Previous work defined several families of secondary active transporters, including the prokaryotic small multidrug resistance (SMR) and rhamnose transporter (RhaT) families as well as the eukaryotic organellar triose phosphate transporter (TPT) and nucleotide-sugar transporter (NST) families. We show that these families as well as several other previously unrecognized families of established or putative secondary active transporters comprise a large ubiquitous superfamily found in bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. We have designated it the drug/metabolite transporter (DMT) superfamily (transporter classification number 2.A.7) and have shown that it consists of 14 phylogenetic families, five of which include no functionally well-characterized members. The largest family in the DMT superfamily, the drug/metabolite exporter (DME) family, consists of over 100 sequenced members, several of which have been implicated in metabolite export. Each DMT family consists of proteins with a distinctive topology: four, five, nine or 10 putative transmembrane alpha helical spanners (TMSs) per polypeptide chain. The five TMS proteins include an N-terminal TMS lacking the four TMS proteins. The full-length proteins of 10 putative TMSs apparently arose by intragenic duplication of an element encoding a primordial five-TMS polypeptide. Sequenced members of the 14 families are tabulated and phylogenetic trees for all the families are presented. Sequence and topological analyses allow structural and functional predictions.


BACKGROUND: To investigate hemodynamic and respiratory changes in rats submitted to CO2 pneumoperitoneum or not, under anesthesia with and without endotracheal intubation. METHODS: Male albino rats (n = 40), average weight of 300g, three months aged, were randomized: GA - anesthesia with endotracheal intubation for one hour with CO2 pneumoperitoneum (4mmHg); GB - anesthesia without intratracheal intubation for one hour with CO2 pneumoperitoneum (4mmHg); GC - anesthesia without endotracheal intubation for one hour without pneumoperitoneum; GD - anesthesia with endotracheal intubation for one hour without pneumoperitoneum. Median arterial pressure (MAP- mmHg), heart rate (HR-beat/min), respiratory frequency (RF - rm/min), central venous pressure (CVP - cmH2O), peripheral oxygen saturation (STO2), partial CO2 pressure (PaCO2), arterial bicarbonate (HCO3-), oxygen saturation (SO2) and pH were recorded. Measurements were performed at the begining of the procedure (MO) and after, 30 minutes (M1) and 60 minutes (M2). RESULTS: In GA and GC (groups with CO2 pneumoperitoneum) there was an increase of MAP, PaCO2, HCO3-, HR, CVP and decrease of pH, CO2, STO2 in comparison with those without pneumoperitoneum. On the other hand, endotracheal intubation attenuated these changings during the first hour of anesthesia. CONCLUSION: General anesthesia with endotracheal intubation, associated to CO2 pneumoperitoneum (4 mmHg) during one hour, proved advantageous in hemodynamic and respiratory systems, in relation to the animals with pneumoperitoneum without endotraqueal intubation, and to those within four hour of anesthesia, in spite of intubation.


The present invention provides a fuel injection for gaseous-fueled engines which comprises of a system and methos of injecting fuel direcly into the combustion chamber, wherein the gaseous fuel injector and fluid passage in perpendicular to the piston axis creating turbulence which is desirable to provide optimal mixing of gas fuel with air in the combustion chamber resulting in better engine performance and the gaseous fuel injector is disposed at an angle of between 0 and 30 degrees and is perpendicular to the piston axis with the injector nozzle positioned at no more than 5mm away from the isnition tip which results in increased ignitability and allowing gaseous fuel to be injected at any time resulting in optimized volumetric efficiency.


The prevalence of excess body mass (XBM), poor oral health (POH), and stress in a secluded population of aged (≥60 years) Hmong immigrants was surveyed. The findings were related to the prevalence of diabetes in the same population. Diabetes was associated separately with POH (OR 2.4; CL 1.3, 4.2) or with XBM (OR 2.5; CL 1.4, 4.8). The association of diabetes with the combination of XBM and POH was striking (OR 5.1; CL 3.4, 7.5); that apparent synergism has not been fully appreciated. We describe a mechanism that explains the synergism. The concept of "thrifty genotype" is a plausible explanation of XBM in the elderly Hmong immigrants and possibly the current older Laotian population. POH is common among elderly Laotians as it is in most developing countries. We conclude that synergism of XBM and POH significantly elevates the prevalence of diabetes among aging populations and probably other age groups as well.


Exova is continuing in the long tradition of Pipeline Developments Limited (PDL) in the UK with research, development, testing, quality assurance (QA) and failure analysis of modern plastic pipe materials and joints. Along with this ongoing work Exova has assessed various non destructive testing (NDT) techniques in an attempt to further improve the reliability of Polyethylene (PE) joints in the field. In the past, reliable inspection of PE pipe joints using NDT has proven to be difficult, but this has generally been based upon the use of existing metallic inspection methods, including radiography and ultrasound. However neither radiography nor ultrasound can reliably detect key issues that are known to affect PE joint quality such as fine particulate contamination and cold fusion in butt welds and misalignment and contamination in electrofusion joints. Advances in technology have seen the development of a new non destructive testing (NDT) technique using low voltage microwave imaging. Microwave imaging has been developed in North America by Evisive Inc to inspect modern dielectric materials such as PE. Comprehensive laboratory testing indicated that this technique could be used reliably and repeatedly to detect issues related to poor PE joint fabrication in butt welds and electrofusion joints. Issues which have been identified include fine particle contamination, lack of fusion and misalignment. More recently field trials have been carried out on various PE joints, to establish a correlation between the microwave NDT results obtained and mechanical testing results.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Today's technology has provided the proper infrastructure for having speedy online connection in many operations such as sending all type of data (text, voice and video files). Many suppliers such as Yahoo, MSN and etc. use Instant Messaging Service for connecting many people in all over the world. These service providers use their specified protocol in their own architecture for presenting IM service. Using different architecture in presenting a unique service causes a disintegrated way of service providing. Because of this disintegration the subscribers of different suppliers have some problems in connecting to each other. In this paper, these problems are considered from user's point of view and service provider's point of view. Also the necessity of convergence among service providers in following a unique platform in providing IM service is discussed. Finally a unique model for providing IM service in an integrated network such as IMS is proposed.


Cloud computingrelies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale. Cloud resources are shared & owned by multiple users. Security of shared data in multi owner manner is an important and critical aspect due to frequent change of membership. To provide anonymous sharing of data between cloud users group signature & broadcast encryption techniques are used. To provide secure access to accounts one time password technique is used. Security of shared data in multi owner manner is increased by providing authentication at multiple levels. To handle the failure of group admin due to large user requests, it supports to increasing the number of backup group admin, which also improves reliability & scalability.


Emergency Management, EM, is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities cope with disasters and reduce vulnerability to hazards. Emergency management activities and life time concerns include: pre-incident activities, such as information sharing, threat identification, planning, and readiness exercises; incident activities that include lifesaving missions and critical infrastructure support protections; post-incident activities that help people and communities recover and rebuild for a safer future. The process of emergency management can be divided into five phases: prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. These phases are maintained active during all of the emergency life cycle. In this context, sensor technology includes a wide set of devices that can be successfully exploited. To achieve this aim, we are proposing a layered sensing, service-based architecture to interface and integrate sensors with the World Wide Web. The idea is to organize sensors following a layered structure starting from the top (e.g., satellites) sensing layer going down to the underground sensing layer. Combining such organization with the flexibility of a service based infrastructure, we can have a dynamic environment to integrate and correlate information from different layers in a unique framework.


The theory of compressive sensing (CS) suggests that under certain conditions, a sparse signal can be recovered from a small number of linear incoherent measurements. An effective class of reconstruction algorithms involve solving a convex optimization program that balances the 1 norm of the solution against a data fidelity term. Tremendous progress has been made in recent years on algorithms for solving these 1 minimization programs. These algorithms, however, are for the most part static: they focus on finding the solution for a fixed set of measurements. In this paper, we will discuss dynamic algorithms for solving 1 minimization programs for streaming sets of measurements. We consider cases where the underlying signal changes slightly between measurements, and where new measurements of a fixed signal are sequentially added to the system. We develop algorithms to quickly update the solution of several different types of 1 optimization problems whenever these changes occur, thus avoiding having to solve a new optimization problem from scratch. Our proposed schemes are based on homotopy continuation, which breaks down the solution update in a systematic and efficient way into a small number of linear steps. Each step consists of a low-rank update and a small number of matrix-vector multiplications – very much like recursive least squares. Our investigation also includes dynamic updating schemes for 1 decoding problems, where an arbitrary signal is to be recovered from redundant coded measurements which have been corrupted by sparse errors. Manuscript submitted to IEEE Journal of selected topics in signal processing, Special issue on compressive sensing.


This PhD thesis seeks to consider conifer forestry stream corridor design in relation to both in-stream and riparian zone biodiversity and functioning. The contribution, availability and source of basal resources within varying corridor conditions are the focus of this project. This approach is combined with surveys of community diversity on a number of key trophic scales in order to determine how the corridor characteristics and their associated resource availability, affects community structure.

The effects of varying design and management of the riparian buffer zones within afforested stream systems on in-stream and overall habitat diversity and functioning remains largely unknown. Although guidelines have been implemented for several years (Forest and Water Guidelines, Forestry Commission), recommendations, although based on sound assumptions, are subjective assessments and tend not based on scientific research or data. As such, the premise of this project is to consider a variety of corridor physical parameters adjacent to low-order streams within two afforested catchments in South-West Scotland, between 2003 and 2005, in order to contribute to the understanding of system functioning within the limitations of forestry land-use and management.

