During the past two decades, the field of special education has become politicized and fragmented as a result of internal strife and turf battles among professionals. Special education often is perceived by professionals in other fields as strife ridden, expensive, litigious, consumed with legislative mandates and court orders, and ineffective. These perceptions have damaged special education's status and hindered its ability to pursue its agenda. By association, the field of behavioral disorders also has suffered from these perceptions. We need to rededicate ourselves to empirical inquiry and use our collective expertise to find solutions to problems that are of great concern to children and families as well as the larger society. In so doing, we may achieve a degree of macrosocial validation for our efforts. The term macrosocial validation, as used herein, refers to recognition, approval, and valuing of a field's professional activities by the larger constituencies affected by them, such as the general public, the U.S. Congress, and policymakers.


Forty-three Syriac and Garshuni manuscripts owned by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage are here catalogued and described in great detail. The manuscripts cover major literary genres known to Syriac literature, each of which is discussed in a lengthy introduction with an up-to-date bibliography. To illustrate the contents and styles of the manuscripts, short texts extracted from most of them are given in Syriac and Garshuni with translations in English. Some manuscripts are liturgical and were once the property of Melkite, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, and Assyrian churches. Other manuscripts are spiritual and theological compendiums, biblical lectionaries and psalms, Melkite pastoral letters dealing with Roman Catholic devotional practices, charms and popular medicine, and sogyata and durikyata poems. A unique manuscript consists of a Kurdish (Kurmanji) grammar in Syriac authored by a 19th century Chaldean monk living in the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd in northern Iraq. The codices are dated between the 16th and the 19th centuries, though there is one dated to the 14th century, and they were produced in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and central and eastern Anatolia.


Hormonal therapy is a major and effective tool in the treatment of prostate cancer patients. This is especially true for patients in the advanced stages of disease. Unfortunately, almost all prostate cancer cells will develop into castration‐resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) despite continued therapy and suppression of testosterone levels. Up until 5–6 years ago, there was little effective therapy for the treatment of CRPC patients. However, recently, a variety of methodologies and drugs such as cabazitaxel and sipuleucel‐T have been approved globally for the treatment of CRPC. Two novel drugs, abiraterone acetate and enzartamide, have also become available as potential treatment options. However, the anticancer effects of these two drugs are not always satisfactory in terms of prolonging survival. These drugs are also associated with adverse events and are expensive when compared with the costs of previously used anticancer drugs. In this section, we pay particular attention to hormonal therapies that do not include the use of abiraterone acetate or enzartamide. We believe that a detailed understanding of the range of currently available hormonal therapies, including their associated benefits and limitations, is important for supporting the prolongation of survival in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Therefore, this section offers a valuable discussion on the treatment strategies for prostate cancer including CRPC.


PURPOSE
To assess the efficacy of percutaneous minocycline hydrochloride sclerotherapy in symptomatic hepatic cysts.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From November 1992 to June 1994, seven of eight consecutive adults with large symptomatic hepatic cysts (diameter, 55-130 mm) were treated with a single intracystic injection of minocycline hydrochloride in an ambulatory procedure. Five patients had a solitary cyst, and two had polycystic liver disease. The target cyst was punctured under ultrasound guidance and local anesthesia with a 22-gauge Chiba needle. Half of the cyst content was aspirated before injection of 100-500 mg of minocycline hydrochloride diluted in 5-25 mL of saline. The minocycline hydrochloride was left in the cyst at the end of the procedure.

RESULTS
After a mean follow-up of 28 months (range, 24-42 months), all five patients with solitary cysts were asymptomatic and four had documented complete cyst regression; the two patients with multiple hepatic cysts showed only transient clinical improvement.

CONCLUSION
Single-shot injection of minocycline hydrochloride is an effective treatment for symptomatic solitary hepatic cysts but is less effective in polycystic liver disease.


Vocational guidance fits industrial societies and career counseling suits corporate cultures. However, neither guidance nor counseling seems to be the best practice for career intervention in the global economy of the information era. Thus, the emergence of career construction theory for comprehending vocational behavior and life-design interventions to assist people in choosing an adapting to work roles. This book examines and elaborates the structural elements assembled into models of self-making, career constructing, and life designing.


Socio-cultural factors are threat to women's health and well-being. A culture reinforces the gender role and life style of husbands and wives. No matter how equipped a health facility is, it is the patronage that makes the difference to good health. People's socio-cultural background plays vital role in seeking and acceptance of health care. The consequence of these factors on the use of health facility among pregnant women is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and a powerful brake on the road to the achievement of MDGs as well as overall development. Maternal mortality in Nigeria is very high, with an estimated 52,900 Nigerian women dying from pregnancy-related complications out of a global total of 529,000 maternal deaths. It is not encouraging to note that 62 percent of births in Nigeria occur at home and 96 percent of women who received no ANC services delivered at home. Several factors lead to health care facility utilization and among these the less studied is the socio-cultural dimension and hence the focus of the paper. The study was carried out in Ado-Odo/Ota local government area with 260 eligible respondents, selected randomly from the eight wards in the local government. Interview approach was employed with the aid of structured questionnaire to elicit required information from the respondents and data analyzed using SPSS. The main objective of this study is to understand the influence of socio-cultural factors influencing health care utilization among women during pregnancy and child birth. The findings show that husband perception of pregnancy complications, age at marriage, who pays ante-natal bills, family type, treatment place decision are significant towards use of health care services by mothers. Paper provides recommendations for improving the use of maternal health delivery services in the study area and beyond.


INTRODUCTION: Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are male sex hormones, developers and maintainers of sexual characteristics associated with masculinity and the anabolic status of somatic tissues. The physical and mental effects of AAS abuse are rare and it is almost impossible to say with certainty what adverse effects may become evident after their self-administration; however, they constitute risk of death for the individuals. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the main characteristics of morbidity by AAS ingestion in Brazil in the 2000/2010 period. METHODS: Information on hospitalizations was obtained from computerized databases of the Ministry of Health. In the analysis of AAS consumption as primary or secondary diagnosis for hospital admission, the E28.1 (androgen excess), E34.5 (androgen insensitivity syndrome), T38.7 (adverse effect of and underdosing of androgens and anabolic congeners) and Y42.7 (adverse effects in the therapeutic use of androgens and anabolic congeners) codes of the ICD-10 were used. RESULTS: Hospitalizations by AAS were responsible for 0.001% of total admissions in the country. 1,319 admissions (mean = 119.9, SD = 99.01) were accounted. The Androgen insensitivity syndrome was the primary cause, corresponding to 55.8% of total admissions. Of of all hospitalizations, 1% of patients died and the maximum stay was of 47 days (mean = 3.8, SD = 4.7). Minas Gerais, Maranhao and Espirito Santo presented the highest rates of hospital admissions per 1,000,000 inhabitants from 2002 to 2007. Women and people aged 15-29 presented the highest hospitalization rate 82.5% and 37.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that the hospitalization rate was relatively low for AAS intake; women and individuals aged 15-29 years possessed the highest rates in the period studied.


Tyler, M.J. and Prideaux, G.J. 2016. Early to middle Pleistocene occurrences of Litoria, Neobatrachus and Pseudophryne (Anura) from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia: first frogs from the "frog-free zone". Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 403–408. Frogs have the least understood fossil record of all major vertebrate groups in Australia. Here we report on pelvic remains of three Pleistocene frog species from the Nullarbor Plain, a large region of Australia where no living or fossil frogs had previously been discovered. One ilium, characterised by a small acetabular fossa with an indistinct peripheral rim, a broad dorsal prominence and enlarged supra-acetabular zone, is recognised here as representative of a new species of hylid, Litoria lundeliusi sp. nov. Three other ilia bear the hallmark generic attributes of the small myobatrachid Pseudophryne, two species of which co-occur today over much of southwestern Australia. A second larger myobatrachid is the best represented of the three species, and its ilial morphology matches that of the extant Neobatrachus sudelli. All three species were present in the early Pleistocene, but only N. sudelli is recorded in the middle Pleistocene. The loss of Litoria and Pseudophryne would be consistent with the disappearance of significant bodies of free water from the region, but the cause of the apparent extirpation of N. sudelli, which inhabits arid parts of Australia today, remains a mystery.


We define generalized Pareto curves as the curve of inverted Pareto coefficients b(p), where b(p) is the ratio between average income or wealth above rank p and the p-th quantile Q(p) (i.e. b(p) = E[X|X > Q(p)]/Q(p)). We use them to characterize entire distributions, including places like the top where power laws are a good description, and places further down where they are not. We develop a method to nonparametrically recover the entire distribution based on tabulated income or wealth data as is generally available from tax authorities, which produces smooth and realistic shapes of generalized Pareto curves. Us- ing detailed tabulations from quasi-exhaustive tax data, we demonstrate the precision of our method both empirically and analytically. It gives better results than the most com- monly used interpolation techniques. Finally, we use Pareto curves to identify recurring distributional patterns, and connect those findings to the existing literature that explains observed distributions by random growth models.


A hilarious fantasy sequel to The Dark Lord of Derkholm, set at the Wizard University, and centred around six fantastical students. From the 'Godmother of Fantasy', Diana Wynne Jones. The Year of the Griffin is the sequel to the Dark Lord of Derkholm, set in the same world several years after the abolition of commercial 'fantasy world' tourism from our world. Running a University for Wizards was never going to be easy. And with no money, no staff and no idea what he's doing, Wizard Corkoran is struggling. Especially when his students, handpicked from the wealthiest families around, turn out to be rather different than expected. The daughter of the world's Ruling Wizard is an enormous Griffin; King Luther's son is penniless. The emperor's sister is a jinxed exile, and the dwarf is a runaway slave. And that's all before the assassins start arriving...


