This paper focuses on the reforms made to the quasi-market in school-based education in England that occurred between May 1997 and May 2001. It discusses the changes that have taken place in relation to parental choice, admissions to schools, school diversity, fund-ing and examination 'league tables'. The Labour Government can be seen as having embraced the quasi-market with a similar enthusiasm to that of its Conservative predecessors although it has tended to emphasise social inclusion as opposed to competition. While it has attempted to soften the edges of the quasi-market it has not tackled some of its major deficiencies such as the power that schools that are their own admission authorities have to distort the admissions process.


Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that can negatively impact people both psychologically and physically. Health benefits of regular physical activity (PA) have been demonstrated for RA patients (Cooney et al., 2011), however people living with RA are more likely to be sedentary (Sokka et al., 2008; Yu et al., 2015). A Self-Determination Theory (SDT) based approach was adopted in this thesis. The validity and reliability of the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (BREQ-2) was tested (Chapter 2) within RA patients via a mixed method approach. In a second study (Chapter 3), hypothesised relationships based on SDT between autonomy support from the important other (s), basic psychological needs, motivation regulations and RA patients' subjective vitality and self-reported PA was tested via structural equation modelling. Presumed mediation effects were also examined. As an incongruence between PA measurement has been found previously (Semanik et al., 2011), the agreement with self-reported PA and sedentary time (ST) were determined (Chapter 4) on both objective and subjective PA, then related to the VO2 max test. The next investigation (Chapter 5) assessed the associations between motivation regulations, objectively measured PA/ST and a key indicator of compromised mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms). Overall findings of this thesis were discussed in Chapter 6, and future research directions, practical implication and limitations proposed.


Introduction: Healthy Homes and Neighbourhoods (HHAN), an integrated care programme in the Sydney Local Health District (SLHD), seeks to address the needs of disadvantaged families through care coordination, as one of its components. This research aims to determine for whom, when and why the care coordination component of HHAN works, and establish the reported outcomes for clients, service-providers and partner organisations. Methods: Critical realist methodology was utilised to undertake a qualitative evaluation of the impact of care coordination. Purposive sampling was used to select a total of 37 participants for interview, including consumers, service-providers and key stakeholders. Thematic analysis was undertaken to derive the major modes of intervention of HHAN, and data representing these elements was coded and summarised under contexts, mechanisms and outcomes. Results: Analysis indicates that care coordination has a positive impact on clients' sense of independence, self-awareness and outlook on life. Trust and favourable interpersonal relations were identified as major underlying mechanisms for a successful client-provider working relationship. The identified modes of intervention facilitating positive consumer outcomes included accessibility, flexibility and service navigation. Persistent siloes in health and systemic resistance to collaboration was seen to hinder effective care delivery. Conclusions: This study suggests that a care coordination model may be effective in engaging disadvantaged families in healthcare, assist them in navigating the health system and can lead to beneficial health and social outcomes. Successful implementation of care coordination requires flexible programme design and experienced and skilful clinicians to fulfil the care coordinator role. There is a need to appreciate the negative impact that the complex and siloed health system can have on disadvantaged families.


The relevant role played by residual water in modulating the dynamics and structure of a protein, a matrix and their coupling has been thoroughly studied in bioprotective amorphous saccharide matrices via experiments and simulations. In order to better characterize this residual water and the hydrogen bond structures in which it is involved, in this work infrared spectroscopy experiments are conducted on trehalose-water systems. The properties of water are inferred from the study of a peculiar infrared band, the water association band, which we exploited as a marker of the hydrogen bonds in which water is involved. Our aim was the identification of populations of water molecules, which give rise to the different components to which the water association band can be easily decomposed. The attribution of these components to families of water molecules is accomplished by studying the band behaviour with a suitable use of Hofmeister salts, known to have a structure-making or structure-breaking activity, and therefore able to modify the hydrogen bond network by enhancing or depressing the local order. The results allow ascribing, in almost all samples, five band components to either a chaotropic or kosmotropic environment, and further define two of them as bulk-like or ice-like water. The characterization of different components enables the use of this band as a tool to deepen the knowledge of other low-water hydrated matrices with a new approach. A differential analysis of peak frequencies and populations of the components in a bulky system, containing or not embedded components or interfaces (e.g. proteins, polymers, surfaces or even massive cosolutes), makes it possible to draw information on the properties of hydrogen bonds which are formed in the investigated systems.


Liberalisation, commercialisation and technological advances have forced
organisations to adapt. Successful adaptation depends on the ability of senior
managers to formulate and implement strategies that ensure services respond to
the needs of today's industry.
Few industries are as competitive as the airline industry. Moreover, the
development of the airline industry is increasingly interlinked with the global
economy. All airlines have introduced a range of strategies in an attempt to
ensure their long-term competitiveness. The historical analysis of the
implemented strategies in conjunction with performance may assist firms to avoid
the mistakes of the past and improve their choice of strategies in the future to
optimise performance.
The thesis investigates the implementation of Porter's generic strategies and
market orientation concept within Olympic Airways for the period 1990-2001,
including the inter-relationship between these groups of strategies, and the
resulting impact on airline performance.
Olympic Airways has been selected because it presents interesting peculiarities
as an airline. It is a nationalized carrier that enjoyed a monopoly in the domestic
market for about forty years until European aviation liberalization changed the
framework of operations. It has also had to cope with strong unions and much
Government intervention.
The literature review highlighted Porter's (1980) concept of generic strategy and
Market Orientation concept, as epitomised by the work of Kohli & Jaworski (1990)
and Narver & Slater (1990) as key strategies to implement. The adoption of
appropriate combinations of these strategies by Olympic Airways could enable it
to overcome some of its long-term inefficiencies and enable it to offer a competitive advantage over its domestic and international competitors. However,
the literature also identifies that the effectiveness of a specific strategy depends
on the time period that the strategy is applied, hence the research into the period
1990-2001.
The data collection consisted of gathering secondary statistical data and
conducting a number of qualitative interviews with senior managers at Olympic
Airways. The results of the combined quantitative and qualitative analysis lead to
useful conclusions regarding the application of Porter's generic strategies in
conjunction with Market Orientation concept in the airline context and the
resultant impact on Olympic Airways performance.
The lack of any clear strategy for the whole of the period 1990-2001 has
decisively affected the carrier's commercial and financial performance. Future
management should emphasise low cost strategies, which exploit the
opportunities that Greece, as a host country, provides. More emphasis should be
placed on minimising the carrier's high labour costs. In addition, the carrier
should focus on specific geographical areas (domestic and European routes,
along with a few strategic long haul destinations) and strengthen its presence in
these markets. The carrier must improve its product offering by following some
less expensive market orientation strategies (e.g. internet sales, common advertising campaigns, etc.). Also, a radical improvement in interfunctional coordination
is necessary. This would give Olympic Airways a competitive
advantage in order to achieve survival in the increasingly fierce and deregulated
marketplace.


The objective of this research was to examine the moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and performance of agro-based SMEs in Nigeria. The study used questionnaires gathered from 230 managers of agro-based firms in Lagos state Nigeria. Data analysis was carried out using hierarchical multiple regression to show relationships between the variables. Findings suggest that entrepreneurial competencies have a direct influence on performance of Agro-based SMEs. More so, the statistical result indicates that innovativeness, proactiveness and autonomy are the three entrepreneurial orientations that moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and performance of the firms.


: Urapidil effects on oxidant stress were studied in 36 patients with hypertension stage I-III running with crises. Acute hypertensive crisis was managed by intravenous injections of urapidil (20-50 mg) for 5 min. After that for a week they received urapidil monotherapy followed by combined treatment for another week (quinapril--25 mg/day or ramipril--5-10 mg/day in combination with hypothiaside--25 mg/day; lokren--20 mg/day or atenolol--50-100 mg/day and diltiazem--180-360 mg/day) to stabilize arterial pressure finally. Oxidant stress was estimated by lipid peroxidation (LPO) and state of antioxidant system (AOS). Catabolism and anabolism were evaluated by blood levels of hydrocortisone and insulin. LPO, AOS, the blood hormones were measured before management of hypertensive crisis, immediately after it and 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after. Before the crisis treatment LPO was found high. Urapidil administration reduced levels of hydrocortisone, dienic conjugates, lipid peroxidation, oxidant stress rate (OSR). Later, LPO and OSR slowly increased. It is concluded on validity of the antioxidants use in hypertensive patients with crises.


The quest for ultrahigh detection sensitivity with spectroscopic contrasts other than fluorescence has led to various novel approaches to optical microscopy of biological systems. Coherent nonlinear optical imaging, especially the recently developed nonlinear dissipation microscopy (including stimulated Raman scattering and two-photon absorption) and pump-probe microscopy (including excited-state absorption, stimulated emission, and ground-state depletion), provides new image contrasts for nonfluorescent species. Thanks to the high-frequency modulation transfer scheme, these imaging techniques exhibit superb detection sensitivity. By directly interrogating vibrational and/or electronic energy levels of molecules, they offer high molecular specificity. Here we review the underlying principles and excitation and detection schemes, as well as exemplary biomedical applications of this emerging class of molecular imaging techniques.


