The three-dimensional organization of chromatin plays a critical role in gene regulation and disease. High-throughput chromosome conformation capture experiments such as Hi-C are used to obtain genome-wide maps of 3D chromatin contacts. However, robust estimation of data quality and systematic comparison of these contact maps is challenging due to the multi-scale, hierarchical structure of the data and the resulting idiosyncratic properties of experimental noise. We introduce a multi-scale concordance measure called GenomeDISCO (DIfferences between Smoothed COntact maps) for assessing the similarity of a pair of contact maps obtained from chromosome capture experiments. We denoise the contact maps using random walks on the contact map graph, and integrate concordance at multiple scales of smoothing. We use simulated datasets to benchmark GenomeDISCO's sensitivity to different types of noise typically affecting chromatin contact maps. When applied to a large collection of Hi-C datasets, GenomeDISCO accurately distinguishes biological replicates from samples obtained from different cell types. Software implementing GenomeDISCO is available at http://github.com/kundajelab/genomedisco. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com


Forest seed dispersal is altered after fire. Using seed traps, we studied impacts of fire severity on timing of seed dispersal, total seed rain, and seed rain richness in patches of high and low severity fire and unburned Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests in the Fischer and Tyee fire complexes in the eastern Washington Cascades. Unburned plots had the lowest average seed production. The high severity fire patches in the Fischer Fire Complex had a higher total seed production than low severity fire patches of the same complex. At the Tyee Fire Complex, the total seed production for each of the two fire severities was similar, but the period of maximum seed dispersal was later for high severity than low severity fire. Seed rain at the Fischer Fire patches (sampled one year after the fire) was predominantly composed of annual species, while that of the Tyee Fire patches (sampled nine years after fire) was predominantly perennial species. Seed rain richness was greater in Tyee high severity patches than paired low severity fire patches. In these paired Tyee patches the average number of new seed species (species not found in the extant plot vegetation) was greater for high severity than low severity fire. Our results suggest that high severity fire plots are more porous to seed rain than low severity plots. Intact forest canopies may filter seed rain and reduce seed influx, while high severity fires are more open to invasion by seed dispersal.


In part 1 of this opinion piece, we described inherent and potential challenges of the equity of African American (AA) men in headache medicine including headache disparities, mistrust, understudied/lack of representation in research, cultural differences, implicit/explicit bias, and the diversity tax. We shared personal experiences related to headache medicine likely faced due to the color of our skin. In part 2, we offer possible solutions to achieve equity for AA men in headache including: (1) addressing head and facial pain disparities and mistrust in AA men; (2) professionalism and inclusion; (3) organizational/departmental leadership buy‐in for racial diversity; (4) implicit/explicit and other bias training; (5) diversity panels with open discussion; (6) addressing diversity tax; (7) senior mentorship; (8) increased opportunities for noteworthy and important roles; (9) forming and building alliances and partnerships; (10) diversity leadership training programs; (11) headache awareness, education, and literacy with a focus to underrepresented in medicine trainees and institutions; and (12) focused and supported the recruitment of AA men into headache medicine.


In emerging economies, high investment costs hinder fast renewable energy (RE) deployment. Compared to industrial states, higher financial costs originate mainly from investment barriers and consequently risks. Using Vietnam as a case study for emerging economies, the objective of this thesis is to identify barriers and ways to remove risks by developing a de-risking policy mix that consequently helps to increase RE deployment rates. The study finds out that, even though Vietnam's climate are favorable for RE projects, however, the country's contextual policy settings are not conducive to investments. Additionally, an ex-post effectiveness analysis of current policies showed that they are not working effectively yet. Barriers were identified with the help of a newly developed analytical framework that has a higher usability than common ones. The main barriers are deep-rooted structural barriers, such as the permitting process and corruption. The policy recommendations developed in this thesis suggest to change the cornerstone instrument to a new auctioning system, the "One Stop Auctioning System" (OSAS), which was developed in this thesis. It minimizes the contact between investors and local authorities and with it the options for corruption and delays. This instrument, combined with secondary de-risk instruments, like capacity building on all relevant levels and sectors (public and private), the introduction of a university program on RE, or improved access to capital by introducing public loan guarantees, has high chances to make emerging economies like Vietnam a more attractive country for RE investments. (Less)


In 1970s, Heroin-associated Nephropathy (HAN), one form of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), was a predominant cause of End-stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) in African-Americans (AAs). In 1980s, with the surge of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in AAs, HAN more or less disappeared, and the incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus associated Nephropathy (HIVAN) markedly increased. Recent studies in AAs have identified APOL1 variants (Vs) as a major risk factor for the development and progression of non-diabetic kidney diseases including idiopathic FSGS and hypertension-attributed nephrosclerosis. These observations have also offered partial insights into the mechanisms of development, and higher rate of occurrence of both HAN and HIVAN in AAs. AAs with APOL1Vs develop idiopathic FSGS at four-fold higher rate compared to European Americans (EAs). Similarly, HIV infected AAs with APOL1Vs (if not on antiviral therapy), risk a 50% (10-fold greater) chance of developing HIVAN. It has been suggested that APOL1Vs expression may render podocytes more vulnerable to various types of injury: bacterial, viral, and others. However, in addition to genetic variants, additional factors such as persistence of a second hit may determine the nature and severity of glomerular disease. In patients with HAN, heroin or contaminants may have been the offending second insult(s) which caused renal disease in susceptible AA patients. In the 80's, since heroin-induced second hit was neither consistent nor sustained (depending on drug availability in the street), the disease was masked or replaced HIV infected patients (especially in untreated subjects), by an overwhelming second hit by the virus which was both intense as well as persistent. It appears that APOL1Vs may be one of the links between the disappearance of HAN and emergence of HIVAN in AA patients.


Urinary bladder lipomas are rare neoplasms. Therefore, very few of them have been reported in the literature. We present a case that illustrates the typical features that allow radiologists to diagnose this entity: a solid lesion that arises from the urinary bladder wall, showing an endophytic growth and homogeneous hypoattenuation. After its surgical resection, the diagnosis was confirmed by anatomo-pathological analysis. In the discussion we describe other neoplasms that should also be considered when a submucosal bladder neoplasm is detected on computed tomography or other imaging techniques.


Evidence is mounting indicating that screening for prostate cancer is rational and appropriate. More information is necessary to define the optimal ages at which screening should be performed and to determine the appropriate role of PSA, PSA velocity, and PSA density in serial screening. Formal demonstration of a significant screening-induced reduction in cancer-specific morbidity and mortality is necessary to unambiguously justify screening. A prospective, randomized trial evaluating prostate cancer screening will soon be underway.


An arbitrarily illuminated truncated nonuniform thin-wire grating produces a scattered field that can be synthesized by superposition of the fields radiated by the currents induced on each wire element. For weak departures from periodicity and for quasi-plane-wave conditions of incidence the combined effect of the individual induced radiations exhibits beam structure that can be interpreted in terms of truncated locally adapted Floquet modes plus Floquet-modulated edge diffractions that are due to the truncations. This interpretation is tied directly to the fields produced by a truncated aperture source distribution, provided that this distribution bears the local Floquet-mode (FM) imprint. The equivalence between the two formulations is established by Poisson summation, which converts the finite sum of individually radiated scattered fields into a series of truncated wave spectra (the Floquet modes) plus truncation contributions (the edge diffractions). The analysis is carried out for two-dimensional geometries, with reliance on high-frequency asymptotics applied first to the Poisson spectral integrals in the frequency domain and subsequently to the Fourier inversion into the time domain. The result is a new hybrid diffracted-ray–FM algorithm valid throughout the near, intermediate, and far zones of the total grating aperture in the frequency domain and yielding time-domain Floquet modes with novel features and interpretation. The quality of the ray-mode algorithm is assessed by comparison with reference data generated by direct numerical techniques. Because the diffraction-oriented analysis clarifies the spectral connection between individually radiated fields that are due to localized sources and globally radiated fields that are due to the collective effect of these sources, the resulting algorithm may be helpful in the design of frequency- and time-domain grating components for the control of radiative coupling.


Spectral analysis is an important area in signal processing with wide range of application. A low complexity algorithm to compute the power spectral density (PSD) using the Welch method is presented in this paper. The Welch algorithm computes spectral power at the cost of high computational complexity. In order to reduce the complexity and hardware utilization pipelining FFT approach is used. Instead of calculating an N-point FFT directly, an N/2-point FFT is calculated and two N/2point FFTs are merged to obtain an N-point FFT.


An important aspect of multimedia advertising effectiveness that remains unexplored is a customer-level analysis of the relative importance of each medium for multiple retailer-brands within a product category. The increasing availability of customer databases for parent companies containing multimedia ad exposures, sales transactions in several purchase channels, and information across multiple retailer-brands now allows for a broader examination of advertising effectiveness. In this research, the authors monitor 4,000 customers over two years, linking their exposure to three media (email, catalogs, and paid search) to their in-store and online purchases for three retailer-brands in the clothing category. They develop a Tobit model for sales response to multimedia advertising that captures within-brand and within-channel correlations and accommodates individual-level advertising response parameters. Due to the very large number of observations (2.4 million) and random effects (60), the authors employ an emerging machine learning technique, variational Bayes, to estimate the model parameters. They find that email and sometimes catalogs from a focal retailer-brand have a negative influence on other retailer-brands in the category, whereas paid search influences only the focal retailer-brand. However, competitor catalogs often positively influence focal retailer-brand sales, but only among omnichannel customers. They segment customers by retailer-brand and channel usage, revealing a sizeable group of customers who shop across multiple retailer-brands and both purchase channels. Moreover, this segment is the most responsive to multimedia advertising.