A number of different approaches were employed in order to define the proportional contributions of allochthonous and autochthonous material within the benthos of the stream systems. This was done in order to define resource availability, biofilm characteristics, stream functioning and the role of corridor design in influencing resource availability. Yet, despite significant autochthonous productivity, allochthonous organic matter was the primary resource utilised by many taxa. However, conversely, light regime was found to be fundamental in shaping production and community structure within these ecosystems. Consequently, here I explore a number of different trophic scale responses to riparian conditions in order to define the biotic responses to variation of resource availability, with the aim of contributing information which may aid in design and management of afforested riparian zones.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to outline how banks are coping with the new regulatory challenges posed by stressed value at risk (SVaR). The Basel Committee has introduced three measures of capital charges for market risk: incremental risk charge (IRC), SVaR and comprehensive risk measure (CRM). This paper is designed to analyse the methodologies for SVaR deployed at different banks to highlight the SVaR-related challenges stemming from complying with Basel 2.5. This revised market risk framework comes into force in Europe in 2012. Among the wide range of changes is the requirement for banks to calculate SVaR at a 99 per cent confidence interval over a period of significant stress. Design/methodology/approach - – The current research project is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine universal banks and one financial services company to explore the strides major banks are taking to implement SVaR methodologies while complying with Basel 2.5. Findings - – This paper focuses on strengths and weaknesses of the SVaR approach while reviewing peer practices of implementing SVaR modelling. Interestingly, the surveyed banks have not indicated significant challenges associated with implementation of SVaR, and the reported problems boil down to dealing with the poor quality of market data and, as in cases of IRC and CRM, the lack of regulatory guidance. As far as peer practices of implementing SVaR modelling are concerned, the majority of the surveyed banks utilise historical simulations and apply both the absolute and relative measures of volatility for different risk factors. Originality/value - – The academic studies that explicitly analyse challenges associated with implementing the stressed version of VaR are scarce. Filling in the gap in the existing academic literature, this paper aims to shed some explanatory light on the issues major banks are facing when calculating SVaR. In doing so, this study adequately bridges theory and practice by contributing to the fierce debate on compliance with Basel 2.5.


Abstract In recent decades, civil society organizations (CSOs) have joined public–private partnerships (PPPs) to reduce poverty and promote local development. In what follows, I analyze the development of the Agri-FoodBank (AFB) CSO in South Africa in order to critically examine PPPs. As part of the FoodBank South Africa (FBSA) network of food banks, the AFB has emerged to reduce rural and urban food insecurities. Building on the national system of food banks, the AFB aims to train small-scale rural farmers to sell their crops to the food bank's network of local food organizations which then feed the urban poor. In the case of the AFB, findings suggest that the PPP emerged as a mutually beneficial collaboration between the state and FBSA, as the state needed political power and FBSA needed money. However, for this PPP to form, FBSA completely transformed its mission and structure to fit the state's preference for rural development projects. Thus, although the AFB formed to empower FBSA, data findings indicate that the AFB has increased state control over FBSA. In this way, PPPs need to be understood within the context of local state-civil society relations, as methods of state control reflect South Africa's unique version of neoliberalism.


The article examines the reasoning of the Minnesota Supreme Court in Pearson, and In re Vinstad v. State Board of Control, which was cited as authority for the Pearson opinion and is the only other case that has addressed this issue, although in dicta. The article shows how Pearson was wrongly decided because it purports to eliminate a jury trial right that existed in the Minnesota Territory and was guaranteed by the 1857 Minnesota Constitution. This article concludes that, irrespective of language in Pearson to the contrary, the Minnesota Constitutional right to a jury trial in civil commitment cases remains viable even today, and that thousands of persons have been, and are being, unconstitutionally deprived of their liberty in juryless civil commitment proceedings in Minnesota. The first section of this article briefly traces the right to a jury trial from its roots in the Magna Carta and the Common Law of England. The jury was considered a necessary "bulwark" against government whenever loss of liberty was at issue in both criminal and civil proceedings, up to the adoption of the Seventh Amendment in 1791. The next section of the article reviews the Minnesota Supreme Court civil jury jurisprudence from 1860 to the present. It shows that, for more than 140 years, the Minnesota Supreme Court has consistently held that the right to a jury that existed in the Minnesota Territory was part of the 1857 Constitution, and that this constitutional right to a jury trial cannot be altered by the Legislature or the courts. The article then reviews the right to a jury in civil commitment proceedings in the Minnesota Territory by showing that the Territorial Probate Court, which had original jurisdiction over civil commitment proceedings, included the right to a jury.


Based on multidisciplinary analysis, the article discusses whether it was possible to extract gold from the Sakdrisi hydrothermal ore deposit (Caucasus, Georgia) 5000 years ago, as argued in a number of recent publications (Stollner et al., 2008; Hauptmann, Klein, 2009; Ghambashidze et al., 2010; Stollner et al., 2014). In order to establish the validity of their assertions, the author has studied and researched the oldest metallurgical centers in Caucasus, history of archaeological studies of Sakdrisi mine, method of radiocarbon (14C) dating, geological type of Sakdrisi deposit, types of gold mineralization, methods of gold extraction from ore deposits and their history. The results obtained are analyzed from two perspectives: 1. the possibility of extracting gold from the hydrothermal ores at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC) and 2. the reliability of results obtained through radiocarbon dating for the Sakdrisi mine (14C). The paper argues that the above-mentioned publications have not dealt with the question of gold extraction from the Sakdrisi deposit on a sufficiently strict professional level. It explains in detail that gold mining from deposits of the Sakdrisi type is only possible by chemical or biological methods, which were discovered in a considerably later period, and therefore, could not have been used earlier. The paper points out that the charcoal found in the Sakdrisi mine has already been contaminated due to a number of factors, and consequently all the results of the radiocarbon dating is to be considered wrong in any case. Taking into account the geological and mining data and the established unreliability of radiocarbon dating, the paper excludes the possibility of gold extraction from Sakdrisi hydrothermal ore deposit at the turn of the 3rd Millennium BC. Keywords: Sakdrisi mine, hydrothermal deposit, gold extraction, radiocarbon method (14C).


The initial position of the study, the results of which are presented in the article, is the statement that health as a specific social sphere of society has its own peculiarities, presupposing the primacy of medical results over financial ones. In this sense, market relations action sphere of in health service is limited. The concept, explaining the need for civil service or public health control is concluded in the fact that the free market (in its pure form), often considered to be a self-regulating and most effective way of achieving the enterprise rise, is simply unsuitable for the health service system due to the fact that health service, as a branch of the social economy, has a number of characteristics that violating the market operation mechanism.The development of market relations, at the moment, practically has not affected the authorities financial mechanism, where the extensive approach under financing still prevails. In modern conditions, domestic health service financing requires a thorough rethinking. Health service as a branch of the public economy has a number of characteristics, violating the market mechanism operation. There is an acute problem of used resources efficient allocation to improve the accessibility and quality of medical assistance. Its solution requires improving management practices, comparative evaluation methods of possible variants available resources distribution and choice grounding of the best of them, which is connected with economic, market, technological, social, political and other factors that need to be addressed.


▼ Inflammatory diseases in the female breast are mainly caused by bacterial infection of the mammary gland tissue. The infections may be etiologi-cally and temporally associated with birth and lactation, or may occur independently of the puer-perium. Local inflammatory phenomena are the main factors determining the extremely painful symptoms, which are sometimes associated with general symptoms (fever). Requiring differentiation from mastitis and abscess formation in the female breast, a similar clinical picture may be caused by benign skin changes (erysipelas, venous thrombosis, scleroderma, panniculitis, neuroder-matitis, allergy, and trauma) and also malignant diseases (inflammatory breast cancer, paget ' s disease, leukemic infiltration, and paraneoplastic der-matosis).


Auditory‐evoked potentials (AEPs) recorded from the scalp surface are neurogenic potentials arising from the massed discharge of neural populations in response to acoustic stimuli and provide a ''window'' on the physiological basis of auditory processing. AEPs, in particular the transient‐evoked auditory brain‐stem response (ABR) have been widely used in human clinical settings for the evaluation of auditory functioning. Recently, several new techniques using continuous amplitude‐modulated tonal stimuli have been investigated. Many of these techniques take advantage of auditory nonlinearities which result in the auditory system acting as an envelope extractor. This envelope following response (EFR), phase locking of neural discharge to waveform periodicities, has been measuring using two‐tone, sinusoidal amplitude‐modulated, and multitone, multiple envelope components signals. The EFR offers great promise for frequency specific threshold measurements, especially for low‐frequency audiometry and for the ex...


We address the problem of modeling constrained hospital resources in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to inform decision-makers of future demand and assess the societal value of possible interventions. For broad applicability, we focus on the common yet challenging scenario where patient-level data for a region of interest are not available. Instead, given daily admissions counts, we model aggregated counts of observed resource use, such as the number of patients in the general ward, in the intensive care unit, or on a ventilator. In order to explain how individual patient trajectories produce these counts, we propose an aggregate count explicit-duration hidden Markov model, nicknamed the ACED-HMM, with an interpretable, compact parameterization. We develop an Approximate Bayesian Computation approach that draws samples from the posterior distribution over the model's transition and duration parameters given aggregate counts from a specific location, thus adapting the model to a region or individual hospital site of interest. Samples from this posterior can then be used to produce future forecasts of any counts of interest. Using data from the United States and the United Kingdom, we show our mechanistic approach provides competitive probabilistic forecasts for the future even as the dynamics of the pandemic shift. Furthermore, we show how our model provides insight about recovery probabilities or length of stay distributions, and we suggest its potential to answer challenging what-if questions about the societal value of possible interventions.


