On April 8th 1994 Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, was found dead in his Seattle home of an apparent shotgun wound to the head and with three times the lethal amount of heroin in his system. A note lay at the scene. The verdict was suicide. Others are sceptical.' (from www.deathofkurtcobain.com) In the pall of gloom surrounding Michael Jackson's recent death when we read this extract from a site dedicated to Kurt Cobain, a number of questions struck us as being interesting. Why do famous celebrities commit suicide? Could the reasons be monetary, social or some other phenomenon? Why would such renowned personalities give up an apparent life of luxury? In furthering our understanding of these issues it strikes us as pertinent to ask whether we can ever view suicide from the perspective of an economist. Can we assess human behaviour pertaining to suicide using the ration al science of economics or are we treading on unknown territory in psychiatry instead? Consider a quote by the famous economist Gary Becker from his book The Economic Approach to Human Behaviour'


A porous luminescent cadmium-based metal–organic framework (MOF) with the formula of {Cd3(L)(bbib)·6DMF}n, denoted as NBU-18, was successfully assembled based on the flexible hexacarboxylate ligand H6L (hexa[4-(carboxyphenyl)oxamethyl]-3-oxapentane acid) and rigid N-ligand bbib (1,4-bis(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)benzene) with Cd(NO3)2·4H2O under solvothermal conditions. Its structure was identified by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and infrared spectroscopy. Single-crystal X-ray study of NBU-18 revealed that the L6− carboxylate ligand as a flexible arm and the bbib ligand as a rigid pillar connected the CdII3 secondary building unit (SBU) into a 2-fold interpenetrated (4,6)-connected fsc three dimensional (3D) net with a large number of open Lewis base sites and large porosity. Remarkably, the porous MOF NBU-18 exhibits high thermal stability up to 400 °C and exceptional chemical stability in various common solvents and aqueous solutions with an extensive pH range of 2–13. Such characteristics render it suitable as a fluorescent sensor. Luminescence investigations reveal that NBU-18 can recognize CCl4 vapor with high selectivity in the presence of other volatile chloromethanes, which is the first example of CCl4 sensing in the vapor phase. Furthermore, NBU-18 as a sensor can also detect pollutional CrO42−/Cr2O72− anions and Fe2+/Fe3+ cations with excellent sensitivity based on a turn-off sensing mechanism. This work paves the way for practical applications of NBU-18 as a sensor.


Computation of optimal cycle mean in a directed weighted graph has many applications in program analysis, performance verification in particular. In this paper we propose a data-parallel algorithmic solution to the problem and show how the computation of optimal cycle mean can be efficiently accelerated by means of CUDA technology. We show how the problem of computation of optimal cycle mean is decomposed into a sequence of data-parallel graph computation primitives and show how these primitives can be implemented and optimized for CUDA computation. Finally, we report a fivefold experimental speed up on graphs representing models of distributed systems when compared to best sequential algorithms.


The huge numbers of people using social media makes online socialnetworks an attractive source of data for researchers. But in order for the resultant huge numbers of research publications that involve social media to be credible and trusted, their methodologies,considerations of data handling and sensitivity, analysis, and so forth must be appropriately documented. We believe that one way to improve standards and practices in social media research is to encourage such research to be made reproducible, that is, to have sufficient documentation and sharing of research to allow others to either replicate or build on research results. Enabling this fundamental part of the scientific method will benefit the entire social media ecosystem, from the researchers who use data, to the people that benefit from the outcomes of research.


This thesis argues that the future envisaged for the novel by the early hypertext theorists, that the digital medium would displace print and open up a variety of new possibilities for novelistic fiction, can now be differently understood by exploring the materiality of the medium in works of print, hypertext and web-fiction composed in the past fifty years. Michael Kaufmann's analysis of modernist experimental print fiction in his book Textual Bodies: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Print and his use of the term 'metatextual' to locate the distinguishing feature of novels in this tradition will be extended to the works of hypertext and web-fiction in the new media, demonstrating that works of hypertext and web-fiction can be regarded as continuous with experimental print fiction. This analysis, which is also grounded on the concepts of the graphic surface and the materiality of the text, is further confirmed by considering the use of metatextual features of works composed in digital media in experimental novels published in the digital era which continue the tradition by publishing in print.  There are four chapters in this thesis. In the first one, metatextuality of the print novels in the pre-digital era is explored through the theory and practice of William Gass who has insisted on the materiality of language and the medium in almost all of his theoretical works. Moreover, the first chapter establishes a point of reference for the discussion of the shift from print to digital media in novel writing by discussing an experimental print novel, William Gass's Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife. Each of the following chapters identify significant issues in the development of hypertext and print for the phase investigated in the chapter, and present two or more case studies of specific texts.  The second chapter explores the development of the novel through the electronic textuality of the early computers. This chapter analyses the first hypertext novel, afternoon, written by Michael Joyce, and how and in what ways it took advantage of the capabilities of the computer and in what ways it tried to remediate print. In order to show how the print novel has been becoming more media-conscious, the second chapter ends with an analysis of a print novel, Fax Messages From a Near Future by Jorge Wilheim which highlights the role of medium in its narrative.  The third chapter follows the line of argument of the previous chapters by exploring the relationship of the multimedia capabilities of the World Wide Web and analyzing the trends which appear through the way the Internet has been used to write novels. The case study section of this chapter includes two novels; 10.01 by Lance Olsen, and Chemical Landscapes Digital Tales by Edward Falco.  The final chapter brings the whole line of inquiry back into print in order to examine what effects the arrival of digital media has had on experimental print fiction and how these novels push the boundaries of the print medium even further. There are three novels in the case study of this chapter, each of which provides a unique insight into the potentials of print and how they bring the materiality of the print to the foreground. The Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock makes the book a multimodal work of art by incorporating the painting and the words. Mark Z. Danielewski's The Fifty Year Sword and House of Leaves make us see the book as a physical object which can be read in a variety of different ways.


The distance-based facility layout problem with unequal-area departments has been studied by many researchers for over 30 years. Still, current approaches require certain assumptions that limit the type of solutions obtained. In this paper, we consider manufacturing systems in which replicates of the same machine type may exist in the facility, and propose an extended distance-based facility layout problem that concurrently determines the number and shape of the departments, the assignment of machines to departments, and the allocation of part flow volume to individual machines. A non-linear mixed-integer program that accurately captures the extended facility layout and part flow allocation problem, a decomposition approach that exploits the structure of the formulation using a heuristic solution procedure, as well as computational results that evaluate the proposed approach, are presented.


The two industries recognise the potential importance of the hypothesis to matters of health and well-being but are not themselves attempting to prejudge the outcome of the impartial review. They wish to know the facts. They believe this to be a reasonable attitude. They are concerned that some contributors in the lay press and media are more than ready to assume the hypothesis already proved, and quite prepared as a result to inmpose personal dietary prejudices on to all consumers regardless. Much careful study has been devoted by other research workers over the years which points, on epidemiological grounds, to the possibility of dietary factors other than fibre, notably fats' and meat,2 being associated with the causation of bowel cancer, and these and the other hypothesis3 that the retention of flatus within the body may be the cause of diverticular disease doubtless need further investigation before final conclusions are forthcom-iing. With the nutritional standard of all flour and bread assured under the statutory Bread and Flour Regulations, millers and bakers deem their responsibility to be to satisfy consumer requirements. In this, demand and scale of production and of distribution have to play their part. Demand for white bread is very large-representing around 90%, of total bread consumption. Demand for wholemeal bread is relatively small. Wholemeal flour is available for consumers wishing to bake their own bread or for any who find difficulty in obtaining wholemeal bread in the baker's shop. Brown (wheatmeal) bread is widely available. Bran in breakfast cereal form is also available, as is bran in health food stores. There are many other forms of dietary fibre constantly available. Millers and bakers are not opposed-as is sometimes imagined-to the production of wholemeal bread or to its increased production if consumer demand should so require. They dislike unreasonable pressure on the very large majority of consumers who much prefer white bread by some individuals among those who prefer wholemeal bread. Such pressure is felt to be unreasonable when in the form of unjustified and inaccurate nutritional criticisms or suggestions of harmfulness without valid evidence. The principal authors of tthe high-fibre hypothesis have not associated themselves with criticism of the nutritional value of white bread per se or with charges of harmfulness. They have indicated that they would wish to see an altogether higher consumption of cereal fibre, that they would like to see more bread eaten but would much prefer this to be in the form of wholemeal bread. C L COPELAND Executive Director, Flour Advisory Bureau London SW1


This is a quantitative study of executive coaching to determine the key factors or 'active ingredients' which contribute to its effectiveness. Data collected from 156 client–coach pairs participating in formally contracted, external executive coaching was analysed to examine the impact on coaching outcome of the following: client self-efficacy, client personality and client–coach personality match (in terms of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator – MBTI), perceived coach interventions and the strength of the client–coach relationship (using the working alliance inventory). Strong indications were found for the prediction of coaching outcome by: (1) the coaching relationship in terms of a working alliance, as experienced by the client; (2) the self-efficacy of the client; and (3) generalised coaching technique as experienced by the client. The client–coach relationship (working alliance) strongly mediated the impact of self-efficacy and technique on coaching outcomes, suggesting that the perception of working alliance by the client was the key factor in coaching outcome. Personality or personality matching did not correlate with coaching outcome. From this research it seems that the so called 'common factors' of coaching conversations – i.e. those aspects which are not related to specific coaching technique, approach or philosophy – indeed play a role in influencing the outcome for the client. As a result, it appears most important at all times to attend to and develop the coaching relationship as seen by the client.


