A number of tropical and communicable diseases are evident as oral manifestations. The tropical and communicable disease of oral health concern is an issue because, not only it is restricted to tropical countries, it is also affecting an underserved population of developed countries. Cross-border transmission of communicable diseases of tropical countries is an agenda where the number of tropical diseases, manifested with oral lesions, has not been taken into consideration by oral health care providers for timely identification and setting a goal for prevention and control of transmission at home and abroad. Moreover, every developed country has underserved populations that are prone to develop communicable oral diseases/TODs like tropical countries. The underserved population in developed countries are also experiencing higher incidence rate of communicable diseases which are not necessarily due to cross-border transmission, but related to their poor life-style and other prevailing factors of inequalities. However, the type of communicable diseases is dependent on the mode of transmission and progression; it may be contagious, vector borne or environmentally transmitted.
Using TRIP (copy available at ICTOH*), I have searched and collated information anecdotally to understand the situation of the tropical oral diseases. First, we need to define what are tropical oral diseases? On this issue we had several discussions and interactions and reviewing of reports. We concluded that the tropical oral diseases largely cover communicable diseases which are mostly prevalent in the tropical countries. Also non-communicable diseases of life-threatening nature, those that are widely prevalent in the tropical countries, such as oral cancer and pre-cancer (in SE Asia), Noma (in Africa) could be taken into consideration to be identified as a category of tropical oral diseases (TODs). Moreover, till date, we are not able to rule out precisely, any possibility of mutational transmission of communicable disease(s) of oral health concern. Therefore, although all the communicable diseases have an infective nature, we cannot ignore the potential of inheritance factor which may exist irrespective of tropical and non-tropical locations, globally.
To reduce the inequalities and improve prevention, including consistent clinical management (tertiary care), our oral health care providers may need to be adequately equipped to combat TODs. There are various oral diseases and conditions which fall into the category of 'TODs,' that need to be detected and managed by the general dental practitioners. They need to be able to ascertain when they should refer the critical TODs/cases to a specialist in oral medicine and/or surgery or a physician. Many of these disease (TODs) conditions are manifested with similar features and therefore it becomes almost impossible to identify these diseases clinically for definite diagnosis. In order to ensure that dental practitioners are able to tackle TODs appropriately and efficiently, development of appropriate measures to tackle TODs, in both clinical and community settings is necessary. The development of clinical databases and diagnostic test reports, carried out in the tropical countries is therefore highly recommended. The pooling of resources and clinical knowledge for early detection (required for early prevention and appropriate management of TODs) should therefore be an important point of consideration. I also strongly suggest developing a framework convention to recognize the TODs globally through a realistic strategic approach.
Another very important component is development of research specifically in the areas of TODs. In the 1st International working group meeting we had discussed and taken resolution which had been published as a declaration from Poole, England. We have already started to develop a database in part of India, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Jordan. Therefore, it is our responsibility and commitment to put our efforts to pursuing need-based researches on the priority areas of TODs. The identification of the TOD priority research and the establishment of a research team with a lead will be a significant shot in the arm in the process of developing TOH and may generate the momentum which will ultimately lead to the further development of this area. Therefore, in this meeting I suggest the development of a research team(s) by a lead, and to work for securing grants-in –aids, nationally and internationally. We have started few projects with local support which will probably help act as pilot projects for the larger collaborative projects(s) to submitting for grants-in-aids in the near future. We would need to work on TODs, focusing on the aim of developing a few specific objectives, keeping in mind how beneficial it will be for the WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform. We may eventually propose a broad classification of TDOs as (i) Communicable and transmissible tropical oral diseases (TODs) includes Category 1 (Highly prevalent): AIDS/HIV infection, Malaria, TB, Kala-Azar, and Category 2 (Moderately prevalent): Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis (MCL), Onchocerciasis, and Leprosy. (ii) Non-communicable diseases causing death and disability in the tropical countries. Oral Cancer, Noma (Cancrum Oris), PCM i.e. Marasmus (M), Kwashiorkor (K) including M&K and Diabetes. We do not have sufficient information on oral manifestation of WHO listed other tropical and communicable diseases which are mostly prevalent in African and Asian tropical countries, needs to be data-based. Moreover, we also need to identify the other systemic diseases of oral health concern in the tropical countries, (Proposed checklist draft protocol is available at ICTOH*).Some of those diseases is preceded with oral signs and/or coincided should be an important concern for oral health practitioners. However, I have identified the following constrains could be tackled through effective approaches for a realistic development of TODs, and that may help in a direction.
 Inadequate clinical data: Needs to be developed with an authentic database
 Inadequate training facilities for clinical diagnosis and management of TODs and conditions: A structured training programme for clinical diagnosis and management needs to be developed
 Lack of initiative for community education for the prevention and control: Oral health professionals of the tropical countries may need to participate, individually, and/or in a team (through an integrated approach) for the prevention and control of communicable diseases of oral health concern including TODs and general systemic diseases with oral manifestations (Preceded and/or coincided oral signs)
 Non-existence of categorization of Tropical Disease Research (TDR) [cf. WHO TDR value for tropical disease]: A specific TDR for TODs would be a good initiative
 Inadequate research: Priority-based systematic lab-based and epidemiological researches need to be developed, within the existing facilities
 Non existence of specific course contents: The syllabus and curriculums of the undergraduate and postgraduate courses need to be incorporated with the specific modules of TODs (especially in the tropical countries).


In linear multi-input multi-output channel systems, reduction process is employed to reduce the computational cost of sphere decoding (SD) algorithm. Usually a reduction process includes not only permutations but also unimodular transformations. However, owing to the box-constraint, the current reduction strategies are limited to only permutations, which makes SD algorithm still very time-consuming. In this study a theoretical complexity analysis on SD algorithm is first proposed to show what kind of criteria a reduction process should pursue. Then a new reduction strategy which combines permutations with unimodular transformations is presented to obtain a better reduced detection problem. Simulation results showed that this new reduction strategy can make SD algorithm much more efficient than those reduction strategies with only permutations.


One of the more interesting contradictions in law is the common description of litigation as a game, while simultaneously decrying game playing in the litigation process. Litigation involves strategic choice, as game theory illustrates. One of those strategic choices includes the plaintiff's initial selection of the forum, which the defendant may attempt to counter through transfer strategies of its own. Criticizing and trivializing forum selection through the label of forum shopping misapprehends the forum game by treating forum selection as a parlor trick - as unfair and abusive - rather than as a lawful, authorized strategy. Forum shopping is not a form of cheating by those who refuse to play by the rules. Playing by the rules includes the ability of plaintiff's counsel to select-and the ability of defendant's counsel to attempt to counter-the set of rules by which the litigation game will be played.


Innovation has geographical dimensions, ranging from site and building technology, to infrastructure and environmental systems. As the allied professions of environmental design expand disciplinary scope beyond aesthetics into questions of territory, landscape infrastructure, performance-based design, and issues related to climate adaptation and the Anthropocene, an expanded concept of technology and innovation becomes essential to address new pedagogical adjectives and praxis. One of the most effective ways to track technological change in a specific sector of technology is through patent innovation. The global patent archive is the world's largest technological dossier. An estimated 90 million patents have been granted globally, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) alone has issued more than 10 million patents since 1790. A unique subset of these inventions relate to site and building technology as well as large-scale environmental systems such as rivers, coasts, and cities. Since patent innovation is an ongoing process, patent documents provide insights into the ever-evolving sectors of technology, which may be understood as an expanded field of landscape technologies that define site, cities, and regions. This paper explores the histories of patent innovation related to the physical built environment and argues for an expanded definition of "Landscape Technology". The paper also includes examples of New pedagogical approaches that integrate patent innovation studies into environmental design curriculum, and a discussion of strategies for implementing novel technologies and patent innovation studies into professional design projects.


Container technology is being adopted as a mainstream platform for IT solutions because of high degree of agility, reusability and portability it offers. However, there are challenges to be addressed for successful adoption. First, it is difficult to establish the full pedigree of images downloaded from public registries. Some might have vulnerabilities introduced unintentionally through rounds of updates by different users. Second, non-conformance to the immutable software deployment policies, such as those promoted by the DevOps principles, introduces vulnerabilities and the loss of control over deployed software. In this study, we investigate containers deployed in a production cloud to derive a set of recommended approaches to address these challenges. Our analysis reveals evidences that (i), images of unresolved pedigree have introduced vulnerabilities to containers belonging to third parties; (ii), updates to live public containers are common, defying the tenet that deployed software is immutable; and (iii), scanning containers or images alone is insufficient to eradicate vulnerabilities from public containers. We advocate for better systems support for tracking image provenance and resolving disruptive changes to containers, and propose practices that container users should adopt to limit the vulnerability of their containers.


