In order to clear the effects of flue-cured tobacco continuous cropping on soil nutrients, soil chemical properties in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere at different continuous cropping years of flue-cured tobacco were analyzed. The results showed that pH both at rhizosphere soil and non-rhizosphere soil, and soil organic matter in non-rhizosphere soil decreased firstly and then increased at different growth and development stages of flue-cured tobacco during continuous cropping years. However, the content of organic matter in rhizosphere increased gradually. The total N and available N both in rhizosphere soil and non-rhizosphere soil, and total K and available K in non-rhizosphere soil showed the trend from decrease to increase, and then decrease again. The total K and available K in rhizosphere, the available P both in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil, and the total P in rhizosphere increased firstly and then decreased. However, the total P in non-rhizosphere soil decreased gradually. With the increase of continuous cropping time, the pH both in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil decreased gradually, however, the contents of organic matter, total N and available N, P and K both in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil appeared to enrichment at different degrees. The pH at rhizosphere soil was lower than that at non-rhizosphere soil, however, the content of organic matter, total N and available N, P and K in rhizosphere soil were higher than those in non-rhizosphere soil. Continuous cropping of flue-cured tobacco changed a reasonable proportion of available nutrients both in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil, which could not meet the vast demand for the growth of flue-cured tobacco. Compared with available N and P, continuous cropping resulted in the lack of available K in rhizosphere soil and the enrichment of available K in non-rhizosphere soil.


Starlings rose Pastor roseus not been recorded in Indonesia, but never recorded in Sabah, eastern Malaysia as a kind of nomad. These birds recorded in the park near Ambarukmo Plaza Yogyakarta and in coastal areas Serangan Island, Bali in the migration season 2013-2014. These birds are thought to migrate together starling starling China and the Philippines. While it can not be ascertained, the starling sales rose in Yogyakarta indicates the possibility that individual is removable birds. However, this encounter became the first record for this type in Indonesia.


Abstract Eukaryotic genomes contain numerous non-functional high-affinity sequences for transcription factors. These sequences potentially serve as natural decoys that sequester transcription factors. We have previously shown that the presence of sequences similar to the target sequence could substantially impede association of the transcription factor Egr-1 with its targets. In this study, using a stopped-flow fluorescence method, we examined the kinetic impact of DNA methylation of decoys on the search process of the Egr-1 zinc-finger protein. We analyzed its association with an unmethylated target site on fluorescence-labeled DNA in the presence of competitor DNA duplexes, including Egr-1 decoys. DNA methylation of decoys alone did not affect target search kinetics. In the presence of the MeCP2 methyl-CpG-binding domain (MBD), however, DNA methylation of decoys substantially (∼10-30-fold) accelerated the target search process of the Egr-1 zinc-finger protein. This acceleration did not occur when the target was also methylated. These results suggest that when decoys are methylated, MBD proteins can block them and thereby allow Egr-1 to avoid sequestration in non-functional locations. This effect may occur in vivo for DNA methylation outside CpG islands (CGIs) and could facilitate localization of some transcription factors within regulatory CGIs, where DNA methylation is rare.


Nanotechnology is an expeditiously growing field, where engineered nanoparticles are being incorporated in many different applications, from food to waste water treatment (Dekkers et al. 2011; Gottschalk and Nowack 2011; Savage and Diallo 2005). Due to this large scale production and use of nanoparticles, their release into the environment seems inevitable (Crane et al. 2008; Handy et al. 2008a; Oberdorster et al. 2005). Actual exposure levels of nanoparticles under field conditions and the hazards of nanoparticle exposure to the environment are poorly understood, especially for the soil environment (Kahru and Dubourguier 2010; Navarro et al. 2008; Shoults-Wilson et al. 2011a). Given the need for better characterization of hazards of engineered nanoparticles to the environment and soil organisms in particular, the aim of the present thesis was to investigate effects of nanoparticle exposure on the earthworm Lumbricus rubellus, as a model organism for soil ecotoxicology, and to contribute to the development of effect markers for engineered nanoparticle exposure in this model. The present thesis was divided in different chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the topic and discusses the importance of research on the hazards of exposure to engineered nanoparticles. Furthermore, the aim and outline of the thesis are presented, with background information on the model organism, effect markers and nanoparticles. In chapter 2 effects of exposure to the fullerene C60 (nominal concentrations 0, 15.4 and 154 mg C60/kg soil) on survival and growth during the different life stages of L. rubellus (cocoon, juvenile, subadult and adult), as well as reproduction were quantified. These important individual endpoints for population dynamics were incorporated in a continuous-time life-history model (Baveco and De Roos 1996; De Roos 2008). In this way, effects of C60 exposure on the individual endpoints could be extrapolated to implications for population growth rate and life stage distribution, i.e. the development of the population in terms of number of individuals in the different life stages. These implications at the population level may be more relevant for the ecological impact of C60 than effects on endpoints at the individual level (Klok et al. 2006; Widarto et al. 2004). At the individual level C60 exposure caused significant adverse effects on cocoon production, juvenile growth rate and survival. When these endpoints were used to model effects on the population level, reduced population growth rates with increasing C60 concentrations were observed. Furthermore, a shift in life stage structure was shown for C60 exposed populations, towards a larger proportion of juveniles. This result implies that the lower juvenile growth rate induced by C60 exposure resulted in a larger proportion of juveniles, despite increased mortality among juveniles. Overall, this study implied serious consequences of C60 exposure for L. rubellus earthworm populations, even at the lowest level of exposure tested. Furthermore, it showed that juveniles were more sensitive to C60 exposure than adults. To complement the observations made on survival, growth and reproduction described in chapter 2, subsequent investigations on cellular and molecular responses of the earthworms to C60 exposure were performed (chapter 3). A set of established effect markers was used, which reflect different levels of biological organisation in the earthworm and may inform on the toxic mechanisms of adverse effects induced by C60 exposure (Handy et al. 2002; Heckmann et al. 2008). At the molecular level, four specific effect markers were selected, including markers for generic stress (heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) (van Straalen and Roelofs 2006), for oxidative stress (catalase and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) (Kohen and Nyska 2002) and for an immune response (coelomic cytolytic factor-1 (CCF-1) (Olivares Fontt et al. 2002). At the tissue level, histological analyses were used to identify damage to cells and tissues, and indications of inflammation in the tissues. In these investigations, exposure to C60 (0, 15 or 154 mg C60/kg soil) affected gene expression of HSP70 significantly. Gene expression of CCF-1 did not alter in adult earthworms exposed for four weeks, but was significantly down-regulated after lifelong exposure (from cocoon stage to adulthood) of earthworms, already to the lowest C60 exposure level. No significant trends were noted for catalase and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) gene expression or enzyme activity. Tissue samples of the C60 exposed earthworms from both experiments and exposure levels, showed a damaged cuticle with underlying pathologies of epidermis and muscles. Additionally, the gut barrier was not fully intact. However, tissue repair was also observed in these earthworms. In conclusion, this study demonstrated effects of sub-lethal C60 exposure on L. rubellus earthworms, at the level of gene expression and tissue integrity. Although tissue injury is generally associated with an inflammatory response, as part of tissue repair (Cikutovic et al. 1999; Goven et al. 1994), the tissue damage observed for the in vivo C60 exposed earthworms in chapter 3 appeareded to occur without accompanying induced immune responses. The CCF-1 gene expression level was reduced in the C60 exposed earthworms, and histological observations did not show infiltration of damaged tissues by immune cells. In order to obtain further insight in mechanisms of effects observed at the molecular and tissue level on immune related parameters, the sensitivity of immune cells (coelomocytes) of L. rubellus earthworms towards exposure to selected nanoparticles was investigated in vitro (chapter 4). To this end, coelomocytes were isolated from unexposed adult L. rubellus earthworms and exposed to C60 in vitro. After exposure, these coelomocytes were tested for cellular viability, phagocytic activity and CCF-1 gene expression levels. The gene expression of CCF-1 was most affected, demonstrating a strong reduction, which indicated immunosuppression. Experiments with NR8383 rat macrophage cells and tri-block copolymer nanoparticles were used to compare sensitivity of the cell types and showed the usefulness of coelomocytes as a test system for nano-immunotoxicity in general. Overall, this study indicated that the absence of an immune response, in case of tissue injuries observed after in vivo C60 exposure, is likely caused by immunosuppression rather than coelomocyte mortality. In subsequent investigations, the experiments performed for C60 were also carried out with silver nanoparticles (AgNP), both in vivo and in vitro (chapter 5). Effects of AgNP were assessed in vivo at nominal concentrations of 0, 1.5 (low), 15.4 (medium) and 154 (high) mg Ag/kg soil and compared to effects of silver ions, added as AgNO3 (nominal concentration 15.4 mg Ag/kg soil). In a four week reproduction assay, the high AgNP and AgNO3 treatments had a significant effect on cocoon production and high AgNP exposure also caused a reduction in weight gain of the adult earthworms. No juveniles survived the high AgNP treatment, therefore only F1 earthworms from the other exposure treatments were monitored for survival and growth, until adulthood. These individual endpoints were used to model effects on the population level. The low and medium AgNP as well as the AgNO3 treatments significantly reduced the population growth rate. The high AgNP treatment caused complete failure of the population growth. Furthermore, histological examination of the earthworms from all AgNP exposure treatments demonstrated tissue damage, with injuries mainly at the external barriers, e.g. the cuticle and the gut epithelium. In addition, effects of AgNP exposure were assessed in vitro and a reduction of coelomocyte viability was observed in a concentration-dependent manner, although the EC50 was fourteen times higher compared with that for Ag ions, added as AgNO3. Furthermore, characterisation of the in vivo exposure media implied that AgNP remained present in the soil in single and aggregated state, releasing Ag to the soil pore water up to at least eleven months. The ionic fraction of Ag in soils has been suggested to be bioavailable to organisms and (largely) responsible for the observed AgNP toxicity (Coutris et al. 2012; Koo, et al. 2011; Shoults-Wilson et al. 2011b). In comparison, the AgNO3 seemed to dissolve rapidly, as is also known for this metal salt, and fixation of Ag ions by the soil presumably led to a quick reduction of Ag bioavailability (Atkins and Jones 2000; Coutris et al. 2012; Ratte 1999). This is in line with the observation that effects were more prolonged in the AgNP treatments in comparison with the AgNO3 exposed animals. In conclusion, this study indicated that AgNP exposure may seriously affect earthworm populations, with the ability to cause immunotoxicity, injury to the external barriers of the earthworm body and a reduction in growth, reproduction and juvenile survival. Finally, chapter 6 presents a discussion on the findings of the present thesis and provides suggestions for future research.


