Radical grain size changes between two main units of a sedimentary megacycle in a foreland basin are commonly interpreted to result from changes in tectonic activity or climate in the adjacent mountain range. In central Nepal, the Cenozoic Siwalik molasse deposits exposed in the frontal Himalayan folds are characterized by such a radical grain size transition. Locally gravel deposits completely replace sands in vertical succession over approximately a hundred metres, the median grain size (D50) displaying a sharp increase by a factor of ca. 100. Such a rapid gravel-sand transition (GST) is also observed in present-day river channels about 8–20 km downstream from the outlet of the Siwalik Range. The passage from gravel-bed channel reaches (proximal alluvial fans) to sand-bed channel reaches (distal alluvial fans) occurs within a few kilometres on the Gangetic Plain in central Nepal, and the D50 ratio between the two types of channels equals ca. 100. We propose that the dramatic and remarkably similar increase in grain size observed in the Neogene Siwalik series and along modern rivers in the Gangetic foreland basin, results from a similar hydraulic process, i.e. a grain sorting process during the selective deposition of the sediment load. The sudden appearance of gravels in the upper Siwalik series would be related to the crossing of this sorting transition during progressive southward migration of the gravel front, in response to continuous Himalayan orogen construction. And as a consequence, the GST would be diachronous by nature. This study demonstrates that an abrupt change in grain size does not necessarily relate to a change in tectonic or climatic forcing, but can simply arise from internal adjustment of the piedmont rivers to the deposition and run out of coarse bedload. It illustrates, in addition, the genesis of quartz-rich conglomerates in the Himalayan foreland through gravel selective deposition associated with differential weathering, abrasion processes and sediment recycling during thrust wedge advance and shortening of the foreland basin.


ABSTRACT Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and age on facial emotion recognition abilities in adults. Age and TBI were expected to have negative effects on emotion recognition and a TBI by age interaction was hypothesized such that older adults with TBI would have the lowest emotion recognition scores. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were 26 adults with moderate-severe TBI (13 older and 13 younger) and 26 uninjured peers matched for age, sex, and education. Emotion recognition was measured using the Emotion Recognition Task, which is comprised of dynamically morphed facial expressions of the six basic emotions, presented at different intensity levels. Results : TBI and older age were associated with poorer recognition of both subtle and intense expressions, but only for expressions of anger and sadness. There was no interaction of age and TBI. Conclusions: Results add to the growing evidence of emotion recognition impairments after TBI, particularly for select negative emotions, and extend this finding to adults over the age of 60. Further research is needed to better understand social cognitive effects of TBI across the adult lifespan.


Since 1997 more than 3,000 patients have been referred to one of the two Dutch Solvent Teams with health problems that may have been caused by long-term occupational exposure to organic solvents. A diagnosis of 'chronic solvent-induced encephalopathy' was made in approximately 500 patients. The diagnostics of this disease is based on five elements: (a) symptoms in line with the diagnosis; (b) relevant exposure to an organic solvent with neurotoxic effects; (c) a clear temporal relationship between the onset of symptoms and exposure to a solvent with neurotoxic effects; (d) exclusion of other causes for the symptoms; and (e) impairment on neuropsychological assessment. Exposure to organic solvents can cause chronic health effects, which may even persist years after exposure has ceased. In general, no more serious deterioration of health is observed after exposure has ceased.


This work presents a study of the thermal charac-teristics of a turbulent flow of a forced convection along various geometrical configurations: Smooth wall, wall corrugated in spiral, corrugated wall. The effects of pitch/diameter ratio and rib height to diameter ratio made it possible to develop this impact of this geometrical form (sometimes corrugated, sometimes spiral) in the intensification of the heat transfer. The physical process of increase in the heat transfer comes owing to the fact that the spiral shape of the tube contributes to break the formed boundary layer and to allow the continual replacement of the fluid meadows of the solid wall. The numerical results obtained prove that this corrugated form or into spiral intensifies the heat transfer thanks to model SST for Reynolds numbers varying from 5000 to 55000, Indeed when the pitch and the depth of the rib increases from P/dh = 0.18, e/dh = 0.02 to P/dh = 0.27, e/dh = 0.06. The ratio of the numbers of Nusselt increases with the rise in the step and the depth of the notch. Several explanations can be advanced, among these last, the spirals are the cause of the presence of the viscous effects, which slow down the flow in the notch of the spiral (broken boundary layer). The low depth of the notch, going from 0.02 up to 0.04 does not allow a significant thermal intensification, on the other hand for the strong values of the notch (0.05 to 0.06) the presence of turbulence supports good Nusselt. We notes that this last increases with the amplitude of the undulation up to the value of 0.05H. Beyond the value of the amplitude, the number of Nusselt tends towards the constant value. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.20.1.6589


This thesis examines the interrelated roles of Mediation, Embodiment and Sympathy in the development of shared and relational identities by sibling and family writers in the Wordsworth-Lamb-Coleridge Circle. Responding to recent developments within Romantic Media Studies and The Spatial Turn within the Humanities, this thesis demonstrates that the concepts of mediation and sympathy were inherently linked to emerging understandings of embodiment in the overlapping fields of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience in the late Eighteenth Century. Across three case studies, this thesis applies this spatial, nervous and mediatory account of sympathy to these families in order to demonstrate that Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Charles and Mary Lamb, and Sara and Derwent Coleridge engaged in acts of mediation (through places, bodies and texts) to construct textual, writerly and authorial identities. This thesis claims that mediation is a vital, if hitherto overlooked, part of the creative process for siblings writing together. It identifies new constructions and practices of shared identity—particularly for the Lambs—and articulates a tri-partite model of creative relationship. It uses this model to reassess current critical presentations of Romantic familial collaboration. The female family members of the canonical Romantic authors within this circle are often depicted as being overshadowed by their published brothers and fathers, which is seemingly reflected in their choice of more marginal literary activities and forms, such as life-writing, children's literature and posthumous editing. Instead, this thesis uses a tri-partite model of relationship to analyse how mediation (within articulations of shared identity and within the models of meaning-making presented in their texts) enables these male-female siblings to bring each other's literary identities into being. It concludes that acts of mediation generate creative agency in particular for the female members of this familial and friendly network.


Recently, a few case reports and clinical studies have been published that explore the association of Behçet's Disease (BD) and vitiligo, with conflicting results. Genetic and immunological properties of BD and presence of autoantibodies support autoimmunity, but clinical features suggest autoinflammatory diseases. BD is thought to be a cornerstone between autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. On the other hand, vitiligo has been accepted as an autoimmune disease with associations of other autoimmune disorders and there is a possible role of autoimmunity in pathogenesis of the disease. Significant advances have been made understanding the pathogenesis and genetics of BD. However, it is worth presenting rare clinical variants for improving the clinical understanding of BD. Herein, we are presenting a case with diagnosis of both Behçet's disease and vitiligo in same patient, which is a rare occurrence. Discussion and demonstrating the association of these two diseases may give rise to understanding similar and different aspects of autoimmunity and autoinflammatory pathogenesis of both diseases.


This paper describes how a fleet fueling facility reported a gasoline release in 1987 when impacted soils were encountered during the removal of two underground storage tanks. The subsequent remedial investigation indicated that separate-phase and dissolved-phase gasoline had migrated onto an adjacent property, consisting of a childcare facility and a wetland. Geomatrix utilized real-time-data collection methods, including the membrane interface probe, soil vapor screening, and physical analysis of soil in the field, to expedite delineation of the residual separate-phase product and impacted soil. The current property owner applied for entry into the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program, which provides a multi-track cleanup approach to achieve closure based on land use and site-specific conditions. The program offers technical assistance grants and provides incentives to expedite cleanup, including limitations on liability and tax credits of 10–22%. Excavation was selected for removal of the residual product in the soil. Concurrent dewatering operations removed approximately 620,000 gallons of impacted groundwater. Clean backfill mixed with an oxygen release compound (ORC®) was placed in the excavation at and below the water table to increase oxygen availability in the groundwater, thereby enhancing aerobic degradation of dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons. The work was implemented on an expedited schedule, with activities commencing during the winter holiday to minimize impact to the childcare facility's operation.


Normal renal vascular anatomy has renal veins draining deoxygenated blood from the kidneys into the inferior vena cava (IVC). Since the IVC is situated to the right of the midline, the left renal vein typically runs anterior to the abdominal aorta and drains into it. Routine dissection of the posterior abdomen of a 76-year-old male donor, presented a variant left renal vein. In contrast to the expected anatomy, the left renal vein displayed a retroaortic course. An understanding of normal renal vasculature aids in diagnosis of vascular variations in the posterior abdomen, and hence the dissection team proceeded to document the variation using digital photography. Additionally, a thorough literature review was carried out to understand the developmental basis of the variation, pathogenesis, mechanisms, treatment options and clinical implications in patients. The findings of the dissection are presented along with a comprehensive review of the development of renal vasculature.


Archaeological prospection, as the use of geophysical methods in archaeology is known in Europe, is about four decades old (seven decades, if aerial photography of archaeological sites is included). Virtually the entire range of geophysical methods, perhaps excluding only borehole techniques, has found application in the search for archaeological sites unseen or partially known. Pressures by developers, and the public's growing sensitivity toward the preservation of historic and prehistoric cultural artifacts and sites, has led to an accelerating use of high‐resolution geophysical methods in the archaeological sciences. The archaeogeophysical articles in this Special Issue are reasonably representative of the development of this specialty field of geophysics.