The high-level expression of human interleukin-1 beta in Escherichia coli is described. The protein contributes about 12% of the total cell protein and is associated with the soluble cytoplasmic fraction of the cell. A method for the purification of the protein is given which is based on anion- and cation-exchange chromatographies. The isolated protein, shown to be homogeneous by several analytical methods, has been characterized by amino acid analysis, N- and C-terminal sequence analysis and analytical centrifugation. The protein is biologically active as demonstrated by two different in vitro assays, namely, the mononuclear cell factor (IL-1/MCF) assay and lymphocyte activating factor (IL-1/LAF) assay. The specific activities determined with the IL-1/MCF and IL-1/LAF assays, are 2 X 10(7) and 4 X 10(7) units mg-1, respectively.


Background: Over 15,000 new cases of CLL are diagnosed each year in the U.S. Different treatment options exist, which vary in efficacy, side effects, and mode of administration. Little is known about the value patients place upon the different attributes of available CLL treatments. Objectives: To estimate patient preferences for CLL treatments and investigate the relationship between treatment preferences and cost. Methods: Patients with a self-reported physician diagnosis of CLL were recruited through a patient advocacy group to complete an online discrete-choice experiment (DCE) survey. The survey included 8 DCE questions in which respondents chose between pairs of hypothetical treatments for CLL. Each hypothetical treatment was defined by 5 attributes with several predefined levels; the attributes were progression-free survival (PFS; 10-60 months), diarrhea (none to severe), chance of severe infection (0-30%), chance of organ damage (0-8%), and mode and schedule of administration (pill versus intravenous administration). Treatment duration was not addressed independently and treatment cost was not included in the DCE. Random-parameters logit (RPL) was used to analyze the data and estimate patient preference weights for each attribute level in the survey. An importance score and minimum acceptable benefit score were calculated using results from the RPL model. Later, a cost attribute was added that included 2 hypothetical treatment profiles (Treatment A: 26 months of PFS, no diarrhea, 15% chance of serious infection, 8% chance of organ damage, IV once a month for 6 months, and lower cost; Treatment B: 60 months of PFS, mild/moderate diarrhea, 30% chance of serious infection, no chance of organ damage, daily pill for 60 months, and higher cost). Results from the RPL model were used to predict the share of respondents who would choose each treatment based on the DCE questions when cost was not a consideration, as compared with respondents9 choices when cost was included. Results: 384 respondents recruited through LLS: 53% were female, 94% were white, and the mean age was 65 years. 57% had Medicare insurance, 53% of respondents had received financial aid and 40% reported difficulty in paying out-of-pocket costs for their medicines. In the DCE results, the attribute levels were ordered as expected, with respondents preferring better outcomes to worse. Within each attribute, all levels were statistically significantly different from each other (P ≤ 0.05). Attributes in the order of importance to patients as determined by DCE were PFS, chance of infection, chance of organ damage and the occurrence and severity of diarrhea. Mode of administration was the least important attribute. Although PFS had the highest importance score, the risk of adverse events was also highly important to patients; significant additional PFS was needed to offset patients9 acceptance of worsening adverse events. For example, an increase in the chance of infection from 0% to 30% required an offset of 36 months of additional PFS. An increase in the chance of organ damage from 0% to 8% required an additional 26 months of PFS by the respondents. A tradeoff of 22 additional months in PFS is needed for a change from no diarrhea to severe diarrhea. Using results from the RPL model, it was predicted that 91% of respondents would choose Treatment B when cost is excluded from the treatment profile description. This was mainly driven by the better PFS attribute of Treatment B. When a modest cost difference was introduced ($75 more per month for treatment B), half of the patients chose treatment A. When this difference became larger ($400 more per month), the change in patient preference was even more pronounced; 74% chose option A. Conclusions: The most important attribute in the survey was PFS, however patients also indicated that increases in the risk of adverse events would require significant increase in PFS to offset that risk. Patients with CLL are sensitive to treatment costs and many reported difficulty in paying for their medications. Given the choice of treatments available to patients and the high cost of some treatments, physicians may want to explore their patients9 preferences for different treatment features, including benefit-risk tradeoffs and out-of-pocket cost when selecting the best treatment strategies for patients. Disclosures Mansfield:RTI Health Solutions: Other: Research for this abstract was performed in the course of my employment at Research Triangle Institute d/b/a RTI Health Solutions, pursuant to a contract between my employer and the study sponsor, Genentech. RTI was compensated by the sponsor.. Masaquel:Roche: Equity Ownership; Genentech: Employment. Sutphin:RTI Health Solutions: Other: Research for this abstract was performed in the course of my employment at Research Triangle Institute d/b/a RTI Health Solutions, pursuant to a contract between my employer and the study sponsor, Genentech. RTI was compensated by the sponsor.. Li:Genentech: Employment; Roche: Equity Ownership. Reyes:Genentech: Employment; Roche: Equity Ownership.


In efforts to improve student retention rates, higher education institutions increasingly focus on student engagement initiatives, which reflect research findings that consistently link students' engagement in learning with higher retention and performance levels (Blank, 1997). The question of what exactly is meant by 'student engagement', however, has not yet been answered in a comprehensive and universally accepted way, and despite the considerable attention on student engagement in the literature, the concept lacks clear operationalisation (Steele &Fullager, 2009). Using behavioural and attitudinal measures of engagement, this study investigated factors that contribute to and detract from study engagement and the role of these factors and of engagement for subsequent academic performance and commitment. More than 550 first and second-year students taught through large classes completed an online survey measuring demographic, contextual (e.g., student-staff interaction, social support), personality, behavioural and attitudinal variables. End of year grades were also included in the analysis. By collecting data on both attitudinal and behavioural student engagement, the study sheds light on the roles of these different conceptions of engagement for relevant student outcomes. Study results provide important insights in three areas. First, they identify individual differences as the strongest predictors of engagement. Second, they provide support for the importance of engagement as a factor in student retention. Finally, they indicate study skills as the strongest predictor of academic performance, followed by conscientiousness and attitudinal engagement. A significant outcome of this research for the current discourse on student engagement is the finding that the attitudinal rather than the behavioural measure of engagement was a stronger predictor of students' commitment and academic performance. We discuss the implications of the findings for the conception and use of engagement as an explanatory variable in higher education and for guiding the design of student engagement initiatives by higher education institutions.


Participation in group activities predicts feelings of connection with other group members that can enhance performance coordination. However, there is limited research exploring whether team routines predict perceptions of emotional synchrony, physiological synchrony, and performance outcomes in sport. The purpose of this study was to examine emotional and physiological synchrony among a team of 16 male university volleyball athletes over two months using a case study approach (Stake, 2005). Athletes participated in a pre-practice group visualization routine while wearing bioharnesses to continuously measure heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). Athletes completed post-practice measures of emotional synchrony and individual and team performance. The coach also rated athlete and team performance. Multilevel modeling revealed time and emotional synchrony predicted higher coach ratings of team performance and higher athlete ratings of both team and athlete performance. However, emotional synchrony drove both coach and athlete performance ratings, especially early in the season. Indeed, performance ratings in the early season were lower than ratings made later in the season unless players perceived high emotional synchrony. On those days, coach and athlete's performance ratings were comparable to the higher performance ratings made later on. Visual examination of the physiological data depicted synchronization between athletes' physiological states during their pre-practice routines. This research represents a novel case study examining the association between emotional and physiological processes and performance within a team of athletes. Overall, emotional synchrony seems particularly beneficial for team performance early in the season.Acknowledgments: This research was supported by funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (John R. Evans Leaders Fund) and an Early Researcher Award from Province of Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. We would like to thank Devin Bonk and Zoe Poucher for their assistance with data collection on this project.


Chlormethiazole is a sedative and anticonvulsive drug used in the treatment of alcohol withdrawal. Because it had been reported that chlormethiazole inhibits the alcohol‐inducible cytochrome P450 2E1 in rat liver, we investigated the in vivo and in vitro effect of this drug on cytochrome P450 2E1 in human beings. The activity of this cytochrome was assessed using chlorzoxazone as a probe. The 6‐hydroxychlorzoxazone‐ chlorzoxazone blood concentration ratio, reflecting the cytochrome P450 2E1 activity, was determined in 10 controls and in 24 alcoholic patients who had entered a hospital for detoxification. Alcoholic patients were administered either chlormethiazole (1.3‐2.3 g/d) or chlorazepate (100‐300 mg/d) as a sedative. Cytochrome P450 2E1 activity was significantly increased in alcoholic patients treated with chlorazepate (1.16 ± 0.40 vs. 0.27 ± 0.03, P < .05). In contrast, chlormethiazole treatment inhibited chlorzoxazone hydroxylation almost totally (0.046 ± 0.03, P < .001). After 7‐14 days of ethanol withdrawal, alcoholic patients treated with chlorazepate had ratio values similar to those of controls (0.31 ± 0.05), whereas values from alcoholic patients treated with chlormethiazole remained low (0.049 ± 0.01) even though chlormethiazole doses were gradually decreased. Pharmacokinetic studies in controls showed that chlormethiazole‐mediated inhibition was present even when chlormethiazole was not detectable in the blood. In addition, the effect of chlormethiazole on cytochrome P450 2E1 was studied in vitro using human liver microsomes. Dixon plot analyses showed a noncompetitive inhibition (Ki = 12 µmol/L). These data clearly show that chlormethiazole is an efficient inhibitor of chlorzoxazone metabolism and thus of cytochrome P450 2E1 activity in human beings. Because cytochrome P450 2E1 induction after chronic ethanol consumption has detrimental effects on the liver through free radical formation, treatment of alcohol detoxification with chlormethiazole may be beneficial.