The article has analyzed the main directions of evolution of Ukrainian preschool (preschool classes, preparatory classes) as a component of the system of national preschool education and upbringing of younger generations of Ukrainians in Canada during the second half of XX – the beginning of XXI century and an important factor that lays the foundations for the harmonious development of the child, promotes learning the native language, knowledge of history, culture, customs and traditions of his or her motherland. Relevance of the study is due to insufficient research of the outlined problem and expediency of using progressive ideas and experience of Canadian Ukrainians in national education of preschool children in educational space of Ukraine and modern ukrainian abroad. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of organization of the educational process in preschool classes, to clarify its role in personal development of the child  and to prepare him or her for school. Achievement of the goal was promoted by use of the following research methods: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, systematization of the collected material), theoretical comprehension and generalization of the obtained results and their interpretation. It is established that preschool classes in the system of Ukrainian preschool education in Canada were organized in the early 50's of the twentieth century to prepare children for education in the system of native-language schooling and to continue national education and upbringing, the foundations of which were laid by children's rooms and kindergartens. They were situated in specially equipped premises that completely conformed to state requirements and worked according to curricula that provided, in addition to general development, national and religious upbringing of the child. Educational and material equipment of preschool classrooms and didactic support of educational process during the study period are constantly improved taking into account the achievements of preschool pedagogy and other fields of science, trends in the evolution of public preschool education in Canada, which ensures successful implementation of educational programs for preschool children and appropriate image in the environment of the Ukrainian diaspora.


We investigate the organizational capacities required to leverage digital infrastructures both (1) in response to crisis and external threats, and (2) in realizing the transformative potential associated with the digital infrastructures. Thus, our research question is: What is required for organizations to be able to transform in the face of disruptions and breakdowns? We report from an empirical study of a digital infrastructure innovation process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which involved extensions and novel development of both the technology and the former service model. While the literature on organizational resilience offers us a conceptual framework to identify organizational capabilities, we lean on literature that foregrounds transformability as a crucial aspect of resilience. We discuss organizational capacities which are considered vital in realizing the potential for transformative crisis learning in sociotechnical systems that builds adaptive capacity and influences the enactment of future organisational routines.


Change in human body morphology is well-documented for developmental growth from childhood to adult. However, the morphological change from adulthood to older age is less detailed and less discussed within literature concerned with anthropometric application and clothing construction. This, perhaps, explains why females aged 55+ are the demographic most frustrated with the fit of ready-to-wear garments [1]. A prerequisite for the accurate generation of size chart and pattern development relies on precision in the location and demarcation of landmarks [2,3], therefore an understanding of the changes in body size and shape, how this impacts on anthropometric practice, and, more specifically, the body landmarks is fundamental to provide correctly fitting garments patterns for mature women. Consequently, the aim of this research is to establish a pre- and post-3D body scanning survey process for able-bodied UK women aged 55 years and over, giving them the opportunity to self-select a suitable waist location for clothing from four defined waist positions. A pragmatic, mixed-method methodology was developed to evaluate anthropometric theory and praxis, landmark placement, and subjective body image estimation, to determine the success of their practical application in developing appropriate garment patterns for this demographic. The methodology consisted of four stages: recruitment of eighty (80) women aged 55+ using the three strategies of convenience, snowball and random sampling; the 3D body scanning of each participant using two TC[2] scanners; the use of a visual aid to allow the self-evaluation of personal waist position for garment development; and the evaluation of the visual and numerical scan data against this self-evaluation. The findings indicated that recruitment of this demographic is problematic as it is reliant on subject willingness for participation and this group of subjects were often critical of their body morphology. The questionnaire response rate was 67% which reduced the sample size down to 52 women. The visual aid indicated that the participants were able to readily identify the position of their waist regardless of body morphology. Rectangle, hourglass, triangle and bottom hourglass body shapes were represented in the sample set. The most common body shape shared by this demographic was that of the rectangle and analysis of waist height from the floor position before and after waist landmark modification indicated that the rectangle was the body shape which was most prone to waist placement error from the participants point of view. All body shapes required waist height modification to the original waist height landmark based on participant evaluation of where they felt it comfortable to wear their waistband. Comparative analysis confirmed distinct variation in subjects' evaluation of waist positioning for a garment and scanner MMU MEP definitions. 59% of participants' waists landmarks were placed differently by the scanner compared to the placement by the subjects themselves. This study concludes that to improve landmark placement accuracy providing a visual aid to the participant for evaluation in tandem with the practitioner evaluation would be a practice that is useful for common but difficult to locate landmarks, such as the waist. Responses from this visual aid operator evaluation the scan data and more specifically the landmarks.


Successful HPC over desktop grids and non-dedicated NOWs is challenging, since good performance is difficult to achieve due to dynamic workloads. On iterative data-parallel applications, this is addressed by dynamic data distribution. However, current approaches migrate an application from one distribution to another in one single phase, which can impact performance. In this paper, we present D3-ARC, a programming framework to support adaptive and incremental data distribution, so that data migration takes place over several successive iterations. D3-ARC consists of a runtime system and an API for specifying the distribution of arrays as well as how data redistribution takes place. We demonstrate how D3-ARC can be used to develop an incremental strategy for data distribution in a Poisson solver, utilising a runtime feedback mechanism to determine how much data to migrate during each iteration.


Broadband X-ray spectroscopy of the X-ray emission produced in the coronae of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can provide important insights into the physical conditions very close to their central supermassive black holes. The temperature of the Comptonizing plasma that forms the corona is manifested through a high-energy cutoff that has been difficult to directly constrain even in the brightest AGN because it requires high-quality data at energies above 10 keV. In this paper we present a large collection of coronal cutoff constraints for obscured AGNs based on a sample of 130 AGNs selected in the hard X-ray band with Swift/BAT and observed nearly simultaneously with NuSTAR and Swift/XRT. We find that under a reasonable set of assumptions regarding partial constraints the median cutoff is well constrained to 290 ± 20 keV, where the uncertainty is statistical and given at the 68% confidence level. We investigate the sensitivity of this result to our assumptions and find that consideration of various known systematic uncertainties robustly places the median cutoff between 240 and 340 keV. The central 68% of the intrinsic cutoff distribution is found to be between about 140 and 500 keV, with estimated uncertainties of 20 and 100 keV, respectively. In comparison with the literature, we find no clear evidence that the cutoffs in obscured and unobscured AGNs are substantially different. Our analysis highlights the importance of carefully considering partial and potentially degenerate constraints on the coronal high-energy cutoff in AGNs.


In recent years the volume of junk email (spam, virus etc.) has increased dramatically. These unwanted messages clutter up users' mailboxes, consume server resources, and cause delays to the delivery of mail. This paper presents an approach that ensures that nonjunk mail is delivered without excessive delay, at the expense of delaying junk mail.

Using data from two Internet-facing mail servers, we show how it is possible to simply and accurately predict whether the next message sent from a particular server will be good or junk, by monitoring the types of messages previously sent. The prediction can be used to delay acceptance of junk mail, and prioritize good mail through the mail server, ensuring that loading is reduced and delays are low, even if the server is overloaded.

The paper includes a review of server-based anti-spam techniques, and an evaluation of these against the data. We develop and calibrate a model of mail server performance, and use it to predict the performance of the prioritization scheme. We also describe an implementation on a standard mail server.


Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a deficiency of the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase (EC 188.8.131.52). Affected patients develop elevated plasma and tissue levels of phenylalanine and its related ketoacids. Untreated patients usually exhibit severe mental retardation and poor motor function, with characteristic T2 white matter signal abnormalities on conventional MR images. In the present study, we performed diffusion-weighted imaging in three PKU patients. All three patients demonstrated significantly restricted diffusion in all white matter areas examined.


In this paper, we study movements of simple polygonal chains in 3D. We say that an open, simple polygonal chain can be straightened if it can be continuously reconfigured to a straight sequence of segments in such a manner that both the length of each link and the simplicity of the chain are maintained throughout the movement. The analogous concept for closed chains is convexification: reconfiguration to a planar convex polygon. Chains that cannot be straightened or convexified are called locked. While there are open chains in 3D that are locked, we show that if an open chain has a simple orthogonal projection onto some plane, it can be straightened. For closed chains, we show that there are unknotted but locked closed chains, and we provide an algorithm for convexifying a planar simple polygon in 3D. All our algorithms require only O(n) basic "moves" and run in linear time.


Abstract Fertiactyl® is a foliar fertilizer with the potential to minimize the phytotoxicity effects caused by glyphosate drift in eucalyptus plants. As the interactions of the glyphosate and Fertiactyl® in tank mix on the plant behavior are not yet known, the objective was to evaluate the absorption and translocation of 14C-glyphosate, applied isolated and mixed in tank with Fertiactyl®, in young eucalyptus plants (clone I-144, Eucalyptus urophylla x E. grandis). The addition of Fertiactyl® to the mixture of 14C-glyphosate reduced the absorption by 94.3% in relation to the total absorbed at the end of the evaluation compared to plants treated only with 14C-glyphosate, i.e., Fertiactyl® protected the eucalyptus plants of the glyphosate intoxication by drift. The translocation rates from the treated leaves to the rest of the shoots and roots were low (<2% of the total recovered) in both treatments, suggest that restricted translocation is a mechanism of natural tolerance to glyphosate in plants of clone I-144. It is concluded that Fertiactyl®, mixed in the solution with glyphosate, protects young eucalyptus plants against glyphosate drift by reducing the amount of herbicide absorbed.


This experimental study examines and compares individual valuations of the two risk reduction mechanisms: self-insurance and self-protection in risky versus ambiguous outcome situations. Results confirm that individuals do not perceive these mechanisms differently under risk. Moreover, ambiguity in the outcome (i.e., size of loss) affects valuations weakly, and changing representations of ambiguity do not alter valuation. In general, individuals are found to be ambiguity averse for low sizes of loss and ambiguity neutral for high sizes of loss, regardless of the probability of loss. Finally, no strong support is found for any particular model of ambiguity.


