In the epilogue to the Milhorn and Guyton paper, Analog computer simulation of abnormal periodic breathing, the potential utility of simulation of human systems is defended still again. The authors state that one primary value of simulation is that &dquo;it shows the researcher where gaps exist in present physiological information and suggests the design of experiments to obtain the needed information through research on human subjects or lower animals.&dquo; In the summary of the paper the following conclusion is drawn:


In Dou et al., we introduced the fundamental formation relation (FFR), a tight relation between specific star formation rate (sSFR), H2 star formation efficiency (SFE H2 ), and the ratio of H2 to stellar mass. Here, we show that atomic gas H ɪ does not follow a similar FFR as H2. The relation between SFEHɪ and sSFR shows significant scatter and strong systematic dependence on all of the key galaxy properties that we have explored. The dramatic difference between H ɪ and H2 indicates that different processes (e.g., quenching by different mechanisms) may have very different effects on H ɪ in different galaxies and hence produce different SFEHɪ–sSFR relations, while the SFE H2 –sSFR relation remains unaffected. The fact that the SFE H2 –sSFR relation is independent of other key galaxy properties, and that sSFR is directly related to the cosmic time and acts as the cosmic clock, make it natural and very simple to study how different galaxy populations (with different properties and undergoing different processes) evolve on the same SFE H2 –sSFR ∼ t relation. In the gas regulator model (GRM), the evolution of a galaxy on the SFE H2 –sSFR(t) relation is uniquely set by a single mass-loading parameter λnet,H2 . This simplicity allows us to accurately derive the H2 supply and removal rates of the local galaxy populations with different stellar masses, from star-forming galaxies to the galaxies in the process of being quenched. This combination of FFR and GRM, together with the stellar metallicity requirement, provide a new powerful tool to study galaxy formation and evolution.


Project delays adversely affect road infrastructure development in developing countries. Unfavorable consequences of project delays involve cost overrun, contractual disputes, arbitration, and quality non-conformities. Despite these risks, literature shows that delays are still a prevalent problem in construction management. Although there is a considerable number of publications on project delays, few studies have compared their causes between developing countries. Therefore, this study aimed to: a) classify and determine the level of influence of the delay causes; b) find the relationship between delay causes and country's development; and c) propose recommendations for mitigating the most critical causes in developing countries. A systematic literature review provided a sample of 14 primary studies from Africa (50%) and Asia (50%). Based on this sample, the study found that developing countries, with a GDP per capita ($US2018) <= $ 2,000, may experience different delay causes depending on the economic and the geographical contexts. In African countries with a Global Competitiveness Index -GCI <= 56, road projects may experience delays due to financial issues of the project owner, and delays due to equipment/material issues of the project supplier/subcontractor. On the other hand, in Asian countries with a GCI between 62 and 49, road projects may experience delays due to financial issues of the project contractor, and delays due to planning issues of the project designer/consultant. According to these economic contexts, this study proposes a frame of causes and mitigation actions as a contribution to the risk analysis of road projects in developing countries.


To identify the origin of the performance discrepancy between the single crystal and polycrystalline SnSe, here we report the first attempt to investigate the thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline Sn0.97Na0.03Se directly made from Sn0.97Na0.03Se single crystals. It is found that the oxidization during the powder processing or after SPS greatly decreases the carrier concentration, and the increased oxidized/amorphous grain boundaries reduce the carrier mobility, leading to an order of magnitude reduction in the electrical conductivity compared to that of the single crystals. For the SnSe polycrystals synthesized in this study, a relatively high electrical conductivity for the ball milled sample with an average grain size around 4 μm is well preserved in the whole measured temperature range because of the favorable grain size as well as the grain-boundary potential, yielding a high average zT value of 0.44 perpendicular to the pressing direction.


In this paper we briefly describe three alternative techniques for modelling solar radiation in the urban context. These include the use of: (i) simple morphological parameters as indicators of radiation availability, (ii) a ray-tracing program in conjunction with a cumulative sky radiance distribution model for accurate calculation of annual incident solar irradiation, (iii) a simplified radiosity algorithm (SRA) for efficient calculation of (sub-)hourly incident solar irradiance. Although each of these techniques has advantages, we suggest that the SRA should be used in preference to the two alternatives, either for reasons of accuracy or efficiency


Education is the main engine for human beings and the backbone of their progress and development. People are prepared to cross boundaries to get sound education wherever it may be. Being a very desirable higher education provider, the United States of America is a destination that attracts many students worldwide. William Fulbright made such a dream come true through his scholarship. However, moving from one culture to another makes the experience a bit challenging. Although Arab students prefer the US for higher education where they expect promises of lucrative employment, these students face many problems of adjustment in the strange environment due to cultural differences, low-level English language proficiency, lack of social interaction, and absence of student counselling in the universities/colleges, difference in pedagogy. This study was an effort to find out the various adjustment problems confronted by Arab students in America. The results were discussed and recommendations were presented.


The origin of life is a hotly debated topic. The Christian Bible states that God created the heavens and the Earth, all in about seven days roughly six thousand years ago. This episode of Genesis departs markedly from scientific theories developed over the last two centuries which hold that life appeared on Earth about 3 billion years ago in the form of bacteria, followed by unicellular organisms half a millennia later. It is this version of genesis the Alexandre Meinesz explores in this engaging tale of life's origins and evolution."How Life Began" elucidates three origins, or geneses, of life - bacteria, cells, and multicellular organisms - and shows how evolution has sculpted life to its current biodiversity through four main events: mutation, recombination, natural selection, and geologic cataclysm. As an ecologist who specializes in algae, the first organisms to colonize Earth, Meinesz brings a refreshingly novel voice to the history of biodiversity and emphasizes here the role of unions in organizing life. For example, the ingestion of some bacteria by other bacteria led to the mitochondria that characterize animal and plant cells, and the chloroplasts of plant cells.As Meinesz charmingly recounts, life's grandeur is a result of an evolutionary tendency toward sociality and solidarity. He suggests that it is our cohesion and collaboration that will allow us to solve the environmental problems arising in the decades and centuries to come. Rooted in the science of evolution but enlivened with many illustrations from other disciplines and the arts, "How Life Began" intertwines the rise of bacteria and multicellular life with Vermeer's portrait of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the story of Genesis and Noah, Meinesz's son's early experiences with Legos, and his own encounters with other scientists. All of this brings a very human and humanistic tone to Meinesz's charismatic narrative of the three origins of life.


This study provides information about the feeding habits, population aspects and spatial distribution of the spotted goatfish, Pseudupeneus maculatus, along the coast of the tropical Brazilian continental shelf. Distribution patterns are described using length frequencies and catch rates. Stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N), along with stomach contents, were analysed to determine the diet of the spotted goatfish. Multivariate analysis and numerical indicators of the diet, such as numerical frequency, frequency of occurrence and weight percentage, were computed to evaluate the diet composition. The mean trophic position was defined using both stable isotope ratios and stomach content analysis. The length at first maturity for the species was determined as 13.7 cm. A slight pattern in size distribution was observed, with mean size increasing with depth along the shelf. The diet was mainly composed of crustaceans, teleosts and Polychaeta. No clear dietary difference was found between habitat types, water depth or latitude. Both trophic positions estimated by stable isotopes and stomach contents analysis ranged between levels 3 and 4. P. Maculatus was found to be feeding on many rare and infrequent prey items, classifying it as a generalist zoobenthivorous predator, probably due to its efficient search strategy.


The adaptation of land-use patterns is an essential aspect of minimizing the inevitable impact of climate change at regional and local scales; for example, adapting watershed land-use patterns to mitigate the impact of climate change on a region's hydrology. The objective of this study is to simulate and assess a region's ability to adapt to hydrological changes by modifying land-use patterns in the Wu-Du watershed in northern Taiwan. A hydrological GWLF (Generalized Watershed Loading Functions) model is used to simulate three hydrological components, namely, runoff, groundwater and streamflow, based on various land-use scenarios under six global climate models. The land-use allocations are simulated by the CLUE-s model for the various development scenarios. The simulation results show that runoff and streamflow are strongly related to the precipitation levels predicted by different global climate models for the wet and dry seasons, but groundwater cycles are more related to land-use. The effects of climate change on groundwater and runoff can be mitigated by modifying current land-use patterns; and slowing the rate of urbanization would also reduce the impact of climate change on hydrological components. Thus, land-use adaptation on a local/regional scale provides an alternative way to reduce the impacts of global climate change on local hydrology.


Static bending, buckling and free vibration behaviours of size-dependent functionally graded (FG) sandwich microbeams are examined in this paper based on the modified couple stress theory and Timoshenko beam theory. To avoid the use of a shear correction factor, equilibrium equations were used to compute the transverse shear force and shear stress. Two types of sandwich beams were considered: (1) homogeneous core and FG skins and (2) FG core and homogeneous skins. Numerical results were presented to illustrate the small scale effects on the behaviours of FG sandwich beams. The results reveals that the inclusion of the size effects results in an increase in the beam stiffness, and consequently, leads to a reduction of deflections and stresses and an increase in natural frequencies and critical buckling loads. Such effects are more pronounced when the beam depth was small, but they become negligible with the increase of the beam depth.


It has been suggested by Diosi and Penrose that the occurrence of quantum state reduction in macroscopic objects is related to a manifestation of gravitational effects in quantum mechanics. Although within Penrose's framework the dynamics of the quantum state reduction is not prescribed, it was suggested that the so-called Schrodinger–Newton equation can be used to at least identify the resulting classical end states. Here we analyse the extent to which the Schrodinger–Newton equation can be used as a model to generate a full, time-dependent description of the quantum state reduction process. We find that when supplied with an imaginary gravitational potential, the Schrodinger–Newton equation offers a rationalization for some of the hitherto unexplained characteristics of quantum state reduction. The description remains incomplete however, because it is unclear how to fully recover Born's rule.


