This paper explores the classic MGM film  The Wizard of Oz  from a perspective influenced by Baudrillard's writings. The paper begins by locating its argument within Baudrillard's influential notion of the orders of simulacra, noting the neglected distinction between the imaginary and simulation (or hyperreality). It then moves into less familiar territory, exploring some of the least known aspects of Baudrillard's thought: symbolic exchange, destiny and radical otherness. These notions, we argue, not only suggest an alternative reading of the film, they also suggest an alternative perspective on Baudrillard's thought. Against standard views of Baudrillard's work as relativist, postmodernist and anti-feminist (Kellner 1989), the paper draws out a very different Baudrillard, one concerned with illusion, imagination and, perhaps, a singular form of ethicality. Our reading of the film, through Baudrillard's idiosyncratic writing on seduction, ritual and initiation, suggests an understanding of 'ethicality' as relational, radically contingent and subject to the play of destiny.


This article will discuss aspects of pharmacy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE, when the central Islamic lands—which also form a central part of the Silk Road between China and Europe—were dominated by the Mamlūk Empire in Egypt and Syria, and the Mongol Īl-khāns in Iran. Exchanges of practical and theoretical knowledge occurred across the hostile frontier, but it remains to be seen to what extent this affected the practice of community pharmacists in the Islamic world, let alone the theory used by doctors learned in the Arabic pharmacological tradition. As I have only very recently begun to study the Mongol side of things in greater depth, this article will be weighted towards the Mamlūks, and I will point out areas that require further research before any definite conclusion can be reached. I will begin by discussing the state of pharmacy in Mamlūk Egypt, continue to say a few words about the developments in pharmacology caused by the establishment of the Mongol Empire, and finally, discuss the status of pharmacists in hospitals under the Mongols and Mamlūks.


In general, epiphytes have detrimental effects on the growth of their basiphytes due to competition for light and nutrients. Therefore, basiphyte species must expend energy suppressing epiphytes. Some studies suggest that phlorotannins, i.e. brown algal polyphenols, prevent colonization by epiphytes, whereas others question their allelopathic function because there is not necessarily a negative correlation between epiphyte abundance and the phlorotannin content of the basiphyte algae. Various phlorotannin components are found in brown algal species, thus we hypothesized that the antifouling activities of polyphenolic compounds may differ and that the analysis of phlorotannin profiles could be useful for estimating their ecological functions. We surveyed the epiphyte richness in the apical portions of 373 thalli from 15 sargassacean species, demonstrating that the variation and abundance of epiphyte species differed remarkably among the basiphyte species. However, there was a weak negative correlation between the density and total phlorotannin content of the basiphyte algae in only one of the 18 epiphyte species. The interspecific differences in the phlorotannin profile were characterized by quantitative 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (qNMR), and four major groups were categorized based on cluster and principal component analyses of polyphenolic signals in the qNMR spectra. The epiphyte Neosiphonia harveyi was more abundant on Sargassum hemiphyllum, S. patens and S. piluliferum than on other basiphyte species, and these three species were similar according to the cluster analysis. These results suggest that some phlorotannin components may be more effective for antifouling; thus interspecific differences in the phlorotannin profile could affect the variation and abundance of epiphytes.


We describe the cloning, sequencing, and overexpression of the steroid isomerase (3-oxosteroid delta 5-delta 4-isomerase, EC 18.104.22.168) gene of Pseudomonas testosteroni. A genomic library of P. testosteroni total DNA constructed from partial EcoRI digests ligated to a lambda gtWES vector was probed with a 23-base oligonucleotide mixture [ATGAAC(T)ACC(A,T)CCG(C,A)GAG(A)CAC(T)ATGAC] corresponding to the NH2-terminal sequence of steroid isomerase. Subclones derived from a recombinant phage containing a 5400-base-pair insert were sequenced and found to contain the expected 375-nucleotide open reading frame flanked at both ends by in-frame TGA termination codons. The DNA sequence agreed with the above 125-amino acid sequence except for codons 22, 24, 33, and 38, all of which encoded Asp rather than Asn, and codon 77, which encoded Glu rather than Gln. A 1370-base-pair fragment was inserted into pUC 19 plasmid vector and used to construct a strain of Escherichia coli JM 101 that overexpressed the isomerase gene in the presence of isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside. Cytosolic extracts of this strain contained a major soluble protein that migrated with the steroid delta-isomerase subunit on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. These cytosolic extracts had 10-50% of the specific activity of crystalline isomerase, depending on the method of preparation. The recombinant enzyme was crystallized in both monoclinic (flat plates) and hexagonal (bipyramids) crystal forms, described previously for the enzyme isolated from P. testosteroni. The kinetic properties of the crystalline recombinant enzyme, including specific activity, Km for 5-androstene-3,17-dione (340 microM), and Ki for the competitive inhibitor 19-nortestosterone (11.9 microM), agreed closely with the values reported for the isolated enzyme.


Composite engineering component which may consist of two or more materials, connected or combined to give a performance in services, which is superior to the properties of its individual materials. Profiled steel sheet dry board (PSSDB) is a composite system, which classified into macro composite system comprises of profiled steel sheet, cemboard and connected by self-tapping screw. This system when combined imposed strength and stiffness. The proposed of this system as a load-bearing wall give more advantages in building construction. It's a lightweight structure, easy to fabricate and save a lot of time for installation work. In this thesis research, Profile Steel Sheet Dry Board has been treated as load-bearing wall, where it's due to window opening using finite element method (LUSAS) has been analyzed. The model analyzed measures 1200 mm wide and 1000 mm high. A window opening of 400 mm by 400 mm is modeled as symmetrical position. LUSAS 13.5 software adopted to create the finite element model. The model was modeling using 3D thin shell elements as a profiled steel sheet (Bondek II) and dry board (Cemboard). A series of load had been assign to this model and the result are stated as follow; for load 256 kN/m the maximum displacement is 2.838 mm, for maximum stress is - 541.5 N/mm2 and for the maximum strain is 0.0071.


Chalcones are natural products which have displayed a wide variety of biological activities, including anti-malarial, anti-protozoal, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, nitric oxide inhibition, tyronase inhibition, and anticancer activities. Due to their abundance in plants and ease of synthesis, the chalcone class of compounds has attracted extensive studies. On the other hand, quinoline skeleton is one of the key building elements for a large number of natural and synthetic heterocycles which possess a wide variety of biological effects such as antimalarials, bactericidal, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and antiviral activities. Therefore, a series of chalcone derivatives in which an aryl moiety was replaced with quinoline nucleus have been synthesized and evaluated for their antiproliferative activities. These newly synthesized chalcone derivatives were evaluated in vitro against a panel of six cancer cell lines including three non-small cell lung cancer cells (H1299, H460, and A549), three breast cancer cells (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and SKBR-3), and a normal mammary epithelial cell (M10), Among them, (E)-1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-3-(3-(4-methoxyphenyl)quinolin-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (1) was active against the growth of H1299 and SKBR-3 with IC50 values of 0.71 and 0.52 μM respectively which was more active than the positive topotecan (IC50 values of > 10.0 μM in each case). Compound 1 was the most active against the growth of MDA-MB-231 with an IC50 value of < 0.1 μM and was not cytotoxic to the normal mammary epithelial cell (M10) with an IC50 value of 9.38 μM. Mechanism studies indicated that compound 1 induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase followed by DNA fragmentation via activation of caspase-3, cleavage of PARP, and consequently caused the cell death. Further structural optimization is currently ongoing. Citation Format: Cherng-Chyi Tzeng, Chih-Hua Tseng, Yeh-Long Chen. Design, synthesis, and antiproliferative evaluations of 3-phenylquinolinylchalcone derivatives against non-small cell lung cancers and breast cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A68.


In modeling advanced steam power cycles, thermodynamic properties as functions of pressure and enthalpy (p,h) or pressure and entropy (p, s) are required in the critical and supercritical regions (region 3 of IAPWS-IF97). With IAPWS-IF97, these calculations require cumbersome two-dimensional iteration of temperature T and specific volume v from (p,h) or (p,s). While these calculations in region 3 are not frequently required, the computing time can be significant. Therefore, the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) adopted backward equations for T(p,h), v(p,h), T(p ,s), and v(p,s) in region 3, along with boundary equations for the saturation pressure as a function of enthalpy, P 3sat (h), and of entropy, p 3Sat (s). Using the new equations, two-dimensional iteration can be avoided. The numerical consistency of temperature and specific volume obtained in this way is sufficient for most uses. This paper summarizes the need and the requirements for these equations and gives complete numerical information. In addition, numerical consistency and computational speed are discussed.


When fine-tuning large neural networks, it is common to use multiple nodes and to communicate gradients at each optimization step. By contrast, we investigate completely local fine-tuning, which we refer to as lo-fi. During lo-fi, each node is fine-tuned independently without any communication. Then, the weights are averaged across nodes at the conclusion of fine-tuning. When fine-tuning DeiT-base and DeiT-large on ImageNet, this procedure matches accuracy in-distribution and improves accuracy under distribution shift compared to the baseline, which observes the same amount of data but communicates gradients at each step. We also observe that lo-fi matches the baseline's performance when fine-tuning OPT language models (up to 1.3B parameters) on Common Crawl. By removing the communication requirement, lo-fi reduces resource barriers for fine-tuning large models and enables fine-tuning in settings with prohibitive communication cost.