NASA is currently developing a host of deployable structures for the exploration of space. These include balloons, solar sails, space-borne telescopes and membrane-based synthetic aperture radar. Each of these applications is driven by the need for a thin, low mass, large area structure (i.e., polymer-based) which could not be implemented using conventional engineering materials such as metals and alloys. In each case, there is also the need to integrate sensing and control electronics within the structure. However, conventional silicon-based electronics are difficult to integrate with such large, thin structures, due to a variety of concerns including mass, reliability and manufacturing issues. Flexible electronics, particularly thin film transistors (TFTs), are a potentially key enabling technology that may allow the integration of a wide range of sensors and actuators into these types of structures. There are numerous challenges, however, regarding the survivability of such devices during stowage and deployment of the structure, as well as during operation in the harsh environments of space. We have fabricated TFTs on polyimide substrates, and are investigating the durability of these devices with respect to relevant space environments. We are also developing flexible sensor technologies for the integration of distributed sensor networks on large area structures.


Climatic drivers of growth in mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada for different tree sizes and thinning treatments Andrew Hirsch The Mediterranean region of northern California is projected to get increasingly warmer under all Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emission scenarios, with future precipitation projections not showing much of a trend. This poses a problem to the already dry summers that are experienced in the Mediterranean region of California. If precipitation does not increase alongside temperatures, the dry seasons will likely only get drier. The use of dendroclimatology to assess how mixed conifer species in the Sierra Nevada responded to past climate is a key resource that can be used to infer how trees may respond to a future changing climate. In this study, I assessed and compared responses of small, medium, and large diameter mixed conifer species to different climate variables (temperature, precipitation, and climate moisture index (CMI)). One of the most coherent responses from all diameter groups and across all species was the positive response to increasing minimum winter temperatures. All diameter groups and species also responded positively to precipitation and CMI at some point in the analysis period. Perhaps the most notable difference when comparing the three diameter groups to climate was the higher occurrence of negative responses to temperature of the previous year from the largest diameter group—as well as the higher number of negative responses to temperature in general. These results suggest that larger trees may be more sensitive to future climate projections compared to smaller trees, and they may carry those effects into the next year. Due to the multiple ecosystem benefits that these iconic large, old growth trees provide, forest managers are applying radial thinning treatments around these legacy trees to improve their vigor and reduce mortality. However, there is limited information on the effectiveness of these treatments. One objective of this current study was to analyze sub-hourly stem fluctuations of legacy ponderosa and sugar pines in multiple different radius thinning treatments to assess the short-term effects of these treatments. Thinning treatments applied were: R30C0 (9.1 m radius), R30C2 (9.1 m radius leaving 2 competitors), and RD1.2 (radius equaling DBH multiplied by 1 ft/in multiplied by 1.25). The other objective of this study was to assess climatic drivers of hourly stem fluctuations. Using the dendrometeR package in the program R, I gathered daily statistics (i.e. daily amplitude) of the stem fluctuations, as well as stem cycle statistics such as duration and magnitude of contraction, expansion, and stem radial increment. I then performed correlation analyses between those statistics and the environmental variables to assess the climatic drivers of stem fluctuations as well as try to determine which radial thinning treatment was most effective at increasing growth and vigor. The findings from this study highlighted the important role that mean solar radiation, air temperature, and relative humidity play in stem variations of sugar and ponderosa pine. One of the main findings from a management perspective was that RD1.2 was the only treatment group for sugar pine that contracted less on warmer, higher solar radiation days and put on more stem radial increment on higher solar radiation days. For ponderosa pine, treatment RD1.2 also contracted less on warmer, higher solar radiation days. These findings suggest that the extended radius RD1.2 treatment may be the most effective at releasing legacy sugar and ponderosa pine trees compared to the other treatments applied.


In the present study we present Brazilian normative ratings of pleasantness and relevance for a sample of German adjectives, with the aim of contributing to the development of psychosocial and neuropsychological instruments, among other related fields. Three judges validated a preliminary list of 186 German adjectives translated to Brazilian Portuguese. A coefficient of content validity (CCV) was obtained to evaluate the degree of agreement among the judges in two dimensions: equivalence and clearness. The final list contained 136 items. The CCV for the aggregate of the 136 adjectives was .90 for equivalence and .91 for clearness. These adjectives were subsequently rated for pleasantness and relevance by 385 Brazilian participants aged 17 to 68 years. The Brazilian ratings were compatible with the original German ratings. Agreement frequency was 73-99% for pleasantness and 44-96% for relevance. These norms may be useful for both national and cross-cultural studies between Germany and Brazil and can be used in a wide range of fields including social cognition, cognitive psychology, and clinical neuropsychology. Importantly, items from this list of adjectives can be used to develop instruments to assess memory, language, and mental representations, among other cognitive processes.


The enzymatic method of H. W. Schiwara (1972) Z. Klim. Chem. Klin. Biochem. 10,12--16 (reagents by Smith Kline Instruments), using the enzymatic reaction sequence alpha-amylase -- alpha-glucosidase -- hexokinase/glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase for the determination of alpha-amylase was evaluated on the ABA-100. The coefficient of variation for control sera and human pooled serum was 0.9--4.2% within series, and 1.4--6.6% day to day. Reference values for a healthy population (212 blood donors) in sera were 13--79 U/1 (+/- 2 SD), mean 46 U/1. In catch urines the values did not show a normal distribution; the minimal and maximal range for men was 58--385 U/1, for women 7--318 U/1. The kinetic curve of the enzymatic test was measured and the influence of glucose and linearity studied. In comparison with the enzymatic test, the chromogenic method Amlyochrom Roche was tested on the sera and urine of patients. The coefficient of correlation in sera was r = 0.975, in urine r = 0.965.


Substantially growing data traffic over wireless networks poses increased challenges for mobile network operators in deploying sufficient network resources and managing user mobility. This dissertation considers these challenges to providing satisfactory Quality of Service (QoS) for endusers and studies solutions for better utilization of the heterogeneous network environment. First, the dissertation examines what solutions mobile devices and network management entities can use to dynamically collect valid cross-layer information from different network entities. Cross-layer information allows monitoring of the condition of the network in multiple layers on a user and application basis. The second research topic considers the techniques the network management entities can use to improve resource usage in wireless networks based on the collected cross-layer information. The IEEE 802.21 standard, specified to facilitate handovers between heterogeneous networks, is used as the basis for cross-layer information delivery. This dissertation also focuses on utilization of the standard beyond the inter-access technology handovers. In order to improve resource usage in wireless networks dynamically, event delivery enhancements are proposed for the standard so that it better applies to the requirements of different techniques. Such techniques are traffic priority adjustment, traffic adaptation, packet aggregation, and network protocol header compression. The results show that when a handover is not feasible, these techniques effectively allow sharing of the limited radio resources for the user data according to applications' importance and type. Mobility management is studied in terms of network information service, one of the main services of IEEE 802.21. The thesis proposes enhancing the information service with a base station cell coverage area database. The database provides significant improvements for the selection of a handover target in a dense base station environment. With all the results taken together, the dissertation provides mobile network operators various means to improve the usage of wireless networks on the basis of applications' varying QoS requirements.


Cultivating Colonies: Tobacco and the Upstart Empires, 1580-1640 Melissa N. Morris This dissertation addresses a fundamental question: how did the English, French, and Dutch establish successful colonies and trade routes in the Iberian-dominated Americas? It argues that the English, Dutch, and French (a group I refer to as the "Upstart Empires") relied upon Iberian and indigenous knowledge and trade networks in a series of illicit commercial operations and failed colonies in South America and the Caribbean before they were able to establish themselves permanently in the Americas. These little-studied colonial experiments all had one thing in common: tobacco. A crop in high demand that grows nearly anywhere and requires little special equipment, tobacco was an obvious choice for new colonies. The Spanish Empire was founded on mineral extraction and the subjugation of extant empires. For other colonizers, the development of plantation economies was crucial. Cultivating Colonies looks at how this came to be. This dissertation relies upon a diverse source base, using Spanish, Dutch, French, and English archives to tell a story that transcends imperial boundaries. The dissertation begins by considering the intersection of botany and European expansion. It situates European voyages of discovery and colonization in the context of a search for plants and their products, including spices, and argues that early colonization efforts involved a close understanding of local environments. Tobacco was a plant Europeans encountered nearly everywhere they went in the Americas, but it was only a century after Columbus that smoking became fashionable in Europe. Thus, tobacco's rise as a transatlantic commodity coincided with the Upstart Empires' increased presence in the Americas. Spanish colonists and Africans learned how to grow and consume tobacco from indigenous peoples. Spanish colonies on the margins of empire began to produce it to trade with the English, Dutch, and French from the late sixteenth century. Through this trade, the Upstart Empires learned more about tobacco, and also about the environment and geography of places just beyond the reach of the Spanish and Portuguese. They began to establish trading posts and colonies in such places, and especially in the Guianas—a vast stretch of land between the limits of the two Iberian powers. There, Carib, Arawak, and other indigenous groups were willing to ally with small numbers of interlopers against their Spanish enemies. In these settlements, Northern Europeans participated in indigenous warfare and traded commodities in exchange for agricultural knowledge, labor, and goods. Even as the Upstarts established permanent colonies in North America and the Caribbean, they continued to settle in South America, too. Moreover, the Upstarts' experiences in South America were crucial to the development of their colonies to the north. Colonies as diverse as St. Christopher, Virginia, and New Netherland all grew tobacco using methods and seeds from South America. In each settlement's early years, the Upstarts were also reliant upon indigenous and African agricultural knowledge, an overlooked foundation of European colonization. Cultivating Colonies argues that the illicit tobacco trade and the short-lived colonies that sprang from it were crucial to the ultimate success of the English, Dutch, and French empires in the Americas.