This research addressed the question of why some bereaved individuals dream of the deceased whereas others do not. Two studies were conducted. In one, participants were 268 U.S. residents (150 men, 116 women, 1 other, and 1 undisclosed), with an age range of 20 to 70 (M = 33.8), who had lost a romantic partner or spouse in the previous 12 to 24 months. The second study had 162 U.S. residents (88 men and 74 women), aged 18 to 63 (M = 32.1), whose dog or cat had died in the previous 6 months. In both studies, participants completed online questionnaires assessing frequency of dreams of the deceased, general dream recall, consistency of dream recall, themes in dreams of the deceased, grief intensity, attachment to the deceased, and the personality variable of openness to experience. Path analyses found that in both studies frequency of dream recall showed direct effects on dreaming of the deceased, and in the pet loss study, grief intensity and openness to experience also showed direct effects. However, in both studies, grief intensity, openness to experience, and attachment all showed indirect effects either through dream recall (in the case of grief and openness to experience) or through grief intensity and dream recall (in the case of attachment). It is also noteworthy that, in both studies, those who recalled dreams of the deceased endorsed more positive themed dreams of the deceased, which contrasts both with "ordinary" dreaming and with posttraumatic dreams.


This article focuses on Giordano Bruno's trial, pointing out the main legal and theological foundations of the Holy Office's procedures, and the Pope's role in Counterreformation's Church and in the Inquisition as well. New light is thrown on the fact that the Pope, as he was the Praefectus (Chairman) of the tribunal, created during the trial a doctrinal assessment about some Bruno's cosmological views. That assessment was unprecedented, because the Church had never considered before the infinity of worlds and the heliocentric theory as heretical. Reflecting opinions not yet shared by the theological schools, censors and inquisitors unanimously, the Pope created a new juridical truth. Nevertheless, this side of Bruno's trial, a secondary one as it was, compared to the prevailing theological and metaphysical matters of the case (for instance, the concept of Holy Trinity, and the nature of human soul), was not evoked during Galileo's trial, and seems that it did not constitute a precedent in the tribunal's memory. New cosmological subjects will be perceived as embarrassing challenges by the Holy Office and the Roman Church even when they were later dropped by Galileo, in a very different way and context.


In this thesis we will construct a recommender system for course selection in higher education (more specifically, at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Some of what makes our approach novel compared with existing solutions is that we weight each user in the collaborative filtering process based on their chosen degree subject (major) and wether or not the two users being compared are friends. Also we utilize both collaborative filtering and content-based recommendations in a hybrid solution. Another novel aspect of our solution is that we construct our system on top of an existing website for rating courses. This gives us unique access to a dataset containing thousands of user-ratings of courses.


The small nuclear RNA (snRNA) components of the spliceosome have been proposed to catalyze the excision of introns from nuclear pre-mRNAs. If this hypothesis is correct, then the snRNA components of the spliceosome may interact directly with the reactive groups of pre-mRNA substrates. To explore this possibility, a genetic screen has been used to identify potential interactions between the U6 RNA and the pre-mRNA branch site. Notably, the selection yielded mutants in two regions of the yeast U6 RNA implicated previously in the catalytic events of splicing. These mutants significantly increase the splicing of pre-mRNA substrates containing non-adenosine branch sites. U6 mutants in U2/U6 helix Ia show strong allele-specific interactions with the branch site nucleotide and interact with PRP16, a factor implicated previously in branch site utilization. The other mutants cluster in the intramolecular helix of U6 and suppress the effects of branch site mutations in a nonallele-specific fashion. The locations of these mutants may define positions important for binding of the U6 intramolecular helix to the catalytic core of the spliceosome.


OBJECTIVES
Linezolid, the only commercially available oxazolidinone, is indicated for the treatment of Gram-positive infections, although little has been published specifically on its use in the critically ill. A randomized, prospective study was therefore performed to compare linezolid with the glycopeptide antibiotic, teicoplanin, for the treatment of suspected or proven Gram-positive infections in an intensive care population.

METHODS
Using a double-blind, double-dummy, prospective design, patients were randomized to (i) intravenous linezolid (600 mg/12 h) plus teicoplanin dummy [one dose/12 h for three doses then every 24 h intravenously (iv)] or (ii) teicoplanin (400 mg/12 h for three doses then 400 mg/24 h iv) plus linezolid dummy (one dose/12 h iv). Other antibiotics were used in combination with the trial agents in empirical treatment. Clinical and microbiological assessments were made daily in the first week, and at 8 and 21 days after treatment.

RESULTS
One hundred patients received linezolid plus placebo-teicoplanin, whereas 102 received teicoplanin plus placebo-linezolid. Population baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. At end of treatment, clinical success [71 (78.9%) linezolid versus 67 (72.8%) teicoplanin] and microbiological success [49 (70.0%) versus 45 (66.2%)] rates were similar, as were adverse effects, intensive care unit mortality, and success rates at short- and long-term follow-up. Linezolid was superior at initial clearance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization (end of treatment, 51.1% versus 18.6%, P = 0.002). Two MRSA isolates showed reduced susceptibility to teicoplanin.

CONCLUSIONS
Linezolid has similar safety and efficacy to teicoplanin in treating Gram-positive infections in the critically ill. Short-term MRSA clearance achieved with linezolid suggests better skin and mucosal penetration.


Iroquois Shore near Toronto The recent finding of fresh water shells in Iroquois beach gravels close to Toronto appears to settle the long debated question as to whether the Iroquois water was a fresh water lake or an arm of the sea, and is per‐ haps of sufficient importance to justify a brief redescription of the whole series of lake deposits in the neighborhood. This must be the only excuse for adding to the already voluminous literature on the Iroquois beach and the complicated problems with which it is connected. Although Dr Spencer long ago followed and determined the elevation of the Iroquois beach north of lake Ontario, as Dr Gilbert has done on the south, it seemed worth while to make a more careful survey of the old coastline in the neighborhood of Toronto, and the results of this are given in the accompanying map (figure 1), malting it . . .


The Programmable Logic Array (PLA) has been widely used in the design of VLSI circuits and systems because of its regularity, flexibility, and simplicity. The equivalence problem is typically to verify that the final description of a circuit is functionally equivalent to its initial description. Verifying the functional equivalence of two descriptions is equivalent to proving their logical equivalence. This problem of pure logic is essential to circuit design. The most widely used technique to solve the problem is based on Binary Decision Diagram or BDD, proposed by Bryant in 1986. Unfortunately, BDD requires too much time and space to represent moderately large circuits for equivalence testing. We design and implement a new algorithm called the Cover-Merge Algorithm for the equivalence problem based on a divide-and-conquer strategy using the concept of cover and a derivational method. We prove that the algorithm is sound and complete. Because of the NP-completeness of the problem, we emphasize simplifications to reduce the search space or to avoid redundant computations. Simplification techniques are incorporated into the algorithm as an essential part to speed up the the derivation process. Two different sets of heuristics are developed for two opposite goals: one for the proof of equivalence and the other for its disproof. Experiments on a large scale of data have shown that big speed-ups can be achieved by prioritizing the heuristics and by choosing the most favorable one at each iteration of the Algorithm. Results are compared with those for BDD on standard benchmark problems as well as on random PLAs to perform an unbiased way of testing algorithms. It has been shown that the Cover-Merge Algorithm outperforms BDD in nearly all problem instances in terms of time and space. The algorithm has demonstrated fairly stabilized and practical performances especially for big PLAs under a wide range of conditions, while BDD shows poor performance because of its memory greedy representation scheme without adequate simplification.


Abstract. Multi-beam observations of the daytime ionospheric E-region irregularities and the so-called 150-km echoes with the 47-MHz Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) in West Sumatra, Indonesia (0.20° S, 100.32° E, 10.36° S dip latitude) are presented. 150-km echoes have been frequently observed by the EAR, and their characteristics are basically the same as the equatorial ones, except for an intriguing zonal asymmetry; stronger echoes in lower altitudes in the east directions, and weaker echoes in higher altitudes in the west. The highest occurrence is seen at 5.7° east with respect to the magnetic meridian, and the altitude gradually increases as viewing from the east to west. Arc structures which return backscatter echoes are proposed to explain the asymmetry. While the strength of radar echoes below 105 km is uniform within the wide coverage of azimuthal directions, the upper E-region (105–120 km) echoes also show a different type of zonal asymmetry, which should be generated by an essentially different mechanism from the lower E-region and 150-km echoes.


Abstract:In his version of the bout between Amycus and Pollux, which culminates the Argonauts' stopover at Bebrycia in Argonautica 4, Valerius Flaccus is evoking a well-known epic tradition of boxing matches. Simultaneously, he appears to be reworking those model texts with the same protagonists "in the ring," by adding further elements from Homer, Vergil, and Ovid that bring Amycus closer to other terrifying creatures of epic such as Polyphemus and Cacus. However, the portrayal of Amycus' almost inexplicable furor and ira bears some discernible Stoic influences: the symptoms that, according to Seneca's theory in his treatise De Ira, are exhibited by a volatile man who, having lost his self-control and reasoning, is prone to anger and its devastating effects. On the contrary, Pollux's more calculating tactic during the fight reveals the kind of rational perceptiveness of a Stoic sage which gradually paves the way for his feat. Overall, the boxing match itself introduces a philosophical element to Valerius' source material that propels the reader to assess the whole episode both through its intertextual and intratextual dynamics.


