and aged to slightly later times. This paper aims to show the stratigraphic, geological and structural similarities of all these Early Cretaceous flysch sediments by emphasizing the difficulties to imagine that only the Maghrebian sector of the Alpine Tethys escaped the Mid- to Late-Cretaceous tectonics widely recognized in all the other segments of the Alpine Chain. In fact the Late Cretaceous or post-Cretaceous tectonics connected with a "mesoalpine" stage, has been hypothesized for the Maghrebian chain at the beginning of the nineties and recently it has been supported by the presence of Alpine metamorphic overprints recognized within the Hercynian crystalline units of the Calabria- Peloritani Arc (southern Italy). This tectonics seems to be linked to an early segmentation and deformation of the Maghrebian Early Cretaceous flysch with local underthrusting beneath the southern European margin.


Recent developments in Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) offer radical new ways of exploring and interacting in three dimensional virtual or augmented spaces. However, the literature reveals a gap in terms of predictive adoption factors that address human usage and social constraints. Our investigation was guided by the question, " What are the critical factors that predict HMD adoption? " We used a literature review and discourse analysis approach to conduct exploratory research. As an outcome, our paper contributes a conceptual HMD framework which includes diverse adoption factors from each of three differing perspectives: producer firm-level, general product-level, and HMD-specific. We posit that all three perspectives are necessary for a comprehensive systemic framework that robustly predicts the successful adoption of HMDs in diverse settings. At the firm-level or producer-level, we explore business factors that might impact adoption by applying the Transparency Innovation Models (TIMs) typology. At the product-level, users' satisfaction with immersions into virtual realms depends on how engaged they become in "flow" states which is influenced by mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics general design choices. At the HMD-specific level, visual strain, power arrangements, and haptic interaction are important considerations. Also, the paper contributes application case studies of two HMD firms: Oculus and Magic Leap. We argue that the meaningful-TIM approach when distributed across networks of key stakeholders offers greater advantages in terms of enabling open relationships and development processes among critical stakeholders, such as HMD producers, software developers, and potential users. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible future outcomes for HMDs.


Twenty young males who exposed their underwear by wearing saggy pants were interviewed. The study sought to understand some of the reasons for the practice, how the participants transacted their identity with people who complimented and insulted them, and how they navigated homophobia in Jamaica. Participants' responses were content analyzed. The participants viewed saggy pants as the preferred and comfortable fashion norm because they grew up seeing it, and watching it on music videos so it was alright to publicly display the creative underwear designs. These participants had the power to determine fashion choices and outcomes in there generation. They bonded with others in good situations by smiling and behaving nicely but some buffered in these situations by being indifferent or sarcastic because they felt that the compliments were inauthentic. They buffered in bad situations by walking away, acting rudely and aggressively and others code switched by adjusting their pants. The code switchers relinquished power and control over fashion outcomes unlike those who buffered. The participants navigated homophobia by asserting the powerful hetero-normative bias which framed homosexuals as the abnormal other that behaved and dressed differently from heterosexuals including those who wore saggy pants.


Cholesterol is a waxy substance that contains fat required to produce hormones and other substances in the body. The excessive cholesterol in the blood vessel can be mixed with other substances and called Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL). LDL can clog the blood vessel and caused heart disease and stroke. Measuring LDL levels is generally done by taking blood samples (invasive) with the lipid profile test method. This research focused on developing a non-invasive detection system for LDL levels status prediction based on eye image using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as a classification model. One indicator of excess LDL levels is a greyish-white ring that surrounds the iris called the corneal arcus. The image processing used the Circular Hough Transform (CHT) algorithm for the localization process and Rubber-Sheet Normalization to normalize the iris region. This LDL level status prediction system used CNN as a classification model with 5-fold cross-validation results in an accuracy of 97.14%.


Agri-environmental programs often incorporate stakeholder participation elements in an effort to increase community ownership of policies designed to protect environmental resources (Hajer 1995; Fischer 2000). Participation – acting through increased levels of ownership – is then expected to increase individual rates of compliance with regulatory policies. Utilizing a novel lab experiment, this research leverages a public goods contribution game to test the effects of a specific type of stakeholder participation scheme on individual compliance outcomes. We find significant evidence that the implemented type of non-voting participation mechanism reduces the probability that an individual will engage in noncompliant behavior and reduces the level of noncompliance. At the same time, exposure to the open comment treatment also increases individual contributions to a public good. Additionally, we find evidence that exposure to participation schemes results in a faster decay in individual compliance over time suggesting that the impacts of this type of participation mechanism may be transitory.


Demand for food assistance in Canada has grown throughout the 1990s. In a survey of the sociodemographic and nutritional characteristics of 428 adult food bank users, we used results of four 24-hour recall interviews to determine the number of servings from Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating food groups these clients were consuming. Our intent was to use a resource familiar to diverse audiences to describe the food intake of Montreal-area food bank clients. No age group and neither gender met the minimum target intake level for milk products. Mean intake of grain products and meat and alternatives met or exceeded minimum recommended levels. Women between the ages of 18 and 49 years consumed fewer servings of vegetables and fruit than the recommended minimum (4.9+/-3.2 servings). In general, food bank users' mean intakes were no worse than those of the Quebec general population, although their intake of milk products was lower. However, the mean number of food group servings varied greatly and reflected very low intakes by some food-bank clients. Nutrition education based on Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating may be one approach that food banks can take to help clients broaden the number and variety of foods consumed.


The Charité artificial disc replacement (ADR) was approved for use in the United States in October of 2004 by the FDA when Depuy Spine, the manufacturer, received their letter of conditional approval (1). Like all current models of lumbar disc replacements, the Charité was based on a faulty design that concluded the center of rotation of lumbar segmental motion was anterior to the spinal canal. As a result, numerous failures began quickly appearing and accumulating as time passed. The authors began seeing increasing numbers of patients who had both the Charité, as well as the Prodisc II, implanted with poor results and complications. These included not only various fractures and dislocations, but, most disturbingly, patients in severe pain without any obvious radiographic abnormalities. The authors set out try to explain these events which had been either written off as surgeon error, "learning curve," or an unexplained event not related to device failure (2). This lack of a logical solution was re-enforced with a financial disincentive to find one, given that the design had been accepted, applied, and marketed at great expense to both industry and investors. The authors compiled and analyzed complications presenting to their clinic. New understanding of unrecognized sources of pain from the replacements was validated both by diagnostic testing as well as direct surgical intervention. Ultimately, a new model of lumbar segmental motion was developed that not only explained the complications, but added insight into the mechanics of normal lumbar motion.


Studies of individual entrepreneurs consistently find that certain positive psychological traits are prevalent in entrepreneurial people and that these traits are particularly important determinants of an individual's ability to recognize opportunities as well as their propensity to exploit them. This evidence, in conjunction with the stylized fact that entrepreneurial activ-ities are clustered in geographic space, leads to a few worthy questions. Are individuals that possess these traits heterogeneously distributed in geographic space? If so, does the distribu-tion of these characteristics represent the psychological environment of a place and does it have important influences on the amount of entrepreneurship occurring in it? In this paper, I seek to answer these questions in order to provide an appreciation of the relationship between psychological environments and regional entrepreneurship; using Bayesian Model Averaging. The results suggest that regional psychological environments vary considerably across geo-graphic space and that these differences indeed have important influences on the incidence of entrepreneurship.


The UK's Low Level Waste Repository Ltd submitted an Environmental Safety Case (ESC) for the disposal of low-level waste to the Environment Agency on the 1st of May 2011. The ESC is a major submission that will decide the future use of the Repository and has major implications for the success of the UK's LLW Strategy and decommissioning programme. This paper provides an overview of the work that has been carried out to support the submission. Key aspects of this ESC include: • detailed investigations of existing disposals, based on careful examination of existing records and other investigations, including interviews with former operational staff; • analysis of uncertainties in future disposals; • modelling of the biogeochemical evolution of the disposal system, which provides understanding of the evolution of pH, Eh and gas generation and thence underpinning for radionuclide releases in groundwater and gas; • development of a 3-D groundwater flow model, calibrated against observed heads and with a detailed representation of the engineered features; • analysis of coastal erosion and its impacts; • a major focus on optimisation based on detailed technical studies; • a conclusion that existing disposals do not require remediation; • the choice of a concrete vault design with permeable side walls designed to avoid bathtubbing after the end of management control; • a comprehensive set of assessment calculations, including thorough analysis of uncertainties, which demonstrate consistency with the Environment Agency's risk and dose guidance levels; • revision of the LLWR's WAC, based in part on the use of the 'sum of fractions' approach; • the use of a safety case document structure that emphasises key safety arguments in a Level 1 document and provides supporting evidence in a series of Level 2 documents; • the provision of a Level 2 document that describes in detail how each aspect of the regulatory guidance has been addressed. In the future, the 2011 ESC will be maintained using a formal system of change control. It will be used as a tool for decision making concerning the future development of the LLWR and waste acceptance.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Abstract The North China Plain, on which there are many palaeochannels as a result of frequent river channel changes, consists of a complex of floodplains formed by the Yellow, the Haihe and the Luanhe rivers. The palaeochannels act as a significant store of fresh ground water. Most of the storage is within sand and gravel layers. The buried depth of these layers varies among palaeochannels formed in different periods. For example, those formed between the last principal stage of glaciation and early Holocene time are buried 20–40 m deep. Those formed in mid-Holocene time are found at a depth of 10–20 m and those formed in late Holocene time at 0–10 m depth. Ground-water storage and palaeochannel discharge was calculated for the North China Plain. Ground-water in palaeochannels is recharged mainly by rainfall. With good management practice, the water withdrawn can be balanced against recharge to achieve a sustainable level of use. In addition, the shallow-buried palaeochannels provide a suitable environment for water regulation and storage and can be used to develop underground reservoirs.