The emergence of multiple carbapenemases and the consequent multi drug resistance in bacteria constitute a grave concern in the management of critical care patients and also in community acquired infections. Detection of carbapenamase activity helps to understand the possible mechanism(s) of carbapenem resistance in the microorganism. Identification of carbapenemases is currently being done by various phenotypic methods and molecular methods. However, innovative biochemical and spectrophotometric methods are desirable as they will be easy to perform, affordable and rapid. Recently a novel chromogenic method called CarbaNP test was introduced to screen for carbapenemases in clinical isolates of gram negative pathogens. We adopted this assay: (i) to detect the total carbapenemase activity (ii) to measure the relative rates of hydrolysis of imipenem by class A, B and D carbapenemases with inhibitors (iii) to confirm the genotype by PCR and (iv) for direct differential detection of various carbapenemases in uncultured clinical sample like tracheal aspirate. The study included 75 culture isolates and 153 purulent tracheal aspirates. All isolates were screened by our optimized protocol and also genotyped by PCR. This adopted assay showed good sensitivity and correlation with conventional phenotyping and genotyping. Our protocol offers the fastest way to identify the pathogen by PCR but also its carbapenemase profile directly from uncultured clinical samples in less than 4h. Our protocol is currently being validated on other types of clinical specimens in our laboratory.


The intertidalmangrove environment ofMengkabong lagoon is important as it supports the local fishing activities, nursery grounds for many fish and shellfish species, and as well as being central for ecotourismactivities. The study showed that in general, the physicochemical parameters(pH, salinity and electrical conductivity), granulometric fractions, organic matter, base cations(Na, K, Ca and Mg) and heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Pb, Zn and Al) showed an increasing loadings at high tide compared to low tide. Multivariate statistical techniques, principal components analysis(PCA) and cluster analysis(CA), were employed to better interpret information about the sediment and its controlling factors. The PCA results revealed six controlling factors at high tide while seven at low tide. In CA there are two district clusters were identified at high and lowtide. The calculation of geoaccumulation index(Igeo) suggests the Mengkabong mangrove sediments could be classified as having background concentrations ofAl, Cu, Fe, and Zn as unpolluted with regard to Pb.


ABSTRACT Some of the most devastating plant and animal pathogens belong to the oomycete class. The cell walls of these microorganisms represent an excellent target for disease control, but their carbohydrate composition is elusive. We have undertaken a detailed cell wall analysis in 10 species from 2 major oomycete orders, the Peronosporales and the Saprolegniales, thereby unveiling the existence of 3 clearly different cell wall types: type I is devoid of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) but contains glucuronic acid and mannose; type II contains up to 5% GlcNAc and residues indicative of cross-links between cellulose and 1,3-β-glucans; type III is characterized by the highest GlcNAc content (>5%) and the occurrence of unusual carbohydrates that consist of 1,6-linked GlcNAc residues. These 3 cell wall types are also distinguishable by their cellulose content and the fine structure of their 1,3-β-glucans. We propose a cell wall paradigm for oomycetes that can serve as a basis for the establishment of cell wall architectural models and the further identification of cell wall subtypes. This paradigm is complementary to morphological and molecular criteria for taxonomic grouping and provides useful information for unraveling poorly understood cell wall carbohydrate biosynthetic pathways through the identification and characterization of the corresponding enzymes.


The burden of cirrhosis hospitalizations is increasing. The admission Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease–lactate (MELD‐lactate) was recently demonstrated to be a superior predictor of in‐hospital mortality compared with MELD in limited cohorts. We identified specific classes of hospitalizations where MELD‐lactate may be especially useful and evaluated the predictive role of lactate clearance. This was a retrospective cohort study of 1036 cirrhosis hospitalizations for gastrointestinal bleeding, infection, or other portal hypertension–related indications in the Veterans Health Administration where MELD‐lactate was measured on admission. Performance characteristics for in‐hospital mortality were compared between MELD‐lactate and MELD/MELD‐sodium (MELD‐Na), with stratified analyses of MELD categories (≤15, >15 to <25, ≥25) and reason for admission. We also incorporated day 3 lactate levels into modeling and tested for an interaction between day 1 MELD‐lactate and day 3 lactate clearance. MELD‐lactate had superior discrimination for in‐hospital mortality compared with MELD or MELD‐Na (area under the curve [AUC] 0.789 versus 0.776 versus 0.760, respectively; P < 0.001) and superior calibration. MELD‐lactate had higher discrimination among hospitalizations with MELD ≤15 (AUC 0.763 versus 0.608 for MELD, global P = 0.01) and hospitalizations for infection (AUC 0.791 versus 0.674 for MELD, global P < 0.001). We found a significant interaction between day 1 MELD‐lactate and day 3 lactate clearance; heat maps were created as clinical tools to risk‐stratify patients based on these clinical data. MELD‐lactate had significantly superior performance in predicting in‐hospital mortality among patients hospitalized for infection and/or with MELD ≤15 when compared with MELD or MELD‐Na. Incorporating day 3 lactate clearance may further improve prognostication.


When the first hominins and their successors migrated north from Africa into Eurasia, they created a new, interlinked disease environment. They brought some diseases, such as malaria, with them from Africa, and newly encountered others, such as plague, in Eurasia. Regional changes in climate played a role in human health, not simply due to their influence in determining the success of year-to-year harvests and grazing lands, but also because periods of warming or severe and sudden cooling shifted the interactions between humans and the flora and fauna that made up their environment. Exchanges of disease between the two continents would continue up through the medieval era. Whereas vast distances and low population density likely shielded Eurasian populations from frequent epidemic outbreaks up through the Neolithic period, by the beginning of the common era, with its vastly intensified trade networks, Eurasia would begin to see a new phenomenon: pandemics, including the Justinianic Plague and the Black Death, the largest mortality events in human history. The diseases of medieval Eurasia are still among the world's leading infectious killers and causes of debilitating morbidity. Because they have all persisted to the present day (with the exception of smallpox), modern science plays an important role in their historical reconstruction.


Ferritin and Imferon molecules were introduced as tracers inside "skinned" muscle fibers to test which part of the triadic junction gap is freely exchangeable with the sarcoplasm. At least 50% of the T-system surface is freely accessible from the sarcoplasm. Of the remainder, 30% of the total T-system surface is covered by the junctional feet, and 20% in the center of the junction may or may not be accessible. The possibility is discussed that the triadic junction may not function as an electrical coupling.


As has been widely recognized for some time, the computing and telecommunications technologies are converging. This has meant different things at different times. In this review paper, we describe the current stare of convergence, and speculate about what it may mean in coming years. In particular, we argue that as a result of the horizontal integration of all media (voice, audio, video, animation, data) in a common network and terminal infrastructure, telecommunications and networked-computing applications are no longer distinguishable. Considering that the old terminology is no longer meaningful, we attempt to codify networked applications in accordance with their functionality and immediacy. As application functionality is increasingly defined in software, with commensurate cost-effective programmable terminals and means for distribution of applications over the network itself, we argue that user-to-user applications will be greatly impacted, moving into the rapid-innovation regime that has characterized user-to-information-server applications in the recent past. Finally we identify a number of areas where different technical approaches and design philosophies have characterized telecommunications and computing, and discuss how these technical approaches are merging and identify areas of needed research. We do not address complementary forms of convergence at the application or industrial level, such as convergence of the information and content-provider industries, but rather restrict attention to the infrastructure and technology.