In this study, carbon fibers (CF) were braided with polypropylene (PP) fibers on a 16-spindle braid machine, forming the PP/ CF composite braids. The composite braids with different levels of strength could be obtained by changing the speed of the yarn turntable and volume gauze. The composite braids with optimum tensile strength then received the thermal treatment, which melted the PP fibers to wrap the CF more tightly, stabilizing the structure of the composite braids. According to CNS 11623 (Tensile Properties of Geogrids by the Single), the composite braids were thermal-treated at 170 °C, 180 °C and 190 °C for1 min, 2 min and 3 min, determing the influence of thermal temperature and duration on the tensile strength of PP/ CF composite braids.


BACKGROUND
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a hematological disorder and can be classified as acute or chronic. The main goal of treatment for acute childhood ITP is the prevention of potentially fatal bleeding complications, the most serious of which is intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). Treatment options for acute childhood ITP include splenectomy, corticosteroids, and blood products such as intravenous immunoglobulin.

OBJECTIVES
The objective was to evaluate, from a Canadian perspective, the cost-effectiveness of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) compared to alternative inpatient treatments for acute childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

METHODS
A Markov model with a lifelong time horizon was used to evaluate the costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for 5 treatments for children hospitalized for ITP: 1) no treatment; 2) IVIG; 3) Anti-D; 4) prednisone; and 5) methylprednisolone. The model predicted the probability of intracranial hemorrhage for each treatment strategy based on the time children spent with platelet counts <20,000µL. The time patients spent with platelet counts <20,000µL with each treatment was estimated by pooling data from published randomized clinical trials. In the basecase analysis, the cohort was assumed to weigh 20kg. Cost and utility model variables were based upon various literature sources. Parameter uncertainty was assessed using probabilistic sensitivity analysis.

RESULTS
The treatment strategies that comprised the efficiency frontier were prednisone, Anti-D and IVIG. The incremental cost per QALY was $53,333 moving from prednisone to Anti-D and $53,846 moving from Anti-D to IVIG. Results were sensitive to patient weight. If patient weight is 10kg, IVIG dominates all other strategies and if weight is increased to 30kg, the cost per QALY of IVIG is $163,708.

CONCLUSION
Based on common willingness to pay thresholds, IVIG might be considered a cost effective treatment for acute childhood ITP. Cost effectiveness is highly dependent on patient weight.


In vitro Seed germination through different treatments, and seedling growth of Bombax ceiba were studied from April 2009 to January 2010. Fifty seven per cent seed germination at control condition was enhanced up to 63% by continuous tap water washing for 48 h duration. Freshly collected seeds in April did not germinate in May and June. Stem diameter and height of one and 6 months old seedlings were 0.3 cm, 1.2 cm and 1.2 cm, 87.1 cm, respectively. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njbs.v2i0.7497 Nepalese Journal of Biosciences 2 : 109-112 (2012)


RNA sequencing protocols allow for quantifying gene expression regulation at each individual step, from transcription to protein synthesis. Ribosome Profiling (Ribo-seq) maps the positions of translating ribosomes over the entire transcriptome. Despite its great potential, a rigorous statistical approach to identify translated regions by means of the characteristic three-nucleotide periodicity of Ribo-seq data is not yet available. To fill this gap, we developed RiboTaper, which quantifies the significance of periodic Ribo-seq reads via spectral analysis methods. We applied RiboTaper on newly generated, deep Ribo-seq data in HEK293 cells, to derive an extensive map of translation that covers Open Reading Frame (ORF) annotations for more than 11,000 protein-coding genes. We also find distinct ribosomal signatures for several hundred detected upstream ORFs and ORFs in annotated non-coding genes (ncORFs). Mass spectrometry data confirms that RiboTaper achieves excellent coverage of the cellular proteome and validates dozens of novel peptide products. Collectively, RiboTaper (available at https://ohlerlab.mdc-berlin.de/software/) is a powerful method for comprehensive de novo identification of actively used ORFs in the human genome.


A new method is presented for optimizing electrode and insulator contours. The contours are modified by using the iteration methods of nonlinear programming until the desired electric field distribution is obtained. The Gauss-Newton, quasi-Newton, conjugate gradient, or steepest descent method is used for the iteration. The electric-field distributions are computed by means of the surface charge simulation method. It is shown that the Gauss-Newton method gives very fast convergence. >


A case of a follicular tumor in the sellar region is described without evidence of a primary tumor within the thyroid gland or at a site known to harbor ectopic thyroid tissue. Large amounts of thyroglobulin were readily demonstrated mainly within the colloid of the follicles. The possible development from heterotopic thyroid tissue at this unusual site is discussed. (


Information is becoming one of the vital necessities (if not a basic need) in the contemporary world. With globalization and the growing interdependence of human life, reliable and easy access to information becomes crucial for people who have to adapt their livelihood strategies to continuously changing conditions.  Access to information is a prerequisite for survival in the modern world that is increasingly characterized by global economic and political dynamics. Access alone is, however, not sufficient.  Making adequate use of information (which involves critically organizing a set of given data), transforming such a string of information with the data (again, critically and purposefully organizing these with value-added statements) in order to use it productively at the end -- is just a simplified form of a chain, of what might be called a "global knowledge society".  Creating knowledge requires a set of critical competence, continuum of creativity and capturing emerging opportunity. Being empowered involves being capacitated to making meaningful use of information in view of improving and sustaining one's livelihood. Empowerment, therefore, is a simple prerequisite for "knowledge-path" and sustainable development as the fundamental paradigm shift for emergence of a global knowledge society.  At the current state of challenges and time of deepening global economic crisis when the overall welfare of many countries is at the risk of long recession and declining standards of living the "knowledge-path" could and should provide certain viable solutions.


Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can benefit non-volatility and high-performance by exploiting Resistive Random Access Memories (RRAMs). In RRAM-based FPGAs, the memories do not only replace the SRAMs and store configurations, but they can also replace the transmission gates and propagate datapath signals. The high-performance achievable by RRAM-based FPGAs comes from the fact that the on-resistance of the memory devices RLRS is smaller than the equivalent resistance of a transmission gate. Efficient programming structures for RRAMs should provide high current density with a small area footprint, to obtain a low RLRS. In this paper, we first examine the efficiency of the widely-used 2Transistor/1RRAM (2T1R) programming structure and identify four major limitations of the 2T1R structure. To overcome these limitations, we propose a 2Transmission-Gates/1RRAM (2TG1R) and a 4Transistor/ 1RRAM (4T1R) programming structures. We perform both theoretical analysis and electrical simulations on the evaluated programming structures. 4T1R programming structure is the best in terms of current density with 1.4 x and 1.1 x as compared to 2T1R and 2TG1R counterparts, respectively. We also investigate the effect of boosting the programming voltage Vprog of the programming structures. Experimental results show that boosting Vprog for all the programming structures improves driving current of the evaluated programming structures by 3 x and area efficiency by 1.7 x on average.


Abstract Determining parameters that govern pathogen transmission (such as the force of infection, FOI), and pathogen impacts on morbidity and mortality, is exceptionally challenging for wildlife. Vital parameters can vary, for example across host populations, between sexes and within an individual's lifetime. Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus affecting domestic and wild cat species, forming species‐specific viral–host associations. FIV infection is common in populations of puma (Puma concolor), yet uncertainty remains over transmission parameters and the significance of FIV infection for puma mortality. In this study, the age‐specific FOI of FIV in pumas was estimated from prevalence data, and the evidence for disease‐associated mortality was assessed. We fitted candidate models to FIV prevalence data and adopted a maximum likelihood method to estimate parameter values in each model. The models with the best fit were determined to infer the most likely FOI curves. We applied this strategy for female and male pumas from California, Colorado, and Florida. When splitting the data by sex and area, our FOI modeling revealed no evidence of disease‐associated mortality in any population. Both sex and location were found to influence the FOI, which was generally higher for male pumas than for females. For female pumas at all sites, and male pumas from California and Colorado, the FOI did not vary with puma age, implying FIV transmission can happen throughout life; this result supports the idea that transmission can occur from mothers to cubs and also throughout adult life. For Florida males, the FOI was a decreasing function of puma age, indicating an increased risk of infection in the early years, and a decreased risk at older ages. This research provides critical insight into pathogen transmission and impact in a secretive and solitary carnivore. Our findings shed light on the debate on whether FIV causes mortality in wild felids like puma, and our approach may be adopted for other diseases and species. The methodology we present can be used for identifying likely transmission routes of a pathogen and also estimating any disease‐associated mortality, both of which can be difficult to establish for wildlife diseases in particular.


This paper makes an attempt to assess the benefits of replacing a conventional generator excitation system (AVR+PSS) with a nonlinear voltage regulator using the concepts of synchronizing and damping torque components in a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in designing nonlinear excitation controllers, which are expected to give better dynamic performance over a wider range of system and operating conditions. The performance of these controllers is often justified by simulation studies on few test cases which may not adequately represent the diverse operating conditions of a typical power system. The performance of two such nonlinear controllers which are designed based on feedback linearization and include automatic voltage regulation with good dynamic performance have been analyzed using an SMIB model. Linearizing the nonlinear control laws along with the SMIB system equations, a Heffron Phillip's type of a model has been derived. Concepts of synchronizing and damping torque components have been used to show that such controllers can impair the small signal stability under certain operating conditions. This paper shows the possibility of negative damping contribution due to nonlinear voltage regulators and gives a new insight on understanding the physical impact of complex nonlinear control laws on power system dynamics.


Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, cryptocurrencies have received considerable attention; not only for their decentralized nature but also for the ability to facilitate conditional payments. For example, Ethereum supports smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements written in program code that can control coins and hence serve as building blocks for various applications. However, there are fundamental challenges in existing cryptocurrencies, one of which is scalability. As all transactions are processed and stored on a distributed ledger -- the so-called blockchain -- transaction throughput is inherently limited. An important proposal to significantly improve scalability is to utilize payment channel networks, which allow users to perform payments in an off-chain manner. We extend the functionality of payment channel networks in several directions, thereby significantly enlarge the class of applications that can be performed off-chain.

Firstly, we generalize the idea of payment channels and construct state channels that allow two parties to execute multiple smart contracts in an off-chain manner. Moreover, we show that any subset of n parties in a state channel network can create a multi-party virtual state channel and execute n-party smart contracts without any blockchain interaction. We follow a modular design approach and formally define the security guarantees provided by the developed state channel framework using the Universal Composability (UC) model of Cannetti.

Secondly, we focus on blockchain systems that do not support execution of smart contracts, such as Bitcoin, and construct generalized channels. Analogously to state channels, generalized channels inherit the functionality of the underlying blockchain and hence form a two-party ledger. We again utilize the UC model to formally define the achieved security guarantees. Furthermore, we demonstrate that off-chain smart contract execution over Bitcoin is possible if we additionally assume that one of the involved parties owns a trusted execution environment.

Finally, we present a provably secure protocol for payment routing in a payment channel network. Our protocol allows intermediaries on the path to split the routed payment and choose the next hop for each partial payment separately.
The combination of local routing and on-path splitting significantly increases the success probability of routed payments, especially when the transferred value is large.


In the given article the author considers history of the origin and development of a movement supporting Soviet Union in Jewish Palestine during the Great Patriotic war, which is a little-studied issue in historiography. The author reveals that the basis for all united actions of the Jewish labour and the USSR was their urge towards settling "former disputes" between the Zionist movement and Moscow and forming friendly relations in future.


While domain adaptation has been actively researched, most algorithms focus on the single-source-single-target adaptation setting. In this paper we propose new generalization bounds and algorithms under both classification and regression settings for unsupervised multiple source domain adaptation. Our theoretical analysis naturally leads to an efficient learning strategy using adversarial neural networks: we show how to interpret it as learning feature representations that are invariant to the multiple domain shifts while still being discriminative for the learning task. To this end, we propose multisource domain adversarial networks (MDAN) that approach domain adaptation by optimizing task-adaptive generalization bounds. To demonstrate the effectiveness of MDAN, we conduct extensive experiments showing superior adaptation performance on both classification and regression problems: sentiment analysis, digit classification, and vehicle counting.


Summary

1. The management of the habitat of insectivorous species often targets increasing the availability of arthropod prey. However, this may be hindered by lack of knowledge of the mechanisms that determine food availability for insectivores. Prey abundance is often used as a surrogate for availability, but this may be incorrect wherever habitat factors limit access to prey. Ground vegetation clutter is likely to be such a limiting factor for ground foraging insectivorous bats, and we investigated this possibility using Myotis myotis as a model.

2. We performed captivity experiments to determine how ground vegetation density affects foraging. Bats were provided with crickets hidden in sparse, medium and dense grass cover. In addition, we used bat radio tracking data, prey abundance measurements, and geographic information system (GIS) modelling to determine if clutter influences how bats select foraging areas in a Mediterranean region.

3. The experiments demonstrated that ground vegetation clutter greatly reduces access to prey, affecting both capture success and time to capture. Bats detected prey in the dense vegetation, but did not attempt to capture them or did so only after a prolonged delay. Their attempts often failed, because the bats landed over prey with open wings, presumably to increase the catching surface, and the dense vegetation prevented them from reaching the ground.

4. In the study area, cover types with the densest ground vegetation harboured the most prey, but clutter made access to prey by M. myotis difficult. Corroborating this, the GIS models showed that bats avoided foraging in habitats with high prey abundance but in which availability was decreased by dense ground vegetation.

5. Ungrazed grasslands reach vegetation densities that limit access to prey by ground foraging bats, as observed in the study area. However, grazing by cattle reduced clutter to levels equivalent to the sparse treatment in our captive experiments, in which bats captured prey easily.

6. Synthesis and applications. Conservation of ground foraging bats may require the management of their feeding grounds, to increase or maintain prey availability, particularly near important colonies. While dense ground vegetation may promote prey density, it dramatically reduces access to prey and usage by bats; hence, this should be considered by managers. Moderate grazing can be used to reduce ground vegetation cover to levels that permit foraging by bats.


The aims of the study were to investigate the importance of maternal effects and to determine the most appropriate model of analyses for pre- and post-weaning daily gain of Turkish Merino lambs. Genetic parameters were estimated by REML procedure using DFREML program. Twelve different animal models were fitted by including or excluding maternal genetic effect, maternal permanent environmental effect, maternal temporary environmental effect and covariance between direct-maternal genetic effects. On the basis of log likelihood ratio test results, Model 2b, which included direct genetic and maternal temporary environmental effects, was determined to be the most appropriate model for both traits. The maternal temporary environmental effect was the most important source of variation for both traits. This effect contributed about 35% and 14% to the phenotypic variance for pre- and post- weaning daily gain, respectively. The maternal genetic and permanent environmental effects were important for only pre-weaning average daily gain. Depending on the model, the estimates of maternal heritability ranged from 0.005 to 0.082 and from 0.010 to 0.027 for pre- and post-weaning daily gain.


Due to extensive coverage and domains of cloud computing-based architecture, most users saves and access highly similar data because of user habits and available resources. Supposing the data stored in the storage devices is of high duplication and similarity, the system administrator cannot guarantee that every node (peer) in the cloud computing system can maintain the best status for data integration. Moreover, when the number of nodes keeps increasing, the number of files will be multiplied, which results to not only the system administrator's heavy workload, but also the waste of hardware resources. Finally, the flexibility and quickness of cloud storage system is gone, and what left is a lot of duplicate and redundant data. Therefore, in order to avoid the system burden caused by duplicate data, we propose novel data center management architecture: Index Name Server (INS), which integrates de-duplication and access point selection optimization techniques to enhance the performance of the cloud storage system. With the attempt to attain load balancing, we use several specific INS parameters to dynamically monitor the parameters, like IP information and busy level index, to avoid the network congestion or the long waiting time during data transmission.


A citizens' basic income scheme is based on the principles of individuality, universality, and unconditionality; when combined with the notion of meeting "basic needs" it would serve to provide a minimum income guarantee for all adult members of society. However, implementation would entail radical reform of existing patterns of welfare delivery and would bring into question the institutionalized relationship between work and welfare, a basic premise of modern welfare states. To date, the debate over a citizens' basic income has emphasized its effects on labor markets, thereby displaying an androcentric bias. Although the role of women in society is central to social policy reform, the existing basic income literature is disturbingly void of any comprehensive treatment of women. No genuine discussion has taken place about the nature of women's lives and work and how these should be valued. Social policy reform should take account of all gender inequalities and not just those relating to the traditional labor market. This paper argues that the citizens' basic income model can be a tool for promoting gender-neutral social citizenship rights, but that any future marriage of justice and efficiency must first divorce work from income.


American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) community stakeholder engagement has the power to transform health research. However, the engagement and dissemination process is challenging in AIAN communities due to the historical and current negative experiences of AIAN populations in health research (Dillard et al., 2018). Whereas there is a paucity of recommendations about how to engage stakeholders in health research, from agenda-setting to proposal development, study design, recruitment, data collection, analysis, results, and dissemination (Concannon et al., 2014), there is limited information about how these recommendations are operationalized within the context of AIAN health research and practice (Concannon et al., 2014; Forsythe et al., 2016). For the purposes of this article, stakeholders are individuals, organizations, or communities who have a direct interest in the process and outcomes of a project, research, or policy effort (Boaz et al., 2018). Stakeholder engagement is a systematic process involving stakeholders, which provides opportunities for consultation, input, reviews, reactions, support, and assistance with dissemination. Dissemination focuses on how, when, by whom, and under what circumstances evidence spreads throughout agencies, organizations, states, counties, communities, tribes, researchers, policy makers, and service organizations.