A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium, designated as x-2T, was isolated from lakeside soil of Sayram in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, PR China. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain x-2T belongs to the genus Nocardioides in the family Nocardioidaceae, being most closely related to Nocardioides panacisoli Gsoil 346T (97.36 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). Strain x-2T was characterized chemotaxonomically and found to have ll-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, glycolipids and another three unknown phospholipids as the major polar lipids, MK-8(H4) as the predominant menaquinone and C18 : 1ω9c, iso-C16 : 0, C17 : 1ω8c and C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The genomic DNA G+C content of the novel strain was 71.1 mol%. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain x-2T and N. panacisoli KCTC 19470T (=Gsoil 346T) was 29.8 %. These chemotaxonomic characters support the position of strain x-2T within the genus Nocardioides. The results of physiological and biochemical tests, as well as phylogenetic analysis, suggest that strain x-2T represents a novel species of the genus Nocardioides, for which the name Nocardioides litorisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is x-2T (=KCTC 39845T=CCTCCAB 2016255T).


The adult brain parenchyma contains a widespread population of progenitors generating different cells of the oligodendrocyte lineage such as NG21 cells and some mature oligodendrocytes. However, it is still largely unknown how proliferation and lineage decisions of these progenitors are regulated. Here, we first characterized the cell cycle length, proliferative fraction, and progeny of dividing cells in the adult cerebral cortex and then compared these proliferation characteristics after two distinct stimuli, invasive acute brain injury and increased physiological activity by voluntary physical exercise. Our data show that adult parenchymal progenitors have a very long cell cycle due to an extended G1 phase, many of them can divide at least twice and only a limited proportion of the progeny differentiates into mature oligodendrocytes. After stab wound injury, however, many of these progenitors re-enter the cell cycle very fast, suggesting that the normally long G1 phase is subject to regulation and can be abruptly shortened. In striking contrast, voluntary physical exercise shows the opposite effect with increased exit of the cell cycle followed by an enhanced and fast differentiation into mature oligodendrocytes. Taken together, our data demonstrate that the endogenous population of adult brain parenchymal progenitors is subject to profound modulation by environmental stimuli in both directions, either faster proliferation or faster differentiation. 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


The purpose of this study was to investigate if using an Internet support group for cardiac patients was associated with reduced psychosocial risk factors for heart disease and to discover why some group members became active users and others did not. The application of the Health Belief Model to determine the predictive power of participation in an online support group makes a novel contribution to community psychology, particularly because it was developed to predict health behavior. Six measures of social support/negative affect were used to determine risk reduction. One hundred and twenty (63 males, 57 females) active and inactive members of the HeartNET online community completed a survey; results indicated that the extent of participation in the group was not associated with measures of depression, anxiety, stress, perceived interpersonal support, or social network size, but was related to ratings of the perceived benefits of using the web-based forum. Specifically, participants in online peer support groups who offer and receive support may experience greater satisfaction than those who simply observe the interactions of others. This has implications for electronic health applications, as well as for researchers and practitioners, which seek to improve the lives of those who suffer from chronic disease.


SiOx nanoclusters were obtained by Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition using a quartz solid source and atomic hydrogen. The nanoclusters were characterized by Photoluminescence, Atomic Force Microscopy, Energy Dispersive Analysis X-ray and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. FTIR and EDS characterization clearly show that the material is non stoichiometric silicon oxide with a composition that depends on the growth parameters, such as source-substrate distance and time of growth. Nanoclusters of SiOx presented photoluminescence with two principal peaks at around 859 and 920 nm. Photoluminescence intensity was enhanced when samples were annealed in hydrogen atmosphere and quenched when they were annealed in nitrogen atmosphere. However, it was observed that the same samples annealed once more with the initial atomic hydrogen conditions showed an increase in photoluminescence. From these results we suppose the photoluminescence produced in this material is influenced by deep level transitions associated with dangling bonds passivated with hydrogen on the surface of the Si crystallites embedded within SiOx nanoclusters.


Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has been used clinically for more than 40 years. The technique provides respiratory and/or circulatory support via venovenous and veno-arterial configurations, respectively. We review the basic physiological principles of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation systems in venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Clinical aspects including patient selection, equipment, setup, and specific patient management are outlined. Pros and cons of the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in respiratory failure are discussed.


The objective of this research is to investigate the morphology and microstructure of the chips formed during milling of Ti-6Al-4V alloy using conventional flood coolant and sustainable dry and MQL machining conditions. It was found that the chips formed in dry machining suffered a higher degree of serration indicating higher chip temperature and ineffective cooling of the chips. The bi-modal structure of Ti-6Al-4V remained the same in the bulk part of the chips. However, phase transformations were seen for all three machining conditions at the shearing plane of the chips. The chips formed in dry machining had comparatively higher percentage of β-phase due to phase transformation. For the chips obtained in flood coolant machining, the transformed β-phase possibly returned to martensitic α-phase due to rapid cooling. The MQL machined chips had the least transformation of β-phase, indicating minimal changes in mechanical properties of the machined parts in sustainable MQL machining.


The aim of the present study was to assess the role of calcium fluxes in the action of glucagon on glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis in isolated rat hepatocytes. Calcium influx was blocked by two ways: by use of the compound tetramethrin and by reduction of extracellular calcium to 1 microM. The minimal concentration of tetramethrin that inhibited glucagon-mediated calcium entry was 7.5 x 10(-7) M. In the presence of 7.5 x 10(-7) M tetramethrin, glucagon-induced glycogenolysis was markedly attenuated when glucagon concentration was 10(-9) M or higher. In contrast, tetramethrin had no effect on glucogenolysis evoked by lower concentrations of glucagon. Similarly, tetramethrin greatly reduced gluconeogenesis induced by high concentrations of glucagon without affecting the effect of low concentrations of glucagon. The same results were obtained in the presence of 1 microM extracellular calcium. To abolish glucagon-induced elevation of cytoplasmic free calcium concentration, we heavily loaded quin2 into hepatocytes. In these cells, glycogenolysis evoked by low concentrations of glucagon was completely abolished. Glycogenolysis caused by high concentrations of glucagon was markedly inhibited. These results indicate that glucagon action on hepatic glucose metabolism is mediated by two different mechanisms, which depend on concentrations of glucagon.


In Pakistan less than 1% of total differently able population have access to education and only 0.2% are in higher education. The reasons are many because of policies, accessibility, exclusion, facilities, equal opportunities, infrastructure and skilled faculty at the universities. In Pakistan Allama Iqbal Open University is the only university providing open and equal educational opportunities to all the disabled in Pakistan. Because of the blessing of Covid-19 higher education institutions of Pakistan are more open, accommodative and inclusive and providing opportunities to disabled students too. In this study the researchers interviewed more than 200 students graduated from AIOU and formal universities. The aim of this qualitative research was to determine their experiences of online education at AIOU and formal universities. Also, their perceptions of the relationship between inclusive educational environments and academic performance. The sample of the study was included students with hearing impairment, visual impairment and physically disabilities. The participants of the study indicated that disabilities presented concentration and scheduling challenges, the flexibility of online learning as well as participants' skills at self-accommodation and self-advocacy were instrumental in their academic performance/success. The study recommended that the online education at formal universities should be more supportive and accommodative online education environment. They further recommended formal universities with the help of AIOU should develop eContent (usability and accessibility), eAssessment and trained faculty to teach the disabled on online learning management system


The strength model of self-control has been predominantly tested with people from Western cultures. The present research asks whether the phenomenon of ego-depletion generalizes to a culture emphasizing the virtues of exerting mental self-control in everyday life. A pilot study found that whereas Americans tended to believe that exerting willpower on mental tasks is depleting, Indians tended to believe that exerting willpower is energizing. Using dual task ego-depletion paradigms, Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c found reverse ego-depletion among Indian participants, such that participants exhibited better mental self-control on a subsequent task after initially working on strenuous rather than nonstrenuous cognitive tasks. Studies 2 and 3 found that Westerners exhibited the ego-depletion effect whereas Indians exhibited the reverse ego-depletion effect on the same set of tasks. Study 4 documented the causal effect of lay beliefs about whether exerting willpower is depleting versus energizing on reverse ego-depletion with both Indian and Western participants. Together, these studies reveal the underlying basis of the ego-depletion phenomenon in culturally shaped lay theories about willpower.


A novel technique to estimate and model rotor-body parameters of a large steam turbine generator from real time disturbance data is presented. For each set of disturbance data collected at different operating conditions, the rotor body parameters of the generator are estimated using an output error method (OEM). Artificial neural network (ANN)-based estimators are later used to model the nonlinearities in the estimated parameters based on the generator operating conditions. The developed ANN models are then validated with measurements not used in the training procedure. The performance of estimated parameters is also validated with extensive simulations and compared against the manufacturer values.