Advances in the creation of computational materials are transforming our thinking about relations between the physical and digital. In this paper we characterize this transformation as a "material turn" within the field of interaction design. Central to theorizing tangibility, we advocate supporting this turn by developing a vocabulary capable of articulating strategies for computational material design. By exploring the term texture, a material property signifying relations between surfaces, structures, and forms, we demonstrate how concepts spanning the physical and digital benefit interaction design. We ground texture in case study of the Icehotel, a spectacular frozen edifice. The site demonstrates how a mundane material can be re-imagined as precious and novel. By focusing on the texture of ice, designers craft its extension into the realm of computational materiality. Tracing this process of aligning the physical and digital via the material and social construction of textures speaks back to the broader field of interaction design. It demonstrates how the process of crafting alliances between new and old materials requires both taking seriously the materialities of both, and then organizing their relation in terms of commonalities rather than differences. The result is a way of speaking about computational materials through a more textured lens.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common, lethal X-linked mutation in the United Kingdom, affecting one in every three thousand male livebirths. Affected males have progressive muscle weakness and die as a result of respiratory or cardiac involvement in their late teens or early twenties. Whilst the X-linked nature of DMD has been recognised for many years, the regional assignment of DMD to Xp21 is relatively recent. This was first proposed on the basis of X;autosome translocations and more recently has been supported by linkage analysis using polymorphic DNA probes from within and around the DMD locus. X-linked ichthyosis (XLI) is the most common cause of early onset scaly skin (ichthyosis), affecting one in every five to six thousand male livebirths and is due to a deficiency of steroid sulphatase (STS). Although the X-linked nature of one form of ichthyosis had been recognised for many years, deficiency of STS in association with this condition was a relatively recent discovery. STS was assigned to Xp22 to Xpter on the basis of somatic cell hybrid mapping and to Xp22.3 to Xpter on the basis of a male with an XY translocation. The STS locus is of particular interest as it is one of the few known X-linked loci which escape inactivation in females. The main aim of this project was to isolate DNA sequences from the short arm of the X-chromosome (Xp) which could be used to study either DMD or XLI. In order to achieve this, an x-chromosome specific EcoRI library was constructed from flow-sorted chromosomes. In the initial screening of this library, one hundred and twenty plaques were selected for further study of which twenty eight had human inserts. Sixteen of these were single-copy or low-copy sequences with homology to the human x-chromosome, four were sequences with homology to the autosomes, six had homology to repeat sequences and a further recombinant had homology to multiple sequences in both man and mouse. The X-specific inserts were further characterised by a somatic cell hybrid mapping panel and four were assigned to xp; GMGX9(DXS237) to Xp22.3-pter, GMGX10(DXS238) to Xp21-cen and GMGX1KDXS239) and GMGX12(DXS240) to Xp21-Xp22.3. The ability of these four probes to detect restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) was studied using panels of twelve to fourteen X-chromosomes digested with each of thirteen restriction enzymes. Only GMGX9(DXS237) detected an RFLP with HindiII. This had alleles of 4kb and 2.5kb + 1.5kb, which occurred at frequencies of 0.67 and 0.33 respectively, and a Pic value of 0.44. These four probes were also tested in eleven individuals with DMD, BMD or contiguous gene syndromes including DMD, who all had deletions of pERT87(DXS164) and/or XJ(DXS206) (which are deleted in 6-10% of males with DMD/BMD). GMGXll(DXS239) was deleted in one individual with adrenal hypoplasia (AHC), glycerol kinase deficiency (GK) and DMD, whilst GMGX10(DXS238) was deleted in three individuals with large deletions. These eleven individuals were also examined with twenty seven other Xp probes. Only two of these eleven deletions could not be resolved from the others by these probes and there was no smallest region of overlap. The deletion in one boy (pedigree number 5097) with BMD, apparently encompassed that of a second (5265) with DMD, thus excluding the notion of an unique BMD domain in Xp21. Deletion studies in these eleven individuals and in somatic cell hybrids mapped GMGX10(DXS238) proximal to pERT84(DXS142), GMGX11(DXS239) between JBir(DXS270) and Ll-4(DXS68) and GMGX12(PXS240) between C7(DXS28) or B24(DXS67) and GMGX9(DXS239). GMGX10(DXS238), GMGXll(DXS239), GMGX12(DXS240), p20(DXS269), JBir(DXS270) and J66HI(DXS268) were used to screen one hundred and three boys with DMD or BMD, including nine of the eleven deletions described above. GMGX10(DXS238) and GMGX12(DXS240) detected no additional deletions. Thirty six additional deletions or altered fragment sizes were detected with GMGXll(DXS239), p20(DXS269), JBir(DXS270) and J66HI(DXS268). Thus 46% of boys in this group had deletions or altered restriction fragment lengths visualised with DNA probes. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


This is the concluding paper in my series [Wells (2011c, d)] on the metaphysical problem of knowledge representation. Its objective is the statement of the general problem to be solved in order to develop mathematical solutions for mind-body knowledge representation. With such a problem definition, the transition from metaphysics to empirical science proper is made. The task of formulating specific solutions then belongs to a special natural science I call Critical psychophysics. The metaphysical solution provides a general solution schema as a template or roadmap for solving the knowledge representation problem. As experienced system engineers know quite well, coming up with a precise mathematical statement of what one wants to do is usually a far more challenging task than coming up with how to do it. This is the case for the knowledge representation problem.


Population of old generation is growing in most countries. Many of these seniors are living alone at home. Falling is among the most dangerous events that often happen and may need immediate medical care. Automatic fall detection systems could help old people and patients to live independently. Vision-based systems have advantage over wearable devices. These visual systems extract some features from video sequences and classify fall and normal activities. These features usually depend on camera's view direction. Using several cameras to solve this problem increases the complexity of the final system. In this paper, we propose to use variations in silhouette area that are obtained from only one camera. We use a simple background separation method to find the silhouette. We show that the proposed feature is view invariant. Extracted feature is fed into a support vector machine for classification. Simulation of the proposed method using a publicly available dataset shows promising results.


In a model of career concerns for experts, when is a principal hurt from observing more information about her agent? This paper introduces a distinction between information on the consequence of the agent's action and information directly on the agent's action. When the latter kind of information is available, the agent faces an incentive to disregard useful private signals and act according to how an able agent is expected to act a priori. This conformist behavior hurts the principal in two ways: the decision made by the agent is less likely to be the right one (discipline) and ex post it is more difficult to evaluate the agent's ability (sorting). The paper identifies a necessary and sufficient condition on the agent signal structure under which the principal bene.ts from committing not to observe the agent's action. The paper also shows the existence of strategic complementarities between information on action and information on consequence. The results on the distinction between action and consequence are then used to interpret existing disclosure policies in delegated portfolio management. In particular, they are consistent with hitherto puzzling evidence that mutual funds systematically overperform pension funds.


In many linguistic fields requiring annotated data, multiple interpretations of a single item are possible. Multi-label annotations more accurately reflect this possibility. However, allowing for multi-label annotations also affects the chance that two coders agree with each other. Calculating inter-coder agreement for multi-label datasets is therefore not trivial. In the current contribution, we evaluate different metrics for calculating agreement on multi-label annotations: agreement on the intersection of annotated labels, an augmented version of Cohen's Kappa, and precision, recall and F1. We propose a bootstrapping method to obtain chance agreement for each measure, which allows us to obtain an adjusted agreement coefficient that is more interpretable. We demonstrate how various measures affect estimates of agreement on simulated datasets and present a case study of discourse relation annotations. We also show how the proportion of double labels, and the entropy of the label distribution, influences the measures outlined above and how a bootstrapped adjusted agreement can make agreement measures more comparable across datasets in multi-label scenarios.


Transcription of the glucose-repressible ADH (ADH2 locus) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is controlled by two regulatory pathways. The general transcriptional factors CCR4, CRE1, and CRE2 constitute the first pathway while the second pathway is comprised of the trans-activators ADR1 and CCR1. Both ADR1 and CCR1 act through upstream activation sequences (UAS) found in the 5$\sp\prime$-regulatory region of the ADH2 structual gene. In contrast, the action of CCR4, CRE1, and CRE2 is likely to be at sequences near the TATAA element of ADH2. The CCR4 locus was precisely mapped on the left arm of chromosome I where it had previously been localized. Plasmid constructions bearing sequences from chromosome I in the vicinity of CCR4 were tested for their ability to complement a defective ccr4 allele. A functional copy of CCR4 was identified and the DNA sequenced to reveal a 2511-bp open reading frame that predicts a protein with an estimated mass of 94.6-kDal. The CCR4 protein showed similarity with a family of proteins containing a leucine-rich tandem repeat motif. The repeats are characterized by the 24 amino acid repeating sequence P-X-X-o-X-X-L-X-X-L-X-X-L-X-L-XX-N-X-o (where X = any residue; o = aliphatic residues L, I, or V) and have been suggested to represent a domain involved in protein binding. Deletion analysis of CCR4 indicates that these repeats are required for its proper function. The amino terminus of CCR4 showed similarities to a variety of transcription factors including TFIID, the TATAA binding factor from humans and Drosophila. Additional studies indicated that CCR4 mRNA and protein levels were not regulated by carbon source availability or the allelic state of the CRE genes. These results suggest that the interactions observed between CCR4 and the CRE genes occur directly or indirectly at a protein level. The possible role that CCR4 plays in the transcriptional regulation of the ADH2 locus based on (1) the sequence similarities seen between CCR4 and other proteins and (2) the functional characterization of deletions and disruptions created within the coding sequences of CCR4 are discussed.


Ambient unexpected vibration in field experiment for large-scale structures is an essential problem to perform highly accurate displacement measurement. In this paper, an advanced image processing (AIP) technique combining the sampling moire method and digital image correlation (DIC) method is developed for noncontact measuring deflection distribution of large-scale structures. This technique has demonstrated promising results in both laboratory and field experiments. Experimental results in laboratory show that the artificial vibration can be abated remarkably by DIC using a subset image of background without loading. Experimental results in field show that AIP technique can successfully measure the displacement distribution of a long crane with sub-millimeter deflection under natural vibration environment. The most attractive advantage of AIP technique is only each single image is required before and after deformation. This indicates the noncontact deflection distribution measurement is possible with high resolution and high accuracy by ease setup for the dynamic structural evaluation of infrastructures.


Emerging evidence suggests that zooplankton production is affected by physiological and nutritional constraints due to climate change and eutrophication, which in turn could have broad implications for food-web dynamics and fisheries production. In this study, we developed a resource-based zooplankton production dynamics model that causally links freshwater cladoceran and copepod daily production-to-biomass (P/B) ratios with water temperature, phytoplankton biomass and community composition, and zooplankton feeding selectivity. This model was used to evaluate constraints on zooplankton growth under four hypothetical scenarios: involving natural plankton community seasonal succession; lake fertilization to enhance fisheries production; eutrophication; and climatic warming. Our novel modeling approach predicts zooplankton production is strongly dependent on seasonal variation in resource availability and quality, which results in more complex zooplankton dynamics than predicted by simpler temperature dependent models. For mesotrophic and hypereutrophic lakes, our study suggests that the ultimate control over zooplankton P/B ratios shifts from physiological control during colder periods to strong resource control during warmer periods. Our resource-based model provided important insights into the nature of biophysical control of zooplankton under a changing climate that has crucial implications for food web energy transfer and fisheries production.