In this work we deal with the stochastic homogenization of the initial boundary value problems of monotone type. The models of monotone type under consideration describe the deformation behaviour of inelastic materials with a microstructure which can be characterised by random measures. Based on the Fitzpatrick function concept we reduce the study of the asymptotic behaviour of monotone operators associated with our models to the problem of the stochastic homogenization of convex functionals within an ergodic and stationary setting. The concept of Fitzpatrick's function helps us to introduce and show the existence of the weak solutions for rate-dependent systems. The derivations of the homogenization results presented in this work are based on the stochastic two-scale convergence in Sobolev spaces. For completeness, we also present some two-scale homogenization results for convex functionals, which are related to the classical Γ-convergence theory.


Applying code changes to software systems and testing these code changes can be a complex task that involves many different types of software testing strategies, e.g. system and integration tests. However, not all test failures reported during code integration are hinting towards code defects. Testing large systems such as the Microsoft Windows operating system requires complex test infrastructures, which may lead to test failures caused by faulty tests and test infrastructure issues. Such false test alarms are particular annoying as they raise engineer attention and require manual inspection without providing any benefit. The goal of this work is to use empirical data to minimize the number of false test alarms reported during system and integration testing. To achieve this goal, we use association rule learning to identify patterns among failing test steps that are typically for false test alarms and can be used to automatically classify them. A successful classification of false test alarms is particularly valuable for product teams as manual test failure inspection is an expensive and time-consuming process that not only costs engineering time and money but also slows down product development. We evaluating our approach on system and integration tests executed during Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Dynamics AX development. Performing more than 10,000 classifications for each product, our model shows a mean precision between 0.85 and 0.90 predicting between 34% and 48% of all false test alarms.


Pultruded glass-fiber- reinforced composite coupons and I-beams were subjected to four-point bend environmental fatigue, freezing and thawing, and salt spraying in the laboratory to study their long-term durability for infrastructure applications. Specimens have survived to over 10 million cycles under four-point bend fatigue at 30 percent of the flexural strength in air without showing signs of degradation. However, preliminary results suggest that water and salt solutions are detrimental to the life of the material during long-term fatigue. Freezing and thawing in 2 percent (by mass) NaCl in water solution resulted in a decrease in dynamic modulus, flexural modulus, flexural strength, and toughness of the composite. Spraying composite I-beams and hybrid I-beams having carbon fiber outer layers with salt solution for nearly 1,300 hours at 19°C has not changed their flexural moduli. Two composite structures in actual service were also monitored in addition to laboratory testing. Field data collected from an all-composite pedestrian bridge for over seven months does not suggest any change in its flexural modulus, and two composite walkway sections on a steel lift bridge have performed well in corrosion resistance since they were installed in November, 1995.


: Agent-based moving source-seeking problem with strategic control considering obstacle avoidance is addressed in this paper. The agents communicate with one another using a communication topology to coordinate finding the object. The source or seeking target is represented by a scalar field, whereas the presence of the obstacle is represented by an artificial potential field. A moving source that moves linearly from the initial point to the end point is considered. Several obstacles, which needs to be avoided by agents, that may be stationary or moving are considered. Double integrator agents are considered, which contains richer dynamics compared to the single integrator agents. The strategic control law which is a combination of gradient consensus and distributed velocity control affected by artificial potential field are used to determine the velocity of each agent to track the moving source while avoiding the obstacles. Formation control is used to make sure that the agents stay under the desired formation for most of the time. The computer simulation is used to examine how different agents would search for a moving source under stationary and moving obstacles. In both cases, the agents can find the source with a different seeking time: 62.8s for stationary and 90s for moving obstacles. Comparing with virtual artificial potential field method, our proposed method manages to perform better in the case of shrinking agents for stationary obstacles.


For prediction of urban remote sensing surface temperature, cloud, cloud shadow and snow contamination lead to the failure of surface temperature inversion and vegetation‐related index calculation. A time series prediction framework of urban surface temperature under cloud interference is proposed in this paper. This is helpful to solve the problem of the impact of data loss on surface temperature prediction. Spatial and temporal variation trends of surface temperature and vegetation index are analyzed using Landsat 7/8 remote sensing data of 2010 to 2019 from Beijing. The geographically weighed regression (GWR) method is used to realize the simulation of surface temperature based on the current date. The deep learning prediction network based on convolution and long short‐term memory (LSTM) networks was constructed to predict the spatial distribution of surface temperature on the next observation date. The time series analysis shows that the NDBI is less than −0.2, which indicates that there may be cloud contamination. The land surface temperature (LST) modeling results show that the precision of estimation using GWR method on impervious surface and water bodies is superior compared to the vegetation area. For LST prediction using deep learning methods, the result of the prediction on surface temperature space distribution was relatively good. The purpose of this study is to make up for the missing data affected by cloud, snow, and other interference factors, and to be applied to the prediction of the spatial and temporal distributions of LST.


Crystallization trials using three polyoxyethylene surfactants as precipitating agents are described. Of the eight soluble proteins screened, five were successfully crystallized at the first attempt. These included lysozyme, catalase, ferritin, ribonuclease A and ubiquitin. Further work suggested that these surfactants could also be suitable for cryo-crystallographic analysis of crystals. At the concentrations used in the crystallization trials [10-40%(v/v)], they are capable of promoting the formation of non-crystalline glasses at cryogenic temperatures (77K). This would facilitate crystal mounting and allow the minimization of crystal irradiation damage. Results from this study also suggest that proteins remain stable at high concentrations of these surfactants [40%(w/v)] and over long time periods (>1 month). A number of membrane proteins were also screened for crystallization. These included photosystems I and II and light harvesting complexes I and II from spinach and bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacterium halobium++. The trial s were unsuccessful both in the absence and presence of heptane-1,2,3-triol and over a wide range of surfactant concentrations.


Abstract Studies that assess the ecological fidelity—preservation of the original community—of terrestrial shell accumulations are uncommon but essential to infer accurate changes in past ecosystems. When live-dead comparisons are unavailable, the taxonomic agreement between differing taphofacies may be used to evaluate the fidelity of ancient shelly assemblages. This approach was used to approximate the fidelity of Quaternary land snails preserved in carbonate-rich paleosols from the northeastern islets of the Canary Archipelago. Such macroscopic alteration as fragmentation, corrosion, carbonate coating, and color loss affected shells, however, microscopic analyses concluded substantial diagenetic alterations unlikely. The shell abundance negatively correlated with fragmentation, suggesting that a higher proportion of shells may be a consequence of higher shell input rate and lower shell destruction rate rather than lower sedimentation rate, as predicted by taphonomic models. Strongly and weakly altered taphofacies significantly differed in species abundances. Substantial taphonomic bias was improbable, however, because both taphofacies contained taxa with comparable durability. Temporal fluctuations in taphonomy and ecology suggest variable environmental conditions operated through time. The overall decline in shell abundance from the last glacial to interglacial paleosols may be explained by a decline in humidity and reduced island surface area resulting in lowered snail proliferation, and in turn, a decreased net shell input rate. This study emphasizes that the original community is preserved within the studied terrestrial shell accumulations regardless of the degree of taphonomic alteration. Measures of past taxonomic richness and diversity, therefore, may be used as a reliable measure of the original snail community.


In the United States, combined stimulant/opioid overdose mortality has risen dramatically over the last decade. These increases may particularly affect non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic populations. We used death certificate data from the US National Center for Health Statistics (2007-2019) to compare state-level trends in overdose mortality due to opioids in combination with 1) cocaine and 2) methamphetamine and other stimulants (MOS) across racial/ethnic groups (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic Asian American/Pacific Islander). To avoid unstable estimates from small samples, we employed principles of small area estimation and a Bayesian hierarchical model, enabling information-sharing across groups. Black Americans experienced severe and worsening mortality due to opioids in combination with both cocaine and MOS, particularly in eastern states. Cocaine/opioid mortality increased 575% among Black people versus 184% in White people (Black, 0.60 to 4.05 per 100,000; White, 0.49 to 1.39 per 100,000). MOS/opioid mortality rose 16,200% in Black people versus 3,200% in White people (Black, 0.01 to 1.63 per 100,000; White, 0.09 to 2.97 per 100,000). Cocaine/opioid overdose mortality rose sharply among Hispanic and Asian Americans. State-group heterogeneity highlighted the importance of data disaggregation and methods to address small sample sizes. Research to understand the drivers of these trends and expanded efforts to address them are needed, particularly in minoritized groups.


In activities requiring repetitive motions such as cycling, an individual gravitates to a natural cadence (NC). NC is seen as a "naturally occurring" phenomenon, a pace to which an individual reverts, as opposed to a consciously mediated pace, which is a learned ability. For example, an experienced middle distance athlete will be able to accurately run laps at 63 s (although distance and type of training may also influence this). This is different to NC, which would be the pace to which the athlete would naturally gravitate if left to his or her own devices. Our aim was to investigate this phenomenon by examining cyclists' NC (see Marais & Pelayo, 2001),
in this sense, an internally set, unconsciously achieved rhythm to which the system would naturally gravitate (for a detailed discussion of how motor programs are stored and accessed, see Rosenbaum & Dawson, 2004; Mechsner, 2004). Two major questions were addressed. First, we examined the evidence for and, if it was detected, strength of NC. Embedded within this issue was the contribution of experience (i.e., whether differences would exist between cyclists and noncyclists). Second, we looked at the physiological response postperturbation from fixed cadence to establish whether participants would revert to similar values, comparable with NC. Further, by considering physiological differences associated with different imposed and freely chosen rhythms, we attempted to uncover the mechanisms through which observed effects were generated. Again, we considered this with respect to both cyclists and noncyclists. Individualized measures were used as the basis for all variables, and the purpose of the present study was concealed from the participants, with NC, the fixed cadences, and work rate (WR) disclosed only once the testing was complete.
In summary, this experiment is novel in that it examines the effects of perturbing preferred movement patterns while differentiating between groups.