In this paper, the lower and upper bounds of Young's modulus and Poisson ratio are determined by the effective stress method and effective strain method from material mechanics. The effective heat flux method based on the hypothesis of equivalent temperature difference and the effective temperature difference method based on the hypothesis of equivalent heat flux are proposed, the lower and upper bounds of the thermal conductivity of ceramic/metal composite material are determined similarly. The result shows that the property values of ceramic/metal composites calculated from current theoretical property formulas are within the lower and upper bounds determined by the above methods.


OF DISSERTATION THE IDEA OF ABSOLUTE ETHICAL LIFE: HEGEL'S ACCOUNT OF FREEDOM AND NATURAL LAW IN HIS EARLY PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS This dissertation project focuses on G.W.F. Hegel's early philosophical writings, though primarily on the Natural Law essay (1802/3), and how, through those writings, Hegel positions himself in relation to other thinkers, such as Fichte. Broadly, the modern period saw with it the rise of accounts of what is called natural law. Philosophers prior to Hegel argued that the proper account of natural law must be rooted in some kind of universal framework: either the basis of law must be the shared empirical facts of human nature (empiricism), or the basis of law must be found in the universal demands on what it means to be a rational being (a priorism). Hegel's essay presents a compelling argument for why such accounts for natural law are inadequate. The first part of this dissertation engages in the exegetical project of understanding Hegel's critique of prior philosophical methods for generating accounts of natural law. Through an engagement with Fichte's philosophical works related to the sciences of morality and legality, I recapitulate Hegel's critique of key elements within Fichte's philosophical system. These critiques focus on what Hegel argues are the problematic aspects of a philosophical system that is rooted in merely the concept of the Absolute, a one-sided articulation of reality that gives undue primacy to the subjective aspect of human life. I argue that these critiques frame the important philosophical insights that Hegel brings to bear on his account of natural law. Next, I provide an account of why Hegel thinks that the philosophical programs of empiricism and a priorism fail to capture the heart of what it means to think about law within a community. The second part of this dissertation provides an account of Hegel's conception of absolute ethical life and its ramifications on our thinking about communal life. Beginning with Hegel's conception of freedom, I explore Hegel's argument for why a domain of meaning that is prior to individual reveals itself in both positive and negative ways. Furthermore, I show that this argument sets the stage for articulating the impossibility of a system of laws that address the real demands of freedom. Hegel's argument for why the underlying logic of ethical life is on a path towards a point of indifference provides a compelling answer to the question of how we should understand the relationship between law and the community. One main conclusion of the Natural Law essay is that the basic mode of communal life is grounded in an ongoing tension between the positive content of the community and its institutions and the negative power of the individual to either participate or deny the claims of the community. I articulate why, given the logic of ethical life, the basic mode of participating in communal life involves participating in the birth, life, and death of laws, where the truth of this cycle is in the growth and maintenance of the community through its own tragic self-consumption. Furthermore, I argue that the Natural Law essay provides a framework for incorporating the empirical into an account of natural law through history. Finally, I close by offering some insights from Hegel's account that are relevant to our current dialogues about what it means to live in a community, specifically that his account of natural law places a demand on how we should engage in dialogues within a historical perspective.


West nile virus infection: an emerging arbovirosis in france and europe. West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, transmitted to humans by mosquitoes of the genus Culex, from an avian reservoir. Humans are accidental hosts and there is no report of human-to-human transmission, except via blood transfusion or organ transplantation. In 2018, Europe experienced the largest outbreak of West Nile virus infection ever. In France, 27 cases were identified including 7 neuro invasive forms. This infection is asymptomatic in most cases but may also manifest as an isolated fever or flu-like syndrome. In about 1% of cases, neuro-invasive forms with meningitis, meningoencephalitis or flaccid paralysis can be observed. There is no specific treatment for this viral infection. Prevention is based on the prevention of mosquito bites, but also on enhanced epidemiological surveillance during the period of circulation of the virus in Europe (from spring to autumn).


Accurate surface potentials measured by the radioactive electrode method are given for monolayers of sodium octadecyl sulphate spread on several aqueous sodium chloride solutions. In the temperature range 5–18°C, the magnitude of the surface potential increases with temperature for all salt solutions. This is interpreted as showing that increasing temperature disorients water dipoles more at the clean air/water interface than at the film-covered interface for long-chain sulphate over the temperature range studied. It is not possible from the data to determine uniquely the orientation of water molecules at the clean air/water interface, but it is almost certain that they are arranged with the oxygen atoms pointing towards the air phase.The general breakdown of the Gouy—Chapman model of the ionic double layer is confirmed at all temperatures. The Stern model as modified by van Voorst Vader and van den Tempel cannot explain the data. The classical Stern adsorption isotherm covers the results, giving Stern adsorption energies for the sodium ion which are negative (except possibly at very high charge densities) and vary significantly with salt concentration but do not vary with temperature and monolayer density in the area range 300 to 1200 A2 molecule–1.


Abstract. We present the organization, instrumentation, datasets, data interpretation,
modeling, and accomplishments of the multinational global atmospheric
measurement program AGAGE (Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment).
AGAGE is distinguished by its capability to measure globally, at high
frequency, and at multiple sites all the important species in the Montreal
Protocol and all the important non-carbon-dioxide (non-CO2) gases
assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (CO2 is
also measured at several sites). The scientific objectives of AGAGE are
important in furthering our understanding of global chemical and climatic
phenomena. They are the following: (1) to accurately measure the temporal and
spatial distributions of anthropogenic gases that contribute the majority of
reactive halogen to the stratosphere and/or are strong infrared absorbers
(chlorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons – CFCs, bromocarbons,
hydrochlorofluorocarbons – HCFCs, hydrofluorocarbons – HFCs and
polyfluorinated compounds (perfluorocarbons – PFCs), nitrogen trifluoride –
NF3, sulfuryl fluoride – SO2F2, and sulfur hexafluoride –
SF6) and use these measurements to determine the global rates of
their emission and/or destruction (i.e., lifetimes); (2) to accurately
measure the global distributions and temporal behaviors and determine the
sources and sinks of non-CO2 biogenic–anthropogenic gases important
to climate change and/or ozone depletion (methane – CH4, nitrous
oxide – N2O,
carbon monoxide – CO, molecular hydrogen – H2, methyl chloride
– CH3Cl, and methyl bromide – CH3Br); (3) to identify new
long-lived greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases (e.g., SO2F2,
NF3, heavy PFCs (C4F10, C5F12,
C6F14, C7F16, and C8F18) and
hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs; e.g., CH2 = CFCF3) have been
identified in AGAGE), initiate the real-time monitoring of these new gases,
and reconstruct their past histories from AGAGE, air archive, and firn air
measurements; (4) to determine the average concentrations and trends of
tropospheric hydroxyl radicals (OH) from the rates of destruction of
atmospheric trichloroethane (CH3CCl3), HFCs, and HCFCs and estimates
of their emissions; (5) to determine from atmospheric observations and
estimates of their destruction rates the magnitudes and distributions by
region of surface sources and sinks of all measured gases; (6) to provide
accurate data on the global accumulation of many of these trace gases that
are used to test the synoptic-, regional-, and global-scale circulations
predicted by three-dimensional models; and (7) to provide global and regional
measurements of methane, carbon monoxide, and molecular hydrogen and
estimates of hydroxyl levels to test primary atmospheric oxidation pathways
at midlatitudes and the tropics. Network Information and Data Repository:
http://agage.mit.edu/data or
http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/ndps/alegage.html
(https://doi.org/10.3334/CDIAC/atg.db1001).


An overview of short-term specific immunotherapy (ST-SIT) highlighting Pollinex Quattro (PQ) Tree is presented. The product development of this novel allergy vaccine using modifying agent glutaraldehyde, adjuvant monophosphoryl lipid and l-tyrosine have heralded a superior ST-SIT. Since 1999 when PQ was founded in Germany, various research trials assessing both the standardization and clinical studies have been done. A review of these studies demonstrates the efficacy and safety of PQ Tree in both pediatric and adult trials. The uniqueness of this product allows a shorter course of four pre-seasonal injections to provide control of allergy symptomatology in seasonal rhinitis patients. The PQ Tree product studies show a similar efficacy and safety profile to the grass formulation trial.