The ortho to para conversion of water ion, H2O(+), due to the interaction between the magnetic moments of the unpaired electron and protons has been theoretically studied to calculate the spontaneous emission lifetime between the ortho- and para-levels. The electron spin-nuclear spin interaction term, Tab(SaΔIb + SbΔIa) mixes ortho (I = 1) and para (I = 0) levels to cause the "forbidden" ortho to para |ΔI| = 1 transition. The mixing term with Tab = 72.0 MHz is 4 orders of magnitude higher for H2O(+) than for its neutral counterpart H2O where the magnetic field interacting with proton spins is by molecular rotation rather than the free electron. The resultant 10(8) increase of ortho to para conversion rate possibly makes the effect of conversion in H2O(+) measurable in laboratories and possibly explains the anomalous ortho to para ratio recently reported by Herschel heterodyne instrument for the far-infrared (HIFI) observation. Results of our calculations show that the ortho ↔ para mixings involving near-degenerate ortho and para levels are high (∼10(-3)), but they tend to occur at high energy levels, ∼300 K. Because of the rapid spontaneous emission, such high levels are not populated in diffuse clouds unless the radiative temperature of the environment is very high. The low-lying 101 (para) and 111 (ortho) levels of H2O(+) are mixed by ∼10(-4) making the spontaneous emission lifetime for the para 101 → ortho 000 transition 520 years and 5200 years depending on the F value of the hyperfine structure. Thus the ortho ↔ para conversion due to the unpaired electron is not likely to seriously affect thermalization of interstellar H2O(+) unless either the radiative temperature is very high or number density of the cloud is very low.


In this study, the fabrication of vanadyl 2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H phthalocyanine (VOPcPhO) nanoflowers and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) : vanadyl 2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H phthalocyanine (VOPcPhO) composite nanorods is reported. VOPcPhO nanoflowers and P3HT:VOPcPhO composite nanorods have been synthesised via the template-assisted method. VOPcPhO nanoflowers are prepared by varying the solution concentration (5 & 15mg/ml), spin coating rate (1000 & 2000 rpm) and annealing temperature (50 & 150 °C). P3HT:VOPcPhO composite nanorods have been synthesised from solution concentration of 5 mg/ml. Both VOPcPho nanoflowers and P3HT:VOPcPhO composite nanorods underwent a template's dissolution. FESEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy) and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) images explained the growth mechanism of VOPcPhO nanoflowers and P3HT:VOPcPhO composite nanorods. Their morphological and structural properties are further characterized via FESEM and TEM. UV–vis spectra of VOPcPhO nanoflowers show a wider absorption at Q-band as compared to VOPcPhO thin films. P3HT:VOPcPhO composite nanorods show a same result as VOPcPhO nanoflowers. The wider band absorption and the shifted of peak absorption to the longer wavelength is observed in UV-vis spectrum which is caused by the improved interaction between small molecules and P3HT segment at their interfaces. The changes in Raman shift have also been observed which indicate the improvement of nanostructures exhibited by VOPcPhO and P3HT:VOPcPhO composite.


Price is one of the most important marketplace cues that consumers use in their decision making. It is widely known that consumers react differently to price. Many researchers have noted that price has a complex structure. According to Lichtenstein et al (1993), there are multidimensional aspects of price cues and suggested several dimensions. The purpose of this study is to examine price perception and the relationships among its dimensions. In order to achieve this aim, a field research was conducted on sports shoe consumers in Turkey. 638 consumers voluntarily participated the survey. According to the findings, some of the relationships among the dimensions of price perception were significant. Besides, it was revealed that the most exploratory dimensions of price perception were value consciousness and price consciousness.


Background People with schizophrenia experience increased rates of osteoporosis and may be at heightened risk of fractures. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate fractures among people with schizophrenia compared to people without mental illness.


Explainable question answering systems should produce not only accurate answers but also rationales that justify their reasoning and allow humans to check their work. But what sorts of rationales are useful and how can we train systems to produce them? We propose a new style of rationale for open-book question answering, called \emph{markup-and-mask}, which combines aspects of extractive and free-text explanations. In the markup phase, the passage is augmented with free-text markup that enables each sentence to stand on its own outside the discourse context. In the masking phase, a sub-span of the marked-up passage is selected. To train a system to produce markup-and-mask rationales without annotations, we leverage in-context learning. Specifically, we generate silver annotated data by sending a series of prompts to a frozen pretrained language model, which acts as a teacher. We then fine-tune a smaller student model by training on the subset of rationales that led to correct answers. The student is"honest"in the sense that it is a pipeline: the rationale acts as a bottleneck between the passage and the answer, while the"untrusted"teacher operates under no such constraints. Thus, we offer a new way to build trustworthy pipeline systems from a combination of end-task annotations and frozen pretrained language models.


Composite laminate manual lay-up operations and component quality inspections involve a variety of complex operations and instructions requiring highly-skilled operators, which can result in time-consuming and cost-inefficient processes. This research attempts to check the compatibility of Virtual Fabric Placement (VFP) and Microsoft Kinect to aid laminators and composite production. This research has investigated the feasibility of using this tracking technology to support the virtual prototyping of manual composite lay-up. It is concluded that, at the current stage of development, Kinect and VFP can be successfully used for virtual prototyping of large scale geometries while encountering only negligible tracking error with respect to mould size.


ABSTRACT Jia, Q.; Zhou, L.; Yu, W.; Wang, X.; Wen, R., and Xie, Y., 2020. Surface energy flux changes and budget in a typical coastal reed wetland (Liaohe Delta, China). Journal of Coastal Research, 36(5), 1005–1012. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Coastal wetlands are located between the continents and oceans, and their surface energy flux changes and budget play an important role in regulating regional climate. Liaohe Delta is a typical coastal reed wetland in China. The latent heat, sensible heat, and net radiation flux of reed wetlands in Liaohe Delta were studied for four consecutive years (2012–2015) on the basis of the eddy correlation system. The average annual accumulation of latent heat flux was 1525.39 MJ m–2, with a large seasonal variation. The latent heat flux was positive, and the peak value did not exceed 320 W m–2 in the daytime. The latent heat flux increased with the increase of temperature each day. The annual average sensible heat flux was 550.96 MJ m–2, with the minimum sensible heat in June and July, and the daily average change peak did not exceed 160 W m–2. The annual net radiation accumulation was 2868.32 MJ m–2, and the net radiation in winter decreased. The maximum value of net radiation in summer reached 622 W m–2. Latent heat flux accounted for 41%–63% of solar radiation, followed by storage flux, and sensible heat flux had the lowest value. This typical reed wetland has a strong water vapor regulation ability. These results contribute to research on land surface processes in wetlands.


What is now known as donor insemination (DI) has been practiced for at least several hundred years (Novaes, 1998). Professor William Pancoast's insemination of a female patient in Philadelphia in 1884, using sperm from his 'best looking' medical student, is frequently cited as the first detailed account of its successful use as a 'medical' procedure. The woman, who had been anaesthetised prior to her insemination, did not know what had been done to her and, although her husband was aware of his wife's insemination, he was instructed never to tell her. It is likely their son did not know of the circumstances of his conception, although he may have met his donor. One of Pancoast's students, Addison Hard, claimed that, several years later, he had 'shake[n] the hand of the young man' who had been conceived following Pancoast's ministrations (thus inviting speculation that Hard himself had been the donor) (Gregoire and Mayer, 1965; Daniels, 1998).

I mention this story since, while we have stopped anaesthetising women prior to insemination and, as far as I know, women are no longer inseminated without their knowledge or permission, the principles of secrecy and anonymity in donor conception have survived for over a century.

For example, as recently as 1987, the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists was advising prospective DI recipients: 'unless you reveal [DI conception] to your child, there is no reason for him or her ever to know that he or she was conceived by donor insemination' (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 1987, p. 3).


ABSTRACT A study examined parents' attitudes about normalization and their decision about olt-of-home placement for their children with mental retardation. The sample consisted of 9 parents who had requested institutional placement, 28 parents who had requested group home placement, and 23 parents who had not requested out-of-home placement. A questionnaire obtained demographic data as well as attitudes about normalization through a 20-item, 5-point Likert scale which measured the degree to which each respondent agreed with principles and practices of normalization in the context of his or her own child. Data did not document a relationship between type of residential placement preferred and attitude about normalization. In general, mothers answered the questionnaires. Parents generally agreed on 11 items which were more philosophical in nature (e.g., mentally retarded children should have opportunities to pursue desires, need warmth and affection as much as anyone else, have the same basic rights and needs as anyone else, and should dress like other nonhandicapped children their age). Parents typically disagreed on 6 items, especially those involving mainstreaming their mentally retarded child in the public school. Nine questionnaire items elicited relatively neutral responses. In general, results indicated that parents agreed with the conceptual/philosophical aspects of normalization but not with the means by which this principle is implemented. It is concluded that if professionals expect parents to engage their mentally retarded children in normalization activities, they need to support parents in carrying out this responsibility by involving them in the planning and programming of services. References and the study instrument are appended. (CB)


: Functional characteristics (size of receptive fields, directional sensitivity, threshold sensitivity to amplitude, and speed of vibrissae deflection) of neurons in the rat cortical zone of vibrissae representation, were studied. Histological control showed that in the IV cortical layer these neurons form somatotopically structured barrel-shaped cytoarchitectonic clusters. It was found that each "barrel" consisted of several neuronal groups--elementary neuronal ensembles--which selectively detected different stimulus parameters: direction, speed, and amplitude of deflection of the corresponding vibrissa. The data obtained show that temporal and power competition of adjacent ensembles, on the basis of lateral inhibition, is an important mechanism for signal processing and selection of dominant afferent inputs.