Chemical reaction networks are widely used to model biochemical systems. However, when the complexity of these systems increases, the chemical reaction networks are prone to errors in the initial modeling and subsequent updates of the model. We present the Meta-species-oriented Biochemical Systems Language (MobsPy), a language designed to simplify the definition of chemical reaction networks in Python. MobsPy is built around the notion of meta-species, which are sets of species that can be multiplied to create higher-dimensional orthogonal characteristics spaces and inheritance of reactions. Reactions can modify these characteristics. For reactants, queries allow to select a subset from a meta-species and use them in a reaction. For products, queries specify the dimensions in which a modification occurs. We demonstrate the simplification capabilities of the MobsPy language at the hand of a running example and a circuit from literature. The MobsPy Python package includes functions to perform both deterministic and stochastic simulations, as well as easily configurable plotting. The MobsPy package is indexed in the Python Package Index and can thus be installed via pip.


Soft-mode turbulence (SMT) observed in the electroconvection of a nematic liquid crystal is a first experimental example of spatiotemporal chaos (STC) due to an additional Goldstone mode. In a nematic liquid crystal with homeotropic alignment a continuous rotational symmetry is broken by a kind of buckling instability of the alignment by applying voltage (control parameter), and this spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to a Goldstone mode. Further increasing the control parameter, electroconvective instability sets in and a roll pattern could be expected to appear. SMT however ensues by the coupling of the roll pattern with the Goldstone mode. SMT has the following properties: (i) SMT is one of the rare examples of STC appearing via single supercritical bifurcation directly from a quiescent state. With decreasing the control parameter, the correlation time of the chaotic fluctuation becomes longer and diverges at the bifurcation point, that is, the fluctuations become soft. (ii) SMT is the STC in respect to the directions of convective wavevector, and patches which are the areas with the same directions appear. (iii) The averaged size of the patch, as well as the the correlation length, becomes larger with decreasing the control parameter from the above of threshold. Furthermore we have investigated transport properties in SMT by observing non-thermal "Brownian motion" in order to elucidate a fluctuation theorem in dissipative systems. This study gives us important information about SMT from a viewpoint of the Lagrangian picture which is different from the properties of the Euler picture (pattern dynamics). We presented the time-scale dependence of diffusion constants obtained by a coarse-graining. The obtained result reflects that SMT pattern has two different length scales, rolls and patches. The diffusion of particles inside a patch is anomalous, i.e. Levy diffusion, while the diffusion of inter-patches is normal. Thus the transport property of SMT is closely related with its spatial hierarchy.


Activated charcoal with various coating materials were screened and tested as adsorbents in hemoperfusion. Among them silicon rubber polyurethane, crosslinked agrose, polyvinyl acetate, polyhydroxy ethyl methacrylate showed good blood compatible properties. Various types of resins and carbonized resins with different functional groups, and structures were tested for the adsorption of small molecules i.e. creatinine, barbiturates, middle molecules i.e. Vit.B12, inulin, cytochrome C and large molecules i.e. unconjugated bilirubin. High adsorption capacities were obtained and uncoated carbonized resins showed satisfactory blood compatible properties. NK-107 a macroporous, non-coated resin is now being manufactured and successfully used clinically on patients for acute detoxification of hypnotic drugs. Polysaccharide dialdchyde and polystyrene derivatives etc. were used for the removal of urea, ammonia, potassium and phosphorus. DNA immune adsorbents were prepared for systemic lupus erythematosus therapy.


The genome of M. tuberculosis comprises eleven serine/threonine protein kinases which carry out various functions, e.g. in cell division, metabolism and pathogenicity. Nine of these eleven kinases are membrane-bound and have a C-terminal extracellular domain and an intracellular Hanks-type kinase domain located at the N-terminus. Protein kinase G (PknG) differs from these kinases, because it is predicted to be a cytosolic protein since it lacks a transmembrane domain. The kinase domain is preceded by a long N-terminal stretch containing two CXXC motifs. Moreover, PknG possesses a tetratricopeptide repeat within its C-terminal domain. PknG, expressed by pathogenic mycobacteria upon infection, has been shown to be secreted into the macrophage cytosol where it modulates and prevents phagosome-lysosome fusion, finally resulting in survival of the bacilli. A potent inhibitor, termed AX20017, was identified which specifically inhibited the catalytic activity of PknG in vitro. Infection of J774 macrophages with mycobacteria treated with AX20017 led to an increase rate of lysosomol delivery events. The same effect was observed when macrophages were infected with mycobacteria expressing a kinase-dead-version of PknG which strongly supports the idea that PknG activity is required for mycobacterial survival. A broad-ranged kinase assay screen including 25 kinases representatively chosen from the six major kinase families showed that the inhibitor was highly selective by inhibiting only PknG with high efficiency. Normal cellular processes within host cells were not affected. To elucidate the structural basis of inhibition of PknG and to learn more about the function of the kinase, the structure of PknG in complex with its inhibitor was solved. Since PknG full length was shown to be unstable, limited analysis was performed and a truncated version of PknG missing 8 kDa of the N-terminus was constructed. A purification protocol was established that allowed the purification of pure and stable protein. Crystallization assays were performed to screen for optimal conditions. The structure of dimeric PknG in complex with its specific inhibitor AX20017 was solved at a resolution of 2.4 A using SIRAS. Three domains of PknG were defined: a) The N-terminal region encompassing the two CXXC motifs, which were shown to complex iron, thus forming a rubredoxin domain b) The kinase domain displaying a closed configuration, with the inhibitor occupying the nucleotide-binding pocket c) and the C-terminal domain with the tetratricopeptide repeat mediating dimerization of the two PknG molecules. The structure explained the high specificity of inhibition by AX20017. In total, 15 polar and non-polar interactions between the inhibitor and the kinase- or N-terminal domain were determined. Sequence alignments with all 518 human kinases derived from six major kinase families revealed that 6 of these interactions were not detected in any other kinase underlining the high specificity of inhibition. By expressing proteins with mutated inhibitor binding sites, these sites of interaction were further confirmed. Moreover, the molecular model of the kinase allowed insights into the regulation of PknG. Site-directed mutagenesis on the four cysteines forming the rubredoxin motif completely abolished PknG activity. This, in combination with the observed interactions between the rubredoxin domain and the lobes of the kinase domain, suggested that PknG activity might be regulated by the N-terminal globular domain. PknG undergoes autophosphorylation, similar to most mycobacterial kinases studied thus far. However, in-depth analysis of PknG autophosphorylation revealed significant differences. Whereas most mycobacterial kinases display a conserved autophosphorylation pattern on the activation loop, phosphorylated residues in PknG were exclusively identified at the Nterminus. For PknG, classified as the unique mycobacterial non-RD kinase due to a missing arginine residue in the catalytic loop, absence of autophosphorylation in the activation loop was suggested. By performing kinase assays using constructs lacking the potential Nterminal phosphorylation sites, this assumption was confirmed. Moreover, by analyzing these mutants on an endogenous substrate, it was demonstrated that autophosphorylation is not a prerequisite for activating the catalytic activity of PknG. Infection experiments with mycobacteria expressing mutated unphosphorylated PknG protein indicated that autophosphorylation is crucial for the role of PknG in preventing lysosomal delivery. Preliminary results of survival assays showed that mycobacteria which express PknG devoid of autophosphorylation sites were rapidly transferred to lysosomes and degraded. To further understand the activity of PknG within host macrophages, PknG was localized in eukaryotic cells. Upon transfection, PknG was detected in the nucleus of HeLa, Mel JuSo and HEK cells. Transfection assays with different truncated PknG constructs point to the Cterminal TPR containing domain of PknG for being responsible for nuclear translocation. In addition, Ag84, a downstream target of PknA, was studied. To address its function, Ag84 was overproduced in mycobacteria. Overexpression resulted in drastic changes in cell morphology, particularly in cell size and shape. Localization studies revealed that wildtype Ag84 localized equally to the cell poles, whereas overexpressed Ag84 was asymmetrically distributed at the poles leading to unbalanced cell wall extension. Furthermore, overexpressed Ag84 was found to affect cell division by preventing septum formation adjacent to the cell pole with higher Ag84 concentrations. Biochemical analysis revealed that Ag84 is a cytosolic protein. As an alternative explanation for the polar localization, oligomerization of Ag84 was analyzed. Chemical crosslinking and size-exclusion chromatography analysis showed that Ag84 is able to form oligomers of >6 molecules which might act as a complex scaffold fitting to the curvature of the cell poles. This complex structure then might allow recruiting other proteins involved in processes such as cell wall synthesis. Ag84 is the first effector protein, for which a role in mycobacterial cell shape control has been described. In addition, Ag84 was found to be involved in septum formation and therefore has a similar role as B. subtilis DivIVA, which in Bacillus however interacts with the MinCD system that is absent in mycobacteria. To conclude, the results presented in this thesis contribute to a better understanding of mycobacterial virulence. The knowledge of the structure of PknG might be particular useful with regard to the design of more potent drugs and the biochemistry data obtained for PknG allowed important insights into function and regulation of this eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein kinase. Taken together, the results add more information to the complex network of mycobacteria-host interactions.