Convective and radiative heat transfer from heating systems significantly determines greenhouse microclimate during the cold period of the year. These mechanisms are complicated because they combine free and forced convection modes, most often turbulent with different characteristics. The aim of the present study is to analyze the internal convective flows in a closed greenhouse caused by buoyancy forces from different configurations of heating systems. Numerical results obtained by the use of a commercial computational fluid dynamics code (ANSYS CFX) are compared to experimental measurements carried out in a full-scale experimental greenhouse with a tomato crop. The greenhouse was heated with a network of heating pipes and/or with an air heater. The standard k-e turbulence model was adopted to describe the turbulent nature of the flow and transported properties. The resistance of the crop to airflow and the heat and mass exchanges of the crop with the surrounding air were simulated using the equivalent porous medium approach. In general, good agreement was found, since the mean error between measured and simulated values for air velocity, air temperature, and air absolute humidity distribution was 16%. The combined use of heating pipes and air heater enhanced plant activity and reduced the condensation rate. This heating method led to an increase in energy consumption of up to 19%, but it also created a more heterogeneous climate distribution compared to the case in which only heating pipes were used. It was shown that the greenhouse air volume is split into two regions: one occupied by the crop where natural convection dominated, and one above the crop where the hot air from the air heater resulted in a different microclimate from the lower part of the greenhouse (crop level), and the convection mode changed to mixed or forced depending on the distance from the air heater.


This thesis studies the use of heuristic algorithms in a number of combinatorial problems that occur in various resource constrained environments. Such problems occur, for example, in manufacturing, where a restricted number of resources (tools, machines, feeder slots) are needed to perform some operations. Many of these problems turn out to be computationally intractable, and heuristic algorithms are used to provide efficient, yet sub-optimal solutions. The main goal of the present study is to build upon existing methods to create new heuristics that provide improved solutions for some of these problems. All of these problems occur in practice, and one of the motivations of our study was the request for improvements from industrial sources. We approach three different resource constrained problems. The first is the tool switching and loading problem, and occurs especially in the assembly of printed circuit boards. This problem has to be solved when an efficient, yet small primary storage is used to access resources (tools) from a less efficient (but unlimited) secondary storage area. We study various forms of the problem and provide improved heuristics for its solution. Second, the nozzle assignment problem is concerned with selecting a suitable set of vacuum nozzles for the arms of a robotic assembly machine. It turns out that this is a specialized formulation of the MINMAX resource allocation formulation of the apportionment problem and it can be solved efficiently and optimally. We construct an exact algorithm specialized for the nozzle selection and provide a proof of its optimality. Third, the problem of feeder assignment and component tape construction occurs when electronic components are inserted and certain component types cause tape movement delays that can significantly impact the efficiency of printed circuit board assembly. Here, careful selection of component slots in the feeder improves the tape movement speed. We provide a formal proof that this problem is of the same complexity as the turnpike problem (a well studied geometric optimization problem), and provide a heuristic algorithm for this problem.


The increasing deployment of distribution-level phasor measurement units (PMUs) calls for dynamic distribution state estimation (DDSE) approaches that tap into high-rate measurements to maintain a comprehensive view of the distribution-system state in real time. Accordingly, this paper explores the development of a fast algorithmic framework by casting the DDSE task within the time-varying optimization realm. The time-varying formulation involves a time-varying robustified least-squares approach, and it naturally models optimal trajectories for the estimated states under streaming of measurements. The formulation is based on a linear surrogate of the AC power-flow equations, and it includes an element of robustness with respect to measurement outliers. The paper then leverages a first-order prediction-correction method to achieve simple online updates that can provably track the state variables from heterogeneous measurements. This online algorithm is computationally efficient as it relies on the Hessian of the cost function without computing matrix-inverse. Convergence and bounds on the estimation errors of proposed algorithm can be analytically established.


Most of classification methods require model learning procedure or optimal parameters selection using large number of training samples. In this paper, we propose a novel classification approach using l1-minimization based sparse representation which does not need any learning procedure or parameters selection. The proposed approach is based on l1minimization because l0-minimization is generally NP-hard and is not a convex optimization problem. Sparse based solutions have been proposed in other areas like signal processing but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that sparse based classification is being proposed for the classification of hyperspectral data. l1-minimization based sparse representation is calculated for each of the test samples using few training samples directly. In remote sensing, usually it is extremely difficult and expensive to identify and label the samples due to which we often lack sufficient training samples for classification. We tested the proposed approach for difficult classification problem i.e high dimensional spaces and few training samples. We also analyzed the cases in which the sparse based classification may and may not work. Our extensive experiments on real hyperspectral dataset (AVIRIS 1992 Indiana's Indian Pines image), prove that the proposed technique offers more classification accuracy and more efficient than state-of-the-art SVM and semi-supervised methods as it does not need any model selection.


Health care providers are almost always universally reimbursed by third party purchasers. As a result, health care purchasers are faced with risk selection challenges. In response, risk adjustment methods are introduced in the reimbursement for services. However, health care providers under this arrangement have incentives to manipulate the risk elements in an attempt to obtain larger payments from the purchasers i.e. the realisation of risk adjuster then becomes sensitive to the providers?upcoding behaviour. Whilst there is usually an outside auditor (e.g from the o¢ ce of inspector general of the department of health and human services in the United States) who randomly monitors providers?beahviour and imposes penalty in the event that dishonesty is detected, monitoring such behaviour is highly costly. In this paper, we propose a reward scheme to combat such moral hazard problems. We analyse two types of incentive schemes where treatment intensity is contractible in one and not in the other. We show that under both incentive schemes, the honest provider receives the same reward and obtains higher expected utility in comparison to the full information case. Further, with contractible treatment intensity, the contract resembles the full information one.


Aim/Purpose: Educational robotics competitions are a popular way to increase students' interest in science and engineering during their K-12 years. However, female students are typically underrepresented in these competitions. The goal of this study is to determine differences in the experiences of male and female robotics competition students in order to better support female students and increase their representation in competition leagues.

Background: VEX Robotics Competitions are one of the fastest-growing educational robotics competitions available to middle school and high school students around the world. Despite growing numbers of participants, VEX programs have a notice-able lack of female participants. In order to create a more diverse and representative program, it is important to investigate why fewer female students participate in the competitions and what can be done to better support female students.

Methodology: Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from VEX mentors and students through online surveys. A total sample of N=675 VEX mentors and students participated (n=47 students and n=628 mentors). The surveys asked scaled, multiple choice, and free response questions. Through these surveys, the following research questions are answered: 1) What (if any) are the differences between male and female student experiences with VEX? 2) What (if any) are the differences in male and female students' confidence in their technical ability? and 3) What (if any) are the differences in male and female students' performance on VEX related robotics team tasks?

Contribution: This study contributes to the growing body of work on engaging female students, and other underrepresented students, in STEM fields such as programming, engineering, and robotics.

Findings: Results demonstrate the male students outnumber female students and male mentors also outnumber female mentors in this sample. Male students are significantly more confident in their general technical ability and their ability to put things together (p<.05) and students of both genders generally wished to have more female students on their teams. Results also indicate that mentors generally perceive their female students as requiring more help and that they are less engaged with construction tasks as compared to male students.

Recommendations for Practitioners: VEX mentors should focus on enhancing female students' confidence with the construction and building aspects of robotics and ensuring they get the same experience with these tasks as male students. They should consider providing supplemental hands-on training sessions, within or outside of regular team sessions, for students who wish to build confidence and experience in these areas.

Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should continue to explore the experiences of female students in robotics competitions, including differences based on grade level, mentor gender, and more. Researchers should additionally look at female students who are not a part of robotics teams (or who have left a robotics team) to understand why these teams do not appeal to them.

Impact on Society: Women are still underrepresented in engineering and computer science professions. In order to bridge this gap, it is critical to find effective ways to reach girls in their K-12 years to build their confidence and interest in these fields before they reach college. This study points out critical areas where robotics competition teams should focus on building female students' confidence.

Future Research: The findings in this paper present research from year 1 of a multi-year longitudinal study. Future research will continue to track the mentors and students in this study in order to gain information on retention and change over time.