Lymphatic filariasis is a disease of considerable socioeconomic burden in the tropics. Presently used antifilarial drugs are able to strongly reduce transmission and will thus ultimately lower the burden of morbidity associated with the infection, however, a chemotherapeutic principle that directly induces a halt or improvement in the progression of the morbidity in already infected individuals would constitute a major lead. In search of such a more-effective drug to complement the existing ones, in an area endemic for bancroftian filariasis in Ghana, 33 microfilaremic and 18 lymphedema patients took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a 6-wk regimen of 200 mg/day doxycycline. Four months after doxycycline treatment, all patients received 150–200 μg/kg ivermectin and 400 mg albendazole. Patients were monitored for Wolbachia and microfilaria loads, antigenemia, filarial dance sign (FDS), dilation of supratesticular lymphatic vessels, and plasma levels of lymphangiogenic factors (vascular endothelial growth factor-C [VEGF-C] and soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 [(s)VEGFR-3]). Lymphedema patients were additionally monitored for stage (grade) of lymphedema and the circumferences of affected legs. Wolbachia load, microfilaremia, antigenemia, and frequency of FDS were significantly reduced in microfilaremic patients up to 24 mo in the doxycycline group compared to the placebo group. The mean dilation of supratesticular lymphatic vessels in doxycycline-treated patients was reduced significantly at 24 mo, whereas there was no improvement in the placebo group. Preceding clinical improvement, at 12 mo, the mean plasma levels of VEGF-C and sVEGFR-3 decreased significantly in the doxycycline-treated patients to a level close to that of endemic normal values, whereas there was no significant reduction in the placebo patients. The extent of disease in lymphedema patients significantly improved following doxycycline, with the mean stage of lymphedema in the doxycycline-treated patients being significantly lower compared to placebo patients 12 mo after treatment. The reduction in the stages manifested as better skin texture, a reduction of deep folds, and fewer deep skin folds. In conclusion, a 6-wk regimen of antifilarial treatment with doxycycline against W. bancrofti showed a strong macrofilaricidal activity and reduction in plasma levels of VEGF-C/sVEGFR-3, the latter being associated with amelioration of supratesticular dilated lymphatic vessels and with an improvement of pathology in lymphatic filariasis patients.


Amid the sociopolitical turmoil of 1920s Germany, speech delivery rapidly became a popular practice among writers. Many speeches were given in (semi-)public assemblies, one striking example being the Dichtung und Rundfunk (Literature and Radio) conference. Although attended by significant writers and radio pioneers, this conference has received little scru - tiny in the literature so far. This article seeks to fill this gap by investigating the communica - tive characteristics of the speeches that were held there. In the resulting examination, the Dichtung und Rundfunk conference is categorised as a network of interacting speeches. Its fundamental 'speech dialogues' lent a sense of communicative directness to the conference. However, this complex network required a discursive lingua franca to allow a direct confron- tation between the differing, if not opposing, views that were expressed by the speakers. This common code is identified through the use of Link's interdiscourse theory, which shows the interdiscursive language to be the collective symbol of radio or, indeed, the conference theme itself. In addition, the article traces the interaction between speeches in the network back to the essence of any single writer's speech. In essence, the speech connects culture and, more specifi - cally, literature to society. This in-between position resembles the function of interdiscourses, which reintegrate the segmented fields of societies and the specialised discourses associated with them. Thus, the Dichtung und Rundfunk conference serves as a test case for a study of the triangular relationship between the writer's speech, new media and interdiscourses. This study ultimately comes to the conclusion that the writer's speech operates as one of the most interdiscursive platforms for the exchange of opinions.


Many studies, in their examinations and explanations of the causes of violent extremism, can be found to be lacking in an integration of the factors of individual differences in the causes of political or religious violence. Also most studies on the topic do not emphasize the role of causal processes in these phenomena. The present study tries to overcome this lacking. Hence, its purpose is to test Wikström's 'Situational Action Theory' (SAT). More specifically in relation to 'self-reported' 'right-wing political violence' (n = 723). To that effect this study examines the role of 'perceived grievances' and 'us-versus-them' attitudes to explain the causes of right-wing political violence. Key 'strain-related' variables are grouped under those two overarching concepts and are then integrated in the social model of SAT as 'causes of the causes', in this case then of right-wing political violence. The results of this analysis support the main hypothesis tested by this article: the secondary effects generated by the causes of the causes of (self-reported) right-wing political violence also manifest themselves in broader moral support for right-wing extremism, causing in their turn probabilistically more future violence, yet also in more self-control abilities, limiting or controlling the generation of more future violence. The limitations of this study are discussed in relation to suggestions for future scientific studies on the topic. Finally, policy recommendations are suggested.


We employed a murine monoclonal antibody (CH41) and a lambda gt11 library of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA fragments to map the gene for a viral protein, denoted infected cell protein (ICP) 22, to the HWLF1 open reading frame in the S component of the CMV genome (0.92 to 0.93 map units). By using antibody CH41 in immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting analyses, ICP22 was readily detected as a beta (delayed early) gene product during viral growth. The cellular localization of this protein was found to be nuclear by immunofluorescence analysis; however, it partitioned with the cytoplasm when cells were fractionated with non-ionic detergents. Analysis of cell-free medium showed that a proportion of ICP22 was released from cells as a soluble protein at both early (24 h) and late (72 to 120h) times in infection. The function of this protein which has such diverse characteristics remains unknown.


The authors carried out a study to determine the feasibility of electrochemically removing chromium from plating wastewater. Hexavalent chromium is a carcinogen and its discharge is required to be near 1 ppm. In this work they determined the effects of key variables including temperature, electrolyte flow rate, pH, and electrode composition. At the low chromium concentrations found in plating wastewater, they determined that the rate of chromium ion removal was mass transfer limited. Of the four electrode types tested, only gold gave significantly enhanced performance; however, graphite would probably be the most cost-effective for large-scale application. Chromium reduction rate was significantly increased at reduced pH. Because chromium ion solubility increases at lower pH, the higher removal rate would need to to be balanced against higher chromium redissolution rate in a practical system. A preliminary analysis based on the laboratory data indicates that a practical system based on electrochemical technology is feasible.


Researchers have found that female youths are particularly vulnerable to withdrawing from sport and physical activity programs in early adolescence (see Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2010). However, there is an absence of a comprehensive, emic description of how female adolescents experience physical activity. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with 15 early adolescent females (12–14 years old) and 20 middle and late adolescent females (15–18years old). Co-participants in the mid to late adolescent cohort provided retrospective accounts of their early adolescent experiences along with insight on how their experiences shaped their current participation. The girls' voices were brought to the forefront through composite vignettes that highlight their physical activity experiences, integrating the words used by the co-participants. Results are discussed in relation to physical activity programming for adolescent females and why a qualitative approach is useful in contributing to ...


Objective The aim of the study was to investigate the value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography combined with computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) in diagnosing native valve endocarditis (NVE). Patients and methods All patients with bacteremia and suspicion of NVE between January 2013 and June 2016 were identified from the hospitals' register and retrospectively included if echocardiography and 18F-FDG-PET/CT were performed within 14 days. 18F-FDG-PET/CT scans were scored independently by two nuclear medicine physicians. 18F-FDG-PET/CT was compared with the modified-Duke criteria and a multidisciplinary consensus. Results A total of 88 patients were included. In 10 patients with definite NVE according to the modified-Duke criteria, three (30.0%) patients had increased 18F-FDG uptake in or around the heart valves and seven (70.0%) patients had no increased 18F-FDG uptake. In patients without definite NVE according to the modified-Duke criteria, 89.7% (70/78) of the patients had no increased 18F-FDG uptake in or around the heart valves. Of all 20 patients with NVE according to multidisciplinary consensus, nine (45.0%) patients had increased 18F-FDG uptake in or around the heart valves and 11 (55.0%) patients had a normal 18F-FDG-PET/CT result. Conclusion A negative 18F-FDG-PET/CT result should not be interpreted as an exclusion of NVE. In patients with possible or rejected NVE according to the modified-Duke criteria, 18F-FDG-PET/CT could be used in case of sustained suspicion of NVE owing to its high specificity in case of abnormal FDG uptake at the valve region. 18F-FDG-PET/CT is important for detecting metastatic infection which already warrants the need to perform 18F-FDG-PET/CT in all patients with suspected NVE.


Opposite gender transmission may increase the severity of certain infections. If infections transmitted from mother to son were more severe than from mother to daughter this might explain severe diseases among boys, particularly in small families with few individuals contributing to transmission. Among children from Guinea-Bissau, we tested whether mothers with recent respiratory syncytial virus exposure (positive IgM and IgA antibody responses) were more likely to have male than female children with respiratory syncytial virus antigen positive acute lower respiratory tract infection. Children with acute lower respiratory tract infection were identified at a paediatric clinic (n=348), a health centre (n=270), and in a community morbidity survey (n=525), 14.2% (162/1143) having respiratory syncytial virus antigen. An equal number of boys and girls had acute lower respiratory tract infection, but boys were more likely to have respiratory syncytial virus detected (prevalence ratio=1.36 (1.01–1.81)), this difference being particularly marked in the rainy season. With recent respiratory syncytial virus exposure of mother, boys were twice as likely to have respiratory syncytial virus detected (prevalence ratio=2.04 (1.18–3.53)), the difference being marked in the rainy season. There was no gender difference in respiratory syncytial virus infection among children of RSV negative mothers. We conclude that mothers may transmit respiratory syncytial virus more easily or severely to sons.


Introduction: There are numerous biomechanical studies, but no clinical study to support or refute the use of transverse connectors (TCs) in scoliosis constructs. The aim of the study is to critically assess the role of TCs in scoliosis constructs. Material and methods: All patients of scoliosis that underwent pedicle screw constructs without the use of TCs between July 2007 and July 2011 were evaluated. The immediate postoperative erect radiographs were compared with the erect radiographs at the last follow-up (at least 12 months) by two independent observers (spine fellows). The radiographs were assessed critically for any rotation at the apical vertebra using the Nash–Moe technique. The intraobserver and interobserver reliability were analyzed. The radiographs were additionally evaluated for any loss of correction and implant failure. Results: There were 28 cases in the study. The total number of levels fused was 277. The average follow-up was 33 months. The average preoperative Cobb angle of the major curve was 72.5° (40–110°) and postoperative angle was 24.75° (5–50°). The mean percentage correction in the preoperative and postoperative Cobb angle of the major curve was 68.88% (46.80–92.3%). The intraobserver reliability was 100%; there was no change in the rotation of the levels evaluated by either observer. The interobserver reliability was 100%. There were no cases of implant failure. There were two cases of distal junctional kyphosis requiring extension of construct distally, not attributable to implant characteristics. Conclusion: The TCs are not essential to maintain derotation and do not add to stability of long scoliosis constructs. The authors make a strong statement that TCs may not be necessary to maintain derotation in scoliosis constructs. Clinical significance: The additional complications of implant prominence, metal corrosion, skin breakdown, pseudoarthrosis, and costs can be prevented by excluding TCs from the scoliosis constructs.