Background. The pivotal role of the Immunoglobulin (Ig) receptor and antigenic stimulation have been proven to be landmarks for the understanding of the ontogeny and evolution of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In addition, the mutational status of the Immunoglobulin Heavy-Chain Variable region gene (IGHV) was confirmed to be a reliable prognostic factor, supporting an antigen-driven model of CLL development. To clarify aspects regarding an antigenic involvement in CLL evolution, studies focusing on intraclonal diversification (ID) of Ig genes have provided relevant information, although mainly conducted in a pre-Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) era.
 Aim. To apply a NGS approach to investigate ID in CLL.
 Methods. IGHV genes from 530 CLL patients with Royal Masden Hospital score 4-5 (Fig. 1A) was sequenced using NGS (Lymphotrack). The bio-informatic pipeline was based on the pRESTO/ChangeO packages. Specific pathological clones were selected based on the presence of same IGHV, junction genes and with similar HCDR3 sequence according to Hamming's distance. Through the R-Alakazam package, we generated rarefaction curves to evaluate the clonal diversity inside the pathological clone (Fig. 1B). Focusing on the Simpson index (represented by the Hill number of order q=2), which gives more weight to larger clones minimizing the smaller ones (Fig. 1B), we selected a Diversity Score (DS) of 4 for the definition of cases without ID (clonal; DS <4) and cases with ID (intraclonal; DS ≥4) (Fig. 1B).
 Results. Using the reported threshold we identified 469 (88.5%) clonal cases, expressing a single clone (Fig. 1C), and 61 (11.5%) cases with ID (median DS 9.2, range 4.4-66.0) characterized by the presence of two or multiple pathological clones expressing the same IGHV gene and HCDR3 (Fig. 1C). Notably, cases with ID expressed both a mutated (M) (39/61, 63.9%) and an unmutated (UM) (22/61, 36.1%; p=0.066) IGHV gene configuration (Fig. 1C). Of note, we observed a significant skewing toward the usage of VH4-family genes when comparing cases with ID (38/61, 62.3%) vs. cases without ID (78/469, 16.6%; p<0.0001, Fig 1D). Moreover, the IGHV4-39 and IGHV4-34 genes were the most used genes in the context of cases with ID (Fig. 1E), although none of them belonging to known stereotyped subsets. By focusing on VH4-family only cases, we observed that cases with ID and UM IGHV genes displayed higher mutation frequencies in WA/TW motifs, a mutational signature which suggests an involvement of both Activation-Induced (Cytidine) Deaminase (AID) and error-prone polymerase eta (Fig. 1F), a pattern not observed in its counterpart with UM IGHV genes but without ID (Fig. 1F). Conversely, in cases with ID and M IGHV genes, mutations preferentially clustered in AID hotspots (WRC/GYW motifs), suggesting a direct role of AID and the Base Excision Repair machinery in the mutational overload (Fig. 1F). Consistently, M IGHV cases with ID expressed significantly higher AID mRNA levels than M IGHV cases without ID (p=0.0024; Fig. 1G). These expression levels were overall comparable with those found in UM IGHV cases, irrespective to the evidence of ID (Fig. 1G), which however were not associated with an increased number of mutations in AID-specific hotspots (Fig. 1F).
 Conclusions. By taking advantage of a new method for ID assessment in CLL, we demonstrated that ID prevalently affects VH4-family cases which display different mutational patterns dependent to the IGHV gene status. This data are in keeping with previous reports indicating the IGHV4 genes as particularly prone to generate immunoglobulin subjected to continuous/persistent stimulation by external/auto-antigens, hence particularly prone to generate features of ID. Further experiments in selected cases with ID through a non-random barcode strategy are needed.

 Zaja: Sandoz: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding; Amgen: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; Abbvie: Honoraria.


We propose a type-based taint analysis for Android. Concretely, we present DFlow, a context-sensitive information flow type system, and DroidInfer, the corresponding type inference analysis for detecting privacy leaks in Android apps. We present novel techniques for error reporting based on CFL-reachability, as well as novel techniques for handling of Android-specific features, including libraries, multiple entry points and callbacks, and inter-component communication. Empirical results show that our approach is scalable and precise. DroidInfer scales well in terms of time and memory and has false-positive rate of 15.7%. It detects privacy leaks in apps from the Google Play Store and in known malware.


In this paper, a reliability evaluation model based on fuzzy neural network is proposed to evaluate the reliability of wireless sensor networks without a unified standard. Firstly, the reliability is analyzed from the point of view of topology structure, protocol stack structure and reliability mechanism of wireless sensor network, and the performance indexes that affect the reliability are extracted. Secondly, some performance indexes are screened out, and the standard value matrix of reliability evaluation for index fuzzy quantization is established. The sample data is generated by interpolation, and the reliability evaluation model based on fuzzy neural network is established. The neural network model takes the selected index values as input, and outputs are the reliability of the wireless sensor network. The simulation results show that the evaluation model is basically consistent with the actual situation, and it can evaluate the wireless sensor network from the system level. Keywords—Wireless sensor networks; fuzzy neural network; reliability evaluation; performance indexes


Studies were made on the dose and sex dependence of thyroid tumor development in rats pretreated with N-bis(2-hydroxypropyl)nitrosamine (DHPN) followed by exposure to various doses of phenobarbital (PB). A direct dose-response relationship in induction of thyroid tumors was found in both male and female rats. Upon feeding the DHPN-treated rats with basal diet containing 20, 100, 500, and 2500 ppm of PB, the incidences of follicular adenoma were, respectively, 8, 45, 70, and 66% in male rats and 12, 17, 50, and 58% in female rats. Development of papillary adenomas in male rats was observed only at the higher doses of PB, at incidences of 12 and 20% for doses of 500 and 2500 ppm. Follicular carcinoma was also seen at higher doses of PB, at 16 and 12%, respectively, for the 500- and 2500-ppm groups. Neither follicular nor papillary carcinomas were induced in female rats; only a low incidence of papillary adenoma (4%) was observed with a PB concentration as high as 2500 ppm. A single injection of DHPN resulted in production of approximately 1 tumor/female rat and 2.5 tumors/male rat. DHPN combined with posttreatment with PB at doses up to 500 ppm did not increase tumor yield in female rats, whereas a 3-fold increase was observed in male rats for the 500-ppm-treated groups. When PB was increased to 2500 ppm a marked increase (8-fold) in tumor yield in male rats was observed, in contrast to a less than 3-fold increase in similarly treated female rats.


Purpose: A single large dose in the range of 16 to 20 Gray at 90% isodose line can be safely delivered to solitary or multiple metastases in the vertebral column via extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery. However, the spinal cord dose is usually limited to 10 Gy within the treatment segment. Thus, the dosimetry validation for the spinal cord is critical for this procedure and for further dose escalation. Methods and Materials: Bearing the challenges of the great dose gradient and irregular shape of the target around the cord, we have designed an experiment to measure the absolute dose to the cord using a farm chamber placed at the location of the spine cord inside the solid water phantom. The air‐cavity of the chamber is precisely delineated in the iPlan system (BrainLAB) and dose volume histogram for the air cavity was used for calculating the effective dose in the treatment plan. This can then be compared with measured doses by the chamber. Isodose distributions in two coronal planes through the center of tumor and through the cord are also measured with EDR2 films and compared with the planned dose distributions. Results: Our tests demonstrated that this dosimetry measurement is reliable with high accuracy and precision of < 3% deviation in such difficult dosimetry verification. Results from five spinal SRS cases show that the cord doses with IMRS plans are within 5 % from those of the treatment planned doses. Importantly, the isodose distributions at the cord and near the target volume are consistent with the planed dose distributions. Conclusions: The small discrepancies (up to 5%) for the absolute dose measurement show no gross errors in the dose delivery and dose calculation using a pencil beam algorithm in the planning system.