The vertebrate gut teems with a large, diverse, and dynamic bacterial community that has pervasive effects on gut physiology, metabolism, and immunity. Under natural conditions, these microbes share their habitat with a similarly dynamic community of eukaryotes (helminths, protozoa, and fungi), many of which are well-known parasites. Both parasites and the prokaryotic microbiota can dramatically alter the physical and immune landscape of the gut, creating ample opportunities for them to interact. Such interactions may critically alter infection outcomes and affect overall host health and disease. For instance, parasite infection can change how a host interacts with its bacterial flora, either driving or protecting against dysbiosis and inflammatory disease. Conversely, the microbiota can alter a parasite's colonization success, replication, and virulence, shifting it along the parasitism-mutualism spectrum. The mechanisms and consequences of these interactions are just starting to be elucidated in an emergent transdisciplinary area at the boundary of microbiology and parasitology. However, heterogeneity in experimental designs, host and parasite species, and a largely phenomenological and taxonomic approach to synthesizing the literature have meant that common themes across studies remain elusive. Here, we use an ecological perspective to review the literature on interactions between the prokaryotic microbiota and eukaryotic parasites in the vertebrate gut. Using knowledge about parasite biology and ecology, we discuss mechanisms by which they may interact with gut microbes, the consequences of such interactions for host health, and how understanding parasite-microbiota interactions may lead to novel approaches in disease control.


In this letter, the authors proposed a new wrist exoskeleton designed to provide kinesthetic feedback to the wrist user's joints for rehabilitative, teleoperation, and virtual environment interaction purposes. The design process focused on the need to use the interface as the end-effector of a whole bimanual upper limb exoskeleton system, composed of two exoskeleton arms with 7 DoF each and two hand exoskeletons for all the fingers. The guideline of the design pointed to reach a tradeoff between high transparency and low weight. In addition, both the compactness and mass distribution have played an important role in the design process due to the need to perform bimanual task and interaction. The proposed device was designed adopting a tendon-cable transmission for all the three joints. A differential transmission solution has been adopted to actuate the flexion/extension and radial/ulnar deviation joints, which allows to achieve lower inertia and higher compactness than a serial transmission. A first prototype has been build and characterized with several experimental tests showing its suitability for both teleoperation and rehabilitative therapy. Finally, the wrist device has been integrated with both the arm and the hand exoskeleton to prove the requirement observance.


OBJECTIVE Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) is used to identify the motor cortex prior to surgery. Yet, there has, until now, been no published evidence on the economic impact of nTMS. This study aims to analyze the cost-effectiveness of nTMS, evaluating the incremental costs of nTMS motor mapping per additional quality-adjusted life year (QALY). By doing so, this study also provides a model allowing for future analysis of general cost-effectiveness of new neuro-oncological treatment options. METHODS The authors used a microsimulation model based on their cohort population sampled for 1000 patients over the time horizon of 2 years. A health care provider perspective was used to assemble direct costs of total treatment. Transition probabilities and health utilities were based on published literature. Effects were stated in QALYs and established for health state subgroups. RESULTS In all scenarios, preoperative mapping was considered cost-effective with a willingness-to-pay threshold < 3*per capita GDP (gross domestic product). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of nTMS versus no nTMS was 45,086 Euros/QALY. Sensitivity analyses showed robust results with a high impact of total treatment costs and utility of progression-free survival. Comparing the incremental costs caused by nTMS implementation only, the ICER decreased to 1967 Euros/QALY. CONCLUSIONS Motor mapping prior to surgery provides a cost-effective tool to improve the clinical outcome and overall survival of high-grade glioma patients in a resource-limited setting. Moreover, the model used in this study can be used in the future to analyze new treatment options in neuro-oncology in terms of their general cost-effectiveness.


Aminoglycoside antibiotics, loop diuretics, antineoplastic agents and other commonly used pharmacological drugs are ototoxic. Understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying drug ototoxicity, however, has been hampered by the limited availability of inner ear tissues and drug side effects on laboratory animals. Immortalized cell lines derived from the auditory sensory organ, sensitive to ototoxic drugs and growing in environments that can be systematically manipulated, would facilitate the research directed at elucidating these mechanisms. Such immortalized cell lines could also be used to discover novel therapeutic agents for preventing drug-induced sensorineural hearing loss. Here, we report a conditionally immortalized organ of Corti-derived epithelial cell line, which shows evidence of activation of apoptosis when exposed to known ototoxic drugs. This cell line may be an excellent in vitro system to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in ototoxicity and for screening of the potential ototoxicity or otoprotective properties of new pharmacological drugs.


HER4 is a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family and has an essential function in heart and neural development. Identification of two HER4 isoforms, HER4 JM-a and JM-b, which differ in their extracellular juxtamembrane region and in their susceptibility to cleavage after phorbol ester stimulation, showed that the juxtamembrane region of the receptor is critical for proteolysis. We now demonstrate that phorbol ester and pervanadate are effective stimuli for HER4 JM-a processing and that the HER4 JM-b isoform does not undergo cleavage in response to any of the stimuli studied. We also show that HER4 JM-a is not cleaved in cells lacking the metalloprotease tumor necrosis factor-aconverting enzyme (TACE) and that reexpression of TACE in these cells restores constitutive and regulated processing of HER4 JM-a. Moreover, we show that the sequence specific to the HER4 JM-a juxtamembrane region is sufficient to confer susceptibility to phorbol 12myristate 13-acetate-induced cleavage of the HER2 receptor. In conclusion, we provide evidence that TACE is essential for the regulated shedding of the HER4 JM-a receptor.


The rise in adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity in the pleural fluid of tuberculous pleurisy patients, though used for diagnosis, is of unknown origin. In this work, we determined ADA activity and the activities of 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase and ADA-2 in 350 patients. We also considered whether the results throw light on the origin of high pleural fluid ADA in tuberculous pleurisy and estimated the diagnostic efficiency of 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase, ADA-2 and total ADA activities with and without the inclusion of the 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase/ADA activity ratio in a combined criterion. The 350 pleural effusions were classified by previously established criteria as transudates (60 males/18 females) or as tuberculous (49 males/27 females), neoplastic (50 males/39 females), parapneumonic (36 males/19 females), empyematous (11 males/3 females), or miscellaneous (25 males/13 females) exudates. Total ADA, ADA-2 and 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase activities were, respectively, 127.5 +/- 2.9, 103 +/- 29.5 and 42.8 +/- 14 U.L-1 in tuberculous exudates. With diagnostic thresholds of 47, 40 and 22 U.L-1 respectively, the sensitivities of ADA, ADA-2 and 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase for tuberculosis were 100, 100 and 95%; their specificities 91, 96 and 92%; and their efficiencies 93, 97 and 93%, respectively. One hundred and one effusions (all 76 tuberculous, 12 neoplastic, 4 parapneumonic and 9 empyematous exudates) had total ADA levels > 47 U.L-1; of these, 8 neoplastic, 1 parapneumonic and all the tuberculous exudates had a 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase/ADA activity ratio < 0.49. The criterion of simultaneously having ADA > 47 U.L-1, ADA-2 > 40 U.L-1 and a 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase/ADA activity ratio < 0.49 was satisfied by all the tuberculous effusions but only eight others (all neoplastic) (sensitivity 100%, specificity 97%, efficiency 98%). We conclude that: 1) high total ADA activity in tuberculous pleural effusions is due mainly to an increase in ADA-2, and, therefore, originated from the only known source monocytes and macrophages; 2) ADA-2 was a more efficient diagnostic marker of tuberculous pleurisy than total ADA activity, although the difference was not statistically significant; and 3) among effusions with high total ADA the 2'-deoxyadenosine deaminase/ADA activity ratio differentiates tuberculous effusions from empyemas and parapneumonic effusions, but fails to discriminate well between tuberculous and neoplastic effusions.


We describe the magnitude and trends of obesity in Spain and of its main determinants, associated both with the increase in energy intake and the reduction of energy expenditure. Such determinants include factors from the individual subjects and from their environment. We also present the main features of the strategy for the Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Obesity, fostered by the Ministry of Health, as well as plans and activities carried out by the Regional Governments, to control this health disorder. We conclude that effective and sustained implementation of these activities is badly needed. It should be made along with the monitoring of obesity and its determinants in the general population. Research in this field should also be strengthened because social determinants of obesity are not known in depth, and the effectiveness of many of the interventions proposed by the national and regional initiatives is not well established yet. Moreover, in the next future, the effectiveness of intervention models applied to control the smoking epidemic must be assessed to examine its usefulness in the control of obesity. An example of this type of interventions is the limitation of the publicity of nutrient-poor and energy-dense foods addressed to children.


A novel detection method for poly(acrylamide) flocculants was developed using interpolymer complexation between flocculants and a probe (poly(acrylic acid-co-acenaphthylene)). This detection method was tested in fresh water situations and found to be robust against a range of contaminants; additionally it was capable of detecting levels of flocculant dosing below 1 mg l−1. This method is remarkably fast and requires little sample modification compared to existing methods of detection.