The purpose of this study was to analyzed the effect of CSR on firm value. Firm value proxy with Tobin's Q. This research was taken because there are still differences between the researchs with each other. This research adding agency cost reduction as mediating variable. This research was not use stakeholder theory, but was applicated agency theory, signaling theory, and legitimacy theory. This study use WarpPLS 5.0. This study uses 63 samples of manufacture firms that listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) during 2013 to 2015. The sampling method used for this study is purposive sampling. Type of the data used is secondary data. The result of the test is that CSR positive influence to the firm value. Based on the results of the analysis found that the agency cost reduction is partial mediation between the relationship of CSR on firm value. Institutional ownership can't moderate CSR on ACR. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm Value, Agency Cost Reduction, Institutional Ownership


This paper evaluates the occurrence and determinants of unfair trading practices (UTPs) in the fruit supply chain in Slovakia. Based on a representative survey of fruit growers, mainly apple growers, the study concludes that 79% of the producers experienced at least 1 UTP in a relationship with their main buyer. The most frequent UTPs are late payments (39.6%), payments unrelated to a specific transaction (39.6%), and unilateral changes by buyers in contracts and orders. The results of the probit model show that producer organisations decrease the probability of UTPs relative to conditions in which the main buyer is a private trader (by 32%) or supermarket (by 35%). This result provides some justification for the support of producer organisations under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union.


: The intravenous anaesthetic ketamine is a racemic mixture of two equimolar doses of enantiomers. After stereoselective separation, the right-handed S(+)-isomer is now clinically available. Since anaesthetic and analgesic pharmacological studies have shown that S(+)-ketamine is approximately two times as potent as racemic ketamine, the clinical effects of S(+)-ketamine were evaluated in comparison to ketamine-racemate at dose relation of 1:2 in several therapeutic investigations. The studies disclosed that both drugs caused a similar activation of the endocrine stress response and a comparable stimulation of the sympathoadrenergic system. However, application of S(+)-ketamine was associated with a remarkably smoother emergence period, a profound postoperative analgesia, a more rapid recovery of cerebral functions, and a greater preference by the study persons. The incidence of psychotomimetic phenomena appeared to be negligibly less after S(+)-ketamine in comparison to racemic ketamine, but their quality was described as far less unpleasant. Clinical use of S(+)-ketamine administered at one-half of the usual dose is thus not only associated with a reduction of undesirable adverse effects without altering ketamine's anaesthetic and analgesic potency, but also offers distinctive improvements due to the reduced drug load. Moreover, increasing experimental evidence supports a remarkable neuroprotective effect of S(+)-ketamine, which may become a promising drug for new therapeutic approaches to neuroprotection.


In this paper, a symbol error rate (SER) study is presented for the dual-hop relay networks employing space-time block code (STBC) from coordinate interleaved orthogonal design (STBC-CIOD), where a relay with either a decode-and-forward (DF) or an amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol is equipped with multiple antennas. More specifically, we provide the union upper and lower bounds on the average SER by deriving an accurate closed-form formula for the corresponding symbol pairwise error rate (SPER). In addition, the asymptotic diversity order is analyzed. The theoretically derived bounds are in good agreement with the simulation results.


Modern, cost-effective pipelines are moving beyond the API X70-X80 limits of the 1990s. Over the last few years, more interest has been placed on the X100-120 grades because they are potentially more economical to build and operate. To reach the impressive properties required by these new grades, the proper combination of alloy and rolling process design must be implemented, along with highly controlled interrupted accelerated cooling and hot leveling. This paper discusses some of the underlying physical metallurgy that is required and points out areas where further research and development would be useful.


BACKGROUND
The epigenetic effects of individual environmental toxicants in tobacco remain largely unexplored. Cadmium (Cd) has been associated with smoking-related health effects, and its concentration in tobacco smoke is higher in comparison with other metals.

OBJECTIVES
We studied the association of Cd and smoking exposures with human blood DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles. We also evaluated the implication of findings to relevant methylation pathways and the potential contribution of Cd exposure from smoking to explain the association between smoking and site-specific DNAm.

METHODS
We conducted an epigenome-wide association study of urine Cd and self-reported smoking (current and former vs. never, and cumulative smoking dose) with blood DNAm in 790,026 CpGs (methylation sites) measured with the Illumina Infinium Human MethylationEPIC (Illumina Inc.) platform in 2,325 adults 45-74 years of age who participated in the Strong Heart Study in 1989-1991. In a mediation analysis, we estimated the amount of change in DNAm associated with smoking that can be independently attributed to increases in urine Cd concentrations from smoking. We also conducted enrichment analyses and in silico protein-protein interaction networks to explore the biological relevance of the findings.

RESULTS
At a false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected level of 0.05, we found 6 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) for Cd; 288 and 17, respectively, for current and former smoking status; and 77 for cigarette pack-years. Enrichment analyses of these DMPs displayed enrichment of 58 and 6 Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes gene sets, respectively, including biological pathways for cancer and cardiovascular disease. In in silico protein-to-protein networks, we observed key proteins in DNAm pathways directly and indirectly connected to Cd- and smoking-DMPs. Among DMPs that were significant for both Cd and current smoking (annotated to PRSS23, AHRR, F2RL3, RARA, and 2q37.1), we found statistically significant contributions of Cd to smoking-related DNAm.

CONCLUSIONS
Beyond replicating well-known smoking epigenetic signatures, we found novel DMPs related to smoking. Moreover, increases in smoking-related Cd exposure were associated with differential DNAm. Our integrative analysis supports a biological link for Cd and smoking-associated health effects, including the possibility that Cd is partly responsible for smoking toxicity through epigenetic changes. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6345.


BACKGROUND
We have investigated the significance of a single measurement of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and total mortality for different time periods.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The 14 846 men (without disease) who were screened in the Oslo Health Study in 1972-73 have been followed for 33 years. Cox and logistic regression analyses were used to estimate associations between risk factors and mortality for the four time periods 0-12, 12-24, 24-33 and 0-33 years. The predictivity of Westlund's score was compared to risk score functions based on three classical and some other risk factors.

RESULTS
In a multivariate analysis the following there factors were the best predictors of total mortality in the period 0-12 years: total cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking. Triglycerides, glucose, body mass index, physical activity at work and little physical activity at leisure were more weakly, but consistently associated with mortality. With longer follow-up, predictivity decreased for total cholesterol and blood pressure in contrast to smoking (hazard ratio 1.41; 95% confidence interval 1.38-1.45), which also was the best discriminator between survival and death. Westlund's score performed worse than the 3-factor score. Use of a score based on eight factors did not result in a clinically significant increase in predictivity.

INTERPRETATION
The classical risk factors predicted mortality over all follow-up periods. Smoking was the most important discriminator between survival and death. The 3- factor score resulted in adequate predictivity in comparison with the 8-factor score.


Much of Uganda's agricultural production activities are rain-fed, meaning that changes in weather conditions have important implications for households' total agricultural production and wellbeing. This study uses a basic model of household production to assess the impact of rainfall shocks (using rainfall variability) on farm income and consumption expenditure and the response of households to such shocks. Pooled cross sectional data of farm households are derived from the Uganda National Household Surveys for 1992/93, 1999/2000 and 2002/03, which provide a rich source of information on individual and household characteristics (size, age, sex, education, employment, etc.), household income, expenditure, and exposure to risk/shocks. Rainfall statistics are obtained from various issues of the Statistical Abstracts and the Background to the Budget. We show that rainfall shocks have important implications for both income and consumption of households, with strong policy implications towards cushioning agricultural households. Higher than average rainfall in the first planting and first harvest seasons is found to result in lower incomes and consumption. Given that about 40% of Uganda's total output is obtained from rain-fed agriculture, the impact of rainfall variability on household welfare has important implications for national income. It is also noted that other factors such as ownership of land, education of the household head and household size are important in the determination of household welfare. Community characteristics such as access to electricity, markets and infrastructure in general play a very important role in the welfare of agricultural households. Programmes to protect households against rainfall shocks such as irrigation schemes, storage facilities for dry produce, staggered planting and crop diversification can provide helpful avenues to reduce income variability among agricultural households. In order to reduce welfare variability and poverty in general, it is necessary to continue the focus on education and targeting of poor and vulnerable households in terms of access to education, health care and other welfare programmes. Access to land has strong implications for both income and consumption - households with access to larger land areas are likely to have higher incomes and higher consumption expenditures - suggesting that land policies to improve access are needed so as to enhance incomes of agricultural households.


Abstract The Furongian Orsten-type fossil Lagerstätte in the Alum Shale Formation of Sweden is an extraordinary deposit known for its detailed, three-dimensional preservation of the soft parts of small animal carcasses which have been replaced by calcium phosphate and occur in organic-rich nodular limestone. The exact cause and mechanism of this unusual fossil preservation, however, particularly the source of phosphorus, which plays a key role, remains unknown. Detailed observation in the Agnostus pisiformis Zone in the Backeborg section (Kinnekulle district) reveals that the phosphatocopine crustaceans showing soft-part preservation occur only in a few thin (<3 cm) layers containing abundant fecal pellets (pellet beds). Development of cross lamination suggests that the pellet beds were formed by low density sediment-gravity flow. Orsten-type preservation has been attributed to high phosphate levels in global marine waters during the Cambrian period; however, wavelength-dispersive X-ray and X-ray diffractometry analyses reveal that the Orsten limestones and surrounding shale were generally poor in phosphorus, which was mostly concentrated in the fecal pellets. The small animal carcasses preserved in such deposits were phosphatized during early diagenesis owing to the high local phosphorus levels of the accumulated fecal pellets. Searches for such cesspool-type preservation may yield further discoveries of Orsten-type fossil Lagerstätten in other strata of various ages.