Neutron Compton scattering has been used for a long time as a method to obtain information about proton momentum distributions in organic molecules, metal hydrides, etc. However, in a number of recent papers it has been shown that scattering on protons (and to some extent also on deuterons) shows intensities that are much smaller than expected when compared to those of the other constituents of the measured systems. This has raised the question if the Compton scattering process is fully understood (do, for instance, electron excitations take up part of the recoil energy and momentum?) and casts doubts on the reliability of the method for its original purpose. The present paper presents a detailed explanation for the intensity deficits in a number of studied systems without involving any participation of a third body in the scattering process. It is a development of an earlier proposed model, in which the intensity loss is caused by destructive interference in the waves representing the scattered neutron and the recoiling particle. These interferences appear when the scattering particles are indistinguishable (and therefore in a quantum superposition state) when seen by the neutron. It requires that the neutron coherence length (which is determined by the energy selection) is comparable to the internuclear distances. It is shown that the latter condition is at least partially fulfilled for two, three or four particles in the experiments and that it is likely that the necessary coherence remains over the very short duration (femtosecond (fs)) of the scattering process. Quantitative agreement is obtained for several proton and deuteron containing systems, including the observed dependence of the intensity deficit on scattering angle, which is explained in terms of the actual recoil energy as related to the proton- or deuteron-binding energy in the different systems. The question of available final states for the scattering system is discussed.


E-commerce has witnessed massive growth every year, since it has become the backbone of many economic and financial transactions and the preferred choice for most consumers and merchants alike and to offer access not only to national electronic stores but also cross-border markets. This thesis is intended to explore the concept of e-commerce contracts by analysing the extent of consistency and harmonisation between the e-commerce rules by comparing some of the international best practices (namely the UN, EU and UK) and between the Gulf States. In addition, this research aimed to cover the three dimensions of e-commerce in a legal context as follows: First and foremost, it examined contractual issues, in order to discover to what extent the legislation could boost certainty and enhance confidence in concluding contracts electronically. The second issue it considered was online security and identity issues, by focusing on the nature and function of the electronic signature, which serves as the main proof of identity in the virtual environment. Thirdly, it explored the concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) and recent EU initiatives which provide best practice in the area of ODR regulation. It also analysed the regulatory context of alternative dispute resolution in the UK and reviewed some successful examples of online arbitration services. The object of all these point of study is to analyse these various legislations in order to highlight its strengths and weaknesses, and to draw comparative lessons from international best practice that might help to be adopted in Gulf States.


The kinetics of the isothermal crystallization of the γ-phase Poly(vinylidene fluoride) has been investigated. Samples were prepared from the melt at different crystallisation temperatures and the variation of the microstructure of the samples was monitored with time by optical microscopy. Raman and Infrared transmission spectroscopies also show the appearance of the γ-phase for higher crystallisation temperatures. Two types of γ-phase spherulites have been identified. These spherulites represents different ways to obtain the γ-phase and show different thermal stability. The correlation between microstructure and kinetic parameters allows the tailoring of the microstructure by choosing the crystallisation conditions of the samples.


The structures of 5-aminolaevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) complexed with substrate (5-aminolaevulinic acid) and three inhibitors: laevulinic acid, succinylacetone and 4-keto-5-aminolaevulinic acid, have been solved at high resolution. The ligands all bind by forming a covalent link with Lys263 at the active site. The structures define the interactions made by one of the two substrate moieties that bind to the enzyme during catalysis. All of the inhibitors induce a significant ordering of the flap covering the active site. Succinylacetone appears to be unique by inducing a number of conformational changes in loops covering the active site, which may be important for understanding the co-operative properties of ALAD enzymes. Succinylacetone is produced in large amounts by patients suffering from the hereditary disease type I tyrosinaemia and its potent inhibition of ALAD also has implications for the pathology of this disease. The most intriguing result is that obtained with 4-keto-5-amino-hexanoic acid, which seems to form a stable carbinolamine intermediate with Lys263. It appears that we have defined the structure of an intermediate of Schiff base formation that the substrate forms upon binding to the P-site of the enzyme.


We combine the search for young meteorites in the Omani‐Swiss collection (˜1140 fall events collected 2001–2018) using 22Na and 44Ti with luminescence and 14C sediment ages from the Ramlat Fasad (RaF) dense collection area (DCA) of Oman to obtain combined terrestrial ages and maximum accumulation times, and test whether the proportion of young meteorites is consistent with the models of meteorite flux and weathering. Gamma‐ray spectrometry data for 22Na show that two (0.17%) of the meteorites in the collection fell during the 20 yr preceding this study, consistent with the rates of meteorite accumulation. In the RaF DCA, meteorites are found on Quaternary to Neogene sediments, providing constraints for their maximum terrestrial ages. 44Ti activities of the RaF 032 L6 strewn field found on deflated parts of active dunes indicate an age of 0.2–0.3 ka while dune sand optically stimulated luminescence ages constrain an upper age of 1.6 ka. Extensive sediment dating using luminescence methods in the RaF DCA area showed that all other meteorite finds were made on significantly older sediments (>10 ka). Dense accumulations of meteorites in RaF are found on blowouts of the Pliocene Marsawdad formation. Our combined results show that the proportion of meteorites with low terrestrial ages is low compared to other find areas, consistent with the previously determined high average terrestrial age Oman meteorites and significantly older than suggested by models of exponential decay. Oman meteorites may commonly have been buried within dunes and soils over extended periods, acting as a temporary protection against erosion.


On-lattice kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations have extensively been applied to numerous systems. However, their applicability is severely limited to relatively short time and length scales. Recently, the coarse-grained MC (CGMC) method was introduced to greatly expand the reach of the lattice KMC technique. Herein, we extend the previous spatial CGMC methods to multicomponent species and/or site types. The underlying theory is derived and numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of homogenization at the stochastic level over all site types of a spatially coarse-grained cell. Homogenization provides a novel coarsening of the number of processes, an important aspect for complex problems plagued by the existence of numerous microscopic processes (combinatorial complexity). As expected, the homogenized CGMC method outperforms the traditional KMC method on computational cost while retaining good accuracy.


Real-time systems often require determinism to ensure that task deadlines are met. Schedulability analysis provides a firm basis to ensure that tasks deadlines are met, and for this, knowledge of bounds on worst-case execution times (WCET) of tasks is a critical piece of information. Static timing analysis derives these bounds on WCETs. A limiting factor for real-time systems design is the class of processors that may be used. Contemporary processors with their advanced architectural features, such as out-of-order execution, branch prediction, speculation, and prefetching, cannot be statically analyzed to obtain WCETs for tasks because these features introduce non-determinism to task execution, which can only be resolved at run-time. We introduce a new paradigm which proposes minor enhancements to modern processor architectures, which, on interaction with software modules, is able to obtain tight, accurate timing analysis results for modern processors. To the best of our knowledge, this method of hardware/software interactions to calculate WCET results for out-of-order processors is the first of its kind.


This paper intends to reinforce on the mathematical formalism of the calculation of the Intensity-Curvature Functional (ICF) of the signal-image and to present applications of the ICF to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of human brain tumors. The ICF of the signal-image in one dimension or multiple dimensions is calculated as the ratio between two terms. The two terms are: (i) the integral of the product between the model function fitted to the MRI data and the classic-curvature, which are both calculated at the grid node of the sampled signal, and (ii) the integral of the product between the model function fitted to the MRI data and the classic-curvature, which are both calculated at the intra-node location used to re-sample the signal-image. The Intensity-Curvature Functional is therefore employed to re-map the MRI data into a new domain. This paper also emphasizes on three major findings provided with the IntensityCurvature Functional when applied to two-dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data of human brain tumors. The three findings are: (i) the visually perceptible third dimension perpendicular to the imaging plane of the MRI, (ii) the medical intensity-curvature measure map related to the accumulation of fluids in the tumor area of the brain and more generally of the human brain cortex, and (iii) the fact that the ICF is a filter mask which can be convolved to the MRI data so to filter the MRI, which benefits of an enhanced gray level scale. Indeed the novelty of this research is that, in four subjects out of eight, the ICF based filtering of the Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) imaging modality benefits of an enhanced gray scale which allows the observation of details not visible in the FLAIR.


There is a large gap between the comprehensive set of rights of migrant workers ("migrant rights") stipulated in international human rights law and the much more limited rights granted by national laws and policies to many migrants working in highand middle-income countries. To understand why, when and how nation-states restrict migrant workers' rights, and to discuss what rights migrant workers should have, we need to consider the potential inter-relationships between migrant rights on the one hand, and national policies for admitting migrant workers on the other hand. To study these interrelationships in practice, this paper constructs and analyses two separate indices that measure: (i) the 'openness' of over 100 labour immigration programmes in 46 highand middle-income countries to admitting migrant workers; and (ii) the legal rights (civil and political, economic, social, residency, and family reunion rights) granted to migrant workers after admission. The analysis distinguishes between policies toward low-, medium-, and high-skilled migrant workers. The paper uses these indices to identify key features and variations of labour immigration programmes in highand middle-income countries. The analysis suggests that both openness and some migrant rights are positively related to the skill level targeted by the labour immigration programme (i.e. programmes designed to admit and employ higher-skilled migrants are more open and grant more rights than programmes targeting lowerskilled migrants). For upper high-income countries, the paper also finds some evidence of a trade-off (i.e. a negative relationship) between openness and certain specific migrant rights in programmes targeting specific skill groups of migrants (i.e. programmes that are more open to admitting migrant workers also impose greater restrictions on specific migrant rights).