This article discusses three recently published papers from the department of dermatology Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam on the epidemiology of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in the Netherlands. The absolute numbers of patients in the Netherlands with first, histologically confirmed BCC increased with about a sevenfold in both men and women in the last 25 years (1973 - 2008). The lifetime risk for a BCC was 1 in 5-6 for Dutch citizens. Furthermore, almost one third of the patients with a first BCC will develop a second or more BCC(s) within five years, most often in the period directly following the first BCC. Based on data from PALGA, the Dutch nationwide network and registry of histo- and cytopathology, it was found that the incidence rate in the first six months following the first BCC diagnosis was 25.318 per 100.000 person-years. Although this figure remained high, it decreased to 6.953 per 100.000 person-years after five years of follow-up. Therefore, it was advised that BCC patients should always undergo full body skin examinations at first presentation and this should be repeated annually for at least three years. Results from a Dutch prospective population based cohort study showed that having red hair, being highly educated or when having a first BCC localized on the upper extremities were risk factors for developing multiple BCCs. Currently, in the Netherlands there is an ongoing socalled 'BCC epidemic'. The discussed results should urge Dutch healthcare policymakers to provide, in cooperation with dermatologists, solutions for the increasing number of patients with BCC(s).


Public distrust of and skepticism about ten nations electoral system is widespread. The increasing costs of campaign finance have suggested to many that politics is the exclusive preserve of the rich. The simultaneous rise to prominence of political action committees (PACs) seems to allow special interest groups to determine the outcome of elections. But while calls for electoral financing reform are once again being heard, there is little consensus on what reforms are practical. In Paying for Elections, Larry J. Sabato argues that in devising reforms there is a need to distinguish between real and apparent corruption. Politics will never be as fair and evenhanded as we might like, and a failure to concentrate on those activities that seriously injure the political system can lead to even greater cynicism among the general public. Further, he argues, there are a number of problems with campaign finance-- such as the relative decline of party politics and fewer truly competitive elections due in part to the enormous fundraising advantages incumbents have over little-known challengers; that must be confronted before any attempt is made to reform the current system. Sabato also takes on issues concerning PACs and setting limitations that are workable for making campaign contributions, strengthening political parties, and restoring public confidence to the system. Of these considerations, Sabato considers fixes, such as free television and radio time for candidates and parties, a 50 or 100 percent tax credit for small donations to parties and candidates, and severe restrictions on honoraria and special-interest-paid travel for congressmen.


Diaspora networks provide information to future migrants, which affects their success in the host country. While the existing literature explains the effect of networks on the outcomes of migrants through the size of the migrant community, we show that the quality of the network is an equally important determinant. We argue that networks that are more integrated in the society of the host country can provide more accurate information to future migrants about job prospects. In a decision model with imperfect signalling, we show that migrants with access to a better network are more likely to make the right decision, that is, they migrate only if they gain. We test these predictions empirically using data on recent Mexican migrants to the United States. To instrument for the quality of networks, we exploit the settlement of immigrants who came during the Bracero program in the 1950s. The results are consistent with the model predictions, providing evidence that connections to a better integrated network lead to better outcomes after migration.


This work presented the electrochemical reduction of platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles within multiwalled carbon nanotube-Nafion (MWCNT-Nafion) composite for electrochemical oxidation of methanol. The structure of the resulting Pt-Ru-MWCNT-Nafion nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Electrochemical properties of Pt-Ru-MWCNT-Nafion nanocomposite were investigated by cyclic voltammetry in a 2 M CH3OH + 1 M H2SO4 aqueous solutions. The Pt-Ru-MWCNT-Nafion nanocomposite modified electrode had high electrocatalytic activity and performance toward the methanol electrooxidation as compared with Pt-MWCNT-Nafion nanocomposite modified electrode.


Thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy. We and others have shown that several microRNAs, which are post-transcriptional gene regulators, are aberrantly expressed in anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) tissues, as well as cell lines derived from these cancers. In the cell, miRNAs are bound to Argonaute (AGO) proteins as what could be termed low molecular weight RNA-Induced Silencing Complexes (LMW-RISCs) that can assemble with additional proteins, mRNA, and translation machinery into high molecular weight RISCs (HMW-RISCs) that exert regulatory function. In this study, we sought to analyze the association of miRNAs with RISC complexes in ATC and PTC. For ATC and PTC lines, miRNA species were enriched in both HMW-RISC and LMW-RISC cellular fractions, compared with intermediate molecular weight fractions and very low molecular weight (AGO-poor) fractions. Furthermore, 60% of all miRNAs were slightly more abundant in LMW-RISC versus HMW-RISC fractions by ~2-4 fold. Surprisingly, miR-21-5p, one of the most abundant miRNAs in both ATC and PTC lines and one of the most widely studied oncogenic miRNAs in many solid tumors, was consistently one the least abundant miRNAs in HMW-RISC and the most enriched miRNA in LMW-RISC fractions. These findings may suggest that miR-21 has a role or roles distinct from canonical post-transcriptional regulation in cancer. Furthermore, the methodology described here is a useful way to assess the distribution of miR-21 between HMW and LMW-RISCs and may help to reveal the true roles of this miRNA in thyroid cancer development, progression, and treatment.


We introduce a dynamical country risk index for emerging economies. The proposal is based on the intensity approach of credit risk, i.e. the default is the first jump of a point process with stochastic intensity. Two different models are used to estimate the yield spread. The dynamics of the interest rates is modeled through a multidimensional affine model, and the Kalman filter with an Expectation-Maximization algorithm is used to calibrate it. The USD interest rates constitute part of the input of the model, while prices of relevant domestic bonds in the emerging market complete the input. For an application, we select the Uruguayan bond market as the emerging economy.


This paper summarizes the work and conclusions of a working group established by the European Chemistry Thematic Network (ECTN). The aim of the working group was to identify potential areas for innovative approaches to the teaching and learning of chemistry in Higher Education, and to survey good practice throughout the EU. The paper starts by identifying and justifying the need for innovation in the methods used to teach chemistry in higher education to deal with challenges arising from the rapidly changing nature of higher education. This leads on to a brief discussion of each of ten distinct areas identified by the working group, where innovation is considered to offer opportunities for enhancing the student learning experience in higher level chemistry education. The importance of improved training in pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge for new lecturers is also stressed.


Objectives: The study aims to identify the capabilities of the locomotion systems based on the wheel-walking propulsion as the means of improving the mobility and maneuverability of the planetary rovers. Method: Principal method of this study is represented by object-oriented modeling that helps undertake complex investigation of the object. Findings: Current importance of the study is predetermined by the intensive investigations of celestial bodies assisted by mobile robotic systems and planetary rovers that are delivered to the surface of the planet. The study considers the opportunities provided by computerized modeling for the purposes of estimating the behavior of a planetary rover in the process of overcoming such obstructions as escarp, sloping surface of hard and loose soils and sinusoidal profile of surface that imitates coarse irregularities of the relief. The locomotion system under investigation is represented by a four-wheeled platform equipped with the two-lever wheel-walking mechanisms. The algorithms have been suggested for controlling the actuator mechanisms of the locomotion systems in the course of overcoming the obstacles under consideration. Improvements: The results make it possible to evaluate qualitative and quantitative kinematic and force requirements to the drives of the locomotion systems of planetary rovers and are of practical engineering significance.


Context. The determination of chemical abundances constitutes a fundamental requirement for obtaining a complete picture of a star. Particularly in massive stars, CNO abundances are of prime interest, due to the nuclear CNO-cycle, and various mixing processes which bring these elements to the surface. The precise determination of carbon abundances, together with N and O, is thus a key ingredient for understanding the different phases of stellar evolution.
Aims. We aim to enable a reliable carbon spectroscopy for our unified non-LTE atmosphere code FASTWIND.
Methods. We have developed a new carbon model atom including C II/III/IV/V, and we discuss specific problems related to carbon spectroscopy in O-type stars. We describe different tests we have performed to examine the reliability of our implementation, and investigate which mechanisms influence the carbon ionization balance. By comparing with high-resolution spectra from six O-type stars, we verified to what extent observational constraints can be reproduced by our new carbon line synthesis.
Results. Carbon lines are even more sensitive to a variation of Teff, log g, and Ṁ, than hydrogen and helium lines. We are able to reproduce most of the observed lines from our stellar sample, and to estimate those specific carbon abundances which bring the lines from different ions into agreement (three stages in parallel for cool objects, two for intermediate O-types). For hot dwarfs and supergiants earlier than O7, X-rays from wind-embedded shocks can have an impact on the synthesized line strengths, particularly for C IV, potentially affecting the abundance determination. Dielectronic recombination has a significant impact on the ionization balance in the wind.
Conclusions. We demonstrate our capability to derive realistic carbon abundances by means of FASTWIND, using our recently developed model atom. We find that complex effects can have a strong influence on the carbon ionization balance in hot stars. For a further understanding, the UV range needs to be explored as well. By means of detailed and available nitrogen and oxygen model atoms, we will be able to perform a complete CNO abundance analysis for larger samples of massive stars, and to provide constraints on corresponding evolutionary models and aspects.