The aim of this study was to establish a scoring system, Neonatal Facial Image Scoring System (NFISS), for investigating the pain responses in neonates during routine venipuncture. We collected 1998 facial images from 19 infants during the first phase of this study and identified twelve features of the facial image: normalized scale for NFISS (scale from 0-15), including brow bulge (0-2), vertical brow furrowing (0-1) and short distance (0-1), brow lowering (0-1), eyes close (0-1), bulging eyes (0-2), eye-eye furrowing (0-1), cheek bulge (0-1), nasal-labial furrowing (0-2), mouth open and stretch (0-1), lip purse (0-1) and taut tongue (0-1). During the second evaluation phase, with 2770 images from 31 newborn infants (average age: 2.85°".027 days), the pain responses were graded on the NFISS scale. Two peak score values during a time course of baseline-venipuncture-recovery (3-3-10 min) were found with needle piercing and needle withdrawal. The reliability of the score analysis was evaluated using 492 randomly selected images out of the 2770 images. The results for intra-scorer (author, one week interval) and inter-scorer (author and one experienced nurse) has correlation coefficients of 0.916 and 0.826, respectively.


A 1.55-μm laser diode integrated with a spot-size converter was fabricated in a single step epitaxial by using the conventional photolithography and chemical wet etching process. The device was constructed by a conventional ridge waveguide active layer and a larger passive ridge-waveguide layer. The threshold current was 40 mA together with high slope efficiency of 0.24 W/A. The beam divergence angles in the horizontal and vertical directions were as small as 12.0°× 15.0°, respectively, resulting in about 3.2-dB coupling losses with a cleaved optical fibre.


Wireless local area networks (WLANs) gained evergrowing importance in public transportation systems where they are selected to reduce installation costs and introduce new services. However, the introduction of a wireless interface in safety critical applications implies different communication protocol analysis and the introduction of a security layer is indispensable to implement defenses from malicious attacks. Host Identity Protocol (HIP) based network with IPSec is the network architecture proposed to secure wireless communications in large public transportation system. This paper analyses a comparison between the proposed architecture tested in a real environment and in an emulated scenario. The measurement campaign was carried out in outdoor using commercial on the shelf (COTS) Wi-Fi devices. The Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) with the Extendable Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) framework were used to evaluate the same scenario in a virtual test-bed. Results indicate how the end-to-end secure wireless communication built in the emulator works similarly to an intra-vehicular on-board network.


A novel algorithm for simultaneous modulation format/bit-rate classification and non-data-aided (NDA) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation in multipath fading channels by applying deep machine learning-based pattern recognition on signals' asynchronous delay-tap plots (ADTPs) is proposed. The results for three widely-used modulation formats at two different bit-rates demonstrate classification accuracy of 99.8%. In addition, NDA SNR estimation over a wide range of 0−30 dB is shown with mean error of 1 dB. The proposed method requires low-speed, asynchronous sampling of signal and is thus ideal for low-cost multiparameter estimation under real-world channel conditions.


From C-SPAN come the third in a series of the bestselling Booknotes books, this one recounting great events in American history as told by the authors who have appeared on the Booknotes program. . American history is replete with great and dramatic events, and in recent years a generation of great writers have brought these events to life. They have shared these stories with the viewers of the groundbreaking C-SPAN program, Booknotes, and here the best have been collected for readers to savor. Renowned writers and historians examine more than eighty unforgettable moments in American history, moments both celebrated and uncelebrated, from the Boston Tea Party to the Watergate break-in, from slavery to affirmative action, from Gettysburg to Iwo Jima. Included are Annette Gordon-Reed on the different ages' reactions to the Jefferson-Hemings controversy, James M. McPherson on the rush to enl ist to fight in the Civil War, Witold Rybczynski on the building of Central Park, Gina Kolata on the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918, Nicholas Lemann on the "great migration" of Southern blacks to Northern cities, Tom Brokaw on the World War II generation, Norman Podhoretz on the rise of neoconservatism, Leonard Garment on Watergate, Richard Holbrooke on the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, and much more. For Booknotes's famously devoted fans-and for anyone interested in American history-this is a wonderfully engaging compendium of information, opinion, and fascinating new perspectives.


A colloidal quantum dot light‐emitting diode (QLED) is reported with substantially enhanced light extraction efficiency by applying a layer of large‐scale, low‐cost, periodic nanopillar arrays. Zinc oxide nanopillars are grown on the glass surface of the substrate using a simple, efficient method of non‐wetting templates. With the layer of ZnO nanopillar array as an optical outcoupling medium, a record high current efficiency (CE) of 26.6 cd/A is achieved for QLEDs. Consequently, the corresponding external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 9.34% reaches the highest EQE value for green‐emitting QLEDs. Also, the underlying physical mechanisms enabling the enhanced light‐extraction are investigated, which leads to an excellent agreement of the numerical results based on the mode theory with the experimental measurements. This study is the first account for QLEDs offering detailed insight into the light extraction efficiency enhancement of QLED devices. The method demonstrated here is intended to be useful not only for opening up a ubiquitous strategy for designing high‐performance QLEDs but also with respect to fundamental research on the light extraction in QLEDs.


The gastrointestinal hormone gastrin has been shown to stimulate the growth of normal colonic mucosa. To examine for a possible role of gastrin in the proliferation of cultured colon tumor cells, we have studied the effects of two gastrin receptor antagonists, proglumide and benzotript, and of antibodies to gastrin. We find that proglumide (50% effective concentration, 2 to 5 mM) and benzotript (50% effective concentration, 0.4 to 0.8 mM) inhibit the monolayer growth of six human colon cancer cell lines. Addition of exogenous gastrin abrogated the growth-inhibitory effect of proglumide. The anchorage-independent growth of colon carcinoma cells was also inhibited by the two gastrin antagonists. Also, a dose-dependent increase in carcinoembryonic antigen secretion was observed upon treatment with proglumide and benzotript in three cell lines examined. Half-maximal inhibition of labeled gastrin binding was observed at concentrations of 0.4 mM benzotript and 8.6 mM proglumide. In addition, antigastrin antiserum added to HCT 116 cells adapted to growth in serum-free medium resulted in a concentration-dependent inhibition of cellular proliferation. These data suggest that gastrin may function as an autocrine growth factor in colon carcinoma.


To evaluate the effects of titanium and bio-fertilizers on some agronomic and physiological properties of triticale grown in cadmium (Cd) contaminated soil, a glasshouse experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The treatments were arranged in a 4×4 factorial experiment with four levels of titanium (control, bulk titanium, 0.01%, and 0.02% titanium nano-particles) and four levels of bio-fertilizers (no bio-fertilizer, Azotobacter chroococcum, Azospirillum brasilense and Azorhizobium caulinodans). The Cd contamination increased Cd accumulation in the leaves and seeds and also enhanced antioxidant enzymes activity. Cadmium stress decreased grain yield, 1000-grain weight and chlorophyll. Titanium nano-particle (0.02%) caused the maximum increase in grain yield, 1000-grain weight, leaf Cd, seed Cd, chlorophyll content. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activity increased due to titanium application but malondialdehyde (MDA) contented decreased. Although, there was no significant difference between control and bulk titanium treatments in terms of SOD activity. The effect of 0.02% nano-particle in increasing SOD activity was more pronounced than 0.01% treatment. In addition, CAT activity was more affected by titanium nano-particles than bulk titanium. Furthermore, Azorhizobium increased grain yield, 1000-grain weight, leaf Cd, seed Cd and chlorophyll while decreased superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme activity.


This paper explores the effects of dopant content on the aging behavior of tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP). TZP powders with varying Y2O3 content (1.75-3mol%) were synthesized by co-precipitation. After the green body of as-prepared TZP powders being isostatically pressed at 200 MPa and sintered at 14000C for 3 h in air, a range of TZP ceramics were fabricated. As-synthesized TZP ceramics annealed at relatively low temperatures with the presence of water or water vapor. XRD analysis was conducted for phase identification and determined a tetragonal to monoclinic transformation. Microscope imaging displayed the changes of aged TZP surface structure. It is believed that the degradation of TZP might be caused by the reaction between Y2O3 and H2O. The mechanism of low temperature degradation of TZP was discussed.


Effects of forest management on fungal diversity were investigated by sampling fruit bodies of polyporoid and corticioid fungi in forest stands that have different management histories. Fruit bodies were sampled in 15 northern hardwood stands in northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. Sampling was conducted in five old-growth stands, five uneven-age stands, three even-age un-thinned stands and two even-age thinned stands. Plots 100 m × 60 m were established and 3000 m2 within each plot was sampled during the summers of 1996 and 1997. A total of 255 polyporoid and corticioid morphological species were identified, 46 (≈18%) of which could not be assigned to a described species. Species accumulation curves for sites and management classes differed from straight lines, although variability from year to year suggests that more than 2 y of sampling are needed to characterize annual variation. Mean species richness and diversity index values did not vary significantly by management class, although mean richness on large diameter wood (≥ 15 cm diam) varied with moderate significance. Richness values on small diameter debris varied significantly by year, indicating that a large part of year-to-year variability in total species richness is due to small diameter debris. Ten species had abundance levels that varied by management class. Two of these species, Cystostereum murraii and Rigidoporus crocatus, were most abundant in old-growth and might be good indicators of stands with old-growth characteristics. Oxyporus populinus, an important pathogen of Acer spp., was most abundant in even-age stands. Regression analyses indicated that substrate quality (diameter and species), quantity and management history of the stand were important in predicting the number of occurrences of the five most-abundant species. Changes in the diversity and species composition of the wood-inhabiting fungal community could have significant implications for the diversity, health and productivity of forest ecosystems.


Bacterio-negative leprosy cases become inactive in a short period under regular and adequate DDS treatment and this period is shorter in females. The progress is uneventful and is not influenced by factors like age, extent of disease, deformity status etc. The risk of relapse in bacterio-negative leprosy cases is not high though it increases with passing of time. The risk of relapse tends to be higher in cases with extensive disease.


Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA, government agencies and professional societies have focused greater attention towards the hospital response, particularly Emergency Departments (EDs), for emergency preparedness and response. In the UK, the Civil Contingencies Act lays out responsibilities on NHS organisations to uphold civil protection.The ED is a complex, hectic, and high-pressured environment. Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) events are multi-faceted emergencies and present numerous challenges to ED staff (first receivers).This thesis used Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) to explore whether there were differences between operational procedures and practice using the Human Factors/Ergonomics (HF/E) approach for Work as Imagined (WAI; procedures) and Work as Done (WAD; practice). The aims were to 1) Explore whether HTA could be used to map complex socio-technical systems and 2) Make recommendations to improve the ED response to CBRN events.Study 1 (WAI) took a top down approach for document analysis of standard operating procedures (emergency plans) at two Type 1 NHS Trust EDs. The plans were analysed thematically to create colour coded HTA representations of the CBRN plans. Differences in General Organisational Responsibilities (GORs) were found between the two Trusts; Trust A had 13 GOR themes and Trust B had 20 GOR themes, of which 13 overlapped. The emergency plans include role-specific action cards used to support individual tasks; each card (n=30) was analysed and represented as HTAs. An Ergonomics review of the HTAs as part of the coding process produced higher level (standardised) themes at both Trusts as:1. Prepare to respond to CBRN incident (Trust A and B).2. Respond to CBRN incident (Trust A and B).3. Initiate recovery from CBRN incident (Trust A).4. Document CBRN incident (Trust A).Study 2 (WAD) collected data with semi-structured interviews from 57 first receivers. Scenario cards were used as prompts to explore clinical and operational practice. The field notes were converted to HTAs and thematically analysed. The synthesis of these themes provided a bottom up perspective to consider standardisation based on WAD (how first receivers respond to CBRN events). Similarities between the Trusts were evident in the importance placed on actions for isolate and contain, liaise and communicate, and escalate. Differences were found in the importance placed on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), decontamination, treatment, and investigation of the presentation. The results for WAI and WAD were compared. WAI focused on actions such as documentation, checking, and timing; WAD prioritised patient needs through assessment, treatment, and diagnosis. Finally, the findings were synthesised into standardised recommendations as:• A CBRN planning checklist.• Action card template.• Example of a meso-system.• CBRN response framework.The WAI vs WAD framework provided a robust theoretical framework to identify gaps and improvement opportunities in the ED CBRN response. This research shows that HTA can be used to unpack a multifaceted event in a complex environment.


This research presents relevant information about the formation of English undergraduate students in the period 2005-2007 and the implementation of a new modality in the English professorship career. The domain of an advance level of English for entering and the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) for graduating as future teacher in El Salvador. At the same time, some concepts, requirements, and politics are described for the implementation of the new modality in English professorship career in the four universities that serve this career: University of El Salvador, Don Bosco, Pedagogica, and Jose Simeon Canas)
Besides, there is a description of the process for getting the data of the topic in study and the instruments administered for collecting all the information. The results gotten in the research express students and professors opinion about the implementation of the new modality and the advantages and disadvantages that it is implied in the process of student's formation.
The results have been analyzed in order to find out how this new implementation has affected the formation of future English teachers and the factors involved in the process. Finally, the present paper gives recommendations about the changes need to be done in some aspects in order to improve the quality of education and the fulfillment of the requisites that the Ministry of Education is demanding from English undergraduate students.


We present some results of a geoelectrical investigation program conducted in the Northern Apennines, namely in the Val d'Aveto and Bobbio window and surrounding areas. Field activity included the execution of more than 50 vertical electrical soundings with continuous polar dipole-dipole spread. We image the geometries of some deep geological structures; in particular we found a resistive background, whose resistivity is different along the geoelectrical profiles. In our interpretation the resistive background consists of subligurid and tuscan units underlying the alloctone Ligurid units in the area surrounding the Val d'Aveto and Bobbio window. The resistive background was not found, at least at the same depths, toward north-east. Therefore, the geoelectrical survey revealed the position of the front of the subligurid and Tuscan nappes toward the plain for a depth of about one kilometer.


An empirical investigation on virtual communities shows how conflictive institutions influence the way members perceive their online interactions as being supportive or not of a more democratic debate. On the one hand community members identify their discussion lists as a space for free speech, emphasizing the relevance of having more access to information and channels for influencing society on issues related to environmental education. On the other hand they recognize obstacles for the free debate of ideas in these collectives, mainly to avoid conflicts with community leaders and members who are linked with powerful institutions. The research points out the relevance of considering the institutional environment to understand the nature of interactions in virtual communities in general, and their potential and limits as spaces for democratic debate in particular. Lessons from these informal online groups inform research on other virtual spaces, highlighting how the institutional environment influences these collectives.


Different versions of thermoelectric unicouples composed of p-type Ca3Co4O9 (Co-349) and n-type LaNiO3 (Ni-113) or CaMnO3 (Mn-113) bulk materials were prepared. In the unicouples p- and n-type legs were connected with Ag electrodes using Ag paste including various oxide powders with various ratios. For the Co-349/Ni-113 unicouples, maximum output power (Pmax) reaches 177mW at a hot side temperature (TH) of 1073K and a temperature differential (ΔT) between TH and cold side temperature of 500K at 6wt% of Co-349 powder. On the other hand, the lowest internal resistance (RI) is observed in a Co-349/Mn-113 unicouple prepared using Ag paste including 3wt% of Mn-113 powder. Thermoelectric modules consisting of 8 pairs of oxide legs were fabricated using the same method with the unicouples. The open circuit voltage (VO) and Pmax increase with increasing TH and reach 0.392 V and 0.314 W, and 0.911 V and 0.233 W at a TH of 1273 K in air for the Co-349/Ni-113 and Co-349/Mn-113 modules, respectively.


Increasing the natural gas (NG) use in heavy-duty engines is beneficial for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from power generation and transportation. However, converting compression ignition (CI) engines to NG spark ignition operation can increase methane emissions without expensive aftertreatment, thereby defeating the purpose of utilizing a low carbon fuel. The widely accepted explanation for the low combustion efficiency in such retrofitted engines is the lower laminar flame speed of natural gas. In addition, diesel engine's larger bowl size compared to the traditional gasoline engines increases the flame travel length inside the chamber and extends the combustion duration. Optical measurements in this study suggested a fast-propagating flame developed even at extremely lean operation. A 3D numerical simulation showed that the squish region of the bowl-in-piston chamber generated a high turbulence intensity inside the bowl. However, the flame propagation speed reduced by 55% when transiting from the bowl to the squish region, due to the large decrease in turbulence intensity inside the squish region. Moreover, the squish volume trapped an important fuel fraction, which experienced a slow and inefficient burning process during the expansion stroke. This resulted in increased methane emissions and reduced combustion efficiency. Overall, it was the specifics of the combustion inside a bowl-in-piston chamber not the methane's slow laminar flame speed that contributed to the low methane combustion efficiency for the retrofitted engine. The results suggest that optimizing the chamber shape is paramount to boost engine efficiency and decrease its emissions.


We continued to study internal sources of neural retina regeneration in adult lower vertebrates. A radioautographic study carried out was aimed at the visualization of proliferating cells in different areas of the retina and at different times after its detachment in the newts Pleurodeles waltl. Analysis of serial standards and semithin sections has shown several types of cells capable of incorporating a labeled DNA synthesis precursor. The marker of proliferating cells was incorporated in the cells of Mullerian glia, pigment epithelium, and growth zone and in small neural cells of the vitreal part of the inner nuclear layer. A source of formation of neuroepithelial "insertions" responsible for restoration of the complete cell composition of the retina damaged as a result of detachment should be searched among these cell types. Neither bipolar cells with Landoldt's club in the inner nuclear layer, nor bipolar-like cells in the outer nuclear layer, which are a source of formation of additional photoreceptors, were found among the 3H-thymidine- labeled cells. A conclusion was drawn that the bipolar-like cells of P. waltl are postmitotic cells, that did not reach terminal differentiation.


Abstract A survey of professional leadership of library and information organizations in Malaysia was conducted to gather their perceptions about the trends in the field during the next 10 years, the extent of preparedness of entry-level professionals and the strategies they proposed for an improvement in education and development programmes. A total of 148 top- and middle-managers from 30 organizations, equally divided among the three strata of academic, public and special libraries, were interviewed for filling in an open-ended questionnaire. A qualitative analysis of the responses revealed that the participants strongly felt that future libraries would be electronically inter-connected, would have a variety of media to access and would undergo organizational changes. They noted major discrepancies in the demands and preparedness of the entry-level professional in the areas of information technology, management capabilities and behavioural dimensions. A number of measures were proposed for improvement in formal education, continuing education activities and the role of the professional association.