Power constraints led to the end of exponential growth in single–processor performance, which characterized the semiconductor industry for many years. Single–chip multiprocessors allowed the performance growth to continue so far. Yet, Amdahl's law asserts that the overall
performance of future single–chip multiprocessors will depend crucially on single–processor performance. In a multiprocessor a small growth in single–processor performance can justify the use of significant resources.
Partitioning the layout of critical components can improve the energy–efficiency and ultimately the performance of a single processor. In a clustered microarchitecture parts of these components form clusters. Instructions are processed locally in the clusters and benefit from the smaller size and complexity of the clusters components. Because the clusters together process a single instruction stream communications between clusters are necessary and introduce an additional cost.
This thesis proposes the design of a distributed memory unit and first level cache in the context of a clustered microarchitecture. While the partitioning of other parts of the microarchitecture has been well studied the distribution of the memory unit and the cache has received comparatively little attention.
The first proposal consists of a set of cache bank predictors. Eight different predictor designs are compared based on cost and accuracy. The second proposal is the distributed memory unit. The load and store queues are split into smaller queues for distributed disambiguation. The mapping of memory instructions to cache banks is delayed until addresses have been calculated. We show how disambiguation can be implemented efficiently with unordered queues. A bank predictor is used to map instructions that consume memory data near the data origin. We show that this organization significantly reduces both energy usage and latency. The third proposal introduces Dispatch Throttling and Pre-Access Queues. These mechanisms avoid load/store queue overflows that are a result of the late allocation of entries. The fourth proposal introduces Memory Issue Queues, which add functionality to select instructions for execution and re-execution to the memory unit. The fifth proposal introduces Conservative Deadlock Aware Entry Allocation. This mechanism is a deadlock safe issue policy for the Memory Issue Queues. Deadlocks can result from certain queue allocations because entries are allocated out-of-order instead of in-order like in traditional architectures. The sixth proposal is the Early Release of Load Queue Entries. Architectures with weak memory ordering such as Alpha, PowerPC or ARMv7 can take advantage of this mechanism to release load queue entries before the commit stage. Together, these proposals allow significantly smaller and more energy efficient load queues without the need of energy hungry recovery mechanisms and without performance penalties. Finally, we present a detailed study that compares the proposed distributed memory unit to a centralized memory unit and confirms its advantages of reduced energy usage and of improved performance.


Professional identity of English teachers is an important process in which teachers view themselves as a professional based on social views about "good teacher", studentteacher relationship, and self-view as a professional teacher. Teacher preparation program such as Micro Teaching (MT) and Program Pengalaman Lapangan or PreService Teaching Practice (PTP) influences this process by providing support and opportunities in creating a strong professional identity since they are still in a preservice phase. The different nature between MT (situated) and PTP (concrete) can be challenging to the pre-service teachers (PSTs), especially during the PTP. These challenges are called professional identity tensions and they involve PSTs (as a person and professional) and undesirable situation. This study aimed to identify the professional identity tensions faced by EFL PSTs during their PTP and how they coped up with the tensions. The study employed a qualitative survey design. The results identified six professional identity tensions and two coping strategies from the story of seven EFL PSTs. Those PSTs was indicated either to feel tension or to have experiences that might lead them to tension.

Keywords: EFL pre-service teacher; professional identity tension; coping strategy


Porous TiO2 films were prepared through dip-coating on glass substrates using different molecular weight of PEG. Surface roughness increased with increasing PEG molecular weight. The film prepared with PEG400 was fairly smooth with slight roughness. The films prepared with high molecular PEG became rougher and there were some larger particles on the films. When the PEG molecular weight got higher, adsorption edge of the films tended to move toward shorter wavelength region. In the wavelength range between 350 and 450 nm, larger PEG molecules made higher film transmittance. The particles prepared using higher or lower molecular weight of PEG had less surface area than using PEG1000. The average pore sizes were 14 nm, 15 nm, 28 nm, and 52 nm, and the total pore volume were 0.12 ml/g, 0.13 ml/g, 0.08 ml/g, and 0.09 ml/g for the TiO2 powders prepared using PEG400 to PEG 6000.


Substantial progress made in the fight against malaria has been undermined by challenges including drug resistance instigating the search for new antimalarial drugs or the repurposing of already approved drugs. This study evaluated the antiplasmodial activity of ivermectin (IM) in combination with artemether/lumefantrine (A/L) in a mice model infected with Plasmodium berghei. Parasitized (Plasmodium berghei) adult mice weighing 23-28g were used. The mice were grouped and treated orally with 1M (0.17 mg/kg), A/L (2.3/13.7mg/kg) and A/L/IM daily in curative, suppressive and prophylactic tests. The negative control (NC) was treated orally with normal saline (0.2ml) whereas the positive control was treated orally with chloroquine (CQ) (10mg/kg). After drug treatment, blood samples were collected and evaluated for percentage parasitemia levels, percentage parasitemia inhibition, lipid and hematologic parameters. Mean survival time was also evaluated. The 4-day curative, suppressive and prophylactic test showed significant decreases in percentage parasitemia levels at IM (0.17 mg/kg) (p<0.01), A/L (2.3/13.7 mg/kg) (p<0.001) and A/L/IM (p<0.0001) when compared to negative control. IM (0.69 mg/kg), A/L (2.3/13.7mg/kg) and A/L/IM increased mean survival time significantly at p<0.05, p<0.01 and p<0.001 respectively when compared to negative control. Red blood cells, packed cell volume, hemoglobin, high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were increased significantly whereas total cholesterol, white blood cell, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels were decreased significantly at IM (0.17 mg/kg) (p<0.05), A/L (2.3/13.7mg/kg) (p<0.01) and A/L/IM (p<0.001) when compared to negative control. This study suggests the use of A/L/IM as a viable malaria treatment.


We describe here a new method based on a latent Dirichlet allocation model for predicting functional effects of noncoding genetic variants in a cell type and tissue specific way (FUN-LDA) by integrating diverse epigenetic annotations for specific cell types and tissues from large scale epige-nomics projects such as ENCODE and Roadmap Epigenomics. Using this unsupervised approach we predict tissue-specific functional effects for every position in the human genome. We demonstrate the usefulness of our predictions using several validation experiments. Using eQTL data from several sources, including the Genotype-Tissue Expression project, the Geuvadis project and Twin-sUK cohort, we show that eQTLs in specific tissues tend to be most enriched among the predicted functional variants in relevant tissues in Roadmap. We further show how these integrated functional scores can be used to derive the most likely cell/tissue type causally implicated for a complex trait using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies, and estimate a tissue-based correlation matrix of various complex traits. We find large enrichment of heritability in functional components of relevant tissues for various complex traits, with FUN-LDA yielding the highest enrichment estimates relative to existing methods. Finally, using experimentally validated functional variants from the literature and variants possibly implicated in disease by previous studies, we rigorously compare FUN-LDA to state-of-the-art functional annotation methods such as GenoSky-line, ChromHMM, Segway, and IDEAS, and show that FUN-LDA has better prediction accuracy and higher resolution compared to these methods. In summary, we describe a new approach and perform rigorous comparisons with the most commonly used functional annotation methods, providing a valuable resource for the community interested in the functional annotation of noncoding variants. Scores for each position in the human genome and for each ENCODE/Roadmap tissue are available from http://www.columbia.edu/~ii2135/funlda.html.


Abstract. The Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm (ACOA) is a new class of stochastic search
algorithm proposed for the solution of combinatorial optimisation problems. Dierent versions of ACOA
are developed and used with varying degrees of success. The Max-Min Ant System (MMAS) is recently
proposed as a remedy for the premature convergence problem often encountered with ACOAs using elitist
strategies. The basic concept behind MMAS is to provide a logical balance between exploitation and
exploration. The method, however, introduces some additional parameters to the original algorithm,
which should be tuned for the best performance of the method adding to the computational requirement
of the algorithm. An alternative method to MMAS is proposed in this paper and applied to pipe network
optimization problem. The method uses a simple but eective mechanism, namely Pheromone Trail
Replacement (PTR), to make sure that the global best solution path has always the maximum trail
intensity. This mechanism introduces enough exploitation into the method and more importantly enables
one to exactly predict the number of global best solutions at each iteration of the algorithm without requiring
calculation of the cost of the solutions created. The sub-colony of repeated global best solutions of the
iterations is then mutated, such that a prede ned number of solutions survive the mutation process. Two
dierent mutation mechanisms, namely deterministic and stochastic mutation processes, are introduced
and used. The rst one uses a one bit mutation with a probability of one on some members of the
sub-colony, while the second one uses a uniform mutation on the whole sub-colony. The probability of
mutation in the second mutation process is adjusted at each iteration, so that the required number of globalbest
solutions survives the mutation. The method is shown to produce results comparable to the MMAS
algorithm, while requiring less free parameter tuning. The application of the method to a benchmark
example in the pipe network optimization discipline is presented and the results are compared.


If meshes with variable resolution, in particular, unstructured meshes are refined
to improve the representation of local dynamics by resolving eddies, a question
arises as how to vary their resolution and where precisely to deploy the
refinement. We propose to use the observed sea surface height variability
as a criterion. We explore the utility of such an approach (i) in a suite of
simple experiments simulating a wind-driven double gyre flow in a stratified
circular basin and (ii) in simulations of global ocean circulation performed
with the Finite Element Sea Ice Ocean Model (FESOM). For the double
gyre case we show that the variability simulated in the high-resolution
reference run can be well captured on coarser meshes of variable resolution
if they are refined in the domain where the variability is substantial in
the reference run and additionally
include dynamically-important areas around the jet separation. In simulations
related to the real global ocean the refinement based on the observed variability
proves to be helpful too, yet the difference between the simulated and observed
variability may remain higher. In this case it is more difficult to guess how well
the areas upstream of sites with high variability have to be resolved whereas
the practical limitation on the total number of mesh nodes also limits the
size of refined areas if there are too many of them. The presence of coarse mesh
in close proximity to the refined areas effectively damps the simulated
variability in this case. A practical recommendation is to limit refinement to
several regions, but make them sufficiently wide yet still following the observed
variability pattern.