Circular RNAs (circRNAs) belong to the family of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) that, unlike linear RNAs, are characterized by a covalently closed circular RNA structure lacking 5 0 cap and 3 0 poly-adenylated tails. circRNAs have a role in epigenetic regulation of downstream targets. circRNAs play a crucial role in regulating gene and protein expressions by acting as a microRNA (miRNA) sponge and RNA binding protein (RBP) sponge and interact with proteins to affect cell behav-ior. circRNA expression profiles differ between physiological and pathological states. Moreover, the expression patterns of circRNAs exhibit differences in a tissue-specific manner. Although investigations on circRNAs have been exploding nowadays, yet only a limited number of circRNAs are identified. Furthermore, further researches are needed to shed light on their functions and targets. Therefore, circRNAs are becoming vital as potential biomarkers that may be used for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this chapter, we review the current advancement of cirRNAs with regard to their biogenesis, biological functions, gene regulatory mechanisms, and implications in human diseases and summarize the recent studies on circRNAs as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers based on existing knowledge.


The ability of oligonucleotides to interact selectively with their targets is an important consideration in the design of antisense oligonucleotides. This is especially important in the case of antisense oligomers, such as psoralen-derivatized oligomers, which can irreversibly bind to their targets. We have studied the interactions of a series of psoralen-derivatized antisense oligonucleoside methylphosphonates with the mRNAs of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), mRNAs that have a high degree of sequence homology. Cross-linking reactions were carried out under conditions of low ionic strength in order to reduce mRNA secondary structure. A 12-mer, whose sequence was complementary to VSV M-mRNA and partially complementary to sequences found in N, NS, and G mRNA cross-linked extensively to N-message. On the other hand, 16-mers whose sequences were uniquely complementary to binding sites on N- or M-mRNA specifically and efficiently cross-linked to their targeted mRNAs over the temperature range 0 degree to 37 degrees C. A reverse transcriptase-catalyzed primer extension assay was used to show that one of the N-specific oligomers cross-linked at the expected site on N-mRNA and to estimate the extent of cross-linking. The results demonstrate that psoralen-derivatized oligonucleoside methylphosphonates can cross-link in a sequence-specific manner if the sequences of these oligomers are chosen carefully so as to avoid extensive partial complementarity with other mRNA sequences.


Leveraging the power of flexible visual presentations has become an effective way to aid information interpretation, decision making and problem solving. It is indispensable to address the high complexities with visualization problems and relieve the impact from the intrinsic limitations of human cognitive capacity. Addressing these problems raises demanding requirements for information presentation flexibility. However, many existing visualization systems tend to provide weak support for such flexibility due to the issue of closely coupled information representation and presentation in system designs. This issue limits their support for rich presentation options, flexible presentation integration and reusability, and vivid storytelling of data. To help with addressing these problems, issues and requirements, this paper generalizes typical presentation models to provide paradigm level support for achieving presentation flexibility, and identifies key requirements for presentation development to accomplish the flexibility at a system level. With articulating the requirements at both paradigm and system levels, the paper proposes a user-centred process to realize presentation flexibility by meeting both functional and cognitive requirements for information presentation. The proposed theory is validated against a realworld business case and applied to guide the development of a prototypical system, which is demonstrated through a sequence of scenario-driven illustrations.


We investigate the behavior of reinforcement learning (RL) agents under morphological distribution shifts. Similar to recent robustness benchmarks in computer vision, we train algorithms on selected RL environments and test transfer performance on perturbed environments. We specifically test perturbations to popular RL agent's morphologies by changing the length and mass of limbs, which in biological settings is a major challenge (e.g., after injury or during growth). In this setup, called PyBullet-M, we compare the performance of policies obtained by reward-driven learning with self-supervised models of the observed state-action transitions. We find that out-of-distribution performance of self-supervised models is correlated to degradation in reward.


A current-mode folding and interpolating analog to quaternary digital converter (AQC) with binary to quaternary encoder has been proposed in this paper. A current-mode three-level folding amplifier has been employed to reduce the number of reference current sources and a low impedance current-mode approach is adopted. A voltage level converter circuit has been proposed not only to encode the binary output signal to the quaternary output signal, but also to enable the proposed AQC to be applied as a starting point device of the quaternary logic. Fast settling time and low power consumption of the AQC are achieved by utilising the proposed architecture. The simulation results of the designed 4 digit AQC show a sampling rate of 14 MHz and a power dissipation of 150 mW with a single power supply of 3.3 V for a double poly four metal standard CMOS 0.35 /spl mu/m n-well technology.


This article is a continuation of the author's discussion concerning the identification and classification of barriers to knowledge management, which appeared in 2012 (see References). The author divides these barriers into three interrelated dimensions: a) the prevalence of these barriers (exceeding the classical triad of: individual, organizational, and inter‐organizational levels), b) the stages of knowledge management processes, and c) the types of barriers. The three‐dimensional model presented is based on the field of morphology utilized in the theory of combinations. This paper is conceptual in nature, and is aimed at identifying barriers to knowledge management, and new areas of research. Intrinsically related to knowledge management are numerous barriers influencing the process of managing this intangible resource both on an epistemological and ontological level. Researchers present different points of view in terms of performance, or causes of failure in projects and initiatives related to knowledge management. However, one fact remains indisputable. The causes and reasons for failure must be taken into account when considering potential limitations. The very awareness of their existence allows companies and individuals involved the opportunity to undertake appropriate steps in reducing their negative impact in the future. The approach presented in this article may lead to the recognition of areas considered as barriers relevant to the functioning of an organization, and with an analysis of the impact exerted by the external environment.


Stable ZrB2-based ultra-high temperature ceramic slurries were prepared and characterized with a solid content 40 vol% by aqueous gelcasting which was suitable to form high quality and complexshaped ceramic parts. In the present work, Ammonium Citrate Tribasic (ACT) was used as the dispersant. The properties of ZrB2 slurry, and the influencing factors were investigated by conventional techniques such as sedimentation tests, particle size distribution measurements, electrokinetic measurements and rheological analysis. High solids loading and low viscosity slurry was obtained by controlling the optimal conditions for the ZrB2-based ceramic powders.


A current focus among communication engineers is to design flexible radio systems in order to handle services among different telecommunication standards. Efficient support of dynamic interactive communication systems requires flexible and cost-efficient radio systems. Thus, low-cost multimode terminals will be crucial building blocks for future generations of multimode communication systems. Here, different bandwidths, from different telecommunication standards, must be supported and, thus, there is a need for a system which can handle a number of different bandwidths. This can be done using multimode transmultiplexers (TMUXs) which make it possible for different users to share a common channel in a time-varying manner. These TMUXs allow bandwidth-on-demand so that the resulting communication system has a dynamic allocation of bandwidth to users. Each user occupies a specific portion of the channel where the location and width of this portion may vary with time. Another focus among communication engineers is to provide various wideband services accessible to everybody everywhere. Here, satellites with high-gain spot beam antennas, on-board signal processing, and switching will be a major complementary part of future digital communication systems. Satellites provide a global coverage and if a satellite is in orbit, customers only need to install a satellite terminal and subscribe to the service. Efficient utilization of the available limited frequency spectrum, by these satellites, calls for on-board signal processing to perform flexible frequency-band reallocation (FFBR). Considering these two focuses in one integrated system where the TMUXs operate on-ground and FFBR networks operate on-board, one can conclude that successful design of dynamic communication systems requires high levels of flexibility in digital signal processing structures. In other words, there is a need for flexible digital signal processing structures that can support different telecommunication scenarios and standards. This flexibility (or reconfigurability) must not impose restrictions on the hardware and, ideally, it must come at the expense of simple software modifications. In other words, the system is based on a hardware platform and its parameters can easily be modified without the need for hardware changes. This thesis aims to outline flexible TMUX and FFBR structures which can allow dynamic communication scenarios with simple software reconfigurations on the same hardware platform. In both structures, the system parameters are determined in advance. For these parameters, the required filter design problems are solved only once. Dynamic communications, with users having different time-varying bandwidths, are then supported by adjusting some multipliers of the proposed multimode TMUXs and a simple software programming in the channel switch of the FFBR network. These do not require any hardware changes and can be performed online. However, the filter design problem is solved only once and offline.


Blood distribution within the ventricle was analysed in acutely prepared turtles Trachemys scripta by measuring the oxygen concentration and flow rates of blood in the central vessels. Pulmonary (Qp) and systemic (Qs) blood flow rates were similar when total cardiac output (Qtot) was below 40 ml min-1 kg-1. Above this value, increments of Qtot were directed to the pulmonary circuit, with Qs levelling off at approximately 20 ml min-1 kg-1. When Qtot was larger than 40 ml min-1 kg-1, the systemic circuit was almost exclusively perfused by left atrial blood and systemic venous return was almost all directed towards the lungs. Blood oxygen levels and flow rates were consistently higher in the right aorta than in the left aorta. Blood movement within the ventricle, coupled with differences in ejection timing, is probably the decisive factor determining this pattern of blood distribution in the turtle heart.