This report, from the Chemical Processing Department at HAPO, discusses the following: production operation; purex and redox operation; finished products operation; maintenance; financial operations; facilities engineering; research; and employee relations.


Predictions of future climate change include shifts in patterns of precipitation, evapotranspiration and water run-off, resulting in increased periods of drought as well as variability and intensity of rainfall events. In the United Kingdom, the non-native North American sunfish, pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus (L.), is expected to benefit from these changes. We examine how hydrological variability induced by predicted changes in climate will affect the dispersal and spread of pumpkinseed in England by: (i) determining the relationship between discharge regime and pumpkinseed propagule pressure; (ii) examining a newly-established pumpkinseed population following a flood event in 2007; and (iii) comparing the growth and life-history traits of this new population with fish collected from the source population to demonstrate how the pumpkinseed's life-history plasticity contributes to its success as a coloniser. Using Bayesian modelling, we determined that the number of pumpkinseed escapees is likely to increase with increasing discharge. The newly-established pumpkinseed population showed fast juvenile growth, early age at maturity and small size at maturity. These traits differed significantly from the source population, specifically total length (TL) means at ages 1 and 2 were significantly greater in the new population, whereas TL at age 4 was significantly greater in the source population, and a significantly higher proportion of mature females were found at smaller size classes in the newly established pumpkinseed population. This study demonstrates the potential link between hydrological variability (current and future) and the dispersal of non-native pumpkinseed, leading to the establishment of new populations.


This research addresses the problem of what to consider as competence in research and development (R&D) and how does it change in contractual projects. Two cases are investigated, so called fault diagnosis systems and code generation methods and tools. They involve the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) as a supplier and several companies as customers. Projects established by these parties from 1985 to 1998 have been analysed, to study how the supplier's competence evolves. The research is based on the analysis of several thousand pages of documents and interviews of some fifty persons. The change of competence is evaluated and explained within project-based relationships called project nets. Differing objectives and goals of the interacting parties are found to greatly affect project nets, and thereby the evolution of the supplier's competence. In the code generation case, the focal VTT managers aimed at creating a versatile portfolio of fully contractual projects, for machine automation applications in particular. The approach did not work as intended. The code generation researchers produced design methods and tools that were, in the end, mostly utilised inside VTT – which neither benefited the contractual R&D business of VTT, nor resulted in explicit core competence. In the fault diagnosis case contractual projects were, however, used to create what can be considered as core competence of VTT as an R&D supplier. Still, even the code generation competence survived through many years and conflicting viewpoints to form a basis of business – not for VTT, but for some of the original inventors. This indicates both the key role of individuals in R&D and the need for strategic management of evolving competence. Development of functional capabilities to solve problems in certain applications is found in this research to be essential for the building of core competence of an R&D supplier. Flexible use of generic engineering techniques and implementation technologies is also important. However, this depends on how skilled customers are in this regard. The final part of the dissertation is devoted to the question of how to manage competence, based on the empirical insights of the research. The goal is to help pave the way for strategic relationship-based competence management in contractual R&D.


The purpose of this master thesis was to investigate the psychological and computational basis for human behavior representation (HBR) in military simulations and identify problem areas of existent software agent frameworks that provide computer generated forces (CGF) with human like cognitive abilities. The master thesis identifies psychological properties that influence human cognition in an operational environment through a theoretical study of operational and cognitive psychology. The psychological properties of human cognition are then connected to artificial intelligence through a theoretical study of agents and multi-agent systems and form the foundation for identifying general HBR properties. The HBR properties are used as evaluation markers that constitute the basis for constructing an evaluation of relevant agent frameworks thereby visualizing their strengths and weaknesses. The problem areas of incorporating artificial intelligence into CGF are further concretized by the development of a demonstrator that interacts with a synthetic environment. The demonstrator is an implementation of a tank platoon in the agent framework Jadex. The synthetic environment is provided by VR-Forces which is a product by MAK technologies. The thesis makes a distinction between the conceptual structure of agent frameworks and their actual implementation. According to this master thesis it is the output of the agent framework that is the most important feature not how the output came into being. Producing the correct output requires the selection of the correct tools for the job. The selection of an agent framework should be taken on the background of an evaluation of the simulation requirements. A large portion of the development time is consumed by the development of application and communication interfaces. The problem is a result of lacking standardization and that most cognitive agent frameworks are experimental in nature. In addition the artificial intelligence (AI) in such simulations is often dived into levels, where the synthetic environment takes care of low-level AI and the agent framework the high-level AI. Tight synchronization between low and high-level AI is important if one wishes to create sensible behavior. The purpose of an agent framework in conjunction with CGF is thereby ensuring rapid development and testing of behavior models.


Pre-orders between processes, like simulation, have played a central role in the verification and analysis of discrete-state systems. Logical characterization of such pre-orders have allowed one to verify the correctness of a system by analyzing an abstraction of the system. In this paper, we investigate whether this approach can be feasibly applied to reason about stability properties of a system.
 Stability is an important property of systems that have a continuous component in their state space; it stipulates that when a system is started somewhere close to its ideal starting state, its behavior is close to its ideal, desired behavior. In [Cuijpers 07], it was shown that stability with respect to equilibrium states is not preserved by bisimulation and hence additional continuity constraints were imposed on the bisimulation relation to ensure preservation of Lyapunov stability. We first show that stability of trajectories is not invariant even under the notion of bisimulation with continuity conditions introduced in [Cuijpers 07]. We then present the notion of uniformly continuous simulations --- namely, simulation with some additional uniform continuity conditions on the relation --- that can be used to reason about stability of trajectories. Finally, we show that uniformly continuous simulations are widely prevalent, by recasting many classical results on proving stability of dynamical and hybrid systems as establishing the existence of a simple, obviously stable system that simulates the desired system through uniformly continuous simulations.


DC-DC converters can be separated into two main groups: switching converters and linear regulators. Linear regulators such as Low Dropout Regulators (LDOs) are straightforward to implement and have a very stable output with low voltage ripple. However, the efficiency of an LDO can fluctuate greatly, as the power dissipation is a function of the device's input and output. On the other hand, a switching regulator uses a switch to regulate energy levels. These types of regulators are more versatile when a larger change of voltage is needed, as efficiency is relatively stable across larger steps of voltages. However, switching regulators tend to have a larger output voltage ripple, which can be an issue for sensitive systems. An approach to utilize both in cascaded configuration while providing a negative output voltage will be presented in this paper. The proposed two-stage conversion system consists of a switching pre-regulator that can track the negative output voltage of the second stage (LDO) such that the difference between input and output voltages is always kept small under varying output voltage while maintaining the high overall conversion efficiency. Computer simulation and hardware results demonstrate that the proposed system can track the negative output voltage well. Additionally, the results show that the proposed system can provide and maintain good overall efficiency, load regulation, and output voltage ripple across a wide range of outputs.


This research presents insights into reasons
why students of Japanese in high school elect to discontinue their studies
before year 11, or continue into senior secondary school. The study is national in scope, encompassing
both Government and non-Government schools, enabling comparisons across
jurisdictions that may reveal incentives and disincentives that operate in
particular States. It is hoped that a
better understanding of the reasons for student choices, and the impacts of
particular institutional and policy settings, will inform development of policy
measures at government, jurisdiction and school levels as well as pedagogic
approaches to support increased continuation.

This report was compiled for the
purpose of informing the work of the Senior Secondary Languages Education
Research Project.


Abstract Since the events of March 1971, Bangladesh has seldom been free from violence. While much of the recent attention revolves around religious extremism and militancy, political violence, as this paper argues, is a larger problem for Bangladesh. At every level of society, Bangladesh has had to confront with acts of violence. Lack of governance impedes the polity from effectively controlling violence, organised and unorganised, against different sections of society. Prolonged military rule, the perennial problem of political intolerance and growth of religious extremism have contributed to this trend.


The title ester, C27H30N2O3, crystallizes with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit whose geometrical features are similar. In each molecule, the pyrrolidine ring adopts an envelope conformation, with the fused C atom shared with the piperidine ring as the flap, and the piperidine ring adopts a chair conformation. In the crystal, C—H⋯π interactions link the inversion-related molecules and form a dimeric arrangement in the unit cell.


RSMD1 is a rare autosomal recessive disorder. Unlike most congenital muscular dystrophies, early motor improvement and normal CPK are typical, while in contrast to structural myopathies there is no specific muscle morphology. Rigid spine, early scoliosis and joint contractures are characteristic. We diagnosed RSMD1 in a 27-year-old Russian female with previous diagnosis of unspecified myopathy. DNA test detected compound heterozygosity for two SEPN1 mutations: already known missence-mutation c.1397G>A (p.Arg466Gln) and novel frame-shift mutation c.683_689dup7 leading to preterm stop-codon.


: A thirtyseven years old Hindu male of borderline lepromatous leprosy with reactions in the form of silvery white scales all over the body with scarring at places and greasy crusted lesion on the cheek further developed pustular reaction, after giving dapsone for a week, is reported.