Higher education institutions require a proper standard and model that can be implemented to enhance alignment between business strategy and existing information technologies. Developing the required model is a complex task. A combination of the EA, MDA and SOA concepts can be one of the solutions to overcome the complexity of building a specific information technology architecture for higher education institutions. EA allows for a comprehensive understanding of the institution's main business process while defining the information system that will assist in optimizing the business process. EA essentially focuses on strategy and integration. MDA relies on models as its main element and places focuses on efficiency and quality. SOA on the other hand uses services as its principal element and focuses on flexibility and reuse. This paper seeks to formulate an information technology architecture that can provide clear guidelines on inputs and outputs for EA development activities within a given higher education institution. This proposed model specifically emphasises on WIS development in order to ensure that WIS in higher education institutions has a coherent planning, implementation and control process in place consistent with the enterprise's business strategy. The model will then be applied to support WIS development and implementation at University of Lampung (Unila) as the case study.


The economic growth and per capita income improvement will alter the consumer behavior. The implementation of the Theory of Planned Behavior is to explore consumer buying behavior Java Mataraman on furniture, the aim is to understand the factors that MOTIVATE the behavior. The phenomenological qualitative approach is utilized to investigate the behavior of the retail format choice through the implementation of the Theory of Planned Behavior. The research informants WHO are nine Javanese married women with children; The information selection process employed snowball approach. This research generates some useful propositions for the foundation to examine and for further research. The proposed model of consumer behavior is a Java Mataraman model, of which is not originated from the intention to behave but from the habits and past experience. Thus, it can identify the antecedents of attitude, of subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control Java Mataraman among consumer behavior. Social status became the background of the consumer buying behavior Java Mataraman on furniture.


We exploit a multistate generalisation of a classical, one‐sex, stable population model to evaluate structural and long‐term effects of changes in the attainment of adulthood. The demographic framework that inspired this paper is provided by Italy, where a strong delay in the transition to adulthood and union formation has been observed over the last several decades. Italy has also experienced very low fertility levels, and the subsequent ageing problems have become of primary concern. We first discuss a theoretical framework based on the model developed by Inaba (1995) and then include the process of transition to adulthood. We consider explicitly some specifications of the general model, and we present two distinct empirical applications, one using macrosimulation and the other one using a linear approximation. Our principal aim is to evaluate the impact of the delay in the attainment of adulthood on reproduction and on the age structure of the population.


A good combination of high strength and hardenability makes the alloy Ti 10V-2Fe-3Al a prime candidate for applications in the aerospace arena. However, these properties are very dependent on a post-forming heat treatment. The overall objective of this work is to determine the effect of prior deformation on the aging behaviour. In this particular study, the influence of the heat treatment, either solution and/or aging, on the microstructures, and consequently on the mechanical properties, without introduced strain is reported. Various solution heat treatments have been conducted, either in the β phase or in the (α+β) phase field, followed by rapid quenching or slow cooling, and aging treatments at different temperatures (250, 350, 400, 500C°) above and below the ω-transus temperature. Vickers hardness indentations were used to follow the precipitation hardening behaviour, and mechanical properties were determined using a shear punch test. The aging response is dependent not only on the presence of the athermal ω phase but also on the proximity of the aging temperature to the ω-transus. Most treatments showed an unusual initial softening behaviour prior to age hardening, however this appears to be related again to the composition and fraction of the β phase retained after solution treatment.


This thesis examines the parameters associated with the failure of triangular steel gusset plates. Eighty two results are presented investigating the position of the applied load, the gusset plate height to length ratio, size, thickness, internal angle and the removal of the inside corner. The thickness of the loaded plate and its influence on the gusset plates failure is also investigated. Twenty two similar gusset plates were tested to investigate the welds connecting the gusset plate to the adjacent loaded and support edges. The experimental results are compared with existing methods, none of which cover all the variables tested. Some methods do not consider buckling and most of those that do are inadequate. Most of the methods do not accurately take account of the load position. An alternative method based on experimental observations is presented for design purposes. The method covers any combination of the variables tested. To test assumptions made in the theoretical work forty seven strut tests took place to investigate buckling characteristics and fifteen special gusset plates were also tested. The gusset plates were found to fail in an elastic-plastic buckling manner. A gusset plate has a specific moment of resistance capacity about it's inside corner and the ultimate load that can be applied is dependent upon the position of the load relative to the supported edge. There is an optimum height to length ratio for strength and any increase in the internal angle from 90 degrees produces little change in moment capacity. The removal of small portions of the inside corner of a gusset plate has little effect upon its moment capacity. The loaded plate does not provide any significant moment of resistance to the applied load at failure. The main functions of the loaded and supported edge welds is to prevent the gusset plate from slipping from between the plates.


Abstract:  Collisions of birds with power transmission and distribution lines have been documented for many species, and cause millions of casualties worldwide. Attempts to reduce mortality from such collisions include placing bird flight diverters (i.e., wire markers in the form of, e.g., spirals, swivels, plates, or spheres) on static and some electrified wires to increase their visibility. Although studies of the effectiveness of such devices have yielded contradictory results, the implementation of flight diverters is increasing rapidly. We reviewed the results of studies in which transmission or distribution wires were marked and conducted a meta‐analysis to examine the effectiveness of flight diverters in reducing bird mortality. We included in our meta‐analysis all studies in which researchers searched for carcasses of birds killed by a collision with wires. In those studies that also included data on flight frequency, we examined 8 covariates of effectiveness: source of data, study design, alternate design (if marked and unmarked spans were alternated in the same line), periodicity of searches for carcasses, width of the search transect, and number of species, lines, and stretches of wire searched. The presence of flight diverters was associated with a decrease in bird collisions. At unmarked lines, there were 0.21 deaths/1000 birds (n =339,830) that flew among lines or over lines. At marked lines, the mortality rate was 78% lower (n =1,060,746). Only the number of species studied had a significant influence on effect size; this was larger in studies that addressed more species. When comparing mortality at marked and unmarked lines, we recommend use of the same time intervals and habitats and standardizing the periodicity of carcass searches.


We have previously shown, using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), that the presence of a defect in cortical bone tissue affects the apparent viscoelastic properties of that bone. However, mechanically induced damage is more complex than a machined defect making it difficult to predict its effect on bone viscoelasticity. We performed DMA measurements before and after introduction of yield damage into cortical bone beams from sheep radii. The specimens were placed in a DMA machine and baseline measurements of storage modulus (E1) and loss factor (tandelta) were performed using a 3-point bending configuration for a frequency range of 1-10 Hz. Measurements were done in all four bending directions (cranial, caudal, medial, and lateral) in random order. After subjecting the specimens to monotonic yield damage in a servohydraulic testing machine with the load applied to the cranial surface, oscillatory tests were repeated. To supplement results from the current experiment, additional analyses were performed on data from experiments where bone was either cut or fatigue-loaded between viscoelasticity measurements. Introduction of mechanical damage increased tan delta and frequency sensitivity of E1, consistent with the assertion that increased energy dissipation in damaged bone might contribute to its increased resistance to fatigue and fracture.


Outline the background and meaning of knowledge base, analyse the role of building it in a virtual community and discuss the problems which will be encountered in the process of building and propose some strategies which can be adopted in the course of structure. In the education field, the virtual community knowledge base is a kind of virtual intellectual resources sharing system in essence that enables individual knowledge into collective. It is a database platform on which college students can display themselves, communicate and share knowledge freely.Currently, ontology-based knowledge base system is the hot topic.


In this paper we initiate the study of the computational complexity of Nash equilibria in bimatrix games that are specified via data. This direction is motivated by an attempt to connect the emerging work on the computational complexity of Nash equilibria with the perspective of revealed preference theory, where inputs are data about observed behavior, rather than explicit payoffs. Our results draw such connections for large classes of data sets, and provide a formal basis for studying these connections more generally. In particular, we derive three structural conditions that are sufficient to ensure that a data set is both consistent with Nash equilibria and that the observed equilibria could have been computed effciently: (i) small dimensionality of the observed strategies, (ii) small support size of the observed strategies, and (iii) small chromatic number of the data set. Key to these results is a connection between data sets and the player rank of a game, defined to be the minimum rank of the payoff matrices of the players. We complement our results by constructing data sets that require rationalizing games to have high player rank, which suggests that computational constraints may be important empirically as well.


This paper deals with studying the effects of both on-line and off-line test during flight critical missions where safety is a major issue. The on-line test, in this context, is a test performed on a digital airborne system during some specified windows in time while it is still performing its intended task. An off-line test is a test that is performed on the digital system once it is taken, off-line because of a suspected failure. Both the on-line and the off-line tests are performed during flight. The difference between the two is that the off-line test can be made more effective than an on-line test due to the longer amount of time available for testing. Moreover, the off-line test may be designed to have diagnosis and repair capabilities built-in. Upon successful repair, the faulty processor may be reconfigured back into the system. This capability will undoubtedly increase the mission reliability.