Author(s): Everett, Mark E | Abstract: The 59,000 km long global mid-ocean ridge system is the site of formation of 20 km3 of oceanic crust yearly. Two-thirds of all heat loss from the interior of our planet is through the ocean floors, 40% of this amount is focused through the ridge. Activity involves complex interactions among a number of processes occurring over wide ranges of depths and lateral distances, including melting of the earth's mantle, delivery of the molten rock to a crustal magma chamber, cooling of the magma intrusion by hydrothermal circulation and volcanic eruption, chemical exchange between hot rock surrounding the magma chamber and the overlying seawater, and even the establishment of exotic biological communities near hydrothermal vents at the ridge axis. These features justify the expanding scientific interest in the study of the ridge.Transient controlled-source electromagnetics (CSEM) is a geophysical exploration technique capable of determining the electrical conductivity beneath fast-spreading segments of the mid-ocean ridge. Geological structure beneath the mid-ocean ridge that is readily accessible to transient CSEM exploration is located at crustal levels and includes the axial magma chamber and its associated zones of partial melt and hydrothermal activity. Seismic images of the top several kilometers beneath the fast spreading East Pacific Rise (EPR) between 9-13°N have already been obtained. Multi-channel reflection profiles place strong constraints on the geometry of the top of the axial magma chamber but refraction data provide only coarse estimates of the sub-surface temperature, distribution of partial melt and porosity, parameters required to distinguish between proposed petrological models of the ridge. Electrical conductivity is a strong indicator of all these critical parameters and therefore CSEM methods are well-suited to improve the estimates and help characterize the ridge environment.In this thesis, a pair of forward modeling computer programs have been developed to design ridge-going experiments and assist interpretation of mid-ocean ridge transient CSEM data sets, as they become available. The programs may also be used to evaluate the transient CSEM technique as it might be applied to investigate other tectonically active regions of the seafloor. One program rapidly computes the theoretical response, as a function of time, of an arbitrary, two dimensional earth to a sudden switch-on of electric current in a line source of electromagnetic energy. The other program is more advanced, requires more computer time, and is referred to as a 2.5-D program because it can handle excitation of the earth by a more realistic, finite source.The programs solve the forward problem as follows. Electromagnetic boundary value problems based on the governing Maxwell's equations are solved by the finite element method in the Laplace frequency s-domain. The calculated electromagnetic field components are then transformed into the time domain by means of the Gaver-Stehfest algorithm. In the 2.5-D program, Maxwell's equations are additionally Fourier transformed in the direction parallel to the strike of the 2-D conductivity structure, and field components are computed in the along-strike wavenumber q-domain. Following the calculation, inverse transforms are performed to obtain the along-strike spatial variations of the field components. The codes have been validated through comparisons with known analytic solutions in which the earth is modeled as a uniformly conducting half-space. Convergence of the finite element approximation is found to be O(h), where h measures the size of the triangles comprising the finite element mesh. An extrapolation formula is described by which numerical solutions on progressively finer meshes are combined. The formula permits great accuracy to be attained in the computed field components, using relatively coarse meshes.A numerical study of the performance of an idealized transient CSEM system at the East Pacific Rise has been carried out using the 2-D code. The system consists of an infinite source located 5 km west of the ridge axis, and seafloor magnetic field sensors placed at various distances across the ridge crest. The source is oriented with respect to the strike of the ridge so as to produce only the H-polarization mode of electric current flow. The results indicate that this system can detect the axial magma chamber and the associated zones of hydrothermal activity and partial melt by monitoring two electromagnetic response parameters, the diffusion time T and the response amplitude B max , as a function of transmitter/receiver separation. These response parameters are easily extracted from measured data and are diagnostic of the sub-surface electrical conductivity. The presence of a highly conductive magma chamber slows and attenuates signals diffusing beneath the ridge, increasing T and decreasing Bmax. Hydrothermal circulation in the highly fractured, extrusive basalt layer has the same effect on the data for receivers placed within 3 km of the ridge axis, but very little effect elsewhere. Inferences made from the numerical results suggest that a horizontal electric dipole (HED) of moment 10 4 A•m and receivers sampling the seafloor magnetic field at 10-25 Hz with a sensitivity of 1 pT/s over a time window extending to 10 s are sufficient to detect these crustal targets.Interpretation of transient CSEM data requires forward modeling using a more realistic, finite source. The 2.5-D code is capable of achieving this. Sample field patterns produced in the vicinity of the ridge by a sudden switch-on of electric current in a horizontal electric dipole (HED) are computed. The patterns illustrate diffusion, in three spatial dimensions and time, of various along-strike electromagnetic field components through typical mid-ocean ridge structures. The results demonstrate the utility of the 2.5-D code, i.e. its potential for interpreting data from a transient CSEM ridge-going experiment.


In the analysis of laryngeal anomalies in 30 selected phoniatric patients by CT examination, 2 atavisms of the laryngeal skeleton were found. The ventral enclosure of the thyroid cartilage by the hyoid bone presents an inhibition malformation of the laryngeal skeleton with essential reduced vocal ability. The posterior junction between the cornu majus ossis hyoidei and the cornu superius cartilaginis thyroideae is marked by the direct contact of these cornua lacking the ligamentum thyrohyoideum laterale. Both anomalies are characterized by the persistence of the close relation between the hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage, which normally exists phylogenetically as well as ontogenetically. That could be shown by anatomical sections performed on 4 human newborns in the horizontal plane.


— The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) aims at testing positioning and navigation at the Moon by using Earth Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Within this framework, to support the scientific mission definition and to process on-ground the data that will be collected, a proper GNSS software receiver is needed, implementing advanced signal processing algorithms that enable it to work in the Moon scenario. This paper discusses the issues and potentialities, presenting the preliminary results of the simulation of the Moon environment, as far as the navigation tasks are concerned.


This study investigated the extramarital sexual affairs' critical role in the transmission of HIV infection among married couples. The study mainly focused on factors influencing extramarital sexual affairs, the consequences of HIV infection among married couples and their families and proposed measures to sensitize communities on the maladies of extramarital affairs. The study took on a qualitative case study design. Purposive sampling techniques were used whereby 50 respondents were recruited and interviewed. In-depth interviews were used for the collection of data. Data were qualitatively analyzed thematically using Nvivo QDA computer software package. The study has revealed that human behavior, poverty, matrimonial conflicts, alcoholism, sexual dissatisfaction, staying away from partner for a long time and polygamy were the main factors which led to extramarital sexual affairs. The study identified that when couples are infected with the virus there is a great chance for increased mother to child HIV transmission, poverty, psychological and emotional problems, family disintegrations, increase in new HIV cases in the society, increased street children due to death of parents and reduction of man power. Further, the study recommends that premarital counseling services, social and behavioral change communication programs and poverty reduction interventions can help to reduce this problem. It was again suggested that establishment of anti-adultery laws, community health education on HIV infection in marriages, and anti-alcoholism policies can help to reduce extramarital sexual affairs and decrease the rate of HIV infection among married couples.


Measurements of reaction time have played a major role in developing theories about the menial processes that underlie sensation, perception, memory, cognition, and action. The interpretation of reaction time data requires strong assumptions about how subjects trade accuracy for speed of performance and about whether there is a discrete or continuous transmission of information from one component process to the next. Conventional reaction time and speed-accuracy trade-off procedures are not, by themselves, sufficiently powerful to test these assumptions. However, the deficiency can be remedied in part through a new speed-accuracy decomposition technique. To apply the technique, one uses a hybrid mixture of (a) conventional reaction time trials in which subjects must process a given test stimulus with high accuracy and (b) peremptory response-signal trials in which subjects must make prompted guesses before stimulus processing has been finished. Data from this "titrated reaction time procedure" are then analyzed in terms of a parallel sophisticated-guessing model, under which normal mental processes and guessing processes are assumed to race against each other in producing overt responses. With the model, one may estimate the amount of partial information that subjects have accumulated about a test stimulus at each intermediate moment during a reaction time trial. Such estimates provide deeper insights into the rate at which partial information is accumulated over time and into discrete versus continuous modes of information processing. An application of speed-accuracy decomposition to studies of word recognition illustrates the potential power of the technique.


The most common surgical pathology of cattle and small ruminants is purulo-necrotic disease in the hoof, which is caused by deep neurotic-dystrophic disorders and is the result of exposure to exogenous and endogenous factors, as well as inadequate, monotonous feeding and non-compliance with hygienic and quarantine measures. The success of the control of purulent-necrotic processes in the area of the hoof depends on the timely detection of sick animals, their correct treatment and effective preventative work. Scientists have proposed many approaches and methods for treating animals that have hoof diseases, but there is no consensus about the effectiveness of the existing drugs. For the treatment of cattle and small ruminants with purulo-necrotic disease of the hoof, we proposed a new antiseptic drug with bacteriostatic, fungicidal, astringent and regenerating effects. This drug contains copper sulfate, boric acid and succinic acid. It is applied as a powder. The healing of the purulo-necrotic ulcers in the experimental animals occurred under a fibrin-tissue scab, and by the 10th day, the abnormal focus was filled with granulations followed by epithelization, which was explained by the energetic metabolic effect on the cells of the succinic acid included in the drug. The advantage of the proposed method of treatment is in the simplicity of the technical preparation of the powder under the conditions of production and in the rapid recovery of animals. The powder does not possess inhibitory properties and does not have a toxic effect.


Xiang Wang Yu Wang 2 Yiyi Zhu 1 Luxia Yan 1 Liandong Zhao 1 1Department of Neurology, Xuzhou Medical University Affiliated Hospital of Huaian, Huai'an, Jiangsu Province 223002, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Pukou Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, People's Republic of China Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD), a leading cause of dementia, becomes a serious health issue for individuals and society around the world. AD is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and the loss of large numbers of neurons. To date, there is no effective treatment for AD, and thus, to enhance neurogenesis in the AD brain may be a therapeutic strategy. RAS signaling pathway involves in synaptic plasticity and memory formation, which is overexpressed in brains with AD. This study used Aβ1-42-injected mice (Aβ1-42-mice) as the AD model to investigate the effects of S-trans, trans-farnesylthiosalicylic acid (FTS), a synthetic Ras inhibitor, on the impairment of neurogenesis and the spatial cognitive deficits. Materials and methods: AD model mice were manufactured through intracerebroventricular injection of Aβ1-42. Morris water maze (MWM) was performed to evaluate the capacity of spatial memory, and Nissl staining was applied to assess neuronal damage in the hippocampus CA1. Immunohistochemistry of 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU), BrdU/neuronal nuclei (NeuN), and doublecortin (DCX) were used to detect progenitor cell proliferation, maturation, and neurite growth, respectively. And the expression levels of RAS, ERK/ERK phosphorylation (p-ERK) and CREB/CREB phosphorylation (p-CREB) were detected by Western blot. Results: The results demonstrated that FTS could prevent Aβ1-42 to impair survival and neurite growth of newborn neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) in Aβ1-42-mice. Furthermore, behavioral indexes and morphological findings showed that FTS improved the learning and spatial memory abilities of Aβ1-42-mice. In addition, FTS could inhibit the levels of hippocampal p-ERK and p-CREB activated by Aβ, which is the underlying molecular mechanism. Conclusion: In conclusion, these findings suggest that FTS as a RAS inhibitor could be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of AD.