Using all-atom molecular simulation, a wide range of plasticizers for poly(vinyl chlorid) (PVC), including ortho- and tere-phthalates, trimellitates, citrates, and various aliphatic dicarboxylates, are systematically studied. We focus on the effects of plasticizer molecular structure on its performance, as measured by performance metrics including its thermodynamic compatibility with PVC, effectiveness of reducing the material's Young's modulus, and migration rate in the PVC matrix. The wide variety of plasticizer types covered in the study allows us to investigate the effects of seven molecular design parameters. Experimental findings about the effects of plasticizer molecular design are also compiled from various literature sources and reviewed. Comparison with experiments establishes the reliability of our simulation predictions. The study aims to provide a comprehensive set of guidelines for the selection and design of high-performance plasticizers at the molecular level. Molecular mechanisms for how each design parameter influences plasticizer performance metrics are also discussed. Moreover, we report a nontrivial dependence of plasticizer migration rate on temperature, which reconciles seemingly conflicting experimental reports on the migration tendency of different plasticizers.


I. Introduction About thirty-eight million people live under what is considered poverty in the United States (USCB 2009), which is equivalent to 13 percent of the nation's population. This system, however, is a limited way to define poverty. Other authors have proposed different methods of approaching disadvantaged groups in terms of "exclusion" and "access" (Besharov and Germanis 2004; Bhalla and Lapeyre 1997), involving quality of life indicators from housing, health, and education to socialization and political participation. In this paper, I concentrate on two dimensions of a broad definition of poverty--the built environment and financial exclusion--and argue that they are the foundation of social justice. This paper speaks to these concepts through Texas colonias on the United States-Mexico border region. The thought path is based on our field work there since 2001, exploring various aspects of housing, economic activity and financial access, land tenure, and planning and development. Colonias are poor settlements, usually located in semirural areas on the outskirts of cities, along the border region with Mexico. Estimates suggest that in Texas, around half a million people live in over sixteen hundred colonias, where living conditions resemble those in developing countries. Colonia residents in Texas are mainly of Latino origin, although more than half are born in the United States. This paper focuses on poverty and exclusion in the context of these colonias. I first discuss poverty and how it is defined in the United States. Next I concentrate on two dimensions of poverty, the built environment and financial access, which become the core of the discussion on poverty and social justice. The following section focuses on Texas colonias and how the built environment and financial exclusion actually happen in these settlements. I present one successful microloan program that addresses these two aspects of poverty. Finally I draw some general conclusions and make a few policy recommendations. II. Poverty, Immigration, and the Unbanked According to the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB), thirty-eight million people are defined as living in poverty in the United States. The USCB uses a set of income thresholds varying by family size and composition to determine poverty in the country (USCB 2009). If the family or individual has an overall income less than a predefined threshold, then the family or individual is considered to be living in poverty. Income thresholds are updated yearly for inflation,. The 2008 poverty threshold for an individual under sixty-five years of age was $11,201. Poverty is highly concentrated in the United States, spatially, racially, and socially (Partridge and Rickman 2005). Figure 1 shows poverty rates by ethnic groups for the latest year official statistics are available with this level of detail (USCB 2009). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The highest poverty concentration is in minorities, mainly African Americans and Hispanics, and in recent immigrants. The bar graph shows that the poverty rate for all races was 12.5 percent. Comparing other races with this overall percentage, poverty rates for non-Hispanic whites (8.2 percent) and for Asians (10.2 percent) are relatively low, yet they are relatively high for African Americans (24.5 percent) and Hispanics (21.5 percent). A high proportion of the Hispanic population includes new immigrants, who are more likely to be classified as poor. Gender disparities are also prevalent. More females (14.5 percent) than males (11.6 percent) are poor (USBC 2009), due to the fact that the women/men earnings ratio is less than 1. A ratio higher than 1 would mean that women earn more than men, while a ratio of 1 would mean men and women have equal earnings. In 2007 this ratio was 0.775 at the national level. A ratio less than 1 is found in all fifty states, ranging from the lowest (0.63) in Wyoming to the highest (0. …


The aim of this paper is to study the qualitative behaviour predicted by a mathematical model for the initial stage of T-cell activation. The state variables in the model are the concentrations of phosphorylation states of the T-cell receptor (TCR) complex and the phosphatase SHP-1 in the cell. It is shown that these quantities cannot approach zero and that the model possesses more than one positive steady state for certain values of the parameters. It can also exhibit damped oscillations. It is proved that the chemical concentration which represents the degree of activation of the cell, that of the maximally phosphorylated form of the TCR complex, is, in general, a non-monotone function of the activating signal. In particular, there are cases where there is a value of the dissociation constant of the ligand from the receptor which produces a maximal activation of the T cell. This suggests that mechanisms taking place in the first few minutes after activation and included in the model studied in this paper suffice to explain the optimal dissociation time seen in experiments. In this way, the results of certain simulations in the literature have been confirmed rigorously and some important features which had not previously been seen have been discovered.


Abstract This paper reports an exploratory study of stress, social support and psychological well-being in British chartered accountants, using data from 399 self-report questionnaires. The results suggest that the underlying structure of stress in British accountancy can be explained by three dimensions; quantitative overload stressors, professional/administrative interface stressors and nuisance stressors. The underlying structure of social support for the sample can be represented by three dimensions of help support, social dependability and esteem support. Intensity of quantitative overload stressors, intensity of professional/administrative interface stressors and all three dimensions of support were found to be related to psychological well-being in the sample. Differences between these variables, types of organization and organizational position were examined. The results are discussed with reference to stress management interventions for accountants. Possible generalizations to other professional ...


"Voices of the World" is a rich and timely collection of life stories from activists in the global justice movement. Volume 4 in the acclaimed series "Reinventing Social Emancipation", it assembles first-person narratives from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Wide-ranging explorations of social struggle and progressive politics, these diverse and immediate accounts together provide a powerful invitation to rethink the progressive Left tradition.


From January 1987 to December 1993, 247 patients underwent endometrial ablation as an alternative to hysterectomy in our practice. All these patients had abnormal uterine bleeding, and were evaluated by diagnostic office hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy and then treated in the hospital outpatient center. The success rates for the procedure were greater than 95% as measured by patient satisfaction, and had amenorrhea rates varying from 50% for those patients in their reproductive years to 85% for those patients who were postmenopausal. The complication rates for the procedure were 0.7% and included perforation of the uterus and fluid overload. The procedure of endometrial ablation is a safe, effective alternative to hysterectomy for the treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding.


Brain activity to represent the future How do humans navigate from A to B? Brown et al. developed a virtual reality task to investigate the neural representations that support human navigational planning. Highly specific activity of the hippocampus and related brain areas represented the future locations to which participants eventually moved. Network-level interactions of the hippocampus with the prefrontal cortex thus enable flexible representation of planned destinations. Science, this issue p. 1323 The human hippocampus and hippocampal-cortical interactions simulate navigational events during goal-directed planning. Mental representation of the future is a fundamental component of goal-directed behavior. Computational and animal models highlight prospective spatial coding in the hippocampus, mediated by interactions with the prefrontal cortex, as a putative mechanism for simulating future events. Using whole-brain high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-voxel pattern classification, we tested whether the human hippocampus and interrelated cortical structures support prospective representation of navigational goals. Results demonstrated that hippocampal activity patterns code for future goals to which participants subsequently navigate, as well as for intervening locations along the route, consistent with trajectory-specific simulation. The strength of hippocampal goal representations covaried with goal-related coding in the prefrontal, medial temporal, and medial parietal cortex. Collectively, these data indicate that a hippocampal-cortical network supports prospective simulation of navigational events during goal-directed planning.


A brilliant history of the succession of James I of England, and the shifting power and lethal politics that brought him to the throne. 'Those who live in courts must mark what they say' warned Elizabeth I's godson. 'Who lives for ease had better live away'. At the dawn of the seventeenth century, when Mary, Queen of Scots, was dead and Elizabeth grown old, the English turned from their glorious but ageing queen to Mary's son, James VI of Scots -- the rising sun in the north. Focussing on the intense period of raised hopes and dashed expectations between Christmas 1602 and Christmas 1603, Leanda de Lisle tells in dramatic detail the story of Elizabeth's death and how the suffocating conservatism of her reign was replaced by the energetic, seemingly fair-minded James. As James journeys south to claim his new throne, he is confronted with the extraordinary wealth of his new kingdom, but also with English contempt for his Scots entourage and a stubborn rejection of his hopes for a British union. His welcome turns sour, and those disappointed turn to intrigue, plotting against him -- lives are lost and fortunes won in the struggle for power and influence. In this superb portrait of Elizabeth's court, de Lisle explores the forces that shaped James's life: his separation from his mother and the violence of his Scottish kingdom; his marriage to the vivacious Anna of Denmark; the government corruption, religious persecution and failed rebellions which set the stage for his accession to the throne of England. A story of shifting power and lethal politics, this vivid account of the cusp of the Tudor and Stuart centuries brings to life a period of glamour and intrigue that marked the beginning of a new age.