Aquatic environments are reservoirs of the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae O1, which causes the acute diarrheal disease cholera. Upon low temperature or limited nutrient availability, the cells enter a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state. Characteristic of this state are an altered morphology, low metabolic activity and lack of growth under standard laboratory conditions. Here, for the first time, the cellular ultrastructure of V. cholerae VBNC cells raised in natural waters was investigated using electron cryo-tomography complemented by comparison of the proteomes and the peptidoglycan composition of LB overnight culture and VBNC cells. The extensive remodeling of the VBNC cells was most obvious in the passive dehiscence of the cell envelope, resulting in improper embedment of flagella and pili. Only minor changes of the peptidoglycan and osmoregulated periplasmic glucans were observed. Active changes in VBNC cells included the production of cluster I chemosensory arrays and change of abundance of cluster II array proteins. Components involved in iron acquisition and storage, peptide import and arginine biosynthesis were overrepresented in VBNC cells, while enzymes of the central carbon metabolism were found at lower levels. Finally, several pathogenicity factors of V. cholerae were less abundant in the VBNC state, potentially limiting their infectious potential.


In the present study, the influence of various solvents on UV-VIS absorption spectra of N,N-Bis(salicylidene)ethylenediamine (Salen) has been investigated. Salen ligand has two absorption maxima (around 260 and 320 nm). To explain the obtained spectra, the frequencies and molar absorptivity values were combined with solvent properties using a total solvatochromic equation suggested by the Kamlet and Taft. The multiparametric examination denotes that non-specific dipolar interactions of the solvents (?*) with the solute play a significant role in absorption maxima in pure solvents. The ionization constant (pK a ) of salen in methanol has been determined by spectrophotometric measurements. Two graphical methods have been applied to evaluate the ionization constant with resulting average value of 8.61.


This paper addresses the problem of diagnosability analysis in Web Services. In particular, it focuses on the analysis of the impact of time to the diagnostic capabilities in Web Service workflows. The diagnosability analysis that is proposed in this paper aims at determining the diagnostic capabilities of a previously developped algorithm for the diagnosis of Web Services. This diagnostic algorithm is based on chronicle recognitions. Faults that can occur during the execution of service workflows are described by means of chronicles. To perform this diagnosability analysis, the problem is firstly defined as a languagebased analysis which leads to the definition of exclusiveness tests between the languages represented by the chronicles. To deal with the time aspects inherent to the chronicles, we then propose to perform the automatic analysis by the use of time Petri nets. Exclusiveness tests are then defined on reachability graphs of time Petri nets which implicitly represent chronicle languages.


Coriolis mass flow meter technology has been touted as the "ideal" flow metering technology, and for many companies such as Procter & Gamble this has often been the case. Coriolis mass flow meter technology is the only commercially available technology that can measure true mass flow for our product streams. Coriolis is the most accurate of the industrial process flow metering technologies. It has no moving mechanical parts to wear out, so its theoretical lifespan is almost infinite. One limitation of Coriolis technology is size - flow meters above a nominal three or four inches become exceedingly large and commensurately expensive. For manufacturers in the area of "specialty chemicals" this is not a concern, as process pipelines in excess of four inches are uncommon. Coriolis technology had some initial teething problems, many of which have been effectively resolved by the vendors over the years. Sensitivity to building and pipeline vibration (both mechanical and hydraulic) initially created significant problems for the technology. The development of dual-tube and other technology advancements have effectively solved this problem. Price has always been an issue for Coriolis mass flow meters - it was a premium technology with a premium price. Several vendors have recently introduced low cost yet high performance Coriolis meters, effectively dealing with this issue.


The EU legislator has been accused of overemphasizing the repressive aspect of law enforcement, while paying less attention to civil liberties, such as fundamental victims' rights. This paper examines the current position of EU crime victims, with a special focus on the execution phase of a criminal procedure. A victimological assessment of (1) the Framework Decisions on custodial sentences and probation measures and (2) the recent EU Victim Directive shows that none of these instruments contains any mechanisms for safeguarding the rights of victims in the post‐trial stage. Regardless of the various praiseworthy efforts to further the emancipation of victims, when it comes to the execution phase, victims' rights are still largely neglected, thereby opening the door again to criticism. Granting victims a right to information and a (non‐influential) right to be heard would already improve matters greatly. A constitutional assessment indicates that Europe is competent to make these changes.


The paper describes a new sun sensor for absolute heading detection developed for the Field Integrated, Design and Operations (FIDO) rover. The FIDO rover is an advanced technology rover that is a terrestrial prototype of the rovers NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plans to send to Mars in 2003. Our goal was to develop a sun sensor that fills the current cost/performance gap, uses the power of subpixel interpolation, makes use of current hardware on the rover, and demands very little computational overhead. The need for a sun sensor on planetary rovers lies in the fact that current means of estimating the heading of planetary rovers involves integration of noisy rotational-speed measurements. This noise causes error to accumulate and grow rapidly. Moreover, the heading error affects the estimate of the x and y position of the rover. More importantly, incremental odometry heading estimation is only reliable over relatively short distances. There is an urgent need to develop a new heading-detection sensor for long traverses [for example, 100 m per Sol (Martian Day)], as requested for future Mars mission. Results of a recent FIDO field trial at Black Rock Summit in Central Nevada and several operations readiness tests at the JPL MarsYard using the sun sensor have demonstrated threefold to fourfold improvement in the heading estimation of the rover compared to incremental odometry.


The effect of general anesthesia induced with halothane and nitrous oxide on left ventricular (LV) contractility and diastolic mechanics was directly assessed in the chronically instrumented canine model. Seven dogs were instrumented with ultrasonic dimension transducers to measure LV diameter and micromanometers to measure LV transmural pressure. Contractility was assessed by the slope (EES) of the end-systolic pressure-diameter relationship PES = EES (LES - LD). Diastolic compliance was assessed by fitting end-diastolic pressure-dimension data to the exponential P = alpha (e beta epsilon L-1), where alpha and beta are nonlinear elastic coefficients. A new index (ID20) that identifies the dose of anesthetic necessary to depress the inotropic state by 20% was calculated to be 0.63% for halothane. Contractility was progressively decreased by halothane, with EES falling from 10.1 +/- 0.6 at control to 6.7 +/- 0.4 at 1% halothane and to 4.2 +/- 0.5 at 2% halothane (p less than 0.05 at each halothane level). However, similar levels of halothane did not significantly alter alpha and beta, nor did they significantly shift the exponential diastolic compliance curve from control. Seven patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting conducted under narcotic anesthesia showed a similar halothane-induced depression of contractility; 0.5% halothane decreased EES from 11.5 +/- 2.0 to 8.0 +/- 2.4 (p less than 0.01). Use of ID20 allows reclassification of anesthetic agents in accord with their myocardial depressant effects, which with halothane appears to be caused by decreased inotropism without alterations in diastolic chamber mechanics.


living cell. In the form of skin, hair, callus, cartilage, muscles, tendons and ligaments, proteins hold together, protect, and provide structure to the body of a multi-celled organism. In the form of enzymes, hormones, antibodies, and globulins, they catalyze, regulate, and protect the body chemistry. In the form of hemoglobin, myoglobin and various lipoproteins, they effect the transport of oxygen and other substances within an organism.


Circulating hairs or threads may cause hair-thread tourniquet syndrome in babies and mentally retarded individuals. Although it is mostly seen in the fingers and toes, it can be seen in the penis, clitoris, and labium and uvula. It may result in loss of the limb if it's not recognized early and is not treated correctly. In this study, the case of the second toe of the left foot was presented. Eight month old boy presented with complaints of restlessness and crying for 2 days. Physical examination revealed a constrictive band surrounding the proximal phalanx second toe of the left foot. There was no evidence of child abuse from the family history. It is recommended to make a longitudinal deep incision where there is coiling of the finger. Wrapped hair thread were removed and treated with a small and deep incision dorsally under local anesthesia as described by Serrour. Amoxicillin clavulanic acid was given orally as antibiotic. The wound was healed without any problem by dressing with antibiotic creams for 10 days. In conclusion, it is important to keep this syndrome in mind in patients presenting with the mentioned complaints, in terms of diagnosis and recovery of limb with early treatment.