Formation and fission of tubules from lysosomal organelles, such as autolysosomes, endolysosomes or phagolysosomes, are required for lysosome reformation. However, the mechanisms governing these processes in the different forms of lysosomal organelles are poorly understood. For instance, the role of phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI(4)P) is unclear as it was shown to promote the formation of tubules from phagolysosomes but was proposed to inhibit tubule formation on autolysosomes because the loss of PI4KIIIβ causes extensive lysosomal tubulations. Using super-resolution live-cell imaging, we show that Arf1-PI4KIIIβ positive vesicles are recruited to tubule fission sites from autolysosomes, endolysosomes and phagolysosomes. Moreover, we show that PI(4)P is required to form autolysosomal tubules and that increased lysosomal tubulation caused by loss of PI4KIIIβ represents impaired tubule fission. At the site of fission, we propose that Arf1-PI4KIIIβ positive vesicles mediate a PI(3)P signal on lysosomes in a process requiring the lipid transfer protein SEC14L2. Our findings indicate that Arf1-PI4KIIIβ positive vesicles and their regulation of PI(3)P are critical components of the lysosomal tubule fission machinery.


Hazard Adams modestly introduces Blake's Margins by describing it as "less for scholars … than for people who want to know more about Blake's thought … and for students in the early stages of study of his work" (3). Beginners will find most of this eminently sensible and learned book edifying, but in fact there are very few Blake scholars anywhere who would not benefit from reading it straight through. In some ways, Blake's annotations are among the least ironic of his writings, but every Blakean marginalium is a tail that wags a very substantial dog: we can't really understand a given one without attending to the interplay with the full annotated text and with the broader contexts that contributed to Blake's response. Since even the best Blake editions inevitably misrepresent the marginalia by supplementing them with (at most) snippets of the annotated texts, many of which are unfamiliar and/or out of print, it would be a good thing if Blakists were in the habit of reviewing the relevant chapter in Adams before quoting anything written in a margin. Of course it would be even better if we all reread, say, the last third of Berkeley's Siris with care before repeating "God is not a Mathematical Diagram," but if that is not to happen, Adams's judicious summaries will help us much more with the nuances of that declaration than, for instance, the two barely relevant sentences from Berkeley quoted by David Erdman in his edition (E 664).


Residents of shophouse in Yogyakarta combine shop keeping with domestic activities which require different degree of privacy related to social interaction. Intensive observation and in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 residents to obtain their daily activities and to inquire how they feel invaded with such category of people as strangers, customers, servants/workers, friends, and family members visually and physically. The difference of privacy requirement between groups and individuals is examined by contrasting two communities in Chinese and Javanese settlements. There are selected 16 activities which are sorted out from low to high degree of privacy based on the accumulated response in each category of people. The result shows that 4 activities (serving guest, serving customers, displaying goods, and storing shop goods) require low privacy, 9 activities (waiting for customers, drying clothes, reading, lunch, washing clothes, breakfast, watching TV, dinner, and cooking meal) require moderate privacy, and 3 activities (praying, sleeping, and bathing) require high privacy. Further result shows that the physical and visual requirement are highly correlated or much higher in physical access than visual access for all activities for both groups but such activities as cooking meal, washing clothes, drying clothes, and serving guest for several residents require higher visual access.


Active contours or Snakes are extensively used in computer vision and image processing applications, to locate the object boundaries. Low convergence speed and high complexity in computing have significantly limited their utilities. By taking these problems into consideration, the present research focuses on a novel way in rapid image segmentation methodology. This method utilizes subdivision curves in combination with the Gradient Vector Flow (GVF) snakes to overcome these problems. GVF snakes use region energy minimization which is superior to the mass-spring model of the Tamed snake in whole contour. Furthermore, subdivision curves provide a hierarchical and smooth representation of a shape which is significantly in fine scales. After every step of subdivision, reversely compute the region energy of the subdivision polygon and the local adaptive compensation is carried out. A discrete curvature estimator is used to avoid additional computing in the flat regions of a curve. Therefore, only the segments with high curvature or with fine details require more reverse subdivision computing. Reverse subdivision scheme gives the required flexibility while dealing with a local adaptive compensation. The above-mentioned scheme is similar to dynamic programming. This leads the convergence computing to the appropriate subdivision direction. Rapid reverse computing and absolute reversible and lossless are significant advantages of this scheme. It determines the speed and briefness of the Subdivision Snakes Model. Active Subdivision Snake Model (ASSM) will be very efficient in to detect objects when they are at motion and image registration.


A substantial population of naked amoebae is present in marine sediments, but little is known about their role in benthic microbial food webs. Central to elucidating this role is an understanding of their growth potential, and the present study measures growth rates of 10 species of naked amoebae isolated from benthic sediments In the Clyde Sea area, Scotland, UK. Across the range of species and temperatures examined (5 to 20°C), generation times varied from 11 to 130 h. Temperature had a marked effect on growth rate, with the slowest rates at the lowest temperature. Temperature also generally influenced the mean cell volume of cells, with many species showing increased cell size at lower temperatures. Consequently, it was possible to compute a significant regression of loglo generation time (G, h) agalnst log,,, cell volume (V, pm3) using the combined data regardless of temperatures [logG = 0.231 log V+ 1.010 ( p = 0.004)]. This relationship may have application in the estimation of generation times of naked amoebae with known cell volumes. Gross growth efficiencies ranged between 11.7 and 79.7 % with an overall mean of 36.1 %. The growth data were combined with published information on the abundance of marine benthic amoebae to provide a first estimate of annual production by this group in fine marine sediments. Annual production estimates were between 7.60 and 15.8 kJ m-' yr-l, implying that annual consumption of bacteria by naked amoebae is of the order 21.1 to 43.8 kJ


Colleges and universities are legally required to attempt to prevent and redress sexual violations on campus. Neo-institutional theory suggests that the implementation of law by compliance professionals rarely achieves law's goals. It is critical in claims-based systems that those who are potential claimants understand the law. This article demonstrates that (a) intended subjects of the law (colleges and universities) interpret and frame the law in very similar ways; (b) resultant policies are complex and difficult to navigate; and (c) university undergraduates in an experimental setting are not able to comprehend the Title IX policies designed to protect them. These findings suggest that current implementations of Title IX policies leave them structurally ineffective to combat sexual assaults on campus.


A characterisation technique based on the stress determination by X-ray diffraction has been developed. It enables the identification of elastoplastic stress-strain laws on materials presenting an in-depth gradient of mechanical properties on its cross section. This technique is especially suitable to the characterisation of surfaces due to the small X-rays penetration depth. The method was applied in the characterisation of a carbonitrided and shot-peened steel, allowing to evaluate the stress-strain laws of the material at the surface, the intermediate layers and the bulk material. In addition, the in-depth evolution of microhardness, residual stresses, diffraction peak broadening and retained austenite contents were analysed. This allowed to understand the results of the proposed technique.


The Weather Prediction Center's Excessive Rainfall Outlook (ERO) forecasts the probability of rainfall exceeding flash flood guidance within 40 km of a point. This study presents a comprehensive ERO verification between 2015 and 2019 using a combination of flooding observations and proxies. ERO spatial issuance frequency plots are developed to provide situational awareness for forecasters. Reliability of the ERO is assessed by computing fractional coverage of the verification within each probabilistic category. Probabilistic forecast skill is evaluated using the Brier skill score (BSS) and area under the relative operating characteristic (AUC). A "probabilistic observation" called practically perfect (PP) is developed and compared to the ERO as an additional measure of skill. The areal issuance frequency of the ERO varies spatially with the most abundant issuances spanning from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest and the Appalachians. ERO issuances occur most often in the summer and are associated with the Southwestern monsoon, mesoscale convective systems, and tropical cyclones. The ERO exhibits good reliability on average, although more recent trends suggest some ERO-defined probabilistic categories should be issued more frequently. AUC and BSS are useful bulk skill metrics, while verification against PP is useful in bulk and for shorter-term ERO evaluation. ERO forecasts are generally more skillful at shorter lead times in terms of AUC and BSS. There is no trend in ERO area size over 5 years, although ERO forecasts may be getting slightly more skillful in terms of critical success index when verified against the PP.


New sponge species belonging to the closely related fistular genera Zyzzya, Cornulella, Damiria, and Acheliderma are described from reef habitats off the coasts of Colombia, Bonaire and Curaçao in the southern Caribbean. With very few exceptions these sponges are small to tiny specimens inhabiting crevices and other cryptic habitats; some may be excavating. For comparisonboth published and unpublished material belonging to these genera from otherparts of the world was examined, and this yielded several nomenclatorial changes and a further three new species from the Indian Ocean. The new species are: Zyzzya invemar (Caribbean), Cornulella santamartae (Caribbean), C. tyro (Seychelles), C. amirantensis (Seychelles), Damiria leonorae (Caribbean), D. toxifera (Seychelles) and Acheliderma lisannae (Caribbean). All species belonging to these genera, as well as to the closely related Indo-Pacific genus Paracornulum, are briefly diagnosed. The genera and species of this group are found to be distributed over tropical and subtropical waters of all three oceans. The five genera were so far ofcontroversial systematic allocation, although their close relationshipwith Cornulum was generallyaccepted. The recently revived family Iophonidae is demonstrated to be the likely assemblage for them. A brief survey of Iophonidaegenera is presented and a preliminary phylogenetic analysis of the fistular genera is attempted. Although several parts of the phylogenetic relationshipsremain unsolved, it is nevertheless clear that in all genera the closest relatives are not found in adjacent areas, but are often disjunct.