Irrigation is the largest user of fresh water in the world. Unfortunately a large part of irrigation is unsustainable and inefficiently causing water scarcity with sometimes terrible effects on the water cycle, ecology, economy and food production. The key in determining the efficiency of irrigation is to investigate how much irrigation water is indeed used by crops for transpiration. Only this part of the total evaporation is used by crops to produce biomass and can be seen as productive evaporation. To separate evaporation into the productive (transpiration) and non-productive (interception and soil evaporation) terms we use stable isotopes 2-H and 18-O. This research investigates the changes of isotopic composition of stable isotopes 2-H and 18-O in the soil over the year in a lysimeter setup in the Netherlands. When the water balance is combined with isotopic values, an isotope mass balance can be made. This is used to separate evaporation fluxes and makes it possible to determine the transpiration flux of vegetation. During a six month period (November 2010 to June 2011) values of stable isotopes 2-H and 18-O in a lysimeter covered with grass were monitored. Furthermore, during a two month period (May and June 2011) a second lysimeter without vegetation was monitored to find out what the effect is of vegetation on isotope composition. When comparing the lysimeter with and without grass cover, it was found that transpiration plays no role in the non-covered lysimeter. In the latter, higher enrichment of soil water was observed and the isotope regression line had a lower slope. Isotope composition changes during the year. In winter (November to February) soil evaporation and isotopic enrichment were low. In summer (April to June) soil evaporation and isotopic enrichment were high. This research shows that it is possible to separate evaporation into soil evaporation and transpiration. During the cold period (December to February) the amount of transpiration was relatively high (75.0 % - 90.5 %) , since only limited soil evaporation could take place. When less water was available during warm periods (April and May), the share of transpiration in the total evaporation term decreased (47.3% - 53.4 %).


Employees are the human resources that are important for the company because it has a role as a potential driver of all activities of the company. Companies who have qualified human resources can easily integrate with the company's vision to its employees so that the company's goal to achieve company goals can be achieved. Employees are always changing productivity of labor, need encouragement for the proper performance of the company in order to work properly. Motivation is one topic that is often observed in organizational behavior, motivation is a force resulting from a person's desire to satisfy their needs. Employees fulfill her wish is to work. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine the application of motivation given by the company is comparing the theory of two factors Herzberg to the facts in the field include salaries, work condition, company policy and administration, interpersonal relation, quality supervisisor, achievement, recognition, the work itself ,responsibility, and development of individual potential.
n
Keywords: Employee, Motivation, Organizational Behavior, Human Resources.


We give a physical bound on the product of bandwidth and attenuation per unit length for general electromagnetic band gap structures. The analysis is based on the Kramers-Kronig relations for the Bloch refractive index for a fixed direction of propagation through the crystal. The bound is given in terms of the low- and high-frequency asymptotes of the refractive index, which can be given simple estimates in terms of the volume fractions of the component materials and their static permittivities.


The cytokine IL-15 appears to mimic the stimulatory activity of IL-2 on lymphocytes by utilizing part of the IL-2R complex. Although effects of IL-15 on Mphi activities have not previously been reported, its derivation from activated Mphi suggested a possible autocrine role in regulating Mphi functions and prompted us to determine whether IL-15 modulated LPS-activated Mphi cytokine production. Whereas high IL-15 concentrations enhanced proinflammatory (i.e., TNF-alpha, IL-1, and IL-6) and anti-inflammatory (i.e., IL-10) cytokine production by two- to sixfold, extremely low IL-15 concentrations (picomolar to attomolar range) markedly and selectively suppressed Mphi proinflammatory, but not anti-inflammatory, cytokine production by two- to fourfold. The stimulation (but not the suppression) of TNF-alpha production by IL-15 required the (IL-2/IL-15) receptor beta chain, as demonstrated by receptor subunit-blocking studies and lack of stimulation of Mphi from IL-2Rbeta-deficient mice. Conversely, suppression most likely involved the alpha receptor (IL-15R alpha) because this high affinity receptor would be engaged by low concentrations of IL-15, and its inducible expression correlated with the degree of suppression in both a time- and LPS dose-dependent fashion. Moreover, Ab-mediated neutralization studies revealed that endogenous IL-15 activity regulated Mphi activation with kinetics similar to that seen in response to exogenously added IL-15: suppressor activity increased over time in correlation with IL-15R alpha gene expression. This study demonstrates a novel dose-dependent and autocrine activity of IL-15 in Mphi regulation.


In the last ten years, an eclectic mix of electronic nicotine delivery products ('e-cigarettes') and practices have proliferated in the US with little restriction, producing a vast array of vaping mechanisms, flavors, and styles. At the same time, anti-tobacco movements have targeted e-cigarettes as a threat to public health and advocated for restricting e-cigarettes in much the same way as conventional cigarettes. While anti-vaping proponents associated with public health movements have typically regarded e-cigarettes as primarily harmful products that should be suppressed, vaping advocates regard e-cigarettes as harm reduction products that should be readily accessible to smokers. Distrust between these two warring "sides" animates the controversy over e-cigarettes. In our role as researchers conducting a qualitative study on e-cigarette use, we encountered suspicion and anger from members of an e-cigarette forum who felt that pro-vaping perspectives were often misrepresented by researchers. As a result, we dropped our initial plan to host a group discussion of questions directly related to our study on the forum. Nevertheless, the incident illuminated how vaping advocates have resisted dominant narratives regarding tobacco and nicotine use, destabilized nicotine product categories and challenged interpretations of nicotine use that dichotomize pleasure and health.


Eleven strains of the crown gall organism, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, tested by intraperitoneal injection into mice, were lethal within 48 hr. Five other species had some lethal strains. The lethal effect of A. tumefaciens appeared to be the result of a toxic rather than an infectious process, since histopathological anomalies were not found in mice injected with live cultures and since heat-killed cultures were lethal. The murine toxin disappeared when A. tumefaciens was grown at 36 C and reappeared when the organism was subsequently incubated below 30 C. The murine toxin itself was not inactivated by exposure to 100 C for 30 min. The toxin was associated with the cells and was not excreted into the medium. Centrifugal fractionation revealed that the toxin was associated with the smaller cells in 3-day stationary-phase cultures. These data suggested a possible relationship between toxin production and the production of the agents responsible for the initiation of plant tumors.


This paper introduces a new video-based recognition method to recognize noncooperating individuals at a distance in video who expose side views to the camera. Information from two biometrics sources, side face and gait, is utilized and integrated for recognition. For side face, an enhanced side-face image (ESFI), a higher resolution image compared with the image directly obtained from a single video frame, is constructed, which integrates face information from multiple video frames. For gait, the gait energy image (GEI), a spatio-temporal compact representation of gait in video, is used to characterize human-walking properties. The features of face and gait are obtained separately using the principal component analysis and multiple discriminant analysis combined method from ESFI and GEI, respectively. They are then integrated at the match score level by using different fusion strategies. The approach is tested on a database of video sequences, corresponding to 45 people, which are collected over seven months. The different fusion methods are compared and analyzed. The experimental results show that: 1) the idea of constructing ESFI from multiple frames is promising for human recognition in video, and better face features are extracted from ESFI compared to those from the original side-face images (OSFIs); 2) the synchronization of face and gait is not necessary for face template ESFI and gait template GEI; the synthetic match scores combine information from them; and 3) an integrated information from side face and gait is effective for human recognition in video.


ABSTRACT This article proposes that including the Khoisan will produce a more inclusive Blue Economy in South Africa. Presently, economistic perspectives of the ocean, low regard for knowledge pluralism and historical stereotyping of Khoisan peoples, risk their further exclusion from ocean management in South Africa. Drawing on secondary data on Khoisan history and ethnography in South Africa, the article indicates the potential contribution of the Khoisan to South Africa's Blue Economy, specifically, their contribution to a holistic and integrated environmental ethos. The authors also argue that South Africa is headed in the right direction by being a signatory to key UN conventions on heritage and the rights of indigenous peoples. However, government has yet to realize its commitments to the inclusion of the Khoisan in its ocean management efforts. The discussion has implications beyond South Africa, as it seeks to interrogate the place of First Peoples in global ocean management regimes.


Excellent chemical and heat resistance combined with the attractive properties of aerogels, including large surface area and low density makes alumina aerogels an attractive material for high temperature catalysis, thermal insulation, and vibration damping. Brittle behaviour, a high propensity to sinter, and poor moisture stability, however, have drastically inhibited the practical use of alumina aerogels produced using traditional methods. Herein, we report the scalable fabrication of low density, anisotropic carbon nanotube (CNT)/alumina hybrid foams synthesized via atomic layer deposition (ALD) on aligned carbon nanotube foams (CNTFs). Calcination of the hybrid foams in air resulted in removal of the CNTFs, leaving behind a free-standing three-dimensional network of interconnected alumina nanotubes. Both CNT/alumina hybrid foams and pure alumina nanotube foams exhibit unprecedented elastic recovery following 50% compression, and possess values for strength and Young's moduli which exceed those of aerogels with similar densities. The scaling behaviour of Young's modulus to foam density for pure alumina foams exhibits a power-law dependence of n ≈ 1.9, attributed to superb ligament connectivity. These unique structures remain stable to the large capillary forces induced upon liquid infiltration and removal, and can absorb up to 100 times their own weight in water. Furthermore, alumina nanotube foams demonstrate enhanced thermal insulation capabilities at temperature of 1000 °C with no evidence of shrinkage.