This analysis of pesticides and worker health in Texas is the product of a policy research project conducted at the LBJ School in academic year 1983-84. Publication was funded and overseen by the Texas Department of Agriculture, which commissioned the study. A second volume on regulating pesticides is being published in the same manner as a companion volume. Additional funds for publication were provided by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.


From one of America's most distinguished constitutional scholars, an intriguing exploration of America's most famous political tract and its relevance to today's politics This lavishly illustrated catalogue discusses the Asian luxury goods that were imported into the Netherlands during the 17th century and demonstrates the overwhelming impact these works of art had on Dutch life and art during the Golden Age. Written by a team of 30 international scholars, this volume presents seven essays and catalogue entries on 150 works of art, including Dutch and Asian paintings, textiles, ceramics, lacquer, furniture, silver, diamonds, and jewelry. From the Dutch settlements throughout Asia-including Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China, and Japan-Dutch maritime traders brought an astonishing range of luxuries back to the Netherlands. Dutch consumers were enthralled with these foreign goods, which brought new colors, patterns, and textures to their interiors and wardrobes. As seen in the book's many illustrations, Dutch artists also found inspiration in these objects and incorporated them into portraits, genre scenes, and particularly still-life paintings. Dutch artists and craftspeople also adapted distinctly Asian technologies, such as porcelain and lacquer, to create new works of art inspired by Asia. This catalogue weaves together the complex stories of these diverse works of art and presents fascinating portraits of the dynamic cities of Amsterdam and Batavia (Jakarta)-the Dutch trade center in Asia during the 17th century.


Reflectors are an essential component for on-chip integrated photonics. Here, we propose a new method for designing reflectors on the prevalent thin-film-on-insulator platform by using genetic-algorithm optimization. In simulation, the designed reflector with a footprint of only 2.16  μm×2.16  μm can achieve ∼97% reflectivity and 1 dB bandwidth as wide as 220 nm. The structure is composed of randomly distributed pixels and is highly robust against the inevitable corner rounding effect in device fabrication. In experiment, we fabricated on-chip Fabry–Perot (FP) cavities constructed from optimized reflectors. Those FP cavities have intrinsic quality factors of >2000 with the highest value beyond 4000 in a spectral width of 200 nm. The reflectivity fitted from the FP cavity resonances is >85% in the entire wavelength range of 1440–1640 nm and is beyond 95% at some wavelengths. The fabrication processes are CMOS compatible and require only one step of lithography and etch. The devices can be used as a standard module in integrated photonic circuitry for wide applications in on-chip semiconductor laser structures and optical signal processing.


Several graphical methods for testing univariate composite normality from an i.i.d. sample are presented. They are endowed with correct simultaneous error bounds and yield size-correct tests. As all are based on the empirical CDF, they are also consistent for all alternatives. For one test, called the modified stabilized probability test, or MSP, a highly simplified computational method is derived, which delivers the test statistic and also a highly accurate p-value approximation, essentially instantaneously. The MSP test is demonstrated to have higher power against asymmetric alternatives than the well-known and powerful Jarque-Bera test. A further size-correct test, based on combining two test statistics, is shown to have yet higher power. The methodology employed is fully general and can be applied to any i.i.d. univariate continuous distribution setting.


Young children with atopic dermatitis were treated with standard topical care and massaged by their parents for 20 minutes daily for a 1 month period. A control group received standard topical care only. The children's affect and activity level significantly improved, and their parent's anxiety decreased immediately after the massage therapy sessions. Over the 1 month period, parents of massaged children reported lower anxiety levels in their children, and the children improved significantly on all clinical measures including redness, scaling, lichenification, excoriation, and pruritus. The control group only improved significantly on the scaling measure. These data suggest that massage therapy may be a cost-effective adjunct treatment for atopic dermatitis, since there is a one-time expense of $30 for the child to receive the massage and the parent to learn the technique.


Transport industry is dominated by the light-weight challenge driven by both environmental concerns (increase the fuel efficiency and reduce the CO2 emissions) and cost reduction. Using mixtures of materials and multi-material design of components provides an opportunity to develop products which could achieve this challenge. A critical aspect in multi-material fabrication is the surface condition and joining. In this work, CFTPCs (carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites) made of CF-PEEK tapes were joined to an aeronautic titanium alloy. Different laser textures were used and compared with other surface treatments like chemical etching and grit blasting. Hot-press was used to optimize the fabrication of CFTPCs laminates to choose the better parameters to join them to the metal directly. Tensile tests and Optical Microscopy were used for testing their quality. For joining the CFTPCs to the titanium, the use of a PEEK film was also considered. The surface optimization and quality of joining were studied using single lap joint tests. Different surface conditions yield several shear strength results. Particularly, with grit blasting very poor values are obtained. However, laser texturing improves significantly the joint strength, above all when a PEEK film is used. In this case, structural resistances over 20MPa were obtained.


A new simple, accurate, rapid and precise isocratic high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the determination of Hydrochlorothiazide (HTZ), and Triamterene (TMT) in tablet formulation. The optimized conditions comprises of column Symmetry C18 250 mm × 4.6 mm I.D; 5 μm with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, 0.05 M Phosphate buffer, methanol and acetonitrile mixture was used as mobile phase in the ratio 55:35:10 v/v at a detection wavelength 270 nm. Retention times of HTZ and TMT were found to be 3.49 min, and 4.68 min with a tailing factor 1.25, 1.27 and 4704, 4841 as theoretical plates respectively which are within the limits. All the parameters were validated according to the ICH guidelines and found to be within limits. The LOD values of HTZ and TMT were found to be 0.089 and 0.251 µg/mL respectively. HTZ and TMT LOQ's were found to be 0.27, and 0.78µg/mL respectively. Linearity ranges for HTZ, and TMT were 2-10 µg/mL, and 3-15 µg/mL respectively. Percent recovery study values of HTZ and TMT were found to be within 98-102%.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs) is becoming increasingly difficult because of the widespread emergence of multidrug-resistant organisms. Areas covered: In this review, we discuss the effectiveness of several new antibiotics for the treatment of cIAIs, including new β-lactamase inhibitor combinations (BLICs) and tetracycline-class drugs, recently developed aminoglycosides and quinolones, and novel lipoglycopeptides and oxazolidinones. Expert opinion: Of the new BLICs, ceftolozane/tazobactam is associated with adequate clinical cure rates in patients with cIAIs. Currently, two new β-lactamase inhibitors, namely avibactam and MK-7655, are under development for clinical use in the treatment of cIAIs. Eravacycline, a novel, fully synthetic tetracycline-class drug, has been shown in Phase II and III clinical trials to be more potent than tigecycline against a significant number of multidrug-resistant organisms causing cIAIs. Plazomicin, a next-generation aminoglycoside, is a promising agent for treatment of cIAIs due to multidrug-resistant pathogens. Of the recently developed quinolones, delafloxacin and finafloxacin have been shown to be effective against pathogens that survive and multiply in mildly acidic environments, although further clinical studies examining their clinical utility in the treatment of cIAIs are warranted. Oritavancin, a new semisynthetic lipoglycopeptide agent, has been demonstrated to be a potent antibiotic in the treatment of cIAIs due to drug-resistant Gram-positive organisms. Several other new antibiotics in development also show promise and will hopefully broaden the possibilities for treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections due to MDR pathogens.


Using an exact-diagonalization technique on small clusters, we calculate the spin and density excitation spectra as well as the temperature dependence of the specific heat for the triangular-lattice t-J model with the multiple-spin exchange interactions, whereby we consider the low-energy excitations of the two-dimensional liquid He adsorbed on graphite. We find that, for a relevant set of the parameter values, the spectral weight for the spin excitations is concentrated on a very low-energy region, while that of the density excitations extends over a wide energy range, indicating the clear separation of their energy scales. The double-peak structure in the temperature dependence of the specific heat is also obtained.


This bibliography is divided into 9 sections: 1. General Information on Compiling Techniques 2. Syntax- and Base-Directed Parsing 3. Parsing in General 4. Resource Allocation 5. Errors - Detection and Correction 6. Compiler Implementation in General 7. Details of Compiler Construction 8. Additional Topics 9. Miscellaneous Related References Within each section the entries are alphabetical by author. Keywords describing the entry will be found for each entry set off by pound signs (#). Some amount of cross-referencing has been done; e.g., entries which fall into Section 3 as well as Section 7 will generally be found in both sections. However, entries will be found listed only under the principle or first author''s name. "Computing Reviews" citations are given following the annotation when available.


The explosion of adult attachment research in the last decade has been limited by its reliance on college student and distressed samples. Using a large nationally representative sample of American adults, the authors examined the relation of sociodemographics, childhood adversity, parental representations, adult psychopathology, and personality traits to adult attachment in an effort to replicate previous findings and extend the theory. Distribution of adult attachment styles was similar to that in prior studies: 59% secure, 25% avoidant, and 11% anxious. Adult attachment was associated with several sociodemographic variables (e.g., income, age, race) not previously studied. Childhood adversities of an interpersonal nature were strongly related to insecure adult attachment. Various types of adult psychopathologies and personality traits were also strongly related to adult attachment. Implications for adult attachment theory and future research are discussed.