The use of fast gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (FGC-MS) was investigated to improve the efficiency of analysis of urine specimens that previously screened presumptively positive for amphetamine (AMP), methamphetamine (MAMP), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and/or 3,4 methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) by immunoassay testing. Specimens were pretreated with basic sodium periodate, extracted using a positive-pressure manifold/cation-exchange solid-phase cartridge methodology, and derivatized using 4-carbethoxyhexafluorobutyryl chloride (4-CB). The analytical method was compared to traditional GC-MS analysis and evaluated with respect to assay chromatography, linearity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and reproducibility. The limits of detection were 62.5 ng/mL for MDA and 31.25 ng/mL for AMP, MAMP, MDMA, and MDEA. All of the target analytes were linear to 12,000 ng/mL with the exception of MAMP which was linear to 10,000 ng/mL. The intra-assay precision of a 500 ng/mL multiconstituent control (n=15) ranged from 522.6 to 575.9 ng/mL with a coefficient of variation of less than 3.8%. Authentic human urine specimens (n=187) previously determined to contain the target analytes were re-extracted and analyzed by both FGC-MS and the currently utilized GC-MS method. No significant differences in specimen concentration were observed between these analytical methods. No interferences were seen when the performance of the FGC-MS method was challenged with ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, and phentermine. When compared to traditional GC-MS analysis, FGC-MS analysis provided a dramatic reduction in retention time for amphetamine (1.8 min vs. 4.12 min). For example, the FGC-MS method reduced overall run time for a batch of 56 specimens from 12.0 h to 7.25 h. This reduction in analysis time makes FGC-MS an attractive alternative to traditional GC-MS by allowing a laboratory greater flexibility in the purchase and use of capital equipment and in the assignment of laboratory personnel, all resulting in greater overall efficiency by decreasing reporting times for AMP, MAMP, and designer amphetamine positive specimens.


Because seedlings and mature trees do not necessarily respond similarly to O3 stress, it is critically important that exposure systems be developed that allow exposure of seedlings through to mature trees. Here we describe three different O3 Free-Air Exposure Systems that have been used successfully for exposure at all growth stages. These systems of spatially uniform O3 release have been shown to provide reliable O3 exposure with minimal, if any, impact on the microclimate. This methodology offers a welcome alternative to chamber studies which had severe space constraints precluding stand or community-level studies and substantial chamber effects on the microclimate and, hence physiological tree performance.


ABSTRACT Higher education providers need to deliver graduates with the conceptual understanding required for professional life. Conceptual understanding entails a synthesis of relevant facts, theories and practices that influence occupational performance. To help align curricula with individual student differences, this study investigates differences in international business undergraduates' conceptual understanding with regard to study progress. Seventy-four international business students of a bachelor's programme in the Netherlands participated. Students were presented with a complex business problem. They then wrote essays in which they explicated their conceptual understanding of the case. Using a rubric, six components of conceptual understanding were graded on a 5-point scale ranging from negligible to extraordinary. Results indicated three types of conceptual understanding: limited, developing and extensive. Their relationship with study progress was nonlinear, indicating that effects other than curriculum may account for differences between students. Suggestions are made to account for differences, and recommendations are made regarding curriculum development.


Essential oils (EO) from leaves and flowers of Rhanterium adpressum have shown to inhibit the mycelial growth and type B trichothecenes production. The four strains of Fusarium culmorum and Fusarium graminearum were inhibited with 0.25 μL.mL-1 of each oil. The inhibitory activity of 11 sesquiterpenes identified in these oils was here examined in silico against two key enzymes in the biosynthesis pathway  of trichotecenes namely: 15-O-trichothecene acetyltransferase and 3-O-trichothecene acetyltransferase. In sesquiterpene composition, T-Muurolol and α-Eudesmol have the highest percentages ranging from 1.4 to 2.75 %. Three-dimensional structures of these two enzymes were modeled using SWISS-MODEL with GMQE = 0.93 and QMEAN = -0.45 for 3-O-trichothecene acetyltransferase and GMQE = 0.93, QMEAN = -0.58 for 15-O-trichothecene acetyltransferase. By the results of docking, T-Muurolol and α-Eudesmol showed high affinity compared to 15-Decalonectrin and Deoxynivalenol. These molecules are all sesquiterpenes with no major conformational difference with an RMSD of 3.7 A and 3.5 A between 15-decalonectrin and α-Eudesmol, T-Muurolol respectively. The results of docking prove the inhibitory effect of R. adpressum EO sesquiterpenes on the enzymes of mycotoxins biosynthesis pathway of F. culmorum and F. graminearum.


Social network analysis has been shown to be effective in supporting intelligence and law enforcement force to identify suspects, terrorist or criminal subgroups, and their communication patterns. However, social network data owned by individual law enforcement units contain private information that must be preserved before sharing with other law enforcement units. Such privacy issue tremendously reduces the utility of the social network data since the integration of social networks from different law enforcement units cannot be fully integrated. Without integration of social network data, the effectiveness of terrorist or criminal social network analysis is diminished. In this paper, we introduce the KNN and EBB algorithm for constructing generalized subgraphs and a mechanism to integrate the generalized information to conduct the closeness centrality measures. The result shows that the proposed technique improves the accuracy of closeness centrality measures substantially while protecting the sensitive data.


"Needs have become more and the search for those needs have become rapid. " Everything relies online. Web services are one of the emerging drifts that visualises fundamental to super-rational requests and providing a high fidelity outcome via QoS analysis. Extensive sharing of resources is the vital logic of such web services which enables the users & programmers to exploit data sources available at varied geographical distinctions. For instance, Google Drive is one such web service that offers data portability. The elimination of time old, one to one communication and enhanced many-to-many interactions is accomplished through Web Services, thereby improvising the intellectual standards of common users. Implemented on a Wide area of network applications, web services offer high accuracy, enriched results from existing data.


In Jorge Luis Borges's finely wrought, fantastic stories, so filigreed with strange allusions, critics have consistently found little to relate to the external world, to history--in short, to reality. Out of Context corrects this shortsighted view and reveals the very real basis of the Argentine master's purported "irreality." By providing the historical context for some of the writer's best-loved and least understood works, this study also gives us a new sense of Borges's place within the context of contemporary literature. Through a detailed examination of seven stories, Daniel Balderston shows how Borges's historical and political references, so often misread as part of a literary game, actually open up a much more complex reality than the one made explicit to the reader. Working in tension with the fantastic aspects of Borges' work, these precise references to realities outside the text illuminate relations between literature and history as well as the author's particular understanding of both. In Borges's perspective as it is revealed here, history emerges as an "other" only partially recoverable in narrative form. From what can be recovered, Balderston is able to clarify Borges's position on historical episodes and trends such as colonialism, the Peronist movement, "Western culture," militarism, and the Spanish invasion of the Americas. Informed by a wide reading of history, a sympathetic use of critical theory, and a deep understanding of Borges's work, this iconoclastic study provides a radical new approach to one of the most celebrated and-until now-hermetic authors of our time.


Introduction I. Background of Antitrust Law and the Media A. Antitrust Law and the Legal Treatment of Collusion B. The Economic Effects of Collusion C. Quality and the Local Television Broadcast Stations II. The Divergence Between Antitrust Law and Practice A. Why the Antitrust Community Should Ignore Quality Collusion B. Why the Antitrust Community Should Not Ignore Quality Collusion III. Suggestions for Closing the Gap Between the Law and the Practice of Antitrust Enforcement A. Increase Enforcement Actions Against Quality Collusion B. Develop Strategies for Quantifying Quality C. Utilize a Three-Factor Framework 1. The Three Factors, Generally 2. The Three-Factor Test as Applied to the LTN Market D. Conduct Retrospective Analyses of the Aforementioned Strategies Conclusion INTRODUCTION It would be an Orwellian nightmare if one day we were to wake up and a single person decided which news stories were covered or how they were covered--in essence, if news stations colluded on their content. Every day in Honolulu, Hawaii, two stations simulcast their morning and evening news broadcasts. (1) In San Angelo, Texas; (2) Denver, Colorado; and Charleston, South Carolina, different on-air personalities read the same script across competing stations. (3) In Chicago, an editor coordinates the sharing of journalists, crews, and editorial staff of CBS, NBC, FOX, and CW to limit duplicative costs. (4) These are among the many examples of collusion in broadcast television news. (5) The nightmare is here. Broadcast television firms have created various agreements of questionable antitrust legality to increase efficiency and profitability. (6) One example, known as a shared service agreement (SSA), coordinates the sharing of services and facilities between firms and inhibits quality-based competition between stations. (7) Although antitrust laws cover almost all anticompetive activities, the agencies charged with enforcing the laws rarely pursue agreements on quality. (8) This lax enforcement probably stems from the difficulties of measuring quality and the procompetitive effects of standardization. (9) For some industries, such as local broadcast television news (LBTN), the justifications for ignoring quality collusion appear nonexistent. (10) Moreover, the quality reductions in broadcast television offend one of our society's cherished tenets: the freedom of the press. (11) Accordingly, the collusive agreements are worthy of closer scrutiny. This Note discusses quality-based collusion in three parts. Part I provides a background of the legal treatment and economic theory regarding quality collusion and how economic principles apply to broadcast television. Part II discusses the divergence between the antitrust laws as written and antitrust laws as enforced against quality collusion. Part III provides strategies the antitrust community (the Community) (12) could adopt to enforce the laws more effectively, with local broadcast television as a backdrop for applying the strategies. I. BACKGROUND OF ANTITRUST LAW AND THE MEDIA Antitrust law has a long history extending back to 50 B.C. when the Lex Julia de Annona prevented the people from rigging Rome's corn market. (13) In the United States, the statutory history began with the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (Sherman Act) . (14) While the debate over the purpose of antitrust law persists, (15) courts and enforcement agencies lean heavily on economic theory in interpreting the statutes. (16) A. Antitrust Law and the Legal Treatment of Collusion While a complete discussion of U.S. antitrust law and policy exceeds the scope of this Note, this Section provides a general background on antitrust law, the parties involved, and how antitrust laws relate to quality collusion. The bulk of antitrust law flows from two broadly written statutes: the Sherman Act (17) and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. …


This overview of key Open Access (OA) strategies in Brazil over the last three years describes the guidelines, tools and methodologies needed for Brazil to become an effective actor in the worldwide open access movement. We review general trends and awareness of OA, as well as ongoing developments and policies, opportunities and challenges, both national and international. The institutionalization of Brazilian scientific research is described, along with advances in open access journals and repositories, as well as institutional and governmental policies and the problems that have slowed their progress. Among the major actions targeted recently are plans and actions specific to Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as international collaboration. We conclude with challenges and opportunities ahead.