The method for realization of the kilogram using 'superconducting magnetic levitation' was re-evaluated at MIKES. The realization of the kilogram based on the traditional levitation method is limited by the imperfections of the superconducting materials and the indefinable dependence between supplied electrical energy and the gravitational potential energy of the superconducting mass. This indefiniteness is proportional to the applied magnetic field and is caused by increasing losses and trapped magnetic fluxes. A new design of an electromechanical system for the levitation method is proposed. In the proposed system the required magnetic field and the corresponding force are reduced, as the mass of the body (hanging from a mass comparator) is compensated by the reference weight on the mass comparator. The direction of the magnetic force can be upward (levitation force, when the body is over the coil) or downward (repulsive force, when the body is under the coil). The initial force to move the body from the coil is not needed and magnetic field sensitivity is increased, providing linearization of displacement versus applied current. This new construction allows a lower magnetic induction, reduces energy losses compared with previous designs of electromechanical system and reduces the corresponding systematic error.


Rapakivi granites and several small leucogabbroic and gabbroic bodies are located in the Rangnim Massif, North Korea. The largest batholith in the Myohyang Mountains covers an area of 300 km2 and was intruded into Precambrian metamorphosed rocks. It has a SHRIMP U–Pb zircon weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 1861 ± 7 Ma. The country rocks of rapakivi granites are Neoarchaean orthogneisses and Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic graphite-bearing metasedimentary rocks of granulite facies, and they are similar to those of the rapakivi granites and anorthosites exposed in South Korea and in the North China Craton. We conclude that the three massifs in the Korean Peninsula commonly record an identical Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic anorogenic magmatic event, indicating that they have a common Precambrian basement with the North China Craton.


Arterial fibrodysplastic lesions involving the extracranial internal carotid and vertebral arteries were encountered among 15 women ranging in age from 21 to 79. Concomitant renal artery dysplasia was noted in five patients, including three with associated lesions involving the celiac or superior mesenteric vessels. Multiple intracranial aneurysms were found in seven patients. Rupture of these aneurysms with subarachnoid hemorrhage occurred in four patients and was the cause of death in three. Cerebral ischemic symptoms in certain instances may result from extracranial cerebrovascular fibrodysplasia. Considerable caution was used in selection of patients for surgery. Graduated intraluminal dilation of the internal carotid artery was performed on five occasions in this series. The pathogenesis of this disease is unknown. Hormonal influences and traction-stretch stresses to the vascular wall are implicated in the evolution of fibrodysplastic carotid and vertebral artery lesions.


The intraguild predation and cannibalism on eggs and immatures by the adult females of Euseius scutalis, Typhlo- dromus athiasae and Typhlodromips swirskii were examined under laboratory conditions. Adult females of all three species exhib- ited higher predation rates on larvae than on protonymphs. Typhlodromips swirskii had higher predation rates on heterospecific than on conspecific prey and all females failed to predate on eggs and protonymphs of its own. Also, T. swirskii females were able to sustain oviposition when preying upon eggs and immatures of T. athiasae and E. scutalis, whereas cannibalizing T. swirskii females did not lay eggs and all died in a short time (6.0-7.3 days), respectively. Typhlodromus athiasae failed to predate on eggs as well as immatures of T. swirskii and females suffered a higher mortality than vice versa. Euseius scutalis females ate 6.0 larvae or 5.2 protonymphs of T. athiasae and 0.7 eggs or 0.4 larvae of T. swirskii per female per day. Females of E. scutalis were hardly able to sustain oviposition irrespective of con- or heterospecific prey, so reproduction was very low. The present study indicates that phytoseiid immatures are suitable prey for surviving and reproduction of polyphagous phytoseiids.


The United States differed dramatically from Britain in the way manufacturing was organized during early industrialization. Even before widespread mechanization, American production was almost exclusively from centralized plants, whereas the British and other European economies were characterized by extensive cottage manufacture. This paper argues that this contrast was rooted in a salient disparity between the land-to-labor ratios of the two countries. Together with its later settlement, the relative abundance of land in the U.S. led its agricultural sector to be much less concentrated in grain than was British agriculture. Since the labor requirements of grain production were much more seasonal than were those of the other major agricultural products of the era (dairy products, livestock, wood, and cleared land), and agriculture was the dominant sector in both economies, there were more seasonal fluctuations in British labor markets than in the American. We argue that this difference in the extent of seasonality is crucial, because cottage manufacture had a relative advantage in the use of offpeak or part-time labor. Quantitative evidence and a general equilibrium model are employed to present the analysis, and subject it to tests of consistency with the empirical record .


Anomaly detection in hyperspectral data has been considered for various applications. The main purpose of anomaly detection is to detect pixel vectors (i.e. spectral vectors) whose spectra differ significantly from the background spectra. In anomaly detection, no prior knowledge about the target is assumed. In this paper we will present a new method for anomaly detection based on the SRX (Segmented RX) algorithm, with an emphasis on the edges between the segments. This method incorporates an adaptive algorithm with fast convergence which we developed for estimating the mixing coefficients of adjacent segments to fit the spectra of edge pixels. Achieving it allows us to reconstruct its mean vector and its covariance matrix, and operate the RX algorithm locally. The developed algorithm is a fusion and improvement of two algorithms (Steepest Descent and Newton's Method); it combines the benefits of each method while eliminating their drawbacks, so its convergence is fast and stable.


Ethanol is a noncompetitive inhibitor of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and acutely disrupts hippocampal synaptic plasticity and learning. In the present study, we examined the effects of oxysterol positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of NMDARs on ethanol-mediated inhibition of NMDARs, block of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in rat hippocampal slices, and defects in one-trial learning in vivo. We found that 24S-hydroxycholesterol and a synthetic oxysterol analog, SGE-301, overcame effects of ethanol on NMDAR-mediated synaptic responses in the CA1 region but did not alter acute effects of ethanol on LTD; the synthetic oxysterol, however, overcame acute inhibition of LTP. In addition, both oxysterols overcame persistent effects of ethanol on LTP in vitro, and the synthetic analog reversed defects in one-trial inhibitory avoidance learning in vivo. These results indicate that effects of ethanol on both LTP and LTD arise by complex mechanisms beyond NMDAR antagonism and that oxysterol NMDAR PAMS may represent a novel approach for preventing and reversing acute ethanol-mediated changes in cognition. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Ethanol acutely inhibits hippocampal NMDARs, LTP, and learning. This study found that certain oxysterols that are NMDAR-positive allosteric modulators can overcome the acute effects of ethanol on NMDARs, LTP, and learning. Oxysterols differ in their effects from agents that inhibit integrated cellular stress responses.


Modern financial exchanges provide updates to their members on the changing status of the market place,by providing streams of messages about events, called a market data feed. Markets are growing busier, and the data-rates of these feeds are already in the gigabit range, from which customers must extract and process messages with sub-millisecond latency.This paper presents an FPGA accelerated approach to market data feed processing, using an FPGA connected directly to the network to parse, optionally decompress, and filter the feed, and then to push the decoded messages directly into the memory of a general purpose processor. Such a solution offers flexibility, as the FPGA can be reconfigured for new data feed formats, and high throughput with low latency by eliminating the operating system's network stack.This approach is demonstrated using the Celoxica AMDC board, which accepts a pair of redundant data feeds over two gigabit Ethernet ports, parses and filters the data, then pushes relevant messages directly into system memory over the PCIe bus. Tests with an ORPA FAST data feed redistribution system show that the AMDC is able to process up to 3.5M messages per second, 12 times the current real-world rate, while the complete system rebroadcasts at least 99% of packets with a latency of less than 26us. The hardware portion of the design has a constant latency, irrespective of throughput, of 4us.


In the past few years, there has been increasing interest in the perception of human expressions and mental states by machines, and Facial Expression Recognition (FER) has attracted increasing attention. Facial Action Unit (AU) is an early proposed method to describe facial muscle movements, which can effectively reflect the changes in people's facial expressions. In this paper, we propose a high-performance facial expression recognition method based on facial action unit, which can run on low-configuration computer and realize video and real-time camera FER. Our method is mainly divided into two parts. In the first part, 68 facial landmarks and image Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) are obtained, and the feature values of action units are calculated accordingly. The second part uses three classification methods to realize the mapping from AUs to FER. We have conducted many experiments on the popular human FER benchmark datasets (CK+ and Oulu CASIA) to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


Multiprocessors used in life-critical real-time systems must recover quickly from failure. Part of this recovery consists of switching to a new task schedule that ensures that hard deadlines for critical tasks continue to be met. We present a dynamic programming algorithm that ensures that backup, or contingency, schedules can be efficiently embedded within the original, "primary" schedule to ensure that hard deadlines continue to be met in the face of up to a given maximum number of processor failures. Several illustrative examples are included.


Residual networks (ResNets) have recently achieved state-of-the-art on challenging computer vision tasks. We introduce Resnet in Resnet (RiR): a deep dual-stream architecture that generalizes ResNets and standard CNNs and is easily implemented with no computational overhead. RiR consistently improves performance over ResNets, outperforms architectures with similar amounts of augmentation on CIFAR-10, and establishes a new state-of-the-art on CIFAR-100.