Experiments on grid turbulence are reported for pure water and dilute Polyox WSR 301 solutions. A novel passive grid, which consists of a square mesh grid with tethered spheres, has been developed to enhance the turbulence properties. In pure water the new grid produces higher turbulence intensities per unit Cp (pressure drop coefficient) than the classic plain grid, and the turbulence Reynolds number Reλ is increased by a factor of roughly two. In polymer solutions turbulence dissipation rates and energy spectra were measured using PIV with a high spatial resolution. The energy spectra reveal a characteristic length scale at which the polymers begin to affect the energy cascade. Above this scale the turbulence is essentially Newtonian, whereas below this scale the energy flux from large to small scales is reduced proportional to the length scale squared. Consequently, the energy in this new self-regulating spectral region scales according to a power-law with an exponent of -3 instead of the -5/3 for Newtonian turbulence, and the excess energy is dissipated by the polymers.


Although HMG-CoA (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme)-reductase inhibitors (statins) have significantly contributed to the reduction in major adverse cardiac events observed in primary and secondary prevention trials, in part, by lowering circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, ischemic cardiovascular disease still remains the number 1 cause of death in the United States, suggesting that additional therapies that address patient residual risk are desperately needed.1,2 Recent epidemiological studies in patients treated with statins suggest a marked association with levels of circulating high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and future cardiovascular risk independent of LDL-cholesterol.3 Indeed, an inverse association has been implicated for HDL-C and future cardiovascular risk from various populations.4 Although several prospective studies aimed to increase HDL-C have not demonstrated improved efficacy for major adverse cardiovascular events, intense scientific interest remains at identifying new targets that harness many of the salutary pleiotropic effects of HDL-C, such as promoting efflux of cholesterol from the vessel wall, reducing inflammation, or facilitating reverse cholesterol transport.5–7

Article, see p 10

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, evolutionarily conserved noncoding RNAs that inhibit target genes by binding to the 3′-untranslated region of mRNAs to promote mRNA degradation or translational repression. Several miRNAs have been implicated in regulating HDL-C and cholesterol metabolism, including microRNA-33 (miR-33).8–10 Human miR-33a and miR-33b are located in the introns of the sterol-response-element-binding protein (SREBP) genes, SREBP-2 and SREBP-1, respectively. MiR-33a and miR-33b differ by 2 nucleotides in their mature form with the same seed sequence. MiR-33a is expressed across different species, including rodents, primates, and humans; however, miR-33b is not expressed in rodents. Several groups identified miR-33 as a key regulator in cholesterol metabolism by targeting the adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) in 2010.11–15 Antisense inhibition or genetic deletion of miR-33 resulted in increased ABCA1 expression, HDL-C, …


Energy versus delay trade-offs are explored for systems that must manage energy expenditure as well as computation deadlines. The focus is execution of a single process on a single processor. Two probabilistic process models are considered, along with a family of power dissipation models. The first process model assumes that process complexity is exactlyc cycles with probability pðcÞ. The second model considers the detailed branching and loop structure of the code. Probabilities are attached at branch points. The power models assume that energy dissipation per cycle is proportional to vm and that execution time for a cycle is proportional to vn , where v is supply voltage. The energy versus delay trade-off is implemented using dynamic voltage and clock adjustments. The problems solved include 1) minimize expected execution time given a hard energy budget and 2) minimize expected energy expenditure given a hard deadline. The problem of minimimizing the expected value of QðE;TÞ, where Q is a penalty function and E and T are, respectively, total energy and total time, is also solved using the first process model. Analysis determines theoretical conditions where it may be profitable to switch voltage or modify an a priori voltage schedule.


The mangrove along Vangalai coastal area associated with numerous marine flora and fauna communities remained rarely studied. The present study was carried out during the period from April to July 2015 to document the status of mangrove distribution of selected sample sites in Vankaalai estuary, Mannar. Seven belt-transects of 10 m in width were laid perpendicular to the shoreline. Data were collected on floristic composition and tree height along the plot of each sites. Mangrove Diversity and evenness were calculated using Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou"s evenness index respectively from each sub-plot (100 m2) in belt transects. Results revealed that six mangrove species such as Avicennia marina (Avicenniaceae), Rhizophora mucronata (Rhizophoraceae), Bruguiera cylindrica (Rhizophoraceae), Sonneratia alba (Sonneratiaceae), Excoecaria agallocha (Euphorbiaceae) and Pemphis acidula (Lythraceae) were recorded from the mangrove forest in study period. Further, 5 major mangrove associated plants were observed in the study period. The greatest mangrove diversity (1.296) was observed in sub-plot 14 of transect 5 and the lowest mangrove diversity (0.453) was recorded in sub-plot 3 of transect 1. The results showed that A. marina was the dominant species. Species diversity (H") of whole mangrove area studied was 1.155 and evenness (E) was 0.645. It revealed that Vankaalai lagoon should be protected since it consists of high biological diversity of mangroves. Keywords: Mangroves, Diversity, Evenness, Transect


Unplanned hospital readmissions increase health and medical care costs and indicate lower the lower quality of the healthcare services. Hence, predicting patients at risk to be readmitted is of interest. Using administrative data of patients being treated in the medical centers and hospitals in the Dalarna County, Sweden, during 2008 – 2016 two risk prediction models of hospital readmission are built. The first model relies on the logistic regression (LR) approach, predicts correctly 2,648 out of 3,392 observed readmission in the test dataset, reaching a c-statistics of 0.69. The second model is built using random forests (RF) algorithm; correctly predicts 2,183 readmission (out of 3,366) and 13,198 non-readmission events (out of 18,982). The discriminating ability of the best performing RF model (c-statistic 0.60) is comparable to that of the logistic model. Although the discriminating ability of both LR and RF risk prediction models is relatively modest, still these models are capable to identify patients running high risk of hospital readmission. These patients can then be targeted with specific interventions, in order to prevent the readmission, improve patients' quality of life and reduce health and medical care costs.


This article analyzes the representation of the figure of the dasi in early Tamil film. Against the backdrop of the abolition of the devadasi system in the Madras Presidency and the reformist activity associated with it, the article attempts to look at how the figure of the dasi underwent a strong repression in the cinematic discourses of the 1930s and 1940s. This was part of nationalist modernity, a project that sought to secure a new sexual economy in which the dasi was eventually narrativized out of Tamil film and pushed to the cultural margins of Tamil society. The article focuses on one film, Cintamani or Bilvamangal (1937) and shows how in this text the repression of the figure of the dasi was accompanied by an irruption of the real, the "uncanny." It argues that there existed a nexus between sexuality and vision in early Tamil film, and that cinema itself acted as a safeguard against the trouble of the excessive sexuality embodied in the dasi.


Global warming is projected to be greatest in northern regions, where forest fires are also increasing in frequency. Thus, interactions between fire and temperature on soil respiration at high latitudes should be considered in determining feedbacks to climate. We tested the hypothesis that experimental warming will augment soil CO2 flux in a recently burned boreal forest by promoting microbial and root growth, but that this increase will be less apparent in more severely burned areas. We used open-top chambers to raise temperatures 0.4–0.9 1C across two levels of burn severity in a fire scar in Alaskan black spruce forest. After 3 consecutive years of warming, soil respiration was measured through a portable gas exchange system. Abundance of active microbes was determined by using Biolog EcoPlates for bacteria and ergosterol analysis for fungi. Elevated temperatures increased soil CO2 flux by 20% and reduced root biomass, but had no effect on bacterial or fungal abundance or soil organic matter (SOM) content. Soil respiration, fungal abundance, SOM, and root biomass decreased with increasing burn severity. There were no significant interactions between temperature and burn severity with respect to any measurement. Higher soil respiration rates in the warmed plots may be because of higher metabolic activity of microbes or roots. All together, we found that postfire soils are a greater source of CO2 to the atmosphere under elevated temperatures even in severely burned areas, suggesting that global warming may produce a positive feedback to atmospheric CO2, even in young boreal ecosystems.


Traditional voice conversion methods rely on parallel recordings of multiple speakers pronouncing the same sentences. For real-world applications however, parallel data is rarely available. We propose MelGAN-VC, a voice conversion method that relies on non-parallel speech data and is able to convert audio signals of arbitrary length from a source voice to a target voice. We firstly compute spectrograms from waveform data and then perform a domain translation using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) architecture. An additional siamese network helps preserving speech information in the translation process, without sacrificing the ability to flexibly model the style of the target speaker. We test our framework with a dataset of clean speech recordings, as well as with a collection of noisy real-world speech examples. Finally, we apply the same method to perform music style transfer, translating arbitrarily long music samples from one genre to another, and showing that our framework is flexible and can be used for audio manipulation applications different from voice conversion.


Progressively destructive hip arthritis is a common complication of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Palliative intra-articular corticosteroid hip injections are helpful in younger patients who wish to delay joint replacement surgery. Non-contrast computed tomography (CT)-guided intra-articular procedures can potentially minimize radiation exposure compared to fluoroscopy-guided techniques. We describe a CT-guided technique for intra-articular corticosteroid hip injections for severe bilateral hip arthritis which avoids the use of radiologic contrast by documenting the presence of a pre-injection air bubble underneath the fibrous capsule. Significant reduction in symptoms within 48 hours and at 6 weeks post-injection confirmed the successful outcome of this technique.