In this thesis we discuss the development of three homeworks for the course Hybrid and Embedded Control Systems given at the institution S3 (Signals, Sensors and Systems) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main objective of the course is to present tools for modeling, analyze and design embedded control system. The course, first given in spring 2003, is interdisciplinary since its program cover arguments strictly related to system theory and computer science. As part of the course three homeworks has to be solved by the students. The main idea of the homeworks is that the student should gain further practical understanding of the material presented during the lectures.The main topic of the thesis is to describe the design of three homeworks. For each homework a problem a problem definition, containing different tasks, is formulated. Also a computer based tool, used to solve the tasks, is presented. All tasks are explained in detail and the expected results are presented.


Study area consists of 2 protected areas in Ha Giang Province with poor surveys on biodiversity values: Du Gia Nature Reserve (11,795 ha) with domination of lowland, montane tropical evergreen forest and small area of limestone evergreen forest. Khau Ca species habitat Tonkin snub-nosed monkey conservation area (2,024 ha) is predominated by limestone evergreen forest. This study has recorded 59 mammal species belonging to 22 families and 9 orders. Additionally, eight (8) species of bats has been recorded by other authors that increases the list to 67 species of 22 families and 9 orders. Study area has high conservation significance, there are 16 species enlisted in Vietnam Red Data Book and 8 species enlisted in 2013 IUCN Red List at CR, EN and Vu categories. Especially, the study area harbors the world largest population of Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus avunculus (in Khau Ca Species Habitat Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Conservation Area) and possibly also nationally largest population of Francois langur Trachypithecus francoisi (in Du Gia Nature Reserve). These species are highly threatened both in Vietnam and globally. Pressure of adverse impacts on biodiversity in study area remains at high level including wildlife hunting and trade, forest destruction for agricultivation, illegally harvesting timber and non-timber forest products, free ranging cattle raising inside protected areas and especially intensive commercial mining throughout the area.


It is largely unclear that whether or not surgical resection of the primary tumors could confer survival benefit among patients with metastatic breast cancer at initial presentation. We thoroughly reviewed the up-to-date evidence on surgical resection of the primary lesion in metastatic breast cancer, including comparative studies (of particular interest in risk modifiers, the type, and timing of surgical procedures), Chinese and international guidelines, as well as the progress of clinical trials. Partial modified radical mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery are by far the most common choices for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Patients with certain characteristics, for example, younger than 45 years of age or with oligo-metastasis, might benefit from the surgery. The type and timing of surgical procedures are still in debate according to the guidelines from different countries. Forthcoming evidence from the ongoing clinical trials might help close the knowledge gaps in surgical treatment for patients with metastatic breast cancer and aid the decision-making in clinical practice.


For providing different quality services, router needs packet classification.Rules are frequently changing and due to multidimensional field it is difficult to maintain high speed and scalabilty in packet classification.In this work we use pipeline architecture with logic gates on FPGA.Due to use of logic gates and incorporate range search in architecture speed,memoryefficiency,power efficiency of packet classification increases as compare to any previous method used for packet classification. This method is rule set independent.


Fish have become a popular experimental model and companion animal, and are also farmed and caught for food. Thus, surgical and invasive procedures in this animal group are common, and this review will focus on the anesthesia and analgesia of fish. A variety of anesthetic agents are commonly applied to fish via immersion. Correct dosing can result in effective anesthesia for acute procedures as well as loss of consciousness for surgical interventions. Dose and anesthetic agent vary between species of fish and are further confounded by a variety of physiological parameters (e.g., body weight, physiological stress) as well as environmental conditions (e.g., water temperature). Combination anesthesia, where 2 anesthetic agents are used, has been effective for fish but is not routinely used because of a lack of experimental validation. Analgesia is a relatively underexplored issue in regards to fish medicine. However, recent studies have investigated opioid agents, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, and local anesthetics to determine their efficacy in minimizing pain and discomfort. The opioid morphine and the local anesthetic lidocaine do have significant effectiveness in reducing pain-related responses in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Studies aimed at developing reliable analgesic protocols should explore a wide range of analgesic drug classes in several fish species. Copyright 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


We report on the die bonding processes and how the surface roughness and metallization schemes affect the processes of die bonding in 4H-SiC device fabrication using a soldering test and die shear test (DST) with differently prepared 4H-SiC samples. The first set of samples (FZ#1 and FZ#2) was capped with sequentially evaporated Ti and Au on an annealed Ni layer. The second set of samples (FZ#3 and FZ#4) and the third set of samples (FZ#5 and FZ#6) were prepared by 4μm-thick Au electroplating on an annealed Ni layer and an un-annealed Ni layer, respectively. The quality of the soldering, such as the solder coverage, void, and adhesion, was characterized by optical microscope, X-ray microprobe, and DST. We found that the samples (FZ#4 and FZ#6) deposited by Au electroplating on C-face (bottom-side) 4H-SiC provided a satisfactory result for the tests of solder coverage, void, and DST and also realized the cleaning process prior to the electroplating and soldering was the most crucial in the die packaging processes of vertical structure devices. The void fraction measured by X-ray microprobe for the samples, FZ#4 and FZ#6 was 2.2% (average for 5 samples) and 0.8% (average for 3 samples), respectively.


In finance, the momentum spillovers of listed firms is well acknowledged. Only few studies predicted the trend of one firm in terms of its relevant firms. A common strategy of the pilot work is to adopt graph convolution networks (GCNs) with some predefined firm relations. However, momentum spillovers are propagated via a variety of firm relations, of which the bridging importance varies with time. Restricting to several predefined relations inevitably makes noise and thus misleads stock predictions. In addition, traditional GCNs transfer and aggregate the peer influences without considering the states of both connected firms once a connection is built. Such non-attribute sensibility makes traditional GCNs inappropriate to deal with the attribute-sensitive momentum spillovers of listed firms wherein the abnormal price drop of one firm may not spill over if the trade volume of this decreasing price is small or the prices of the linked firms are undervalued. In this study, we propose an attribute-driven graph attention network (AD-GAT) to address both problems in modeling momentum spillovers. This is achieved by element-wisely multiplying the nonlinear transformation of the attributes of the connected firms with the attributes of the source firm to consider its attribute-sensitive momentum spillovers, and applying the unmasked attention mechanism to infer the general dynamic firm relation from observed market signals fused by a novel tensor-based feature extractor. Experiments on the three-year data of the S&P 500 demonstrate the superiority of the proposed framework over stateof-the-art algorithms, including GCN, eLSTM, and TGC.


The suture zone between the Sino-Korean and Yangtse cratons in central China is marked by a series of fault-bounded belts composed of crustal protoliths. In the Dabie Mountains some of these blocks contain coesite and diamond, indicating subduction to minimum depths of ∼120 km as a result of continental collision. The blocks range from the structurally lowest ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt and decrease in metamorphic grade upsection to the structurally highest, low greenschist facies belt. Furthermore, the faults mark large contrasts in metamorphic grade. These features form a structure that is similar to metamorphic core complexes, indicating extension as part of the exhumation process. Timing of the continental collision has previously been inferred as Late Triassic, from regional geologic relations, or Caledonian, from 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating of the adjacent and possibly related Qinling metamorphic belt. U-Pb dating of zircon from ultra-high-pressure eclogites yields a metamorphic age of 209 ±2 Ma. This age coincides with later stages of collision and is therefore a minimum estimate of the time of collision.


This paper evaluates the performance of reliability and latency in machine type communication networks, which composed of single transmitter and receiver in the presence of Rayleigh fading channel. The source's traffic arrivals are modeled as Markovian processes namely Discrete-Time Markov process, Fluid Markov process, and Markov Modulated Poisson process, and delay/buffer overflow constraints are imposed. Our approach is based on the reliability and latency outage probability, where transmitter not knowing the channel condition, therefore the transmitter would be transmitting information over the fixed rate. The fixed rate transmission is modeled as a two state Discrete time Markov process, which identifies the reliability level of wireless transmission. Using effective bandwidth and effective capacity theories, we evaluate the trade-off between reliability-latency and identify QoS requirement. The impact of different source traffic originated from MTC devices under QoS constraints on the effective transmission rate are investigated.


Fine CdS nanodots (~5 nm) have been prepared in aqueous solution under the control of ds-DNA via a novel alternating dialysis procedure, which have been characterized by TEM, UV-vis, fluorescence (FL) and resonance light scattering (RLS) spectra. The resultant well-dispersed CdS nanodots present a strong FL peak at 339 nm and RLS bands around 394 nm. Interestingly, it was found that the quenching of FL and the enhancing of RLS intensity are dependent on the concentration of Hg2+, both of which showed good linear relationship over the range of 0.01-100 mmol/L, with a detection limit (3s) as low as 0.91 nmol/L. Good selectivity of this method for Hg2+ analysis has also been checked over other metal ions.


Based on SiC grains and powder, flake graphite, AlN powder, Silicon powder, sintered alumina ultra-fine powder as the starting materials, the sample of SiAlON-Graphite-SiC composites was prepared by firing under N2 atmosphere at 1 550°C and then analyzed in terms of high temperature performances by XRD, SEM and EDAX etc. The interrelation between composition, structure and performance of the material was also investigated. It indicates that this material provides excellent thermal shock resistance and molten alkali resistance, also proper oxidation resistance and applicable as the inner lining of the blast furnace.