How do geometric constraints influence migration patterns?� Null models exclusively invoking geometric
constraints have recently been demonstrated to provide new insight as to what explains geographic patterns of
species richness and range size distribution. Analyses of migration patterns have traditionally been conducted in
the absence of appropriate simulations and analytical models. Here we present a null model exclusively invoking
geometric constraints and a more advanced analytical model incorporating spread along a migration direction
that allow investigation of the influence of physiographical and physiological boundaries for terrestrial taxa, with
ocean and sea as geometric constraints, in relation to observed patterns of migration. Our models take into
account the low recovery probability of terrestrial taxa over sea. The null model was not found to explain any of
the directional variation in the ring�recoveries, but when comparing the distribution of data modeled using a
simple clock�and�compass model with distributions of ring�recoveries, geometric constraints were found to
explain up to 22% of the variation in ring�recoveries. However, the assumed directional concentrations per step
used in the model were much higher than expected, and the qualitative fit of the model was rather poor even
when non�terrestrial sites of recoveries were excluded.


Speech segmental and suprasegmental characteristics vary considerably across the life span, for example, due to degenerative changes in speech production mechanisms and neuro-muscolar control. A great deal of research on the acoustic correlates of adult speakers' voice has focussed on changes in voice quality, vowel formant patterns, f0, amplitude and speech rate. Only little attention has been paid on speech rhythm variability due to advancing age. Here we quantified between-language rhythmic variability in terms of the durational characteristics of consonantal and vocalic intervals (henceforth CV intervals). We compared the segmental durational variability of two groups of Zurich German speakers. Group 1: 16 young adults, aged from 18 to 32 years; group 2: 10 older adults, aged from 66 to 81 years. For both groups we analyzed 20 sentences in Zurich German from the TEVOID Corpus. Between-speaker durational variability across age was quantified through a variety of interval-based metrics: segment rate, %V, deltaC, deltaV, VarcoC, VarcoV, rPVI-C and nPVI-V. Results showed that rhythmic differences between younger and older adults are largely accountable for by speech rate differences. Segment rate, %V and raw measures of CV interval durational variability (deltaV, deltaC and r-PVI-C) showed effects between younger and older adults. Rate normalized metrics (VarcoC, VarcoV and n-PVI-V) did not differ significantly between the two age-groups.


Objective: The optimal time to initiate antihypertensive therapy among patients with acute ischemic stroke remains uncertain. We tested the effects of blood pressure reduction among patients with acute ischemic stroke according to time from onset to initiation of antihypertensive treatment. Methods: We randomly assigned 4071 acute ischemic stroke patients with elevated SBP to receive antihypertensive treatment or to discontinue all antihypertensive medications during hospitalization. The primary outcome was a combination of death and major disability, and secondary outcomes included the modified Rankin score, recurrent stroke, vascular disease events, and all-cause mortality. Results: At 24 h after randomization, the differences in SBP reductions were 8.7, 9.5, and 9.6 mmHg between the antihypertensive treatment and control groups among patients receiving treatment within less than 12, 12–23, and 24–48 h after stroke onset, respectively (P < 0.001 in all subgroups). At day 14 or hospital discharge, the primary and secondary outcomes were not significantly different between the treatment and control groups in all subgroups. At the 3-month follow-up, death or major disability [odds ratio (OR) 0.73; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55–0.96; P = 0.03], recurrent stroke (OR 0.25; 95% CI 0.08–0.74; P = 0.01), and vascular events (OR 0.41; 95% CI 0.18–0.95; P = 0.04) were significantly reduced in the antihypertensive treatment group only among participants who received treatment between 24 and 48 h. Conclusion: Blood pressure reduction might reduce 3-month death and major disability and recurrent stroke among patients with acute ischemic stroke who receive antihypertensive treatment between 24 and 48 h after stroke onset. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01840072


Commons were traditionally attached to many settlements in Britain but in a lot of cities have since been lost to urbanisation. Extensive areas of commons have survived in several English cities including Town Moor in Newcastle upon Tyne. Such urban commons have been less studied than their rural counterparts, but are important sites for the surrounding large urban populations. A mixture of textual analysis, ethnographic observations and interviews were used to investigate the current and historic uses, pressures and perceptions of Town Moor.

Uses and perceptions of urban commons appear to be highly varied, with high levels of awareness of individual sites and high valuation of these for their ecological, recreational, historical, and landscape characteristics. Awareness of what are commons and the rights and ownerships which goes with these is patchy and in many cases incorrect; this does not however affect the overall high valuation given to local urban commons. Individual benefits and positive perceptions are important to the long term positive management and survival of urban commons.


Maternal obesity increases risks of adverse fetal and infant outcomes. Guidelines use body mass index to diagnose maternal obesity. Evidence suggests body fat distribution might better predict individual risk, but there is a lack of robust evidence during pregnancy. We explored associations between maternal adiposity and infant health. Searches included six databases, references, citations, and contacting authors. Screening and quality assessment were carried out by two authors independently. Random effects meta‐analysis and narrative synthesis were conducted. We included 34 studies (n = 40,143 pregnancies). Meta‐analysis showed a significant association between maternal fat‐free mass and birthweight (average effect [AE] 18.07 g, 95%CI 12.75, 23.38) but not fat mass (AE 8.76 g, 95%CI −4.84, 22.36). Women with macrosomic infants had higher waist circumference than controls (mean difference 4.93 cm, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05, 8.82). There was no significant association between subcutaneous fat and large for gestational age (odds ratio 1.06 95% CI 0.91, 1.25). Waist‐to‐hip ratio, neck circumference, skinfolds, and visceral fat were significantly associated with several infant outcomes including small for gestational age, preterm delivery, neonatal morbidity, and mortality, although meta‐analysis was not possible for these variables. Our findings suggest that some measures of maternal adiposity may be useful for risk prediction of infant outcomes. Individual participant data meta‐analysis could overcome some limitations in our ability to pool published data.


Style is an important aspect of writing, shaping how audiences interpret and engage with literary works. However, for most people style is difficult to articulate precisely. While users frequently interact with computational word processing tools with well-defined metrics, such as spelling and grammar checkers, style is a significantly more nuanced concept. In this paper, we present a computational technique to help surface style in written text. We collect a dataset of crowdsourced human judgments of style, derive a model of style by training a neural net on this data, and present novel applications for visualizing and browsing style across broad bodies of literature, as well as an interactive text editor with real-time style feedback. We study these interactive style applications with users and discuss implications for enabling this novel approach to style.


Over the past thirty-five years, David and Celia Hilliard have amassed a remarkable collection of Old Master, 19th-century, and modern drawings, as well as of French sculpture from the 19th century. This collection includes significant drawings by Claude Vignon, George Romney, Jean-Francois Millet, Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, James Ensor, Jan Toorop, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, among many others, as well as a group of sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Clesinger, Auguste Rodin, Charlotte-Gabrielle Besnard, and other artists. Dreams and Echoes features ninety-one of the most extraordinary pieces from this collection, with a special focus on 18th- and 19th-century British drawings and French drawings and sculptures of the 19th century. Each work is accompanied by a physical description, provenance, bibliography, and exhibition history, along with discussion of the work's attribution, subject, and function. An international team of scholars and experts offers insight into the artworks, resulting in an illuminating book about a collection of exceptional quality.


Abstract Purpose: People with knee osteoarthritis (OA) report ongoing limitations in climbing stairs, even after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The aim of this systematic review was to synthesise the available evidence of factors affecting stair climbing ability in patients with knee OA before and after TKA. Method: A systematic search was conducted of common electronic databases. All English language abstracts where stair-climbing was assessed in patients with either knee OA or at least 6 months after TKA, and a relationship to any physical, psychological or demographic factors was reported. Results: Thirteen studies were included in the final review, nine investigated a knee OA population, and four investigated a TKA population. For patients with knee OA there was consistent and convincing evidence that greater stair-climbing ability was related to stronger lower limb muscles and less knee pain. For patients with TKA there was much less research, and no conclusions could be reached. Conclusions: For people with knee OA there is evidence that some physical, demographic and psychosocial factors are related to stair-climbing ability. However, the evidence for similar relationships in the TKA population is scarce and needs more extensive research. Implications for Rehabilitation People with knee osteoarthritis experience difficulty when climbing stairs, and this remains challenging even after knee replacement. For people with knee osteoarthritis, a range of physical, demographic and psychosocial factors contribute to stair-climbing ability, however, evidence for similar relationships in the TKA population is scarce. Rehabilitation that is multi-faceted may be the best approach to improve stair-climbing in people with knee osteoarthritis.