The two catecholamines, noradrenaline and dopamine, have been shown to play comparable roles in behaviour. Both noradrenergic and dopaminergic neurons respond to salient cues predicting reward availability and to stimulus novelty, and shape action selection strategies. However, their roles in motivation have seldom been directly compared. We therefore examined the activity of noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus and putative midbrain dopaminergic neurons in monkeys cued to perform effortful actions for rewards. The activity in both regions correlated with the likelihood of engaging with a presented option. By contrast, only noradrenaline neurons were also (i) predictive of engagement in a subsequent trial following a failure to engage and (ii) sensitive to the task state change, the discovery of the new task condition in unrepeated trials. This indicates that while dopamine is primarily important for the promotion of actions directed towards currently available rewards, noradrenergic neurons play a crucial complementary role in mobilizing resources to promote future engagement.


This paper describes the application of a measurement based power analysis technique for an embedded DSP processor. An instruction-level power model for the processor has been developed using this technique. Significant points of difference have been observed between this model and the ones developed earlier for some general-purpose commercial microprocessors. In particular, the effect of circuit state on the power cost of an instruction stream is more marked in the case of this DSP processor. In addition, the DSP processor has a special architectural feature that allows instructions to be packed into pairs. The energy reduction possible through the use of this feature is studied. The on-chip Booth multiplier on the processor is a major source of energy consumption for DSP programs. A micro-architectural power model for the multiplier is developed and analyzed for further energy minimization. A scheduling algorithm incorporating these new techniques is proposed to reduce the energy consumed by DSP software. Energy reductions varying from 11% to 56% have been observed for several example programs. These energy savings are real and have been verified through physical measurement.


Low dimensional systems on the nanometer scale afford a wealth of interesting possibilities including highly anisotropic behavior and quantum effects. Nanocolumns permit electrical and mechanical contact, yet benefit from two confined dimensions. This confinement leads to new optical, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and magnetic properties. We construct nanocolumn arrays with precise definition and independent control of diameter, length, orientation, areal density and composition so that geometry can be directly correlated to the quantum physical property of interest. The precision and control are products of the fabrication technique that we use. The process starts with an ion of sufficient energy to ''track'' a dielectric such as a film applied uniformly onto a substrate. The energy loss of the ion alters chemical bonding in the dielectric along the ion's straight trajectory. A suitable etchant quickly dissolves the latent tracks leaving high aspect ratio holes of small diameter ({approx}10nm) penetrating a film as thick as several microns. These small holes are interesting and useful in their own right and can be made to any desired size by continuing the etching process. Moreover, they serve as molds for electrochemical filling. After this electro-deposition, the mold material can be removed leaving the columns firmly attached tomore » the substrate at the desired orientation. A variety of structures can be envisioned with these techniques. As examples, we have created arrays of Ni and of Pt nanocolumns ({approx}60 nm diameter and {approx}600 nm long) oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The high aspect ratio and small diameter of the columns enables easy observation of quantum behavior, namely efficient electron field emission and Fowler Nordheim behavior.« less


Using the mapping method an efficient methodology is developed for mixing analysis in the rotated arc mixer (RAM). The large parameter space of the RAM leads to numerous situations to be analyzed to achieve best mixing, and hence, it is indeed a challenging task to fully optimize the RAM. Two flow models are used to study mixing: one based on the full three-dimensional (3-D) flow field, and a second one based on a simplified 2.5-D model, where an analytical solution is used for transverse velocity components in combination with a Poiseuille profile for the axial velocity component. Detailed 3-D velocity field analyses reveal locally significant deviations from the Poiseuille profile e.g., presence of back-flow, but only minimal differences in mixing performance is found using both flow models (3- and 2.5-D) in the RAM designs that are candidates for accomplishing chaotic mixing. Despite the computational advantage of the 2.5-D approach over the 3-D approach, it is still cumbersome to analyze mixing for large number of designs using techniques based on particle tracking, e.g., Poincare sections, dye traces, stretching distributions. Therefore, in this respect the mapping method provides an engineering tool able to tackle this optimization problem in an efficient way. On the basis of mixing evaluations, both in qualitative and quantitative sense, for the whole range of parameter space, the optimum set of design and kinematical parameters in the RAM is obtained to accomplish the best mixing. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008


We introduce a new class of identifiable DAG models where the conditional distribution of each node given its parents belongs to a family of generalized hypergeometric distributions (GHD). A family of generalized hypergeometric distributions includes a lot of discrete distributions such as the binomial, Beta-binomial, negative binomial, Poisson, hyper-Poisson, and many more. We prove that if the data drawn from the new class of DAG models, one can fully identify the graph structure. We further present a reliable and polynomial-time algorithm that recovers the graph from finitely many data. We show through theoretical results and numerical experiments that our algorithm is statistically consistent in high-dimensional settings (p >n) if the indegree of the graph is bounded, and out-performs state-of-the-art DAG learning algorithms.


The eastern edge of the Appalachian orogen is composed of a collection of Neoproterozoic – early Paleozoic domains, Avalonia, Carolinia, Ganderia, Meguma, and Suwannee, which are exotic to North America. Differences in the geological histories of these peri-Gondwanan domains indicate that each separated independently from Gondwana, opening the Rheic Ocean in their wake. Cambrian departure of Ganderia and Carolina was followed by the Ordovician separation of Avalonia and Silurian separation of Meguma. After separation in the early Paleozoic, these domains constituted the borderline between the expanding Rheic Ocean and contracting Iapetus Ocean. They were transferred to Laurentia by early Silurian closure of Iapetus and Devonian–Carboniferous closure of the Rheic Ocean during the assembly of Gondwana and Laurentia into Pangaea. The first domain to arrive at Laurentia was Carolinia, which accreted in the Middle Ordovician during the Cherokee orogeny. Salinic accretion of Ganderia occurred shortly thereafter and was followed by the Acadian accretion of Avalonia. The Acadian orogeny was immediately followed by Middle Devonian – Early Carboniferous accretion of Meguma and possibly Suwannee which led to the Fammenian orogeny. The episodicity of orogeny suggests that the present location of these domains parallels their order of accretion. However, each of these crustal blocks was translated along strike by large-scale Late Devonian – Carboniferous dextral strike–slip motion. The breakup of Pangaea occurred outboard of the Paleozoic collision zones that accreted Carolinia, Ganderia, Avalonia, Meguma, and Suwannee to Laurentia, leaving these terranes appended to North America during the Mesozoic opening of the Atlantic.


Presents an open testbed for controlling facial animation. The adopted controlling means can act at different levels of abstraction (specification). These means of control can be associated with different interactive devices and media, thereby allowing a greater flexibility and freedom to the animator. The possibility of integration and mixing of control means provides a general platform where a user can experiment with his choice of control method. Experiments with input accessories like the keyboard of a music synthesizer and gestures from a DataGlove are illustrated


Court systems are exploring and beginning to adopt online dispute resolution (ODR) systems, and it is critical that they make digital accessibility a priority. Even though we need to pay close attention to ODR developments in court systems, we cannot overlook the fact that there are ODR providers in the private sector whose systems also must be accessible for persons with disabilities. Plaintiffs filed more ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits in federal court for the first six months of 2018 than in all of 2017. There were at least 1053 such lawsuits in the first six months of 2018, compared to 814 in all of 2017. As websites have become more sophisticated, access to them has worsened. This article will revisit the question of what digital accessibility standards are legally required. Although the threat of legal liability for failing to satisfy well-respected privately promulgated standards is still real, making a website digitally accessible will make it easier for everyone to use and may attract new users. Websites, mobile applications, software platforms, and other technologies will be accessible when developed and designed to internationally recognized accessibility standards. A host of best practices related to business processes and training are available to ensure accessibility for ODR systems. This Article offers ODR system designers, practicing neutrals such as mediators and arbitrators, information technology professionals, private and public decisionmakers, and policymakers essential information and tools to build and maintain systems that work for everyone. It is extremely important that the ODR community focus on digital accessibility at this moment, because ODR systems are not only being implemented in the United States; they are being adopted around the world.


Pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes often cosegregate with hypertension and dyslipidemia (low serum HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride levels) as manifestations of the metabolic syndrome (1), which affects 47 million people in the U.S. (2). Components of the metabolic syndrome can be identified in prediabetic subjects several years before the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Epidemiological studies, including the Paris Prospective Study (3), have shown that prediabetes confers an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Patients who progress to type 2 diabetes exhibit additional risk for atherosclerotic disorders, which manifest as a twoto fourfold increase in the prevalence of CVD, stroke, and peripheral vascular diseases, compared with nondiabetic subjects (4). The risk of first myocardial infarction in diabetic patients is similar to that of recurrent myocardial infarction in nondiabetic patients who have had a previous event (5). Sadly, the prognosis following myocardial infarction or percutaneous angioplasty (6) is worse for diabetic than for nondiabetic individuals. These tragic disparities underscore the importance of primary prevention of CVD. In this issue of Diabetes Care, The DPP Research Group (7) reports on the effects of intensive lifestyle intervention, metformin, and placebo on CVD risk factors among subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Compared with the placebo and metformin arms, subjects assigned to intensive lifestyle intervention showed decreased blood pressure, increased HDL cholesterol levels, and lower triglyceride levels during 3 years of follow-up. Intensive lifestyle modification was also associated with a reduction in the more atherogenic small, dense LDL particles. Consonant with the foregoing findings, there was a reduced need for antihypertensive and hypolidemic medications among subjects assigned to the intensive lifestyle arm. It is reassuring that no fatalities were attributable to exercise in this largely previously sedentary cohort. The demonstration that type 2 diabetes is preventable (8,9) raises hope for the possibility of concomitant prevention of the CVD morbidity and mortality associated with pre-diabetes. In the STOPNIDDM trial (10), prevention of diabetes by acarbose treatment was associated with a reduction in the incidence of CVD risk markers. The present report (7) does not confirm a similar experience with another drug, metformin. Diabetes prevention through intensive lifestyle intervent ion reduced the need for antihypertensive medications in the DPP: the prevalence of hypertension at baseline was 30% in the three comparison groups. After 3 years of follow-up, the prevalence increased to 40% in the placebo and metformin arms but remained at 30% in the intensive lifestyle group. Assuming that all patients with hypertension were ascertained at baseline, the stable 30% prevalence of hypertension in the lifestyle arm represents a crude risk reduction of 33% compared with placebo. This is a profound finding in a study that was not primarily designed to prevent hypertension. The term "prehypertension" has recently been coined to describe individuals with systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure between 80 and 89 mmHg. It would be of interest to determine whether the attenuation of hypertension observed in the intensive lifestyle arm was due to reversion from prehypertension to normotension, prevention of progression from prehypertension to hypertension, or prevention of direct transition from normotension to hypertension. Furthermore, the goal of 7% weight loss in the intensive lifestyle arm was pursued through physical activity (150 min/week) and dietary modification (low fat, low calorie, 700 kcal/day). Although maintenance of the weight loss goal proved elusive for the majority of study subjects by the end of the 3rd year, accrual of self-reported physical activity minutes stayed at the target of 150 min/week. Thus, it remains unclear whether physical activity per se or caloric restriction or weight loss accounted for the reduction in the prevalence rate of hypertension. Clearly, further studies are needed to define the specific components of the lifestyle intervention that impact progression from normal blood pressure to prehypertension and from thence to hypertension. The present report from the DPP strengthens the evidence on the potency of lifestyle intervention in the management of hypertension and provides new data on primary prevention of hypertension. Given the public health scourge of hypertension, the importance of these findings cannot be overstated. The scant CVD event accrual was an obvious barrier to detecting any differences among the treatment and placebo groups. The characteristics of the study cohort (impaired glucose tolerance, older age, 30% hypertensive, and 44% with dyslipidemia) would have predicted a much higher rate of CVD events. However, the cohort had an astonishingly low ( 4%) prevalence of documented CVD at baseline. (Subjects with unstable angina E D I T O R I A L ( S E E D P P R E S E A R C H G R O U P , P . 8 8 8 )


Besides being a xenotime-bearing, the ferruginous sandstone of Southwestern Sinai and which belongs to the Adediya Formation of the Cambrian age has also been proven to be relatively uraniferous. A technological sample of this ore material has been collected from Wadi El Sahu area and was found to assay up to 15.43% RE2O3 and 0.071% U. The latter involves alkali agitation leaching of the ore material and where the studied optimum conditions includes 90 g/l Na2CO3 concentration, 30 g/l NaHCO3 concentration at a S/L ratio of 1/2 for 4 hrs agitation time at room temperature and using an ore grain size ground to -200 mesh. Under these conditions, a uraniumleaching efficiency of 97.2%has been obtained. From the obtained leach liquor, U was separated through two techniques; namely direct precipitation and a prior application of anion exchange resin.


Many private insurance programs that currently cover mental disorders eliminate intensive psychotherapies, including psychoanalysis, from the range of treatment options by placing restrictions on the number of visits covered. The authors examine the economics of intensive psychotherapy coverage and present data indicating that relatively few people in an insurance program with comprehensive mental health benefits use high cost forms of psychotherapy. They conclude that insurance coverage of intensive psychotherapy is feasible but suggest that further study of the goals of intensive treatment, potential demand for it, and the supply of qualified practitioners is needed.


This Course Guide is created for Prof. Jia-Chen Fu's class. It provides students with library resources that relate to the class subject topic and aims.


Mutant staphylococci with impaired respiration, induced by ultraviolet radiation, were used for testing various inhibitors with already known mechanisms of action. Inhibitors of protein synthesis (the tetracyclins) affected the growth of parent and mutant cultures to the same degree. To the inhibitors of cell-wall synthesis (the penicillins) mutant staphylococci were more resistant than the parents; this was related to the altered amino acid composition of cell-wall material in the mutants. On the other hand, the mutants were much more vulnerable than parents to the action of inhibitors which affected the nucleic acids-namely, mitomycin C ( x 50 times), actinomycin C ( x SO), trypaflavine ( x 300), nitrogen mustards ( x 10-20). A specific thymine synthetase inhibitor (5-fluorodeoxyuridine) strongly inhibited the growth of parent staphylococci, but did not at all inhibit the growth of mutants, This points to some deficiency in the enzymic mechanism of synthesis of thymine in the DNA of mutants. Experiments with 5-bromodeoxyuridine suggest that the mutant staphylococci lacked the enzymic mechanism necessary for effective incorporation of halogenated pyrimidines into the DNA precursor pool.


Adequate access to mental health care is a global problem, including in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) offers an opportunity to deliver improved access to mental health services in primary care centers, and key factors to program sustainability have been investigated in high-income country settings. This study's objective was to evaluate how well factors associated with sustainability have been incorporated into a CoCM in Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia. The Kosraean CoCM's strengths included its supportive leadership, team member training, and having a strong care manager and engaged primary care provider champion. Opportunities for growth included further development of its financial viability, information technology systems, change readiness, and operational procedures. Our program found that having a stable and invested staff and leveraging its current strengths were important to its viability. In an international partnership, it is also critical to develop strong relationships among team members and to have stable internet connectivity to facilitate regular communication. These lessons learned can be applicable to other integrated care programs in similar Pacific Island countries.


Dr Kessler and colleagues1 reported that, at follow-up 10 to 15 years later, boys from households that received housing vouchers in the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration experienced 12-month prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at several times the rate of boys from control households. Part of the explanation for this intriguing finding may lie in a phenomenon described in the Birmingham Youth Violence Study, in which "high levels of community violence exposure attenuated the relationships between home and school violence and adjustment, perhaps reflecting desensitization to violence or a process whereby community levels of violence establish 'norms' that affect the interpretation and impact of violence in other settings."2


Isolapotamon mindanaoense  (Rathbun 1904) and  Sundathelphusa miguelito  Mendoza and Sy 2017 have narrow biogeographical distribution and are both regarded as endemic to Mindanao island. They are common and publicly consumed freshwater or semi-terrestrial crabs inhabiting vicinities near the waterfalls of Lake Sebu Municipality, South Cotabato in Mindanao, but both species are scarcely investigated. This study aimed to examine the body size, microhabitat and the feeding ecology of these freshwater crab species. Sex and carapace width and length of individuals were determined from specimens collected by hand at three waterfall sampling sites. Feeding and feeding niche overlap were respectively analyzed using the index of relative importance (IRI) of prey items from individual crab stomachs and the Schoener's R o  index. Food items ingested include fish fragments, insect body parts, fragments of aquatic vascular plants, freshwater algae, sand grains and amorphous materials, and these items were similar between species. However, the larger  I. mindanaoense  appeared to ingest more fish fragments and other animal prey items compared to  S. miguelito  which ingested more amorphous materials that are derived from benthic plants. However, the R o value of 93% was high, suggesting very similar diet. The two species further partition niches, with  S. miguelito  being smaller in size and inhabiting sand and gravel substrate, while the larger  I. mindanaoense  inhabit areas with big boulders. Hence, the crabs can be categorized as omnivorous and detrivorous, and exhibit feeding and habitat niche partitioning that alleviate possible resource competition between the two species.


Purpose
Mutations in the BEST1 gene can cause Best vitelliform macular dystrophy (BVMD) and autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy (ARB). The aim of the current study was to establish the BEST1 mutation spectrum in Chinese patients with BVMD and ARB and to describe the phenotypic characteristics of patients carrying BEST1 mutations.

Methods
A total of 37 probands with a clinical diagnosis of BVMD (17 patients) or ARB (20 patients) were recruited for genetic analysis; of these, only 5 probands had a family history. All probands underwent detailed ophthalmic examinations. All coding exons and exon-intron boundaries of the BEST1 gene were screened by PCR-based DNA sequencing. In silico programs were used to analyze the pathogenicity of all the variants. Genomic DNA rearrangements of the BEST1 gene were identified by real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR).

Results
For patients with BVMD, single heterozygous BEST1 mutations were identified in 13 patients and compound heterozygous mutations were found in 3 patients. For patients with ARB, biallelic mutations were found in 13 probands and single mutant alleles in six patients. Overall, 36 disease-causing variants (20 novel mutations) of the BEST1 gene were identified, including 28 (77.8%) missense, 3 (8.3%) nonsense, 4 (11.1%) splicing effect, and 1 (2.8%) frameshift small duplication mutations.

Conclusions
The mutation spectrum of the BEST1 gene in Chinese patients differed from those of Caucasian patients. Mutations that cause ARB differ from those that cause BVMD. BEST1 screening is important for precise diagnosis of BVMD or ARB.