While it has been acknowledged that convergence is a multidimensional phenomenon, the convergence of media production processes has received little attention from researchers so far. In this article, we address this research gap with a qualitative study of production processes in different types of media. Our starting point is that independent of the media type, common product characteristics can be identified, that promote success in the audience market. We ask whether the same is true for process characteristics; whether there are converged processes that promote audience success independent of the media type. The study is based on n = 39 interviews in the German-speaking markets. Our findings provide a differentiated result: We do find similarities in the processes along the lines of product characteristics; however, the project phase is an important influencer. While processes in the development phase are more converged, production and distribution still demand distinct processes for different media types. In general, we can confirm studies that find a reluctance of media practitioners towards convergence, which often remains an underfunded and cost-oriented brain child of the top management.


When political change is remote the only prospect for change is in the realm of imagination. Herbert Marcuse responds to this in his last book, The Aesthetic Dimension (1978) after the failure of revolt in Paris in 1968. He argues that although art cannot change the world as such it can change how the world is apprehended. Thus art's imaginative potential is part of a wider pursuit of freedom. The paper argues that the situation is bleaker today than in the 1970s. Neoliberalism enforces a regime of consumerism even more now than then, and operates globally. Still, hope reappears in direct action from the anti-roads campaigns of the 1990s to anti-capitalism in the 2000s and Occupy in 2011-12 (after a much longer history of direct action). Today's direct action and campaigning is specific, however, in addressing the trajectory of global capital. It also accepts its own ephemerality—leading Occupy to reject the processes of representation and issue no programme, instead inviting people to be present among others of like mind in the effective creation of a new society within the old. The paper asks to what extent art remains part of this picture of radical alterity, and whether Marcuse's critical aesthetics remain helpful. Among issues raised are Marcuse's Enlightenment view of art as autonomous creativity (rather than contingent on production within an art-world); a blurring of the divide between art institutions and the cultures of protest, as in the exhibition Disobedient Objects in London in 2014; and that appropriation may be art's perpetual burden.


The Borden Citizen was an early newspaper in Borden County. It was founded in 1901 and eventually transformed into the current newspaper, the Borden Star.


This paper explores the ways in which jurists from the 17th to the 19th centuries attempted to map the law. There were multiple ways of mapping the law and its concepts. No single taxonomy was comprehensive. The most general maps were found in treatises, organised largely around the rights of person and property. However, these treatises did not explain the law of obligations and its workings. A better conceptual mapping of the law of obligations could be found in the common law system of pleading, but even this "map" was incomplete, for it failed to embrace all the concepts which lawyers articulated in courtroom argumentation. Legal taxonomies thus did not determine the development of law: rather, lawyers and jurists used concepts and classifications in a flexible and fluid way.


According to the relevant code standards and specifications for the septic tanks at home and aboard, the design and calculation methods of septic tank in USA, Australia, Ireland and China are compared. The results showed that the design volume in China is obviously less than that of the others, and the main reason lies in the difference in the aspects of the application environment and the management and maintenance of septic tank, and the delay update of codes and standards related to the septic tank design. Furthermore, the undersized volume will lead to the malfunction of septic tank.


The purpose of the present study was to investigate the physiological responses to intense exercise in obese Wistar rats treated with metformin. To induce obesity, all animals were infused with monosodic glutamate (4 mg/g of body weight) via subcutaneous injection. The rats were divided in 4 groups according to the received treatment: obese control (OC); obese metformin ( OM); obese control exercise (OCE) and obese metformin exercise (OME). Before and after one session of intense exercise the following parameters were measured: serum glucose (mg/dl), triglycerides (g/100g), total cholesterol (mg/dl) and haematocrit (%). The values of serum glucose and total cholesterol were significantly reduced in control exercise group (OCE - 68.4 ± 14.7 and 70.8 ±18.3) compared to obese control sedentary group (OC - 83.6 ± 12.8 and 91.3 ± 9.6). The isolate metformin infusion decreased the glucose concentration from 83.6 ± 12.8 (OC) to 70.8 ± 5.9 (OM). On the other hand, metformin associated with exercise increased the availability of free triglycerides after exercise (OM - 166.6 ± 11.3, OME - 184.0 ± 4.3). In conclusion, the present intervention program (intense physical exercise) showed to be efficient on glicemic homeostasis, as well as on lipids circulatory levels in obese rats treated with metformin.


Interview with the Hon Alexander Downer in London, 14th February 2018 as part of the Commonwealth Oral History Project. The project aims to produce a unique digital research resource on the oral history of the Commonwealth since 1965 through sixty oral history interviews with leading figures in the recent history of the organisation. It will provide an essential research tool for anyone investigating the history of the Commonwealth and will serve to promote interest in and understanding of the organisation. Biography: Downer, Alexander. 1951-. Born in Australia. Educated at Newcastle University (1975-1976). Australian Diplomatic Service, 1976-82. Political Adviser to Prime Minister JM Fraser, 1982-83. House of Representatives for Mayo, South Australia, 1984-2007. Shadow Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Environment, 1987. Shadow Minister for Housing and Small Business, 1988 to 1989. Shadow Minister for Trade and Trade Negotiations, 1990-1992. Shadow Minister for Defence from 1992-1993. Shadow Treasurer, 1993-1994. Leader of the Liberal Party (Opposition), 1994-1995. Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1995-1996. Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1996-2007. Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus, 2008-2014. High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, 2014-2018. Executive Chairman of the International School of Government at King's College, London, 2018-.


This paper briefly reviews the conventional method of obtaining the canonical form of an antisymmetric (skewsymmetric, alternating) matrix. Conventionally a vector space over the complex field has to be introduced. After a short introduction to the universal mathematical "language" Geometric Calculus, its fundamentals, i.e. its "grammar" Geometric Algebra (Clifford Algebra) is explained. This lays the groundwork for its real geometric and coordinate free application in order to obtain the canonical form of an antisymmetric matrix in terms of a bivector, which is isomorphic to the conventional canonical form. Then concrete applications to two, three and four dimensional antisymmetric square matrices follow. Because of the physical importance of the Minkowski metric, the canonical form of an antisymmetric matrix with respect to the Minkowski metric is derived as well. A final application to electromagnetic fields concludes the work.


BACKGROUND
The recent availability of high-quality data from clinical trials, together with machine learning (ML) techniques, presents exciting opportunities for developing prediction models for clinical outcomes.

METHODS
As a proof-of-concept, we translated a hypoglycemia risk model derived from the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study into the HypoHazardScore, a risk assessment tool applicable to electronic health record (EHR) data. To assess its performance, we conducted a 16-week clinical study at the University of Minnesota where participants (N = 40) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) had hypoglycemia assessed prospectively by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).

RESULTS
The HypoHazardScore combines 16 risk factors commonly found within the EHR. The HypoHazardScore successfully predicted (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.723) whether participants experienced least one CGM-assessed hypoglycemic event (glucose <54 mg/dL for ≥15 minutes from two CGMs) while significantly correlating with frequency of CGM-assessed hypoglycemic events (r = 0.38) and percent time experiencing CGM-assessed hypoglycemia (r = 0.39). Compared to participants with a low HypoHazardScore (N = 19, score <4, median score of 4), participants with a high HypoHazardScore (N = 21, score ≥4) had more frequent CGM-assessed hypoglycemic events (high: 1.6 ± 2.2 events/week; low: 0.3 ± 0.5 events/week) and experienced more CGM-assessed hypoglycemia (high: 1.4% ± 2.0%; low: 0.2% ± 0.4% time) during the 16-week follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that a hypoglycemia risk model can be successfully adapted from the ACCORD data to the EHR, with validation by a prospective study using CGM-assessed hypoglycemia. The HypoHazardScore represents a significant advancement toward implementing an EHR-based decision support system that can help reduce hypoglycemia in patients with T2DM.


The floor-leverage rule is a spending and investment strategy designed for retirees who can tolerate investment risk but insist on sustainable spending. The rule calls for purchasing a spending guarantee with 85% of wealth and investing the remaining 15% in equities with 3× leverage. Surprisingly, this leverage is a tool for managing risk. The authors compare the rule with some popular strategies, illustrate it for a variety of retiree preferences, and evaluate its historical performance.


In this work we present friction-force microscopy (FFM) lattice-resolved images acquired on the (100) facet of the semiconductor organic oligomer (2Z,2'Z) − 3,3'-(1,4-phenylene)bis(2-(4-butoxyphenyl)acrylonitrile) (β-DBDCS) crystal in water at room temperature. Stick-slip contrast, lateral contact stiffness, and friction forces are found to depend strongly on the sliding direction due to the anisotropic packing of the molecular chains forming the crystal surface along the [010] and [001] directions. The anisotropy also causes the maximum value of the normal force applicable before wearing to increase by a factor of 3 when the scan is performed along the [001] direction on the (100) face. Altogether, our results contribute to achieving a better understanding of the molecular origin of friction anisotropy on soft crystalline surfaces, which has been often hypothesized but rarely investigated in the literature.