Analysis of speech-imitation sounds produced by pet budgerigars {Melopsittacus imdulatus) reveals a consistent focus on acoustic components of speech which have counterparts in the species-specific vocalizations of budgerigars. These budgerigar vocalizations include whistle sequences (which, with their rapid glides in pitch contour, need only slight modification to constitute a second-formant representation of speech), the contact call (which is acoustically similar to the secondformant transition of high front vowels), and sounds with harmonic spectra (which can be modified to represent the formant structure of certain vowels). This transformation of species-specific sounds into speech-imitation sounds by focusing on shared acoustic features prompts the hypothesis that, with the appropriate social stimulation, pet budgerigars perceive human speech as modified budgerigar sounds. The hypothesis is supported by the fact that the shared acoustic features are particularly important cues in the perception of species-specific communication sounds by both humans and budgerigars. Such inter-species vocal communication cues, having a common origin somewhere in vertebrate phylogeny. would help to explain the many reported examples of human-like speech perception by nonhuman vertebrates. The shared neural mechanisms which correspond to these shared acoustic patterns could constitute a phylogenetically conservative level of auditory perception which is communicationsound-specific but not species-specific.


[Extract] The term 'ghost town' conveys a sense of abandonment, desertion, dereliction, isolation, decay and even the supernatural. The popular image of a ghost town is one where the former inhabitants have moved away leaving only abandoned buildings as a testament to the community that once stood there. However, this is only one type of ghost town. Factors leading to abandonment include exhaustion of natural resources on which the settlement formerly depended, bypassing by railways or new highways (as in the case of several small towns along Historic Route 66 in the United States), sudden events or disasters, or the shifting of human economic activities to other areas. The most famous, or perhaps infamous, ghost town of the recent past is Chernobyl, Ukraine. A 1986 accident in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant forced the sudden evacuation of thousands of residents. Today, Chernobyl remains a city without residents, a ghost town where entry is tightly controlled because of high radiation levels and other safety hazards.

There are many ghost towns throughout the world that arose when resource extraction or manufacturing ceased. Some of these have become salient tourist attractions for a number of reasons. For example, ghost towns whose settlements were based on timber or mining in mountain regions are often located in areas of natural beauty. There are many such examples in the north-western United States and in the Australian outback and Tasmania. In other cases, they are well-known and visited because of their role as a venue for some famous event or period of history, or their connection to a legendary character (e.g. Tombstone, Arizona). Additionally, others are preserved for their architectural, aesthetic and artistic value, or because they remain relatively intact in their original form (e.g. Bodie, California).

In some cases, tourism has been able to resurrect ghost towns or bring dwindling resource communities from the brink of becoming complete ghost towns (Johansen, 1998). Several examples exist where towns on the verge of abandonment have been reinvented for tourists as ethnic villages (Frenkel et al., 2000) or what Getz (1993) called 'tourist shopping villages' (Frost, 2006; Timothy, 2005), which design themselves as tourist and day-tripper destinations for shopping opportunities combined with heritage sites and resources.

In this chapter a mining ghost town is described as a mining settlement that was abandoned or nearly abandoned after resource extraction ceased. We examine the processes that lead to a settlement being transfonned into a ghost town or reinvented into something else and consider the role that tourism may play in revitalizing the economies of resource-depleted communities.


A burgeoning recent literature emphasizes "livelihood" diversification among smallholder populations (Chambers and Conway 1992, Davies 1993, Ellis 1998, Bryceson 1999, Ellis 2000, Little et al. 2001). While definitions vary within this literature, the concept of livelihoods revolves around the opportunity set afforded an individual or household by their asset endowment and their chosen allocation of those assets across various activities to generate a stream of benefits, most commonly measured as income. This holistic perspective has the potential to enhance our understanding of the strategies that farm households pursue to ensure food and income security given the natural and economic environment in which they operate. Diversification patterns reflect individuals' voluntary exchange of assets and their allocation of assets across various activities so as to achieve an optimal balance between expected returns and risk exposure conditional on the constraints they face (e.g., due to missing or incomplete markets for credit, labor, or land). Because it offers a glimpse as to what people presently consider their most attractive options, given the incentives and constraints they face, the study of diversification behavior offers important insights as to what policy or project interventions might effectively improve either the poor's asset holdings or their access to higher return or lower risk uses of the assets they already possess. Since diversification is not an end unto itself, it is essential to connect observed livelihood strategies back to resulting income distributions and poverty. Not all diversification into off-farm or non-farm income earning activities offers the same benefits and not all households have equal access to the more lucrative diversification options. Yet the livelihoods literature offers little documentation or explanation of important differences between observed diversification strategies. This paper addresses that gap by offering a comparative analysis using data from three different countries, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya and Rwanda. Like Dercon and Krishnan (1996) and Omamo (1999), we emphasize that interhousehold heterogeneity in constraints and incentives must factor prominently in any sensible explanation of observed diversification behaviors. Indeed, section 4 demonstrates that at a very fundamental level - the choice of basic livelihood strategy - households would prefer locally available livelihood strategies other than those they choose, were they not constrained from doing so. A simple appeal to the principle of revealed preference thus suggests that heterogeneous constraints and incentives play a fundamental role in determining livelihood diversification patterns manifest in income diversification data. The plan for the remainder of this paper is as follows. The next section presents the basic conceptual foundation from which we operate. Section 3 then introduces the data sets and definitions employed in the analysis. Section 4 presents findings relating to the observed variation in income sources across the income distribution, to distinct livelihood strategies pursued by rural African households, to the determinants of strategy choice, and to the effects of alternative livelihood strategies on income dynamics. These findings point especially to significant rural markets failures - especially with respect to finance and land - that force poorer subpopulations to select strategies offering demonstrably lower returns while wealthier subpopulations are able to enjoy higher return strategies to which entry is at least partly impeded by fixed costs and lower marginal costs of participation. Section 5 concludes.


The distribution of elements produced in the innermost layers of a supernova explosion is a key diagnostic for studying the collapse of massive stars. Here we present the results of a 2.4 Ms NuSTAR observing campaign aimed at studying the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). We perform spatially resolved spectroscopic analyses of the 44Ti ejecta, which we use to determine the Doppler shift and thus the three-dimensional (3D) velocities of the 44Ti ejecta. We find an initial 44Ti mass of (1.54 ± 0.21) × 10−4 M⊙, which has a present-day average momentum direction of 340° ± 15° projected onto the plane of the sky (measured clockwise from celestial north) and is tilted by 58° ± 20° into the plane of the sky away from the observer, roughly opposite to the inferred direction of motion of the central compact object. We find some 44Ti ejecta that are clearly interior to the reverse shock and some that are clearly exterior to it. Where we observe 44Ti ejecta exterior to the reverse shock we also see shock-heated iron; however, there are regions where we see iron but do not observe 44Ti. This suggests that the local conditions of the supernova shock during explosive nucleosynthesis varied enough to suppress the production of 44Ti by at least a factor of two in some regions, even in regions that are assumed to be the result of processes like α-rich freezeout that should produce both iron and titanium.


What does it mean to put an "e" ahead of a concept? This essay discusses the purpose of doing such a thing, arguing there is a distinct method in the apparent randomness of labelling something "e" this or that. Far from simply denoting that it might be done with computers (and, indeed, what isn't today), Sporton argues that beyond the effect of explaining this is something to do with technology, there is an emergent "e-culture" that reunites the arts and sciences after two hundred years of separate development within the academy. An "e-Culture" emerges that reflects the values, opportunities and restrictions of Internet as a research environment. The potential of that environment requires a mindset focussed on collaboration to achieve anything of creative significance.


In this contribution, the problem of accurately representing thin wires within the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) mesh is addressed by means of a method based on the weighted residual (WR) interpretation of the FDTD algorithm. Results for wire dipoles and wire transmission lines, obtained using the proposed method, are presented and compared to those obtained using existing techniques. It is shown that the proposed method yields results which are more accurate and are less dependent on the choice of cell size than other approaches and, in addition, lends itself well to being extended for more complicated structures. Details of the calculation of the update equations are given.