In case of the low carbon chromium steel that have widely been used for the carburized gears or rolling bearings, the austenite grain coarsening may be occasionally occurred during carburizing. To restrain this phenomenon, most of hot forged parts have been given to an isothermal heat treatment or normalizing immediately after hot forging and/or prior to carburizing. Therefore, their production cost includes unexpected additional expenses caused by such a non-value added process. To confirm the possibility of an energy saving, as well as attaining a superior fatigue life, in the production of automotive parts to be carburized, the austenite grain coarsening with the manufacturing process of the microalloyed steel, containing Nb and B as a grain refining elements, was investigated. The heat treatment characteristics and rolling contact fatigue behavior of the carburized specimens with the isothermal heat treatment were also investigated. In spite of omitting the isothermal heat treatment after hot forging, the abnormally coarse austenite grains were not found out in the carburized specimens. However, the rolling contact fatigue life of the carburized specimens, in which the isothermal heat treatment was omitted, was shorter than that of isothermally heat-treated specimens.


Having multiple control tasks concurrently running on a single computing platform increases the processor utilization but degrades the control performance due to delay and jitter in the loops. In scheduling and control codesign, the objective is to optimize the combined performance of all the controllers, subject to a schedulability constraint. The codesign procedure consists of selecting task parameters, e.g., periods and priorities, as well as designing the controllers so that the schedulinginduced delay and jitter are taken into account. In the thesis, four linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) codesign methods are proposed: stochastic, periodic, harmonic, and robust LQG codesign. In stochastic LQG codesign, the delay distributions are calculated at design-time. Then LQG controllers are designed assuming these delay distributions. The obtained task periods generally give rise to infinite hyperperiods. This can be avoided by perturbing the periods slightly in order to obtain a finite hyperperiod, yielding a periodic delay pattern for the control loops. The periodicity is then accounted for by using periodic LQG control design, resulting in a periodic sequence of feedback gains for each controller. In harmonic LQG codesign, again the task periods are perturbed, but this time to make the periods harmonic. The scheduling-induced delays will be constant and standard LQG design can be applied. Finally, a robust LQG codesign method is presented. The design is based on convex optimization and guarantees system robustness in the presence of delay and jitter. A new rule of thumb for initial sampling period assignment is proposed. We propose a jitter-aware priority and period assignment codesign method to optimize the overall system performance. A large evaluation of the proposed four codesign methods is performed using the Jitterbug toolbox. All of the four methods lead to improved control performance compared to earlier work. The harmonic scheduling and control codesign shows the largest overall improvements.


Molecular therapy studies to date have examined only a limited number of corrective parameters. To assess more global impacts on cellular gene expression for two major molecular therapeutic approaches, we compared gene versus protein delivery in the human genetic disease junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB). Both gene and protein replacement of the laminin 5 beta3 (beta3) adhesion molecule restored normal growth and adhesion to poorly viable JEB cells. Gene expression profiling was then performed using cDNA microarrays. The expression of more genes was normalized after beta3 gene transfer than after protein transfer. As anticipated for beta3 delivery, many of the genes whose expression was restored to the normal range were those encoding adhesion molecules and hemidesmosome components. Although gene transfer normalized the expression of a higher percentage of genes than did protein transfer, neither approach fully normalized expression of all genes examined. In addition, both approaches disrupted the expression of some genes, but protein transfer altered expression of a larger proportion of the genes studied. Our findings suggest that therapeutic gene and protein delivery may exert different effects on gene expression and thus may have implications for the development and analysis of molecular therapies for the treatment of genetic disorders.


4-Coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL, EC 220.127.116.11) exists only in plants and plays an important role in the phenylpropanoid pathway. Identification of inhibitors targeting 4CL provides a novel approach for developing effective plant growth inhibitors (PGIs). The full-length gene of tobacco 4CL (Nt4CL1) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli Cast & Chalm. The recombinant 4CL protein was extracted and purified by several purification steps including gel-filtration and anion-exchange chromatography. 4CL activity assay was miniaturized and optimized using a 96-well microplate and a reader. Among 28 existing herbicides, propanil and swep strongly inhibited in vitro 4CL enzyme activity, and they were selected for further studies. The process of this assay can be developed into a high-throughput screening system of PGI targeting 4CL in the phenylpropanoid pathway.


Using a unique dataset of scenario-based investment reports, we examine whether the placement of an analyst's valuation forecast, relative to his/her own subjective assessment of the distribution of scenario-based valuations for the covered firm (i.e., embedded "tilt"), conveys information to investors. We document that this embedded tilt is a function of both fundamental risk attributes and behavioral factors. We find that among analysts forecasting price appreciation over the next twelve months, embedded tilt incrementally predicts ex-post valuation errors and realized returns, with valuations tilted towards upside (downside) scenarios generating more negative (positive) valuation errors and returns. In contrast, when analysts forecast price declines, the predictive value of tilt disappears, suggesting that the negative valuation forecast is a sufficient statistic for analyst pessimism. Additional analyses reveal that estimates of implied tilt derived from observable firm characteristics can be used by investors to distinguish among target price forecasts lacking scenario-based information. Although we cannot distinguish between rational and behavioral explanations for our results, we show that analyst valuation forecasts that predict equally optimistic implied returns to investors are not all created equal, and that observable firm characteristics correlated with asymmetric valuation risks and biases can be used to distinguish between investments.


Background: One difficulty in turning algorithm design for inertial sensors is detecting two discrete turns in the same direction, close in time. A second difficulty is under-estimation of turn angle due to short-duration hesitations by people with neurological disorders. We aimed to validate and determine the generalizability of a: I. Discrete Turn Algorithm for variable and sequential turns close in time and II: Merged Turn Algorithm for a single turn angle in the presence of hesitations. Methods: We validated the Discrete Turn Algorithm with motion capture in healthy controls (HC, n = 10) performing a spectrum of turn angles. Subsequently, the generalizability of the Discrete Turn Algorithm and associated, Merged Turn Algorithm were tested in people with Parkinson's disease (PD, n = 124), spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA, n = 51), and HC (n = 125). Results: The Discrete Turn Algorithm shows improved agreement with optical motion capture and with known turn angles, compared to our previous algorithm by El-Gohary et al. The Merged Turn algorithm that merges consecutive turns in the same direction with short hesitations resulted in turn angle estimates closer to a fixed 180-degree turn angle in the PD, SCA, and HC subjects compared to our previous turn algorithm. Additional metrics were proposed to capture turn hesitations in PD and SCA. Conclusion: The Discrete Turn Algorithm may be particularly useful to characterize turns when the turn angle is unknown, i.e., during free-living conditions. The Merged Turn algorithm is recommended for clinical tasks in which the single-turn angle is known, especially for patients who hesitate while turning.


This study was a documentary-critical analysis of selected speeches by Mme. Pandit. The speeches analyzed were: \Peace and Freedom Indivisible,\ given in 1946 before the United Nations General Assembly; \Adventure Awaits,\ given in 1950 at Vassar College Commencement; and The Whidden Lectures, a series of three delivered in 1957 at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The first chapter explained the significance of studying the speeches of such a successful Indian woman. The fourfold working hypothesis was: (1) Mme. Pandit presented ideas of significance to a world audience. (2) The speeches approximated the classical canons, but since perfection is seldom attained, there may be room for some slight improvements. (3) The speeches accomplished the desired results. (4) The speeches promoted good will between people and stirred people to strive to do what they could to build a better world. Criteria and available source materials were listed. Chapter two was an historical survey of India, her people, language, arts, sciences, and religions to give an understanding of the cultural background. Beginning with the Aryan invasion it traced various trends down to the present day. Non-violence is a traditional doctrine of several Indian religious groups. A biographical sketch of Mme. Pandit was given in Chapter three. This included a brief resume of the family migration from Kashmir to Allahabad where Mme. Pandit was born and began her career. It also gave an indication of the political setting and climate during Mme. Pandit's formative years and early career. Chapter four analyzed the speeches and measured them by each of the classical rhetorical canons. Conclusions reached were that Mme. Pandit was aware of audience differences and that she not only made general adaptations to comply with audience expectations, but also adapted significant ideas to fit the audience and occasion. Her ideas were timely and significant to the immediate audience and to the world. Mme. Pandit used all three modes of proof but probably used more ethical than logical and more logical than emotional proof. Her devotion to such causes as peace and equal rights for all, and her enthusiasm contributed to her effectiveness. Most of Mme. Pandit's ideas were expressed clearly and arranged systematically. Her speech was embellished with numerous stylistic devices to add interest and variety. Word choice and sentence structure and variety were usually appropriate. Mme. Pandit seems to have had good delivery although it is uncertain whether she used gestures or not. Her voice was well modulated and used to good advantage. Although the speeches studied were not given extempore or from memory, the indications are that Mme. Pandit did have good memory when the occasion demanded it. The conclusion was that she was generally an effective speaker. The final chapter indicated that the fourfold hypothesis was generally supported. Mme. Pandit, a non-violent agitator, promoted good will and understanding between people and stirred them to strive to build a better world.


Abstract. The skies as sites of protest are opening up. Protester-operated drones are beginning to appear in the skies above protests: watching the watchmen, installing an additional layer of surveillance, increasing accountability and self-discipline amongst the police. In this way protester drones could be seen as establishing a "protester panopticon", with the police as subjects. This article explores the potential panoptic effect of the gaze upon the police, drawing on sousveillance theory, before using counter-surveillance as a way to explore potential options for police resistance to the gaze of the protester drone. These resistive efforts are broken down into four categories, legislation and regulation, obscuring the gaze, electronic countermeasures and kinetic and physical force.