OBJECTIVE
To examine whether sociodemographic and condition-related characteristics are associated with conduct problems in children with chronic health conditions.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

PARTICIPANTS
Mothers of children 5 to 8 years old with diverse chronic health conditions who received care at 2 large urban medical centers.

MEASURES
Mothers responded to a face-to-face structured interview that included the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, the Psychiatric Symptom Index, and questions about sociodemographic and health condition-related characteristics.

RESULTS
Of the 356 children assessed, 138 (38.8%) had conduct problems as defined by criteria of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory. In logistic regression analyses, conduct problems were associated with younger child age, mother having a husband or partner unrelated to her child, poorer perceived prognosis, child having a learning disability, and maternal self-report of high emotional distress on the Psychiatric Symptom Index. Conduct problems were not related to child sex, maternal ethnicity or education, family receiving welfare, or a wide range of condition-related factors, including age at diagnosis, visibility to others, need to watch for sudden changes, presence of mobility or sensory-communication problems, using medication or equipment, annual hospitalizations, or physician visits.

CONCLUSIONS
Conduct problems in children with chronic health conditions appear to be associated more closely with their sociodemographic and family characteristics than with condition-related risk factors. Additional research remains to be done on the ways that maternal adjustment, diagnosis-specific condition characteristics, and other risk factors influence children's behavior.


Background: Pulmonary mycobacteriosis has been documented in HIV-infected, diabetics, asthmatics, smokers and alcoholics and its progression and severity are affected by these risk factors. Inappropriate diagnosis of mycobacteriosis could lead to inappropriate treatment with anti- tuberculosis drugs.
Methods: This cross-sectional, prospective study was conducted in patients with TB-like diseases attending six DOTs centres in Lagos, Nigeria, from May 2012 to October 2016. Participants' informed consent was obtained, structured questionnaires administered to obtain socio-demographic and co-morbid data. Sputum samples collected and processed for microscopy and culture using Lowenstein-Jensen medium with or without pyruvate and MGIT 960 liquid medium. Mycobacteria were identified using MPT64 immunochromatographic, biochemical and molecular methods. This study investigated the presence and prevalence of mycobacteriosis in the participants and assessed the risk factors for the mycobacterial infections.
Results: Of the 1,020 participants, 339 (33.2%) had mycobacteriosis of which 33 (9.7%) were caused by Non-Tuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM) and 306 (90.3%) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). Of the isolated 306 MTBC, 247 (80.7%) were M. tuberculosis, 28 (9.2%) were M. africanum, 23 (7.5%) were M. bovis while 8(2.6%) were M. ulcerans [P < 0.0005]. The 33 NTM showed 11 (33.3%), 20 (60.6%) had HIV, 8(24.2%) M. fortuitum, 2 (6.1%) M. abscessus, 2 (6.1%) M. scrofulacium, 6 (18.2%) M. kansasii, 4 (12.1%) M. megateriense and 11 (33.3%) Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Sequence analysis of the 16s rRNA of the 11 MAC showed 3 (27.3%) M. avium, 5(45.5%) M. intracellulare, 2(18.2%) M. colombiense and 1(9.1%) M. velneri.  M. fortuitum and MAC were significantly (P<0.05) associated with HIV infection, while only M. fortuitum relate strongly with diabetes (P <0.05).
Conclusion: The study showed that mycobacteriosis is caused by different species of MTBC and NTM. Relatively high mycobacteriosis were detected during dry season and were significantly associated with gender, age, HIV and diabetes.


Papp, László: Religion of soldiers stationed in Carnuntum in the light of their epigraphical memories
In my study I examine the roman soldiers' religion stationing at Carnuntum based on their inscriptions. I am looking for the connection between the soldiers' profession, origin, where they were formerly stationed and the cults. Soldiers stationing at Carnuntum just like the ones deployed in other parts of the empire often presented their loyalty to the emperor through inscriptions. Mithras and Iuppiter Dolichenus were usually the favourites of many soldiers, but not for the ones' who were stationing at Carnuntum, according to the inscriptions they preferred Silvanus and Nemesis instead. Although many images on gravestones are referring to after-life, it is hard to decide whether these images carried symbolic meanings or they were only used as ornamentation.


This study proposes a high-performance sensorless interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor control system using a high-frequency injection technique. A new estimation method that uses both the high-frequency d-axis current and q-axis current to estimate the rotor position is investigated. By using the proposed method, the hypothesis-synchronisation signal used in the conventional high-frequency injection method can be eliminated. A 1.25 kHz, 15 V, sinusoidal waveform voltage is injected into the d-axis synchronous frame of the motor and then the high-frequency d-axis and q-axis currents can be measured to determine the rotor position of the motor. In addition, a new compensation method is developed to reduce the estimation position error because of the mutual inductance and saturation effect of the motor. By using this new method, the estimated rotor-position error is within ±2 electrical degrees. A digital signal processor, TMS-320-F2812, is used as the estimating and control centre. The experimental results show that the proposed method can be applied in both a sensorless speed control system and a sensorless position control system. The sensorless speed control system has fast response, good load disturbance response and good tracking response.


Key O Oral PO Poster PW1 Posters displayed on Wednesday 8th June PT2 Posters displayed onThursday 9th June PF3 Posters displayed on Friday 10th June PO-PC01 Poster Corner displays for Wednesday 8th June PO-PC02 Poster Corner displays for Thursday 9th June PO-PC03 Poster Corner displays for Friday 10th June


10.1 Introduction Wound healing is a dynamic, multifaceted, well-orchestrated, and highly
efficient process that should proceed linearly to restore tissue homeostasis in
response to injury. Wound repair proceeds through the coordinated
integration of biological and molecular events in the extracellular wound
micro-environment during four overlapping phases of hemostasis, inflammation,
proliferation and tissue remodeling. It includes the migration, adhesion,
proliferation, and differentiation of various cell types, i.e., keratinocytes,
fibroblasts, macrophages, mesenchymal stem cells, and endothelial cells, and
their interaction with different cytokines, growth factors, and extracellular
matrix (ECM) molecules. A cascade of healing events begins with the
formation of a fibrin clot, which provides protection to the underlying tissues
and serves as a provisional matrix through which cells can migrate and acts as
a reservoir for growth factors. During inflammation, aggregated platelets
release pro-inflammatory cytokines to recruit neutrophils and macrophages at
the wound site. These inflammatory cells phagocytose debris and invading
micro-organisms, and they also secrete mediators to stimulate the chemotaxis
of cell types necessary for the proliferative phase. In the proliferative phase,
fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and endothelial and smooth muscle cells migrate
through the wound bed and proliferate, leading to re-epithelialization of the
denuded surface. They also synthesize and deposit a provisional ECM, form
new blood vessels (angiogenesis), and lead to contraction of the wound size.
During the final stage, the newly formed granulation tissue is remodeled by
the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which are balanced by the
action of "tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases" (TIMPs).


Reading historians' views on the March of Wales from the 19th century onwards reveals a range of interpretations of the region, but these have been predominantly secular in nature. Historical constructions of Marcher lordship have varied depending on the way historiographical trends have developed, and how this subject could be placed and understood within frameworks for understanding the medieval history of England and Wales as a whole. Not since the mid-20th century have scholars dealt with the relationship between the Church in Wales and the impact this had on the constructions and development of Marcher lordships. This article explores this gap, focusing on the interplay between Church and lordship and the scope for further exploration of earlier, influential ideas, such as R. R. Davies' view that the church in the Wales played a 'subjugation' role in support of the military conquest, and the more nuanced observations of Glanmor Williams, who allowed for a more complicated picture to emerge based on brief analysis of certain events before 1282. In following the threads of these scholars and highlighting more recent studies, particularly in the field of family studies, where individual case studies of Marcher families has revealed more of this complex picture, this article argues for a microcosmic approach to tackle the gap and opens up avenues for future studies.


The period covered by this thesis sees the assumption by the State of control over the training of teachers, through its control of finance and the curriculum, the examination system and the appointment of Staff. A uniformity of practice is thus, to some degree, inevitable in the colleges. The study of St. Hild's as an individual college in this period shows, however, that initiatives are not stifled, but that in providing the basic means, i.e. finance, the State actually provides a positive framework for the exercise of initiative in the creation of the College. Within the wider context of teacher training in this country, the study draws out two significant features of St. Hild's: the all-pervading influence of the founders of the College throughout this period, Rowland Burdon, d. l875, H.B. Tristran, d. l906, and G.H. Hamilton, d. 1905, and secondly, the importance of the link with the University of Durham. The study of St. Hild's as a Church College illustrates the nature of the relationship between Church and State in Education in this period, and suggests that State concern provides a stimulus to continued voluntary effort and the expression of its distinctive concerns. Nevertheless it is a relationship of tension in which the College is caught up at national level, even though at the end of the period the tension is not so keenly felt at the local level as the College prepares the ground for its evolution from an exclusively denominational institution to one expressing wider Christian concerns.