This paper draws on the extant literature on higher education and leadership to outline approaches to building institutional leadership in Africa's rapidly changing higher education landscape. The paper submits that African institutions of higher education must proactively take charge of nurturing leadership so as to translate leadership competence into strategic assets. The pressure for change within the higher education sector has intensified with scarce resources and increased competitiveness and international choice for students and staff, making leadership capacity very critical. Adapting to the threats, opportunities and possibilities requires a leadership that is not only be visionary, but also has the unique ability to engage in strategic scanning, i.e. the capacity to recognize the behaviour of interconnected systems to make effective decisions under varying strategic and risk scenarios, and the transformation of knowledge. Hence, a leadership that is politically astute, economically savvy, business aware and uses its emotional intelligence to drive success. The paper concludes that while institutional, economic, political and funding constraints exist, higher education in Africa is uniquely positioned as a result of technological advances, private-public partnerships, open course-ware, and knowledge management to advance institutional leadership for transformative change.


ABSTRACT HIV+ population is getting older because of progress in treatments. Yet, there are concerns that Older HIV+ individuals (OHIV+) may be more vulnerable for developing a "cortical" dementia such as Alzheimer Disease (AD). Our aim was to explore the hypothesis that the cognitive deficit extends to ''cortical'' functions in OHIV+ by comparing serial position effects (SPE) in different groups of participants affected by "cortical" or "subcortical" damage. We enrolled a total of 122 subjects: 22 OHIV+ (≥60 years of age), 31 Younger HIV+ (YHIV+) (<60 years of age), 18 participants with AD, 23 subjects with Parkinson Disease (PD), and 28 healthy subjects. All subjects performed verbal learning tasks (VLT) to explore SPE. Factorial analysis of covariance showed a significant effect of "group" (p < 0.001) and "task" (Primacy vs Recency) (p < 0.001), but no significant group*task (p = 0.257) interaction. Compared with healthy subjects (p = 0.003), AD had the most severe reduction of Primacy, confirming a primary "encoding deficit," while PD confirmed a "frontal pattern." OHIV+ showed a memory profile similar to that of PD with a worsening of the cognitive performance in comparison with YHIV+. In conclusion, we did not confirm the "cortical" hypothesis in OHIV+, at least in terms of learning and memory functions.


OF THESIS Scalable Feature Selection and Extraction with Applications in Kinase Polypharmacology In order to reduce the time associated with and the costs of drug discovery, machine learning is being used to automate much of the work in this process. However the size and complex nature of molecular data makes the application of machine learning especially challenging. Much work must go into the process of engineering features that are then used to train machine learning models, costing considerable amounts of time and requiring the knowledge of domain experts to be most effective. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate data driven approaches to perform the feature selection and extraction steps in order to decrease the amount of expert knowledge required to model interactions between proteins and drug molecules.


Abstract The foraging force and pollen collection of European and European × Africanized hybrid worker honey bees, Apis mellifera L., housed in a common nest environment were compared. Significant heterogeneity was found within both genotype populations for the proportion of the bees that foraged, as well as for the proportion of foragers that collected pollen. However, there was not a consistent bias for either genotype to collect pollen or to field a greater proportion of the total foraging population. These results suggest that when sharing a common environment, European × Africanized hybrids and European honey bees do not differ with respect to individual foraging decisions. Results also suggest that the pollinating efficiency of commercial colonies maintained in Africanized areas will probably not diminish as a consequence of introgression of African honey bee genes, if problems associated with their management can be controlled.


Patients who initially develop an upper aerodigestive tract cancer have an increased risk of second primary cancers. We examined TP53 and RAS mutations and p53 protein in 21 tumors from 10 patients with upper aerodigestive tract cancer who developed a metachronous tumor, to assess the genetic changes that occur in multiple primary tumors from the same individual. Thirteen of 21 (62%) tumors were found to have mis‐sense mutations of either TP53 or RAS. Six tumors had TP53 mutations in codons 5 to 8 and 10 tumors from 7 patients had mutations of codons 12 or 13 of K‐RAS. Only one patient had concordance of a mutation in 2 tumors; this mutation occurred in K‐RAS and was accompanied by discordance of TP53 mutation. Three patients had tumors discordant for both T53 and RAS mutations. Smoking‐related tumors had TP53 and RAS mutations which were transversions in 11 (9 G:C to T:A and 2 G:C to C:G) and transitions in 3 (2 G:C to A:T and 1 A:T to G:C). Tumors not associated with smoking contained only transitions (both G:C to A:T). p53 protein was detected by immunohisto‐chemistry in 7 of 13 (54%) tumors and was concordant in the multiple tumors of 3 patients. Three of the 7 tumors staining for p53 also had TP53 mutations. Thus, genetic alterations are discordant in multiple primary cancers and the pattern of mutations is similar to that found in patients with a single primary tumor, supporting the concept that these cancers arise independently. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Environmental pollution from toxic heavy metals is a growing problem throughout the world due to the expansion of industrialisation. The use of microbes and biotechnological processes can provide alternative or complementary methods for the removal or recovery of heavy metals through bioremediation. The present study isolated, identified and characterised heavy metal-resistant fungi from cadmium- and chromium-contaminated paddy soil from Daye City, Hubei Province, China. Eight metal-resistant fungal species were obtained using an acclimation to concentration gradient approach. Five strains tolerated cadmium (Cd2+) to a maximum concentration of 16 mM, four strains could endure 1000 mg/L chromium (Cr2+), and Fusarium oxysporum could withstand high levels of both metals. Morphological examination and 18S rDNA sequence analysis identified the strains. Metal-resistant fungi were co-cultured with 5-day-old rice (Oryza sativa) seedlings in 1/2 MS medium for 7 days and growth parameters were compared with control rice not incubated with microbes. In the obtained strains, Metarhizium anisopliae had no influence on plant height or root length, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae had no effect on these parameters or on fresh weight. Heavy metal-resistant fungi such as those identified in this study could prove useful for the bioremediation of heavy metal-contaminated environments.

 Key words: Heavy metal resistance, co-cultivation, filamentous fungi, acclimation of concentration gradient, rice, bioremediation.


Vibrio vulnificus is a potentially lethal human pathogen that occurs naturally in estuarine waters and shellfish. Vibrio vulnificus was quantified in water and oysters from Florida's Gulf Coast by plating on mCPC agar, enrichment and plating, and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Vibrio vulnificus was detected in 19%, 29%, and 97% of samples respectively by direct plating, qPCR, and enrichment. Only 8% of typical colonies from direct plating were confirmed by PCR for vvhA; others yielded no or atypically sized amplicons. Sequencing of the 16S rDNA of 16 vvhA-negative isolates with colony morphology typical of V. vulnificus identified 75% as V. sinaloensis. In vitro growth curves showed that V. sinaloensis grew more rapidly than V. vulnificus in seawater at temperatures ≤ 30°C. In contrast, the growth rate of V. vulnificus in alkaline peptone water was greater than that of V. sinaloensis, suggesting that these species can outcompete one another under conditions that are relevant to environmental parameters or regulatory monitoring regimes respectively. The virulence potential and ecology of V. sinaloensis are poorly understood; however, its phenotypic resemblance to V. vulnificus and the possibility that it could outcompete the pathogen in warm, estuarine waters argue for the need for a better understanding of this newly described Vibrio species.


Background Medulloblastomas are malignant childhood brain tumors that arise due to the aberrant activity of developmental pathways during postnatal cerebellar development and in adult humans. Transcriptome analysis has identified four major medulloblastoma subgroups. One of them, the Sonic hedgehog (SHH) subgroup, is caused by aberrant Hedgehog signal transduction due to mutations in the Patched1 (PTCH1) receptor or downstream effectors. Mice carrying a Patched-1 null allele (Ptch1 ∆/+) are a good model to study the alterations underlying medulloblastoma development as a consequence of aberrant Hedgehog pathway activity. Results Transcriptome analysis of human medulloblastomas shows that SERPINE2, also called Protease Nexin-1 (PN-1) is overexpressed in most medulloblastomas, in particular in the SHH and WNT subgroups. As siRNA-mediated lowering of SERPINE2/PN-1 in human medulloblastoma DAOY cells reduces cell proliferation, we analyzed its potential involvement in medulloblastoma development using the Ptch1 ∆/+ mouse model. In Ptch1 ∆/+ mice, medulloblastomas arise as a consequence of aberrant Hedgehog pathway activity. Genetic reduction of Serpine2/Pn-1 interferes with medulloblastoma development in Ptch1 ∆/+ mice, as ~60% of the pre-neoplastic lesions (PNLs) fail to develop into medulloblastomas and remain as small cerebellar nodules. In particular the transcription factor Atoh1, whose expression is essential for development of SHH subgroup medulloblastomas is lost. Comparative molecular analysis reveals the distinct nature of the PNLs in young Ptch1 ∆/+ Pn-1 Δ/+ mice. The remaining wild-type Ptch1 allele escapes transcriptional silencing in most cases and the aberrant Hedgehog pathway activity is normalized. Furthermore, cell proliferation and the expression of the cell-cycle regulators Mycn and Cdk6 are significantly reduced in PNLs of Ptch1 ∆/+ Pn-1 Δ/+ mice. Conclusions Our analysis provides genetic evidence that aberrant Serpine2/Pn-1 is required for proliferation of human and mouse medulloblastoma cells. In summary, our analysis shows that Serpine2/PN-1 boosts malignant progression of PNLs to medulloblastomas, in which the Hedgehog pathway is activated in a SHH ligand-independent manner.