1. The activities of some enzymes involved in both the utilization of glucose (pyruvate kinase, ATP citrate lyase, NADP-specific malate dehydrogenase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and NADP-specific isocitrate dehydrogenase, all present in the supernatant fraction of liver homogenates) and the formation of glucose by gluconeogenesis (glucose 6-phosphatase in the whole homogenate and fructose 1,6-diphosphatase, phosphopyruvate carboxylase, NAD-specific malate dehydrogenase and fumarase in the supernatant fraction) have been determined in rat liver around birth and in the postnatal period until the end of weaning. 2. The activities of those enzymes involved in the conversion of glucose into lipid are low during the neonatal period and increase with weaning. NADP-specific malate dehydrogenase first appears and develops at the beginning of the weaning period. 3. The marked increase in cytoplasmic phosphopyruvate carboxylase activity at birth is probably the major factor initiating gluconeogenesis at that time. 4. The results are discussed against the known changes in dietary supplies and the known metabolic patterns during the period of development.


This paper summarizes the findings of an impact evaluation of the Mexican training programs PROBECAT-SICAT for the period 1999-2004. It is a study commissioned by the Office of Evaluation and Oversight of the Inter-American Development Bank in accordance to the Bank's policy of ex-post evaluation of operations. The document provides an account of the Mexican public policy towards the unemployed and a description of the institutional and operative capacity of this policy for the last two decades, and reviews the previous impact evaluations of the training programs for the unemployed. It also includes a discussion of the methods we use for program evaluation and our main results, and presents a succinct cost-benefit analysis of the program, making use of the results of the impact evaluation.


Often multisensory information is integrated in a statistically optimal fashion where each sensory source is weighted according to its precision. This integration scheme is statistically optimal because it theoretically results in unbiased perceptual estimates with the highest precision possible. There is a current lack of consensus about how the nervous system processes multiple sensory cues to elapsed time. In order to shed light upon this, we adopt a computational approach to pinpoint the integration strategy underlying duration estimation of audio/visual stimuli. One of the assumptions of our computational approach is that the multisensory signals redundantly specify the same stimulus property. Our results clearly show that despite claims to the contrary, perceived duration is the result of an optimal weighting process, similar to that adopted for estimates of space. That is, participants weight the audio and visual information to arrive at the most precise, single duration estimate possible. The work also disentangles how different integration strategies – i.e. considering the time of onset/offset of signals - might alter the final estimate. As such we provide the first concrete evidence of an optimal integration strategy in human duration estimates.


Cognitive Radios (CRs) are the most promising solution to underutilization of spectrum and spectrum scarcity problems. However, designing suitable and reliable CRs have many crucial challenges. CRs are required to utilize the spectrum holes, share the spectrum resources with other users and bound harm on primary (licensed) transmission. To overcome these problems an accurate mathematical model for the spectrum access mechanism of the CR networks is mandatory. In this paper, we propose an analytical model for CR networks, which is based on the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) function of the 802.11e standard. We divide the users into two different access categories (ACs), namely, primary AC (pAC) and low-priority secondary AC (sAC) users. Here, we benefit from well-known EDCA parameters (CWmin, CWmax, AIFS and TXOP) to provide this prioritization. In addition, we determine optimal values of the EDCA parameter set for CRs in order to balance the trade-off between the protection of primary users and the throughput of secondary users. We analyze a single channel environment with saturation performance of two ACs. To verify our analytical model, we also perform simulations. Results obtained from model and simulations show that the proposed channel access protocol for CRs can be reliably used in 802.11e channels without any modification in the existing Wi-Fi systems.


This book is an impressive survey of our collective and cumulative understanding of the evolution of digital communication systems and the Internet. Whilst the information societies of the twenty-first century will develop ever more sophisticated technologies, the Internet is now a familiar and pervasive part of the world in which we live, work, and communicate. As such it is important to take stock of some fundamental questions - whether, for example, it contributes to progress, social cohesion, democracy, and growth - and at the same time to review the rich and varied theories and perspectives developed by thinkers in a range of disciplines over the last fifty years or more.In this remarkably comprehensive but concise and useful book, Robin Mansell summarizes key debates, and reviews the contributions of major thinkers in communication systems, economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and systems theory - from Norbert Wiener to Brian Arthur and Manuel Castells, and from Gregory Bateson to William Davidow and Sherry Turkle. This is an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of the way we experience the Internet in front of the screen, and of the developments behind the screen, all of which have implications for privacy ,security, intellectual property rights, and the overall governance of the Internet. The author presents fairly the ideas of the celebrants and the sceptics, and reminds us of the continuing need for careful, critical, and informed analysis of the paradoxes and challenges of the Internet, offering her own views on how we might move to greater empowerment, and suggesting policy measures and governance approaches that go beyond those commonly debated. This concise book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenges the Internet presents in the twenty-first century, and the debates and research that can inform that understanding.


Over the last several decades, researchers have documented how impaired reasoning by adult offenders impeded the intelligent waiver of Miranda rights. Logically, it stands to reason that juveniles – who are developmentally less mature and have less life experience than their adult counterparts – would possess even greater impairment, thereby heightening their risk for invalid Miranda waivers. Juvenile Miranda research supports this notion; with some researchers finding that psychosocial maturity, among other factors, affect a juvenile's understanding of their rights. Yet, relatively few studies have examined its relation to Miranda reasoning and decision-making. Thus, the current study investigated the specific role of maturity in juveniles' Miranda comprehension and reasoning. Participants included 236 legally-involved juveniles recruited from either a juvenile detention center or a juvenile justice alternative education program. The effects of psychosocial maturity were examined on a variety of Miranda-related measures and assessed a broad range of Miranda abilities. It was found that, in general, immature juveniles performed more poorly on all Miranda measures as compared to their mature counterparts. However, the impact of maturity varied considerably depending on the ability. Specifically, maturity was most important in the context of Miranda reasoning. As a novel addition to the literature, the current study also investigated the effects of developmental timing on maturity (i.e., immaturity-delayed versus immaturity-expected) on Miranda abilities.


: The preimplantation development of common weasel and American mink embryos was studied using light microscopy. Oocytes and blastomeres of these embryos are rich with lipids synthesized during oogenesis. Apparently, most lipids are utilized during the trophoblast formation. Large spherical blastomeres protecting zona pellucida are formed by the stage of implantation. The shape of the blastocyst, as well as central superficial implantation, are typical for carnivores and distinguish the studied order from other ones (e.g., from rodents or artiodactyls). Several aspects of evolution of mammals are discussed. A suggestion is made that differences between orders in the shape of the blastocyst and ways of their implantation reflect poly-phyletic origin of mammals.


Tom Stannage was one among many historians in the 1970s uncovering histories of Australia which were to challenge national narratives and community memories. In 1971, Tom returned to Western Australia after writing his PhD in Cambridge with the passion to write urban history and an understanding that in order to do so, he needed an emotional engagement with place. What he had yet to realize was the power of community memories in Western Australia to shape and preserve ideas about their place. As part of his research on the history of Perth, Tom saw how the written histories of Western Australia had been shaped by community mythologies – in particular that of the rural pioneer. He identified the consensus or 'gentry tradition' in Western Australian writing. In teasing out histories of conflict, he showed how the gentry tradition of rural pioneer histories silenced those of race and gender relations, convictism and poverty which were found in both rural and urban areas. His versions of history began to unsettle parts of the Perth community who found the 'pioneer myth' framed their consensus world-view and whose families were themselves the living links to these 'pioneers'.


In this work, the effects of double, triple and quadruple combinations of gibberellic acid, kinetin, 24-epibrassinolide and polyamines (cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine, spermine) on the stomata movements in the leaves of barley seedlings grown under saline conditions were studied. In the control seedlings, the stomata number, stomata index and stomata length increased in the upper surfaces of leaves in comparison with their lower surfaces. In addition, the epidermis cell number in the leaves of control plants were fewer in the upper surface than that in the lower surface, but the stomata were statistically in the equal width in both surfaces. As for the applyings, they generally decreased stomata number, stomata index, stomata length and epidermis cell number, while they increased the stomata width in the upper and especially in the lower surface according to the control. The growth regulators used may have served to adaptation of barley seedlings to saline conditions by causing a decrease in most of the mentioned parameters.


The complex formation between molybdate(VI) (MoO42−) and phytate [Phy, 1,2,3,4,5,6-hexakis(dihydrogen phosphate)myo-inositol] has been investigated at T = 298.15 K in NaCl(aq) at different ionic strengths (0 < I/mol dm−3 ≤ 1.0). Under these experimental conditions, eight (MoO4)(Phy)Hr protonated species are formed, with 2 ≤ r ≤ 9. The corresponding formation constants determined proved to be fairly dependent on ionic strength, and this dependence has been modelled by an extended Debye–Huckel equation. Furthermore, the stability (in terms of stepwise equilibria) of (MoO4)(Phy)Hr complexes regularly increases with the number of protons in the species, probably due to the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds between molybdate and phytate in their protonated forms. This unusual behaviour affects the sequestering ability of phytate towards molybdate, which is higher at low rather than at high pH, as demonstrated by the analysis of the pL0.5 values calculated for this system under various conditions. Finally, a series of empirical relationships have been proposed, with the aim of defining the speciation and the sequestration of molybdate and phytate in a wide number of systems.