In view of the advent of technology such as GIS, Remote Sensing, GPS and Internet, a situation is being created where a certain section of the society is able to avail the benefits of these technologies where as a larger section of the society especially in rural areas, mostly in developing world is far from having any access of these technologies. As a consequence, these technologies may end up creating digital divide rather than being a tool to make the world digital. The proposed paper will deal with some fundamental issues how to take GIS to grassroots and moreover in the process if local community participation can be ensured. The paper will deliberate upon applicability and usability of GIS and related technology in rural context in terms of its affordability, acceptability, replicability, scalability and sustainability. Issues related to engaging community in the entire process of data collection, data interpretation and evolving some developmental plan will also be discussed by giving examples of some ongoing projects.


Geophysical methods are weIl known as supplement for classic investigations like drillings or digging. In most cases Geophysics is used to delineate the areas where excavations or probing has to be done. The increasing cost of construction work and the decreasing money and time for different jobs demand economical and fast methods to view the subsurface structures possibly without digging. The increase of computing power and experience in GPR-applications lead to more investigations with geophysicaI methods replacing conventional testing. Although the combination of different methods is best in getting most significant results often Iittle money will be paid for investigations. So a tight measuring program mostly has to be calculated. GPR is a multipurpose system that yields fast non-destructive information of the ground. Without extensive data processing first results often can be reached on site. So it should be qualified for different projects standing under strange economical conditions.


Otothyropsis dialeukos is described from Itá creek, tributary to the upper Río Paraná basin, Paraguay. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by having a unique caudal-fin coloration pattern composed of a brown to almost black background with roundish hyaline blotches in the middle of the outermost branched rays and a hyaline posterior border interrupted in middle rays; abdomen entirely covered by enlarged plates, without naked areas; longer pectoral- and dorsal-fin spines; absence of a raised crest of enlarged odontodes on the posterior portion of the parieto-supraoccipital, and other morphometric and meristic features. Morphological traits and geographic distributions of all species of Otothyropsis and Hisonotus are analyzed and a discussion on the limits between those genera is presented.


Brand names and brand equity are recognized as important intangible assets among firm managers in the global food supply chain. This analysis investigates the long-run potential of brand equity among food processors to actually create real options for a firm's management. The empirical analysis views brand equity among food processors as a real option of growth and empirically tests selected drivers that are conceptually associated with firm growth. Results indicate that brand equity has a positive effect on the growth option value of the firm, after accounting for other major drivers of firm growth. Brand equity elasticity is estimated with respect to a firm's growth value for both the industry- and firm-level. One major implication of the analysis is that managers of food firms should evaluate the efficacy of brand equity building strategies in terms of the contribution brand equity makes to the firm's growth option value. The evidence suggests that categorizing and managing advertising expenditures solely as an expense item may be too narrow from a strategic viewpoint.


The indigenous societies in Taiwan have passed through the era which used to assert them as barbaric and uncivilized 'Others', and were officially de-colonized with promulgation of certain legislation such as the Indigenous Fundamental Law. However, they can still not formalize their customary laws, which are prerequisite to their entitlement of community resources, such as indigenous traditional knowledge and cultural expression. In December 2007, a sui generis regime to the civil law intellectual property regulations, the Indigenous Traditional Cultural Expression Protection Act (ITCEPA), was promulgated. ITCEPA was the very first law in Taiwan to substantiate diversified modes of indigenous cultural expression, such as songs, dance, weaving, dyeing, ceremonies, and even witchcraft as community resources entitled to the tribal unit. When certified and registered, these collective rights will be legalized retrospectively. Any established acquisition and exploitation of the resources by non-indigenous peoples will be revoked, no matter in what form (copyright, or trade mark). Yet to implement the ITCEPA, a tribal units' based decision making process and management plan are needed, since the sui generis rights are entitled to the community only. But with extended prewar Japanese colonial rule, and the consequent encroachment of Christian missionaries and mainstream political institutions over their communities, primitive tribal leadership barely survived. This article will show how twelve indigenous Taiwanese tribes have attempted to reestablish and re-integrate their political organizations and decision making processes.


There is still a tendency to defend Euripides against a charge of inserting entirely irrelevant choruses into his tragedies, but not even the statements of Aristotle (Poetics 1456a25ff.) can be used to convict him of such an act. Nevertheless, certain odes do present problems of interpretation, and especially those that recount mythical tales. Four tragedies containing such odes are considered. The second stasimon of the Helen presents the myth of Demeter and Persephone, which, through the use of related imagery, is seen to be the paradigm for Menelaus' rescue of Helen from Egypt and foretells the couple's successful escape. The extreme textual difficulties of the final stanza of the ode, however, means that it is unlikely that any certain conclusion on this ode will ever be achieved. In the IT Orestes' capture of the effigy of Artemis and his rescue of Iphigenia result in both an assertion of the superiority of Apollo's oracular commands and the procurement of Orestes' kingship in Argos. These two elements are reflected in the third stasimon, in which the tale of Apollo securing his position at Delphi, as Orestes did at Argos, also conveys the superiority of his status. At first the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, described in the third stasimon of the IA, appears to be the very paradigm that Iphigenia will not be able to follow, but as the play proceeds it becomes clear that the sacrifice she undergoes is a form of wedding, and the contrasts between a wedding and the sacrifice lend to the tragedy of her situation. Finally, in the Electra, the chorus describe various heroes of legend, whom Electra and Orestes seem to take as their role models in the murders of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Neither of the characters, however, has the appropriate heroic qualities, and, although they commit the murders, they are unable to fulfil the roles of their heroic counterparts. Therefore the paradigm fails and thereby serves to comment upon the tragic nature of the murders. In all the plays Euripides uses mythical paradigms, in a more developed form than in the Pindaric odes, to reflect the action on stage such that the action is a repeat of the myth. In this way the myth becomes "historical" and, as in Thucydides' concept of history, a paradigm for common human experience.


A primary goal of ecological restoration is often to return processes and functions to degraded ecosystems. Soil, while often ignored in restoration, supports diverse communities of organisms and is a fundamental actor in providing ecosystem processes and services. We investigated the impact of seeding and livestock grazing on plant communities, soil microorganisms, and soil fertility 3 years after the restoration of a disturbed pipeline corridor in southeastern Arizona. The initial soil disturbance and topsoil treatment, regardless of seeding or grazing, was the most influential factor in determining differences in both plant and microbial communities. Compared with the control, the disturbed and restored sites had greater plant species richness, greater total herbaceous plant cover, greater soil organic matter, higher pH, and differed in soil nutrients. Bacteria and fungi appeared to generally correlate with micro‐environment and soil physiochemical properties rather than specific plant species. The undisturbed control had a smaller proportion of bacterial functional groups associated with the breakdown of plant biomass (polysaccharide decomposition) and a smaller proportion of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) compared with disturbed and restored sites. The ability of the unseeded disturbed site to recover robust vegetation may be due in part to the high presence of AMF. These differences show selection for soil microorganisms that thrive in disturbed and restored sites and may contribute to increased plant productivity. Restoration of specific plant species or ecological processes and services would both benefit from better understanding of the impacts of disturbance on soil microorganisms and soil fertility.


The widespread application of deep learning has changed the landscape of computation in data centers. In particular, personalized recommendation for content ranking is now largely accomplished using deep neural networks. However, despite their importance and the amount of compute cycles they consume, relatively little research attention has been devoted to recommendation systems. To facilitate research and advance the understanding of these workloads, this paper presents a set of real-world, production-scale DNNs for personalized recommendation coupled with relevant performance metrics for evaluation. In addition to releasing a set of open-source workloads, we conduct in-depth analysis that underpins future system design and optimization for at-scale recommendation: Inference latency varies by 60% across three Intel server generations, batching and co-location of inference jobs can drastically improve latency-bounded throughput, and diversity across recommendation models leads to different optimization strategies.


Abstract : The absorption of lipids by the gastrointestinal tract has been studied by the classical techniques of fat balance studies, the Cori technique, thoracic duct cannulated animals, and histological sections. The in vitro techniques with inverted intestinal sacs and perfusion of isolated intestinal segments have been utilized recently. Some of the limitations and objections to both the previously employed in vitro and in vivo techniques can be overcome by the use of the in situ perfusion technique described by Jacobs and Luper for the study of carbohydrate absorption. Pivalic acid-1-C14 as a model substrate has been shown to be well absorbed by this technique. Preliminary studies in progress indicate absorption of a high molecular weight fatty acid (palmitic). (Author)


ABSTRACT Tetraspanins are a family of proteins with four transmembrane domains that play a role in many aspects of cell biology and physiology; they are also used by several pathogens for infection and regulate cancer progression. Many tetraspanins associate specifically and directly with a limited number of proteins, and also with other tetraspanins, thereby generating a hierarchical network of interactions. Through these interactions, tetraspanins are believed to have a role in cell and membrane compartmentalization. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and the accompanying poster, we describe the basic principles underlying tetraspanin-based assemblies and highlight examples of how tetraspanins regulate the trafficking and function of their partner proteins that are required for the normal development and function of several organs, including, in humans, the eye, the kidney and the immune system.