The murder of six young Italians shot dead in front of an Italian restaurant in Duisburg in the early hours of the 15th August 2007 marks a cut. Since then, the question came up whether Italian mafias are present and operating on German ground. This article deals with the German perception of the Italian mafias, both operating inside and outside Italy. Findings from different sources, among them science, police and media, are presented and evaluated


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a life-threatening condition characterized by elevated pulmonary arterial pressure. It is clinically classified into five groups: patients in the first group are considered to have pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) whereas patients of the other groups have PH that is due to cardiopulmonary or other systemic diseases. The management of patients with PH has advanced rapidly over the last decade and the introduction of specific treatments especially for PAH has lead to an improved outcome. However, despite the progress in the treatment, the functional limitation and the survival of these patients remain unsatisfactory and there is no cure for PAH. Therefore the search for an "ideal" therapy still goes on. At present, two levels of treatment can be identified: primary and specific therapy. Primary therapy is directed at the underlying cause of the PH. It also includes a supportive therapy consisting in oxygen supplementation, diuretics, and anticoagulation which should be considered in all patients with PH. Specific therapy is directed at the PH itself and includes treatment with vasodilatators such as calcium channel blockers and with vasodilatator and pathogenetic drugs such as prostanoids, endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitors. These drugs act in several pathogenetic mechanisms of the PH and are specific for PAH although they might be used also in the other groups of PH. Finally, atrial septostomy and lung transplantation are reserved for patients refractory to medical therapy. Different therapeutic approaches can be considered in the management of patients with PH. Therapy can be established on the basis of both the clinical classification and the functional class. It is also possible to adopt a goal-oriented therapy in which the timing of treatment escalation is determined by inadequate response to known prognostic indicators.


Susceptibility and time-kill studies were done with low and high inocula of both β-lactamase-positive and -negative strains of Haemophilus influenzae with cefamandole, ampicillin, cefoperazone, mezlocillin, moxalactam, and ceftriaxone. Bioassay was done to test for antibiotic inactivation by β-lactamase-positive strains. All six antibiotics were highly active against the low inoculum (104 to 105 colony-forming units/ml) of β-lactamase-negative strains; ceftriaxone, moxalactam, and cefoperazone were equally active against the same inoculum concentration of β-lactamase-positive strains. In contrast, cefamandole, mezlocillin, and ampicillin were less active against the low inoculum of β-lactamase-positive H influenzae. A marked inoculum effect occurred with the high inoculum (107 to 108 CFU/ml) with all six antibiotics, regardless of β-lactamase production. In time-kill studies, marked differences in bacterial killing resulted after low and high inocula. Ampicillin, cefamandole, cefoperazone, and mezlocillin were rapidly inactivated by the high inoculum of β-lactamase-positive H influenzae.


Based on the solidification features of ductile iron and affecting factors for ductile iron shrinkage defect, the model of the ductile iron solidification is built and put forward a new defect predictive method EIECAM (Enclosed-Isolated area Expansion and Contraction Accumulation Method) model to predict defect. in DECAM, the liquid shrinkage, solidified shrinkage and graphitizing expansion during solidification are computed dynamically in the enclosed-isolated area , and the effect of graphite expansion on the wall movement is also accounted. Based on this method end cover of QT500 ductile iron casting is simulated and made the defect predictive, study its solidification process and the defect generation position, and make the experimental identification on the defect. It is resulted that the method can be able to predict the casting defect authentically.


A brief description is given of a method for approximate synthesis of multilayer filters consisting of either homogeneous layers or inhomogeneous films. The method is based on the fact that the amplitude reflectance is the approximate Fourier transform of the function 12U′(p)/U(p), where U(p) is the effective refractive index as a function of the optical thickness p. Two forms of the sampling theorem are applied to obtain explicit expressions for the film parameters in terms of the specified reflectivity at certain sampling values of the frequency. Numerical examples are included.


The propagation of nonlinear dust-lattice waves in a two-dimensional hexagonal crystal is investigated. Transverse (off-plane) dust grain oscillatory motion is considered in the form of a backward propagating wave packet whose linear and nonlinear characteristics are investigated. An evolution equation is obtained for the slowly varying amplitude of the first (fundamental) harmonic by making use of a two-dimensional lattice multiple scales technique. An analysis based on the continuum approximation (spatially extended excitations compared to the lattice spacing) shows that wave packets will be modulationally stable and that dark-type envelope solitons (density holes) may occur in the long wavelength region. Evidence is provided of modulational instability and of the occurrence of bright-type envelopes (pulses) at shorter wavelengths. The role of second neighbor interactions is also investigated and is shown to be rather weak in determining the modulational stability region. The effect of dissipation, assumed negligible in the algebra throughout the article, is briefly discussed.


We consider the problem of increasing the connectivity of a given graph to two at optimal cost. Fredrickson and Ja''Ja'' showed that that this problem is NP-hard and provide approximation algorithms. Recently, Khuller and Thirumella have extended these results and presented a more efficient version of the results of Fredrickson and Ja''Ja''. We consider an extension of this problem to a more general setting. In this setting, we are given an edge-weighted graph, a subset of the vertex set called the sites and an initial subgraph; the objective is to find a minimum weight augmentation of edges that makes the sites two edge-connected or vertex-connected. We provide approximation algorithms for the first time for these problems by extending those of Khuller and Thirumella with matching performance bounds. If the initial subgraph is pconnected, we find an augmentation of weight at most twice the optimal. Otherwise, the performance guarantee is three. The performance guarantee of three is obtained by an interesting application of an approximate min-max relation concerning Steiner trees and packing of cuts derived in a paper by Agrawal, Klein and Ravi.


Situated on the Elbe River, Germany's second largest city and most important seaport also boasts a lively cultural life that includes theatre, symphony, opera, museums and of course, restaurants. This illustrated guide book focuses on those destinations offering the best in food and ambience. Whether casual and off-beat or hip and fashionable, whether located in Hamburg's red light district or near the beautifully restored harbour, there is something for everyone in this best of selection of restaurants, bars and lounges.


Madchen in uniform (1931 Germany Sagan) was one of the first films to treat lesbian love openly and univocally which meant it could easily have provoked a scandal. But when Madchen was screened in Belgian theatres in 1932 the film was applauded by film critics and the public alike. You would think that madchen didn't stand much of a chance of making it uncut past the Belgian Board of Film Classification let alone please the often more severe Catholic Film Classification. Surprisingly it did. Catholic film guides called it a masterpiece and the film reached its adult (16+) audience unharmed. Scholars like Richard Dyer suggest that this is due to the fact that contemporary viewers weren't really aware of the lesbian theme but that assumption is highly questionable. All over the world censorship boards cut the film's most 'lesbian scenes' and newspaper articles often mentioned the exaggerated attraction between the two protagonists - a teacher and her pupil. So what was it that didn't provoke moral crusaders in Belgium to ban the film? First of all there is the all-female setting of the film. The women fall in love at a boarding school that is run and inhabited by women and girls only. In that sense the love between the two women forms no real threat to patriarchal society since the film suggests the attraction is only a surrogate for heterosexual love. Moreover one of the protagonists is an adolescent girl who still has to explore her own sexuality and who - according to Freud who is frequently cited in Belgium - has to go through a homosexual phase in order to become a mature heterosexual woman. And of course critics could emphasize the anti-authoritarian theme rather than the lesbian subject. But the thing that saved madchen most from being mutilated or criticised by reformers is the fact that from the very beginning the film was considered to be a work of art. And as an art film Madchen was able to go considerably further in breaking taboos than any 'pure entertainment' film would ever have been allowed to do.


Objective: Some researchers recommend the use of Automated Auditory Brainstem Response as an initial screening test for healthy newborns due to its lower false-positive and referral rates, high specificity, and also its' ability to diagnose auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder combination with Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions test. On the other hand, the test time can be a disadvantage. With technological advancements, a new generation Automated Auditory Brainstem Response has been developed which is faster. The new design of the Automated Auditory Brainstem Response is designed with a coupler that does not contain disposable electrodes is available at an acceptable cost. The aim of this study was comparing the new generation's Automated Auditory Brainstem Response and Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions test by regarding to their test times. The results were then compared with those in previously published literature. Methods: Two hundred and sixty healthy infants were included in the study. The hearing screening of all infants was performed using Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions and Automated Auditory Brainstem Response test devices with new, improved technology. The Ero-ScanTM (Maico, Berlin, Germany) test system was used for the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions, and the newly designed Maico MB11 BERAphone (Maico-Berlin, Germany) Auditory Brainstem Response screening device with three electrodes in one cap was used for the Automated Auditory Brainstem Response test. Results: Mean age of babies was 60.7±51.3 hours, and age range was 4hours-312hours. The test times for the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions were 13.68±9.2s and 14.04±9.4s, and for the Automated Auditory Brainstem Response, they were 39.15±22.2s and 45,25±23,9s for the right and left ears respectively. Conclusions: Although the Automated Auditory Brainstem Response test time is statistically longer than the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions, the amount of time it takes has been significantly shortened by the new technology. This finding enhances the value of the new generation Automated Auditory Brainstem Response technology usage as an initial test for newborn hearing screening.


Determining the link between genomic and phenotypic evolution is a fundamental goal in evolutionary biology. Insights into this link can be gained by using a phylogenetic approach to test for correlations between rates of molecular and morphological evolution. However, there has been persistent uncertainty about the relationship between these rates, partly because conflicting results have been obtained using various methods that have not been examined in detail. We carried out a simulation study to evaluate the performance of five statistical methods for detecting correlated rates of evolution. Our simulations explored the evolution of molecular sequences and morphological characters under a range of conditions. Of the methods tested, Bayesian relaxed-clock estimation of branch rates was able to detect correlated rates of evolution correctly in the largest number of cases. This was followed by correlations of root-to-tip distances, Bayesian model selection, independent sister-pairs contrasts, and likelihood-based model selection. As expected, the power to detect correlated rates increased with the amount of data, both in terms of tree size and number of morphological characters. Likewise, the performance of all five methods improved when there was greater rate variation among lineages. We then applied these methods to a data set from flowering plants and did not find evidence of a correlation in evolutionary rates between genomic data and morphological characters. The results of our study have practical implications for phylogenetic analyses of combined molecular and morphological data sets, and highlight the conditions under which the links between genomic and phenotypic rates of evolution can be evaluated quantitatively.