— An automatic Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology can contribute to the utility grid. V2G technology has drawn great interest in the recent years. Success of the sophisticated automatic V2G research depends on efficient scheduling of gridable vehicles in constrained parking lots. Parking lots have constraints of space and current limits for V2G. However, V2G can reduce dependencies on small expensive units in the existing power systems as energy storage that can decrease running costs. It can efficiently manage load fluctuation, peak load; however, it increases spinning reserves and reliability. As number of gridable vehicles in V2G is much higher than small units of existing systems, unit commitment (UC) with V2G is more complex than basic UC for only thermal units. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to solve the V2G, as PSO has been demonstrated to reliably and accurately solve complex constrained optimization problems easily and quickly without any dimension limitation and physical computer memory limit. In the proposed model, binary PSO optimizes the on/off states of power generating units easily. Vehicles are presented by signed integer number instead of 0/1 to reduce the dimension of the problem. Typical discrete version of PSO has less balance between local and global searching abilities to optimize the number of charging/discharging gridable vehicles in the constrained system. In the same model, balanced PSO is proposed to optimize the V2G part in the constrained parking lots. Finally, results show a considerable amount of profit for using proper scheduling of gridable vehicles in constrained parking lots.


This paper describes a project carried out at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University to teach low-power digital design structures in a laboratory. Low-power design has become one of the most essential constraints in digital systems, especially in portable devices. For this purpose, low-power design is a topic addressed in electrical and computer curricula, but it also requires applications in a laboratory. Therefore, this project focuses on preparing students for current trends in low-power design by examining realistic applications of its basic theories and principles, either hands-on or remotely. The laboratory's experiments use a field programmable gate array (FPGA) as a design platform for implementing the students' digital designs. This contribution reports on our first experiences in teaching low-power design in the lab. This paper focuses on the educational impact on students regarding the following: (1) overall objectives in the laboratory, (2) experimental exercises with low-power techniques, and (3) using educational FPGA boards and the EduPow board. The EduPow board is a developed hands-on board at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University that is relatively specific on using various signal image-processing applications to directly observe the power dissipation of a student's digital algorithm. Our assessment of the low-power design lab shows that the requirements and objectives of this project are fairly well satisfied. In addition, students' feedback indicates that using the EduPow board is more attractive and motivational in their work.


The measurement of fast ion populations is one of the diagnostic capabilities provided by neutron emission spectroscopy (NES). NES measurements were carried out during JET trace tritium campaign with the magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer. A favorable plasma scenario is (T)D where the resulting 14 MeV neutron yield is dominated by suprathermal emission from energetic tritons accelerated by radio frequency at their fundamental cyclotron frequency. Information on the triton distribution function has been derived from NES data with a simple model based on two components referred to as bulk (B) and high energy (HE). The HE component is based on strongly anisotropic tritium distribution that can be used for routine best-fit analysis to provide tail temperature values (THE). This article addresses to what extent the THE values are model dependent by comparing the model above with a two-temperature (bi-) Maxwellian model featuring parallel and perpendicular temperatures. The bi-Maxwellian model is stron...


This paper provides a graphical characterization of Markov blankets in chain graphs (CGs) under the Lauritzen-Wermuth-Frydenberg (LWF) interpretation. The characterization is different from the well-known one for Bayesian networks and generalizes it. We provide a novel scalable and sound algorithm for Markov blanket discovery in LWF CGs and prove that the Grow-Shrink algorithm, the IAMB algorithm, and its variants are still correct for Markov blanket discovery in LWF CGs under the same assumptions as for Bayesian networks. We provide a sound and scalable constraint-based framework for learning the structure of LWF CGs from faithful causally sufficient data and prove its correctness when the Markov blanket discovery algorithms in this paper are used. Our proposed algorithms compare positively/competitively against the state-of-the-art LCD (Learn Chain graphs via Decomposition) algorithm, depending on the algorithm that is used for Markov blanket discovery. Our proposed algorithms make a broad range of inference/learning problems computationally tractable and more reliable because they exploit locality.


Low water solubility of drug compounds limits their dissolution in the aqueous body fluids. When formulated using conventional methods, those poorly water-soluble drugs often results in low and erratic bioavailability. The use of nanoparticle engineering technologies for the formulation of poorly water-soluble drugs is a valuable strategy to enhance dissolution rates and thus bioavailability.
In Chapter 2, a nanoparticle engineering process, Evaporative Precipitation into Aqueous Solution (EPAS), was modified to provide improved control over the size of precipitated particles. The improved process, Advanced EPAS, was employed to prepare nanoparticles of the poorly water-soluble drug itraconazole (ITZ). The influence of processing parameters and formulation aspects on the size of suspended ITZ-particles was investigated. The process was shown to be robust such that the size distribution of dispersed nanoparticles was largely independent across the different parameters.
In Chapter 3, aqueous nanoparticulate dispersions of the poorly soluble drug mefenamic acid (MFA) were developed and subsequently incorporated into controlled release formulations employing spray-drying. Release of MFA from spray-dried formulations was sustained and complete demonstrating the feasibility of using nanoparticulates for the preparation of controlled release systems.
In Chapter 4, the nanoparticle engineering process, Rapid Freezing (RF), was utilized to produce nanostructured, amorphous aggregates of the poorly water soluble drug ketoprofen (RF-KET). The stability of RF-KET against recrystallization was improved through the deposition of a hydrophobic plasma-polymerized film. The coating presented an effective barrier against surface mobility and moisture uptake resulting in enhanced stability of RF-KET for up to six months at accelerated storage conditions as compared to three days for uncoated RF-KET.


Purpose: To compare the intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering effect and side effects of Xalatan with generic Latanoprost (Xalabiost) in adults with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension Methods: This was a two-center prospective randomized, crossover clinical trial. Eligible patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension were sequentially randomized to two parallel study groups receiving Xalatan and Xalabiost in two periods. The primary efficacy outcome was change in the mean of IOP between baseline and end of each treatment period, and secondary outcomes included differences between treatment groups in mean percent change in IOP from baseline and in proportions of patients reaching specified target mean IOP levels. Results: Nineteen patients in BX group (receiving Xalabiost in first and passing to Xalatan in second treatment period) and 22 patients in XB group (receiving Xalatan in first period and Xalabiost in second treatment period) completed both treatment periods. The mean baseline IOP was 24.9 mmHg in group XB and 25.4 mmHg in group BX (P=0.57). At the end of Xalatan treatment periods, patients experienced a 7.5±1.3 mmHg (29.8±3.6 percent) reduction in IOP compared to baseline IOP. Xalabiost treated patients had a 7.3±1.2 mmHg (29.2±3.3 percent) decrease in IOP compared to baseline IOP (P=0.084). Adverse ocular events were mild in both treatment groups. Conclusion: Both Xalatan and generic Latanoprost (Xalabiost) reduced IOP effectively after 1 month of treatment in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, with no significant difference in efficacy and tolerability between them.


This paper describes a new type of steel sheet pile that is applied to temporary earth retaining works for the construction of underground structures. The steel sheet pile system, so-called Hat+H pile, has higher rigidity, lighter weight as a wall and can be driven easier compared with conventional retaining walls. The section which consists of Hat-type sheet pile and H-shape are compounded by simple fillet welding. The sheet pile of 900 mm is the widest hot-rolled monopile in the world, so the number of piles can be reduced compared with conventional piles whose width is 400 mm. The H-shape provides high rigidity as a composite section. Therefore, Hat+H piles can attain rapid construction and high stability of retaining walls and their works, that is, they are a solution for enhancing safety and productivity, which is required in recent years because underground structures have become more complicated and deeper with expanding urbanisation. This paper presents the results of a structural test and driving test on full-scale Hat+H piles in order to verify the required performance as a member of temporary retaining walls. The results of the flexural test show that the Hat+H pile has high flexural capacity and can be evaluated as a composite section in design. In the driving test, Hat+H pile was previously fabricated in the yard and repeatedly installed and pulled out to simulate a situation of temporary use. As a result, it was verified that Hat+H piles have high robustness and drivability, and are appropriate members for temporary earth retaining walls.


A class of model-based filters for extracting trends and cycles in economic time series is presented. These lowpass and bandpass filters are derived in a mutually consistent manner as the joint solution to a signal extraction problem in an unobserved-components model. The resulting trends and cycles are computed in finite samples using the Kalman filter and associated smoother. The filters form a class which is a generalization of the class of Butterworth filters, widely used in engineering. They are very flexible and have the important property of allowing relatively smooth cycles to be extracted from economic time series. Perfectly sharp, or ideal, bandpass filters emerge as a limiting case. Applying the method to quarterly series on U.S. investment and GDP shows a clearly defined cycle.


Background: Klebsiella pneumoniae is a pathogenic bacterium frequently isolated from nosocomial samples, specially the subspecie pneumoniae, with extensive antibiotic resistance profiles, including third generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and quinolones. This is specially true for those strains producing extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBL). Aim: To investigate the susceptibility to gentamicin, amikacin and ciprofloxacin and the presence of some aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AMEs) among nosocomial strains of K pneumoniae subspecie pneumoniae producing ESBL. Material and methods: The antibiotic resistant patterns and the level of resistance (minimal inhibitory concentration, MIC) of 100 strains, isolated from several hospitals of different Chilean cities, were determined. The presence of some aminoglycosides modifying enzyme (AMEs) was investigated by PCR. Results: Sixty five percent of strains were resistant to gentamicin, 47% were resistant to amikacin and 29% were resistant to ciprofloxacin. The most frequent AMEs genes detected were the aac(6')-Ib gene (6'N-Acetyltransferase type Ib enzyme) in 69% of strains, conferring resistance to amikacin, kanamycin, tobramycin, and neomycin, and the gene aac(3)-IIa (3-Acetyltransferase type 3-IIa enzyme), in 36% of strains, conferring resistance to gentamicin. Conclusions: Among nosocomial strains of K pneumoniae subspecie pneumoniae isolated from Chilean hospitals, there is an association between the production of ESBL and the resistance to others antimicrobial agents, especially aminoglycosides. Nevertheless, 71% of isolates are susceptible to ciprofloxacin (Rev Med Chile 2004; 132: 1173-8). (Key Words: Aminoglycosides; Antibiotic resistance, bacterial; Klebsiella pneumoniae)


The analysis of automatic generation control of a two-area interconnected hydrothermal power system considering a thyristor-controlled phase shifter (TCPS) in series with the tie-line is presented. It is possible to damp the system frequency and tie-power oscillations by controlling the phase angle of TCPS. A control strategy using TCPS is proposed to provide active control of system frequency. Gain settings of the integral controllers with and without considering TCPS are optimised using integral squared error technique following a step load disturbance in each of the areas by minimising a quadratic performance index. Analysis reveals that a TCPS is quite capable of suppressing the frequency and tie-power oscillations effectively under the occurrence of sudden load changes in any of the areas when compared with that obtained without TCPS.