The effect of oxygen saturation and Pco2 on brain uptake of glucose analogues was studied in rabbits. Using a modified Oldendorf technique, 14C-labeled glucose analogues with a 3H2O reference standard were introduced into the cerebral circulation via the common carotid artery, and the radioactivity of the ipsilateral cerebral cortex was counted and expressed in terms of a brain uptake index (BUI). Severe hypoxia (oxygen saturation ≤ 18%) resulted in approximately a 40% decrease in the BUI of 2-deoxy-D-glucose and a 45% decrease in the BUI of 3-0-methyl-D-glucose. Severe hypercapnia (Pco2, = 100 mm Hg) caused a 45% decrease in the BUI of both of these glucose analogues. Hypercapnia superimposed on severe hypoxia had no additional effect. Hypocapnia (Pco2 = 15 mm Hg) increased the BUI of 3-0-methyl-D-glucose by 35% of the control value, and this increase was extremely sensitive to competitive inhibition. When BUI values were plotted against pH rather than Pco2, for the same experiments, there was a good correlation with the calculated linear regression. These results are compared with previous findings on pathologically induced changes in brain uptake of glucose analogues, and the possible role of blood flow is considered in detail.


Analyses of maximum temperature data from 49 stations in Nepal for the period 1971‐94 reveal warming trends after 1977 ranging from 0.068 to 0.128 Cy r 21 in most of the Middle Mountain and Himalayan regions, while the Siwalik and Terai (southern plains) regions show warming trends less than 0.038 Cy r 21. The subset of records (14 stations) extending back to the early 1960s suggests that the recent warming trends were preceded by similar widespread cooling trends. Distributions of seasonal and annual temperature trends show high rates of warming in the high-elevation regions of the country (Middle Mountains and Himalaya), while low warming or even cooling trends were found in the southern regions. This is attributed to the sensitivity of mountainous regions to climate changes. The seasonal temperature trends and spatial distribution of temperature trends also highlight the influence of monsoon circulation. The Kathmandu record, the longest in Nepal (1921‐94), shows features similar to temperature trends in the Northern Hemisphere, suggesting links between regional trends and global scale phenomena. However, the magnitudes of trends are much enhanced in the Kathmandu as well as in the all-Nepal records. The authors' analyses suggest that contributions of urbanization and local land use/cover changes to the all-Nepal record are minimal and that the all-Nepal record provides an accurate record of temperature variations across the entire region.


Efficient and reliable communication is essential for achieving high performance in a networked computing environment. Limited network resources bring about unavoidable competition among in-flight packets, resulting in network congestion and, possibly, deadlock. The effectiveness of deadlock handling mechanisms in a network often determines the upper bound in the throughput and utilization that the network can deliver. The proposed mechanism is based on increasing the scheduling priority of packets involved in congestion and providing necessary resources for those packets to make forward progress. Simulation results show that the proposed technique not only disperses network congestion effectively but also contributes to achieving high network performance.


This article focuses on a specific component of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) strategy to implement fair housing policy, its requirement for local jurisdictions that receive community development block grant (CDBG) dollars to prepare an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (AI) report. The article's analysis is based on an evaluation of the City of Buffalo's 2004 AI report. The evaluation was conducted by a local fair housing organization in collaboration with university-based researchers. The findings from the evaluation revealed that the City had made little progress in implementing the action plan from its AI report over an eight year period. This was an outgrowth of local funding constraints, limited staff capacity, ambiguous HUD rules for AI reporting, and a lack of political will to pursue fair housing in Buffalo. In light of these findings, we recommend that HUD: mandate timeframes for AI implementation, require AI updates at regular intervals, and more clearly specify the format and content of AI reports. We also recommend that HUD require jurisdictions to include evaluation plans in their AI reports and measure outcomes from the implementation of AI action plans. These reforms will enhance the ability of AI reports to serve as effective planning tools for the affirmative furthering of fair housing policy.


It is undoubtedly true that social media such as Facebook and Twitter are influencing the ways in which politicians engage the public, no longer hostage to the gatekeeping proclivities of traditional media, but now able to broadcast their messages to anyone who wants to hear them. On the public's side, we can now follow politicians who are on Twitter or have a Facebook fan page, comment on their tweets and posts, and send them messages directly. So far, so democratic. But how many of us actually do more than just read posts and tweets and how many politicians do more than just inform us about their activities? Crucially, do politicians use social media in ways that enhance opportunities for dialogue between them and us? To explore these questions further in relation to politicians' Facebook behaviours, we interviewed New Zealand Members of Parliament about their motivations for using social media and their attitudes on such media's effectiveness as a political communication tool in the context of a general election campaign. Our findings suggest that despite their talk of citizen engagement, most politicians use social media as means of distributing information (one-way flow) and to make themselves both visible and 'hip' to the public. While cautiously optimistic about the role of social media in the lives of citizens, Members of Parliament also suggest that social media must be complementary to, and thus incorporated in, a broad-based communications strategy, rather than be seen as a replacement for traditional campaign activities.


In recent years, a breakthrough in statistical physics has occurred. Simply put, statistical physicists have determined that physical systems which consist of a large number of interacting particles obey universal laws that are independent of the microscopic details. This progress was mainly due to the development of scaling theory. Since economic systems also consist of a large number of interacting units, it is plausible that scaling theory can be applied to economics. To test this possibility we study the dynamics of firm size. This may help to build a more complete characterization of the nature and processes behind firm growth. To date, the study of firm dynamics has primarily focused on whether small firms on average have higher growth rates than large firms. To a lesser extent, attention has been placed on the relationship between firm size and variation in growth rate. Our research goes beyond these questions by looking at the relationship between numerous firm characteristics and the entire distribution of growth rates. Thus, it may provide a better understanding of the mechanisms behind firm dynamics. In contrast to previous studies, this research analyzes data over many time scales, instead of just a single time interval. From a scientific standpoint, this work could be useful because it will affect the formulation of firm modeling—one of the basic building blocks of all economic analysis. In addition, this work will have practical applications. For example, there are Federal policies that are designed to encourage small businesses. While such policies might be justified on grounds other than their contribution to growth, any systematic difference in the growth rates of small and large firms might be relevant for evaluating such policies. Also, there has traditionally been a concern that an excessive amount of economic activity might become concentrated in a small number of firms. A more detailed understanding of the firm growth process will provide evidence for whether such concerns have any scientific foundation.


The RRI Bogor Kiwari's program besides has a role to increase the quality of public service which helped by dependent instances like The Indonesian Red Cross Hospital and PT TASPEN in Bogor also has other role to provide public service to fulfill the listener's needs that effected the listener's satisfaction to the instances worthiness services through Bogor Kiwari's programme as a place to keep and tell the society's sights. The aims of this research are: (1) to analyze the instances's responses to the Kiwari RRI Bogor's programme of public services in Bogor, (2) to analyze the actions of professional instances services in Bogor, (3) to analyze the models of professional instances services to public in Bogor. The data were taken and collected on January until February 2010. This research was used constructivist paradigm. The research subjects and key informans were the leaders and staffs of The Indonesian Red Cross Hospital and PT TASPEN in Bogor that became a messenger as speakers in Bogor Kiwari's talk show programme and also RRI Bogor's staff who concerned about Bogor Kiwari's programme. The data were taken by using technique of data collection through: document study, observation, indepth interview and FGD. The results of this research were: (1) Bogor Kiwari's programme got enough satisfaction responses from The Indonesian Red Cross Hospital and PT TASPEN in Bogor; (2) The Indonesian Red Cross Hospital and PT TASPEN in Bogor when done the actions had three aspects, namely: (a) quality of service, (b) efficiency and appropriate actions, (c) employee rationalization; (3) The services strategies that done by The Indonesian Red Cross Hospital and PT TASPEN in Bogor were quick and exact service to overcome public's sights, had coordination with government, given the satisfy facilitations.


There has been a growing academic recognition of the increasing significance of psychologically – and behaviourally – informed modes of governance in recent years in a variety of different states. We contend that this academic research has neglected one important theme, namely the growing use of experiments as a way of developing and testing novel policies. Drawing on extensive qualitative and documentary research, this paper develops critical perspectives on the impacts of the psychological sciences on public policy, and considers more broadly the changing experimental form of modern states. The tendency for emerging forms of experimental governance to be predicated on very narrow, socially disempowering, visions of experimental knowledge production is critiqued. We delineate how psychological governance and emerging forms of experimental subjectivity have the potential to enable more empowering and progressive state forms and subjectivities to emerge through more open and collective forms of experimentation.


This paper examines how the structure of a social network and the quality of information available to different agents determine the speed of social learning. To this end, we study a variant of the seminal model of DeGroot (1974), according to which agents linearly combine their personal experiences with the views of their neighbors. We show that the rate of learning has a simple analytical characterization in terms of the relative entropy of agents' signal structures and their eigenvector centralities. Our characterization establishes that the way information is dispersed throughout the social network has non-trivial implications for the rate of learning. In particular, we show that when the informativeness of different agents' signal structures are comparable in the sense of Blackwell (1953), then a positive assortative matching of signal qualities and eigenvector centralities maximizes the rate of learning. On the other hand, if information structures are such that each individual possesses some information crucial for learning, then the rate of learning is higher when agents with the best signals are located at the periphery of the network. Finally, we show that the extent of asymmetry in the structure of the social network plays a key role in the long-run dynamics of the beliefs.


A supramolecular assembly composed of a two-component mixture of amphiphilic diarylethenes, which have octyloxycarbonyl and N-octylcarbamoyl groups, showed a unique macroscopic transformation upon irradiation with UV light and subsequent standing in the dark. Unlike the pure compounds, the assembly was repetitively separated into a blue sphere and a red-purple sparse structure. Both the blue sphere and the sparse structure turned into colorless spheres upon irradiation with visible light and the divided colorless spheres showed the same response to UV and visible light. Phase diagrams based on the change in absorption spectra upon temperature change suggested that the transformation originates from a LCST transition. In the 0.5 : 0.5 mixture, in contrast to the pure compounds, the transition temperature sharply changed at around 50% of the fraction of the closed-ring isomer. TEM imaging showed that the 0.5 : 0.5 mixture with high photoisomerization yield formed a 10 nm-sized network. Judging from the phase diagram and TEM images, the separation is understood as the local phase transition of the regions with a high fraction of the closed-ring isomer.


'Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils, - no, nor the human race, as I believe, - and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day' - Republic, Book V With these words Plato expressed his ideal form of government. Often dismissed as unrealizable, they have appealed down the ages to men of goodwill. Having translated all of the Dialogues from Greek into Latin, at the request of his Medici patrons, Ficino was asked to prepare summaries by Lorenzo de' Medici, the de facto ruler of the republic of Florence, who aspired to be the kind of enlightened ruler Plato described. Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) was one of the most influential thinkers of the Renaissance. He put before society a new ideal of human nature, emphasising its divine potential. As head of the Platonic Academy in Florence, and as teacher and guide to a remarkable circle of men, he made a vital contribution to the changes that were taking place in European thought. With the collapse of the global economy calling the wisdom of our political leaders into question, this publication is a timely reminder of those principles which have formed the basis of good government and inspired statesmen down the ages. This four-volume series consists of Gardens of Philosophy, 2006, Evermore Shall Be So, 2007 and All Things Natural, 2010, and contains all Ficino's commentaries not previously translated into English. As Carol Kaske of Cornell University wrote when reviewing Gardens of Philosophy in Renaissance Quarterly, these translations fill 'A need. Even those Anglophone scholars who know Latin still need a translation in order to read quickly through a large body of material'.


Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) is the etiological agent of chronic paralysis, an infectious and contagious disease in adult honeybees. CBPV is a positive single-stranded RNA virus which contains two major viral RNA fragments. RNA 1 (3674 nt) and RNA 2 (2305 nt) encode three and four putative open reading frames (ORFs), respectively. RNA 1 is thought to encode the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) since the amino acid sequence derived from ORF 3 shares similarities with the RdRP of families Nodaviridae and Tombusviridae. The genomic organization of CBPV and in silico analyses have suggested that RNA 1 encodes non-structural proteins, while RNA 2 encodes structural proteins, which are probably encoded by ORFs 2 and 3. In this study, purified CBPV particles were used to characterize virion proteins by mass spectrometry. Several polypeptides corresponding to proteins encoded by ORF 2 and 3 on RNA 2 were detected. Their role in the formation of the viral capsid is discussed.


ZrO_2 films deposited on silicon (100) substrates using pulsed-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (PP-MOCVD) with zirconium n-propoxide (ZnP) Zr(OC_3H_7)_4 were dense and fully crystalline for substrate temperatures of 500 to 700 °C. Film thicknesses were 40 to 815 nm thick, measured after growth using ellipsometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The growth rate was between 0.1 μm/h at 500 °C and 1 μm/h at 700 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated an average grain size of 10 to 20 nm. There was a random orientation of cubic/tetragonal zirconia at the highest experimental temperature of 700 °C. SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to characterize island height of discontinuous films in the initial stages of growth where defects in the substrate caused preferred nucleation of isolated particles. At later stages of growth, the average surface roughness of continuous films was 30 nm, which revealed a more uniform growth had developed. A growth model is proposed, and optimal growth conditions are suggested for targeted microstructures of ZrO_2 films.


The electricity consumer is critical to the success of decarbonization. Yet, the economic signals that consumers receive in many countries are likely to discourage efficient decisions and could slow decarbonization or unnecessarily raise the costs. This paper emphasizes the importance of encouraging only efficient consumer decisions, in particular with respect to investment and use of distributed energy resources (DER) behind the meter (BTM). It focuses on eliminating existing price distortions in certain liberalized electricity markets in the European Union (EU) and on creating or changing markets to reflect new economic and technological conditions.


To investigate how the physicochemical properties and pharmacokinetics of SM-10888 are altered by metabolic reactions, physicochemical and pharmacokinetic parameters of its phase I and phase II metabolites were determined. The metabolic pathways of SM-10888 in rats include oxidation at the C1 position (via the hydroxylated metabolite M3 to the cyclic ketone M4) and glucuronidation of both SM-10888 and M3 (SMG and M3G). Partition coefficients between n-octanol/pH 7.4 buffer (logP*) were determined to be 2.23 for SM-10888, 1.59 for M3, 2.66 for M4, -1.37 for SMG, and -1.72 for M3G. The phase I metabolite M3 showed lower lipophilicity and serum protein binding at pH 7.4, and larger renal clearance (CLr) than SM-10888. In contrast, the further oxidized metabolite M4 demonstrated higher lipophilicity and protein binding and lower CLr than SM-10888 and M3. Among these nonconjugated forms, only the pKa value of M4 was found to be below 7.4 (6.2 for M4, 8.5 for SM-10888, and 8.0 for M3), indicating that M4 exists in a more lipophilic nonionized form at the physiological pH, whereas SM-10888 and M3 are present as ionized forms. The significant shift in pKa of M4 could be the result of a cooperative effect of the electron withdrawing carbonyl group and resonating structure allowing hydrogen bond formation between CO and NH2 group, and might explain its high lipophilicity and low CLr. Glucuronidation significantly increased hydrophilicity with CLr's in excess of the glomerular filtration rate, suggesting involvement of active transport.


For hypertensive patients with renal diseases (RD), strict blood pressure (BP) control has been recommended in recent hypertension guidelines, such as JNC VI, JNC 7, WHO/ISH 1999 and ESH-ESC 2003. We assessed the current status of BP control and the changes of BP control before and after the publication of these guidelines in 489 hypertensive patients with or without RD (age, 19–89 years, mean 59±13 years) who visited the hypertension and kidney outpatient clinic at Kyushu University Hospital. The clinical characteristics of RD and non-RD patients were assessed (RD patients: age, 20–89 years, mean 60±13 years, n=311; non-RD patients: age, 19–86 years, mean 58±13 years, n=178). In addition, we compared the BP control status in 2003 to that in 1996. In 2003, the BP in RD patients was 134±16/78±10 mmHg and that in non-RD patients was 138±12/83±9 mmHg. When strict BP control was defined as <130/80 mmHg, the frequency of strict BP control in RD patients was 28.9% in 2003. In addition, the BP levels of RD patients in 2003 were significantly lower than those in 1996 (134±16/78±10 mmHg vs. 141±17/85±10 mmHg, p<0.05 for both systolic blood pressure [SBP] and diastolic blood pressure [DBP]), and the frequency of strict BP control in RD patients was higher in 2003 than in 1996 (28.9% vs. 11.8%, p<0.01). The BP levels of non-RD patients in 2003 tended to be lower than those in 1996 (138±12/83±9 mmHg vs. 141±13/85±9 mmHg, n.s.). In 2003, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) were more frequently prescribed to RD patients than to non-RD patients. Furthermore, the use of ARBs was markedly increased in 2003 compared with 1996. In conclusion, in our outpatient clinic, BP levels in hypertensive patients with RD have improved in recent years, and were lower than those in hypertensive patients without RD, which may in part reflect the physicians' awareness of the importance of strict BP control in RD patients, as suggested by several recent hypertension guidelines.


The European Court of Human Rights revisited the issue of legal recognition for same-sex partnerships on July 21, 2015 when it decided Oliari and Others v. Italy. This Note explores the implications of that decision and what it may mean for same-sex couples within Italy and throughout the Council of Europe. Through a careful analysis of the decision, this Note concludes that Oliari provides slight yet important movement on the issue of a Contracting State's obligation to afford legal recognition for same-sex partnerships, but a practical implementation of the Court's holding likely will yield little additional movement in more conservative Contracting States, as the factors utilized to find a violation on the part of Italy remain highly unique to the Italian experience, rendering any perception of a victory as merely psychological in nature.


The effects of route of administration and blood flow on the elimination of lidocaine, diphenylhydantoin and propranolol have been investigated in the isolated perfused rat liver. After administration directly into the portal vein, drug concentrations in the reservoir were the same at a given flow rate as concentrations in the hepatic vein after drug was placed directly into the reservoir. The apparent clearance of the drug calculated from these concentrations gave an estimate of intrinsic drug clearance, which is an estimate of the activity of the drug-metabolizing enzymes. Intrinsic clearance is defined as drug clearance when flow is not rate limiting and therefore should be independent of flow. This was confirmed by showing that, at steady state, neither hepatic venous drug concentrations nor concentrations in the reservoir after portal venous administration of lidocaine were affected by altering hepatic blood flow from 10 to 20 ml/min. Propranolol was given as a single dose into the reservoir at flows of 10 and 20 ml/min. The area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) in the reservoir was decreased by increased flow, but AUC for hepatic venous blood was unchanged. Although AUC in hepatic venous blood was unchanged. Although AUC in hepatic venous blood was unchanged, higher peak concentrations and a more rapid half-life was seen in keeping with the clearance of drug from the reservoir. These data suggest that after oral drug administration, steady-state concentrations or AUC in systemic blood is dependent only on the activity of the enzymes involved (i.e., intrinsic clearance) and unaffected by flow, provided drug is completely absorbed and eliminated only by the liver. Furthermore, this will apply even to drugs whose systemic clearance and drug half-life after i.v. administration is profoundly affected by altered hepatic blood flow.