The boom of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is projected to fundamentally shift paradigms of transportations, logistics, agricultures, and public safety as a dominating unmanned application in following decades. To optimally process assigned tasks, each UAV requires prompt and ubiquitous information provisioning regarding the varying operation conditions, which renders exploiting base stations (BSs) of existing wireless infrastructures a tractable solution. To receive services from a BS, a UAV should stay within the coverage area of a BS, which however limits the operation range of a UAV. This obstacle thus drives the deployment of a special sort of UAV, known as an aerial base station (ABS), to relay signals between a BS and a UAV. Based on different flight paths of UAVs, an ABS should autonomously decide its own flight trajectory so as to maximize the number of UAVs which can receive wireless services. However, the inherently non-stationary environment renders the optimum autonomous deployment of an ABS a challenging issue. Inspired by the merit of interacting with the environment, we consequently propose a reinforcement learning scheme to optimize the flight trajectory of an ABS. To eliminate the engineering concern in the conventional Q-learning scheme that most state-action pairs may not be fully visited in the deployment of an ABS, in this paper, a state-amount-reduction (SAR) k-step Q-learning scheme is proposed to avoid the issue in the conventional Q-learning, so as to maximize the number of UAVs receiving services from an ABS. Through providing analytical foundations and simulation studies, outstanding performance of the proposed schemes is demonstrated as compared with that of the conventional reinforcement learning based ABS deployment.


Agro-hydrological models can be considered an economic and simple tool to quantify crop water requirements. In the last two decades, agro-hydrological physically based models have been developed to simulate mass and energy exchange processes in the soil-plantatmosphere system. Although very reliable, due to the high number of required variables, simplified models have been proposed as simple tools to quantify crop water consumes. The main aim of the paper is to assess, for a Sicilian orchard of table olive, the suitability of FAO56 agro-hydrological model to estimate the crop transpiration under soil water deficit conditions. The model validation is carried out by means of measurements of sap-flow and soil water contents, acquired during three years of field observations. An amendment of the model is suggested in order to take into account the water stress function and the soil water uptake ability as experimentally evaluated. The results show that the modified model improves the estimation of crop transpiration and soil water content, considered that the associated RMSEs resulted higher than the corresponding values obtained with the original version of the model.


Abstract This article is an empirically based theoretical contribution to the investigation of meaningmaking in the ecology of human interaction and interactivity. It presents an ecological perspective on meaning-making that pivots on how agents pick up information directly in their organism-environment-system; i.e. as an activity that does not presuppose inner cognitive operations. We pursue this line of thought by presenting an analysis of how a doctor and a nurse make a decision about a specific medical procedure (catheterisation) based on meaning-making activity. As we do not see meaning as a linguistic (symbolic) or a cognitive (representational) phenomenon external to an agent/user, but as emergent in coordinated interaction, we zoom in on how the practitioners recalibrate the organism-environmentsystem by shift ing between a multi-agentive mode and an individual mode. We use Cognitive Event Analysis to investigate how the agents oscillate between being a multi-agent-system with shared, tightly coordinated agency and a loosely coupled dialogical system where the individuals bring forth an understanding based on their professional backgrounds and expertise. On this view, an ecological approach to meaning-making takes a starting point in how local interaction is constrained by previous events, emergent affordances in the environment, and real-time inter-bodily dynamics. Accordingly, meaning-making is seen as a joint activity emerging from the system's coordinative actions rather than as a result of individual interpretation of symbolic content.


This paper presents a new scheme for BCD multiplication. This new scheme features a completely carry-free multiplication. The parallel structure of the new algorithm is investigated. This fast architecture was derived by looking at multiplication in a fresh perspective. A carry is able to be computed without performing multiplication on any of the previous bits. The new approach is expected to have a lot of potential contributions to digital design.


Attempts at modernization typically include change. We argue that, in a long term perspective, these change attempts tend to be balanced with reforms or measures aiming at stability. Many of the measures that are taken today, after years of New Public Management (NPM) reforms, aim at securing continuity and quality within the existing structures, meaning a public administration characterized by stability and continuity. This quest for stability serves as a cornerstone in the New Weberian State (NWS), connecting back to the classic bureaucratic values which have been more or less put aside during the past decades. In this article, we argue that stability is the new "modernity" in the public sector, thus pushing us away from the changes connected to the NPM ideas. This also includes a shift from output-related aspects to aspects concerning input and process. Three factors aiming to secure stability in public organisations are highlighted: Recruitment (input), standardization of work (formal process), and public sector values (informal process). These mechanisms are today increasingly being used to consolidate previous changes and achieve stability in the public administration.


Bangladesh faces distinct challenges as a resource-poor country due to the combined effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and simultaneous dengue outbreaks. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to infection and death from COVID-19. While overall health and life expectancy in the general population have improved substantially in Bangladesh, health services for older adults are still lacking. No specialized geriatric units have been established in hospitals, and no home care programs have been established for older adults. COVID-19 mortality rates were highest among older adults ages 61 to 70 years (35%), and 71 to 80 years (20%) in 2022. Although the country's average COVID-19 mortality rate was low at 1.76%, in older adults, it was much higher (55%), accounting for 14,797 deaths, despite that most cases (55%) were recorded in young adults. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh also experienced a dengue epidemic. Around 21,193 dengue patients were admitted to hospitals between January 1 and October 8, 2022. Without a well-established and all-encompassing social care program, the indirect socioeconomic burden of COVID-19 continues to fall on older adults. There is an immediate need for robust healthcare and support services, especially for older adults in Bangladesh, which are particularly susceptible to the dual threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the dengue epidemic. Recommendations are made to protect older adults from the devastating effects of the 2 simultaneous epidemics.


Coffee is an important commodity and a major export for developing countries. There are two commercially grown species: Robusta and Arabica. The latter is more desirable, but more difficult to cultivate. It is susceptible to pests and diseases and less tolerant to environmental changes. This vulnerability is partly due to Arabica accumulating less chlorogenic acid (CGA) than Robusta. There are high levels of CGAs in the coffee beverage which contribute to the flavour and confer health benefits. In this study, I characterised enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of CGAs in coffee and investigated the function of transcription factors in controlling the phenylpropanoid pathway that lead to CGA production.
The enzyme hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA quinate hydroxycinnamoyltransferase (HQT) is entirely responsible for the synthesis of the major CGA, 5-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA). I also discovered two routes for the synthesis of dicaffeoylquinic acids (diCQAs) from 5-CQA utilising two different enzymes in different subcellular compartments. HQT could synthesise diCQAs in the presence of high concentrations of 5-CQA when localised to the vacuole. Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA quinate/shikimate hydroxycinnamoyltransferase (HCT) could synthesise diCQAs through the same route but can also synthesise diCQAs at neutral pH using 5-CQA and caffeoyl CoA. Tissue distribution patterns of metabolites in developing coffee fruit confirmed the presence of these biosynthetic routes.
I cloned and characterised several R2R3MYB genes encoding potential regulators of CGA biosynthesis. Their analysis also led to a possible explanation for the usually high levels of CGA in coffee. Distinct MYB12-like transcription factors activated the transcription of a non-functional chalcone synthase (CHS) gene which is important for the synthesis of flavonols. This results in high levels of CGAs at the expenses of flavonol accumulation. Understanding CGA biosynthesis in coffee will be useful for sustainable cultivation of this important crop.


Dr. Frank P. Brooks, writing from a long and wide experience in physiology, has successfully produced a concise summary of gastrointestinal function and the mechanisms which control it. The monograph reviews the recent and vast contributions to gastrointestinal physiology in a brief but lucid manner. Material, frequently poorly understood by practitioners (bile salt metabolism, fat digestion, and micellar formation), is discussed in a simple, readable fashion which does not suffer from the jerky style of many summaries. The organization and content of the book are good. At the end of each chapter references are cited which include appropriate textbooks as well as symposia and original papers to which the reader may turn for more detailed information. The book will appeal to a wide spectrum of medical "students" who wish to survey the subject of the control of gastrointestinal function briefly but in sufficient detail to give them a good working


Detecting computer worms is a highly challenging task. Commonly this task is performed by antivirus software tools that rely on prior explicit knowledge of the worm's code, which is represented by signatures. We present a new approach based on artificial neural networks (ANN) for detecting the presence of computer worms based on the computer's behavioral measures. In order to evaluate the new approach, several computers were infected with seven different worms and more than sixty different parameters of the infected computers were measured. The ANN and two other known classifications techniques, decision tree and k-nearest neighbors, were used to test their ability to classify correctly the presence, and the type, of the computer worms even during heavy user activity on the infected computers. The comparisons between the three approaches suggest that the ANN approach have computational advantages when real-time computation is needed, and has the potential to detect previously unknown worms. In addition, ANN may be used to identify the most relevant, measurable, features and thus reduce the feature dimensionality.


The Andes of South America hosts perhaps the highest amphibian species diversity in the world, and a sizable component of that diversity is comprised of direct-developing frogs of the genus Pristimantis (Anura: Craugastoridae). In order to better understand the initial stages of species formation in these frogs, this study quantified local-scale spatial genetic structuring in three species of Pristimantis. DNA sequences of two mitochondrial gene fragments (16S and COI) were obtained from P. brevifrons, P. palmeri and P. jubatus at different locations in the Cordillera Occidental. We found high levels of genetic diversity in the three species, with highly structured populations (as measured by F ST) in P. brevifrons and P. palmeri while P. jubatus showed panmixia. Large effective population sizes, inferred from the high levels of genetic diversity, were found in the three species and two highly divergent lineages were detected within P. jubatus and P. palmeri. Estimated divergence times among populations within P. brevifrons and P. palmeri coincide with the Pleistocene, perhaps due to similar responses to climatic cycling or recent geological history. Such insights have important implications for linking alpha and beta diversity, suggesting regional scale patterns may be associated with local scale processes in promoting differentiation among populations in the Andes.