This case study on news media operations during disaster examines the impediments experienced by newspapers and television stations in two states that were hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. Through management surveys in Louisiana and Mississippi, this research reveals that, although both states are hurricane prone areas, almost half of the respondents did not have a disaster plan in place. Even more interesting to note, one year following Katrina, many still did not have a plan—although a majority said they were currently working on one. These findings are consistent with existing research on communications and on other businesses that seldom have plans in place for a disaster even when business owners' risk perceptions are high. This research also suggests that, similar to other research on businesses in disaster, large news media operations may be better prepared than medium to small sized businesses. Furthermore, lessons learned from this research suggest crisis plans for media outlets should address human resource issues (such as aiding families of staff members), technology issues, and the unique needs for information distribution when there are power outages and workplaces destroyed.


Recent studies have shown that the majority of today's internet traffic is related to Peer to Peer (P2P) traffic. The study of bandwidth in P2P networks is very important. Because it helps us in more efficient capacity planning and QoS provisioning when we would like to design a large scale computer networks. In this paper motivated by the behavior of peers (sources or seeds) that is modeled by Ornstein Ohlin beck (OU) process, we propose a model for bandwidth in P2P networks. This model is represented with a stochastic integral. We also model the bandwidth when we have multiple downloads or uploads. The auto covariance structure of bandwidth in either case is studied and the statistical parameters such as mean, variance and auto covariance are obtained. We then study the queue length behavior of the bandwidth model. The methods for generating synthetic bandwidth process and estimation of the bandwidth parameters using maximum like hood estimation are presented.


Objectives: Of 1000 women attending an early pregnancy unit over 3 months who had at least two ultrasound examinations confirming singleton viability, two classes of pregnancies are considered: ongoing pregnancies and early pregnancy losses. Our objective was to discriminate between these two classes to predict early pregnancy loss. We considered the rate of growth of the crown–rump length (CRL), the mean sac diameter (MSD) and the difference between MSD and CRL as a function of the gestational age (GA). Methods: Classical linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifies data by maximizing the ratio of the between-class variation to the within-class variation. FLDA is an extension where the predictor variables are curves (e.g. a variable measured multiple times during pregnancy). Serial observations from each individual are modeled with a spline function (a curved line formed by two or more vertices), parameterized with a basis function multiplied by a 5-dimensional coefficient vector. A training set was used to estimate the mean coefficient vector for each class. New patients can then be classified by determining the class with the closest mean coefficient vector. Results: 270 patients had at least two measurements for CRL and GA. Nine of these subsequently resulted in early pregnancy loss. It was not possible to discriminate between classes with FLDA using CRL alone. Using MSD we could include 99 patients and mean growth curves of MSD as function of GA for ongoing pregnancies and pregnancy losses did not overlap (P < 0.0001). The MSD for early pregnancy loss was smaller at all gestational ages. Moreover, the difference between MSD and CRL could be used to discriminate between ongoing pregnancies and pregnancies destined to fail (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Using FLDA it is possible to predict early pregnancy loss on the basis of MSD or difference between MSD and CRL for patients in whom MSD and CRL have been measured on at least two occasions.


This study expands the role of polythiophenes as an electron donating chromophore within energy harvesting milti-modular donor-acceptor systems. The polythiophene moiety would act as an electron donating spacer group between the donor and acceptor entities, viz., phenothiazine and fulleropyrrolidine, respectively, in the newly synthesized supramolecular triads. The triads 10-{[2,2';5',2"] terthiophene-5-fulleropyrrolidine} phenothiazine and 10-{[2,2'] bithiophene-5-fulleropyrrolidine} phenothiazine were synthesized and characterized through electrochemical and spectroscopic methods to ascertain their structural integrity. the componets of the triads were selected for their established redox parameters. Phenothiazine would act as a secondary donor and would facilitate hole-transfer from the polythiophene primary electron donor, due to its ease of oxidation and yield a long-lived charge separated state. Fulleropyrrolidine would act as an acceptor for ease of reductive capabilities and its ability to hold multiple charges. Finally, occurrence of photoinduced electron transferleading to the anticipated charge separated states is established from advanced transient spectroscopic techniques on these novel supramolecular systems.


Enzastaurin (LY317615.HCl) is currently in a phase III registration trial for diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma and numerous phase II clinical trials. Enzastaurin suppresses angiogenesis and induces apoptosis in multiple human tumor cell lines by inhibiting protein kinase C (PKC) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway signaling. PI3K/AKT pathway signaling liberates eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) through the hierarchical phosphorylation of eIF4E binding proteins (4E-BP). When hypophosphorylated, 4EBPs associatewith eIF4E, preventing eIF4E frombinding eIF4G, blocking the formation of the eIF4F translation initiation complex.Herein,we show that enzastaurin treatment impacts signaling throughout theAKT/mTOR pathway leading to hypophosphorylation of 4E-BP1 in cancer cells of diverse lineages (glioblastoma, colon carcinoma, and B-cell lymphoma). Accordingly, enzastaurin treatment increases the amount of eIF4E bound to 4E-BP1 and decreases association of eIF4E with eIF4G, thereby reducing eIF4F translation initiation complex levels. We therefore chose to evaluate whether this effect on 4E-BP1 was involved in enzastaurin-induced apoptosis. Remarkably, enzastaurin-induced apoptosis was blocked in cancer cells depleted of 4E-BP1 by siRNAs, or in 4EBP1/2 knockout murine embryonic fibroblasts cells. Furthermore, eIF4E expression was increased and 4E-BP1 expressionwas decreased in cancer cells selected for reduced sensitivity to enzastaurininduced apoptosis. These data highlight the importance of modulating 4E-BP1 function, and eIF4F complex levels, in the direct antitumor effect of enzastaurin and suggest that 4E-BP1 functionmay serve as a promising determinant of enzastaurin activity. Mol Cancer Ther; 9(12); 3158–63. 2010 AACR.


Case series Patient: Female, 24 • Male, 35 Final Diagnosis: EBV-induced infectious mononucleosis Symptoms: Fever • general malaise • lymphadenopathy Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Physical examination and serological testing Specialty: Infectious diseases Objective: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology Background: Infectious mononucleosis is a clinical syndrome most commonly associated with primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. In adults, the symptoms can often be severe and prolonged, sometimes causing serious complications. Analgesic or antipyretic drugs are normally used to relieve the symptoms. However, there is no causal treatment for the disease. Case Report: Two cases of adult patients with atopic predispositions developed nocturnal fever, general fatigue, pharyngitis and lymphadenopathy after an exacerbation of atopic symptoms or those of allergic rhinitis. Due to the positive results for EBV viral-capsid antigen (VCA) IgM and negative results for EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA) IgG, diagnoses of infectious mononucleosis induced by EBV were made in both cases. Although oral antibiotics or acetaminophen alone did not improve the deteriorating symptoms, including fever, headache and general fatigue, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as tiaramide or loxoprofen, completely improved the symptoms quickly after the initiation. Conclusions: In these cases, given the atopic predispositions of the patients, an enhanced immunological response was likely to be mainly responsible for the pathogenesis of the symptoms. In such cases, NSAIDs, that are known to reduce the activity of EBV, may dramatically improve the deteriorating symptoms quickly after the initiation. In the present cases, the immunosuppressive property of these drugs was considered to suppress the activity of lymphocytes and thus provide the rapid and persistent remission of the disease.


Our perception is of a stable visual world, yet we make several saccadic eye movements per second – to say nothing of the motion of objects in the world or our own motion through the physical world. Even standing on a stage, looking out at an audience, we have the perception of the crowd in detail, in spite of our less than accurate peripheral input. Standing on this stage, it is a trivial matter to make a series of saccades to the faces of various audience members to find one particular person – how can we do this, since visual crowding makes these faces unidentifiable? How much information is available from peripheral vision prior to a saccade? While making saccades to individual members of the crowd is useful for identifying them, what about gaining a sense of the audience as a whole? We can perceive the ensemble emotion of the audience without examining each and every member, but is this solely possible with peripheral information, the details of which we cannot otherwise access, or does it require foveal information? While a great deal of information is available from peripheral vision, identifying individual objects is difficult due to visual crowding; we solve this problem by simply making a saccade to the object we wish to identify. The ability to saccade to a crowded object implied that a saccade to a crowded object might reduce crowding before the object was foveated, essentially unlocking peripheral information that is otherwise inaccessible. We performed a series of experiments where subjects made saccades to crowded faces and were not permitted to foveate them; we found that crowding was diminished presaccadically and that this was more effective than covert attention alone. Our crowding result shows that saccade planning can diminish crowding, but what information becomes available to conscious vision? To determine this, we performed a series of experiments to determine whether saccadic remapping acquired object representations or merely constituent features from saccade targets. We found that saccadic remapping was object-selective and tightly tuned to the target of the saccade, suggesting that, prior to a saccade, detailed information is made available to conscious vision. However, there simply is not time to take advantage of this unlocking for each face in a crowd – can the visual system use this inaccessible information to generate a percept of the group as a whole – an ensemble code – and is foveation of individuals required? We occluded foveal input and determined that it was unnecessary for ensemble perception of emotion. In all, these three studies demonstrate that peripheral input is remarkably detailed and that the visual system can use this information to both facilitate identification of individual group members as part of saccade planning, and to provide a useful assessment of the crowd as a whole


A fast, completely automated method to create 3D watertight building models from airborne LiDAR point clouds is presented. The proposed method analyzes the scene content and produces multi-layer rooftops with complex boundaries and vertical walls that connect rooftops to the ground. A graph cuts based method is used to segment vegetative areas from the rest of scene content. The ground terrain and building rooftop patches are then extracted utilizing our technique, the hierarchical Euclidean clustering. Our method adopts a "divide-and-conquer" strategy. Once potential points on rooftops are segmented from terrain and vegetative areas, the whole scene is divided into individual pendent processing units which represent potential building footprints. For each individual building region, significant features on the rooftop are further detected using a specifically designed region growing algorithm with smoothness constraint. Boundaries for all of these features are refined in order to produce strict description. After this refinement, mesh models could be generated using an existing robust dual contouring method.