The present work focuses on the shaping craft of shape memory alloy metal rubber (SMAMR) and its temperature dependent mechanical properties. Heat treatment process was conducted to form a stable SMAMR sample beyond the general procedure of metal rubber (MR) in order to resist the shape memory effect (SME). The influence of the heat treatment procedure on the mechanical properties was tested. The quasi-static experimental investigations were carried out to obtain the storage modulus and energy loss factor varying with the structural parameter, strain amplitude, and material temperature.It is found from the experiment results that the SMAMR sample which underwent the heat treatment was able to remember its original moulding shape and recover from the overloading plastic deformation when heated above the phase transition temperature. For comparison, another sample without the heat treatment was heated to the same temperature after the plastic deformation, but the final shape deviated from the original one. It is also confirmed that the heat treatment procedure obviously increased the storage modulus and loss factor of SMAMR.Just like the variety elastic modulus of shape memory alloy (SMA), the storage modulus of SMAMR increased obviously while the material was heated above the phase transformation temperature due to the elastic modulus change of SMA wire. The quasi-static experiments showed a hysteretic property of the stress–strain curve in a certain temperature. But the hysteretic curve was temperature and structural parameter dependent.It is concluded that the heat treatment process is necessary to obtain a stable SMAMR during the phase transformation. The varying storage modulus and superior loss factor performances of SMAMR make itself a kind of attractive functional material which will be available in the active suppression of vibration. For example, it can be fabricated to a rotor bearing with changeable stiffness and damping, which is of practical significance in the active control of synchronous vibration of rotors crossing resonance condition.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Many investigators are studying on the point that cholesterols and fats are greatly involved in the causative mechanism of arteriosclerosis. However, even in the case of an advanced arteriosclerosis cholesterols in blood are not necessarily increased, but quite many show the cholesterol level within the normal range. Furthermore, subsequent research works indicate the problems such at the ratio of cholesterols against phospho-lipids and chylomicron, as well as studies on lipoproteins and electropaper-chromatography are carried out, but conclusive causative factors still remain to be discovered. As reported in Parts 1 and 2 the author recognized the occurrence of arteriosclerosis of the so-called 'adrenalin-injection type' (Monckeberg type) in the aorta of the rabbits injected with cholesterol emulsion or administered with a large amount of cholesterol for consecutive days, and also the occurrence of arteriosclerosis of the so-called 'cholesterol type (atheroma type) in the rabbits orally adminstered with a small amount of cholesterol for sucessive days. Thus the author pointed out that what was believed to be two types of arteriosclerosis caused by two entirely different factors was in fact the arteriosclerosis induced by the same abnormality in the fat metabolism, and deduced that the differences observable in this disease arose from the differences in the chemical constitution of cholesterols in the blood. In the present report an attempt has been made to clarify further the actual characteristics in the occurrence of two kinds of arteriosclerosis by observing what differences in the chemical constitution of fats in the blood would be brought about by different methods of administering cholesterols on one hand and also by studying the changes in cholesterol contents in the blood at the time of nor-adrenalin injection into rabbits on the other, Using 8 rabbits, the present experiments were conducted in three groups; namely, a group (2 rabbits) given oral administration of 0.7 g. cholesterol daily; another group (2 rabbits) given daily intravenous injection of 10 cc. 1% cholesterol emulsion; and still other group (3 rabbits) given daily intravenous injection of 1 cc. 0.1% adrenalin; and at a fixed interval after the adminstration, blood was drawn from the auricular vein, and the total amount of cholesterol and the free cholesterol content were determined by the digitonin method. After weighing these results in conjuction with the histological or cytochemical findings of Parts 1 and 2, the author arrived at the following conclusions: 1. The intravenous injection of cholesterol emulsion the same as the nor-adrenalin injection induces a transient and rapid rise in free cholesterols in the blood and the degeneration of muscle fibers or calcium deposit in the artery. 2. In the case of oral adminstration of cholesterol the total amount of cholesterols increses step by step, but the ratio of the free-cholesterol content against the total amount of cholesterol in creases always within the normal range, showing the foam cell formation in visceral tissues as well as atheroma degeneration under the inner coat of artery in this instance. 3. From these results it is velieved that the rise in the free cholesterol content of blood acts as an important factor causing the degeneration or the necrosis of the media of the artery, developing to the Monckebergs median necrosis of artery, while in the case of the rise in the cholesterol-ester, the cholesterol ester is absorbed by the interstitial cells and disposed, forming a foam cell layer without inducing cell degeneration; and when such an increment is great, the atheroma degeneration of the aorta is brought about.


The Human Reference Genome serves as the foundation for modern genomic analyses. However, in its present form, it does not adequately represent the vast genetic diversity of the human population. In this study, we explored the consensus genome as a potential successor of the current Reference genome, and assessed its effect on the accuracy of RNA-seq read alignment. In order to find the best haploid genome representation, we constructed consensus genomes at the Pan-human, Super-population and Population levels, utilizing variant information from the 1000 Genomes project. Using personal haploid genomes as the ground truth, we compared mapping errors for real RNA-seq reads aligned to the consensus genomes versus the Reference genome. For reads overlapping homozygous variants, we found that the mapping error decreased by a factor of ~2-3 when the Reference was replaced with the Pan-human consensus genome. Interestingly, we also found that using more population-specific consensuses resulted in little to no increase over using the Pan-human consensus, suggesting a limit in the utility of incorporating more specific genomic variation. To assess the functional impact, we compared splice junction expression in the different genomes and found that the Pan-human consensus increases accuracy of splice junction quantification for hundreds of splice junctions.


Some of my most cherished memories from earlier years are those shared with the various characters born of the imagination and experiences of Mark Twain. My favorite of all was Tom Sawyer and "that su mmer of all summers" when he discovered gold in McDougal's Cave. Tom's many escapades with Huck Finn and Joe Harper as river pirates on the Mississippi, and his experience with Becky Thatcher and Injun Joe when lost in McDougal's Cave, rank high in my fondest recollection of this-the most famous of all Mark Twain's treasures. The delightful combination of voice, background music, and sound effects skillfully interwoven by a narrator are particularly well suited to the unique reader needs of the generation of visually handicapped children who are now ready to join Tom Sawyer and his friends in the many adventures that are so much a part of this timeless classic. This cassette drama of Tom Sawyer provides the reader with a new dimension of literary pleasure not possible in the print version. Although this abridged reproduction from the original edition is prepared for commercial distribution to the "sighted market," the book requires little if any adaptation to serve as an ideal source of total reading enjoyment for a visually handicapped audience. The fact that the recording is in cassette form and 1 7/8 IPS makes it easier to handle and more compatible to the equipment available to the visually handicapped reader. Those of us who still remember the magic of stories dramatized on "old time radio" can appreciate being a part of each episode via the facility of our imagination. If we keep in mind that many of the impressions and mental images formulated by visually handicapped people are largely a result of what has been learned through listening, it is easy to understand how one's imagination can make a recorded dramatization like Tom Sawyer a memorable experience. A negative point of the production is the excessive use of actresses to portray male characters, such as Tom Sawyer and Joe Harper. However, the manner in which the abridged version is handled, combined with the skillful use of the "cassette drama technique," has produced a story that will lend many hours of listening pleasure to all children including the visually handicapped. The American Learning Society, Inc., producers of this recording, has prepared a series of the American Classics for children in cassette drama form. If this production is


Uncertain Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (UCARP) is a combinatorial optimisation problem with many important real-world applications. Genetic programming (GP) is a powerful machine learning technique that has been successfully used to automatically evolve routing policies for UCARP. Reusability is an open issue in the field of UCARP and in this direction, an open challenge is the case of scenario changes, e.g. change in the number of vehicles and probability distributions of random demands, which typically requires new training procedures to be initiated. Considering the expensive training cost of evolving routing policies for UCARP, a promising strategy is to learn and reuse knowledge from a previous problem-solving process to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of solving a new related problem, i.e. transfer learning.
The overall goal of this thesis is to develop novel knowledge transfer algorithms for GP for solving UCARP to handle environment changes more effectively and efficiently. To fulfil this goal, a plethora of machine learning techniques, i.e. surrogate models, feature selection, searching and specialised genetic operators, are utilised in this thesis.
 First, this thesis explores the effectiveness of the existing transfer optimisation methods for solving UCARP. Accordingly, one of the main directions of this thesis is towards identifying the nature of transferable knowledge, which can impact the quality of knowledge transfer for GP to solve UCARP. For this purpose, a collection of the state-of-the-art transfer optimisation GP algorithms are evaluated for UCARP. After identifying some potential gaps in the literature, a number of preliminary transfer optimisation algorithms are proposed that supplement the literature. To evaluate the algorithms, a large set of knowledge transfer scenarios with various source and target problems were designed based on real-world datasets. According to the results, none of the methods showed significant improvement in the effectiveness of the trained UCARP routing policies. These results revealed the need for more effective transfer optimisation methods specifically designed for UCARP. Furthermore, our investigations revealed that the presence of duplicates in knowledge sources is one of the main challenges for effective transfer optimisation in solving UCARP.
 Second, we propose approaches to handling the presence of duplicates in the transferred knowledge. The first approach increases population diversity after knowledge transfer to counteract the loss of diversity that is introduced by the presence of duplicates in the transferred knowledge. In the second approach, the duplicates are removed from the transferred knowledge. Then, the transferred knowledge is utilised to create a diverse initial GP population of high-quality individuals. Both approaches are investigated through detailed experimental studies. The results indicate that, while the first approach did not perform better than GP with knowledge transfer, the second can improve the effectiveness of training routing policies with GP significantly.
 Third, this thesis proposes a novel algorithm that transfers the phenotypic characteristics of the routing policies for solving the source problem. In the new algorithm, the most fit and unique source routing policies are utilised for initialising GP for solving the target problem. Then, a tabu list is placed on the source routing policies and the GP process is prohibited from recreating any of the source routing policies. The motivation for this approach is that, due to the existence of similarity between the source and target problems, source routing policies are unlikely to have a good performance for the target problem. Our experimental studies confirmed that by prohibiting GP from recreating source policies, and the computational resources will be spent on searching and evaluating new regions of the search space, which can lead to discovering better solutions.
 Fourth, this thesis proposes a novel knowledge transfer algorithm based on the idea of maintaining the transferred knowledge as an auxiliary population. In this approach, first, the best individuals of the duplicate-free knowledge source are used to initialise GP. Additionally, these transferred individuals are also maintained as an auxiliary population and are evolved alongside the main population. To save the computational cost, the auxiliary population is evolved with a surrogate method. Additionally, an elaborate knowledge exchange mechanism between the two populations is devised that emphasises transferring high-quality and unique individuals, the transfer of which can improve the diversity of the receiving population. This allows GP to overcome the problem of losing its population diversity during the evolutionary process. Our detailed experimental results confirmed the superior performance of the proposed algorithm and confirmed that the proposed method improved the phenotypic diversity of GP population.