The present studies evaluated the effect of prazosin, a selective alpha 1-adrenergic antagonist, on some metabolic determinants of triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins. Plasma triacylglycerols (TG), TG secretion rate, TG removal rate, plasma insulin, and glucose were evaluated postprandially in animals fed a high-sucrose meal. In the fasted state plasma TG, glucose, and insulin concentrations were minimally affected by prazosin. There was a significant postprandial elevation in plasma TG levels that was larger after ingestion of a meal containing corn oil than after intake of a fat-free meal. Prazosin totally blunted the postprandial elevation in plasma TG independently of the presence (P < 0.004) or absence of dietary fat (P < 0.01). In the postprandial phase after ingestion of a fat-free, high-sucrose meal, prazosin decreased the rate of secretion of TG into the circulation (-54%, P < 0.0003) and accelerated twofold the clearance of an injected fat emulsion (P < 0.02). The postprandial elevations in plasma insulin and glucose were significantly potentiated by administration of prazosin before intake of the fat-free meal. These results indicate that prazosin prevented the postprandial elevation in plasma TG that followed the ingestion of a high-sucrose meal. The results also demonstrate that the alpha 1-blocker exerted its action both by decreasing TG secretion and by increasing the rate of removal of circulating TG.


The main purpose of this study is analyzing the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and market orientation. This study is an applied research in terms of the purpose based on a descriptive correlational method. The statistical population included all employees of Agricultural Jihad Organization of Mazandaran province consisting of 1923 persons. 391 people (male and female) were selected using random stratified sample. Data were collected through two standard questionnaires: Podsakoff's (2003) organizational citizenship behavior and Kohli, Jaworski, Narver, and Slater's (1990) market orientation. Validity of questionnaires was confirmed by experts and reliability of them was confirmed using Cronbach's coefficient alphabet. Cronbach's alpha for the organizational citizenship behavior and market orientation was calculated by 0.80 and 0.91. Components of organizational citizenship behavior included civic virtue, altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and courtesy. Components of market orientation included customer orientation, competitor orientation, and intra-functional coordination. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics through SPSS software. The results of the study showed that there is a significant relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and market orientation in organizations.


Abstract A reactor setup consisting of two stainless steel microreactors [gas-phase microreactor (GPMR)-mix from the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz (IMM)] coupled in series was used for production of methyl chloride by hydrochlorination of methanol. The catalyst was γ-alumina on microreactor platelets. The influence of temperature on the methanol conversion and methyl chloride selectivity was investigated. A maximum conversion of 97.6% and a selectivity of 98.8% were reached at 340°C, which is close to the calculated thermodynamic equilibrium. Comparison with results obtained from a single microreactor and the modified setup of two microreactors revealed that the serial coupling resulted in a dead volume with a blind activity, which cannot be neglected when describing the setup. Furthermore, the separation of methyl chloride using condensers was investigated. The proposed microreactor-condenser concept enables the production of methyl chloride with a high purity.


Plant quality can directly and indirectly affect the third trophic level. The predation by all the instars of green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (S.) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) on the cereal aphids, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.), and Sitobion avenae (F.) at varying nitrogen fertilizer levels was calculated under laboratory conditions. Wheat plants were grown on four nitrogen fertilizer levels and aphids were fed on these plants and subsequently offered as food to the C. carnea. Aphid densities of 10, 30, and 90 were offered to first, second, and third instar larvae of green lacewing. Increased nitrogen application improved nitrogen contents of the plants and also the body weight of cereal aphids feeding on them. Aphid consumption by green lacewings was reduced with the increase in nitrogen content in the host plants of aphids. Predation of both aphid species by first, second, and third instars larvae of C. carnea was highest on aphids reared on plants with the lowest rate of fertilization, suggesting a compensatory consumption to overcome reduced biomass (lower aphid size). Total biomass devoured by C. carnea on all nitrogen fertilizer treatments was not statistically different. Additionally, the heavier host prey influenced by the plant nutrition had an effect on the life history characteristics of green lacewings. The larval duration, pupal weight, pupal duration, fecundity, and male and female longevity were significantly affected by the level of nitrogen fertilization to the aphid's host plants, except for pupal duration when fed on S. avenae. This study showed that quantity of prey supplied to the larvae affects the prey consumption and thereafter the life history characteristics of green lacewings.


Oxidative damage to the genome can form 8-oxoguanine (oxoG), a premutagenic lesion suggested to play an epigenetic role in the regulation of various cellular pathways. Alongside oxoG in this regulation is the 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (OGG1), which primarily functions to repair oxoG damage via base excision repair, but is also implicated in recruiting NFκB and impacting gene expression associated with cancer growth. This proposal aims to build genome-wide maps of oxoG occupancy, and indirectly OGG1 localization, in healthy lung cells and in non-small cell lung cancer adenocarcinoma cells in order to identify regulatory regions in the genome at which oxoG is prevalent at higher rates in cancer cells relative to healthy cells. Measuring the occupancy of oxoG will be accomplished using two relatively new methods known as OG-seq and enTRAP-seq, both of which improved upon the resolution, throughput, and the scope of previous mapping techniques. The transcriptional changes resulting from increased oxoG/OGG1 occupancy will be quantified using Real Time qRT-PCR. The results of these experiments will aid in characterizing the roles of oxoG and OGG1 in regulation of transcription associated with cancer growth and can inform effective oncological therapeutic development.


Given that prior research into industry cost of equity indicates that CAPM-derived estimates are no worse than estimates from more complex models, we investigate the bias of the standard CAPM approach for each industry separately, and examine the effectiveness of alternative beta estimators. We find that constant betas produce better estimates of cost of equity for particular industries (mostly either 'defensive' or 'highrisk' industries). The paper succeeds in offering a meaningful assessment of the empirical reality of the CAPM, as well as offering guidance concerning the appropriate practical application of the CAPM when estimating industry cost of equity.


The current study aimed to develop a shortened language-specific (Polish) version of the UNRAVEL task (Altmann, Trafton, & Hambrick, 2014) and to verify whether the adaptation yields valid and reliable data about placekeeping ability. Since the original procedure is intended to investigate task performance referring to placekeeping operations under conditions of task interruptions, we used this tool in the context of a multitasking situation. The adopted version differs from the original in that we reduced the number of steps in the procedure and changed the rules set, using an acronym WINDA (a word meaning elevator in Polish). Participants were asked to try to keep their place in the WINDA sequence, make a two-alternative forced choice regarding one feature of a presented stimulus, and to continue the task after the interruption at the place where they had left off. Similarly to the original task, reliability of sequence errors was high, suggesting that the WINDA task is suitable for measuring individual differences in placekeeping performance. The results suggest that the adaptation process that we employed to create the WINDA task can be utilized to generate other language adaptations of this tool (characterized by different levels of difficulty) targeted at specific subject groups.


Certain carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars likely obtained their composition via pollution from some of the earliest generations of asymptotic giant branch stars and as such provide important clues to early Universe nucleosynthesis. Recently, Kinman et al. discovered that the highly carbon- and barium-enriched metal-poor star SDSS J1707+58 is in fact an RR Lyrae pulsator. This gives us an object in a definite evolutionary state where the effects of dilution of material during the Main Sequence are minimised owing to the object having passed through first dredge-up. We perform detailed stellar modelling of putative progenitor systems in which we accreted material from asymptotic giant branch stars in the mass range 1-2 solar masses. We investigate how the surface abundances are affected by the inclusion of mechanisms like thermohaline mixing and gravitational settling. While we are able to find a reasonable fit to the carbon and sodium abundances of SDSS J1707+58, suggesting accretion of around 0.1 solar masses from a 2 solar mass companion, the strontium and barium abundances remain problematic and this object may have experienced something other than a standard $s$ process. We have more success in fitting the abundances of the mildly carbon-enriched, metal-poor RR Lyrae pulsator TY Gru (CS 22881-071), which we suggest received 0.1 solar masses of material from a companion of around 1 solar mass.


To the Editor In a randomized clinical trial, Dr Foa and colleagues examined prolonged exposure psychotherapy for co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol dependence. Prolonged exposure therapy was studied in relation to supportive counseling, use of naltrexone, and a pill placebo. The article provides an example of how the same findings can be interpreted quite differently when considered from a public health perspective.


Enset [Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman] is an important food security crop of the Southern Ethiopian highlands. The cultivation of enset is characterised by a wide variety of landraces, suitable to varying agro-ecological conditions and with multiple uses by households. The objective of this paper is to present enset landrace diversity, characteristics and uses in Ethiopia. The study was done through interviews with 375 households covering 20 communities (kebeles) and eight ethnic groups, along an altitudinal range of 1,500 to 3,000 masl across the main enset-producing belt in Southern Ethiopia. A total of 296 locally named enset landraces were recorded. Landrace presence was mostly constrained at the kebele and zone levels, with limited overlap in landrace names across these boundaries. Moderate to high enset landrace diversity was observed on farms across the entire study region. Cultivating a variety of landraces not only allowed for diversified uses, but increases the likelihood of retained yield and food security under variable environmental circumstances. Farmer experience and indigenous knowledge allow for the selection of specific landraces suited to prevalent agro-ecological conditions. We identified a perception bias in the attribution of landrace agro-ecological characteristics, with farmer insight often dependent on the environmental conditions that the local community was exposed to. We underscore the importance of research-based characterisation of enset landraces, to ensure optimal cultivation of this food security crop in changing climatic conditions.