Dental implants have gained immense popularity and wide acceptance because of its appearance and function simulating a natural tooth and its ability to replace the crown as well as the root of the missing tooth. It is important for dentists to be able to place the implants in the mandible and maxilla with a high degree of precision. The greater accuracy of Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) in measurements at lower radiation doses has made it a preferred option in implant dentistry. It has led to improvements in case selection and aids in both qualitative and quantitative measurement of bone, leading to a reduction in implant failure. This article provides an overview of the potential use of CBCT in implantology.


The activities of the Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) in conducting the census and survey generally begin with the tracing of the census block (BS) by using map map print-out census block  If the officer gets a new working area he / she knows not too many officers who have difficulty to block the census of his working area and in determining its boundaries. Error determining the location or limits of the selected Censusblock is a Major Error, for that BS Ruteku as a tool of navigation fast and cheap, because it does not need to connect to the internet and does not make the battery run out quickly. The method used in BS Ruteku application uses Djikstra Algorithm method. This application is designed with the aim to find the route of the nearest road from one area to another. The Ruteku BS Application is the result of the Censusblock Digit Map Overlay with Indonesian Basic Map (http://navigasi.net/goptd.php), which added some Local Content and uses the android / GPS navigation system as the Navigator Engine. To be able to provide the Shortest Distance, Fastest Distance or Distance straight, then the existing Polyline autoruting process. The test results show that the accuracy of the use of the earth map is reliable, this application is also able to find the nearest route from a region or census block and can provide direction through the sound.


From a financial standpoint, one of the most valuable assets in the survival of a health-care organization is the clinical laboratory. Laboratory directors, managers, and supervisors have indicated their overwhelming need to understand finance, especially cost management, to CLMA and to the author at national meetings and workshops, Tremendous financial pressures are being applied in health-care organizations across the country. Two strategic factors in their successful move into the 21st century are more appropriate test utilization and cost control in the laboratory.


With the rapid growth in demand for transportation capacity in urban areas as well as on main connecting routes, the need to minimize disruption of existing services during bridge construction is ever increasing. The incremental launching of bridges is a key construction method to achieve minimal disruption to existing services. Incrementally launched bridges, however, have a unique set of challenges that must be addressed as part of the design, one of which is the geometry of the launch path. In order to launch a bridge the launch path generally has to be either a straight line or an exact circular path through space. In very rare cases have incremental launching been done even though the launch path was not limited to one of the above shapes. This paper is mainly concerned with presenting a practical method for the determination of circular curves in space for use in the design of incrementally launched bridges. The setting out coordinates of the piers, the casting yard, launching bearings and fixed bearings are all functions of the launch path. Another aspect directly affected by the launch path is the superelevation of the travelling surface due to the natural variation occurring on the inclined plane. Among others, the method as described in the paper was successfully applied in the design and construction of a 240.385m long incrementally launched bridge in Gauteng, South Africa.


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In the first essay (joint work with Bryan Routledge), we calculate the value implications of suboptimal capital budgeting decisions in an asset-pricing model calibrated to match the standard asset pricing empirical properties – in particular, the time-variation in the equity premium. Specifically, we calculate that an investment policy that ignores the time variation in the equity premium, such as would occur with a cost of capital following the CAPM, incurs a 14.8% value loss. We also document the implications for a firm's asset returns in this context. The second essay revisits the relation between firms' choices of debt maturity and their investment in a dynamic world. Prior research, including Myers (1977), suggests that financing with short-term debt resolves the underinvestment problem caused by debt financing. In contrast, I establish that short-term debt can reduce the incentive to invest due to larger exposure to default risk from more frequent debt rollovers. Long-term debt, however, is more subject to illiquidity costs, so firms find optimal maturity by balancing these opposing forces. For the firm with average investment and financing, the agency cost arising from the underinvestment is 0.77% of firm value. This suggests that previous studies overestimate the cost by ignoring firms' flexibility in choosing maturity. I also measure firm-specific agency costs using likelihood-based structural estimation. The measured agency costs show significant cross-sectional variation due to heterogeneity in firm characteristics and convexity of the agency costs. The economy-wide average of the costs is 7.28%, which is considerably higher than the cost for the average firm. In the third essay, I empirically test whether firms' investment decisions take time-varying risk into account. I construct the firm-specific risk premium implicit in option prices. Specifically, individual equity options and historical equity returns are used to infer the joint distribution of the stochastic discount factor and equity return, and the joint distribution determines the risk premium of the equity. The result is that firms' actual investments correctly respond to the time-varying risk premium lagged by 3 to 5 quarters. However, firm-by-firm analyses show that some firms do not adapt appropriately to the risk as theory predicts, demonstrating a room for improvement in capital budgeting practice for those firms.


Focusing on post-World War II American foreign policy and its intellectual architect, George Kennan, this volume explores the moral dimensions of realpolitik and the ethical dilemmas posed by present-day politics. Is Kennan responsible for persuading the U.S. foreign policy establishment that morality should go by the wayside? Or was Kennan right to regard as "presumptuous" the idea that Americans should tell other societies how to behave? Kennan gives his own influential view in an article reprinted here from Foreign Affairs (1985/96). (Workshop 6)


The treatment of pressure sores is a challenging problem. A new flap is described to be added to the armamentarium of surgeons looking after these patients. This procedure is not presented as a panacea for the sacral pressure sores but as an additional technique that could be used in very large sacral pressure sores, particularly recurrent pressure sores following conventional procedures.


A characterization of almost interpolation conngurations of points in terms of supports of basis functions is presented. Moreover, we show that this characterization can be signiicantly simpliied in the case of existence of a locally linearly independent basis, so that almost interpolation sets can be constructed by taking a point in a support of each basis function. Some further results, including several equivalent deenitions of a locally linearly independent system of functions, are given.


The ultimate goal in skin tissue regeneration is to develop artificial skin replacements for the restoration of damaged or missing skins in patients as well as to enhance wound healing processes. Fibrin, a naturally-occurring biopolymer involved in wound healing has seen widespread use in tissue engineering due to its bioactivity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and facile processability. However, the versatile biopolymer should be further explored and more specifically for skin tissue engineering strategies due to its remarkable skin repair capacity: intrinsic healing properties, adaptable to biomaterial design from its fibrinogen and thrombin precursors and tunable physico-chemical features. Fibrin's poor mechanical properties can be efficiently improved by combining the biopolymer with synthetic polymers such as polyethylene glycol. The aim of this commentary is to provide a concise insight on the key properties of fibrin for skin healing and regeneration, particularly highlighting the emerging role of fibrin-based hydrogels as skin substitutes.


Advantages and disadvantages of the maximum entropy method (MEM) in application to the theory of relaxation are studied. The time evolution of distributions and of associated moments must obey stringent conditions for both finite and infinite intervals. The theoretical considerations are illustrated with examples from charge-state distributions arising in beam-foil spectroscopy. The examples indicate that the possibility to include more than two moments (extension to non-Gaussian case) is severely limited (though feasible) in the static case due to nonpositive definiteness as well as stiffness of the Hessian matrices appearing in the computations. This takes place already for the finite charge-state distribution intervals. For infinite intervals, this is a severe problem as required by the Marcinkiewicz theorem, affecting characteristic functions and, hence, the description of the time evolution of distributions.


This paper identifies eight reasons why it is rational not to trust large complex Anglo corporations and how these reasons could be removed. Two reasons are that directors are overloaded with information but also lack information independent of management to evaluate management and the business. A third reason is that directors do not have systemic processes to discover if their trust in management is misplaced. A fourth and fifth reason is that directors have absolute power to manage their own conflicts of interest and a dominant shareholder can enter into related party transactions that can unfairly extract value. The sixth and seventh reasons are the incentive for directors not to blow the whistle on their colleagues and the impotence of a director to act alone. The eighth reason is that shares can be manipulated and traded covertly. Four changes in corporate constitutions are identified that could remove these concerns. These are to establish a watchdog board, introduce cumulative voting for directors, establish stakeholder councils and introducing sunlight share trading.


Modern neural networks are over-parameterized and thus rely on strong regularization such as data augmentation and weight decay to reduce overfitting and improve generalization. The dominant form of data augmentation applies invariant transforms, where the learning target of a sample is invariant to the transform applied to that sample. We draw inspiration from human visual classification studies and propose generalizing augmentation with invariant transforms to soft augmentation where the learning target softens non-linearly as a function of the degree of the transform applied to the sample: e.g., more aggressive image crop augmentations produce less confident learning targets. We demonstrate that soft targets allow for more aggressive data augmentation, offer more robust performance boosts, work with other augmentation policies, and interestingly, produce better calibrated models (since they are trained to be less confident on aggressively cropped/occluded examples). Combined with existing aggressive augmentation strategies, soft targets 1) double the top-1 accuracy boost across Cifar-10, Cifar-100, ImageNet-1K, and ImageNet-V2, 2) improve model occlusion performance by up to 4×, and 3) half the expected calibration error (ECE). Finally, we show that soft augmentation generalizes to self-supervised classification tasks. Code available at https://github.com/youngleox/soft_augmentation