Recent evaluations have indicated that in practice, general methods for prediction which do not account for changes in the conditional distribution of a target variable given feature values in some cases outperform causal discovery based methods for prediction which can account for such changes. We investigate some possibilities which may explain these findings. We give theoretical conditions, which are confirmed experimentally, for when particular manipulations of variables should not affect predictions for a target. We then consider the tradeoff between errors related to causality, i.e. not accounting for changes in a distribution after variables are manipulated, and errors resulting from sample bias, overfitting, and assuming specific parametric forms that do not fit the data, which most existing causal discovery based methods are particularly prone to making.


Abstract How are national identities transformed? If they are mostly narratives of belonging to a community of history and destiny to which people subscribe, those boundary-making procedures that constitute the political field by instituting differences can provide a tentative answer to this question. This paper is concerned with one such cultural practice, namely film-viewing. Globalisation, a boundary-blurring practice, has been the backdrop against which transformations in national identity are often discussed, either bemoaned as cultural imperialism or celebrated as ongoing hybridisation. This piece of research took Zhang Yimou's controversial film Hero as a point of departure, and asked groups of Chinese audiences how they understood the Chinese identity it conveys. Although it is still a work in progress, provisional results are reported below.


The effects of alloxan diabetes and subsequent treatment with insulin on extra-mitochondrial oxygen metabolism in terms of D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO), xanthine oxidase and catalase were examined. The DAAO activity in the liver with D-alanine and D-serine decreased by 33—62% in the diabetic group while the decrease in the kidneys was 61—74%. Insulin treatment resulted in overstimulation of DAAO activity in the liver but not in the kidneys. Tissue glycogen content was lowered in the diabetic animals but was restored by insulin treat-ment. Tissue glycogen content and DAAO activity showed an inverse relationship. The xanthine oxidase activity in the two tissues decreased from 40—55%; the catalase activity decreased from 34—54%. Insulin treatment was unable to restore the xanthine oxidase and catalase activities in both the tissues.


Summary: The impact of browsing by introduced brushtail possums on mixed beech - broadleaved forests in South Westland was estimated from the amount of conspicuous canopy dieback present in 1989-1990. Aerial and ground-based reconnaissance in all catchments indicated most canopies (84%) were intact. The remaining 16% of canopies were affected by conspicuous dieback, principally of southern rata (Metrosideros umbellata) and/or fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata). Major dieback nuclei were located in the three areas with the longest history of browsing by possums, which had spread from three known liberation centres. At each dieback nucleus, the amount of dieback reflected the abundance of possum-preferred canopy species. Because South Westland forests contain lower proportions of such species, they are less susceptible to dieback than the conifer-broadleaved forests of central Westland. However, the present low amounts of dieback in South Westland mainly reflect low overall possum densities and a short period of occupation. The occurrence of key possum-preferred species indicates that about one-third of the forests could develop conspicuous canopy dieback if possum numbers increase and 44-94% are susceptible to canopy and/or understorey depletion. By 1992, the few areas selected for sustained possum control effort in Westland under-represented the range of forest composition. However, recently boosted funding for possum control has provided the opportunity to protect representative forest tracts before the onset of widespread ecosystem depletion in South Westland.


Developing a new effective anticancer agent is a real hope and challenge, in this concern protein specific targeting provides very selective and promising approach, on the other hand cell culture model enables the researcher to make a rapid surveying of a wide number of investigational agents. Hedgehog receptors (SMO) are of the key bio-targets that may ensure more effective anticancer mode of treatment as sonic hedgehog (Shh) is expressed in many cancer types. In this study, a prior computerized model of editing and surveying drugs was done. a candidate antineoplastic drug TAN was obtained for an in vitro hedgehog SMO receptors blocking effect assessment on HCT116, a human colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line in comparison with Itraconazole (ITC), and the standard anticancer agents doxorubicin (DOX) and 5- fluorouracil (5 FU) the known SMO blocking agent, together with the cytotoxic effect assessment on the HCT 116 cells and Vero cells for the above mentioned drugs. This research was designed to survey and assign a candidate drug with high affinity to block SMO receptors of Hedgehog signaling pathway of HCT 116 colorectal cancer cells. The results revealed that TAN may give a promising role in therapeutic approach of colorectal cancer. It showed an in silico parameters as anticancer agent by Van der Waals interaction of TAN force field with a scaffold like minor groove at twisted region of smoothed receptor. This interaction between TAN and this region was referred to as reliable mechanism of impairment of cell proliferation or invasiveness (according to In silico model software reliability). Also TAN has a significant antineoplastic effect on colorectal cancer HCT116 cell line represented by its significant decreasing of the cellular viability. In addition, TAN displayed significant safety characteristics from the measured parameters on Vero cell line in this research. We concluded that the SMO blocking investigational agent TAN has a reasonable and significant antineoplastic effect on colorectal cancer HCT116 cells represented by its significant decreasing of the cellular viability and reduction of target binding energy. TAN also displayed significant safety characteristics from the measured parameters on Vero cell line in this research.


Liquid crystal polyurethane (LCPBI) containing biphenylnate and imide units was synthesized and characterized and used to modify the conventional epoxy resin (E-51). Experimental results revealed that the impact strength of the epoxy resin modified with LCPBI was 2.5 times higher than that of unmodified epoxy resin, and the tensile strength as well as the bending strength was also improved. The thermal decomposition temperature of modified systems was also 15-20oC higher than that of the unmodified system, and the fracture structures of the blends was investigated by SEM.


Audio Guides have been the prevalent mode of information delivery in public spaces such as Museums and Art Galleries. These devices are programmed to render static information to their users about the collections and artworks present and require human input to operate. The inability to automatically deliver contextual messages and the lack of interactivity are major hurdles to ensuring a rich and seamless user experience. Ubiquitous smartphones can be leveraged to create pervasive audio guides that provide rich and personalized user experience. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of "Usher", an intelligent tour companion. Usher provides three distinct advantages over traditional audio guides. First, Usher uses smartphone sensors to infer user context such as his physical location, locomotive state and orientation to deliver relevant information to the user. Second, Usher also provides interface to a cognitive Question Answer(QA) service for the inquisitive users and answers contextual queries. Finally, Usher notifies users if any of their social media friends are present in the vicinity. The ability to seamlessly track user context to provide rich semantic information and the cognitive capability to answer contextual queries means that Usher can enhance the user experience in a museum by multitudes.


Abstract In planar parallel robots, limitations occur in the functional workspace because of interference of the legs with each other and because of drive singularities where the actuators lose control of the moving platform and the actuator forces grow without bounds. A 2-RPR (revolute, prismatic, revolute joints) planar parallel manipulator with two legs that minimizes the interference of the mechanical components is considered. Avoidance of the drive singularities is in general not desirable since it reduces the functional workspace. An inverse dynamics algorithm with singularity robustness is formulated allowing full utilization of the workspace. It is shown that if the trajectory is planned to satisfy certain conditions related to the consistency of the dynamic equations, the manipulator can pass through the drive singularities while the actuator forces remain stable. Furthermore, for finding the actuator forces in the vicinity of the singular positions a full rank modification of the dynamic equations is developed. A deployment motion is analysed to illustrate the proposed approach.


Food giant Kellogg Co. struggled throughout the 1990s, as both the stature of its legendary brands and its profit margins declined. A noted business journalist describes how the appointment of Carlos Gutierrez as CEO and the loss of market leadership to General Mills Inc. in 1999 forced Kellogg to establish a more meaningful, sustainable profit-oriented focus in recent years and outlines Kellogg's ambitious program of change.

New business models emphasized value (rather than volume) growth and encouraged stronger cash flow. Realism was restored to financial forecasts, brand unit operations more closely integrated and employee compensation tied directly to business unit performance. New product launch documents stopped evaluating margins by volume alone, and innovation specialists were encouraged to add value-added touches to existing brands.

As a result of this change in strategy, says the author, Kellogg's fortunes have improved dramatically. New product launches based on existing products have done well. And the company is better able to access its healthy food roots by playing up the health benefits of key products. Most importantly, says the author, a return to strong profitable growth and increasing market confidence in the company serves as further evidence of the strategy's success.


Basic medicobiological research in recent years has made rapid advances in the functional understanding of normal and pathological processes down to the molecular level. At the same time, various imaging modalities have developed from the depiction of organs to approaching the depiction of the cellular level and are about to make the visualization of molecular processes an established procedure. Besides other modalities like PET and near-infrared fluorescence, MR imaging offers some promising options for molecular imaging as well as some applications that have already been tested such as the visualization of enzyme activity, the depiction of the expression of certain genes, the visualization of surface receptors, or the specific demonstration of cells involved in the body's immune response. A major advantage of molecular magnetic resonance imaging (mMRI) over other more sensitive modalities is its high spatial resolution. However, the establishment of mMRI crucially relies on further improvements in resolution and the development of molecular markers for improving its sensitivity and specificity. The state of the art of mMRI is presented by giving a survey of the literature on experimental studies and reporting the results our study group obtained during investigation on gliomas.