A b s t r a c t . — Six subspecies of the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) are currently recognized as inhabiting the Caribbean slope of Mexico from Texas to Isla Cozumel. The characters and distributions of these races are reviewed and corrected. An additional subspecies, best characterized by the pallor of females, is described from the coastal scrub of the northern edge of the Yucatán Peninsula.


Different types of marriage patterns such as polygyny and levirate marriages are expected to be risks for HIV infection in communities where such practices are common. Previous to this study a 6.5% HIV prevalence was reported in Gambella, a region where polygyny and levirate marriages are common. We conducted a cross sectional study to assess the sero-prevalence of HIV infection across different marriage patterns using 424 individuals attending Gambella Hospital. The overall HIV prevalence in the current study was 8.5%, with a prevalence of 3.5%, 4.0%, and 1.0% among monogamy, polygyny and unmarried individuals, respectively. Polygyny, illiteracy, levirate and gift marriage, rural residency, being house wife, lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, absence of discussion about HIV with partner, lack of knowledge about VCT and not being tested before were factors that showed statistically significant association with HIV infection at least in a bivariate analysis. The findings of this study indicated the need for fighting harmful traditional practices such as polygyny and levirate marriage through community dialogue and implementation of preventive measures to tackle HIV infection in Gambella administrative region in particular which may also hold true in some other parts of the country in general.


Background: Exercise is widely regarded to improve pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) through building supportive muscle mass, facilitating weight loss, and through the other beneficial effects associated with it. Purpose: To explore literature that presents clinical guidelines for the use of exercise in the treatment of knee OA to inform an evidence-based position statement for the Arthroscopy Association of Canada. Study Design: Position statement. Methods: PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane databases were searched for guidelines commenting on the role of exercise for knee OA. The search was limited to guidelines published in the last 10 years. Articles were screened for relevance, focusing on recently published research with clinical guidelines. Inclusion criteria involved all articles providing clinical guidelines for exercise and knee OA. Results: Eight guidelines were identified. All eight recommended exercise as an important component of treatment for knee OA, with 6/8 strongly recommending it. Conclusion: Exercise is an effective and important component of the non-pharmacological management of knee OA. The Arthroscopy Association of Canada strongly recommends the use of exercise in the management of knee OA.


The epidemiologic typing of bacterial pathogens can be applied to answer a number of different questions: in case of outbreak, what is the extent and mode of transmission of epidemic clone(s)? In case of long-term surveillance, what is the prevalence over time and the geographic spread of epidemic and endemic clones in the population? A number of molecular typing methods can be used to classify bacteria based on genomic diversity into groups of closely-related isolates (presumed to arise from a common ancestor in the same chain of transmission) and divergent, epidemiologically-unrelated isolates (arising from independent sources of infection). Ribotyping, IS-RFLP fingerprinting, macrorestriction analysis of chromosomal DNA and PCR-fingerprinting using arbitrary sequence or repeat element primers are useful methods for outbreak investigations and regional surveillance. Library typing systems based on multilocus sequence-based analysis and strain-specific probe hybridization schemes are in development for the international surveillance of major pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Accurate epidemiological interpretation of data obtained with molecular typing systems still requires additional research on the evolution rate of polymorphic loci in bacterial pathogens.


The present study was carried out with a view of determining ricin lipolytic activity on neutral lipids in emulsion and in a membrane-like model. Using 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanol tributyrate (BAL-TC(4)) as substrate, the lipolytic activity of ricin was found to be proportional to ricin and substrate concentrations, with an apparent K(m) (K(m,app)) of 2.4 mM, a k(cat) of 200 min(-1) and a specific activity of 1.0 unit/mg of protein. This work was extended to p-nitrophenyl (pNP) fatty acid esters containing two to twelve carbon atoms. Maximum lipolytic activity was registered on pNP decanoate (pNPC(10)), with a K(m,app) of 3.5 mM, a k(cat) of 173 min(-1) and a specific activity of 3.5 units/mg of protein. Ricin lipolytic activity is pH and galactose dependent, with a maximum at pH 7.0 in the presence of 0.2 M galactose. Using the monolayer technique with dicaprin as substrate, ricin showed a lipolytic activity proportional to the ricin concentration at 20 mN/m, which is dependent on the surface pressure of the lipid monolayer and is detectable up to 30 mN/m, a surface pressure that is of the same order of magnitude as that of natural cell membranes. The methods based on pNPC(10) and BAL-TC(4) hydrolysis are simple and reproducible; thus they can be used for routine studies of ricin lipolytic activity. Ricin from Ricinus communis and R. sanguineus were treated with diethyl p-nitrophenylphosphate, an irreversible serine esterase inhibitor, and their lipolytic activities on BAL-TC(4) and pNPC(10), and cytotoxic activity, were concurrently recorded. A reduction in lipolytic activity was accompanied by a decrease in cytotoxicity on Caco2 cells. These data support the idea that the lipolytic activity associated with ricin is relevant to a lipase whose activity is pH and galactose dependent, sensitive to diethyl p-nitrophenylphosphate, and that a lipolytic step may be involved in the process of cell poisoning by ricin. Both colorimetric tests used in this study are sensitive enough to be helpful in the detection of possible lipolytic activities associated with other cytotoxins or lectins.


We describe a case of a 4-year-old boy who presented with acute vomiting, weight loss, loss of appetite, polyuria and polydipsia. Initial investigations revealed a very elevated corrected calcium level which peaked at 4.46 mmol/L. He had a prior diagnosis of autism and his mother had consulted an alternative therapist who had recommended many supplements, including calcium and vitamin D. He required treatment with hyperhydration, calcitonin, furosemide and several doses of pamindronate before his calcium level returned to the normal range 2 weeks later.


This paper describes the TerraSAR-X mission concept within the context of a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the industry. It briefly describes the PPP concept as well as the overall project organization. This paper then gives an overview of the satellite design and the corresponding ground segment, as well as the main mission parameters. After a short introduction to the scientific and commercial exploitation scheme, this paper finally focuses on the mission accomplishments achieved so far during the ongoing mission.


Two cases of chronic epidural hematoma are reported. Case 1, a 15-year-old female, was admit ted with complaints of mild headache and hyposmia, and with computerized tomography (CT) findings of suspected epidural mass. Thirty-six days before admission, she fell from a motorcycle. Surgery revealed that the mass was an epidural hematoma with calcification. Case 2, a 17-year-old male, was admitted as the CT scan revealed an epidural mass. Thirty-one days before admission, he was involved in a traffic accident. Neurological examination revealed mild left motor weakness. Surgery confirmed that the mass was an epidural hematoma. Many atypical epidural hematoma have been reported. Some cases were reported as chronic epidural hematoma, and the others were reported as delayed epidural hematoma. However, the difference between the chronic epidural hematoma and the delayed epidural hematoma is not clear. In this paper, the chronic epidural hematoma and the delayed epidural hematoma are determined as follows. 1) Chronic epidural hematoma: Time interval between injury and operation is 14 days or more. Chronically increased intracranial pressure (ICP) is the main sign in these cases. In some cases, no symptoms or signs are observed. The hematoma is accompanied by a membrane or calcification. 2) Delayed epidural hematoma: Time interval between injury and operation is within 14 days. The chief complaint is the progressive ICP elevation sign.


The invertebrate innate immune system is surprisingly complex, yet our knowledge is limited to a few select model systems. One understudied group is the phylum Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones, etc.). Cnidarians are the sister group to Bilateria and by studying their innate immunity repertoire, a better understanding of the ancestral state can be gained. Corals in particular have evolved a highly diverse innate immune system that can uncover evolutionarily basal functions of conserved genes and proteins. One rudimentary function of the innate immune system is defense against harmful bacteria using pore forming proteins. Macrophage expressed gene 1/Perforin-2 protein (Mpeg-1/P2) is a particularly important pore forming molecule as demonstrated by previous studies in humans and mice, and limited studies in non-bilaterians. However, in cnidarians, little is known about Mpeg-1/P2. In this perspective article, we will summarize the current state of knowledge of Mpeg-1/P2 in invertebrates, analyze identified Mpeg-1/P2 homologs in cnidarians, and demonstrate the evolutionary diversity of this gene family using phylogenetic analysis. We will also show that Mpeg-1 is upregulated in one species of stony coral in response to lipopolysaccharides and downregulated in another species of stony coral in response to white band disease. This data presents evidence that Mpeg-1/P2 is conserved in cnidarians and we hypothesize that it plays an important role in cnidarian innate immunity. We propose that future research focus on the function of Mpeg-1/P2 family in cnidarians to identify its primary role in innate immunity and beyond.