Approximately 20% of children with hepatoblastoma (HB) have metastatic disease at diagnosis, most frequently in the lungs. In children with HB, lung metastatic disease is associated with poorer prognosis. Its treatment has been approached with a variety of methods that integrate chemotherapy and surgical resection. The timing and feasibility of complete extirpation of lung metastases, by chemotherapy and/or metastasectomy, is crucial for the surgical treatment of the primary liver tumor, which can vary from major hepatic resections to liver transplantation (LT). In children with unresectable HB, which can be surgically treated only by LT, the persistence of unresectable metastases after neoadjuvant chemotherapy excludes the possibility of recurring to LT with consequent negative impact on patients' outcomes. Due to limited evidence and experience, there is no consensus amongst oncologists and surgeons across institutions regarding the surgical treatment for HB with synchronous metastatic lung disease. This narrative review aimed to update the current management of pulmonary metastasis in children with HB and to define its role in the decision-making strategy for the surgical approach to primary liver tumours.


Abstract From nuclear safeguards to homeland security applications, the need for the better modeling of nuclear interactions has grown over the past decades. Current Monte Carlo radiation transport codes compute average quantities with great accuracy and performance; however, performance and averaging come at the price of limited interaction-by-interaction modeling. These codes often lack the capability of modeling interactions exactly: for a given collision, energy is not conserved, energies of emitted particles are uncorrelated, and multiplicities of prompt fission neutrons and photons are uncorrelated. Many modern applications require more exclusive quantities than averages, such as the fluctuations in certain observables (e.g., the neutron multiplicity) and correlations between neutrons and photons. In an effort to meet this need, the radiation transport Monte Carlo code TRIPOLI-4® was modified to provide a specific mode that models nuclear interactions in a full analog way, replicating as much as possible the underlying physical process. Furthermore, the computational model FREYA (Fission Reaction Event Yield Algorithm) was coupled with TRIPOLI-4 to model complete fission events. FREYA automatically includes fluctuations as well as correlations resulting from conservation of energy and momentum. Neutron multiplicity counting (NMC) exploits the correlated nature of fission chains and thus requires analog neutron transport. With the latest analog neutron transport developments in TRIPOLI-4, we show that NMC can now be properly simulated by reconstructing the mass and multiplication of two objects by analyzing the measured signal from 3He tubes in a well counter.


Variable-rate space-time block codes (vr-STBCs) without any feedback can support different transmission rates and unequal error protection (UEP) which are needed for multimedia communications. Assuming necessary feedback, in this letter, we introduce a joint adaptive modulation and power allocation (AMP) for vr-STBCs so as to maximize the total throughput under constraints of transmit power limit and error requirements. Based on a Lagrangian multiplier method, optimum modulation orders and power levels are provided for the transmitter. Numerical results show that the proposed AMP enhances the throughput of existing vr-STBCs up to 20% with very limited feedback, e.g., at most 3-5 bits feedback.


Democracy is an ancient institution that takes us back to ancient Greece, despite its age-old age, has been the center of many philosophical debates several times. Without any doubt this form of government, although very critical, has an extraordinary ability to survive, persist and preserve over the centuries. Perhaps because it has been able to take different forms according to the historical needs of a country. Many authors have focused on the theme of democracy, and argued for ideas other right on its potential survival in the modern, globalized world as we know prevails more representative system of democracy. Today it seems that there is a claim of direct democracy but also there is a certain difficulty of the citizen committed to a life with unbridled pace of being able to reconcile social life with the public life. With the birth of new national and supranational institutional dimensions, such as those of the European Union, there is also a need for a new model of legislative participation, and here we see the birth of a different form of democracy, a middle ground between direct and indirect democracy, that is, participatory democracy. The latter presents itself as a push from below to bring its voice to political, decision-making and legislative institutions. The goal of this analysis, is first of all investigate and reason about what is the best form of democracy, that is direct, or to representative and participatory. To get to these considerations, the argument need for a historical and philosophical journey reaching out to a legal definition. Therefore, the topic will need to be compared with the institutions that are linked to it, such as the European Citizens' Initiative. The ambition is to understand also the democratic challenge of the European institutions, this through a historical, legal and philosophical investigation, with the aim of better understanding the legal reality of an instrument as important as that of democracy, where individuals are primary.


1 Spatial statistical analysis of 1994–1995 small-area malaria incidence rates in the population of the northernmost districts of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, was undertaken to identify factors that might explain very strong heterogeneity in the rates. In this paper, the authors describe a method of adjusting the regression analysis results for strong spatial correlation in the rates by using generalized linear mixed models and variograms.The results of the spatially adjusted, multiple regression analysis showed that malaria incidence was significantly positively associated with higher winter rainfall and a higher average maximum temperature and was significantly negatively associated with increasing distance from water bodies. The statistical model was used to produce a map of predicted malaria incidence in the area, taking into account local variation from the model prediction if this variation was supported by the data. The predictor variables showed that even small differences in climate can have very marked effects on the intensity of malaria transmission, even in areas subject to malaria control for many years.The results of this study have important implications for malaria control programs in the area. Am J Epidemiol 2001;153:1213–21. The


Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a type of wireless network without a fixed topology consist a set of self organized nodes which are randomly, frequently and unpredictably mobile. MANET has a wide range of applications in civilian and military systems because of its infrastructure less nature and rapid self configuration capability. MANET is an open environment and it is susceptible to many security attacks due to dynamic topology and lack of centralized monitoring authority. Anonymous routing protocols conceal the identities about the route, source and destination to provide security and privacy from intruder's attacks. This paper provides an overview of most efficient anonymous routing protocols in MANET and examines the security efficiency of these protocols. The parameters consider for the comparative study of these protocols are the number of actual participating nodes in the network, latency in packet transmission, packet delivery rate and the transmission cost. The protocols taken in to account include, AO2P, ALARM and ALERT.


1. Chronic dietary potassium depletion which was severe enough to decrease skeletal muscle intracellular potassium concentration by 20%, did not significantly reduce cardiac intracellular potassium concentration of rabbits. 2. Chronic potassium depletion caused a fall in intracellular pH in skeletal muscle, but no changes occurred in cardiac intracellular pH. 3. Intracellular potassium was increased above normal after 1 week of potassium repletion, but had returned to normal after 3 weeks of repletion. This may have resulted from potassium retaining mechanisms which had developed during depletion and which persisted during the early stages of repletion. 4. Cardiac and skeletal muscle from potassium-depleted animals did not show any structural damage when examined by light and electron microscopy.


: Recently many cases of missing children between ages 14 and 17 years are reported. Parents always worry about the possibility of kidnapping of their children. In this system we propose an Android based solution to aid parents to track their children in real time. Nowadays, most mobile phones are equipped with location services capabilities allowing us to get the device's geographic position in real time. The proposed solution takes the advantage of the location services provided by mobile phone since most of kids carry mobile phones. The mobile application use the GPS and SMS services found in Android mobile phones. It allows the parent to get their child's location on a real time map. The system consists of two sides, child side and parent side. A parent's device main duty is to send a request location SMS to the child's device to get the location of the child. On the other hand, the child's device main responsibility is to reply the GPS position to the parent's device upon request.


The popularity of recreational activities in the mountains worldwide has led to an increase in the total number of persons exposed to cold and extreme environments through recreation. There is little conclusive evidence about the risk of hypothermia for specific activities or populations, nor is it clear which activities are represented in the literature. This is a non‐systematic review of accidental hypothermia in different recreational activities in the mountains, with a specific focus on outdoor or winter activities that potentially involve cold exposure. Cases of hypothermia have been reported in the literature in mountaineering, trekking, hiking, skiing, activities performed in the backcountry, ultra‐endurance events, and databases from search and rescue services that include various types of recreation. Of these activities, hypothermia as a primary illness occurs most commonly during mountaineering in the highest elevation areas in the world and during recreation practiced in more northern or remote areas. Hypothermia in skiers, snowboarders, and glacier‐based activities is most often associated with accidents occurring off‐piste or in the backcountry (crevasse, avalanche). Organizers of outdoor events also have a role in reducing the incidence of hypothermia through medical screening and other preparedness measures. More complete collection and reporting of data on mild hypothermia and temperature measurement would improve our understanding of the incidence of hypothermia in outdoor recreation in future.


PURPOSE
To increase the biological effectiveness of proton therapy by introducing targeted gold nanoscaffolds into cancer cells.

METHODS
As a follow up to our previous studies in prostate cancer, lung carcinoma cells were treated with ligand-directed nanoscaffold, non-targeted nanoscaffold, or gold nanoparticles. Following incubation, cells were irradiated in a clinical 160MeV proton beam to doses of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5CGE. Two irradiation geometries were tested: a depth of 2cm with spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) of 4cm and a depth of 9cm with a 10cm SOBP. The clonogenic assay was performed post-irradiation to determine the effects of the various treatment paradigms on cell survival. We fit the surviving fraction (SF) data to the linear-quadratic model for analysis. A control irradiation using Co-60 was also performed.