This title revisits the history of American colonization. In this iconoclastic book, Francis Jennings recasts the story of American colonization as a territorial invasion. The traditional history of early America paints the colonies as a transplantation of European culture to a new continent - a 'virgin land' in which Native Americans were assigned the role of foil whose main contribution was to stimulate the energy and ingenuity of European dispossessors. Jennings rejects this ideology and examines the relationships between Europeans and Indians from a far more critical point of view. Shorn of old mythology and rationalizations, Puritan actions are seen in the cold light of material interest and naked expansion.


It is proposed to develop principles for formulation taking into account that the recommended list of issues in forensic land-technical or land appraisal, specified in scientific and methodological recommendations is not exhaustive.

The normative basis for the implementation of the investigated land technical examination is the entire sphere of land legislation, primarily the Land Code of Ukraine, state and industry standards, norms and rules in the field of land relations, land use and protection. In this regard, the difficulty of comparing the actual land management process in the course of the examination with certain legislative and regulatory acts is due to the lack of most standards in the field of land management, land Cadastre and land protection.

The concept of "evidence" in the field of forensic land technical expertise is a legal construction that accumulates the main characteristics and requirements inherent in evidence as a system of interrelated elements (land management process documents, cadastral information, borders, area, cost).


Allostery is a fundamental property of proteins, which regulates biochemical information transfer between spatially distant sites. Here, we report on the critical role of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in discovering the mechanism of allosteric communication within CRISPR‐Cas9, a leading genome editing machinery with enormous promises for medicine and biotechnology. MD revealed how allostery intervenes during at least three steps of the CRISPR‐Cas9 function: affecting DNA recognition, mediating the cleavage and interfering with the off‐target activity. An allosteric communication that activates concerted DNA cleavages was found to led through the L1/L2 loops, which connect the HNH and RuvC catalytic domains. The identification of these "allosteric transducers" inspired the development of novel variants of the Cas9 protein with improved specificity, opening a new avenue for controlling the CRISPR‐Cas9 activity. Discussed studies also highlight the critical role of the recognition lobe in the conformational activation of the catalytic HNH domain. Specifically, the REC3 region was found to modulate the dynamics of HNH by sensing the formation of the RNA:DNA hybrid. The role of REC3 was revealed to be particularly relevant in the presence of DNA mismatches. Indeed, interference of REC3 with the RNA:DNA hybrid containing mismatched pairs at specific positions resulted in locking HNH in an inactive "conformational checkpoint" conformation, thereby hampering off‐target cleavages. Overall, MD simulations established the fundamental mechanisms underlying the allosterism of CRISPR‐Cas9, aiding engineering strategies to develop new CRISPR‐Cas9 variants for improved genome editing.


The soft systems methodology was developed by Peter Checkland over an extended period of time to assist organisational improvements. It provides tools to assist different stakeholders to articulate their perspectives on the best action to be taken in problem environments. It is grounded in the ideas of soft systems thinking, where systems are viewed as conceptual models to make sense of a messy real world environment. The original focus of soft systems methodology is organisational use rather than academic use. In this paper we demonstrate how the soft systems methodology can be used to guide and analyse interpretive interviews with participants in an academic research project in the context of interpretive research methodology. We reflect on the hermeneutic nature of interpretive qualitative data collection and analysis and then we show that an activity diagram as used in the soft systems methodology, is a valid data analysis technique in terms of the epistemological context of interpretive data analysis. We demonstrate our proposal by means of the data analysis of interpretive interviews of data warehouse practitioners on their perspectives of the required skills of information technology students majoring in data warehousing. We compiled activity diagrams and used them in communication with our participants, thus enabling our participants to verify our data analysis and enhance our understanding of their perspectives. We show how different perspectives can be represented and reflected upon after compiling activity diagrams and how different perspectives can be accommodated to develop a single strategy for change. Our main contribution is to demonstrate the suitability of the soft systems methodology in data collection and analysis in interpretive cases studies where strategies for changes are studied. The paper is organised in four main sections, starting with a discussion on the ontological and epistemological assumptions of interpretive case studies in order to show that it is possible to use the soft systems methodology from an interpretive research perspective. The second section provides a very brief discussion of the soft systems methodology. Our main contribution is in section three, providing justification and guidance for using the soft systems methodology to guide data collection and analysis in the context of interpretive research methodology. We demonstrate our proposal in the fourth section, where we show how we analysed interpretive interview data. Our paper concludes with reflection and recommendations.


Introduction : A knowledge gap exists when it comes to the provision of integrated health and social care for children with complex care needs CCN across Europe.  This growing population of children will typically have varying and extensive needs.  As there is evidence that they are more vulnerable to harm, these needs will include safeguarding.  A coordinated response from multiple care providers therefore is essential. Aim : This study aims to explore approaches to care coordination/case management to facilitate the transfer from hospital care to social care in the community for an adolescent with an Acquired Brain Injury ABI. Method : As part of an EU Horizon 2020 study on children's primary health care, Models of Child Health Appraised MOCHA, access was provided to a network of child health and social care experts Country Agents across 30 European countries.  The Country Agents were required to answer a standard set of questions based on a case scenario of a child with an ABI.  The questions explored each country's approach to supporting the transfer of a child back into the community following secondary care.  Results were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results : Eighty percent of countries n=24 responded.  Fifty percent n=12 of respondents stated that there was a care coordinator/case manager to coordinate social care support in the community for an adolescent with an ABI and their family on discharge from hospital, this support being provided by either one professional, or a number of professionals; in 13% of these countries n=3, the coordinator may vary depending on the adolescent's need.  Seventeen percent of respondents n=4, stated that care is coordinated by a mix of family and professionals.  While, 33% of respondents n=8 stated that parents must coordinate supports themselves. Discussion : The results demonstrate that where there are care coordination practices, these differ in the type and number of professionals involved among the different countries in the study.  The variation in practices may be due to differing legal and organisational structures for health and social care.  A third of countries appear to place responsibilities on parents to organise and coordinate care for their child.  As all participating countries have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it seems essential that all countries should have a specific policy to guide the integration of health and social care needs of children with CCN. Conclusion : It is essential that coordination of social care supports in the community for children with CCN and their families is prioritised, particularly given the increased vulnerability of children with CCN.  This should be supported by national policy for this specific group of children.  Lessons learned : Careful thought is required in formulating questions to ensure uniformly interpretable answers on a multifaceted concept. Limitations : While use of a case scenario is a valuable way to explore social care provision, it provides specific information that is not necessarily generalisable. Suggestions for future work : Research on the availability and coordination of social care supports for children with other complex needs.


The paper analyzes the data on the examination and surgical treatment of 426 (313 males and 113 females) patients aged from 16 to 60 years with various aortic valvular diseases. Isolated aortic stenosis was detected in 122 (28.6%) patients, isolated aortic failure in 128 (30.0%), and aortic valvular disease concurrent with other valvular diseases in 176 (41.4%) patients. Some problems in the diagnosis of latent myocardial insufficiency and in the compensation of intracardiac hemodynamics, as well as the association of aortic valvular disease, angina pectoris, and coronary heart disease are dealt with. A contribution of risk factors, such as valvular calcification, age, etiology, and their influence on the outcome of surgical treatment are discussed in the paper.


BACKGROUND
Obese children may be at increased risk of becoming obese adults. To examine the relationship between obesity in childhood and obesity in adulthood, we reviewed the epidemiologic literature published between 1970 and July 1992. Comparison between studies was complicated by differences in study design, definitions of obesity, and analytic methods used. Although the correlations between anthropometric measures of obesity in childhood and those in adulthood varied considerably among studies, the associations were consistently positive.

RESULTS
About a third (26 to 41%) of obese preschool children were obese as adults, and about half (42 to 63%) of obese school-age children were obese as adults. For all studies and across all ages, the risk of adult obesity was at least twice as high for obese children as for nonobese children. The risk of adult obesity was greater for children who were at higher levels of obesity and for children who were obese at older ages.

CONCLUSION
The wide range of estimates in this literature are, in part, due to differences in study designs, definitions of obesity, ages at which participants were measured, intervals between measurements, and population and cultural differences.


Instructors seek new approaches and methods to facilitate and to achive learning while the learning process constantly changes and developes. Individual characteristics are considered important factors to facilitate learning. An individual's learning style (LS) is one of the important factors affecting the learning process. There is a consensus among researchers(Dunn,1990; Claxton ve Murrell, 1987) that knowledge regarding an individual's LS will facilitate in his/her learning process and it should be considered in the process. First, the McCarhty's "Student Learning Preferences Survey" and Alkan's "The Attitude towards Mathematics" were applied to subjects and individuals' LS and attitudes were identified. The learning process with appropriate techniques for the individual's LS was initiated and the process proceeded. Our results indicated that depending on the learning approach applied and the method use, students' LSs can change. Noticeable changes in the students' academic success were observed with this approach.