Flying has been inspired by biology since the very early days of aviation. Although aircraft look to be established with regard to their structural design today, active materials have again triggered as to what degree aerodynamic profiles could become more adaptive with regard to their shape and achieving enhanced flight performance. Demonstrating the shortcomings of wing adaptiveness on manned aircraft size is time consuming and costly. This can however be overcome by performing these demonstrations on aircraft at much smaller scale. Aircraft at this scale are micro aerial vehicles (MAV) which have spans far less than a metre and a weight of no more than a few hundred grams. To enhance manoeuvrability and stability birds and insects use actuation principles along their wings such as changing wing thickness or stiffness, or actuating individual flaps with their feathers. Similar effects will be shown for an MAV's wing thickness and stiffness change regarding flight stability and manoeuvrability and how this can be realised using active materials. It will be explained how a variable V-tail and a vector thrust propulsion system can be realised on an MAV and the resulting effect on flight performance. Results from real flight tests will be included and conclusions will be based on the consequences regarding larger sized aircraft.


In recent years Sports area has scaled up to be a lucrative industry from a leisure and recreational activity. For maintaining the boom in this industry it is very important that sports should be viewed as a good career option by the youngsters. This paper aims to describe the situation of Indian sports industry and challenges faced by sports persons in choosing sport as a career option by using the secondary sources. The sports policy of 3 states Jharkhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh has been analyzed to compare the various initiatives taken by the state government for sports development because sport is listed as a state subject in Indian constitution. It is very clear from the features of the policy that what makes Haryana to be the sports capital of the country while the poor planning, late updation and improper implementation of sports policy can be a growth obstacle for state players of Jharkhand.


We used discrete random walks for the analysis of two chronic conditions that may be present simultaneously in a patient. We analyzed the comorbidity between two symptoms referring to the pathological repetition of speech: palilalia and echolalia. We used memory walks with coupled memory with probability f. The probability f quantifies the mutual interaction between pairs of random walkers. We perform measures that quantify two characteristics of the walks; one of the local nature, the fractal dimension (D) and another of a global nature, the exponent of Hust (H). We found that typical measures of D are related to less severe degrees of palilalia and echolalia, followed by variations smaller than H. The H measures show that the regime is superdiffusive and there is no transition between diffusion regimes. In the region of comorbidity, the diffusive regimes do not exhibit quantitative values of H of ERW. We find curves for which the symptoms of palilalia and echolalia do not vary. That is, certain changes in the environment, quantified by the feedback parameter (p) and the probability of interaction (f); do not cause variations in the degree of severity of the two types of pathological speech repetition that were studied.


Resolving the hydrodynamic control of retention is an important step in predictive modeling of transport of sorbing tracers in fractured rock. The statistics of the transport resistance parameter β [T/L] and the related effective active specific surface area sf [1/L] are studied in a crystalline rock volume on a 100 m scale. Groundwater flow and advective transport are based on generic boundary conditions and realistic discrete fracture networks inferred from the Laxemar site, southeast Sweden. The overall statistics of β are consistent with statistics of the water residence time τ; the moments of β vary linearly with distance, at least up to 100 m. The correlation between log τ and log β is predominantly linear, however, there is significant dispersion; the parameter sf strongly depends on the assumed hydraulic law (theoretical cubic or empirical quadratic). Fast and slow trajectories/segments in the network determine the shape of the β distribution that cannot be reproduced by infinitely divisible model over the entire range; the low value range and median can be reproduced reasonably well with the tempered one‐sided stable density using the exponent in the range 0.35–0.7. The low percentiles of the β distribution seems to converge to a Fickian type of behavior from a 50 to 100 m scale.


Wetlands play a very important role in the sustenance of both the surface andgroundwater resources of the country. It is sad to observe that the country is fast losingher wetlands, as the rich wetlands are being seriously threatened by a number ofanthropogenic and biophysical factors. Some of the notable human actions includepopulation pressure, rapid urbanization, mining, oil and industrial waste pollution,overgrazing, logging, dam construction, transportation routes and other physicalinfrastructure. Others factors are uncontrolled tilling for crop production andunprecedented/unregulated land reclamation. Subsidence, saltwater intrusion, sandstorm, desertification and droughts, invasion by alien floral and faunal species as well asmarine and coastal erosion are natural threats to wetlands in Nigeria. Wetlandsdestruction affects negatively water supply and water resources management. This studyexamines in great detail the fate of wetlands in the face of climate change andrecommends that efforts should be made to accurately document the country's wetland.The paper therefore suggested sustainable options for wetlands and water resourcesmanagement in Nigeria. This, the paper opined, can be done through the strengtheningof wetlands preservation and conservation regulation, mitigating the effects of climatechange as well as the development of deliberate restoration programmes and policiesaimed at sustaining degraded wetlands in Nigeria.


The purpose of this research is to know and analyze the basis of judicial consideration by the judge in deciding case of Number 21 / PUU-XII / 2014. Secondly to know and analyze the implication of decision of Constitutional Court of Republic of Indonesia Number 21 / PUU-XII / 2014. Scope of research focused on the formulation of the problem in this research. In this study using normative research The result of research is the consideration of the Constitutional Court in deciding cases Number 21 / PUU-XII / 2014 especkiially against Article 77 KUHAP in order to provide protection of human rights for suspects. The implications of the verdict are of theoretical implications and practical implications


Abstract Known as nerve sheath myxoma too, neurothekeoma are benign tumors, usually arise in the skin of the head, neck region and upper extremities, in young females. Cerebral neurothekeoma are very rare, a few cases were already described in the parasellar area, in the middle cranial and posterior fossa. We present a petro-clival neurotekoma. A 78-year-old male was admitted for two years left fronto-temporal headache completed in the last 6 months with left trigeminal V1 neuralgia, left facial hypoesthesia, diplopia, swallowing disorders for liquid foods, balance disorders. From his medical records we noticed: stage 2 chronic kidney disease, hypertension, prostate adenoma, dyslipidemia hypercholesterolemia. The MRI showed a macronodular petroclival mass in hiper T2, hipo T1, flair iso signal; normal cerebral angiography. The patient was operated on using a left retrosigmoid, retromastoidian approach. A 4/3/3 cm tumor, gray, encapsulated, soft consistency, partially cystic, less bleeding, attached to the dura, displacing the basilar artery and brain stem controlateral, encasing the trigeminal nerve. The tumor was totally removed with a good postop evolution. Six months follow up he had no more facial pain, but only persistant left facial hypoesthesia. Histologically the tumor had lobular appearance with spindle or stellate cells embedded in abundant myxoid background. The tumor cells were diffusely positive for S100, PGP9.5', CD 34" positive in vessels, Ki67'positive in 5%. Cranial MRI performed one month after surgery did not show any residual tumor. Also known as nerve sheath myxomas, neurothekoma are rare benign tumors. For intracranial neurothekoma surgical indication is mandatory


We present a new measurement system that can determine the optical and electromechanical characteristics of MEMS mirrors. The angular measurement range is +/-5/spl deg/ in x direction and +/-4/spl deg/ in y direction with a resolution of 0.002/spl deg/. The system insertion loss and stability have been measured up to 10 hours with an averaging time of 100 ms. A maximum insertion loss of 75 dB can be measured. The measurement results of static voltage vs. angle response, long-term stability, package insertion loss and polarization dependent loss are presented. The static response data are further compared with modeling results. The average error between measured and simulated angle at a given voltage is less than 3%. Integrated with a closed-loop nonlinear controller, the system can also be used to measure the mirror tilt angle as a feedback sensing signal for precise angular positioning controls.


Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21 century. The changing climate affects all aspects of human livelihoods. Effects of climate change are most felt in developing countries due to low awareness and lack of access to information on climate change. Climate change is a major concern to education policy makers and curriculum developers. Education has a role to play in building individual and social capacities for adapting and mitigating climate change. The purpose of education in Uganda is to eradicate illiteracy and to equip the individual with basic skills and knowledge to exploit the environment for self-development as well as national development, for better health, nutrition and family life, and the capability for continued learning. To mitigate climate change, all elements of the education system namely; objectives, content, teaching methods and assessment strategies must lend themselves to building capacities of the learners. This study reveals that the assessment strategies used by geography teachers largely contribute to acquisition of knowledge and hardly develop skills and values/attitudes for mitigating climate change among learners.


This thesis focuses on the design optimisation of a brass instrument. The bore profile of such an instrument is known to be the primary influence on the sound of the instrument as it directly controls the shape of the air-column contained within the instruments' walls. It has long been claimed, however, that other factors, such as the wall material and wall vibrations, are also significant, although to a lesser degree. In recent years, it has been proven that wall vibrations do indeed have an audible effect on the sound (Moore et al 2005, Kausel et al 2007, Nachtmann et al 2007, Kausel, Zietlow and Moore 2010). This effect corresponds to a relative increase in the power of upper harmonics of the sound spectrum when vibrations are greatest, and relative increase in the power of the lower harmonics, in particular the fundamental, when vibrations are at their least. The result is a timbral difference where a greater relative power in the upper harmonics results in a 'brighter' sound, and where the opposite results in a 'darker' sound. Studies have also found that the degree of the wall vibration is increased when the resonant frequencies of the air-column and those of the instruments' structure align. It is this principle that this work is based on.

The primary objective of this work was to devise a suitable approach for incorporating the wall vibration effect into an optimisation method to investigate the optimum designs for two scenarios: maximum wall vibration and minimum wall vibration. It was also of interest to investigate if there were any design characteristics for each scenario.