ABSTRACT Purpose Ocular involvement has been shown in many of the primary mitochondrial diseases. Herein, we report a pediatric case of an extraordinary fundus appearance of bilateral plaque-like macular atrophy and hypopigmented flecks with homozygous MFF gene mutation. Methods A case report. Results An eighteen-month-old male infant presented with a lack of object tracking which was recognized in the last few months. Along with regression in normal development, myoclonic epilepsy signs and encephalomyelopathy were detected. Therefore, the patient was evaluated for mitochondrial diseases. Fundus examination revealed bilateral fine hypopigmented lesions in retinal pigment epithelium at midperiphery and periphery. Additionally, there was bilateral geographic atrophy that was separated from the adjacent normal retina with distinct borders in the fovea. Homozygous pT198A (c.592A>G) missense variation was detected in the MFF gene. Conclusion Maculopathy could be encountered in patients with MFF gene variation. Specific variants or some undiscovered genomic mutations may be the reason for this novel clinical appearance.


The recent application of an experimental type classification of farms in New South Wales is, I think, the most significant development in Australian agricultural statistics since the war. This operation, carried out for the year 1955-56, involved the classification of statistical returns for the 78,000 rural holdings in the State, according to the nature of activity on individual holdings. A great deal of teamwork has gone into the planning and development of this classification, (1) and I believe that it will provide useful and reliable statistical results. The project is still in the experimental stage and much remains to be done before a fully operative classification can be applied in all States.


This paper presents a wideband blocker filtering technique for an RF front-end. A wideband LNA and a transferred impedance filter are implemented as part of a receiver to demonstrate the feasibility of the system. The transferred impedance filter includes an adjustable polyphase filter to compensate for the phase shift in the system in order to maintain correct operating frequency. The transferred impedance filter with passive mixers and the wideband LNA are analyzed by means of frequency transformation to demonstrate the different design trade-offs. The front-end achieves a gain of 43 and 41 dB and a noise figure of 3.2 and 5.7 dB with an IIP3 of -13 and -5 dBm with the transferred-impedance filter turned off and on, respectively. An added selectivity of 6 dB is achieved by using the solutions described in this paper.


Rural/small communities are facing a time of transition. They are re-envisioning and repositioning themselves through diversifying their economic base, enhancing quality of life, and reinventing themselves for new functions and roles. Issues of retaining and engaging youth, attracting new residents and businesses, and maintaining community vitality and identity overarch these efforts. There is awareness that with many traditional resource-based industries in jeopardy, rural communities must look to develop not only new sources of wealth, but a new sense of self, and this is where arts and culture can play a key role in community sustainability. Arts, culture, and heritage are increasingly viewed not only as amenities to improve the quality of life, but as a foundation upon which the future of these rural/small communities rests. In this context, this paper presents a broad overview of key themes in the literature on cultural development in rural and small communities, based on a review of Canadian and international projects and publications. The research is diverse, incorporates a wide range of disciplines and approaches, includes both academic and policy-related studies, and points to an array of issues, dynamics, and strategies that influence the development and vitality of arts activities in rural communities. Although there is no comprehensive "whole" to the research literature, six major themes are used to broadly organize the literature: 1) The nature of arts and creative activities in rural communities; 2) Capacity and related challenges; 3) Community factors and critical ingredients; 4) Population-related issues and opportunities; 5) Economic issues and opportunities; and 6) Governance factors.


Background: The mitogenic kinin peptides formed by the serine protease, tissue kallikrein (TK1), stimulate the proliferation of tumour cells and, by increasing vascular permeability, enhance metastasis. Oesophageal mucosal epithelial cells are derived from the epithelial cell germ layer, which expresses the kallikrein–kinin cascade. Aim: To determine the cellular distribution of active TK1, prokallikrein, and the kinin B1 and B2 receptors in oesophageal carcinoma by immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridisation (ISH). Methods: Fifty oesophageal specimens (33 biopsies and 17 resections) and 10 control specimens adjacent to tumour or normal oesophageal biopsies were studied. Specific antibodies were used to determine the cellular localisation of TK1, prokallikrein, and the kinin B1 and B2 receptors in normal and oesophageal specimens by standard immunohistochemical techniques. The intensity of immunolabelling was quantified by image analysis. Antisense probes for TK1 and the kinin B1 and B2 receptors were also used to localise mRNA. Results: TK1 (active and prokallikrein) was expressed in the mucosa of normal and tumour oesophageal epithelium. In general, expression was highest in activated mast cells, followed by giant tumour cells. Immunolabelling results were confirmed by ISH experiments. Conclusions: This is the first demonstration that TK1 and kinin B1 and B2 receptors are expressed in oesophageal carcinoma. Because TK1 released from tumour cells enzymatically generates mitogenic kinins from its endogenous substrate, kininogen, it is possible that third generation kinin receptor antagonists, which have been shown to be cytotoxic to cancer cells, may be useful therapeutic agents in this disease.


Abstract A new root-knot nematode (RKN) species, Meloidogyne karsseni n. sp., associated with sweet pepper from Mexico, and a population of M. paranaensis from Guatemala, are described using data from morphological, biochemical (isozyme enzymes), molecular, and phylogenetic analyses. Meloidogyne karsseni n. sp. can be morphologically diagnosed using the combined features of the second-stage juveniles, viz. body length (345 to 422 μm), a conical rounded head region, a post-labial annule lacking transverse striation, a thin stylet 11 to 12 μm long, rounded to oval and backwardly sloping knobs, dorsal gland orifice (DGO) at 5.2 to 6.0 μm from the knobs, a hemizonid just above the secretory-excretory (SE) pore, a tapering tail with finely rounded terminus and one or two very weak constrictions at hyaline tail tip; the female characters viz. oval-to-rounded perineal pattern with coarse striation on lateral sides around the anus, low dorsal arch with finer striations, and distinctly visible lateral lines; and the male characteristics viz. a rounded and continuous head, a post-labial annule without transverse striations, a robust stylet 20 to 24 μm long, rounded-to-oval and slightly backwardly sloping knobs, and a DGO at 2.4 to 2.9 μm from the knobs. In all the studied males of M. paranaensis, a characteristic sclerotization around the duct of SE-pore was also observed for the first time. Sequences of 18S, D2–D3 of 28S, and ITS of rDNA, and cox1 of mtDNA were generated for the two species, and in the phylogenetic trees based on these genes, both species appeared in the tropical RKN species complex clade.


This thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of the determinants of joint venture performance in the context of a developing country. After a comprehensive review of past studies is presented, highlighting the focus of contemporary research on international joint venture, a conceptual model is presented for studying the determinants of joint venture performance. A number of hypotheses which focuses on the relationships between joint venture performance measures and various organisational, strategic, managerial, industry-related, and country-related factors are developed. The impact of these factors on joint venture success and stabiUty is then analysed using multivariate analysis. While measurement methods of past studies are adopted in several cases, new measures are developed for the measurement of a number of determinants (viz., resource complementarity and psychic distance). The empirical analysis uses data collected from 59 international joint ventures involving local partners and Developed and Developing country multinational companies in Bangladesh. A descriptive analysis of the preliminary results of the study is followed by bivariate and multivariate analyses. In general, the results of the bivariate analysis tend to support the posited hypotheses for half of the variables of this study. Multivariate analysis reveals that joint venture experience of the parents, the extent of complementarity of contributed resources, the extent of cooperation between parent firms, and export orientation of the joint venture have significant positive impact on success. Mature technology tend to influence success better than the sophisticated technology. The degree of cooperation between parent firms tend to determine joint venture stability. Psychic distance between parents is also a likely predictor of joint venture stability but, the influence is relatively weak. The exploratory analysis of the joint ventures of Developed and Developing country multinational companies reveals that these two groups of joint ventures are significantiy different in terms of parents' firm size, multinational spread and joint venture experience, as well as the nature of technology they use, the market cater for, aiJwi the level of psychic distance between parents' country of origin. Despite these differences, these two groups of joint ventures did not perform differently. Implications of the research findings are discussed. Finally, the limitations of this stedy are considered and possible directions for further research outlined.


Earth's dynamic oblateness (J 2) has been decreasing due to postglacial rebound (PGR). However, J 2 began to increase in 1997, indicating a pronounced global-scale mass redistribution within Earth's system. We have determined that the observed increases in J 2 are caused primarily by a recent surge in subpolar glacial melting and by mass shifts in the Southern, Pacific, and Indian oceans. When these effects are removed, the residual trend in J 2 (–2.9 x 10−11 year−1) becomes consistent with previous estimates of PGR from satellite and eclipse data. The climatic significance of these rapid shifts in glacial and oceanic mass, however, remains to be investigated.


Until these days, it is rare to find a systemic functional linguistics analysis on comic media. The combination of both is really interesting. Comic is a media to tell messages using the mix of picture and text. With that context, comics have its way to tell a message. Thus, the researcher adopted Spradley's qualitative analysis to analyze text and picture in the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. The researcher analyzes the metafunctions on both text and picture using Halliday's systemic functional linguistics theory as the base and followed by Martin & Rose's multimodal discourse analysis theory. What the researcher wants to find is divided into three: how comic tells a message through an image, text, and text-image relation. First, the researcher found that through the image, comic tends to distribute the information in a panel in a centralized way. Then, it has an identical pattern in delivering interpersonal messages. In text analysis, verbal process and verbal behavioral processes are so rare to appear. Last, there is no notable indication in the relation to text and image. What the researcher analyzes is the dialogue and monologue coming from the characters which are mostly found in balloon speech and obviously refers to images.