Despite its centrality to Chinese culture and wide adoption in Chinese communities, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has rarely been the application domain of computational analysis in previous academic works. Here we present the first systematic adoption of the state-of-the-art Semantic Web technologies in the codification, management, and utilization of TCM information and knowledge resources. These technologies are proved effective in bridging the semantic gaps between a plurality of legacy and heterogeneous relational databases, enabling ontology-based query and search across database boundaries. A global herb-drug interaction network is constructed and represented in Semantic Web language, on which the semantic graph mining methodology is applied for discovering and interpreting interesting patterns. This deployed Semantic Web platform provides various innovative information retrieval and knowledge discovery services to the TCM domain experts with positive feedbacks. This project demonstrates Semantic Web's advantages in connecting data across domain and community boundaries to facilitate interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies.


URLs are fundamental elements of web applications. By applying vector algorithms, we built a fast standard-compliant C++ implementation. Our parser uses three times fewer instructions than competing parsers following WHATWG URL standard (e.g., Servo's rust-url) and up to eight times fewer instructions than the popular curl parser. The Node.js environment adopted our C++ library. In our tests on realistic data, a recent Node.js version (20.0) with our parser is four to five times faster than the last version with the legacy URL parser.


Future generation Internet of Things (IoT) communication infrastructure is expected to pave the path for innovative applications like smart cities, smart grids, smart industries, and smart healthcare. To support these diverse applications, the communication protocols are required to be adaptive and intelligent. At the network layer, an efficient and lightweight algorithm known as trickle-timer is designed to perform the route updates and it utilizes control messages to share the updated route information between IoT nodes. Trickle-timer tends to generate higher control overhead ratio and achieves lower reliability. Therefore, this article aims to propose an RL-based Intelligent Adaptive Trickle-Timer Algorithm (RIATA). The proposed algorithm performs three-fold optimization of the trickle-timer algorithm. Firstly, the RIATA assigns higher probability to control message transmission to nodes that have received an inconsistent control message in the past intervals. Secondly, the RIATA utilizes RL to learn the optimal policy to transmit or suppress a control message in the current network environment. Lastly, the RIATA selects an adaptive redundancy constant value to avoid unnecessary transmissions of control messages. Simulation results show that RIATA outperforms the other state-of-the-art mechanisms in terms of reducing control overhead ratio by an average of 21%, decreasing the average total power consumption by 10%, and increasing the packet delivery ratio by 4% on an average.


Alternative fuels for transportation are gaining momentum in the global market. Ethanol has been the most used biofuel as an additive and as a substitute for gasoline in a number of countries. Current technology to produce ethanol based on sugar and starch crops creates price imbalances in the food market and cannot supply a sustainable industry of ethanol in the long term. Second generation technologies based on cellulosebased feedstocks use non‐edible crops and have a positive energy balance. Notwithstanding, they are not yet economic at the industrial level, requiring investment in Research and Development (R&D) to help overcome technological barriers. Many countries recognise the value of collaboration to increase benefits and reduce costs of research, and some of them have in place policy instruments to promote this practice. Given the policy relevance, multidisciplinary characteristics of biofuels, and increasing incentives towards international cooperation, the monitoring of the evolution and patterns of international collaboration in R&D is in place. We map the evolution of the global scientific activity of research on cellulosic ethanol. We carry out a bibliometric analysis by building a publication dataset drawn from the ISI Thompson Science Citation Index database covering the period between 1970 and 2006. We identify the most productive institutions and countries, their historical evolution and interaction patterns.


We examine sources of variation in possession and use of the death penalty using data drawn from 193 nations in order to test theories of punishment. We find the death penalty to be rooted in a country's legal and political systems, and to be influenced by its religious traditions. A country's level of economic development, its educational attainment, and its religious composition shape its political institutions and practices, indirectly affecting its use of the death penalty. The article concludes by discussing likely future trends.


Today, nearly all computer forensic analyses are done on stand-alone computers. The fundamental reason is that analysis software are not developed for parallel processing. This paper describes a feasibility study in building a Linux based high-performance computing cluster (HPC-cluster) cluster and the development of a parallelised password cracker application using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) in order to gain competence in designing parallel programs, especially in or near the field of computer forensics.


This document accompanies a lecture recital that provided background information and suggested techniques for performing the horn section arrangements of the Four Tops and the Temptations in a live setting. Introductory information about the scope and significance of the project and background information about Motown Records Company and arranger Gil Askey were discussed. The logistical and performance challenges that must be addressed when executing these horn arrangements were explored as well. An examination of the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements contained in the horn section arrangements was presented along with stylistic performance considerations. Excerpts taken from the actual horn section parts used in the live stage shows were included and analyzed. The document is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 is comprised of an introductory overview of the study and discusses the relevance of the subject matter. The second chapter deals with background biographical information on arranger Gil Askey and his involvement with Motown Record Company's roster of artists. Chapter 3 discusses the demands placed on musicians engaged to play with the Four Tops and Temptations. The fourth chapter explores common performance practices of the horn section arrangements for these groups and Chapter 5 concludes and summarizes the findings of the project and offers suggestions for further research.


Narcissus is a genus of well-known and widely grown garden plants that shows conflict between morphological and molecular taxa. This is compounded by complex breeding programmes that have given rise to over 30,000 registered cultivars, themselves difficult to tell apart. Current identification methods require meticulous study of morphological characters that are available only seasonally. Many of the modern cultivars are a result of hybridization of species from subsection Pseudonarcissi including the Narcissus minor group. Population-level sampling was used to study genetic variation within the N. minor group and to explore the congruence of genetic and taxonomic-morphological boundaries. More than 600 individuals were collected from 56 populations across the geographic range of the species, and a reference living collection for Narcissus established. A combination of microsatellite markers, Sanger and Next-Generation sequencing were used to generate data. Strong geographic structure to population genetics of the N. minor group is revealed using microsatellite analysis and plastid DNA sequencing, that is incongruent with the current taxonomic treatment. Further to this, microsatellite markers were applied to the study of cultivar identification. Successful transferability of microsatellites to cultivated daffodils ranged from 39-100%. Despite the complex interbreeding history of daffodil cultivars genetic patterns recovered were able to distinguish the cultivars studied. As expected, many of these cultivars did not form genetic groups that were congruent with the horticultural daffodil Divisions in which those cultivars occur. However, the utility of microsatellites is demonstrated, distinguishing most cultivars and highlighting mislabelled stocks. Ten new complete plastomes for Narcissus are presented, as a first step in quantifying levels of differences across the genus and the variation among these genomes is compared. The data gathered from genome skimming will provide a valuable resource for marker development for future classification of species and cultivar identification. Overall, both microsatellite and genomic approaches have been shown to resolve taxa however the taxa recovered do not match those currently recognised using morphology.


In a retrospective study the authors analyzed 100 cases of women with serous, serosanguineous, and sanguineous nipple discharges, without palpable and radiologically visible tumors, that were submitted to resection of main galactophorous ducts and biopsy of underlying breast parenchyma. The sensibility of the cytologic examination of nipple discharges for carcinomas was 16.6%. The histopathology showed incidence of 61% of mammary dysplasia, 33% of intraductal papillomas single or multiple and 6% of carcinomas. The early diagnosis of carcinoma gave good results after radical surgical treatment.


&NA; Multiligament knee injuries account for <0.02% of all orthopaedic injuries, and 16% to 40% of these patients suffer associated injury to the common peroneal nerve (CPN). The proximity of the CPN to the proximal fibula predisposes the nerve to injury during local trauma and dislocation; the nerve is highly vulnerable to stretch injury during varus stress, particularly in posterolateral corner injuries. CPN injuries have a poor prognosis compared with that of other peripheral nerve injuries. Management is determined based on the severity and location of nerve injury, timing of presentation, associated injuries requiring surgical management, and the results of serial clinical evaluations and electrodiagnostic studies. Nonsurgical treatment options include orthosis wear and physical therapy. Surgical management includes one or more of the following: neurolysis, primary nerve repair, intercalary nerve grafting, tendon transfer, and nerve transfer. Limited evidence supports the use of early one‐stage nerve reconstruction combined with tendon transfer; however, optimal management of these rare injuries continues to change, and treatment should be individualized.


Online services are increasingly dependent on user participation. Whether it's online social networks or crowdsourcing services, understanding user behavior is important yet challenging. In this paper, we build an unsupervised system to capture dominating user behaviors from clickstream data (traces of users' click events), and visualize the detected behaviors in an intuitive manner. Our system identifies "clusters" of similar users by partitioning a similarity graph (nodes are users; edges are weighted by clickstream similarity). The partitioning process leverages iterative feature pruning to capture the natural hierarchy within user clusters and produce intuitive features for visualizing and understanding captured user behaviors. For evaluation, we present case studies on two large-scale clickstream traces (142 million events) from real social networks. Our system effectively identifies previously unknown behaviors, e.g., dormant users, hostile chatters. Also, our user study shows people can easily interpret identified behaviors using our visualization tool.


Skeletal dysplasias with metaphyseal involvement show radiological changes which permit their classification. There are, however, changes in the cartilage which could be demonstrated by hip sonography in two children, one with Stickler's syndrome and the other with metaphyseal chondrodysplasia. The dangers of mis-diagnosis are discussed.