Two analysis methods were investigated for their suitability, namely free and forced vibration using finite element analysis (FEA). Different approaches to defining the design variables were explored and the suitability of different optimisation algorithms was investigated. The free vibration approach was found to be inadequate for this application due to the inherent omission of valuable magnitude information. The forced vibration approach was found to be more successful, although it was not possible to align a resonance with each frequency of interest.


Recent interest in graph embedding methods has focused on learning a single representation for each node in the graph. But can nodes really be best described by a single vector representation? In this work, we propose a method for learning multiple representations of the nodes in a graph (e.g., the users of a social network). Based on a principled decomposition of the ego-network, each representation encodes the role of the node in a different local community in which the nodes participate. These representations allow for improved reconstruction of the nuanced relationships that occur in the graph - a phenomenon that we illustrate through state-of-the-art results on link prediction tasks on a variety of graphs, reducing the error by up to 90%. In addition, we show that these embeddings allow for effective visual analysis of the learned community structure.


ABSTRACT The Builth Inlier of central Wales exposes a highly fossiliferous Middle to Late Ordovician (Darriwilian to basal Sandbian) siliciclastic succession in a volcanic, back-arc basin setting. Articulated echinoderm faunas are preserved in a range of paleoenvironments, together with widespread, dissociated ossicles. These have enabled a reconstruction of the distributions of echinoderm groups across a range of noncarbonate facies. The oldest echinoderm assemblages are from sandstone and siltstone deposits, and have yielded only the crinoid Iocrinus pauli and rare asteroids. The most diverse echinoderm assemblages are from a nearshore siliciclastic facies at Llandegley Rocks and equivalent sites. These are dominated by crinoids, together with rare asteroids, caryocystitid rhombiferans, echinozoans, and possible mitrate stylophorans. Deeper-water environments were dominated by the mitrate stylophoran Anatifopsis, associated with variable numbers of holothurians, cornutes, solutans, and rare cystoids (rhombiferans and undetermined blastozoans). The ecological distribution of echinoderms in the area can be summarized as follows: (1) high-diversity faunas in the shallowest environments, composed primarily of large crinoids, with asterozoans and other groups; (2) low-diversity faunas in intermediate water depths, with crinoids (one species) and asterozoans; (3) moderately diverse faunas in deep-water communities with generally small taxa, dominated by stylophorans. These results agree with previous interpretations of environmental preferences among the different groups of echinoderms, but also indicate a separation of dominantly Cambrian-type classes in offshore sediments and Ordovician-type taxa in shallow water. Based on assessments of functional morphology and previously published data, the environmental distributions of these taxa are likely to have been controlled by a complex of factors including sediment type, flow regime, nutrient availability, and temperature. Shallow-water siliciclastic settings may have been crucial environments for echinoderm diversification during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.


Communication between human beings involves complex and rich means. In the past decades, computers have successfully supported human in a variety of tasks such as calculating and memorizing. However, when confronted with the demand of multimodal interaction with users, can these indispensable partners make us satisfied? This research might answer this question.


The temporal dynamics of membrane voltage changes in neurons is controlled by ionic currents. These currents are characterized by two main properties: conductance and kinetics. The hyperpolarization-activated current (I h ) strongly modulates subthreshold potential changes by shortening the excitatory postsynaptic potentials and decreasing their temporal summation. Whereas the shortening of the synaptic potentials caused by the I h conductance is well understood, the role of the I h kinetics remains unclear. Here, we use a model of the I h current model with either fast or slow kinetics to determine its influence on the membrane time constant ( τ m ) of a CA1 pyramidal cell model. Our simulation results show that the I h with fast kinetics decreases τ m and attenuates and shortens the excitatory postsynaptic potentials more than the slow I h . We conclude that the I h activation kinetics is able to modulate τ m and the temporal properties of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in CA1 pyramidal cells. To elucidate the mechanisms by which I h kinetics controls τ m , we propose a new concept called "time scaling factor". Our main finding is that the I h kinetics influences τ m by modulating the contribution of the I h derivative conductance to τ m .


Most of the review-based prediction tasks are designed for an in-domain setting, in which a review score, sentiment, or sales in a domain is predicted by reviews in the same domain. In this paper, we address the rating prediction problem in a cross-domain setting, i.e. rating prediction of an item in a domain where no review has been given for the item yet, based on reviews provided in a different domain. For example, we predict the rating of a US product in the UK market, which has never been sold in the UK, in order to decide whether to start to sell the item in the UK. For effective cross-domain rating prediction, we propose a multitask learning model that predicts both the review rating and review contents simultaneously, and found that it was effective in two ecommerce datasets from Amazon and Yahoo. Furthermore, our experimental results revealed categories and cases in which the cross-domain rating prediction was successful.


Three bacterial isolates (ICBB 1168, ICBB 1169, ICBB 1170), being capable to utilizing phenol as sole carbon and energy source, were isolated from Buntal Lake of Central Kalimantan. Growth of all isolates were optimum at 37OC. Optimum pH for growth and phenol degradation of ICBB 1168, lCBB 1169, and ICBB 1170 were 7-8, 6, and 6-7, respectively. Among the isolates, ICBB 1170 showed best phenol degrading activity. ICBB 1170 able to degrade 16 mM phenol to 0.71 mM in 4 days. Phenol degradation ability of ICBB 1170 could be increased by adding 0.01-0.1% yeast extract. Addition of 0.05-0.1% glucose in medium inhibited phenol degradation by ICBB 1170. Cell-free extracts of ICBB 1170 had specific activity 2.92 Ulmg. Degradation of benzoate by ICBB 1170 was studied. However, the ability to degrade phenol were higher than that of benzoate.


The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) includes provisions to ensure that children and young people have a say in decisions affecting their lives. Although a signatory to the UNCRC, Ghana is a nation where little empirical evidence has been gathered regarding the barriers that prevent children from participating in child protection. Thus, in this article, we report on findings from a qualitative study into the barriers to children's participation in child protection practice in Ghana. The study was based on qualitative interviews with 15 child protection practitioners, and a constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyse data from the interviews. Intimidation, parental influence, communication problems, and confidentiality were identified as barriers to promoting participatory practices for children in the child protection process. The study findings suggest that engaging with children in separate rooms or spaces, away from the presence of parents and other adults, could help practitioners promote children's participation. It is recommended that practitioners should upgrade their skills for working with children by taking part in in-service training, workshops, and seminars to help address issues with communication. Practical actions suggested in this study may also be useful for other practitioners addressing similar issues.


In recent years educators and education institutions have embraced E-Learning environments as a method of delivering content to and communicating with their learners. Particular attention needs to be paid to the accessibility of the content that each educator provides. In relation to graphics, content providers are instructed to provide textual alternatives for each graphic using either the "alt" attribute or the "longdesc" attribute of the HTML IMG tag. This is not always suitable for graphical concepts inherent in technical topics due to the spatial nature of the information. As there is currently no suggested alternative to the use of textual descriptions in E-Learning environments, blind learners are at a significant disadvantage when attempting to learn Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematical (STEM) subjects online. A new approach is required that will provide blind learners with the same learning capabilities enjoyed by their sighted peers in relation to graphics.

Multimodal graphics combine the modalities of sound and touch in order to deliver graphical concepts to blind learners. Although they have proven successful, they can be time consuming to create and often require expertise in accessible graphic design. This thesis proposes an approach based on mainstream E-Learning techniques that can support non-experts in the assembly of multimodal graphics. The approach is known as the Multimodal Graphic Assembly and Delivery Framework (MGADF). It exploits a component based Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to provide non experts with the ability to assemble multimodal graphics and integrate them into mainstream E-Learning environments.

This thesis details the design of the system architecture, information architecture and methodologies of the MGADF. Proof of concept interfaces were implemented, based on the design, that clearly demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. The interfaces were used in an end-user evaluation that assessed the benefits of a component based approach for non-expert multimodal graphic producers.


The present paper reports on the ongoing studies into the perspectives of maritime superconductivity (SC). Maritime applications follow a similar pattern as on-shore applications when it comes to performance if the competition is weak. For large scale applications like propulsion, power supply, and other machinery, the character of an isolated energy system onboard greatly influences the perspectives of maritime SC. The paper compares the energy chains of propulsion configurations and discusses the relations with energy carriers, storage, and conversions. It is shown that perspectives more or less follow the developments on all electric shipping: i.e., as for energy efficiency short range shipping and dynamic behavior favor SC technology; high-temperature superconducting engines may also be an improvement if electric propulsion is selected for other reasons than efficiency. High-temperature superconductor degaussing is promising, but demands adjustments. Maritime SC perspectives often depend on developments in other areas like fuels, conversions, and power electronics.


Recommender systems are becoming increasingly important for businesses because they can help companies offer personalized product recommendations to customers. There have been many acknowledged recognized successes of consumer-oriented recommender systems, particularly in e-commerce. In this work, we describe our experiences building a business-to-business (B2B) recommendation engine that matches company clients to internal company products. The underlying pairing of clients and products is based on co-clustering principles and helps reveal potential future purchases. Unlike most consumer-oriented recommendation systems, our approach takes into account the need for interpretability. We do not only provide a cursory explanation, as offered in most traditional recommender systems. In our approach, the recipient of the generated recommendations are sales and marketing teams; thus, we offer a detailed reasoning in straightforward English that considers multiple aspects regarding why a client may be a suitable match for the particular offering. Finally, we analyze the outcome of a country-wide deployment of the proposed methodology for selected IBM sales teams.