Objective: Amidst a growing concern regarding concussion in sports, there is an emerging link between sport concussion and mental health outcomes. This review summarizes the current literature addressing long-term psychiatric sequelae associated with sport concussion in adults. Method: Several databases were searched using a broad list of keywords for each of concussion, sports, and mental health, with a resultant 311 studies for initial review. After limiting studies based on duplication, appropriateness of data, and relevance, 21 studies remained pertaining to depression, anxiety, substance use, and behavioural changes, including those highlighting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Results: Most studies identified suggested an increased prevalence of depressive symptoms related to concussion history. A conference abstract and qualitative study suggested increasing anxiety related to concussion history; however, a PhD dissertation found no relationship. In reviewing substance use, several studies mentioned use in athletes suspected of having concussion histories, although no link was established, while another noted undiagnosed concussion as leading to current substance misuse. Regarding behavioural changes, all studies identified occurrences of behaviour and/or cognitive changes in participants, with 2 studies suggesting a link with concussion history. With respect to CTE, concerns with mood, behaviour, cognition, and substance use were consistently highlighted, suggesting relations to previous sport concussion; however, the notion of different CTE subtypes and clear aetiology behind concussion severity or frequency was not consistently elucidated. Conclusion: There appears to be a growing body of evidence supporting the presence of long-term psychiatric and psychological sequelae following sport concussion in adults.


background:Policy issues states that referral delivery system of Jamkesmas and Jampersal have not been implemented properly. The study aims to determine of referal delivery systems for members of Jamkesmas and Jampersal social schemes coordinated by Surabaya municipality health office. Method: It was an observational study with a cross-sectional design. The study was carried outfrom March to December 2013 in Surabaya Municipality. Data were collected by indepth interviews to head of Surabaya municipality health office, chiefs of Jamkesmas/Jampersal and basic health services section in that office. Secondary data were collected to determine number of health facilities, personnels and finance related to service delivery for Jamkesmas and Jampersal members. It also conducted study of documents. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed descriptively. results: The implementation level of referral system for members of Jamkesmas and Jampersal social scheme in Surabaya have not been optimal due to the number of referal hospital was very limited and limited capacity of bed hospitals and community factors. The availability of health facilities and health workers for delivery services is sufficient, but those having MOU with Jamkesmas and Jampersal were very few, especially on midwife private services. The financing of Jamkesmas and Jampersal social scheme were sufficient and increase every year. The referral screening of pregnancy using a score of Puji Rohyati cards and the referral screening of delivery using child birth screening form of normal delivery care. Monitoring and evaluation of the referral delivery system were conducted in the form programs meeting, supervision, reports and complaints managemen. conclusion:In Surabaya, the coordination of referral delivery systems for members of Jamkesmas and Jampersal have been conducted, by structures & levels but not optimal. The availability of health facilities, health workers and financing were sufficient, in addition the referral screening mechanisms and also the monitoring and evaluation have been conducted as well.


Molybenum's effects when added in the γ phase of nickel-based superalloys were studied using the lattice Green's function multiscale method. The electronic structure of the dislocation–Mo complex was analyzed and hybridization was found to contribute to the strengthening. Moreover, by combining the interaction energies calculated from two scales, the yield stress was theoretically predicted at 0 K and finite temperature.


Meningitis is commonly caused by infection with a variety of bacterial or viral pathogens. Acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) can cause severe disease, which can progress rapidly to a critical life-threatening condition. Rapid diagnosis of ABM is critical, as this is most commonly associated with severe sequelae with associated high mortality and morbidity rates compared to viral meningitis, which is less severe and self-limiting. We have designed a microarray for detection and diagnosis of ABM. This has been validated using randomly amplified DNA targets (RADT), comparing buffers with or without formamide, in glass slide format or on the Alere ArrayTubeTM (Alere Technologies GmbH) microarray platform. Pathogen-specific signals were observed using purified bacterial nucleic acids and to a lesser extent using patient cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) samples, with some technical issues observed using RADT and glass slides. Repurposing the array onto the Alere ArrayTubeTM platform and using a targeted amplification system increased specific and reduced nonspecific hybridization signals using both pathogen nucleic and patient CSF DNA targets, better revealing pathogen-specific signals although sensitivity was still reduced in the latter. This diagnostic microarray is useful as a laboratory diagnostic tool for species and strain designation for ABM, rather than for primary diagnosis.


Purpose: To analyze the changes in coordinates and distances among three typical geometric landmarks of the cornea, namely, the thinnest point (TP), maximum curvature (Kmax), and corneal apex (AP) during the development of keratoconus, and explore the potential relationship between these changes and the abnormalities of corneal biomechanics. Methods: Normal eyes (n = 127), clinical keratoconic eyes (CKC, n = 290), and the eyes of forme fruste keratoconus (FFKC, n = 85) were included; among them, the CKC group was classified into four grades based on the Topographic Keratoconus Classification (TKC) provided by Pentacam. A total of 38 Corvis ST output parameters and three distance parameters of three typical landmarks (DKmax-AP, DTP-AP, and DKmax-TP) based on Pentacam were included. The differences of parameters among the abovementioned six groups (Normal, FFKC, and CKC stage I to CKC stage IV) were analyzed. Spearman's rank correlation test was performed to choose several dynamic corneal response (DCR) parameters that could best reflect the changes of corneal biomechanical characteristics during the progression of the disease, and the Pearson's or Spearman's correlation test was conducted to determine the association between the three distances and the selected DCR parameters in each grade. In addition, by flipping the X coordinate of the left eye on the vertical axis to reflect the direction of the right eye, the coordinates of TP and Kmax in different developmental grades were highlighted. Results: From CKC stage II, the three geometric landmark distances commenced to correlate with the corneal DCR parameters (CBI, SPA1, IR, DA Ratio 2, ARTh, MIR, Radius, Pachy, and DA Ratio 1), which could better represent the changes of biomechanical properties from normal cornea to keratoconus. From normal cornea to CKC stage IV, the coordinates of Kmax were gradually tended to the inferior temporal region from dispersion, while TP was always concentrated in the inferior temporal region. Although DKmax-AP, DKmax-TP, and DTP-AP all showed a gradual decreasing trend with the progress of the disease, the first two did not change significantly, and only DTP-AP significantly approached AP in the later stage of disease development. In addition, from the FFKC group, the corresponding values of DKmax-TP in each disease development group were smaller than DKmax-AP. Conclusions: In the later stage of keratoconus, the relationship between the three typical landmark distance parameters and DCR parameters is stronger, and even the weakening of corneal biomechanical properties may be accompanied by the merger of typical landmark positions.


In mobile networks, the traffic fluctuation is unpredictable due to mobility and varying resource requirement of multimedia applications. Hence, it is essential to maintain traffic within the network capacity to provide service guarantees to running applications. This paper proposes an admission control (AC) scheme in a mobile cellular environment supporting hand-off and new application traffic. In the case of multimedia applications, each applications has its own distinct range of acceptable quality of service (QoS) requirements. The network provides the service by maintaining the application specified QoS range. We propose a linear programming resource reduction (LP-RR) principle for admission control by maintaining QoS guarantees to existing applications and to increase the percentage of admission to hand-off and new applications. Artificial neural networks are used to solve the linear programming problem, which facilitates in real time admission control decision in the practical systems. We present an analytical model and results for the proposed AC scheme with resource reduction principle and a simulation study of the AC for performance evaluation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed AC scheme performs well in terms of increasing the number of admitted applications and maintains higher percentage of resource utilization. The suggested principle also shown that it is appropriate for the fair resource allocation with improved resource utilization.


Introduction: Hemodialysis is one of the most common treatments for renal patients. Despite the hemodialysis effect, these patients face a variety of physical and mental stressors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between resilience and perceived social support with hope in hemodialysis patients referred to a dialysis center in Shoushtar.

Materials and Methods: The present study was an analytical cross-sectional study on 87 hemodialysis patients referred to the dialysis center of the Khatamolanbia Hospital in Shoushtar. Patients were selected using the convenience sampling method. The data gathering tools in this study included demographic information form, Herth Hope Index (HHI), Conner- Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RIS) and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) as well as the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman correlation coefficient and linear regression tests in SPSS version 16.

Results: The results showed that the mean age of the patients was 54.55 ± 17.12 year. Moreover, there was a direct and significant relationship between perceived social support (r=0.656, <0.001) and resilience (r=0.501, p<0.001) with hope.

Conclusion: Authors suggest that health care providers increase life expectancy among these patients with hemodialysis using the necessary training in the resilience and social protection of patients and their families.


Fresh fruits are increasingly focused in the recent years for their nutritional and health benefits. Research involving simple and safe preservation technologies is at a high demand to satisfy consumer concerns and harvest maximum market potential. The present study was therefore undertaken to assess the response of chemical and bioactive compounds (pH, acidity, ascorbic acid, total phenolics, carotenoids, free radical scavenging capacity and enzyme activity) in apricot under the effect of calcium treatments (1, 2, 3 and 4%) at ambient storage. The results revealed that ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds and carotenoids were least affected in 3 and 2% calcium as compared to control, 1 and 4% CaCl2. Similarly, higher antioxidant capacity and lower enzymatic activity was retained in the same concentrations. Titratable acidity and ascorbic acid decreased in all treatments during storage and higher reduction was observed in control, 1 and 4% as compared to 3 and 2% calcium, respectively. pH, phenolics, carotenoids, antioxidant and enzymatic activity increased initially and it was rapid up to 6th day, followed by a slight decrease during subsequent storage. The overall results demonstrated higher compositional losses in control followed by 1 and 4% calcium treated fruits, while 3 and 2% treatments exerted pronounced effects on keeping quality of apricot during ambient storage up to 12th day.