Historians, I contend, can more effectively influence the Court and reclaim their authority to interpret the past without surrendering their professional principles. They must first understand that their attempts to get involved in originalist debates fall short in three ways: (1) they traffic in certitudes, which are anathema to the historical vocation; (2) they accept and legitimize the normative, originalist premise that the past ought to inform the present; and (3) they search for historical analogies to satisfy the Court's originalists when they are better served locating or contextualizing persuasive case law. This Note will examine these three matters in turn in Parts One, Two and Three. In Part Four, I argue that historians can and should pursue alternative approaches in their briefs. Responding to each of the three issues named above, respectively, they should (1) attack originalist arguments by destabilizing their historical conclusions, (2) adopt alternatives to originalist advocacy in their amicus briefs, or (3) craft briefs narrowly in the fashion of a historical "special master." All three approaches would bring an urgent relevancy to historical advocacy without sacrificing historical principles.


A study of the family Cytheruridae in Recent sediments from the coast of northern Rio de Janeiro State revealed the presence of four new species: (Hemicytherura auriculata, Oculocytheropteron delicatum, Oculocytheropteron circumcostatum and Semicytherura caudata,) and four previously described species (Semicytherura rugosoreticulata Whatley, Chadwick, Coxill & Toy, 1988, Oculocytheropteron macropunctatum Whatley, Chadwick, Coxill & Toy, 1988, Oculocytheropteron reticulopunctatum Whatley, Chadwick, Coxill & Toy, 1988 and Paracytheridea bulbosa Purper & Ornellas, 1989). A further two species Cytheropteron sp. and Kangarina sp. are left in open nomenclature due to paucity of the material. The ecology and distribution of the fauna suggest that the presence of many of these species, which also occur in colder waters off the coast of Uruguay and Argentina, is probably due to the upwelling of the South Atlantic Central Water in this area.


Introduction Mitochondria are increasingly recognized to play a role in the airway inflammation of asthma. Model systems to study the role of mitochondrial gene expression in bronchial epithelium are lacking. Here, we create custom bronchial epithelial cell lines derived from primary airway epithelium that are depleted of mitochondrial DNA. Methods We treated BET-1A and BEAS-2B cells with ethidium bromide (EtBr) with or without 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (ddC) to create cells lacking mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Cells' mtDNA copy number were verified by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in comparison to nuclear DNA (nDNA). Cells were also assessed for oxidative phosphorylation by measures of oxygen consumption using the Seahorse analyzer. Results One week of EtBr treatment led to ∼95% reduction of mtDNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) in cells (mtDNA-CN, mean±SE, baseline vs. treatment: BEAS-2B, 820 ± 62 vs. 56 ± 9; BET-1A, 957 ± 52 vs. 73 ± 2), which was further reduced by addition of 25 μM ddC (mtDNA-CN: BEAS-2B, 2.8; BET-1A, 47.9). Treatment for up to three weeks with EtBr and ddC led to near complete loss of mtDNA (mtDNA-CN: BEAS-2B, 0.1; BET-1A, 0.3). The basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR) of mtDNA-depleted BET-1A and BEAS-2B cells dropped to near zero. Glycolysis measured by extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) increased ∼two-fold in cells when mtDNA was eliminated [ECAR (mpH/min/103 cells), baseline vs. treatment: BEAS-2B, 0.50 ± 0.03 vs. 0.94 ± 0.10 P=0.005; BET-1A, 0.80 ± 0.04 vs. 1.14 ± 0.06 P=0.001]. Conclusion Mitochondrial DNA–depleted BET-1A ρ0 and BEAS-2B ρ0 cell lines are viable, lack the capacity for aerobic respiration, and increase glycolysis. This cell model system can be used to further test mitochondrial mechanisms of inflammation in bronchial epithelial cells.


Abstract A key feature of big data is the variety of data sources that are available; which include not just numerical data but also image or video data or even free text. The GB railways collects a large volume of free text data daily from railway workers describing close call hazard reports: instances where an accident could have – but did not – occur. These close call reports contain valuable safety information which could be useful in managing safety on the railway, but which can be lost in the very large volume of data – much larger than is viable for a human analyst to read. This paper describes the application of rudimentary natural language processing (NLP) techniques to uncover safety information from close calls. The analysis has proven that basic information extraction is possible using the rudimentary techniques, but has also identified some limitations that arise using only basic techniques. Using these findings further research in this area intends to look at how the techniques that have been proven to date can be improved with the use of more advanced NLP techniques coupled with machine-learning.


Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, education largely shifted away from the physical classroom and towards more digitally oriented platforms. This simplified classroom attendance problems greatly, as newly created programming scripts could easily track the students in a meeting room via their names. However, with the recent growing return to in person education, it has become apparent that the problem of attendance within the context of a non-virtual classroom environment has yet to be solved in an efficacious automated fashion. In larger classrooms, the severity of this problem becomes exacerbated even further, as teachers are forced to allocate valuable time for the purpose of marking attendance. The flourishing world of machine-learning based algorithms were the first solutions that we considered, and within the context of the premise, we concluded that facial recognition would likely be the most feasible and effective approach that we could use. This paper develops a mobile application to apply real time face recognition for the purpose of the above stated problem, using a combined backend of the Firestore database and Amazon AWS services. Applying our application to in person classrooms, the results show that our solutions are immensely effective in both saving time and reducing error.


This paper presents the development of a computer-controlled piezo manipulation system for biomedical applications such as intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The hardware set-up and control strategies are described in detail to illustrate the advantages of this approach compared to manually based injection methods. When used for ICSI an improved success rate in terms of oocyte survival and fertilisation is achieved.


We propose a nonparametric test for checking parametric hypotheses about the stationary density of weakly dependent observations. The test statistic is based on the L2-distance between a nonparametric and a smoothed version of a parametric estimate of the stationary density. It can be shown that this statistic behaves asymptotically as in the case of independent observations. Accordingly, we propose an i.i.d.-type bootstrap to determine the critical value for the test.


Focal nodular hyperplasia is a benign liver tumor that usually follows an asymptomatic course. Hemorrhage of hepatic focal nodular hyperplasia is exceptional and occurs in tumors such as hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatic adenoma. We report the case of a woman with spontaneous rupture and hemorrhage of focal nodular hyperplasia. Hemodynamic stabilization was achieved by selective hepatic arterial embolization. Elective hepatic resection was subsequently performed. This clinical course is extremely rare. We describe the therapeutic management of these complications using hepatic transarterial embolization, which could avoid potentially harmful aggressive treatments.


The duration of video playlists, might be a problem when watching on mobile devices, while on the go. We are exploring the problem of how to reduce the size of a video playlist, while maintain the important parts of the videoclips in the playlist. We have designed algorithms that automatically can cut down a playlist by cutting the duration of clips or sometimes even removing clips. We have shown that our algorithm is better than a naive solution that just cut at the end. Furthermore we have looked at playlist cutting for Davvi. This means playlist cutting for the soccer domain. We have created a hint based cutting algorithm that uses domain knowledge to achieve good results compared to the other algorithms available.


Effectively addressing violations of human rights requires dealing with complex, multi-spatial problems involving actors at local, national and international levels. It also calls for a diverse range of inter-disciplinary skills. How can tertiary educators prepare students for such work? This study evaluates the coordinated implementation of human rights simulations at seven Australian universities. Based on quantitative and qualitative survey data from 252 students, we find they report that human rights simulation exercises develop their skills. In particular, students report that they feel better able to analyse and productively respond to human rights violations, and that they have a greater awareness of the inter-disciplinary skills required to do so. Overall, this study finds that simulations are a valid, scalable, classroom-based work integrated learning experience that can be adapted for students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, across a range of disciplines and in both face-to-face and online classes.


Inequality in the United States is high by international standards, and keeps rising. This is likely to bring significant social as well as economic costs, including lower growth. In this paper, we use the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to revisit the debate on the relative importance of skills in explaining international differences in wage inequality. While simple decomposition exercises suggest that skills only play a very minor role, demand and supply analysis indicates that the relative net supply of skills could explain 29% of the higher top-end wage inequality in the United States. Our analysis also suggests that skills could explain a substantial portion of the racial wage gap, as well as between individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds. Finally, we find little support for the argument that higher wage inequality in the United States may be compensated for by better relative employment outcomes of the low-skilled.


The clinical and bacteriological efficacy of imipenem/cilastatin (IPM/CS) was evaluated in 30 cases of serious infections associated with hematological malignancies. 1. Among 28 evaluable cases, excellent efficacy was obtained in 6 cases and good effectiveness in 10 cases, resulting in a high clinical efficacy rate (57.1%). The clinical effectiveness of IPM/CS was not dependent on neutrophil count in peripheral blood. A 53.8% efficacy rate was observed in 26 cases which had received pretreatment with other antibiotics. 2. Antibacterial activities of IPM/CS have so far been evaluated against organisms isolated in 20 of 28 cases: 2 strains of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, 2 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 2 strains of Enterococcus faecalis, 9 strains of Enterobacter cloacae, and 8 other strains. 3. Among 3 evaluable cases treated with IPM/CS alone, response was good in 1 case. Among 25 patients receiving IPM/CS in combination with an aminoglycoside or a penicillin, the efficacy rate was 60%. 4. Five patients had IPM/CS-related adverse events; nausea and vomiting in 2 cases, seizures in 1 case, small increases in GOT and GPT in 2 cases, and the appearance of casts in urine sediment in 1 case. These patients, however, tolerated the complete course of therapy with IPM/CS except the 2 cases with nausea and vomiting. These results indicate that chemotherapy with IPM/CS is effective for the treatment of severe infectious diseases accompanied by hematological disorders.