Discrete-choice models such as the multinomial-logit (MNL) model are increasingly being used to model customer purchase behaviour in hotels, airlines, fashion retail and e-commerce. Their estimation however has proved difficult in practice. One reason for this difficulty is well-known: most firms in retail do not, or unable to, record customers who were interested in purchasing but did not buy the product (``no-purchasers"). Estimating demand even with the simplest discrete-choice model such as the MNL becomes challenging then as we do not know the fraction that have chosen an outside option (not purchased). Indeed, the parameters of the MNL model may not be identifiable with such data. Some previous approaches have proposed using ``market-share" to pin down the parameter associated with the outside option. However, in many industries, market-share data is difficult to obtain, and for some, such as fashion products, has little meaning. In this paper we point out an additional difficulty that arises in practice: Many firms constantly monitor sales and optimize their prices and assortments based on partially observed demand. This leads to an optimization-induced endogeneity as the input used for estimation has been processed by optimization that takes both past data as well as future demand trends in setting controls. As we demonstrate, methods that work well on randomly generated assortments may do badly on optimized assortment data. In this paper we propose a robust method when the firm cannot observe no-purchases, has no market-share information, and the optimization-induced endogeneity exists in the data. The method is a two-step GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) procedure for which we show the estimates are consistent, and we give intuition for its robustness. In Monte-Carlo simulations the performance of our method matches existing methods on randomly generated controls, and is superior in accuracy and robustness when optimization-induced endogeneity is present. On a large real-world data set from the fashion industry --- subject to markdowns as well as stock-outs and unknown management controls --- our method provides very reasonable and robust estimates compared to existing methods.


The graph convolutional networks (GCN) recently proposed by Kipf and Welling are an effective graph model for semi-supervised learning. This model, however, was originally designed to be learned with the presence of both training and test data. Moreover, the recursive neighborhood expansion across layers poses time and memory challenges for training with large, dense graphs. To relax the requirement of simultaneous availability of test data, we interpret graph convolutions as integral transforms of embedding functions under probability measures. Such an interpretation allows for the use of Monte Carlo approaches to consistently estimate the integrals, which in turn leads to a batched training scheme as we propose in this work---FastGCN. Enhanced with importance sampling, FastGCN not only is efficient for training but also generalizes well for inference. We show a comprehensive set of experiments to demonstrate its effectiveness compared with GCN and related models. In particular, training is orders of magnitude more efficient while predictions remain comparably accurate.


The aim of the study is to provide a survey on the history of ragweed worldwide. Its climate dependence, impacts in agriculture, health effects and social costs are also presented. In Europe common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) is predominant of all Ambrosia species that is supported by population genetic data. The most important habitat areas of ragweed and the highest pollen concentrations occur, in decreasing order of the pollen levels (1) in the south-western part of the European Russia, (2) in the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine, (3) in the Pannonian Plain in Central Europe, (4) in the Rhône-Alpes region in France, furthermore (5) in the Po River valley in Italy. Besides Europe, ragweed occurs in China, India, Japan and in other Asian countries, furthermore in Australia and the Unites States of America. However, beyond the USA little information is available. Warming trends due to the climate change favours the expansion of ragweed, producing higher pollen levels worldwide. In association with the warming, increasing ambient CO2 levels generate greater biomass and increased pollen production. Hence, ragweed pollen production can be expected to increase significantly under predicted future climate conditions, bringing severe impacts to areas that have yet been suffering slightly.


Bullous pemphigoid is the most frequent autoimmune bullous disease and mainly affects elderly individuals. Increase in incidence rates in the past decades has been attributed to population aging, drug-induced cases and improvement in the diagnosis of the nonbullous presentations of the disease. A dysregulated T cell immune response and synthesis of IgG and IgE autoantibodies against hemidesmosomal proteins (BP180 and BP230) lead to neutrophil chemotaxis and degradation of the basement membrane zone. Bullous pemphigoid classically manifests with tense blisters over urticarial plaques on the trunk and extremities accompanied by intense pruritus. Mucosal involvement is rarely reported. Diagnosis relies on (1) the histopathological evaluation demonstrating eosinophilic spongiosis or a subepidermal detachment with eosinophils; (2) the detection of IgG and/or C3 deposition at the basement membrane zone using direct or indirect immunofluorescence assays; and (3) quantification of circulating autoantibodies against BP180 and/or BP230 using ELISA. Bullous pemphigoid is often associated with multiple comorbidities in elderly individuals, especially neurological disorders and increased thrombotic risk, reaching a 1-year mortality rate of 23%. Treatment has to be tailored according to the patient's clinical conditions and disease severity. High potency topical steroids and systemic steroids are the current mainstay of therapy. Recent randomized controlled studies have demonstrated the benefit and safety of adjuvant treatment with doxycycline, dapsone and immunosuppressants aiming a reduction in the cumulative steroid dose and mortality.


To implement indoor GPS signal tracking in standalone mode when the tracking loop is unlocked and data bit edge is unknown, the paper develops a modified Viterbi Algorithm (MVA) based on dynamic programming, and it was applied for GPS bit synchronization. Besides, two combination carrier tracking schemes based on Central Difference Kalman Filter (CDKF) and MVA module were designed for indoor GPS signal. The testing results indicate that the methods can successful detect bit edge position with high detection probability whether or not the tracking loop is locked. The co-operational tracking scheme is still able to perform when the signal quality deteriorate.


OBJECTIVE
Elevated miR-181a is associated with the transition of ovarian tissues from normal into a cancerous state. However, its regulative effect on multidrug resistance (MDR) of ovarian cancer is not quite clear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate its regulative effects on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and MDR in ovarian cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The expression profile of miR-181a in normal and ovarian cancer tissues was firstly quantified using qRT-PCR analysis. Then, human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3 were transfected for miR-181a overexpression and the paclitaxel-resistant variant SKOV3/PTX cells were transfected for miR-181a knockdown. The effect of miR-181a overexpression/knockdown on EMT and PTX sensitivity were studied.

RESULTS
MiR-181a level in chemoresistant (CR) cancer tissues were significantly higher than in chemosensitive (CS) cancer tissues and in normal tissue. SKOV3/PTX cells had significantly higher expression of miR-181a and N-cadherin than SKOV3 cells. SKOV3 cells had decreased E-cadherin expression and increased N-cadherin expression after enforced miR-181a expression, while SKOV3/PTX cells had increased E-cadherin expression and decreased N-cadherin expression after miR-181a knockdown. SKOV3 cells had increased P-gp expression after enforced miR-181a expression. Following MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis both confirmed that miR-181a overexpression decreased the PTX sensitivity of SKOV3 cells and while miR-181a inhibition increased the sensitivity of SKOV3/PTX cells.

CONCLUSIONS
MiR-181a is an important oncomiR significantly increased in chemoresistant ovarian cancer. Its upregulation is associated with increased level of EMT and decreased cell apoptosis induced by PTX treatment.


Due to important changes of urban landscape under rapid urbanization, the elaboration of a systematic diagnosis for assessing qualities of urban environment and health is urgently needed in order to develop then, a sustainable management of cities that could preserve the integrity of human life. For the last decade, industrial and domestic heating activities as well as, increases of vehicle use and road traffic are considered as the main anthropogenic sources of air pollution that had worsened considerably air quality in most large European cities, including Poland. Accordingly, numerous air quality assessment systems have evidenced that episode of exceeding levels of particulate matter < or equal to 10 m (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the main pollutants associated with traffic emissions have been commonly observed in Polish urban areas and were shown to be associated with the occurrence of asthma in sensitive groups of populations such as children. Assessing consequences of anthropogenic crisis linked to road traffic on childhood asthma requires the need of elaborating both risk and vulnerabilities assessment methods as well as, methods of risk-management in order to reduce health-risk and restore a better living for exposed population. The present study deals with the question of childhood asthma-risk linked to pollutants PM10 and NO2 in 3 different areas of Cracow (central and eastern parts with high traffic, residential south-eastern part with low traffic). Levels and spatial dispersions of PM10 and NO2 for the period 2001-2005 within these areas were estimated by using the specific traffic air dispersion model CALINE4; daily measurements of both pollutants from fixed air quality monitoring stations respectively located in each area and meteorological parameters as well, were taken into account. In order to calibrate input parameters such as pollutants and meteorological parameters in CALINE4, a preliminary study of Cracow urban ecology and landscape has been conducted. Preliminary results show that the urban landscape and urban ecology influence the geographical repartition and concentration levels of traffic air pollution around road. Indeed, density, structure and nature of urban network, meteorological conditions and place of living of sensible children are factor that may play in final, a role in asthmatic children exposure to air pollutants. Levels and spatial distribution of PM10 and NO2 concentrations within selected areas show the predominance of pollution from traffic in the last decade and appear to be dependent on both air mass stability classes and 2 main wind directions (East, West). The most vulnerable areas to air pollution emitted by traffic are found respectively, in the narrow high dense urban network associated with heavy traffic close to the historical downtown, near roads located in East-West direction of the wind, near the linking roads of the two downtowns of Cracow (The historical downtown and Nowa Huta) and near the bypass. Conversely, the characteristics of main low dense urban network, large roads, setting of residence areas far from the roads constitute a non-negligible landscape advantage in the protection of air quality. Large vegetation areas found in the three studied areas may also play the role of an ecological buffer of air pollution from traffic, especially in the most vulnerable areas. For instance, the green belt "Plante", rare in other European downtowns and settled around the historical downtown, may protect this heritage and crowded area from air pollution emitted by high dense traffic in Alea Krasinskiego. In Nowa Huta, the second "downtown" of Cracow, are found preserved large vegetation areas "Bognie" near the residential areas and in suburbs such as Prokocim district, are located large vegetation areas near the main busy roads that may be also involved in regulating air pollution fromroad traffic. This great advantage of ecological buffer in the landscape of Cracow could be used by planners to reorganize transportation in Cracow and improve air quality in this city


OBJECTIVES
This study sought to determine whether nutrient-rich whole grains reduce mortality risk.

METHODS
The study included 38,740 Iowa women, aged 55 to 69 years. A food frequency questionnaire was used to obtain data on grain intake.