Nutritional status of obese school going children were assessed in Western Maharashtra i.e. Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts. For this study, 600 obese school going children were selected, from which 224 boys and 376 were girls in 616 age group of 6-16 years. The obesity of these children were assessed by using BMI. The nutritional status of these children were examined by using questionnaire and dietary recall method. It is found that the food intake especially cereals, pulses and fat based foods are found significantly excess and vegetables and fruits consumption noted less by these children. However, the nutrients intake like energy and protein were noticed excess than that of their standard level. Whereas vitamins and minerals intake were found less among these children which were as correlating factors for its effect on overweight and obesity in children.


We develop a two-factor mean-reverting stochastic model for forecasting storable commodity prices and valuing commodity derivatives. We define a variable called normalized excess supply based on the observable production rate, consumption rate, and inventory levels of the commodity. Our analysis indicates a strong inverse correlation between normalized excess supply and crude oil spot and futures prices. Our first stochastic factor is normalized excess supply, following a mean-reverting process. The second stochastic factor is the deviation of prices from a mean level determined by normalized excess supply. Moreover, we develop valuation models for futures and options on futures contracts based on the two-factor model. We apply this model to crude oil prices from 1995 to 2017 via a Kalman filter. We perform out-of-sample tests for forecasting spot prices. Additionally, we develop a scenario analysis framework for incorporating variant views of future supply, demand, and inventories in risk management and valuation of commodity related financial products. We show the utility of the model for investment management professionals and risk managers aiming to incorporate macroeconomic conditions in valuation and risk management endeavors.


Normally, authentication in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) uses public key infrastructure to verify the integrity of messages and the identity of message senders. The issues considered in the authentication schemes include the level of security and computational efficiency in the verification processes. Most existing schemes mainly focus on assuring the security and privacy of VANET information. However, these schemes may not work well in VANET scenarios. For instance, it is difficult for a roadside unit (RSU) to verify each vehicle's signature sequentially when a large number of vehicles emerge in the coverage areas of an RSU. To reduce the computational overhead of RSUs, we propose a proxy-based authentication scheme (PBAS) using distributed computing. In the PBAS, proxy vehicles are used to authenticate multiple messages with a verification function at the same time. In addition, the RSU is able to independently verify the outputs from the verification function of the proxy vehicles. We also design an expedite key negotiation scheme for transmitting sensitive messages. It is shown from the analysis and simulations that an RSU can verify 26 500 signatures per second simultaneously with the help of the proxy vehicles. The time needed to verify 3000 signatures in the PBAS can be reduced by 88% compared with existing batch-based authentication schemes.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To review literature from 1996-2012 relating to factors associating with the persistent maternal mortality rate (MMR) caused by post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND
One woman dies every seven minutes, at the same time, one-quarter of all maternal death worldwide is being caused by PPH. The aim of United Nations Fifth Millennium Development Goal 5 is to lower MMR by three quarters between 1990-2015.

DESIGN
Narrative literature review.

METHODS
Study articles from 1996-2012 were searched in electronic databases MEDLINE, Cochrane, PubMED, Google's scholar and manual searches. Combinations of the following search words were used: post-partum haemorrhage/bleeding, sub-Saharan Africa/rural areas, antenatal/obstetric care/maternal mortality/skilled care at birth/maternity care/health survey. 125 article abstracts were read, and 50 full articles used in this review.

RESULTS
Every day about 800 women died due to birth complications in 2010: of the 800 maternal deaths worldwide, 440 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa with PPH being the main cause. Common causes of PPH are related to failure of the healthcare system, inaccurate estimation of blood loss after delivery and lack of skills to prevent and manage PPH.

DISCUSSION
Special attention is needed with emphasis on regular attendance of antenatal clinic, proper information concerning pregnancy and delivery, skills to accurate estimate blood loss, and prevention and management of PPH.

CONCLUSION
PPH is the leading cause of MMR in areas where essential care and skilled health attendants are limited. Basic Emergency Obstetric Care and arrangements for timely referral to the big hospital with facilities must be practiced everywhere.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
This review may help to remind health workers and the government that maternal mortality due to PPH is still higher and more interventions are needed.


Public involvement in the planning process is a prerequisite for democratic outcomes. Environmental issues regarding impacts of sound tend to be limited to mere exercises in noise estimation and guideline values. Such information is difficult for the layman to understand, and such a lack of understanding produces shortcomings in the democratic process. In addition to decibel calculations interpretable by experts, the sonic environment also can be described in more accessible ways. This article reports on a concrete planning case, the widening of the railway through Akarp in southern Sweden, where the usual calculations of equivalent noise and maximum noise are undergoing critical analysis. In order to complement the noise description, a new measurement has been devised, "high noise time," which is equal to the total time per 24 hours in which trains pass through a place without stopping. The frequency and duration of the passing of trains may be a better measure of disturbance than the maximum noise peak per passage or the equivalent (average) noise level distributed over 24 hours. Film technology also has been developed as a method for recording the frequency and duration of train passage.


This article investigates the ways in which the reporting of technological developments in artificial intelligence (AI) can serve as occasions in which Occidental modernity's cultural antinomies are played out. It takes as its reference point the two chess tournaments (in 1996 and 1997) between the then world champion Gary Kasparov and the IBM dedicated chess computers Deep Blue and Deeper Blue and shows how these games of chess came to be seen as an arena where fundamental issues pertaining to human identity were contested. The article considers the dominant framing of these encounters in terms of a conflict between two opposed categories—"human" and "machine"—and argues the essential role of human agency, the human supplement, in the performances of machine intelligence.


The Journal of Book of Mormon Studies was founded in 1992 to be a forum through which faithful LDS scholars could highlight their research on the historical, linguistic, cultural, and theological contexts of the Book of Mormon. Since its founding by Stephan D. Ricks, four other scholars have served as editors of this publication: John L. Sorenson, S. Kent Brown, Andrew H. Hedges, and Paul Y. Hoskisson. Under these scholars' stewardship, the Journal has developed into the flagship publication of the Maxwell Institute. This article features not only the history of the Journal but also perspectives from each of the editors.


Nature has used a variety of protein systems to mediate electron transfer. In this thesis I examine aspects of the control of biological electron transfer by two copper proteins that act as natural electron carriers. In the first study, I have made a mutation to one of the ligand residues in the azurin blue copper center, methionine 121 changed to a glutamic acid. Studies of intramolecular electron transfer rates from that mutated center to covalently attached ruthenium complexes indicate that the weak axial methionine ligand is important not only for tuning the reduction potential of the blue copper site but also for maintaining the low reorganization energy that is important for fast electron transfer at long distances. In the second study, I begin to examine the reorganization energy of the purple copper center in the CuA domain of subunit II of cytochrome c oxidase. In
this copper center, the unpaired electron is delocalized over the entire binuclear site. Because long-range electron transfer into and out of this center occurs over
long distances with very small driving forces, the reorganization energy of the CuA center has been predicted to be extremely low. I describe a strategy for measuring this reorganization energy starting with the construction of a series of mutations introducing surface histidines. These histidines can then be labeled with a series of ruthenium compounds that differ primarily in their reduction
potentials. The electron transfer rates to these ruthenium compounds can then be used to determine the reorganization energy of the CuA site.


Adipocytes are an important target tissue for thyroid hormone action, but little is known of the mechanisms of thyroid hormone entry into the cells. The present results show a strong interaction between transport of iodothyronines [L-thyroxine (T4), L-triiodothyronine (T3), reverse T3 (rT3)], aromatic amino acids, and the System L amino acid transport inhibitor 2-amino[2,2,1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid (BCH) in white adipocytes. System L appears to be a major pathway of iodothyronine and large neutral amino acid entry into these cells in the euthyroid state. We also demonstrate expression of the CD98hc peptide subunit of the System L transporter in adipocyte cell membranes. Experimental hypothyroidism (28-day propylthiouracil treatment) has no significant effect on System L-like transport of the amino acid tryptophan in adipocytes. In contrast, uptake of T3 and especially T4 is substantially reduced in adipocytes from hypothyroid rats, partly due to reduction of the BCH-sensitive transport component. Transport of iodothyronines and amino acids in adipocytes therefore becomes decoupled in the hypothyroid state, as occurs similarly in liver cells. This may be due to downregulation or dissociation of iodothyronine receptors from the System L transporter complex. Regulation of iodothyronine turnover in fat cells by this type of mechanism could contribute significantly to modulation of T4-T3/rT3 metabolism in the hypothyroid state.