The time an offspring should live and remain into the population in order to evolve and mature is a crucial factor of the performance of population-based algorithms both in the search for global optima, and in escaping from the local optima. Offsprings lifespan influences a correct exploration of the search space, and a fruitful exploiting of the knowledge learned. In this research work we present an experimental study on an immunological-inspired heuristic, called OPT-IA, with the aim to understand how long must the lifespan of each clone be to properly explore the solution space. Eleven different types of age assignment have been considered and studied, for an overall of 924 experiments, with the main goal to determine the best one, as well as an efficiency ranking among all the age assignments. This research work represents a first step towards the verification if the top 4 age assignments in the obtained ranking are still valid and suitable on other discrete and continuous domains, i.e. they continue to be the top 4 even if in different order.


The distributions of residual stresses for zinc-plated film were measured quantitatively by X-ray diffraction (XRD), its interfacial structures were observed with scanning electron microscope (SEM). The effects of residual stress on bonding strength of zinc-plated film were investigated, and its influence mechanism was discussed. The experimental results show that residual stresses of zinc-plated film are behaved as tensile stress, which increase with its thickness, bonding strength of zinc-plated film is inverse ratio with residual stresses; the effects of residual stress on film crack are obvious, tensile stress speeds film cracking, which decrease its bonding strength; bonding strength of zinc-plated film is increased by improving its residual stress distribution.


Since the power consumption of different electrical appliances in a household can be recorded by individual smart meters, it becomes possible to start considering in more detail the interactions of the residents with those devices throughout the day. Appliances' usages should not be considered as independent events, but rather as enablers for activities. Leveraging activity knowledge over time will allow us to design personalized energy efficient measures. We envision the design of future ambient intelligence systems, where the smart home can optimize the energy consumption in regards to the lifestyles of its residents and the smart grid's needs. In this work, we propose an automated method for determining when an electrical device is triggered by households' residents solely from its power trace. Knowing when an appliance is in use is required for identifying recurrent patterns that could later be understood as activities.


A powerful discourse-pragmatic agent of grammatical change in English since the mid-twentieth century has been the increasing acceptance of colloquialism. Little is known, however, about its influence on grammatical developments in regional varieties of World English other than the two inner circle 'supervarieties', British and American English. This paper reports findings from a corpus-based study of three grammatical categories known to be undergoing a colloquialism-related rise in contemporary English, across a range of registers in ten World Englishes: quasi-modals (have to, have got to, be going to, want to), get-passives, and first person plural inclusive let's. In each case comparisons are drawn with non-colloquial variants: modals (must, should, will, shall), be-passives, and let us. Subsequent functional interpretation of the data is used to explore the effect upon the quantitative patterns identified of the phenomenon of colloquialism and of further factors with which it interacts (including Americanism, prescriptivism, and evolutionary status).


The aim of this paper is to improve the level of consumption in the region and achieve sustained and steady regional economic growth. According to global autocorrelation calculation, the difference in county consumption level of the Wanjiang City Cluster since 2004 generally takes on an increasing trend, while the consumption level presents unbalanced development. Evolution of spatial distribution pattern indicates that high level consumption areas are mainly distributed along Yangtze River and these areas are constantly expanding, while low level consumption areas are situated in central Anhui and southwest mountain areas of Anhui. The differentiation pattern of consumption level gets constantly increasing and tends to remain stable. Quantile regression approach was used in different quantiles to depict effects of influencing factors on consumption level. In all quantiles, per capita GDP, per capita financial revenue, and average wage exert a positive effect on county consumption level, while the per capita industrial added value and net income of farmers produce a negative effect on county consumption level. Based on the overall grasp of the influencing factors of the regional consumption level and the quantile regression analysis, in order to improve the consumption level in the region and reduce the difference in regional consumption, policy makers should make every effort to improve the basic conditions for regional economic development and implement it in a targeted manner when formulating the regional consumption policy Countermeasures to Improve Regional Consumption Level.

 Key words: County consumption level, evolution of spatial pattern, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), quantile regression, Wanjiang City Cluster.


In 1785 Immanuel Kant wrote a short essay, Von der Unrechtmasigkeit des Buchernachdrucks, which is sometimes translated as Of the injustice of counterfeiting books; later, he repeated almost the same thesis in the Rechtslehre, § 31, II, within Die Metaphysik der Sitten (1797). As most scholars, in the field of humanities, take intellectual property for granted, the representation of Kant like an intellectual property forerunner is still a dangerously mistaken commonplace. According to Kant's Architectonic of Pure Reason the philosopher is closer to a lawgiver than to an artificer, if philosophy is considered in its Weltbegriff or cosmopolitan concept (AA.03: 542.23-30). Because such a lawgiving is based upon that reason with which every human being is endowed, the laws of reason should be thought as public laws and not as individual, private creations. How could a public law be consistently viewed as an object of private intellectual property? Kant avoids such a contradiction because his justification of authors' right does not rely on intellectual property, but on the meaning and the function of both authors and publishers in the world of the public use of reason. Therefore, Kant's theory of copyright is compatible with the Weltbegriff of philosophy. Furthermore, more interestingly, it is also possible to demonstrate that it is consistent with his general theory of property, as stated in the Metaphysik der Sitten. The following essay, after presenting a short sketch of Kant's authors right as personal right, will introduce Fichte's theory of intellectual property to strengthen the case of Kant's rejection of intellectual property, by comparing his ideas with the theory of an actual intellectual property advocate, like Fichte. Eventually, to read the proposed interpretation of Kant in a wider theoretical perspective, it will attempt to connect it to his general theory of property of the Metaphysik der Sitten.


Summary
A pollen-expressed gene of Petunia inflata that encodes a receptor-like kinase named PRK1 was previously identified. The extracellular domain of PRK1 contains leucine-rich repeats which have been implicated in protein—protein interactions, and the cytoplasmic domain was found to autophosphorylate on serine and possibly tyrosine. To investigate the function of PRK1 in pollen development, P. inflata plants were transformed with a construct containing the promoter of a pollen-expressed gene of tomato, LAT52, fused to an antisense PRK1 cDNA corresponding to part of the extracellular domain of PRK1. Three transgenic plants were found to each produce approximately equal amounts of normal and aborted pollen. Analysis of the inheritance of the transgene inserts in two of the transgenic plants, ASRK-13 and ASRK-20, to their progeny revealed that certain transgene inserts co-segregated with the pollen abortion phenotype. Microscopic examination of the aborted pollen grains showed that their outer wall, the exine, was essentially normal, but that their cytoplasm contained only starch-like granules. Staining of the nuclei of the microspores at different stages of anther development revealed that the microspores of the transgenic plants developed normally until the uninucleate stage. However, in subsequent stages half of the microspores completed mitosis and developed into normal binucleate pollen, but the other half initially remained uninucleate and subsequently lost their nuclei. Analysis of the amounts of PRK1 mRNA and the antisense PRK1 transcript suggested that the pollen abortion phenotype most likely resulted from downregulation of the PRK1 gene by the antisense PRK1 transgene. These results suggest that PRK1 plays an essential role in a signal transduction pathway that mediates postmeiotic development of microspores.


The first chapter contains a detailed explanation of the borylation of arenes using iridium catalysts with different ligands. Phosphine, N,N-aryl and carbene ligands have been studied previously for the borylation of substituted aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds. The importance of polymer supported catalysts is shown. Examples of polymer supported iridium catalysts for the borylation of arenes are given. Chapter 2 discusses the preparation of 2-arylquinoline and quinolone derivatives. These were prepared by reaction of 3-methoxy and 3,5-dimethoxy aniline with malonic acid to generate the 2,4-dichloro quinoline derivatives. These in turn were then coupled with a range of aryl boronic acids in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. A study documents the borylation selectivity of 2-(4'-methoxyphenyl)-4-chloro-7-methoxyquinoline 230. Various conditions in Stille cross-coupling reaction were used to prepare nonsymmetrical 4,4'-substituted-2,2'-bipyridine derivatives 250 and 285 in chapter 3. These were prepared through coupling of stannyl pyridine 266 with 2-chloro- and bromo-4-substituted pyridine derivatives in presence of metal salts. Ligands 250 and 285 were evaluated in the borylation of m-xylene and compared to the activity of the literature standard ligand 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine dtbpy 22. Chapter 4 describes the preparation of 2,4,6-substituted pyridine derivatives. These compounds were prepared by one of two methods. The borylation of 2-chloro-4-substituted pyridine derivatives afforded the corresponding boronate esters, which were then coupled with a range of aryl halides. This was followed by an aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction with a range of amines. Alternatively, aromatic nucleophilic substitution of 2-chloro-4-substituted pyridine derivatives with amines afforded the corresponding 2-aminopyridines. Subsequent borylation of these subtrates followed by Suzuki-Miyaura cross-copuling was also an effective strategy. Chapter 5 reports the synthesis of symmetrical phenanthroline 347 using the Altman protocol. Attachment of a linker to enable coupling to a polymer support afforded modified ligand 367. Phenanthrolines 347 and 367 were evaluated in the borylation of m-xylene compared to the commercially available 3,4,7,8-tetra-methyl-1,10-phenanthroline tmphen 66. The commercially available MCM-41 was chosen as a suitable polymer for the polymer supported iridium catalyst. Different strategies were investigated to attach the phenanthroline ligand to the polymer. These strategies involved attaching an amine linker to the polymer before coupling it with lithium phenanthroline carboxylate 368. Chapter 6 provides all the experimental details.