RESULTS
Median whole grain intake quintiles ranged from a median of 0.2 to more than 3 servings per day. Women with higher intakes had healthier lifestyles and less baseline disease. The total death rate decreased in increasing quintiles, and the pattern repeated for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other causes combined. Adjusted for lifestyle and baseline disease, the relative hazard rate ratio for total death was about 0.85 in daily consumers of whole grain. Findings persisted in strata of baseline healthy and diseased and were not explained by dietary fiber. Rates of total mortality, but not cardiovascular disease mortality, were higher among frequent consumers of refined grain.

CONCLUSIONS
Total mortality risk was inversely associated with whole grain intake and positively associated with refined grain intake. Refined grains contributed more than 20% of energy intake, and whole grains contributed 1%. Substitution of whole for refined grain may reduce chronic disease risk in the United States.


BACKGROUND
High cardiovascular diseases (CVD) mortality among the middle aged is a major cause of reduced life expectancy in Russia, especially among men. Hazardous alcohol consumption is suspected to be a powerful contributing factor.

METHODS
All men (1099) and women (519) aged 30-70 years who died between 1 January 2008 and 31 August 2009 from CVD in the city of Arkhangelsk, north-west Russia, were included. CVD mortality was stratified by age, gender and diagnosis. For the cases diagnosed by forensic pathologists, the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was determined. The forensic autopsy rate was 72% for men and 62% for women.

RESULTS
Age-standardized CVD mortality rate (all age groups) in men was higher than in women. The largest male-female ratio (4.3) was observed in the age group of 50-59 years. Alcoholic and unspecified cardiomyopathies were the most dominant of CVD mortalities in women, and second in men aged <50 years; they accounted for 50 and 25% of deaths, respectively. About one-third of men and women who died from CVD aged <60 years had consumed alcohol shortly before death. This occurred most frequently among the diagnostic groups 'other acute or subacute cardiac ischaemia', 'atherosclerotic heart disease' and 'cardiomyopathies'. Alcohol was more likely to be found at autopsy in men than in women (odds ratio 1.55; 95% confidence interval 1.14-2.10). No difference was found for those who died from myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular diseases and cardiomyopathies. Of the deceased, <1% had a BAC of ≥ 4 g/l.

CONCLUSIONS
A high proportion of subjects who died from CVD in Arkhangelsk consumed alcohol shortly before death. It was highest among males aged 50-59 years. The largest gender difference in mortality, highest absolute number of premature CVD deaths, and the highest proportion of alcohol-positive autopsies occurred among them. Since associations with alcohol consumption varied considerably between the types of CVD diagnoses, this observation should be taken into account when planning future research. Our study does not provide evidence that cardiovascular deaths are misclassified cases of acute alcohol poisoning.


RNA interference is a powerful tool for studying gene function, however, the reproducible generation of RNAi tools including RNAi transgenic mice remains a significant limitation. One main hurdle is the identification of potent RNAi triggers, or short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs), that will induce stable and regulated gene silencing. Due to the lack of understanding of the requirements for shRNA biogenesis and target suppression, many predicted shRNAs fail to efficiently induce gene suppression. We have developed a "Sensor assay" that enables the biological identification of effective shRNAs at large scale and show that our assay reliably identifies potent shRNAs that are surprisingly rare and predominantly missed by existing algorithms. In addition, we have engineered a new miRNA scaffold, miR-E, that is more efficiently processed and thus produces more potent knockdown of target genes than our previous miR30 system. By combining our sensored miR-E based shRNAs with high efficiency ES cell targeting, we have developed a fast, scalable pipeline for the production of shRNA transgenic mice with reversible gene silencing. We show that RNAi can cause sufficient knockdown to recapitulate the phenotypes of knockout mice, particularly in cancer models. More importantly, unlike traditional knockout models, RNAi has the powerful advantage of reversibility, since the endogenous gene remains intact. Using this system, we generated a number of inducible RNAi transgenic lines and demonstrate how this approach can identify predicted phenotypes and also unknown functions for well-studied genes. In addition, through regulated gene silencing we are able to mimic drug therapy in mice without the actual drug molecule, allowing us to determine the therapeutic value and/or toxic effects associated with systemic gene suppression. Using this approach, we have been able to pinpoint potential toxicities associated with gene inhibition, results that will guide drug development to avoid target failures which will likely cause harmful and intolerable effects in patients. In a model of hepatocellular carcinoma, we demonstrate that short-term inhibition of a ribosomal protein is sufficient to induce stable cell cycle arrest of liver tumor cells. This system provides a cost-effective and scalable platform for the production of RNAi transgenic mice targeting any mammalian gene – mice with enormous predictive power that will shape our development of better tolerated therapies. This abstract is also presented as Poster B30. Citation Format: Prem Premsrirut, Lukas Dow, Gregory Hannon, Johannes Zuber, Scott Lowe, Lars Zender, Christof Fellmann. RNAi mouse models: Revolutionizing drug discovery in vivo. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: The Translational Impact of Model Organisms in Cancer; Nov 5-8, 2013; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2014;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr PR07.


In this work, a novel single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) four-wavelength laser configuration for sensing applications in L-band is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. This spectral region presents some advantages for the detection of dangerous gases. The sensor system presented here is based on ring resonators, and employs fiber Bragg gratings to select the operation wavelengths. The stable SLM operation is guaranteed when all the lasing channels present similar output powers. It is also experimentally demonstrated that when a SLM behavior is achieved, lower output power fluctuations are obtained.


Abstract Both educational policies and academic literature assume that students take an instrumental approach to their studies at university. However, despite wide-ranging discussions in the academic literature about contemporary arrangements and practices in higher education, empirical examinations of these conditions are notably scarce. This article reports on a comparative qualitative study into undergraduate students' accounts of studying business or sociology at universities in Britain and Singapore. Drawing on Eric Fromm's distinction between learning as 'having' and 'being', the article demonstrates that – regardless of national context – those studying business displayed many elements of passive, instrumentalised, or 'having' orientations to learning, whilst those studying sociology showed clear signs of the more active and less instrumental 'being' mode of learning. By examining subject allegiance across national borders, this article underscores the importance of recognising subject choice, alongside other important contextual factors, in moving towards a nuanced understanding of student dispositions.


This article examines the utilization of knowledge transferred between sending and receiving subsidiaries within multinational enterprises. A model was developed and tested on 169 specific knowledge transfer projects. The model explains the utilization of knowledge subject to transfer in terms of hierarchical governance tool efficacy and lateral relationships within the multinational enterprise. The results show that headquarters' involvement during knowledge development does not have any significant impact on subsequent knowledge utilization in the receiving units and, in fact, hierarchical governance forms have a negative impact on knowledge utilization. However, lateral relationships are positive stimuli to building subsidiary capabilities in the knowledge transfer process that enhance receiving unit knowledge utilization.


Over the period 1962 through 1977 a series of 96 children with head burns (4.8 per cent of the total number) underwent treatment in the children's department of the Clinic for Thermal Trauma. Some of the characteristic features such as predilection involvement of the age group up to four years, development of a large collateral edema, midbrain symptomatics requiring preventive therapy, slow and poor quality epithelization, and not infrequent injury to cranial bones are discussed. In twenty-one of the patients free skin plasty was performed over granulation surface, exposed bones and dura mater.


Objective:To review how endogenous protein C activation might change in disease states and to discuss the implications of these findings in the context of severe sepsis. Data Source:A review of the published literature in PubMed together with data from abstracts from 2001 to present. Data Extraction and Synthesis:Activated protein C (APC) supplementation has been shown to significantly reduce mortality in patients with severe sepsis, presumably by virtue of its ability to down-regulate coagulation, inflammation, and apoptosis. In vivo, endogenous APC is generated in the circulation when protein C is activated by the thrombin–thrombomodulin complex. Protein C activation is augmented by the endothelial cell protein C receptor. Thus, thrombomodulin and the endothelial cell protein C receptor are components of the endothelium-based "machinery" required for efficient activation of protein C. In healthy individuals, the amount of APC formed is proportional to thrombin levels. In vitro studies have shown that thrombomodulin and the endothelial cell protein C receptor are down-regulated by inflammatory cytokines, and the levels of these receptors are reduced in the endothelium of skin-biopsy specimens in children with severe meningococcal sepsis. However, endothelial studies of excised blood vessels provide only a partial picture of the APC pathway in vivo. Knowledge of endogenous plasma levels of protein C, thrombin, and APC may be helpful in assessing the functional status of the protein C pathway in the systemic circulation. To date, there are few reports available on endogenous APC levels in patients with severe sepsis, perhaps due to the lack of available assays that permit both rapid and accurate measurements. A unique feature of our study is that we have developed an APC assay that, for the first time, permits rapid and accurate measurements of plasma APC levels. Preliminary studies using this assay suggest that adult patients with severe sepsis vary markedly in their ability to generate APC endogenously. These results are intriguing because they suggest that, depending on individual defects in the protein C pathway, some patients have impaired protein C activation and might require APC therapy, whereas others may benefit from administration of protein C. Although the clinical efficacy of recombinant human APC (drotrecogin alfa [activated]) in severe sepsis has been reported in a phase III clinical trial, the efficacy of protein C in severe sepsis remains to be determined. Conclusions:Preliminary results suggest that adult patients with severe sepsis vary markedly in their ability to convert endogenous protein C to APC. Additional research is required to establish whether endogenous APC activation profiles are useful in the clinical management of patients with severe sepsis.