RESULTS
Our analysis showed that all proton treatments resulted in lower SF than the Co-60 treatment over the measured doses. For proton irradiations, the targeted nanoscaffold achieved the lowest SF compared to all treatments. In the range of a typical clinical fractionation (1.8-4 CGE/fraction) the nanoscaffold treatment reduced the SF by 31%-51% when compared to the untreated cells for proton irradiation at 2cm. For the 9cm depth, the reduction in cancer cell SF was 29-44% for the targeted nanoscaffold versus the untreated cells. The radiation sensitization factor calculated at 50% and 10% SF showed 42 and 20% enhancement at the 2cm depth and 40 and 14% at 9cm.

CONCLUSION
Coupled with our previous findings in prostate cancer cells, the observed decrease in SF of lung cancer cells treated with the targeted nanoscaffold prior to irradiation indicates that the nanoscaffold enhances the effectiveness of the radiation treatment. The exact mechanism of enhancement is ambiguous and requires further study. Initial studies point to a difference in cellular response to the nanosystems as a mode of sensitization. Schissler Foundation MD Anderson Cancer Center Fellowship, Rosalie B. Hite Graduate Fellowship in Cancer Research.


University libraries in cooperation with society The resources and competence of academic libraries could play an important role concerning the third task of the university, i.e. interaction with the surrounding society. With information services suited for the needs of actors outside the academic world, libraries can provide support for regional development. At the same time, the capacity of libraries and their potential of offering information services in new areas are made clearer and marketed internally. During a two-year project financed by the EU, Jonkoping University Library has developed a new service based on information providers and business intelligence in the framework of an external project organisation. This has resulted in new demands within the university.


Abstract This study aims at demonstrating the usefulness of the Pareto in- clusive criterion methodology for comparative analyses of fungi toxicity. The toxicity of fungi is usually measured using a scale of several ranks. In practice, the ranks of toxicity are routinely grouped into only four conventional classes of toxicity: from a class of no toxicity, low toxicity, and moderate toxicity, to a class of high toxicity. The illustrative material included the N = 61 fungi samples obtained from three species: A. ochraceus, A. niger and A. flavus. In accordance with the Pareto approach, four partial criterions of the worst toxi- city were defined, a single criterion used for each conventional class of toxicity. Finally, the odds ratios (OR) were calculated separately for each partial cri- terion, and the significance of the hypotheses OR = 1 was estimated. It was stated that A. ochraceus fungi are distinctly more toxic than the two remaining ones with respect to the all considered four partial criterions, with significance equal to p = 0.04, p = 0.04, p = 0.007 and p = 0.005, respectively. Thus, the suggested method illustrated its utility in the case under study.


Making Micronesia is the story of Tosiwo Nakayama, the first president of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Born to a Japanese father and an island woman in 1931 on an atoll northwest of the main Chuuk Lagoon group, Nakayama grew up during Japan's colonial administration of greater Micronesia and later proved adept at adjusting to life in post-war Chuuk and under the American-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. After studying at the University of Hawai'i, Nakayama returned to Chuuk in 1958 and quickly advanced through a series of administrative positions before winning election to the House of Delegates (later Senate) of the Congress of Micronesia. He served as its president from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1973 to 1978. More than any other individual, Nakayama is credited with managing the complex political discussions on Saipan in 1975 that resulted in a national constitution for the different Micronesian states that made up the Trust Territory. A proponent of independence, he was a key player in the lengthy negotiations with the U.S. government and throughout the islands that culminated in the Compact of Free Association and the eventual creation of the FSM. In 1979 Nakayama was elected the first president of the FSM and spent the next eight years working to solidify an island nation and to see the Compact of Free Association through to approval and implementation. One wonders what the contemporary political configuration of the western Pacific would look like without Tosiwo Nakayama. His story, however, involves much more than a narrative of political events. Nakayama's rise to prominence constitutes a remarkable story given the physical, political, and cultural distances he negotiated. His engagements with colonialism, decolonization, and nation-making place him squarely in the middle of the most important issues in twentieth-century Pacific Islands history. The study of his life also invites a reconsideration of migration, transnational crossings, and the actual size of island worlds. Making Micronesia follows Nakayama's life through time, focusing on the expansiveness of his vision. In many ways, "Macronesia," not "Micronesia," seems a more appropriate term for the world he inhabited and tried to make accessible to others.


Linear cascade measurements for the aerodynamic performance of three transonic High Pressure (HP) turbine blades have been presented previously by Corriveau and Sjolander [1] [2] for the design incidence. The airfoils were designed for the same inlet and outlet velocity triangles but varied in their loading distributions. Results from the earlier studies indicated that by shifting the loading towards the rear of the airfoil an improvement in the profile loss performance of the order of 20% could be obtained near the design Mach number of 1.05. The measurements have been extended to off-design incidence to investigate the effects of incidence on the performance of HP turbine blades having differing loading distributions. The additional measurements were performed for incidence values of −10.0°, +5.0°, and +10.0° relative to the design incidence. In addition, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes numerical simulations of the cascade flow were performed in order to help in the interpretation of the experimental results. The exit Mach number was kept at the design value of 1.05. The corresponding Reynolds numbers, based on outlet velocity and true chord, is roughly 10 × 105 . The measurements include midspan losses, outlet flow angles, blade loading distributions and base pressures. The results show that the superior loss performance of the aft-loaded profile, observed at design incidence and Mach number, could also be seen for off-design values of incidence ranging from about −5.0° to +5.0°. However, it was found that for incidences greater than about +5.0° the performance of the aft-loaded blade deteriorated rapidly. The front-loaded airfoil showed generally similar performance to that of the baseline mid-loaded airfoil up to an incidence of +5.0°, at which point its performance also deteriorates significantly.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Current concepts regarding the organisation of the motor system indicate the existence of a frontoparietal circuit involved in prehension and manipulation, whose damage may result in a motor behavioural disorder strongly resembling the one originally described as limb‐kinetic apraxia. To determine the specific clinical and kinematic features of this distinctive praxic disorder, 5 patients with corticobasal degeneration (apraxic group), 5 with Parkinson's disease (nonapraxic group), and 10 control subjects were studied by a comprehensive apraxic battery, three‐dimensional motion analysis of manipulative movements and motor evoked potentials. A mathematical model [quality of movement coefficient (QMC)] was applied to quantify differential kinematic characteristics between elementary motor deficits and the praxic disorder. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to evaluate corticomotoneural projections and cortical inhibition. All five patients in the apraxic group exhibited a unilateral praxic deficit characterised by derangement of fractionated and segmental finger movements. QMC was significantly greater in apraxic than in nonapraxic patients (P < 0.02), revealing a chaotic movement with marked interfinger uncoordination. Conventional transcranial magnetic stimulation parameters were within normal limits in both groups of patients; however, the silent period was significantly shorter in the apraxic limb when compared with control subjects (P < 0.001). Limb‐kinetic apraxia is a distinctive disorder affecting the performance of finger and hand postures and movements over and above a corticospinal or basal ganglion deficit. Disruption of the frontoparietal circuit devoted to grasping and manipulation, together with defective cortical inhibition, which would also interfere with the selection and control of hand muscle activity, are the most likely underlying physiopathological mechanisms of limb‐kinetic apraxia in patients with corticobasal degeneration.


Bckground: Entering a new environment such as university would expose students to many psychological tensions. Among students, those with higher emotional intelligence can manage their stress better in critical situations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and levels of stress, anxiety, and depression among students. Methods : This study was a cross-sectional one and the population included all students of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences. The participants were 403 students who were selected through multi-stage random sampling. Shiring Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scale (DASS-21) were used to collect data. Independent t-test, chi-square, and pearson correlation coefficient and also SPSS software were used to analyze the data. Results: The results indicated that 82.2% of the participants (n=331) had high emotional intelligence and 17.9% (n=72) had moderate emotional intelligence. The mean score of emotional intelligence was 113.5 among the participants, and levels of stress, anxiety, and depression were significantly different between two groups of students with high and medium emotional intelligence. Correlation of emotional intelligence score with stress score (r = -0.59), anxiety score (r = -0.57) and depression score (r = -0.65) indicated a reverse and significant relationship between emotional intelligence with stress, anxiety, and depression. Conclusions: According to the relationship observed between emotional intelligence and management of psychological tensions in students, it is suggested that authorities should take the necessary steps to improve students' emotional intelligence. Keywords : Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Intelligence, Stress, Students.


Early deficiency of the methyl donors folate and vitamin B12 produces hyperhomocysteinemia and cognitive and motor disorders in 21-day-old rat pups from dams fed a diet deficient in methyl donors during gestation and lactation. These disorders are associated with impaired neurogenesis and altered synaptic plasticity in cerebellum. We aimed to investigate whether these disorders could be related to impaired expression of neurosteroidogenesis-associated proteins, key regulator receptors, and some steroid content in the cerebellum. The methyl donor deficiency produced a decreased concentration of folate and vitamin B12, along with accumulation of homocysteine in Purkinje cells in both sexes, whereas the S-adenosylmethionine/S-adenosylhomocysteine ratio was reduced only in females. The transcription level and protein expression of StAR, aromatase, ERα, ERβ, and LH receptors were decreased only in females, with a marked effect in Purkinje cells, as shown by immunohistochemistry. Consistently, reduced levels of estradiol and pregnenolone were measured in cerebellar extracts of females only. The decreased expression levels of the transcriptional factors CREB, phospho-CREB, and SF-1, the lesser increase of cAMP concentration, and the lower level of phospho-PKC in the cerebellum of deficient females suggest that the activation of neurosteroidogenesis via cAMP-mediated signaling pathways associated with LHR activation would be altered. In conclusion, a gestational methyl donor deficiency impairs neurosteroidogenesis in cerebellum in a sex-dependent manner.