This research aims generally at improving the student's learning achievement and teacher's ability in implementing teaching process, while specifically it aims at finding out the effectiveness of using visual media to improve the student's learning achievement in the first grade of Welding Technique Major in SMKN 1 Sedayu during the learning process in Brazing subject with computer aid. The research design in this research is Non-Equivalent Control Group Design. There are two variables in this research those are independent variable that is power point and dependent variable that is the student's learning achievement. The subject of this research is 69 students consisting of 36 students as experimental group (X TP B) and 33 students as control group (X TP A). The data collecting technique uses multiple choices. The tests implemented are pretest and posttest. The data analysis technique used is t-test for separated groups. T-test is used to find out the difference of learning achievement levels in Brazing subject. Based on the research result, it can be concluded that (1) There are differences between the student's learning achievement using power point visual media and that without using power point visual media or using lecturing method and writing in the class in Brazing subject of the students in Grade X of Welding Technique Major in SMKN 1 Sedayu. It is showed by the analysis of the student's test result that is tested by t-test. It is obtained that tcount > ttable (3.847 > 3.460), (2) the learning achievement in Brazing subject of students in Welding Technique Major in SMKN 1 Sedayu: the average pretest score of control class amounts to 18.21 and the average posttest score amounts to 20.91; while in experimental class the average pretest score amounts to 18.78 and the average posttest score is 22.86.


This paper studies the matching of opportunities with talent when costly diagnosis confers an informational advantage to the agent undertaking it. When this agent is underqualified, adverse selection prevents efficient referrals through fixed-price contracts. Spot-market contracts that rely on income sharing can match opportunities with talent but induce a team-production problem which, if severe enough, can prevent the referral of valuable opportunities. Partnership contracts, in which agents agree in advance to the allocation of opportunities and of the revenues they generate, support referrals where the market cannot, but often at the expense of distortions on those opportunities that are not referred. (JEL D82, J33, J41, J44, L22)


were respectable. 79.2% of the respondents thought anesthesiologists had too much work and insufficient family time. As the part of clinical techniques, 98.7% of the residents supported that new system was helpful in improving clinical techniques like intubation, laryngeal mask application and spinal puncture. In medical knowledge, 80.5% and 86.9% of the residents got more familiar with the guidelines of the medicine and fluid treatment respectively. Recently, there are some investigations focuse on the effect of the anesthesia training [1,2]. We carried out the investigation for the effect of the anesthesia rotation training on clinical practice. The data we got proved the advantages of the new system. Other open questionnaires should be taken for training program improvement and future plans.


This thesis extends functional programming languages with aspect-oriented features, primarily to explore aspect-oriented enforcement of security policies.
First, this thesis examines an aspect-oriented implementation of the Java security mechanism, which requires the security advice to be triggered by functions with diverse types. I present a new language, AspectML, that allows type-safe polymorphic advice using pointcuts constructed from a collection of polymorphic join points. I then compare my AspectML implementation of the Java security mechanism against the existing Java implementation.
Second, in ordinary aspect-oriented programming, security and other advice added after-the-fact to an existing codebase can disrupt important data invariants and prevent local reasoning. Instead, this thesis shows that many common aspects, including security advice, can be implemented as harmless advice. Harmless advice uses a novel type and effect system related to information-flow type systems to ensure that harmless advice cannot modify the behavior of mainline code. To demonstrate the usefulness of harmless advice for security, I implement many of the security examples used by the Naccio execution monitoring system as harmless advice.
Finally, this thesis expands the harmless advice specification to allow programmers to create interference policies to define how system libraries can be used by aspects. These policies use a combination of compile-time type checking and run-time monitoring to enforce the desired degree of harmlessness on the aspect-oriented program. My thesis formalizes an idealized file I/O library and proves that an interference policy specified by our policy language can continue to enforce our original view of harmlessness for advice that uses file I/O.


In this article, we examine locational constructions (including existentials, locatives, and possessives) in a number of languages. Morpho-syntactically, locationals resemble or are related to one another in word order, in case marking, and in the choice of verbs. In semantics, the relatedness lies in the definiteness effect, in the locative feature, and in the mutually defining relationship between the semantic elements within each construction. As is recognized by Heine (1997), Stassen (2001) and others, the existential is one of the major sources from which possessives are derived. Basically, possessive constructions are existentials whose locative elements are prototypically human. We argue that locational constructions are relational processes and that they can be integrated into a systemic network with respect to two semantic features, i.e., the definiteness of the existent element and the humanness of the locative element. This systemic relationship between locationals has implications for the description and comparison of languages within the Systemic Functional Grammar framework, particularly where locationals are concerned.


Immunohistochemistry (IHC) biomarkers are essential tools for reliable cancer diagnosis and subtyping. It requires cross-staining comparison among Whole Slide Images (WSIs) of IHCs and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) slides. Currently, pathologists examine the visually co-localized areas across IHC and H&E glass slides for a final diagnosis, which is a tedious and challenging task. Moreover, visually inspecting different IHC slides back and forth to analyze local co-expressions is inherently subjective and prone to error, even when carried out by experienced pathologists. Relying on digital pathology, we propose Composite Biomarker Image (CBI) in this work. CBI is a single image that can be composed using different filtered IHC biomarker images for better visualization. We present a CBI image produced in two steps by the proposed solution for better visualization and hence more efficient clinical workflow. In the first step, IHC biomarker images are aligned with the H&E images using one coordinate system and orientation. In the second step, the positive or negative IHC regions from each biomarker image (based on the pathologists recommendation) are filtered and combined into one image using a fuzzy inference system. For evaluation, the resulting CBI images, from the proposed system, were evaluated qualitatively by the expert pathologists. The CBI concept helps the pathologists to identify the suspected target tissues more easily, which could be further assessed by examining the actual WSIs at the same suspected regions.


Efficiency of large-scale learning is a hot topic in both academic and industry. The stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithm, and its extension mini-batch SGD, allow the model to be updated without scanning the whole data set. However, the use of approximate gradient leads to the uncertainty issue, slowing down the decreasing of objective function. Furthermore, such uncertainty may result in a high frequency of meaningless update on the model, causing a communication issue in parallel learning environment. In this work, we develop a batch-adaptive stochastic gradient descent (BA-SGD) algorithm, which can dynamically choose a proper batch size as learning proceeds. Particularly on the basis of Taylor extension and central limit theorem, it models the decrease of objective value as a Gaussian random walk game with rebound. In this game, a heuristic strategy of determining batch size is adopted to maximize the utility of each incremental sampling. By evaluation on multiple real data sets, we demonstrate that by smartly choosing the batch size, the BA-SGD not only conserves the fast convergence of SGD algorithm but also avoids too frequent model updates.


Objective Hospital care comprises nearly a third of US healthcare expenditures. Fifteen to 20 per cent of this spending is considered to be potentially preventable. Risk prediction models have suboptimal accuracy and typically exclude patient experience data. No studies have explored patient perceptions of the likelihood of readmission during index admission. Our objective was to examine associations between patient perceptions of care during index hospital admission and 30-day readmission. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Two inpatient adult medicine units at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Participants Eight hundred and forty-six patients admitted to study units between January 2012 and January 2016 who met eligibility criteria and consented to enrolment. Main outcome Odds of 30-day readmission. Results Of 1754 eligible participants, 846 (48%) were enrolled and 201 (23.8%) were readmitted within 30 days. Readmitted participants were less likely to have a high school diploma/GED (44.3% not readmitted vs 53.5% readmitted, P=0.02). In multivariable models adjusting for baseline differences, respondents who reported being 'very satisfied' with the care received during the index hospitalisation were less likely to be readmitted (adjusted OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.88, P=0.007). Participants reporting doctors 'always listened to them carefully' were less likely to be readmitted (adjusted OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.97, P=0.03). Participants reporting they were 'very likely' to be readmitted were not more likely to be readmitted (adjusted OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.83 to 2.19, P=0.22). Conclusion Participants reporting high satisfaction and good provider communication were less likely to be readmitted. Rates of readmission were increased among participants stating they were very likely to be readmitted though this association was not statistically significant. Incorporating patient-reported measures during index hospitalisations may improve readmission prediction.


AbstractThis article reflects on the philosophical implications of the crisis for the nation-state and culture in relation to business and management. The global triumph of the neo-liberal economic model in the 1990s and early 2000s brought with it an ontological re-conception of the nation-state in its relationship to business, the market and regulation: the nation was viewed as a 'brand-state' analogous to a company. Much of the successful appeal of the 'brand-state' was based on its annexation of the Enlightenment discourse of 'cosmopolitanism': it appeared that a world consisting of interlinked economies represented a fulfilment of the Kantian utopian project of detachment and perpetual peace. The economic crisis has brought this discourse into question. The article assesses whether lessons learnt from the crisis contain prospects for a post-teleological re-conceptualisation of the nation-state beyond the 'brand-state' towards a 'cosmopolitan solidarity' in which nation-states co-operate to ameliorate its worst effects.