The few studies of Restoration Scotland which exist have been dominated by the single issue of church government, or to be more precise, by the conflict between a government committed to the maintenance of an episcopal church structure imposed by Parliament in 1661-2, and presbyterian dissenters. It is the contention of the present work that this has led to a distorted, and occasionally misleading, picture of government and politics in the country during the years after the return of Charles II from exile in 1660. The thesis covers a wide range of topics in an attempt to provide a more substantial overall interpretation of the period. After an initial chapter which discusses the Restoration settlement of 1661-3, providing a thematic and interpretative basis for the rest of the thesis, I adopt a more structural approach to the subject. There are chapters on the executive, government finances, the military and Parliament; the first two cover a twenty-year period, while the latter two discuss the years to about 1674. There follows a final chapter which examines the general political situation from 1674-1681, with emphasis placed on the themes discussed previously. This approach provides an opportunity for identifying some longer-term trends, as well as the means of re-evaluating more short-term political developments. To an extent, the main focus is the administration of John Maitland, Earl, later Duke, of Lauderdale. Appointed Secretary to the King in 1660, he proved to be the most important Scottish politician of the period. After 1667, in the aftermath of war with the Dutch, he assumed more direct control of the administration. The attempt by him and his allies to introduce reforms in the vital areas of finances and the military is the focus of much of my analysis. These reforms, it is argued, were only partially successful, and during the 1670s Lauderdale's government became more exclusive and aggressive, provoking a great deal of opposition. Although the man's own personality, and indeed that of his royal master, Charles II, were important factors, ultimately it is contended that many of the problems facing Scottish government were structural, and can be related to the settlement described in the first chapter. The thesis ends in 1681. By this year, the Secretary's domination of Scottish government had come to an end, making it a fairly natural cut-off point (although the sheer volume of sources available for the period made it also a pragmatic choice). In different chapters, I consider briefly the role played by James, Duke of York, the King's brother, who came to Scotland in late-1679, and whose prominence finally ensured Lauderdale's political demise. However, I argue that York's success has been exaggerated, and that many of the basic problems facing the country remained to be resolved. In my conclusion, I consider more generally the intractable problem of an ostensibly absolute monarchy in a kingdom where the King no longer resided.


Britain and France waged war eight times in the century following the Glorious Revolution, a mutual antagonism long regarded as a "Second Hundred Years" War. Yet officials on both sides also initiated ententes, free trade schemes, and colonial bargains intended to avert future conflict. What drove this quest for a more peaceful order? This book reveals the extent to which Britain and France sought to divert their rivalry away from war and into commercial competition. The two powers worked to end future conflict over trade in Spanish America, the Caribbean, and India, and imagined forms of empire-building that would be more collaborative than competitive. They negotiated to cut cross-channel tariffs, recognizing that free trade could foster national power while muting enmity. This account shows that eighteenth-century capitalism drove not only repeated wars and overseas imperialism but spurred political leaders to strive for global stability.


Sri Lanka is currently in the stage of rebuilding its economy after three decades of civil war. One of the major focuses in this development endeavour is the leisure and hotel industry. Therefore, opportunities are open for international hotel chains as well as small providers. Small and medium scale hotels face many challenges in operating their businesses economically. Retention of customers is one of the major problems faced by those engaged in this sector. This study discusses the effects of professional training to ensure the satisfaction of customers in small and medium scale hotels in Sri Lanka. In collecting data, two questionnaires were distributed between two samples of respondents. One sample comprised 53 employees from 10 small and medium hotels while the other sample comprised of 30 local and foreign customers. This study indicates that professional training of employees has a direct impact on building customer satisfaction in small and medium scale hotels in Sri Lanka. Both customers and the employees believe that when the professional training is high, the quality of service at these hotels also increases. Thus, it indicates that providing continuous professional training is beneficial to the organization and to the individual concerned. A well-trained employee can increase customer satisfaction and repetition of purchase.


This paper deals with the contemporary usage of the popular quotes from the Soviet films shot in the late 60's and the 70's, when the totalitarian aesthetics was strongly connected with the daily life in all its manifestations. From adaptations to the Brezhnev's period in Ivan Vasil'evich Changes Profession to the rituality in The Irony of Fate, the comedy genre contributes to the creation of a specific cultural code and to the mythologizing of the ordinary things. High frequency and symbolic value of the ordinary situations, ironically synthesized in a few words, makes them versatile and easy to remember. So easy that their origins tend to be confused, transforming the kinotsitata in a popular culture product. Through the movie quotes the poetics of everyday life in the USSR easily fits into nostalgic discourse.


The second volume consists of truly excellent plates illustrating a wide range of pathological conditions; most are reproductions of coloured photographs of gross and microscopic tissue preparations. The advantage of providing a separate volume of illustrations in a work on pathology needs no emphasis. In keeping with the great value of this textbook, the publishers have done a remarkably attractive job. The volumes are well bound, the print is large and clear and the paper is of high quality. At the end of the first volume is a highly selective bibliography and general reference for each chapter.


Research Background: A raft of publications provides advice to research students and their supervisors about handling the writing factor in the research doctoral submission. These include: The postgraduate research handbook (Wisker 2008); How to write a thesis (Murray 2008); The unwritten rules of PhD research (Rugg and Petre 2009); A handbook for doctoral supervisors (Taylor and Beasley 2005); Helping doctoral students write: Pedagogies for supervision (Kamler and Thomson 2006); and others. In each of the above, writing is treated as a key activity in producing the thesis, seemingly the most fraught for student and supervisor alike, but none of these books considers the writing of a creative component (such as a novel) in the research degree context. Research Contribution: In the Introduction to this UK-published collection of essays, Creative Writing Studies: Practice, Research and Pedagogy, Graeme Harper and Jeri Kroll say: 'novelist and PhD supervisor Nigel Krauth [considers] how the creation of a novel for 'new-breed, non-traditional doctorates' affects both the process and the product. On the one hand, writers obtain support and encouragement; on the other, they might feel constrained because these benefits, flowing from a bureaucratic structure, can impact on the novelist's freedom to create' (p. xii). Combining knowledge of the professional novelist's practice and the creation of novels in new academic contexts, this work considers the idea of a new genre in writing - the Academic Novel. Research Significance: This book chapter enters a practice and research territory not previously examined, i.e. the novel-writing process outside academia compared with that inside universities today. The work was commissioned from the UK (alongside other academic pieces from the USA, the UK and Australia) and is published in the New Writing Viewpoints series, Multilingual Matters, Bristol.


Italian emigrants in Canada between cultural and economic aspects
The article is divided into four parts, beginning with the presentation of the context of the problematic at hand; the analysis of the background is next, followed by the re-contextualization of the object of analysis, and finally a gamut of points of view is rendered. The analysis is contextualized through the role of Canada as the host country, and thus the new frame of reference, to several waves of Italian migration ending around the early fifties of last century. Notwithstanding this historical richness, the person who had left Italy for Canada is generally still seen as a stereotypical figure (poor, uncultured, generally from the south of Italy), and not worthy of any greater recognition. Such an experience can be brought to focus around, then summarized according to, the role of the 'oriundo'. The oriundo is that particular figure the mask of Italian displacement which can be 'spectacularized'. A case in point would be the in-depth analysis of the role of the multimedia operation CHIN International in terms of identity-formation paradigms and their application in the Italian Canadian community. Another important aspect, as far as this oriundo construction is concerned, is the historical event of the internment of Italians during WWII. An historical event that is assumed to
have laid the base for a certain reality of division within the Italian Canadian community. This division is still felt today in political terms since it is still being argued whether such a move by the government of Canada was indeed necessary the corollary being the request by certain representatives of the Italian Canadian community for the Canadian government's acknowledgement of this 'injustice'. In short, the experience of the political internment disrupted a linear, historical sequence of immigration in Canada and contributed to a 'silencing' of the experience.


Leaf samples were collected from five trees each of Bradley, Cheyenne, Sioux, Western Schley, and Wichita at Picacho, Arizona and five trees each of Bradley, Western Schley, and Wichita at Las Cruces, New Mexico, and analyzed nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, copper, manganese, boron, and copper at two-week intervals from mid-May to MidOctober, 2000. Yield, average nut weight, and percent kernel data were collected for each individual tree. Leaf tissue analysis indicated that concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur decreased. The overall trends were for zinc levels to declined, although they increased at the end of the season. Boron, calcium, magnesium and manganese, and iron concentrations increased during the growing season. Copper concentrations were variable. Preliminary nutrient standards are presented and compared to existing standards. Most nutrients were within recommended ranges, but magnesium levels were much higher than the top of the Arizona and New Mexico sufficiency ranges. Manganese was higher than the Arizona sufficiency range, but within that of New Mexico, whereas zinc was higher than the New Mexico range, but within that of Arizona.


ABSTRACT OP0595 is a novel diazabicyclooctane which, like avibactam, inhibits class A and C β-lactamases. In addition, unlike avibactam, it has antibacterial activity, with MICs of 0.5 to 4 μg/ml for most members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, owing to inhibition of PBP2; moreover, it acts synergistically with PBP3-active β-lactams independently of β-lactamase inhibition, via an "enhancer effect." Enterobacteriaceae mutants stably resistant to 16 μg/ml OP0595 were selected on agar at frequencies of approximately 10−7. Unsurprisingly, OP0595 continued to potentiate substrate β-lactams against mutants derived from Enterobacteriaceae with OP0595-inhibited class A and C β-lactamases. Weaker potentiation of partners, especially aztreonam, cefepime, and piperacillin—less so meropenem—remained frequent for OP0595-resistant Enterobacteriaceae mutants lacking β-lactamases or with OP0595-resistant metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs), indicating that the enhancer effect is substantially retained even when antibiotic activity is lost.