Wheat straw was pretreated with ozone to increase the enzymatic hydrolysis yield. Ozonolysis pretreatment was performed in two stages with an intermediate washing step with water in between. Part of the delignification products (lignin fragments) were removed by a washing step so ozone was used to oxidize more lignin rather than oxidizing lignin fragments.

Three parameters, i.e. Initial Water Content (IWC) in wheat straw, Washing Starting Time (WST), and Washing Contact Time (WCT), were optimized to minimize Acid Insoluble Lignin (AIL) content of ozonated wheat straw. Performing an experiment using optimal parameters' values, i.e. IWC equal to 45 wt. %, WST equal to 20 minutes and WCT equal to 80 seconds, showed a drop in AIL content to 9.35 % with an increase in enzymatic hydrolysis yield to 80 % of the theoretical. Readjusting water content of wheat straw to 45 % before performing the 2nd ozonolysis stage further reduced AIL content to 7.36 % and increased the hydrolysis yield to 90 %. Increasing wheat straw fiber size from < 2 mm to < 6 mm decreased the hydrolysis yield to 72 %. All results were considered significant improvements when compared to untreated wheat straw with AIL content of 20.5 % and hydrolysis yield of 23 %.


Apolipoprotein B-48 (apo B-48) is the specific transport protein of dietary fat, which is packaged as chylomicrons (CM) in enterocytes. Each CM or its remnant (CMR) contains one molecule of apo B-48 which remains within the particle until removal from plasma, making it an ideal marker for the metabolism of postprandial lipoproteins. By using our specific antiserum against apo B-48, which recognises the C-terminal end of the protein, an improved method for the immuno-detection and semi-quantitation of apo B-48 was developed which was 25-to 50-fold more sensitive than staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue. This technique was relatively simple and the sample did not need a pre-delipidation step. In addition, samples with high protein concentrations but low levels of apo B could be used directly in the sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) method without an ultracentrifugation step. Furthermore, the separation of apo B-48 from apo B-100 was improved using a 3-16% (w/v) acrylamide gradient gel. In addition, this immunodetection method has the ability to quantify both apo B-48 and apo B-100 in the same blot, which reduces the amount of sample and time needed for apo B quantification. The apo B-48 specific antiserum and monoclonal antibody to the C-terminal end of apo B-100 were also used to examine the tissue localisation of these two apolipoproteins, of which the N-terminal 2152 amino acids are identical. Three types of human tissues were used: fatty streak, aorta and coronary artery. Immuno-cytochemistry was applied to human ileum and liver to check whether the system was working before it was applied to aorta and coronary artery. Apo B-48-containing lipoproteins were clearly visualised in ileum tissue whereas apo B-100-containing lipoproteins were detected by strong staining in the liver. Macrophages are known to be involved in the early stage of atherosclerosis (fatty streak). They are present in high concentrations in the foamy area in the intima layer of aorta and coronary artery. Apo B-48-containing lipoproteins and apo B-100-containing lipoproteins were present in the same area as macrophages, which suggests a role for both lipoproteins in causing the accumulation of lipid in these tissues. In addition, apo B-100 was also detected in the media area, which is rich in smooth muscle cells. Postprandial lipaemia is observed following the acute ingestion of ethanol. However, the effect of ethanol on apo B-48-containing lipoproteins when ethanol is consumed with a fatty meal has not been thoroughly investigated. To address this issue, we used an oral-fat load test in which CM metabolism was followed by analysis of triacylglycerol (TAG), apo B-48 and retinyl esters (RE). Ethanol consumption together with the test meal compared to control increased the area under the curve (AUC) for plasma-TAG (P<0.01) and TAG rich lipoprotein (TAGRL)-TAG (P<0.05). Even though the AUC for plasma-apo B-48 and RE were not significantly increased, the levels remained elevated after the test meal, which included ethanol, compared with control, mainly between 5-8 hours postprandially. The postprandial profile of plasma-apo B-48 induced by ethanol, as measured by SDS-PAGE was significantly higher than control (P<0.05) after analysis by repeated measure ANOVA. The post-heparin lipoprotein lipase activities (PHLA) decreased about 13% (not significant) by ethanol. However, there was an inverse relationship between PHLA and plasma TAG (r=0.881, P<0.005). This probably explains the delayed clearance of TAGRL after ethanol intake. The AUC of plasma non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) was reduced after the ingestion of ethanol (P5 hours) of the study in contrast to insulin, which was higher than in the controls in the early postprandial phase (not significant). However, no significant differences were evident for plasma-cholesterol, total protein and apo B and the levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol were also not significantly changed. This study demonstrates that the elevated TAG levels in the postprandial state after ethanol consumption is partly due to the accumulation of intestinally-derived lipoprotein particles.


Background: Pressure ulcer or pressure injury is one of the complications of immobility patients in the intensive care unit. Nurses play an important role in pressure ulcer prevention. Actual factors like facilitators to preventing pressure ulcers can affect nurses' behavior to prevent pressure ulcers.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify nurses' perceived facilitating factors that affected pressure ulcer prevention in the intensive care unit.
Methods: A cross-sectional and quantitative descriptive study design was used to collect data. This study was conducted among nurses working in the intensive care unit in one hospital in West Java. Seventy nurses participated in this study. The facilitator factors questionnaire and information form were used to identify what factors affected pressure ulcer prevention among intensive nurses. Data were analyzed by a computer program using frequency distributive and cross-tabulation.
Results: From the total sample size, 68.6% (n=70) were female nurses, while 92.9% (n=70) were civil servant nurses. Only 30% (n=70) were graduated from bachelor degree nursing program, and 77.14%(n=70) said they never attended training about pressure ulcer nor wound care management. All of the respondents claimed that in pressure ulcer prevention, they felt facilitators that made pressure ulcer prevention was easier. Access to pressure ulcer relieving device, equipment, and facilitator (97.14%), good teamwork (75.71%), and knowledge (68.57%) were the most commonly mentioned factors that facilitating pressure ulcer prevention. Otherwise, time and amounts of the staff were perceived facilitators named by 40% and 22.86% respondents, respectively. Only 1.43% of respondents stated that the schedule was a facilitator factor.
Conclusion: Considering the results of this study, facilitating factors were important for intensive nurses to prevent patients' pressure ulcer, and the most commonly named was access to pressure ulcer relieving device, equipment, and facility. To improve the pressure ulcer prevention, the hospital should provide device, equipment, and facility, like pressure distributor; therapeutic linens; protector the skin; and positioner.


In this groundbreaking work, urban anthropologist Rae Bridgman, in careful and intimate detail, explores the perspectives of the women who work and live at Savard's, a unique shelter for homeless women. Bridgman uses the design and development of Savard's - a housing model developed by women for women - as an opportunity to document the project's original vision and what happened once it opened. There are few rules at Savard's. Women may come and go as they wish, and referrals to other services are made only when a woman has indicated interest in taking action on her own behalf. It is a model that aims to provide a safe haven for the chronically homeless. The study traces the evolution of this type of shelter, providing qualitative research and useful analysis for academics, policy-makers, service providers, and activists. Based on many hours of participant observation as well as interviews and staff records, Safe Haven presents a distinct picture of the chronically homeless and those on the frontlines of this lifesaving service.


Trade liberalization scenarios are often evaluated using sophisticated programming models that rely on a number of assumptions related to demand and supply parameters. One challenge researchers often encounter in the calibration of dairy trade liberalization models is to identify the supply response of producers under production quotas. The existence of production quotas in the Canadian dairy industry implies departures from standard marginal cost pricing. Under traditional net present value models, an assumption about the discount factors attached to production quotas must be made to infer the supply response of Canadian dairy producers following a change in the economic environment (e.g., import tariffs). The Individual Export Milk (IEM) program in Quebec generated an opportunity to estimate dairy producers' discount factors for production quotas conditional on different assumptions about structural parameters such as producers' risk preferences and cost efficiency.


Research background: A combination of technology and efficiency gains will drive future intensification programs aimed at fostering food and nutrition security in the developing world. Specifically, the adoption of improved varieties and use of quality seed alongside good agronomic practices will be critical. Purpose of the article: Given the space-time availability of technology, this study investigates how production efficiency (technical efficiency, technology gap, and meta technical efficiency) has changed over time and assesses the possibility of heterogeneous technology adoption in Ghana. Methods: The study constructs a rich nationally representative dataset of dry beans and groundnut farmers that constitutes 15 production seasons in Ghana. Using a sample of 10,518 farmers from 10,051 households, a Meta Stochastic Frontier (MSF) approach is used to access changes and determinants efficiency and technology adoption. Findings & Value added: We find that farms are operating under heterogeneous technologies along ecological lines and that the technology gap has been reducing over time. Improvements in meta technical efficiency could be driven by the gains in the technology gap ratio. Technical efficiency levels across the two legumes averaged about 61% and did not significantly improve between 1987 to 2017. The key determinants for the observed trends were farmer education, mechanization, access to agricultural extension services, and land ownership. Holding ecological technologies constant, legume farmers generally performed poorly because of technical inefficiency, implying that a general improvement in farmer managerial skills could substantially improve farm output. The study recommends policies/programs be formulated on a case-by-case basis; to ensure specificity and wider impacts, if production is to improve.