This paper investigates the air solubility of hydraulic oils with specific application in polyglycol based brake fluids. An Extensive literature research revealed a lack of data on the thermodynamic solubility properties of brake fluids. A derivation of the searched quantities cannot be obtained from the values given for hydraulic oils because of the deviation in components. Absolute values and relations to state variables, such as temperatures, have not yet been stated. Therefore, this research aims to investigate these unknown correlations using empirical measurements.
 A test rig was designed for isobar absorption testing. The quasi-stationary test results confirm Henrys Law. Furthermore the solubility is presented as a function of temperature and water content and a phenomenological model of the Bunsen coefficient is derived. It is apparent that the impact of temperature is inverse to that of common fluids such as water or some alcohols.


Many time series experience abrupt changes in structure. Detecting where these changes in structure, or changepoints, occur is required for effective modelling of the data. In this thesis we explore the common approaches used for detecting changepoints. We focus in particular on techniques which can be formulated in terms of minimising a cost over segmentations and solved exactly using a class of dynamic programming algorithms. Often implementations of these dynamic programming methods have a computational cost which scales poorly with the length of the time series. Recently pruning ideas have been suggested that can speed up the dynamic programming algorithms, whilst still being guaranteed to be optimal. In this thesis we extend these methods. First we develop two new algorithms for segmenting piecewise constant data: FPOP and SNIP. We evaluate them against other methods in the literature. We then move on to develop the method OPPL for detecting changes in data subject to fitting a continuous piecewise linear model. We evaluate it against similar methods. We finally extend the OPPL method to deal with penalties that depend on the segment length.


Anthropologist Terry Jones of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has evidence suggesting prehistoric human hunters drove a flightless duck to extinction about 4,000 years ago. His theory is based on a 10,000-year history of shell and bone refuse, and other remnants of human settlement, excavated in the 1960s during the construction of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County. The refuse is part of what archeologists call a "kitchen midden"–a trash heap showing what people hunted and ate. The Chumash Indians are among the modern descendants of the coastal dwellers represented at the site.


ABSTRACT In order to increase the immune breadth of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines, strategies such as immunization with several HIV antigens or centralized immunogens have been examined. HIV-1 gp120 protein is a major immunogen of HIV and has been routinely considered for inclusion in both present and future AIDS vaccines. However, recent studies proposed that gp120 interferes with the generation of immune response to codelivered antigens. Here, we investigate whether coimmunization with plasmid-encoded gp120 alters the immune response to other coadministered plasmid encoded antigens such as luciferase or ovalbumin in a mouse model. We found that the presence of gp120 leads to a significant reduction in the expression level of the codelivered antigen in vivo. Antigen presentation by antigen-presenting cells was also reduced and resulted in the induction of weak antigen-specific cellular and humoral immune responses. Importantly, gp120-mediated immune interference was observed after administration of the plasmids at the same or at distinct locations. To characterize the region in gp120 mediating these effects, we used plasmid constructs encoding gp120 that lacks the V1V2 loops (ΔV1V2) or the V3 loop (ΔV3). After immunization, the ΔV1V2, but not the ΔV3 construct, was able to reduce antigen expression, antigen presentation, and subsequently the immunogenicity of the codelivered antigen. The V3 loop dependence of this phenomenon seems to be limited to V3 loops known to interact with the CXCR4 molecule but not with CCR5. Our study presents a novel mechanism by which HIV-1 gp120 interferes with the immune response against coadministered antigen in a polyvalent vaccine preparation.


The aim of the study is to test the multi-dimensionality of perceived value in hospitals and to examine the direct or indirect relations between perceived value, patient satisfaction and patient loyalty in university hospitals in Turkey. In line with this objective, perceived value was assumed as a multidimensional structure and this structure was tested within the scope of the study. In order to achieve the aimed objectives in the study, a research model was tested on the data gathered from patients who received health services from a public university hospital in Ankara. According to our findings, all dimensions have significant effects on perceived value of patients in healthcare services. However, service quality, emotional value and professionalism have relatively more effects. Furthermore, it was determined that perceived value affected patient loyalty both directly and indirectly through customer satisfaction. Contributions of the study were discussed.


Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of titanium phosphide coatings was achieved on glass substrates from the reaction of TiCl4 and RPH2 (R = t-Bu, Ph, Cy-hex) at 450-550 degreesC. The coatings show good uniformity, surface coverage, and adherence; they passed the Scotch brand tape test and could not be scratched with a brass scalpel. The leading edge of the titanium phosphide films was a deep blue while the bulk of the film was reflective and silver. Growth rates were on the order of 1 mum min(-1) at 550 degreesC. The films were crystalline, single phase with a hexagonal cell of a = 3.49(1) Angstrom and c = 11.70(1) Angstrom. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed surface morphologies consistent with an island growth mechanism. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) binding energy shifts were at 454.6 eV for Ti-2p and at 128.6 eV for P-2p. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA) and electron probe studies gave elemental ratios that were in agreement indicating in most cases slightly P-rich films, TiP1.2, with negligible chlorine incorporation. Raman spectra exhibited bands at 245, 320, and 410 cm(-1). Sheet resistance measurements showed typically 10-120 mOmega cm, indicating good conductivity. Rutherford backscattering showed a bulk composition of TiP1.2. Optically, the films showed high reflectivity at 1000 nm and showed 5-25% total transmission from 300 to 800 nm. Contact angle measurements were in the range 40-50degrees for the as made films these showed little change after 30 min of irradiation at 254 nm. All of the films showed negligible photocatalytic activity in the destruction of an overlayer of stearic acid.


This thesis is concerned with investigations into the involvement of ethylene in the control of axillary bud growth in Phaseolus vulgaris L. Ancillary studies on the characteristics of axillary bud outgrowth and on the methodology of quantitative ethylene analyses were also carried out. Growth of the leaves, internodes and axillary buds of intact young Phaseolus plants was governed by a fine degree of correlative control. The 1st trifoliate axillary bud, which was the bud studied in most of the experiments, showed slow but continuous growth at the time the plants were used for experiments (19 - 29 days old). Decapitation of the plant at the 3rd internode induced vigorous growth of this bud. The time lag between the decapitation stimulus and the detection of increased growth, determined by a photographic technique, was found to be 3-5 h. Much of the initial increase in the length of the bud internode may be attributed to cell expansion. Vascular transport to axillary buds was investigated using decolorised basic fuchsin as a tracer. The results indicate that functional xylem continuity was already well established between the stem and the inhibited buds. The lack of vascular supply was not, therefore, the cause of growth inhibition. Phloem transport was not studied directly, but free lateral transport of radioactivity from labelled sucrose from the xylem to the more peripheral tissues was demonstrated. The internal gaseous content of Phaseolus shoot tissue was sampled by vacuum extraction. The identities of ethylene and ethane in the gaseous extracts of apical shoots were established conclusively by a GC-MS selective ion detection method. Changes in the volume and composition of the gases recovered were observed when the evacuation conditions during extraction were altered. These changes were different in the primary leaves and in the 2nd trifoliate leaves. Thus, estimates of internal ethylene and ethane concentrations in plant tissues were influenced by the morphology of the tissue and the evacuation conditions employed. The internal ethylene concentrations in the primary, 1st trifoliate and 2nd trifoliate leaves, considered together, were correlated to their respective rates of ethylene emanation. Only trace emanation of ethane was recorded. Physical confinement of the developing apical shoot inhibited its growth and promoted the growth of axillary buds located basipetal to the treated portion of the shoot. These developments were thought to be brought about by ethylene since (a) the internal ethylene concentration and the rate of ethylene emanation were significantly increased in the treated tissue and (b) similar responses in shoot inhibition and axillary bud outgrowth were observed on plants with apical shoots treated with ethephon or ethylene. There is evidence to suggest that the promotion of axillary bud development by ethylene action on the apical shoot was associated with the availability of freely diffusible ethylene in the tissues of the treated shoot. Loss of apical dominance was not, apparently, directly dependent on either the internal ethylene concentration (i.e. concentration in the vacuum-extracted gases) or on the rate of ethylene emanation. Although treatment of the shoot with tri-iodobenzoic acid (TIBA) induced various morphological responses in the plant, including axillary bud outgrowth, which appeared similar to the responses to ethylene, the initial effect of TIBA is not thought to be ethylene-mediated. Applications of ethephon or ethylene inhibitors - Ag+ or aminoethoxy-vinyl glycine (AVG) - directly to the axillary buds of the intact plant were ineffective in eliciting bud development. When applied in appropriate dosages to the axillary bud of the decapitated plant, ethephon or ethylene inhibitors inhibited the outgrowth of the released bud. The general conclusion that may be drawn from these observations is that ethylene is essential in maintaining normal axillary bud growth in the decapitated plant, but the absence of bud development in the intact plant is not due to a lack of free ethylene. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


SUMMARY The study reported here aimed at presenting the structuring of a complex problem that emerges from contrasting perspectives of different stakeholders on the use and conservation of native forests in a context where regulations restrict their management, as occurs in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The methodology adopted in this work consisted both in the construction of a causal map, based on interviews with stakeholders of Santa Catarina native forests, and in the analysis of the map using techniques of the Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) approach. The analyses carried out indicated that the economic valuation of forest resources as well as the monitoring of forest cover are key issues for the management of Santa Catarina's native forests. In addition, the information generated by the causal map analysis can assist not only the process of designing innovative and all-inclusive policies for the management of native forests, but also the modeling process based on Systems Dynamics in order to evaluate the impacts of policies on the dynamics that govern the conservation and use of the resources of native forests. The adopted SODA approach also proved to be effective in structuring the complex problem situation addressed in this study.