HP is developing a MEMS accelerometer that offers high sensitivity and low noise level for seismic application. During the packaging process, it was found that the thermal mechanical stress resulted from the CTE mismatch between the silicon and the substrate can distort the MEMS structure and alter the device performance. A finite element model was established to understand the effect of substrate material, die attach material and package geometry on the scale factor and bias offset of the MEMS. The model predicted that ceramic substrate introduced less variation of the sensor performance over the operating temperature range (-40 to 70°C) than the FR4 substrate. In order to use the low cost FR4 substrate, one can use die attach adhesive with low modulus and/or small die attach area to minimize the gap and displacement. Ceramic packages and Chip on Board (COB) packages on FR4 substrate were built using various die attach adhesives to validate the model. The performance of the MEMS was measured from -40 to 70°C. Results showed that using a low modulus adhesive with full coverage and moderate thickness provides minimum temperature distortion. On the other hand, a high modulus adhesive can be employed if the die attach area is reduced. The model also indicated that by modifying the structure of the substrate, the stress on MEMS can be reduced. MEMS on pillar packages were built and evaluated to confirm the modeling result.


ABSTRACT Receptor-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) is required for the propagation of many of insulin's biological effects. The amino-terminal pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of IRS-1 plays a pivotal role in promoting insulin receptor (IR)-IRS-1 protein interactions. We have recently reported the isolation of a PH domain-interacting protein, PHIP, which selectively binds to the IRS-1 PH domain and is stably associated with IRS-1 in mammalian cells. Here we demonstrate that overexpression of PHIP in fibroblasts enhances insulin-induced transcriptional responses in a mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent manner. In contrast, a dominant-negative mutant of PHIP (DN-PHIP) was shown to specifically block transcriptional and mitogenic signals elicited by insulin and not serum. In order to examine whether PHIP/IRS-1 complexes participate in the signal transduction pathway linking the IR to GLUT4 traffic in muscle cells, L6 myoblasts stably expressing a myc-tagged GLUT4 construct (L6GLUT4myc) were transfected with either wild-type or dominant-interfering forms of PHIP. Whereas insulin-dependent GLUT4myc membrane translocation was not affected by overexpression of PHIP, DN-PHIP caused a nearly complete inhibition of GLUT4 translocation, in a manner identical to that observed with a dominant-negative mutant of the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (Δp85). Furthermore, DN-PHIP markedly inhibited insulin-stimulated actin cytoskeletal reorganization, a process required for the productive incorporation of GLUT4 vesicles at the cell surface in L6 cells. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that PHIP represents a physiological protein ligand of the IRS-1 PH domain, which plays an important role in insulin receptor-mediated mitogenic and metabolic signal transduction.


This systematic research review (SRR) looked at the epidemic of childhood obesity and subsequent complications. Afterschool programs (ASPs) were targeted as a key area where children spend many hours each day and, therefore, an ideal place for obesity interventions. The purpose of this SRR was to search the current benefits ASPs can have on decreasing the risk and prevalence of childhood obesity and to answer the research question, "What are nursing interventions within ASPs that decrease the risk of obesity in children in the United States of America?" Childhood obesity influences nurses in many areas, including inpatient hospitals, schools, and community settings. Obesity strains the healthcare system by increasing the number of acute and chronic children requiring care which increases the demand for nurses. This SRR was conducted from January 2017 to August 2017, using a total of eight databases. The time frame and incorporated databases offered the widest range of available literature on the topic. Inclusion criteria included a date range of 2012-2017, a population of children ages 2-19, English, full text available or able to borrow from another library, peer reviewed, and evidence-based reports. ASPs are effective means to reduce childhood obesity through the implementation of healthy interventions such as nutritional interventions, physical activity (PA), and staff education. The results of this study indicate that a combination of PA and nutritional education show the most significant results in decreasing the risk and prevalence of childhood obesity. Nurses actively involved in ASPs positively impact the development of the nutrition, PA, and staff training, resulting in improved outcomes for the participants. Key terms: "afterschool programs," "nursing," "intervention," "community," "childhood," "obesity," "prevention," "nutrition," and "physical activity"


Prolonged and excessive intake of alcoholic beverages can lead to addiction, increased tolerance and physical dependence as in the case of other drugs. It is the cause of many deaths due to cirrhosis, cancer and accidents. It favours numerous symptoms and disorders that can be reversible on withdrawal of alcohol. Alcohol is not toxic. Taken in regular and moderate fashion (20 to 30 g of alcohol per day), alcoholic beverages play a psychosocial role that gives a certain pleasure. In addition, many concordant epidemiologic studies support the notion that overall morbidity and mortality are significantly less than in those who abstain. The benefit is particularly evident in mortality due to cardiovascular events, but also in senile dementia and osteoporosis. However, there are no data confirming a cause and effect relationship. Despite this potentially favourable role, it cannot be recommended to suggest the use of alcohol to those who abstain, given the possibility that some might subsequently develop alcohol dependence.


U.S. workers need to save substantial amounts to supplement Social Security, a near-universal but basic public retirement benefit. Yet wealth inequality is widespread by race and ethnicity, so that households of color often have less wealth than White households. This wealth inequality is reflected in a massive retirement savings gap by race and ethnicity, so that households of color often have less wealth than White households. In 2016 Black households had a median retirement savings account balance of $23,000, compared to $67,000 for White households. Many people of color will face substantial and potentially harmful cuts to their retirement spending. They may, for example, find it more difficult to pay for housing or healthcare.
 This retirement gap is the result of several factors. Households of color, especially Black and Latino households, are less likely to receive large financial gifts and inheritances from their families. They have less wealth decades and often centuries of discrimination and exploitation in society. They thus have to save more for retirement on their own. Yet Black, Latino, and many Asian American workers face greater obstacles in saving for retirement than is the case for White workers. These obstacles are especially pronounced in retirement savings accounts. People of color have less access to these retirement benefits through their employers, contribute less due to greater concurrent economic risks, and build less wealth over time due to less stable earnings and more career disruptions. As a result, people of color often use home equity as a form of retirement savings, but they also face more financial risks associated with homeownership. In addition, many people of color face higher costs during retirement, especially higher healthcare costs and more widespread caregiving and financial responsibilities for family members.
 The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated many of the obstacles and risks associated with retirement saving for people of color, who experienced sharper increases in unemployment and more widespread healthcare challenges due to greater exposure to the virus. Many Black, Latino, and Asian families had to rely more heavily on their own savings during the pandemic than was the case for White households.
 A range of public policies have been proposed or implemented, especially at the state level, to address some of the obstacles that people of color face in saving for retirement. Retirement researchers will need to investigate whether and how the pandemic has affected racial differences in retirement security as well as analyze how new policy efforts could shrink the racial differences in retirement wealth.


Permeability coefficients of dam foundation are inversed on the base of real water heads. Otherwise, simple genetic algorithm has the disadvantages in determining the optimal probability values of the crossover and mutation, computation quantity is great and premature phenomena easily appears. Adaptive genetic algorithm is proposed to overcome the disadvantages which simple genetic algorithm has. At same time, adaptive genetic algorithm is used to identify the permeability coefficients of Er Tan dam foundation. The result shows that the method is effective in improving the computational convergence and overcoming the premature phenomena. So adaptive genetic algorithm is efficient and feasible in back analysis for permeability coefficients of dam.


The study of S-Band superconducting niobium cavities is being carried out for application to long-pulse rf beam separators in the momentum range of the AGS, whereas, X-Band frequencies are being considered for the NAL accelerator. Results for a 5-cell S-band prototype are: a peak field of 410 G, corresponding to an equivalent deflecting field of over 2 MV/m, and a loss improvement factor of 2 × 105. The fabrication and post-fabrication treatments are described. Perturbation measurements to determine deflector parameters are summarized. A new type of mode stabilizer is suggested. A 7-cell X-Band deflector is under construction.


In recent years, rapid growth in population, development, and industrialization have led to a high demand for energy worldwide. Biofuels from bio-based products can be considered an alternative to fossil fuels used in the transport sector. However, the use of biodiesel in conventional diesel combustion engines has usually caused lower thermal efficiency and higher in specific fuel consumption. Using alternative fuels and switching to promising combustion technologies such as low temperature combustion (LTC) are reliable approaches to address this issue. This research aims to use biofuels as an alternative energy source for engines operating in reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) dual-fuel combustion mode. In the first stage, a test cell system was developed, which consisted of a single cylinder diesel engine, dynamometer and combustion analyzer system. This was followed by the extensive conversion and integration of the high pressure common-rail injection to the test engine for providing high degree of flexibility in the control of injection parameters. In the second stage, an experimental investigation to study the effects of palm and Jatropha biodiesel fuels on the engine performance, emissions, and combustion characteristics of the converted engine was performed under different load operations. The test fuels included a conventional diesel fuel and eight different blends of palm and Jatropha biodiesel fuels. During the third stage, parametric studies dealing with injection timing and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) variation by using neat palm biodiesel were performed and compared with baseline diesel. In the final stage, the effects of diesel/ biodiesel strategies on dual-fuel combustion were investigated. This dual-fuel combustion mode proposes port fuel injection of gasoline and direct injection of diesel/ biodiesel fuel with rapid in-cylinder fuel blending. Engine performance, emissions, and cylinder pressure trace were sampled and analyzed under different experiment schemes. The results indicated that the in-house
iv
developed ECU is capable of real-time control and monitoring of the injection parameters. The second stage experimental results revealed that the biodiesel blended fuels had a significant influence on the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) at all the engine load conditions examined. In general, the use of neat and blends of biodiesel resulted in a reduction in brake specific nitrogen oxide (BSNOx), brake specific carbon monoxide (BSCO), smoke emissions, shorter ignition delay (ID), and shorter combustion duration regardless of the load conditions. Besides, the third stage experimental results indicated that both the injection timing and EGR variation had a prominent effect on the engine performance, emissions and combustion characteristics with baseline diesel and neat biodiesel operation. Based on the highest brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and the reasonable NOx level, thus the optimum injection timing is found to be 11°BTDC for both the baseline diesel and biodiesel operation. Introduction of EGR has effectively reduced the NOx emissions, but has increased the smoke emissions. In the last stage experiment, the results showed that the engine operating under RCCI dual-fuel combustion mode could achieve high efficiency with near zero NOx and smoke emissions.


With full democratic elections granted to both white and black South Africans for April 1994, the next four months are going to be crucial in deciding who will hold the balance of power in the South African Parliament. Despite the internal opposition to South Africa's move towards democracy, it is predicted that Nelson Mandela will be South Africa's first black President. With an interim bipartisan constitution in place, the elections of 1994 will officially mark the abolition of Apartheid: a system that has denied black South Africans an active role in their country. The ramifications of the election will, I believe, be important to the way in which we interpret the role of the Other in South African literature. At any rate, we must ask ourselves whether South Africa, emerging from the interregnum, is ready to accept the presence of the black consciousness. Nelson Mandela is obviously a hero in black eyes, a hero who has endured twenty seven years of enforced silence, cut off from mainstream South African history. Since his release, a strong black voice has been emerging in South Africa and it has already entrenched itself within society. Under the aegis of Mandela, black South Africans will most certainly regain the voice that has been denied them for three hundred years. J .M. Coetzee's fiction spanning the period between 1983-1990 conveys the emerging black consciousness in as much as we can follow the ways in which a white author/story-teller responds to the contracting and expanding black presence. The dominant motif that arises from Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K, Foe, and Age of Iron is one focusing on the matter of silence. Susan VanZanten Gallagher and David Attwell provide an interesting coverage on Coetzee's fiction in that silence is seen to be an enigmatic "mystery" resisting interpretation. Both of these critics focus on Coetzee's problems as a white South African writer who is trying to come to terms with the black consciousness. Coetzee is more than aware of the problems confronting him as a South African author and we find that his dilemmas gain their most powerful expression in the fiction spanning 1983-1990. While this paper is not concerned with Coetzee's writing problems, it does take into consideration the role of these dilemmas in his fiction. Moreover, this paper seeks to define the context in which the black consciousness is seen to emerge. We should be alert of Coetzee's attempts to create an archetypal black South African hero, who, on the one hand, serves the black consciousness, and who, on the other hand, struggles against the omnipotence of white authority. In the course of examining the fiction of this period, we realize that Coetzee is focusing on the evolution of the black consciousness; taking us through its period of infancy, into its period of "enforced silence", and finally into the state that we see it in Age of Iron. What we have, in the end, is a collection of novels conveying the social and artistic problems inherent in the portrayal of black consciousness.


Tool wear is one of the critical issues which deteriorate machining accuracy in ultraprecision machining. However, tool setting errors caused by the change of worn tool during a machining operation should be carefully compensated by identifying the gaps between the ideal tool center point and the actual tool center point, which inevitably lead to low machining efficiency. Because of the long consumption time of actual tool center point detection, this study aims at achieving on-machine shaping of a diamond tool which is commonly used in ultraprecision machining. In the previous study, shaping conditions without tool chipping are investigated by using various shaping materials. Then, in order to create a flank face that is necessary to realize preferable cutting, a pin gauge made of cemented carbide is adopted as the shaper. From the conducted experiments, it is found that the proposed on-machine shaping can create a specific cutting edge and a flank face on an ultraprecision machine tool.


We report on XMM-Newton/Chandra/Swift/Hubble Space Telescope observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 247, which is found to make transitions between the supersoft ultraluminous (SSUL) regime with a spectrum dominated by a cool (∼0.1 keV) blackbody component and the soft ultraluminous (SUL) regime with comparable luminosities shared by the blackbody and power-law components. Multi-epoch observations revealed an anti-correlation between the blackbody radius and temperature, , ruling out a standard accretion disk as the origin of the soft X-ray emission. The soft X-ray emission is much more variable on both short and long timescales in the SSUL regime than in the SUL regime. We suggest that the SSUL regime may be an extension of the ultraluminous state toward the high accretion end, being an extreme case of the SUL regime, with the blackbody emission arising from the photosphere of thick outflows and the hard X-rays being emission leaked from the embedded accretion disk via the central low-density funnel or advected through the wind. However, the scenario that the supersoft ULXs are standard ULXs viewed nearly edge-on cannot be ruled out. Flux dips on a timescale of 200 s were observed. The dips cannot be explained by an increase of absorption, but could be due to the change of accretion rate or related to thermal fluctuations in the wind or disk. The optical emission of NGC 247 ULX exhibits a blackbody spectrum at a temperature of 19,000 K with a radius of 20 , likely arising from an OB supergiant companion star.


Secondary reinforcing properties of cocaine, amphetamine, methylcathinone, ephedrine, apomorphine, and bromocriptine were studied with the aid of conditioned place preference technique in mice. All explored drugs, except apomorphine, induced dose-related conditioned place preference in mice. Technique of comparative analysis of addictive potentialities of drugs is proposed. Procedure and analysis aspects of described technique as well as the possibilities of its implementation for screening of addictive substances are discussed.


An antibacterial wound dressing with wound healing effects of honey (H), Tragacanth Gum (TG) and Sumac (S) (Rhus coriaria L.) has been prepared. The antibacterial properties of five different concentrations of water extracted Sumac has been examined to find out the best sample. Ratios of honey and Tragacanth Gum are investigated along with the chosen concentration of Sumac in order to find out the optimum compound with desirable antibacterial and healing effects. The results of the well diffusion test indicate antibacterial activities against S. aureus and E. coli on all samples. Scratch test results demonstrate improvement in the proliferation of fibroblasts on the fabric treated with compounds. The prepared wound dressing accelerates the healing process and eliminates bacterial growth causing wound infection.


Eight riparian sites along the two major rivers in Ellis County, Kansas, were studied during summer of 1978. Studies were designed to elucidate historical intensity of livestock grazing, vegetative cover and structure, and avian populations. Grazing limited the growth of woody vegetation, but its effects on the overall vegetation enhanced the avian community. Avian richness and species diversity tended to be greatest in heavily grazed sites. Ungrazed sites had more woody vegetation than did grazed sites, and consequently were inhabited by more eastern bird species which thereby extended their ranges westward. This study indicated that livestock grazing of riparian habitat was not detrimental to avian populations.


Motor skill is a specific area of disability of Rett syndrome (RTT), a rare disorder occurring almost exclusively in girls, caused by loss-of-function mutations of the X-linked methyl-CpG-binding protein2 (MECP2) gene, encoding the MECP2 protein, a member of the methyl-CpG-binding domain nuclear proteins family. Brain 5-HT, which is defective in RTT patients and Mecp2 mutant mice, regulates motor circuits and SSRIs enhance motor skill learning and plasticity. In the present study, we used heterozygous (Het) Mecp2 female and Mecp2-null male mice to investigate whether fluoxetine, a SSRI with pleiotropic effects on neuronal circuits, rescues motor coordination deficits. Repeated administration of 10 mg/kg fluoxetine fully rescued rotarod deficit in Mecp2 Het mice regardless of age, route of administration or pre-training to rotarod. The motor improvement was confirmed in the beam walking test while no effect was observed in the hanging-wire test, suggesting a preferential action of fluoxetine on motor coordination. Citalopram mimicked the effects of fluoxetine, while the inhibition of 5-HT synthesis abolished the fluoxetine-induced improvement of motor coordination. Mecp2 null mice, which responded poorly to fluoxetine in the rotarod, showed reduced 5-HT synthesis in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum, and reduced efficacy of fluoxetine in raising extracellular 5-HT as compared to female mutants. No sex differences were observed in the ability of fluoxetine to desensitize 5-HT1A autoreceptors upon repeated administration. These findings indicate that fluoxetine rescues motor coordination in Mecp2 Het mice through its ability to enhance brain 5-HT and suggest that drugs enhancing 5-HT neurotransmission may have beneficial effects on motor symptoms of RTT.


SURF-2 is a software tool for evaluating system dependability. It is especially designed for an evaluation based system design approach in which multiple design solutions need to be compared from the dependability viewpoint. SURF-2 allows the user to describe the model behavior using generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs) whose reachability graph is then interpreted as a Markov chain, or enter directly a Markov chain. In the case of GSPNs, it enables the models to be verified in terms of their structural properties. The tool supports the evaluation of different measures of dependability, including pointwise measures, asymptotic measures, mean sojourn times and, by superposing a reward structure onto the behavior model, reward measures such as expected performance or cost. These measures are obtained by processing the Markov chain. SURF-2 can be viewed as a toolbox where each tool can operate independently on objects gathered in a database managed by a supervisory task.


We summarize research and development for the extraction and distribution of biomedical information from a collection of 17,000 spine x-ray images collected by the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II). We present a history of the technical milestones of this work, including the data collection as film, digitization, quality control, archiving technology, database organization, medical expert content evaluation, and Web data distribution. We conclude by presenting our current work in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) to exploit the information content of these images directly by using image processing. We provide an overview and current research results from this CBIR work, which includes: extensive segmentation research, focusing on Active Shape Modeling and Active Contour methods; alternative techniques for shape representation, including invariant moments, simple polygon approximation, and Fourier descriptors; neural network classification of shapes into biomedical categories, such as "anterior osteophytes present/not present"; and the implementation of a prototype CBIR system for the vertebrae that supports hybrid text/image queries using MATLAB and the MySQL relational database system.